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Coming Soon from CounterPunch Books Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY Click Here to Order! Today's Stories April 28, 2005 Werther George Will Revises the Vietnam War April 27, 2005 John Ross Pope Ratzo and the Hucksters of Death Joshua Frank DeLay, Abramoff and Israeli Militias Ray McGovern The Bolton Affair: More Than Meets the Eye Mark Donham Government Pettiness and Wetland Destruction Dan Smith Bush's Iraq Poker: Hold, Fold, or Raise?   April 26, 2005 Dave Lindorff Church Sex Trumps Torture and Murder Alevtina Rea Magic of the Yellow Emperor Greg Moses The Senator and the Narc Pirates of Highway 281 Joshua Frank Horowitz's Gang of Ghouls and Cowards on Ruzicka Diana Johnstone The French are At It Again   April 25, 2005 Uri Avnery The Persecution of Vanunu Alison Weir The Okrent Perversions: How the NYT Minimizes Palestinian Deaths Lee Sustar Labor Loses a Hero: the Strong Life of Dave Yettaw Leonardo Boff A Liberation Theologist on Ratsinger: a Pope of Fear and Centralized Power? Gary Leupp Bush's Bully: the Career of John Bolton   April 23 / 24, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Time's Buried Hitler Cover Gary Leupp The Anti-Japanese Demonstrations in China James Petras Elections for Democracy or Empire? Harry Browne Springsteen's "Devils and Dust" Fred Gardner The Custody Threat Ron Jacobs The Desterrados of Colombia: They are not Collateral Damage Elizabeth Schulte Why Backing Democrats is Pulling the Anti-War Mvt. to the Right Chris Floyd Oil, Guns and Banks   April 22, 2005 Saul Landau The Kinky Moralists: Missionaries Forever Kevin Zeese Dean Backs the Iraq Occupation Joshua Frank Earth Day Paradox: Enviros vs. Nature Mike Whitney God's Rottweiller: Pope Ratzinger's Pie-in-the-Sky for the Masses Michael Flynn Wolfowitz on Top of the World Lee Sustar The One-Sided Class War Website of the Day Bitter Greens   April 21, 2005 Bill Quigley The Church Picks Its Ashcroft for Pope: a Catholic Worker Response to the Rise of Ratsinger Dave Lindorff Bush's X-Files Jason Leopold Drilling and Spilling in ANWR: Worse Than the Exxon Valdez? Kathleen Christison Sharon's 92 Percent Solution: How the Misperceptions Roll On April 20, 2005   April 20, 2005 John Ross Lopez Obrador: Mexico's Would-be Mandela (Part Two) Kevin Zeese Halliburton: Poster Child of the War Profiteers Uri Avnery The 100 Days of Abu Mazen Website of the Day The House that Jack Built   April 19, 2005 Jean-Guy Allard An Exclusive CP Interview with Ricardo Alarcon on One of the World's Most Notorious Terrorists: "Is Posada Still Working for the White House?" Dave Lindorff What's Good for Canada is Good for GM: Health Care Costs and Job Flight Neve Gordon Before the Law: Israel's Military Justice System in the Occupied Territories Brian Concannon, Jr Immaculate Evasions in Haiti Murray Hudson Chemical Warfare Over Tennessee: Aerial Spraying of Deadly Pesticides Frank B. Ford Poem for Marla Ruzicka Monty Python Memo to Pope Rat Michael Dickinson Cardinal Sins Paul Craig Roberts Outsourcing the American Economy: a Greater Threat Than Terrorism Website of the Day Strindberg and Helium April 18, 2005 Linda Schade / Kevin Zeese The Carter-Baker Commission: Corporate Conflicts of Interest John Ross Mexico's Would-Be Mandela Stares into the Darkness Brian McKenna Dow Chemical Buys Silence in Michigan Mike Whitney The NYT in Fallujah Patrick Cockburn Iraqi Peace in Tatters Dave Zirin Straight Outta High School: Jermaine O'Neal, Race and Hip Hop Eli Stephens The Killing of Nicola Calipari: a Math Lesson Harry Browne War and Elections in Britain and Ireland Website of the Day A16: Photos of the World Bank Protest April 16 / 17, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Message in a Bottle: How Coca-Cola Gave Back to Plachimada Mark Dow The Art of Jailing: Inside America's Immigration Gulag Omar Waraich Blair's Accountability Moment: Lesser-Evilism Grips Britain Robert Buzzanco How I Learned to Quit Worrying and Love Vietnam and Iraq Sherry Wolf Bitches' Liberation? Whatever Happened to the Struggle for Women's Liberation? Fred Gardner The Pharmaceuticalization of Marijuana Ron Jacobs Free Speech with Permission Only: a Tale of Two Universities Mark Weisbrot CAFTA will Further Depress US Wages John Pardon The High-Tech "Competitiveness" Smokescreen Yoshie Furuhashi Debtors of the World Unite! How Dems Went to Bat for the Credit Industry Mike Roselle Cubicle of Doom: the Death of Environmentalism? Ralph Nader Scientists or Celebrities? Ramzy Baroud Gaza: the Line of Memory and Despair Jackson Thoreau Barbara Bush: We Should Have Pulled the Plug on Our Daughter Michael Dickinson "Imagine" and the Koran: Listening to Lennon in Istanbul Richard Neville Shaking the Walls of TwinWorld™ Poets' Basement Albert, Engel, Curtis, Ford and Gaffney Website of the Weekend Rebel Angel   April 15, 2005 Brian Cloughley Diplomacy, Bush Style: Boorish Bolton & Arrogant Rice Bill Glahn No Child Left a Dime Mickey Z. One Zimbabwe or Another: an Interview with Greg Elich Stephanie McMillan Fear and Art: Feds Raid Another Exhibit Josh