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New Exposés in Special Print Edition of CounterPunch CIA's Overthrow Plans for Iran Agency musters Swiftboat vets, pumps funding into destabilization program aimed at Teheran. Trish Schuh reveals how White House approves race-baiting smears of Islam. Remember how Leadbelly got ripped off by Lomax, how Louis Armstrong's agent got richer than his most famous client? The rip-offs never die. Fred Wilhelms narrates how artists and musicians are being shafted in the age of the internet. Meet the real Judge John Roberts, serf for big business. Cockburn and St Clair dissect the Court's new nominee. Tailhook vet and self-proclaimed Tom Cruise model bites dust in Pentagon scandal: a defense industry parable. St. Clair on Duke Cunningham's Crash Landing. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only 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! CounterPunch's Hot New T-Shirts for Women! Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by Kathy Kelly Click Here to Order 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly's Harrowing First-hand Account of Iraq Under the Squeeze of Sanctions and Missiles of Shock and Awe! Today's Stories July 30 / 31, 2005 JoAnn Wypijewski Scenes and Silver Linings from Labor's Crack-Up Sheldon Rampton War is Fun as Hell: the Video Games Recruiters Play Greg Moses How to Cool Your Heels in Texas When It's Late July Across the World Jordan Green From Woolworth to Wal-Mart: Economics and the Race Divide in a Southern City Patrick Cockburn Getting Out of Iraq: 5,000 US Troops Have Gone AWOL Brian Cloughley The Bush-Cheney Fixation on Iran Joshua Frank Color-Coded Justice: John Roberts's Racial Hang Up   July 29, 2005 P. Sainath The Class War in Gurgaon Niranjan Ramakrishnan How the West Was Lost: CAFTA and the Disassembling of America Dave Lindorff Marvelous Marvin Bush J.L. Chestnut, Jr. America's Racist Inventory: Oppression Breeds Violence Pat Williams Giving Away the Last Best Place Norman Solomon In Praise of Kevin Benderman: a Moral Leader of the Nation Goes to Prison Sen. Russ Feingold The Bad News About the Energy Bill Cockburn / St. Clair Who's the Real Martyr? Judy Miller or Jim DeFede?     July 28, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Departing Iraq William S. Lind The Duke of Alba and George W. Bush Gilad Atzmon Blair the Camera Man Joshua Frank Passing CAFTA: Blame the Democrats Lila Rajiva Vision Mumbai Submerged Amina Mire Pigmentation and Empire: the Emerging Skin-Whitening Industry Website of the Day Gateway to Underground News   July 27, 2005 Roger Morris The Source Beyond Rove: Condoleezza Rice at the Center of the Plame Scandal Gary Leupp Is Iran Being Set Up? Paul Craig Roberts US Falling Behind Across the Board Jackie Corr Class War on the Ruby River: the Billionaire with His Foot in His Mouth Mike Whitney The Coming End of the Housing Bubble Dave Zirin Why Lance Armstrong Must Break with Bush Christopher Bradley Why I Have Trouble Reading the News Norman Solomon Thomas Friedman, Liberal Sadist? Website of the Day Stormin' Norman     July 26, 2005 Suren Pillay The Enemy Within: When the "Other" is One of "Us" JoAnn Wypijewski Fission and Fizzle in Chicago: SEIU and Teamsters Quit the AFL Patrick Cockburn Iraq: the Unwinnable War David Anderson When the Greatest Outrage is the Lack of Outrage: NYC's Subway Searches Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton: Outflanking Bush from the Right Lenni Brenner Biography as Wish-Fulfillment: Jefferson, Hitchens and Atheism David Swanson Nuking Native Land   July 25, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts China-Mart Takes Over M. Shahid Alam Terrorism: America Defines Its Targets Uri Avnery March of the Orange Shirts Stan Cox Kreationism in Kansas Norman Solomon "Wagging the Puppy" Ramzy Baroud London Bombings: Barbaric, But Not Unexpected Mickey Z. No Gun Ri: 55 Years Later Website of the Day The Birth of a Hummingbird in 15 Images   July 23 / 24, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Islamo-Anarchs or Islamo-Fascists? Tariq Ali The War Comes Home Robert Fisk Something Happened Dave Lindorff Return of the Academic Witch Hunts Ricardo Alarcón Kidnapping in Miami: the UN, the US and the Cuban 5 Col. Dan Smith Living in a Twilight Zone: Troop Strength, Recruitment and the Draft Brian Cloughley The Pentagon's China Hypocrisy Kevin Zeese Growing Republican Opposition to Iraq War Bill Quigley Harrowing Hours in Haiti Fred Gardner The Reverberations of Raich Rep. Ron Paul The Patriot Act is a Threat to Liberty Joshua Frank Framing Abortion: Gonadal Politics and the Democrats Shivali Tukdeo Project Mumbai Makeover: Casualties of Development Gilad Atzmon Blair's "Evil Ideology" James Petras Baghdad: Barbarism and Civilization (a Fiction) Ben Tripp When Being American Was Fun Poets' Basement Krieger, Louise, Buknatski, Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Remember the West Memphis 3 July 22, 2005 Heather Gray Home Grown Axis of Evil: Corp. Agribusiness, the Occupation of Iraq and the Dred Scott Decision David Domke The American Press and Credibility Lance Selfa Battle of the Insiders: No Heroes in the Plame Leak Scandal JoAnn Wypijewski Is This Really an "Insurgency" to Shake Up the Labor Movement?   July 21, 2005 Rose Ann DeMoro The Top 10 Problems with the "Crisis" in the Labor Movement William Blum London: Another Casualty in the War on Terror J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Whites Need to Learn Something: Dixie is Everywhere Christopher Brauchli Strange Affairs: Liberals and Alberto Gonzales Joshua Frank Plame Blame Game: the 5 Ws Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Time for a Reality Check Patrick Cockburn The True, Terrible State of Iraq and the Link to London Website of the Day Who Blew Up the Murrah Building?     July 20, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Judge Roberts: Business as Usual Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Red Christmas Ray McGovern Did Dick Finger Valerie?: the Hand of Cheney Chris Floyd Judge Dread: John Roberts and the "Enemy Combatants" Uri Avnery 'silence is Filth" Dave Lindorff Westmoreland's Body Count Goes Up by One Norman Solomon Gen. Westmoreland's Death Wish Bill Quigley Travels in Haiti with a Wanted Priest       July 19, 2005 Tariq Ali An Isolated Regime John Ross Jihad Meets G-8 Davey D. More Clear Channel Censorship: "Don't F--K Around with Tha Police" Greg Weiher Muzzling Saddam: the Old Bait-and-Switch in Iraqi Jurisprudence Brian McKinlay An "Arse Licker" Goes to Washington: John Howard's Grand Tour Norman Solomon Nukes for India; Threats for Iran Dave Lindorff Get Back to Where We Once Belonged Bill Christison Bush's Itinerary: First Stop Syria, Next Stop Iran Joshua Frank Laura's Justice?: Meet Edith Brown Clement   July 18, 2005 Joshua Frank An Interview with Ward Churchill M. Shahid Alam A Muslim Problem: Did Thomas Friedman Flunk History? Jude Wanniski Memo to Patrick Fitzgerald Ron Jacobs A Weekend to Stop the War Mike Whitney The Straight Line Between Falluja and King's Cross Station William MacDougall From "Bring It On" to "London Can Take It" Seth Sandronsky Temporary Recovery: New Frontiers in Labor Flexibility Richard Lichtman The Consolations of George Lakoff Paul Craig Roberts Can Congressional Republicans End Bush's Wars? Website of the Weekend Novels of the Neo-Cons   July 15 / 17, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Don't You Dare Call It Treason Jeffrey St. Clair Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton Paul Craig Roberts Economic Treason Harry Browne "What They Do to Us, They Will Do to You": Shell Oil in Mayo, Ireland Uri Davis, Ilan Pappe and Tamar Yaron A Warning from Israel Andrew Rubin End of the Enlightenment: an Open Letter to Stephen Plaut Patrick Cockburn Iraq's Ghost Battalions J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Changes in Selma: Standing Up to Racism in the South Fred Gardner A Professional Bust Christopher Brauchli An Olympic Feat: How to "Double" Aid with No New Money Chris Floyd The Great Iraq Oil Giveaway Ben Tripp The Dark Incontinent Col. Dan Smith General Abizaid, I'm Glad You Asked Jason Leopold What Did Rove Say and When Did He Say It? Jack Random Miller Time Norman Solomon War and Venture Capitalism George Ochenski Liberate Montana's Rivers: Come One, Come All! Website of the Weekend Vote for CounterPuncher David Vest     July 14, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton Subcomandante Marcos This is What Will Do and How We Shall Do It: the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona Dave Lindorff No More Moral Relativism: the US is a Terrorist State Joshua Frank Rove Agency: Liberals and the CIA Jude Wanniski Those 8 Black Pages: What's the Real Story on Karl Rove? Dave Zirin Storming the Castle Kevin Zeese Exit Strategy: Within Reach? Robert Jensen War Myths and the Press Reza Fiyouzat A Worldwide Call to Free Akbar Ganji Carol Norris Governor Paranoid: Schwarzenegger Comes Unhinged Website of the Day Nate Osborn: Heroic Human Rights Activist and CounterPuncher   July 13, 2005 Brian Cloughley Cold Blooded Murders in Iraq George Galloway We Can't Separate the London Bombings from the Political Backdrop Carlos Fierro A Supreme Waste of Time Sarah Knopp Hate on the Border Norman Solomon "Isolated Pockets of Problems": the Fake Optimism of Washington's Warriors Mickey Z. Water on the Brain Jim Minick The Right Tree in the Right Place Pat Williams American Indian Education for All Andrew N. Rubin Life Behind the Wall: "We are No Longer Able to See the Sun Set" Website of the Day "London's Burning": the Mikey Mix     July 12, 2005 Laith al-Saud Voices of Resistance: an Interview with Dr. Mohammed al-Obaidi of Iraq's Peoples' Struggle Movement Kara N. Tina 'this is How We Do It": Report from the Gleneagles Battlefield William A. Cook The London Bombings: Why Has It Come to This? Jack Bratich 2 Live Cruise: Tom Cruise v. Big Pharma Amina Mire The Problem with Speaking in the Name of Others Dick J. Reavis Lessons from the Christian Jihadists: the Virtues of Burning Crosses and Colored Smoke Kevin Zeese Depleted Uranium: States Take Action to Protect Their Vets Paul Craig Roberts No-Think Nation Website of the Day Coke Gags Indian Artist     July 9 / 11, 2005 Alexander Cockburn After the Bombings Uri Avnery War of the Colors in Israel Sheldon Rampton Blaming Galloway: Rhetoric vs. Reality in London Bill Christison Hiroshima's 60th Anniversary and Nukes in Iran: an Opportunity or Just More Hand-wringing from the Peace Movement? Robert Fisk Blair's Alliance with Bush Bombed Stephen Winspear Collateral Damage in London? Saul Landau Mission Accomplished: Iraq is Broken Behrooz Ghamari Thomas Friedman's Muslim Problem Karl Beitel False Promises and Real Debt Relief Brian Concannon, Jr. Throwing Gasoline on Haiti's Fires Fred Gardner Sentencing Season John Whitlow And What Does the Market Say? Niranjan Ramakrishnan The London Blasts: Who's Being Transformed, Them or Us? Lila Rajiva Witches and Bastards Laura Carlsen CAFTA: Deepening the Inequities Jackie Corr Ted Turner and Jiminy Cricket Dave Lindorff "My Brother Went Over There Gung Ho; Now He's Just Bitter" N. D. Jayaprakash Why the CIA Tried to Kill Chou En Lai at the Bandung Conference Seth Sandronsky Meet the 'truth Tour": Rightwing Radio Hosts Go to Iraq Norman Madarasz The Choking of Brazil's Worker Party Ben Tripp The Inevitability of George W. Bush Poets' Basement Louise, Albert, Landau, Davies and Engel Website of the Weekend The Mother of All Enemies Lists     July 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Blowback Hits Britain: Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception Tariq Ali The London Bombings: Why They Happened Monica Benderman One Soldier's Fight to Legalize Morality Rick Jahnkow Beyond Opt-Out: the Counter-Recruitment Movement Christopher Brauchli Dear Vet: If You Want to Eat While You Recuperate, You Gotta Pay Extra Kim Peterson Bombs in the Underground: Terror Begats Terror Joshua Frank Leakers and Liars: Inching Toward Indictments? Norman Solomon Messages from the Carnage Website of the Day An Interview with Ray McGovern   July 7, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr John Walsh More Hawkish Than Bush: Dems in Full Battle Cry Mike Marqusee Message from London Gilad Atzmon London's Burning Nicole Colson Showdown at the Supreme Court Jack Random Judith Miller, Anti-Hero Norman Solomon Judith Miller, Drum Majorette for War Len Colodny Is Bob Woodward Still Protecting Al Haig? Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr                                                             Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition July 30 / 31, 2005 Enhancements for the Imperial Life Fashionism Takes Command By SAUL LANDAU "Fascism has taken hold," friends warn, referring to how Bush has used the Patriot Act to whittle away liberties (like habeas corpus) and increase the power of Homeland Security. "It's fashionism, not fascism," offers another friend, referring to the thousands of unsolicited daily messages offered by media, which lead us to lose focus on the political world. For example, how do we mentally balance urgent ads for cut rate cell phones with experts charging that our military is seriously over-extended in Iraq and Afghanistan? Can we psychologically multitask between buying something at a "pre-season sale" and assuaging anxiety when experts declare that the rest of the world hates us because of our cruel, illegal and aggressive actions, especially in the Middle East? Simultaneously, as newspaper, magazine, web, TV and radio ads remind us of our individual inadequacies, they also alert us that our environment is rapidly eroding. One side of the newspaper page exhorts us to buy a new car so as to increase our prestige and enhance the satisfaction of our sex lives, while the parallel column offers us examples of the corrupt, star-studded, super commercialized culture in which we appear as wannabes. For example, the San Jose Mercury News (July 15) revealed that muscle magazines pay $5 million as a consultant to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who campaigned on an anti-special interests platform and pledged to take no salary as governor. The salary derives from magazine sales which, in turn, come from ads placed by makers of 'supplements." Coincidentally, the Governator vetoed a bill that would have prevented students from participating in high school sports if they used those "performance-enhancing" ingredients. The "news" shotguns us daily with mixed ammunition: perennial gang and drug-related violence, Congressmen getting free trips or taking sordid money for re-election, stars marrying, divorcing or entering drug treatment programs. Where do we focus? The commercial media operates without a brain, unable to guide its audience or direct its message toward the public good. It presents history unfolding as a series of mostly catastrophic facts without context or analysis, while commercials tell us what to buy to become perfect. When technology arises and gets ingested by society it also becomes what Karl Marx referred to as a "force of production." Such "forces" also change habits thanks to the hidden hand inside the new inventions. This elusive commander then shapes daily patterns. Think how the automobile has changed life in one century! Consider TV's impact! How have computers altered our routines and the way we think of Time and Space. These instruments extend beyond the consumption sphere; they form the basis of the productive and distributive systems. They restructure entire labor forces. Look how computers have changed the task of taking inventory in large department stores or super markets! Technology also enters the world of fashion and thus modifies aesthetics. Those pernicious and invisible dominators that squirrel themselves inside of 'technology" have now hit the toddler market. According to an Oct 2003 report released by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (www.kff.org), millions of those who can barely walk have already been immersed for hours a day in TV and video watching. They learn to use computers and play video games before they can read. Some barely learn to read even as they grow up. "Children six and under spend an average of two hours a day using screen media (1:58), about the same amount of time they spend playing outside (2:01), and well over the amount they spend reading or being read to (39 minutes)." Thanks to interactive digital media technology, 48% of children six and under have used a computer (31% of 0-3 year-olds and 70% of 4-6 year-olds). Just under a third (30%) play video games (14% of 0-3 year-olds and 50% of 4-6 year-olds). Even the youngest children--those under two--are widely exposed to electronic media. Forty-three percent of those under two watch TV every day, and 26% have a TV in their bedroom (the American Academy of Pediatrics "urges parents to avoid television for children under 2 years old"). In any given day, two-thirds (68%) of children under two will use a screen medium, for an average of just over two hours (2:05). Vicky Rideout, vice president and director of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health, who led the team that issued the report said that the "wiring" trend goes beyond adolescents and to "babies in diapers as well. So much new media is being targeted at infants and toddlers, it's critical that we learn more about the impact it's having on child development." The study also shows that kids with a 'tV in their bedroom or who live in "heavy" TV households average 22 minutes more a day watching than other children, and less time reading or playing outside." Those living in "heavy" TV households are more likely to watch every day (77% v. 56%), and to watch for 34 minutes more a day and are less likely to read. In fact, they are less likely than other children to be able to read at all. Only 34% of children ages 4-6 from "heavy" TV households can read, compared to 56% of other children that age. Millions of kids stay in their rooms, absorbed in virtual reality games that ooze from plasma screens. Speakers bark loud sound which, along with digital illusion has also altered the modern aesthetic. Indeed, certain sounds and images automatically refer to violence. Thanks to the digital revolution "fashionism" has reached new markets and depths. Entertainment business executives have used their hackers, animators, designers and programmers to elevate what was once known as special effects into a department of virtual defects. Those who write plots and dialogue now assume as axiomatic the needs for graphic displays of blood, bone and gore. Sound engineers rev up the slurps and thwacks, the subtle tones of explosions and gunshots--and in the R rated films, the familiar bedroom epiphanies. So urgently does the profit bell ring in the ears of the Pavlovian dogs of Hollywood CEOs that they use technology to thwart the right wing censors that hover like birds of prey over anything that might give children--or themselves?--a hint of lusty sex. Obedient to the aggressive tastes of the active prudes, the profit side of Hollywood decides how to accommodate to their aesthetic and thus produce and distribute such products in the theaters. The makers of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Batman Begins, for examples, substitute violence for sex, and thus escape the dreaded R rating. Thrill-seeking underage movie goers pour into the theaters to watch ferocious scenes in the virtual sphere. With photo-shopped special effects the standards set by the NRA and mighty fundamentalist reverends no longer stand as impediments. Violence, after all, is healthier than watching people doing "it"--things that millions of ordinary people have done for thousands of years. Don't get confused. The Hollywood formula contains the same basic ingredients that the original Hollywood moguls distilled for desperate audiences more than a century ago. A handsome--and often rich--hero saves the world from an evil fanatic. This usually accompanies a romance that brings him happiness for the rest of his life--until the sequel, anyhow. Technology, however, has infinite hidden hands. Can it enhance violence enough to lure the 12-25 year olds to theaters and away form DVDs? By removing sex from movies so as to avoid parental permission provisions for theater entry, Hollywood marketing geniuses may drive those old enough to actually have sex at home, stimulated by watching violence on the smaller screen. "Pow, crash, bang." "Hey, this turns me on." "Me too." "I don't want to miss any of the action." Huffing and puffing for ten minutes. "You think we missed something?" "Did you stop the DVD? Well, go back to where we got distracted." Those too young--Viagra has overcome age--to enjoy themselves can still enjoy themselves virtually with DVD copies rented by older siblings. Imagine, their parents leave them happily at their computers--with baby sitters supposedly doing homework--and go to an R rated movie. Yes, cultural trivialization proceeds apace with daily Baghdad carnage reports. The new "fashions" in clothes, houses, games, computers and cell phones define American culture, the product that Bush offers to the rest of the world as "freedom." With it, presumably, he would finish "liberating" Iraq--or just finish Iraq. So, when Bush insists that Congress restore the Patriot Act intact, it's jot fascism, but "fashionism" he means. Saul Landau teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University and is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies.