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Today's
Stories
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
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
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
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 2, 2004
Spite
and Venom Day
A
Turncoat and a Profiteer
By
JACK RANDOM
When Senator Zell Miller took the stage
on the third night of the Republican National Convention, the
president's supporters were confronted with a rabid dog, a mean
spirited and vindictive assault on the character of his own party's
leader, a cry to war reminiscent of General Patton's rallying
of the troops. In an atmosphere of war frenzy and rage, Americans
at home were allowed to catch a glimpse of the grave danger we
now face. How easy it is to stir a partisan mob's irrational
rage and how difficult it is to restore reason.
Senator Miller should be reminded
that it is possible to regard those whose views are diametrically
opposed to one's own with respect, even admiration. It is also
possible to disdain someone whose political agenda is consonant
with one's own because his actions or motives dishonor an otherwise
honorable cause.
Who is this man, this raging
warmonger with so little regard for the facts or appreciation
for the cold, hard realities of the day? That the war and occupation
have been mishandled, that the rationale for war has been discredited,
and that the situation on the ground is untenable, are facts
that the president himself has admitted. To claim, at this late
stage, that to characterize our presence in Iraq as an occupation
(rather than a liberation) is somehow dishonorable is so far
beyond the scope of reason it begs the question: What is the
Senator's dog in this fight?
We are not confronted with
the Nazi menace of World War II. We are facing a problem that
most of the world is long familiar with: terrorism without borders.
Based on false premises, we have invaded a nation that had nothing
to do with those who attacked us. If we cannot voice our dissent
now without incurring the wrath of our leaders, then it is not
us but our leaders who require a lesson on the principles of
democracy.
If anyone should have risen
to the defense of John Kerry against the charge of inconstancy,
it should have been "Zig Zag Zell" Miller. He has long
been famous for taking both sides of disparate issues, including
abortion and gay rights. Now he descends from the mountain with
a fresh tablet to give testament: I have seen the light, oh lord,
and his name is George Dubya. Even Arnold might have written
a better script.
Zell Miller is that peculiar
breed of politician who, rather than admitting that he has aligned
himself with the wrong party, attempts to collect political dividends
by feigning an eleventh hour epiphany. Whatever the Senator
once was, he is now an opportunist. He is a warmongering, right
wing zealot who has betrayed his party for a share of the spotlight.
The South, for all its incongruities, understands loyalty. They
will not look kindly on this act of partisan treachery. Senator
Miller is having his last dance before he stumbles into obscurity.
For the Senator, 911 is the answer to this mysterious transformation
but he does not allow that it might have changed Senator Kerry
at all.
What Zell Miller delivered
with venom and rage, the Vice President duplicated with a softer
voice and a wry grin. It was Dick Cheney who served notice, in
the days after 911, that the war on terrorism would be long and
hard. He meant, of course, that it would be hard for other men's
sons and daughters, not his own.
Dick Cheney never served his
country in war. He received no less than five student deferments
while others served in his place. In his own words, Dick Cheney
had "other priorities." So be it. A man should not
be held to account for avoiding danger in his younger days. He
should, however, be fully accountable for his actions during
his current term of office.
In every war there are people
who profit from the misfortunes of others. Times of war are times
of sacrifice for those who are chosen to fight, for their families
and loved ones. There is, however, no sacrifice for those on
the payrolls of McDonald-Douglas, Boeing, GenTech or Halliburton.
For the military-industrial complex (the makers of munitions,
providers of mercenary armies, and those who specialize in rebuilding
infrastructures in war zones), the promise of a 40-year war is
manna from corporate heaven. When the spoils of war include the
second largest oil reserves on earth, the oil industry rises
to the head of the profiteering class.
Of all the profiteers to emerge
from the rubble of Afghanistan and Iraq, the most prominent is
Halliburton, the multinational corporation that was blessed with
uncontested government contracts, that has blatantly defrauded
American taxpayers, that has unashamedly sheltered its tax burden
with offshore accounts, and whose profit margin has risen dramatically
with each casualty of war.
Is it fair to blame Dick Cheney
for the sins of the corporation he formerly chaired? It is if
he remains on the company payroll. He does. It is if he shares
in the profits of that company's good fortune. He does. It is
if he maintains ties to that company (he does) and used his position
in government to influence contracting procedures. He did.
In times of war, those who
are engaged in battle often come to admire the opposing side:
The Nazi commanders admired Patton, Lincoln admired Robert E.
Lee, and Robert McNamara secretly admired Daniel Ellsberg. There
are at least two classes of men, however, that are universally
disdained in times of crisis: Turncoats and Profiteers.
We regard Dick Cheney with
richly deserved scorn. As the opposition leader was fond of saying
to Prime Minister Tony Blair: No one believes a word you say.
For all the spite and venom,
the Republicans have made their message clear: It is all about
war. They will attack their political opponent as if he is the
enemy. Either you are with us or you are with them. If you are
with them, then you deserve neither respect nor common decency.
The war is on.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES,
THE WAR CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION
(DRY BONES PRESS). HIS COMMENTARIES HAVE BEEN POSTED WIDELY.
SEE WWW.JACKRANDOM.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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