home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq

Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! Why Hillary Clinton has Always Been a Republican In the first of a series of profiles, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair chart the formative years of Hillary Clinton. Watch her as she zigzags from Nixon campaigner and vote-fraud investigator in 1960 to Goldwater Girl and President of Young Republicans at Wellesley to her internship for Gerald Ford and campaigner for Nelson Rockefeller. Witness her reaction to the student protests at Yale and the demonstrations at Grant Park during the Democratic Convention in 1968. Learn how she and Bill vowed to "remake" the Democratic Party--using the Nixon model HRC learned about as a member of the House impeachment staff. And much more! Plus: David Price on anthropologist Andre Gunder Frank, the FBI and the Bureaucratic Exile of a Critical Mind. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair

Today's Stories July 24, 2007 Saul Landau How to Walk in Bushtime Kathy Kelly The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan M. Shahid Alam Islam Now, China Then Patrick Cockburn and Anne Penketh Meeting in Baghdad Dave Lindorff Overcoming John Conyers   July 23, 2007 Andy Worthington Narcolepsy on Gitmo Detainees Uri Avnery A Trap for Fools Patrick Cockburn Turkish Prime Minister Threatens to Invade Northern Iraq Sousan Hammad The Children Without a Title John Walsh Todd Gitlin's Nader Fixation Harvey Wasserman Spinning Kashiwazaki: PR Flacks Rush to Aid of Crippled Nuke Martha Rosenberg The Life and Times of a Hog-Hanging Farmer Collin Baber Here Come the MRAPs: Resurrecting Apartheid Armor for Iraq Reza Fiyouzat Iran's Forgotten Anti-Nuke Movement Stephen Lendman Saving a President: Scare-Mongering and Executive Orders Website of the Day The Port Huron Project   July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Giuliani and the Dogs of War Werther How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate Ralph Nader Atomic Blowback David Keen Buy Hard: How to Sell an Endless War Fred Gardner Karl Rove, Pothead: When Good Drugs Happen to Bad People Gary Leupp Edelman's Edict: Is Hillary "Reinforcing Enemy Propaganda?" Robert Fantina Fear in Iraq Saker The Future of Palestine: an Interview with Jonathan Cook Rannie Amiri Nasrallah in the Crosshairs: How will the Third Lebanon War Start? Mike Whitney The Crisis in Hedgistan Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD The Hidden Injuries of Powerlessness: Linking Alienation and Dissociation Monica Benderman Facing the Truth Dan Bacher Deltagate: the Politics of Fish Kills Michael Baney Fujimori's Long Race From Justice Missy Beattie Here, There and Everywhere Ron Jacobs Tremble, Tyrants Adam Engel Radical Language: an Introduction Thomas Naylor California Split: an Open Letter to Schwarzenegger Poets' Basement Landau, Ford and Engel Website of the Weekend Surge in Action   July 20, 2007 Eliza Szabo Fatal Neglect: Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Pam Martens Doctoring the News: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and Merck Alan Farago Winners and Losers in the Housing Market Crash Harvey Wasserman Lies and Leaks: The Earthquake That Screamed "No Nukes!" Marjorie Cohn Iraqis will be the Deciders Dave Zirin White Noise and the Black Athlete Anthony DiMaggio American Public Opinion and Israel Scott Liebertz Oaxaca on Edge Linn Washington, Jr. British Cops Assault Rape Allegations Bill Piper / Anthony Papa Flying High?: The Political Junkets of Bush's Drug Czar Ramzy Baroud Bush's War Policy: When Time Heals Nothing Website of the Day The Prankster Art of Mark Jenkins   July 19, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Next Invasion of Iraq Remi Kanazi Is This Ben Gurion or Hell?: a Palestinian Adventure Through Israel's Largest Airport Winslow T. Wheeler The Surging Costs of the Iraq War Sharon Smith Democrats and Health Care: Behind the Rhetoric Dave Lindorff Killing Cabbies in Iraq Conn Hallinan Have Gun, Will Travel: Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan D. K. Wilson The Michael Vick Case Pulls Back the Veil on Who We Really Are Joshua Frank Democrats as Leviathan: Another Step Toward War with Iran Norman Solomon The Ghost of Wayne Morse Russell Hoffman Rattling the Reactor: Quakes, Fires and Leaks at the World's Largest Nuke Ray McGovern Bush's Wooden Headedness Kills Website of the Day Protesting Power July 18, 2007 Brenda Norrell Spy Towers on the US Border Col. Dan Smith How the US Could "Lose" Saudi Arabia Martha Rosenberg Lord of Crookharbour: the Trial of Conrad Black Conn Hallinan Bombing and Spraying Afghanistan Binoy Kampmark The SIM Card Terror Case Patrick Bond / Rehana Dada Who Killed Sajida Khan? Tom Johnson The Long Road ... to Nowhere Paul Craig Roberts A Free Press or a Ministry of Truth? Bob Quellos Pushing the Poor Out of House and Home Felice Pace Falling for Lieberman's Iran Resolution Robert Weissman National Health Insurance: More Humane and More Efficient CP Newswire Shocking Report Showing Involvement of US Psychologists in Torture Website of the Day Gilad Atzmon Live!   