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Today's
Stories
January 21,
2008
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Playing
the Race Card
January 19
/ 20, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Campaign in Black and White
Saul Landau
Good Time Charlie's War
China Hand
Endgame for Pakistan?
Conn Hallinan
Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About?
Ron Jacobs
No Retreat
Dave Lindorff
A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess
Andy Worthington
Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture
Paul Armentano
What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think
Seth Sandronsky
High Crimes and Economics
Michael Donnelly
Dodging Ecocide
Patrick Irelan
The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki
Martha Rosenberg
The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit
Sherwood Ross
Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade
David Michael
Green
So You Want to be My President, Eh?
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: Under House Protection
Daniel Gross
Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King
Peter N. Carroll
In Memory of Milton Wolff
Susie Day
Croakin' on Hudson
Paul Krassner
Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu
Poets' Basement
Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of the Day
Rocky Mountain
Blues
January 18,
2008
Allan Nairn
Killing
Civilians, Carefully
Ralph Nader
When
the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill?
Joanne Mariner
Terrorism and Preventative Detention
Alan Farago
The Stimulus and the Meltdown
P. Sainath
Pity the Brahmins
R.F. Blader
Beyond Steinem's Feminism
Andy Worthington
A Letter from Guantánamo
John Jonik
Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health
Brian McKenna
Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan
Women's Prison
Daoud Kuttab
This Time Next Year?
Website of the Day
Those South Carolina Voting Machines
January 17,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Leader
and Vassal
Christopher
Brauchli
The FBI's Bills Come Due
Robert Fantina
Leadership, Bush and the New York Times
Patrick Irelan
Eternal War
Paul A. Moore
When the Rich Pay No Taxes
Stephen Lendman
Institutionalized Spying on Americans
Beena Sarwar
Bhutto and the "State Within a State"
Walter Brasch
Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment
Brenda Norrell
Bush Legacy in Texas Sours
Adam Federman
End of the Left?
Website of the Day
Democrats for Romney
January 16,
2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Return
of the Native
Franklin Lamb
The Bombing at Qarantina
Julian Sanchez
David Weigel
Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?
Sharon Smith
Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope?
Allan Nairn
Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation
Andy Worthington
A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo
Richard Behan
Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Website of the Day
Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!
January 15,
2008
Andrea Peacock
Breach
of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing
Poison Into Libby's Wounds
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy
and the Prospects of War with Iran
Joe Bageant
Getting Out the Bling Vote
Ralph Nader
The Candidate Taboos
John Ross
Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified?
Peter Morici
The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy
Beena Sarwar
Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade
Robert Weissman
Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought
Binoy Kampmark
Going Tata in India
Dave Zirin
Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame
Website of
the Day
David Lynch on the iPhone
January 14,
2008
Ishmael Reed
Ma
and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man
Roger Morris
Burials in the Sind
Uri Avnery
The
Hands of Esau
Mike Whitney
Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package
Allan Nairn
General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million
Corpses
William Blum
Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us
Alan Farago
A Subprime Wake Up Call
David Macaray
Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time?
Eva Liddell
Getting Drunk with Obama
Zoe Blunt
Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons
Website of the Day
Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies
January 12
/ 13, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
How
the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian
Deaths
Saul Landau
60
Years of Empire
Corey D. B. Walker
Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual
Col. Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot
Eric Toussaint
The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global
Ron Jacobs
Television, Murder and Vietnam
Fred Gardner
The People vs. Christopher James Chakos
Stan Cox
Don't Take That Pill!
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Warfare State
Ramzy Baroud
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Joseph Grosso
The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites
David Díaz-Arias
Imagining An/Other Latin American Left
Stacey Warde
Before We Move On ...
Dan Bacher
Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt
Michael Dickinson
Georgie in Jesusland
Website of
Weekend
CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices
January 11,
2008
Dave Lindorff
Did
Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold
Voting Machines
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Escape from War and Unemployment
Andy Worthington
Six Years of Guantánamo
Kenneth Couesbouc
Banking on Thin Ice
Jeff Ballinger
Inside the Vienna Consensus
Christopher
Brauchli
Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns
Andrew Silverstein
Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem
Marwan Bishara
Bush in the Middle East
Robert Weissman
The First Amendment Gone Wild
Patrick Irelan
Damn the Small Boats!
Website of
the Day
Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She
Loses
January 10,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Now
Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards
Bob Wing
Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom
Bradley
Michael Donnelly
White Women Gone Wild?
David Macaray
Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions
China Hand
Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries?
Rannie Amiri
Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya?
Website of the Day
Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident
January 9,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
Dave Lindorff
The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation
John Chuckman
Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada
James Bovard
Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006
Alan Farago
As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic
Russell Mokhiber
Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday?
William S. Lind
Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq
Peter Morici
Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters
Josh Reubner
Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment
Mike Roselle
The Pursuit of Happiness
Website of the Day
Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH
January 8,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old)
Russell Mokhiber
The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative
Robert Fantina
The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz
Dave Zirin
Butts on Parade
Shamako Nobel
I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop
John Ross
Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves
Brenda Norrell
Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security
Laura Carlsen
Why Bolivia Matters
Patrick Irelan
Remember the Maine!
Evelyn J. Pringle
The Holes in Bush's FDA
Jonathan M.
Feldman
After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace
Movement
Michael Dickinson
Playing Soldier
Website of
the Day
Sean Hannity on the Run!
January 7,
2008
Chris Floyd
There
Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities
John Blair
Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana
Uri Avnery
The Case of the White Bird
Andy Worthington
Who Are the Gitmo Saudis?
Binoy Kampmark
Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court
David Macaray
Women on Strike
Ralph Nader
Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood
Michael Donnelly
It's the War Vote(s), Stupid!
Ron Jacobs
Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough?
Gideon Levy
The Hostile President
Dave Lindorff
A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb
Website of
the Day
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
January 5 /
6, 2008
Douglas Valentine
Good
Guys in Black Hoods
Kevin Young
The
US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq
Richard Rhames
Saddam
Who?
Saul Landau
Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory
Marc Lynch
Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing
Robert Fantina
Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War
Donna Volatile
Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr.
Jelle Bruinsma
Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands
Bob Sutcliffe
Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist
Harvey Wasserman
Anti-Nuclear Renaissance
Missy Beattie
Why Obama Can't Save Us
David Swanson
Remembering the Separation of Powers
Jacob Hornberger
The Importance of the Padilla Case
Shepherd Bliss
Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms
Ron Jacobs
Bleeding Kansas
Poets' Basement
Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint
January 4,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Good Night in Iowa
Jonathan Cook
War Crimes Airbrushed from History
Paul Craig Roberts
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
Stan Goff
Ron Paul's Monkeywrench
Dave Lindorff
Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
To Pindi Station
Allan Nairn
U.S. Elections Over Before They Began
Joshua Frank
The Failures of Sectarianism
Peter Morici
Economy on the Skids
Mary McInnis
Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease
Website of the Day
The Return of Obama Girl
January 3,
2008
Fatima Bhutto
Farewell
to Wadi Bua
Pam Martens
The
Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos
Joanne Mariner
The Presidential Candidates and Torture
Zoltan Grossman
Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the
Web
David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
Norman Solomon
Edwards Reconsidered
Nikolas Kozloff
Return of the Faux Liberal
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus
Martha Rosenberg
Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick
Russell Means
This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah
Lands
Website of the Day
WolfQuest
January 2,
2008
Jeff Taylor
The
Left and Ron Paul
M. Shahid Alam
The Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto: a Pakistani Tragedy
Gary Leupp
Madness Compounding Madness: Calls for Intervention in Pakistan
Paul Craig Roberts
Criminals with Badges
Heather Gray
Georgia's Racist Death Penalty
Fred Gardner
and Shobhit Arora
Dr. Strangelove's Nemesis
David Macaray
Labor Unions and Taft-Hartley
Benjamin Dangl
Fear and Loathing in Bolivia
January 1,
2008
Iain A. Boal
City
of Disappearances
B. R. Gowani
Benazir's Death in Crisistan
Shahid Mahmood
Bhutto and the Press
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Old Injustices Endure: From Crack Sentences to Racial Profiling
Harvey Wasserman
Taking Leonard Peltier to Iowa: the Moral Low Point of the Clinton
Era
John Ross
2008, Already a Year to Forget
Website of the Day
The Thrill is Gone: BB and Gladys
December 31,
2007
Alexander Cockburn
Goodbye
2007 and Good Riddance!
Tariq Ali
Pakistan, the Aftermath
Liaquat Ali Khan
The Perfidy of Pakistan's Rulers
Wajahat Ali
After Bhutto, a Nuclear Pakistan?
Robert Fisk
Who Killed Bhutto?
Ajai Sahni
Myths and Realities About Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan's Dark
Future
Marwan Bishara
You Say Talk, I Say Attack: The Middle East and the US Presidential
Election Campaigns
Uri Avnery
The Beilin Syndrome
Mark T. Harris
Does This Happen in Canada?
Brenda Norrell
Resistance and Censorship
Website of the Day
A People United Will Never Be Defeated
December 29
/ 30, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Options
in America: Kill Yourself or Have a Baby
Tariq Ali
Indignation and Fear Stalk Pakistan
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
My Encounter with Benazir Bhutto
Gary Leupp
The U.S. and Pakistan After 9/11: Blowback from an Unholy Alliance
China Hand
Pakistan Stares Into the Abyss
Jacob Hornberger
Stop Medddling in Pakistan
John Chuckman
Pakistan and the Failure of Quick-Fix Politics
Missy Beattie
Evaluating Bush with the Bhutto Corruption Standard
Ralph Nader
Who Will Take the Next Step?
Fidel Castro
There Hasn't Been a Day in My Life When I Haven't Learned Something
Robert Fantina
The Sham of Homeland Security
Greg Moses
Beauty from the Heart of Texas
Catherine Lutz
What We Can Not See: Art and Bombing
Kristin Van
Tassel
Seeing in the Dark
Kim Nicolini
Redacted: Brian DePalma's Scream of Outrage
Phyllis Pollack
Keith Richards Runs With Rudolph Once More
Poets' Basement
Landau, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Driving Karachi in Search of the Perfect Naan
December 28,
2007
Farzana Versey
The
Complex Electra
Wajahat Ali
A
Pakistani Requiem
Binoy Kampmark
Death in Rawalpindi: Bhutto and Her Legacy
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Not Dead Yet: The Pakistan People's Party Still Survives
Anthony DiMaggio
Turkey's Bombing of Iraq
Ray McGovern
Creeping
Fascism
Jim Goodman
Biofuels, the Biggest Scam Going
Ron Jacobs
Transcending the Colonizer's History: Iran, a People Interrupted
Russell Hoffman
Mini-Nukes by Toshiba
John Murphy
Greens Gone Wild
Website of the Day
Guiliani Campaign Official: "Only Rudy Can Defeat the Muslims"
December 27,
2007
Dilip Hiro
A
Tragedy Foretold: Will Bhutto's Death be a Boost for Her Party?
Murtaza Shibli
Who Killed Bhutto?
Stephen Soldz
Fallujah,
the Information War and U.S. Propaganda
Bill Quigley
Locked
Outside the Gates
Paul Craig Roberts
The Great American Lock-Up
Omer Subhani
Killing Bhutto: What Happens Next in Pakistan?
Marjorie Cohn
The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go?
Allan Nairn
Cataclysm By Money Whim
Jacob G. Hornberger
Smearing Ron Paul: Shame on the NYT
Norman Solomon
Channeling Suze Orman
Patrick Irelan
Rumsfeld Spills the Ink
Ben Tripp
Pass the Razor Blades
Website of the Day
Quagmire, For What It's Worth
December 26, 2007
Charles Tripp
From
One Saddam to Fifty
Paul Armentano
No-Knock, You're Dead
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon in Search of a Government
Stanley Heller
Brzezinski and Charlie Wilson's War
John Walsh
Two Unreasonable Men
Martha Rosenberg
The Strange Career of Scott Gottlieb
Norman Madarasz
Bolivia Amends New Constitution and Faces Mutiny from Within
Website of
the Day
Cockburn at the Battle of Ideas
December 25,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Conscience
and Empire
December 24,
2007
Andrea Peacock
A
Dark Ride on the Border
Tariq Ali
Thinking of Edward Said
Uri Avnery
Help! A Ceasefire!
Jill Jameson
Burma is Not Back to Normal: A Trip from Rangoon to Mae Sot
Steve Melendez
Russell Means Goes to Washington
Mike Whitney
The Big Fix
Chuck Munson
Not Getting It About New Orleans
John Walsh
Clueless Crusaders
Farzana Versey
Tony Blair and the Hawking of Religion
Richard Neville
Dreaming of a White House Christmas
Website of the Day
Back in the USSR
December 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Mike
Huckabee's Ascending Chariot
Ralph Nader
Politics
and Profits: How the Oil Cartel Gets Its Way
Andy Worthington
Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons
in Afghanistan
Ahmad Faruqui
The Comedian of Pakistan
Bill Moyers
Society on Steroids
Rev. William
E. Alberts
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Timothy J. Freeman
From Kant to Lennon: Can War Really be Over?
Anthony DiMaggio
Democrats Continue to Capitulate on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Molecule of the Year, Cannabiodiol
Paul Krassner
Enhanced Hazing Techniques
Seth Sandronsky
17 Years of Meanness: Repealing California's Three Strikes Law
William Loren
Katz
Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters: Recalling the Battle of Lake
Okeechobee
Michael Dickinson
In the Dungeon of the Zabita
Ron Jacobs
Why Leon Russell Still Matters
David Vest
Doyle Bramhall's "Is It News?"
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
George W. Hates Santa
December 21,
2007
John Ross
New Massacres Loom in Mexico
Jacob Hornberger
Nothing Can Morally Justify the Invasion of Iraq
Dick J. Reavis
A
Way Out of the Newspaper Abyss
Jeff Cohen
and Norman Solomon
The 2007 P.U.-litzer Prizes
Peter Morici
Business as Usual as Recession Looms
Jack McCarthy
Let Us Now Praise Judith Regan (Even If She Did Sleep with Bernie
Kerik)
Raúl Zibechi
Sex and Revolution
Steve Early
How the Presidential Candidates Made Me an Atheist
David Macaray
Union Aftermath
Patrick Bond
Zuma, the Center-Left and the Left-Left in S. Africa
Lakota Freedom Delegation
A Declaration of Independence from the USA
Website of
the Day
Solomon v. Beck: Tale of the Tape
December 20,
2007
David Rosen
Mitt
Romney's Secret Life as a Pornographer
Alan Farago
The
Huckster and the Wreckage: Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage
Crisis
Laura Carlsen
Standing Up to NAFTA
Ashley Dawson
The Return of the Bread Riot
Wayne Smith
and Jennifer Schuett
Cuba Changes, US Policy Stagnates
Website of
the Day
How to Talk to a FoxNews Reporter
December 19,
2007
Saul Landau
Is
the NIE Bush's Watergate?
Paul W. Lovinger
Hillary the Hawk
Norman Solomon
The Mad Corporate World of Glenn Beck
Dave Zirin
George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice
Marjorie Cohn
Bush Still Spinning Iranian Nukes
Sen. Russell
Feingold
The Iraq War is Exhausting Our Nation
Sonja Karkar
A Christmas Reflection on Palestine
Anthony Papa
Open the Drug Gulags
Christopher Ketcham
Pave the Holy Lands with Good Intentions
Davey D
Britney's Little Sister is Pregnant: Should We Blame Hip Hop?
Website of
the Day
When Republicans Use the F-Word on TV
December 18,
2007
R. F. Blader
The
Politics of Teen Pregnancy
George Wuerthner
Gunning for Wolves in Idaho
Steven Higgs
Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped?
Vijay Prashad
Encounters with Ghadar
David Macaray
The Free Rider Problem
Ralph Nader
Nine Books That Make a Difference: a Reading List for the Holidays
Eva Liddell
Privatizing War Abroad, Invading Privacy at Home
Martha Rosenberg
While the Bodies are Still Warm: Drugs, Shrinks and Shooters
Dave Lindorff
When Impeachment is Out of Print
Peter Morici
The Consequences the Trade Deficit
Website of
the Day
Ron Paul: How Fascism Will Come to America
December 17,
2007
Mike Whitney
Staring
Into the Abyss
Tom Barry
Planning
the War on Immigrants
Uri Avnery
A
Gaza Masada?
Greg Moses
Crossing the Line in Texas
Allan Nairn
Terrorism; Counter-
Terrorism: Excuses for Murder
Patrick Bond
South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers
Stephen Lendman
Police State America
Charles Jonkel
Grizzly Right of Way
Laray Polk
An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza
Stephen Fleischman
Pawns in Their Game
December 15
/ 16, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
People's Penny for the Magna Carta
Howard Zinn
Bomb After Bomb
Standard Schaefer
The Greening of Big Tobacco
Raymond J.
