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Articles
DECEMBER
2003
Tales from the Primary
Trail: Year End Highlights
December
19, 2003 · We are heading into
crunch time on the Primary Trail - the final weeks and days
before the voters have their say to determine who wins this
stage of the Democratic Primary race. So before the candidates
make their final, desperate turn for the finish line, it's
time to reflect and indulge in that annual journalistic tradition
of reporting again what already has happened (aka the year-end
wrap up story). By
Michael McCord
The Downfall of Tyrants
December
17, 2003 · If Bush steps aside and lets
those with the interests of the Iraqi people take charge,
this sorry affair might be salvaged in the end. Then and only
then will the fall of Saddam become a truly meaningful event.
By Jack
Rabbit
Time to Out the Administration
Leakers
December
17, 2003 · If journalists, supposedly
the guardians and watchdogs of the government, let the perpetrators
of the Valerie Plame scandal get away with this coverup of
a crime, a possible second-term Bush Administration would
be unconstrained domestically and internationally, doing untold
damage to our national security abroad and to our Constitutional
protections and economy at home. By Bernard
Weiner
The War on Odor and The War
on Terror
December
13, 2003 · Terror's purpose is to cause
fear. Thus, a fundamental part of the war on terror must be
to destroy fear. Yet, fear is inherent in all man, thus, we
must overstate the obvious: we cannot destroy fear. By Alexis
E. Santí
On Rove, and The Big Bad
GOP
December
13, 2003 · In order to beat Rove, you
have to understand what's behind the words coming out of his
mouth. And by Rove's mouth, I mean the collective mouths of
his many, many, many surrogates. Why ignore those words? Because
Rove is a spin-master. He is Ari Fliescher on crack. He will
do everything in his power to frame the debate. By
David Friedman
Why is Everybody Always Pickin'
On Me?
December
12, 2003 · Much as I disagree with Rush
Limbaugh's political views, I would never wish for him, or
for anyone else, the kind of pain he has experienced, both
before and after he began using prescription drugs. With his
influence, rather than setting up silly, petulant analogies
concerning the unfairness of law enforcement officials, he
could do a great deal of good by advocating a more humane
and sensible drug policy in this country. By Beth
Henry
Tales from the Primary Trail:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being John Kerry
December
12, 2003 · The vultures may be circling
but I heard Kerry rally his supporters on the "Real Deal"
express by telling them "I'm a closer" - and he does have
history to back him up when it comes to electoral survival.
By Michael
McCord
New Silent Majority Discovered
in Fallon, Nevada
December
12, 2003 · Today, I believe most Americans
can now be classified as the New Silent Majority. Specifically,
there is a plurality of people who not only oppose the war
in Iraq, but the neo-con policies of the Bush administration
as well. They are out there and not only do they lack a forum
to voice their opposition, they are afraid to do so in public
lest they be labeled unpatriotic. By Dan
Gougherty
Of Bonfires, Flags, and
America the Beautiful
December
11, 2003 · My political and social beliefs
have always resided on a bedrock of patriotism, of love of
country, of a love for America and its people, its guiding
principles, its honor and its traditions of democracy and
freedom for all. That bedrock patriotism responded to those
burning flags before me, those flags flown by conservatives
and liberals, of people who live in my community, of Americans.
By Max
Black
Who's Afraid of Howard Dean?
December
11, 2003 · It seems practically every
one of Karl Rove's favorite newspapers is constantly telling
us what a pushover Howard Dean would be in the general election.
A lot of naïve Dems have apparently fallen for all of this
hokum. I still hear a lot of moaning from people who ought
to know better that "Howard Dean is the next McGovern." Perhaps
these people have forgotten the real story of George McGovern
and Ed Muskie. By Raul
Groom
Why Wesley Clark?
