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Today's Stories

October 7, 2003

Gary Leupp
Israel's Attack on Syria: Who's on the Wrong Side of History, Now?

 

October 6, 2003

Robert Fisk
US Gave Israel Green Light for Raid on Syria

Forrest Hylton
Upheaval in Bolivia: Crisis and Opportunity

Benjamin Dangl
Divisions Deepen in Third Week of Bolivia's Gas War

Bridget Gibson
Oh, Pioneers!: Bush's New Deal

Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus

Nicole Gamble
Rios Montt's Campaign Threatens Genocide Trials

JoAnn Wypijewski
The New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor

Website of the Day
Guerrilla Funk

 

October 3 / 5, 2003

Tim Wise
The Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment

Peter Linebaugh
Rhymsters and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW

Gary Leupp
Occupation as Rape-Marriage

Bruce Jackson
Addio Alle Armi

David Krieger
A Nuclear 9/11?

Ray McGovern
L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's War on Whistleblowers

Col. Dan Smith
Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean

Mickey Z.
In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest

Roger Burbach
Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq

John Chuckman
Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus

William S. Lind
Versailles on the Potomac

Glen T. Martin
The Corruptions of Patriotism

Anat Yisraeli
Bereavement as Israeli Ethos

Wayne Madsen
Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can

M. Junaid Alam
The Racism Barrier

William Benzon
Scorsese's Blues

Adam Engel
The Great American Writing Contest

Poets' Basement
McNeill, Albert, Guthrie

 

October 2, 2003

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
What's So Great About Gandhi, Anyway?

Amy Goodman / Jeremy Scahill
The Ashcroft-Rove Connection

Doug Giebel
Kiss and Smear: Novak and the Valerie Plame Affair

Hamid Dabashi
The Moment of Myth: Edward Said (1935-2003)

Elaine Cassel
Chicago Condemns Patriot Act

Saul Landau
Who Got Us Into This Mess?

Website of the Day
Last Day to Save Beit Arabiya!


October 1, 2003

Joanne Mariner
Married with Children: the Supremes and Gay Families

Robert Fisk
Oil, War and Panic

Ron Jacobs
Xenophobia as State Policy

Elaine Cassel
The Lamo Case: Secret Subpoenas and the Patriot Act

Shyam Oberoi
Shooting a Tiger

Toni Solo
Plan Condor, the Sequel?

Sean Donahue
Wesley Clark and the "No Fly" List

Website of the Day
Downloader Legal Defense Fund

 

September 30, 2003

After Dark
Arnold's 1977 Photo Shoot

Dave Lindorff
The Poll of the Shirt: Bush Isn't Wearing Well

Tom Crumpacker
The Cuba Fixation: Shaking Down American Travelers

Robert Fisk
A Lesson in Obfuscation

Charles Sullivan
A Message to Conservatives

Suren Pillay
Edward Said: a South African Perspective

Naeem Mohaiemen
Said at Oberlin: Hysteria in the Face of Truth

Amy Goodman / Jeremy Scahill
Does a Felon Rove the White House?

Website of the Day
The Edward Said Page


September 29, 2003

Robert Fisk
The Myths of Western Intelligence Agencies

Iain A. Boal
Turn It Up: Pardon Mzwakhe Mbuli!

Lee Sustar
Paul Krugman: the Last Liberal?

Wayne Madsen
General Envy? Think Shinseki, Not Clark

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia's Gas War

Uri Avnery
The Magnificent 27

Pledge Drive of the Day
Antiwar.com

 

September 26 / 28, 2003

Alexander Cockburn
Alan Dershowitz, Plagiarist

David Price
Teaching Suspicions

Saul Landau
Before the Era of Insecurity

Ron Jacobs
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and the Patriot Act

Brian Cloughley
The Strangeloves Win Again

Norman Solomon
Wesley and Me: a Real-Life Docudrama

Robert Fisk
Bomb Shatters Media Illusions

M. Shahid Alam
A Muslim Sage Visits the USA

John Chuckman
American Psycho: Bush at the UN

Mark Schneider
International Direct Action
The Spanish Revolution to the Palestiniana Intifada

William S. Lind
How $87 Billion Could Buy Some Real Security

Douglas Valentine
Gold Warriors: the Plundering of Asia

Chris Floyd
Vanishing Act

Elaine Cassel
Play Cat and Moussaoui

Richard Manning
A Conservatism that Once Conserved

George Naggiar
The Beautiful Mind of Edward Said

Omar Barghouti
Edward Said: a Corporeal Dream Not Yet Realized

Lenni Brenner
Palestine's Loss is America's Loss

Mickey Z.
Edward Said: a Well-Reasoned Voice

Tanweer Akram
The Legacy of Edward Said

Adam Engel
War in the Smoking Room

Poets' Basement
Katz, Ford, Albert & Guthrie

Website of the Weekend
Who the Hell is Stew Albert?

