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 January 2006
2006 is a dangerous year for Americans. The Bill of Rights and Americans’ civil liberties are being sacrificed on the alter of unaccountable executive power, as is the separation of powers, the foundation of our constitutional system. The Supreme Cou...
Ever since the disclosure of Valerie Plame’s identity as an undercover CIA operative in July 2003, prominent Democrats have denounced that leak — often with some kind of rhetoric about the sanctity of classified information. But reverence for keeping s...
Let’s see now: President dropping in the polls; impeachment talk over illegal wiretaps gaining traction; majority of Americans now supporting withdrawal from Iraq; Abramoff scandal reaching into the White House; big push starting for war with Iran; the Bush ...
It was a colorful day in Bil’in. Political flags of many colors were fluttering in the brisk breeze, the vivid election posters and the colorful graffiti on the walls adding their bit. It was the biggest demonstration in the beleaguered village for a long ti...
"It’s nice work if you can get it and you can get it if you can" The above line is from a 1930′s Depression era tune by George Gershwin. And since I came across some numbers in a Securities and Exchange report...
I was one of ten people present at the "hack" of the Leon County, Florida voting system, which took place on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 around 4:30 in the afternoon at the county elections warehouse. Leon County’s voting system is the Diebold Accu-...
"President George W. Bush] lied to the people of this nation, distorted the truth, declared war on a nation who had not attacked us . . . put Americas sons and daughters in harm’s way . . . and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of [I...
When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income. Plato, The Republic The poor are still with us and once again it’s George Bush’s IRS that is insuring they...
Memphis. The U.S. Department of Transportation may hold the key to one of the biggest unanswered questions from Hurricane Katrina: Why did it take nearly a week for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mobilize private buses to evacuate thousan...
I listened, yesterday morning, to "The Exciting Wilson Pickett," the Atlantic album from 1966. I have it on vinyl, and it played its lopsided self while my wife, my 16-year-old son and I read the morning papers. In southern India, "indigenous...
On December 9, 2005, four days before Tookie Williams’ execution, ten of his fellow inmates were dislodged from their cells by guards in full riot gear and put in solitary confinement in the San Quentin Adjustment Center, where they remain as of this writing...
What are you supposed to do when the world’s most over-armed, belligerent and dangerous nation, which outspends all the rest of the world combined on arms, and which is the major arms supplier to the rest of the world, tells a little country like Venezuela t...
Vermont felt a long way from Manhattan when the twin towers went down. Isolated by tall mountains, long winters, and primordial memories of rural independence, many of us watched the fires from a deep remove. It was horrible, and yes, things would be different now...
Even before Eli Lilly began selling Prozac in 1988 the company was selling the concept of "clinical depression" -the alleged disease that Prozac allegedly cures, or mitigates the symptoms of. Lilly also began educating doctors and the public about "...
The recent controversy surrounding the plan to rebuild New Orleans and the passage of the first anniversary of the Asian tsunami cap a year in which a host of catastrophic disasters caused widespread death and destruction and garnered worldwide media attention. In...
Well done the CIA! In an act of astonishing incompetence the Agency has in one fluid motion created millions more enemies for America, fostered a recruiting drive for the anti-American Taliban that will keep it in dedicated manpower for the next couple of decades,...
JEFFREY ST. CLAIR 1. Wilson Pickett: It’s Harder Now (Rounder) ...
January 19th saw the release of a previously sealed 65-count federal ...
A look back at the history of men and nations can be a good teacher in viewing the events and leaders of today. In its newfound role of unopposed supreme world power, the United States of America has come under increasing criticism from much of the world for its h...
"Some readers, some scholars may protest this writer’s method of departing from academic "objectivity," and rooting enthusiastically for the coal miners. That is too bad." Imagine yourself in a tavern or ...
Attention Deficit Democracy by James Bovard. Palgrave Macmillan 2005...
It’s rare to find two diametrically opposed sides using the same exact posterchild to support their views. However, that’s essentially what’s developed over the past few years as the logging industry have locked horns with conservation groups and...
The Abramoff scandal has spurred one of the episodic "reform" moments on Capitol Hill. Republicans and Democrats are competing to offer ethics reform packages that ignore entirely their past entanglement in the very activities they now seek to reg...
Throughout history, women have had unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. And throughout history, women have found ways to terminate those pregnancies. But what has not always been guaranteed is whether they can do so legally, with the medical care necessary t...
We’re told that a new Osama Bin Laden audiotape has emerged, and America’s Most Wanted said he would like to strike a deal with the US: Let’s stop fighting. You leave us alone, we’ll leave you alone. The Bush Administration rejected ...