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Now Available! How the Press Led the USA Into War on Iraq Buy End Times Now! Today's Stories September 6, 2007 Kathleen and Bill Christison Bush, Iran and Israel's Hidden Hand   September 5, 2007 Stan Goff The End Begins Michael Dickinson Working for Mother Teresa: Memoirs of a Rebellious Volunteer Matthew Abraham Standing Firm with Norman Finkelstein and DePaul's Heroic Students: a Defining Moment Patrick Cockburn The Basra Debacle Dave Lindorff Beware the Wounded Beast Paul Craig Roberts Who Are the Fanatics? Clifton Ross Ecuador and the Struggle for Latin American Unity Elizabeth Schulte Katrina's Forgotten Refugees Joseph Grosso Labor Day in New York City Ben Terrall Where's Nancy? On Trying to Protest Pelosi in San Francisco Website of the Day A Guide to Narco Dollars   September 4, 2007 Jean Bricmont Why Bush Can Get Away with Attacking Iran Patrick Cockburn Cut and Run in Iraq Ron Jacobs The Haditha Massacre: Spinning a War Crime Tom Kerr Buried Alive on San Quentin's Death Row Gary Leupp The Case of Jose Maria Sison Sonja Karkar The Weeping Olive Trees of Palestine Heather Gray The Best and Worst of America: 9/11, Joseph Lowery and the Lethal Silence of Billy Graham Fidel Castro The Super-Revolutionaries Jackie Corr Home Depot Comes to Butte--Begging Bowl in Hand Sunsara Taylor Katrina and the Progress of the System Website of the Day Colombia Journal   September 3, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Brits Flee from Basra Eamon McCann Qana, Derry: The Dead Lie in Familiar Shapes Joshua Frank The End of the Green Party? Chris Floyd Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph Marjorie Cohn A Look at Bush's Iran War Plans Walter Brasch The News Drones: How Fake Photos Helped Lead the US to War in Iraq Matt Reichel Redefining the American Dream Website of the Day Don't Get Fooled Again   September 1 / 2, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Entrapment Snares Larry Craig Andy Worthington Britain's Guantánamo Saul Landau The Tragic Ordeal of the Cuban Five David Keen An Occident Waiting to Happen: Intellectuals and the War on Terror Patrick Cockburn The Collapse of Iraq's Health Care Services Diana Johnstone Back in Uncle Sam's Pocket George Longstreth, MD & Karen Longstreth, RN The Sorrows of Occupation: Life in the West Bank Linda M. Woolf A Sad Day for Psychologists--a Sadder Day for Human Rights Ralph Nader Wrapping the World with Advertising Fred Gardner The Trial of Mollie Fry, MD Ben Tripp Enquiry in America Today David Michael Green American Indigestion: Why Bush Governs from the Gut Missy Comley Beattie Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: What the GOP Hasn't Learned About Tolerance Michael Dickinson Who's Cheating: Remembering Princess Diana Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Larry Craig to Wesley Clark Ron Jacobs A Sports Nation of Millions Poets' Basement Buknatski, Davies and Mickey Z   August 31, 2007 Jeff Gibbs Why I Am Not Going to the Protest Paul Craig Roberts The War Criminal in the Living Room Ray McGovern Do We Have the Courage to Stop War with Iran? Robert Weissman The Benchmarks Iraq is Missing Matt Vidal Subprime Lending and Shady Mortgages Robin Mittenthal The Biofuels Trap Chris Kutalik Auto Makers Push Health Care Trust Solution for Industry in Crisis Richard Forno Watching Freedom's Watch Binoy Kampmark Dianified Dave Zirin Kenneth Foster Lives Website of the Day Free the Jena 6   August 30, 2007 Gary Leupp Larry Craig on the Seat John Ross Dead Forest Defenders Anthony DiMaggio Arabic as a Terrorist Language: the Right-Wing Assault on the Gibran Academy Jordan Flaherty Racism and Criminal Justice in New Orleans Michael Donnelly The Sierra Club Greenwashes Al Gore (and Desecrates John Muir) Russell Mokhiber Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is for Fighting Dennis Brutus and Patrick Bond Global Financial Apartheid William S. Lind The Truth Tellers Martha Rosenberg They Call Him Dr. Cruel Jeff Leys / Brian Terrell Seasons of Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project Website of the Day Bragg: "Old Clash Fan Fight Song" August 29, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Maliki and The Mass Shia Pilgrimage to Kerbala Winslow T. Wheeler The Costs of the Afghanistan War David Rosen The GOP's Outed All-Stars: The Forced Freeing of Gay Men from the Republican Closet Dave Zirin Confronting Katrina Paul Craig Roberts More Shame, More Sorrow Diane Farsetta Christie Todd Whitman's Nuclear Spinning Wheel Ben Davis Who Won't Stand Up for Kenneth Foster?: Charles Rangel, For One Alan Farago The Housing Crisis and the Environment Jenna Orkin Echoes of 9/11: Another Fire at Ground Zero Don Monkerud The Vanishing American Vacation Richard Nasser Surfing Gaza: More Uplifting News from NPR Website of the Day Don't Sleep on the Struggle   August 28, 2007 Uri Avnery The Language of Force Bill Quigley Katrina, Two Years Later Joshua Frank The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains China Hand "I am Alden Pyle:" Bush's Vietnam Fantasy Firmin DeBrabander Drug Wars: From Afghanistan to Baltimore Charles Peña Nuclear Fear Factor Andy Worthington Good Riddance, Gonzales Ramzy Baroud Abbas and the Abyss Anthony Papa Roger Stone's New Patsy Ashley Smith Drawing the Line at Kennebunkport Website of the Day B is for Bomb August 27, 2007 Jorge Mariscal The General Reports Bill Christison Why the US and Israel Should Lose Middle East Wars Manuel Garcia, Jr. 911 Emergency! Calling Robert Fisk!: You are Now Entering a Black Hole Anthony DiMaggio Chronicle of a Coup Foretold?: Bush, al-Maliki and the Press Bruce A. Roth India and the New Nuclear Era John Walsh Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Roadshow, Part 2 Dave Lindorff Gonzo's Gone Ron Jacobs Taking It to the Streets Binoy Kampmark Poshed Up: Why the Beckhams Should Go Back to Brighty Russell D. Hoffman My Favorite Scientist: John Gofman, Bane of the Nuclear Industry Website of the Day George W. Told the Nation   August 25 / 26, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Don't Carpool with Nouri al-Maliki James Petras The Great Financial Crisis Jeffrey Buchanan / Chris Kromm Where Did the Katrina Money Go? Marjorie Cohn Turning Iraq into Vietnam Rev. William E. Alberts Jesus, the Theological Prisoner of Christianity Robert Fantina Ari Fleischer, Freedom Watch and the Pro-War Lobbyists Brian Concannon Whitewashing the History of Abolition Ralph Nader What Do They Have to Hide? Laura Carlsen Extending NAFTA's Reach Fred Gardner Notes from Hempfest David Michael Green History, the Last Refuge of Scoundrels Stephen Soldz Why Mary Pipher Returned Her APA Award Mike Ferner Combatants for Peace: Former Enemies Find New Way Forward Paul Krassner Mort Sahl's Punchline Ben Tripp Resistance is Impossible--But Not Futile Missy Beattie President Druzilla Website of the Weekend Blue Print for Gulf Renewal   August 24, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts A Hegemonic Hubris Greg Moses A Cruel and Unusual Excuse William Schroder Bush, Vietnam and Iraq Alan Farago The Pain of Paper Millionaires Jackie Corr Uncle Ben Bernacke and the Nanny State Jeff Ballinger Naomi Klein and the Path Not Taken Bill Quigley Pere Jean-Juste Comes Home Dave Zirin Inching Toward Insanity Richard Rhames Deaver and the Making of Reagan Ryan Haygood How Newark Can Mend Website of the Day Lindorff's Iraq Rag   August 23, 2007 Kathy Kelly We Shouldn't be Causing This P. Sainath Meeting the Mahatma Ron Jacobs Bush, Vietnam and 14 More GIs Dead Christopher Brauchli Beyond Kafka: Mistakes, Soreheads and Eavesdropping D.K. Wilson When Sports Journalists Talk Race Joshua Frank The Weeds of Willapa Bay Dan Bacher Schwarzenegger's True Lies About Dams and Canals Brenda Norrell Bush's House of Snakes: Indians, Border Biometrics and Migrating Corporations John Wright The Ongoing Tragedy of Afghanistan David Vest Elvis and Racism, Round 2 Website of the Day Urgent Plea: the Black Agenda Report Needs Your Help!   August 22, 2007 Norman Finkelstein Remembering Raul Hilberg Marc Levy Sleepless in Iraq Lawrence R. Velvel When Courts Bow Down to Secrecy Ray McGovern Bush's Iran War Drums Beating Louder Norman Solomon How to Survive at the Pentagon on $2 Billion a Day John Walsh Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Road Show Michael Dickinson Little Brother is Watching You William S. Lind Operation Kabuki?: the Credibility of David Petraeus Bill Hatch A Short Walk into the Valley of Death Kenneth E. Foster and John Joe Amador How We Will Protest Our Executions David Vest Predictable Parallels: CNN and PBS Website of the Day The Once and Future Steve Perry August 21, 2007 Saul Landau The FBI's New Power Alan Farago Sand Houses and Missing Beaches John Stauber Iraq: the Gift that Keeps on Bleeding Phillip Rizk Gaza and the Jordanian Option Debbie Nathan Giuliani's Garden District Binoy Kampmark The Art of Sinning Martha Rosenberg The Fastow Economy Sunsara Taylor Back to School During Wartime Website of the Day Coffee with the Troops   August 20, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Padilla Jury Opens Pandora's Box Uri Avnery Stumbling Toward Another War Rannie Amiri Nasrallah's Surprise: a Warning from Beirut's No Bluff Zone John Ross The Fine Art of Bad Elections Harvey Wasserman The Senate's Radioactive Rip-Off Robert Billyard Canada's Disgrace: the Cases of Maher Arar and Omar Khadr Dave Lindorff Excuse Us, Nancy Pelosi James Rothenberg Why Your Vote Will Never Matter David "DC" Larson To Smear a King Website of the Day Bird Cinema August 18 / 19, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Exit Karl Rove, Everyone's Useful Demon Saul Landau The FBI in War and Peace Ralph Nader Greed and Folly on Wall Street Patrick Cockburn A Bloody Week in Iraq Robert Fantina Cannon Fodder: Beau Biden and other "Deployable Assets" Robert S. Eshelman Azar's Story: an Iraqi Refugee Living in Syria P. Sainath The Last Battle of Laxmi Panda Dave Lindorff Tossing Fuel on a Fire: US Military Aid to Israel Anthony DiMaggio Iraq, Iran & the Vanishing Context in American News Fred Gardner The Politics of Schizophrenia Ron Jacobs The Virtues of Resistance Tom Turnipseed War Profiteering and Corruption: From Lexington, S.C. to the White House Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: Special Preachers, Priests and Clerics Edition! Ben Tripp I'm So Screwed Andrew Wimmer Living With Grief Nancy Oden Where Inmates Can Grow for Free N.D. Jayaprakash India Backtracks on Disarmament Rick Smith Reflections on Cuba: an Interview with Doug Morris Missy Beattie The Suicide Bomber Poets' Basement Engel, Ford, Orloski and McLellan Website of the Weekend Imperial Storm Troopers in Action August 17, 2007 Joanne Mariner Terrorizing Social Protest Paul Craig Roberts China is not the Problem Shepherd Bliss Returning to the Scene of the Crime: Chile, 30 Years Later Dave Lindorff Convicting Padilla: Bad News for All Americans John Muthyala The Water and the Road: Katrina, Poverty and the American Dream Patrick Cockburn Deepening Divsions in Iraq Sherwood Ross Military Interrogators are Posing as Lawyers at Gitmo Phil Doe The Old West Moves East: the Political Science of Colorado River Water David Michael Green Karl Rove and the Damage Done Website of the Day Gorilla Slaughter: a Personal Account August 16, 2007 Jonathan Cook The Second Lebanon War, a Year Later Christopher Brauchli Babes in Toxic Toyland Norman Solomon Backspin for War Lee Sustar / Orlando Sepuldeva Victory on the Picket Line: How Immigrant Workers Won Their Strike Against Cygnus George Bisharat Boycott Movement Targets Israel Binoy Kampmark Tasteless: Gordon Ramsey and the Death of Gastronomy Evelyn Pringle Protection Racket?: the FDA and Avandia Hugo Blanco The Epic Struggle of Indigenous Andean / Amazonian Website of the Day Burning Man: the Field Recordings         Subscribe Online

September 6, 2007 A Good Day for Peace Can the War Machine be Contained? By LAURA SANTINA Today is a good day to begin to end war. It is a logical and timely day because we have run out of enemies. Iran's record has been cleared by the UN regarding uranium usage, so we don't need to bomb them. North Korea is shutting down its atomic programs. The only countries with nuclear weapons, besides ourselves, are those we approve of. We are no longer in a face-off with an equally powerful nation state, like Russia, bent upon our destruction. Our current adversaries are clusters of disgruntled people with improvised explosives and suicide bombs. Surely, all the imagination, science and muscle that created the mighty American war machine could be reprogrammed to negotiate mutual agreements of peace with such irregular forces. Or can it? Perhaps the war machine has taken on an all-pervasive, self-perpetuating life of its own and cannot be curtailed. Long before 9/11, President Bush declared that his comprehensive defense policy goals would include "creating the military of the next century." Had he instead focused on "creating the peace of the next century" instead of building super war toys, we may have had garnered the cultural intelligence we needed to prevent 9/11. The Bush administration substituted code phrases like "war on terrorism" and "bringing democracy" for military domination of the world. Perhaps if "Expand Empire" had been listed as an option on ballots, things wouldn't have gone this far. Perhaps if the plan had been openly discussed by military recruiters, Human Resource folk in weapons labs, or politicians - especially politicians - we could have quelled Godzilla in his infancy. Unfortunately, the pervasive veil of secrecy prevailed and the corporate war machine continued to lobby both Democrats and Republicans. In Bill Clinton's first year of office, despite his campaign rhetoric, arms sales doubled. It was Clinton who initiated an illegal nine year bombing of Iraq and the wars in the Balkans. It was, however, Bush's preemptive war on Iraq that swamped the national attention and somehow, before we knew it, the mighty war machine became the driving force of our economy. We don't manufacture anything any more except weapons and high-tech weapons systems. Hundreds of thousands of us depend on some arm of the war machine for our jobs. The military-industrial complex controls the largest bloc of industry in the US. More than one third of engineers and scientists in the US are employed in military related projects. Forty US firms account for sixty-three percent of the top one hundred arms sales in the world. Shipbuilding and aerospace industries are dependent upon arms sales and military spending. There are over one hundred thousand civilian contractors in Iraq working for companies like Perini Corp. and URS Corp. (majority-owned by Richard Blum, Dianne Feinstein's husband), who provide technical and construction services for the military. A tangled web of government/corporate corruption is significant in the build-up of the war machine. For instance, Dianne Feinstein was chairperson of Military Construction Appropriations when the multi-million dollar Perini and URS contracts were awarded. Besides the one hundred and sixty thousand people in uniform and thousands of support personnel, fifty thousand private security forces are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Untold thousands of low-income, young women work as prostitutes serving each of the one thousand overseas military bases and six thousand bases in the US and its territories. There is no end in sight. DARPA, an agency of the Defense Department, is girding for twenty and more years of war. They are working cooperatively with Silicon Valley companies to develop more-realistic prosthetic limbs, drugs and aircraft carriers in the sky. Our economy is so dependant upon war, our culture so soaked in war propaganda, that we suffer a self-inflicted blindness which distances us from those continuing to suffer the day-to-day brutalities of war. We can't pay much attention to the thousands of war refugees who continue to be driven from their homes and who live in destitute make-shift camps around the world. We can't think about the thousands of soldiers and civilians, including many, many children who, if they live, are left without limbs or organs and carry traumatic baggage that hammers them, sometimes for the rest of their lives. War has pervaded our culture. We think, talk and dream war. Graphic violence in our entertainment industry continues to escalate. The increase of TV violence after six years of War on Terror was succinctly documented by Margot Pepper in a recent Berkeley Daily Planet article. The American Psychiatric Association claims that, "viewers become more desensitized, fearful . . . they identify with the aggressor and the aggressor's solutions." So what can we do? An insignificant place to start might be to shine our flashlights in the war beast's eyes. Light up his whole body with words, music, pictures, whatever we've got, for all the country and all the world to see. Surely if we can see how he's got us under his spell, we'll want to pull free. Otherwise, we have to keep doing what we do, like stepping up the pressure on the reconvening Congress. Somehow we have to loosen the grip of the rightist Democratic Leadership Council (including Bill and Hillary Clinton) on the Democratic Party which, along with media, has distanced itself from Dennis Kucinich, the only competitive candidate calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. We must entice the Democrats sitting around with their calculators muttering about the election, to action. We must continue to call for impeachment. Despite Nancy Pelosi, we must stay focused on the impeachment of Cheney and Bush. Impeachment is one of the few tools we have to defocus the administration from its wars, defer an attack on Iran and demonstrate to children that we are responsible for our actions. Somehow we must push the debate away from whether or not the Iraqis are pulling up their socks to whether we really want to live in the grip of endless war. Historically, we've never really embraced world peace as a desirable option. Imagine the possibilities if we actually tried. If we stay the course and we are very lucky, many local, congressional and presidential candidates will emerge or current contenders will find new voices, people with the vision, courage and the honesty necessary to take on the task of whittling at the war machine. More than our lives depend upon it. The task is formidable, but the beast can and must be minimized, re-sculpted, regulated, turned around. The rich, testosterone-drunk adolescent has run out of enemies and is suffocating itself -- and us -- in its own regurgitation. Laura Santina is co-chair of the Berkeley/East Bay branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She is a freelance political and environmental writer and author of the novel, The Used Husband Store. She can be reached at: lsantina@sbcglobal.net   Your Ad Here

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