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Today's Stories

November 9, 2006

Jennifer Loewenstein
How Gaza Offends Us All

Paul Craig Roberts
Will Democrats Become Part of the Problem?


November 8, 2006

Alexander Cockburn / Jeffrey St. Clair
Count Your Blessings: NeoCons and NeoLibs Take Big Hit as Voters Say No to Bush, War and Free Trade

Lawrence E. Walsh
Robert Gates and Iran/Contra: Lies, Cover Ups and Slanted Intelligence

Bruce K. Gagnon
What's Next for the Peace Movement?: Confront the Democrats, Now!

Neve Gordon
Anti-Semitism? Mr. Dershowitz, You Just Don't Like What I Say

Dave Lindorff
Election Post-Mortem: What's Next?

Arthur Neslen
Another Tragic Day in Palestine

Joshua Frank
An Election Hangover: Thank God It's Over

James Goodman
The Corporate Food System is Broken

Charles Sullivan
Voting in the Absence of Choice

David Swanson
Subpoena Envy: The Dems Have the Power, But Will They Use It?

Missy Beattie
The Electorate Speaks and Barney Barks!

Dr. Susan Block
American Voters Say, "Bush Sucks!"

Website of the Day
Stealing Olive Groves from Palestinians

 

November 7, 2006

Michael Neumann
Cut and Run from Iraq: Sooner Rather Than Later

Paul Wolf
Saddam Must Die: A Pre-Ordained Verdict

Nikolas Kozloff
In Nicaragua, a Chavez Wave?

Eliza Ernshire
The Women of Beit Hanoun

William S. Lind
The Smile on Saddam's Face: He's Tan, Rested and Ready

Mike Ferner
Pick a Number: Greater Than 47,615

Felice Pace
Pumping the Klamath Dry

Chris Genovali
The Problem with PBDEs: Why Canada's Proposed Ban Won't Protect People or Wildlife

Gilad Atzmon
Watching Borat

Dick J. Reavis
Going to Class War with the Proletariat We Got ...

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Lives (and Votes) Lost: the Ordeal of Larry Peterson

Website of the Day
Magic Sam: a Sure Cure for the Election Day Blues

Question of the Day
Is Bush Gay?

 

November 6, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
The Message of Campaign 2006

Norman Solomon
Saddam's Unindicted Co-Conspirator: Donald Rumsfeld

Robert Fisk
A Guilty Verdict on America, as Well

Marjorie Cohn
The Banana Election: From Hanging Chads to Hanging Saddam

Paul Craig Roberts
The Goose and the Gander: Is Bush Next?

Nikolas Kozloff
Election Eve Jitters: the Chavez Factor

Newton Garver
The Progress in Bolivia: Morales' Stunning Victory Over Big Oil

Mike Whitney
Bush's Carnival of Blood

Jesse Hagopian
From the Black Panthers to the Green Party: an Interview with Aaron Dixon

Dr. Peter Rost, MD
The Genocide Election: When a Life Saving Industry Cheats, People Die

Website of the Day
Robert Pollin vs. Rick Wolff: Is Pomo Marxism Marxism?

 

November 4 / 5, 2006

Dave Zirin
Political Players: Where Athletes Give Their Money

Patrick Cockburn
When Does Incompetence Become a Crime?

Sanho Tree
War Timing and Opportunism

Ralph Nader
Failure Across All Fronts

Lee Sustar
The Obama Myth

Dr. Shepherd Bliss
Torture Memories

Adam Elkus
Babies and Banks: Celebrity Colonialism in Africa

Seth Sandronsky
Is Another Recession Looming?

Fred Gardner
10 Years of Medical Pot in California: Dr. Mikuriya's Observations

Joshua Sperber
How the US Lost Latin America

Evelyn Pringle
Ohio Redux: Mr. Blackwell and the Henhouse

Mitchel Cohen
The Left and the Environment: Notes on the Ecological Dimension

Missy Beattie
The Medium is the Massage

Michael Dickinson
Watching the Guards: a Prison Diary

John Holt
The Silk Road to Ruin

Dr. Susan Block
The Beastly Bombing

Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Engel, Orloski and Davies


November 3, 2006

Laura Carlsen
Day of the Dead in Oaxaca

Stephan Said
Honoring Bradley Will

John Stauber
"Victory in Iraq:" The PR Machine Behind Bush's Favorite Slogan

Mike Whitney
Baghdad is Surrounded

Joshua Frank
DNC Deja Vu

Victoria Furio
More Than Timetables

Tammara~85,441
They Say He is Coming Home

Stuart Croswaithe
Beatings and Sugar Plums: New Labor's War on the Kurds

Missy Beattie
Bush Shock

Website of the Day
Howlin' Wolf


November 2, 2006

Winslow T. Wheeler
The US Body Count in Iraq: an Analysis of Who is Dying and How

Paul Craig Roberts
Evil is as Evil Does

Dave Lindorff
Kerry Out: the Joke's Still on Us

Uri Avnery
The Lovable Man? Lieberman and the Decline of Israeli Democracy

Jeff Birkenstein
Smearing Harold Ford in Black Face

John Ross
Slave Labor in Private Prisons

Zoltan Grossman
Recharging the Anti-War Movement

Eveyln Pringle
The SEC's Probe of Halliburton: Is Cheney Being Fitted for a Striped Jumpsuit?

Christopher Brauchli
Drug Profits and PACs: Why Big Pharma Pushes the GOP

 

November 1, 2006

Alan Dershowitz v. Bruce Jackson
On Torture

Brian Tokar
Running on Hype: the Real Scoop on Biofuels

Fred Leonhardt
Democrats, Sex Crimes and the Press: the Goldschmidt Affair

Richard W. Behan
Triumph of the Petropublicans: Bush's Other Civil War

Brenda Norrell
Indigenous Opposition to the Border Wall

Charles Sullivan
Spoils of Corruption: Who Will Stand Up When America Goes Wrong?

Ron Jacobs
Hell is Rising in Oaxaca: interview with a Oaxacan Rebel

Mike Knapp
Green Stench in Minnesota: the Commissioner and the Hog Lot

Moshe Adler
The Temptations of a Union Boss: the Case of Brian McLaughlin

Walden Bello
Chain Gang Economics

Lee Ballinger
The Collapse of Hip Capitalism: How Tower Records Committed Suicide

Joshua Frank
Party in a Cage: Snake Oil and the Midterm Elections

Carl Gelderloos
Cheerleading the Massacre in Oaxaca: an Open Letter to the Washington Post

Peter Rost, MD
Panic in Big Pharma

Saul Landau
Bush's Anti-Terrorism Record: Don't Look Too Close

Website of the Day
The Meatrix


October 31, 2006

William S. Lind
The Third and Final Act: Iran

Stephen S. Pearcy
Dem Candidate's Wife Urges Cindy Sheehan Not to Protest Iraq War

Uri Avnery
Who's Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?

Michael Colby
Corporations Win Again!: Bush Opens National Parks to Bio-Prospecting

Sunsara Taylor
A No-Win Election for Women

Ben Beachy
Targeting Nicaraguans' Stomachs: 11th Hour Election Meddling by the US

Edward Humes
Nine Words: America's Disservice to Veterans

Roger Burbach
The Meaning of Lula's Victory in Brazil

Subcomandante Marcos
A Communique from the EZLN on Oaxaca

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Funny Business in the Booth: Vote for James H. 'Jim'

Sharon Smith
Those Damned Democrats

Website of the Day
Parks Not for Sale

 

October 30, 2006

Robert Fisk
Dirty Bombs Over Lebanon: Did Israel Use Uranium Weapons?

Bruce Jackson
Normalizing Torture

Norman Solomon
I Was Wrong About Thomas Friedman, the World's Wealthiest Pundit

Lance Selfa
Liberal Doormats: Tread on Us

Ali Khan
The Veil and the British Male Elite

Lee Sustar
European Islamophobia: Fanning the Flames of Hate

Robert Jensen
The Death of Empathy

Akiva Eldar
Lieberman: Making Haider Look Good

Tim Montague
The Natural Step to Eco-Villages

Brian M. Downing
Evil in the Valley: Civilian Massacres, From Vietnam to Iraq

Website of the Day
Alien Impeachment


October 27 / 29, 2006
Weekend Edition

Jeffrey St. Clair
Hogwash: Fecal Factories in the Heartland

Maher Arar
The Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition: a Personal Account

David Rosen
Perversions of Power: Mark Foley and the Bush Administration

Gregory Elich
"A Bursting Boiler at Russia's Doorstep:" Why Bush is Seeking Confrontation with N. Korea

Tom Barry
Fear and Loathing in the North: an Apartheid Fence in America?

Jeff Taylor
Democrats By Default?

Dave Lindorff
Why Nancy Pelosi is Wrong

Ron Jacobs
The General Who Called Out the Devil: the Politics of Hugo Chavez

Maurus Chino
Hauba Hanu: Oppression Affects All People

Christopher Brauchli
Veiled Threats: the Global War on Fashion

Sherwood Ross
The Wages of Whistleblowing: Why Bunny Greenhouse Sits in a Corner

Rev. William Alberts
In Search of a Real Inter-Religious Dialogue on War and Justice

Aseem Shrivastava
Pushing India Toward a "Dollar Democracy"

Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
Bush's Mea Culpa Speech, First Draft

Russ Fine / Dee Fine
Of Peters and Principles: Learning About Sex and Hypocrisy from the GOP

Seth Sandronsky
Social Security: the Distortions of Sebastian Mallaby

Michael Carmichael
Rogue President: Midterm Meltdown

Joe Allen
The Legacy of Gillo Pontecorvo: a Maker of Revolutionary Films

David Vest
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Landau, Engel and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
Safely Home

 

October 26, 2006

Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Islamic Fascism?: Inflammatory Ironies

Carlos Zorrilla
The Police Raid on My House: Trumped Up Charges and Collusion Between a Mining Company and the Government of Ecuador

Paul Craig Roberts
The Crimes of Greed vs. the Crimes of Government: If Enron's Skilling Gets 24 Years in Prison, How Many Should Bush and Cheney Get?

Mike Whitney
The Charnel House of Baghdad

Lily Hughes
A Cruel and Unusual Reality: Inside the Texas Death House

Jennifer Matsui
Madonna's African Safari: The Great White Baby Hunter

Tim Matson
How to Save Vermont

Stephen Fleischman
Like a Soldier: Benchmarks, Timelines and Lies

Missy Beattie
The Blood of October: Are We Sure Barney Still Supports This War?

Patrick Cockburn
From "Mission Accomplished" to "Mission Impossible" in Iraq

Website of the Day
Open Letter to The Nation

 

October 25, 2006

Michael Donnelly
Ethnicity and Baseball

John Stanton
The Vindication of Sibel Edmonds

John Ross
Upheaval from the Bottom

Conn Hallinan
Hunting Hugo: When It's About Oil Nothing is Off the Table--Not Even Assassination

Robert Jensen
Academic Freedom on the Rocks

Johnny Barber
Drinking Tea with Hizbullah

Bruce K. Gagnon
Space Cowboy: Bush's War on Heaven

Daniel McGowan
Elie Wiesel for Israeli President?

James J. Brittain
Uribe's Failure to Learn from Colombia's Past

Peter Harley
Afghanistan in 3-D

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Minister of Strategic Threats

Shepherd Bliss
The Bioneers and the New York Times

Website of the Day
The Price of Staying the Course

 

October 24, 2006

John Walsh
The Book of Rahm: Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats

M. Shahid Alam
Not All Terrorists Are Muslim: the Latest Falsehood from the Advocates of Civilizational War

Dr. Trudy Bond
The Silence at Home, as America Eats Her Young

Michael Phillips
The Story of My Kidnapping in Nablus: "I Never Feared for My Life"

Dave Lindorff
Truth and Consequences on Iraq: Bush's Latest Cut-and-Paste War Plan

David Phinney
A US Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Labor Trafficking Used to Build World's Largest Embassy

Laura Carlsen
Food Insecurity: the World Needs Its Small Farmers

Pierre Tristam
The American Way of Gore

Marguerite Rose Jimenez
"About That Trip to Cuba:" When the FBI Came Calling

Website of the Day
Tampon Terrorists

 

October 23, 2006

Saree Makdisi
Israel's Cluster Bomb War: "What We Did Was Insane and Monstrous"

Joshua Frank
The Antiwar Movement and Independent Politics: an Interview with Cindy Sheehan

Fred Gardner
What Have California Doctors Learned About Cannabis?

Ralph Nader
The End of Habeas Corpus and the Belligerent Despot-in-Chief

Ron Jacobs
Bush's Clark Clifford: James Baker Wants a Kinder, Gentler War

Norman Solomon
Punditry Without Consequences: Channeling Thomas Friedman

Richard Manning
Outside the Market: We Need and Owe Rural People

Neil Kitson
Canadians in Afghanistan: Bloody, Unbowed, Stoned?

William MacDougall
The Socialist, the Columnist, His Wife and the Prostitute

Gilad Atzmon
Surviving the Board of Deputies

Werther
The Evening of Empire

Website of the Day
Different Drummer: Internet Coffeehouse Movement

 

October 20 / 22, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
The Myth of Microloans

Gary Leupp
How the US Declared War on North Korea

Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?

Dave Zirin
Pat Tillman's Brother Breaks His Silence

William Blum
Don't Look Back: Who Said Clinton Didn't Kill Anybody?

Christopher Brauchli
The Cronies' War

Winslow Wheeler
The Mad Logic of Pentagon Spending: As Costs Rise, Readiness Declines

Michael Donnelly
GOP Death Slide: Is the Party Really Over?

Fred Gardner
Corporate Drugs Useless Against Alzheimer's

Susie Day
How to Stay Out of Gitmo

Lucinda Marshall
Behind Closed Doors: the Invisibility of Domestic Violence

Fred Wilcox
The Second Palestinian Intifada: History of a Struggle for Survival

Alan Maass
Standing Up Against Racism at Columbia: a Wake Up Call to the Passive Left

Lee Sustar
A Bipartisan Border Wall: New Phases in the Crackdown on Immigrants

Ariadna Theokopoulos
Shame on You, Dr. Warf: Hail the Epidemiologist in Chief

Missy Beattie
Surges: the Dow and the Death Count

CP News Wire
Bush's Paraguay Land Grab: Hideout or Water Raid?

CP News Services
Sexually Repressed Republicans: Robert Bork, Riveted

Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Buknatski and Orloski

Website of the Weekend
Scenes from Oaxaca

 

October 19, 2006

Elaine Cassel
The Bush Administration's Assault on Defense Lawyers

Col. Dan Smith
Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine: Cracks in the Bush / Blair Axis

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
North Korea's Nuclear Test: a Q & A

Josh Gryniewicz
Wal-Mart Tightens the Squeeze on Workers

Amira Hass
What is 20 Tons of Explosives?

Eric Holt-Gimenez
Poison and Famine in the Fields: How the Agri-Food Industry's Deadly Cycle Feeds Immigration

Jesse Hagopian
Arrested Democracy: On Trying to Ignore Aaron Dixon

Sam Husseini
How Third Parties Can Solve the "Spoiler" Problem and Win Elections

John Weisheit
A Gathering of Water Buffaloes: Feds Celebrate Death of the Colorado River

CP News Service
A Plea to U2 From Africa's Children: Stop Bono Before He Kills Again

Website of the Day
George W. Bush: Hollywood Producer

Art Gallery of the Day
Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings in Manhattan

 

October 18, 2006

Joshua Frank
Cindy Sheehan's Lesser Evilism: Democrats or Bust?

Dr. Curran Warf, MD
Slandering Sound Science: Bush's Attack on the Lancet Iraq War Death Study

Saul Landau
Bush's Foley: Will the Dems Blow It?

Tom Barry
The Politics of Fear

Bruce Jackson
Thundersnow: a Report from Buffalo

Dave Lindorff
Loveless Among the Ruins: Even Repubs Flee Bush's Failed Middle East Policy

Frederico Fuentes
When Cochabamba Said "Enough": Bolivia's Blow to Neoliberalism

Michael Simmons
Greetings from Echo Park: an Open Letter to Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner

Daryll E. Ray
The Root Problems in American Agriculture

Kate Doyle
The Dead of Tlatelolco

Website of the Day
The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee

 


October 17, 2006

Michael Neumann
Hit and Run: Guerrilla Reviewing

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Nuclear Test, Political Flare: Interpreting the Physics and Politics of N. Korea's Nuclear Test

Stephen S. Pearcy
The Interrogation of Julia Wilson: Secret Service Grills 14 Year-Old Artist

Sharon Smith
Afghanistan Reconsidered: The Taliban Aren't Gone, Women Haven't Been Liberated

Al Krebs
The Corporate Assault on Zoning

David Underhill
Politicus Interruptus: Come Back, Jo Bonner

Daniel Wolff
NY's Iraq Veterans Against the War Needs Your Help ... Now

James Brooks
Desirable Duds: Israeli / US Cluster Bombs Litter Lebanon

Website of the Day
Stop Torture Now

 

October 16, 2006

Gary Leupp
North Korea as a Religious State

Patrick Cockburn
General Mutinies Against Blair

David Wilson
Where Have All the Doctors Gone?: the Collapse of Iraq's Health Care Services

Robert Fisk
Confronting Turkey's Armenian Genocide

Robert Jensen
Racism and Cheap Thrills at U. of Texas Law School

Ingmar Lee / Krista Roessingh
An Appeal for S. India's Wild Elephants

Mike Whitney
America's Other War Party

Jake Whitney
The Courageous Dr. Rost

Sanho Tree
Sugar Daddy Politics: Was Foley Blackmailed to Secure His Vote on CAFTA?

Website of the Day
Best War Ever

 


October 14/15, 2006
Weekend Edition

Uri Avnery
Gaza as Laboratory: the Great Experiment

John Walsh
How Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress

Jean Bricmont
A Fable About Palestine

Jennifer Van Bergen
Bush's Military Commissions Act and the Future of America

Ralph Nader
Wilted Yankees: the Fruits of Checkbook Baseball

Floyd Rudmin
The Logic of Proliferation: How Bush's Belligerence Prompted N. Korea to Pursue Nuclear Weapons

Mark Weisbrot
Correcting the Facts on US/Venezuela Relations

Laura Carlsen
Building a Future in the Mixteca

Hani Shukrallah
A Stroll Through the Cairo Mall: Shopping as Cultural Pursuit

Dr. Susan Block
The Spent Milk of Human Foley

John Chuckman
North Korea's Bomb: Still 1,126 Nuke Tests Behind the US

Lucinda Marshall
Is Betty Ugly?: the Profits of Denigration

Don Monkerud
The Case Against Depleted Uranium

Missy Comley Beattie
What Bush Means By Tolerable Violence in Iraq

Ron Jacobs
Shouting "No One is Illegal" in a Crowded Theater

Website of the Weekend
Ratfink Raunchfest

 

October 13, 2006

Jorge Mariscal
PowerPoint Racism: How Military Recruiters Pitch to Latinos

Stephen Philion
The Myth of the Spat Upon Vets: an Interview with Jerry Lembcke

John Blair
Strip Mining Wildlife Preserves: Black Beauty's Filthy Lucre

Col. Dan Smith
Oil, Atoms and War

Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part Two, Winning the Ground War

Stephen Fleischman
Journalism Then and Now

Charles Perroud
The Death Penalty's Invisible Victims

Anne E. Brodsky
Return to Afghanistan: Where the Rhetoric Doesn't Match the Reality

Website of the Day
Underwater Nuke Test

 

October 12, 2006

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Plan for a Military Strike on Iran

Norman Solomon
The Pundit Path to Death in Iraq

M. Shahid Alam
On Colonialism and Colleagues

Paul Craig Roberts
Can We Call It Genocide Now?

Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik
Is a General Transportation Strike Looming for 2008? Can Labor Seize the Moment?

Carl Gelderloos
Images of Occupation: Teaching in Nablus

Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part One, Winning the Intelligence War

Charles Sullivan
Assassins of Truth

William S. Lind
Why Do We Still Fight a Lost War?

CP News Service
The South Turns Against the War

Website of the Day
There's a Riot Goin' On

 

October 11, 2006

John Feffer
Pyongyang 1, Bush 0

Dave Lindorff
A Killing Occupation

Jackson Katz
Gunning Down Women: Coverage of "School Shootings" Misses Central Issue

April Howard / Ben Dangl
The Tin War in Bolivia

Michael Carmichael
World War W

Ken Couesbouc
The New Witchcraft: Marvin Harris on the War on Terror

Gregory Afghani
Sleepless on Skid Row: Guilty of Being Homeless in America

Alexander Cockburn
600,000 Dead in Iraq: Chortles in the New Yorker for Slaughter's Cheerleader, C. Hitchens

Website of the Day
Petition: Defend Columbia Students Who Confronted the Minutemen

 

October 10, 2006

Paul Craig Roberts
Lost Wars and a Lost Economy

Robert Robideau
The Myth Keepers of Columbus

Joshua Frank
The Democrats and the War on Civil Liberties

Dave Lindorff
Free the Press Free Linda Greenhouse

Dave Zirin
Brother of the Fist

Heather Gray
Where Votes Matter: My Experience in South Africa

James Knotwell
Big Ag in the Heartland: the Future of Nebraska's Family Farms

Missy Beattie
The Return of James Baker, III

Mike Whitney
Bush and North Korea: Bumbling Toward Disaster

David Rosen
Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex in America

Website of the Day
Eno / Byrne: Music to Enjoy the Foley Scandal By

 


October 9. 2006

Robert Fisk
The Age of Terror

Norman Solomon
Welcome to the Nuclear Club

Ron Jacobs
The Boom Heard Around the World

Gideon Levy
The Mystery of America

Walter Brasch
Their Back Pages: Sex, Lies and Family Values

Mickey Z.
Who Killed Michael Moore?

John Holt
Grizzlies in Our Midst: Can Humans and Bears Coexist?

Lucinda Marshall
Not So Pretty in Pink: Profits and Breast Cancer

Saul Landau
Post-Castro Cuba

Website of the Day
War, Inc.

 

 

October 7 / 8, 2006
Weekend Edition

Alexander Cockburn
Wargasms and Orgasms

Peter Kwong
The Chinese Face of Neoliberalism

Ralph Nader
Revolt of the Generals

Mark Donham
What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me

Dave Lindorff
Philly's Police Snoops

Peter Bosshard
World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices: Big Dams, Huge Profits & Political Corruption

Ron Jacobs
Evil Hour in Colombia

Lawrence R. Velvel
Governmental Derelicts: Moral Meltdown in America

Fred Gardner
Arnold Vetoes Hemp Bill

David Green
The US, Israel and the Invasion of Lebanon

Jim B.
Activism, Incorporated: Outsourcing Grassroots Politics?

Missy Beattie
Prayers for Peace at the Edge of the Abyss

Michael Donnelly
Blame the Page: Grand Old Perverts Go on Offensive

Jackson Thoreau
Enter Newt

Jon Hung
Revisiting Korematsu: Denying Civil Rights Based on National Origin

CounterPunch News Service
Why We Confronted the Minutemen at Columbia

Tom D'Antoni
Playlist

Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies, Tirado, Gaffney and Ford

Website of the Weekend
Reagan Gone Wild

 


October 6, 2006

Alison Weir
Just Another Mother Murdered

Tiffany Ten Eyck / Mark Brenner
Made in (DeUnionized) America

Corporate Crime Reporter
Look Who's Behind "37 Reasons" to Vote for Big Business: Former Clinton PR Flak Mike McCurry

Juan Antonio Montecino
Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America

Walden Bello
A Siamese Tragedy

Christopher Brauchli
Rank Invitations: Dining with Bush

Brynne Keith-Jennings
Dan Burton in Nicaragua: the Congressman, His Stick and the Elections

Jonathan Cook
The Struggle for Palestine's Soul

Website of the Day
Fighting Hog Farms and Clearcuts in the Heartland

 


October 5, 2006

John Walsh
Turn the Page

Carol Norris
The Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser and You: a Psychotherapist on the Hysteria Over Foley

Paul Craig Roberts
Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election?

Ricardo Alarcón
The Truth About the Embargo of Cuba

James Abourezk
Waterboarding the Constitution: After Torture, What's Next?

Nicola Nasser
Removing Hamas: Brinksmanship or Coup d'Etat?

Kirkpatrick Sale
Breaking Away: the First North American Secessionist Conference

Uri Avnery
Peace with Syria: Lunch in Damascus

Website of the Day
More Naughty GOP Messages


October 4, 2006

Elizabeth Terzakis
The Walls That Racism Built: Blood Revenge, the Death Penalty and Kevin Cooper

Paul Wolf
The Mushy Rebellion: Pakistan Under Musharraf

Sean Penn
The Arrogant, the Misguided and the Cowards

Dave Lindorff
Outrage as Misdirection: The Real Scandal isn't Foley

Diane Farsetta
For Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan

Sharon Smith
Democrats: Yes to War, No to Pedophilia

Felice Pace
Revoking 1776

Sara Roy
The Economy of Gaza

Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn: the Video Interview (Part Two)


October 3, 2006

Jennifer Van Bergen
Compassionate Conservative Pedophiles

Greg Moses
The Infallible Empire: Junking Habeas Corpus

Stan Cox
Real Bad ID: a National Driver's License and the Fading Right of Anonymity

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How Empires Die

Evelyn Pringle
Big Pharma Takes a Hit: Alaska's Supreme Court Outlaws Forced Drugging

Fred Wilhelms
SoundExchange and Unpaid Music Artists: Help Us Find These Musicians and Get Them Paid

Michael Abelman
Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food: the Risks of Convenience and Consolidation

Gary Leupp
The Foley Follies

Website of the Day
Bush and Blair: Endless Love

 

October 2, 2006

Eric Hazan
Roadmap to Nowhere: an Interview with Tanya Reinhart on Israel/Palestine Since 2003

Mike Whitney
Bloodbath on 60 Minutes: Court Stenographer Finally Comes Clean

Norman Solomon
American Narcissism and Iraq

Assaf Kfoury
Meeting Nasrallah

Missy Beattie
The Meaning of "ummmm": Speaker Hasert and the Over-Friendly Congressman

Arthur Neslen
Lie Less in Gaza

Paula J. Caplan
How the Supreme Court Mangled My Research

Website of the Day
Predator Drones Target Bechtel

 

Sept. 30 / 0ct. 1, 2006
Weekend Edition

Paul Craig Roberts
The New Face of Class War

Marjorie Cohn
Rounding Up US Citizens: a Consitutional Shredding

Ben Tripp
Deviant Conservative Males: an Analysis

Ron Jacobs
A Dismal and Chaotic Place: Iraq According to Patrick Cockburn

Ralph Nader
Torturer-in-Chief

Mike Whitney
Iraq: The Breaking Point

Christopher Reed
It Pays to Raise a Ruckus

Seth Sandronsky
The Housing Bust: Excess Investment and Its Discontents

Fred Gardner
The Chancellor's Wife

Mokhiber / Weissman
Hewlett Packard and the Erosion of Privacy

Michael Dickinson
My Escape Attempt from Prison Transfer: Extract from a Diary in Turkish Police Custody

Alan Gregory
Fake Green: Top 10 Ways Politicians Pretend to be Environmentalists

Poets' Basement
Gardner, Landau, Lindorff, Davies,& Buknatski

 

 

September 29, 2006

Bruce Jackson
Chavez's Reading, Bush's Reading

Michael J. Smith
The Lobby Debate Does Manhattan

Emira Woods
Oil Trip: Record Profits for Exxon, Deprivation for Africa

William S. Lind
The Sanctuary Illusion: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as Theme Parks for 4GW

David Swanson
Mommy, What's Waterboarding?

Jonathan Cook
Bad Faith and the Destruction of Palestine

Website of the Day
Jesus: the Recruitment Tapes


September 28, 2006

Sen. Russ Feingold
The Flaws in the Military Commissions Act

Ron Jacobs
The Generals, the Democrats and Iraq: One Policy, Two Parties

Mokhiber / Weissman
Scenes from Laura's Book Festival: Elmo Will Not Save You

Lee Sustar
A Left Challenge to Lula

Robert Jensen
Finding My Way Back to Church--and Getting Kicked Out

John Chuckman
America Has Just Lost Two More Wars

Evelyn Pringle
Inside America's Nursing Homes: a Hidden Tragedy of Neglect and Abuse

Nicola Nasser
Bush and Islam: Words vs. Deeds

Uri Avnery
Political Corruption in Israel

Website of the Day
Art Against the Empire


September 27, 2006

Patrick Cockburn
A Final Explosion Looms in Mosul

Camilo Mejia
Blowback From Iraq: Giving Terrorism a Reason to Exist

Pat Williams
Tax Burdens and Cheaters in the Rockies: Send Those IRS Mercenaries in Search of Montana's Land Barons and Oil Drillers

Ben Terrall
Failing Haiti: Another Bungled UN Mission

Ridgeway / Ng
Paul Weyrich Explaines His Opposition to the Patriot Act: a Short Film

Joe Allen
Where are the Mass Protests?

Andrew Wimmer
Don't Disappear Into a Black Hole

Franklin C. Spinney
Rumsfeld's AutoCarterization: Skullduggery in the Pentagon's Budget

Website of the Day
Model Nukes: the Photo Contest


September 26, 2006

Hani Shukrallah
The American Mind: When Historical Analysis is Reduced to Whim

William Blum
If It's Election Season, It Must Be Time for a Terror Alert

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Torturing the Obvious

Barbara Becnel
Witness to an Execution: a Slow and Very Painful Death

Paul Rockwell
Judicial Complicity in US War Crimes: the Watada Case

Dave Lindorff
Bush and Iran: Going to War to Save His Own Ass?

Rich Gibson
Lessons from the Detroit Teachers' Strike

Anthony Papa
The Danger of Meth Registries: "Have a Cold? Prove It, Then Sign Here"

Nate Mezmer
New Orleans is Back ... Without Blacks: Monday Night Football at the Superdome

Uri Avnery
Mohammed's Sword

Website of the Day
Only YOU Can Stop the Sale of Public Lands to Mining, Timber and Real Estate Corporations


September 25, 2006

Patrick Cockburn
The Most Dangerous Place in the World: a Journey to Iraq's "Taliban Republic"

Jonathan Cook
Human Rights Watch: Still Missing the Point on Lebanon

Joshua Frank
Did Maria Cantwell's Campaign Try to Buy Off Aaron Dixon?

Paul Craig Roberts
Is the Bush Administration Itching to Nuke Iran?

Robert Jensen
Defending Chavez on FoxNews

Dave Lindorff
Horowitz on Campus: This Mouth for Hire

Norman Solomon
Media Tall Tales for Next War

Dr. Charles Jonkel
Save a Grizzly, Visit a Library: "People like the Croc Hunter are Worse Than the Most Bloodthirsty Slob Hunter

Michael Dickinson
"The King's New Clothes:" a Play Written in a Turkish Jail

Alexander Cockburn
Flying Saucers and the Decline of the Left

Website of the Day
Great Bear Foundation

 

September 23 / 24, 2006
Weekend Edition

Jonathan Cook
How Israel is Engineering the "Clash of Civilizations"

Jeffrey St. Clair
Star Wars Goes Online ... Crashes

Dr. Anon
A Doctor's Life in Baghdad

Tom Barry
Oil and Political Opportunism

Carl G. Estabrook
The Darfur Smokescreen

Laura Carlsen
Mexico's Two Presidents

Todd Chretien
The Axis of Lesser Evilism

Dr. Charles Jonkel
From Grizzly Man to the Croc Hunter: the Global Media and the Death of Bears

Debbie Nathan
I Was Disappeared By Salon

Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Struggles Against Invisibility

Fred Wilhelms
The Money Belongs to the Artists Who Created the Music

Seth Sandronsky
The Cruel Economics of Health Care in America

Ralph Nader
Mavericks at Work

Rev. William Alberts
"Specks" and "Logs" and 9/11

Jon Van Camp
Who is Hezbollah?

Heather Gray
Conservatives and Technology

David Vest
Jerry Lightfoot, RIP

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listenting to This Week

Poets' Basement
Landau / Davies

Website of the Weekend
Meet Me In The Morning: C. Wonderland & J. Lightfoot

Video of the Weekend
Is It a Bird? A Missile? Or, Just Perhaps, a Friggin' Plane?

 

September 22, 2006

Patrick Cockburn
Republic of Fear: Torture in Bush's Iraq, Worse Than Under Saddam

Michael Donnelly
It's the Manipulated Economy, Stupid

Ramzy Baroud
The Next Palestinian Struggle

Evo Morales
"We Need Partners, Not Bosses": Address to the United Nations

Stanley Howard
Torture and Justice in Chicago

Sarah Leah Whitson
Hezbollah's Rockets and Civilian Casualties: a Reply to Jonathan Cook

JoAnn Wypijewski
Conservations at Ground Zero

Website of the Day
Cockburn in Atlanta: the Video Interview


September 21, 2006

Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad
"No Nation Should Have Superiority Over Others:" UN Address

Justin E. H. Smith
Ending the Death Penalty: Outline of an Abolitionist Program

Rick Kuhn
Australian Government Steps Up Attacks on Muslims: "I Certainly Don't Want That Type of People in Australia"

Mike Roselle
Ed Wiley's Long March: the Elementary School vs. the Strip Mine

Amira Hass
In the Name of Security: What Israeli Police Files Reveal About the Occupation of Palestine

Deborah Rich
From the Kitchen of Dr. Frankenstein: the Consumption of Gene-Engineeered Foods

Mickey Z.
10 Reasons Cars Suck

Saul Landau
Terrorism at Sheridan Circle

Website of the Day
Stop the Decapitation of Mountains


September 20, 2006

Sharon Smith
Elections, Detentions and Deportations

Christopher Reed
Goodbye Koizumi, Hello Abe

John Ross
Mexico: Does AMLO Have a Future?

Joshua Frank
A Wasted Campaign: How Jonathan Tasini Helped Hillary Clinton and Distracted the Antiwar Movement

Arthur Neslen
The Clenched Fist of the Phoenix: What Made Israel Burn Lebanon, Again?

Norman Solomon
The Hollow Promise of Digital Technology

Michael Carmichael
The Vatican's Tyrant

Evelyn Pringle
The Merck Vioxx Litigation: a Scorecard

Hugo Chavez
Rise Up Against the Empire: Address to the United Nations

Website of the Day
Before You Enlist: Watch This Video


September 19, 2006

Patrick Cockburn
Deadly Harvest: Lebanese Fields Sown with Israeli Cluster Bombs

Jeff Leys
Economic Warfare: Iraq and the IMF

Brian M. Downing
War, Taxes and Democracy

Col. Dan Smith
Dispelling Brutality

Liaquat Ali Khan
Presidential Incitements: Did Bush's Speech Violate Geneva Conventions on Genocide?

Ron Jacobs
Just Sign on the Dotted Line: Iraqi Oil and Production Sharing Agreements

Nik Barry-Shaw / Yves Engler
Canada in Haiti: Torture, Murder and Complicity

Lucinda Marshall
Air Paranoia: the Great Toothpaste and Hair Gel Scare

Saul Landau
The Pinochet Syndicate

Photo of the Day
Hold That Bridge

Website of the Day
Scenarios for an Iranian War


September 18, 2006

Carl Boggs
Crimes of Empire

Uri Avnery
Peace Panic

Mike Stark / Jim Bullington
Ann Richards, the Original Texacutioner

Joshua Frank
Corporate E. Coli

John Murphy
The Price of Free Speech

Ramzy Baroud
Murdoch Almighty

Dave Lindorff
On Constitution Day

Bill Quigley
Showing Conviction at Echo 9

Website of the Day
Tutorial: How to Hack a Diebold Voting Machine

 

 

 

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November 9, 2006

Hard Times on the Way

Bush's Chernobyl Economy

By MIKE WHITNEY

In the next few months, a financial crisis will arise somewhere in the world which will jolt the American economy and trigger a swift and precipitous decline in the value of the dollar.

