Today's Stories

March 24, 2009

Robert Sandels
Obama and Cuba: Real Change or Minor Tweaks?

March 23, 2009

M. Shahid Alam
Capitalism From the Standpoint of Its Victims

Uri Avnery
Israel's Most Revolting Law?

Mike Whitney
Zombie Economics: Judgment Day for Geithner

Ralph Nader
Bush the Teacher

Brian Cloughley
Tilting at Afghan Windmills

Dave Lindorff
Toxic Bailouts

Amira Hass
The Rules of Engagement in Gaza: Open Fire on Rescuers

Chris Irwin
When Nonprofit Groups Go Bad

Binoy Kampmark
The Celebrity of Celebrity

Michael Dickinson
Tollbridge Over Troubled Waters

Website of the Day
State of the Birds

March 20-22, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
On the Edge of the Volcano

Paul Craig Roberts
When Things Fall Apart

P. Sainath
Slumdogs vs. Billionaires

Robert Weissman
Lessons From AIG

Saul Landau
Sliding Down in Anger: If We Bail Out the Banks, Why Shouldn't We Own Them?

David Michael Green
Obama and the Altar of Greed

Greg Moses
Winter Soldiers Come to Texas

Ron Jacobs
Pakistan in Turmoil: an Interview with Farooq Tariq

Michael D. Yates
A Nation of Immigrants

John V. Whitbeck
Happy New Year, Iran!

Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Zuhair

Linn Washington Jr.
Supreme Test: the Latest Twist in the Mumia Case

David Ker Thomson
Actions: Things to Do Instead of Hailing the Chief

Laurent Jacque
Is the Euro Doomed?

Rannie Amiri
The Middle East's Jittery Monarchies

Reiko Redmonde /
Larry Everest
The Cold-Blooded Murder of Oscar Grant

David Macaray
The Myth of the Powerful Teachers' Union

Kenneth Couesbouc
Where has the Consumption Gone?

Martha Rosenberg
Meltdown in the Drug Industry

Alan Farago
The Recession, the Developers and Baseball

Missy Beattie
Still Waiting for Change

Richard Rhames
Invisible But Not Completely Insolvent

Stephen Martin
Barack and the Jets

Charles R. Larson
Impeach Obama!

David Yearsley
On Bach's Birthday

Lorenzo Wolff
Manic Levity

Poets' Basement
Three Poems by Gary Corseri

Website of the Weekend
Teachers for CEO Merit Pay!

March 19, 2009

Dave Marsh
Sir Bono: the Knight Who Fled From His Own Debate

Paul Craig Roberts
Was the Bailout Itself a Scam?

Mike Whitney
Why Business is Hysterical About Card Check (And Why America Needs It)

Sam Smith
The Economy in Two Eras of Democrats

Harvey Wasserman
The Crash of France's Nuclear Poster Child

Binoy Kampmark
Back Into NATO: the End of French Exceptionalism

Kathy Sanborn
Broken Culture: the Desecration of Iraq's Art Treasures

Christopher Brauchli
Taxing Problems

George Wuerthner
Permanent Damage From Temporary Logging Roads

Diann Rust-Tierney
New Mexico Abolishes the Death Penalty

Website of the Day
Bailout Plan: "Cross Your Fingers and Hope"

March 18, 2009

Michael Hudson
The Real AIG Conspiracy

Paul Craig Roberts
Israel's American Chattel

Nelson P. Valdés
Why Obama's New Cuba Rules Violate the Constitution

Jonathan Cook
Bedouin Villages Left in the Dark Ages

John Ross
The Death of the American Newspaper

Yifat Susskind
Where Are We Leaving Iraqi Women?

Dave Lindorff
Who's Calling the Shots Now?

Frances Moore Lappé
The City That Ended Hunger

Richard Grossman
Beware the Madoff Diversion!

Rev. William E. Alberts
On Being Whole Not Holy

Website of the Day
Three Weeks in Cuba: a Painter's Perspective

March 17, 2009

Michael Hudson
Mr. Bernanke Spreads the Fire

James G. Abourezk
Show Business: AIG and the Posturing Democrats

Harry Browne
Ireland's Blast From the Past

Joanne Mariner
U.S. Human Rights Abuses in the War on Terror

Alan Farago
The National Ponzi Scheme

Dean Baker
Getting Lehman Bros. Wrong ... Again

Peter Morici
Cuts for Autoworkers, Bonuses for Derivatives Traders

Bill and Kathleen Christison
Obama and the Empire

Richard Gott
Victory for the Left in El Salvador

Walter Brasch
Dog Mutilations vs. Cosmetics

Website of the Day
Single-Payer Action

March 16, 2009

Pam Martens
Has a Comedian Just Saved America?

Uri Avnery
The Rape of Washington

Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Witness Protection Program

Ralph Nader
Americans Want Justice for Wall Street Crooks

Nikolas Kozloff
Down But Not Out: the Latin American Right

John Walsh
Redbaiting on the Left

Ron Jacobs
A Call for Common Sense

Binoy Kampmark
The Case of Tim K

Stephen Fleischman
Coxey's Army Will March Again!

Christian Christensen
A 25-Year Misunderstanding: Springsteen's "Born in the USA"

Scott Handleman
Shooting Tristan Anderson

Website of the Day
Clean, Green, Sustainable

March 13 / 15, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Parable of the Shopping Mall

Peter Lee
What the Chas Freeman Fight Was Really About

Diana Johnstone
NATO's Global Mission Creep

David Harvey
Is This Really the End of Neoliberalism?

Petrino DiLeo
Inside Obama's Housing Plan: Will Millions be Left Out in the Cold

David Ker Thomson
Tender to the Earth

Eric Ruder
Massacre in Slow Motion: an Interview with Haider Eid on Gaza

Fred Gardner
Cannabidiol Now!

David Yearsley
Music Torture

Saul Landau
How Israel Gives Jews a Bad Name

Laura Carlsen
Drug War Doublespeak

Robert Weissman
We Told You So

John Goekler /
Merle Lefkoff
The Struggle in Saffron

Tom Barry
Imprisoning Immigrants for Profit

Kathy Sanborn
Money Out of Thin Air

Chris Mobley / Leela Yellesetty
Criminalizing Poverty: the Jail Seattle Doesn't Need

David Michael Green
The Perils of Being Right and Wrong

Alan Maass /
Lee Sustar
A Socialist Moment?

Christopher Brauchli
Pity, the Poor Tax Collectors

Richard Morse
Clinton in Haiti

Lorenzo Wolff
Taking It From the Streets: From Springsteen to the Wu-Tang Clan

Poets' Basement
Springate and Johnston

Website of the Weekend
Hear the Buffalo

March 12 , 2009

Sharon Smith
Bottom Feeders at the Trough

Christopher Ketcham
Full Spectrum Penetration: Israeli Spying in the United States

Mike Whitney
Haircut Time for Bondholders

Ray McGovern
Obama Caves to the Lobby

Eric Toussaint /
Damien Millet
The Doublespeak of a Discredited IMF

John Ross
The War is Not Over

M. Reza Pirbhai
Men in Black: Another View of Pakistan

Chris Floyd
Lost Liberty Blues: Prisons, Profits and the Banality of Evil

Steve Early
Why Labor Doesn't Need a "House of Lords"

Quentin Gee
Hiding the Costs of Coal

Website of the Day
Amadee Coral Reef: a Spherical Panorama

March 11 , 2009

Mike Roselle
From Birmingham to Coal River: Why is the Environmental Movement So Timid?

Paul Craig Roberts
The Criminal Injustice System

Henry A. Giroux
Academic Labor in Dark Times

Nikolas Kozloff
The Death Cries of the Salvadoran Right

Norm Kent
I am Patient Number 380206011

Mitu Sengupta
Reforming the World Bank: Different Image, Same Tune?

Ludwig Watzal
The Structure of Israel's Occupation

David Macaray
The Battle Over EFCA Has Begun

William S. Lind
Rounding Up the Usual Suspects

Martha Rosenberg
A Merger From the Folks Who Brought You Vytorin

Website of the Day
American Indicator: One in Fifty Kids are Homeless

March 10 , 2009

Franklin Spinney
What Israeli Peace Process?

Vijay Prashad
What Did Hillary Clinton Do?

Stan Cox
There's No Free Lunch on Your Browser: the Internet's Energy Drain

Zoltan Grossman
Coffee Strong: Listening to the G.I. Voice at Fort Lewis

Reuven Kaminer
Pure and Unadulterated Racism

Jonathan Cook
Memoricide in the West Bank

Dave Lindorff
Business Rules

Brian McKenna
How Anthropology Disparages Journalism

Harvey Wasserman
Is This the End of the Age of the Automobile?

Corey Pein
He Told You So

Website of the Day
AIG and Systemic Failure: $1.6 Trillion in Insured Deriviatives

March 9 , 2009

Pam Martens
Madoff and the Sorkin Affair

Ralph Nader
Too Big...Period

Peter Lee
Meet Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: the US's Worst/Best Hope for Afghanistan?

