December 2007 Issue

Cover By Douglas Fraser

Volume 71, Number 12

Editor’s Note

Letters

Comment A New Food System

No Comment

On the Line

Columns

Barbara Ehrenreich is having a hard time staying awake during this Presidential campaign.

Luis J. Rodríguez denounces military recruitment in the barrio.

Ruth Conniff follows the Hillary Clinton money trail.

Features

Is Bill Richardson Radioactive? Laura Paskus
The candidate’s record as governor raises questions.

Cover

Less Than Human Edwidge Danticat
“My uncle and many of the others who have died and are dying in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and I.C.E officials did not violate any immigration laws.”

Interview

Jane Smiley Matthew Rothschild
“In 2001, what we needed was a person with wide-ranging interests and knowledge,” says the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. “Instead, we had an ignoramus, whose own psychology was very iffy.”

Culture

M.I.A. in Action Antonino D’Ambrosio
The British-Sri Lankan rapper redefines music.

Poem Wendell Berry

Our Favorite Books of 2007 As chosen by Kate Clinton, Ruth Conniff, Anne-Marie Cusac, Elizabeth DiNovella, Susan J. Douglas, Andrea Lewis, John Nichols, Amitabh Pal, Luis J. Rodríguez, Matthew Rothschild, and Howard Zinn.

Will Durst says it’s impossible to be wronger than George W. Bush.