This is not speculation; it will happen and there is nothing that the Bush administration can do to stop it.

All of the traditional supports for the dollar have been removed by the shrinking economy, a massive $800 billion account deficit, dramatic increases in the money supply, and the reckless manipulation of interest rates.

Now, the noose is tightening. Our foreign trade partners can see that we are drowning in red ink and are refusing to buy back our debt in the form of US Treasuries. This is a death sentence for the dollar. It means that in a matter of months the once-mighty greenback will crash through the floor and free-fall through open space.

Mike Swanson of the WallStreetWindow explains the worrisome details related to last month's trade deficit:

"Just a few days ago the US Treasury reported that the net capital inflows from the rest of the world into the US fell for a 6th month in a row. Private (purchases) from abroad fell to $34.7 billion in August and from $72.9 billion in July. Asian central banks made up for the shortfall. If they hadn't the current account deficit would have exploded. The NY Times quoted Ashraf Laidi, a currency analyst at MG Financial Group as saying, "foreign central banks saved the dollar from disaster. The stability of the bond market is at the mercy of Asian purchases of US Treasuries."

Swanson poses an interesting theory, but it can't be verified since we the Fed stopped printing the M-3 (which would provide the relevant facts about the current cash inflows) and since China and Japan have slowed their purchases of UST Bonds.

Jim Willie of GoldenJackass.com, offers an entirely different theory in his recent article "Spent Dollar Momentum". Willie opines:

"Behind the scenes are the many illicit London-based firms busily buying US Treasury Bonds with freshly-printed money from the Dept of the Treasury. Their tracks are covered by the blackout on the money supply statistic. (M-3) An isolated US government with a well-oiled printing press as the primary support device makes for a dangerous currency situation."

Willie's "conspiracy theory" jives nicely with the US Treasury's figures on the "Foreign Financing of US Government Debt" (June 2006) Surprisingly, between 2005 and 2006 our friends in the United Kingdom purchased an additional $142 billion of USD bringing their stockpile of dollars to $201.4?!?

Why?

Why would UK investors suddenly stock up on dollars when everyone else in the currency market is bemoaning the greenback's systemic problems?

Could it be that banks in the UK are just hiding the paper trail for friends in America who want to forestall a collapse in the dollar until after the election?

Of course, there could be another explanation for the irregular activity in cash inflows, (purchase of US Treasuries) that is, that we're still living in a "faith-based" Wonderland where our overseas trading partners are more than willing to buy an endless supply of worthless paper from a well-meaning Goliath who is busy spreading democracy to the "great unwashed" in developing world.

This is an utter fiction. The world is backing away from the dollar and whether one accepts the conspiracy theories or not, it's clear that the Federal Reserve is trying to cover its tracks and conceal its shadowy maneuverings.

There is nothing accidental about the crisis we'll soon be facing. Officials at the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury are fully aware of the devastating effects of massive trade deficits, increasing the money supply, and self-serving interest rates manipulations. They have set the country on the path to ruin as part of a broader scheme for remaking the global-system according to well-known precedents. In truth, the plan to modify the present system has a long history; going back to the 1980s when many of the same actors in government today were in positions of power in the Reagan administration. For the last 6 years they have been patching together their strategy; producing record deficits, unfunded tax cuts, mammoth government expansion, and doubling the money supply.

How can anyone argue that they did not understand the implications of their actions?

Did Greenspan know that by lowering interest rates in 2001 to 1.5% that he would sluice trillions of dollars into the real estate market producing the largest equity bubble in history? And, if he didn't know, then how is it that the Fed provides the statistics which state precisely how large the housing bubble really is?

Didn't Greenspan read the charts and graphs put out by his own organization?

And why did Greenspan support the shaky "no down payment", "interest-only" loans and ARMs which allowed "high-risk" people to qualify for mortgages when the Fed knew, according to their own figures, that when interest rates went up, foreclosures would skyrocket?

Of course he knew; they all knew. How could they NOT know? They produce the facts and figures themselves! It's all part of a madcap scheme to shift wealth to the top 1% and drive a wooden stake into the heart of the middle class. When Greenspan saw that doomsday was approaching, he got "cold feet" and bailed out. Now the scholarly Bernancke is left to supervise the economic meltdown and face the public scorn.


Trouble Ahead

Currently, the U.S. economy is held together by the slimmest of threads; literally duct-taped together by massaging all of the crucial economic numbers, pumping as much cheap fiat-currency into the system, and by "increasingly-suspicious" maneuverings in the futures markets. After the elections, they'll be no reason to conceal the rot at the heart of the system. After all, we are not facing an unforeseen catastrophe, but a planned demolition intended to increase the disparity between rich and poor to such an extent, that democracy, as we know it, will no longer be possible.

Nothing is more repugnant to America's ruling elite than the notion that every man, however broke and insignificant, can participate in our system of government.

The Federal Reserve's bloody fingerprints are all over our present dilemma. The privately-owned Fed has never operated in the public interest. By doubling the money supply in the last 7 years and keeping interest rates artificially low, the Fed has generated a $10 trillion housing bubble while, at the same time, ignoring a $800 billion trade deficit which is sucking up American assets and crushing American industry at an unprecedented rate.

This massive expansion of debt has increased the likelihood that an unexpected event, like a bank failure or a teetering hedge fund, will cause a major disruption in the markets sending tremors through the global system. Even if nothing explosive happens, the faltering real estate market will continue to swoon, consumer spending will dry up, and the fragile economy will crash to earth. In fact, this is taking place right now; retail sales are anemic, residential housing dropped a whopping 17% in the last 3 months, and economic growth shrunk to a measly 1.6% in the third quarter. The only thing keeping the economy from collapsing entirely is the sudden drop in oil prices which "conveniently" coincided with the midterm balloting.

This won't last. According to industry analyst Matthew Simmons the world production of oil may have already peaked setting the stage for a leveling-off period before the inevitable decline. Simmons has data to show that "world supply of oil has declined to 83.98 million barrels per day in the second quarter after hitting 84.35 million bpd in the forth quarter of 2005." Oil production is going backwards not forwards.

