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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter "THE USE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE IS AUTHORIZED" America's secret war plans: "The military purpose is to overthrow the present existing Federal Government of Mexico." Floyd Rudmin uncovers the sick dreams of America's generals. Alito says, Constitution okays Bush to set up prison camps here and torture US citizens. Dems praise his "even demeanor" and shirk the filibuster. Cockburn and St Clair on the Alito hearings and the Democrats' collapse. ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year In Memoriam: STEW ALBERT

Today's Stories January 30, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Bush, Fox News and the Coming War on Iran Winslow Wheeler Inside the Pork Shop: the Defense Budget and Congressional Earmarks Marcus Dam "The Real Threat is from Imperial Fundamentalism": an Interview with Tariq Ali John Bomar Message to Democrats: the Case Against Pre-War Lying is a Slam Dunk, Stupid Ben Beachy Swindling the Sick: the IMF Debt Relief Sham Gideon Levy The Good News About Hamas' Victory Michael Carmichael Alito and Opus Dei Missy Comley Beattie Of Losses and Lies Norman Solomon The Question Journalists Refuse to Ask Bush Brian Concannon, Jr. Finally Some Good News From Haiti Michael Ratner Tomorrow is Today; the Time for Resistance is Now Website of the Day "I'm So Bored with Capitol Hill"   January 28 / 29, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Nicholas Kristof's Brothel Problem Ralph Nader The Impeachable Mr. Bush Col. Dan Smith Spying and Lying by the Pentagon Paul Craig Roberts Blind Ignorance: Polls Show Many Americans Simply Dumber Than Bush Tammara Rosenleaf Homefront War Diary: On Monday, My Husband Didn't Call Ron Jacobs Google This! Harry Browne Irish "Peace" Process at Recriminations Stage Fred Gardner Grover Norquist, Drug Policy Reformer? Christopher Reed North Korean Forgeries Bernard Chazelle France's Colonial Blowback Daniel Wolff Radioactive Money, 2005: How Entergy Gets Its Way at Indian Point Tom Kerr Small Fry: If You're Not in Power, You'd Better Not Lie Asad Abu Khalil The Demise of Fatah Chris Murphy The Medicare Disaster Dr. Susan Block America Wants a Divorce Kathy Deacon Hippocratic Oaf St. Clair / Walker / Palmer / Shields Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Laymon, Engel, Holt, Davies and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Your Child Can Be a NSA Spook! January 27, 2006 Suren Pillay Making the World Safe for Nuclear Violence, Again Lawrence R. Velvel The NYT and Alito: Journalistic Schizophrenia J.L. Chestnut, Jr The Cold Hard Truth: Marching Backwards on Civil Rights Uri Avnery To Talk with Hamas Gary Leupp Hamas's Victory: "the Power of Democracy" Samar Assad A New Political Landscape in Palestine Jeffrey St. Clair King of the Hill: Sen. Ted Steven's Empire of Corruption Website of the Day Bush Jobs Program: You Too Can Be an FBI Snitch   January 26, 2006 Robert Robideau An AIM Activist's View of Jack Abramoff: Another Racist Out to Defraud Native Tribes Paul Craig Roberts Bolton Orders Syria to Do the Impossible Gilad Atzmon Hamas' Victory Jason Leopold A Vaster Conspiracy?: Fitzgerald Probes Niger Forgeries Joshua Frank Iran, Nukes and Oil Dave Lindorff Bush Calls Hamas Kettle Black Susan Lee An Open Letter to the State Dept. on the Cuban Five Missy Comley Beattie A Plea to the Marines: Stop Sending Recruiting Letters to Our House! Michael Carmichael Extraordinary Alito Michael Neumann The Core of Zionism Website of the Day Who Will Stop the Slaughter of Yellowstone's Bison?   January 25, 2006 Saul Landau Domestic Spying, Now and Then: When Hoover Bugged Phone Calls with My Father James Petras Is Chile's Bachelet Washington's Best New Ally? Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and Roberts' Self-Gag Rule is a Phony Vijay Prashad From Chennai with Love Kevin Zeese Gen. William Odom Supports the Empire, But Opposes the War Alison Weir When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Anatomy of a Cover-Up Bruce K. Gagnon Bush War Economy: Exporting Jobs and Security Joan Roelofs Military Contractor Philanthropy Website of the Day Bob Marley Does Dylan   January 24, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts The Patriot Police: the Unfathomed Dangers of Patriot Act Reauthorization Kathy Kelly Liberation and Deliverance Jorge Mariscal Bush's War Viewed from the South Winslow T. Wheeler Smoke and Mirrors in the Defense Budget John Walsh Why