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Today's
Stories
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
November
19, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Mementos You Won't Find in the Clinton
Library: Back in the 90s When We Were Happy
Kevin
Alexander Gray
Soul Brother: the Exhibit You Won't
See at the Clinton Library
Paul
Craig Roberts
There's No One to Stop Them Now
Jack
Z. Bratich
Digging Out Kerry and Burying the Bones(men)
Greg
Bates
The Implosion of the Dems and the Death of Pragmatism (Hurray!)
Christopher
Brauchli
Terror by Night: Waking Up to Darfur?
Forrest
Hylton
At a Loss: for Margaret Hassan
James
Petras
The Crushing of Fallujah
November
18, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
Iraq War as Video Game: "I
Got My Kills...I Just Love My Job"
Hugh
Urban
America, "Left Behind": Bush,
the Neo-Cons and Evangelical Christian Fiction
Luis
A. Gómez
The Bolivian Crisis Deepens
Robert
Fisk
The Murder of Margaret Hassan
Suzan
Mazur
The New York Times Fesses Up to a Rip Off
Prof.
Francis Boyle
Dems Cave on Gonzales: War Criminal as Attorney General?
Mike
Ferner
Sign Here, Kid
November
17, 2004
Christian
Harleman / Jan Oberg
Who and What Killed Our Friend Margaret
Hassan?
Dave
Lindorff
Bring Them Home Before They Kill
Again
Larry
Birns
Condi Rice and Latin America: She Sees
Enemies Everywhere
Toni
Solo
Rumsfeld in Nicaragua
Omar
Barghouti
Snuff Films and War Crimes in Iraq
Clancy
Sigal
"How to Take a Beating": Gen. Stilwell's Lessons for
Iraq
Brita
May Rose
America's Radioactive War: DU in Iraq
Ben
Terrall
"We Must Kill the Bandits!": Lula's Troops in Haiti
Sam
Hamod
The New Mongols
David
Krieger
An Open Letter to the Regents of
the University of California on Nuclear Weapons Research
Pierre
Tristam
It Has Happened Here
John
Marciano
Oppose the War and the Warriors:
"Iraqis are a Cancer. An We're the Chemotherapy"
Website
of the Day
Fallujah: the Real Story
November
16, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Declining Superpower Act: the Coming
Currency Shock
Mike
Whitney
The Goss Purge: Night of the Long Knives at CIA
Uri
Avnery
Rejoice Not: Arafat's Funeral
Andrew
Buncombe
Murder in a Fallujah Mosque
Dr.
Teresa Whitehurst
On Refusing to be Silenced: Sen. Bill Frist v. John Quincy Adams
Rudy
Rimando
Cousins of Color: Black Soldiers in the Philippines, 1899
Jordan
Green
Fighting Jim Crow in Cincy: The Old South Lives ... Across the
River
Hugh
Urban
The Ohio "Vote": Ken Blackwell Has Some Explaining
to Do
Steve
Breyman
Challenges for the Peace Movement
John
Ross
Bush in Rapture
Website
of the Day
We
Doomed?
November 15, 2004
Larry
Birns
A Resignation Without Meaning: Powell
and Latin America
Walt
Brasch
On the (Far) Right Hand of God
John
Pilger
The Greatest Political Scandal of
Our Time
John
Chuckman
Welcome to Ripley's Believe It or Not of Christianity
Francis
A. Boyle
Obliterating Fallujah: War Crime in Real Time
Georgy
/ Sengupta
Fallujah in Ruins: The Air is Polluted with the Stench of Death
Ralph
Nader
Voters v. Sports Fans
Neve
Gordon
The "No Partner" Myth
Donna
J. Volatile
So What Are You Going to Do About It?
Werther
On Reading the Duelfer Report
November
13 / 14, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
"Let Them Drink Sand!"
David
Domke
Bush, God and the Election: a Theology
of War?
James
Petras
The Politics of Imperialism: Neoliberalism and Latin America
Carl
G. Estabrook
How to Stop the GWOT: "Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil!"
