Articles

SEPTEMBER 2003

The Thugs Who Control the Darkness
September 30, 2003 · In the area of evil manipulation, Cheney is head and shoulders above all those around him. He's a natural - the best that ever was. While the others fill us with temporary fear, Cheney infects us with the creeping horror of his own superstitions that will remain with us far beyond Iraq - possibly for a lifetime. By Sheila Samples

It's Time To Go Back To Crawford
September 30, 2003 · Bush finally did hit the real trifecta. We don't have the troops to address the really serious problems which confront us, we don't have the money to even clean the road kill off of our roads, let alone repair them, and we don't have the support of anybody in this misguided adventure in Iraq. By Dennis Jones

Joy and Bliss Under the Reign of King George
September 27, 2003 · The last tax cut enacted by Bush’s Republican-led Congress was supposed to create 1,000,000 (one million) jobs. The truth has been quite the opposite. Jobs have been evaporating from all sectors of the economy. More than 500,000 were lost in the last quarter alone. Iraq was “capable” of a “mushroom cloud” over American cities. The truth has been shown by more than 3,000 US inspectors who have turned up nothing – dirt, dooda, zippo, nada. By Bridget Gibson

Silence is Only a Virtue if No One is Listening
September 27, 2003 · We can dislike each other's primary candidates, we can actively work for or against any, but come November of 2004, we are all on the same side. So let us debate, let us discuss, and heck, let's even flame a little. By D. N. Wilkinson (Coyul)

Under Bush, the Poor Get Poorer
September 26, 2003 · Some 12.2 million children - or 17 percent - lived in poverty last year. Many people in the U.S. love to beat their chests and call their country the best in the world, but the fact is that the child poverty rate in their nation is among the highest of major industrialized countries. I don't know about you, but that's not a fact of which this American is proud. By Jackson Thoreau

After the Internet
September 26, 2003 · As ever more citizens lose confidence in the credibility of the corporate media, they are turning to the Internet, and through it to international and independent sources of reliable news of the world and of their own country and politics. It is a trend that is continuing and accelerating. Surely, the grand Poobahs of the corporate-GOP-media complex will not sit still for this! But what can they do about it? Unfortunately, there is much they can do. By Ernest Partridge

What's Sex Slavery Got To Do With It?
September 25, 2003 · I missed the introduction to George W. Bush's UN speech. I came in at the beginning of what struck me as a wild digression about various other international threats and menaces, such as the AIDS crisis and famine. And then he started talking about sex slavery. By The Plaid Adder

No Hero's Welcome?
September 25, 2003 · Let me make one thing perfectly clear. Our soldiers are our nation's bravest treasure - unlike the cheap flyboy who stole his way to power and the expensive administrative white-collar "suits" who needlessly send our brothers and sisters into harm's way over an oil-well of cultivated lies. By Vincent L. Guarisco

Passive Deceit and the Death of David Kelly
September 24, 2003 · If spy chiefs or Defense Minister Geoff Hoon had corrected the media and public's misinterpretation of the 45-minute claim, Kelly would likely be alive today. By Dennis Hans

The Fourth Son Walks Tall
September 24, 2003 · He's never shied away from raising important issues and last week Ted Kennedy walked tall again. He took on the invasion of Iraq, which is rapidly becoming a defining issue to many in the party, just as the Vietnam War had been back in 1968. By Mike McArdle

A Heartening Visit to Texas, Home of the Original Bush Whoppers
September 24, 2003 · Texas isn't exactly Democrat country. It's easy being liberal or progressive in San Francisco, where I live. Not in Texas. This is Bush-family country (one flies into George Bush Intercontinental Airport), and Democrats are the despised, humiliated enemy in most of the state. By Bernard Weiner

Repudiation of Bush Foreign Policy is the Only Solution in Iraq
September 23, 2003 · The problem with Mr. Bush's war is that it can never be won - it can only be perpetuated. When are the American people going to wake up and turn down this betrayer of the public trust? When are the Democrats going to realize that being strong on national defense does not consist of continuing the disastrous policies the public was deceived into supporting? By Martin Eden

Atheists Surround Courthouse as Statue Showdown Continues
September 23, 2003 · MADISON, Wis. - As crowds of protestors gathered in Madison, a university town noted for its generally liberal leanings, the nation's attention has been drawn to the latest skirmish in America's culture wars and to the newest front in the battle over church-state separation. At issue: the proposed removal of a marble bust of Thomas Paine from the hallway of the Dane County Courthouse, along with a bronze plaque quoting from his works. Satire by David Albrecht

Republicans Don't Trust People
September 20, 2003 · In the last couple of years, a pattern has definitely emerged. Republicans simply don't trust people. The right wing nuts that control the country today, instead prefer to trust the police and big business to do what is right. By Rob McNelis

A True Patriot
September 19, 2003 · Pat Kneisler isn't famous because she can pay attention and count. It's because the US journalism corps can't or won't. Pat discovered that CENTCOM and the DOD both release US troop death notices on their websites, but only infrequently were these death notices tabulated in print into a total. Pat has dignified all of our slain GI's in the theatre by counting them, for whatever reason. By Joseph Arrieta

Behind the Green Curtain: An Update on Oz's Post-Wicked Witches Era
September 17, 2003 · It has been over ten years since the Munchkins were liberated from the tyranny of the Wicked Witches of the East and West by Dorothy - yet peace, stability and prosperity have eluded the tiny population ever since. Due to serious infighting immediately after the power vacuum, the Munchkins have been unable to sustain a democratic society and bear little resemblance to their formerly cheerful and fastidious selves. By Shawn Holiday

The 1% Solution
September 17, 2003 · Bush's tax cuts for the rich come at a time when this president is spending more money faster than any president in modern day history. This president has yet to see an appropriations bill that he would not sign, and has yet to use the power of the veto to curtail spending. By Curt Morey

Arnold Terminates Family Values
September 16, 2003 · Gangbanging. Drunk driving. Compulsive gambling. Underage drinking. Is this the standard Republicans had in mind when they began shoving "family values" down our collective throats during the 1990s? By Stephen Watson

Broken Promises
September 16, 2003 · George W. Bush did not keep any of his campaign promises - at least not the ones he made publicly to the American people. He did however live up to the promise of his less than stellar résumé. As could have been expected w hen the reins of the world's last surviving super power were handed to a man who had barely distinguished himself as president of his college fraternity, colossal failure was all but inevitable. By Douglas Snider

Taking the Pulse
September 12, 2003 · Not long after George Bush spoke to the nation last Sunday, the New York Times - that bastion of liberal elitism - ran on its front page an article by David M. Halbfinger which purported to take "the pulse" of the American public's reaction to the speech. And just where did the Times and Mr. Halbfinger decide was the best place to ask around? Why Georgia, of course - the nation's melting pot of diverse political opinion. Satire by Michael Paine

Iraq's Mass Graves: Another Dubious Justification for War?
September 12, 2003 · In last Sunday's nationally televised address to the nation President Bush cited the mass graves in Iraq as a prime example of Saddam's brutality and further justification for our invasion. But a check of the historical record on this matter reveals yet another calculated distortion by the administration and its supporters. By Mark Gerry, MA

The Power of Remembrance
September 11, 2003 · We can never forget those who perished from the Earth on that September day. We remember them in prayer, we light candles as we recall their spirits and how they once lit our world, we read words of remembrance by those they loved and left behind on that painful day. And in their names, we seek out the truth. By Kurt Kurowski

Still on the Job
September 11, 2003 · I was in New York within a few weeks of the attack. Visiting the site was a life altering moment. The smell was unlike any I had ever known. The dust still clung to every nook and cranny it had so violently thrust itself into. The pale white smoke rose in a ghostly dance through the ring of spotlights. The air was sad. Yet surrounding this pit of sorrow was a city whose heart had been broken but whose spirit was unbowed. By Michael Shannon

Freedom or Security?
September 11, 2003 · What is being offered is the security of the child, the slave, or the animal - they have no say into what will become of their lives. We have not existed as a free people for over two hundred years just to allow fear to make us give up our freedom. By Frank Lovato

Say What?
September 10, 2003 · This issue of the bulk of the population's complete ignorance of any language not spoken by large numbers of Europeans – and that bulk probably includes both thee and me, gentle reader – is starting to become the biggest rhinoceros in the bathtub of our inept, how-many-rhinoceroses-can-we-get-into-this-bathtub foreign policy. By Raul Groom

The Passing of America
September 10, 2003 · Is America dying? Or is it being murdered? When counting the many poisonous movers and shakers this administration has degenerately planted for our perishable condition, I consider America lethally injected, and this editorial may very well be our official obituary notice. By Vincent L. Guarisco

We Can Win the War in Vietnam (And Other Chestnuts From a Not-So-Bygone Era)
September 9, 2003 · I love the smell of quagmire in the morning. My, but it takes you back, doesn't it? The only thing left to say is that there is "light at the end of the tunnel." But everything else has already begun to play itself out. We have even seen the resurrection of that Orwellian mantra "winning the peace." If I had been just a few years older in the Vietnam era, the deja-vu might kill me. By Daniel Patrick Welch

"DC 9/11: A Time of Crisis" - My Favorite Scenes
September 9, 2003 · Those of you who skipped the Showtime original film, "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis" missed a veritable landmine in cellulite history. But don't worry - here are the highlights, just because you asked so nicely... By Smokey Sojac

Conan the Populist?
September 6, 2003 · Arnold says he speaks for the people, and there are apparently many Californians who believe he does. One has to wonder why. Has Arnold fought for the people in the past? Has he been an outspoken voice for the interests of people like you and me? Has he courageously stood up to the powerful in defense of regular folks? Has he been willing to sacrifice his personal interests to promote the interests of the rest of us? Has Arnold always been there when we needed him? By Craig Roberts

Inside Karl Rove's Diary: "Things Aren't Going So Well..."
September 6, 2003 · Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House... Satire by Bernard Weiner

Lost in America (2003)
September 5, 2003 · The very fiber of the flag and the principles it once stood for are being gnawed away by rats while the masses are conveniently distracted by the spineless and complacent media on the latest scare. By W. David Jenkins III

Codifying Those Commandments
September 5, 2003 · In light of this outpouring of support, and the level of fervor expressed, we have to presume that the next step for our elected officials is to incorporate all of these commandments into our civil laws, and enforce them properly. Let's take a look at the "Ten" (Exod.20:1-17) and see how this might be accomplished. By Kerry Tomasi

A Not-So-Super Power
September 4, 2003 · From 2000 to 2003, a mere 36 months, the US federal budget and state budgets, have collectively gone from budget surplus to budget deficit. It's far too easy to blame the mentality of the dotcom era and toss around terms like "overvaluation." That's the Wall Street version. There's more to it than that. By John Stanton

Back to School, Neocon-Style
September 4, 2003 · The Bush administration has made significant efforts to set the stage for the privatization of education through programs like "No Child Left Behind" and the promotion of "school choice vouchers." The result is that public schools will ultimately be reduced to remedial education services. By Brad Odland

One More Bogus Story
September 3, 2003 · The Bush administration is still clinging to their WMD fantasy so they don't have to admit they flat out lied. They've gone from "We know the weapons are there," to "We still believe the weapons are there," to "We believe we will find evidence of weapons 'programs'," to now, "We were duped into believing the weapons were there." By Doug Basham

God Bless America and Damn the Rest
September 3, 2003 · I love my country. You love yours. He loves his and she loves hers. That's healthy. But I don't for a minute believe my country is any more touched by the hand, and preference, of the Creator than any other country. By Rev. Marie D. Jones