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Today's Stories November 7, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Dollar's Fall Collapses the American Empire November 6, 2007 Mike Whitney Welcome to Year 27 of the Reagan Revolution Ralph Nader Who Determines the Price of Oil? Andy Worthington The Torture of Ali al-Marri Pam Martens Wall Street Metes Out Street Justice to Citigroup Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan's Dark Future William Schroder The Return of Water Torture Stephen Lendman Punishing Gaza William Blum Cuba and Original Sin Former US Intelligence Officers A Memo on Torture, Intelligence and Mukasey   November 5, 2007 Alexander Cockburn How I Spent the Eighth Brumaire Russell Mokhiber Pelosi and Me: The Democrats and Single Payer David Macaray How to Turn Workers Against Each Other (and Make Them All Poorer) Gary Leupp General Musharaff's "State of Emergency" Dave Lindorff Those Minot Nukes Ludwig Watzal Israel's Dilemma in Palestine Patrick Cockburn Tensions Ease in Iraqi Kurdistan Peter Stone Brown John Fogerty Makes Peace with His Past Michael Simmons Yo! What Happened to Peace? Website of the Day Petition: In Defense of the Morton West HS Antiwar Students   November 3 / 4, 2007 Tariq Ali Pakistan Sinks Deeper into Night David Price Army's Price Salesman of Counterinsurgency Manual Seeks to Defend Stolen Scholarship Jeffrey St. Clair Splitsville Alan Farago The Housing Crash, Suburban Sprawl and the Crisis of the American Middle Class Paul Krassner He's Back! Don Imus Meets Michael Richards Rannie Amiri Why the U.S. is Safeguarding Iraq's War Criminals P. Sainath Indexing Humanity, Indian Style Ayesha Ijaza Khan Pakistan in a Daze Robert Fantina Is the Bush Administration Talking Itself Into a War With Iran? Seth Sandronsky The Politics of Health Care in California Ron Jacobs The Bebop of Baraka Ramzy Baroud A Case for Arab Dignity Heather Gray When Capitalists Get a Free Ride   November 2, 2007 Dr. Mary Pipher Acting on Conscience: Psychologists and Abusive Interrogations Saul Landau How Pete Stark Became a Pariah Andy Worthington Guantánamo as House Arrest Sharon Smith A Tale of Two Stadiums Gary Leupp Fascist Beatifications: the History and Politics of Sainthood Gregory Harms The Chorus of Slander on Palestine Christopher Brauchli Racism in High Places Peter Morici The Falling Dollar and the Stubborn Trade Deficit Dave Lindorff The Easy Way to Stop the Looming US Attack on Iran David Penner Zombie Nation Website of the Day Fall in Yosemite   November 1, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Wages of Hegemony Patrick Cockburn The Most Dangerous Dam in the World Dave Lindorff The Air Force Report on the Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight Jonathan Feldman The Strange Political Economy of Death in the South Mike Ferner They Met the Resistance in Iraq William S. Lind A Question for Would-Be Presidents Diana Johnstone "Fascislamism" Versus "Shoah Business" Jacob Hornberger The War on Telephone Privacy A..K. Gupta The Apocalypse will be Televised Lyuba Zarsky / Kevin Gallagher The Enclave Economy of Mexico's Silicon Valley Felice Pace Does the SPLC Equate Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism? Website of the Day This One's for You, Ed Abbey   October 31, 2007 Bill Quigley New Orleans' Broken Criminal Justice System Rev. William E. Alberts A Trail of American Blood: From the White House to CBS News Ray McGovern Attacking Iran for Israel Eric Walberg Poisonous Espionage: Litvinenko and the New Cold War V. G. Smith The Second Death of Guy Môquet Luis J. Rodriguez "Social Cleansing" from Guatemala to LA Sheldon Richman Bush has Time to Run the World Walter Brasch A Real Halloween Scare Website of the Day Boogie Rocks! October 30, 2007 David Price Pilfered Scholarship Devastates Gen. Petraeus's Counterinsurgency Manual M. Shahid Alam The Pakistan Question Andy Worthington The Epiphany of Matthew Waxman: a Government Insider Turns Against Gitmo Patrick Cockburn The Bicycle Bomber of Baquba Anthony Papa The Twisted Logic of Drug Laws Floyd Rudmin What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means Sherwood Ross Giuliani and Torture Website of the Day The Worst Lobby? You Decide   October 29, 2007 Lisa Hajjar Inside Israel's Military Courts Joe DeRaymond The Politics of Lethal Injections Patrick Cockburn The High Stakes in Iraqi Kurdistan Isabella Kenfield / Roger Burbach Corporate Murder in Brazil Fred Gardner The Frivolous Investigation of Dr. Sterner Farzana Versey Caricaturing Islam Stephen Fleischman The Greening of the Oligarchy Marcelle Cendrars The Congressional Rip Cord Eamonn McCann Dan Keating, the Last of the Republican Irreconcilables Martha Rosenberg For Halloween, Ann Coulter Dresses as .... Ann Coulter! Website of the Day Campaign 2008   October 27 / 28, 2007 Alexander Cockburn So Much for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Jeffrey St. Clair The Dam That Isn't There James Bovard Breaking Down an Innocent Man: The FBI's Right to Threaten Torture Ralph Nader Beyond the Rule of Law M. Reza