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The article comments on various political and social issues. The first issue is the media apathy surrounding the United States' war on terrorism. Although some of the press has lately made efforts to cover the turbulent world outside the U.S. borders, the attention has been too little and too late. The second issue is the scraping of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty which was a reckless act. Another issue which has been raised is the control of AIDS and the article states it as another world war. According to the article authors, the war on AIDS is more important than war on terrorism.

The article presents information on political conditions in the U.S. during 2001. The national Pro-Democracy Convention, organized by the Institute for Policy Studies comes at a moment of more activism on voting rights and electoral reform than at any time since the 1960s. Across the United States more than 2 million presidential votes went uncounted in November 2000. Election officials actually discarded more ballots in Illinois than in Florida. Added to this are concerns about aging voting equipment, restrictive registration laws, failed implementation of the federal motor-voter law and bans on voting by former prisoners that continue to deny millions of citizens, especially people of color and the poor, full access to the franchise.

The article focuses on U.S. Senator John Kerry. The author says, Kerry is whiling away time between votes on amendments, talking to a reporter about his positions, his past, his personality. He threatened to filibuster U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to drill for oil in the Alaska wilderness. He's speaking to Democratic faithful at party functions across the country. With his party bully-pulpit-less, Kerry is one of a dozen or so Democrats vying to shape its response to Bush and shape a presidential bid.

This article presents information about politics. U.S. Vice President Al Gore himself has said he would not accept Republican electors. But Gore has no say about the matter, any more than he has a say about not accepting the vote of those whose party affiliations or political motives he finds repugnant. As for those faithless electors, it can be argued that if one has a system of electors instead of direct democracy, the possibility of defection goes with the package. Daniel Singer died on December 2, 2000. He was the Europe correspondent of the journal "The Nation" for nearly twenty years. He wrote about many a demo in his reports to the journal, incessantly probing for signs of vitality on the European left, or the rot of fascism on the far right.

The article presents some political updates as of June 21, 1999. One of the updates discusses the indictment of Yugoslavia's dictator Slobodan Milosevic. The indictment gives human rights the highest priority and makes it clear that they must not be subject to diplomatic concerns. Another update focuses on recent report on Chinese nuclear espionage. It says that Beijing has two-dozen nuclear missiles. In comparison, the U.S. has more than 5,000 missiles that can reach China or Russia, and Russia has about 6,000 it can hurl toward China or the U.S.

This article discusses several sociopolitical issues. On December 8 and 9, the White House in the U.S. will convene a two-day Social Security summit. It kicks off what promises to be a passionate and prolonged debate about the future of the biggest, most popular and most successful domestic program in the U.S. According to another issue, soft money is the crack of American politics. It is hard to resist, and it poisons and perverts the infrastructure of the community it infects. With an epidemic of institutional corruption under way, it is hard to become outraged over Attorney General Janet Reno's latest no-go decisions on independent counsels.

The article focuses on sociopolitical issues related to the U.S., as of December 1999. Organizing overnight, the King County Central Labor Council brought 5,000 high-spirited marchers out at noon on December 3 with two objectives: to violate the city's downtown no protest zone and to show solidarity with the hundreds of peaceful demonstrators still in jail. As the farm crisis confronts 40,000 Midwestern family farmers with the prospect of being forced off the land, no state faces a situation more dire than Minnesota. Although the problem is nothing new, this time it has spawned novel responses. Broad community- based coalitions are forming, and many young activists are be- coming involved.

At the end of one day of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North's testimony before the Congressional select committees Investigating the Iran/contra scandal, two conspiracy minded journalists cornered a committee, member and asked what it meant that three figures in the scandal had all died. Conspiracy theories of the Iran/contra affair have been flourishing since the first news of the scandal and the testimony of North, Rear Administrator John Poindexter and others is not likely to discourage them. The public and Congress need a comprehensible framework for making sense of the avalanche of details generated by the scandal and the hearings.

