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Today's
Stories
December 15, 2008
Andy Worthington
Hit Me Baby One More Time: a History of Music Torture in War on Terror
Brian Cloughley
Land of the Free (To Torture and Imprison Without Trial)
December 12 / 14, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Hail to Chicago, Beacon of American Values
Michael Hudson /
Jeffrey Sommers
The End of the Washington Consensus
David Price
The Leaky Ship of Human Terrain Systems
Jeffrey St. Clair
Nukes Up the Hudson
Frank Barat
An Israeli in Gaza: an Interview with Jeff Halper
John Ross
Writing a Thesis in Blood
Binoy Kampmark
Humanitarian Imperialism: Obama and the Genocide Task Force
David Macaray
Killing the Auto Bailout: a Dagger to the Heart of Organized Labor
Ralph Nader
Antidotes to Plunder: a Holiday Reading List
Eamonn Fingleton
Whatever Happened to Iris Chang?
Lawrence Velvel
Why Blagojevich Might Be Acquitted
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Housing Crisis: a Timebomb China Can't Defuse
Sam Husseini
Putting the Pro in Protest
Tom Barry
Incentives to Detain:
How Immigrants Drive Prison Profits
Howard Lisnoff
Why I Went to Jail
Laura Carlsen
Mexico's Immigration Problem
Raj Patel
The WTO and Other Fairy Tales
Ron Jacobs
The Manufacturing of History
Paul Watson
Risky Business Down Under
David Yearsley
They Also Serve Who Only Pull or Tread
Lorenzo Wolff
So You Want Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star...
Kim Nicolini
Finally, a Vampire Movie You Can Sink Your Teeth Into
Susie Day
Proposition 1984: the Problem with Heterosexuals
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Lerch and Crete
Worthy Group of the Weekend
Energy Justice
December 11, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Total Defeat for U.S. in Iraq
P. Sainath
After Mumbai
Vicken Cheterian
The Zarqawi Generation
Ray McGovern
Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?
Dedrick Muhammad
Post-Racial Racism at the Post: the Undying Obsession with Black Family Values
Lee Sustar
Victory at Republic
Peter Morici
The Big Drag
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Must They Hate Us So?
George Wuerthner
Another Subsidy to Big Timber?
Christopher Brauchli
Mr. Berg's Strange Obsession
Worthy Group of the Day
Animal Balance
December 10, 2008
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Whose Interests Will Shape Obama's Change?
Mary Lynn Cramer
The Multi-Trillion Dollar Question
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Nuclear Weapons Obsolescence
Joshua Frank
Breaking the Stranglehold on Middle East News Coverage
Jack Ely
Stop Sobbing About Free Music Downloads: a Message to the Music Industry from the Lead Singer of the Kingsmen
Steve Conn
An Obama Public Works Program?
Lee Sustar
Republic Workers Target Bank of America
Glen Ford
The Die is Cast
Stephen Lendman
The Persecution of Syed Fahad Hashmi
Nadia Hijab
The Face of America
Dave Lindorff
We All Need a Union
Website of the Day
This One's For You, Senator Dodd
December 9, 2008
Mike Whitney
Card Check
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Us vs. Them
Ghada Karmi
The UN Resolution That Time Forgot
Dave Lindorff
A Car Dealer Explains Why the Bailout is a Raw Deal
Steve Breyman
Notes on a Green Economy: Managing Stuff in the 21st Century
Lee Sustar /
Nicole Colson
Raising the Stakes at Republic
Rev. William E. Alberts
God of Our Fathers
Martha Rosenberg
Bill Richardson: Secretary of Bloodsports
Sam Husseini
How Holbrooke Lied His Way Into a War
David Macaray
The UAW in Peril
Website of the Day
This Toxic Life
December 8, 2008
Steve Early
Is Obama Backing Off a Crucial Pledge to Labor?
Michael Hudson
Obama's Favoritism: Wall Street, Not the Auto Industry
Patrick Cockburn
Talking to a Lashkar Militant
Diane Farsetta
An Officer and a Conflicted Man: McCaffery, the Pentagon and Fleishman-Hillard
Paul Craig Roberts
Chapters in Imperial Hypocrisy
Daniel Gross
The Chicago Sit-Down Strike
Saul Landau
To Bail or Not to Bail?
