contributions

By WAYNE MADSEN
My sister just found my 80 year old mother late this morning sitting in a state of shock in a Red Cross church evacuation shelter in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Wiith her were some of her neighbors, along with a number of the regular street derelict residents of the facility. She was forcibly evacuated yesterday afternoon with only minutes warning and only enough time to grab her medications, cell phone, and phone charger.
Because the state of Florida waited so long to (…)

by Charley Reese
President George Bush’s denial of the reality of Iraq is beginning to sound like a stand-up comedy routine.
"Mr. President, the insurgency has spread to the whole country."
"We’re making great progress."
"But Mr. President, the attacks against coalition forces have escalated dramatically."
"We’re making great progress."
"But Mr. President, all but two percent of the Iraqi people want us to leave."
"We’re making great progress."
"And the interim government has (…)

*** PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY ***
On Monday, October 11 (note: this date has been changed from Oct. 4 to
Oct. 11), progressive Democratic candidate for Congress (14th district
of Illinois) Ruben K. Zamora will be interviewed on the "Unfiltered"
show on Air America radio. The show airs at 9:30 AM (Central Standard
Time) and you can listen to it at http://www.airamericaradio.com
http://zamoraforcongress.org

If you fail to ask substantive questions about what it will mean to people for each candidate to win, the slightest criticism of you by the candidates can result in thunderous applause, and you can end up looking shame-faced and horribly uncomfortable.
Don’t believe me?
Watch this clip from last December of Ted Koppel and Dennis Kucinich:
http://resources.kucinich.us/video/video/debate/debate_real_broadband.ram
Or read this transcript:
KOPPEL: When you hear some of your colleagues (…)

I am so glad our intelligence was working two months before 9/11? No wonder we didn’t believe the advance warnings, we were too busy working with other governments to keep our president safe from terrorists who might use planes packed with explosives and crash them into buildings in Genoa. Our intelligence didn’t fail, they were just too busy with other "stuff". One does not need to be an investigative reporter, a deep thinker, or sherlock holmes to figure this one out.
G8 summit death (…)

by Cahal Milmo
For a week they had endured the silence of the kidnappers. As the pall of dread hung over them, the Bigley family watched as other captives walked free and wondered if, just maybe, those holding Ken might be beginning to bend.
Early yesterday, an e-mail purporting to be from the hostage-takers offered freedom. But just after 2pm, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid and Jihad group dashed those hopes - at least for now - releasing instead fresh video footage of the 62-year-old (…)

There will be time for analising and reconstructing, but now we want only to thank all those who have been cooperating for this wonderful result, starting from the arab and muslim world that all over the world and in Irak, mobilised with choral voice. Thanks to civil society, to political forces, to religious organisations, to the organisations of the Iraqi resistence.
Thanks to the great international solidarity. Thanks to the italian civil society and italian political forces. Thanks to (…)

By Amos Harel Four members of crack Air Force unit describe house demolition as immoral, but say they won’t refuse to serve.
Four officers in the elite Air Force unit "Shaldag" recently sent a letter to senior Israel Defense Forces officers in which they leveled harsh criticism at the army’s operations in the territories.
The officers said that they had no intention of refusing to serve, but objected to some of the army’s tactics in the territories. They were particularly troubled by (…)

Kucinich wants government to oversee drug research Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Susan Jaffe Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich proposed a new federal law Wednesday that would allow the government to take over private drug research and eliminate drug companies’ monopoly on high-priced, brand-name drugs.
Kucinich unveiled the idea at his Lakewood office Wednesday before flying to Washington, D.C., where he and six co-sponsors introduced the legislation in the U.S. (…)

A senior Italian politician says he believes a ransom of $1m or more was paid for the release of two female Italian aid workers kidnapped in Iraq.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said no money had been paid but MP Gustavo Selva described the denial as purely "official".
The two Italians and four Egyptians also freed arrived home on Wednesday.
British hostage Ken Bigley has made a new appeal for his own release in a video shown by an Arabic TV station.
Squatting down in a (…)