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March
10, 2002
Thomas
Croft
Year
of Living Dangerously
March
9, 2002
Bill Cook
Sharon's
Bulldozer
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Nightmare in Israel
March
8, 2002
John B.
Kelly
Michael
Moore and Me:
Disability Rights and
a Big Stupid White Guy
March
7, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Congressman
McInnis Equates Enviros to al-Qaeda
Mike Rogers
Will
the Battle of Shah-i-Kot Become the Taliban's Alamo
Walt Brasch
Patriot
Act and Free Speech
John Jonik
Insurance
Scams:
Who Are the Scofflaws?
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Bumper
Crop: The Politics
of Afghan Opium
March
6, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
A
Beautiful Mind:
Another Dangerous Lie?
Tom Turnipseed
War
Is Wrong
David
Vest
Billy
Graham and Nixon:
Tangled Up in Tape
Patrick
Cockburn
The
Bombings That
Made Putin a Hero
CounterPunch
Wire
Berezovsky
Fingers Putin
in Bombings
Edward
Said
Thoughts
About America
March
5, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Ann
Coulter At It Again:
Race-Baiting Norm Mineta
Bill Christison
A
Former CIA Officer
Explains Why the War
on Terror Won't Work
Delkhasteh and Wright
What
Should We be Fighting For? An Open Letter
to Pro-War Academics
Mariya
Tsvekova
Putin's
Georgian Gambit
March
4, 2002
Ralph
Nader
Dick
Cheney: A Dinosaur
in the Age of Mammals
Uri Avnery
How
Israel Will Torpedo
the Saudi Peace Plan
Southern
/ Kubrick
Stangelove
Scenario
for Shadow Govt. Bunker
David
Vest
Grammy's
of Constant Sorrow
March
3, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
War
on Terrorism for Dummies
Paul Cox
Boycott
Mel Gibson's
"We Were Soldiers"
Frederick
Hudson
Toward
a Nonviolent Africa:
Bill Sutherland's Quest
Eric Schaeffer
Dear
Christie Whitman:
Take This Job and Shove It
John Chuckman
Why
the Rest of Planet is Unnerved by America
March
2, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Sweat,
Sex, Feet and
the Working Class
March
1, 2002
Brendan
Sexton III
What's
Wrong With Black Hawk Down: an Actor Speaks Out
David
Krieger
Nuclear
Terrorism
and US Nuclear Policy
February
28, 2002
James
T. Phillips
Baghdad,
Spring 1992
Gideon
Samet
Sharon
Must Go
Rep. Ron
Paul
Before
We Bomb Iraq
M. Shahid
Alam
Samuel
Huntington:
Peddling Civilizational Wars
St. Clair
/ Cockburn
Rumble
from the Jungle:
Ecuadorian Farmers Fight
DynCorp's ChemWar
February
27, 2002
Eric Hobsbawm
The
Future of War and Peace
John Troyer
About
that WTC Memorial
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Wired
for Democracy
or Business?
Alexander
Cockburn
Daniel
Pearl: Should His
Editors Have Sent Him There?
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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March
18, 2002
Crazy is Cool
By Tom Turnipseed
In a very personal way I appreciate the Academy
Award acclaim given to movies about people with mental disabilities
who prevailed in life like "A Beautiful Mind" and "I
Am Sam". I had severe bi-polar disorder when I was a student
in the 1950s. Thanks to the late Lee Atwater, the electro-convulsive
"shock" treatments I received over forty years ago
have probably been the most publicized political episode of its
kind since Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri was replaced on
the Democratic ticket in 1972 because of a "nervous breakdown"
in his past.
Atwater was a legendary political gunslinger
from South Carolina whose ability to exploit fear facilitated
his rise in the ranks of Republican political operatives. He
ultimately managed the first George Bush's winning presidential
campaign featuring the race-baiting "Willie Horton"
ads and Lee finally became chair of the Republican National Committee.
I was the Democratic nominee in a 1980 congressional race in
South Carolina and Atwater was a consultant for my opponent.
To cultivate his macho image, Atwater spread the word in the
national media that he had planted a story with local reporters
covering the race that I had been "hooked up to jumper cables"
when I was a student. The story appeared in major newspapers,
magazines and on television networks. Atwater seemed to delight
in kidding about a suicidal 16-year-old who was treated for depression
with "shock" treatments.
My struggle with depression as a student
was no secret. I had talked about it at a widely covered media
conference when I was a State Senator in 1977. I have been a
board member of the Mental Health Association of South Carolina
and have shared the story of my illness and recovery for many
years. To have progressed from adolescent despair to a responsible
adulthood was not without its pitfalls. But, becoming a husband,
father and grandfather with a diverse career as an attorney,
writer, political and civil rights activist has been a rich and
rewarding experience. Teenage depression is a major problem and
I believe my story offers hope to young people who suffer from
a relentless fear of the future.
Dying of a malignant brain tumor in 1990,
Lee Atwater wrote me a letter that said, "It is very important
to me that l let you know that out of everything that has happened
in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called 'jumper
cable' episode." And, "my illness has taught me something
about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood and relationships
that I never understood."
The relationship with my wife, Judy,
whom I met while I was struggling with bi-polar disorder as a
student at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was much better therapy
than the "shock" treatments. I told her as much as
possible about what I had experienced with the illness and she
loved me anyway. Her love and understanding has enabled me to
make it through 39 years without any more treatments or medication.
"A Beautiful Mind" is the story
of John Nash, a delusional schizophrenic and mathematical genius
who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Brilliantly played
by Academy Award favorite, Russell Crowe, Nash underwent shock
treatment and heavy drug therapy as an adult, but the love and
care of his beleaguered wife, Alicia, was the crucial thing that
finally enabled him to persevere. The performance of Jennifer
Connelly as Alicia also won an Oscar nomination. Judy and I shed
a few tears as we held hands and watched love prevail like we
did at the movies in Chapel Hill as students so many years ago.
Then we got even more teary eyed when
we saw the sappy, but poignant film, "I Am Sam" about
a man with the IQ of a seven year old who is trying to raise
his bright little daughter by himself. He gets involved in a
long legal struggle with the State over his fitness as a parent.
Sean Penn received an Oscar nomination for playing the retarded
father and his interaction with his daughter and his mentally
disabled buddies is wonderful.
Crazy is the N-word for people with mental
disabilities and I remember as a kid how we patients jokingly
used it on the psychiatric ward. But guess what, this year, at
least in the movies, Crazy is Cool. I am considering a run as
an independent candidate for Strom Thurmond's seat with the major
party candidates in a three person contest. They have already
raised several million dollars. I will not accept more than $100.00
from anyone and no PAC money. I will be an advocate for peace
and justice, a sustainable environment and the poor and working
class-a "Field of Dreams" candidate for open, honest
government.
The U. S. Senate could benefit from a
member raising hell with corruption like Jefferson Smith did
in Frank Capra's 1939 classic, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".
I lack the political naivete of Senator Smith, having run three
state-wide races in South Carolina. Each time I received just
under 50% of the vote with the "Tom's a little crazy"
rumor contributing to the winning margin. Who knows what might
happen this year when a one-third-plus-one plurality could win
with an evenly split vote and Crazy is Cool!
Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer
and civil rights activist in Columbia, South Carolina. <www.turnipseed.net>
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