Harvey Wasserman
Why John Bryson is Unfit for Energy Secretary
Mike Ferner
The New Generation of "Non-Lethal" Weapons
Norman Solomon
The Silent Winter of Escalation
David Michael Green
The Other Foot
Website of the Day
The Remains of Detroit
December 5 / 7, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Honeymoans From the Left
Brian Cloughley
Shambles in Afghanistan
Paul Craig Roberts
Muslim Revolution: How Washington Arrogance Helped Drive the Mumbai Attacks
Liaquat Ali Khan
Mumbai and the Kashmir Tinderbox
Farzana Versey
Mumbai's Charge of the Lightweight Brigade
Peter Lee
Pakistan Nears the Breaking Point
Peter Morici
Slouching Toward a Depression?
Ralph Nader /
Toby Heaps
Junk Cap-and-Trade
Yinon Cohen /
Neve Gordon
Obama Could End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Will He Meet the Challenge?
Wajahat Ali
Perverse Justice: the Holy Land Foundation Convictions
Johnny Barber
Aswad's Story:
Illegal Detention and the Declaration of Human Rights
Alan Farago
Fallout from the Pass-Through Economy
Jeremy Scahill
Obama Doesn't Plan to End Occupation of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Powergrab in Ottawa
Ranjit Hoskote
Jahiliyya Versus Jihad
Carl Finamore
Thank God I'm an Atheist! (Or Boy is Bill O'Reilly in for a Big Surprise)
Marjorie Cohn
Obama and Women's Rights
Norm Kent
Tommy Chong, the Unanticipated Warrior
Missy Beattie
What Lies Ahead
Binoy Kampmark
Committing Suicide On-Line: the Briggs Case
David Macaray
The Best and the Brightest Redux: Too Many Brains, Not Enough Humility
Nancy Stohlman
Relational Activism
Ron Jacobs
Irreverent Politics Then and Now
David Yearsley
Thematics From the Golden Past
Lorenzo Wolff
Troubled Songs of Home and War
Poets' Basement
Orloski: The Door Opener
Website of the Weekend
In Prison My Whole Life
December 4, 2008
Ece Temelkuran
Inside the Ergenekon Case
Ralph Nader
Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Who Will Seize the Moment?
Harry Browne
The Bush-Obama National Security Strategy
Eamonn Fingleton
The American Car Industry: a Riposte to the Knockers
Conn Hallinan
The Syria Attack
Mike Whitney
Fiasco in Somalia: Another CIA Cock-Up
Stewart J. Lawrence
Obama and Latinos: Richardson, Alone, is Not Enough
Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
Message to Obama: Stop Killing Afghanis
Karyn Strickler
Show Us the Green, Before We Show You the Money
Jennifer Matsui
Obama-Cola: the Great National Temperance Beverage
Website of the Day
"He Ain't Got Laid in a Month of Sundays..."
December 3, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
What's Wrong with the U.S. Military
Sheldon Rampton
Mormon Homophobia: Up Close and Personal
Robert Weissman
Nationalize GM
Yifat Susskind
From Mumbai to Washington
William Blum
The Obama Bummer:
Vote First, Ask Questions Later
Alan Singer
The Ghost of the Defunct Economist
David Macaray
Trampled Under Foot at Wal-Mart
Martha Rosenberg
Born With a Statin Deficiency? Line Forms to the Left!
Mats Svensson
The Crimes Have No Period of Limitations
Website of the Day
Why Bill Richardson's Nomination Should be Opposed
December 2, 2008
Jeremy Scahill
Obama's Kettle of Hawks
Paul Craig Roberts
The New Arms Race
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
The Mumbai Terror Attacks: Is Pakistan to Blame?
Sarah Anderson /
John Cavanagh
Skewed Priorities: How the Bailout Dwarfs Spending on Other Global Crises
William Blum
The Mythology of the War on Terrorism
John Ross
Mexico's Drug War Goes Down in Flames
Dave Lindorff
A Tale of Two Terror Attacks
Nicola Nasser
A Peace Process That Makes Peace Impossible
Steve Conn
Operation Redskin Removal
Robert Bryce
Coal Hard Facts
Website of the Day
Country, Funk, Soul
December 1, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
From Baghdad to Mumbai, by Way of Pakistan
Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
Obama's Economic Team:
Records of Failure
Vijay Prashad
The Fires in South Asia
Deepak Tripathi
Obama's Foreign Crises
Joshua Frank
Madam Secretary Clinton and the Middle East
P. Sainath
The Unlikely Martyrdom of Free Market Jihad
Alan Farago
The Right's War on Regulators
Binoy Kampmark
Sydney's Ball and Chain
Chris Genovali
Silent Fall
David Michael Green
Hope You Die Before You Get Old
Stephen Martin
The Chinese are Coming, the Chinese are Coming!
Website of the Day
Robert Rubin: Coward, Liar or Both?
November 28-30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
In Time of Trouble
Mike Whitney
The Obama "Dream Team": Rubin Clones and Other Fakers
Ted Honderich
What is the Meaning of Obama's Election?
