Gore Vidal reads the signs of the decline of American empire, John Nichols writes a prescription to clean up Ohio politics and Jon Mooallem reviews new biographies of Marilyn Monroe and Benito Mussolini.
Mike Davis & Anthony Fontenot : The Cajun and Creole folks of Ville Platte, LA, learned long ago not to rely on the government for help. It the wake of hurricanes they launched a homemade rescue-and-relief effort to save their community.
Michael Tisserand : Advocacy groups like ACORN want New Orleanians to play a role in the rebuilding of the community they had to leave. The biggest issue so far: getting refugees of the storm back home.
Jean Hardisty & Deepak Bhargava : Progressives lack a common set of that tie a movement together. But they can build on conservatives' proven strategy of slowly creating a broad consensus.
Marc Cooper : Marc Cooper interviews Gore Vidal about an America that is increasingly controlled by corporations and suggests that the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Iraq debacle signal the breakdown of an empire.
John Nichols
:
It's a tight race, but if Tim Kaine becomes the next governor of
Virginia, Democrats gain what they desperately need to win back
Congress: a big win in a Southern state.
John Nichols
:
There's a way to cure Ohio's dysfunctional electoral system: an
election-reform referendum that allows creation of "swing districts."
: For Iraqis fed up with the violence and chaos of the occupation, passage of the new Constitution is just one more US-imposed measure that will set the stage for civil war.
David Corn
:
Indictments or not, what America knows now about the outing of Valerie
Plame is that Bush Administration officials deliberately leaked
information that potentially damaged the nation--then lied about it.
Stephen Gillers : Harriet Miers's slender public record makes it imperative that her advice the president on personal, executive and constitutional matters be fully disclosed to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sharon Lerner
:
As House Republicans use the cost of recovery from Gulf Coast storms as
an excuse to rip last-minute holes in the social safety net, it's not
too late to change priorities.
William Johnson & Kate Levin
:
The Senate will soon consider the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (FAIR) that is anything but for the workers whose health has been impaired by asbestos. It's a move by major corporations to significantly reduce their liability.
Jon Mooallem
:
New biographies of Benito Mussolini and Marilyn Monroe contemplate
exploitation of the body--in life and after death.
Hal Foster
:
Michael Kimmelman's The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa is a celebration of the intersection between art and life and the random genius of the unexpected.
Stuart Klawans : Paradise Now explores the bond among suicide bombers; The Squid and the Whale brings two monstrously large characters to human scale and The President's Last Bang is nastily efficient.
Calvin Trillin
:
One twisted tale of how Harriet Miers's confirmation hearings will
unfold.
Patricia J. Williams : Follow a mythical voyage through America's nightmare, on a ship with an uncaring captain, a subsequent shipwreck, and the poor are left behind to perish.
Eric Alterman : With leading Republicans facing the slammer and Bush in a tailspin, fate has given liberals a huge opportunity. Americans already share our values--we need a new language to help connect peoples' deepest needs to the liberal vision.
Eric Foner : Frozen in memory as the simple woman who helped to bring down segregation, Rosa Parks was far more complex and formidable than the popular imagination makes her out to be . A fuller picture of her life should make us also remember the many unsung heroes and heroines who came before and after her.
Max Blumenthal : Two offensive attack ads in the Virginia governor's race have backfired on Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore and his attack-dog media consultant. Does this mean GOP smear tactics are a spent force?
Nicholas von Hoffman : The privatization of the nation's greatest, once-public colleges and universities is well under way. The loss of low-cost higher education is a quiet tragedy, one that will severely limit the potential of generations of future students.
Robert Scheer : Congress has decided to grant the gun lobby its most fervent and irresponsible wish: blanket immunity from civil lawsuits.
Dr. Marc Siegel : It has all the makings of a horror flick, but panic over a possible bird flu pandemic is following a time-honored script: sensational media reports, profit-hungry drug manufacturers and politicians eager to capitalize on fears.
Our Readers : Our readers write back on Darwin, New Orleans, and Bill Bennett.
Calvin Trillin : Saddam Hussein went to trial on Wednesday declaring he was still the president of Iraq. A decade-old series of odes to Hussein's dictatorial days show the tyrant was always out of touch with reality.
Adele Oltman : Those who believe that slavery in America was strictly a "Southern thing" will discover an eye-opening historical record on display at the New-York Historical Society's current exhibition, "Slavery in New York."
Shreema Mehta : Rows of plain black boots and empty pairs of baby shoes and dancing slippers are a mute testament to the American soldiers and Iraqi civilians who have perished in Iraq, as shown in a traveling exhibition sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee.
Kelly Hearn : As Brazilians vote on a historic measure to ban the sale of guns and ammunition, foes of gun control have received help from a neighbor to the north: the NRA.
Chip Pitts : Chip Pitts writes that after a campaign of distortion and deception, the Patriot Act is about to be renewed. No longer a temporary measure, it will be used against dissidents, immigrants, Muslims and ordinary Americans accused of crimes unrelated to terrorism.
Cover by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels
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