No one believes the price of oil is going down any time soon. As energy prices rise and the housing market falls; consumer spending, which added $825 billion from home equity into last year's economy, will continue shrivel. Thus, the Fed will have to make the tough-choice of whether to loosen the purse strings and lower interest rates to keep the economy sputtering along or ratchet up rates to attract more foreign investment. (Keep in mind that the real estate market is already in retreat, even though, the full force of the Fed's interest rate increases won't be felt for up to 6 to 12 months after they have been raised. The worst is yet to come)

Most economists believe that Fed Chairman Bernancke will be forced to lower rates sometime in 2007 to try to stimulate the economy and to affect a "soft landing" in the housing market, but don't count on it.

I believe the Fed is more likely to either keep rates the same or raise them to outpace the anticipated increases in Europe and Asia. The reason for this is simple; it presently takes nearly $2.5 billion per day to cover our current account deficit. To continue to attract foreign capital, US Treasuries must offer a higher rate of return than their foreign competitors. Now that the economies in Europe and Asia are growing; naturally their interest rates are going up accordingly.(to slow inflation) That means that the only way that America can continue to expand its debt, through the exchange of fiat currency for resources and manufactured goods, is by raising the return on Treasuries. And, that is probably what Bernanke will do, even though it will skewer the struggling American worker and further damage the US economy.

The secret of running the global economic system is to control the issuance of currency and, thereby, be in a position to expand one's own debt as one sees fit. The Federal Reserve must preserve its "dollar hegemony" if it wants to maintain the greenback as the world's reserve currency. To achieve that, the dollar must stay one step ahead of its competitors (higher rates) and prove that it is on solid financial footing. This is impossible now that the US economy is contracting, so Washington has decided to do the next best thing; corner the oil market. By controlling Middle East oil US policy-makers believe that they can force foreign nations to accept the debt-plagued greenback regardless of the faltering US economy. It is no different than any other extortion racket.

If the plan succeeds the dollar will remain the de-facto international currency. But it is difficult task and the escalating violence in Iraq suggests that the results are far from certain.


Corporate Colonization

"Free Trade" is the Holy Grail of neoliberalism. It is essentially a public relations scam intended to disguise the shifting of wealth, jobs and resources from either the middle class or the public sector to the corporate and banking establishments'. Despite the zealous cheerleading of Thomas Friedman and his ilk; the basic facts have been thoroughly examined and are not in dispute. Free trade has been a dead loss for everyone except the people for whom it was originally designed; the wealthiest and most powerful men on the planet. It has served them quite well.

For example, "since NAFTA went into effect in 1994, the US has lost over $4 trillion to foreigners through its trade deficit""During that 11.5 year period , foreign ownership of US assets skyrocketed an amazing 400% from $3 trillion to over $12 trillion" "Foreign interests now own 46% of US Treasury debt, 26% of corporate bonds, and 13% of US corporate equities. Now nearly 100% of on-going borrowings by the government are funded by foreign interests.""Foreign interests also control a majority of US domestic industries such as movies, music, publishing, metal ore mining, cement production, engine and power plant production, rubber and plastics and are major owners of US industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemical manufacturing, industrial machinery manufacturing, motor vehicles, and electronic equipment and componentsIn addition, the US has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs over the last decade, real wage growth after inflation has been essentially zero," and personal debt has never been higher. (Data from Thomas Heffner EconomyInCrisis.org)

Since 1980, 13,730 major companies have been sold to foreign corporations. We no longer produce what we need to sustain ourselves.

These facts may have a mind-numbing affect on the reader, but they make a point which is simple and unavoidable. The country is being colonized by corporate predators and its main assets are being sold off to the highest bidder. This rampant carpet-bagging is taking place in full view of the American public which still clings to the spurious idea that "free trade" is generally beneficial for all. It is not, and we are about to experience its full-effects as America's "straw-house" economy topples from its loss of manufacturing-capacity and its staggering account imbalances.

"Foreign investors now own 46% of US Treasury debt" over $3 trillion dollars! The Federal Reserve and their corporate she-wolves are planning to prolong the hemorrhaging of US wealth as long as possible extracting every last farthing from the prostrate corpse of the waning republic.

Now, we are at the brink. Energy prices will go higher after the elections, manufacturing will continue to flag, and the housing Zeppelin is drifting towards the high-tension wires. To make matters worse, the American consumer; the "engine for global economic growth", is drowning in a sea of personal debt.

There's no place to go but down.

Every part of this bleak picture was anticipated by its architects. That's why they hastily slapped together the requisite legislation for a modern-day police state. After passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (which allows the president the arrest whomever he chooses without charges) and overturning the Posse Comitatus Act (the president is now free to deploy the military within America against US citizens) the Bush administration is as ready as they can be. Apparently, they feel like they can manage the public's shock and outrage with detention camps and water cannons.

We'll see.

In any event, the trap has been set and any minor disruption in the hedge funds or derivatives markets will put the economy into a violent tailspin forcing our "Unitary" president to activate his plans for the new world order.

Battle Stations; Battle Stations

Last week an article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard appeared in the UK Telegraph, where he stated:

"(Treasury Secretary) Paulson re-activated the secretive support team to prevent markets meltdown. Judging by their body language, the US authorities believe that the roaring bull-market is just a sucker's rally before the inevitable storm hits.the plunge protection team is a shadowy body with powers to support stock-index, currency, and credit futures in a crash. Otherwise known as the working group on financial markets, it was created by Ronald Reagan to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown in October 1987".Paulson has set up "a command center at the US Treasury that will track global markets and serve as an operations base in the next crisis." (Members include the heads at Treasury, Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission)

Evans-Pritchard adds: "Mr. Paulson has asked the team to examine systemic risk posed by hedge funds and derivatives, and the government's ability to respond to a financial crisisWe need to be vigilant and make sure we are thinking through all of the various risks and that we are being very careful here. Do we have enough liquidity in the system?'"

And, finally, Evans-Pritchard queries: (Do) Mr. Paulson and