home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback

 

New Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: Cockburn on Judy Miller's War: Unnamed Sources, the Direct Line to Rummy, Timely Book Promotion; St. Clair on Bush's Main Man, Marc Racicot: Why Do They Call Him "the White Colin Powell"; What Did He Do to Montana?; JoAnn Wypijewski on the Supremes and Sodomy: It's a Sex Thing; FrankenFoods & World Hunger: More Crap from Monsanto; What's in a Name: Smith/Smythe and NPR. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring, with more than 60,000 visitors a day. This is inspiring news, but the work involved also compels us to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Coming Soon!
From Common Courage Press

Recent Stories

July 11, 2003

David Lindorff
An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary

July 10, 2003

Ron Jacobs
Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody Profits of General Dynamics

Sean Donahue
Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia

Yemi Toure
Who Outted Bush in Afrika?

Robert Jensen
Politics and Sustainability: an Interview with Wes Jackson

Ali Abunimah
US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated

Joanne Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions

Website of the Day
Electronic Iraq

 

July 9, 2003

David Lindorff
Is the Media Finally Turning on Bush?

David Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons

Mickey Z.
Why Speak Out?

Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud

John Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie

Gary Leupp
"Pacifist" Japan and the Occupation of Iraq

Website of the Day
Hail to the Thief:
Songs for the Bush Years

 

July 8, 2003

Elaine Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological Dissents of Scalia

Alan Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor

Chris Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag

Linda S. Heard
America's Kangaroo Justice

Brian Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders

Charles Sullivan
Bush the Christian?

Saul Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age

Website of the Day
Occupation Watch

 

July 7, 2003

William Blum
The Anti-Empire Report

Harvey Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head

Ramzy Baroud
Peace for All the Wrong Reasons

Simon Jones
What Progressives Should Think About Iran

Lesley McCulloch
Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh

Uri Avnery
The Draw

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3

 

July 4 / 6, 2003

Patrick Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July

Frederick Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?

Martha Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation and Neglect

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture

Standard Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004

Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today

Elaine Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth

Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?

Wayne Madsen
A Sad Independence Day

John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War

Jim Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment

John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke

Lisa Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim

David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite

Adam Engel
Queer as Grass

Poets' Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair

Website of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian

 

July 3, 2003

Patrick W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg

Thomas W. Croft
There Was a Reason They Called It the Casino Economy

David Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong and the US

John Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution

Jackson Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices

Stan Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis to Attack US Troops

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3


July 2, 2003

Diane Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing

Richard Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?

Mokhiber / Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress

Justin Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia

Reuven Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2

July 1, 2003

Sasan Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and Iran

Elaine Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia and the Sodomy Cops

Susan Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong to Ourselves

Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono

David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name

Gary Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1

 

June 30, 2003

Karyn Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé of Progressive Politics in America

Col. Dan Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire

Tim Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White

Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall

Chris Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"

Elaine Cassel
Kentucky Woman

Uri Avnery
Hope in Dark Times

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30

Website of the Day
Bush El Hombre

 

June 28 / 29, 2003

M. Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?

Jeffrey St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside Man

Laura Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?

Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?

C.Y. Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten

Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law

Joanne Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values

Ignacio Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley

Bob Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers

Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"

Kam Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!

Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues

Julie Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment

Adrien Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide

Adam Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square

Poets' Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod

 

June 27, 2003

Jason Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq Posed No Threat to US

David Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker

David Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical Ali"

Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26

Website of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy

June 26, 2003

Sen. Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin

Jason Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate Hans Blix

Paul de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine

Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq

Elaine Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner

CounterPunch Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops

Sheldon Hull
Squatting in Mansions

Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone

Uri Avnery
The Best Show in Town

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25

Website of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo

 

June 25, 2003

Bruce Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers

Mickey Z.
The New Dark Ages

David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists

Dan Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops

Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"

Elaine Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing Guidelines

Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25

Website of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods

 

June 24, 2003

Elaine Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court

Roya Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth It to Risk One's Life?

John Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations

David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24

 

June 23, 2003

Marc Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with Ray McGovern

Conn Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon

Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad

Edward Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23

June 21 / 22, 2003

Alexander Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi

William A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness

Standard Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor

Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets

Harry Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares

Lawrence Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game

Harold Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery

David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Avia Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories

CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
Our Favorite Novels

Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension

Maria Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids

Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy

Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod


June 20, 2003

Walter Brasch
Down on Our Knees

Robert Meeropol
The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America

Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells

Norman Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a Quebec Radical

Gary Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"

Steve Perry
Bush's Lies Marathon: the Finale

 

Hot Stories

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

Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Watch

Michel Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians"

Uzma Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go

Paul de Rooij
Arrogant Propaganda

Gore Vidal
The Erosion of the American Dream

Francis Boyle
Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution

Click Here for More Stories.

