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 Editorials
Adios, Presidente
 David Agren
Fox left office on Friday after six stable but unremarkable years of governance – if you don't account the early accomplishment of outsting the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and improving the macroeconomic climate.
Bush's Second-Biggest Mistake
 William Fisher
His first big mistake, as we all now know, was turning his attention and our resources away from Afghanistan, the country that harbored those who attacked us on 9/11. His second-biggest mistake was the place to which he then turned his attention and our resources - Iraq.
The Candidacy and Post-Electoral Insurgency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador
 Dan Lund
The current moment in Mexican politics began in 2003 with the clear emergence of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as the leading candidate for President in Mexico and ended with the closure of the formal election process. It is likely to serve as a seminal period for the study of political culture, campaigns, elections and public opinion.
Job No. 1: Remake Mexico
 Denise Dresser
Mexico's new president is off to a rocky start. Felipe Calderon would like nothing better than to simply assume office and get on with the task of governing a troubled country. But all the signs suggest that he will have a hard time doing so.
Has He Started Talking to the Walls?
 Frank Rich
It turns out we've been reading the wrong Bob Woodward book to understand what's going on with President Bush. The text we should be consulting instead is "The Final Days," the Woodward-Bernstein account of Richard Nixon talking to the portraits on the White House walls while Watergate demolished his presidency.
Who Killed the Kennedys After All?
 Mikael Rudolph
The British BBC Newsnight recently featured filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan's claim that he has discovered new video and photographic evidence that puts three senior CIA operatives at the scene of Robert Kennedy's assassination in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968.
The Spirit of Resistance in Mexico City
 Stephen Lendman
National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderon had center stage at 12:01 AM, December 1 at the presidential residence of Los Pinos as Mexico's new president addressed the country on national television after a brief stealth swearing-in ceremony for him to the office he didn't win and will now assume illegitimately because of the fraud-laden electoral coup d'etat that gave it to him.
New Opportunity in US-Mexican Affairs
 Eric Farnsworth
U.S. relations with Mexico are about to take another turn, and with some careful nurturing on both sides of the border, the prospects for building a mature, vibrant bilateral relationship have not been better in years. But the window is small, and the time to do so is now.
Fox Leaves Mexico's Dirty Past Unsettled
 Héctor Tobar
When President Vicente Fox leaves office Friday, one of the biggest hopes of his historic 2000 election will have gone unfulfilled. Every one of the politicians, police officers, soldiers and intelligence agents responsible for the killings and tortures of Mexico's recent authoritarian past will have gone unpunished.
Not Flying While Muslim
 William Fisher
The paranoid wing of the blogosphere continues to go ballistic with joy about the six Muslim imams who were removed in handcuffs from a US Airways flight because one passenger thought it was "suspicious" that they knelt on their prayer rugs and prayed in the airport waiting room before boarding their flight.
So Goodbye at Last Mr Fox
 Jo Tuckman
So it finally really is goodbye Vicente - and it's been an odd farewell. This week Mexico's President Vicente Fox will hand over the sash of office to his protégé Felipe Calderon after an emotional, hot-tempered, gaffe-filled and controversial farewell that has lasted months.
Coming to Grips with Mexico's Bloody Past
 McClatchy-Tribune
Of nearly all the countries in Latin America with a hidden history of involvement in political repression and human-rights violations, none has been more reluctant to confront its past than Mexico.
Migration Issue Needs Sense, Not a Big Fence
 Andres Oppenheimer
If there was ever any doubt that the planned fence along the southern U.S. border is one of the dumbest ideas ever to come out of Washington, new estimates putting the price tag of the project at up to $37 billion should persuade everyone to forget about the whole thing.
What's at Stake in Mexico City
 Enrique Krauze
Mexico is a country that is, all at once, pre-modern, modern, anti-modern and postmodern. This situation can have certain advantages, as those who appreciate the cultural mosaic of Mexico know, but there are times when it can be not just difficult but explosive.
Day Laborers’ Rights
 NYTimes
You cannot abuse people through selective enforcement of the law. You cannot single people out for special punishment without cause. You cannot instruct the police to harass people for being Latino and poor.
America: What to Do Next?
 Robert Parry
First, it's important to recognize some of the key reasons why the American voters were able to wrest at least some control of the nation's helm from the motley crew of neoconservative ideologues, political operatives and war profiteers who have dominated George W. Bush's administration.
Truth was Buried with the Victims
 Sean Mattson
Nearly nine months after one of the largest North American workplace disasters in recent memory, answers to what happened in the Pasta de Conchos coal mine seem as deeply buried as the 64 bodies still under the rubble.
The Same Old George
 William Rivers Pitt
All the talk of bi-partisanship after the midterm elections was really nice, wasn't it? Granted, the only reason conversation got steered in that direction was because the Republican Party absorbed a staggering defeat. But hey, it was good while it lasted.
It's Time for Son of Immigrant to Leave Spotlight
 Mary Schmich
Valiant little Saul Arellano should be allowed to retire. He has been a good soldier. He has been a good son. But it's not helping his mother, or her larger cause, to exhibit him as the mascot for the injustice and illogic of the U.S. immigration system.
Ten Reasons Congress Must Investigate Bush Administration Crimes
 Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith
Few elections in history have provided so clear a mandate. But the first response of the new Congressional leadership has been to proclaim a new era of civility and seek accommodation with the very people who need to be held accountable for war crimes and subversion of the Constitution.
Shafting the Vets
 Conn Hallinan
"War is hell," Union General William Tecumseh Sherman famously said 14 years after the end of the bloodiest conflict in US history. "It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation."
Impeachment and the Table
 t r u t h o u t . o r g
A compelling argument can certainly be made that, given all that the country now faces, an impeachment of George W. Bush by the new Democratic Congress would do more to further divide the nation than heal it.
Our Long National Nightmare Has Just Begun
 Ted Rall
Will the beleaguered neocons led by Cheney and Bush, cornered like rats, unleash their brand-new police state on their political opponents? Or will they tough it out and suck up the fines and prison sentences to come? The next year or two could go either way.
American Voters Just Say No
 Robert Parry
By a surprisingly decisive margin, American voters rejected George W. Bush's designs for transforming the United States into a one-party government run by an all-powerful executive waging endless war abroad and throttling constitutional liberties at home.
America's Slide to Totalitarianism
 Robert Parry
If the last-minute polling trends showing a powerful Republican comeback carry through the Nov. 7 elections, the end of America as we have known it for more than two centuries will be at hand.
Rumsfeld and Hussein: Partners in Crime
 David Swanson
The White House has arranged to announce a guilty verdict for Saddam Hussein two days before the elections. Meanwhile an appeals process is delaying, until at least five days after the elections, release of photos of members of the US military and its contractors raping and murdering children and adults at Abu Ghraib.
GOP Must Go
 The American Conservative
This week Americans will vote for candidates who have spent much of their campaigns addressing state and local issues. But no future historian will linger over the ideas put forth for improving schools or directing funds to highway projects.
Bush Will Say Anything
 Robert Parry
The Nov. 7 elections are shaping up as not just a choice between Republicans and Democrats, but a test of how gullible - and how divorced from reality - the American people have become.
Impunity Has Become a Major Malady in Mexico
 Carlos Luken
Social and political observers have long cited corruption as Mexico’s foremost malignancy. Regrettably they can mention many examples from which to make this assumption and support its validity.
Border Fence Will Create New Woes
 Thomas McClanahan
The notion that throwing up a barrier will solve the problem of illegal immigration is fanciful. Even many who voted for the bill acknowledge that its main significance is political.
The Lula Myth
 Jean-Marcel Bouguereau
In 2002, he was already the best elected president in all the history of Brazil. He has just been re-elected with a score of over 60% of votes, slightly less than in 2002. This man, who began his career as a shoe polisher, has succeeded in overcoming all obstacles.
The Fence Campaign
 The New York Times
President Bush signed a bill to authorize a 700-mile border fence last week, thus enshrining into federal law a key part of the Republicans' midterm election strategy.
Geopolitical Diary: A Mexican Standoff Worsens
 Strategic Forecasting Inc
Mexican federal police advanced into the center of Oaxaca City on Sunday, firing tear gas and water cannons at protesters who have been camping there for months. The political action is intensifying at a key moment - for both talks aimed at ending the standoff and the upcoming presidential transition.
Recipe for a Cooked Election
 Greg Palast
A nasty little secret of American democracy is that, in every national election, ballots cast are simply thrown in the garbage. Most are called "spoiled," supposedly unreadable, damaged, invalid. Almost as deep a secret is that people are doing something about it.
Mexico's Cartel Wars: The Threat Beyond the U.S. Border
 Fred Burton
Violence stemming from the drug cartels has existed for decades in many parts of Mexico. What is new is the fact that cartel violence is now spilling over onto the U.S. side of the border.
Elections to Watch
 James J. Zogby
Despite the fact that some Democrats folded in the face of the administration's pressure on critical issues like the Iraq war and the protection of civil liberties, I am confident that after four years of single-party rule, the United States will be better served by Democratic control of Congress.more »»»
Radical Teachers Defy Death Squads
 Elizabeth Mistry
They’re embroidering pine apples on the streets of Oaxaca. Everywhere you look, small groups of teachers, mostly women, are huddled together stitching. While at first glance a passer-by might mistake them for a sewing circle, these women are on guard.more »»»
US, Mexico Should Establish Immigration Parameters
 George Diaz
"Progress" should not be measured by the recent decision to build a 700-mile fence along Mexico's southern border. That amounts to nothing more than a $1.2 billion down payment on a Band-Aid that is an ineffective stopgap.more »»»
From Chiapas to the Zócalo: Popular Uprisings in Mexico
 John Gibler
Recent social movements in Mexico, including the Zapatistas’ Other Campaign, the teachers’ strike-turned- uprising in Oaxaca, and the post-electoral protests in Mexico City, have together pulled some 3 million people into the streets, captured national and international attention, and raised the bar for civic protest.more »»»
The Wretched Years
 William Rivers Pitt
What will history have to say about these times? History, it has often been said, is written by the victors, but who really wins anything after all this? If the most delectable left-wing fantasies come true - the Democrats take Congress in November, Bush and his cronies are impeached - little will be left to win.more »»»
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