Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
March 24, 2004
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
March 11, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Bedtime
for Democracy
Bill Kauffman
Hey,
Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People?
James Hollander
Slaughter
in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally?
Norman Solomon
They
Shoot Journalists, Don't They?
Patrick Gavin
The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return
Becky Burgwin
You're
Messing with the Wrong Generation
John Sugg
The FBI is on My Trail
March 10, 2004
Hammond Guthrie
Read
This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?"
Chris Floyd
Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another
Bush Brings Hell to Haiti
Elizabeth Corrie
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie
Mike Whitney
US Press Torpedoes Aristide
M. Junaid Alam
An Anti-Civilizational War?
Bob Feldman
The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934
John L. Hess
An Overload of Crises
Gary Leupp
On Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"
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.
|
March
24, 2004
An Open Letter to John Kerry
You
Are Wrong on Venezuela, Senator
By EVA GOLINGER
As a registered Democrat who supports major changes
to current US governance, I must express my utmost disappointment
and disillusionment with your March 19, 2004 Statement on Venezuela.
I am a US citizen of Venezuelan origin. I have voted on the democratic
bill since I was first legally permitted to vote many years ago.
Along with many other residents and citizens in this country,
I believe the current US administration has acted in ways contrary
to my beliefs and perceptions of democracy and progress, and
has betrayed notions of what the United States of America should
truly represent and pursue in the world community.
Up until Friday's statement, I had hope
that you, as a presidential candidate, could offer the American
people a true alternative and change from the brutal, insensitive
and interventionist government we have had during the past four
years. As a Venezuelan-American, I must tell you that your statement
on Venezuela is not only highly misplaced, but also demonstrates
how truly uninformed you are about the situation in Venezuela.
It also leads me to believe that you have been influenced by
interested parties insisting you take a stand on this issue in
their favor.
You declare that international pressure
should bear on President Chavez to allow the referendum to proceed,
which clearly demonstrates your ignorance of the referendum process
in Venezuela. As per the Venezuelan Constitution, certain procedures
must first be completed before a recall referendum can be held
on President Chavez' mandate, and those clamoring for the referendum
have yet to fulfill the necessary requirements that would permit
such a vote to take place. It may be easy for you to make a statement
on an issue you do not fully understand or care about, merely
to acquire approval from a targeted voting pool, yet I would
warn you to not make such whimsical declarations without first
examining the entire situation.
You, as others in the current administration
and congress, may feel as though President Chavez is somehow
interfering in the referendum process. But, Mr. Kerry, I suggest
you seek out other news and information sources than those currently
serving you, because a more accurate report of the events in
Venezuela would demonstrate to you that President Chavez has
taken no steps whatsoever to impede a recall referendum. Venezuela's
Electoral Council and Supreme Court are currently determining
whether hundreds of thousands of potentially fraudulent signatures
are subject to further review and certification. Determining
whether substantial numbers of signatures on a very important
petition is an issue, which I hope, you would consider worthy
of scrutiny and absolute certainty. Or would you permit such
a situation to occur in your own election and just let potentially
fraudulent votes against you be counted without any further verification
or review?
In Venezuela, it is not President Chavez,
but rather the Venezuelan people who voted for him in 1998 and
1999 and still strongly support him today, who have demanded
the petitions be free from fraud and corruption and have insisted
the appropriate overseeing bodies ensure a fair, true and honest
electoral process.
You also mention in your March 19th
Statement that President Chavez has "repeatedly undermined
democratic institutions using extra-legal means, including politically
motivated incarcerations, to consolidate power". Honestly,
Mr. Kerry, are you speaking of the same President Chavez who
has been democratically governing Venezuela since 1998, has implemented
one of the most progressive constitutions in the world in the
area of human rights, has developed successful social programs
that are benefiting millions of Venezuelans in the areas of health
care, education, housing and jobs, and has brought more Venezuelans
into the political process than any government in the nation's
history? The same President Chavez who survived a coup d'etat
in April 2002 by an opposition movement that violently ousted
him from his democratically elected post and then proceeded to
dissolve all of Venezuela's most treasured institutions, such
as the Supreme Court, the National Assembly, the Constitution,
the Public Defender and the Attorney General?
Prior to President Chavez' administration,
there were hosts of political prisoners in Venezuela. Yet since
Chavez has been in office, there have been no political prisoners.
This is a fact documented by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International,
and even the US State Department's Country Report on Venezuela.
And more power is in the hands of the Venezuelan people than
ever before. Finally, under Chavez' governance, more Venezuelans
actually have a say in their government and feel a part of their
country's progress, development and political process.
I would also ask you, Mr. Kerry, to
verify just what exactly you mean by "Chavez's policies
have been detrimental to our interests" Such a statement
is not supported by fact. Under Chavez, the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been revitalized and the oil industry
has surged in production and growth. This has benefited US investors,
companies and refineries substantially. Venezuela has paid off
a substantial portion of its foreign debt and its own domestic
industries are growing. Chavez has supported legislation in the
area of indigenous rights and anti-discrimination laws, and has
implemented education and social welfare policies that are far
more advanced than those of the United States. If anything, Venezuela
has become a world leader in socially humane governance.
As to your statements regarding President
Chavez' relationship with Fidel Castro, all I can say is: give
it up. Cuba is no longer any type of threat to the United States
and has much to offer in the area of science, health and education.
Did you know that illiteracy was eradicated in Cuba years ago?
I don't think the US could boast nearly the same. In any event,
most countries in Latin America and Europe maintain a diplomatic
and economic relationship with Cuba. US policy on Cuba is outdated
and infantile.
Mr. Kerry, I wonder what the millions
of Venezuelans receiving free education and health care, who
are finally permitted to participate in their political processes,
and who support a government that actually works in the interests
of its people, would respond to your March 19th statement. Probably
the same way that I would if they could vote in the US presidential
elections this year: by not voting for you.
You can count on me as one less democratic
who will vote for you, Mr. Kerry. Your understanding of democracy
is clearly as stilted as that of Mr. Bush.
Eva Golinger
lives in Brooklyn, NY. She can be reached at: evagolinger@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|