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Today's Stories December 8 / 9, 2007 Saul Landau The Ruins of Empire Allan Nairn Imposed Hunger in Gaza, the Army in Indonesia Paul Craig Roberts When Will Bush Come Clean? December 7, 2007 Sean Penn Piano Wire Puppeteers Arthur Versluis Mining Water in the Desert M. G. Piety Racism and the American Psyche: Some Thoughts on Race and Intelligence Pam Martens Banksters Gone Wild Alan Farago Will the Free Market Kill Suburbia? Sprawl and the Credit Crisis Allan Nairn It Takes (Out) a Village Col. Dan Smith Bush, Iran and the Politics of Doomsday Alice Slater The Iran Opening Robert Weissman The Story of Stuff Website of the Day Something About Mitt December 6, 2007 Al Giordano Hillary Clinton and the Politics of Character Assassination Kathy Kelly Traveling Light Russell Mokhiber The Black Hillary Farzana Versey Aftershocks from the Demolition of the Babri Mosque Marwan Bishara Nuclear Fallout Neta Golan A Generous Offer? The Aix Group and the Palestinians Paul Krassner Mitt Romney = Hypocrisy     December 5, 2007 Mike Whitney Why the CFR Hates Putin Sharon Smith The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden and the Dead End Democrats James Petras Venezuela in the Aftermath Ron Jacobs The Iran Charade Dave Zirin Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor John V. Whitbeck Two States or One? Time to Choose Peter Zinn Covered in New Orleans Niranjan Ramakrishnan Impeach Pelosi Instead Alan Farago The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida Heather Gray US Meddling in Australian Politics Website of the Day A Donner Summit Night Before Xmas   December 4, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in Ann Arbor Andy Worthington Guantánamo and the Supreme Court Paul Craig Roberts The Lies at the End of the American Dream Ray McGovern No-Nuke Iran Winslow T. Wheeler Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are Too Small Allan Nairn The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just Want Food" Russell Mokhiber The USA v. Al Arian Nikolas Kozloff As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American Left John V. Walsh Peace Movement Paralyzed Ghada Ageel Will Peace Cost Me My Home? Stephen Soldz The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist Involvement in Interrogations Website of the Day Hands Off the People of Iran     December 3, 2007 Tariq Ali Venezuela After the Referendum Bill Quigley New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor, Tax Credits for Developers Eric Walberg The Bible and Middle East History Uri Avnery After Annapolis Marjorie Cohn Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed Dave Lindorff Vengeance Isn't Sweet Stephen Fleischman Homeless in Paradise Martha Rosenberg Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile Website of the Day So Just Lead!   December 1 / 2, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift in a Sea of Booze Jeffrey St. Clair The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and the Future of the Rocky Mountain West Mike Whitney "Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir Rosen Shemon Salam A Visit From the FBI Roger Burbach The Battle in Bolivia Benjamin Dangl New Politics in Old Bolivia Brian M. Downing The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to the Surge? Greg Moses Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story Sonja Karkar The "Never-Never" Peace Conference Saul Landau Ethics and Evil in South Boston Margaret Kimberley Black America Left Behind John Ross What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution? Reza Fiyouzat Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran Judith Scherr Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays Lance Olsen Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy Christopher Brauchli Mr. Bush and the Despots Robert Fantina Iraq as U.S. Colony Dan Bacher Fish Triage on Prospect Island Michael Donnelly Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency Website of the Weekend Appalachian Voices   November 30, 2007 Peter Stone Brown The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan Wajahat Ali The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's Former Minister of Information Allan Nairn Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers Alan Farago The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash John Ross The Death of Latin America's First Revolution Corporate Crime Reporter America's Corporate Crime Capitals Lucia Alvarez Diego Gonzalez Argentina's Political Future James Rothenberg The Iraqi Miracle Website of the Day Bio-Bling?   November 29, 2007 R. F. Blader The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran Stephen Soldz War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire Sheldon Richman Iraq 3.0 George Wuerthner Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws Felice Pace Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis? Col. Dan Smith The Meaning of Annapolis Harvey Wasserman Terror Target Nukes Nikolas Kozloff Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08 Paul Krassner Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike! Dave Lindorff News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela? CP News Service The One State Declaration Website of the Day A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter November 28, 2007 James Petras CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces on Venezuela Jeff Halper Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One Way Street Pam Martens Crashing Citigroup Peter Morici Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession Mohammed Khatib Separate and Unequal in Palestine Helen Redmond The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America William S. Lind In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm? Ben Tripp We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges Jeff Berg Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran Website of the Day The Lies of Joe Klein   November 27, 2007 Joe DeRaymond On the Road to the Torture School Paul Craig Roberts Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary and Rudy Marjorie Cohn Remembering Victor Rabinowitz Mike Whitney A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp Ron Jacobs The Myths of Military Progress Col. Dan Smith The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work Ralph Nader Family Learning Karim Makdisi Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut Christopher Ketcham Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop Ronan Bennett Martin Amis Does a Coulter Website of the Day Celebrating the Uncensored Media

Weekend Edition December 8 / 9, 2007 A Letter from Italy The Ruins of Empire By SAUL LANDAU The Roman Empire has lessons to teach even to humble tourists. For some, the instruction is how to frame a shot of a fried or loved one posed against ancient stone structures, without simultaneously recording the guides who recite “facts” in several languages. One woman wearing a badge that made her official casually referred to Roman emperor Vespasian as “the one who forced Jewish prisoners to begin work on construction of the Colosseum in 72AD.” Such behavior should clash with the sensibility of the architecture and precision of the craft required to construct the exquisitely designed arches all around this multi-tiered amphitheater bespeak levels of understanding, qualities of mind that should have recoiled at the very notion of forced labor – no less feeding men to hungry lions to amuse the emperor and up to 50,000 other spectators. Sea-going slaves rowed the immense marble and stone pillars across an often unfriendly Adriatic Sea. Once in Rome, skilled architects and craftsmen mobilized tens of thousands of members of vanquished nations to lay bricks and sculpt the magnificent façade of the arena. Likewise, the arches, columns and designs that went into building the Roman Forum (ruins next to the Colosseum) where citizens met and discussed the affairs of the nation and carried out rituals show a degree of democratic organization that should not have logically coexisted with slavery. Just as our own scientific and technological achievements do not coincide with slaughtering 4 million people in Vietnam. God only knows how many in Iraq! The contemporary Nero, W. Bush, plays video golf instead of the violin while Iraq burns. He shrugs off scientific warnings about global warming and recites platitudes while encouraging more autos and trucks to ride the highways. He has also allowed the dollar to weaken so that multinational corporations can export more products made from hydrocarbons – their advertisers have conditioned the “buying public” to need. Scientists chart the human genome and explore outer space, but no appreciable advances in reason as applied to human behavior appear – except on paper, as laws written to curtail the abominable activities of previous wars. Almost eight centuries ago, the Magna Carta established rights for the non ruling people. In 2001, the US President annulled habeas corpus, thus deleting 800 plus years of history. Like Roman emperors, Bush justified the extension of his power, including the use of torture, by referring to national security (exigencies of state), the war on terror (Communism, Islam, heretics etc…) and other empty phrases that quickly take on the authority of God’s word: something one cannot question, no matter how preposterous it sounds. Millions each day go through rituals devised by the TSA (Thousands Standing Around, said my grandson) as if these “security” procedures will stop a carefully planned attack. Italian socialist and green friends shake their heads in disapproval over the US electorate’s choice. Yet, in the same time period, Italians elected as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who appears on TV as the equivalent of a comic actor impersonating Mussolini. Defending himself against charges that under his reign (ended in 2006) the mass media he personally owns had improper communication with the state-owned TV and radio, Berlusconi dismissed the accusations as “ridiculous.” As he moved his hands and arms symmetrically – he could have been demonstrating the body language of an arch-type anal personality to a psychology class – he argued that the collaboration was “only natural,” hardly evidence that he was trying to control the media. This Italian combination of William Randolph Hearst, Rupert Murdoch and Benito Mussolini should comfort liberal Americans who thought their fellow citizens were especially deranged for voting for George W. Bush. Perhaps