Pirbhai The Wahhabis are Coming, the Wahhabis are Coming! Robert Sandels Pay the Invaders! Cuba, Claims and Confiscations Jacob G. Hornberger Ruling By Decree Missy Beattie The Arsonists in the West Wing John Ross U.S. Eyes on Oaxaca Robert Fantina Condi Rice, the Imperial Cheerleader Ron Jacobs Labor at the Crossroads Ali Moayedian In Search of Logic About Iran David Michael Green What If We Had a President Who Didn't Give a Damn About Terrorism? Poets Basement Block, Davies and Ford Website of the Day Bring 'Em Home: a Music Video   October 26, 2007 Brian Cloughley Revenging Bloodshed Saul Landau Portrait of Rudy Ahmad Al-Akras Getting Justice in the HLF Case Franklin Lamb Does "Loving" Lebanon Mean Never Having to Say You're Sorry? Mike Whitney Murdoch's Cuckoo's Nest Dave Lindorff Home of the Brave? Reducing US Casualties By Killing More Civilians Alan Farago A Castro Behind Every Bush Yifat Susskind Conscripting Feminism into the War on Terror Website of the Day Dead Life in a Political Prison October 25, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair / Joshua Frank Iraq's Environmental Crisis Manuel Garcia, Jr. Homes of the Crash Test Dummies Paul Craig Roberts The Fraudulent War on Terror Col. Dan Smith The Politics of Paranoia: Jane Harman's War on the First Amendment Alan Farago The Way to Paradise? Chris Kutalik The Lesson of the Chrysler Rebels Brian McKinlay John Howard and the Curse of Bush Cindy Sheehan Pete, Nancy, George and WW III Website of the Day Support the America's Program!   October 24, 2007 Natalie Washington-Weik White Fantasies About Race-Based Intelligence Andy Worthington The Guantánamo Suicides Michael Birmingham What Happened in Nahr Al Bared? Corporate Crime Reporter The Nuclear Democrats Tariq Ali Bush's Cuba Detour Farzana Versey Imagining Serfdom in a Scarf Dave Zirin White Noise James Murren What "Support Our Troops" Means Todd Chretien Looking Reality in the Face Martha Rosenberg What Came First, the Chicken or the Cage? Website of the Day Hillary Clinton on Nuclear Power   October 23, 2007 Ralph Nader Bush's Catastrophic Rhetoric Lawrence R. Velvel Goldsmith Stands Convicted--By His Own Mouth: How a Harvard Law Professor Justified Rendition at the Bush Justice Dept. Vijay Prashad The Nuke Deal is Dead Bonnie Bricker / Adil E. Shamoo The True Cost of War for Oil Dave Lindorff Christopher Dodd's Make or Break Moment Mike Whitney The Big Squeeze Farzana Versey Race with the Devil Stanley Heller / Ben George Something New from the Antiwar Movement Marcelle Cendrars You Too Can Confront the Holy Executive Regan Boychuk Burma and Haiti: Comparing the Media Response Website of the Day King Corn   October 22, 2007 Ishmael Reed Should Blacks Go Green? Marjorie Cohn Mukasey and the Constitution: Another Loyal Bushie Rannie Amiri Is There a Method to Bush's Middle East Madness? Diane Farsetta Time to Pay for Payola: the FCC and Pundit-for-Hire Armstrong Williams Todd Alan Price Renewing No Child Left Behind: A Hurricane Katrina Aimed at Public Education Robert Jensen The Quagmire of Masculinity Stephen Lendman The UAW Leadership Sells Out Its Workers Jemima Khan The Kleptocrat in an Hermes Headscarf Sunsara Taylor David Horowitz Can't Handle the Truth Binoy Kampmark No Ideas, Please: the Australian Elections Website of the Day Support the Center for International Policy     October 20 / 21, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Man Who Builds Hillaryworld Tariq Ali A Massacre Foretold Jeffrey St. Clair Greetings from Echo Park Andy Worthington The Shame of Diego Garcia Mike Whitney Housing Flameout Daniel Wolff Play It As It Lays David Rosen Deviants on Parade: Folsom St. Fair and America's 4th Sexual Revolution Saul Landau David and Goliath in Iraq Ron Jacobs COINTELPRO and the Panthers Robert Fantina The Strange Love of Mitt Romney and Bob Jones David Heleniak Erring on the Side of Hidden Harm Joe Allen Hoffa Brown-Nosing at UPS Prairie Miller Lions for Lambs Poets' Basement Gibbons, Holt and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Crash!   October 19, 2007 John Ross Che's Mexican Legacy Sheldon Rampton Shared Values Revisited: a Case Study in the Limits of Propaganda Rahul Mahajan A Tale of Two Atrocities: Blackwater and Haditha Devra Davis Deadly Secrets: Chemical Pollution and Cancer Christopher Brauchli Blasphemous Science Wadner Pierre Haiti After the Deluge Bill Quigley Jailed for Justice Website of the Day Textbook Sticker Shock   October 18, 2007 Saree Makdisi Academic Freedom is at Risk Meg Dwyer What I Learned from 9/11: Who Wouldn't Want Us Dead? Alevtina Rea Sketches of Russian Life Norman Solomon The United States of Violence Kristoffer Larsson Something is Rotten in Sweden Harvey Wasserman Nukes are Back and So are We Website of the Day Eve Ensler: "A Filibuster Would Stop This War"   October 17, 2007 Steve Niva Counter-Insurgency, American-Style Andy Worthington The Case of Mohamed Jawad Alan Farago The Credit Shock Russell Mokhiber The New Billionaire-Criminal Class Sharon Smith Democrats, AWOL When It Mattered Mike Whitney Time for the Banks to Face the Hangman Robert Fantina Iraq, Iran and the US: Business as Usual Chris Irwin Where Have All the Rednecks Gone? Website of the Day Sex Ed at Oral Roberts University October 16, 2007 Peter Linebaugh Doris Lessing and the Dynamite Prize Paul Findley Follow the Leader: The Open Secret About the Israel Lobby Robert Bryce Inconvenient Corrections: Al Gore's Wacky Facts Uri Avnery The Mother of All Pretexts Paul Craig Roberts The Iraqi Genocide Ray McGovern What Did Nancy Pelosi Know About NSA Spying and When Did She Know It? Norman Solomon The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal Martha Rosenberg The Curse of Cymbalta William S. Lind Out of the Frying Pan Joel S. Hirschborn Time to Boycott Voting Website of the Day Pipeline Through Paradise: Big Oil's Arctic Play         Subscribe Online

November 7, 2007 Is There an Ice-Breaker? The Writers' Guild Strike By DAVID MACARAY When labor relations are being discussed, you can take Tolstoy's opening sentence in Anna Karenina ("Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.") and turn it on its head. That's because while every slap-happy workplace is content in its own, unique way, every work stoppage is more of less exactly, painfully the same. No matter what the industry, the union, the nature of the dispute, or the mechanism that triggers the showdown, all strikes tend to have the same contour. What do we know so far about the 10,000-member Writers Guild of America's (WGA) strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP? We know that Teamster Local 399 has refused to cross the picket line, putting their own jobs in jeopardy. We know that Jay Leno gave a little pep talk, in which he said, "I've been working with these people [writers] for 20 years. Without them I'm not funny. I'm dead." We know that the parties began tentative negotiations way back in July, and that the WGA, seeing little progress and no advantage to prolonging the agony, pulled the plug at midnight on Monday last. And we know that one of the major sticking points is how to divvy up the supplemental payments (residuals) and other fees tied to new technologies, such as DVDs, iPods, cell phones, and the Internet. The producers, who couldn't tell a gigabyte from a troglodyte (nothing pejorative intended; just a reminder that these are business folks, not computer programmers or designers) are pretending that instead of being the starry-eyed beneficiaries of these wondrous and wildly lucrative new sources of income, they invented the gadgets themselves. This stance is nothing particularly new. Indeed, going back to when cable and VHS hit the market, the writers had to scratch and claw for a few pennies of the windfall profits. This being Tinsel Town and all, the producers are displaying extraordinary chutzpah. For example, they've actually gone on record saying that there isn't sufficient money in Hollywood, that the pie isn't large enough to share with the WGA, that, God bless the writers, there simply isn't enough revenue to go around. Not enough money in Hollywood to go around. Being able to say that across the table with a straight face is deserving of an Oscar. It also makes one pine (almost) for the bad old days. A Kimberly-Clark representative once told a group of AWPPW union reps who were lamenting the fact that the company hadn't agreed to a larger raise, "Y'all could be earning more money if you'd gone to college." Well, gee. Still, as simplistic and piggish as his remark was, at least he didn't pretend that this Fortune 100 company couldn't afford a decent raise. We also know that a federal mediator is involved. A commissioner from the FMCS (Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service), Juan Carlos Gonzales, has been working with the parties ever since things got really hairy, which, despite all the saber-rattling that went on during the approach to this bargain, wasn't until crunch time. Mediators are routinely assigned to all contract bargains: those involving the WGA, AWPPW, Steelworkers, Teamsters, everybody. It's standard procedure. During the first week the mediator will call the company and union representatives, introduce him or herself, and remind everyone that they're there to help, just a phone call away. Although they continue to check in from time to time, rarely are they ever invited into a bargain. Not until there's trouble, either when a strike has been called or one appears imminent. Historically, it has always been the union who makes that first call, looking for any port in the storm to keep from shutting down a facility. It's different for the company. Besides not wanting to appear weak or needy, management has little respect for the federal government, whether it's outside "agitators" like OSHA or the NLRB, or confiscatory tax collectors, like the IRS. In their view, management's job is to manage; they don't need some government flunky to advise them how to run their business. Only when a shutdown has occurred does management aggressively turn to the feds. And in regard to mediators, there's already an interesting wrinkle to this