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Editorials
December 10, 2004Soldiers raise their voices Soldiers on their way to Iraq interrupted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s pep talk Dec. 7. “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal” to add their own protective armor to their vehicles, demanded Army Specialist Thomas Wilson. A cheer erupted from the 2,300 National Guard soldiers at the base in Kuwait. Rumsfeld blandly replied, “You can have all the...
Read moreWho is the real Alberto Gonzales?
December 03, 2004News Analysis Attorney General John Ashcroft has departed. Some see his designated successor, presidential legal advisor Alberto Gonzales, as an improvement, perhaps because he is a Mexican-American from humble roots, or because he has been attacked by the religious right for not being an anti-abortion extremist. But the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and others warn that Gonzales has functioned more like a Mafia counselor, a consigliere, than an...
Read moreReality bites back
November 12, 2004Opinion The Republicans are full, again, of triumphalism, declaring they have a mandate for all kinds of reactionary programs that the people of our country don’t endorse — privatizing Social Security being high on their list. There were really three major campaigns in this election: the Bush campaign, the Kerry campaign, and the campaign of reality, which doesn’t stop once the election is called, declared, or conceded. The campaign of...
Read moreInternational notes
November 05, 2004China: Private workplaces should be union The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) last week reiterated its demand that all private enterprises, including foreign-owned firms, comply with Chinese labor law and allow their workers to unionize. “All enterprises investing in China should abide by the Trade Union Law on setting up trade union organizations,” said Guo Jun, deputy director of the ACFTU’s Legislative Affairs Bureau. He called on unions and...
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October 29, 2004End the coup — vote Nov. 2 When Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist went into the hospital for thyroid cancer, Oct. 22, millions were reminded of a key presidential responsibility: appointments to the nation’s highest court. These lifetime appointments have repercussions far beyond the four-year presidential term. The 5-4 Supreme Court decision on Dec. 12, 2000, to stop Florida’s vote recount is a case in point. That infamous ruling...
Read moreFrom COINTELPRO to the Patriot Act: The long battle for justice and civil liberties
October 29, 2004Jailed Black Panther calls for amnesty BALTIMORE — From his jail cell at the Maryland House of Corrections in Jessup where he is serving a life sentence, Marshall “Eddie” Conway has launched a drive for amnesty for himself and other victims of the FBI’s COINTELPRO dirty tricks program 30 years ago. At the same time, Conway is calling for freedom for hundreds of innocent people jailed since Sept. 11, 2001,...
Read moreCost of Iraq war: More than we can bear
October 15, 2004WASHINGTON — Oceans of red ink. Oceans of blood. Those grim phrases could be a subtitle of a just-released report on the soaring costs of the Iraq war. The document debunks George W. Bush’s claims that the war is a success and the U.S. is safer. The report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) is titled “A Failed ‘Transition’: The Mounting Costs of...
Read moreWhat we need today a program for working peopleELECTION PLATFORM 2004, COMMUNIST PARTY USA
October 08, 2004Editor’s note: The Communist Party USA recently released the following election platform. We reprint it here as part of our coverage of the broad, people’s movement to defeat President Bush. The platform is also available on-line, in English and Spanish, at www.cpusa.org.
Read moreGOPs deafening silence on civil rights after 9/11
October 01, 2004Organizers of the Republican National Convention in New York City took every opportunity to use the image of the Statue of Liberty — on giant banners hanging outside Madison Square Garden, and as the backdrop for a speech by Vice President Cheney delivered from Ellis Island. Something is terribly wrong with this picture, however. The symbolism is strong, but the substance is missing. While the vice president gave his speech,...
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October 01, 2004U.S. troops home now! Despite last week’s sunny forecast by President Bush and Iyad Allawi, the U.S.-installed ruler of Iraq, about how swimmingly things are going over there, the quagmire is rapidly deepening. U.S. troops and Iraqis continue to die each day. Allawi, a well-known CIA “asset” who during his recent visit to the U.S. served as a major campaign prop for the president, claimed democracy is making advances. Bush...
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