|
Today's
Stories
February
28, 2006
Sharon
Smith
Racism Thrives
February
27, 2006
Buncombe
/ Cockburn
And Now Come the Death Squads
Paul
Craig Roberts
Twilight of the Hegemony
Ingmar
Lee
Bush Mired in India's Nuclear Fallout: the Smiling Buddha Blast
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads, Shrine Bombs, Civil War: Iraq Going According to
the Plan?
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Bunker Days
Pat
Wolff
Sleeper Cells in South Dakota? The State of Mandatory Motherhood
Lila
Rajiva
Double Standards on Foreign Owners: Amdocs vs. DP World
Website
of the Day
Get Ya Hustle On!
February
25 / 26, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
Quail in War and Peace
Lila
Rajiva
Chertoff Strikes Again
Lee
Sustar
Target: Iran
Jennifer
Van Bergen / Madis Senner
The Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir
Justin
E.H. Smith
David Horowitz's Odd Gripe
Paul
Craig Roberts
Bush Hides Behind Supply-Side Economics to Reward His Cronies
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Exposed?: New Emails in Plame Case Point to Veep's Role
Gilad
Atzmon
In Support of My Mayor
Zahid
Shariff
What's Going On in Pakistan?
Fred
Gardner
Investigating Dr. Denney
Dick
J. Reavis
What the UAE / Seaports Deal Teaches Us
David
Stocker
Snow Job: the Privatization of US Ports
John
Bomar
Losing on Every Front
Mike
Marqusee
The Marchers Were Right
Pratyush
Chandra
Bush's Passage to India
Ben
Tripp
Rewriting History
Dr.
Susan Block
Life, Death and Cartoons
Poets'
Basement
Landau, Guthrie, LaMorticella, Engel and Mazza
Website
of the Weekend
Toward Freedom
February
24, 2006
Alan
Maass
War Crimes and Hunting Misdemeanors
William
S. Lind
The Coming Fall of Pakistan
Dave
Lindorff
Useless Democrats: a Whig's Worth of Difference?
Pierre
Tristam
Iraq's Cambodian Jungle
Meg
Bannerji
Bush's Port Deal: Who's the Dummy?
Robert
Jensen
The Failures of Our First Amendment Successes
Mark
Engler
How Costly is Too Costly?: Finding the Budgetary Tipping Point
for Iraq
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Watching the Dissolution of Palestine
Website
of the Day
Katrina and the Failure of Black Leadership
February
23, 2006
Chet
Richards
Rumsfeld's New Model Military: Creating
Stability or Insurgency?
Jonathan
Feldman
Dubaigate Deconstructed
Joshua
Frank
The Democrats' Pull Out Method: Another Election Year Stunt?
Ron
Jacobs
Volunteers of America: the Politics of the Weather Underground
Amira
Hass
Separate and Unequal: Forbidden to Go Home Together
Samah
Sabawi
Hamas and the Missing Video: Editorial Delusions at the Globe
and Mail
Norman
Solomon
The Unreal Death of Journalism
Christopher
Reed
Japan's Neo-Militarists
Website
of the Day
Is the Pentagon Making an Anthrax Bomb in Utah?
February
22, 2006
Robert
Pollin
Reaganomics Revisited: Beyond the
Glow of Nostalgia
Phil
Doe
How to Pay for War and Cut Taxes for the Rich: Sell Off the Public
Lands
Pirouz
Azadi
Looking Middle Eastern? You are a Prime Suspect
Saul
Landau
Memo to the Dems: Doesn Anyone Give a Damn?
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End?: Trouble Down Under
Sam
Smith
Real Holocaust Denial
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Could You Please Pass the Port?
Diane
Farsetta
The Pentagon's Media Contracts:
the Wages of Spin
Website
of the Day
Port of No Return: Bin Laden, the Taliban and the UAE
February
21, 2006
Paul
Craig Roberts
Would Someone Please Interfere in
Our Elections?
Franklin
Spinney
Arab Democracy American-Style: Or
How to Lose a 4th Generation War
Dave
Lindorff
Chasing Cheney in the Ambulance
Alevtina
Rea
Ethics, Morals and Empire
Bruce
K. Gagnon
The Dems' Latest Stall Strategy: "Strategic Redeployment"
Dave
Zirin
Whiteblindness: the Winter Olympics, Bryant Gumbel and Racism
at ESPN
Bill
Quigley
Six Months After Katrina: Who Was Left Behind Then? Who is Being
Left Behind Now?
Website
of the Day
Soldiers and Students
February
20, 2006
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Perversions of the Bush Administration:
Sexual Humiliation and Mother Murder in the War on Terror
Rachard
Itani
The Bigoted Wombat: John Howard Does Abu Ghraib
Gideon
Levy
A Chilling Heartlessness
Joshua
Frank
Cindy Sheehan's Message to the Democrats
Newton
Garver
The Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Evo Morales
Pratyush
Chandra
What the US Ambassador Taught Nepalis
Seth
Sandronsky
Bubblicious: the US Real Estate Market
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The FBI and the Myth of Fingerprints
Website
of the Day
Chickenhawks Hall of Shame
February
18 / 19, 2006
Werther
A Half-Dozen Questions About 9/11
They Don't Want You to Ask
Uzma
Aslam Khan
Live from Lahore: Watching with Glee
Joe
DeRaymond
A Case of Injustice in Pennsylvania: the Prosecution of Dennis
Counterman
Edward
F. Mooney
Is Liberalism a Failing Religion? The Case of the Danish Cartoons
Paul
Craig Roberts
From Conservatives to Brownshirts
Elaine
Cassel
The Sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui: an Issue of Competency
P.
Sainath
Soaring Suicides in Vidharbha
Thomas
P. Healy
An Interview with Ann Wright
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections: Right Result; Wrong Procedure
Fred
Gardner
Health Savings Accounts: a Boon for the Bosses
Rep.
Cynthia McKinney
Katrina's New Underclass
Brian
Tokar
WTO vs. Europe: Less (and More) Than It Seems
Chan
Chee Khoon
Privatizing the World Bank?
Andrew
Freedman
Chicago's Panopticon
St.
Clair / Walker
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets'
Basement
Hassen, Anderson, Engel and Guthrie
Website
of the Weekend
Depictionary
February
17, 2006
Floyd
Rudmin
Secret War Plans and the Malady of
American Militarism
Gervasio
Rodríguez
FBI Home Invasions in Puerto Rico
Gary
Leupp
The Mad is No Longer Out of the Question:
Stopping the War on Iran Before It Starts
Ramzy
Baroud
Weathering the Globalization Storm
Amira
Hass
Apartheid Gates: IDF Establishes "Israeli Only" Crossings
Matthew
Koehler
Forest Abuse on the Kootenai: an Intervention in Montana
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Deadeye Dick: Who Dares Call Him Chickenhawk Now?
Debbie
Nathan
ABC's Primetime "Teen Sex Slaves" Scam
Website
of the Day
Black Mesa Defense
Febrauary
16, 2006
Lila
Rajiva
Torture Pictures That Didn't Make
the Exhibition
Norman
Solomon
Dick Cheney's Fox Trot
Ron
Jacobs
An Interview with Antiwar Faster Mike
Ferner
Paul
Craig Roberts
Their Own Economic Reality
Website
of the Day
This
Ain't No Video Game
February
15, 2006
Brian
Conacnnon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections: Chaos, Supression
and Fraud
Dave
Lindorff
Democrats Shoot Their Own, Too
Saree
Makdisi
Israeli Ultimatums
Joshua
Frank
The Rhetorical Gore
Amira
Hass
Down the Expulsion Highway
CounterPunch
Wire
Winter of Discontent: a 34-Day Fast
Against the War
Robert
Bryce
The United States of Enron
Website
of the Day
Osama's
Game: an Interview with Michael Scheuer
February
14, 2006
John
Sugg
Those Cartoons and the Neo Con: Daniel
Pipes and the Danish Editor
Don
Santina
DiFi and the Royal Democrats: the
Curious Withdrawal of Cindy Sheehan
William
A. Cook
Shaming Sharon
Ray
McGovern
Who Will Blow the Whistle About
Iran?
John
Ross
Bush's Mexican Poodle
Website
of the Day
Willie
Nelson Records CPer Ned Sublette's "Cowboys Are Frequently
Secretly"
February 13, 2006
Lila
Rajiva
Axis of Child Abusers: UK Troops
Beat Up Barefoot Iraqi Teens
Christopher
Brauchli
Whistleblowers and Witch Hunters:
the Bush Inquisition
Dave
Lindorff
Deadeye Dick: If Stupidity Were
Impeachable, Cheney Would Be History
Ron
Jacobs
Black Liberation
Mike
Whitney
Riding High with Hugo Chavez
Michael
Neumann
Respectful Cultures and Disrespectful
Cartoons
Website
of the Day
Virtual Resistance
February
11 / 12, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
How Not to Spot a Terrorist
Ralph
Nader
Bringing
Democracy to the Federal Reserve
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nuking
the Economy
Pat Williams
John
Boehner's Dirty Little Secret: Flying Lobbyist Air at $4,000
a Junket
Fred Gardner
Dr.
Mikuriya's Appeal: a Last Minute Twist
Saul Landau
From
Munich to Hamas
John Chuckman
Cartoons
and Bombs: Was Rice Right for Once?
Roger Burbach
Evo
Morales: the Early Days
Seth Sandronsky
Economy
on Ice
Website of
the Weekend
Just
Say Know
February 10,
2006
Carl
G. Estabrook
A US War Plan for Khuzestan?
Sen.
Russell Feingold
A Raw Deal on the Patriot Act
Roxanne
Dunbar----Ortiz
How Did Evo Morales Come to Power?
Saree Makdisi
The
Tempest Over the Hamas Charter
Website of
the Day
The
New York Art Scene: 1974----1984
February 9,
2006
Dave Lindorff
Bush
and Yamashita: War Crimes and Commanders-in-Chief
Mike Marqusee
The
Human Majority was Right About Iraq
Paul Craig Roberts
How Conservatives Went Crazy: the Rightwing Press
Peter Phillips
Inside
the Global Dominance Group: 200 Insiders Against the World
William S. Lind
Rumsfeld the Maximalist: the Long War
Christine Tomlinson Innocent
Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's
Eavesdropping Program
Will Youmans
Church of England Votes to Divest from Israel
Robert Robideau
An American Indian's View of the Cartoons
Richard Neville
The Cartoons That Shook the World: All This from the Danes, the
Least Funny People on Earth
Peter Rost
The New Robber Barons
Website of the Day
Eyes Wide Open
February 8,
2006
Ron Jacobs
The
Once and Future Sly Stone: Soundtrack to a Riot
Stan Cox
Making
and Unmaking History with General Myers
Sen. Russ Feingold
Why
Bush's Wiretapping Program is Illegal and Unconstitutional
Robert Jensen
Horowitz's
Academic Hit List: Take a Class from One of the CounterPunch
16
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Bush Should Have Wiretapped FEMA and Chertoff
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Alberto Gonzales Channels Mark Twain
Don Monkerud
Covenant Marriage on the Rocks
David Swanson
Inequality and War
C.L. Cook
Nuking Ontario
Christopher
Fons
Chill Out Jihadis: They're Just Cartoons!
Jeffrey Ballinger
The Other Side of Nike and Social Responsibility
Website of
the Day
Encyclopedia of Terrorism in the Americas
February 7,
2006
Edward Lucie-Smith
An
Urgent Plea to Save a Small Estonian Museum from Neo-Nazis
Robert Fisk
The Fury: Now Lebanon is Burning
Paul Craig Roberts
Colin Powell's Career as a "Yes Man"
Neve Gordon
Why Hamas Won
Joshua Frank
The Hillary and George Show: Partners in War
Peter Montague
The Problem with Mercury: a History of Regulatory Capitulation
Jackie Corr
The
Last Best Choice: Public Power and Montana
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Rumsfeld's
Enforcer: the Secret World of Stephen Cambone
Website of the Day
Negroes with Guns
February 6,
2006
Christopher
Brauchli
Spilling
Blood: Two Sentences
Robert Fisk
Don't
Be Fooled: This Isn't About Islam vs. Secularism
John Chuckman
What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win?
Jenna Orkin
Judge Slams EPA for Lying About 9/11's Toxic Air
Paul Craig
Roberts
Who
Will Save America: My Epiphany
February 4
/ 5, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
"Lights
Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run
Mike Ferner
Pentagon
Database Leaves No Kid Alone
James Petras
Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia
Alan Maass
Scare of the Union: Dems Collaborate with Bush on Surveillance
Fred Gardner
Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's
Office
Ralph Nader
Bush's
Energy Escapades
Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Speaking in Tongues
Saul Landau
Freedom 2006: Buying Sex on the Net or Those Older Freedoms?
Laura Carlsen
Bad Blood on the Border: Killing Guillermo Martinez
James Brooks
Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors
Mike Roselle
Hippies and Revolutionaries in Carcacas
John Holt
Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy
Sarah Ferguson
Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops
William S.
Lind
Beware the Ides of March
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Price of Globalization: Free Trade or Free Speech?
Seth Sandronsky
The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry
Derrick O'Keefe
Rumsfeld's Hitler Analogy
Michael Donnelly
Hop on the Bus
Ron Jacobs
Religion and Political Power
Elisa Salasin
RSVP to Bush
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Stew Albert
God's Curse: Selected Poems
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, LaMorticella and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Killer
Tells All!
February 3,
2006
Toufic Haddad
A
Parliament of Prisoners
Heather Gray
Working with Coretta Scott King
Tim Wise
Racism,
Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates
Conn Hallinan
Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm
Eva Golinger
Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela
Daniel Ellsberg
The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration
Dave Zirin
Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink
Robert Bryce
The
Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East
Website of
the Day
The Chavez Code
February 2,
2006
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Pentagon
Pork: How to Eliminate It
Stan Cox
Outsourcing
the Golden Years
Rachard Itani
Danes
(Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons)
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up
Amira Hass
In
the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya
Norman Solomon
When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind
Words
Michael Simmons
Stew Lives!
Christopher
Reed
Japan's
Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves
Website of the Day
State of Nature
February 1,
2006
Sharon Smith
The
Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster
Jason Leopold
Enron and the Bush Administration
Cindy Sheehan
Getting
Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened
Joseph Grosso
Oprah
and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality"
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife
Steven Higgs
Life After Roe. v. Wade
Robert Robideau
"God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America
R. Siddharth
Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with
Henry Ford
Jim Retherford
Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
The Legacy of Coretta Scott King
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
True State of the Union
Website of
the Day
Candide's Notebooks
January 31,
2006
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Revolutionary
for the Hell of It: the Good Life of Stew Albert
Clancy Chassay
US
Prods Lebanon Towards Civil War
Dave Lindorff
The Democrats' Alito Debacle
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Alito: Harry-Kerry in the Senate
Oren Ben-Dor
Hamas' Victory: a New Hope?
Winslow Wheeler
Pentagon
Pork: What is It? Who Cooks It Up?
John Ryan
Canada: a Chilling Echo of Bush's Republicans
Mike Marqusee
Privatizing
Health Care: the Poor Pay the Price
Ron Jacobs
For Stew
Andrew Cockburn
Why Bush Probably Won't Attack Iran
Website of
the Day
Celebrating Stew Albert
January 30,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush,
Fox News and the Coming War on Iran
Winslow Wheeler
Inside
the Pork Shop: the Defense Budget and Congressional Earmarks
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Development Interrupted
Marcus Dam
"The Real Threat is from Imperial Fundamentalism":
an Interview with Tariq Ali
John Bomar
Message to Democrats: the Case Against Pre-War Lying is a Slam
Dunk, Stupid
Ben Beachy
Swindling the Sick: the IMF Debt Relief Sham
Gideon Levy
The Good News About Hamas' Victory
Michael Carmichael
Alito and Opus Dei
Missy Comley
Beattie
Of Losses and Lies
Norman Solomon
The Question Journalists Refuse to Ask Bush
Brian Concannon,
Jr.
Finally Some Good News From Haiti
Michael Ratner
Tomorrow is Today; the Time for
Resistance is Now
Website of
the Day
"I'm So Bored with Capitol Hill"
January 28
/ 29, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
Nicholas
Kristof's Brothel Problem
Ralph Nader
The Impeachable Mr. Bush
Col. Dan Smith
Spying and Lying by the Pentagon
Paul Craig Roberts
Blind Ignorance: Polls Show Many Americans Simply Dumber Than
Bush
Tammara Rosenleaf
Homefront War Diary: On Monday, My Husband Didn't Call
Ron Jacobs
Google This!
Harry Browne
Irish "Peace" Process at Recriminations Stage
Fred Gardner
Grover Norquist, Drug Policy Reformer?
Christopher
Reed
North Korean Forgeries
Bernard Chazelle
France's Colonial Blowback
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money, 2005: How Entergy Gets Its Way at Indian Point
Tom Kerr
Small Fry: If You're Not in Power, You'd Better Not Lie
Asad Abu Khalil
The Demise of Fatah
Chris Murphy
The Medicare Disaster
Dr. Susan Block
America Wants a Divorce
Kathy Deacon
Hippocratic Oaf
St. Clair /
Walker / Palmer / Shields
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Laymon, Engel, Holt, Davies and Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Your Child Can Be a NSA Spook!
January 27, 2006
Suren Pillay
Making
the World Safe for Nuclear Violence, Again
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The
NYT and Alito: Journalistic Schizophrenia
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr
The
Cold Hard Truth: Marching Backwards on Civil Rights
Uri Avnery
To
Talk with Hamas
Gary Leupp
Hamas's Victory: "the Power of Democracy"
Samar Assad
A New Political Landscape in Palestine
Jeffrey St.
Clair
King
of the Hill: Sen. Ted Steven's Empire of Corruption
Website of the Day
Bush Jobs Program: You Too Can Be an FBI Snitch
January 26,
2006
Robert Robideau
An
AIM Activist's View of Jack Abramoff: Another Racist Out to Defraud
Native Tribes
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bolton
Orders Syria to Do the Impossible
Gilad Atzmon
Hamas'
Victory
Jason Leopold
A Vaster Conspiracy?: Fitzgerald Probes Niger Forgeries
Joshua Frank
Iran, Nukes and Oil
Dave Lindorff
Bush Calls Hamas Kettle Black
Susan Lee
An Open Letter to the State Dept. on the Cuban Five
Missy Comley Beattie
A Plea to the Marines: Stop Sending Recruiting Letters to Our
House!
Michael Carmichael
Extraordinary Alito
Michael Neumann
The
Core of Zionism
Website of
the Day
Who Will Stop the Slaughter of Yellowstone's Bison?
January 25,
2006
Saul Landau
Domestic
Spying, Now and Then: When Hoover Bugged Phone Calls with My
Father
James Petras
Is Chile's Bachelet Washington's Best New Ally?
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Alito
and Roberts' Self-Gag Rule is a Phony
Vijay Prashad
From Chennai with Love
Kevin Zeese
Gen. William Odom Supports the Empire, But Opposes the War
Alison Weir
When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Anatomy of a
Cover-Up
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bush War Economy: Exporting Jobs and Security
Joan Roelofs
Military
Contractor Philanthropy
Website of
the Day
Bob Marley Does Dylan
January 24,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Patriot Police: the Unfathomed Dangers of Patriot Act Reauthorization
Kathy Kelly
Liberation
and Deliverance
Jorge Mariscal
Bush's War Viewed from the South
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Smoke
and Mirrors in the Defense Budget
John Walsh
Why We Picket John Kerry: Join Us Friday in Boston
Youmans / Muaddi
The Growing Israel Divestment Movement
Roger Burbach
Bolivia's Evo Morales: Original Mandate for Social Revolution
Fr. Gerard
Jean-Juste
Letter from a Haitian Prison
Noam Chomsky
The Terrorist in the Mirror
Website of
the Day
Big Brother Watch
January 23, 2006
Uri Avnery
Pity
the Orphan: Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Elections
Susan Pynchon
Diebold in Florida: "I Saw It Hacked"
William Loren
Katz
Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's IRS: Squeezing the Poor
Chris Floyd
The Goon Show
Joshua Frank
Tre Arrow and ELF: Environmentalism on Death Row
Norman Solomon
The Other Shoe Drops: Classified Leaks and Journalists
Jackie Corr
Working for the Railroad: Racicot and the Burlington Northern
Paul Craig
Roberts
Inside
Cheney's War Workshop
Website of the Day
Arms Against War
January 21/22,
2006
Tim Shorrock
Why
the Buses Didn't Come: Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina
Evacuation Fiasco
Ralph Nader
Congressional
Ethics After Abramoff
Peter Feng
Casualties of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami
Brian Cloughley
CIA Bombs Pakistan, Hits America
Michael Donnelly
Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments
Tom Kerr
Crackdown in San Quentin: Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams'
Friends?
Tim Matson
Best Not Drive While Black on I-91
(But Walk Tall With the Bloody Chainsaw You Just Topped Your
Neighbor With)
Dave Lindorff
Rumsfeld: Venezuela "Overspending" on Military
Daniel Wolff
Hour of Reckoning: the Gospel Roots of Wilson Pickett
Fred Gardner
"Metabolic Syndrome" is to "Clinical Depression"
as Acomplia is Prozac
Jason Leopold
How Cheney Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Prior to 9/11
Matthew Koehler
Betting on Biscuit: Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological (or
Economic) Sense?
John Bomar
The Emperor's Clothes: from Bonaparte to Bush
Ron Jacobs
When Miners March: Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win!
Becky Akers
Debunking Democracy
Joanne Mariner
Security, Terrorism and Human Rights
St. Clair / Walker / Pollack
CounterPunch Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Holt, Engel and Davies
Website of the Day
Osama's Book Club: Featured Selection
January 20, 2006
Brian J. Foley
What
Kind of War Doesn't Allow for a Truce?
Richard Gott
Revolution in the Andes
Joshua Frank
Israel and US Threats Against Iran
Pierre Tristam
Imperial Mongers: From Gladstone to "King George"
Bernstein /
Allegretto
Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months
Elizabeth Schulte
Abortion
Before Roe
Website of
the Day
This Dog Bites
January 19,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Political
Machines: Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
Bill Simpich
Those Damn Democrats: To End War, Don't Ask for What You Don't
Want
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Reclaiming King Day (From the NAACP)
Sam Husseini
Rot at the Top: If the Democrats Really Want to Stop Bush, They
Need New Leadership
Sam Smith
The Real Chocolate City
Monica Benderman
Dare to Make a Stand
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Just
How Big is the Defense Budget?
Website of the Day
Leave My Child Alone
January 18,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Gore's
Speech: a Challenge That Cannot be Ignored
Norman Solomon
The Crime of Giving the Orders: Executing Clarence Ray Allen
Jonathan M.
Feldman
The System Doesn't Work Anymore
Michael Carmichael
"Extraordinary Circumstances": the Case Against Alito
Paul D'Amato
The Crimes of Jimmy Carter
Cynthia McKinney
King's Mission Endures
Norman Finkelstein
Why
an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified
Website of the Day
The Planetary Movement
January 17,
2006
M. Shahid Alam
"Real
Men Go to Tehran": Has al-Qaeda's Gambit Paid Off?
John Ross
Latin
America's Indians on the Move--in Different Directions
Tariq Ali
God, Blood, Oil and Iraq
Michael Donnelly
Killing Anna Mae Aquash, Smearing John Trudell
Amira Hass
No Child Left Unharassed: the Obstacle Course to School in Palestine
Doug Giebel
Alito's CAP: Either He Lied on His Resumé or There's a
Cover-Up
Bill Quigley
MLK Day in a Haitian Prison
Ron Jacobs
Meet the Son of Jim Crow: MLK Day Below the Mason/Dixon Line
Mike Stark
Governor on a Killling Spree
Werther
The Liberties of the Subject
January 16, 2006
John Walsh
Tears
of a Neocon: The Good News from Daniel Pipes
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Black
Students Under Fire: Racial Profiling in Public Schools
Roger Burbach
Bachelet's
Victory: Leftward Drift in Chile?
Norman Solomon
Ted Koppel, NPR and Henry Kissinger: a Natural Fit?
Robert Jensen
Dreams and Nightmares: How Would King Judge America?
Sam Husseini
Martin Luther King and the Deeper Malady
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush
Crosses the Rubicon
Website of the Day
MLK: Beyond Vietnam
January 14
/ 15, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
What
the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said
JoAnn Wypijewski
What
is an Antiwar Movement?
James Petras
The State of the Empire, 2006
Ron Jacobs
Fifteen Years of War: Who's Better Off?
Brian Cloughley
Fly Boys and Lie Boys: Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They
Sleep
Marianne McDonald
The Madness of Ajax: a Play for Our Time
Bruce Tyler Wick
Bush on Torture Echoes Charles I on Arbitrary Imprisonment
Fred Gardner
A Last, Desperate Plea to Stay in Canada
Flavia Alaya
Victory at Passaic County Jail
Gary Leupp
A Neocon Plan to Plant WMDs?
Dr. Susan Block
Peeping Tom in the Bush: Nonconsenual Voyeurism and the NSA
Nicole Colson
The House Jack Built: The Abramoff Giude to Buying Friends and
Influencing Politics
Jeffrey Kolakowski
Senator as Illusionist: the Hypocrisies of John McCain
Missy Comley
Beattie
The Stepford Hearings of Samuel Alito: The Senator, the Weepy
Wife and a Secret Annoiting
Charles Thomson
Is Serota Dead in the Water?: the Ofili Scandal at the Tate
St. Clair /
Walker / Vest
Playlsts: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Historians Against the War
January 13,
2006
Ralph Nader
The
Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Alito
Leonard Weinglass
The
Singular Story of the Cuban Five
Amira Hass
Prisoners in Their Own Land: 800,000 Palestinians Sealed Off
by IDF in West Bank
Chris Kutalik
/ Jennifer Biddle
Airline Workers Fight Back
Lawrence R. Velvel
Alito and the Democrats
Dave Lindorff
Eight Who Dared: a (Short) Congressional Honor Roll
Mike Whitney
Countdown to War with Iran?
David Price
How
the FBI Spied on Edward Said
January 12,
2006
Jennifer Van
Bergen
The
Unitary Executive: Why the Bush Doctrine Violates the Constitution
Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith
Command Responsibility: Torture and Legal Accountability
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Alito
Refuses to Answer Fundamental Questions
Ralph Nader / Robert Weissman
Corporations, Originalism and the Bill of Rights: an Open Letter
to Justice Scalia
Jackie Corr
Killing the Big Sky's Golden Goose: Marc Racicot and the Deregulation
of Montana Power
Jared Bernstein
The Wage Doldrums
Russell D.
Hoffman
New Horizons in Space, New Lows in Government
Aubrey Streit
I Was Born in a Small Town: the Fate of Rural America
Clancy Sigal
Hugh
Thompson and My Lai: He Broke Ranks; He Did the Right Thing
Website of the Day
Nukes in Space
January 11,
2006
Kevin Zeese
NSA
Spied on Baltimore Peace Group (And They've Got the Documents
That Prove It)
Ray McGovern
The
Big Wiretap
Allan Maass
/ Joe Allen
Schwarzenegger's
Hit List: Smearing Mandela, Killing Tookie
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Snatching at King's Legacy: Mythmaking, Profiteering & Outright
Distortions
Annie Murphy
Evo Morales' Sweater
Allan Lichtman
Abramoff's
Kind of Big Government
Ramzy Baroud
Politics of Chaos: Gaza's Turmoil in Context
Joshua Frank
MoveOn Surrenders to Hillary
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Eating
Palestine for Breakfast": the Real Sharon
Website of
the Day
Memoirs of Rummy's Geisha
January 10,
2006
Uri Avnery
The
Post-Sharon Landscape: Three Fingers, No Fist
Saul Landau
Different
Americas
Noam Chomsky
Beyond the Ballot: Iraq, Iran and China
Brian J. Foley
Playing with Fire: Congress and Executive Power
Lenni Brenner
The War Within the Antiwar Movement
Ronan Sheehan
Sheehan to Sheehan: Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Con Jobs
January 9,
2006
Behzad Yaghmaian
Who
is to Blame for the Deaths of the Sudanese Refugees?
George Bisharat
US
Aid to Israel is Out of Hand
Dave Lindorff
How the US Press Squelches Bush Impeachment Drive
Norman Solomon
Smoke a Marlboro, Then an Iraqi: How Media War Images Distort
Not Inform
Christopher Brauchli
The Generosity of Credit Card Companies
Aharon Shabtai
A Poet's Letter on the Occupation
Andrew Cockburn
How
Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?
January 7 /
8, 2006
Lawrence Velvel
The
NYT's Unconscionable Decision to Sit on the NSA Story for a Year
James Petras
AIPAC on Trial: Them or US
J.L. Chestnut
Racism and Injustice in Alabama's Courts
Mike Ely
The Dead Miners in Sago
Andrew Wilson
The Dying of Ariel Sharon
Lila Rajiva
Two Moms Go to Capitol Hill
William Cook
The Rape of Palestine
Ramor Ryan
The Sub Motorcycle Diaries: On the Road with the Zapatistas
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
An Interview with Michael Scheuer on the CIA's Rendition Program
Peter Montague
Inherit the Wind: the Global Spread of GMO Crops
Ron Jacobs
Would Ethan Allen Pay to Protest?
Neve Gordon
Images of Real Eco-Terrorism in Twaneh
Fred Gardner
Business as Usual in San Diego
Josh Mahon
Idaho Timber Industry Leader Advocates Violence Against Green's
Mom
Dr. Susan Block
Abramoff Family Values: the Lobbyist Who Screwed Us All
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of the Weekend
Bush Crimes Commission
January 6,
2006
José
Pertierra
Posada
Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets
Joe Allen
Gary Freeman's Struggle: a Black Radical from the 1960s Fights
Extradition to the US
Winslow T. Wheeler
Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment
John Bomar
A Former NSA Officer on Snoopgate: the Squawkers Should be Congratulated
Jason Leopold
Snoop and Shred
Norman Solomon
Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad
Robert Pollin
Remembering
Harry Magdoff: the Man Who Explained the Empire
January 5,
2006
Scott Boehm
Big
Profits, Buried Lives: Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans
Zoltan Grossman
New
Challenges for the Antiwar Movement
Heather Gray
Whistling
Dixie Yet Again
Haninah Levine
Simple
is Dangerous: the Pentagon's Plan for a Manhattan Project on
IEDs
Pierre Tristam
The Sham of Homeland Security: a West Virginia Parable
Remi Kanazi
Stroke of Luck?: Political Hemorrhage in Israel
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon
Meets His Maker
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
What Hillary Clinton Doesn't Know About Palestine
January 4,
2006
Ron Jacobs
Pity
the Miner: A-Diggin' My Bones
Lila Rajiva
Terror
Hits Bangalore
Huibin Amee
Chew
Why
the War is Sexist
Pat Williams
How the West Turned: Biting the Hands That Steal
Linda Milazzo
The House That George and Jack Built: Ownership Society Meets
the Entrepreneurial Style
Nick Dearden
The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness": Blair's Cynical Policy
on Palestine
James Petras
Evo
Morales: All Growl, No Claws?
Website of
the Day
Rat Out a Lobbyist for Jesus
January 3,
2006
James Ridgeway
Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and 9/11: How Much Did the Bush Administration Know?
Laith al-Saud
Iraqi
Intellectuals and the Occupation: an Interview with Dr. Saad
Jawad
Dick J. Reavis
Border
Walls: the View from Mexico
Joshua Frank
Hillary Clinton, AIPAC and Iran
Rochelle Gause
Inside Rafah: Collective Punishment as Normalcy
Missy Comley
Beattie
How My Mother Went from a Republican to a Screaming Progressive
Paul de Rooij
A Glossary of Dispossession
January 2,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
Gestapo Administration
Clancy Sigal
A Trip to the Far Side of Madness
Cindy Sheehan
A Tour of Europe: Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes
Alexander Cockburn
A
NYT Editorial Contemplates Iraq
|
February
28, 2006
A
Sham Process and a Rotten Deal
Renewing the Patriot Act
By Sen. RUSSELL FEINGOLD
Later today we will have a cloture vote
on S. 2271. We should not end debate on this bill, and we should
not pass this bill. Doing so will only help implement the deeply
flawed deal that was struck with the White House to reauthorize
the Patriot Act without enacting the core civil liberties protections
for which so many of us have fought. I urge my colleagues to
vote No on cloture.
Everyone in this body wants to reauthorize the Patriot Act.
Many of the expiring provisions are entirely non-controversial.
But we also need to fix the provisions that went too far, that
do not contain the checks and balances necessary to protect our
rights and freedoms. This reauthorization process is our chance
to get it right, and moving forward with this bill takes us one
step closer to wasting that chance.
Back in December, 46 Senators voted against cloture on the Patriot
Act conference report. I think it's clear by now that the deal
makes only minor changes to that conference report, which remains
as flawed today as it was two months ago. The Senator from Pennsylvania,
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and primary proponent of
the conference report in this body, was quoted as saying that
the changes that the White House agreed to were "cosmetic."
And then he said, according to the AP, "But sometimes cosmetics
will make a beauty out of a beast and provide enough cover for
senators to change their vote."
Since this deal was announced, editorial pages of newspapers
also have pointed out how minimal these changes are, and have
urged Senators not to change their votes. Let me read a few
examples.
The editorial board of the Roanoke Times in Virginia had this
to say on February 11: "A compromise that is expected to
clear the way for the law's reauthorization is a victory of fear
over strength. The 'compromise' the White House and congressional
leaders reached this week on reauthorization of the USA Patriot
Act is a compromise of the basic freedoms that define this nation.
The Bush administration has made a few minor concessions, enough
to give the handful of defiant Senate Republicans and some of
their Democratic allies cover to extend the broad anti-terrorism
bill and claim they have done what they could to protect the
civil liberties of innocent Americans. They have not."
That same day, from the New York Times, we heard this: "The
Patriot Act has been one of the few issues on which Congress
has shown backbone lately. Last year, it refused to renew expiring
parts of the act until greater civil liberties protections were
added. But key members of the Senate have now caved, agreeing
to renew these provisions in exchange for only minimal improvements.
At a time when the public is growing increasingly concerned
about the lawlessness of the Bush administration's domestic spying,
the Senate should insist that any reauthorization agreement do
more to protect Americans against improper secret searches."
And from my own home state, this is from the Wisconsin State
Journal on February 18: "In recent weeks senators have
worked with the White House to produce a compromise. However,
the compromise remains far short of what is required to protect
Americans' civil liberties. Regrettably, the Senate has backed
down from its earlier stand and is poised to pass the inadequate
bill."
These editorial boards and millions of Americans across the country
recognize what everyone in this body already knows: that this
deal makes only minor, yes cosmetic, changes to the conference
report that was blocked in December. The deal is woefully inadequate.
Let me explain why.
I want to start by reminding my colleagues of the context for
this deal. Back in November and December when so many of us
were fighting for improvements to the conference report, we made
very clear what we were asking for. We laid out five issues
that needed to be addressed to get our support. I'm going to
read excerpts from a letter that we sent explaining our concerns,
because I think it will help demonstrate why this deal is so
bad. Here are the problems we identified and the changes we
asked for several months ago.
On Section 215 we said:
The draft conference report
would allow the government to obtain sensitive personal information
on a mere showing of relevance. This would allow government
fishing expeditions. As business groups like the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce have argued, the government should be required to
convince a judge that the records they are seeking have some
connection to a suspected terrorist or spy.
Next we discussed gag orders,
both for Section 215 orders and National Security Letters:
The draft conference report
does not permit the recipient of a Section 215 order to challenge
its automatic, permanent gag order. Courts have held that similar
restrictions violate the First Amendment. The recipient of a
Section 215 order is entitled to meaningful judicial review of
the gag order.
The draft conference report
does not provide meaningful judicial review of an NSL's gag order.
It requires the court to accept as conclusive the government's
assertion that a gag order should not be lifted, unless the court
determines the government is acting in bad faith. The recipients
of NSLs are entitled to meaningful judicial review of a gag order.
We then moved on to National
Security Letters more generally:
The draft conference report
does not sunset the NSL authority. In light of recent revelations
about possible abuses of NSLs, the NSL provision should sunset
in no more than four years so that Congress will have an opportunity
to review the use of this power.
And finally we addressed sneak
and peek search warrants:
The draft conference report
requires the government to notify the target of a "sneak
and peek" search no earlier than 30 days after the search,
rather than within seven days, as the Senate bill provides and
as pre-Patriot Act judicial decisions required. The conference
report should include a presumption that notice will be provided
within a significantly shorter period in order to better protect
Fourth Amendment rights. The availability of additional 90-day
extensions means that a shorter initial time frame should not
be a hardship on the government.
Again, those quotes are from
a letter that we sent late last year. Now, you might ask, in
this newly announced deal on the Patriot Act, have any of these
five problems been solved?
The answer is "No." Not a single one. Only one of
these issues has been even partially addressed by this deal,
but it has not been fixed.
This deal only makes a few small changes. First, it would permit
judicial review of Section 215 gag orders, but under conditions
that would make it very difficult for anyone to obtain meaningful
judicial review. Under the deal, judicial review can only take
place after a year has passed and can only be successful if the
recipient of the Section 215 order proves that that government
has acted in bad faith. As many of us have argued in the context
of the National Security Letters, that is a virtually impossible
standard to meet. We need meaningful judicial review of these
gag orders, not just the illusion of it.
Second, the deal would specifically allow the government to serve
National Security Letters on libraries if the library comes within
the current requirements of the NSL statute. This is a provision
that appears to just restate current law. Even the American
Library Association has called it a "fig leaf."
And third, the deal would clarify that people who receive a National
Security Letter or a Section 215 order would not have to tell
the FBI if they consult with an attorney. This last change is
a positive step, but it is only one relatively minor change.
So that is what we are left with: one relatively minor improvement.
That is nowhere near enough.
Ordinarily, when we debate a flawed bill like this one, we have
the chance to improve it by offering amendments. I've been trying
to do just that to make sure that we don't miss this opportunity
to address the core problems with the Patriot Act that so many
of us have been fighting to fix. Before the recess I filed four
amendments to S. 2271, but I was prevented from calling them
up because the Majority Leader used the procedural tactic of
filling the amendment tree in order to prevent Senators from
offering and getting votes on amendments. Using procedural maneuvers
like this to prevent the Senate from debating and voting on amendments
is an insult to this institution and to every one of my colleagues.
We are being told we have no choice but to accept a deal that
a few members cut with the White House, without changing a word.
We do have a choice -- to oppose cloture on this bill and insist
that any deal include meaningful civil liberties protections.
I don't know if the Majority Leader fears that my amendments
would actually pass, or if he just wants to protect Senators
from having to explain why they oppose basic protections for
law-abiding Americans. But that should not be how the Senate
does its business. Offering, debating and voting on amendments
is what the Senate is supposed to be all about that's how
we craft legislation. Trying to ram this deal through without
a real amending process is a cynical maneuver that we should
all reject, regardless of how we may feel about the merits of
the bill. If my colleagues wish to vote against my amendments,
that is their right. But no one has the right to turn this body
into a rubber stamp.
Let's take a step back and consider the process that got us here
today. As we all know, conference reports are not amendable.
They come to this body as a take it or leave it proposition.
Those are the rules and we all understand them and play by them.
In December, we said no to the Patriot Act conference report.
Now we have a new bill, the product of a side-deal with the White
House, that is essentially an amendment to the conference report.
It is even drafted that way. Each section of the bill amends
the underlying law, as amended by the conference report. That's
right. The bill we are considering today amends a law that hasn't
even been passed by the Senate, much less signed into law. As
I understand it, this bill, should both Houses of Congress pass
it, will have to sit on the President's desk unsigned until the
President signs the conference report into law.
So proponents of this deal want to effectively amend the conference
report which couldn't pass the Senate in December, even though
conference reports are unamendable. And they want to do it by
circumventing the regular legislative process with a bill that
no one is being allowed to amend even though the bill did
not even go through committee, let alone a conference. How is
that fair? Why should a handful of members of this body be able
to amend an unamendable conference report with a deal struck
with the White House, and then prevent the Senate from working
its will on that deal? How can one group of Senators amend the
conference report but prevent other Senators from trying to do
the same thing? How is that possible?
The answer is that it's not possible, unless the Senate lets
it happen. And the vote we will have later today is the vote
where we will find out if the Senate will let it happen.
I hope that even colleagues who may support the deal will oppose
such a sham process. It makes no sense to agree to end debate
without a guarantee that we will be allowed to actually try to
improve the bill. And it is a discourtesy to all Senators, not
just me, to try to ram through controversial legislation without
the chance to improve it.
My amendments are limited and reasonable. I spoke at length
about them before the recess, but let me just take a few minutes
to explain again what they would do.
First, Amendment No. 2892 would implement the standard for obtaining
Section 215 orders that was in the Senate bill that the Judiciary
Committee approved by a vote of 18 to 0, and that was agreed
to in the Senate without objection. This is a reasonable amendment
that every Senator in one way or another has basically supported.
