September 18, 2006 Issue

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

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Feature

In Mexico, a Class War Looms

The confirmation of Felipe Calderón’s electoral victory signals the end of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s three-year struggle for the presidency and the beginning of a new phase of organized resistance.
John Ross
What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA

Valerie Plame was no mere analyst or paper-pusher at the CIA. She was an operations officer working on a top priority of the Bush Administration: searching out intelligence on Iraq’s weapon’s of mass destruction.
David Corn
Senate Vote Advances President’s Effort to Kill War Crimes Act

The 109th Congress, led by Republican Senators McCain, Warner, and Graham and with the acquiescence of many Democrats, is poised to legalize torture, trials with secret evidence, and annulment of the right of habeas corpus
Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith
Rocky Anderson, Folk Hero?

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s cachet is growing in the wake of a stem-winding speech in which he called the President to account for lies and ineptitude in Irag, castigated a complaisant media and assailed the electorate for passively consuming government lies.
Sasha Abramsky
Undone by Neoliberalism

Before the storm, neoliberalism shaped the social and economic inequities of New Orleans; after Hurricane Katrina, it worsened them by making government the tool of corporations and investors.
Adolph Reed Jr.
Don’t Mourn, Link

After the storm hit, the Internet was one of the few reliable sources of information for New Orleans. A year later, it remains a critical tool for citizens’ participation in their city’s reconstruction.
Michael Tisserand
Grassroots Gumbo

Activists and residents are struggling to protect New Orleans’s devastated low-income neighborhoods from developers’ vision of a “smaller footprint” for the city.
Chris Kromm
New Orleans Forsaken

One year later, how will we come to terms with what happened when Hurricane Katrina washed up the disenfranchised most people, including the President, have tried to forget?
Gary Younge
Linking to New Orleans

As New Orleans rebuilds, so does its Internet community. Here’s a list of the Big Easy’s liveliest sites.
Michael Tisserand

Editorial

Challenging the Culture of Obedience

Through lies, ineptitude and immoral policies, the Bush Administration has led the nation to the brink of disaster, ruined our reputation and sowed hatred that will take generations to uproot. I
Ross C. Anderson
No Rx in Massachusetts

If it becomes a national model, a new, highly touted health insurance law in Massachusetts would make American healthcare, already on life support, take a turn for the worse.
Trudy Lieberman
Tavis Smiley’s Covenant

Journalist, activist, philanthropist and self-promoter, Tavis Smiley has the political clout and the ability to energize and educate the black community in the best tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.
Amy Alexander
Israel Lobby Watch

The Human Rights Watch reports that were sharply critical of Israel’s killing of civilians in Lebanon represent the latest battle for Jewish hearts and minds in the ideological war over the Middle East.
Philip Weiss
Antiwar Primaries

Key primary races in Maryland, Rhode Island and even New York are making the Iraq War what it should be in every 2006 political contest: the central issue.
John Nichols
Katrina One Year After

Great tragedies call for visionary leadership. This is the moment for progressives to summon the guts to forge a compelling message not just about what’s come apart in America, but how to pull us back together.
The Editors
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Column

Your 401(k) Won’t Help When You Need It

If you’re depending on private savings accounts to get you through retirement, get ready for a bitter surprise, thanks to the crooks and incompetents charged with selling and running the funds.
Nicholas von Hoffman
High on Opium, Not Democracy

In Bush-liberated Afghanistan, billions in drug profits are financing the Taliban, proving the President is better at starting wars than winning them.
Robert Scheer
All Governments (and Some Journalists) Lie

Democracy demands that journalists tell the truth. The success of liars like Bob Novak and Ann Coulter is a greater threat to America than a truck full of terrorists bent on doing us harm.
Eric Alterman
The Choice on Iraq

Here’s how Democrats should spin the biggest political question in the midterm elections.
Calvin Trillin

Books & the Arts

Naguib Mahfouz: An Appreciation

Egypt has been deprived of its greatest living writer, and the world has lost one of its most humane literary figures.
Laila Lalami
The Chinese Evolution

Three new books on China invite the West to give up simplistic dreams and nightmares and come to terms with a complex and rapidly evolving authoritarian state.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Poetry, From Noun to Verb

Nathaniel Mackey’s most recent collection of subtle, intricate poetry weaves images from Arab and African diasporas with a contemporary sense of dislocation.
John Palattella
Let’s Dance

In Tango: The Art History of Love, Robert Thompson traces the dance’s roots in Afro-Argentine history. Tomas Eloy Martínez’s The Tango Singer appropriates its music to explore the recent past.
Marina Harss
Five Poems by Ko Un

