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Today's
Stories
October 15,
2004
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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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October 15, 2004
Where Did These
Conservatives Come From?
The
Brownshirting of America
By
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
James Bovard, the great libertarian
champion of our freedom and civil liberties, recently shared
with readers his mail from Bush supporters (Lewrockwell.com,
October 12). For starters here are some of the salutations:
"communist bastard," "asshole," "a piece
of trash, scum of the earth." It goes downhill from there.
Bush's supporters demand lock-step
consensus that Bush is right. They regard truthful reports that
Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and was not
involved in the September 11 attack on the US--truths now firmly
established by the Bush administration's own reports--as treasonous
America-bashing.
As well, Bovard is interpreted
as throwing cold water on the feel-good, macho, Muslim butt-kicking
that Bush's invasion of Iraq has come to symbolize for his supporters.
"People like you and Michael Moore," one irate reader
wrote, "is (sic) what brings down our country."
I have received similar responses
from conservatives, as, no doubt, have a number of other writers
who object to a domestic police state at war with the world.
In language reeking with hatred,
Heritage Foundtion TownHall readers impolitely informed me
that opposing the invasion of Iraq is identical to opposing America,
that Bush is the greatest American leader in history and everyone
who disagrees with him should be shot before they cause America
to lose another war. TownHall's readers were sufficiently frightening
to convince the Heritage Foundation to stop posting my columns.
Bush's conservative supporters
want no debate. They want no facts, no analysis. They want
to denounce and to demonize the enemies that the Hannitys, Limbaughs,
and Savages of talk radio assure them are everywhere at work
destroying their great and noble country.
I remember when conservatives
favored restraint in foreign policy and wished to limit government
power in order to protect civil liberties. Today's young conservatives
are Jacobins determined to use government power to impose their
will at home and abroad.
Where did such "conservatives"
come from?
Claes Ryn in his important
book, America the Virtuous, explains the intellectual evolution
of the neoconservatives who lead the Bush administration. For
all their defects, however, neocons are thoughtful compared to
the world of talk radio, whose inhabitants are trained to shout
down everyone else. From whence came the brownshirt movement
that slavishly adheres to the neocons' agenda?
Three recent books address
this question. Thomas Frank in What's the Matter With Kansas,
locates the movement in legitimate conservative resentments of
people who feel that family, religious, and patriotic values
are given short shrift by elitist liberals.
These resentments festered
and multiplied as offshore production, jobs outsourcing, and
immigration took a toll on careers and the American dream.
An audience was waiting for
rightwing talk radio, which found its stride during the Clinton
years. Clinton's evasions made it easy to fall in with show
hosts, who spun conspiracies and fabricated a false consciousness
for listeners who became increasingly angry.
Show hosts, who advertise themselves
as truth-tellers in a no-spin zone, quickly figured out that
success depends upon constantly confronting listeners with bogymen
to be exposed and denounced: war protesters and America-bashers,
the French, marrying homosexuals, the liberal media, turncoats,
Democrats, and the ACLU.
Talk radio's "news stories"
do not need to be true. Their importance lies in inflaming resentments
and confirming that America's implacable enemies are working
resolutely to destroy us.
David Brock's The Republican
Noise Machine lacks the insights of Thomas Frank's book, but
it provides a gossipy history of the rightwing takeover of the
US media. Brock is unfair to some people, myself included, and
mischaracterizes as rightwing some media personalities who are
under rightwing attack.
Brock is as blindly committed
to his causes as the rightwing zealots he exposes are to theirs.
Unlike Frank, he cannot acknowledge that the rightwing has legitimate
issues.
Nevertheless, Brock makes a
credible case that today's conservatives are driven by ideology,
not by fact. He argues that their stock in trade is denunciation,
not debate. Conservatives don't assess opponents' arguments,
they demonize opponents. Truth and falsity are out of the picture;
the criteria are: who's good, who's evil, who's patriotic, who's
unpatriotic.
These are the traits of brownshirts.
Brownshirts know they are right. They know their opponents
are wrong and regard them as enemies who must be silenced if
not exterminated.
Some of Brock's quotes from
prominent conservative commentators will curl your toes. His
description of the rightwing's destruction of an independent
media and the "Fairness Doctrine" explain why a recent
CNN/Gallup poll found that 42% of Americans still believe that
Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11 terrorist attack
on the US and 32% believe that Saddam Hussein personally planned
the attack.
A country in which 42% of the
population is totally misinformed is not a country where democracy
is safe.
Today there is no one to correct
a lie once it is told. The media, thanks to Republicans, has
been concentrated in few hands, and they are not the hands of
newsmen. Corporate values rule. If lies sell, sell them. If
listeners, viewers, and readers want confirmation of their resentments
and beliefs, give it to them. Objectivity turns listeners off
and is a money loser.
In his book, Cruel and Unusual,
Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media studies at New York University,
explains how rightwing influence has moved the media away from
reporting news to designing our consciousness. "The Age
of Information," Miller writes, "has turned out to
be an Age of Ignorance."
Miller makes a strong case.
His description of how CNN and Fox News destroyed the credibility
of Scott Ritter, the leading expert on Iraq's weapons, reveals
a media completely given over to propaganda. Ritter stood in
the way of the neocon's invasion of Iraq.
CNN's Miles O'Brien, Eason
Jordan, Catherine Callaway, Paula Zahn, Kyra Phillips, Arthel
Neville, and Fox News' David Asman and John Gibson portrayed
Ritter as a disloyal American, a Ba-athist stooge on the take
from Saddam Hussein, and compared him to Jane Fonda in North
Vietnam.
With this, the rightwing talk
radio crazies were off and running. Anyone with the slightest
bit of real information about the state of weapons development
in Iraq was dismissed as a foreign agent who should be shot for
treason.
By substituting fiction for
reality, the US media took the country to war. The CNN and Fox
News "journalists" are as responsible for America's
ill-fated invasion of Iraq as Cheney and Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz
and Perle.
With a sizable percentage of
the US population now addicted to daily confirmations of their
resentments and hatreds, US policy will be increasingly driven
by tightly made up minds in pursuit of unrealistic agendas.
American troops are in Iraq
on false pretenses. No one knows all the fateful consequences
of this mistaken adventure. Bush's reelection would be seen
as a vindication of aggression, and more aggression would likely
follow. A continuing expenditure of blood, money, alliances,
good will, and civil liberties is not a future to which to look
forward.
Paul Craig Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute
for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent
Institute. He is a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury.
He is the co-author of The
Tyranny of Good Intentions.
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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