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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter EXCLUSIVE! HOW THE FBI SPIED ON EDWARD SAID First look at secret files: How G-Men kept Said under surveillance from 1971. David Price traces years of snooping on US's best known Palestinian Bush says 30,000 dead in Iraq but real number caused by 2003 US attack is AT LEAST 180,000, maybe twice that as Andrew Cockburn digs out the real numbers Is the US Constitution worth saving? Hmmm, maybe ... New York Times takes a year to make up its mind. Cockburn and St Clair on NYT and NSA ... 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! Looking for a Year-End Deduction? Remember Contributions to CounterPunch are Tax-Deductible Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Today's Stories Dec. 31 / Jan. 1, 2005/6 Patrick Cockburn The Year in Iraq December 30,2005 Evo Morales I Believe Only in the Power of the People Earl Ofari Hutchinson The Toxic Air in Black America Dave Lindorff Bush's NSA Spying Jeopardizes National Security Gary Leupp Targeting Iran and Syria: Goss Builds Case for Turkey-Based Attacks Ron Jacobs A Dead New Year's Eve Brian Concannon Down in Haiti, the Chickens are Coming Home to Roost Sandra Lucas Inside TeenScreen: the Making of Mental Patients T.W. Croft The Wind Has Changed: Gulf Storms, Fables of Reconstruction and Hard Times for the Big Easy Website of the Day Images of Mass Consumption   December 29, 2005 Norman Solomon Journalists Should Expose Secrets, Not Keep Them Missy Comley Beattie Christmas Without Chase Dave Zirin Over the Edge: the Year in Sports Kevin Zeese Top 10 Antiwar Stories of 2005 Derrick O'Keefe Bolivia and Venezuela Offer an Alternative to Neo-Liberalism Sam Bahour Turning the Page in Palestine, Again Macdonald Stainsby What's Behind Paul Martin's Broadside Against Bush? Bill & Kathleen Christison Let's Stop a US/Israel War on Iran Website of the Day Deconstructing the Democrats   December 28, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair The Worst Day of Ted Stevens' Life? Lila Rajiva Operation Romeo: Lessons on Terror Laws from India Amira Hass The Humanitarian Lie Joshua Frank Let the Drilling Begin: Iraq's IMF Loan David Swanson Leaking Top Secret Lies Richard Thieme High Time for Torture Paul Craig Roberts Three Books to Wake You Up Website of the Day Conyers Report: "Constitution in Crisis"   December 27, 2005 Evan Jones Whither the National Guard? Uri Avnery The Peretz Shuffle Mike Whitney Pop Goes the Bubble! Gideon Levy Dusty Trail to Death David Swanson Kurt Vonnegut: a Man Without a Country Norman Solomon NSA Spied on UN Diplomats During Push for Invasion of Iraq   December 26, 2005 Lawrence R. Velvel The Usurpers of Our Freedoms Lance Olsen The Toughest Challenge for Intelligent Design Ben Terrall No Holiday Compassion for Haiti's Political Prisoners Scott Boehm Santa Drove a Bulldozer Charlie Ehlen A Vietnam Vet's Appraisal of Bush Tom Kerr The Atheist Dad at Christmas   December 24/25, 2005 Aleander Cockburn The Year of Vanished Credibility James Petras Iran in the Crosshairs: Israel's Deadline Ralph Nader Talkin' About the "I"-Word Lila Rajiva Horowitz's New Project: Begging for Brownshirts Fred Gardner Dialogue with the DEA Ron Jacobs When Impeachment was Taken Seriously Dave Lindorff Xmas Games for a Gitmo World Gary Leupp Happy Birthday Mithras!: the True Meaning of December 25th Saul Landau Bush's Year in Review: a Report Card from Santa John Chuckman A Christmas Tale for Bushtime Dr. Susan Block Merry XXX-mas! St. Clair / Vest / Pollack / Donnelly Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Holt, Jones, Landau, Ross and Albert Website of the Weekend Merry Xmas, From the Beatles   December 23, 2005 John Ross The Corrido of Death Row: Mexico Ends the Death Penalty Chris Floyd Gospel Truth: Bush Hypocrisy, Radical Holiness and Woody Guthrie Lawrence Mishel / Ross Eisenbrey The Economy in a Nutshell Joanne Mariner Bringing Torture into Court: the Loopholes in McCain's Bill Eric Johnson-Debaufre The Trew Law of Free Democracies? Ray McGovern Cheney the Bully; Rockefeller the Coward J. L. Chestnut, Jr. What White America Doesn't Hear Website of the Day BB King: What I've Learned This Year   December 22, 2005 Ingmar Lee The Citizen's Metamorphosis: I Awoke an Object of Suspicion Elisa Salasin Classrooms in