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The Great Bailout Swindle
The brilliant economist Michael Hudson lays out the stupidity of Paulson’s bailout plan and the lead role in Congress of Democrats in the bankers’ plot. What happened? What should be done? Read Hudson. PLUS the complete text of Alexander Cockburn and Fred Gardner’s probe of the McCain health dossier. Find the answers in CounterPunch newsletter. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories October 10 / 12, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn October 9, 2008 Robert Bryce David Vest Winslow T. Wheeler Andy Worthington Anthony DiMaggio Helga Serrano / Dave Lindorff Mats Svensson Rannie Amiri Website of the Day October 8, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Linn Washington, Jr. Mike Whitney Deepak Tripathi George C. Wilson Andy Worthington Charles R. Larson Patrick Irelan Matthew Koehler Stanley Heller Daniel Gross Kimberly Hartke Website of the Day October 7, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Uri Avnery P. Sainath Peter Morici Conn Hallinan Martha Rosenberg Binoy Kampmark October 6, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whitney Tariq Ali Emily Horowitz Michael Hudson Ron Jacobs October 3 - 5, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Saul Landau Jonathan Cook Andy Worthington Dave Marsh Sasan Fayazmanesh John Ross Brian Cloughley Wajahat Ali Robert Schwartz Alan Nasser David Ker Thomson Peter Morici William Blum William S. Lind Michael Donnelly Thom Rutledge Manuel Garcia, Jr. Dave Lindorff Cindy Ellen Hill Paul Krassner Daniel White Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 2, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Joe Bageant Ralph Nader Mike Whitney Madis Senner Winslow T. Wheeler William Blum P. Sainath Website of the Day October 1 , 2008 Glen Ford Steven Conn Alan Maass / Lee Sustar Kenneth Couesbouc Stan Goff Adolfo Gilly Rannie Amiri Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Adam W. Parsons Dave Lindorff Douglas Valentine Adrien Rain Burke Website of the Day
September 30, 2008 Pam Martens Chris Floyd Stephen Martin Deepak Tripathi Mark Engler Jonathan Cook Dave Lindorff Manuel Garcia, Jr. Ahmad Faruqui John Chuckman David Macaray Fatemeh Keshavarz Website of the Day September 29, 2008 Mike Whitney Jeff Gibbs Paul Craig Roberts Peter Morici Tim Wise John Walsh Uri Avnery Alan Farago Andy Worthington David Michael Green Carl Finamore Iris Keltz Bill Hatch Website of the Day September 27 / 28, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Linn Washington, Jr. Christopher Ketcham Mike Whitney Kevin Alexander Gray Race in the Race: Is Obama Shining Us On? Anthony DiMaggio Mary Lynn Cramer Marc Levy / Stan Cox Saul Landau Ali Khan David Rosen Todd Alan Price Matts Svensson Ron Jacobs Robert Fantina Richard Rhames David Krieger Seth Sandronsky Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Day September 26, 2008 Moshe Adler Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook Manuel Garcia, Jr. Madis Senner Brian Cloughley Niranjan Ramakrishnan Joanne Mariner Dan La Botz David Macaray Website of the Day September 25, 2008 Michael Hudson Sharon Smith Ralph Nader Christopher Ketcham Eric Toussaint Robert Weissman David Estabrook Nikolas Kozloff Steve Early Judith Scherr Laray Polk Website of the Day September 24, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Nikolas Kozloff Robert Weissman Andy Worthington Steve Conn Karyn Strickler Diane Farsetta Dennis Loo John Halle Khalil Nakhleh Website of the Day September 23, 2008 Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. Michael Hudson Tariq Ali Patrick Dyer Franklin Lamb Joshua Frank Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Tanya M. Kerssen / Harvey Wasserman Website of the Day September 22, 2008 Michael Hudson Mike Whitney Christopher Ketcham Ron Jacobs Anne-Marie McManus Robert Weitzel Wajahat Ali John Ross Steve Breyman Patrick Bond Uri Avnery Carl J. Mayer Website of the Day September 20 / 21, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Michael Hudson Pam Martens Lila Rajiva Mike Whitney Richard Rhames Bill Moyers / Bill and Kathleen Christison Susan Block Robert Fantina Heidi Walters David Yearsley Raymond J. Lawrence David Rosen David Michael Green Anthony Papa Niranjan Ramakrishnan Howard Lisnoff John Goekler Missy Beattie Dave Zirin Charles R. Larson Tim Matson Susie Day Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend September 19, 2008 Steven T. Banko Mike Whitney Michael Hudson William Kaufman Brenda Norrell Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor Clifton Ross Dave Lindorff Cynthia McKinney Susan Hurlich Michael Donnelly Website of the Day September 18, 2008 Benjamin Dangl Harvey Wasserman Susan Abulhawa Robert Weissman Anne-Marie McManus Corey D. B. Walker William S. Lind Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day September 17, 2008 Stephen Conn Forrest Hylton Patrick Cockburn Gregory Elich Ralph Nader Franklin Lamb Pam Martens Dave Lindorff Peter Morici Stanley Heller Douglas Valentine Website of the Day September 16, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Tiphaine Dickson Stan Goff Uri Avnery Michael Winship Jeff Halper Patrick Irelan Oscar Gonzalez Binoy Kampmark Fatemeh Keshavarz Sen. Russ Feingold Website of the Day September 15, 2008 Mike Whitney Peter Morici Patrick Cockburn Charles R. Larson Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff Roger Burbach Helen Redmond David Michael Green David Macaray Ralph Nader Website of the Day
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Weekend Edition The Election, the Economy and the WarBankrupt and BelligerentBy ROBERT FANTINA While a frantic Senator John McCain is running around the country trying to link Senator Barack Obama with revolutionary activities that took place when Mr. Obama was eight years old, and while the economy of the U.S. is imploding and taking much of the world down with it, people seem to have lost sight of the fact that there are still two U.S.-spawned wars going on. Certainly, the candidates managed to mention them at their most recent debate, but most of the talk was about how each’s opponent had or hadn’t lived up to the ideal of perfection that citizens seem to want in their elected representatives, an ideal that no candidate has come anywhere near since the nation’s founding. As tragic as such things as unemployment, bankruptcy and home foreclosure are, perhaps we can once again return to the topic of war. President George Bush’s worn out clichés are still there: the war in Iraq is the central front on the war on terror; that nation threatens the security of the U.S.; more troops are needed for victory; Iraq will become a model of democracy in the Middle East, etc. etc. Each has been completely debunked, but that does not stop the president, on the rare occasions that he comes out of his house, where his lease is fast expiring, to comment to the people he has oppressed these last eight years. Does it seem that we have heard this all before? Let’s take a look at the latter part of the twentieth century. In March of 1965, General William Westmoreland cautioned that defeat in Vietnam was imminent, and recommended that the U.S. ‘take whatever actions are necessary’ in order to ‘postpone indefinitely the day of collapse.’ His recommendation included the deployment of additional combat units, what was then called ‘escalation,’ but today is called either ‘augmentation’ or, more commonly, ‘the surge.’ This resulted eventually in the huge escalation of the Vietnam War and the deaths of over 2,000,000 Vietnamese, and over 50,000 U.S. soldiers. The U.S. was nearly bankrupt as a result of that war, the country was polarized between ‘hawks’ and ‘doves,’ and its international reputation was in tatters. Sound familiar? In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon, well-known for paranoia, saw the probable election of Salvador Allende, an avowed Marxist, as president of Chile as somehow threatening to the U.S. Six years earlier the U.S., through the CIA, had spent millions to defeat Mr. Allende, and now Mr. Nixon was fearful of a Marxist president being democratically elected. With the complicity of his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger he worked to prevent Mr. Allende’s election and, failing that, sought means to prevent his inauguration. Not managing to accomplish that either, he had to be content with destabilizing his nation, and supporting an eventual coup d’etat. So much for democratic elections. In 1983, the government of the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada was overthrown. President Ronald Reagan, possibly still smarting from the U.S. defeat in Vietnam, needed to flex American muscle to show that the U.S. was still a military leader. In Operation Urgent Fury (why on earth does the U.S. insist on naming its invasions? And who comes up with these idiotic names?), the U.S. invaded Grenada ostensibly to protect U.S. medical students in that nation. However, on October 29 of that same year, the following was reported in the New York Times:
The U.S. needed a victory, and it would manufacture one, if necessary. Today, Mr. McCain persists in his opinion that the U.S. must ‘win’ in Iraq. His definition of victory is elusive; he never expounds on it, being content to let the word ‘win’ entice his audience. Even Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, is looking for an end to the U.S. presence in his nation, agreeing with Mr. Obama on a sixteen month timeframe for withdrawal. This is one difference between Iraq in 2008 and Vietnam in 1972. At that time, Vietnam’s president Nguyen Van Thieu predicted to Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird that “the war would go on for many years and that we should be talking about U.S. participation.” What can be learned from these few examples of U.S. foreign policy? Perhaps one lesson is how misnamed is the title ‘Secretary of Defense.’ In nearly all situations in which the U.S. has invoked military action, it has been offensive rather than defensive. Even though the mask of defense is generally used to camouflage the real intent, a cursory investigation is all that is required to reveal the truth. With all the talk about the economy, one still needs to keep an eye on Mr. Bush’s intentions toward Iran and Cuba. And it is not only Mr. Bush who presents a danger there; at the most recent presidential debate, both candidates affirmed their belief that Iran must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. It was somewhat ironic to hear Mr. McCain blather on about how the U.S. is the greatest force for good in the world, despite its long and ugly history of racism, genocide and imperialism, and then state that Iran must not have the same weapons that the U.S. has been stockpiling for years. In 1969 Mr. Nixon considered using those weapons during Operation Duck Hook (see comment above about ridiculous names for military operations). Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, but why is Iran’s possible possession of nuclear weapons so much more dangerous than the U.S.’s possession of them? During the debate, Mr. McCain was highly critical of Mr. Obama’s reasonable, sensible statement that the U.S. meet with the leaders of Iran, Cuba and other nations it considers hostile. He said that such meetings should only occur following the agreement of preconditions set by the U.S. Mr. Obama responded by saying it is as important that the U.S. talk to its friends as to its enemies. If one wants to consider the consequences of not talking to the U.S.’s ‘enemies,’ one only has to look at the situation the world is currently in due to the U.S.’s failure to do just that. The presidential election is less than a month away. Current indications are that Mr. Obama will make history by being the first African-American elected to the presidency. Should that be the case one fervently hopes that he will honor his commitment to withdraw from Iraq; to meet with nations who, frequently with every good reason, are hostile to the U.S., and will take other steps to right the grievous wrongs the U.S. has committed at least within the last eight years. Its long history of crimes cannot be undone by one president, but at least some of the horrific damage inflicted by the incompetent, oil-lusting and power-mad Mr. Bush can be undone. If, on the other hand, Mr. McCain is elected, the world can expect the same macho belligerency that it has witnessed under Mr. Bush. The nation somehow has survived the eight years of the Bush reign, but with the economy imploding, the outlook for relief dim, and two unwinnable wars raging, four years under Mr. McCain will only prolong the suffering. By then it may be too late to turn back. Robert Fantina is author of 'Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776--2006.
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