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Today's
Stories
August 14 /
15, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
War
on the Poor: "A Risk No Sane Person Would Take"
M. Shahid Alam
The Civilizing Mission: Some Economic Results
Saul Landau
God and Botox
John Ross
Echoes of Mexico City, 1968
Katherine Lahey
"Uh!
Ah! Chávez No Se Va!": Democracy and Venezuela
Medea Benjamin
Hugo Chavez and the Poor of Venezuela
Yves Engler
The Media and the Venezuela Referendum
Justin Podur
The NYTs and Chavez: More Than the Usual Bias
Eric Drooker
Gaza Stripped
Dave Lindorff
A29 Could be a Very Slow Day
Rebecca Brigham
The Aftermath of Guatemala's Strike: Promises Still Unfulfilled
August 13,
2004
Lee Sustar
Report
from Caracas
Mickey Z.
McProtests R Us: Why are the Dems Trying to Gag Anti-War Protesters?
Stan Goff
There
He Goes Again: Kerry's "Energy" Plan
Norman Madarasz
Thoughts on Najaf: How Could the US Ever Be Considered a "Terrorist"
State?
Victor Kattan
Press Freedom, Censorship and the War on Terror
Oscar Heck
Is Mendoza Off His Rocker? Chavez Opponents Pledge to Post Results
Online Before Polls Close
CounterPunch
Wire
Military Families File "Stop Loss" Suit
Milan Rai
Najaf: Bush Started It
Website of
the Day
The Yes Men
August 12,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
Bush Got (and Lost) His Wings
Lenni Brenner
Take
It on Faith: Kerry's See-Through-Monk's Robe
Lee Ballinger
The Coors and the Kerrys: Drink Up, Kids!
Tariq Ali
The
Handover Fiction
Yves Engler
What's at Stake in Venezuela
William S.
Lind
Seeing
Through the Other Side's Eyes
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Bush's Goat
Website of
the Day
The Sucker Puncher
August 11,
2004
Ceylon Mooney
Who
Woke Up Sen. Joe?: Watchers of the NJ Turnpike
Voices in the
Wilderness
Hands
Off Najaf
Ray McGovern
Porter
Goss as CIA Director?
Robert Jensen
US
Supports Anti-Democratic Forces in Venezuelan Recall
Annie Higgins
In Memory of Nick Pretzlik: As Good as It Gets
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
v. Kerry: Not Even a Dime's Worth of Difference
Website of the Day
Nick Pretzlik
August 10,
2004
William A.
Cook
Silencing
the Voice of the People
Todd Chretien
California Greens at the Crossroads: Will It Be Nader or Cobb?
Dave Lindorff
Chicago on the Hudson?
Richard Gott
Loathed
by the Rich: Why Chavez is Headed for a Big Win
Toni Solo
Bluebeard's
Castle: Disappearing the Right to Development
Dave Zirin
Carl Eller's Plea
Rep. Ron Paul
Police State, USA
Patrick Cockburn
If the Chalabis Were Corrupt, They Weren't Alone
Website of
the Day
The Surveillance-Industrial Complex
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 9, 2004
Tito Tricot
Pinochet
Must Still be Tried: a Murderer and a Thief on the Loose
Ron Jacobs
In
Memory of Deep Throat: the Day Nixon Was Gone
Norm Dixon
Crisis in Sudan: Oil Profits Behind West's Tears for Darfur
Kurt Nimmo
The Politics of Entrapment
Elaine Cassel
Welcome to Bush's America
Gary Leupp
Why
Iraqi Christians are Moving to Syria
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
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
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.
|
Weekend
Edition
August 14 / 15, 2004
The
Venezuela Opposition's Strategy
Subvert
Democracy in the Name of Democracy
By
JONAH GIRDIN
When in 1998 former paratrooper Hugo
Rafael Chávez Frías was elected President on a
revolutionary mandate to completely rewire Venezuela's elite-based
'democracy', the opposition lay in shambles. So complete was
their defeat that the two traditional parties that had alternated
leadership of the country since 1958 did not even field candidates.
Six years later, after a failed coup, two devastating but failed
general strikes, and an international publicity campaign to paint
Chávez as a cruel dictator without support, the Venezuelan
opposition to Chávez' 'Bolívarian revolution' has
reached the point of no return: a recall referendum--scheduled
for this coming August 15th. As a last resort the opposition
has thrown its weight behind a constitutional strategy in the
hopes that it might accomplish what force and blackmail could
not.
Yet it is never so clear-cut
with Venezuela's opposition, and even those who are now sulkily
pursuing a peaceful path to recall Chávez are often inseparable
from those who have made no such grudging commitment to the constitution.
Along with the opposition's non-violent strategy looms the macabre
threat of violence; the presence of Colombian paramilitaries
recently discovered in a training camp in Caracas is only the
most worrisome example to date.[i]
Opinion polls are coming out
on what seems like a daily basis; yet rather than providing insight
into public opinion, they are reinforcing both camps of their
projected victories. Yet the opposition campaign itself appears
to be faltering in the face of unprecedented chavista mobilization,
particularly since the launch of their plan for a post-Chávez
country was overshadowed by the revelation that it was funded
in part by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
In effect, they have painted
themselves into a corner. Calling for the referendum since day
01 allowed them to site their democratic commitment when they
came under fire for supporting military coups, employer lock-outs,
and provocateur street violence, but now that it is actually
going to happen they are unprepared, or worse, unsupported.
In the wake of potential defeat,
opposition strategy appears to be based more on how to lose as
little as possible, than on how to win. Since he was first elected
in 1998, Chávez has been dismissed by much of the mainstream
international media as just another Latin American populist with
authoritarian tendencies. If Chávez wins the referendum
this August 15th, that characterization will be difficult to
sell. With that in mind, opposition strategy aims to check any
potential rise in Chávez' international stock in the event
of his victory at the ballot box.
To do so, they are using the
media and influential international bodies to prepare the ground
for accusations of fraud if Chávez is not recalled. A
Chávez victory on the 15th is most dangerous to US neoliberal
plans for the region as an example to other countries, thus,
the international media has stepped up attacks on Chávez
since the date for the recall was announced last June. Paralleling
the media-offensive are increasingly vocal accusations by human
rights organizations (and one in particular) against alleged
abuses by the Venezuelan government.
As a departure from previous
illegal approaches to getting rid of Chávez this strategy
has an inherent advantage. The change is essentially one from
force--from a more traditional and familiar notion of asserting
elite power--to hegemony. This same development changed US strategy
in Nicaragua in the 1980s from one centering around the violence
of the contras to one that used that violence but that depended
more on the media and other segments of civil society.
They use the hegemonic force
of democracy to subvert a democratic process. Six years of participatory
democracy reduced to one vote--subject to all the subsequent
pressures and opportunities to influence the outcome. That is,
the opposition is able to appear to be using democratic channels,
since they're comrades-in-arms are the private media and human
rights groups. Though these institutions are central to any democracy,
their hegemony is used to limit democracy to this cooptable foundation;
a foundation that is compatible with neoliberalism and has historically
been hostile to an expansion of the terms of representation.
Their active complicity in counter-revolution in Chile, Nicaragua,
in recent elections in El Salvador, and in Venezuela is only
a footnote to their existence. The role of private media and
many NGOs in the new imperialism is to facilitate the hegemony
of --democracy light'--that form of democracy that works hand-in-hand
with neoliberalism. Thus, participatory democracy, as a threat
to the hegemony of representative democracy, is also a threat
to the privileged social status of the private media and of NGOs--as
institutions.
On August 15th they will thus
have succeeded in reducing an infinitely complex, multi-dimensional
experiment in deepening democracy to an exercise in representative
democracy that is fundamentally flawed, for it lends itself to
disproportionate influence by these groups. Their words are systemically
given more weight than any given citizen, even though these institutions
are made up of mere citizens--though almost universally foreign
ones. If that is the case, why are they permitted so much influence?
Why is the future of a sovereign nation dependent upon the blessing
of two US-based organizations--the OAS and the Carter Center?
And subject to the reactionary opining of other extra-Venezuelan
institutions?
As Chávez put it Thursday
morning in a press conference at Miraflores Palace, "the
leaders of the opposition have never said that they will respect
the results of the referendumâ¤|what they have said
is that they will recognize the results once the international
observers recognize them...We have welcomed the international
observers, but this decision is not in their hands. Here we have
an institution, this is no colony, after all...here we are free."
International
Media and the Chain of Disinformation
Opposition to President Chávez
has always been dominated by the upper class. Large land-owners,
media barons, corrupt labor officials and other Miami-philes
were behind the general strikes and coup-attempts that preceded
the current recall campaign. Recently however, the old alliance
of big business and corporatist labor has been buttressed by
the growing anti-chavism of much of Venezuela's small middle-class.
Currency devaluation and economic difficulties have disproportionately
affected the middle class, pushing them into the open arms of
an opposition that has used their control over private media
to gain a near-monopoly on public debate. Though with 80% of
Venezuela's population in poverty, the middle-class represents
a small group, they lend legitimacy to an opposition with little
moral capital.
