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Today's
Stories
December 6 / 7, 2003
Saul Landau
"Reality
Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq
December 5, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
A
Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston
Jeremy Scahill
Bremer
of the Tigris
Jeremy Brecher
Amistad
Revisited at Guantanamo?
Norman Solomon
Dean
and the Corp Media Machine
Norman Madarasz
France
Starts Facing Up to Anti-Muslim Discrimination
Pablo Mukherjee
Afghanistan:
the Road Back
December 4, 2003
M. Junaid Alam
Image
and Reality: an Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Adam Engel
Republican
Chris Floyd
Naked Gun: Sex, Blood and the FBI
Adam Federman
The US Footprint in Central Asia
Gary Leupp
The
Fall of Shevardnadze
Guthrie / Albert
RIP Clark Kerr
December 3, 2003
Stan Goff
Feeling
More Secure Yet?: Bush, Security, Energy & Money
Joanne Mariner
Profit Margins and Mortality Rates
George Bisharat
Who Caused the Palestinian Diaspora?
Mickey Z.
Tear Down That Wal-Mart
John Stanton
Bush Post-2004: a Nightmare Scenario
Harry Browne
Shannon
Warport: "No More Business as Usual"
December 2, 2003
Matt Vidal
Denial
and Deception: Before and Beyond Iraqi Freedom
Benjamin Dangl
An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas
Sam Bahour
Can It Ever Really End?
Norman Solomon
That
Pew Poll on "Trade" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test
Josh Frank
Trade
War Fears
Andrew Cockburn
Tired,
Terrified, Trigger-Happy
December 1, 2003
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Unholy
Alliances: Zionism, US Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism
Dave Lindorff
Bush's
Baghdad Pitstop: Memories of LBJ in Vietnam
Harry Browne
Democracy Delayed in Northern Ireland
Wayne Madsen
Wagging the Media
Herman Benson
The New Unity Partnership for Labor: Bureaucratizing to Organize?
Gilad Atzmon
About
"World Peace"
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Intelligence: Monstrous Messes
November 29 / 30, 2003
Peter Linebaugh
On
the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone
Gary Leupp
Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos
Saul Landau
Lying and Cheating:
Bush's New Political Math
Michael Adler
Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative
Anthony Arnove
"They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview
with John Pilger
Greg Weiher
Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam
Stephen Banko, III
A Soldier's Dream
Forrest Hylton
Empire and Revolution in Bolivia
Toni Solo
The "Free Trade" History Eraser
Ben Terrall
Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali
Standard Schaefer
Unions
are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes
Richard Trainor
The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay
Bridge
Mark Gaffney
US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again
Adam Engel
The System Really Works
Dave Lindorff
They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool
Susan Davis
Framing the Friedmans
Neve Gordon
Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace
Mitchel Cohen
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Ben Tripp
Capture Me, Daddy
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith
November 28, 2003
William S. Lind
Worse Than Crimes
David Vest
Turkey
Potemkin
Robert Jensen / Sam Husseini
New Bush Tape Raises Fears of Attacks
Wayne Madsen
Wag
the Turkey
Harold Gould
Suicide as WMD? Emile Durkheim Revisited
Gabriel Kolko
Vietnam
and Iraq: Has the US Learned Anything?
South Asia Tribune
The Story
of the Most Important Pakistan Army General in His Own Words
Website of the Day
Bush Draft
November 27, 2003
Mitchel Cohen
Why
I Hate Thanksgiving
Jack Wilson
An
Account of One Soldier's War
Stefan Wray
In the Shadows of the School of the Americas
Al Krebs
Food as Corporate WMD
Jim Scharplaz
Going Up Against Big Food: Weeding Out the Small Farmer
Neve Gordon
Gays
Under Occupation: Help Save the Life of Fuad Moussa
November 26, 2003
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: the Case of a Rape Foretold
Bruce Jackson
Media
and War: Bringing It All Back Home
Stew Albert
Perle's
Confession: That's Entertainment
Alexander Cockburn
Miami and London: Cops in Two Cities
David Orr
Miami Heat
Tom Crumpacker
Anarchists
on the Beach
Mokhiber / Weissman
Militarization in Miami
Derek Seidman
Naming the System: an Interview with Michael Yates
Kathy Kelly
Hogtied
and Abused at Ft. Benning
Website of the Day
Iraq Procurement
November 25, 2003
Linda S. Heard
We,
the Besieged: Western Powers Redefine Democracy
Diane Christian
Hocus
Pocus in the White House: Of Warriors and Liberators
Mark Engler
Miami's
Trade Troubles
David Lindorff
Ashcroft's
Cointelpro
Website of the Day
Young McCarthyites of Texas
November 24, 2003
Jeremy Scahill
The
Miami Model
Elaine Cassel
Gulag
Americana: You Can't Come Home Again
Ron Jacobs
Iraq
Now: Oh Good, Then the War's Over?
Alexander Cockburn
Rupert Murdoch: Global Tyrant
November 14 / 23, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
Clintontime:
Was It Really a Golden Age?
Saul Landau
Words
of War
Noam Chomsky
Invasion
as Marketing Problem: Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy
Stan Goff
An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq: Hold on to Your Humanity
Jeffrey St. Clair
Bush Puts Out a Contract on the Spotted Owl
John Holt
Blue Light: Battle for the Sweetgrass Hills
Adam Engel
A DC Lefty in King George's Court: an Interview with Sam Smith
Joanne Mariner
In a Dark Hole: Moussaoui and the Hidden Detainees
Uri Avnery
The General as Pseudo-Dove: Ya'alon's 70 Virgins
M. Shahid Alam
Voiding the Palestinians: an Allegory
Juliana Fredman
Visions of Concrete
Norman Solomon
Media Clash in Brazil
Brian Cloughley
Is Anyone in the Bush Administration Telling the Truth?
William S. Lind
Post-Machine Gun Tactics
Patrick W. Gavin
Imagine
Dave Lindorff
Bush's
Brand of Leadership: Putting Himself First
Tom Crumpacker
Pandering to Anti-Castro Hardliners
Erik Fleming
Howard Dean's Folly
Rick Giombetti
Challenging the Witch Doctors of the New Imperialism: a Review
of Bush in Babylon
Jorge Mariscal
Las Adelitas, 2003: Mexican-American Women in Iraq
Chris Floyd
Logical Conclusions
Mickey Z.
Does William Safire Need Mental Help?
David Vest
Owed to the Confederate Dead
Ron Jacobs
Joe: the Sixties Most Unforgiving Film
Dave Zirin
Foreman and Carlos: a Tale of Two Survivors
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Albert, Greeder, Ghalib and Alam
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher David Vest: Winner of 2 Muddy Awards for Best
Blues Pianist in the Pacific Northwest!
November 13, 2003
Jack McCarthy
Veterans
for Peace Booted from Vet Day Parade
Adam Keller
Report
on the Ben Artzi Verdict
Richard Forno
"Threat Matrix:" Homeland Security Goes Prime-Time
Vijay Prashad
Confronting
the Evangelical Imperialists
November 12, 2003
Elaine Cassel
The
Supremes and Guantanamo: a Glimmer of Hope?
Col. Dan Smith
Unsolicited
Advice: a Reply to Rumsfeld's Memo
Jonathan Cook
Facility
1391: Israel's Guantanamo
Robert Fisk
Osama Phones Home
Michael Schwartz
The Wal-Mart Distraction and the California Grocery Workers Strike
John Chuckman
Forty
Years of Lies
Doug Giebel
Jessica Lynch and Saving American Decency
Uri Avnery
Wanted: a Sharon of the Left
Website of the Day
Musicians Against Sweatshops
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
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
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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December
6 / 7, 2003
"Reality Media"
Michael
Jackson, Bush and Iraq
By SAUL LANDAU
He said "getting the job done," my friend
complained, referring to George W. Bush's "determination"
to keep a US presence in Iraq. "That pisses me off,"
he said. "He's never had a real job in his life and he hasn't
defined this job. He swore he wouldn't undertake nation building.
If he's combating terrorism, he won't finish that job. Or did
some speech writers figure out that cliches like that set the
stage for this piece of flotsam's re-election bid?"
What do you really think of him, I asked?
