|
|
Calling All CounterPunchers!
|
home / subscribe / donate / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
Calling All CounterPunchers!
Annual Fundraising AppealWe interrupt your regular reading habits to bring you the following important announcement: CounterPunch needs your financial support!
We're not in the habit of making idle threats and this isn't one. Either we meet our fundraising goal of $75,000 over the next three weeks or we'll be forced to drastically curtail the operation of our website. It's near the end of our year and the wolves are gathering at the door.CounterPunch's website is supported almost entirely by subscribers to the print edition of our newsletter. We don't clutter the site by selling annoying popup ads. We tried getting money out of Google, but they gave us the boot. We aren't on the receiving end of six-figure grants from big foundations. George Soros doesn't have us on retainer. And we don't sell tickets on cruiseliners.
The continued existence of CounterPunch depends solely on the support and dedication of our readers. And we know there are a lot of you. We get thousands of emails from you every day. Our website receives millions of hits and nearly 100,000 readers each day-and those numbers grow by the month. Of course, all these readers chew up a lot of bandwidth and that costs money.
Through the Iraq war, the daily traumas of the Bush administration, hurricanes, fires, the loss of Habeas Corpus, the bailout of Wall Street and the betrayals of the Democrats, many of you have found a refuge at CounterPunch and made us your homepage. You tell us that you love CounterPunch because the quality of writing you find here every day and because we never flinch under fire. We appreciate the support and are prepared for the fierce battles to come. And, if Obama manages win the Presidency, you know that CounterPunch--almost alone on the Left--will hold Obama and the Democrats to account.
Unlike many other outfits, we don't hit you up for money every month ... or even every quarter, like our friends at Antiwar.com. We only ask for your support once a year. But when we ask, we mean it. Please, use our secure server make a tax-deductible donation to CounterPunch today or purchase a subscription and a gift sub for someone or one of our award winning books (or a crate of books!) as holiday presents. (We won't call you to shake you down or sell your name to any lists--even Dick Cheney's.)
To contribute by phone you can call Becky or Deva toll free at: 1-800-840-3683
Onward,
Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky, Alya, Deva and Kimberly
CounterPunch
PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558
|
Today's Stories October 29, 2008 Arno J. Mayer October 28, 2008 James G. Abourezk Andy Worthington Gary Leupp Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whitney Gregory V. Button Ralph Nader P. Sainath Martha Rosenberg Charles R. Larson Website of the Day October 27, 2008 Michael Hudson Barbara Rose Johnston John Dinges Mike Whitney Mary Lynn Cramer Greenspan's Higher Power Alan Farago David Michael Green Andy Worthington George Wuerthner Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day October 24 / 26, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Ishmael Reed Mike Whitney Don Santina Scott Boehm Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Binoy Kampmark Linn Washington Jr. Nicole Colson Bernard Chazelle Brian Jones Christopher Brauchli Benjamin Dangl Val Strange Steve Early David Macaray Allison Kilkenny Richard Rhames Jim Bell Kris De Welde Barry Clemson Adam Engel Mark Scaramella Tuli Kupferberg Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 23, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Todd Chretien John Ross Peter Morici Mats Svensson Marlene Martin Robert Jensen / Margaret Kimberley Deepak Tripathi David Morris Website of the Day October 22, 2008 Brian Cloughley Heather Gray Jeff Birkenstein Ralph Nader DC Larson David Swanson Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor Race and the Election: When the "Real" America Enters the Voting Booth Larry Everest Robert Fantina Martha Rosenberg Stephen Martin Website of the Day October 21, 2008 Vijay Prashad Paul Craig Roberts Corey D. B. Walker Steve Breyman Eric Toussaint Wajahat Ali Robert Weitzel Brendan Cooney Dave Lindorff Marqueece Harris-Dawson / Bob Wing Patrick B. Barr Omar Barghouti Website of the Day October 20, 2008 Michael Hudson Anthony DiMaggio Tariq Ali Uri Avnery Bill Quigley Ben Rosenfeld David Michael Green William S. Lind Chris Genovali Stephen Martin Howard Lisnoff David Yearsley Website of the Day October 17 / 19, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Pam Martens Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whtney Michael D. Yates Suzanne Smith Carl Boggs Ralph Nader Fidel Castro Dave Marsh Saul Landau Jo Guldi Kevin Zeese Larry Everest Steve Early David Macaray Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Don Monkerud Helen Redmond Dan Bacher Wajahat Ali Farzana Versey Vladimir Frolov Kim Nicolini Poets Basement Website of the Day October 16, 2008 Mike Whitney Jonathan Cook Ayesha Ijaz Khan Alan Maass Chuck O'Connell Mary Lynn Cramer P. Sainath Andy Worthington Peter Gelderloos Stephen Martin Douglas Valentine Website of the Day
October 15, 2008 Steve Conn William P. O'Connor Robert Weissman Jonathan M. Feldman Ron Jacobs Conn Hallinan Justin Podur Karl Grossman Dave Lindorff Eric Walberg Martha Rosenberg Uri Avnery Monica Benderman Website of the Day
|
