Cover Story: The Uncompassionate Conservative
By Molly Ivins
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.

Death by a Thousand Cuts
By Stephanie Mencimer
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
By Samantha M. Shapiro
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
By Charles Bowden
Dennis Kucinich will never be president. But that will only encourage him to try.

On Their Own
Photo Essay By Kristen Ashburn | Text By Zia Jaffrey
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
By Michael Scherer
A special report on how pro-business interest groups are funding a judicial revolution in the nations courts

Is It Prozac? Or Placebo?
By Gary Greenberg
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?

Editor’s Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk

OUTFRONT
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

EXHIBIT
The height of campaign fashion

PUBLIC DOMAIN
The End of Equality
By George Packer
It’s the most American of ideas, so why has the principle of equality been relegated to the radical fringe?

THE SLANT
Back in the USA
By Ian Frazier
In which Pam wishes Randy would hurry up already and bomb Iceland into democracy

DISPATCH
The Right to Be Wild
By Rick Bass
The administration seems intent on despoiling the last of the great American wilderness. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

NOTEBOOK
Never Roll Over
By Gary Greenberg
String Cheese v. Ticketmaster — a trippy Colorado jam band takes on the most reviled power in music

MEDIA JONES
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

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