contributions

By Jim Lobe
February 7, 2004’ Asia Times online
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FB07Aa03.html
WASHINGTON - If United States Vice President Dick Cheney was hoping that the cold, crisp air of Davos and his private audience with Pope John Paul II late last month would revive his spirits, as well as his standing in the polls, he must be deeply disappointed.
Since returning home, he has faced a seemingly unrelenting succession of disclosures and attacks that appear to get worse (…)

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 6 - Abdul al-Latif al-Mayah was never safe. Not before the war started, and not after.
A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Mayah, a 53-year-old political scientist and human rights advocate known in his neighborhood here as "the professor," was driving to work when eight masked gunmen jumped in front of his car. They yanked him into the street, the police said, and shot him nine times in front of his bodyguard and another university lecturer.
In an (…)

UPDATE ON MARCH 20
The March 20 National Coalition and the March 20 Mobilizing Committee had the second of two meetings on Thursday, February 6, which was attended by representatives of more than 20 organizations, networks and coalitions, and came to a unanimous decision to have a united demonstration on March 20 in New York City. The two coalitions also agreed unanimously to make public a joint statement, the language of which was mutually agreed to at that meeting, and to share (…)

A Bush Covert Operative Takes Over Al Sharpton’s Campaign — Sleeping With the GOP ==================================
by Wayne Barrett with special reporting by Adam Hutton and Christine Lagorio February 5th, 2004 8:20 AM Village Voice
Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al (…)

Scalia Was Cheney Hunt Trip Guest; Ethics Concern Grows ======================
The revelation cast further doubts about whether Scalia can be impartial in Cheney’s upcoming case before the Supreme Court.
By David G. Savage and Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writers
PATTERSON, La. — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia traveled as an official guest of Vice President Dick Cheney on a small government jet that served as Air Force Two when the pair came here last month to hunt ducks. (…)

Hundreds of thousands will demonstrate in cities in the United States and around the world. Here is how you can get involved in your city or town:
*NEW YORK CITY*
All from the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut region are invited to attend a PLANNING AND MOBILIZATION MEETING Tuesday, February 10 7 pm AFSCME District Council 1707 75 Varick St., Suite 1404 (take 1, 9, A, C, or E train to Canal St.)
Join students, labor unionists, anti-war activists and many more to participate in a (…)

Momentum is growing for the March 20 Global Day of Action. The Call to Action issued by the March 20 National Coalition to "Bring the troops home now!," "End colonial occupation from Iraq to Palestine and everywhere!," "Money for jobs, education, healthcare and housing - Not war!" and "Stop the attacks on civil rights and civil liberties!" has received over 1,500 endorsements.
Major regional demonstrations will take place at Times Square in New York City, Dolores Park in San (…)

by Andrew Lam
Published on Monday, February 2, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle
Living in Vietnam during the war as a child, I witnessed enough of American military power to know that no ideology or rationale can justify killing more than 3 million civilians. So it is gratifying to hear Robert S. McNamara, ex-secretary of defense under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and one of the principal architects of that war, finally confess onscreen that he, too, thought it was a (…)

Ruth Rosen,
San Francisco Chronicle January 30, 2004
Cynthia Hernandez, a petite and pretty 21-year-old grocery worker, felt exhilarated, rather than weary, after traveling by bus from Los Angeles to Northern California. Riding with her were her 2-year-old daughter, 50 other union members and religious leaders of all denominations from Southern California.
She was part of the "Grocery Workers’ Justice Pilgrimage," representing 70,000 workers who have been striking Safeway and have been (…)

By EMILY EAKIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/31/arts/31CHUA.html?ex=1076656998&ei=1&en=0205f1f6a569eb90
NEW HAVEN - To most Americans, the notion that free markets and democracy are essential to curing the world’s ills is an article of faith. If only Iraq and Afghanistan, Cuba and North Korea, Syria and Rwanda would adopt both, their people, not to mention the world, would be safer and richer.
Yet to Amy Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, such accepted wisdom is mostly (…)