Print Magazine

November 19, 2007 Issue

Mike Davis on the California fires, Helena Cobban on Hamas and Hezbollah, Oona A. Hathaway on international law.

Cover art by: Cover by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels

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Editorial

The Colbert Rapport

Like other prank campaigns, Stephen Colbert's bid for President promised brilliant satire. It's a shame he's called it quits.

Larry Bogad

Preparing for the Inevitable

The San Diego wildfires should prompt political candidates to address the fact that communities across America are ill-equipped to deal with natural and unnatural disasters.

Donald Cohen

The Gap: New Frontiers in Child Abuse

The Gap has been caught selling garments made by child slaves in India. It's enough to make you vomit all over your new denim jacket.

Barbara Ehrenreich

Noted.

Phony FEMA press conference, France v. Rumsfeld, Stephen Colbert and remembering Randall Forsberg.

The Editors

False Prophets

James Watson continues his long and well-documented history of baselessly biologizing social stereotypes.

Patricia J. Williams

Say No to Africom

With little Congressional scrutiny and nary a whimper of protest, the United States will soon establish permanent military bases in sub-Saharan Africa.

Danny Glover and Nicole C. Lee

A mobile home park in ruins after the 2007 Harris Fire in California.

People Burn Here

Immigrants are the invisible victims of the California wildfires.

Mike Davis

Column

Our Man in Pakistan

Gen. Pervez Musharraf turns out to be just another crummy dictator. But he's our dictator--using the $10 billion in US aid to jail judges and lawyers, and give shelter Al Qaeda and...

Robert Scheer

Rapture Rescue 911: Disaster Response for the Chosen

Gone are the days of equal protection. Intense natural disasters like the California wildfires are being met with a new model: privatized disaster response.

Naomi Klein

David Horowitz, Feminist?

The oppression of Muslim women is a major theme among the Islamofascistly aware. If only they felt the same about other women on earth.

Katha Pollitt

Du Côté de Chez Madame Defarge

These days, even London and Paris seem a bit like North Korea.

Alexander Cockburn

The Nicest Republican

Calvin Trillin

Letters

Hillary’s Money Men?

The errors about me in "Hillary's Mystery Money Men," by Russ Baker and Adam Federman [Nov.

Russ Baker and Adam Federman and Alan G. Quasha and Terence R. McAuliffe

Feature

Relearning the Art of Diplomacy

Most candidates have no idea what it involves.

Anatol Lieven

Blue Tide In Kentucky–and Virginia

Democrats gained steam in Tuesday's off-year elections, making it even more obvious that two significant Southern states are up for grabs in 2008.

Bob Moser

Environmentalism With a Social Conscience

At the eighteenth annual Bioneers Conference, environmentalists and social activists are creating alliances that allow the poor to share the promise of a greening America.

Joliange Wright

Who Lost Pakistan?

How often can the Bush Administration be caught off guard by the consequences of its own actions? Endlessly, it seems.

Tom Engelhardt

Cracking the Code

How can the left be as adept as the right-wing spin machine at communicating its political agenda? Learn how to use the tools.

Thom Hartmann

San Francisco No Longer Sweat-Free

The city has backed away from its longstanding commitment to avoid procuring city workers' garments from offshore sweatshops.

Tom Hayden

The Great Debate of 2008

The time is right for a Great Debate on America's purpose and place in the world. But neither Republicans nor Democrats seem up to the task.

Jerry W. Sanders

Why We Need International Law

It's time to undo the damage and reaffirm America's historical commitment to international law.

Oona A. Hathaway

Jobs, Justice and Democracy

Mideast policy must include development.

Afshin Molavi

Facing Hamas and Hezbollah

US diplomacy in the Middle East has been held hostage by a refusal to engage with these two popular movements.

Helena Cobban

Combating Muslim Extremism

American politicians should stop implying that Muslim nations and individuals are more dangerous than any other group of human beings. They should also stop calling their religion ...

Juan Cole

The Iranian Challenge

To change Iran's behavior, we must first change our own.

Trita Parsi

Avoiding the Toughness Trap

Candidates should rethink their commitment to outmoded security tools and veiled nuclear threats against nonnuclear states.

William D. Hartung

Undebated Challenges

As America became mired in Iraq, the rest of the world moved on. Yet neither political party seems ready to face the fundamental economic, environmental and geopolitical changes.

Sherle R. Schwenninger