March 22, 2004 | The Nation

Bellingham, Wash.

We're happy to welcome to the masthead two contributing writers whose beats will include media, politics and in particular ideas and intellectual debates.

Barely a month ago Prime Minister Tony Blair looked unstoppable. He'd survived, narrowly, a revolt within his own party over plans to allow universities to charge higher tuition fees.

It is not exactly that he lies, but Alan Greenspan certainly ranks among the most duplicitous figures to serve in modern American government.

For those who know Haitian history, this has been a time of eerie, unhappy déjà vu.

The John Kerry who won nine of ten Super Tuesday states, and with those victories Democratic nominee-in-waiting status, was not the John Kerry who officially launched his presidential campaign si

On pages 11 and 14 of this issue Tom Hayden and Carol Burke recall the culture wars of the Vietnam era, which live on in the odd, enduring hatred of Jane Fonda by conservative vets.

A hypocritical Bush uses 9/11 images but resists an accounting of the truth.

Thomas Friedman hasn't been this worked up about free trade since the anti-World Trade Organization protests in Seattle.

While gaudily festooned Hollywood liberals presented each other with the false golden idol of a little naked man, enlightened others quietly celebrated the traditions of thousands of years of Wes

I'm an optimist by disposition, but some weeks it's hard to find evidence of progress in human affairs.

He backs an amendment defining the vow
Of marriage as being a guy and his frau,
Lest civilization sink into a slough--
Which he says could happen. It isn't clear how.

Iran and America are following a negative policy of not alienating each other.

This article was adapted from Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso). Check www.lauraflanders.com for book-tour information.

Sarah Anderson &

As George W. Bush popped into the International Speedway during the granddaddy NASCAR Daytona 500 on February 15 he was careful to not screw up the way Bill Clinton did back in 1992.

Additional reporting by Cissy Rebich.

The civilian female in soldier lore.

On bad memories and popular delusions.

In the midst of a wicked winter, I like to curl up with some sultry nature writing. My father instilled in me a fascination with the natural world.

Solo theatrical performances are like ads. Everyone claims to hate them but nevertheless finds the good ones irresistible. A good ad acts like a tonic, making a new idea easy to swallow.

In 1964 an important if somewhat obscure Polish writer and public intellectual named Aleksander Wat arrived at the University of California, Berkeley, and began the work that would eventually bec

The title does neither the book nor its author any favors.

Since Miles Davis died on September 28, 1991, the merchandising machine has been in overdrive, pushing repackaged classics (Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain), niche compilations and