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Today's
Stories
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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.
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Weekend Edition
October 22 / 24, 2004
Off the Telepromter
George
W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
By
SAUL LANDAU
The Presidential debates revealed aspects
of Gorge W. Bush's character that bear careful scrutiny--if not
acute psychiatric care. The media made much of his body language
and facial expressions, especially his reactions to John Kerry
when his opponent appeared to be scoring a direct hit when he
accused Bush of "misleading the American people."
In his 2000 encounters with Al Gore, Bush occasionally flashed
that "deer-caught-in-the-headlights" look, that befuddled,
almost pathetic expression of surprise. But he recovered to
resume the combative, jousting presence that his parents must
have instilled in him as "proper" for a young man with
limited intelligence and capabilities. Bush repeated phrases
from his limited vocabulary. He used some of them again, with
modifiers, in the 2004 debates, like "Leaders lead."
This kind of proclamation often followed an embarrassingly long
pause in which Bush appeared to ponder whether he should offer
an Alfred E. Newman grin--"What, me worry?"--or resort
to the pugnacious posture with which he seems equally comfortable.
Bush's behavior led Professor of Social Work Katherine Van Wormer
to label him "a dry drunk," (October
11, 2002 Counterpunch) referring to "a slang term used
by members and supporters of Alcoholics Anonymous and substance
abuse counselors to describe the recovering alcoholic who is
no longer drinking, one who is dry, but whose thinking is clouded.
Such an individual is said to be dry but not truly sober. Such
an individual tends to go to extremes."
Before Bush led the nation to war against Iraq, he used terms
like "crusade" and "infinite justice," which
he later withdrew as inappropriate. But he seemed truly comfortable
with "evil doers," "axis of evil," and "regime
change." This "bravado speak" emanates from a
man who drank and used drugs for years, a man that addiction
psychologists describe as nursing a deep, dark wound inside him.
Yes, Bush got "born again" in his early forties, but
how does  "finding
Jesus" account for his seeming unwillingness to admit that
he has made mistakes--claiming, for example, he had to invade
Iraq because it possessed weapons of mass destruction and tight
links to the terrorist Al-Qaeda? The 9/11 Commission, along with
his own weapons inspector, David Kay and finally the CIA have
effectively refuted those allegations.
In his almost four years in office, Bush's unsteadiness as President
corresponds to his use of extreme language. He warned the nations
of the world: "Either you are with us or against us."
The heads of state of almost all countries had offered aid and
sympathy to the American people after 9/11. But with this statement
Bush effectively brushed aside the solidarity and set his own
standards for the world's behavior.
But these "standards" lack consistency. "He who
harbors a terrorist is as guilty as the terrorist," he snapped,
as if unconscious of the fact that he himself harbored a covey
of anti-Castro terrorists in Florida. Not only had he his father
and his brother bent over backwards to accommodate such notorious
bombers as Orlando Bosch (co-author of the successful plot to
bomb a Cuban airliner over Barbados in 1976, killing 73 people),
but some of these thugs actually helped him intimidate Florida
vote counters in 2000.
So, it did not exactly shock me when, in late August, outgoing
Pnamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned four anti-Castroites
who had long terrorist records. Their release and arrival in
Miami, to a heroes' welcome by the hard line anti-Castro sector,
coincided with Bush's campaign stop there. Bush never criticized
Guillermo Novo, (who fired a bazooka at the UN in 1964 and plotted
to kill Orlando Letelier in 1976) or Gaspar Jimenez (convicted
in 1977 of assassinating a Cuban official) and Pedro Remon (who
assassinated another Cuban exile, Eulalio Negrin in 1979). The
FBI calls them "terrorists." They strongly support
Bush and he knows that if the Florida vote is close he can call
on the services of such "zealous patriots" as he did
in the 2000 election.
Bush's use of encompassing idioms to justify his policies led
Van Wormer to conclude that such articulation is common in "newly
recovering alcoholics/addicts. Such a worldview traps people
in a pattern of destructive behavior. Obsessive thought patterns
are also pronounced in persons prone to addiction. There are
organic reasons for this due to brain chemistry irregularities;
messages in one part of the brain become stuck there. This leads
to maddening repetition of thoughts."
