June 9, 2008 Issue

Cover art by: Cover illustration by Doug Chayka

Feature

Polygamists’ Kids in Their Own Private Gitmo

A mass detention. Vague legal charges. Emotional abuse. Hostile overseers. This isn't Guantánamo--it's Texas. And the victims are children the state wants to protect.
Richard Wexler
‘Like He Died Twice’: Mary Tillman’s Lonely Quest

The mother of Pat Tillman--football star, Army ranger and casualty of war--reflects on how the Pentagon has distorted the truth and the NFL has exploited the tragedy.
Dave Zirin
Got Milk? Get Investigated

State and federal authorities are relying on undercover agents to entrap dairy farmers.
David E. Gumpert
Tiny Soap Bubbles

This Week: Kang and Valdez explore each other's bodies and minds, and somebody gets a gun slapped upside their head.
Gary Phillips
Mixed Blessing

Obama calls for direct dialogue and new trade deals with Latin America, but continued counterinsurgency in Columbia, tensions with Venezuela.
Tom Hayden

Editorial

J. Edgar Hoover, Author

A new book reveals the FBI Director's distinctive relationship with his publisher.
Jon Wiener
The Culture War Disarmed

This time, Democrats won't be losing the culture war.
Richard Kim
Noted.

Sam Adams shakes up Portland; the House votes for peace; we offer kudos to Kors and send get-well wishes to Ted Kennedy.
the Editors
The Appeasement Card

Despite the Bush/McCain snake oil on Mideast policy, Obama can make the case that talking to your enemies isn't the same as appeasing Hitler.
the Editors
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Column

Where Is the Outrage Over Torture?

The muted response to revelations of torture raises the question of whether Americans are truly savages or simply tone-deaf on matters of morality.
Robert Scheer
When Tiger Met Chevron…

Woods's partnership with Chevron makes a mockery of his late father's hopes for him.
Dave Zirin
Déjà Vu in South Dakota

It's going to take a concerted national effort to defeat the state's latest anti-choice ballot initiative.
Katha Pollitt
From Palmyra to Obama

Is it conceivable that Obama, Clinton or McCain could be as bad or worse than Bush?
Alexander Cockburn
Election 2008: Where They Stand Now

Here's the latest on Barack Star, the Presumptive Deludee, the Ex-First Black President and more.
Ward Sutton
Republican Bonding

No daylight between these two characters.
Calvin Trillin

Books & the Arts

Tight Corners

When Richard Price moves from the urban ruins of New Jersey to the gentrified Lower East Side of Lush Life, things get complicated.
Elaine Blair
Beyond Belief

Can the wall between church and state balance the principles of neutrality and accomodation?
Jeff Sharlet
The Power Conundrum

After railing against non-violent intervention in the face of genocide, Samantha Power rethinks her stand.
Michael Massing
In the Lost Realm of the Real

Michael Dibdin's detective Zen series sounds a melancholy note for an old Italy rife with political enemies.
Carl Bromley
Searching for Traces

There was little enthusiasm for revisiting the camps in Communist Hungary. Author Imre Kertész refracts that reluctance in fictional form.
Ruth Scurr
The Reminder-General

Tony Judt fears the twenty-first century has spawned a culture hell- bent on forgetting the past.
Stefan Collini
Dead Letters

Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig saw himself as a Freud of fiction--a fellow spelunker in the caverns of the heart.
William Deresiewicz
Belovèd

Kamau Brathwaite
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