My first view of General William Westmoreland was from coach class. He was in first, sitting ramrod straight, impossible to miss.

We were headed to the University of Florida at Gainesville to debate the Bomb. Why the man who commanded the armies of the Crusade in Southeast Asia from 1964 to 1968 needed in 1984 to debate a lefty activist like me was a mystery. Maybe he needed the money. Maybe he needed the challenge.

He looked like he'd live forever. Certainly into his nineties, which he did, passing away this week at 91. He was tall, poised, flinty-eyed, with zero apparent body fat. Unbent, unbowed, you'd've thought him a conquering hero.

The debate was about the Nuclear Freeze, a great campaign. Why it failed to bury all nuclear weapons remains a great mystery of human nature. Today's world would be infinitely richer and safer if only it had been wiser back then.

That night in Gainesville I lived out a peacenik dream: I got to ask the man who commanded 550,000 troops in Vietnam why we should heed his opinion about needing nuclear weapons when he had so catastrophically led America to its first military defeat.

President Bush has nominated Judge John Roberts to replace Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1979, Mr. Roberts was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. He went on to serve in the Reagan administration as an assistant to Attorney General Smith and as an associate White House legal counsel. He also served as deputy solicitor general in the administration of Mr. Bush’s father. He was in private practice until 2003 when he was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Many people hoped that Mr. Bush would appoint a moderate Republican in the mold of Justice O’Connor. Unfortunately, Judge Roberts is a solid conservative. While his legal record will be reviewed intently over the course of the next few months, his role in the following cases will likely take center stage.

Scholars have long commented on the U.S. government's need for an "endless frontier" - a substitute for the mythologized Wild West. A place Americans can explore, conquer, and dominate, and where riches and profits can be plundered. With the official closing of the continental western frontier in 1890 and the ongoing exploitation of Alaska's resources, space truly represents the "final frontier."

The current Bush administration's plan to weaponize space and seize the new high-tech military "high ground" poses perhaps the greatest threat to humankind in the 21st century. The U.S.'s stated policy, revealed in the U.S. Space Command document "Joint Vision for 2020," calls for "full spectrum dominance" of Earth, both militarily and economically, through control of the moon corridor.

June 26, 2005 will mark the 30th year since the shoot-out at Oglala on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. It was in this conflict between the American Indian Movement and the F.B.I. that three people lost their lives. The subsequent arrest, conviction and incarceration of American Indian activist, Leonard Peltier, is a nightmarish visible sign of social injustice.

The case of Leonard Peltier is a case of political failure, political manipulation, political intervention and political incarceration. Leonard remains a political prisoner in a country that claims it holds none. Leonard Peltier has nearly completed his 3rd decade in a cage in Leavenworth, Kansas. Below, please find Leonard's words as he approaches a fourth decade of this nightmare.

Dear Brothers, Sisters, Friends, Supporters, and All People,

I want to thank you all for your continuing support. These are important times for us all. Now is the time for unification. Only through unity can we overcome. I ask all of us, my brother and sisters, all people, please come together as one and work together hard for the

Freep Heroes: Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus

With six out of ten Americans saying the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, finally four key legislators introduced a resolution in Congress demanding that W begin to bring U.S. troops home. The sponsors are Rep. Walter Jones, (R-NC), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Neil Abercrombie (D-HI). Just two years ago, Jones was spearheading the movement to rename Capitol Hill cafeteria French fries "Freedom Fries." Their heroic and historic resolution gives hope that the militarist and war profiteers going by the name "Bush junta" can be directly challenged.

The Free Press Salutes Backbone campaign