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Today's
Stories
September 8,
2004
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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September 8, 2004
Byrd's Eye View
When
the Extraordinary Becomes the Norm
By
NIRANJAN RAMAKRISHNAN
A minor gratification to the student
of political history is the opportunity to sneer at past generations.
With a quiet air of superiority, he may wonder what manner of
fools were they, that they could not comprehend what was going
on right in front of their eyes?
How could a demagogue like
Hitler take over Germany, an advanced nation with a highly educated
middle class? How could a Stalin become the uncrowned emperor
of a sprawling land, one moreover which had so recently had a
revolution overthrowing a monarchy? How could an Islamic theocracy
overtake a nation like Iran, which was by all accounts the most
westernized in the Middle East? How did Beirut, often called
the Paris of the East, disintegrate so quickly into a war-torn
hell-hole? How did these remarkable transformations happen?
A casual glance might make
them appear to have happened overnight. The inevitable compression
of time when looking at historical events causes us to juxtapose
in our minds events with several years between them, often for
no better reason than that they appeared close together in a
book. But a deeper inquiry will show up this fallacy. It took
Hitler a good five years to consolidate his hold on Germany.
It took Stalin a decade after the death of Lenin to fully grasp
power. And the Iran hostage crisis notwithsanding, it took Khomeini
several years to turn Iran into a place where a fatwa could be
issued to kill some faraway writer -- and be taken seriously.
Lebanon's militias were fifteen years in the making.
Though the Second Law of Thermodynamics
dictates that entropy (chaos) shall ever rise, this indicates
aimless drift rather than decisive deterioration. The late Nirad
Chaudhuri, a lifelong student of decaying civilizations, was
of the opinion that decline required as just much leadership
as did ascent. To paraphrase the old poster, 'To err is human,
but to really screw things up takes sustained effort'. How does
the world's longest democracy permit the hijacking of its most
sacred processes? Why would the country permit draconian laws
abridging the very freedoms upon which it was founded? Why  would it countenance the disenfranchisement
of large swaths of its own electorate? Why would it mutely tolerate
the use of dubious voting devices that would undermine the entire
basis of fair voting? How could it, in the heyday of the Information
Age, manage to be misled into a briar patch entanglement in Iraq?
And at the end of such a glorious era of bungling, why would
the election be such a close thing?
One can imagine a person two
hundred years hence, studying the history of our times (in Chinese?).
As they would other decaying civilizations, they would look at
ours with some wonder. How did such a remarkable system collapse?
Why did it systematically accomplish its own downfall by overspending,
overpopulation, pockmarking its hillsides with housing developments,
depriving its children of education, exporting its jobs, and
embroiling itself in debilitating wars abroad?
A common theme appears to run
through every deteriorating society -- the extraordinary progressively
becomes more and more acceptable, accepted -- and normal, in
that order. Like graffiti in the neighborhood, one is aghast
when one first encounters it, but soon one stops noticing it.
The balance of powers enshrined
in the Constitution is intended to prevent exactly such wanton
decay. Executive excess was to be held in check by Congress.
One powerful person could be driven mad by power, so the thinking
of the founders went, but it was unlikely that 535 others would
follow suit.
But what if this actually happened,
and a pusillanimous legislature prostrated itself tamely when
faced with a mix of blandishment and threat? The extraordinary
would have come to pass. As it has! While a mere burglary outraged
us only three decades ago, acts far worse scarcely raise an eyebrow
any more. We live in times where the trivial ("Here's breaking
news on the Scott Peterson Trial") gets prodigious amounts
of press, and the vital ("Diebold Machine voting results
cannot be verified") goes largely unexamined. An age where
the extraordinary has come to be accepted as ordinary.
Agonizing over the slipping
away of his beloved Constitution in an age of inanity, a public
figure has written a book with an apt title, 'Losing
America'. If anyone is qualified to write such a book, it
is he. Imagine the fate of the hero in the movie, Planet of
the Apes. His tragedy is his alone. No one else realizes
what has been lost. He beats his head against every wall, appeals
to every one of his colleagues, pleads for them to consider the
glorious heritage of their magnificent institutions, all to no
avail.
Such is the plight of Sen.
Robert Byrd (D-W.Va), the lion of the Senate, author of Losing
America. Sen. Byrd has drawn up as stinging an indictment of
the Bush Administration as anybody could. Over the past four
years, his spirited speeches from the Senate floor, reminding
that enfeebled institution of its true duty, have offered shimmering
glimpses of what the Senate ought to be. Losing America is to
America's politics what Silent Spring was to its environment,
an urgent wake up call.
The book takes us through the
last four years, laying bare the cavalier irresponsibility, chronic
mendacity and unprecedented ignorance which characterize this
president, and the brazen combination of smugness, incompetence
and arrogance that marks his cabinet. Packed in this brief but
powerful volume is a tour of the Bush presidency, written in
a way that makes the blood boil by reliving the succession of
horrors it has perpetrated. Sen. Byrd is a scholar of both American
and European (particularly classical, I think) history, and the
book makes good use of his knowledge. He has been in the Congress
for 50 years, and draws telling comparisons to show what we have
become.
Above all, the book is refreshing
in its frankness. It is free of Washingtonese in general and
Kerry's Disease in particular, that art of the artless platitude.
Here is an example of what I mean. Bush has just announced a
homeland security initiative (which the White House had earlier
done its utmost to resist) in front of the TV cameras.
"Bush turned to Speaker
Dennis Hastert and to the majority and minority leaders of both
houses for remarks. Then, with brief apologies, Bush announced
his imminent departure for St. Louis to make a speech. As he
pushed his chair away from the table, I asked to be heard. "
"...I noted that the president
wanted quick action on his 'homeland security package' but I
had never been informed of just what was in the 'package'. I
had once heard one leader at the table vow passage of 'this thing'
by Election Day. I repeated that, as yet, 'I don't know what
'this thing' is'. The president responded with a non-sequitur,
thanking me for my statement and assuring me that it would be
considered. Then he promptly rose and headed out the door. Amazing.
I might as well have been reciting a recipe for Christmas fruitcake.
My opinion of meetings at the White House hit a new low. I was
struck by the president's dismal performance. To say it was mediocre
would be a gross exaggeration. He was disorganized, unprepared,
and rambling. This fellow was all hat and no cattle, as they
would say in Texas. It was obvious that he had no idea what was
in his Department of Homeland Security proposal, nor did he seem
to care. The gratuitous "thanks to members" was so
phony it bordered on an affront. I had sat in meetings with many
presidents: John Kennedy knew his subject... (more about other
presidents and their qualities)...Bill Clinton, likable, jovial
and with a vast knowledge of policy on a wide array of topics
which he liked to display. But this president, this Bush number
43, was in a class by himself -- ineptitude supreme. This meeting
with Bush the Younger had topped anything I had seen, from Truman
on, for absolute tripe!"
One can only wonder where he
might be in the polls if John Kerry ever spoke this way. It is
instructive to recall that Truman used the plainest language
and overcame Dewey.
Disgusted as he is with this
president, he reserves his bitterest words the current day United
States Congress. A Congressman and Senator since 1953, and a
historian of the Senate to boot, he never thought he would see
his beloved institution fall to this low point:
"Senators were content
to play it safe, to argue, say, over federal judges, an important
matter, but not compelling on the brink of war...the world was
in turmoil, we were on the precipice, and the Senate was in full
denial. Having handed Bush carte blanche by passing the Iraq
war resolution, it wanted no more to do with the matter. It had
washed its hands and taken an aspirin... Privately, members would
engage, expressing horror at Bush's path; wonder at his radical
reshaping of America's foreign policy in a scant two years; dismay
at his lack of experience, amazement that he had been able to
blend the images of bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the public
mind; and anger over the arrogance of Rumfeld, Wolfowitz, and
others in the Bush administration."
" But there was not a
lot of eagerness to say anything on the record. Why bother? Why
rock the boat? Oh no -- just reach for the phenobarbital and
listen to the siren calls. What an odyssey. Where was public
dissent? "
And this of the Democrats (with
Majority Leader Daschle himself having introduced the White House
War resolution):
" ...what the situation
finally came down to was action on HJ Resolution 114, passage
of which was now a foregone conclusion in the Democratic-controlled
Senate. We had been swept away by campaign fever. Some high-priced
pollster had apparently convinced the Senate Democratic leadership
that we could 'get the war behind us' and change the subject
to that of the flagging economy, where the election prospects
would appear to be more favorable to the Democrats. What nonsense.
The White House war machine was in full tilt. They would keep
the focus on 'terror'. There would be no 'getting it behind us',
I told the caucus, so why hurry with the resolution? ...Why,
thirty days before a congressional election, when politics so
distorts every issue and so grips the mind and soul of everyone
running, were we choosing tomake such a critically important
decision? "
"I made an urgent public
plea to Joe Lieberman and Tom Daschle, who were driving toward
a hasty vote: please cancel the order for a cloture vote. It
would be unpatriotic to not ask questions. My plea came to nought...Paul
Sarbanes, my friend and a man of piercing analytical ability
-- surely one of the best minds in the Senate -- remembered dealing
with the Panama Canal treaties. Debate had begun on February
6 of 1978 and ended on April 8 of that year. We had spent twenty-one
days on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, twenty-three
days on the energy bill, nineteen days on the trade bill, and
eighteen days on the farm bill; yet we were about to spend only
a week debating whether to give this bellicose and secretive
president unfettered authority to take us to war. We were being
stampeded. And anyone willing to look a fact in the eye knew
it."
Despite Robert Byrd's heroic
resistance, the resolution passed, with twenty-nine of fifty
Democrats voting for it. Jim Jeffords (Independent) and Lincoln
Chafee (R) voted against. Byrd writes,
"Never in my half century
of congressional service had the United States Senate proved
unworthy of its great name. What would the framers have thought?
In this terrible show of weakness, the Senate left an indelible
stain upon its own escutcheon. Having revered the Senate during
my service for more than forty years, I was never pained so much."
"On the eleventh of October,
the Senate gave Bush what he wanted. The damage done, it adjourned
on October 28 for the midterm elections. When we reconvened on
November 12, we had lost the majority."
Thus did Daschle, Gephardt
and Co., stuck in a blue funk about being labeled 'unpatriotic'
if they did not support the war, engage in all their obsequious
contortions to avoid squarely opposing the rush to war, only
lose the moral high ground and the senate majority for the Democratic
Party. To quote a line used about supine businessmen during India's
Emergency, 'When asked to bend, they offered to crawl'. John
Kerry too, we need scarcely add, was among those voting for the
resolution. Looking at all the troubles Kerry now has explaining
his vote, Byrd might have added from Shakespeare, "Had I
but served my god with half the zeal I served my king, he would
not in mine age have left me naked before mine enemies."
The book includes eight of
his senate speeches in an appendix, all of which (and more) can
be found on the senator's website (http://byrd.senate.gov). Without
ever saying so, the case to dump this administration shines through
page after page of this brief volume, with a clarity that eludes
George W. Bush's main opponent. Senator Byrd writes with a keen
sense of history, an outrage at what has happened to his beloved
Senate, and a deep anxiety for the future of the Constitution.
A bell of alarm from a public
servant of unusual erudition and unflagging idealism, this gem
deserves to be read by every American.
Niranjan Ramakrishnan is a writer living on the West Coast.
His writings can be found at http://www.indogram.com/gramsabha/articles.
He can be reached at njn_04@yahoo.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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