We've all been steadily moving away from these small towns into big, impersonal cities and suburbs. Many of us don't even know our neighbors. So in the absence of small-town gossip, we have Hollywood, where we keep tabs on 40 or 50 regular faces in the weeklies.

In the absence of neighborhood drama, we get to whisper about Paula Abdul's sketchy behavior during "American Idol." In the absence of a village idiot, we have Mel Gibson.

And here's the sociopolitical part: By gabbing about celebrities' personal lives, we are participating in a nationwide debate, determining what is and what isn't acceptable behavior on a national stage.   more »

Morality has always been the driving force of Anglo-American aggression towards Iraq. It is the enabler of other, baser motives. This morality is the Judeo-Christian kind. Pervasive and taken-for-granted, it’s as invisible to Westerners as water is to a fish.

This morality is the mortar of global capital. When its heart was pierced on September 11, 2001—let us leave aside by whom—it responded with a visceral lust for vengeance.

This emotional need was shaped by Christian-Zionists around Bush, who used it to fuel and underwrite the demonization of Saddam Hussein and the rape and pillage of Iraq society.

The link between 9/11 and Iraq is moral and emotive. It is the need to assuage pain by inflicting still more pain, preferably upon a weaker party. This moral right and emotive need made superfluous any legal right.   more »

Baghdad is paralysed by fear. Iraqi drivers are terrified of running into impromptu checkpoints where heavily armed men in civilian clothes may drag them out of their cars and kill them for being the wrong religion.

Some districts exchange mortar fire every night. This is mayhem beyond the comprehension of George Bush and Tony Blair.

Black smoke was rising over the city centre yesterday as American and Iraqi army troops tried to fight their way into the insurgent district of Haifa Street only a mile north of the Green Zone, home to the government and the US and British embassies.

Helicopters flew fast and low past tower blocks, hunting snipers, and armoured vehicles manoeuvred in the streets below.

Many Iraqis who watched the State of the Union address shrugged it off as an irrelevance.   more »

The Bush cabal has from its very beginning waged war against the rule of law among nations and within U.S. boundaries, and against the very concept of a national social contract.

Although the Bushite ranks are now demoralized and their public support at low ebb, they have never abandoned their crusade for a new world order based on raw, unilateral U.S. military force, a planetary “market” to be constantly restructured according to the whims of unfettered, hyperactive capital.

This global dream regime of theirs recognizes no boundaries, no zones of protection from the predations of aircraft carrier-buttressed capital, whose imperatives they consider synonymous with, not only the “national interest,” but the intentions of the Almighty, himself.

In the face of total disarray in Iraq, which was to be the staging area for further conquest, the Bush regime chooses to escalate the conflict against the clear wishes of the American public.   more »

Why do so many politicians, then, embrace ethanol? Because ethanol is closest thing to a state religion we have in this country.

The farm lobby and ethanol processors like Archer Daniels Midland have vigorously and relentless sold this economic snake oil for over three decades now as a cost-free solution to just about every economic, environmental, and foreign policy problem on the national horizon.

Voters like helping farmers - and they like cost free solutions to things that scare them. Politicians, for their part, like affirming voter sentiment.   more »

The swift seizure of the country's roads took many by surprise, and marked a major escalation in Hezbollah's campaign. At least three people died and more than 100 were wounded as clashes flared around the country.

At nightfall, the capital was locked down by flaming blockades and roving squads of young men. The roadblocks were being cleared overnight, but the opposition threatened further escalation if the government doesn't step down.

For more than 50 wintry days, Hezbollah and its allies have camped on the pavement downtown in a massive sit-in aimed at toppling the government. The demonstrators deride the government as an illegitimate tool of America and Israel.

In Washington, the Bush administration criticized the demonstrators, and accused Syria of fuelling the turmoil. They would say that, wouldn't they?]   more »