Lawrence
Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas
Alan Farago
Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine
Saul Landau
Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists
Jenna Orkin
Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the
Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up
Ahmad Samih
Khalidi
Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct
Robert Fantina
Politics By Photo-Op
Missy Comley
Beattie
Resistance Amid the Ruins
Ramzy Baroud
Of Mormons and Muslims
James L. Secor
A Vision for China's Future
Elijah Wald
Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten
Website of
the Weekend
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support
December 14,
2007
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him
John Ross
Iraqi
Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax
Jacob Hornberger
Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened?
Allan Nairn
"Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes
Dave Zirin
The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners
Dave Lindorff
The First Cut is the Deepest
Misty MacDuffee
Toxic Grizzlies
Ben Terrall
What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?
Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi
Prerequisites for Peace
Website of the Day
Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"
December 13,
2007
Paul Craig
Roberts
Shrinking
the Dollar from the Inside-Out
Mike Whitney
Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding
Ron Jacobs
Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy
Norman Solomon
The USA's Human Rights Daze
Peter Morici
The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch
Sandy Mayes
Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia
Franklin Lamb
The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling?
Jacob Hornberger
Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It
Nadim Rouhana
An Interloper in My Own Land
Dave Zirin
On Pigskin and Petrol
Website of the Day
Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support!
December 12, 2007
Allan
Nairn
US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian
Phones
Alan
Farago
How Sprawl Eats Its Young
Ray
McGovern
Torture, Lies and Videotape
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts
Evan
Jones
The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell
Doom for the US Farm Belt
James
Petras
An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers
Joel
Hirschorn
The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine
Joshua
Frank
Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention
Sherry
Wolf
Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul
Dan
Bacher
Survey of a Fish Graveyard
Website
of the Day
Men Eating Bugs
|
MLK
Day
January 21, 2008
Delta Conservation
Awards for 2007
Leaping
Steelhead!
By DAN BACHER
In 2005 I instituted a new set of fishery
conservation awards, the "Leaping Steelhead" awards,
for those who have gone out of their way to restore and enhance
our fish populations in the face of decades of state and federal
government mismanagement of California and West Coast fisheries.
Now it's time for this year's awards ceremony, featuring some
new ones for Delta conservation.
2007 was another tough year
for fishermen. The ocean salmon season was one of the worst on
record for recreational anglers and commercial fishermen. So
it was no surprise when anglers fishing the Sacramento, Feather
and American Rivers experienced the worst ever fishing when the
salmon moved into the rivers.
The California Delta pelagic
species decline continued, with the fall midwater trawl surveys
yielding record low numbers of delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile
striped bass and threadfin shad. Fortunately, a decision by Superior
Court Judge Roesch in March and a final order issued by federal
judge Oliver Wanger on December 14 finally imposed protections
for Delta smelt.
On February 15, Mike Chrisman
announced the formation of a 41 member "Stakeholders Panel"
for the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. Unfortunately, not
one representative from recreational anglers and California Indian
Tribes, two of the groups most impacted by water decisions, was
invited to the table.
After a group of us launched
an action alert chastising the Governor and Resources Secretary
for refusing to appoint angling or tribal representatives, the
Governor finally appointed John Beuttler, conservation director
of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, and Gary
Mulcahy, governmental affairs director of the Winnemem Wintu
Tribe. Beuttler and Mulcahy each receive the "Real Delta
Visionary" award for their long, hard work on this panel.
A broad coalition of recreational
fishing organizations, fishing businesses and boat and tackle
manufacturers, as well as representatives of the Yurok and Karuk
tribes, officially kicked off the "Water for Fish"
Campaign in a press conference held on February 15 at the Fred
Hall Show at the Cow Palace. To date, over 20,000 letters have
been sent. Dick Pool, president of Pro-Troll, Chris Hall, president
of the Coastside Fishing Club and Gordon Robertson, governmental
affairs coordinator for the American Sportfishing Association,
get the "Letters For Fish" award for 2007 for their
efforts on behalf of Water for Fish.
