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Eamonn Fingleton gives a stunning account of how the elite press – the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the New York Times and Washington Post - pilloried US autworkers while systematically concealing the hidden subsidies which have allowed Japan and Korea to destroy Detroit. All this with the connivance of the US government. Also in our latest newsletter: Michelle Obama comes to Merced. Bill Hatch, the Balzac of the Central Valley, gives an uproarious account of Michelle’s state visit to UC’s new campus. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
How the U.S. Press Helped Destroy the Auto IndustryOrder CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
Meet & Debate (Perhaps Even Date) CPers Online at CounterPunch's New Facebook Page!
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Today's Stories June 9, 2009 Winslow T. Wheeler June 8, 2009 John Ross Paul Craig Roberts Franklin C. Spinney Franklin Lamb Uri Avnery Jonathan Cook Eric Toussaint Jim Goodman Norman Solomon Reza Fiyouzat Website of the Day June 5 -7, 200 Alexander Cockburn George Galloway Paul Craig Roberts Jennifer Loewenstein Franklin Lamb Mike Whitney Andy Worthington Missy Comley Beattie Farzana Versey Stanley Heller John V. Whitbeck Robert Weissman Lee Sustar Dave Lindorff William Blum Ernest Callenbach / Greg Moses Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Tim Stelloh Belén Fernández David Ker Thomson Karyn Strickler Christopher Brauchli Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend June 4, 2009 Arno J. Mayer Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Ayesha Ijaz Khan Mouin Rabbani Jordan Flaherty Adam Turl Nikolas Kozloff Yifat Susskind Website of the Day June 3, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts Kathy Kelly Alan Farago Franklin Lamb Bill Hatch Nadia Hijab Dean Baker Binoy Kampmark Manuel Garcia, Jr. Remi Kanazi Behzad Yaghmaian Website of the Day June 2, 2009 Uri Avnery Robert Weissman Conn Hallinan Gideon Spiro Roger Burbach Dylan Quigley Dave Lindorff Ray McGovern Belén Fernández Martha Rosenberg Willie L. Pelote, Sr. Website of the Day June 1, 2009 Pam Martens Yitzhak Laor Mark Weisbrot Ramzy Baroud Saul Landau Eugenia Tsao Afshin Rattansi Debra Sweet Abdul Malik Mujahid Bill Quigley John Wright Website of the Day May 29-31, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Vijay Prashad Gary Leupp Ray McGovern Rannie Amiri Bill Hatch Chellis Glendinning, Stephanie Mills and Kirkpatrick Sale Phyllis Pollack David Yearsley Jean-Christophe Servant Dave Lindorff James McEnteer Missy Beattie James C. Faris David Macaray Harvey Wasserman Adam Federman David Ker Thomson Mark Seth Lender Stephen Martin Joseph Nevins Sophia Mihic Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 28, 2009 Joan Roelofs Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Mouin Rabbani Joe Bageant James McEnteer Dedrick Muhammad Richard Morse David Macaray Harvey Wasserman Website of the Day May 27, 2009 Joanne Mariner Paul Craig Roberts Walden Bello Dave Lindorff Brian M. Downing Carlos Villarreal Nadia Hijab Adam Federman Laray Polk Isabella Kenfield David Michael Green Website of the Day May 26, 2009 Manuel Garcia, Jr. Mike Whitney Sharon Smith Marjorie Cohn Dean Baker Deepankar Basu Fred Gardner Jordan Flaherty Josh Ruebner Brian Cloughley Website of the Day May 25, 2009 Diane Christian John Ross Kenneth Hartman Uri Avnery Fred Gardner Cindy Sheehan Sen. Russell Feingold Sibel Edmonds Franklin Lamb Dave Lindorff Daniel Wolff Website of the Day May 22-24, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Michael Teitelman Mike Whitney Ray McGovern Sonia Cardenas / Clive Hamilton Conn Hallinan Fred Gardner Carlo Cristofori Dean Baker Rannie Amiri Andy Worthington David Macaray Nadia Hijab Franklin Lamb Ted Newcomen David Ker Thomson David Rosen Mark Weisbrot Robert Fantina Heather Gray Farzana Versey Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Jay Diamond Dr. Susan Block Ben Sonnenberg David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 21, 2009 Jeffrey St. Clair / Paul Craig Roberts Chris Floyd Gerald Paoli Zach Mason Uri Avnery Andy Worthington Niranjan Ramakrishnan Norman Solomon Dave Lindorff Website of the Day May 20, 2009 Michael Hudson Gary Leupp Michael D. Yates Jonathan Cook Peter Lee Binoy Kampmark Peter Zinn William Loren Katz Gary Lapon Trudy Bond Website of the Day May 19, 2009 Kristoffer Rehder Mike Whitney Ray McGovern Vijay Prashad Mirjam Hadar Meerschwam Mustafa Barghouthi Andy Worthington Binoy Kampmark John Walsh David Macaray Website of the Day May 18, 2009 Dave Lindorff Abdul Malik Mujahid Jonathan Cook Ben Rosenfeld Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Stephen Soldz Eugenia Tsao Walter Brasch Roberto Rodriguez Charlotte Laws Website of the Day May 15-17, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair David Rosen Mike Whitney Bruce Page Jeremy Scahill Fred Gardner Tom Barry Mats Svensson Ramzy Baroud Mark Engler Mark Weisbrot Farzana Versey Ron Jacobs Hannah Wolfe Cal Winslow David Macaray Christopher Brauchli Mark Seth Lender Robert Fantina David Ker Thomson Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson Chase Madar Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 14, 2009 Michael Hudson Andy Worthington Paul Craig Roberts Jonathan Cook Ray McGovern Lance Selfa David Green Dave Lindorff Frida Berrigan Sue Udry Website of the Day May 13, 2009 Brian M. Downing Gareth Porter Robert Sandels Ricardo Alarcón Eric Walberg Dave Lindorff Deepak Tripathi William S. Lind Kevin Zeese Franklin Lamb Website of the Day May 12, 2009 Gary Leupp Richard Neville Wajahat Ali Dean Baker Franklin Lamb Norman Solomon Paul Craig Roberts Lisa M. Hamilton Bob Fitrakis / David Macaray Website of the Day May 11, 2009 Andrea Peacock Michael Hudson Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader John Kelly Saul Landau Dave Lindorff David Michael Green Anthony Papa Paul Krassner Website of the Day
