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Today's
Stories
December 24/25,
2005
Ralph Nader
Talkin'
About the "I"-Word
December 23,
2005
John Ross
The
Corrido of Death Row: Mexico Ends the Death Penalty
Chris Floyd
Gospel
Truth: Bush Hypocrisy, Radical Holiness and Woody Guthrie
Lawrence Mishel
/ Ross Eisenbrey
The
Economy in a Nutshell
Joanne Mariner
Bringing
Torture into Court: the Loopholes in McCain's Bill
Eric Johnson-Debaufre
The Trew Law of Free Democracies?
Ray McGovern
Cheney the Bully; Rockefeller the Coward
J. L. Chestnut,
Jr.
What
White America Doesn't Hear
Website of
the Day
BB King: What I've Learned This Year
December 22,
2005
Ingmar Lee
The
Citizen's Metamorphosis: I Awoke an Object of Suspicion
Elisa Salasin
Classrooms
in Cages
Christopher
Brauchli
Absolut Bush: "I Swear to Upturn and Rear End the Constitution
of the United States"
Robin Blackburn
Rudolf Meidner, a Visionary Pragmatist
Evelyn Pringle
Dan Olmstead, Autism & the Dangers of Thimerosal
Amira Hass
A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey: "I Refused and He Hit Me"
Francis A.
Boyle
Iraq and the Laws of War: US as "Belligerent Occupant"
Stew Albert
The
Spies Who Thought We Were Messy
Website of
the Day
How to Reach a Human Voice
December 21,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
One
Nation, Under Prosecutors: Presumed Guilty
Lila Rajiva
A Short History of Radio Free Iraq
Joshua Frank
Nancy Pelosi's Truth
Dave Zirin
The Bray of Pigs: Bush Nixes Beisbol Cubano
Ramzy Baroud
US Image Problem Rooted in History, Not Media
Sonia Nettnin
Connect the Dots: Decoding Bush's Mumbo Jumbo
Ben Saul
Torture as Calculated Policy
Jonathan Cronin
Anniversary of a Handshake: Cherry-picking History in Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
Election Spells Total Defeat for US
Website of
the Day
Nixon on Presidential Power
December 20,
2005
Jackie Corr
Natural
Gas: a Montana Tragedy
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Nothing
New About NSA Spying on Americans
Michael Donnelly
"Eco Terrorism": Cui Bono?
Gian Paulo
Accardo
Empire of Shame: a Conversation with Jean Ziegler
Pierre Tristam
Trifler, Fibber, Sophist, Spy: How Bush Flouted the Constitution
Norman Solomon
The Foulest Media Performances of the Year
Sen. Robert Byrd
No President is Above the Law
Dave Lindorff
Missing
Black Boxes in WTC Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by
NTSB, Concealed by FBI
Website of the Day
FBI's Spy Files: Got Yours Yet?
December 19,
2005
Mike Marqusee
The
Global War on Civil Liberties
Gary Leupp
Feds Ask Student: "Why are You Reading that Little Red Book?"
Ron Jacobs
The Antiwar Movement, the Democrats and the Delusions of Bushworld
John Blair
Stealing the Golden Shovel: Lessons on Civil Disobedience
Gideon Levy
Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint
Kevin Zeese
The
Global War on Civil Liberties
Missy Comley Beattie
Warnings from a Military Man and Dad
Don Santina
Ride 'Em Brush Cutter: Cowboy Imagery and the American Presidency
Website of the Day
A Call for Justice in Palestine
December 17
/ 18, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Time-Delayed
Journalism: the NYT and the NSA's Illegal Spying Operation
Gabriel Kolko
The
Decline of the American Empire
Susan Alcorn
Texas: Three Days and Two Nights
Werther
The Democrats are an Impotent and Tolerated Opposition Party
Ralph Nader
The Senator Without Guile: Proxmire of Wisconsin
Patrick Cockburn
Counting Ballots and Bodies in Baghdad
Fred Gardner
When Prosecutors Deceive: Did the Feds Frame Bryan Epis?
Dave Lindorff
Spy Scandal Far Larger Than Just NSA
Ned Sublette
Essence is Gasoline
Lee Sustar
The Class War Economy
Jason Leopold
Did Karl Rove Destroy Evidence in Plame Case?
Laura Carlsen
Report from Hong Kong: Deciphering the Language of Globalization
Jeff White
Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace?
Ray McGovern
Torture Between the Lines
Chris Floyd
Pale Fire: the White Death of Fallujah
William Loren Katz
Remembering the First Quagmire at Xmastime: Zachary Taylor vs.
the Seminoles
Rose Miriam
Elizalde
Mashenka and the Bear: a Tale for Our Time
Greg Moses
Pinter's Provocation: Self Love in America
Heather Gray
Privatizing the Social Contract
Alison Weir
My Bethlehem Experience: the Sequel
St Clair /
Walker / Pollack
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Landau, Engel and Albert
Website of
the Day
At Least Homeland Security Believes that Mao Still Matters
December 16,
2005
Tom Kerr
CNN's
Goddess of Vengeance: What's Not to Love About Nancy Grace?
Mark Engler
The
WTO in Hong Kong: Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty?
John Bomar
When Ollie North Came to Hot Springs
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Votes; Now What?
Pierre Tristam
Iraq, Ourselves
William S. Lind
The Fine Art of Withdrawal
Cyril Neville
Why I'm Not Going Back to New Orleans
Robert Jensen
Monkey See, Monkey Do: Reason, Evolution and Intelligent Design
Saul Landau
Bolivian
Democracy and the US: a History Lesson
Website
CounterPunch & Dr. Price Vanquish Anthropologist Spies
December 15,
2005
Oren Ben-Dor
The
Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine
Stan Cox
"Agroterrorists"
Needn't Bother
Joshua Frank
Organic Inconsistencies: Federal Food Politics
Ben Terrall
Waivers for State Terror: Bush and the Indonesian Generals
Patrick Cockburn
Silence Descends on Baghdad
Monica Benderman
What Peace Needs
Walter A. Davis
Fear and Loathing in San Quentin
Vijay Prashad
Our
Torture Problem
Website of
the Day
Hourly Wages After Four Years of "Recovery"
December 14, 2005
Patrick Cockburn
Iran
Poised to Win Iraqi Elections
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lethal
Developments
Lawrence R. Velvel
A Bore Called Bob: On Trying to Read Woodward
Wayne Garcia
The Summer of Sami
John Sugg
Preach Peace, Sami; Get Truthful Prosecutors
Gary Leupp
Bush and the Constitution: "Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper"
Ray McGovern
Torture: a Defining Moment
Alan Maass
They Murdered a Peacemaker
April Hurley, MD
NPR Swallows Bush's Guestimate on Iraqi Dead
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Richard Pryor's Mirror on America
December 13,
2005
Stephen T.
Banko, III
Heroes
Patrick Cockburn
America's
War So Far: 1000 Days of Getting It Wrong
Laura Carlsen
What's at Play at the WTO
Karl Grossman
Nuclear Routlette in the Troposhere: Another NASA Plutonium Launch
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Original Sin
Kevin Zeese
Report from the International Peace Conference in London
Norman Solomon
At the Gates of San Quentin
Michael G.
Smith
Ending the Death Penalty
Stew Albert
California Killers
Bob Dylan
Song for Tookie: George Jackson
Phil Gasper
California Murders Tookie Williams: a Report from San Quentin
Website of
the Day
Boot Hill
December 12,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Defenders of Torture
Lawrence R.
Velvel
George the Disconnected
Jessica Stewart
My Husband is at the Gates of Gitmo
George Bisharat
Busharon: a Fusion of Like Minds
Nate Mezmer
Killing Tookie Williams: If a Black Man Dies in America, Does
It Make a Sound?
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Richard Pryor Wasn't Crazy
Alison Weir
My Bethlehem Experience
Seth Sandronsky
Thank You, Richard Pryor
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq:
the Beginning of the End
Website of
the Day
Wrestling for Peace
December 10 / 11, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
All
the News That's Fit to Buy
Landau / Hassen
The Condemned of Nablus
Ralph Nader
The
Widening Wasteland of American Media
Linn Washington, Jr
The Philly Media and Mumia: When They Don't Bash, They Ignore
Bill Christison
Apathy, US Culpability and Human Rights Day
Mike Ferner
The Courage of Jim Loney
Elizabeth Schulte
Abortion and the Bush Court
Neve Gordon / Yigal Bronner
Murder in Jerusalem
Linda S. Heard
Saddam's Trial: Grandstanding in the Theater of the Absurd
Ingmar Lee
A Kayak Journey to Vancouver Island's Wildest Forest
Ray McGovern
Lies, Torture and the Six Blind Mice
John Chuckman
Torture and White Phosphorous: the Moral Hell of Condi Rice
John Ryan
An Honorary Degree in Child Sacrifice?: Madeleine Albright and
US Foreign Policy
Dick J. Reavis
From Waco to Baghdad
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Hired Pens
Behzad Yaghmaian
Trapped at the Gates of the European Union
Aseem Shrivastava
The Winter in Delhi, 1984
John Ross
Bushlandia in Black and White
Ben Tripp
War, What is It Good For?
St. Clair / Pollack / Vest
/ Despair
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Hassen, Bear Dog, Ford, Mickey Z, Albert & Engel
Website of the Week
Burn a Brick for Bush
December 9,
2005
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Roots
of Gitmo Torture Lie Close to Home
Dave Zirin
/ Mike Stark
On
Seeing Wesley Baker Die
Patrick Cockburn
Blair
Tries to Cover Up $1.3 Billion Iraqi Theft
Alexander Cockburn
Murtha Returns to Attack; Flays Bush
Lila Rajiva
Shooting the Mentally Ill
Gary Leupp
White House Liars on the Defensive
Jason Leopold
Rove Running Out of Answers, Time
Bruce K. Gagnon
So These Are the Democrats?
Andrew Cockburn
Meet
Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper
Website of the Day
"X-mas Time for Visa"
December 8,
2005
Kathy Kelly
Blessed
are the Merciful in Baghdad
James Petras
The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again)
William S.
Lind
Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory
Laura Carlsen
The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico
Justin Akers
Bush's Border War
Thomas Graham, Jr
A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space?
Norman Solomon
Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam
Tariq Ali /
Robin Blackburn
The
Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
Pigs at the Trough of War
December 7,
2005
John Ryan
Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate
Gary Leupp
Suicide
Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq
Fran Quigley
How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas
Jeremy Brecher
/ Brendan Smith
Bush
War Crimes: the Posse Gathers
Joshua Frank
Bird Dogging Hillary
William W.
Morgan
Rendition, Torture and Democracy
Dave Lindorff
A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage"
Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture
Website of
the Day
Witnesses to Torture
December 6,
2005
Ron Jacobs
No
One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel
Patrick Cockburn
Inside
Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder
Yifat Susskind
Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's
AIDS Policy
Mike Whitney
How Greenspan Skewered America
Pat Williams
Public Land Should Stay Public
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
to Europe: Trust Us
Website of
the Day
Debunking Woodward
December 5,
2005
John Walsh
The
Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did
They Know It?
Brian Cloughley
The Poor Dead: the Relative
Value of Human Lives
Mokhiber /
Weissman
The Corporate Crime Quiz
Robert Jensen
How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment
Norman Solomon
Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan
Peter Rost, MD
An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated
Federal Laws When They Fired Me
Lila Rajiva
The
Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons
Website of the Day
National Day of Counter-Recruitment
December 3 / 4, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
The
Revolt of the Generals
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Iraq,
Brains and Lies
Rev. William Alberts
The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod
Saul Landau
Latino
Troops Have Parents
Ralph Nader
Consumerama
Paul Craig
Roberts
Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
Mike Whitney
Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America
Allan Lichtman
The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government
Dave Lindorff
A Sudden Rush for the Exits?
Brian Concannon,
Jr.
Haiti's Elections
Fred Gardner
Oregon NORML Honors Growers
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
On Freeing the CPT
Carol Wolman
Remembering the 60s
St. Clair /
Vest / Walker / Pollack
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Free the CPT
December 2,
2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad
Mike Ferner
Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings
Over Baghdad?
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Questions
for the President
Manuel Talens
The Chávez Theorem
Peter Phillips
Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Alabama's
Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy
Website of
the Day
Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!
December 1,
2005
John Walsh,
MD
The
God Gaps
Ron Jacobs
Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq?
Jenna Orkin
EPA's
Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero
Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
Rank and File Resistance to Delphi
Missy Comley Beattie
Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play
Eli Stephens
The Reed and Kerry Show
Elaine Cassel
A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla
Website of
the Day
Rare Erotica
November 30,
2005
Allen / D'Amato
Incident
at Oglala 30 Years Later: the Long Struggle of Leonard Peltier
Mike Whitney
The Cheerleader at Annapolis
Kevin Zeese
The Hallucinations of Joe Lieberman
Norman Solomon
Colin Powell: Still Craven After All These Years
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon's New Party
Dave Lindorff
What Happened to All Those Bush/Cheney Bumperstickers?
Stephen Soldz
Mental
Health Workers in Iraq
November 29,
2005
Phil Gasper
Live
from Death Row: an Interview with Tookie Williams
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Ghost of Sangatte
Joshua Frank
Jack Abramoff's Bi-partisan Sleaze
Walter A. Davis
Life on Death Row: a Monologue
Gary Leupp
Bush the Dupe?
Len Colodny
Woodwardgate: Still Protecting the Rightwing
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Duke and the Enterprise: Randy Cunningham's Crash Landing
Bill Quigley
Human Rights Leaders Call for Release of Haiti's Political Prisoners
Website of
the Day
Watch Chomsky vs. Dershowitz Live, Tonight at 7PM, EST!
November 28,
2005
Chris Reed
The
"Bomb Al Jazeera" Documents Trial
David Isenberg
Cooked
Intelligence: the Dog that Didn't Bark
Ron Jacobs
Contraindications: a Review of Blood on the Border
Norman Solomon
The
Woodward Scandal Must Not Blow Over
Justin E.H. Smith
Schwarzenegger's Curious Power
Mickey Z.
Abbie Hoffman at 70: Steal This City
Mike Whitney
The Pentagon's Domestic Spying Operation
David Swanson
Is Impeachment an Election Issue?
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Grave Threat of the Bush Administration
Website of
the Day
"Don't Bomb Us!": a Blog by Al Jazeera Staffers
November 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
How
the Democrats Undercut John Murtha
Saul Landau
Who We Are: Torture and the Empire
Ralph Nader
Junk Television: Excluding Voices That Save Lives
Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?
John Ross
When a Language Dies
Gary Leupp
The Nepal Pact
Fred Gardner
Dr. Denney Goes to Arkansas
Christopher Brauchli
Compassion for Corporations: Northrup Grumman and Katrina's Victims
Dave Lindorff
US War Crimes List Keeps Growing
P. Sainath
See, Neoliberalism Really Works: Net Worth of India's Billionaires
Soars!
Timothy J.
Freeman
The Price of Freedom
Lila Rajiva
Of Mice, Men and GM Peas
Eric Ruder
Beat the Needle: Saving Tookie Williams
Seth Sandronsky
Working Toward Whiteness: an Interview with David Roediger
Joaquin Bustelo
What Really Happened at Mar del Plata
Lewis Alper
Is the President's Soul in Jeopardy?: an Evangelical Christian
Looks at Bush's Skull and Bones Initiation
Will Youmans
In Search of Paradise
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones' Rough Justice in Bush Time
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Barbara LaMorticella
Poetry and the City of Ideas
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Buknatski, Engel, Albert and Davies
Website of the Weekend
NLR: The Chequered Rainbow
November 25,
2005
David Price
How
US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons
Against the Japanese
Brian McKenna
Will
Bush Miss the Next Bhopal?
Jeff Halper
Peretz or Bust?
Ray McGovern
Will
the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal?
Leigh Saavedra
Thanksgiving at Camp Casey
Ingmar Lee
How Have the Mighty Fallen?
Website of the Day
Saving Cathedral Grove
November 24,
2005
James Petras
How
to Think About War and Peace
Bob Shirley
Thanksgiving
Torture: What the Puritans Fled
Mike Fox
Torture
Survivors Speak for Themselves
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Adrift?
Perhaps. A Draft? Never!
Greg Moses
Thanksgiving Delayed: TX High Court Blesses Inequality
Alexander Cockburn
Turkeys
in the Larger Scheme of Things
November 23,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
The
Great Gaza Border Deal: What Does It Mean?
Mike Whitney
Bush, Padilla and Thomas More
Stan Cox
Red, White and Blue Dawn: What a Bad Hollywood Film Can Teach
Americans About Life Under Occupation
Linda S. Heard
Targeting Al Jazeera
November 22,
2005
Kevin Gray
/ Mike Hersh
Maxine
Waters, the Real Leader of the Anti-War Caucus
Ralph Nader
What Do Dems Stand For?
Michael Donnelly
The "Vetting" of Bernard Kerik
Mike Ferner
The CIA's "Torture Taxi" in the Spotlight
Pierre Tristam
The Justice Deficit
Marshall Auerback
Bush's "Compassionate Conservativism": Neither Compassionate
Nor Conservative
Website of
the Day
I Don't Like Geldof
November 21,
2005
Mike Marqusee
Clinton's
Hypocrisies on Iraq
Josh Frank
Democratic Hawks: the Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement
Mike Whitney
Hugo Chavez vs. the King of Vacations
Norman Solomon
Getting Out of Iraq
Russ Baker
Woodward's Weakness
Robert Jensen
A National Day of Atonement
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lies
and Official Secrets
November 19
/ 20, 2005
Fred Gardner
The
Raid on MendoHealing
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The House GOP Has Done a Heinous Thing: Stop Playing Politics;
Get the Troops Out Now
Ron Jacobs
A Pathetic Congress: If It Walks and Talks Like a Withdrawal
Resolution, Why Won't You Vote For It?
David Vest
The Politics of Surrender: It's as American as Robert E. Lee
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement
John R. Bomar
Staying the Course on "Freedom's Frontier": a Vietnam
Vet on Iraq
John Ross
The
Dragon Flies High, But Not Over Mexico
Phillip Cryan
Colombia: "Political Kidnapping" and Murder in Cauca
Dave Lindorff
RIP In These Times
Dick J. Reavis
The Future of the Daily Press
Jeremy Scahill
Vegetarian Between Meals: This War Can't Be Stopped by a Loyal
Opposition
Dan Wright
Cleaning Up Alaska's Scan Bay
John Stanton
Scowcroft Talks Turkey; Edmounds Fights Fascism
St. Clair / Vest / Walker
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones: Rarities
Dr. Susan Block
Our Night of Weimar Love
Poets Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford, Harley and Louise
November 18,
2005
Michael Neumann
The
Palestinians and the Party Line
Dave Lindorff
Murtha and the L Word
Michael Donnelly
Black November 15
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Uncrucify Them
Don Monkerud
A Decent Workplace
Tom Kerr
Grant Clemency to Tookie Williams
Trish Schuh
Faking
the Case Against Syria
November 17,
2005
John Walsh
A
Fractured Anti-War Movement
Rep. John Murtha
Iraq Must Be Freed from the US
Occupation
Brian J. Foley
We Are All In GITMO Now
CounterPunch
News Service
Guardian
Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes'
Slurs
Dave Lindorff
In Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians
Mark T. Harris
Coming Out in an Up-and-Coming Sport
Cockburn /
St. Clair
From
Reporter to Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward
November 16,
2005
John F. Sugg
Al-Arian
Speaks: In His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian
Talks About What the Jury Didn't Hear
Noam Chomsky
Putting Out the Englightenment
Dave Lindorff
Shake
and Bake: Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah
Evelyn Pringle
Laurie Mylroie's War
Sam Husseini
Trying to Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye
Pierre Tristam
Toturers' Theater
Greg Bates
Waffling Alito Charms DiFi
Farrah Hassen
Moustapha
AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast
Bill Christison
Evidence
Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars
Website of
the Day
Violent Oscillations
November 15,
2005
Todd Chretien
My
Evening in the No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco
Leah Caldwell
Death
of the Jailhouse Press
Frederick Hudson
Rosa's Wreath: Miss Parks and Robert Williams
Harry Browne
Bush-Linked Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares
Case
Jason Leopold
Secret CIA Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat
Ingmar Lee
Logging Lackies vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species
Diana Barahona
Showdown on the Silver Coast
Tom Andre
New Orleans, Two Months Later
Website of the Weekend
Ernest Crichlow: 1914-2005
November 14,
2005
Diana Johnstone
The
Origins of the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky
Paul Craig Roberts
Power Over All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus
Conn Hallinan
Provoking
Syria: Cambodia All Over Again?
Joshua Frank
Off She Goes: Hillary in Israel
Christopher
Reed
The
Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan
November 11
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
First
the Lying, Then the Pardons
Gwyneth Leech
Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ
in the Wake of Abu Ghraib
Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System
Michael Neumann
The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation
Saul Landau
Leakgate: the Screenplay
Sam Husseini
Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them
Brian Cloughley
Sleaze, Deceit and Torture
Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?
Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson
Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy Watch
Joe Allen
Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?
Roland Sheppard
Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Justin E.H.
Smith
Another Monkey Trial?
Ben Tripp
The Cost of War
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!
November 10,
2005
Peterside,
Ogon, Watts and Zalik
Delta
Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone
Pat Williams
Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate?
Steve Higgs
Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging
Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth?
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity Takes Over
Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the Crosshairs
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Why Did Libby Lie?
Website of the Day
Imperial Margarine
November 9,
2005
Gary Leupp
The
Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology
Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated on Terror Laws
Chris Floyd
The
Philosopher's Stone
Elaine Cassel
The
Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu
Ali
Joshua Frank
Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day
Alison Weir
Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You
Give Israel a Pass?
Diana Johnstone
Rage
in the Banlieue
November 8, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Still
No Jobs
Roger Burbach
Bush
v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat
Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising
Ralph Nader
"The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet"
Jim McGrath
Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day
David Bloom
McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight
Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism
|
Weekend
Edition
December 24/25, 2005
What We're Listening to
This Week
CounterPunch Playlist
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR,
DAVID VEST, PHYLLIS POLLACK & MICHAEL DONNELLY
Jeffrey
St. Clair
1. Smokey Robinson: The
Solo Anthology (Motown)
A collection of 36 immaculately
sung soul songs from the 70s and 80s, written and performed by
the man Dylan called our greatest living poet, all of them recorded
after Smokey left the Miracles, including some deliciously
weird duets, such as Ebony Eyes with Rick James. Dylan and Smokey
are about the same age. Dylan's voice now sounds like a bush
hog gnawing into a granite outcrop, while Smokey's, on the basis
of a hypnotic performance at JazzFest in 2004, is as smooth as
ever. When he sang "Cruisin'" (included here) women
and men swooned in the muddy quagmire of the infield.
2. Memphis Slim -- All
Kinds of Blues (OBC)
The most urbane of 50s blues
singers. Slim fled American racism and thieving music execs to
France, where he was rightly embraced as a musical genius. You
think Snoop Dogg is bawdy? Check out Slim's "Grinder Man
Blues"--just don't tell Tipper.
3. Bo Diddley -- Bo
Diddley is a Gunslinger (Chess)
Bo goes way out west (at least
as far as Chicago) for a comic rock masterpiece, ruthlessly cutting
Elvis, Chuck Berry and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans along the trail.
"Ride on Josephine" is packed with more double entendres
than any other song about masturbation I can remember, especially
for one written in 1958. All the songs here are Bo Diddley originals,
except for his brawny cover of Tennessee Ernie Ford's work song,
"Sixteen Tons", which Bo was slated to perform during
his debut performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. At the last minute,
Bo shifted gears and, in an early act of self-branding, performed
"Bo Diddley" instead, enraging the prickly Sullivan
who never invited him back. In many ways, this sums up the pitfalls
and brillance of Bo Diddley's career. He was the first post-modern
rocker. And the best.
4. Alan Toussaint--The
Wild Sound of New Orleans: the Complete Tousan Recordings
(Bear Family)
Early New Orleans rock and
roll from the epitome of cool.
5. Clifford Jordan and John
Gilmore--Blowing
in From Chicago (Blue Note)
Exhibit A in my brief that
Chicago contributed as much to the evolution of jazz as it did
for the blues.
6. Clarence Carter--Snatching
It Back (Atlantic)
The soundtrack to the film
the Wonder Boys reintroduced Clarence Carter to America. In the
early days of the blues, Carter would have been called a songster,
because, like Ray Charles, the blind singer could excel in any
musical genre, from soul to rock, gospel to country, as he proves
on his biting cover of the weepy country standard "Patches."
Carter's best songs, though, are deeply grooved Southern soul
with a dangerous sexual undercurrent, such as "Slip Away",
"Making Love on the Dark End of the Street" and the
immortal "I'd Rather Go Blind." Carter's "Backdoor
Santa" is one of those Christmas songs that you'll have
to search for on satellite radio or right here on this collection.
7. James Carr--The
Complete Goldwax Singles (Kent)
With the right producer and
a little bit better material to work from, Southern soul singer
James Carr could have risen to the heights of Otis Redding or
Al Green. He certainly had the chops, just listen to "Pouring
Water on a Drowning Man" or "You've Got My Mind Messed
Up."
8. Cannonball Adderley Sextet--Them
Dirty Blues (Capitol)
Soul jazz begins here and never
really eclisped it. George Clinton, Stevie Wonder and James Brown
all soaked in the groves laid down on the Bobby Timmons-penned
"Dat Dere".
9. Kelly Willis--Easy
(Rykodisc)
Nothing profound here. Just
a sweet voice singing catchy, neo-country songs with a Texas
seasoning. You're holding out for something more? It may sound
easy, but that don't mean it is.
10. Chris Connor--A
Jazz Date with Chris Connor / Chris Craft (Atlantic)
I've never been that taken
with jazz singers as a group. If I'm ever locked up in Gitmo,
my torturers would only have to pipe into my cell Diane Krall
or Al Jarreau and I would rat out anyone they wanted. Chris Connor
is different though. For me, she's up there with Ella, Sarah,
Nina and Billie--and not just because she is a fellow Midwesterner
(Missouri) who looked like Jean Harlow. Connor never received
the acclaim that went to June Christy or Anita O'Day, perhaps
because she bolted the Stan Kenton stable after less than a year
as its lead singer and struck out on her own course. But there's
a haunting quality to Connor's voice, especially on songs such
as "Lonely Street", that few white singers have come
close to matching. If I was ever to make a film noir, her songs
would dominate the soundtrack.
By the time Jeffrey St.
Clair was 18, he'd been 86'd from more bands than Dickey
Betts. Complaints can be registered to: sitka@comcast.net.
David
Vest
These are in honor of my grandmother,
Maud Story Vest, one of this world's good gardeners, who solved
the problem her Christian neighbors had with people writing "Merry
X-Mas" by suggesting that they write "Merry Christ-X"
instead.
1. Mark Rubin and Friends,
Hill Country Hannuka,
Rubinchik Recordings.
The stalwart anchor of the
Bad Livers and his celebrated Rubinchik's Yiddish Ensemble, who
used to have the best band tee-shirt I have ever seen. I love
"Vu Bist Du Geveyzen Fur Prohibish?" and the swinging
"Maoz Tsur."
2. Radical Son, Radical
Son EP, ABC
I heard a cut from this new
Australian CD on Drew Dundon's great Sunday
brunch show on KMTT, while driving to Canada.
3. Leontyne Price, Christmas
Songs, Decca.
The only Christmas album I've
ever needed. I'm writing about it tonight because it's packed
away in storage in a distant city, and I can't get at it now.
4. Johnny Cash, The
Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983, Sony.
I'm listing this one because
it's got Cash's take of John D. Loudermilk's
"Bad News" on it. Rumor used to have it that Cash recorded
the song lying flat on his back at Columbia Studios in Nashville.
"They tried to hang me inOakland, and they did in Francisco.
But I wouldn't choke and I broke the rope, and they had to let
me go." Wish I could find Loudermilk's version.
5. Paul Craft, "Lean
On Jesus (Before He Leans On You)," 45 RPM single on
RCA.
I heard this on a Chattanooga
station late one night in 1977. The station faded out before
I heard the artist's name or the title. I thought it might be
Lester Flatt. A bunch of winos lie around on the sidewalk outside
the mission. If they go inside, they'll be fed, but they'll also
be preached at. One of them pulls out a bottle and starts singing,
"Lean, lean on him. Better lean on him, before he leans
on you." In 1999 I found a copy, and you can't have it.
6 -10. the Beatles Fan Club
Christmas
Records, 1963-1969, bootleg.
The original podcasters doing
Beatle radio theater, with hysterical sendups and impersonations.
1965 features a bit of George doing Don Ho doing Paul doing "Yesterday."
I'm not sure where you can find these recordings anymore. You
might start here: http://www.scifihifi.com/beatles/.
David Vest's newest CD is Serves
Me Right to Shuffle.
Phyllis
Pollack
1. Phil Spector: A
Christmas Gift For You--Abkco Records
With this album, Christmas
is surrounded by a wall of sound, featuring the Ronettes, Darlene
Love, The Crystals, Bobby Soxx and the Blue Jeans. Born on Christmas
Day in 1940, producer Phil Spector's first hit was "To Know
Him Is To Love Him," inspired by the eulogy on the tombstone
of his late father, who had committed suicide. The set of Christmas
carols ends with a personal holiday message from Spector.
2. Steve Roach and Roger
King--Dust
To Dust--Projekt Records
Steve Roach is among a breed
of innovative, iconoclast and unrestrained experimental musicians
who create untrodden depths within exquisitely constructed musical
horizons. Among Roach's collaborations, he has recorded with
Tibetan monk Thupten Pema Lama, intertwining solo chants and
ambient music. The disc he produced for the African group Takadja
received a Juno Award, Canada's equivalent of the States' Grammys.
His music has been used in the soundtracks of numerous feature
films. This CD's standout track, "Gone West," is what
the Roach and King describe as "the soundtrack to lingering
ghosts, to the lost and no-so-forgotten dreams of restless souls
who were driven to "Go West, by God." On Dust To
Dust, the white lines on this musical highway are punctuated
by Roach's harmonicas, electronic instruments and processing,
bass, and alcohol bottles. King, riding shotgun, paves the road
with guitar, bass, washboard, percussion and an occasional vocal.
"Gone West" is the beckoning road trip you went on
that ended too soon, the souvenir you picked up that always makes
you long to return. Dust To Dust is incandescent and alluring,
as trance becomes transfixing, with its multi-layered cactus
and granite-filled layers of sound. The track, "A Bigger
Sky," is a tricked out, brooding work that becomes a sonic
seduction. With haunting and beautiful tracks like "Ghost
Train," it is no wonder that the dearly departed would venture
to come back for just one more listen. These two musicians from
Tuscon, Arizona have recorded a transcendent musical masterpiece,
an alluring, provocative soundtrack to the story of how the West
was won.
3. Wes Montgomery-So
Much Guitar (Riverside Records)
Recorded in New York City in
1961, the late jazz guitar legend is joined by bassist Ron Carter
and Hank Jones on piano. After Montgomery's death at the age
of 43 of a heart attack, his legacy defined him as of one of
the most substantial guitarists of all time, and his playing
set a standard in jazz proficiency. In the album's bewitching
track, "I Wish I Knew," Montgomery says more on guitar
than most songwriters manage to in four verses and three choruses.
Montgomery's unschooled style alternates lines of melodic single
notes, built from a myriad of musical scales, interspersed with
jazz chords. During his short life, he performed with jazz greats
including Lionel Hampton, the Montgomery Brothers, and John Coltrane.
Literally, as a rule of thumb, Montgomery never used a guitar
pick, as he preferred a softer, smoother tone that had a less
staccato sound and feel.
4. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony--E.
1999 Eternal (Ruthless Records)
Discovered by N.W.A.'s late
Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, the thuggish, ruggish, Cleveland,
Ohio based rap group's unique vocal style influenced rappers
both near and far. In addition to the Bone albums, the group's
members have also released a slew of successful solo albums.
Bone Thugs is comprised of Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone, Wish Bone,
Bizzy Bone and Flesh-N-Bone. Unfortunately, Flesh (Stantley Howse)
has been behind bars since 2000, given an eleven year prison
stint for weapons possession and assault. Despite the many and
seemingly endless interpersonal conflicts between the group's
members, not to mention the continuous, real life soap operas
dramas that have ensued as a result, it is still their music
that will always make them remembered in hiphop, rather than
the dramatics. Their expressive, highly melodic, machine gun,
lyric lines, often delivered faster than the speed of sound,
set them apart. The highlight of this album is "Tha Crossroads,"
DJ U-Neek's Mo Thug Remix, an emotional look at loss and death,
which won them a Grammy Award in 1997. Because of Bone, we can
be assured that Thug World Order is creepin' on a come up.
5. 2Pac: Greatest
Hits (Death Row Records)
The late rap icon, who asked,
"How Long Will They Mourn Me," still receives an unlimited
amount of "California Love." This new year, 2006, will
mark a decade since his death.
6. Godsmack: Awake
(Universal)
Arguably, the disc's Grammy-nominated
instrumental track, "Vampires," may not even be the
best work on Awake. This, their second album, was followed
by two more releases, respectively, "Faceless" and
"The Other Side." Blessed with a slot on an Ozzfest
tour early in the late nineties, the band was introduced to millions
of fans that wanted it eternally hard and heavy.
7. Warren Zevon: Genius:
The Best Of (Rhino Records)
The brilliant late singer/songwriter,
who lost his battle with cancer in 2003, left behind a myriad
of songs written with indelible ink, which were often deep portraits
that had a sense of humor, and focused on the darker sides of
life. No one else has ever written about what it's like to live
and die in El Lay like Warren Zevon.
8. Bunny Wailer: Dance
Massive (Shanachie Records)
What the Beatles were to rock,
the Wailers would become to reggae. With Wailers members Bob
Marley and Peter Tosh having met their fates, Bunny Wailer, born
Neville Livingston, is left as the sole survivor.
9. Corrosion Of Conformity:
America's
Volume Dealer (Sanctuary Records)
After starting out as a thrash
metal group during the early Eighties, changes in their line-up
and musical focus points resulted in a more eclectic mix. On
this album, from the Southern rockish "Stare Too Long"
to the jarring rocker "Diablo Blvd," either way they
come, they're "amplified on fire, strapped to take you higher."
10. Keith Richards: "Run
Rudolph Run" B/W "The Harder They Come" (Rolling
Stones Records)
I don't know if this is even
available on CD yet. The Rolling Stones guitarist's cover of
the Chuck Berry Christmas carol classic gets played at my house
every year, even though the recording here is on a 45 RPM disc.
Berry, who will be eighty years old next year, forever changed
the face of rock and roll with his distinct brand of guitar licks,
and lyrically complex story telling, which exponentially influenced
more rockers than have managed to tell the tale. After signing
to Chess Records in 1955, Berry released a string of hits that
have been covered by artists ranging from the Rolling Stones
to John Lennon. That's it for this week. Johnny B. Goode, y'all,
because Santa's coming.
Phyllis Pollack lives in Los Angeles where she is
a publicist and music journalist. She can be reached through
her blog.
Michael
Donnelly
"I hate these hippies.
They're the most conservative people I know. They wear their
hair the same way they did 25 years ago; they wear the same clothes;
and they listen to the same damn music." --Mike Roselle
Guilty as charged. Though the
hair is gone these days; gimme blue jeans, T-shirts and that
old time rock and roll; cuz I like it.
1. Jackson Browne: The
Very Best of Jackson Browne
My list of top singer-songwriters
goes from Bob Dylan to Joni Mitchell to Jackson. This is the
definitive collection of Browne at his best. A two CD set with
songs in chronological order. Disc one has the confessional ballads
and anthems he's most noted for and disc two, by and large, is
from his more commercially successful works. It's worth it alone
for Dave Marsh's wonderful liner notes. Marsh really gives Browne
his due.
2. Warren Zevon: Genius:
The Best Of
Right up there is Browne's
buddy Zevon. While his final CD The Wind, put out just
as he died with performances from a lot of his friends was pretty,
dare I say, lifeless; one only needs to hear this compilation
to realize he deserves the title. I always get a kick out of
Linda Rondstadt's background oohs and ahhs on the deranged
Excitable Boy. Splendid Isolation could be the anthem
for our faltering Imperial times.
3. Led Zeppelin--Led
Zeppelin I
Though their next seven albums
reached Number One in both England and the US, I still like their
first, less fancifully produced effort best. It hit like the
exploding dirigible on the cover in early 1969 and rewrote blues
rock history leading to the Heavy Metal and Celtic Folk revolutions.
I can't believe, however, that they thought they could get away
with plagiarizing classic blues lyrics and riffs and claiming
them their own, regardless of how they altered the originals.
They have to hold the record for legal settlements based on the
lifts.
4. Bright Eyes: I'm
Wide Awake: It's Morning
I'm not totally stuck in the
past. Conor Oberst's band does quite well on the folk and country
stuff here. Great pedal steel guitar on a couple songs. But,
even with Emmylou Harris involved, most of the songs still seem
like requiems. This is not upbeat, sunny music. Rather dark eyed,
at that.
5. Bob Dylan: Dylan
Live 1975
Great live Dylan. Number 5
of the "Bootleg" series. A lot of his best songs; redone
in various styles. And, what a band: Joan Baez, T-Bone Burnett,
Roger McGuinn, Ronee BlakelyI like some of these songs better
than the originals: One More Cup of Coffee and It takes
a Lot to Laugh; It Take a Train to Cry stand out.
6. John Trudell and Bad
Dog: Bone
Days
An eventful year for JT. He
was just inducted as the 14th member of the CounterCulture Hall
of Fame (yep, such exists) in Amsterdam. And, the movie Trudell
is completed and John is traveling around for local premieres.
He'll be here in the NW late next month. I've seen the movie
(bandmate Quiltman Sahme is one of my best buddies and he had
a pre-release DVD) and it's terrific. So is this CD. Having been
introduced to JT's work as a child by her mom, Angelina Jolie
produced this one for John and Bad Dog. It's his best since the
two AKA Graffiti Man CDs (the great original and the commercial
version produced by John's friend Jackson Browne.)
7. Rolling Stones: A
Bigger Bang
Hey, Roselle. Who says I don't
listen to any new music? This effort by Mick and the Fellas is
their best in, let's say, decades. At first I wasn't too sure.
But, the more I listen, the more I have to say the boys still
have it. They can lay it down. Of the sixteen tracks here, I
find just three to be "filler." The rest are damned
good. And, far and away, Mick has written the most political
songs of his long career with Dangerous Beauty about the
Abu Ghraib torture and My Sweet Neo-con, an in-your-face
slam at the junta's Imperial follies. It should win the Grammy.
I look forward to catching the last stop of the tour in Vegas
next March.
8. Quicksilver Messenger
Service: Happy
Trails
Not much singing or songwriting
here. Just a kick-ass jam with John Cipollina proving he is at
the top of the Summer of Love Bay Area guitar gods. Of
course, one must indulge in a couple hits (of fresh air?) to
sit through the 25 minute jam on the Bo Diddley classic Who
do You Love. Cipollina's licks never end and the long jam
Mona on side two just keeps them coming. It's the Energizer
Bunny of jam sessions. But, then again I like such stuff and
have to be one of the few who always enjoys the entire third
record jam on George Harrison's All things Must Pass.
9. George Harrison and friends:
All
Things Must Pass
Speaking of: wow! George unleashed.
I have two copies of this CD set. The cover of If Not for
You and the incomparable (except in copyright court) My
Sweet Lord and What is Life? make this unabashed celebration
of life and the spiritual nature of it the best thing to come
out of the Beatles' break-up. Isn't it a Pity? Not really.
Michael Donnelly lives in Salem, Oregon and can be
reached at: pahtoo@aol.com.
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