How
the Press &
the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
January 3,
2004
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2004
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 31,
2004
Farrah Hassen
The
Palestinian Right of Return: a View from Syria
Dave Lindorff
US Air's Bold New Idea: Work for Your Boss for Free!
George Capaccio
Tsunami Hits Iraq
Mike Whitney
Iraq v. Tsunami: Media Duplicity
Peter Phillips
The Tsunami and the Corporate Media: Waves of Hypocrisy
Christopher
Deliso
War
and the Tsunami: Putting It in Perspective
December 30,
2004
Lila Rajiva
Unnatural
Disaster? Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Testing
Robert Fisk
The
Ghosts of Vietnam
Roger Burbach
Argentina
v. the IMF
Stan Cox
9/11 and 12/26: How to React
Walter Brasch
Bush and Tsunamis: Heartless in Crawford
Christopher Brauchli
Empire of the Misers
Alexandra Spieldoch
NAFTA Through a Gender Lens: "Free Trade" Pacts and
Women
Paul Kincaid Jameison
Grief, Relief and the Stingy West
Dan Bacher
The Water Kings of California
Paul Craig
Roberts
Unbecoming
Conduct
December 29,
2004
Dave Lindorff
Us,
Stingy?: It's All Relative
M. Shahid Alam
America
and Islam: Seeking Parallels
Ronald D. Hoffman
Tsunamis
and Nuclear Power Plants
Sam Bahour
/ Todd May
Elections
Without Democracy
Fred Gardner
Ricky Does 60 Minutes
Ali Khan
Who's Feeding the Bin Laden Legend?
John Hansen
Family Farms Are Being Fed to Corporate Sharks
Sam Lewin
How the Justice Department Continues to Screw the Sioux
Richard Oxman
As Time Goes By With Andy Goldsworthy
Mickey Z.
A Wave of Questions: Putting a Disaster in Context
Website of the Day
Banking While Muslim
December 28,
2004
Brian Cloughley
The
Chief Weirdo at the Pentagon: Rumsfeld Must Go
Joshua Frank
Privacy Piracy? What Howard Dean May Bring to the DNC
Jessica Leight
The
Chilean Miracle: Less Than Meets the Eye
Dave Lindorff
A
Shameful Response to Disaster
John Walsh
Disappearing the Anti-War Movement at the NYTs
Dave Zirin
The Death of Reggie White: an Off the Field Obituary
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Be Careful Not to Get Too Much Education: It's Happened to a
Lot of Good Christians
Ron Jacobs
Iran
2004: The Resistance and the Western Anti-War Movement
December 27,
2004
M. Junaid Alam
"Civilization
v. Barbarism": an Interview with Noam Chomsky
Michael Donnelly
Greens and Greenbacks: How Nonprofit Careerism Derailed the "Revolution"
Greg Moses
Texas Election Scandal: Forty Faxes and a Whisper
Toni Solo
Colombia's Appalling Vista: Justice With Eyes Wide Open
Brian Kwoba
Blaming the Victims of the 2004 Elections
Genna Goodman-Campbell
Honduras Validates Its Banana Republic Status, Again
Mike Whitney
Disappearing Act: Fallujah and the Media
Ari Shavit
"Zionism Has Exhausted Itself": an Interview with Amos
Elon
Richard Oxman
Reflections on a Handful of Activists
Saul Landau
James
Cason's Cuban Delusions
December 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Yup,
It's Moral Outrage Time
Diane Christian
The Christmas Christ
Dr. Susan Block
Faith-Based Sex
Gary Leupp
Rumsfeld, His Critics and the Draft
Ron Jacobs
Music in Wartime
Elaine Cassel
Articles I Didn't Write
Jim Minick
Beyond Organic
Poets Basement
Louise, Landau, Orloski, Albert
and Collins
December 24,
2004
Diane Christian
Winning:
Rummy and John Milton
Chad Nagle
Ukraine's
Real Underdog
Saul Landau
My Friend Richard Barnet
Greg Moses
Ramsey Muniz Speaks
Joe DeRaymond
The Endless War in Colombia: a View From Within
Borzou Daragahi
Iraq's Christians: Tolerated by Saddam; Targets Under Occupation
Mike Whitney
Rummy's Quagmire of Lies
Francis A. Boyle
O Little Town of Bethlehem: Another Christmas Under Occupation
William Loren
Katz
Florida 1837: Christmas Eve Resistance to the First US Occupation
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
December 20,
2004
Gary Leupp
Japan
in Iraq
Robert Fisk
An
Army Without Compassion
Uri Avnery
The Mountain and the Mouse
Francisco Letelier
My Case Against Pinochet
Patrick Cockburn
The Polls of Fear
Bill Conroy
Charles Bowden on the Legacy of Gary Webb: "He Drew Blood"
Yoshie Furuhashi
Chokeholds of a Giant: Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain
David Swanson
Media Blackout of Bush's War on Labor
Chad Nagle
Did Yushchenko Poison Himself?
December 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
They Hated Gary Webb
Saul Landau
Gen.
Pinochet Should Also Face Charges in DC
Patrick Cockburn
Losing
Mosul: Once They Called It a Model for the Occupation
Douglas Valentine
Wolves
and Revolution in Venezuela: a Caracas Romance
Ray McGovern
Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear: the New China / Russia Alliance
Fred Gardner
DEA Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly
Jean-Guy Allard
Locked Up Naked in a Hole Within a Hole: Have the Cuban 5 Been
Tortured in US Prisons?
Ron Jacobs
Drifters Escape, Again: Encounters with Berkeley's Police
Raymond G.
Helmick, S.J.
The Law and Peace in the Middle East
Sean Sellers
Values Voters, Desperate Housewives and Sweatshop Tacos
Lee Sustar
Christmas
on the Picket Line at CNH: "They Want to Break Our Unions"
Richard Thieme
Webb's Wife: "Gary Was Never the Same After They Attacked
Him"
Sam Bahour
WANTED:
Middle East Negotiator
Joshua Frank
The
Spin Doctor: an Interview with Mickey Z.
Dave Lindorff
A Man Who Confers with God Should Have Good Hearing
Stan Cox
What Kids Cost: Dallas v. Delhi
Chris Frasier
Farming By Numbers: More Poets, Fewer MBAs
Poets' Basement
Katz, Melek, Harley, Albert and Ford
December
17, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
CounterAttack:
How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Dave Lindorff
Racism:
Philly Style
Dan Bacher
Bush Abandons Salmon Restoration
Marisa Jacott
NAFTA and the Environment: Trade Still Runs Roughshod
Francis Thicke
How Now, Industrial Cow?
Rupert Cornwell
The Inuit Strike Back
Website of the Day
Franz Boas Unrolls Over in His Grave
December
16, 2004
Michael
Neumann
How We Became Barbarians
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Ralph Nader
Gabriel
Espinoza Gonzales
The Dubious Career of John Bolton
Christopher
Brauchli
Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer
Patrick
Cockburn
Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali"
on Trial
Mike
Whitney
Gearing Up for a Draft?
Walter
Brasch
Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics
Bill
Conroy
How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI
Website
of the Day
Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb
December
15, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Baha Mousa?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Monster Under the Bed
Heather
Gray
Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony
Dave
Lindorff
The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections
Luis
Hernandez Navarro
To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee
in Mexico and Central America
Joshua
Frank
The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy"
Greg
Moses
Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio?
George
Caffentzis
The Petroleum Commons
December
14, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections
Larry
Birns / Seth DeLong
Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying
Anything
Richard
Thieme
My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and
That's What Kept Me Going"
Patrick
Cockburn
A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq
is Getting Worse
Chris
Floyd
Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's
America
Akiva
Eldar
A One-time Hanukkah Miracle
Burbach
/ Cantor
The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger
and the Teflon Tyrant
December
13, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed
by the CIA's Claque
David
Phinney
"Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid
Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality
for Douglas Feith
M.
Junaid Alam
The War is the War Crime
Robert
Jensen
The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing
Richard
Oxman
Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left
Greg
Moses
Send No Messengers of Defeat
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
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.
|
January 3, 2005
Missing in Action
The
Media and the Ohio Recount
By
DAVID SWANSON
The Cleveland Federation of Labor is
sending busloads of demonstrators to a rally in Columbus, Ohio,
today to take part in a protest of election fraud in the 2004
presidential election. As detailed below, there is strong evidence
of vote theft in Ohio. But to anyone who gets their news from
a television or from most print media, these protesters are kidding
themselves or kidding the rest of us, but certainly they are
not onto anything worthy of investigation. Last week I received
this Email from the Columbus Dispatch:
"Dear Mr. Swanson:
"You say the rally is
to protest the fraud that took place in the election. Where did
this fraud occur? Who did it? How did they do it?
"Thanx,
"glenn sheller, editorial
page editor"
Two months after the election,
an editor at ground zero was (seriously or sarcastically) asking
a stranger and an amateur to tell him from Washington where the
fraud had occurred. I immediately sent him a reply. And I didn't
hear anything further.
