How
the Press & the CIA
Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 31,
2004
Farrah Hassen
The
Palestinian Right of Return: a View from Syria
Dave Lindorff
US Air's Bold New Idea: Work for Your Boss for Free!
George Capaccio
Tsunami Hits Iraq
Mike Whitney
Iraq v. Tsunami: Media Duplicity
Peter Phillips
The Tsunami and the Corporate Media: Waves of Hypocrisy
Christopher
Deliso
War
and the Tsunami: Putting It in Perspective
December 30,
2004
Lila Rajiva
Unnatural
Disaster? Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Testing
Robert Fisk
The
Ghosts of Vietnam
Roger Burbach
Argentina
v. the IMF
Stan Cox
9/11 and 12/26: How to React
Walter Brasch
Bush and Tsunamis: Heartless in Crawford
Christopher Brauchli
Empire of the Misers
Alexandra Spieldoch
NAFTA Through a Gender Lens: "Free Trade" Pacts and
Women
Paul Kincaid Jameison
Grief, Relief and the Stingy West
Dan Bacher
The Water Kings of California
Paul Craig
Roberts
Unbecoming
Conduct
December 29,
2004
Dave Lindorff
Us,
Stingy?: It's All Relative
M. Shahid Alam
America
and Islam: Seeking Parallels
Ronald D. Hoffman
Tsunamis
and Nuclear Power Plants
Sam Bahour
/ Todd May
Elections
Without Democracy
Fred Gardner
Ricky Does 60 Minutes
Ali Khan
Who's Feeding the Bin Laden Legend?
John Hansen
Family Farms Are Being Fed to Corporate Sharks
Sam Lewin
How the Justice Department Continues to Screw the Sioux
Richard Oxman
As Time Goes By With Andy Goldsworthy
Mickey Z.
A Wave of Questions: Putting a Disaster in Context
Website of the Day
Banking While Muslim
December 28,
2004
Brian Cloughley
The
Chief Weirdo at the Pentagon: Rumsfeld Must Go
Joshua Frank
Privacy Piracy? What Howard Dean May Bring to the DNC
Jessica Leight
The
Chilean Miracle: Less Than Meets the Eye
Dave Lindorff
A
Shameful Response to Disaster
John Walsh
Disappearing the Anti-War Movement at the NYTs
Dave Zirin
The Death of Reggie White: an Off the Field Obituary
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Be Careful Not to Get Too Much Education: It's Happened to a
Lot of Good Christians
Ron Jacobs
Iran
2004: The Resistance and the Western Anti-War Movement
December 27,
2004
M. Junaid Alam
"Civilization
v. Barbarism": an Interview with Noam Chomsky
Michael Donnelly
Greens and Greenbacks: How Nonprofit Careerism Derailed the "Revolution"
Greg Moses
Texas Election Scandal: Forty Faxes and a Whisper
Toni Solo
Colombia's Appalling Vista: Justice With Eyes Wide Open
Brian Kwoba
Blaming the Victims of the 2004 Elections
Genna Goodman-Campbell
Honduras Validates Its Banana Republic Status, Again
Mike Whitney
Disappearing Act: Fallujah and the Media
Ari Shavit
"Zionism Has Exhausted Itself": an Interview with Amos
Elon
Richard Oxman
Reflections on a Handful of Activists
Saul Landau
James
Cason's Cuban Delusions
December 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Yup,
It's Moral Outrage Time
Diane Christian
The Christmas Christ
Dr. Susan Block
Faith-Based Sex
Gary Leupp
Rumsfeld, His Critics and the Draft
Ron Jacobs
Music in Wartime
Elaine Cassel
Articles I Didn't Write
Jim Minick
Beyond Organic
Poets Basement
Louise, Landau, Orloski, Albert
and Collins
December 24,
2004
Diane Christian
Winning:
Rummy and John Milton
Chad Nagle
Ukraine's
Real Underdog
Saul Landau
My Friend Richard Barnet
Greg Moses
Ramsey Muniz Speaks
Joe DeRaymond
The Endless War in Colombia: a View From Within
Borzou Daragahi
Iraq's Christians: Tolerated by Saddam; Targets Under Occupation
Mike Whitney
Rummy's Quagmire of Lies
Francis A. Boyle
O Little Town of Bethlehem: Another Christmas Under Occupation
William Loren
Katz
Florida 1837: Christmas Eve Resistance to the First US Occupation
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
December 20,
2004
Gary Leupp
Japan
in Iraq
Robert Fisk
An
Army Without Compassion
Uri Avnery
The Mountain and the Mouse
Francisco Letelier
My Case Against Pinochet
Patrick Cockburn
The Polls of Fear
Bill Conroy
Charles Bowden on the Legacy of Gary Webb: "He Drew Blood"
Yoshie Furuhashi
Chokeholds of a Giant: Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain
David Swanson
Media Blackout of Bush's War on Labor
Chad Nagle
Did Yushchenko Poison Himself?
