Coming
in October
From AK Press
Today's
Stories
September 12, 2003
Writers Block
Todos
Somos Lee: Protest and Death in Cancun
Laura Carlsen
A Knife to the Heart: WTO Kills Farmers
Dave Lindorff
The Meaning of Sept. 11
Elaine Cassel
Bush at Quantico
Linda S. Heard
British
Entrance Exams
John Chuckman
The First Two Years of Insanity
Doug Giebel
Ending America as We Know It
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Blank Check Military
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Website of the Day
A Woman in Baghdad
Recent Stories
September 11, 2003
Robert Fisk
A Grandiose
Folly
Roger Burbach
State Terrorism and 9/11: 1973 and 2001
Jonathan Franklin
The Pinochet Files
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Postcards to the President
Norman Solomon
The Political Capital of 9/11
Saul Landau
The Chilean Coup: the Other, Almost Forgotten 9/11
Stew Albert
What Goes Around
Website of the Day
The Sights and Sounds of a Coup
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 10, 2003
John Ross
Cancun
Reality Show: Will It Turn Into a Tropical Seattle?
Zoltan Grossman
The General Who Would be President: Was Wesley Clark Also Unprepared
for the Postwar Bloodbath?
Tim Llewellyn
At the Gates of Hell
Christopher Brauchli
Turn the Paige: the Bush Education Deception
Lee Sustar
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
Elaine Cassel
McCain-Feingold in Trouble: Scalia Hogs the Debate
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Hammond Guthrie
When All Was Said and Done
Website of the Day
Fact Checking Colin Powell
September 9, 2003
William A. Cook
Eating
Humble Pie
Robert Jensen / Rahul
Mahajan
Bush
Speech: a Shell Game on the American Electorate
Bill Glahn
A Kinder, Gentler RIAA?
Janet Kauffman
A Dirty River Runs Beneath It
Chris Floyd
Strange Attractors: White House Bawds Breed New Terror
Bridget Gibson
A Helping of Crow with Those Fries?
Robert Fisk
Thugs
in Business Suit: Meet the New Iraqi Strongman
Website of the Day
Pot TV International
September 8, 2003
David Lindorff
The
Bush Speech: Spinning a Fiasco
Robert Jensen
Through the Eyes of Foreigners: the US Political Crisis
Gila Svirsky
Of
Dialogue and Assassination: Off Their Heads
Bob Fitrakis
Demostration Democracy
Kurt Nimmo
Bush and the Echo Chamber: Globalizing the Whirlwind
Sean Carter
Thou Shalt Not Campaign from the Bench
Uri Avnery
Betrayal
at Camp David
Website of the Day
Rabbis v. the Patriot Act
September 6 / 7, 2003
Neve Gordon
Strategic
Abuse: Outsourcing Human Rights Violations
Gary Leupp
Shiites
Humiliate Bush
Saul Landau
Fidel
and The Prince
Denis Halliday
Of Sanctions and Bombings: the UN Failed the People of Iraq
John Feffer
Hexangonal Headache: N. Korea Talks Were a Disaster
Ron Jacobs
The Stage of History
M. Shahid Alam
Pakistan "Recognizes" Israel
Laura Carlson
The Militarization of the Americas
Elaine Cassel
The Forgotten Prisoners of Guantanamo
James T. Phillips
The Mumbo-Jumbo War
Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Slumlords of the Internet
Walter A. Davis
Living in Death's Dream Kingdom
Adam Engel
Midnight's Inner Children
Poets' Basement
Stein, Guthrie and Albert
Book of the Weekend
It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It
by Khalil Bendib
September 5, 2003
Brian Cloughley
Bush's
Stacked Deck: Why Doesn't the Commander-in-Chief Visit the Wounded?
Col. Dan Smith
Iraq
as Black Hole
Phyllis Bennis
A Return
to the UN?
Dr. Susan Block
Exxxtreme Ashcroft
Dave Lindorff
Courage and the Democrats
Abe Bonowitz
Reflections on the "Matyrdom" of Paul Hill
Robert Fisk
We Were
Warned About This Chaos
Website of the Day
New York Comic Book Museum
September 4, 2003
Stan Goff
The Bush
Folly: Between Iraq and a Hard Place
John Ross
Mexico's
Hopes for Democracy Hit Dead-End
Harvey Wasserman
Bush to New Yorkers: Drop Dead
Adam Federman
McCain's
Grim Vision: Waging a War That's Already Been Lost
Aluf Benn
Sharon Saved from Threat of Peace
W. John Green
Colombia's Dirty War
Joanne Mariner
Truth,
Justice and Reconciliation in Latin America
Website of the Day
Califoracle
September 3, 2003
Virginia Tilley
Hyperpower
in a Sinkhole
Davey D
A Hip
Hop Perspective on the Cali Recall
Emrah Göker
Conscripting Turkey: Imperial Mercenaries Wanted
John Stanton
The US is a Power, But Not Super
Brian Cloughley
The
Pentagon's Bungled PsyOps Plan
Dan Bacher
Another Big Salmon Kill
Elaine Cassel
Prosecutors Weep' Ninth Circuit Overturns 127 Death Sentences
Uri Avnery
First
of All This Wall Must Fall
Website of the Day
Art Attack!
September 2, 2003
Robert Fisk
Bush's
Occupational Fantasies Lead Iraq Toward Civil War
Kurt Nimmo
Rouind Up the Usual Suspects: the Iman Ali Mosque Bombing
Robert Jensen / Rahul Mahajan
Iraqi Liberation, Bush Style
Elaine Cassel
Innocent But Guilty: When Prosecutors are Dead Wrong
Jason Leopold
Ghosts
in the Machines: the Business of Counting Votes
Dave Lindorff
Dems in 2004: Perfect Storm or Same Old Doldrums?
Paul de Rooij
Predictable
Propaganda: Four Monts of US Occupation
Website of the Day
Laughing Squid
August 30 / Sept. 1,
2003
Alexander Cockburn
Handmaiden
in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall
of the UN
Saul Landau
Schwarzenegger
and Cuban Migration
Standard Schaefer
Who
Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Gary Leupp
Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial
William S. Lind
Send the Neocons to Baghdad
Augustin Velloso
Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey
Jorge Mariscal
The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante
John Ross
A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power
Mickey Z.
War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler
Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts
Stan Cox
Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun
Tom and Judy Turnipseed
Take Back Your Time Day
Adam Engel
The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY
Adam Engel
An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
Susan Davis
Northfork,
an Accidental Review
Nicholas Rowe
Dance
and the Occupation
Mark Zepezauer
Operation
Candor
Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie and Hamod
Website of the Weekend
Downhill
Battle
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 29, 2003
Lenni Brenner
God
and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
Brian Cloughley
When in Doubt, Lie Your Head Off
Alice Slater
Bush Nuclear Policy is a Recipe for National Insecurity
David Krieger
What Victory?
Marjorie Cohn
The Thin Blue Line: How the US Occupation of Iraq Imperils International
Law
Richard Glen Boire
Saying Yes to Drugs!
Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters
Give Their Views
Website of the Day
DirtyBush
Hot Stories
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
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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September
13, 2003
While
Bush Babbles...
FarmAid
Rocks Corporate Ag
By HARVEY WASSERMAN
The volcano that is Neil Young doing "Down
By the River" was erupting to the roar of a sold-out FarmAid
crowd. Accompanied by Crazy Horse and Willie Nelson, the patron
saint of American farming, the stage sagged with a psychedelic
constellation of rock stars and native American dancers fully
decked in ceremonial garb. Neil was totally in another world.
Rock and roll does not get better than this.
Before "Homegrown" and a seismic
rendition of "Rockin' in the Free World," Young had
a few words. "We need a Bill of Rights for the farmer,"
he said. "Corporate agriculture is killing the family farm.
Don't go to those big stores. Stay away. Buy organic, direct
from the farmer."
Now in its eighteenth year, FarmAid has
become a national institution, working to save the family farm.
Originating with the ageless Willie Nelson, and with Young and
John Mellencamp---"our little band of outlaws," says
Nelson---the annual day-long show has become a treasured icon
of vibrant culture and progressive politics for an age in desperate
need.
It has not mellowed with age. As George
W. Bush babbled on national television, demanding billions more
to "rebuild" Iraq, Mellencamp delivered a blistering
indictment of an administration defined by death and pillage.
Why are we spending all this money over there, he wondered, when
our own farms are in such tough shape here. Dressed in his signature
blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt, the Indiana-based Mellencamp
mixed a ballad to peace and justice into a strong set built around
vintage rock classics.
