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Today's
Stories
November 24, 2008
Mike Whitney
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Pam Martens
The Rise and Fall of Citigroup
November 21 / 23, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The Honeymoon is Looking a Bit Wan
Michael Hudson
Paulson's Cascade of Lies
Mike Whitney
Time to Move to Plan B ... If There is One
Barbara Rose Johnston /
Holly M. Barker
Cautionary Tales From a Nuclear War Zone
Serge Halimi
The Gloom of Empire: Downhill All the Way
Alan Farago
The Suburbs March On
Ralph Nader
Changing With Retreads: the Third Clinton Administration
Saul Landau
When Old Axioms Don't Apply
Robert Bryce
From LBJ to Obama: the End of Texas Dominance
Shannon May
Ecological Crisis and Eco-Villages in China
Binoy Kampmark
The End of the Yugo
Jack Ely
The Fate of the West's Wild Horses
Ramzy Baroud
The Rights of Women in War Zones
Missy Beattie
Why Vote, Anyway?
Larry Portis
Women Soldiers Serving in (and Barely Surviving) the Israeli Army
James McEnteer
Colombia's Laboratory of Failure
Christopher Brauchli
A Tale of Two Whales
David Yearsley
Real
Swords, Fire and Don Giovanni
Adam Engel
Power Down
Ron Jacobs
The Continuing Saga of the White Album
Lorenzo Wolff
Honky Tonk Heroes:
When Country Got Real
Poets' Basement
Raza Ali Hasan
Website of the Weekend
Lips and Fingers
November 20, 2008
P. Sainath
The Jurassic Auto and Idea Park
Brian McKenna
How Dow Chemical Defies Homeland Security and Risks Another 9/11
Paul Craig Roberts
What Uncle Sam Has to Say to His Creditors
Andy Worthington
How Guanántamo Can be Closed
Peter Lee
India Doubles Down in Afghanistan ... Maybe
Dr. Eyad al-Serraj
At the Erez Crossing
Sen. Russ Feingold
The Bush Pardons
Lance Selfa
Who Made the New Deal?
Ray McGovern
Keeping Gates
Benjamin G. Davis
Ending Torture; Prosecuting the Torturers
Tracy McLellan
Obama's Crony Democracy: the Return of Tom Daschle
Website of the Day
Finally, a Victory for Palestinians
November 19, 2008
M. Shahid Alam
Obama and the Politics of Race and Religion in America
Mario A. Murillo
Holder, Chiquita and Colombian Death Squads
Martine Boulard
Escaping the Dollar's Shadow
Robin D. G. Kelley
Will Obama be the First "Freedom" Democrat?
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Obama and the Iron Cage
Jonathan Cook
Who Will Stop the Settlers?
Steve Conn
Spare Change or No Change at All
George Wuerthner
The NYT and the Beetles of Mass Destruction
Michael Winship
This Just in From Middle Earth
Stephen Martin
The Other Side of the Pleasure-Dome
Website of the Day
An Important Holiday Message From Kristen Johnston
November 18, 2008
Chellis Glendinning
Cheering for Morgan Stanley
George C. Wilson
Perils of Pakistan: Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?
Franklin Lamb
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon: Hezbollah or the UN?
Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State
Roger Burbach
Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia: How Bush Tried to Bring Down Morales
John Ross
Drilling vs. Direct Democracy in Mexico
Wajahat Ali
Is Obama the Muslim World's Superman?
Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
What Really Happened in Washington? The G20 and the Inconsistent Script
Marc Gardner
When Mooning is a Sex Crime
Eric Walberg
Courting the Bear: a New Era for Russian/Western Relations?
Wendy Williams
The Bottled Water Con
Website of the Day
Where's Zappa When We Need Him?
November 17, 2008
Michael Hudson
Bankers Shake Down Congress and the G-20
Paul Craig Roberts
When It's a Clear Day and You Can't See GM
Mike Whitney
Busted in Washington
Steve Conn
Where is Nader Country 2008? Mapping the Nader Votes
Andy Worthington
Closing Guantánamo: Advice for Obama
Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of Israel's Blockade of Gaza: "They Are All Hamas"
Rannie Amiri
Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama
David Macaray
Bailing Out the Automakers
David Michael Green
Twelve Victories
Charles Modiano
Sports Illustrated and Sexism: Tokenism or a New Day?
