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Today's
Stories
June
7, 2005
Greg
Moses / Susan van Haitsma
Pushing Back the Violence
Michael
Neumann
Sharing Music: Property Gone Wild
June
6, 2005
Stew
Albert
Everybody Must Get Busted: Supremes
Rule Against the Sick
Paul
Craig Roberts
Federal Bureau of Entrapment
Nicole
Colson
Inside Walter Reed Hospital
Ali
Khan
Friendly Renditions to Muslim Torture
Chambers
Jason
Leopold
When Will Rumsfeld Be Indicted?
Charles
Walker Poff
Rumsfeld, China and Hypocrisy
Ramzy
Baroud
My Grandpa's Right of Return
Rep.
John Conyers
Did Bush Deliberately Deceive America About Iraq?
Evelyn
Pringle
TeenScreen's Top Pusher
Gary
Corseri
25 Reasons to Impeach Bush
Website
of the Day
Save This 200 Year Old Burr Oak from Bible Thumpers with Chainsaws
June
4 / 5, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
France's Magnificent Non!
James
Petras
The Centrality of Peasant Movements
in Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Samir?
Patrick
Cockburn
My Father, Claud Cockburn, the MI5 Suspect
Rev.
William Alberts
When Pride in Power Corrupts: the Story of a Methodist President,
His Bishops and an "Incompatible" Lesbian Minister
Saul
Landau
40 Interns and a Mule: Will the Dems Ever Take Advantage of the
Republicans' Blunders?
Mario
Lamo Jimenez
Dante with a Brush: Botero Immortalizes Bush
Dave
Lindorff
What is the Media Running From?
Lance
Selfa
Why Bush is Getting Away with Murder
Tom
Crumpacker
On the Use of State Terrorism: the Posada Precedent
Joshua
Frank
How Beltway Dems Sank Dean for America
Fred
Gardner
Don't Bogart That Taxable Commodity
Michael
Dickinson
Roll Out the Barrel: Blood, Oil and Baku
Roger
Martin
We Can See, But Not Far Enough
Reza
Fiyouzat
Welcome to the Third World
Ben
Tripp
Romance: Advice from a Pro
Graeme
Greenback
Pardon Me, While I Piss on this Bible
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Albert, Engel, Smith
June
3, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
Welcome to a Has-Been Country
Joseph
Massad
Witch Hunt at Columbia
Jeff
Halper
The Process of Transfer Continues
Tom
Barry
The Immigration Debate: Whose Side Are You On?
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Bush Seeks Military Control of Space: "It's Our Destiny"
Joshua
Frank
Bombing Iran: Facts Don't Matter
Mickey
Z.
Deep Throat as Sideshow
Gary
Leupp
"Peddling Lies About How They
Were Mistreated"
Website
of the Day
Tattoo on My
Heart: Warriors of Wounded Knee, 1973
June
2, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Slave Traders of the Gitmo Gulag
Forrest
Hylton
Bolivia: the Agony of Stalemate
Mike
Whitney
Post-Mortem on the 4th Amendment: Warrants without Judges
Brian
Cloughley
Anarchy in Afghanistan; Ignorance in America
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
A Two-State Solution is No Solution
Russell
D. Hoffman
High Tension at San Onofre
Norman
Madarasz
"Le Jolie Mois de Mai": the Meaning of the French "Non"
Norman
Solomon
War Made Easy: from Vietnam to Iraq
David
Price
The Shallowness of Deep Throat
Website
of the Day
Fallujah on Film
June
1, 2005
James
Petras
Beyond Hypocrisy: the Deeper Meaning
of Posada
Justin
Delacour
Framing Venezuela: US Media Bias
Against Chavez
Edward
Jay Epstein
Was "Deep Throat" a Fictoid?
Omar
Barghouti / Lisa Taraki
The AUT Boycott: Freedom vs. "Academic"
Freedom
Dave
Lindorff
When War Goes Off the Script
Kevin
Zeese
Reality Check: Who to Believe on Iraq War and Gitmo?
Jason
Leopold
When Presidents Lie
William
S. Lind
Wreck It and Run
May
31, 2005
Sen.
