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Today's
Stories
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
September 30,
2004
Ralph Nader
10
Ways to Beat Bush: a Gift to the Kerry/Edwards Campaign
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnap Capital of the World: Iraq's One Growth Industry
Gideon Levy
When You Have Breast Cancer in Gaza
Joshua Frank
Presidential Debates? Pass the Remote
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
I Dreamed They Had a Debate
Ali Khan
Dershowitz's
Jihad: Inventing Exceptions to International Law
Steve Perry
An Interview with Sibel Edmonds
September 29,
2004
Behrooz Ghamari
Playing
Politics with Nukes: A Collision Course with Iran?
Ray McGovern
More
Troops to Iraq...After the Election
Walter Brasch
Tinseltown
Traitors?: Applauding Only the Right Entertainers
Chris Floyd
The
Deceivers: Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold
Stacey Reynolds
The Story of a Mercury-Poisoned American
M. Junaid Alam
Disrupting America's Fateful Non-Debate on the Roots of Terrorism
John L. Hess
They've Already Called It
Paul Craig
Roberts
Delusion
Rules: War, Outsourcing an Debt
September 28, 2004
Mike Whitney
Kerry's
Moral Compass
Fred Gardner
Pot
Shots: the Civics Teacher
Dan Meek
How Democrats Kicked Nader Off the Oregon Ballot
Greg Bates
Choking on Progressives for Kerry
Alan Farago
Jeanne in Haiti: Where is the World?
Lori Berenson
The Cajamarca Protest
Wayne Madsen
Where
is the Florida National Guard?
Robert Fisk
Why Have We Suddenly Forgotten Abu Ghraib?
September 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Expulsion of Cat Stevens
Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound
Fallujah
Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls
Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor
Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?
Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry
Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti
September 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas:
"I Am Totally Against This War"
Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric
Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers
Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping
William Blum
Progressives and the Election
Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It
All on Bob Shrum
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story
Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti
Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?
Justin Smith
The New Sparta
Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush
Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder
Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"
Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support
Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion
William Loren
Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush
Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!
Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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,
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Weekend Edition
October 9 / 10, 2004
Pot Shots
ASA
Goes to Washington
By
FRED GARDNER
Americans for Safe Access has filed
a petition charging the federal Department of Health and Human
Services with violating the "Data Quality Act" by ignoring
studies confirming the medical safety and efficacy of cannabis.
To publicize the petition -and to protest the pseudo-science
that has denied Americans safe access to cannabis all these years-
ASA director Steph Sherer and 13 other patients and advocates
got arrested Oct. 5 as they tried to enter the HHS office building
in Washington. They were wrapped in a huge banner inscribed with
the names of 7,000 pro-cannabis doctors (obtained by the Marijuana
Policy Project). They chanted "Truth and evidence, cannabis
is medicine" and "Schedule One to Schedule Three, cannabis
is helping me."
Bill Britt of Long Beach was
among those willing to get arrested. "First time in Washington,
first time in a paddy wagon, first time in a DC jail," he
reported. "Very clean facility, but six hours in a cell
with only a metal bench to sit on was very, very painful."
(Bill is thin and walks with crutches. He has epilepsy and post-polio
syndrome.) He appreciated the effort ASA had put into organizing
the action. "Our bail was all paid for before we were even
arrested, we had lawyers on handIt was a wonderful experience
for me. It was worth the pain -which I'm still recovering from
[four days afterwards]. Till today I couldn't move my neck.
"We were there to tell
[HHS Director] Tommy Thompson that patients need to be involved
in the policy-making process. We're not going to sit at home.
We're not going to let fear and pain stop us from speaking out.
We're people who normally wouldn't do this. It's sad that sick
people have to go all the way to Washington to demand their rights.
But if it takes getting arrested to draw attention [to the lies
that uphold prohibition], we're ready.
"There were people from
all over the country. My arrest buddy was from Texas. We had
somebody from Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, Washington, D.C.,
New York, Oregon. People from states who had no hope of ever
passing anything. We were their hope. They looked at us from
California in awe. It was really sad. They had a lot more to
lose than we did by exposing themselves."
Britt is optimistic about the
chances of ASA's petition in court.
Washington Post science writer
Rick Weiss thought the use of the Data Quality Act was clever.
"The act's use by marijuana advocates represents a peculiar
political twist," he reported Oct. 4. "The act was
written by a tobacco industry lobbyist and slipped into a huge
piece of legislation after the 2000 election without any congressional
discussion or debate. It has been used almost exclusively by
corporations challenging the validity of scientific information
that they fear might lead to costly regulations
"The petition calls for
the government to correct 'scientifically flawed statements'
about marijuana published in the Federal Register, a move that
would allow - though not compel - the Drug Enforcement Administration
to declare it a 'Schedule II' drug. That would allow it to be
prescribed for specified conditions and more easily obtained
for research.
"The petition challenges
the government contention that 'there have been no studies that
have scientifically assessed the efficacy of marijuana for any
medical condition.' In fact, the group notes, a 1999 Institute
of Medicine report concluded that studies have found marijuana
helpful 'for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and
appetite stimulation'"
ASA's petition was drafted
and filed by staff attorney Joe Elford. He Fed-exed it to HHS
on Monday, Oct. 4, and it arrived the next day while the protest
was going on outside, prompting a phone call from the secretary
of the Public Information Officer to Elford. "What's in
the package?" she asked "It's the petition," said
he. "What's in the petition?" she asked. (You can't
be too careful after September eleventh.) Joe's like, "Well,
it's a request for correction of inaccurate statements in the
federal register." She's like, "Well, you guys are
doing this protest" Joe's like, "No, it's not part
of the protest." When he heard giggling on the other end
he knew that sanity had been restored. Joe wondered, "Why
did she ask me?" I wondered why the PIO didn't make the
call his or herself.
The petition challenges statements
made by HHS in rejecting a petition to reschedule marijuana filed
with the DEA by John Gettman in 1995. After sitting on Gettman's
petition for two years, DEA sent it to HHS for evaluation. If
HHS found that marijuana was safe and had a currently accepted
medical use, according to Elford, the DEA would have had to reschedule
it. HHS asked the FDA Controlled Substances branch to do the
evaluating. FDA ignored the safety question and rejected Gettman's
claim that marijuana had a currently accepted medical use.
"One quote we are challenging,"
says Elford, "is that there have been 'no studies that have
scientifically assessed the efficacy of marijuana for any medical
condition.' Which is, of course, complete BS. The easiest one
to cite is the Institute of Medicine Report of 1999, which was
requested by the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, expecting
to get a negative finding."
Another quote being challenged
is that the chemistry of marijuana is not "known and reproducible
because a complete scientific analysis of all the chemical components
found in marijuana has not been conducted." This is true
of lettuce and everything else we eat, Elford observes; "it's
an impossible standard to meet, a standard which is not applied
to any other substance."
ASA is also objecting to HHS's
statement that, "a material conflict of opinion among experts
precludes a finding that marijuana has been accepted by qualified
experts. It is clear that there is not a consensus of medical
opinion concerning medical applications of marijuana." FDA's
usual standard for approval is simply "accepted by qualified
experts," i.e. some qualified experts. By demanding a consensus
on marijuana, HHS raised the bar and showed bias. Note the gratuitious
and meaningless term "material conflict of opinion."
What is "material" about a conflict of opinion? The
only purpose of the fancy adjective is to make the noun seem
more important (as in "'clinical' depression").
The Data Quality Act requires
that the challenged agency respond within 60 days. Elford expects
HHS to delay "by saying 'it's complicated, we need more
time.' Or they may say it's moot because there's a new petition
pending [to reschedule marijuana, Gettman's third attempt].They
may say they don't need to respond because this information was
disseminated prior to the Data Quality Act."
If rejected on any grounds,
ASA would request a hearing before an administrative law judge
(employed by HHS). Elford hopes the process won't take more than
six months. The more drawn out the hearing, the more opportunity
it will provide for patients to expose the corrupt, deceitful,
intellectually embarrassing process by which the truth about
marijuana has been suppressed.
An adverse decision from HHS's
Administrative Law Judge would be appealed to the Northern District
of California, and then, if necessary, to the Ninth Circuit.
If the highest judges ultimately find that HHS was wrong on all
three points, it is not clear whether DEA -a branch of the Justice
Department- would be compelled to reschedule marijuana.
"Technically, all we're
asking them to do," Elford explains, "is correct misstatements
they have made and continue to disseminate. We're not asking
them to reschedule anything. But if they make these corrections,
it gets into a very tricky procedural area. Given that this deals
with a petition that's already been rejected, if they make these
corrections in connection with that petition, does that bind
DEA to have to reschedule marijuana on its own? That's the argument
we hope to make -DEA can do it on its own, or at the request
of an interested party."
P.S. in the interests of data
quality. The White House knew what to expect from the Institute
of Medicine report, and although it was commissioned by the Drug
Czar's office, it wasn't Barry McCaffrey's idea. Soon after McCaffrey
told the world that marijuana is "a hoax Cheech and Chong
medicine" (on Dec. 30, 1996), the Clinton Administration
reined him in and adopted a more defensible, durable line: "more
research is needed." The new line was promulgated by Harold
Varmus, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health,
who ranked way above McCaffrey in the real Clintonite hierarchy,
and even above Donna Shalala, his nominal boss. Varmus, a Nobel
Prize winning cancer researcher who now heads Sloane-Kettering,
was undoubtedly embarrassed by McCaffrey's nutcake pronouncements.
"More research is needed" is a brilliant lie because
it's always true, in a sense.
In January '97, on the same
day the New England Journal of Medicine called the marijuana
prohibition "federal foolishness," Varmus announced
he was convening a panel of "experts" on the subject
because "I don't think anyone wants to settle issues like
this by plebiscite." Soon thereafter McCaffrey commissioned
the IOM Report and began telling the media, "Let'sh wait
until we have shound schiench on thish."
More on
Montel
On the Sept. 14 "Montel"
show, viewed by millions, medical-marijuana users -including
the host- described the miraculous benefits it had brought them.
Montel made a passionate call for moving marijuana from Schedule
One (dangerous drugs with no medical use) to Schedule Two (dangerous
drugs with medical use). Last week I
reprised what got said. Here's some additional commentary.
Three of Montel's guests made
a big point of identifying themselves as "conservative"
"Christian," and/or "law-and-order Republican,"
as if that made word their word on medical marijuana especially
believable. Maryland politician Dan Murphy matter-of-factly stated
that his opposition to reforms such as needle exchange made his
position on medical marijuana "more powerful." Montel
Williams should have asked all three of them whether the realization
that the government and the medical establishment are lying to
us about marijuana had opened their eyes to other areas of deceit
and changed them politically. That's a really important question
-does the medical-marijuana "issue" have the power
to transform America politically? Reform advocates should stop
genuflecting to rightwingers.
Montel's closing directive,
"'Write your Congressman: enough is enough.'" sounded
militant - his stance and tone throughout the show was militant
- but the tactical message was servile and misleading. "Write
your Congressman" implies that your Congressman, if motivated
by his/her constituents, will do something significant to legalize
medical marijuana. In recent years Congress has considered a
bill by Barney Frank of Massachusetts that will move marijuana
to Schedule Two. If Montel's movement-honcho advisers have their
way, there will be a renewed push for the Barney Frank bill.
It could play out over two or three or four sessions of Congress.
Millions of dollars will be raised and funneled to Congressmen
and women said to represent "swing votes." Millions
will be raised and diverted to anti-union, anti-immigrant rightwingers
who are "good on our issue." The Barney Frank bill
may get closer and closer
"Be
careful what you pray for, you might get it." -American
folksaying.
I once asked Rep. Frank, who
knows that marijuana is a relatively benign herb, how he justified
the push for Schedule Two. "My bill is a pragmatic first
step," he blustered. "Then there can be other steps."
So goes the pitch; but liberal
reforms that get passed off as first steps usually turn out to
be final steps, the limit to what we're going to get in response
to our demands. Affirmative Action is a perfect example. In the
1960s black people expressed their desperation -the cities were
burning from Newark to Watts- and demanded power. By the end
of the decade the decision-makers had decided to cut them in
-not en masse, of course, just the potential leaders, the best
and the brightest. Ten percent (at the very most) would get slots
at the big corporations and government agencies and union apprenticeship
programs in which "minorities" had been "traditionally
underrepresented." And the civil rights movement was then
said to have triumphed, as if "a piece of the pie"
for a fortunate few African Americans had been its goal all along.
The first step turned out to be the end of the march.
The same thing could happen
with respect to medical marijuana if the rank-and-file don't
reclaim the movement from the bureaucrats and businessmen. ASA
organizing patients to get arrested at HHS seems like a righteous
action -but the publicity is double-edged. It reminds people
that the government is lying and people are suffering; on the
other hand, it promotes an unlikely remedy (that the petition
will force the government to acknowledge the truth) culminating,
at best, in a feeble reform (marijuana to Schedule Two). Such
maneuvers always raise our hopes: we've got the logic, we've
got the law, we've got the truth, we've got the facts, we've
got the arguments, we're asking for so little But always the
application has to go through a different agency, and HHS and
FDA and NIDA and DEA pass reformers' petitions around like North
Carolina basketball players protecting a lead at the end of a
game. Only there's no shot-clock and the four-corner stall has
been going on for 30+ years. Here's to success for the ASA petition.
Most promising, from this distance, was the accompanying action
by rank-and-file patients, joined by several Beltway-based reform
advocates, to tell Tommy Thompson we mean business.
Back in
Court
Eddy Lepp, whose Lake County
spread was raided by the DEA in late August, was back in federal
court in San Francisco Monday, Oct. 4, facing indictment on criminal
cultivation charges. To Lepp's relief, the U.S. Attorney has
dropped a gun-possession charge. "I guess they figured 30,000
plants was enough to charge him with," said attorney Dennis
Roberts.
Lepp had made an unusual "related-case
motion," requesting that the criminal case against him be
assigned to the same U.S. District Court Judge, Vaughn Walker,
who is hearing his civil suit against the DEA. The U.S. Attorney
did not oppose this motion, even though Walker is a known critic
of the War on Drugs. Now it's up to Walker to decide whether
he wants to preside over Lepp's criminal case. If he declines,
Marilyn Patel will get it -a judge with a reputation for fairness
and open-mindedness. Lucky unlucky Eddy.
About 20 well-wishers accompanied
Lepp to San Francisco. After the proceeding they stood on the
Turk St. sidewalk outside the federal building holding up hand-lettered
signs to the passing traffic. Quite a few drivers honked support
-and ALL the truck drivers did, according to a survey with an
error rate of ±4%.
Marian "Mollie" Fry,
MD, was back in court, too, last week, at the state building
in Oakland, to hear Administrative Law Judge Ruth Astle rule
that three of five patients' files obtained by the Medical Board
of California from the Drug Enforcement Administration (without
the patients' consent) could not be used by her prosecutors.
Two of the patients' files could be used, Astle ruled, because
the Medical Board had learned about Fry's treatment of them by
other means (depositions given by the patients themselves when
they tried to retrieve marijuana confiscated by local sheriffs).
Fry allegedly departed from the standard of care by not conducting
physical exams when she started approving cannabis use by patients
after the passage of Prop 215. As a psychiatrist, she didn't
think it was required of her. After a warning from the Medical
Board, she hired two physicians' assistants to conduct hands-on
exams Fry's lawyer, Lawrence Lichter, said both patients still
involved in the case object to the Attorney General having obtained
their files and are willing to testify on Fry's behalf. Fry and
husband Dale Schafer left on a trip to Europe Oct. 4, with four
of their five offspring. "We need to renew our perspective,"
says Schafer.
Richard Marino has shut down
the Capitol Compassionate Care Co-op in Roseville, California,
which was raided by the DEA in early September (as was Marino's
house). He said the key reason was fear -his and his 14 employees'.
A "freedomfest" to
honor Dr. David Bearman will be held Sunday, Oct. 17, 2-6 p.m.
in El Capitan Canyon, 20 miles north of Santa Barbara. Bearman
refused to hand over a patient's file to state medical board
investigators without the patient's consent. The board subpoenaed
the file. Bearman took the case to Superior Court and won. His
brave, principled stand was made in the interests of all California
patients and doctors (his victory has already been cited by lawyers
for Fry and Mikuriya). Bearman called it "a victory for
privacy." Now it's time to pay the lawyers (who donated
most of their time). For directions and info about the bands
and speakers, call Beth at 805-961-9988.
Fred Gardner can be reached at journal@ccrmg.org
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