Stan
Goff
Torture and the Cinema
Dave
Lindorff
The Ruins of Fallujah
Mike
Whitney
Fallujah and the Erosion of American Power
Ron
Jacobs
Waiting for the Last War to End
Alan
Maass
The Rise and Fall of Gingrich: a Parable for Our Times
Lenni
Brenner
"Next"...a Prison Tale
Gary
Leupp
France's Little Vietnam: Imperialist France Destroys an African
Air Force
Jessica
Leight / Larry Birns
Haiti: the New Regime Shows Its Colors
Heather
Gray
Whistling Dixie: Bush's Reelection, a Perspective from the South
Jordan
Green
Ohio's Provisional Ballots: the State of Play
Robert
Fisk
Arafat Ruled by Emotion and Cronyism
Omar
Barghouti
The Death of Arafat and the Two-State SOlution
Fred
Gardner
Marijuana: an Election Scorecard
Christopher
Brauchli
When a POW Isn't a POW: the Other Torture Memo
Joanne
Mariner
A Preview of the Scalia Court
Dr.
Susan Block
Blue Values
Patrick
Timmons
Violence at the Ballot Box: the War on Gay Rights
Mickey
Z.
Rumor Club
Poets
Basement
Hasan, Albert, Kent, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Hand of God?
November
12, 2004
Forrest
Hylton / Sinclair Thomson
Insurgent Bolivia: the Roots of Rebellion
November
11, 2004
Peggy
Thomson
Encounters with Arafat
Joe
Bageant
Hung Over in the End Times: Heaven's
Foot Soldiers Escape the Dog Patch
Ben
Tripp
The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grief
Edwin
Krales
Cuba's Response to AIDS: a Model for
the Developing World
Jordan
Green
How They Tried to Suppress the Black
Vote in South Carolina
Gary
Leupp
Guzman's Fist
Mike
Whitney
Meet Your New AG: Alberto Torquemada
Sam
Bahour
Palestine is Bigger Than Arafat
Sylvia
Shihadeh and Robert Jensen
The Irony of Arafat
Russ
Wellen
Why Do They Laugh at Us?
Mark
Scaramella
Kerry's Enablers: the Clinton
Cult Factor
November
10, 2004
Joshua
Frank
The Bright Side of Bush's Reelection
Mickey
Z.
The Worst President Ever?: Bush +
Clinton = Bubya
Stan
Goff
Debating a Neo-Con
Mike
Whitney
Exit Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Taking a Leak on the Bush Bulge
Ghada
Karmi
After Arafat
Fr.
Gerard Jean-Juste
Letter from a Haitian Jail
Rev.
Bob Jones, III
A Letter to President Bush: "God Has Granted America a Reprieve"
Bernestine
Singley
Tampa Vote: Dispatches from the Ground
Website
of the Day
Free Camilo Mejia
November
9, 2004
Meredeth
Kolodner
Rebuilding the Anti-War Movement
Saul
Landau
The Appeal of George W. Bush: a Mystery for the World to Solve
Brian
Cloughley
Diego Garcia and Freedom, Bush-Style
Charles
Glass
US is Failing the Test of History in
Iraq
Robert
Fisk
Arafat Died Years Ago
Paul
Craig Roberts
The American Century is Over
Adam
Federman
Witch Hunt at Columbia: Middle East Profs Smeared as Anti-Semites
M.
Junaid Alam
The Discredited Logic of ABB
Tony
Kevin
Fallujah and the Making of a War Crime
Pierre
Tristam
Zealots on the Mount: Get Voltaire on Speed Dial!
Patrick
Cockburn
Crushing Fallujah Will Not End the
Iraq War
Website
of the Day
Don't Blame the Voters!
