Bear Left! Archives
Which side is your heart on?
Book reviews from 2001
Columns from 2001
31 December 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- I See Republicans:
It was the night before Christmas when all through the house not
a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney
with care, in the hopes that a real Democrat would soon be there... A few
thoughts for the New Year that will see Republicans taking control of
every branch of government...
- The Comfort of Illusion:
Why is President Bush popular? The answer is really quite simple. Americans
prefer the comfort of illusion. Americans want to believe in myths and fairy
tales. Logic is reserved for the most interesting characters of science fiction.
The majority of Americans prefer to play make-believe. Politicians understand our
collective need to be comfortable and play to that need.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Good Money After Bad:
American conservatives love to proclaim that government is wasting tax dollars by throwing
money at supposedly intractable social problems. When those same conservatives are faced with
a truly intractable military problem, however, guess what they do. They throw lots
of money at the problem, money that turns into so much dross.
- Reaping Dividends full text">Reaping Dividends:
On 28 December, some 750,000 American workers received a foul Christmas present from
the Bush administration. That day meant the end of a federal program to extend unemployment
benefits for workers who had been out of jobs for 26 weeks or more. The economic stimulus package that the Bush administration is about to propose
will probably have some provision restoring those benefits to some of those unemployed
workers. They will not be the real winners, however, of the proposal. The real
winners will be the 750,000 or so American families with over $500,000 in annual
income.
18 December 2002
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Democrats Earned a D for Effort:
The Democrats blew a golden opportunity to solidify their hold on the
Senate and even to take control of the House. They failed to exploit
Republican weaknesses on a host of policies. They failed to make the
elections into a referendum on either President Bush or his allies in
Congress. And they failed to present any sort of systematic alternative
to the Republican status quo. Democrats have suffered too long from a
misbegotten notion that they needed to be more like the Republicans
in order to win.
8 December 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Anti-War Heroes:
Mairead Corrigan won the 1976 Nobel Prize for her courageous stand against political
and religious violence. Her courage and common sense should be a lesson to all of
us. We can stop the insanity. We can make a difference.
2 December 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- An American Myth: Bush is a Conservative:
Conservative citizens, beware. The Bush administration is not what you think
it is. George W. Bush is not a conservative. And true conservatives are not
blind to the corruption in the Bush administration.
25 November 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Less Safe/Less Free:
The latest Bush trade, freedom for security, makes no
sense. Americans are now both less safe and less free.
It would appear that Bush has a slow learning curve, assuming
that he cared about liberty when he made the trade. He didn't.
17 November 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Not So Equal Opportunity:
According to Jack Grubman and Sanford Weill, the way to get ahead in life is
to use your influence, everyone else be damned.
- Tim Francis-Wright
11 November 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Culture of Fear:
Michael Moore exposes the root of American culture in Bowling for Columbine.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Corporate Tax Games, Delaware Style:
A recent Massachusetts court ruling may turn corporate income taxes into a
purely optional act of altriusm, not a normal act of paying a fair share.
4 November 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Honoring Paul Wellstone:
To truly honor Paul Wellstone, his Democratic colleagues need to let their
principles, not political calculation, guide their actions. John Kerry, take
note.
29 October 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- When is Free Speech Not Free?:
When is free speech not free? When it tells a powerful truth that challenges
Andrew Sullivan or the rest of the status quo.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- That 80s Show:
The Bush administration has within its ranks two men whose actions to subvert
democracy in Central America in the 1980s should have rendered them forever unfit
for public service.
20 October 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- True Patriotism:
True patriots include those, like Daniel Ellsberg, who tell political
truths even when they are unpopular.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Big Lie:
In Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson had one Big Lie. In Iraq, George Bush has at
least three.
14 October 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- No Jack Kennedy:
President Bush has declared war with Iraq to be both necessary and urgent, yet
in 1962, one of his predecessors avoided war in a much more dire situation.
8 October 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- It's the Economy, Not Iraq, Stupid:
Despite the best efforts of Republican politicians and their
spinmasters, the American public appears poised to send politicians a
message in November's midterm elections.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Bad Credit:
Even the most responsible state tax credits can be bad deals for the states issuing them.
1 October 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- In the Name of the Father:
The Bush family's quest to remove the stain of the presidency of George
H. W. Bush has diminished the American empire that it seeks to exploit.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Pax Americana:
Proclaiming preemption as the basis for a national security strategy shows
an appalling lack of historical and political perspective.
22 September 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- The Name Game:
This past week, the Bush administration and the president of Harvard
University reverted to name-calling in lieu of leadership.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- War Fever:
Remember the Maine? The missile gap? The Gulf of Tonkin?
The passion of those clamoring for war does not always mean that their
cause is wise, just, or sound.
16 September 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
9 September 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Mister Clean:
You might think that Warren Tolman had kicked Adrian Walker's dog.
No, the Boston Globe columnist is angry because Tolman is running for
governor using public funds.
2 September 2002
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Labor Day Follies:
The Boston media spent a huge amount of time and space on the recently averted
baseball strike, but has mostly missed a more important battle.
25 August 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Play Gall!:
From the White House to the baseball stadium, the American people are
being played for fools.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Messed Up in Texas:
If someone had drafted the Texas Republican Party Platform as an attempt
at satire, Americans would deem it in bad taste. Too bad it's for real.
16 August 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- The Face of a Child:
When your children return from camp, politics, work, and even 98-degree
heat become secondary.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Second to None:
John Ashcroft likes one Amendment in the Bill of Rights much more
than the others, and he has not chosen wisely.
11 August 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Separate but Unequal:
Politicians, especially Republican politicians, keep lying to us about the
burdens faced by the richest Americans.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Tune Deaf:
Some advertisers have awfully strange notions of what constitutes
appropriate music for their commercials.
28 July 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Delay(ed) Reaction:
When it comes to corrupt corporate kingpins, Republicans feel politically
vulnerable but not responsible.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Outsource the Executive Suite:
If moving mundane tasks abroad in search of cheap labor is a good idea, why
not do the same for management instead?
21 July 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- The Disease of Suspicion:
The new Justice Department initiative, Operation TIPS, threatens to
infect the American polity.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Four of a Kind:
In all of the turmoil and debate surrounding the latest dismal days in the American
stock markets, four salient issues remain firmly in the background.
14 July 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tax Cuts on Stolen Money:
George Bush and Dick Cheney have delivered on their major campaign promise,
"Tax Cuts on Stolen Money."
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Upper Class Warfare:
A class war is indeed brewing in America, but it is not the kind that Marx
predicted.
7 July 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Gut Check Time:
Do the Democrats have the guts to point to the rot at the heart of American
business?
30 June 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Evolution of Greed:
As human beings, our greatest evolutionary threat are the bacteria that
become resistant to our drugs. As Americans, our greatest economic threat
also comes from within.
- Tim Francis-Wright
23 June 2002
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Profiles in Stupidity:
The latest febrile notion of Boston Globe house conservative Jeff
Jacoby is that racial and ethnic profiling is the only way to stop airplane
hijackers.
16 June 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Green Sickness:
Massachusetts Democrats should stop complaining about the Massachusetts Greens:
if the Democrats cannot defeat Mitt Romney, then they have much bigger problems.
9 June 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Gilded Triangle:
A gilded triangle including corporate executives, accounting firms, and corporate
boards of directors allows executives to run companies for their own personal enrichment.
2 June 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- In Critique of Pure Tolerance:
The government was right to try to protect individuals
against parts of the Internet, but wrong to mandate that protection
as law.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- First Principle:
Any peaceful solution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine must
include the right of both states to exist.
26 May 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Right-Wing Radio:
The Boston Globe recently published an article that called Mike Barnicle's
politics "Urban Democratic" and Don Imus's politics "Democratic/Opportunistic."
These two men could be mistaken for good-looking women before they
could be mistaken for Democrats.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Kashmir Sweating:
As India and Pakistan continue a deadly pas de deux in Kashmir, the Bush
administration needs to figure out how to rein in its friends in Islamabad.
19 May 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Deny It:
Given the propensity of our political and corporate leaders to lie, did they
become leaders because they lie so well, or do they lie because they are
leaders and their success compels them to lie?
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Buttering the Upper Crust:
Remember the middle-class tax cut that George Bush promised? Most of it is yet to come,
except it will go to the richest Americans.
12 May 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Sergeant Schultz:
While watching Hogan's Heroes as a child, little did I know
that Schultz would become a model for two American presidents, the CEO
of one of America's largest corporations, and America's most powerful
cardinal.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Market Failure:
The Enron scandal has overshadowed a growing crisis in the American stock market.
5 May 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- If Only the Parents Knew:
Youth hockey may have brought my son and me closer together, but
leaving it will improve the quality of our time together.
28 April 2002
- Tim Francis-Wright
- French Lessons:
The recent election in France has several important lessons for the Democratic
and Green Parties in America.
21 April 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Competence—Dukakis Had the Right Idea:
It is time to say what should be obvious by now: in the realm of foreign policy,
President Bush and his administration are fundamentally incompetent.
14 April 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Chief Executive Tax:
Some of the leaders of America's large corporations earn so much money that
they practically tax what you buy.
7 April 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Following the Yellow Brick Road:
The Middle East has exposed the real George W. Bush. Bush is the Tin Man, Scarecrow,
Lion, and Wizard all rolled up into one president: no heart, no brain, no courage but full
of false bravado.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Art of Enron:
(Dateline 1 April 2002.) Two Houston academics have revealed the surprising secret behind Enron's business
strategies.
31 March 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Soft Brigandry of Low Aspirations:
The Bush administration is more concerned with re-election and the standing
of the president in opinion polls than with the proper use of diplomacy.
4 March 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Heterosexual Privilege:
Americans are afraid to give gays and lesbians anything close to the rights that
married couples have.
