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Today's
Stories
May
24, 2005
Dave
Zirin
Palestine's Big Visitor: Not Laura,
but Ronaldo
May
23, 2005
Esther
Sassaman / Thomas Nagy
An Exclusive Interview with George Galloway
Mike
Whitney
Free Jose Padilla: Three Years
in Prison, Not a Shred of Evidence
Ramzy
Baroud
Fallout from a Forged War: Battling Windmills While Iraq Burns
Michael
Dickinson
Pictures at an Exhibition: Censoring the "Carnival of Chaos"
Walter
Brasch
In Praise of Bob Barr
Dick
J. Reavis
The Newsweek Scandal: an Unmentioned Detail
Maria
Tomchick
Galloway and the US Press
Norman
Solomon
Let's Play "Media Jeopardy"
Kevin
Zeese
Inventing a Pretext for War: an Inte4rview with James Bamford
Website
of the Day
Drawings of Darfur: Genocide Through Children's Eyes
May
21 / 22, 2005
David
H. Price
CIA Skullduggery in Academia
Gabriel
García Márquez
My Visit to the Clinton White House, Bearing a Message from Fidel
on Terrorism
Oren
Ben-Dor
To Create Academic Freedom in Israel,
a Boycott is Needed
Gary
Leupp
Nights in White House Satin with Jeff Gannon
Laith
al-Saud
An Anatomy of the Iraqi Resistance
Elaine
Cassel
Bush and the Angry God: Twilight of Secular Democracy in America?
Greg
Moses
The Saints of Mischief and Halliburton
Fred
Gardner
Martyring Dr. Carol Wolman
Dave
Lindorff
The GOP's Police State
Alan
Maass
Uzbekistan's Karimov: Bush's Favorite Terrorist?
William
Blum
The American Myth Industry
Tom
Crumpacker
Send Posada Carriles to Venezuela
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Newsweek: a Contest of Hypocrisies
Doug
Giebel
The Grand Illusion
Evelyn
J. Pringle
No Child Left Unmedicated: TeenScreen, State-drugging and Suicide
Carolyn
Baker
Spiritual Abuse by the Religious Right
Chris
Floyd
Justice in JebWorld
Frederick
B. Hudson
Black and Gay?: a Review of "Brother to Brother"
Ben
Tripp
Him Talk Plenty Long Time: Busting the Filibuster
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Engel and Louise
May
20, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Newsweek and White House Hypocrisy
Kevin
Zeese
As Insurgency Increases, New US Military
Recruits Fall
Paul
de Rooij
"Private": a Film in Search
of a Cliché
Christopher
Brauchli
How Insurance Companies Exploited 9/11
Mark
Engler
Triumph Over Debt?
Joshua
Frank
Bush to Dine with Porn Star
Robert
Jensen
TV Talk, No Evidence Required
Jeffery
R. Webber
Bolivia Erupts
May
19, 2005
Bill
Forman
An Interview with Alexander Cockburn
Stan
Goff
Hey, Democrats, Listen to Galloway and
Learn Something
Neve
Gordon
From Ghettos to Frontiers: What Will Happen After Israel Withdraws
from Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
The Trouble with Menwith: Tagging British Peace Activists
Karyn
Strickler
The Texas Nexus: How Racial and Political Gerrymandering United
Andrew
Freedman
Nazi Science at NIH
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Politics and Economics of Outsourcing
May
18, 2005
Jean
Bricmont
Vive La France?
Laura
Carlsen
Bush's Posada Carriles Quandry: an
Anti-Cuba Terrorist is Still a Terrorist
Mike
Whitney
The Secret Raids of Alberto Gonzales: 10,000 Swept Up
Joshua
Frank
Flushing the Koran: Why Newsweek Got It Right
George
Galloway
Thusly, I Humiliated Norm Coleman (and Christopher Hitchens)
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Writing Tickets for American War Crimes
Dwight
D. Eisenhower
How the GOP will Destroy Itself
Dave
Lindorff
The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act
Even Worse
May
17, 2005
Mickey
Z.
GIs Behaving Badly
Petuuche
Gilbert
The People of Acoma Still Fight to
be Free
Paul
Craig Roberts
Lies That Kill: Why Isn't Bush in
the Dock?
Ramzy
Baroud
The New Palestinian Uprising
Robert
Jensen / Pat Youngblood
Pinning the Blame on Newsweek
Stan
Cox
Poisoning Patancheru: the Severe Side Effects of India's Drug
Industry
Dave
Zirin
American Anthem: Ozzie Guillen and Fining for Freedom
Diana
Barahona
Reporters Without Borders Unmasked
Website
of the Day
Revolutionary Flower Pot Society
May
16, 2005
Michael
Gillespie
The Family Released a Statement:
Death Notices for the Warrior Theocracy
Jason
Leopold
BP Stains the Arctic
Jesse
Muldoon
How Many Schools Left Behind?
