Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
Gary Leupp
The
Silk Road: Random Thoughts on the Bam Earthquake and Satan
January 14, 2004
Greg Moses
Happy
Birthday, Dr. King: To Write Off the South is to Surrender to
Bigots
Kurt Nimmo
Bush and the Supremes: Amputating the Bill of Rights
Dave Lindorff
Preview of Iowa? Pennsylvania Straw Poll Spells Trouble for Traditional
Dems (and Dean)
Jason Leopold
O'Neill Claims Backed by Rumsfeld / Wolfowitz War Letters to
Clinton
Alexander Cockburn
Bush,
Oil and Iraq: Some Truth at Last
January 13, 2004
William S. Lind
How 2004
Looks from Potsdam
M. Junaid Alam
Do Iraqis Have a Right to Resist?
Mickey Z
Snipers:
No Nuts in Iraq
Adolfo Gilly
Chonchocoro:
The Prisoner and the Presidents
Steve Perry
You Love God, Right?
January 12, 2004
Ben Tripp
No Stan
for the Kurds
Norman Solomon
The
Dixie Trap: Democrats and the South
Mike Whitney
O'Neill's Revenge
Jason Leopold
From the Very First Instant It Was About Iraq
Uri Avnery
Syria's
Peace Proposal
January 10 / 11, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
as Hitler? Let's Be Fair
Susan Davis
Dangerous Books
Diane Christian
On Lying and Colin Powell
Lisa Viscidi
Exhumations: Unearthing Guatemala's Macabre Past
Daniel Estulin
Destroying History in Iraq
Saul Landau
Homeland Anxiety
Elaine Cassel
Who's Winning the War on Civil Liberties?
Bruce Jackson
Making the Shit List
Christopher Brauchli
Baptizing Hitler's Ghost
Francis A. Boyle
The Deep Scars of War
Lee Ballinger
Cold Sweat: Sweatshops and the Music Industry
Patrick W. Gavin
Hillary's Slur: Mrs. Lott?
Ramzy Baroud
What Invaders Have in Common
Michael Schwartz
Inside the California Grocery Strike
Gary Johnson
An Interview with Former Heavyweight Champ Greg Page
Dave Zirin
An Interview with Marvin Miller on Unions and Baseball
Mark Hand
A Review of Resistance: My Life for Lebanon
Poets' Basement
Thomas, Daley, Curtis, Guthrie and Albert
January 9, 2004
David Lindorff
The
Misers of War: Troop Strength and Chintzy Bonuses
Kurt Nimmo
Saddam's Defense: Summon Bush Sr. to the Stand
Mike Whitney
Orange Jumpsuits for the Bush Clan?: The Carnegie Report on Iraq's
Non-existent WMDs
Deb Reich
Palestinians and Israelis: This War is Unwinnable
David Vest
Disabled
Vets Fire Back at Rumsfeld
January 8, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israeli
Refuseniks Sentenced to Jail
Lenni Brenner
Dr.
Dean and the Godhead
Ray McGovern
Bush: Driving Without Breaks
Mark Scaramella
Inside
the DA's Office: Lies, Errors and Tedium
Yves Engler
Bush's Mexican Gambit
James Hollander
Journalists
Under Fire: the Death of José Couso in Baghdad
January 7, 2004
Democracy Now!
Uncharitable
Care: How Hospitals are Gouging and Even Arresting the Uninsured
Greg Weiher
The
Bush Administration's Ongoing Intelligence Problem
Ben Tripp
The Word of the Year, 2003
Dave Lindorff
Dean and His Democratic Detractors
Michael Leon
The NYT Does Chomsky
Bob Boldt
God Talk
Ramon Ryan
Small
Victories and Long Struggles: the 10th Anniversary of the Zapatista
Uprising
January 6, 2004
Dave Lindorff
RNC
Plays the Hitler Card: MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads
Ron Jacobs
Drugs
in Uniform: Hashish and the War on Terrorism
Josh Frank
Coffee and State Authority in Colombia
Doug Giebel
Permanent Bases: Leave Iraq? Hell No, We Won't Go
John Chuckman
Sick Puppies: David Frum's New Neo-Con Manifesto
Rannie Amiri
The Politics of the Iranian Earthquake
John L. Hess
A Record
to Dissent From
Thacher Schmid
A Cheesehead's Musings on the Sunday NYT
David Price
"Like
Slaves": Anthropological Thoughts on Occupation
January 5, 2004
Al Krebs
How
Now Mad Cow!
Kathy Kelly
Squatting
in Baghdad's Bomb Craters
Jordy Cummings
The Dialectic of the Kristol Family: Putting the Neo in the Cons
Fran Shor
Mad Human Disease: Chewing the Fat Down on the Farm
Fidel Castro
"We Shall Overcome": On the 45th Anniversary of the
Cuban Revolution
Gary Leupp
North
Korea for Dummies
January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
January 2, 2004
Stan Cox
Red Alert
2016
Dave Lindorff
Beef, the Meat of Republicans
Jackie Corr
Rule and Ruin: Wall Street and Montana
Norman Solomon
George Will's Ethics: None of Our Business?
David Vest
As the Top Wobbleth
January 1, 2004
Randall Robinson
Honor
Haiti, Honor Ourselves
David Krieger
Looking
Back on 2003
Robert Fisk
War Takes an Inhuman Twist: Roadkill Bombs
Stan Goff
War,
Race and Elections
Hammond Guthrie
2003 Almaniac
Website of the Day
Embody Bags
December 31, 2003
Ray McGovern
Don't
Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation
Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria
Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned
Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George
Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead
December 30, 2003
Michael Neumann
Criticism
of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Annie Higgins
When
They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary
Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades
Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish
Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard
Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat
Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
December 29, 2003
Mark Hand
The Washington
Post in the Dock?
David Lindorff
The
Bush Election Strategy
Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War
Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?
Uri Avnery
Israel's
Conscientious Objectors
December 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David
Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
December 26, 2003
Gary Leupp
Bush
Doings: Doing the Language
December 25, 2003
Diane Christian
The
Christmas Story
Elaine Cassel
This
Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us
Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock
Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead
Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Alexander Cockburn
The
Magnificient 9
Guthrie / Albert
Another Colorful Season
December 24, 2003
M. Shahid Alam
The Semantics
of Empire
William S. Lind
Marley's
List for Santa in Wartime
Josh Frank
Iraqi
Oil: First Come, First Serve
Cpt. Paul Watson
The
Mad Cowboy Was Right
Robert Lopez
Nuance
and Innuendo in the War on Iraq
December 23, 2003
Brian J. Foley
Duck
and Cover-up
Will Youmans
Sharon's
Ultimatum
Michael Donnelly
Here
They Come Again: Another Big Green Fiasco
Uri Avnery
Sharon's
Speech: the Decoded Version
December 22, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Pray
to Play: Bush's Faith-Based National Parks
Patrick Gavin
What Would Lincoln Do?
Marjorie Cohn
How to
Try Saddam: Searching for a Just Venue
Kathy Kelly
The
Two Troublemakers: "Guilty of Being Palestinians in Iraq"
December 20 / 21, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
How
to Kill Saddam
Saul Landau
Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy
Rafael Hernandez
Empire and Resistance: an Interview with Tariq Ali
David Vest
Our Ass and Saddam's Hole
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
Greg Weiher
Lessons from the Israeli School on How to Win Friends in the
Islamic World
Christopher Brauchli
Arrest, Smear, Slink Away: Dr. Lee and Cpt. Yee
Carol Norris
Cheers of a Clown: Saddam and the Gloating Bush
Bruce Jackson
The Nameless and the Detained: Bush's Disappeared
Juliana Fredman
A Sealed Laboratory of Repression
Mickey Z.
Holiday Spirit at the UN
Ron Jacobs
In the Wake of Rebellion: The Prisoner's Rights Movement and
Latino Prisoners
Josh Frank
Sen. Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler
John L. Hess
Slow Train to the Plane
Adam Engel
Black is Indeed Beautiful
Ben Tripp
The Relevance of Art in Times of Crisis
Michael Neumann
Rhythm and Race
Poets' Basement
Cullen, Engel, Albert & Guthrie
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.
|
January
15, 2004
The Dry Hole in the
Oval Office
President
from Podunk Drilling, Inc.
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
Thinking people aren't surprised to be told that
failed-oilman George Bush qualifies as a moral and intellectual
dry hole.
Bush's halting words come from a mouth
so long smugly-set it can scarcely form the shapes of vowels,
but enormous ignorance also manages to come through. Still, it
never hurts to have a first-hand account, expert testimony, to
reinforce even our strongest perceptions, and former Bush Cabinet-member
Paul O'Neill has now supplied that in spades.
As to the moral portion of Bush's substance,
it is an interesting phenomenon that a President who claims Jesus
as mentor thinks nothing of lying, enjoys bloody revenge, and
shows little tolerance for those who disagree. Not that any of
that matters to his spiritual advisors, all CEOs of major fundamentalist
conversion-operations: their bond to him is not one respecting
truth but knowing what's good for business. You can only stage
profitable theatrics like tears running down your cheeks for
the boys battling damned heathens with a man of Bush's caliber
in office. He is good for collection-plate take.
Paul O'Neill, in interviews to publicize
a new book, offers candid snapshots of a President who doesn't
even discuss policy with some of his highest officials. It is
interesting that O'Neill got himself sacked as Treasury Secretary
for voicing sound and traditional conservative views on two Bush
economic policies, the imposition of import tariffs against steel
and a gigantic, irresponsible tax-cut.
Bush's tariff against foreign steel violated
basic economic understanding and the rules governing international
trade, and it was repealed after the WTO declared it illegal.
While those rules permit tariffs as a response to dumping (selling
a product abroad below its domestic production cost ), often
what is called dumping by the United States is not dumping at
all, but simply lower-cost, more efficient production. So it
was with foreign steel, and one does not expect sound conservatives
to support tariffs under these circumstances.
It does not take an education in economics
to understand how irresponsible Bush's monstrous tax cuts are
at the very time American military spending is exploding. The
economic mumbo-jumbo of the Reagan era that tax-cut induced growth
generates a revenue greater than the lost taxes has been thoroughly
discredited by Reagan's legacy of gigantic deficits. No so-called
"tax and spend" liberal ever produced such astonishing
piles of debt.
I would add, that at a time when economic
disparity in America is growing vigorously (in good part owing
to the effects of globalization on employment and wages for those
with the least skills), it is poor public policy to reduce the
tax burden on the well-off, especially when that burden already
was low by world standards. These taxes finance many forms of
needed redistribution including education and healthcare, services
already starved of funds, but this kind of thinking is social
and could not be expected to carry weight with most Republicans.
Many contemporary Republicans seem to
reject classical economics, and balanced budgets with sound accounting
have evaporated as fitting national responsibilities. Tax cuts
have become a form of buying votes, an inverted form of what
liberals were long accused of when they promised new programs.
And just as with careless promises of new spending, the tax cuts
are never done with sound accounting. Voters are not told what
services should be cut as the price for reduced taxes - only
the vision of lower taxes is dangled before them. Perhaps voters
should know better, but they are conditioned to slick promises
of gain twenty-four hours a day on television, including from
Bush's spiritual advisors.
To a considerable degree, taxes cut at
the federal level since Reagan's time have had to be made up
by local communities, the very political entities with the least
flexibility and wherewithal to increase taxes since they depend
largely on property taxes. Maintaining even a token sense of
equal opportunity across a large nation in basic services like
education and healthcare can only be done with transfers from
higher levels of government. But what is true for many communities,
whether blighted or small, is true also of states with unfavorable
ratios of resources and obligations.
You might think a Treasury Secretary
with a successful background in international business (quite
unlike the President's failed Podunk drilling company, failed,
that is, for investors but not for Bush who bailed out with handsome
profits) worth listening to on such matters, but Paul O'Neill
tells us that this President engages in little discussion, sitting
mainly in silence at high-level meetings. O'Neill felt in one-on-one
meetings as though he were having a conversation with himself.
One suspects from what O'Neill relates
that Bush's modus operandi consists of having his eminence grise,
Dick Cheney, tell him in a private conference after any meeting
of experts what in fact the policy should be. That is not the
kind of consultation he would want to share with others.
O'Neill forcefully comments on the invasion
of Iraq, telling us that despite seeing high-level intelligence
on Iraq as a member of the National Security Council, there was
never evidence of dangerous Iraqi weapons. The President simply
was determined from the start to topple Hussein. Indeed, Bush
began his first National Security Council meeting with a demand
that those around the table find a way to get rid of Hussein.
Bush was fixated on his father's failed
policy in Iraq, perhaps attributing to it his father's failure
to be re-elected - something Bush pere is known to have taken
very hard. If you add Hussein's purported assassination plot
against Bush pere, the stain on the family escutcheon must have
been troubling, although I still do not believe personal matters
motivated the invasion. The neo-con institute crowd had been
whining and puking about Iraq for years, despite all the horrors
inflicted on that country by the First Gulf War, including tens
of thousands poor draftees and civilians incinerated by American
bombing, but there is never enough war and death to satisfy these
grasping, manipulative people.
O'Neill's revelations imply three years
of dissimulation by Bush. They imply also months of intense and
steady lying as non-existent weapons were talked up, and, of
course, Bush's lying to this day about Hussein's non-existent
connections to terror. But they imply something more profound
that goes to the very meaning of democracy. Bush never submitted
the prospect of a conflict to voters. Had he done so, I doubt
he could have successfully argued his case, something he hasn't
done to this day.
O'Neill's account of the first National
Security Council meeting has been confirmed by another official
who attended but remains anonymous. Bush's lying about Iraq's
weapons has been confirmed by a study of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace which concluded that the threat from
Iraq had been systematically misrepresented. The stupidity of
Bush's invasion has been confirmed by the observations of a professor
at the Army's War College who characterized it as a costly, pointless
distraction.
One of the White House's immediate responses
to the press about Paul O'Neill was along the lines of, "Nobody
ever listened to him when he was in office. Why would anyone
listen to him now?" Snotty, eighth-grade stuff, nothing
to do with facts, having about the same moral tone as candidate
Bush's calling a New York Times reporter "asshole"
Bush's smarmy White House isn't content
with efforts to insult O'Neill, he is to be investigated for
inappropriately using Treasury material marked "secret."
This from the same crowd who revealed the secret identity of
a CIA agent, the wife of someone else whose honest words they
scorned. Watch your back, Paul.
John Chuckman
lives in Canada. He can be reached at: chuckman@counterpunch.org
Weekend
Edition Features for January 10 / 11, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
as Hitler? Let's Be Fair
Susan Davis
Dangerous Books
Diane Christian
On Lying and Colin Powell
Lisa Viscidi
Exhumations: Unearthing Guatemala's Macabre Past
Daniel Estulin
Destroying History in Iraq
Saul Landau
Homeland Anxiety
Elaine Cassel
Who's Winning the War on Civil Liberties?
Bruce Jackson
Making the Shit List
Christopher Brauchli
Baptizing Hitler's Ghost
Francis A. Boyle
The Deep Scars of War
Lee Ballinger
Cold Sweat: Sweatshops and the Music Industry
Patrick W. Gavin
Hillary's Slur: Mrs. Lott?
Ramzy Baroud
What Invaders Have in Common
Michael Schwartz
Inside the California Grocery Strike
Gary Johnson
An Interview with Former Heavyweight Champ Greg Page
Dave Zirin
An Interview with Marvin Miller on Unions and Baseball
Mark Hand
A Review of Resistance: My Life for Lebanon
Poets' Basement
Thomas, Daley, Curtis, Guthrie and Albert
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|