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Coming in September From AK Press Featuring Essays by: Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More Today's Stories August 12, 2003 Ray McGovern Relax, It Was All a Pack of Lies   Recent Stories August 11, 2003 Douglas Valentine Homeland Security for Whom? Mickey Z. Bush's Progress Bill Glahn RIAA Watch: Meet the New Bitch, Same as the Old Elaine Cassel Indicting DNA Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq Civil Liberties and Uncivil Super-Patriotism Uri Avnery Who Will Save Abu Mazen? Website of the Day RIAA Subpoena Clearinghouse August 9 / 10, 2003 Alexander Cockburn California's Glorious Recall! Saul Landau Bush and King Henry Gary Leupp On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism" and the Censored 9/11 Report Paul de Rooij The Parade of the Body Bags Michael Egan History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy Rob Eshelman A Home of Our Own Daoud Kuttab Life as an ID Card Philip Agee Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba Jeffrey St. Clair Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man Walt Brasch Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird" and the Rigtheous Right Christopher Brauchli Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi Josh Frank Mean, Mean Howard Dean Elaine Cassel Will the Death Penalty Ever Die? Sean Carter Total Recall Poets' Basement Hamod, Engel, Albert August 8, 2003 John Chuckman What the US Says Goes Roberto Barreto Defend the Vieques 12! Bruce Gagnon Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans Elaine Cassel The Reign of John Ashcroft Dave Lindorff Snoops Night Out Website of the Day Zero Boy     August 7, 2003 M. Shahid Alam It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?" Toni Solo Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana Republic Adam Lebowitz Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan Hanan Ashrawi When the Bully Whines Niranjan Ramakrishnan Conscience Takes a Holiday Jason Leopold Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda Mike Kimaid What's the Score? Elaine Cassel The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians   August 6, 2003 Steve Higgs Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not Easy Confronting King Coal David Krieger Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki Robert Fisk The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay Christopher Brauchli Bush's War on the National Forests Elaine Cassel No Fly Lists Stan Goff Military Equipment and Pneumonia Hugh Sansom An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan   August 5, 2003 Uri Avnery The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at 74 Forrest Hylton Terrorism and Political Trials: the View from Bolivia Ray McGovern "We Cook Estimates to Go" David Morse Poindexter's Gambit Edward Said Orientallism: 25 Years Later George W. Bush My Darn Good Resumé Hammond Guthrie It's Incremental, Watson! Website of the Day National Prayer Day August 4, 2003 Bruce K. Gagnon Another Peace Activist Detained by Airport Cops: My Story David Lindorff Fear-Mongering About Social Security Mark Zepezauer George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody James Plummer Tracking You Through the Mail Mickey Z. Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush Bruce Jackson News that Isn't News: How the NYT's Pimps for the White House August 2 / 3, 2003 Tamara R. Piety Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down Francis Boyle My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool David Vest Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side Neve Gordon Nightlife in Jerusalem Uri Avnery Their Master's Voice: Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus Robert Fisk Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq Jerry Kroth Israel, Yellowcake and the Media Noah Leavitt What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to Intervene? Saul Landau The Film Industry: Business and Ideology Ron Jacobs One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson Thomas Croft In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta Amadi Ajamu Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader? Poets' Basement Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming   August 1, 2003 Joanne Mariner Stopping Prison Rape Alex Coolman Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing Prison Rape Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Stan Goff Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq Wayne Madsen Europe Unplugs from the Matrix Robert Fisk Wolfowitz the Censor Elaine Cassel Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico Website of the Day Stop Prisoner Rape   July 31, 2003 Ray McGovern The Prostitution of Intelligence Brian Cloughley Wolfowitz's Operative Statement Sheldon Hull The RIAA's Jihad: The Devil's Music (Industry) Elaine Cassel The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's Wars Hammond Guthrie Speculation Blues Website of the Day Army of One? Congratulations to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD   July 30, 2003 David Lindorff Poindexter the Terror Bookie Marjorie Cohn Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About the Oil Elaine Cassel How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas in Terror Cases Zvi Bar'el The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War Lisa Walsh Thomas Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend? Sean Carter Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes ND Jayaprakash India and Ariel Sharon Steve Perry Bush's Top 40 Lies Standard Schaefer Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing Website of the Day Bring Them Home Now!   Hot Stories 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 Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" 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.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

