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Today's
Stories
January 10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
as Hitler? Let's Be Fair
January 9, 2004
David Lindorff
The
Misers of War: Troop Strength and Chintzy Bonuses
Kurt Nimmo
Saddam's Defense: Summon Bush Sr. to the Stand
Mike Whitney
Orange Jumpsuits for the Bush Clan?: The Carnegie Report on Iraq's
Non-existent WMDs
Deb Reich
Palestinians and Israelis: This War is Unwinnable
David Vest
Disabled
Vets Fire Back at Rumsfeld
January 8, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israeli
Refuseniks Sentenced to Jail
Lenni Brenner
Dr.
Dean and the Godhead
Ray McGovern
Bush: Driving Without Breaks
Mark Scaramella
Inside
the DA's Office: Lies, Errors and Tedium
Yves Engler
Bush's Mexican Gambit
James Hollander
Journalists
Under Fire: the Death of José Couso in Baghdad
January 7, 2004
Democracy Now!
Uncharitable
Care: How Hospitals are Gouging and Even Arresting the Uninsured
Greg Weiher
The
Bush Administration's Ongoing Intelligence Problem
Ben Tripp
The Word of the Year, 2003
Dave Lindorff
Dean and His Democratic Detractors
Michael Leon
The NYT Does Chomsky
Bob Boldt
God Talk
Ramon Ryan
Small
Victories and Long Struggles: the 10th Anniversary of the Zapatista
Uprising
January 6, 2004
Dave Lindorff
RNC
Plays the Hitler Card: MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads
Ron Jacobs
Drugs
in Uniform: Hashish and the War on Terrorism
Josh Frank
Coffee and State Authority in Colombia
Doug Giebel
Permanent Bases: Leave Iraq? Hell No, We Won't Go
John Chuckman
Sick Puppies: David Frum's New Neo-Con Manifesto
Rannie Amiri
The Politics of the Iranian Earthquake
John L. Hess
A Record
to Dissent From
Thacher Schmid
A Cheesehead's Musings on the Sunday NYT
David Price
"Like
Slaves": Anthropological Thoughts on Occupation
January 5, 2004
Al Krebs
How
Now Mad Cow!
Kathy Kelly
Squatting
in Baghdad's Bomb Craters
Jordy Cummings
The Dialectic of the Kristol Family: Putting the Neo in the Cons
Fran Shor
Mad Human Disease: Chewing the Fat Down on the Farm
Fidel Castro
"We Shall Overcome": On the 45th Anniversary of the
Cuban Revolution
Gary Leupp
North
Korea for Dummies
January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
January 2, 2004
Stan Cox
Red Alert
2016
Dave Lindorff
Beef, the Meat of Republicans
Jackie Corr
Rule and Ruin: Wall Street and Montana
Norman Solomon
George Will's Ethics: None of Our Business?
David Vest
As the Top Wobbleth
January 1, 2004
Randall Robinson
Honor
Haiti, Honor Ourselves
David Krieger
Looking
Back on 2003
Robert Fisk
War Takes an Inhuman Twist: Roadkill Bombs
Stan Goff
War,
Race and Elections
Hammond Guthrie
2003 Almaniac
Website of the Day
Embody Bags
December 31, 2003
Ray McGovern
Don't
Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation
Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria
Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned
Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George
Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead
December 30, 2003
Michael Neumann
Criticism
of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Annie Higgins
When
They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary
Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades
Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish
Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard
Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat
Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
December 29, 2003
Mark Hand
The Washington
Post in the Dock?
David Lindorff
The
Bush Election Strategy
Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War
Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?
Uri Avnery
Israel's
Conscientious Objectors
December 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David
Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
December 26, 2003
Gary Leupp
Bush
Doings: Doing the Language
December 25, 2003
Diane Christian
The
Christmas Story
Elaine Cassel
This
Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us
Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock
Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead
Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Alexander Cockburn
The
Magnificient 9
Guthrie / Albert
Another Colorful Season
December 24, 2003
M. Shahid Alam
The Semantics
of Empire
William S. Lind
Marley's
List for Santa in Wartime
Josh Frank
Iraqi
Oil: First Come, First Serve
Cpt. Paul Watson
The
Mad Cowboy Was Right
Robert Lopez
Nuance
and Innuendo in the War on Iraq
December 23, 2003
Brian J. Foley
Duck
and Cover-up
Will Youmans
Sharon's
Ultimatum
Michael Donnelly
Here
They Come Again: Another Big Green Fiasco
Uri Avnery
Sharon's
Speech: the Decoded Version
December 22, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Pray
to Play: Bush's Faith-Based National Parks
Patrick Gavin
What Would Lincoln Do?
Marjorie Cohn
How to
Try Saddam: Searching for a Just Venue
Kathy Kelly
The
Two Troublemakers: "Guilty of Being Palestinians in Iraq"
December 20 / 21, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
How
to Kill Saddam
Saul Landau
Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy
Rafael Hernandez
Empire and Resistance: an Interview with Tariq Ali
David Vest
Our Ass and Saddam's Hole
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
Greg Weiher
Lessons from the Israeli School on How to Win Friends in the
Islamic World
Christopher Brauchli
Arrest, Smear, Slink Away: Dr. Lee and Cpt. Yee
Carol Norris
Cheers of a Clown: Saddam and the Gloating Bush
Bruce Jackson
The Nameless and the Detained: Bush's Disappeared
Juliana Fredman
A Sealed Laboratory of Repression
Mickey Z.
Holiday Spirit at the UN
Ron Jacobs
In the Wake of Rebellion: The Prisoner's Rights Movement and
Latino Prisoners
Josh Frank
Sen. Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler
John L. Hess
Slow Train to the Plane
Adam Engel
Black is Indeed Beautiful
Ben Tripp
The Relevance of Art in Times of Crisis
Michael Neumann
Rhythm and Race
Poets' Basement
Cullen, Engel, Albert & Guthrie
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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January
10 / 11, 2004
Have Faith? Try Preperation
H
Homeland
Anxiety
By SAUL LANDAU
Happy New Year! 2004 may become known as the year
that the newly created Department of Faith-Based Homeland Anxiety
helped George W. Bush slip back into the White House.
At the very end of 2003, Tom Ridge, the
Minister of Homeland Security raised the national alert level
from yellow to orange.
"It's an orange alert again,"
I told my wife. "We better take the proper precautions
against a terrorist attack."
"Should we stop watering the lawn?"
she asked, "or not call the plumber when the toilet is
leaking? Maybe, we should stay indoors, except when absolutely
necessary--like going to the liposuction clinic. And don't forget
to keep our guns cocked and alarm system on full battery charge
24 hours a day."
"Whatever you do," she jabbed
sarcastically, "don't check suspicious books out of the
library on yellow, orange or red color coded days and make sure
that the used book store owner doesn't actually write down the
title of any of the paperbacks you buy there--like The Case
of the Poisoned Well Water."
"And for goodness sake, don't buy
an almanac."
"Huh?"
"There's an AP story in the December
30 LA Times that says the FBI sent a Christmas eve bulletin
to 18,000 police  organizations warning them to watch out
for people carrying almanacs, because terrorists may use them
'to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning.'"
"And," she shouted as I tried
to escape, " if you have an almanac, don't write in it,
because the cops will be watching for people with such books
at traffic stops and if you have the name of a tall building
underlined, your ass is grass Cass. And stop looking so worried."
It's bad enough that I feel totally inadequate
after each day's message barrage from radio, TV, newspapers,
magazines, internet pop ups, email spam and billboard signs,
but now I feel apprehensive about going anywhere. What does
that add up to? High orange alert on the day my daughter is
due to fly in from New York.
"Oh, it's just that uptight Tom
Ridge playing with his M&Ms," a cynical friend remarked.
"If he has information about a terrorist attack on the
United States, why doesn't he tell us the details? Or is it
that he wants to share the information only with the terrorists,
not the intended victims?"
What happened to brown? I ask myself.
Does chocolate signify contentment? Is that why Ridge de-selected
it from his otherwise perfect M&M choices?
Indeed, arch right wing southern California
Republican Congressman Christopher Cox supposedly compared the
utility of Ridge's color code system to that of a toboggan in
Baghdad.
No matter, I wrung my hands, as did millions
of other. I had memorized my color chart. The low risk days
of course merit a green; generalized risk is blue. Yellow means
significant peril and orange--like the warning color on traffic
lights --means high risk if you go ahead. Red? Don't even think
about it.
How does one handle all of this? The
descriptions don't give enough details.
Millions of Americans, however, did line
up for endless "security checks" at airports and shopping
malls, and any other site that "security" authorities
could conjure.
Just before the end of the year, the
"security" bosses forced the cancellation of several
flights from Paris to Los Angeles and demanded armed guards
on overseas flights.
Coast Guard boats sped back and forth
across the main harbors. Armed guards patrolled bridges and
reservoirs. Others manned posts at key electrical grids. Guns
and flak jackets, radios and other gadgets hung from their vests
and belts. Security!
A friend and former sailor asked one
of the cost guard officials what he and his crew were looking
for as they cruised between Santa Barbara and Oxnard on the
California coast.
"Damned if I know," the officer
said. "No one told us what to look for. They just ordered
us to carry out 24 hour patrols during the high orange alert
period. We didn't see anything but a small possible marijuana
boat. But my crew and I didn't get to spend Christmas at home
with our families."
I found it hard to focus: The cacophony
of jingle bells blaring from the speakers of mall stores, demands
that I buy now--whatever it is -- before prices go up and the
ever present warnings of impending terrorist violence. So, I
turned on the TV, the best way to enjoy distraction. I watched
the well conditioned and steroid laden men break each other's
bones and tear ligaments, listened to the intricate analysis
of the strategy behind these "real macho" games--by
those who used to play and survived in more or less one piece.
I watched a rerun of The Sopranos to
feel assured that Mafia dons feel the same anxieties that ordinary
people suffer--problems with wives, kids, treacherous associates
and former girlfriends. And then, with baited breath, I along
with 18 million of my countrymen and women absorbed the wisdom
and wit of Michael Jackson as he told his side of the story
to Ed Bradley on the December 28 60 Minutes. Ironically, this
was nine million less than had watched last February's ABC special,
Living With Michael Jackson. That program, of course, was aired
before the family of Michael's former child friend turned on
him. Apparently, and this is a truly important rumor on which
to focus, Michael has turned over the management of his assets
and media appearances to the Nation of Islam. That alone, which
was quickly denied and then reasserted, and endless shopping
of course, should spur enough mindless conversation to help
us distract ourselves from the omnipresent dread of: when will
the next terrorist attack that Ridge assures us is inevitable
occur?
"Have faith," the KKLA AM radio
preacher advised as His way to deal with this insecurity. "Faith
in Jesus will lead you from the darkness of selfish worrying
about your own safety and into the light of salvation."
Yes, I think. Have faith in Jesus and
forget all your doubts and worries, all the unanswered questions.
Stop thinking altogether and let mellow voiced AM radio preacher
John MacArthur program your mind and your behavior. Just try
his "how-to plan to help relieve anxiety and depression
and guide you to a more trusting God honoring life. Find deep
seated satisfaction, no matter what you're facing."
I await the answer as the program ends
and another radio preacher intones.
"There's something better than Moses,
better than Freud, better than Prozac. That's Jesus."
Florida has just opened a faith-based
prison. How many hardened murderers and rapists will find Jesus
in the hole?
Don't laugh. Faith has delivered President
Bush from his alcoholism, or at least that's what he claims.
People who had violent pasts, like the late Eldridge Cleaver,
found faith in Jesus. Indeed, Nixon trickster Chuck Colson even
started a born-again group of A-types when he got out of prison
after serving time for his hanky panky against the Democrats
while serving in the White House.
In the evening, I fell asleep and dreamed
that Colson launched a campaign to recruit heavy duty sinners
in 2004. Colson even reached Saddam Hussein with the message
of salvation -- before he went to trial. The former Iraqi dictator,
seeing the light, became a born-again Muslim for Jesus. The
Bush re-election campaign employed him as the big draw at fundraisers
for the truly kinky Republican set. An evening with Saddam Hussein
was worth at least 25K for the re-election campaign.
In the dream, the President addressed
skeptical members of his campaign staff: "I'm a forgiving
man. Saddam has confessed his sins--and they were truly terrible.
But now he has earned God's forgiveness. I turned to Jesus and
I was forgiven. We must now allow this sinner--even if he is
an A-rab -- to receive God's blessings."
"Hallelujah!" they shouted.
The dream moved toward total nightmare.
To provide non-financial help for his re-election--God's wish--Bush
formalized the Department of Faith Base Homeland Anxiety led
by Minister Pat Robertson Jr. He hired Saddam Hussein as a
"consultant" to appear on TV to tell Americans of what
horrors they will face if "a weak Man (any Democrat) wins
the presidency."
The Democratic candidates squabbled over
exactly which of them he meant by "weak."
"Wake up," my wife screamed.
"You're having a bad dream."
"I hope it's only a dream,"
I told her, "and not one of those biblical prophecies."
Saul Landau
is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. He teaches at
Cal Poly Pomona University. For Landau's writing in Spanish visit:
www.rprogreso.com.
His new book, PRE-EMPTIVE
EMPIRE: A GUIDE TO BUSH S KINGDOM, has just been published
by Pluto Press. He can be reached at: landau@counterpunch.org
Weekend
Edition Features for January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
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