Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch
HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.
Archives from 2002
(This is the text of Halliday’s remarks at the Cairo Conference Against US Aggression against Iraq on December 19.) This is a most knowledgeable assembly on matters relating to Iraq and Palestine. I am following a number of excellent speakers. And th...
We were able to meet with some of the Union members over in Colombia. We met with SINALTRAINAL–the food service worker’s union and the USO–the oil-workers. It was very inspiring. We looked at these union members as heroes. They are heroes. Many o...
We’ll come to Tennessee’s pussy hunter shortly, but first a word about his predecessor as Senate majority leader, that bruised son of Mississippi, Trent Lott. How was Lott finally induced to quit the post he loved so much, and from which vantage point ...
So I’m in the same fetal position I’d crouched in 30 years ago, only it isn’t Time’s or Newsweek’s or CBSNBSABC news’ fault, but Walter the Weatherman’s. Crazy Walter the Weatherman ten years old. Baby-sitting the lad as a...
Let’s build a radically new Social Democracy in these United States in the years and decades ahead, modeled on the twelve Social Democracies of Europe: Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Luxenborg, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy and Spain. ...
Last year around this time, President Bush said that 2002 would be a “war year”. Whatever else can be said about the President or his administration, he has made good on that promise. The enforcement of the No-fly Zone in Iraq, the facilitation of the ...
Apparently, defending children from the perils of caffeine “upsets the applecart.” My principal informed me that “down town” a reference to the superintendent’s office was vexed by my overt and public criticism of our school district&...
(Choose the best answer. 3 points each. Answers at the end.) 1. In 1866 the U.S. merchant ship General Sherman defied the laws of Korea (then pursuing a policy of strict isolation) by entering Korean waters, and sailing up the Taedong River towards Pyongyan...
I took a tour of the Palestinian territories over a six hour time span, quite swift considering the state of roads and roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza. I did it the easy way, almost like armchair travel, but from one hospital bed to another at the Jordan Hosp...
The weirdness of Doug Sahm’s stature as a roots music icon never really dawned on me ’til last year when I searched through a batch of vintage electric Dylan interviews. Starting as soon as “She’s About a Mover” hit the airwaves, Dyla...
We live in terrifying times. But into what context can we Americans place the terrorism we’ve recently experienced? Until 9/11 Americans could pretend that we were different, that God or something had truly blessed us. Yes, Al Qaeda tormentors tried to use a...
Each day, one turns to the latest news from the bowels of the Bush Regime with Dorothy Parker’s immortal words sounding in the mind like a tocsin: “What fresh hell is this?” Last week, the news was particularly shameful–and the ̶...
These days, the biggest hurdle for international artists who want to perform in the U.S. is getting their passport stamped. Even Grammy-award winning musicians have become prime victims of America’s post-9/11 Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Ac...
CNN reported on January 30, 2002, that Senator Rangel of New York will introduce a bill in the next session of Congress that would reinstate the military draft. Rangel who voted against the recent congressional resolution authorizing Bush to use force in Iraq, cla...
Ladies and grrrls please note this piece is intended primarily for a male audience and contains gender-based secrets which most men would prefer remained unspoken, so if you must read the following, please have the good taste to act like you didn̵...
In mid October, after Congress voted the unelected American President extensive war powers to inflict the nightmare of modern technology on Iraq, a dream taught me that spirits are real. A woman’s face appeared above me, her features perfect, her polished sk...
The coming elections will be decided–and perhaps have already been decided–by an anonymous person, whose nom-de-guerre is “Nadav”. “Nadav” calls himself an “expert” in the service of the General Security Servi...
In 2001, the US weapons industry controlled approximately 50 percent of the world arms market. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) re...
Some years ago, when I lived in Bombay, I sat in a meeting called by a Non-Resident Indian business man. There were about 30 high-level business leaders from India present and the NRI was explaining to them the need to create “a group, a network” of In...
Trent Lott’s recent and now-infamous faux pas precipitated an avalanche of media editorials, mostly calling on him to resign his post as U.S. senate majority leader. Lott’s statement that the country would have been better off if U.S. Senator Strom Thu...
In recent weeks, the Bush administration has stepped up efforts to destabilize the Iraqi government, while aggressively deploying troops and ships in a manner that could provoke an attack from Iraq — and provide an excuse to start a war. Over the week...
OK here’s the deal: I don’t care if you earn $12k or $512k a year, if you work for your bread, then you’re part of the “Silent Majority”. Why silent? Well, take a seat and ponder the state of our America. The President, Congress and m...
Steven Spielberg says he is a Luddite. (Economist 12-02) Though he shares his stoney beard, this isn’t an indication of any Kacyzinski sympathies. No, Spielberg is actually speaking of an issue that is near and dear to my heart, as a cinephile and analogue-g...
President Bush put a positive spin on the sagging economy in his last weekly radio address of the year Saturday, going as far as to say that so-called measures his administration has adopted this year has actually resulted in economic growth that continues to show...
“The U.S. has a new credibility. What we say goes.” President George Bush, NBC Nightly News, Feb. 2, 1991 In October, 1990, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, identified only as Nayirah, appeared in Washing...