No lasers, no gimmicks, no out-of-control
egos, the show cruised through a stellar line-up that balanced
a hard-rocking Sheryl Crow with the ethereal Emmylou Harris,
who's lost none of her crystalline beauty through a quarter-century
of stardom. An acoustic set from Dave Mathews shone alongside
a blast from Hootie and the Blowfish.
But the meaning of this show is its message.
At a packed 11am press conference preceding the all-day marathon,
Nelson anchored two tiers of high-powered rock stars, farmers,
activists and native spiritual leaders. Ohio Congressman Ted
Strickland delivered a moving tribute to his own upbringing on
a family farm (as did Crow). Cleveland Representative Dennis
Kucinich, the progressive Democratic candidate for president,
attacked corporate agriculture with a demand for anti-trust action.
"Eighty percent of all the beef and sixty percent of all
the pork in this country is controlled by four corporations,"
he said. "They are crushing the aspirations of the family
farmer. This is a fight for freedom."
Guided by a core staff of long-time executive
director Carolyn Mugar and Glenda Yoder, Ted Quaday and Mark
Smith, Farm Aid has become the rock on which American small farming
relies. Over the weekend in central Ohio, the Farm Aid team highlighted
the tangible realities of the issues by helping to organize a
tour of local farms, where my kids and I bought some honey, took
a hayride and watched a sheep shearing. On the eve of the concert,
Quaday helped coordinate a three-hour outdoor gathering of farmers
from around the nation, held at a nearby environmental center.
One after the other the farmers blasted the Bush Administration's
attempts to water down standards for organic food while subsidizing
the march of corporate agribusiness. "We don't want just
the NAME organic," says Young, "we want the reality."
A prime target for Farm Aid activism
has been the nation's factory farms, where cows, hogs, chickens
and turkeys are crammed en masse under horrific conditions, yielding
massive pollution and poisonous drug-laden food. A long Ohio
campaign against the mega-polluter Buckeye Egg brought solidarity
from the Ohio Environmental Council and other eco-groups, accompanied
by a blast from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union
against brutal working conditions at Tyson Foods.
Corporate sponsorship did play a role
with Silk Soymilk/WhiteWave and Horizon Organics. The hugely
successful soy dairy has recently been bought by Dean Foods,
but retains its commitment to organic produce and small farming.
White Wave founder and president Steve Demos presented a check
to FarmAid at center state. Both White Wave and Horizon distributed
free organic products throughout the show.
Fittingly, PBS will broadcast two hours
of the show from 9-11pm EST, November 27 (check your local listings).
As America digests its Thanksgiving dinner, it might contemplate
Willie Nelson's message that this is "more than a struggle
about farms, it's about the little guy v.s the big guy, about
the family farm vs. the factory farm, and about the community
vs. the corporation."
Amidst all else it's doing, the Bush
Administration is working hard to turn over the last bit of farmer-owned
agriculture to the mega-corporations. From pesticides, herbicides
and chemical fertilizer to genetically modified foods and financial
pillage, the American family farm is hanging on by a thread.
As times get harder and the nature of our food is even more under
attack, Farm Aid has become increasingly essential.
"The key to securing healthy food
for tomorrow is to keep family farmers on the land today,"
says Nelson. "It's about the very future of our country."
For Further Information see www.farmaid.org.
Harvey Wasserman
is senior editor of www.freepress.org
and co-author (with Dan Juhl) of
HARVESTING WIND ENERGY AS A CASH CROP: A GUIDE TO LOCALLY OWNED
WIND FARMING.
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 1 / 7, 2003
Neve Gordon
Strategic
Abuse: Outsourcing Human Rights Violations
Gary Leupp
Shiites
Humiliate Bush
Saul Landau
Fidel
and The Prince
Denis Halliday
Of Sanctions and Bombings: the UN Failed the People of Iraq
John Feffer
Hexangonal Headache: N. Korea Talks Were a Disaster
Ron Jacobs
The Stage of History
M. Shahid Alam
Pakistan "Recognizes" Israel
Laura Carlson
The Militarization of the Americas
Elaine Cassel
The Forgotten Prisoners of Guantanamo
James T. Phillips
The Mumbo-Jumbo War
Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Slumlords of the Internet
Walter A. Davis
Living in Death's Dream Kingdom
Adam Engel
Midnight's Inner Children
Poets' Basement
Stein, Guthrie and Albert
Book of the Weekend
It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It
by Khalil Bendib
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