Norman
Solomon
Media and the War: "The Bombs in Iraq Explode at Home"
Robert
Cray
Twenty
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq is a Bloody No Man's Land
Website
of the Day
Bolton's Divorce Papers: She Took It All Away, Including Most
of the Furniture
May
14 / 15, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Join the 14 Per Cent Club!
Saul
Landau
Lessons from Vietnam: Wars Kill Empires as Well as People
Gary
Leupp
Whither Yale? Towards the Imperial University
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Glory that is Lockhart, Texas
Ben
Tripp
The Wayward Airplane: a Cautionary Tale
Brian
J. Foley
Was Jesus Gay?
Tom
Barry
Bolton the Eavesdropper
Mitchell
Verter
Barbarous Oaxaca: Indigenous Rights Groups Meet the "Law
of the Club"
Mike
Ferner
War on COs: Army Files Additional Charges Against Kevin Benderman
Dan
Smith
Perceiving Darfur
Mark
Scaramella
Death with Pitfalls
Don
Fitz
Mommy, Is This a Finger in My Rice Puffs?: Splicing Human DNA
into the Food Chain
Diane
Farsetta
PR Industry Imitates Big Tobacco: the Senate's "Fake News"
Hearings
Michael
Dickinson
Soldier Crawling: Military Conscription in Turkey
Ron
Jacobs
The Jackson State Murders
Fred
Gardner
"Hydroponics? Ridiculous!": A Real Farmer Looks at
Medical Marijuana
Farrah
Hassen
Far From Heaven: a Review of Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of
Heaven"
Douglas
Valentine
50 Cent's Plea
Poets'
Basement
Louise, Ford, Engel, & Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Military Base Closings and the South
May
13, 2005
Tom
Stephens
A Chronology of US War Crimes and Torture, 1975-2005
Patrick
Cockburn
"They Destroyed Everything"
Mike
Whitney
Tom Friedman, Imperial Chronicler
Chris
Floyd
Miami Vice: the Sleazy World of Jeb Bush
Jenna
Orkin
Ground Zero's Toxic Dust
Dave
Lindorff
Googling for Fun
Joshua
Frank
Yale Fires an Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar:
an Interview with David Graeber
Website
of the Day
Botero: Pinta El Horror de Abu Ghraib
May
12, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
America is Losing: More Phony Jobs
Hype
Uri
Avnery
Death of a Myth
Greg
Moses
Neo-Con Logic at the Border
Carolyn
Baker
The Politics of Dominionism: the New Religious Right in America
Pat
Williams
Amateurish High Jinks on Roadless Areas
William
S. Lind
Reality Gap: the Myth of US Invincibilty
Jack
Random
The Dubious Wisdom of George W. Bush
Gary
Leupp
Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg
May
11, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed
Chalabi: King of Jordan to Pardon His $300 Million Bank Swindle
Kevin
Zeese
The Occupation Gets More Saddam-like
Every Day
Christopher
Brauchli
Coffee, Tea or Torture?: A One Way Ticket to Uzbekistan
Zalman
Amit
The Collapse of Academic Freedom in
Israel: Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University
Robert
Shull
Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops:
Senate Gives DHS Power to Waive All Laws
Mike
Whitney
God, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw
Dr.
Teresa Whitehurst
Anti-Arabic Week at a Southern High School
Norman
Solomon
Political Bluster and the Filibuster
May
10, 2005
Richard
Drayton
The Imperial Mythology of WW II:
an Ethical Blank Check
Dave
Zirin
Steve Nash's Brilliant Year: Anti-War
Hoopster Wins NBA's MVP
Jackie
Corr
The Medicare Catch: Mrs. O'Hara's Windfall
Dave
Lindorff
Silence of the Scams: Economists
on China
Michael
Donnelly
From Roadless to Clueless: the Great
Stillborn Eco Victory
Reza
Fiyouzat
Nomadic Abstracts
Scott
Parkin
Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton
Stephen
Babcock
The Burden of Knowing Better
Alan
Farago
Florida, Water and Lobbyists
Michael
Neumann
Naomi's Courage
Website
of the Day
One Nation Under Plagiarism
May
9, 2005
Louis
Proyect
Shilling for Chevron: Jared Diamond,
Greenwasher
Robert
Fisk
"Mission Accomplished": the Occupation, Year Two
Kevin
Zeese
Concientious Objection on Trial: the Court Martial of Keith Benderman
Joshua
Frank
Kerry Bashes Gay Marriage
Sasha
Kramer
A Mother's Day Call for Justice in Haiti's Prisons
Andrew
Wimmer
Create and Resist
Jeffrey
Webber
Back to the Streets in Bolivia?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Straight to Bechtel
May
7 / 8, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Who Beat Hitler?
