American stores making cash with notorious anti-capitalist

US soldiers deployed in Iraq have nearly a one-in-ten chance of getting killed, physically wounded, or psychologically traumatized.

A commentary on the 2004 US elections and the concerns of the Left. Slavoj Zizek concludes that "Bush's victory will dispel the illusions about the solidarity of interests among the developed Western countries. It will give a new impetus to the painful but necessary process of strengthening new alliances like the European Union or Mercosur in Latin America."

The U.S. Government Accountability Office plans to investigate complaints of several systemic problems with this month's elections, a group of Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday (11/23/04). The GAO said it will examine "the security and accuracy of voting technologies, distribution and allocation of voting machines and counting of provisional ballots."

Mark Dudzic argues that "there is no question that the outcome of the 2004 elections must be seen as a stunning defeat for working people. Bush will use his "mandate" to attempt to steamroll a series of radical new initiatives aimed at the very heart of working people's ability to survive and to organize on their own behalf. Once implemented, many of these changes will take decades to reverse. Even more disturbing is how the election was apparently won. The Republican Party has turned the class anger of millions of mostly unorganized, mostly white, workers into a revolt against a bi-coastal liberal "elite". This is the stuff of which fascism is made.... Now is the time for the labor movement to commit its resources and activism into shifting the terms of debate and building a new working class majority."

Samir Amin, author of "The Liberal Virus: Permanent War & the Americanization of the World," develops an analysis regarding the role of Europe and the Middle East in the global imperialist strategy of the USA. Amin grounds his analysis in a general historical vision of capitalist expansion. In his view capitalism has always been, since its inception, by nature, imperialist. The concurrent construction of dominant centers and dominated peripheries, and their reproduction deepening in each stage is inherent in the process of accumulation of capital operating on a global scale, according to Amin. Amin's insights have strategic implications for the Left.

Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the measure will "bring us back to the doorstep to the days of President Nixon, President Truman and other dark days in our history when taxpayer information was used against political enemies."

"We weren't born yesterday, we didn't come down with the first snow," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "This isn't poorly thought out, this was very deliberately thought out and it was done in the dead of night."

SANTIAGO, Chile (Nov 19, 2004) -- President Bush left Friday from his Texas ranch on his first post-election international trip -- to the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Santiago ahead of his arrival to protest globalization and U.S. foreign policies. Fourth straight day of Protests.