17 March 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Once Upon a Time:
Despite what Vizzini said in "The Princess Bride" or George Bush says now,
it's not inconceivable: frightening current events are all
too believable and occurring all too often.
- Tim Francis-Wright
10 March 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- March Madness:
No matter the trappings that adults put on the games that kids play, the kids put
the outcomes in perspective.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Social Insecurity:
When conservatives talk of "reforming" Social Security, they do not talk of making
Social Security taxes less onerous on the poor. They talk instead of making
guaranteed benefits subject to the vagaries of the stock market.
24 February 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Capital Games:
Calls for a capital gains tax cut are really calls for tax cuts
for the rich.
17 February 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Brass Balls:
If Marc Racicot is hitting on me for a $4,000 donation, then the Republican
salesmen must be out of the "good leads."
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Armageddon for the Republicans:
Dennis Hastert thinks that campaign finance reform is "Armageddon" for the
Republicans. The strength of his opposition proves the vacuity of his party.
10 February 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
3 February 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Breach of Promise:
The Bush/Cheney presidential campaign induced American citizens to cast
their votes in return for promises Bush and Cheney never intended to keep.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Lay Away Plan:
Even if we give Ken and Linda Lay the benefit of the doubt about insider trading,
her recent interview on the "Today" show shows their utter greed and incompetence.
27 January 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Find Your Partners:
To be sure of passing real campaign finance reform this year, Democrats
should look for help from an unlikely ideological source.
20 January 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- "And Justice for All":
Enron is the product of the policies of its management and its political
access. It is time to ask what needs to change. It is time to make those
changes.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- The Deeper Lessons of Enron:
The demise of Enron has lessons for the American government, but the most important
lessons are not the most obvious ones.
13 January 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- "Part of the Game":
The Jekyll and Hyde image of professional hockey extends deep into the media
coverage of hockey.
- Tim Francis-Wright
6 January 2002
- Paul Corrigan
- Pin the Tail on the Donkey:
The symbol for the Democratic Party is the donkey, but Republicans and their
friends in the media that are proving themselves to be the real jackasses.
- Tim Francis-Wright
- Corporations Cry, "Gimme Shelter":
A recent decision by an appellate court regarding a tax shelter that Compaq
used in 1992 could make corporate taxation only theoretical.
Facts of the Week from 2001
18 December 2002
- The Bush administration recently promoted Elliott Abrams
to a senior position on the National Security Council. But for
a lame-duck presidential pardon from George Bush the Elder, Abrams
would have a criminal record for withholding information from
Congress.
8 December 2002
- When Trent Lott, leader of the Senate Republicans, spoke at
a party for retiring Senator Strom Thurmond, he praised Thurmond's
1948 presidential campaign in explicit terms. Thurmond was opposed
to the radical notion that lynching, Jim Crow laws, the poll tax,
and segregation were wrong. The enormity of Lott's remarks did not
keep George Bush from being seen at the White House with both
Thurmond and Lott the very next day.
2 December 2002
- Don't cry too hard for the homeowners of Augusta, Georgia
who won't have tenants during Masters week this year. A special
section of the Internal Revenue Code has exempted rental income
for 14 or fewer days per year from any federal income taxation,
regardless of the amount of money involved. For some homeowners
in Augusta, the money is in the tens of thousands of dollars.
25 November 2002
- In an effort to increase sales of an anticancer drug,
TAP Pharmaceuticals representatives targeted potential customers
in prostate cancer support groups. Sales representatives even
attended meetings themselves to pitch the company's hormone therapy.
17 November 2002
- Included in the House version of the bill to crate a Department of
Homeland Security was a provision that would protect Eli Lilly from lawsuits
against its production of thimerosal, a mercuric preservative used
in childhood vaccines. In the past two years, Eli Lilly has donated more money
to Republican congressional candidates—some $1.26 million—than any
other pharmaceutical firm.
11 November 2002
- In the 2002 gubernatorial campaign in Georgia, Republican Sonny Perdue
won thanks in no small part to his opposition to the new Georgia state flag,
which replaced one dominated by the battle flag of the Confederate States of
America. When Southern conservatives equate the battle flag with heritage, they
mean a very recent heritage. In Georgia, the old flag dated all the way back to
1956.
4 November 2002
- When Harvey Pitt nominated William Webster to be the new head of the Public
Companies Accounting Oversight Board, he neglected to tell his fellow members
of the Securities and Exchange Commission that Judge Webster had experience in
overseeing accounting at a public company. Unfortunately, his experience was
in failing to exercise good oversight.
29 October 2002
- George Bush was supposed to have a sort of rapport with Mexican
president Vicente Fox. Now, however, Mexico is planning to snub the United States
and join France in supporting military action in Iraq only if Iraq prevents
weapons inspections. Furthermore, Mexico and the United States remain at odds
on issues of trade and migration.
20 October 2002
- The newly-formed Information Awareness Office
at the Pentagon has both a creepy logo and a creepy director.
14 October 2002
- When President Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act this month and
ordered the members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
back to work, he was the first president ever to use the act
to halt a lockout by management.
8 October 2002
- The first American president with an MBA may not have hit the trifecta,
but he has still managed a dubious exacta. From July through September,
the major stock indexes had their worst quarter since the final quarter of 1987.
And domestic equity mutual funds had their worst quarter since 1981, with only 86
up and over 8000 down for the quarter.
1 October 2002
- At a recent fundraiser, George Bush explained that Saddam Hussein
doubtless hated America, and that his onetime efforts to kill George
Bush the Elder were evidence. Even if one believed that an assassination
attempt entails antipathy for a nation or its people, there has been
evidence for years that Iraq had no connection to the car
bomb intended for Bush the Elder in 1993.
22 September 2002
- Jack Welch, the erstwhile Chief Executive Officer of General Electric,
retained a host of perks, even in retirement. The company pays for almost
any imaginable expense related to his New York apartment, from capital
expenditures and real estate taxes down to such quotidian needs as free
toiletries, helicopter service, newspapers, flowers, groceries, and wine.
16 September 2002
- Recently, over 80 directors and officers of American public companies
met for a three-day "boot camp" on corporate governance. The attendees,
who represent the interests and concerns of shareholders, managed a
whopping average score of 32 percent on the accounting exam.
9 September 2002
- Officials in the Bush administration have privately confirmed
that the administration's objections to the International
Criminal Court stem from fears that American leaders could
face charges. In its public statements, the administration
has mentioned only the possibility of American soldiers facing
charges on political grounds.
2 September 2002
- When we wrote in October 2001 about the lunacy of having children send
cash in the mail to the White House for the Fund for Afghan Children, we
worried about malfeasance involving cash donations. Last month, two
Philadelphia men were arrested for stealing thousands of letters with
money for the Fund for Afghan Children.
25 August 2002
- Over the past 42 months, scores of executives at telecommunications
companies made huge profits selling stock. Counting sales made by their
relatives, 99 executives had profits of over $10 million, and 12 made over $100
million.
16 August 2002
- While George W. Bush spent six years in college and graduate
school before he held down a job for as long as nine months, he
recently said that college study is no good for helping people currently
on welfare become independent.
11 August 2002
- The Business Roundtable has correctly called for an end to the sort of
corporate shenanigans that made Enron and Global Crossing into the equivalent
of four-letter words. "Enough is enough," cries one of its ads. But of the ten
leaders of the Business Roundtable, eight have compensation packages of at least
$5 million. Of those eight companies, three had returns to shareholders from
1996 to 2001 that lagged what investors could earn in a money market fund.
28 July 2002
- From 1999 to 2001, the chief executives officers at major American
corporations had compensation equal to over 270 times that of an average
worker. In other words, they made more in one working day than the average
worker earned in a year. In 1965, by contrast, the average CEO earned 26
times that of an average worker.
21 July 2002
- Antonin Scalia recently claimed that the more Christian a country is,
the less likely it is to regard the death penalty as immoral. The country most
steeped in the traditions of Western Christianity, and the country ruled by the
leader of Scalia's particular brand of Christianity, does in fact view the
death penalty as just that.
14 July 2002
- Data from the Brookings Institution and the Center for Defense
Information point to the fiscal sinkhole that has been the real end
result of missile defense over the years. Through 1983, ballistic
missile defense cost some $34 billion, including an operational system
in North Dakota that was so obsolete when finished that the Pentagon
shut it down after four months. Since 1983, the United States has
spent $95 billion on ballistic missile defense, including about
$44 billion on a national defense system.
7 July 2002
- In response to the recent federal court ruling about the Pledge of
Allegiance, President Bush declared that he intended to oput on the bench
only judges who believed that rights cam from God. Too bad that the
United States Constitution prohibits anyreligious test for
any federal office.
30 June 2002
- What is most important for Congress about the Pledge of Allegiance
is the phrase "under God," not the phrases "indivisible" or "with liberty and justice
for all."
23 June 2002
- Earlier this month, the top aide to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
told the press that Japan was considering building up to 3,000 nuclear weapons.
Does this make Japan part of the "axis of evil" or part of the "axis
of good nuclear proliferators"?
16 June 2002
- When the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops met recently,
it banned the Boston Globe from covering the live sessions of
the conference, in retaliation for the release of a proposed policy
on sexual abuse.
9 June 2002
- George Bush did his best to help his brother's re-election
campaign last week by proposing that the federal government buy out the
companies that held the untapped oil and gas drilling rights in the
Everglades and Gulf of Mexico. No such luck for California.
2 June 2002
- It's official. The closest thing to a truly permanent campaign, the 1984
Reagan-Bush committee, has finally stopped. For years, Angela "Bay" Buchanan
(yes, the sister of Pat Buchanan) invested the campaign's surplus in long-term
investments and paid herself consulting fees, until the Associated Press caught
her at it.
26 May 2002
- Pedro Carmona, the businessman who briefly claimed the Venezuelan presidency
during the failed coup last month, has been granted asylum in Columbia. The news
came on the same night that Álvaro Uribe Vélez won the election to
become the next Columbian president. American ambassador Anne Patterson
met with Uribe before his acceptance speech and promised
close relations between the United States and the new government.
19 May 2002
- Over the past few days, the Bush administration has found excuse after excuse
why it failed to act on information that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were
preparing to hijack airplanes. As a presidential candidate, however, George
Bush stressed the importance of having a president who accepted responsibility.
12 May 2002
- New Scientist reports that the National Academy of Sciences,
has refused to release dozens of reports about new and proposed non-lethal weapons,
in part because much of the research violates both American law and international
treaties restricting chemical and biological weapons.
5 May 2002
- Perhaps Alan Greenspan is reading Bear Left. He has called for corporations
to report their stock option grants to executives as corporate expenses.
28 April 2002
- The Republican Party has found yet another way to show that it trusts its own
voters: when in doubt, push challengers to the insiders' favored candidates aside.
In two states, we have caught Republicans playing this game.
21 April 2002
- When faced in Venezuela with the choice between a bombastic but democratically
elected president and a bunch of plutocrats and generals who (1) suspended
the constitution, (2) abolished the Supreme Court, and (3) vacated the posts of
governorships, guess who the Bush administration supported?
14 April 2002
- If the United States spent even one-quarter of its recent
$48 billion increase in the defense budget on foreign economic aid, then it would
be the largest donor in dollars and an average donor in terms of percentage
of GDP about the largest industrialized nations.
7 April 2002
- It was bad enough when White House press secretary Ari Fleischer blamed
the Clinton administration for trying too hard for peace in 2000 and thus creating the
current mess in the West Bank. President Bush has now done the same thing.
31 March 2002
- David Lange, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, has claimed that
Dan Quayle, during his term as American vice president, threatened to have
Lange "liquidated."
24 March 2002
- A noted British libertarian was secretly on the payroll of Japan Tobacco,
which remunerated him for his attacks on the World Health Organization and
other opponents of tobacco.
17 March 2002
- The recent corporate tax cut bill will reduce corporate tax payments to
their second-lowest level (as a percentage of gross domestic product) in
60 years.
10 March 2002
- The Washington Post reported this week that at the recent
annual Presidential Gala at Ford's Theatre, President Bush tried to
get performer Stevie Wonder's attention. By waving. It would be funny if
it weren't true.
3 March 2002
- President Bush is trying again to convince Americans that is is wise
to give up some guaranteed Social Security benefits in exchange for
control over the respective investments. But the average 401(k) account
grew much less than the overall stock market from 1994 to 2000, so this
tradeoff may not be so lucrative for the investors themselves.
24 February 2002
- We now know that George H. W. Bush, the president's father and a former president
himself, pocketed more than $4.5 million by selling Global Crossing stock in
1999 and 2000, before it went bankrupt.
17 February 2002
- One interesting question from the bankruptcy of the fiber optic company Global
Crossing is what happened to the options owned by former president George H. W. Bush.
10 February 2002
- What is it about Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and discussions on
news programs? On 4 February, he compared the American military to the German
Blitzkrieg. He did so without any apparent irony. In October, he refused
to rule out using nuclear weapons in Afghanistan. Our leaders have vilified
Iran, Iraq, and North Korea because of their weapons of mass destruction: yet none
of these countries has "refused to rule out" nuclear weapons against its
enemies.
3 February 2002
- The latest American federal budget projections from the Congressional
Budget Office do not show a budget surplus outside of Social Security
until 2010. When George Bush was campaigning, however, he promised to keep
Social Security funds off limits.
27 January 2002
- In 1997, Karl Rove, when he was working for the nascent Bush presidential
campaign, encouraged Enron to hire Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian
Coalition, as a consultant. Close associates of Rove have confirmed that the
campaign wanted to ally Reed with the campaign without paying him directly. The
job violated federal election laws if it was merely a way to compensate Reed for
his work on the Bush campaign.
20 January 2002
- The Center for Responsive Politics reports that among the top twenty contributors
(counting both corporate political action committees and affiliated individuals)
to the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign were: Enron (#11); Arthur Andersen, its accounting
firm (#5); and Vinson and Elkins, its law firm (#2).
13 January 2002
- The recent supplemental defense budget included a provision to
lease, rather than buy, 100 tanker versions of the Boeing 767 aircraft.
Under the terms of the lease, the federal government will pay $20 million
per year per plane. The lease would cost the federal government billions
of dollars more than buying the planes outright. So much for fiscal prudence.
6 January 2002
- When Notre Dame hired Tyrone Willingham to be its new head football coach, he
made history, for not only was he the first African-American head football
coach at Notre Dame, but he was also the first African-American head coach at
Notre Dame in any sport. Welcome to the 21st century!
Links of the Week from 2001
18 December 2002
- Broken Vows: A former Catholic priest speaks out about secrecy, scandal, and being gay (Christopher Schiavone and Janice Page, Boston Globe).
- The Three Mile Island of Biotech?: Genetically modified plants designed to produce pharmaceuticals almost got into the food supply, and it could well happen again (John Nichols, The Nation).
- The Nation No One Understands: If brinksmanship were a sport, North Korea would be champion (Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, part of a week-long special report on North Korea).
- Cameroon Under Threat: Pressure from foreign interests is putting Cameroon's environment in peril (Jean Nke Ndih, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- Senator Don Nickles' Comments Confirm Discrimination Holding Up Hormel Vote: Trent Lott isn't the only bigot in the Senate—in 1998, Don Nickles scuttled an ambassadorship because the nominee was gay (Human Rights Campaign).
- Complaint: He Doesn't Listen to the Generals: Donald Rumsfeld is alienating both America's allies and America's military leaders (Dave Moniz, USA Today).
- Who Guards the Guards?: The tyranny of the United Nations Security Council will not end until no nation in it has veto power (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
- Trent Lott's Segregationist College Days: In 1962, Trent Lott helped lead the successful battle to keep blacks out of any of his fraternity's chapters (Karen Tumulty, Time).
- Lott Made Similar Remark about Thurmond in November 1980: At a rally for Reagan's campaign, Trent Lott said that a Thurmond presidency would have prevented "the mess we are [in] today" (Peggy Elam, Jackson Clarion-Ledger).
8 December 2002
- Prove Us Wrong, Henry: Kissinger is perfect for the 9-11 commission, unless you want the truth told (John Prados, The American Prospect).
- Why are These Men Laughing?: John DiLulio tells why politics is the be-all and end-all in the Bush White House (Ron Susskind, Esquire). To see what DiLulio thinks, in his own words, read this piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
- UK Blows £12bn Remortgage: Five percent of the gross domestic product of Great Britain comes from refinanced mortgage debt (Faisal Islam, The Observer).
- Affirmation in Response of Motion to Vacate Conviction: Read how the New York justice system coerced five innocent young men into confessing to rape charges (The Smoking Gun.com).
- A Rehnquist Under Scrutiny: Janet Rehnquist may be the most incompetent beneficiary of nepotism in Washington, and that's saying a lot (Michael Weisskopf and Viveca Novak, Time).
- Too Much Information: The Information Awareness Offices sounds like something from a Philip A. Dick novel (Hendrick Hertzberg, The New Yorker).
- Hey, Lucky Duckies!: The editors of the Wall Street Journal are now upset that poor people pay too little in taxes (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
2 December 2002
- In Terror War, Second Track for Suspects: The Bush administration is establishing a separate legal system for all terrorism suspects, the Constitution be damned (Charles Lane, Washington Post).
- Wal-Mart Values: Worldwide, women bear the brunt of Wal-Mart's incessant cost-cutting (Liza Featherstone, The Nation).
- Iraq Inspections "Could Last a Year": The head arms inspector for the United Nations believes that inspections could last into late 2003 (Brian Whitaker, The Observer).
- Searching for Safe Haven: Of the more than 6 billion human beings, some 240 million are uprooted, mostly because of war (Michael Flynn, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
- Once Again, Africa Has Become the Battleground for Somebody Else's War: Al-Qaeda, like many outsiders, cares not a damn about Africans (Fergal Keane, The Independent).
- Falling Prices Put Fed on Guard: The specter of deflation scares economics, and it should scare all of us (Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post).
- Lethal Indifference: The combination of incompetent counsel and unaccountable courts in Texas makes the death penalty both hideously unjust and astonishly farcical (Texas Defender Service).
- Fences and Windows: Real globalization transcends the efforts of global capital to make all things private (Naomi Kleim, In These Times).
25 November 2002
- Bin Laden's "Letter to America": Here is the translation of a possibly apocryphal message from Osama bin Laden: you be the judge (The Observer).
- Victors and Spoils: Privatizing the federal payroll is about political cover and a new spoils system (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
- More [Tax] Reductions Won't Work: Congress is proposing tax plans that will make the economy even worse (Max Sawicky, Detroit News).
- The Man Who Pulled State Plug: Timothy Belden, the brains behind Enron's manipulation of West Coast power networks, is helping investigators (Mark Martin, San Francisco Chronicle).
- Madison Ave. Plays Growing Role in Drug Research: Advertising agencies are beginning to run the pharmaceutical show from the beginning (Melody Petersen, New York Times).
- Missiles R Us Takes on the World: The United States is going global with a 'son of star wars' program (Simon Tisdall, The Guardian).
- The Other War Room: As his pollsters will tell you, George Bush does not believe in polling (Joshua Green, The Washington Monthly).
17 November 2002
- The Fifty-first State?: Going to war with Iraq would mean occupying Iraq, perhaps for years or even decades (James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly).
- No Time to Limit Bio-Weapons Treaty: Even though the time is ripe for strengthening the international treaty to ban biological weaponry, the United States is keen to subvert it (Editorial, Toronto Star).
