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Read Why It Happened! Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils Order Here! Today's Stories November 19, 2004 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 Importation Alan Farago Lessons from Nature Rep. Maxine Waters A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti Nicole Colson Maimed for Oil and Empire       October 13, 2004 Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Bill Quigley Aftermath of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti Sharon Smith Barak O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran Christopher Brauchli God and the Bush Administration Mike Whitney The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case Paul de Rooij Amnesty International: a False Beacon? Website of the Day Operation Truth     October 12, 2004 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz "Indian Country" Greg Bates The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters in Swing States Steven Conn 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 for a Sensible Foreign Policy 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 Patrick Gavin 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, 2004 Jennifer Loewenstein The Israeli Invasion of Gaza 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 is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge     October 6, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair "Please, Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah Ron Jacobs Going Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives Michael Colby The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead? Tarif Abboushi More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates Matthew Behrens Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood Mike Whitney Rethinking WMDs John Pilger Stealing Diego Garcia Ben Tripp Kerry's "Triumph" Kevin McKiernan Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target Patrick Cockburn Elections Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq Website of the Day Is There an Islamic Problem?   October 5, 2004 Anthony Loewenstein Rupert Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes" Mark Clinton and Tony Udell The Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran Greg Bates Trading Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman Dave Lindorff What's the Frequency, Karl? Norm Dixon Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers Larry Kearney God Talk and Burning Children Bill Linville Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government Gary Leupp What Edwards Should Ask Cheney Website of the Day A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate   October 4, 2004 Diane Christian The Gates of Hell Joshua Frank An Interview with David Cobb Doug Giebel Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie? John Chuckman Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump Ramzy Baroud Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage Julia Stein Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM Sean Donahue Outsourcing Terror: Kerry and Special Forces Website of the Day Mapping Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks   October 2 / 3. 2004 Paul Wright John Kerry on Criminal Justice Kathleen and Bill Christison An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris Kathie Helmkamp My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill Phillip Cryan Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia Lenni Brenner The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio Fred Gardner Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel" Ron Jacobs It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia Ben Tripp Sticker Shock William S. Lind The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces Dave Zirin The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC Dave Lindorff Lies from the Great Debate Luscon Pierre-Charles Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway Zoe Moskovitz & Sasha Kramer Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti Nelson P. Valdes Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned Cuban Academics Alan Farago The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades Nancy Haley What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us? Alex Billet Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years Steve Fesenmaier Save and Burn: The War on Libraries Poets' Basement Smith, Holt, Albert   October 1, 2004 Steve Breyman Kerry's Missed Opportunities Rose Gentle My Son Died for a Lie Lee Sustar Iran in the Crosshairs Ralph Nader What We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy? Walter Andrews We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever Mike Whitney Pandora's Government Mickey Z. Debate This Saul Landau The Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases                   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.     Subscribe Online

Annual Fundraising Appeal Bring It On Home, CounterPunchers! As of this morning, CounterPunch has raised $26,300 in the past three days, slightly more than two-thirds of the way toward reaching our fundraising goal (ie., iron-clad necessity) of $30,000. If this pace keeps up, we can dispense with what Edward Abbey used to call "this disgusting plea for cash" before Thanksgiving, which we know many of you will refuse to celebrate as a strict act of conscience. That's the good news. The puzzling news is that all of that money has come from only 622 individuals, meaning that a very select few are doing a lot of heavy-lifting for the rest of you. We know that between 70,000 and 100,000 individuals visit the CounterPunch site every day. That means less than one-percent of you have pitched in. Imagine: if each of you pitched in a mere $10 (about the price of a bad Bruce Willis movie ... aren't they all?) we wouldn't have to conduct another of these fundraisers until the year 2025! Remember, CounterPunch's website is supported almost entirely by subscribers to the print edition of our newsletter. We don't clutter the site by selling annoying popup ads. We aren't on the receiving end of six-figure grants from big foundations. George Soros doesn't have us on retainer. And we don't sell tickets on cruiseliners. Through the Iraq war, the traumas of the Bush administration and the carnage of the election, 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 don't flinch under fire. We appreciate the support and prepared for the fierce battles to come as the Bush administration expands its wars abroad and at home. Unlike many other outfits, we don't hit you up for money every month...or even every quarter. We only ask for your support once a year. But when we ask, we mean it. Please, make a donation to CounterPunch today or purchase a gift subscription. To contribute by phone you can call Becky toll free (in the US) at: 1-800-840-3683. From outside the US, call 707-629-3683." Onward, Alexander, Jeffrey and Becky November 19, 2004 Clinton and Black America Soul Brother? By KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY [Clinton] has always wanted our love and wanted to share his love with us. It is not about the skin. It is about the spirit and the soul of this soul brother. Former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater I was mildly amused, a bit disgusted but not surprised when former President Bill Clinton was named to the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of gullibility when it comes to the relationship between blacks and the man from Hope. Towards the end of his term, he was viewed favorably by a staggering 83 percent of African Americans. Now Clinton has been named honorary chairman of the planned $37 million national Museum of African American History expected to open in Charleston in 2007. Besides just having a big name draw to raise money, it should be obvious what's going on. Clinton is reworking his image by creating a phony civil rights legacy. Forced to resign because of Watergate, Richard Nixon attempted to reshape his image into that of a foreign policy expert before his death. Jimmy Carter left office a failure with hostages in Iran and an economy in crisis. He was still able to remake himself into a statesman and international peace advocate. Should Clinton get his way, memories of his real race record will fade as he transmogrifies himself into a racial healer. And he is getting plenty of help, as always, from black people. Charles King, the hall of fame's executive director, said the former president deserved induction "to show him our appreciation not only for what he did as president but for his lifelong association with us. He came to us. We were responsible for him being governor, and president. He held on to that. And we held on to that." Clinton is now the only white person among the hall's 62 members, who include poet Maya Angelou, John Johnson, founder of Jet and Ebony magazines, and former Clinton administration Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. Remember Elders? Clinton fired her because she said it wasn't a bad idea to talk about masturbation in sex education classes. The evening of the induction Clinton shared the dais with soul-turned-gospel singer/preacher Al Green. The two have so much in common that it's a wonder Clinton hasn't had a pot of hot grits flung at him. Point being ­ their commonalty has more to do with them being doggish, busted males than some twisted sense of racial or cultural empathy. Since leaving office, Clinton has been working his "ghetto pass" overtime. When complaints arose about the cost of his office space in Midtown Manhattan, what did he do? He moved to 125th Street in Harlem, historically the intellectual capital of black America. The community that nurtured Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Jessie Fauset, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Adam Powell and a host of others ate it up. Harlem was Clinton's second choice and for that he got a hero's welcome. At present, the only national political figure the Democratic Party has ­ black or white ­ that blacks identify with is Clinton. In 1998 the party's get-out-the-black-vote effort consisted of mailing out postcards with Clinton posing beside black families. In the 2002 elections black households once again got their postcards with Clinton's picture followed up an automated phone message from their good buddy Bill. No other president in United States history has managed to get so much black support for giving so little. But what makes Clinton's race act so successful is that black America never asked him to do much to begin with. In the 1980s, Clinton was the first white candidate for governor to reach out to Arkansas's black voters, to eat on their porches, pray in their churches, invite them into the governor's office. For 12 years before Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George Bush insulted and ignored black people. Consequently, when Clinton wooed African Americans, most were just happy someone was finally paying attention. To some degree, black support of Clinton is also acknowledgement of the black community's need for white acceptance. Some argue that Clinton deserves support because his economic policies were a boon for African Americans. During his administration median income reached an all-time high, and poverty among blacks dipped thanks in large part to his increases in the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit. But on the other side of the economic coin the black-white wealth disparity remained fixed and the gap between the rich and poor expanded under his administration. Others point to the record number of African Americans in the Clinton cabinet and the picture of racial diversity it projected. At times Clinton talked the social justice talk, lavishly invoking the name of Martin Luther King. While touring Africa he even gave a half-hearted apology for America's part in European colonization and enslavement. A black man, Vernon Jordan, was his best friend. A black woman, Betty Currie, was his personal secretary. It's debatable whether the blacks around Clinton had any real power, but real or not, his mostly symbolic gestures were much more than black people had ever seen from a white person in power. And those gestures have carried Clinton a long way. The joke that refuses to go away has Clinton as America's first black president ­ a sentiment enthusiastically affirmed by black celebrities, elites and quasi-intellectuals. In his bit, comedian Chris Rock used Clinton's "persecution over a $300 haircut" to support the claim. Former Southern Christian Leadership Conference head Joseph Lowery said that blacks like Clinton because "he plays the saxophone." Harvard professor Alvin Poussaint joked, Clinton "must have black ancestry." Back in1998 during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, writer Toni Morrison said, "black skin notwithstanding: this is our first black President" citing his dysfunctional upbringing as commonality with black males. But the joke's an insult. The punch line is that Clinton is decadent and promiscuous, got rhythm, got caught and got over -- so he's black! The notion of Clinton as a great friend of the black community or defender of civil rights is just as crazy. Clinton co-opted civil rights themes and figures and distorted their meaning for his political advancement and survival. Whether it's his telling blacks how disappointed "Dr. King would be [in them] if he were alive today", because of black on black crime or his attorney comparing him to Abraham Lincoln during the impeachment hearings, Clinton was an expert at playing the race card. All the while, his policies and attitude on due process, equal protection and equal treatment, or civil rights (rights guaranteed to all), were horrible. A couple of examples of his racial hypocrisy come to mind. One was his initiative requiring citizens, mostly black, in public housing to surrender their Fourth Amendment or privacy rights. Another was the "one strike and you're out" policy under which public housing residents convicted of a crime, along with anyone who lives with them, are evicted without consideration of their due process rights. But while the Rehnquest Court upheld these assaults on the rights of the poor, Jeb Bush (via his daughter Nicole) and Clinton (still on the public dole) all remain exempt from the laws they promote. Southern politician Clinton has always played the race-crime game to perfection. In his first presidential race Governor Clinton ran for office supporting the death penalty at a time when the country was split almost down the middle on the issue. Then for good measure, he rushed back to Arkansas to oversee the execution of convicted killer Ricky Ray Rector, a brain-damaged black man. For years after his first election, I kept a picture of Clinton and then-Georgia Senator Sam Nunn posing in front of a phalanx of black inmates in white prison suits taken at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Historians generally give Pulaski, Tennessee, the dubious honor as the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan. But Stone Mountain is hailed as the Klan's second home. The picture appeared in newspapers all across the south the day of the southern primaries in 1992. That picture is what Clinton has always represented to me. So, the fact that Clinton left behind a larger ­ mostly black ­ prison population than when he took office should come as no surprise. Black incarceration rates during the Clinton years surpassed Ronald Reagan's eight years. The incarceration rates for blacks increased from around 3,000 per 100,000 to 3,620 per 100,000 people during his administration. That he did nothing about mandatory minimum sentences was no surprise. That he did nothing to change the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine that disproportionately affects African Americans was no surprise. That he successfully stumped for "three strikes and you're out" in the crime bill, for restrictions on the right of habeas corpus and expansion of the federal death penalty was no surprise. When he came into office one in four black men were in the toils of the criminal justice system in some way; when he left it was one in three. In many states ex-felons are denied the right to vote, a factor that had a direct impact on the 2000 presidential vote in Florida. Again, no surprise. Shortly after leaving office, Clinton published a piece, "Erasing America's Color Lines", in the New York Times. He wrote that "America was now at a point where we can write a new preamble to the 21st century, in which color differences are not the problem, but the promise, of America." He outlined a path that would allow the Bush administration to reduce systemic racism. The list included a ban on racial profiling, an examination of mandatory minimum sentencing and a presidential commission on voter reform. But Clinton's suggestions were another bit of hypocrisy given that he refused to implement them while he had the chance. And his knowledge that George Bush would never take any of his suggestions made the whole exercise just another piece of grotesque symbolism, typical of his relationship with the black community. The commentary was a perfect postscript to Clinton's marriage with black America, a relationship that is characterized by the James Brown song "Talking loud and saying nothing". On the night Clinton was inducted into the Arkansas hall of fame, Charles King must have lost his memory. He forgot that, as Governor, his guest of honor refused to sign a civil rights bill. In Charleston, the people behind the civil rights museum forgot that Clinton dumped his friend Lani Guinier from consideration for the Justice Department's office of civil rights over her advocacy of cumulative voting ­ the next frontier for civil rights, which would break down voting by race and party. Maybe Clinton's name and service on the board in Charleston will help lure the money needed to make the project a reality. Maybe now blacks will get to use him and maybe get something in return for a change. But he shouldn't be allowed simply to fundraise himself into a legacy or assume a legacy he doesn't deserve. A legacy should be more that just showing up. As for being a soul brother? He's got a very, very long way to go. Kevin Alexander Gray is a civil rights organizer in South Carolina. This essay is excerpted from Dime's Worth of Difference. He can be reached at: kagamba@bellsouth.net What's Inside the New Post-Election Print Edition of CounterPunch! How Bush Might Have Been Defeated by Robin Blackburn; Terror and Death: Iraq Falls Apart: Patrick Cockburn reports from Baghdad; From Detroit to Baghdad: Death of an Interrogator by Alexander Cockburn. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! 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