Coming
in October
From AK Press
Today's
Stories
September 17, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
September 16, 2003
Rosemary and Walt Brasch
An
Ill Wind: Hurricane Isabel and the Lack of Homeland Security
Robert Fisk
Powell
in Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
Imperial Sociopaths
M. Shahid Alam
The Dialectics
of Terror
Ron Jacobs
Exile at Gunpoint
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's War on Wages
Al Krebs
Stop Calling Them "Farm Subsidies"; It's Corporate
Welfare
Patrick Cockburn
The
Iraq Wreck
Website of the Day
From Occupied Palestine
September 15, 2003
Stan Goff
It Was
the Oil; It Is Like Vietnam
Robert Fisk
A Hail of Bullets, a Trail of Dead
Writers Bloc
We
Are Winning: a Report from Cancun
James T. Phillips
Does George Bush Cry?
Elaine Cassel
The Troublesome Bill of Rights
Cynthia McKinney
A Message to the People of New York City
Matthew Behrens
Sunday Morning Coming Down: Reflections on Johnny Cash
Uri Avnery
Assassinating
Arafat
Hammond Guthrie
Celling Out the Alarm
Website of the Day
Arnold and the Egg
Recent
Stories
September 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
September 12, 2003
Writers Block
Todos
Somos Lee: Protest and Death in Cancun
Laura Carlsen
A Knife to the Heart: WTO Kills Farmers
Dave Lindorff
The Meaning of Sept. 11
Elaine Cassel
Bush at Quantico
Linda S. Heard
British
Entrance Exams
John Chuckman
The First Two Years of Insanity
Doug Giebel
Ending America as We Know It
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Blank Check Military
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Website of the Day
A Woman in Baghdad
September 11, 2003
Robert Fisk
A Grandiose
Folly
Roger Burbach
State Terrorism and 9/11: 1973 and 2001
Jonathan Franklin
The Pinochet Files
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Postcards to the President
Norman Solomon
The Political Capital of 9/11
Saul Landau
The Chilean Coup: the Other, Almost Forgotten 9/11
Stew Albert
What Goes Around
Website of the Day
The Sights and Sounds of a Coup
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 10, 2003
John Ross
Cancun
Reality Show: Will It Turn Into a Tropical Seattle?
Zoltan Grossman
The General Who Would be President: Was Wesley Clark Also Unprepared
for the Postwar Bloodbath?
Tim Llewellyn
At the Gates of Hell
Christopher Brauchli
Turn the Paige: the Bush Education Deception
Lee Sustar
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
Elaine Cassel
McCain-Feingold in Trouble: Scalia Hogs the Debate
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Hammond Guthrie
When All Was Said and Done
Website of the Day
Fact Checking Colin Powell
September 9, 2003
William A. Cook
Eating
Humble Pie
Robert Jensen / Rahul
Mahajan
Bush
Speech: a Shell Game on the American Electorate
Bill Glahn
A Kinder, Gentler RIAA?
Janet Kauffman
A Dirty River Runs Beneath It
Chris Floyd
Strange Attractors: White House Bawds Breed New Terror
Bridget Gibson
A Helping of Crow with Those Fries?
Robert Fisk
Thugs
in Business Suit: Meet the New Iraqi Strongman
Website of the Day
Pot TV International
September 8, 2003
David Lindorff
The
Bush Speech: Spinning a Fiasco
Robert Jensen
Through the Eyes of Foreigners: the US Political Crisis
Gila Svirsky
Of
Dialogue and Assassination: Off Their Heads
Bob Fitrakis
Demonstration Democracy
Kurt Nimmo
Bush and the Echo Chamber: Globalizing the Whirlwind
Sean Carter
Thou Shalt Not Campaign from the Bench
Uri Avnery
Betrayal
at Camp David
Website of the Day
Rabbis v. the Patriot Act
September 6 / 7, 2003
Neve Gordon
Strategic
Abuse: Outsourcing Human Rights Violations
Gary Leupp
Shiites
Humiliate Bush
Saul Landau
Fidel
and The Prince
Denis Halliday
Of Sanctions and Bombings: the UN Failed the People of Iraq
John Feffer
Hexangonal Headache: N. Korea Talks Were a Disaster
Ron Jacobs
The Stage of History
M. Shahid Alam
Pakistan "Recognizes" Israel
Laura Carlson
The Militarization of the Americas
Elaine Cassel
The Forgotten Prisoners of Guantanamo
James T. Phillips
The Mumbo-Jumbo War
Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Slumlords of the Internet
Walter A. Davis
Living in Death's Dream Kingdom
Adam Engel
Midnight's Inner Children
Poets' Basement
Stein, Guthrie and Albert
Book of the Weekend
It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It
by Khalil Bendib
September 5, 2003
Brian Cloughley
Bush's
Stacked Deck: Why Doesn't the Commander-in-Chief Visit the Wounded?
Col. Dan Smith
Iraq
as Black Hole
Phyllis Bennis
A Return
to the UN?
Dr. Susan Block
Exxxtreme Ashcroft
Dave Lindorff
Courage and the Democrats
Abe Bonowitz
Reflections on the "Matyrdom" of Paul Hill
Robert Fisk
We Were
Warned About This Chaos
Website of the Day
New York Comic Book Museum
September 4, 2003
Stan Goff
The Bush
Folly: Between Iraq and a Hard Place
John Ross
Mexico's
Hopes for Democracy Hit Dead-End
Harvey Wasserman
Bush to New Yorkers: Drop Dead
Adam Federman
McCain's
Grim Vision: Waging a War That's Already Been Lost
Aluf Benn
Sharon Saved from Threat of Peace
W. John Green
Colombia's Dirty War
Joanne Mariner
Truth,
Justice and Reconciliation in Latin America
Website of the Day
Califoracle
September 3, 2003
Virginia Tilley
Hyperpower
in a Sinkhole
Davey D
A Hip
Hop Perspective on the Cali Recall
Emrah Göker
Conscripting Turkey: Imperial Mercenaries Wanted
John Stanton
The US is a Power, But Not Super
Brian Cloughley
The
Pentagon's Bungled PsyOps Plan
Dan Bacher
Another Big Salmon Kill
Elaine Cassel
Prosecutors Weep' Ninth Circuit Overturns 127 Death Sentences
Uri Avnery
First
of All This Wall Must Fall
Website of the Day
Art Attack!
September 2, 2003
Robert Fisk
Bush's
Occupational Fantasies Lead Iraq Toward Civil War
Kurt Nimmo
Rouind Up the Usual Suspects: the Iman Ali Mosque Bombing
Robert Jensen / Rahul Mahajan
Iraqi Liberation, Bush Style
Elaine Cassel
Innocent But Guilty: When Prosecutors are Dead Wrong
Jason Leopold
Ghosts
in the Machines: the Business of Counting Votes
Dave Lindorff
Dems in 2004: Perfect Storm or Same Old Doldrums?
Paul de Rooij
Predictable
Propaganda: Four Monts of US Occupation
Website of the Day
Laughing Squid
August 30 / Sept. 1,
2003
Alexander Cockburn
Handmaiden
in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall
of the UN
Saul Landau
Schwarzenegger
and Cuban Migration
Standard Schaefer
Who
Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Gary Leupp
Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial
William S. Lind
Send the Neocons to Baghdad
Augustin Velloso
Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey
Jorge Mariscal
The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante
John Ross
A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power
Mickey Z.
War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler
Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts
Stan Cox
Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun
Tom and Judy Turnipseed
Take Back Your Time Day
Adam Engel
The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY
Adam Engel
An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
Susan Davis
Northfork,
an Accidental Review
Nicholas Rowe
Dance
and the Occupation
Mark Zepezauer
Operation
Candor
Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie and Hamod
Website of the Weekend
Downhill
Battle
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 29, 2003
Lenni Brenner
God
and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
Brian Cloughley
When in Doubt, Lie Your Head Off
Alice Slater
Bush Nuclear Policy is a Recipe for National Insecurity
David Krieger
What Victory?
Marjorie Cohn
The Thin Blue Line: How the US Occupation of Iraq Imperils International
Law
Richard Glen Boire
Saying Yes to Drugs!
Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters
Give Their Views
Website of the Day
DirtyBush
Hot Stories
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
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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September
17, 2003
An Open Letter to
Michael Moore
High
Tech Heroin
By RICHARD FORNO
Dostoevsky once wrote that "in the end they
will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your
slaves, but feed us.'" His prophecy is relevant when examining
the modern Information Age -- a dark, corporate-controlled society
predicted by such artistic legends as Bruce Sterling, George
Lucas, Ridley Scott, and William Gibson--and is the focus of
this article.
We want to be part of this information
environment and feel more empowered with each new gadget, service,
or digital connection in our lives. The concept of "information
everywhere" provides instant gratification to satisfy our
needs for books, music, porn, and digital interaction with others
through web searches, e-commerce, wireless, instant messaging,
e-mail, and streaming content over broadband. High-speed links
enable organizations to operate around the world at light speed
and conduct business on a twenty-four hour clock. The sun never
sets in the Information Age; we are always plugged into the global
matrix of the information domain. We're addicted to it and constantly
awash in a sea of electronic stimuli.
Yet as we rush to embrace the latest
and greatest gadgetry or high-tech service and satisfy our techno-craving,
we become further dependent on these products and their manufacturers--so
dependent that when something breaks, crashes, or is attacked,
our ability to function is reduced or eliminated. Given the frequent
problems associated with the Information Age--loosing internet
connections, breaking  personal digital assistants, malicious
software incidents, or suffering any number of recurring problems
with software or hardware products, we should take a minute to
consider whether we're really more or less independent--or empowered--today
than we think, knowing that how we act during such stressful
periods is similar to a heroin junkie's actions during withdrawal.
Technology, like gambling and heroin,
is addictive. We're driven or forced into buying new gadgets
and constantly upgrading our technology for any number of reasons,
both real and perceived, and feel uncomfortable without our latest
"fix." Corporations love this because once we accept
and begin using their products or services, the dependency is
formed and they essentially own our information--and subsequently,
society and us. Their proprietary lock on our collective information
means they can force us to spend money and upgrade on their schedule
and not when we truly need--or can afford--to do so, regardless
of whether or not we need the latest features, and regardless
of the consequences that may haunt us down the road.
But unlike many other industries from
the Industrial Age and the heroin dealers, high-tech corporations
are in a unique position to determine--and force--us addicts
to spend money while relinquishing our rights to seek recourse
for damages arising from their faulty products no matter what
pain we must endure during our period of indentured servitude
and addiction to their problematic technologies. In some cases,
particularly in mainstream operating systems, software, and internet-based
services, it's one step short of blackmail. We all certainly
can't go cold turkey very easily, although some may try and succeed.
To make things worse, government practically
has outsourced the oversight and definition of technology-based
expression and community interaction to for-profit corporations
and secretive industry-specific cartels (e.g., the MPAA, RIAA,
SIA, BSA, ICANN) who have wasted no time in rewriting the rules
for how they want our information-based society to operate according
to their interests, not ours. At times, you might even say we've
voluntarily imprisoned ourselves under the control of profit-seeking
wardens who have little if any real oversight or accountability
for their actions. Our high-tech heroin dealers are not only
promoting and profiting from their product but developing the
laws and methods to govern and regulate its use while protecting
themselves from any negative side-effects and ensuring their
revenue stream.
Whether it is our ability to share available
creative products according to existing laws, bring to market
new creative works, establish an identity in cyberspace, or otherwise
exchange digital information, these groups--with well-funded
(read: purchased) government approval--have declared themselves
the overlords of their industry-specific fiefdoms that comprise
the Information Age. Each industry and vendor wants to assert
their proprietary technical and legal authority over who does
what, when, how, and under what conditions with their products
and services, even if their profiteering desires are incompatible
with our law-abiding ones. And if their efforts to maintain law
and order according to their proprietary technical standards
or legal trickery fail, they can always turn things over to the
federal government for action as a backup plan.
Combining these perverts of profit with
the fickle, often-ignorant nature of our elected lawmakers has
produced an Information Age where the rights and abilities of
the individual don't matter. Neither does facilitating society's
evolution by allowing it to take maximum advantage of technology's
capabilities for its collective benefit. Or reality. Today, what
matters is only how much money and freedom people are willing
(or forced) to pay (or sacrifice) to their corporate masters
for the privilege of living within the various information-based
fiefdoms provided for them to generate revenue.
The Information Age will not be remembered
by the fun, high-flying and overwhelmingly feel-good Dot Com
days despite the ongoing presence of Dot Com-developed technologies.
Rather, the Information Age will be remembered as a period when
12-year old girls from New York slums, senior citizens, and innovative
college students are harrassed by greedy cartels seeking to scare
their future customers into submission; when the profit goals
of high-tech vendors determine how client businesses and people
are organized and interact; when everyone is presumed a potential
criminal until proven otherwise according to oppressive industry-defined
criteria; when a once-awesome revolution in global communications
became converted into a cesspool of unsolicited and offensive
marketing messages; when knowing how to do something that's illegal
is just as illegal as actually doing something that's illegal;
when the legal protections over freedom of speech are trumped
to preserve corporate secrets or marketshare while hiding vulnerabilities
that endanger the public; when our lives are monitored and dissected
by marketing firms looking for the best way to sell us things
we don't need or want; and when technology's promise and alluring
capabilities are used to surreptitiously entrap and willingly
imprison members of the information-age society instead of truly
empowering them.
Dostoevsky was way ahead of his time.
Richard Forno
is a security technologist and author of "Weapons
of Mass Delusion: America's Real National Emergency."
His home in cyberspace is at http://www.infowarrior.org/.
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 13 / 14, 2003
Michael Neumann
Anti-Americanism:
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Jeffrey St. Clair
Anatomy of a Swindle
Gary Leupp
The Matrix of Ignorance
Ron Jacobs
Reagan's America
Brian Cloughley
Up to a Point, Lord Rumsfeld
William S. Lind
Making Mesopotamia a Terrorist Magnet
Werther
A Modest Proposal for the Pentagon
Dave Lindorff
Friendly Fire Will Doom the Occupation
Toni Solo
Fiction and Reality in Colombia: The Trial of the Bogota Three
Elaine Cassel
Juries and the Death Penalty
Mickey Z.
A Parable for Cancun
Jeffrey Sommers
Issam Nashashibi: a Life Dedicated to the Palestinian Cause
David Vest
Driving in No Direction (with a Glimpse of Johnny Cash)
Michael Yates
The Minstrel Show
Jesse Walker
Adios, Johnny Cash
Adam Engel
Something Killer
Poets' Basement
Cash, Albert, Curtis, Linhart
Website of the Weekend
Local Harvest
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