Today's Stories

February 11, 2009

Michael Hudson
What Wall Street Wants

Neve Gordon
Few Peacemakers in the New Israeli Knesset

Peter Morici
Anatomy of a Hemorrhage

Andy Worthington
Who's Running Guantánamo?

Marjorie Cohn
A Call to End All Renditions

Belén Fernández
Politics on the Panamericana

Martha Rosenberg
Don't Breathe the Meat

February 10, 2009

Kathy Kelly
How Do People Keep Going?

Nikolas Kozloff
The Stimulus Imbroglio

Uri Avnery
Dirty Socks

Michael J. Berg
Will South Carolina be the Center of the Nuclear Revival?

Russell Mokhiber
Et Tu, Atul?

Joe Bageant
A Commodity Called Misery

Gareth Porter
Petraeus' Subterfuge

Dave Lindorff
Seek Truth, But Prosecute Liars

Rannie Amiri
The Implications of Recognizing Israel's "Right to Exist"

Harvey Wasserman
Nukes and the Stimulus

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
What We Didn't Learn at Obama's Press Conference

Website of the Day
RIAA Takes Over DoJ Under Obama

February 9, 2009

Vicente Navarro
Why Sanjay Gupta is the Wrong Man for Top US Health Job

Paul Craig Roberts
Driving Over the Cliff

Julio Sanchez /
Feliz de Bedout
The Threat of Peace in Colombia: an Interview with Hollman Morris

National Lawyers Guild
Strong Indications of Israeli War Crimes

Jonathan Cook
Israeli University Welcomes "War Crimes" Colonel

Alana Smith
The Nightmarish Case of Fahad Hashmi

Binoy Kampmark
Taking the Bong

Sam Bahour
End the Occupation First

Nicole Colson
Can You Afford College?

Ron Jacobs
Remembering the Second Intifada

Website of the Day
The Legacy of Ed Grothus and the Black Hole

February 6-8, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Obama's First Bad Week

Ishmael Reed
Saint Thelma's Book

James Abourezk
Obama, Mitchell and the Palestinians

William Blum
Obama and the Empire

Patrick Cockburn
Maliki's Triumph

Henry A. Giroux
Educating Obama

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Darwin's Living Legacy

Mouin Rabbani
A New Low on Gaza?

David Yearsley
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Springsteen!

Saul Landau
The Wrestler: an American Tragedy

Jules Rabin
Israel's Disproportionate Responses

Raymond J. Lawrence
A Country Awash in Money But Going Broke

Janette Habel
Castro's Socialism in Crisis

Dave Lindorff
Economy on a Thread

Missy Beattie
Blackout at the Gaza Zoo Massacre

Dale Gieringer
The Opium Exclusion Act of 1909: Marking 100 Years of Failed Drug Prohibition

John Ross
Davos vs. Belem; Swine vs. Pearls

Richard Rhames
Jobs is a Four Letter Word

Bob Wing
Obama, Race and the Future of U.S. Politics

Robert Bryce
Corn Dog Update: Another Study Exposes Bio-Fuel Scam

David Macaray
AFL-CIO and Change to Win in "Re-Wed" Talks

James L. Secor
Inaugural Questions Nobody Asks: Notes from Kuala Lumpur

Jason Flom /
Anthony Papa
The Scourging of Michael Phelps

Norm Kent
Ten Reasons to Get High About Pot in 2009

Kim Nicolini
When Utopia Crumbles: Why Revolutionary Road was Shut Out of the Oscars

Lorenzo Wolff
Ridiculous Flow: How Cee Lo Green Sells Soul

Poets' Basement
Emily Dickinson (with Commentary by Daniel Wolff)

Website of the Weekend
S.J. Gould: Darwin's Untimely Burial

February 5, 2009

Michael Mandel
Self-Defense Against Peace

Saul Landau /
Philip Brenner
Killing the Monroe Doctrine

Ralph Nader
Tax the Speculators!

Robert Bryce
The Unraveling of the Ethanol Scam

Russell Mokhiber
Occupied Territory

Sameh Habeeb /
Janet Zimmerman
Innocents Lost

Dave Lindorff
Small Change

Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero
Beyond Green Capitalism

George Ochenski
A Blow to Big Coal in Montana

Website of the Day
Putting CEO Pay in Context

February 4, 2009

Arno J. Mayer
On Corruption

Paul Craig Roberts
The War on Terror is a Hoax

Patrick Cockburn
The Iraqi Elections

Jonathan Cook
An IDF Jihad?

Fred Gardner
Obama's Mixed Messages on Marijuana

Stan Cox
Slumwrecking Millionaires: India's Fragile New Temples

Margaret Kimberley
The Deepening Economic Crisis

Lawrence Velvel
Agony & Desperation: Madoff's Victims

Dave Lindorff
A Generals' Revolt?

Doug Giebel
A Helping of Bitter Beltway Baloney

Serge Quadruppani
Student Protests Sweep Italy

Website of the Day
The San Francisco 8

February 3, 2009

David Price
Counterinsurgency & Anthropology: Roberto Gonzalez on Human Terrain Systems

Bill Moyers
Obama's Wars: an Interview with Pierre Sprey and Marilyn Young

Kirkpatrick Sale
Obama's Lincoln Thing

Conn Hallinan
When Mind Wounds Don't Count

Peter Morici
The Slippery Slope of Stimulus

George Ciccariello-Maher
From Oakland to Santa Rita: "Fired Up, Can't Take It No More"

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
The BBC's Nadir

Allan Nairn
What Does It Take to Get a Meal Here, an Earthquake?

Norman Solomon
Why are We Still at War?

David Macaray
The Late, Great UAW

Website of the Day
The Bloody Cove

February 2, 2009

Uri Avnery
Under the Black Flag: Israeli War Crimes

Ralph Nader
What to Do About Wall Street

Gareth Porter
Generals Move to Obstruct Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Orders

Paul Craig Roberts
The Death of American Leadership

Harvey Wasserman
The Nuclear Industry's Latest Money Grab

Rannie Amiri
Gaza and the Crimes of Mubarak

Cal Winslow
Stern's Gang Seizes UHW Union Hall

Steve Early
Checking Out of Stern's Hotel California

Alan Farago
Superbowl as Panopticon

Diane Farsetta
Banning Domestic Propaganda

January 30 / February 1, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Obama and the Oddsmakers

Michael Hudson
Obama's New Bank Giveaway

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
"Too Big to Fail:" a Bailout Hoax

Dave Lindorff
The Ugly Truth: the American Economy is Not Coming Back

Saul Landau
Freedom Fighters, Terrorists or Schlemiels?

Andy Worthington
Blame the Chef: How Cooking for the Taliban Can Get You Life in Gitmo

Subcomandante Marcos
Gaza Will Survive

Robert Jensen
Future Farming: an Interview with Wes Jackson

Ron Jacobs
Return of the Democrats

Gareth Porter
Is Gates Undermining Another Opening to Iran?

Allan Nairn
Hope for the Dump Cities?

Laura Carlsen
NAFTA's Dangerous Security Agenda

Rev. William E. Alberts
The Feelings of a Stranger

Christopher Brauchli
From Gitmo to Supermax?

Jules Rabin
Israel and the Bomb

Col. Dan Smith
Thoughts From an Inauguration Refugee

Missy Beattie
The US Garden of Evil

Tom Barry
Obama's Immigration Challenge

J. Michael Cole
The Downfall of an Academic

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Burning the First Amendment

Dan Bacher
How Dam Removal Can Save the Klamath River

David Rosen
Last Gasp of the Culture Wars?

Don Monkerud
Religion in the American Bedroom

Binoy Kampmark
Updike: Apostle of the Middlebrows

Lorenzo Wolff
Playing Down a Bad Reputation: the Lovin' Spooful's Near Perfect Record

David Yearsley
When Orfeo and Euridice Lived Happily Ever After in Upstate New York

Poets' Basement
Valentine and Rihn

January 29, 2009

Peter Linebaugh
Tom Paine's Birthday

Paul Craig Roberts
Is It Time to Bail Out of America?

Riz Khan
The Future of Gaza: an Interview with Jimmy Carter

M. Reza Pirbhai
Pakistan: a New Cambodia?

Wajahat Ali
Obama's Al-Arabiya Interview

Gregory Vickrey
What About the Environment? Cap and Trade and Selling Out

Dina Jadallah-Taschler
Whither the Two State Solution?