October 29, 2008 The Fabrications of Tactical AmateursObama and the Camp FollowersBy STEVE CONN As Obama’s presidential campaign marches inevitably toward Washington DC, Camp Followers emerge from the left, right and center and jog to catch up. They freshen up their resumes with belated help for their candidate and would-be employer. They throw ethics to the wind, in apparent desperate attempts to get more than a chance to boogie at one of the many inaugural balls. They want a chance to replace a Bush appointee in the new Obama administration. Their chutzpa is shocking and depressing. Consider Hendrick Hertzberg, a staffer at the New Yorker’s Talk of the Town, and a former speech writer for President Jimmy Carter. When he left out salient, historical facts about the Alaska Independence Party in a recent piece, leaving the impression that the AIP was a haven for domestic terrorists tied to Sarah and Todd Palin, I assumed he needed help with his research. I wrote the New Yorker:
Hertzberg replied
Did other New Yorker readers realize that Mr. Hertzberg had decided to run a campaign like McCain’s on behalf of Obama in “Talk of the Town”? I replied:
Obama may need a good speechwriter who uses facts selectively. Jimmy Carter, banned from the Democratic convention for his Nader-like position on Israel, no longer does. Now consider the illustrious Colin Powell. His endorsement of Obama on “Meet the Press,” has been considered a turning point in the Virginia campaign and a reason for cheer among American Muslims. Powell’s direct role in selling the Iraqi invasion to the world and his complicity in killing hundreds of thousands of Muslims on the other side is a slate, now wiped clean by his support. Less publicized was his more expansive endorsement of Alaska Senator Ted Steven’s character under oath before a Washington, DC jury just days before his endorsement of Obama. According to Rich Mauer and Erika Bolstad of the McClatchy chain: Powell told the court that (now convicted felon) Stevens: “was a "trusted individual" and a man with a "sterling" reputation”. Wrote Mauer and Bolstad, "He was someone whose word you could rely on," said Powell. “The former secretary of state said he had known Stevens for 25 years, mostly in the senator's role as the top defense appropriator on the Senate Appropriations Committee. In Stevens, "I had a guy who would tell me when I was off base, he would tell me when I had no clothes on, figuratively, that is, and would tell me when I was right and go for it," Powell said. "He's a guy who, as we said in the infantry, we would take on a long patrol." So much for the judgment of a former Secretary of State and military leader, at least in the eyes of the jury who convicted Stevens, thereafter, on all seven felony counts. Camp Followers need not be perfect. None of us are. Still, isn’t it strange not a single political journalist in Washington has asked whether Powell’s decision to sell the war and his very recent decision to vouch for Senator Stevens’ character at his trial, taken together, should weigh on the public’s judgment of his decision to vouch for presidential candidate Obama? The Obama campaign and Powell counted on media silence in the nation’s capital on that question, and got it. Last and least is a voice from the left, Norman Solomon, who comes forward in these last days to warn his progressive voter friends to stay away from Ralph Nader at the polls. No matter that national polls say consistently that Nader draws his votes from McCain’s side, Solomon is worried. Even as he acknowledges Obama’s progressive policy failings both domestic and foreign, he explicitly counsels voting for Obama with no expectation of change:
I recalled (though many may not) his similar warning to the Greens in October 2003 to stay away from Nader, a decision which ultimately allowed Democratic operatives and Republican law firms to keep Independent Nader’s anti-war message off of state ballots and out of the 2004 campaign. Thousands more died while Progressives mobilized. If Hertzberg wants to write speeches again and Powell wants in on presidential foreign policy decisions, Solomon seems ready to audition as the next Ralph Nader within the Obama circle, ignoring entirely Nader’s reason for pursing tirelessly multiple presidential campaigns- the corporate dominance of the political agenda in both major parties, a dominance which blocks new generations of citizen activists and their plans. That corporate dominance is already implanted in the Obama program of change. “Expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed,” is hardly a battle cry for progressive mobilization , but, I suppose, it’s a living. Camp followers are not professional political fabricators like James Carville and Mary Matalin. They are tactical amateurs who arrive when the march is nearly over and shout to be heard. When their own career agenda shades their advice to those who trust them, especially younger voters, they deserve to be tagged with warning labels. Those who rely on their counsel before they vote, need to understand that their intent is simply to advance in the ranks of Obama supporters on the way to the White House. Steve Conn lived in Alaska from 1972 until 2007. He is a retired professor, University of Alaska. His e mail is steveconn@hotmail.com.
|
Now Available from CounterPunch Books! The Inside Story of the Shannon Five's Smashing Victory Over the
RED STATE REBELS:
Edited by  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!  Click Here to Buy! Click Here for Dates & Venues Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz  Click Here to Buy! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order! How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism     
    
 Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed                   |