Website of the Day
The South Sea Bubble
November 14 / 16, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Heading for the First Hundred Days
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Bill Clinton Doomed the Spotted Owl: a Cautionary Tale for Greens in the Age of Obama
Mike Whitney
Paulson the Bungler
Sasan Fayazmanesh
RIP: the Experts, 1929-2008
Moshe Adler
Keynes:
China's Greatest Export?
Anthony DiMaggio
Transcending Race?
Jean Bricmont
Cats, Dogs and Creationism
Sheldon Rampton
The Eisenstadt Hoax: a Real Life Example of a "Fake Fake"
Douglas Valentine
Let the Trials Begin!
Joseph Nevins /
Timothy Dunn
Barricading the Border
Tom Barry
Rahm Emanuel's Political Pragmatism on Immigration
Ron Jacobs
Che Guevara Meets Trashman: the Genius of Spain Rodriguez
Larry Portis
The State of the Israeli State
Mary Lynn Cramer Obama's Brain Trust: Seems Like Old Times
Sherry Wolf
The Myth of the Black/Gay Divide
Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Secretary of Greed: How Larry Summers Championed Wall Street by Impoverishing the Mexican People
Jacob Hornberger
The Conservative Malaise: Hey, Brother, Can You Spare Some Habeas Corpus?
Lance Selfa
The Center-Right Nation Con
Benjamin Dangl
Vermont Against General Dynamics
Seth Sandronsky
Lifelines in Hard Times
Russell Mokhiber
Time to Give the Friends of Big Coal the Boot
Allan Stellar
Nuke a Gay Whale for the Navy
Kelly Overton
Get Thee to a Shelter:
the Obamas and the Million-Mutt March
Martha Rosenberg
Why Mink are Cheering the Economic Crisis
Richard Rhames
Palling Around with Ray the Plumber
David Yearsley
How I Played Hooky from "High School Musical 3"
Lorenzo Wolff
Zach is Back: Songs of Hurt, Rage and Resistance
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Ford and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
The Eyes Have It
November 13, 2008
Pam Martens
The Two Trillion DollarBlack Hole
Vijay Prashad
Guilt by Participation: Sonal Shah's Membership Has Expired
Patrick Cockburn
Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?
Jonathan Cook
The Withering Palestinian Economy
Ralph Nader
Obama and the Rogue Regime
Bill Quigley
McCain Owes America an Apology
Lee Sustar
Bailing Out the Big Three
Omar Barghouti
Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products
Steve Conn
More Alaska Fun
Howard Lisnoff
The Last Bastion of Hate
Jeff Cohen
What Indy Media Heroes Can Teach Us
Website of the Day
Who are the Obamagelicals?
November 12, 2008
Johanna Berrigan
Scattered Families: the Iraq Refugee Crisis
Steve Conn
The Big Mystery Election in Alaska
Patrick Bond
Against Volcker
Bokar Ture /
Dedrick Muhammad
Remembering a Black Radical in a Barack Obama America
Alan Farago
The Hispanic Vote in South Florida: Not Dyed Blue Yet
Dave Lindorff
Rescuing Joe Lieberman
Karl Grossman
Break Up Big Oil: Tyranny in the Tank
David Macaray
An Obama Litmus Test: Will Labor Have a Seat at the Table?
George Wuerthner
Act Now to Save America's Public Forests
Susie Day
Heavy Weather
Website of the Day
Does the Planet Have a Future? an Interview with Derrick Jensen
November 11, 2008
James G. Abourezk
How to Vote Against Your Own Interests
Allan J. Lichtman
What Obama Can Learn From FDR
Eric Toussaint
Financing the Bailout: a Holy Union for a Deuce of a Swindle
Ron Jacobs
Moving Beyond Hope: a Leftist Looks at the Near Future
Peter Montague
Green Coal?
Corporate Crime Reporter
BP's Big Spill on the North Slope
Laura Carlsen
Latin America Sends Obama a Piece of Its Mind
Col. Dan Smith
A New Unifying Paradigm?
Morton Skorodin
The Machine Grinds On
David Michael Green
My Michelle Moment
Charles R. Larson
Ask Your Doctor for a Free Sample
Website of the Day
Will Old Faithful Be Sucked Dry?
November 10, 2008
David Roediger
Obama's Victory and the Future of Race in the United States
Paul Craig Roberts
Conned Again?
