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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! From Nixon to Sarah Palin
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
From Nixon to Sarah Palin
What’s happened to the Republican Party? What’s happened to populism? Read Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair on the life and death of Nixonland, and the class politics of the war over Sarah Palin. ALSO in our new subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter, read Serge Halimi on how Russia gave Georgia and the U.S.a well-deserved black eye. PLUS Carrie Dann’s wonderful first-hand account of the fight of the Western Shoshone to reclaim their land. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories September 6 / 7, 2008 Linn Washington, Jr. September 5, 2008 Elizabeth Walters Bill Quigley Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ira Glunts Peter Morici Deepak Tripathi Manuel Garcia, Jr. Michael Donnelly Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day September 4, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Andy Worthington Osama Dawoud Stephen Lendman Fidel Castro Website of the Day September 3, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Sen. Mike Gravel Vijay Prashad Nikolas Kozloff Ralph Nader Howard Lisnoff Steve Early / Cal Winslow Shepherd Bliss Bill Quigley Website of the Day
September 2, 2008 Marjorie Cohn Jonathan Cook Robert Weitzel Corey D. B. Walker John Ross Eric Walberg Judith Scherr Richard Morse B. R. Gowani Michael Greenberg Website of the Day September 1, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff C. G. Estabrook Manuel Garcia, Jr. David Macaray B. R. Gowani Saul Landau Charles Orloski Gloria La Riva Website of the Day August 30 / 31, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Bill Quigley Jeffrey St. Clair Andy Worthington Deepak Tripathi Stanley Howard Dave Lindorff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Josh Schlossberg Benjamin Dangl Missy Beattie Howard Lisnoff Suzan Mazur Rev. Jim Rigby David Yearsely Serge Quadruppani B.R. Gowani Richard Rhames Poets' Basement Website of the Day
August 29, 2008 Mike Whitney Brian Cloughley David Ker Thomson Joanne Mariner Neve Gordon Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Michael Donnelly August 28, 2008 Judy Gumbo Albert Paul Cantor Saul Landau / Andy Worthington Ben Terrall Leonard Peltier Niranjan Ramakrishnan Donna J. Volatile Website of the Day
August 27, 2008 Anthony DiMaggio Jordan Flaherty Ralph Nader Melissa Checker Bob Sommer Cynthia McKinney Ali Khan M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Dave Lindorff David Macaray Website of the Day
August 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Michael D. Yates Paul Craig Roberts Andy Worthington Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Huwaida Arraf Joseph Grosso Sheldon Richman Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day August 25, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook James McEnteer Uri Avnery Will Potter Robert Jensen Stephen Lendman Wajahat Ali Carl Finamore Website of the Day August 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patty O'Grady Nicole Colson Steve Conn Deepak Trapathi Robert Fantina Jonathan M. Feldman Joshua Frank Osama Qashoo Howard Lisnoff David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Alan Farago Michael Winship Richard Rhames David Rosen Patrick B. Barr Jamie Newlin Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 22, 2008 Boris Kagarlitsky Laura Carlsen Bob Barr Marwan Bishara Peter Morici Manuel Garcia, Jr. Charles Mostoller Sumbul Ali-Karamali Keith Rosenthal John F. Miglio Website of the Day August 21, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Loserville: How Obama Blew It Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner Wajahat Ali Ron Jacobs Rostam Purzal Anthony Papa Website of the Day August 20, 2008 Michael Neumann Ray McGovern Eric Walberg Fidaa Abed Daniel Haack Mike Whitney Website of the Day August 19, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Deepak Tripathi Marwan Bishara Saul Landau William S. Lind Martha Rosenberg James Brittain Pratyush Chandra David Macaray Website of the Day August 18, 2008 Tariq Ali Gary Leupp Uri Avnery John Ross Farooq Sulehria Luis Rodriguez Manuel Garcia, Jr. Noah Baker Merrill Charles Thomson Website of the Day August 16 / 17, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Deepak Tripathi Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Robert Fantina Ray McGovern Nicole Colson Fatima Bhutto Jean-Luis Rocca David Michael Green Ramzi Kysia Dave Lindorff Lisa Martinovic Richard Rhames Don Santina Rannie Amiri Ramzy Baroud John Stanton Howard Lisnoff Ron Jacobs Seth Sandronsky Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
August 15, 2008 Steve Niva David Remington Michael Winship Paul Craig Roberts Farzana Versey Harvey Wasserman Felice Pace Julian Critchley Website of the Day August 14, 2008 Saul Landau / Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Reza Fiyouzat Ralph Nader Christopher Brauchli The Cheerleader in China Jack Bradigan Spula Patrick Irelan John Walsh Dan Bacher Website of the Day
August 13, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts David Remington Brian Cloughley Glen Ford Brendan Cooney Dave Lindorff Tom Lewis Stan Cox Alan Farago Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day August 12, 2008 Uri Avnery Anthony DiMaggio Bill Christison Eric Walberg Kate Connolly Diane Farsetta Peter Morici Thom Rutledge Lee Patton Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day August 11, 2008 Ishmael Reed Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Douglas Kammen William Willers Greg Moses Jeff Leys Cynthia McKinney Alan Farago Website of the Day August 9 / 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Bruce Jackson Kevin Young Chris Floyd Joshua Frank Robert Fantina Brendan Cooney Mark Almond Lois Gibbs Rev. William Alberts Kathy Kelly John Ross David Michael Green Bill Moyers / Ron Jacobs Richard Rhames David Yearsley Lee Sustar Brenda Norrell Ben Terrall Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 8, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Manuel Garcia, Jr. M. Shahid Alam Andy Worthington Lawrence J. Korb David Model Alan Farago Diop Olugbala Firmin DeBrabander Website of the Day August 7, 2008 Dr. Trudy Bond William Blum Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Robert Weitzel Jacob G. Hornberger Binoy Kampmark David Macaray Howard Lisnoff Website of the Day August 6, 2008 Marc Herold Greg Moses Sheldon Rampton Kevin Young Michael Estrada Robert Weissman Dr. Susan Block Cindy Sheehan Ace Hoffman Website of the Day August 5, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Jeff Halper Patrick Cockburn Nancy Welch Peter Morici Sousan Hammad Eamon Martin Shepherd Bliss Tim Matson Website of the Day August 4, 2008 Uri Avnery Saul Landau David W. Remington Rev. Jesse Jackson Dave Lindorff Peter Morici Joanne Mariner Ramzy Baroud Christian Wright Website of the Day August 2 / 3, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler James Abourezk Andy Worthington Brian Cloughley Robert Fantina Benjamin Dangl Marlene Martin David Yearsley Fatemeh Keshavarz David Michael Green Obama as Dukakis Harvey Wasserman Jason Hribal Phyllis Pollack Laray Polk Ron Jacobs David Macaray David Rosen Dan Bacher Joe Allen Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 1, 2008 Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff Rannie Amiri Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli M. K. Bhadrakumar Patrick Cockburn James J. Brittain Dan Bacher Website of the Day
July 31, 2008 Michael Hudson Carl Finamore Mike Whitney Joshua Frank Andy Worthington Ralph Nader Bill Moyers / Robert Weissman Dave Lindorff Website of the Day July 30, 2008 Brian M. Downing Chuck Spinney William S. Lind David Ker Thomson Karl Grossman Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg James Murren Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Website of the Day July 29, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair John Ross Peter Morici Alison Weir Gary Leupp David Macaray Brenda Norrell Marjorie Cohn Eric Ruder Website of the Day July 28, 2008 Dr. Bryant Welch Kathy Kelly Mike Whitney Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli Clifton Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
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Weekend Edition From Chad Ocho Cinco to Sarah PalinBaseless in ObamalandBy ERIC PATTON It's official. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson is now Chad Ocho Cinco. What in God's name does this have to do with the left? In the NFL, wide receivers seem to need attention like green plants need sunshine. From New England Patriots wideout Randy Moss (who, to be fair, has settled down since his worst attention-seeking days when he played for the Minnesota Vikings) to Dallas Cowboys pass catcher Terrell Owens, Chad is just carrying on an NFL tradition of getting the TV cameras pointed at him. Chad is actually a talented football player. He's not a chump; he really does have game. But he hates playing in Cincinnati. He feels - correctly, as it turns out - that the Bengals organization isn't committed to trying to field a championship-caliber team. Chad may want attention - and he does - but he also wants to win a Super Bowl. That won't happen in Cincinnati, and Chad knows it. Why won't it happen? Because the Bengals are owned by Mike Brown, who is easily one of the worst owners in professional sports. (I'm an anti-capitalist, pro-pareconist. But I promise not to mention that even one time during the course of this essay.) Brown, the son of the legendary NFL coach Paul Brown, sees his team strictly as a business. He just wants his money. See, if pro teams in any sport are going to be competitive for championships, then those teams' owners need to spend money. It is possible for an owner to spend money on enough talent to compete for championships and still make money. But a team that wins cuts into an owner's profit margin. There are some owners - like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft - who do want winning teams and do pay for them. But Mike Brown only starting paying for talent a few years ago (after owning the team for decades) when, thanks to increasing fan outrage over a team nicknamed by ESPN the "Bungles," the political situation in Cincinnati had deteriorated to the point that Hamilton County officials (which built Brown a shiny new football stadium and handed him the deed a few years earlier) had to lean on Brown to stop his habit of having his team have the lowest payroll in the NFL every year. It got so bad that, at one point, then-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue even had a sit-down with Brown about it. So Brown shelled out a few bucks and upgraded the offense. Quarterback Carson Palmer is a legitimate stud, running back Chris Perry might be pretty good, and number-two wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh is pretty good. But despite head coach Marvin Lewis's defensive background, the defense sucks, and it'll suck again this year. (Steeler fans can look forward to Pittsburgh winning the AFC North again.) So against this backdrop, Chad decided last season was enough. He wanted out, and he made that known during the off-season. Now, if you've ever seen the movie The Godfather, you know two things: (1) The Godfather, while a very good movie, is a little overrated. (2) Never let personal matters influence business decisions. All successful businesspeople understand the difference between what's business and what's personal. (If only Sonny Corleone had kept that in mind before heading over the causeway...) But while Paul Brown was a genius, his son Mike doesn't have that problem. Mike Brown is an idiot, and he lets personal matters affect his business judgment. Considering his judgment isn't that good to begin with, Brown needs all the brain cells working in his favor that he can get. The Washington Redskins actually wanted to trade for Chad during the off-season. It was rumored that Washington offered Cincinnati a first-round pick and a third-round pick for Chad. If that's true, it would have been a helluva deal for both teams. But Mike Brown refused to even speak with the Redskins about the trade. He wanted to show Chad who was boss. Now look, I'm not saying you necessarily have to pull the trigger on that deal if you're Brown. But if Washington really was offering a first and a third, you at least have to talk to the Redskins about it. That's what Michael Corleone would have done. (Talk hell - Michael would pulled the trigger on that deal - figurately and literally, putting a bullet through Dan Snyder's glasses-covered eye after the fact. But I digress...) Mike Brown let it get personal, because he's a moron. He's a rich moron. But a moron nonetheless. Now Chad has gotten revenge. Chad's self-annointed nickname is "Ocho Cinco." His jersey number is 85, and since he knows just enough Spanish to be dangerous (since ocho cinco is actually "eight five" in Spanish, not eighty five), he wanted to put ocho cinco on the back of his jersey, in place of his birth name, Johnson. The Bengals said no. The NFL said, under league policy, only last names could go on the backs of jerseys. Now, there are a lot of things one can fairly say about Chad - but stupid isn't one of them. He may not be Albert Einstein, but he's smarter than Mike Brown (okay, okay - that's not saying much). Look, Chad really is a bright guy. And he's actually not a bad guy. Unlike Randy Moss (who literally hit a cop with his car when he played in Minnesota) and Terrell Owens (who has made a career out of questioning the sexual orientation of his quarterbacks), Chad has never broken the law. He's not a drug user, and he's friendly with the fans. I actually like Chad (I wish I could say the same for the Bengals, but fuck them - I'm a Steeler fan). Chad legally changed his name from "Chad Johnson" to "Chad Ocho Cinco." (Haven't you noticed I've been going through this entire piece calling him by his first name?) So now he can put ocho cinco on the back of his jersey. How will this affect the Bengals? Quite simply, get ready for the return of the Bungles. Chad's action will destroy what little chemistry the team still had. Chad has killed the team's chances of winning squat this year. And I, for one, love it. Why? Because Mike Brown is a fuckhead, and he deserves what he's about to get. The Democrats and Barack Obama spent the last year shitting and pissing all over their rank-and-file supporters. The details need not be reviewed here. We shouldn't even be talking about the Republicans right now, except to ask whether it's going to be a burial or a cremation. But the mealy-mouthed, spineless, corporate-grubbing, and base-screwing-over Democrats are now getting their asses handed to them by one formerly-little-known-Governor-turned-rock-star Sarah Palin. The Democrats deserve it. And I've got to tell you, I'm laughing my ass off watching it. I watched a little of McCain and Palin on the stump this evening - or should I say, I watched John McCain gravy-training on the next Vice President. McCain is so obviously just a spectator during his own damn presidential campaign. He should be on his knees every night thanking Palin's parents for conceiving her. McCain should change his name to American Tourister, because Palin is carrying him like a cheap piece of luggage. And there's not a damn thing the Democrats can do about it. Obama left the Republicans the opening when he fucked his base over. Radical lefties tried to tell Obama, but he wouldn't listen. Now he's getting exactly what his arrogance deserves: a one-way ticket to the same mausoleum where the political corpses of Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry are interred. So long, Barry. It was nice knowing ya. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out... Eric Patton lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He can be reached via e-mail at ebpatton@yahoo.com.
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