It is our governments who want to demonize and marginalize other cultures, religions, races and ethnic groups. George Bush, his coldhearted cronies, and his easily misled and willingly blind followers want to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here!" Who are these "thems" that we are fighting over there?

A new poll conducted in Pennsylvania (a battleground "purple" state) by Zogby International and commissioned by OpEdNews.com found that 84.9 percent of Democrats said they would be likely to vote for a congressional candidate who "supports having impeachment proceedings against President Bush."

When Gen. Michael Hayden, principal deputy director of National Intelligence and former director of the National Security Agency, displayed an equally astounding lack of knowledge about a matter just as basic to his job, media as a whole let it pass without comment.

We are sure to hear a rosy tale of an economy on the rebound, a blossoming democracy in Iraq, a terror network on the run, and a Gulf Coast region rebuilding better and stronger than ever before. As is most often the case with this Administration, the rhetoric does not match reality.

It is incomprehensible that today, more than 16 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the US and Russia are still targeting more than 3,000 nuclear tipped missiles at each other’s cities, ready to go off with even less assurances that an accidental launch could be avoided then we had back in 1983 when Colonel Petrov performed his heroic act.

The Atlanta Stonewall Democrats (ASD) held a launch celebration this evening for its new Atlanta chapter, which is meant to replace [and absorb] a former Georgia-wide group. Nationally, the Stonewall Democrats are a political coalition for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (glbt) Democrats and Democratic activists who support glbt issues.

Once more the Cubans have surprised the world with the forceful image of a sea of people as indomitable as the ocean that breaks on the Malecon, the sea wall of the capital...Cubans of all creeds and races paraded past the perfidious and provocative US Interests Office in Havana to express their determined support for Fidel, the Revolution and Socialism, and to condemn injustice and terrorism.

After lifting the ban on U.S. beef imports, a shipment of U.S. beef has arrived with the backbone, vulnerable to BSE infection. It was found during visual quarantine inspection. The government must be held responsible for this.

THE stunning victory won by Hamas in the Palestinian elections indicates, at the least, that the Palestinian Authority has demonstrated its ability to run a transparent and fair election. This is in stark contrast to the US where a candidate backed by big business and the military industrial complex can steal an election through corruption, intimidation and media complicity.

In both a regional and domestic context, Mexico's 2006 election carries tremendous significance. Some analysts have suggested that the early strength of populist candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador – Mexico’s contribution to the “pink tide” now sweeping the region – might make the July 2 vote a potential watershed event.

Politics makes strange bedfellows. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the rightwing adventurer who got himself elected President of Iran, has proclaimed his desire to see Israel destroyed and Ariel Sharon die. Pat Robertson, who will support Israel to the last unconverted Jew, has issued a statement to the effect that Sharon’s stroke was the Lord’s revenge.

THE Human Rights Convention has been signed by every European country. It specifically outlaws torture, as it most certainly should, and further insists that countries which are signatories to the convention should not collude in torture by third parties.

A close-circuit video camera in every bank, on every shop front, every shopping mall,  every train station, every local government camera, any private business with a camera, every corner shop - centrally linked with live feeds to police command – not science fiction or a left-wing paranoia, but a reality in Australia's state of New South Wales.

"If patients stop taking their medication before that they have to start from scratch again, but the TB bacillus has built up a resistance against the medication - it has mutated - so a different drug cocktail must be found for the patient,"

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia released new documents on Pentagon spying on peaceful protesters, in a downtown press conference today at the Martin Luther King Federal Building.

"The population must mobilize in a peaceful way throughout the country to demand the release of all the Lavalas political prisoners and the return of Lavalas political exiles, including President Aristide, for there to be truly democratic, free and honest elections."

The speech that will define U.S. politics throughout 2006 has already been given. The audience was the Republican National Committee and the date was January 19. The speechmaker was Karl Rove, top political adviser to President George Bush.

The case of Alaa Isaa Khalaf is unfortunately not unique. It is not the fist time that a trade unionist has been murdered or abducted in Iraq. The ICFTU strongly urged the Iraqi authorities to ensure that this case is fully investigated and that those responsible for the murder are detained and brought to justice.

The investigate units of several federal agencies are denying their responsibility for probing Bush’s approval of – and the US Attorney General’s justifications for – wiretapping Americans without the consent of Congress, Atlanta Progressive News (APN) has learned.

Newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the new face of evil, US officials and media want us to believe. The dialectics that yielded such a conclusion have been offered in abundance within thousands of news broadcasts, commentaries and official pronouncements.