Peter Lee
Obama's Man in Afghanistan
Corey D. B. Walker
And We Are Not Saved
Jeff Halper
A Bone in America's Throat
Bill Hatch
Look on the Bright Side, Dammit!
Andy Worthington
Guilty By Torture
Bill Quigley
Anger and Hope: Haitian Families Furious Over School Collapse
Peter Morici
Paulson's Folly
Anthony Olszewski
The Advent of a New Black Politician
Kim Nicolini
Exile and Displacement on Bunker Hill
Cpt. Paul Watson
Farley Mowat's Last Book? Maybe Not
Website of the Day
Boondocks, Another Banned Episode
November 7 / 9, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Hail to the Chief of Staff
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Fire
Vijay Prashad
Obama's Indian: the Many Faces of Sonal Shah
Tariq Ali
Great Expectations
Jean Bricmont
Our Obama Problem
John V. Whitbeck
Obama, Emanuel and Israel
Saul Landau
Politics Among the Ruins:
Obama Faces an Economic Disaster
Peter Morici
Gone, Baby, Gone: Another 240,000 Jobs Lost
Lawrence Velvel
Obama and Afghanistan: the Return of Clintonia?
Karyn Strickler
Don't Govern From the Middle
Nativo V. Lopez
Banking on Obama with Open Eyes: Latinos and Obama
Christopher Fons
A Generational Moment: From Jackson to Obama
Alan Farago
Sarah Palin's Limited Engagement
David Yearsley
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Christopher Brauchli
Pardoning Industry: Bush's Latest Executive Orders
Samah Sabawi
Gaza's New Cemetery
Dave Lindorff
Getting the Change We've Earned
Deepak Tripathi
A Revolution to Remember
Beth Sherouse
In the Wake of Lost Initiatives:
the Gay Glass is Half Empty
Patrick Irelan
La Belle Dame Sans Regrets: Back to Alaska
Stephen Martin
Barack and the Temple
Richard Rhames
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
J. Murray
White Cherokee Mythology
Lorenzo Wolff
Anthems for the Average Kid
Kim Nicolini
Exile and Displacement on Bunker Hill: Art Meets Realism in "The Exiles"
Poets' Basement
Farrelly, Fleming and Browne
Website of the Day
Take Who Takes You (For the New Big O)
November 6, 2008
Frank J. Menetrez
Now What?
John Chuckman
The Big Leap: From Hope to Change
P. Sainath
A Magic Moment (But Still Behind the Global Curve)
Joshua Frank
A Look Under the Hood of an Obama Administration
Edna Canetti
Come, Obama, Change My Life: a Plea from Israel
John Ross
Brad Will is Still Dead
Norman Solomon
Sorry Joe: a Mandate for Spreading the Wealth
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
The Morning After: Pakistan and Its New Bedfellow
Robert Weissman
Mordor Brightens: Obama's Challenge--and Our Own
Harvey Wasserman
A Blow to Nuclear Power in Chicago
Website of the Day
Pot Wins Big
November 5, 2008
Cockburn / St. Clair
Why McCain Lost
Chuck Spinney
How Obama Won
Ishmael Reed
Morning in Obamerica: the Promised Land?
Chris Floyd
A Prism for the New Paradigm: "What If Bush Did It?"
Binoy Kampmark
Obama's Victory: a Nation Divided
Michael Donnelly
The Rebooting of America, 2008
David Macaray
Who Should be Secretary of Labor?
Peter Morici
Obama's First Moves on the Economy
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
What Real Change Should Bring
William Willers
Will We be Forced to Sell Off the Public Lands?
Website of the Day
The Killing Fields of South Africa
November 4, 2008
Kathleen Christison
McCain, Obama and Khalidi
James Ridgeway
A New World?
Winslow T. Wheeler
Cleaning Out the Pentagon Pig Sty
Mike Whitney
Obama's Little Red Book
Conn Hallinan
A New Foreign Policy
Holly M. Barker
The Inequities of Climate Change and the Small Island Experience
Ashley Smith
Where is the Occupation of Iraq Heading?
Andy Worthington
Guilty Verdict Fails to Justify Gitmo Trials
Martha Rosenberg
AIG: Too Big to Play Fair
Stephen Martin
Breakdown of the Globalisation Agenda
Doug Lummis
Full Moon Over Okinawa
Carlos Fierro
An Anarchist View of Elections
Website of the Day
La Pequeña as Sarah Palin
November 3, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Friends Like These
John Kennedy O'Hara
Voter Lockdown: Prosecuting Voters
Peter Montague
Is Nuclear Power Green?
Steve Conn
Nader and the Youth Vote
Andrew Gebhardt
How Much Do the Differences Between Obama, McCain and Bush Really Matter?
Ron Jacobs
Bombing Syria: Borders are for Sissies
Ralph Nader
Between Hope and Reality: an Open Letter to Senator Obama
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Cleaning Up After Bush
Uri Avnery
Obama and the Order of the Optimists
Dave Lindorff
Studs and Me
Fred Gardner
Adieu, Rimonabant
DC Larson
You Are How You Vote
David Michael Green
McCain Finally Gets Tough
Val Strange
Hopeless Hoi Polloi or Step in the Right Direction?
Tuli Kupferberg /
Jeffrey Lewis
Wailing Wall Street:
Bring Spare Money!
Website of the Day
Pranking Palin (the Uncut Version)
October 31 , 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Change You Can See
Jeffrey St. Clair
Killing Leroy Jackson: the Indian Wars Have Never Ended
Douglas Valentine
Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy: McCain's 14th Amendment Problem
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Great Bailout Fraud: Misrepresenting the Financial Crisis
Dr. Ignacy Nowopolski
Is the Global Economy a Mistake? an Interview with Paul Craig Roberts
Alan Maass
What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Spreading the Wealth?
William P. O’Connor
Reflections of an Average Joe
Patrick Irelan
Johnny's Tantrums: McCain the "Gook Hater"
Brian Cloughley
Out of Control: Memo From Islamabad
Mats Svensson
The Last Dance in Ramallah
Binoy Kampmark
Into Syria We Went
Steve Conn
The Future of Ted and Sarah
Alan Farago
The Division of Florida: the Politics of Growth
Morton Skorodin
The Bush-Obama-McCain Administration
Robert Bryce
Not McCain
Wajahat Ali
Dear John McCain, Please Stop...
David Yearsley
Palin's Flute, Obama's Voice
Dennis Loo
What to Do with Bush and Cheney?
Pam Martens
Why 2008 Feels Like 1932
Stephen Martin
Defense Strategies in Economic Warfare
Richard Rhames
Nothing for Something: the Doomed Rustic's Lament
Ramzy Baroud
A Third Palestinian Intifada
Missy Beattie
I'm Sick of Their Voices
Howard Lisnoff
Burning Reason: More From the Religious Right
Richard Neville
Pickled Heads: First the Revelation, Then the Revolution
Saul Landau /
Farrah Hassan
Bush Ultra Lite: Oliver Stone's Oedipal Problem
Kim Nicolini
Max Payne: Vigilante Violence as Sex Story
Lorenzo Wolff
Dance to the Music--or Else!
Poets' Basement
Four Poems from the Japanese Trans. by Rexroth
Website of the Weekend
Art Against Empire
October 30, 2008
Cockburn / St. Clair
McCain's Women Problems
Vijay Prashad
Smearing Rashid Khalidi
Paul Craig Roberts
World Tires of Rule by Dollar
Glen Ford
Turning the Tide of Ethnic Cleansing in America's Cities
Stanley Heller
Wall Street Bonus Madness
William Loren Katz
"Kill Him!:" a Political Chronicle
Joshua Frank
Memo to Progressives for Obama: What Happens After the Election?
James McEnteer
The Year of Unreliable Witnesses
Felice Pace
The Big Change: Can "Civic Unreasonableness" Save the Earth?
Jonathan Cook
The Executions at Kafr Qassem
Reza Fiyouzat
Boycott the Elections!
Website of the Day
An Open Letter to Whole Foods
October 29, 2008
Arno J. Mayer
The US Empire will Survive Bush
Eric Toussaint
How the Food and Financial Crises are Interconnected
Matt Gonzalez
What Do They Have to Do to Lose Your Vote?
Steven Conn
Obama and the Camp Followers
Jonathan Cook
Israel Bars Visit to a Father's Grave
Patrick Bond
Strauss-Kahn Strikes Again!
Ramzi Kysia
A Freedom Rider in Gaza City
Douglas Valentine
A Glimpse Inside the Head of Joe the Plumber
Stephen Martin
What America is Owed
Margaret Dooley-Sammuli
Alternatives to Incarceration
Amee Chew
Support Obama, Vote McKinney?
Website of the Day
N-Word Chant Doesn't Phase Palin
October 28, 2008
James G. Abourezk
How to Bail Out the Taxpayers
Andy Worthington
The Empty Chair at Guantánamo
Gary Leupp
The Specter of the Sixties: Palin v. Ayers
Paul Craig Roberts
The End of the American Road
Mike Whitney
Meet the World's New Currency
Gregory V. Button
What the Next President Must Do to Save FEMA
Ralph Nader
Share the Sacrifices, Share the Benefits
P. Sainath
Haunted by Socialism
Martha Rosenberg
Melting Pot in Hell
Charles R. Larson
Palin/Wurzelbacher 2012!
Website of the Day
Why You Can't See Across the Grand Canyon
October 27, 2008
Michael Hudson
Scenes From the Global Class War
Barbara Rose Johnston
The Clean, Green Nuclear Machine?
John Dinges
Palling Around with Dictators: McCain and Pinochet
Mike Whitney
Chickenhawks and the Horrors of War
Mary Lynn Cramer Greenspan's Higher Power
Alan Farago
Origins of the Fall
David Michael Green
Remind Me Again: Who Won the Cold War?
Andy Worthington
The Collapse of Omar Khadr's Guantánamo Trial
George Wuerthner
Is Ranching Sustainable? The Story of Bob the Rancher
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Obamanations of Barack
Website of the Day
Heartland of Darkness
October 24 / 26, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Waiting for the Curtain to Rise
Ishmael Reed
Boogiemen: How Lee Atwater Perfected the G.O.P.'s Appeal to Racism
Mike Whitney
Down for the Count
Don Santina
How Maria Fell: Death in the Central Valley
Scott Boehm
Manufacturing Sympathy: Palin, Special Needs and Identity Politics
Saul Landau
Faith-Based Surge: Whining About Winning in Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Iraq and the Arrogance of Washington
Binoy Kampmark
Afghanistan the Un-Winnable
Linn Washington Jr.
The Great Vote Fraud Hoax
Nicole Colson
Mocking Our Rights: McCain's Disdain for Women's Health
Bernard Chazelle
The Humorology of Power
Brian Jones
Campaign by Codeword
Christopher Brauchli
Down the Drain with
McCain's Vetters
Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Rejects Neoliberalism
Val Strange
The Fraternity of John McCain: Scenes from North Carolina
Joe Mowrey
Name That Candidate: He Supports Petraeus, the Death Penalty, the Bailout, Nuclear Power, the Occupation...
Steve Early
SEIU Learns the Meaning of "No"
David Macaray
Patriotism and the Labor Movement
Allison Kilkenny
You Have the Right to Airport Harassment
Richard Rhames
Open Season
Jim Bell
Nuclear Power's Big Con
Kris De Welde
Domestic Violence and Financial Stress
Barry Clemson
John Wayne Syndrome
Adam Engel
Last Exit to Disneyland
Mark Scaramella
The World's Weirdest Pipe Organ?
Tuli Kupferberg
Nobody for President: the Original Version (Annotated)
Lorenzo Wolff
A Frustrated, Broken-Hearted Joy from Kidnapkin
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Swartzfager and Payne
Website of the Weekend
Patrick Cockburn Dismantles the Surge
October 23, 2008
Allan J. Lichtman
What Voter Fraud?
Todd Chretien
Why I'm Not Voting for Obama
John Ross
No Child Left Behind, Mexican-Style
Peter Morici
Strategies to End the Crisis
Mats Svensson
Short Film Clips at a Checkpoint
Marlene Martin
Don't Let Them Execute an Innocent Man
Robert Jensen /
Pat Youngblood
Looking Beyond the Election and Beyond Elections
Margaret Kimberley
Rightwing Obama Love
Deepak Tripathi
Post-Bush Scenarios
David Morris
Why Joe the Plumber is a Socialist (And You Are, Too)
Website of the Day
Voting While Black in North Carolina
October 22, 2008
Brian Cloughley
Kid Killers are Barbarians
Heather Gray
Raising Hell in the South:
the Legacy of J. L. Chestnut, Jr.
Jeff Birkenstein
McCain's Disdain for Spain
Ralph Nader
The Song Remains the Same: Convergence and Avoidance in the Presidential Election
DC Larson
The Growing of a Heartland Nader Raider
David Swanson
Colin Powell, Not Qualified for Government Service
Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor Race and the Election: When the "Real" America Enters the Voting Booth
Larry Everest
9/11 and the Imperial Adventure in Afghanistan
Robert Fantina
Anything to Win
Martha Rosenberg
The Financier's Playbook
Stephen Martin
Giving It Up to the Combine
Website of the Day
Brokers with Hands on Their Faces
October 21, 2008
Vijay Prashad
Wealth's Apostles
Paul Craig Roberts
How Inflation Works: Why I Can't Buy an Old Ferrari
Corey D. B. Walker
Empire and White Supremacy
Steve Breyman
How to "Win" in Afghanistan
Eric Toussaint
The Economic Crisis and Latin America: Time to Delink
Wajahat Ali
Boo Radley Comes Out to Play: the Emerging Muslim-American Electorate
Robert Weitzel
Wasting a Vote for Lincoln's Radical Ideal (Or Why I'm Voting for Nader)
Brendan Cooney
Palinoscopy: an Exploration of Why Liberals are So Obsessed with Sarah Palin
Dave Lindorff
Cuba's Oil Reserves: a Game-Changer?
Marqueece Harris-Dawson / Bob Wing
When You're a Black Candidate There's No Such Thing as a Safe Lead
Patrick B. Barr
Socialist, Socialist, SOCIALIST!
Omar Barghouti
The Boycott and Palestinian Groups: Countering the Critics
Website of the Day
How to Dismantle a US War Plane (and Get Away With It)
October 20, 2008
Michael Hudson
The ABCs of Paulson's Bailout
Anthony DiMaggio
The Scandal That Never Was: ACORN, Rightwing Media and Election "Fraud"
Tariq Ali
Zardari Bans My Books
Uri Avnery
Is Akko Burning?
Bill Quigley
Hammered by the Swedes
Ben Rosenfeld
The Politics of St. Joe, Martyr to a Lie
David Michael Green
Payback's a Bitch: McCain on the Ash Heap
William S. Lind
The Afghanistan Advantage
Chris Genovali
Drill, Baby, Drill (Wink, Wink)
Stephen Martin
The Last Man in America
Howard Lisnoff
Bad News for War Resisters
David Yearsley
Organ Meat
Website of the Day
Our Brother is Sick: the Steve Ferguson Cancer Fund
October 17 / 19, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Blow Ups and Bombers
Jeffrey St. Clair
Inside Hanford: a Trip to America's Most Toxic Place
Pam Martens
How the Banksters are Making a Killing Off the Bailout
Paul Craig Roberts
Government of Thieves
Mike Whtney
No More Investment Banks
Michael D. Yates
Bowling Alley Blues: Racism Dies Hard in Johnstown, PA
Suzanne Smith
The Energy-War Connection: McCain Said It, Why Don't We?
Carl Boggs
Prosecuting Bush
Ralph Nader
Closing the Courthouse Doors
Fidel Castro
The Global Crash
Dave Marsh
The Great Levi Stubbs
Saul Landau
Denial, the Election Musical Comedy
Jo Guldi
The Floods of Heaven
Kevin Zeese
Now the Cost of War Really Matters
Larry Everest
Afghanistan, Not a Good War Gone Bad
Steve Early
Stop, in the Name of Joe!
David Macaray
Hey, Joe
Ben Terrall
When Ike Hit Haiti
Missy Beattie
Palin and God's Children
Don Monkerud
American Exceptionalism
Helen Redmond
Health Care Now's Big Con
Dan Bacher
Schwarzenegger's Delta Vision: Canals and Dams to Bail Out Big Ag
Wajahat Ali
Bush Gets Stoned
Farzana Versey
The White Tiger's Stripes and Gripes
Vladimir Frolov
Medvedev to Obama: We Come Not to Bury America, But to Buy It
Kim Nicolini
Frozen River: At Last, a Great Movie That's Neither Hip Nor Cool
Poets Basement
Gibbons, Corsale, Davis and Fleming
Website of the Day
The Real Sarah Palin?
|
November 24, 2008
Will There Even be a Whimper of Resistance?
