|
Articles
MAY
2003
Lessons From Japan
May 31,
2003 · I'm spending a year as a middle-school
English teacher in Japan. I'm part of the JET program, which
brings native English speakers into Japan in order to provide
living, breathing examples of colloquial English and Western
culture. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration's bullying,
unilateral foreign policy has spawned a worldwide wave of
anti-Americanism that makes representing my culture to Japanese
children a humbling and sometimes painful experience. By Sally
Robinson
Operation: Iraqi Freedom (To
Do What We Tell You)
May 31,
2003 · Mr. Bush stands on the rolling deck of
an aircraft carrier and paraphrases the Gettysburg Address
declaring that Iraqis will have full freedom to nominate and
elect their national leaders. When Iraqis move toward democracy
however, Mr. Bush's man unequivocally rejects any process
that doesn't give the Bush team "ultimate authority." And
since that authority is maintained by rifles and tanks, the
Iraqis don't seem to have much choice. By Brad
Radcliffe
Road Map For America
May 31,
2003 · The road map for America, also known
as Operation American Liberation, is about to become a reality.
For the past two plus years, or ever since the United States
of America abandoned democracy in favor of an installed puppet
dictator, America has become a clear and present danger to
itself, and the rest of the world for that matter. By W.
O. Coach
Reclaiming Hope: The Peace Movement
After the War
May 30,
2003 · The bombs that fell on Iraq shattered
the armies of Saddam Hussein and the bodies of five to ten
thousand civilians. They also crushed the spirits of many
in the peace movement, driving participants into their shells.
In the months before the war, several million ordinary Americans
marched, and were joined by the largest global peace demonstrations
in history. Then we watched the war on TV, or read about it
in the papers, and felt hopeless and powerless. Many of us
wonder now whether our actions can matter. By Paul
Loeb
Regime Change Begins At Home
May 30,
2003 · Being a politically active person, discussions
with family and friends frequently turn to our chances in
2004. For the most part, they are at best pessimistic, or
just scared; I tell them that our chances in 2004 are superb.
By David
Michael Rothschild
Kucinich Can Win
May 29,
2003 · If you consider yourself a progressive
or a liberal or simply a Democrat with a fondness for prosperity
and the Bill of Rights, you really ought to check out Dennis
Kucinich. Here is a man with serious developed solutions to
many of the major problems facing us, and the openness and
humility to accept input from people. By David
Swanson
America's Dying
May 28,
2003 · Right-wing commentary is as staged and
hollow as George Bush's comedic Top Gun stunt on the aircraft
carrier Abraham Lincoln. And it's killing America. But that
false imagery and the language that goes with it finds a paying
and voting audience in the tens of millions who either truly
believe in the simplistic and erroneous notions of American
mythology, or who have auctioned off their transcendent souls
for the safe havens of profitability and conformity. By John
Stanton
Saving the Private Jessica Story
May 28,
2003 · Is "Saving Private Jessica" ready for
prime time? Not until we first determine who are the real
heroes. Were they the Special Ops forces that stormed the
hospital, or were they the doctors and nurses inside that
treated and protected her? By Ernest
Partridge
Hit Them Where It Hurts
May 28,
2003 · If you've found yourself stunned and
amazed at how bad things have got, and you just can't fathom
how it could have got this way - that's because you've been
looking at it all wrong. This is just business, and you aren't
a citizen - you're a consumer. And that's the only one way
to beat them. Hit them where it hurts - in the pocketbook.
By Michael
Paine
How We Got Into This Imperial Pickle:
A PNAC Primer
May 27,
2003 · The PNAC boys are dangerous ideologues
playing with matches, and the U.S. is going to get burned
even more in years to come, unless their hold on power is
broken. The only way to accomplish this, given the present
circumstances, is to defeat their boss at the polls in 2004,
thus breaking the HardRight momentum. By Bernard
Weiner
Only a Republican...
May 27,
2003 · We need people like Olympia Snowe getting
up and demanding a full investigation of the use of the Homeland
Security Department. We need Ben Nighthorse Campbell pushing
for an independent prosecutor to investigate the Department
of Homeland Security's hunt for the Texas Democrats, which
was truly a much worse misuse of power than anything Bill
Clinton ever did. And we need to step back, take a deep breath,
and let them do the fighting. By Pab
Sungenis
Texas Tea Party
May
24, 2003 · Just as the Boston Tea Party
forced George III to show his real colors, the Texas Tea Party
will force George II and his lackeys in Texas to show theirs.