they could take some solace in the fact that the more developed – taste the food if you doubt it – Italians voted for a similar political mountebank into office to direct their government. “He represents success,” says a retired Italian labor official. “That’s what obviously attracted the majority of Italians.” She referred to Berlusconi’s ability to make tens of millions of dollars in business – unlike Bush, who possesses no visible virtues, not even a green thumb. Italy’s revived imperial pretensions – after the fall of the Roman Empire – rudely ended with the downfall of Mussolini in 1944. His ventures into Ethiopia in the 1930s, however, paled before the exploits of the HRE, which ruled hunks of the world for over a millennium. The Vatican, which remains as a lot more than a vestige of that empire, has been home to Popes since the late 14th Century. Inside this vast and elaborate complex of buildings and cathedrals, a formidable museum displays the wealth acquired (stolen) like floors made from tiles taken from private homes and re-laid as floors in the Vatican, artifacts, sculptures, pillars, from many parts of the world over many centuries. At the end of the long museum tour one finds the piece de resistance: the Sistine Chapel. In 1508, Julius II contracted -- ordered-- with Michelangelo, the young painter and architect, to represent graphically on the ceiling the essence of the Catholic magic. Indeed, all around Rome and other Italian cities, geniuses have displayed their talents for the purpose of perpetuating the myths of the virgin birth and the other fantastic stories that form the very foundation of Christianity. By the end of his life Michelangelo put his talents to memorializing Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the one surviving statue at Il Campodoglio (The Capitol). Everywhere one walks in Rome one sees evidence of the creativity of past centuries, somewhat reduced now by the commercialism alongside – a billboard advertising a fancy watch overlooks the Trevi Fountain -- the noise and smell of the robust auto and motorbike traffic that pervades everything, even the magnificence of Bernini’s 17th Century obelisks. Five hours northeast of Rome, the train arrives at the car-less, water surrounded city of Venice. For the dwindling number of residents (lack of jobs other than tourism has reduced a city of some 200 plus thousand to well under 100 thousand), the hydrocarbons that feed the causes of global warming present a clear and very present danger. If the oceans rise, Venice will be among the first of its victims. Instead of motorized land vehicles, Venetians move around on the vaporetti, the small ferries that take them and the tourists around the city and to its off shore islands. Like the residents of Rome, however, the Venetians too are drenched in a history of empire --- meaning wars. In the early Fifth Century AD, the Visigoths invaded Italy, which meant that the fleeing population sought refuge on the Venetian islands. By the mid 6th Century the Byzantine empire encompassed Italy and some of the pointy arched architecture, the friezes and mosaics show the influence of the Moors who also invaded Italy in the 6th Century. Modern Venice, however, has suffered a steady depopulation since the end of World War II. A city once numbering almost 200,000 residents now counts less than a third of that amount as people left to find jobs on the mainland. Tourists pour in, however, to take $100 gondola rides and view the magnificent San Marco Basilica and the Palazzo Ducale. Senegalese men stand around the Piazza – as they do near tourist attractions in Rome – selling women’s handbags. Immigrant groups carve out their niches: some Vietnamese weave , Bangladeshis sell toys and Italian customs boats patrol the waters around Venice to try to prevent more of them from coming, less fervently than US border patrols guard the Mexican border. Italy does share a similar anti-immigrant fervor as the economy backslides. A short train ride takes one to Padua, where Shakespeare’s shrew allegedly got tamed. The ubiquitous African handbag peddlers display their wares there as well. Among the passers by on the street are North Africans, South Asians and even Latin Americans – members of Europe’s new working class. Like in most of Europe and the United States, Italy has reserved the lowest scale jobs for these now unwelcome immigrants. Ah, the glories of globalization. But even Bush’s neo con advisers, who try not to learn, should absorb obvious lessons for their “new Rome,” as the call the US empire. Old Rome’s imperial leaders expanded militarily, stretching their economic resources. They also offered citizens amusement rather than consulting them on policy. Indeed, one of the ruins is supposedly the very spot where Caeser was assassinated. This is not a suggestion! Now tourists get amused by looking at ancient times and going “wow.” Hard to learn difficult lessons on a full – and very amused – tummy. Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies Fellow and writes weekly for Counterpunch and progreswoweekly.com. His new Counterpunch book is A BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD. Get his new dvd – WE DON’T PLAY GOLF HERE – from roundworldproductions@gmail.com

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