Europe may not see its single currency before the end of the millennium. The carefully planned timetable for the euro is threatened by elections. The main danger does not come from John Major, who, to save his electoral skin by May 1, has attacked Europe and branded prime minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair as soft on sovereignty. France, like other candidate nations, must introduce harsh austerity measures to reduce this year's budgetary deficit below the required 3 percent of its gross domestic product. To hold the election next year, when the painful effects of that policy would be felt, is to court disaster.

A tussle is going on between Democrats and Republicans for control of the U.S. House of Representatives. For the Democrats to have any chance of snatching the gavel from Newt Gingrich, they must depose two dozen or so of the G.O.P. newcomers. The re-election bids of Congressional rookies Jack Metcalf, George Nethercutt, Linda Smith and Doc Hastings from Washington, are deemed good bets for the Democrats by political handicappers. The labor campaign has driven the G.O.P. batty. In Washington, D.C., Speaker Gingrich pre-emptively spins that there is a one-in-five chance that he may lose control of the House, and he cites labor bosses as the reason.

The article discusses matters related to social and political issues of the world. It states that the U.S. Census Bureau reported in mid-June the widest gap between rich and poor in this country since the end of World War II. The devastating local consequences of economic liberalization occupied center stage in the recent elections in India and Russia. Globalization is the central political phenomenon of the day, generating new and fundamental inequities as regions and nations compete for corporate investment, lowering wage, environmental and human rights standards. The article also reports on the U.S. Democrats' Families First Agenda. details. The agenda says that Democrats will "require" insurance companies to offer kids-only health plans.

The article focuses on various issues related to politics and government in the U.S. The article discusses the consensus of the Democratic White House and the Congress on various issues including lifting of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. It argues that the Republicans and Democrats are putting similar views on various issues despite being affiliated to different parties. As Republican Senator John Warner and Democratic Senator Paul Simon warn of the dire consequences that would follow Oliver North's election to the Senate. Similarly Bob Dole and Ralph Nader agree that Congress should go slow on the GATT treaty. A Democratic White House and Congress united being a coherent program will become even more improbable than all these other odd couples.

The article focuses on the European Parliament. From Milan to Manchester and from Madrid to Munich, voters do not much care which of the 567 deputies represents them in Strasbourg, so when they do bother to go to the polls, they can express their preference without worrying about wasting their vote. The European elections, held every five years, thus serve as a glorified opinion poll, providing a good snapshot of the political mood of the moment, though not necessarily a guide to future national elections.

The White House, the Bush campaign and Republicans are spending hundreds of millions of dollars this year to convince swing voters that George W. Bush is a decisive, no-nonsense fellow who does what's best for the nation. Below is a partial list--much shorter than it could be--of matters Bush's handlers would prefer swing voters not know. Bush doesn't understand the basics of 9/11. Bush is not taking all possible measures to protect the nation. Bush said repeatedly that Al Qaeda had attacked the United States because "they hate our freedoms." But this was a comic-book rendition of the conflict at hand, and it ignored a slew of geopolitical realities and Osama bin Laden's actual (and perverse) motivations. How many swing voters realize that when they fly they are sitting above commercial cargo that has not been inspected, thanks in part to Bush? Bush never bothered to look at the intelligence before launching the Iraq war. In a background briefing last summer, White House aides conceded that Bush had never read the ninety-page National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's WMDs. Bush couldn't cite evidence to support his claim that Saddam was in league with Al Qaeda. Bush has been doubly dishonest in endangering the nation's fiscal security. Bush failed to keep his 2000 promise about tax cuts. Still, Bush has claimed his tax cuts have helped improve the economy and led to the creation of 1.5 million jobs (even though more than 2.5 million jobs have been lost during his presidency).

Ask an aide to the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Congress what the Democrats have in store, and the response is, "We're working on it." How the tacticians of the national political duopoly begin this election year may influence the final count in November. But with Congress returning to Washington and Bill Clinton preparing his sixth State of the Union Message, a major assumption reigns for the political class. Unless the economy tanks, this should be a fine year for incumbents. If this makes for a year of shallow expectations, it doesn't rule out election-year fireworks designed to convince voters that the parties are locked in fundamental battle.

