Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
Today's
Stories
February 19
/ 20, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Back
to Salem: Paul Shanley and the Return of "Recovered Memory"
Kathleen Christison
Struggling
forr Justice in Palestine
Ted Honderich
On Being Persona Non Grata
Scott Richard Lyons
Ward Churchill and the Identity
Police
George Beres
Censorship in the Land of Wayne Morse: Gagging W. Churchill in
Oregon
John Pilger
First, They Attack the Past
Norman Madarasz
Death Wish for Reform in Brazil?
February 18,
2005
Ben Moxham
In
East Timor, the Nightmare Continues
Dave Lindorff
The
Scum Also Rises: the Bloody Career of John Negroponte
Larry Birns
Negroponte: a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery
Gregory Elich
N, Korea's Phantom Nukes and the US's Subversion of Diplomacy
Samuel Logan / John Meyers
The Future of Colombia's Paramilitary Death Squads
Nicole Colson
Shock and Awe on Civil Liberties: From Lynne Stewart to Ward
Churchill
Suzan Mazur
Whose National Security Are We Talking About?
Mickey Z.
"One
Man Has Stopped Killing"
February 17,
2005
Joshua Frank
Hogtying
of the Deaniacs
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Willing Sychophants: the Conservative Media
Robert Fisk
Under
the Shadow of Death in Lebanon
Christopher
Brauchli
Where
Time Stands Still: Kinsey and Darwin in Cobb County, GA
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military
Recruitment TV: Why Send Them to College, When Your Kid Can be
Cannon Fodder?
Alison Weir
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
Ahrar Ahmad
A Review of Shahid Alam's "Is There an Islamic Problem?"
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon: "The US Tramples
the Laws It Wrote"
Website of the Day
Petition to Support Ward Churchill
February 16,
2005
Robert Fisk
Lebanon:
a Battlefield for the Wars of Others
Kevin Zeese
Creating a Real Ownership Society: Share the Wealth; Protect
Retirement
Gary Leupp
Meanwhile, in Nepal...
Ron Jacobs
Why the Iranian Opposition Should Not Trust the Bush Administration
Jessica Leight
Oil-Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff
Greg Moses
Houston, You've Got a Problem: Documenting Voting Irregularities
in Texas
Mark Engler
The Last Porto Alegre
Jack McCarthy
Where's the Outrage About Pat? Buchanan Does a Churchill
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy Dangerously Slanted Toward Israel
Website of the Day
The
World is Melting: a Photo Survey by Gary Braasch
February 15,
2005
CounterPunch
News Service
Dean
a "Safe" Moderate, Says NYT Citing CounterPunch
Robert Fisk
The
Killing of Mr. Lebanon
Uri Avnery
"Sharm-al-Sheikh,
We Have Come Back Again"
Stan Cox
Fighting Big Pharma in Little Digwal
Mickey Z.
Radio
Active North of the Border: an Interview with Chris Cook
Dave Zirin
Bashing Bush: Jose Canseco Comes Clean
Nadia Martinez
Ending
World Poverty? Opening at the World Bank, Apply Now
Lila Rajiva
"Little Eichmanns" and the 'Harijan': the Danger of
Magical Thinking in Politics
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
American Job Sell Out
February 14,
2005
Robert Jensen
Ward
Churchill: Right to Speak Out; Right About 9/11
Brian Cloughley
Kuwait's Freedom, Bush-style
Patrick Cockburn
Outcome
of the Iraqi Elections: Shortages, Corruption, Guerrilla War
Gary Leupp
Post-election Iraq: What Next?
Michael Donnelly
Sacred Nature: Just Another Commodity?
Dave Lindorff
When Bush Came to My Neighborhood
Elaine Cassel
The
Lynne Stewart Verdict
February 12
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill's Genes
Saul Landau
Alarcon
Speaks: an Interview with the Vice President of Cuba
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nothing
to Fear But Bush Himself
Patrick Cockburn
Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All
Major Roads into Baghdad
John Feffer
Bush
v. N. Korea: Round Two
Mickey Z.
Right to Remain Silent; Duty to Speak
Kurt Nimmo
Viva la Cucaracha!
Fred Gardner
Waiting for Raich
Dave Zirin
Fighting the New Republic(ans)
John Chuckman
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
A Leftist on the Bush Payroll
Carol Norris
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?"
Robert Fisk
No Middle East Peace Without Justice
Frank / Chowkwanyun
Muzzled Activist in an Age of Terror: the Case of Sherman Austin
Mike Whitney
Condi's Euro Tour
Deborah Frisch
A Psychologist's Defense of Ward Churchill
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Reading Khomeini in Colorado
Christine TenBarge
What's So Special About Ward?
Ron Jacobs
Curtis Mayfield's Train to Jordan
Dr. Susan Block
Chemistry of Love: a Valentine's Greeting
Poets' Basement
Louise, Smith-Ferri, Ford and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Free Sherman
February 11,
20055
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
The
Eight Percent War
Kurt Nimmo
Ann
Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need
Him?
Dave Lindorff
Guckert
or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In
Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott
Abrams
Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz
Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Lynne
Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All
February 10,
2005
Dave Lindorff
What
Academic Freedom?
Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed
Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?
Suzan Mazur
More
on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha
Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition
Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little
Hope"
Greg Moses
Taking
Jesus Back from the Hijackers
Website of
the Day
The Missionary Positions
February 9,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Duck
and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers
Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
John Ross
Hecho
en Mexico: the Iraqi Election
Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon
Conn Hallinan
The
Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely
Forbidden"
Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions
Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians
Website of
the Day
Support Antiwar.com
February 8,
2005
Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd
Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral
Pact, Not a Party"
Brian Cloughley
Out
of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"
Harry Browne
"Don't
Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland
Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President
and Ward Churchill
Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the
Same Beast
Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper
David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
February 7,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
War on Jobs
Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher
Ed
Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill
Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism
Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried
Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
January 31,
2005
Dave Zirin
Mr.
Frank's Fatwah: New Republic Writer Calls for Death & Torture
of Arundhati Roy and Stan Goff
Robert Fisk
Amid
Tragedy, Defiance
Chyng Sun
Gonzales: Chief Prosecutor of Porn?
Greg Moses
The Real Scandals of the Texas Election
Mike Whitney
Cheney at Auschwitz
Ali Tonak
Turkey and the EU: Fantasies and Ultimatums
Patrick Cockburn
A
Victory for the Shia
Website of
the Day
Voting by the Script: Where Did the 8 Million Voter Turnout Figure
Come From?
January 29
/ 30, 2005
Manuel Yang
/ Peter Linebaugh
A
Dialogue About Murder in Toledo
Gabriel Kolko
Wilsonian
and Neoconservative Myths
Patrick Cockburn
Baghdad: City of Empty Streets
Robert Fisk
This Election Will Change the World, But Not as the US Wanted
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Con Job: Bush Pledges on Racism Lack Realism
Bernard Chazelle
Why the Children of Iraq Make No Sound When They Fall
Gary Leupp
"This Kind of Subject Matter": Bush's New Ed Secretary
vs. Vermont's Lesbians
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Passion of Paul Shanley
Alexander Cockburn
The Case of Father Jerry
Ron Jacobs
Ballot of the Puppets in Iraq
Brian Cloughley
Smart Bombs; Wrong House: Iraq's Civilian Dead
Fred Gardner
Peron May Split
Sister Dianna
Ortiz
Memo to Bush from a Survivor of the Guatemalan Torturers: Stop
the Torture!
Tom Reeves
How Bush Brings Freedom to the World: the Case of Haiti
Fran Quigley
Report: Haiti Now "More Violent and More Inhuman"
Suzan Mazur
"Mr. Garsin from Kinshasa": an Old Hand Weighs In on
the Murder of Lumumba
Kurt Nimmo
Condi Rice and the Neocon Plan for the Palestinians
Lenni Brenner
Holocaust History: Beyond the UN's Rhetoric
Gilad Atzmon
The
Politics of Auschwitz
Luis Gomez
Power and Autonomy in Bolivia
Mark Gaffney
NASA Searches for a Snowball in Hell: Why Velikovsky Matters
Ben Tripp
Lament of the Mnemonopath
Richard Oxman
Meet the Fuqers
Poets' Basement
Louise, Collins, Shanahan and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
Chemical Industry: Deceit and Denial
January 28,
2005
Rachard Itani
Tsunami
Aid By the Numbers: the US Really is a Miser
Jensen / Youngblood
Iraq's
Non-Election
Patrick Cockburn / Elizabeth
Davies
Attacks on Polling Places Leave 13 Dead
Dave Zirin
The Great Donovan McNabb: Proud "Black Quarterback"
Dave Lindorff
Suicide by State Execution?
Karyn Strickler
A Corporate Death Penalty Act?
Jorge Mariscal
Fighting
the Poverty Draft
January 27,
2005
Seymour Hersh
We've
Been Taken Over By a Cult
Cockburn /
Sengupta
The
US's Bloodiest Day in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Juke Box Journalism: Shilling for Bush
Ignacio Chapela
/ John F. García
The Laws of Nature
Mike Whitney
The Widening Chasm Among Conservatives
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Those Liberal Southern Baptists!
Ray McGovern
Reining In Cheney
Russ Wellen
Marginalizing Bin Laden
Christopher
Brauchli
The
FBI's Carnival of Errors
Website of
the Day
Informed Eating
January 26,
2005
Saree Makdisi
An
Iron Wall of Colonization: Fantasies and Realities About the
Prospects for Middle East Peace
Scott Fleming
In Good Conscience: an Interview with Concientious Objector Aidan
Delgado
Dave Lindorff
Filling Saddam's Shoes: the Puppet Regime Return's to Torture
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Salazar and Obama: Two Dismal Debuts
Toni Solo
The
US and Latin America: a Not-So-Magical Reality
William James Martin
Condoleezza Rice: Confused About the Middle East
William A.
Cook
Bush's Second Inaugural Address: the Lost Ur-Version
Eric Hobsbawm
Delusions
About Democracy
Alexander Cockburn
The CIA's New Campus Spies
January 25,
2005
Brian Cloughley
Iraq
as Disneyland
Mike Roselle
Satan is My Co-Pilot
Josh Frank
/ Merlin Chowkwanyun
The War on Civil Liberties
John Chuckman
Freedom on Steroids
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
Party Without Virtue
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Intolerance of Christian Conservatives
James Petras
The
US / Colombia Plot Against Venezuela
Website of the Day
Lowbaggers for the Environment
January 24,
2005
Fred Gardner
Last
Monologue in Burbank
Lori Berenson
On the Politicization of My Case
Uri Avnery
King
George
January 22
/ 23, 2005
Jennifer Van
Bergen / Ray Del Papa
Nuclear
Incident in Montana
Alexander Cockburn
Prince
Harry's Travails
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Company That Runs the Empire: Lockheed and Loaded
Stan Goff
The Spectacle
Saul Landau
Nothing Succeeds Like Failure
Gary Leupp
Official Madness and the Coming War on Iran
Fred Gardner
Is GW Getting the Runaround?
Phil Gasper
Clemency Denied: the Politics of Death in California
Stanley Heller
A Kill-Happy Government: Connecticut Chooses Death
Greg Moses
The Heart of Texas: an Inauguration Day Betrayal on Civil Rights
Justin Taylor
The Folk-Histories of John Ross
Daniel Burton-Rose
One China; Many Problems
Elaine Cassel
Try a Little Tyranny: Questions While Watching the Inaugural
Mike Whitney
Failing Upwards: the Rise of Michael Chertoff
Mark L. Berenson
My Daughter Has Been Wrongly Imprisoned
Christopher
Brauchli
It Doesn't Compute: a $170 Million Mistake
Gilad Atzmon
Zionism and Other Marginal Thoughts
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Day of the Rats
Mark Donham
The Secret Messages of Rahm Emmanuel
Ben Tripp
Adventures in Online Dating
Walter Brasch
Hollywood's Patriots: Soulless Kooks, Mr. Bush?
Poets' Basement
Wuest, Landau, Ford, Albert & Drum
January 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
A
Great American Journalist:
John L. Hess (1917-2005)
Sharon Smith
The
Anti-War Movement and the Iraqi Resistance
Don Santina
Baseball, Racism and Steroid Hysteria
Ron Jacobs
Locked Out and Pissed Off: Protesting the Bush Inauguration
Kurt Nimmo
The Problem with Mike Ruppert
Don Monkerud
Once They Were Cults: Bush's Faith-Based Social Services
Alan Farago
Swimming Home from the Galapagos
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Army Medic and Anti-War Activist Patrick Resta
January 20,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Dying
for Sycophants
William Cook
The
Bush Inauguration: A Mock Epic Fertility Rite
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: Look Who's Backing Bush's Next
Eric Ruder
Why Andres Raya Snapped: Another Casualty of Bush's War
Mike Whitney
Coronation in a Garrison State
Robert Jensen
A Citizens Oath of Office
Peter Rost
Bush Report on Drug Imports: Good Data, Bad Conclusions
David Underhill
Is It Torture Yet?: the Eclectic Fool Aid Torture Test
James Reiss
Adieu, Colin Powell: Pea Soup in Foggy Bottom
CounterPunch
Staff
Voices
from Abu Ghraib: the Injured Party
January 19,
2005
Marta Russell
Social
Security Privatization & Disability: 8 Million at Risk
Mike Ferner
Marines
Stretching Movement: Protesting Urban Warfare in Toledo
Nancy Oden
The
Nuremberg Principles, Iraq and Torture
Tony Paterson
A Catalogue of British Abuses in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Divide-and-Conquer Plan to Destroy Social Security
Doug Giebel
BS and CBS: When 60 Minutes Helped Promote WMD Fantasies
Alexander Cockburn
Will
Bush Quit Iraq?
January 18,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
Americans Were Seduced by War: Empire and Militant Christianity
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Federal
Judge: Abu Ghraib Abuses Result of Decision to Ignore Geneva
Conventions
Douglas Lummis
It's a No Brainer; Send Graner: a Rap for Our Time
Ron Jacobs
Syria Back in the Crosshairs?
Seth DeLong
Enter the Dragon: Will Washington Tolerate a Venezuelan-Chinese
Oil Pact?
Lance Selfa
Stolen Election?: Most Democrats Didn't Even Bother to Inquire
Paul D. Johnson
Mystery Meat: a Right-to-Know About Food Origins
Elisa Salasin
An Open Letter to Jenna Bush, Future Teacher
January 17,
2005
Heather Gray
Misconceptions
About King's Methods for Social Change
Robert Fisk
Hotel Room Journalism: the US Press in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
What the NYT Death Chart Omitted: Civilians Slaughtered by US
Military
Jason Leopold
Sam Bodman's Smokestacks: Bush's Choice for Energy Czar is One
of Texas's Worst Polluters
Gary Leupp
A Message from the Iraqi Resistance
Douglas Valentine
An Act of State? the Execution of Martin Luther King
Harvey Arden
Welcome to Leavenworth: My First Encounter with Leonard Peltier
Greg Moses
King
and the Christian Left: Where Lip Service is Not an Option
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
Robert Fisk
Flying Carpet Airlines: My Return to Baghdad
Ron Jacobs
Unfit for Military Service
Brian Cloughley
Smack Daddies of the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan's Drug Bonanza
Fred Gardner
The Allowable-Quantity Expert
Dr. Susan Block
The Counter-Inaugural Ball: Eros Day, 2005
John Ross
Zapatista Literary Llife
Suzan Mazur
Unspooking Frank Carlucci
M. Shahid Alam
America's New Civilizing Mission
Frederick B. Hudson
Jack Johnson's Real Opponent: "That I Was a Man"
Mike Whitney
Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War in Iraq
Tom Crumpacker
A Constitutional Right to Travel to Cuba
Bob Burton
The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal
John Callender
La Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old
Lila Rajiva
Christian Zionism
Saul Landau
An Imperial Portrait: a Visit to Hearst's Castle
Doug Soderstrom
A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism
Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Landau, Albert, Collins and Laymon
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
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Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
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January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
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Rev. William
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On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
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M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
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Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
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The Aftermath in Aceh
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Requiem for 2004
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A Visible Future?
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The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
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The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 23,
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Report
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The
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Death
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Crumbs
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Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
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Alan Singer
An
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David Price
Social
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Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
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James Petras
An
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Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
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They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
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Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
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Imagining
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FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
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The
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Losing
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The View from Donetsk
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Weekend Edition
February 19 / 20, 2005
When Castro Courted Tennessee
CounterPunching
Arthur Miller on Tennessee Williams' Death Date
By
RICHARD OXMAN
Special Note: It would be
an asset to have Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire under one's
belt in reading this, but if one doesn't insist upon getting
each reference/all coloring...there should be plenty to chew
on here.
"If it's true that there's
no solidarity worth speaking of and none's been possible for
quite some time, what are all those political websites doing,
Rich?"
-- The Ox's unhooked-up Euro
cousin
"They're really like people who complain about a lover asking
for advice. You give direction...and, then, they don't follow
it. They remain in the embrace of the abuser. It's as if they're
in love with complaining. If you're a relative, and they're
complaining about a family member, not a lover, the whole process
can drag you down too."
-- Tennessee Williams touching
upon how blood can be the basis for the worst kind of
bathos.
My father served in the WWII Seabees
with Buddy Newman, the boy that Arthur Miller's (Death of
a Salesman) Biff was based on. 'Cause they kept in touch,
I always had a soft personal spot in my dramatic heart for Art.
And it gave me blue moon entree to the great playwright
from time to time. But Marilyn's ex-to-be once suggested that
Ten was primarily interested in passion and ecstasy, the reality
in the spirit in lieu of "reality in the society."
He thought that Williams' interest in the South's sociology
was limited to not wanting Philistines with brutality and unfairness.
And that made me take a step back from AM. For years.
He deserves very special attention, especially so hard on the
heels of his passing February 11, way beyond his sweet dramatic
treatment of dark desires and hidden agendas. For reasons other
than his consistently gorgeous stance vis-a-vis capitalism, corruption,
etc. His paving the way on Broadway.
But the closest he'll get to the wheel in my hotrod is the shotgun
seat. The guy who drives me, moves my soul is sad, mad Tom from
St. Louis.
And on February 24th...the anniversary of Tennessee Williams'
NYC death from a bottle cap in the Hotel Elysee (1A), I'll have
a chance to spend a little time in my mind in the backseat of
that vehicle...that never runs out of gas.
I wrote two pieces (1B) immediately following Iris Chang blowing
her brains out around the corner from me on Highway 17th on November
9, 2004, but I don't do obituaries as a rule. Not straight-up
ones that dwell where the money is. 'Tis a sordid activity,
or it can be...that business of hanging on to the recently
deceased with the interest of a Princess Diana fan.
No, Ten deserves much better. Much better than the Miller rap,
and much better than the pandowdy pap that passes for praise.
The long line of Tennesse Williams characters who try vainly
to plant elegance and refinement in soil that is too coarse begs
for celebration. And it calls for left acknowledgement.
For more reasons than the sociological slant which Miller imposed
on Williams' outlook affords. For that anti-Philistine phenomenon
is precisely what we're up against in facing left folderoll.
The useless ornaments that are festooned alongside so much of
the very best of left online offerings exist...because Stella
Kowalskis (2A) have taken over editorial judgement.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Ten created Blanche's sister/Stan's
sister-in-law, in part, so that there would be a bridge between
two diametrically opposed worlds. But there are some fierce
struggles between relations that cannot be reconciled.
And that's the case with individuals like Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair trying to house irreconcilable differences
under one roof. I choose Counterpunch as an example 'cause they're
more difficult to criticize than most...considering their fine
efforts/accomplishments. Most others would be far too easy to
poke holes in. AC and JStC deserve respect regardless of how
readers may differ with them on this or that.
But...to get back to the constructive criticism: Advancement
is simply not encouraged if one tries to accommodate writers
ranging too far from one another on the political insight
spectrum. Not talking about leftishness on the spectrum
here; I don't expect to see Common Dreams fare on CP, and I don't.
The problem can only be seen from an oblique angle that goes
undiscussed; hence, we have a difficult challenge.
To wit, articles like Alison Weir's "Russian, Israel and
Media Omissions" (2B) don't belong on the same page as Gary
Leupp's "Meanwhile in Nepal...." (2C) Why? For one,
the former covers material we're unlikely to come across elsewhere
in a general survey of sites; it's valuable, heady stuff...well-documented...that
holds some promise --however unlikely-- of someone doing something
with it; it's pregnant with potential. The latter Leupp offers
no such legup. And, worse, it makes a suggestion that's either
quite disingenuous or...quite ignorant. In an effort to put
down Fukuyama and Huntington --two soulless souls who do deserve
a tweak or two-- the Tufts prof proffers the notion that we should
put the discussion of capitalism vs. communism back on the table.
That's about as appetizing as Bob Avakian's hairdo. (3A)
Such talk will only lead to...talk. Maoism, placed on a pedestal
of sorts --which is what Leupp does-- will come to nothing.
Maoism is not on the move. Worst case scenario reveals a spotlight
on it actually moving us backwards. And that's because THERE'S
NO TIME to provide the easy praising of communal living against
the backdrop of the obvious evils of capitalism. I mean, not
in light of what another Counterpunch piece was hawking recently
(3B): Gary Braasch's World View of Global Warming website reminds
us that the dialogue which has been so in fashion in academic
circles throughout my lifetime --the debate re commies vs. capitalist
pigs-- has to take a back seat to direct action. (3C) Just like
I do when Tennessee Williams drives the buggy.
And editors the world over have to get behind getting off the
horse they've been riding on, and charge into town with a new
look...in their eyes (pony's nostrils flaring real advocacy journalism!).
It's not elitist to make such distinctions as I have here; dissent
does not equal doing. To point out that there's a fine
difference between Mitch and suicidal Allan (the young spouse
Blanche danced with...before Streetcar's action proper).
Mitch, resisting, is of the moment, but the tortured
Allan represents only...a void...a regret...the past. And to
avoid falling into the mental (clap)trap that says talking rebelliously
(crying) is revolutionary, one must point out such niceties.
(3D)
I am not posing as Director of Relevance for Political Thought
online. I'm not interested in playing Bill Owens to any left
writer's Ward Churchill. But readers with the sensitivity of
a Blanche might detect a glaring light on the web that makes
them recoil, and consider my thesis. To wit, there's too much
exposure to too much on the internet. And nothing comes out
in the wash.
The Slapstick Tragedy we are living signals the end of the line
for political romantics who think we can continue to go back
and forth with gorgeous, literate treatments of subjects...which
go nowhere. The Milk Train don't stop there no mo'. Just like
the characters in Camino Real who had to keep on the move...to
retain their way of thinking, leftists progressing from one piece
to another stay busy enough to not notice that we're now merely
huddling "together for some dim-communal comfort."
That's what's passing for solidarity "on this terminal
stretch of road that used to be royal." (3E)
When I look at articles like Ross Gelbspan's "People's Ratification
Of The Kyoto Global Warming Treaty" (4A) which describes
how a small group is attempting to launch a nationwide signature-gathering
drive to pressure political representatives to do the right thing,
I'm reminded of how incompatible that is with other pieces which
have appeared on the same site...which insist that we don't have
the time to play that game any longer. (4B)
The Independent's "Apocolypse Now" piece (cited in
footnote #4B) is diametrically opposed in spirit to articles
like David Cromwell's "Fears For A Finite Planet,"
which ask readers to address the problem by writing to...The
Independent!!! (5) What gives here? Are we, or are we not
facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions? You'd never know
what's the case picking up on the mixed messages put forward
on Michael Albert's site. Contradiction 101. And you'd never
know anything was very amiss judging by the ZNet Home Page (6),
which makes sure to spotlight the Parecon Section (highlighting
the editor's book) at the top...while placing the Ecology/Science
Section (with the words about our imminent catastrophe!)
at the very bottom. Catastrophe 101.
In the above Gelbspan article (from Grist Mill, by the way),
he keeps repeating the mantra: "What on earth is a person
supposed to do?" Eventually, he answers: It may be a long
shot. But it's the best shot we've got." He's talking about
his worldwide petition to pressure politicians there.
Excuse me, but it's not the best shot we've got. And
we're not gonna find out what that might be as long as editors
are trying to work it out so that Stella, Stanley and Blanche
can live together. These contributions are creatures of different
orders, contradictory perspectives.
In a story that TW sketched out in 1940 (which evolved into
The Night of the Iguana), he describes characters who "were
condemned to live beneath the same roof with relatives whom they
could only regard as monsters." (7)
One cannot simultaneously accommodate articles that look fondly
upon flag burning as protest against U.S. Imperialism and pieces
that discuss the niceties of reform within the public school
system...which will ALWAYS insist upon saluting. Not
in good conscience.
If left writers really took a good look at what's above and below
them on the various sites...which list a diarrhetic stream of
contributions for progressive consideration (and took the time
to think about the differences therein), they'd surely find monsters
aplenty. Then it might dawn on many...exactly what they're involved
in. And some might...act...differently.
Fidel Castro --very few know-- wanted Tennessee to go to live
in Cuba and write about the revolution. (8) What even less numbers
know is that he almost did.
On the 22nd anniversary of Tennessee Williams' death, I can do
him no greater honor than to underscore that he was made of great
compassion, and inspired compassion among others...in the face
of fighting terrible personal demons. He wasn't quite what Miller
thought he was, and very little like what the general public
still thinks.
It stinks that the passions of progressives are being bandied
about as if there are no boundaries to be drawn. Like Mitch in
the last poker-playing scene of Streetcar (staring down
at his hands on the table, defeated), we seem destined to realize
too late the beauty of vulnerable voices crying out to be heard...begging
for understanding...screaming for us to separate ourselves from
the insensitive. Not acknowledging the destructive environment
that we live in...with people we have gotten too used to having
around us...hovering over us with arrogant arms folded, fingertips
dripping with animal fat from Stanley Kowalski's butcher.
Or with equally inappropriate stances.
As a member of the audience, I'd like to see the real life
play doctored up a bit. I'd like to see Mitch take Blanche
by the hand and walk out of the French Quarter, turning their
backs on the (blood-relation) beasts. Then, perhaps, we'd get
down with a different denouement. (9)
We are not intellectual specialists. While different forms of
oppression have hidden from men the fact they are in essence
free, the engaged writer reveals to them their freedom and participates
in their liberation.
Tennessee may have failed with respect to part of this Sartrean
sentiment, but he's got a lot of company. (10) Doesn't he?
For me, there's a strangeness amidst the kindness of compassionate
leftist writers. But, like I said, my driver's not dead.
He keeps me on the road.
Richard Oxman has submitted this piece a few days before
Williams' death date, so that some readers will have time to
forward it to influential others at various academic, cultural,
theatre, political, etc. websites and beyond. For the purposes
of distributing it widely. He asks readers to forgive his presumption,
but he's got no time to do so. He looks forward to hearing from
contacts made and/or feedback at dueleft@yahoo.com.
Notes:
(1A) NYC Pathologist Dr. Michael Baden suggested there was something
very suspicious about the position of the bottle cap in Tennesse's
mouth. And, as can be found in Donald Spoto's The Kindness of
Strangers (Paul Morrissey is quoted on p. 303), there were such
accusations leveled. Respecting the notion that Williams had
been murdered...police were asked to reopen the case ten years
later.
(1B) The pieces will be
linked shortly; I can send them to readers now, however,
upon request.
(2A) The glaring contrast and
fierce struggle between the two worlds of Stanley Kowalski and
Blanche Dubois are two main themes of Williams' A Streetcar
Named Desire. Stella's character was created to enable those
two worlds to meet. It is a character inclined, but unable,
to serve as a link for both worlds.
(2B) http://www.counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html
(2C) http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp02162005.html
(3A) This should be taken at
face value. I've written some positive things about the Chairman
of the Revolutionary Communist Party before, and my present reservations
aren't relevant here, aren't necessary to indulge in at this
juncture. First things first.
(3B) http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/glaciers.html
(3C) The immediate (personal/local/cheap)
variety, not the kind that comes from building a movement...in
solidarity with numbers which don't and can't exist...across
vast expanses...at great expense.
(3D) In Sartre's Literature
and Existentialism (Secaucus: Citadel, 1972) -- in the last section
of the book ("For Whom Does One Write"), p. 135, Jean-Paul
points out that the modern writer from Flaubert to the
surrealists is a contradictory "rebel, not a revolutionary,"
who serves as an "accomplice" for the bourgeois classes.
Barthes notion that political writing reinforces the police state
is too complicated to discuss here, but the fact is that just
complaining, in general, and just describing with a broad stroke...is
not going to give a stroke to The Powers.
(3E) The words of Marguerite
Gautier in Camino Real.
(4A) http://www.zmag.org/
(4B) http://www.zmag.org/
(5) http://www.zmag.org/
(6) http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm
(7) Ronald Hayman, Tennessee
Williams: Everyone Else Is An Audience (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1993), p. 181.
(8) Kenneth Tynan, Right and
Left (London: 1967), pp. 333-336.
(9) People have to stop demanding
full-blown scenarios respecting what'll happen if....
By getting rid of what is undesirable, one opens up various
possibilities. On a personal basis. Short of left outlets
slimming down with a radical focus (instead of slumming with
muckrackers in general), solidarity will not be waiting in the
wings. This is arguably one of the most radical theses being
advanced among the left today, and I'd like to see the word spread
to the appropriate departments on college campuses, radio stations,
print publications, etc. Most left writers --so busy with their
careers and/or unknowingly reinforcing the very status quo about
which they are complaining-- are not even familiar with the work
of Adorno, Sartre and Barthes; in particular...the writings that
provide ideas about what constitutes critical art.
(10) Arthur Miller did NOT
fail in this respect.
Richard Oxman's recent writing can be read at: www.SelvesAndOthers.org
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