\| January/February 2008 The Last Empire By Jacques Leslie For years, America has pushed China to make its economy more like ours. Now the planet is about to pay the price. As a public service, Mother Jones, which is a nonprofit magazine, will release the full contents of this issue online over the next several weeks. If you'd like your Mother Jones sooner—and you want to support independent investigative journalism—please subscribe now.

FEATURES Paul's Apostles By Josh Harkinson Why is an antiwar, antigovernment, pro-gold standard Republican the biggest thing in online politics since MoveOn? Primary Color See how they run: We look at how the candidates raise and spend cash, pander to Iowans, reveal their conjugal secrets, and offset their environmental impacts. And, oh yeah—what they stand for. PLUS: Meet the masters of the smear. By Stephanie Mencimer Let There Be Light Crude By Mariah Blake A crew of hustlers and con men, with help from prominent televangelists, is cashing in on visions of oil—and Armageddon—in Israel. Failure to Launch By James Sterngold One Republican’s crusade against the Bush administration’s reckless nuclear weapons program PLUS: How the neocons kneecapped America's nonproliferation experts By Kurt Pitzer				DEPARTMENTS Editors' Note Masthead Contributors Backtalk OUTFRONT Meet the right's George Soros; Hillary's hit list resurfaces; is it dating or is it sex work?; why Fred Thompson fears campaign-finance reform; election choices for prohibitionists, fascists, and vampires; standardized testing—for the Teletubbies set; spooks infiltrate Tinseltown; Giuliani's cigar room and other candidate real-estate secrets EXHIBIT We're All #1 By Dave Gilson Standing ovations, grade inflation, blurb whores, and other scenes from a compliment-happy nation PRACTICAL VALUES Works Well With Others By Kiera Butler Take this home office and shove it. MEDIA JONES Adam Weinstein on how penny-pinching newspapers milk citizen journalism; Persepolis' Marjane Satrapi draws us into Iran; soap operas with birth control; plus more book(Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets & Snitch: Informers, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)), film(Taxi to the Dark Side, Sharkwater), and music(Jukebox, Time for Heroes: The Best of the Libertines, 45:33, Mutantes Live: Barbican Theater, London, 2006) reviews P.S. Cheney's secret identity, Hillary's scarlet letter, and other highlights of 2007 Drawings by Steve Brodner