December 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
They Hated Gary Webb
Saul Landau
Gen.
Pinochet Should Also Face Charges in DC
Patrick Cockburn
Losing
Mosul: Once They Called It a Model for the Occupation
Douglas Valentine
Wolves
and Revolution in Venezuela: a Caracas Romance
Ray McGovern
Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear: the New China / Russia Alliance
Fred Gardner
DEA Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly
Jean-Guy Allard
Locked Up Naked in a Hole Within a Hole: Have the Cuban 5 Been
Tortured in US Prisons?
Ron Jacobs
Drifters Escape, Again: Encounters with Berkeley's Police
Raymond G.
Helmick, S.J.
The Law and Peace in the Middle East
Sean Sellers
Values Voters, Desperate Housewives and Sweatshop Tacos
Lee Sustar
Christmas
on the Picket Line at CNH: "They Want to Break Our Unions"
Richard Thieme
Webb's Wife: "Gary Was Never the Same After They Attacked
Him"
Sam Bahour
WANTED:
Middle East Negotiator
Joshua Frank
The
Spin Doctor: an Interview with Mickey Z.
Dave Lindorff
A Man Who Confers with God Should Have Good Hearing
Stan Cox
What Kids Cost: Dallas v. Delhi
Chris Frasier
Farming By Numbers: More Poets, Fewer MBAs
Poets' Basement
Katz, Melek, Harley, Albert and Ford
December
17, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
CounterAttack:
How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Dave Lindorff
Racism:
Philly Style
Dan Bacher
Bush Abandons Salmon Restoration
Marisa Jacott
NAFTA and the Environment: Trade Still Runs Roughshod
Francis Thicke
How Now, Industrial Cow?
Rupert Cornwell
The Inuit Strike Back
Website of the Day
Franz Boas Unrolls Over in His Grave
December
16, 2004
Michael
Neumann
How We Became Barbarians
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Ralph Nader
Gabriel
Espinoza Gonzales
The Dubious Career of John Bolton
Christopher
Brauchli
Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer
Patrick
Cockburn
Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali"
on Trial
Mike
Whitney
Gearing Up for a Draft?
Walter
Brasch
Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics
Bill
Conroy
How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI
Website
of the Day
Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb
December
15, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Baha Mousa?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Monster Under the Bed
Heather
Gray
Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony
Dave
Lindorff
The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections
Luis
Hernandez Navarro
To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee
in Mexico and Central America
Joshua
Frank
The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy"
Greg
Moses
Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio?
George
Caffentzis
The Petroleum Commons
December
14, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections
Larry
Birns / Seth DeLong
Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying
Anything
Richard
Thieme
My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and
That's What Kept Me Going"
Patrick
Cockburn
A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq
is Getting Worse
Chris
Floyd
Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's
America
Akiva
Eldar
A One-time Hanukkah Miracle
Burbach
/ Cantor
The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger
and the Teflon Tyrant
December
13, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed
by the CIA's Claque
David
Phinney
"Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid
Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality
for Douglas Feith
M.
Junaid Alam
The War is the War Crime
Robert
Jensen
The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing
Richard
Oxman
Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left
Greg
Moses
Send No Messengers of Defeat
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
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Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
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Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
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Craig Roberts
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November
25, 2004
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Loren Katz
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Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
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Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
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Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
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Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
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Barahona
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John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
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St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
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November
23, 2004
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Bush and Uribe at the Beach
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22, 2004
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Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
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Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
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Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
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Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
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Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
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Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
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Burbach
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Mishandling Nader
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After Arafat
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Weekend Edition
January 15 / 16, 2005
Slip Sliding Away
La
Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old
By
JOHN CALLENDER
The son came home some days ago with
news that an hour or so earlier a mud slide had buried some twenty
homes in La Conchita, the tiny beach community about five miles
down the road from the somewhat larger beach community of Carpinteria
("Carp" to locals) where I live. At that time there
was one confirmed death and a dozen or so people known to be
missing, and rescuers were working to try to recover survivors.