 

 

Subscribe Online


Search CounterPunch

 

July 12, 2003

Pest Control at the Capitol

Parable of the Lobbyist

By ADAM ENGEL

While loitering in the lobby of the CAPITOL because I had nothing better to do, I was accosted by a Lobbyist.

The Lobbyist pitched the products of Dereliction Deterrent Technologies (DDT) to the Lawmakers, who will have to chose a method of execution concomitant with the values of the CITY.

The Lobbyist addressed me unctuously, earnestly, as if I were a Lawmaker myself.

"DDT has founded itself on termination technologies of the highest order," said the Lobbyist. "Cities across the Nation are using its methodologies to eliminate viral deviance in a quick, non-threatening, humane way."

DDT sponsors a program in Universities across the Nation called Termination Concepts that encourages young Citizens to enter the debate as to how to eliminate Viral Deviance (VD) and other scourges that plague our modern democratic society.

Two hallmark products of DDT are the Violent Offender Interruption Device (VOID) and Violent Anti-social Personnel Elimination Resource (VAPER).

"This is a serious and society-minded business," said the Lobbyist. "Our welfare is at stake. The greatest minds in termination technology work for DDT for the improvement of our Nation's Cities. Serious business, indeed."

Such is the technology that VOID can eliminate a societal bug with one quick spray to the face (the can itself is guaranteed 100 or more executions, depending on the size and resilience of the derelict, or the City receives its money back) that will neutralize a Viral Deviant in a matter of seconds, while VAPER uses cutting edge radiation technologies to eliminate a selected VD with one millisecond blast, breaking all blood vessels in the manner of nuclear fallout, but leaving the body clean inside its suit (suits are the suggested outerwear to humanize the VD in the eyes of the squeamish observer; jacket-and-skirt outfits for female VDs), veiling whatever traces of residual ugliness such a death, one of the quickest, most humane deaths in termination technology's repertoire - no gory pictures or fainting witnesses - might occasionally discharge.

"A cloth mask to cover the face and plugs to prevent blood escaping from eyes nose mouth, and voila, a clean, quick, humane termination!" crowed the Lobbyist.

The Lobbyist's mission was twofold. One, to promote the various termination technologies devised by DDT, and two, to push for the televising of executions/terminations. The Lobbyist

pointed out that large data sectors in the National Information Pyramid (NIP) suggest the correspondence of low crime rates in cities that have made televised executions a normal part of the city channel's program offerings.

I could not help but remark that this amounted to nothing less than free television advertisement for DDT.

"Yes, but DDT benefits everyone," said the Lobbyist. "It exists for the betterment of society, so what could be wrong with advertising its good works? It would be more of a public service

announcement than strict advertising for DDT."

"But DDT already has a monopoly on termination technologies Nation-wide," I said.

"Can we help it if we're the best? In a matter as serious as termination technology, society can afford nothing less than the best, for the safety of its inhabitants and the moral instruction of its young. What's good for DDT..."

A thriving, safe city is a satisfied customer. DDT provided the ultimate VD solutions, according to the Lobbyist. Results were uploaded daily to NIP.

"This includes technical research as well as statistical results, opinion polls and more," boasted the Lobbyist. "NIP data, as well as other educational information are available directly from DDT's site on the Network. As a government contractor for various major cities, DDT has a high privilege

level on NIP and is permitted to share an abundance of data with anyone who takes the time to examine the site, which includes real time videos of some of DDT's most successful products in action. DDT works closely with city administrators to ensure quality terminations. There have been few botched terminations, less than one-percent of all VD's processed across the Nation, and these have been given the full attention of DDT's quality control specialists.

"A city is like a tree. It must grow in fertile earth, under a vibrant sun. Clean, purifying water must nourish it. And fertilizer. But fungus, insects, viruses, must be destroyed immediately, lest they take over the roots and eat into the tree, causing a corruption of the leaves, a rotting of the branches, and destruction of the mighty organism itself. It only takes one germ to spread a plague; it only takes one bug to spark an infestation."

"So you're the Nation's exterminators," I said.

"We are the Nation's gardeners," corrected the Lobbyist.

Adam Engel can be reached in the Garden among his fellow Viral Deviants at bartleby.samsa@verizon.net

Weekend Edition Features

Patrick Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July

Frederick Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?

Martha Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation and Neglect

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture

Standard Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004

Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today

Elaine Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth

Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?

Wayne Madsen
A Sad Independence Day

John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War

Jim Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment

John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke

Lisa Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim

David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite

Adam Engel
Queer as Grass

Poets' Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair

Website of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian

 

Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!

home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /