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Why Hillary Clinton Has Always Been a Republican In the first of a series of profiles, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair chart the formative years of Hillary Clinton. Watch her as she zigzags from Nixon campaigner and vote-fraud investigator in 1960 to Goldwater Girl and President of Young Republicans at Wellesley to her internship for Gerald Ford and campaigner for Nelson Rockefeller. Witness her reaction to the student protests at Yale and the demonstrations at Grant Park during the Democratic Convention in 1968. Learn how she and Bill vowed to "remake" the Democratic Party--using the Nixon model HRC learned about as a member of the House impeachment staff. And much more! Plus: David Price on anthropologist Andre Gunder Frank, the FBI and the Bureaucratic Exile of a Critical Mind.
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Today's Stories July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Andy
Worthington Ralph
Nader Robert
Fantina Ron
Jacobs Joshua
Frank Conn
Hallinan Dr.
Susan Rosenthal, MD John
Ross Fred
Gardner Rannie
Amiri Charles
Modiano Anthony
DiMaggio China
Hand Missy
Comley Beattie Dr.
James J. Murtagh, Jr. Kenneth
Rexroth Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
July 13, 2007 Patrick
Cockburn Winslow
T. Wheeler Imran
Khan Todd
Chretien Sam
Husseini Dr.
Herman Mindshaftgap Anthony
Papa D.
K. Wilson David
Michael Green Website
of the Day
July 12, 2007 Paul
Craig Roberts Robert Jensen Dr. Susan Block Joshua Frank John Chuckman Corporate Crime
Reporter Mike Whitney Nicola Nasser Richard Rhames William S.
Lind Website of the Day
July 11, 2007 Patrick
Cockburn Richard
Neville Debra
McNutt John
V. Walsh Scott
Liebertz George
C. Wilson James
McEnteer Philip
Rizk Johnny
Hazard Dave
Lindorff Website
of the Day
July 10, 2007 James
Ridgeway Tariq
Ali Javed
Hussein William
Blum Ralph
Nader Jay
Arena Anthony
DiMaggio Eva
Liddell Jerry
Kroth Alice
Woodward Nikolas
Kozloff Paul
Shannon Website
of the Day
July 9, 2007 Fidel
Castro Diana
Johnstone John
Walsh Uri
Avnery Ramzy
Baroud John
Ripton Stephen
Lendman Bruce
Jackson Michael
Donnelly Doug
Giebel Website
of the Day
Saul
Landau Ismael
Hossein-zadeh Fawzia
Afzal-Khan John
Ross Pat
Williams Rannie
Amiri Farzana
Versey Bart
Gruzalski Paul
Rockwell Reza
Fiyouzat Monica
Benderman Kenneth
Couesbouc Dave
Lindorff Charles
Modiano Missy
Beattie Dal
LaMagna Jean
Gerard Anne
Dachel Ron
Jacobs Poets'
Basement Website
of the Day
Daniel
Ellsberg Gary
Leupp Harvey
Wasserman Omer
Subhani Marjorie
Cohn Christopher
Brauchli David
Michael Green China
Hand Renee
Saucedo Corporate
Crime Reporter Website
of the Day
July 5, 2007 Andy
Worthington Mike
Stark Norman
Solomon Michael
Schwartz Susie
Day Jacob
Hornberger Bill
Hatch Don
Fitz John
Wright Website
of the Day
July 4, 2007 St.
Clair / Frank Vijay
Prashad Carl
G. Estabrook Ron
Jacobs David
R. Dow Claudia
Johnson William
S. Lind Gregory
Afghani Paul
Edwards D.
