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 2008
Right now various National Forests and BLM districts are beginning to put together travel management plans. Most of these plans are focused on corralling the growing abuse of our public lands by thrillcraft-ATVs, dirt bikes, dune buggies, swamp buggies, jet skis, ...
The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own "moderate" political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simp...
Late Wednesday night, January 23, the Associated Press released a story about Pentagon plans to use an increased number of U.S. troops to train Pakistani armed forces. Adm. William J. Fallon issued orders to officers under his command to start planning for this la...
Rock Hill, S.C. "In the sixties we used to go around saying, ‘Power to the People!’ and now forty years later, here it is–welcome Barack Obama!" This was the white introducer for Obama at a campaign event at Winthrop University i...
Like the Energizer Bunny, the ripples from the Dec. 3 publication of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program just keep going and going and going. Aside from the obvious fact that the prospect of a U.S. military attack...
"The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction." Five Western military leaders. I read the statement three ti...
Last night, local time, during a ceremony celebrating democracy, one of the most noted killers in Indonesia, Col. Chaiwaran of BIN intelligence (Badan Intelijen Negara, State Intelligence Body), waited quietly in plainclothes. (Chaiwaran, a US-trained Kop...
"I wish it didn’t have to be a choice. I think a lot of people who are torn between us feel that way. But it is a contest, and the contrasts have to be drawn and the questions have to be asked because, obviously, I wouldn’t be in...
The last time my mother was in a hospital, an essay by Thich Nhat Hanh moved in front of my eyes. "Our mother is the teacher who first teaches us love, the most important subject in life," he wrote. "Without my mother I could never have known h...
Adam Smith was the first to argue convincingly that wealth depends on human activity’s ability to transform the material environment. A constant remodelling of nature that has given mastery over the whole planet to one particular animal species, human beings...
The political shake-out is underway. The first presidential-candidate beauty contests of 2008 have take place and the big-game hunt of February 5th will likely anoint the next major-party candidates. The principle issues shaping the debate are the economy, occupat...
"Were the good times a mirage?" is the front page, above the fold headline in today’s New York Times. The article summarizes the point of view we buff to a shine in our blog (eyeonmiami.blogspot.com): that overdevelopment in Florida was grounded in...
"I don’t know why I should even bother to eat this. I should just apply it directly to my hips." Rhoda Morgenstern in The Mary Tyler Moore Show Let me make a simple and practical suggestion to the Preside...
Just suppose Jane Felix-Browne was famous or head of state and she decided to take her partner along on an official visit, would that be acceptable? No. Even the French would not permit it. Jane is the wife of Omar, son of Osama bin Laden. He has a pretty clean re...
As the mayor approached the MLK Day podium the boos were so loud that the moderator stepped up to ask the crowd to let him speak. Over 500 people began chanting "Slay Must Go!" as dozens waved signs saying "End Racial Division – Recall Francis...
Las Vegas, Nevada. The chairs in the Concorde Ballroom of the Paris Casino were arranged as if for a wedding, but were more a prelude to an ugly divorce. On one side of the at-large caucus room were supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton, led by an or...
Nine out of 23 Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee favor starting impeachment hearings against Vice-President Dick Cheney. Six of the nine are co-sponsors of H.R. 799, which contains three articles of impeachment. Articles I and II of H.R. ...
Klamath Glen, California. Two years in the making, the people of the Klamath River Basin and Northcoast are finally getting a look at the proposed Klamath River Restoration Agreement which representatives of a couple of dozen agencies, tribes, irrigation, f...
This year, Santa left me a gift I actually wanted: The complete works of Shakespeare on DVD, all 37 productions from the BBC. I tore open the box and plunged into the glossy Viewing Notes, with its details on the conception of the series and the source of finance....
The first government response to America’s sinking economy was denial. We were told as recently as a month ago by administration officials and Wall Street charlatans that the economy was robust and that there would not be a recession. Now we are told that th...
It would be nice to write off the current crisis on Wall Street and global financial markets as something that only matters to the investor class. Unfortunately, the effects are already being felt in lower-income communities around the United States. Worst-...
With his tax rebate policy, President Bush has put economic policy back on a Keynesian basis. Will it work? During the two decades it was in effect, supply-side economics had restorative effects on the American economy. Its predecessor, Keynesian demand man...
Though it seems to have made little impression on the Democratic Party’s leadership, grassroots pressure for impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney and President Bush continues to grow in the U.S. On January 15, the anti-war group Code ...
"Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took the world by sur...
Columbia, South Carolina. It was a good day for John Edwards. The candidate didn’t march with the throng from Zion Baptist Church to the Statehouse Grounds for the King Day rally, sponsored for the past few years by the NAACP. Obama was the only hopef...