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 March 2005
President Bush has dubbed his agenda an "ownership society," the idea being that every American — not just the rich — should enjoy the benefits of owning something that generates income. All too often he is taken at his word, without looking ...
Ignoring government assaults on the Bill of Rights (for which, admittedly, the remedy under the present US Constitution is impeachment, the responsibility of Congress) the US Supreme Court has instead fastened its attention on a political fetish-object: the Ten Co...
Bolivia is blessed not only with gorgeous scenery that ranges from Amazonian rainforest to the High Andes but also by being generally ignored by the press of the northern hemisphere. Searching for "Bolivia" in the New York Times online, I often go months...
One of the favorite fantasies of right-wing talk radio and Fox "News" is that only Bush-hating liberals oppose the Iraq war and additional US military incursions into the Middle East or wherever. Yet, it is the March issue of the Washington Monthl...
Earlier this month, on March 5, I had the pleasure of appearing on a panel at the Law Union of Ontario’s annual conference in Toronto. Another speaker was Kate Kempton of the Toronto law firm Olthuis Kleer Townshend. Kate’s discussion of what she has l...
In the past two years the US media have drastically reduced their coverage of Afghanistan. According to the American Journalism Review only three news organizations–Newsweek, Associated Press and the Washington Post–have full-time reporters stationed i...
From the Famous Last Words Department: "I think it’s also possible that Frist and DeLay have seriously misread their Red State base. For one thing, the pollsters and political scientists I know say the Schiavo case is unusual…&...
On February 28 Brazilian UN troops, part of the MINUSTAH mission in Haiti, stood by as police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing five and wounding dozens. Following the demonstration UN officials condemned the shooting and for the first time stated that...
Recently, progressives who supported the Democratic Party in 2004 are expressing dissatisfaction with how Democratic elected officials are voting on the funding of the Iraq war, minimizing bankruptcy protections for working families, weakening the right to file cl...
Giuliana Sgrena would probably be the first to say that to focus on her case would be to miss the point on the extent of the daily, horrific violence Iraqis face at the hands of US soldiers. Sgrena is the Italian war correspondent that was shot by US forces as she...
The developments on February 1 in Nepal, in which King Gyanendra re-enacted his father’s 1960 coup d’etat and in some respects even outdid the late King Mahendra, should shock any freedom-lover, especially at this time when America is pursuing a vigoro...
On April 9, 2003, Howard Dean all but endorsed George W. Bush’s pre-emptive (preventive) doctrine. Though Dean didn’t join in the hawks’ celebration of Bush’s "liberation of Iraq" that day, he stressed the necessity of pressuring ...
Beware of God: stories Shalom Auslander pp. 194, $19.95 Simon & ...
I recently read "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Tow...
I was doing some Patrick’s Day reading on Oliver Cromwell’s conquest of Ireland, and was struck by the way the Puritan leader justified his brutality in religious terms. It set me thinking. Cromwell is one of those historical figures whose colossal acc...
Spring is in the air. Time to catch Spring Fever and fall in love–or lust–and time to worship your concept of God or Goddess. For Christians, it’s Easter. For Jews, it’s Passover. For many Moslems, it’s New Year’s. For Buddhists...
The feeding tube frenzy swirling around ‘America’s Most Wanted Desperate Housewife’, Terri Shiavo, just proves how rightwing ‘compassion’ is reserved excusively for those who can’t defend themselves against unctious vultures smo...
If you get your news from the U.S. media, the trilateral meeting between the North American heads of state was mostly a feel-good session to smooth over ruffled feathers in relationships over the past years. Given the lack of content in the official declarations, ...
In light of impending disaster, we must throw aside the trappings of bourgeois complacency. I am fond of these trappings, and in certain cases even aspire to upgrade, but if it comes down to me or my stuff, I’ll take me. Albeit with great regret. Human histo...
There are certain human needs that are so basic, that in a civilized society, to be deprived of such is nothing less than criminal. One of these needs is water. In a democracy, if citizens are deprived of water, then that democracy must be taken back. Control must...
Privatization has become a no-no word for George Bush since his handlers viewed polls indicating that the US majority fear that the word relates to them losing their future social security. But third world people have come to understand privatization as a euphemis...
In 1667 Edward Hyde, the earl of Clarendon, and King Charles II’s principle advisor, received seventeen Articles of Impeachment from Parliament. Many of these articles would be tempting to employ in drafting impeachment articles against Bush-Cheney. T...
There’s one reason, and one reason only, why I am writiing from Lima, Perú today and not from Guantanamo or some hell-hole jail in Brooklyn, being stripped and tortured. Airport security in both Newark and Lima failed to spot a box cutter in on...
In my 35 years as a conservationist, I have never beheld such a bleak and depressing situation as I see today. The evidence for my despair falls into three categories: the state of Nature, the power of anticonservationists, and appeasement and weakness within the ...
The city where the medical marijuana movement was launched 16 years ago in response to the AIDS epidemic now has more than 40 dispensaries serving a population whose illnesses are not necessarily grave. The situation is being portrayed by local Drug Warriors as pr...