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Special Print Edition of CounterPunch: The 2004 Election The Wreckage: Labor, God and Turnout; Was Gay Marriage Really "the" Issue; Can These Democrats Ever Win Again?; Blame It on the Smart-Assed White Boys by JoAnn Wypijewski; Political Diary: They Didn't Believe Him: What Really Happened in Ohio; How to Lose a County Hit By 30% Unemployment; David Cobb: Apex Vote Suppressor; Hope From Montana? by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch Books a Holiday Gift They Won't Put Down! Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Read Why It Happened! Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils Order Here! Today's Stories December 15, 2004 George Caffentzis The Petroleum Commons   December 14, 2004 Dave Lindorff DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections Larry Birns / Seth DeLong Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying Anything Richard Thieme My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and That's What Kept Me Going" Patrick Cockburn A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq is Getting Worse Chris Floyd Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's America Akiva Eldar A One-time Hanukkah Miracle Burbach / Cantor The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger and the Teflon Tyrant   December 13, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed by the CIA's Claque David Phinney "Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots Paul Craig Roberts A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality for Douglas Feith M. Junaid Alam The War is the War Crime Robert Jensen The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing Richard Oxman Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left Greg Moses Send No Messengers of Defeat Douglas Lummis The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah Gulag   December 11 / 12, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Running an Empire on the Cheap Ron Jacobs The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone? Saul Landau Listening and Talking to God About Invading Other Countries Gary Leupp Bush's Capital Sharon Smith The Horrible Toll on US Troops Dave Lindorff Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting Uri Avnery The Boss Has Gone Crazy Jude Wanniski The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal? Heather Gray How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton Patrick Cockburn / Ken Sengupta Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless John Pilger Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account Joshua Frank All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry Ben Tripp O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004 John Stanton God Speaks! Laura Nathan Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake Poets' Basement Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert Website of the Day Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds   December 10, 2004 Ralph Nader President Bush, Stop Destroying the Mosques of Iraq Greg Moses Whitewashing Voter Fraud Nicole Colson Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders Frederick B. Hudson "They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old Civil Rights Lessons Patrick Cockburn Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections Kathy Kelly From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water     December 9, 2004 Greg Moses Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah Joshua Frank Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser! Ralph Nader An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to Disclose the Real Casualty Figures Lee Sustar Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster Tom Barry Restrictionist Resurgence Mickey Z. Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement Christopher Brauchli Bush in the Bubble Mark Donham Why are House Democrats Trying to Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority? Gary Corseri On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012 Paul de Rooij The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers       December 8, 2004 Ralph Nader Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge? Ann Harrison The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials and Few Rules Paul Craig Roberts War Crime Dave Lindorff They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for Spying Patrick Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency Col. Dan Smith Rules of Engagement in Iraq Emily Alves / Michael Johnson Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica Richard Oxman The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas Ron Jacobs In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free     December 7, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Running Battles in Baghdad Behrooz Ghamari Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent Dave Lindorff American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy, Did You Hear How Well the War's Going? Joshua Frank Dean at the DNC? Richard Oxman Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview Ray McGovern All Mosquitoes, No Swamp John Chuckman The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada James Petras Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears Website of the Day ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You     December 6, 2004 Paul Craig Roberts Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the Bush Administration Certifiable? December 4 / 6, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Politicize the CIA? You've Got to be Kidding Joe Bageant Dining with the Rhinos Alan Maass Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick Cockburn Brian Cloughley Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf Laura Carlsen Latin America Shifts Left Lenni Brenner Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion Anna Ioakimedes Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's? Uri Avnery Widow of Opportunity? Fred Gardner Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case Dave Zirin Steroids to Heaven Jackie Corr Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation Don Fitz Will Greens Abandon IRV? Lucy Herschel "Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview with Artist Anthony Papa Richard Oxman No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play Ron Jacobs Holiday Greeting Card Poets' Basement Collins, Albert, LaMorticella     December 3, 2004 Dave Lindorff Lie Then Escalate Ben Tripp Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a Time of Crisis Joe Allen Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer Gilberto Soto Matthew B. Riley Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson Meir Shalev In the End, It is the Violin that Wins Bob Wing The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004 Christopher Brauchli When McCain Bit His Tongue Sasan Fayazmanesh The EU, the US, Israel and Iran   December 2, 2004 Tito Tricot No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free Behzad Yaghmaian The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration Dr. Susan Block Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes Frank / Chowkwanyun Liberalism and Its Bounds Lee Sustar Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt Patrick Cockburn Another Grim Record in Iraq Mark Engler Seattle at Five Michael Donnelly Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham Nate Collins The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds Saul Landau The Assassination of Danilo Anderson   December 1, 2004 Phillip Cryan Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias in Wire Coverage of Colombia Dave Zirin What's the Matter with "Leon"?: Budweiser's Racist Commercial Ghali Hassan Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation: 200 Children Die Every Day Donna J. Volatile Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy" Patrick Cockburn How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency Nick Meo Chemical War Over Afghanistan Mike Ferner The Battle of Toledo Mokhiber / Weissman Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising Kathy Kelly Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes of the UN in Iraq   November 30, 2004 Jennifer Van Bergen The Veil of Secrecy Toni Nelson Herrera Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime Paul Craig Roberts The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence Patrick Cockburn The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq Chuck Munson WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization Movement Adam Williams Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana Gregory Elich A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for North Korea Website of the Day Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!   November 29, 2004 Dave Lindorff Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of the CIA? Omar Barghouti "The Pianist" of Palestine: Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint Mike Whitney The US Media and Fallujah: How to Market a Siege Uri Avnery The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me Some Credit!" Matt Vidal Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers Patrick Cockburn An Interview with Iraq's Foreign Minister Alan Farago Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters Justin Huggler Bhopal 20 Years Later Antony Loewenstein How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy Gary Leupp Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real Issue Website of the Day Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone     November 27 / 28, 2004 Peter Linebaugh Torture & Neo-Liberalism with Sycorax in Iraq Alexander Cockburn What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa? Fred Gardner Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court Kathy Kelly What We Can Control Diane Christian The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts" Gary Leupp One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea Lenni Brenner Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York Times Ron Jacobs Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of the AMS Clerics Joshua Frank An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd Toni Solo The Murder of Danilo Anderson Saul Landau Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica JoAnn Wypijewski Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are No Cure for Homophobia Justin Taylor Empire's Lawless Opportunities Amos Harel The Case of Captain R. Walter A. Davis Tabloid Justice Stephen Hendricks God's Kind of Men Poets' Basement Albert, LaMorticella and Ford     November 26, 2004 Peter Feng Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine? Greg Moses It's the White Vote, Stupid Liaquat Ali Khan The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments Michael Mandel / Gail Davidson Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry of Immigration Dave Lindorff Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the Way Gary Corseri When Black Friday Comes... Paul Craig Roberts Whatever Happened to Conservatives? Website of the Day Iraq Pipeline Watch     November 25, 2004 Willliam Loren Katz Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today" Mitchel Cohen Why I Hate Thanksgiving Mike Ferner An Uncommon Mom     November 24, 2004 Gila Svirsky License to Kill: the Example of Violence is Set by the State Winslow T. Wheeler The Other Mess in Congress Christopher Brauchli The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay Dave Lindorff Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony Ron Jacobs The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem Ken Sengupta Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah Diana Barahona The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader John L. Hess Safire the Shameless Jason Leopold Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal? Jeffrey St. Clair The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear War Map of the Day Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860   November 23, 2004 Forrest Hylton Bush and Uribe at the Beach         November 22, 2004 Dave Zirin Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage in Detroit Paul Craig Roberts On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again? Michael Mandel / Gail Davidson Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada Kathie Helmkamp Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill Ken Sengupta The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place in Iraq" Mike Whitney Greenspan's Hammer Roger Burbach Why They Hate Bush in Chile Website of the Day Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?     November 20 / 21, 2004 Alexander Cockburn The Poisoned Chalice Todd May Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear Abbas Ahmed Ibrahim The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account Kevin Zeese Mishandling Nader Landau / Hassen After Arafat Tom Barry The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley Fred Gardner Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd Justin E.H. Smith Triumph of the Will: the Sequel Carl Estabrook Where We Are Now Gary Leupp Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue Dave Lindorff Apocalypse Soon Jenna Michelle Liut Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower and Lives Mickey Z. The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William Blum Greg Moses The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America Sharon Smith Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now? Ron Jacobs Sandwiches and Car Bombs Ben Tripp Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days Richard Oxman Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules! Gilad Atzmon Politics and Jazz Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon. Website of the Day Voice of the Forest                                         Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

December 15, 2004 PTSD in America The Monster Under the Bed By JENNIFER VAN BERGEN America has a monster under its bed. It is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, otherwise known as PTSD. While PTSD is on the rise worldwide, most people don't even know it exists. There are growing signs that we, many if not most of us, suffer from symptoms of this invisible and elusive disorder. For those who recognize this disturbing fact, the most obvious explanation is 9/11 and the growing numbers of traumatized soldiers returning from Iraq. But I believe that it is not only soldiers and survivors of 9/11 who are traumatized. I believe that Americans have been traumatized by more mundane forces and factors, such as more evidence of Republican election fraud (it was unbelievable the first time), the recent passage of more civil-liberties-destroying legislation (despite the resolutions of hundreds of communities nationwide protesting the PATRIOT Act), or the official endorsement of torture (is that US?) ­ while speaking out of the other side of the mouth, saying we do not endorse it (who is the enemy?). These things, together with other little nonsensical things, such as general corporate and communal depersonalization, frighten people, shut down logical thinking, silence dissent, and force submission. The result is traumatization. Now, I must advise you that I am not a mental health professional or expert and I am certainly not offering mental health advice or therapy. So, this is just me talking to you. You can and should follow up with your own research. And if you do recognize any of the symptoms I talk about below, you might want to seek professional help. Don't merely take my word for any of this. But I will also tell you that I do know a good bit about trauma and its effects. While in law school, I was diagnosed with a trauma-related disorder similar to PTSD, but longer-standing. (It wasn't caused by law school!) Through my own research and healing work, I learned a lot about trauma. Also while in law school, I did extensive research and wrote a paper on brain chemistry and criminal defenses. I learned that trauma can actually alter brain chemistry, permanently. It can even cause neuronal death. After law school, I edited an issue of the now-defunct Criminal Defense Weekly on trauma and the law, which contained articles I solicited from numerous renowned trauma experts such as doctors Alan Scheflin, Colin Ross, Bessel van der Kolk, and others. Those articles were revealing and thought-provoking, providing a major contribution to the literature on this subject and teaching me a great deal. (Unfortunately, they are no longer publicly available.) Also, as a writing professor at the New School University in NYC -- where I taught for ten years before my highly popular characterization course was abruptly dropped in 2002 and where I was teaching when 9/11 happened -- I worked closely with many, many people who found their path to writing through an inner journey to themselves, through the pain and hardships and traumas of their own lives, and I have come to my own conclusions about trauma and about what is happening in America. I would now like to share some of these with you. Trauma is not only what happens when you are subjected to Abu Ghraib-style humiliation or torture. It is not only what can happen to you from combat. I don't, by any means, intend to diminish the effects of such horrors. But trauma is also something that can creep up on you unawares. Severely incongruent occurrences can be traumatizing. Events that the mind cannot wrap itself around, cannot fully fathom. Things that don't "make sense." Things that are the opposite of what they should be. Good people being called bad people (dissenters called terrorists); bad people reaping rewards (the man who told Bush how to get away with torture nominated to the position of Attorney General). Statements that don't make sense, such as those that Bush is famous for ("Please just don't look at part of the glass, the part that is only less than half full."), or those that sanitize and hide acts of brutality, such as "collateral damage" for mass killings, "ordnance" for weapons of murder, "targets" instead of human beings. These are all dehumanizing and subtly traumatizing. Then there is what is happening everywhere around us: the dehumanizing corporatization of our world. While we have more and more things within our grasp -- more services (phones, faxes, email, internet, DSL, cell phones), more amenities (cars, airplanes, air conditioning), more things (Wal Mart or Target have it all, supermarkets long ago made specialty stores obsolete, clothes, books, videos, toys) -- we also have LESS. It is getting increasingly hard to reach a live person on the telephone when you need assistance with something you pay for. People you do reach often live hundreds if not thousands of miles away from you. Nobody is responsible for anything they do anymore. Merchants keeping a hold on your debit card blame the bank and the bank says it is the credit card people who do it. No one can fix it. It's all electronic. Nobody cares. People don't matter. All that matters is making money. On the job, people have no privacy and no time to themselves, no time even to think about their work. A friend of mine recently was required along with his co-workers to work over 80 hours a week for several weeks in order to finish a project. That's more than 17 hours a day. Not long after this period ended, his boss told him the quality of his work had gone down! No, really?! I could cite some statistics about how Americans are working longer hours and taking fewer vacation days than ever before in history or than any other country ­ and I think such statistics recently were circulated ­ but I don't think I need to. We all know it. Technology was supposed to give us more free time, but it gives us less. And it is another dehumanizing thing. Separation from the natural environment is also depersonalizing. All we see all day long are four walls and fluorescent lights, if we're lucky to have a good job. No trees, no grasses, no animals, no water, no air, no silence. Constant noise. It is maddening. One day, we wake up and ask "What's wrong?" And we don't know. We've forgotten what it's like to be human beings. There are so many tiny little rudenesses, personal invasions, and dehumanizations that we actually think those things are normal. People block store aisles, drivers block lanes or cut others off. They have little or no awareness of other human beings. In fact, those drivers must have death wishes. Their driving habits not only are rude and dangerous to others but even to themselves and their passengers. These are things we ignore on a daily basis and don't realize affect us. Like subliminal advertising (that is supposed to be banned but actually isn't) or food additives (that are supposed to be labeled but also really aren't) or pesticides and other toxins and pollutants (how much of our groundwater is contaminated?), there are a million things affecting us that we can't avoid and have come to think of as normal. Yet, on top of all this increasing invasion of the senses and body are invasions of the mind. How can people cite "moral values" as their main reason for voting for a president who it is clear has violated and evaded the law and promoted others who advised him to do so? This president, more than any before in history, uses the language of fear to invade the minds of those he purportedly serves. As Renata Brooks wrote in her June 2003 article <i>A Nation of Victims</i>, Bush, "like many dominant personality types, uses dependency-creating language." He "employs language of contempt and intimidation to shame others into submission and desperate admiration," and "pessimistic language that creates fear and disables people from feeling they can solve their problems." He "describes the nation as being in a perpetual state of crisis and then attempts to convince the electorate the it is powerless and he is the only one with the strength to deal with it." In 1996, psychologist Jennifer Freyd coined a new term: betrayal trauma. Freyd showed that when those who have power over us betray our trust, it is traumatizing. But now, it is not just our president or our government that is betraying us. It is our communities, our neighbors. We are being attacked every day. But it is not by terrorists. It is by our own friends, our merchants, those with whom we do business, our colleagues, our landlords, our banks, and our own leaders. Everywhere we go, we are assailed by the lack of common decency and courtesy of our fellow humans. This, itself, is unfathomable. It is unthinkable that our entire society could be so dysfunctional as to be causing us all to become traumatized. But this is what I am suggesting. What are the signs of PTSD, then? They are, put simply and colloquially: increasing trouble remembering small or big things (appointments, chores, dates, locations, names), trouble sleeping, even nightmares, general anxiety, excessive fatigue, stomach problems, heart "aches," headaches, losing things, difficulty concentrating, forgetting where you put things, losing "time" (time passes but you can't remember what you were doing), difficulty articulating what you think or even holding onto your thoughts, loss of appetite (or binge eating), depression, lethargy, inability to get motivated anymore, mistrust of others, chronic agitation, anger, or sadness, or abrupt mood swings, diminished ability to earn money (or to keep it) or loss of employment. Of course, some of these things could be symptoms of other problems and these are not exhaustive. But what I have been seeing in my own friends and colleagues, especially in the last few months, is remarkably similar to what I saw in my writing students in NY immediately after 9/11. I am seeing many of these symptoms in people who have not had major life-threatening stressors in their lives, people who have, however, been working hard the last four years to preserve democracy and civil liberties, to fight the war machine, and to raise awareness in their fellow human beings. People who have witnessed a terrible reversal in our country. PTSD is an invisible enemy. I've seen it hurt or even destroy people who might not even have known they suffered from it. So what can we do about it? First of all, it is very important to name it, to recognize its symptoms. It is trauma. If you are suffering from it, you can acknowledge that. (Many people are embarrassed to admit it, although trauma is not the fault of a trauma survivor; it is the fault of the traumatizer.) There should also be no embarrassment in admitting that we are traumatized by what our government is doing. Our reactions are sane and sensible. It is our government that has gone mad. Second, although there is nothing an individual can do about many of the causes of PTSD, it is important to engage every day in some productive activities, no matter how small -- things that are within your control. Do something you can complete. Small, mundane things are not beneath you; they are affirming and grounding. If you can't handle engaging in political, social, or family activities, or even small chores, try sitting quietly for a bit, and congratulate yourself on doing it. Third, engage in healing activities. Healing activities are those that allow your mind and body to roam without judgment or consequence, permitting acceptance of whatever thoughts and feelings emerge. They are things that allow you to just BE. And finally, create something out of your healing work, something to have and to hold, something that makes you feel proud and loving, passing the benefits of your accomplishment onto others. The Bush Administration operates on the twin premises of fear and trauma. There is an invisible monster under the bed: something we are never quite able to see, but we know it's there and we know we have to be afraid. Most frightening is that our own leaders are the cause. This is hard to admit. (Harder for those who voted for them.) Hard to look at. Hardest to live with. The first step is to turn on the lights and look under the bed. Then realize that the monster disappears when you really look him in the eyes. Jennifer Van Bergen, J.D., is the author of The Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America. She is at work on a book about the characterization method she has taught for over twenty years, Archetypes for Writers: Using the Power of the Subconscious in Your Writing. She is a trained Shakespearean actress and has issued a CD of her "trauma survivor" music, some of which can be heard on her website. She can be reached at jvbxyz@earthlink.net. Weekend Edition Features for November 27 / 28, 2004 Peter Linebaugh Torture & Neo-Liberalism with Sycorax in Iraq Alexander Cockburn What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa? Fred Gardner Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court Kathy Kelly What We Can Control Diane Christian The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts" Gary Leupp One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea Lenni Brenner Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York Times Ron Jacobs Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of the AMS Clerics Joshua Frank An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd Toni Solo The Murder of Danilo Anderson Saul Landau Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica JoAnn Wypijewski Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are No Cure for Homophobia Justin Taylor Empire's Lawless Opportunities Amos Harel The Case of Captain R. Walter A. Davis Tabloid Justice Stephen Hendricks God's Kind of Men Poets' Basement Albert, LaMorticella and Ford WWW http://www.counterpunch.org