Count the times Bush said "free Iraq" and "free
Afghanistan"--neither of which is free by any meaningful
definition--and how often he rebuked Kerry's criticism of the
Iraq invasion by resorting to: "that's not a good message
to send to our troops." Have the troops not learned that
the Iraqi people did not welcome them with open arms, but rather
used arms against them?
Bush did, however, send a clear message to the world. He undid
the Nuremburg doctrine outlawing aggressive war and the UN Charter
outlawing pre-emptive intervention, legal precedents that the
US government took the initiative to establish. He has not acknowledged
his dramatic violations of international law. Indeed, from what
he says, he apparently does not think about such matters.
Van Wormer also lists impatience as another characteristic of
"dry drunks." Bush could not wait, for example, for
UN weapons inspectors in Iraq to complete their mission in early
2003 before sending in US troops--who, as we know, also failed
to find the non-existent weapons. In reaction shots shown by
TV networks during the first debate with Kerry, Bush's facial
expressions also indicates an appearance of barely contained
tolerance.
Televised debates don't, however, probe Bush's character. Without
a teleprompter, Bush has difficulty achieving coherence or articulating
sequential messages. For a man who admittedly does not read,
he nevertheless evinces an aura of "certainty." His
aggressive, conservative aura of assurance seem more like one
of Karl Rove's marketing ploys than an expression of real conviction.
How can an ignorant man have deep convictions about complex subjects
other than by referencing some higher connection that assures
him of the truth.
Bush's character also raises doubts about his ability to govern.
He blatantly used his family connections to get into Ivy League
schools and the Air National Guard, rather than get drafted for
Vietnam. He refuses to clarify missing links in his biography
or talk about details of his 1976 DUI; or other incidents in
his "partying days."
But his former professor Yoshi Tsurumi, a Visiting Professor
at Harvard Business School in 1973-4 remembered that "students
who challenged and embarrassed Bush in class would then become
the subject of a whispering campaign by him." (Mary Jacoby
Salon Sept. 16, 2004)
Senator John McCain might recall the whispering campaign circulating
ugly rumors about his personal life in South Carolina in 200
as he challenged Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries.
Tsurumi recalled that Bush "made this ridiculous statement
'The government doesn't have to help poor people -- because they
are lazy.'" Bush could not defend the statement, Tsurumi
said, and then denied saying it. Bush called "Roosevelt's
policies 'socialism.' He denounced labor unions, the Securities
and Exchange Commission, Medicare, Social Security, you name
it. He denounced the civil rights movement as socialismAnd when
challenged to explain his prejudice, he could not defend his
argument, either ideologically, polemically or academically."
In class, Professor Tsurumi remembers, Bush "wouldn't challenge
them. But after class, he sometimes came up to me in the hallway
and started bad-mouthing those students who challenged him. He
would complain that someone was drinking too much. It was innuendo
and lies. So that's how I knew, behind his smile and his smirk,
that he was a very insecure, cunning and vengeful guy."
Other professors shared his recollection Tsurumi said, but feared
to speak out. Tsurumi himself became a US citizen before talking
to the Salon reporter, because he feared what Bush might do to
him. But he felt the Iraq bloodshed and out-of-control federal
deficit made it imperative to reveal his observations about the
Commander in Chief's character.
Bush's malapropisms continue to amuse some. "I'm not the
expert on how the Iraqi people think, because I live in America,
where it's nice and safe and secure," he said at a press
conference with Ayad Allawi, the man he named as Prime Minister
of Iraq, in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2004. Bush also claimed
at that time that "It's the Afghan national army that went
into Najaf and did the work there."
It's not that Bush twists words or deliberately distorts for
political ends. He's not that clever. Seymour Hersh explains
in his new book, Chain
of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib that "words
have no meaning for this President beyond the immediate moment,
and so he believes that his mere utterance of the phrases make
them real. It is a terrifying possibility."
As Bush bad-mouths Kerry and repeats lies about Iraq, he also
mangles the language. In that sense he has become a man of his
words.
Saul Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International
Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social
Sciences. His new book is The
Business of America.
Weekend
Edition Features for October 16 / 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
/
|