- At Least We'll Get a Few Laughs: The nitwits are in charge now, and smart Democrats will play defense (Molly Ivins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram).
- How the Democrats Could Have Won: The Democrats could have won earlier this month by embracing three simple ideas (Paul Glastris, The Washington Monthly).
- The Agony of Defeat: The Democratic Party managed to lose in 2002 by becoming its own worst enemy (David Moberg, In These Times).
- Israel: Walled In, But Never Secure: Israel is erecting a wall that will dwarf the Berlin Wall, but will likely make neither Israelis nor Palestinians secure (Matthew Brubacher, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- Blair Has Not Been a Poodle, but Poodleism Still Beckons: Despite his affinity with George Bush, Tony Blair has been one of the few people with leverage in Washington who is not gung-ho for war (Hugo Young, The Guardian).
11 November 2002
- Bush's Desire to be the New Churchill is a Threat to Us All: Complacency about the United States and Iraq masks some extraordinary risks (Paul Kennedy, The Independent).
- Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans: John Poindexter doesn't need any stinking search warrants (John Markoff, New York Times).
- Yemen Attack Raises Legal Questions: The killing of six suspected terrorists raises serious questions about the legality of such tactics (Sean Federico-O'Murchu, MSNBC.com).
- Welcome to the Democrats' Misreading: When Democrats deem George Bush to be stupid, they play into his hands (David von Drehle, Washington Post).
- Where America Has Elected to Go, No One Will Follow: No mainstream European party could win an election with the Republican agenda in America (Hugo Young, The Guardian).
- Regime Change Now...For the Democrats: The Democrats need new leaders, and they need them in an awful hurry (David Corn, The Nation).
- It's Like This, My Old Cock: One of the few good things from last week's election was the banning of cockfighting in Oklahoma (Matthew Engel, The Guardian).
4 November 2002
- Board Was Told of Risks Before Bush Stock Sales: The lawyers for Harken Energy warned George Bush and other Harken directors against selling shares one week before he did so (Michael Kranish and Beth Healy, Boston Globe).
- Bush and Iraq: President Bush wants to overthrow the rules that have governed international life for the last fifty years. (Anthony Lewis, New York Review of Books).
- Carve-Up of Oil Riches Begins: The United States plans to ditch industry rivals and force the end of OPEC (Peter Beaumont and Faisal Islam, The Observer).
- Thatcher, the Miners' Strike and Heroin: Many British mining towns are in worse shape than even Arthur Scargill predicted (Matthew Collin, YearZero.org).
- Party of Lincoln: If the Senate splits 50-50 on 5 November, liberal Republican Lincoln Chafee may switch parties (Mary Lynn Jones, American Prospect Online).
- Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Jim Bromgard was wrongly convicted on suspect scientific evidence and sent to jail for 15 years; there are thousands of others like him still in jail in the US (Caroline Overington, The Age).
- US Weapons Secrets Exposed: The US is developing new weapons that undermine and may violate pacts on biological and chemical warfare (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
29 October 2002
- Paul Wellstone, 1944-2002: Progressive activists always knew that Paul Wellstone was on their side (John Nichols, The Nation).
- Bush Offers Disinformation About Saddam: Most Americans wrongly believe that Iraq abetted the 11 September attacks (Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
- Blue Chip Investors: Find out which corporations are the 100 largest contributors to federal campaigns in the past 14 years (OpenSecrets.Org).
- Whack Back on November 5: Here are 24 reasons for regime change in Florida (Stephen Goldstein, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel).
- Bush Should Take a Walk Near Home: Bush should have defied the sniper by walking the streets instead of campaigning elsewhere (Jimmy Breslin, Newsday).
- SF Peace March Draws Thousands: A huge San Francisco rally against war in Iraq was just one of several around the world (Wyatt Buchanan, Christopher Heredia, and Suzanne Herel, San Francisco Chronicle).
20 October 2002
- War Plans Under Fire as Even Bush Heartland Talks Peace: Critics of a war on Iraq include the national head of George Bush's church (Ed Vuillamy, The Observer).
- The Gildered Age Goes Bust: More people have been or will be affected by the telecom epidemic than any other economic accident of the last 25 years (Nomi Prins, Left Business Observer).
- Judge Orders White House Papers' Release: For a second time, a judge has ordered release of documents from Dick Cheney's energy task force (Neely Tucker, Washington Post).
- Satrap? You Can Say That Again: For Australians, being a satrapy is not a bed of roses, but is downright dangerous (Terry Lane, The Age).
- FDA Action on Drug Ads Declining: Drug companies are advertising more and more, but the FDA is policing their ads less and less (Alice Dembner, Boston Globe).
- Bush Seeks to Cut Back on Raise for SEC's Corporate Cleanup: Despite a bevy of corporate governance scandals, the Bush administration wants to underfund the SEC budget by some 27 percent (Stephen Labaton, New York Times).
- I'm With Ashcroft: The gun lobby could sacrifice a few liberties in the face of real terror in and around Washington (Michaelangelo Signorile, New York Press).
- South Dakota Voter Fraud Fraud: Allegations of Democratic voter fraud in South Dakota are fraudulent themselves (Joshua Marshall, TalkingPointsMemo.com).
14 October 2002
- Outrage as Iraq Views UK Arms: If Iraq is so dangerous, why are its representatives attending the Sofex military fair (Jason Burke, The Observer)?
- The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: Recently declassified documents shed new light on what happened 40 years ago (National Security Archive).
- Sowing Disaster?: Genetic engineering of corn is endangering the crop's insurance policy, its original cultivars (Mark Schapiro, The Nation).
- Inspection as Invasion: The United States has been seeking to prevent a resolution of the Iraq crisis for the past eight years (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
- The Bush Purge of Science: The Bush administration is cleansing and discarding scientific advisory committees for political ends (Frederick Sweet, Interventionmag.com).
- Servile States: The nominally sovereign countries of Europe are allowing themselves to be mere satellites (Ignacio Ramonet, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- America's For-Profit Secret Army: The Pentagon now depends on mercenaries provided by "private military contractors" (Leslie Wayne, New York Times).
8 October 2002
- Butler Accues US of Nuclear Hypocrisy: Even educated Americans ignore the hypocrisy of the American stance on nuclear weapons (Gerard Noonan, Sydney Morning Herald).
- Help Us to Stop the War: The Bush plan to attack Iraq is both illegal and unconstitutional (Scott Ritter, The Guardian).
- Fighting Terrorism with Democracy: Keeping the gains of western societies requires abandoning a permanent war footing (Richard Rorty, The Nation).
- One Vote Away: Democrats need to prevent Republicans from winning control of the entire federal government in November (Nick Confessore, Washington Monthly).
- Nascent Nonviolence: Influential Palestinians are decrying and renouncing violence, and Israelis should take note (Eli Kintisch, The American Prospect).
- Bin Laden Still Alive, Reveals Spy Satellite: An intercepted phone call purports to be between Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden (Jason Burke, The Observer).
- Bush's Real Goal in Iraq: Bush intends to make the United States into a full-fledged global empire (Jay Bookman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
1 October 2002
- Preemptive Posturing: The new Nuclear Posture Review is needlessly provocative in its dealings with North Korea (Hans Kristensen, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
- Unconvincing Explanations: The Israeli government is both unconvincing and contradictory in explaining its demolition of much of Yasser Arafat's compound (Ha'aretz).
- Afghanistan Imperiled: A war with Iraq might further destabilize Afghanistan, even as the Pentagon finds nation-building difficult (Ahmed Rashid, The Nation).
- Not Again: The demands of global capitalism are driving us to war (Arundhati Roy, The Guardian).
- Ashcroft's Baghdad Connection: The attorney general and others in Washington have backed an Iranian terror group with ties to Iraq (Michael Isikoff, Newsweek).
- Where's the Movement?: Corporate reformers need to think radically, not incrementally (Nick Penniman, The American Prospect).
22 September 2002
- HHS Seeks Science Advice to Match Bush Views: Scientific advisory panels are getting overhauled if they think the wrong way (Rick Weiss, Washington Post).
- High-Altitude Rambos: On a recent flight, two air marshals acted as if they were auditioning for a Hollywood extravaganza (Bob Herbert, New York Times).
- Rome, AD... Rome, DC?: The United States might be more like the Roman Empire than it or its critics imagine (Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian).
- Florida Muslim Arrests Were Mistake: Authorities in Florida now admit that they had no basis for detaining three Muslim men for 17 hours (Fergal Parkinson, BBC News).
- Cronies in Arms: The more we learn about what Thomas White did at Enron, the more egregious is his post as Secretary of the Army (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
- Analysts: New Strategy Courts Unseen Dangers: If other countries do as Bush would do, then the United States might someday face the business end of preemption (Peter Slevin, Washington Post).
- No More Mr Nice Guy: Nelson Mandela has finally got something, American foreign policy, to be angry about (Gary Younge, The Guardian).
- Police Academy in the Alps: The Marshall European Center for Security Studies would be farcical even in the most peaceful of times (Ken Silverstein, The Nation).
16 September 2002
- The Dead and the Guilty: One year after 11 September, Americans should be asking a lot of questions (Simon Schama, The Guardian).
- A Tax Break for the Rich Who Can Keep a Secret: Millionaires have found yet another way to cheat on their capital gains taxes (David Cay Johnston, New York Times).
- The Last Emperor: One thing was made crystal clear this week: there is no other authority than America, no law but American law (Polly Toynbee, The Guardian).
- Remembering September 12: 12 September 2001 was the best of times amidst the worst of times, but it surely did not last (Arianna Huffington, Arianna Online).
- Lies My President Told Me: It's Mid-September; do you know where your government is (Mark Morford, SFGate.com)?
- Never Forget What?: The Bush administration is conveniently forgetting Al-Qaeda while it bears down on Iraq (Frank Rich, New York Times).
- The Past is Always Present: The 16 September 1982 massacres at Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon are still fresh in the minds of many Palestinians (Pierre Péan, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- The Clash of Barbarisms: Vicious polemical fusillades greet any explanations of terrorism in today's world, yet horrors far worse than this terrorism continue apace (Gilbert Achcar, Monthly Review).
- Friendly Fire Deaths Linked to US Pilots "On Speed": Dexedrine, commonly used by American pilots in Afghanistan, may have led to the deaths of Canadian soldiers (Andrew Buncombe, The Independent).
9 September 2002
- GE Expenses for Ex-Chief Cited in Divorce Papers: Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch enjoys a plethora of company perks, even in retirement (Geraldine Fabrikant, New York Times).
- Looking Back to See the Challenge Ahead: A new, energized citizens' movement must make the issues of 10 September 2001 visible again (Howard Zinn, TomPaine.com).
- Wake-Up Call: In the biggest war game of all time, a retired general playing Saddam Hussein beat the Pentagon brass (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
- Inarticulate, and Proud of It: Our president lacks understanding of the relationships between words and acts, or rhetoric and intention (James Carroll, Boston Globe).
- In War, Some Facts Less Factual: Some American assertions from the last war on Iraq were faulty or just plain fraudulent (Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor).
- Plans for Iraq Attack Began on 9/11: On 11 September 2001, Donald Rumsfeld ordered studies of an attack on Iraq without any evidence to link Iraq with the 9/11 terrorists (CBS News).
- Netanyahu's Wife: "Israel Can Burn": The wife of former Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu claimed recently that he was "bigger than this entire country" of Israel: the Greeks called this hubris (Associated Press).
2 September 2002
- When US Turned a Blind Eye to Poison Gas: From 1983 to 1988, the United States found it convenient to ignore Iraq's use of chemical weapons (Dilip Hrio, The Observer).
- An American Abdication: America risks losing its stature as a world leader by ignoring the environment (Norbert Walker, New York Times).
- Now Every Jew Must Decide: Britain's chief rabbi thinks that Israel is corrupting its culture by its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian).
- Investor Tax Cut Becomes Campaign Tactic: The Bush administration admits that its new tax cut proposal is political, not fiscal, in nature (Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post).
- Bad Meat: The recall of 19 million pounds of beef spotlights both our food safety rules and the USDA's competence to enforce them (Eric Schlosser, The Nation).
- Laser Defenses: What if They Work?: Some of the missile defenses under active development would simply kill different victims (Geoffrey Forden, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
- George W. Bush, Principal Agent of Osama bin Laden: The Bush administration is doing what Osama bin Laden could not do on his own (Immanuel Wallerstein, SUNY Binghamton).
- Summit Agreement is Struck, but US Blocks Deal on Clean Energy: Japan, OPEC, and the US have scuttled hopes to increase renewable energy use (Geoffrey Lean, The Independent).
25 August 2002
- Israeli Nuclear Forces, 2002: Here are the facts about the real weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East (Robert Norris, William Arkin, Hans Kristensen, and Joshua Handler, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
- Corporate Capture: The Earth Summit augurs to be a disaster (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
- Argentine Military Believed U.S. Gave Go-Ahead for Dirty War: Declassified documents show complicity between Henry Kissinger and the Argentine government (National Security Archive).
- Stroke the Rich: Bush is hoping to bail out wealthy investors by increasing the allowance for capital losses (William Saletan, Slate.com).
- November Surprise?: In Washington, the question about Iraq is not whether America will attack, but when it will (James Ridgeway, Village Voice).
- The Real Thing: Conservatives in America consistently rely on a fake and cynical populism belied by their policies (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
16 August 2002
- The Greedy Bunch: These 25 insiders made vast fortunes from stock sales while ordinary investors lost their shirts (Fortune).
- "If Attacked, Israel Might Nuke Iraq": American intelligence officials believe that Israel would use nuclear weapons in rataliation to an Iraqi biological attack (Ze'ev Schiff, Ha'aretz).
- Who Owns Water?: The earth's fresh water is finite and small, but corporations and their favorite governments are seeking to take it private (Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, The Nation).
- In the Secret-Detentions Club: The United States is now keeping secret the names of its detainees, just like nations we usually criticize do (Barbara Crossette, New York Times).
- Venezuela's Press Power: When it comes to discrediting Hugo Chávez, anything goes in the Venezuelan media (Maurice Lemoine, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- War on the Peasantry: Mugabe's crimes pale next to what black African farmers endure in the name of development (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
11 August 2002
- Could 9/11 Have been Prevented?: Perhaps, if the Bush administration had taken seriously the work of the Clinton administration (Michael Elliott, Time).
- On Being Called a Commie: Political correctness ought to mean blind adherence to the dominant ideology: today, that means American nationalism (Richard Goldstein, The Village Voice).
- Bush Company Went Offshore: While George Bush was on its board of directors, Harken Energy set up a Cayman Islands subsidiary (Timothy Berger, New York Daily News).
- Race in American Public Schools: Rapidly Resegregating School Districts: While the United States is more diverse than ever, schoolchildren are largely isolated from this growing diversity (Harvard University Civil Rights Project).
- Is the Big-Business Era Over?: The American public now doubts that big business can regulate itself or deliver prosperity. (Roy Teixeira, The American Prospect).
- Leafing Through the Bush Legacy: It takes most leaders years to develop their legacies; Bush has done so in only 18 months (Walt Brasch, CounterPunch).
- Confidence Men: The myth of Republican competence persists despite the evidence to the contrary (Joshua Marshall, The Washington Monthly).
- Majority Rules: America is in the midst of monumental changes in its politics, changes that help Democrats (John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira, The New Republic).
- Bush's Conspiracy to Riot: The Bush recount committee's own IRS filings show that it paid the "rioters" who halted the Miami-Dade County recount (Consortium News).
- Bush Falters but Who Dare Oppose Him?: The Democrats have a new lease of life that they seem reluctant to exploit (Todd Gitlin, The Observer).
- Dem's Fightin' Words: Democrats will be continually clobbered until they embrace politics, become proud partisans, and figure out who they are (Michael Tomasky, The American Prospect).
- Yes, We Need a "Regime Change" in This Rogue State...: But the state in question is not Iraq (Adrian Hamilton, The Independent).
- Promoting Honesty by Releasing Corporate Tax Returns: Making corporate tax returns public is an old idea that may have new life (Joseph Thorndike, Tax Notes).
28 July 2002
- What Scandal? It's Business as Usual: What capitalism unchained is perpetrating now is what it always has and always will perpetrate (Wayne O'Leary, Portland Press-Herald).
- JPEG's Are Not Free: Patent Holder Pursues IP Grab: A Texas company is starting to demand royalties for the use of JPEGs (Andrew Orlowsky, The Register). (Fortunately, its patent may be bogus.)
- Did Telecom Reformers Dial the Wrong Number?: The root of a series of bankruptcies may be the sweeping deregulation of the 1990s (Michael Hiltzik and James Peltz, Los Angeles Times).
- Bush Set to Flout Test Ban Treaty: American nuclear weapons laboratories are readying tests of new arms and the administration maintains an ambiguous position towards the landmark treaty (Peter Beaumont, The Observer).
- Can Liberals Save Capitalism (Again)?: Seven decades after the Great Depression, Democrats have their work cut out for them (Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect).
- Asleep at the Switch: When shareholders sued WorldCom for doing what drove it bankrupt, a judge with political ties threw out the suit, and no one else noticed (Neil Weinberg, Forbes).
- IRS Loophole Allows Wealthy to Avoid Taxes: Insurance companies are ripping off the IRS by abusing a legal loophole (David Cay Johnston, New York Times).
- Corporate Scandal Trading Cards: Enough bad news! You might tell the players without these excellent cards, but why not have them anyway (Slate.com)?
21 July 2002
- Files: Bush Knew Firm's Fate Before Stock Sale: As more SEC documents come into the open, George Bush more resembles an illegal insider trader (Mike Allen, Washington Post).
- NRCC Social Security Study: Even the Republicans' consultants know that privatizing Social Security would be political suicide (Tarrence Group, via Talking Points Memo).
- US Software Firm Aids Saudi Censors: Secure Computing Corp. provides Saudi Arabia with the means to keep its citizens from much of the Internet (Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe).
- Funny Business: All the nauseating talk in 2000 about the business acumen of Bush and Cheney was obviously poppycock (Michelle Cottle, The New Republic).
- Unconventional Deals Boosted Sales for AOL: America Online cooked its books regarding on-line ads in order to make itself look more profitable (Alec Klein, MSNBC.com).
- WHO's Responsible?: The World Health Organization has been more than deferent to major global pharmaceutical companies (Jean-Loup Motchane, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- This Strange Silence from the Left: Free enterprise has flaunted its failings, and the Left has been slow to respond (Roy Hattersley, The Guardian).
- Operation RATS: Enough bad news! Here's some fun at the expense of John Ashcroft's Operation TIPS (OnePotMeal.com).
14 July 2002
- A Strange Kind of Freedom: The biggest threat to American liberty may come from Jewish and Christian fundamentalism (Robert Fisk, The Independent).
- A Racist Bill: A bill in the Knesset to allocate state land for exclusively Jewish towns is a threat to democracy and decency (Leader, Ha'aretz).
- Three Million Face Starvation in Malawi: A good climate may not save Malawi from famine if a bad economy and incompetence win out (Jeremy Lawrence, The Independent).
- Fowl Play: You might think twice about eating chicken nuggets if you knew how they were made (Felicity Lawrence, The Guardian).
- US Accuses 2 Audit Firms of Assisting Tax Violations: KPMG and BDO Seidman have helped hundreds of companies and rich individuals through secretive tax shelters (David Cay Johnston, New York Times).
- Accounting for Anguish: Kim Emigh was fired by WorldCom for trying to stop the phony accounting that brought the company down (Gayle Reaves, Fort Worth Weekly).
- Bush's Insider Connections Preceded Huge Profit On Stock Deal: George Bush had extraordinary help all throughout his business career (Knut Royce, Center for Public Integrity).
7 July 2002
- Fundie Eruptions: Now and again, when the Bush administration looks almost civilized, shadowy plots lurch forth from the darkness (Michelangelo Signorile, New York Press).
- Remembering Why We Are Americans: The government is amassing more information on more of us, traducing the law as never before (Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice).
- The 'Gate-Less Community: Under George W. Bush, acts that not long ago would have constituted firing offenses can now be ridden out [and check out the telling Bush quote near the end!] (Joshua Green, The Washington Monthly).
- Karl Rove's Legal Tricks: Satisfying the far right with judicial nominations is Karl Rove's special mission (John Nichols, The Nation).
- All the President's Enrons: The President has talked about corporate "wrongdoers" but has done nothing for real reform (Frank Rich, New York Times).
- Succeeding in Business: George Bush made his millions when his company used the same tricks used by today's corporate "wrongdoers" (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
- Earth "Will Expire by 2050": The World Wildlife Fund will report that by 2050, two additional planets will be needed to support humanity (Mark Townsend and Jason Burke, The Observer).
30 June 2002
- Seat of Power: Corporations are enriching lawmakers the legal way, by putting spouses on their boards of directors (Ana Radelat, USA Today).
- Hitting the Trifecta: Bush's favorite joke is not just in bad taste, but it is also patently a lie (David Neiwart, MSNBC.com).
- Rise! Shine! Give "Under God" Your Glory!: All of a sudden, eighty Senators, notthe normal few, attended the daily Pledge of Allegiance last Thursday (David Montgomery, Washington Post).
- UK Rift with Bush Over Middle East: Now all of Europe is dismayed with the American peace plan (Patrick Wintour, Ian Black, and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian).
- World Con: American shareholders are seeing the rot at the heart of the corporate way of life, and the White House is scared (Edward Vuillamy, The Observer).
- At the Seat of Empire: Africa is forced to take the blame for the devastation inflicted on it by the rich world (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
- I Wonder Why Bush Doesn't Let Sharon Run His Press Office: It would be more honest and less embarrassing (Robert Fisk, The Independent).
- Plutonium Memorial Contest Winners: Here are the best monuments to the folly of the creation of the world's deadliest poison (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
23 June 2002
- Healing the Accounting Industry: It's clear to everyone but the accountants that accounting firms cannot police themselves (Scott Bernard Nelson, Boston Globe).
- Our Son, the Rebel: Israel's nuclear whistleblower, imprisoned for 16 years, remains defiant (Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian).
- They Come Here to Live, and if God Wills it, To Die: Jewish settlers have many reasons to stay in the West Bank (Peter Beaumont, The Observer).
- The Emperor of Greed: Gary Winnock, with the help of his bankers, turned Global Crossing into his personal cash cow (Julie Creswell and Nomi Prins, Fortune).
- Palestinian Elections Now: Palestinians must seize an opportunity in the midst of chaos to effect real reform (Edward Said, Al-Ahram Weekly).
- Restorative Justice: The double standard between white-collar crime and street crime has got to go (Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Eat the State).
16 June 2002
- 2002 Republican Election Outlook: One of Karl Rove's aides let the PowerPoint cat out of the bag when this file was dropped on a Washington street corner (PoliticsPA.com).
- Fighting the Gay Right: Gay conservatives are disproportionately represented in the American media (Richard Goldstein, The Nation).
- Rumsfeld in Kashmir Climbdown: The defense secretary now says that there is no evidence of Al-Qaeda militants in Kashmir (Rory McCarthy, The Guardian).
- Israel Has Sub-Based Atomic Arms Capability: Israel has bought three German submarines that it is arming with nuclear-capable cruise missiles (Walter Pincus, Washington Post).
- A Hole in Our Missile Defense System: Faced with a missile defense system that will be useless, the Bush administration classifies the test results (Theodore Postol, Boston Globe via CommonDreams.Org).
- Prerequisites, Power, and Peace: In many of today's conflicts, the issues of power and rights will require political solutions that seem painful today but will be trivial to future generations (Immanuel Wallerstein, SUNY Binghamton).
- The Perfect Crime: The silence of European governments during the Venezuelan coup will only encourage plotters again (Ignacio Ramonet, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- "Do As We Say, Not As We Did": Free trade means peanuts for third-world nations, and the first world knows it (Mark Weisbrot, Counterpunch).
9 June 2002
- Secret FBI Files Reveal Covert Activities at UC: The FBI illegally used its power in the 1950s through 1970s for political purposes (Seth Rosenfeld, San Francisco Chronicle).
- Cheney's Money Has Roots in Evil: Dick Cheney made some of his millions as chairman of Halliburton by trading with Iraq (Dave Zweifel, Madison Capitol Times).
- A Proposal for American Labor: It is high time for workers to embrace open-source unionism (Richard Freeman and Joel Rogers, The Nation).
- Camp David and After: Despite Ehud Barak's assertions, Palestinian negotiators were right to reject Israeli proposals at Camp David and Taba (Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, New York Review of Books.
- Hoon's Talk of Pre-emptive Strikes Could be Catastrophic: When the British defense secretary mentions nuclear weapons being in play against Iraq, what message do India and Pakistan hear (Hugo Young, The Guardian)?
- Accounting Reform Plans Held Up By Senate Banking Committee Democrats: Democrats could lose a key issue if its senators do not stick together (TheHill.com).
- The Barn Door: The proposed Department of Homeland Security could actually make Americans less safe (John Prados, The American Prospect).
- State Senator Says Ross Perot Company Offered Primer for Exploiting Energy Market: Perot Systems helped its clients manipulate energy prices (Jennifer Coleman, Associated Press).
2 June 2002
- Cheney's Former Oil Firm Founders: Was Dick Cheney incompetent as head of Halliburton, or just in it for the stock options (Michael Kranish, Boston Globe)?
- Freedom to Hate, Freedom to Harm: The US constitution is a uniquely powerful document, but whether it has served freedom is debatable (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
- New IBA Chief Bans Use of Term 'Settlements': The new head of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority has banned the terms "settlers" and "settlements" from Israeli news broadcasts (Uri Ayalon, Ha'aretz).
- The Peculiar Duplicity of Ari Fleischer: The White House press secretary has a unique way of not telling the truth (Jonathan Chait, The New Republic).
- Secret Middle East Talks in Britain: The Guardian has arranged for secret talks in Britain between Israelis and Palestinians (Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian).
- We Must All Prevent War: Preventing war is far too important to be left to governments (John Carroll, Boston Globe via CommonDreams.org).
26 May 2002
- Coleen Rowley's Memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller: This memo from a Minneapolis FBI agent shows how the FBI prevented a lawful attempt to stop the Al-Qaeda hijackers (Time magazine).
- FBI's 'Phoenix' Memo Unmasked: This memo from a Phoenix FBI agent reveals not what Bush knew, but what he should have known (Richard Behar, Fortune.com).
- There is a Firestorm Coming, and It Is Being Provoked by Mr Bush: Anti-American feeling throughout the Middle East is palpable (Robert Fisk, The Independent).
- Thanks for the Heads-Up: Recent warnings from the White House only hide how low a priority Al-Qaeda was before 11 September (Frank Rich, New York Times).
- Rebel With a Cause: Joseph Stiglitz is unafraid to say just what is wrong with the World Bank. He should know: he worked there (Eyal Press, The Nation).
- Pakistan Missile Test Stacks Odds Against Kashmir Peace: Mistrust and confusion have created a crisis that threatens millions (Luke Harding and Jason Burke, The Observer).
- Ice Reservoirs Found on Mars: Mars turns out to have substantial amounts of ice: perhaps life is not unique to Earth (David Whitehouse, BBC News).
19 May 2002
- Interview with Kevin Phillips: Money has produced the fusion of money and government, in other words, plutocracy (Now with Bill Moyers).
- American Diplomacy and the 1999 Kargil Summit at Blair House: While India and Pakistan prepare for war, read this account of how an elected president defused tensions in Kashmir in 1999 (Bruce Riedel, University of Pennsylvania).
- Capital Games: The penchant of the Bush administration for secrecy has come a cropper with the latest revelations about Osama bin Laden (David Corn, The Nation).
- Bad Environments: The past sixteen months suggest that the decades of achievements of the American environmentalists are painfully fragile (Elizabeth Colbert, The New Yorker).
- The New Politics of September 11: Democrats need to press for the truth about September 11, not just press for political gain (John Nichols, The Nation).
- Land Grab: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank: Israel has secretly appropriated 42% of Palestinian land in the West Bank for its settlements (B'Tselem).
- The Fake Persuaders: Corporations are inventing people to rubbish their opponents on the Internet (George Monbiot, The Guardian).
12 May 2002
- Stoel Rives LLP Memorandum: This is the "smoking gun" that proves that Enron and other companies manipulated the California electricity market (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission).
- Buffett Blasts Corporate America's Crooks and Their Wall Street Allies: Warren Buffett believes that fraud is rampant in corporate America (Chris Hughes, The Independent).
- Nebraska Sees Red Over Its 401(k) Plans: The state of Nebraska is halting its version of a 401(k) plan because workers did much better under its old-fashioned pension plan (K. C. Swanson, TheStreet.Com).
- Treasury Circumventing Hill on Tax Breaks: The Treasury Department has quietly and unilaterally given huge tax breaks to corporations (Alexander Bolton, The Hill).
- The Road to Nowhere: Israel and its allies need to escape the conflict in Palestine, much as France escaped from Algeria forty years ago (Tony Judt, New York Review of Books).
- Going Down the Road: There is a better way to cast ballots that does several big things for democracy (Jim Hightower, The Nation).
5 May 2002
- Harper's Editor Laments Rise of Corporate News Purveyors: Lewis Lapham has seen big corporations ruin the media (Dan Fost, San Francisco Chronicle).
- Bad Work: The craft of journalism was already in sorry shape, and it's only getting worse (Eric Alterman, The Nation).
- Rights Group Rights Group Doubts Mass Deaths in Jenin, but Sees Signs of War Crimes: Human Rights Watch found a low death toll in the Jenin refugee camp, but also found much evidence of bad acts by the Israeli military (David Rohde, New York Times).
- The Carlyle Connection: The Pentagon learned to love the Crusader howitzer, the weapon no one wanted (Geoffrey Gray, Village Voice).
- Option Play: With Enron off the front page, the Bush administration is abetting the lobbyists trying to block accounting reforms. (John Judis, The New Republic).
- Retirement Insecurity: Despite a boom in the stock markets between 1983 and 1999, all but the richest Americans in 1999 were behind their 1983 counterparts in saving for retirement (Economic Policy Institute).
- Probe Prompts US Panic: The New York state attorney general is throwing Wall Street investment banks into a tizzy (Richard Thomson, London Observer).
28 April 2002
- The Enron Nine: A class-action lawsuit names nine premier financial institutions with defrauding investors in Enron stock (William Greider, The Nation).
- US Media Interests: Champions of Profit, Propaganda, and Puffery: Who owns the media determines in large part what the media says (John Stanton and Wayne Madsen, Counterpunch).
- Diplomacy US Style: The removal of the head of the agency combatting chemical weapons shows George Bush's contempt for cooperation (George Monbiot, Manchester Guardian).
- No Shame: Even though his wife is on the Enron board of directors, Phil Gramm continually hinders legislation related to the company (Michele Chihara, The American Prospect).
- Log Cabin to White House? Not Any More: America can no longer justifiably claim to be the land of opportunity (Will Hutton, London Observer).
- Once Upon a Time in Jenin: Nearly half of the Palestinian dead in Jenin were civilians, and Israel is trying to cover up atrocities (Justin Huggler and Phil Reeves, The Independent).
- Venezuela Country Representative M/OP-02-928: Read between the lines of this job posting and judge for yourself what the United States is doing in Venezuela (United States Agency for International Development).
21 April 2002
- Al Qaeda Investigations Fall Short of the Mark: The interrogation of prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base has become farcical (John Mintz, Washington Post).
- Big Tobacco: A global underground of smugglers and money launderers eases tobacco companies into foreign markets (Mark Schapiro, The Nation).
- Rape—Silent War on SA Women: In South Africa, a woman is more likely to be raped than to learn how to read (Carolyn Dempster, BBC News).
- Where, Oh Where has the Muckraker Gone?: Gregory Palast may be the best investigative journalist you've never heard of (Michele Chihara, Alternet.Org).
- Pharmaceuticals Rank as Most Profitable Industry, Again: The 10 drug companies in the Fortune 500 make up its most profitable classification (Public Citizen).
- Parallel Universes: Europeans and Americans see different victims in the conflict in Palestine and Israel (Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian).
- Work at Home Overload: Ever wonder where those ubiquitous "Work from Home" signs come from? This fellow found out (Rob Cockerham, Cockeyed.com).
- Le Monde-Diplomatique Maps: Check out these great, detailed maps on the Middle East and other regions.
14 April 2002
- Fallout: For decades, researchers mishandled the most dangerous of substances at a San Francisco naval base (Lisa Davis, San Francisco Weekly).
- The Sound of One Billionaire Lashing: George Soros is harshly critical of Bush's foreign policy (Miriam Hill, Philadelphia Inquirer).
- First Combat US Ignorance, Then We Can Have Peace: Bush stands alone, undecided, still half-trapped in an irrelevant and impotent mindset (Editorial, The Independent).
- Worldwide Executions Doubled in 2001: In 2001, at least 3,048 people were put to death by so-called judicial systems (Amnesty International).
- President Bush Has Reached the Limits of His Abilities: Instincts are a poor substitute for strategic intelligence (Fergal Keane, The Independent).
- The Problem is Too Little History, Not Too Much: Palestinians and Israelis must cast aside their political mythologies (Martin Woollacott, The Guardian).
- The Do-It-Ourselves Solution: Palestine and Israel should return to the agreement drawn up in early 2001 (Yasser Abed Rabbo and Yossi Beilin, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
7 April 2002
- The Minister of Propaganda: Ariel Sharon is deceiving Israelis with his propaganda about terrorism (Dave Larkin, Massachusetts Daily Collegian).
- A Speech Laced with Obsessions and Little Else: George Bush, in his speech on Israel, switched the mugger and the victim (Robert Fisk, The Independent).
- Musharraf Ready to Use Nuclear Arms: The president of Pakistan has threatened India with nuclear war over Kashmir (Rory McCarthy and John Hooper, The Guardian). Sprechen Sie deutsch? The original quotes are at Der Spiegel.
- Thinking Ahead: Palestine faces a worse situation than in 1971 or 1982, but Palestinians must take solace that other underdogs have forced change by finding allies in the West (Edward Said, Al-Ahram via MediaMonitors.net).
- Why Bush Finally Stepped in to Try to Stop the Slaughter: For now, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice have the upper hand in Washington (Ed Vuillamy, The Guardian).
- Israel Has Lost Moral Superiority: Barak: A tarnished international image could diminish Israel's political power (Times of India). Sprechen Sie deutsch? The original interview is at Stern magazine.
- Calling Precedent Clinton: The Bush administration could have a high-powered, high-profile negotiator for the Middle East (Richard Cohen, Washington Post).
- What's Wrong with 401(k)s?: Brokers get rich; the rich get tax breaks; and the little guy gets no pension (James Ridgeway, Village Voice).
31 March 2002
- As Two Weak Men Act Tough, The Extremists Impose Their Will: Sharon and Arafat have let extremists rule the day in Israel and Palestine (Peter Beaumont, The Observer).
- Speaking for the Young at Eighty-One: Dalton Camp, who died this month, was a staunch defender of the ideas of youth (Luke Eric Peterson, Rabble.ca).
- Jews Rise Against Ashcroft War: Several mainstream Jewish organizations are speaking out against American military tribunals (Nat Hentoff, Village Voice).
- Player One, Game Over: Only one thing could let Bush think of nuclear weapons as simply another strategic option (E. C. Fish, TheSpleen.com).
- The Wimps of War: If the Democrats stand for anything in a time of rapidly expanding war, it's not clear what it is (Frank Rich, New York Times).
- The Coming Collapse Of American Retirement: While American bosses earn gargantuan wages, most workers fear being poor in retirement (Nicholas von Hoffman, New York, Observer).
- Walgreens Wants Teen to Change Site Name: Wallgreens.com is trying to get cigarettes out of Walgreens stores. Quick! Get Legal! (Cass Cliatt, Daily Herald (Illinois)).
24 March 2002
- Bad Faith: The Bush administration often implies that only believers abhor terrorism (Peter Beinart, The New Republic).
- Team Player?: When the AFL-CIO supports Bush over the environment, it only hurts its long-term health (Natasha Hunter, The American Prospect).
- Just What was He Smoking?: Nixon was paranoid, of pot, not because he smoked it (Gene Weingarten, Washington Post).
- Tucker Eskew: American Spin Doctor in London: A key aide to George Bush has helped Tony Blair rally British support for war (Donald MacIntyre, The Independent).
- Britain Accused on Terror War Claim: To rally support for the war, the British government may have lied about Al-Qaeda's weaponry (Peter Beaumont and Ed Vulliamy, London Observer).
- White House, GOP, Squabble over Defense Spending: The Bush administration wants a $10 billion Pentagon slush fund (Major Garrett, CNN.com).
- "Geriatricide" Courtesy of the GOP: The Republicans are abandoning the elderly, and the Democrats must act now (BajanMan, SmirkingChimp.com).
17 March 2002
- For Bush, Secrecy is a Matter of Loyalty: Information is power in Washington, and Congress wants some from the White House (Laurence McQuillen, USA Today).
- Crony Capitalism Goes Global: The Carlyle Group has worldwide connections thanks to the former politicians it employs (Tim Shorrock, The Nation).
- How the West Helps the Vote-Riggers: Determining the legitimacy of elections is not just an arithmetical exercise (Mark Almond, New Statesman).
- Personal Responsibility for the Corporate Elite: Corporate executives should be really responsible for their actions (Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, CommonDreams.Org).
- Anthrax Attacks: A scientist working on a CIA experiment may be the culprit who sent anthrax spores through the mail (Newsnight, BBC News).
- Iran Loses Its Drugs War: Europe does not help Iran to stop the flow of heroin, and fails to finance alternative crops in Afghanistan (Cédric Gouverneur, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- Itchy Fingers on the Trigger: Many American military advisors see nothing wrong with using nuclear weapons (Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian).
10 March 2002
- Secret Plan Outlines the Unthinkable: The Bush administration no longer considers nuclear weapons to be only last resorts (William Arkin, Los Angeles Times).
- Thoughts About America: America is more than what Bush and Rumsfeld say it is (Edward Said, CounterPunch).
- Staff Cry Poetic Injustice...: Just when you thought John Ashcroft had gone over the edge, he goes even farther (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
- Army Official Kept Options on Enron Stock Until January: Thomas White promised to sell his Enron holdings; he kept options on 665,000 shares (Alex Berenson, New York Times).
- Suspects Sent to 3rd Countries for Interrogation: Dozens of suspected terrorists have been moved to countries where torture is routine (Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Peter Finn, Washington Post).
