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Today's
Stories
April
30 / May 1, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie and
"Credibility"
Gabriel
Kolko
Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End
of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Later
Jennifer
Loewenstein
The Disengaged: Gaza and the Fragmentation of Palestinian Nationhood
Doug
Giebel
Saving Jane Fonda
Steven
Erlanger
A Response to Kathy Christison, from the NYT Jerusalem Bureau
Chief
April
29, 2005
W.
John Green
Rice in Colombia: Silence on the Death
Squads?
Luke
Brothers
Greenwashing Nuclear Power: Nicholas
Kristof, the John Stossel of the NYT
Norman
Solomon
War, Aid and Public Relations
M.
Junaid Alam
The Politics of Smears and Self-Absorption
Jackie
Corr
The Bush Budget and Constitutionally Protected Tax Havens
Hunter
Greer
Feeding Tubes and the SAT: Finally,
a Use for Standardized Testing!
Sharon
Smith
The New Assault on Women's Rights:
Why are the Democrats Silent?
Website
of the Day
Tony Blair's Election Rap
April
28, 2005
Omar
Waraich
Blair's Poodle: the Billy Bragg Interview
Kevin
Zeese
Abu Ghraib One Year Later: Have Those Responsible Gotten Off?
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torture Tort Reform
Greg
Moses
Why I'm Not Standing with the Gringo Vigilantes
Toni
Solo
Nicaragua on a Dollar a Day...Forever?
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Republican Dole Drums; Democrats in Doldrums
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
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.
|
Weekend Edition
April 30 / May 1, 2005
Robbing the Last Bag of Gold
in the Public Vault
Another
Mad Bush Press Conference
By
MIKE WHITNEY
Seattle, Washington
Thursday night's press conference gave
us with a solid example of how elite interests dominate the news
cycle.
Consider this; at the same
time Bush was braying about fixing the Social Security system,
the violence in Iraq was reaching a crescendo (13 bombs went
off in Baghdad on Friday killing 50 civilians and 3 American
servicemen), the convicted fraudster, Ahmad Chalabi, was assuming
his position in the Iraqi cabinet as oil minister in the new
Iraqi government, and the journal "Science" was releasing
a report confirming that "Climate scientists have found
the heat exchange between earth and space is seriously out of
balance validating forecasts of global warming". (Adding
that if carbon dioxide levels continue to grow things could "spin
out of control")
None of these topics found
their way into the presidential press conference. Instead, Bush
was given an open platform on prime-time TV to assail the most
successful government program ever initiated, which, by conservative
estimates, will be solvent until 2051.
What we heard in Bush's 10
minute monologue was nothing more than a sales-pitch for the
program of rich constituents. The first order of business was
to confirm that the administration's only plan for current energy
crunch is more drilling, less regulation and bigger subsidies
for the American energy giants. (aka; the new Bush Energy Bill)
In a time when the rate of consumption of resources has reached
unsustainable levels, this is sheer lunacy.
The second major theme was
Social Security, a topic on which Bush continues to follow the
explicit strategy laid out by the conservative Cato Institute:
1.Maintain constant criticism
of Social Security to influence the media and to undermine public
confidence in the soundness of the program.
2.Build a network of influential
supporters of private accounts, including Wall Street brokers
who would profit from them.
3.Divide and conquer the opposition
by assuring retirees and those nearing retirement that their
benefits would be fully paid.
Is this a fair rendering of
the Bush approach? Discredit the system and guide the flock
towards privatization?
So, what was the American media's
response to Mr. Bush's palavering?
Well, a simple Google search
shows over 1,400 articles used Social Security in their title.
In other words, the press corps willingly promotes the president's
message by conveying the main elements verbatim in all the major
print media. It's a smooth way of transforming a news conference
into a White House infomercial, where prepared questions create
the illusion of a lively debate. In essence, the playful jousting
with reporters only illustrates to what extent the media is in
bed with the administration. As recent polling date shows, increasing
numbers of Americans see the media as little more than court-appointed
stenographers for the imperial agenda.
Politicians always try to dominate
the news cycle with their own issues. The difference here is
that the real issues that that threaten our immediate future
as well as our very survival as a species are being omitted or
marginalized to promote the narrow, self-aggrandizing interests
of the privileged few. The Bush plan for private accounts is
a stunning example of this. The friendly sounding "personal
accounts" are a conspicuous ruse designed to funnel taxpayer
dollars into Wall Street brokerage houses. Bush's barnstorming
60 day tour across the country touting the benefits of private
accounts did nothing to convince the American people that dramatic
changes need be made. In fact, "opposition to Bush's handling
of Social Security jumped from 56 percent to 64 percent between
March and April. In a CBS poll earlier this month, only 25 percent
said they were confident in his handling of Social Security."
(Jay Bookman; Atlantic Journal Constitution)
Similarly, the American people
aren't hoodwinked by Bush's short-sighted energy policies. Jay
Bookman notes a recent Associated Press poll that only 31% think
that Bush is "handling our energy problems effectively".
In virtually every area, Iraq,
energy, Social Security, the economy, foreign policy etc., Bush's
numbers are on the downhill slide. Never the less, the "Big
Brother" strategy of keeping him in the spotlight, championing
the elitist agenda hasn't changed a bit. The palpable arrogance
of the Washington cabal is so extreme that Bush's popularity
could dither in the single-digit range and he'd still be featured
prominently on the daily news. He's simply "their guy"
and all the bullhorns are in their stable.
But, the issue isn't Bush;
his role is incidental at best. (Even the most ardent Bush supporters
don't seriously believe that he's running the country) The broader
issue is that our information-systems (media) are entirely clogged
with the special-interest tripe that flows from boardrooms across
America drowning out even those voices that only want to save
the species from extinction. The "deregulated" capitalist
octopus has extended its grip into every crook and crag of our
collective existence and is bringing down the republic with its
inexorable rapacity. Rome is burning, but Bush and his cadres
are still maniacally focused on the last bag of gold left in
the public vault: Social Security.
It's madness.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can
be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
|
