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Today's
Stories
June 5,
2007
Michael Neumann
Canada
in Afghanistan
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
Zali 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
May 31, 2007
Robert Bryce
The
Language Barrier
Patrick Cockburn
Killing with Impunity: Iraq's Militias Under the Surge
Gary Leupp
Appropriate Disillusionment: the Despair of Cindy Sheehan and
Andrew Bacevich
Kathy Kelly
Being Hope
Marjorie Cohn
The Unitary King George
Chris Kutalik
and Tiffany Ten Eyck
Fallout from the Sale of Chrysler: Jobs, Health Care, Pensions,
All in Jeopardy
Corporate Crime Reporter
Zheng Xiaoyu Meet Lester Crawford
Dave Lindorff
Our Monica: a Hero of the Constitution
Website of the Day
Know Your Rights!
May 30,
2007
James Ridgeway
The
Bi-Partisan Con on Synthetic Fuels
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon and the Planned US Airbase at Kaleiaat
Terrence E. Paupp
Withdrawal Symptoms
Uri Avnery
To the Shores of Tripoli
Alan Maass
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Green Masquerade: Corporate America's Latest Counter-Attack
Rock and Rap
Confidential
Watching the Detectives: the Political Censorship of Hip Hop
Ralph Nader
Taming the Giant Corporation
Nirmal Ghosh
China, CITES and the Fate of the Tiger
Jean Daniels
Dealing Democrats: Folding to Mr. 28%
Tom Barry
Meet Robert Zoellick: Bush's Pick to Head World Bank
Website of the Day
Petuuche Gilbert on the Rights of Indigenous People
May 29, 2007
Stephen Soldz
Shrinks
and the SERE Technique at Guantanamo
Eliza Ernshire
Refugees
Forever: Inside Bedawi Camp
Ron Jacobs
The Exit of Cindy Sheehan
Dave Lindorff
Whatever Happened to Signing Statements?
Evelyn Pringle
What Qualifies Bush to Lead Iraq War
Mike Whitney
Bush's New Middle East
David Swanson
How We Got Here: The Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
John Holt
Gating Montana, Part Two: the Feedback Loop
Cynthia McKinney
Dreaming of a True Memorial Day
Martha Rosenberg
Mad Cows, Mad Pigs and the Horse Slaughter Lobby
Website of the Day
The Ruminant
May 28, 2007
Bill Quigley
Katrina
Activists: "Less Meeting, More Fighting"
Col. Dan Smith
The Paranoid and the Dead
Cindy Sheehan
Why I Am Leaving the Democratic Party
Dr. Susan Block
Dr. Laura's Little Monster
Jeeni Criscenzo
What I Learned About Being a Dickhead
Douglas Valentine
Memorial Day: a Poem
Website of the Day
Peace TV
May 26 /
27, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greenhousers Strike Back and Out
Michael Donnelly
Green
Sabotage as "Terrorism"
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr's Dramatic Reappearance
Franklin Lamb
Inside Nahr el-Bared: "Another Waco in the Making"
Jean Bricmont
The Moral Collapse of the Moral Left
Gary Leupp
Cheney, Israel and Iran
James Petras
Imperial Rot: The Beginning of the End of the American Empire?
William Peace
Ashley Unlawfully Sterilized
Judith and John Sharpe
The Saga of Our Son, Lt. Commander John Sharpe: Under Investigation
for Antiwar Sentiments
Saul Landau
Four Dead in Ohio: From Kent State to Tiannamen Square
Paul Craig Roberts Democracy
in Iraq, Tyranny at Home?
Jonathan M.
Feldman
Congress and the Iraq War Vote
Dave Lindorff
Democratic Blood Money
Missy Beattie
Congress Plays Dead
Mike Whitney
Swan Song of the Democrats
Badruddin Khan
AIPAC Intervenes on Iran and Congress Folds, Again
Ron Jacobs
The Crime of Silence
Zoe Blunt
The Antidote to Despair
Arjun Chowdhury,
Mark Hoffman
and Kevin Parsneau
The Can-Do Troops and the New Anti-Politics
Heather Gray
The 1969 Riots Against the Chinese in Malaysia: a New Explanation
N. D. Jayaprakash
Disarmament Negotiations: A History and Prospectus
Joe Allen
and Paul D'Amato
Cartoons with Class
Poets' Basement
Gowani, Ford, Anderson and Simon
Website of
the Weekend
Addicted to War
May 25, 2007
Robert Jensen
What
the Finkelstein Tenure Fight Tells Us About the State of Academia
David Vest
So
You Thought They'd End the War
John Stauber
Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq
Evelyn Pringle
Congress Gives War Profiteers Another $100 Billion
Corporate Crime Reporter
Why Corporate Social Responsibility Programs are a Fraud
Susan Rosenthal,
MD
What's Missing from the Health Care Debate
Roberto Rodriguez
Us vs. Them in the Immigration Debate
Steve Fournier
Goodie, Goodie Goodling
Patrick McElwee
Venezuela and RCTV: Is Free Speech Really at Stake?
Robert Weissman
Resisting the Commercialization of Public Schools
Website of the Day
New DNC
Motto: "We Suck"
May 24, 2007
Franklin Lamb
Who's
Behind the Fighting in North Lebanon
Corporate Crime
Reporter
House Democrats Buckle to Big Oil: Strip Down Price Gouging Bill
Robert Fantina
Giuliani: Righteous, Indignant and Wrong
Norman Solomon
Deadly Illusions, Rest in Peace
Dave Lindorff
Kerrycrats All!: Now It's a Democratic War
Sen. Russell
Feingold
We are Moving Backwards on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Doctor of Last Resort
Mike Whitney
Paulson in China
Kevin Parsneau, Arjun Chowdhury
and Mark Hoffman
Becoming Imperialist: a Warning to Iraq War Critics
Caroline Paul
My Brother the "Terrorist": Animal Liberation and Prosecutorial
Overkill
Eva Liddell
In Defense of Lying on Job Applications
Website of
the Day
Johnny's
Jumped the Shark
May 23, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Opium:
Iraq's Newest Export
Rev. William
Alberts
Faith-Based Imperialism
Joe DeRaymond
Colombia's Civil War and the US
Sudhanva Deshpande
and Vijay Prashad
The Political Economy of a Crisis
Paul Craig Roberts
Republicans in Self-Destruct Mode
Glen Ford
A
Less "White" USA
Rannie Amiri
The Great Bank Heist of Tripoli
China Hand
China's Great Wall of Cash?
Zoe Blunt
Tales from the Tree Tops: Veteran Tree Sitter Tells All
Nivien Saleh
Who's to Blame for Iraq?
Website of the Day
Debating the Israel Lobby
May 22, 2007
Robert Fisk
A
Front Row Seat for the Bloodbath in Lebanon
Joshua Frank
Hillary Clinton's Achilles Heel?
Harvey Wasserman
Drop Dead, New Yorkers: Giuliani and the Toxic Fallout from 9/11
David Mos Masumoto
An Orchard Without Workers
Sonja Karkar
Israeli Forest Named After Australian Prime Minister
Conn Hallinan
The Afghan Quagmire
Dave Lindorff
A Widening Chasm on Impeachment
Jeffrey Kolakowski
Meet Us in Detroit: an Open Letter to John Konyers
Evelyn Pringle
A Misleading Suicide Warning
Jim Baumer
Politics Gary, Indiana-Style
Website of the Day
Should the Democrats Fear Mike Gravel?
May 21, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Secret US Plot to Kill Sadr
Nicole Colson
Much Ado About the Fort Dix Pizza Plot
John Ross
Shooting for the Top: Mexico's Drug Gangs Take Aim at Calderon
Stephen Fleischman
Werewolf of Washington: Wolfowitz Comes Full Circle
M. Shahid Alam
Chosenness and Israeli Exceptionalism
Ron Jacobs
Green Mountain Days: Return to Vermont
Peter Rost, MD
Pfizer CFO Resigns
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades Save Florida?
Paul Buchheit
The Dark Side of Democracy Promotion
Website of
the Day
Code Monkey: Live!
May 19 /
20, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
Why
America Lost the War in Iraq
Uri Avnery
The Next War
Peter Gelderloos
My Arrest in Spain: The Easy Road from Tourism to Terrorism
Saul Landau
Bush's Accomplishments
Robert Fantina
Iraq's History: Lessons for the Present and the Future
Fred Gardner
Hemp vs. Pot, a False Dichotomy
Ralph Nader
Timid Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
Jean Daniels
Waiting for Obama
Reza Fiyouzat
Vietnam Syndrome: Dead or Alive?
Missy Beattie
Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani and Osama's Fatwah
Robert Alvarez
Magical Thinking About Nuclear Waste
Sonja Karkar
The Palestinians of Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Mumia Case on Hold
Jeff Sher
Keep Workers Healthy and Reduce Health Care Cost: Eliminate Co-Pays
Julian C. Holmes
Torture, Maine Style
Clancy Sigal
Red Mutiny: 11 Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin
Prairie Miller
The Murder of Fred Hampton
James Murren
The Dog Ate Karl Rove's Homework: When Turd Blossom Met the Teachers
of the Year
Poets' Basement
Davies, Valentine and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Yellowstone's Shame: Harassing Newborn Bison
May 18,
2007
Adam Jones
When
Does Genocide Purify? Ask the Pope
Sharon Smith
The Death of Triangulation Politics?
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney's Middle East Adventure
Peter Rost,
MD
Bribes and Spies in the Drug Industry
Denise Maloney Pictou
The Murder of Our Mother, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash: After 31 Years,
It is Time for Justice
David Swanson
Of Snoops and Dupes
Ali Khan
The Lawyers' Mutiny in Pakistan
Susan Rosenthal,
M.D.
Cho Seung-Hui Delivers His Message
Samer Assad
Israel and the Refugees: Fifty-Nine Years of Dispossession
CP News Service
Bidding for Extinction: Ivory Trade on eBay Threatens Survival
of Elephants
Website of the Day
Another War Criminal Goes to Harvard
May 17,
2007
Tariq Ali
The
General vs. the Judge
Yifat Susskind
Honor
Killings in the New Iraq: The Murder of Du'a Aswad
Dave Zirin
Being Ali or Being Owned: an Open Letter to LeBron James
Brian J. Foley
Hell, No, Harry Won't Go!
W. John Green
The Godfather of Colombia: Uribe and the Para Scandal
Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
Challenges for the New Sanctuary Movement
Badruddin Khan
Rebirthing the Neocons: Bernard Lewis' Latest Call to Arms
Martha Rosenberg
From Cockfighting to Foie Gras: On the Menu and on the Docket
China Hand
Pope Rat in Brazil: "The Amazon Tribes Longed for Christianity!"
Dan Vojir
Falwell's Tinky Winky Legacy: Who Will Battle the Telebubby Threat
Now?
Website of the Day
Welcome to the Terrordome
May 16, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Chalabi
Speaks
Ashley Dawson
Who's Afraid of Wolfowitz?
Joshua Frank
Obama's Cash Flow: Maverick or Kidder?
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Corporate Drug Pushers
Ray McGovern
A Four-Letter Word for Tenet
Glen Ford
Black Labor and the Big Mission
Joe Bageant
The Ghosts of Timothy Leary and Hunter S. Thompson
Sonja Karkar
The 59-Year Catastrophe
Mickey S. Huff
Preaching Hate: Farewell, Falwell
John Chuckman
Falwell's Lone Act of Kindness
Kaz Dziamka
What Ever Happened to Rogerian Argument?
Website of
the Day
We're All Going to Hell
May 15,
2007
Michael Neumann
Two
States, One State and Snake Oil
Patrick Cockburn
An American Nightmare
Ashley Smith
How the US Set Iraq on Fire
Marc Gardner
Parole and the Long-Distance Trucker
Dave Lindorff
and Linn Washington, Jr
Mumia Case Reaches Its Climax
Ben Terrall
Benchmark as Theft: Iraq Oil Workers Strike to Stop Privatization
Ron Jacobs
Cheney Threatens More War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Seabrook
Marcus Mabry
Shopping During Katrina
Dr. Susan Block
Cheney and the DC Madam's Cookie Jar
Website of the Day
Save Jean Klock Park from the Mega-Developers!
May 14,
2007
Jennifer Roesch
Giuliani
Time: the Mussolini of Manhattan
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Humans,
CO2 and Climate Change
George Bisharat
For Palestinians, Memory Matters
Diane Wachtell
The Real Imus Lesson
Ramzy Baroud
From Palestine to Rotterdam
Rosemary and
Walter Brasch
When the National Guard Goes Missing: An Ill Wind and American
Policy
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Blair's Exit
Roberto Rodriguez
The Elusive Bars of Justice
Jonathan Culp
Cutting Out Collage: Copyright and Art in Canada
Website of
the Day
Uranium Rock
May 12 /
13, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Who
are the Merchants of Fear?
Patrick Cockburn
State of Surge
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Line Fever: a Trip Across the Dark Side of Montana
Diane Farsetta
Untold Stories from the Pat Tillman / Jessica Lynch Hearings
Ralph Nader
Strip Mining the Newsroom: Mr. Zell and the Tribune Company
Jean Bricmont
The Great Illusion: Sarkozy and the "Decline" of France
Marcus Breen
Cheering Sarkozy: the US Media and the Rightwing Takeover of
France
Joe Bageant
Rising Above Politics
Conn Hallinan
European Missiles and the Camel's Nose
Fred Gardner
The Unreported I-880 Fire
Juan Santos
and Leslie Radford
Public Terror: Escalating the War on Migrants
Eve Bachrach
Inside Colombia's Flower Industry
Missy Comley
Beattie
Shame
Ron Jacobs
The Bitterness of Regis Debray
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Sepoy Mutiny After 150 Years
Susie Day
Jesus Christ Weds Pat Robertson
Poets' Basement
Newberry, Engel, Landau, Katz and Davies
Website of the Weekend
The Shipyard: Recycling as Art
May 11,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Blair's
Depature: the View from Baghdad
Kathleen Christison
Playing at Peace
Mike Ferner
Collateral Genocide
John Holt
Gating Montana: A Ghastly Disneyland with High Rise Outhouses
Laurie Hasbrook
This Minute and Then the Next: a Plea from an Antiwar Mother
Christopher
Brauchli
The Children of Limbo: Will the Pope Finally Set Them Free?
Margaret Kimberley
GOP Openly Embraces Gipper Values: Racism, Violence and Control
Dave Lindorff
Use It or Lose It: The Democrats and the Impeachment Clause
Nicole Colson
Anger Erupts at Conditions in For-Profit Indiana Prison
John V. Walsh
Beware the Do-Gooders in Body Armor
Website of the Day
Take the Terrorist Quiz!
May 10,
2007
Tariq Ali
Adieu,
Blair, Adieu
Patrick Cockburn
Killing of Teachers Turns Iraqi Sunnis Against al--Qa'ida
Neve Gordon
and Yigal Bronner
In Israel Not All Blood is the Same: The Death of Samir Dari
Marjorie Cohn
Fighting Terror Selectively: Washington and Posada Carriles
David Rosen
The New Disappeared: Sex Offenders, Civil Confinement and the
Resurrection of "Evil"
Alan Farago
Why the Everglades Have Dried Up: Developers and the South Florida
Drought
John Hellman
France: From Pétain to Sarkozy
Kathy Rentenbach
A 100 Days of Rafael Correa
BANCO
The Stage is Set for Sentencing Another Innocent Black Man
Richard Rhames
Is Paris Burning?
Website of the Day
Tame the Corporation
May 9, 2007
Jeff Leys
Iraq
and Afghanistan Supplemental Spending, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign Minister on Iran and Iraq
Glen Ford
No Black Plan for America's Cities
Paula Rothenberg
Feminism Then and Now
Kathryn Weber
A Conversation with Norman Finkelstein
John Chuckman
The Likely Historical Significance of the War in Iraq
Jordan Flaherty
Looking for Justice in Jena, Louisiana
Dave Lindorff
Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush
Stephen Lendman
Criminalizing Speech: the War on Free Expression in a Post-9/11
World
Website of
the Day
"Fifth and Market": a Short Film About the Iraq War
May 8, 2007
Dave Lindorff
The
Great Oil Robbery
Patrick Cockburn
The Horrific Stoning Death of a Yazidi Girl Sparks Waves of Revenge
Killings
Corporate Crime Reporter
Snuff Politics: Democrats Escalate Attack on Single Payer
Ralph Nader
The People's Crusade of Mike Gravel
Malini Johar Schueller
Decoding Harlan Ullman: Shock and Awe as Sexual Fantasy
Juan Santos
The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children in LA
Dave Zirin
Jason Whitlock, the Clarence Thomas of Sportswriters?
Joshua Frank
The Price of Fire in Latin America
Evelyn Pringle
Serotonin Syndrome
Eamonn McCann
Irish Peace Dividend for Discredited Premiers
Website of the Day
The Pagan Science Monitor
May 7, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Great Wall of Baghdad Rises
Monica Benderman
Land of Opportunity
Greg Moses
Hutto Prison Rebuffs UN Rapporteur
Rannie Amiri
The Sham at Sheikh: Iraq Regional Conference a Flop
Fitrakis / Wasserman
Media Silence on Kent State Revelations
Fred Wilhelms
Another Royalty Forfeiture From SoundExchange: And This Time
It's Secret!
Ramzy Baroud
The Hourglass of Blood: Darfur Revisited
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats Don't Own the Antiwar Movement
T. W. Croft
Home Movies from a Weekend in Paris--And Related Dreamscapes
Sonja Karkar
Prizes for Supporting Israel?
Website of the Day
Posada Carriles: the Declassified Record
May 5 / 6, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Trying
to Catch Up with the Voters
William Blum
How America Has Changed Iraq
Uri Avnery
Exercise in Escapism
Franklin Lamb
Harvard's Twisted Report on Israel's Invasion of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Elective Surgeries Kill
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The American Moral Meltdown Accelerates
Missy Beattie
Lying and Dying: The Moral Sensibility
of Military Recruiters
Robert Fantina
Bush's Veto: Hypocritical Words and Actions
Carla Blank
American Massacres and the Media
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The Long Ordeal of Harold Wilson
Stephen F. Jackson
Taking It to Drummond: Paramilitaries and Mining Companies in
Colombia
P. Sainath
The Jailing of Indian Farmers
Anthony Papa
Time to End New York's War on Itself
James T. Phillips
Blather Cancer
John Ross
Last Days of the Willie Loman of the EZLN
Stephen Lendman
Chavez's Oil Policy Sparks Panic at Wall Street Journal
Ben Terrall
Iggy Pop at 60
CounterPunch
Newswire
Advice from a Geezer Assassin
Poets' Basement
Valentine, Engel and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Mountain Justice Summer
May 4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
How
the Surge is Failing
Col. Dan Smith
From Watergate to Gonzogate
Norman Solomon
FOX on Wall Street
Azmi Bishara
Why is Israel After Me?
Ron Jacobs
Sitting in on Senator Kohl and the War
Dave Lindorff
Clinton and Byrd are Calling for Revocation of the Wrong AUMF
Kevin Zeese
The Democrats Cave to Bush
Bob Fitrakis
Why Four Died in Ohio: Kent State, Gov. Rhodes and the FBI
Janet Kauffman
"Stop the Mudness!" Bare Earth is Scorched Earth
Website of
the Day
Let Us Gather in Missouri!
May 3, 2007
Jeff Halper
The
Livni-Rice Plan for the Middle East: a Just Peace or Apartheid?
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's
Best and Brightest: From Dr. Keroack to Bernard Kerik
Dave Zirin
Talking Sports from Death Row: an Interview with Kevin Cooper
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Big Pharma Gets Its Hooks into Seton Hall Law School
Robert Fisk
Olmert Comes Undone
Mike Ferner
Bush Veto, Right for the Wrong Reasons?
Mike Whitney
A Stock Market Post-Mortem
Pham Binh
The Democrats and War Funding
Dave Lindorff
Kucinich's Impeachment Train: Look Who Just Stepped Aboard
Michael A.
Johnson
Tenet on 60 Minutes
Website of the Day
Olivia Wilde: the Interview
May 2, 2007
Saul Landau
Would
Jesus Wear a Rolex on His TV Show?
Dr. Susan Block
Hookergate II: Madame Julia's Big Black Book of Cheesy Republican
Sex Acts
Carla Blank
Historical Amnesia: Worst U.S. Massacre?
Margaret Kimberly
The Candor of Mike Gravel: "These People Frighten Me"
Kevin Zeese
Durbin Gives Edwards More to Apologize For
Carlos Villareal
How "Law and Order" Covers for Bigotry in the Immigration
Debate
Michael Dickinson
Trouble in Turkey: Criminalizing Political Art
Tim Shorrock
A Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul: Corporate Interventionism
as Trade Policy
Alevtina Rea
The Myth-Makers of Estonia
William S.
Lind
General Incompetence: Col. Yingling and the Military Brass
Website of the Day
Good News: Rost's "ZubeGate Exposé Prompts Congressional
Inquiry
May 1, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
How
Rumsfeld Micromanaged Torture
Fred Gardner
Affirmative Abstinence: Adios, Randall Tobias, the Man Who Turned
His Wife's Suicide into a Sales Pitch for Prozac
Chase Madar
Are Working Class Jobs Bad for Your Health?
Ralph Nader
Cheney and the BYU 25: Faith, Accountability and Protest in Utah
John V. Walsh
Edgy Dems Snarl at Their Antiwar Base
Joshua Frank
Obama, Incorporated
Leslie Radford
The Migrant Trap and the Migrant's Way Out
Shaun Harkin
An Interview with Nativo López on Immigration Bills and
Protests
Dave Lindorff
Murtha Talks Impeachment
Peter Rost,
MD
Inspector General Requests Meeting with Pfizer Whistleblower
Peter Linebaugh
May Day and Magna Carta
Website of
the Day
Impeachment? Why Bother?
|
June
5, 2007
The Economy of Fuel
Lead-Foot
Nation
By JIM MINICK
We have a dwindling supply, a hugely
hungry demand and a government unwilling to act. I'm talking
about oil, of course, and our head-in-the-Middle-Eastern-sand
attitude. Just keep driving, we think, and maybe our grandkids
will figure it out.
A story to illustrate: In 1989 my wife and I bought our first
new car, a cherry red Volkswagen Jetta we named "Lucy,"
in honor of our favorite comedian. Nothing earth-shattering,
or earth-saving, except for this: It was a diesel and got 43
miles per gallon.
After 237,000 miles and 18 years of hard use, the shine has evaporated
but this car still gets 43 mpg. And though it won't win any beauty
contests -- we had to bolt the bumper to the car because of a
little rust -- it chugs right along, giving us over 500 miles
for every tank of fuel.
Say we had bought instead a car that traveled 20.7 mpg, the average
for all U.S. passenger vehicles in 1989, according to the Energy
Department. We would have burned 5,937 gallons more, over twice
as much fuel.
Now pretend that everyone in 1989 had a car as efficient as our
little Lucy. Given the roughly 148 million household vehicles
in the United States in 1989, and that each traveled on average
10,000 miles, we would have saved almost 40 billion gallons in
just that one year. Multiply that by the 18 years since,
and it is enough to make one stop the car and weep.
But an even sadder truth is that the United States hasn't changed
its fuel economy standards for passenger cars in 17 years, and
this leads to another story.
In 2004 our family needed another vehicle, something that could
handle our long, steep driveway, even in winter. I wanted another
VW, but couldn't find one with both a diesel engine and four-wheel
drive. So now a Subaru Forester parks beside the VW Jetta, the
shiny green making Lucy's red even more dull. The Forester gets
27 mpg -- not bad compared with other vehicles, family and friends
point out. But I look at the VW and know better. Had our country's
standards improved, we'd have more and better choices.
Other advanced industrial countries -- the United Kingdom, Germany,
Japan -- use less than a third as much gasoline per person as
we do, according to the World Resources Institute. They've accomplished
this with a combination of higher taxes on gasoline and better
fuel efficiency.
So what will it take to make us change? Why should we care about
our vehicles' minute mpg numbers? Start with air pollution and
the health problems it can cause. Then consider unregulated carbon
dioxide, the leading driver of humankind's role in global climate
change. The Energy Department says that vehicles emit about 25
percent of our country's carbon dioxide. If you drive a 25 mpg
car instead of a 20 mpg car 12,000 miles in a year, you cut carbon
dioxide emissions by 1.2 tons.
What's more, boosting fuel
economy saves us money and reduces the oil we import, bolstering
our nation's energy security.
But simply improving efficiency is not enough. Historically,
efficiency has led to even more resource consumption, so we'll
need to raise fuel taxes to ensure we don't drive away our efficiency
gains.
So when will we no longer be Lead-Foot Nation? When can I buy
a 75-mpg four-wheel drive? Soon, I hope. Slowly, the auto industry
and our legislators are shifting gears, but we steer them as
much as they steer us. With voices and wallets, we can speak
more loudly for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Both the president
and Congress are considering bills to improve efficiency standards;
we can urge them to act instead of just consider.
Ironically, last year my family
didn't pay taxes on beloved Lucy. The assessor deemed the Jetta
too old to have any value. Though I appreciate paying less in
taxes, I disagree with the assessor's, and our country's, definition
of value.
Jim Minick teaches at Radford University in Virginia and
also farms. A poet and essayist, his latest book is "Finding
a Clear Path."
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