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New Special "Serving Two Flags" Edition of CounterPunch

Inside the Neo-Cons: Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith and the Internal Security Problem at the Pentagon by Stephen Green; O'Neill, Oil and Bush by Alexander Cockburn; My Corporation Tis of Thee: The Stryker, The General and the Lobbyist by Jeffrey St. Clair; A Southern Africa Sojourn by Lawrence Reichard; The Kiev Con: Exposing David Duke's Illusory Doctorate; CounterPunch Online is read by 70,000 visitors each day, but we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

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Today's Stories

February 20 / 22, 2004

Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem

February 19, 2004

Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw

Ray McGovern
Iraq Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd Get Away With It?

Tariq Ali
How Far Will Bush Go in Iraq?

Ralph Nader
Whither the Nation?

Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?

Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble

Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT

Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"

Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale

Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope

 

February 18, 2004

William Wilgus
Bush: AWOL and Dereliction of Duty

William Blum
Mush-Minded Liberals

Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome

Greg Weiher
Why is Kerry Getting a Pass?

Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber

Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"

 

February 17, 2004

Mike Ferner
The Countryside Murders in Iraq

Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation as Psychopath

Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate: a Victory for Free Speech

Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"

Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The Nation

Ximena Ortiz
A Bush Doctrine, of Sorts

Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?

Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"

Steve Perry
Kerry 1, Drudge 0


February 16, 2004

James Johnston
Huddling with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World

Sara Eltantawi
To Wear the Hijab or Not

Bruce Anderson
Kevin Cooper and the Midnight Needle

Elaine Cassel
Feds on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas

Rahul Mahajan
Bush, Is the Tide Finally Turning?

Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death

Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean

Larry David
My War

Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing

Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made


February 14/15, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the March of Empires

Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic

William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics

Stan Goff
Beloved Haiti

Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election

Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me

Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot

Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant

Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left

Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism

William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map

Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa

Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson

Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation

Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest

Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues That Matter?


February 13, 2004

Alan Maass
Kevin Cooper's Fight to Live

Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club

Annie Higgins
On a Street in America

Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader

Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation

Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken

Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll

 

February 12, 2004

Ray McGovern
George Tenet's Spin Cycle

Robert Jensen
Bush's Nuclear Hypocrisy

Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea

February 11, 2004

Cockburn / St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways

Steve Perry
Bush v. Bush?

 

February 10, 2004

Kurt Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa

Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)

Elizabeth Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry

Mickey Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"

 

February 9, 2004

Michael Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet

Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits

Bill Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?

Dr. Susan Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment: Boob Tube Super Bowl

 

February 7/8, 2004

Kathleen Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with Jewish Self-Absorption

Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping

Dave Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine in Transit

Alexander Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel

February 6, 2004

Ron Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?

Joanne Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy

Saul Landau
Happiness and Botox

Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide from Perle and Frum

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure: Our Own

 

February 5, 2004

Benjamin Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free Zone

Khury Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"

Mokhiber / Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003

Teresa Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right

David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq

Christopher Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools

Norman Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources

Cockburn / St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!

 

February 4, 2004

Brian McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's Last Round Up?

Mark Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel

Judith Brown
Palestine and the Media

Frederick B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's Junta?

Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating the Spooks

M. Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract

Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?

Kevin Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It

 

 

February 3, 2004

Alan Maass
The Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"

Nick Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded in Iraq

Rahul Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure

Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?

Laura Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures

Terry Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts Fairness Campaign

Hammond Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless

Website of the Day
Waging Peace

 

 

February 2, 2004

Gary Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail

Justin E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free Environment

Tom Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee

Winslow Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget

Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth

Leonard Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is Rigged

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean

Website of the Day
Resistance: In the Eye of the American Hegemon

 


Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004

Paul de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities

Bernard Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium

Jack Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks

Christopher Reed
Broken Ballots

Michael Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear

Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War

Lee Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement

George Bisharat
Right of Return

Ray McGovern
Nothing to Preempt

Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks

Conn Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs

Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons

Phillip Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit

Christopher Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read

John Holt
War in the Great White North

Mickey Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley

Mark Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key

Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif

Ben Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please

Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert

 


January 30, 2004

Saul Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List

Michael Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in the Woods

Elaine Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo

David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton

Mike Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression

David Miller
The Hutton Whitewash

Sam Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake", Senator Kerry?


January 29, 2004

Patricia Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist

Ron Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized" Immigration

Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq

Greg Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on Moon and Mars

Norman Solomon
The State of the Media Union

Cockburn / St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?

 

January 28, 2004

Kathy Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of Torture and Assassination

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Hot Stories

Alexander Cockburn
Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con!

Subcomandante Marcos
The Death Train of the WTO

Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens as Model Apostate

Steve Niva
Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?

Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians

Steve J.B.
Prison Bitch

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War

Wendell Berry
Small Destructions Add Up

CounterPunch Wire
WMD: Who Said What When

Cindy Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From

Gore Vidal
The Erosion of the American Dream

Francis Boyle
Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution

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Weekend Edition
February 20 / 22, 2004

The War on Civil Rights

What Gives Texas A&M the Right?

By GREG MOSES

[Editors' Note: During February the Texas Civil Rights Review uncovered documents from a specially appointed task force at Texas A&M that recommended strongly in favor of affirmative action on Aug. 29, 2003. That finding was over-ruled by the President and buried from public view. Following is the cover story that will appear for the next month at the Texas Civil Rights Review.]

During the Fall Semester of 2003, Texas A&M University President Robert Gates put the Civil Rights Act in his pocket and he left it there until people thought it was his. And when he refused to take it out of his pocket ever again, people said, okay, he can do that. But can he?

Can the President of a University pocket-veto the Civil Rights Act? Ultimately this is a question for the federal government to decide. It would make a fine question for our Presidential candidates. If elected president, Mr. Kerry or Mr. Edwards, will you enforce the Civil Rights Act in College Station, Texas?

It was because of the Civil Rights Act that the Office of Civil Rights visited Texas in 1978 to determine if de-segregation had been accomplished. But de-segregation had not been accomplished in the higher education system of Texas.

At that point the OCR had the power to make an adverse ruling against the state of Texas, which would have caused serious difficulties with federal funding. And so, once again, because of the Civil Rights Act, Texas was feeling some heat.

It is well documented in records kept by Texas A&M, and by analysis that was produced at the time, that Texas A&M University Regents adopted affirmative action as a way to show federal authorities that the Civil Rights Act has a meaning they were bound to respect.

It made plain sense in 1980 that affirmative action in admissions was one necessary means that a University under federal supervision for de-segregation should adopt. The state of Texas then entered into a series of agreements, under federal supervision, for de-segregation. These facts are plain as one can find. They are also plainly evaded.

In 1997, OCR returned to Texas, found de-segregation still a work in progress, and in the summer of 2000 received from Governor Bush assurances that all available means would be used to advance the de-segregation process. Then in the summer of 2003 the Supreme Court restored the Constitutionality of affirmative action in Texas with the Grutter ruling.

Where it is plainly agreed that a University should undertake every means necessary for de-segregation, where that same University has previously agreed that affirmative action serves as a baseline commitment of good faith toward de-segregation, and where affirmative action is clearly vindicated by the Supreme Court as a Constitutional means to de-segregation, there can be no plainer conclusion at hand as to what a University should be doing. But the conclusion is not at hand. It is in the pocket of President Gates.

Soon after the Grutter ruling, President Gates called together his best and brightest, and he asked them to consider what should be done. By the end of the summer, his own hand-picked committee strongly recommended a return to affirmative action.

Not only did President Gates put that report in his pocket, but he failed to consult with state regulators about his responsibilities under the Civil Rights Act. Folks he asked he ignored, folks he should have consulted, he did not.

If during this Black History Month we are going to share platitudes about the meaning of America, if during this traditional month of celebration for Lincoln's birthday we are going to speak of one nation, and if the Civil Rights Act actually happened and is really law in America, and in Texas, too, then, we have to say: give back the Civil Rights Act President Gates, or step aside and give us a University President who respects the laws and Constitution of the United States.

There are perhaps a thousand ways to cut the argument for affirmative action in admissions. But given the peculiar circumstances in College Station, Texas, crucial considerations have not yet been addressed. What is the meaning of the Civil Rights Act? Is the federal Constitution still a framework that a Texas University President is bound to respect?

Greg Moses writes for the Texas Civil Rights Review. He can be reached at: gmosesx@prodigy.net

 

Weekend Edition Features for February 14 / 15, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the March of Empires

Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic

William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics

Stan Goff
Beloved Haiti

Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election

Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me

Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot

Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant

Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left

Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism

William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map

Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa

Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson

Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation

Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest

Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues That Matter?

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