by Jeremy Scahill

The refrain of the Democrats about being misled into supporting the invasion of Iraq has become really tired. And someone other than the White House smearmongers needs to say it: The Democrats cannot be allowed to use faulty intelligence as a crutch to hold up their unforgivable support for the Iraq invasion. What is DNC Chair Howard Dean's excuse? He wasn't in Congress and didn't have any access to Senate intelligence. Still, on March 9, 2003, just days before the invasion began, Dean told Tim Russert, on NBC's Meet The Press, "I don't want Saddam . . .

by Tyler Rougeau

Note: I have written previously in these pages about the human rights situation in Haiti since the ousting of democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide; see the September, 2005 issue of Works In Progress. In sum, the situation is grave and little acknowledgement of US involvement in the violence, both militaristic and economic, is making the headlines. Despite the mainstream silence, one can read limited coverage of the political climate in Haiti in such alternative press sources as NarcoNews, Democracy Now! and, to a lesser extent, CounterPunch. These sources are . . .

[The following is a list-serve posting by OMJP member Larry Mosqueda, related to the controversy discussed in the previous article]

We have to remember that the people that skewed the picture reporting in the news were the Olympian editors, not the brave souls who rightly went down to the port to protest another death ship coming to Olympia. When I saw the ship coming into the port after 11:00 AM, I knew that a good portion of the vigil crowd would go to the port, and rightly so. I saw the photographer taking the picture of the one argument, and I KNEW that that would be the lead picture, since . . .

by Marco Rosaire Rossi

In his book Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke, the former counter terrorism chief, describes how George W. Bush sought to set a new standard for human rights after September 11. In the evening after the terrorist attacks on the world trade center, George Bush had a special meeting with Donald Rumsfeld and Clarke. The president said to the two: "I want you all to understand that we are at war . . . any barriers in your way, they're gone. Any money you need, you have it . . . I don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass." Apparently, what . . .

by Cory Fischer-Hoffman

MAR DEL PLATA, ARGENTINA- During the week of November 1-5, in the Argentine beach town of Mar del Plata, the 25-year struggle between neo-liberalism and grassroots social movements met head-on. George Bush came to Argentina, with thousands of security, to attend the IV Summit of the Americas - whose theme is "Creating Jobs to Reduce Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance."

by Robert Oscar Lopez

November 2, 2005 [Before the recent race riots in France began] - Who can argue with the honors paid to Rosa Parks, the woman described repeatedly as "the mother of the Civil Rights movement"? As the first woman ever to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda where, not too long ago, Ronald Reagan's corpse lay, she is the heroine nobody can find fault with. Fifty years ago, she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. In this simple act, the story goes, the American civil rights movement was born.

by Robert B. Reich

Wal-Mart and General Motors have been in the news recently for their efforts to cut the costs of their employee health insurance. They are singled out mainly because they're so large. As health costs soar across the economy, every company that once provided full heath coverage to its employees is actively paring it back.

So why not go all the way? Let's de-couple health care from employment.

by Tom Crawford

Some issues loom so large and foreboding on our political and mental landscapes, we seem powerless in the face of them. The dark storm clouds of war, official lies, abandonment of our most needy citizens, and politicians' illegal behavior loom so large it seems the only thing we can do is hunker down and wait (pray!) for them to pass. As Bob Dylan puts it, "High water everywhere."