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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter "THE USE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE IS AUTHORIZED" America's secret war plans: "The military purpose is to overthrow the present existing Federal Government of Mexico." Floyd Rudmin uncovers the sick dreams of America's generals. Alito says, Constitution okays Bush to set up prison camps here and torture US citizens. Dems praise his "even demeanor" and shirk the filibuster. Cockburn and St Clair on the Alito hearings and the Democrats' collapse. ... 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! Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year

Today's Stories February 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn "Lights Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run Mike Ferner Pentagon Database Leaves No Kid Alone James Petras Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia Fred Gardner Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's Office Ralph Nader Bush's Energy Escapades James Brooks Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors John Holt Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy Sarah Ferguson Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops Seth Sandronsky The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry Ron Jacobs Religion and Political Power Elisa Salasin RSVP to Bush   February 3, 2006 Toufic Haddad A Parliament of Prisoners Heather Gray Working with Coretta Scott King Tim Wise Racism, Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates Conn Hallinan Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm Eva Golinger Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela Daniel Ellsberg The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration Dave Zirin Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink Robert Bryce The Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East Website of the Day The Chavez Code   February 2, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Pentagon Pork: How to Eliminate It Stan Cox Outsourcing the Golden Years Rachard Itani Danes (Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons) Mike Whitney Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up Amira Hass In the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya Norman Solomon When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind Words Michael Simmons Stew Lives! Christopher Reed Japan's Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves Website of the Day State of Nature   February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith The Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster Jason Leopold Enron and the Bush Administration Cindy Sheehan Getting Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened Joseph Grosso Oprah and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality" Earl Ofari Hutchinson Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife Steven Higgs Life After Roe. v. Wade Robert Robideau "God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America R. Siddharth Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with Henry Ford Jim Retherford Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius Rep. Cynthia McKinney The Legacy of Coretta Scott King Paul Craig Roberts The True State of the Union Website of the Day Candide's Notebooks   January 31, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Revolutionary for the Hell of It: the Good Life of Stew Albert Clancy Chassay US Prods Lebanon Towards Civil War Dave Lindorff The Democrats' Alito Debacle Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alito: Harry-Kerry in the Senate Oren Ben-Dor Hamas' Victory: a New Hope? Winslow Wheeler Pentagon Pork: What is It? Who Cooks It Up? John Ryan Canada: a Chilling Echo of Bush's Republicans Mike Marqusee Privatizing Health Care: the Poor Pay the Price Ron Jacobs For Stew Andrew Cockburn Why Bush Probably Won't Attack Iran Website of the Day Celebrating Stew Albert   January 30, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Bush, Fox News and the Coming War on Iran Winslow Wheeler Inside the Pork Shop: the Defense Budget and Congressional Earmarks Niranjan Ramakrishnan Development Interrupted Marcus Dam "The Real Threat is from Imperial Fundamentalism": an Interview with Tariq Ali John Bomar Message to Democrats: the Case Against Pre-War Lying is a Slam Dunk, Stupid Ben Beachy Swindling the Sick: the IMF Debt Relief Sham Gideon Levy The Good News About Hamas' Victory Michael Carmichael Alito and Opus Dei Missy Comley Beattie Of Losses and Lies Norman Solomon The Question Journalists Refuse to Ask Bush Brian Concannon, Jr. Finally Some Good News From Haiti Michael Ratner Tomorrow is Today; the Time for Resistance is Now Website of the Day "I'm So Bored with Capitol Hill"   January 28 / 29, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Nicholas Kristof's Brothel Problem Ralph Nader The Impeachable Mr. Bush Col. Dan Smith Spying and Lying by the Pentagon Paul Craig Roberts Blind Ignorance: Polls Show Many Americans Simply Dumber Than Bush Tammara Rosenleaf Homefront War Diary: On Monday, My Husband Didn't Call Ron Jacobs Google This! Harry Browne Irish "Peace" Process at Recriminations Stage Fred Gardner Grover Norquist, Drug Policy Reformer? Christopher Reed North Korean Forgeries Bernard Chazelle France's Colonial Blowback Daniel Wolff Radioactive Money, 2005: How Entergy Gets Its Way at Indian Point Tom Kerr Small Fry: If You're Not in Power, You'd Better Not Lie Asad Abu Khalil The Demise of Fatah Chris Murphy The Medicare Disaster Dr. Susan Block America Wants a Divorce Kathy Deacon Hippocratic Oaf St. Clair / Walker / Palmer / Shields Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Laymon, Engel, Holt, Davies and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Your Child Can Be a NSA Spook! January 27, 2006 Suren Pillay Making the World Safe for Nuclear Violence, Again Lawrence R. Velvel The NYT and Alito: Journalistic Schizophrenia J.L. Chestnut, Jr The Cold Hard Truth: Marching Backwards on Civil Rights Uri Avnery To Talk with Hamas Gary Leupp Hamas's Victory: "the Power of Democracy" Samar Assad A New Political Landscape in Palestine Jeffrey St. Clair King of the Hill: Sen. Ted Steven's Empire of Corruption Website of the Day Bush Jobs Program: You Too Can Be an FBI Snitch   January 26, 2006 Robert Robideau An AIM Activist's View of Jack Abramoff: Another Racist Out to Defraud Native Tribes Paul Craig Roberts Bolton Orders Syria to Do the Impossible Gilad Atzmon Hamas' Victory Jason Leopold A Vaster Conspiracy?: Fitzgerald Probes Niger Forgeries Joshua Frank Iran, Nukes and Oil Dave Lindorff Bush Calls Hamas Kettle Black Susan Lee An Open Letter to the State Dept. on the Cuban Five Missy Comley Beattie A Plea to the Marines: Stop Sending Recruiting Letters to Our House! Michael Carmichael Extraordinary Alito Michael Neumann The Core of Zionism Website of the Day Who Will Stop the Slaughter of Yellowstone's Bison?   January 25, 2006 Saul Landau Domestic Spying, Now and Then: When Hoover Bugged Phone Calls with My Father James Petras Is Chile's Bachelet Washington's Best New Ally? Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and Roberts' Self-Gag Rule is a Phony Vijay Prashad From Chennai with Love Kevin Zeese Gen. William Odom Supports the Empire, But Opposes the War Alison Weir When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Anatomy of a Cover-Up Bruce K. Gagnon Bush War Economy: Exporting Jobs and Security Joan Roelofs Military Contractor Philanthropy Website of the Day Bob Marley Does Dylan   January 24, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts The Patriot Police: the Unfathomed Dangers of Patriot Act Reauthorization Kathy Kelly Liberation and Deliverance Jorge Mariscal Bush's War Viewed from the South Winslow T. Wheeler Smoke and Mirrors in the Defense Budget John Walsh Why We Picket John Kerry: Join Us Friday in Boston Youmans / Muaddi The Growing Israel Divestment Movement Roger Burbach Bolivia's Evo Morales: Original Mandate for Social Revolution Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste Letter from a Haitian Prison Noam Chomsky The Terrorist in the Mirror Website of the Day Big Brother Watch January 23, 2006 Uri Avnery Pity the Orphan: Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Elections Susan Pynchon Diebold in Florida: "I Saw It Hacked" William Loren Katz Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition Christopher Brauchli Bush's IRS: Squeezing the Poor Chris Floyd The Goon Show Joshua Frank Tre Arrow and ELF: Environmentalism on Death Row Norman Solomon The Other Shoe Drops: Classified Leaks and Journalists Jackie Corr Working for the Railroad: Racicot and the Burlington Northern Paul Craig Roberts Inside Cheney's War Workshop Website of the Day Arms Against War   January 21/22, 2006 Tim Shorrock Why the Buses Didn't Come: Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina Evacuation Fiasco Ralph Nader Congressional Ethics After Abramoff Peter Feng Casualties of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami Brian Cloughley CIA Bombs Pakistan, Hits America Michael Donnelly Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments Tom Kerr Crackdown in San Quentin: Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams' Friends? Tim Matson Best Not Drive While Black on I-91 (But Walk Tall With the Bloody Chainsaw You Just Topped Your Neighbor With) Dave Lindorff Rumsfeld: Venezuela "Overspending" on Military Daniel Wolff Hour of Reckoning: the Gospel Roots of Wilson Pickett Fred Gardner "Metabolic Syndrome" is to "Clinical Depression" as Acomplia is Prozac Jason Leopold How Cheney Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Prior to 9/11 Matthew Koehler Betting on Biscuit: Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological (or Economic) Sense? John Bomar The Emperor's Clothes: from Bonaparte to Bush Ron Jacobs When Miners March: Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win! Becky Akers Debunking Democracy Joanne Mariner Security, Terrorism and Human Rights St. Clair / Walker / Pollack CounterPunch Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Holt, Engel and Davies Website of the Day Osama's Book Club: Featured Selection January 20, 2006 Brian J. Foley What Kind of War Doesn't Allow for a Truce? Richard Gott Revolution in the Andes Joshua Frank Israel and US Threats Against Iran Pierre Tristam Imperial Mongers: From Gladstone to "King George" Bernstein / Allegretto Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months Elizabeth Schulte Abortion Before Roe Website of the Day This Dog Bites   January 19, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Political Machines: Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Bill Simpich Those Damn Democrats: To End War, Don't Ask for What You Don't Want Kevin Alexander Gray Reclaiming King Day (From the NAACP) Sam Husseini Rot at the Top: If the Democrats Really Want to Stop Bush, They Need New Leadership Sam Smith The Real Chocolate City Monica Benderman Dare to Make a Stand Winslow T. Wheeler Just How Big is the Defense Budget? Website of the Day Leave My Child Alone   January 18, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Gore's Speech: a Challenge That Cannot be Ignored Norman Solomon The Crime of Giving the Orders: Executing Clarence Ray Allen Jonathan M. Feldman The System Doesn't Work Anymore Michael Carmichael "Extraordinary Circumstances": the Case Against Alito Paul D'Amato The Crimes of Jimmy Carter Cynthia McKinney King's Mission Endures Norman Finkelstein Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified Website of the Day The Planetary Movement   January 17, 2006 M. Shahid Alam "Real Men Go to Tehran": Has al-Qaeda's Gambit Paid Off? John Ross Latin America's Indians on the Move--in Different Directions Tariq Ali God, Blood, Oil and Iraq Michael Donnelly Killing Anna Mae Aquash, Smearing John Trudell Amira Hass No Child Left Unharassed: the Obstacle Course to School in Palestine Doug Giebel Alito's CAP: Either He Lied on His Resumé or There's a Cover-Up Bill Quigley MLK Day in a Haitian Prison Ron Jacobs Meet the Son of Jim Crow: MLK Day Below the Mason/Dixon Line Mike Stark Governor on a Killling Spree Werther The Liberties of the Subject January 16, 2006 John Walsh Tears of a Neocon: The Good News from Daniel Pipes Earl Ofari Hutchinson Black Students Under Fire: Racial Profiling in Public Schools Roger Burbach Bachelet's Victory: Leftward Drift in Chile? Norman Solomon Ted Koppel, NPR and Henry Kissinger: a Natural Fit? Robert Jensen Dreams and Nightmares: How Would King Judge America? Sam Husseini Martin Luther King and the Deeper Malady Paul Craig Roberts Bush Crosses the Rubicon Website of the Day MLK: Beyond Vietnam   January 14 / 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn What the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said JoAnn Wypijewski What is an Antiwar Movement? James Petras The State of the Empire, 2006 Ron Jacobs Fifteen Years of War: Who's Better Off? Brian Cloughley Fly Boys and Lie