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Today's
Stories
October
20 / 21, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Man Who Builds Hillaryworld
October
19, 2007
John
Ross
Che's Mexican Legacy
Sheldon
Rampton
Shared Values Revisited: a Case Study in the Limits of Propaganda
Rahul
Mahajan
A Tale of Two Atrocities: Blackwater and Haditha
Devra
Davis
Deadly Secrets: Chemical Pollution and Cancer
Christopher
Brauchli
Blasphemous Science
Wadner
Pierre
Haiti After the Deluge
Bill
Quigley
Jailed for Justice
Website
of the Day
Textbook Sticker Shock
October
18, 2007
Saree
Makdisi
Academic Freedom is at Risk
Meg
Dwyer
What I Learned from 9/11: Who Wouldn't Want Us Dead?
Alevtina
Rea
Sketches of Russian Life
Norman
Solomon
The United States of Violence
Kristoffer
Larsson
Something is Rotten in Sweden
Harvey
Wasserman
Nukes are Back and So are We
Website
of the Day
Eve Ensler: "A Filibuster Would Stop This War"
October
17, 2007
Steve
Niva
Counter-Insurgency, American-Style
Andy
Worthington
The Case of Mohamed Jawad
Alan
Farago
The Credit Shock
Russell
Mokhiber
The New Billionaire-Criminal Class
Sharon
Smith
Democrats, AWOL When It Mattered
Mike
Whitney
Time for the Banks to Face the Hangman
Robert
Fantina
Iraq, Iran and the US: Business as Usual
Chris
Irwin
Where Have All the Rednecks Gone?
Website
of the Day
Sex Ed at Oral Roberts University
October
16, 2007
Peter
Linebaugh
Doris Lessing and the Dynamite
Prize
Paul
Findley
Follow the Leader: The Open Secret About the Israel Lobby
Robert
Bryce
Inconvenient Corrections: Al Gore's Wacky Facts
Uri
Avnery
The Mother of All Pretexts
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Iraqi Genocide
Ray
McGovern
What Did Nancy Pelosi Know About NSA Spying and When Did She
Know It?
Norman
Solomon
The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal
Martha
Rosenberg
The Curse of Cymbalta
William
S. Lind
Out of the Frying Pan
Joel
S. Hirschborn
Time to Boycott Voting
Website
of the Day
Pipeline Through Paradise: Big Oil's Arctic Play
October
15, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Response to an Angry Marine
Andy
Worthington
A Gitmo Detainee Finally Gets a Break
Heather
Gray
Al Krebs, a Fighter for Family Farmers
John
Walsh
Blacks Turn Against the War: Why Won't Liberals Join Them?
Joshua
Frank
Nobel Gore?
Dave
Lindorff
Slaughter of the Innocents in Iraq
Matt
Vidal
Squaring the Circle on Children and Health Care
Ali
Khan
Pakistan's Constitutional Mess
Sen.
Russ Feingold
The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program
Johnny
Barber
The Balm of a Peace Process Infuses the War on Terror
Website
of the Day
The Real Gore
October
13 / 14, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Al Gore's Peace Prize
Wajahat
Ali
Privatizing Terror, Outsourcing Diplomacy: an Interview with
P. W. Singer
Jeffrey
St. Clair
A Half Mile of Hell
Ralph
Nader
Impeachment, Cowardice and the Democrats
David Heleniak
Gitmo at Home
Laura Carlsen
Plan Mexico and the Billion Dollar Drug Deal
Brian Cloughley
The Flat Drug World
Richard Rhames
Here Come the "Bankrupted Social Security" Scamsters,
Again
Ron Jacobs
For the Sake of a Future
Fred Gardner
The Overrated Importance of Being "On Message"
John Ross
The Betray Us Flap
Russell Hoffman
Another Pro Nuker Wins the Peace Prize
Missy Beattie
Will Someone Please Give Lou Dobbs a Lobotomy?