Two beggars
sharing a meal of the food they’ve been given

The new moon shines intensely

*
The Nation
Writers From the Other Asia

Four new books explore Korea’s cold war hangover and the indelible mark left by its North-South division.
John Feffer
Tavis Smiley’s Covenant

Journalist, activist, philanthropist and self-promoter, Tavis Smiley has the political clout and the ability to energize and educate the black community in the best tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.
Amy Alexander
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Letters

A Librarian Speaks on the Cuba Controversy

New Jersey
The Nation
Letters

ELECTIONS? HOW QUAINT
Our Readers and Laila Lalami

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September 18, 2006 Issue

Feature

The confirmation of Felipe Calderón’s electoral victory signals the end of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s three-year struggle for the presidency and the beginning of a new phase of organized resistance.

Valerie Plame was no mere analyst or paper-pusher at the CIA. She was an operations officer working on a top priority of the Bush Administration: searching out intelligence on Iraq’s weapon’s of mass destruction.

The 109th Congress, led by Republican Senators McCain, Warner, and Graham and with the acquiescence of many Democrats, is poised to legalize torture, trials with secret evidence, and annulment of the right of habeas corpus

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s cachet is growing in the wake of a stem-winding speech in which he called the President to account for lies and ineptitude in Irag, castigated a complaisant media and assailed the electorate for passively consuming government lies.

Before the storm, neoliberalism shaped the social and economic inequities of New Orleans; after Hurricane Katrina, it worsened them by making government the tool of corporations and investors.

After the storm hit, the Internet was one of the few reliable sources of information for New Orleans. A year later, it remains a critical tool for citizens’ participation in their city’s reconstruction.

Activists and residents are struggling to protect New Orleans’s devastated low-income neighborhoods from developers’ vision of a “smaller footprint” for the city.

One year later, how will we come to terms with what happened when Hurricane Katrina washed up the disenfranchised most people, including the President, have tried to forget?

As New Orleans rebuilds, so does its Internet community. Here’s a list of the Big Easy’s liveliest sites.

Editorial

Through lies, ineptitude and immoral policies, the Bush Administration has led the nation to the brink of disaster, ruined our reputation and sowed hatred that will take generations to uproot. I

If it becomes a national model, a new, highly touted health insurance law in Massachusetts would make American healthcare, already on life support, take a turn for the worse.

Journalist, activist, philanthropist and self-promoter, Tavis Smiley has the political clout and the ability to energize and educate the black community in the best tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Human Rights Watch reports that were sharply critical of Israel’s killing of civilians in Lebanon represent the latest battle for Jewish hearts and minds in the ideological war over the Middle East.

Key primary races in Maryland, Rhode Island and even New York are making the Iraq War what it should be in every 2006 political contest: the central issue.

Great tragedies call for visionary leadership. This is the moment for progressives to summon the guts to forge a compelling message not just about what’s come apart in America, but how to pull us back together.

GET UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS FOR LESS THAN $3 A MONTH!

Column

If you’re depending on private savings accounts to get you through retirement, get ready for a bitter surprise, thanks to the crooks and incompetents charged with selling and running the funds.

In Bush-liberated Afghanistan, billions in drug profits are financing the Taliban, proving the President is better at starting wars than winning them.

Democracy demands that journalists tell the truth. The success of liars like Bob Novak and Ann Coulter is a greater threat to America than a truck full of terrorists bent on doing us harm.

Here’s how Democrats should spin the biggest political question in the midterm elections.

Books & the Arts

Egypt has been deprived of its greatest living writer, and the world has lost one of its most humane literary figures.

Three new books on China invite the West to give up simplistic dreams and nightmares and come to terms with a complex and rapidly evolving authoritarian state.

Nathaniel Mackey’s most recent collection of subtle, intricate poetry weaves images from Arab and African diasporas with a contemporary sense of dislocation.

In Tango: The Art History of Love, Robert Thompson traces the dance’s roots in Afro-Argentine history. Tomas Eloy Martínez’s The Tango Singer appropriates its music to explore the recent past.

Two beggars sharing a meal of the food they’ve been given The new moon shines intensely *

Four new books explore Korea’s cold war hangover and the indelible mark left by its North-South division.

Journalist, activist, philanthropist and self-promoter, Tavis Smiley has the political clout and the ability to energize and educate the black community in the best tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.

The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

Letters

New Jersey

ELECTIONS? HOW QUAINT

Two beggars
sharing a meal of the food they’ve been given

The new moon shines intensely

*