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Today's Stories August 3, 2007 Gabriel Matthew Schivone An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Responsibility, War Guilt and Intellectuals   August 2, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Return of the Robber Barons Stanley Heller Report from the Land of Apartheid Eric Ruder Fighting PTSD; Fighting the Army Robert Fantina Still Getting It Wrong: the NYT and Iraq Alan Farago The Toxic Mortgage Waste Crisis Chris Floyd Chertoff, Chiquita and Death Squads Franklin Lamb Lebanon's Crucial Special Elections Sen. Russ Feingold Closing the Book on the Abramoff Era Anthony Papa Drug Treatment isn't a Silver Bullet Norman Solomon The Big Guns of August Website of the Day Louie, Louie Video Contest   August 1, 2007 Debbie Nathan More Secret Payments by Former NYT Reporter to Web Porn Star Surface in Nashville Courtroom Fred Gardner Ciao, Michelangelo Gary Leupp Why Iraq's Best-Loved Athlete Can't Go Home David Rosen America's Top 10 Political Sex Scandals Winston Warfield Is the Tillman Case Still a Coverup? Daniel McBride Lessons from Bomber Harris: If the US Strikes Pakistan Glen Ford The Corporate Plan to Crush Black Resistance Thomas P. Healy The Toxic Career of Indiana's Environmental Commissioner John V. Whitbeck The Five Percent Solution David Krieger Nuclear Weapons and the University of California Website of the Day The Tragic Story of Hisham Mohammed   July 31, 2007 Kathy Kelly Dancing in the Darkness: the Story of Abu Mahmoud Clancy Sigal The Ghosts of Passchendaele Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Baby Doll to Cheney Joe DeRaymond Return to the Republic of Death? Diane Christian "Winning": What Bush Could Learn from the Shade of Achilles Chris Floyd Good News is No News: Why the Bush Adm. Buries Accounts of Extremist Recantations Ramzy Baroud Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine Alan Farago Battle for the Soul of Florida Fidel Castro In Spite of Everything: Reflections on the Pan American Games Dan Bacher The Fish Terminator: Schwarzenegger's Campaign to Build the Delta Canal and More Dams   July 30, 2007 Marjorie Cohn: Independent Counsel Time Patrick Cockburn Four Million Iraqis on the Run Peter Quinn Irish in America Uri Avnery A Warning to Tony Blair John Ross Zapatista Intergalatica Lands on Earth Ron Jacobs Free the San Francisco 8 David Vest Farewell, Old Friend: Another Legend of the Blues is Gone Jeffrey St. Clair T99 Nelson: Seduced by a Legend of the Blues Website of the Day Collateral Repair Project   July 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Now the NYT is Selling "Bloodbath" as a Rationale to Stay in Iraq Ralph Nader Rotten Justice Robert Fantina American Lies and Iraqi Nationalism Fred Gardner Prohibitionists Attack, Reformers Fundraise   Yves Engler Handwashing and the Bottomline   July 27, 2007 John Ross Bombing Pemex--or Not? Arthur Neslen Gaza was a Gas for Blair Dave Lindorff Declaring the US a Battlefield: Martial Law is Now a Real Threat Julene Blair The Environmentalist Within Christopher Brauchli Bush Uses Children as Shock Troops in His War on Socialized Medicine Jesse Hagopian Fund the Wounded, Not the War Charles Modiano Manufacturing a Villain: Sports Illustrated's Vilification of Barry Bonds Bill Day The Hollow Environmentalism of Leonardo DiCaprio Walter Brasch Leaders Afraid to Lead M.D. Mitchell Farm Based Camps Website of the Day Fighting Sarcoma   July 26, 2007 Kathleen Christison The Siren Song of Elliot Abrams Andy Worthington Why the Pentagon's Gitmo Study is a Joke Clancy Chassay How the Bush White House Seeks to Destroy Lebanon Marjorie Cohn Showdown Over Executive Privilege Susie Day Apartheid Americana David Price Tour de Witch Hunt: Drugs, Diaries and Purges Marie Trigona Argentina's "Dirty War" Crimes Trial: The Torturer Priest Norman Solomon Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort Of) William S. Lind How to Win in Iraq Natsu Saito Ward Churchill and the Regents at the University of Colorado John Stauber Netroots and the Iraq War: Does Ending It Matter to Them Anymore? Website of the Day Sticking It to the Man   July 25, 2007 Andy Worthington Gains and Losses at Gitmo Gary Leupp Bush Speechwriter, Michael Gerson, Calls for Attack on Syria Ray McGovern The Sad Decline of John Conyers Dr. Susan Block Bonobo Bashing in the New Yorker Joshua Frank Hillary's Neocon: the Imperial Vision of Richard Holbrooke Tina Richards What Harry Reid Doesn't Know About His Own Bill Ben Terrall Indonesia's Bloody Brand of CounterTerrorism Farzana Versey God Acquitted!: Lessons from the Case of Darwood Ibrahim Mohammad Ali Salih A Bomb in My Briefcase? Laura Carlsen A Strange Homecoming: Reflections on the First US Social Forum Ron Jacobs Come to Kennebunkport! Sunsara Taylor Knocked Up is F**ked Up Website of the Day Wal-Mart's Flip