Alison Weir
Killing Palestinians Doesn't Count: Fact-Checking Ceasefire Breaches

Alan Farago
Economy Without Escape Routes

Walter Brasch
Taxing a House of Cards

Website of the Day
Madoff Inc.

January 28, 2009

Norman Finkelstein
Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza

Noam Chomsky
Obama's Emerging Policies on Israel, Iraq and the Economic Crisis

Patrick Cockburn
Is Mitchell's Mission Already Doomed?

Rob Larson
The Clinton Foundation Donors

George Wuerthner
Who Will Speak for the Forests?

Allan Nairn
South-East Asian Groups Threaten Retaliation Over Gaza Invasion

M. Junaid
Levesque-Alam
A Muslim's Memo to Obama

Stefan Simanowitz
The Silent Trade

Charles R. Larson
The Autumn of the Patriot

Website of the Day
Veggie Love: PETA's Banned Superbowl Ad

January 27, 2009

Winslow T. Wheeler
Save the Economy by Cutting the Defense Budget

Yigal Bronner /
Neve Gordon
Fueling the Cycle of Hate

Joshua Frank
Obama's Neocon: the Curious Case of Richard Holbrooke

Jordan Flaherty
Torture at a Louisiana Prison

Ralph Nader
Access to Economic Justice

Rev. José M. Tirado
How Iceland Fell: a Hundred Days of (Muted) Rage

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Looking Forward

Russell Mokhiber
What If Israel Were in Your Neighborhood?

Martha Rosenberg
Who Says Technology Transfer Doesn't Pay?

C. G. Estabrook
The Inaugural Address: the Digested Read

Website of the Day
Who Profits From the Occupation?

January 26, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Speaking the Truth is a Career-Ending Event

Deepak Tripathi
The BBC's Day of Shame

Vijay Prashad
The India Lobby: Drunk with the Sight of Power

Peter Lee
Geithner's Pop Gun Volley at China

Allan Nairn
The Torture Ban That Doesn't Ban Torture

Uri Avnery
On the Wrong Side of History

John Sayen
The Next Shoe to Drop

Dave Lindorff
Afghanistan is No Threat to America

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff

David Macaray
Obama vs. Labor

Roger Burbach
Winds of Change in Cuba

Norman Solomon
The Ghost of LBJ

Website of the Day
Landscapes of Occupation

January 23 / 25, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Ghosts at Obama's Side

P. Sainath
The Freefalling Economy

Patrick Cockburn
In Israel, Detachment From Reality is the Norm

Saul Landau
Reasons for War?

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Our Current Economic Crisis: the Monks' Cure

Alan Farago
The Problem with the Stimulus

Christopher Brauchli
When Due Diligence is a One-Way Street

Andy Worthington
Return to Law?

Ron Jacobs
Obama's Pentagon: Bowing to the Masters of War?

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Four)

Henry A. Giroux
The Audacity of Educated Hope

David Yearsley
The Music That Wasn't There: Chamber Music for Obama's Masses

Raymond F. Gustavson
Here We Go Again: General Shinseki and Veterans

Dave Lindorff
The Way Forward

Roberto Rodriguez
Fighting for Migrant Justice in the Desert

Dina Jadallah-Taschler
The Struggle of an Un-People

Fidel Castro
Meeting Cristina

J. Michael Cole
Can Obama's Shift on Terror Succeed?

Bob Fitrakis /
Harvey Wasserman
It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier

Ramzy Baroud
Breaking Gaza's Will

Mohammad Ali Shabani
The Aftermath of the War on Gaza

Richard Rhames
Panning for Pyrite on a Cold Day at the Mall

Stephen Martin
Voices in the Mirror

Lorenzo Wolff
Jurassic Radio

Kim Nicolini
Katrina's Endless Loop

Poets' Basement
Fleming, Henson, First, Jaramillo and Glendinning

Website of the Weekend
Cartoon Love

January 22, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Another Real Estate Crisis is About to Hit

Kathy Kelly
Worse Than an Earthquake

Allan Nairn
US Intel Nominee Lied About Church Murders

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Three)

Andy Worthington
Halting the Gitmo Trials

Peter Morici
How to Fix the Banks

Joseph G. Davis
The First MBA Presidency and the Business Academy: a Damage Assessment

Adriana Kojeve
The Democrats on Israel: a Brief Oral History

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Poised for Historic Vote

Website of the Day
Support the Gaza Community Mental Health Program

January 21, 2009

Gabriel Kolko
Understanding Gaza

Harry Browne
Obama's Work Ethic

Michael Colby
Ready. Aim. Organize.

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience

Audrey Stewart
Starting Over in Gaza

Wajahat Ali
Obama and the Muslims

Binoy Kampmark
The Marketing of Hope

David Kεr Thomson
Abolition

John Ross
In My Own Bones

Allan Nairn
Killer in Chief: Will This President Murder Civilians?

Sheldon Richman
The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power

Website of the Day
Globistan

January 20, 2009

Chuck Spinney
Hosing Obama Israeli Style

Kathy Kelly
The Strongest Weapon of All

Raymond Deane
The EU, Gaza and the Lisbon Treaty

Ralph Nader
State Terrorism Against Gaza

Audrey Stewart
Why I am in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Doctrine of Destruction

Harvey Wasserman
A Ten-Point Solar Agenda for Obama

Christopher Ketcham
Inauguration Ad Nauseam

Robert Jensen
A Citizen's Oath of Office

Dave Lindorff
Commie Chorus on the Mall: This Land Really is Made for You and Me

David Macaray
SAG Watches It All Slip Away

February 11, 2009

Pot Shots

Change We Can Smoke?

By FRED GARDNER

The day after it was written here that California cannabis producers and distributors would have to live in fearful confusion until the new President's new Attorney General appointed a new DEA Administrator, the White House provided reassurance that the incoming DEA head would implement a hands-off policy. As reported by the Washington Times, Feb. 5: "The White House said it expects [DEA] raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers. 'The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,' White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said..." 

In a related development, the "final" DEA decision issued in the case of Craker v. DEA might not be final after all. Craker is the UMass-Amherst botany professor who applied in 2001 for a DEA application to grow marijuana for use by FDA-approved medical researchers. After a three-and-a-half-year runaround he was turned down on the grounds that the nation's one licensed grower, Mahmoud ElSohly of the University of Mississippi, was meeting all the researchers' needs. Craker appealed and after a few more years won -in the opinion of the Administrative Law Judge who heard the case- but after another year-plus of "review," as the Bush gang was exiting stage right, an interim acting DEA Administrator, Michele Leonhart, issued a "final" rejection of Craker's application.

Craker, with legal help from the ACLU and Julie Carpenter of Jenner & Block (working pro bono), filed a "motion to reconsider" that could extend the life of the case until Obama appointees are giving orders at DEA. Caren Woodson of Americans for Safe Access convinced Rep. John Oliver (D-MA, whose district includes Amherst) and 15 co-signers to send a letter urging AG Holder to grant the motion to reconsider. Leonhart, perhaps sensing a shift in the political winds, then gave Craker's lawyers additional time (till March 11) to file a response to the "final" ruling.

The best-case scenario, according to Craker's longtime backer Rick Doblin, would be that in response to political pressure, "DEA decides to reverse its final ruling and give Craker the license, before April 1 when the current Final Ruling becomes effective." Worst case? "We fail to gather sufficient political pressure and we end up having to sue DEA in the DC Court of Appeals, which could take years, cost lots of money, and give the Obama Administration a reason to do nothing until the litigation is completed... Unless there is a political decision to let research take place, we could bounce back and forth between DEA and the Court of Appeals for Obama's entire first term."

Doblin adds, "I'd say the worst case is more likely, but that our odds for the best case are improving. It's encouraging that the White House has put out the statement about Obama wanting the DEA raids in California to stop... DEA is on the defensive and needs a new strategy."

