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Today's
Stories
February 12, 2004
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Jordan
Green
Democratic Patronage in Northern New
Mexico
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
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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February
13, 2004
Blaming Nader for
Their Own Mistakes
Democrat
Snipers Target Ralph
By ADAM FEDERMAN
The detractors on the left are weighing in. Ralph
Nader must be sidelined. I wonder if Nader's current detractors
are the same people who argued for his participation in the presidential
debates of 2000.
Harry Lonsdale of Sisters, Oregonis a
member of the Pacific Green Party, in an "urgent plea"
asking Ralph Nader not to run writes, "I'm a huge Nader
supporter. I voted for him in 2000 and sent him money...But I'm
one of the ABB persuasion -- Anybody But Bush -- and so is just
about every progressive I know. Maybe we're all overreacting
by talking about leaving the country if Bush is re-elected. But
the Bush imperial presidency has shaken us down to our heels.
This is no longer the country we thought we knew and loved."
Lonsdale'e advice to Nader is not to
run and to put his energy into other activities like starting
a "grassroots democracy organization" or raising money
for a TV or radio show. I would like to ask Lonsdale when the
United States was the country we knew and loved. Under which
imperial presidency was the American mission acceptable? Was
it under Woodrow Wilson who argued that, "a universal dominion
of right by...a concert of free peoples...shall bring peace and
safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free."
Or was it during the depression years
when a fractured economy, mass unemployment, and a burgeoning
communist party allowed for a measure of progressive politics
and a retreat from aggressive foreign intervention? Was it during
the Second World War when fascism was defeated and the Atomic
Bomb unleashed? Was it during the Kennedy days as America prepared
for war in Vietnam? Or perhaps the Age of Clinton was a time
when we knew and loved our country.
The editors of the Nation, who argued
for a just war in Afghanistan, have also asked Nader not to participate
in the political process for the good of the country and for
his own sake. They do so in an open letter that fails to make
the case for voting democrat beyond the desire to defeat Bush.
For many this is enough. As long as a democrat enters office
the primary objective of the 2004 election will be fulfilled.
The Nation editors write, in perhaps the most banal sentence
of the entire letter, "Ralph, this is the wrong year for
you to run: 2004 is not 2000."
They argue that, "there is a level
of passionate volunteerism at the grassroots of the Democratic
Party not seen since 1968", and therefore the democratic
party will be forced to confront the conservatism of the Bush
administration and perhaps even itself. I think this unlikely
and would rather the Nation editors and its devotees admit that
they would be satisfied with a tepid, middle of the road democrat
as long as Bush is removed from office. They certainly would
support a more "progressive" candidate but if Lieberman
or Clark happened to get the nomination they would throw their
weight behind him regardless of foreign policy positions, trade
and labor (see Kerry) and so on.
The art of letter writing deserves a
brief comment here as well. A certain intimacy is inherent in
the form as it depends on a particular relationship between the
writer and the recipient. Form letters and cover letters do not
depend on a relationship of any substance and therefore reflect
in their form a different tone, a different objective. The open
letter is a peculiar breed of letter writing. It rests on an
internal contradiction. The attempt to communicate with a person
or group in a written form that depends on trust, while at the
same time revealing the contents to a large and impersonal public.
In a sense it betrays itself. Nonetheless, an open letter can
strike a balance between the two and be a passionate appeal as
well as an honest engagement with friend or foe. The open letter
to Ralph Nader is addressed to Nader with the Nation readership
looking on, biting its nails at the prospect of once again having
to vote for a Democratic Party they know has moved too far to
the right. The letter is awkward in its effort to reach out to
Nader, to congratulate him and make it clear that he is part
of the Nation family (this is evident in the use of his name
instead of the pronoun you a number of times to affect a neighborly
rapport) and at the same time to convince him that running for
president is a fatal mistake.
The editors profess to sympathize with
Nader and his attempt to broaden the political debate but argue
that the reality of electoral politics and the need to depose
George Bush override the merits of running an independent campaign
that may pull votes away from the democratic contender.
Nader as the fundamental cause of Al
Gore's demise is again brought to the fore. In an email campaign
organized by John Pearce and Kathy Cramer Gore's ineptitude as
a politician, the Florida recount debacle, and Supreme Court
intervention are cited in a flash video asking Nader not to run.
"But after all those events one fact remains," they
say, "Ralph Nader's candidacy tipped the balance to Bush."
"The simple fact is if Nader had not run Gore would be president
not Bush." A comforting thought.
The flash video finally ends with an
appeal reminiscent of the Bush administration's war on terror.
"This time we need Ralph Nader with us not against us."
Or to rephrase it in an open letter, "Ralph, you're either
with us or you're against us."
Nader has yet to make up his mind, though,
according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune he says he is "itching
to run again."
It's also not clear what kind of an impact
he would have on the campaign. It could in fact be minimal. If,
as the Nation editors suggest, "the odds of this becoming
a race between Bush and Bush Lite are almost nil," and that
most progressives are interested in only one thing, defeating
George Bush, then what kind of threat does Nader pose?
But if the democrats again fail to build
a persuasive case against Bush and his administration and Nader
runs, he will surely be castigated for plunging the country into
another four years of Republican rule.
Adam Federman
can be reached at: adam@incamail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for February 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
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