Now
Available!
Dime's
Worth of Difference:
Beyond the
Lesser of Two Evils
Order Here!
Today's
Stories
September 10,
2004
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
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
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,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
September 11, 2004
Bush's Evil
Genius
The
Terror Playbook of Karl Rove
By
DOUG GIEBEL
In his convention acceptance speech,
President George W. Bush used a variation of the word "terror"
a mere sixteen <times.A> few days later, during a day's
campaign appearances in Missouri, the Bush references to terror
totalled forty-three, while during his infamous a-vote-for-Kerry-is-a-vote-for-a-terrorist-attack
dialog in Iowa, Vice-President Cheney went called up the terror
image twenty-three times, expanded one day later in a New Hampshire
appearance to twenty-six.
After the criminal attacks
of 9/11, fear and terror have been trump cards in the speech-making
lexicon of the Bush Administration. It's as if the message is,
"Be afraid. Be very afraid. But don't worry. We're here
to protect you." The other guys, as Cheney let slip in Iowa,
will bring on another attack. Not only must citizens fear the
terrorists, they must (equally, perhaps) fear the Democrats --
especially John Kerry and John Edwards, candidates with a magnetic
attraction to terrorism's evil nature.
Even Senator John McCain, embarrassed
but doggedly pimping for the Bush-Cheney re-election, claims
that terrorism poses the greatest threat to the nation's existence
since . . . well, since ever. McCain's pony show is especially
troubling, because the senator knows personally how vicious and
cruel these no-holds-barred Bush campaigns can be. McCain and
Kerry share a sorry characteristic: they both served with distinction
during wartime, McCain especially so; but their years in the
senate seem to have drained them of the courage to blow the whistle
on wrongdoing--as Kerry did when he returned from Vietnam and
reported on the horrors of war to those back home.
Behind this Bush-Cheney Reign
of Terror is the Frankenstein genius of Karl Rove. As Wayne Slater
and James C. Moore point out in their book and film "Bush's
Brain," 'twas Rove who "created" George W. Bush
the Politician, just as Mary Shelley's good doctor created his
creature, proving there is no "self-made" man currently
occupying the White House--unless it is the genius Karl Rove
himself. Rove, perceptive student of history, knows about the
earlier French "reign of terror" and its patrie en
danger condition, precursor to our own cancerous Patriot Act.
During the last election and the administration of George W.
Bush, Rove's signature is on everything, but his fingerprints
are nowhere to be found.
Each time John Kerry and John
Edwards are put on the defensive by some surprise, such as the
recent Swift Boat attack ads, Rove can be assumed to be somewhere
behind the curtain pulling the strings. His proof of success,
the envy of many ethically-challenged politicians and hack political
operatives, is in the pudding he concocted by turning a black-sheep
of the Bush family into a presidential swan. And yet one can
not help but wonder if there is a limit to Rove's "How To
Succeed" formula. Is it possible to go too far? Are the
American people really as stupid and pliable as Rove's cynicism
knows them to be? Will Karl Rove's swan take a swan dive in the
end?
A signal part of the Rove-Terror
strategy has been to raise the possibility of an imminent terrorist
attack: on a holiday, at the Super Bowl, during the Democratic
or the Republican Convention, just prior to the November election,
or, as Cheney so clearly implied: if the American voters elect
the Kerry-Edwards ticket.
Although this hysteria-producing
scenario has little or no basis in historical fact, it has enough
plausibility to give less-thoughtful voters pause. "Oh,
oh. I'd better vote for Bush and Cheney . . . Just in case."
Of course if Bush and Cheney
are re-elected and another terrorist attack occurs on U.S. soil,
the blame can always be dumped on the Clintons, easy targets
for vilification because of their high visibility and the hatred
they engender in right-wing circles of compassionate conspiracy.
Another fear-of-terrorism hypothesis
has been the prospect that a terrorist attack on the day of the
November election causing the election to be postponed. A neat
scenario if George W. Bush a far behind in the polls. One wonders
if Rove has a plan, and the cheek, to pull it off. Although the
cancellation of the election seems doubtful, one might imagine
a situation where the impending threat of terrorism coupled with
a move to red-orange alert could cancel one or more presidential
debates. President Bush seems interested in limiting the number
of debates to two, but with sufficient outcry from the public
he will likely flip-flop and accept a third debate--unless the
terrorism level and national safety require otherwise.
There seems little doubt the
current father of his nation of ten-year-olds considers re-election
more important than trading words with an elite Brahman from
(wink-wink) Massachusetts.
As I write this, the Swift
Boat assault on John Kerry's reputation seems to have backfired
as more evidence emerges of George W. Bush and his less-than-stellar
performance in the National Guard. Still, Rove must have counted
on having to deal with the problem, even though the mainstream
media has been overly-timid about asking the right questions,
such as: "Why would a young man trained as a jet pilot give
up his opportunity to fly simply because he missed a physical
examination?" "Why could the examination not have been
re-scheduled?" "If George W. Bush was in Alabama, why
couldn't he (a) take the physical there, or (b) catch a military
or commercial flight back to Texas and complete the required
examination?" The "evidence" may not be in the
missing documents but in a generous application of good old American
"common sense."
Terrorism, real terrorism,
is a serious problem. It may be much more a criminal problem
than one our military can resolve.
There are no organized armies
of terrorist hordes waiting to set sail in an armada to invade
East Hampton, Arlington or the Mendocino coast. Only the most
thoughtless pessimist would argue that terrorists, even if armed
with "suitcase" weapons of mass destruction, could
"bring down" the United States of America. It is not
about to happen, whomever sits in the Oval Office or stalks the
halls of the Pentagon.
England was not destroyed by
Hitler's wrath. Germany survived the horrific attacks on Dresden
and Hamburg. The destruction of Leningrad did not wipe out the
Soviet Union or the spirit of the Russian people. Japan, the
one nation subjected to nuclear holocaust, survives today. Even
Chechnya has not been brought to its knees, despite the murderous
efforts of dictators from Stalin to Putin.
Terrorists and terrorism are
not about to wipe out the United States. Let's get real. If Democrats
are willing to "think outside the box" and stop quaking
at every mention of the name "Karl Rove," the tables
could be turned, the ethical vacuum known as Bush's Brain may
be vanquished and America's new long self-imposed nightmare of
fear and terror may end. Then Mr. Rove can finally join the private
sector and amass the financial fortune he knows he so truly deserves.
Doug Giebel is a writer and analyst who lives
in Big Sandy, Montana. He will participate in a panel on October
23 human rights conference to be held on at Rutgers University
(Camden Campus). He welcomes correspondence at dougcatz@ttc-cmc.net
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
Keep
CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home
/ subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|