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Calling All CounterPunchers!
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Calling All CounterPunchers!
Annual Fundraising AppealWe interrupt your regular reading habits to bring you the following important announcement: CounterPunch needs your financial support!
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Barack Obama came into office preaching hope and promising change. Nine months later, hope is diminishing and change has yet to arrive. From the cratering economy to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, from warrantless wiretaps to a fatally compromised health care plan, from banker bailouts to ongoing rendition flights, this new administration governs a lot like the old. In spite of this, many progressive outlets have gone soft on Obama. We haven't. That's why so many of you have found a refuge at CounterPunch and made us your homepage. You tell us that you love CounterPunch because the quality of writing you find here every day and because we never flinch under fire. We appreciate the support and are prepared for the fierce battles to come.
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Onward,
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CounterPunch
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Today's Stories October 30 - Nov. 1, 2009 Jeffrey St. Clair / October 29, 2009 Michael Neumann Mike Whitney Gary Leupp Conn Hallinan Marshall Auerback Laura Flanders Eamonn McCann David Macaray Mark Weisbrot Stephen Soldz Christopher Brauchli Website of the Day October 28, 2009 Moshe Adler Dave Lindorff Frank Joseph Smecker Alexandra Early M. Shahid Alam Vijay Prashad John Ross Franklin Lamb Gregory Travis Susan Galleymore Website of the Day October 27, 2009 Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Stewart J. Lawrence Alan Farago Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Bouthaina Shaaban Brian M. Downing Elections in Afghanistan, the Second Time Around Iain Boal Carl Finamore Jayne Lyn Stahl Website of the Day October 26, 2009 Bill Quigley / Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Michael Snedeker Shamus Cooke David Michael Green Martha Rosenberg Patrick Bond Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day October 23-25, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Christopher Ketcham Jeff Gore Gareth Porter Jayne Lyn Stahl Saul Landau Mike Whitney Nikolas Kozloff Ron Jacobs Russell Mokhiber Missy Beattie Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Stephen Lendman David Ker Thomson Rannie Amiri Ronnie Cummins Norm Kent Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Ben Sonnenberg Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 22, 2009 Dan Pearson / Jonathan Cook Paul Craig Roberts The US as Failed State Mark Engler Johann Hari Brian M. Downing Eric Toussaint Tom Mountain Israel Shamir Charles Thomson Website of the Day October 21, 2009 Pam Martens Linn Washington, Jr. Liaquat Ali Khan D. K. Wilson Franklin Lamb Norman Solomon Stephen Fleischman Patrice Higonnet Binoy Kampmark Kevin Coval / Website of the Day October 20, 2009 Sharon Smith Tariq Ali Mark Brenner Bouthaina Shaaban Michael D. Yates Dean Baker Dave Lindorff John Ross Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Kevin Zeese Gilad Atzmon Website of the Day October 19, 2009 Mike Whitney Greg Moses John Ross Michael Donnelly Jayne Lyn Stahl Eric Walberg Russell Mokhiber Barbara Rose Johnston John V. Whitbeck Christopher Ketcham Website of the Day October 16-18, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Carl Ginsburg Ralph Nader Nikolas Kozloff Carlo Galli Dave Lindorff Catherine Rottenberg
/ Neve Gordon Marshall Auerback Nicola Nasser Windy Cooler James L. Secor Ron Jacobs Wes Jackson Jesse Lerner-Kinglake David Ker Thomson Against Leaders Missy Beattie Emily Ratner Stephen Martin Michael Snedeker Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Peter Stone Brown Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 15, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Brian M. Downing Ramzy Baroud Danny Weil M. Idrees Ahmad Margaret Kimberley Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Harvey Wasserman Nirmal Ghosh Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 14, 2009 Michael Neumann M. Reza Pirbhai Gareth Porter Paul Craig Roberts John Strausbaugh Fortress Moon Ralph Nader Dean Baker Charles Modiano Nadia Hijab Walter Brasch Website of the Day October 13, 2009 Peter Linebaugh Shamus Cooke John Ross Brendan Cooney Frida Berrigan Yves Engler David Macaray Dave Lindorff Mark Weisbrot Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day October 12, 2009 Pam Martens Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg Jessica Arents Eamonn McCann Bill Hatch Sen. Russell Feingold Niranjan Ramakrishnan Gideon Levy Iyad Burnat Alan Cabal Dan Bacher Website of the Day October 9-11, 2009 Alexander Cockburn James Bovard Kathleen and Bill Christison Andy Worthington Marc Levy Tariq Ali Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Alan Nasser Jack Z. Bratich Steve Breyman David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Paul Buchheit Jim Goodman Missy Beattie Michael Leonardi Nadia Hijab Mel Packer David Macaray James T. Phillips Charles R. Larson Michael Donnelly David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 8, 2009 Saul Landau Paul Fitzgerald / Linn Washington, Jr. Marshall Auerback Dave Lindorff David Rosen Chris Darimont / Misty MacDuffee John V. Walsh Stewart Lawrence Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 7, 2009 Brendan Cooney Paul Craig Roberts Dean Baker Jonathan Cook John Stanton Joanne Mariner Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Stephen Lendman Sen. Russell Feingold Mary Lynn Cramer Website of the Day October 6, 2009 Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Jonathan Cook Boris Kagarlitsky Iain Boal Ron Jacobs John Ross Michael Dickinson Stephen Fleischman Ira Glunts Missy Beattie Website of the Day October 5, 2009 Pam Martens Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Harry Browne Sara Mann Omar Barghouti Shamus Cooke Brenda Norrell Fred Gardner Binoy Kampmark Copenhagen Blues: McChrystal and the Afghan Trap Website of the Day October 2-4, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Diana Johnstone Greg Moses William Blum Brian Cloughley Russell Mokhiber John Ross Ellen Brown David Ker Thomson David Macaray Gary Engler Robert Fantina Lisa Stolarski / Naomi Archer Anthony Papa Joe Allen Harry Browne Ron Jacobs Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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Weekend Edition The Great MarginalizationLiving in the Shadow of Yankee StadiumBy CARL GINSBURG The cheers this week for the Yankees are muted on 161st Street in the South Bronx, the main thoroughfare where two stadiums sit, one opulent, the other shrouded… this lull even amidst a World Series, the apex of American sports. But on 161st Street, taverns, souvenir shops, and bodegas are facing the reality that the new, vastly profitable stadium – with $330 million in city tax money and abatements thrown in – was not for them. Sales are down 70 per cent in some local establishments, hopes are down even more. There was a time when Babe Ruth bought the house drinks at these taverns and Mickey Mantle came by after a 550-foot smash. Despite Yankee assurances that no local business would be displaced by the new park, that’s exactly what’s happening, as the ballpark-cum-mall cornered the market. It was a scam all along … parkland on which the new stadium sits was taken amidst empty promises of park replacement and with plenty of city hall grease. Today, yet another gargantuan parking facility rises across an adjacent road two blocks west, a patch of land that like so many in the South Bronx is traversed by raised highways. But this patch was a soccer field, with floodlights that allowed for play late into the night. And play they did: mostly Latino immigrants, some African, who in recent years joined the local largely black population in the neighborhood-by-the-stadiums, a welcome futbol diversion from the low-wage work that defines their lives, this city, and all the others. The soccer field was temporary, whether they knew it or not, its fleeting quality hardly a surprise in a nation where politicians compete for a claim of credit due denying illegals health care. The scam is everywhere. Underpaid America was the story before The Great Recession, during The Recovery and now at this illustrious moment of Positive Growth … But the story – of a grossly undervalued workforce - hardly gets a mention, its substitute – insufficient regulation - a profound obfuscation. The rhetoric of poverty as behavioral affliction serves to instill self-doubt among the poor and the millions in the process of joining them now. But will that be enough to keep them in check as the numbers getting food aid approach 40 million? With current proposals for health reform projected to cost working families ten per cent of gross income? Reform that proponents concede leaves 25 million Americans without coverage in 2019? More rhetoric: “Confidence and optimism grow in pockets of the USA,” volunteered USA Today above the fold one month ago. And as if a compliant press were not enough, Bank of America ran ads, “America. Growing stronger every day.” U.S. banks hold $13.3 trillion in assets and those are growing; B of A, with JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo ... four banks with 40 percent of the country’s total deposits, two-thirds of its credit cards, and makers of half the nation’s mortgages. One thing is for certain: Barack Obama believes in banks. The bigger, the better. It takes a thick skin – we now see it can be black or white - to hand out trillions to banks and their barkers, while simultaneously cautioning Americans that employment is slow in coming. And to talk of good jobs when in fact there won’t be many good jobs among those that trickle along. Free markets are not big on them. What they do like is 30 per cent annual return-- the number Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone averaged for the years 1987 to 2009, the corollary to untold Underpaid America. In October 1966, a coalition of labor radicals, civil rights activists and urban organizers, even some Democrats (!), endorsed A Freedom Budget for All Americans, calling for job creation, guaranteed annual income, federal money to eradicate slums, creation of better schools and the building of public works … “freedom from economic want and oppression ... is the necessary complement to freedom from political and civil oppression,” quotes Thomas Sugrue in his outstanding new book, Sweet Land of Liberty. Today economic want defines our nation, federal money goes to banks and the elites ... Slums are everywhere -- here in NYC amidst the 600 empty or partly empty new condo buildings and alongside the Yankees’ mall palace … the public schools are a disgrace, in a state of de facto segregation, funded strictly along class lines. The Freedom Budget died within months. Recall that Ronald Reagan was elected governor in California in 1966. The Great Marginalization was germinated in its aftermath, an unbending commitment to profits without limit. But who could have predicted back then that a black president would nourish that forest with such vigor?
Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Obama and Black America Ten months into Obama-time, the plight of black Americans is terrible. Yet overwhelmingly they rally behind the president. In a powerful report from the Deep South Kevin Alexander Gray asks the question: what should the black political agenda be? Mark Rudd counterposes “organizing” with “activism” and describes what it will take to build a movement. H. Bruce Franklin gives a chronology of the march into Afghanistan. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
"Powerful and shocking ..
Waiting for
Lightning
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