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Today's
Stories
February 8
/ 10, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Does
the GOP Have Aces Up Its Sleeves?
February 7,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Baghdad Will Explode Again
Bill Christison
Potholes Bigger Than Ever for Palestinians
David Anderson
NBC's "To Entrap" a Predator: Perverting Justice for
the Sake of Ratings
Ron Jacobs
Innocent Flesh: Recruiting Kids to Kill
Nikolas Kozloff
Hugo Chávez's Coca: It's the Real Thing
Jane Rockefeller
The Moral Economy of an Anti-Poverty Foundation
Andy Worthington
On Waterboarding: Two Questions for Michael Hayden
Dave Zirin
Instep Intifada
Saul Landau
The "Honestest" Candidate Since Lincoln
Susie Day
Our Blob in the White House
Website of the Day
George Carlin on Voting
February 6,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Super
Tuesday's Vote for Chaos
Ben Rosenfeld
Informant Games: The Disturbing GreenScare Case of Briana Waters
Vijay Prashad
An Intellectual Hustler Lays It All Out
Joe Bageant
Nine Billion Little Feet on the Highway of the Damned
Michael Donnelly
What White Women Do In Private Voting Booths
Allan Nairn
Does the US Need a Civilizing Mayan Invasion?
Kathryn Gray
Wilderness on Edge: The Fate of Donner Summit
Ray McGovern
Powell's UN Fiasco
Sheldon Richman
The Whining Empire
Paul Cantor
/ Roger Sparks
A
Presidential Aptitude Examination
John Chuckman
Political Bits and Pieces
Website of
the Day
Save the Albatross
February 5,
2008
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The
Chaos in America's Vast Security Budget
Tariq Ali
Why I Will Not Participate in the Turin Book Fair
Stephen Soldz
The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq: Did Rumsfeld Authorize
War Crimes?
Chris Floyd
Strange
Fruit: America's Gulag and the Good War
William S. Lind
Saddam's Secret War Strategy: Die and Win
Martha Rosenberg
Live From the Killing Floor
Heather Gray
Conversations with Georgia Voters
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Obama, Bhagwandas and the Battle for a Secular Politics
David Macaray
Unions Need to Stop Being So Nice
Eliza Ernshire
Making Music and Laughing Till the Tears Run
Brenda Norrell
Hated Nation
Website of
the Day
The Things I Used to Do
February 4,
2008
Marc Levy
Winter
in America
Patrick Cockburn
The Bird Market Bombings
Saree Makdisi
Strangling Gaza
Uri Avnery
From Stalingrad to Winograd
Alan Farago
Let's Get Bambi! Someone is Slaughtering Florida's Key Deer
Ben Tripp
Spare Change: the Whine of the Progressive Voter
Paul Wolf
Civil Wars North and South
Paul Craig
Roberts
Why Were the 9/11 Tapes Destroyed?
Joshua Frank
MoveOn's Obama Endorsement: Why There's No Hope for Change
John Halle
Whither Progressive Democrats?
Website of the Day
How to Cheat in School
February 2
/ 3, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Hot
Democratic Properties
Pam Martens
Bankers
Gone Bonkers: Global Finance and the Insanity Defense
Ralph Nader
The Great Clinton-Obama Debate: Questions They Weren't Asked
John Ross
Hilaria
vs. "El Moreno"
Wajahat Ali
Hillary, Obama and the Clash of Civilizations: an Interview with
Imam Zaid Shakir
Robert Fantina
A Colony by Any Other Name: Iraq as Stepchild of the American
Empire
B. R. Gowani
Not All Veils and Guns
James L. Secor
China in Winter: On the Western Edge of the Great Snow
John V. Walsh
The Invisible Green Primary
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Barack's Bubble, Bubba's Trouble
Dave Zirin
Who Stole the Super Bowl's Soul?
Jeremy Scahill
Blackwater and Blood
Fidel Castro
Reflections on Lula
Joe Allen
Tet Reconsidered: the Turning Point in the Vietnam War
Stephen Lendman
Life in Occupied Gaza
Patrick Irelan
What Happened to the Streetcars?
Andrej Grubacic
Ziga Vodovnik
Caligula's Horse: the USA, New Europe and Kosovo
Josh Karpoff
Dead Soldiers and the Antiwar Movement
Ron Jacobs
Carl Oglesby's War
Paul Krassner
Tom Waits Meets Super-Joel
Website of the Weekend
Company Woman: Hillary and Wal-Mart
February 1,
2008
Ray McGovern
The
Iniquities and Inequalities of War
Diane Farsetta
The Wild Career of James "Dow 36,000" Glassman
Patrick Cockburn
The
Most Dangerous Country in the World for Journalists
Tariq Ali
Et
Tu, New York Times?
Allan Nairn
Eating Dirt for Lunch in Haiti
Rannie Amiri
Collective Punishment in Beirut
Ramzy Baroud
People Power in Gaza: They Simply Did It
Kenneth Couesbouc
The Mother of All Snowballs
Peter Morici
Recession Looms
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Witha "Brutha" Like This: Bill Clinton as White Negro
Rosemary Jackowski
27 Reasons Nader Should Run for President
Scott Campbell
Direct Action to Stop the War Re-emerges
Website of the Day
Betes et Hommes
January 31,
2008
Saul Landau
Return
to Afghanistan
Andy Worthington
Horror at Guantánamo
Mike Whitney
Rate Cut as Dagger: America's Teetering Banking System
Jeff Ballinger
Sustainability for Dictators Initiative? Clinton Praises the
"Suharto of the Steppe"
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
The Saga of the Freightliner Five
William Loren
Katz
Waterboarding:
Torure or Mystery?
Alan Farago
Why the Republicans are in Deep Trouble
Col. Dan Smith
Oh Say Can You See the 2009 Budget?
China Hand
Slouching Toward Islamabad
Dave Lindorff
The Usual Suspects Once Again
Wadner Pierre
Fake Democracy in Haiti
Website of the Day
One Big Union
January 30,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
McCain
vs. Clinton?
Christopher
Ketcham
The Genius of the Development Industrial-Complex
Robert Weissman
America By the Numbers: The Shameful State of the Union
Neve Gordon
An Experiment in Famine
Paul Craig Roberts
Regulation or Deregulation, Which is Worse?
Joanne Mariner
How Anti-Terror Laws Threaten Free Speech
David Macaray
Labor's Only Real Weapon
Liaquat Ali
Khan
Is NATO Committing Genocide in Afghanistan?
Raymond J. Lawrence
Prankster-in-Chief: Bush's Troubling Non-Verbal Communication
Dan Bacher
The Collapse of the Central Valley Salmon
Website of the Day
Onward Through the Fog
January 29,
2008
Franklin C.
Spinney
Bush's
New War Budget: the $70 Billion Hand-Off
Mike Whitney
The Great Credit Unwind of 2008
Alan Farago
Buyer Beware: Florida, the Candidates and the Latin Builders
Association
Patrick Cockburn
"The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction"
Gary Leupp
"We Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans:" a Sibel
Edmonds Timeline
R. F. Blader
A
World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania
Ahmad Faruqui
Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect
Fran Shor
Obama, the Kennedys and "Change We Can Believe In"
Jeremy Scahill
Secret Trials and Criminal Convictions: the Ordeal of the Blackwater
Protesters
Allan Nairn
Bush's
SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All
Website of the Day
The Ghost of Rambo
January 28,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
Return
to Fallujah
Paul Craig
Roberts
The End of American Liberty
Allan Nairn
The Breaking of the Gaza Wall
Eyad al-Sarraj
/ Sara Roy
Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza
Martha Rosenberg
Obit for the "Front Page" City
Corporate Crime
Reporter
How They Rip Us Off
David Michael Green
Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War
Jennifer Van
Bergen
What's Left?
Nancy Oden
Survival Tips for Hard Times
Divya Karnad
Saving India's Sea Turtles
James L. Secor
Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp
Website of
the Day
Yellow Journalism?
January 26
/ 27, 2008
Uri Avnery
Worse
Than a Crime
JoAnn Wypijewski
How the Clintons Lost It, Whatever the Outcome in S. Carolina
Ralph Nader
Ambition, Power and the Clintons
Paul Craig
Roberts
How Bush Destroyed the Dollar
Paul Watson
I'm Proud to be a Pirate!