"Bush is an insert," he replied,
"a reappearing figure in photo ops. He's standing beside
Queen Elizabeth, playing dress up in a jump suit on the aircraft
carrier Abraham Lincoln and hugging a woman whose home has burned
down in the California fires. His handlers have spun him as the
positive equivalent of Michael Jackson in handcuffs or OJ Simpson
driving his Bronco on the LA freeways. The White House manipulators
have integrated his media persona--does he have a political one?
--into the hideous world of gossip. This has nothing to do with
politics. It's meant to distract people from thinking about the
world and get them focused on who poked who."
As if to illustrate my friend's thesis,
on November 20, ABC Radio News announced it had to interrupt
its programming for an "important breaking story."
The "live on the scene" reporter spoke with urgency
about the intimate details of "Michael  Jackson's Gulf Stream Lear jet"
landing at the Santa Barbara airport. "Excitement fills
the air as the plane taxis toward a hangar where sheriff's department
personnel await the arrival of the famous pop singer. They will
arrest him on charges of child molestation..."
Meanwhile, in London, another media celebrity,
Bush, acknowledged--or dismissed -- the 150,000 plus people who
had gathered to protest against him and his policies. Using his
childish, elf-like expression, he made short shrift of massive
disapproval as he had done previously in February 2003, likening
the worldwide protests of millions against the Iraq war to "a
focus group."
"The tradition of free speech exercised
with enthusiasm is alive and well here in London," he cavalierly
announced. "We have that at home too. They now have that
right in Baghdad as well."
Evidently, he had not read a November
11, 2003, Reuters story from Iraq. "American soldiers handcuffed
and firmly wrapped masking tape around an Iraqi man's mouth after
they arrested him for speaking out against occupation troops."
The story quotes the US commanding officer on Tahrir Square,
the arrest scene that "`this man has been detained for making
anti-coalition statements."
Reporters had more immediate tasks than
to reveal the dramatic contradiction between what Bush said and
the facts. After all, a twelve year old boy had accused Michael
Jackson. The enigmatic African American singer with snow white
skin had no intention of distracting the public from its citizen
duties, or turning upside down reasonable notions of priorities.
"Mind your own business," my
father told me a thousand times, meaning that when people had
intimate relations in the privacy of their bedrooms--or even
the Oval Office--it did not relate to the great decisions of
our time. If Jackson broke the law, let him stand trial, but
the media acts as if compelled to inject the public vicariously
into the sordid sex life of celebrities. By doing so it substitutes
the virtual excitement of a TV news event like Jackson or music
mogul Phil Specter getting handcuffed, for the world of war and
peace where political morons like Bush direct our lives and futures.
Tens of millions of viewers watched and
then "discussed" the Jackson episode, as CNN inter
cut to Bush in London. In his November 19, Whitehall Palace speech
he acknowledged "sixty years of Western nations excusing
and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East,"
and proposed a "forward strategy of freedom."
Before anyone could digest his empty
words and figure out they had not ingested one serious sound
bite to do with real change in the Middle East politics, the
TV image returned to Jackson on his way to custody. Then legal
experts offered meaningless one liners while underneath, in writing,
the CNN screen affirmed that Bush had again made threats against
Syria, Iran, and Arafat. The Rupert Murdoch owned Fox News had
even longer Jackson-scandal sequences. Alexander Cockburn well-characterized
Murdoch as the tycoon who "offers his target governments
a privatized version of a state propaganda service, manipulated
without scruple and with no regard for truth. His price takes
the form of vast government favors such as tax breaks, regulatory
relief, monopoly markets and so forth" (<counterpunch.org>,
November 24, 2003).
Thanks to both Fox and CNN, with the
other networks following, the public has become habituated to
strange juxtapositions, like TV moralists condemning Jackson
for his fetish for kids, while words pop on the screen that say
Bush has praised the Moroccan king and some oil Sheiks for making
minute and mostly superficial steps towards democracy. What relationship
does Jackson's Neverland estate have with Bush extolling the
virtues of US "allies" like Saudi Arabia and Egypt?
What connection does a vindictive Santa Barbara District Attorney's
vow to get Jackson have with Bush's platitudes like "working
democracies always need time to develop?"
