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Today's
Stories
June 13 / 15, 2008
Douglas Valentine:
McCain: War Hero or Go-To Collaborator?
June 12, 2008
Judith Levine
As Cranes Fall and People Die
Patrick Cockburn
Amid Iraqi Fury, U.S. Offers Concessions on Military Bases
Saul Landau
The Iraq War Becomes Suicidal
Christopher Brauchli
Bush Bling-Bling:
Government by Crony
Norman Solomon
Deadly Diplomacy
Helen Redmond
Why Can't We All Get KennedyCare?
Laura Carlsen
No Rest for the Working Poor
Jeremy R. Hammond
Threats Against Iran Escalate
Anne Landman
Pinkwashing: Can Shopping Cure Breast Cancer?
Website of the Day
Fire in Watts
June 11, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
Why Oil Prices Are So High
Ralph Nader
Wall Street Gamblers
Joshua Frank
Why I Can't Support Barack Obama
Clifton Ross
Conversation in Miami: the Neoliberal Left and Socialism
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
Whatever Happened to "Democracy Now?"
Stephen Lendman
Exposing Pentagon and CIA Corruption
Diane Farsetta
Talking Back to Bill O'Reilly
Ron Jacobs
The Sixties Painted Black
Deborah Rich
Hay Belly Nation: the FDA and the O-Word
Hop Wechsler
A Friend of Women?
My Bill Clinton ... and Ours
Website of the Day
A New Path to the Waterfall
June 10, 2008
Alan Farago
John McCain and the Company He Keeps
James G. Abourezk
Deadly Fallout From Obama's Groveling Before Israel Lobby
Saree Makdisi
Banned in the U.S.A. (Almost)
Malini Johar Schueller
A Picture From Beirut
John Ross
Killing Foods, Killing People
Wajahat Ali
Rumi and Sufism
Peter Morici
Bernanke Aggravates Recession Risks
Jordan Flaherty
Inside Angola Prison, Louisiana's Last Slave Plantation
Gary Macfarlane
Collaboration on the Clearwater: Is It Legitimate?
Joanne Mariner
The Gitmo Trials: an Inglorious Start
Website of the Day
The End of the Clinton Machine?
June 9, 2008
Uri Avnery
No, I Can't: Obama, Israel and AIPAC
Nikolas Kozloff
McCain & the Republican Insitute: Promoting Iraqi Occupation for "a Million Years"
Allan Nairn
Drawing Your Last Breath Hungry
Dennis Loo
Threats on Iran and the "Batterer's Defense"
Harry Browne
Irish Euro Vote Comes Down to the Wire
C. Hand
U. S. Bid to Hike Iran's Gas Prices Seems Doomed
Peter Morici
An Unsustainable Trade Deficit
Kenneth Couesbouc
A Ripe Time for Inflation
Martha Rosenberg
The Inconvenient Senator Grassley
James L. Secor
Chinese Superstition or Unconscious Oracle?
Website of the Day
Pay Bo Diddley!
June 7 / 8, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Obama Goes Over the Top
Ishmael Reed
How Miles Davis Changed My Life
Jeffrey St. Clair
What a Miner's Life is Worth
Nikolas Kozloff
Meet the King the Beers: John McCain and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
The High Cost of a Single War-Like Remark: Oil Prices, Israel, Iran and the U.S.
Robert Fantina
When Truth is the Casualty
Conn Hallinan
Iran and Rumors of War
Neve Gordon
The Occupation and the Politics of Death
Tom Barry
The Deterrence Strategy of Homeland Security
Patrick Irelan
Raiding the Packing House
Tim Wise
Your Whiteness is Showing
David Ker Thomson
The Hard Question
Joshua Frank
"Socialist" Wins Republican Nomination in Montana
David Yearsley
Disaster Music
James T. Phillips
1968: Year of the Rat
Joe Allen
The Real Bobby Kennedy
P. Sainath
Making Life Brighter in Kondapur
David Macaray
Should Unions be More Democratic?
B.R. Gowani
Experience and the Two-for-One
Fred Gardner
What Happened (at the DA's Office)
Peter Harley
Technology to the Rescue? Kurzweil and the Human Machines
Michael Dickinson
Surrender the Bones of Geronimo!
Jen Roesch
Where are the Real Women in Sex and the City?
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Landau, and Buknatski
Website of the Day
Partying with the Waltons
June 6, 2008
Frank Barat
An Interview with Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky on the Future of Israel / Palestine
Patrick Cockburn
U.S. Extorts Iraq to Approve Military Deal
Gary Leupp
Cheney Enrages Iraqis Over Security Deal
James Abourezk
Name That Terrorist
Peter Morici
Recession Grips the Jobs Market
Faheem Hussain
What is NATO Doing in Afghanistan?
