contributions

By William Jelani Cobb
Colin Powell is simultaneously the most powerful black man in the world and the least influential Secretary of State in modern history - How did it come to this?
In the cavalcade of heroes that we trot out each Black History Month, there is a special VIP section reserved for Negro Firsts. The belief is that each one is a barometer charting the falling pressures of racism in America. But the truth is that for every racial pioneer, there are hundreds, if not (…)

By Jeff Jones
Some would-be spectators hoping to attend Vice President Dick Cheney’s rally in Rio Rancho this weekend walked out of a Republican campaign office miffed and ticketless Thursday after getting this news: Unless you sign an endorsement for President George W. Bush, you’re not getting any passes. The Albuquerque Bush-Cheney Victory office in charge of doling out the tickets to Saturday’s event was requiring the endorsement forms from people it could not verify as (…)

By Suleiman al-Khalidi
A humanitarian crisis could erupt in Iraq’s second largest city of Basra with the shortage of drinking water at the peak of summer made worse by power cuts, a senior U.N. official warned on Thursday.
"We are confronting a potential serious humanitarian crisis," Ross Mountain, acting special representative of the U.N. Secretary General for Iraq, told Reuters in Amman.
"We have no indication that there is anywhere else in the country that is facing this kind of (…)

The son of the fortieth president of the United States takes a hard look at the son of the forty-first and does not like what he sees
By Ron Reagan
It may have been the guy in the hood teetering on the stool, electrodes clamped to his genitals. Or smirking Lynndie England and her leash. Maybe it was the smarmy memos tapped out by soft-fingered lawyers itching to justify such barbarism. The grudging, lunatic retreat of the neocons from their long-standing assertion that Saddam was in (…)

Two US aircraft were damaged and 11 American service members wounded in fierce fighting in the western city of Ramadi.
A spokeswoman from the US military command said "multiple" US military camps in Ramadi came under attack about 1pm yesterday, leaving 10 soldiers injured.
The clashes also killed one Iraqi insurgent and wounded another, the spokeswoman said.
About 2.30pm, insurgents attacked two US aircraft with small-arms fire, damaging both aircraft and injuring one pilot, the (…)

By ROBERT WELLER
FORT CARSON, Colo. - Three Army commanders were granted immunity from prosecution Friday in the case of two Iraqi civilians forced to jump from a bridge. One of the two allegedly died.
The decision by Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, cleared the way for the men to testify during a hearing to determine if three of their subordinates will face a court-martial in the case.
The three commanders, Lt. Col. Nathan (…)

By DEROY MURDOCK
George Orwell’s novel "1984" depicted Earth as a totalitarian planet. Twenty years after that date, most of the world - and America, specifically - has avoided his dystopian vision. Even if Big Brother is watching, no one is required to love him. And, at a minimum, he quadrennially faces the voters.
Still, a new study finds Orwell’s ghost haunting America’s public dialogue. More accurately, the hollow and oxymoronic rhetoric the late British writer described thrives in (…)

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Under the headline "Voters Want Specifics From Kerry," The Washington Post recently quoted a voter demanding that John Kerry and John Edwards talk about "what they plan on doing about health care for middle-income or lower-income people. I have to face the fact that I will never be able to have health insurance, the way things are now. And these millionaires don’t seem to address that."
Mr. Kerry proposes spending $650 billion extending health insurance to lower- and (…)

The success of Fahrenheit 9/11 is making Michael Moore’s life a bit easier on his next film.
With Fahrenheit 9/11 becoming the first documentary to cross the $100 million (U.S.) mark at the domestic box office, director Moore expects a smooth path on raising money to make Sicko, his critique of health-maintenance organizations.
Moore would not provide details but said financing of his next movie was in the works, thanks to Fahrenheit 9/11, which cost just $6 million to make.
"Clearly, (…)

North Korea urged the United Nations yesterday to dissolve the UN Command on the tense peninsula and press for the withdrawal of US troops based in South Korea.
In a rare letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, North Korea’s representative at the Korean War truce village called on the United Nations to dissolve the 50-year-old UN Command.
"It is our view that a war in Korea is almost unavoidable as long as the US hostile policy toward the DPRK goes on," said the 1,100-word letter, (…)