July 17, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Just Another Day in Iraq: 100 Fathers, Mothers and Children Killed Marjorie Cohn Out of Control: Executive Power Plays Evelyn Pringle Inside Bush's FDA David Rosen Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill: the Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Pleasures of the Courtesan Susan Miller Width Matters: Displacement and Israel's Wall Franklin Lamb Did the UN Cave to Israel on Lebanon's Shabaa Farms? Don Monkerud Considering Victory in Iraq Harvey Wasserman Nuclear Surge Russell Hoffman Japan Dodges a Radioactive Bullet Dave Lindorff Feingold Turns to Dross Dave Zirin Reclaiming Sports as True Fiction Website of the Day Che at the UN: 1964   July 16, 2007 Gary Leupp Cheney Urges Bush to Strike Iran Ellen Cantarow The Untold Story of Iraqi Women Paul Craig Roberts Impeach Now Allan J. Lichtman The D.C. Madam's Public Service Dan Bacher Cheney and the Klamath: Was the Veep Behind the Nation's Worst Salmon Kill? Patrick Cockburn The Killing of Khalid W. Hassan Manuel Garcia, Jr. Property is Racism James Brooks AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas: the Undemocratic Road to Defeat Liaquat Ali Khan The Judicial Crisis in Pakistan Julie Flint Suleiman Jamous in Limbo Website of the Day Free Suleiman Jamous!   July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander Cockburn Support Their Troops? Andy Worthington Gitmo's Tangled Web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majhid Khan, Dubious US Convictions and a Dying Man Ralph Nader Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence Robert Fantina The Illegalities of the Iraq War Ron Jacobs Architecture as Military Strategy Joshua Frank Eat, Fight, Screw, Pray: An Interview with Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Guns, Foundations and Free Trade: How the Right Targets Africa Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD War and Dissociation John Ross No En Nuestro Nombre!: a Letter to the Mexican Antiwar Movement Fred Gardner Who's Afraid of Cannabidiol? Rannie Amiri A Primer on Israeli Doublespeak Charles Modiano ESPN's Rap Sheet: Pacman as Black Man Anthony DiMaggio America's Parochial Press China Hand Executive Orders and Coercive Diplomacy Missy Comley Beattie Reprobate Rhetoricians Dr. James J. Murtagh, Jr. Harry Potter Battles Big Brother Kenneth Rexroth On Thomas More's "Utopia" Poets' Basement Engel, Davies and Orloski Website of the Weekend GOP Sex Hypocrites: a Slideshow   July 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Decider in Denial Winslow T. Wheeler Bush's Iraq Benchmarks Assessment: Grading on a Curve for the Wrong Test Imran Khan When Dictators Serve US Interests Todd Chretien The Wal-Mart of Garbage Sam Husseini Killing the Constitution Dr. Herman Mindshaftgap Why, in Truth, There is No Surge Anthony Papa The Hard Road Home D. K. Wilson The Wonderful World of Mike Greenberg and Barry Bonds David Michael Green In the Last Throes, Judiciously Website of the Day Strange Attraction: Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Wolfowitz   July 12, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Restoring the People's Power Robert Jensen Lessons from the Lal Masjid Tragedy Dr. Susan Block Hookergate II: The Senator and the Veep Joshua Frank The Liberal Thrashing of Ward Churchill John Chuckman How Terror Lost Its Meaning Corporate Crime Reporter The Problem with Bribeline Mike Whitney Demonizing Putin Nicola Nasser Will New Delhi's Palestinian Policy be Neutralized? Richard Rhames Requiem for the Paxilated William S. Lind Not Fourth Generation Warfare Website of the Day Video: World's Largest Nuclear Explosion     July 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Benchmark Blame Game Richard Neville Is This Man a Psychopath? Bomber McNeill, the Faceless Pol Pot of the Sky Debra McNutt Privatizing Women: Military Prostitution and the Iraq Occupation John V. Walsh A Plea to Ralph Nader Scott Liebertz Where's the Outcry? Mexico's Monitor Radio vs. RCTV George C. Wilson Beware the Iran Hawks James McEnteer My Impossible Dream Candidate Philip Rizk Submission or Resistance in Gaza? Johnny Hazard Mexico Commemorates a Fraud Dave Lindorff On the Road with Impeachment Website of the Day Sly Stone's Higher Power   July 10, 2007 James Ridgeway True North: Big Oil in the Arctic Tariq Ali New Clashes in Islamabad: Judges and Jihadis Torment the Regime Javed Hussein Pakistan's Waco?: The Storming of the Red Mosque William Blum Neocons, Theocons, Demcons, Excons and Future Cons Ralph Nader Grown in China Jay Arena New Orleans, Public Housing and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex Anthony DiMaggio A Begrudging Reversal: The New York Times and the "Anti-War" Turn Eva Liddell Has Ann Coulter Got the Hots for John Edwards? Jerry Kroth Democratic Defectors and the Israel Lobby Alice Woodward White Supremacy and the Jena Six Nikolas Kozloff Where's Jerry?: On Cheney Impeachment, Rep. Nadler's a No Show Paul Shannon It's Time to Reform Sex Offender Laws Website of the Day March for Remembrance   July 9, 2007 Fidel Castro The Killing Machine: Reflections from a Target of the CIA Diana Johnstone King Sarko the First John Walsh Will the Greens Seize the Moment? Uri Avnery The Jordanian Option Ramzy Baroud The Palestinian Left: a Lost Opportunity? John Ripton The New West Bank Palestinian State Stephen Lendman Making Gaza Scream Bruce Jackson Bush Going Down: the Correct Way to Affix a Stamp Michael Donnelly What's the Matter with Winchester? Doug Giebel Wanted: Old Men with Nothing to Lose Website of the Day Ron Paul on This Week with George   July 7 / 8, 2007 Saul Landau Blame the Puppet Ismael Hossein-zadeh Parasitic Imperialism Fawzia Afzal-Khan What Lies Beneath: Dispatches from the Frontlines of t he Burqa Brigade Alan Maass Will "Sicko" Spark a Movement?: a Film, Militant Nurses and a New Opportunity for Single Payer Health Care John Ross The Fire Last Time Pat Williams The Supreme Court and Mr. Peanut Rannie Amiri The Unbreakable Mordechai Vanunu Farzana Versey Does the Taj Mahal Deserve to be a Wonder of the World? Bart Gruzalski Bush, the Revolution and the Iraq War Paul Rockwell An Army of None Reza Fiyouzat Tax Cuts for the Rich Only Benefit the Economy of the Rich Monica Benderman Americans, Honestly! Kenneth Couesbouc Total War: From Clausewitz to Clinton and Bush Dave Lindorff Poll: Impeach the Bastards Charles Modiano History's Hit Job on Thomas Paine Missy Beattie King Cretin Dal LaMagna A Peacemaker's View of Baghdad Jean Gerard Those So-Called Oil Contracts in Iraq Anne Dachel Autism: an Epidemic of Fairly Recent Origin Ron Jacobs Modes and Melodies of Resistance Poets' Basement Gibbons, Orloski, Engel and Buknatski Website of the Day Van Morrison and Bob Dylan in Athens July 6, 2007 Daniel Ellsberg When the Crimes of the White House are Unpunishable Gary Leupp The Cracks in Cheney's World Harvey Wasserman Leonard Peltier vs. Scooter Libby: the Hero and the Henchman Omer Subhani Our Dead are Not the Same: Ignoring Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Marjorie Cohn Compassion, Conspiracy and Commutation Christopher Brauchli Kingly Edicts: Bush's Executive Orders David Michael Green Scalia Time: the Wrecking Ball Court China Hand Catfish Blues: Food Safety, the FDA and the Emerging Trade War with China Renee Saucedo and Todd Chretien The New Challenges Facing the Immigrant Rights Movement Corporate Crime Reporter The Crime Wave Behind the Media Curtain Website of the Day Jean Bricmont on the Humanitarian Interveners   July 5, 2007 Andy Worthington Two Americas, Both Unjust: Scooter Libby vs. the "Enemy Combatants" Mike Stark Double Standards of North Carolina "Justice" Norman Solomon The Keyboard Hawks: a Bloody Media Mirror Michael Schwartz Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month Susie Day Killer Lesbians Mauled by Killer Court (and Media Wolfpack) Jacob Hornberger A Tangled Web of Lies: Bush and the Libby Case Bill Hatch Smoking with Arnold: The Strange Return of Toxic Mary Nichols Don Fitz When Building Green Ain't So Green John Wright The Crisis of Imperialism Website of the Day Anti-Flag and Tom Morello: "This Land is Your Land"   July 4, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Obama's Nuclear Ambitions Vijay Prashad Democrat (Punjab): Obama and Outsourcing Carl G. Estabrook The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Exist Ron Jacobs Texas Wants to Kill Another Man, the Law be Damned: the Disturbing Case of Kenneth Foster David R. Dow The Quality of Bush's Mercy: the Ghosts of Texas Claudia Johnson Is My Doctor a Terrorist? William S. Lind What Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Means for Defense Industry Fat Cats Gregory Afghani Truth and Tenure: Finkelstein and the Perils of Impeccable Scholarship Paul Edwards End It Now! D. K. Wilson The Sliming of Tank Johnson Niranjan Ramakrishnan Thank You, Mr. President: Bush/Cheney for Dummies Thomas Jefferson The Spirit of Resistance: Lethargy is the Forerunner of the Death of Public Liberty Cindy Sheehan Call Out the Instigator Website of the Day Springsteen: 4th of July, Ashbury Park July 3, 2007 Bill Quigley Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree Gary Leupp Civil Strife in Palestine: a Broader Context Lynda Brayer Norman Finkelstein and the Catholic Church Richard Thieme Mind Wars: Brain Research, Nanotech and the Military Helen Redmond They Don't Come Back the Same: the Mind of the Returning Iraq War Vet David Swanson Scooter and the Commuter: When Presidents Pardon Their Own Crimes Jacob Hornberger Martha Stewart vs. Scooter Libby: Commutation as Cover-Up Ayesha Ijaz Khan Pakistan's New Jihad Franklin Lamb The Edginess of Lebanon Ray McGovern Unimpeachably Impeachable: Start with Cheney Kevin Zeese The Air Force vs. Rev. Lennox Yearwood Dave Lindorff Nancy Pelosi and the Low Bar Democrats Website of the Day A Military Guide to the Iraq War July 2, 2007 Andy Worthington The Guantánamo Whistleblowers Nina Serrano The Assassination of a Poet: Memories of Roque Dalton Jack Hirschman The Nation and the Assassin: a Shameful Blunder Paul Craig Roberts Enter Turkey Bill Williams The Commissar Two-Step at DePaul Anthony Papa A Taste of the Gulag: What Paris Learned Sonja Karkar Who Will Save Palestine? Louay Safi Steve Emerson's Fantastic Obsession Anthony Gregory When Killer Cops Walk Monica Benderman In Consideration of War Website of the Day Dylan's Masters of War, at West Point, 1990   June 30 / July 1, 2007 John Ross Free Frida Kahlo! Alan Farago Fakery, Inflation and the Housing Market Peter Quinn The Political Paranoia Over Immigration: Two Centuries and Counting Christopher Brauchli Cheney Does the Constitution Robert Fisk Abu Henry and the Mysterious Silence Uri Avnery A Dark Summit Judith Siers-Poisson The Politics and PR of Cervical Cancer Saul Landau Israel is Bad for Jewish Ethics Abbas Zaidi The Ad Hominem World of Pakistan Politics Ron Jacobs Ending the War, Organizing for Change Ralph Nader Move Over Oprah: a Summer Reading List Donald Worster Which City is Worse Off Today, New York or New Orleans? Mike Whitney The Fed's Role in the Bear Stearns Meltdown Jacob Hill Fast Track to Trade Failure Kenneth Couesbouc Why Global Trade is Rarely Fair Missy Beattie Kakistocracy Mohammad Kamaali Envoy for the Quartet Ramzy Baroud Finding Lessons in Gaza's Bloodshed Leonard Peltier A Gathering at Oglala Phyllis Pollack Seven Hours of Banging with the Stones Poets' Basement Reed, Orloski and Buknatski Website of the Weekend A Podcast Interview with Cpt. Ward Boston on the USS Liberty   June 29, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Toward a New Environmental Movement Brian Cloughley Losing the War in Afghanistan: One Civilian Massacre at a Time Patrick Cockburn End the Occupation: an Open Letter to Gordon Brown Gilad Atzmon The Peace Envoy: Tony Blair on Work Release Dave Lindorff Subpoenas, Executive Privilege and Liberal Pipedreams Jennifer Matsui / Carl Kandutsch Electric Larryland Kevin Zeese A Different Kind of Peace Candidate Daniel Klimek Fasting for Justice at DePaul David Michael Green The Founding Fathers Never Met Dick Cheney John Chuckman The London Car Bomb Website of the Day BAM!   June 28, 2007 Bill Quigley How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps Vijay Prashad Once More on the New York Times Margaret Kimberley The Whitening of Marianne Pearl: When White Actors Play Black Characters Winslow T. Wheeler House of Pork: Changing Lightbulbs in the Democrats' Bordello Philip Rizk The Failing of Gaza D. K. Wilson The Black Villains Club Bill Williams Strange Calculus at DePaul Mahmoud El-Yousseph The Deportation of Yardlin Jimenez Richard Rhames The Liberation of Paris Paul Krassner Bong Hits for Repression: the Giant Sucking Sound of the Supreme Court Website of the Day Free Lightnin' Hopkins   June 27, 2007 Marjorie Cohn Targeting Dissent: FBI Spying on the National Lawyers Guild Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD Sick and Sicker: Two Models of Health Care Rationing Alan Farago Bush and the Everglades: Rebranding Failure as Success Carla Blank "America, the Beautiful": the Queen, Jamestown and the Eye of the Beholder Matthew Abraham The Smearing of Robert Trivers, Dershowitz-Style Sunsara Taylor The Deadly Consequences of Compromise: Abortion Rights Under Assault, Where's the Women's Movement? Russell D. Hoffman 16 Dirty Secrets About Nuclear Power Robert Weissman Blackstone and Capital's Grand Scam Sen. Russ Feingold Secrecy and the Federal Death Penalty Paul Buchheit The Footprints of Democracies Website of the Day Anarchy for the USA: an Interview with Josh Wolf   June 26, 2007 Jonathan Cook Divide and Rule, Israeli-Style Ralph Nader Sicko and the Politics of Health Care Corporate Crime Reporter Which Side Are You On, Michael Moore? Ron Jacobs Are the Neocons Really Going? Martha Rosenberg Mad Cow in God's Country John Chuckman China's New Weapons Denny Haldeman Ethanolics Anonymous Anthony DiMaggio Free Speech Hypocrisy at the Supreme Court Stephen Fleischman The Tightrope Economy William S. Lind Legitimacy, Toujours Legitimacy Website of the Day The CIA's Family Jewels   June 25, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Goodbye to the City on the Hill Jennifer Loewenstein The Triumph of US / Israeli Policy in Palestine Bob Anderson The Grooming of Bill Richardson: New Mexico's Nuclear Governor Robert Pollin The Realities of Microlending Patrick Cockburn Chemical Ali Faces the Hangman: the Life and Crimes of al-Majid Eva Liddell Why They Want to Fire Ward Churchill Dan Bacher Democrats and the School of the Americas: 42 House Democrats Back Torture Academy Larry Atkins The Case of the Judge and the $54 Million Pair of Pants: an Embarrassment, Not an Argument for Tort Reform Mark Brenner SEIU Ends Nursing Home Partnership James Rothenberg Hillary Does Iraq Website of the Day "A Long Train of Abuses" June 23 / 24, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Zyklon B on the US Border Jeff Taylor The Foreign Policy of Barack Obama Oren Ben-Dor Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis in Gaza Gary Leupp In Defense of Academic Freedom: the Ward Churchill Case Robert Fisk The Bumbling Envoy David Rosen The Hidden Cost of War: Genital Injuries, Prosthetic Devices and the War on Terror Russell Mokhiber Ins and Outs for 2008: Up with Spoilers! Alison Weir USA Today and the USS Liberty Robert Fantina The Floundering Congress D. K. Wilson Of Gangstas and Spearchuckers, Sex and Zulus Nicole Colson Litigating Gitmo Stephen Soldz, Steven Reisner and Brad Olson Torture, Psychologists and Colonel James Dave Lindorff Exodus of the Puppets: Bush's Incredible Shrinking Coalition Benjamin Dangl Cerámica de Cuyo: a Profile of Worker Control in Argentina Michael Dickinson The Catholicization of Tony Poets' Basement Davies, Engel, Gerard and Orloski Website of the Weekend Incarcerex: a Drug War Video   June 22, 2007 Andy Worthington A Tunisian in Gitmo: the Story of Prisoner 660 Sherwood Ross Corporate America's Deadliest Secret: the Big Profits in Biowarfare Research Eliana Monteforte The Torture Academy Robert Weissman Things Can Be Different Richard Rhames Farmer Preservation Christopher Brauchli Bush and the Uighurs: an Encounter in Albania Ramzy Baroud Chronicle of a Chaos Foretold Ehud Krinis, David Shulman and Neve Gordon Facing an Imminent Threat of Expulsion: Palestinians in S. Hebron Hills Need Your Help! David Michael Green If Reid Were Rove Kathryn Webber Boycotting DePaul Website of the Day Stop Me Before I Vote Again!   June 21, 2007 Peter Linebaugh The Day of the Rope Natsu Saito The Regents and Ward Churchill: Now is the Time to Speak Out Ron Jacobs The Intimidation of a Vet Saree Makdisi The West Chooses Fatah, But Palestinians Don't John Stauber Blessed Unrest: an Interview with Paul Hawken Scott Liebertz Fox News and Venezuela: an Analysis of How the Network Deliberately Misinforms Its Viewers Tom Clifford The Ghost Prisoners Robert Jensen The Last Sunday? Michael J. Smith Who Among Us Will Step Up to Destroy the Democratic Party? Jeb Sprague Pain at the Pump in Haiti Website of the Day Dion: Hey Paris June 20, 2007 Omar Barghouti A Secular-Democratic State Solution Andy Worthington Repatriated to Torture Margaret Kimberley Supreme Injustices: the Bush Court Robert Weissman Sicko, Part One: the Human Tragedy Russell D. Hoffman Time to Choose: Meltdowns or Solar Power? Rannie Amiri Mideast Alight Stephen Lendman The New York Times vs. Hugo Chavez Dave Lindorff Democratic Disconnect David Swanson Booing Hillary: Platitudes from the Drone Machine Anne Dachel Autism & Vaccines: Why are They Afraid to Look? Website of the Day Revolution By the Book   June 19, 2007 Ralph Nader Hillary's Stock and Trade: the NAFTA Two-Step Dr. Shepherd Bliss Torture's Long Reach Bill and Kathleen Christison Demostrating Against the Catholic Church in Santa Fe Jeff Leys Swarming Congress: Building a Resistance to the 2008 Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill Dave Zirin The Unforgiven: Barry Bonds and Jack Johnson Chris Floyd Hitchens Takes a Roll in the Hay Ben Terrall Iraq Union Leaders Speak Out Against the Occupation Anthony Papa Veronica's Story: a Dying Wish to Governor Spitzer VIPS Countering Terrorism: How Not to Do It Linda Flores Criminalizing the Classroom Website of the Day Sign On to the Iraq Moratorium June 18, 2007 John Ross The Annexation of Mexico Paul Craig Roberts The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand Martha Rosenberg Let Cheney at Him: Richardson the Oryx Hunter Norman Solomon War at the Remote Don Santina Memo to the Queen: Bobby Sands Died for Your Sins Isabella Kenfield Landless Rural Workers Confront Lula James Brooks America's Guilty Silence Eva Liddell Planning to Lose: Democratic Stratagems Sam Husseini Clinton Health Care Scam Revisited Akiva Eldar Ariel Sharon's Dream Website of the Day Frank Zappa: the Cop Interview   June 16 / 17, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Psychopathology of Shrinks John Halle Finkelstein and "The Progressive" Robert Fisk Welcome to "Palestine" Andy Worthington Return to Torture? Uri Avnery The Gaza Cage Fred Gardner Paris Hilton's Punishment: a False Parable Saul Landau Our Gang of Thugs: The 1970s as a Context for Terrorist Violence P. Sainath Heaven Can Wait: Creditors and the Widows of Vidharbha Missy Comley Beattie Calling Evil Its Name Alan Gregory When ADM Comes to Town: Killer Tax Breaks for Wildlife Destruction Walter Brasch Bush and the Philosophy of Swiss Cheese Website of the Weekend Obama Girl   June 15, 2007 Alan Farago View from the Construction Crane: Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami Andy Worthington The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri Michael Simmons Terrorizing Artists in the USA Franklin Lamb Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed Sunni Army Solution Gary Leupp The Day After We Attack Iran John Ross Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico Website of the Day The American Rationalist   June 14, 2007 Michael Donnelly Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen Eco--Activism Faisal Kutty Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False Sense of Security Harry Browne Ireland's Green Party Sells Out Charles Jonkel From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference Steven Higgs Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic" in Indiana? Bruce Dixon Black Power Through Low Power Radio Bruce K. Gagnon What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan for Antiwar Activists Website of the Day Finkelgate June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Obama's Siren Song Marjorie Cohn Repression in Oaxaca Bill Christison A Grave Injustice at DePaul University Charles Jonkel Bears in a World of Indifference Silvia Cattori "I Was Not Prepared for the Horrors I Saw": an Interview with Hedy Epstein Richard Gott Racism and TV in Venezuela Firmin DeBrabander How the Neocons Misread Machiavelli William S. Lind The Perfect (Sine) Wave: Bombing Railroad Stations in Iraq Keith Rosenthal Workers Score a Victory at Harvard Website of the Day GOP and Monty Python Explain: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair How to Sell a War Paul Craig Roberts The Neocon Threat to American Freedom P. Sainath India's Plutocrats and the Press Ralph Nader The Biggest Scam in the World Omar Waraich A Black Day for Pakistan's Press Dave Lindorff Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You Harvey Wasserman Confessions of an Anti-Nuke Jerk Malini Johar Schueller It Takes a Bomb Ramzy Baroud War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire Website of the Day Palestinian Chronicle Needs Our Help!   June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The War on Journalists Paul Craig Roberts Losing the Economy to Mythology Uri Avnery 40 Bad Years: the Rot of Occupation Norman Solomon The Silence of the Bombs Eva Liddell Paris Hilton Doesn't Do Dishes: How Barbie Stood Up to Allen Ginsberg Rannie Amiri Groundhog Day in Pakistan Rachel Voss Poetry and Politics in Nassau County Christopher Brauchli A Wild West Tale, Starring Rev. Dobson and Bill O'Reilly D. K. Wilson Untangling Michael Vick from the Dogs Website of the Day Paris, Mixed Up     Subscribe Online

July 24, 2007 The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan Attuned to Tom and Jerry By KATHY KELLY Last week, Umm Daoud, (her name means "Mother of Daoud"), met me and three friends at a bridge that crosses into her neighborhood. It was just after sundown; the streets were darkening as she guided us toward the narrow path which leads to her home. She and her five children live in a humble two room apartment in a crowded "low-rent" area of Amman. As guests, my friends and I sat on a makeshift piece of furniture, an old door placed atop two crates and covered by a thin mat. She and her children sat on the floor. Apart from a television and a small table, the living room had no other furniture. The television remained "on" while Samil, her youngest son, seemed completely absorbed in a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon. "Tom and Jerry" antics are a favorite in almost every home I visit here. Spanning multiple generations and regions, the duo's popularity seems to reflect benign values. "Sometimes Tom wins and sometimes Jerry, and sometimes they both win, especially if they team up against an enemy," a young Iraqi woman told me. "You love them both. It's a bit like fights between brothers and sisters." Incalculably less benign are the "real life" chase scenes Umm Daoud's family has endured. When I first met them, five months ago, Abu Daoud, the father, told me that he had been a prosperous goldsmith in Baghdad. "We had two houses and two cars," said Umm Daoud. "Now, I have two brothers killed, and all this suffering, and no way to take care of my children." Abu Daoud told us that two years ago, Daoud, his teenage eldest child, was kidnapped for ransom in Baghdad. Fearful for their son's life and wanting to save him from torture, the family sold all that they had, gained his release, and swiftly escaped with him into Jordan. Abu Daoud came to Amman and moved his family into their current home, hopeful that he might eventually find work. But for an "illegal" resident in Jordan, among hundreds of thousands of others who've fled Iraq, there was no work. He sought help from the few groups doling out rations of food and assistance with rent. Young boys would taunt him, calling him an old man and an "Iraqi terrorist", while adults would threaten to report him to the authorities as an "illegal"--but still he had to keep seeking work. Three months ago, Abu Daoud learned that his cousin, in Iraq, had received a death threat. The cousin tried to flee Baghdad, but was unable to do so swiftly enough. When his body was found, it was chopped into pieces. This news further traumatized Abu Daoud. Engulfed by pain and misery, he became abusive toward his wife and children. Fights erupted between them. Two months ago, Abu Daoud disappeared. His wife believes he fled because he couldn't bear facing them, each day, with his feelings of anxiety and guilt. Umm Daoud's eyes fill with smoldering fury as she spills out feelings of frustration, mistrust, and humiliation. Neighbors in adjoining homes practice a very conservative form of Islam. Even though Umm Daoud is a Sabean, she fears being judged harshly by them and opts to cover her head whenever she leaves the house. When her husband left her, some of these neighbors said this was a punishment she deserved. She'd like to live elsewhere, beyond their threats and curses, but she can't afford the rent anywhere else. Two of the daughters are diabetic, needing weekly insulin injections, but Umm Daoud can afford neither the medicine nor the lab work to track their illness. Now, one of her daughter's eyesight is failing. Untreated insulin can lead to full blindness. Umm Daoud has to hide all of this from her neighbors. They may be here for a long time, and if the neighbors find out that the girls are diabetic, she fears it could destroy their future. Would it be difficult to find suitors for them? I'm not sure. Looking at these beautiful young women, it seems unlikely, but blindness is a frightening condition, --who am I to guess? Umm Daoud herself needs medical attention for a kidney ailment, but her daughters' untreated medical crisis takes up all her attention. Caritas, a charity organization in Amman, offers free medical checkups for Iraqis, but no medications. Through registering with the UNHCR, the family became eligible for a "salary" of 60 Jordanian Dinar per month. This barely covers rent. A light fixture in the room where they all sleep is broken, but they can't afford to fix it, nor can they manage a simple plumbing job to repair a faucet that steadily, noisily leaks. They are too terrified to invite a repair man into the home because the daughters are vulnerable and could be exploited. If a man took advantage of