December
10, 2003 · These are the reasons that
I came to the conclusion that I had to get involved in this
election and support Wes Clark. This is a critical election
and other like-minded people need to think long and hard about
what's at stake and get involved too. By Mickey
Isikoff
Fake Moderate, Fake Economy
December
9, 2003 · For months, we've been hearing
from Bush that the economy is turning around, that Bush's
tax cuts for the wealthy are creating jobs, that the recession
was all the fault of Clinton and then Sept. 11, 2001. But
Bush-Rove-Cheney are taking the same page from the same story
they did in 2000. Bush is trying to pose as a moderate to
steal another presidential election. He is lying about his
record, just as he lied about what he did as Texas governor.
By Jackson
Thoreau
Taking a Crack at So-Called
"Bush Hatred"
December
9, 2003 · A lot of what the right calls
"Bush Hatred" is really not "hatred" at all. That's a convenient
us-or-them attitude for the right to hold because it requires
very little thought to do so, but it has little basis in reality.
What many on both sides of the political fence feel is a sense
of frustration, shame, disappointment, and disillusionment,
as though we've been conned into buying a shoddily-made product.
By Alan
M. Haney
Bad Boys
December
6, 2003 · PNAC needed a candidate whose
lust for power and thirst for blood matched their own. When
they looked around for an accomplice or, better yet, a puppet,
to start the empirical ball rolling, it was only natural to
consider the Brothers Bush. By Sheila
Samples
Democrats: When will we
ever learn?
December
6, 2003 · The 2000 Election turned out
to be, in several significant aspects, a re-run of 1988 –
so too, 2002. The early stages of the 2004 campaign suggest
that the Democrats are about to make the same mistakes all
over again. In many readily identifiable respects, they already
have. By Ernest
Partridge
A Country Out of Joint
December
5, 2003 · We provide ourselves with
an endless stream of reassurance to buttress our belief that
the picture we hold in our minds of the world around us is
not fundamentally flawed, despite a possible loose end here
or paradox there. We do what we must to maintain our privilege,
the ability to survive without having to think. By Raul
Groom
My Mission
December
5, 2003 · My personal mission has changed
over the two years since 9/11. In August 2001, I was gung-ho
for Jesus, and President Bush was the God-appointed man-in-office.
Now, I'm a soldier who doesn't believe in much anymore. The
Bible didn't stand under the weight of my scrutiny. My Commander-in-Chief
has sent my friends off to fight a war so that his friends
and family can get rich. By Anonymous
The Throbbing Political
Pulse
December
4, 2003 · Whenever traveling around
the country, I (surprise!) talk politics with folks I meet;
it's often instructive and it serves as a way of taking the
social pulse. Last week's trip to the East Coast presented
me with both encouraging and dispiriting signs. By Bernard
Weiner
Trouble in Paradise
December
4, 2003 · We are going to be directly
involved in the political, military and economic affairs of
Iraq for a long, long time. Not only did we not go to all
this trouble, didn't spend all that money, leave that many
arms and legs on the highways and wastelands of Iraq and ship
that many of our people home in aluminum boxes to just turn
around and give it back, we won't do it because we fear what
might happen. By Michael
Shannon
The WTO and the US: Goliath
Endures his First Stone
December
3, 2003 · Cheap steel imports and the
drop of global prices have all but eliminated the industry
that historically helped build this nation. In the end the
short-term tariffs will have only amounted to a failing life-support
system - where the prolonged existence of the sector was doomed
to crash under the auspices of the free-market way. So is
Bush committing political suicide by alienating the working
class and labor communities? Hardly. By Josh
Frank
Bush Goes to Babylon
December
2, 2003 · Will this guy ever run out
of shameless publicity stunts? Just when we thought his phony
(and premature) aircraft carrier "victory" gig was the creme
de la creme of gaudy overacting, he pulls this Baghdad
stunt. After having consumed my fill of Thanksgiving goodies,
I have to see this on TV? That doesn't bode well for healthy
digestion. By Desert_Vet
The Issue at Hand
December
2, 2003 · Good evening and welcome to
"Talk of the Nation". I'm your vaguely nonpolitical host,
to my right is the arch conservative pundit, and to my left
is the vaguely liberal yahoo. Tonight we will feature commentaries
by paid brown-nosers on both sides of the issue, and debate
the merits of the issue at hand. By Trevor
Seigler
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