Mahan Victoria's Dirty Secret David Russitano Will the Real Minutemen Please Stand Up? Jorge Mariscal Rodolfo Gonzales: the Passing of a Legend Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales "I am Joaquin" Tom Reeves Students Rise Again in Québec   April 14, 2005 Karyn Strickler Red States Rebellion: Montana vs. the Patriot Act Pat Williams The Flattened Economy of the Rocky Mountain West Jessica Pupovac What You Should Know About Bank One's New Daddy Joshua Frank Contradictions of the Anti-War Mvt. Jerzy Mankowski Jeffrey Sach's Millennium Plan: a View from Poland Talli Naumann Right-to-Know in Mexico Antony Loewenstein The Aussie Press Under the Empire of Murdoch Virginia Rodino Challenging the Empire: Tactics for the Anti-War Movement Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Bush's Vision of Arab Democracy vs. Two Reports Website of the Day The 13th Moon: Women Poets Read for Peace in Portland     April 13, 2005 Maria Carrión Bolton in the Western Sahara Mike Whitney Fighting Torture with Art: the Abu Ghraib Paintings of Fernando Botero Terry Jones Let Them Eat Bombs Dave Lindorff A Sickening Error Nathaniel Livingston, Jr. Ethnic Cleansing at Air America Kurt Nimmo Israeli Nuclear Blackjack with Iran Don Fitz Battling Dengue Fever with Bats and Birds: the Vietnamese Alternative to Pesticides Tom Crumpacker Democracy and the Multiparty System: The US and Cuban Experiences JG The Abuse of Haitian Kids at PS 34 Jack McCarthy Horowitz Comes to Tallahassee Kevin Zeese Is God Picking a Side in Iraq?: an Interview with Rev. Sekou Jeffrey St. Clair How Exxon Used the Guise of Homeland Security to Purge One of Louisiana's Environmental Champions   April 12, 2005 John Wheat Gibson The Goddess of Immigrants: Aeschylus, Thucydides and the Patriot Act Kevin Zeese The Time to Oppose a Draft is Now Alan Farago The Cancer Clusters of Cape Coral: Toxics Trump Democracy in Florida Dave Lindorff Blackout in Montgomery: Selling Social Security Destruction to White Alabamans Ron Jacobs Bob Dylan at the Crossroads Nelson P. Valdes Flashback: John Bolton's Big Lie Dave Zirin War Games and War Names Website of the Day Parents Against the Draft     April 11, 2005 Tom Barry Negroponte and the Eclipse of the CIA Saul Landau Love for the Unborn and Brain Dead: Contempt for the Rest Us Monique Dols Scapegoated at Columbia: Smearing Joseph Massad Phil Gasper Burning Professors: Resurrection of a Witchhunt Mike Whitney See No Evil: Pope TV and the New World Media Edwin Krales The Origin of AIDS: an Ethical Inquiry Paul de Rooij Undermining Civil Society: Horowitz's Corrosive Projects Website of the Day Academic Freedom at Columbia: a Petition   April 9 / 10, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Torture Air, Incorporated William A. Cook Janus at the State Dept.: Glossing Over Israel's Human Rights Abuses Gary Leupp My Favorite Papal Moment: a Bonfire in Peru Alan Maass Pope-a-Dope: John Paul 2, Death of a Reactionary Laura Carlsen Democracy Sinking in Mexico Joe DeRaymond Death and Displacement in Colombia Nikolas Kozloff Bush Rebuffed in Venezuela (Again) Dave Lindorff The Price of Oil and the Bush Dollar Greg Moses Growling at Hallliburton Fred Gardner Southern Station Session Justin Smith The US Prison System: a Hesitant Defense of the Not-Quite-as Bad Old Days Ron Jacobs George Bush's True Religion: From Bob Jones to Jim Jones M. Junaid Alam No Intelligence Failure in Iraq; Political Failure in the US Ira Kay West Point's Bad Geography: the Conqueror's Warped View of the World Elizabeth Schulte From McCarthyism to COINTELPRO: the Ongoing War on the Left Jackie Corr Stranger in a Strange Land: What Bush Didn't See in Montana Christopher Brauchli From Darfur to Iraq: Crime Without Punishment Leslie A. Fiedler On Saul Bellow: "The Age of the Jewish-American Novel is Over" Ben Tripp Pocket Furniture Poets Basement Lamantia, Engel, Louise, Albert and Curtis Website of the Weekend Military Free Zones     April 8, 2005 Rob Eshelman Made in Palestine: the First Exhibition of Palestinian Art in the US Hom Raj Acharya / Sally Acharya The Elephant in Nepal's Parlor Felice Pace A Golden Opportunity for Justice on the Klamath Neve Gordon Israel is the Key to Iraq Mike Whitney The Economic Tsunami: Coming Sooner Than You Think Don Monkerud God's Shock Troops: the Religious Right and US Foreign Policy Adam Engel The Code of Frank Conroy Vicente Navarro Opus Dei and John Paul II: a Profoundly Rightwing Pope Website of the Day Mountain Justice Summer     April 7, 2005 Joshua Frank The DeLay Scandal Isn't a Partisan Issue Yitzhak Laor Racism by Any Other Name Alan Maass Tug of War with Terri Schiavo Steven Sherman An Open Letter to Daniel Okrent: Why the Times is Not "Assertively Left" Dave Lindorff Bush's Potemkin Town Meetings Gerry Adams The IRA Should Change from "Volunteers" to "Activists" John Chuckman Hanoi Jane and the City of God Michael Dickinson Two Weddings and a Funeral John Ross Lost and Found in the Arizona Desert Website of the Day Genetically-Engineered Small Pox?     