them, they would have no recourse for protection because anyone could accuse them of being illegal residents, causing them to be deported back to Iraq. Umm Daoud has already been stung by the humiliation of being so vulnerable. Once, in Amman, a gang stole a sum of money from her. She reported it to the police. In the investigation, someone accused her of being a prostitute and the police department dropped the case. One note of good news gladdened Umm Daoud and her daughters. Daoud, the older son, excels in soccer and recently qualified for an Iraqi team invited to compete in Seoul, South Korea. For Daoud, a victim of torture when he was kidnapped, playing soccer has been part of recovery. He's in control on the field and the sport has been an important form of therapy. Numerous Iraqis in the "illegal" community pooled money for Daoud's trip. Toward the end of our visit, Daoud called from Seoul. The family was jubilant, except for little Samil, watching his Tom and Jerry cartoon with his back turned to the family. From where I sat, I could see his face. He showed no emotion whatsoever and never took his eyes off the TV screen. I remembered the playful ten-year old I'd first met, in January of 2007, a little boy whose eyes were alight and animated, who loved climbing onto his father's lap. The family seems to understand his need to withdraw. Before leaving, Noah Merrill, who, with his wife, Natalie, has worked hard to design a project called "Direct Aid Initiative," (see www.electroniciraq.net), suggested that they could help cover some of the family's medical expenses. He assured Umm Daoud that this would be an act of friendship, not charity. "Of course it's not charity!" she said, flinging her hands upward in exasperation. "You already have our oil!" She cocked her head slightly, a smile on her face. "You are perhaps living well with our oil," she said, as we all nodded our heads, "so this is not a charity." Such humor, as if this whole nightmare of the war and its complications were just brothers and sisters fighting, and she could wryly forgive. The UNHCR has appealed for $121 million dollars to assist Iraqis who've been displaced from their homes, 2.2 million of whom are internally displaced inside Iraq and close to two million more who have sought shelter in neighboring countries. UN documents appeal to people's charitable instincts, but UN workers know full well just how politicized the discussions have become. The U.S. could direct the amount of money spent on just six hours of the war in Iraq and fully meet the UNHCR request to assist millions of people who have barely survived this U.S. "war of choice." This week, the U.S. government will continue deliberating over how much money to earmark for particular defense expenditures. They will serve the insatiable demands of the largest lobby on Capitol Hill, the defense lobby, which is asking for a total of $648.8 billion dollars. Even Senator Kennedy, one of the few Senators advocating measures to benefit Iraqi refugees, recommends allotting $100 million in the 2008 defense budget for a new General Electric fighter engine. (The Boston Globe recently reported that the Air Force said it didn't even need the item.) Democratic candidates claim they are interested in ending the Iraq war. They claim concern for Iraqi victims. I believe these claims. Yet by obediently funding the war machine, most of them play predictable, scripted roles in a dull and murderous war without end. The victors are always the same, the bloated and menacing producers of weapons,--General Dynamics, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed, General Electric,--the fat cats whose menacing force always wins. The losers can watch their children become crippled, starved, maimed or dead. Period. Yesterday, Umm Daoud and her daughters paid me a visit. Samil chose to stay behind. He didn't want to miss an episode of Tom and Jerry. Kathy Kelly is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and author of Other Lands Have Dreams. She can be reached at: kathy@vcnv.org.   Your Ad Here

New From CounterPunch Books The Secret Language of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy Click Here to Buy!   Now Available! How the Press Failed The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order!   "The Case Against Israel" Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair       The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont   CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed   Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh   The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"