Gary
Leupp
Biblical Prophecy and Christian Zionism
Saul
Landau
Pope Torquemada: Purges, Pedophiles and Cover-Ups
Joe
DeRaymond
Autumn of the Revolutionary: Another Look at Daniel Ortega
Daniela
Ponce
Seeing Chile in Nepal
Heather
Williams
Hollywood Does Enron
Gregory
Elich
Zimbabwe's Fight for Justice
Anis
Memon
To Cuba and Back
John
Chuckman
The Peculiar State: "Criticism of Israel is a Form of Anti-Semitism"
Mike
Whitney
Hard Right Rage Against the Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Re-Reading "Born on the Fourth of July" as the Iraq
War Grinds On
Colin
Kalmbacher
Whither Disorder? Ann Coulter and the Texas Police State, Cont.
Lance
Selfa
Uprising in Mexico City
Fred
Gardner
"Getting High is a Little Like Cuba"
Ben
Tripp
Letters on Wittgenstein
Mickey
Z.
The Mother of All Days
Richard
Joseph
Those Patriotic Magnets
Dr.
Susan Block
Come As You Are: Masturbation 101
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Louise, Nettnin, Engel and Albert
May
6, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad Diary: a Week of Bombs and
Blood
Erin
Yoshioka
Another "3 Strikes" Travesty:
Why is Santo Reyes Facing Life in Prison?
Sam
Husseini
Talking with Syrians
Dave
Lindorff
Ernie Pyle Where Are You? When Reporters were Reporters
Kevin
Zeese
Circus Trials of Abu Ghraib: When Even the Fall Girl Can't Plead
Guilty
Joshua
Frank
An Overextended US Military? It Won't Stop Another War
Dan
Bacher
Tribes and Salmon Win One: Bush Backs Off Trinity River Water
Raid
P.
Sainath
India's Bloody Water Wars
May
5, 2005
Carles
Mutaner
Is Chavez's Venezuela "Socialist"
or "Populist?"
Carl
G. Estabrook
Is There Any Hope for the Pope?
Farrah
Hassen
The US's Syrian Obsession
Kevin
Zeese
"Sent Into Combat Unequipped and Unprepared": an Interview
with Patrick Resta
Michael
Leonardi
May Day with an American Soldier in Rome
Bennett
Ramberg
The Future of Nuclear Terror: Coming to a Reactor Near You
Ray
McGovern
The Smoking Gun on White House Deceit
Norman
Solomon
Nuclear Fundamentalism, the New York Times and Iran
Nicole
Colson
The Back Alley Attack on Abortion Rights
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Clearing the Fences in Haiti
May
4, 2005
Colin
Kalmbacher
Ann Coulter and the Police State:
Heckle a Racist, Get Arrested
John
Walsh
Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony: Lying
on Air America to Support the War
Greg
Moses
Vigilante Wedge: Schwarzenegger Reprises
"Birth of a Nation"
Ali
Khan
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Poised to Fall Apart
Chris
Floyd
Ring Them Bells
Linda
S. Heard
D-Day for Tony Blair: Bogeymen and Scare Tactics
Dave
Zirin
The NFL, Congress and the Male Cheerleader Principle
William
S. Lind
Fool's Paradise
Gary
Leupp
Bolton's Proudest Moment: Breaking
the UN's Anti-Zionist Resolution
Website
of the Day
Kent State, May 4, 1970
May
3, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Bush has Grasped the Third Rail,
Now Turn on the Juice
Brian
Cloughley
Halliburton's War Loot
Ira
Kurzban
Death Squad Diplomacy: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers
Seth
Sandronsky
Towards Debtors' Prisons?
Gilad
Atzmon
The Labour Party Isn't an Option Any More
Michael
Donnelly
Branding Eco Collapse
Alex
Sanchez
Chile's Man at the OAS: a Blow to Bush?
Peter
Linebaugh
Magna Carta and May Day
May
2, 2005
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Jacobs
Toward an Anti-Imperialist Movement
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Goff
The Case of Hasan Akbar
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Strickler
Achieving Gender Balance in US Politics
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Frank
Leaked UK Memo Indict's Blair's Iraq Folly
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Zeese
Getting Out of Iraq will Prove Tougher Than Getting Out of Vietnam
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Pope Benedict: a Rightwing Politician
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Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End
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City for Sale: Richard Daley's Chicago
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Never-Ending Double Standards
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Judicial Jury Tampering in Philly
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The Bi-Partisan Assault on Teenage Girls
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May 24, 2005
Is It Sustainable?
Hugo
Chavez's Economy
By
JOSHUA FRANK
It is difficult not to be fond of Hugo
Chavez's politics. There is little question that as president,
Chavez is attempting to create a radical social-democracy in
Venezuela. In many cases his efforts have already been successful.
Chavez is seeking to empower the lowest strata of society. He
is attempting to implement participatory democracy in the areas
of health-care through his Mission Barrio Adentro (Inside the
Neighborhood) program. However, regardless of how much we may
like Chavez's politics and his efforts to redistribute wealth
in Venezuela, one has to wonder if an economy based mostly on
oil is sustainable in the long run.
When Chavez was elected into
office he inherited a host of problems. One of which, and perhaps
the largest has been greatly ignored by the independent and left
leaning media outlets--and that's the environmental consequences
of Venezuela's reliance on oil as a source of sustenance for
its economic well-being.
The lifeblood of the Venezuelan
economy of is indeed its robust energy industry. Oil production
accounts for almost half of the total government revenues and
about one third of gross domestic product. According to the BCC
News, Venezuela produces approximately three million barrels
of crude oil per day, and exports almost 75% of that total production.
Of the country's $3 to $4 billion in annual foreign investment,
almost all of it is channeled into the oil industry. Venezuela
is currently the fifth largest oil exporter in the world and
supplies about 13% of daily oil imports to the United States.
This is where Chavez can truly
flex his muscle and challenge US supremacy, and in particular
the Bush administration. The removal of Venezuela from the oil
supply side would most definitely result in higher oil prices
in the US and elsewhere. Secure oil supply is especially important
at the present time, given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding
energy supply from the Middle East.
Nonetheless, all this is putting
enormous stress on Venezuela's natural environment and it is
causing insurmountable problems for Venezuelans in the process.
In fact, it is even argued by some environmentalists in the country
that pressure on Venezuela's environment is increasing under
Chavez.
"[A huge problem] is the
continued issuing of gas and oil concessions, especially in the
eastern part of the country, such as in the Orinoco Delta and
the Gulf of Paria, which is a very important fish breeding area,"
Venezuelan environmental activists Alicia Garcia and Maria Eugenia
Bustamante told Jeroen Kuiper of Venezuelanalysis.com.
"The ecosystem of lake
Maracaibo has suffered a lot already from the oil industry. Another
oil and gas-threat comes from the plans to construct pipelines
towards Colombia, Panama, Brazil, and the United States,"
say Eugenia Bustamante and Kuiper. "The main problem is
the difference between what is being said and what is being done.
How can you say that you are in favor of sustainable development,
when at the same time you allow an increase of the extraction
of gold, diamonds and wood? How can you support the Kyoto Protocol,
lash out at the USA for not signing the Protocol, and at the
same time announce increases in oil and gas production?"
According to the Energy Information
Administration (EIA), air pollution levels in Venezuela are high
compared to the country's neighbors, owing mainly to Venezuela's
oil industry. Deforestation, like many other South American counties,
is also a huge problem in the country. As the EIA reports, "The
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that
Venezuela lost forest cover at a rate twice as high as the average
rate for tropical South America in the early and mid-1990s, and
this hasn't slowed much under Chavez."
Venezuela is also becoming
industrialized in an unsustainable fashion. The country's "total
energy consumption in 2002 was 2.9 quadrillion Btu's (quads),
accounting for 0.7% of the world's total," reports the EIA.
"Still, Venezuela's energy consumption that year was behind
only that of Brazil (8.6 quads) and of Mexico (6.6 quads) in
all of Latin America. The country's relatively high level of
energy consumption, which has increased by a hefty 83% since
1980, is due in part to government subsidies on gasoline, natural
gas, and electricity that effectively encourage consumption."
Chavez's efforts to resolve
this dilemma have been minimal at best. His government, like
his predecessors, has put little resources into researching and
developing non-hydro renewable energy sources: such as biomass,
geothermal, or wind and solar energies. Overall, Venezuela is
the third-largest CO2 emitter in Latin America, trailing only
Mexico and Brazil. Venezuela's carbon dioxide emissions over
the past five years have easily surpassed those of Argentina
and Colombia, the next two largest CO2 emitters in Latin America.
All of this has poisoned water supplies and polluted Venezuela's
air.
So as lefties and others in
the US embrace Chavez's efforts to alleviate poverty and provide
health care to all citizens of Venezuela--they must also be aware
and cautious as to the sustainability of the Venezuelan economy,
not to mention the country's natural environment. All this must
raise questions as to the Chavez government's long-term health
and vitality.
Joshua Frank is the author of the forthcoming book,
Left Out! How Liberals
Helped Reelect George W. Bush, to be published by Common
Courage Press. You can pre-order a copy at discounted rate at
www.BrickBurner.org.
Josh can be reached at: Joshua@BrickBurner.org.
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