|
|
home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
|
CounterPunch outlines the terrible evidence that thousands of Falun Gong members have been killed to supply China's body parts trade with the West. Larry Lack reviews the evidence and explains why the US government is keeping its mouth shut. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation towards the cost of this online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now |
|
Today's Stories October 27 / 29, 2006 Maher Arar October 26, 2006 Ismael Hossein-zadeh Carlos Zorrilla Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whitney Lily Hughes Jennifer Matsui Tim Matson Stephen Fleischman Missy Beattie Patrick Cockburn Website of the Day
October 25, 2006 Michael Donnelly John Stanton John Ross Conn Hallinan Robert Jensen Johnny Barber Bruce K. Gagnon Daniel McGowan James J. Brittain Peter Harley Jonathan Cook Shepherd Bliss Website of
the Day
October 24, 2006 John Walsh M. Shahid Alam Dr. Trudy Bond Michael Phillips Dave Lindorff David Phinney Laura Carlsen Pierre Tristam Marguerite
Rose Jimenez Website of
the Day
October 23, 2006 Saree Makdisi Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Ralph Nader Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Richard Manning Neil Kitson William MacDougall Gilad Atzmon Werther Website of
the Day
October 20 / 22, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Brian Cloughley Dave Zirin William Blum Christopher
Brauchli Winslow Wheeler Michael Donnelly Fred Gardner Susie Day Lucinda Marshall Fred Wilcox Alan Maass Lee Sustar Ariadna Theokopoulos Missy Beattie CP News Wire CP News Services Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
October 19, 2006 Elaine Cassel Col. Dan Smith Manuel Garcia, Jr. Josh Gryniewicz Amira Hass Eric Holt-Gimenez Jesse Hagopian Sam Husseini John Weisheit CP News Service Website of
the Day Art Gallery
of the Day
October 18, 2006 Joshua Frank Dr. Curran
Warf, MD Saul Landau Tom Barry Bruce Jackson Dave Lindorff Frederico Fuentes Michael Simmons Daryll E. Ray Kate Doyle Website of
the Day
Michael Neumann Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Stephen S.
Pearcy Sharon Smith Al Krebs David Underhill Daniel Wolff James Brooks Website of the Day
October 16, 2006 Gary Leupp Patrick Cockburn David Wilson Robert Fisk Robert Jensen Ingmar Lee
/ Krista Roessingh Mike Whitney Jake Whitney Sanho Tree Website of
the Day
Uri Avnery John Walsh Jean Bricmont Jennifer Van Bergen Ralph Nader Floyd Rudmin Mark Weisbrot Laura Carlsen Hani Shukrallah Dr. Susan Block John Chuckman Lucinda Marshall Don Monkerud Missy Comley
Beattie Ron Jacobs Website of
the Weekend
October 13, 2006 Jorge Mariscal Stephen Philion John Blair Col. Dan Smith Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry Stephen Fleischman Charles Perroud Anne E. Brodsky Website of the Day
October 12, 2006 Jonathan Cook Norman Solomon M. Shahid Alam Paul Craig
Roberts Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik Carl Gelderloos Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry Charles Sullivan William S. Lind CP News Service Website of
the Day
October 11, 2006 John Feffer Dave Lindorff Jackson Katz April Howard / Ben Dangl Michael Carmichael Ken Couesbouc Gregory Afghani Alexander Cockburn Website of
the Day
October 10, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Robideau Joshua Frank Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin Heather Gray James Knotwell Missy Beattie Mike Whitney David Rosen Website of the Day
Robert Fisk Norman Solomon Ron Jacobs Gideon Levy Walter Brasch Mickey Z. John Holt Lucinda Marshall Saul Landau Website of the Day
October 7 /
8, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Peter Kwong Ralph Nader Mark Donham Dave Lindorff Peter Bosshard Ron Jacobs Lawrence R.
