home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq

Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! Why Hillary Clinton Has Always Been a Republican In the first of a series of profiles, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair chart the formative years of Hillary Clinton. Watch her as she zigzags from Nixon campaigner and vote-fraud investigator in 1960 to Goldwater Girl and President of Young Republicans at Wellesley to her internship for Gerald Ford and campaigner for Nelson Rockefeller. Witness her reaction to the student protests at Yale and the demonstrations at Grant Park during the Democratic Convention in 1968. Learn how she and Bill vowed to "remake" the Democratic Party--using the Nixon model HRC learned about as a member of the House impeachment staff. And much more! Plus: David Price on anthropologist Andre Gunder Frank, the FBI and the Bureaucratic Exile of a Critical Mind. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair CounterPunch Blues: David Vest at the Waterfront Blues Fest in Portland

Today's Stories July 7 / 8, 2007 Saul Landau Blame the Puppet July 6, 2007 Daniel Ellsberg When the Crimes of the White House are Unpunishable Gary Leupp The Cracks in Cheney's World Harvey Wasserman Leonard Peltier vs. Scooter Libby: the Hero and the Henchman Omer Subhani Our Dead are Not the Same: Ignoring Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Marjorie Cohn Compassion, Conspiracy and Commutation Christopher Brauchli Kingly Edicts: Bush's Executive Orders David Michael Green Scalia Time: the Wrecking Ball Court China Hand Catfish Blues: Food Safety, the FDA and the Emerging Trade War with China Renee Saucedo and Todd Chretien The New Challenges Facing the Immigrant Rights Movement Corporate Crime Reporter The Crime Wave Behind the Media Curtain Website of the Day Jean Bricmont on the Humanitarian Interveners   July 5, 2007 Andy Worthington Two Americas, Both Unjust: Scooter Libby vs. the "Enemy Combatants" Mike Stark Double Standards of North Carolina "Justice" Norman Solomon The Keyboard Hawks: a Bloody Media Mirror Michael Schwartz Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month Susie Day Killer Lesbians Mauled by Killer Court (and Media Wolfpack) Jacob Hornberger A Tangled Web of Lies: Bush and the Libby Case Bill Hatch Smoking with Arnold: The Strange Return of Toxic Mary Nichols Don Fitz When Building Green Ain't So Green John Wright The Crisis of Imperialism Website of the Day Anti-Flag and Tom Morello: "This Land is Your Land"   July 4, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Obama's Nuclear Ambitions Vijay Prashad Democrat (Punjab): Obama and Outsourcing Carl G. Estabrook The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Exist Ron Jacobs Texas Wants to Kill Another Man, the Law be Damned: the Disturbing Case of Kenneth Foster David R. Dow The Quality of Bush's Mercy: the Ghosts of Texas Claudia Johnson Is My Doctor a Terrorist? William S. Lind What Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Means for Defense Industry Fat Cats Gregory Afghani Truth and Tenure: Finkelstein and the Perils of Impeccable Scholarship Paul Edwards End It Now! D. K. Wilson The Sliming of Tank Johnson Niranjan Ramakrishnan Thank You, Mr. President: Bush/Cheney for Dummies Thomas Jefferson The Spirit of Resistance: Lethargy is the Forerunner of the Death of Public Liberty Cindy Sheehan Call Out the Instigator Website of the Day Springsteen: 4th of July, Ashbury Park July 3, 2007 Bill Quigley Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree Gary Leupp Civil Strife in Palestine: a Broader Context Lynda Brayer Norman Finkelstein and the Catholic Church Richard Thieme Mind Wars: Brain Research, Nanotech and the Military Helen Redmond They Don't Come Back the Same: the Mind of the Returning Iraq War Vet David Swanson Scooter and the Commuter: When Presidents Pardon Their Own Crimes Jacob Hornberger Martha Stewart vs. Scooter Libby: Commutation as Cover-Up Ayesha Ijaz Khan Pakistan's New Jihad Franklin Lamb The Edginess of Lebanon Ray McGovern Unimpeachably Impeachable: Start with Cheney Kevin Zeese The Air Force vs. Rev. Lennox Yearwood Dave Lindorff Nancy Pelosi and the Low Bar Democrats Website of the Day A Military Guide to the Iraq War July 2, 2007 Andy Worthington The Guantánamo Whistleblowers Nina Serrano The Assassination of a Poet: Memories of Roque Dalton Jack Hirschman The Nation and the Assassin: a Shameful Blunder Paul Craig Roberts Enter Turkey Bill Williams The Commissar Two-Step at DePaul Anthony Papa A Taste of the Gulag: What Paris Learned Sonja Karkar Who Will Save Palestine? Louay Safi Steve Emerson's Fantastic Obsession Anthony Gregory When Killer Cops Walk Monica Benderman In Consideration of War Website of the Day Dylan's Masters of War, at West Point, 1990   June 30 / July 1, 2007 John Ross