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Today's
Stories
April 5 / 6,
2008
Ramzy Baroud
There
are No Checkpoints in Heaven
April 4, 2008
Dave Lindorff
The
Night I Heard King Had Been Shot
Greg Moses
Missing
King
Ron Jacobs
Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Alan Farago
Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine
Alison Weir
Funding
Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel
David Rosen
Rape as an Instrument of Total War
Robert Weissman
The Unrealized Dream
Jacob Hornberger
Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Jackie Corr
Hillary and Obama Head for Butte
Carl Finamore
Taking On United Airlines
Laray Polk
We Are All Dith Pran
Susie Day
Advice for the War-Torn
Website of
the Day
Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait
April 3, 2008
Peter Morici
The Deepening Recession
Joe Bageant
The Audacity of Depression
Andy Worthington
Cleared But Still Detained:
The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia
Nikolas Kozloff
Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America
Rannie Amiri
The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy
David Macaray
More Labor Strife in Hollywood
Stephen Lendman
Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice
Website of
the Day
The
True Face of Da Vinci?
April 2, 2008
Diane Farsetta
Indian
Point on the Potomac
Harry Browne
Bertie
Ahern Laid Low by Secretary
Wajahat Ali
The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer
George Wuerthner
Open Season on Wolves
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Philippe Marlière
The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
Bernard Chazelle
Saving the American Left
Reza Fiyouzat
Bowling in Hell
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
|
Weekend
Edition
Apri1 5 / 6, 2008
Channeling Hoover
at Home, Tet Abroad
Back
to Disaster
By DAVID MICHAEL GREEN
One of the most astonishing facts about
the Bush presidency is simply that it continues to exist.
Only a combination of certain
critical conditions have kept the man and his government from
suffering the same fate as Mussolini or Ceaucesceu. A politically
naive public, a neutered opposition, a compliant press, a Constitutionally-fixed
term of office, a truckload of fear, a moderately sufficient
economy and a remotely plausible victory in an unpopular war
have all conspired to encourage a surly public to simply wait
out the clock for the demise of the Creature from Crawford.
Now, however, both of those
last two factors are imploding. The Bush administration is consistently
on the wrong side of (repeated) history, and more pressure is
riding on the other remaining factors especially the knowledge
that these fools are required to leave, regardless, in nine months
time to keep the dam from bursting.
Side-by-side headlines in Thursday's
New York Times more or less say it all. The front-page-above-the-fold
article entitled, "In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage",
proceeds to tell the story about how the president hadn't heard
that gas prices are approaching four bucks a gallon, and how
he was lecturing the public on the dangers of government action
while his own Treasury Secretary (a member of the government,
last I checked) was in fact acting, cutting a bullshit deal with
Congress.
Next to that article we find
this: "U.S. Cites Planning Gaps In Iraqi Assault on Basra:
Maliki Underestimated Militias, Officials Say, and Overestimated
Iraq Army". Remember, for those of you whose scorecards
are somewhat out of date, said Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is the 'good
guy' over there, the one we're pinning our hopes on. And his
army is the one that's supposed to stand up so that ours can
stand down. By all accounts, Maliki just woke up one morning
and launched. Apparently having little else on his schedule,
he decided it would be a good day to invade Basra. No planning,
no consultations, no reinforcements. I mean, they had this stuff
figured out as far back as the sixth century BCE, didn't they?
Back when Mesopotamians were Mesopotamians!
Looks to me like Mr. Bush has
managed to clone himself in Iraq: None of that democracy crap,
loads of impetuous and imperious incompetence. If you see Maliki
running around for forty years with a bottle in his hand, you'll
know how deep go America's lessons in good governance for the
Iraqi people. Trust me, they've learned a lot more than any
nation should ever have to.
Meanwhile, as if the economy
hasn't been crummy enough for working stiffs these last three
decades, now jobs are fleeing, and gas and food prices rising
steeply. But that's just the good news. A lot of the signs
out there suggest that this could be the Big One this time.
And why not? We've deregulated the financial industry to the
point where, for all intents and purposes, it's the fiscal equivalent
of a no-limits-mixed-martial-arts-free-for-all. Sometimes I
feel like I'm stuck inside some kind of PBS documentary series
on the Great Depression, and it's the segment on 1929. Oh boy.
No worries, though, ladies
and gentlemen. All that cheerleading experience at Andover is
now coming in handy for George W. Bush. (By the way, if we ever
needed any proof of the 'liberal bias' in the American press,
the fact that a prep school cheerleader comes off as a tough
guy international sheriff, and the last two Democratic presidential
nominees, both of whom served in Nam, are portrayed as effete
wimps ought to be quite sufficient.)
Meanwhile, as one after the
next of the props holding up the American economy get kicked
out from underneath it, there he is reminding us that mere ice
could never sink a ship as big as the Titanic. Of course, idiocy
and smugness are by this time fully expected from this particular
Deciderer. But what is truly a sight though hardly less
expected are the attempts by Bush and Paulson and the rest
to scavenge the last remaining crumbs of national wealth still
to be raided before the tsunami washes away half the continent,
house and breakfast table included. I guess some habits are
just hard to break. Are these the clowns Joni Mitchell had in
mind when she wrote "Raised on Robbery"?
Regulation? Oh, no, we can't
have that. That will kill risk-taking and entrepreneurialism.
It could harm the economy! Musn't allow responsible Wall Street
speculators to have their greediest impulses regulated, even
if the welfare of an entire world economy might be at stake.
Support for homeowners getting tossed out of their houses because
of scuzzy financing scams they were sold? That would be a bail-out,
young nipper! Smells sorta vaguely communist, don't you think?
It would imperil our free enterprise system by introducing the
moral hazard of government underwriting personal risk. Follow
me carefully now, as I explain the nuances of government assistance
in a capitalist economy: Bailouts are fine for massive corporations
like Chrysler, foreign countries like Mexico, or fat speculators
like the nice people over at Bear Stearns, but we can't have
ordinary working folks getting government hand-outs! Don't wanna
wind up with a nation full of Frenchmen, you know.
If Americans knew the first
shred of history, they'd realize that this just a replay of Herbert
Hoover. "Don't Worry, Be Happy", that particular Republican
president sang (or at least he would have if the song had been
written back then). Sure, Herb, that's cool, babe, but next
time Americans came up for air, one-fourth of them had pink slips
in their hands and nothing in their cupboards, not even the occasional
disoriented cockroach. Still, as Hoover reminded them, the appropriate
role for government is to stand by and watch. Charity is a private
matter. Starvation is an option. Food, healthcare, housing
it's not appropriate for the government to help out with
this, even in a disaster. If you liked Hurricane Katrina, you'll
love Tsunami Bush, the twenty-first century's reprise of Typhoon
Hoover.
Right now the economy feels
about as sturdy as a rice-paper umbrella in a hailstorm, and
about equally likely to keep the bad stuff away. Jobs are disappearing,
healthcare benefits eroding, houses foreclosing at record rates,
and inflation is rising, even when the government conveniently
excludes the escalating costs of food and petrol from the measure.
The proximate source of all this instability is of course
insatiable greed in unregulated financial markets meeting
the inevitable brick wall of economic reality, at about 140 miles
per hour. Turns out even Ponzi schemes can't escape the laws
of physics. All of which, of course, is more than just a little
reminiscent of all the good fun the grandparents of today's corporate
sharks brought your grandparents in the 1930s. What's that old
saying about the second time being farce...?
But, hey, we're not stupid.
Okay, well, we're not always stupid. After the first iteration
we learned that trusting 'the market' to regulate itself was
a bit like trusting Eliot Spitzer to enforce anti-prostitution
ring laws. So we created a regulatory apparatus that prevented
the worst abuses by the worst offenders, on the theory that putting
bad rich people in jail was not quite a sufficient remedy after
they might have wrecked an entire global economy in pursuit of
their greedy ambitions. And, lo and behold, in the decades following
the New Deal, America had an enormously prosperous and stable
economy that produced a massive increase in the size of the middle
class, and still even allowed the rich to get richer.
But that wasn't enough for
the greediest amongst us, and so Reaganism was created to dupe
the middle class into participating in their own fleecing. You
know: "Bad communists!" "Bad terrorists!"
"Nice tax cut!" "Satisfying nationalist chest-thumping!"
What's that about the national debt? What's that about crumbling
infrastructure? What's this business of stagnant wages? Cuts
to poverty programs? Oops! Time for another war to distract
public attention from certain inconvenient realities. Let's
invade... uh, uh, Panama! They're evil, aren't they?
Now we've got Bush and his
bag men out-Reaganing Reagan, who in turn had made Hoover look
like Trotsky by comparison. The only difference between the
Bush administration and the Enron corporation is that Ken Lay
forgot to hire Dick Cheney as its shotgun-wielding enforcer and
Alberto Gonzales as its chief counsel. Talk about stupid.
So what's the right's prescription
for a tanking economy? As the rivets pop one by one in an accelerating
crescendo of failing institutional bulwarks, the Bush administration
trots out what else? a program of bailouts for the
investor class, a half box of crumpled-up Kleenex for the middle
class, and more of the lovely deregulation that got us here in
the first place. Anyone remotely surprised by this turn of events
hasn't been paying attention for a very long time. Remember
when candidate Bush called for massive and reckless tax cuts
for the wealthy in 2000, when the economy was booming? Remember
when he called for the same remedy in 2001, when the economy
was in the toilet? There can only be one explanation for wantonly
violating the laws of both Keynesianism and monetarism at the
same time: fixing the economy was never your real agenda.
The only amazing thing about
the desperate attempts by BushCo to wring the very last drops
of middle class wealth out of an imploding economy is the breathtaking
shortsightedness of the monied class in whose name it's all being
done. Were they all absent from kindergarten that day when Miss
Kinnian went over the parable of The Goose That Lays The Golden
Eggs? Just who do they imagine will be shelling out the shekels
needed to fuel their yachts, once they've wrecked the system
itself? Lenin was right. These fools are so greedy, and so
short-term in their focus, they've sold the rope with which to
hang themselves. Unfortunately, by the time that happens the
rest of us will have long ago drowned in the mud and the blood
lapping up against the scaffold.
Brilliant, eh? Well, if the
economy has come a cropper, at least the good news is that we're
not condemned to repeat history when it comes to that stubborn
little conflict in Iraq. You know, the one that is sucking up
all our money, wasting lives by the millions, ruining our military
and trashing our good name abroad. Just like in Viet... er,
never mind.
I have been waiting for the
better part of five years now for the Iraqi equivalent of the
Vietnam War's Tet Offensive. Perhaps the assault on Basra is
it.
For those whose high school
history textbook conveniently forgot to mention it along
with most anything else that might be of value to an informed
citizenry the Tet Offensive was a major turning point at
home in the prosecution of the war. For years, the president
and his hacks had been assuaging Americans with inanities like,
"We're seeing light at the end of the tunnel", or "We'll
have the boys home by Christmas". When the North Vietnamese
and the Viet Cong drove so deep into South Vietnam that US marines
were literally defending the American embassy from being overrun,
the folks at home got the message. Militarily, the Tet Offensive
was actually unsuccessful for the North in the medium-term, as
US forces rallied and repelled the invasion. But, strategically,
the discrepancy between the initial achievements of the attack
and what US policy makers were telling the public gave the government
a 'credibility gap' (it was actually a lot more like a canyon),
and gave the war the smell of defeat. It took another five years
to actually withdraw, but Tet was quite arguably the beginning
of the end.
One reason that both Bush and
his war have so far survived is that he could plausibly argue,
especially to the poorly informed, that the US is at least not
losing there. With the 'surge', he could and has been arguing
that we are now winning. Scratch the surface slightly and these
become absurd assertions. Add in the costs attendant to these
supposed benefits and the assertions become downright obscene.
But not many Americans, comfortably
insulated from the war by administration policies, are scratching
or adding. Which has had me wondering for quite some time now,
will there be a Tet equivalent to wake somnambulant Americans
out of their stupor long enough to put down the remote, pick
up a pen, and write their representatives in Congress?
Probably not, and it probably
wouldn't matter if they did. Democrats in Congress have shown
themselves about as capable of reeling in the president as the
sociopathic president is capable of feeling compassion. And
now, of course, with only nine more months remaining to this
disaster (assuming Cheney actually relents and leaves office),
it's almost inconceivable that they'd remove this human scourge
from office. Considering what Bush has already done, what possible
offense could now move Madame Pelosi and Monsieur Reid to finally
act? Does the guy have to nuke San Francisco? If he deployed
Ralph Reed to shut down Vegas, would that be sufficient?
But Basra will nevertheless
go some distance toward convincing the sixteen or seventeen Americans
still supporting the war that maybe they goofed after all. And
it will probably especially convince the already enlightened
that the time to act is now. In particular, we can hope that
military personnel and their families will look at these events
and will be moved in greater numbers to say "Basta!"
to Basra. It takes a lot for a soldier or a soldier's father
to effectively say "Cindy Sheehan was right and my commander-in-chief
was not only wrong, but knowingly lied to me", but that
is precisely where the Basras of this war can be helpful.
Maliki said he was putting
it all on the line when he attempted to invade Basra. I say
'attempted' because the assault was apparently so poorly planned
that the government armored vehicles couldn't even get into the
city, being too wide for the narrow lanes. Brilliant. We're
likely to be spending three trillion bucks on some drunken fool's
Middle Eastern debacle, and nobody thought to ship over a tape
measure? Anyhow, Maliki claimed before he fled, that is
that this was going to be an all-in death-match against
his fellow Shiite, Moktada al-Sadr. And, of course, he was backed
by American air power in his invasion, which the corrupt and
inept leader the one in Washington, that is defined
more presciently than he could have imagined as a "defining
moment".
In the end, it went down a
bit differently than Nuri and George originally had in mind for
their excellent adventure. The Iraqi army, centerpiece of Bush's
"Iraqification" policy, stalled and melted. The public
rose up in disgust and took to the streets in cites all over
Iraq, including Baghdad. The Green Zone imperial fortress is
under assault from rocket and mortar fire. Maliki has given
up his fight-to-the-finish rhetoric and is negotiating surrender
with al-Sadr.
George Bush, of course, is
having another "Mission Accomplished" moment, calling
this debacle a sign of progress in Iraq. Most Americans have
long ago given up listening to this fool. For John McCain, however,
and for the party he shares with Mr. Bush, this is a disaster
of the first rank. McCain has essentially leveraged his entire
presidential bid on the surge. If I had a nickel for every time
he has said "The surge is working" over the last year,
I'd buy out the Republican Party wholesale, then drown it in
Grover Norquist's bathtub.
Irony is too gentle a word for the prospect of this Vietnam vet
getting consumed by another Vietnam war. I once respected McCain
on some levels, but I can't imagine today that he hasn't long
recognized along with Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and John
Edwards the lie of this war, choosing nevertheless to subsume
the resultant tragedy to presidential ambitions of seemingly
incalculable proportions. How anybody like that ever gets to
sleep at night, I'll never know. You gotta be missing a gene
or something. And yet every president in my lifetime has shown
himself quite capable of wholesale death and destruction when
it suited his political ambitions.
And so, here we go, back to
the future, back to disaster. We just couldn't hang with all
that prosperity and so we trashed the lessons of the Roaring
Twenties and brought back Roaring Reaganism. We just couldn't
learn enough from the Vietnam experience to prevent some little
embarrassment of a legacy admission to the presidency from taking
us into a carbon copy war, even while he and his homies skipped
out on the first one.
It's bad enough that those
who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat the past.
Hell, we are the past.
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