The news about the raids brought a huge, collective sigh of relief from medical cannabis growers and dispensary operators in California, but the Prohibitionists, i.e., Big Pharma, will not fold. Expect a reactionary move by the medical establishment in the name of "practice standards." Doctors who learned nothing about cannabis in medical school and who have abjured and opposed its use throughout their careers will draft "guidelines" telling the clinicians who have monitored cannabis use by hundreds of thousands of patients how to do it properly. Or my name isn't Cassandra Jones.

How Safe Are Your 'Nads?

The March 15 issue of Cancer will include a study suggesting that marijuana use might increase the risk of testicular cancer. The journal released the study, "Association of Marijuana Use and the Incidence of Testicular Germ Cell Tumors," by Janet Daling, et al, to the media Feb. 9.

"Marijuana Testicular Cancer Link" was the BBC News streamer. Could you devise a headline better suited to dissuade young men from smoking? The BBC story ended with a perspective-restoring comment from Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK: "As the researchers themselves point out, this is the first inkling that there is any association between chronic marijuana use and testicular cancer. But the researchers only interviewed a relatively small number of men [369]. So before we can reach any firm conclusions about whether this is a cause-and-effect relationship, rather than a statistical blip, the result needs to be replicated in a much larger study."

C Notes asked California cannabis clinicians if they were seeing an inordinate number of testicular cancer patients. First to respond was Terrill Brown, MD, of Fresno: "2,750 patients, one only with history of testicular CA, smoked after diagnosis, with very rare recreational exposure before mid-20's diagnosis."

This from Robert Sullivan, MD, of Carmichael: "I've seen a few patients among the 5-6,000 new patients over the past five years with a history of testicular cancer (usually already treated), but have not kept records according to diagnosis. Anecdotally, I've observed nothing to rouse my suspicion of a causal relationship. Naturally, formal research needs to be done here."

Dr. Sullivan notes that "given the Drug War propaganda about the adverse effect of cannabis on sperm count, it might be good to allay fears by mentioning that the observed drop is not statistically (or functionally) significant."

And this from Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, of Sebastopol, " Though I'm skeptical of the design, it raises questions that should be studied. As usual 'bad' news about cannabis  travels much better than the good... In my recent run through my stats I found four testicular cancer patients out of 126 malignancies in a patient population of 1700."

Another Reason to Boycott Kellogg's

Michael Phelps's world-famous bong hit prompted the Kellogg Corporation to cancel his endorsement deal. Several marijuana reform groups promptly announced a boycott of Kellogg's. Their calls for inaction focused narrowly on Phelps being a victim of the drug war. Typical was this line from a group called DRCNet: 

"Our criticism of Kellogg's... is that they are effectively supporting a drug war that victimizes thousands of people every day. Michael Phelps' private substance use choices should be his business and his alone, and the same goes for everyone else. If the government chooses to persecute drug users, that doesn't mean that Kellogg's... should go along with the hysteria."

Right on, right on, right on... But would it be too far "off-issue" to also publicize Kellogg's purchase of salmonella-laced peanut butter and paste from the corrupt Peanut Corp. of America? Products that Kellogg's has had to recall include Austin and Keebler brand Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, and some Famous Amos Peanut Butter Cookies and Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies.

The two "issues" overlap. The other day I happened to be in an East Bay dispensary when a pastry chef delivered 100 items filled with cannabis-infused peanut butter. The dispensary operator questioned the vendor about the source of the peanut butter. (It was good old organic Adams.) We have reached the point where some entrepreneurs in the medical cannabis industry are enforcing stricter safety standards than the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration!

Tighter Controls on Pain Specialists

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times understands the magnitude of Big Pharma's perfidy, so the assertion he made Feb. 10 was startling: "Most of the drugs withdrawn over the last 20 years... were taken off the market because doctors continued to use the medicines in ways that the F.D.A. warned against."  I thought most of them had been withdrawn because they turned out to be f---in' toxic, and have asked Harris to support his generalization.

The article in which he made it -"FDA to Place New Limits on Prescriptions of Narcotics"- described a program to monitor and control doctors who prescribe Schedule 2 drugs. The program director, Dr. John Jenkins, says its goal is "to ensure that physicians prescribing these products are properly trained in their safe use, and that only those physicians are prescribing those products." All those in favor of moving cannabis to Schedule 2 say "Uyh."

Fred Gardner can be reached at plebesite.com

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