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September 03, 2004On the Bush propaganda push The Big Lie was a tactic most closely associated with Nazi propaganda. It was really simple: You say something outrageous over and over again and people start to talk about it and believe it. The “Swift Boat” ads that the Bush administration has orchestrated are yet another example of the Big Lie tactic. The greatest courage human beings can show is moral courage and John...
Read moreA wife fights for her husbands freedom
September 17, 2004TAMPA — The Bill of Rights guarantees persons accused of a crime a speedy trial, but Sami Al-Arian and his seven co-defendants have been in federal prison a year-and-a-half and their trial is not scheduled until next year at the earliest. They were arrested Feb. 20, 2003, as Attorney General John Ashcroft unveiled a sensational, 50-count indictment charging them with providing financial assistance to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. If convicted,...
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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...
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...
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...
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December 17, 20042005 and beyond As we put this special issue to bed, honoring 80 fighting years of our Communist, working-class press, we look ahead to the holidays and a New Year of struggle. Our next edition will be Jan. 8. Although the tremendous efforts to defeat George Bush and the ultra-right on Nov. 2 were not successful, the unprecedented coalition that came to life has set the stage for future victories....
Read moreNATIONAL CLIPS
February 11, 2005MIAMI: Protests in the land of Jeb Bush Around the country, Americans used the Bush inaugural to demand peace in Iraq, beginning with the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Large protests occurred in the South, with New Orleans drawing 1,500 people on Jan. 20. In the heart of Bush country, Miami, over 400 lent their voices to the national protests of Bush’s Iraq war and inauguration. “It might seem small by...
Read moreJohn Negropontes bloody baggage
February 25, 2005John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, has been nominated by President Bush to head the new super-spy agency set up by last year’s intelligence reform legislation. Negroponte’s baggage contains a shocking amount of dirt and blood. Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985, during a time when the Reagan administration was secretly arming right-wing “Contra” forces with the aim of ousting the progressive, Sandinista-led government in...
Read moreAnother grim marker reached in Iraq
March 11, 2005The death toll in Iraq continues to grow. Associated Press announced March 3 that American deaths had reached the 1,500 mark when a soldier was killed in action south of Baghdad. The number of Iraqi civilians killed is more than 107,000. “Despite all the ‘banner days’ that were supposed to mark turning points in this war, the violence continues and escalates,” Military Families Speak Out said in a recent statement....
Read moreStorm erupts over Patriot Act
June 17, 2005WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) was so enraged by a witness from Amnesty International USA, who linked the Patriot Act to torture at secret U.S. detention facilities around the world, that he gaveled a June 10 hearing to an end. He ordered microphones turned off and stormed out of the hearing room. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) blasted Sensenbrenner for being “rude” and House Minority Leader Nancy...
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