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Buknatski and Ford
Website of the Day
"Psychokiller", the Blackwater Version
October 12, 2007
Cindy
Sheehan
Leadership Void
Brendan
Cooney
Washington's Holocaust Deniers
Alan
Farago
Gore Still Lost Florida
Jan
Oberg
Gore's Peace Prize, a Grand Misjudgment
M.
Shahid Alam
The Mercenary State: Pakistan's Killer Elites
David
Macaray
Lies About Teachers and Unions
Julia
Kendlbacher
Urban Legend, We Love Our Forest People
Peter
Rost, MD
Drug Money and the Clinton Campaign
Website
of the Day
Nader Live: "Things are a Lot Worse Than We Thought"
October 11, 2007
Al
Giordano
Bill Clinton as Ambassador to the
World?
Saul
Landau
Killing for Profit: Blackwater in Iraq
Jacob
G. Hornberger
The Failed Legacy of Interventionism
William
S. Lind
The Iraq Mirage
Joshua
Frank
Big Sky Rebels
Josh
Mahan
Colorado River Blues
Pat
Williams
Where Are You, Paul Wellstone?
October
10, 2007
Michael
Yates
Travels Across Greenspan's America
Gary
Leupp
Spreading Awareness or Smearing a Religion?
David
Macaray
How Wal-Mart Can be Beaten
Alan
Farago
Corruption and the Law of Intended Consequences
Tom
Clifford
Homeless in Their Own Land: Iraq's Deepening Refugee Crisis
Col.
Douglas MacGregor
Washington's War
Sunsara
Taylor
Nooses at Columbia
George
Wuerthner
Behind the Bovine Curtain
Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Michael
Dickinson
Forgetting Lennon's Birthday
Website
of the Day
Paying for War
October
9, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Blinded by Ideology: Cato, Trade
and Outsourcing
Andy
Worthington
Fourth Whistleblower Rocks Guantánamo
Alan
Farago
The Fall of Florida's Largest Land Developer
Brian
Eno
Exporting Democracy with Missiles
David
Rovics
The RIAA vs. the World
Farzana
Versey
Two Lovers and the Funeral of Secularism
Andrew
Buncombe
and Omar Waraich
Musharraf's Landslide
Website
of the Day
Romney and the Wheelchair Bound Medical Marijuana Patient
October
8, 2007
David
Macaray
Lesbians for Hillary? or Teamsters
for Hillary?
Jeff
Ballinger
Nike, Steroids and Marion Jones
Brian
Eno
This Ban Won't Stop Us
Christopher
Brauchli
Translating Bush
Louay
Safi
End the Disgrace of Guantánamo
Matt
Reichel
Homocide by Cops at the Phoenix Airport
Dave
Lindorff
Finally, A Good Day for the Constitution
Thomas
P. Healy
The Politics of Mercury Pollution
Martha
Rosenberg
E. Coli Spreading Slaughter Allowed to Stay Open
Richard
Rhames
A Democrat's Lament
Website
of the Day
Not All Italians Love Columbus
October
6 / 7, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
A Rainbow Over a Graveyard
Norman
Finkelstein
Jeffrey Goldberg's Prison
James
Bovard
Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Invasion of Afghanistan, Six Years Later
Jeffrey
St. Clair
At Disaster Falls
Ralph
Nader
Where Are the Lawyers of America?
Ray
McGovern
So Who's Afraid of the Israel Lobby?
Saul
Landau
A River Runs Through It
Ben
Tripp
Bring on the Next War!
Terry
Lodge
The Grateful Dead Body Parts Delivered to Your Door Reform Act
Seth
Sandronsky
Market Mystification and the Liberal Virus
Kevin
Funk / Steve Fake
Divestment and Darfur
Missy
Beattie
In the Custody of Bush and Cheney
Website
of the Weekend
Snoop Dogg vs. Bill O'Reilly
October
5, 2007
Andy
Worthington
The Anonymous Victims of Guantánamo
David
Macaray
De-Skilling America's Labor Force
Lee
Sustar
The Democrats and Iran: Can They Sink Any Lower?
