Today's Stories

October 24 / 26, 2008

Mike Whitney
Down for the Count

October 23, 2008

Allan J. Lichtman
What Voter Fraud?

Todd Chretien
Why I'm Not Voting for Obama

John Ross
No Child Left Behind, Mexican-Style

Peter Morici
Strategies to End the Crisis

Mats Svensson
Short Film Clips at a Checkpoint

Marlene Martin
Don't Let Them Execute an Innocent Man

Robert Jensen /
Pat Youngblood
Looking Beyond the Election and Beyond Elections

Margaret Kimberley
Rightwing Obama Love

Deepak Tripathi
Post-Bush Scenarios

David Morris
Why Joe the Plumber is a Socialist (And You Are, Too)

Website of the Day
Voting While Black in North Carolina

October 22, 2008

Brian Cloughley
Kid Killers are Barbarians

Heather Gray
Raising Hell in the South: the Legacy of J. L. Chestnut, Jr.

Jeff Birkenstein
McCain's Disdain for Spain

Ralph Nader
The Song Remains the Same: Convergence and Avoidance in the Presidential Election

DC Larson
The Growing of a Heartland Nader Raider

David Swanson
Colin Powell, Not Qualified for Government Service

Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor Race and the Election: When the "Real" America Enters the Voting Booth

Larry Everest
9/11 and the Imperial Adventure in Afghanistan

Robert Fantina
Anything to Win

Martha Rosenberg
The Financier's Playbook

Stephen Martin
Giving It Up to the Combine

Website of the Day
Brokers with Hands on Their Faces

October 21, 2008

Vijay Prashad
Wealth's Apostles

Paul Craig Roberts
How Inflation Works: Why I Can't Buy an Old Ferrari

Corey D. B. Walker
Empire and White Supremacy

Steve Breyman
How to "Win" in Afghanistan

Eric Toussaint
The Economic Crisis and Latin America: Time to Delink

Wajahat Ali
Boo Radley Comes Out to Play: the Emerging Muslim-American Electorate

Robert Weitzel
Wasting a Vote for Lincoln's Radical Ideal (Or Why I'm Voting for Nader)

Brendan Cooney
Palinoscopy: an Exploration of Why Liberals are So Obsessed with Sarah Palin

Dave Lindorff
Cuba's Oil Reserves: a Game-Changer?

Marqueece Harris-Dawson / Bob Wing
When You're a Black Candidate There's No Such Thing as a Safe Lead

Patrick B. Barr
Socialist, Socialist, SOCIALIST!

Omar Barghouti
The Boycott and Palestinian Groups: Countering the Critics

Website of the Day
How to Dismantle a US War Plane (and Get Away With It)

October 20, 2008

Michael Hudson
The ABCs of Paulson's Bailout

Anthony DiMaggio
The Scandal That Never Was: ACORN, Rightwing Media and Election "Fraud"

Tariq Ali
Zardari Bans My Books

Uri Avnery
Is Akko Burning?

Bill Quigley
Hammered by the Swedes

Ben Rosenfeld
The Politics of St. Joe, Martyr to a Lie

David Michael Green
Payback's a Bitch: McCain on the Ash Heap

William S. Lind
The Afghanistan Advantage

Chris Genovali
Drill, Baby, Drill (Wink, Wink)

Stephen Martin
The Last Man in America

Howard Lisnoff
Bad News for War Resisters

David Yearsley
Organ Meat

Website of the Day
Our Brother is Sick: the Steve Ferguson Cancer Fund

October 17 / 19, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Blow Ups and Bombers

Jeffrey St. Clair
Inside Hanford: a Trip to America's Most Toxic Place

Pam Martens
How the Banksters are Making a Killing Off the Bailout

Paul Craig Roberts
Government of Thieves

Mike Whtney
No More Investment Banks

Michael D. Yates
Bowling Alley Blues: Racism Dies Hard in Johnstown, PA

Suzanne Smith
The Energy-War Connection: McCain Said It, Why Don't We?

Carl Boggs
Prosecuting Bush

Ralph Nader
Closing the Courthouse Doors

Fidel Castro
The Global Crash

Dave Marsh
The Great Levi Stubbs

Saul Landau
Denial, the Election Musical Comedy

Jo Guldi
The Floods of Heaven

Kevin Zeese
Now the Cost of War Really Matters

Larry Everest
Afghanistan, Not a Good War Gone Bad

Steve Early
Stop, in the Name of Joe!

David Macaray
Hey, Joe

Ben Terrall
When Ike Hit Haiti

Missy Beattie
Palin and God's Children

Don Monkerud
American Exceptionalism

Helen Redmond
Health Care Now's Big Con

Dan Bacher
Schwarzenegger's Delta Vision: Canals and Dams to Bail Out Big Ag

Wajahat Ali
Bush Gets Stoned

Farzana Versey
The White Tiger's Stripes and Gripes

Vladimir Frolov
Medvedev to Obama: We Come Not to Bury America, But to Buy It

Kim Nicolini
Frozen River: At Last, a Great Movie That's Neither Hip Nor Cool

Poets Basement
Gibbons, Corsale, Davis and Fleming

Website of the Day
The Real Sarah Palin?

October 16, 2008

Mike Whitney
The End of Friedmanite Economics: an Interview with Robert Pollin

Jonathan Cook
The Acre Riots

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Is Obama Playing to the Gallery? Or Has He Lost the Plot in South Asia?

Alan Maass
A Supreme Injustice: the Death Penalty Case of Troy Davis

Chuck O'Connell
Our Needs Do Not Fit on Their Ballots

Mary Lynn Cramer
Krugman's Prize: Iconoclast, Apologist or Propagandist?

