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Defeat the Bush Agenda

In this special issue...

• Oil Wars: Fueling the Empire

• Commentary – Cuba Subverts US Imperialism

• Farce to Tragedy

• State of the Union: Before the Election

• Book Review Essay – Books to Avoid

• The Most Important Battle of Our Lives

• Letters

• Nobody Asked Me, But...

• Marxist Quiz

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Prior to formally ordering the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, self-declared "war president" George W. Bush sternly warned the Iraqis: "Do not destroy the oil wells." The war on Iraq was, reportedly, originally named Operation Iraqi Liberation, instead of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Someone realized, however, that the acronym would be OIL.

The bellicose attempt by a Bush administration to antagonize public opinion to cover up ongoing election fraud should not surprise anyone. Enforcing slavery law to annex a compliant population dates back to the slave master mentality of states rights advocates. The ex-Batista henchmen and new wave neo-conservatives became fast political allies in considering bribery, collusion, fraud and racketeering schemes to shortcut democracy.

I wrote the following as a wild and crazy satire of events in the midst of the Clinton scandals. I reprint it here for a little levity at a dark and sinister time, when the Ralph Nader and various left-wing parties are spinning their own fantasies that "Kerry is a greater danger than Bush" and that Bush’s return to power in 2004 will bring about the collapse of capitalism.

Our union appears deeply divided – both locally and nationwide. We are held together by a common economic system – monopoly capitalism – which serves the interests of large corporations and banks at the expense of the vast majority of people, who are torn by class, ethnic and racial divides fueled by the government and the mass media.

As we meet here in Athens, the US is in the middle of a gigantic electoral contest. It is difficult to convey the fervor and intensity of this great fight. Some have compared it to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, others to the momentum behind the efforts to found the industrial unions in 30s, still others to the movement against the Vietnam war. But whatever the comparison, back home, it is seen as perhaps the greatest and most important battle of our lives.

I made more trips by plane this year than normal. Here are reviews of a couple of books that I picked up in airport bookstores