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 March 2010
There is considerable attention paid in the United States to the collapse of journalism — both in terms of the demise of the business model for corporate commercial news media, and the evermore superficial, shallow, and senseless content that is inadequate for ...
If you haven’t read "A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s ...
Why do you vote?
From the earliest time that we can remember as children, democracy has meant freedom, and everyone knows that voting is an expression of what we truly want as we express our freedom. If there are problems with democracy, our instinct is to fi...
"Cleopatra’s nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed.” So wrote Pascal, remembering how Caesar and Mark Anthony, those mighty generals of the Roman Empire, were captivated by Cleo’s commanding schnozz. Thi...
So, the New York Times finally ran a correction. But after six weeks of "considering" the errors in its own reporting, the Times’ correction of its misleading ACORN story, came way, way, WAY to late.
The cor...
It is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders. ...
The computer is no better than its program.
— E.E. Morison, Men, Machines and Modern Times
"It’s just a simple waste of taxpayer money.” Few would disagree with Senator Charles Grassley ...
Various right-wing heroes have used the healthcare debate to suggest that President Obama and the Congressional Democrats are steering us down the Potomac toward socialism.
All I want to know is when I’ll get my share of the loot. I want c...
Colombia’s congressional elections on March 14 were hailed by the United Nations as the most peaceful in years. The victory of the coalition led by President Alvaro Uribe suggests an easy win for his party in the presidential elections scheduled for May 30....
Passage of President Obama’s healthcare bill proves that Congress can enact comprehensive social legislation in the face of virulent rightwing opposition. Now that we have an insurance bill, can we move on to healthcare reform?
As an organ...
The media have been bombarding the public with scare stories about the country’s “record” budget deficits. Newspapers and news shows that never bothered to mention the growth of the $8 trillion housing bubble that eventually crashed the economy are ...
We all have a common history that crosses borders in terms of both country and time. Together with black and white in South Africa we acted forcefully, taking a stand against apartheid and defining the evil and the good. We became part of a historic decision. A decis...
Here in the States when someone mentions "UI," most of us think of Unemployment Insurance, but not former UK prime minister Tony Blair.
Late last week came word of a major scandal from the UK Daily Mail. In the three years since he st...
Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the United States this week armed with a mandate from the Israeli parliament. A large majority of legislators from all of Israel’s main parties had supported a petition urging him to stand firm on the building of Jewish settlements...
Dear Democracy Now!,
After giving myself the day to cool off, I just revisited Michael Moore’s segment on today’s show and find that I’m still as outraged over it as I was when I heard it this morning.
I ...
In the aftermath of the foiled "underwear bomber" attack on Christmas day, there’s a major push to install whole-body x-ray scanning machines at airport screening areas.
The effort is being led by former Homeland Security Chief M...
On July 10, 1996, at a Joint Session of the United States Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a standing ovation for these words: “With America’s help, Israel has grown to be a powerful, modern state. …But I believe there c...
It looks like heaven but it feels like death; It’s something in between, I guess: It’s closing time.
– Leonard Cohen
Official transcript of remarks by President Barack Obama after the March 21 vot...
So this is what I learned from the last weekend of the health care reform debate.
First, lay a coffin at a White House fence and you’re subject to arrest.
Spit and yell abuse at members of the Black Caucus as they ent...
There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest.
...
The bloody-minded, death-obsessed state of Texas, which has already demonstrably executed at least one innocent man, Cameron Todd Willingham (who was falsely accused and ultimately killed by the state for the alleged arson “murder” of his two little child...
Michael Parenti has written a compelling work, whose themes are so relevant for our time: the essentiality of rational thought, the struggle to maintain a secular and tolerant society, and the abuse of religion for reactionary political and obscurant objectives. As P...
Films about wars have been part of the cinema since DW Griffith put scenes of the Civil War in Birth of a Nation (1915). There were thousands of veterans of that conflict still alive then and I’ll bet many of them didn’t like what they saw. Recently, vete...
The State Department echoed by the EU has once again raised the human rights issue to beat up Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro declared his independence from the United States – possibly without realizing that punishment could last 51+ years. Even when US national i...
As a 30-year-old Australian who had previously travelled to Guatemala and El Salvador, I decided to respond to an email listserv request for international observers in Honduras after the June 2009 coup.
I felt compelled to go to the country aft...