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Today's
Stories
September 4-6,
2004
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who Are and What We Do
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
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
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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Labor Day Weekend Edition
September 4-6, 2004
A History of
Cowardice
God
Save the Endangered Species Act
By
KARYN STRICKLER
No matter which manifestation of the
original energy to which you pray--God, Buddha, Allah or Mother
Nature--it's time to hit your knees and put in a request to save
the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Prayer may be the last hope
of preserving the Act, which protects the endangered species
and their habitat, upon which all life on Earth depends.
What has taken evolution three
billion years to create, may take humanity only a few generations
to destroy. Extinction means knowledge forfeited and opportunities
lost, food sources never to be tapped, medicines never to be
developed. The main cause of extinction is habitat loss. Think
of habitat as plant and animal food and housing. Tragically,
habitat which can't support our planet's animals and plant life
is ill-suited to support humanity.
Don't count on the national environmental movement -- known in
politically conscious circles as Gangrene -- to come to the defense
of the ESA, since they are the ones who laid tthe groundwork
for the destruction of the Act in the early 1990's. They bear
full responsibility for the attempts at evisceration of the Act,
which are taking place in the U.S. Congress today.
A History
of Cowardice
During my tenure as Executive
Director, from 1993-1994, the Endangered Species Coalition (ESC)
became fully prepared to fulfill our mission of reauthorizing
and strengthening the Endangered Species Act with a powerful,
regionally-focused organizational infrastructure; a broad grassroots
base and trained leaders in key districts. We had a Democratic
Congress and U.S. President, adequate funding and a strategic
plan that would have gained strength with the momentum of what
commentators were predicting would be 'the legislative battle
of the decade.'
There was one obstacle--not
right-wingers in Congress or property rights advocates out west--but
the Steering Committee of the Endangered Species Coalition.
They represented and were fully-backed by the nation's premier,
inside-the-beltway, environmental organizations -- groups like
Sierra Club, The National Audubon Society and Greenpeace USA*.
The fog of big money from wealthy
foundations that remain invested in the status quo of the fossil
fuel age and the bright lights of the power that comes from being
players in the political game of compromise, caused Gangrene
to lose sight of the path to true environmental protection.
So, despite the loud outcry from the other 137 Coalition member
groups and staff, the self-appointed Steering Committee, made
the unilateral decision that the Endangered Species Coalition
would not move for a vote on reauthorizing the ESA in 1994.
At the time, I explained to
the Steering Committee that the party controlling the White House
had lost congressional seats in all but one midterm election
-- and our job could range from slightly more difficult to nearly
impossible in 1995 -- with Republican control of Congress. Of
course 1995 saw the realization of the Republican Revolution
and the Contract on America , led by Newt Gingrich, which had
a strong anti-environmental component.
But in the face of impending
disaster -- fully aware of the dire consequences of inaction
-- the Steering Committee held fast to its 'do nothing' strategy.
That singular, short-sited decision sealed the ill fate of tens
of thousands of threatened and endangered species and contributed
to overall environmental degradation.
If the Steering Committee had
acted in the early 90's to strengthen the ESA, environmentalists
would have been fighting a difficult, but winnable battle from
an offensive position. Instead, the majority of the U.S. Congress
today are opponents of environmental protection. Proponents
of a strong ESA are relegated to fighting a weak, defensive battle,
where clinging to the environmental protections we already have
will be extremely difficult and advances will be nearly impossible.
Sadly, there is no way to recover
from such a monumental, political miscalculation. We have not
since -- and may not in our lifetime -- see a political opportunity
to reauthorize the Act, like the one presented in the early 19900's.
The cowardice displayed by the ESC Steering Committee led directly,
predictably and inexorably to the legislation which recently
passed in Richard Pombo's (R-CA) House Resources committee, designed
to gut the Endangered Species Act.
The ESA
Today
What we need is full enforcement
and complete funding of all of the provisions of the Endangered
Species Act including: listing of all species which are in danger
of extinction throughout a significant portion of their range
(endangered species) or likely to become so in the foreseeable
future (threatened species); enforcement of critical habitat
designation requirement, identifying and protecting the areas
that need special management in order for the endangered or threatened
species to recover; and mandatory recovery planning that offers
a detailed plan as to what must be done in order to have an endangered
or threatened species recover and be removed from the endangered
species list.
What we have currently is an
Act where many species that desperately need protection have
not yet been added to the endangered species list. Many other
species which are in need of listing and the full protection
it provides, languish on a 'candidate' list or a 'warranted but
precluded' list for years. Richard Pombo (R-CA) wants to make
listing species more difficult than it is today.
Another bill sponsored by Dennis
Cardoza (D-CA) recently passed in committee. Even before Cardoza's
bill makes it tougher than it is now to designate critical habitat
for endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
has not designated critical habitat for the vast majority of
all listed species. Today, despite the fact that it is required
by law, the Fish and Wildlife Service rarely designates critical
habitat, unless forced to do so by a court order.
Most listed species have no
recovery plans. Some of the species on the list have gone extinct,
or suffered population decline while awaiting recovery planning
and implementation. Even if recovery plans are written, they
don't have adequate detail for real recovery and are only advisory,
without specific mandates to bring species back from the brink
of extinction.
The two pieces of legislation
by offered by Representatives Pombo and Cardoza passed in committee
by comfortable margins and are expected to pass the U.S. House
of Representatives. The Washington Post says that the bills
are unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate prior to adjournment.
According to a story in the
San Francisco Chronicle, 'the [House Resources] committee's ranking
Democrat, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., offered a substitute bill
that would have tightened the deadlines for making decisions
and also required the [FWS] to address the backlog of 451 listed
species that are awaiting critical habitat designations and 1,021
[of the 1,200] listed species without recovery plans.' That
bill failed in committee, but gives an idea of what is sorely
needed to strengthen the ESA.
Contrary to the claims of ESA
opponents, proponents of a strong Endangered Species Act support
the rights of small property owners. Proponents have supported
legislation that contains financial incentives to help enable
individual private property owners to be stewards to endangered
species. Proponents of a strong ESA do not support the destruction
of critical habitat by large landowners and wealthy, corporate
interests seeking regulatory relief and freedom from restrictions
on their exploitation of our nation's natural resources.
Americans know that we need
long-term jobs that are part of a sustainable economy, rather
than jobs based on short-sighted destruction of our natural resources,
a scenario that will inevitably lead to economic collapse. We
need to ensure that extractive industries work in a way that
doesn't hurt the environment, which sustains our economy. A
strong ESA maintains our livelihoods by protecting natural resources,
jobs and strengthening the economy.
The American public overwhelmingly
supports the Endangered Species Act. They know that the Act
keeps us healthy by safeguarding many of the species we rely
on for life-saving medicines to fight cancer and other life-threatening
diseases. It protects yet undiscovered cures for diseases like
HIV-AIDS. The ESA protects forests, which are the lungs of the
earth, purifying our air. It protects wetlands, which are the
kidneys of the earth, filtering our water. A strong Act is an
early warning system--like the canary in the coal mine--identifying
threats to human existence.
Opponents of a strong ESA are
fighting on behalf of a few wealthy corporations, not the people.
They are serious, well-funded and organized. They are a formidable
foe, skilled in the art of deception. They disguise the industry
zealots they represent with coalition names which sound species-friendly.
Among the members of the Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition
in 1993 were: Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, Chevron
USA and Western States Petroleum Association. Their intent is
to destroy the Endangered Species Act.
Karyn Strickler is former Director of the national
Endangered Species Coalition. You can reach her at fiftyplusone@earthlink.net
.
* Members of the Steering Committee
of the national Endangered Species Coalition 1993-1994 included:
Sierra Club, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now called Earth
Justice), Environmental Defense Fund, National Audubon Society,
The Wilderness Society, Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation,
Sierra Club, Center for Marine Conservation (advisory status),
Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States, the
World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council (advisory
status).
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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