|
Today's
Stories
April 11, 2008
Nikolas Kozloff
The Clintons and Their Sordid
Colombia Advocacy
Sharon Smith
Let
Them Eat Ethanol!
Yigal Bronner / Neve Gordon
Digging for Trouble: the Politics of Archaeology in East Jerusalem
Alan Farago
Eating South Florida
April 10, 2008
Mathieu Vernerey
Tibet
for the Tibetans!
Elizabeth Schulte
Slavery
in the Fields
David Macaray
Labor
Unions Will Never Get a Fair Shake
Ashley Smith
The Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr
Peter Morici
Driving Up Debt and Dragging Down Growth
Jacob Hornberger
The Military's Distintegrating Family Life
Harold Austin
Snitch or Else: Prison Officials Threaten Gang Drop Outs
Website of the Day
Hillary: the Wal-Mart Videos
April 9, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Fading American Economy
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Congressional
Theater: the Petraeus / Crocker Hearings
C. Hand
Why Dave Marash Left Al Jazeera
Paul Krassner
Sex and Violins
Paul Wolf
Colombian "Magnicidio" Remains a Mystery After 60 Years
Wajahat Ali
Alien Invasion!
Karyn Strickler
Lost in the Fumes: the Sierra Club Sells Out to Clorox
Dan La Botz
Confronting the Economic Crisis
Eric Walberg
The Shadow of Munich: Another NATO Flop
Robin Millenthal
Enough Already! Growth and the Tar Sands Economy
Website of the Day
Conservative
Nanny State
April 8, 2008
Mike Whitney
Should
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be Set Free?
Nikolas Kozloff
Bush
Bullies Congress on Colombia Deal
Greg Moses
Migrant Detention in South Texas
Joshua Frank
The Other Military Draft
John Ross
Mexico City's Urban Tribes Go on the Warpath Against EMOS
Michael Donnelly
Hillary's Western Swing
John V. Walsh
Why Obama Lost Massachusetts
Jeff Nygaard
Health, Security and Mandates
Bill Piper
Last Shot for a Bush Legacy?
Sen. Russ Feingold
Legal Representation and the Death Penalty
Website of the Day
Catonsville 9, Forty Years Later
April 7, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Irish Black Thing
Harry Browne
Irish
Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported
Uri Avnery
Tibet and Palestine
Lenni Brenner
Obama's Constitution, His Pastor and His Unbelieving Mom in Heaven
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
America Must Respect Pakistan's Democracy
Robert Fisk
Fearful Lives in the Land of the Free
Edwin Krales
Ensuring the Success of Fascism in Spain: the US Corporate Role
Chris Genovali
Vancouver Island's Dwindling Ancient Forests
Website of the Day
LA Artists Against War
April 5 / 6,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Did
the Elites Want MLK Dead?
Ramzy Baroud
There
are No Checkpoints in Heaven
Ralph Nader
Runaway Bailouts
David Yearsley
How Scott Joplin Had Wall Street Down
Saul Landau
Sex Politics in America
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Petraeus and Crocker Show
Lawrence Korb / Ian Moss
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot
Seth Sandronsky
Meet America's Promise Alliance: Colin Powell's New Gig
John Ross
La Cumbia de la Doctrina Bush: Colombia Kills Four Mexican Students
in Ecuador Bombing
Robert Fantina
McCain, Republicans and Family Values
David Michael Green
Back to Disaster: Hoover at Home, Tet Abroad
Missy Beattie
McCan't
Patrick Bond
Vultures Circle Zimbabwe
Dr. Susan Block
The New American Pot Dealers
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones Meet the Press
Adam Engel
The Boobus in the Lie
Jeffrey St. Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Diamand
and St. Clair
Website of the Weekend
Richard Pryor Goes to the Gun Shop
April 4, 2008
Dave Lindorff
The
Night I Heard King Had Been Shot
Greg Moses
Missing
King
Ron Jacobs
Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Alan Farago
Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine
Alison Weir
Funding
Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel
David Rosen
Rape as an Instrument of Total War
Robert Weissman
The Unrealized Dream
Jacob Hornberger
Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Jackie Corr
Hillary and Obama Head for Butte
Carl Finamore
Taking On United Airlines
Laray Polk
We Are All Dith Pran
Susie Day
Advice for the War-Torn
Website of
the Day
Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait
April 3, 2008
Peter Morici
The Deepening Recession
Joe Bageant
The Audacity of Depression
Andy Worthington
Cleared But Still Detained:
The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia
Nikolas Kozloff
Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America
Rannie Amiri
The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy
David Macaray
More Labor Strife in Hollywood
Stephen Lendman
Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice
Website of
the Day
The
True Face of Da Vinci?
April 2, 2008
Diane Farsetta
Indian
Point on the Potomac
Harry Browne
Bertie
Ahern Laid Low by Secretary
Wajahat Ali
The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer
George Wuerthner
Open Season on Wolves
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Philippe Marlière
The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
Bernard Chazelle
Saving the American Left
Reza Fiyouzat
Bowling in Hell
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
|
Apri1
11, 2008
How Obama Could
Seize Pennsylvania
The
Clintons and Their Sordid Colombia Advocacy
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
With the Pennsylvania primary fast approaching
on April 22, Barack Obama will have the opportunity to end the
race for the Democratic nomination once and for all. If he wins
by only a slim margin in the state, the "punditocracy"
will declare him the presumptive choice of the party and the
pressure will build on Hillary Clinton to withdraw. Obama should
do well in Philadelphia amongst black voters and will probably
pick up a decent percentage of the white affluent vote in the
city's suburbs.
In order to clinch the victory,
however, Obama will have to make inroads amongst blue collar
workers in the more industrial, western section of the state.
In Ohio, Obama lost that constituency to Clinton and he's desperate
to cut into her lead amongst this critical voting bloc. But
with less than two weeks to go, how can he turn things around?
In one word: Colombia.
The Scandal
Breaks
Recently, Clinton handed Obama
a golden opportunity to sew up the nomination when her chief
strategist, Mark Penn, was caught up in a scandal involving the
pending free trade deal with Colombia. Bush has been pushing
hard for the agreement, which would allow for duty free commerce
with the United States. Many Democrats and most unions oppose
the initiative because of Colombia's appalling labor record.
Penn's ties to Team Clinton
go back some time: the PR man was originally admitted to Bill's
circle by consultant Dick Morris in an effort to shore up the
1996 presidential campaign. Penn headed up a global public relations
firm called Burson-Marsteller; the company has offered public
relations help to such unsavory entities as Blackwater, the security
contractor accused of killing Iraqi civilians, and Countrywide,
a major lender of risky subprime mortgages.
Penn was employed by the Colombian government to help win passage
of the trade agreement in Congress. Penn's ties to the Colombian
government were revealed when the Wall Street Journal
reported that the PR man held a private meeting with the Colombian
ambassador.
News of Penn's ties to the
Colombian government proved acutely embarrassing to Clinton,
who has gone on record as opposing the agreement. Surely fearing
that she might lose out amongst the blue collar constituency
in western Pennsylvania, Clinton promptly demoted Penn---though
he remains on the campaign staff as a pollster and adviser.
It's odd to think that the
Penn-Colombia story could exert an impact on domestic U.S. politics.
Most Americans, if they are aware of Colombia at all, probably
associate the country with drug cartels and little else. The
media has done a swell job of ignoring Colombia as a news story,
despite the fact that successive administrations in Bogotá
have been proud recipients of billions of dollars in U.S. foreign
aid.
Álvaro
Uribe: Creating a Climate of Fear for Colombian Labor
On the other hand, the recent
scandal within the Clinton camp might touch a nerve among angry,
blue collar workers in the industrial heartland. Colombia is
the most dangerous country in the world for labor organizers.
In the six years since President Álvaro Uribe took office,
over 400 labor activists have been murdered, according to Colombia's
National Trade Union School (Escuela Nacional Sindical). In
2008, almost one unionist a week has been murdered, while 39
unionists were murdered in 2007, far more than in any other country.
In  addition, threats of violence
and murder are now sufficient to halt an organizing drive or
to abort a strike.
The connection between this
horrific labor climate and the Uribe government is pretty clear.
Indeed, there's been mounting evidence of collusion between
many of Uribe's allies and right wing paramilitaries who assassinate
labor leaders. Colombia's Supreme Court has even ordered the
arrest of fourteen members of congress on suspicion of collaboration;
thirteen of the legislators back Uribe. The president's former
intelligence chief is also facing charges of passing information
to the paramilitaries to help them target and kill opponents.
Recently, Uribe's cousin, a Senator, was forced to resign in
an effort to avoid a Supreme Court inquiry into whether he had
ties to the paramilitaries. Mario Uribe was a key ally of the
President.
So far, Álvaro Uribe
has not been directly implicated, but the President has been
accused of letting paramilitary groups use his family's farms
to kill opponents during the 1990s. Democratic Senator Patrick
Leahy cut off $55 million in military aid to Colombia over the
allegations.
At the very least, the Uribe
regime has created a climate of impunity in which labor activists
have been targeted. Recently, human rights groups wrote a letter
accusing a top Uribe adviser of endangering the lives of labor
leaders by claiming that a protest march against right-wing death
squads had been organized by FARC left wing guerrillas. The letter
charged that four people involved in the march were subsequently
murdered, and dozens more threatened with death.
In Colombia, there's little chance that the paramilitaries will
face justice: since the reign of terror against trade unionists
began in the 1980s, only three percent of the cases have been
clarified.
Riding the
Colombia Gravy Train
The Colombian government has
already received billions of dollars in military assistance and
economic development from the United States, but clearly that
is not enough: the Uribe regime wants more and is hiring Washington
lobbyists and power brokers to push for its free trade agreement.
The winners in this equation include U.S. corporations which
for years have been trammeling human rights in Colombia. Big
business sees the trade deal as opportunity to increase its fast-track
looting of Colombian human and natural resources.
Together, the Colombian government
and its lobbyists have launched an all out assault in an effort
to sway members of Congress into signing on to the deal. According
to the New York Times, there have been all-expense paid
trips to Colombia for more than 50 members of Congress, featuring
coffee tastings and dinner at a posh restaurant inside an old
Spanish fort. Uribe has visited Washington to make personal
appeals. Collectively, the Colombian government has paid more
than $1 million to firms that have negotiated or lobbied on behalf
of the deal.
In this fight, Clinton staffers
like Penn are intent upon picking off as many Democratic legislators
as possible in an effort to secure the trade deal for the Colombian
elite and U.S. multinationals. Major corporations such as WalMart,
Citigroup and Caterpillar stand to benefit and are working double
time to ram the deal through Congress.
From Colombia
to Pennsylvania
Colombia's sorry track record
is not lost on the likes of organized labor in the U.S., which
says the Andean nation's record in curbing assassinations of
labor organizers by paramilitaries remains poor. In Pennsylvania,
the Colombia story has political traction: one of four primary
voters in the state hails from a union household.
Just yesterday, Teamsters President
Jim Hoffa went to a Hershey-owned York Peppermint Patty Plant
in Reading, Pennsylvania to denounce the Colombia free trade
agreement. Hoffa was in Reading as part of a three-day tour
through the state, meeting with Teamsters in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre,
Allentown, Reading and Pittsburgh.
"These so-called trade
deals are killing American jobs," he said. "They aren't
about trade; they're about helping companies move their factories
to countries with cheaper labor. The last thing American workers
need is a trade deal with Colombia, one of the most anti-union
countries in the world," Hoffa added.