Inaugurations Past and Present
By HOWARD LISNOFF
The late night of January 19, 2001 was as wretchedly cold as any evening could be during a New England winter. There was no snow on the ground, which would have once been an anomaly at that latitude, but global warming long ago skewed and juxtaposed what was expected with what actually was. Even so, the frigid temperature emanated up from the cement and blacktop of the sidewalk and parking lot next to the YMCA in Providence, Rhode Island.
The group of about sixty people huddled in small numbers, sometimes separated by their particular affiliations. People from The American Friends Service Committee, others from the Socialist Workers Party, those independent of any group connection, and students from local colleges and universities discussed the trip to Washington, D.C. to protest the inauguration of George W. Bush. Snow and sleet had been predicted for later on Saturday, the day we would arrive in D.C., but it was the theft of the 2000 election that was on most people’s minds and the impending right-wing onslaught on the nation’s government that propelled most of us to action. As I had for countless demonstrations before, I would carry a protest sign made up of oak tag fastened to a furring strip. I had learned activist Abbie Hoffman’s admonition about protest long ago during the Vietnam War and it was second nature by now, something “that you just do.” It was part of participatory democracy.
A harbinger of what the Bush administration would come to mean was perhaps best symbolized by the massive police presence in Maryland beside the highway leading into Washington, D.C.
The bus arrived at around 8:00 A.M., and we massed along the parade route between the Capitol and the White House (closer to the White House) behind the steel bleachers that had been set up on Pennsylvania Avenue. The group from Rhode Island, and thousands of others who had arrived to protest were not allowed access to the stands at this point in the morning, and it was just as well as the bleachers would have frozen us solid from head to toe. As the day progressed, it became apparent that the people who had come to celebrate Bush’s “victory” were present in far smaller numbers than protesters, at least at the spot of the parade route that I viewed the crowd from.
As the noon hour of Bush’s swearing-in as president approached, protesters passed through a phalanx of security personnel. My sign was ripped apart by an individual dressed in a business suit at the security checkpoint and the furring strip thrown away. Rather than sit in the stands I took up a position along the parade route standing against the ropes that blocked access to the street. I had a good vantage point at the very front of the mass of protesters as a frozen rain began to fall continuously.
A motley crew of Bush supporters passed by. Many were decked out in mink coats, while others wore ten-gallon hats. A well-known television celebrity passed by, whose bodyguard had just punched a protester in the face for saying something indistinct from the place where I stood. The two continued on toward the White House as if nothing had happened.
Finally, after hours of waiting, the recognizable black SUVs of the president’s motorcade approached. Since I was on the front line of protesters I raised my middle finger in a gesture of defiance of the administration that had just begun. I had only an inkling that it was in reality George W. Bush who would soon be giving his middle finger to the entire nation and the rest of the world! What followed over the next eight years is history!
The ride back to Rhode Island during the evening and through most of the morning took place during the snowstorm that had been forecasted. The bus crawled along I-95 and took every opportunity to stop at roadside rest stops along the way. By the time we reached northeastern Connecticut the bus was making the only visible tracks along the highway, as nearly everyone else had wisely remained indoors.
Fast-forward eight years. Once again I plan to attend an inauguration. This time, however, it will be for a candidate for whom I voted. Nevertheless, I’ll carry a protest sign about the need to end both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope for the best, as Barack Obama is an individual of great intelligence, but who seems to be surrounding himself, at least at the point of the transition during which I write, with many neoliberals from the Clinton era. Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who is Barack Obama’s chief of staff, is hardly someone who would champion peace in the Middle East. His transition team also includes John Brennan who supported warrantless wiretapping and extraordinary rendition. Senator Hillary Clinton has supported the wall between Israel and the West Bank. As secretary of state she would do well to read Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” before assuming that position. Other advisors, however, are bright and forward thinking. The country and larger world are in an absolute mess after the disaster that has been George W. Bush. War without diplomacy; the debacle that is the global economy; the attack against civil liberties; the near-total lack of meaningful or available domestic jobs; the lack of health insurance for nearly fifty million people; and the ceaseless attack on the environment are all daunting challenges! Will a mass movement for change materialize during the Obama administration to nudge the president toward more progressive positions? I think not! I predict hardly a whimper of resistance.
Howard Lisnoff teaches writing and is a freelance writer. He can be reached at howielisnoff@gmail.com.
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