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Cockburn / St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War Now Available! Today's Stories June 22, 2004 Bruce Jackson Saying No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify June 21, 2004 Gary Leupp Putin's Helpful Remarks Lucson Pierre-Charles Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos Upon Chaos Cockburn / Khan Saddam May Face Death Penalty Uri Avnery Irreversible Mental Damage   June 19 / 20, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid and Isolated Bruce Anderson Frozen Gringos Diane Christian Morality and Death: a Meditation on Bush and Blake Walter A. Davis Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib Josh Frank How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother Nature Col. Dan Smith Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis in Sudan Brian Cloughley A Profound Disruption of the Senses Christopher Brauchli Bush and the Timken Plant, a Year Later Prudence Crowther Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me! Poets' Basement Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert Kathy Kelly Dying to See Their Kids   June 18, 2004 Chris Floyd Blood Victory Dave Zirin Danielle Green, Basketball Player & Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War Justin E.H. Smith The Christian Question in American Politics Gary Leupp The "Long-Established" Link?: Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi   June 17, 2004 Noel Ignatiev Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People of Palestine Kurt Nimmo The Bush-Kerry Conundrum Ed Cardoni The Persecution of Steve Kurtz Ron Jacobs Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do Dave Lindorff Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years" Greg Moses Geneva Ignored Norm Dixon How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons   June 18, 2004 Noel Ignatiev Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People of Palestine Kurt Nimmo The Bush-Kerry Conundrum Ed Cardoni The Persecution of Steve Kurtz Ron Jacobs Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do Dave Lindorff Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years" Greg Moses Geneva Ignored Norm Dixon How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons   June 16, 2004 Lenni Brenner A Question for Kerry Supporters Davey D Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan Daniel Wolff Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner Abuse? Bruce Jackson Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake Patrick Cockburn Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power Facilities Gary Handschumacher Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads JG Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop Mario Benedetti Obituary with Cheers Vicente Navarro Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who is Rodrigo Rato? Website of the Day Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch     June 15, 2004 Harry Browne Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe Neve Gordon The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited David Palmer Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI John Blair Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming Dave Lindorff God Wins in TKO Bill Quigley Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step In Patrick Cockburn Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast John Chuckman John Kerry, Political Placebo     June 14, 2004 John Stanton / Wayne Madsen Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins the Party Kathy Kelly Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies? Bruce Jackson Bush Gets Testy About Torture Lee Sustar Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs Kurt Nimmo The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit 9/11 Jim Davis Hard Right Nativism Eliot Katz Death and War Uri Avnery The Nightmare Comes True Website of the Day Instruments of Statecraft   June 12 / 13, 2004 Peter Linebaugh Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede Team CounterPunch CP's Favorite Albums Jeffrey St. Clair Troy, Now and Then Gary Leupp Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq? Brian Cloughley US Military in Crisis Antonio Ponvert, III Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection Ben Tripp The Polls Get Stupider Joe Bageant Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash" Ron Jacobs The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency Forrest Hylton Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés Christopher Brauchli Federal Bureau of Errors Kurt Nimmo Going After Qaddafi, Again Wayne Madsen Israel's Slap at Reagan Anthony Loewenstein Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World Michael Donnelly A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous Greg Moses Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah? Susan Davis Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban Joseph Ramsey Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground Niranjan Ramakrishnan The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century Wayne Saunders The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup Poets' Basement Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert Website of the Weekend Insurgent Music     June 11, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Reagan in Truth and Fiction Ron Jacobs Ray Charles' Legacy of Spirit Chris Floyd Funeral Games Steven Sherman How Reagan Destroyed the Democrats and Paved the Way for Clinton Mokhiber / Weissman Remembering Reagan Norman Solomon Media's Mourning in America Paul Alexander The Kerry Fantasies of Chalmers Johnson CounterPunch Wire The Terror Hour: Miami TV Station Invites Commandoes to Talk About Planned Attacks on Cuba       June 10, 2004 Noam Chomsky The Apotheosis of Reagan : Divinity Through Marketing Gary Leupp Bush, the Religious Scholar Patrick Cockburn The Iraqi Street Has Spoken: New Govt. Made Up of CIA Pawns Saul Landau Force-Feeding Lies About Free Trade Scott Evans Settling for the System: How Punkvoter.com Became Just Another Tool of the Democrats Jacob Levich John Kerry's World of Hurt: Senator Supports Beam Weapons Zeynep Toufe Reagan, Neo-Cons and the "Intelligence Failures" Nico Pitney Reform at Wal-Mart? Dave Zirin Son of a Reagan: What a Sporty 6-Year Old Saw at the Revolution Jack McCarthy Where Were You When Reagan Croaked? Gary Corseri Nouns That Should be Acronyms David Price Reagan and the Black Budget Website of the Day Inequality by the Numbers   June 9, 2004 Mustafa Barghouthi Israel's Common Use of Torture Must be Exposed Mike Whitney Alan Dershowitz, Still Defending Torture John Chuckman Why the CIA will Always be a Costly Flop Jim Tarbell / Roger Burbach Bush's Democratic Charade in Iraq Dave Lindorff Put Reagan on the $3 Bill Miguel D'Escoto Reagan was the Butcher of My People Becky Burgwin The Betrayal of Smarty Jones: Flogging a Natural Born Hero Patrick Cockburn The Rich Have Been Warned to Leave Baghdad   June 8, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair The Nature of Ronald Reagan: Will the Earth Accept His Corpse? Dave Lindorff The March on Rumsfeld's House: Is the US Anti-War Movement Running Out of Steam? Phillip Cryan Torture, Bombings & the Press in Colombia Mark Zepezauer Getting Reagan Wrong Mickey Z. Reagan, Radicals and Repetitive Reactions John L. Hess Reagan and Bush in Normandy Alex Dawoody Reagan and Saddam: the Unholy Alliance Christopher Fons Reagan in a Word: Mean Niranjan Ramakrishnan Some Tenets are More Important Than Others Ahmed Bouzid Nothing New Under the Israeli Sun Michael Leon Bush the Narcissist   June 7, 2004 Jason Leopold New Enron Docs Show Lay and Skilling Knew of California Trading Schemes Patrick Cockburn The Baghdad Bombings: the Pattern of Attacks is Changing Dennis Hans From Afghanistan to El Salvador: Reagan's Dark Global Legacy Tracy McLellan Nader at the National Press Club: a Glimpse at a Different Kind of Politics Bill Blum The Myth of the Gipper: Reagan Didn't End the Cold War Ben Tripp What I Owe Reagan: the Brylcreemed Bullshitter Susan Davis Reagan, In a Nutshell Phil Gasper Reagan: Goodbye and Good Riddance Website of the Day A Child's ABCs of Terrorism   June 5 / 6, 2004 C. Douglas Lummis Toward a Universal Declaration of Human Wrongs Saul Landau Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession Dave Lindorff John Walker Lindh, Revisited Brian Cloughley Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong Rich Gibson The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black Elaine Cassel A Sorry FBI Cathrin Schütz On the Ruins of Yugoslavia Ben Tripp Call Me, Mr. Cassandra Kurt Nimmo The Madness of King George Ron Jacobs They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So) Laura Flanders The Lynne Cheney Show? Lenni Brenner Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met Abigail Jones Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy Prisoner? Mark Latham Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes Gerry Adams I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too Toni Solo Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised Derek Seidman Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old M. Junaid Alam Torture is Just the Symptom Matt Siegfried An American Way of War Dave Zirin The Politics of Charles Barkley Poets' Basement Albert, Krieger, St. Clair Website of the Weekend Overnight Sensations     June 4, 2004 Chris Floyd Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's Animal House Cornwell / Penketh Exit Tenet: the Fall of a Fall Guy Wayne Madsen Apprehension & Frustation: Neo-Cons on the Brink Greg Moses Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq Yitzak Laor Before Rafah Ghali Hassan Ambassador to Death Squads: Who is Negroponte? Jane Stillwater God, the Rapture and Vera Casey CounterPunch Wire D-Day Reconsidered: Was It Really Worth the Carnage? John Borowski Woo-Wooism v. Meteorites: Why the Dems Are No Match for Bush Mike Griffin Caterpillar's Assault on the UAW Alexander Cockburn Has Bush Gone Over the Edge? Website of the Day Aquae Urbis Romae: Water and Empire     June 3, 2004 Ron Jacobs Iran's Nuclear Dilemma Dr. Susan Block America in tha Hood Michael Donnelly The Bully and the Brahmin John Chuckman Insanity in America: US Ranks Number One in the Deranged Christopher Brauchli The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome on $12,000 a Month Samia Nassar Melki Caravaggio in Iraq Mike Whitney Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case Diane Rejman Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead Scott Morris "WMDs" in Cuba Paul de Rooij Palestinian Misery in Perspective     June 2, 2004 Brian Cloughley The Liars are Winning Ray McGovern How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible Intelligence" Josh Frank The Anybody But Bush Offensive Mike Whitney The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots Jackie Corr Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana Robert Jensen The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too Alexander Cockburn "Bye, Bye Boonville!"   June 1, 2004 Gary Leupp Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up with Him William A. Cook Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in Rafah Dave Lindorff Will the Times Clean House? Kevin Zeese Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed? Jacob Levich Coming Soon: Return of the Draft, a Bipartisan Production Kathy Kelly Voices in the Wilderness v. the US Government Website of the Day Remind Us     May 29 / 31, 2004 Lee Ballinger / Dave Marsh The Origins of Memorial Day Janine Pommy Vega Memo for Memorial Day Mike Ferner On Their Way to Abu Ghraib Alfred W. McCoy The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research Douglas Valentine An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions Chris White First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto Bruce Anderson The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu David Vest Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire Saul Landau Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy? Kurt Nimmo Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA Elaine Cassel The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders Will Potter The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps; Get Arrested as a "Terrorist" Ben Tripp They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches Dr. Susan Block Save Abu Ghraib! Kia Kojouri Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh Mickey Z D-Day: 60 Years is Enough! Jon Brown Correcting the Correction at the Times Patrick B. Barr Pre-emptive War Insurance Stephen Gowans Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel Tom Gorman Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly New Dave Zirin Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad Gregory Weiher Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy" Erik Cummings Jung Meets Bush Poets' Basement Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert     May 28, 2004 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5 Greg Moses Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib Dave Lindorff Dissing Independent Contractors: Those Who Do the Dirty Work Norman Solomon Leaping for Lies at the Times Rep. Bill Delahunt Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba Paul McGeough Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves Niranjan Ramakrishnan India and Nehru: 40 Years After Alexander Cockburn NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a Little"     May 27, 2004 Amy Goodman / David Goodman Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times Douglas Valentine Ragging the Dogs of War at the NYTs John L. Hess The Times Confesses...Kind Of Stew Albert Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist Dave Dellinger a 1993 Interview Christopher Brauchli Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids Rampton / Stauber Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony     May 26, 2004 Ron Jacobs Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a Friend of Ours Robert Fisk The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech Zeynep Toufe New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation Conn Hallinan Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection Tom Stephens 2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons and War Crimes Derek Medley Protesting Gov. Bigot CounterPunch Wire FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art Andrew Cockburn The Trail to Tehran     May 25, 2004 Joe Bageant The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It is in Texas Col. Dan Smith A Question of Human Dignity Gary Handschumacher Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home Toni Solo A Developing War in the Andes Marc Estrin September Song: Disturbing Questions About 9/11 Stephen Banko, III A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the Troops" Website of the Day The Wizard of Whimsy May 24, 2004 Ron Jacobs Dan Senor is Safe! Kurt Nimmo Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the Missing Taguba Pages Sam Hamod Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time" Mike Whitney The Wedding was a Bomb Stan Goff Open Season on MAMs Image of the Day A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the NYTs     May 22 / 23, 2004 Paul de Rooij Colin Powell, a Political Obituary Jeffrey St. Clair When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview with Sue Niederer Brian Cloughley America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq Saul Landau Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good for People Brandy Baker Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry Randall Robinson Bushwhacked in the Caribbean Uri Avnery The Rape of Rafah Ben Tripp Assume the Worst Bruce Anderson News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business Josh Ruebner Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers Peter Wolson, Ph. D. Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib Chloe Cockburn In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy Linda Burnham Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value Adrien Rain Burke War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse David Krieger Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy Ron Jacobs Turnaround Poets' Basement Ford, Albert & LaMorticella   May 21, 2004 Ray Close The Canards of the Apologists Christopher Brauchli "The Object of Torture is Torture" Amira Hass Darkness at Noon Jack McCarthy Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from the US Army? Bill Kauffman Nader v. Bush Omar Barghouti No More Tears for America Ghali Hassan Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza Christopher Reed How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to Torture Website of the Day Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much   May 20, 2004 Andrew Cockburn The Truth About Chalabi Kathy Kelly A Visit from the FBI Niranjan Ramakrishnan Brown and Bored of Education in India Tom Stephens & John Philo The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co. Sam Bahour / Michael Dahan Genocide by Public Policy Robert Ovetz Ending the Race for the Last Turtle Billy Wilson The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year Website of the Day Rafah Today         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

June 22, 2004 News from Australia Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings By VANESSA JONES We enter winter--there's frost on the ground. Deciduous leaves are scattered all around. It gets minus zero at night and winter hasn't already begun. There's still a drought. Water catchments are at record lows. The grass hasn't needed mowing for 3 and a half months, as it grows so slowly. The more pedantic neighbors in the street mow weekly. Cutting at millimeters, rather than centimeters or inches. Just to get that smell of fuel. An Australian cultural addiction. Some four bunny rabbits have been born. Someone was offering a pair of rabbits in a newspaper ad. Out came babies a couple of weeks later. They make love constantly on the lawn- the best biology lesson for kids- and such quick results! Maybe we'll get the rabbits de-sexed and throw away the lawn mower. The white Fantail pigeons are parading around the garden, bought from an Iraqi man on the other side of town. There are 3 more hens, for chook eggs for cinnamon muffins. Ground up cinnamon quills in the coffee grinder. So, what has changed? Well, the big hoo-ha Down Under at the moment is about ex- rock singer Peter Garrett becoming a Labor Party candidate in the safe Labor Sydney seaside seat of "Kingsford Smith". Peter Garrett is the ex- frontman of the rock group "Midnight Oil". Garrett made his name on the type of left wing ideals which could now be read on most Greens websites, especially the Australian Greens. Now, daily in the media, we see him wearing a suit and tie. Calling himself a comrade of Labor Party politicians. Last week, the Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Mark Latham, announced out of towner, Garrett, as the candidate for this easy seat at the next upcoming federal election, bypassing normal local pre-selection processes. Within this expensive seaside seat, there are huge chunks of public housing. Apartment blocks and houses around South Coogee, Maroubra and La Perouse. Guaranteeing a continuous Labor victory. It is the area of the state <N.S.W>. Labor Leader's own safe electoral seat. Enjoying the results of a socially engineered safe Labor seat. At least they engineered this safe Labor seat as a seaside one. Other public housing suburbs out West are a long train and bus ride from the sea. Mark Latham himself is a man who grew up in Western Sydney's public housing. So, when President Bush interfered in an unprecedented way in Australian domestic politics, 2 weeks ago, by labeling Labor leader Mark Latham's commitment to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq, if elected as P.M., as "disastrous", Latham, ex footballer, wasted no time in pulling the Garrett election ticket out of his magical electoral hat. Add a bit of celebrity- as much as Arnie is a Republican- Garrett is equally Left, and Latham creates his own political agenda, rather than just responding to Bush setting the anti-Latham media discussion agenda, while our P.M. was visiting Bush. Of course, Bush is petrified of Latham winning. And of Australia pulling out of Iraq, like Spain has. Bush attacked Latham at the end of one week, and by the next Monday morning, Garrett was in the media. Thanks to long time member for Kingsford Smith, Laurie Brereton, resigning a few days before, and discussing all this, surely, beforehand with Garrett. The retiring Laurie Brereton, to his credit, whilst in Opposition last year, made a speech to parliament, regarding the covering over of Picasso's Guernica image, which is situated at the entry to the Security Council. Brereton, it is said, can also be credited with helping Latham get the numbers to be voted Labor leader. His departing gifts. But, somehow, for me, as someone who has grown up with Peter Garrett the rock singer, this transition doesn't wash. Not that I think he'd do a worse job than other politicians, but given the Green's history, I would've thought he'd take an idealistic gamble and go Green, not Labor. But, then, I forget that Garrett, law student cum rock singer, ex head of the Australian Conservation Foundation, was probably always bound this way. Like a kangaroo hopping along one track knowing and thinking about where he's going. Not taking hippy dippy, idealistic, self-sacrificing chances or compromises, which don't guarantee success. It was idealism and individualism that attracted me to Midnight Oil and their concerts, as a teenager, and I suppose, considering how well Garrett has done in his music career, I thought he could join the Greens and follow through with his idealism into his older age. (He's 51.) Perhaps, as a teenager, I was naively swept up in that Green marketable product, within a whole lot of marketable products in music. Like how you find so many "feminists" in government bureaucracy and academia, with their "feminist" speak, just using it to go for that career promotion and nice salary package. As long as they're doing well, career wise, out of it, the mouth's on overdrive. Yet, if the funding or politics or position dries up, the eloquent voice quietens. And it's often the most privileged who drop the walk and the talk when the funds dry. Not because they've suddenly gone broke, but, because, baby, hey, you've gotta adapt. And yet, from a pragmatic political perspective, if Garrett's presence in the Labor party helps Latham create a Labor win, via "green" voters voting Labor, or giving their preferences to Labor, Garrett's maneuver would have paid off. John Howard would be put out of power, after 7 years of power. Our environment, healthcare and educational systems might be saved from further deterioration, and our cultural autonomy might be protected. If Australian troops are pulled out of Iraq, it'd be worth it. Latham himself said he was "tickled pink" regarding Garrett's move to join Labor. All those old Midnight Oil fans, now aged 30 to 50 years, perhaps raising families, paying off mortgages or trying to buy a home, concerned about the privatization of our healthcare and education. And perhaps some of the 60% of Australians who don't want our soldiers belonging to a coalition of the killing. I can't write about Garrett's transformation into the Labor Party without remembering my own youth. Somehow, Midnight Oil's own lyrics are carried within my own vessel of a body- as I sing Midnight Oil's old songs, I feel 13 or 15, as if I'm dancing, and my Mum's saying "can you turn down that music or close the door". Of old friends and I wandering along in life. Trying to work out the meaning of the poetics of the lyrics. Our own culture splashed about in song and dance. Like seeing Judy Davis in "High Tide" (1987) or Colin Friels in "Malcolm" (1986). Taping copies of Oil's albums on trips to Sydney, in between swimming at Coogee or Bondi, and smuggling my mate's puppy dog into her knapsack, onto the bus, so we could also take the dog to the beach. Sneaking into a nearby private school's pool on a hot night, through a crack in the metal fence- swimming in the humid air, and meeting local boys there, by chance. Writing on the side of the copied "No Frills" cassette tape "10 to 1" in chunky bold letters. While my mate's Mum called Duran Duran "Urine Urine", playing instead a record by David Bowie or The Warumpi Band. And laughing at the comedians "Tim and Debbie", while JJJ Youth radio (before funding cuts) used to play "The Gravy Bunch" take off of "The Brady Bunch", on the car radio, driving around Sydney. The Mum, wearing her Valium tablet earrings and bright pink plastic sandals. Taking us in a chunky old Kombi van to a play at The Australian Theatre For Young People. Seeing a slim, tall Nicole Kidman, aged about 16 or 17. Was it the play "The Night We Blitzed The Bridge"? While Wham!, Madonna, U2 , INXS, The Thompson Twins, Elton John, Madness, Michael Jackson, Boy George, Marilyn, Phil Collins, Spandau Ballet and Cindy Lauper played on the top 40's and Countdown. Midnight Oil were a place of solace within all that. Until Aussie bands like Not Drowning, Waving, Yothu Yindi, The Go Betweens, Vince Jones and Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls, to name a few, came along. Every culture exists within a context, and that, for me, was Midnight Oil's. The Oils stood out from the imported music, which we, as citizens, were played, on radio and TV, and expected to consume. Now, free trade deals with the U.S. look like stifling Australian cultural production. All those hard won progressions in film and locally produced TV. Depicting and viewing our own culture. All the skills and trades and employment and art within these industries. Our own cultural autonomy bargained away for our farmers' trade benefits. The price of free trade. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2985302.stm) Musically, Garrett's credibility could be considered a bit dubious-what gets teenagers and drunken Australians dancing is another issue. But as a singer/performer/dancer/dramatist, his dramatics are memorable. His sweaty, bald head, and frantic, gestural and stiff at the same time, hand movements. Think of Egyptian Pharonic profile paintings, mixed with Indonesian shadow puppets, moving frantically, then slowly. Add to that a bald headed, sweaty, very tall and angular man, strutting (or stepping sideways) across a stage with jerking, sweeping movements, singing/speaking/shouting/spitting into a microphone, and you might have it. I saw Midnight Oil a few times, as a teenager. At the local leagues club. Twice at the Sydney Entertainment Center, with some male school mates (he had a lot of male fans) and a cousin of mine, backpacking from overseas. At that concert, I lost my cousin in the crowd, as the audience raised their hands in an "Oils" five finger, hand spread out kind of chant salute. (Not quite Hitleresque- more an expanded, sideways movement of the hand and arm!) And then, I saw my cousin appear on stage- jumping up and embracing Garrett. Then the security guys whisked him offstage. Getting tickets at school to "The Oils" always meant negotiating with guys for tickets- for some reason other girls didn't go. Didn't even listen to them. Perhaps they liked the softer INXS, or Boy George. You'd have to negotiate with the person lining up all night in a sleeping bag for the tickets, to get you the ticket. Pay them beforehand. Then go down to Sydney on the train after school together, and return after midnight. On the last train carriage with the guard's soft blue light on. Dire Straits, BB King, Sting, Cindy Lauper and U2 were all seen this way. This was the way you got out to see things. Otherwise, you'd just never get out of town. Another friend, from another state, said she'd gone to a concert, and her and her friends had grabbed part of Garrett's white singlet. She kept the torn fragment in her wallet "the smell of sweat", she said, as she sniffed it through her nostrils. How impressionable people can be! Once, Garrett came along in a helicopter, in 1989, to speak at a resident's meeting. Local people who were taking on a nearby chemical development. The organizers knew he was a drawcard, and he did pull a crowd. And the locals eventually won that campaign. Clean air guaranteed for current and future generations. At another time, in 1989, he made it down to the south eastern <N.S.W>. forests, and spoke to people demonstrating against the woodchipping of native forests. (A freezing cold winter experience, in tents with outside loos and a vomit bug circulating.) Australian forests cut up into little pieces and shipped off overseas, to Japan, to be made into paper. Or toilet paper. And then sold back to Australians. Such a clever country. I remember staying in a Parisian apartment, and, over the roses in the garden bed, between each of the buildings, came Midnight Oil's music, wafting, drifting across the lawn. Someone was playing that music, and listening to it, a world away from where it'd been created. I wanted to listen more, but the music stopped, and I had no way of knowing which apartment it came from. Nostalgia complete. Sea air, beaches, gum trees, the Hawkesbury River, youth. At times like that, memory is selective. Intoxicatingly. That was in the early 1990s. In 1995, I went along to a Greenpeace fundraiser at The Harold Park Hotel in Glebe, Sydney, and heard Garrett speak against French Nuclear Testing in the Pacific. An acquaintance had rung up and hassled me to go along. Garrett was a moderate speaker but he did attract a crowd. Sitting on the sand at Coogee Beach, while the French nuclear tests were going on, looking out to the horizon. A bleak experience. Water I'd spent so much time immersed in, diving through, floating within. In many ways, Labor leader Latham, and Garrett, would be a nationalistic and powerful pair. The type of politicians, who, in "third world" countries, might end up assassinated by masked global leaderships. But, as Garrett used to sing "What can I do/ There must be some solution". It was interesting to read in The Canberra Times on June 12, 2004, an article by Ross Peake, which discussed Garrett's character with one of Garrett's former political rivals. Michael Denborough, the founder of the Nuclear Disarmament Party, which Garrett had been a candidate for in 1984, described Garrett as "enormously egotistical". Denborough alleged that Garrett stacked the branch in order to take the number one place on the unsuccessful Senate ticket, instead of party founder, Denborough. As Denborough states: "...he wanted to be number one so he stacked the branch with Socialist Workers Party Trotskyites and got what he wanted". Perhaps this tells you something of the way Garrett lives his life- he'll be on a team as long as he's the front man, the lead singer, the first on the senate ticket, the Head of a conservation group, a Labor Party guy as long as he'll win a safe seat. Compromise the team's feelings as long as you win and you get the best deal. Some could say a natural leader and spokesperson. If "leadership" is considered domination, and not consideration for the whole group. Or do most leaders step on the small fry to get access to "benefiting" the whole group? Others might say it's enough to turn anyone off any type of political group or "ism". The local Labor party members of Kingsford Smith electorate were pretty angry when a wealthy rock singer was put into such a safe Labor seat, by the national leader, with little lived knowledge of local issues. While other locals had sweated for years, for the local branch, handing out party leaflets and attending local meetings. I would've preferred to see Garrett stand for the Greens. The sweaty glow 1980s memory of him might've stayed for me. It would've somehow kept his marginal, yet critical voice alive. Not drowned out by the Labor party machine. I am reluctant to hear Garrett as a voice of pragmatic compromise. He's already back-pedaled on Pine Gap, saying Pine Gap should stay. Is this the real Garrett- or is this pre-election PR mainstreaming? A way of avoiding anymore of Bush's agenda setting? Just as Latham is doing a good job of cooling his tongue, perhaps Garrett has also been instructed this way. Wear a suit and tie. Appeal to the vast majority. Normalize behavior. Or perhaps his dramatic musical persona and ideas were just an exaggeration of his normality. But, it's also good to see Garrett unmasked- to see him as a pragmatic operator- take off the bald sweaty mask, and see how people operate, either for their own career, or for the benefit of a nation and its environment. Time will show what kind of man Garrett is, and what kind of politician he will make. And whether choosing Labor over the Greens will help or hinder him, and the future of this nation. If Labor does win, later this year, it'll be interesting to see what President Bush has to say to Latham and Garrett. Or maybe Bush won't be in power to talk. Perhaps my teenage optimism hasn't waned. Vanessa Jones lives in Australia and can be contacted on post4@bigpond.com.au. Weekend Edition Features for June 12 / 13, 2004 Peter Linebaugh Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede Team CounterPunch CP's Favorite Albums Jeffrey St. Clair Troy, Now and Then Gary Leupp Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq? Brian Cloughley US Military in Crisis Antonio Ponvert, III Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection Ben Tripp The Polls Get Stupider Joe Bageant Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash" Ron Jacobs The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency Forrest Hylton Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés Christopher Brauchli Federal Bureau of Errors Kurt Nimmo Going After Qaddafi, Again Wayne Madsen Israel's Slap at Reagan Anthony Loewenstein Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World Michael Donnelly A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous Greg Moses Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah? Susan Davis Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban Joseph Ramsey Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground Niranjan Ramakrishnan The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century Wayne Saunders The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup Poets' Basement Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert Website of the Weekend Insurgent Music WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /