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February
4, 2002
John Chuckman
American
Politics of Grief
February
3, 2002
Zoltan
Grossman
War
and New Military Bases
February
2, 2002
Francis
Schor
Carlucci's
Strange Career
February
1, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
The
Great Ashcroft Cover Up
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
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
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
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
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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February 4,
2002
Everyone Says I Loathe You
by David Vest
I should have know better than to answer the phone
this late on a Friday afternoon. It was my old friend and nemesis,
Leon Despair, and he was as usual in no mood to be put on hold
or to answer questions about how he got my new number. I get
these calls from Leon once or twice a year and I know better
than to hang up on him or tell him I'm busy. That will only bring
him straight to my door.
He began by inquiring about my health:
"Are you out of your mind? What's come over you?"
I beg your pardon?
"Did you write this column in CounterPunch?
It has your name on it."
Which column would that be?
"This one. Ten
Things You Know About Bush."
Oh. That one.
"Ten things my foot! You don't know
one thing."
What makes you say that? (What makes
ME say THAT?)
And he's off to the races. "Listen
to this crap. 'We like him,' it says. What the hell does that
mean? Who's we?"
According to the polls, about 80% of
the people like him. Haven't you heard them talking on TV about
how the guy has bonded with America?
"You sound like a damn dope addict.
Somebody says something on TV and you go Oh, Wow! and start looking
for a pencil. Is that how journalism works?"
Now wait a minute . . .
"You didn't ask me if I like him.
Go ahead, ask me. Here's the answer -- I don't. Furthermore,
I don't know anybody that likes him. And neither do you."
Uh, well, not exactly.
"Well, if I don't know anybody that
likes him, and you don't know anybody that likes him, then who
the hell DOES like him?"
Listen, Leon, nobody WE know likes him,
but apparently everybody else does, ok?
"Nobody likes him. Name one person
who likes him."
Al Gore says George W. Bush is his commander-in-chief
...
"That is so lame. Admit it: nobody
likes him. Say it."
Maybe nobody in particular likes him,
but we as a people, in
the aggregate, like him. Read the polls...
"Shut up when you're talking to
me, ok? Don't make me come over there. In the State of the Union,
did you hear him say LET'S MAKE THESE TAX CUTS PERMANENT?"
Yes.
"That meant, LET'S GIVE ANOTHER
$254 MILLION TO ENRON. You know anybody who likes that idea?"
Not offhand.
"You think Ken Lay even likes him?
You think Cheney likes him? You think Colin Powell likes him?"
Condoleeza Rice seems to like him ...
"Let me remind you of 10 Things
You DON'T Know about Bush, ok? You don't know how much cocaine
he did."
I don't know for a fact that he...
"You don't know when was the last
time he did it. You don't know where he did it. You don't know
who he got it from. You don't know who he did it with. You don't
know where he was when he was supposed to report for duty in
Alabama, and his commanding officer says he never saw him."
This is old stuff...
"You don't know whether he ever
did any of his roistering with Enron people. You don't know what
he knew about the Taliban leadership being in Sugar Land, Texas
in 1997, while he was governor. Did he meet with them?"
I've raised that in my columns ...
"And who's behind all this fainting?
Everytime you turn around, another one passes out."
Leon, this is getting ...
"Just remember one thing. Nobody
liked him in Texas, either. And he defeated Ann Richards. And
then even fewer people liked him and he won re-election in a
landslide. So who do think the Democrats will put up against
him in 2004?"
I don't know. Probably Gore?
"No way. Nobody likes him."
The line was dead. Leon was gone again.
Not even a "till next time." He's that way.
David Vest
is a regular writer for CounterPunch, a poet and piano-player
for the Pacific Northwest's hottest blues band, The Cannonballs.
He can be reached at: davidvest@springmail.com
Visit his website at http://www.mindspring.com/~dcqv
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