Category: Politics

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The continuing breakup of the former Soviet Union plays out in misery and hardship. Women in the break-away republic of Chechnya wash clothes on the outskirts of Grozny from a hot water pipe. Most of the city's residents are without hot water and electricity.

Chechnya Update

As dusk falls on the Chechen capital, Grozny, in southern Russia, the sounds of dogs barking, neighbors chatting, and the theme song to a popular Brazilian soap opera mix with the sounds of automatic gunfire and distant explosions. But the conversations continue, soup is served,

Buddy MacKay points to a headline in his hometown paper, the Ocala Star-Banner, proclaiming he won the Senate seat instead of Connie Mack. The photo appeared in the Palm Beach Post on Nov. 10, 1988 Photo by Bob Shanley, staff photographer, Palm Beach Post

A Tale of Weird Drop-Offs and Jump-Ups: Are Computer Vote Counts Honest?

TALLAHASSEE AND SOUTH FLORIDA–Speaking softly, but with an occasional “damn,” the lieutenant governor of Florida, Democrat Buddy McKay, said last spring in his office in the Florida State Capitol that he believed a seat in the U.S. Senate was stolen from him six years ago.

On the 23rd day of the impassee over adoption of the state budget in 1992, Speaker Willie Brown and Governor Pete Wilson finally started talking to each other again. The meetin gcame after Brown, uninvited, marched to the governor's office and asked to be let in. Facing reporters, Wilson put his arm around Brown and called him "my pal." The budget impassee - over education - continued, however, lasting a record-breaking 64 days. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli

Willie Brown: Power, Money and Instinct

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA–Frank Fat’s is the smallest building on its block. Painted garishly pink outside, the Chinese restaurant is sandwiched between a parking garage and an old brick office building a short walk from the California State Capitol. The napkin from Frank Fat’s restaurant that resulted

Under political siege in 1988, Willie Brown listens to two of the five Assembly Democrats who attempted to unseat him as Speaker. The Gang of Five's rebellion eventually fizzled. At left is Assemblyman Steve Peace of Chula Vista and, right Jerry Eaves of Rialto. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli

Willie Brown: The Members’ Speaker

SAN FRANCISCO — Willie Brown, his tuxedo glistening in the spotlight, bounced onto a stage in the ornate ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel, the grandiose citadel of San Francisco’s old-moneyed establishment. California’s most powerful politician began introducing his after-dinner entertainment and his guests definitely would

Anita Hill Baucus said she called members of the Senate Judiciary committee because whe couldn't tolerate seeing Anita Hill "suffering at the hands of a bunch of thugs, and that was how they were treating her. It was frightening to see them all gang up on her." AP/Wide World Photos

Sexism in Washington: Breaking the Silence

It’s been almost two years since millions of Americans sat riveted in front of their televisions, witnessing the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings before the Senate Judiciary committee. That’s a long time ago by Washington standards, where big stories can become ancient history within weeks if

Clarence Thomas and Angela Wright Photo courtesy of AP Wide World Photos

Revisiting the Thomas-Hill Hearings

Like the Kennedy assassination, Watergate and the Vietnam war, the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings have become a defining event in history that promises to be be reexamined, replayed and reevaluated for decades to come. Clarence Thomas and Angela Wright Photo courtesy of AP Wide World

Willie Brown, front row, third from right, and the men of Jones Methodist Church. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Hamilton T. Boswell.

Willie Brown: The Play for Power

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — Willie Brown arrived to face the cameras and the questions. A new Speaker had been chosen in a closed-door meeting of Democrats in the California State Assembly and it was time to make the announcement: A liberal Democrat from San Francisco had

Al's Place in Mineola,from a 1936 Postcard marking the Texas Centennial. Willie Lewis Brown, father of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, is third from left standing at attention in a white duck jacket. In an interview 57 years later, he said he remembered holding the tray that day. "I wanted to have something in my hand to show I was a waiter."

Willie Brown: The Early Years

Dallas, Texas-On a drizzly January morning earlier this year, a crowd of politicians and lobbyists from California jammed into the Good Street Baptist Church, a modest brick building in the heart of Dallas’s black neighborhood. The power elite of the nation’s most populous state had

David Duke, rear, salutes a burning cross at a Klan rally in Euless, Texas in 1979, the year he said he left the KKK. Duke, a Republican, won a house seat in Louisiana by 227 votes, ran for governor and threw the state party into disarray over whether to support him or not. Photo by APF Fellow Vince Heptig.

How David Duke and the Born-Agains Wrecked Louisiana’s GOP

Louisiana has a spectacular history of corruption, most of it by Democrats. Disgust with that legacy animated Republican leaders, who took party organization as seriously as their rock ribbed conservatism. They had to. Outnumbered 3-to-1 by Democrats, Republicans held few offices until the 1980s, when

Powell At The Supreme Court

Florida Congressman Claude Pepper huddled quickly with other colleagues after the U.S. House voted to exclude Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. on March 1, 1967. Powell was the first House member to suffer such a fate since 1919, when the House excluded Victor Berger, charged with

A Chairman’s Glory and Pain

It was Congress that rescued Graham Barden, born in 1896, from a town called New Bern, North Carolina. He would become a seaman, then a football coach, gleefully running up lopsided scores against opponents. By 1920 he had a law degree from the University of

Powell and Eisenhower

Editors Note: APF Reporter Vol.11 #3 exsisted only as a photo copy, becuase of this the pictures in this story are of poor quality. They were not reckless with merriment, nor did they much tolerate those who were. Members, of the Eisenhower administration were much

The Rise of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

On May 10, 1931, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, as usual, was packed. There was a buzz in the crowd. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., the pastor, was ill. His son, Adam, Jr., would deliver the sermon. The pulpit hardly frightened Adam Junior. He was

The Marginal Men

The marginal ten, the wretched stragglers for survival on the fringes of farm and city, may already number half a billion. By 1980 they will surpass a billion, by 1990 two billion. Can we imagine any human order surviving with so gross a mass of

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It’s a Revolution All Right

Rome May 2, 1971 The disintegration of Pakistan. The collapse of a government in Turkey. Heightened rural violence in the Philippines. Is it mere coincidence that political explosions have followed spectacular advances in agricultural production in all three countries? From the perspective of the Food

Le Temoin, or the Witness, Time Chart of 8,500 Years of Human History.

How Lonely Sits The City – Part II

Le Témoin Suse, capitale de l’Elam, est situe’ dans la province autrefois fertile du Khuzistan qui prolonge, en Iran, la grande plaine arrosee par le Tigre et l’Euphrate. Aussi sa civilization est elle plus etroitement lies a Celle de la Mesopotamie qu’a celle du Plateau

The Citadel and ruins of Susa; what appear to be eroded hills are actually great piles of debris and rubble - potsherds, human and animal bones, shaped stones and other archeological remains.

How Lonely Sits The City – Part I

A Survey in Two Parts of the Human Impact of Agricultural Development from Prehistoric to Contemporary Times as seen from the Village of Shush-Daniel on the Khuzestan Plain of Southwest Persia Contents Part One: 10,000 to 640 B.C. – Bedouin. PartTwo: Le Temoin – 640