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Today's Stories

March 30, 2004

Bill Christison
The 9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbringer for the Future

March 29, 2004

John Maxwell
Crisis in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold

J. Michael Springmann
Email Spying & Attorney Client Privilege

Robert Fisk / Severin Carrell
Coalition of the Mercenaries

The Black Commentator
Haiti's Troika of Terror

Doug Giebel
Candide in the Wilderness:
How Bush Policy Was Made

David Krieger
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Bargain

Mike Whitney
Rejecting the Language of Terrorism

Richard Oxman
The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American Family

Kim Scipes
The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again

Michael Donnelly
End Game for Northwest Forests

Norman Solomon
The Media Politics of 9/11

Kathy Kelly
Last Lines Before Vanishing

Website of the Day
Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?

 

March 27 / 28, 2004

Jennifer Loewenstein
A Journey to Rafah

Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts

Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria

William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the US

Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army

Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?

Larry Birns / Jessica Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America

John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"

John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus

Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?

Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists

Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy

Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids

Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?

The Kerry Quandry

Joel Wendland
Marxists for Kerry

Josh Frank
Scary, Scary John Kerry

Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy

Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer

 

March 26, 2004

Christopher Brauchli
There's a Chill Over the Country

Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal of Mordechai Vanunu

Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again

Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon

Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead

Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago

CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?

John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb

Website of the Day
Dick is a Killer

 

March 25, 2004

Lee Sustar
Who is to Blame for Lost Jobs?

Standard Schaefer
An Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers

Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins to Throw Off the Austerity Planners

Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"

Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups

Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela

Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded

Saul Landau
Is Venezuela Next?

Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway

 

March 24, 2004

Gary Leupp
General Musharraf's IOU

Richard Oxman
Shakespeare for Kerry

William Lind
The Beginning of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq

Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later

Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again

Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn

Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media in Cuba

John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke

Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"

Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela

Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?

Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only Fuel More Suicide Bombings

Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey

 

March 23, 2004

Phillip Cryan
The Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks

Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?

Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections

Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George

Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble

JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"

Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black CD

Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track

Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]

M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie

 

March 22, 2004

Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial Executions

Uri Avnery
The Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime

Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage

Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee

Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy Scam

Greg Moses
Stop Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March

Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation

Lenni Brenner
Report from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace

Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations

Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment

Website of the Day
Enviros Against War

 

 

March 20 / 21, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Gay Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path

Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne Do?

Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities

Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act

Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"

William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall

Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism

Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War

John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon

Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man

Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity

Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss

Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?

Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism

Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun

Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!

Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill

Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet

Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility

Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis

Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election

 

March 19, 2004

Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home

Ann Harrison
So Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?

William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"

Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote

Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup, Mr. Bush

Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future

John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs

Vicente Navarro
The End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend

Website of the War
Naming the Dead

 


March 18, 2004

Gila Svirsky
Rachel Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency

Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million from Saddam

William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing

Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative

Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment

Josh Frank
The Nader Question

Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy

Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey

Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain

Gary Leupp
The Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost

Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key

 

March 17, 2004

Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on Terror or Civil Liberties?

David MacMichael
Untruth and Consequences

Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer

Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware

Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out

Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections

Peter Linebaugh
Bush: Blanc Blanc

 

March 16, 2004

Lenni Brenner
James Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights

Scott Boehm
Madrid Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days

Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History Behind the Spanish Elections

Sam Hamod and Alfredo Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way: Executing David Clayton Hill

Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran

Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War on Terror"

Bill Christison
The Aftershocks from Madrid

CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa

Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!

 

March 15, 2004

Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe

Mike Whitney
Justice Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism

Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation

Greg Moses
Lessons from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs

Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health

Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer

CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!

 

March 12 / 14, 2004

Gabriel Kolko
The Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power

Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!

William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)

William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks

Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us All Less Safe

Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars

Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists

Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor

Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge

Helen Scott and Ashley Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?

Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy of the American Prison

Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On

Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana

Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding

Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith

Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier

 

Hot Stories

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

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Hitchens as Model Apostate

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

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Prison Bitch

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

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Small Destructions Add Up

CounterPunch Wire
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The Erosion of the American Dream

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Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution

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March 30, 2004

What's Brewing in Venezuela

What Kind of Democracy to Expect If the Opposition Takes Control

By RAI O'BRIEN

Many are wondering why there is no unified opposition party in Venezuela ... this is perplexing, especially since there is a large section of society which actively seeks the replacement of the elected government.

I began my recent discussions, over a period of the last several months, with opposition supporters ... people interested in the Venezuelan political situation and with supporters of Chavez and the "Bolivarian Revolution."

I put forward the idea of the need for true democracy to flourish in the country ... for a "loyal opposition" along the lines of that which has historically been present in the classic "democracies" of Europe and North America.

It has also been a cause for bewilderment why there have been no alternative proposals by those against the rule of Hugo Chavez, other than his departure from the political scene.

What I have found has truly amazed me.

I have concluded from my discussions that the Venezuelan opposition envisions no organized and unified party, no de facto group of potential candidates to run against Chavez (conceivably in 2006), and no assembled program.

Why has democracy in Venezuela been a process which has alienated such a large segment of the population, resulting in widespread civil disobedience?

My discussions with opposition supporters have yielded frustratingly little which could be used in encouraging productive debate in the present political situation ... the sheer level of anger is startling to a non-Venezuelan, such as myself.

The level of total polarization of the two sides is seemingly insurmountable. In general, any attempt, on my part, to inject the idea of opposition-leaning citizens and Chavistas debating the future of the country in a civil manner has been thoroughly and categorically denied as a possibility.

It is apparent that no discussion at all can proceed on the issue of governing the country with Hugo Chavez Frias as the country's President.

I have had to re-examine what democracy is ... at least, as it may apply to the two major constituencies in Venezuela (chavista and opposition).

I do not believe that many would argue with my conclusion that opposition-types strongly admire the political system in the United States and, since discussions with the opposition have been so fruitless in discovering what they truly look forward to instituting in the country, we must look to what the US system actually is. We must also look at what is recent history in Venezuela.

Opposition proponents of the eradication of Hugo Chavez from the political arena have a recent factual track record from which we can construe basic expectations of what they would impose on Venezuela economically and politically, if they indeed succeeded in ending the Bolivarian Revolution of Hugo Chavez (this accomplished most effectively by forcing Chavez from power in Venezuela, of course).

The facts themselves, in many discussions with opposition-types, are in some dispute. However, to proceed with this discussion we must attempt to establish some facts from which we can produce at least some tendencies, if not an outright model of a new, non-MVR-dominated, but pro-business national government.

First of all, there was a coup d'etat which took place in April 2002. The aim of this action was to force Hugo Chavez from power. It succeeded for some 48 hours. Among the first actions of the Carmona government was the institution of an oligarchic dictatorship ... this being concluded by their dissolution of the National Assembly, the Constitution and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.

It has been widely disputed by opposition supporters, but what also occurred during the coup period was essentially state terrorism against Chavistas. The opposition, I know, will virulently argue this, and also laterally accuse Chavistas of human rights violations against them ... but the one seemingly indisputable fact is that, in the aftermath of the coup, "democracy" did not seem to be a primary concern of the opposition.

A second fact is that, after the coup was overturned, their next organized step was the "national strike" (as it is portrayed by opposition) or the "employer lockout" (as defined by Chavistas) from December 2002 to February 2003.

The overriding fact of the matter ... no matter how it is labeled ... is that the opposition clearly intended to destroy (at least in the short term) the Venezuelan economy, with the intended result being the goal of creating a situation where Venezuela would be "ungovernable," resulting in the forced resignation of Hugo Chavez.

We can argue the means used to quell this assault on the economy, but not that it occurred, and what the desired result was of the strike/lockout.

Third, we must look at the recall referendum signatures process, which is the third attempt organized by the opposition to remove Chavez from power.

Here I will attempt to distill this entire situation into the basic reality: the opposition did utilize, to some extent, blatant fraud in the process (as well as masses of legitimate signatures), from the undeniable submittal of hundreds of thousands of indisputably fraudulent signatures; to the more marginally disputable "challenged" signatures as have been held in limbo until the "repair process" (endorsed by the CNE and approved by the TSJ) can either reaffirm them as genuine, or to throw them out all together.

An important fact, as well, is to say that the CNE has given the opposition and opportunity to verify the signatures by having the disputed votes reaffirmed by the signers if in fact they did vote for the removal of Chavez.

To this point in time, the opposition has restricted it's cooperation in the process to their lawsuit challenging CNE to implement the "repair" process. This legal attempt has proven to be unsuccessful. The process is still there to institute a civilian-mandated referendum on Chavez' rule. It is still possible for the opposition to prevail, if their disputed signers simply come forward and verify their signatures. Over two thousand sites have been authorized for owners of the disputed signatures to perform this reaffirmation.

So no rational argument can be made that the opposition is being denied the right to constitutionally utilize the constitutionally-mandated recall referendum, if they can prove they indeed have the votes for it to proceed.

I add this: the opposition has pointed out, with some justification, that some government retaliation has been imposed on signers ... and ... that the government has accused employers of coercing voters to sign for the recall referendum, as well.

Judging from the three organized efforts of the opposition, we can see that there was little hesitancy to utilize 1) violent anti-Constitutional means to destroy Chavez' government by violent means; 2) a willingness to destroy the economy of the nation in the "strike" or "lockout" (whichever terminology you prefer) in order to topple the state; and, 3) when presented with a Constitutionally-endorsed tool to remove Chavez from office, they chose to utilize fraudulent (as well as non-fraudulent) means.

In dispute also are the use of computers at polling places, holding signatures for weeks after the vote and the presence of the same handwriting on entire multi-voter ballots.

In conclusion, it must be assumed that the opposition clearly believes that any effort to topple Chavez is legitimate. Also, any form of government they would organize, if they succeeded to power, would not include the MVR.

Last ... although only implied by the lockout ... PDVSA would again be under control of the opposition, subject to their own unsupervised accounting methods in rewarding the state as owner.

At no point in any of the three phases did the opposition cooperate under strict democratic guidelines. When in power they indisputably instituted an oligarchic dictatorship. Whether this would be permanent or temporary is disputable, however.

All we have to go by is what they actually have attempted since April 2002 since they do not state a detailed program post-Chavez.

Let's move onto the concept of democracy, itself.

"Democracy" can be best defined, at this point in history, as understood and practiced in the USA, my country. Let's factually state that this is now the reality in a world of one "superpower" ... the United States of America. Let's examine, in general terms, just what "democracy" has become in the US; and how "democracy" is being imposed in our two newest "democracies": Afghanistan and Iraq.

The reason is that these are the two latest examples of plans to set up democratic systems.

Lets look at the US example: The US political system is indisputably and totally controlled by two political parties. These two parties are undeniably controlled by money. The political system relies on corporate and personal financial campaign-fund contributions to political candidates. It is indisputable that large campaign money decides the winners in nearly all national elections. The only question is whether the cash controls votes, as it certainly does influence them, at the very least. The two presidential candidates for 2004 have little to differentiate themselves. Both are sons of large and wealthy families, both support what some would categorize as economic imperialism and national self-interest, and some would call free-market globalization (this is a separate debate).

The media in the US can "make or break" candidates, most recently Howard Dean. In the last election Al Gore was demonized as a liar, among other things, by the press, who were indisputably "soft" on their criticism of Mr. Bush. This indisputably influenced the outcome in an election decided by 500 or so Florida votes, which itself is being still debated in our society regarding it's legitimacy. Indisputably, money rules in the US political system. Therefore, it is logical to surmise that the interests of the moneyed classes in the US are dominant in the process. For one to believe in a "real" democracy, self-delusion is indeed necessary. We could extend these ideas to mean that the present US "democratic" system simply ensures that the minority rules.

The US has instituted two "democracies" post-9/11: They are Afghanistan, headed by a US hand-picked president, with a "democratic system" which involves warlords, not citizens, and exists only because the US bodily protects the president from assassination. The average citizen in Afghanistan is not projected to be involved in the system. Some would say that this is unfair, because the system is just establishing itself. I would reply that the aim here is to allow the US to withdraw from the country, but to perpetually control US military bases; and, that once the US withdraws day-to-day control on the ground in civil society that things will regress back to warlord control, "at best", or Taliban-control, "at worst."

The CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) in Iraq first attempted to institute a democratic system by a hand-picked panel of puppets (Governing Council) which has thus far had two options: to approve the dictates of Paul Bremer, or to not co-operate and be powerless in the new system. The first attempt to form a "democratic" government was the institution a system of "caucuses," whereby the US would, in essence, control the candidates in the electoral process (much like the two property parties in US politics control the candidates the hapless American voter gets to choose from).

When this system was exposed as a cynical attempt to establish a permanent de facto US-controlled government (amenable to US interest desire to control Iraqi oil wealth, and maintenance of US military bases in the country perpetually), the civilian leadership of the head cleric of the majority demographic of the country, the Shi'ites, refused to go along with it, and it had to be abandoned.

The most recent attempt forced the Governing Council to agree to a new Constitutional amendment which would force legislative gridlock, thereby maintaining all the decrees of the CPA perpetually, since 75% of the population would need top agree to any change (this is actually worse than it sounds, because the Kurdish minority could effectively block any changes, and since they are the closest to the US they would be open to manipulation, or in the least, could block anything unfavorable to them, therefore making an "Islamic" government impossible, although it is indisputably preferred by a majority of the Iraqi population).

Therefore, we can see by the three models (US, Afghanistan, Iraq) that true democracy is not a subjective central aim.

The US is thoroughly dominated by moneyed interests, and US-endorsed democracies (as well as totalitarian states aligned with US interests) survive merely because they support US aims.

In conclusion, it is not disputable that the opposition in Venezuela admire the US system. The US has been discovered to have been indisputably in at least covert support of the opposition coup attempt in April 2002. It has been proven, as well, that opposition leaders did openly meet with Bush administration officials in Washington prior to the "national strike" or "lockout." And it is indisputable the US government non-governmental organization, financially supported by the US government, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), did provide financial support to the recent recall referendum drive by the opposition.

With these facts in hand, I must believe that "democracy" ... in the sense it is mostly widely accepted by average person everywhere ... is not the goal of the opposition.

What is being contemplated is the new "globalized version" of democracy.

This is most concisely defined as a system which portrays itself as a democracy, but in reality is a system which supports the goals of the elite in the global economy.

Our modern media, too, is shown in all its glory in Venezuela, which is almost entirely dominated by corporate interests, as it blatantly is in today's US. These interests coincide with those of the wealthy classes. Our political parties effectively exclude average persons from the governing class. Our choices, as citizens, essentially restrict themselves to the selecting between two hand-picked candidates of the elite classes.

This is the "democracy" which can be expected in Venezuela if the opposition takes control of the country.

And, this is why the opposition does not present a unified party, with a group of established potential viable candidates to run against Chavez if there is a 2006 election ... and why there is no stated opposition program.

It is simply not in the opposition's interests to present any of the three (all prerequisites under a truly democratic system in Venezuela).

The only way for the opposition to disprove these conclusions would be to take the steps necessary to effectively participate in the Venezuelan political system: present a unified opposition party, begin to formulate a leadership, openly publish a alternative program of national governing; and, to work with all people and alternative political groups towards national prosperity.

Rai O'Brien can be reached at: rai.obrien@juno.com

Weekend Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004

Jennifer Loewenstein
A Journey to Rafah

Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts

Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria

William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the US

Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army

Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?

Larry Birns / Jessica Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America

John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"

John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus

Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?

Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy

Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids

Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?

The Kerry Quandry

Joel Wendland
Marxists for Kerry

Josh Frank
Scary, Scary John Kerry

Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy

Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer



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