One of the biggest fishery
disasters of the year was when tens of thousands including thousands
of stripers perished on Prospect Island in the California Delta
in November. The fish kill was exposed after Bob Simms, the host
of the KFBK Outdoor Radio Program, saw hundreds of small dead
fish coming out of the pipe at Prospect Island, where the Bureau
of Reclamation was draining the island, and placed the first
call to DFG regarding the fish kill.
On the following day, Bob McDaris
owner of Cliff's Marina in Freeport, and John Soto, a Delta hay
farmer, got the word out to myself and other reporters after
they witnessed thousands of dead fish and many more struggling
to survive in shallow, muddy water on the island.
McDaris and Jeff Nash, a local
angler, coordinated a big group of anglers to rescue the fish,
but it took over 10 days for approval from the DFG and Bureau
of Reclamation. The anglers saved over 10,000 fish including
1831 striped bass and thousands of smaller fish including bluegill,
Sacramento blackfish and other species. For their efforts in
the face of government indifference, McDaris, Simms, Soto, Nash
and all of the volunteers who helped save fish receive the "Big,
Healthy Striper" awards.
Jim Martin, West Coast Regional
Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, in November made
a Freedom of Information Act request of the Bureau to release
its correspondence and emails regarding the events that led to
the fish kill. For this action and his constant monitoring of
the Fish and Game Commission, PFMC and other governmental bodies,
Martin is bestowed the "Fish Investigator" of 2007
award.
Speaking of information, Zeke
Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) and staff regularly compile
the invaluable "Fish & Oceans file," a compilation
of news clips, announcements, releases and other information
regarding fish conservation, science and politics. Though the
information, sent out to an extensive email list, focuses on
the West Coast, it features lots of interesting articles, including
some offbeat and humorous commentaries, about fisheries throughout
the world. Grader and his organization get the "Fish Clipper"
award for their consistent efforts to inform fishing groups,
environmental groups and the public about the latest developments
in the fishing world.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,
confirming the worst fears of fishing and environmental groups,
on June 14 called for the construction of a peripheral canal
around the Delta and the building of more dams at a town meeting
in Bakersfield. Fishing and environmental organizations responded
with strong opposition to his campaign for a canal.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla,
Restore the Delta campaign coordinator, was a key leader in anti-canal
efforts by issuing regular "Delta Flows" updates pointing
out how a canal and increased exports weren't the answer to the
Delta's problems. She convened a number of forums on the Delta,
including superb presentations by Mark Franco, headman of the
Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and Dante Nomellini, a water rights attorney
and Delta farmer, in opposition to the canal. For her great activism,
she receives the "Stop the Peripheral Canal" award.
She also gets the best "Fish
Quote" prize for her description of the "Green Governor."
"Schwarzenegger is as green as a silk plant," quipped
Barrigan-Parrilla. "When you get up close, you realize that
is all a big fake."
Litigation was name of the
game in 2007, with Michael Lozeau, environmental attorney and
former executive director of the Baykeeper, and Michael Jackson,
CSPA attorney, filing a successful lawsuit against the Department
of Fish and Game and California Department of Water Resources
for failing to get a "incidental take permit" from
the DFG for killing Delta smelt, winter run chinook salmon and
spring run chinook under the California Endangered Species Act
(CESA).
In a monumental victory for
anglers and conservationists, Alameda Superior Court Judge Frank
Roesch on March 22 ordered the State Department of Water Resources
to shut down the state's water export pumps in the South Delta
during the migration of Delta smelt. After a long delay, DWR
on May 31 finally announced it would temporarily stop pumping
at State Water Project (SWP) facilities in the Delta to provide
"maximum protection" for Delta smelt. For this big
victory and their relentless litigation against the biggest killers
of the state's fish, the state and federal governments, Lozeau
and Jackson are bestowed the "Lawyers for the Fish"
award.
The year was a big one in the
state legislature, where Governor Schwarzenegger called a special
session in September to pass his dam and peripheral canal water
bond proposal. Fortunately, Senator Pro-Temp Don Perata offered
an alternative water bond, supported by environmentalists, the
Winnemem Wintu and fishing groups, that didn't include the canal
and required water agencies to fund part of the costs new water
storage facilities.
