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 August 2005
In the course of the second ever visit by a Catholic pontiff to a Jewish Synagogue, Pope Benedict, in Cologne, Germany, called for "trust and mutual respect between Christians and Jews". Earlier that day, during a meeting with leaders of Germany’s ...
I feel compelled once again to be a skunk at the party, but it’s a role I’m growing into. Cindy Sheehan’s squatter’s camp has re-energized the antiwar movement, but just as it has done so, it has also re-energized the herd dogs of the Democ...
You know, when I was growing up as a Catholic, I was given many differing views of Jesus Christ. Virtually all of them were speculative, of course, and as I grew older, I became aware that most of them were based on the teacher’s particular political and cul...
As Labor Day draws near and children head back to school, much important attention is being focused on recruitment tactics (sanctioned by No Child Left Behind) in our country’s public secondary schools and colleges. However, this hounding and seduction is no...
America’s fundamentalist carnival includes many fascinating acts. Pay your money, and you can watch preachers weeping and screaming, dismissing whole segments of humanity as evil, threatening murder, shaking down congregations for extra donations to named-af...
Just to remind you, before you read his letter to CounterPunch, here’s what I wrote about Christopher Hitchens in my CounterPunch Diary last weekend. You can tell in five-minutes channel surfing how Cindy Sheehan frightens the pro-war cro...
Is America going fascist? Or has the cursed event already happened? It depends on your definition of fascism. What usually occurs in a fascist scenario? * Labor unions are weak and the right to strike is denied by law. In Bush’s America, ...
The title of this article is what the notice read on the morning of May 4, 1970 it sat largely unread in the mail boxes of Kent State University students. Later that day, four students were murdered when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a hillside fill...
On November 30 2004 Gail Davidson, co-chair of Lawyers against the War (LAW), filed an Informational Brief in the Provincial Court of B.C. charging George W. Bush as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces with torture. ...
Every year, right around the anniversary of 9/11 the Bush administration spins the public about the reasons 1,864 American soldiers have died fighting for a lie in Iraq. And every year, it’s just as crucial that the media tell the public the truth about the ...
Telling people to wash their faces with DDT would be like the insult "go jump off a cliff." We all know the chemical is extremely hazardous both to humans and wildlife. But it is said that 50 years ago, in the agronomy department of my university, some f...
"History, we don’t know. We’ll all be dead." George W. Bush to Bob Woodward, on how history will judge his Iraq war Death is different things in different focuses-a natural end, a punishment for sin, a ...
Another firestorm in the American media, another opportunity to narrow the parameters of debate. Over the last week it has been impossible to escape mainstream and (to a certain extent) alternative media coverage of popular evangelical leader Pat Robertson’s...
Pat Robertson suggested this past Monday that the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, be assassinated by operatives of the United States government. Though his comments are newsworthy because of his following in the 700 Club and his political stature and role in ...
"…you could, like me, be unfortunate enough to stumble on a silent war. The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out...
For a long time, the last refuge of scoundrels was "patriotism." Now it’s "the war on terror." President Bush and many of his vocal supporters aren’t content to wrap themselves in the flag. It’s not sufficient to postur...
Another firestorm in the American media, another opportunity to narrow the parameters of debate. Over the last week it has been impossible to escape mainstream and (to a certain extent) alternative media coverage of popular evangelical leader Pat Robertson’s...
Cindy Sheehan is exactly what we needed. Following the 2004 elections the antiwar movement was left in shambles, unable to recover from the malfunctions of the Democratic Party. MoveOn.org had capitulated its antiwar position by supporting John pro-war Kerry. Unit...
Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27 year old Brazilian electrician, was apprehended by Scotland Yard’s special Firearms Unit on July 22 in the London subway, and shot 7 times in the head at point-blank range. He becomes the first victim of Britain’s new &quo...
The Bush administration may ratchet up the Iraq war. That might seem unlikely, even farfetched. After all, the president is facing an upsurge of domestic opposition to the war. Under such circumstances, why would he escalate it? A big ongoing factor ...
If by socialism you mean the kind of world that officer’s kids enjoy, then I’m pretty much for it. It’s the kind of world I grew up in. Free health care, pretty good job security, cheap movies (that I could afford to attend every night in a row),...
Although Israeli Forces withdrew settlers from Gaza the military occupation of Palestinians continues. Despite U.S. mainstream media reports that the 38-year-occupation of Palestinians within Gaza has "ended," the Israeli military still controls water, t...
A new left-wing political party in Germany is continuing to gain broad support as September federal elections approach–and is coming under increasing attack. The Left Party (LP) has shaken up Germany’s usual electoral process with its calls for ...
Just as President Bush claimed in the build-up to war that the U.S. was threatened by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and Saddam’s connection to Osama bin Laden and 9/11 terrorists we are now being told a new falsehood U.S. troops are in...
Tell the president that the way to solve his problem is to find that one man who would turn out to be . . . possessed of high competence, great physical vigor, and a passion for anonymity. Tom Jones, private secretary to Prime Minister Stanley ...