Steelworkers take pride in the toughness of their work and wax poetic about the macabre magnificence of their workplaces. They express outrage over deaths ensuing from unsafe conditions and employee layoffs accompanied by mega-bonuses to management. read more »

DHS and Boeing plan to approach border security through a “threat-based approach,” in which localized segments of the U.S. border are prioritized by the perceived risk of terrorism. Within eight months, Boeing plans to have a “model of the entire solution mix” deployed within southern Arizona. read more »

The Sept. 25 edition of Time magazine illustrates how the U.S. news media are gearing up for a military attack on Iran. The headline over the cover-story interview with Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is “A Date With a Dangerous Mind.” read more »

It should come as no surprise if the Bush administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election. read more »

Dominated by corporate executives, the commission called for a sweeping transformation of the U.S. system of higher education that would include standardized curricula and testing on a collegiate level and the creation of a giant database to track every single student’s educational record from kindergarten through college and into the workplace. read more »

Facing mid-term elections, both houses of Congress adopted the Military Commissions Act of 2006 in September, permanently repealing habeas corpus for non-citizens and giving the president complete discretion to use whatever interrogation techniques he sees fit – short of murder and rape. read more »

After being sued by the Department of Justice for failing to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), New York is now facing a September 2007 deadline to implement new voting equipment. In the next few months, counties across the state will have to choose between either high-tech, touch screen Directing Recording Electronic (DRE) devices or low-tech, optical scan electronic systems. read more »

“The threat that I’m most concerned about is undetectable, widespread, wholesale fraud –that’s the threat that keeps me up at night with these machines. Will you ever detect that undetectable fraud? By definition you won’t.” read more »

Much of the suspicion that has grown up around electronic voting has been sparked by the cozy connections and often questionable behavior of the three largest companies that make and operate e-voting machines. read more »

The U.S Has Tried To Take Voting Into The Digital Age In Recent Years Even As Concerns Grow About The New Technology. read more »

SUN OCT 22 11am – 5pm • Free 4TH ANNUAL BROOKLYN PEACE FAIR Long Island University 1 University Plaza, at Flatbush & DeKalb Aves. Sponsor: Brooklyn Parents for Peace. peacefair@brooklynpeace.org 7:30pm • Free, supper at 7pm for $6 donation SPECIAL FILM SHOWING: UNION MAIDS This documentary is a multiracial portrait of three labor heroines of the 1930s union movement who make history come alive. Open discussion will focus on the leadership of women in current union organizing. Freedom Hall, 113 W. 128 St. 212-222-0633 nycradicalwomen@nyct.net read more »

Ramos’ unobtrusive style, which has been praised by some, often leaves issues unaddressed. The film makes no attempt to establish a sociopolitical context for what we are seeing and is often predictable in simply displaying Brazil’s “third worldness” without furthering the viewer’s understanding of the images it presents. read more »

Nixon’s Nixon will play at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through Oct. 28. For more information see www.impactfestival.org. Nixon (played by Gerry Bamman, whose mannerisms sometimes resemble Jack Nicholson’s) is desperate, uninhibited, and sometimes hilarious. Stuffy, intellectual and also desperate, Kissinger (Steve Mellor) listens to his boss spew expletives like “pig shit” and “cock-suckers” without so much as a smile. In one particularly amusing scene, Kissinger impersonates Mao Zedong so that the president can reenact his pre-Watergate glory days. read more »

Combining a serious interest in the love lives of the disenfranchised with his musically fluid sense of structure and mischievous flair for provocation, Mitchell builds on the success of his debut, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, by fashioning a mini-Altman tapestry of people struggling to find happiness in their relationships. read more »

When Congress approved the suspension of habeas corpus for “unlawful enemy combatants” on Sept. 29, it thrust the United States back nine centuries in time to a world where subjects could disposed of at the whim of kings who ruled by divine right. read more »

Book Review Of In The Belly Of The Green Bird: The Triumph Of The Martyrs In Iraq By Nir Rosen / Free Press, 2006 and Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq By Thomas E. Ricks / The Penguin Press, 2006 read more »

Disastrous events followed at intervals – the Napoleonic era and continental wars of the early 19th century, the Metternich system, the failure of the Revolutions of 1848, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the French Commune, World Wars I and II, the termination of the Soviet Union, and the present Middle East catastrophe. As those events occurred, artists throughout the 19th and 20th centuries endeavored to counter them with their works. read more »

When Columbia University students and community allies chased MInuteman project founder Jim Gilchrist off the stage at Roone Arledge Auditorium on Oct. 4, a furor erupted. Fox News and the New York Post were outraged. Columbia president Lee Bollinger promised to punish student activists who organized the outburst. Below is a short statement issued by audience members who stormed the stage: read more »

While many voting rights activists are focused on problematic new voting machines, others are working to fend off an onslaught of new state and local voting initiatives that could restrict access to the vote. read more »

Activist attorney Lynne Stewart could receive as much as 30 years in prison on Oct. 16 when she is sentenced by a judge for her conviction of giving material aid to terrorism. Her defense team, which has gathered 800 letters from fellow attorneys, former clients and supporters, asks for no jail time in light of her age and compromised health. read more »