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.

Weekend Edition September 24-26, 2010

Larry Summers' Says Goodbye to All That

Running for the Exits

by LAURA FLANDERS

The Internet was all a-Twitter when news broke that Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, will step down by the end of the year.

Summers — ring a bell? Maybe you remember his comments as president of Harvard that gender skewed admissions numbers might be explained by female frailty in the area of math and science. Or perhaps you remember his role, chasing away Brooksley Born, chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) in order to push through Clinton’s deregulations—you know, the ones that helped lead to the current crash.

Mary Bottari over at Banksters already found an upside for Summers: “Just think of the reception he will receive when he returns to Wall Street! Never have so many financiers been made so rich because of the actions of one man.”

Sure enough, in addition to returning to his well-paid position at Harvard, Summers will no doubt return to his lucrative career as a public speaker—he took in $2.7 million in speaking fees the year before joining the administration. Or to his hedge fund where he earned $5.2 million a year for a one-day-a-week job before heading to Washington.

Two other top Obama economic advisers already left—Peter Orzsag and Christina Romer—and Time is now reporting that Rahm Emanuel may be on his way out as well. Are they—pardon the expression—rats leaving a sinking ship? Or is their dread work simply done?

Some hope that the Administration is turning in a new direction, toward a second tier of advisers who might be more progressive…

Don’t bet on it. The Washington Post reports that the White House is considering trying to “blunt criticism” that they have been “anti-business.”

The Devil we know certainly has friends.

Time for other voices to be raised, loud, fast.