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CounterPunchers! We Mean It!
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Today's Stories November 5, 2009 Pam Martens Vijay Prashad Brian Gallagher Norman Solomon November 4, 2009 Stan Cox Andy Worthington From Gitmo to Palau: Who are the Uighurs? Robert Weissman Susan Galleymore Ralph Nader Michael Leonardi Bitta Mistofi Robert Bryce Martha Rosenberg Dave Lindorff Website of the Day November 3, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Franklin C. Spinney Laura Carlsen Serge Halimi John Stanton Sophia Weeks Dave Lindorff November 2, 2009 Steven Higgs Ishmael Reed David Macaray Bouthaina Shaaban David Michael Green David Swanson Ellen Brown Adam Federman James McEnteer Stephen Fleischman Website of the Day October 30 - Nov. 1, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair / Carl Ginsburg Mike Whitney Joe Bageant Gareth Porter Saul Landau Anthony DiMaggio Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Niranjan Ramakrishnan Jayne Lyn Stahl Rev. William E. Alberts Alvaro Huerta Martha Rosenberg Binoy Kampmark Norm Kent Charles R. Larson Roth's "The Humbling:" Nothing Like a Novel From an Old Pro Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 29, 2009 Michael Neumann Mike Whitney Gary Leupp Conn Hallinan Marshall Auerback Laura Flanders Eamonn McCann David Macaray Mark Weisbrot Stephen Soldz Christopher Brauchli Website of the Day October 28, 2009 Moshe Adler Dave Lindorff Frank Joseph Smecker Alexandra Early M. Shahid Alam Vijay Prashad John Ross Franklin Lamb Gregory Travis Susan Galleymore Website of the Day October 27, 2009 Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Stewart J. Lawrence Alan Farago Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Bouthaina Shaaban Brian M. Downing Elections in Afghanistan, the Second Time Around Iain Boal Carl Finamore Jayne Lyn Stahl Website of the Day October 26, 2009 Bill Quigley / Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Michael Snedeker Shamus Cooke David Michael Green Martha Rosenberg Patrick Bond Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day October 23-25, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Christopher Ketcham Jeff Gore Gareth Porter Jayne Lyn Stahl Saul Landau Mike Whitney Nikolas Kozloff Ron Jacobs Russell Mokhiber Missy Beattie Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Stephen Lendman David Ker Thomson Rannie Amiri Ronnie Cummins Norm Kent Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Ben Sonnenberg Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 22, 2009 Dan Pearson / Jonathan Cook Paul Craig Roberts The US as Failed State Mark Engler Johann Hari Brian M. Downing Eric Toussaint Tom Mountain Israel Shamir Charles Thomson Website of the Day October 21, 2009 Pam Martens Linn Washington, Jr. Liaquat Ali Khan D. K. Wilson Franklin Lamb Norman Solomon Stephen Fleischman Patrice Higonnet Binoy Kampmark Kevin Coval / Website of the Day October 20, 2009 Sharon Smith Tariq Ali Mark Brenner Bouthaina Shaaban Michael D. Yates Dean Baker Dave Lindorff John Ross Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Kevin Zeese Gilad Atzmon Website of the Day October 19, 2009 Mike Whitney Greg Moses John Ross Michael Donnelly Jayne Lyn Stahl Eric Walberg Russell Mokhiber Barbara Rose Johnston John V. Whitbeck Christopher Ketcham Website of the Day October 16-18, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Carl Ginsburg Ralph Nader Nikolas Kozloff Carlo Galli Dave Lindorff Catherine Rottenberg
/ Neve Gordon Marshall Auerback Nicola Nasser Windy Cooler James L. Secor Ron Jacobs Wes Jackson Jesse Lerner-Kinglake David Ker Thomson Against Leaders Missy Beattie Emily Ratner Stephen Martin Michael Snedeker Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Peter Stone Brown Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 15, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Brian M. Downing Ramzy Baroud Danny Weil M. Idrees Ahmad Margaret Kimberley Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Harvey Wasserman Nirmal Ghosh Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 14, 2009 Michael Neumann M. Reza Pirbhai Gareth Porter Paul Craig Roberts John Strausbaugh Fortress Moon Ralph Nader Dean Baker Charles Modiano Nadia Hijab Walter Brasch Website of the Day October 13, 2009 Peter Linebaugh Shamus Cooke John Ross Brendan Cooney Frida Berrigan Yves Engler David Macaray Dave Lindorff Mark Weisbrot Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day October 12, 2009 Pam Martens Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg Jessica Arents Eamonn McCann Bill Hatch Sen. Russell Feingold Niranjan Ramakrishnan Gideon Levy Iyad Burnat Alan Cabal Dan Bacher Website of the Day October 9-11, 2009 Alexander Cockburn James Bovard Kathleen and Bill Christison Andy Worthington Marc Levy Tariq Ali Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Alan Nasser Jack Z. Bratich Steve Breyman David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Paul Buchheit Jim Goodman Missy Beattie Michael Leonardi Nadia Hijab Mel Packer David Macaray James T. Phillips Charles R. Larson Michael Donnelly David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 8, 2009 Saul Landau Paul Fitzgerald / Linn Washington, Jr. Marshall Auerback Dave Lindorff David Rosen Chris Darimont / Misty MacDuffee John V. Walsh Stewart Lawrence Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 7, 2009 Brendan Cooney Paul Craig Roberts Dean Baker Jonathan Cook John Stanton Joanne Mariner Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada Stephen Lendman Sen. Russell Feingold Mary Lynn Cramer Website of the Day October 6, 2009 Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Jonathan Cook Boris Kagarlitsky Iain Boal Ron Jacobs John Ross Michael Dickinson Stephen Fleischman Ira Glunts Missy Beattie Website of the Day October 5, 2009 Pam Martens Mike Whitney Paul Craig Roberts Harry Browne Sara Mann Omar Barghouti Shamus Cooke Brenda Norrell Fred Gardner Binoy Kampmark Copenhagen Blues: McChrystal and the Afghan Trap Website of the Day October 2-4, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Diana Johnstone Greg Moses William Blum Brian Cloughley Russell Mokhiber John Ross Ellen Brown David Ker Thomson David Macaray Gary Engler Robert Fantina Lisa Stolarski / Naomi Archer Anthony Papa Joe Allen Harry Browne Ron Jacobs Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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Weekend Edition Keeping Occupied in Occupied TerritoriesAfternoon With TulipBy DAVID Ker THOMSON A case of blepharitis (“zombie eye”) having nicely coincided for me with Halloween Day and having explicitly answered the question of what I’m going as this year, I put down my What Maisie Knew and went abroad to haunt the citizens of the empire. Not that every day isn’t Halloween for nowtopians, but there’s nothing quite like a suppurating sore in one’s eyelid to free one from some of the more formal constraints. My friends in the empire, who spend their time propping up the system and massaging it and voting for it and putting the best blackface on it, will no doubt find their worst suspicions about my frivolity confirmed by the day’s outing. I am the very worst bit of froth. Though I am a lowbagger and thus the lowest of even the lowly nowtopians, I lack the credentials of the best lowlies among us—Mike Roselle, say, who has just unleashed, with Josh Mahan, Tree Spiker, the definitive lowbagger manual. I haven’t stood up against mountaintop removal like Roselle, but I have managed to be silly in forty-seven of the lower forty-eight, and that’s pretty low. “What’s bluffer-itis?” asks Liam, age nine. I’ve just shaved parts of Tulip, our Portuguese Water Dog or something, and now I’ve moved on to writing for CP. Topiary, that’d been the guiding principle, of shaving the dog at least. Also to try and get my mother to stop tactfully mentioning that the Obamas have a portie. Such lovely creatures. “What? I didn’t say ‘what’s blufferitis’” says Liam, who notices over my shoulder that I’m filling my CP column with the remains of the day. “You have now,” I say, continuing to type. “And it’s blephar.” “What? I didn’t say either of those,” says Liam. “And did you really go as a blind person?” I nod. “They lowered the bus and everything.” I’ve been teaching a course over at the uni on sound, so I’ve been practicing some sound walks in the city. Getting onto the bus through a crowd of people using only my ears and the guidance of Tulip had been an eye opener for me, acoustically speaking. Try getting on and off a bus sometime without any support from your eyes. Well, okay, blind people do it every day. But they don’t have Tulip to help them. “Tulip was prancing like an idiot,” I tell Liam. “I finally had to hold her up on the leash and let her twirl.” Pizza’d up, she’s pushing fifty pounds, so that must have been a sight. “Workin’ dog, comin’ through.” I started to sit