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Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
April
23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April
22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
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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April
23, 2004
All Things Are
Not Equal
The Perils of
Globalization
By CYNTHIA MCKINNEY
This is the text of Cynthia
McKinney's talk at the Georgia Tech Globalization Forum held
on April 22, 2004
I would like to thank Georgia Tech and
the Georgia Peace Center for holding this forum tonight.
I spent one quarter as a "Rambling
Wreck" and I hope that qualifies me at least for honorary
membership on Tech's winning team.
However, I must admit that
I did also spend one quarter as a Georgia State Panther. So I
hope I'm not the victim of a squeeze play tonight.
Tonight we are here to talk
about globalization. During my grad school days, I sat through
a few econ courses. And I remember that my teachers could draw
elaborate diagrams on the board, and write mathematical equations
that went the length of the chalkboard; and they would always
add at the end, "if all things are equal."
And so I emerged from graduate
school a true believer, that free trade was fair, if all things
are equal.
But as I left the world of
academia and entered the world of politics, my first lesson learned
was that all things are not equal.
I think I would like to start
my remarks by remembering a comment that Venezuela's President,
Hugo Chavez, makes in the documentary, "The Revolution Will
Not Be Televised." In that film, he says that the people
who are labeled antiglobalizers are really not that at all. That
they are the true globalizers because they care about the world
and all its people.
The most glaring effect of
globalization that I have confronted is the impact on the lives
of real people for whom I am responsible.
My first encounter with people
whose lives were impacted by what we call globalization came
as I sought to represent Georgia's old 11th District that swept
through Georgia's poor and rural black belt. Those most up in
arms at the time were our farmers who were agitated about NAFTA.
Those not up in arms, but who bore the brunt of NAFTA, were in
one case, the women of Sparta, Georgia--Hancock County. There,
single mothers held families together with their low-wage jobs
in the textile plants. There, single mothers lost their jobs
when the plants moved away. I watched desperate families endure
desperate times. "All things being equal" didn't take
the women of Sparta, Georgia into account. As a caring single
mother, who also happened to be an elected official, I had to.
That's when I drafted legislation to take away tax breaks for
corporations that locate their plants overseas. It wasn't a sexy
subject at that time, but it was definitely a problem that I
saw firsthand, affecting real lives and real people.
Now, more people are paying
attention to globalization because at first it was just "them,"
now, it's a whole lot of us. Globalization used to be perceived
as something that happened to poor workers or the environment
in faraway places like China. Now globalization has come home.
So the first effect that I
would like to mention is the effect that these economic policies
have on careers, creating uncertainty for real people as they
watch more and more jobs being sent off shore.
Estimates run into the millions
of jobs that have been lost since George Bush was sworn into
office. How does one measure the anxiety level of American workers
who need these jobs; watch them leave the US; realize that some
companies even continue to get tax breaks when they leave; and
then find that their careers have been outsourced?
In all of my econ courses,
I don't recall any of my professors ever adding that to the equation.
Secondly, I am concerned about
the worsening gap between rich and poor; not just globally, but
in our own country, too.
Globally, as many as 1 billion
people fail to meet life's basic requirements as defined by the
UN. About three-fifths of the world's population in developing
countries live without sanitation. About one-third live without
safe drinking water. One-fourth lack adequate housing; one-fifth
live without modern health services; one-fifth of their children
don't make it through fifth grade; an equal number are malnourished.
Water shortage and contamination
kill nearly 25,000 people a day. Diarrhea kills nearly 4 million
children every year. In Bolivia, when the US multinational Bechtel
tried to privatize the water supply, a revolution was sparked.
Now, we can add Bolivia to the list of countries that don't like
our policies.
In addition to global inequality,
the United States is also experiencing domestic inequality. According
to the US Census, more than 34 million Americans now live below
the poverty line. That's almost 2 million more impoverished than
in 2001. Over 16% of our children live in poverty, almost double
the figures for 2001. The Veterans Administration estimates that
on any given night 300,000 veterans sleep on America's streets.
The VA estimates that during the year as many as half a million
veterans experience homelessness. Conservatively, one out of
every four homeless males who is sleeping in a doorway, alley,
or a cardboard box in our cities and rural communities has put
on a uniform and served our country. Surely America must remember
them. But while our country spends one billion dollars a week
for war, we can't find money to provide our vets shelter and
a warm meal?
In addition to the highest
unemployment in a decade and persistent health care challenges
for those Americans who do have jobs, a permanent underclass
is being created and that is not sustainable.
I'll just recite for you the
findings from several studies published this year:
United for a Fair Economy:
State of the Dream, 2004 report states that on some indices,
the racial gap has actually widened since the murder of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Sadly, it will take 8 years to close the high
school graduation gap; 73 years to close the college graduation
gap; 581 years to close the per capita income gap; and 1,664
years to close the home ownership gap.
The New York Times informs
us that nearly half of all black men aged 16 to 64 in New York
City are unemployed.
The Chicago Sun-Times tells
us about a Hull House Report entitled, "Minding the Gap:
An Assessment of Racial Disparity in Metropolitan Chicago. According
to the Sun-Times, "the report describes two completely different
cities, documenting disparities in income, education, housing,
transportation, health, and safety."
According to the Hull House
report researched by Loyola University, it will take 200 years
for the gulf that separates black quality of life from white
quality of life to close entirely.
One example cited in the report:
"Whites are 125% more likely to use marijuana than blacks;
181% more likely to use cocaine; 431% more likely to use inhalants;
516% more likely to use LSD. And yet blacks account for 79% of
all drug arrests."
A University of Cincinnati
report shows that African Americans are stopped more often, frequently
receive unequal treatment after being stopped, are stopped for
longer periods of time, and are searched and arrested more often.
A Harvard University study
finds that the quality of health care varies by race and at a
recent seminar on the subject, one of the star panelists recommends
that blacks see black doctors to escape racism in health care.
Harvard Professor Henry Louis
Gates, in his series "America Beyond the Color Line,"
informs us that a full 40% of all black children are living at
or beneath the poverty line.
The Washington Post tells us
that hundreds of children tested at least 47% higher than the
national average for lead poisoning.
The most recent report comes
from the National Urban League, which reports on the State of
Black America, 2004. It reminds us that over "216 years
ago, the authors of the US Constitution counted enslaved African
Americans as 60% of a white person. According to the total of
the 2004 Equality Index, the status of African Americans today
is 73%" that of their white counterparts.
Over 200 years of American
progress equals 13%. No wonder the National Urban League reports
that 40% of blacks feel little or no improvement in economics
or social mobility.
Clearly this is a situation
that is not sustainable.
Thirdly, I'd like to talk about
a situation that is a growing problem: sexual slavery and human
trafficking. One major side effect of extreme poverty throughout
the world is the growing crisis of sexual slavery and human trafficking.
A recent U.S. Government estimate indicates that approximately
800,000 - 900,000 people annually are trafficked across international
borders worldwide and between 18,000 and 20,000 of those victims
are trafficked into the United States. This estimate includes
men, women, and children who are trafficked into forced labor
and sexual exploitation as defined in the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act of 2000. Girls as young as 13 are trafficked as
mail order brides. Children are trafficked for domestic work.
In Lithuania, children as young as 11 are known to work as prostitues.
The Government of Azerbaijan wants to crack down on child traffickers
who are believed to take children abroad and sell their organs
for profit.
This is a human tragedy borne
out of world-wide poverty. In fact, human trafficking is the
ultimate form of globalization: people doing anything to generate
commerce. And while this Administration speaks about the scourge
of human trafficking, it has done nothing to end the lucrative
Pentagon contracts that go to DynCorp, in particular, a company
whose employees are known to have engaged in sexual slavery,
and are reported to still be doing so, even today.
Globalization without a moral
compass is what we're experiencing today. Here's what John Kennedy
had to say at his inauguration in 1961:
"The world is very different
now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all
forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. . . . To
those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we
pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have
passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny.
We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view.
But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their
own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly
sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.
To those people in the huts
and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds
of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help
themselves, for whatever period is required--not because the
communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes,
but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many
who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."
Now, I'll end this as I began
it. One vision of globalization has put our entire planetary
ecosystem at risk. I do not share that vision. However, a different
leadership can inspire us to have a very different vision. I
have a global view and I care about the world and all its people.
John Kennedy said it right; this Administration and those who
think like it get it wrong.
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
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