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Today's
Stories
July
8, 2004
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
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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July
8, 2004
The
Fall
How
Beltway Democrats Sank Howard Dean
By
JOSHUA FRANK
(Editors' Note: As John
Kerry picked John Edwards to be his running mate, many Deaniacs
were upset to say the least. Of those, a contingent is planning
on infiltrating the Democratic National Convention in Boston,
hoping to protest from the floor about Kerry's pick. However,
their grievances will do little to change the outcome of Kerry's
choice for VP. Indeed the Dems sunk Dean long ago. The following
is an excerpt of Josh Frank's hot forthcoming book, Left Out!:
How Liberals Did Bush's Work for Him.)
Howard Dean's Titanic campaign began
to gain momentum shortly after Al Gore endorsed Dean for president
on December 9, 2003. Hailed by many as a huge boost to Dean's
bid, the endorsement, came at the same exact moment Democratic
insiders were meeting to discuss how to sink Dean's advances.
Theories of why Gore endorsed
Dean spread like fire through the media underbrush. As political
commentator Adam Nagourney told Gwen Ifill on PBS's Newshour
on the day of the endorsement: "One [theory] is that
what is going on here is a proxy war between the Clintons and
the Gores over the future of the Democratic Party. I think there
is an element of truth to that. I don't think we want to exaggerate
that."
He was right. The war had begun.
Verbal bombs dropped-with one target in sight: the future of
the Democratic Party. Dean was out for DNC blood, and Gore gladly
went along for the ride. "Howard Dean was assassinated in
broad daylight. Unlike Kennedy's 'grassy knoll,' Dean's killers
are not hiding-it was the Democratic Party itself, and more specifically
the Democratic Leadership Council, that successfully went after,
and sabotaged his candidacy The DLC reacted with fury to [Dean]
going all out to torpedo his momentum," Naeem Mohaiemen
correctly opined on Alternet.org following Dean's presidential
death. "Although Democratic nominees soon piled on the 'bash-Dean'
 bandwagon,
earlier attacks were carried out by DLC operatives. There was
even the smell of scandal when two top Democratic candidates
were found sharing information about Dean in an attempt to slow
him down."
"But the great myth of
the current [Howard Dean] cycle," DLC leaders Al From and
Bruce Reed wrote in a May 15, 2003 memo, "is the misguided
notion that the hopes and dreams of activists represent the heart
and soul of the Democratic Party. "What activists like Dean
call the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is an aberration:
the McGovern-Mondale wing, defined principally by weakness abroad
and elitist, interest-group liberalism at home."
No doubt it was scandalous.
But there was more to the drama than Dick Gephardt and John Kerry
passing notes under the table and the DLC crying foul. In fact,
Democratic insiders ("Washington Democrats," as Dean
used to call them) with deep ties to the DLC began funding campaign
ads against Dean, hoping to bring his campaign to a screeching
halt.
David Jones, an avid fundraiser
and organizer for the Democratic National Committee and a staunch
DLC patron who garnered money for centrist New Democrats like
Bill Clinton and Al Gore, founded an anti-Dean group that ran
vile ads attacking him early on in the Iowa contest. Deceptively
called "Americans for Jobs, Health Care & Progressive
Values, 2004 Election Cycle," Jones' group conducted a poll,
which found that most Americans championed Dean's Iraq war stance.
But few knew of his support of NAFTA, Medicare cuts in the mid
1990s, or his endorsements from the NRA.
"The first spot, on Dean's
NRA endorsements, ran Dec. 5-12 in Iowa," The Chicago
Sun Tribune reported on February 19, 2004. "The second
ad ran Dec. 12-19 in Iowa and hit Dean on his NRA backing and
NAFTA and Medicare stands. By this time, Jones did not have much
money left."
Jones' group raised in excess of $600,000 from numerous Democratic
insiders, including former New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert
Torricelli whose political career ended abruptly fell victim
to ethics violations. Torricelli donated $50,000 to Jones' group.
As The Washington Post
reported on February 16, 2004, "The [Jones' donor] list
makes clearer than ever that the rules need to be changed to
provide timely disclosure-to ensure that voters know who is behind
this kind of attack advertising in time to factor that into their
decision-making, should they so choose. We learn now that unions
that had endorsed Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) contributed
$200,000 of the group's $663,000 in donations. Two top Gephardt
backers also contributed: Leo Hindery Jr. of YES Network ($100,000),
who served as a national finance co-chair, and Swanee Hunt ($25,000),
who was a national campaign co-chair.
While Mr. Gephardt's backers
[including Jones during the late 1990s] constituted the bulk
of the donors, they weren't alone: Slim-Fast Foods founder S.
Daniel Abraham, a major Democratic donor who contributed to his
home state senator, Bob Graham (Fla.), and to Sen. John F. Kerry
(Mass.), gave $100,000. J. McDonald Williams, a former chairman
of the Trammell Crow construction company and a donor to the
Bush-Cheney campaign this year, though to Democrats in previous
cycles, gave $50,000 Mr. Torricelli, you will remember, had
the cash to spare because he was forced to quit his reelection
race after being 'severely admonished' by the Senate Ethics Committee
for accepting expensive gifts from a campaign donor he was doing
official favors for. Now a champion at collecting special-interest
money is gathering checks for Mr. Kerry, who's busy railing against
those interests."
As it turns out, the Post article doesn't even tell the
full story. In reality, the ties between Jones' organization,
the Kerry campaign, and DNC chair Terry McAuliffe were much stronger
than suggested.
As Marc Brazeau pointed out
on the online political site Joe Hill Dispatch, a closer examination
reveals "that the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher
& From was paid $18,000 for legal work by the group and the
e-mail contact for Americans for Jobs" ended in skadden.com.
Why the fuss? It just so happens
that skadden.com was the email tag for Skadden, Arps, Slate,
Meagher & From-a firm that has donated $176,575 to John Kerry's
presidential campaign as of mid-June 2004. To put things in perspective,
this is more money than any other big Kerry backers, including
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Microsoft have donated
since the inception of Kerry's campaign.
"And while the Post
points out that Leo Hindery had ties to Gephardt, it should be
noted that he testified before Kerry's communications committee
as well.
So you have a $50,000 contribution
from Kerry fundraiser Robert Torricelli, legal expertise provided
by Kerry's largest contributor, and a major donor from an industry
that Kerry was responsible for regulating," Brazeau explained.
"Those are the dots. Connect them how you like."
Given this, it's abundantly clear that the grassroots efforts
of Howard Dean, Inc. were being taken on by insider money. Recognizing
the challenge, Al Gore boarded the ship he hoped would not succumb
to the rocky waters of Washington politics. But this scandal
was just the tip of the iceberg, inevitably dashing Dean's prospects
of winning his party's nomination as Democratic scorn prevailed.
DNC fundraising guru Terry
McAuliffe was also ostensibly involved-perhaps directly-in Jones'
anti-Dean propaganda. Leo Hindery, the former CEO of Global Crossing,
donated $1,140,000 to the Democratic Party during the 2002 congressional
race. Slim Fast diet mogul S. Daniel Abraham, meanwhile, forked
over $1,450,000 to the Democratic Party that same year.
McAuliffe tapped into these fat cats' resources, scoring a bundle
of cash- some $18 million-for himself when he ditched his Global
Crossing stock in 1999. But McAuliffe's tie to the anti-Deaniacs
didn't end there. Along with McAuliffe, Bernard Schwartz, who
donated $15,000 to Jones' group, was a plaintiff in a 1998 lawsuit
over the alleged breaching of export regulations between the
US and China.
In fact, Schwartz, the chairman
and CEO of Loral Space & Communications, has a long history
of complicity in Democratic scandals. In 1994, he gave the DNC
$100,000 and visited China with President Clinton's Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown. Their trip heeded a $250 million package
that allowed China to use Chinese rockets to launch Loral's multi-million
dollar satellites into space.
Despite overt objections by
the Defense Department and Secretary of State Warren Christopher,
Clinton personally transferred jurisdiction of satellite-export
licensing from the State Department to Commerce Secretary Ron
Brown by March 1996. At the same time, Schwartz increased
his contributions to the Democratic Party, making him the largest
single contributor in the 1996 election cycle. Later that same
year Clinton signed a waiver that allowed Schwartz's Loral Space
Company to export a satellite. When the satellite was ostentatiously
launched the following autumn, Schwartz's Loral Space & Communications
made out like bandits.
That is how big money works
for "Washington Democrats," so it's little wonder that
Schwartz wanted to punish Dean for challenging the D.C. norm,
even if Dean only accidentally stumbled into the role of 'maverick
progressive.' The truth is, Schwartz didn't want this new base
of Democratic activists to take over the party he did business
with.
Joshua Frank is the author of the upcoming book,
Left
Out: How Liberals did Bush's Work for Him, to be published
by Common Courage Press and is a contributor to Counterpunch's
forthcoming book, Dime's Worth of Difference. He welcomes comments
at frank_joshua@hotmail.com.
Weekend Edition
Features for June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
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Team
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CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
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Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
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Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
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Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
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Poets'
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Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
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