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Today's
Stories
April 7, 2008
Harry Browne
Irish
Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported
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!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
|
Apri1
7, 2008
Speaking of Hell
....
Obama's
Constitution, His Pastor and His Unbelieving Mom in Heaven
By LENNI BRENNER
According to the classic publishing
world joke, Lincoln, doctors and dogs are always public favorites,
so a book about Lincoln's doctor's dog would always be the best
seller the year it came out. But today it would be about Barack
Obama's pastor's racism. Already vast forests are history, paper
for articles praising his 3/18 speech. Unfortunately these are
as imperfect as Obama's "A More Perfect Union."
l. Floundering
about the founding fathers.
Before no less than eight flags,
across from Philadelphia's Convention Hall, the herald of "change"
started orating with a gush of same ol' same ol' patriotic rhetoric:
"Two hundred and twenty-one
years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a
group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched
America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars;
statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape
tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration
of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through
the spring of 1787."
Who escaped "tyranny and
persecution"? Thirty-nine delegates, seven born abroad,
signed the constitution. Caribbean-born Alexander Hamilton came
to New York for college. Robert Morris came at 13 from Liverpool.
Scot James Wilson arrived at 23 after graduating college.
Four were Irish. William Paterson
arrived at two. James McHenry emigrated at 18. Scot Presbyterians
were brought to Ireland to help oppress the Catholic natives.
There was legal discrimination against them, but it was next
to nothing compared to total catholic exclusion from citizenship.
Encyclopedias don't even mention youthful religious problems.
British officer Pierce Butler came before the revolution and
married a slave-holder heiress. A foe of "tyranny"?
He was responsible for Article lV, Section 2 of the Constitution:
"No Person held to service
or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into
another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein,
be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered
up on claim of the party to whom such service may be due."
Catholic Thomas FitzSimons
came to colonial Pennsylvania but couldn't hold office there
until the revolution, when the new state abolished its test oath.
The banker was for religious liberty but he wanted to limit
the federal vote to property owners.
Native Americans didn't need
foreigners' warnings re theocratic bigotry. In 1784-86, James
Madison and Virginia's legislature, reacting to persecution of
Baptists, disestablished the Anglican church. Obama's flags
and concocted religious tyranny and persecution overture were
nothing more than a setting for discussion of Reverend Jeremiah
Wright's "incendiary language ... that denigrate both the
greatness and the goodness of our nation." However, as he
threw the convention's attitude towards religion into today's
political game, let's keep it in play. How did it really treat
religion?
All historians see Madison
as "the father of the Constitution" for pushing it
thru. According to his notes, religion suddenly became the hot
topic on 6/28/1787. Old Ben Franklin rose, explaining that
"The small progress we
have made after 4 or five weeks close attendance & continual
reasonings with each other ... is methinks a melancholy proof
of the imperfection of the Human understanding.... [H]ow has
it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of
humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?
In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were
sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the
divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were
graciously answered.... [T]he longer I live, the more convincing
proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs
of men.... I therefore beg leave to move -- that henceforth
prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings
on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning
before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy
of this city requested to officiate in that service."
This was too much for "Hamilton
& several others." They
"expressed their apprehension
that however proper such a resolution might have been at the
beginning of our convention, it might at this late day, 1. bring
on it some disagreeable animadversions. & 2. lead the public
to believe that the embarrassments and dissentions within the
convention, had suggested this measure.... Adjournment was at
length carried, without any vote on the motion."
Franklin wrote later that "the
Convention, except three or four persons, thought Prayers unnecessary."
On 8/20, South Carolina's Charles
Pinckney presented Article Vl.
"The Senators and Representatives
before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures,
and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United
States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or
Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test
shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public
Trust under the United States."
The convention was closed to
the public. Rejection of Franklin's call only came out later.
Today few know of it. Of course Article Vl is still in it, but
when most educated Americans think of the constitution and religion,
they usually mean the 1st Amendment's "Congress shall make
no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof." However Madison only pledged
to add the Bill or Rights after the Philadelphia convention,
to win public support for it. He presented it to the 1st Congress,
in New York, in 1789. It wasn't ratified until 1791. But Article
Vl already made the 1787 convention the role model for France's
secular republican revolutionaries in 1789.
ll.
Wright's number one sin?
Given that nothing re conventional
secularism found its way into his 4,881 word-long script, its
no surprise that, beyond generalities, Obama cited only one
example of Wright's anti-white racism, the "view that sees
the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the
actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating
from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."
Very few journalistic essays
on the speech, pro or con, commented on this. But Abe Foxman
of the Anti-Defamation League "praised Obama for an 'element
of sensitivity to the Jewish community,' including his 'specific
reference to Israel as our ally, his condemnation of radical
Islam.'" (Jewish Week, 3/21)
Foxman and Obama didn't explain
Wright's hostility to Israel. But they know what generated it.
The 2/25 NY Sun had Obama declaring "anti-Zionist statements
made by his pastor ... were 'rooted in' anger over the Jewish
state's support for South Africa during the apartheid era. 'That
was a source of tension.'" Yet he had to admit that he
"never heard anything that would suggest anti-Semitism
on the part of the pastor."
The 2/9 NY Times had Obama,
born in 1961, contacting "members of the African National
Congress to have them speak" at LA's Occidental College,
1979-81. He "spoke at a campus divestment rally."
In his junior year he transferred to Columbia in NYC. The 10/30/07
Times told of a 2005 university journal interview:
"He said he was somewhat
involved with the Black Student Organization and anti-apartheid
activities, though, in recent interviews, several prominent
student leaders said they did not remember his playing a role."
Wright was right. The Zionist-Apartheid
alliance was criminal. The 12/14/81 Times headlined an article
"South Africa Needs More Arms, Israeli Says." That
was Ariel Sharon. Was Obama opposed to Israel's support for
the hateful regime? If so, why does he support Israel today?
If he didn't oppose Israel then, why so, given that his own
pastor and many other Blacks exposed Israel? Desmond Tutu and
other SA anti-apartheid leaders still denounce Israeli injustices.
Is Obama prepared to publicly exile the bishop to the political-theological
limbo he sent his minister?
Many Democrats buy Clinton's
line that he lacks experience in world affairs. If he played
a significant role fighting apartheid, Obama would answer her
by citing it. No mincing words: That he, half African no less,
didn't 'major' in anti-apartheid in school, like thousands of
black and white US students, is a glaring demonstration of irresponsible
world politics. This is reinforced by his near silence re today's
Africa. Bill Clinton starts philanthropic discussions of the
continent by confessing that his administration never even discussed
the Rwanda slaughter. Wouldn't Obama shout about Hillary's non-role
in that horror if he did anything notable in that era?
lll. Our
constitutional star is also theologically expert.
Given Obama's repudiation of
the politics of the cleric who recruited him to Christianity,
some folks wanted to know how that effected him theologically.
The 3/27 Christian Post relates how, "while answering a
question about his Christian faith" in North Carolina,
he
"said he believes that
Jesus Christ died for his sins and through God's grace and mercy
he could have 'everlasting life'.... But he also believes Jews
and Muslims and non-believers who live moral lives are as much
'children of God' as he is ... he spoke about his late mother
who was 'not a believer'... 'she was the kindest, most decent,
generous person that I have ever known' .... 'I'm sure she is
in heaven, even though she may not have subscribed to everything
that I subscribe to.'"
As an atheist, this concerns
me personally. If she is in heaven, I can go there even though
I insist that it doesn't exist. But before I go anywhere, I ask
what the weather is like, what will I do there, etc. So readers,
atheist or pious, must be Christlike and forgive me for closing
this article with some questions for Obama. I'll send it to
him. Naturally I don't expect an answer. He is busy. But maybe
I'm wrong? After all, can't a guy who's up-to-date on the detailed
demography of today's paradise perform other miracles?
***
Hi Barack,
According to the 3/27 Christian
Post, you told a North Carolina audience that you believe that
non-believers who live moral lives are as much 'children of
God' as you are. You said that your
"late mother who was 'not
a believer ... was the kindest, most decent, generous person
that I have ever known .... I'm sure she is in heaven, even though
she may not have subscribed to everything that I subscribe to.'"
This will please 44 per cent
of Americans. In 1999, they, mostly believers, told Gallup that
nice atheists go there. As you, like them, are expert on such
matters, I take the liberty of asking some questions.
1. You said on 3/18 that Reverend
Jeremiah Wright used
"incendiary language ...
that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation."
You claim he "sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted
primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead
of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical
Islam."
Is he is banned from heaven?
2. In North Carolina, you declared
"Muslims" as much "children of God" as yourself,
eligible for heavenly residence. But on 3/18 you denounced "perverse
and hateful ideologies of radical Islam" which attack "stalwart
allies like Israel." Does this mean that God, or whoever
sells apartments in heaven, won't admit Hamas followers and
other Muslims opposed to Israel's "actions"?
3. You opine that "Jews"
are likewise welcomed. But thousands of Orthodox Jews live in
Israel, categorically opposed to its existence. They claim that
only God can recreate a genuine Jewish kingdom, if the Jews
repent their sins. Are they also forbidden entry?
4. What does your mom say re
winding up in a place she didn't believe in? Can she leave on
vacation or permanently?
5. Tell us atheists if we --
and pious believers like yourself -- can bring our pets? A 2006
Washington Post survey found 43 per cent of Americans believing
pets go to heaven. Ninety-three percent of these philosophers
insist that they can go, "even if their owners do not."
Please think before you answer. We're talking about the swing
vote in Pennsylvania's crucial primary.
6. Global warming means heat
rising high into the sky. So is heaven getting as hot as hell?
I'll need to know what to wear if I go there.
7. Speaking of hell, a 2/25/03
Gallup poll announced that 67 per cent of all Democrats and
79 per cent of Republicans believe in the Devil. The Gallup organization
is noted for its piety, but this troubled them:
"Over the centuries, science
has been able to explain many phenomena that once seemed supernatural.
Bad weather, ill health, and heretical opinions may not be the
work of the infernal after all. With the advent of evolutionary
theory and modern psychology, these days we're more likely to
think of people who do terrible things as broken human beings,
rather than agents of the netherworld. Furthermore, religion
has ceded its civil authority, and religiosity has declined
somewhat in American society. So we might expect belief in the
devil to have largely evaporated. It hasn't. Regardless of political
belief, religious inclination, education, or region, most Americans
believe that the devil exists."
I disagree with the Gallup
folks on one point. My observation is that the devil is real
for the ignorant poor, but for educated believers he's just a
character in Goethe's Faust or Gounod's opera by that name.
What do you say?
As an atheist, I argue that
the poll really gives us the gut-basic difference between typical
Democrats and Republicans. The average Democrat has a nit-sized
brain, ordinary Republicans have nat-sized brains. Does this
sound right to you? Or do you think its the other way around?
Stay well, give 'em hell,
Lenni Brenner
Lenni Brenner is the editor of Jefferson
& Madison on Separation of Church and State: Writings on
Religion and Secularism and a contributor to The
Politics of Anti-Semitism. He also edited 51
Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis. He can be
reached at BrennerL21@aol.com.
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