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Today's Stories August 4 / 5, 2007 Alan Farago The Candidates and the Collapsing Economy Dave Zirin When Domes Attack: Even in Minnesota Anthony DiMaggio Double Standards in U.S. Aid to the Middle East Nicola Nasser The Iranian Option   August 3, 2007 Gabriel Matthew Schivone An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Responsibility, War Guilt and Intellectuals Jonathan Cook Israel's Jewish Problem in Tehran Patrick Cockburn Sunnis Walk Out of Iraq Government Little Steven Van Zandt Die, Greedy Swine! Die! Die!: How the Record Companies are Killing Rock Music Christopher Brauchli Bush Makes Putin Look Like James Madison D. K. Wilson Two Sides and a Middle: Michael Vick Ain't the One to Ask Linda Ford and Ira Glunts Maxwell's Silver Hammer: Syracuse University Enlists in the Global War on Terror Kelly Overton The Casualties of Green Scare: the Feds' War on the Animal Rights Mvt. Monica Benderman In Freedom's Name Manuel Garcia, Jr. Minneapolis Bridge Collapse: Was Cheney at the Scene? Website of the Day A Cinematic Look at the Police State in Action   August 2, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Return of the Robber Barons Stanley Heller Report from the Land of Apartheid Eric Ruder Fighting PTSD; Fighting the Army Robert Fantina Still Getting It Wrong: the NYT and Iraq Alan Farago The Toxic Mortgage Waste Crisis Chris Floyd Chertoff, Chiquita and Death Squads Franklin Lamb Lebanon's Crucial Special Elections Sen. Russ Feingold Closing the Book on the Abramoff Era Anthony Papa Drug Treatment isn't a Silver Bullet Norman Solomon The Big Guns of August Website of the Day Louie, Louie Video Contest   August 1, 2007 Debbie Nathan More Secret Payments by Former NYT Reporter to Web Porn Star Surface in Nashville Courtroom Fred Gardner Ciao, Michelangelo Gary Leupp Why Iraq's Best-Loved Athlete Can't Go Home David Rosen America's Top 10 Political Sex Scandals Winston Warfield Is the Tillman Case Still a Coverup? Daniel McBride Lessons from Bomber Harris: If the US Strikes Pakistan Glen Ford The Corporate Plan to Crush Black Resistance Thomas P. Healy The Toxic Career of Indiana's Environmental Commissioner John V. Whitbeck The Five Percent Solution David Krieger Nuclear Weapons and the University of California Website of the Day The Tragic Story of Hisham Mohammed   July 31, 2007 Kathy Kelly Dancing in the Darkness: the Story of Abu Mahmoud Clancy Sigal The Ghosts of Passchendaele Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Baby Doll to Cheney Joe DeRaymond Return to the Republic of Death? Diane Christian "Winning": What Bush Could Learn from the Shade of Achilles Chris Floyd Good News is No News: Why the Bush Adm. Buries Accounts of Extremist Recantations Ramzy Baroud Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine Alan Farago Battle for the Soul of Florida Fidel Castro In Spite of Everything: Reflections on the Pan American Games Dan Bacher The Fish Terminator: Schwarzenegger's Campaign to Build the Delta Canal and More Dams   July 30, 2007 Marjorie Cohn: Independent Counsel Time Patrick Cockburn Four Million Iraqis on the Run Peter Quinn Irish in America Uri Avnery A Warning to Tony Blair John Ross Zapatista Intergalatica Lands on Earth Ron Jacobs Free the San Francisco 8 David Vest Farewell, Old Friend: Another Legend of the Blues is Gone Jeffrey St. Clair T99 Nelson: Seduced by a Legend of the Blues Website of the Day Collateral Repair Project   July 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Now the NYT is Selling "Bloodbath" as a Rationale to Stay in Iraq Ralph Nader Rotten Justice Robert Fantina American Lies and Iraqi Nationalism Fred Gardner Prohibitionists Attack, Reformers Fundraise   Yves Engler Handwashing and the Bottomline   July 27, 2007 John Ross Bombing Pemex--or Not? Arthur Neslen Gaza was a Gas for Blair Dave Lindorff Declaring the US a Battlefield: Martial Law is Now a Real Threat Julene Blair The Environmentalist Within Christopher Brauchli Bush Uses Children as Shock Troops in His War on Socialized Medicine Jesse Hagopian Fund the Wounded, Not the War Charles Modiano Manufacturing a Villain: Sports Illustrated's Vilification of Barry Bonds Bill Day The Hollow Environmentalism of Leonardo DiCaprio Walter Brasch Leaders Afraid to Lead M.D. Mitchell Farm Based Camps Website of the Day Fighting Sarcoma   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

Weekend Edition August 4 / 5, 2007 The New APPO, Elections, a Questionable Guerrilla Groups and the Threat of Forgetfulness Oaxaca is Not Over By BARUCHA CALAMITY PELLER "Don't let another six months go by before the world turns around and sees Oaxaca again." -APPO representative Eric. Has the world forgotten about Oaxaca? Political activity, from repression to organizing, is still just as present as when the Oaxaca uprising was visible in the streets, but with the appearance of normalcy in Oaxaca City it seems that many of us have begun the process of forgetting or assuming that the Oaxaca struggle is over. Walking on the streets of Oaxaca it is indeed hard for the untrained eye to see the continuing struggle for autonomy. The tourists have returned, the graffiti has been painted over, and the barricades are a burning memory. And perhaps it is a failure that on the left we need dramatic events and repression in order to recognize important political transformation, and in this sense we become part of the dangerous process of forgetting. But the Oaxaca movement was never defined by the presence of the barricades, by media takeovers, by occupations and sit-ins. Within and without the popular assemblies and the political bodies of the movement the Oaxaca popular rebellion has always been a spirit -- something that lives in the conscience of everyone who passes through or has sucked in a breath in Oaxaca. Some think that the Oaxaca movement grew sick from repression and died, when in fact it continues to live and struggle. Just like the Zapatistas had a long period of silence so has the Oaxaca struggle taken its time to reflect and understand itself, and within the apparent quiet is a storm of organizing and transformation. Oaxaca is bracing itself for the upcoming state legislative elections on Sunday August 5, which are surrounded by tension. The recent heavy activity of a questionable guerrilla group has only added to the mood. All the while, the APPO continues to change its profile, and the Oaxaca uprising a year later is continues to development into a political force. The APPO Then, the Many APPOs of Now This weekend, the 3rd and 4th of July, a large section of the APPO (the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) is in Mexico City enacting the Popular Political Judgment, bringing forth documentation of repression by the Mexican state to demand punishment for Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz and others responsible for the grave human rights abuses in Oaxaca and throughout Mexico. Meanwhile, the APPO as a political body is split in many directions, and out of this split the process of moving towards autonomy while dissenting with the status quo of the organization of the movement continues. In fact the movement is morphing and turning itself inside out. The Oaxaca movement from the beginning acted without the direction of the provisional APPO leadership, and many actions, such as the construction of the thousands of barricades in the state capital, Oaxaca City, the radio and television takeovers, and the occupations of public spaces were taken by the people themselves and did not reflect a decision of the APPO. Until mid-November the APPO was officially defined as a body with representatives from 350 social organizations, many of which were vertical organizations that in of themselves only represented a small section of the Oaxacan people. The APPO congress in November bought together over 200 representatives from all over the state and the provisional APPO leadership was more or less dissolved. Yet due to the repression in the aftermath of the November 25 street battle between protesters and Preventive Federal Police that led to a siege by federal and state forces on the capital and forced much of the movement to go into hiding, the APPO representatives to the APPO from all over the state have been unable to meet. Yet the movement has not stopped. The movement has grown and began to spread out, and instead of becoming dispersed it has become more organized within it's own decentralization. Although the centralized, almost "formal" APPO of representatives and social organizations still exist, another phenomenon is visible-the ever-increasing number of popular assemblies throughout the capital city and throughout the state. In Oaxaca City there are 71 neighborhood assemblies, calling themselves the APCO (Popular Assemblies of the Colonias de Oaxaca). Throughout the state the number of local and regional popular assemblies is on the rise, and there have been many new collectives formed everywhere. Criticisms towards the APPO consejal (the central directed body of representatives) have contributed largely to the decentralized aspect of the movement and have played a large role in the form in which people are reorganizing. Many sectors of the movement, such as the students, women, youth, neighborhood groups, and even some NGOs, distrust a democratic centralism and became disillusioned with the representative system and demand a collective process. The under representation of many sectors of the APPO has led to the formation of new organizations and collectives who as well as self organizing demand representation and more horizontalism within the APPO consejal. The localized element of the political formation of the Oaxaca movement has furthered the struggle for autonomy in many senses. Groups who had tactical differences with the provisional leadership of the APPO before are now more self empowered to apply their forms of struggle. Communities are discussing their own needs in the local assemblies and searching for ways to become more self-sufficient. For instance, some of the neighborhood assemblies are discussing how to begin to have control over means of production to become less reliant on imports, and the discussion over control over agriculture and food production is common. Given the plurality of the movement there are many debates within the APPO at the moment. Different sectors are split over non-violence vs. direct confrontation with the police, and strategies for getting rid of Governor Ulises Ruiz once and for all and for real social change. Evaluations and criticisms over the best process in which the APPO should have in terms of function and organization continues to have influence in the year-old movement. The conflict over electoral participation within the APPO has existed for a very long time and created many splits, such as the division in the section 22 teachers union. However it was visible in the APPO congress in November that many people within the movement have no trust in political parties and do not want to enter in the electoral process. There is a side of the APPO that doesn't seek out a political solution through the electoral process and instead puts its energies into forming assemblies and collectives to work towards autonomy in itsown way. Elections, The APPO, and a Guerilla Group made by the Government? The elections for the state legislature have historically caused more violence between disputing parts of the population in Oaxaca than any other elections. This time around the elections are especially tense for two reasons: one is that Governor Ulises Ruiz is more desperate than ever to keep a strong representation in the legislature from his party, the PRI (the Revolutionary Institutional Party) which has ruled in Oaxaca for more than seven decades, because of this year's popular movement to oust him. The other element adding to the tension is the shadowy EPR (Revolutionary Popular Army). It is feared that an electoral fraud will occur and that the PRI will win the elections and that subsequently severe repression will follow. This is how Ulises Ruiz came to power in 2004. Many of the APPO sympathizers don't believe in political parties or the electoral process. Nevertheless the elections this weekend are expected to have a big turn out from the movement in which many will vote for the PRD in order to carry through the "punishment vote" against the PRI to further destabilize Ulises Ruiz's government. There has also been the worry that the EPR will be used by the state as a reason to postpone the elections. The guerilla group's activity has become so heavy in the weeks preceding the elections that many people inside the APPO wonder if the group isn't a convenient, if not obvious, creation of the state government itself to secure a place in the elections and to justify the further militarization of a turbulent Oaxaca, thus later securing the necessary conditions for corporate investments and the smooth operation of Plan Puebla Panama in the state. Eight different explosions occurring over the course of five days heavily damaged the Mexican state- oil Pemex's pipeline and infrastructure in the northern state of Queretaro, far way from Oaxaca, where the EPR is based. In a communiqué released on July 10th the EPR took responsibility, demanding the physical appearance of Edumundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz. The group claims that the two men, disappeared from Oaxaca City on May 25, are EPR militants being held in a clandestine military prison. "This is another intention that the state government has-to scare people so that they wont want to change the conditions of the mano duro (hard hand) of the PRI," said a member of the APPO consejal who wished to remain anonymous. " This is a typical strategy of the repressive state. I think that the EPR is a creation of the government. They tried it before with an armed group that came out in the north of Oaxaca with new watches and clothes and military haircuts, not at all like guerillas. " The communiqués are written at times with language similar to the autonomist movement of Oaxaca. Those who believe that the EPR is a government creation also fear that the EPR is being used to finger anarchists and other autonomist sectors within the movement. "It sounds like the discussion that autonomists could have. They want to insert the idea in people heads that with autonomy comes violence." On August 1 two more smaller explosions occurred in the entrance of a Sears store and in front of a bank in Oaxaca City. At first the government accused the APPO, saying the bombs were not typical of the EPR. The EPR later took credit however. Coincidently, the Sears where one of the bombs was placed is also located very close to the Soriana barricade, one of the barricades protecting the university radio, part of the last set of barricades remaining in Oaxaca defended by the neighborhood, anarchists, and the students, all part of the autonomous sector believed to be heavily targeted by the state. The Real Communist Threat Throughout the APPO Stalinists from the FPR (Popular Revolutionary Front) party have attempted to appropriate many groups and have deployed themselves strategically throughout the diversity of organizations within the APPO. Again and again the FPR has used the tactic of creating crisis in order to open a space to insert their vanguardism, both in the streets and within APPO organizations. The FPR has fanned so much conflict within the teachers section 22 union that the union has nearly fallen apart and has not been able to meet for months. COMO, the Oaxaca's women organization created after the historical takeover of Canal 9 television station on August 1, 2006, has been criticized by many large groups of women who have split off to form their own collectives because of the power that the FPR has sought within COMO. To Not Forget The process of forgetting and the appearance of normalcy is exactly what the government wants, both for corporate investments, tourism, and to fight the movement -- not only in terms of solidarity and attention, but in terms of creating a perilous psychological space for the movement, where it can be difficult at times to identify with one’s own memories of the movement in the streets, and to deal with the collective trauma of the repression. With the apparent "normalcy", from the government to independent media there is a denial of what what continues to be a state-wid rebellion. The protesters have been dispersed, businesses have re-opened, and Oaxaca City has returned to the status of a party enclave for Europeans and Americans. Indeed, the government continues to block the signal of Radio Planton, one of the last remaining Oaxaca radios, and sabotage the Oaxaca Libre independent media page, attempting to do away forever with the voices of the Oaxacan people. But despite finding itself in this challenging place, the rebellion continues and Oaxaca is still not the same place it was before June of last year. The desperate tactics of the government to hold onto control and militarize the state are signs that the power structures are under grave stress and neo-liberal investments in the state of Oaxaca threatened by a movement that can’t be easily done away with. Barucha Calamity Peller is a writer and photographer, high school dropout, and rebel rouser. For years she has worked within and reported on Mexican social movements. She can be reached by email at macheteyamor@gmail.com

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