Free Frida Kahlo! Alan Farago Fakery, Inflation and the Housing Market Peter Quinn The Political Paranoia Over Immigration: Two Centuries and Counting Christopher Brauchli Cheney Does the Constitution Robert Fisk Abu Henry and the Mysterious Silence Uri Avnery A Dark Summit Judith Siers-Poisson The Politics and PR of Cervical Cancer Saul Landau Israel is Bad for Jewish Ethics Abbas Zaidi The Ad Hominem World of Pakistan Politics Ron Jacobs Ending the War, Organizing for Change Ralph Nader Move Over Oprah: a Summer Reading List Donald Worster Which City is Worse Off Today, New York or New Orleans? Mike Whitney The Fed's Role in the Bear Stearns Meltdown Jacob Hill Fast Track to Trade Failure Kenneth Couesbouc Why Global Trade is Rarely Fair Missy Beattie Kakistocracy Mohammad Kamaali Envoy for the Quartet Ramzy Baroud Finding Lessons in Gaza's Bloodshed Leonard Peltier A Gathering at Oglala Phyllis Pollack Seven Hours of Banging with the Stones Poets' Basement Reed, Orloski and Buknatski Website of the Weekend A Podcast Interview with Cpt. Ward Boston on the USS Liberty   June 29, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Toward a New Environmental Movement Brian Cloughley Losing the War in Afghanistan: One Civilian Massacre at a Time Patrick Cockburn End the Occupation: an Open Letter to Gordon Brown Gilad Atzmon The Peace Envoy: Tony Blair on Work Release Dave Lindorff Subpoenas, Executive Privilege and Liberal Pipedreams Jennifer Matsui / Carl Kandutsch Electric Larryland Kevin Zeese A Different Kind of Peace Candidate Daniel Klimek Fasting for Justice at DePaul David Michael Green The Founding Fathers Never Met Dick Cheney John Chuckman The London Car Bomb Website of the Day BAM!   June 28, 2007 Bill Quigley How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps Vijay Prashad Once More on the New York Times Margaret Kimberley The Whitening of Marianne Pearl: When White Actors Play Black Characters Winslow T. Wheeler House of Pork: Changing Lightbulbs in the Democrats' Bordello Philip Rizk The Failing of Gaza D. K. Wilson The Black Villains Club Bill Williams Strange Calculus at DePaul Mahmoud El-Yousseph The Deportation of Yardlin Jimenez Richard Rhames The Liberation of Paris Paul Krassner Bong Hits for Repression: the Giant Sucking Sound of the Supreme Court Website of the Day Free Lightnin' Hopkins   June 27, 2007 Marjorie Cohn Targeting Dissent: FBI Spying on the National Lawyers Guild Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD Sick and Sicker: Two Models of Health Care Rationing Alan Farago Bush and the Everglades: Rebranding Failure as Success Carla Blank "America, the Beautiful": the Queen, Jamestown and the Eye of the Beholder Matthew Abraham The Smearing of Robert Trivers, Dershowitz-Style Sunsara Taylor The Deadly Consequences of Compromise: Abortion Rights Under Assault, Where's the Women's Movement? Russell D. Hoffman 16 Dirty Secrets About Nuclear Power Robert Weissman Blackstone and Capital's Grand Scam Sen. Russ Feingold Secrecy and the Federal Death Penalty Paul Buchheit The Footprints of Democracies Website of the Day Anarchy for the USA: an Interview with Josh Wolf   June 26, 2007 Jonathan Cook Divide and Rule, Israeli-Style Ralph Nader Sicko and the Politics of Health Care Corporate Crime Reporter Which Side Are You On, Michael Moore? Ron Jacobs Are the Neocons Really Going? Martha Rosenberg Mad Cow in God's Country John Chuckman China's New Weapons Denny Haldeman Ethanolics Anonymous Anthony DiMaggio Free Speech Hypocrisy at the Supreme Court Stephen Fleischman The Tightrope Economy William S. Lind Legitimacy, Toujours Legitimacy Website of the Day The CIA's Family Jewels   June 25, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Goodbye to the City on the Hill Jennifer Loewenstein The Triumph of US / Israeli Policy in Palestine Bob Anderson The Grooming of Bill Richardson: New Mexico's Nuclear Governor Robert Pollin The Realities of Microlending Patrick Cockburn Chemical Ali Faces the Hangman: the Life and Crimes of al-Majid Eva Liddell Why They Want to Fire Ward Churchill Dan Bacher Democrats and the School of the Americas: 42 House Democrats Back Torture Academy Larry Atkins The Case of the Judge and the $54 Million Pair of Pants: an Embarrassment, Not an Argument for Tort Reform Mark Brenner SEIU Ends Nursing Home Partnership James Rothenberg Hillary Does Iraq Website of the Day "A Long Train of Abuses" June 23 / 24, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Zyklon B on the US Border Jeff Taylor The Foreign Policy of Barack Obama Oren Ben-Dor Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis in Gaza Gary Leupp In Defense of Academic Freedom: the Ward Churchill Case Robert Fisk The Bumbling Envoy David Rosen The Hidden Cost of War: Genital Injuries, Prosthetic Devices and the War on Terror Russell Mokhiber Ins and Outs for 2008: Up with Spoilers! Alison Weir USA Today and the USS Liberty Robert Fantina The Floundering Congress D. K. Wilson Of Gangstas and Spearchuckers, Sex and Zulus Nicole Colson Litigating Gitmo Stephen Soldz, Steven Reisner and Brad Olson Torture, Psychologists and Colonel James Dave Lindorff Exodus of the Puppets: Bush's Incredible Shrinking Coalition Benjamin Dangl Cerámica de Cuyo: a Profile of Worker Control in Argentina Michael Dickinson The Catholicization of Tony Poets' Basement Davies, Engel, Gerard and Orloski Website of the Weekend Incarcerex: a Drug War Video   June 22, 2007 Andy Worthington A Tunisian in Gitmo: the Story of Prisoner 660 Sherwood Ross Corporate America's Deadliest Secret: the Big Profits in Biowarfare Research Eliana Monteforte The Torture Academy Robert Weissman Things Can Be Different Richard Rhames Farmer Preservation Christopher Brauchli Bush and the Uighurs: an Encounter in Albania Ramzy Baroud Chronicle of a Chaos Foretold Ehud Krinis, David Shulman and Neve Gordon Facing an Imminent Threat of Expulsion: Palestinians in S. Hebron Hills Need Your Help! David Michael Green If Reid Were Rove Kathryn Webber Boycotting DePaul Website of the Day Stop Me Before I Vote Again!   June 21, 2007 Peter Linebaugh The Day of the Rope Natsu Saito The Regents and Ward Churchill: Now is the Time to Speak Out Ron Jacobs The Intimidation of a Vet Saree Makdisi The West Chooses Fatah, But Palestinians Don't John Stauber Blessed Unrest: an Interview with Paul Hawken Scott Liebertz Fox News and Venezuela: an Analysis of How the Network Deliberately Misinforms Its Viewers Tom Clifford The Ghost Prisoners Robert Jensen The Last Sunday? Michael J. Smith Who Among Us Will Step Up to Destroy the Democratic Party? Jeb Sprague Pain at the Pump in Haiti Website of the Day Dion: Hey Paris June 20, 2007 Omar Barghouti A Secular-Democratic State Solution Andy Worthington Repatriated to Torture Margaret Kimberley Supreme Injustices: the Bush Court Robert Weissman Sicko, Part One: the Human Tragedy Russell D. Hoffman Time to Choose: Meltdowns or Solar Power? Rannie Amiri Mideast Alight Stephen Lendman The New York Times vs. Hugo Chavez Dave Lindorff Democratic Disconnect David Swanson Booing Hillary: Platitudes from the Drone Machine Anne Dachel Autism & Vaccines: Why are They Afraid to Look? Website of the Day Revolution By the Book   June 19, 2007 Ralph Nader Hillary's Stock and Trade: the NAFTA Two-Step Dr. Shepherd Bliss Torture's Long Reach Bill and Kathleen Christison Demostrating Against the Catholic Church in Santa Fe Jeff Leys Swarming Congress: Building a Resistance to the 2008 Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill Dave Zirin The Unforgiven: Barry Bonds and Jack Johnson Chris Floyd Hitchens Takes a Roll in the Hay Ben Terrall Iraq Union Leaders Speak Out Against the Occupation Anthony Papa Veronica's Story: a Dying Wish to Governor Spitzer VIPS Countering Terrorism: How Not to Do It Linda Flores Criminalizing the Classroom Website of the Day Sign On to the Iraq Moratorium June 18, 2007 John Ross The Annexation of Mexico Paul Craig Roberts The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand Martha Rosenberg Let Cheney at Him: Richardson the Oryx Hunter Norman Solomon War at the Remote Don Santina Memo to the Queen: Bobby Sands Died for Your Sins Isabella Kenfield Landless Rural Workers Confront Lula James Brooks America's Guilty Silence Eva Liddell Planning to Lose: Democratic Stratagems Sam Husseini Clinton Health Care Scam Revisited Akiva Eldar Ariel Sharon's Dream Website of the Day Frank Zappa: the Cop Interview   June 16 / 17, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Psychopathology of Shrinks John Halle Finkelstein and "The Progressive" Robert Fisk Welcome to "Palestine" Andy Worthington Return to Torture? Uri Avnery The Gaza Cage Fred Gardner Paris Hilton's Punishment: a False Parable Saul Landau Our Gang of Thugs: The 1970s as a Context for Terrorist Violence P. Sainath Heaven Can Wait: Creditors and the Widows of Vidharbha Missy Comley Beattie Calling Evil Its Name Alan Gregory When ADM Comes to Town: Killer Tax Breaks for Wildlife Destruction Walter Brasch Bush and the Philosophy of Swiss Cheese Website of the Weekend Obama Girl   June 15, 2007 Alan Farago View from the Construction Crane: Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami Andy Worthington The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri Michael Simmons Terrorizing Artists in the USA Franklin Lamb Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed Sunni Army Solution Gary Leupp The Day After We Attack Iran John Ross Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico Website of the Day The American Rationalist   June 14, 2007 Michael Donnelly Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen Eco--Activism Faisal Kutty Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False Sense of Security Harry Browne Ireland's Green Party Sells Out Charles Jonkel From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference Steven Higgs Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic" in Indiana? Bruce Dixon Black Power Through Low Power Radio Bruce K. Gagnon What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan for Antiwar Activists Website of the Day Finkelgate June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Obama's Siren Song Marjorie Cohn Repression in Oaxaca Bill Christison A Grave Injustice at DePaul University Charles Jonkel Bears in a World of Indifference Silvia Cattori "I Was Not Prepared for the Horrors I Saw": an Interview with Hedy Epstein Richard Gott Racism and TV in Venezuela Firmin DeBrabander How the Neocons Misread Machiavelli William S. Lind The Perfect (Sine) Wave: Bombing Railroad Stations in Iraq Keith Rosenthal Workers Score a Victory at Harvard Website of the Day GOP and Monty Python Explain: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair How to Sell a War Paul Craig Roberts The Neocon Threat to American Freedom P. Sainath India's Plutocrats and the Press Ralph Nader The Biggest Scam in the World Omar Waraich A Black Day for Pakistan's Press Dave Lindorff Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You Harvey Wasserman Confessions of an Anti-Nuke Jerk Malini Johar Schueller It Takes a Bomb Ramzy Baroud War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire Website of the Day Palestinian Chronicle Needs Our Help!   June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The War on Journalists Paul Craig Roberts Losing the Economy to Mythology Uri Avnery 40 Bad Years: the Rot of Occupation Norman Solomon The Silence of the Bombs Eva Liddell Paris Hilton Doesn't Do Dishes: How Barbie Stood Up to Allen Ginsberg Rannie Amiri Groundhog Day in Pakistan Rachel Voss Poetry and Politics in Nassau County Christopher Brauchli A Wild West Tale, Starring Rev. Dobson and Bill O'Reilly D. K. Wilson Untangling Michael Vick from the Dogs Website of the Day Paris, Mixed Up     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition July 7 / 8, 2007 The Light at the End of the Tunnel is a Train Autism: An Epidemic of Fairly Recent Origin By ANNE DACHEL On July 5th, an article in the Boston Globe by Carey Goldberg gave us some frightening information. Although the title, "With rise in autism, programs strained, "didn't seem too alarming, the facts presented should have gotten everyone's attention. We were told that as more and more children are being diagnosed with autism, we're desperately behind in providing services. Goldberg wrote, "A decade ago, it took a few months to get a child into Melmark New England, a special school largely for children with autism. Now, the wait can be five years. Boston-area parents, worried their child may be autistic, routinely face delays as long as nine months to confirm the diagnosis." These waiting lists indicate the explosion in the number of children with autism. "Statewide, the number of schoolchildren diagnosed with autism has nearly doubled over the last five years, from 4,080 to 7,521, according to soon-to-be-published data from the Department of Education." A number of experts were cited. Dr. Margaret Bauman, director at LADDERS, a Wellesley autism clinic, noted that LADDERS has had to close their doors to new patients and she stated, "We're backed up well over a year here, and other clinics are struggling the same way," Rita Gardner, executive director of Melmark, in Andover was quoted saying, "Autism programs are faced with enormous needs and no one feels like we have enough programs to meet the up-and-coming numbers of children. I would argue that this is one of our biggest public health crises in this country." Rafael Castro, an autism specialist at Children's Evaluation Center in Newton, told about families relocating in school districts that provide the necessary services. Psychologist Karen Levine, clinical director of autism at Cambridge Health Alliance commented that there are "many families embroiled in battles with their school systems for more services." Why is all this happening? Goldberg explained, "Nationwide, federal health authorities say that about one in every 150 children now has some form of autism, a sharp increase over past estimates. The rates vary from state to state for unclear reasons; Massachusetts has now reached a total of 1 in every 130 schoolchildren." Something affecting one in every 130 schoolchildren should have lots of people seriously concerned. Unfortunately, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don't seem to have taken much notice of the skyrocketing number of children with autism everywhere. While Carey Goldberg noted that health officials can give us the current rate for autism, she didn't mention what they're doing about it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we've always had all these disabled kids in need of services, their disorder just wasn't recognized as autism. The CDC describes all the autism as merely the result of "better diagnosing" and "greater awareness" on the part of doctors and no real cause for concern. It seems that one in every 130 children in Massachusetts has always been autistic. Goldberg touched on the topic when she said, 'Some debate lingers about whether the sharp rise in autism rates is real or simply reflects better detection." Tell that to the countless parents waiting years for services. If these affected children have always been here, what did we do with them? It's a little hard to miss an autistic child, even a mildly affected one. We would have had to provide help for their special needs even if they didn't have the label "autistic." The Boston Globe article should get people wondering about several huge issues. First of all, why are we always talking about children with autism? The CDC statistics of one in every 150 nationally refers to studies of eight years olds, not eighty year olds. If autism hasn't increased as officials never tire of telling us, then where are the older adults with autism? Why isn't there even one study that has been able to find the one in 150 thirty, fifty, and seventy year olds with autism who were misdiagnosed in the past, before all the "better diagnosing" we presently enjoy? Thousands and thousands of parents of autistic children desperate about their future would like to know. Where are they living and what are they doing? No one seems willing to look for them. What's going to happen in the future? One big question looms out there: How we will pay for all these children disabled with autism? Carey Goldberg talked a little about the financial aspects and noted that the costs are ever increasing. "The Legislature is recognizing the need: Starting in fiscal year 2006, it gave the state Division on Autism its own line item in the budget, and in the pending budget, allocates $3.2 million to the division, up from $3 million in the last fiscal year." Actually, this is nothing compared to the future cost of autism. Research by Michael Ganz at Harvard makes a chilling prediction of the future cost to our society as more and more autistic kids become autistic adults. Ganz reported, "It can cost about $3.2 million to take care of an autistic person over his or her lifetime. Caring for all people with autism over their lifetimes costs an estimated $35 billion per year." The Ganz findings are felt by others to be a gross underestimate of the eventual autism price tag. Research from Lifespire, an organization dedicated to helping individuals with developmental disabilities, puts the eventual estimated lifetime cost for one autistic individual at $10.125 million. This is based on an annual cost of $225,000 per person with a life expectancy of 66 years. With numbers like these circulating out there, clearly the problems with meeting needs of children with autism will be dwarfed by the enormous burden of providing support and care for an overwhelming number of autistic adults in the next five to ten years as more and more of them age out of childhood. For a long time I've wondered if anyone with a pocket calculator somewhere was adding things up. Every time I've tried to come up with figures, I'm simply shocked at what this generation of affected children is going to cost the American taxpayers. Someone sent me a copy of a letter written last November by the Attorney General of Wisconsin, who at the time was Peggy Lautenschlager. The letter was addressed to U.S. Senator Herb Kohl from Wisconsin. It seems the Attorney General had been reading the newspapers and hearing about the statistics on autism. Newspapers have occasionally covered the exploding numbers. Several months ago, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported, "Fourteen years ago, Wisconsin school districts identified 200 children in their ranks with autism. Today, there are at least 200 students in the Green Bay School District alone. In December 2005 (the most recent numbers available), DPI identified 5,085 students in the state with an autism spectrum disorder." Those figures have got to be getting notice, especially if those numbers are multiplied by the estimates of lifetime care. In her letter to Senator Kohl, Lautenschlager addressed the autism epidemic as an epidemic. "Although some dispute the characterization, in my view it is appropriate to describe the dramatic rise of those diagnosed with autism as an epidemic of fairly recent origin. How else can one explain its prevalence among our children and comparative absence in our adult population?" Calling autism "an epidemic of fairly recent origin" is a