Dan
La Botz
Cincinnati Six Years After the Killings and the Riots
Aaron
Hess
Hate Week Comes to Campus
William
A. Cook
Unmasking AIPAC
Website
of the Day
Range of Memory
October
4, 2007
Uri
Avnery
The Power of the Israel Lobby
Dave
Marsh
Dick Cheney, a Eulogy
Valerio
Volpi
How Italy Became a Launching Pad for the US Military
Cecilie
Surasky
Dissenting at Your Own Risk
Dave
Lindorff
Remaking Iraq, as Vietnam
Norman
Solomon
Sputnik, 50 Years Later
Laura
Carlsen
Costa Rica and CAFTA: Memo Reveals Manipulation Scheme
Walter
Brasch
When Compassion Fails: Bush and the Children's Health Act
Ben
Terrall
Haitian Human Rights Advocate Kidnapped
William
S. Lind
Beyond the OODA Loop
Website
of the Day
Musicians in Handcuffs
October
3, 2007
Vijay
Prashad
Gang of Four
Anita
Sinha
Black Ties and Bulldozers in New Orleans
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Posturing at the Petraeus Hearings: Where was the Oversight?
Sharon
Smith
The Kucinich Quandary
Jeff
Leys
Our Bonhoeffer Moment
Sen.
Russ Feingold
We Must End This Tragedy
Mohamad
Bazzi
Playing Into the Hands of Ahmadinejad
Brenda
Norrell
A Cry from the Top of the World
Robert
Weissman
No Sex, Still a Scandal at the IMF
Website
of the Day
Jena by Mellencamp
October
2, 2007
Ibrahim
Warde
Logical Lies About Bin Laden's Wealth
Gary
Leupp
"I Hate All Iranians": Frank Talk from a Defense Dept.
Official
David
Macaray
The Hunt for a Blue November: In Pursuit of the Labor Vote
Conn
Hallinan
Religion and Foreign Policy
John
Ross
The Great American Chess Match
Alan
Farago
Ripping Off Miami's Poor
Sonja
Karkar
The Right to Exist: States or People?
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Meteor and the Mahatma
Website
of the Day
Grandin on Che's Legacy
October
1, 2007
Al
Giordano
The Clinton Campaign's Reckless
Race for Big Money Donors
Paul
Craig Roberts
From Burma to Iraq: Hypocrisy Rules the West
Moshe Adler
The Crimes of Microsoft
Ingmar Lee
My Kayak Journey Down the Wild Pacific Coast
John V. Walsh
Ahmadinejad is Not My Enemy
Norman Solomon
Political Science and Truth of Consequences
Roger Burbach
Historic Victory in Ecuador for the Left
Ramzy Baroud
The Politics of Assassination
Stephen Lendman
The Maestro of Misery: Greenspan's Dark Legacy
Susie Day
Honey, I Shrank the Military!
Website of the Day
Letters from Fort Lewis Brig
September
29 / 30, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Clinton Time: Do We Set Our Clocks
Forward or Back?
Uri
Avnery
So What About Iran?
Andrew
Cockburn
Iraq's WMD Myth: Why Clinton is Culpable
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Through the Gates of Lodore
Wajahat
Ali
The Good, the Bad and the Iraqi
Andy
Worthington
The Curse of the Military Commissions
Don
Santina
Ethnic Cleansing in San Francisco
Ralph
Nader
Free Lunches, for Corporations!
Fred
Gardner
The Man Behind the MoveOn Ad
Seth
Sandronsky
The US Economy Since 1980
Gideon
Levy
The Children of 5767
William
S. Lind
A Ticking Bomb
Reza
Fiyouzat
An Anti-Imperialist Case Against a Nuclear Iran
Richard
Rhames
Wag the Tail, Frag the Dog
David
Michael Green
Buyer's Remorse: Their Purchase, Our Regret
Zach
Mason
Hate and Hope in Herndon
Poets'
Basement
Gibbons, Ali, Davies and Suss
Website
of the Weekend
Domestic Crusaders
September
28, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
The Teflon Alliance with Israel
Roberto
J. González /
David H. Price
When Anthropologists Become Counter-Insurgents
Saul
Landau
September, the Cruelest Month in Chile
Tom
Clifford
Burma by the Numbers
Christopher
Brauchli
Of Toxic Almonds and Bad Beef
Martha
Rosenberg
Spinning Suicide Statistics
Dave
Zirin
Soldier in Winter: John Carlos Speaks Out on the Jena 6
Laray
Polk
Bush Library or Lockbox?
Binoy
Kampmark
When Reagan Turned Brown
James
McEnteer
Hell, Columbia: an Academic Hotshot Introduces a Petty Tyrant
Website
of the Day
Concerned Anthropologists
September
27, 2007
Alan
Farago
Housing Market Crashes and Burns
Andy
Worthington
A Bad Week at Guantánamo
Jonathan
Cook
Why Did Israel Attack Syria?
William
Hughes
Billy Graham, a Prince of War Exposed
Ray
McGovern
Bush, Oil and Moral Bankruptcy
Ron
Jacobs
Joe Biden's Plan to Chop Up Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Quit the Party! Join the Mass Resignation Movement!
Joshua
Frank
Pruning the Green Party
Anne
Dachel
The CDC, Vaccines and Autism
Website
of the Day
The God-O-Meter
September 26, 2007
Bill
Quigley
HUD's Home Wreckers
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Pandemic of Police Brutality
Jeff
Kisseloff
Still Smearing Alger Hiss
China
Hand
Is China the True Target of Financial Sanctions Against Iran?
Behzad
Yaghmaian
At the Gates of Paradise
Sonja
Karkar
The Quality of Mercy in Gaza
Mike
Ferner
Interrupting the Empire, 30 Seconds at a Time
Col.
Dan Smith
Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Learn
Clifton
Ross
Bollinger's Barbarous and Ignorant Speech
Brenda
Norrell
A Meeting of Indigenous Peoples in Caracas
Website
of the Day
The Smearing of Jean Maria Arrigo, a Psychologist Opposed to
Torture
September
25, 2007
Nicole
Colson
On the March Against Racism
Uri
Avnery
Foam on the Water
Brendan
Cooney
Ahmadinejad on Broadway: Free Speech? Arrest Him!
Harry
Browne
Bruce Springsteen Comes Home ... to Hell
Marjorie
Cohn
The Drift Toward War with Iran
David
Macaray
The UAW-GM Strike: the Long Knives are Already Out
Ralph
Nader
Hypocrisy and Inverted Priorities in Congress
Dan
Bacher
Schwarzenegger, the Climate Change Hypocrite
Anthony
Papa
Perverted Justice & America's Drug Laws
Christopher
Ketcham
All Politicos Now Classed as Sexual Deviants
Website
of the Day
John Waters on Free Speech
September
24, 2007
George
Ciccariello-Maher
Racist Violence from Jena to Oakland
Saree Makdisi
The
War on Gaza's Children
David
Keen
Action-as-Propaganda: Learning About the Iraq War from Hannah
Arendt
Sherwood
Ross
Just How Powerful is the Israel Lobby? Only Cheney Knows for
Sure
Ron
Jacobs
Greenspan's Open Secret
Donna
Saggia
The Cult of the Military and the Decline of Democratic Values
Mike
Ferner
Free Speech Takes a Capitol Beating
Malini
Johar Schueller
Norman Hsu is a Model Minority
Monique
Dols
and Dylan Stillwood
Ahmadinejad and Columbia
Website
of the Day
The Promotion
September 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
On Naomi Klein's "The Shock
Doctrine"
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Beneath the Hideous Veneer of
Security
Linn
Washington, Jr.
