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Stunning New Print Edition of CounterPunch Will the US Labor Movement Rise Again in Chicago? Or is this just a power play at the top? JoAnn Wypijewski details what's really at stake in the great showdown as some of labor's most powerful bosses threaten to quit the AFL-CIO. No-holds-barred profiles of the SIEU's Andy Stern, Hoffa of the Teamsters and the other "insurgents". Jeffrey St Clair tells the incredible saga of the $30 billion bailout of Boeing. How the scandal reached the White House and Don Rumsfeld screamed, Let the woman take the fall. Plus Alexander Cockburn on the Judy Miller story. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! 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 donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch's Hot New T-Shirts for Women! Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by Kathy Kelly Click Here to Order the Hot New CounterPunch Book by 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly! Today's Stories July 14, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton July 13, 2005 Brian Cloughley Cold Blooded Murders in Iraq George Galloway We Can't Separate the London Bombings from the Political Backdrop Carlos Fierro A Supreme Waste of Time Sarah Knopp Hate on the Border Norman Solomon "Isolated Pockets of Problems": the Fake Optimism of Washington's Warriors Mickey Z. Water on the Brain Jim Minick The Right Tree in the Right Place Pat Williams American Indian Education for All Andrew N. Rubin Life Behind the Wall: "We are No Longer Able to See the Sun Set" Website of the Day "London's Burning": the Mikey Mix   July 12, 2005 Laith al-Saud Voices of Resistance: an Interview with Dr. Mohammed al-Obaidi of Iraq's Peoples' Struggle Movement Kara N. Tina "This is How We Do It": Report from the Gleneagles Battlefield William A. Cook The London Bombings: Why Has It Come to This? Jack Bratich 2 Live Cruise: Tom Cruise v. Big Pharma Amina Mire The Problem with Speaking in the Name of Others Dick J. Reavis Lessons from the Christian Jihadists: the Virtues of Burning Crosses and Colored Smoke Kevin Zeese Depleted Uranium: States Take Action to Protect Their Vets Paul Craig Roberts No-Think Nation Website of the Day Coke Gags Indian Artist   July 9 / 11, 2005 Alexander Cockburn After the Bombings Uri Avnery War of the Colors in Israel Sheldon Rampton Blaming Galloway: Rhetoric vs. Reality in London Bill Christison Hiroshima's 60th Anniversary and Nukes in Iran: an Opportunity or Just More Hand-wringing from the Peace Movement? Robert Fisk Blair's Alliance with Bush Bombed Stephen Winspear Collateral Damage in London? Saul Landau Mission Accomplished: Iraq is Broken Behrooz Ghamari Thomas Friedman's Muslim Problem Karl Beitel False Promises and Real Debt Relief Brian Concannon, Jr. Throwing Gasoline on Haiti's Fires Fred Gardner Sentencing Season John Whitlow And What Does the Market Say? Niranjan Ramakrishnan The London Blasts: Who's Being Transformed, Them or Us? Lila Rajiva Witches and Bastards Laura Carlsen CAFTA: Deepening the Inequities Jackie Corr Ted Turner and Jiminy Cricket Dave Lindorff "My Brother Went Over There Gung Ho; Now He's Just Bitter" N. D. Jayaprakash Why the CIA Tried to Kill Chou En Lai at the Bandung Conference Seth Sandronsky Meet the "Truth Tour": Rightwing Radio Hosts Go to Iraq Norman Madarasz The Choking of Brazil's Worker Party Ben Tripp The Inevitability of George W. Bush Poets' Basement Louise, Albert, Landau, Davies and Engel Website of the Weekend The Mother of All Enemies Lists   July 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Blowback Hits Britain: Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception Tariq Ali The London Bombings: Why They Happened Monica Benderman One Soldier's Fight to Legalize Morality Rick Jahnkow Beyond Opt-Out: the Counter-Recruitment Movement Christopher Brauchli Dear Vet: If You Want to Eat While You Recuperate, You Gotta Pay Extra Kim Peterson Bombs in the Underground: Terror Begats Terror Joshua Frank Leakers and Liars: Inching Toward Indictments? Norman Solomon Messages from the Carnage Website of the Day An Interview with Ray McGovern July 7, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr John Walsh More Hawkish Than Bush: Dems in Full Battle Cry Mike Marqusee Message from London Gilad Atzmon London's Burning Nicole Colson Showdown at the Supreme Court Jack Random Judith Miller, Anti-Hero Norman Solomon Judith Miller, Drum Majorette for War Len Colodny Is Bob Woodward Still Protecting Al Haig? Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr     July 6, 2005 Elaine Cassel Political Necrophilia in Florida: Jeb Bush and Terri Schiavo, a Strange Affair Sean Donahue Why the G8 Debt Relief Plan Won't Help Nicaragua's Poor Jeremy R. Hammond State Sponsors of Terrorism, Applying the US Standard Joshua Frank Will Rove be Indicted? Ali Khan The "Gift" of US Democratization Michael Dickinson Billy Graham's Final Crusade: Blessed are the Warmakers Norman Solomon How to Plunge Deeper into a Quagmire: Withdrawal and US Credibility Dave Zirin Triumph of the Shrill: Tony Blair's Olympiad Gary Leupp Accusing Ahmadinejad Website of the Day Humiliation in Baghdad: "Not Something We Would Do"     July 5, 2005 Behrooz Ghamari What's the Matter with Iran?: How the Reformists Lost the Presidency Elaine Cassel Why This Progressive Will Miss Sandra Day O'Connor Ron Jacobs Robert and Mabel Williams's Great Fight for Justice Bob Libal The Right's Assault on Academia Dr. Peter Rost Mea Culpa from a Big Pharma CEO Mark Engler The Big Debt Deal: Where's the Jubilee? Gideon Levy They Broke the Public's Heart Dave Zirin The Great Olympics Scam Sameer Dossani The Trouble with Gleneagles     July 2 / 4, 2005 Alexander Cockburn "Bomb Teheran!" Urges Jilted Condi? Lenni Brenner Jefferson, God and the Fourth of July Laura Carlsen Zapatista's Red Alert James Petras The Pretensions of Neoliberalism: Six Myths About the Benefits of Foreign Investment William A. Cook Kings of Serpents Brian Cloughley Quagmire of the Vanities Saul Landau The Mass Media, Symbols and Ownership Tom Crumpacker Who Has What to Hide About Luis Posada Carriles? Greg Moses Dylan's America Dr. Susan Block My Adelphia Story: a Tale of Censorship, Fraud, Christian Family Values and Really Lousy Cable Service Fran Shor Disassembling Bush's Iraq War: Liberated into a No Man's Land Fred Gardner Study: Smoking Marijuana Does Not Cause Lung Cancer Moshe Adler The New London Case: Corporate Giveaways That Destroy Communities, But Don't Create Jobs David Model The Downing Street Memo: So What's New? Seth Sandronsky California Spying, Schwarzenegger-Style Ramzy Baroud Managed Democracy in the Middle East Suzan Mazur Frank Carlucci the First: the "Sublime Prince" of Scranton Ben Tripp Voltaire, I Can Dig Your Rap Justin Taylor Faux Biography and the Pleasures of "Lint" Brendan Bailey Mesh Caps, Vice Magazine and the Trouble with Irony Poets' Basement Albert, Engel and Louise Website of the Weekend Radical Reference     July 1, 2005 Christopher Brauchli With Friends Like These: Bush Buddies Karimov and Musharraf Pat Williams What Real Westerners Think About Bush's Pseudo-Cowboy Palaver Gary Leupp Summer Surprise? John Stauber Mad Cow in America: the USDA Continues to Lie John Chuckman The Blessings of Canada Justicia y Paz Colombia's Disappeared: Their Names, At Least! Cockburn / St. Clair It's Put Up or Shut Up for Bush and the Dems on the Supreme Court   June 30, 2005 Kathy Kelly An Open Letter to Carl Levin: Compassion for Iraqis John Stauber Oprah Not the "Only" Mad Cow in America Virginia Rodino All Roads Lead to Baghdad: Unity in the Anti-War Movement Jason Leopold Meet the New Chair of the FERC: James Kelliher, the Man Who Invited Enron to Write Bush's Energy Policy Dave Lindorff What Was Bush Thinking? Greg Moses Racism at Cape Cod Norman Solomon Memo to the Iraq War Joshua Frank Israel's Theocrats Alexander Cockburn The Political Function of PBS   June 29, 2005 Mike Schaefer How the Washington Post Lied About Its Own War Poll Roger Burbach / Paul Cantor Bush's Big Democratic Hoax in Iraq Sharon Smith Democrats Shift into Reverse Sam Husseini A Quick Way to End the Insurgency John Stauber Put a Photo of Mad Cow #2 on a Milk Carton Ahmad Faruqui Is Militarism Irreversible in Pakistan? Linda S. Heard Bush's Speech: the View from Cairo Stew Albert Chet Helms: a Rock and Roll Hero Ray McGovern Bush at Ft. Bragg: Stay the Crooked Course     June 28, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts A Defeat Bred in Deceit Landau / Hassen Bush's Meddling in Internal Syrian Politics John A. Murphy Keeping Nader Off the Ballot: an Analysis of Political Profiling in Pennsylvania Mike Whitney More Lies from Rumsfeld: Those "Meetings" with Insurgents CounterPunch News Service JFK on Staying in Vietnam: Is Bush Reading from Kennedy's Playbook? Dave Zirin Pining for the Pistons Dave Lindorff Showtime in Washington Patrick Cockburn Iraq: a Bloody Mess     June 27, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Blood Sacrifices for Empty Slogans Mike Marqusee G8: Who are the Hijackers? Mark Scaramella When a Corporate Raider Claims Economic Hardship: the Court-Approved Lies of Charles Hurwitz Leigh Saavedra Press Apologists for Torture Kathy Kelly Where is the UN? June 25 / 26, 2005 Alexander Cockburn The Supreme Court's Jackboot Liberals Jennifer Van Bergen America's Parallel Legal Systems George Corsetti This Land is Their Land: Condemnation for Corporations Mark Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer Let's Open the Gulag: a People's Mission to Gitmo Kevin Zeese Counter-Recruitment: How to Keep the Military From Getting their Hands on Your Kids P. Sainath Russian Roulette in Vidharbha John Stauber How to Bury a Mad Cow Scott Handleman Gay in the Third World Tom Barry The Politics & Ideologies of the Anti-Immigrationists John Walsh Looking for Peace in All the Wrong Places Justin E.H. Smith The Hairless Apes of Kansas vs. the Reality-Based Community: Why Progressives Have a Stake in the War on Evolution Alan Wallis The Story of Pinky: the Drug Trade in My Neighborhood Ben Tripp Negative Space: an Artful Lesson Frederick B. Hudson Songs to Lose Your Loneliness By: the Raised Voices of Sweet Honey in the Rock Poets' Basement Gaffney, Engel, Davies, and Albert     June 24, 2005 Ray McGovern The Downing St. Fixation: Fixing to Fix "Fixed" Jorge Mariscal "They Only Call Us Americans When They Need Us for War": the Paradox of Mexican Americans in Iraq Desiree Hellegers Portland vs. the FBI Zeynep Toufe What Do the American People Know and When Did They Know It? Joshua Frank Call Him Senator Con Job David Lindorff Which Flag Would Jesus Burn? Michael Neumann Victory and Recruitment Website of the Day Gagging Dr. Dean June 23, 2005 Christopher Brauchli Thomas Griffith and Rule 49: He Practiced Law Without a License; Now He's a Federal Appeals Court Judge Clay Conrad Killing Off the Jury with Tort Reform Standard Schaefer A Retort to Military Neo-Liberalism P. Sainath Vidharbha: No rains and 116F, But It Does Have "Snow" and Water Parks Mark Engler CAFTA Deserves a Quiet Death Norman Solomon Voluntary Amnesia in America Cockburn / St. Clair Frank Calzon Kathy Kelly Where You Stand Determines What You See   June 22, 2005 Kevin Zeese The Bush Administration's Psy-Ops on the American Public: an Interview with Col. Sam Gardiner William S. Lind Afghanistan: the Other War Arsalan Iftikhar Patriots Against the PATRIOT Act Dan Nagengast Give Populism a Chance: From France to Kansas David Krieger To the Graduates: We Live in an Interdependent World Kathleen & Bill Christison Tempest in Santa Fe: Confronting Israeli Myth-making     June 21, 2005 Brian Cloughley Destroy the Unbelievers! Mike Whitney President Disconnect Dave Lindorff Who Needs Big Bird, Anyway? Mark Weisbrot Bush's Lonely Campaign Against Hugo Chavez Matthew R. Simmons The Coming Saudi Oil Crisis Dave Zirin The Crass Slipper Fits: Ron Howard's Terrible "Cinderella Man" Virginia Rodino The Anti-War Movement and Impeachment Paul Craig Roberts A War Waged by Liars and Morons   June 20, 2005 Alan Maass The GM Job Massacre Tariq Ali To the Gates of the Gleneagles Hotel! Mickey Z. WMDs American-Style: It's 60 Years Since Alamogordo William Blum Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends Gary Leupp Old News Indeed: In 1999, Bush Craved Chance to Attack Iraq Jason Leopold Someone Tell Bush Iraq Wasn't Behind 9/11, Before He Starts Another War Dave Lindorff Why the Media Should be Schiavo'd Alan Maass The GM Job Massacre Uri Avnery Condi and Hamas Website of the Day Crimes Against Poetry                                                       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

Bastille Day July 14, 2005 Schwarzenegger Comes Unhinged Governor Paranoid By CAROL NORRIS It's the early '70s. The Vietnam War is raging. Soldiers are dying daily with no end in sight. More and more military officials say it's an "unwinnable war." Lies are uncovered. The media begin to expose widespread military and law enforcement surveillance of the anti-war movement. The strong anti-war voice at UC Berkeley is a major target of this surveillance. The citizens of California, outraged at such blatant rights violations, respond by voting to amend Article 1, Section 1 of the California State Constitution. Going beyond federal constitutional safeguards, the amendment guarantees protections from privacy violations by both state and private entities. It's Mother's Day, 2005. The Iraq war is raging. Soldiers are dying daily with no end in sight. More and more military officials say it's an "unwinnable war." Lies are uncovered. An anti-war group called CodePink, along with the Peninsula Raging Grannies and Gold Star Families for Peace stage a non-violent protest in Sacramento, calling on Governor Schwarzenegger, the Commander in Chief of the California National Guard, to bring the Guard home from Iraq. The San Jose Mercury News breaks a story that Schwarzenegger's office called on the same National Guard to monitor the protest as part of its new intelligence unit's "Information Synchronization, Knowledge Management and Intelligence Fusion" program. It has "broad authority" to monitor terrorist threats, which becomes distorted and misused, violating the Article 1, Section 1 rights of those who clearly are not terrorists. But this isn't the first time Schwarzenegger has allegedly used state agencies to monitor dissenters. The Los Angeles Times reported Schwarzenegger had the California Highway Patrol interrogate nurse Kelly DiGiacomo, who, dressed in her nurse's uniform, participated in a protest outside a movie theater showing a film hosted by the governor, which she also attended. The Nurses Association maintains Schwarzenegger used the CHP as his "personal political police force." CodePink, the main organizer of the Mother's Day rally in Sacramento, has been a visible fly in Schwarzenegger's ointment since the day he opened his campaign headquarters, calling for an investigation of the multitude of alleged criminal sexual misconduct charges lodged against him. It organized a hugely successful and internationally publicized 16-city "Women Can Stop Schwarzenegger" day of protest. Its members were peaceful, yet vocal at stump speech, after stump speech. And CodePink was there on his inauguration day, letting Schwarzenegger know we heard his promise "to be a champion of women" and we we'd be watching him. But, little did we suspect that soon he'd be watching us. Could it be that CodePink is feeling the payback for its outspokenness? Or with fast plummeting public support, is Schwarzenegger scrambling to put out any and all dissenting sparks, lest they fan into a raging forest fire? State Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove (Orange County), and others are calling for an investigation to find out. Dunn asked the Guard not to destroy any evidence. Nonetheless, it erased the hard drive of Colonel Jeff Davis, the man overseeing the intelligence unit and its projects. The Guard's responses have been all over the map, with one spokesman defending the surveillance saying, "We live in an age of terrorism." Another said it was all just a big mix up. Still another said, "We don't monitor people." Yet, the Mercury News obtained Guard emails that showed major interest in the rally. Brigadier General John R. Alexander has refused to hand over information to Dunn, saying it would interfere with the federal investigation. As of this writing, Dunn, who claims Alexander is "hiding behind a federal investigation" has promised to issue a subpoena. Clearly the truth needs to come to light via a full, independent investigation. The FBI and federal investigators must cooperate with Sen. Dunn and the state, not seize all the documents and move the investigation to Washington, outside the state's jurisdiction and Dunn's accountability hearings. And as for Schwarzenegger, if his promise to have a full, independent investigation of the sexual abuse charges against him and his prompt and shameless reneging of that promise as soon as he stepped foot into office is any judge, he will talk a good game, but will not pave the way for a substantive inquiry. But this isn't just about Schwarzenegger and California, and it isn't an isolated incident. It has broad implications for how our elected officials use and abuse power in a way never dreamed possible before the protective cloak of the endless "war on terror" emerged. The administrations in Sacramento and Washington use pro-people rhetoric that in no way match their brazen pro-business policies. They are living in PR agency-constructed houses of cards. Any wind of truth threatens to topple their precarious facades to the ground. Legal or not, in such a guarded and vulnerable position, it's no wonder they find protestors so frightening, and are working so hard to make the term "terrorist threat" inclusive of, if not synonymous with "dissent." It also brings to the fore the privacy and free speech rights violations that are happening all over our nation. Other peace groups have been infiltrated and monitored in recent months. Quiet, law-abiding shoppers at malls have been kicked out for wearing pro-peace tshirts. At Bush's campaign stump speeches, anyone who didn't sign a waiver promising to support Bush were not allowed in. In cities where Bush visits, protestors are cordoned off to the absurdly and ironically named "free speech zones," penned and restrained, often by riot-geared police, literally miles from Bush's entourage. Bush's town hall meetings, marketed as a free and open dialogue with the people, are vetted to allow only Bush supporters in, and then they are closely monitored to create a smooth performance. White House press conferences, where the media are supposed to give voice to the concerns and issues of the people, have become even more staged and scripted. And reporters like Helen Thomas who ask the wrong questions are denied future access. At Schwarzenegger's stump speeches, even his most stalwart supporters were not allowed to bring their own signs, but had to use the ones provided by his campaign, creating a perfectly on-message, homogeneous, color-coordinated mass of support. At his campaign stop in Pleasanton, CA, CodePink peacefully, yet not shyly protested Schwarzenegger. As a result, a woman who had no sign, or anything on her communicating any dissent, was refused entrance to this public event because she had the edge of her pink tshirt peering out of the bottom of her dark sweater. The guard who refused her entrance said, "We've reached our quota of pink in the audience today." Pink or no pink, investigation or no investigation, Schwarzenegger, who undoubtedly has an eye on the White House with only a tweak of a prerequisite in the way, is in trouble. With an ever-dwindling 34% approval rating, one of the lowest in the state's history, the people of California are seeing the real Schwarzenegger, not the larger than life fantasy man, armed with clichéd, scripted dialog. Schwarzenegger has devalued and verbally abused our nurses, our teachers, our firefighters, and our disabled community. He has failed to "clean house" in Sacramento, ironically doing just the opposite - spending the bulk of his time doing twice as much fundraising as Gray Davis ever did. It turns out he's not the antidote to Gray Davis; he's Gray Davis on steroids. Borrowing the play book from Bush, he has unabashedly broken his promise to be "the people's governor," and proven to be "the big industry donor's" governor. But as in '72, the citizens of California, outraged at such blatant disregard and rights violations, will surely respond on the streets and at the polls, and in so doing, will save the country the gloomy fate of Presidential Candidate Schwarzenegger. Carol Norris, a freelance writer, activist and psychotherapist, is a member of and former national organizer for CodePink, organizing many of the protests against candidate and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She can be contacted via her blog at http://carolnorris.blogs.com