Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
Recent Stories
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
August 14, 2003
Peter Phillips
Inside
Bohemian Grove: Where US Power Elites Party
Brian Cloughley
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan: the Strange Congressman Behind the
CIA's Most Expensive War
Linville and Ruder
Tyson
Strike Draws the Line
Jim Lobe
Bush Administration Divided Over Iran
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
Tom Turnipseed
Blowback in Iraq
Gary Leupp
Condi's
Speech: From Birgmingham to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Website of the Day
Tony Benn's Greatest Hits
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
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
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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August
25, 2003
The Politics of Focus
Groups
The
SEC and the Friends of Bush
By SALVADOR PERALTA
"First of all, you know, size of
protest, it's like deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy
based upon a focus group. The role of a leader is to decide policy
based upon the security -- in this case, the security of the
people."
With those words George Bush dismissed the largest
single day of anti-war protests in human history.
Let's dispense with the notion that politicians
don't base policy on the opinions of focus groups and protests.
You can bet, for example, that Bush, at some point, will be listening
to some of the attendees at the $2,000 per plate focus group
he met for lunch in Portland last week and at his fundraiser
in Karl Rove's hometown of St. Louis this week.
And while the Bush administration is
currently focussed on peddling, not making policy right now,
policy decisions were being made while protesters were on the
march last February.
On that day, President Bush was swearing
in William H. Donaldson as the new head of the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Donaldson's predecessor at the SEC, Harvey
Pitt, had engaged in a wide-ranging investigation of several
major investment houses, and the administration wanted him out.
Too combative, the Administation said.
Perhaps Pitt was not listening to the
right focus group.
Under Pitt's leadership, the SEC uncovered
several disturbing patterns of behavior that included some firms
accepting millions in fees for their analysts to promote companies
such as Enron and WorldCom, companies whose stocks later tanked
on reports of sleight-of-hand accounting and other chicanery.
The SEC also found that major investment
houses were involved in creating the internet bubble by underwriting
initial public offerings, having their analysts recommend their
own IPO stocks, and then dumping the shares owned by the house
onto unsuspecting investors. Out of 22 Goldman-led IPOs that
were given to executives, eight gained at least 173 per cent
on the first day of trading.
Alternately, they used the IPO cash cow
to generate additional fees for their services. Over a one year
period, Credit Suisse First Boston allocated shares of IPO stock
to more that 100 customers who were willing to funnel between
33 and 65 percent of the profit made on the IPO back to CSFB
in the form of excessive brokerage commissions.
Less than month after Donaldson took
charge of the SEC, he announced a settlement in which 10 of the
nation's largest investment banking firms were fined a total
of $1.43 Billion with fines ranging from $80 million to $400
million per firm. Senator Richard Shelby, the ranking member
of the Senate Banking and Urban Affairs committee praised the
SEC for its handling of the case:
"Securities firms and investors
alike should be aware that the Exchange and the other regulators
will take all necessary measures to ensure the integrity of the
marketplace and to hold responsible any firm or individual who
breaks the rules or violates the law."
On the same day that the SEC fine was
announced, the stock valuation of the four publicly held companies
on the SEC hit list closed at an increase by $1 - $4 per share.
Over the last 3 months, their values have increased by 15 - 23
percent across the board.
Some punishment.
These 10 Wall Street firms had netted
more than $90 billion in profit, and millions in personal investment
for their executives. The big punishment was a fine that totalled
less than 2 percent of their profit.
At what cost were these profits made?
Since 2000, the U.S. economy has lost
3 million jobs, many of them in the high tech sector that was
hardest hit when the internet bubble burst. During that span,
foreign investment in U.S. companies has dropped by $290 billion
while U.S investment in overseas companies has increased by a
similar margin.
All of which begs the question: Why would
the Bush administration replace an SEC chairman responsible for
bringing corporate criminals who had done such damage to the
economy to justice, and replace him with someone who settled,
giving them a slap on the wrist?
In a word: Influence.
Of the ten companies that were fined
by the SEC, five of them are among the President's top 10 soft
money campaign contributors in the upcoming election. Eight of
the ten companies join Enron on Bush's top 20 all-time list of
soft money campaign contributors.
| Fine
(MM) |
Company |
Contribution |
Bush
Rank |
| $400 |
MBNA |
$251,657 |
4 |
| $200 |
Credit
Suisse/First Boston |
$304,700 |
2 |
| $200 |
Merrill
Lynch |
$397,175 |
1 |
| $110 |
Goldman
Sachs |
$232,899 |
6 |
| $80 |
Lehman
Bros. |
$194,650 |
10 |
| $80 |
Morgan
Stanley |
$189,900 |
11 |
| $80 |
Bear |
$165,930 |
12 |
| $80 |
JP
Morgan |
$127,755 |
20 |
Total Fines: $1230 Total Contributions: $1,864,666
Even the aforementioned Senator Shelby
is in on the act. Over the last 3 election cycles, his largest
campaign contributor by a wide margin is MBNA at $153,100.
Like the protesters who marched last
February to oppose the war with Iraq, Americans who have 401k
retirements; those who invested in the internet economy; and
those who have been laid off from technology startup companies
and the businesses that relied on them are unlikely to feel any
more secure today than they were last February. But I can think
of at least one focus group that probably feels better about
the way things have gone lately.
Salvador Peralta
works at the Mark O. Hatfield library at Willamette University.
He can be reached at: speralta@willamette.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for August 23 / 24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
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