We Picket John Kerry: Join Us Friday in Boston Youmans / Muaddi The Growing Israel Divestment Movement Roger Burbach Bolivia's Evo Morales: Original Mandate for Social Revolution Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste Letter from a Haitian Prison Noam Chomsky The Terrorist in the Mirror Website of the Day Big Brother Watch January 23, 2006 Uri Avnery Pity the Orphan: Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Elections Susan Pynchon Diebold in Florida: "I Saw It Hacked" William Loren Katz Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition Christopher Brauchli Bush's IRS: Squeezing the Poor Chris Floyd The Goon Show Joshua Frank Tre Arrow and ELF: Environmentalism on Death Row Norman Solomon The Other Shoe Drops: Classified Leaks and Journalists Jackie Corr Working for the Railroad: Racicot and the Burlington Northern Paul Craig Roberts Inside Cheney's War Workshop Website of the Day Arms Against War   January 21/22, 2006 Tim Shorrock Why the Buses Didn't Come: Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina Evacuation Fiasco Ralph Nader Congressional Ethics After Abramoff Peter Feng Casualties of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami Brian Cloughley CIA Bombs Pakistan, Hits America Michael Donnelly Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments Tom Kerr Crackdown in San Quentin: Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams' Friends? Tim Matson Best Not Drive While Black on I-91 (But Walk Tall With the Bloody Chainsaw You Just Topped Your Neighbor With) Dave Lindorff Rumsfeld: Venezuela "Overspending" on Military Daniel Wolff Hour of Reckoning: the Gospel Roots of Wilson Pickett Fred Gardner "Metabolic Syndrome" is to "Clinical Depression" as Acomplia is Prozac Jason Leopold How Cheney Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Prior to 9/11 Matthew Koehler Betting on Biscuit: Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological (or Economic) Sense? John Bomar The Emperor's Clothes: from Bonaparte to Bush Ron Jacobs When Miners March: Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win! Becky Akers Debunking Democracy Joanne Mariner Security, Terrorism and Human Rights St. Clair / Walker / Pollack CounterPunch Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Holt, Engel and Davies Website of the Day Osama's Book Club: Featured Selection January 20, 2006 Brian J. Foley What Kind of War Doesn't Allow for a Truce? Richard Gott Revolution in the Andes Joshua Frank Israel and US Threats Against Iran Pierre Tristam Imperial Mongers: From Gladstone to "King George" Bernstein / Allegretto Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months Elizabeth Schulte Abortion Before Roe Website of the Day This Dog Bites   January 19, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Political Machines: Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Bill Simpich Those Damn Democrats: To End War, Don't Ask for What You Don't Want Kevin Alexander Gray Reclaiming King Day (From the NAACP) Sam Husseini Rot at the Top: If the Democrats Really Want to Stop Bush, They Need New Leadership Sam Smith The Real Chocolate City Monica Benderman Dare to Make a Stand Winslow T. Wheeler Just How Big is the Defense Budget? Website of the Day Leave My Child Alone   January 18, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Gore's Speech: a Challenge That Cannot be Ignored Norman Solomon The Crime of Giving the Orders: Executing Clarence Ray Allen Jonathan M. Feldman The System Doesn't Work Anymore Michael Carmichael "Extraordinary Circumstances": the Case Against Alito Paul D'Amato The Crimes of Jimmy Carter Cynthia McKinney King's Mission Endures Norman Finkelstein Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified Website of the Day The Planetary Movement   January 17, 2006 M. Shahid Alam "Real Men Go to Tehran": Has al-Qaeda's Gambit Paid Off? John Ross Latin America's Indians on the Move--in Different Directions Tariq Ali God, Blood, Oil and Iraq Michael Donnelly Killing Anna Mae Aquash, Smearing John Trudell Amira Hass No Child Left Unharassed: the Obstacle Course to School in Palestine Doug Giebel Alito's CAP: Either He Lied on His Resumé or There's a Cover-Up Bill Quigley MLK Day in a Haitian Prison Ron Jacobs Meet the Son of Jim Crow: MLK Day Below the Mason/Dixon Line Mike Stark Governor on a Killling Spree Werther The Liberties of the Subject January 16, 2006 John Walsh Tears of a Neocon: The Good News from Daniel Pipes Earl Ofari Hutchinson Black Students Under Fire: Racial Profiling in Public Schools Roger Burbach Bachelet's Victory: Leftward Drift in Chile? Norman Solomon Ted Koppel, NPR and Henry Kissinger: a Natural Fit? Robert Jensen Dreams and Nightmares: How Would King Judge America? Sam Husseini Martin Luther King and the Deeper Malady Paul Craig Roberts Bush Crosses the Rubicon Website of the Day MLK: Beyond Vietnam   January 14 / 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn What the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said JoAnn Wypijewski What is an Antiwar Movement? James Petras The State of the Empire, 2006 Ron Jacobs Fifteen Years of War: Who's Better Off? Brian Cloughley Fly Boys and Lie Boys: Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep Marianne McDonald The Madness of Ajax: a Play for Our Time Bruce Tyler Wick Bush on Torture Echoes Charles I on Arbitrary Imprisonment Fred Gardner A Last, Desperate Plea to Stay in Canada Flavia Alaya Victory at Passaic County Jail Gary Leupp A Neocon Plan to Plant WMDs? Dr. Susan Block Peeping Tom in the Bush: Nonconsenual Voyeurism and the NSA Nicole Colson The House Jack Built: The Abramoff Giude to Buying Friends and Influencing Politics Jeffrey Kolakowski Senator as Illusionist: the Hypocrisies of John McCain Missy Comley Beattie The Stepford Hearings of Samuel Alito: The Senator, the Weepy Wife and a Secret Annoiting Charles Thomson Is Serota Dead in the Water?: the Ofili Scandal at the Tate St. Clair / Walker / Vest Playlsts: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Engel, Ford and Davies Website of the Weekend Historians Against the War   January 13, 2006 Ralph Nader The Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Alito Leonard Weinglass The Singular Story of the Cuban Five Amira Hass Prisoners in Their Own Land: 800,000 Palestinians Sealed Off by IDF in West Bank Chris Kutalik / Jennifer Biddle Airline Workers Fight Back Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and the Democrats Dave Lindorff Eight Who Dared: a (Short) Congressional Honor Roll Mike Whitney Countdown to War with Iran? David Price How the FBI Spied on Edward Said   January 12, 2006 Jennifer Van Bergen The Unitary Executive: Why the Bush Doctrine Violates the Constitution Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Command Responsibility: Torture and Legal Accountability Lawrence R. Velvel Alito Refuses to Answer Fundamental Questions Ralph Nader / Robert Weissman Corporations, Originalism and the Bill of Rights: an Open Letter to Justice Scalia Jackie Corr Killing the Big Sky's Golden Goose: Marc Racicot and the Deregulation of Montana Power Jared Bernstein The Wage Doldrums Russell D. Hoffman New Horizons in Space, New Lows in Government Aubrey Streit I Was Born in a Small Town: the Fate of Rural America Clancy Sigal Hugh Thompson and My Lai: He Broke Ranks; He Did the Right Thing Website of the Day Nukes in Space   January 11, 2006 Kevin Zeese NSA Spied on Baltimore Peace Group (And They've Got the Documents That Prove It) Ray McGovern The Big Wiretap Allan Maass / Joe Allen Schwarzenegger's Hit List: Smearing Mandela, Killing Tookie Earl Ofari Hutchinson Snatching at King's Legacy: Mythmaking, Profiteering & Outright Distortions Annie Murphy Evo Morales' Sweater Allan Lichtman Abramoff's Kind of Big Government Ramzy Baroud Politics of Chaos: Gaza's Turmoil in Context Joshua Frank MoveOn Surrenders to Hillary Kathleen and Bill Christison "Eating Palestine for Breakfast": the Real Sharon Website of the Day Memoirs of Rummy's Geisha   January 10, 2006 Uri Avnery The Post-Sharon Landscape: Three Fingers, No Fist Saul Landau Different Americas Noam Chomsky Beyond the Ballot: Iraq, Iran and China Brian J. Foley Playing with Fire: Congress and Executive Power Lenni Brenner The War Within the Antiwar Movement Ronan Sheehan Sheehan to Sheehan: Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Con Jobs   January 9, 2006 Behzad Yaghmaian Who is to Blame for the Deaths of the Sudanese Refugees? George Bisharat US Aid to Israel is Out of Hand Dave Lindorff How the US Press Squelches Bush Impeachment Drive Norman Solomon Smoke a Marlboro, Then an Iraqi: How Media War Images Distort Not Inform Christopher Brauchli The Generosity of Credit Card Companies Aharon Shabtai A Poet's Letter on the Occupation Andrew Cockburn How Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?   January 7 / 8, 2006 Lawrence Velvel The NYT's Unconscionable Decision to Sit on the NSA Story for a Year James Petras AIPAC on Trial: Them or US J.L. Chestnut Racism and Injustice in Alabama's Courts Mike Ely The Dead Miners in Sago Andrew Wilson The Dying of Ariel Sharon Lila Rajiva Two Moms Go to Capitol Hill William Cook The Rape of Palestine Ramor Ryan The Sub Motorcycle Diaries: On the Road with the Zapatistas Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff An Interview with Michael Scheuer on the CIA's Rendition Program Peter Montague Inherit the Wind: the Global Spread of GMO Crops Ron Jacobs Would Ethan Allen Pay to Protest? Neve Gordon Images of Real Eco-Terrorism in Twaneh Fred Gardner Business as Usual in San Diego Josh Mahon Idaho Timber Industry Leader Advocates Violence Against Green's Mom Dr. Susan Block Abramoff Family Values: the Lobbyist Who Screwed Us All Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Bush Crimes Commission   January 6, 2006 José Pertierra Posada Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets Joe Allen Gary Freeman's Struggle: a Black Radical from the 1960s Fights Extradition to the US Winslow T. Wheeler Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment John Bomar A Former NSA Officer on Snoopgate: the Squawkers Should be Congratulated Jason Leopold Snoop and Shred Norman Solomon Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad Robert Pollin Remembering Harry Magdoff: the Man Who Explained the Empire   January 5, 2006 Scott Boehm Big Profits, Buried Lives: Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans Zoltan Grossman New Challenges for the Antiwar Movement Heather Gray Whistling Dixie Yet Again Haninah Levine Simple is Dangerous: the Pentagon's Plan for a Manhattan Project on IEDs Pierre Tristam The Sham of Homeland Security: a West Virginia Parable Remi Kanazi Stroke of Luck?: Political Hemorrhage in Israel Gilad Atzmon Sharon Meets His Maker Kathleen and Bill Christison What Hillary Clinton Doesn't Know About Palestine   January 4, 2006 Ron Jacobs Pity the Miner: A-Diggin' My Bones Lila Rajiva Terror Hits Bangalore Huibin Amee Chew Why the War is Sexist Pat Williams How the West Turned: Biting the Hands That Steal Linda Milazzo The House That George and Jack Built: Ownership Society Meets the Entrepreneurial Style Nick Dearden The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness": Blair's Cynical Policy on Palestine James Petras Evo Morales: All Growl, No Claws? Website of the Day Rat Out a Lobbyist for Jesus   January 3, 2006 James Ridgeway Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and 9/11: How Much Did the Bush Administration Know? Laith al-Saud Iraqi Intellectuals and the Occupation: an Interview with Dr. Saad Jawad Dick J. Reavis Border Walls: the View from Mexico Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton, AIPAC and Iran Rochelle Gause Inside Rafah: Collective Punishment as Normalcy Missy Comley Beattie How My Mother Went from a Republican to a Screaming Progressive Paul de Rooij A Glossary of Dispossession         Subscribe Online

January 30, 2006 Development Interrupted The Second Childhood By NIRANJAN RAMAKRISHNAN After months of pointing out -- first the shortsightedness and then the criminality of the Bush Administration -- columnist Paul Craig Roberts has now begun to confront a deeper malaise, the idiocy of the populace. If true, this is a glacial problem and presages a catastrophe far worse than Bush's eight years. After all, leaders come and go, but the people remain. And Roberts has a point: there seems no bar to a coexistence between intelligence, education and knowledge on the one hand and complete idiocy on the other. But 'idiocy' is a harsh word. Perhaps childhood, or more properly, second childhood, is better. Let me illustrate with an example. The other evening I saw a movie, "Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang". It was about the how the US government had hidden information about low-level radiation arising from its nuclear tests in the Nevada desert, and the corresponding rise in cancer incidences among those living in the vincinity. There was a brief Q and A session after the talk. Saul Landau, the brilliant author and filmmaker whose gentle but perceptive answers were as educational as the film itself, was asked the following question: What are the rulers thinking when they engage in this kind of cover up? And why would anyone invest in a technology where the waste material is so hazaradous that it renders places unsafe for tens of thousands of years? [1] Landau's answer (paraphrased) was that powerful people seldom admit mistakes. We tried to identify a few who did -- I mentioned Richard Clarke ("Sorry Spectacle") and he mentioned Cy Vance. We did not waste time on the likes of Colin Powell and Robert McNamara, mute time servers when they could have done something, compulsive hand-wringers after their moment had passed. But the question goes deeper than that: Where do people who start wars, poison the environment for immediate gain and gratification, hock their country to keep interest rates low, plan to move? Mars? Unless that is their plan, their actions make no sense. American administrations may be beholden to Israel, but I don't think either nuclear radiation or global warming believes in the passover. Prophet and plebian are imperiled alike and with certainty. Yet, we have Tony Blair proclaiming a fast push toward nuclear energy, and Iran insisting on its rights (to cancer?) Where does such idiocy spring from? Perhaps from an addiction to the mantra of growth, and development. "To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, and read their history in a nation's eyes", has this not been the dream of every leader in history? And in the last half-century, the nation's eyes have become key - "But it wasn't on TV, was it?" Hence the difficulty. Radiation, like global warming or disinformation, is a peril without a face. And in our image-driven times, something does not exist if it doesn't have pictures. Hence the insistence on Bush's photographs with Abramoff, as though that would somehow prove something that Abramoff's being on the transition team would not. This is perfect for a ruler. So, development. Make sure they everyone gets a TV. The second is to keep them shopping, so their minds quit working. How else do you explain the poll in which, asked if domestic spying without a warrant was ok, there was such an equivocal response? Freedom to shop is all we care about (see Open your Wallets, not your Mouths). The third is perhaps the result of the first two, the blithe unawareness of the addict to the non-obvious: Let me buy at Wal Mart, even if it is means my own job going to China tomorrow. These are signs regressions to childhood. It takes children a few years before they learn the connection between cause and effect when the two are not in close proximity. It takes them some time to understand non-visual cues. And they need instant gratification. What Roberts sees is the fact that all three components seem present in large measure in America. Fifty years of growth, development, unimaginable technological progress, all have led to a state where people are willing to surrender their rights. Gandhi (whose death anniversary falls today) alone, among the leaders of the 20th century, saw the perils of mad devotion to economic progress. "...Hinduism, Islam, Zorastrianism, Christianity and all other religions teach that we should remain passive about worldly pursuits, that we should set a limit to our worldly ambitions and that our religious ambition should be illimitable. Our activity should be directed into the latter channel..." (Hind Swaraj, 1909). Gandhi saw the plunge into consumer comfort as the inevitable first step towards the loss of freedom. Yatha Raja, Tatha Praja (as the king goes, so go the people), went the old Sanskrit saying. Since this was before the Age of Democracy, we should transpose it : "as the people go, so goes the leader". Hence the trend -- whether it is Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush (or even Gore or Kerry, algthough the former may now be revising his opinions) in America, or whether it is Narasimha Rao, Vajpayee or Manmohan Singh in India, the mantra of growth and development has us -- and them -- by the neck. "I can promise you nothing but blood, toil, sweat and tears" said another wartime leader, a real one. Ours promises low interest rates and personal savings accounts. What happened in between? We were watching television. Niranjan Ramakrishnan is a writer living on the West Coast. He can be reached at njn_2003@yahoo.com. [1] "The radiological half life of plutonium is about 24,000 years and the biological half life is about 20 years for liver and 50 years for skeleton. The effective half life of plutonium deposited in the liver is 20 years and 50 years for plutonium deposited in the skeleton[1]. Plutonium deposited in the gonadal tissue is assumed to be permanently retained. See full essay "Plutonium" by Gary Masters. [2] More quotations of Gandhi are available at http://www.hindswaraj.com

Finally Available from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Order Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair   CounterPunch Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"