contributions

By Kersasp D. Shekhdar
August 13, 2004-Within the past three months, a rash of pieces have surfaced in the media about the current American administration and the strange term ’compassionate conservatism.’ Pinko gab-site Salon, official wrong-wing site www.whitehouse.gov, and chameleonic yada-yada-yada tank the Brookings Institution have all had their say on the issue. Unfortunately, because the writers accept the truth of the premise and work from there, every single piece we have come (…)

By Terry Cook
With an Australian federal election looming, the Howard government has been thrown into further crisis following high-level criticism of its foreign policy and strategic orientation. In an unprecedented move, 43 former top public servants, diplomats and military leaders signed a statement published on August 9 in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age calling for "truth in government" and admonishing Prime Minister John Howard for lying about why he sent Australian troops to (…)

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s tax cuts since 2001 have shifted more of the tax burden from the nation’s rich to middle-class families, according to a study released today by the Congressional Budget Office.
The tax rate declined across all income levels — but more so in the top brackets, the report said.
People in the top 20 percent of incomes, averaging $182,700 a year, saw their share of federal taxes decline from 65.3 percent of total payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year, (…)

By Sara B. Miller
Off the nation’s coasts, recreational boaters scan the waters for "suspicious" acts, from scuba diving in unlikely places to yachtmen sketching bridges or ports.
Manhattan’s doormen learn how to spot packages that may contain biological weapons.
In Pennsylvania, amusement park operators train to recognize unusual phone calls or inappropriate requests for information.
Call them the new "first responders" in the war on terror. As average Americans, from truck drivers (…)

By Mary Beth Sheridan
CARACAS, - The revolution arrived at Luis Ruiz’s home bearing pots and pans. It brought a refrigerator and a stove and a sink, bags of pasta and plump frozen chickens — a bonanza for a man living in a Caracas shantytown.
The goods arrived last month thanks to President Hugo Chavez’s program to create "people’s kitchens" in slums across Venezuela. For Ruiz, 41, a part-time plumber who cooks the free food for his neighbors, it was the latest sign of Chavez’s promised (…)

By Jayanthi Iyengar
The Chinese have been at the helm of the electronic and semi-conductor revolution. They may also be at the top of the radio frequency identification (RFID) revolution, thanks to the 2008 Summer Olympics and Wal-Mart.
The first is understandable. The Chinese government has plans of showcasing the Chinese achievements to the world through the Olympics in 2008. Hence no cost or effort is being spared to harness the very best in technology to the Olympian event. Yet (…)

By Peter Spiegel in London
The US is expected to announce on Monday that it is pulling 70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the largest restructuring of its global military presence since the second world war.
People briefed on the plan say two-thirds of the reductions will come in Europe, most of them military personnel stationed in Germany who will be sent back to US bases.
An additional 100,000 support staff and military families worldwide will be part of the realignment.
The (…)

A group of Polish soldiers have been trapped at a Hilla police station as Iraqi police and Al-Mahdi army militia engaged in an intense exchange of fire.
A Polish military spokesman refused to confirm whether there were firefights or how many Poles were holed up in the station .../...
– http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exe...

By Leonard Fein
Predicting the Jewish vote in America’s presidential elections is a favorite quadrennial pastime, notwithstanding the fact that with a very few exceptions, the Jews have voted on the order of 80 percent Democratic for some 70 years now.
This year, however, the game of prediction is, rather surprisingly, a near constant at almost any Jewish gathering. Why surprising? Because on domestic policy, President George W. Bush’s views and policies are so far from the evident (…)

by Justin Raimondo
The tom-toms are beating, and the word is going out to neocons worldwide: Save yourselves! Anybody but Bush! Yes, I know it must be hard to believe, since loyalty is such a big deal to the neocons (as in: they don’t have any), but the word on the street is that, since the Great Cause of Democracy (and Richard Perle’s bank balance) has been betrayed - and the Prez is a goner, come November, anyway - it’s time for the neocons to go into opposition. That’s what the revival (…)