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New Edition of CounterPunch

Kerry in Vietnam Part One: War Hero or War Criminal? by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair; Why France Joined the US in the Coup in Haiti and the Despicable Role of Regis Debray, Le Running Dog Onctueux by Heather Williams; Ashcroft in Indonesia: Bloodshed and Terror with US Connivance by Ben Terrall. Last month, CounterPunch Online was read by 12.5 million viewers--by far our biggest month ever. But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

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Today's Stories

March 23, 2004

Phillip Cryan
The Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks

M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie

March 22, 2004

Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial Executions

Uri Avnery
The Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime

Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage

Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee

Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy Scam

Greg Moses
Stop Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March

Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation

Lenni Brenner
Report from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace

Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations

Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment

Website of the Day
Enviros Against War

 

March 20 / 21, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Gay Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path

Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne Do?

Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities

Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act

Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"

William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall

Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism

Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War

John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon

Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man

Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity

Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss

Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?

Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism

Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun

Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!

Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill

Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet

Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility

Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis

Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election

 

March 19, 2004

Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home

Ann Harrison
So Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?

William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"

Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote

Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup, Mr. Bush

Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future

John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs

Vicente Navarro
The End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend

Website of the War
Naming the Dead


March 18, 2004

Gila Svirsky
Rachel Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency

Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million from Saddam

William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing

Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative

Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment

Josh Frank
The Nader Question

Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy

Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey

Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain

Gary Leupp
The Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost

Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key

 

 

March 17, 2004

Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on Terror or Civil Liberties?

David MacMichael
Untruth and Consequences

Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer

Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware

Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out

Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections

Peter Linebaugh
Bush: Blanc Blanc

 

 

March 16, 2004

Lenni Brenner
James Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights

Scott Boehm
Madrid Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days

Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History Behind the Spanish Elections

Sam Hamod and Alfredo Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way: Executing David Clayton Hill

Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran

Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War on Terror"

Bill Christison
The Aftershocks from Madrid

CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa

Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!

 

March 15, 2004

Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe

Mike Whitney
Justice Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism

Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation

Greg Moses
Lessons from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs

Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health

Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer

CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!

 

March 12 / 14, 2004

Gabriel Kolko
The Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power

Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!

William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)

William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks

Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us All Less Safe

Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars

Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists

Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor

Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge

Helen Scott and Ashley Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?

Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy of the American Prison

Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On

Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana

Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding

Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith

Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier

 

 

March 11, 2004

Ron Jacobs
Bedtime for Democracy

Bill Kauffman
Hey, Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People?

James Hollander
Slaughter in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally?

Norman Solomon
They Shoot Journalists, Don't They?

Patrick Gavin
The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return

Becky Burgwin
You're Messing with the Wrong Generation

John Sugg
The FBI is on My Trail

March 10, 2004

Hammond Guthrie
Read This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?"

Chris Floyd
Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another Bush Brings Hell to Haiti

Elizabeth Corrie
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie

Mike Whitney
US Press Torpedoes Aristide

M. Junaid Alam
An Anti-Civilizational War?

Bob Feldman
The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934

John L. Hess
An Overload of Crises

Gary Leupp
On Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"

 

March 9, 2004

Greg Weiher
The Zarqawi Gambit, Part 2

Ben Tripp
Word Up! Let's Have a Conversation

Tom Barry
Neo-Cons Target Syria

Sharon Smith
The Hypocrites in the Catholic Church

Robert Fisk
The Same Old Iraq

Doug Giebel
The Bush Strategy: Laughing All the Way

Ralph Nader
Pension Rights, the Trail of Broken Promises

Daniel Estulin
In Memory of Ricardo Ortega: a Great Journalist, Killed in Haiti

Dave Lindorff
Martha Stewart's Cloudy Day

Saul Landau
Will the Filthy Rich Dump Bush?

Website of the Day
Imperial Armies in the Garden

 

March 8, 2004

Amy Goodman
An Interview with Aristide

Eric Ruder
An Interview with Robert Fatton on the Coup in Haiti

Robert Jensen
The Presidential Library Terrorist Connection

Mike Whitney
Expel the US from the Security Council

Jason Leopold
How Cheney Helped Cover Up Pakistan's Nuclear Proliferation

Mazin Qumsiyeh
Why is Apartheid Touted as a Solution?

Kevin Alexander Gray
The Legacy of Strom Thurmond

Derek Seidman
Radical Continuity: an Interview with Paul Buhle

Steve Perry
Kerry Fiddles While He Could be Burning Bush

Website of the Day
Patriot Act Game

 

March 6 / 7, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Understanding the World with Paul Sweezy

Robert Pollin
Remembering Paul Sweezy

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Timber Theft

Tom Reeves
Bush's Mass Deportations: 63,000 and Counting

Charles Lewis
Who Mugged Howard Dean in Iowa: Kerry, Torricelli and a Mysterious Frontgroup

Tom Jackson
My Breakfast with Sen. Judd Gregg

Kurt Nimmo
Is Venezuela Next?

Alan Cisco
A Report from Caracas

Jack Random
Haitian Democracy be Damned

Colin Piquette
Oh, Canada: the Coup Coalition

Lee Sustar
Labor's State of Emergency

William D. Hartung
Iraq and the Costs of War

David Sally
Rebuilding Amérique

Mark Scaramella
When God Mooned Moses: Test Your Bible Knowledge

Mickey Z.
What We Can Learn from Ashcroft's Gallbladder

Ron Jacobs
Politics and Baseball

Dave Zirin
The Longest Jump: the Blackballing of Phil Shinnick

Poets' Basement
John Holt and Larry Kearney

Website of the Weekend
National Day of Action for Rachel Corrie

 

 

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.

 

 

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March 23, 2004

"Jim Crow Lives Next Door"

Driving Mr. Koon

By JG

"Where tha Fuck did u lurn how to drive koon-boy...U talk jus' like any dumb nigger I ever met!" Straight outta Samuel L. Jackson's "A Time To Kill," or perhaps a relaying of Klan oral tradition -- no, this most eloquent filth was spewed from the jaw bone of your average South Floridian NASCAR fan; mid a lunch-break drive, trucking along in a rusty Chevrolet 1-ton, in a belligerent rage aside my vehicle, expounding as to why my chauffeuring was in his view, lackluster.

The Michael Savages, Rush Limbaughs and Bill O'Reillys would like one to believe that the era of obtuse bigotry is long past; that American culture has actually teetered to the opposite end of the spectrum; a balancing act yielding the catch phrase of the day, "reverse discrimination!" Why, even the token Negroes have weighed in on African American's lamentable obsession with racism. Just ask John McWhorter, Condoleeza Rice or the demigod of Uncle Tomery, Secretary Powell; hence the recommended cure-all to this assumed inferiority complex: "We as Black people must move beyond the days of Jim Crow...My father wasn't a slave, I have no experience whatsoever with slavery...(this a tripartite paraphrasing of past rhetoric from the above parties)" If I were a white, 16 year old sophomore at Millard North High school in Omaha Nebraska, this trend of rationale may seem commonsensical; I mean, "damn, Blacks sure do complain a lot, I haven't oppressed anyone, they have equal opportunities, Affirmative Action and all that other stuff!"

Makes sense doesn't it? Extend a few constitutional gestures in euphemistic form, have Fox broadcast the annual NAACP Image Awards, appoint Amos & Andy (excuse me, Andrea) to the Presidential cabinet, titillate the inner orb of hate within the Religious Right, accuse various institutions of "reverse discrimination," and voila, "them niggers sho do complain a lot!" I am not here to posture as the second coming of Frantz Fanon. I am probably incapable of presenting a concise, logically fluid Psychosexual study of Negrophobia in 2004. My commentary originates in the most tangible of all resources, personal experience.

With each hour lived amidst the socioeconomic discourse of American culture, I find it imperative to reinvigorate my endorsement of the First Amendment. Anyone remotely familiar with my person understands and endorses (by default of acquaintanceship) my penchant for "public displays of opinion." Who could possibly tabulate the horde of frightened Anglophiles offended by my mere presence? Even so, my reaction upon seeing the good ol' Stars & Bars, borders on Tipperesque fascism. Toes curl, facial vessels inundate with blood, fists clench, teeth grate; the ejaculation of unhindered wrath is one stroke of the temper away. Soothing thoughts of defacing the haphazardly applied bumper sticker, visor, porch flag, or if luck is on my side, the head beneath a baseball cap adorned with the American swastika. On rare (well, prior to age 25, not so rare) occasion, my limbs were found flailing to and fro, striking at multiple toothless targets, satisfying an allegedly irrational urge to nullify the threat. Violent? Yes. Imprudent? Absolutely. Undemocratically hypocritical? This remains to be seen.

As much as I deplore the Texas furor, life as a Black man in this country has tweaked a sympathy for one of the GOP's most prized philosophies, Preemptive warfare (by definition, the latest illegal bombing of Iraqi peoples isn't remotely Preemptive, instead Preventive; proactive measures motivated by a perceived threat). According to the Bush / Cheney dogma of the moment, I posses the divine right to mount an offensive against any mullet wearing, hate symbol brandishing, NASCAR indulging, "Deliverance"-double in my path! Make no mistake people, these savages do pose a threat; a bona fide one at that, buttressed by a crusade of virulent discourse and genocide. It goes way beyond historical precedent. The power structure and its Praetorian guard (the good ol' boy network) propagate their prejudiced swagger, bigoted epithets and xenophobic lynching, with each nanosecond passing to the Confederate winds ruffling Stars & Bars nylon.

Damn right I'm a "Huey P. Newton Reader;" and a Black radical by all accounts! Oftentimes my imagination stumbles upon the image of moisture between Black Panther digits, cold-wrapped around an M-1. Did Fred Hampton fail "Preemptive 101?" His final exam administered via the barrel of Chicago PD? Adhering to the above logic, apparently, tragically so. I question the omniscience of political apathy here in America, perpetually. This criticism extends to the African American community as well. Would the Jewish American citizenry tolerate, for one moment, a swastika center New York State's flag? Hell, one can't even criticize the barbaric policies of Israel without being blacklisted an Anti-Semite! What is a brother (or sister) to do? Does he prance like Christ, "turn the other cheek," let words run down ego's back, baring a wide brown target for the scope-sights of the questionably inbred? Does he command the mass-mobilization of his community, demanding the abolishment of state-sanctioned racism? Or, as I have done in the past (at times regrettably), does he act on the most basic of all instincts and preserve his life through Preemption; disregarding the valued teachings of Gandhi, Paine and King. Personally, I always preferred the lessons of Seale, Carmichael, Davis, Huggins, Means, Zapata, Marcos, and of course, Newton. As an aged caretaker of an African Museum once told me, "Jim Crow lives next door." The question is, how friendly is your neighbor?

JG is the lead Emcee for the politically leftist Hip-Hop duet, Over The Counter Intelligence (JG & HavikenHayes), based in Fort Lauderdale Florida. They are most recognized through their support of various grassroots organizations throughout the country; most notably The Coalition of Immokalee Workers -- The Taco Bell Boycott. They are of the best known Indie-Hip Hop groups nationwide. JG has written songs, articles and editorials specific to the oppression of the Haitian Global Village, most importantly, the virulent immigration statues pertaining to Haitian Refugees. He has recently recorded a solo album entitled "Insurgent," which will be released this year via record label.

He can be reached by email: jg_1804@hotmail.com

Weekend Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Gay Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path

Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne Do?

Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities

Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act

Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"

William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall

Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism

Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War

John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon

Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man

Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity

Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss

Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?

Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism

Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun

Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!

Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill

Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet

Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility

Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis

Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election


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