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How a Tiny Alaskan Indian Tribe Got Billions in Pentagon Contracts by Jeffrey St. Clair; Dems and Dives by Alexander Cockburn; Spooky Grants: More on the CIA's Recruitment of Campus Professors by David Price. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print edition of CounterPunch. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Rahul Mahajan Charlie Cray
/ Jim Vallette Dave Lindorff Zeynep Toufe Suzan Mazur Michael Dickinson Stan Cox Ra Ravishankar Daniel Wolff
March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Ron Jacobs Tariq Ali Michael Dickinson Kanak Mani
Dixit Mitchell Zimmerman Xuan-Trang
Ho Dave Zirin Joe Bageant Jeff Halper Website of
the Day
March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Ralph Nader
/ Kevin Zeese Chase Madar Toni Solo Jackie Corr Ahmad Faruqui Mike Roselle Jude Wanniski Francis A.
Boyle Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of
the Day
March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Gary Leupp Sonia Cardenas Stew Albert Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Carl G. Estabrook
March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sonali Kolhatkar Sasha Kramer Kevin Zeese Tom Stephens Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Newton Garver Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp Peter Linebaugh Marc Robert Laura Carlsen Saul Landau
/ Puja Patel Dave Foreman Fred Gardner Jennifer Matsui Dave Lindorff Dharma Adhikari Joshua Frank Patrick Barr Christopher
Brauchli Ramzy Baroud Jackie Corr Ben Tripp Dr. Susan Block Mickey Z. Justin Taylor Richard Joseph Poets' Basement
March 25, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons Yoshie Furuhashi Pat Williams Mark Engler Rahul Mahajan Lance Selfa Ralph Nader John R. Llewellyn Jo Guldi
March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank Talli Nauman Martin Espada Dave Lindorff Elaine Cassel Jack McCarthy Jack Random Barbara Ferguson Suzan Mazur Dorreen Yellow Bird Andrew Wimmer
and Mark Chmiel
Patrick Bond Mike Whitney Becky White Michael Donnelly Niranjan Ramakrishnan Ashley Smith David Swanson Derrick O'Keefe Paul A. Moore Dalton Walker Patrick Cockburn
March 22, 2005 William Blum Jim Vallette Greg Moses John Farley Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Dave Lindorff James Petras
March 21, 2005 John Walsh Werther Mike Stark David Swanson James T. Phillips Mike Ferner Robert Jensen Paul Craig
Roberts Stew Albert Website of
the Day
March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Tom Reeves Saul Landau Alan Maass Ron Jacobs David Green John Blair Steve Greenfield Ben Tripp Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Sarah Schaffer Warren Hastings Poets' Basement
March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin Richard Thieme John Walsh David Swanson Ben Terrall David Boyle Dorreen Yellow Bird Mokhiber /
Weissman Greg Moses Website of
the Day
March 17, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Bill Quigley Brian Cloughley Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Dave Lindorff Jude Wanniski Alexander Billet John Ross Website of the Day
March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader William Cook Kevin Zeese Jackie Corr Alan Maass David R. Kolker Cindy Ellen
Hill Paul Craig
Roberts
March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Hadas Their
/ Katrina Yeaw Alison Weir Matt Koehler Evelyn Pringle Harry Browne
March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader David Miller Stan Cox Mike Roselle David Swanson Simona Sharoni Dave Lindorff Dorreen Yellow Bird Tom Barry Website of the Day
March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price Noam Chomsky Laura Carlsen Stan Goff Valentina Nicoli Michael Leonardi Saul Landau
/ Sarah Anderson Joe Bageant Manuel García,
Jr. Greg Moses James J. Brittain Ben Tripp Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Walter Brasch Ramzy Baroud Christopher
Brauchli Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Richard Oxman Poets' Basement
March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff William James
Martin Muqtedar Khan Kathryn Ledebur Mike Whitney Dave Zirin Website of the Day
March 10, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith Larry Birns Michael Donnelly Luis Gomez Jackie Corr Uri Avnery Website of the Day
March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Ward Churchill Robert Fisk Bernice Powell Jackson Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Michael Donnelly James Reiss Vijay Prashad
March 8, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Kurt Nimmo Suzan Mazur Evelyn Pringle Giuliana Sgrena Elaine Cassel
March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Brian Cloughley John Chuckman Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Fred Gardner Richard Neville Uri Avnery
March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Tom Reeves Jenna Orkin Tom Barry Joshua Frank Moshe Adler Jane Stillwater Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir Christopher
Brauchli John Pilger Raúl
Zibechi David Krieger Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Bhishma Karki Joseph Pietri Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson
March 3, 2005 Pat Williams Brian Cloughley Dave Lindorff Amira Hass Greg Moses Lynne Landes Nelson P. Valdés John Ross
March 2, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Mike Roselle M. Junaid Alam Suzan Mazur Jackson Thoreau Michael Donnelly Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
March 1, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons David Lindorff Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders Ron Jacobs Tanya Garcia Joseph Pietri Kona Lowell Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Subcomandante
Marcos Norman Finkelstein Steve Niva Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams Steve
J.B. Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber Wendell
Berry CounterPunch
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Weekend Edition Guns, Vitamins and GodA Visit to One Bush CultureBy SAUL LANDAU Pomona, California After walking through the parking lot of Hummers, SUVs and pick up trucks with gun racks and NRA insignia and confederate flag bumper stickers, my friend and I paid $8 each to get into the Gun Show at the Paso Robles Fairgrounds. The sign also assured interested parties that "Children Under 13 Get In Free." Once inside, a middle aged woman in a cowboy hat stamped my hand robustly. "A concentration camp number?" I asked my not so amused friend. "Don't take too good of a shower, heh heh, and y'all kin git back in tomorrow. Hey, bring your missus or your girlfriend." She reassured us that the seemingly indelible number imprinted on the backs of our hands would indeed wash away. I didn't recognize her accent as belonging to any part of California. But it did sound like most of the people I heard inside the massive tomblike structure with display tables lined up and down the aisles: Deep and rural South. Most of the people looked serious and downright intense. One man wearing a confederate hat and sporting a three day growth carried a small boy presumably his son, who seemed to have more teeth than his father. My friend, a lawyer who handles disability and workers' compensation claims, and I split up. As he browsed the gun collections, I engaged with a woman selling dietary supplements and offering a free test to determine my level of anti-oxidants. The woman attaching my hand to some sci fi machine that emitted a purple light told me that she ordinarily marketed super vitamins at state fairs, but that the gun show crowd had proven exceptionally interested in her product. She whispered that she had little interest in guns, but that the gun lovers seemed excited about living longer and staying healthy. As the machine supposedly offered a number that showed that my skin had an average number of anti-oxidants, but that by taking some supplement I would gain thousands more and obviously live forever, I noticed two kids under 13 picking up rifles and pretending to shoot me. I would have done the same at that age. But my father never thought to bring me to a gun show. He didn't even own or think about owning a gun. I eavesdropped on shoppers and browsers, who held intricate conversations with the sellers involving questions of precision about guns, cartridges, replacement parts, velocity of projectiles and other subjects about which I knew little or nothing. Next to a toy model of an AK 47, at which the seller was advertising slings for holding such guns, since California outlawed the sale of such weapons, I noticed a long table displaying Nazi flags, SS insignia and a series of books by former SS officers. I read a few paragraphs about the highlights of their losing campaigns in Russia and their successful occupations of several other countries. One book dismissed allegations of the so-called Holocaust. The author, a Captain, claimed he spent his proud years in the service as a chauffer. The others, I supposed, had served as cooks and valets. The books, with elegantly laid out back and white photos, were printed in Spain, during the late Franco years. In Reinhard Heydrich, The Biography Vol 1, the authors (names not printed) assembled "a unique collection of photographs that bring to life this biography of Hitler's probable heir apparent." In the book, the man who I had known as a child as the "Butcher of Prague" was called an "extraordinary man who rose to become second to Himmler within the SS, controlling the entire Security Service." I admired the ambiguity of the prose. "Labeled as the author of the 'Final Solution' to the Jewish question, Heydrich is branded by some as a 20th Century Machiavellian. Others in admiration of his intelligence, sporting and musical talents have bestowed upon him the icon of a Renaissance man. What a career he could have had if the Czech resistance hadn't assassinated him! The book price, $49.95, was ten dollars less than the book next to it, Stories of Waffen-SS Combat Heroes. On one table, I spotted a frayed T-shirt it had a dirt line around the inside of the neck -- with a photo of Timothy McVeigh. "We won't Forgot You." I wanted to ask the vendor about the ambiguous message, but he seemed too engaged in making a sale for an expensive antique shotgun, so I moved on Tables displayed 19th Century rifles and six shooters, twentieth Century Glocks, 45s and Lugers, some with laser-sights attached. Each weapon was chained so that the customer could pick it up, feel it and dry shoot it without being able to walk away with the deadly merchandise. Some tables displayed dangerous knives and machetes, a few had bows and arrows. Combine all these with the guns and there was enough fire power inside the tent to kill lots of people and defenseless animals, of course. My friend and I saw no blacks, Mexicans or other obvious urban type Jews in the crowd. As we left, gun free and knifeless, I told my friend that I had had had an alien experience, an hour of contact with one of the constituencies of George W. Bush. "Don't be silly," he said. They're my clients. They rely on guns, vitamins and God to protect them since the government doesn't." As we passed the rows of vehicles in the parking lot we didn't see an apparently new sticker, placed only on the front bumper of your Hummer that says "Run Hillary Run." Later that day we found Santa Margarita Lake, paid a fee to enter the state-run preserve and hiked up a small mountain overlooking the pristine body of water. Here we were located about 220 miles northwest of Los Angeles, watching hawks, eagles and vultures carve out their air turf. Below us, outboard motorboats with fishermen patrolled the water. Campers were parked along the lake shore. Some fisherman stood on piers and cast their lines. After we descended, we met a fisherman wearing a "work sucks, I'm going fishing T shirt." He told us that the lock had been stocked with crappie, largemouth, striped bass, and catfish. We passed a sign that told fisherman not to swim in the lake or allow body parts to touch the water. "I think they use it for reservoir water he said," even before I asked my question. "Why is it alright to have outboard motors and not have people touch the water?" "These days you don't
know what folks will bring on their bodies to a nice lake like
this," he said, without smiling. We watched him load cases
of Coors beer onto his small boat, called "SS Beer Can."
I wished him luck with his fishing. "The working class needs protection," my friend says. They get screwed by big corporations who don't want to pay workmen's compensation or disability claims. The corporations skimp on health and safety and then hire big shot lawyers to screw the inured workers out of their just claims." A Mexican American woman appears with a coffee pot. She speaks unaccented English as she asks if we want refills. Are we ready to order? She shouts "dos huevos over easy con sausage" to the cook in the kitchen. I left a large tip and dared ask: "Did you vote for Bush?" She looked at me as if I was crazy. We smiled at each other. How many different Americans
can one ingest in the course of a short vacation in Paso Robles
California? I suppose the job of winning the US presidency lies
in the ability of Karl Rove to calculate how many of the diverse
and distractedly zany cultures inside the country he has to convince
by any mean necessary, of course.
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