The Injustice in Jena: Prosecutorial Misconduct More Dangerous
Than Racism
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Down in Dinosaur: Oil, Dams and Whitewater (Part One)
Alan
Farago
Genuflecting to China
Brian
Cloughley
Of Hate, Hubris and Atrocities
Robert
Fantina
The Deadly Pattern of US Imperialism
Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz
Land Tenure and Resistance in New
Mexico
Jason
Hribal
Fear of an Animal Planet
David
Rosen
Slugger Sex: Athletes, Violence and Male Sexuality
Mike
Whitney
The Era of Global Financial Instability
John
V. Walsh
Who Will Lead a Filibuster of the Iraq War Spending Bill?
Dave
Lindorff
Why Aren't We Banning Blackwater Here?
David
Michael Green
Hiding Behind a Camouflage Skirt
Fred
Gardner
Claudia Jensen (Look Back in Anger)
Cassandra
Jones
Support Our Mercenaries
Roger
van Zwanenberg
Pluto Press Under Attack by Israel Lobby
Poets'
Basement
Buknatski, Davies and Ford
Website
of the Weekend
"For the Bible Tells Me So"
September
21, 2007
Karim
Makdisi
Letter from Lebanon
M.
Shahid Alam
A History of Violence
Alan
Farago
Who Will Buy My House?
Joshua
Frank
The Demise of the Congressional Black Caucus
Dave
Zirin
Notre Dame and the Economy of Sports
Kenneth
Couesbouc
A Short History of Lending and Borrowing
Dr.
Steffie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein
Mass Health Care Failure
Ben
Terrall
The Streets of San Francisco: Where Impeachment is Taken Seriously--By
Everyone But Pelosi
Steve
Fournier
Ex-Dems, Sign Up Here
Frederico
Fuentes, et al
Voices in Defense of Bolivia
Website
of the Day
Sabra and Shatila, Remembered
September
20, 2007
Kathleen
Christison
Whatever Happened to Palestine?
Zoltan
Grossman
An Endless Occupation?
Paul
Craig Roberts
As the Empire Slips: Greenspan and the Economy of Greed
Stan
Cox
and Wes Jackson
Carbon-Free and Still Wrecking the Planet
Russell
Mokhiber
AARP to Kucinich: Drop Dead
Charles
Modiano
Jim Crow's Children: the Jena 6, Shaquanda Cotton and Blog Power
Raymond
J. Lawrence
Bush's Worrisome Use of Religion
Brendan
Cooney
Body-Snatched Nation
Website
of the Day
Mind Control for Breakfast
September
19, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Why Did Senator John Kerry Stand
Idly By?
Paul
Krassner
The Power of Laughter
Sgt.
Martin Smith
The New Private Warriors: Blackwater in Iraq
Seth
Sandronsky
Living in a Dilapidated Market: To Rent or Own?
Claud
Cockburn
Looking back at the Great Crash
Victoria
Buch
Israel's Agenda for Ethnic Cleansing
and Transfer
Robert
Weissman
Oil Warriors: From Greenspan to Kissinger
Mike
Ferner
Can We Talk?
Dan
Bacher
Schwarzenegger's $9 Billion Boondoggle for Big Water
Website
of the Day
Housing Cost Calculator
September
18, 2007
Mike
Whitney
U.S. Banks Brace for Storm Surge
as Dollar and Credit System Reel
Alan
Farago
Interviewing Alan Greenspan: How 60
Minutes Blew It
John
Ross
America's Great Wall:
Where Will the Workers Go
When They Finish It?
Ron
Jacobs
Nooses Hung From Jena, La. to College
Park, Md.
Alex
Doherty
Britain's 9/11 "Truth Movement":
Who's Responsible?