Mike Gravel
Thank You, Mark Felt: We Need a New
Deep Throat
David
Krieger
US Nuclear Hypocrisy
Tad
Daley
The Nuclear Me-Too Club
Joshua
Frank
Pelosi at AIPAC: Israel Comes First
Richard
Gott
Chavez Leads the Way
Norman
Solomon
Time to Get Serious About Impeachment
Tom
Segev
Our Man in the Territories
Walter
Brasch
Killing Americans with Secrecy
Diana
Johnstone
The French "Non"
May
28 / 30, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
There's Their Way or the Galloway
Richard
Lichtman
We Wuz Framed! the Consolations
of George Lakoff
Sharon
Smith
The Road to Abu Ghraib
Paul
Craig Roberts
Bush Opts for Civil War in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Whigged Out: the Dems Have Become
Merely a Vestigial Opposition Party
Ramzy
Baroud
Muslims Were Desecrated, Not Just
Their Holy Book
Brian
Cloughley
Why Are Nukes OK for You, But Not for Us?
Fred
Gardner
Advice from a Lawyer About Medical Pot
Lee
Sustar
Chavez Gets Proactive
Joshua
Frank
Isikoff Comes Clean: "Nobody in the US Said a Word, Until
the Riots"
Justin
E.H. Smith
What About the People? a Report from Romania
Jackie
Corr
A Montana History Lesson on Assfulness
Michael
Kimaid
Bush as Ahab
Toufic
Haddad
Lessons from the Reversal of the AUC Boycott
Justin
Taylor
The Fear of Paul Virilio
Amir
Butler
Searching for a Saladin
Ben
Tripp
Insomnia and Sarcasm
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Engel, Davies and Louise
May
27, 2005
Gary
Leupp
It Really is a Crusade!
Daniel
Estulin
Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005
Kevin
Zeese
Iraq Withdrawal Vote: If Walter "Freedom
Fries" Jones Can See the Light, Why Can't Nancy Pelosi?
Robert
Fisk
Mubarak's Goon Squads
Dave
Zirin
Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer
Silent
Website
of the Day
Stuckists
May
26, 2005
Yuki
Tanaka
Firebombing and Atom Bombing
Ray
McGovern
Bolton, the Monomaniac Who Would Be Ambassador
Arthur
Mitzman
Agenda for a Sustainable Europe
Jack
Random
Afghanistan: the Forgotten Occupation
Britt
Bailey and Brian Tokar
Big Food Strikes Back
Rebecca
Rush
The New Banana Wars: Chiquita's Threat to the Caribbean Islands
Jorge
Mariscal
Santiago v. Rumsfeld
Paul
Craig Roberts
Uncovering a DOJ Cover-up: The Murder of Kenneth Trentadue
Website
of the Day
The F Word
May
25, 2005
Camilo
Mejia
Prisoners of Conscience
Dave
Lindorff
Brain Dead Democrats
William
S. Lind
Of Cabbages, Cessnas and Kings
Chris
Floyd
Tattoo Nation: Abu Ghraib as Normalcy
Brian
Cloughley
The Stench of "Progress": the Torture and the Lies
Continue
Lenni
Brenner
The Plot to Stigmatize My Book on Nazi-Zionist Collaboration
Sean
Cain
A Review of Naomi Klein's "The Take"
Karl
Shepard
Extinction, Kansas and "Intelligent Design"
John
Ross
Sweet Revenge at Terminal Island
Website
of the Day
SWARM the Minutemen
May 24, 2005
Dave
Zirin
Palestine's Big Visitor: Not Laura,
but Ronaldo
Michele
Bollinger
Criminalizing Abortion in S. Carolina: Why Did Gabriela Flores
Go to Jail?
Winslow
Wheeler
The Pork War
Uri
Avnery
Wagner at the Holocaust Memorial
Michael
Donnelly
Behind the Green(back) Curtain
Joshua
Frank
Chavez's Economy: Is It Sustainable?
Stephen
Dunifer
The Folly of Media Reform
Paul
Craig Roberts
Is Bush a Sith Lord?
May
23, 2005
Esther
Sassaman / Thomas Nagy
An Exclusive Interview with George Galloway
Mike
Whitney
Free Jose Padilla: Three Years
in Prison, Not a Shred of Evidence
Ramzy
Baroud
Fallout from a Forged War: Battling Windmills While Iraq Burns
Michael
Dickinson
Pictures at an Exhibition: Censoring the "Carnival of Chaos"
Walter
Brasch
In Praise of Bob Barr
Dick
J. Reavis
The Newsweek Scandal: an Unmentioned Detail
Maria
Tomchick
Galloway and the US Press
Norman
Solomon
Let's Play "Media Jeopardy"
Kevin
Zeese
Inventing a Pretext for War: an Inte4rview with James Bamford
Website
of the Day
Drawings of Darfur: Genocide Through Children's Eyes
May
21 / 22, 2005
David
H. Price
CIA Skullduggery in Academia
Gabriel
García Márquez
My Visit to the Clinton White House, Bearing a Message from Fidel
on Terrorism
Oren
Ben-Dor
To Create Academic Freedom in Israel,
a Boycott is Needed
Gary
Leupp
Nights in White House Satin with Jeff Gannon
Laith
al-Saud
An Anatomy of the Iraqi Resistance
Elaine
Cassel
Bush and the Angry God: Twilight of Secular Democracy in America?
Greg
Moses
The Saints of Mischief and Halliburton
Fred
Gardner
Martyring Dr. Carol Wolman
Dave
Lindorff
The GOP's Police State
Alan
Maass
Uzbekistan's Karimov: Bush's Favorite Terrorist?
William
Blum
The American Myth Industry
Tom
Crumpacker
Send Posada Carriles to Venezuela
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Newsweek: a Contest of Hypocrisies
Doug
Giebel
The Grand Illusion
Evelyn
J. Pringle
No Child Left Unmedicated: TeenScreen, State-drugging and Suicide
Carolyn
Baker
Spiritual Abuse by the Religious Right
Chris
Floyd
Justice in JebWorld
Frederick
B. Hudson
Black and Gay?: a Review of "Brother to Brother"
Ben
Tripp
Him Talk Plenty Long Time: Busting the Filibuster
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Engel and Louise
May
20, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Newsweek and White House Hypocrisy
Kevin
Zeese
As Insurgency Increases, New US Military
Recruits Fall
Paul
de Rooij
"Private": a Film in Search
of a Cliché
Christopher
Brauchli
How Insurance Companies Exploited 9/11
Mark
Engler
Triumph Over Debt?
Joshua
Frank
Bush to Dine with Porn Star
Robert
Jensen
TV Talk, No Evidence Required
Jeffery
R. Webber
Bolivia Erupts
May
19, 2005
Bill
Forman
An Interview with Alexander Cockburn
Stan
Goff
Hey, Democrats, Listen to Galloway and
Learn Something
Neve
Gordon
From Ghettos to Frontiers: What Will Happen After Israel Withdraws
from Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
The Trouble with Menwith: Tagging British Peace Activists
Karyn
Strickler
The Texas Nexus: How Racial and Political Gerrymandering United
Andrew
Freedman
Nazi Science at NIH
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Politics and Economics of Outsourcing
May
18, 2005
Jean
Bricmont
Vive La France?
Laura
Carlsen
Bush's Posada Carriles Quandry: an
Anti-Cuba Terrorist is Still a Terrorist
Mike
Whitney
The Secret Raids of Alberto Gonzales: 10,000 Swept Up
Joshua
Frank
Flushing the Koran: Why Newsweek Got It Right
George
Galloway
Thusly, I Humiliated Norm Coleman (and Christopher Hitchens)
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Writing Tickets for American War Crimes
Dwight
D. Eisenhower
How the GOP will Destroy Itself
Dave
Lindorff
The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act
Even Worse
May
17, 2005
Mickey
Z.
GIs Behaving Badly
Petuuche
Gilbert
The People of Acoma Still Fight to
be Free
Paul
Craig Roberts
Lies That Kill: Why Isn't Bush in
the Dock?
Ramzy
Baroud
The New Palestinian Uprising
Robert
Jensen / Pat Youngblood
Pinning the Blame on Newsweek
Stan
Cox
Poisoning Patancheru: the Severe Side Effects of India's Drug
Industry
Dave
Zirin
American Anthem: Ozzie Guillen and Fining for Freedom
Diana
Barahona
Reporters Without Borders Unmasked
Website
of the Day
Revolutionary Flower Pot Society
May
16, 2005
Michael
Gillespie
The Family Released a Statement:
Death Notices for the Warrior Theocracy
Jason
Leopold
BP Stains the Arctic
Jesse
Muldoon
How Many Schools Left Behind?
