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Today's Stories April 19 / 20, 2008 Patrick Cockburn A New Struggle is Beginning in Iraq April 18, 2008 John Ross The Bush Legacy: Losing Latin America Dave Lindorff Courage and Conviction: In Praise of Bill Ayers Dan Glazebrook An Interview with Robert Fisk Carl Finamore A Look Inside the Hangars Rannie Amiri J Street: Do We Really Need Another Pro-Israel Lobby? Richard Morse A Creepy Roadblock at Midnight Ko Young-dae CONPLAN 8022: Inside Bush's Nuclear War Plan for the Korean Peninsula Farooq Sulehria A Himalayan Surprise   April 17, 2008 Michael Hudson Hillary Joins the Vast Rightwing Financial Conspiracy Robert Bryce The Ethanol Apologists Kathy Kelly Weary of War? Don't Collaborate Madis Senner The Carrion Feeders' Ball: How Hedge Funds Reap Billions Off Economic Misery Peter Morici The G7, the Banks and GE Ron Jacobs Washington, al-Maliki and the Militias William S. Lind A Confirming Moment in Basra James Murren Obama's Disconnect with Small Town America Ben Terrall Losing Haiti Walter Brasch Political Log Rolling in Clinton County, PA Website of the Day Stealth Attack: Homegrown "Terrorism" Bill   April 16, 2008 Bill Kauffman The Candidates from Nowhere Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Colonization and Massacres Saul Landau How to Leave Iraq Peter Morici McCain's Economic Plan: GOP Out of Ideas (But So are the Democrats) Eric Toussaint / Damien Millet Bankers Saved, Human Rights Sacrificed Jeff Ballinger Inside Nike's Asian Sweatshops: Squeezed Vietnamese Workers Strike Back David Macaray Union Strikes and Replacement Workers Gary Leupp Electoral Revolution in Nepal Richard Morse The Food Riots in Haiti George Ciccariello-Maher Einstein Turns in His Grave Dave Lindorff Letters from the Bitter Belt Website of the Day Surviving Prozac   April 15, 2008 Ralph Nader The Politics of Distraction in an Age of Gotcha Capitalism Uri Avnery Manifest Destiny and Israel Brian Cloughley Arrogant Lies David Price Outrageous Pre-Tour de France Ban Joe Bageant Bitter America: Media Shit Storms and Heartland Reality Steve Early The Purple Punch-Out in Dearborn Mats Svensson To Create Something from Nothing: the Making of a Palestinian State Michael Donnelly Dead-Eye Hil and the Elitist April Howard / Benjamin Dangl Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay's Next President Laray Polk Let's Not Put the Torch in a Bubble Charles Modiano What Does a Woman Have to Do to Get on the Cover of Sports Illustrated? Website of the Day The $3 Trillion Shopping Spree   April 14, 2008 Carl Finamore Airline Deregulation Makes a Hard Landing Michael Hudson A Trillion Dollar Rescue for Wall Street Gamblers M. Shahid Alam Hizbullah's Big Win: Has Israel Finally Met Its Match? Patrick Cockburn A Cleric, a Pol and a Warrior Paul Craig Roberts Petraeus Sets Up Iran Joanne Mariner Redition to Jordan: What Happens When the Gloves Come Off? Martha Rosenberg Suicide and Cymbalta Dave Lindorff The Bitterness Thing: Is Obama Channeling Nader P. Sainath Hot Messages to Sex Dancer Doom Condi's New Finnish Pal John V. Whitbeck On Hypocrisy Over Tibet: a Personal Reflection Website of the Day Spying on Environmental Groups   April 12 / 13, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Olympic Torch Toasts US Candidates Patrick Cockburn Warlord: the Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr Mike Whitney Want to Save the Economy? David Yearsley Film Scores and Westerns: the Stealth Cavalry of Empire Robert Fantina Bush's Brand of Morality Conn Hallinan Another Defining Moment in Iraq Bill Hatch In Praise of Hippies and the Counter-Culture Ramzy Baroud The Basra Battles George S. Hishmeh Back to Square One Ron Jacobs The New New Left in Latin America Nikolas Kozloff Olympic Torch in Buenos Aires Charles Thomson The British Prime Minister and the Tate's Tin of Shit Alexander Billet The Disney-fication of CBGB Missy Beattie Huffing and Puffing to Failure David Michael Green America's Jones for War Seth Sandronsky Education Entrepreneurs Prairie Miller Meeting David Wilson Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up Poets' Basement Ko Un, Ibn Salma and Greaves Website of the Weekend Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights   April 11, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff The Clintons and Their Sordid Colombia Advocacy Wajahat Ali Revenge of the Ghetto Nerd: an Exclusive Interview with Junot Diaz Sharon Smith Let Them Eat Ethanol! Yigal Bronner / Neve Gordon Digging for Trouble: the Politics of Archaeology in East Jerusalem Alan Farago Eating South Florida Dave Lindorff On Waking Sleeping Giants: Lessons for America from China George Wuerthner Money for Nothing? The Problems with the Conservation Reserve Program Christopher Brauchli Prostitutes Don't Do Funerals Website of the Day Animals Explain the Insurance Industry: a Health Care Video   April 10, 2008 Mathieu Vernerey Tibet for the Tibetans! Elizabeth Schulte Slavery in the Fields David Macaray Labor Unions Will Never Get a Fair Shake Ashley Smith The Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr Peter Morici Driving Up Debt and Dragging Down Growth Jacob Hornberger The Military's Distintegrating Family Life Harold Austin Snitch or Else: Prison Officials Threaten Gang Drop Outs Website of the Day Hillary: the Wal-Mart Videos   April 9, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts The Fading American Economy Winslow T. Wheeler Congressional Theater: the Petraeus / Crocker Hearings C. Hand Why Dave Marash Left Al Jazeera Paul Krassner Sex and Violins Paul Wolf Colombian "Magnicidio" Remains a Mystery After 60 Years Wajahat Ali Alien Invasion! Karyn Strickler Lost in the Fumes: the Sierra Club Sells Out to Clorox Dan La Botz Confronting the Economic Crisis Eric Walberg The Shadow of Munich: Another NATO Flop Robin Millenthal Enough Already! Growth and the Tar Sands Economy Website of the Day Conservative Nanny State April 8, 2008 Mike Whitney Should Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be Set Free? Nikolas Kozloff Bush Bullies Congress on Colombia Deal Greg Moses Migrant Detention in South Texas Joshua Frank The Other Military Draft John Ross Mexico City's Urban Tribes Go on the Warpath Against EMOS Michael Donnelly Hillary's Western Swing John V. Walsh Why Obama Lost Massachusetts Jeff Nygaard Health, Security and Mandates Bill Piper Last Shot for a Bush Legacy? Sen. Russ Feingold Legal Representation and the Death Penalty Website of the Day Catonsville 9, Forty Years Later   April 7, 2008 Ishmael Reed The Irish Black Thing Harry Browne Irish Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported Uri Avnery Tibet and Palestine Lenni Brenner Obama's Constitution, His Pastor and His Unbelieving Mom in Heaven Ayesha Ijaz Khan America Must Respect Pakistan's Democracy Robert Fisk Fearful Lives in the Land of the Free Edwin Krales Ensuring the Success of Fascism in Spain: the US Corporate Role Chris Genovali Vancouver Island's Dwindling Ancient Forests Website of the Day LA Artists Against War   April 5 / 6, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Did the Elites Want MLK Dead? Ramzy Baroud There are No Checkpoints in Heaven Ralph Nader Runaway Bailouts David Yearsley How Scott Joplin Had Wall Street Down Saul Landau Sex Politics in America Paul Craig Roberts The Petraeus and Crocker Show Lawrence Korb / Ian Moss Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot Seth Sandronsky Meet America's Promise Alliance: Colin Powell's New Gig John Ross La Cumbia de la Doctrina Bush: Colombia Kills Four Mexican Students in Ecuador Bombing Robert Fantina McCain, Republicans and Family Values David Michael Green Back to Disaster: Hoover at Home, Tet Abroad Missy Beattie McCan't Patrick Bond Vultures Circle Zimbabwe Dr. Susan Block The New American Pot Dealers Phyllis Pollack The Stones Meet the Press Adam Engel The Boobus in the Lie Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up Poets' Basement Diamand and St. Clair Website of the Weekend Richard Pryor Goes to the Gun Shop     April 4, 2008 Dave Lindorff The Night I Heard King Had Been Shot Greg Moses Missing King Ron Jacobs Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King, Jr. Alan Farago Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine Alison Weir Funding Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel David Rosen Rape as an Instrument of Total War Robert Weissman The Unrealized Dream Jacob Hornberger Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It? Jackie Corr Hillary and Obama Head for Butte Carl Finamore Taking On United Airlines Laray Polk We Are All Dith Pran Susie Day Advice for the War-Torn Website of the Day Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait   April 3, 2008 Peter Morici The Deepening Recession Joe Bageant The Audacity of Depression Andy Worthington Cleared But Still Detained: The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia Nikolas Kozloff Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America Rannie Amiri The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy David Macaray More Labor Strife in Hollywood Stephen Lendman Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice Website of the Day The True Face of Da Vinci?   April 2, 2008 Diane Farsetta Indian Point on the Potomac Harry Browne Bertie Ahern Laid Low by Secretary Wajahat Ali The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer George Wuerthner Open Season on Wolves Col. Dan Smith The Militarization of America Philippe Marlière The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism Steve Early A Purple Uprising in Oakland Bernard Chazelle Saving the American Left Reza Fiyouzat Bowling in Hell   April 1, 2008 Jeff Leys Fracturing the Peace to End the War Thomas P. Healy Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg Winslow T. Wheeler When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense Budget Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz New Deal Nostalgia Patrick Irelan Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels Andy Worthington The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani John V. Walsh The Shunning of Ralph Nader Michael J. Smith Woolly Mamet Robert Weissman The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old? Dave Lindorff Bush's Defining Moments Martha Rosenberg Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity Website of the Day Support Briana!   March 31, 2008 Mike Whitney Dead on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street Mats Svensson Walls, Tunnels and Daily Humiliations Paul Rockwell Hillary's Lies About Outsourcing Paul Craig Roberts A Third American War in the Making? Patrick Cockburn Sadr Calls for Ceasefire Peter Dale Scott The Showdown Alfredo Molano Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia Peter Morici Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short Uri Avnery Day of the Land, 32 Years Later Michael Simmons The American Bard in New Orleans Betsy Roberts / Karen Orr The Clorox Coup Phyllis Pollack First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones Website of the Day Five Years Too Many   March 29 / 30, 2008 Alexander Cockburn When They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say? Patrick Cockburn Iraqi Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army Mike Whitney Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan Christopher Brauchli The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman and Rev. Hagee William Blum China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics Robert Fantina Iraq Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton John Ross AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's Oil Allison Kilkenny Shady Lending Hits Home Nelson P. Valdés Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context Suzanne Baroud The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making Richard Rhames Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train Christopher Fons Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers Carl Finamore Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump and Consumers Sour Eamonn McCann Hillary Misremembers Again! Missy Beattie Justice and the Monsters of War Fred Gardner Jim Thorpe, All-American Kim Nicolini Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" David Yearsley "All the World's a Hospital" Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up Poets' Basement Valentine and Ko Un Website of the Weekend Hidden Iraq   March 28, 2008 Saul Landau Growing Dread About Iraq Alan Farago Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy Peter Morici Knocking Down False Economic Gods Andy Worthington Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from Guantánamo Felice Pace Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service Peter Montague Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox! Dave Lindorff The Mumia Exception March 27, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Basra Erupts Binoy Kampmark Free Market Apostates Joanne Mariner "Was George Washington a Terrorist?" Norman Solomon NPR News: National Pentagon Radio? William S. Lind Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq John V. Walsh Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry? Robert Weissman How Things Work Ron Jacobs Meeting Charlie Ehlen Ralph Nader Put Impeachment Back on the Table David Macaray Court Rules Against Grocery Workers John Borowski Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction Website of the Day Going Out for an English   March 26, 2008 Stan Cox The Germs Next Door Sharon Smith Greed Pays: Welfare on Wall Street Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans Matt Vidal So Much for the Self-Regulating Market William S. Lind Operation Cassandra Joe Mowrey The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel Dave Lindorff Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire Ray McGovern Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late Justin Smith Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues Sam Husseini The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media Martha Rosenberg Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs Michael Dickinson Politicians as Dogs Website of the Day The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread   March 25, 2008 Ishmael Reed The Crazy Rev. Wright Corey D. B. Walker The Politics of Jeremiah Wright Linn Washington Jr. Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts Alan Farago The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders Vijay Prashad A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast Joshua Frank A Silver Lining to the Bush Years? Ralph Nader How Public Servants Can Help End This War David Rovics If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring? Peter Morici America's Banks are Broken Dave Zirin Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet David Krieger The Crisis in Tibet Website of the Day Memorializing Iraq March 24, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Blonde Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012 Peter Morici Digging Out of the Recession Uri Avnery Two Americas Wajahat Ali First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison Paul Craig Roberts Inside the Shell Game George Ciccariello-Maher The Coming War on Venezuela Stephen Lendman Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal Christopher Brauchli Possessing Someone Else's Country Cat Woods A Letter to Mom on Obama Stacey Warde Tax Burden Dave Lindorff The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting? Website of the Day Live from the Longest Walk   March 22 / 23, 2008 Ralph Nader Bush Blisters the Truth on Iraq Nicole Colson Can You Afford to Feed Your Family? James Petras The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives Laura Carlsen From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics of Trade Greg Moses Tolerance and the American Pulpit Andy Worthington Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials Michael Dickinson Art on Trial John Ross Bush's Surge Hits Mosul Missy Comley Beattie Killer Economics David Michael Green Happy Anniversary, America! Ramzy Baroud The Coming Uncertain War on Iran Martha Rosenberg Easter Egg Shells from Hell Paul Watson Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos Isabella Kenfield Monsanto's Raid on Brazil James Murren Logging v. Water in Honduras Jacob Hornberger Sex and the Immigration Officer Kathlyn Stone Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance Seth Sandronsky Rethinking New Mexico's History Kim Nicolini Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week Poets' Basement Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski Website of the Weekend Merci, McCain!

Weekend Edition April 19 / 20, 2008 Making Contact Raelians, Aliens and Evolution By Dr. SUSAN BLOCK Last week, I had dinner with Raël, international connoisseur of pleasure and “prophet” of the Raëlian Movement which includes about 80,000 members in 90 different countries around the world. Apparently, after watching a few of my shows, Raël recognized a kindred spirit in the cultivation of what I call “ethical hedonism” and what he calls our “right to pleasure,” and he asked his staff to make contact with me. Raël is all about “making contact.” Before becoming a prophet, he was Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon, a singer/songwriter, then a journalist/race car driver, speeding down the highways and backroads of life like the rest of us. In 1973, while cruising around a volcano park in the center of France called Puy de Lassolas, he felt an irresistible impulse to pull over and get out of the car. This is where Raël gets kind of unreal. But then, what prophet worth his prophesy only sticks to dull demonstrable reality? Think of the Prophet Elisha who beheld the Prophet Elijah in a Chariot of Fire taken up by a whirlwind into Heaven. How real is that? Anyway, at this point, Raël says he saw lights flashing in the dark sky, and a large silver flying saucer slowly touched down right there in front of him, within the ditch of a volcanic crater. A staircase unfolded from the belly of the ship (guess this was pre-"Beam Me Down, Scottie" spacecraft technology), and down marched a small, humanoid “alien” with vaguely Asiatic features and a neatly trimmed black goatee. This “extraterrestrial,” who called himself Yahweh (yes, like the most sacred Hebrew word for “God” in the Bible), told Raël that he was one of the Earth's original “designers,” called Elohim (another Hebrew word for God or “gods,” or “those who come from the sky,” also in the Bible). Then, over the course of six mysterious encounters (none of which were photographed or witnessed by anyone else), Rael claims that Lil' Yahweh gave him a “message from the designers” regarding science, religion, love, sex, relationships and eternal life, among other things. Rael accepted his “mission” to spend his life transmitting this message, as well as news of their imminent public appearance on Earth (preferably in an “embassy” he would build), to the rest of humanity. The “message from the designers” is one of love, peace, pleasure and nonconformity, blending spirituality, sensuality, art and certain sciences. In some ways, these Alien Sex Secrets are rather similar to my own message of Ethical Hedonism and the Bonobo Way, though I did not have the benefit of learning it from any aliens, unless these aliens have disguised themselves as bonobo chimpanzees. Over the years, Raël has engineered many commendable sex-positive public actions, from calling for the free distribution of condoms in schools to promoting masturbation for everyone; from worldwide campaigns to support sexual minorities to the creation of an association to help restore the clitorises of victims of female circumcision called Clitoraid. These are “good works” in the controversial field of sexuality, for which no other international religious organization has stepped up to the plate. For me, this more than makes up for the fact that journalist Raël happened not to have his camera on him when the Elohim came a’ knocking. Nevertheless, UFOs and good sex works aside, I do have some major problems with Raël’s belief system, particularly his denial of the essential principles of evolution, which are the prime building blocks of biology, zoology, ornithology, anthropology, genetics and many other sciences. I can sooner tolerate Raël’s story about “Yahweh” and the little green (or whatever color) Elohim. After all, the original Yahweh/Elohim story is also pretty outrageous, not to mention nebulous and contradictory. Every religion features some mythological, other-worldly story about the whole world being created in 6 days by a distinguished old guy named “God” (Hebrew), by an egg-shaped cloud breaking to release the matter of the universe (Chinese), by a bored deity named Atum masturbating into the void (Egyptian), or by the great god Eros blowing the Breath of Life into all things (Greek), which I like to call The Original Blow-Job. Then there are all the amazing tales of virgin births, resurrections, rivers being turned into blood and water being turned into wine. Raël’s “My Favorite Martian Visits France” story is no better or worse than any of these. The Raëlian Movement is controversial in many other ways, especially for their support of human cloning. They’ve sued and been sued, and as a fellow pleasure preacher in a society that tends to exploit people’s pain, I can sympathize. But rejecting evolution? Might as well join the science-phobic ranks of creationism. Even the Pope says evolution can co-exist with any faith, whether in a Son of God or Extraterrestrial Creator(s). I “believe” in evolution primarily because of the mountains of scientific evidence. I consider it a "theory" only in the sense that the National Academy of Sciences defines theory as "a comprehensive explanation of an important feature of nature that is supported by many facts gathered over time," not in the popular usage of the word "theory" as a hunch, conjecture, opinion or speculation. But I also have my spiritual reasons for my faith in the principles of change that Charles Darwin most famously (and imperfectly, but still brilliantly) identified: Because when I look into the eyes of my friend Lana, who happens to be a bonobo, I see my close cousin. And it’s not just that I have a bonobo fetish (though I do). When I look into the eyes of monkeys, I also see cousins, though more distant, and when I look into the eyes of my snake Eve, I see an even more distant cousin, but a cousin nonetheless. So I am not going to become a Raëlian (surprise, surprise). But I have no plans to become a Buddhist either, and I’d still dig hanging out with the Dalai Lama. Thus, I enjoyed my dinner with Raël. Even if I evolved from monkeys, and he comes from outer space, we are friends and neighbors, sharing a common interest in the cultivation of pleasure, tolerance and peace. Dr. Susan Block is a sex educator, cable TV personality, author of The 10 Commandments of Pleasure and hostess of Dr. Suzy’s Speakeasy. Commit Bloggamy with her at http://www.drsusanblock.com/blog/ Email her at liberties@blockbooks.com © April 16, 2008.

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