Mindy McIntire, water program
manager for the Planning and Conservation League, and Steve Evans,
conservation director of Friends of the River, receive the first
annual "Eyes on the Legislature" award for consistently
alerting the environmental and fishing communities with good
analysis and information regarding legislation impacting our
fisheries.
Bill Jennings, executive director
of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, receives
the "Delta Watchdog" award for his consistent hammering
of the DFG, DWR and Bureau of Reclamation for destruction of
our fish resources. Jennings called the mainstream media to task
for concentrating on the two wayward humpback whales, Delta and
Dawn, while the Delta smelt numbers in the DFG spring survey
reached a record low. A widely circulated action alert by Jennings
eventually resulted in a lot of coverage by TV, newspaper and
radio coverage of the plight of the smelt and other fish.
Anglers received a great Christmas
present when Judge Oliver Wanger of the U.S. District Court in
Fresno issued his final written order to protect the smelt and
the Bay-Delta Estuary ecosystem from being further degraded by
fresh water diversions. Trent Orr, Earthjustice lawyer filed
this initial lawsuit on behalf of NRDC, Friends of the River,
California Trout, The Bay Institute and the Baykeeper. Orr and
Kate Poole, NRDC attorney, and the other four groups get the
"Delta Smelt" award for their successful litigation.
There is no group that has
been more in the trenches on the battle to save the Delta than
the California Striped Bass Association. Their members collected
thousands of signatures on Water for Fish petitions at the ISE
Sports shows and the ASA Fred Hall show in 2007. They also showed
up at every legislative hearing, protest and meeting regarding
the Delta, including Lois Wolk's Prospect Island hearing, with
a sizable contingent of members. For this reason, Gary Adams,
president of the CSBA, and the organization's entire membership
are given the "Save the Delta" award.
The battle to restore the Klamath
River system raged on with the campaign to remove the dams and
the ongoing settlement negotiations making the headlines. The
Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley tribes and fishermen capped off
a historic cross-country pilgrimage to Omaha, Neb., on May 5
with a protest outside the shareholders meeting of Warren Buffett's
Berkshire-Hathaway Corporation.
They demanded the removal of
four Klamath Dams owned by Berkshire subsidiary PacifiCorp that
are largely responsible for the decades-long decline of salmon,
steelhead and other species on the Klamath River. Although Buffett
never met with the tribes, two members of the coalition, Wendy
George, council member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, and Ronnie
Pellegrini, wife of a commercial salmon fisherman, were able
to ask questions directly to Buffett and his partner Charles
Munger before a crowd of 27,000 shareholders.
Members of the cross-country
caravan transported two handcrafted 20-foot long redwood log
dugout canoes used in the ceremonies of the Yurok Tribe to Omaha.
Four members of the Karuk Tribe, "world renewal" priests
(fateveenan) Chook Chook Hillman, Ike Hillman, Cogie McCovey
and Codie Donahue, also went on a nine-day fast to "cleanse
themselves" and protect them on their journey. Regina Chichizola,
the Klamath Riverkeeper, provided extensive support for the trip,
including taking many great photos of the salmon bake and protest
at the shareholders meeting.
For their leadership and participation
in this unique protest, George, Pellegrini, the Hillman brothers,
McCovey, Donahue, the Klamath Riverkeeper and the Karuk, Yurok
and Hoopa Valley Tribes receive the "Leaping Steelhead"
award for 2007.
The Alameda Creek Alliance,
a coalition of anglers and environmentalists committed to restoring
salmon and steelhead to this East Bay stream, celebrated its
tenth anniversary on August 24, 2007. Due to the alliance's 10
years of political pressure, four public agencies are moving
forward quickly with five stream restoration projects that will
help restore steelhead and salmon to the creek. For their grassroots
work to restore this creek, Jeff Miller, executive director of
the Alliance, and all of its volunteers receive the "Urban
Steelhead" award.
Finally, in response to a looming
crisis over the lack of federal Sport Fish Restoration funds
to plant kokanee salmon in California lakes, the presidents of
Kokanee Power and the California Inland Fisheries Foundation,
Inc, (CIFFI) this fall pledged their financial support to the
California Department of Fish and Game to address a shortfall
in funds. Nelson Money, CIFFI president, and Gary Coe, Kokanee
Power president, are given the first-ever "Giant Kokanee"
award.
Dan Bacher can be reached at: danielbacher@fishsniffer.com
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