Flops: Feet Killers July 24, 2007 Saul Landau How to Walk in Bushtime Kathy Kelly The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan Russell Mokhiber The Michael Vick / George Bush Thing M. Shahid Alam Islam Now, China Then Patrick Cockburn and Anne Penketh Meeting in Baghdad Dave Lindorff Overcoming John Conyers Binoy Kampmark You Tube You Can't: Failure of a Medium Richard Neville Murdoch's Transplant: a Warning to the Wall Street Journal Cindy Sheehan We Must Move Beyond Politics as Usual Evelyn Pringle Anti-Depressants and Birth Defects: Why is the CDC Downplaying the Risks? Norman Solomon Media Corrections We'd Like to See CP Newswire Reading Harry Potter Not Sinful Website of the Day Sea Islands Black Heritage Festival   July 23, 2007 Andy Worthington Narcolepsy on Gitmo Detainees Uri Avnery A Trap for Fools Patrick Cockburn Turkish Prime Minister Threatens to Invade Northern Iraq Sousan Hammad The Children Without a Title John Walsh Todd Gitlin's Nader Fixation Harvey Wasserman Spinning Kashiwazaki: PR Flacks Rush to Aid of Crippled Nuke Martha Rosenberg The Life and Times of a Hog-Hanging Farmer Collin Baber Here Come the MRAPs: Resurrecting Apartheid Armor for Iraq Reza Fiyouzat Iran's Forgotten Anti-Nuke Movement Stephen Lendman Saving a President: Scare-Mongering and Executive Orders Website of the Day The Port Huron Project   July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Giuliani and the Dogs of War Werther How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate Ralph Nader Atomic Blowback David Keen Buy Hard: How to Sell an Endless War Fred Gardner Karl Rove, Pothead: When Good Drugs Happen to Bad People Gary Leupp Edelman's Edict: Is Hillary "Reinforcing Enemy Propaganda?" Robert Fantina Fear in Iraq Saker The Future of Palestine: an Interview with Jonathan Cook Rannie Amiri Nasrallah in the Crosshairs: How will the Third Lebanon War Start? Mike Whitney The Crisis in Hedgistan Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD The Hidden Injuries of Powerlessness: Linking Alienation and Dissociation Monica Benderman Facing the Truth Dan Bacher Deltagate: the Politics of Fish Kills Michael Baney Fujimori's Long Race From Justice Missy Beattie Here, There and Everywhere Ron Jacobs Tremble, Tyrants Adam Engel Radical Language: an Introduction Thomas Naylor California Split: an Open Letter to Schwarzenegger Poets' Basement Landau, Ford and Engel Website of the Weekend Surge in Action   July 20, 2007 Eliza Szabo Fatal Neglect: Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Pam Martens Doctoring the News: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and Merck Alan Farago Winners and Losers in the Housing Market Crash Harvey Wasserman Lies and Leaks: The Earthquake That Screamed "No Nukes!" Marjorie Cohn Iraqis will be the Deciders Dave Zirin White Noise and the Black Athlete Anthony DiMaggio American Public Opinion and Israel Scott Liebertz Oaxaca on Edge Linn Washington, Jr. British Cops Assault Rape Allegations Bill Piper / Anthony Papa Flying High?: The Political Junkets of Bush's Drug Czar Ramzy Baroud Bush's War Policy: When Time Heals Nothing Website of the Day The Prankster Art of Mark Jenkins   July 19, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Next Invasion of Iraq Remi Kanazi Is This Ben Gurion or Hell?: a Palestinian Adventure Through Israel's Largest Airport Winslow T. Wheeler The Surging Costs of the Iraq War Sharon Smith Democrats and Health Care: Behind the Rhetoric Dave Lindorff Killing Cabbies in Iraq Conn Hallinan Have Gun, Will Travel: Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan D. K. Wilson The Michael Vick Case Pulls Back the Veil on Who We Really Are Joshua Frank Democrats as Leviathan: Another Step Toward War with Iran Norman Solomon The Ghost of Wayne Morse Russell Hoffman Rattling the Reactor: Quakes, Fires and Leaks at the World's Largest Nuke Ray McGovern Bush's Wooden Headedness Kills Website of the Day Protesting Power July 18, 2007 Brenda Norrell Spy Towers on the US Border Col. Dan Smith How the US Could "Lose" Saudi Arabia Martha Rosenberg Lord of Crookharbour: the Trial of Conrad Black Conn Hallinan Bombing and Spraying Afghanistan Binoy Kampmark The SIM Card Terror Case Patrick Bond / Rehana Dada Who Killed Sajida Khan? Tom Johnson The Long Road ... to Nowhere Paul Craig Roberts A Free Press or a Ministry of Truth? Bob Quellos Pushing the Poor Out of House and Home Felice Pace Falling for Lieberman's Iran Resolution Robert Weissman National Health Insurance: More Humane and More Efficient CP Newswire Shocking Report Showing Involvement of US Psychologists in Torture Website of the Day Gilad Atzmon Live!   