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Today's
Stories
February 18, 2004
Greg Weiher
Why is Kerry Getting a Pass?
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
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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February
18, 2004
China Syndrome
Bush
and Wen Joined at the Hip (Pocket)
By DAVID LINDORFF
China's Communist leaders and the Bush family
have always been close. When daddy Bush, functioning as ambassador
to China, was cavorting around Beijing with his secretary/mistress,
China's security apparatus was discrete about the rather brazen
affair and the leadership kept its mouth shut right through the
course of Bush's political career. Indeed, the elder Bush is
often referred to fondly in Beijing as a "friend of China"-an
appellation that has also been applied to Henry Kissinger, and
that is money in the pocket of anyone who can claim it.
But as cordial as China has been towards
the elder Bush, there seems to be a truly unseemly simpatico
between the current Chinese leadership, under Premier Wen Jiabao,
and the younger Bush. China's leaders have loved his War on Terrorism,
which has given Beijing the ability to claim that its crackdowns
in Tibet and Xinjiang, and indeed on democracy and labor rights
activists in general, are part of that same "war".
They have also enjoyed the Bush administration's thorough disinterest
in human rights issues.
But nowhere do the two regimes line up
so smartly as in their dismissive attitude towards the democratic
aspirations of subject people. In that respect, there is little
difference between the stance of Beijing towards the Special
Administrative Region of Hong Kong, and that of the Bush administration
towards the occupied territory of Iraq. In both cases, the ruling
powers and their leaders are dead set against permitting genuine
democracy to exist.
In Hong Kong, a city of 6.8 million that
was returned to China in 1997 after being a colony of Great Britain
for over a century, the citizens had been promised a "high
degree of autonomy" within the Chinese system,. More specifically,
they were promised that in 2007 they would be allowed to elect
their chief executive (read Governor) and that in 2011, they'd
be able to elect all 60 members of their Legislative Council
(at present a majority of the legislators are appointed, many
of them by various business associations, in an arcane system
devised by British colonial rulers to thwart local democracy
activists). But as that date approaches, and as democracy forces
have grown stronger, Beijing has begun to backtrack vigorously,
with authorities now saying that democracy may have to wait another
30-50 years.
Hong Kongers are not yet ready for democracy,
they say.
The line, and the policy, might as well
have been lifted from the statements made by the Pentagon, State
Department and L Paul Bremer with respect to Iraqis, who likewise
are being said to be unready for the ballot box.
Of course in both cases, the truth is
something else.
Democracy is not all that complicated,
so to say anyone, particularly in lands which boast a relatively
high degree of literacy, is "not ready" for such a
political system is an insult. (Indeed, if anyone is unready
for democracy these days, it is probably the American public,
which, judging by voter participation rates and general ignorance
regarding issues and candidates, not to mention the ease with
which large segments of the electorate can be manipulated, is
truly unprepared to vote.) In Hong Kong last year, a million
people, one seventh of the total population and probably about
a third of the electorate, demonstrated peacefully in the streets
to demand democracy. If that's not being ready, I don't know
what is. In Iraq, meanwhile, tens of thousands of people have
also demonstrated to demand democracy, and under much more dangerous
circumstances, i.e.: the threat of attack by American occupation
forces and various Iraqi groups. Thousands more have been waging
a courageous insurrection against heavily armed U.S. occupation
forces and their quisling supporters, risking, and often suffering
death and injury in the process.
The reality is that neither Beijing nor
the Bush administration is really concerned about the "readiness"
of the people in these subjugated territories for democracy.
What they're both worried about is what those all too ready people-Hong
Kongers and Iraqis-would do if they had the power to elect the
leaders they really wanted. Beijing fears that Hong Kong people
would elect democratic movement leaders who would wrest control
of the local government from the business interests that have
ruled Hong Kong like a private bank for decades, that they would
institute genuine social welfare programs, like a graduated income
tax, unemployment compensation, a welfare and social security
system, better public education funding, and all the other things
that virtually every other modern society in the world has come
to expect. And they are right. They are also worried that democracy,
if permitted in Hong Kong, would lead to inexorable demands for
the same thing inside the rest of China. And they are right to
worry about that too.
As for the Bush administration, it worries
that permitting real democracy in Iraq, instead of a carefully
stage-managed "caucus" process for choosing leaders,
would lead to a government that would tell the U.S. to get out
of Iraq-and they're right to worry about that. They are probably
also worried-despite their protestations of wanting to light
a democratic fire across the Middle East-that democracy in Iraq
would spread and undermine pro-U.S. kleptcracies and sheikdoms
from Morocco to Saudi Arabia. And they are probably right to
worry about that happening too.
Even on the matter of Taiwan, Bush and
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao seem to have found common ground:
neither leader wants to see Taiwan voters reelect their current
president-pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian. China,
by threats and by working through Taiwanese businessmen with
interests in China, is supporting old-guard Kuomintang candidate
Lien Chan, who favors a much more conciliatory relationship with
the mainland. The U.S. too, is hoping for Chen's defeat at the
polls, so that the Taiwan issue can gradually fade away, leaving
American companies free to pursue cheap labor and profits in
China.
This symbiotic relationship between America's
Bush and China's Wen might seem bizarre, but then one has to
remember there is a reason for their fundamental shared distrust
of democracy. After all, neither leader was elected.
Dave Lindorff
is the author of Killing
Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
He is now in Taiwan on a Fulbright scholarship.
A collection of Lindorff's stories can
be found here: http://www.nwuphilly.org
Weekend
Edition Features for February 14 / 15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
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