In traveling to Reading, Hoffa
was making a political statement about Latin American free trade
deals. The Hershey plant will move to Monterrey, Mexico by year's
end, resulting in the loss of 260 jobs. It's yet another painful
blow to the residents of Reading, which has already lost one-fourth
of its good-paying manufacturing jobs since January 2001.
Appearing at an Obama rally
in Scranton, Hoffa declared, "In 1998, we lost 1,000 jobs
at Tops Chewing gum, those jobs went to Mexico. In York, Pennsylvania,
Peppermint Patties is closing 600 union jobs will go to Mexico
(where) they won't pay health care. They won't pay unemployment
it's about money. And these CEOs don't care about America."
Pennsylvania has been especially hard hit by foreign trade.
More than 44,000 jobs were lost due to NAFTA since it took effect
in 1994, and Hoffa claims that 1,583 plants, offices and warehouses
have closed in the state as a result of the trade deal. Pockets
of the state have suffered from chronic unemployment and low
wages since many factories and steel mills closed.
What this adds up to is a fired
up electorate which is prone to punish any candidate tied to
corporate-friendly free trade agreements. Change to Win, a labor
alliance which has endorsed Obama, called Penn's meeting with
the Colombian ambassador "outrageous" and urged Clinton
to fire him. "We have questioned Penn's role in the Clinton
campaign in the past for his representation of union busting
employers," Change to Win executive director Greg Tarpinian
said. Meanwhile, significant union leaders like Hoffa continue
to call for Clinton to fire Penn outright.
Pressing
Colombia's Agenda: Hillary's Sleazy Advisers
Though Clinton herself has
opposed the Colombia free trade agreement, her campaign is knee
deep in Colombia sleaze. In addition to his public relations
work lobbying for the Colombia free trade agreement, Penn also
worked as an adviser to Coca-Cola, a company which faces legal
action in connection with its bottling plants in Colombia.
A lawsuit filed in U.S. District
Court in Florida accused the Coca-Cola Company, its Colombian
subsidiary and business affiliates of using paramilitary death
squads to murder, torture, kidnap and threaten union leaders
at the multinational soft drink manufacturer's Colombian bottling
plants. The suit was filed by the United Steelworkers of America
and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL,
the Colombian union that represents workers at Coca-Cola's Colombian
bottling plants.
The story doesn't end there,
however.
Another top Clinton campaign
aide spokesman Howard Wolfson is an owner of the
Glover Park Group, to which the Colombian government pays a $40,000
per month retainer to lobby for the US-Colombia free trade agreement.
In the wake of the scandal involving Penn, Clinton promoted
Wolfson to take over the campaign's "strategic message team."
In other words, Hillary's clarifications
on Colombia notwithstanding, Glover Park Group has been arguing
the same position on the free trade agreement as Penn (several
other Glover Park employees have deep connections with the Clintons,
including founding partner Joe Lockhart, who served as the White
House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, and Joel
Johnson, who was a senior communications adviser in the Clinton
White House).
Bill's Sordid
Colombia Past and Present
In addition to Penn and Wolfson,
there's also husband Bill to consider.
As President, Clinton went to bat for Andrés Pastrana,
whose administration was equal to if not worse than the sordid
Uribe regime when it came to protecting human rights. Clinton
backed so-called Plan Colombia and approved $1.3 billion to the
Andean nation while waiving human rights conditions. More than
$900 million of the U.S. contribution went toward military and
police equipment, including attack helicopters and other lethal
aid, ostensibly in an effort to prosecute the drug war.
What's particularly jarring
is that Clinton backed the Pastrana government despite rampant
human rights abuses in Colombia at the time. According to Human
Rights Watch, right wing paramilitaries massacred civilians,
committed selective killings, and spread terror with the tolerance
and open support of the armed forces.
Labor was hit particularly
hard during the Pastrana years: the Colombian President enacted
strict austerity measures and began selling off state-owned banks
and other nationalized enterprises. When some 800,000 state workers
struck in protest, Pastrana declared the strike illegal.
Meanwhile, labor leaders were
assassinated.
Bill's Colombia advocacy has
continued under the Uribe regime. According to the Politico,
the former President was paid $800,000 by the Colombia-based
Gold Service International to give four speeches throughout Latin
America. The organization is ostensibly a development group tasked
with bringing investment to Colombia and educating world leaders
about the country's business opportunities.
As early as 2005 Clinton remarked
that he was in favor of a Colombian free trade agreement. In
that year, he went to Bogotá personally to meet with Uribe.
The Colombian President said that he needed Clinton's support
to ensure the passage of the free trade agreement. Clinton agreed
to follow up on the request once he returned to the U.S.
After speaking with the Colombian
President, Clinton accompanied Uribe on a walk through downtown
Bogotá. The two headed from the Tequendama Hotel to the
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Convention Center. During
their walk Bill greeted the city's many street vendors, many
of whom were surely cast out of the formal economy as a result
of Colombia's draconian labor policies.
On Colombia,
Hillary is little Better
Though Hillary hasn't made
personal junkets to Bogotá, her record on Colombia does
not inspire much confidence. In the Senate she has been careful
not to stick her neck out on behalf of human rights in Colombia,
leaving this task to more principled liberal folk.
In 2002, The Latin American
Working Group singled out the late Paul Wellstone, Patrick Leahy,
and Russ Feingold for their tireless efforts to raise the issue
of human rights in Colombia. All three denounced aerial fumigations
of coca leaf which had dire environmental consequences in Colombia.
Clinton was nowhere to be found on the issue.
In 2003, the usual Senate suspects
including Dodd, Feingold, Leahy and Kerry sent a letter to Secretary
of State Colin Powell expressing serious concern about a speech
given by Uribe. In chilling fashion, the Colombian President
accused some human rights groups of acting as "terrorist
spokespeople," remarks which put human rights defenders
in danger. The Senators' letter of protest also opposed amnesty
for paramilitary leaders involved in grave human rights abuses.
Where was Clinton? The junior
Senator from New York refused to sign on to the letter.
Fast forward to 2004, and the
dire plight of trade unionists continued unabated. Once again
it fell to Feingold and Dodd to lead the charge: the two drafted
a letter to Uribe urging him to make progress on breaking ties
between the Colombian army and paramilitary forces. Feingold
and Dodd expressed concern about ongoing attacks against human
rights and union activists, and raised concerns about policies
granting police powers to the military.
Again, Clinton refused to sign
the letter.
In 2005, it was again the same:
Leahy, Dodd and Leahy signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, calling on her not to certify that Colombia met human rights
conditions in law until greater progress was made on a series
of cases. Clinton passed when it came time to add her name.
And as recently as 2007, Hillary
refused to sign a letter sponsored by Leahy and Dodd that expressed
concern over public statements by government officials, including
Uribe. The statements led to attacks against human rights defenders,
journalists, and other members of civil society.
Obama's
Contrasting Record
In contrast to Hillary, Obama
has shown some spine when dealing with Uribe. The Illinois Senator
has questioned President Bush's close alliance with Bogotá
and, unlike Clinton, signed the letter to Condoleezza Rice.
Obama wrote that he was concerned about the links between the
Colombian government and paramilitaries.
To his credit, Obama has taken
a strong stance advocating the dismantling of paramilitary networks.
The Bogotá government, he argued, should undertake measures
such as investigating and sanctioning paramilitaries' financial
backers and accomplices in both the government and the military,
regardless of their rank. If the Uribe regime did not take more
effective action, Obama warned, then "maintaining current
levels of assistance will be difficult to justify."
On the pending Colombia free
trade measure, Obama should be lauded for his position. He emphatically
opposes the pending free trade deal, remarking "I'm concerned
frankly about the reports there of the involvement of the administration
with human rights violations and the suppression of workers."
On the campaign trail, Obama added that he opposed the treaty
``because when organizing workers puts an organizer's life at
risk, as it does in Colombia, it makes a mockery of our labor
protections.''
On the positive side, Obama
recognizes the need to rethink the nature of trade agreements.
"I think it is very important for us in our free trade agreements
with any country to ensure that basic human rights are being
observed, basic worker rights are being observed, basic environmental
rights are being observed," he remarked.
Uribe recognizes the potential
threat posed by an Obama administration. A few days ago, the
Colombian President chastised Obama for not being aware of Colombia's
"efforts" on trade. Apparently, Uribe was referring
to the Colombian government's public relations campaign in Washington,
designed to whitewash human rights atrocities.
Obama retorted hotly, "I
think the president is absolutely wrong on this. You've got a
government that is under a cloud of potentially having supported
violence against unions, against labor, against opposition...That's
not the kind of behavior that we want to reward. I think until
we get that straightened out its inappropriate for us to move
forward."
What's striking is that Uribe
would openly meddle in the U.S. presidential campaign, perhaps
underscoring the Bogotá government's deep nervousness
about the future. One might ask though: why did Uribe not criticize
Hillary, since her stance on the Colombia trade deal is identical
to Obama's? Clearly, Uribe isn't too concerned about a Clinton
administration in Washington. After all, the Clinton machine
has a long history of backing the Colombian far right, its politicians
and death squads, of whom Uribe is the top leader.
Sewing up
the Nomination in Pennsylvania
Mark Penn reportedly believes
that the entire Colombia story, and the issue of his conflict
of interest within the Clinton campaign, will ultimately blow
over. According to Huffington Post, Penn remarked that the fiasco
would vanish from the news cycle within a couple of days.
Camp Obama seems to be catching
on to the importance of the story, however. A campaign spokesperson
sent reporters a note reading, "Just ask yourself [what
you would do] if some of my advisers had been having private
meetings with foreign governments." For whatever reason,
however, Obama doesn't mention Penn's name while campaigning
in Pennsylvania.
It's a mistake.
Unfortunately, Obama still
hasn't given white voters in the western part of the state much
of a compelling reason to vote for him. He must draw a starker
contrast to the Clinton campaign on foreign policy and labor
rights. Having already delivered a major speech on race, he
could now discuss class within the context of Pennsylvania's
de-industrialization. He could point out, poignantly, how free
trade benefits the corporate elite in Colombia and the United
States and harms workers in both countries.
Threatening to cut off economic
aid to Colombia unless Bogotá improved its labor record
would be a gutsy move and make Obama an instantaneous hero to
organized labor. He could top it all off by riffing a bit about
Clinton and her campaign's unseemly ties to the Uribe regime
(it would be drole, and that is putting it mildly, to see the
mainstream media struggle to play catch up on the story. Having
systematically ignored the issue of labor in Colombia during
the Pastrana and Uribe years, it would now have to explore the
underbelly of U.S. foreign policy in the Andes).
If Obama were to take such
a daring move, he could sew up Pennsylvania and the nomination.
If he fails to electrify working class voters however, the nominating
contest goes on, perhaps even to the Convention. The Illinois
Senator would still probably prevail, but the public will lose
interest in the campaign and "Obama-mania" could fade
somewhat.
Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Hugo
Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S.
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), and Revolution!
South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave Macmillan,
April 2008).
|
Now Available!
How the Press Led
the US into War
Buy End Times Now!
New From
CounterPunch Books
The Secret
Language
of the Crossroads:
HOW THE IRISH
INVENTED SLANG
By Daniel Cassidy
WINNER
OF THE
AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!
Click Here to Buy!
Cassidy
on Tour
Click Here for Dates & Venues
"The Case Against
Israel"
Michael
Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
Click Here to Buy!
Saul Landau's
Bush and Botox World
with a Foreword by Gore Vidal
Click Here to Order!
Grand Theft Pentagon
How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism
The Occupation
by Patrick Cockburn
Humanitarian Imperialism
By Jean Bricmont
CITY BEAUTIFUL
By Tennessee Reed
|
