Cover Story: The Uncompassionate Conservative

He’s not mean, really. It’s just that George W. Bush was born into a peculiar Texas brand of privilege that blinds him to the effects his policies have on the rest of us.

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FEATURES

Death by a Thousand Cuts

When he first ran for president, Bush promised to be there for the needy. These days, people in places like Henderson, North Carolina, are wondering just what he had in mind.

Jails for Jesus

Thanks to a highly touted faith-based initiative, inmates in evangelical prison programs are getting picnics, electric guitars, and Bible-based therapy. Coming soon to a prison near you.

Little Big Man

Dennis Kucinich will never be president. But that will only encourage him to try.

On Their Own

Zimbabweans are suffering from an HIV rate of 34 percent–and from the failure of rich nations to provide them with the medicines they need to stay alive.

The Making of the Corporate Judiciary

A special report on how pro-business interest groups are funding a judicial revolution in the nations courts

Is It Prozac? Or Placebo?

Are people who are benefiting from antidepressants doing so because they are taking Prozac or Zoloft? Or because they are taking a pill–any pill?

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DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk


Racing to the bottom line in Iraq; daring sex-worker “rescues”; the Pentagon’s toxic exemption; computer voting goes haywire; plus a Hellraiser who packs meat


The height of campaign fashion


The End of Equality

It’s the most American of ideas, so why has the principle of equality been relegated to the radical fringe?


Back in the USA

In which Pam wishes Randy would hurry up already and bomb Iceland into democracy


The Right to Be Wild

The administration seems intent on despoiling the last of the great American wilderness. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.


Never Roll Over

String Cheese v. Ticketmaster — a trippy Colorado jam band takes on the most reviled power in music


Todd Gitlin on Studs Terkel’s ode to activism; Tony Kushner on queer TV and power politics; Dylan done Doggy-style; plus book, music, and film reviews


Let’s Make ’em Really Hate Us
Cartoon by Barry Blitt