 

September 25, 2003

Edward Said
Dignity, Solidarity and the Penal Colony

Robert Fisk
Fanning the Flames of Hatred

Sarah Ferguson
Wolfowitz at the New School

David Krieger
The Second Nuclear Age

Bill Glahn
RIAA Doublespeak

Al Krebs
ADM and the New York Times: Covering Up Corporate Crime

Michael S. Ladah
The Obvious Solution: Give Iraq Back to the Arabs

Fran Shor
Arnold and Wesley

Mustafa Barghouthi
Edward Said: a Monument to Justice and Human Rights

Alexander Cockburn
Edward Said: a Mighty and Passionate Heart

Website of the Day
Edward Said: a Lecture on the Tragedy of Palestine


The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!


September 24, 2003

Stan Goff
Generational Casualties: the Toxic Legacy of the Iraq War

William Blum
Grand Illusions About Wesley Clark

David Vest
Politics for Bookies

Jon Brown
Stealing Home: The Real Looting is About to Begin

Robert Fisk
Occupation and Censorship

Latino Military Families
Bring Our Children Home Now!

Neve Gordon
Sharon's Preemptive Zeal

Website of the Day
Bands Against Bush

September 23, 2003

Bernardo Issel
Dancing with the Diva: Arianna and Streisand

Gary Leupp
To Kill a Cat: the Unfortunate Incident at the Baghdad Zoo

Gregory Wilpert
An Interview with Hugo Chavez on the CIA in Venezuela

Steven Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause--Part 2: Charity Ryerson, Young and Radical

Stan Cox
The Cheney Tapes: Can You Handle the Truth?

Robert Fisk
Another Bloody Day in the Death of Iraq

William S. Lind
Learning from Uncle Abe: Sacking the Incompetent

Elaine Cassel
First They Come for the Lawyers, Then the Ministers

Yigal Bronner
The Truth About the Wall

Website of the Day
The Baghdad Death Count

September 20 / 22, 2003

Uri Avnery
The Silliest Show in Town

Alexander Cockburn
Lighten Up, America!

Peter Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Execution of Robert Emmet

Anne Brodsky
Return to Afghanistan

Saul Landau
Guillermo and Me

Phan Nguyen
Mother Jones Smears Rachel Corrie

Gila Svirsky
Sharon, With Eyes Wide Open

Gary Leupp
On Apache Terrorism

Kurt Nimmo
Colin Powell: Exploiting the Dead of Halabja

Brian Cloughley
Colin Powell's Shame

Carol Norris
The Moral Development of George W. Bush

Bill Glahn
The Real Story Behind RIAA Propaganda

Adam Engel
An Interview with Danny Scechter, the News Dissector

Dave Lindorff
Good Morning, Vietnam!

Mark Scaramella
Contracts and Politics in Iraq

John Ross
WTO Collapses in Cancun: Autopsy of a Fiasco Foretold

Justin Podur
Uribe's Desperate Squeals

Toni Solo
The Colombia Three: an Interview with Caitriona Ruane

Steven Sherman
Workers and Globalization

David Vest
Masked and Anonymous: Dylan's Elegy for a Lost America

Ron Jacobs
Politics of the Hip-Hop Pimps

Poets Basement
Krieger, Guthrie and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Ted Honderich:
Terrorism for Humanity?

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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October 7, 2003

"Same Shit, Different Day"

Thoughts on the Cali Recall Election

By WALTER LIPPMAN

Despite efforts by the media to crown him King Arnold the First, it's not over till its over. He has been losing ground since the latest revelations about his admiration for Hitler and his sexual abuses toward women have begun to reach public notice these past days. Today's last minute news reports say that Schwarzenegger has announced he'll discuss the sexual battery allegations AFTER the votes are collected in the election. Why's he holding back?

And while it may not seem of great interest to readers outside the California, the goal of electing Arnold Schwarzenegger is certainly high on the agenda of the Bush administration. The right has shown a greater skill than the left, with all but one of the other candidates on the right withdrawing from the race in obeisance to the media-generated juggernaut in favor of the Terminator.

With voter participation in the US at record lows in recent years, this election has generated more interest than we've previously seen. Much of this is being built by the capitalist media who have made out like bandits selling all of the vicious, hateful political advertising this campaign has generated for them. At the same time, they want a broad public participation in the elections to provide legitimacy for the cutbacks which both the Democrats and the Republicans intend to continue, regardless of who is finally the winner of the recall.

Using this reactionary millionaire's image in the world via his movies to mobilize support for the hard rightist agenda has been a clever move, but we don't know yet if it will finally do the trick. We may not know tomorrow and who knows what the prospects might be, yet another replay of the Florida 2000 election but on a bigger and more grotesque scale? Don't forget this man who uses his image and accent supports the racist English-only movement, backed the racist anti-immigrant Prop. 187.

He also opposes drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. Another racist aspect of his appeal is the call to tax Indian gambling casinos. (I'm no fan of the casinos, which don't benefit many Indians, but it's an odd thing that so much emphasis has been put here on taking away one of the few things which the native peoples, or at least some of them have finally got.

Schwarzenegger's being followd in the Cuban media. There's a story called, "Schwarzenegger, women and Hitler" which is posted to the Cuban website devoted to what they call "Media terrorism", Cubadebate, (in Spanish).

None of the candidates have taken advantage of one opportunity which was present. Given the distressed state of the economy, more trade with Cuba would be a boon to the California economy. Businesses from California have recently signed a contract to sell fully $10 million dollars worth of commodities to the island.

Far more would be possible if Washington would just get out of the way. $10 million might not sound like a lot on the scale of California, but lots of small firms could make out very well if they had economic links to the island which is anxious to up trade with the US.

Washington's blockade of trade and travel to Cuba is harming California. The California State Senate came out against the blockade, so the idea of expanding the commercial links to the island is entirely reasonable. One candidate has a good record on doing business with Cuba: Peter Camejo. He's got a long record on this:.

The right's dream, via the recall, is to virtually purchase the governorship of a state with the fifth largest economy in the US, and one of the largest in the world. I see it as being similar to the efforts of the rightist opposition in Venezuela to try to throw out the democratically-elected government of of Hugo Chavez. As the T-shirts in Venice, California say: "Same Shit, Different Day".

Arnold and his backers have become desperate to try to discredit the stories of his admiration for Hitler and his sexual abuses of women, so widely reported now. As Peter Camejo has so well pointed out, why would Arnold apologize so profusely if he hadn't done anything wrong?

The LA times quotes Camejo saying "He's a predator,". "If he was a black man, he'd be in a jail. The issue needs to be looked into and resolved." (However, then the Times omitted to mention that Camejo's VERY NEXT WORDS were that if Arnold were brown or poor white he'd have been in jail as well.)

The recall process is one which is a good thing and should be maintained. I've seen certain positive features which have come as a result of the recall. Among these have been the ability to have truly independent and alternative voices, such as those of the Greens' Peter Camejo, putting forth a profoundly different and left-alternative approach to politics, out into the broad public arena. This has been excellent.

In the end although I've wavered a bit, I finally decided to vote against THIS recall. At the same time, I'm voting FOR Peter Camejo for the replacement in the event that Gray Davis should be recalled. One of the byproducts of this election has been the broadening out of discussion to a large range of views than that of the same old two- party shell game we normally have. Hopefully that will remain for the future. My sense is that it will remain and this has been a fine beginning.

There's no way to tell right now how the election's going to go. My thought and hope is that the recall is defeated by a small but quite adequate margin, and that Camejo gets a shockingly large vote, coming in as much as 5th in the replacement race. If those happen, Gray Davis in the balance of his term would be politically weakened. Since the recall, he has signed progressive measures such as the driver's license and domestic partnerships bills, which he had not supported prior to the recall. Getting Peter's name and ideas known far and wide is one of the best outcomes of the race.

(I'm aware that my view on the recall differs from Peter's view. He always points out that the Greens are divided on recall, but he personally is in favor of it. Still, this is my considered opinion. It's a good thing I'm not a member of a disciplined organization, so I can openly express these ideas publicly.)

Walter Lippmann is the Moderator of the CubaNews list.

Weekend Edition Features for Sept. 26 / 28, 2003

Tim Wise
The Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment

Peter Linebaugh
Rhymsters and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW

Gary Leupp
Occupation as Rape-Marriage

Bruce Jackson
Addio Alle Armi

David Krieger
A Nuclear 9/11?

Ray McGovern
L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's War on Whistleblowers

Col. Dan Smith
Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean

Mickey Z.
In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest

Roger Burbach
Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq

John Chuckman
Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus

William S. Lind
Versailles on the Potomac

Glen T. Martin
The Corruptions of Patriotism

Anat Yisraeli
Bereavement as Israeli Ethos

Wayne Madsen
Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can

M. Junaid Alam
The Racism Barrier

William Benzon
Scorsese's Blues

Adam Engel
The Great American Writing Contest

Poets' Basement
McNeill, Albert, Guthrie

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