December 16, 2002 | The Nation

Washington, DC

My dear Katha,

Critics of America's plans to oust Saddam Hussein militarily have
mounted powerful arguments, but not one has articulated a coherent
nonmilitary strategy to bring about the demise of the monstr

Tony Hall, just before leaving Congress in September, sat in his office
in Longworth House Office Building and thought of something that had
stuck with him since a trip to Appalachia.

Mumia's Appeal

After decades of legal and political maneuvering, the twenty-year-old
death-penalty case of black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal is entering a
critical stage.

The Quiet American, which recently opened for a two-week run in a
couple of theaters in New York and Los Angeles, illustrates just how far
Hollywood self-censorship has gone in the year

The financial scandals continue to produce more outrageous revelations,
but lately they come with lurid personal details more appropriate to
bottom-dwelling tabloids than the Wall Street Jou

Now, here's what the deal's supposed to be: In exchange for greater
security you give up certain rights.

The President clearly does not want to know the truth about September 11.

Dear Dr. Madlaw,
   As a newly elected member of Congress, I am appalled at the high cost
of living in Washington. What's a hard-working public servant to do?

If nothing shows in spyplane pics
And Blix finds nothing in the sticks,
That still won't put us in a fix.
We'll blame it on Iraqi tricks,

So let's join Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Logistics, and
Technology Edward "Pete" Aldridge at a recent Pentagon press briefing,
where he's addressing concerns about the Pentagon

A federal judge hands nine workers an unexpected victory in their battle against a law requiring citizenship for all airport screeners.

Voters felt devalued and heard no message, so many of them stayed home.

Neoliberalism has produced an eco-crisis.

Resentment of US policies is growing.

A new Defense Department spy office could politicize intelligence gathering.

Selling women short.

Secret societies are manna for conspiracy theorists, and few are more secret or more conspiracy-nourishing than Yale's Skull and Bones.

In the rabbi's parable a lame one climbs
Onto a blind one's shoulders and together
They take the fruit of the garden of the Lord.

Ani DiFranco

As any casual observer of mega-bookstore shelves knows, the history of the modern civil rights movement is a well-studied field.

An English woman I've never met
calls to read me her new poem
about the little Texas junco bird
whose cry sounded to the early settlers

Ashwin Desai's "We Are the Poors" is one of the best books yet on globalization and resistance.

Here where everyone forgets everything,
including where they are
or what they are fighting to remember,