FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE KERRY 1: BUSH 0

Although almost everyone said Kerry won the first debate with Bush, the event made the Democrat's dilemma all too clear. Kerry wants to focus on pocketbook issues, promising every American a chance to achieve or retain a comfortable middle class standard of living. In a debate restricted to foreign policy, he could only criticize the President and say, "Somehow, I'll do better." Throughout the debate, Bush stuck doggedly to his script, re-telling the most popular American myths. Millions of us, watching his performance, were not sure whether to laugh or cry. But millions more undoubtedly took him absolutely seriously and cheered. For many, he has become the hero and the very embodiment of the meaning of America. Issues fall by the wayside whenever Bush's heroic character takes center stage -- which is just what the Republicans want

Bush glares at John Kerry during first presidential debate

A Decisive Debate Victory At A Decisive Time The Great Bush Disconnect The Smarts Gap

Iraq Chaos Puts January Elections In Question
"[With] a town like Fallujah where there is violence, we can exclude the place from elections"

Cat Stevens Incident Pulls Rug From Under Moderate Muslims
How did this soft-spoken man suddenly become a threat to America?

Blame Global Warming For Florida's Hurricane Conga Line
Unprecedented number of severe weather events in the past decade

UN May Pull Most Staffers Out Of Afghanistan
Just a few weeks before national election

In recent years a politicized and right-wing Protestant fundamentalist movement has emerged as a major factor in U.S. support for the policies of the rightist Likud government in Israel. To understand this influence, it is important to recognize that the rise of the religious right as a political force in the United States is a relatively recent phenomenon that emerged as part of a calculated strategy by leading right-wingers in the Republican Party who -- while not fundamentalist Christians themselves -- recognized the need to enlist the support of this key segment of the American population in order to achieve political power

Iraq Sinking From Bad To Worse
Newsweek: "It's Worse Than You Think"
The NSC Is Trying To Discredit Me, Chalabi Says
Disliked because he tried to stop violence in Najaf and other parts of Iraq, he claims

Haiti's Blood-Stained Army Returns
Haiti is once again a tinderbox as criminal gangs, ex-soldiers, and UN peacekeepers nervously watch each other

Bush To Turn Neighborhood Watch Program Into Operation Snitch
Changing definition of "suspicious activities" to anything that could be linked to terrorism

Assault Weapons Legal Again, Thanks To NRA, Congress, Bush
NRA donated heavily to GOP to kill renewal of restrictions with 5-day waiting period

It's Kerry By A Landslide... If Other Countries Could Vote
Only Poland, Philippines would re-elect Bush
Bush Sends Russia Sympathies, But Gave Asylum To Chechnya Separatist
"We will meet with political leaders who have different points of view," says State Dept
Russia Blocked, Harassed Reporters Trying To Cover School Terror Story
Putin later admitted he lied about scope of crisis

Arms Sales May Top $1 Trillion For 2004
Bush spending about $1.15 billion a day

WHERE TO FIND THE MISSING WMDS
Saddam and his cronies skimmed billions from Iraq via fake contracts, which Bush, Blair eventually used as the "proof" that WMD were being concealed

Israel, Neo-Con Ties At Core Of New Spy Probe
Links date back some 30 years

Battle Of Najaf Ends In Stalemate
Al-Sadr keeps his militia, U.S. gains ceasefire

Iraq Police Attacked Hope Of Democracy In Najaf Bloodshed
The Abu Ghraib scandal, terrible as it was, was not an assault on democracy. The marches to save the Imam Ali Shrine were peaceful and of great value to the entire Shi'ite world. For a police force that was supposedly shaped along American democratic principles to have shot dead 35 marchers is a direct attack upon democracy itsel

Latino Casualties In Iraq Higher Than Average
63 killed so far this year

2008 Olympics Will Open China To World's Scrutiny
Rights groups promise 4 years of pressure on China to free Tibet, minorities

Deserter's Hearing Could Expose N Korea's Secrets
13 Japanese citizens disappeared in the 1970s and '80s, snatched by N Korean soldiers

This time Project Censored's annual list is both wheat and chaff -- advocacy and conspiracy mixed in with the sort of hard-news items that were once its forte

Muqtada Al-Sadr Emerges As Key Player In Iraq
Has established himself as a leader who can't be marginalized , even by Al Sistani

Ex-General Wins Indonesia Election By Landslide
Voter turnout near 80%
Indonesia In Denial About Home-Grown Terrorists
Eager to blame CIA, Mossad, or other "foreign secret agents" for bombings

TB and AIDS Becomes Joint African Epidemic
Estimated 700,000 new African HIV/TB cases every year

Poor Women Gave Veneuela's Chavez His Win
Huge popular support with Cuban-style social-welfare missions

Venezuela's Media A Study In Bias
Many genuinely in shock that Chavez won 58% of the vote

Israeli Makes Another Hit On Syria With Hamas Assassination

After New Israel Bombings, Construction Of The Wall To Speed Up
Israel quickly claims Wall would have stopped suicide bombers that killed 16

Wal-Mart plans a superstore just over a mile from Mexico's archaeological treasures

Forced Sterilization Of Europe's Roma Charges Raised
Reportedly sterilized without consent after giving birth

Iraqis, Afghans Wary Of Joining U.S.-Created Armies
In Iraq, goal of 40k soldiers but only 3k soldiers trained

Wal-Mart Building Megastore Next To Famed Historic Site
Only a few isolated artifacts on site, claims U.S. retail giant
Groups Coming To U.S. To Monitor Nov. Election
One group to fan out to 5 states

Will Iraq Erase Saddam Years From History Schoolbooks?
Children often told to use old books after ripping out picture of Saddam Hussein

