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When America Said No!
Waterboarding, sensory deprivation, confessions extorted under torture… We have been here before. Eighty years ago Zechariah Chafee’s investigation of “Lawlessness in Law Enforcement” spelled the beginning of the end for routine police torture in America. In our new CounterPunch newletter Peter Lee sets Chafee’s findings against the documented tortures of the Bush-Cheney years, whose executors are now protected by Obama. Every word of Chafee’s repudiation of extra-legal detention and coercive interrogation is valid today and should be read by all, starting with the 44th president. Also in this newsletter Marcus Rediker describes what happened when he lectured on the history of pirates to inmates at Auburn Prison. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
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Today's Stories July 17-19, 2009 Nikolas Kozloff July 16, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts Afshin Rattansi Iranian Planes and the Hidden Toll of Economic Sanctions Gregory V. Button Evan Knappenberger Michelle Bollinger Russell Mokhiber Belén Fernández Alice Walker Nicholas Dearden Albert Osueke Website of the Day
Manuel Garcia, Jr. Vijay Prashad Dean Baker Ray McGovern Jonathan Cook David Rosen Eric Walberg Greg Moses Sousan Hammad Binoy Kampmark Tracy McLellan Website of the Day July 14, 2009 Eamonn McCann Joanne Mariner Franklin Spinney Steve Heilig Ali Abunimah Dave Lindorff Nikolas Kozloff Ellen Brown Alice Slater Ron Jacobs Joe Allen Website of the Day July 13, 2009 Uri Avnery Mike Whitney P. Sainath Gareth Porter Paul Moore Tim Wise Andy Worthington Former Insider Shatters Credibility of Military Commissions David Macaray Cal Winslow Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day July 10-12, 2009 Alexander Cockburn José Pertierra John Ross Conn Hallinan Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross / Carl Ginsburg Michael Neumann Gilad Atzmon Jeffrey St. Clair Ellen Hodgson Brown Jim Goodman Christopher Bickerton Wendell Potter Dave Lindorff David Ker Thomson Anthony DiMaggio Raymond Lawrence Walid El Houri Stephanie Westbrook Roger Gaess David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
July 9, 2009 Ronnie Cummings Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff James Bovard Norman Solomon Afghanistan: the Escalation Scam Allan Nairn Andy Worthington Tomas Borge Nadia Hijab Paul Krassner Website of the Day July 8, 2009 Saul Landau Dean Baker Winslow T. Wheeler Eric Walberg Ray McGovern David Rosen Dr. Mona El Farra Ron Jacobs Benjamin Dangl Alan Farago Website of the Day July 7, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Uri Avnery Brian M. Downing Gary Leupp Gregory A. Burris David Macaray Laura Flanders Alan Farago Greg Moses Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 6, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Nikolas Kozloff Gary Leupp Jonathan Cook Tim Wise Franklin Lamb Charles R. Larson Carlos Benemann Shepherd Bliss Jerry Kroth Karyn Strickler Website of the Day July 3-5, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Eamonn Fingleton Jeffrey St. Clair Mike Whitney Pam Martens George Ciccariello-Maher Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Anthony DiMaggio Roger Burbach John Ross Nikolas Kozloff Gareth Porter Andy Worthington Saul Landau David Macaray Adam Federman Jane Slaughter Labor's Vague Rally for Health Care Russell Mokhiber Black Caucus Muzzled on Israeli Kidnapping of McKinney Robert Jensen Robert Bryce Belén Fernandez Missy Comley Beattie C. G. Estabrook Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend July 2, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff Wendell Potter Ellen Hodgson Brown Christian Christensen Iran: Networked Dissent? Patrick Irelan Binoy Kampmark Returning Iraq Nicola Nasser Brian Tokar Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 1, 2009 Vijay Prashad Alberto Vallente Thorensen Paul Craig Roberts Robert Weissman Manuel García, Jr. Victor Figueroa-Clark / Pablo Navarrete Norman Solomon Franklin Lamb Martha Rosenberg Diane Rejman Website of the Day June 30, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Benjamin Dangl Jonathan Cook Franklin Lamb George Wuerthner Todd Gordon Ron Jacobs Kenneth Libby Julian Vigo Website of the Day
June 29, 2009 Ishmael Reed Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Conn Hallinan James G. Abourezk Ralph Nader Carol Miller Greg Moses Website of the Day June 26-28, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Doug Peacock Daniel Wolff Mike Whitney John Ross David Rosen Emily Ratner Gareth Porter Farid Marjai Nadia Hijab Paul Craig Roberts Fred Gardner Carl Ginsburg Paul Watson David Ker Thomson Farzana Versey Geoff Berne Todd Alan Price Ramzy Baroud Jeff Sher Dr. Carol Paris Despite My Arrest by Max Baucus, I Will Continue to Advocate for Quality Health Care for All Walter Brasch Adultery as Family Value? Glen Johnson Charlotte Laws Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend June 25, 2009 Kathy Kelly Jack Bratich Wendell Potter Charles R. Larson Alan Farago Jonathan Cook Gareth Porter Bitta Mostofi / David Macaray Mark Schuller Website of the Day June 24, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Dean Baker Andy Worthington James Bovard Diana Gibson / P. Sainath Gareth Porter Robert Alvarez Dave Lindorff Steven Colatrella Remembering Giovanni Arrighi Website of the Day
June 23, 2009 David Price Patrick Cockburn James Ridgeway / Dave Lindorff Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Gary Leupp Brian M. Downing Robert Bryce Nicholas Dearden Yousef Munayyer Website of the Day June 22, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Chris Floyd Jack Z. Bratich Atash Yaghmaian Laura Carlsen Paul Craig Roberts Vijay Prashad Fred Gardner Andy Thayer David Macaray Website of the Day
June 19 - 21, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Al Giordano Henry A. Giroux Anthony DiMaggio Paul Craig Roberts John Ross Gareth Porter Carl Ginsburg Tommi Avicolli Mecca Joe Bageant Serge Halimi P. Sainath Jim Goodman Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Robert Fantina Harvey Wasserman Walter Brasch David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Ben Sonnenberg Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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Weekend Edition White Male Anger and the Sotomayor HearingsThe Ricci Case and the Myth of Special TreatmentBy ANITA SINHA and DANIEL FARBMAN One of the most pervasive questions swirling around the probable confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court has been, “did she receive preferential treatment because she was a Latina from the Bronx?” Commentators, particularly from the far right, have spent air and ink to argue that Sotomayor was only admitted to Ivy League schools, received top grades, swiftly advanced in her career, and was selected to be the next Supreme Court justice—exclusively because she is Latina. Many of these same commentators have pivoted from these unfounded conclusions to attack Sotomayor for showing bias against average, hard-working, White men, by repeatedly discussing her limited, noncontroversial role in the New Haven firefighter case, Ricci v. DeStefano. Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee have brought up the Ricci case everyday this week during Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, and called on Mr. Ricci to testify yesterday against Judge Sotomayor. Their argument seems to be: Sotomayor has been a beneficiary of unfair preference over White men like Mr. Ricci, and she will continue to prefer people like her (i.e. people of color) over Whites from her seat on the Supreme Court. Frank Ricci could say nothing about Judge Sotomayor’s fitness for the Supreme Court. The case was not even about preferential treatment, but instead challenged our reliance on testing regimes. What Mr. Ricci’s testimony did do is voice the unspoken fear behind the discussions of preferential treatment: White men are wronged when people of color and women are “favored.” The political motivation behind the claims of preferential treatment and the spotlight on Frank Ricci has ignited a new round of discussions about the dreaded alliteration: affirmative action. And so while the allegations made to diminish the accomplishments of Judge Sotomayor are outrageous, they cannot simply be tossed away as far right rhetoric. There is a critique of affirmative action shared by many in the mainstream, namely that all preferences do is diminish the real achievements of people of color and women and engender resentment in working class White communities whose opportunities are being stolen. The mainstream fear is that any “unequal” treatment will harm rather than help the march toward equality. This mainstream critique of affirmative action has something in common with the egregious proclamations that have been made about Sotomayor. They both rely on the same falsehood: that there is an even playing field across racial, economic, and gender lines. It is this myth of the even playing field that allows the notions of “preference” and “unfairness” to exist in the first place. As soon as you acknowledge that the playing field may be uneven, the concepts of preference and fairness become much more complicated: If I have a head start in a footrace, can I reasonably complain that my opponent is given a boost along the way? And if my head start is long and the boost is short, does it really make sense for me to call it “preferential treatment?” The reality is that the playing field of American society is not even. The appeal of the ideal, however, is strong, and the pride associated with it deep. It is a vision so fundamental to American identity that it is the second line of the Declaration of Independence: All men are created equal. It is a beautiful ideal, and some have shown its promise, notably our current president, the current first Black Attorney General Eric Holder, and the first female Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor. But these examples are, at best, positive indicators that we may one day all be equal. What they do not represent is that structural exclusion is a thing of the past. Take, for example, our public education system. Every kid in America gets a fighting chance to succeed through hard work. But how does this play out when our schools are not even playing fields? The still segregated and poor urban and rural schools that most students of color attend do a worse job of educating those students than the more integrated and wealthy suburban schools. And so, in 2006, 51 percent of Black students graduated from high school nationwide, as compared to 76 percent of White students. In that same year, a Black student was more than three times more likely than a White student to be suspended, despite research showing that Black students are no more likely to misbehave. Add to all this that Black and Latino students are far more likely to attend schools armed with metal detectors and police, and you see how drastic the differences really are. These statistics are a few among many that lay bare the extreme racial injustices that persist in our society (others: the infant mortality rate for Black families is twice that for White families; one in fifteen Black males over 18 are in prison, compared to one in 106 White males in the same age group). The strong temptation when those with privilege are presented with statistics like these is to protest–it is not our fault, we did not create these inequities. But these inequalities exist and persist because of our actions and inactions. There is no credible movement, for example, to revamp the criminal justice system, despite statistical evidence of gross racial disparities. As for Judge Sotomayor: What does it mean to say that she received “preferential treatment?” Would anyone dispute that she would have had more material advantages in a working class, White suburb? Was she “preferred” over a White student when she got into Princeton? What about all the legacy students who were preferred to non-legacy students at Yale? Was she “preferred” when she was nominated to the Supreme Court? There are currently seven White men on the court—were they not “preferred” all their lives because of their identities? It is hard to acknowledge that the privilege undergirding the power structure in our society may not be entirely justified, or worse, that it may be based on an unjust set of rules. It is far easier to frame attacks on the status quo distribution of privilege as unfair and preferential. To accept the shallow colorblind fairness argument makes it far too easy to ignore the deeper injustice that we see every day in our society. Ignoring that injustice is not only, itself, unjust, it also delays us from fixing real, systemic problems that affect us all. Anita Sinha is a Senior Attorney and Daniel Farbman is a legal fellow at Advancement Project, a national policy, communications and legal action group committed to racial justice. To watch a video produced by Advancement Project on the negative rhetoric surrounding Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation, click here. For more information about Advancement Project, go to www.advancementproject.org. You can email the authors at asinha@advancementproject.org and dfarbman@advancementproject.org.
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
Spell Albuquerque: Waiting for
Lightning
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