Power

As fence sitters worry that Ralph Nader's Green campaign will hand the Presidency to the hard right, American democracy continues to rot. Jonas argues that the time has come to show Americans what real progressive politics look like. If recent polls are any indication, they are going to like what they see.

The writing is on the wall. The freedom of all Americans is at risk and most of us aren't even aware of it.

As the world attempts to make sense of a historic week of protest in Washington, who can help but wonder: Are we entering another decade of social unrest and mass activism? And do we get to win this time?

The neo-conservative camp of the Republican Party is calling for a massive arms build up and a more aggressive US role in world affairs, including "rogue regime rollback." If the neo-cons regain power, GOP foreign policy under their influence could look a lot like it did in the early 1980's. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Arguably the closest thing America has to a national hero, Ralph Nader has spent a lifetime designing and firing artillery at the heart of corporate/state corruption. He hasn't landed the silver bullet yet, but he's back in the Presidential fold with the Greens in 2000--and this time he's pissed. John Walston is excited, but wonders if Nader's vocabulary of "reform" can survive the rhetorical efforts of Gore/Bush to fill the McCain vacuum.

Months after the bombing, the Balkans remain an environmental nightmare and political tinderbox. By setting a precedent for non-defensive and arbitrary high-intensity military interventions, political scientist Chris Lord re-affirms the charge that NATO just plain overstepped. Bigtime.

George W. Bush has turned the state of Texas into a toxic dump. He knows virtually nothing about the world or the important issues of the day. He is not considered mentally equipped by the brains of his own Party. He is fully in the pocket of the most polluting industries on Earth. He defines 'arms control' as the ability to hit your target. And he just might be in the drivers seat at the dawn of the next American Century. Valium, anyone?

Jorg Haider is the tip of a potential extremist iceberg. To keep the rest underwater, Europe will have to strike a new balance between capitalism and democracy.

GOP hawks are making the case for missile-defense and yelling treason at anyone who opposes the program. But when the technological problems, vast cost, and strategic consequences are considered, it is clear that missile-defense is one big very bad idea.

Black activist Assata Shakur was framed for murder over twenty-five years ago. She has lived in Cuba since 1983, but the New Jersey police department, egged on by Republican governor Christine Todd Whitman and hungry for blood, is recruiting mercenaries to bring her back to "justice" in the States. Here's her story, in her own words.

American expatriate Gwendolyn Albert housed a Gypsie refugee from Kosovo in Prague, here's her story...

During the Cold War, NATO protected the European recovery and kept security simple: Washington runs the show. Ten Years after the Fall, the NATO consensus in Europe is breaking up; but what lies beyond NATO? Belgian Jacek Boboli makes the case for an independent Euroarmy.

John McCain has a lot of independents charged up with his straight talking GOP insurgency. Talk of "McCain Democrats" has the Gore camp sweaty. Alex Zaitchik is afraid all the excitement has blurred our collective sanity.

According to New York Times foreign affairs columnist Tom Friedman, opponents of the WTO are ignorant, thrill-seeking, retro-oriented wannabe Weatherman wackos. Maxwell Ford opens up the Sixties analogy and asks how someone so smart can be so dumb.

Forget the Cold War--the next one will zoom past hot to thermonuclear.

The convergence of Planet Hollywood with the levers of State power is nothing new in America.

The media reform bill up for vote in the Czech Parliament this spring is a hornet's nest of issues, each of which promises to influence Czech society far beyond the bill's pragmatic role as just another EU requirement.

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? Or the The End of History and the Last Man! Frank Fukuyama makes brief mention of environmental collapse as a possible problem for the stability of the New World Order in the 21st century. The reality is that we need to build another ship more appropriate to the world which we inhabit. Otherwise its Iceberg City baby, and don't expect a sequel.

Every pendulum turns. Maybe Clinton's appalling, planet-wide confession, besides shaming him and us, will ring the curtain down on the Age of Aquarius and the Age of Exposure. Wouldn't that be great?