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 May 2007
What would have happened if Donald Rumsfeld had listened to the generals, invaded Iraq with 400,000 troops, and prepared more thoroughly for postwar reconstruction efforts? What if Paul Bremer had provided better security and basic services after the war? Would Ir...
This essay is dedicated to the memory of Bertrand Russell (mathematician, philosopher, peace activist –1872-1970) on his 135-birth anniversary; to the memory of D.D. Kosambi (mathematician, historian, peace activist –1907-1966) on his birt...
Sara Paretsky is known for her crime fiction. One of the first writers in this genre to feature a female protagonist, Paretsky’s tales exist in the netherworld of murder, corruption and general venality that often crosses into that part of the human soul whe...
The Ashley Treatment is back in the news. On May 8 major news outlets reported that the Seattle Children’s Hospital and the doctors who performed surgery as part of the "Ashley Treatment" broke Washington State Law. The hospital acknowledged that t...
The latest report by the Commonwealth Fund confirms what we already know; Americans pay more for health care and have poorer health compared with people living in nations that spend less on health care yet enjoy better health. It is generally assumed that ...
For two years I have served at the University of Texas at Austin on the faculty committee on "academic freedom and responsibility," a pairing of concepts that is common in higher education. While there is a fairly broad consensus on what "freedom&qu...
Is anyone old enough to remember the expression: "Go Back to Africa?" Can anyone remember when the lynchings of Blacks, Asians and the hunting down of American Indians and Mexicans were commonplace? Does anyone remember when Jews were turned away at this...
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela has been the subject of many controversies. His critics often accuse him of laying the groundwork for dictatorship, despite the democratic credentials of his government. Chávez was democratically elected in 1998 and...
Marketers can’t seem to stop thinking about the spectacular marketing opportunity afforded by schools. It’s easy to imagine the conversation in the business meeting room: Kids are bored in school — we can grab their attention with ads! Com...
Welcome to the Show, kid. The Democrats have "surrendered" on Iraq. Liberals are "shocked." And all the innocents who didn’t know any better, didn’t see it coming, feel "betrayed." Poor Duncan Black, better ...
Anti-sweatshop activist Jeffrey Ballinger says that corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs such as codes of conduct for contractors are undermining worker rights. Ten years ago, Ballinger and his group Press for Change led the charge against Nike...
After several months of empty posturing against the war in Iraq, politicians in Washington have made what Democratic congressman James P. Moran called a "concession to reality" by agreeing to give President Bush virtually everything he wanted in funding ...
Congress has demonstrated its unconditional love for the Bush administration by handing the war profiteers another $100 billion worth of good reasons to keep the war in Iraq rolling along at full-throttle. And today there was the President, whose only milit...
Grand Inquisitress Monica Goodling, Juris Doctor, formerly of the U. S. Department of Justice, defeated the House Judiciary Committee yesterday in a test of wills. Slim, blonde, sharp-featured, she must have been a dreaded presence in the days when she haunted the...
This week’s cave-in on Capitol Hill — supplying a huge new jolt of funds for the horrific war effort in Iraq — is surprising only to those who haven’t grasped our current circumstances. Public opinion polls aren’t the same as p...
Bob’s Dylan’s lyric, "To live outside the law you must be honest" have long served as my moral inspiration. I am thereby forced to admit that I’m not buying the idea that Merilee Jones, the woman who was the Dean of Admissions at MIT, s...
It is interesting, and not a little disturbing, to see how nonsense can be wrapped in an American flag, delivered to the public and found to be not only palatable, but entirely enjoyable. During the second debate between the countless Republican presidenti...
Consider these familiar assertions: 1. If Donald Rumsfeld had listened to the generals and invaded with more troops, Iraq would be stable today. 2. If the U.S. had provided security and basic services after the initial invasion, Iraqis w...
My brother is considered one of the biggest domestic terrorists in the country. You probably haven’t heard of him, and I think that’s odd. After all, he’s dangerous. He’s trying to overthrow our country. He "doesn’t like our free...
Behold the spineless Democratic Party. On Iraq, no deadlines. On trade, no enforceable worker protections. Now, on oil industry price gouging, collapse. In the face of withering pressure from the oil industry, the Democrats in the House...
When the Medical Marijuana Patients Union held a symposium in Fort Bragg in August, 2004, Sheriff Tony Craver asked an organizer to please introduce him to Dr. Tod Mikuriya. It turned out that Mikuriya had left after participating in a morning panel. "That...
The defining moment of the disastrous and laughable presidential campaign of John Kerry for president came when he tried to explain his vacillating and spineless position on the Iraq War, saying, of an earlier war funding appropriations bill "I voted for the ...
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wrapped up 2 days of high level talks with the Chinese delegation on Wednesday without any progress on the two issues of central importance to the American people"the massive $230 billion trade deficit and the ongoing manipula...
I rise today to express my disappointment both in the final version of the supplemental spending bill that we expect to consider today and in the process that led to this badly flawed bill. Those two concerns are linked, because the flawed procedure that the Senat...
Tripoli, Lebanon. Wearing a beat-up ratty UNCHR tee-shirt left over from Bint Jbeil and the Israeli-Hezbollah July probably helped. As did, I suspect, the Red Cross jersey, my black and white checkered kaffieyh and the Palestinian flag taped to my lapel as ...