Print Magazine

November 20, 2006 Issue

John Nichols declares winners in the off-year presidential primary, Negar Azimi looks at civil society at risk in Iran, K. Leander Williams…

Cover art by: Cover by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels with apologies to Norman Rockwell

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Editorial

Questionable Verdict

Even the most naive American voter cannot be expected to see the morally, legally and politically questionable death sentence given to Saddam Hussein a milestone in the Bush Admin...

Richard Falk

The Baker Report, Leaked!

Stay the course? Cut and run? Cut the crap? What will former Secretary of State James A. Baker III propose after the midterm elections, when the bipartisan Iraq Study Group reveals...

Evan Eisenberg

The Tao of Borat

What are we laughing at when we laugh at Borat?

Richard Goldstein

War Criminals, Beware

Human rights advocates are pressing German courts to prosecute Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and other Bush Administration officials for war crimes. They just might succeed.

Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith

The ‘Off-Year Primary’

As presidential hopefuls from both parties press their advantage on the platform of the 2006 midterm election, the winners are...

John Nichols

Bring Democracy Home

To repair our broken voting system, declare Election Day a holiday, establish national election standards and require reliable voting machines and a paper trail.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Column

Bush’s Rough Justice

Bush insisted that Saddam Hussein's trial be held in Iraq so that an international tribunal would never expose America's history of support for the tyrant.

Robert Scheer

NBA: The Political Season

Take time out to acknowledge the return of the NBA--and the beginning of a political season of sorts for NBA players with a social conscience.

Dave Zirin

HRC: Can’t Get No Respect

If people keep making sexist attacks against Hillary Clinton, I may just have to vote for her. That means you, Elizabeth Edwards!

Katha Pollitt

The Message of Campaign 2006

As things stand in organized politics today, a purely formal protest against what the GOP has done to America is the most we can hope for.

Alexander Cockburn

An Explanation of Karl Rove’s Confidence About the Midterm Elections

Calvin Trillin

Letters

A GIRL CAN DREAM, CAN'T SHE?

Boise, Idaho

William Greider and Our Readers and Max Blumenthal

Feature

Democracy Worked for SD Abortion Vote

The electoral process worked for pro-choice advocates in South Dakota, overturning an abortion ban with a grassroots appeal to keep the government out of citizens' personal lives....

Liza Featherstone

Lost in Connecticut

Joe Lieberman won an idiosyncratic victory. He holds his seat despite his relentless support for Iraq, rather than because of it.

Bruce Shapiro

Bush Crony to Head UN’s Food Program

John Bolton's surprise announcement that a former Washington Times editor will head the UN's World Food Program bodes ill for the idea that competence is more important than...

Ian Williams

The Return of Daniel Ortega

Despite Daniel Ortega's many flaws, the return of the Sandinistas to power creates the possibility that his challenge to the "savage capitalism" of the previous regime can genuinel...

Mark Engler

The T-Shirt Wars

Demonstrators wearing a controversial T-shirt tested the limits of free expression on the Staten Island Ferry.

Ali Winston

Que Pasa en Oaxaca?

A virtual state of siege prevails in Oaxaca, where military police have occupied the central square, clearing barricades and detaining scores of activists.

Michael McCaughan

Memo to Kerry: Criticize, Don’t Apologize

John Kerry should stop being nice about the Deserter in Chief. He should be reminding voters that the President who has sent more than 3,000 US soldiers and allies and untold thous...

Ian Williams

The Gutting of the Civil Service

The Bush Administration has so politicized government agencies that an entire culture of civil service professionals is being replaced by conservative political operatives loyal on...

Dan Zegart

What’s Left of Reform

As Iran and the United States trade insults and America presses for Iranians to rise up, educators, students and women's rights groups may pay the greatest cost.

Negar Azimi

The Case for Engagement

If US officials stopped their saber-rattling over Iran's nuclear ambitions and began to negotiate directly, they would have an eye-opening experience.

Scott Ritter