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Today's Stories June 16 / 17, 2007 Uri Avnery The Gaza Cage June 15, 2007 Alan Farago View from the Construction Crane: Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami Andy Worthington The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri Michael Simmons Terrorizing Artists in the USA Franklin Lamb Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed Sunni Army Solution Gary Leupp The Day After We Attack Iran John Ross Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico Website of the Day The American Rationalist   June 14, 2007 Michael Donnelly Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen Eco--Activism Faisal Kutty Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False Sense of Security Harry Browne Ireland's Green Party Sells Out Charles Jonkel From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference Steven Higgs Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic" in Indiana? Bruce Dixon Black Power Through Low Power Radio Bruce K. Gagnon What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan for Antiwar Activists Website of the Day Finkelgate June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Obama's Siren Song Marjorie Cohn Repression in Oaxaca Bill Christison A Grave Injustice at DePaul University 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

Weekend Edition June 16 / 17, 2007 A False Parable Paris Hilton's Punishment By FRED GARDNER "We” can be the most deceitful word in the English language. Politicians employ it all the time —“we must stay the course in Iraq,” for example, or “we need to hire more police”— to promote a false impression that their constituents have identical interests. Under the umbrella of “we,” all distinctions of class, gender, age, race and even outlook disappear. The word generates its own bandwagon effect; those who don’t wish to be included have to actively opt out. Contrary to C.W. Nevius’s front-page assertion in the San Francisco Chronicle that “we” all applauded the reincarceration of Paris Hilton, there are some who think the denial of house arrest by born-again Judge Michael Sauer was due to prejudice on his part and an attempt to create a false image of equal justice under the law. Nevius’s June 9 column cited two UC Berkeley academics who backed his thesis. Linguistics professor Robin Lakoff told him, “if you stopped average people on the street, they probably couldn’t tell you why she was sent to jail but say she ought to stay there.” Rob Calo of the Journalism School said, “O.J. was about something. And Diana was about something. This is about nothing.” I happen to know an average person and she said that Paris Hilton was in jail for driving on a suspended license. Isn’t the plight of people who get their licenses suspended “something?” This society provides no other feasible means of getting to work, picking up the kids, shopping, etc. Obviously Paris Hilton could afford a chauffeur, but Calo’s point was that the case was about nothing other than her celebrity. Drinking (another “something” that the story is “about”) may be the most common reason why people get their licenses suspended, but many simply can’t afford to pay their tickets. They get stopped again, inevitably, the fines escalate, their licenses get revoked, they have to keep driving, they wind up in jail. Paris Hilton had her license suspended after she was caught weaving en route to get a hamburger. This didn’t deter her from driving and she was stopped on two more occasions, leading to her 45-day sentence from Judge Sauer, whose fellow worshipers gave him a standing O the following Sunday. According to Calo, Paris Hilton “is a shallow, dumb blonde who flaunts her lifestyle. But we can’t fault her. We’re the ones who decided that this is entertainment.” Calo’s use of “we” reveals an identification with those who decide what gets broadcast and published. And his use of “dumb blonde,” in context, seems racist and sexist. Pardon the expression. Lakoff describes Hilton’s punishment as “a Judge Judy moment.” Nevius explains: “Television’s Judge Judy Sheindlin became a minor sensation by cutting through the baloney and calling smug, spoiled and clueless defendants on their behavior.” On those occasions that I have caught Judge Judy on the small white TV set that sits atop the refrigerator in the Average Person’s kitchen, she was viciously hectoring people who were relatively poor and powerless. They’d try to say something in self-defense and Judge Judy would shut them up with “You’re lying.” Judy suffered a brief p.r. setback in 2000, while promoting a book in Australia. She gave a speech described needle exchange as a project of “liberal morons.” How would Judge Judy cut through the baloney? “Give ‘em dirty needles and let ‘em die... I don’t understand why we think it’s important to keep them alive.” Isn’t it the job of the University of California and the San Francisco Chronicle -the academy and the press- to sustain our historic memory? In the movie “Men in Black” the government agents have a spray that causes people to forget what just happened. In Nevius’s column, he and Lakoff are squeezing the handy dispenser. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith were doing it metaphorically in the movie. Nevius and Lakoff were doing it for real on the front page of the Chronicle. More Lakoff as cited by Nevius: “’We all identify with that sense of justice. [Another revealing and untrue “we.”] Years ago, Mommy wasn’t looking, and the bad sibling got away with things. But Judge Judy always gives the bad sibling justice [Especially if the bad sibling has AIDS.] Paris has become more interesting because of this sense of justice denied. We don’t want to see her in that damn miniskirt, smirking with self-satisfaction. We want to see her in a striped jail suit, doing hard time.” Robin Lakoff is a professor of linguistics and she doesn’t even know the meaning of “we.” Her comments reek of envy. It’s not necessarily the specific envy a middle-aged woman might feel towards a young beauty; it could be the more general envy of anyone, man or woman, young or old, who can’t stand to see others having fun and having sex. That’s how it is with Judge Sauer and his fellow congregants. They must pray to some Jesus other than the one who consorted with shamed women. My average person source says, “Soften your heart, Mr. Nevius. You usually seem like a sensible father. Paris Hilton is a little girl, young for her age, a little spoiled, obviously, but who has she ever harmed? We live in a country founded by Puritans, full of mean, bitchy people like Judge Judy.” According to sensible Sheriff Mike Hennessy of San Francisco, “Paris Hilton is a very typical, low-risk, non-danger to the community, admittedly a bad driver (but) an absolutely perfect candidate for home detention. Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca has been denounced in the media for ordering her early release in defiance of Judge Sauer’s 45-day sentence. “The only thing I can detect as special treatment is the amount of her sentence,” said Baca. Grandstanding LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo loudly called for Hilton’s reincarceration. “We cannot tolerate a two-tiered jail system where the rich and powerful receive special treatment,” he told the media. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what exists. Punishing Paris Hilton to the max creates a false impression of equal justice -by which the prosecutor and the judge mean equally harsh justice. Yo, Rocky: equal justice could be achieved more economically by offering house arrest to poor women, too. Cannabis Specialists Foresaw Dangers of Sanofi’s Weight-Loss Drug in 2004 An FDA panel of experts this week unanimously recommended rejecting Sanofi-Aventis’s application to market a weight-loss drug that works by blocking one of the body’s own cannabinoid receptors –a decision that caught many stock analysts by surprise, according to Bloomberg News. But the FDA panel’s 14-0 vote against Sanofi’s “Rimonabant” came as no surprise to California doctors who have made a specialty of treating cannabis-using patients. In a front-page article in O’Shaughnessy’s (Autumn 2004), the journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical Group, Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, of Sebastopol stated, “The consequences of interfering with the cannabinoid receptor system have not been evaluated in normal human physiology.” The receptors that Rimonabant blocks respond to endocannabinoids -“the brain’s own marijuana,” to borrow Scientific American’s term. They are concentrated in the cerebellum and the basal ganglia (responsible for motor control, which may help explain why marijuana eases muscle spasticity in disorders like multiple sclerosis), the hippocampus (responsible for storage of short-term memory), and the limbic system (emotional control). In clinical trials conducted by Sanofi, subjects experienced increased rates of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and suicidal ideation. Multiple sclerosis flare-ups were also reported. Sanofi proposed a risk-management plan that would screen out patients with a history of depression and epilepsy. Patients would be required to visit their doctors five times during the first year of treatment. Anything to get a foot in the door … Before FDA approval is granted, said Hergenrather in 2004, “It would be ethical to design longitudinal studies to assess the consequences of interfering with the cannabinoid system.” This is what the FDA is now likely to require -shooting down Sanofi’s hopes for marketing Rimonabant in the U.S. in the near future. It was news to me that Jim Clark —the sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama, who led the attack on voter-registration marchers in Selma in March, 1965— later did nine months in prison for marijuana smuggling. In his segregationist heyday, Clark wore a button that said “Never” next to his badge. At the Pettis Bridge in Selma his posse assaulted non-violent marchers with dogs, fire hoses, whips, nightsticks and tear gas. Eighty-four people were injured. Clark died June 4.

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