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Hitler in Virginia

Two offensive attack ads in the Virginia governor’s race have backfired on Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore and his attack-dog media consultant. Does this mean GOP smear tactics are a spent force?

Max Blumenthal

The Increasingly Private Public School

The privatization of the nation’s greatest, once-public colleges and universities is well under way. The loss of low-cost higher education is a quiet tragedy, one that will severely limit the potential of generations of future students.

Nicholas von Hoffman

Scare Scenario

It has all the makings of a horror flick, but panic over a possible bird flu pandemic is following a time-honored script: sensational media reports, profit-hungry drug manufacturers and politicians eager to capitalize on fears.

Dr. Marc Siegel

The Hidden History of Slavery in New York

Those who believe that slavery in America was strictly a “Southern thing” will discover an eye-opening historical record on display at the New-York Historical Society’s current exhibition, “Slavery in New York.”

Adele Oltman

Empty Boots, Ravished Hearts

Rows of plain black boots and empty pairs of baby shoes and dancing slippers are a mute testament to the American soldiers and Iraqi civilians who have perished in Iraq, as shown in a traveling exhibition sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee.

Shreema Mehta

As Brazil Votes to Ban Guns, NRA Joins the Fight

As Brazilians vote on a historic measure to ban the sale of guns and ammunition, foes of gun control have received help from a neighbor to the north: the NRA.

Kelly Hearn

A Constitutional Disaster

After a campaign of distortion and deception, the USA Patriot Act is about to be renewed. It’s a deeply flawed law that will be used mainly against dissidents, immigrants, Muslims or ordinary people accused of crimes unrelated to terrorism.

Chip Pitts

Sweeping Up Ohio

There’s a way to cure Ohio’s dysfunctional electoral system: an election-reform referendum that allows creation of “swing districts.”

John Nichols

Kaine Country

It’s a tight race, but if Tim Kaine becomes the next governor of Virginia, Democrats gain what they desperately need to win back Congress: a big win in a Southern state.

John Nichols

Gore Vidal, Octocontrarian

Marc Cooper interviews Gore Vidal about an America that is increasingly controlled by corporations and suggests that the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Iraq debacle signal the breakdown of an empire.

Marc Cooper

Wrong About the Right

Progressives lack a common set of that tie a movement together. But they can build on conservatives’ proven strategy of slowly creating a broad consensus.

Jean Hardisty and Deepak Bhargava

Beyond Shelters

Advocacy groups like ACORN want New Orleanians to play a role in the rebuilding of the community they had to leave. The biggest issue so far: getting refugees of the storm back home.

Michael Tisserand

Hurricane Gumbo

The Cajun and Creole folks of Ville Platte, LA, learned long ago not to rely on the government for help. It the wake of hurricanes they launched a homemade rescue-and-relief effort to save their community.

Mike Davis and Anthony Fontenot

Rosa Parks: A Woman of Substance

Frozen in memory as the simple woman who helped to bring down segregation, Rosa Parks was far more complex and formidable than the popular imagination makes her out to be . A fuller picture of her life should make us also remember the many unsung heroes and heroines who came before and after her.

Eric Foner

In Fact…

POLITICS AND THE PRIZE

The Editors

Asbestos Liability Scam

The Senate will soon consider the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act (FAIR) that is anything but for the workers whose health has been impaired by asbestos. It’s a move by major corporations to significantly reduce their liability.

William Johnson and Kate Levin

Robbing the Poor

As House Republicans use the cost of recovery from Gulf Coast storms as an excuse to rip last-minute holes in the social safety net, it’s not too late to change priorities.

Sharon Lerner

No Privilege for Miers

Harriet Miers’s slender public record makes it imperative that her advice the president on personal, executive and constitutional matters be fully disclosed to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Stephen Gillers

White House Plame-Out

Indictments or not, what America knows now about the outing of Valerie Plame is that Bush Administration officials deliberately leaked information that potentially damaged the nation–then lied about it.

David Corn

Pyrrhic Victory in Iraq

For Iraqis fed up with the violence and chaos of the occupation, passage of the new Constitution is just one more US-imposed measure that will set the stage for civil war.

The Editors

The Blame Game

Richard Lingeman and Peter Ahlberg

Gun Industry Buys Bulletproof Political Protection

Congress has decided to grant the gun lobby its most fervent and irresponsible wish: blanket immunity from civil lawsuits.

Robert Scheer

Deadline for Saddam

Saddam Hussein went to trial on Wednesday declaring he was still the president of Iraq. A series of odes a decade ago to Hussein’s dictatorial days show the tyrant was always out of touch with reality.

Calvin Trillin

Corrupt, Incompetent and ‘Off Center’

With leading Republicans facing the slammer and Bush in a tailspin, fate has given liberals a huge opportunity. Americans already share our values–we need a new language to help connect peoples’ deepest needs to the liberal vision.

Eric Alterman

Nearer, My God, to Thee

Follow a mythical voyage through America’s nightmare, on a ship with an uncaring captain, a subsequent shipwreck, and the poor are left behind to perish.

Patricia J. Williams

One Possible Scenario

One twisted tale of how Harriet Miers’s confirmation hearings will unfold.

Calvin Trillin

Rosa Parks: A Woman of Substance

Frozen in memory as the simple woman who helped to bring down segregation, Rosa Parks was far more complex and formidable than the popular imagination makes her out to be . A fuller picture of her life should make us also remember the many unsung heroes and heroines who came before and after her.

Eric Foner

Deadline for Saddam

Saddam Hussein went to trial on Wednesday declaring he was still the president of Iraq. A series of odes a decade ago to Hussein’s dictatorial days show the tyrant was always out of touch with reality.

Calvin Trillin

The Hidden History of Slavery in New York

Those who believe that slavery in America was strictly a “Southern thing” will discover an eye-opening historical record on display at the New-York Historical Society’s current exhibition, “Slavery in New York.”

Adele Oltman

One Possible Scenario

One twisted tale of how Harriet Miers’s confirmation hearings will unfold.

Calvin Trillin

The Young and the Damned

Paradise Now explores the bond among suicide bombers; The Squid and the Whale brings two monstrously large characters to human scale and The President’s Last Bang is nastily efficient.

Stuart Klawans

The Blue

heron is gray, not blue, but great enough
against brown-tipped bowed cattails to be
well-named, is known for its stealth, shier

David Baker

How Art Can Save Your Life

Michael Kimmelman’s The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa is a celebration of the intersection between art and life and the random genius of the unexpected.

Hal Foster

Over My Dead Body

New biographies of Benito Mussolini and Marilyn Monroe contemplate exploitation of the body–in life and after death.

Jon Mooallem

Web Letters

Our readers write back on Darwin, New Orleans, and Bill Bennett.

Our Readers

Letters

LYNNDIE ENGLAND, READ THIS

Cambridge, Mass.

Alexander Cockburn and Our Readers