I expect the Dispatch and probably
the Associated Press (AP) will cover today's rally, albeit in
the way they would cover a disliked visiting sports team. They'll
dismiss the concerns of disenfranchised voters in a very wise
manner, but they won't actually investigate any of the charges
of election fraud - not if they adhere to the practices established
by the media over the past two months.
When forced to talk about ethics,
media big shots often insist that they draw no conclusions.
They endlessly reported Dick Cheney's claims that Saddam Hussein
was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, but it would not
have been their place to label that a "conspiracy theory."
When it comes to election fraud in Ohio and other U.S. states,
on the other hand, the media has jumped straight to reporting
that it's all a "conspiracy theory" before ever reporting
any of the facts. The Bush Administration has recently presented
the media with a nutty theory that our Social Security system
is broken, which the media in turn has presented to us as established
fact. But to anyone who reads more than just the news that's
fit to print, it's our election system that has broken down.
Some voices in the media, including
the New York Times' editorial page, admit that the election system
is badly broken. But they insist that it also functioned quite
acceptably in November. It's broken in the abstract, as it were,
but not in any concrete time or place.
As the ILCA reported on November
8th, the U.S. media has reversed its usual position on the value
of exit polls. The media has always relied on exit polls to
predict election outcomes and to question the accuracy of official
vote counts, such as in the Venezuelan recall attempt or the
Ukrainian presidential election. Exit polls in November predicted
victories for Kerry in a number of swing states that swung, in
the official results, dramatically for Bush. The U.S. media
immediately declared the exit polls inaccurate. How they could
be so far off has not been explained, and the networks' refusal
to turn the raw data of the exit polls over to Congress doesn't
help.
I did some searching in the
Nexis database on New Year's Eve. I searched for "election
fraud" in articles and transcripts from the past 60 days.
It came back saying there were more than 1,000 articles, too
many to display. Of course, most of these were bound to be about
the Ukraine and other countries where the U.S. media likes to
discuss election fraud. So I searched for "election fraud"
AND Ohio. This time I found only 177 articles, many of them
letters to the editor complaining about the lack of coverage.
One article from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported
on a protest at its offices over the lack of coverage (but no
coverage appeared from that paper). Several of the 177 were
editorials, all of them dismissive of claims of election fraud,
which in most cases the papers hadn't reported on. And Ukraine
was here, too, showing up in Ohio newspapers. The Columbus Dispatch
ran an editorial demanding a new election in Ukraine. The Plain
Dealer reported in oddly respectful tones (considering its usual
coverage of activists) on Ohioans involved in the Ukrainian election.
And there were quite a few columns and "analyses"
dismissing "conspiracy theories."
What about actual coverage
of what the "theories" are about and what in them is
solidly proven, what's speculative, what's disproved? Any of
that? Wouldn't a conspiracy theory go away more quickly if you
refuted it than if you avoided it and called it names? Hasn't
over half the country stopped believing in the weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq after only minimal discussion of the evidence
and acknowledgement by the media that there weren't any weapons
there?
Well, quite a few articles
reported on protests and hearings and legal filings, but most
of them didn't delve into the actual charges of fraud. Only
about 10 articles contained any substance, even on a single minor
allegation. One of these was from the Madison (Wis.) Capital
Times, two were from Salon.com, one from Morning Star, one from
a California chain of papers including the Oakland Tribune, Fremont
Argus, and Tri-Valley Herald, one from the Village Voice, and
three from the AP. The AP article that went into the most depth
as a 492-word piece on an Ohio couple who had voted twice. Most
AP articles have been short and dismissive, but the AP has provided
more coverage than anybody else, judging by Nexis. The Village
Voice article argues that there is no widespread fraud and that
those who think there is aren't quite playing with a full deck.
The author, Rick Perlstein, argues this case at some length
and addresses specific claims, but only a few of them. While
he couldn't be expected to fit everything into one article, his
arguments do not serve as examples that refute any of the claims
discussed below. An LA Weekly article touched on election fraud,
as well, and in a less dismissive way, but it didn't attempt
to deal with specifics.
The high points in what was
turned up in this Nexis search were, sadly, sound bites on Fox
News. Although on December 3rd, Fox brought on a guest to attack
Jesse Jackson in absentia, on the ninth, Hannity and Colmes allowed
Hillary Shelton of the NAACP to make a few points and did not
attempt to dispute them. And on the 29th, Sheila Parks of the
Coalition Against Election Fraud made several points, refusing
to allow the interviewer to cut her off. He did not attempt
to discuss the points she'd made. And, although it didn't turn
up in this search, on the 23rd, Hannity and Colmes had on David
Lytel of ReDefeatBush.com
who began to make a case for election fraud before the hosts
cut him off and changed the subject.