- Why the Academy Fell for In the Bedroom: The response to this film says much about America after the attacks of 11 September (David Lodge, The Guardian).
- Brand USA: America's attempt to market itself abroad using advertising principles is destined to fail (Naomi Klein, Los Angeles Times).
3 March 2002
- Race and Incarceration in the United States: Many American jurisdictions disproportionately incarcerate African Americans and Latinos (Human Rights Watch).
- Washington Broods over X-Ray Prognosis: The Bush administration is regretting the charade of "military tribunals" (Matthew Engel, The Guardian).
- Iran-Contra Rehab: The Bush Administration is becoming a reunion of sorts for Iran-Contra conspirators (David Corn, The Nation).
- Graham Regrets Jewish Slur: Billy Graham, the advisor to several presidents, can't remember maligning Jews (on tape) in the Nixon Oval Office (BBC News).
- The Great Florida Ex-Con Game: The purging of ex-felons from Florida's voting lists in 2000 was both ludicrous and criminal (Greg Palast, Harper's).
- Current Time: The famed nuclear clock moved two minutes closer to midnight this week (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists).
- The Beijing-Washington Back Channel and Henry Kissinger's Secret Trip to China: What Nixon and Kissinger wanted to keep hidden (National Security Archive).
- No Recourse: The price of securities deregulation is higher than you think (Barbara Langer, Utne Reader online).
24 February 2002
- Murdoch Firm Tried to Kill Satire on Bush: HarperCollins delayed Michael Moore's new book, then threatened to pulp 50,000 copies (David Usborne, The Independent).
- No Vacation for Paying Taxes: It is wrong for American corporations to expatriate themselves for tax reasons (Austin American-Statesman).
- A Stealth Attack on Freedom of the Press: The FCC may eliminate all restrictions on media ownership (Robert McChesney and Mark Crispin Miller, The Nation).
- Terms of Abuse: To win over the pro-Isreali lobby, the left needs to take anti-Semitism seriously (Gary Younge, The Guardian).
- Geneva Conventions are Outdated, Says US Envoy: Pierre-Richard Prosper believes that the Geneva Conventions need overhauls (Kim Sengupta, The Independent).
- Pentagon is Arming With Words: The Pentagon plans to lie to the foreign media (James Dao and Eric Schmitt, New York Times via International Herald-Tribune).
- US Drops Pledge on Nukes: The Bush administration is abrogating a 24-year-old pledge not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times).
17 February 2002
- Priest Abuse Cases Sealed by Judges: Three judges sealed the records of five child molestation cases to protect the Boston Catholic Archdiocese (Walter V. Robinson and Sacha Pfeiffer, Boston Globe).
- Pakistan's Slave Trade: For Afghan refugees, servitude in Pakistan is an all-too-common fate (Andrew Bushell, Boston Phoenix).
- The High Cost of Living: The AIDS drug stavudine exemplies what is wrong with drug companies and the universities that work with them (Phillippe Demenet, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- DRCNet Interview: Noam Chomsky: The war on drugs does little for drug abusers and ruins other countries (DRCNet WeekOnLine).
- Revenge Suicide Bombing Fails to Derail Israel's Peace Movement: The peace movement in Israel grows nonetheless (Graham Usher, London Observer).
- The Company Presidency: The collapse of Enron is an unsettling echo of the Harding presidency (Kevin Phillips, Los Angeles Times).
- Letters Show Bush and Lay Shared Much: George W. Bush did indeed have postal relations with that man (Jim Yardley, New York Times).
10 February 2002
- Armed to the Teeth: Is the American military too powerful for its own good? (Peter Beaumont and Ed Vulliamy, London Observer).
- The Bottleneck: Humanity needs a universal environmental ethic to avoid wrecking the planet (Edward Wilson, Scientific American).
- Scandal of Scientists Who Take Money for Papers Ghostwritten by Drug Companies: Doctors named as authors may not have seen raw data (Sarah Boseley, The Guardian).
- Bush's Executive-Privilege Two-Step: He releases presidential documents, but only when they make Clinton look bad (Joshua Micah Marshall, Salon.com).
- Axis Me No More Questions...: The State of the Union speech was entirely incoherent, but that's not what the pundits tell us (Eric Alterman, The Nation).
- Money-Grubbing Games: The Bush administration continues to shortchange New York City on the money it promised (Paul Krugman, New York Times).
- Binge at the Pentagon: Strengthening national security should not mean giving the military and its contractors everything they want (New York Times via International Herald-Tribune).
- Patten Lays into Bush's America: A top European Union official railed against American unilateralism (Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian).
3 February 2002
- "Axis of Evil" Crumbles under Scrutiny: In spite of the State of the Union address, there is no such axis (Michael Klare, Alternet.Org).
- "Evil Axis" and Others Talk Back: The State of the Union speech dismayed many governments, including some American allies (Peter Ford, Christian Science Monitor).
- New Enron Scandal Link to Bush: The Bush administration appointed two of Kenneth Lay's suggested members to a key energy commission (Duncan Campbell, The Guardian).
- Israel's Culture of Reservists: Record numbers of Israelis are refusing to serve in the West Bank (Kathryn Westcott, BBC News).
- Scores of Priests Involved in Sex Abuse Cases: The Boston Archdiocese quietly settled cases against 70 priests in the last 10 years (Walter Robinson, Boston Globe).
- The Dark Side of Capitalism: The collapse of Enron is a corporate allegory of our times (Simon Caulkin, London Observer).
- Geneva Convention III: What the United States (and many others) agreed to uphold regarding prisoners of war (United Nations).
27 January 2002
- The Scandal that Has Left the Credibility of American Politics in Shreds: The rot around Enron is spread deep and wide (Andrew Gumbel, The Independent).
- In a Sniper's Sights: Camp X-Ray is a sort of Caribbean gulag, and would raise concerns if another country ran it (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
- GAO Vows to Sue for Cheney Files: The General Accounting Office may sue the White House to get the records of the Energy Task Force (Dana Milbank and Dan Morgan, Washington Post).
- Missile Defense Shield: The Real Target: The real target of the missile defense program is the U.S. Treasury (Jerome Richard, CommonDreams.org).
- Powell Asks Bush to Reverse Stand on War Captives: Secretary of State Powell wants all Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees to be prisoners of war (Katherine Seelye, New York Times).
- Budget Reversal to Yield Deficit: The federal budget deficit will be $106 billion this fiscal year (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post).
- Analysis of the Source of the Anthrax Attacks: Summary of publicly-known evidence about the perpetrators (Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists).
- Stephen R. Shalom Interviews Noam Chomsky: Chomsky talks about Afghanistan, terrorism, and alternatives to war (Z magazine).
20 January 2002
- Crime in the Suites: The rot in America's financial system is structural and systemic (William Greider, The Nation).
- Exploring a Deal to Offer Sex Videos: When things looked bad for Enron, it tried to fall back on pornography (John Schwartz, New York Times).
- There is an Alternative: Radical conservatism has been orthodoxy for 40 years. The left must steel itself to challenge it. (Serge Halimi, Le Monde-Diplomatique).
- We Will Not Tolerate the Abuse of War Prisoners: England and the United States have different views about what is just (Hugo Young, The Guardian).
- Veep Tried to Aid Enron: Dick Cheney tried to help Enron collect a $64 million debt from a giant energy project in India (Timothy Berger, New York Daily News).
- Arms Buildup is a Boon to Firm Run by Big Guns: The Carlyle Group has done very well thanks to the recent surge in military spending (Mark Fineman, Los Angeles Times).
- Nobel Laureates Centennial Appeal: 18 winners—excluding, for some reason, Henry Kissinger—of the Nobel Peace Prize urge the formation of an International Criminal Court (The Nation).
13 January 2002
- Huey Freeman, American Hero: In many American newspaper, the protagonist of The Boondocks is the only consistent voice of dissent (John Nichols, The Nation).
- Indian General Talks Bluntly of War and a Nuclear Threat: For now, it mostly a war of words in India and Pakistan (Celia Dugger, New York Times).
- America's Most Unwanted Turn to the Law: Prisoners in "supermax" jails are seeking legal relief from inhuman conditions (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
- The Clock Ticks as Democrats Stumble in the Fog: The Democrats can afford to be incoherent, but they cannot be timid (Matthew Miller, Los Angeles Times).
- Compassionate Conservative vs. Enron Conservatives: Enron Conservatives use money and connections to make themselves unaccountable (Arianna Huffington, AriannaOnline.com).
- Land of Plenty Turned into a Dust Bowl at the Hands of al-Qa'ida: Self-sufficient communities are now destitute and lacking any intrastructure whatsoever (Kim Sengupta, The Independent).
6 January 2002
- Plot to Undermine Global Pollution Controls Revealed: A secret group of nations worked to undermine the first UN conference on the environment (Mick Hamer, New Scientist).
- Refugees Left in the Cold at "Slaughterhouse" Camp: 100 Afghans perish daily as an aid network is collapsing (Doug McKinlay, The Guardian).
- Bush's First Big Scandal Rises from the Ashes of Enron: The collapse of the energy trader could spell big political trouble (Rupert Cornwell, The Independent).
- Prisoner Loses Attorney Ruling: In Texas, death row inmates have no right to capable counsel in their appeals (Janet Elliott, Houston Chronicle).
- U. S. Has Overstated Terrorism Arrests for Years: The Department of Justice has inflated both threats and its capabilities (Mark Fazlollah and Peter Nicholas, Miami Herald).
- The Healing in Helping the World's Poor: Even if we cannot end tension and conflict, we can end hunger (George McGovern, New York Times).
- Church Allowed Abuse by Priest for Years: Aware of John Geoghan's record, the Boston Archdiocese still moved him from parish to parish (Globe Staff, Boston Globe).
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