Velvel Fred Gardner David Green Jim B. Missy Beattie Michael Donnelly Jackson Thoreau Jon Hung CounterPunch
News Service Tom D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Alison Weir Tiffany Ten
Eyck / Mark Brenner Corporate Crime Reporter Juan Antonio
Montecino Walden Bello Christopher
Brauchli Brynne Keith-Jennings Jonathan Cook Website of the Day
John Walsh Carol Norris Paul Craig Roberts Ricardo Alarcón James Abourezk Nicola Nasser Kirkpatrick Sale Uri Avnery Website of the Day
Elizabeth Terzakis Paul Wolf Sean Penn Dave Lindorff Diane Farsetta Sharon Smith Felice Pace Sara Roy Website of
the Day
Jennifer Van
Bergen Greg Moses Stan Cox Niranjan Ramakrishnan Evelyn Pringle Fred Wilhelms Michael Abelman Gary Leupp Website of the Day
October 2, 2006 Eric Hazan Mike Whitney Norman Solomon Assaf Kfoury Missy Beattie Arthur Neslen Paula J. Caplan Website of the Day
Sept. 30 /
0ct. 1, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts Marjorie Cohn Ben Tripp Ron Jacobs Ralph Nader Mike Whitney Christopher Reed Seth Sandronsky Fred Gardner Mokhiber /
Weissman Michael Dickinson Alan Gregory Poets' Basement
September 29, 2006 Bruce Jackson Michael J.
Smith Emira Woods William S.
Lind David Swanson Jonathan Cook Website of the Day
Sen. Russ Feingold Ron Jacobs Mokhiber /
Weissman Lee Sustar Robert Jensen John Chuckman Evelyn Pringle Nicola Nasser Uri Avnery Website of the Day
Patrick Cockburn Camilo Mejia Ben Terrall Ridgeway /
Ng Joe Allen Andrew Wimmer Franklin C. Spinney Website of
the Day
Hani Shukrallah William Blum Niranjan Ramakrishnan Barbara Becnel Paul Rockwell Dave Lindorff Rich Gibson Anthony Papa Nate Mezmer Uri Avnery Website of the Day
Patrick Cockburn Jonathan Cook Joshua Frank Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Jensen Dave Lindorff Norman Solomon Dr. Charles
Jonkel Michael Dickinson Alexander Cockburn Website of
the Day
September 23
/ 24, 2006 Jonathan Cook Jeffrey St.
Clair Dr. Anon Tom Barry Carl G. Estabrook Laura Carlsen Todd Chretien Dr. Charles
Jonkel Debbie Nathan Fred Gardner Fred Wilhelms Seth Sandronsky Ralph Nader Rev. William
Alberts Jon Van Camp Heather Gray David Vest Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend Video of the Weekend
September 22, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Michael Donnelly Ramzy Baroud Evo Morales Stanley Howard Sarah Leah
Whitson JoAnn Wypijewski Website of the Day
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad Justin E. H.
