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March 20, 2002
Lori Allen
Live
from Ramallah:
The Madness of Occupation
March
19, 2002
Tariq
Ali
Nuke
Iraq?
Phyllis
Pollack
Roger
Daltrey's LA Surprise
Amir Amahdi
War-Mongering
Academics:
The New Tartuffe
Ben White
Bomber
Blair
Fran Shor
Child-Murderers
and Madmen
March
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Crazy
is Cool
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
What's Playing At My House
Armen
Khanbabyan
The
Pentagon in the Caucasus:
Georgia Is Only the Beginning
Gabriel
Ash
Abdullah
v. Osama
Bernard
Weiner
Middle
East for Dummies
Alexander
Cockburn
Tipping
in America
March
17, 2002
David
Vest
The
Politics of Packaging
Tariq
Ali
The
Left's New Empire Loyalists
March
16, 2002
Chris
Floyd
Ashcroft's
Secret Snatches
March 15, 2002
Doron Rosenblum
Israel's Settler Warlords
Alex Lynch
Rhetorical
Attacks On Iraq
Norman Madarasz
Neo-Con Propaganda
and the National Review
Paul-Marie
de La Gorce
Making
Enemies
March
14, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
RIP
Danny Pearl
Francis
Boyle
Bush
Nuke Plan Violates International Law, Again
Wayne
Saunders
Memo
to Paul McCartney:
There Are Two Kinds
of Freedom, Sir
H.P. Albarelli
Anthrax
Cover-up?
March
13, 2002
Amira
Hass
Are
the Occupied Protecting the Occupier?
CounterPunch
Wire
National
Review Editors Suggest Nuking Mecca
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Personal
Responsibility
for Corporate Elites?
Robert
Fisk
Arabs
Don't Want US
to Strike Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
When
Billy Graham Wanted
to Kill One Million People
March
12, 2002
Kay Lee
Dangerous
Changes in
California's Prisons
John Patrick
Leary
The
Return of Otto Reich
Wole Akande
US
is Being Discredited
in the Eyes of Africa
March
11, 2002
Hani Shukrallah
This
is the Way the World Ends
Tommy
Ates
Bush's
New Nuke Policy:
Target Allies and Enemies
Lidia Andrusenko
The Great
Chicken War:
Bush v. Putin
Dave Marsh
10
CDs Playing On My Desk
John Chuckman
Footprints
in the Dust
Norman
Madarasz
Max
Steel in a Time of Chaos
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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This Explosive
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Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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March 20, 2002
Bullies
By Philip Farruggio
When I was a skinny little kid growing up in Brooklyn,
NY, we had two bullies in our neighborhood, terrorizing all the
skinny and chubby kids on our block. One day, as luck would have
it, the two bullies got "into it" with each other (a
rarity, cause bullies usually don't like to risk losing). Mixed
feelings went through us all as we watched them do battle. Though
it was nice seeing a little "payback" the grim realization
was that the "winner" would now have free reign to
terrorize us all.
Reading Jeffrey Toobin's well written
new book about the 2000 Florida presidential vote fiasco, "Too
Close To Call", one sees the parallels. This two party scam,
perpetuated on we "skinnys & chubbys" over two
hundred years ago, still goes on. Toobin documents how each corporate
candidate, using million dollar PR campaigns and legions of lawyers,
slugged it out through the courts and the media to see which
"bully" would prevail.
True progressive thinkers are now reduced
to voicing dissent through web sites and the (too) few independent
radio stations. The mainstream media has long ago been co-opted.
Famed muckracker George Seldes spent his entire adult life, spanning
the 1920's through the 1980's, fighting censorship. To quote
a NYC progressive talk show host (himself reduced to substitute
status) "They've redefined the Left in this country. What
is now labeled "Left" on the various news talk shows
was once called centrist LBJ Democrats - yet the right wing continues
to move further to the right".
You work for a living. You put in your
35-40 odd hours a week and you take home what, $300, $400, maybe
$800 if lucky? You sit opposite the boob tube and watch so called
"populist" broadcasters who earn that much in one hour.
Jerry Rivera, he of the "blowing kisses", switches
to corporate shark Fox News, and takes his act on the road to
"follow the bombs". You watch another Murdoch host,
"Mr. No Spin Zone, Billy O'Reilly". When he's not plugging
his best selling book, does O'Reilly ever speak of the issues
that the millions of "skinnys and chubbys" would really
like to see debated? Like, (duh) the need for the same "universal
health care" our elected officials get for free? Like, (duh)
the debate over whether we need to continually have money decide
who holds office? Ever hear discussions about "clean election
laws" (following the Maine model) or total public funding
of the electoral process? Why should one Supreme Court ruling
(Buckley vs. Valeo - 1976) continue to allow the wealthy to decide
who holds office? Anyone ever hear of a thing called a Constitutional
amendment? "Money is free speech" is an oxymoron -
think about it. Recently, the Enron "disgrace" has
been covered (covered up?) by the media. Yet, through the fine
columnist Molly Ivins, we find out that Enron's "big kahuna",
Ken Lay, and Enron itself had donated two million to GWB. Plus,
75% of current Senators and nearly half the House from both the
bully parties had received Enron cash as well - allowing "the
fox to continue guarding the chicken coop". Ya think the
Enron disgrace would have ever even occurred if we had banned
all private monies from politics?
Hello!! Its always been simply about
money. The bullies do their bullying because someone is providing
them - someone is paying off the bully to keep alive an elitist
agenda. Money buys power. Power provides money. When all our
little "skinny & chubby" victims begin to realize
that fact, perhaps we'll "cease, desist and resist".
We'll turn off the boob tube news and push aside the mainstream
press, seeking alternative information sources. We'll raise our
voices together shouting "enough is enough!". Cause,
as every schoolkid knows, a bully can't stand it when someone
with courage and determination stands up to him.
With the rare exception of the few "Republicrat"
progressives, vote "no" on election day for either
bully. Run for office as an independent and vote for progressive
independent candidates. Then we'll begin to get noticed - and
that's the first step. No bull.
Philip Farruggio,
son of a longshoreman, is "Blue Collar Brooklyn" born,
raised and educated (Brooklyn College, Class of '74). A former
progressive talk show host, Philip runs a mfg. rep. business
and writes for many publications. He lives in Port Orange, FL.
You can contact him at: brooklynphilly@aol.com.
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