in the lap of someone big, but after a while they weren’t there. Then Tulip jumped into my lap. See? I’ve never voted in my life, but maybe that’s just because they don’t have porties running the show. The classic cut is fully shaved hindquarters and poofed-up front half. The effect: of one dog shoved inside another, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. My friends’d probably dig that, if their voting record is any indication. In a portie world, the lapdog press could be a metaphor for something. Hard to say what. “Maybe this is your stop,” says the driver at the very next intersection, apropos of nothing. The bus lowers and we take the hint, blind leading the blind down the stairs. I wipe some eye juice on an adjacent car stopped at the light by sliding my face down the driver’s side glass, though I smile to rob the zombie gesture of offence. At City Without Cars, friendliness is our guiding principle, when it isn’t a portie. City Without Cars doesn’t have a website, doesn’t exist in the registered ontologies of the system. We can’t be looked up, and we fully concede not only that we risk irrelevance in your system, but that we’ve fully attained it. Our face doesn’t matter. It’s just one of the faces of the half dozen billion people who don’t show up. We’re everywhere but mostly nowhere in your tidy little political drama. We didn’t vote for your war in here-we-go-again-istan because we didn’t vote at all. We missed the boat, the show, the live recording, the whole shebang. We’re a third-order threat—not the first thing that comes to mind, and not the second. Remember us? You gave us charity over in Africa—or was it up on Bloor outside the Chinese-Peruvian grocery?—and we weren’t grateful. You mistake us if you think that because we are masters of japes we are any less masters of ourselves, or that we are not serious when we say we will have nothing but what tends to food and shelter and curiosity. We have always had a good sense of what to do with chaff, which is to say, with most everything in the workaday world. It’s such a nice day, this Halloween, that I bring one eye back on line. Glimpsed thus, an old Chinese couple pole-harvesting a ginkgo in the flaxen aura of ten thousand butterfly leaves slips me over into poetry when I might have settled for gnomic headprose. In this light the sign at the cemetery, usually so threatening, is restored to its original sloganeering luster: “Rest Assured: We Have Plenty of Space.” Amongst the still lives and clusters of flowers, this still life: afternoon, with tulip. Bring back the voluntary drift, we say on such days. Follow the leader. I take Tulip off the leash and I follow her as she follows a squirrel who follows a nut. The social order is restored. But the next day it’s November and red remembrance petals burst like exit wounds on lapels and chests of citizens. Suppressions in the oubliette are leaking from the body politic. Maybe the Chilean 9-11’s going to drool out crimson, or the way our side savaged Germany after round one and brought on Hitler, or maybe that bit about Hiroshima being for the Russians and not the Japanese, mon amour. If you’ve gotten this far in any of our other essays, you know who we are. It’s best to think of us as an occupied power. Occupied with minor mischief, but what else? You’re the registered empire, maybe you can answer that question. You know what they say about idle hands. Are you keeping us occupied enough? David Ker Thomson teaches at Bard, the Dragon at St. George, and Victoria. These are, respectively, a college on the Hudson, a high school at the St. George subway stop in Toronto, and the St. George campus of the University of Toronto. He can be reached at: dave.thomson@utoronto.ca
Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Obama and Black America Ten months into Obama-time, the plight of black Americans is terrible. Yet overwhelmingly they rally behind the president. In a powerful report from the Deep South Kevin Alexander Gray asks the question: what should the black political agenda be? Mark Rudd counterposes “organizing” with “activism” and describes what it will take to build a movement. H. Bruce Franklin gives a chronology of the march into Afghanistan. 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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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
"Powerful and shocking ..
Waiting for
Lightning
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