July 17, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Just Another Day in Iraq: 100 Fathers, Mothers and Children Killed Marjorie Cohn Out of Control: Executive Power Plays Evelyn Pringle Inside Bush's FDA David Rosen Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill: the Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Pleasures of the Courtesan Susan Miller Width Matters: Displacement and Israel's Wall Franklin Lamb Did the UN Cave to Israel on Lebanon's Shabaa Farms? Don Monkerud Considering Victory in Iraq Harvey Wasserman Nuclear Surge Russell Hoffman Japan Dodges a Radioactive Bullet Dave Lindorff Feingold Turns to Dross Dave Zirin Reclaiming Sports as True Fiction Website of the Day Che at the UN: 1964   July 16, 2007 Gary Leupp Cheney Urges Bush to Strike Iran Ellen Cantarow The Untold Story of Iraqi Women Paul Craig Roberts Impeach Now Allan J. Lichtman The D.C. Madam's Public Service Dan Bacher Cheney and the Klamath: Was the Veep Behind the Nation's Worst Salmon Kill? Patrick Cockburn The Killing of Khalid W. Hassan Manuel Garcia, Jr. Property is Racism James Brooks AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas: the Undemocratic Road to Defeat Liaquat Ali Khan The Judicial Crisis in Pakistan Julie Flint Suleiman Jamous in Limbo Website of the Day Free Suleiman Jamous!   July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander Cockburn Support Their Troops? Andy Worthington Gitmo's Tangled Web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majhid Khan, Dubious US Convictions and a Dying Man Ralph Nader Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence Robert Fantina The Illegalities of the Iraq War Ron Jacobs Architecture as Military Strategy Joshua Frank Eat, Fight, Screw, Pray: An Interview with Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Guns, Foundations and Free Trade: How the Right Targets Africa Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD War and Dissociation John Ross No En Nuestro Nombre!: a Letter to the Mexican Antiwar Movement Fred Gardner Who's Afraid of Cannabidiol? Rannie Amiri A Primer on Israeli Doublespeak Charles Modiano ESPN's Rap Sheet: Pacman as Black Man Anthony DiMaggio America's Parochial Press China Hand Executive Orders and Coercive Diplomacy Missy Comley Beattie Reprobate Rhetoricians Dr. James J. Murtagh, Jr. Harry Potter Battles Big Brother Kenneth Rexroth On Thomas More's "Utopia" Poets' Basement Engel, Davies and Orloski Website of the Weekend GOP Sex Hypocrites: a Slideshow

August 3, 2007 Michael Vick Ain't the One to Ask Two Sides and a Middle By D. K. WILSON It’s time to take a moment or a few to begin a period of reassessment for us folk of the darker U.S. persuasion; that would be us, the original American “exotic other” - us black folk. Peeps of the alleged polar opposite, though this isn’t about you, it always is, so feel free to chime in. See, there’s this problem we’re having. One side there’s a faction of us, manifested in the world of sports, who began piping up after The Palace Revolution. You really found your voice on the “dark streets” of Las Vegas during the most recent NBA All-Star weekend. After the USA Today sports section front with 39 black faces out of 41 NFL villains backed by allegations of Abu-Ghraib-type treatment of dogs by Michael Vick, you finally feel free to bloom. On the other side there are voices reminding us of our history here in this country. These folk try to conjure visions of a black people where “street cred” actually means something. Street cred, the currency of black cool; the way we have always fought oppression, the way we always will; They want the other side to be real to maintain that street cred like it’s some sort of Am Ex for black people. Both sides are “personed” (that’s manned and “womened”) by older folk too old for the beginning of hip-hop culture. They were the 12-14-year olds taking already pro-Dr. Martin Luther King and pro-Malcolm X sides. Today, they are in their late 40s to mid-50s and they are waging a very public black elite battle for pole position-sole position as the monolithic “voice of black America.” In the middle of this mess are those of us who grew up Nintendo to PS3. We grew up with Apple as a computer as much as it is a fruit to eat. We grew up at the middle-end of Public Enemy and the nascent rise of “Amerikkk’a Most Wanted” to “The Chronic.” We evolved in the Internet boom where trickle-down meant we could multi-task and get our street hustle and our above-board hustle on simultaneously. Or we could do education, still not play the game, and, to some degree fit into black bohemia - makin’ money off our sorta-kinda revolution talk. You know that place. It’s the spot where spoke-word poetry became relevant (where’d it go? did you hear it as it got too deep and was pushed to the margins?) and “niggaz” talked about finding a better way through neuro-chemicals like black Timothy Learys talking of crap like amethyst crystals guiding us on our way like they 10-carat hit rock crack diamonds we could trade for immortality - and relevance. Now