contributions

By Donald Macintyre
Fresh fighting broke out last night in the Shia holy city of Najaf as the US military announced the deaths of three more of its servicemen, bringing to more than 600 the number killed in Iraq since President George Bush declared major hostilities over. A Polish serviceman also died.
After a day of relative calm in Najaf, mortar, rocket-propelled grenade and machinegun fire resumed. Militiamen loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said they had shot down a (…)

by Gregory Wilpert
The opposition’s claim of massive fraud, one which no international observer or any other disinterested third party can detect, has boiled down to two principal claims now. First, they say that exit polls they conducted showed that a 59% majority was in favor of recalling Chavez. Thus, according to them, a 59% win for Chavez must be wrong. Second, they say that numerous voting centers show that machines at the same voting center have the same number of “yes” votes, in (…)

The Invisible People: The Precariously Housed and Doubled Up Families
The plight of millions of people who lost their homes and now share housing with others. The ongoing struggle to pay the bills that threatens to make millions more homeless.
Part two in a five part series on the alarming increases of homelessness, poverty, and hunger in America.
By Jay Shaft- Coalition For Free Thought In Media
For those who have not read it, Part One of this series is archived at (…)

– Homeless families ask an important question: "How can America let this happen to us? Why can’t we get any help?" Part one in a five part series on the alarming increases of homelessness, poverty, and hunger in America.
By Jay Shaft - Coalition For Free Thought In Media
Since the beginning of this year, there has been yet another shocking increase in the number of homeless families. The National Coalition for the Homeless is tracking 20-40% increases across the country, in every state (…)

By Carol Giacomo
PITTSBURGH - An American journalist who commanded a boat alongside John Kerry in Vietnam broke a 35-year silence on Saturday and defended the Democratic presidential candidate against Republican critics of his military service.
Weighing in on what has become the most bitterly divisive issue of the 2004 campaign for the White House, William Rood of the Chicago Tribune said the tales told by Kerry’s detractors are untrue.
"There were three swift boats on the river that (…)

Fighting a Phony War
By Eleanor Clift
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth stopped by NEWSWEEK’s Washington bureau this week to explain their version of what happened in Vietnam 35 years ago and why John Kerry doesn’t deserve three Purple Hearts. None were on the Swift Boat Kerry commanded, but they had charts to illustrate their contention that Kerry’s boat did not come under fire and that two of his wounds were self-inflicted, one when he hurled a grenade at a rice bin too close to his (…)

Twenty-one years ago a group of prominent Japanese veterans funded by wealthy, ultra-conservative descendants of World War II era military families attempted to enact official legislation that would provide all Japanese schools with new History books that completely re-wrote the factual record of WWII. The new history intended to be taught to all Japanese children included twisted but skillfully written revisions that described the "retributive" Japanese "strike" on Pearl Harbor as a totally (…)

– There are veterans supporting John Kerry at most campaign events. ...
"I feel good about the fact that he was a vet; I feel good about his loyalty," says Roland McAlpin, a Army veteran of the Vietnam War.
... And there are others backing attack ads against him on TV, or accusing him of being a fake.
"It wouldn’t hurt if he were to come clean, if he were to fess up," says Gordy Evans, a former Marine in Vietnam.
According to recent polls, the nearly 27-million-member-strong veterans (…)

by Pete McCloskey
The recent comments of Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski reflect great courage on her part and give faith to the rest of us that there are still those in public service dedicated to learning and disclosing the truth. In 2002, after more than 19 years of service, Kwiatkowski was looking forward to retirement and a well-earned pension. She was also an idealist who believed the government should tell the American people the truth.
There have always been idealists in (…)

BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO
A group of Arab-Americans and other protesters will find out Monday morning whether a federal judge in Manhattan will force the city to allow them to hold a large demonstration on Central Park’s Great Lawn on the eve of the Republican National Convention.
Judge William H. Pauley III said Friday he will have his decision by 11 a.m Monday on whether City Hall in June improperly denied a permit for the demonstration.
After listening to legal arguments and testimony (…)