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Today's
Stories
July
2 / 4, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bomb Teheran!" Urges
Jilted Condi?
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, God and the Fourth of
July
Laura
Carlsen
Zapatista's Red Alert
James
Petras
The Pretensions of Neoliberalism: Six Myths About the Benefits
of Foreign Investment
William
A. Cook
Kings of Serpents
Brian
Cloughley
Quagmire of the Vanities
Saul
Landau
The Mass Media, Symbols and Ownership
Tom
Crumpacker
Who Has What to Hide About Luis Posada Carriles?
Greg
Moses
Dylan's America
Dr.
Susan Block
My Adelphia Story: a Tale of Censorship, Fraud, Christian Family
Values and Really Lousy Cable Service
Fran
Shor
Disassembling Bush's Iraq War: Liberated into a No Man's Land
Fred
Gardner
Study: Smoking Marijuana Does Not Cause Lung Cancer
Moshe
Adler
The New London Case: Corporate Giveaways That Destroy Communities,
But Don't Create Jobs
David
Model
The Downing Street Memo: So What's New?
Seth
Sandronsky
California Spying, Schwarzenegger-Style
Ramzy
Baroud
Managed Democracy in the Middle East
Suzan
Mazur
Frank Carlucci the First: the "Sublime Prince" of Scranton
Ben
Tripp
Voltaire, I Can Dig Your Rap
Justin
Taylor
Faux Biography and the Pleasures of "Lint"
Brendan
Bailey
Mesh Caps, Vice Magazine and the Trouble with Irony
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Engel and Louise
Website
of the Weekend
Radical Reference
July
1, 2005
Christopher
Brauchli
With Friends Like These: Bush Buddies
Karimov and Musharraf
Pat
Williams
What
Real Westerners Think About Bush's Pseudo-Cowboy Palaver
Gary
Leupp
Summer Surprise?
John
Stauber
Mad Cow in America: the USDA Continues to Lie
John
Chuckman
The Blessings of Canada
Justicia
y Paz
Colombia's Disappeared: Their Names,
At Least!
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
It's Put Up or Shut Up for Bush and the Dems on the Supreme Court
June
30, 2005
Kathy
Kelly
An Open Letter to Carl Levin: Compassion
for Iraqis
John
Stauber
Oprah Not the "Only" Mad
Cow in America
Virginia
Rodino
All Roads Lead to Baghdad: Unity in the Anti-War Movement
Jason
Leopold
Meet the New Chair of the FERC: James Kelliher, the Man Who Invited
Enron to Write Bush's Energy Policy
Dave
Lindorff
What Was Bush Thinking?
Greg
Moses
Racism at Cape Cod
Norman
Solomon
Memo to the Iraq War
Joshua
Frank
Israel's Theocrats
Alexander
Cockburn
The Political Function of PBS

June
29, 2005
Mike
Schaefer
How the Washington Post Lied About
Its Own War Poll
Roger
Burbach / Paul Cantor
Bush's Big Democratic Hoax in Iraq
Sharon
Smith
Democrats Shift into Reverse
Sam
Husseini
A Quick Way to End the Insurgency
John
Stauber
Put a Photo of Mad Cow #2 on a Milk Carton
Ahmad
Faruqui
Is Militarism Irreversible in Pakistan?
Linda
S. Heard
Bush's Speech: the View from Cairo
Stew
Albert
Chet Helms: a Rock and Roll Hero
Ray
McGovern
Bush at Ft. Bragg: Stay the Crooked
Course

June
28, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Defeat Bred in Deceit
Landau
/ Hassen
Bush's Meddling in Internal Syrian
Politics
John
A. Murphy
Keeping Nader Off the Ballot: an Analysis of Political Profiling
in Pennsylvania
Mike
Whitney
More Lies from Rumsfeld: Those "Meetings"
with Insurgents
CounterPunch
News Service
JFK on Staying in Vietnam: Is Bush Reading
from Kennedy's Playbook?
Dave
Zirin
Pining for the Pistons
Dave
Lindorff
Showtime in Washington
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq: a Bloody Mess

June
27, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
Blood Sacrifices for Empty Slogans
Mike
Marqusee
G8: Who are the Hijackers?
Mark
Scaramella
When a Corporate Raider Claims
Economic Hardship: the Court-Approved Lies of Charles Hurwitz
Leigh
Saavedra
Press Apologists for Torture
Kathy
Kelly
Where is the UN?

June
25 / 26, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
The Supreme Court's Jackboot
Liberals
Jennifer
Van Bergen
America's Parallel Legal Systems
George
Corsetti
This Land is Their Land: Condemnation
for Corporations
Mark
Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer
Let's Open the Gulag: a People's Mission
to Gitmo
Kevin
Zeese
Counter-Recruitment: How to Keep
the Military From Getting their Hands on Your Kids
P.
Sainath
Russian Roulette in Vidharbha
John
Stauber
How to Bury a Mad Cow
Scott
Handleman
Gay in the Third World
Tom
Barry
The Politics & Ideologies of
the Anti-Immigrationists
John
Walsh
Looking for Peace in All the Wrong
Places
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Hairless Apes of Kansas vs.
the Reality-Based Community: Why Progressives Have a Stake in
the War on Evolution
Alan
Wallis
The Story of Pinky: the Drug Trade
in My Neighborhood
Ben
Tripp
Negative Space: an Artful Lesson
Frederick
B. Hudson
Songs to Lose Your Loneliness By:
the Raised Voices of Sweet Honey in the Rock
Poets'
Basement
Gaffney, Engel, Davies, and Albert

June
24, 2005
Ray
McGovern
The Downing St. Fixation: Fixing
to Fix "Fixed"
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Only Call Us Americans
When They Need Us for War": the Paradox of Mexican Americans
in Iraq
Desiree
Hellegers
Portland vs. the FBI
Zeynep
Toufe
What Do the American People Know and
When Did They Know It?
Joshua
Frank
Call Him Senator Con Job
David
Lindorff
Which Flag Would Jesus Burn?
Michael
Neumann
Victory and Recruitment
Website
of the Day
Gagging
Dr. Dean
June
23, 2005
Christopher
Brauchli
Thomas Griffith and Rule 49:
He Practiced Law Without a License; Now He's a Federal Appeals
Court Judge
Clay
Conrad
Killing Off the Jury with Tort Reform
Standard
Schaefer
A Retort to Military Neo-Liberalism
P.
Sainath
Vidharbha: No rains and 116F, But
It Does Have "Snow" and Water Parks
Mark
Engler
CAFTA Deserves a Quiet Death
Norman
Solomon
Voluntary Amnesia in America
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Frank Calzon
Kathy
Kelly
Where You Stand Determines What You
See
June
22, 2005
Kevin
Zeese
The Bush Administration's Psy-Ops on
the American Public: an Interview with Col. Sam Gardiner
William
S. Lind
Afghanistan: the Other War
Arsalan
Iftikhar
Patriots Against the PATRIOT Act
Dan
Nagengast
Give Populism a Chance: From
France to Kansas
David
Krieger
To the Graduates: We Live in an Interdependent
World
Kathleen
& Bill Christison
Tempest in Santa Fe: Confronting
Israeli Myth-making
June 21, 2005
Brian Cloughley
Destroy
the Unbelievers!
Mike Whitney
President
Disconnect
Dave Lindorff
Who Needs Big Bird, Anyway?
Mark Weisbrot
Bush's Lonely Campaign Against Hugo Chavez
Matthew R.
Simmons
The Coming Saudi Oil Crisis
Dave Zirin
The Crass Slipper Fits: Ron Howard's Terrible "Cinderella
Man"
Virginia Rodino
The Anti-War Movement and Impeachment
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
War Waged by Liars and Morons
June 20, 2005
Alan Maass
The
GM Job Massacre
Tariq Ali
To
the Gates of the Gleneagles Hotel!
Mickey Z.
WMDs American-Style: It's 60 Years Since Alamogordo
William Blum
Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends
Gary Leupp
Old News Indeed: In 1999, Bush Craved Chance to Attack Iraq
Jason Leopold
Someone Tell Bush Iraq Wasn't Behind 9/11, Before He Starts Another
War
Dave Lindorff
Why the Media Should be Schiavo'd
Alan Maass
The
GM Job Massacre
Uri Avnery
Condi and Hamas
Website of
the Day
Crimes Against Poetry
June 18 / 19,
2005
Alexander Cockburn
Is
the Jury Dead?
Greg Moses
Race
Bias and the Death Penalty, One More Time
Benjamin Shepard
Arrested for Stickering, Biking and Other Misadventures: Creative
Direct Action in the Era of the PATRIOT Act
Stan Goff
Stuff to Do to Stop the War: 95 Days to Pre-Nixonize George W.
Bush
Lee Sustar
Does Iraq's Main Labor Union Support the Occupation?
Jude Wanniski
The Tipping Point: Getting Out of Iraq
Diana Barahona
Librarians as Spooks: the Scheme to Infiltrate Cuba Via Libraries
Brian Concannon, Jr.
Justice Dodge in Haiti, Again: Impunity and the Raboteau Massacre
Fred Gardner
How Many Wins Can We Take?
Mike Whitney
Gen. Tommy Friedman's Plan to "Win" the War in Iraq:
Reinstate the Draft
Ahmad Faruqui
Star Wars or Earth Wars?
Manuel García, Jr.
De-Eichmannizing America
Roger Howard
Leave Iranian Politics to Iranians
Ron Jacobs
Eros and the Grateful Dead
Ben Tripp
Situation Desperate: Why Am I Not Pleased?
Poets' Basement
Louise, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Christ's Entry into Washington
June 17, 2005
Ricardo Alarcón
Who
Helped Posada Enter the US?
Clay Conrad
Medical
Marijuana: Is Jury Nullification the Next Step?
Marc Estrin
Open-Ended Closure: the Death Penalty and the Culture of Victimhood
Colin Brown
Firebombing Fallujah: Pentagon Lied About Use of Napalm in Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Pennies for Africa: Bush's Phony Money
Joshua Frank
Blue State Warriors: How Democrats Derailed the Peace Movement
Norman Solomon
The Killing Street Memo
Mary Rizzo
Who's Afraid of Gilad Atzmon?
Bond / Brutus
/ Setshedi
How
Bono and Trojan Horse NGOs Sabotage the Struggle Against Neoliberalism
June 16, 2005
John Walsh
The
Iraq War Polls: Dems' Stance Even Less Popular Than Bush's
Dave Lindorff
Work 'Till You Die: the Bush Retirement Plan
Adrian Lomax
Torture
in U.S. Prisons: Common, Lethal, Unreported
Tom Crumpacker
The CIA, Posada and the Bombing of Cubana Flight 455
Jeffrey Kolakowski
The Kinsley Paradigm: Downsizing the Downing St. Memo
Julene Bair
Turning Off the Ogallala Spigot: Toward a New Way to Farm on
the Great Plains
Michael Dickinson
As We Forgive Our Debtors: the Madness of Money
Francois Houtart / Isabel Parra,
et al.
Against Terrorism; In Defense of Humanity: an Appeal
Tom Barry
Meet
Bolton's Replacement: Robert "First Strike" Joseph
June 15, 2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to US Troops on Loyalty
Daniel Wolff
The
Palace at 4 A.M.
Tim Wise
Discover the Nutwork: David Horowitz
and the Politics of Ad Hominem Distortion
Ricardo Alarcón
The New CIA Revelations About Posada
Joshua Frank
House Republicans vs. Bush: "This is Not a Conservative
War"
John Hilary
Bloodsuckers' Summit: Why the Left Should Rendezvous at the G8
Norman Solomon
Iran's Reformers: a Threat to Theocrats and Neocons
Alexander Cockburn
/ Jeffrey St. Clair
Juries
and Lynch Mobs
Website of the Day
What It Feels Like to be Tasered (Turn Up the Volume)
June 14, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners
Forrest Hylton
Stalemate
in Bolivia
Richard Gott
The Crisis in Bolivia
Fred Gardner
The
Raich Decision: All Power to the Feds
Steve Breyman
Doing
the Right Thing is Also Politically Expedient
Dave Zirin
Sacred Hoops: Basketball in the Barrio
Robert Kent
Outsourcing Torture and the Stop-Loss Program
Paul Craig
Roberts
Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners

June 13, 2005
Gary Leupp
Another
Damning Document
Dave Lindorff
The Inca and Us
John Stauber
Mad
Cow USA: the Cover-Up Begins to Unravel
Fred Gardner
Supreme Indignity: Medical Pot Doctors Respond to Justice Stevens
Evelyn J. Pringle
TeenScreen: the Lawsuits Begin
Norman Solomon
Letter From Tehran
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Neo-Con Unfurls the Big Picture

June
10 / 12, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Thomas Friedman's Imaginary World
Sharon
Smith
Torturers and Liars: Masters of Deception
Brian
Cloughley
"Support Our Torturers!"
Chris
Kromm
Home Cookin': Pentagon's Base Relignment Plan Would Increase
South's Share
Heather
Gray
A Day in Mississippi: Some Things Have Changed; Some Remain the
Same
Kevin
Zeese
What the Left Must Learn from 2004: an Interview with Josh Frank
Mickey
Z.
The Pentagon Papers, 34 Years Later
Gary
Leupp
A Review of Sison's "At Home in the World"
Eli
Stephens
The Asshole in El Paso: Why Posada Carriles Matters
Nick
Dearden
A Scottish Band in the Occupied Territories
Oscar
Olivera
Recovering Bolivia's Oil and Gas
Robert
Fisk
Screening "Kingdom of Heaven" in Beirut
Michael
Dickinson
Oh My God!: Gunning for Blasphemers
Poets'
Basement
Engel, Albert, Louise, Ford
Website
of the Weekend
Gravity's Rainbow, Illustrated
June 9, 2005
Len
Colodny
Felt Was Asked Under Oath in 1975
If He Was "Deep Throat"
Christopher
Brauchli
From Baseballs to Hand Grenades
Ron
Jacobs
Light a Candle; Curse the Darkness
Dave
Lindorff
US Media Shamed by Brit Journalist
Katrina
Yeaw / Alex Schmaus
Repression 101: Anti-War Students Sanctioned at SFSU
Alan
Farago
Spin Machine Busts a Gasket in the Everglades: Fed Judge Whacks
Jeb
Saul
Landau
The Charmed Life of a Mass Murderer
June
8, 2005
Jim
Hougan
Strange Bedfellows
Deep Throat, Bob Woodward and the CIA
Alan
Maass
Is Bolivia on the Edge of Revolution? an Interview with Tom Lewis
Jason
Leopold
Enron Lives!: Former Army Sec. White
Wants Govt. Money for New Energy Scam
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Exit Right, Advani: Unpardonable Acts of Statesmanship
Dave
Zirin
The Rotting Soul of the 49ers
Derrick
O'Keefe
Bush's Terrorist: the Case of Posada Carriles
Diana
Johnstone
Non, Neen, Angelene!
Why Defenders of the "Oui" are Wrong
Website
of the Day
The Meatrix

June
7, 2005
Forrest
Hylton
Bolivia's Agony of the Stalement Continues
Greg
Moses / Susan van Haitsma
Pushing Back the Violence
Lenni
Brenner
What Madison Would Think About the Air Force Academy's Offical
Fanatics
Col.
Dan Smith
Liberation vs. Survival in Iraq
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC: the Establishment vs. the Elites
Dave
Lindorff
Fair-Weather Allies: US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing
Rights
Margot
Veranes / Adrian Navarro
Xenophobia in the Desert: Racist Fever Becomes Law in Arizona
Michael
Neumann
Sharing Music: Property Gone Wild
June
6, 2005
Stew
Albert
Everybody Must Get Busted: Supremes
Rule Against the Sick
Paul
Craig Roberts
Federal Bureau of Entrapment
Nicole
Colson
Inside Walter Reed Hospital
Ali
Khan
Friendly Renditions to Muslim Torture
Chambers
Jason
Leopold
When Will Rumsfeld Be Indicted?
Charles
Walker Poff
Rumsfeld, China and Hypocrisy
Ramzy
Baroud
My Grandpa's Right of Return
Rep.
John Conyers
Did Bush Deliberately Deceive America About Iraq?
Evelyn
Pringle
TeenScreen's Top Pusher
Gary
Corseri
25 Reasons to Impeach Bush
Website
of the Day
Save This 200 Year Old Burr Oak from Bible Thumpers with Chainsaws
June
4 / 5, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
France's Magnificent Non!
James
Petras
The Centrality of Peasant Movements
in Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Samir?
Patrick
Cockburn
My Father, Claud Cockburn, the MI5 Suspect
Rev.
William Alberts
When Pride in Power Corrupts: the Story of a Methodist President,
His Bishops and an "Incompatible" Lesbian Minister
Saul
Landau
40 Interns and a Mule: Will the Dems Ever Take Advantage of the
Republicans' Blunders?
Mario
Lamo Jimenez
Dante with a Brush: Botero Immortalizes Bush
Dave
Lindorff
What is the Media Running From?
Lance
Selfa
Why Bush is Getting Away with Murder
Tom
Crumpacker
On the Use of State Terrorism: the Posada Precedent
Joshua
Frank
How Beltway Dems Sank Dean for America
Fred
Gardner
Don't Bogart That Taxable Commodity
Michael
Dickinson
Roll Out the Barrel: Blood, Oil and Baku
Roger
Martin
We Can See, But Not Far Enough
Reza
Fiyouzat
Welcome to the Third World
Ben
Tripp
Romance: Advice from a Pro
Graeme
Greenback
Pardon Me, While I Piss on this Bible
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Albert, Engel, Smith
June
3, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
Welcome to a Has-Been Country
Joseph
Massad
Witch Hunt at Columbia
Jeff
Halper
The Process of Transfer Continues
Tom
Barry
The Immigration Debate: Whose Side Are You On?
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Bush Seeks Military Control of Space: "It's Our Destiny"
Joshua
Frank
Bombing Iran: Facts Don't Matter
Mickey
Z.
Deep Throat as Sideshow
Gary
Leupp
"Peddling Lies About How They
Were Mistreated"
Website
of the Day
Tattoo on My
Heart: Warriors of Wounded Knee, 1973
June
2, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Slave Traders of the Gitmo Gulag
Forrest
Hylton
Bolivia: the Agony of Stalemate
Mike
Whitney
Post-Mortem on the 4th Amendment: Warrants without Judges
Brian
Cloughley
Anarchy in Afghanistan; Ignorance in America
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
A Two-State Solution is No Solution
Russell
D. Hoffman
High Tension at San Onofre
Norman
Madarasz
"Le Jolie Mois de Mai": the Meaning of the French "Non"
Norman
Solomon
War Made Easy: from Vietnam to Iraq
David
Price
The Shallowness of Deep Throat
Website
of the Day
Fallujah on Film
June
1, 2005
James
Petras
Beyond Hypocrisy: the Deeper Meaning
of Posada
Justin
Delacour
Framing Venezuela: US Media Bias
Against Chavez
Edward
Jay Epstein
Was "Deep Throat" a Fictoid?
Omar
Barghouti / Lisa Taraki
The AUT Boycott: Freedom vs. "Academic"
Freedom
Dave
Lindorff
When War Goes Off the Script
Kevin
Zeese
Reality Check: Who to Believe on Iraq War and Gitmo?
Jason
Leopold
When Presidents Lie
William
S. Lind
Wreck It and Run
May
31, 2005
Sen.
Mike Gravel
Thank You, Mark Felt: We Need a New
Deep Throat
David
Krieger
US Nuclear Hypocrisy
Tad
Daley
The Nuclear Me-Too Club
Joshua
Frank
Pelosi at AIPAC: Israel Comes First
Richard
Gott
Chavez Leads the Way
Norman
Solomon
Time to Get Serious About Impeachment
Tom
Segev
Our Man in the Territories
Walter
Brasch
Killing Americans with Secrecy
Diana
Johnstone
The French "Non"
May
28 / 30, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
There's Their Way or the Galloway
Richard
Lichtman
We Wuz Framed! the Consolations
of George Lakoff
Sharon
Smith
The Road to Abu Ghraib
Paul
Craig Roberts
Bush Opts for Civil War in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Whigged Out: the Dems Have Become
Merely a Vestigial Opposition Party
Ramzy
Baroud
Muslims Were Desecrated, Not Just
Their Holy Book
Brian
Cloughley
Why Are Nukes OK for You, But Not for Us?
Fred
Gardner
Advice from a Lawyer About Medical Pot
Lee
Sustar
Chavez Gets Proactive
Joshua
Frank
Isikoff Comes Clean: "Nobody in the US Said a Word, Until
the Riots"
Justin
E.H. Smith
What About the People? a Report from Romania
Jackie
Corr
A Montana History Lesson on Assfulness
Michael
Kimaid
Bush as Ahab
Toufic
Haddad
Lessons from the Reversal of the AUC Boycott
Justin
Taylor
The Fear of Paul Virilio
Amir
Butler
Searching for a Saladin
Ben
Tripp
Insomnia and Sarcasm
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Engel, Davies and Louise
May
27, 2005
Gary
Leupp
It Really is a Crusade!
Daniel
Estulin
Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005
Kevin
Zeese
Iraq Withdrawal Vote: If Walter "Freedom
Fries" Jones Can See the Light, Why Can't Nancy Pelosi?
Robert
Fisk
Mubarak's Goon Squads
Dave
Zirin
Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer
Silent
Website
of the Day
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|
Independence Day Weekend Edition
July 2 / 4, 2005
CounterPunch Diary
"Bomb
Teheran!" Urges Jilted Condi?
By
ALEXANDER COCKBURN
An Iranian MP said Thursday that US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holds a grudge against Iran
"because until today she hasn't gotten over her Iranian
boyfriend dumping her when she was a university student."
The MP, Shakrallah Atar, claimed the faithless lad was from Kazwin
, some eighty miles west of Teherean. Atar said his source was
a female MP whose name he would not disclose.
Reporting this story the London-based
Al Quds Al Arabi commented that "This is not the first time
that Iranians used romantic reasons for diplomatic stands. Last
year, the newspaper said, rumors spread that the German foreign
minister Youshka Fisher's tone had tightened against Iran because
he was having an affair with an Iranian young girl who was against
the Iranian regime. Other rumors, the newspaper said, indicated
that the head of the IAEA, Mohammed Al Baradia's soft stance
with regards to the Iranian nuclear file was because he had an
Iranian wife."
So just add the claim to the
bulging Condee file, already ripe with allegations ranging from
intimacy with the Commander in Chief to her Sapphic preference.
"Honey,
Save Roe v Wade!"
Is This Really Laura Bush's Pillow Talk?
This Friday, in
the piece by your CounterPunch editors about the impending
resignations of O'Connor and Rehnquist, we noted the pro-choice
stance of
Laura Bush as a possible factor in the battle for what is optimistically
described as the President's "mind".
Jack McCarthy, Talahassie's
answer to Dean Swift, immediately asked what evidence we had
for such a claim about the First Lady, about whose hold on Cockburn
he jestingly animadverted. Cockburn responded that Laura had
evinced support for women's right to chose back in the dawn of
the Bush presidency, drawing harsh rebukes from the ultra-Christians
for her frankness.
Jack obviously didn't believe
a word of this and did some research of his own and then gallantly
agreed that I'd got the "basic facts" right. In fact
it was during the presidential campaign of 2000 that Laura indicated
her support for Roe v Wade. Then, in interviews with NBC
and CNN in January, 2001, she said forthrightly Roe v Wade
shouldn't be overturned. In 2004, a reporter asked Laura whether
she'd changed her view on abortion. She answered, "Yes,
I think abortion should be rare." Mrs Bush also told Times
reporter Bill Sammon that she agreed with President Bush that
human life begins at conception.
Race-Baiting
at the Neshoba County Fair
In her very
fine piece that ran on June 10-11 about Mississippi and its
dark history, Heather Gray recalled how Ronald Reagan launched
his campaign for the presidency in 1979 with a speech at the
Neshoba county fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, not far from
where the three civil rights workers, Goodman, cheney and Schwerner,
were murdered by the Klan. The speech signaled a fierce amping
up of Nixon's "southern strategy", with coded appeals
to racis, under the banner of states' rights. Many saw this as
pivotal to Reagan's victory.
What Heather wrote about Reagan
and the Neshoba Fair is true. But I reminded her that in 1988
the Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis copied Reagan, and went
to the Neshoba County Fair right after the Democratic convention
in Atlanta where Jackson had made a great and generous speech
about the rainbow, and how the party "needed two wings to
fly".
Dukakis' decision to go to
Philadelphia, Mississippi, in early August was a savage rebuff
to Jackson and black hopes. And Dukakis' cowardice and opportunism
didn't stop there. In his speech at the Fair Dukakis never mentioned
the three civil rights workers who had been murdered nearby.
The irony is that Dukakis then got hit with the whole Willie
Horton bucket of sewage by Bush's campaign manager Lee Atwater.
(And where did Atwater get the Horton case from? From Al Gore,
who's used it against Dukakis in the primaries.)
Apropos racist appeals, Already
in '76 Jimmy Carter was using the phrase "ethnic purity"
to describe white neighborhoods and schools and tossing out phrases
about "alien groups" and "black intrusion".To
quote one historian, "Interjecting into [a community] a
member of another race" or "a diametrically opposite
kind of family" or a "different kind of person"
threatened what Carter called the admirable value of "ethnic
purity")
On Heather's larger theme of
racism in Mississippi, I was in New Orleans at the Jazz Fest
this spring and Randy Newman sang his song Rednecks, which ends,
Now your northern nigger's
a negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the north has set the nigger free
Yes he's free to be put in
a cage
In harlem in new york city
And he's free to be put in a cage in the south-side of chicago
And the west-side
And he's free to be put in a cage in hough in cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in east st. louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in fillmore in san francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in roxbury in boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down.
The laughs from the crowd in
front of the Sprint stage at Jazzfest were somewhat nervous.
Heather Gray's piece elicited
more than one striking response, including g this dignified
communiqué from the office of the Attorney General of
Texas.
From: Richard Escamilla
Sent: Jun 10, 2005 12:35 PM
To: hmcgray@earthlink.net
Subject: counterpunch article
to paraphrase the Saturday
Night Live skit......Heather, you ignorant slut. Is this all
you can write about is events of 3 to 5 decades ago and insinuate
that nothing has changed? You are the one that refuses to acknowledge
the change that has occurred and you are the one who agitates
for ignorance. Spare me your freakin leftist sensibilities and
hate-speech. You make me want to puke....
Richard L Escamilla
Office of the Attorney General
Richard.Escamilla@cs.oag.state.tx.us
Phone: 512-460-6419
Fax: 512-460-6800
Pager: 512-235-5023
The Tedium
Twins
My old parody of PBS's Jim
Lehrer and his erstwhile tedium twin, Robin McNeil, met with
approval from many CounterPunchers.
From: Morton Skorodin @asis.com
Subject: right wing pbs
Mr. Cockburn,
Great piece on PBS. C-SPAN is almost the same. Claim to be neutral;
Brian Lamb is an ICONOBLAST (the opposite of iconoclast) - it's
very well-managed. He snickered at a caller who was a Hawaiian
"nationalist." Right wing think tanks dominate on CSPAN-
e.g. Heritage Found, AEI. They quote the Wash. Times daily. One
caller counted 40 Republicans to 21 Democrats. Progressives tolerated
rarely - Howard Zinn was on recently. In all fairness CSPAN 2
has some progressive coverage.
Also, Lamb's book - it's chronological - and it completely skips
the 60's.
Lamb hung up on me twice; I accused the pres. of treason.
And this from Tom Bernhardt,
I enjoyed your article and
parody of the Newshour. I frankly haven't watched it for years
for the reasons you demonstrate. However, I believe your parodies
give them too much credit. For example, in the case of the cannibalism
debate, the two "sides" would have been really represented
by a human flesh association spokesman who would be arguing for
only some increased regulation compensated for by increased subsidies
and a lobbyist from the beef industry decrying how cannibalism
was taking away ranch jobs. To put it all into perspective and
give balance, the deputy head of the FDA would provide inconclusive
reports on the relative nutritional value of beef and human flesh.
Tom
Those Controversial
Google Ads: Some CounterPunchers Scoff at "Negative Purists"
Several CounterPunchers rallied
eloquently to the support of CounterPunch editors battered by
prissy rebukes for trying to make ends meet by running the ads
you now find discreetly perched at the end of each web page article.
Dear Alex,
Far be it from me to complain
about the Google ads, even if clicking this evening brought me
to a chortle-worthy Christianity Today article attempting to
spin the Crusades. I'll gladly support Counterpunch this way
and, when fortunes allow, through resuming my subscription.
What I wish to warn you about:
the ads aren't visible here using Firefox on OS X. Had you not
made gentle mention, I'd never have known about them. This may
be due to my having run the Ad Blocker extension in the browser
to tame animation-happy web sites, but even disabling that feature
didn't turn on your ads. I had to fire up the dread Internet
Explorer to effect my clicks; so, word to the wise.
Best, Richard Cretan
Now that's what I call dedication
to our welfare!
Here's one more vivid endorsement
of our efforts to give the good ship CounterPunch some extra
financial ballast (though it has to be said that, thus far, Google
ad revenue has been on the meager side.
Dear CounterPunch,
Even convicted villains can
sometime tell the truth. The pompous, disgraced British 'writer'
Jeffrey Archer once did just that. "The freedom of time
is the greatest luxury," he wrote somewhere. Those of us
who have that freedom should rejoice that we have so painless
a method of swelling CounterPunch coffers. For instance, I'd
like to have Tony Blair's nose surgically attached to Dubya's
anus, but I am happy to click on the Thank Tony Blair link. And,
some of the Google links are unexpected sources of interesting
items, perhaps bringing
up things that are genuinely unknown to the surfer. One of the
links, to yet another 'conspiracy' site, was such a pleasure
because spelling, grammar, and composition was so clean and
well-formulated. And, it added to my understanding of how the
swine are taking-over the entire world.
So, well done CounterPunch.
Don't let the negative 'purists' bring you down or deter you
from doing whatever you must to stay alive!
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