In defending affirmative action against an unquestionably racist assault, it would be fatal to give Republican boot trappers like Jack Kemp a monopoly on talking to the white poor. Civil rights organizations are properly suspicious of any gestures that could weaken the special recognition granted racial and gender discrimination by affirmative action laws. But directly confronting the right's seeming concern for class could offer an important route to a new national discussion and new alliances over poverty, race and power.

For progressive Democrats, the first year of U.S. President Bill Clinton Administration was discouraging. The President did stay true to his pro-choice promises. He pushed through a better tax scheme. On the big-money items, the budget, trade policies, Clinton has guided his Democratic Party deeper into the pocket of Wall Street. NAFTA and its cause, economic globalization, may lead to the favorite prediction of political analysts: a strategic realignment. In this case, if the U.S. economy, presently zipping along, according to conventional measurements, gets mired in a low-wage cycle, then it's-the-economy-stupid Democrats might find their endeavors to build a middle-class-oriented coalition threatened by working-class voters who bolt.

The article focuses on political developments in the U.S. There were few exciting upsets, threatened horrors did not materialize and little contradicted the sense that the country suffers from a serious deficit of political energy. On September 13, a progressive state legislator in Rhode Island, Myrth York, came from far outside with a grass-roots campaign based in community organizing to beat the incumbent Democrat, Bruce Sundlun, for the gubernatorial nomination. New York hasn't had a woman elected to statewide office in twenty years, but two Republican women are running for top jobs this year. The big news of the night was Marion Barry's resurrection in the District of Columbia mayoralty race.

The article presents information on the political developments in the United States. In the U.S. politics, a new social culture is emerging. It is evident from the greater presence of women on Democratic ballots for high office. But the feminization of politics has yet not been achieved. Even if some women succeed in winning the U.S. Senate seats, that body will still be male-dominated. Two little and contradictory words dominated the Democrats' deliberations in New York: centrist and change twinned into a single oxymoronic message. On the one hand, there is the center, with its reassuring bow to stability, solidity, the status quo. And on the other hand, there is change, a word which is inconsistent with all that. The simple explanation of this contradiction is that exhortations to change are merely rhetorical and nothing has changed except the call for change. Its only a political tactic in a season marked by voter discontent.

Discusses the political offensive tactics of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Reaction of conservatives to a comment given by Durbin about the prison scandal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Views of U.S. Senator Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on Durbin; Action taken by Durbin in response to the planned elimination of a filibuster for judicial nominations.

The article comments on the 2004 presidential election in the United States. A culture war's going on. The 2004 election does not merely pit red states against blue states; it places the cultural community against the Bush establishment. Look at the political conventions. The Democrats had a host of big-name musicians and actors: Glenn Close, Ben Affleck, Willie Nelson, Black Eyed Peas, Wyclef Jean, Patti LaBelle.The Republicans had Ron Silver, a Christian rock band named Third Day, the usual country singers and a bunch of lesser-knowns. It's not news that the liberals of Hollywood and the music biz favor Ds over Rs, but this year more seem willing to hurl themselves into the partisan mosh pit. Most noticeably, Bruce Springsteen. He has long championed progressive causes but has shied away from electoral politics. On October 1, he and twenty other artists--including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ben Harper, Kenny" Babyface" Edmonds and the Dixie Chicks--kicked off the Vote for Change tour, a series of thirty-three gigs in eleven swing states, designed to aid the de-Bush crusade. Before that evening's concert in Philadelphia--which featured Springsteen, R.E.M., Bright Eyes and John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival--Michael Stipe, R.E.M.'s frontman, noted that many in the media have dismissed the tour as singing to the converted. The tour is more about organizing than persuading. The money raised by the shows -- the artists will forgo payment -- goes to America Coming Together, a Democratic-minded 527 that's registering, identifying and mobilizing likely Kerry voters in swing states. And the names and addresses of the 280,000 ticket buyers end up in a database for MoveOn PAC, which intends to contact these people in an effort to recruit new MoveOn members and enlist volunteer workers for the election.

