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Read Why It Happened! Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils Order Here! Today's Stories November 13 / 14, 2004 Alexander Cockburn "Let Them Drink Sand!" David Domke Bush, God and the Election: a Theology of War? James Petras The Politics of Imperialism: Neoliberalism and Latin America Carl G. Estabrook How to Stop the GWOT: "Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil!" Stan Goff Torture and the Cinema Dave Lindorff The Ruins of Fallujah Alan Maass The Rise and Fall of Gingrich: a Parable for Our Times Lenni Brenner "Next"...a Prison Tale Gary Leupp France's Little Vietnam: Imperialist France Destroys an African Air Force Jessica Leight / Larry Birns Haiti: the New Regime Shows Its Colors Jordan Green Ohio's Provisional Ballots: the State of Play Robert Fisk Arafat Ruled by Emotion and Cronyism Omar Barghouti The Death of Arafat and the Two-State SOlution Fred Gardner Marijuana: an Election Scorecard Christopher Brauchli When a POW Isn't a POW: the Other Torture Memo Joanne Mariner A Preview of the Scalia Court Dr. Susan Block Blue Values Patrick Timmons Violence at the Ballot Box: the War on Gay Rights Mickey Z. Rumor Club   November 12, 2004 Forrest Hylton / Sinclair Thomson Insurgent Bolivia: the Roots of Rebellion November 11, 2004 Peggy Thomson Encounters with Arafat Joe Bageant Hung Over in the End Times: Heaven's Foot Soldiers Escape the Dog Patch Ben Tripp The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grief Edwin Krales Cuba's Response to AIDS: a Model for the Developing World Jordan Green How They Tried to Suppress the Black Vote in South Carolina Gary Leupp Guzman's Fist Mike Whitney Meet Your New AG: Alberto Torquemada Sam Bahour Palestine is Bigger Than Arafat Sylvia Shihadeh and Robert Jensen The Irony of Arafat Russ Wellen Why Do They Laugh at Us? Mark Scaramella Kerry's Enablers: the Clinton Cult Factor   November 10, 2004 Joshua Frank The Bright Side of Bush's Reelection Mickey Z. The Worst President Ever?: Bush + Clinton = Bubya Stan Goff Debating a Neo-Con Mike Whitney Exit Ashcroft Dave Lindorff Taking a Leak on the Bush Bulge Ghada Karmi After Arafat Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste Letter from a Haitian Jail Rev. Bob Jones, III A Letter to President Bush: "God Has Granted America a Reprieve" Bernestine Singley Tampa Vote: Dispatches from the Ground Website of the Day Free Camilo Mejia   November 9, 2004 Meredeth Kolodner Rebuilding the Anti-War Movement Saul Landau The Appeal of George W. Bush: a Mystery for the World to Solve Brian Cloughley Diego Garcia and Freedom, Bush-Style Charles Glass US is Failing the Test of History in Iraq Robert Fisk Arafat Died Years Ago Paul Craig Roberts The American Century is Over Adam Federman Witch Hunt at Columbia: Middle East Profs Smeared as Anti-Semites M. Junaid Alam The Discredited Logic of ABB Tony Kevin Fallujah and the Making of a War Crime Pierre Tristam Zealots on the Mount: Get Voltaire on Speed Dial! Patrick Cockburn Crushing Fallujah Will Not End the Iraq War Website of the Day Don't Blame the Voters!   November 8, 2004 Roger Burbach Out of the Ashes: Bush Win is a Defeat for Democrats, Not the Left Dave Lindorff Lessons from a Quagmire: Fallujah, the Hue of Iraq Greg Moses After the Morning After: On the Homefront of the Civil War Greg Bates Nader's Election Legacy: Something to Stand On Michael Donnelly The Hit-and-Run Left: From ABB to CYA Nick Schwellenbach Gutting FOIA: the Harm of Too Much Secrecy Adam Jones Men vs. Civilians in Fallujah Amelia Peltz Note from Palestine: This Is Not the Time for Despair David Swanson The Media Black Out on Vote Fraud Brian Rainey The Devil Made Them Do It? Elections, Religion and the American People Poets' Basement Albert, Landau, Hamod Website of the Day A Report on the US Supply of Toxic Weapons to Iraq   November 6 / 7, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Don't Say We Didn't Warn You Jeffrey St. Clair Green Out Carl G. Estabrook Who Killed Cock Robin? Saul Landau Che: the Man and the Movie Gary Leupp Let There Be Conflict! Ben Tripp You Call This a Party? Paul Craig Roberts The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front Jordan Green Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM Fred Gardner Haul of Justice J.A. Miller Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered Ramzy Baroud Life Without Arafat Dave Zirin Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete Ron Jacobs The Arrow on the Doorpost Robert Oscar Lopez How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority Niranjan Ramakrishnan The November Surprise Dave Lindorff Silver Linings Richard Oxman Invitation to the Bodily Snatched John Whitlow Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky Rahul Mahajan Fallujah and the Reality of War Leila Matsui Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge November 5, 2004 David Vest The Not-Bush Brothers: a Fond Farewell Elizabeth Boylan The Dems and Faith-Based Politics Conn Hallinan War Crimes and Iraq David Zonsheine Poetry and the Courage to Refuse Cynthia McKinney It's a New Day! Elaine Cassel Running from the Religious Right Chris Geovanis First Protect Your Vote: Lessons for Democrats on Fixing Elections from Chicago Rob Ritchie Election 2004 by the Numbers Jo Guldi The Beast of History is In     November 4, 2004 Sharon Smith The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism CounterPunch Wire Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004 Ben Tripp My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed! Michael Donnelly Why Not Blame Rosie? Vijay Prashad An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny Jules Rabin De Profundis: the Morning After Robert Jensen