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo's Britons Go on Hunger Strike
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
How Will Musharraf Go? Impeachment or Safe Exit?
Dave Lindorff
Congress Needs to Defend Itself
Website of the Day
Backstage with Bo Diddley
June 5, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Bush's Secret Deal Would Ensure Permanent U.S. Occupation of Iraq
Sharon Smith
Hillary's Wreckage
Nikolas Kozloff
Obama's Electoral Dilemma: Latinos or Reagan Democrats?
Linn Washington, Jr.
Police Brutality and Cover-Up in Philly
Omar Barghouti
60 Years of Nakba, 41 Years of Occupation ...
Scott Pellegrino
Jim Crow Radio: Bob Grant's Lifetime Achievement Award
John Walsh
Obama Woos AIPAC
Dan Bacher
The Parching of California
DC Larson
Nazi Rockers ... F-Off
Robert Jensen
Masculine, Feminine or Human?
Website of the Day
Ohio Cops Attack Long Walkers
June 4, 2008
Eric Walberg
Princess Patricia and the Taliban
Gary Leupp
Iran and EFPs: Chronology of a Lie
Ralph Nader
Disenfranchised Youth
Dave Lindorff
Of Whiners and Poor Losers
George Wuerthner
Farm Economics
Victor M. Rodriguez
The Puzzle of Race and Politics
Remi Kanazi
Why a Cultural Boycott of Israel is Needed
Stephane Luçon
Renault's Romanian Fairyland Suspended
Farzana Versey
The Tablighi Jamaat Movement
Laray Polk
The Militarization of Space
Website of the Day
Red State Rebels
June 3, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts /
Lawrence M. Stratton
Legislating Tyranny
Mike Whitney
The Withering Economy
Steve Early
San Juan Showdown
Manuel Otero
Why Hillary Won Puerto Rico: the View from the Colony
George Bisharat
The Hope of a Victimized People
Nikolas Kozloff
Obama's VP Quandry
Dan Bacher
Death on the Salmon Highway
Website of the Day
Censoring Bill Knott?
June 2, 2008
Uri Avnery
The Olmert Scandal
Nikolas Kozloff
Obama's Latino Problem Getting Worse
Allan J. Lichtman
Revisionist History: Bush, Borah and Hitler
Malini Johar Schueller
The Color of Randomness: Returning to the US From Beirut Via Syria
Robert Weissman
What's Driving Skyrocketing Oil Prices?
Peter Morici
Bailing Out Wall Street
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Don't Get Burned: How to Protect Yourself From Raytheon's Pain Gun
John Ross
Celebrating Catholic Fanaticism in Mexico
Ahmad Al-Akhras
Encounters with the Watch List
Website of the Day
Man on Earth
May 31 / June 1, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The Worst is Yet to Come
Jeffrey St. Clair
Arkansas Bloodsuckers
Gary Leupp
How McClellan Prettifies Bush
Stan Cox
Broken Agriculture
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon: the Domino That Wouldn't Fall
P. Sainath
A Guaranteed Day's Work--in the Fields, at 110 Degrees, for $2 a Day
Binoy Kampmark
Going Bankrupt in Vallejo
Robert Fantina
Bush, Rice and McClellan
Seth Sandronsky
Will There be Water Riots, as Sacramento Goes Dry?
Corporate Crime Reporter
Death Penalty for Bush?
Anthony DiMaggio
Gaming the Ghetto: Grand Theft Auto IV, Racist Media and the Concrete Jungle
Karl Grossman
A Half-Trillion for Nukes
Matt Reichel
From Vegas to the Heartland and Back Again
Paul Myron Hillier
Of Gas and God
Andy Worthington
Suicide at Guantánamo
David Yearsley
And the Winner is ... Wayne Shorter
Daniel Cassidy
Free Lunch
Charles Thomson
If Hitler Had Been a Hippy ...
Gary Corseri
A Dream Deferred: Activism and the Arts
Wajahat Ali
Sex and the City Through a Man's Eyes
Ron Jacobs
Robins Weep
Poets' Basement
McNeill and Davies
Website of the Day
Last Charge of the Light Horse
May 30, 2008
Bassam Aramin
Here's the Truth You've Been Running From
Andrew Cockburn
Petraeus' Iran Obsession
Saul Landau
How We Got Into This Mess
Nikolas Kozloff
Meet South America's New Secessionists
Robert Sandels
Turning Back the Clock on Cuba
Dave Lindorff
Talk is Cheap
Martha Rosenberg
Raiding Big Meat; Arresting the Wrong People
Harvey Wasserman
Lieberman & McCain: Linking Internet Censorship and Atomic Reactor Terror
Doug Giebel
A Plague on Both Your Houses (of Congress)
Shaun Harkin
The Trial of the Raytheon 9
Website of the Day
The Once and Future Environmental Movement
May 29, 2008
Jeffrey St. Clair
Bill Clinton and the Rich Women
Nikolas Kozloff
Puerto Rico, Obama and the Politics of Race
Col. Dan Smith
Deceiving the Dead
Karl Grossman
The Most Lucrative Incentive for Nuclear Power in the History of the United States
William S. Lind
Inside the Washington Game
Robert Weissman
What to do About the Price of Oil
Dave Lindorff
Why Puerto Rico Won't Matter
David Macaray
A Union Fable
Chris Genovali
Fear and Loathing in the Northern Rockies
Laura Carlsen
Mexico's Battle Over Oil
Website of the Day
Support Antiwar.com
May 28, 2008
Wajahat Ali
The Libertarian Dark Horse: An Exclusive Interview with Ron Paul
Ralph Nader
What's Really Driving the High Price of Oil?
Brian McKenna
Why I Want to Teach Anthropology at the Army War College
Corporate Crime Reporter
Why Vincent Bugliosi Wants to Prosecute George W. Bush for Murder
Brian Cloughley
The Attack on Damadola
Eric Walberg
Opium for the Masses from Afghanistan
Michael Dickinson
Raytheon's Pain Ray: Coming to a Protest Near You
Ijaz Khan
Opening Windows in Pakistan
Website of the Day
Older Than America
May 27, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
In Her Mind She's Killed Before: the Plot to Assassinate Ralph Nader
Greg Kafoury
Is Obama Turning (Further) Right?
Jean Bricmont
Western Delusions
Tim Wise
Farrakhan is not the Problem
Ricardo Alarcón
Puerto Rico's Turn
Stephen Soldz
APA Supports Psychologist Engagement in Bush Regime Interrogations
Andy Worthington
The Guantánamo 16
Alan Singer
Vapid, Stupid and Insulting:
Chuck Schumer Speaks to the Graduates
Richard Neville
Storm in an A-Cup
Susie Day
Gone with the W
May 26, 2008
Uri Avnery
The Syrian Option
Bill Quigley
War Immemorial Day
Col. Dan Smith
Retreating from Hell: a Different Memorial Day
Cindy Sheehan
Why Memorial Day is a Double-Whammy for Me
Marjorie Cohn
Hillary's Assassination Politics: Her Last Shot?
Fred Gardner
Does the VA Care?
Raymond J. Lawrence
Pain Pays: Getting Rich at NY Presbyterian Hospital
Harvey Wasserman
Mugging the Election System
Moncia Benderman
Truth Matters
David Rovics
In Praise of Utah Phillips
Website of the Day
Fox News Jokes About "Knocking Off" Osama and Obama
May 24 / 25, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Death-Wish Hillary Primes Manchurian Candidate
Jeffrey St. Clair
Yellowstone: How Sununu Shrank the Ecosystem
Barbara Rose Johnston
Dam Legacies, Damned Futures
Nikolas Kozloff
U.S. Fourth Fleet in Venezuelan Waters
Adriana Kojeve
The Environment and the 2008 Elections
Robert Fantina
Justice Department's Revelations on Torture
Dave Lindorff
Bush's War on Children in Iraq
David Yearsley
The War on Kitsch
Nelson P. Valdés
The Buying of "Democracy" Agents in Cuba
Kathleen M. Barry
Celebrating Ethnic Cleansing
John Ross
Mexico's Narco Opera Reaches for High Point
Allison Kilkenny
Apathy Doesn't Live in Bronx
Fred Gardner
Orangeburg, 1968
Elizabeth Schulte
Can the Whole World be Fed?
Daniel Gross
Remembering the Wendy's Massacre: the Dangerous Side of Retail Work
Christopher Brauchli
The Search for a Token Right-winger
Richard Rhames
A Nation of Sheep
Daniel Cassidy
My Mother
Poets' Basement
Davies, Klipschutz and Willson
Website of the Weekend
Happy Birthday, Bob
May 23, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
War Abroad, Poverty at Home
Alan Farago
The Radical Extremists of the Building Industry
Conn Hallinan
Ballots and Bullets: From Beirut to Bolivia
Mark Engler
The World After Bush
George Wuerthner
Cars and Cows: Living Large in America
Kamran Matin
The Kurds and American Neo-Imperialism
Sandy Boyer /
Shaun Harkin
The Long Incarceration of Pol Brennan
Robert Weitzel
A "Holey" Instrument of Peace in Iraq
Cindy Sheehan
An Uphill Battle
Liaquat Ali Khan
Pakistan's Futile Constitutional Amendment
Website of the Day
A Message from the Moral Compass of the McCain Campaign
May 22, 2008
Vijay Prashad
Racist Grammar
Joanne Mariner
A Military Commissions Cheat Sheet
Sharon Smith
60 Years of Apartheid
Jeff Birkenstein
Disaster Redux: Some Early Thoughts on the Earthquake in China
Brendan McQuade
From Obama to the PRTs in Iraq
Peter Morici
The Sorry State of the Banking Industry
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Restoration Boulevard
Dave Zirin
What I Want to Ask Mary Tillman
Ron Jacobs
CPR for the Antiwar Movement
Stephen Lendman
Immoral Hazard
Website of the Day
Hagee: God Sent Hitler to Drive the Jews to Israel
May 21, 2008
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Gothic Politics of Hillary Clinton
Nikolas Kozloff
U.S. Military Bases in South America
Alan Farago
Miami, Cuba and the Presidential Campaign
Dave Lindorff
Big John and the Scary, Scary Iran Threat
David Model
Genocide in Iraq?
Eric Walberg
Afghanistan:
Who is the Enemy?
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon Gets a President
Kenneth Couesbouc
Tax Against Tyranny
Website of the Day
Child Labor and War-Affected Children: a Photo Essay
May 20, 2008
Ralph Nader
A Trip Inside Google
Uri Avnery
With Friends Like These
Patrick Irelan
The Empire and the Fleet
Ray McGovern
Come Out, Admiral Fallon, Wherever You Are
David Macaray
The UAW Strike Against American Axle
Chris Genovali
Big Oil on the Water:
Skating Around the Tanker Issue
Ibrahim Fawal
Birmingham, Israel and the Nakba
Christopher Ketcham
Let Us Now Praise Famous Suicides
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo Trial Delayed
Martha Rosenberg
Merck is a Repeat Offender
Website of the Day
Defend the Students Who Pied Tom Friedman
May 19, 2008
Saul Landau
Cuba Will Live
Paul Craig Roberts
The Metamorphosis of the Conservative Movement
Brian McKenna
Brotherly Love in Philly's Badlands
Patrick Cockburn
City of the Dead:
Mosul on Lockdown
B. R. Gowani
The Central Problem Pakistan Needs to Tackle
Dr. Trudy Bond
Psychologists and Torture:
If Not Now, When?
Cindy Sheehan
Whose War is It?
John Mohawk
The Warriors Who Turned to Peace
Remi Kanazi
When Free Speech Doesn't Come for Free
Robert Day
I Get a Horse
Website of the Day
Evolve or Die
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Weekend Edition
June 13-15, 2008
It's Tough Being a Poor Republican
His Little Piece of the Pie
By
ALAN FARAGO
IToday, the New York Times reports that Christopher J. Ward, former Treasurer, stole $725,000 from The National Republican Congressional Committee. “The thefts are both embarrassing and painful for the committee, which has been struggling to raise money for what is expected to be a tough year ...”
Now, where would a senior Republican campaign official get the idea that it was OK to steal $725,000?
Well, for one: it is a tough time to be a Republican. You have to talk fiscal conservatism while nothing around you vaguely resembles it.
When George W. Bush came to office, he pledged an orderly White House, not like Clinton’s whose staff walked away from the Executive Office Building having removed the W key from a bunch of keyboards and assorted mischief. A 2002 GAO report totaled the damage estimate at about $20,000.
But grifting $725,000, from your own Republican Party? Maybe Mr. Ward thought it was a drop in the bucket and no one would notice, like the $800 million missing in Iraq of taxpayer money we sent there in George W. Bush’s war, or the $7 billion no-bid contract to Halliburton as a result, the company Vice President Dick Cheney ran back in the day.
After all, Mr. Ward likely read the same news reports that we did, about Halliburton overcharging the Pentagon for fuel deliveries into Iraq.
A recent BBC investigation has estimated the amount of money stolen, lost or not properly accounted for in Iraq as high as $23 billion.
In a 60 Minutes broadcast, the former Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi said “most of the money simply disappeared.”
In the United States, top financial executives of Wall Street firms—99 percent Republican—are walking away from billions of losses and pocketing hundreds of millions in compensation on the way out the door. The next thing you know, oil smuggling in Iraq will cost the Iraqi government billions of dollars and fund the insurgency.
In case you haven't been paying attention: that is happening, too.
Under such conditions of moral hazard, why wouldn't Christopher J. Ward look at his little piece of the pie as a rounding error to “remodel and pay the mortgage on his home in Bethesda, MD.” I'm not saying this is what Mr. Ward felt, but God: when the dog is messing up the living room furniture and you're only making $120,000 and you're treasure for the President’s Dinner Committee, “the party’s biggest annual fund-raising event”, but paid only $10,000 for your trouble. Well, enough is enough. Yes we can!
It’s tough being a poor Republican.
Alan Farago lives in south Florida. He can be reached at: afarago@bellsouth.net
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