The article looks at the differences between United States President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for the 2004 election. A friend of mine reports listening to a radio station that caters to middle-class African-Americans and hearing repeatedly from hosts and callers that there is little difference between Bush and Kerry. It is a pity that some voters do not discern the Texas-size gap between these two candidates. It is important that Democrats and potential Kerry voters perceive him as more than an Anybody-but-Bush placeholder. And it is troubling that polls show Bush voters to be more committed to their man than Kerry voters are to theirs. Kerry can get lost in nuance, not a trait associated with strong leaders (though the country could use a leader who recognizes, let alone appreciates, nuances). On the Iraq war, Kerry voted to grant Bush authority to attack but called on him to try all other options and create a truly multilateral coalition before launching an invasion. Sure, it would be better for Democrats if their man charged up the voters. But Democratic primary voters anointed a fellow who reassures more than inspires.

The article comments on the role of Democratic Party members in the U.S. Congress concerning the resolution for war against Iraq. The article also assesses the conflict between the views of political leaders Tom Daschle, Joe Biden and John Kerry in the issue. It tackles the efforts of the Democrats to form an opposition leadership against the use of force in Iraq. The author unveils the truth behind the eagerness of several politicians to develop a no alternative resolution for the proposed war against Iraq.

Wisconsin Democrat Bob Kastenmeier, lost to a Republican television news anchor named Scott Klug, who campaigned on the theme that Kastenmeier's thirty-two years in the House were enough. Klug asked all who agreed to send him $32 and an additional $12 if they supported his proposal for a twelve-year term limit for members of Congress. The Kastenmeier campaign was no juggernaut. His campaign managers dismissed Klug's time for a change campaign as no serious threat and they turned off the get-out-the-vote phone bank. Kastenmeier liberal voting record may have played well in the traditionally progressive city of Madison but probably was less well received in the outlying Republican counties of his district.

This article presents the author's views on the various blueprints for progressive policy prepared by political parties during the U.S. Presidential election, 1988. One of them is the Democracy Project, run by Mark Green, a writer, consumer advocate and 1986 U.S. Democratic candidate for Senator from New York. Democracy Project, has signed up about fifty mostly left leaning policy experts to contribute sections to the Blueprints for America report-- due out after the election. It bears a strong but antithetical resemblance to Mandate for Leadership, with each specialist writing a section on how to deReaganize a particular agency of government and use it for progressive ends.

This article presents information on the 1994 annual conference of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), held in Washington DC. This conference was, reportedly, a weird mix of triumphalism and defensiveness. A past chairman of the group now resides in the White House, a member of its associates serve in the Administration, and some of its pet policies, such as welfare reform, are high on the political agenda. Yet for the several hundred DLCers who came from points nationwide to gather in a Washington hotel, the resentment that drove a small group of Democrats to found the council in 1985, dammit, minorities, labor and liberals are ruining the party, remains at full throttle. The DLCers mused over how critical they should be of the President, Bill Clinton when he yields to liberal pressure. The group supposedly cannot strike too hard against a President who boasted to the crowd that his Cabinet contains seven DLC members and who embraces the DLC slogans and most of its ideas.

Presents several letters to the editor. Comment by a reader on the article "Hotline to the White House" by Bill Mesler published in June 30 issue of the "Nation"; Discussion on turning of vote against Yale strikers by executive director of the Modern Language Association; Advertisements related with anti-Palestinian organizations.

Presents several letters to the editor. Confusion between populism and progressivism; Analysis of political leader Paul Wellstone's victorious re-election campaign; Comments on Defense of Marriage Act.

The article presents information on political issues from various parts of the U.S. The eighteenth annual Conservative Political Action Conference began recently with a wish for a bang. At the opening press conference in the safe confines of a Washington hotel, Jeffrey Wright, head of Young Americans for Freedom called for dropping a few strategically placed nuclear weapons and ending the war in a day. Phyllis Schlafly assaulted the Pentagon for aiding the radical feminist plan for the destruction of American society. A highlight of the three day affair came during a debate on the war between former Pentagon official Richard Perle and "National Review," senior editor Joseph Sobran.

