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 December 2009
Yemen is the Afghanistan of the Arab world. It is the poorest Arab country, its government is weak, its people are armed, it already faces a serious rebellion, it is strongly tribal and its mountain ranges are a natural refuge for groups like al-Qa’ida.
...
The Philadelphia Eagles honored reserve quarterback and admitted dog-killer Michael Vick with an award for courage. Yes, you read that right. "Michael Vick" and "courage" are in the same sentence.
Each of the 32 NFL teams annually honors o...
Prior to the establishment of Israel, Palestine had been multi-religious and multi-cultural. Christians, Muslims and Jews, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, to name a few, all had a place there; and all lived in relative harmony. Other nations fought wars and waged epic str...
U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, accor...
Paul Krugman, one of the few liberal columnists writing for the New York Times, claims that at some point in the hoary past when he “began writing a lot about health care,” he was in favor of a Canadian-style single-payer health care system. He adds that ...
U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, accor...
Prior to the establishment of Israel, Palestine had been multi-religious and multi-cultural. Christians, Muslims and Jews, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, to name a few, all had a place there; and all lived in relative harmony. Other nations fought wars and waged epic str...
When she discusses her autistic clients, Marcella Piper-Terry almost always speaks in reverential and laudatory tones. "They’re just absolutely gorgeous children," she says of kids with Asperger’s Disorder, such as her 15-year-old daughter Rache...
Cairo.
Yesterday we joined the people of Gaza, the people of all of Palestine, and allies around the world in remembering the anniversary of the inhuman and illegal Israeli attacks that stole the lives of more than 1,400 mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons l...
When she discusses her autistic clients, Marcella Piper-Terry almost always speaks in reverential and laudatory tones. "They’re just absolutely gorgeous children," she says of kids with Asperger’s Disorder, such as her 15-year-old daughter Rache...
Every Christmas the birth of Jesus is heralded with the hope of peace for the new year: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14, New Testament, New Revised Standard Version). The irony here...
"I’ll sell it to you for $12 what I paid," she says to a man holding a pale sign that says "Needed, 1 ticket." Cheery thank yous move the long line forward, one step closer to Avatar on the last day of this box-office-busting Christmas...
As I understand it, certain pundits are struggling with finding an appropriate name for the decade now mercifully coming to an end.
What’s the problem, I wonder? Are their word processor dictionaries redacted of all four-letter words? I mean,...
World-renowned political organizer and one of Africa’s most celebrated poets, Dennis Brutus, died early on December 26 in Cape Town, in his sleep, aged 85.
Even in his last days, Brutus was fully engaged, advocating social protest against those responsib...
The Christmas-day airline bombing attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is generating renewed attention to Yemen as a base of international terrorism. Even if the young man’s so far uncorroborated story about visiting Yemen and obtaining explosive chemi...
One tip that Mark Rudd left out of his interesting article on organizing on the weekend CounterPunch site: one has to recognize when the movement is all there, ready to go, and just needs a little impetus.
For the past eleven mo...
Just after midnight I couldn’t sleep. Went out to get a bite to eat or maybe a glass of wine to help me sleep.
See several CodePink people and others with the Gaza Freedom March, say they are going to the French embassy — they had put out an alert:...
There has been a story in the press recently about how Prince William, son of Prince Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, spent a night on the streets when temperature was minus four (Celcius) in order to draw the world’s attention to the suffering of...
They came one cold December day. Not fearless warriors but fearsome hoardes hell-bent on destruction of the genocidal kind that leaves no room for regeneration. That was one year ago in Gaza.
The attack shocked a complacent world into finall...
In February, the Supreme Court will hear on appeal what many consider to be among the most important cases that speaks to the constitutionality of political speech in recent times, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project.
And, in light of the failed attempt to blo...
One tip that Mark Rudd left out of his interesting article on organizing on the weekend CounterPunch site: one has to recognize when the movement is all there, ready to go, and just needs a little impetus.
For the past eleven mo...
Did we win? This week marks the first anniversary of the Gaza War, alias Operation Cast Lead, and this question fills the public space.
Within the Israeli consensus, the answer has already been given: Certainly we won, the Qassams have stopped coming.
A...
Thomas Wolfe said you can’t go home again. Was he right?
One of the quiet gems of 2009 was an album originally produced by Bob Dylan in 1973. Other than his work under the pseudonymous Jack Frost, it’s the only album Dylan ever produced...
Surfeit begets insolence, when prosperity comes to a bad man.
Theognis, c. 545b.c.
I hope the President didn’t take it personally. I’m sure no offense was intended. Even though bank presidents have shown they can s...
The Christmas season is in full flower in this monster megalopolis. "The World’s Tallest Christmas Tree" (dixit Mayor Marcelo Ebrard) which looks suspiciously like a huge bottle of Pepsi Cola (the sponsor of this Xmas kitsch) towers over the ele...