|
|
home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
|
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS ON HOW THE 'FREE TRADE' CASE FOR OFFSHORING AMERICA'S JOBS HAS COME UNGLUED Roberts on the sensational exposure of the faked "gains" and phantom stats of the free traders. Who was America's most anti-imperialist president? Try Grover Cleveland! JoAnn Wypijewski on the unlikely hero of Hawai'i's restoration movement. Alexander Cockburn reports on evangelical Christians in crisis amid fresh onslaughts by forces of darkness. The Warbler's Parable: Rosa Miriam Elizalde on the black-masked visitors to Cuba defying the US economic blockade.
|
|
Today's Stories June 20, 2007 Omar
Barghouti June 19, 2007 Ralph
Nader Dr.
Shepherd Bliss Bill
and Kathleen Christison Jeff
Leys Dave
Zirin Chris
Floyd Ben
Terrall Anthony
Papa VIPS Linda Flores Website
of the Day
John
Ross Paul
Craig Roberts Martha
Rosenberg Norman
Solomon Don
Santina Isabella
Kenfield James
Brooks Eva
Liddell Sam
Husseini Akiva
Eldar Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn John
Halle Robert
Fisk Andy
Worthington Uri
Avnery Fred
Gardner Saul
Landau P.
Sainath Missy
Comley Beattie Alan
Gregory Walter
Brasch Website
of the Weekend
June 15, 2007 Alan
Farago Andy
Worthington Michael
Simmons Franklin
Lamb Gary
Leupp John
Ross Website
of the Day
June 14, 2007 Michael
Donnelly
Faisal
Kutty Harry
Browne Charles
Jonkel Steven
Higgs Bruce
Dixon Bruce
K. Gagnon
Website
of the Day June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Marjorie Cohn Bill Christison Charles Jonkel Silvia Cattori Richard Gott Firmin DeBrabander William S. Lind Keith Rosenthal Website of the Day June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St.
Clair Paul Craig
Roberts P. Sainath Ralph Nader Omar Waraich Dave Lindorff Harvey Wasserman Malini Johar
Schueller Ramzy Baroud Website of
the Day
June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Norman Solomon Eva Liddell Rannie Amiri Rachel Voss Christopher
Brauchli D. K. Wilson Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn George Ciccariello-Maher Saul Landau Robert Fisk Brian Cloughley Ron Jacobs Ward Boston Conn Hallinan Leonard Peltier Lawrence Davidson John Ross Kate Allan Fred Gardner Stephen Fleischman Monica Benderman Geoff Bailey Missy Beattie Patrick Dyer Tim Lengerich James Irani
Gary Leupp Michael Tillery Michael Simmons Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
June 8, 2007 Serge Halimi Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair
Paul Craig Roberts William Blum Joshua Frank Lance Selfa Dave Lindorff Lawrence Ferlinghetti Website of the Day
Marjorie Cohn Soldz, Reisner
and Olson: Soldz, Reisner
Paul Craig Roberts Bill Quigley Silvia Cattori Carl G. Estabrook Ellen Taylor Corporate Crime
Reporter Brenda Norrell D. K. Wilson Kevin Zeese Website of
the Day
Alain Gresh Gary Leupp Steven Sherman Bruce Dixon Corporate Crime Reporter Brian M. Downing Ron Jacobs George Bisharat Nicole Colson Bruce K. Gagnon Website of the Day
June 5, 2007 Michael Neumann Jonathan Cook David Vest Robert Fantina Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury John V. Walsh Richard Cretan Adam Engel William S. Lind Myles Hoenig Jim Minick Website of
the Day
Nizar Latif Diana Johnstone Gregory Wilpert Paul Watson Susan Rosenthal,
MD Richard Ward Eva Liddell Zahi Khouri Evelyn Pringle China Hand Karyn Strickler Website of the Day
June 2 / 3, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Marc Levy Martin Smith Diana Johnstone John Ross Uri Avnery Sunsara Taylor Richard Neville P. Sainath Missy Comley
Beattie Nisrine Abiad Rannie Amiri Margot Pepper Eric Stewart Ralph Nader Dan Bacher Shaun Harkin Richard Rhames Frederick Hudson Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Dave Marsh Saul Landau David Phinney Robert Jensen Stanley Heller Yifat Susskind Robert Weissman Paul Buchheit William S.