P. Sainath
The Race May be Over, But Race Isn't

Andy Worthington
The Shrinking Case Against Binyam Mohamed: Justice Department Drops "Dirty Bomb Plot" Allegation

Peter Gelderloos
Enric Duran, the Good Thief?

Stephen Martin
The Nourishment of Idleness: Where Has All the Money Gone?

Douglas Valentine
Why I'm Voting for Obama

Website of the Day
The Mormon Worker

October 15, 2008

Steve Conn
The Real Story of Troopergate

William P. O'Connor
The Legend of John McCain

Robert Weissman
The Partial Nationalization of US Banks: Public Ownership, But No Public Control

Jonathan M. Feldman
Before the Second Wave of Crisis: an Alternative to the Triple Failure

Ron Jacobs
The Politics of Race in America: Is a Vote For Obama a Vote Against Racism?

Conn Hallinan
Targeting Unions in Colombia

Justin Podur
The Financial Economy and Real Economy

Karl Grossman
The New Nuclear Navy

Dave Lindorff
Is the Government Really Turning Socialist?

Eric Walberg
The Quiet Russian

Martha Rosenberg
Of Blood and Eggs

Uri Avnery
A Fairy Tale

Monica Benderman
No More

Website of the Day
Contractor Misconduct Database

Weekend Edition
October 24 / 26, 2008

Down the Drain

McCain's Vetters

By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI

John McCain has clearly learned from experience and anyone doubting it had only to watch the third debate. With all the thousands, if not millions, of things that have been written about Mr. Wurzelbacher, none has tumbled to the real reason John McCain introduced him to the American public during that debate. It was part of a pre-inauguration-cabinet selection process that Mr. McCain put into motion prior to actually taking office. And it was inspired by the flawed process he followed in selecting his vice-presidential companion.

It has become common knowledge that the vetting of Sarah Palin was somewhat less than complete. Although Mr. McCain has put a brave face on the selection and would have one and all believe that she was selected only after months of digging into her background and beliefs, it has become increasingly clear that there were a number of surprises that followed her selection such as the scandal known as “troopergate” in which the investigator said: “I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. ” (Sarah said she had been exonerated, a conclusion not all who read the report understood.)

There were a number of disclosures following her selection and campaigning that showed she was lying about what she had done as governor. It is safe to say that if Mr. McCain had known more about her before naming her he might have looked a bit further for a running mate. And that is why Mr. McCain’s action in the third debate is nothing short of brilliant.

Like Sarah Palin, Joe “the plumber” Wurzelbacher, was a complete unknown to the electorate until some time between 9 PM and 11 PM EST on October 16. And it was during that time period that Mr. McCain introduced him to the American public. What was known to only a very few is that this was not a random act by John McCain, in an attempt to poke fun at Barack Obama. It was the first step in an elaborate scheme to vet Mr. Wurzelbacher.

Mr. McCain saw in Mr. Wurzelbacher someone who would be an excellent Secretary of Labor. Among many potential qualities that attracted Mr. McCain to Mr. Wurzelbacher was that Mr. Wurzelbacher, unlike, for example Elaine Chao, the person now filling that post, is an actual laborer. (Ms. Chao had a distinguished career prior to entering government, having served as President and CEO of United Way of America and having served as Director of the Peace Corps, to name just a few of her many accomplishments. Nonetheless, it is safe to say she has never installed a toilet or dug a septic tank, the sorts of things John McCain expects his Secretary of Labor to have done and to be able to do. In addition, she represents the Washington elite that Mr. McCain’s running mate has repeatedly attacked.)

Stung by the failure of his staff to fully vet Sarah Palin and, therefore, unwilling to entrust future vetting to those who had so bitterly disappointed him in connection with her selection, he determined to use a completely different process to vet future appointments. And that is why Mr. Wurzelbacher was repeatedly referred to by Mr. McCain during the third debate. By mentioning Joe repeatedly, what Mr. McCain hoped to accomplish and, indeed, did accomplish, was a thorough vetting of Mr. Wurzelbacher by completely unbiased persons.

Although Mr. Wurzelbacher says he is a plumber, a quick check of Ohio records shows that he lacks a plumber’s license. According to Cheryl Schimming of Lucas County Building Regulations where Mr. Wurzelbacher works, Lucas County requires plumbers to be licensed. The vetting also discloses that the state of Ohio has filed a tax lien on Mr. Wurzelbacher’s house in the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas for $1,182.98. Although Mr. McCain continues to use Mr. Wurzelbacher’s name at campaign rallies, we also now know that Mr. Wurzelbacher doesn’t have a chance of raising enough money to buy the business as he said he wanted to do, nor does he have enough income to earn $250,000, the point at which Mr. Obama’s tax plan would cause him to pay more taxes.

None of the foregoing is meant to cast aspersion on Mr. Wurzelbacher since he did not ask to be considered for the position of Secretary of Labor and had he known he was being considered would have told Mr. McCain in advance, why his nomination might be in trouble were it publicly announced. As it is, Mr. McCain has been spared another embarrassing episode. For that he can thank the hated liberal media for doing the vetting he neglected when selecting Sarah Palin.

Christopher Brauchli is a lawyer in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at: Brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu

Now Available from CounterPunch Books!

The Inside Story of the Shannon Five's Smashing Victory Over the
Bush War Machine
By Harry Browne

Born Under a Bad Sky:
Notes from the Dark Side
of the Earth
By Jeffrey St. Clair

Buy End Times Now!

Click Here to Buy!

Click Here to Buy!

Click Here to Order!

Humanitarian Imperialism
By Jean Bricmont