I know people who live in
La Conchita; everyone in Carp does. There was another big slide
there back in 1995, and property values for homes near the slide
plummeted. A friend of my daughter's lived in one of those houses,
and I took Julia to a birthday party at his house a few years
ago, and talked with his parents about the financial difficulty
the situation had put them in. This was several years after the
slide, and some of the homes that had been damaged were still
in bad shape, their owners and the banks who held the mortgages
unwilling to put money into a property that was essentially worthless,
given the risk of a big rain bringing a mountain of mud down
upon it.
My daughter's friend's family
eventually walked away from that house, defaulting on their loan.
Eventually, though, they were able to get some help from relatives
in securing a loan to buy another house just a few blocks away
from us here in Carp. In looking at a local news stations' map
of where yesterday's slide went, I think that was one of the
smartest things they ever did. I don't think their old house
is there anymore.
An outsider, someone for whom
La Conchita isn't actually "here," or even "there,"
but is "way over there," might be inclined to observe
that the people in the path of that mudslide should have known
better, that they're somehow undeserving of sympathy. A similar
sort of moral distance allows people like Michael Williams to
observe of the tsunami that it merely doubled the global death
toll for a single day.
The local always looms larger
than the global. I've recently begun doing some rides with my
daughter, as a way to help her get in shape for an upcoming school
backpacking trip. And so we were out biking on the last day of
the year, enjoying a brief break in the rain we'd been having
(and continue to have). And because we were going kind of slow,
I was sightseeing more than I usually would, and on a fairly
isolated stretch of Casitas Pass Road I happened to glance down
a driveway, to where there's a concrete crossing over Carpinteria
Creek.
And there was a car in the
middle of the creek.
Normally the crossing only
has a few inches of water flowing over it, and the people who
live in the farms on the far side can drive over and back with
no problem. But at this point, with all the rain we'd been having,
there was easily three feet of fast-moving water. The car had
been pushed sideways off the crossing, such that its back end
was down in the deeper water on the downstream side, with the
front of the car facing upstream, sticking up out of the creek
with water rushing by on either side.
And I thought, huh. That's
something you don't see every day. Someone must have gotten stuck
trying to cross, and had to abandon his car there. And since
I wasn't pushing myself hard, just having a leisurely ride with
Julia, I thought I'd stop and take a look. So I leaned my bike
against a fencepost and walked down toward the creek.
And that's when I realized
that the car hadn't been abandoned. A man (I judged him to be
about 60 at the time, but learned later he was 82, named Lorenzo
Dall'Armi ) was standing, his body half out of the open passenger-side
door, looking at the water tumbling by on either side.
I shouted, "Are you okay?"
Which I realize was kind of a dumb question. He obviously wasn't
injured. But there was no way for him to reach the shore on either
side; he was a good 15 feet from my side of the creek, and 10
feet from the far side, and not only was the water rushing by
him at about 35 miles per hour, but immediately downstream of
him was a nasty-looking rapids, with lots of whitewater and boulders
and foam.
He just looked back at me
and shrugged, helpless. He looked embarrassed, and maybe a little
scared. But mostly he just looked really, really annoyed with
himself. I found out later that when I arrived he'd been stuck
there for about 10 minutes, kicking himself mentally over his
decision to try to cross the stream, and trying, and failing,
to come up with a plan for what to do next.
I stared back at him for a
few seconds, and as I was doing so, Julia walked up beside me.
"Wow," she said.
There didn't seem to be anything
else to do, so I opened up my fanny pack and took out my cellphone.
"I'm going to call 911!" I shouted at the man. I wasn't
sure he could hear me (the water was really loud), but he could
see what I was doing.
A few seconds later I was
talking to the 911 operator. Having worked my way through college
as a police dispatcher, and later as a training coordinator for
the student-run Community Service Officer program, I'm pained
by the memory of how badly I described my location. I was on
Casitas Pass Road, but I thought I was actually on Foothill (the
name the road acquires a few miles west of there). So there were
a few minutes of confusion as I attempted to describe to the
operator where I was, and she told me that the cross streets
I was giving her, and the number I eventually read to her off
a nearby mailbox, weren't coming up on her system.