Tom Kerr
Preserving Filthy Lucre (Or Becoming My Dad)
Mike Ely
The Conquest of New England
David Yearsley
Hymns of the Conquest
Deepak Tripathi
Uproar in Police-State Britain
Sonja Karkar
Gaza's Death Throes
Ramzy Baroud
Salvation in a News Broadcast
Robert Weitzel
Israel's Settlement on Capitol Hill
Robert Roth
Can We Create a Movement for Change?
Carlos Fierro
Obama and the End of Racism?
David Macaray
How to Kill a Union
David Rosen
A New Sexual Agenda
James Cockcroft
Indigenous People Rising
Stan Cox
The Most Disappointing Gift
Steve Conn
Talking Turkey About College Basketball
Stephen Martin
The Electromagnetic Pulse and Economic Warfare
Richard Rhames
Busty Bimbettes, Bombs and Brand Obama
Kim Nicolini
Women as Products and Cannibalistic Achievers
Lorenzo Wolff
A Battle Cry for the Confused and Vulnerable
Poets' Basement
Woods, Harrison and Corseri
November 27, 2008
Tariq Ali
The Assault on Mumbai
Steve Hendricks
Thanksgiving We Can Believe In: Justice in Indian Country
Ralph Nader
Open Up Those Corporate Tax Returns
John Walsh
The Root Cause of the Crisis of 2008
Dave Lindorff
The Department of Homeland Lunacy
Christopher Brauchli
Thanks A Lot, Mr. Meese: How Alberto Gonzales Learned to Get You to Pay for His Legal Bills
Matthew Koehler
Giving Thanks for Burned Forests
Website of the Day
John Trudell: "Crazy Horse We Hear What You Say"
November 26, 2008
Michael Hudson
The Obama Letdown
Alan Farago
Bailouts and the New Math
Stanley Heller
Don't Bail Them Out, Take Them Over
Kevin Zeese
The Real Cost of the Bailout
Steve Conn
Now It Can Be Told (Except in North Carolina)
Ray McGovern
Kafka and Uighurs at Guantánamo
Ron Jacobs
King George is Gone: Now It's Time to Organize
Eric Walberg
Obama's Odious Entourage
Martha Rosenberg
Pay No Attention to That Turkey Being Slaughtered (Or How Sarah Palin Created a Whole New Generation of Vegetarians)
Matt Siegfried
Back to the Future With Barack
Website of the Day
"Every Time I've Compromised, I've Lost"
November 25, 2008
James Abourezk
Of Arrogance, Bailouts and the Big Three
Ralph Nader
Don't Suppress Carter
Patrick Irelan
PBS Reports for Big Oil on Venezuela
John Ross
Obama in Bedlam
Fred Gardner
Dr. Goodwin and the Infinite Con
Dan LaBotz
The Auto Crisis: a Big Caravan to Washington?
Tom Barry
Napolitano and Immigration Policy
Norman Solomon
The Ideology of No Ideology
Richard Morse
Memo From Haiti:
Where the Culture of Corruption Meets the Corruption of Culture
Chris Strohm
The Missing Rules of Engagement in Cyberwar
Website of the Day
Green vs. Green?
November 24, 2008
Mike Whitney
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Pam Martens
The Rise and Fall of Citigroup
Laray Polk
Bush's Library: the Kurds, Oil and Missing Records
David Ker Thomson
American Friends: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Canadians?
Uri Avnery
Likud Rising
Joe Mowrey
Deprivation and Desperation in Gaza
Ramzi Kysia
An Administration in Search of a Progressive:
the Team Obama Should Have Picked
Kevin Zeese
The Causes of the Auto Crisis
Dave Lindorff
Rescuing the Blob:
Idiots and Bailouts
David Macaray
Seven Reasons You Should Join a Union
Howard Lisnoff
Inaugurations Past and Present
Website of the Day
I Hate the Beatles
November 21 / 23, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The Honeymoon is Looking a Bit Wan
Michael Hudson
Paulson's Cascade of Lies
Mike Whitney
Time to Move to Plan B ... If There is One
Barbara Rose Johnston /
Holly M. Barker
Cautionary Tales From a Nuclear War Zone
Serge Halimi
The Gloom of Empire: Downhill All the Way
Alan Farago
The Suburbs March On
Ralph Nader
Changing With Retreads: the Third Clinton Administration
Saul Landau
When Old Axioms Don't Apply
Robert Bryce
From LBJ to Obama: the End of Texas Dominance
Shannon May
Ecological Crisis and Eco-Villages in China
Binoy Kampmark
The End of the Yugo
Jack Ely
The Fate of the West's Wild Horses
Ramzy Baroud
The Rights of Women in War Zones
Missy Beattie
Why Vote, Anyway?