April 6, 2005 Peter Camejo The Crisis in the Green Party Kevin Wehr The Eco-Terror Hoax: Domestic Security and the Culture of Fear Matt Vidal Bush's Legacy: Dead Bodies, Dead Wrong, Dead Logic Robert Creeley / Bruce Jackson On the Subject of Company Nikolas Kozloff Chavez's Oil Gambit Sea Shepherd Crew Attack of the Hak-a-Piks Brenda Child Ojibwe Have Dealt With Grief Before: From Boarding School Abuse to School Shootings Terry Eagleton The Pope with Blood on His Hands David Swanson Why the Media Can't Read the Banktuptcy Bill Cindy Ellen Hill On the Lists: What's the Patriot Act in Belfast Website of the Day The New Nike?     April 5, 2005 Jim Connolly The Pope Who Revived the Office of the Inquisition: an American Catholic on the Papacy of John Paul II Paul Craig Roberts "Partnering" the Destruction of the American Economy Gary Leupp Bombing the Malwiya Minaret Dave Lindorff The Grassroots Resistance to the Patriot Act Ron Jacobs The Terrorism of War Dan Smith Riding the Dragon, Soaring on the Eagle: US Economic Decline and the Rise of China Mark Engler John Paul II's Economic Ethics: Moral Values and Global Capitalism Richard Oxman Bono for Pope Greg Moses Narcowars vs. Civil Rights Website of the Day Impeach Cheney and Bush   April 4, 2005 Kevin Zeese Liberals and Neocons for a Draft Paul Craig Roberts American Rot: When Opposing Voices Do Not Oppose Larry Birns / Sarah Schaffer Bush's Arms Sales Hypocrisy Karyn Strickler Blood on Ice: Seal Pup Slaughter on the St. Lawrence Joshua Frank The Minuteman Project: Paramilitaries on the Border Michael Dickinson It's Too Late Now for John Paul II to Repent Surendra R. Devkota Ending the Deadlock in Nepal Derrick O'Keefe Haiti, Yesterday and Today: an Interview with Laura Flynn Uri Avnery Djinn in the Box Website of the Day Libby, Montana: America's Most Toxic Town?     April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Death, Depression and Prozac Jeffrey St. Clair Trippwired Stan Goff A Trojan Jackass for the Anti-War Movement John Ross How to Change the World Without Taking Power Saul Landau Guns, Vitamins and God Robert Creeley Goodbye Mike Roselle Riding Shotgun with Woody Harrelson Joshua Frank Dead Wrong Intelligence Fred Gardner The Obvious Green Issue Greg Moses Photo ID Movement as White Privilege Fran Quigley The Economics of Global Poverty: an Interview with Jeffrey Sachs Kurt Nimmo The Strange Allure of Paul Wolfowitz Nicole Colson Pentagon Greenlights Murder in Iraq Chris Genovali Killing Grizzlies for Fun Alan Farago Dirty Water and Land Speculators in the Florida Keys Lawrence Reichard The M-19 and the Siege of Bogota Ben Tripp Civilization and War Avantika Regmi Chaos in Nepal Lee Sustar Off the Script in Kyrgyzstan Ron Jacobs Death of a Revolutionary: Vermont Loses an Honest Man Dave Lindorff The Black Arrow: a Review Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Curtis, Louise, Engel and Albert Website of the Day O2 Collective: No Breathing Tube Required       April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Michael Chertoff: Legal Storm Trooper Rahul Mahajan WMD Commission: Yet Another Intelligence Failure Charlie Cray / Jim Vallette Dancing with Wolfowitz Dave Lindorff News Media Anguish Over Schiavo's Death Zeynep Toufe The Terri Schiavo Success Story Suzan Mazur Pension Funds and the Price of Oil Michael Dickinson Shut Your Mouth or Go to Prison! Stan Cox Iraq Reconstruction Funds Invested on Wall Street Ra Ravishankar Et Tu, George? Daniel Wolff Patti Scialfa's Conversation with America     March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Leftwing Apologists for the Occupation Ron Jacobs Rounding Out Iraq's History Tariq Ali British Elections: Punish the Warmongers Michael Dickinson Cartoon Capers: Turkey's War on Political Cartoonists Kanak Mani Dixit The Struggle for Nepal's Future Mitchell Zimmerman The Bizarre Legal Philosophy of Justice Janice Rogers Brown Xuan-Trang Ho Guatemala and CAFTA: Return to the Bad Old Days? Dave Zirin Pay the Damn Players! Joe Bageant In Praise of Holy Madness Jeff Halper The End of a Viable Palestinian State Website of the Day Free Nepal     March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Curing Those People of Their Hatred: Condi's Pitch for a "Different Kind" of Middle East Ralph Nader / Kevin Zeese Report on Iraq Intelligence Failure: No One to Blame Chase Madar Wolfowitz's Career Move: From Failed Warrior to Humanitarian Banker Toni Solo Bush in Latin America Jackie Corr Blessed are the Rich: George Bush's Montana Visit Ahmad Faruqui Much Ado About F-16s Mike Roselle Refuting Dave Foreman: Days of Whine and Posers Jude Wanniski America's Gunboat Diplomacy Francis A. Boyle Why You Should Boo Illinois Jeffrey St. Clair Downwinders be Damned Website of the Day Help! Nicaraguan Workers Are Being Poisoned   March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Is the End of the Iraq War / Occupation Near? Gary Leupp Terri Schiavo's Death and the Birth of an "Elected" Iraqi Government Sonia Cardenas A Pandora's Box of Abuses: the Geneva Trap Stew Albert Take Back the Life Force! Mark Weisbrot Owning Up to the "Ownership Society" Dave Lindorff China's Report on Human Rights in US is No Cariacture Carl G. Estabrook The Subversive Commandments     March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sgrena Sets the Record Straight: "There was No Checkpoint; No Self-Defense" Sonali Kolhatkar Forgetting Afghanistan...Again Sasha Kramer The UN's Betrayal of Haiti Kevin Zeese Don't Just Blame the Democrats Tom Stephens Sacred Law; Traditional Wisdom: Environmental Justice and Indigenous Peoples Dr. Teresa Whitehurst We're Walking Into a Trap Newton Garver Reflections on Bolivia Paul Craig Roberts A Bail Out Draft for a Cakewalk War? Website of the Day Stumped? Ask a Librarian, 24/7     March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp God's Imperialists Peter Linebaugh To Render, to Impeach, to Habeas Corpus Marc Robert A European Student's Experience at Columbia University Laura Carlsen The Threesome in Crawford: Summit as Traveling Stage Show Saul Landau / Puja Patel The Price of Privatized "Development" Dave Foreman Nature's Crisis Fred Gardner Will San Francisco Pander to the Prohibitionists? Jennifer Matsui Terri Schiavo: America's Most Desperate Housewife? Dave Lindorff Provoking Iran Dharma Adhikari The Reversal of Democracy in Nepal Joshua Frank The Howard Dean Doctrine Patrick Barr Have Box Cutter, Will Travel: a True Story Christopher Brauchli F-16s to Pakistan Ramzy Baroud Israel's Record is "Not Reassuring" Jackie Corr When the Gov. of Montana Declared Martial Law in Butte Ben Tripp Off with Your Appurtenances! Dr. Susan Block Break a Taboo for Easter: Springtime for Sex and God Mickey Z. How Three Unrelated Books Relate Justin Taylor Beware of "Beware of God" Richard Joseph Cochabamba!: the Water War in Bolivia Poets' Basement Martin, Smith, Ford, Bortz and Albert     March 25, 2005 Scott Richard Lyons Horror and Hope at Red Lake Nation Yoshie Furuhashi No Troops; No Wars Pat Williams How a Town Got Poisoned: Libby, MT and the Labor Movement Mark Engler Remembering Archbishop Romero: 25 Years After His Assassination Rahul Mahajan Culture of Life or Culture of Living Death? Lance Selfa Can the Democrats be Moved to the Left? Ralph Nader Corporate Cyborg: Cal Nurses Take on Schwarzenegger John R. Llewellyn Why Utah's Prosecutors are Soft on Polygamy: a Former Sheriff Speaks Out Jo Guldi Beyond Belief: Holy Week in France   March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank The Selling (Out) of the Antiwar Movement Talli Nauman Vicente and George: Security by Any Other Name Would Smell Sweeter Martin Espada Why I Refused Coke's Money: a Poet Speaks Out About Colombia Dave Lindorff Another Social Security Snow Job Elaine Cassel When Fools Rush In: the Legal Implications of the Schiavo Case Jack McCarthy Jeb Bush's Mob: Snatch, Grab, Insert Tube Jack Random Juxtaposition: Terri Schiavo and the Red Lake Massacre Barbara Ferguson Wolfowitz Dating Muslim Woman and World Bank Employee Suzan Mazur Peak Oil: Debate or Vendetta? Dorreen Yellow Bird Suffering Red Lake Nation Endures the Worst of Days Andrew Wimmer and Mark Chmiel Torture: Old Hat or Open Wound?   March 23, 2005 Patrick Bond A New War? On Wolfowitz's World Bank Mike Whitney Railroading Moussaoui Becky White Why I Hung from a Bridge to Defend the Wild Forests of the Siskiyou Mountains Michael Donnelly Dissecting the Changeling: How the AuCoin Express Was Really Derailed Niranjan Ramakrishnan Remembering Ram Manohar Lohia: the Che of Non-Violence Ashley Smith Bush is What Hypocrisy Looks Like David Swanson The More Bush Talks, the Less Popular Privatization Becomes Derrick O'Keefe Enter Bono, Stage Right Paul A. Moore The Fire This Time: the Bush Bros. Racist Crackdown in Florida Dalton Walker My Reservation Will Never Be the Same Patrick Cockburn The US Frees Iraqi Kidnappers to Become Spies     March 22, 2005 William Blum Anti-Empire Report: Democracy--or is it the US Military--on the March Jim Vallette Cheney's Oil Change at the World Bank Greg Moses A Palm Sunday Chat with Sis Levin John Farley Bush's Culture of Life: Let the Insurance Companies Pull the Plug When the Sick Cost Too Much Ron Jacobs Halt the Anniversary Rallies and Stop the Damn War M. Junaid Alam How the Democratic Party Fosters Conservatism Rep. Cynthia McKinney An Immoral and Illegal War: Destroying Iraq Isn't Enough for Them Dave Lindorff "Saving" Schiavo; Killing the News James Petras Fateful Quadrangle: Cuba and Venezuela Face Off Against the US and Colombia       March 21, 2005 John Walsh In the Bars on the Road to Fayettevile: War Support Paper Thin Werther The Legacy of George Kennan, Chief Architect of the Cold War Mike Stark Where is the "Culture of Life" in Maryland? Time is Running Out for Vernon Evans David Swanson Feeding Tubes for the Third World: Put the Hungry into Comas, Then Feed Them! James T. Phillips Happy Meals: Behind the Grill at a Baltimore Diner Mike Ferner Serving, Refusing, Impeaching Robert Jensen The World Waits for an Answer Paul Craig Roberts A Threat Greater Than Terrorism Stew Albert Vegetable Nation Website of the Day American Press Blotter: Jacko, Terry and Steroids vs. the World     March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Three-Card Monte and