Joe Bageant at Innie's Cafe

  Nov. 19, 2008 (World News Trust) -- We just concluded an election in which both parties talked about hope, one more so than the other. Hope, that murky, undefined belief that some unknown force, perhaps Jesus, or modern science, or some great political leader, or other -- as yet unknown force -- will reverse our national or personal condition...  will deliver us from what every bit of evidence indicates is irreversible, if not politically, then ecologically: Decline and eventual collapse. There is quite a difference between hope and understanding the facts, then holding justified optimism. Hope is magical thinking, a sucker’s game. Politicians the world 'round fully understand this.

Hal Cohen

  Nov. 18, 2008 (World News Trust) -- I have come to a decision. In a move that will no doubt come to a shock to those who know me, and admittedly that is a small circle, I am joining the Republican party.

  “One of the good things about everything being so fucked up—about the culture being so ubiquitously destructive -- is that no matter where you look -- no matter what your gifts, no matter where your heart lies -- there’s good and desperately important work to be done.” --Derrick Jensen

  Writer Antonio Graceffo has become the target of a disinformation campaign by the ruling junta in Burma for opposing the oppressive regime.

Ramzy Baroud

  Nov. 14, 2008 -- (World News Trust) -- There are a few buzzwords that every American politician, aiming for high office must utilize, even if disingenuously, to have a reasonable chance at getting elected.

Mickey Z.

  Nov. 12, 2008 (World News Trust) -- As you know, the Empire has selected a new emperor. The Mafia has chosen a new don. The corporation has hired a new CEO. Are you brimming with hope yet? Read on…

James Kunstler

  Nov. 17, 2008 (World News Trust) -- The G-20 came to Washington for the weekend and sucked all the air out of the city before announcing that they were really serious about patching all the leaks in the foundering ship of globalism. Well, they have to at least pretend that they are doing something. Meanwhile, the former bit player known as reality has taken center stage in the ship's main lounge. It is putting on an act even gnarlier than the Kit Kat Klub show in Cabaret.

  Nov. 12, 2008 (World News Trust) -- In the classic 1989 film, Roadhouse, thespian Patrick Swayze inhabits the role of James Dalton, head bouncer at a seedy establishment called the Double Deuce Club. Dalton is armed with a PhD in philosophy from New York University and his three rules of bouncing:

Joel S. Hirschhorn

  Nov. 12, 2008 (World News Trust) -- Voting out congressional incumbents failed this year, showing the anti-incumbency movement to be a clear letdown.

Tuesday night was a bitter-sweet celebration. We came together to witness the first black man who will become our president, yet watched in sadness as Florida, Arizona, Arkansas, and California all voted down equal rights for all citizens.

James Kunstler

  Nov. 10, 2008 (World News Trust) -- As the election campaign ground on like a 3000-mile race between a greyhound and an armadillo, the media kept harping on Barack Obama's vague promises of "change." We now know what the main promise was: regime change, right here in the USA, not in some place where the natives wear strange headgear. Mr. Obama's victory was a moment of epochal exhilaration, not least because he appears to be a decent and intelligent person self-made from a humble background -- someone who has personally bought tube socks in the K-mart, worried about money, and made many trips in a subway car.

Ramzy Baroud

  Nov. 7, 2008 (World News Trust) -- The sovereignty of an independent, stable country that has carried out many constructive moves in recent months and weeks -- which could have surely contributed to the stabilization of the Middle East -- has been violated, its borders breached and its civilians killed.

Ramzy Baroud

  Nov. 6, 2008 (World News Trust) -- My right knee is wrapped. My left ankle is iced. I lost the nail on my right big toe, and have about 20 blisters and a similar number of bruises on both of my feet. This doesn’t even begin to convey half of the story of the punishment that my body has been subjected to in recent months. Why, you ask? Because I will join Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian American activist, writer and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine -- www.playgroundsforpalestine.org -- in running the Philadelphia Marathon on Nov. 23. Our goal is to raise enough money to build a large playground in a Palestinian refugee camp, likely in Lebanon. We are more than half of the way there, but have about $5,000 to go.

  Nov. 5, 2008 (World News Trust) -- Maybe we were just behind schedule. Could it be that we simply got a late start launching the REAL New American Century?

  Nov. 5, 2008 (World News Trust) -- Do you ever get the feeling that the voting booth is a lot like those buttons you find on some big city street corners? You know, the ones you push so you can obey the law while pretending to make the light turn green more quickly?

James Kunstler

  Nov. 3, 2008 (World News Trust) -- This is a nervous nation. Though I'm usually allergic to paranoia, something makes me think that there's a back office in the U.S. Treasury that is buying the entire Dow Jones Industrial Index at opportune moments -- like fifteen minutes before the closing bell -- at the direction of Mr. Paulson.

Rashid Khalidi

  The underlying assumption in the argument that association with Rashid Khalidi or his views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict is worthy of criticism is itself, by its own standard, inherently racist.

Ramzy Baroud

  Oct. 31, 2008 (World News Trust) -- At a recent conference I was repeatedly asked about the prospects for a third Palestinian uprising, or Intifada. The question, although seemingly uncomplicated, is both loaded and important, and cannot be answered in a mere two minutes or less.

Joel S. Hirschhorn

  Oct. 30, 2008 (World News Trust) -- No presidential candidate has ever used massive amounts of money to so effectively stalk voters.  You cannot escape the Obama sales pitch wherever you are, whatever you watch, whatever you read. His campaign will go down in American history as the most successful advertising and marketing effort to sell a product.

Mary Lyon

  Oct. 30, 2008 (World News Trust) -- The piece of film that just made the biggest impression on me on this particular night, when Barack Obama aired his half-hour TV special, was not anything Obama presented. It was the sour grapes John McCain squeezed in reaction.

  Oct. 29, 2008 (World News Trust) -- The following are a few quotes from William Greider's book Who Will Tell The People: "When incumbent officeholders begin to perceive a real threat developing to their power, that is the moment when election politics can begin to become serious and interesting again. When the organized presence of citizens can deprive others of power, all the deeper power relationships surrounding government will be put to risk too." This article will explain how you can win back power from Congress and have representatives interested in your welfare rather than the welfare of the political elites.

Mickey Z.

  Oct. 29, 2008 (World News Trust) -- I was walking down the street when I noticed a man sitting behind the wheel of a car, cursing and angry. His face was a mask of rage. I stopped and contemplated the source of his fury and assumed it was the election. Clearly, this man was fed up with the two-party farce, the barring of non-corporate candidates from public debates, the lies, the corruption, and the fact that a vote for either McCain or Obama is a vote for the same gluttonous, murderous culture.

  "Well, as usual, you people have everything all upside down and turned around and back to front.” --Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon 2