Larry Portis
Women Soldiers Serving in (and Barely Surviving) the Israeli Army
James McEnteer
Colombia's Laboratory of Failure
Christopher Brauchli
A Tale of Two Whales
David Yearsley
Real
Swords, Fire and Don Giovanni
Adam Engel
Power Down
Ron Jacobs
The Continuing Saga of the White Album
Lorenzo Wolff
Honky Tonk Heroes:
When Country Got Real
Poets' Basement
Raza Ali Hasan
Website of the Weekend
Lips and Fingers
November 20, 2008
P. Sainath
The Jurassic Auto and Idea Park
Brian McKenna
How Dow Chemical Defies Homeland Security and Risks Another 9/11
Paul Craig Roberts
What Uncle Sam Has to Say to His Creditors
Andy Worthington
How Guanántamo Can be Closed
Peter Lee
India Doubles Down in Afghanistan ... Maybe
Dr. Eyad al-Serraj
At the Erez Crossing
Sen. Russ Feingold
The Bush Pardons
Lance Selfa
Who Made the New Deal?
Ray McGovern
Keeping Gates
Benjamin G. Davis
Ending Torture; Prosecuting the Torturers
Tracy McLellan
Obama's Crony Democracy: the Return of Tom Daschle
Website of the Day
Finally, a Victory for Palestinians
November 19, 2008
M. Shahid Alam
Obama and the Politics of Race and Religion in America
Mario A. Murillo
Holder, Chiquita and Colombian Death Squads
Martine Boulard
Escaping the Dollar's Shadow
Robin D. G. Kelley
Will Obama be the First "Freedom" Democrat?
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Obama and the Iron Cage
Jonathan Cook
Who Will Stop the Settlers?
Steve Conn
Spare Change or No Change at All
George Wuerthner
The NYT and the Beetles of Mass Destruction
Michael Winship
This Just in From Middle Earth
Stephen Martin
The Other Side of the Pleasure-Dome
Website of the Day
An Important Holiday Message From Kristen Johnston
November 18, 2008
Chellis Glendinning
Cheering for Morgan Stanley
George C. Wilson
Perils of Pakistan: Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?
Franklin Lamb
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon: Hezbollah or the UN?
Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State
Roger Burbach
Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia: How Bush Tried to Bring Down Morales
John Ross
Drilling vs. Direct Democracy in Mexico
Wajahat Ali
Is Obama the Muslim World's Superman?
Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
What Really Happened in Washington? The G20 and the Inconsistent Script
Marc Gardner
When Mooning is a Sex Crime
Eric Walberg
Courting the Bear: a New Era for Russian/Western Relations?
Wendy Williams
The Bottled Water Con
Website of the Day
Where's Zappa When We Need Him?
November 17, 2008
Michael Hudson
Bankers Shake Down Congress and the G-20
Paul Craig Roberts
When It's a Clear Day and You Can't See GM
Mike Whitney
Busted in Washington
Steve Conn
Where is Nader Country 2008? Mapping the Nader Votes
Andy Worthington
Closing Guantánamo: Advice for Obama
Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of Israel's Blockade of Gaza: "They Are All Hamas"
Rannie Amiri
Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama
David Macaray
Bailing Out the Automakers
David Michael Green
Twelve Victories
Charles Modiano
Sports Illustrated and Sexism: Tokenism or a New Day?
Website of the Day
The South Sea Bubble
November 14 / 16, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Heading for the First Hundred Days
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Bill Clinton Doomed the Spotted Owl: a Cautionary Tale for Greens in the Age of Obama
Mike Whitney
Paulson the Bungler
Sasan Fayazmanesh
RIP: the Experts, 1929-2008
Moshe Adler
Keynes:
China's Greatest Export?
Anthony DiMaggio
Transcending Race?
Jean Bricmont
Cats, Dogs and Creationism
Sheldon Rampton
The Eisenstadt Hoax: a Real Life Example of a "Fake Fake"
Douglas Valentine
Let the Trials Begin!
Joseph Nevins /
Timothy Dunn
Barricading the Border
Tom Barry
Rahm Emanuel's Political Pragmatism on Immigration
Ron Jacobs
Che Guevara Meets Trashman: the Genius of Spain Rodriguez
Larry Portis
The State of the Israeli State
Mary Lynn Cramer Obama's Brain Trust: Seems Like Old Times
Sherry Wolf
The Myth of the Black/Gay Divide
Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Secretary of Greed: How Larry Summers Championed Wall Street by Impoverishing the Mexican People
Jacob Hornberger
The Conservative Malaise: Hey, Brother, Can You Spare Some Habeas Corpus?
Lance Selfa
The Center-Right Nation Con
Benjamin Dangl
Vermont Against General Dynamics
Seth Sandronsky
Lifelines in Hard Times
Russell Mokhiber
Time to Give the Friends of Big Coal the Boot
Allan Stellar
Nuke a Gay Whale for the Navy
Kelly Overton
Get Thee to a Shelter:
the Obamas and the Million-Mutt March
Martha Rosenberg
Why Mink are Cheering the Economic Crisis
Richard Rhames
Palling Around with Ray the Plumber
David Yearsley
How I Played Hooky from "High School Musical 3"
Lorenzo Wolff
Zach is Back: Songs of Hurt, Rage and Resistance
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Ford and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
The Eyes Have It
November 13, 2008
Pam Martens
The Two Trillion DollarBlack Hole
Vijay Prashad
Guilt by Participation: Sonal Shah's Membership Has Expired
Patrick Cockburn
Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?
Jonathan Cook
The Withering Palestinian Economy
Ralph Nader
Obama and the Rogue Regime
Bill Quigley
McCain Owes America an Apology
Lee Sustar
Bailing Out the Big Three
Omar Barghouti
Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products
Steve Conn
More Alaska Fun
Howard Lisnoff
The Last Bastion of Hate
Jeff Cohen
What Indy Media Heroes Can Teach Us
Website of the Day
Who are the Obamagelicals?
November 12, 2008
Johanna Berrigan
Scattered Families: the Iraq Refugee Crisis
Steve Conn
The Big Mystery Election in Alaska
Patrick Bond
Against Volcker
Bokar Ture /
Dedrick Muhammad
Remembering a Black Radical in a Barack Obama America
Alan Farago
The Hispanic Vote in South Florida: Not Dyed Blue Yet
Dave Lindorff
Rescuing Joe Lieberman
Karl Grossman
Break Up Big Oil: Tyranny in the Tank
David Macaray
An Obama Litmus Test: Will Labor Have a Seat at the Table?
George Wuerthner
Act Now to Save America's Public Forests
Susie Day
Heavy Weather
Website of the Day
Does the Planet Have a Future? an Interview with Derrick Jensen
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December 15, 2008
The Perfect Coda to the Bush Presidency
The Artless Dodger
By ALAN FARAGO
It wasn't just a Size 10 shoe thrown at President Bush at his final press event in Baghdad, it was the coda to his presidency.
An Iraqi television journalist insulted an American president with a pair of thrown shoes. Millions around the world cheered the humiliation.
But for many more, the coda has a different meaning. We are used to incompetence and bad behavior from public officials in democracies, too. But this American president has been different. Those thrown shoes say, good riddance.
Good riddance, because it is not just the squandering of American treasure-- the dumb, at-loss-for-syntax to explain much of anything that is transpiring -- it is the sense of American power transcribed to a pair of shoes; flimsy, don't weigh much, can be handed down one owner at a time until they fade away, discarded and meaningless.
An American president elected for his "values" turns out to have presided over incalculable lost value; of the rule of law, of constitutional rights, and now represents a card deck filling with faces of destroyers of American capital; high flying New York attorney, Richard Dreier, Bernard Madoff, Robert Rubin and Phil Gramm, Franklin Raines, Stan O'Neal, Angelo Mozillo, Richard Fuld, Alan Greenspan, and hedge fund operators by the baker's dozen; a deck being shuffled so fast now by markets that the cards are springing off in disorder, like shreds of clothing or shoes separated by the force of a blast.
George Bush will soon be retired to watch CNN, Fox and network news' live feeds of unfolding events like the rest of us. He will be secure in knowledge that we are pulled along by force of history more than any one person can determine it. But the outcome for President Bush is not the outcome of a central player in a Shakespearean tragedy; he seems like a bit player in a whirlpool of small talent, of industry at the corner of a painting by Pieter Bruegel; not at all what Karl Rove and Grover Norquist had in mind when George W. Bush was propelled to be the figurehead of the intended Republican century: of limited government, free enterprise and free trade, of commerce where benign patriarchal values of stewardship and personal responsibility would supplant the need of regulation, where monetary policies tamed asset bubbles and good farmers followed warm weather to productive corn and wheat harvests in northern Canada, where the melting Arctic provided new commercial opportunities and manifest destiny in the Northwest Passage.
Now, come the Democrats. They have a short time to show dexterity in changing course or they, too, will have squandered a set of opportunities left to them by the shoe dodger-in-chief.
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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