the One-Party State Tom Reeves Exposing the Coming Draft: a Draft by Any Other Name is Still Wrong Saul Landau The Grandchildren of Roy Cohn: the Politics of the Repressed Alan Maass Making Bankruptcy a Life Sentence Ron Jacobs Submit or Else: the Nuclear Demon that Won't Go Awayy David Green The Holocaust Industry Comes to the University of Illinois John Blair Hey, Dick! I'm Still Free: a Blow for Freedom of Speech in Indiana Steve Greenfield The Decline of the Green Party: the Numbers are In Ben Tripp Nature isn't Real Mike Roselle A History of White People in the Conservation Movement Joshua Frank Hope in Red State America: Lessons from the Big Sky Country Mark Weisbrot The World Bank: a Bigger Problem Than Wolfowitz Dave Lindorff Congress on Steroids Sarah Schaffer Lula's Nukes: Bush Bullies Iran, Ignores Brazil's Nuclear Ambitions Warren Hastings Why the Queen Should Chop Off Tony Blair's Head for Treason Poets' Basement Lodge, Albert. Landau, Engel, Davies, Capaccio   March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin The Congressional Urine Testers: Baseball's Theater of the Absurd Richard Thieme The Church Committee Candidate: I was a Victim of the KGB John Walsh Misdirecting the Anti-War Movement David Swanson Hunger Striking for a Living Wage at Georgetown Ben Terrall In the Spirit of Rachel Corrie: Confronting Caterpillar in San Leandro David Boyle Just Say "No" to Harvard Dorreen Yellow Bird Coping with Teen Suicide on the Standing Rock Reservation Mokhiber / Weissman Global Bully Goes to Guatemala Greg Moses They Don't Shoot Donkeys...Do They? Website of the Day 800 Protests: Find One Near You   March 17, 2005 Christopher Brauchli Rendered Unto Caesar: the Etymology of Torture Bill Quigley The St. Patrick's Four and the Resistance to the War in Iraq Brian Cloughley Bush's Herds: Willing to Kick Anyone in the Face Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Inside the Bush Budget: Rhetoric vs. Reality Dave Lindorff The Incredible Shrinking Coalition Jude Wanniski Wolfowitz at the World Bank: a Perfect Fit Alexander Billet Irish Republicanism at the Crossroads John Ross Wal-Mart Invades Mexico Website of the Day Campus Resistance   March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader Filling the Congressional Cop-Out Gap: an Idea for Local Peace Activists William Cook Resurrecting the Neo-Con Failures Kevin Zeese Two Years of Occupation: Both US and Iraq are Worse Off Jackie Corr Why is Dick Cheney Laughing? The New Tax Cut Patriotism Alan Maass Bush's Class War Budget David R. Kolker Jailed Without Charges in Haiti Cindy Ellen Hill Speculative Policing in Northern Ireland Paul Craig Roberts America's Has-Been Economy     March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp The Plan is Still on Track Dave Lindorff Free John Walker Lindh! Greg Moses The Fix-It Guys and Their Electoral Filters Hadas Their / Katrina Yeaw Military Recruiters Target Campus Activists Alison Weir Uprising on the Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's Death Matt Koehler A Line in the Ancient Forest: 50 Arrested in Blockade to Save the Siskiyous Evelyn Pringle Labeling Kids Mentally Ill for Profit Harry Browne War and Peace in Ireland     March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader Restarting the Anti-War Movement David Miller Ministry of Defence in the Control Booth: Did the BBC Broadcast Fake News Reports? Stan Cox Look Deeper, Mr. Moyers Mike Roselle Why Women Should Take Over the Environmental Movement David Swanson Nursing Against the Odds: the Workers' View Simona Sharoni To End the War, Listen to Soldiers Dave Lindorff Corporate Surveillance Dorreen Yellow Bird Incidents at Standing Rock: Suicide on the Reservation Tom Barry John Bolton's Baggage Website of the Day Spinwatch     March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price The CIA's Campus Spies Noam Chomsky The Toothpaste Election Laura Carlsen Women's Rights Eroding in Latin America Stan Goff On Revolutionary Optimism: the View from Cumberland Co, NC Valentina Nicoli The Game of Role-Playing and the Ambush of Giuliana Sgrena Michael Leonardi Head Shot: Lifting the Veil on the Sgrena / Calipari Incident Saul Landau / Sarah Anderson Blood Money and the Riggs Bank: Pinochet's Bank Finally Pays Up Joe Bageant It Ain't Easy Being White Manuel García, Jr. The Question of American Guilt Greg Moses Electoral Lessons from Cuyahoga and Harris Counties James J. Brittain Run, Fight or Die in Colombia Ben Tripp Communist Watch Joshua Frank A Red State Paradox: Montana on the Cusp Fred Gardner Pesticides Made Her Sick; Pot Got Her Well Walter Brasch Bush's Horse Killers Ramzy Baroud Reining in Syria on Behalf of Israel Christopher Brauchli Going All the Way for Usurers Michael Donnelly The Humiliation of Les "Timber Toad" AuCoin Ron Jacobs ZAP Comics: Still Kicking US Culture in the Ass Richard Oxman The Eternal Reciprocity of Tears Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Davies, Ford, Louise and Albert   March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Targeting Giuliana Ron Jacobs Making Lebensraum in the Middle East for Tel Aviv's Fears & Washington's Dollars Dave Lindorff America's Magical Kingdom William James Martin Ben Gurion and the Origin of the "Pushing into the Sea" Myth Muqtedar Khan Modi's Operandi: American Business and Genocide Linked Again Kathryn Ledebur Bolivia on the Brink Mike Whitney Saddam's Capture: Just Another Bush Lie? Dave Zirin Neo-McCarthyism Slugs Baseball Website of the Day William Rivers Pitt, Another Hack for the Occupation     March 10, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts So Much for the New Bush Economy John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin and Ashley Smith Vermont Vs. the War Larry Birns The Pathological John Bolton Michael Donnelly The Re-Reinvention of an Oregon Timber Beast Luis Gomez In Bolivia, Reality Changes Once Again Jackie Corr Whatever Happened to the Social Security Trust Fund? Uri Avnery Bush's Guru: Natan Sharansky Website of the Day Red Alert in the Siskiyous!     March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Dirty Harry's Fear of Flying: Making Love, War and Profits at Boeing Ward Churchill Who's the Terrorist? Robert Fisk Another Species of Cedar: a Half Million Lebanese March for Syria Bernice Powell Jackson No Justice for America's Nuclear Guinea Pigs in the Marshall Islands Mickey Z. The Revolutionary of Potential Art Dave Zirin NHL Says: "Bring On the Scabs!" Michael Donnelly Standing Up to Ecocide in Oregon James Reiss Stopping by Words in Favor of Privatizing Social Security Vijay Prashad Get Modi: a State Terrorist Visits Florida   March 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Syrian Delusion Robert Fisk Lebanon's Nightmare Kurt Nimmo War is Peace: John Bolton to the UN Suzan Mazur Time for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Polygamy? Evelyn Pringle Neil Bush and Crest: Another Profiteering Scheme Giuliana Sgrena My Truth: "The Americans Don't Want You to Return" Elaine Cassel The Appalling Case of Abu Ali     March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Bloodlust in Annapolis: Gov. Ehrlich Wants to Kill Vernon Lee Evans Brian Cloughley More War Crimes John Chuckman The Creature Walks Among Us Mike Whitney Jose Padilla and the 10 Commandments Mark Weisbrot Haiti's Torment: Why Are US Human Rights Groups Silent? Fred Gardner The Cannabinoid Messenger Richard Neville The Italian Job Uri Avnery The Next Crusades     March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Arnold vs. the Nurses Gary Leupp What's Happening in Lebanon: an Interview with Fadi Agha, Advisor to President Lahoud Ron Jacobs Lies Military Recruiters Tell Tom Reeves Haiti: One Year After the Coup Jenna Orkin Memories of Kawaggi, Saudi Arabia Tom Barry Negroponte: Intel Czar or Policy Hack? Joshua Frank The Trials of Max Baucus Moshe Adler When Pfizer Came to New London: Corporate Giveways vs. Eminent Domain Jane Stillwater My Jury Questionnaire: "Do You Agree that a Corporation is a Person?" Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline Sfeir Double Standards on S. Africa and Israel: an Open Letter to UNESCO Christopher Brauchli Target: Al Jazeera John Pilger The Fall of Saigon: 30 Years Later Raúl Zibechi Colombia: Militarism and Social Movements David Krieger Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Another Blow to the King of Nepal Bhishma Karki Nepal in Twilight Joseph Pietri Murder at the Palace Ben Tripp The Good Old Days Poets' Basement Hassen, Chief Running Late, Wuest, Albert and Collins Website of the Weekend O'Shaughnessy's: All About Medical Pot     March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson Caught in a Cage   March 3, 2005 Pat Williams "Social Security Protects the Young as Much as the Old" Brian Cloughley Headlines, Beliefs and Deceptions Dave Lindorff Why Do the Democrats Pamper Greenspan? Amira Hass Oslo All Over Again Greg Moses In Oscar Texas: One Down, One to Go? Lynne Landes Exit Poll Madness Nelson P. Valdés Rapture Takes Leftists John Ross Mexico's Fox Schemes to Jail Front-Running Leftist   March 2, 2005 Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen The "Noble Liars" Attack Syria Mike Roselle The State of Oregon vs. Mike Roselle: Criminalizing Environmental Dissent M. Junaid Alam Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism Suzan Mazur Inside the Polygamy Cults of Southern Utah Jackson Thoreau Texas Congressman Calls for "Nuking Syria" Michael Donnelly No Love for Teresa Heinz; John Edwards Gets a Pass Jeffrey St. Clair Uncle Bucky Makes a Killing Website of the Day The Ghosts of Karl Marx & Ed Abbey     March 1, 2005 Scott Richard Lyons Million Dollar Bigotry David Lindorff Stealing Workers' Pensions Patrick Cockburn / David Enders Bloodbath in Iraq Ron Jacobs The Last Poets Recalled Tanya Garcia USA Next: the Industry Front Group to Privatize Social Security Joseph Pietri The Drug Trail Ends in Kathmandu: Golden Tar Heroin and the Black Prince Kona Lowell Woody: Broken in Vietnam Paul Craig Roberts The Coming End of the American Superpower Website of the Day Petition: No US Intervention in Iran                                                     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.     Subscribe Online

April 28, 2005 Punk Goes Lesser-Evil Blair's Poodle: the Billy Bragg Interview By OMAR WARAICH You woke up this morning To the fact we've lost the things We took for granted between us" Billy Bragg, The Myth of Trust Billy Bragg's rhymes of resistance and years of political campaigning have established him as the doyen of British protest music. But now Bragg is lending his talents to a string of pro-war New Labour candidates in their election bids. His inbox has been deluged with all manner of disquiet from the disappointed. For CounterPunch I too reached out, in search of explanation. There will be no straight answer I fear, but I want to hear the crooked answer. "Listening to The Clash," Bragg submits, "had a huge influence on me musically." Not only had Joe Strummer and his band politicized the punk scene, but they knew how to "walk it like you talk it." Bob Dylan, "He's the man!", and Woody Guthrie, "He's the man!", also figure in his pantheon of lyrical legends. When it came to politics, however, it was Margaret Thatcher that propelled the bard of Barking into action. The defining political moment for Bragg came with the miners' strike of 1984-5, when the Conservative regime set out to lay waste to Britain's industrial heartlands, crippling communities and livelihoods in the process. The depredations of the Tory years weigh heavily on Billy's mind, and he exhibits an especial relish for punishing Thatcher's party. "I vote how I always vote," Bragg stresses, "against the Tory." "Whoever can beat the Tory, I'll vote for 'em." Much to his displeasure, Billy's local MP is a Conservative. And not just any Conservative, but the insufferable Oliver Letwin, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (and, amusingly, first cousin of Michael Letwin, convenor of New York Labor Against War). "Yeah, so you see it's a big deal for us to beat him where I live, in Dorset." The denizens of Dorset are dear to Bragg and most of his exertions are focused on local, grass-root campaigns. He's been involved with "surfers against sewage, working to preserve the environment of the area, and getting more local produce into our supermarkets." Now, through a brand new website, he's exhorting the electorate there to rid themselves of the Conservatives and vote "tactically": get traditional Lib-Dem voters to vote Labour in constituencies where it can count, and vice-versa. "It's a big ask, I know. But we have to keep the Tories out." Though it is almost certain that Labour will clinch a third term in power, it is the Tories that have Bragg rattled. "Since they are second place in most Labour seats," he portends, "I think that the Tories are a big threat. I'm very concerned that, even if they don't win the election, they come back resurgent and feel rewarded for the kind of racist, xenophobic campaign they've run." New Labour's own record on race relations is pretty dismal. The most cursory of glances at the former Home Secretary, David Blunkett's record makes plain how matters have regressed in this country. Earlier in the day, Tony Blair was at a press conference doing his utmost to assuage fears that he has been "too soft" on immigration and asylum. It was not an edifying anti-racist speech. "No it wasn't" Bragg concedes. "But he did make a mainstream case for a multicultural society. He had a fair stab at it. You don't get the sense with him that we were back in the old days; the sort of sense you get from the Tories." As readers may have gathered, a visceral anti-Toryism underscores all of the virtuoso's politics-even when they are a frail opposition party. I start to tire of his tirades. I probably would have nodded vigorously in approval if it was 1997 and the Conservatives had just been in power for 18 years. But now-if you can pardon the pun (and forgive the cliché)-Bragg is starting to sound more like a broken record. Must we turn a blind-eye to Labour's last eight years and vote for supine Blairites simply because they are not Conservatives? "Yeah. That's it, that's what's on offer. You either get that or the Tories. You think the Tories won't privatize, etc.? These are the choices you have to make. They are the only parties that can win the election. I think you have to, unfortunately, hold your nose and do what you can to stop things sliding back." Are you thinking what I'm thinking? This is the classic, plaintive "lesser-evil" argument, also known as "Forward not Back-ism" in the New Labour vernacular. On war though, Blair has distinguished himself and out-bombed the combined efforts of Thatcher and Major. Some have posited, and credibly so, that when it comes to war Labour is the greater evil. So, does it behove an antiwar artist and activist to demand that voters simply ignore the grotesqueries of the war in Iraq and bolt over to Blair's side? In the latest issue of the New Statesman, John Pilger tersely argues that, "By voting for Blair, you will walk over the corpses of at least 100,000 people, most of them innocent, slaughtered in defiance of international law." Now Billy is not the sort of person to casually traipse past tragedy on his way to the polling booth, but he is adept at shunting a question. "I attended the antiwar demonstrations, and yes, the war was a total waste of money. But do you think the Tories would do any different? Do you think the Tories would spend that money on the public the next time? Do you think the Tories won't pal up with George Bush and the neocons?" Sure, they might. It remains worthy of note, however, that even Margaret Thatcher had blanched at the invasion of Grenada. The Bush-Blair nexus, on the other hand, has been likened by John Lanchester, in the London Review of Books, to "the coital lock" ­ a position which "makes it impossible to separate dogs during sex." Of course, Blair's loyal lieutenants have been party to this liaison and stand culpable. On foundation hospitals, student top-up fees, Kafkaesque "anti-terror" legislation, Afghanistan and Iraq, Margaret Hodge and Oona King have paid fealty to Blair. You will never catch Billy Bragg lauding the stances that this brace of east London MPs has taken, but he has deigned to campaign and play gigs for them. "Margaret Hodge," Billy explains, "is the Labour MP for my home town of Barking. The BNP (British National Party) recently won a seat on the local council and are targeting the area. Hodge is an ulta-Blairite who voted for the war. Should I stand back and say well she culpable and let the BNP take over my home town or should I get stuck in against the fascists? No contest." Perhaps, but I hasten to add that in the past anti-fascist organizations have found it possible to confront the BNP without necessarily endorsing candidates whose voting records leave a great deal to be desired. And what about Oona King, whose cushy majority faces no threat from the far-right, is she not ripe for eviction? "I went to support Oona King because I genuinely believe that there is a strong chance that, due to Respect and, more significantly, Labour voters refusing to vote, she will lose her seat to the Tories who are well placed there to benefit from a split between the progressive vote." The Battle for Brick Lane has elicited more attention than any other constituency in this election. While Britain's national papers are providing coverage almost every day, the Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, The Bangladesh Independent, and an entire slew of other foreign media outlets have also descended on the East End constituency of Bethnal Green & Bow where Oona King is being taken on by the former Labour MP, George Galloway and his Respect party. Psephologists and bookmakers are declaring that the skirmish is a two-horse race between King and Galloway, with the Conservatives gadding far behind, set to deliver a nail-biting finish. "The media have been trying to get me to badmouth Galloway, and I won't." In the past Bragg has described the antiwar rebel as, "a good man, fallen among trots." "I still stand by that," Billy tells me, "but I don't see how ousting Oona would help the people of Basra, never mind the people of Bethnal Green." Billy Bragg has not been the only high-profile figure to support King. Three senior cabinet ministers have canvassed for her, Cherie Blair has issued clarion calls for Galloway to be given "a bloody nose", and the broadsheet bombardiers, Nick Cohen, Johann Hari and Christopher Hitchens, have scribbled furiously in Oona's favour. How does the musician feel about such unlovely company? "What about Ken Livingstone?" he keenly counters. Ah, yes, the mayor formerly known as Red Ken. Livingstone has an odd relationship with the Labour Party. He signed up to the party first when Harold Wilson, the Labour Prime Minister, was backing the Vietnam war, was expelled in 2000 for standing against the official Labour candidate for Mayor of London, and then scurried back into its fold when another Labour Prime Minister was backing another outrageous war. Recently in the press he has chastised the Liberal Democrat leadership for wanting to dispatch more troops to Iraq and artfully left out any mention of what his party leadership had done over the matter. Like Livingstone, Billy Bragg does not wish to see Labour lose any seats on May 5. But he is keen on "moving the centre of British politics to left" and increasing Liberal Democrat representation in parliament. "Wherever you are, you have to vote against a Conservative candidate. That will stop the Tories taking seats off Labour. That'll increase the Lib-Dems' seats. The Tories will come out of this election with fewer seats than they had before, and they'll split. They'll divide and break-up. And the end result is that the Lib-Dems will be in a much better position to be the official opposition and then New Labour will have to deal with them." Sounds like a grim struggle, and I do wish him the best with it. However, I still retain little sympathy for an argument that expects voters incensed by this war to simply surrender this election, and seethe in silence. * Ken Livingstone was unavailable for comment. Omar Waraich is an undergraduate at SOAS, University of London. He can be reached at omar.w@soas.ac.uk