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Today's
Stories
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
September 30,
2004
Ralph Nader
10
Ways to Beat Bush: a Gift to the Kerry/Edwards Campaign
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnap Capital of the World: Iraq's One Growth Industry
Gideon Levy
When You Have Breast Cancer in Gaza
Joshua Frank
Presidential Debates? Pass the Remote
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
I Dreamed They Had a Debate
Ali Khan
Dershowitz's
Jihad: Inventing Exceptions to International Law
Steve Perry
An Interview with Sibel Edmonds
September 29,
2004
Behrooz Ghamari
Playing
Politics with Nukes: A Collision Course with Iran?
Ray McGovern
More
Troops to Iraq...After the Election
Walter Brasch
Tinseltown
Traitors?: Applauding Only the Right Entertainers
Chris Floyd
The
Deceivers: Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold
Stacey Reynolds
The Story of a Mercury-Poisoned American
M. Junaid Alam
Disrupting America's Fateful Non-Debate on the Roots of Terrorism
John L. Hess
They've Already Called It
Paul Craig
Roberts
Delusion
Rules: War, Outsourcing an Debt
September 28, 2004
Mike Whitney
Kerry's
Moral Compass
Fred Gardner
Pot
Shots: the Civics Teacher
Dan Meek
How Democrats Kicked Nader Off the Oregon Ballot
Greg Bates
Choking on Progressives for Kerry
Alan Farago
Jeanne in Haiti: Where is the World?
Lori Berenson
The Cajamarca Protest
Wayne Madsen
Where
is the Florida National Guard?
Robert Fisk
Why Have We Suddenly Forgotten Abu Ghraib?
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Expulsion of Cat Stevens
Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound
Fallujah
Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls
Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor
Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?
Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry
Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti
September 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas:
"I Am Totally Against This War"
Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric
Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers
Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping
William Blum
Progressives and the Election
Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It
All on Bob Shrum
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story
Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti
Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?
Justin Smith
The New Sparta
Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush
Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder
Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"
Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support
Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion
William Loren
Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush
Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!
Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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.
|
October 2 / 3, 2004
Two Empty Bottles
with Different Labels
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice Issues
By
PAUL WRIGHT
"Americans on the frontlines
- our first responders, military forces, sheriffs, policemen,
firefighters, and civil defense volunteers - must have the very
best equipment, training and support possible. Our safety and
freedom are the envy of the world and John Kerry and John Edwards
will ensure this does not change. A Kerry-Edwards administration
will recruit more law enforcement and emergency professionals,
combat Meth labs and drug abuse, and build a stronger judicial
and prison system in rural areas."
John Kerry for President Website,
www.Johnkerry.com
The issue of felon disenfranchisement,
where millions of Americans convicted of crimes that may or may
not have resulted in imprisonment cannot vote in government elections,
is one of growing importance. Around the country various lawsuits
are challenging such laws under various theories, so far with
mixed results. Some political pressure, especially by the black
community is raising awareness about how this results in dilution
of the black vote and undermines any notion of equality and democracy.
In a system that claims to be a democracy the right to vote should
be a fundamental right. But the flip side of the same coin is
that people who wish to vote should have candidates who either
represent their interests or their views on given issues. That
a majority of the electorate that can vote chooses not to may
reflect recognition of Jim Hightower's comment that "If
the gods wanted us to vote, they would send us candidates."
One reason for close national
and statewide races for federal offices is the lack of any discernable
differences among the candidates. For people who are concerned
about criminal justice issues the lack of any substantial policy
differences among national candidates is most easily seen by
the fact that today no national political figure is publicly
opposed to the death penalty. For prisoners or families who have
loved ones in prison, people who do not support a police state,
the death penalty and the evisceration of human and civil rights
the electoral choices between John Kerry and George Bush amount
to choosing to be beat to death with a stick or a two by four.
In 1992 I wrote an article
in Prison Legal News about Bill Clinton interrupting his
presidential campaign to fly back to Arkansas to preside over
the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a mentally ill black prisoner
who had blown most of his brains out in a botched suicide attempt
after killing a police man. While George Bush I was certainly
a supporter of the death penalty, he had not had the opportunity
to oversee one to prove his support of it to the electorate.
Clinton could and did. I predicted that based on his campaign
promises and track record as governor of Arkansas, Clinton would
be a disaster for prisoners and he was. However, I didn't think
he would be as bad as he turned out to be.
President George Bush II's
record on criminal justice issues needs little elaboration. As
governor of Texas he oversaw over 150 executions, his predecessor
Ann Richards began the massive expansion of the Texas prison
system, which Bush completed, and much more. As president Bush
has presided over the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, the
rape and torture chambers of Abu Gharaib, signed the PATRIOT
Act into law and otherwise done what American presidents historically
do. But presidents do not act alone, they need legislative approval
for these things and John Kerry has been in the U.S. senate for
almost 20 years. Plenty of time to amass a track record on criminal
justice issues. Moreover, it is not as if Kerry has questioned
or condemned Bush on these human rights issues.
The Bush campaign has attempted
to label Kerry as being "soft on crime", just as Bush's
last opponent for Texas governor, Texas attorney general Dan
Morales (who has since been imprisoned himself on fraud charges),
claimed Bush was "soft on crime." However, a review
of Kerry's actual voting record and personal history reveals
a consistent track record of supporting the death penalty, mass
imprisonment, harsher sentences, limited civil rights and more
importantly, the commitment and ability to both pull the trigger
and prosecute the cases himself.
In researching this article
I called a prisoner rights lawyer in Boston to ask about Kerry's
record on prisoner rights issues. He sighed and said "I
don't know the specifics, but I'm sure it's abysmal."
In 1986 Kerry voted for H.R.
5484 which enacted the federal mandatory minimums for drug crimes,
this included the infamous 100-1 crack cocaine disparity where
defendants with five grams of crack received a mandatory minimum
of five years in federal prison while possession of five hundred
grams of powdered cocaine resulted in the same five year mandatory
minimum sentence. It would have been surprising if Kerry had
voted against this draconian law since it had been introduced
in the House of Representatives by then Speaker of the House
Tip O'Neil, Kerry's fellow Democrat from Boston.
Some people in the anti death
penalty movement appear to believe that Kerry is opposed to the
death penalty. If he is, it does not prevent him for voting for
its expansion every opportunity he gets. The same 1986 law mentioned
above reinstated the federal death penalty for so called "drug
kingpins." In 1994 Kerry voted for the massive 1994 crime
bill that Clinton had called for. As I wrote at the time [PLN,
Dec. 1994], this bill expanded the federal death penalty to dozens
of new offenses, including the killing of federal poultry inspectors,
created new crimes, funded 100,000 police, enacted the federal
"three strikes" law, gave the states billions of dollars
to build new prisons, limited the power of federal courts to
rule on prisoner crowding suits, eliminated Pell grants for prisoners
to receive an education and significantly changed the rules of
evidence against criminal defendants and resulted in a massive
expansion of police power. Kerry's running mate, John Edwards,
has also been a strong supporter of the death penalty.
In 1996 Kerry voted in favor
of the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA)
which gutted what remained of federal habeas corpus law as well
as expanding the deportation of aliens who had been convicted
of a crime. The Prison Litigation Reform Act was passed that
same year but it was enacted as a rider to the budget and thus
no separate voting record is available.
Kerry voted in favor of the
PATRIOT Act in 2001 which was a Department of Justice wish list
that had been around for a number of years, essentially a continuation
of the 1994 crime bill and AEDPA.
As noted above, on his website
Kerry is calling for more rural prisons, which America needs
as much as it needs a typhoid epidemic. When Kerry says that
America's freedom is the envy of the world I don't recall hearing
people in other countries wish that they had over two million
prisoners. While Kerry may be proud of the fact that with 5 %
of the world's population, the US has 25% of the world's prisoners,
few countries seem envious enough to lock up that portion of
their citizenry.
Kerry served as a prosecutor
for several years in Massachusetts before running for elected
office. Recently his four months of service in Viet Nam as a
commander of a Swift patrol boat has come under attack over whether
or not he exaggerated his combat experience, and that he was
wounded four times in incidents that never required hospitalization
or medical treatment. The more significant aspects of his undisputed
actions in Viet Nam have been glossed over. Namely that many
of the Special Forces and CIA commandos Kerry's boat transported
along Vietnamese rivers were carrying out assorted war crimes,
including the torture and murder of captured civilians and POWs,
some of which occurred on Kerry's boat or in his presence. Then
Kerry boasts of killing a wounded National Liberation Front guerrilla
who was retreating. These exploits were laid out in detail in
the December, 2003, issue of the Atlantic Monthly in an
article by Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty, a sympathetic
hagiography excerpted from the book of the same title. Rather
than running for president a case can be made that Kerry should
be indicted for war crimes.
Both Kerry and Bush II are
from wealthy families and have similar educations and even memberships
in the same Skull and Bones secret society at Yale. I guess that
is why it is called a ruling class. On any substantial policy
issue it is difficult to find any difference between the two
candidates. Asked by the New York Times how his policies
would differ from the current regime's, Kerry replied they would
differ in style but not substance. On criminal justice issues
neither candidate for the Democratic or Republican parties offers
voters any significant choice beyond being beaten to death with
the stick or the two by four. Both have reprehensible records
on this topic. However, unlike Bush II whose personal organizational
capabilities seem to max out at organizing a keg party, Kerry
has shown an ability and willingness to kill and prosecute people
himself.
If Kerry has any principles
or actually believes in anything beyond political expediency
his supporters have yet to point out what those may be. In his
two decades in the Senate he has consistently voted against the
interests of prisoners and criminal defendants and in support
of state power and repression. It is unreasonable to expect that
if elected president he would be any different. No one in Kerry's
campaign office would return my calls seeking comment on his
positions on these issues.
Both vice president Dick Cheney
and president Bush have been convicted of drunk driving, twice
each. They employ at least one convicted felon, Elliot Abrams,
in the white house, and won't tell reporters how many other felons
they employ. President Bush won't answer any questions about
his drug use in the past, apparently believing the electorate
has no business knowing if he violated the nation's felony laws
against drug use and possession. Of course, if he has not violated
such laws, one would think a simple denial would suffice. Yet
they condemn Kerry as being soft on crime when he is anything
but.
Bush's policies engender opposition
and there is some awareness that he is little more than a bag
man for corporate interests. Under Clinton not only were the
rights of prisoners set back decades, there was no resistance
to it. When Reagan and Bush I attempted to gut habeas corpus,
there was opposition and the attempts failed. When Clinton tried,
there was no opposition and it succeeded. The same thing occurred
with regards to "welfare reform." It is likely that
a Kerry presidency would see a similar phenomenon.
Some members of the "anybody
but Bush" camp argue that Kerry should be supported at any
cost but that lowers the bar for all candidates. The most common
argument is that at least Kerry supports abortion rights for
women. However, Kerry states he is personally opposed to abortion
and would not impose an abortion litmus test on any judicial
appointments he makes. This argument also implicitly assumes
that the more than 2 million victims of mass incarceration in
this country, almost all of whom are poor and who are disproportionately
black and Hispanic and mostly men, are expendable and of no consequence,
politically or morally. That their liberty, human rights and
families mean nothing and are political fodder to be trashed
for political gain. Poor, disenfranchised and with no voice anyone
in power seems compelled to listen to, prisoners and criminal
justice reformers have little choice in the presidential race
of 2004. Two empty bottles with different labels indeed. Take
your pick.
Paul Wright is a human rights advocate and the
founder and editor of Prison
Legal News, an independent monthly magazine which reports
on criminal justice issues. www.prisonlegalnews.org. He is also
co-author of The
Celling of America: AN Inside Look at the US Prison Industry
(Common Courage, 1998) and Prison
Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor (Routledge,
2003).
Weekend
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Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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