Since the collapse of the two
traditional political parties AcciÃ3n Democratica and
Copei, the opposition to President Chávez has been unable
to regain political coherence. The Coordinadora Democratica (CD)--the
most recent attempt at lumping together the fractious, chaotic
mish-mash of 'anti-chavists'--has failed to articulate anything
resembling a political program. Yet it is only recently that
they have even appeared to desire one. Until the current recall
campaign put them head-to-head against Chávez and his
Bolivarian revolution, the CD appeared content to concentrate
their energy and resources on anti-chavism, rather than on offering
an alternative.
Criticism consisting largely
of the most base and often racist mud-slinging served them well
in fostering the impression internationally that Chávez
is an inept, closet-communist, who is ruining the economy and
funding Colombian guerrillas to boot. With their near-total control
over the domestic media, the spread of opposition propaganda
has gone completely unchecked. Journalistic integrity has been
thrown to the wind with the all too familiar justification that
there is a war to win. Discrediting the Electoral Process Much
US coverage of Venezuela over the past month has focused on controversy
surrounding the use of voting machines for the upcoming referendum.
A June 13th Washington Post editorial refers to "the National
Electoral Council, controlled by the president's loyalists";
the opposition's "acceptance of the rule of law"; and
Chavez's underlying intention to subvert the democratic process,
since "the votes would be counted using untried electronic
voting machines supplied by a consortium in which the government
has a financial stake,"--all in the first paragraph.[ii]
The sequence of statements reveals a clear strategy of suggesting
that a) the officials in charge of the vote cannot be trusted,
b) the opposition is the law-abiding victim of a power-hungry
populist, and c) that not only the voting officials, but even
the voting infrastructure is stacked in Chávez' favor.
In keeping with the time-tested
journalistic theory that it is the first 50 words of a story
that matter, Juan Forrero and John Schwartz of the New York Times
waste no time, beginning: "Touch-screen voting machines,
which have been plagued by security and reliability concerns
in the United States, will be used in the recall vote on President
Hugo Chávez, prompting his foes and foreign diplomats
to contend that the left-leaning government may use the equipment
to manipulate the vote."[iii]
They continue, quoting an expert--to
lend credibility to their transparently politically motivated
reportage--"--a fully electronic computer can be programmed
to produce whatever outcome the developers - or the people in
charge of the developers - want it to.'" But the reality
of the voting machines is infinitely more complicated: the voting
software is available for public and professional scrutiny, the
information will be sent to 7 different locations to ensure that
fraud can be located, and there will be a manual count of the
receipts printed from the machines. The government too is alleging
plans to commit fraud by manipulating the telecommunications
infrastructure that allow the machines to send the information
instantaneously to a central register. The company in charge
is CanTV; company-president Gustavo Roosen was education minister
under former-President of Venezuela Carlos Andres Perez, who
recently told the Caracas opposition paper El Nacional that the
only solution to the --Chávez question' was to kill him
like a dog. Added to the mix are the pollsters commissioned by
the opposition to evaluate the political mood of the country.
As Diaz Eleazer Rangel, a columnist for Venezuela's largest circulating
daily notes, the only possible explanation for the terrible track-record
of polling companies in Venezuela is their political motivation--pollsters
who must answer to a particular political party or current adjust
their information accordingly.[iv] Beyond merely attempting to
please one's sponsors, many pollsters are also guilty of using
polls to directly influence events by suggesting one side has
a momentum it may not actually have. Hence, these comments by
Datanálisis analyst Luis Leon in a meeting with the foreign
press: "Chavez isn't completely out of the game, but he's
in troubleâ¤|If the vote happens legally, Chavez
should lose."[v]
Human Rights
Groups: Recycling Misreportage
One of the most revealing indications
that international human rights groups' coverage is not only
biased, but factually inconsistent, is the slew of reports condemning
Chávez' alleged pressures on freedom of expression. This
is a country where 90% of the print and television media are
actively engaged in calling for the overthrow of the government
(only recently by constitutional means); and where not a single
journalist has been jailed since Chávez came to power.
The only time that news organizations have been shut down was
during the coup when the illegal government of Pedro Carmona
closed community radio and television stations that remained
loyal to Chávez. Despite their active participation in
the coup, no newspapers were closed once Chávez was restored
to power, and no charges were brought against opposition media.
