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Today's
Stories
December
9, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
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.
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December 9, 2004
Imagine, If You Can
On
the Anniversary of Lennon's Death, 2012
By
GARY CORSERI
It is December 8, 2012, the 32nd anniversary
of the day John Lennon died (a date generally forgotten now),
and the 11th year of the Terror Wars. I have passed from middle
age to old age during these wars, and, with only thirteen days
remaining to come to terms with Al Qaeda's Final Ultimatum, I
am now preparing to dissolve into a dew.
Of course, it's always possible
that President Schwarzzenegger, or Secretary Giuliani, or Homeland
Security Director O'Reilly, will devise some compromise behind
the scenes, though, frankly, I am doubtful. Once the nuclear
genie was let out of the bag, sixty seven years ago (the year
of my birth), I don't think we ever could have put it back.
You know the old joke, don't you? Earth is a wonderful place--except
for all the Earthmen!
We long ago dispensed with
calling it a War on Terror. The preposition and abstract noun
were far too cumbersome for our younger generation. In fact,
since lowering the draft age to 16, we've found more and more of our ADD-afflicted (though
nevertheless brave) young soldiers gingerly slurring their words
in that way they're fond
of doing: "The Terr'wars, they say, smiling endearlingly.
I'm not sure there's much value
in putting down my final thoughts here, though it gives me a
little literary peace. I still like constructing somewhat apt
phrases"a stubborn habit from another time, when a background
in the Liberal Arts was not cause for investigation. I'm going
to bury this in the little time capsule I've constructed; an alien in my own time, I can
only write for aliens now.
The conjunction of the Peak
Oil crisis and the Winter Attacks of ,09 destroyed the world
economy and saw the immediate imposition of the long-prepared
and expected martial law in the C.C. (Coalition Community, of
course; no one talks any longer of the United States, Britain
or Israel). When Tehran was destroyed by a thermonuclear holocaust
in Febuary, 2010, the C.C. blamed the internal struggle in the
Islamic world, the endless conflict between Shiites and Sunnis.
Nevertheless, the C.C.'s citizens were assured that "retaliation
by misguided Islamists was impossible; that our Star Wars defenses
would shield us from the Holy Crescent missiles, and that our
ever-expanding Homeland Security matrix rendered the so-called
"suitcase bombs science fiction fantasies.
Al Qaeda bided its time for
a year, and the C.C.'s WMP (Willing Majority of Patriots) believed
we had finally broken the back of the resistance. Some of us
with longer memories began to remind the many teary-eyed WMP
members among us that we had heard that song before, too often.
We were, of course, shouted down; some of us were killed off,
"disappeared", died mysteriously of mystery illnesses,
and the long list of "Fallen Heroes" continued to be
read on evening broadcasts, except now, of course, PBS devoted
a solemn hour as Gwen Ifill read and the numerous faces flashed
before us.
Al Qaeda struck last year,
on the winter solstice. Birmingham in Britain, Haifa in Israel
and San Francisco were struck with the "fictional suitcase
bombs". An hour before the simultaneous strikes, Al Zawahiri
appeared on Al Jazeera and on networks around the world. Emotionless,
he assured the world that three nuclear attacks would occur within
the hour. He repeated Al Qaeda's persistent demands: that the
C.C. withdraw all military forces and civilian support from the
Middle East; that Israel withdraw to its pre-1967 borders; that
the C.C. desist in its support of Middle East dictators and puppet
regimes. Then he added the kicker: A series of second, much
larger, "suitcase bombs" had already been placed in
C.C. cities. Unless the terms of the Final Ultimatum were met,
the bombs would be detonated in exactly one year. Armageddon,
he added, was around the corner. And Muslims, he smiled ineffably,
would be happy to make it happen.
Of course, a large number of
Christians and Jews were also happy to make it happen. The few
of us who were secret Secularists (we dared not call ourselves
Humanists any longer) had long since realized that the three
Abrahamic daughter religions were all based on an obvious death-wish.
They all worshipped Death (the way the ancient Hindus worshipped
Shiva and Kali), finding their fulfillment in an imagined world
beyond.
"Imagine there's no heaven,"
John Lennon had written, "It's easy if you try,/ No hell
below us,/ Above us only sky,/ Imagine all the people/ living
for today..."
Nevertheless, it wasn't so
easy to imagine. Certainly not easier to imagine than pie-in-the-sky,
72 virgin angels, harp-playing cherubs, or the Second Temple
rebuilt according to Masonic principles!
We have been ticking towards
doomsday for the past year, while the factions in the C.C. have
debated the wisdom of risking "nuclear winter by immediately
laying down a carpet of nuclear bombs all over the Middle East"
(O'Reilly), or, evacuating
major population centers first, heading for the hills, then laying
down a carpet of nuclear bombs all over the Middle East (Hillary
Clinton). A Kennedy School of Government Fellow informed Hillary
that the evacuation scheme sounded a bit like the Mayans abandoning
their population centers soon after the arrival of the Europeans.
Michael Moore immediately seized upon this and he has been busy
with his new documentary, "The Mayan Countdown."
Moore has been hawking his
new documentary with the ominous revelation that the Mayan Calendar
ended on the winter solstice, 2012, exactly the date the second
series of suitcases were scheduled to explode.
I have been watching these
goings-on with a mixture of aplomb and disdain. I've been playing my old LP's on my old
stereo phonograph, glad, as ever, that I invested in the diamond-head
needle decades ago, and glad that my solar panels allow me a
couple of hours of peace in the evening, in my octogonal study
in the woods.
"Imagine there's no countries",
Lennon sings. "It isn't hard to do,/ Nothing to kill or
die for,/ No religion too,/ Imagine all the people/ Living life
in peace..."
I don't know what flaw in the
gene pool made it possible to kill off the best of us, but it
seems we've brilliantly
succeeded. Whom we don't kill off, we shunt aside, while praising
the worst, lionizing false leaders and empty suits, the brutal,
vicious and base.
"Imagine no possessions,"
he croons. "I wonder if you can,/ No need for greed or
hunger,/ A brotherhood of man,/ Imagine all the people/ Sharing
all the world..."
So I am saying to you, my aliens,
if you should find this--my little introduction to this song;
if you find the Long Playing record and can make sense of it,
please know: we weren't all crazy. The best of us were star-like--not
in the cheapened word-sense we have made of things, but, really,
tiny super novae who grasped the Infinite-Eternal, and then were
gone.
You may say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one,
I hope some day you'll
join us,
And the world will live as one...
Gary Corseri has published 2 novels, 2 poetry collections,
the Manifestations anthology [edited], and his work has appeared
at CounterPunch, Common Dreams, Dissident Voice, The New York
Times, Village Voice, Redbook and elsewhere. His dramas have
been presented at PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He can be contacted
at corseri@comcast.net
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
|