Smith Mike Roselle Amira Hass Deborah Rich Mickey Z. Saul Landau Website of
the Day
Sharon Smith Christopher
Reed John Ross Joshua Frank Arthur Neslen Norman Solomon Michael Carmichael Evelyn Pringle Hugo Chavez Website of the Day
Patrick Cockburn Jeff Leys Brian M. Downing Col. Dan Smith Liaquat Ali
Khan Ron Jacobs Nik Barry-Shaw
/ Yves Engler Lucinda Marshall Saul Landau Photo of the Day Website of
the Day
Carl Boggs Uri Avnery Mike Stark / Jim Bullington Joshua Frank John Murphy Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff Bill Quigley Website of the Day
Subscribe Online
|
Weekend
Edition Learning About Sex and Hypocrisy from the GOPOn Peters and PrinciplesBy RUSS FINE and DEE FINE On Friday, September 29th, Congressman Mark Foley (R, Florida,) resigned in sordid shame. Years from now, he may be immortalized as nothing more than a name on a political trivia game card as the Janus-faced congressional crusader who, as Chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, cultivated a type of political advantage usually reserved for those who smugly remind us, I know better than you about everything and therefore, should be elected President. In a perfect world, Foley and others before him - including President Bill Clinton -would be remembered, not for their peters and where they tried to put them, but rather for their over-the-top hypocrisy and for the gaping holes in their souls where principle once dwelled. Their alibi? "Fellatio is not sex." "Boyish prostitutes aren't really whores, but sensitive young fellows who simply need a safe place to crash." Surely, voters would accept, embrace and re-elect a Congressmen who ran a brothel out of his apartment? Is there anything really wrong with pimping out barely legal boys? Their reasoning is anything but. They take hedonistic Mulligans ... "gimmies" to justify their "peter first" mentality with slippery self-serving semantics like "What is the true definition of 'sex'?" or "I was so drunk that I drove off the bridge as Mary Jane Kopeckne slept in the back seat and drowned." Fast forward to September 29th, 2006. Congressman Foley, AKA Congressman Folly, took a page from the celebrity play book when he blamed his problems on everything and everyone but himself. "I have a drinking problem," he announced on his way to rehab. "I was molested by a Catholic priest," he confessed. "I am very sorry," he apologized. There. All better. Case closed except for the Dems who are struggling to shore-up the scandal's legs until Election Day so they can capitalize on the "I'm sick of sex scandals" backlash vote. These politician's peter problems are just a symptom of a much more dangerous disease that is ravaging our country. This is a systemic disorder, insidious in it's subtly very difficult to recognize unless you really focus but it is there. It's the abandonment of Principle, not only by "me first" politicians but also by their little lap dogs; our nation's compromised newspaper and television journalists. Read that which they write. Listen to the talking heads who parrot away the truth on the orchestrated "news" talk shows. All are obsessed with peters and those who wield them. They care nothing about principle. Journalists with intellectual integrity are going the way of true public servants and will soon fade away into extinction. The American Dream is turning into a nightmare, thanks to those who have sold their souls and abandoned their posts. Soon, there will be no more watch dogs to sound the alarm. Instead, the news business is just that, where the truth is nothing more than a commodity traded for ratings. The fourth estate now resembles an oligarchy ruled by media monarchs who decide what is best for us as they determine what we do and do not need to know. The royal court includes the pretty Princes and Princesses of Propaganda, the true lords of the American Press. And, like politics, everything is local. If you don't hear it on the news at five, nobody else will. If we are spoon fed like brainwashed babies, how can we get the data needed to make informed decisions? Case in Point: On Monday, September 25th 2006 my wife and I, both veteran talk radio co-hosts from Birmingham, Alabama (yes, the epicenter of the Civil Rights movement) were abruptly fired 10 minutes before the end of the 4th hour of our popular, five hour morning drive show. The broadcasting company failed to provide a formal explanation but the truth is that we were fired for exposing and continuing to talk about a dirty little Southern secret. Prior to being fired, we continued to expose that which should have been splashed on the front page of Alabama's largest and "most influential" newspaper. Instead, the editorial page editor and the paper's nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist looked the other way. Alabama's most trusted television news journalist-anchor was a few steps behind them as they all ran away from the story as if their very paychecks depended on it. Apparently, they did. The facts are that we weren't dismissed for lack of listeners or low ad revenue or basement ratings. We were fired because we did our jobs; we did that which no one else would do. We chose to expose something that was egregiously wrong, in the same state, Alabama, where four little girls died 43 years ago at the bloody hands of a gang of KKKers. Here's the bottom line: The governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, is a good old boy who is running for re-election. We exposed Riley's status as a long time member of the Alabama Grand Lodge of Freemasons. So far, so good. In the South, it's common for politicians to be Masons. They are able to support the groups' charitable causes by raising money as well as network. No problem. However, there is something darkly different about the Alabama Grand Lodge that makes it stand out from the other Grand Lodges; the Alabama Grand Lodge stands on governing documents from 1876 that prohibit Black membership. Plain and simple: they discriminate on the basis of race. They are segregated private clubs. No Black folks wanted / needed / allowed. For the record, we declared, time and again, that while we personally disapprove of segregation; we believe that private groups (such as the Masons or the Boy Scouts) should not be subject to mandatory, government-imposed membership mandates. But, we drew the line when it came to a sitting Governor seeking re-election being a member of such a group. Yes, we did the unthinkable: we exposed and publicized the Alabama Grand Lodge's "dirty little secret": "No N------s Allowed In the Alabama Grand Lodge." With apologies to The Tin Man, Dorothy and Toto, we had exposed the real "man behind the curtain." There is an interesting historic footnote to all this. On November, 17th, 1999 at an Alabama Grand Lodge Meeting described as "an unruly event," one courageous member, Alex Harris, was shouted down by his fellow Masons when he rose and spoke out against their institutionalized racism. Was Governor Bob Riley at that meeting? No reporters or editors we have spoken to have the gumption to ask him. Now, almost seven years have passed since that "unruly" event, and the Alabama Grand Lodge still discriminates against African Americans. Today, Alabama Governor Bob Riley is still a member, and so far has failed to denounce the racist resolution and do the right thing: resign from the Alabama Grand Lodge. Exposing the egregious 'wrongness' of the Governor's membership in an organization that discriminates against Black Alabamians got us fired. Those behind the firing were aided and abetted by the local press. The Birmingham News and the local Fox television affiliate remain silent, though they were briefed, by us, on the breaking news. The cowardly local press is made up of nothing more than intellectually dishonest journalists who gave Riley and the Masons and rest of the new Jim Crows a mulligan. Was it a coincidence that we were fired on the Monday before the President of the United States came to Birmingham to campaign and raise funds for Riley? Washington-based insiders and advance men knew of the Masonic issue. Was it was political pay-back time for Riley's delayed support of W's bungled Dubai Ports deal? The scene was set. The stakes are high, so those with overflowing campaign coffers and ties to the incestuous influence and power of the Alabama Grand Lodge pulled the trigger. How effective when the message is bullet proof; kill the messengers. Or at least get us off the air. It appears that the President approves of or is indifferent to Riley's membership in the racist Alabama Grand Lodge. Did the President encourage the Governor to resign and denounce the racist and discriminatory Alabama Grand Lodge? Did the President ignore the Lodge's policy of discrimination against potential voters? Apparently so. Shame, shame, shame on W for yet another monumental error in judgment. There is only one logical conclusion: Bob Riley and the Alabama Grand Lodge did not hesitate to use Klan-ish tactics; they simply traded in their sheets for suits. Like the Klan of old, the newspapers, TV news and other media in this state are cravenly hiding their eyes and biting their tongues, lest the new Jim Crow, which is of course the same old Jim Crow, becomes cross with them and withdraws advertising revenue. We have yet to decide if we will return to the air waves, even if given the opportunity. The New Jim Crow mob, made up of the Governor and his minions, may flex their muscles again and make it impossible for us to ever find work again. Jim Crow silenced us; two, outspoken talk show hosts who knew the difference between right and wrong and fearlessly shared our findings with the public. The September 25th, 2006 firing passed, nearly unnoticed, as the headlines were high-jacked by Congressman Folly's dalliances. It should be now and forever known as a red letter day to mark the death of both free speech and American journalism. That which was once a bastion of truth has become nothing more than a well oiled propaganda machine that runs on influence and is clearly obsessed with peters, not principles. Dr. Russ Fine is a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, specializing in biostatistics and epidemiology. He is also the founding Director of the UAB-Injury Control Research Center. Dee Fine founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving
(MADD) in Alabama and eventually served as national vice president
of MADD. She later became the first executive director Office
of Victim's Assistance in the Alabama Attorney General's Office.
|
from CounterPunch Books The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.  The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn                        |
