contributions

by Wayne Besen
Earlier today, a spokestoon for SpongeBob SquarePants announced he is breaking up with gay puppet icon Tinky Winky. Irreconcilable differences were cited, such as they were physically incompatible as neither one had private parts. The spokestoon also charged that Tinky had been chronically depressed after not getting cast for a part in the Broadway musical Avenue Q.
Hey, if Focus on the Family leader James Dobson can create a surreal gay plot with SpongeBob SquarePants, (…)

The Lighter Side of Fascism - The Neocons Win One
Let’s face it, these guys - the president, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Doug Feith, Bill Kristol, Richard Perle (by the way, have you heard this guy speak lately? Somebody better cut down on his dosage of Zoloft) and the rest of the Republican-Christian-Might-Makes-Right crowd that drags along with them - are a bunch of jerks.
Jerks. Goof-offs. These are the same kind of people many of us remember from high school. They (…)

The day of blood and elections has passed, and the blaring trumpets of corporate media hailing it as a successful show of “democracy” have subsided to a dull roar.
After a day which left 50 people dead in Iraq, both civilians and soldiers, the death toll was hailed as a figure that was “lower than expected.” Thus...acceptable, by Bush Administration/ corporate media standards. After all, only of them was an American, the rest were Iraqis civilians and British soldiers.
The gamble of (…)

No amount of spin can conceal Iraqis’ hostility to US occupation
By Sami Ramadani
On September 4 1967 the New York Times published an upbeat story on presidential elections held by the South Vietnamese puppet regime at the height of the Vietnam war. Under the heading "US encouraged by Vietnam vote: Officials cite 83% turnout despite Vietcong terror", the paper reported that the Americans had been "surprised and heartened" by the size of the turnout "despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign (…)

Today we get an Iraqi’s thoughts on the elections. We reached him just before the program. This is Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar at his home in Baghdad.
GHAZWAN AL-MUKHTAR: I do not believe that the election is legitimate, the election is held under the occupation. The occupying power has modified the basic rules in Iraq as to who is an Iraqi and who is not. The election was shoved down our throat because all the major parties, including Allawi’s party, requested that the election be postponed. That (…)

Saddam’s Oily Deals Were Americans Profiting From Oil-For-Food Scams? Mark Hosenball, Newsweek Jan. 24 issue - If you’re puzzled by the Oil-for-Food scandal, don’t feel bad. Government investigators have been working the case for months, and still they fear they might need years to figure out who profited from helping Saddam Hussein beat U.N. sanctions against his regime. In 1996 the U.N. Security Council signed off on a program allowing Iraq to sell oil for hard currency to buy food and (…)

from USA today:
One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.
The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.
Asked whether the press enjoys "too much freedom," not enough (…)

President Bush Told Black Caucus He "Didn’t Know Anything About" Voting Rights Act Renewal, Congressmen Say Black Congressmen Riled By Bush Ignorance Of Voting Rights Act By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor January 31, 2005 President Bush told the congressional black caucus he “didn’t know anything about” renewal of the seminal 1965 Voting Rights Act last Wednesday, RAW STORY has learned. According to several of the 43-member strong Democratic caucus, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.) asked (…)

Prominent Statisticians Refute ’Explanation’ of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies in New Edison/Mitofsky Report and Urge Investigation of U.S. Presidential Election Results.
President Bush won November’s election by 2.5% yet exit polls showed Kerry leading by 3%. Which was correct?
"There are statistical indications that a systematic, nationwide shift of 5.5% of the vote may have occurred, and that we’ll never get to the bottom of this, unless we gather the data we need for mathematical (…)

By Stewart Nusbaumer For three decades, since the end of the Vietnam War, veterans of that bloody fiasco have said, “been there, done that,” implying Americans should listen to what they have to say about war.
We fought a war so we understand the horror of war — horror is not always easy to remember, especially, when in youth, videogames were one’s greatest threat. We fought a war so we know war should be the last option, which seems to have slipped the minds of most Americans. We fought (…)