strike. Because new and emerging technology is so important a component, and because future technology is still vastly uncharted territory, there's an outside chance that this work stoppage could be a short one. With the help of a savvy mediator, it's possible that the WGA and AMPTP could agree on what is called a "reopener" clause. This scenario has already been speculated upon by labor observers. A reopener is where the parties agree to renegotiate certain portions (usually no more than one or two sections) of the contract much earlier than the contract's formal expiration date. The issues to be addressed are very specific and very clearly delineated. No extraneous topics are permitted to be discussed. Typically, reopeners occur during periods of high inflation, where neither party wants to lock itself into a fixed wage, choosing instead to reopen the wage portion of, say, a 4-year contract every 12 months. A reopener also serves as a de facto cooling off period. It gets the membership back to work without locking them into a risky four or five-year commitment to something too volatile to predict, and allows the company to catch its breath. While unions like reopeners for all the obvious reasons, companies are wary of them not only because they require what seems like endlessly protracted bargaining sessions, but because the more times the company meets to negotiate, the more it's obliged to make moves, even infinitesimal ones. And if you make enough moves, even tiny ones, you risk moving off your core position. Still, if technology-present and future-is the sticking point, and the mediator is persuasive, the AMPTP may agree to a staggered settlement, especially where unsettled media issues are involved. Instead of using a crystal ball to write future contract language, new technologies can be addressed sequentially, as they appear on the market. It's a longshot. Given the high stakes, and the producers' winner-take-all mentality, reopeners aren't likely. But it's almost a certainty that Gonzales will float the idea. And if he doesn't get results, the FMCS will send in reinforcements. The last WGA strike, in 1988, lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry an estimated $500 million. Federal mediators exist for one reason, and with one goal in mind: To get signatures on the dotted lines. They don't care what's "fair," what's sufficient, who wins or who loses; they'll do almost anything to get signatures. Some years ago, I was on a negotiating team that shut down a manufacturing facility for 58 days. A week or two after the strike, as both sides were still licking their wounds, the union compared notes with management's negotiators. We found out how mediators operate. It was enlightening. When the mediator met privately with the union team, late in the strike, he bellowed. "Even if management wanted to give you what you asked for, their hands are tied," he shouted. "They have no room to move, guys. Not an inch. This whole deal is in corporate's hands. I was in the room when they talked on the phone. Right now, corporate is so pissed at you for going on strike, they don't care if you stay out forever. In fact, they hope you do, so they can hire replacements. If you hotshots know what's good for you, you'll get back in there and work out a deal. I've been doing this job for 18 years, and I've never seen a management team more locked into a position. It's over, fellas. You're done." Scary stuff. But when he was meeting with the company, his spiel went like this: "These union guys are like some kind of kamikazes. I mean, they're crazy men. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. And I've been doing this for 18 years. I swear to God, these guys aren't just fearless, they're nuts. They're willing to ride this bargain right over falls, if that's what it takes. Unless you make a move, this strike will go on forever. Believe me, they don't give a rat's ass. They're crazy. They're dug in. If you don't sweeten your offer, you're finished. I guarantee it. " Etc. On the last day we met for 22 consecutive hours and finally hammered out a 4-year agreement. When it was over, the mediator shook hands with every bleary-eyed negotiator in the room, from both sides. He wished us luck, picked up his briefcase, and rode off into the sunset. He had another union-management bargain to mediate. David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright and writer, was president and chief contract negotiator of the Assn. of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, Local 672, from 1989 to 2000. He can be reached at: dmacaray@earthlink.net The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! Israel's Very Dangerous Gamble STEPHEN GREEN reports on the real motivations behind Israel's MISSILE STRIKE on SYRIA. PETER MONTAGUE on the NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE or How the Nuke Industry is using Gore's Prize and Global Warming to Plot Its Big Comeback. WILLIAM BLUM on the DEVALUING of "ANTI-SEMITE" or How to Make a Term Meaningless. 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