November
8, 2004
Roger
Burbach
Out of the Ashes: Bush Win is a Defeat
for Democrats, Not the Left
Dave
Lindorff
Lessons from a Quagmire: Fallujah, the Hue of Iraq
Greg
Moses
After the Morning After: On the Homefront of the Civil War
Greg
Bates
Nader's Election Legacy: Something to Stand On
Michael
Donnelly
The Hit-and-Run Left: From ABB to CYA
Nick
Schwellenbach
Gutting FOIA: the Harm of Too Much Secrecy
Adam
Jones
Men vs. Civilians in Fallujah
Amelia
Peltz
Note from Palestine: This Is Not the Time for Despair
David
Swanson
The Media Black Out on Vote Fraud
Brian
Rainey
The Devil Made Them Do It? Elections, Religion and the American
People
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Landau, Hamod
Website
of the Day
A Report on the US Supply of Toxic Weapons to Iraq
November
6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Don't
Say We Didn't Warn You
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Saul
Landau
Che: the Man and the Movie
Gary
Leupp
Let There Be Conflict!
Ben
Tripp
You Call This a Party?
Paul
Craig Roberts
The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front
Jordan
Green
Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM
Fred
Gardner
Haul of Justice
J.A.
Miller
Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered
Ramzy
Baroud
Life Without Arafat
Dave
Zirin
Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete
Ron
Jacobs
The Arrow on the Doorpost
Robert
Oscar Lopez
How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The November Surprise
Dave
Lindorff
Silver Linings
Richard
Oxman
Invitation to the Bodily Snatched
John
Whitlow
Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
Leila
Matsui
Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge
November
5, 2004
David
Vest
The Not-Bush Brothers: a Fond Farewell
Elizabeth
Boylan
The Dems and Faith-Based Politics
Conn
Hallinan
War Crimes and Iraq
David
Zonsheine
Poetry and the Courage to Refuse
Cynthia
McKinney
It's a New Day!
Elaine
Cassel
Running from the Religious Right
Chris
Geovanis
First Protect Your Vote: Lessons for Democrats on Fixing Elections
from Chicago
Rob
Ritchie
Election 2004 by the Numbers
Jo
Guldi
The Beast of History is In
November
4, 2004
Sharon
Smith
The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism
CounterPunch
Wire
Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004
Ben
Tripp
My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed!
Michael
Donnelly
Why Not Blame Rosie?
Vijay
Prashad
An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny
Jules
Rabin
De Profundis: the Morning After
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Professions of Faith:
"Your Rich Men are Full of Violence"
Zoltan
Grossman
Blue State Secession: the Only Solution?
Jonah
Birch
1968 and Today
Dave
Lindorff
What Went Wrong?
Jack
McCarthy
I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before
He Was Against Him
Donna
J. Volatile
Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bright Side of Black Tuesday
November
3, 2004
James
Hodge / Linda Cooper
The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of
Training Torturers
Ann
Harrison
The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation
Greg
Moses
Blues for Fallujah
Anis
Memon
The Moral (Values) of This Election
Mickey
Z.
Post Mortem
Josh
Frank
The Dems Should be Ashamed
Chris
Floyd
No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine
spArk
Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats
Friedrich
von Schiller
Folly, Thou Conquerest
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame
Now?
November
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Democratic Elections in Historical
Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins
Lance
Selfa
Selling the War on Terror
Laura
Carlsen
The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good
Neighbor?
James
Davis
To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists
Richard
Oxman
Getting Up with Osama
Dr.
Ira Kay
A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency
Jesse
Walker
Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election
Thomas
C. Mountain
Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the "Most
Important Election of Our Lifetimes"
November
1, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and
Blew It
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns
Greg
Bates
Nader Voter Survey Results
Roger
Morris
Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do
This Election Justice
Diane
Christian
Death Tolls
Lenni
Brenner
Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe
Christopher
C. Conway
Can the Left Sink Any Lower?
Francis
Boyle
Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors,
Too
Jason
Leopold
Rummy's Failed War Plan
Website
of the Day
Dylan Resurrects "Masters of War"
October
30 / 31, 2004
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Long March and the Million Worker
March
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
Bruce
Anderson
Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal
Vicente
Navarro
They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel
Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime
Robin
Blackburn
How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security
Greg
Bates
A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick?
Nancy
Welch
The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David
Himmelstein
William
Lind
Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For?
Brian
Cloughley
Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies
Suzan
Mazur
Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs
Greg
Moses
Standing at the Graves of Iraq
John
Chuckman
Osama's Endorsement
Richard
Oxman
Why Not Accept Osama's Offer?
Ken
Avidor
Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond
Hope
Bastian
Strangling Cuba's Economy
P.
Sainath
Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric
Dave
Zirin
Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez
Jon
Swift
The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It
Ron
Jacobs
The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1
Alexander
Billet
Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"?
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Weekend
The Origins of Halloween
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
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Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
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2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
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Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
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The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
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Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
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Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
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Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
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Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
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Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
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The
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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
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"Please,
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Going
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Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
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Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
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Elections
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Is There an Islamic Problem?
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Mark Clinton
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Trading
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What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
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Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
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What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
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A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
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Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
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Weekend Edition
November 27 / 28, 2004
Pot Shots
Ashcroft
v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supremes
By
FRED GARDNER
"I can see the day comin'
when even your home garden's gonna be against the law."
-Bob Dylan
On Monday morning, Nov. 29, the U.S.
Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case now known
as Ashcroft et al v. Raich et al. The ruling, expected in July
'05, will determine if and how the federal Controlled Substances
Act applies to more than 100,000 people who use cannabis as medicine
under the law in California and other western states. A win for
Angel Raich and her co-defendant, Diane Monson, would confer
unambiguous legitimacy; a loss will mean widespread terror with
the DEA picking off growers, distributors and persons of interest
at will.
The suit started out as Raich
et al v. Ashcroft et al. It was filed in October, 2002, in response
to intermittent DEA raids (including the one that closed the
6th Street club in San Francisco, and the destruction of WAMM's
garden north of Santa Cruz). Angel McClary Raich, 39, was the
prime mover. Her life would be at risk, she contended, if the
feds raided the two caregivers who were growing her year's supply
of cannabis (nine pounds, most of which she would incorporate
into baked goods). So she sought a court order enjoining the
Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Although painfully thin due
to her afflictions, Angel (which is the name she took for herself)
has a powerful ego and a desire to make history "for all
of us." She comes from Stockton, working-class background.
Her parents divorced when she was four. She has disturbing memories
of being molested by a family member. At 12 she was put in a
full-body brace to correct curvature of the spine. She developed
asthma and had several cysts removed (endometriosis) while still
in high school. She married her high school sweetheart. They
worked as apartment managers in the Central Valley and had two
kids. They divorced. Angel remarried and worked at a series of
blue- and white-collar jobs. At age 30 she had a serious adverse
reaction to the birth-control pill, resulting in partial paralysis.
Confined to a wheelchair, in pain, she was given strong prescription
painkillers -synthetic opiates, methadone and Fentanyl- which
induced nausea, vomiting and other intolerable effects. She was
hospitalized and made a feeble attempt to cut her wrists. A nurse
advised her to try marijuana; Angel wouldn't hear of it because
it could cost her custody of her kids. But then desperation led
her to try the prohibited herb, and her pain receded, and in
due course she regained her mobility and found her calling as
a martyr/organizer.
By the end of the'90s Angel
had moved from the Central Valley to the Bay Area, made friends
with other patients and activists trying to implement California's
medical marijuana law, and formed a non-profit of her own called
"Angel Wings Outreach." In the course of helping patients
deal with legal problems, Angel met attorney Robert Raich. "It
really became hard to see where he ended and I began," Angel
recalls. "We became one!" And you thought the guitarist
who married his drummer was lucky? How about the lawyer specializing
in medical-marijuana defense who hooks up with the woman who
might die without it?
Rob Raich, 45, is a rabbi's
son who went to Harvard and then to law school at the University
of Texas. He is almost as thin as Angel, very soft-spoken and
mild-mannered. It was Rob who had the insight, back in 1996,
that section 885(d) of the Controlled Substances Act, which allows
undercover police officers to buy, handle, and sell narcotics,
could apply to a city-authorized cannabis dispensary. Nov. 29
will not be his first appearance before the Supremes. Rob represented
the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Co-op in a case initiated by the
Clinton Justice Department in 1998. The Court eventually ruled
that the OCBC couldn't claim "medical necessity" as
grounds for violating the Controlled Substances Act. Whether
an individual could claim "medical necessity" was
not addressed in the OCBC case; it is one of the arguments Angel's
lawyers make on her behalf in the present case.
