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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! Why Hillary Clinton has Always Been a Republican In the first of a series of profiles, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair chart the formative years of Hillary Clinton. Watch her as she zigzags from Nixon campaigner and vote-fraud investigator in 1960 to Goldwater Girl and President of Young Republicans at Wellesley to her internship for Gerald Ford and campaigner for Nelson Rockefeller. Witness her reaction to the student protests at Yale and the demonstrations at Grant Park during the Democratic Convention in 1968. Learn how she and Bill vowed to "remake" the Democratic Party--using the Nixon model HRC learned about as a member of the House impeachment staff. And much more! Plus: David Price on anthropologist Andre Gunder Frank, the FBI and the Bureaucratic Exile of a Critical Mind. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair

Today's Stories July 27, 2007 John Ross Bombing Pemex--or Not? July 26, 2007 Kathleen Christison The Siren Song of Elliot Abrams Andy Worthington Why the Pentagon's Gitmo Study is a Joke Clancy Chassay How the Bush White House Seeks to Destroy Lebanon Marjorie Cohn Showdown Over Executive Privilege Susie Day Apartheid Americana David Price Tour de Witch Hunt: Drugs, Diaries and Purges Marie Trigona Argentina's "Dirty War" Crimes Trial: The Torturer Priest Norman Solomon Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort Of) William S. Lind How to Win in Iraq Natsu Saito Ward Churchill and the Regents at the University of Colorado John Stauber Netroots and the Iraq War: Does Ending It Matter to Them Anymore? Website of the Day Sticking It to the Man   July 25, 2007 Andy Worthington Gains and Losses at Gitmo Gary Leupp Bush Speechwriter, Michael Gerson, Calls for Attack on Syria Ray McGovern The Sad Decline of John Conyers Dr. Susan Block Bonobo Bashing in the New Yorker Joshua Frank Hillary's Neocon: the Imperial Vision of Richard Holbrooke Tina Richards What Harry Reid Doesn't Know About His Own Bill Ben Terrall Indonesia's Bloody Brand of CounterTerrorism Farzana Versey God Acquitted!: Lessons from the Case of Darwood Ibrahim Mohammad Ali Salih A Bomb in My Briefcase? Laura Carlsen A Strange Homecoming: Reflections on the First US Social Forum Ron Jacobs Come to Kennebunkport! Sunsara Taylor Knocked Up is F**ked Up Website of the Day Wal-Mart's Flip Flops: Feet Killers July 24, 2007 Saul Landau How to Walk in Bushtime Kathy Kelly The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan Russell Mokhiber The Michael Vick / George Bush Thing M. Shahid Alam Islam Now, China Then Patrick Cockburn and Anne Penketh Meeting in Baghdad Dave Lindorff Overcoming John Conyers Binoy Kampmark You Tube You Can't: Failure of a Medium Richard Neville Murdoch's Transplant: a Warning to the Wall Street Journal Cindy Sheehan We Must Move Beyond Politics as Usual Evelyn Pringle Anti-Depressants and Birth Defects: Why is the CDC Downplaying the Risks? Norman Solomon Media Corrections We'd Like to See CP Newswire Reading Harry Potter Not Sinful Website of the Day Sea Islands Black Heritage Festival   July 23, 2007 Andy Worthington Narcolepsy on Gitmo Detainees Uri Avnery A Trap for Fools Patrick Cockburn Turkish Prime Minister Threatens to Invade Northern Iraq Sousan Hammad The Children Without a Title John Walsh Todd Gitlin's Nader Fixation Harvey Wasserman Spinning Kashiwazaki: PR Flacks Rush to Aid of Crippled Nuke Martha Rosenberg The Life and Times of a Hog-Hanging Farmer Collin Baber Here Come the MRAPs: Resurrecting Apartheid Armor for Iraq Reza Fiyouzat Iran's Forgotten Anti-Nuke Movement Stephen Lendman Saving a President: Scare-Mongering and Executive Orders Website of the Day The Port Huron Project   July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Giuliani and the Dogs of War Werther How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate Ralph Nader Atomic Blowback David Keen Buy Hard: How to Sell an Endless War Fred Gardner Karl Rove, Pothead: When Good Drugs Happen to Bad People Gary Leupp Edelman's Edict: Is Hillary "Reinforcing Enemy Propaganda?" Robert Fantina Fear in Iraq Saker The Future of Palestine: an Interview with Jonathan Cook Rannie Amiri Nasrallah in the Crosshairs: How will the Third Lebanon War Start? Mike Whitney The Crisis in Hedgistan Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD The Hidden Injuries of Powerlessness: Linking Alienation and Dissociation Monica Benderman Facing the Truth Dan Bacher Deltagate: the Politics of Fish Kills Michael Baney Fujimori's Long Race From Justice Missy Beattie Here, There and Everywhere Ron Jacobs Tremble, Tyrants Adam Engel Radical Language: an Introduction Thomas Naylor California Split: an Open Letter to Schwarzenegger Poets' Basement Landau, Ford and Engel Website of the Weekend Surge in Action   July 20, 2007 Eliza Szabo Fatal Neglect: Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Pam Martens Doctoring the News: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and Merck Alan Farago Winners and Losers in the Housing Market Crash Harvey Wasserman Lies and Leaks: The Earthquake That Screamed "No Nukes!" Marjorie Cohn Iraqis will be the Deciders Dave Zirin White Noise and the Black Athlete Anthony DiMaggio American Public Opinion and Israel Scott Liebertz Oaxaca on Edge Linn Washington, Jr. British Cops Assault Rape Allegations Bill Piper / Anthony Papa Flying High?: The Political Junkets of Bush's Drug Czar Ramzy Baroud Bush's War Policy: When Time Heals Nothing Website of the Day The Prankster Art of Mark Jenkins   July 19, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Next Invasion of Iraq Remi Kanazi Is This Ben Gurion or Hell?: a Palestinian Adventure Through Israel's Largest Airport Winslow T. Wheeler The Surging Costs of the Iraq War Sharon Smith Democrats and Health Care: Behind the Rhetoric Dave Lindorff Killing Cabbies in Iraq Conn Hallinan Have Gun, Will Travel: Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan D. K. Wilson The Michael Vick Case Pulls Back the Veil on Who We Really Are Joshua Frank Democrats as Leviathan: Another Step Toward War with Iran Norman Solomon The Ghost of Wayne Morse Russell Hoffman Rattling the Reactor: Quakes, Fires and Leaks at the World's Largest Nuke Ray McGovern Bush's Wooden Headedness Kills Website of the Day Protesting Power July 18, 2007 Brenda Norrell Spy Towers on the US Border Col. Dan Smith How the US Could "Lose" Saudi Arabia Martha Rosenberg Lord of Crookharbour: the Trial of Conrad Black Conn Hallinan Bombing and Spraying Afghanistan Binoy Kampmark The SIM Card Terror Case Patrick Bond / Rehana Dada Who Killed Sajida Khan? Tom Johnson The Long Road ... to Nowhere Paul Craig Roberts A Free Press or a Ministry of Truth? Bob Quellos Pushing the Poor Out of House and Home Felice Pace Falling for Lieberman's Iran Resolution Robert Weissman National Health Insurance: More Humane and More Efficient CP Newswire Shocking Report Showing Involvement of US Psychologists in Torture Website of the Day Gilad Atzmon Live!   July 17, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Just Another Day in Iraq: 100 Fathers, Mothers and Children Killed Marjorie Cohn Out of Control: Executive Power Plays Evelyn Pringle Inside Bush's FDA David Rosen Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill: the Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Pleasures of the Courtesan Susan Miller Width Matters: Displacement and Israel's Wall Franklin Lamb Did the UN Cave to Israel on Lebanon's Shabaa Farms? Don Monkerud Considering Victory in Iraq Harvey Wasserman Nuclear Surge Russell Hoffman Japan Dodges a Radioactive Bullet Dave Lindorff Feingold Turns to Dross Dave Zirin Reclaiming Sports as True Fiction Website of the Day Che at the UN: 1964   July 16, 2007 Gary Leupp Cheney Urges Bush to Strike Iran Ellen Cantarow The Untold Story of Iraqi Women Paul Craig Roberts Impeach Now Allan J. Lichtman The D.C. Madam's Public Service Dan Bacher Cheney and the Klamath: Was the Veep Behind the Nation's Worst Salmon Kill? Patrick Cockburn The Killing of Khalid W. Hassan Manuel Garcia, Jr. Property is Racism James Brooks AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas: the Undemocratic Road to Defeat Liaquat Ali Khan The Judicial Crisis in Pakistan Julie Flint Suleiman Jamous in Limbo Website of the Day Free Suleiman Jamous!   July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander Cockburn Support Their Troops? Andy Worthington Gitmo's Tangled Web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majhid Khan, Dubious US Convictions and a Dying Man Ralph Nader Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence Robert Fantina The Illegalities of the Iraq War Ron Jacobs Architecture as Military Strategy Joshua Frank Eat, Fight, Screw, Pray: An Interview with Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Guns, Foundations and Free Trade: How the Right Targets Africa Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD War and Dissociation John Ross No En Nuestro Nombre!: a Letter to the Mexican Antiwar Movement Fred Gardner Who's Afraid of Cannabidiol? Rannie Amiri A Primer on Israeli Doublespeak Charles Modiano ESPN's Rap Sheet: Pacman as Black Man Anthony DiMaggio America's Parochial Press China Hand Executive Orders and Coercive Diplomacy Missy Comley Beattie Reprobate Rhetoricians Dr. James J. Murtagh, Jr. Harry Potter Battles Big Brother Kenneth Rexroth On Thomas More's "Utopia" Poets' Basement Engel, Davies and Orloski Website of the Weekend GOP Sex Hypocrites: a Slideshow   July 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Decider in Denial Winslow T. Wheeler Bush's Iraq Benchmarks Assessment: Grading on a Curve for the Wrong Test Imran Khan When Dictators Serve US Interests Todd Chretien The Wal-Mart of Garbage Sam Husseini Killing the Constitution Dr. Herman Mindshaftgap Why, in Truth, There is No Surge Anthony Papa The Hard Road Home D. K. Wilson The Wonderful World of Mike Greenberg and Barry Bonds David Michael Green In the Last Throes, Judiciously Website of the Day Strange Attraction: Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Wolfowitz   July 12, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Restoring the People's Power Robert Jensen Lessons from the Lal Masjid Tragedy Dr. Susan Block Hookergate II: The Senator and the Veep Joshua Frank The Liberal Thrashing of Ward Churchill John Chuckman How Terror Lost Its Meaning Corporate Crime Reporter The Problem with Bribeline Mike Whitney Demonizing Putin Nicola Nasser Will New Delhi's Palestinian Policy be Neutralized? Richard Rhames Requiem for the Paxilated William S. Lind Not Fourth Generation Warfare Website of the Day Video: World's Largest Nuclear Explosion     July 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Benchmark Blame Game Richard Neville Is This Man a Psychopath? Bomber McNeill, the Faceless Pol Pot of the Sky Debra McNutt Privatizing Women: Military Prostitution and the Iraq Occupation John V. Walsh A Plea to Ralph Nader Scott Liebertz Where's the Outcry? Mexico's Monitor Radio vs. RCTV George C. Wilson Beware the Iran Hawks James McEnteer My Impossible Dream Candidate Philip Rizk Submission or Resistance in Gaza? Johnny Hazard Mexico Commemorates a Fraud Dave Lindorff On the Road with Impeachment Website of the Day Sly Stone's Higher Power   July 10, 2007 James Ridgeway True North: Big Oil in the Arctic Tariq Ali New Clashes in Islamabad: Judges and Jihadis Torment the Regime Javed Hussein Pakistan's Waco?: The Storming of the Red Mosque William Blum Neocons, Theocons, Demcons, Excons and Future Cons Ralph Nader Grown in China Jay Arena New Orleans, Public Housing and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex Anthony DiMaggio A Begrudging Reversal: The New York Times and the "Anti-War" Turn Eva Liddell Has Ann Coulter Got the Hots for John Edwards? Jerry Kroth Democratic Defectors and the Israel Lobby Alice Woodward White Supremacy and the Jena Six Nikolas Kozloff Where's Jerry?: On Cheney Impeachment, Rep. Nadler's a No Show Paul Shannon It's Time to Reform Sex Offender Laws Website of the Day March for Remembrance   July 9, 2007 Fidel Castro The Killing Machine: Reflections from a Target of the CIA Diana Johnstone King Sarko the First John Walsh Will the Greens Seize the Moment? Uri Avnery The Jordanian Option Ramzy Baroud The Palestinian Left: a Lost Opportunity? John Ripton The New West Bank Palestinian State Stephen Lendman Making Gaza Scream Bruce Jackson Bush Going Down: the Correct Way to Affix a Stamp Michael Donnelly What's the Matter with Winchester? Doug Giebel Wanted: Old Men with Nothing to Lose Website of the Day Ron Paul on This Week with George   July 7 / 8, 2007 Saul Landau Blame the Puppet Ismael Hossein-zadeh Parasitic Imperialism Fawzia Afzal-Khan What Lies Beneath: Dispatches from the Frontlines of t he Burqa Brigade Alan Maass Will "Sicko" Spark a Movement?: a Film, Militant Nurses and a New Opportunity for Single Payer Health Care John Ross The Fire Last Time Pat Williams The Supreme Court and Mr. Peanut Rannie Amiri The Unbreakable Mordechai Vanunu Farzana Versey Does the Taj Mahal Deserve to be a Wonder of the World? Bart Gruzalski Bush, the Revolution and the Iraq War Paul Rockwell An Army of None Reza Fiyouzat Tax Cuts for the Rich Only Benefit the Economy of the Rich Monica Benderman Americans, Honestly! Kenneth Couesbouc Total War: From Clausewitz to Clinton and Bush Dave Lindorff Poll: Impeach the Bastards Charles Modiano History's Hit Job on Thomas Paine Missy Beattie King Cretin Dal LaMagna A Peacemaker's View of Baghdad Jean Gerard Those So-Called Oil Contracts in Iraq Anne Dachel Autism: an Epidemic of Fairly Recent Origin Ron Jacobs Modes and Melodies of Resistance Poets' Basement Gibbons, Orloski, Engel and Buknatski Website of the Day Van Morrison and Bob Dylan in Athens July 6, 2007 Daniel Ellsberg When the Crimes of the White House are Unpunishable Gary Leupp The Cracks in Cheney's World Harvey Wasserman Leonard Peltier vs. Scooter Libby: the Hero and the Henchman Omer Subhani Our Dead are Not the Same: Ignoring Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Marjorie Cohn Compassion, Conspiracy and Commutation Christopher Brauchli Kingly Edicts: Bush's Executive Orders David Michael Green Scalia Time: the Wrecking Ball Court China Hand Catfish Blues: Food Safety, the FDA and the Emerging Trade War with China Renee Saucedo and Todd Chretien The New Challenges Facing the Immigrant Rights Movement Corporate Crime Reporter The Crime Wave Behind the Media Curtain Website of the Day Jean Bricmont on the Humanitarian Interveners   July 5, 2007 Andy Worthington Two Americas, Both Unjust: Scooter Libby vs. the "Enemy Combatants" Mike Stark Double Standards of North Carolina "Justice" Norman Solomon The Keyboard Hawks: a Bloody Media Mirror Michael Schwartz Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month Susie Day Killer Lesbians Mauled by Killer Court (and Media Wolfpack) Jacob Hornberger A Tangled Web of Lies: Bush and the Libby Case Bill Hatch Smoking with Arnold: The Strange Return of Toxic Mary Nichols Don Fitz When Building Green Ain't So Green John Wright The Crisis of Imperialism Website of the Day Anti-Flag and Tom Morello: "This Land is Your Land"   July 4, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Obama's Nuclear Ambitions Vijay Prashad Democrat (Punjab): Obama and Outsourcing Carl G. Estabrook The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Exist Ron Jacobs Texas Wants to Kill Another Man, the Law be Damned: the Disturbing Case of Kenneth Foster David R. Dow The Quality of Bush's Mercy: the Ghosts of Texas Claudia Johnson Is My Doctor a Terrorist? William S. Lind What Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Means for Defense Industry Fat Cats Gregory Afghani Truth and Tenure: Finkelstein and the Perils of Impeccable Scholarship Paul Edwards End It Now! D. K. Wilson The Sliming of Tank Johnson Niranjan Ramakrishnan Thank You, Mr. President: Bush/Cheney for Dummies Thomas Jefferson The Spirit of Resistance: Lethargy is the Forerunner of the Death of Public Liberty Cindy Sheehan Call Out the Instigator Website of the Day Springsteen: 4th of July, Ashbury Park July 3, 2007 Bill Quigley Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree Gary Leupp Civil Strife in Palestine: a Broader Context Lynda Brayer Norman Finkelstein and the Catholic Church Richard Thieme Mind Wars: Brain Research, Nanotech and the Military Helen Redmond They Don't Come Back the Same: the Mind of the Returning Iraq War Vet David Swanson Scooter and the Commuter: When Presidents Pardon Their Own Crimes Jacob Hornberger Martha Stewart vs. Scooter Libby: Commutation as Cover-Up Ayesha Ijaz Khan Pakistan's New Jihad Franklin Lamb The Edginess of Lebanon Ray McGovern Unimpeachably Impeachable: Start with Cheney Kevin Zeese The Air Force vs. Rev. Lennox Yearwood Dave Lindorff Nancy Pelosi and the Low Bar Democrats Website of the Day A Military Guide to the Iraq War July 2, 2007 Andy Worthington The Guantánamo Whistleblowers Nina Serrano The Assassination of a Poet: Memories of Roque Dalton Jack Hirschman The Nation and the Assassin: a Shameful Blunder Paul Craig Roberts Enter Turkey Bill Williams The Commissar Two-Step at DePaul Anthony Papa A Taste of the Gulag: What Paris Learned Sonja Karkar Who Will Save Palestine? Louay Safi Steve Emerson's Fantastic Obsession Anthony Gregory When Killer Cops Walk Monica Benderman In Consideration of War Website of the Day Dylan's Masters of War, at West Point, 1990   June 30 / July 1, 2007 John Ross Free Frida Kahlo! Alan Farago Fakery, Inflation and the Housing Market Peter Quinn The Political Paranoia Over Immigration: Two Centuries and Counting Christopher Brauchli Cheney Does the Constitution Robert Fisk Abu Henry and the Mysterious Silence Uri Avnery A Dark Summit Judith Siers-Poisson The Politics and PR of Cervical Cancer Saul Landau Israel is Bad for Jewish Ethics Abbas Zaidi The Ad Hominem World of Pakistan Politics Ron Jacobs Ending the War, Organizing for Change Ralph Nader Move Over Oprah: a Summer Reading List Donald Worster Which City is Worse Off Today, New York or New Orleans? Mike Whitney The Fed's Role in the Bear Stearns Meltdown Jacob Hill Fast Track to Trade Failure Kenneth Couesbouc Why Global Trade is Rarely Fair Missy Beattie Kakistocracy Mohammad Kamaali Envoy for the Quartet Ramzy Baroud Finding Lessons in Gaza's Bloodshed Leonard Peltier A Gathering at Oglala Phyllis Pollack Seven Hours of Banging with the Stones Poets' Basement Reed, Orloski and Buknatski Website of the Weekend A Podcast Interview with Cpt. Ward Boston on the USS Liberty   June 29, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Toward a New Environmental Movement Brian Cloughley Losing the War in Afghanistan: One Civilian Massacre at a Time Patrick Cockburn End the Occupation: an Open Letter to Gordon Brown Gilad Atzmon The Peace Envoy: Tony Blair on Work Release Dave Lindorff Subpoenas, Executive Privilege and Liberal Pipedreams Jennifer Matsui / Carl Kandutsch Electric Larryland Kevin Zeese A Different Kind of Peace Candidate Daniel Klimek Fasting for Justice at DePaul David Michael Green The Founding Fathers Never Met Dick Cheney John Chuckman The London Car Bomb Website of the Day BAM!   June 28, 2007 Bill Quigley How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps Vijay Prashad Once More on the New York Times Margaret Kimberley The Whitening of Marianne Pearl: When White Actors Play Black Characters Winslow T. Wheeler House of Pork: Changing Lightbulbs in the Democrats' Bordello Philip Rizk The Failing of Gaza D. K. Wilson The Black Villains Club Bill Williams Strange Calculus at DePaul Mahmoud El-Yousseph The Deportation of Yardlin Jimenez Richard Rhames The Liberation of Paris Paul Krassner Bong Hits for Repression: the Giant Sucking Sound of the Supreme Court Website of the Day Free Lightnin' Hopkins   June 27, 2007 Marjorie Cohn Targeting Dissent: FBI Spying on the National Lawyers Guild Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD Sick and Sicker: Two Models of Health Care Rationing Alan Farago Bush and the Everglades: Rebranding Failure as Success Carla Blank "America, the Beautiful": the Queen, Jamestown and the Eye of the Beholder Matthew Abraham The Smearing of Robert Trivers, Dershowitz-Style Sunsara Taylor The Deadly Consequences of Compromise: Abortion Rights Under Assault, Where's the Women's Movement? Russell D. Hoffman 16 Dirty Secrets About Nuclear Power Robert Weissman Blackstone and Capital's Grand Scam Sen. Russ Feingold Secrecy and the Federal Death Penalty Paul Buchheit The Footprints of Democracies Website of the Day Anarchy for the USA: an Interview with Josh Wolf   June 26, 2007 Jonathan Cook Divide and Rule, Israeli-Style Ralph Nader Sicko and the Politics of Health Care Corporate Crime Reporter Which Side Are You On, Michael Moore? Ron Jacobs Are the Neocons Really Going? Martha Rosenberg Mad Cow in God's Country John Chuckman China's New Weapons Denny Haldeman Ethanolics Anonymous Anthony DiMaggio Free Speech Hypocrisy at the Supreme Court Stephen Fleischman The Tightrope Economy William S. Lind Legitimacy, Toujours Legitimacy Website of the Day The CIA's Family Jewels   June 25, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Goodbye to the City on the Hill Jennifer Loewenstein The Triumph of US / Israeli Policy in Palestine Bob Anderson The Grooming of Bill Richardson: New Mexico's Nuclear Governor Robert Pollin The Realities of Microlending Patrick Cockburn Chemical Ali Faces the Hangman: the Life and Crimes of al-Majid Eva Liddell Why They Want to Fire Ward Churchill Dan Bacher Democrats and the School of the Americas: 42 House Democrats Back Torture Academy Larry Atkins The Case of the Judge and the $54 Million Pair of Pants: an Embarrassment, Not an Argument for Tort Reform Mark Brenner SEIU Ends Nursing Home Partnership James Rothenberg Hillary Does Iraq Website of the Day "A Long Train of Abuses" June 23 / 24, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Zyklon B on the US Border Jeff Taylor The Foreign Policy of Barack Obama Oren Ben-Dor Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis in Gaza Gary Leupp In Defense of Academic Freedom: the Ward Churchill Case Robert Fisk The Bumbling Envoy David Rosen The Hidden Cost of War: Genital Injuries, Prosthetic Devices and the War on Terror Russell Mokhiber Ins and Outs for 2008: Up with Spoilers! Alison Weir USA Today and the USS Liberty Robert Fantina The Floundering Congress D. K. Wilson Of Gangstas and Spearchuckers, Sex and Zulus Nicole Colson Litigating Gitmo Stephen Soldz, Steven Reisner and Brad Olson Torture, Psychologists and Colonel James Dave Lindorff Exodus of the Puppets: Bush's Incredible Shrinking Coalition Benjamin Dangl Cerámica de Cuyo: a Profile of Worker Control in Argentina Michael Dickinson The Catholicization of Tony Poets' Basement Davies, Engel, Gerard and Orloski Website of the Weekend Incarcerex: a Drug War Video   June 22, 2007 Andy Worthington A Tunisian in Gitmo: the Story of Prisoner 660 Sherwood Ross Corporate America's Deadliest Secret: the Big Profits in Biowarfare Research Eliana Monteforte The Torture Academy Robert Weissman Things Can Be Different Richard Rhames Farmer Preservation Christopher Brauchli Bush and the Uighurs: an Encounter in Albania Ramzy Baroud Chronicle of a Chaos Foretold Ehud Krinis, David Shulman and Neve Gordon Facing an Imminent Threat of Expulsion: Palestinians in S. Hebron Hills Need Your Help! David Michael Green If Reid Were Rove Kathryn Webber Boycotting DePaul Website of the Day Stop Me Before I Vote Again!   June 21, 2007 Peter Linebaugh The Day of the Rope Natsu Saito The Regents and Ward Churchill: Now is the Time to Speak Out Ron Jacobs The Intimidation of a Vet Saree Makdisi The West Chooses Fatah, But Palestinians Don't John Stauber Blessed Unrest: an Interview with Paul Hawken Scott Liebertz Fox News and Venezuela: an Analysis of How the Network Deliberately Misinforms Its Viewers Tom Clifford The Ghost Prisoners Robert Jensen The Last Sunday? Michael J. Smith Who Among Us Will Step Up to Destroy the Democratic Party? Jeb Sprague Pain at the Pump in Haiti Website of the Day Dion: Hey Paris June 20, 2007 Omar Barghouti A Secular-Democratic State Solution Andy Worthington Repatriated to Torture Margaret Kimberley Supreme Injustices: the Bush Court Robert Weissman Sicko, Part One: the Human Tragedy Russell D. Hoffman Time to Choose: Meltdowns or Solar Power? Rannie Amiri Mideast Alight Stephen Lendman The New York Times vs. Hugo Chavez Dave Lindorff Democratic Disconnect David Swanson Booing Hillary: Platitudes from the Drone Machine Anne Dachel Autism & Vaccines: Why are They Afraid to Look? Website of the Day Revolution By the Book   June 19, 2007 Ralph Nader Hillary's Stock and Trade: the NAFTA Two-Step Dr. Shepherd Bliss Torture's Long Reach Bill and Kathleen Christison Demostrating Against the Catholic Church in Santa Fe Jeff Leys Swarming Congress: Building a Resistance to the 2008 Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill Dave Zirin The Unforgiven: Barry Bonds and Jack Johnson Chris Floyd Hitchens Takes a Roll in the Hay Ben Terrall Iraq Union Leaders Speak Out Against the Occupation Anthony Papa Veronica's Story: a Dying Wish to Governor Spitzer VIPS Countering Terrorism: How Not to Do It Linda Flores Criminalizing the Classroom Website of the Day Sign On to the Iraq Moratorium June 18, 2007 John Ross The Annexation of Mexico Paul Craig Roberts The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand Martha Rosenberg Let Cheney at Him: Richardson the Oryx Hunter Norman Solomon War at the Remote Don Santina Memo to the Queen: Bobby Sands Died for Your Sins Isabella Kenfield Landless Rural Workers Confront Lula James Brooks America's Guilty Silence Eva Liddell Planning to Lose: Democratic Stratagems Sam Husseini Clinton Health Care Scam Revisited Akiva Eldar Ariel Sharon's Dream Website of the Day Frank Zappa: the Cop Interview   June 16 / 17, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Psychopathology of Shrinks John Halle Finkelstein and "The Progressive" Robert Fisk Welcome to "Palestine" Andy Worthington Return to Torture? Uri Avnery The Gaza Cage Fred Gardner Paris Hilton's Punishment: a False Parable Saul Landau Our Gang of Thugs: The 1970s as a Context for Terrorist Violence P. Sainath Heaven Can Wait: Creditors and the Widows of Vidharbha Missy Comley Beattie Calling Evil Its Name Alan Gregory When ADM Comes to Town: Killer Tax Breaks for Wildlife Destruction Walter Brasch Bush and the Philosophy of Swiss Cheese Website of the Weekend Obama Girl   June 15, 2007 Alan Farago View from the Construction Crane: Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami Andy Worthington The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri Michael Simmons Terrorizing Artists in the USA Franklin Lamb Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed Sunni Army Solution Gary Leupp The Day After We Attack Iran John Ross Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico Website of the Day The American Rationalist   June 14, 2007 Michael Donnelly Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen Eco--Activism Faisal Kutty Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False Sense of Security Harry Browne Ireland's Green Party Sells Out Charles Jonkel From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference Steven Higgs Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic" in Indiana? Bruce Dixon Black Power Through Low Power Radio Bruce K. Gagnon What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan for Antiwar Activists Website of the Day Finkelgate June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Obama's Siren Song Marjorie Cohn Repression in Oaxaca Bill Christison A Grave Injustice at DePaul University Charles Jonkel Bears in a World of Indifference Silvia Cattori "I Was Not Prepared for the Horrors I Saw": an Interview with Hedy Epstein Richard Gott Racism and TV in Venezuela Firmin DeBrabander How the Neocons Misread Machiavelli William S. Lind The Perfect (Sine) Wave: Bombing Railroad Stations in Iraq Keith Rosenthal Workers Score a Victory at Harvard Website of the Day GOP and Monty Python Explain: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair How to Sell a War Paul Craig Roberts The Neocon Threat to American Freedom P. Sainath India's Plutocrats and the Press Ralph Nader The Biggest Scam in the World Omar Waraich A Black Day for Pakistan's Press Dave Lindorff Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You Harvey Wasserman Confessions of an Anti-Nuke Jerk Malini Johar Schueller It Takes a Bomb Ramzy Baroud War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire Website of the Day Palestinian Chronicle Needs Our Help!   June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The War on Journalists Paul Craig Roberts Losing the Economy to Mythology Uri Avnery 40 Bad Years: the Rot of Occupation Norman Solomon The Silence of the Bombs Eva Liddell Paris Hilton Doesn't Do Dishes: How Barbie Stood Up to Allen Ginsberg Rannie Amiri Groundhog Day in Pakistan Rachel Voss Poetry and Politics in Nassau County Christopher Brauchli A Wild West Tale, Starring Rev. Dobson and Bill O'Reilly D. K. Wilson Untangling Michael Vick from the Dogs Website of the Day Paris, Mixed Up     Subscribe Online

July 27, 2007 Manufacturing a Villain Sports Illustrated's Vilification of Barry Bonds By CHARLES MODIANO It was a vintage picture of Hammerin' Hank Aaron. No, this wasn't the aging 1970's Atlanta version in that indefensible god-awful uniform. This was the lean-mean Milwaukee version in the authentic gray flannel which you wish today's players still wore. The shot was simply classic. Hank was standing in the batter's box with hands clutching the end of bat, his no ear-flap helmet was OVER the cap creating that cool "double-bill" look, and he exerted laser-like focus as he was undoubtedly ready to tear the ensuing pitch into the left-center outfield gap in the worst case scenario. So when I pulled that cover picture of Sports Illustrated (SI) out of my mailbox this past week, a big smile spread across this baseball history fan's face. Barry Bonds ascent to 755 would be a reason to pay homage to a former great just the way it oughtta be. And then I read the cover's title ("The Heart of 755") and became a bit suspicious. Then I read the author's name below it (Tom Verducci [1]) and became downright skeptical. And then I immediately opened to the story to see the article's title ("The People's King") and any remaining doubts were removed. Oh, here we go again. This was not going to be a well-deserved Aaron tribute based on the merits of his career; it was yet another Sports Illustrated anti-Bonds article. And this time SI used the great Aaron as the latest vehicle to bash big bad Barry. And SI, which on the surface was attempting to hail Hank, actually cheapened his legend in the process. As I read on, it became clear: Hank was reduced to a mere device a tool a prop a ploy Such disingenuous usage of Aaron's legacy in mainstream media has already been pointed out by others including these two fine pieces on Slate and on The Starting Five. But what distinguishes Sports Illustrated from other media sources is that this is part of a long series of Bonds-biased coverage that goes back at least 15 years! That's right. Before the allegations of "performance enhancing drugs", before BALCO laboratory raids, and long before elaborate government investigations chose to target a man who makes his living hitting a ball of string with a piece of wood, Sports Illustrated most definitely had it in for Barry Bonds. The Sports Illustrated Cover Significance: If a fresh-off-the-spaceship alien requested a crash course on the last 50 years of American sports, you would surely begin with a review of the covers of Sports Illustrated. SI covers chronicle our greatest sports times, events, moments, history, teams, and individual player achievements. When it comes to SI, you CAN judge a book, or magazine, by its cover. Only a handful of American athletes in the last 50 years have rose to a level of historic greatness that puts a GULF between themselves and the next best athlete in their respective sport. They are Michael Jordan (40+ covers), Muhammad Ali (30+ covers), Jack Nicklaus (20 covers), Tiger Woods (19 covers), Wayne Gretzky (12 covers) and then, Barry Bonds (3 covers pre-PED allegations; 4 covers post-PED allegations) [2]. A) THE SKINNY BARRY YEARS (1990s) SI Cover Debut: The Sporting News named Barry Bonds Major League Baseball's "Player of the Decade" for the 1990's. Bonds won three MVPs in landslide votes, was also robbed of the trophy in 1991 [3]; won eight gold gloves; and in 1996 became only the 3rd player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season. During this time Bonds landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated just two times. The first cover on May 4, 1992 read: "Bonds Away!" The article itself was about the Pirates and only really devoted the following to Barry: "Leftfielder Barry Bonds continues to go long, like an Oscar acceptance speech, seemingly every time he steps to the plate". Not impressed? Well, you should be. With 20/20 hindsight this would be one of the best Bonds cover story articles that SI would ever print. A Villain is Born: One year later, and just three weeks after SI published its cover story, "Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?", it unwittingly found his modern day version by turning its lonely eyes and pens to a well-written but unflattering cover story: "Im Barry Bonds and You're Not". Just like Joe D., Bonds in 1993 was a "five-tool" player without weakness; had a flawless swing; was a picture of grace in the field; and could be a major-league jerk off of it (contrary to popular Dimaggio myth-making). The article did not question his superb skills, preparation, and dedication to the game as Bonds was in the midst of his then-finest season (46 HR, 123 RBI, .336, Gold Glove, & 103 team victories). One of the multiple quotes describing Bonds' excellence comes from teammate Royce Clayton: "I've never seen anyone like him ... Barry is like Magic Johnson-he makes everyone around him better". Clayton was undoubtedly referring to other players not sportswriters. The article's author, Richard Hoffer, was more interested in discussing the "complaining", "rudeness", and "insensitivity" of Bonds. In the article, Hoffer reveals what may be Bonds most egregious crime: "A writer might spend the first three days just trying to establish the possibility of an interview. Bonds might fail to look up or register any recognition during conversations with the would be interviewer, might pick at imaginary scabs on his arm and repeat "Whatever, dude" over and over. The next phase might be a series of decreasingly vague promises by Bonds as he warms to the idea of the interview. This part of the process also includes actual recognition of the interviewer. The third, most tantalizing phase includes specific appointments, at first broken and later delayed. Day Seven: Aw, dude! I forgot about stretching!" on Day eight Bonds finally sits down, as he promised so long ago." Hey, do you think that Hoffer might have been one of those "would be interviewers"? The author's commentary not only tells us about Bonds' poor treatment of the press, but also sheds light on some of the reasons behind Sports Illustrated's COVERage of Bonds for the following 15 years. In the article Hoffer also states: "And then, of all the people he might have chosen to present his second MVP award-his father, his manager-he chose Mays and singer Michael Bolton. It was an odd scene at Candlestick Park before this year's home opener: Mays handed the trophy to Bolton, who handed it to Bonds. What was wrong with this picture? It was as if Bonds, who had met Bolton when he played in one of the singer's charity softball games, were saying that his personality could no longer be contained by baseball. He would henceforth like to be identified with entertainment supernovas. Obviously, Bonds doesn't fight fame with all his heart." Hoffer's most interesting psychoanalysis sees the Bolton invitation as Bonds subconsciously desiring fame all the while he disingenuously claims that he is running away from it or something like that. But how about THIS potential explanation: Michael Bolton invited Bonds to a charity game. Bonds graciously accepted. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, the given charity had special meaning to Bonds. He became friends with Bolton or at least admired his singing enough to show his appreciation through the gesture of the trophy ceremony. Many folks might interpret these actions as two separate good deeds on the part of Bonds. But cynical reporters who get routinely blown off see the glass differently and often report that glass differently. Potential good deeds now become character flaws. Bonds maltreatment of intrusive reporters now becomes the story of how Bonds treats EVERYBODY. And any story that confirms this will be sought out, while stories that contradict this will be ignored for the next 15 years. Finally, if the first passage reveals Bonds' overall disdain for the press, then the second one might tell us WHY Bonds or any athlete might have that very disdain. Moral of story: Bonds is certainly no angel, but neither are the writers that cover him. The difference is that Bonds at least dedicated himself to his own craft. Or as Hoffer begrudgingly conceded: "He prepares well (whatever you do, don't ever try to talk to him before a game), and he plays hard. He does not let the game down." Now in a perfect world such commitment to both the game AND pre-game interviews would be quite lovely. But if forced to choose between a fully-prepared-but-petulant Bonds, or a jovial-but-allergic-to-a-treadmill Tony Gwynn who sacrificed the end of his career­ and a potential run at 4000 hits­ in favor of double-interviews and double-cheeseburgers this sports fan is choosing Bonds any day of the week. Nice guys are a dime a dozen, but dedicated baseball genius ala Barry is a once in a lifetime proposition. The reality is that by 1993, Bonds blew off one too many less-dedicated Sports Illustrated reporters and he would pay dearly for it. "The player of the '90's" would not grace another SI cover for the rest of the decade. B) The BIG BARRY YEARS (2000-2003: Still Pre-BALCO Raid): Although a very serious stretch, one might explain away the 1990's Bonds SI treatment as just one of those cover quirks[4]. However, such an explanation could not begin to explain the next phase of the SI cover "freeze-out" as anything other than indefensible anti-Bonds bias. Shockingly, the best baseball ever witnessed in the history of the game [5] only garnered one single obligatory cover [6]over the course of four years. That was back in 2001 as Bonds approached the single-season HR record. But forget 2001, even his arguably superior regular season of 2002 [all-time record .582 OBP] was not enough to do it. Furthermore, in 2002, Barry Bonds also had perhaps the greatest individual POST-SEASON performance in, please excuse the redundancy, the history of the game. It included EIGHT total post-season home runs and a World Series 7-game on-base percentage of .700 (no, scout's honor, that is not a misprint). Sorry Barry, your team lost that 7th game. Try harder next time. At least Babe Ruth knew how to pitch! C) Sports Illustrated COVERage Recap (1990 ­ 2003: Pre-BALCO Raid Years) Barry Bonds, the greatest player of his generation and, arguably, of all time, lands on three Sports Illustrated covers. During this same time span at least 10 other baseball players land on MORE covers of SI [7]. This list includes Mickey Mantle and, most ironically[8], Ted Williams both of whom retired in the 1960's! Of Bonds two 1990's SI cover stories, the "good cover" (1992) contains one sentence on Bonds. The "bad cover" (1993) contains nine pages mostly dedicated to how "Barry can be aloof". Bonds is granted his third cover in 2001 for breaking the single season home run record set three years earlier by Mark McGwire. In 1998, SI devoted five separate cover stories to McGwire including this really cute and cuddly one giving noogies (sp?) to his son. By securing that one cover during his historic 2000-2003 run, Bonds joined that year's elite SI company of Bret Boone and Matt Lawton. All of this documented SI COVERage on Bonds was BEFORE any BALCO-laboratories raid ever existed. Since 2004, SI has posted FOUR cover stories in which steroid allegations are the central theme. Final Bonds SI Cover Tally through July 2007: 22 years in league = 2 Positive Stories, 4 negative ones, 1 balanced[9]. DON'T EVEN TRY IT!: While the pre-BALCO Bonds was destroying baseball's record books from 2000-2003 players gaining more SI covers during that span included Roger Clemens and Jason Giambi. These individuals are notable since the former has since been confronted with steroids allegations and the latter has since been proven. Any claim from Sports Illustrated that they froze out Bonds because they suspected his use of performance enhancing drugs would simply fall flat in the face of these and other blatant contradictions (the 1990's in general and Mark McGwire in particular). THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: No, not "performance enhancing drugs" (PEDs), this "Part 1< article is about PRE-PED allegations. The OTHER elephant: RACE. While race has surely played a role in how mainstream media covers Bonds and other African American athletes, Cosellout simply lacks adequate information to make such a specific claim about SI despite reasons for pause [10]. While not accusing nor dismissing the possible influence of race as factor, this article focuses on SI's failed obligation to remain objective in the face of an unpleasant personality. A commonly heard refrain is that "Bonds doesn't get treated bad by media because he is black, but because he is a jerk". While a very strong argument can be made that "black jerks" receive far greater scrutiny and attention than "white jerks", this false-choice statement assumes that biased journalism is still somehow acceptable if reporters don't like the athletes they cover. Journalists, like doctors, police officers, teachers, and athletes have a responsibility to do their job without personal bias. If a player wouldn't play hard for their coach because they disliked them, fans would exert outrage. Well, SI clearly "plays when it wants to play" and fans should not accept this from Randy Moss or Sports Illustrated. Bonds has been baseball royalty, but treated like a pawn. The only difference between Mozart (a well-documented jerk) and Bonds (pre-allegations) is that Wolfgang's symphonies could be heard unfiltered, straight from the CD, and with no sportswriter chaser. CONCLUSION: SI's COVERage of Bonds has been personal in nature for a very long time. Perhaps, Barry told one too many SI writers to "get lost", "go away", or "beat it". Or maybe he didn't put a "please" before his sentence, a "thank you" afterwards, or say "pretty please with sugar on top". Or possibly, he neither felt nor expressed enough "gratitude" for being able to earn millions playing a kid's game or the adequate appreciation to garner the daily attention of an older, wiser, and whiter sports journalistic community. While it is hard to say for sure, one thing is definitely clear: For more than 15 years, Sports Illustrated has cheated the institution of journalism and its readers long before any accusations surfaced of Barry Bonds cheating the game of baseball and its fans. Because of petty grudges, it has substituted objections for objectivity, "payback" for professionalism, and retaliation for responsible reporting. Its treatment of Bonds is akin to the Oscars committee not nominating "The Godfather" for "Best Picture" because Marlon Brando blew off a couple of its committee members (which is well-documented by the way!). SI talks about the game's integrity, but has sacrificed its own long ago. Don't be fooled by SI's smoke and mirrors, by their disingenuous claims that their Bonds coverage is merely a response to BALCO allegations, or by their transparent pseudo-tributes to legends like Hank Aaron. Such claims should insult the intelligence of those fans who demand fairness in reporting. The truth is that when the offices of BALCO got raided in September 2003, it was exactly what Sports Illustrated desperately desired. Steroid allegations may have been bad news for Barry Bonds, baseball, and its fans, but it was a godsend for SI. Now they got their man! If proven true, SI could be absolved for 15 years of deliberately biased reporting. The BALCO evidence (which will be discussed in Part 2) and the "Game of Shadows" book were SI's two tickets to moral paradise. So fair warning to all readers as you join SI on their self-righteous anti-Bonds beach: read with extreme caution or you just might get sunburned. This Article is Part 1 of a 2 Part Series on SI's COVERage of Barry Bonds: Part 2 will offer the author's take on the Barry Bonds allegations, but more importantly SI's Cover stories from 2004 to present including SI's 2006 Game of Shadow's book expose, senior writer Tom Verducci's anti-Barry campaign, and that so often-cited "credible witness" named Kimberly Bell. Charles Modiano writes for the new sports media watch website COSELLOUT" and can be reached at: modi@cosellout.com."   [1] Let's just state that Tom Verducci does not care for Barry Bonds (before or after allegations of performance enhancing drugs) and leave it at that for now. Verducci's record will be reviewed in the upcoming Part 2 of this series. [2] No football entries have been added as no one qualifies using the "GULF" criteria. And while Roger Federer's tennis greatness has been unforgivably ignored by SI, this has a lot to do with SI's unwillingness to cover foreign athletes. [3] Pendleton won in a very close vote despite Bonds having 30 more RBIs, 33 more stolen bases, a .410 to .363 advantage in OBP, and a Gold Glove. Both teams also made the playoffs. This would not be the first time that sports writers exercised their power to punish Bonds. While a good argument can also be made for Bonds as MVP in 2000, unlike the Pendleton vote, it is still more than reasonable for writers to have awarded teammate Jeff Kent with that MVP. And while Bonds did win 7 MVPs, in not one of those years did Bonds have a close competitor. [4] A skeptic might argue that in the '90s: Bonds had no postseason success (see Derek Jeter); accurately state that baseball players generally get less cover attention than other sports, or that it usually takes HISTORIC seasons to guarantee an SI cover. While such an argument doesn't seem probable, at the same time, it isn't implausible. [5] It is hard to overstate the on-field accomplishments of Barry Bonds from 2001 - 2004. It is not just the famous 73 home runs in 2001. Students of the game are even more mind-boggled by his all-time record .863 slugging percentage that same year; his all-time record .582 on-base percentage in 2002; and the fact that he broke that same record in 2004 aided by receiving 120 intentional walks. His greatest feat is the fact that no hitter in baseball history, not even Babe Ruth and we suspect Josh Gibson, was more respected, more avoided, and more feared by pitchers than Barry Bonds. With the possible exception of Wayne Gretzky there is no other athlete in team sports, not even Michael Jordan, who so completely mastered their craft like Barry Bonds. [6] No, we do not count these tiny little token "inserts" at the very top of a page as making a cover. But for the record, this happened twice during this span. [7] Besides Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle, this list includes Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken, Derek Jeter, Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey, Jr., Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, and Alex Rodriguez. [8] Ted Williams was also quite combattive with the media and punished for it in the form of MVP robberies. His story tells us that sports media may have ALWAYS been a collectively an unprofessional group exerting personal bias. His latter day media adulation also suggests that Bond's media legacy 40 years from now may be much more favorable than it is right now. [9] Only the last of the four ("Living with Barry") is written in a balanced fashion. [10] The disparity in treatment of Bonds vs. Roger Clemens is a concern. Clemens, a surefire HOFer, has a history of steroid allegations, on-field misbehavior (see bat-throwing Piazza incidents), and yearly contract negotiations but has received relative kid-glove treatment from the press versus Bonds. Your Ad Here

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