If you can find connections in these
discrete morsels of "news," you will have gained eligibility
to join the international Sherlock Holmes club of international
affairs. This elite association of brainy people can explain
linguistic gobbledygook such as: when Bush says has waged a pre-emptive
war on terrorism and that this is also "a war for liberty"
he really means that he had no reason to wage war (like Iraq
possessing weapons of mass destruction which it planned to use
aggressively or links to the terrorist gang that did the dirty
9/11 deeds).
Jackson distracts the public from focusing
on Bush's obvious May 1 gaff when he announced "mission
accomplished" and to the President's current dilemma about
what to do in Iraq as casualties mount.
In mid November, on the bottom of millions
of TV screens on the ever flashing network news shows emerged
words about a Gallup poll that discovered that the majority of
Iraqi resident opposed the US occupation.
Indeed, Gallup reported that only 5%
of Iraqis believe the U.S. invaded their country "to assist
the Iraqi people." 43% opined that the purpose of the US-British
invasion concerned stealing Iraq's oil. A November 10 CIA memo
concluded similar results: most Iraqis see us as occupiers, not
liberators. The vast majority think of the Iraqi Governing Council's
decisions as "mostly determined by the coalition [US-British]."
As we multi task to obtain the TV news,
listening and watching a woman who looks like a movie star but
calls herself an "anchor" offer breathy accounts of
Michael's alleged love life with minors of his own sex, while
speed writing news of the world, we can also sip from our highball,
or, if you're Rush (pre-hab) Limbaugh, pop an Oxycontin--just
to obtain proper perspective on the world TV news presents.
At the lunch room, chatter revolves around
Jackson. Someone relates his case to perhaps actor Robert Blake's
murder charges and new details on the Scott Peterson wife killing.
Two secretaries talk about the love lives of Nicole Kidman, Tom
Cruise, Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin.
I foolishly asked about my colleagues'
reaction to the $400 billion bill to change Medicare and prescription
drugs. I got blank stares. I dared not raise the issue of how
Bush has privatized Iraqi property and allowed US and other companies
from "coalition" states to scoop up Iraqi property.
International law supposedly limits the benefits occupying powers
can suck from occupied territories. We'll see!
Instead, the people in the lunchroom
exchanged intimate details about Jackson's 1993 arrest and subsequent
payoff to a 12 year old. "What kind of parent lets his kid
hang out with Jackson?" asked one woman. Heads shook in
disapproval. "Imagine parents letting their kids do this
to collect big bucks," another said.
I didn't dare ask any of the assembled
if they understood that US Proconsul in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer
III, had encountered problems finding international insurers
to cover the Iraqi properties the United States has decided to
privatize. Indeed, the occupation big shots can't figure out
how to create a government out of the stooges they appointed
to the interim governing counsel, which doesn't govern. Hey,
compare the interest in such an issue with the sex lives--vicarious
of course--of celebs!
Next month guerrilla fighters in Iraq
may vie for headlines with LA Laker guard Kobe Bryant who may
stand trial for rape. The President will attend fundraisers for
his own re-election and avoid funerals of dead US soldiers who
have borne the brunt of Never-Get-Into-A-Fight-Yourself Bush's
"bring `em on" taunt to the Iraqi resistance fighters.
Saul Landau
is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. He teaches at
Cal Poly Pomona University. For Landau's writing in Spanish visit:
www.rprogreso.com.
His new book, PRE-EMPTIVE
EMPIRE: A GUIDE TO BUSH S KINGDOM, has just been published
by Pluto Press. He can be reached at: landau@counterpunch.org
Weekend
Edition Features for Nov. 29 / 30, 2003
Peter Linebaugh
On
the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone
Gary Leupp
Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos
Saul Landau
Lying and Cheating:
Bush's New Political Math
Michael Adler
Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative
Anthony Arnove
"They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview
with John Pilger
Greg Weiher
Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam
Stephen Banko, III
A Soldier's Dream
Forrest Hylton
Empire and Revolution in Bolivia
Toni Solo
The "Free Trade" History Eraser
Ben Terrall
Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali
Standard Schaefer
Unions
are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes
Richard Trainor
The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay
Bridge
Mark Gaffney
US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again
Adam Engel
The System Really Works
Dave Lindorff
They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool
Susan Davis
Framing the Friedmans
Neve Gordon
Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace
Mitchel Cohen
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Ben Tripp
Capture Me, Daddy
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith
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