It took hard work, but the Judiciary Committee came up with language
on Section 215 that protects innocent Americans while also allowing
the government to do what is needs to do to investigate and prevent
terrorism. The Senate standard would require the government
to convince a judge that a person has some connection to terrorism
or espionage before obtaining their sensitive records. The Senate
standard is the following: (1) that the records pertain to a
terrorist or spy; (2) that the records pertain to an individual
in contact with or known to a suspected terrorist or spy; or
(3) that the records are relevant to the activities of a suspected
terrorist or spy. And that is the standard that my amendment
would impose. This would not limit the types of records that
the government could obtain, and it does not go as far to protect
law-abiding Americans as I might prefer, but it would make sure
the government cannot go on fishing expeditions into the records
of innocent people.
The conference report did away with this delicate compromise,
replacing the three-prong test with a simple, and quite broad,
relevance standard, which could arguably justify the collection
of all kinds of information about law-abiding Americans.
Of all the concerns that have been raised about the Patriot Act
since it was passed in 2001, Section 215 is the one that has
received the most public attention, and rightly so. A reauthorization
bill that doesn't fix this provision, in my view, has no credibility.
My second amendment is Amendment No. 2893, which would ensure
that recipients of business records orders under section 215
of the Patriot Act and recipients of National Security Letters
can get meaningful judicial review of the gag orders that they
are subject to.
Under the conference report, as modified by the Sununu bill,
recipients of these documents would theoretically have the ability
to challenge the gag orders in court, but the standard for getting
the gag orders overturned would be virtually impossible to meet.
In order to prevail in challenging the NSL or Section 215 gag
order, the recipient would have to prove that any certification
by the government that disclosure would harm national security
or impair diplomatic relations was made in bad faith. There
would be what many have called a "conclusive presumption"
that the gag order stands, unless the recipient can prove that
the government acted in bad faith. That is not meaningful judicial
review.
My amendment would eliminate the "bad faith" showing
currently required for overturning both section 215 and NSL gag
orders. And it would no longer require recipients of section
215 orders to wait a year before they can challenge the accompanying
gag orders, which is a new requirement included in the Sununu
bill.
My third amendment, Amendment No. 2891, would add to the conference
report one additional 4-year sunset provision. It would sunset
the National Security Letter authorities that were expanded by
the Patriot Act. It would simply add that sunset to the already
existing 4-year sunsets that are in the conference report with
respect to section 206, section 215, and the lone wolf provision.
National Security Letters, or NSLs, are finally starting to get
the attention they deserve. This authority was expanded by sections
358 and 505 of the Patriot Act. The issue of NSLs has flown under
the radar for years, even though many of us have been trying
to bring more public attention to it.
National Security Letters are issued by the FBI to businesses
to obtain certain types of records, without any court approval
whatsoever. NSLs can be used to obtain three types of business
records: subscriber and transactional information related to
Internet and phone usage; credit reports; and financial records,
a category that has been expanded to include records from all
kinds of everyday businesses like jewelers, car dealers, travel
agents and even casinos. This is a very broad power, and I can
think of no reason why Congress would not want to place a sunset
on these authorities to ensure we have the opportunity to take
a close look at them.
Finally, my fourth amendment, Amendment No. 2894, concerns so-called
"sneak and peek" searches, whereby the Government can
secretly search people's houses in everyday criminal investigations
and not provide notice of the search until afterward. The key
issue here is how long the government should be allowed to wait,
at least in most cases, before it notifies individuals that their
homes have been searched. The Senate bill said seven days should
be the presumption, with the ability to get extensions if necessary.
But the conference report does away with that and instead allows
a delay of 30 days in most cases.
My amendment would restore the key component of the Senate compromise
by requiring that subjects of sneak and peek searches be notified
of the search within 7 days, unless a judge grants an extension
of that time because there is a good reason to still keep the
search secret. It makes no other change to the conference report
other than changing 30 days to 7 days.
Those are my amendments. They are eminently reasonable. They
are consistent with provisions that we approved in the Senate
last year, or they were central to the concerns raised by so
many Senators late last year. So these are obviously not extreme
ideas. And the Senate should be allowed to vote on these four
amendments. All of us have as much right as the Senators who
struck a deal with the White House do, to try to amend the conference
report.
I'm happy to report that the Senator from Pennsylvania thinks
these are reasonable amendments too. In fact, he thinks they
are so reasonable that late yesterday he announced that he is
going to combine them into a single bill and introduce it today,
and try to move it in the Judiciary Committee. That's right,
the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the chief proponent
in this body of the Patriot Act reauthorization conference report
and of the White House deal the Senate is being asked to ratify,
has taken the four amendments I just described and, with a few
minor tweaks, introduced them as a bill.
I must say, I am flattered. And of course I will support that
bill. But there is an alternative to the lengthy and uncertain
legislative process that awaits the Chairman's new bill. And
that is to allow the Senate to vote on my amendments. The Chairman
could offer them with me. We would make a powerful team I'm
sure. And we have the perfect and logical vehicle for these
amendments to the Patriot Act before us right now. All we need
to do is add the Chairman's reasonable proposals to this bill
and send it to the House where it would almost certainly pass
if the leadership would allow it to be voted on. These provisions,
most of which come right out of the bill that passed the Senate
without objection last July, could become law in a matter of
weeks, rather than a year or more from now, if ever.
My amendments, and Senator Specter's bill, are simply what the
bipartisan group asked for back in December when we blocked the
Patriot Act reauthorization conference report. Our requests
were reasonable then, and they are reasonable now. The only
reason we are considering a package that doesn't include them
is that the White House played hardball, and some Senators decided
they had to capitulate.
I oppose the flawed deal we are being asked to ratify. And I
oppose the sham process that the Senate is facing here. We still
have not fixed some of the most significant problems with the
Patriot Act, and if we allow the conference report to go through,
the Chairman's sincere hopes notwithstanding, I fear we will
lose that chance for another four years. So I must oppose cloture
on this bill, which will allow the deal to go forward.
|
Finally
Available
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
Click Here to Order 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
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau
Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced
as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"
|
