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/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
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.
|
June
30, 2004
A
Rebuttal to Nicholas D. Kristof
Who
Dast Call Him Liar
By
BEN TRIPP
My self-imposed standards of polite
discourse are killing me. I decided it was time to change the
tone in politics, so I stopped using words like ****, ****, ***,
*******, and 'euphonium' in the course of my essays. Vice president
D*ck Cheney, meanwhile, standing on the Senate floor, is free
to demand Patrick Leahy commit an act of auto-fornication. I
don't give a flying hang what kind of language anybody chooses
to use, or where they choose to use it. What bothers me is while
the Repugs are out there doing what they want, saying what they
want, the so-called liberal media is whimpering that the Left
needs to rise above this kind of thing and behave with virginal
decorum. Mr. Kristof, can I have a word with you? It starts
with 'F'.
As part of an experiment to
see if anybody can read the New York Times more than three times
a month without developing brain cancer, I occasionally read
the column of Nicholas D. Kristof. I should know better. Modest,
learned, and brimming with virtue, a man whose words and accomplishments
unblushingly suggest the Christ on one of His better days, Kristof
makes me sick. I shouldn't have been shocked by his column of
June 30, 2004, entitled "Calling Bush A Liar". Kristof
is the kind of guy who goes off to do a story on prostitution
in Cambodia and just can't help himself, he has to buy a couple
of girls and set them free while a Times photographer discreetly
records the event. What a noble thing to do! How human, yet
how godlike! I'm sure he sent the girls through college, too.
Or maybe they were stoned to death as soon as he got on his
plane. He doesn't say. The point is, here's a guy who knows
in his heart that he's really virtuous, and seeing as moderation
is one of his many strengths, he's going to moderate his readers
senseless. He never scolds, mind you. Just gently sets a better
example, a sad, slightly patronizing smile on his lips. Did
you ever rescue a Cambodian prostitute? Speaking of which,
back to "Calling Bush A Liar".
Kristof starts off reasonably
enough, posing the question, "So, is president Bush a liar?"
Now I know as well as anybody that he couldn't just write the
word 'yes' and consider the column done. He had to extemporize
for a few paragraphs. I've done it myself, which is why my piece
asking "Is Donald Rumsfeld A Brain-Feasting Zombie"
contains several hundred words about the domestic habits of the
wildebeest, followed by the word 'yes'. But as I read on, what
I saw made my eyes shoot out of the sockets with such violence
that they punched holes through the newspaper, penetrated the
wall, and emerged in the next room. According to Kristof, the
problem isn't that Bush is a lying psychopath; rather the problem
is when the Left descends to the level of accusing Bush of lying,
they're just being gross and icky like the R**ub**cans were back
when Clinton was president (before he wrote the latest Harry
Potter novel). I quote:
"I'm against the "liar"
label for two reasons. First, it further polarizes the political
cesspool, and this polarization is making America increasingly
difficult to govern. Second, insults and rage impede understanding."
He gently chides the Left for
its shrill denunciations and apologizes for the man in the White
House's apparent lack of honesty by climbing into his head and
figuring out what the matter could possibly be other than lying,
which is, you know, so yucky to even accuse somebody of:
"Mr. Bush's central problem is not that he was lying about
Iraq, but that he was overzealous and self-deluded. He surrounded
himself with like-minded ideologues, and they all told one another
that Saddam was a mortal threat to us. They deceived themselves
along with the public - a more common problem in government than
flat-out lying."
You see? That's all
it is. He's just overzealous and delusional, so quit calling
the man a liar.
YAAAAAAARRRRGHHH, as Governor
Dean might say. What makes me want to vomit is that anybody could
possibly be so smug as to suggest polarization is the problem,
when it's actually a symptom, like death is a symptom of being
shot through the head - and furthermore, that his problem with
polarization is it makes America increasingly difficult to govern.
What the f*** does that mean?
Is governing this country supposed to be made easy by compliant
citizens? Is THAT why we're here? Jeezum H. Jumping Jiminy,
better we should all march in lockstep into the ovens than make
things difficult for the maniacs currently in command of this
nation! O Nicholas, what a supplicant, mewling, lickspittle
Polonius thou art, spineless and vile. Maybe I'm just feeling
guilty because I'm not as excellent as you, or maybe insults
and rage have impeded my understanding. I don't care.
Nicholas D. Kristof, go make
love to yourself.
Ben Tripp is a screenwriter and cartoonist,
who lives in a large human settlement 100 miles south of Bakersfield,
which we cannot name for security reasons. Ben also has a lot of outrageously
priced crap for sale here. A collection of Tripp's essays,
Square in the Nuts, will be published this summer. If his writing
starts to grate on your nerves, buy some and maybe he'll flee
to Mexico. If all else fails, he can be reached at: credel@earthlink.net
Weekend Edition
Features for June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
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