Back To School, Back To Junk Food
Corporate lobbying has thwarted efforts to ban unhealthy food in public schools

Brazil Debates Future Of The Amazon: Privatize Or Not?
About half is currently public land
Central Asia Finds Independence A Mixed Bag
Failing economies, power remains centralized in hands of very few

Operation Condor Still Alive, Ex-President's Daughter Says
Uruguay court reopens case of ex-Pinochet agent apparently kidnapped in 1992

Millions Of Low-Wage Asian Jobs Going To Lower-Wage China
Soon China will be supplying over 80% of the U.S. clothing market

Latin America's Brutal Prisons Called Schools For Crime
650,000+ inmates in Latin America's prisons, where human rights don't count
INTERVIEW: EX-DIA CAREER OFFICER SAYS NO TRUE INTEL REFORM
Bin Laden probably killed late 2001 in Afghanistan

"Recovered Factories" Argentina's Great Victory
Workers decided to act, took back, or "recovered" closed factories into thriving cooperatives

Darwin Back In Serb Schools After Public Outcry
Education minister decreed Darwin's theory 'was full of voids'

600 Pro-Choice Repubs Hold Gala Outside GOP "Big Tent" Claim most party members are tolerance for reproductive rights Despite Schwarzenegger's Pitch, GOP No Immigrant's Friend After 9/11, Bush turned dreams of citizenship into an extended nightmare Arab Media Watches GOP Convention Anxiously Debating the pros and cons of Kerry or Bush as the "emperor" of the new world order GOP Convention Overlooks U.S. Approved Terrorists Ongoing state-sponsored terrorism in El Salvador, Venezuela and elsewhere Bush Admin Has Weakened Heath, Safety Agencies, Watchdog Group Says Undermined EPA, FDA, OSHGA, and other federal agency

With 6 Weeks To Go, Kerry Finally Confronts Iraq
Follows more outspoken criticism of Iraq by Repubs

A Flash Of Honesty From Bush: The Rich Dodge Taxes
How did tax-dodging by the rich turn into taking legal charitable deductions?

An Orwellian moment as Laura Bush addresses the GOP convention Sept. 1   (Photo: Indymedia)

Disenfranchisement Of Ex-Felons May Again Guarantee Bush Election
In the 4 crucial swing states, mosts ex-felons are black and their disfranchisement is a huge plus for Bush and a major obstacle for Kerry

Big Donors Carefully Give To Both Bush, Kerry
"Conventional theories in campaign finance state that you always want to have money on the winning horse"

Kerry Invited Backlash By Cultivating War-Hero Image
The anti-war Kerry is missing in action
The Convention Of Fear
When you spoke to individual delegates, you entered a world of genuine emotion; you entered, in short, a belief system. Unlike George Bush, with a speech carefully constructed by writers in front of him, the delegates all spoke without texts, quite spontaneously, and with numerous feelings on display -- not the least of which was fear
Another World Inside The Convention Hall
For every cocktail party, pro-life breakfast, or black-tie fundraiser that the Republican delegates soaked up during the week, there was a march, a poetry reading, or a civil disobedience somewhere in the city challenging their agenda
Bush Convention Speech Ignored Realities Of Iraq
Rehashed non-arguments from the buildup to the war and hallucinatory rhetoric about what's actually happening in Iraq and the Middle East today, building up to a grand, messianic finale

Kerry's Pro Iraq War Position Troubling Many Voters
Risking low turnout by huge bloc of voters strongly opposed to war

Bush Health Care Plan Windfall For Industry
"Health savings accounts" affordable to few families

National parks and other federal spots could be off-limits to presidential and congressional candidates for certain types of campaign events, thanks to a recent advisory issued by the Bush administration's U.S. Office of Special Counsel, released on the very same day that John Kerry made a campaign stop at the Grand Canyon and criticized Bush for not adequately funding the park system

Free Trade Pact Could Spur Cigarette Boom In Asia
WHO wanted governments to treat tobacco products same as guns
Flame Retardant Chemicals Found in Food On Grocery Shelves
Almost 10x higher in the U.S. than other countries tested

Slave-Like Conditions In Brazil's Charcoal Industry
Up to 40,000 held captive in poor conditions supporting steel industry

Mercenaries Find Africa Good For Business
Son of former Prime Minister Thatcher accused of funding coup effort in Zimbabwe

Bush Destroying National Guard With Iraq War
Typical deployments include full year in Iraq, enough to devastate a career or small business

Bill O'Reilly's War With Hip-Hop
Calls it the roots of evil in black American culture

The Wolf Is At The Door In Darfur -- But Nobody's Listening
For 16 months, Powell stayed silent, even visiting the scene of the crime without saying the word "genocide"

Why Bush Said We Can't Win War on Terror
At least give him a little credit for telling the truth this time

Ashcroft's Planned Terrorist Show Trials Not Making It To Court
Yaser Hamdi case has joined the Detroit case on the Ashcroft garbage dump

New Cold War With Russia Looms In Middle East
Most ominous are the close relations between the Russians and the Iranians

Bias Is Always The 13th Juror
Most jurors still picked from lists likely to reflect conservative, middle-class values and beliefs

Cowardice In The Newsrooms
Wary of being denounced by a free-floating cadre of rightist warriors

Tom DeLay's Triple Bank Shot Of Corruption
The View From Red Country
Putin's Chechnya, Bush's Iraq
Bush Ignoring The First Rule Of Holes
The Questions Are About Bush, Not Ben Barnes
Pay Attention To The People Who Actually Run Things
And The Lies Flowed Like Wine
GOP Proves It's Not Two Americas, But Two Different Planets
Did Any Of Us Sign Up For This Four Years Ago?