Banking is difficult during the National Holiday in China. For seven days, everybody is on vacation – everybody. Cooks and old bearded cardboard collectors still do their routines, but their relatives are coming through from afar and filling the apartment up...
Not Enough Troops – or Truth
It's not an if, it's a when. Pentagon officials have indicated that they plan to send as many as 15,000 more troops to Iraq during the first four months of 2005, and President Bush continues to insist that "we will stay the course" until Iraq is stabilized....
No Palestinian State, No Peace for America
Now we know the truth. Neither the Bush administration nor the Israeli government has any intention whatsoever of allowing the Palestinians to establish their own state. That means, of course, that both have been lying, not only to the Palestinians but to the American...
The Worst Way to Fight Terror
The 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act (H.R. 10) is yet another attempt to address the tH.R.eat of terrorism by giving more money and power to the federal bureaucracy. Most of the reforms contained in this bill will not make America safer, though they definitely...
Larry Franklin’s October Surprise
Amid the back-and-forth between the Bushies and the Kerry camp, one campaign season fusillade has gone largely unnoticed. Fundie nut-job Pat Robertson exposed the real heart and soul of his movement of moonbats the other day at a news conference in Jerusalem, where he...
WMD Myth Meant to Deter Iran
First, the CIA comes out and says it can't find any convincing evidence that Saddam Hussein harbored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi's presence at certain points in Iraq has long been argued as a proof of his links to terrorism and al-Qaeda (even though Zarqawi's...
Iraq: Making the Most of a Bad Situation
BAGHDAD - As proponents of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq constantly assert, not everything taking place in the "New Iraq" is bad news. Indeed, there are people trying to make the best of a nightmarish situation. Here are a few of their stories. Generations...
Sihanouk’s Abdication Catches Nation by Surprise
BANGKOK One of Asia's most colorful monarchs, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk, has plunged his country into a constitutional crisis following Thursday's announcement that he is abdicating. The 82-year-old king's decision was revealed on the day he was due back...
Russia-Venezuela Alliance Takes Flight
CARACAS - The Venezuelan army plans to acquire 40 Russian helicopters within the next few months in the first step towards a new "strategic alliance" with Moscow promoted by President Hugo Chávez, who is further marking his distance from Washington....
Saudi Democratization to Include Women?
DUBAI - When conservative Saudi Arabia announced last year that it would hold partial municipal elections in which people for the first time could vote directly, the reaction of many in and out of the country was nothing less than shock. Now reform-minded activists...


