contributions

by Jason Leopold
Somewhere in between the furor surrounding those dubious National Guard memos that purportedly show how President Bush shirked his military duties some 30 years ago lies the meat of this ferocious, mud slinging presidential campaign; the policies the candidates are promoting that will shape the lives for a majority of Americans over the next four years.
Pundits on both sides of the political spectrum have pontificated, for the most part, that Democratic nominee John (…)

New Jersey woman’s son died in Iraq trying to defuse a bomb
HAMILTON, N.J. ? A woman wearing a T-shirt with the words ``President Bush You Killed My Son" and a picture of a soldier killed in Iraq was detained Thursday after she interrupted a campaign speech by first lady Laura Bush.
Police escorted Sue Niederer of Hopewell, N.J., from a rally at a firehall after she demanded to know why her son, 1st Lieut. Seth Dvorin, 24, was killed in Iraq. Dvorin died in February while trying to (…)

By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News
COLORADO SPRINGS - Soldiers from a Fort Carson combat unit say they have been issued an ultimatum - re-enlist for three more years or be transferred to other units expected to deploy to Iraq.
Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were presented with that message and a re-enlistment form in a series of assemblies last Thursday, said two soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The effort is part of a restructuring of the Army into (…)

By MAUREEN DOWD
Here’s how bad off the Democrats are: They’re cowering behind closed doors, whispering that if it should ever turn out that Republicans are behind this, it would be so exquisitely Machiavellian, so beyond what Democrats are capable of, they should just fold and concede the election now — before the Republicans have to go to the trouble to steal it again.
There’s no evidence — it’s just a preposterous, paranoid fantasy at this point. But it speaks to the jitters of the (…)

by Andrew Sarris
John Sayles’ Silver City fires yet another cinematic salvo across the bow of the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Ashcroft ship of state, which seems to be steaming ahead toward yet another stolen election. In paying his populist-progressive dues, Mr. Sayles has inscribed his own thematic signature on Silver City, his 15th feature film in a muckraking quarter of a century that began with the low-budget Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), a film that captured the passion and pathos of the (…)

By Van Gosse
Nothing like it has happened in the 170 years since American political parties began meeting in convention to choose their presidential candidates. Half-a-million people marched for six hours in broiling summer heat to repudiate a sitting president at the moment and place of his triumphal renomination. Now the urgent question becomes: How can this huge new antiwar movement, led by the United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), engage with practical politics and actually affect (…)

Most senior US military officers now believe the war on Iraq has turned into a disaster on an unprecedented scale
by Sidney Blumenthal
’Bring them on!" President Bush challenged the early Iraqi insurgency in July of last year. Since then, 812 American soldiers have been killed and 6,290 wounded, according to the Pentagon. Almost every day, in campaign speeches, Bush speaks with bravado about how he is "winning" in Iraq. "Our strategy is succeeding," he boasted to the National Guard (…)

· JOBS & WORKERS RIGHTS - NOT WAR · BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW! END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ! · ORGANIZE BUSES - BUSES - BUSES
Danny Glover, actor:
"We must keep marching ... before the elections and after the elections ... until we win justice for the homeless, the unemployed and we bring the troops home now ... Come out on Oct. 17th."
Dear Activists and Organizers,
OVER 1,000 SOLDIERS DEAD & COUNTING - TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IRAQI’S DEAD - MANY MORE WOUNDED - THIS MUST END NOW! (…)

"A Responsibility to My People"
by Daniel Redwood
David Cline is national president of Veterans For Peace and also a long-time member and coordinator of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. During his tour of duty in Vietnam, he was wounded three times and received three Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star for bravery, the Combat Infantryman Badge and other Vietnam service medals. He is permanently disabled from his war wounds.
After his return to the United States from Vietnam, Cline (…)

... I’ll meet you ’round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend... Fahrenheit 9/11...
August was a hellish month. The heat was incredible. No one remembers Baghdad ever being quite this hot- I think we broke a new record somewhere in mid-August.
The last few days, Baghdad has been echoing with explosions. We woke up to several loud blasts a few days ago. The sound has become all too common. It’s like the heat, the flies, the carcasses of buildings, the broken (…)