Dec. 9, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela — When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez trounced his U.S.-backed opponent to win a second six-year term on Dec. 3, we were there.

WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Dec. 4 on two lawsuits seeking to terminate voluntary desegregation programs in public schools, a thousand protesters, mostly Black, Latino and white college students, marched outside chanting “Equal education, not segregation” and “They say Jim Crow, we say hell no!”

When the bipartisan Iraq Study Group released its recommendations Dec. 6, they were widely seen as an effort to identify the “least bad” options for U.S. ruling circles that would, to the extent possible, salvage their interests in Iraq and the region.

Fifty bullets. One bullet can kill a person — imagine what 50 did to 21-year-old Sean Bell and his two friends. What happened to these three unarmed young men on Nov. 25 in Queens, N.Y., is a horror, a tragedy — and a crime.

HOUSTON — In the wild, wild west of Texas politics, Republicans have set a new standard since the November election.

PORTLAND, Ore.: City Council says ‘Bring the troops home’
ORLANDO, Fla.: Groups provide Thanksgiving dinners, despite city law
ST. LOUIS: Winter storm kills 23 in Midwest
WASHINGTON: U.S. fails on AIDS fight, again

As 2006 winds down, two court victories were racked up for civil liberties against the Bush administration’s authoritarian policies. More such triumphs are likely.

The race for the 23rd Congressional District Seat is as hot as a San Antonio jalapeño pepper. Labor-backed Democrat Ciro Rodriguez is pitted in a Dec. 12 runoff election against Bush Republican Henry Bonilla, who has close ties to disgraced former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

PHILADELPHIA — “It was a magnificent day,” said Peace Granny Marlene Santoyo. On Dec. 1, Municipal Court Judge Deborah Griffin dismissed the charges against 11 grandmothers arrested June 28 when they refused to leave a military recruiting station after trying to enlist to serve in Iraq.

The Bolivian Congress passed landmark agrarian reform legislation Nov. 28 despite bitter but ultimately faltering right-wing opposition. Central to the achievement was indigenous mobilization working in tandem with an indigenous-headed government, enabling its president to make good on promises to Bolivia’s majority population.