Abstract

In Fact..

This section presents brief news and commentary pieces on U.S. politics and world affairs. "Terrorist" is surely the blackest epithet in the Bush Administration's lexicon, so it would seem that Education Secretary Rod Paige owes the NEA more than just an apology for calling it a" terrorist organization." Especially, one would think, when the union's only sin was exercising its right of free speech to criticize aspects of the fancifully titled "No Child Left Behind" Act. Will the move by Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV and broadband giant, to swallow up Disney/ ABC spark a new round of protests against the looser FCC rules? So far, Senators Kerry and Edwards--as well as other leading Democrats--have failed to publicly oppose what would be the biggest media merger in US history. Opposing Comcast's Disney/ABC takeover should be high on the progressive agenda. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has dropped its case against Katharine Gun, the former intelligence officer charged under the Official Secrets Act after she leaked a memo alleging an American campaign to spy on UN delegates before the Iraq war. The recent Economic Report of the President suggests that jobs in the fast-food industry should be reclassified as manufacturing jobs. Its authors claim there's only a difference in degree between assembling a Big Mac at McDonald's and assembling an Explorer at Ford.