September
17, 2007
Marjorie
Cohn
Erwin Chemerinsky and the Post-9/11
Attack on Academic Freedom
Paul
Craig Roberts
Conservatism Isn't What It Used to
Be
Ricardo
Alarcón
The Return of C. Wright Mills Amid
the Dawn of a New Era
Marc
Levy
Fake Vets Chasing Fame
Eva
Liddell
In 1969 We Already Knew What 2007
Would Look Like
Website
of the Day
Propaganda:
Your Job in Germany. Directed by Frank Capra, and written by
Theodor Geisel
Sept.
15-16, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The General Came to Washington
Vicente
Navarro
How the U.S. Schemed Against Spain's
Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy
Mike
Whitney
Plummeting Dollar, Credit Crunch
Herman
Mindshaftgap
Has There Ever Been a Surge?
If so, Has it a Future?
Ellen
Cantarow
Girls! Music! Palestine!
Jordan
Flaherty
K-Ville: Fox's New Paean to the
N.O.P.D.
Zachary
Hurwitz
Julio Cusurichi on Amazonian Development
September
14, 2007
Debbie
Nathan
New York Times reporter was a member
of an illegal underage porn site, claims he was only "posing
as online predator"
Franklin
Lamb
Sabra-Shatilla, 25 Years Later
Patrick
Cockburn
Greet Bush and Die: The Killing of
Abu Risha
Farzana
Versey
The World's Richest Muslim Tycoon
Alan
Farago
This is Florida, Epicenter of the
Housing Bust and of Public Corruption
Hank
Edson
Bill's New Book is Giving Me a Headache
September
13, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
Petraeus Confided Presidential Ambitions
to Iraqi Official
Scott
Vest, former Air Force Captain at Minot
The Barksdale Nukes
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo: "Ghost"
Prisoners Speak At Last
Michael
Baney
Mr. Fixit of Quake-Stricken Peru Has
Death Squad Past
Dr.
Susan Block
Is U.S. Run by Secret Homintern?
September
12, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
American Economy: RIP
Stan
Goff
The Petraeus Report
William
Blum
When Soldiers Mutiny...Only Those Fighting
the War Can End It.
Manuel
Garcia
Forgetting 9/11
Debbie
Nathan
Why One Sex Survey Didn't Make the
Big Time
|
Weekend
Edition
October 20 / 21, 2007
CounterPunch Diary
The
Man Who Builds Hillaryworld
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
The pollster and immensely influential
tactical adviser at Hillary Clinton's elbow is Mark Penn. Penn's
polling played a crucial role in Bill Clinton's recovery from
the nadir of 1994, when he joined Team Clinton as part of the
rescue party summoned by Hillary Clinton and headed by Dick Morris.
Penn has been joined at the hip politically to Mrs Clinton ever
since, as a prime adviser of her successful senate bid and now
in her drive to capture the Democratic presidential nomination.
To find out what Penn and hence
Mrs Clinton deems worthy of note about the state of he naion
we can now turn to Penn's new book, Microtrends.*
Penn's America is a bright-eyed,
mostly upbeat world. As he bowls along, Penn tosses market-researched
stats and polling data like confetti and soon the reader is spattered
with golly-gee micro-measurements: growing number of home knitters
("knitting is very hip"), decline of baseball fans,
burgeoning vegan children, rise of women archers, longer best-selling
books, more college-educated nannies, a surge in employees in
the non-profit sector, more kids who are cross-dressers and who,
Penn says brightly, "are triggering a large, new tolerance
movement in schools and communities."
There are no Columbines in
Mr Penn's index, no Goths intolerantly spraying the schoolyard
with machine-gun fire. Why look on the dark side when Penn's
researchers excavate the news that there are more left-handers,
hence - Penn boldly claims--the probability of more da Vincis.
Now that's a microtrend worth savoring! The factoid lies on the
page, awaiting an entrepreneur and a business plan. Will some
niche 'trep (teen entrepreneur--a microtrend) change the zipper
seam on guys' pants, so lefties can unzip with their left hands.
Will guys wear pants? Will there be any guys? Yes, says Penn,
the long-term trend is towards more guys, hence more gays.
"Part of the reason I
love this work," burbles Penn about his polling, "is
that every day I find out some new aspiration, hope or concern
people have, and I get to help my clients shape their products
and messages based on these findings." What Penn never finds
are the collective aspirations of groups of people who find the
American corporate system intolerably unjust. Union people don't
figure in his focus groups--at least as real workers as opposed
to pasteboard constructs as such Soccer Moms or Nascar Dads.
The people who find it easiest to contact Penn to communicate
their aspirations, hopes and concerns are the people who can
afford to meet his hefty bills, meaning the rich and the powerful,
starting with Bill Gates and heading on through Silvio Berlusconi,
the nuclear industry, Monsanto and other clients in need of image
refreshment.
Penn also the CEO of Burson-Marsteller,
(part of the British-based WPP Group), a pr firm that in the
course of its career has been retained to winch some sensationally
grimy clients out of the mud, such Union Carbide after Bhopal,
the Argentine military junta and Royal Dutch Shell after some
very poor publicity in Nigeria.
"We live in a world with
a deluge of choices" Penn exults, in a typical paean to
modern times. "In some sense it's the triumph of the Starbucks
economy over the Ford economy.. Starbucks is governed by the
idea that people make choices--in their coffee, their milk, their
sweetener" It's the way Bill Clinton used to burble on,
using research briefs and polls concocted by Penn and Morris
to persuade Americans that with Bill at the helm the nation would
be on the cutting edge of innovative thinking and performance.
Actually, in terms of their
respective products Fordism offered a lot more choices than Starbucks.
In the mid-1950s, the options available to the purchaser of a
Chevy Bel-Air 4-door sedan were infinite, from a rainbow of paint
and fabric combinations including a paisley-pattern roof. The
shapes and styles of the cars were prodigious in baroque variety.
And the cars were often cheap. As for Starbucks, the company's
basic signature is over-roasted beans and its core achievement
is to have people fork over $3.50 for a cup of coffee. Starbucks
is a predatory franchiser and its arrival in any town usually
heralds the extinction of existing small cafes and diners. Its
signage , across America and around the world through 13000 outlets,
advertises not Penn's "customized, personalized products"
but unending repetition.
The trick of Microtrends is
to offer an America shaped to match the sort of "non-divisive"
political rhetoric favored by the Democratic Leadership Council,
an outfit paid for by corporations and designed to purge the
Democratic Party of any partiality to the cause of labor or the
interests of the poor. The Clintons have always been the DLC's
marquee attraction, and its outlook is Pnn's. In the tapestry
of Microtrends the spotlight is not on an awful health system
with over 40 million uninsured, but on DIYDs, Do-It-Yourself
Doctors. Penn tells us "it's the biggest trend in American
health care", spearheaded by women and the young and promoted
by Penn and Burson-Marsteller, working diligently for the pharmaceutical
companies whose products, freed from the trifling restraints
of a doctor's prescription, will be at the disposal of the DIYDs
in the chain stores. Thus do microtrends find their due place
in the great scheme of things.
* Microtrends,
The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes. By Mark J.
Penn with E.Kinney Zalesne. Twelve Books. 426 pp.
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Language
of the Crossroads:
HOW THE IRISH
INVENTED SLANG
By Daniel Cassidy
WINNER
OF THE
AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!

Click Here to Buy!
Cassidy
on Tour
Click Here for Dates & Venues
"The Case Against
Israel"
Michael
Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz

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Saul Landau's
Bush and Botox World
with a Foreword by Gore Vidal

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Grand Theft Pentagon
How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism

The Occupation
by Patrick Cockburn

Humanitarian Imperialism
By Jean Bricmont

CITY BEAUTIFUL
By Tennessee Reed

Bruce Springsteen On Tour
By Dave Marsh
The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced
as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"
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