clear sign that Lautenschlager was not swayed by the "better diagnosing" claim of federal health officials. In addition, she urged Kohl to vote for the Combating Autism Act, then under consideration in the Senate. The Wisconsin Attorney General further told Kohl, "Despite efforts being made in our schools, communities and through private sector and non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of autistic children and their families, as a state and a nation we have failed to address comprehensively the most obvious question this epidemic presents: its cause." Lautenschalger pointed to the need to support H.R. 5940, a bill that would require the NIH to conduct a comprehensive study regarding the relationship between vaccines or vaccine components and autism. She was concerned because "that bill also was referred to committee, and has seen no further action." She wrote, "Action is needed." The controversy over vaccines, especially ones with mercury, was definitely a critical factor for Lautenschalger in addressing autism. She wrote, "As Attorney General of Wisconsin, I have sought approval from the Governor to gain the assistance of needed experts and outside counsel to explore legal means of forcing the federal government to undertake the type of testing needed to explain the cause or causes of autism. My request was denied." Evidently, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle didn't share the Attorney General's concern over the number of disabled children overwhelming state schools. Although the U.S. Senate passed the Combating Autism Act by unanimous consent last December, the funding still hasn't been provided. H.R. 5940 was never acted on and nothing is known concerning how or if Senator Kohl personally responded to Lautenschlager's letter. So where is all this leading? When are elected officials going to start to honestly address autism as a crisis? With autism straining education budgets, how long can we keep pretending that something isn't seriously wrong with more and more of our children and no one can reasonably tell us why? I can answer those questions. There won't be a real demand to find the cause of the explosion in autism until we start to go broke paying for it. Within the next five to ten years, we'll be seeing these children with autism become adults with autism, dependent on the taxpayers for their support and care. When one in every 150 eighteen year olds in the U.S., including one in every 94 boys, isn't going on to school, getting a job, or going into the military, but going on disability for life with autism, the reality of this disaster will be obvious to all. Attorney General Lautenschlager ended her appeal to Senator Kohl by saying, "Nonetheless, I am hopeful that Members of Congress will appreciate the fiscal, societal and medical problems autism presents in our nation, and take immediate steps toward real solutions to these problems. These very special children, their families, and all who have a stake in our future are counting on you." It seems our legislators have yet to realize the full impact so many disabled children will have on this nation or to understand the extent of the suffering that countless families endure. Bobbie Manning of A-CHAMP put it this way, "Congress and state legislatures always wait for a catastrophe to occur before they finally realize their ethical and moral responsibility to the public. Even with all news reports, they continue to act like these kids don't exist, but the tsunami is rapidly approaching. If schools systems are struggling to pay for the services for autistic children today, how will the states, and you the taxpayers, pay for all the adults with autism later? How many more children have to suffer before our Congress investigates and reacts to this public health disaster? And what will be their excuse for not reacting sooner?" The words of Laura Bono of the National Autism Association are a grim forecast for the future: "As those children reach adulthood, the U.S. is ill-equipped to care for them. Not only do we not have enough services for adults now, the light at the end of the tunnel is a train. Frankly, we don't know what we're going to do." Anne McElroy Dachel lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She can be reached at: amdachel@msn.com

New From CounterPunch Books The Secret Language of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy Click Here to Buy!   Now Available! How the Press Failed The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order!   "The Case Against Israel" Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair       The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont   CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed   Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh   The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"