The other place where this
story has squeezed into the corporate media is on MSNBC and the
MSNBC website, through the reporting of Keith Olbermann - and
the Newsweek website which posted an interview of Jesse Jackson
Sr. Olbermann has been to the media the closest thing to what
John Conyers has been to the Congress: a clear indication that
there's life there without having to feel for a pulse. Olbermann
has given credence to some claims and rejected others, and explained
why. On December 27, for example, his blog post treated with
all the seriousness that it seems to merit the Green Party's
contention - backed up by many other observers - that the Ohio
recount has been an illegally conducted farce making virtually
no attempt to actually recount anything. (But, with typically
bizarre media smugness, he then questioned the motivations of
those protesting, as if concern for democracy could have nothing
to do with it.) And in the same post, he continued an argument
against giving credence to the claims by a Florida programmer
that he had been asked to write a vote-switching program.
A search in Nexis for "Ohio
recount" turned up some more noise, but not much thought
or information. CNN's Judy Woodruff has given the matter an
average of three sentences per week, not counting sentences promoting
the three-sentence stories. For a while the media focused on
the financial cost of the recount and the supposed pointlessness
of it. Lately (with the recount "completed") reporters
have informed us that the recount reached nearly the same results
as the original count, and that the Green and Libertarian candidates
are asking for "a second recount," thus framing the
issue in a manner that blocks out their claim that the recount
has not really been done a first time yet. A transcript from
NPR on December 30 has the host saying that NPR received more
letters requesting coverage of "irregularities" in
Ohio than any other topic. This was followed by a guest's brief
dismissal of the topic.
The Cincinnati Enquirer and
numerous other papers have printed dismissive columns on the
Ohio recount. Anna Applebaum of the Washington Post has dismissed
demands for paper trails for voting machines on the grounds that
ATM users don't always request a receipt. Al Swanson (no kin
to me) has published an article for UPI claiming that there is
no evidence of vote fraud, followed by a column a week later
claiming, without any evidence, that the motive of those claiming
fraud is actually just to rally the Democrats for next time,
that in fact those who say they are acting out of concern for
maintaining faith in our democracy and/or out of a conviction
that the wrong man is in line for re-inauguration, are lying.
A Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist made essentially the same
claim about people's motives on NPR on December 17. The New
York Times, to its credit, on December 15, did print a short
article on a particular allegation of fraud in the Ohio recount
made by Congressman Conyers. But the Times has avoided most
of the story.
Sadly, so has most of the labor
media and other progressive media. You'd think that labor, after
spending more than $200 million on the election, would want to
make sure it got its money's worth on the vote count. Unfortunately,
like its candidate, John Kerry, most of the labor movement has
so far dropped the ball on this one. A handful of established
outlets and newly minted organizations have carried the ball,
including FreePress.org, Democracy Now!, BlackCommentator.com,
Truthout.org, BuzzFlash.com, BlackPressUSA.com, DemocraticUnderground.org,
CommonDreams.org, the Green Party, TomPaine.com, Salon.com, RawStory.com,
the St. Louis Labor Tribune (an ILCA associate member), In These
Times, Air America, Thom Hartmann (an ILCA associate member),
Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America (an ILCA associate
member), and the ILCA. Building Bridges, a show produced by
WBAI radio in New York and an associate member of the ILCA, is
expected to cover the issue this week, as a result of the involvement
of the Cleveland AFL-CIO. A collection of much of this coverage
can be found at http://ilcaonline.org/
Not one of the "alternative"
media outlets named above has published anything as inexcusably
self-certain and wildly false as the "mainstream" media's
reports that Iraq had vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction
and plans to use them on the United States. The corporate media
was wrong to cheerlead for the War on Iraq by uncritically parroting
Bush Administration lies. The New York Times admitted some of
its mistakes in this regard. Most media outlets did not. The
same media outlets are behaving as poorly on the election fraud
issue, and someday one or more of them may even acknowledge as
much, but should the rest of us wait for that before speaking
and acting? Or do we have a duty to fill in where the corporate
news has become too corporate and not enough news?
It needs to be said that there
are theories that the ILCA and others have published that have
not panned out. Some of these have not been theories about what
went wrong but suspicions about where things went wrong, such
as in particular precincts or counties. Other such suspicions
have born fruit or remain steady cries for further investigation.
Many questions could be answered more quickly were the Ohio
Secretary of State not resisting all attempts to examine evidence.
Why should self-respecting
political and investigative journalists take up this story?
To my knowledge no one is claiming that a single individual stole
an election single-handedly - not even the CEO of Diebold, who
said "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral
vote to the President next year." In other words, everyone
suggesting fraud is also suggesting.don't stare directly at this
word: CONSPIRACY! Actually, that's not quite the right way to
put it: we're doing much more than suggesting. But it's important
to remember that a conspiracy need not involve communication
or even a shared goal among the conspirators.
Co-conspirators in this case,
by well-documented evidence, include:
1. The manufacturers of voting
machines who have made them easy to hack and impossible to verify
by a meaningful recount, as well as making clear their loyalty
to Bush.
2. The U.S. Congress and President,
who have failed to make obvious corrections to our election system
following the 2000 election, including requiring paper trails
and non-partisan officials.
3. The television networks
that have refused to release the exit poll data and refused to
cover the story, all companies with a clear - and in several
cases, clearly stated - interest in having Bush, rather than
Kerry, control the FCC.
4. Bush-Cheney Ohio Campaign
Co-Chair / Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, whose undisputed
public actions before, during, and since the election have served
to disenfranchise thousands of citizens.
5. A group of Republicans,
claiming to be from Texas, who made illegal calls in Ohio to
scare off potential voters. (This, I think, offers a fun, human
interest story should an editor be in search of one).
6. Ohio judges who have refused
to require that evidence be preserved and have refused to admit
challenges to the election, including a judge whose own election
could be affected but who refused to recuse himself.
7. Election workers in various
counties, hired by Blackwell, who failed to open polling places
on time, failed to equitably distribute machines and workers,
directed voters to the wrong lines, resulting in the elimination
of their votes, wrongly required identification, wrongly denied
voters provisional ballots, shut observers out on grounds of
"homeland security," failed to randomly select precincts
for the recount, etc.
8. Activists who sought to
intimidate voters outside of polls or distributed flyers sending
people to the wrong polling place or telling them the election
was on the wrong day.
9. Triad, a company that has
admitted it tried to rig the Ohio recount.
10. John Kerry, who conceded
despite the evidence of the exit polls, despite his opponent's
crimes of four years earlier, and prior to any investigation.<
Given the above, and the extensive
documentation of vote suppression and machine malfunction, some
other matters merit looking into. The Election Protection Coalition
has received over 39,000 reports of vote problems, some of them
affecting large numbers of voters. Numerous reports from Ohio
indicate that machines and punch cards were set to votes for
Bush by default and pre-punched for Bush, resulting in double-punched
ballots, which are tossed out. In Coshocton, Ohio, write-in
votes wrongly defaulted to Bush when run through the voting machine.
In Warren County, Democrats were targeted and forced to vote
on provisional ballots. It is not disputed that over 100,000
spoiled ballots and provisional ballots have not been counted.
An affidavit by Richard Hayes
Phillips, a geomorphology Ph.D. from University of Oregon with
a special expertise in spotting anomalous data, found dramatic
examples of erroneous voting patterns with votes taken away
from Kerry - that he says can only be explained by computer manipulation.
A county shut down for "homeland
security" counted a 14,000 vote increase for Bush over 2000.
Miami County counted an extra 19,000 votes, two thirds of them
for Bush, after all the precincts' totals had come in. South
Concord achieved a 98.5 percent turnout, heavily for Bush, but
a pro-Kerry precinct in Cleveland managed only a 7.1 percent
turnout. Various precincts, some of them cited in Congressman
Conyers' letter to Kenneth Blackwell, recorded more votes than
there were voters.
When Harvey Wasserman requested
information from Ohio's 88 counties under the Freedom of Information
Act, the first county replied that they had already destroyed
key evidence. The next said the request would have to be made
of the private company that had programmed the machines.
When the recount of 3 percent
of the ballots in Fairfield County didn't match the official
total, there should have been a full recount. Instead, county
officials suspended the recount, saying they were acting on instruction
from Blackwell. The Green recount observers were told to leave,
while the Republicans remained for a private discussion.
And so on. The trails that
could be followed by a truly democratic media are numerous.
For the past few days the media has been trying to convince people
that the ballots in Ohio have been properly counted twice. However,
according to Green Party observers, 86 of 88 counties broke the
law and did not select RANDOMLY which precincts they would recount.
Only one county conducted a full hand recount, which resulted
in 6 percent more votes than in the original vote. Those extra
votes were evenly split between Kerry and Bush, but - even assuming
that one county's votes have now been properly counted - how
do we know where votes in the other 87 counties would fall?
Should an extra several percent of them show up, and should they
be weighted toward Kerry, the election would not have yet been
what the media keeps telling us it is: over.
David Swanson is Media Coordinator for The
International Labor Communications Association. He can be
reached at: dswanson@aflcio.org
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
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