Angel's co-plaintiffs are two
anonymous growers ("caregivers" in terms of California
law) and Diane Monson, a 47-year old accountant who has her doctor's
approval to use cannabis to treat disabling back pain and spasms.
In August, 2002, Monson was growing six outdoor plants in her
home garden in the foothills of Oroville. DEA agents arrived
to question her about a large quantity of marijuana growing elsewhere
in Butte County on property that she and her husband owned and
rented out. She told them she'd been unaware of the large grow.
The DEA agents said they were going to confiscate her six plants
then and there. (Ordinarily the feds don't concern themselves
with small quantities of marijuana.) Monson contacted the Butte
County Sheriff, and deputies soon arrived to confirm that her
plants were legal under Prop 215. A standoff ensued during which
the Butte County District Attorney, Mike Ramsey, asked the U.S.
Attorney, John Vincent, to call off the raid. The feds prevailed,
and as Diane Monson read aloud the text of Prop 215 ("I
thought they needed to hear it," she says), the DEA agents
macheteed and hauled away her almost-ready-to-harvest herbal
painkiller.
Raich and Monson are represented
by Rob, naturally, and San Francisco defense specialist David
Michael, and Randy Barnett, a professor of constitutional law
at Boston University School of Law, an authority on the 9th amendment.
In requesting an injunction they argued, among other things,
that the federal government has no jurisdiction because the process
by which the plants were grown for and consumed by Raich and
Monson did not affect interstate commerce significantly.
The request for a preliminary
injunction was denied in March 2003 by U.S. District Court Judge
Martin Jenkins. Raich et al appealed to the 9th Circuit, and
in October '03, made their arguments to a three-judge panel (Pregerson,
Paez and Beam, on loan from the 8th Circuit). In December '03
the 9th Circuit panel (with Beam dissenting) directed the District
Court Judge to issue the preliminary injunction. It would read:
"Defendants, and their
agents and officers, and any person acting in consort with them,
are hereby enjoined from arresting or prosecuting Plaintiffs
Angel McClary Raich and Diane Monson, seizing their medical cannabis,
forfeiting their property, or seeking civil or administrative
sanctions against them with respect to the intrastate, noncommercial
cultivation, possession, use, and obtaining without charge of
cannabis for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician
and in accordance with state law, and which is not used for distribution,
sale or exchange." That injunction -which the Bush Administration
is asking the Supreme Court to quash- is what made the summer
of 2004 relatively stress-free for many Californians who were
growing for or distributing to patients whose doctors had approved
cannabis use.
The Justice Department case
will be argued by acting Solicitor General Paul Clement. Barnett
will do most of the talking for Raich-Monson. Each side has made
its arguments in written briefs, and these have been supplemented
by "amici" (friend of the court) briefs from interested
parties. Each side gets 30 minutes for oral argument. Usually
but not always the questions posed by the judges (who have already
read the briefs and formed opinions) reveal enough to indicate
which way they're leaning.
The feds argue that Congress
had a valid goal in passing the Controlled Substances Act to
regulate interstate commerce in licit and illicit drugs. "Medical"
users growing their own would undermine that goal. Interstate
commerce, although not affected by a few instances of medical
users growing their own cannabis in California, is inevitably
affected when all such instances are considered in aggregate.
All marijuana-related activity is inherently economic because
marijuana is a "fungible" substance -it can be bought
and sold in commerce. All marijuana is essentially the same,
and if the parties in this case didn't have marijuana grown for
them, they'd be buying it on the market.
Among the feds' arguments is
one usually left unspoken: prohibition serves the interests of
the pharmaceutical corporations. As expressed in the Solicitor
General's brief, "Excepting drug activity for personal use
or free distribution from the sweep of the CSA would discourage
the consumption of lawful controlled substances." It would
also undercut "the incentives for research and development
into new legitimate drugs." That's as close as the government
has come to acknowledging that wider cannabis use would jeopardize
drug-company profits.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturns
three out of four cases it chooses to review, but Cassandra is
not laying odds on Ashcroft v. Raich. The absence of Chief Justice
Rehnquist (undergoing treatments for cancer) works to Raich's
advantage. As a young lawyer in the Nixon White House, Rehnquist
helped write the Controlled Substances Act. His questions during
the OCBC oral argument were overtly hostile. And he's considered
results-oriented (fight the war on drugs) rather than principled
(curtail the overarching commerce clause). Of course Rehnquist
could still read the transcript and vote on the Raich case, even
if he's too sick to attend the oral argument. He could even write
an opinion (or have his law clerks do so)... If there's a 4-4
tie, the opinion of the 9th Circuit stands, but doesn't become
binding authority on the rest of the country.
Most of the amici briefs focus
on the issue of states' rights. For people who remember the battles
to end segregation in public schools in the South, there is obvious
irony our side calling for "states' rights." It was
in the name of states' rights that governors Orville Faubus and
Ross Barnett barred the doors, while up north we were singing
"The ink is black, the page is white, together we learn
to read and write, to read and write. And now a child can understand
this is the law of all the land -all the land!"
Another inversion involves
the question of individual rights, to which so-called conservatives
always pay lip service. The right to self-medicate is an individual
right if ever there was one -but the conservatives are suddenly
all about "public health," like a bunch of so-called
liberals.
The marijuana prohibition takes
us through-the-looking glass because it's based on the Mad Hatter's
premise that marijuana is harmful, not helpful. The feds and
their amici refer to marijuana as only "purportedly,"
"assertedly," "allegedly" medical. But the
record established at the district court level -which is supposedly
all the Court goes on- consists of four declarations by the two
patients and their physicians showing that cannabis does indeed
have medical benefits. The government submitted no evidence to
the contrary. They contend it's just a question of law. The
key precedent is a 1942 case, Wickard v. Filburn, which established
that impact on interstate commerce is not a function of individual
transactions (such as caregivers growing cannabis for Angel Raich)
but of all such transactions in aggregate (all medical users
growing their own or having it grown for them within California).
Filburn was an Ohio farmer who grew more wheat than he was allowed
to under the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was intended
to limit production to keep prices up. That Act was clearly trying
to regulate economic activity. The Court ruled that Congress
could regulate Filburn's consuming his own wheat on his own farm
because if all farmers acted likewise, Congress's scheme to regulate
the price would be undermined.
Raich et al argue that Wickard
v. Filburn is a bad analogy because Filburn was selling some
of the wheat he raised, and much more of it was being consumed
by his cows (from which he derived milk, and which he sold occasionally)
than by his family. He also raised chickens, and sold eggs, i.e.,
he was using his wheat in running a commercial farm. Moreover,
the Ag Adjustment Act didn't apply to farmers growing small quantities
for family use. The principle of "aggregation" established
in Wickard has been challenged in two cases that Raich et al
cite in their brief: Lopez (1995) and Morrison (2000).
Raich et al's arguments are
designed to appeal to "conservatives." They point out
that the Supreme Court, by ruling against them would, significantly
extend federal power under the commerce clause (the last thing
"conservatives" are supposed to want to do). "If
the Court upholds Petitioners' claim of federal power, this case
will supplant Wickard to become the most expansive interpretation
of the Commerce Clause since the Founding, and this Court's landmark
decisions in Lopez and Morrison will become dead letters."
No transaction would be too small to concern the federal government.
Not even the cultivation of six plants.
Fred Gardner can be reached at journal@ccrmg.org
Weekend
Edition Features for October 30 / 31, 2004
November
6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Don't
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Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Saul
Landau
Che: the Man and the Movie
Gary
Leupp
Let There Be Conflict!
Ben
Tripp
You Call This a Party?
Paul
Craig Roberts
The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front
Jordan
Green
Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM
Fred
Gardner
Haul of Justice
J.A.
Miller
Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered
Ramzy
Baroud
Life Without Arafat
Dave
Zirin
Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete
Ron
Jacobs
The Arrow on the Doorpost
Robert
Oscar Lopez
How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The November Surprise
Dave
Lindorff
Silver Linings
Richard
Oxman
Invitation to the Bodily Snatched
John
Whitlow
Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
Leila
Matsui
Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge
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