Joseph DeTrani, director of public affairs for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), stated that they want to emphasize once again in the strongest possible terms that the CIA neither engages in nor condones drug trafficking. He was compelled to release that statement after recent developments in the trial in Los Angeles, California, of four men accused of involvement in the 1985 murder of drug agent Enrique Camarena. In May 1990 the National Agenda for Peace in El Salvador, a group of U.S. activists and church groups, based in Washington, ran an ad in the newspaper "The Washington Post," calling for a suspension of aid to El Salvador.

The article presents information about political developments in various countries. One of Representative Mickey Leland's last acts in Washington was to release a report on the future of the U.S. relations with the developing world. The Leland-McHugh-Hatfield report also calls for immediately reducing global military aid and sales. This would require a major shift in direction. According to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, in 1988 the U.S. arms transfers to the developing world dramatically increased, growing $5.8 billion in 1987 to $9.2 billion.

Presents several letters to the editor related to the articles published in the earlier issues. Comments on how politics threatens to turn protection bill into cynical doublespeak; comments on story of Margaret Randall's troubles with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The article focuses on political developments in the U.S. during 1988. Presidential candidate George Bush needs the Bubba vote-young Southern white males-and if all else fails, racial animus might get Bubba in the Bush column. Republican leaders have certainly shown themselves willing to reach for the race button. Bush has proposed a modest "children's tax credit" to compete with the Democrats' $2.5 billion Federal day care bill. Bruce Cameron, the former liberal human rights lobbyist who switched sides to promote the Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, is writing a novel. The book sparingly depicts the workings of President Ronald Reagan's team.

This article presents information on political conditions in the U.S. during 1987. A spokesman for U.S. Representative Richard Gephardt said his stand on abortion is now more practical. He wants increased funding of sex education and adoption, opposes Federal funding of abortion but accepts the legal right to an abortion. With U.S. Senator Sam Nunn opting out of the presidential race, the right wing of the Democratic Party is searching for a candidate. The secret of national security policy-makers is the military failure of the contras.

They won't confirm a liberal. "They" refers to U.S. senators. And the catch phrase is meant to suggest that President Bill Clinton is restrained by a political reality not of his making. Political capitalism has become the governing principle of Washington politics, and when it comes to expending such capital the White House takes a miserly view: Use it sparingly. Clinton has considered liberals for the Court, Senate majority leader George Mitchell and New York Governor Mario Cuomo fall into this category.

The final report on the Iran/contra affair filed by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh contains good news. The 572-page document depicts in excruciating detail how the senior men of the U.S. Administration more or less successfully waged a cover-up. Walsh's report illustrates what any Iran/contra aficionado already knows: Everybody lied. They lied in public statements about the Iran/contra scandal. They lied to various investigators. Shultz exemplifies this cowardice. When Shultz, an opponent of Ronald Reagan's policy of secretly supplying arms to Iran, testified before the Iran/contra committees, he claimed he was unaware of the specifics of the Iran scheme.

The article presents information about various political activities taking place in the U.S. A snippet presents information on the Central Intelligence Agency's (C.I.A.) disinformation. The unfounded rumors thrown at a populist leader of a poor country, collaboration between private right-wingers and government officials. The smear campaign against Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the deposed President of Haiti, has an almost nostalgic quality. Another snippet presents information about the Congressional aides recently in Latin America encountered foreign officials mouthing lines from the infamous C.I.A. report that depicts Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the deposed President of Haiti, as a loon. So U.S. intelligence has spread the material overseas. Meanwhile, the right-wing Accuracy in Media has been energetically supplying anti-Aristide ammunition.

The article presents information related to the U.S. practical politics. Henry Gonzalez continues to show that some members of Congress are worth a pay raise. As detailed in this space two weeks ago, the House Banking Committee, which he chairs, is investigating the Bush Administration's prewar policy toward Iraq. The House Armed Services Committee approved a 3 percent increase in the budget for the Strategic Defense Initiative, bringing it to $4.3 billion and blessed the acquisition of four more 8-2 Stealth bombers, at a total price of $9 billion.

Presents letters to the editor related to political issues in the U.S. Information on the U.S. Central Intelligence agency; Addiction to political action committee's money by politician David Obey; Comment on members of the U.S. Congress.