Lind Sherwood Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
Robert Bryce Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Kathy Kelly Marjorie Cohn Chris Kutalik
Corporate Crime Reporter Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
May 30, 2007 James Ridgeway Franklin Lamb Terrence E. Paupp Uri Avnery Alan Maass Rock and Rap
Confidential Ralph Nader Nirmal Ghosh Jean Daniels Tom Barry Website of the Day
Stephen Soldz Eliza Ernshire Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Evelyn Pringle Mike Whitney David Swanson John Holt Cynthia McKinney Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day
Bill Quigley Col. Dan Smith Cindy Sheehan Dr. Susan Block Jeeni Criscenzo Douglas Valentine Website of the Day
Subscribe Online
|
June 20, 2007 The Bush CourtSupreme InjusticesBy MARGARET KIMBERLEY George W. Bush is president because of the United States Supreme Court. Were it not for the decision to stop counting votes in Bush v. Gore, Al Gore would be president of the United States instead. The right wing presidential victory was the culmination of many years of effort to take over the federal judiciary. Now Bush has two Supreme Court justices confirmed on his watch, and the damage to the justice system in this country is immense. In the past month, the Roberts court has lived up to predictions that the worst case scenario has come to full fruition. In Ledbetter v. Goodyear, the court essentially advised workers to file discrimination lawsuits as soon as they begin a new job. Discrimination complaints under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act must now be made within 180 days of the discriminatory pay practice taking place. If the victim smells a rat after 180 days, there is no legal remedy and employers have no fear of legal retribution. Ledbetter was just the beginning of hell month for the American justice system. In the Uttecht v. Brown decision, the Supreme Court ruled that potential jurors who express any reservations about the death penalty can be excluded from death penalty eligible cases. In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said, "Millions of Americans oppose the death penalty. A cross section of virtually every community in the country includes citizens who firmly believe the death penalty is unjust but who nevertheless are qualified to serve as jurors in capital cases." Pro-death penalty jurors are more likely to convict. That means mostly black and Latino defendants have the deck stacked against them from the beginning with prejudiced, partial and almost always white jurors. These jurors are predisposed to see people of color behind bars and they are no more generous when the matter is life or death. As the use of DNA evidence has proven the innocence of hundreds of wrongly convicted persons, the death penalty has lost some measure of its popular support. That loss of support matters little if only racist, conviction happy jurors sit in judgment. The Supremes weren't finished stacking the cards against defendants. Keith Bowles appealed his murder conviction in an Ohio court, but because of incorrect instructions from a judge, he did so three days too late. "Too bad," said five of nine justices. They ruled that the court's 40-year old doctrine of "unique circumstances" was wrong to begin with, and Bowles and anyone else like him will not get his day in court. It is obvious that the current Supreme Court is quite simply not the place to get justice. Good cases that can undo great wrongs should not be heard there unless or until there is a Democratic president who can change the makeup of the court. It should be good news that the court agreed to hear the case of Kimbrough v. United States, which would determine whether sentencing disparities between crack and powdered cocaine are constitutional. Current federal law mandates that the sentences for possession of crack cocaine and powdered cocaine are treated very differently. Possession of five grams of crack, one-fifth of an ounce, carries a mandatory five year prison sentence. Possession of five hundred grams of powdered cocaine, 1.1 pounds, carries the same five year sentence. The punishment ration is 100 to 1 and black defendants are the losers. Eighty-percent of those sentenced for crack possession are black. It is hard to believe that the same justices who decided that wage discrimination is not a problem, will change laws that automatically result in more black faces behind bars. This is not a good time for Kimbrough to be heard in the Supreme Court. The hope for justice rests with the Democratic party, a sure sign of desperate whistling past the graveyard. It must never be forgotten that many of the sentencing disparities and draconian drug laws that have now decimated the black community originated with the Clinton administration. Yet the Democrats at their most craven, compromised and triangulated are better than Republicans. Judicial appointments are one of the clearest examples of the Democratic lesser evil being preferable to the Republican evil that scores an eleven on a scale of one to ten. There is no hope of any semblance of justice unless a Democratic president is making judicial appointments. If the next resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has the letter R behind his name, racism and the most extreme forms of punishment that go along with it will continue to rule on the bench. The traditional depiction of justice with a blindfold will have to be exchanged for one with her eyes wide open and her thumbs on the scale. Margaret Kimberley is an editor and senior columnist for
the Black Agenda
Report. Her Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms.
Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail
at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.
 |
CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy  Click Here to Buy! 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! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz 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                   |