Mike Whitney
Geithner's Charade

Peter Morici
Fixing the Banks: Treasury's Doomed Strategy

Dean Baker
Why Do We Need a Private Health Insurance Industry, Anyway?

Steve Ault
Kiss Thailand's Tolerance for Gays Goodbye

Stephen Lendman
Guantánamo Under Obama

Farooq Sulehria
Tennis Without Spectators

Belén Fernández
Chávez, a Cockfight and the Caracazo

Website of the Day
How Lincoln Learned to Read

March 6-8 , 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Harlots High and Low

Chris Floyd
Tangled Up in Karl

Uri Avnery
Remember Ophira?

Dave Lindorff
Kiss the Banks Goodbye

Mark Weisbrot
The Crisis vs. the Dogma

David Ker Thomson
Against Work

Phil Aliff
Soldier Suicides

Rebekah Ward
Georgia Injustice: Another Young Life Wrecked

Tracey Briggs
How Capitalism Feels in the Head

Dean Baker
Depression Nostalgia?

Daniel P. Wirt, M.D.
Remove the Handle From the Health Insurance Misery and Death Pump

Carl Finamore
The Recovery Plan: Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us

Wajahat Ali
The Pakistani Monster

David Michael Green
Smart is the New Stupid

David Macaray
The Minimum Wage Revisited

Michael Dickinson
On Financial Fools Day

Susie Day
Line in the Sand

Bob Sommer
Echoes of the Townhouse Explosion

Ben Sonnenberg
No Forgiveness for the Bourgeoisie: Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel"

David Yearsley
Sonic Fakery in "Slumdog" From the Mozart of Chennai

DC Larson
They're Writing Those Depression Songs, Again

Lorenzo Wolff
Live Truth: Music Sans Headphones

Poets' Basement
Dominquez, MacNeil and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
The Environment & Obama: a Conversation with Jeffrey St. Clair

March 5 , 2009

James G. Abourezk
This Time It's Mrs. Clinton's Turn

Kathleen and Bill Christison
U.S. Military Aid to Israel

Robert Weissman
Wall Street's Best Investment: Paying for Public Policy

Patrick Cockburn
My Day at the Terror "Charity"

William Blum
Being Serious About Torture...Or Not

Robert Fantina
From Iraq to Afghanistan: Augmentation All Over Again

Saul Landau
The Unseen Crisis

Benjamin Dangl
Striking a Blow Against the Beer Cartel: a Grassroots Victory in Utah

Christopher Brauchli
The New Leaders of the GOP

Website of the Day
The Angola 3: 36 Years of Solitude

March 4, 2009

Marjorie Cohn
Blueprints for a Police State

Mike Whitney
Blowing Up the Economy: How Securitization Lit the Fuse

Ron Jacobs
The Banality of Occupation: the Rand Papers

Ashley Smith
War by Another Name

Joanne Mariner
Obama's War on Terror

Dan Bacher
The California Water Wars: Why It's Not a Conflict Between Fish and People

Mark Engler
Will the Winds of Change Reach El Salvador?

Franklin Lamb
"What's Hezbollah Done for Us Lately?"

Cal Winslow
Slugging It Out in California

David Mandelzys
Apartheid Week

Website of the Day
Guantánamo: the Definitive Prisoner List

March 3, 2009

Conn Hallinan
Ethnic Cleansing and Israel

Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Long, Dark Night of Pakistan

Brian M. Downing
The Changing Game in Afghanistan

Robert Larson
External Damnation: Companies are Designed for Destruction

Daniel P. Wirt, MD
Single-Payer Health Reform

Russell Mokhiber
Burn Your Health Insurance Bill!

William Loren Katz
Obama, One Ape and Two Newspapers

Kathy Sanborn
The Lazy Man's Guide to the Economic Crisis

Pauline Imbach
A New Start for the World Social Forum?

Christopher Ketcham
The Best Journalism You'll Write is Priceless

Website of the Day
The Surveillance Self-Defense Project

March 2, 2009

Andrea Peacock
A Poisoned Town's Shot at Justice

Paul Craig Roberts
Obama's Budget

Peter Lee
Pakistan Lurches Toward the Abyss

John Blair
Locking Down Big Coal

Peter Morici
Treasury's Flawed Plan for Citigroup

Uri Avnery
10 Ways to Kill Fatah

Michael Donnelly
Resistance to the War on the Wild

Fred Gardner
The Judge Who Ruled Marijuana is Medicine

Sonia Nettnin
Middle East Medical Mission Heroes

Andrew Lehman
A New Deal for the Web

Website of the Day
Pentagon Papers II?

Eric Holder and the Whitewashing of Racism

Tom Barry
Napolitano's Hard Line

Harvey Wasserman
Obama's Excellent Atomic Omission

Adam Turl
The Enemies of Unions and the Lies They Tell

David Macaray
When People are Fired Illegally

James McEnteer
Rush to the Rescue: Limbaugh's Secret Plan to Save the Economy

Website of the Day
The Carbon Casino

March 24, 2009

The Road to DC

Obama's Team of Losers

By MICHAEL DONNELLY

Back in December, I wrote that “Change we can believe in” was looking suspiciously like Clinton III. I promised I would revisit the issue once there were more points on the data line. Now that we’re 28 years and two months into the “Reagan Revolution,” I’m ready to assess.

One and Done

My brother suggested keeping a list of positive “Changes” coming out of the Obama Administration. I'm into credit where due, so I started one. Granted it’s only been two months, but the list is rather short: a seeming retreat from the insane anti-medical cannabis government position that saw DEA agents raiding California dispensaries and depriving sick people of their medicine; trials, at least, for Gitmo prisoners; suspending (but not killing) funding for Yucca Mountain; allowing Stem Cell research and…not much else. When one adds in the critical non-changes at Defense and the Treasury, the picture is very bleak, indeed.

I was ready to add Michelle Obama’s Spring Equinox planting of a Kitchen Garden at the White House to the positive change list – an idea I fully support. But, then Alexander Cockburn immediately pointed out the idiocy of advocating fresh, home-grown vegetables while appointing a Monsanto whore as Secretary of Agriculture.

The appointment of former Iowa governor tom Vilsack, the first 2008 presidential primary contender to withdraw (and then go on to support Hilary Clinton) represents no change at all from the pattern of appointing Agriculture Secretaries from a pool of former farm state administrators – every one tied to the Genetically Modified food giants.

Aside from the fact that not a single true progressive has been even considered by the administration for any position, we have Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff – the only guy around who can make Snakehead Carville seem human. We have Hillary Clinton at State. We have the smug crook Timothy Geithner - who with a pack of the greedy idiots drove the economy over the cliff, retained to continue pillaging the Treasury and lining the pockets of their co-conspirators with tax dollars – consumer credit did not “start flowing again,” as advertised, but Timmy’s bankster buddies at Goldman Sachs got $12.9 billion of AIG’s first round of corporate welfare – the largest known hand-off of the taxpayer AIG funds to come to light, but that’s sure to be surpassed.

Of course, Timmy G. himself failed to pay $44,000 in taxes from when he was employed by the IMF. That oversight was seen as no problem by the compliant Senate who confirmed him on a 60-34 vote (yes, I’ll go out on a limb here and predict criminal charges for Timmy G., and/or Benny B., their godfather Robert Rubin and capo Larry Summers before this is over. If not, then I predict a one-term presidency for Obama and the return of the Bush Crime Family to helm an even more dangerous, bankrupt Empire.)

Left on the Bench

Vilsack, Geithner, Emmanuel et al., at least got their jobs. Even the inept Janet Napolitano now heads up Fatherland, er Homeland Security. What about the rest of President Obama’s appointments?

Retired four-star Marine General Anthony C. Zinni, former Imperial commander in the Middle East and a fierce critic of the original Iraq Invasion plan, was promised the job as Ambassador to Iraq in late January. He even met with Secretary of State Clinton and she promised the job. VP Joe Biden, a guy who’s “I’m smarter than you” hubris is in the same league with Geithner and Summers, sent his congrats.

The general, who had the audacity to call for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld back in the run-up to the invasion, was ultimately bounced from consideration. The out-spoken general, not one to go down without a fight, wrote in an e-mail “As a sorry offer to placate me, they offered ambassador to Saudi. I told them to stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

Charles Freeman was ousted as candidate to head the National Intelligence Council. The bleating from some of the braver Dems (read: non-office holders or ones from safe Districts) is that Freeman was another victim of the always-odious Israel Lobby. True enough. Yet, a quick examination shows that Freeman must not have been vetted. He was already under investigation by the Office of National Intelligence’s Inspector General due to his unsavory financial ties to China and Iran.

Freeman had been serving on the International Advisory Board of CNOOC, China’s state-owned oil company. During the election, the Obama Campaign made noise about Charlie Black, a senior McCain advisor. The lobbyist Black held CNOOC as one of his clients, which led to condemnations from the Obama Campaign that "many of his (McCain’s) top advisors lobbied for companies (CNOOC) doing business with Iran or otherwise have a vested interest in Iran."

Yet, while Freeman sat on the advisory board just last year, CNOOC was given sanctions by the US Treasury Department due to its involvement with drug trafficking and worker abuse in Burma.

At the same time that Freeman was cut loose, we found out that Obama’s aptly-named “Urban Czar” nominee Adolfo Carrion accepted free home remodeling from architects and contractors while he served as Bronx borough president. Once again, it’s hard to see how he was vetted, given the issue surfaced as far back as November 2006.

The Tax Bracket

Then there is the cadre of tax-cheats. Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk made it through hearings to become the nation’s chief trade negotiator. But, the hearing process uncovered “errors” that resulted in Kirk paying an additional $10,000 in taxes. Fair enough; plenty of people make errors on their taxes given our arcane tax laws.

But, a pattern has emerged: “pay-to-play,” but don’t pay your taxes.

Former Senator Tom Daschle was picked to lead “Health Care Reform” as Secretary of Health and Human Services. It quickly emerged that he owed over $146,000 in unpaid taxes due on the millions he garnered in the lucrative ex-Senator market in just three years. He eventually withdrew.

Nancy Killifer, picked by Obama to be “Performance Officer” ended up withdrawing the same day due to her own tax issues. She amazingly wrote upon resigning, “I have also come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid.”

Gee, only in the “current environment” is such stuff a problem? Said “current environment” meaning exposure as opposed to the usual “environment” of what? The one where it’s OK for government officials to not pay their taxes as long as it doesn’t distract?
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was benched as Commerce Secretary nominee after it came out that he was under Grand Jury investigation for “pay-to-play” corruption – the same charge that ousted Ill. Governor Blagojevich – the first time “pay-to-play’ tarnished the administration. Though, it’s not the last of even that one as Obama’s Senate replacement chosen by Blagojevich, Roland Burris, has the familiar stench of “pay-to-play” wafting about him and calls for resignation abound.

March Madness

On March 5, we saw another two-fer: two Obama nominees withdrew as Daschle and Killifer did on the same day in early February. The smarmy, fact-challenged Sanjay Gupta withdrew from consideration for Surgeon General, the nation’s top health care official, making it oh-for-two (Daschle) when it comes to Obama’s grand plan for health care “reform.”

The TV doctor Gupta, a Big Pharma/Health Care toady if there ever was one, was depantsed by Michael Moore after Gupta perjured his way through an attack on Moore’s “Sicko.” It was an easily disproved, deceitful attempt to whitewash corporate wrong-doers.

Annette Nazareth, a long-time toothless watchdog for the Securities and Exchange Commission was well on her way to becoming yet another of the failed economic “experts” Obama decided were the best available to deal with the crisis they created. Her “personal decision” to withdraw as Timmy G.’s deputy is also said to do with problems with her taxes.

And, then there is that other strange two-fer, the bizarre Judd Gregg nomination and Friday the 13th withdrawal. Obama tapped the conservative GOP senator to replace Richardson as Commerce Secretary nominee. Something must have come up in the vetting process, as Gregg simultaneously announced he would not seek Senate reelection in 2010.

Team Obama: The new Washington Generals

Just what is going on? Even ignoring the utter lack of any progressive values as indicated by these nominations, can it be that we’ve elected a president who’s a very bad judge of character; an administration that seemingly cannot vet a White House groundskeeper, much less the people necessary to bring about real “change?”

Instead of “change,” we have a record now of retained war-mongers and rejected anti-invasion/occupation generals; retained Wall Street crooks; tax cheat Democrat cronyism; and an administration where the Israel Lobby picks (Emmanuel) or rejects (Freeman) candidates for government offices.

The famed pick-up basketball player in the White House has assembled a team not unlike the Washington Generals, doomed to constant defeat at the hands of New York-based Globetrotters.

As the 97-year-old great coach John Wooden once said, “Sports do not build character; they reveal it.”

And, who one picks as teammates reveals volumes.

PS By sticking to the conservative approach and primarily picking 13 of the top 16 seeds, Obama’s NCAA bracket has 14 of the 16 teams left in contention. Only two of the top 16 teams have lost and Obama called one of those correctly.

MICHAEL DONNELLY notes that Wooden also said, “It’s not who starts the game, but who finishes it.” With many of Obama’s worst “starters” sidelined; maybe things will improve, maybe not. He’ll monitor the Generals’ record and report back. He can be reached at pahtoo@aol.com

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