contributions

By JASON ZENGERLE In December 1992, just weeks before departing office, President George Herbert Walker Bush invited Dana Carvey to the White House. Mr. Carvey had spent the previous four years impersonating Mr. Bush on "Saturday Night Live" as a patrician wimp, and turning Bushisms like "it’s ba-a-ad" and "wouldn’t be pru-dent at this juncture" into national punch lines. But as Mr. Carvey performed from behind a podium in the East Room, the president, according to press accounts, laughed (…)

Critics slam Fox News for toeing White House line. But do Americans expect more spin with their news?
by TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON?As U.S. and Iraqi fighters surrounded Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf last week, Fox News viewers were given three takes on what the Americans should do next.
Or, as Fox likes to put it, what the "good guys" should do about the "bad guys."
Over the afternoon, the foreign policy debate went something like this:
Retired U.S. Army Col. David Hunt told the cable (…)

By Shaun Waterman
The September 11 commission’s recommendation for federal standards of identification documents such as driver’s licenses and birth certificates is tantamount to the introduction of a national ID card system "through the back door," some lawmakers believe. The commission stopped short of actually recommending the introduction of national ID cards but did say that the fight against terrorism required greater consistency and security of state-issued identification (…)

By William Rivers Pitt
Ever hear the old story of the lady and the snake?
A lady finds a snake injured in the road. She takes it home, cares for it, helps it heal, and the two become friends. One day, the lady is in her garden with the snake, and the snake suddenly bites her in the throat. The lady lays dying and gasps, "Why did you bite me? I was your friend?" The snake replies, "Lady, you knew I was a snake when you picked me up."
This is a parable the Bush/Cheney campaign is (…)

By CARLOTTA GALL
GARDEZ, Afghanistan - In late June, just two weeks into his tour here, Pvt. Jeremy Kretz from Dubuque, Iowa, was driving in a convoy near the border with Pakistan when a remote-controlled explosion hit his Humvee, causing him to black out and blasting him and his companions with rocks and dust. The American soldiers got away with concussions, ruptured eardrums and gravel-peppered skin.
"Head’s pretty full of gravel anyway," joked his commander, Lt. James Avrams, who is (…)

By Manuel Valenzuela
The labeling as anti-Semitic of anyone critical of the state of Israel’s policies in the continued destruction of Palestinian identity and the increasing domination into American foreign policy no longer has the sting of threat or intimidation it once mastered. For too long this masquerade has been used to silence those opposing anything Israel, shouted at anyone disseminating truth and seeking justice. Like the boy who cried wolf, this charade has lost its power or (…)

By Jeremy Pelofsky
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - A Vietnam veteran who worked with President Bush’s campaign has left over his appearance in a commercial by a group challenging Democratic candidate John Kerry’s war record, a campaign spokesman said on Saturday.
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Ken Cordier was a Bush supporter during the 2000 election and served as a member of his a steering committee to help reach out to veterans during this election.
"Col. Cordier did not (…)

By DONALD MACINTYRE
Recovering from the loss of three fingers from his right hand, Abu Muqtada, as he called himself, was eager to get back to the fighting. Hit by US machine-gun fire in Najaf’s large, hallowed and now badly damaged Wadi al-Salam cemetery a week ago, the 38-year-old Mehdi Army insurgent was relaxing, his hand bandaged, in the shade outside Kufa’s mosque, the second oldest in Iraq.
"My hand is finished but the other is still working," he said. "We are still fighting, and (…)

By David Usborne
The invasion of the Big Apple is coming, and its residents could not be less delighted. From next weekend, about 50,000 delegates and their guests will pour into town for the Republican Party Convention. They may be joined by up to a million political protesters, some very noisome.
Why us, is the cry of many New Yorkers who are dreading the confab of Republicans that starts on 30 August. Never before has the party of George Bush chosen New York as the host city for a (…)

VETERANS CONTINGENT WILL MARCH
ACTIVE DUTY, RESERVISTS
Families and friends encouraged to join
THE WORLD SAYS NO TO THE BUSH AGENDA!
Massive Protest on the eve of the Republican convention
Sunday August 29, New York City - Contingent Assembly Area: 22nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues
Assembly begins at 10 a.m and steps off at 12 Noon
Bring Banners, Flags, Signs, Wear Uniforms
Organisation Colors
NO TO WAR ! GREED, HATE, LIES !
UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE (…)