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Today's
Stories
October 15,
2004
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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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October 15, 2004
News from a
Swing State
Does
Anyone Here Have a Spine?
By
MICHAEL DONNELLY
I guess it was bound to happen. We now
have striking proof that what passes for the various progressive
movements here in Oregon Has morphed into a mindless pro-Kerry
movement.
The same nonprofit, pro-Democrat
professionals and political careerists who gave us the bankrupt
ABB virus have shed all pretenses and sent out a letter under
the auspices of something called United Progressives for Victory.
Here's the offending missive
and my responses:
An Open Letter to Oregon
Progressive Voters from United Progressives for Victory
This election is about ending
the reign of George Bush, who is intent on dismantling and destroying
all that we have worked for years to achieve. This election is
about the continued survival of progressive values in American
political life.
MD: Somehow by unconditionally
surrendering to the party that has recently done all it could
to dismantle the New Deal will help the survival of progressive
values?
For years we have fought
for social and economic justice, for access to health care, for
a cleaner environment, for better education for our children
and for better jobs for our workers. We have opposed economic
and environmental racism, discrimination against gays and lesbians,
and have fought against the ever-stronger influence of corporate
interests over government decision-making.
Economic Justice--Kerry has
voted for NAFTA, GATT, WTO, PNTR with China and Vietnam, etc.
Health Care--Kerry has no record
whatsoever after 20 years in the Senate regarding reforming health
care. The incoherent "plan" he touted at the third
debate would leave over 20 million Americans without health coverage.
Cleaner Environment--when the
New England cod fishery collapsed, Kerry fought against limits
and railed against bad science taking the anti-environment
position in backyard issues and pro-environemnt stands on issues
far away--much like that ineffective, unpleasant, "progressive"
signer of the letter Rep. Peter DeFazio does on environmental
issues other than Timber Policy in Oregon.
Better Education
Kerry voted FOR the No Child Left Behind Act.
Antigay and Lesbian Discrimination
Kerry has forcefully come out against Gay Marriage and
did so yet again in the third debate.
Corporate influence Kerry
has been a top recipient of corporate cash for years. A detailed
analysis of Kerry's
corporate funders was published by In These Times. Kerry
has garnered over $1.2 million per day since the Super Tuesday
Primaries. It's virtually ALL corporate cash. Economist
writers John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge concluded "The
Democrats are marginally less addicted to corporate largesse
than the K Street conservatives at the helm of the Republican
Party, but only in the way that a cokehead is in less trouble
than a heroin junkie."
And massive amounts of questionable
pro-Democrat corporate moneys have been pumped into environmental
and peace groups in support of Kerry's campaign. George Soros
alone pumped $10 million into the liberal front group Americans
Coming Together (ACT) and then garnered a similar total from
his cronies. Soros has put and estimated $30 million of his money
into projects designed to influence the vote towards Kerry, including
over $5 million to another liberal anti-Bush activist group,
MoveOn.org.
We've yet to find out who anonymously
donated over $100 million to the Sierra Club, one of the most
obvious pro-Democrat fronts.
Another four years of George
Bush is four more years of right-wing conservatives coming back
to finish the job of destroying our environmental and consumer
protections, weakening our public education and civil liberties,
taking away a woman's right to choose, sending jobs overseas
and taking away from working families to give tax breaks to the
rich.
Again, Kerry was one of 74
Senators who voted to repeal Welfare. He voted FOR Justice Scalia's
appointment to the Supreme Court. And Kerry not only voted for
it, he even brags about writing parts of the Patriot Act.
As to Choice, I simply cannot
decipher what Kerry's muddled position is here, other than he
sure uses the issue every time it's brought up to cite his Catholic
connection to JFK.
Republicans want to stay
in power and they're using whatever means necessary, including
circulating petitions to get Ralph Nader on the ballot and sending
him thousands of dollars to support his campaign. And they are
still using Ralph Nader today to divide and conquer the progressive
vote, with their support of a Nader write-in campaign in Oregon.
Puhleeze! "Whatever means
necessary?" The Democrat Secretary of State in Oregon made
up rules to disenfranchise over 10,000 petition signers in order
to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot. Pro-Kerry union goons intimidated
Nader petitioners, including knocking on doors at night and threatening
people.
We say to all progressive
voters in Oregon: Don't fall for the dirty tricks of the right
wing!
I agree. Never fall for the
dirty tricks of either branch of the right-wing?
We share Ralph's passion
for America's workers and consumers. We stand with him in demanding
that all Americans must have access to healthcare. We agree with
him that we have to work to keep our economy strong, our children
healthy, our communities safe and to make corporations respect
the laws of our nation. We, too, value a more peaceful world
where America is respected again.
