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
Recent
Stories
August
8, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
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?
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!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
29, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
"Journalist Spotted! Journalist
Dead!" Guatemala Bleeds; US Press Yawns
Thomas
J. Nagy
The Belligerent Dr. Pipes
Kurt Nimmo
Tom Delay Goes to Jerusalem
Chris
Floyd
Dead Reckoning: Bush Warriors Sign Off on War Crimes
Robert
Fisk
Another Botched Raid; Another Massacre
Jason Leopold
Did Chalabi Help Write Bush's State of the Union Address?
Conn Hallinan
Food Bully: Bush's Biotech Shock and Awe Campaign
Dan
Bacher
Sacramento's War on Free Speech
Ray
McGovern
Cheney Chicanery
Website
of the Day
Julie Hilden Caught on Tape
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.
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August
9, 2003
Schwarzenegger
and the Righteous Right
Mega-Mouths, Squawkers
and the "Hollyweird"
By WALTER BRASCH
The talk show squawkers call them the "Hollyweirds."
Makes no difference if they're writers, actors, directors, producers,
or grips and gaffers. Makes no difference if they're poets, artists,
sculptors, dancers, cartoonists, musicians, or singers. And,
it makes absolutely no difference if they live in Southern California
or Iowa. As long as they're in the creative arts, they're "Hollyweird."
No one knows when the term was first
used, but it first became popular on radio talk shows during
the Clinton campaign. The Righteous Ranters increased their screeching
in 1999 when numerous celebrities--among them Ed Asner, Paul
Newman, Barbara Streisand, Martin Sheen, Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin,
Mike Farrell, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, and
Rob Reiner--spoke out against the presidential candidacy of Texas
Two-Step Darlin' George W. Bush. And, then, having seen Al Gore
lose the election by a 5-4 vote, the creative community not only
had the audacity to oppose President Bush's let-the-oil flow
domestic policies, but they, like millions of others, spoke out
against the President's one-note chorus to go to war in Iraq
on claims we now know (and many of us knew then) were built upon
a cauldron of lies.
Nevertheless, the conservatives say that
although Americans have the right of free speech, celebrities
should "keep their pie-holes shut," since they not
only aren't knowledgeable enough to be in politics, but that
they unabashedly use their fame to lure the naive media into
reporting their views. The celebrities "are abusing their
stature [and] need to be put  back
in their place [and] need to understand where they are in the
great food chain of life," said John Kobylt, talk-show host
at radio powerhouse KFI-AM in Los Angeles.
Of course, none of the hosts seem to
understand that they are celebrities who use the media to pound
their views into the public. Rather than challenge their ideas,
the talk show hosts and many of their audience often resort to
name-calling, spitting out venom that classifies celebrities
as whackos and looney-tunes. During the BushII/GulfII War, the
talk-show addicts falsely and maliciously claimed that anyone--celebrity
or laborer--who disagreed with the President's call for war not
only supported world-wide terrorism, but didn't support the troops;
they were branded unpatriotic traitors. So powerful is the backlash
against celebrities that Lori Bardsley, a housewife in North
Carolina, collected more than 100,000 on-line signatures in a
little more than one month on her petition that claimed celebrities
(translation: anyone who disagreed with President Bush and his
war machine) were "using their celebrity to interfere with
the defense of our country." Of course, no one objects to
throwing millions of dollars in fees to celebrities to speak
out on everything from shampoo to Shinola. Advertising pitches
are acceptable; social and political opinions by celebrities
aren't. "The media created us, puts us on the air, and then
says 'how dare you use your rights as a celebrity?" TV producer
Robert Greenwald told a major Australian newspaper
A few celebrities have spoken out against
their fellow celebrities. Charlie Daniels called anti-war celebrities
"the most disgusting examples of a waste of protoplasm I've
ever had the displeasure to hear about," and said he wouldn't
go to any of their movies. "Barbara Streisand has opened
her alligator-sized mouth wide before her humming-bird brain
has had a chance to catch up," ranted R. Lee Ermey, whose
best-known role was as a drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket.
His argument, reported in London's Sunday Telegraph, was that
Streisand used the "bully pulpit, helped by her fame, and
people think she's talking for Hollywood."
The misinformed Right conveniently overlook
the 'bully pulpit' of 24/7 news coverage of anything the President
and his senior advisors utter. And, they made exceptions for
conservative actor-politicians Ronald Reagan, Sen. George Murphy,
Sen.  Fred Thompson, Reps. Fred
Grandy and Sonny Bono, Mayor Clint Eastwood, and even the ceaseless
fiery polemics of 2nd Amendment fury Charlton Heston.
And now comes body builder/actor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, the best-known of a gaggle of more than 200 legally-certified
candidates (including dozens of businessmen, the current lieutenant
governor, a sumo wrestler, and a porn star) who are hoping to
recall and terminate 1-1/2-term California Gov. Gray Davis, then
be elected to fill the vacancy.
Schwarzenegger--why don't we just call
him "Arnold" and give headline writers a break?--says
he has the business and political skills to lead the state that
has more problems than Halliburton and the energy cartel have
ties to the Bush White House. Unlike other candidates who gather
their photogenic families before a courthouse, Arnold used his
celebrity status to announce his candidacy to more than seven
million viewers on the "Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno."
The announcement was so important that it blew stories about
Marines landing in Liberia and soldiers being killed in Iraq
off the front pages, was featured on the morning news/entertainment
shows, and led evening network news reports. The next day, Arnold
appeared on almost all major TV entertainment programs. Look
for dozens of satellite trucks to leave the Kobe Bryant circus
they created in Colorado and carry the Arnold Juggernaut to millions
of Californians and hundreds of million Americans.
Arnold's campaign will cause talk-show
addicts to twist into knots--they don't like celebrities spouting
their opinions, but the Austrian-born Terminator is--well--a
genuine, 100 percent all-American! The Right kind. Actually,
Arnold is a moderate Republican, who is liberal on numerous social
issues. He's pro-choice, believes in limited gun control, and
is strong in both civil rights and educational reform. It's possible
that this multi-millionaire Republican actor who had the audacity
to marry into the Kennedy clan is too liberal for the squawkers
and squeakers. We'll know when celebrity mega-mouth Rush Limbaugh
from his newly-erected perch as an ESPN "commentator"
chirps out who should be the "Right" governor for California.
Assisting on this column was Rosemary
Brasch.
Walt Brasch
is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, a former
newspaper reporter and editor, and author of 12 books. His latest
book is Sex
and the Single Beer Can; Probing the Media and American Culture.
Weekend
Edition Features for 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
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