Today's Stories

January 6, 2009

Pam Martens
It's All One Big Lie

January 5, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Will There be a Recovery?

Sousan Hammad
Phoning Home to Gaza

Wajahat Ali
Flying While Brown

Mats Svensson
Longing in Gaza

Jen Marlowe
Abeer's Baby

Muhammad Ali Khalidi
Gaza Phone Tag

Brian Cloughley
Israel is Immune From Criticism

Faheem Hussain
Gaza and India: a View From Pakistan

William Cook
Consider the Realities of Gaza

Dr. Trudy Bond
The Madness Among Us

Christopher Ketcham
The Revenge of the Blogger at the National Press Club: a Rotten Washington Interlude

Steve Early
Who Rules SEIU?

Dave Lindorff
When It Comes to Terrorism and POW Cases, Equal Justice Under Law is a Joke

Website of the Day
The Endangered Fish of the Colorado River Basin

January 2 - 4, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Diary of 2008: an Incredible, Hope-Filled Year

Uri Avnery
Molten Lead in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of the Gaza Assault

Paul Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Western Morality?

Brian Eno
Stealing Gaza: an Experiment in Provocation

Ralph Nader
America Must Stop Shirking Its Responsibility on Gaza

Omar Barghouti
UN Complicity in Israel's Massacre in Gaza

Graham Usher
Where Pakistan's Generals and the ISI Draw Their Lines

P. Sainath
The Economy is Worse Than It Appears

Belén Fernández
Pardon Our Dust: Israel's PR Campaign for Gaza

Deb Reich
Shiv'a in Gaza, December 2008

Gary Leupp
Defacing Mr. Jefferson's Wall: Preachers and the Inauguration

Michael Yates
Top Chef or Top Wage Thief? Tom Colicchio and the Economics of Restaurants

Joanne Mariner
How to Close Guantánamo

Seth Sandronsky
Funding the Israeli Military: the US Pipeline

Cynthia McKinney
We Lived to Tell the Story

Sonja Karkar
Israel's Dogs of War

Deepak Tripathi
Gaza in Perspective

Robert Fantina
Obama, Afghanistan and Israel

John Ross
The Year No One Can Remember

Norm Kent
The Heat on Duval Street: Why Head Shop Raids are Unfair and Unjust

Larry Portis
Syria and the Arab Barbie Doll--Before the Deluge

Richard Rhames
Is Conscience Dead?

Dee C. Lubell
We Come From the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright

David Yearsley
A Gay German at the Courts of the Medici and Hanover, and of Course the BBC

Lorenzo Wolff
Joe Ely, the Fighting Rooster of Rock

Marc Catone
Looting Lennon's Legacy

Poets' Basement
Five Poems by Grzegorz Wróblewski

Website of the Weekend
Earth in High Rez

January 1, 2008

Jennifer Loewenstein
If Hamas Did Not Exist

Oren Ben-Dor
The Self-Defense of Suicide

Wajahat Ali
The U.S. Response to the Gaza Crisis: Unfair and Unbalanced

Saul Landau
In Cuba No One Man Could Steal $50 Billion From Other People

David Michael Green
What to Expect While We're Expecting

Website of the Day
Morbid Anatomy

December 31, 2008

Pam Martens
Wall Street's Collapse and the Ownership Society

Neve Gordon /
Jeff Halper
Where's the Academic Outrage Over the Bombing of a University in Gaza?

Ted Honderich
The First Casualty of Israel's War

Brian Cloughley
Five Little Girls on a Sofa: Gaza's One-Sided Images

Ron Jacobs
What is Hamas, Really?

Vijay Prashad
Hot Rod and His Sikh Warrior: Blago's Indian Connections

Franklin Lamb
Mr. Mubarak, Tear Down That Wall!

Mike Whitney
My Brilliant Career

David Macaray
What Really Killed the Auto Bailout

Richard Thieme
The Betrayal of the Commons

Mary Lynn Cramer
Who Wins What in Gaza?

Stephen Lendman
The Troubling Case of the Fort Dix Five

Worthy Group of the Day
Western Shoshone Defense Project

December 30, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
May We No Longer Be Silent

Tariq Ali
The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant

Robert Bryce
The $775,000-a-Year GI

Jonathan Cook
Electioneering with Bombs

Gary Leupp
The Fishbarrel War

Dave Lindorff
Tough Guys Don't Walk: Will Cheney Seek a Pardon?

Brian McKenna
Ted Downing and Troublemaker Anthropology

John Walsh
The End of the Green Party

Ramzy Baroud
Gaza and the World

Bob Sommer
The Education of David Frost

Worthy Activist of the Day
Support Marie Mason

December 29, 2008

Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's Attempted Endgame in Gaza

Neve Gordon
What, Exactly, is Israel's Mission?

Joshua Frank
Obama and the "Special Relationship"

George Salzman /
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The War Against Palestine: Exception From Humanity

Norman Solomon
A Hundred Eyes for an Eye

Ewa Jasiewicz
Gaza Today: "This is Just the Beginning"

Rob Larson
The Banks Laugh All the Way to the Bank

Kenneth Libby
Arne Duncan's Dark Years in Chicago

Robert Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008

Elsa Johnson
High Noon at Black Mesa: Bush's Farewell Gift to Peabody Coal

Nicola Nasser
Resolution 1850: Bush's Parting Gift

Belén Fernández
Hanukkah Games

Worthy Group of the Day
Nuclear Information and Resource Service

December 26-28, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
The Medusa's Head

Dr Eyad Al Serraj
The Boming of Gaza: "An Earthquake on Top of Your Head"

Jeffrey St. Clair
Cancerous Air

Bradley Simpson
Obama's New Intel Chief, Dennis Blair, Ran Interference for Indonesia's Butchers

Ralph Nader
Government Without Laws

Gary Leupp
Obama and the Graveyard of Empires

Ellen Cantarow
Richard Falk, Israel and the NYT

Matt Landon
The Great Coal Ash Flood: a Report From Swan Pond Road

David Macaray
SAG's Terrible Dilemma

Patrick Bond
End of Neoliberalism? Sorry, Not Yet

Norm Kent
Invoking Bigotry: Obama and Rick Warren

Brian T. Ketcham
Fuel Efficiency is Easy--Just Don't Let Detroit Tell You How to Do It

Rannie Amiri
War Clouds Over Gaza

Larry Portis
Changing the Ethnic Vocabulary

Richard Rhames
Welcome to Soup Kitchen America

Stephen Lendman
29 Red Flags: Early Suspicions About Bernard Madoff

James L. Secor
Unheralded Coup

Ramzy Baroud
Iraq, the Plot Thickens

Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture

Cpt. Paul Watson
Tracking the Cetacean Death Star

Howard Lisnoff
Nixon's Cambodian Shock Treatment

Michael Dee
The Bill of Rights, Killed in Action by the War on Drugs

Steve Conn
Eight Predictions for 2009

Poets' Basement
Valentine, Kaung, Moser and Graham

Worthy Group of the Weekend
United Mountain Defense

December 25, 2008

Judy Gumbo Albert
What Were Those 1960s Terrorists Thinking, Anyway?

Rev. William E. Alberts
The Sole of Christmas

Hannah Mermelstein
Caution: Settlers Ahead

Worthy Group of the Day
Citizens' Coal Council

December 24, 2008

Bill Quigley
Five Bailout Lessons From Katrina

Saul Landau
Then and Now: Venezuela and Cuba, 1960-2008

Sam Smith
Evangelism and Politics

Brian Cloughley
Torture, Slaughter and Lies

John Ross
Where's al-Zaidi's Pulitzer?

Eric Walberg
Cold War Shivers

Norm Kent
What Will Obama Do About Marijuana?

Stephen Martin
Reasons for Cheerfulness

Worthy Group of the Day
Collateral Repair Project

December 23, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Ponzi Paradigm

Michael Yates
The Tombstone Economy

Chuck Spinney
The New York Times Flames Out in Defense Dogfight

Vijay Prashad
India's Reckless Road to Washington, Through Tel Aviv

Brian Horejsi
Interior Decorating: Obama, Salazar and the Future of America's Public Lands

David Macaray
Obama's Best Pick?

Neil Watkins /
Sarah Anderson
Ecuador's Conscientious Default

David Michael Green
Hey, Reagan Democrats! Now Do You Get It?

Worthy Group of the Day
Focus on the Corporation

December 22, 2008

Pam Martens
Madoff's Money Trail Leads to Washington

Gary Leupp
Base Alienation: Obama's Team of Rivals

Mike Whitney
Bail Out the Economy? More Pay is the Only Way

Karl Grossman
Lost in Space: NASA at 50

Niall Meehan
Conor Cruise O'Brien: Historian, Politician, Censor

Steve Conn
Where Would Larry Summers Dump the Guantanamo Mess?

Uri Avnery
Israeli Elections: Spot the Difference

Corey D. B. Walker
The Politics of Freedom

David Swanson
The Purloined Constitution

Worthy Group of the Day
Socialist Worker

December 19 - 21, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
An Ethnic Cleansing in America

Jeffrey St. Clair
Salazar and the Tragedy of the Common Ground

Paul Craig Roberts
Country Without Mercy

Patrick Cockburn
The Baathist "Coup Plot"

Felice Pace
Green Myopia: Obama's Appointments Reveal What's Wrong with the Environmental Movement

Diane Farsetta
The Pentagon's PR Slush Fund

George Ciccariello-Maher
By the Time I Get to Arizona: ICE Raids and Resistance in Flagstaff

Eric Bergoust
Extinct Lifestyles: Redefining Prosperity

Marjorie Cohn
Torture Without Regrets: Cheney's Unrepentent Confession

Stan Cox
Clothes and Commentaries That Don't Fit

Michael Donnelly
Clinton III: Continuity We Can Believe In

Robert Weissman
The Auto Bailout

Ralph Nader
Excluded Democracy: Scholastic and the Two Party System

Alan Farago
Shock and Awe Economics

Sam Smith
Not All Public Work is the Same

Timothy G. Hermach
What Happened on the Way to the Inauguration?

Seth Sandronsky
Who's Not Getting By and Why

Rannie Amiri
All Quiet on the Gazan Shore

David Yearsley
Bach as Jihadi

Martha Rosenberg
Wyeth's Pay-to-Play

Dave Lindorff
White House Lied About Iraqi Yellowcake Buy (But That's Not the Biggest Scandal)

Christopher Brauchli
Weekend at Bernie's: the Confinement of Mr. Madoff

Missy Beattie
President Meathead

Richard Rhames
Corporatizing the Kids

Stephen Martin
Full-Spectrum Dominance of the Big Lie

Paul Krassner
Milk and Twinkies

Lorenzo Wolff
Does Coldplay Give a Shit Anymore?

Poets' Basement
Kathwari, Halling and Payne

Worthy Group of the Weekend
Heartwood

December 18, 2008

Phillip Doe
The Man in the Hat: Salazar and the Status Quo

Ronnie Cummins
Vilsack: Another Shill for Monsanto

Jesse Sharkey
No School Left Unsold: Arne Duncan's Privatization Agenda

Saul Landau
Postcard from Venezuela

Peter Morici
What's Next for the Fed?

Dave Lindorff
Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for Torture

Panos Petrou
Days of Rage in Greece

Jeff Cohen /
Norman Solomon
The 2008 P.U.-litzer Prizes: the Stinkiest Media Performances of the Year

Worthy Group of the Day
Organic Consumer Alliance

December 17, 2008

Peter Lee
Pushing Pakistan Over the Edge

Conn Hallinan
Angels and Demons in Mumbai

Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Fatal Flaw

Jeff Halper
Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Alan Farago
The Audacity of Parkland

Peter Morici
The Big Hole

Norm Kent
Obama Lights Up

Col. Douglas MacGregor
The Price of Expediency

Margaret Kimberley
Blacks and Gay Rights

Ron Jacobs
The Myth of the Good Guy: Waiting on a President to Do the Right Thing

Worthy Group of the Day
Campaign to End the Death Penalty

December 16, 2008

Vicente Navarro
A Forgotten Genocide: the Case of Spain

Patrick Cockburn
Each Shoe was Worth a Thousand Words

Thomas Michael Power
Back to the Pump: an Economic and Environmental Dead End

Jason Hribal
Orangutans, Resistance and the Zoo: the Story of Ken Allen and Kumang

Farzana Versey
Straw Warriors and the Pantomime of Patriotism

Wajahat Ali /
Ahmed Rashid
Indian Muslims: Defining Their Loyalty

Mats Svensson
The Order to Destroy has been Given

Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
Mumbai Terror's Afghan Roots

David Macaray
Workplace Violence and Termination Etiquette

Howard Lisnoff
Left Control of Academia? The Case of William Felkner

Worthy Group of the Day
AWR: the Last, Best Hope for Saving the Big Wild

December 15, 2008

Andy Worthington
Hit Me Baby One More Time: a History of Music Torture in War on Terror

Franklin Lamb
Why Hezbollah Stiffed Carter

Karl Grossman
Dr. Chu's Nuclear Prescription

Brian Cloughley
Land of the Free (To Torture and Imprison Without Trial)

Mary Lynn Cramer
Stiglitz's Foolishly Flawed Morality

Steve Early
From Nicky Pockets to Blago: Why Pay-to-Play is Bad for Labor

Thomas Christie
Pentagon Train Wreck Awaits Obama

Ken Paff
Remembering Ron Carey: a Great Labor Leader

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
What is India to Do?

Dave Lindorff
A Hero of Our Time: Muntadar al-Zaidi

Alan Farago
The Artless Dodger

Worthy Group of the Day
Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund

December 12 / 14, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Hail to Chicago, Beacon of American Values

Michael Hudson /
Jeffrey Sommers
The End of the Washington Consensus

David Price
The Leaky Ship of Human Terrain Systems

Jeffrey St. Clair
Nukes Up the Hudson

Frank Barat
An Israeli in Gaza: an Interview with Jeff Halper

John Ross
Writing a Thesis in Blood

Binoy Kampmark
Humanitarian Imperialism: Obama and the Genocide Task Force

David Macaray
Killing the Auto Bailout: a Dagger to the Heart of Organized Labor

Ralph Nader
Antidotes to Plunder: a Holiday Reading List

Eamonn Fingleton
Whatever Happened to Iris Chang?

Lawrence Velvel
Why Blagojevich Might Be Acquitted

Behzad Yaghmaian
The Housing Crisis: a Timebomb China Can't Defuse

Sam Husseini
Putting the Pro in Protest

Tom Barry
Incentives to Detain: How Immigrants Drive Prison Profits

Howard Lisnoff
Why I Went to Jail

Laura Carlsen
Mexico's Immigration Problem

Raj Patel
The WTO and Other Fairy Tales

Ron Jacobs
The Manufacturing of History

Paul Watson
Risky Business Down Under

David Yearsley
They Also Serve Who Only Pull or Tread

Lorenzo Wolff
So You Want Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star...

Kim Nicolini
Finally, a Vampire Movie You Can Sink Your Teeth Into

Susie Day
Proposition 1984: the Problem with Heterosexuals

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Lerch and Crete

Worthy Group of the Weekend
Energy Justice

December 11, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Total Defeat for U.S. in Iraq

P. Sainath
After Mumbai

Vicken Cheterian
The Zarqawi Generation

Ray McGovern
Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?

Dedrick Muhammad
Post-Racial Racism at the Post: the Undying Obsession with Black Family Values

Lee Sustar
Victory at Republic

Peter Morici
The Big Drag

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Must They Hate Us So?

George Wuerthner
Another Subsidy to Big Timber?

Christopher Brauchli
Mr. Berg's Strange Obsession

Worthy Group of the Day
Animal Balance

December 10, 2008

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Whose Interests Will Shape Obama's Change?

Mary Lynn Cramer
The Multi-Trillion Dollar Question

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Nuclear Weapons Obsolescence

Joshua Frank
Breaking the Stranglehold on Middle East News Coverage

Jack Ely
Stop Sobbing About Free Music Downloads: a Message to the Music Industry from the Lead Singer of the Kingsmen

Steve Conn
An Obama Public Works Program?

Lee Sustar
Republic Workers Target Bank of America

Glen Ford
The Die is Cast

Stephen Lendman
The Persecution of Syed Fahad Hashmi

Nadia Hijab
The Face of America

Dave Lindorff
We All Need a Union

Website of the Day
This One's For You, Senator Dodd

December 9, 2008

Mike Whitney
Card Check

Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Us vs. Them

Ghada Karmi
The UN Resolution That Time Forgot

Dave Lindorff
A Car Dealer Explains Why the Bailout is a Raw Deal

Steve Breyman
Notes on a Green Economy: Managing Stuff in the 21st Century

Lee Sustar /
Nicole Colson
Raising the Stakes at Republic

Rev. William E. Alberts
God of Our Fathers

Martha Rosenberg
Bill Richardson: Secretary of Bloodsports

Sam Husseini
How Holbrooke Lied His Way Into a War

David Macaray
The UAW in Peril

Website of the Day
This Toxic Life

December 8, 2008

Steve Early
Is Obama Backing Off a Crucial Pledge to Labor?

Michael Hudson
Obama's Favoritism: Wall Street, Not the Auto Industry

Patrick Cockburn
Talking to a Lashkar Militant

Diane Farsetta
An Officer and a Conflicted Man: McCaffery, the Pentagon and Fleishman-Hillard

Paul Craig Roberts
Chapters in Imperial Hypocrisy

Daniel Gross
The Chicago Sit-Down Strike

Saul Landau
To Bail or Not to Bail?

Harvey Wasserman
Why John Bryson is Unfit for Energy Secretary

Mike Ferner
The New Generation of "Non-Lethal" Weapons

Norman Solomon
The Silent Winter of Escalation

David Michael Green
The Other Foot

Website of the Day
The Remains of Detroit

December 5 / 7, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Honeymoans From the Left

Brian Cloughley
Shambles in Afghanistan

Paul Craig Roberts
Muslim Revolution: How Washington Arrogance Helped Drive the Mumbai Attacks

Liaquat Ali Khan
Mumbai and the Kashmir Tinderbox

Farzana Versey
Mumbai's Charge of the Lightweight Brigade

Peter Lee
Pakistan Nears the Breaking Point

Peter Morici
Slouching Toward a Depression?

Ralph Nader /
Toby Heaps
Junk Cap-and-Trade

Yinon Cohen /
Neve Gordon
Obama Could End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Will He Meet the Challenge?

Wajahat Ali
Perverse Justice: the Holy Land Foundation Convictions

Johnny Barber
Aswad's Story: Illegal Detention and the Declaration of Human Rights

Alan Farago
Fallout from the Pass-Through Economy

Jeremy Scahill
Obama Doesn't Plan to End Occupation of Iraq

Mike Whitney
Powergrab in Ottawa

Ranjit Hoskote
Jahiliyya Versus Jihad

Carl Finamore
Thank God I'm an Atheist! (Or Boy is Bill O'Reilly in for a Big Surprise)

Marjorie Cohn
Obama and Women's Rights

Norm Kent
Tommy Chong, the Unanticipated Warrior

Missy Beattie
What Lies Ahead

Binoy Kampmark
Committing Suicide On-Line: the Briggs Case

David Macaray
The Best and the Brightest Redux: Too Many Brains, Not Enough Humility

Nancy Stohlman
Relational Activism

Ron Jacobs
Irreverent Politics Then and Now

David Yearsley
Thematics From the Golden Past

Lorenzo Wolff
Troubled Songs of Home and War

Poets' Basement
Orloski: The Door Opener

Website of the Weekend
In Prison My Whole Life

December 4, 2008

Ece Temelkuran
Inside the Ergenekon Case

Ralph Nader
Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Who Will Seize the Moment?

Harry Browne
The Bush-Obama National Security Strategy

Eamonn Fingleton
The American Car Industry: a Riposte to the Knockers

Conn Hallinan
The Syria Attack

Mike Whitney
Fiasco in Somalia: Another CIA Cock-Up

Stewart J. Lawrence
Obama and Latinos: Richardson, Alone, is Not Enough

Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
Message to Obama: Stop Killing Afghanis

Karyn Strickler
Show Us the Green, Before We Show You the Money

Jennifer Matsui
Obama-Cola: the Great National Temperance Beverage

Website of the Day
"He Ain't Got Laid in a Month of Sundays..."

December 3, 2008

Andrew Cockburn
What's Wrong with the U.S. Military

Sheldon Rampton
Mormon Homophobia: Up Close and Personal

Robert Weissman
Nationalize GM

Yifat Susskind
From Mumbai to Washington

William Blum
The Obama Bummer: Vote First, Ask Questions Later

Alan Singer
The Ghost of the Defunct Economist

David Macaray
Trampled Under Foot at Wal-Mart

Martha Rosenberg
Born With a Statin Deficiency? Line Forms to the Left!

Mats Svensson
The Crimes Have No Period of Limitations

Website of the Day
Why Bill Richardson's Nomination Should be Opposed

December 2, 2008

Jeremy Scahill
Obama's Kettle of Hawks

Paul Craig Roberts
The New Arms Race

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
The Mumbai Terror Attacks: Is Pakistan to Blame?

Sarah Anderson /
John Cavanagh
Skewed Priorities: How the Bailout Dwarfs Spending on Other Global Crises

William Blum
The Mythology of the War on Terrorism

John Ross
Mexico's Drug War Goes Down in Flames

Dave Lindorff
A Tale of Two Terror Attacks

Nicola Nasser
A Peace Process That Makes Peace Impossible

Steve Conn
Operation Redskin Removal

Robert Bryce
Coal Hard Facts

Website of the Day
Country, Funk, Soul

December 1, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
From Baghdad to Mumbai, by Way of Pakistan

Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
Obama's Economic Team: Records of Failure

Vijay Prashad
The Fires in South Asia

Deepak Tripathi
Obama's Foreign Crises

Joshua Frank
Madam Secretary Clinton and the Middle East

P. Sainath
The Unlikely Martyrdom of Free Market Jihad

Alan Farago
The Right's War on Regulators

Binoy Kampmark
Sydney's Ball and Chain

Chris Genovali
Silent Fall

David Michael Green
Hope You Die Before You Get Old

Stephen Martin
The Chinese are Coming, the Chinese are Coming!

Website of the Day
Robert Rubin: Coward, Liar or Both?

November 28-30, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
In Time of Trouble

Mike Whitney
The Obama "Dream Team": Rubin Clones and Other Fakers

Ted Honderich
What is the Meaning of Obama's Election?

Tom Kerr
Preserving Filthy Lucre (Or Becoming My Dad)

Mike Ely
The Conquest of New England

David Yearsley
Hymns of the Conquest

Deepak Tripathi
Uproar in Police-State Britain

Sonja Karkar
Gaza's Death Throes

Ramzy Baroud
Salvation in a News Broadcast

Robert Weitzel
Israel's Settlement on Capitol Hill

Robert Roth
Can We Create a Movement for Change?

Carlos Fierro
Obama and the End of Racism?

David Macaray
How to Kill a Union

David Rosen
A New Sexual Agenda

James Cockcroft
Indigenous People Rising

Stan Cox
The Most Disappointing Gift

Steve Conn
Talking Turkey About College Basketball

Stephen Martin
The Electromagnetic Pulse and Economic Warfare

Richard Rhames
Busty Bimbettes, Bombs and Brand Obama

Kim Nicolini
Women as Products and Cannibalistic Achievers

Lorenzo Wolff
A Battle Cry for the Confused and Vulnerable

Poets' Basement
Woods, Harrison and Corseri

January 6, 2009

America on Edge

An Uncle's Unrest

By STACEY WARDE

My Uncle Charles came into mom’s house in an agitated state.

He filled a cup with coffee, which mom dutifully prepares each morning in her new coffee maker, the latest model that keeps the brew hot without the pot.

As he sat down, holding himself erect, sipping his coffee, he started in on the President-elect, claiming:

1.  Barack Obama’s not even a citizen of the U.S.

2.  Plus, he’s going to “know all our secrets”

3.  And, he’ll take us to the far left….

I had to take a closer look at my uncle to make sure he was okay. He was clearly wound up, face screwed into a knot, the same way I get—must be the German in us—at the injustice and stupidity of the Bush legacy.

Only he was worked up about Obama’s mysterious origins, and insinuating that Obama isn’t really working for the United States, or its citizens.

My mom, who usually doesn’t participate in political discussions, addressed him the way she does me when she demands a straight answer: “What are you trying to say, Charles?”

He wouldn’t elaborate but the idea hung heavily in the shelter of mom’s cozy den that Obama is a sham foisted on a naïve populace eager for change.

I answered for my uncle: “Already, he’s a helluva lot better than what we’ve had for the last eight years. And he’s not even president yet.” Then I asked: “Do you really think Obama would have been elected if he wasn’t a citizen?”

Like many, I have my doubts about Obama; he is, after all, a politician, and a very good one, but I doubt he’s a scoundrel. I doubt he’ll sanction the blatant disregard for human rights the way Bush and Cheney did.

I trust him more than Bush; I feel a lot safer with him. He at least appears to prefer diplomacy and statesmanship to the bellicosity and ignorance of a scoundrel. That alone will bring a measure of security that Bush, for all of his bluster and buffoonery as Commander-in-Chief, never could.

The election of Barack Obama as president clearly presages something new and different, a turn away from fatally flawed foreign and domestic policies, and it suggests that the electorate has had enough of the bullying and brinkmanship and villainy of the Bush administration. But will Obama really make a difference? Will his “Yes, we can!” ring as merrily in four years as it does now?

***

A fire flickered in the fireplace in mom’s den, warming the room already full with the sweet hefty odor of Thanksgiving leftovers. An almost perfect holiday enclosure.

I wanted to sink into the delicious comfort of my childhood home amid the holiday cheer, but the horribly efficient terrorist assault on Mumbai, and Black Friday’s trampling death of a temporary worker at Wal-Mart and the shooting deaths at a Southern California Toys R Us store, made letting go of my usual anxieties difficult, if not impossible.

The world outside seemed to be spinning out of control—as usual. The consequences of America’s greed more evident than ever: Wall Street in shambles, banks and investment giants faltering, murder and mayhem in the nation’s shopping malls, an economy in collapse, and the heads of America’s Big Three automakers begging Congress for money.

Global fear had reached a new height, where less than a dozen well-trained gunmen terrorized the financial heart of India, killing scores of unsuspecting travelers and citizens, and giving notice to the world that the stakes are higher than ever.

Pakistan, on the verge of collapse and about to be overrun by terrorists, maintains the world’s sixth largest nuclear arsenal. The U.S. sent Condoleezza Rice to the area to keep India and Pakistan, unsteady enemies, from tearing into each other and further destabilizing the shaky region because of suspicions that the terrorists were trained by Pakistani security agents.

The fear among experts, of course, is that nuclear weapons could easily fall into the wrong hands if Pakistan collapses.

I imagine Obama got his first real taste of the presidency that day, with frequent interruptions and updates on the attacks as he tried to enjoy one more quiet Thanksgiving with his family before being sworn into office January 20.

In a way, I felt bad for the guy. Even in my little enclosure, the world and its problems were never too far away. Worse, the world seemed grosser than ever.

***

On Black Friday, local TV news KCOP 13 in L.A., showed a woman screaming at an unseen figure. Several deputies had her pinned to the back of a squad car, and were attempting to cuff her hands behind her back: “I’ll kill you!” she howled, raising her one free hand and pointing a finger. “Yeah, you!” she wailed, directing her venom to her off-screen target. The deputies finally cuffed her.

Later reports suggested she had gotten into a spat with another woman at a Toys R Us store. The argument escalated when the men they were with each pulled guns and started shooting until both men were dead.

Terrified children and their mothers and fathers bolted through the back doors, seeking refuge from the toy store violence.

Moments later, the news showed a different tragedy. Dark grainy footage from a helicopter revealed a gurney being pushed out into a Wal-Mart parking lot early in the morning with the body of 34-year-old Jdimytai Damour.

The Black Friday rampage that killed Damour, a temporary worker at Wal-Mart, started when eager shoppers couldn’t stand to wait any longer for the store to open and forced their way through the front doors, trampling Damour to death on their way to the great holiday bargains.

From the helicopter’s vantage point above the parking lot, TV viewers could see an attendant pushing Damour’s corpse on a gurney, dodging numerous shopping carts overflowing with huge boxes, and other bargains, made moments after Damour had been trampled to death.

I walked out of the room because the graphic imagery of the more obvious intractable and ugly condition of our culture’s greed was too much to bear; not even Super Obama can fix that.

***

Amid the glum reports of a world in turmoil, a nation collapsing beneath the weight of its own greed, and violence and mayhem on a day of giving thanks, it was no wonder that my uncle, an otherwise reasonable guy, was spun out about the far left and the secrets that might get out when Obama takes office.

I also find it hard to take much solace in the promise of change, given the depth of corruption that runs through our political and economic systems, given the debt and carnage and destruction we create in pursuit of the great American Dream of amassing more wealth and material goods.

I suspect the real danger of secrets getting out will be how they reflect the shallowness of American culture; and on how the previous administration cynically preyed upon our apathy, ignorance and bigotry through its disregard for diplomacy and human rights, its reckless unilateralism and warmongering, its lining the pockets of friends with wealth that doesn’t belong to them.

The really sad fact is, however, when all the secrets are out, no matter how deep the corruption or on whom it may fall, we will not likely call the culprits to account, another reason to believe that change is little more than a buzzword.

More likely, we’ll rewrite history to reflect favorably on men of low character, such as Bush and Cheney, and exalt them as heroes. The rewriting of history is nothing new, and in today’s world of Twitter it occurs more rapidly than ever.

I was holding a copy of George Orwell’s totalitarian nightmare, 1984, in my hand when Uncle Charles came to visit. It seemed an appropriate sobering reminder of the risks we face as Obama Nation comes to power.

My uncle took an immediate interest in the book and suggested that after I finished reading it I might want to become a Republican.

“Actually,” I responded, “the older I get, the more I feel like a Libertarian. Like you, I don’t want the government in my business, but I do want my Constitutional rights protected and respected. That seems to me the proper and most sensible role of government, ensuring my rights and opportunities as a citizen.”

The creep factor of 1984 is as relevant, if not more, today than it was in 1949 when Orwell’s book was first published.

As fear increases—from the threat of terrorism and economic collapse—so does pressure to strengthen the bonds between government and industry, and to establish a state security system that will ensure their survival, regardless of Constitutional guarantees of liberty or of any concern for human dignity.

The uncertainty of the economy, the degradations yet to be endured as a result of our greed, and our increasing reliance on police power to protect us, don’t bode well for our future; they don’t offer much hope for those in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

Even with Obama and all the hope and promise of change he brings to office, I remain skeptical, doubtful that his administration can right the wrongs of government and corporate greed that have brought us to this uncertain point in our history.

Old men who have seen worse shudder at what appears on the horizon.

***

On the way home after the holiday, I met such an old man on the train.

He boarded alone at the Glendale Station, not long after the northbound Pacific Surfliner pulled out of Union Station in Los Angeles, and sat down beside me.

Gamely in his creaky fashion, he wore thick bright yellow and stained corduroy pants, a colorful black tie splattered with native faces in green and red dress, a light shirt and cardigan sweater.

He looked to me like an eccentric, liberal-minded painter or inventor living mostly in seclusion. Slightly slovenly, he wore the satisfied grin of an old man who’d had a good holiday, a man who’d seen the best and worst of days.

He wore glasses and smiled knowingly when he saw my huge bottle of Stone Pale Ale planted on the tray before me. “That looks good,” he said quietly, almost in a good-natured whisper. Before I could answer, he was up and out of his seat. “I’ll be right back,” he said, waving his hand as he hastened, hobbling, to the café car.

Moments later, he returned with a bag of barbecued Doritos and a single green bottle of Heineken beer. He grabbed the bag with both hands and wrestled with it as he tried to pry open the sides. His hands worked in a fury. The bag resisted.

I was about to offer my help when he finally popped open the bag. He fingered a few chips, then flicked a whole one into his mouth, and took a huge swallow of his beer, gulping hard. He plopped the bottle down on the tray in front of him, exhaling and smacking his lips: “That hits the spot,” he said. Doritos flakes dribbled down his chin and an orange streak of spittle ran down the side of the green bottle. “Nothing like a good beer.”

“You got that right,” I said, stricken by the brightness of the old man’s yellow spittle working its way slowly down the side of the green bottle. Little flakes of Doritos stuck to the sides of his chin.

“Where you goin’?” he asked, as flakes fell from his mouth.

“San Luis Obispo.”

“It’s nice up there, eh?”

“Not bad,” I said, “not a bad place to live. How ‘bout you? Where you going?”

“Live in Ventura,” he said. “Moved there 50 years ago from New York.”

He said it almost with a laugh, as if there was something funny about it. He wore a mischievous grin when he talked. Otherwise, he pounded his beer and Doritos with concentrated gusto.

“What brought you West?” I asked him.

His grin widened. “An angry husband,” he replied.

“That’s funny. To angry husbands,” I said, holding up my beer.

He eventually ended up with the woman whose husband he’d run from half a century earlier. In fact, he’d just spent the holiday with the children she bore him. The man she left wasn’t right for her, the old man said. She had died a few years back: “Got really overweight, had diabetes. It finally killed her.”

He was nearly finished with his beer, which was now completely covered with streaks of yellow-orange drool. After taking a final long swig and emptying the bottle, he set it down so hard that it bobbled for a moment and I was sure it would fall into my lap—drool and all. Fortunately, he caught it and set it down again, holding the bottle firmly in his hand.

“Gonna finish the night off with a shot of gin when I get home,” he said, staring into the empty Heineken he held, satisfied.

He only stopped grinning when he talked about the latest news, the way the world had turned to an incomprehensible nest of religious bigots and nuts, how ridiculous it was that a home he’d bought for less than a hundred-grand a few years ago would now be worth almost half a million. “Ha!” he exclaimed. “Can you believe that? It’s ridiculous.”

He seemed most amused with the current state of the world—the failure of an American culture built on amassing more consumer goods and purchasing power, where decency between humans had finally given way to bloodsucking and bloodletting.

After a time, he said: “Did you see that poor guy who got trampled to death?”

“Can you believe that?” I responded.

He turned in his chair and squared himself, facing me, quizzical, whiskers twitching: “What’s wrong with this country?”

“We’re too goddamned greedy,” I said.

“Jesus Christ!” he muttered, turning himself back in his chair, frowning, as if the thought of it was too much to bear.

When I got home, I called mom as usual to let her know that I’d returned safely; told her how much I enjoyed spending the holiday with her and how good it was to be with family.

As we hung up, I thought about my uncle, his agitation and concerns about the future, and realized we’re not that different. We all have reason to be concerned.

Stacey Warde is publisher of The Rogue Voice. He can be reached at swarde@roguevoice.com.

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