I was somewhat the victim
of Carp localism here. To anyone from Carp, I could say, "I'm
right next to the Lion's Club picnic ground, by the Forest Service
station" (which I did say to her, a couple of times), and
they'd know exactly where I was. But the 911 operator wasn't
from Carp.
We went back and forth like
this for what seemed like a long time, but it was probably only
a couple of minutes. During this time, a man in his twenties,
a Latino who spoke no English, walked up beside us; apparently
he'd been riding by on his own bike. The man stuck in the creek
climbed back inside his car and closed the passenger-side door.
The 911 operator asked me some more questions (I don't know
what kind of car it is; it'll be the one in the middle of
the creek, I wanted to say, but I stuck with my training
and just answered her by saying it was a white, four-door sedan).
It was hard to hear what she was saying, what with all the water
noise, so I had my finger jammed in my other ear, and was having
to ask her to repeat herself, and was standing there, nodding
and yelling into the phone, not really paying attention to the
scene in front of me.
And then the car suddenly
fell back off the crossing, and became almost completely submerged,
with tons of water pounding onto its hood, its windshield, its
roof.
Up to that point I'd been
feeling pretty calm. The situation had seemed more or less under
control. Eventually I'd be able to explain where I was, the Fire
Department would come, and everything would be fine. But now,
suddenly, things were very much not okay. The car was
under the water. The man was inside the car, which
probably was rapidly filling up. He was quite possibly trapped
in there, prevented from opening the doors by the force of the
water rushing past.
"The car's fallen down
into the creek!" I shouted into the phone. "It's mostly
underwater, and it's really getting pounded!"
I thrust the cellphone into
Julia's hands. "Stay on the phone with them," I told
her. "Answer their questions. Do what they say." Without
waiting for her response, I started scrambling down the bank
of the creek, working my way downstream to just below where the
car was.
There was no way to reach
it. Oh, I could have tried jumping in upstream, and might have
been able to get swept into it, if I was lucky. But I would just
have bounced off it. The water was too strong.
Looking downstream, I could
see that the water slowed some. If the man could get himself
out of the car, he was going to be swept down through there.
I'm a lifelong sailor, and a strong swimmer, but that water was
nasty-looking. I needed something I could use to reach him. A
stick, maybe.
The Latino guy was standing
next to me, and I babbled at him in English, my 7th-grade Spanish
forgotten. "A stick," I said, gesturing. "We need
a big stick!" I scrambled up the bank, and found a dead
sapling that looked like it might be long enough. I broke it
off, jumped back down next to the water and started stripping
off branches.
A few seconds later the Latino
guy jumped down next to me with his own stick. It was longer,
and a bit stronger-looking.
We were both watching the car for any signs of movement. After
a very long ten or fifteen seconds, the passenger door, which
was slightly sheltered from the current by the angle of the car,
started to open, and suddenly the man was out, being tumbled
down the creek. We held our sticks out as far as we could, but
they weren't long enough; he was swept past them in an instant.
And he went under. I was thinking
to myself, okay; this is the part of the reality show where the
announcer cuts to the commercial, teasing viewers with the comment
that for the people caught up in the events of that day, things
were about to take a tragic turn for the worse. Because I was
thinking to myself, very rapidly, what's going to happen if I
jump into the creek to try to help him?
I still had my bike helmet
on, my shoes, and my biking gloves. I figured those would be
good for a certain amount of protection. But I also knew that
for me to enter the water was an extremely risky proposition,
one that threatened to make the situation worse, not better.
I had to make the right decision, and I had to make it fast.
What I thought at that moment was, well, if he looks like he's
doing okay on his own, I shouldn't jump in. It should very much
be a last resort.
While I was thinking this,
his head popped up again. The current was carrying him toward
the far side of the creek, where there was an eddy of slower
water, and just as I thought he was going to reach the shore,
he went under again, disappearing from view.
I said to myself, the water's
slower here. I've got a pretty good chance of getting in, and
across the creek to his vicinity, without injuring myself. And
I was screwing myself up to do that, ticking down the last few
seconds before making what I knew would be an irrevocable decision,
when his head came up again, right next to the far shore, and
he reached out and grabbed a boulder, and managed to haul himself
halfway out of the water.
He lay there, face down, hugging
the boulder, his chest heaving. I shouted across to him, "Are
you okay?" but he either couldn't hear or was too exhausted
to respond (in retrospect, probably both).
We still couldn't reach him,
but at least he appeared to be out of immediate danger. After
a few minutes he managed to crawl a little further up the bank,
such that he was completely out of the water. Julia, working
her way down toward our position, shouted that the Fire Department
was on the way, and a few minutes later we started to hear the
sound of a helicopter, followed quickly by sirens.
And I was standing there,
looking at the man, and looking upstream at the little bit of
his car that was still visible, thinking about what I'd tell
the rescue people when they arrived, and I realized that I didn't
know for sure that the man had been alone in the car. I hadn't
seen anyone else when I'd first arrived, but I hadn't really
been looking for anyone else.
At this point the first few
authorities started to arrive. I actually don't remember who
was first on the scene; over the next few minutes the near bank
filled up with a large assortment of county sheriffs, firefighters,
paramedics, ambulance drivers, and, surprisingly quickly, a local
reporter and cameraman from the Santa Barbara TV station. I gave
the first person to arrive (I think it was a sheriff) a quick
summary of the situation, including the fact that I believed,
but wasn't sure, that there was no one else in the car. We tried
shouting across the creek to the man to confirm that, but although
he was now sitting up and looking at us, he couldn't understand
us over the sound of the creek, especially when the rescue helicopter
arrived and started circling overhead.
A few minutes later, as the
first authorities to arrive had moved back up the creek to the
crossing to coordinate the efforts to travel around to the other
side and reach the man, and the helicopter had momentarily moved
off, I took advantage of the lull to cup my hands around my mouth
and shout at the man as loud as I could, "Was there anybody
else besides.. you in the car?" And you know, I'm kind of
a quiet person normally and it was really very frustrating to
want to make more noise, and be unable to do so. But he finally
was able to hear me, and he shouted back, "You want to know
if anyone else was in the car?" and I nodded, and he shook
his head and shouted, "No." And I pointed back at him
and shouted, "Just you, right?" and he nodded back
to me.
So as the influx of sheriffs
and paramedics and whatnot continued, I was able to tell the
next guy to come down the creek bank that I had managed
to communicate with the man, and that he'd confirmed there was
no one else in the car.
The in-charge-seeming guy
I told this to gave me his complete, undivided attention for
a few seconds. He wanted to make sure that I really had heard
the man say that, and that he'd seemed rational when he said
it, and that there was no possibility of confusion or misunderstanding.
And I was able to assure him that I had, and he had, and there
wasn't. At which point the level of tension on our side of the
creek visibly eased. People were still working hard and doing
their jobs, but it became more methodical, with less running
and shouting going on. So I felt good about being able to help
out by letting the rescuers know that no, they didn't need to
try to figure out a way to get to the car right away.
It took a surprisingly long
time for them to reach the man. They had to go around a fair
distance to a bridge upstream, and then through an adjoining
ranch, and eventually down a steep embankment to his location.
Julia and I remained on the scene until they reached him, and
began strapping him into a litter for hoisting back up and out.
During that time I was interviewed by the aforementioned local
cameraman and reporter, with the latter snapping a photo of Julia
and me, and later writing up his account of the event in the
local paper.
Small town that Carp is, it
turns out that we know somebody (actually, a couple of different
somebodies) who know the man, whose name is Lorenzo Dell'Armi,
and after a few days we got in touch with each other, and last
Sunday Julia and I had breakfast with him, along with his wife
and one of his daughters, at a local breakfast place. It was
great to meet him in person, and chat with him without the need
to shout over rushing water. He's a really nice guy, and I'm
very happy that I was able to help him out, even if the extent
of my help was mostly just punching three numbers on my cellphone
and answering (ineptly) the questions the operator asked me.
He paid for our breakfast, and gave us a very nice gift certificate
to a local restaurant, and Julia gave him a pretty drawing that
she'd made for him of some flowers.
Anyway, that story's pretty
much old news now, even in Carp, what with the events at La
Conchita. But it was a big deal to me, and I'm sure I'll always
remember it. I like living in a small community. People are at
their best, some ways, when they're relating to each other as
individuals, helping each other out, sharing life's joys and
troubles. You can only comprehend so much of the human dimension
when a disaster strikes far away. But it becomes more real, more
significant, when it happens closer to you. Or when it happens
very close indeed.
John Callender can be reached at cjsurfs@bellsouth.net
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