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Archived Bear Left! Review of Books

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Archived columns

• 28 June 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Has America's Chemistry Changed?: Has something in America's chemistry changed? Do George W. Bush and his administration represent our wants and aspirations? Do we not care that our president lies, cheats, and steals as long as he bullies the rest of the world and the weakest amongst us at home? I hope not. George W. Bush does not dream my dreams. Bush has chosen to ensure that America's material prosperity, indeed the prosperity of the world, is something to be hoarded, not shared. Bush's tax cut plan is more than a windfall for the rich; it is a cynical strategy to force cuts in the most basic of social services.

    • Faith-Based Political Manipulation: A majority of Americans support President Bush. That support is faith-based, not fact-based. If you believe that there is a supreme being in the heavens who created the universe and is keeping tabs on all of our deeds, I guess belief in Bush is not so far-fetched. For those of us with our feet and minds planted in reality, having faith in Bush is just plain dumb.
• 22 May 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Another Republican Moral Crusade Rooted in Politics: Is that Ken Starr playing governor of Massachusetts? No, it's Mitt Romney. Americans are slowly coming to the realization that it was nonsense to believe that the United States invaded Iraq to destroy Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite being lied to by a president who promised never to lie to the American people, Americans have been mollified by the euphoria of having our team win. The "Bush Administration Buccaneers" beat Iraq in a media event that put every Super Bowl to shame. But, just like football fans do after Super Bowl Sunday, Americans will return to the reality of their daily lives. Unless the Bush administration's guns can deliver the butter, the fans will turn on George W. just like they turned on his father.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Upper Class Welfare: The rich are different than you and me: they get the government to do their bidding. The latest tax cut proposals in the United States House and Senate demonstrate just how different they are. In the face of rising unemployment, a stagnant economy, and fiscal crises in dozens of states, the Republican Party has devised tax cut plans that show its true colors. The centerpieces of its plans will do next to nothing to help the economy, but will amply reward the investor class, Americans who live off their investments, to the detriment of anyone who has to work for a living. Radical tax cuts on dividend income are well nigh useless for their stated purposes, boosting the economy or creating jobs, but they serve the real purposes of the Republican party very well.
• 6 May 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Guns Don't Equal Butter: Americans are slowly coming to the realization that it was nonsense to believe that the United States invaded Iraq to destroy Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite being lied to by a president who promised never to lie to the American people, Americans have been mollified by the euphoria of having our team win. The "Bush Administration Buccaneers" beat Iraq in a media event that put every Super Bowl to shame. But, just like football fans do after Super Bowl Sunday, Americans will return to the reality of their daily lives. Unless the Bush administration's guns can deliver the butter, the fans will turn on George W. just like they turned on his father.
    • Bush Action Figures: While sitting at my desk today, contemplating how one best complies with Loyalty Day, I had an epiphany. America needs George W. Bush Action Figures. I am publicly staking my claim to this idea, which should be rolled out in time for the anniversary of September 11 and for Christmas shopping.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Acta Santorum: For a fleeting moment late last month, Rick Santorum, the junior senator from Pennsylvania, was Penn's political bad boy, whose intemperate remarks on homosexuality might have made him a Republican pariah. In an interview with the Associated Press, he denounced "homosexual acts" and condemned sodomy, along with polygamy and adultery, as "antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family." Unlike Trent Lott, whose praise for the racist 1948 campaign of Strom Thurmond led to his political downfall, Santorum has retained his standing in the Senate and has not even apologized for the enormity of his remarks. Santorum has survived because he disparaged homosexuals, the last acceptable target for mainstream bigotry in America. But his religious rationale for his animus towards homosexuality reveals deeper conflicts.
• 21 April 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Obedient Servants: When President Bush justified pre-emptive war on Saddam Hussein and his regime, he spoke of Saddam's refusal to respond to Bush's personal ultimatum —get out of Baghdad in 48 hours or the United States military would come in after him. Dominance and submission are not often played out so frankly. Knowing one's place is usually an unspoken ritual. The weak usually submit to the strong. The lesson for all of us is that the nature of servitude requires obedience.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • A Neo-Conservative Abecedary: George Bush and his administration have proclaimed for the world to hear that the United States is fully committed to a free and democratic Iraq. Forgive me if I harbor just an iota of doubt. The track record of the United States in fostering democracy is, sadly, a lousy one. When the enemy of the day was some bogeyman, usually a Communist one but sometimes an Islamic one, democracy was often low of the list of American desiderata. In compiling this abecedary for the edification of those still under the illusion that the United States is always on the side of sunshine and apple pie, the biggest problem is picking from among the panoply of candidates for some letters.
• 7 April 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Do the Right Thing: Bear Left is honored today to publish an article written by Jim Ryan of the Veterans Call to Conscience. He is one of over 700 American veterans, from World War II veterans to current reservists and active duty troops, who have signed a statement of conscience that calls upon troops to "follow your conscience and do the right thing." The statement reads in part: "If the people of the world are ever to be free, there must come a time when being a citizen of the world takes precedence over being the soldier of a nation." Twenty percent of the signers are Gulf War veterans. Many prominent Americans, including Howard Zinn and Daniel Ellsberg, have also endorsed the statement. Many signers are on active duty; several are now locked up for filing for Conscientious Objector status. Signers include Gulf War veterans from England and Scotland and members of the Israeli Defense Forces. The statement has made its way onto many American bases and to troops in Germany and in Belgium. We at Bear Left honor these men and women for both their courage and commitment to humanity.
  • James Ryan
    • Speaking French: My dear fellow Americans: How dare we speak of the French that way. Just where do we think the ideas of liberty and justice and the rights of all people in the United States came from? Just what do we think inspired Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson? The answer is France, and its philosophes, in particular, Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau. And just who gave the first and truest of American patriots aid and comfort during the Revolutionary War? Who made commercial and political alliances with our embattled Colonies? Who sent a fleet to engage the British navy at the mouth of Delaware Bay? The answers are: France, France, and France.
• 30 March 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • The International Century: How will the twenty-first Century be defined? History tells us that it will not be defined by the way it began. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States was an isolationist country. World events and the American economy forced the United States to abandon its isolationism. Throughout the twentieth century, America expanded its influence into the greatest empire in the history of the world, initially through force but increasingly through persuasion. Admired or envied, America was the undisputed champion of the world. Looking back on "the American Century," one has to appreciate that American capitalism, democracy, and diplomacy had almost infinite abilities to evolve, to promote change, and to overcome dissent. George W. Bush does not have much faith in capitalism, democracy, or diplomacy. His faith is in God and force.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Three Lessons for America: When Bush administration officials talk about extending regime change to Teheran and Damascus, they are not just celebrating prematurely about victory in Baghdad. They also are showing that they have learned little to nothing from fifty years of post-war relations with the Soviet Union. The Cold War has three lessons to teach Americans who are willing to learn.
• 23 March 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Through the American Looking Glass: I have President Bush, and his compassionate conservatism, to thank for the following revelations. God loves America. America's interest equals justice. The world should love America and fear America. America is all-powerful. The people and countries of the world must submit to America's will or risk America's wrath.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • The Fight for America's Soul: The full-fledged war against Iraq has finally begun. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have rightly joined millions of citizens worldwide in protesting the morality and legality of the actions of the Bush administration. Bolstering their numbers are majorities in European polls and substantial minorities in American polls that share their displeasure. Even in America, many self-described supporters of the war are nonetheless uneasy with the zeal for war that George Bush and his administration have shown. So many aspects of the war in Iraq could redound poorly for the United States, for Iraq and its neighbors, or for peace in general. But Iraq could be just one aspect of a wider struggle. Important men who advise the Bush administration from both within and without see the war against Iraq as just the first installment of a number of battles. Their vision is more consistent with the empires of yore, empires now rued in the history books, than with the promise of democracy. The anti-war movement must ensure that Iraq does not become the new paradigm for American foreign policy.
• 17 March 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Strange Bedfellows: The old adage about politics making strange bedfellows hit me twice last week as I snuggled up under the covers with both Pat Buchanan and Billy Bulger. I did not seek out these relationships, but I woke up in them. Despite the discomfort that these relationships instill in me, I won't be taking any political walks of shame. A broken clock is right twice a day, and Pat Buchanan and Billy Bulger were right last week in their public statements. Buchanan was right when he exposed the "War Party" in the Bush administration, its exploitation of 9/11, and its failed policies. Bulger was right when he defended the University of Massachusetts against elitism and budget cuts.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • The Wrong Man for the Wrong War at the Wrong Time: Tonight, President Bush made a televised address outlining the rationale for starting a full-scale war on Iraq. Anyone worried about any deviation from form can relax. In his address, Bush fell back upon his old mainstays of cant, obfuscation, and lies.
• 9 March 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Lord, Give Me Peace... Just Not Yet: The Roman Catholicism of my youth emphasized duality. I was taught to love God and to fear God. I was taught that there was a Heaven and a Hell. I was taught that we all share a social responsibility for each other, but that I was solely responsible for salvation of my own soul. God was both a mystery and the answer to the mystery of life. Over time I learned that God meant different things to different people. The most important lesson was that the idea of God seemed to be infinitely malleable. How else would one explain President Bush's ability to claim Jesus as his favorite philosopher while at the same time advocating war over peace? Bush's fundamentalism helps him deny that he has discarded the teachings of Christ to support his own beliefs. Bush's faith is in himself, not God. Bush uses God as a powerful tool to sell both the American public and himself on his worldly actions. Bush does not trust in God; he trusts in himself.
  • Seymour Melman
    • Toward a Permanent War Economy: Now, at the start of the twenty-first century, every major aspect of American life is being shaped by our Permanent War Economy. Civilian manufacturing industries are being swept away as a war-focused White House and a compliant Congress sponsor deindustrialization of the U.S. They favor production—in Mexico and China, where government powers bar independent unions. As production of both consumer goods and capital goods is moved out of America, unions and whole communities are decimated. Ghost towns are created across the country. That process is far along in industries that once invented machine tools, radios, and even TV's. Now the decay proceeds in "new economy" industries like computers and "Palm" type devices. The U.S. firms that sell such equipment typically assemble components that are manufactured elsewhere.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Piety for Piety's Sake: Earlier this month, Newsweek published an encomium by Howard Fineman on President Bush and his ardent Christian faith. The article described Bush as a man who faithfully reads books of sermons once, even twice, a day, and who relies on religious metaphor and imagery in his most important speeches. One question that Fineman did not deem to ask was whether all the public piety was for show.
• 3 March 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Trickle-Down Liberation Theology: Americans can forget about the separation of church and state. President Bush believes the United States was called to bring God's gift of liberty to "every human being in the world." Like no president before him, Bush has mixed politics and religion. We are told to take comfort that the man who turned the White House into a bible-reading class takes his direction from God. The bridge that Bill Clinton was building to the twenty-first century has led to trickle-down economics and trickle-down liberation theology. According to Bush, Jesus would not support land reform or redistribution of wealth to empower the world's poor. He might want the meek to inherit the earth, but only after it trickled down to them.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Affirmative Reaction: Based on what conservatives are saying, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is doing a horrible disservice to education in America. In January, President Bush claimed that the university had established a racial "quota" because "a perfect SAT score is worth only 12 points in the Michigan system. Students who accumulate 100 points are generally admitted, so those 20 points awarded solely based on race are often the decisive factor." The truth about the Michigan admissions system is much more complicated than that, of course. And conservatives would generally prefer to describe the Michigan admission as equivalent to a quota rather than describe it for what it is.
• 24 February 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • The New Despot: The radical conservatism that runs through much of George W. Bush's policy is not what the Bush campaign promised. The American voter was promised a compassionate conservative and a competent executive. Absent the compassion and competency, the administration and the media continuously tell the American public that we should trust the president based on his character and his faith in God. What have we received in return for our trust? Bush has brought to America an ugly combination of domestic repression, militarism, racism, and imperial expansion.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Assigning the Blame: In January 2001, George Bush took office after receiving just under 48% of the popular vote for president in the November 2000 elections. In the aftermath of the elections, many Democratic partisans blamed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and his followers for taking away votes in key states from Democrat Al Gore. But they have a much bigger problem—the turncoats in their midst. Lots of Democrats voted for Bush in 2000, and millions more are now propping up his popularity, despite a term in office riddled with error, cant, and sophistry.
• 17 February 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Bush's Character: President Bush has failed the true test of character. Handed the American presidency, Bush has abused the power bestowed upon him. A man with character uses power discreetly. A moral man chooses patience over war. A man with ethical strength favors the needs of the many over the wants of the rich. A man of character is competent and dependable. Bush fails every one of these tests.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Between Iraq and a Hard Place: If the Bush administration starts a full-blown war on Iraq, it will engender a dilemma that will shape American foreign policy for the foreseeable future. Is Iraq an exception or an exemplar? If Iraq is exceptional, what makes it special in the eyes of the United States? And if it is exemplary, what makes this war such a good blueprint for other countries?
• 10 February 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Catch Any Black Man If You Can: Why do Americans cheer for the white con artist in Stephen Spielberg's film "Catch Me If You Can" and racially profile young black men as criminals? It is an interesting question, but not one Americans want to answer. This is the reality that we are willing to live with, but the truth is something we are not willing to face.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • The Era of Irresponsibility: During the 2000 presidential campaign, George Bush famously called for a new era of responsibility in American politics. In his own words, "responsible leaders confront problems. They don't pass them along to others." In the State of the Union speech last month, Bush echoed his talk from his campaign. He claimed that his administration "will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, to other presidents, and other generations." The current federal budget deficit is not what makes Bush and his administration irresponsible. Indeed, ever since John Maynard Keynes first urged governments to regulate the economy, deficit spending has been a strategy of governments of all stripes during times of economic distress. The irresponsibility of the Bush administration manifests itself in other ways—in its sudden embrace of long-term deficit spending, and in its disdain for the fiscal plight of state governments.
• 4 February 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Cowboy George: The Bush proposal to eliminate the "double taxation" of dividends is the key component in the tax package sent to Congress by the Administration. The Administration's political spin is that the proposed legislation will unleash billions of dollars of retained corporate earnings into the economy. The Bush administration is oblivious to the adverse ramifications of the proposed legislation. The cowboy in Bush chooses a course of action and then searches for a marketing spin to justify the action.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Joe Millionaire: This week, the Bush administration offered another radical change to an aspect of tax policy. Its proposal for new tax-advantaged savings plans does little to solve a problem or rectify an inequity facing ordinary Americas. But it does benefit the trust-fund set, and in a big way.
• 28 January 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • The Bush Adminsitration's Penis Envy:

      It is that time of year. The holidays are over. Another National Football League season is culminating in the Super Bowl. Men across America are responding to their feelings of personal inadequacy by puffing out their chests and letting the world know that they have plenty of lead in their pencils. But the Super Bowl is just part of the pre-game ceremonies. America's premier team of peacocks, the Bush administration, has their plumes of feathers out in full display. America is going to war.

  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Parody of Lincoln: February may not be the cruelest month, but it features some cruel ironies. On the 12th, Americans will commemorate the 194th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, who ended America's horrible legacy of chattel slavery and quashed a civil war. Republicans have always claimed to be the Party of Lincoln, but the party's national vigor depends in no small part on voters who despise what the Republican Party of 1860 stood for. To its shame, the Party of Lincoln come to depend on white voters who hate black people. While the party's official positions are not racist in the least, its political strategies and tactics have catered to racist white voters, particularly in the states of the Confederacy.
• 20 January 2003

  • Paul Corrigan
    • Anatomy: Art, Science, and Politics: What is it about the human body that makes people so uncomfortable? The reasons seem endless. A recent art exhibition in London, "Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies," that left me totally fascinated, challenging my attitude about life, death and politics. Controversy has surrounded the Body Worlds installation. The displays in the exhibition comprise the remains of real human beings.
    • Déjà Vu All Over Again: You can dress reactionary politics up, wrap it in the flag, and put a guy with MD after his name as the face of the party. Reactionary politics is still reactionary. That is a lesson that the GOP should have learned back in 1996 when the "Contract With America" flamed out after two short years. Back then, Newt Gingrich, an advocate of realpolitik with political savvy equal to his ego, stole control of Washington from an incredulous Democratic Party. Gingrich would soon overplay his hand and leave an impeached but popular Democratic president standing, while Newt and many of his minions checked out of the government they attempted to shut down.
  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • A Stimulus Only Humpty Dumpty Could Love: Earlier this month, the Bush administration proposed a truly laughable plan to stimulate the economy. Most of the tax cuts in the plan would go to the wealthiest Americans, not to Americans who are unemployed or struggling to make ends meet. Instead, the proposal is larded with provisions that benefit the natural constituents of today's Republican party.
• 13 January 2003

  • Tim Francis-Wright
    • Another Insult to the Developing World: In an interview with Newsweek, Andrew Natsios defended the size of the American foreign aid budget by claiming, essentially, that a larger amount would wreck the economies of the world's blighted nations. Natsios runs the United States Agency for International Development, and has a history of placing his foot in his mouth in the course of an off-hand remark.

Archived Facts of the Week

• 28 June 2003

  • In 2000, the 400 taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross incomes reported over 1 percent of all income reported to the IRS that year. Their average tax rate was 22.3 percent. If the Bush tax cuts of 2002 and 2003 had been in effect, their tax rate would have declined to 17.5 percent, with an average savings of $8.3 million. These taxpayers are the biggest beneficiaries of these tax cuts. To make the top 400 in 2000, a taxpayer needed taxable income of $86.8 million.
• 22 May 2003

  • The Central Intelligence Agenecy mistakenly declassified a vital document from 1974 twice, once in 1997 and once in 1999. The reviewer in 1997 declassified the item, but the 1999 reviewer deemed most of the item to be too important to national security to divulge. Apparently they don't teach reviewers about Santa Claus anymore.
• 6 May 2003

  • If Warren Buffett is an accurate prognosticator, then time time is ripe for American stock market investors to join the ararchists at the barricades. At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathway, Buffett decried the "misdirected compensation" of many chief exectives of American companies and lambasted the "injustice" of recent attempts by the Bush administration to cut taxes on the most affluent taxpayers. (Perhaps there is time to start a Buffett for President committee.)
• 21 April 2003

  • The ties between the United States and Iraq in the early 1980s are extensive and sobering. But in one case, the ties were at once absurd and grotesque. In 1984, Richard Nixon sent a personally inscribed note to Nicolai Ceaucescu, the brutal leader of Romania, asking for aid for a venture by two of Nixon's former top aides to sell Romanian army uniforms to Iraq. Nixon went so far as to send "warm personal regards" to the dictator and his family. Who knew that the Ceaucescu regime and Saddam Hussein were so closely linked, thanks to Republican family values?
• 7 April 2003

  • When Americans talk about weapons of mass destruction, we often know what we are talking about. Take, for instance, the explosion on 28 March in a market in the Shu'ale district of Baghdad. The serial number on part of the shrapnel found at the scene by British journalists indicates that the weapon involved was built by Raytheon, and sold to the United States Navy, and was either an anti-radar missile or a laser-guided bomb. Oh, brave new world that has such machines in it!
• 30 March 2003

  • Never let it be said that the United States Congress is devoid of opportunists or war profiteers. Darrell Issa, a Republican member of Congress from California, introduced a bill recently that would mandate that any cellular phone system in a conquered Iraq use technology owned by Qualcomm, a company headquarted in an adjoining Congressional district, and a company whose employees gave his campaign $5,500 during the last election cycle.
• 23 March 2003

  • On 18 March 2003, the British House of Commons debated for ten hours the proposition that military action against Iraq was necessary. On the same day, the United States House and Senate spent no time debating that question. In the Senate, the impending war was only mentioned in passing during a leisurely debate on next year's budget. In the House, Iraq was the immediate subject of three one-minute speeches soon after the beginning of the day at 12:30 p.m. and three five-minute speeches in the evening after most members had left town.
• 17 March 2003

  • Thirty-three years to the day before the United States withdrew its resolution from the United Nations Security Council that would have authorized immediate military action to depose Saddam Hussein in Iraq, it United States cast its first veto in the Security council. It joined the United Kingdom then in killing a motion to condemn the United Kingdom for not using military force to depose the racist government of Ian Smith in Rhodesia.
• 9 March 2003

  • The British government claimed in September 2002 that Iraq had been trying since 1998 to smuggle uranium from Africa. Investigators for the United Nations have found, however, that the key documents cited by British intelligence, documents that named Niger as the source of the uranium, were crude forgeries. Oops.
• 3 March 2003

  • A London newspaper has printed the text of a top secret e-mail sent from the National Security Agency on 31 January regarding upcoming efforts in the United Nations Security Council. The sender, one Frank Koza, refers to ongoing surveillance of phone calls and e-mails of the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Guinea, and Pakistan.
• 24 February 2003

  • In December 2002 and January 2003, United States oil companies bought more than $1.6 billion in crude oil from Iraq. The partial shutdown of the Venezuelan oil industry caused American oil companies to import about 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, 62 percent of Iraqi exports.
• 17 February 2003

  • A ground war in Iraq will almlosty certainly involve the use of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry by the United States. In Iraq, leftover DU shells from the 1990 Gulf War have contaminated huge tracts of land. Exposure to DU is linked to birth defects in Iraq, and to a host of symptoms and maladies of American soldiers. The Pentagon has no plans to stop the use of DU, in spite about doubts of its safety.
• 10 February 2003

  • The Justice Department has been working in secret on a sequel to the odious USA Patriot Act. The proposal, officially the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, but already dubbed USA Patriot Act II would dramatically curtail civil liberties. A copy of the draft bill went to Vice President Dick Cheney and to House Speaker Dennis Hastert last month, yet Democrats were told no such bill existed or was being planned.
• 4 February 2003

  • Five principal players in the Bush administration were among twenty-one conservatives who publicly called for President Clinton to remove Saddam Hussein from power back in January 1998. Thanks to this overlap, the decision to go after Saddam seems almost overdetermined.
• 28 January 2003

  • The Republican National Committee has enlisted thousands of its members to pass off the Committee's talking points as original letters to newspaper editors. "Team Leaders" can earn "GOPoints" redeemable for fabulous Republican bric-a-brac for getting official talking points onto talk shows or getting letters to the editor published. With access to the site—which we have thoughtfully provided—you can see what Republicans around the country are taught to think.
• 20 January 2003

  • In July 1972, the British government seriously considered moving hundreds of thousands of Catholics out of Northern Ireland to ensure a Unionist majority there. The blatant illegality of such an operation is mentioned only in passing in the eight-page Top Secret memorandum outlining the plan.
• 13 January 2003

  • From 2000 to 2001, the poverty rate in the United States (the percent of persons living in households below the poverty line) rose from 11.3% to 11.7%. This is the first year-to-year increase since the increase from 1991 to 1992. Perhaps conidentally, 1992 was the last full year of the term of the original President Bush.

Archived Links of the Week

• 28 June 2003

  • Dear Dr. Dollar: A reader wonders why the politics of deficits seems topsy-turvy (Ellen Frank, Dollars and Sense).
  • Dying for the Government: The dead in Iraq have died not for our country, but for our government (Howard Zinn, The Progressive).
  • A Philosophical Inquiry into Enron: To understand accounting, you have to understand ethnoaccountancy (Donald MacKenzie, The Guardian).
  • Calendar of Errors: The search for weapons of mass destruction has truly been farcical (Linda Rothstein, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
  • Downsizing in Disguise: The occupation of Iraq resembles the market-based "reconstruction" of economies in the 1980s and 1990s, only much, much worse (Naomi Klein, The Nation).
  • US Finds Evidence of WMD at Last—Buried in a Field in Maryland: You might not have heard much about this biological weapons program (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
  • A Road Map to Where?: The road map for Palestine is less a map for peace than for pacification (Edward Said, London Review of Books).
  • Missing Weapons of Mass Destruction: Manipulation or misuse of national security intelligence data is an impeachable offense (John Dean, Findlaw).
  • US Looks Away as New Ally Tortures Islamists: Apparently, some brutal regimes are more palatable than others (Nick Paton Walsh, The Guardian).
  • Poll Suggests World Hostile to US: Respondents in 10 countries generally like the United States, but not its leaders, government, or policies (BBC News).
  • The First Casualty: The Bush administration kept Americans from making an informed choice about going to war (John Judis and Spencer Ackerman, The New Republic).
  • GAO Cites Risks in Missile Defense: Immature technology and limited testing will probably doom the missile defense version of Star Wars Episode Two (Bradley Graham, Washington Post).
  • United States: an Unfree Press: Deregulation has fostered not just media concentration but media complicity with right-wing politics and policies (Serge Halimi, Le Monde diplomatique).
• 22 May 2003

  • Dear Dr. Dollar: A reader wonders why the politics of deficits seems topsy-turvy (Ellen Frank, Dollars and Sense).
  • McCarthy Hearings 1953-54: Better late than never, we have five volumes of transcripts of McCarthy hearings (Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs).
  • Iraqi Nuclear Site is Found Looted: American troops have no idea whether high-level Iraqi nuclear waste is missing (Barton Gellman, Washington Post).
  • Home Run to Havana: Will the invasion trifecta for Bush be Afghanistan, Iraq, and Cuba (Simon Tisdall, The Guardian)?
  • How Not to Run a Country: Afghanistan is a mess, with unaccountable leaders governing only a fraction of the country (Paul Knox, The Globe and Mail).
  • The US Was Wrong to Go In—But Now It Must Not Leave: A quick withdrawal of American troops would be horrible for Iraq (Hugo Young, The Guardian).
  • Bursting Bubbles: The end of the dollar and housing bubbles will dramatically damage the American economy (Dean Baker, In These Times).
  • Civil Defense: You're On Your Own—Again: Civil defense is just as ineffective and silly as it was fifty years ago (Peter Amacker, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
  • Dividend Voodoo: Big tax cuts for the rich are both unfair and unwise; he should know (Warren Buffett, Washington Post).
  • An Interesting Day: Where was George Bush on 11 September 2001, and exactly what was he doing (Center for Cooperative Research)?
• 6 May 2003

  • Selective Intelligence: At the Pentagon, objective analysis is a thing of the past (Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker).
  • Jesus Plus Nothing: The theocratic members of Congress won't like this in-depth profile (Jeffrey Sharlet, Harper's).
  • No War For Whose Oil?: Using Iraqi oil revenues will be difficult because the numbers don't add up (Yahya Sadowski, Le Monde Diplomatique).
  • IRS Relents on Gingrich Groups' Taxes: Somehow, two politically motivated groups now have tax-exempt status (Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post).
  • A Confederacy of Amnesiacs: Serial amnesia has infected politics in America (Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle).
  • Rolling Back the 20th Century: The Bush administration seeks to revive William McKinley's America (William Greider, The Nation).
  • Evangelical Crusaders Prepare to Fight Islam With Aid and a Bible: Victory in Iraq means chances to proselytize (Andrew Gumbel, The Independent).
  • Without the UN Safety Net, Even Japan May Go Nuclear: An unresolved crisis in North Korea may prompt Japan to build nuclear weapons (Dan Plesch, The Guardian).
  • Strategic Israel: An impressive military and industrial structure underlies Israel's nuclear forces (MSNBC.com).
  • United States Nuclear Forces, 2003: Learn about weapons of mass destruction at home... (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction Found!: ... and learn about weapons of mass destruction abroad... (Greenpeace).
• 21 April 2003

  • Stevens Enquiry 3: Police and British Army personnel in Northern Ireland colluded with Protestant terrorists to commit several acts of murder (Metropolitan Police Service, via The Guardian).
  • Cheering Crowds Don't Make an Unjust War Right: The world must not forget that in 1970, Ugandans celebrated when Idi Amin came to power (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent).
  • Privatization in Disguise: The United States is making sure that the new Iraqi economy will be just what the neoliberal free traders ordered (Naomi Klein, The Nation).
  • Art Gangs "Looted Iraqi Museums": International art traffickers may have been behind the thefts of the most important objects in Iraq's national museum (BBC News).
  • Palestine: The World Looks Away: With the world's attention on Iraq, the Israeli army has redoubled its operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Benjamin Barthe, Le Monde Diplomatique).
  • The Silencing of Gideon's Trumpet: The Bush administration wants us to forget that the right to counsel is vitally important to justice (Anthony Lewis, New York Times Magazine).
  • Carving Up the New Iraq: In America and Iraq, neo-conservatism and big business and government all go together (Neil Mackay, Glasgow Sunday Herald).
  • Certain Words Can Trip Up AIDS Grants, Scientists Say: Politics is affecting what scientists write in grant proposals, and perhaps what they dare to research (Erica Goode, New York Times).
  • Dyncorp Rent-a-Cops May Head to Post-Saddam Iraq: When America needs dirty deeds done, it often turns to private police and "security" services (Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch).
  • Ballots Can Keep Bullets From Flying: Don't just march for a better world, but vote as well, and bring your friends (Elizabeth Ready and John Moyers, TomPaine.com).
  • Sugar Industry Threatens to Scupper WHO: The American sugar industry is trying to force the WHO into accepting that sugar can be more than 10% of a healthy diet (Sarah Boseley, The Guardian).
  • GOP Hypocrisy: Could it be? It is! Actual Democrats actually remembering that criticizing a president during war has ample precedent (Democratic National Committee).
• 7 April 2003

  • Crude Vision: For years, American governments overlooked Iraq's use of chemical weapons due to the prospect of cheap oil (Jim Vallette, Steve Ketzmann, and Daphne Wysham, Institute for Policy Studies).
  • The Saddest Story of All: The pain and suffering of civilians in wartime is easy to overlook from afar, but not up close (Anton Antonowicz, Daily Mirror).
  • The Reason Why: In Iraq, as in Vietnam, America is invading a country that had done us no harm and posed no threat to our security (George McGovern, The Nation).
  • The Twisted Language of War that is Used to Justify the Unjustifiable: Words like coalition or proved in this war often have meant nothing (Robert Fisk, The Independent).
  • Offense and Defense: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was personally involved in undermanning American troops in Iraq (Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker).
  • Bringing Aid and the Bible, the Man Who Called Islam Wicked: The Bush administration's favorite clerical bigot, Franklin Graham, is poised to bring aid and religion to Iraq (Matthew Engel, The Guardian).
  • FOIA Audit: John Ashcroft's quest to gut the FOIA is more thunder than lightning, but most agencies have never taken the FOIA seriously (National Security Archive).
  • Blair Has One Chance to Break Free of His Tainted Fealty: Whereas Jack Kennedy disavowed a Pax Americana, George Bush promises one (Hugo Young, The Guardian).
  • Insurance Loophole Helps Rich: Rich American investors are forming their own "insurance" companies to rip off a clueless federal government (David Cay Johnston, New York Times).
• 30 March 2003

  • Practice to Deceive: The mavens directing American foreign policy would welcome chaos in the Middle East (Joshua Micah Marshall, The Washington Monthly).
  • Missteps With Turkey Prove Costly: The incompetence of American diplomacy prevented a northern front in Iraq (Glenn Kessler and Philip P. Pan, Washington Post).
  • How Bush Kicked the [expletive] Out of the Geneva Conventions: George Bush should remember that the Geneva Convention applies to everyone (Paul Knox, The Globe and Mail).
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Propaganda: It is hard to tell which propaganda is worse, American or Iraqi (Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz).
  • Insects Thrive on GM "Pest-Killing" Crops: A recent study showed that moths got bigger, faster on cabbage designed to kill them (Geoffrey Lean, The Independent).
  • Choked by Both Sides: The Iraqi people are increasingly isolated, both literally and figuratively (Jo Wilding, The Guardian).
  • IMF—No Clear Proof Globalization Helps the Poor: All the pain and suffering over the opening of markets might have been for naught (Anna Willard, Reuters).
• 23 March 2003

  • Perle, Interrupted: The more you know about Richard Perle, the less there is to like (Eric Alterman, The Nation).
  • America's Image in the World: Robert Byrd rails for posterity against the lunacy of the Bush administration (Congressional Record [speech extends into next page]).
  • Bush Bets All He Has: George Bush has taken an enormous geopolitical gamble, and done it from a fundamentally weak position (Immanuel Wallerstein, Binghamton University).
  • The Other America: The United States is not the monolith many Arabs presume it to be (Edward Said, Al-Ahram Weekly).
  • Who Lost the US Budget?: The Bush tax cuts are directly responsible for America's long-term fiscal blues (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
  • The Nightmare World of a Paranoid President: George Bush's speech last week provided an alarming insight into his global vision (Mary Dejevsky, The Independent).
  • Power Tool: The Tomohawk cruise missile changed the way America thinks about war (Oliver Burkemann, The Guardian).
  • North Korea's Nuclear Program, 2003: Here is an authoritative summary of the North Korean nuclear weapons program (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
• 17 March 2003

  • In Torture We Trust?: The war on terror may be eroding American distrust of torture of prisoners (Eyal Press, The Nation).
  • The Best Defense: Legitimate use of preemptive war requires meeting some very high hurdles (Neta Crawford, Boston Review).
  • Blair is Plunging Britain into a Crisis of Democracy: In Britain, as in most of the world, public opinion is heavily against the war (Seumas Milne, The Guardian).
  • The Three Strategic Fallacies of the Bush Administration: The strategy of the Bush administration, not just its style, is responsible for America's isolation (Michael Lind, New America Foundation).
  • The Greening of Hate: Some American environmentalists are the new conservatives, attacking the poor for having too many children and harming ecosystems (interview with Betsy Hartmann, New Scientist).
  • Left Behind to Starve: While billions of dollars will be spent on war in Iraq, African countries await relative pittances to prevent famine and pestilence (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
  • Inventing Demons: The radical right in the United States depends on bouts of patriotic mobilisation to maintain its grip on the political sphere (Philip Golub, Le Monde diplomatique).
  • Ready.Gov: It looks like a hack from the folks at RTMark, but it's sadly real (United States Department of Homeland Security).
• 9 March 2003

  • Underage and Adult Excessive Drinking Accounts For Half of U.S. Alcohol Sales: Fully half of American alcohol sales come from kids and binge drinkers (Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse).
  • The Thirty Year Itch: Oil from the Persian Gulf is vital to the Bush administration's quest for hegemony (Robert Dreyfuss, Mother Jones).
  • Britain's Dirty Secret: A chemical plant claimed to be key to Iraq's chemical warfare arsenal was secretly built by Britain in 1985 (David Leigh and John Hooper, The Guardian).
  • "Washington Post" Warriors: Despite recent backtracking, the Washington Post has been gung-ho for war (William Greider, The Nation).
  • The Spies and the Spinner: The leaked memo about spying on members of the UN Security Council underscores the rift between American and British intelligence agencies (Peter Beaumont and Gaby Hinsliff, The Observer).
  • No Experience Necessary: In the 1960s, three scientists proved that almost anyone could design a working nuclear weapon (Dan Stober, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
  • Whose Jobs? Our Jobs!: The last few years have shown the importance of unions to workers in the telecommunications industry (Nomi Prins, Dollars and Sense).
  • Caught On Film: Could it be? Democrats in Congress who have spines? (House Appropriations Committee Democrats)
• 3 March 2003

  • UNSCOM/IAEA Interview with Hussein Kamel: In 1995, the former head of Iraq's weapons programs claimed that Iraq had destroyed all of its biological weapons (Committee Against Sanctions on Iraq).
  • Revealed: US Dirty Tricks to Win Vote on Iraq War: The United States is bugging the phones and computers of several key countries involved in United Nations votes on Iraq (Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy, and Peter Beaumont, The Observer).
  • US Prepares to Use Toxic Gases in Iraq: The use of tear gas and pepper spray would violate the Chemical Weapons Convention (Geoffrey Lean and Severin Carrell, The Independent).
  • "Proof" of Energy Scam: California officials claim that illegal behavior by power providers caused most of the recent run-up in energy costs (Mark Martin, San Francisco Chronicle).
  • Bush's Deficits: The actual budgeting principle of this administration is all tax cuts, all the time (Max Sawicky, Tom Paine.com).
  • Out of the Wreckage: The Bush administration has threatened to dismantle two institutions which have best served its global interests (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
  • Prosecutors See Limits to Doubt in Capital Cases: Actual innocence isn't the defense that it used to be in American appelate courtrooms (Adam Liptak, New York Times).
  • Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: Primary source documents show how the United States tilted towards Iraq from 1980 to 1984 (National Security Archive).
  • 2004 National Budget Simulation: It's your turn to try to make the federal budget work (Nathan Newman and Anders Schneiderman).
• 24 February 2003

  • Two Men Driving Bush to War: Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz are the Texans who drive American foreign policy (Ed Vuillamy, The Observer).
  • "Horrendous": In an interview, Nobel laureate George Akerlof decries the proposed economic stimulus package (Bonnie Azab Powell, University of California at Berkeley).
  • The Arabs Are Like Mice: A million Britons protested the impending war in London, but in Arab countries, protects were miniscule (Robert Fisk, The Independent).
  • Professor in Terror Indictments Was a Bush Supporter: Sami Amin al-Arian was a key, visible supporter of the Bush campaign (Wayne Washington, Boston Globe).
  • The Economic Risks: The costs of a war are more than just the direct costs of a war (The Economist).
  • The Will of the World: The 15 February 2003 demonstrations could mark the birth of global democracy (Jonathan Schell, The Nation).
  • Defining Success in Narrow Terms: The Bush administration would label as failing some obviously successful schools (Michael Winerip, New York Times).
  • Their Master's Voice: Rupert Murdoch owns 175 newspapers worldwide, and virtually all of them support a war with Iraq (Roy Greenslade, The Guardian).
  • The Bottom Line on Iraq: It's the Bottom Line: There's money to be made in post-war Iraq by the corporate cronies of the Bush administration (Arianna Huffington, Arianna Online.com).
• 17 February 2003

  • EU Warns Iraq It Faces A "Last Chance" to Disarm Peacefully: A top aide to Colin Powell claims that the United States will deal with Iran, Syria, and North Korea after invading Iraq (Aluf Benn and Sharon Sadeh Ha'aretz).
  • Special Report: the Anti-War Movement: Millions worldwide marched against an impending war in Iraq (Several authors, The Guardian).
  • US Says Terror Threat Info Was Fabricated: The federal government increased the "threat level" to orange thanks largely to a fib (Shannon McCaffrey, San Jose Mercury-News).
  • Afghanistan Omitted From US Aid Budget: Until Congress stepped in, the Bush administration's budget had not a penny for aid to Afghanistan (Michael Buchanan, BBC News).
  • A Monument to Hypocrisy: Too many Arab regimes depend on the hypocrisy that permeates American power (Edward Said, Al-Ahram Weekly).
  • Mighty in Pink: Feminists are energizing the anti-war movement in the United States (Liza Featherstone, The Nation).
  • Republicans Suggest Expanding Nuclear Arsenal and First Strike Doctrine: Congressional Republicans are hoping to start an aggressive program for developing new nuclear weapons (Republicons.Org).
  • Latin America: Critical Year for the Left: Events in Ecuador, Brazil, and Venezuela provide some reasons for optimism for the left in Latin America (Emir Sader, Le Monde Diplomatique).
  • North Korea Wondering What It Has To Do To Attract US Military Attention: The focus on Iraq leaves North Koreans jealous and frustrated (The Onion).
• 10 February 2003

  • The Iraq Bush Will Build: The administration plans a three-stage plan for ruling Iraq after toppling Saddam Hussein (Jason Burke, Gaby Hinsliff, and Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian).
  • MI6 and CIA: The Enemy Within: The British and American intelligence agencies are stubbornly stymieing their leaders with facts (Paul Lashmar and Raymond Whitaker, The Independent).
  • White House Floats Idea of Dropping Income Tax Overhaul: The Bush administration cheered the investor class by suggesting replacing the income tax with a national consumption tax (Edmund Andrews, New York Times).
  • France Is the Key: France is the only country in the world today that can have any significant impact on the American geopolitical position (Immanuel Wallerstein, Binghamton University).
  • North Korea Threatens United States with First Strike: Pyongyang is showing Washington that two can play at the preemptive war game (Jonathan Watts, The Guardian).
  • Downing Street Dossier Plagiarised: The dossier of "evidence" supplied by the United Kingdom and praised by Colin Powell is mostly plagiarized (Julian Rush, Channel4.com).
  • North Dakota Found to be Harboring Nuclear Missiles: The Non-Partisan League would not have stood for this outrage (The Onion).
• 4 February 2003

  • Bush's Messiah Complex: George Bush believes that he really is on a mission from God (Editorial, The Progressive).
  • Bogus Reasons for War on Iraq: The three main reasons for a war on Iraq crumble upon examination (Michael Klare, Alternet).
  • Still Clinton's Show?: To move forward, the Democratic Party needs to get out of Bill Clinton's shadow (William Greider, The Nation).
  • American Presidents All Mixed Up: The presidents of Brazil and the United States seem to be in each other's places (Richard Adams, The Guardian).
  • Closed or Not, Indian Point and Its Perils Won't Vanish: A nuclear power plant 35 miles from New York City may close soon, but its dangers would still loom (Randal Archibold, New York Times).
  • Al-Qaida and Iraq: How Strong is the Evidence?: The links between Iraq and al-Qaeda are, at most, tenuous (Julian Borger, Richard Norton-Taylor, and Michael Howard, The Guardian).
  • License to Kill: Republicans in Congress helped John Allen Muhammad get armed (Grant Kendall, The Washington Monthly).
• 28 January 2003

  • The Cold Test: The Bush administration knew long ago about North Korea's nuclear program and how Pakistan was helping (Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker).
  • Out of the Ordinary: A new kind of politics is emerging in Argentina after years of military dictatorship and corrupt rule (Naomi Klein, The Guardian, in two parts).
  • US Claim on Iraqi Nuclear Program Is Called Into Question: The United States continues to lack any evidence of an active Iraqi program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons (Joby Warrick, Washington Post).
  • The Nuclear Option in Iraq: The moral giants in the Bush administration are actually thinking about using nuclear weapons against Iraq (William Arkin, Los Angeles Times).
  • This Drive to War is One of the Mysteries of Our Time: The case for war is based more on intuition than on reason (Martin Woollacott, The Guardian).
  • The Quota Code: When President Bush decried "quotas" this month, he continued a Republican tradition of substituting code words for argument (Michaelangelo Signorile, New York Press).
  • Mickey Mouse Clubbed: The libertarians wonder what Mickey Mouse would say if he could speak out on the decision in the Eldred case (Jesse Walker, Reason Online).
• 20 January 2003

  • The New Gulf Oil States: The United States will import 25% of its oil from sub-Saharan Africa by 2015 (Jean-Christophe Servant, Le Monde- Diplomatique).
  • Senate Resolution 161 (104th Congress, 1st Session): In 1995, Trent Lott and Thad Cochran made sure that the senior senator from Mississippi would always have the use of the desk of that infamous traitor Jefferson Davis (Congressional Record).
  • Taking on "Rational Man": Economics departments in academia are far from a free market, especially if you don't drink the neoclassical Kool-Aid (Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education).
  • New Survey Documents Global Repression: The United States is losing support in its fight against terrorism because it too often neglects human rights in its conduct of the war (Human Rights Watch).
  • Back to Bioweapons?: The United States may have rejected the bioweapons protocol in order to continue and expand its secret programs (Mark Wheelis and Malcolm Dando, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
  • Doomed to Failure: Conservatives should be the first to proclaim that government cannot fairly administer the death penalty (Thomas Oliphant, Boston Globe).
  • Off the Wagon: As a drunk is to alcohol, so is the Bush administration to budget deficits (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
  • Powell: Act or Resign: George Bush is repeating the Republicans mistakes on race, and Colin Powell has a chance to do something about it (Jimmy Breslin, Newsday).
• 13 January 2003

  • Kennedy Unbound: After 40 years in the Senate, Ted Kennedy is finally his own man (Charles Pierce, Boston Globe Magazine).
  • Rebel MPs Deliver War Ultimatum: The Labor government faces a crisis if Britain enters a war against Iraq without the backing of the United Nations (Michael White and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian).
  • A Split-Screen in Strike-Torn Venezuela: The strike in Venezuela is a rara avis, a strike led by business owners and an oil company, not by workers (Mark Weisbrot, Washington Post).
  • MIT Studies Accusations of Lies and Cover-Up of Flaws in Antimissile System: MIT is finally examining charges that some of its scientists fudged data to make an antimissile system appear effective (William Broad, New York Times).
  • A Tax Plan Rooted in the Bush Pedigree: Favoritism to the rich is yet again the obvious Achilles' heel of the Republican Party (Kevin Phillips, Los Angeles Times).
  • Vice Grip: Dick Cheney has been an unerring source of bad advice, bad judgment, and bad politics since becoming vice president (Joshua Marshall, The Washington Monthly).
  • So Close to Cataclysm: In 1972, the British government came close to physically moving all Catholics out of Northern Ireland (Henry McDonald, The Observer).
  • Long Live the Estate Tax!: Removing the estate tax is an insult to democracy and an attempt to create another Gilded Age (Bill Gates, Sr. and Chuck Collins, The Nation).