contributions

by Jim Bessman NEW YORK - "This is the guy who wrote ’Where Do the Children Play?,"’ says Pete Seeger.
He is pondering the fact that Yusef Islam, who as Cat Stevens also wrote "Peace Train," was denied entry into the United States because of — to use the words of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge — "some relationship" between the artist and terrorist activity.
Seeger, who gave us "We Shall Overcome" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!," was blacklisted in the early 1950s as a member of (…)

By PAUL KRUGMAN
It’s not hard to predict what President Bush, who sounds increasingly desperate, will say tomorrow. Here are eight lies or distortions you’ll hear, and the truth about each:
Jobs
Mr. Bush will talk about the 1.7 million jobs created since the summer of 2003, and will say that the economy is "strong and getting stronger." That’s like boasting about getting a D on your final exam, when you flunked the midterm and needed at least a C to pass the course.
Mr. Bush is the (…)

by Jeffrey Steinberg
When Sen. John Edwards mentioned the forbidden "H word"-"Halliburton"-during the Oct. 5 Vice Presidential debate, Dick Cheney’s knuckles turned white and the Vice President seethed with his now all-too-familiar sociopathological rage. While Senator Edwards failed to push Cheney’s buttons to the point that the Veep might have uncorked with a barrage of his signature "F words," in every other respect, Cheney made it clear, in words and gestures, that his cynical (…)

The Bush campaign was once happy to use ’angry’ as a term of abuse - but that was before the US public met Furious George, writes US political blogger Markos Moulitsas
by Markos Moulitsas
The evolution of George Bush’s persona over the past few weeks is startling for even the most casual observers. Only a short while ago, Bush was a strong, decisive leader and Kerry was a weak, flip-flopping Massachusetts liberal. The Bush campaign expected those images to carry them through the November (…)

The team of the president creates the policy of the president
by Pravda
Dem. Senator John Kerry will most likely announce the existence of the new "axis of evil," embracing Iran, Russia and North Korea. According to the senator, the nuclear possessions of these countries pose the most dangerous threat to the national security of the United States.
It is an open secret that the team of the president creates the policy of the president. Richard Holbrooke, the US ambassador to the United (…)

Biden, Carper, Castle want answers Delegation asks military to investigate whether pilots, crews used as guinea pigs
By LEE WILLIAMS and HIRAN RATNAYAKE
Delaware’s congressional delegation on Monday called on military officials to investigate whether the Defense Department used troops as guinea pigs to test illegal anthrax vaccinations at the Dover Air Force Base in 1999.
Sen. Joe Biden, Sen. Tom Carper and Rep. Mike Castle said they will send a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald (…)

By Marshall Allen , Staff Writer
PASADENA — A group of Fuller Theological Seminary professors, saying they are responding to a "grave moral crisis’ in America, are signing a statement opposing President Bush’s alleged convergence of God, church and nation and what they call his "theology of war.’
Glen Stassen, Fuller’s Louis B. Smedes professor of Christian ethics, said Bush’s religious rhetoric confuses the cause of Christianity with that of a nation at war.
For instance, in Bush’s (…)

by Jane Hutcheon
TONY EASTLEY: There are tears and no doubt some talk of revenge in Gaza too, as Israel’s military offensive continues there, and so does the toll of death and injury.
United Nations officials say a ten-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl was hit in the stomach by Israeli army fire as she sat at her desk. She’s in a stable but critical condition in hospital.
The army’s operation has killed more than 100 Palestinians. Both the army and the military police have now opened (…)

Here’s some fresh background on Carlton Sherwood. He’s the producer of ’Stolen Honor’, the documentary attacking John Kerry which is due to get an airing on the 62 TV stations owned by Bush-friendly media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group - just a few days before the election.
Not a lot of people know this:
* Sherwood had a post in the Reagan administration. * In Nov 2003, Sherwood said in a radio program that Democratic presidential primary candidates were ’carping gleefully’ about (…)

Report: Al-Qaida prisoners have ‘disappeared’
NEW YORK - At least 11 al-Qaida suspects have “disappeared” in U.S. custody, and some may have been tortured, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued Monday.
The prisoners are probably being held outside the United States without access to the Red Cross or any oversight of their treatment, the human rights group said. In some cases, the United States will not even acknowledge the prisoners are in custody.
The report said the prisoners (…)