K. Wilson Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Thomas
Jefferson Cindy
Sheehan Website
of the Day
Bill
Quigley Gary
Leupp Lynda
Brayer Richard
Thieme Helen
Redmond David
Swanson Jacob
Hornberger Ayesha
Ijaz Khan Franklin
Lamb Ray
McGovern Kevin
Zeese Dave
Lindorff Website
of the Day
Andy
Worthington Nina
Serrano Jack
Hirschman Paul
Craig Roberts Bill
Williams Anthony
Papa Sonja
Karkar Louay
Safi Anthony
Gregory Monica
Benderman Website
of the Day
June 30 / July 1, 2007 John
Ross Alan
Farago Peter
Quinn Christopher
Brauchli Robert
Fisk Uri
Avnery Judith
Siers-Poisson Saul
Landau Abbas
Zaidi Ron
Jacobs Ralph
Nader Donald
Worster Mike
Whitney Jacob
Hill Kenneth
Couesbouc Missy
Beattie Mohammad
Kamaali Ramzy
Baroud Leonard
Peltier Phyllis
Pollack Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
June 29, 2007 St.
Clair / Frank Brian
Cloughley Patrick
Cockburn Gilad
Atzmon Dave
Lindorff Jennifer
Matsui / Kevin
Zeese Daniel
Klimek David
Michael Green John
Chuckman Website
of the Day
June 28, 2007 Bill
Quigley Vijay
Prashad Margaret
Kimberley Winslow
T. Wheeler Philip
Rizk D.
K. Wilson Bill
Williams Mahmoud
El-Yousseph Richard
Rhames Paul
Krassner Website
of the Day
Marjorie
Cohn Dr.
Susan Rosenthal, MD Alan
Farago Carla
Blank Matthew
Abraham Sunsara
Taylor Russell
D. Hoffman Robert
Weissman Sen.
Russ Feingold Paul
Buchheit Website
of the Day
June 26, 2007 Jonathan
Cook Ralph
Nader Corporate
Crime Reporter Ron
Jacobs Martha
Rosenberg John
Chuckman Denny
Haldeman Anthony
DiMaggio Stephen
Fleischman William
S. Lind Website
of the Day
Paul
Craig Roberts Jennifer
Loewenstein Bob
Anderson Robert
Pollin Patrick
Cockburn Eva
Liddell Dan
Bacher Larry
Atkins Mark
Brenner James
Rothenberg Website
of the Day June 23 / 24, 2007 Alexander
Cockburn Jeff
Taylor Oren
Ben-Dor Gary
Leupp Robert
Fisk David
Rosen Russell
Mokhiber Alison
Weir Robert
Fantina D.
K. Wilson Nicole
Colson Stephen
Soldz, Steven Reisner and Brad Olson Dave
Lindorff Benjamin
Dangl Michael
Dickinson Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
June 22, 2007 Andy
Worthington Sherwood
Ross Eliana
Monteforte Robert
Weissman Richard
Rhames Christopher
Brauchli Ramzy
Baroud Ehud
Krinis, David Shulman and Neve Gordon David
Michael Green Kathryn
Webber Website
of the Day
June 21, 2007 Peter
Linebaugh Natsu
Saito Ron
Jacobs Saree
Makdisi John
Stauber Scott
Liebertz Tom
Clifford Robert
Jensen Michael
J. Smith Jeb
Sprague Website
of the Day
Omar
Barghouti Andy
Worthington Margaret
Kimberley Robert
Weissman Russell
D. Hoffman Rannie
Amiri Stephen
Lendman Dave
Lindorff David
Swanson Anne
Dachel Website
of the Day
June 19, 2007 Ralph
Nader Dr.
Shepherd Bliss Bill
and Kathleen Christison Jeff
Leys Dave
Zirin Chris
Floyd Ben
Terrall Anthony
Papa VIPS Linda Flores Website
of the Day
John
Ross Paul
Craig Roberts Martha
Rosenberg Norman
Solomon Don
Santina Isabella
Kenfield James
Brooks Eva
Liddell Sam
Husseini Akiva
Eldar Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn John
Halle Robert
Fisk Andy
Worthington Uri
Avnery Fred
Gardner Saul
Landau P.
Sainath Missy
Comley Beattie Alan
Gregory Walter
Brasch Website
of the Weekend
June 15, 2007 Alan
Farago Andy
Worthington Michael
Simmons Franklin
Lamb Gary
Leupp John
Ross Website
of the Day
June 14, 2007 Michael
Donnelly
Faisal
Kutty Harry
Browne Charles
Jonkel Steven
Higgs Bruce
Dixon Bruce
K. Gagnon
Website
of the Day June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Marjorie Cohn Bill Christison Charles Jonkel Silvia Cattori Richard Gott Firmin DeBrabander William S. Lind Keith Rosenthal Website of the Day June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St.
Clair Paul Craig
Roberts P. Sainath Ralph Nader Omar Waraich Dave Lindorff Harvey Wasserman Malini Johar
Schueller Ramzy Baroud Website of
the Day
June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Norman Solomon Eva Liddell Rannie Amiri Rachel Voss Christopher
Brauchli D. K. Wilson Website of
the Day
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Bastille
Day Weekend Edition
CounterPunch DiarySupport Their Troops?By ALEXANDER COCKBURN Lawrence McGuire, a North Carolinian now teaching in Montpellier, France, organized a meeting of antiwar Americans and various interested French parties there at which I spoke last fall. Since then, we've been discussing off and on the strange fact that while two-thirds of all Americans oppose the war in Iraq and want the troops to come home, the antiwar movement is pretty much dead. McGuire raises the matter of direct solidarity with Iraqis fighting the US presence in Iraq. In other words, support their troops:
Now there are many obvious reasons why the direct solidarity with resistance fighters visible in the Vietnam antiwar struggle and the Central American anti-intervention movement has not been visible in the movement opposing the Iraq war. The "War on Terror" means-and was designed to mean-that any group in the US with detectable ties or relations with Iraqi resistance movements would be in line for savage legal reprisals under the terms of the Patriot Act. Another important factor: The contours of the Iraqi resistance have been murky and in some aspects unappetizing to secular progressive coalitions in the West, or so they virtuously claim. But such cavils were familiar in the Sixties and Eighties too as huge chunks of the solidarity movement found endless reasons to distance themselves from the Vietnamese NLF or the Nicaraguan FMLN. That said, ignorance about the Iraqi resistance is somewhat forgiveable. This time there has been no Wilfrid Burchett reporting from behind the lines, and that has had consequences of the kind McGuire sketches out above. The personal aspect of international political solidarity is not just the stuff of nostalgic anecdote. In the late 1980s the Central American resistance was constantly among us here in the United States in physical form. While Daniel Oretega and Rosario Murillo worked the Hollywood liberal circuit, the sanctuary movement sheltered militants and sympathizers in churches across the country and defied federal efforts to seize them. Labor organizers from El Salvador traveled across North America from local to friendly local. I can remember being at a picnic of a union local striking a door factory in Springfield, Oregon, southeast of Eugene, where a man from a radical labor coalition in El Salvador got a cordial reception from the strikers and their families as they swapped stories of their respective battles. The other day I found in a box of old papers in my garage a directory to "sister cities"-towns in the United States that had paired with beleagured towns in Nicaragua, regularly exchanging delegations. The directory was as thick as a medium-sized telephone book. There were hundreds of such pairings and many were the individual pairing they led to. People's Express, the "backpackers' airline," as it used to be called, would shuttle demure sisters in the struggle from Vermont or the Pacific Northwest to Miami, for onward passage to Managua and a rendezvous with some valiant son of Sandino or oppressed Nica sister liberated by North American inversion from the oppressions of Latin patriarchy. Today there is no draft, a prime factor in stocking the Vietnam antiwar movement. This absence of the draft is certainly a major factor in the weakness of the antiwar movement. But though there was no draft in the Reagan years, there was certainly was that very lively political culture of anti-intervention in the 1980s. It looked as though just such a vibrant left antiwar movement was flaring into life in 2003. But many of its troops have either veered into 9/11 kookdom, or whining about global warming or nourished an often unspoken resolve to vest all hopes in a Democratic presidency after 2008. The bulk of the antiwar movement has become subservient to the Democratic Party and to the agenda of its prime candidates for the presidency in 2008, with Hillary Clinton in the lead. To describe the antiwar movement in its effective form is really to mention a few good efforts-the anti-recruitment campaigns, the tours by those who have lost children in Iraq-or three or four brave souls-Cindy Sheehan, who single-handedly reanimated the antiwar movement last year and now vows to run against house speaker Nancy Pelosi unless the latter stops blocking impeachment proceedings, or the radical Catholic Kathy Kelly, or Medea Benjamin and her "Code Pink" activists occupying Hilary Clinton's office and ambushing her for youtube. A simple question: Has the end of America's war on Iraq been brought closer by the recapture of the US Congress by the Democrats in November 2006? The answer is that when it comes to the actual war, which has led to the bloody disintegration of Iraqi society, the deaths of up to 5,000 Iraqis a month, the death and mutilation of US soldiers every day, nothing at all has happened since the Democrats rode to victory in November courtesy of popular revulsion in America against the war. I don't think there is much of an independent Left in America today, if there was, then Lawrence McGuire's statement about the lack of solidarity with the Iraqi resistance wouldn't be so obviously on the mark. The American people are largely
against the war, to the huge embarassment and distress of the
Republican and Democratic leadership. So does it matter that
there's not much of an antiwar movement? Very much so. It's how
the left down the years has learned its internationalist ABC. "We
Remember Thee, Oh Sian" The secret government of the planet--perennial topic of conspiracist speculation--assembles this weekend for the summer session of the Bohemian Grove -- three weeks of heavy-hitter revelry in a well-guarded 2200-acre grove of mighty redwoods on the Russian river, sixty miles north of San Francisco. Here, in mid-July, a well-placed infernal device at the opening masque on Sunday night would certainly put a serious dent in the high brass of the Republican Party, czars of Fortune's World 500, most of California's business elite, a passel of European politicians and a Third World leader or two. Henry Kissinger would most likely be among the fallen. The trashy Christian Evangelists, and Mrs Clinton, all unwelcome at the Bohemian Grove, a men only affair, would inherit the earth. The conspiracists who track World Government as its assignations perambulate through the calendar from Bilderberg through Ditchley to Davos, claim the Bohemian Grove rendez-vous is the ne plus ultra of these secret sessions because it involves hideous rituals, possibly including human sacrifice (admittedly the default occupation of bankers) of whom there are many to be found at the Grove, drinking gin fizzes--a prime lubricant of Boho rituals. The climax of this weekend will be the traditional masque, representing the Banish-ment of Care. Robed tycoons move with stately gait (gin fizz consumption starts early in the day) through the trees amid Wagnerian music and a supportive squadron of caped riders. The prosperous cortege carries a bier supporting the effigy of Care, probably this year a papier mache creation of worthless derivative contracts and sub-prime real estate loan paper. They launch the effigy into a vast bonfire (inside every tycoon is still a little boy roasting marshmallows) and Care is finally cremated. In its place they light the flame of eternal friendship and three weeks of Boho-dom are underway. Thus stem the conspiracist allegations of beastly ceremonial and human sacrifice, though in fact the core Boho rituals were worked up nearly a century ago by a real estate plunger who took to poetry and finally banished Care in conclusive fashion by poisoning himself with strychnine on the Club's premises in 1926. In its late 19th century origins the Bohemian Grove was a journalists' hang-out in San Francisco, patronized by Jack London, Bret Harte and Mark Twain. As so often in the annals of club-dom the riff-raff sought prosperous underwriters for their carouses and brought in businessmen who took the club over in short order and finally relocated it on the Russian River, well beyond the lurch-and-totter capabilities of the lowly hacks and scriveners. "World government" these days means some well-guarded rendez-vous where you catch sight of a Rockefeller or a Bechtel peeing against a redwood, or Henry Kissinger lecturing some European prime minister. The Bohemian Grove offers such attractions and this being most distinctly a Republican affair, Republican candidates for the presidency thirst to be invited. Nixon got the nod here for his 1968 candidacy which put him in the White House. George Bush Sr shares his "camp" -- Hillbillies -- with William F. Buckley Jr. There are some 120 of these permanent frat houses--some of them luxuriously appointed -- stretching along River Road and Morse Stephens canyon. Former Secretary of State and seasoned World Government member James Baker is in Woof camp. Ronald Reagan used to share Owl's Nest with Eddie Albert. There's another one called Ye Merrie Yowls. Club humor tends to the heavy-handed and such heavy-handedness climaxes at the end of each July with the Club play and satirical review, both of them productions planned up to five years in advance, which occupy the passionate anticipation of Boho tycoons. Visit a captain of commerce or industry in San Francisco in his corporate hq in San Francisco and you will most likely find him practicing his juggling act or ordering adjustments to his drag assemblage with grotesque bust bodice, designed to have World Governors rolling in the aisles. Acquisition of membership comes by birthright or sedulous lobbying and the usual black-balling obtains. There's a no-shop talk rule, honored in the ceaseless breach. "They talk business here all the time," a waiter once confided. "The younger members brown-nose shamelessly, making contacts." The waiting lists for membership are so long it takes years for the novitiate to be admitted. Lobbying is pathetically fierce. A friend of mine, big in Reagan time, has been on the doorstep for 15 years. He says he likes it that way. He's spared the hefty sign-up fee of around $10,000 and annual membership dues and only has to pony up when he's invited, which is every two or three years. In the hectic seventies feminists made a fuss about the men-only rule and the lads riposted plaintively that they could surrender the American male's prime expression of intimacy with Nature's realm, peeing against a tree, preferably Sequoia sempervirens. (This is mostly a senior crowd and yearning references to "swollen members" are copious.) The male staff, living on the fringes of the Grove has naturally evolved into a gay community. Hookers from afar afield as Las Vegas heed the Grove's July call and await their clients in nearby motels. The lead-up to this year's revels have been enlivened by the search for a former Miss Wales, whose pin-up, taken at the acme of career as Beauty Queen and Bond Girl ("From a View to a Kill") was pinned on an outside wall of one of the camps, in an area called "Skiddoo", much admired by successive cohorts of World Governors, who would fill in the conversational gaps between gin fizz consumption and lakeside talks on the commercial possibilities inherent in global warming by wondering what Miss Wales--aka Sian Adey-Jones--was up to these days. They wanted to find her, honor her with a dinner which under the Men Only rule, she would be unable to attend. From Sian they wanted a greeting and a new pic. Confided one, "The poster has become rather famous throughout the club because of the artistic photography and the beauty of the subject.  Sian tells the Mail: "I'm flattered to be in the hearts and minds of such important people but my modelling career is in the past now. And, since they are so secretive, how do I know if this will be a nice gentlemen's dinner or men leaping around doing weird and distasteful things in a forest?" The search launched for Miss Adey-Jones by the publicity-shy Boho-mgnates soon ended up on the front page of the Daily Mail, whose investigators determined that Sian is living on Ibiza, married to an Italian, mother of two and still fetching enough to raise a wistful whistle in Skiddoo.  "Maybe Try It Without the Crown" Talking of Bastille Day, this little story I saw in The First Post about Annie Liebowitz makes me laugh. I worked with Annie once back in the late 1970s, doing a story on Ted Kennedy, making his doomed challenge to Carter in the 1979 primary season. She was polite enough to Ted, but back then she wasn't the star she is now. I had problems of my own. After a terrible session with candidate John Anderson, who mumbled inaudibly into my tape recorder, I got a fancy mike the size of a cue-tip head from a store on Madison Avenue specializing in electronic devices for undercover cops and private investigators. On Kennedy's campaign plane, I pinned it to the senator's lapel and he launched into the usual banalities. Later, replaying the tape, all I could hear was the woosh of air going in and out of his lungs and the gurgle of his gastric juices.
It seems the footage about the Queen flouncing out was faked, and the BBC has apologized. Footnote: I did a longer piece about the Bohemian Grove a few years ago which can be found in our archive at www.counterpunch.org/bohemian.html The first item appears in shorter form in the print edition of The Nation that went to press last Wednesday.
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CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy  Click Here to Buy! How the Press Failed The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained!  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn   Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed     |
