NOMI PRINS Author of the piece “How the Republicans Can Manipulate Oil Prices for Political Gain,” Prins said today: “Since their August highs, oil prices dropped from $77 to $59 per barrel. Gas prices have fallen from an average of $3.04 to $2.25 per gallon. In a September USA Today poll 42 percent of Americans…

A nonpartisan “election protection” coalition, led by the People For the American Way Foundation, the NAACP, and the Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, has announced that it is launching a national 1-866-OUR-VOTE voter-assistance hotline and the poll-location web site MyPollingPlace.com. The hotline is staffed by live call-center operators trained to provide state-specific assistance…

The lead story in the Washington Post today notes: “President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone ‘hostile to U.S. interests.’” CRAIG EISENDRATH Formerly a State Department official handling outer space…

AP is reporting: “Air samples gathered last week contain radioactive materials that confirm that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte’s office said Monday.” THOMAS P. KIM Kim is executive director of the Korea Policy Institute and professor of politics and international relations at Scripps College. The Korea Policy Institute…

Last week at a news conference, President Bush said that a new study on deaths in Iraq is “not credible.” The White House and Pentagon have cited much lower figures without clear documentation. LES ROBERTS Co-author of the study “Mortality after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A Cross-Sectional Cluster Sample Survey” published last week in…

At his news conference today, President Bush made repeated use of the word “diplomacy” with reference to both the decision to invade Iraq and relations with North Korea. Bush said: “My point was: Bilateral negotiations [with North Korea] didn’t work. You know, I appreciate the efforts of previous administrations. It just didn’t work. … It’s…

This week, U.S. political statements and media reports about which countries possess nuclear weapons have commonly ignored or downplayed Israel’s nuclear weapons capacity. But exclusion of Israel from the list of countries with nuclear weaponry is inaccurate. In the interest of accuracy, asking the Israeli and U.S. governments about the existence of an Israeli nuclear…

BRUCE CUMINGS A specialist in Korea, Cumings is a professor at the University of Chicago. His latest book is North Korea: Another Country. Cumings said today: “There is no military solution to the North Korean problem. Sanctions also do not work — the North has been under American sanctions since 1950. The only solution is…

ELIZABETH HOLTZMAN Holtzman has been a Congresswoman and the district attorney of Brooklyn; she was a member of the House panel that impeached Richard Nixon. She recently wrote in the Chicago Sun Times: “President Bush … is quietly trying to pardon himself of any crimes connected with the torture and mistreatment of U.S. detainees. “The…

The North Korean government has announced that it will “conduct a nuclear test.” Full statement South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon is expected to become the next Secretary General of the United Nations. BRUCE CUMINGS A specialist in Korea, Cumings is a professor at the University of Chicago. His latest book is North Korea: Another…