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PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS ON HOW THE 'FREE TRADE' CASE FOR OFFSHORING AMERICA'S JOBS HAS COME UNGLUED Roberts on the sensational exposure of the faked "gains" and phantom stats of the free traders. Who was America's most anti-imperialist president? Try Grover Cleveland! JoAnn Wypijewski on the unlikely hero of Hawai'i's restoration movement. Alexander Cockburn reports on evangelical Christians in crisis amid fresh onslaughts by forces of darkness. The Warbler's Parable: Rosa Miriam Elizalde on the black-masked visitors to Cuba defying the US economic blockade.
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Today's Stories June 22, 2007 Andy
Worthington June 21, 2007 Peter
Linebaugh Natsu
Saito Ron
Jacobs Saree
Makdisi John
Stauber Scott
Liebertz Tom
Clifford Robert
Jensen Michael
J. Smith Jeb
Sprague Website
of the Day
Omar
Barghouti Andy
Worthington Margaret
Kimberley Robert
Weissman Russell
D. Hoffman Rannie
Amiri Stephen
Lendman Dave
Lindorff David
Swanson Anne
Dachel Website
of the Day
June 19, 2007 Ralph
Nader Dr.
Shepherd Bliss Bill
and Kathleen Christison Jeff
Leys Dave
Zirin Chris
Floyd Ben
Terrall Anthony
Papa VIPS Linda Flores Website
of the Day
John
Ross Paul
Craig Roberts Martha
Rosenberg Norman
Solomon Don
Santina Isabella
Kenfield James
Brooks Eva
Liddell Sam
Husseini Akiva
Eldar Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn John
Halle Robert
Fisk Andy
Worthington Uri
Avnery Fred
Gardner Saul
Landau P.
Sainath Missy
Comley Beattie Alan
Gregory Walter
Brasch Website
of the Weekend
June 15, 2007 Alan
Farago Andy
Worthington Michael
Simmons Franklin
Lamb Gary
Leupp John
Ross Website
of the Day
June 14, 2007 Michael
Donnelly
Faisal
Kutty Harry
Browne Charles
Jonkel Steven
Higgs Bruce
Dixon Bruce
K. Gagnon
Website
of the Day June 13, 2007 Glen Ford Marjorie Cohn Bill Christison Charles Jonkel Silvia Cattori Richard Gott Firmin DeBrabander William S. Lind Keith Rosenthal Website of the Day June 12, 2007 Jeffrey St.
Clair Paul Craig
Roberts P. Sainath Ralph Nader Omar Waraich Dave Lindorff Harvey Wasserman Malini Johar
Schueller Ramzy Baroud Website of
the Day
June 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Norman Solomon Eva Liddell Rannie Amiri Rachel Voss Christopher
Brauchli D. K. Wilson Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn George Ciccariello-Maher Saul Landau Robert Fisk Brian Cloughley Ron Jacobs Ward Boston Conn Hallinan Leonard Peltier Lawrence Davidson John Ross Kate Allan Fred Gardner Stephen Fleischman Monica Benderman Geoff Bailey Missy Beattie Patrick Dyer Tim Lengerich James Irani
Gary Leupp Michael Tillery Michael Simmons Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
June 8, 2007 Serge Halimi Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair
Paul Craig Roberts William Blum Joshua Frank Lance Selfa Dave Lindorff Lawrence Ferlinghetti Website of the Day
Marjorie Cohn Soldz, Reisner
and Olson: Soldz, Reisner
Paul Craig Roberts Bill Quigley Silvia Cattori Carl G. Estabrook Ellen Taylor Corporate Crime
Reporter Brenda Norrell D. K. Wilson Kevin Zeese Website of
the Day
Alain Gresh Gary Leupp Steven Sherman Bruce Dixon Corporate Crime Reporter Brian M. Downing Ron Jacobs George Bisharat Nicole Colson Bruce K. Gagnon Website of the Day
June 5, 2007 Michael Neumann Jonathan Cook David Vest Robert Fantina Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury John V. Walsh Richard Cretan Adam Engel William S. Lind Myles Hoenig Jim Minick Website of
the Day
Nizar Latif Diana Johnstone Gregory Wilpert Paul Watson Susan Rosenthal,
MD Richard Ward Eva Liddell Zahi Khouri Evelyn Pringle China Hand Karyn Strickler Website of the Day
June 2 / 3, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Marc Levy Martin Smith Diana Johnstone John Ross Uri Avnery Sunsara Taylor Richard Neville P. Sainath Missy Comley
Beattie Nisrine Abiad Rannie Amiri Margot Pepper Eric Stewart Ralph Nader Dan Bacher Shaun Harkin Richard Rhames Frederick Hudson Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Dave Marsh Saul Landau David Phinney Robert Jensen Stanley Heller Yifat Susskind Robert Weissman Paul Buchheit William S.
Lind Sherwood Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
Robert Bryce Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Kathy Kelly Marjorie Cohn Chris Kutalik
Corporate Crime Reporter Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
May 30, 2007 James Ridgeway Franklin Lamb Terrence E. Paupp Uri Avnery Alan Maass Rock and Rap
Confidential Ralph Nader Nirmal Ghosh Jean Daniels Tom Barry Website of the Day
Stephen Soldz Eliza Ernshire Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Evelyn Pringle Mike Whitney David Swanson John Holt Cynthia McKinney Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day
Bill Quigley Col. Dan Smith Cindy Sheehan Dr. Susan Block Jeeni Criscenzo Douglas Valentine Website of the Day 
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June 22, 2007 It Won't Come from Agricultural Theme ParksFarmer PreservationBy RICHARD RHAMES
Last week another farmer (Jim) and I travelled to nearby Springvale, Maine where the Three Rivers Land Trust was sponsoring a presentation. The subject was farmland preservation. Jim and I serve as board members of a local land trust and we sometimes go to events like this. As usual, it was a pleasant evening and we all carefully averted our eyes from the corpse of American agriculture slumped in the corner. Don't get me wrong. The industrial production of consumeable commodities is roaring along, based unfortunately on the ruin of both the producer and the land. But hey, there's lots of stuff in the supermarket. Simply put, the 100 year run of democratized and decentralized agriculture had its day. That day is just over. That's all. Today we're rapidly returning to an old model. In 1987, Mark Richie and Kevin Ristau of the League of Rural Voters Education Project wrote,
Richie and Ristau pointed out that by the mid-1800s, government action----ending slavery through force of arms, the Homestead Act, (ethnic cleansing or forced removal the native population) had put "family farmers on much of the land." This and other federal government intervention over the next century then "created conditions favorable to family-farm agriculture." The culmination of this democratic intervention was the New Deal-era parity program which ushered in what was called the Golden Age of American Agriculture. "From 1933 to 1953 this parity legislation remained in effect and was extremely successful. Farmers received fair prices for their crops, production was controlled to prevent costly surpluses, and consumer prices remained low and stable." Because they could make a living farming, "the number of new farmers increased, soil and water conservation practices expanded dramatically, and overall farm debt declined." In addition, between 1933 and 1952 the federal government netted $13 million for its oversight and coordination of the program. Parity was an economic management system that benefitted farmers and eaters and the land. It allowed small-scale family operations to receive a fair price for their crops. It fostered economic justice and even rural prosperity. Needless to say, it had to go. The speakers in Springvale began on an upbeat note, observing that the number of "farmers" in Maine was increasing. What went unsaid was that the definition of "farmer" is so broad that it covers mostly people who live on off-farm-income and thus subsidize their agricultural habit. If there is a farm product out there today that generally returns its cost-of-production to the producer, I'm unaware of it. So people farm, as much as they can afford to, on the side. The truly dogged pursue the "niche" and "value added" gambits by further processing and/or retailing their harvest. Currently the extra revenue from these additional enterprises helps to mask the galloping and deadly cost/price squeeze which marks even these operations for eventual death. As the body-count increases, the press is happy to relate hopeful and upbeat distractions apparently intent on masking the sod-busters' death rattle with chirpy effervescence. One favorite of late is the agricultural theme-park or "day-camp" side-show. In this exercise, the farm (usually owned by a non-profit entity) invites the children of the comfortable to "see where their food comes from." A fee is charged. Wolfe's Neck Farm in Freeport and the Libra Foundation's Pineland Farms are among the current practitioners. At Wolfe's Neck, camp counselors learn how to "scatter grain for chickens," and "gather eggs." Then they show the kids. The bucolic fantasy world presented to the day-camp children is doubtless a soothing tonic for a pixelated and chemicalized generation. But it most assuredly won't help them figure out "where their food comes from." The eggs those kids eat for breakfast or mixed with other ingredients in their snacks weren't laid by chickens pecking for scattered grain on a rustic farmstead somewhere. They rolled down a conveyor belt in the bowels of a reeking concrete and iron corporate "barn" somewhere. The hapless and de-beaked chickens who spend their short and tortured lives standing packed into wire cages above a manure pit----in an orgy of nervous eating, egg laying and defacating--- are tended, not by well-scrubbed college students, or farm family members, but by optionless "guest workers." Cheap food comes at a price. Still, when I suggested a change in our ag policy and a return to something like the proven parity pricing system in Springvale last week, urging that land trusts put their collective "shoulders to the wheel" of "farmer preservation," the idea met quick rebuke from one of the guest speakers (a former farmer himself). The out-of-hand rejection was anticipated. When I've mentioned such concepts in other meetings they've met a similar fate , even among farmers who have forgotten their own history and who have lost hope. Thus do people who require regular nourishment stumble toward a future without a democratized agriculture. The days of my youth were spent in proximity to scores of dairy farms undergirded by a parity price for milk of 40 (constant) dollars per hundred pounds. Back then, nobody had to talk about "farmland preservation" and if you wanted to know where food came from you could look out back or take a walk down the road. Or .... Was that just a childish dream? Richard Rhames and his wife farm the ground where
he grew up in Biddeford, Maine. He is a member of the Nebraska
Farmers Union, the National Farmers Union, the Family Farm Defenders,
and the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981).
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CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy  Click Here to Buy! How the Press Failed The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained!  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn   Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed        Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh                   |