Norman
Solomon
Media and the War: "The Bombs in Iraq Explode at Home"
Robert
Cray
Twenty
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq is a Bloody No Man's Land
Website
of the Day
Bolton's Divorce Papers: She Took It All Away, Including Most
of the Furniture
May
14 / 15, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Join the 14 Per Cent Club!
Saul
Landau
Lessons from Vietnam: Wars Kill Empires as Well as People
Gary
Leupp
Whither Yale? Towards the Imperial University
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Glory that is Lockhart, Texas
Ben
Tripp
The Wayward Airplane: a Cautionary Tale
Brian
J. Foley
Was Jesus Gay?
Tom
Barry
Bolton the Eavesdropper
Mitchell
Verter
Barbarous Oaxaca: Indigenous Rights Groups Meet the "Law
of the Club"
Mike
Ferner
War on COs: Army Files Additional Charges Against Kevin Benderman
Dan
Smith
Perceiving Darfur
Mark
Scaramella
Death with Pitfalls
Don
Fitz
Mommy, Is This a Finger in My Rice Puffs?: Splicing Human DNA
into the Food Chain
Diane
Farsetta
PR Industry Imitates Big Tobacco: the Senate's "Fake News"
Hearings
Michael
Dickinson
Soldier Crawling: Military Conscription in Turkey
Ron
Jacobs
The Jackson State Murders
Fred
Gardner
"Hydroponics? Ridiculous!": A Real Farmer Looks at
Medical Marijuana
Farrah
Hassen
Far From Heaven: a Review of Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of
Heaven"
Douglas
Valentine
50 Cent's Plea
Poets'
Basement
Louise, Ford, Engel, & Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Military Base Closings and the South
May
13, 2005
Tom
Stephens
A Chronology of US War Crimes and Torture, 1975-2005
Patrick
Cockburn
"They Destroyed Everything"
Mike
Whitney
Tom Friedman, Imperial Chronicler
Chris
Floyd
Miami Vice: the Sleazy World of Jeb Bush
Jenna
Orkin
Ground Zero's Toxic Dust
Dave
Lindorff
Googling for Fun
Joshua
Frank
Yale Fires an Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar:
an Interview with David Graeber
Website
of the Day
Botero: Pinta El Horror de Abu Ghraib
May
12, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
America is Losing: More Phony Jobs
Hype
Uri
Avnery
Death of a Myth
Greg
Moses
Neo-Con Logic at the Border
Carolyn
Baker
The Politics of Dominionism: the New Religious Right in America
Pat
Williams
Amateurish High Jinks on Roadless Areas
William
S. Lind
Reality Gap: the Myth of US Invincibilty
Jack
Random
The Dubious Wisdom of George W. Bush
Gary
Leupp
Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg
May
11, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed
Chalabi: King of Jordan to Pardon His $300 Million Bank Swindle
Kevin
Zeese
The Occupation Gets More Saddam-like
Every Day
Christopher
Brauchli
Coffee, Tea or Torture?: A One Way Ticket to Uzbekistan
Zalman
Amit
The Collapse of Academic Freedom in
Israel: Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University
Robert
Shull
Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops:
Senate Gives DHS Power to Waive All Laws
Mike
Whitney
God, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw
Dr.
Teresa Whitehurst
Anti-Arabic Week at a Southern High School
Norman
Solomon
Political Bluster and the Filibuster
May
10, 2005
Richard
Drayton
The Imperial Mythology of WW II:
an Ethical Blank Check
Dave
Zirin
Steve Nash's Brilliant Year: Anti-War
Hoopster Wins NBA's MVP
Jackie
Corr
The Medicare Catch: Mrs. O'Hara's Windfall
Dave
Lindorff
Silence of the Scams: Economists
on China
Michael
Donnelly
From Roadless to Clueless: the Great
Stillborn Eco Victory
Reza
Fiyouzat
Nomadic Abstracts
Scott
Parkin
Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton
Stephen
Babcock
The Burden of Knowing Better
Alan
Farago
Florida, Water and Lobbyists
Michael
Neumann
Naomi's Courage
Website
of the Day
One Nation Under Plagiarism
May
9, 2005
Louis
Proyect
Shilling for Chevron: Jared Diamond,
Greenwasher
Robert
Fisk
"Mission Accomplished": the Occupation, Year Two
Kevin
Zeese
Concientious Objection on Trial: the Court Martial of Keith Benderman
Joshua
Frank
Kerry Bashes Gay Marriage
Sasha
Kramer
A Mother's Day Call for Justice in Haiti's Prisons
Andrew
Wimmer
Create and Resist
Jeffrey
Webber
Back to the Streets in Bolivia?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Straight to Bechtel
May
7 / 8, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Who Beat Hitler?
Gary
Leupp
Biblical Prophecy and Christian Zionism
Saul
Landau
Pope Torquemada: Purges, Pedophiles and Cover-Ups
Joe
DeRaymond
Autumn of the Revolutionary: Another Look at Daniel Ortega
Daniela
Ponce
Seeing Chile in Nepal
Heather
Williams
Hollywood Does Enron
Gregory
Elich
Zimbabwe's Fight for Justice
Anis
Memon
To Cuba and Back
John
Chuckman
The Peculiar State: "Criticism of Israel is a Form of Anti-Semitism"
Mike
Whitney
Hard Right Rage Against the Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Re-Reading "Born on the Fourth of July" as the Iraq
War Grinds On
Colin
Kalmbacher
Whither Disorder? Ann Coulter and the Texas Police State, Cont.
Lance
Selfa
Uprising in Mexico City
Fred
Gardner
"Getting High is a Little Like Cuba"
Ben
Tripp
Letters on Wittgenstein
Mickey
Z.
The Mother of All Days
Richard
Joseph
Those Patriotic Magnets
Dr.
Susan Block
Come As You Are: Masturbation 101
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Louise, Nettnin, Engel and Albert
May
6, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad Diary: a Week of Bombs and
Blood
Erin
Yoshioka
Another "3 Strikes" Travesty:
Why is Santo Reyes Facing Life in Prison?
Sam
Husseini
Talking with Syrians
Dave
Lindorff
Ernie Pyle Where Are You? When Reporters were Reporters
Kevin
Zeese
Circus Trials of Abu Ghraib: When Even the Fall Girl Can't Plead
Guilty
Joshua
Frank
An Overextended US Military? It Won't Stop Another War
Dan
Bacher
Tribes and Salmon Win One: Bush Backs Off Trinity River Water
Raid
P.
Sainath
India's Bloody Water Wars
May
5, 2005
Carles
Mutaner
Is Chavez's Venezuela "Socialist"
or "Populist?"
Carl
G. Estabrook
Is There Any Hope for the Pope?
Farrah
Hassen
The US's Syrian Obsession
Kevin
Zeese
"Sent Into Combat Unequipped and Unprepared": an Interview
with Patrick Resta
Michael
Leonardi
May Day with an American Soldier in Rome
Bennett
Ramberg
The Future of Nuclear Terror: Coming to a Reactor Near You
Ray
McGovern
The Smoking Gun on White House Deceit
Norman
Solomon
Nuclear Fundamentalism, the New York Times and Iran
Nicole
Colson
The Back Alley Attack on Abortion Rights
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Clearing the Fences in Haiti
May
4, 2005
Colin
Kalmbacher
Ann Coulter and the Police State:
Heckle a Racist, Get Arrested
John
Walsh
Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony: Lying
on Air America to Support the War
Greg
Moses
Vigilante Wedge: Schwarzenegger Reprises
"Birth of a Nation"
Ali
Khan
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Poised to Fall Apart
Chris
Floyd
Ring Them Bells
Linda
S. Heard
D-Day for Tony Blair: Bogeymen and Scare Tactics
Dave
Zirin
The NFL, Congress and the Male Cheerleader Principle
William
S. Lind
Fool's Paradise
Gary
Leupp
Bolton's Proudest Moment: Breaking
the UN's Anti-Zionist Resolution
Website
of the Day
Kent State, May 4, 1970
May
3, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Bush has Grasped the Third Rail,
Now Turn on the Juice
Brian
Cloughley
Halliburton's War Loot
Ira
Kurzban
Death Squad Diplomacy: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers
Seth
Sandronsky
Towards Debtors' Prisons?
Gilad
Atzmon
The Labour Party Isn't an Option Any More
Michael
Donnelly
Branding Eco Collapse
Alex
Sanchez
Chile's Man at the OAS: a Blow to Bush?
Peter
Linebaugh
Magna Carta and May Day
May
2, 2005
Ron
Jacobs
Toward an Anti-Imperialist Movement
Stan
Goff
The Case of Hasan Akbar
Karyn
Strickler
Achieving Gender Balance in US Politics
Joshua
Frank
Leaked UK Memo Indict's Blair's Iraq Folly
Kevin
Zeese
Getting Out of Iraq will Prove Tougher Than Getting Out of Vietnam
Vicente
Navarro
Pope Benedict: a Rightwing Politician
April
30 / May 1, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie and
"Credibility"
Gabriel
Kolko
Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End
of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Later
Jennifer
Loewenstein
The Disengaged: Gaza and the Fragmentation of Palestinian Nationhood
Lee
Sustar
City for Sale: Richard Daley's Chicago
Saul
Landau
The Bush-DeLay Axis of Naked Power
T.W.
Croft
The Undiscovered Country: the High Tide of the Neo-Con Confederacy
Nikolas
Kozloff
Fox News v. Hugo Chavez
William
Blum
Never-Ending Double Standards
Dave
Lindorff
Judicial Jury Tampering in Philly
Joshua
Frank
The Bi-Partisan Assault on Teenage Girls
Doug
Giebel
Saving Jane Fonda
Steven
Erlanger
A Response to Kathy Christison, from the NYT Jerusalem Bureau
Chief
Fred
Gardner
Washington State Doctor Harassed
Mike
Whitney
Another Mad Bush Press Conference
Kurt
Nimmo
Putin Pussyfoots in Palestine
Joe
DeRaymond
A Short History of the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Michael
Dickinson
Flags
Mickey
Z.
May Day at Yankee Stadium
Justin
Taylor
The Crawling Chaos: HP Lovecraft's Polymorphous Legacy
Poets
Basement
Krieger, Engel, Albert, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Save Barbados's Cowpastor
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.
|
June 7, 2005
God's Bomber Pilots-in-Training
James
Madison on the Air Force Academy's Official Fanatics
By
LENNI BRENNER
By now, CounterPunch's American readers,
at least, are becoming familiar with the scandal at the Air Force
Academy. Lt. General John Rosa has admitted that the institution
is a pious madhouse. "I have problems in my cadet wing ...
I have issues in my staff, and I have issues in my faculty --
and that's my whole organization."
His born-again No. 2 commander
sent out emails promoing the National Day of Prayer. Evangelical
cadets harass atheists & Jews. And chaplain MeLinda Morton
was suddenly transferred to Japan after she denounced the fanatics.
Congressional Democrats naturally
use this to hit at Bush. But party leaders relentlessly compete
with the GOP for right-wing Christian votes. The party's secularists,
atheists, feminists, gays, scientists & such, & its Jewish
contingent, will take the issue only so far. They want an ecumenical
Academy, like the Army's West Point, when the real 1st Amendment
question is whether there should be any kind of official US government
clergy?
There are several standards
by which we may judge contemporary liberals. One tradition compares
our creatures with the founders of their party. If we could scroll
them up to our times, what would they be saying about the  scandal?
In this case we don't have
to speculate. James Madison was the mainstay of the constitutional
convention, which came up with Article VI: "No religious
test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office
or public trust under the United States." He authored the
1st Amendment, with its "Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof." In retirement, post 1817, he wrote directly on
military chaplains in his Detatched Memoranda.
If we list important documents
in the history of religion, certainly Article VI & his 1st
Amendment rank up there with the Bible & Luther's 95 Thesis
for social centrality. Given his authority, it would be thought
that the memo would be on the bookshelf of every literate American.
But it remains unknown to the great majority of voters, clergy,
politicians, media pundits & lawyers.
This singular ignorance had
an innocent enuf cause. In 1856, Congress authorized William
Rives, Madison's historian friend, to publish his papers. Eventually
the memo was misplaced in Rives' personal papers. It was recovered
in 1946 by Elizabeth Fleet, working on a biography of Rives,
& published in the 10/46 issue of The William and Mary Quarterly.
There is no doubt of its authenticity
& it has been cited by the Supreme Court. But its discovery
came just as Democrat Harry Truman was trying to build a world
religious alliance against the atheist Soviet Union. Madison's
party & government paid not the slightest attention to the
memo & went on doing Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad &
Ganesh the elephant god's sacred work.
Several pages deal with religion.
Among other things, Madison asks, "Is the appointment of
Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution,
and with the pure principle of religious freedom?" He answers
his question:
"In strictness the answer
on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the
U. S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national
religion. The law appointing Chaplains establishes a religious
worship for the national representatives, to be performed by
Ministers of religion, elected by a majority of them; and these
are to be paid out of the national taxes. Does not this involve
the principle of a national establishment, applicable to a provision
for a religious worship for the Constituent as well as of the
representative Body, approved by the majority, and conducted
by Ministers of religion paid by the entire nation.
"The establishment of
the chaplainship to Congs is a palpable violation of equal rights,
as well as of Constitutional principles."
He had been against Congress
appointing chaplains. But, now that it was done,
"Rather than let this
step beyond the landmarks of power have the effect of a legitimate
precedent, it will be better to apply to it the legal aphorism
de minimis non curat lex [the law doesn't care about minute things]:
or to class it cum "maculis quas aut incuria fudit, aut
humana parum cavit natura." [with "the stains which
either negligence has poured out or which human nature could
hardly anticipate."]
Then he takes his argument
to a singularly contemporary conclusion. Read him & there
is no doubt as to how he would solve the AF Academy's problem.
As Madison on separation of church & state is, as they say
in show biz, a hard act to follow, I allow myself a preliminary
note. Then readers can draw their own conclusions re Madison's
message for us & future generations.
The broad public's notion of
evolution goes upward & onward. The offspring of oceanic
creatures eventually climb onto land, grow legs, learn to talk,
write, until we get to the internet, etc. Progress. But if we
use America's greatest constitutionalist's thinking as the classical
standard, it is obvious that both of his creations, the United
States & the Democratic Party, have degenerated to the point
of no return. No Democrat, or Republican, for that matter, is
going to get up in Congress & speak as he would speak. Indeed,
unless we can generate public attention to his memo, no Congressional
Democrat will even dare to quote it.
In biology, evolution has been,
loosely, upward. But in politics evolution is usually downward.
***
Better also to disarm in the
same way, the precedent of Chaplainships for the army and navy,
than erect them into a political authority in matters of religion.
The object of this establishment is seducing; the motive to it
is laudable. But is it not safer to adhere to a right principle,
and trust to its consequences, than confide in the reasoning
however specious in favor of a wrong one. Look thro' the armies
& navies of the world, and say whether in the appointment
of their ministers of religion, the spiritual interest of the
flocks or the temporal interest of the Shepherds, be most in
view: whether here, as elsewhere the political care of religion
is not a nominal more than a real aid. If the spirit of armies
be devout, the spirit out of the armies will never be less so;
and a failure of religious instruction &, exhortation from
a voluntary source within or without, will rarely happen: if
such be not the spirit of armies, the official services of their
Teachers are not likely to produce it. It is more likely to flow
from the labours of a spontaneous zeal. The armies of the Puritans
had their appointed Chaplains; but without these there would
have been no lack of public devotion in that devout age.
The case of navies with insulated
crews may be less within the scope of these reflections. But
it is not entirely so. The chance of a devout officer, might
be of as much worth to religion, as the service of an ordinary
chaplain. [were it admitted that religion has a real interest
in the latter.] But we are always to keep in mind that it is
safer to trust the consequences of a right principle, than reasonings
in support of a bad one.
Lenni Brenner is the editor of Jefferson
& Madison on Separation of Church and State: Writings on
Religion and Secularism and a contributor to The
Politics of Anti-Semitism. He also edited 51
Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis.
Brenner can be reached at BrennerL21@aol.com.
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