by David Lynn

"Support the Troops," is a slogan no longer held captive by ultra-conservatives who believe if you do not support the war in Iraq, you do not support our troops. In reality, supporting our troops means working to end the war and bringing all of our military personnel safely home, as well as honoring soldiers refusing to participate in the Iraq war -a war that more than 50 percent of Americans no longer believe in.

by Ron Jacobs

Oct. 7, 2005-- Recent reports from Washington and Kabul suggest that the United States and its client government are considering some legal production of opium in that tattered country. The reasons for this is two-fold. First off, the US-sponsored authority in Kabul, H. Karzai, knows that his government can not stop opium production without losing his position, his power and perhaps his life. Secondly, some of the members of the government there are engaged in opium production and refuse to give it up, especially since there are no other truly profitable endeavors they could . . .

by Cindy and Craig Corrie

October 10, 2005 - When our daughter Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza strip on March 16, 2003, an immediate impulse was to get her words out to the world. She had been working in Rafah with a nonviolent resistance organization, the International Solidarity Movement, trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells. Her emails home had had a powerful impact on our family, making us think about the situation in the Middle East in ways we had never done before. Without a direct connection to Israel and Palestine, we had not . . .

From the WIP Editorial Committee

One of the most compelling incentives for Olympia residents to head to the polls on November 8 is the opportunity to unseat incumbent Doug Mah and replace him with long-time, hard-working citizen activist, Phyllis Booth.

A self-described "citizen watchdog" working on behalf of local grassroots interests, Booth has attended and testified at hundreds of city council meetings and other public hearings and forums - this, in addition to doorbelling, canvassing and otherwise applying herself on behalf of a variety of community issues and campaigns. Over the years, as . . .

by Susan Mills

Why have Washington doctors chosen to ally themselves with the two industries most responsible for the shameful state of health care in this country: the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical companies?

Initiative 330 was filed by doctors, but the financing is largely corporate. Together with hospitals, the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical lobby (PhRMA), they have amassed a war-chest of over $8 million -- and counting.

Review by Brian Huseby

When did the civil rights movement begin? With the Montgomery bus boycott and the lunch counter sit-ins of the 1950s?

In Emancipation Betrayed, Evergreen graduate Paul Ortiz convincingly demonstrates that the struggle for black liberation began long before the 1950s. Ortiz takes us from the fights of slaves for freedom in the antebellum U.S. to the struggle for black voting rights in Florida, culminating in the presidential election of 1920. Along the way, Ortiz gives numerous examples of blacks using armed self-defense to protect themselves from white attacks, rather than . . .

In the October WIP I tried, as completely and diplomatically as I could, to give my impression of what happened in City Council process on the Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance leading up to the Council meeting where the ordinance was heard at second reading. Carrie Lybecker had some additional questions, and some I thought I'd answered already. Let me try again.

by Monica Peabody

Do you benefit from taxes? Do you drive? Ride public transportation? Read books from the library? Do your children go to school? Do you receive public assistance? Go to the park? Recycle? Use tap water?

Do you pay taxes? Washington state collects several types of taxes including sales tax, business and occupation taxes (B & O) and property taxes. There is a notion that only property owners pay property tax, however renters pay property taxes, because rents increase to cover the costs of property taxes. Sales tax costs the same for everyone, regardless of income. Low-income . . .