Cages Christopher Brauchli Absolut Bush: "I Swear to Upturn and Rear End the Constitution of the United States" Robin Blackburn Rudolf Meidner, a Visionary Pragmatist Evelyn Pringle Dan Olmstead, Autism & the Dangers of Thimerosal Amira Hass A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey: "I Refused and He Hit Me" Francis A. Boyle Iraq and the Laws of War: US as "Belligerent Occupant" Stew Albert The Spies Who Thought We Were Messy Website of the Day How to Reach a Human Voice   December 21, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts One Nation, Under Prosecutors: Presumed Guilty Lila Rajiva A Short History of Radio Free Iraq Joshua Frank Nancy Pelosi's Truth Dave Zirin The Bray of Pigs: Bush Nixes Beisbol Cubano Ramzy Baroud US Image Problem Rooted in History, Not Media Sonia Nettnin Connect the Dots: Decoding Bush's Mumbo Jumbo Ben Saul Torture as Calculated Policy Jonathan Cronin Anniversary of a Handshake: Cherry-picking History in Iraq Patrick Cockburn Iraq Election Spells Total Defeat for US Website of the Day Nixon on Presidential Power   December 20, 2005 Jackie Corr Natural Gas: a Montana Tragedy Earl Ofari Hutchinson Nothing New About NSA Spying on Americans Michael Donnelly "Eco Terrorism": Cui Bono? Gian Paulo Accardo Empire of Shame: a Conversation with Jean Ziegler Pierre Tristam Trifler, Fibber, Sophist, Spy: How Bush Flouted the Constitution Norman Solomon The Foulest Media Performances of the Year Sen. Robert Byrd No President is Above the Law Dave Lindorff Missing Black Boxes in WTC Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by NTSB, Concealed by FBI Website of the Day FBI's Spy Files: Got Yours Yet?   December 19, 2005 Mike Marqusee The Global War on Civil Liberties Gary Leupp Feds Ask Student: "Why are You Reading that Little Red Book?" Ron Jacobs The Antiwar Movement, the Democrats and the Delusions of Bushworld John Blair Stealing the Golden Shovel: Lessons on Civil Disobedience Gideon Levy Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint Kevin Zeese The Global War on Civil Liberties Missy Comley Beattie Warnings from a Military Man and Dad Don Santina Ride 'Em Brush Cutter: Cowboy Imagery and the American Presidency Website of the Day A Call for Justice in Palestine   December 17 / 18, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Time-Delayed Journalism: the NYT and the NSA's Illegal Spying Operation Gabriel Kolko The Decline of the American Empire Susan Alcorn Texas: Three Days and Two Nights Werther The Democrats are an Impotent and Tolerated Opposition Party Ralph Nader The Senator Without Guile: Proxmire of Wisconsin Patrick Cockburn Counting Ballots and Bodies in Baghdad Fred Gardner When Prosecutors Deceive: Did the Feds Frame Bryan Epis? Dave Lindorff Spy Scandal Far Larger Than Just NSA Ned Sublette Essence is Gasoline Lee Sustar The Class War Economy Jason Leopold Did Karl Rove Destroy Evidence in Plame Case? Laura Carlsen Report from Hong Kong: Deciphering the Language of Globalization Jeff White Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace? Ray McGovern Torture Between the Lines Chris Floyd Pale Fire: the White Death of Fallujah William Loren Katz Remembering the First Quagmire at Xmastime: Zachary Taylor vs. the Seminoles Rose Miriam Elizalde Mashenka and the Bear: a Tale for Our Time Greg Moses Pinter's Provocation: Self Love in America Heather Gray Privatizing the Social Contract Alison Weir My Bethlehem Experience: the Sequel St Clair / Walker / Pollack Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Landau, Engel and Albert Website of the Day At Least Homeland Security Believes that Mao Still Matters   December 16, 2005 Tom Kerr CNN's Goddess of Vengeance: What's Not to Love About Nancy Grace? Mark Engler The WTO in Hong Kong: Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty? John Bomar When Ollie North Came to Hot Springs Patrick Cockburn Iraq Votes; Now What? Pierre Tristam Iraq, Ourselves William S. Lind The Fine Art of Withdrawal Cyril Neville Why I'm Not Going Back to New Orleans Robert Jensen Monkey See, Monkey Do: Reason, Evolution and Intelligent Design Saul Landau Bolivian Democracy and the US: a History Lesson Website CounterPunch & Dr. Price Vanquish Anthropologist Spies   December 15, 2005 Oren Ben-Dor The Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine Stan Cox "Agroterrorists" Needn't Bother Joshua Frank Organic Inconsistencies: Federal Food Politics Ben Terrall Waivers for State Terror: Bush and the Indonesian Generals Patrick Cockburn Silence Descends on Baghdad Monica Benderman What Peace Needs Walter A. Davis Fear and Loathing in San Quentin Vijay Prashad Our Torture Problem Website of the Day Hourly Wages After Four Years of "Recovery" December 14, 2005 Patrick Cockburn Iran Poised to Win Iraqi Elections Paul Craig Roberts Lethal Developments Lawrence R. Velvel A Bore Called Bob: On Trying to Read Woodward Wayne Garcia The Summer of Sami John Sugg Preach Peace, Sami; Get Truthful Prosecutors Gary Leupp Bush and the Constitution: "Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper" Ray McGovern Torture: a Defining Moment Alan Maass They Murdered a Peacemaker April Hurley, MD NPR Swallows Bush's Guestimate on Iraqi Dead Kevin Alexander Gray Richard Pryor's Mirror on America   December 13, 2005 Stephen T. Banko, III Heroes Patrick Cockburn America's War So Far: 1000 Days of Getting It Wrong Laura Carlsen What's at Play at the WTO Karl Grossman Nuclear Routlette in the Troposhere: Another NASA Plutonium Launch Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Original Sin Kevin Zeese Report from the International Peace Conference in London Norman Solomon At the Gates of San Quentin Michael G. Smith Ending the Death Penalty Stew Albert California Killers Bob Dylan Song for Tookie: George Jackson Phil Gasper California Murders Tookie Williams: a Report from San Quentin Website of the Day Boot Hill   December 12, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts The Defenders of Torture Lawrence R. Velvel George the Disconnected Jessica Stewart My Husband is at the Gates of Gitmo George Bisharat Busharon: a Fusion of Like Minds Nate Mezmer Killing Tookie Williams: If a Black Man Dies in America, Does It Make a Sound? Earl Ofari Hutchinson Richard Pryor Wasn't Crazy Alison Weir My Bethlehem Experience Seth Sandronsky Thank You, Richard Pryor Patrick Cockburn Iraq: the Beginning of the End Website of the Day Wrestling for Peace December 10 / 11, 2005 Alexander Cockburn All the News That's Fit to Buy Landau / Hassen The Condemned of Nablus Ralph Nader The Widening Wasteland of American Media Linn Washington, Jr The Philly Media and Mumia: When They Don't Bash, They Ignore Bill Christison Apathy, US Culpability and Human Rights Day Mike Ferner The Courage of Jim Loney Elizabeth Schulte Abortion and the Bush Court Neve Gordon / Yigal Bronner Murder in Jerusalem Linda S. Heard Saddam's Trial: Grandstanding in the Theater of the Absurd Ingmar Lee A Kayak Journey to Vancouver Island's Wildest Forest Ray McGovern Lies, Torture and the Six Blind Mice John Chuckman Torture and White Phosphorous: the Moral Hell of Condi Rice John Ryan An Honorary Degree in Child Sacrifice?: Madeleine Albright and US Foreign Policy Dick J. Reavis From Waco to Baghdad Christopher Brauchli Bush's Hired Pens Behzad Yaghmaian Trapped at the Gates of the European Union Aseem Shrivastava The Winter in Delhi, 1984 John Ross Bushlandia in Black and White Ben Tripp War, What is It Good For? St. Clair / Pollack / Vest / Despair Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Bear Dog, Ford, Mickey Z, Albert & Engel Website of the Week Burn a Brick for Bush   December 9, 2005 Linn Washington, Jr. Roots of Gitmo Torture Lie Close to Home Dave Zirin / Mike Stark On Seeing Wesley Baker Die Patrick Cockburn Blair Tries to Cover Up $1.3 Billion Iraqi Theft Alexander Cockburn Murtha Returns to Attack; Flays Bush Lila Rajiva Shooting the Mentally Ill Gary Leupp White House Liars on the Defensive Jason Leopold Rove Running Out of Answers, Time Bruce K. Gagnon So These Are the Democrats? Andrew Cockburn Meet Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper Website of the Day "X-mas Time for Visa"   December 8, 2005 Kathy Kelly Blessed are the Merciful in Baghdad James Petras The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again) William S. Lind Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory Laura Carlsen The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico Justin Akers Bush's Border War Thomas Graham, Jr A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space? Norman Solomon Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn The Lost John Lennon Interview Website of the Day Pigs at the Trough of War   December 7, 2005 John Ryan Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate Gary Leupp Suicide Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq Fran Quigley How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Bush War Crimes: the Posse Gathers Joshua Frank Bird Dogging Hillary William W. Morgan Rendition, Torture and Democracy Dave Lindorff A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal Patrick Cockburn Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage" Harold Pinter Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture Website of the Day Witnesses to Torture   December 6, 2005 Ron Jacobs No One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel Patrick Cockburn Inside Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder Yifat Susskind Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's AIDS Policy Mike Whitney How Greenspan Skewered America Pat Williams Public Land Should Stay Public Paul Craig Roberts Condi to Europe: Trust Us Website of the Day Debunking Woodward   December 5, 2005 John Walsh The Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did They Know It? Brian Cloughley The Poor Dead: the Relative Value of Human Lives Mokhiber / Weissman The Corporate Crime Quiz Robert Jensen How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment Norman Solomon Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan Peter Rost, MD An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated Federal Laws When They Fired Me Lila Rajiva The Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons Website of the Day National Day of Counter-Recruitment December 3 / 4, 2005 Alexander Cockburn The Revolt of the Generals Lawrence R. Velvel Iraq, Brains and Lies Rev. William Alberts The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod Saul Landau Latino Troops Have Parents Ralph Nader Consumerama Paul Craig Roberts Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts Mike Whitney Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America Allan Lichtman The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government Dave Lindorff A Sudden Rush for the Exits? Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections Fred Gardner Oregon NORML Honors Growers Manuel Garcia, Jr. On Freeing the CPT Carol Wolman Remembering the 60s St. Clair / Vest / Walker / Pollack Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Engel and Orloski Website of the Weekend Free the CPT   December 2, 2005 Stan Goff An Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad Mike Ferner Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings Over Baghdad? Christopher Brauchli Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma Niranjan Ramakrishnan Questions for the President Manuel Talens The Chávez Theorem Peter Phillips Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Alabama's Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy Website of the Day Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!   December 1, 2005 John Walsh, MD The God Gaps Ron Jacobs Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq? Jenna Orkin EPA's Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero Joshua Frank Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine Tiffany Ten Eyck Rank and File Resistance to Delphi Missy Comley Beattie Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play Eli Stephens The Reed and Kerry Show Elaine Cassel A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla Website of the Day Rare Erotica       Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition December 31 / January 1, 2005/6 Hayseeds and Hickxploitation in the Land of Reality Television The Farmer Wants a Wife By EILEEN E. SCHELL Love is in the air in Rural America. Farmers seeking mates can visit Farmersonly.com, an online dating service designed especially for rural people or those seeking the country lifestyle. And if one can't find a mate for the "simple life "in cyberspace, there's always Reality Television. FreemantleMedia, the production company that brought us "The Price is Right" and "American Idol," recently held auditions for its proposed show "The Farmer Wants a Wife." The show has already debuted to strong reviews in European markets. The idea behind the show is to match up busy young farmers with city women who want to live the "traditional" lifestyle of a small farm (whatever that means in our highly technologized age). The casting team recently held well-attended auditions in Nebraska, producer Julie Uribe's home state, as well as in California, Ohio, and Texas. Farmers are a practical and innovative lot, and when they see a potential solution to a problem, they try it out. . So I don't blame the male farmers lining up to audition for the show. It is hard to meet women when you're farming twelve hours a day and when the nearest night club is the Grange Hall. However, John Hansen, President of the Nebraska Farmers' Union, is concerned that "The Farmer Wants a Wife" will portray farmers as a bunch of "hayseeds." Even some of the farmers who recently auditioned for the show worry that they might be portrayed as rednecks or simpletons. Concerns over the show's potential portrayal of farmers are well-founded as rural people often end up as fodder for hicksxplotiation films and television shows. On one end of the extreme, farmers are often revered as noble yeomen, what Thomas Jefferson referred to as "the chosen people of God." On the other end of the extreme, they are the overall wearing, "golly gee hayseeds" of children's books and television shows or the "tebaccy" chewing rednecks of B-list films. Farming as an occupation also gains mixed press. Often, farmers are depicted as fat cats drawing on farm subsidies (living off so-called "agriwelfare") or they are portrayed as an endangered species, as those who are obsolete, losing their farms and way of life because they are not sufficiently modernized or efficient. Never mind who really profits from farm subsidies (often large, corporate farms), and never mind the farm policies that have driven medium and small producers into the ground and off their land. That's a story that won't make it on reality TV or if it does, it will be a 20 second scene accompanied by sad fiddle music. Could it be that the "simple" in the "Simple Life" (another "reality TV" farce set in rural America) refers to the naive view that many hold of rural life in general, and farm life in particular? Although we eat every day, how many consumers of food living in urban and suburban areas really understand what it means to be a farmer, let alone a farmer's wife? And by the way, let's not forget that women are farmers, too. If the producers of the show are going to really take up the challenge that farmers face finding a suitable mate, they should consider matching a woman farmer with a male city slicker looking for his heartland honey. And what about Brokeback Mountain cowboys and cowgirls-those who seek love with the same sex? What kind of billing will they get? For the "Sex in the City" women earnestly seeking those heartland hunks, I'd suggest, before you sign the contract, checking out a true "reality show": The Farmer's' Wife, the much-watched 1998 PBS documentary series featuring Nebraska farmers Juanita and Darrel Buschkoetter (see http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/farmerswife/). David Sutherland's documentary provides insights about what it means to be in a marriage where farming is at the center: dealing with stress, in-laws, loan officers, large farm debt, low prices, crop failures, and second jobs. While I agree with critics like A.V. Krebs that the PBS documentary is not as instructive as it could be about the current state of the family farm and farm policy, there are insights here about what it means to be married to a farm as well as to a farmer. I would like to challenge the producers of The Farmer Wants a Wife to do more than strike the twangy-chords of Reality-TV induced rural romance. Try to tell more than a one-dimensional story about American agricultural life and the relationships of those engaged in it-- for that is a story the American public needs just as much as those farmers need their wives. Eileen Schell grew up on a third-generation family farm in eastern Washington state. She is Associate Professor of Writing at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. She can be reached at: eeschell@syr.edu

Coming in January from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher 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 The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"     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.