But we will not vote for
him this election. It is too close and too important to risk
our future on a vote for Ralph that will give George Bush four
more years to destroy the causes we care about. So we will not
be writing in Ralph Nader's name on November 2. We will be casting
our ballots for John Kerry and John Edwards.
Vote for whomever you wish.
But, quit perpetuating the lie that Nader and Nader voters cost
Democrats. 350,000 registered Democrats voted for Bush in Florida;
Gore won; the Democrats rolled over and went along with the coup.
Does that deserve support? I think not.
The epistle ends on this sour
note:
Your vote is your voice
this election. Make both of them heard loud and clear. Stand
with us. Support Ralph Nader's legacy by voting for John Kerry.
Together we will be the difference in the United States in 2004.
Kerry's
War Flip Flop Trifecta
What insulting crap. They didn't
even mention Kerry's rabid pro-war stance or the Democrats' Military
Pageant of a Convention. So, I will. Here's a sampling of Kerry
quotes from the First Debate:
"And I'm going to lead
those troops to victory."
"I will never let those
troops down, and will hunt and kill the terrorists wherever they
are."
"I'm going to get it right
for those soldiers, because it's important to Israel, it's important
to America, it's important to the world, it's important to the
fight on terror."
Yep. That's right in
that order. But, that doesn't stop Peace Advocates from pimping
for him.
He gets a trifecta on wars
he has been on all sides of when you add in his comments on the
invasion of Grenada where he first said in his 1984 Senate campaign:
"The invasion represented a bully's show of force against
a Third World nation. The invasion only served to heighten world
tensions."
And then this year he told
the same Boston Globe that the Grenada invasion was among the
ones he supported. "I was dismissive of the majesty of the
invasion of Grenada, but I basically was supportive. I never
publicly opposed it," he said.
It's bad enough that the unbalanced
Rep. Peter DeFazio is on the list of signers. Yet, perhaps the
most enlightening thing about how fear-driven these self-proclaimed
progressives are is that Harry Lonsdale is signed on here with
many of the very same folks who stabbed him in the back and founded
the 1990 Democrats for Hatfield when Lonsdale ran against the
corrupt senator, who
himself recently wrote a commentary in favor of the war,
to the delight of his right-wing evangelical brethren and no
comment at all from his former peace movement backers.
I remember vividly the anti-Lonsdale
attacks of some of these same folks. Oregon PeaceWorks' longtime
editor and board member Peter Bergel, one of the Hatfield supporters
behind the 1990 effort to undermine Lonsdale, is a prominent
signer of the document. But, then again, it was Green Party member
Lonsdale who first surrendered and defined the vacant ABB position
back in February in a
widely distributed opinion piece.
The Company
They Keep
We have a major crisis here
in Oregon centered squarely on the Democratic Party. The Democrats
have held the governorship for 15 years of steady decline and
the rot is palpable. In addition to Secretary of Disenfranchisement
Bradbury's antidemocratic actions, the godfather of Oregon Democrats,
former Governor Neil Goldschmidt, has recently admitted to a
past years-long rape of a teenager -- only after the state's
major newspaper was about to release its findings. No one in
the Democratic Party -- even though many in the party's inner
circles knew of the rape all along, including current Governor
and Goldschmidt protege Ted Kulongoski -- cut ties with Goldschmidt
or exposed him. To her credit, state Sen. Vicki Walker (D-Eugene)
did take it on and helped break the story this year. Too bad
she signed on to the letter, as well.
Three-term Democratic Congressman
David Wu has even more recently admitted to perpetrating a sexual
assault while in college -- again, only after the newspaper printed
it.
We're not talking consensual
sex a la Clinton here. We're talking sexual assaults -- going
unexposed and unpunished for years. The Republicans forced Jack
Ryan out of running for Senate in Illinois simply because he
took his wife to a sex club! What if he'd been an Oregon Democrat?
Goldschmidt, his current wife
and others have also been implicated in schemes to fleece the
state's public employee pension fund (PERS) and the quasi-private
occupational accident insurance fund (SAIF). Yet, the silence
of these same "progressives" on all this has been deafening.
Instead of taking on such corruption and criminality, they join
here with members of the very same complicit Democratic Party
establishment and go after Nader.
In the end, this has a lot
more to do with perceived political access and grant money than
it has to do with the issues raised -- obviously. Somehow, all
these people who consider themselves progressives have morphed
into backers of a pro-War, pro-corporate opportunist.
Guess I'm no longer a "progressive."
MICHAEL DONNELLY of Salem, OR is a longtime forest
activist. He is a contributor to CounterPunch's new book on the
2004 elections, A
Dime's Worth of Difference. He can be reached at pahtoo@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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