August 12, 2003 Howard Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up Dean Would Rather Execute an Innocent Man, Than Let a Guilty One Walk Free By JOSH FRANK As Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean openly claimed that the legal system unfairly benefited criminal defendants over prosecutors. He even took measures to cut federal grant money aimed at helping mentally disabled defendants--as well as appointing state judges who were willing to undermine the Bill of Rights. In a 1997 interview with the Vermont News Bureau, Howard Dean admitted his desire to expedite the judicial process by using such justices to "quickly convict guilty criminals." He wanted individuals that would deem "common sense more important than legal technicalities." Constitutional protections (legal technicalities) apparently undermine Dean's yearning for speedy trials. Perhaps he was looking to make Vermont more like George Bush's Texas, where defense lawyers are renowned for lacking the resources necessary to provide their clients a fair representation. Several of Dean's judicial appointments are now awaiting hearings before the United States Second Circuit Court in New York City. The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Freedom of Expression (www.tjcenter.org) and two other law firms have filed briefs against these justices. They are being accused of violating a number of federal rights including; the First Amendment, Right to Counsel, Double Jeopardy, and Due Process. Regarding one case where citizen reporter Scott Huminski was barred from Vermont courts, a DC lawyer stated in an interview with Eugenia Harris from the First Amendment Center that, "the real heart of the issue is whether local government officials can unilaterally silence speech and exert arbitrary power over their citizens." Seems Howard Dean stuck by his word and appointed judges that care little about real "justice." And he thinks he's qualified to appoint justices at the federal level? These are not the only examples of Howard Dean's intentions to subdue the Bill of Rights. Shortly after the September 11th attacks Dean was quoted in the Rutland Herald claiming that the United States needs a "re-evaluation of the importance of some of our specific civil liberties." Later when asked if he thought the Bill of Rights needed to be altered he said, "I think it is unlikely, but I frankly haven't gotten that far I think our freedom is what they find so threatening, our freedom and the power that I think results from that freedom." So according to Dean since terrorists are after our sought after freedoms, we might consider scathing back certain liberties in order to decrease the threat of future strikes. John Ashcroft must be pleased. There is more. On Meet the Press last June, when asked about his support for the death penalty by Tim Russert, Dean replied, "So I just-life without parole, which we have which I actually got passed when I was lieutenant governor- the problem with life without parole is that people get out for reasons that have nothing to do with justice. We had a case where a guy who was a rapist, a serial sex offender, was convicted, then was let out on what I would think and believe was a technicality, a new trial was ordered and the victim wouldn't come back and go through the second trial." A "technicality" to Dean must be synonymous with "Constitutional hang-up." In the case Dean presented to Russert, a man walked free, but should have been put to death instead of challenging his unconstitutional conviction. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen commented on Dean's statement saying that, "I have never heard a politician admit that he would countenance the death of an innocent person in order to ensure that the guilty die." Dean's attempts to weaken the Bill of Rights began in the 1990s with his appointments of justices now awaiting hearings in New York for egregious infringements on civil liberties. He then took it a step further after September 11th and indicated the "re-evaluation" of constitutional rights was in order. And now, as Dean steams ahead in his bid for the White House, he's claiming on national television that he would rather have an innocent convict die than have them released on a "technicality." If elected will Dean attempt to make the United State's a country in which citizens have access to neither a fair trial, nor adequate counsel? A country where constitutional rights are viewed as "technicalities," worthy of death? Time to start asking some serious questions. -thanks to Scott Huminski for research support Josh Frank can be reached at: frank@counterpunch.org. Weekend Edition Features for August 9 / 10, 2003 Alexander Cockburn California's Glorious Recall! Saul Landau Bush and King Henry Gary Leupp On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism" and the Censored 9/11 Report Paul de Rooij The Parade of the Body Bags Michael Egan History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy Rob Eshelman A Home of Our Own Daoud Kuttab Life as an ID Card Philip Agee Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba Jeffrey St. Clair Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man Walt Brasch Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird" and the Rigtheous Right Christopher Brauchli Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi Josh Frank Mean, Mean Howard Dean Elaine Cassel Will the Death Penalty Ever Die? Sean Carter Total Recall Poets' Basement Hamod, Engel, Albert   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /