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Calling All CounterPunchers!
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Calling All CounterPunchers!
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Barack Obama came into office preaching hope and promising change. Nine months later, hope is diminishing and change has yet to arrive. From the cratering economy to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, from warrantless wiretaps to a fatally compromised health care plan, from banker bailouts to ongoing rendition flights, this new administration governs a lot like the old. In spite of this, many progressive outlets have gone soft on Obama. We haven't. That's why so 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 never flinch under fire. We appreciate the support and are prepared for the fierce battles to come.
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Today's Stories October 30 - Nov. 1, 2009 Jeffrey St. Clair / October 29, 2009 Michael Neumann Mike Whitney Gary Leupp Conn Hallinan Marshall Auerback Laura Flanders Eamonn McCann David Macaray Mark Weisbrot Stephen Soldz Christopher Brauchli Website of the Day October 28, 2009 Moshe Adler Dave Lindorff Frank Joseph Smecker Alexandra Early M. Shahid Alam Vijay Prashad John Ross Franklin Lamb Gregory Travis Susan Galleymore Website of the Day October 27, 2009 Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Stewart J. Lawrence Alan Farago Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Bouthaina Shaaban Brian M. Downing Elections in Afghanistan, the Second Time Around Iain Boal Carl Finamore Jayne Lyn Stahl Website of the Day October 26, 2009 Bill Quigley / Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Michael Snedeker Shamus Cooke David Michael Green Martha Rosenberg Patrick Bond Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day October 23-25, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Christopher Ketcham Jeff Gore Gareth Porter Jayne Lyn Stahl Saul Landau Mike Whitney Nikolas Kozloff Ron Jacobs Russell Mokhiber Missy Beattie Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Stephen Lendman David Ker Thomson Rannie Amiri Ronnie Cummins Norm Kent Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Ben Sonnenberg Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 22, 2009 Dan Pearson / Jonathan Cook Paul Craig Roberts The US as Failed State Mark Engler Johann Hari Brian M. Downing Eric Toussaint Tom Mountain Israel Shamir Charles Thomson Website of the Day October 21, 2009 Pam Martens Linn Washington, Jr. Liaquat Ali Khan D. K. Wilson Franklin Lamb Norman Solomon Stephen Fleischman Patrice Higonnet Binoy Kampmark Kevin Coval / Website of the Day October 20, 2009 Sharon Smith Tariq Ali Mark Brenner Bouthaina Shaaban Michael D. Yates Dean Baker Dave Lindorff John Ross Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Kevin Zeese Gilad Atzmon Website of the Day October 19, 2009 Mike Whitney Greg Moses John Ross Michael Donnelly Jayne Lyn Stahl Eric Walberg Russell Mokhiber Barbara Rose Johnston John V. Whitbeck Christopher Ketcham Website of the Day October 16-18, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Carl Ginsburg Ralph Nader Nikolas Kozloff Carlo Galli Dave Lindorff Catherine Rottenberg
/ Neve Gordon Marshall Auerback Nicola Nasser Windy Cooler James L. Secor Ron Jacobs Wes Jackson Jesse Lerner-Kinglake David Ker Thomson Against Leaders Missy Beattie Emily Ratner Stephen Martin Michael Snedeker Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Peter Stone Brown Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 15, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Brian M. Downing Ramzy Baroud Danny Weil M. Idrees Ahmad Margaret Kimberley Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Harvey Wasserman Nirmal Ghosh Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 14, 2009 Michael Neumann M. Reza Pirbhai Gareth Porter Paul Craig Roberts John Strausbaugh Fortress Moon Ralph Nader Dean Baker Charles Modiano Nadia Hijab Walter Brasch Website of the Day October 13, 2009 Peter Linebaugh Shamus Cooke John Ross Brendan Cooney Frida Berrigan Yves Engler David Macaray Dave Lindorff Mark Weisbrot Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day October 12, 2009 Pam Martens Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg Jessica Arents Eamonn McCann Bill Hatch Sen. Russell Feingold Niranjan Ramakrishnan Gideon Levy Iyad Burnat Alan Cabal Dan Bacher Website of the Day October 9-11, 2009 Alexander Cockburn James Bovard Kathleen and Bill Christison Andy Worthington Marc Levy Tariq Ali Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Alan Nasser Jack Z. Bratich Steve Breyman David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Paul Buchheit Jim Goodman Missy Beattie Michael Leonardi Nadia Hijab Mel Packer David Macaray James T. Phillips Charles R. Larson Michael Donnelly David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 8, 2009 Saul Landau Paul Fitzgerald / Linn Washington, Jr. Marshall Auerback Dave Lindorff David Rosen Chris Darimont / Misty MacDuffee John V. Walsh Stewart Lawrence Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 7, 2009 Brendan Cooney Paul Craig Roberts Dean Baker Jonathan Cook John Stanton Joanne Mariner Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Stephen Lendman Sen. Russell Feingold Mary Lynn Cramer Website of the Day October 6, 2009 Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Jonathan Cook Boris Kagarlitsky Iain Boal Ron Jacobs John Ross Michael Dickinson Stephen Fleischman Ira Glunts Missy Beattie Website of the Day October 5, 2009 Pam Martens Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Harry Browne Sara Mann Omar Barghouti Shamus Cooke Brenda Norrell Fred Gardner Binoy Kampmark Copenhagen Blues: McChrystal and the Afghan Trap Website of the Day October 2-4, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Diana Johnstone Greg Moses William Blum Brian Cloughley Russell Mokhiber John Ross Ellen Brown David Ker Thomson David Macaray Gary Engler Robert Fantina Lisa Stolarski / Naomi Archer Anthony Papa Joe Allen Harry Browne Ron Jacobs Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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Weekend Edition Refugee Policy in OZDon't Give Us Your WretchedBy BINOY KAMPMARK Was this a debate that had to be had again? In August 2001, the grotesque spectacle of the Norwegian vessel, the MV Tampa, being boarded by Australian SAS troops, and detained off Christmas Island was a sight to behold. How such a wretched ensemble of asylum seekers might constitute a military threat to Australia was hard to see at the time. Even with the change of government last year, officials in Canberra, instead of reshaping the debate, have decided to fumble with old formulae. The recent round of slurs against refugees in Australia has come in light of the Ocean Viking vessel with its cargo of 78 rescued Sri Lankan citizens. The Australian customs ship had done its humanitarian duty on the high sees, in the hope that the Indonesian authorities would be more receptive. The asylum seekers are now refusing to leave the ship and board Indonesian soil. Jakarta, not being a signatory to the Refugee Convention of 1951, feels no compunction to remove them. The case has become an international incident, with neither Jakarta or Canberra keen to deal with this supposedly recalcitrant baggage of human cargo. Jakarta has more or less palmed off the Tamils, hoping the Australian government will compose itself and get rid of the problem with a money deal. Canberra is hoping the case can be resolved with its newly devised ‘Indonesian’ solution – Australia provides the funds to Indonesian authorities who will then process the asylum seekers in a network of detention centres. International refugee politics is as much about pimping as anything else. Effectively, the Rudd government is using the strategy of the previous Howard government, desperate to keep refugees from getting to Australian territory, in the hope that they might be processed on offshore, distant facilities. Instead of a ghastly guano-producing enclave like Nauru, it has opted for the world’s largest Muslim nation with infamously squalid ‘prison’ conditions. Supporters of the previous ‘Pacific’ solution, which involved bribing island states to do the same, are now calling that formula the more just one. This nervous, near-hysterical reaction is nothing if not familiar. Australia is a country transfixed by fantasies of invasion. Its borders are vast and virtually indefensible. It relies on the invisible and improbable notion that US forces would aid it in the event of an attack, citing the now toothless ANZUS treaty as support. Since federation in 1901, racial ‘exclusion’ has been a persistent feature of this Asian ‘white tribe’. The lines of the Australian delegate Colonel White at the 1938 Évian conference on refugees (more specifically, Jewish refugees), still comes to mind: ‘As we have no real racial problem we are not desirous of importing one.’ One familiar strategy includes demonising those seeking refuge via ‘people traffickers’, the eager facilitators of dangerous ocean voyages that might, and do in fact, lead to death. Best then, to attack both the baggage handler and the baggage. This prompted a comment from the audience at the national broadcaster’s Q & A program (29 Oct): if ‘overstayers’ and ‘illegals’ were, in vaster measures, coming by air, did that make Qantas a ‘people smuggler’? No one cared, or dared, to answer. Another strategy is the ‘terrorist’ card. Those on board are Tamils, which has inspired suggestions that they might be terrorists awaiting their next chance to cause a bit of bomb-blowing mischief. Consider the comment of the perennially unhinged and paranoid member of the opposition, Wilson Tuckey, who was, to Rudd’s credit, attacked in the House: ‘If you wanted to get to Australia and you have bad intentions, what do you do? You insert yourself into a crowd of 100 for which there is great sympathy for the other 99 and you go on a system where nobody brings their papers, you have no identity you have no address’ (ABC News, Oct 22). Such repetitive nonsense took place in August 2001 and the lead-up to the election a few months after that: there were, many argued, Bin Laden supporters hoping to infiltrate Australia on derelict vessels. The current mantra is that the refugee policy is ‘balanced’ yet humane, another obscene description pilfered from the previous government’s treasure trove of spin. In truth, it is neither. The reactionary paper The Australian, Rupert Murdoch’s terrier-like representative of Australia’s media landscape, was chortling in its joy. ‘Despite its political discomfort, exaggerated moralism and diplomatic scramble, the Rudd government emerges with more credit over the boatpeople surge than do its opponents on the Right and Left’ (Oct 24). It only took issue with the fact that Rudd might be firmer in his stance. Surely, the human flood was imminent if more stringent measures were not taken? The election of the Rudd government was meant to be a watershed in various policies adopted and practiced by the previous regime, keen practitioners of ‘fear’ strategies. But as countries are given complete freedom to determine how the 1951 Refugee Convention applies, we should not be surprised. There is no international tribunal with set authorities to determine the matter. Domestic implications, and fears, continue to play their poisonous role. It has been shown that these boat people have an extraordinarily high rate of being accepted as refugees once they are processed. It has also been shown that such ‘solutions’, be they Indonesian or Pacific, are far more costly than home processing. But the lingering effects of such fictitious narratives as ‘queue jumpers’ and ‘terrorist sleepers’ remains. The bureaucratic indifference that has infected governments globally means that Indonesia and Australia are far from being alone in this lamentable affair. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Obama and Black America Ten months into Obama-time, the plight of black Americans is terrible. Yet overwhelmingly they rally behind the president. In a powerful report from the Deep South Kevin Alexander Gray asks the question: what should the black political agenda be? Mark Rudd counterposes “organizing” with “activism” and describes what it will take to build a movement. H. Bruce Franklin gives a chronology of the march into Afghanistan. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
"Powerful and shocking ..
Waiting for
Lightning
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