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June 9, 2009 Or How the House Turned Robert Gates Into a Ham SandwichBack From the Dead: Pentagon Pork!By WINSLOW T. WHEELER Until now, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has made a name for himself as the man in charge of the defense budget. He forced the normally free-lancing Joint Chiefs of Staff to sign extraordinary documents promising not to leak defense budget details – for the purpose of undermining decisions they didn’t like. Gates has also responded to senators and representatives in hearings on Capitol Hill using blunt ripostes when they attempted to win admissions that just a few billions dollars more for their favorite flavor of defense pork would be OK. It was looking very much like the grizzled veterans of the congressional pork system had finally met their match in a secretary of defense determined to make his decisions stick. And, he had made plenty, further augmenting his stature. On April 6, 2009, Gates personally announced 50 decisions on Pentagon programs. The official budget he revealed on May 7 validated the end of production for the F-22 fighter, the C-17 transport, the VH-71 helicopter for the president, missile defense programs, a satellite, and many more. Each had richly earned its demise by being grossly over-budget, technologically dubious, at the end of its planned production run, or all of the above. Then, the time came to translate words and budget request documents into action. The porkers acted; Gates didn’t; he hasn’t even made a peep. Gates is being rolled by Congress on one of the very major aircraft he thought he was canceling, the C-17, a long range cargo aircraft costing over $275 million a piece. The top defense budget porker in the House of Representatives, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) added $2.2 billion for eight more of them to a “must pass” supplemental appropriations bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the balance of the current fiscal year. It would make for a grand total of 213 of these aircraft, even though the latest Air Force requirement of 190 had already been surpassed at 205, the number currently funded. In the Senate, top appropriator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) grunted audibly across the trough to senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (both D-CA), that they had “good reason to be optimistic” they will get their extra California-built C-17s. And right he was: now emerging from its House-Senate conference committee, the supplemental appropriations bill contains all eight additional C-17s, quite unscathed. And, where is the stout-hearted Gates? In a May 13 “Statement of Administration Policy” (SAP), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) gave its official reaction to the bill containing the superfluous C-17s; not a peep was uttered about them. SAPs are the White House’s usual vehicle for grumbling about congressional mangling of its budget requests, even threatening vetoes if the complaints are not respected. The silence was a very clear signal. Gates himself has been mum. He has not made any a fuss whatsoever in his own public statements, nor has his spokesman. In fact his spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said on May 19, “I don't think the secretary's going to lose sleep over a couple more C- 17s in the supplemental.” The signal was even more clear: It’s as if he had said, “Please feel free to ignore us.” The reason for Gates and the White House going horizontal is quite unclear. It could be that the eight in the bill are what people think is a reasonable compromise from the fifteen that Boeing originally wanted. It could be that the C-17’s porkers (it’s built in 43 states) went over Gates’ head to the White House; there, Rahm Emanuel (who used to represent Chicago, Illinois where Boeing is headquartered) might have provided a willing ear. In any case, if Gates is successfully rolled on the C-17, many more of his decisions are sure to unravel. If the C-17 can get a break, why shouldn’t Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) add just a few more Georgia-built F-22s to the next defense funding measure? Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) has already proposed adding back into the budget most of the horrendously over-priced VH-71 presidential helicopters Gates thought he was canceling. And so it will go. Right now, both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are compiling their pork add-ons – totaling several billions of dollars - for the 2010 Department of Defense Authorization bill, due to be debated later this month. As in past years, they will not add money to the bill to pay for it all; instead, they will quietly raid Pentagon accounts which very few in Congress are willing to guard: the accounts that fund training, weapons maintenance, training, and the like - the kind of accounts Gates has said he wants to protect. Why shouldn’t the porkers in the Armed Services and Appropriation Committees do what they always do? When push comes to shove, no one really seems to mind. If you think all this sounds like business as usual, you’re right. The idea of vetoing a defense bill, especially one that provides funds for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will horrify many. That is precisely the protection the porkers sought when they added those eight extra C-17s, but a bill stripped of such pork will very surely pass very quickly. If Secretary Gates hopes to preserve his authority over what is in the defense budget and what is not, he needs to take action to show Congress’ porkers that he will never be their patsy. If he maintains his silence, he’ll just be another ham sandwich. Winslow T. Wheeler spent 31 years working on Capitol Hill with senators from both political parties and the Government Accountability Office, specializing in national security affairs. Currently, he directs the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. He is author of The Wastrels of Defense and the editor of a new anthology: ‘America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress’. |
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