contributions

by Wayne Besen
In the shadow of Mary Cheney’s apologist memoir, "Now It’s My Turn," comes an apology from former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey in his new book "The Confession." With Mary receiving a mllion dollars for her "tell nothing" and McGreevey receiving a half million for his "tell-all," it has suddenly become quite lucrative to announce one’s homosexuality. Perhaps, next year’s National Coming Out Day should be held in a bank?
Cynicism aside, McGreevey’s book is a tome that (…)

By Robert S. Finnegan OP-ED Southeast Asia News 05/31/2006
Haditha.
The United States Marine Corps was already on it’s last legs as an elite fighting force, our reputation sullied by the dishonorable and sometimes criminal actions perpetrated by bottom of the barrel Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers in Iraq. Now this. We are now observing the death throes of the oldest fighting force in America.
We had a good run, from November 10, 1775 to 2006. These dates may now (…)

by William Fisher Amid the ever-escalating rhetoric between the United States and Venezuela, the president of the oil-rich Latin American country, Hugo Chavez, has been busily scoring points with low-income American consumers. Under a program sometimes dubbed petro-diplomacy, Citgo, Venezuela’s wholly-owned gas and oil subsidiary, has been providing discounts of up to 60 per cent on heating oil to poor communities in the U.S. The program is currently operating in Maine, Massachusetts, (…)

(Based on an old Civil War Poem,from the Confederate side) In Fallujah, where we fell, there nothing grows. Between the ruins,row on row a marked disgrace. And in the sky the vultures,squawking,darkly fly, scarce heard amid the dust below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived and thrived, saw sunrise glow, loved,embraced, and now we lie in Fallujah,where we fell. We took the quarrel to the foe! to them from ghostly hands we threw the curse of pure defeat,yes,that we cried... And (…)

by Wayne Besen
The Bush administration is out of gas and nobody can afford it, so the President is priming the pump with the same anti-gay fuel that always runs the GOP’s engine: Same-sex marriage. But will the parlor trick work again for an administration clunking by on fumes?
According to the conservative magazine, The Weekly Standard, Bush will hold a press conference in the Rose Garden on June 5 to reaffirm his support for a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting gay people from (…)

NEW ZOGBY POLL REVEALS OVER 70 MILLION VOTING AGE AMERICANS DISTRUST OFFICIAL 9/11 STORY AND SUPPORT NEW INVESTIGATION OF POSSIBLE US GOVERNMENT ROLE IN THE ATTACKS.*
– 911Truth.org urges 2006 reform candidates to recognize a powerful new constituency.
(Utica, NY) - Although the Bush administration continues to exploit September 11 to justify domestic spying, unprecedented spending and a permanent state of war, a new Zogby poll reveals that less than half of the American (…)

By Richard Phillips
US antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan denounced the Australian government for its participation in the Iraq war and called for the release of David Hicks from Guantánamo Bay and the closure of the notorious US military prison camp at a demonstration in Melbourne last Friday.
Sheehan rejected US and Australian government claims that Guantánamo inmates “did not deserve civil rights” because they were “illegal enemy combatants”. The four-and-a-half-year incarceration of (…)

Dear A.N.S.W.E.R. friend,
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is one of many organizations across the U.S. endorsing and mobilizing for the June 4-9 Week of Protests in Washington DC opposing the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement during negotiations that will be taking place throughout the week.
It is of vital importance that the anti-war movement demonstrate its opposition to all of the tactics utilized by the U.S. government in pursuit of neocolonial domination, whether its war and occupation or (…)

by Sasha Abramsky
What does it mean when a democracy removes the vote from several million adults? How is the political process affected when certain groups — racial minorities and low-income whites, in particular — bear the brunt of this disenfranchisement?
These are not abstract questions intended to tax the minds of students in a poli-sci class. Rather, they are questions about a massive contraction of the franchise that is occurring, today, largely in the shadows, in the United (…)

By Jabari Asim
WASHINGTON — If "American Idol" didn’t completely satisfy your appetite for gimmickry, you might consider turning to National Review. A recent issue offers its handy list of the top 50 conservative rock songs of all time.
The list is intended to be provocative because rock is often considered a focal point of progressive sentiments. What I found far more striking, however, was the relative whiteness of the artists. Exactly when did rock ’n’ roll, once the province of Fats (…)