Politics and Professions of Faith: "Your Rich Men are Full of Violence" Zoltan Grossman Blue State Secession: the Only Solution? Jonah Birch 1968 and Today Dave Lindorff What Went Wrong? Jack McCarthy I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before He Was Against Him Donna J. Volatile Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare Paul Craig Roberts The Bright Side of Black Tuesday     November 3, 2004 James Hodge / Linda Cooper The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of Training Torturers Ann Harrison The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation Greg Moses Blues for Fallujah Anis Memon The Moral (Values) of This Election Mickey Z. Post Mortem Josh Frank The Dems Should be Ashamed Chris Floyd No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine spArk Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats Friedrich von Schiller Folly, Thou Conquerest Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame Now?   November 2, 2004 Gary Leupp Democratic Elections in Historical Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins Lance Selfa Selling the War on Terror Laura Carlsen The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good Neighbor? James Davis To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists Richard Oxman Getting Up with Osama Dr. Ira Kay A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency Jesse Walker Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election Thomas C. Mountain Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the "Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes"   November 1, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and Blew It Dave Lindorff Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns Greg Bates Nader Voter Survey Results Roger Morris Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do This Election Justice Diane Christian Death Tolls Lenni Brenner Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe Christopher C. Conway Can the Left Sink Any Lower? Francis Boyle Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors, Too Jason Leopold Rummy's Failed War Plan Website of the Day Dylan Resurrects "Masters of War"     October 30 / 31, 2004 JoAnn Wypijewski The Long March and the Million Worker March Winslow T. Wheeler Spartacus Tells All Bruce Anderson Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal Vicente Navarro They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime Robin Blackburn How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security Greg Bates A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick? Nancy Welch The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David Himmelstein William Lind Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For? Brian Cloughley Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies Suzan Mazur Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs Greg Moses Standing at the Graves of Iraq John Chuckman Osama's Endorsement Richard Oxman Why Not Accept Osama's Offer? Ken Avidor Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious Niranjan Ramakrishnan Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond Hope Bastian Strangling Cuba's Economy P. Sainath Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric Dave Zirin Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez Jon Swift The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It Ron Jacobs The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1 Alexander Billet Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"? Poets' Basement Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert Website of the Weekend The Origins of Halloween   October 29, 2004 Harry Browne No Justice for Peace Activist in County Clare October 28, 2004 Forrest Hylton "The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's Ghosts of October Col. Dan Smith Rebellion in the Ranks Alan Maass Jon Stewart v. the Pundits Ron Jacobs Ecstasy in Red Sox Nation Alexander Cockburn Kerrycrats and the War     October 27, 2004 Jules Rabin Crammed with Distressful Politics Dave Lindorff Bulgegate: the Lies Continue Katherine Van Tassel On the Home Front: Both Parties Ignore Working Parents Jeffrey St. Clair The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil   October 26, 2004 Brian Cloughley Three Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan William Blum Fear Factors Lenni Brenner The 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004 Ben Tripp The Chicken Salad Election Fidel Castro After the Fall Greg Bates The Nation's Flawed Calculus Walter Brasch Gag the Public: the War on Dissent Niranjan Ramakrishnan An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan Mickey Z. Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo Amir Taheri The Boom in Conspiracy Theories Alexander Billet Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry Doug Giebel The Religion of G.W. Bush Kathleen Christison Why I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't   October 25, 2004 Ralph Nader Letter from a Minnesota Highway Werther West Texas Wahabbism Dave Zirin Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan Fred Gardner Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License Omar Barghouti Executing Another Child in Rafah William J. Nottingham Lori Berenson's Story John Chuckman A Foolish Consistency Uri Avnery On the Road to Civil War   October 22 / 24, 2004 Alexander Cockburn You Can't Blame Nader for This Rev. William Alberts On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions Willliam A. Cook Killing for Christ Saul Landau George W. Bush: a Man of His Words? Bill Quigley I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children While Arresting Priest Christopher Brauchli Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really Means William S. Lind Fallujah and the Moral Level of War Sharon Smith Guilt Trippers for Kerry Greg Bates Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us" Justin E.H. Smith Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil? Rebecca Evans Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military Mike Whitney Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion M. Junaid Alam Purchasing Individuality in America David Krieger Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and Kerry David J. Ledermann The Emperor's New Crumbs Lawrence Reichard Same Old FBI Story Website of the Weekend Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling     October 21, 2004 Ben Tripp The Undecided Voter Examined Joshua Frank Kerry and the Environment: It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green Stan Cox What the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses Bill Martinez State Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply Mark Engler The War and Globalization Lina Britto and Lucia Suarez Bolivia: a Year After the October Insurrection Website of the Day Two Pampered Children of Wealth     October 20, 2004 Yitzhak Laor "Did You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian Child Jason Leopold Sinclair Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception Jesse Sharkey A Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School Students Col. Dan Smith Choking Free Speech About the Draft Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Using My Religion David Vest If Bush Wins, Blame Me Jack Random The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny Ron Jacobs Time to Kick It Up a Notch James Brittain Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside? Christopher Dols Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest Dave Lindorff First They Came for the Nurses... Website of the Day Banana Republican Catalogue     October 19, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair Party Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe Jeff Taylor Confessions of a Swing State Voter Matt Vidal American Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket" Victor Kattan "It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For": Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum William Loren Katz What Goes Around Comes Around Sean Carter O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims CounterPunch Wire Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?       October 18, 2004 Saul Landau Facts and Lies; Slogans and Truth Dave Lindorff Bulletin on the Bush Bulge Diane Christian Sheep and Goats: On the Language of Goodness Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency Uri Avnery Ariel Sharon's Philosophy Peter LaVenia Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank Mike Whitney O'Reilly at the Whipping Post Elaine Cassel The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11   October 16 / 17, 2004 Alexander Cockburn The Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern Leslie Brill Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the True Measure of Bush's Character Jules Rabin Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World Dave Lindorff About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was the President Just Glad to be There? Peter Linebaugh Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices Gary Leupp Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire M. Shahid Alam America, Imagine This! Ron Jacobs Trying to Cross Lake Champlain Fred Gardner The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It Jenna Orkin The Toxic Legacy of 9/11 Dave Zirin Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results David Hamilton Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader? Ralph Nader Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism Doug Giebel Thinking the Unthinkable Mark Engler Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador Derek Tyner Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence Thomas on the Million Worker March Evan Jones Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the South" Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert Website of the Weekend No More Bush Girls   October 15, 2004 Paul Craig Roberts Where Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting of America Laura Carlsen Wal-Mart vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon Greg Bates Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers Michael Donnelly News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine? Katherine Lahey The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear Hugo Chavez? Robert Jensen / Pat Youngblood Election Day Fears Leah Caldwell From Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse Website of the Day An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism     October 14, 2004 Darcy Richardson The Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown Willliam A. Cook Turning Myths into Truth Laura Santina Water, Women and War Evelyn Pringle Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug Importation Alan Farago Lessons from Nature Rep. Maxine Waters A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti Nicole Colson Maimed for Oil and Empire       October 13, 2004 Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Bill Quigley Aftermath of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti Sharon Smith Barak O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran Christopher Brauchli God and the Bush Administration Mike Whitney The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case Paul de Rooij Amnesty International: a False Beacon? Website of the Day Operation Truth     October 12, 2004 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz "Indian Country" Greg Bates The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters in Swing States Steven Conn Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader Jason Leopold Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from UN Oil-for-Food Program Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy Time for a Change of Course Timothy J. Freeman Dying for a Mistake Pierre Tristam Deconstructing Bush Niranjan Ramakrishnan The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience Bill and Kathleen Christison Israel as Sideshow Website of the Day John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters   October 11, 2004 Robert Fisk Iraq: Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises Kevin Pina The Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti Patrick Gavin Rethinking Columbus Day Chris Floyd Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan Daniel Wolff Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most Dangerous Nuclear Plant Walter Brasch The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and 40% of All Americans Mike Whitney The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink Ari Shavit "He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with Sharon's Lawyer Paul Craig Roberts The Debates and the Big Lie Website of the Day Dylan's Greatest Recording?     October 9 / 10, 2004 Alexander Cockburn "There Are No Innocents" Paul de Rooij Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry Adams M. Shahid Alam Making Sense of Our Times Laura Carlsen Protest and Populism in Latin America Fred Gardner Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court Col. Dan Smith Bush's Credibility Gap Paul Craig Roberts Faith-Based Economics Greg Bates What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand? Joshua Frank Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left Felice Pace Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement Walter A. Davis Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium William A. Cook The Agony of Colin Powell Phyllis Pollack Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later Poets' Basement Klipschutz, Albert, Ford Website of the Weekend Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes   October 8, 2004 Jennifer Loewenstein The Israeli Invasion of Gaza Moshe Adler Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities David Swanson Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition to Iraq War Dave Zirin CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team! Rep. Ron Paul The Draft is a Form of Slavery William S. Lind Keeping Our SA Up Samar Assad Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine Jim Ingalls and Sonali Kolhatkar The Elections in Afghanistan     October 7, 2004 Dave Lindorff All Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air Masha Hamilton Fear in Kandahar Christopher Brauchli Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay Jason Leopold Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush? Bruce K. Gagnon Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida Meredith Kolodner Where is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge     October 6, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair "Please, Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah Ron Jacobs Going Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives Michael Colby The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead? Tarif Abboushi More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates Matthew Behrens Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood Mike Whitney Rethinking WMDs John Pilger Stealing Diego Garcia Ben Tripp Kerry's "Triumph" Kevin McKiernan Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target Patrick Cockburn Elections Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq Website of the Day Is There an Islamic Problem?   October 5, 2004 Anthony Loewenstein Rupert Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes" Mark Clinton and Tony Udell The Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran Greg Bates Trading Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman Dave Lindorff What's the Frequency, Karl? Norm Dixon Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers Larry Kearney God Talk and Burning Children Bill Linville Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government Gary Leupp What Edwards Should Ask Cheney Website of the Day A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate   October 4, 2004 Diane Christian The Gates of Hell Joshua Frank An Interview with David Cobb Doug Giebel Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie? John Chuckman Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump Ramzy Baroud Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage Julia Stein Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM Sean Donahue Outsourcing Terror: Kerry and Special Forces Website of the Day Mapping Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks   October 2 / 3. 2004 Paul Wright John Kerry on Criminal Justice Kathleen and Bill Christison An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris Kathie Helmkamp My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill Phillip Cryan Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia Lenni Brenner The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio Fred Gardner Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel" Ron Jacobs It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia Ben Tripp Sticker Shock William S. Lind The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces Dave Zirin The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC Dave Lindorff Lies from the Great Debate Luscon Pierre-Charles Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway Zoe Moskovitz & Sasha Kramer Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti Nelson P. Valdes Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned Cuban Academics Alan Farago The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades Nancy Haley What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us? Alex Billet Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years Steve Fesenmaier Save and Burn: The War on Libraries Poets' Basement Smith, Holt, Albert   October 1, 2004 Steve Breyman Kerry's Missed Opportunities Rose Gentle My Son Died for a Lie Lee Sustar Iran in the Crosshairs Ralph Nader What We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy? Walter Andrews We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever Mike Whitney Pandora's Government Mickey Z. Debate This Saul Landau The Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases                   Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition November 13 / 14, 2004 Whistling Dixie Bush's Reelection: a perspective from the South By HEATHER GRAY The 2004 presidential election results were sobering for millions of Americans. The pundits say that "values" and "morals" were key to the re-election of George Bush and that the Republican rhetoric resonated with the Christian "values" of huge numbers of voters. For those of you not used to the hypocrisy of Christian Evangelical values and morals - welcome to the South. You had better start learning about southern history - it's religious, social, racist and economic history - because the nation is now poised to become the South writ large. As writer Gavin Wright said in 1986, the nation was "coming to resemble the economy of the antebellum South when slave owners were ruthless and footloose because their wealth was portable." Most of what the GOP espoused has its roots in the South. George Bush, after all, has tried desperately to become a good southern boy and bow down to his Evangelical base. He likes his guns, he cares nothing about the environment, he wears his religion on his sleeve, he likes the death penalty, he's born again, he lies, he's deceitful, believes government money should be doled out to his friends. All of these are time honored traditions and values among the Southern white elite. For years writers have intimated that the south was rising again. Little did we think this meant that the Southern mindset was to poison the entire country. For those who think that Southern exploitation has been exclusively racist, think again. The Southern plantation elite and its progeny exploit everything and everyone. They have used race as the primary trump card to control the southern electorate and the economy, but they have also used their Evangelical roots to bolster their claims. Let's reflect a little about this because some of us in the south have a lot to say about the white elite in the region. Let's start with Southern Christian Evangelicals and their lies and distortions. No one can describe this better than the renowned black civil rights attorney, J.L. Chestnut, from Selma, Alabama. In the aftermath of the elections last week he says: "When I opened my Selma law office in 1958, fewer than 70 blacks in the county were registered to vote. Potential black voters had to be vouched for usually by a white person. No blacks were employed anywhere in downtown Alabama except as janitors, barbers or delivery people. There were racially segregated schools, churches, theaters, restrooms and public water fountainsNot one black person in the state had served on a jury in 100 years, and white policemen did whatever, whenever to black people and no one asked why. "Many white Southern Evangelicals who voted last week to reelect George W. Bush approved this institutional and racist depravity. Even while black men were lynched or jailed for not yielding a sidewalk or for being insolent, Evangelical churches had preached that Jesus ordained this inhumanity. These Evangelicals claimed that slavery was ordained in the Bible, and as I listened to the election returns last week I had a sinking feeling of "Here we go again!" As a black southerner who believes in Jesus, I have this sickening feeling about all this because I've been forced to drink before from that poison well. "I know what Evangelicals can do in the name of Jesus. A white friend began to lecture me on love, as I spoke some rather harsh works about George Bush and the Evangelicals. It is not easy to love people who apparently approve to carry on in the tradition of their ancestors who raped my great grandmothers, killed their husbands, enslaved my ancestors, dropped atom bombs in Japan, killed off Native Americans, keep successive generations of my people cooped up in slums, invade Iraq and Afghanistan and then labeled the people defending their homes in Iraq as terrorists or insurgents. "Michigan voted for Kerry, so did the Northeast and the West Coast. Yet, the one permanent third party in the country, the Confederacy, continues its attachment to the Republican Party and folks understand why." How about labor issues and the Southern working class? In his book "What's the Matter with Kansas" author Thomas Frank refers to working class and immigrant abuse in the meat packing industry and the growing income gap. He's witnessed a deterioration of consciousness among Kansans. There was in the state a legendary populist movement earlier in the 1900's that rallied against capitalist excesses and exploitation. This has changed to Kansans who now vote against their own economic interests. It's "values" says Frank. The GOP is espousing "values" (gays, guns, ten commandments, school prayer) that resonate with the working class Kansans. When I first read his impressive book I thought "the Souththis is like the South." While the Kansas GOP elite has recently used "values" to control the working masses, in the South the elite have used "race" coupled with "values" with similar results. The history of the southern working class struggles for better wages and rights has always been one of a protracted struggle against the powerful white southern plantation owners who have controlled local, state and regional politics. After the Civil War, Georgia's Henry Grady met with industrialists in New York and said, "Ya'll come down!" We've got countless "100% Anglo-Saxon" workers waiting for a job. Don't worry about taxes - we'll give you land. Don't worry about labor - we'll pass laws to make sure labor rights are diminished. The southern states kept Grady's promise and passed "right to work" laws making labor unions virtually impossible to organize in the region. In concert with this anti-labor philosophy, the white southern elite didn't want just any business coming into their states. The business had to be non-union first and foremost. Race has also always been an effective means of keeping unions out of the South. The white elite propaganda stating that black workers would control whites in union shops has always been effective and, of course, they cried threats of "race mixing". The result of all of these low wage unorganized workers has been devastating for building a middle class in many areas of the South for both whites and blacks and for ending the grinding poverty in predominantly black areas such as the Mississippi Delta. What about the South and its environmental record? Bush is renowned as being the worst environmental president in the past century and for turning back the clock on environmental regulations that took years to pass and implement. Environmentalists in Texas were appalled at his policies as Governor of Texas. His philosophy is "leave it to business to regulate itself." He's learned well from southern political traditions. Sorry folks! This is another gift we in the south are offering the nation. Bush's deregulation policies on the environment echo the southern record perfectly. The environmental policy to control business polluters in the South has always been "no policy" whenever possible. As a result pollution in the South is rampant and the raping of our natural resources is commonplace. Typically, business owners in the south get rich at the expense of everyone else and the environment and they get all kinds of help from politicians. Perhaps a prominent recent example of this is North Carolina with its huge factory hog farms - a state now known as the "piss pool of America". The route between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is known as Cancer Alley for its excessively high rate of cancer due to chemical plant pollution. The Appalachian coal mining abuse is tragic where whole mountaintops are being lopped off resulting in run-offs into streams and extreme environmental ecosystem distress. The kaolin in middle Georgia is known as one of the highest grade in the world. Georgia gets no tax from the kaolin industry nor does the extremely destitute kaolin rich area benefit from this industry. These are just a few examples. The list is huge. Bush is clearly well versed on exploitation. What is "compassionate conservatism" after all except at least to smile while you exploit. He's learned well from his southern mentors and he's now imposing these "ill-fated" lessons on the nation and the world. No doubt about it. He's from the South. So what is happening to the nation thanks to Bush and his political and economic agenda? Historian James Cobb at the University of Georgia in his book "Selling of the South" (1993) explains southern policies, its legacy and potential national impact best when he says: "Only by looking outward as well as inward can we begin to understand fully why, long after the plantation's demise, the leaders of the New South persisted in their ill-fated efforts to achieve a developed economy at the expense of a developed society. Such an understanding promises a firmer grasp of the contradictions and contrasts that mark the southern economy in the 1990's and, beyond that, a clearer sense of why in recent years the socioeconomic and political outlines of the nation's future seem so ominously reminiscent of the South's past." Heather Gray is the producer of "Just Peace" on WRFG-Atlanta 89.3 FM covering local, regional, national and international news. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia and can be reached at justpeacewrfg@aol.com. Weekend Edition Features for October 30 / 31, 2004 November 6 / 7, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Don't Say We Didn't Warn You Jeffrey St. Clair Green Out Carl G. Estabrook Who Killed Cock Robin? Saul Landau Che: the Man and the Movie Gary Leupp Let There Be Conflict! Ben Tripp You Call This a Party? Paul Craig Roberts The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front Jordan Green Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM Fred Gardner Haul of Justice J.A. Miller Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered Ramzy Baroud Life Without Arafat Dave Zirin Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete Ron Jacobs The Arrow on the Doorpost Robert Oscar Lopez How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority Niranjan Ramakrishnan The November Surprise Dave Lindorff Silver Linings Richard Oxman Invitation to the Bodily Snatched John Whitlow Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky Rahul Mahajan Fallujah and the Reality of War Leila Matsui Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge WWW http://www.counterpunch.org