While the Sons of Liberty dumped tea disguised as Native Americans,
the Texas Dems - disguised simply as human beings - dumped
the lies and deceptions which ultimately reek forth from the
Washington skull with a tongue in it. By William
Harris
Democrats should unite behind
a Dean/Edwards ticket
May
24, 2003 · After considering the terrible
and dangerous state of the USA under the Bush Regime, I am
more convinced than ever of the need for the Democrats to
regain the White House in 2004. This can only happen if both
the party leaders and the voters get together behind the best
possible slate of candidates as early as possible. By Len
Nasman
The Battle for... Pie
May 23,
2003 · Giving massive tax cuts to the
rich is both blatantly unfair and not an effective economic
stimulus. The selfishness that motivates moneyed interests
to press for such reductions also features a definite social
irresponsibility that, almost always, results in savings thereby
gained being either simply sat on, or narrowly invested in
ways that have little job-producing impact. By Dennis
Rahkonen
Bush's Pyrrhic Victory
May 22,
2003 · Considering the enormous difficulty
I routinely encounter when trying to figure out what the heck
is going on in these remarkably interesting times we live
in, I rarely am brave enough to attempt to forecast what will
happen next. However, I now throw caution to the wind and
make the following prophecy: when historians and various other
know-it-alls look back at the Bush Presidency, the Top Gun
speech on the USS Lincoln will prove to be its high-water
mark. By Michael
Shannon
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
May 21,
2003 · Over the last few weeks, I have
come to believe that the 2004 election is one of the most
important elections in our history, not necessary because
of the potential for great good by our nominee (although that
is important), but because of the guarantee of great harm
by an out-of-control regime that will become even more dangerous
backed by the legitimacy of an election victory. By David
Rothschild
Top Thirteen Reasons Why The GOP
Will Never Become The Mafia
May 21,
2003 · The new and disturbing actions
of the Republican Party since they invaded the White House
have led many to believe the organization itself is attempting
to morph from one of two major American political parties
into a secret criminal society like La Cosa Nostra. By Elayne
Keratsis
Forgetting the Alamo
May 20,
2003 · In a stunning reversal of long-cherished
states' rights doctrine, Texas Republicans now favor a strong
national government with the power to dictate policy to the
states. By Barbara
O'Brien
Who's Lying to Whom?
May 20,
2003 · Why, on May 1, 2003, did George
W. mislead the American public by declaring that the terrorist
network was weakened and unable to strike us just days before
another attack on American interests? By Bridget
Gibson
That's Entertainment
May 20,
2003 · When it comes to sheer entertainment,
this Republican administration takes a back seat to nobody.
Not Ethel Merman belting out "There's No Business Like Show
Business" or Phineas T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth"
can hold a candle to the spectacle to which we have been exposed
for nearly three years. By Mary
Pitt
Democrats: The Party of Tax
Cuts, Homeland Security, and a Sound Economy ... Oh, yeah,
and Health Care ... Oh, yeah, and Education, too
May 17,
2003 · This, my friends, is the winning
Democratic platform for 2004. This is the 5-point, focused,
unifying juggernaut that will propel us to victory. This is
the plan that the GOPpies don't want you (or any other Democrat)
to know about, to talk about, to think about, to campaign
on. By TygrBright
Rummy Has 15,000 Reasons Why
Iraq is Not in the Midst of Anarchy
May 16,
2003 · As everyone in my beautiful home
town of Seattle cheered the 5000 sailors floating back from
"The Big Lie" on the Abe Lincoln (scene of Top Bum)
the sailors have just sat down in their La-Z-Boys to soak
up a good back patting from Faux news. Until, that is, they
find out that Donny is sending 15,000 more of their patriot
brothers and sisters to Iraq because Baghdad is so - I'd say
"excuse my French", but since French is banned -
"freedomed" up. By Jeremy
B. Cairns
Missing in Action: The Democratic
Party
May 16,
2003 · The Democrats lack media access
and an opulent campaign fund. But they have the issues, and
with the issues alone, the Democrats have been dealt a winning
hand. Even so, the GOP bluffs, the Democrats fold, and the
country accelerates in its rush to disaster. How it this possible?
By Ernest
Partridge
How Howell Raines Enables Journalistic
and Presidential Lying
May 15,
2003 · The Jayson Blair incident has
humiliated New York Times editor Howell Raines, who richly
deserves it. The Times executive editor has a history of enabling
liars. Fortunately, the countless lies Blair told in the pages
of the Times didn't have an impact on domestic and foreign
policies. One cannot say the same about the other person whose
lying has been enabled by Raines: George W. Bush. By Dennis
Hans
We Need More Democrats Like
the Texas 58
May 15,
2003 · Every time I get sick of living
in the state of Texas, something surprises me to make me say,
"Hey, maybe it's not so bad." The walkout this week
by the 58 Texas House Democrats is the latest surprise. That
58 Democratic politicians would take such a bold move is encouraging.
That 58 Texas Democratic politicians - who are, as a group,
more conservative than average - would do so is mind-boggling.
By Jackson
Thoreau
The Republicans Aren't Working
May 14,
2003 · It's time to forget the war. Forget
Enron. Forget Halliburton. Forget Bush's suppression of civil
and human rights. As valid as those issues are, there is one
issue that's going to undo the Republicans, and that's jobs.
Keep saying it like a mantra until it sinks in. Jobs. Jobs.
Jobs. By Pab
Sungenis
"Shallow Throat" Returns
to Tell Dems How to Take Bush Downnnnnnnn
May 14,
2003 · Appalled at the damage being done
by the HardRight ideologues who had hijacked the GOP, "Shallow
Throat" - the highly-located mole in the Bush Administration,
who revealed secrets from behind the White House curtain -
had had enough and had moved to elsewhere in the government.
I was curious as I drove out to the suburban picnic spot Shallow
Throat had chosen outside the Beltway. Why had my inside source
called for a meeting? By Bernard
Weiner
There's a Drunk at the Wheel That
Steers Our Great Nation
May 14,
2003 · George W. Bush is at the helm
of a great vehicle: one in which all of us are passengers,
like it or not. And what some of us suspected is now becoming
unavoidably apparent to everyone riding along on this national
voyage our fearful leader, our commander-in-thief, is utterly
intoxicated! By J.
Daniel Baugh
Story Wars
May 13,
2003 · What do the pathetic tale of an
unpublished novelist and the 2004 presidential election have
in common? More than you would think. The Democratic hopefuls
and yours truly are up against the same formidable enemy:
the American public's taste in stories. If the Democratic
Party wants to unseat Bush in 2004, it will not be enough
to have a better candidate, a better platform, better debate
performances and a better grasp of reality. By The
Plaid Adder
Down in a Hole
May 13,
2003 · Ten Nobel Prize winning economists
all claim that the proposed tax give away to the rich will
do long-term damage to the economy. Even the administration's
own budget analysis shows increasing record deficits, with
no chance for more than 50 years to ever return to a budget
surplus. By Len
Nasman
Deficit Good. Surplus
Bad.
May 10,
2003 · Looking for the sinister reason
why Bush is so adamant about his tax cut? Sure he wants to
pay off his big campaign contributors, and yes, it�s always
nice for him to help the rich get richer. The supply side
theory is tenuous at best and most of those pushing for the
tax cut know this. That is simply how they package it, it
isn�t the real motive. By Japhy
Ryder
When Pathos Becomes Chutzpah:
A Response to Sen. John Danforth
May 10,
2003 · Every day, the con gets a little
broader, as the neo-con artists shovel it a little deeper.
And now, here's John Danforth. Mr. Danforth holds forth in
the New York Times Op-Ed page, as well as at Northwestern
University, in support of his supporters, the money men of
the Republican Party, the accountants and executives of Enron
and Arthur Andersen. By Kelley
Willis
Lemon Bill Sets an Example
May 9,
2003 · A guy gets himself limoed to a casino
in Atlantic City. Sneaks into a room reserved for the biggest
high rollers so that nobody sees him and spends an entire
weekend watching his $500 tokens gurgle down into a machine
that keeps showing him lemons. Sunday night gets here, he's
down a half mill and he's on the cell phone making reservations
for Vegas for the next weekend. Tell me this guy's enjoying
himself. By Mike
McArdle
Why I Choose Dean
May 9,
2003 · A friend recently gave me a link to a
speech an unknown-to-me candidate had given, and that ...
was ... it. He hit every note, every issue, had me jumping
out of my desk chair, had me ready to walk through a wall
in order to get him elected. After that, I went to his website,
found out where he stood on the issues, and surfed around
the Internet to see what other people were saying about him.
I liked what a I saw. By Michael
Giardina
It is Time to Reconstruct
America
May 8,
2003 · The bombs have stopped falling over Baghdad
and the major fighting has now stopped. Everywhere from Congress
to NATO, from the United Nations to the European Union the
question now being asked is "Who will reconstruct Iraq?"
Yet in communities across the nation, the question being heard
on the home front is "Who will reconstruct America?"
By John
Parvensky
Is the Bush Administration Covertly
Pro-Saddam?
May 8,
2003 · It's a wonderful thing that Hussein's
regime has been overthrown. He was an evil, evil man. It would
just be really, really, nice if the Bush administration weren't
attempting to clone his leadership "qualities" while members
of his party are calling those who protested against a war
in Iraq "pro-Saddam." By Anonymous
Rick Santorum's Sweeping Social
Reaction
May 7,
2003 · Lately Sen Santorum (R-PA) has gotten
a lot of controversial press over his remarks in a recent
AP interview in which he compared gay relationships to bigamy,
bestiality and a host of other questionable practices. But
buried in the AP transcript was the face of a GOP far more
sinister and extreme than one that would simply criticize
consensual same-sex relationships. By Joanne
Murphy
Laboring Under False Impressions
May 7,
2003 · It seems there was a time that most people
had to struggle just to survive. There were numerous economic
depressions which put people in a state of absolute despair
and caused great hardship. And now we sit in front of our
surround-sound televisions while the powers that be, who have
lulled us to sleep, try to convince us that those who are
trying to wake us up and tell us that we're being robbed of
our future are nothing but a bunch of socialist, liberal whiners.
By monkeyboy
Commander-in-Costume
May 6,
2003 · Bush is a man of few gifts in an appealing
package. He is exactly the type of person that Richard Nixon
so despised, a son of Eastern old money who was handed the
things that Nixon had to work so hard for. But it is Bush
more than anyone else who's benefited from the political image-making
that Nixon used in the 1968 campaign. Nowhere was this more
evident than during last week's appearance on the aircraft
carrier Abraham Lincoln. By Mike
McArdle
The 2004 Candidate Debate
May 6,
2003 · Did anyone catch the recent Democratic
Presidential debate? Of course not. Why? Not because you don't
care - because the ABC network ignored its FCC duty to best
serve the public interest, airing (at least in the New York
market) "Wheel of Fortune" and "Gladiator" instead. So, without
further ado, here's the opinion of one of the, oh, maybe 65
Americans who watched the debate on television at 5:30 AM
the following morning. By Ed
Hanratty
Roasting Wieners at the Pier
May 3,
2003 · Last year I wrote an article called
"Waiting for the River to Catch Fire." The river has long
since caught fire, but instead of racing to put it out and
trying to fix the problem so that it doesn't happen again,
we seem to be enjoying it. In fact, we're sitting on the pier
roasting weiners and singing songs. By Joe
Vecchio
Plato, Fallujah, and the Virtues
of Clear Thinking
May 3,
2003 · The great black hole of the United
States may well be clear thinking. We do wrinkle our collective
brow from time to time, but the quality is definitely and
rightly being called into question as we continue our avalanche
of absurdities. By Lisa
Walsh Thomas
To All Our Friends Offshore
May 2,
2003
· Our country, despite being run by Flatlanders,
hasn't yet fallen off the edge of the earth. In a strictly
democratic sense, about half the people in this country who
bother to vote are feeling more empathy with those beyond
our borders than sympathy for our leaders and their shills.
By punpirate
Conscience of a Conservative
May 2,
2003
· Like a pending execution, the discipline
of editing and writing for a political website concentrates
and focuses the mind. And so, after a year and a half of writing
and publishing some fifty or so political articles for various
progressive websites, I have come to the startling conclusion
that I am a Conservative! Now hold on a moment - don't
touch that mouse! Hear me out! By
Ernest Partridge
It's Gut Check Time
May 1,
2003 · If you have ever engaged in or
watched competitive athletics, from elementary school kickball
to the NFL, a phrase you have most likely heard when your
team is being out-hustled, outplayed and out-thought, is that
it is "gut check time." That is the moment when you need to
look within to see what you are truly made of, and ponder
how important it is for you to do what is necessary to win.
The Democratic Party has reached this moment. By Cliff
Schecter
Contact Your Local Thought Police
May 1,
2003 · The conservatives are now in control
of all three branches of the federal government. Talk radio
passes for news, and the news no longer concerns itself with
objectivity or presenting a balanced story. Wearing a peace
symbol is now considered traitorous. Believing in peace is
now considered anti-American; worse, conveying those beliefs
can get you into serious trouble. And there is no outrage.
By Japhy
Ryder
|