In an editorial in the Venezuelan
evening paper Tal Cual, opposition leader Teodoro Petkoff vents
his frustration with the tactics of the opposition of which he
is a prominent member, noting:
Speaking of incongruity, doesn't
it seem to this periodical [El Universal] and to their collaborators
that there is nothing more "inconsistent", more "legitimating"
for the governmentâ¤|than a newspaper with national
circulation and continental fame that spends tons of ink accusing
the Chávez government of totalitarian dictatorshipâ¤|and
continues circulating as usual?[vi]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently
released a report criticizing Hugo Chávez and the Venezuelan
government of threatening the legal rights of its citizens by
attempting to tip the political balance of the country's judiciary
in their favor. And they may have a point--the law in question
would allow a slim chavista majority in the National Assembly
to pack the court with their nominees. But while politicizing
the judiciary could have detrimental effects to citizens' legal
rights, it's also common practice--most noticeably in the US.[vii]
The fact that Venezuela has
been singled out for criticism, the timing of the report, and
the tone and content suggest that HRW's motives may be less than
altruistic. An examination of the report reveals a similar strategy
to the national and international media coverage--essentially
determined to set the stage for post-referendum accusations of
fraud.
Step 1. Characterizing Chávez
as just another Latin American Caudillo The report makes repeated
comparisons between Chávez' speculated court-packing intentions
and the success of Carlos Menem in Argentina, and Alberto Fujimori
in Peru in "remaking their judiciaries to serve their own
interests."[viii] Comparing Chávez to Menem or Fujimori
is, perhaps, the report's most transparent partisan moment.
Step 2. Laying Blame for Polarization
at Chávez' Feet "The consensus around judicial reforms
has largely dissolved as the country has grown increasingly polarized
in response to President Chávez's policies and style of
governance." This argument is a favorite of the opposition,
and as we saw above, is often recycled by the international media.
Yet the idea that the country was not polarized on February 27th,
1989 during the Caracazo, for example, when anywhere from 327
(government figure) and 3,000 (independent estimates by journalists)
people were killed by the Venezuelan military is extremely offensive
to the Venezuelans who lived the tragedy.
Step 3. Drawing the Parallel
Between Court-Packing and the Referendum Criticism of the court-packing
law is certainly justifiable, but at various points in the report
it becomes clear that there is something else at stake. By pointing
out that the final judgment on the August 15 referendum on Chávez'
mandate as President rests with Venezuela's judiciary, the report
explicitly suggests that Chávez has the final say over
the results. Accordingly, the report argues:
The packing and purging provisions
of the new law--which would be objectionable under any circumstances--are
particularly troubling given the current political context. The
prime target of any packing and purging efforts is likely to
be the electoral chamber of the Supreme Court...By appointing
two new justices to the chamber, the governing coalition will
be able to tip the balance its own way...[ix]
Thus, it is established that
Chávez has rigged the judiciary in his favor, that the
country is violently divided due to Chávez' brinkmanship,
and that if the referendum doesn't go his way Chávez is
willing to flex his judicial muscle to make sure an unfavorable
referendum result gets overturned.
Step 4: Getting Away with it
Attempting to defend itself from being characterized as partisan,
the report states: It is critically important thatâ¤|the
criticisms offered here not be mischaracterized as partisan attack.
Human Rights Watch does not take a stand on the political conflict
currently underway in Venezuela. When sectors of the opposition
launched a coup d'état in April 2002, we denounced their
actions forcefully." |[x] It is difficult to take this plea
seriously considering that the report has essentially imagined
the --siege' on the judiciary in time for the referendum, attempting
to characterize critical problems with Venezuela's judiciary
as a recent development. But, as Gregory Wilpert has noted, "blaming
the Chavez government for problems that pre-date it and not giving
credit where it is due are tactics one would expect from a partisan
opposition attackâ¤|not from a serious human rights
organization."[xi] Furthermore, HRW's condemnation of the
April 2002 coup that briefly toppled Chávez was somewhat
weaker than one have might hoped.
On April 11th, 2002, the head
of Venezuela's chamber of commerce and self-proclaimed president
Pedro Carmona Estanga abolished the National Assembly, the Supreme
Court, the Ombudsman, and every other semblance of democracy.
The next day, José Miguel Vivanco, executive director
of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, released an official
statement saying:
We call upon the transitional
authorities in Venezuela to restore the country's democratic
institutions as soon as possible and to guarantee that the human
rights of Venezuelans will not be violated, regardless of their
political beliefs or affiliations. (Emphasis added).[xii]
By referring to the illegal
government of Pedro Carmona Estanga as "transitional authorities"Vivanco
lends them legitimacy, completely ignoring the fact that this
was a coup, and that there are no --authorities'. Particularly
the word "transitional"suggests that Carmona's junta
was actually --filling a vacuum of power' as they claimed, rather
than creating that --vacuum of power' through a well-orchestrated
coup. Furthermore, requesting that democratic institutions be
restored "as soon as possible,"can hardly be characterized
as forceful.
Using Democracy
to Undermine Democracy
On Sunday, the opposition appeared
to show its hand; speaking on behalf of the Coordinadora Democratica
on Sunday, Enrique Mendoza declared "we have the technological
capacity to know the tendency of the referendum by 2pm on the
15th, a tendency that will be irreversible and one hour after
that we will broadcast our first preliminary bulletin."
The only possible reason that the CD would be interested in publicizing
preliminary results is to preempt a Chávez victory by
claiming that their exit polls give them an opposition victory,
which will be the basis of allegations of fraud.
The National Electoral Council
(CNE) responded to Mendoza yesterday, threatening harsh sanctions
on any party that releases any kind of poll or bulletin on the
referendum results until after the release of the official results.
In a press conference yesterday, Francisco Diez of the Carter
Center's Caracas office supported the CNE announcement.
In the event of a Chávez
victory next Sunday, such support may well prove crucial. Opposition
attempts at discrediting the results will be impervious to government
denunciation; the only effective response will be clear, strong
statements by the OAS and Carter Center supporting the results
released by the CNE. Yet the fact that the democratic process
in Venezuela rests so precariously on the shoulders of these
two institutions presents a problem since their neutrality has
been questionable in the past.
The Carter Center's mandate
in monitoring elections is self-limited to the actual electoral
process. Thus, in observing the elections in Nicaragua in 1990,
or the recent elections in El Salvador--two processes in which
the US exerted incredible pressure to secure friendly (anti-FSLN
and anti-FMLN, respectively) votes--no mention was made by the
Carter Center of the political effect of this pressure.
For its part the OAS has a
more open conception of its role in "promoting and consolidating
representative democracy,"yet it has also proven unwilling
to address flagrant US interventionism in Latin American electoral
processes.
Yet the joint-statement made
by the OAS and the Carter Center after the signature-collection
process in Venezuela last May that triggered the referendum sparked
a bitter debate with the National Electoral Committee (CNE),
precisely because they had over-stepped their bounds as international
observers. According to CNE president Francisco Carrasquero the
OAS and Carter Centre violated the agreement they signed with
the CNE by publicly interpreting Venezuela's constitution. Recent
statements by both the OAS and the Carter Centre suggest that
they will be careful to maintain neutrality, and take precautions
against their statements being used in partisan fights in the
wake of the referendum. But, the reality is that international
perceptions of the authenticity of election results this August
15th will be based almost entirely on OAS and Carter Center statements,
and if they bow to US pressure the opposition will be given the
carte blanche they need to undermine a Chávez victory.
"There is nothing more
neutral than what we are doing here," noted Valter Pecly
Moreira, the head of the OAS delegation in Venezuela during a
recent interview. "Both sides have many expectations and
we know thatâ¤|our responsibility is enormous. The
whole team will be working in a professional and technical manner,
without taking sides, as it must be."[xiii]
During a recent senate hearing
on Venezuela Jennifer McCoy, head of the Carter Center mission
in Venezuela noted, I personally and an entire team, including
an engineer and a statisticianâ¤|went to receive
a full presentation of the machines...We were very impressed
with the presentation we received, the security measures that
were shown to us, and the functioning of the machine that we
witnessed. A very important process is having the paper trail,
the paper receipt, which are provided by these machines.[xiv]
At one level, the opposition
has already succeeded, for they have set the stage to cry foul
on the 15th using mostly 'democratic channels.' Thus, they have
succeeded in limiting the test of Venezuelan democracy to one
day, one single election. Six years of creating a more profound
democracy that is participatory, moving towards decentralization,
that addresses notions of social and economic democracy has been
been reduced into the limited terms of representative democracy.
The essence of democracy should
be participation," noted Chávez in a press conference
on Thursday, "that is what we believe, not representation.
Representative democracy is an elite trap designed to ensnare
the hopes of the people, at least that it is how it worked in
Venezuela for a long time. We have broken with this paradigm
and our democracy is representative, but it goes far beyond representation."
It is in this respect that
no matter how neutral, no matter how professional the OAS and
Carter Center may be they are complicit in using a specific,
limited hegemonic definition of 'democracy light' to undermine
a profoundly democratic revolution. It has been a powerful, if
largely silent, coup d'état for the opposition to define
the terms by which Venezuelan democracy will be decided. It will
be decided according to the same criteria upon which they based
40 years of pre-Chávez corruption and cronyism; and for
which they were long hailed by the US as the hope of Latin American
democracy.
Jonah Girdin writes for Venezuela
Analysis, where this article originally appeared.
Weekend
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