John Ross
Murder and Cover-Up in Mexico
Fred Gardner
Ross v. Raging Wire: Employer's Right to Fire Workers Held Sacred
by California Supreme Court
Allan Nairn
Little Hands with Fever: Some Consequences of Poverty Death
Joshua Frank
Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey
Binoy Kampmark
Société Générale and the Economic
Meltdown
James T. Phillips
America's Sick Comedy: Bringing the War Home
Stan Cox
The Depressing Truth About Anti-Depressants
Eamonn McCann
Hillary's Lie: "I Brought Peace to Northern Ireland"
Ron Jacobs
The Horizons of History: What's at Stake in Bolivia
Seth Sandronsky
California's Health Care Crisis
Ben Terrall
The Future is Unwritten
Poets' Basement
Tripp, Gardner, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
City of Immigrants
January 25,
2008
Douglas Valentine
Operation
Two-Fold: How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA
Patrick Cockburn
US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years: an Interview with
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
JoAnn Wypijewski
Down to the Wire in South Carolina
Heather Gray
Are We Seeing a Racial Shift in the South? Conversations with
South Carolina Voters
Marjorie Cohn
Senate Democrats Poised to Fold to Cheney on FISA
Erica Rosenberg
Environmentalists Out on a Limb: the Perils of Collaboration
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush Goes Nuclear
Robert Weissman
Reclaiming Economic Freedom
Laura Carlsen
Wild Cards: Mining the Hispanic Vote in Nevada
Stephen Lendman
Israeli Repression in the Hebron
Website of the Day
The FIX is In
January 24,
2008
JoAnn Wypijewski
Obama
as Anthologist of Uplift
Paul Craig
Roberts
President Hillary
Alexander Cockburn
Hillary Wants to Talk About Dirty Legal Dealings? Remember Her
Nursing Home Scam?
Kathleen Christison
One and Two State Solutions and the Myth of International Consensus
Jeff Halper
Power to the (Palestinian) People!
Stanley Heller
The Siege of Gaza is Broken
George Wuerthner
The Moronic Sport: ORVs on the Public Lands
Patrick Cockburn
Desperate Iraqi Farmers Turn to Opium
Jeff Sher
Just How "Good" is Your Health Insurance?
Patrick Irelan
Musharraf, the Steadfast Ally?
Charles Modiano
Restoring the Anti-War King
Website of
the Day
An Illustrated History of Trepanation
January 23,
2008
David Rosen
The
Great Disappearing Act: the Presidential Candidates and the Politics
of Sex
David Isenberg
Is
It Really So Hard to Believe That Iran Stopped Its Nuclear Weapons
Program?
Farzana Versey
Hillary's
Harem
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Empire That Must Be Obeyed
Alan Farago
Where Did All the Good Times Go?
Allan Nairn
Indonesian Intelligence Service Threatens to Kill Human Rights
Activist
Kenneth Couesbouc
Another Turn of the Screw
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How the West was Re-Sold
Michael Donnelly
Obama Strikes Back
Norman Solomon
The Power of Love
Website of the Day
Rafah Today
January 22,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Farewell
to Old Economic Nostrums
JoAnn Wypijewski
King Day in Columbia, South Carolina
Al Giordano
Divide and Conquer Politics: How the Clinton Campaign Armed a
Black-Latino Time Bomb in Nevada
Felice Pace
Power Politics in the Klamath: Water, Dams and Salmon
Paul Wolf
Bolívar's Sword
Robert Weissman
Deregulation and the Financial Crisis
Dave Lindorff
The Bush Dollar Trap
Marjorie Cohn
Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction
Richard Neville
Keeping Shakespeare in a Box
Don Fitz /
Zaki Baruti
St. Louis Mayor Booed Off MLK Platform
Ben Terrall
Cindy Sheehan and the Virtues of Divisiveness
Sam Husseini
Stoning Martin Luther King, Jr.
Website of
the Day
Defend the Mapuche!
January 21,
2008
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Playing
the Race Card
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Deferring Dreams, Delusions of Democracy
Pam Martens
How Wall Street Blew Itself Up
David Macaray
Labor's Grim Dilemma: Do We Need a Labor Party?
Uri Avnery
Look Who's Talking
Omar Barghouti
Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide
Joe DeRaymond
Protest and Trial in D.C.
B.R. Gowani
Why Islam Should Tolerate Images
Shepherd Bliss
The False U.S. Economy
Jean-Guy Allard
Philip Agee Versus the CIA
Dan Bacher
Leaping Steelhead!
Website of
the Day
Destroyed
By a Rising Flood
January 19
/ 20, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Campaign in Black and White
Saul Landau
Good Time Charlie's War
China Hand
Endgame for Pakistan?
Conn Hallinan
Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About?
Ron Jacobs
No Retreat
Dave Lindorff
A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess
Andy Worthington
Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture
Paul Armentano
What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think
Seth Sandronsky
High Crimes and Economics
Michael Donnelly
Dodging Ecocide
Patrick Irelan
The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki
Martha Rosenberg
The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit
Sherwood Ross
Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade
David Michael
Green
So You Want to be My President, Eh?
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: Under House Protection
Daniel Gross
Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King
Peter N. Carroll
In Memory of Milton Wolff
Susie Day
Croakin' on Hudson
Paul Krassner
Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu
Poets' Basement
Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of the Day
Rocky Mountain
Blues
January 18,
2008
Allan Nairn
Killing
Civilians, Carefully
Ralph Nader
When
the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill?
Joanne Mariner
Terrorism and Preventative Detention
Alan Farago
The Stimulus and the Meltdown
P. Sainath
Pity the Brahmins
R.F. Blader
Beyond Steinem's Feminism
Andy Worthington
A Letter from Guantánamo
John Jonik
Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health
Brian McKenna
Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan
Women's Prison
Daoud Kuttab
This Time Next Year?
Website of the Day
Those South Carolina Voting Machines
January 17,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Leader
and Vassal
Christopher
Brauchli
The FBI's Bills Come Due
Robert Fantina
Leadership, Bush and the New York Times
Patrick Irelan
Eternal War
Paul A. Moore
When the Rich Pay No Taxes
Stephen Lendman
Institutionalized Spying on Americans
Beena Sarwar
Bhutto and the "State Within a State"
Walter Brasch
Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment
Brenda Norrell
Bush Legacy in Texas Sours
Adam Federman
End of the Left?
Website of the Day
Democrats for Romney
January 16,
2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Return
of the Native
Franklin Lamb
The Bombing at Qarantina
Julian Sanchez
David Weigel
Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?
Sharon Smith
Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope?
Allan Nairn
Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation
Andy Worthington
A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo
Richard Behan
Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Website of the Day
Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!
January 15,
2008
Andrea Peacock
Breach
of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing
Poison Into Libby's Wounds
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy
and the Prospects of War with Iran
Joe Bageant
Getting Out the Bling Vote
Ralph Nader
The Candidate Taboos
John Ross
Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified?
Peter Morici
The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy
Beena Sarwar
Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade
Robert Weissman
Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought
Binoy Kampmark
Going Tata in India
Dave Zirin
Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame
Website of
the Day
David Lynch on the iPhone
January 14,
2008
Ishmael Reed
Ma
and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man
Roger Morris
Burials in the Sind
Uri Avnery
The
Hands of Esau
Mike Whitney
Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package
Allan Nairn
General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million
Corpses
William Blum
Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us
Alan Farago
A Subprime Wake Up Call
David Macaray
Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time?
Eva Liddell
Getting Drunk with Obama
Zoe Blunt
Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons
Website of the Day
Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies
January 12
/ 13, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
How
the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian
Deaths
Saul Landau
60
Years of Empire
Corey D. B. Walker
Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual
Col. Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot
Eric Toussaint
The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global
Ron Jacobs
Television, Murder and Vietnam
Fred Gardner
The People vs. Christopher James Chakos
Stan Cox
Don't Take That Pill!
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Warfare State
Ramzy Baroud
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Joseph Grosso
The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites
David Díaz-Arias
Imagining An/Other Latin American Left
Stacey Warde
Before We Move On ...
Dan Bacher
Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt
Michael Dickinson
Georgie in Jesusland
Website of
Weekend
CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices
January 11,
2008
Dave Lindorff
Did
Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold
Voting Machines
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Escape from War and Unemployment
Andy Worthington
Six Years of Guantánamo
Kenneth Couesbouc
Banking on Thin Ice
Jeff Ballinger
Inside the Vienna Consensus
Christopher
Brauchli
Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns
Andrew Silverstein
Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem
Marwan Bishara
Bush in the Middle East
Robert Weissman
The First Amendment Gone Wild
Patrick Irelan
Damn the Small Boats!
Website of
the Day
Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She
Loses
January 10,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Now
Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards
Bob Wing
Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom
Bradley
Michael Donnelly
White Women Gone Wild?