Boys: Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep Marianne McDonald The Madness of Ajax: a Play for Our Time Bruce Tyler Wick Bush on Torture Echoes Charles I on Arbitrary Imprisonment Fred Gardner A Last, Desperate Plea to Stay in Canada Flavia Alaya Victory at Passaic County Jail Gary Leupp A Neocon Plan to Plant WMDs? Dr. Susan Block Peeping Tom in the Bush: Nonconsenual Voyeurism and the NSA Nicole Colson The House Jack Built: The Abramoff Giude to Buying Friends and Influencing Politics Jeffrey Kolakowski Senator as Illusionist: the Hypocrisies of John McCain Missy Comley Beattie The Stepford Hearings of Samuel Alito: The Senator, the Weepy Wife and a Secret Annoiting Charles Thomson Is Serota Dead in the Water?: the Ofili Scandal at the Tate St. Clair / Walker / Vest Playlsts: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Engel, Ford and Davies Website of the Weekend Historians Against the War   January 13, 2006 Ralph Nader The Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Alito Leonard Weinglass The Singular Story of the Cuban Five Amira Hass Prisoners in Their Own Land: 800,000 Palestinians Sealed Off by IDF in West Bank Chris Kutalik / Jennifer Biddle Airline Workers Fight Back Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and the Democrats Dave Lindorff Eight Who Dared: a (Short) Congressional Honor Roll Mike Whitney Countdown to War with Iran? David Price How the FBI Spied on Edward Said   January 12, 2006 Jennifer Van Bergen The Unitary Executive: Why the Bush Doctrine Violates the Constitution Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Command Responsibility: Torture and Legal Accountability Lawrence R. Velvel Alito Refuses to Answer Fundamental Questions Ralph Nader / Robert Weissman Corporations, Originalism and the Bill of Rights: an Open Letter to Justice Scalia Jackie Corr Killing the Big Sky's Golden Goose: Marc Racicot and the Deregulation of Montana Power Jared Bernstein The Wage Doldrums Russell D. Hoffman New Horizons in Space, New Lows in Government Aubrey Streit I Was Born in a Small Town: the Fate of Rural America Clancy Sigal Hugh Thompson and My Lai: He Broke Ranks; He Did the Right Thing Website of the Day Nukes in Space   January 11, 2006 Kevin Zeese NSA Spied on Baltimore Peace Group (And They've Got the Documents That Prove It) Ray McGovern The Big Wiretap Allan Maass / Joe Allen Schwarzenegger's Hit List: Smearing Mandela, Killing Tookie Earl Ofari Hutchinson Snatching at King's Legacy: Mythmaking, Profiteering & Outright Distortions Annie Murphy Evo Morales' Sweater Allan Lichtman Abramoff's Kind of Big Government Ramzy Baroud Politics of Chaos: Gaza's Turmoil in Context Joshua Frank MoveOn Surrenders to Hillary Kathleen and Bill Christison "Eating Palestine for Breakfast": the Real Sharon Website of the Day Memoirs of Rummy's Geisha   January 10, 2006 Uri Avnery The Post-Sharon Landscape: Three Fingers, No Fist Saul Landau Different Americas Noam Chomsky Beyond the Ballot: Iraq, Iran and China Brian J. Foley Playing with Fire: Congress and Executive Power Lenni Brenner The War Within the Antiwar Movement Ronan Sheehan Sheehan to Sheehan: Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Con Jobs   January 9, 2006 Behzad Yaghmaian Who is to Blame for the Deaths of the Sudanese Refugees? George Bisharat US Aid to Israel is Out of Hand Dave Lindorff How the US Press Squelches Bush Impeachment Drive Norman Solomon Smoke a Marlboro, Then an Iraqi: How Media War Images Distort Not Inform Christopher Brauchli The Generosity of Credit Card Companies Aharon Shabtai A Poet's Letter on the Occupation Andrew Cockburn How Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?   January 7 / 8, 2006 Lawrence Velvel The NYT's Unconscionable Decision to Sit on the NSA Story for a Year James Petras AIPAC on Trial: Them or US J.L. Chestnut Racism and Injustice in Alabama's Courts Mike Ely The Dead Miners in Sago Andrew Wilson The Dying of Ariel Sharon Lila Rajiva Two Moms Go to Capitol Hill William Cook The Rape of Palestine Ramor Ryan The Sub Motorcycle Diaries: On the Road with the Zapatistas Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff An Interview with Michael Scheuer on the CIA's Rendition Program Peter Montague Inherit the Wind: the Global Spread of GMO Crops Ron Jacobs Would Ethan Allen Pay to Protest? Neve Gordon Images of Real Eco-Terrorism in Twaneh Fred Gardner Business as Usual in San Diego Josh Mahon Idaho Timber Industry Leader Advocates Violence Against Green's Mom Dr. Susan Block Abramoff Family Values: the Lobbyist Who Screwed Us All Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Bush Crimes Commission   January 6, 2006 José Pertierra Posada Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets Joe Allen Gary Freeman's Struggle: a Black Radical from the 1960s Fights Extradition to the US Winslow T. Wheeler Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment John Bomar A Former NSA Officer on Snoopgate: the Squawkers Should be Congratulated Jason Leopold Snoop and Shred Norman Solomon Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad Robert Pollin Remembering Harry Magdoff: the Man Who Explained the Empire   January 5, 2006 Scott Boehm Big Profits, Buried Lives: Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans Zoltan Grossman New Challenges for the Antiwar Movement Heather Gray Whistling Dixie Yet Again Haninah Levine Simple is Dangerous: the Pentagon's Plan for a Manhattan Project on IEDs Pierre Tristam The Sham of Homeland Security: a West Virginia Parable Remi Kanazi Stroke of Luck?: Political Hemorrhage in Israel Gilad Atzmon Sharon Meets His Maker Kathleen and Bill Christison What Hillary Clinton Doesn't Know About Palestine   January 4, 2006 Ron Jacobs Pity the Miner: A-Diggin' My Bones Lila Rajiva Terror Hits Bangalore Huibin Amee Chew Why the War is Sexist Pat Williams How the West Turned: Biting the Hands That Steal Linda Milazzo The House That George and Jack Built: Ownership Society Meets the Entrepreneurial Style Nick Dearden The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness": Blair's Cynical Policy on Palestine James Petras Evo Morales: All Growl, No Claws? Website of the Day Rat Out a Lobbyist for Jesus   January 3, 2006 James Ridgeway Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and 9/11: How Much Did the Bush Administration Know? Laith al-Saud Iraqi Intellectuals and the Occupation: an Interview with Dr. Saad Jawad Dick J. Reavis Border Walls: the View from Mexico Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton, AIPAC and Iran Rochelle Gause Inside Rafah: Collective Punishment as Normalcy Missy Comley Beattie How My Mother Went from a Republican to a Screaming Progressive Paul de Rooij A Glossary of Dispossession   January 2, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts A Gestapo Administration Clancy Sigal A Trip to the Far Side of Madness Cindy Sheehan A Tour of Europe: Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes Alexander Cockburn A NYT Editorial Contemplates Iraq         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition February 4 / 5, 2006 What We're Listening to This Week Playlists By Jeffrey St. Clair and David Vest   JEFFREY ST. CLAIR   James Blood Ulmer: Memphis Blood: the Sun Sessions (Sin-Drome) Guitarist James Blood Ulmer melded the deep grooves of funk with Ornette Coleman's free-form harmolodic approach to jazz to create what might be called "funkolodics". Ulmer's collaborations with Ornette, as well as Coleman's son Denardo, along with avant-garde stalwarts Pharoah Sanders, David Murray and Rashid Ali, account for some of the most daring and challenging music ever recorded. But in the past few years, Ulmer has returned to his roots with a vengeance, attacking old blues songs with a ferociousness that makes even the most worn-out standards, such Willie Dixon's "Back Door Man," sound fresh and threatening. These songs, recorded in the Sun Studios, are mostly Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters numbers, with John Lee Hooker's "Dimples" and Sonny Boy Williamson's "Fattening Frogs for Snakes" thrown in to make an already hot session even spicier. The band includes Charles Burnam on violin and Living Color's Vernon Reid on an anarchic rhythm guitar. Reid also produced the sessions.   Dave Douglas Quintet: Strange Liberation (RCA) Trumpeter Dave Douglas is a restless musician. Over the last decade, he has flirted with Third Stream fusions of jazz and classical music, hip-hop, klezmer and, most recently (and bizarrely), a musical tribute to the films of Fatty Arbuckle. But Douglas is at his best when he teams with keyboardist Uri Caine to explore the landscape charted by the Miles Davis groups of the mid-1960s. Strange Liberation is as close as you are likely get to reliving to the haunting minimalism of Davis's In a Silent Way.   Jody Williams: You Left Me in the Dark (Evidence) Jody Williams went to grade school with Bo Diddley and later played lead guitar on some of his most famous songs, including "Who Do You Love" (later desecrated by The Doors). Many of Williams's signature guitar riffs on records for Billy Boy Arnold and Howlin' Wolf were ripped off by white rockers, from Buddy Holly to Led Zeppelin. Williams' 1957 song "Lucky Lou" is one of the great instrumental tracks in the history of rock; it's also one of the most freely pillaged. Listen to the guitar riff on "Day Tripper" sometime and what you're hearing is a riff Williams created for "Billie's Blues", a 1950s song by Billy Stewart. Williams, embittered by the larcenous nature of the music business, dropped out of the music scene in the early 1960s. Then in 2002, 38 years after he unplugged his guitar to work as an electrician, he came roaring back with his brilliant record "Return of a Legend". This is the follow up and it's even better.   Detroit Junior: Turn Up the Heat (Blue Suit) One night in 1960 Emery Williams, Jr. was in a bar in Chicago, when he heard "Money Tree," a single he that had just cut for Beat Baby Records, blasting out from the jukebox. But when Williams examined the record he was shocked to find the artist listed as someone called "Detroit Junior." The next day he stormed into company's office, screaming, "You put someone's else name on my damn record!" It turned out that Beat Baby had unilaterally decided to release the record under the name, Detroit Junior, perhaps as a way to rip off the royalties. "Well, Emery, you're from Detroit and you are a junior," the exec explained. So Detroit Junior it was. He was the gifted piano player in the final incarnation of Howlin' Wolf's band. When Wolf died, Detroit Junior kept the band on the road, playing Wolf's unmistakable brand of menacing Chicago blues. Detroit Junior's piano style is a kind of exuberant funkhouse boogie-woogie that owes more to Pete Johnson than Otis Spann.   Susana Baca: Susana Baca (Luaka Bop) The Aretha Franklin of Peru.   Freddie Hubbard: Bolivia (Music Masters) Clifford Brown died young, but Brown's free-blowing legacy was carried on by Freddie Hubbard, my favorite living trumpet player. (And I'm not just saying that because Freddie was born and raised in Naptown.) Over the past 40 years, Hubbard's music has spanned a wide-spectrum of styles, from hard bop to some of the best fusion recordings of the 70s. Steeped in Latin rhythms, Bolivia is Hubbard's most intensely lyrical record. This one's for you Evo. Try to live up to its aspirations.   Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties (Sony) Yes, it's the ultimate oxymoron, but Blue Oyster Cult was the smartest of the heavy metal bands that stormed the continent from one arena to the next back in the 1970s. Secret Treaties was released before BOC broke onto the pop charts with "Don't Fear the Reaper" and remains their strongest effort from start to finish. The Cult was a proto-punk band and occasionally collaborated with punk poetess Patti Smith, who co-wrote "Career of Evil," which opens this CD. The guiding spirit of the band was Buck Dharma, the most underrated rock guitarist of that unlamented decade. Most of BOC's songs are gothic camp, but in the right setting, under the influence of the right kind of hallucinogens, "Harvester of Eyes" can still make your spine tingle.   Percy Mayfield: Memory Pain (Specialty) A few years ago I asked the great blues shouter Jimmy T99 Nelson to name his favorite songwriter. He stared at me as if I was brain dead and snapped, "Percy, Percy Mayfield, of course. He was our poet." Mayfield deserves a comprehensive collection of his songs. Until then, this slender volume will have to suffice. Chew on these lyrics, from "Please Send Me Someone to Love:" I lay awake night and ponder world troubles. My answer is always the same. That unless men put an end to all of this, Hate will put the world in a flame, (oh) what a shame. Just because I'm in misery. I'm not begging for no sympathy. But if it's not asking too much, Just send me someone to love.   Victoria Spivey with Lonnie Johnson: Idle Hours (OBC) Victory Spivey's records all shared a single obsession: sex. As a vocalist, Spivey was a spitfire Bessie Smith. These recordings from 1961, pairing her with the legendary Texas blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson, capture Spivey at her tawdriest, which means her best.   Milton Nascimento: Milton (Polygram) The Brazilian songwriter and singer Milton Nascimento, a superstar in his own country, came to the attention of most Americans with his eerie, ethereal vocals and wordless singing on Wayne Shorter's 1974 masterpiece Native Dancer. Two years later, Shorter, teaming with Herbie Hancock on piano and Airto on percussion, returned the favor by playing on Nascimento's stunning debut album in the states, "Milton". Mysterious and beautiful, "Milton" is one of the 20th century's essential recordings.   Jeffrey St. Clair's music writings (as well as CPers Ron Jacobs, David Vest and Daniel Wolff) can be found in Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net.   DAVID VEST While I tend to agree with the old Columbia marketing slogan, "Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan," I do have a few favorite cover versions. These are my top ten -- of the moment.   Kitty Wells, "Forever Young," Dylan Country Could this be the greatest single cover of a Dylan song? Maybe so, until I get a chance to hear Mary Black sing "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" on her forthcoming "Full Tide" CD. When Miss Kitty goes up high on the chorus, her legendary vibrato is spine-tingling. And -- extremely unusual for a Nashville track -- they actually let the musicians play on this one.   Norman Blake & Peter Ostroushko, "Restless Farewell." on both Dylan Country and A Nod to Bob (An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan On His 60th Birthday) A second tune from the same CD makes my list.   Youssou N'Dour, "Chimes of Freedom" Guide (Wommat) N'Dour has released three versions of the song, including a Wolof/English duet with Bruce Cockburn. Can't go wrong with any of them, and if you can find the EP with all three, buy it! Flatt and Scruggs, Like A Rolling Stone, Nashville Airplane With Buck Graves playing the organ part on dobro. Supposedly the track that broke up one of the greatest acts in country music. I have it on a 45 RPM, with "I'd Like To Say A Word For Texas" on the flip side. Henry Strzelecki, who plays some bass on the album, also played on "Blonde on Blonde." I used to throw rocks at Henry, down across the streetcar tracks in Birmingham. Good thing I missed.   The Soul Stirrers, "Blowin' in the Wind," When the Saints Go Marchin' In Beats out Sam Cooke's "Live At The Copa" version by a hair. But have you ever heard Leontyne Price sing it?   Ken Saydak, "Watching the River Flow," Love Without Trust (Delmark) Saydak's "Clo Clo Boogie" is a solid swinger, and "Don't Blame The Messenger" could have been written by Dylan himself. Maybe Saydak's a better piano player than singer, but his take on "River" is rock solid   Doc and Merle Watson: "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," Lonesome Road/Look Away (SMD) Doc, who has talked about how much he admired the finger-picking guitar tone Dylan got on his original recording, pays tasty tribute here. And sings the hell out of it, too. Lacking a version by the marvelous Alix Dobkin, the singer to whom Dylan originally pitched the song, this will do just fine.   Jimmy LaFave: You're A Big Girl Now, Austin Skyline (Bohemia Beat) The premier Texas Dylan interpreter, and one of the best anywhere. Actually this CD has four Dylan covers, plus LaFave's classic remake of "Just Walk Away Renee."   What? Nothing by The Byrds? Hendrix? Baez? Doug Sahm? And what about the Blind Boys of Alabama singing "I Believe In You"? That's the trouble with lists. No sooner do you get through making one, than you sit there wondering what would you give to hear Sun Ra play "Ring Them Bells"? Or Susan Alcorn doing "In The Garden"?   David Vest's newest CD is Serves Me Right to Shuffle.   Previous Playlists January 28, 2006 January 21, 2006 January 14, 2006 January 7, 2006 December 31, 2005 December 24, 2005 December 17, 2005 December 10, 2005 December 3, 2005 November 26, 2005 November 19, 2005 November 11, 2005 November 5, 2005 October 29, 2005 October 14, 2005 October 7, 2005

Finally Available from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Order Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair   CounterPunch Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"