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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! How Cops Extort Confessions;
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
How Cops Extort Confessions;
How the U.S. “Justice System” Really WorksNinety-two per cent of felony convictions in the U.S. are obtained by plea bargains or confessions. Without them the “justice system” would grind to a halt. In an important piece in our latest newsletter, available only to subscribers, Emily Horowitz shows how totally innocent people will “confess” under police pressure, even without physical torture. Horowitz outlines the powerful case for banning confessions altogether. Also in this new edition Marcus Rediker, co-author of the legendary The Many Headed Hydra, writes of popular heroism and resistance in the favelas of Medellin, Colombia. Alexander Cockburn reports on how America’s oldest bank, patronized by the global elites, washed billions smuggled out of Russia, and how the Russians might win their money back, shaking the world’s banking system if they do so. Serge Halimi describes the real battle for the soul of Europe. 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 August 11, 2008 Ishmael Reed August 9 / 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Bruce Jackson Kevin Young Chris Floyd Joshua Frank Robert Fantina Brendan Cooney Mark Almond Lois Gibbs Rev. William Alberts Kathy Kelly John Ross David Michael Green Bill Moyers / Ron Jacobs Richard Rhames David Yearsley Lee Sustar Brenda Norrell Ben Terrall Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 8, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Manuel Garcia, Jr. M. Shahid Alam Andy Worthington Lawrence J. Korb David Model Alan Farago Diop Olugbala Firmin DeBrabander Website of the Day August 7, 2008 Dr. Trudy Bond William Blum Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Robert Weitzel Jacob G. Hornberger Binoy Kampmark David Macaray Howard Lisnoff Website of the Day August 6, 2008 Marc Herold Greg Moses Sheldon Rampton Kevin Young Michael Estrada Robert Weissman Dr. Susan Block Cindy Sheehan Ace Hoffman Website of the Day August 5, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Jeff Halper Patrick Cockburn Nancy Welch Peter Morici Sousan Hammad Eamon Martin Shepherd Bliss Tim Matson Website of the Day August 4, 2008 Uri Avnery Saul Landau David W. Remington Rev. Jesse Jackson Dave Lindorff Peter Morici Joanne Mariner Ramzy Baroud Christian Wright Website of the Day August 2 / 3, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler James Abourezk Andy Worthington Brian Cloughley Robert Fantina Benjamin Dangl Marlene Martin David Yearsley Fatemeh Keshavarz David Michael Green Obama as Dukakis Harvey Wasserman Jason Hribal Phyllis Pollack Laray Polk Ron Jacobs David Macaray David Rosen Dan Bacher Joe Allen Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 1, 2008 Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff Rannie Amiri Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli M. K. Bhadrakumar Patrick Cockburn James J. Brittain Dan Bacher Website of the Day
July 31, 2008 Michael Hudson Carl Finamore Mike Whitney Joshua Frank Andy Worthington Ralph Nader Bill Moyers / Robert Weissman Dave Lindorff Website of the Day July 30, 2008 Brian M. Downing Chuck Spinney William S. Lind David Ker Thomson Karl Grossman Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg James Murren Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Website of the Day July 29, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair John Ross Peter Morici Alison Weir Gary Leupp David Macaray Brenda Norrell Marjorie Cohn Eric Ruder Website of the Day July 28, 2008 Dr. Bryant Welch Kathy Kelly Mike Whitney Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli Clifton Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
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August 11, 2008 From Berlin to BeijingThe Olympic Spectacle and the New ChinaBy ALAN FARAGO Hitler's spin machine used the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games to show off his nation's muscular ambition. We all know what happened next. In its opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China's leaders seemed to say to the world: never mind what has come before, ours is a new nation based on China's own unique achievements. They did not need to say that the $40 billion invested in the Games was a rounding error from the most rapid transfer of national wealth in history; from consumer nations to China's national treasury. I've never been a fan of televised extravaganzas. They always seem filler material for events or between commercials, seeking to persuade us to buy products we can't live without. But I suspected that the $300 million opening ceremony would be a horse of a different color. Along with the world-wide audience estimated at 4 billion, I wasn't disappointed. The imagination, hard work, perspiration and technology applied to coordinating 20,000 performers was astounding, even through a television set half a world away. The Bird's Nest Stadium, the site of the opening ceremony, has redefined space for public spectacles. No further explanation was needed, how far China has evolved than the world's largest LCD screen unfurled on stadium floor or the continuous canopy encircling the external rim of the stadium, used as a projection screen cantilevered to the audience below. As world leaders sweltered in ordinary bleacher seats, the duration of the event reminded me of performances when China's nationalism was expressed to visitors through interminably long, low brow movie operas of the revolution. I recall one film, broadcast for my benefit as an early Westerner to visit Shanghai, in which the entire audience of invited bureaucrats slept with their eyes wide open. The truest note in the NBC coverage of the $300 million extravaganza came when a commentator blurted out that the synchronized movement of 2008 drummers was "a little intimidating". It started a day earlier, when reporters on the White House press plane were delayed more than 3 hours as Chinese customs officials made a symbolic pause to "decide" how to process the visitors who would report the Games to the world. This morose reaction was the government's way of responding to comments by President Bush--to a small and indifferent audience en route to China-- deemed to be insulting and an inappropriate meddling in China's internal affairs. Watching the spectacular performance, I wondered if President Bush peering through binoculars had the same feeling as me: it put America's televised spectaculars funded by corporate advertisers-- like the Superbowl-- to shame. The marketing budget of many Superbowl advertisers is based on a profit model that incorporates, one way or another, low cost imports from China. Does President Bush ever reflect how the insecurities of Americans, in respect to the economy, war and debt, is so different from what he is experiencing in China, today? The Wall Street Journal reports: "Among a huge swath of Chinese, the Games have taken on a meaning both more benign and more complex. Amid today's prosperity, opinion polls and individual conversations show a groundswell of unbridled optimism. In many ways, the Chinese have embraced the American Dream-- the belief that tomorrow will be better than today." ("For Chinese, Olympics cap a long march up", August 8, 2008) Unlike Hitler in 1936 who was in the process of imposing imperial ambitions on the outside world, China's political elite (as opposed to the Chinese military leadership) is most concerned with managing its own internal stressors, including a significant percentage of citizens who live in poverty. The Beijing Olympics in 2008 does not presage some new war: in a certain sense, the impulse to war has been blunted by the peaceful transactions of globalized trade; the victor's ascendence is measured in reverse proportion to our hollowed out industries and scattered Rust Belts. To the masses in Asia, what our falling economic tide exposes is the first fraction of our standard of living. This mad scrambling of the world order is irreversible because the United States has failed to reformulate energy policy in response to the massive competition for natural resources and commodities like oil, no longer available in sufficient volume to protect our economic security. The most frightening part of our passivity is that the American consumer may soon become disposable to China's decision makers. At some point, China's internal growth will make our contributions to its treasury a lesser factor in its decisions about securing commodities. It may already be happening. In the past 30 years, US consumers jump started the fastest growing economy in the world. China is governed today by a political elite that fully embraces Orwellian focus on security and control. Through this set of circumstances, the sight of President Bush waving on US competitors at the Olympics can be interpreted as either a brand new day based on resurgent, grand achievements or a forced smile at a dynamo he understands better now that his own time clock is running out. Alan Farago, who writes on the environment and politics from Coral Gables, Florida, and can be reached at alanfarago@yahoo.com
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