David Macaray
Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions
China Hand
Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries?
Rannie Amiri
Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya?
Website of the Day
Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident
January 9,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
Dave Lindorff
The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation
John Chuckman
Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada
James Bovard
Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006
Alan Farago
As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic
Russell Mokhiber
Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday?
William S. Lind
Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq
Peter Morici
Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters
Josh Reubner
Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment
Mike Roselle
The Pursuit of Happiness
Website of the Day
Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH
January 8,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old)
Russell Mokhiber
The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative
Robert Fantina
The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz
Dave Zirin
Butts on Parade
Shamako Nobel
I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop
John Ross
Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves
Brenda Norrell
Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security
Laura Carlsen
Why Bolivia Matters
Patrick Irelan
Remember the Maine!
Evelyn J. Pringle
The Holes in Bush's FDA
Jonathan M.
Feldman
After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace
Movement
Michael Dickinson
Playing Soldier
Website of
the Day
Sean Hannity on the Run!
January 7,
2008
Chris Floyd
There
Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities
John Blair
Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana
Uri Avnery
The Case of the White Bird
Andy Worthington
Who Are the Gitmo Saudis?
Binoy Kampmark
Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court
David Macaray
Women on Strike
Ralph Nader
Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood
Michael Donnelly
It's the War Vote(s), Stupid!
Ron Jacobs
Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough?
Gideon Levy
The Hostile President
Dave Lindorff
A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb
Website of
the Day
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
January 5 /
6, 2008
Douglas Valentine
Good
Guys in Black Hoods
Kevin Young
The
US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq
Richard Rhames
Saddam
Who?
Saul Landau
Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory
Marc Lynch
Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing
Robert Fantina
Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War
Donna Volatile
Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr.
Jelle Bruinsma
Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands
Bob Sutcliffe
Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist
Harvey Wasserman
Anti-Nuclear Renaissance
Missy Beattie
Why Obama Can't Save Us
David Swanson
Remembering the Separation of Powers
Jacob Hornberger
The Importance of the Padilla Case
Shepherd Bliss
Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms
Ron Jacobs
Bleeding Kansas
Poets' Basement
Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint
January 4,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Good Night in Iowa
Jonathan Cook
War Crimes Airbrushed from History
Paul Craig Roberts
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
Stan Goff
Ron Paul's Monkeywrench
Dave Lindorff
Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
To Pindi Station
Allan Nairn
U.S. Elections Over Before They Began
Joshua Frank
The Failures of Sectarianism
Peter Morici
Economy on the Skids
Mary McInnis
Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease
Website of the Day
The Return of Obama Girl
January 3,
2008
Fatima Bhutto
Farewell
to Wadi Bua
Pam Martens
The
Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos
Joanne Mariner
The Presidential Candidates and Torture
Zoltan Grossman
Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the
Web
David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
Norman Solomon
Edwards Reconsidered
Nikolas Kozloff
Return of the Faux Liberal
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus
Martha Rosenberg
Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick
Russell Means
This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah
Lands
Website of the Day
WolfQuest
|
Weekend
Edition
February 8 / 10, 2008
Pot Shots
"The
District Attorney of Shasta County Doesn't Know the Law!"
By FRED GARDNER and
PEBBLES TRIPPET
Denney v. DEA et al is a civil lawsuit
by California physician Philip A. Denney against the agencies
involved in sending undercover operatives to his office in the
fall of 2005. As reported previously in Counterpunch, the agents
feigned histories and symptoms to get Denny's approval to medicate
with cannabis. Denney learned of the deceitful visits when a
concerned citizen sent him the "Investigative Narrative(s)"
prepared by Redding police officer Tracy Miller. Denney sued,
contending that the elaborate deception infringed on his First
Amendment right to discuss marijuana use with patients. He cited
a 2004 ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in the
case of Conant v. Drug Czar that upheld a permanent injunction
barring the government from investigating a pro-cannabis doctor
without probable cause.
In seeking a dismissal of Denney's
suit, the government claimed that there had been an investigation
of a Redding dispensary called Dixon Herbs, and that agents obtaining
Denney's approval to medicate with cannabis were simply gaining
access to that dispensary so they could make controlled buys.
Last summer U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton denied the
motion to dismiss. In October, Denney's lawyer, Zenia Gilg, took
depositions from the law enforcement agents who participated
in the investigation. She was seeking evidence that in selecting
Denney's office to visit, they had been motivated by "retaliatory
animus" towards an outspoken pro-cannabis doctor.
As Gilg reconstructs the scenario,
Shasta County DA Gerald Benito had told Deputy DA Ben Hanna that
as evidence against Dixon Herbs he wanted four controlled buys
- three from confidential informants, plus one from a government
agent. "But they didn't need any more informants,"
Gilg says she ascertained. "Hanna already had a CI with
a doctor's recommendation working for him, who made the first
buy. Then they send a CI to Dixon Herbs and he's told that he
can get a recommendation from a Dr. Rosenthal, who's going to
be at the dispensary Oct. 8. Meanwhile the first CI goes back
to Dixon Herbs and makes another buy. So they need one more
CI to make one more buy, and that's their excuse for going to
Dr. Denney's office.
"But what we learned from
deposing Officer Hale was that he had a CI working for him who
already had a doctor's recommendation! They could have used him
to make the buy, but they didn't, they said, because he was in
Sacramento."
Instead of sending Hale's CI
from Sacramento to Dixon Herbs -a two-hour drive that would cost
$25 in gas- the investigators deployed another CI to go into
Denney's office and lie to get a recommendation, while they conducted
a stake-out in the parking lot. Perhaps the government can argue
- truthfully!- that they weren't investigating Denney, their
agents were simply running up their billable hours.
The whole exercise was totally
unnecessary, Gilg observes, because Dixon Herbs openly advertised
itself as a medical marijuana dispensary in a local newspaper
and online. She adds, "The business license which Dixon
Herbs got in May 2005, basically says 'We're a medical marijuana
dispensary.' They could have gone to Ron Dixon and said 'We
notice you have a business license that says you're a medical
marijuana dispensary and you advertise on the internet as a medical
marijuana dispensary and we don't think that's legal.' How simple
would that have been?
"It's common sense -give
them a warning. Ask them to stop. Especially when they're doing
it openly."
Gilg also learned, she says,
that the investigation of Dixon Herbs was launched as "a
Redding Police-Shasta County operation -not DEA- but with a twist
I found very interesting. Ordinarily, such investigations are
handled by a task force called SINTF [pronounced sin-teff] that
includes the Shasta County District Attorney, the Sheriff, Redding
Police, Anderson Police, the state Bureau of Narcotics, CHP,
and some other agencies. But to go after Dixon Herbs they created
a different organization, because the state attorney general
mandates that anytime a task force investigates a medical dispensary,
they have to get the okay [from the AG's office]. SINTF didn't
want to do that, so they created another group that included
many of the same agencies, including the Shasta County DA, the
sheriff, the DA -and they didn't need the attorney general's
okay."
How did Gilg find out about
SINTF's end-run around the attorney general's office? "[Redding
Police officer] Tracy Miller admitted it at the deposition. Flat
out."
Gilg believes that the impetus
for the move against Dixon Herbs may have come from MacGregor
Scott, a former DA of Shasta County whom George Bush had appointed
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California. Scott had
issued a memo August 1, 2005 - "just after the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled in the Raich case," Gilg notes, "and just
before this investigation began"- inviting all law enforcement
agencies in the Eastern District to forward medical marijuana
cases to his office.
Gilg says, "Scott's memo
told every DA in the state, 'Hand us your medical marijuana cases,
because there's no defense under federal law.' And a lot of DAs
who had cases they weren't sure they could win in Superior Court
went 'Right on. How cool is that?'"
The reason the case against Dixon wasn't turned over to the feds,
Gilg learned through depositions, was that after searching Ron
Dixon's home the investigators "determined that they hadn't
found enough to spark the interest of the feds."
"Most interesting of all,"
says Gilg of the depositions, "was their astonishing level
of ignorance. When I asked Benito if he knew the case of People
vs. Urziceanu, he said 'No.'
"'People vs. Wright?'
"'No.'
"'People vs. Mower?'
"''I've heard of it, but
I can't tell you what it says.'
"That's crazy! 'People
vs. Spark?'
"'Never heard of it.'
"'People vs. Jones?'
"'Never heard of it.'
"'Conant vs.McCaffrey?'
"'Never heard of it.'
"The district attorney
of Shasta County doesn't know the law!," says Gilg.
Benito's deputy, Ben Hanna,
had heard of Spark and Jones.
The gist of all these key decisions
-controlling precedents in the districts in which they were handed
down- is provided below.
The government -both the federal
and state defendants- have filed motions for "summary judgment"
which will be argued before Judge Karlton March 24. These are
post-deposition claims that the case should be dismissed because,
based on the evidence presented, no harm was done to Denney and
no reasonable jury could find for him. Says Zenia Gilg, "A
lot of things came out in the depositions that are going to strengthen
our position at trial, and nothing came out that's going to weaken
it. Of course the government denied that they were investigating
Dr. Denney, but as Judge Karlton said, 'You can deny that all
you want but the facts are the facts.' And the big one is that
they had another informant who had a recommendation."
Denney's suit names as defendants
the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Administrator Karen
Tandy and Agent Dennis Hale; the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms, and Explosives, FBATFE Director Carl J. Truscott, and
Agent Steven Decker; the Office of the Shasta County District
Attorney, D.A. Gerald Benito; the Shasta County Sheriff's Department,
Sheriff James Pope, Deputy Robert Modin, and Deputy Christopher
McQuillan; the Redding Police Department, RPD Chief Leonard Moty,
Officer Tracy Miller, and Officer Eric Wallace; and Does 1-40.
Memo to
Shasta County D.A. Gerlad Benito
At depositions in the Denney
v. DEA et al law suit, Deputy DA Ben Hanna, who was acting
in an advisory capacity to law enforcement in connection with
the Dixon Herbs investigation, did not know the propositions
for which the following cases stood: Urziceanu, Wright, Mower
and Conant. You yourself acknowledged unfamiliarity with
those four cases, as well as Spark and Jones.
To help your office perform
its mission properly, legal affairs analyst Pebbles Trippet has
prepared the following executive summary.
People v
Mower (Aug 2002) California Supreme Court
Issue: Are medical-marijuana
users and people who use prescription medicines equal under the
law?
Facts: Myron Mower, a legally
blind diabetic, confessed from his hospital bed (while hooked
up to a morphine IV drip) and was convicted of cultivating 31
plants. He was sentenced to five years probation. The 5th District
Appeals Court denied his appeal.
Ruling: The Supreme Court
reversed Mower's conviction based on incorrect instructions to
the jury regarding the burden of proof. Patient-defendants need
only raise a reasonable doubt (a doctor's authorization); the
prosecution must disprove beyond a reasonable doubt, not by "preponderance
of the evidence." Doctor-approved marijuana users are "no
more criminal than" those who use prescription meds. The
Court created a new motion to dismiss, prior to preliminary hearing,
i.e., a doctor's authorization is the equivalent of a prescription
and grounds for immediate dismissal.
Conant v
Walters (Dec 2002) US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
Conant protects physicians'
First Amendment right to discuss and recommend medical cannabis
under state law regardless of conflicting federal law. It was
originally filed as Conant v McCaffrey) to stop the federal government
from interfering with the right of California doctors to make
medical decisions based on discussions with their patients. Dr.
Conant was granted a permanent injunction preventing the Drug
Czar, the DEA and other federal officials from even investigating
doctors for authorizing medical cannabis under state law without
probable cause.
People v
Jones (Sept 2003) 112 CalApp4th 341 o 3d Appellate District
o Sacramento County
Issue: What qualifies as a
physician's approval to use marijuana for migraine headaches?
Facts: William Ira Jones was
found guilty of cultivation of 31 marijuana plants for migraines
after a no-contest plea. He testified at a pre-trial hearing
that his doctor had stated, "It might help. Go ahead."
The court determined that the jury could find that such a "favorable
opinion" qualifies as a physician's approval, even though
the doctor admitted that he was afraid to issue a written approval.
Thus the trial court erred in precluding defendant from presenting
his defense to the jury, and the order granting four years probation
was reversed.
Ruling: A defendant need only
raise a reasonable doubt as to whether s/he had a doctor's approval
to permit a jury to decide the question.
People v
Spark (Aug 2004) 121 CalApp4th259 o 5th Appellate District
o Kern County
Issue: Must a patient be considered
"seriously ill" to qualify for protection under Prop
215?
Facts: Noel Spark, a patient
being treated for chronic back pain, was arrested for growing
three plants. Spark was found guilty of cultivation at two jury
trials. Both verdicts were reversed on appeal, based on the jury
having been erroneously instructed. At the first trial the jury
was instructed to decide based on the "preponderance of
evidence" not "beyond a reaonable doubt." At the
second trial the jury was allowed to interpret the meaning of
"seriously ill," which is not a jury issue.
Ruling: A physician's determination
that the use of marijuana is appropriate is not to be second-guessed
by jurors.
People v
Urziceanu (Sept 2005) 132 Cal App 4th 747 o 3d Appellate District
o Sacramento County
Issue: Is collective or cooperative
cultivation and distribution lawful under Prop 215 and SB420?
Facts: Michael Urziceanu and
his partner Susan Rodger created FloraCare, a cooperatively run
dispensary near Sacramento. Some members contributed medicine
and got "suggested donations." Floracare was first
raided 9/18/01. After reorganizing as a co-op, they were raided
again. A jury acquitted Urziceanu of cultivation and sales but
convicted for conspiracy to sell (a three-year sentence).
Ruling: While Prop 215 may
not have protected collective medical marijuana gardens and sales,
SB420 (which created Health & Safety Code 11362.7) did. The
appeals court unanimously reversed and remanded for a new trial,
based on improper jury instructions on conspiracy and mistake
of law, as well as search and seizure procedures. The court applied
expanded protections to patients and caregivers as long as the
medicine-providing processes are collectively or cooperatively
organized for the good of the whole, rather than for individual
profit.
People v
Wright (Nov 2006) 40 Cal4th 81 o Supreme Court o Orange County
Issues: Was the trial court's
refusal to instruct the jury about an implicit Prop 215 defense
to transportation of personal-use marijuana prejudicial or harmless
error? The 4th District appeals court had reversed the conviction,
ruling it was prejudicial to the defendant to deny the instruction
to the jury. The appeals court had ruled it was prejudicial
to the defendant to deny the defense. The California Supreme
Court granted review to resolve the conflict between two appellate
decisions: Trippet (Prop 215 confers an "implicit right"
to transport) and Young (215 doesn't protect transportation).
Second issue: is the quantity a patient can possess under SB420
not to exceed eight ounces of dried marijuana?
Facts: Huntington Beach police
stopped Shaun Eric Wright as he was leaving a carwash in his
pick-up. A search revealed 1lb, 3oz of marijuana, which Wright
used with a doctor's approval. A jury convicted him of transportation
and possession for sale. The 4th District Appeals Court reversed
based on the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury about
a 215 defense to the transportation charge.
Ruling: The California Supreme
Court reversed the appeals court ruling on grounds that the trial
judge's error in not allowing the transportation defense was
harmless, not prejudicial, error. While granting the judge should
have allowed the defense, "the omission of the instruction
did not affect the trial outcome, thus rendering the trial unfair."
The Court reinstated the convictions and remanded for further
proceedings on defendants' additional claims of instructional
error.
On the question of whether
Prop 215 implicitly allowed transportation of marijuana for personal
use, the Supreme Court determined "that Trippet, not Young,
was the better-reasoned decision." On the question of legal
quantity, the Supreme Court ruled that SB420 had established
six mature plants and eight ounces of processed cannabis as a
minimum that counties had to allow patients to possess -not a
maximum.
Prejudice
= Ignorance x Arrogance
Documents obtained by the lawyer
defending Ron Dixon -Ed Denson of Redway- included a revealing
email from DA Benito to Redding PD Captain Chuck Lebak, sent
on Feb. 8, 2006. Lebak had asked for guidance: "The Chief
has received a letter from Eugene Denson, the attorney representing
Ron Dixon (marijuana collective owner). He has 16 questions he
would like the chief to respond to. The questions all deal with
how marijuana collectives can operate legally Let me know how
you would like us to proceed."
Benito replied: "Thanks
for letting me know. For over a year now, I have received calls
from marijuana users wanting to know how they can grow and sell
it legally. I have refused to give them advice in this area.
I will do the same if this attorney calls or writes me. I tell
them that I do not like or agree with the law, therefore I will
not help people fall under the protections of the law. I usually
advise that they obtain an attorney, but this guy is an attorney.
He can read the law as well as I can."
Maybe better. Prejudice distorts
comprehension.
Fred Gardner edits and Pebbles Trippet covers legal
affairs for O'Shaughnessy's, the journal of cannabis in clinical
practice. The Winter/Spring 2008 issue can be ordered from journal@ccrmg.org
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