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Today's Stories June 15, 2007 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 Ali Abuminah Bush Doctrine Routed in Gaza Gary Leupp The Day After We Attack Iran John Ross Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico   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 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 June 9 / 10, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Dissidents Against Dogma George Ciccariello-Maher Behind Venezuela's "Student Rebellion": Who's Pulling the Strings? Saul Landau An Interview with Ricardo Alarcon, Vice President of Cuba Robert Fisk Believe It or Not in the Middle East Brian Cloughley Troop Support: Deceptions and Insipid Sentiments Ron Jacobs Condoleezza Rice Names the System Ward Boston Searching for the Truth About the USS Liberty Conn Hallinan Dark Plots in Byzantine Beirut Leonard Peltier The Ongoing War on Native American Religious Practices Lawrence Davidson Israel's New Anti-Boycott Task Force John Ross Mass Nude-In Complicates Church-State Scuffling in Mexico Kate Allan Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing Fred Gardner Ignorance Marches On Stephen Fleischman Little Boy, Fat Man and Iran Monica Benderman Reading Tom Paine in a Time of Crisis Geoff Bailey A Real Oil Conspiracy: Gouged at the Pump Missy Beattie Faith and War Patrick Dyer A Democrat Revs Up Ohio's Death Machine Tim Lengerich Dispelling the Cowboy Myth: an Interview with George Wuerthner James Irani and David Rahni Perspectives on the Arrests of Iran-Americans in Tehran Gary Leupp The Unfair Treatment of Paris Hilton Michael Tillery The Heart of a Sportswriter: an Interview with David Aldridge Michael Simmons Beating Off the Squares: the Hipness of Anton Rosenberg Poets' Basement Laymon, Davies and Ford Website of the Weekend This is Sea Shepherd!   June 8, 2007 Serge Halimi What Sarkozy Learned About Politics from the US Patrick Cockburn The Turkish Incursion Jeffrey St. Clair Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty, Revisited   Paul Craig Roberts The Secret War William Blum What If NBC Cheered on a Military Coup Against Bush? Joshua Frank Swing-State Strategy: Looking for a Spoiler Lance Selfa How the Six Day War Changed the Middle East Dave Lindorff A "Criminal Conspiracy" in the White House Lawrence Ferlinghetti The Summer of Love: Flashbacks of a Human Be-In Website of the Day Robert Pollin: "Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living Wage" June 7, 2007 Marjorie Cohn The Prison is the War Crime Soldz, Reisner and Olson: A Q & A on Psychologists and Torture Soldz, Reisner and Olson, et al: An Open Letter to Sharon Brehm, President of the American Psychological Association Paul Craig Roberts Losing Iraq, Nuking Iran Bill Quigley "How Long Must We Support a Mistake?" Silvia Cattori Sailing to Gaza Carl G. Estabrook What the June Bug Is: Politics in the Dismal Season Ellen Taylor Free the Tweakers!: The Good News About Meth Corporate Crime Reporter BAE Systems, Prince Bandar and the $2 Billion Account at the Riggs Bank Brenda Norrell Torture Training at Ft. Huachuca: Two Priests Face Prison for Exposing Torture in Arizona D. K. Wilson What Gary Sheffield Really Said Kevin Zeese Iraq Occupation Coming to a Head Over Oil Website of the Day How the Press Expired June 6, 2007 Alain Gresh Countdown to War on Iran Gary Leupp Poddy's Crazy Prayer: Bomb Iran, For Israel and America! Steven Sherman The Perils of Humanitarian Intervention Bruce Dixon Is Bill Gates Trying to Hijack Africa's Food Supply? Corporate Crime Reporter The Professor and the Nukes Brian M. Downing The Iraq War and Presidential Politics Ron Jacobs Luv n' Hate: a Different Take on the Summer of Love George Bisharat The Mirage of the Two State Solution Nicole Colson Over to You, Dante: Falwell's Ministry of Hate Bruce K. Gagnon From Italy to Guam: A Global Peace Movement is Taking Shape Website of the Day How the Democrats Should Treat Bush   June 5, 2007 Michael Neumann Canada in Afghanistan Jonathan Cook The Shin Bet and the Persecution of Azmi Bishara David Vest The Democrats' War Robert Fantina America's Cuba Policy Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury CounterTerrorism as International Healthcare John V. Walsh Shaming the Official Antiwar Movement Richard Cretan Yellow Dog: The Strange Love of Martin Amis and Tony Blair Adam Engel Days of Dread: an American Tale William S. Lind The News from Anbar: Has Al Qaeda Over-Reached? Myles Hoenig Free the Oaks! Cut Down Those Yellow Ribbons! Jim Minick Lead-Foot Nation Website of the Day Punk Rock Soap Opera June 4, 2007 Nizar Latif An Interview with Moqtada al-Sadr Diana Johnstone Sarko and the Ghosts of May, 1968 Gregory Wilpert RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela Paul Watson The Anchorage Whale Killing Bureaucrats Summit Susan Rosenthal, MD How Cindy Sheehan Unmasked the Democrats Richard Ward The Right of Return to New Orleans Eva Liddell Don't Support the Troops Zahi Khouri Four Decades of Occupation Evelyn Pringle The FDA, GlaxoSmithKline and the Avandia Disaster China Hand About Those North Korean Benjamin Franklins ... Karyn Strickler George W. Bush: a "Ficeist" Leader Website of the Day The Guantanamo Files   June 2 / 3, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Last of the Texas Outsiders Marc Levy Iraq Dead Ahead: a Brief Military History and Civilian Guide to Arlington National Cemetery Martin Smith Camilo Mejía's War: From Foot Soldier for Empire to Rebel for Peace Diana Johnstone Great Power Meddling in Kosovo John Ross The Oaxaca Volcano Stews Uri Avnery On Generals and Admirals Sunsara Taylor This is Not a Story About Cindy Sheehan Richard Neville Were the Hippies Right? P. Sainath The Farm Crisis and 100,000 Indian Widows Missy Comley Beattie Let's Roar Nisrine Abiad and Victor Kattan The Hariri Tribunal: a Fait Accompli? Rannie Amiri Lebanon, Bush and the Three Stooges Margot Pepper Deconstructing "Return to Sender" Eric Stewart Censorship and Cop Brutality in the New Bison Wars Ralph Nader The Halberstam Camp Dan Bacher A Victory for the Fish Shaun Harkin and Sandy Boyer Irish War Protesters on Trial Richard Rhames Selling Five Acres in Crawford Frederick Hudson The Rediscovery of Ella Fitzgerald Poets' Basement Lindorff, Landau and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Gimme Shelter June 1, 2007 Dave Marsh The FBI and the Godfather (of Soul): James Brown's FBI Files Saul Landau Return to Cuba: 47 Years Later in Havana David Phinney How the Baghdad Embassy Was Built: Forced Labor and Worker Abuse Robert Jensen The Bigot and the Boycott Stanley Heller Arrest Robert McNamara Yifat Susskind Indigenous Women Fight Back Robert Weissman Corporate Power Since 1980 Paul Buchheit Africa and Its Discontents William S. Lind The Folly of Maximalist Objectives Sherwood Ross 78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes Stephen Lendman Terrorism Defined Website of the Day Desert Autonomous Zone

June 15, 2007 Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami The View from a Construction Crane By ALAN FARAGO Miami developers, whose condominiums are nearly completed, could tap into a new source of revenue based on a news report from the Florida coastal town, Punta Gorda. There, police arrested a couple having sex atop a 100 foot high construction crane. “The man, who worked at the site and had keys to the crane, told officers he was photographing the city skyline.” For the foreseeable future, renting out crane cabs for sex would generate a higher percentage profit than selling condominiums in unfinished buildings. What is happening to Miami real estate markets and its skyline dotted with cranes atop unfinished condominiums is both predictable and terrifying.And because it is terrifying, not a single elected official is copping to responsibility in the unfolding collapse, spurred by their blind enthusiasm for zoning and permitting decisions and the influence of campaign contributors and the bill-by-the-hour development lobby. Today’s Miami Herald documents the pain felt especially in some of Miami’s poorer neighborhoods where increasing numbers of homeowners are facing foreclosure. The poor are always hit the hardest by corruption and fraud: the landmarks of the housing boom as with all sorts of pollution. They are also hit, first, on the bottom step. But the entire economic ladder is being shaken hard and under-reported by the mainstream media. Lots of people in high places (measured not by construction crane height) are praying that the mortgage fiasco resolves itself quiety. Elected officials who presided over the mess have their game faces on. Government officials—in Congress and the White House—are scrambling to come up with plans to stage-manage the fallout (urging “cooperative” efforts of financial institutions to work out billions of loans generated in the enthusiasm of the “ownership society”—remember that?). The Florida legislature has been engaged in a highly publicized effort to “jump start” the Growth Machine by slashing property taxes. But when all is said and done, the proposed relief of 7 percent is mired in delusion. Over the last year revenue that Florida collects from real estate transactions dipped 25 percent, “causing overall tax revenue to fall for the first time since the 1970’s.” (New York Times, June 15, 2007) So, at the same time that damage in Miami’s condominium, mid-price and upper price housing markets is just beginning, cuts in tax revenue piled atop declining tax base are setting the stage for recession and social unrest. The billion-dollar Boca Development—that focused on coastal condos—is trying to shed hundreds of millions of assets. Production home builders are burning cash under conditions of tighening credit and balooning inventory. The NY Times reports, today, that a Bear Stearns “set of hedge funds” tied to leveraged mortgage portfolios is down 23 percent “and recently suspended redemptions, prohibiting investors from getting their money back.” If you own shares in a hedge fund, you will never know if its managers have been buying Miami condominiums until it is too late to do anything about it. One is tempted to say, speculation is an individual and personal choice. But not when the societal outcomes are so severe. The notion that what is happening in real estate markets is inconsequential is reinforced, almost like a mantra, by the financial elite. According to the NY Times, “None of the finance officials at the banks expressed concern about the recent spike in interest rates, suggesting that the market’s adverse reaction passed quickly and that spikes occur every year. ‘As long as we continue to see that kind of benign environment—good availability of economic liquidity—I don’t think it will have much of an effect on our business,” Mr. Viniar (chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs) said.” In markets like Miami, governed primarily by speculators, thousands of investors are not facing the future with the same equanimity. In the next six months as Miami condominiums obtain certificates of occupancy the real Miami will begin to hurl, showing what was achieved by politicians in Tallahassee and Washington who promoted the “ownership society” as the replacement for the dot.com boom. The stories are yet to be told of ordinary people who leveraged hard earned dollars into properties their ordinary incomes cannot afford. But of communities in Florida, and developers who got their way by zoning changes and building permits in wetlands and farmland—suburban sprawl that should never have been allowed—every single taxpayer will be paying for terrible decisions made by their elected officials for a long, long time to come. Those at the top of the Ponzi scheme, and the politicians they subsidized, will be on easy street—no matter how bad inflation gets or how many police officers scour crane cabs for couples engaged in free expression. Alan Farago of Coral Gables, who writes about the environment, can be reached at alanfarago@yahoo.com.

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