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Today's
Stories
February 8
/ 10, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Does
the GOP Have Aces Up Its Sleeves?
February 7,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Baghdad Will Explode Again
Bill Christison
Potholes Bigger Than Ever for Palestinians
David Anderson
NBC's "To Entrap" a Predator: Perverting Justice for
the Sake of Ratings
Ron Jacobs
Innocent Flesh: Recruiting Kids to Kill
Nikolas Kozloff
Hugo Chávez's Coca: It's the Real Thing
Jane Rockefeller
The Moral Economy of an Anti-Poverty Foundation
Andy Worthington
On Waterboarding: Two Questions for Michael Hayden
Dave Zirin
Instep Intifada
Saul Landau
The "Honestest" Candidate Since Lincoln
Susie Day
Our Blob in the White House
Website of the Day
George Carlin on Voting
February 6,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Super
Tuesday's Vote for Chaos
Ben Rosenfeld
Informant Games: The Disturbing GreenScare Case of Briana Waters
Vijay Prashad
An Intellectual Hustler Lays It All Out
Joe Bageant
Nine Billion Little Feet on the Highway of the Damned
Michael Donnelly
What White Women Do In Private Voting Booths
Allan Nairn
Does the US Need a Civilizing Mayan Invasion?
Kathryn Gray
Wilderness on Edge: The Fate of Donner Summit
Ray McGovern
Powell's UN Fiasco
Sheldon Richman
The Whining Empire
Paul Cantor
/ Roger Sparks
A
Presidential Aptitude Examination
John Chuckman
Political Bits and Pieces
Website of
the Day
Save the Albatross
February 5,
2008
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The
Chaos in America's Vast Security Budget
Tariq Ali
Why I Will Not Participate in the Turin Book Fair
Stephen Soldz
The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq: Did Rumsfeld Authorize
War Crimes?
Chris Floyd
Strange
Fruit: America's Gulag and the Good War
William S. Lind
Saddam's Secret War Strategy: Die and Win
Martha Rosenberg
Live From the Killing Floor
Heather Gray
Conversations with Georgia Voters
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Obama, Bhagwandas and the Battle for a Secular Politics
David Macaray
Unions Need to Stop Being So Nice
Eliza Ernshire
Making Music and Laughing Till the Tears Run
Brenda Norrell
Hated Nation
Website of
the Day
The Things I Used to Do
February 4,
2008
Marc Levy
Winter
in America
Patrick Cockburn
The Bird Market Bombings
Saree Makdisi
Strangling Gaza
Uri Avnery
From Stalingrad to Winograd
Alan Farago
Let's Get Bambi! Someone is Slaughtering Florida's Key Deer
Ben Tripp
Spare Change: the Whine of the Progressive Voter
Paul Wolf
Civil Wars North and South
Paul Craig
Roberts
Why Were the 9/11 Tapes Destroyed?
Joshua Frank
MoveOn's Obama Endorsement: Why There's No Hope for Change
John Halle
Whither Progressive Democrats?
Website of the Day
How to Cheat in School
February 2
/ 3, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Hot
Democratic Properties
Pam Martens
Bankers
Gone Bonkers: Global Finance and the Insanity Defense
Ralph Nader
The Great Clinton-Obama Debate: Questions They Weren't Asked
John Ross
Hilaria
vs. "El Moreno"
Wajahat Ali
Hillary, Obama and the Clash of Civilizations: an Interview with
Imam Zaid Shakir
Robert Fantina
A Colony by Any Other Name: Iraq as Stepchild of the American
Empire
B. R. Gowani
Not All Veils and Guns
James L. Secor
China in Winter: On the Western Edge of the Great Snow
John V. Walsh
The Invisible Green Primary
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Barack's Bubble, Bubba's Trouble
Dave Zirin
Who Stole the Super Bowl's Soul?
Jeremy Scahill
Blackwater and Blood
Fidel Castro
Reflections on Lula
Joe Allen
Tet Reconsidered: the Turning Point in the Vietnam War
Stephen Lendman
Life in Occupied Gaza
Patrick Irelan
What Happened to the Streetcars?
Andrej Grubacic
Ziga Vodovnik
Caligula's Horse: the USA, New Europe and Kosovo
Josh Karpoff
Dead Soldiers and the Antiwar Movement
Ron Jacobs
Carl Oglesby's War
Paul Krassner
Tom Waits Meets Super-Joel
Website of the Weekend
Company Woman: Hillary and Wal-Mart
February 1,
2008
Ray McGovern
The
Iniquities and Inequalities of War
Diane Farsetta
The Wild Career of James "Dow 36,000" Glassman
Patrick Cockburn
The
Most Dangerous Country in the World for Journalists
Tariq Ali
Et
Tu, New York Times?
Allan Nairn
Eating Dirt for Lunch in Haiti
Rannie Amiri
Collective Punishment in Beirut
Ramzy Baroud
People Power in Gaza: They Simply Did It
Kenneth Couesbouc
The Mother of All Snowballs
Peter Morici
Recession Looms
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Witha "Brutha" Like This: Bill Clinton as White Negro
Rosemary Jackowski
27 Reasons Nader Should Run for President
Scott Campbell
Direct Action to Stop the War Re-emerges
Website of the Day
Betes et Hommes
January 31,
2008
Saul Landau
Return
to Afghanistan
Andy Worthington
Horror at Guantánamo
Mike Whitney
Rate Cut as Dagger: America's Teetering Banking System
Jeff Ballinger
Sustainability for Dictators Initiative? Clinton Praises the
"Suharto of the Steppe"
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
The Saga of the Freightliner Five
William Loren
Katz
Waterboarding:
Torure or Mystery?
Alan Farago
Why the Republicans are in Deep Trouble
Col. Dan Smith
Oh Say Can You See the 2009 Budget?
China Hand
Slouching Toward Islamabad
Dave Lindorff
The Usual Suspects Once Again
Wadner Pierre
Fake Democracy in Haiti
Website of the Day
One Big Union
January 30,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
McCain
vs. Clinton?
Christopher
Ketcham
The Genius of the Development Industrial-Complex
Robert Weissman
America By the Numbers: The Shameful State of the Union
Neve Gordon
An Experiment in Famine
Paul Craig Roberts
Regulation or Deregulation, Which is Worse?
Joanne Mariner
How Anti-Terror Laws Threaten Free Speech
David Macaray
Labor's Only Real Weapon
Liaquat Ali
Khan
Is NATO Committing Genocide in Afghanistan?
Raymond J. Lawrence
Prankster-in-Chief: Bush's Troubling Non-Verbal Communication
Dan Bacher
The Collapse of the Central Valley Salmon
Website of the Day
Onward Through the Fog
January 29,
2008
Franklin C.
Spinney
Bush's
New War Budget: the $70 Billion Hand-Off
Mike Whitney
The Great Credit Unwind of 2008
Alan Farago
Buyer Beware: Florida, the Candidates and the Latin Builders
Association
Patrick Cockburn
"The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction"
Gary Leupp
"We Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans:" a Sibel
Edmonds Timeline
R. F. Blader
A
World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania
Ahmad Faruqui
Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect
Fran Shor
Obama, the Kennedys and "Change We Can Believe In"
Jeremy Scahill
Secret Trials and Criminal Convictions: the Ordeal of the Blackwater
Protesters
Allan Nairn
Bush's
SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All
Website of the Day
The Ghost of Rambo
January 28,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
Return
to Fallujah
Paul Craig
Roberts
The End of American Liberty
Allan Nairn
The Breaking of the Gaza Wall
Eyad al-Sarraj
/ Sara Roy
Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza
Martha Rosenberg
Obit for the "Front Page" City
Corporate Crime
Reporter
How They Rip Us Off
David Michael Green
Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War
Jennifer Van
Bergen
What's Left?
Nancy Oden
Survival Tips for Hard Times
Divya Karnad
Saving India's Sea Turtles
James L. Secor
Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp
Website of
the Day
Yellow Journalism?
January 26
/ 27, 2008
Uri Avnery
Worse
Than a Crime
JoAnn Wypijewski
How the Clintons Lost It, Whatever the Outcome in S. Carolina
Ralph Nader
Ambition, Power and the Clintons
Paul Craig
Roberts
How Bush Destroyed the Dollar
Paul Watson
I'm Proud to be a Pirate!
John Ross
Murder and Cover-Up in Mexico
Fred Gardner
Ross v. Raging Wire: Employer's Right to Fire Workers Held Sacred
by California Supreme Court
Allan Nairn
Little Hands with Fever: Some Consequences of Poverty Death
Joshua Frank
Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey
Binoy Kampmark
Société Générale and the Economic
Meltdown
James T. Phillips
America's Sick Comedy: Bringing the War Home
Stan Cox
The Depressing Truth About Anti-Depressants
Eamonn McCann
Hillary's Lie: "I Brought Peace to Northern Ireland"
Ron Jacobs
The Horizons of History: What's at Stake in Bolivia
Seth Sandronsky
California's Health Care Crisis
Ben Terrall
The Future is Unwritten
Poets' Basement
Tripp, Gardner, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
City of Immigrants
January 25,
2008
Douglas Valentine
Operation
Two-Fold: How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA
Patrick Cockburn
US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years: an Interview with
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
JoAnn Wypijewski
Down to the Wire in South Carolina
Heather Gray
Are We Seeing a Racial Shift in the South? Conversations with
South Carolina Voters
Marjorie Cohn
Senate Democrats Poised to Fold to Cheney on FISA
Erica Rosenberg
Environmentalists Out on a Limb: the Perils of Collaboration
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush Goes Nuclear
Robert Weissman
Reclaiming Economic Freedom
Laura Carlsen
Wild Cards: Mining the Hispanic Vote in Nevada
Stephen Lendman
Israeli Repression in the Hebron
Website of the Day
The FIX is In
January 24,
2008
JoAnn Wypijewski
Obama
as Anthologist of Uplift
Paul Craig
Roberts
President Hillary
Alexander Cockburn
Hillary Wants to Talk About Dirty Legal Dealings? Remember Her
Nursing Home Scam?
Kathleen Christison
One and Two State Solutions and the Myth of International Consensus
Jeff Halper
Power to the (Palestinian) People!
Stanley Heller
The Siege of Gaza is Broken
George Wuerthner
The Moronic Sport: ORVs on the Public Lands
Patrick Cockburn
Desperate Iraqi Farmers Turn to Opium
Jeff Sher
Just How "Good" is Your Health Insurance?
Patrick Irelan
Musharraf, the Steadfast Ally?
Charles Modiano
Restoring the Anti-War King
Website of
the Day
An Illustrated History of Trepanation
January 23,
2008
David Rosen
The
Great Disappearing Act: the Presidential Candidates and the Politics
of Sex
David Isenberg
Is
It Really So Hard to Believe That Iran Stopped Its Nuclear Weapons
Program?
Farzana Versey
Hillary's
Harem
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Empire That Must Be Obeyed
Alan Farago
Where Did All the Good Times Go?
Allan Nairn
Indonesian Intelligence Service Threatens to Kill Human Rights
Activist
Kenneth Couesbouc
Another Turn of the Screw
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How the West was Re-Sold
Michael Donnelly
Obama Strikes Back
Norman Solomon
The Power of Love
Website of the Day
Rafah Today
January 22,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Farewell
to Old Economic Nostrums
JoAnn Wypijewski
King Day in Columbia, South Carolina
Al Giordano
Divide and Conquer Politics: How the Clinton Campaign Armed a
Black-Latino Time Bomb in Nevada
Felice Pace
Power Politics in the Klamath: Water, Dams and Salmon
Paul Wolf
Bolívar's Sword
Robert Weissman
Deregulation and the Financial Crisis
Dave Lindorff
The Bush Dollar Trap
Marjorie Cohn
Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction
Richard Neville
Keeping Shakespeare in a Box
Don Fitz /
Zaki Baruti
St. Louis Mayor Booed Off MLK Platform
Ben Terrall
Cindy Sheehan and the Virtues of Divisiveness
Sam Husseini
Stoning Martin Luther King, Jr.
Website of
the Day
Defend the Mapuche!
January 21,
2008
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Playing
the Race Card
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Deferring Dreams, Delusions of Democracy
Pam Martens
How Wall Street Blew Itself Up
David Macaray
Labor's Grim Dilemma: Do We Need a Labor Party?
Uri Avnery
Look Who's Talking
Omar Barghouti
Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide
Joe DeRaymond
Protest and Trial in D.C.
B.R. Gowani
Why Islam Should Tolerate Images
Shepherd Bliss
The False U.S. Economy
Jean-Guy Allard
Philip Agee Versus the CIA
Dan Bacher
Leaping Steelhead!
Website of
the Day
Destroyed
By a Rising Flood
January 19
/ 20, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Campaign in Black and White
Saul Landau
Good Time Charlie's War
China Hand
Endgame for Pakistan?
Conn Hallinan
Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About?
Ron Jacobs
No Retreat
Dave Lindorff
A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess
Andy Worthington
Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture
Paul Armentano
What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think
Seth Sandronsky
High Crimes and Economics
Michael Donnelly
Dodging Ecocide
Patrick Irelan
The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki
Martha Rosenberg
The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit
Sherwood Ross
Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade
David Michael
Green
So You Want to be My President, Eh?
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: Under House Protection
Daniel Gross
Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King
Peter N. Carroll
In Memory of Milton Wolff
Susie Day
Croakin' on Hudson
Paul Krassner
Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu
Poets' Basement
Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of the Day
Rocky Mountain
Blues
January 18,
2008
Allan Nairn
Killing
Civilians, Carefully
Ralph Nader
When
the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill?
Joanne Mariner
Terrorism and Preventative Detention
Alan Farago
The Stimulus and the Meltdown
P. Sainath
Pity the Brahmins
R.F. Blader
Beyond Steinem's Feminism
Andy Worthington
A Letter from Guantánamo
John Jonik
Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health
Brian McKenna
Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan
Women's Prison
Daoud Kuttab
This Time Next Year?
Website of the Day
Those South Carolina Voting Machines
January 17,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Leader
and Vassal
Christopher
Brauchli
The FBI's Bills Come Due
Robert Fantina
Leadership, Bush and the New York Times
Patrick Irelan
Eternal War
Paul A. Moore
When the Rich Pay No Taxes
Stephen Lendman
Institutionalized Spying on Americans
Beena Sarwar
Bhutto and the "State Within a State"
Walter Brasch
Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment
Brenda Norrell
Bush Legacy in Texas Sours
Adam Federman
End of the Left?
Website of the Day
Democrats for Romney
January 16,
2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Return
of the Native
Franklin Lamb
The Bombing at Qarantina
Julian Sanchez
David Weigel
Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?
Sharon Smith
Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope?
Allan Nairn
Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation
Andy Worthington
A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo
Richard Behan
Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Website of the Day
Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!
January 15,
2008
Andrea Peacock
Breach
of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing
Poison Into Libby's Wounds
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy
and the Prospects of War with Iran
Joe Bageant
Getting Out the Bling Vote
Ralph Nader
The Candidate Taboos
John Ross
Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified?
Peter Morici
The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy
Beena Sarwar
Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade
Robert Weissman
Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought
Binoy Kampmark
Going Tata in India
Dave Zirin
Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame
Website of
the Day
David Lynch on the iPhone
January 14,
2008
Ishmael Reed
Ma
and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man
Roger Morris
Burials in the Sind
Uri Avnery
The
Hands of Esau
Mike Whitney
Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package
Allan Nairn
General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million
Corpses
William Blum
Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us
Alan Farago
A Subprime Wake Up Call
David Macaray
Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time?
Eva Liddell
Getting Drunk with Obama
Zoe Blunt
Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons
Website of the Day
Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies
January 12
/ 13, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
How
the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian
Deaths
Saul Landau
60
Years of Empire
Corey D. B. Walker
Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual
Col. Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot
Eric Toussaint
The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global
Ron Jacobs
Television, Murder and Vietnam
Fred Gardner
The People vs. Christopher James Chakos
Stan Cox
Don't Take That Pill!
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Warfare State
Ramzy Baroud
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Joseph Grosso
The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites
David Díaz-Arias
Imagining An/Other Latin American Left
Stacey Warde
Before We Move On ...
Dan Bacher
Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt
Michael Dickinson
Georgie in Jesusland
Website of
Weekend
CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices
January 11,
2008
Dave Lindorff
Did
Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold
Voting Machines
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Escape from War and Unemployment
Andy Worthington
Six Years of Guantánamo
Kenneth Couesbouc
Banking on Thin Ice
Jeff Ballinger
Inside the Vienna Consensus
Christopher
Brauchli
Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns
Andrew Silverstein
Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem
Marwan Bishara
Bush in the Middle East
Robert Weissman
The First Amendment Gone Wild
Patrick Irelan
Damn the Small Boats!
Website of
the Day
Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She
Loses
January 10,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Now
Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards
Bob Wing
Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom
Bradley
Michael Donnelly
White Women Gone Wild?
David Macaray
Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions
China Hand
Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries?
Rannie Amiri
Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya?
Website of the Day
Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident
January 9,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
Dave Lindorff
The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation
John Chuckman
Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada
James Bovard
Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006
Alan Farago
As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic
Russell Mokhiber
Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday?
William S. Lind
Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq
Peter Morici
Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters
Josh Reubner
Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment
Mike Roselle
The Pursuit of Happiness
Website of the Day
Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH
January 8,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old)
Russell Mokhiber
The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative
Robert Fantina
The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz
Dave Zirin
Butts on Parade
Shamako Nobel
I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop
John Ross
Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves
Brenda Norrell
Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security
Laura Carlsen
Why Bolivia Matters
Patrick Irelan
Remember the Maine!
Evelyn J. Pringle
The Holes in Bush's FDA
Jonathan M.
Feldman
After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace
Movement
Michael Dickinson
Playing Soldier
Website of
the Day
Sean Hannity on the Run!
January 7,
2008
Chris Floyd
There
Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities
John Blair
Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana
Uri Avnery
The Case of the White Bird
Andy Worthington
Who Are the Gitmo Saudis?
Binoy Kampmark
Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court
David Macaray
Women on Strike
Ralph Nader
Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood
Michael Donnelly
It's the War Vote(s), Stupid!
Ron Jacobs
Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough?
Gideon Levy
The Hostile President
Dave Lindorff
A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb
Website of
the Day
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
January 5 /
6, 2008
Douglas Valentine
Good
Guys in Black Hoods
Kevin Young
The
US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq
Richard Rhames
Saddam
Who?
Saul Landau
Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory
Marc Lynch
Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing
Robert Fantina
Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War
Donna Volatile
Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr.
Jelle Bruinsma
Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands
Bob Sutcliffe
Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist
Harvey Wasserman
Anti-Nuclear Renaissance
Missy Beattie
Why Obama Can't Save Us
David Swanson
Remembering the Separation of Powers
Jacob Hornberger
The Importance of the Padilla Case
Shepherd Bliss
Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms
Ron Jacobs
Bleeding Kansas
Poets' Basement
Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint
January 4,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Good Night in Iowa
Jonathan Cook
War Crimes Airbrushed from History
Paul Craig Roberts
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
Stan Goff
Ron Paul's Monkeywrench
Dave Lindorff
Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
To Pindi Station
Allan Nairn
U.S. Elections Over Before They Began
Joshua Frank
The Failures of Sectarianism
Peter Morici
Economy on the Skids
Mary McInnis
Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease
Website of the Day
The Return of Obama Girl
January 3,
2008
Fatima Bhutto
Farewell
to Wadi Bua
Pam Martens
The
Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos
Joanne Mariner
The Presidential Candidates and Torture
Zoltan Grossman
Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the
Web
David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
Norman Solomon
Edwards Reconsidered
Nikolas Kozloff
Return of the Faux Liberal
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus
Martha Rosenberg
Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick
Russell Means
This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah
Lands
Website of the Day
WolfQuest
|
Weekend
Edition
February 8 / 10, 2008
An Interview with
Filmmaker TCinque Sampson
Black
August: Bringing George Jackson's Life to the Screen
By PRAIRIE MILLER
If it's true that the less costly straight-to-DVD
journey of any historically rooted drama is potentially bolder
and more truthful, by more effectively bypassing the profit-driven
political censorship of Hollywood, then Black August is certainly
a striking example of this promising trend. The searing drama
is an earnest and reverential biopic delving into the tragic,
short life of the late George Jackson, sixties US political prisoner,
LA Black Panther spiritual and intellectual guiding force, and
fierce leader within the Black prison movement at San Quentin.
Filmmaker and screenwriter
TCinque Sampson (co-directing with Samm Styles), himself spent
22 years behind bars, including part of his sentence spent in
a cell next to the one Jackson had occupied at Quentin years
earlier. And the vigor and intensity of Sampson's narrative casts
an uncompromising gaze on the oppressiveness and brutality of
life behind bars. George Jackson was imprisoned at the age of
eighteen for the rest of his life, for a 75 dollar gas station
robbery, until he was gunned down during a prison riot and attempted
escape. And it was his eloquent indignation against injustice
and racism, a soaring intellect and profound understanding of
class warfare, the human urge to revolutionary struggle, and
his subversive political charisma that all contributed to sealing
his fate.
Embracing the teachings of
Marx, Lenin and Che in prison, Jackson's gift as a lightening
rod for inmate rage made him a target for institutional brutality
and long gestating execution by the authorities. The film Black
August touches on his final days and unwavering political defiance
to the end. And his evolving relationship with and impact on
David Drye, played by Darren Bridgett, the editor of Soledad
Brother, Jackson's historic bestselling collection of letters
from prison.
Gary Dourdan of the TV series
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, ignites the screen with a magnificent
performance as the imploding, mesermizing, and paradoxically
streetwise and gifted intellectual Jackson, and he gets it just
right. Though a number of key aspects defining that politically
incendiary time are barely touched upon, including the potent
Panther teachings and ideological roots that inspired and transformed
Jackson early on, as well as his complex relationship with professor
and revolutionary Angela Davis. And the COINTELPRO elaborate
domestic espionage FBI operation of informants and orchestrated
illegal infiltration and sabotage that ultimately contributed
to destruction the left in this country, makes a significant
appearance in the film, though in a much too offhanded and minimalist
way. Black August is nevertheless a devastating portrait of the
life and times of one of America's most courageous anti-racist
people's soldiers in the ongoing battle for political justice
and economic equality.
Director TCinque Sampson said
he wanted to bring the story of the tremendously influential
life of George Jackson to the screen upon his own release from
prison. "People have heard about George Jackson and Angela
Davis, but they don't know much about them or their work,"
Sampson said. "George Jackson was a man who believed that
human life is meaningless if it is not accompanied by the power
to determine its quality. And he knew those in control never
concede anything, unless it is demanded of them."
Sampson met to talk with me
about Black
August, in conjunction with its direct-to-DVD release on Warner
Home Video for Black History Month
How did such a remarkable
film not get a run in theaters, and go straight to DVD?
TCINQUE SAMPSON: Well, I have
not given up hope. But the important thing, is that this story
is out there.
What is it about George
Jackson and that turbulent historical period, that inspired this
film?
TS: The first and foremost
thing that moved me, is that George Jackson has been a mentor
for me. And it is the dichotomy in this country of Black America,
that caused me to juxtapose George Jackson's struggle, with the
underclass struggle today.
And I had written down a lot
things in prison, never thinking that it would turn into a film.
And then I thought that those looking at this piece about George
Jackson, and those yet to be born, would find inspiration in
his journey. And the circumstances of his death, are moving people
even today.
So making this film was very
easy for me, my own situation and being in captivity. George
Jackson's writing was like the bible for me. Soledad Brother,
and eventually Blood In My Eye. And I think it's the same experience
and inspiration that gave me to take my education to a higher
level. And we wanted to capture how George's struggle and his
life, touched others.
How did you go about condensing
and approaching all the material at hand?
TS: I wrote from sitting in
circles that George Jackson himself had sat in, and with some
of the same people that had survived the onslaught of COINTELPRO
activities. There was that plethora of information, but it was
made easy just by juxtaposing my own walk.
And myself, doing time in the
same beast's belly, I knew reading and testing George's theories,
that there was a lot of correctness in the directions he had
taken. So with that, I had to basically put myself in George's
shoes - if I so dare.
But believe me, everyone in
captivity is George Jackson. They just don't know it yet. And
what I focused on, was the last twenty months of his life. Because
like many others who went in there, his first revolutionary act
was probably criminal. But this aggression turned into something
constructive.
So I pick up on his life when
he opened himself up to others, and in like circumstances. And
when he brought their attention to people's suffering. And we
take it from there to the time of him writing his books, and
expressing himself to the world.
How did you end up in prison?
TS: I was a drug dealer. I
was a predator. I was a product of an environment from which
I sprung. And George and myself, we came up in like circumstances.
We both came out of Chicago, and Catholicism was in our lives.
Altar boy, catechism, I did the whole thing.
And my father was a Chicago
police officer. And somewhere along the way, I think it was because
I was a Vietnam veteran, my first encounter with racism was when
I was in the military. And that left a permanent impression on
me.
I eventually served 22 years
in prison. I could have gotten out a lot sooner. But once I embraced
the teachings and the mentorships of individuals like George
Jackson, and Black liberation struggles, the Black Panther Party,
anyone who stepped out of the range of omnipotent administrative
behavior, I was put in security housing and given an indeterminant
amount of time to serve there.
And today, there are so many
that I've left behind. And that's what makes this film so beautiful,
because this was not made for profit, this was made for pride.
Because we continue to let people frame us in the light they
want us seen, and we have had no voice.
George Jackson only needed
to deny his ideological precepts, and he would have been freed
from his one year to life sentence. And that's the beauty, what
he did was for the people's struggle.
What do you feel is George
Jackson's legacy, and what do you hope your film conveys to the
younger generations of color?
TS: I think George will always
be known as the greatest prison organizer in this country. And
a human rights activist for all prisoners, black and white.
And he was a great inspirator
for those prisoners who made it back into the free world, to
turn their criminal passion into responsibility towards their
communities. And as the real maintainers, providers and protectors.
And the younger generation
must come to understand that new truths disturb the old power
relationships, and power defends itself. There's the power of
the police who terrorize their communities, and the mental kind,
the propaganda.
So the underclass youth in
this country, need to know that they must stand up for their
lives. And life is next to useless, if it is not accompanied
by the tools that determine its quality. And in our grand designs,
we must achieve something other than new forms of the old miseries.
One remarkable aspect of
Black August, is that you speak your mind without worrying about
controversy, and that's a rare truthfulness whether we're talking
about filmmakers or politicians more concerned about their careers.
What led you to take that risk with your film?
TS: Well imagine, someone like
me labeled a subversive in this society, I went to a basketball
player who saw some of his own life in this story, and he gave
me the money to put this film together.
But you're right, it was very
difficult with this story, as it's been told, nobody else wanted
to touch it. They would give me their cordial dialogue, but it
never came into fruition. And I do applaud Warner Home Video,
for taking that chance.
Now that's a big studio.
Were they ever nervous, or not willing to let you go as far as
you wanted to go with this story?
TS: No. They invited me in.
But it was like going into Fort Knox, there was so much security.
There were fifteen of them from Warner Brothers on one side of
the table, and I was on the other.
And they said, what are your
intentions for Black August. And they allowed us to speak. But
this is actually the eleventh year that the hip-hop generation,
and Mos Def, are commemorating Black August. So there was already
a music movement behind this. And now this is going to be the
first visual commemoration.
And I am so proud to bring
George Jackson into a greater manifestation. He was a real person,
and it could have been any one of us taking that step, and put
on the path that George Jackson ended up on.
What about those problems
you had with the local authorities, who ran interference against
your filming in some of the original locations?
TS: Well, it was a matter of
the establishment versus everyday people, not a color line. Many,
black and white, wanted to see this film made. And even after
thirty years at San Quentin where these situations took place,
the wounds were still fresh.
And people there were actually
angry that we were claiming history. We weren't creating a story,
we just wanted to tell the story. So we had to bring complaints
to the state for differential treatment from other filmmakers
that had come in before us.
And when San Quentin finally
agreed, they made it a catch 22 situation. We would have to unload
and reload our trucks every day. And anyone who knows about film,
knows they were trying to blow us out of the water with our budget.
They could kill our budget in one week, just with having to load
and unload our trucks every day.
So we passed on that. And then
we were invited out to Nevada, to a state prison there. And we
were treated really well. Some of those guards appear in the
film, and all the inmates you see are real inmates. They're not
actors, except for Gary Dourdan. And myself, I make a brief appearance.
However, when it came to filming
at the site of the Marin Courthous Courthouse shootout on August
7th, 1970, they pulled our permit. And we had to take them to
federal court to get a cease and desist. And then we were allowed
to shoot out shots there, except for inside the courtroom.
But speaking of what we went
through, there was this off-duty police officer who came on the
set with a weapon. He had been at the Marin County Courthouse
on the day of the shootout. And he had to be removed, restrained
and arrested by the Marin County sheriff's department.
What was he doing on the
set?
TS: He was trying to impede
our filming. And when he heard that we prevailed in federal court
to shoot there, he decided that he was not going to let that
happen.
What was your approach to
depicting COINTELPRO, and questioning that official record of
events?
TS: I relied on my own research
of COINTELPRO activities. Of course, you could wait for years
for release of documents, if you were to just ask for them. And
our real message with all the spying and wiretapping we depict
- and it was all true and proven at the trials of the remaining
Soledad Brothers - was that a lot of the deaths didn't have to
happen.
We suggest and we stand behind
this in the film, that everything that happened was preventable.
And that these people will allow deadly events to take place,
to propagate them for their own ends. So that's the story, the
way we tell it. And we don't back off from it.
Now, what led you to become
a filmmaker after 22 years in prison?
TS: I see myself less a filmmaker,
than someone who has internalized the stories of great men in
captivity who inspired me to pick up books. Forgotten men, in
like circumstances.
And all those years, my writing
style came from reading western novels. And I did that to get
away now and then from the academic surge in my body. And those
novels helped me look at something, and see a little more. Like
the point of view of a wagon crossing the prairies, that sees
from there everything around it.
And that was only because I
had the desire to see, and to understand. And I've been blessed
with the ability to convey other people's thoughts. So that was
so important to me. Because my time in prison was spent as well,
as a prison organizer and activist. And part of that involvement
was keeping the prison struggle going. Because that struggle
is meteoric.
What do you feel you brought
to Black August, that someone who had never been in prison couldn't
capture or comprehend?
TS: As soon as I walked on
the set and saw how everything was being set up, I said no, this
is not real life. It's not the story I'm telling. And I started
throwing things off the tier and telling them, no. We will not
cover up the conditions under which George Jackson lived.
And that means the way he lived,
how he lived. And how he was treated every day. And it was more
important than anything, that this story be people-rich. And
if I did this correctly, and those who are yet to be born and
follow can understand it, then that makes it all worth it.
Gary Dourdan is amazing
as George Jackson in the movie. What led you to choose him for
the part?
TS: I needed someone who could
show me that radicalism, and that militancy. And he showed the
depth of George Jackson.
How do you feel prison politicized
you, and changed you as a person?
TS: Let me put it like this.
Prison has made me a better person to struggle on, and help those
in struggle like myself. And not be afraid to stand up for my
convictions that I believe in.
And I think the best thing
for me to do, is be a filmmaker. Because I cannot be silenced
or censored. My first job when I got out of prison, I got my
paralegal license and I was working for a firm, they gave me
a chance.
I even got a chance to lecture
at Hastings School of Law in San Francisco, talking to attorneys
and federal judges about the prison snitch programs that the
federal government maintains in its sentencing process. And it's
ironic, because I was speaking to these people who are supposed
to protect lives.
And me being an ex-prisoner,
an ex-slave, what have you, it was like I was telling them something
that they had no idea about. But when you know the truth, you
have to act on it.
And it's not only Al Qaeda
and the Taliban that they torture. They do it right here, in
these prisons. Those stories have yet to be told, and must be
told.
Black August is available from
Netflix and Amazon.com.
Prairie Miller is a WBAI film critic, and host and
executive producer of The WBAI Arts Magazine. She can be reached
at: pmiller@wbai.org.
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