How Enron Did Texas

Enron, maker of big promises and big donations, stands revealed as a four-flusher.

Nate Blakeslee

Letter From China

While the elite embrace globalization, the anger of workers and peasants grows.

Jiang Xueqin

Enron’s Global Crusade

The Texas company has been a scandal in other countries for a long time.

John Nichols

Reflections on ‘Containment’

Bush will have trouble in the long run selling the "axis of evil" and other myths.

Bruce Cumings

A Stealth Attack on Freedom of the Press

The Federal Communications Commission is presently conducting an inquiry--a "rulemaking"--to determine whether to relax, or even to eliminate, the remaining few regulations that limit how many me

Robert W. McChesney and Mark Crispin Miller

Interview with Senator Jon Corzine

Corzine: You set the right context.

William Greider

Protesting Black Hawk Down

It's one thing to have Somali groups protesting Black Hawk Down for what they say is an inaccurate and racist portrayal of Somalis.

Adrian Brune

The Homeland Security Initiative

Barbara Coe is not your typical sixty-something silver-haired-senior-in-polyester.

Bill Berkowitz

Bush’s China Opening

Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic

NYC Campaign Reform

The success of Michael Bloomberg's $69 million race for Mayor of New York against Mark Green was widely seen as a setback for campaign finance reform. But the Bloomberg campaign demonstrated the limits of campaign finance reform under the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution, not its failure.

Richard Kirsch

Going Down the Road

Wal-Mart Warriors

Jim Hightower

Listening In on the WEF

Doug Henwood

Real Reform Post-Enron

the Editors

Nation Notes

On page 8 you'll see a new monthly feature by Jim Hightower, "Going Down the Road." Jim's been called America's favorite populist. He's been editor of The Texas Observer, president of the Texas Consumer Association, Texas Agriculture Commissioner, host of a radio show. Nowadays he broadcasts daily radio commentaries, publishes a monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown (jimhightower.com) and makes more than 100 speeches a year. With groups like ACORN and Public Citizen he's organizing the Rolling Thunder Chautauqua Tour, a series of political/cultural festivals around the country (rollingthundertour.org). He'll be traveling through America talking to people engaged in grassroots work and new political movements for working people.

Indian novelist Arundhati Roy faces a sentencing hearing in March for contempt of court. She's being prosecuted for language she used to defend herself against a bogus suit brought against her for speaking at a rally condemning the development of dams in India that will displace thousands of people. The suit was dismissed; Roy could draw up to six months in jail on the contempt charge.

the Editors

Kenny Boy

(A Houston version of the Irish folk song)

Oh, Kenny Boy, your friends are disappearing.
They don't know you, much less your kvetchy wife.
Yes, it's sad when pols that you've been shmeering
Now hope that you'll get twenty years to life.
They sang your song: They passed deregulation.
They passed your laws. They bent the regs your way.
But now they track your every obfuscation.
Old Kenny Boy, their Kenny Boy's now Mr. Lay.

Calvin Trillin

Egg on the Brain

Katha Pollitt

Black Mischief

On East Capitol Street a few years ago, I was in a taxi when a car pulled suddenly and dangerously across our bow. My driver was white, with a hunter's cap and earmuffs and an indefinable rosy hue about his neck. The offending motorist was black. Both vehicles had to stop sharply. My driver did not, to my relief, say what I thought he might have been about to say.

Christopher Hitchens

Making Money, the Bush Way

You have to hand it to George Bush the senior for hustle. Back in 1998, he took at least $80,000 in stock from Global Crossing in return for speaking for the company in Tokyo.

Robert Scheer

Ellison Unbound

David Yaffe

Lost in America

Ilan Stavans

A Crowbar to the Face

Frederick Wiseman has spent a lifetime piecing together sounds and images captured from the daily flow.

Stuart Klawans

Black Mischief

On East Capitol Street a few years ago, I was in a taxi when a car pulled suddenly and dangerously across our bow. My driver was white, with a hunter's cap and earmuffs and an indefinable rosy hue about his neck. The offending motorist was black. Both vehicles had to stop sharply. My driver did not, to my relief, say what I thought he might have been about to say.

Christopher Hitchens

Following Doctors’ Orders

Suzanne Gordon

In Our Orbit

the Editors

Protesting Black Hawk Down

It's one thing to have Somali groups protesting Black Hawk Down for what they say is an inaccurate and racist portrayal of Somalis.

Adrian Brune

Letters

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