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Today's Stories November 25 / 26, 2006 Gabriel Kolko Factors in Our Colossal Mess Saul Landau Republic of the Repressed William Blum New Congress, Same Quagmire Ralph Nader The Trouble with the Bubble Fred Gardner The War on Us: Another 1.9 Million Victims Daniel Wolff Return to District 8, New Orleans M. Shahid Alam Pitting the West Against Islam Aseem Shrivastava India on 20 Cents a Day Seth Sandronsky The Washington Post's War on Social Security Michele Naar-Obed A Letter to the Judge Who Sentenced My Husband to Federal Prison for Protesting Nuclear Weapons Website of the Weekend The Black Agenda   November 24, 2006 Charles Glass How to Let Lebanon Live Gideon Levy A Prayer in Paradise Jonathan Cook Syria as Fallguy Ron Jacobs Build a Fire on Main Street: Stop the War, Now! Brian McKenna Native Resurgence Spurs Hope: Giving Thanks to America's Indians Kim Ives The UN Fails Haiti, Again   November 23, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Democrats and the Slaughterhouse November 22, 2006 Kathleen Christison The Massacre at Beit Hanoun Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Lone Victory: Defeating the Bill of Rights Mike Roselle Green Muscle on Election Day: Now is the Time for Boldness Dave Lindorff The First Task of the New Congress Greg Moses Up From Chiapas: Giving Thanks to Women's Revolution Dave Zirin Born Under Punches: the Pimping of Mike Tyson Nadia Martinez Dealing with Ortega Sherwood Ross Why the World Needs Trade Unions Now More Than Ever David Kalbfeisch I Am A Navy Veteran Against Wars Gilad Atzmon Palestinian Solidarity in a Time of Massacres Website of the Day Sorry, Charlie: No Draft   November 21, 2006 Robert Bryce The Ongoing Myth of Energy Independence John V. Walsh Spoilers of the World Unite! Luis Hernandez Navarro Lessons from the Teachers of Oaxaca Kevin Zeese An Interview with Michael Isikoff on Iraq Peter Rost, MD Rules of the Game: How Big Corporations Avoid Paying Their Taxes Evelyn Pringle Drug Your Fetus: How Big Pharma Hits on Pregnant Women Roger Morris Reason in an Age of Folly (and Felony) Don Monkerud Here Come the Democrats ... So? Website of the Day The Grind   November 20, 2006 David H. Price American Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of Iraq Col. Dan Smith Usurpation of Power Katherine Hughes Compassion on Trial in War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir Dave Himmelstein Ziodammerung: Netanyahu and the End Times Robert Jensen Opportunities Lost Joe Mowrey America's Progressive Nightmare: Here Come the Armani Democrats Mike Whitney Housing Bubble Smack Down: Alan Greenspan, Homewrecker Carl N. McDaniel Living Within Limits Robert Fisk Shia Walk Ramzy Baroud Killing Hope in Beit Hanoun Website of the Day Iraq: the Hidden Story   November 18 / 19, 2006 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Top Dems to Voters: "Shut Up! We've Got a War to Run!" Ralph Nader The Hole in Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Lost the Senate Barucha Calamity Peller Who Will Live on in the Oaxaca Uprising? John Ross Halliburton Wrecks Mexico Dave Lindorff The Albatross: Why the Democrats Should Cut Loose Joe Lieberman Fred Gardner The Adverse Effects of Marijuana: California Medical Survey Ron Jacobs Back in the Aether Again: Thomas Pynchon's Stunning Return Larry Portis The Songs of Basilio Martin Patino: Father of the New Spanish Cinema Frida Berrigan The Weapons Bonanza: a Perfect Storm of Profit Wes Enzinna Ghosts of Dictatorships Past: the School of the America's and Memory in Latin America Elizabeth Schulte The Fall of Donald Rumsfeld: Architect of a Disaster Peter Rost, MD The Credit Card Trap Martha Rosenberg We're Drinking What? Milk, rBST and Monsanto's Rats Seth Sandronsky University Unity: California's Professors and Students Unite Missy Beattie Explore This! Adam Engel Data Days Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Newberry and Curtis Website of the Weekend A Modest Proposal for the Art World   November 17, 2006 Greg Grandin The Road from Serfdom: Milton Friedman and the Economics of Empire Joseph Massad Pinochet in Palestine: Fateh's Unholy Alliance Kevin Zeese George McGovern's Return to Capitol Hill: "A Down-to-Earth Disengagement Plan" Gideon Levy After the Rain of Death Bill Quigley WMDs Protected!: Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison David Swanson Last Chance for the Democrats?: a Tale of Two Conyers Sherry Wolf Gay Rights: When Will the US Catch Up with Africa? Jerry Beisler What James Webb Knows Website of the Day Thanks for the False Memories!   November 16, 2006 Kathy Kelly Sources of Violence Col. Douglas MacGregor Was It Only Rumsfeld? Norman Solomon Operation Last Resort: the Media Offensive to Prolong the Iraq War Nikki Thanos From Oaxaca to Portland Cindy Sheehan Impeachment Proceedings Lena Khalaf Tuffaha Jimmy Carter and the "A" Word: Will the Democrats Listen to Carter on Palestine? Gloria La Riva Where is the Justice? Anti-Castro Terrorist Gets Only 4 Years Pat Williams How the Democrats Won the West Kerry Joyce From Rummy to Rahmmy: Bob Novak's New Source CP News Service Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Non-Organic Food as "Organic" David Letterman Top 10 Slogans for Wal-Mart Wine James Ridgeway Did Robert Gates' Planning Help Bring Black Hawk Down? Website of the Day A Conversation with West Point Grads Against the War   November 15, 2006 Jennifer Loewenstein Alice in Erez: the Gaza Crossing David Rosen Rev. Ted Haggard and the Eclipse of Evangelical Fury Ashley Smith A Socialist in the Senate? Landau / Hassen Talking Tough on Iraq Isn't Courageous Walden Bello Iraq After November 7: New Challenges for the AntiWar Movement Sibel Edmonds The Highjacking of a Nation Austin / Bernstein Why Bill Cosby is Wrong to Link Black Culture to Economic Decline Yitzhak Laor This Merchandise, Security James Rothenberg Unimpeachable: a Brief Argument Why Gail Dines "Borat": It's a Guy Thing Website of the Day Kakistocracy November 14, 2006 Werther Beltway Bromo-Seltzer: a Sneak Peak at the Baker Report Ray McGovern Benching Scowcroft John Walsh Korea, Vietnam and Iraq Syndrome: Alive, Well and Gaining Strength David MacMichael Gates to the Pentagon William S. Lind Lose a War, Lose an Election Sharon Smith Democrats, Born to Compromise Laura Carlsen Oaxaca Fights Back Ron Jacobs The Perishing Republic Peter Rost, MD Whistleblowers: Who Are They? Carol Norris Post-Campaign Ad Stress Disorder? Website of the Day A Map of the US Nuclear Arsenal     November 13, 2006 Kathleen and Bill Christison Screw the Palestinians, Full Steam Ahead Bill Quigley Robin Hood in Reverse: the Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast Paul Craig Roberts The Democrats and Civil Liberties: Will They Turn a Blind Eye? Uri Avnery Call It What It Is: a Massacre! Joe DeRaymond The Strange Return of Daniel Ortega Norman Finkelstein Jimmy Carter's Roadmap Col. Dan Smith The Pentagon's Revolving Gates: Out with the Old, In with the Old Shepherd Bliss After the Party Dave Lindorff What Vote-Theft Conspiracy? Missy Beattie For Better / For Worse: Will Laura Stay the Course? Trenticosta / Fleming Vindication for the Angola 3   Weekend Edition November 11 / 12, 2006 John Walsh Rahm's Losers Barucha Calamity Peller Oaxaca at Any Cost Al Krebs Be Careful What You Wish For Niall Meehan Ireland's Freedom Struggle and the Foster School of Historical Falsification Conn Hallinan The Ills of War: Shafting the Vets Patrick Cockburn "We Worry About Staying Alive, Not the U.S. Elections" Gary Leupp Democrats Can Be NeoCons, Too P. Sainath India High and Low: the Anatomy of a Tiger Nikolas Kozloff The Return of Tom Lantos: Beware Venezuela, Here Come the Democratic Hawks Lawrence R. Velvel Throwing Rumsfeld Under the Bus Fred Gardner Marijuana, the Anti-Drug Ralph Nader Taking on the Boss: Claybrook vs. the Chamber Ben Terrall / John Miller East Timor: 15 Years After the Massacre Mike Whitney Cheney in a Box Joshua Frank Post-Electoral Deliriums Mukul Dube The Death Penalty Case of Mohd. Afzal Jason Hribal Jesse: Eulogy for a Working Dog Daniel Wolff The Unseen Springsteen Michael Donnelly Red Rock Blues: the Moab Folk Festival Lord Montague A Dissenting Note on the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 Poets' Basement Davies, Louise, Buknatski and Orloski   November 10, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Lame Duck Marjorie Cohn The War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld Jorge Mariscal What Veterans See Gregory Elich The Trial of Saddam: Who Will Pass Judgment on the Judges? Joshua Frank Blue Dog Group: Bye-Bye Coke, Hello Pepsi Megan Boler The Joke is On Us: How "Borat" Lowers the Bar of Political Satire Ramzy Baroud The Treacherous Road to Oslo Begins Here Farzana Versey An Iraqi in India Roberto Rodriguez A Thumpin' or a Whippin'? Cartoon of the Day Splat!   November 9, 2006 Jennifer Loewenstein How Gaza Offends Us All Patrick Cockburn War of the Snipers Paul Craig Roberts Will Democrats Become Part of the Problem? Manuel Garcia, Jr. The Roots of Corruption Mike Whitney Bush's Chernobyl Economy Alan Maass The Repudiation of One-Party Rule Robert Jensen Blood on the Tracks: the Elections and the Coming Train Wreck Nicola Nasser Saddam's Trial in Context John Chuckman As I Lay Dying: Watching the US Elections from Canada Jamal Juma Between Resistance and Deception in Palestine Felice Pace Can the Klamath be Restored? Website of the Day The Robert Gates Files   November 8, 2006 Alexander Cockburn / Jeffrey St. Clair Count Your Blessings: NeoCons and NeoLibs Take Big Hit as Voters Say No to Bush, War and Free Trade Lawrence E. Walsh Robert Gates and Iran/Contra: Lies, Cover Ups and Slanted Intelligence Bruce K. Gagnon What's Next for the Peace Movement?: Confront the Democrats, Now! Neve Gordon Anti-Semitism? Mr. Dershowitz, You Just Don't Like What I Say Dave Lindorff Election Post-Mortem: What's Next? Arthur Neslen Another Tragic Day in Palestine Joshua Frank An Election Hangover: Thank God It's Over James Goodman The Corporate Food System is Broken Charles Sullivan Voting in the Absence of Choice David Swanson Subpoena Envy: The Dems Have the Power, But Will They Use It? Missy Beattie The Electorate Speaks and Barney Barks! Dr. Susan Block American Voters Say, "Bush Sucks!" Website of the Day Stealing Olive Groves from Palestinians   November 7, 2006 Michael Neumann Cut and Run from Iraq: Sooner Rather Than Later Paul Wolf Saddam Must Die: A Pre-Ordained Verdict Nikolas Kozloff In Nicaragua, a Chavez Wave? Eliza Ernshire The Women of Beit Hanoun William S. Lind The Smile on Saddam's Face: He's Tan, Rested and Ready Mike Ferner Pick a Number: Greater Than 47,615 Felice Pace Pumping the Klamath Dry Chris Genovali The Problem with PBDEs: Why Canada's Proposed Ban Won't Protect People or Wildlife Gilad Atzmon Watching Borat Dick J. Reavis Going to Class War with the Proletariat We Got ... Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Lives (and Votes) Lost: the Ordeal of Larry Peterson Website of the Day Magic Sam: a Sure Cure for the Election Day Blues Question of the Day Is Bush Gay?   November 6, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Message of Campaign 2006 Norman Solomon Saddam's Unindicted Co-Conspirator: Donald Rumsfeld Robert Fisk A Guilty Verdict on America, as Well Marjorie Cohn The Banana Election: From Hanging Chads to Hanging Saddam Paul Craig Roberts The Goose and the Gander: Is Bush Next? Nikolas Kozloff Election Eve Jitters: the Chavez Factor Newton Garver The Progress in Bolivia: Morales' Stunning Victory Over Big Oil Mike Whitney Bush's Carnival of Blood Jesse Hagopian From the Black Panthers to the Green Party: an Interview with Aaron Dixon Dr. Peter Rost, MD The Genocide Election: When a Life Saving Industry Cheats, People Die Website of the Day Robert Pollin vs. Rick Wolff: Is Pomo Marxism Marxism?   November 4 / 5, 2006 Dave Zirin Political Players: Where Athletes Give Their Money Patrick Cockburn When Does Incompetence Become a Crime? Sanho Tree War Timing and Opportunism Ralph Nader Failure Across All Fronts Lee Sustar The Obama Myth Dr. Shepherd Bliss Torture Memories Adam Elkus Babies and Banks: Celebrity Colonialism in Africa Seth Sandronsky Is Another Recession Looming? Fred Gardner 10 Years of Medical Pot in California: Dr. Mikuriya's Observations Joshua Sperber How the US Lost Latin America Evelyn Pringle Ohio Redux: Mr. Blackwell and the Henhouse Mitchel Cohen The Left and the Environment: Notes on the Ecological Dimension Missy Beattie The Medium is the Massage Michael Dickinson Watching the Guards: a Prison Diary John Holt The Silk Road to Ruin Dr. Susan Block The Beastly Bombing Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Engel, Orloski and Davies November 3, 2006 Laura Carlsen Day of the Dead in Oaxaca Stephan Said Honoring Bradley Will John Stauber "Victory in Iraq:" The PR Machine Behind Bush's Favorite Slogan Mike Whitney Baghdad is Surrounded Joshua Frank DNC Deja Vu Victoria Furio More Than Timetables Tammara~85,441 They Say He is Coming Home Stuart Croswaithe Beatings and Sugar Plums: New Labor's War on the Kurds Missy Beattie Bush Shock Website of the Day Howlin' Wolf November 2, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler The US Body Count in Iraq: an Analysis of Who is Dying and How Paul Craig Roberts Evil is as Evil Does Dave Lindorff Kerry Out: the Joke's Still on Us Uri Avnery The Lovable Man? Lieberman and the Decline of Israeli Democracy Jeff Birkenstein Smearing Harold Ford in Black Face John Ross Slave Labor in Private Prisons Zoltan Grossman Recharging the Anti-War Movement Eveyln Pringle The SEC's Probe of Halliburton: Is Cheney Being Fitted for a Striped Jumpsuit? Christopher Brauchli Drug Profits and PACs: Why Big Pharma Pushes the GOP   November 1, 2006 Alan Dershowitz v. Bruce Jackson On Torture Brian Tokar Running on Hype: the Real Scoop on Biofuels Fred Leonhardt Democrats, Sex Crimes and the Press: the Goldschmidt Affair Richard W. Behan Triumph of the Petropublicans: Bush's Other Civil War Brenda Norrell Indigenous Opposition to the Border Wall Charles Sullivan Spoils of Corruption: Who Will Stand Up When America Goes Wrong? Ron Jacobs Hell is Rising in Oaxaca: interview with a Oaxacan Rebel Mike Knapp Green Stench in Minnesota: the Commissioner and the Hog Lot Moshe Adler The Temptations of a Union Boss: the Case of Brian McLaughlin Walden Bello Chain Gang Economics Lee Ballinger The Collapse of Hip Capitalism: How Tower Records Committed Suicide Joshua Frank Party in a Cage: Snake Oil and the Midterm Elections Carl Gelderloos Cheerleading the Massacre in Oaxaca: an Open Letter to the Washington Post Peter Rost, MD Panic in Big Pharma Saul Landau Bush's Anti-Terrorism Record: Don't Look Too Close Website of the Day The Meatrix October 31, 2006 William S. Lind The Third and Final Act: Iran Stephen S. Pearcy Dem Candidate's Wife Urges Cindy Sheehan Not to Protest Iraq War Uri Avnery Who's Afraid of an Iranian Bomb? Michael Colby Corporations Win Again!: Bush Opens National Parks to Bio-Prospecting Sunsara Taylor A No-Win Election for Women Ben Beachy Targeting Nicaraguans' Stomachs: 11th Hour Election Meddling by the US Edward Humes Nine Words: America's Disservice to Veterans Roger Burbach The Meaning of Lula's Victory in Brazil Subcomandante Marcos A Communique from the EZLN on Oaxaca Niranjan Ramakrishnan Funny Business in the Booth: Vote for James H. 'Jim' Sharon Smith Those Damned Democrats Website of the Day Parks Not for Sale   October 30, 2006 Robert Fisk Dirty Bombs Over Lebanon: Did Israel Use Uranium Weapons? Bruce Jackson Normalizing Torture Norman Solomon I Was Wrong About Thomas Friedman, the World's Wealthiest Pundit Lance Selfa Liberal Doormats: Tread on Us Ali Khan The Veil and the British Male Elite Lee Sustar European Islamophobia: Fanning the Flames of Hate Robert Jensen The Death of Empathy Akiva Eldar Lieberman: Making Haider Look Good Tim Montague The Natural Step to Eco-Villages Brian M. Downing Evil in the Valley: Civilian Massacres, From Vietnam to Iraq Website of the Day Alien Impeachment October 27 / 29, 2006 Weekend Edition Jeffrey St. Clair Hogwash: Fecal Factories in the Heartland Maher Arar The Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition: a Personal Account David Rosen Perversions of Power: Mark Foley and the Bush Administration Gregory Elich "A Bursting Boiler at Russia's Doorstep:" Why Bush is Seeking Confrontation with N. Korea Tom Barry Fear and Loathing in the North: an Apartheid Fence in America? Jeff Taylor Democrats By Default? Dave Lindorff Why Nancy Pelosi is Wrong Ron Jacobs The General Who Called Out the Devil: the Politics of Hugo Chavez Maurus Chino Hauba Hanu: Oppression Affects All People Christopher Brauchli Veiled Threats: the Global War on Fashion Sherwood Ross The Wages of Whistleblowing: Why Bunny Greenhouse Sits in a Corner Rev. William Alberts In Search of a Real Inter-Religious Dialogue on War and Justice Aseem Shrivastava Pushing India Toward a "Dollar Democracy" Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Bush's Mea Culpa Speech, First Draft Russ Fine / Dee Fine Of Peters and Principles: Learning About Sex and Hypocrisy from the GOP Seth Sandronsky Social Security: the Distortions of Sebastian Mallaby Michael Carmichael Rogue President: Midterm Meltdown Joe Allen The Legacy of Gillo Pontecorvo: a Maker of Revolutionary Films David Vest Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Landau, Engel and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Safely Home   October 26, 2006 Ismael Hossein-zadeh Islamic Fascism?: Inflammatory Ironies Carlos Zorrilla The Police Raid on My House: Trumped Up Charges and Collusion Between a Mining Company and the Government of Ecuador Paul Craig Roberts The Crimes of Greed vs. the Crimes of Government: If Enron's Skilling Gets 24 Years in Prison, How Many Should Bush and Cheney Get? Mike Whitney The Charnel House of Baghdad Lily Hughes A Cruel and Unusual Reality: Inside the Texas Death House Jennifer Matsui Madonna's African Safari: The Great White Baby Hunter Tim Matson How to Save Vermont Stephen Fleischman Like a Soldier: Benchmarks, Timelines and Lies Missy Beattie The Blood of October: Are We Sure Barney Still Supports This War? Patrick Cockburn From "Mission Accomplished" to "Mission Impossible" in Iraq Website of the Day Open Letter to The Nation   October 25, 2006 Michael Donnelly Ethnicity and Baseball John Stanton The Vindication of Sibel Edmonds John Ross Upheaval from the Bottom Conn Hallinan Hunting Hugo: When It's About Oil Nothing is Off the Table--Not Even Assassination Robert Jensen Academic Freedom on the Rocks Johnny Barber Drinking Tea with Hizbullah Bruce K. Gagnon Space Cowboy: Bush's War on Heaven Daniel McGowan Elie Wiesel for Israeli President? James J. Brittain Uribe's Failure to Learn from Colombia's Past Peter Harley Afghanistan in 3-D Jonathan Cook Israel's Minister of Strategic Threats Shepherd Bliss The Bioneers and the New York Times Website of the Day The Price of Staying the Course   October 24, 2006 John Walsh The Book of Rahm: Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats M. Shahid Alam Not All Terrorists Are Muslim: the Latest Falsehood from the Advocates of Civilizational War Dr. Trudy Bond The Silence at Home, as America Eats Her Young Michael Phillips The Story of My Kidnapping in Nablus: "I Never Feared for My Life" Dave Lindorff Truth and Consequences on Iraq: Bush's Latest Cut-and-Paste War Plan David Phinney A US Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Labor Trafficking Used to Build World's Largest Embassy Laura Carlsen Food Insecurity: the World Needs Its Small Farmers Pierre Tristam The American Way of Gore Marguerite Rose Jimenez "About That Trip to Cuba:" When the FBI Came Calling Website of the Day Tampon Terrorists   October 23, 2006 Saree Makdisi Israel's Cluster Bomb War: "What We Did Was Insane and Monstrous" Joshua Frank The Antiwar Movement and Independent Politics: an Interview with Cindy Sheehan Fred Gardner What Have California Doctors Learned About Cannabis? Ralph Nader The End of Habeas Corpus and the Belligerent Despot-in-Chief Ron Jacobs Bush's Clark Clifford: James Baker Wants a Kinder, Gentler War Norman Solomon Punditry Without Consequences: Channeling Thomas Friedman Richard Manning Outside the Market: We Need and Owe Rural People Neil Kitson Canadians in Afghanistan: Bloody, Unbowed, Stoned? William MacDougall The Socialist, the Columnist, His Wife and the Prostitute Gilad Atzmon Surviving the Board of Deputies Werther The Evening of Empire Website of the Day Different Drummer: Internet Coffeehouse Movement   October 20 / 22, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Myth of Microloans Gary Leupp How the US Declared War on North Korea Brian Cloughley What Are They Dying For? Dave Zirin Pat Tillman's Brother Breaks His Silence William Blum Don't Look Back: Who Said Clinton Didn't Kill Anybody? Christopher Brauchli The Cronies' War Winslow Wheeler The Mad Logic of Pentagon Spending: As Costs Rise, Readiness Declines Michael Donnelly GOP Death Slide: Is the Party Really Over? Fred Gardner Corporate Drugs Useless Against Alzheimer's Susie Day How to Stay Out of Gitmo Lucinda Marshall Behind Closed Doors: the Invisibility of Domestic Violence Fred Wilcox The Second Palestinian Intifada: History of a Struggle for Survival Alan Maass Standing Up Against Racism at Columbia: a Wake Up Call to the Passive Left Lee Sustar A Bipartisan Border Wall: New Phases in the Crackdown on Immigrants Ariadna Theokopoulos Shame on You, Dr. Warf: Hail the Epidemiologist in Chief Missy Beattie Surges: the Dow and the Death Count CP News Wire Bush's Paraguay Land Grab: Hideout or Water Raid? CP News Services Sexually Repressed Republicans: Robert Bork, Riveted Poets' Basement Davies, Engel, Buknatski and Orloski Website of the Weekend Scenes from Oaxaca   October 19, 2006 Elaine Cassel The Bush Administration's Assault on Defense Lawyers Col. Dan Smith Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine: Cracks in the Bush / Blair Axis Manuel Garcia, Jr. North Korea's Nuclear Test: a Q & A Josh Gryniewicz Wal-Mart Tightens the Squeeze on Workers Amira Hass What is 20 Tons of Explosives? Eric Holt-Gimenez Poison and Famine in the Fields: How the Agri-Food Industry's Deadly Cycle Feeds Immigration Jesse Hagopian Arrested Democracy: On Trying to Ignore Aaron Dixon Sam Husseini How Third Parties Can Solve the "Spoiler" Problem and Win Elections John Weisheit A Gathering of Water Buffaloes: Feds Celebrate Death of the Colorado River CP News Service A Plea to U2 From Africa's Children: Stop Bono Before He Kills Again Website of the Day George W. Bush: Hollywood Producer Art Gallery of the Day Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings in Manhattan   October 18, 2006 Joshua Frank Cindy Sheehan's Lesser Evilism: Democrats or Bust? Dr. Curran Warf, MD Slandering Sound Science: Bush's Attack on the Lancet Iraq War Death Study Saul Landau Bush's Foley: Will the Dems Blow It? Tom Barry The Politics of Fear Bruce Jackson Thundersnow: a Report from Buffalo Dave Lindorff Loveless Among the Ruins: Even Repubs Flee Bush's Failed Middle East Policy Frederico Fuentes When Cochabamba Said "Enough": Bolivia's Blow to Neoliberalism Michael Simmons Greetings from Echo Park: an Open Letter to Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner Daryll E. Ray The Root Problems in American Agriculture Kate Doyle The Dead of Tlatelolco Website of the Day The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee   October 17, 2006 Michael Neumann Hit and Run: Guerrilla Reviewing Manuel Garcia, Jr. Nuclear Test, Political Flare: Interpreting the Physics and Politics of N. Korea's Nuclear Test Stephen S. Pearcy The Interrogation of Julia Wilson: Secret Service Grills 14 Year-Old Artist Sharon Smith Afghanistan Reconsidered: The Taliban Aren't Gone, Women Haven't Been Liberated Al Krebs The Corporate Assault on Zoning David Underhill Politicus Interruptus: Come Back, Jo Bonner Daniel Wolff NY's Iraq Veterans Against the War Needs Your Help ... Now James Brooks Desirable Duds: Israeli / US Cluster Bombs Litter Lebanon Website of the Day Stop Torture Now   October 16, 2006 Gary Leupp North Korea as a Religious State Patrick Cockburn General Mutinies Against Blair David Wilson Where Have All the Doctors Gone?: the Collapse of Iraq's Health Care Services Robert Fisk Confronting Turkey's Armenian Genocide Robert Jensen Racism and Cheap Thrills at U. of Texas Law School Ingmar Lee / Krista Roessingh An Appeal for S. India's Wild Elephants Mike Whitney America's Other War Party Jake Whitney The Courageous Dr. Rost Sanho Tree Sugar Daddy Politics: Was Foley Blackmailed to Secure His Vote on CAFTA? Website of the Day Best War Ever   October 14/15, 2006 Weekend Edition Uri Avnery Gaza as Laboratory: the Great Experiment John Walsh How Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress Jean Bricmont A Fable About Palestine Jennifer Van Bergen Bush's Military Commissions Act and the Future of America Ralph Nader Wilted Yankees: the Fruits of Checkbook Baseball Floyd Rudmin The Logic of Proliferation: How Bush's Belligerence Prompted N. Korea to Pursue Nuclear Weapons Mark Weisbrot Correcting the Facts on US/Venezuela Relations Laura Carlsen Building a Future in the Mixteca Hani Shukrallah A Stroll Through the Cairo Mall: Shopping as Cultural Pursuit Dr. Susan Block The Spent Milk of Human Foley John Chuckman North Korea's Bomb: Still 1,126 Nuke Tests Behind the US Lucinda Marshall Is Betty Ugly?: the Profits of Denigration Don Monkerud The Case Against Depleted Uranium Missy Comley Beattie What Bush Means By Tolerable Violence in Iraq Ron Jacobs Shouting "No One is Illegal" in a Crowded Theater Website of the Weekend Ratfink Raunchfest   October 13, 2006 Jorge Mariscal PowerPoint Racism: How Military Recruiters Pitch to Latinos Stephen Philion The Myth of the Spat Upon Vets: an Interview with Jerry Lembcke John Blair Strip Mining Wildlife Preserves: Black Beauty's Filthy Lucre Col. Dan Smith Oil, Atoms and War Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part Two, Winning the Ground War Stephen Fleischman Journalism Then and Now Charles Perroud The Death Penalty's Invisible Victims Anne E. Brodsky Return to Afghanistan: Where the Rhetoric Doesn't Match the Reality Website of the Day Underwater Nuke Test   October 12, 2006 Jonathan Cook Israel's Plan for a Military Strike on Iran Norman Solomon The Pundit Path to Death in Iraq M. Shahid Alam On Colonialism and Colleagues Paul Craig Roberts Can We Call It Genocide Now? Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik Is a General Transportation Strike Looming for 2008? Can Labor Seize the Moment? Carl Gelderloos Images of Occupation: Teaching in Nablus Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part One, Winning the Intelligence War Charles Sullivan Assassins of Truth William S. Lind Why Do We Still Fight a Lost War? CP News Service The South Turns Against the War Website of the Day There's a Riot Goin' On   October 11, 2006 John Feffer Pyongyang 1, Bush 0 Dave Lindorff A Killing Occupation Jackson Katz Gunning Down Women: Coverage of "School Shootings" Misses Central Issue April Howard / Ben Dangl The Tin War in Bolivia Michael Carmichael World War W Ken Couesbouc The New Witchcraft: Marvin Harris on the War on Terror Gregory Afghani Sleepless on Skid Row: Guilty of Being Homeless in America Alexander Cockburn 600,000 Dead in Iraq: Chortles in the New Yorker for Slaughter's Cheerleader, C. Hitchens Website of the Day Petition: Defend Columbia Students Who Confronted the Minutemen   October 10, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Lost Wars and a Lost Economy Robert Robideau The Myth Keepers of Columbus Joshua Frank The Democrats and the War on Civil Liberties Dave Lindorff Free the Press Free Linda Greenhouse Dave Zirin Brother of the Fist Heather Gray Where Votes Matter: My Experience in South Africa James Knotwell Big Ag in the Heartland: the Future of Nebraska's Family Farms Missy Beattie The Return of James Baker, III Mike Whitney Bush and North Korea: Bumbling Toward Disaster David Rosen Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex in America Website of the Day Eno / Byrne: Music to Enjoy the Foley Scandal By   October 9. 2006 Robert Fisk The Age of Terror Norman Solomon Welcome to the Nuclear Club Ron Jacobs The Boom Heard Around the World Gideon Levy The Mystery of America Walter Brasch Their Back Pages: Sex, Lies and Family Values Mickey Z. Who Killed Michael Moore? John Holt Grizzlies in Our Midst: Can Humans and Bears Coexist? Lucinda Marshall Not So Pretty in Pink: Profits and Breast Cancer Saul Landau Post-Castro Cuba Website of the Day War, Inc.     October 7 / 8, 2006 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Wargasms and Orgasms Peter Kwong The Chinese Face of Neoliberalism Ralph Nader Revolt of the Generals Mark Donham What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me Dave Lindorff Philly's Police Snoops Peter Bosshard World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices: Big Dams, Huge Profits & Political Corruption Ron Jacobs Evil Hour in Colombia Lawrence R. Velvel Governmental Derelicts: Moral Meltdown in America Fred Gardner Arnold Vetoes Hemp Bill David Green The US, Israel and the Invasion of Lebanon Jim B. Activism, Incorporated: Outsourcing Grassroots Politics? Missy Beattie Prayers for Peace at the Edge of the Abyss Michael Donnelly Blame the Page: Grand Old Perverts Go on Offensive Jackson Thoreau Enter Newt Jon Hung Revisiting Korematsu: Denying Civil Rights Based on National Origin CounterPunch News Service Why We Confronted the Minutemen at Columbia Tom D'Antoni Playlist Poets' Basement Orloski, Davies, Tirado, Gaffney and Ford Website of the Weekend Reagan Gone Wild   October 6, 2006 Alison Weir Just Another Mother Murdered Tiffany Ten Eyck / Mark Brenner Made in (DeUnionized) America Corporate Crime Reporter Look Who's Behind "37 Reasons" to Vote for Big Business: Former Clinton PR Flak Mike McCurry Juan Antonio Montecino Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America Walden Bello A Siamese Tragedy Christopher Brauchli Rank Invitations: Dining with Bush Brynne Keith-Jennings Dan Burton in Nicaragua: the Congressman, His Stick and the Elections Jonathan Cook The Struggle for Palestine's Soul Website of the Day Fighting Hog Farms and Clearcuts in the Heartland   October 5, 2006 John Walsh Turn the Page Carol Norris The Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser and You: a Psychotherapist on the Hysteria Over Foley Paul Craig Roberts Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election? Ricardo Alarcón The Truth About the Embargo of Cuba James Abourezk Waterboarding the Constitution: After Torture, What's Next? Nicola Nasser Removing Hamas: Brinksmanship or Coup d'Etat? 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Weekend Edition November 25 / 26, 2006 Plans B, C and D Contingency and Counter-Contingency in Venezuela By GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER Anyone paying attention to the Venezuelan press in recent weeks will not be able to ignore a shift in the tenor of the electoral campaign. Weeks and months of straightforward campaign rhetoric and poll results has given way to a more sinister tone, as the discussion has shifted away from the voting process on December 3rd and toward what will be done on December 4th. This shift originates in the rhetoric of an increasingly-desperate opposition which hopes to have its cake and eat it too, that is, to simultaneously contest elections and discredit the process. But this rhetoric has found its echo of resistance in similar plans for "the day after" by different sectors of the Bolivarian Revolution: efforts to organize themselves on the local level to defend against attacks on Venezuelan sovereignty. Plan B After much uncertainty, it now seems that-despite running consistently 20-30% behind Chávez in the polls-opposition candidate Manuel Rosales will not be pulling out of the election. And this despite the fact that sectors of the opposition like the Acción Democrática Party (AD) and Antonio Ledezma's Alianza Bravo Pueblo have still refused to support the process and are calling for abstention. While the Rosales campaign has not denied the claims of such groups, and while he can be heard to echo the claims of abstentionists that the "electoral conditions are insufficient," and that the fingerprint machines used in the voting process have "no function except to frighten the electorate," Rosales has not been sufficiently consistent with this theme to justify withdrawing from the elections. Given his rhetoric, quite simply, withdrawing would be not be a credible decision: it's too late for that. But unfortunately, this doesn't mean that the opposition will be passively accepting their electoral defeat on December 3rd. Instead, rather than complaining of electoral conditions beforehand and talking the abstentionist talk, the opposition is rallying around the slogan of "defend the vote." This vague slogan has some clear consequences, as became clear when opposition ideologue Rafael Poleo appeared recently on Globovisión. Poleo, who has links to the Bush clan and the CIA, who was thoroughly implicated in the April 2002 coup, and whose daughter has been directly implicated in the assassination of Danilo Anderson, the judge whose job it was to collect evidence against the coup-plotters, laid out the strategy of the radical opposition in the clearest of terms on November 6th: "On the 3rd, it is up to the citizens to align themselves with the opposition, they need to go and vote. On the 4th, it's up to Manuel Rosales to lead the protests against the fraud that has been set up. And on the 5th, it's up to the Armed Forces to decide if it will continue forcing those in the Venezuelan opposition to put up with a shameful regime." According to Poleo, Rosales could be the most important Venezuelan of the 21st century "if he does what he needs to do." The Electoral Committee (CNE) "will announce the victory of Hugo Chávez, regardless of what the numbers say," and "at 6am on the 4th, the streets will fill with people decrying fraud, and then we will see the true size of Rosales." Revealingly, Poleo declares that "that day after, the 4th, will be even more important than December 3rdOn the 4th, it's up to the people to do what the Ukranians did, to carry out an 'Orange Revolution,' to hurl themselves onto the streets, because the fraud has already been arranged, they already have the numbers ready." The Chavistas will not abandon power for the simple reason that "they are Nazis." A coup attempt is in the works, and it has been publicly announced beforehand (all claims of a lack of press freedom in Venezuela thereby proven false). While Poleo seems uncertain about which path Rosales will choose, the ground is already being laid for his participation in this coup attempt. Hence, Rosales has been clearly evasive when faced with questions about his recognition of the election results: when Chávez publicly agreed to respect the results of the election and challenged his opponent to do the same, the response from Rosales echoing the "democratic" doublespeak of the Northern superpower. Rosales made the very question sound silly: Venezuela is, according to Rosales, the "only country on earth" in which there would even exist a doubt regarding the recognition of elections, but despite this the opposition candidate would not agree to accept these results without the significant caveat that said results must be fair. In terms of the second step of the plan-appeals to the military-Rosales even beat Poleo to the punch, openly calling on November 5th for a meeting with the military high command, a request which was flatly denied by Minster of Defense General Raúl Baduel on the basis that such a meeting would constitute an unconstitutional intervention of the military into the electoral process. In addition, Nestor González González, the baldheaded military leader of the April 2002 coup, has crawled out of his hole to release an audiotape calling for the same sequence of events. While the opposition press wouldn't touch this tape with a ten-foot pole, the rhetoric is the same as that of Poleo: defending the vote, and thereby defending "civil society." As Mario Silva, the fiery host of Chavista evening program La Hojilla makes clear, talk of civil society operates here as a subsititute for talk of the pueblo, the people, for the simple reason that "they don't have a people." Silva's response: "They shall not pass," and if the opposition attempts to spread destabilization and violent blockades known as guarimbas outward from their wealthy refuge, "they won't get out of the Eastern part of the capital." This entire strategy, moreover, has been developing slowly through the political interventions of certain polling agencies whose fidelity to the opposition is clear, and whose polls range from the bad to the worse to the patently made-up. The now-infamous American firm Penn, Schoen, and Berland-most famous for its coup-mongering through polling in Venezuela and Serbia-has stepped into the fray as expected. Perhaps wary of repeating their exaggerated performance in the 2004 recall election, Penn and Schoen have released polls showing Chávez with a slender 6-point lead, but here's the kicker: due to some dubious claims about how the undecideds (the "ni-ni," or "neither-nor" as they are called here) will eventually vote, the results have been deemed "a technical tie." Moreover, the "Hannah Arendt Center" has nominally interrogated but subtly reinforced another alibi of the opposition by relasing a poll under the patently politicized slogan of the "Survey Without Fear." Respondents were allegedly given different colored pencils bearing either Chavista or opposition slogans, or no slogan at all, and the fact that their responses shifted according to the pencil used allegedly "proves" that fear is present. The pollsters don't see fit to explain how this fear operates, why it is that the "Chavista" pencil doesn't merely operate as a reminder of the accomplishments of the revolutionary government, or most importantly why it is that the fact that the opposition pencil yields more support for Rosales isn't also a result of "fear" of the opposition. But to ask such questions of these polls is to take them too seriously: as Mario Silva reveals, again on La Hojilla, the so-called "Hannah Arendt Center" is directly linked to the head of the Rosales campaign team. Such polls constitute little more than direct interventions in support of this three-step plan laid out by Poleo. Plan C In response to this chatter from the opposition press, Chávez has made very clear how he would respond to an attack on the constitutional order after the elections are held. In a speech on November 4th, Chávez preempted the opposition by announcing that any "Plan B" would represent yet another attempt by the United States to topple his regime and replace it with something friendlier (to foreign capital). Since resistance to Chavismo is fundamentally international, according to Chávez, so too should be the response, and he therefore announced plans to unilaterally terminate petroleum shipments to the United States if "actions similar to those of 2002 were to occur." This is, in his words, the "Plan CH" to the opposition's "Plan B" (unfortunately, translation loses the fact that, when pronounced, "ch" sounds strikingly like the name of an Argentine revolutionary that some might have heard of): "We will give them a knockout at the polls, but if they activate their Plan B of violence, electoral guarimbas, and the rejection of the results, if they attempt to sabotage oil installations or attempt a coup d'etat, we will give them a double knockout with Plan CH." In terms of a specific response to the predictable tactics of the opposition, Vice President José Vicente Rangel made clear on November 13th that the goal of the opposition is to provoke a violent response through guarimbas. According to Rangel, such plans won't work, since "we aren't going to give them the pleasure because we can control problems of public order with the word, with the voice, with the example." Order, however, will be maintained: "aside from the soldiers who will go out to defend the Chávez government, it will be the people who immediately hit the streets without any need for us to call upon them, as happened on April 13th 2002." As has often been said by the President, "if they come at us like the 11th (of April), we'll give them the 13th." Chávez himself has echoed this sentiment more recently in a speech on November 17th, in which he asks of the opposition: "don't force me to take drastic measures to safeguard the sovereignty and the stability of the country." Attempts at destabilization would be met with firmness, since "that permissive Chávez was left behind that night in 2002." Chávez concludes: "We won't allow Venezuela to be filled with bloodshed again." Plan D As suggested by the Vice President, Plan C (or "CH") isn't as important as Plan D: the autonomous organization of Chavistas to defend their revolution. So we shouldn't be surprised to find that the most radical sectors of Chavismo are also making plans. Specifically, several armed self-defense organizations rooted in the Tupamaro movement and largely-defunct Bolivarian Circles, which claim a particularly powerful following in the barrios of western Caracas, are preparing plans for the defense of Chavista neighborhoods. Such plans are centered in the historically revolutionary neighborhood of 23 de Enero (January 23rd), in the climbing foothills in western Caracas. 23 de Enero has long represented the organizational "brain" of radical Caracas, as opposed to the "heart" of revolt represented by the slums of Petare, that powderkeg standing far to the east of the city which gave rise to the epic 1989 Caracazo riots. The spirit of revolt has often been sparked in the utter destitution of Petare, the largest and most dangerous of Caracas' slums, but the organizational structure which fans the flames can generally be found in 23. In the short lived April 2002 coup against Chávez, several ministers were spirited away for safe keeping in the "bunker" of 23 de Enero, only to reemerge and participate in the efforts to recover the president. Given this role as radical safe haven, the many radical armed groups populating the neighborhood-from the Carapaica, who made their plans public in local newspapers, to Cepa Cartolini, to the Colectivo Alexis Vive (most of these groups descended from the earlier Coordinador Simón Bolívar and later Tupamaros)-think first of protecting the "bunker": a source close to sectors of the Tupamaros tells me that "the general line is that, in the event of trouble, if it's a confrontation with lead, they'll guard 23 de Enero, keep in contact with other organizations, and mobilize resistance." Specifically, I am told, most organizations have adopted a bifurcated approach to resisting the "Plan B" of the opposition: half of their forces will be devoted to rearguard defense of the bunkers, while half will form "mobilization groups" traveling throughout the city. It should be pointed out that, while the Metropolitan Mayor's office has "fulfilled a necessary support role" by providing logistical support to radical neighborhoods (cellphones, motorcycles), this role is precisely that: support. That is to say, these neighborhood organizations are best considered as "base movements" engaged in a revolutionary process of local administration. In the words of one participant, the resistance to threats from the opposition has led these groups to "create new forms for organizing the local self-defense of sovereignty." These new forms are not