we swing to T.I. and cling to Diddy like yachts, encrusted watches and hos in every city are the measures of men; like we live in a hall of mirrors black Disneyworld where Snow Black and Skinderella were both once pole dancers waiting for their Prince Roc-a-Fella; no image is quite right, or quite real. Problem is, we’re all right to some degree, but we’re also all very wrong. See, the rub is that all three sides swear progress has been made in a country where the Supreme Court just this fiscal and judicial season had the bleepin’ cojones to use the landmark Brown v. Board of Education anti-segregation of schools ruling to segregate schools in Seattle. Now, if that doesn’t tell everybody exactly where we stand today, nothing will. See, we have black sportswriters and talking heads - men - who act like Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith was the Dr. King’s vision manifest. And they think Henry Aaron was nothing short of a baseball version of Bill Russell. We have black sportswriters and talking heads - women - who see these same men as their black fathers, strong and enduring in the face of a form of “real” racism. Their sense of the fairy tale is inextricably tied to these men to the point where Dungy, Smith, Aaron and the like are no longer humans with real strengths, but also with real-life fallacies, and very real faults. Around and around on the ferris wheel we go, led into a blinding sun, eyes open, retinas burned to a crisp; we can’t see if we need to. All of these writers and talking television heads forget that Ron Artest was being physically assailed by Ben Wallace - the real agent provocateur of The Palace Revolution. They forget that Artest, in a classic anger management, removal tactic lied down on the scorer’s table to extricate himself from a potentially volatile situation, only to be assailed again by scornful, hating white spectators. They forget that during NBA All-Star Weekend they were on the streets, too. They forget that they were part of the overreaching skin color of choice in Casinoville for those days. They forget that those 41 faces, 39 of whom are black constitute part of a paltry 2% of the NFL. They forget that 2% should be a target number for crime in the U.S., and not a number used to say, “The difference between “them” and me is….” Today we use Michael Vick as the black messiah, harbinger of the fall of “Black Man.” One side of black sportswriters hates Vick with a passion reserved normally only for love. Those writers on the other side and in the middle fail to see that the haters actually advance our cause with “society at large.” Because of the venom-spewers we can turn to the rest of the country and say, “This is what you too often sound like to us.” But do we do this? No. Instead we choose a battleground on which to fight that was already chosen for us - a fighting field called “hip-hop;” that ephemeral thing that only exists as a shadow substitute for a moment in the illilimitably-faceted cycles of a culture and a peoples. And what do we get for it? More columns and commentaries by “Sleep n’ Eat?” A guest appearance on television by that famous hip-hop sports journalist, “See My ‘X’ Hat?” Meanwhile we absolutely sleep – I’m talking about a dead snore - on a crooked NBA referee and what his presence in our games really means. See, this cat’s significance can be viewed thusly: while we are fighting over some shit called “hip-hop culture” in sports and society in general, the real thugs, the Mafia, are still doing what they’ve always done in this country; making sure-fire money off the backs of mostly black people - professional basketball players, in this case - with the aid of a predictably weak white governing intermediary. The “I Have a Dream”-ers and the “We’ve been hoodwinked” people have their pertinent places in history. To forget them is foolish. However, to live in those skins today is equally foolish. Sports writers in today’s climate who follow those antiquated notions seem to fail to realize that those boxes are nothing but mildewed basement boxes - and they need to be replaced. And the journalists and television talking heads ones in the middle are often so preoccupied with their fashion dreads and fashion nappy heads and - for some - their glittering barely-semi-precious stones to see that that an “angle” and “exposure” only means that their byline actually reads, “Mantan.” If you want to know the true nature of thug mentality and you really want to know how important making money off the books is, to a community and to the economy as a whole, and you want to know how the game really works - don’t ask Michael Vick. Ask the men who Tim Donaghy, in the end, really worked for. D. K. Wilson is one of the editors of the excellent website on sports, race and politics, The Starting Five.

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