Coming
in October
From AK Press
Today's
Stories
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
Recent Stories
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
Demostration 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
13, 2003
Berkeley
and Reagan
Remembering
Ronnie Rayguns' Morning in America
By RON JACOBS
In 1981, a crazed rich kid shot Ronald Reagan.
For many folks in Berkeley it was a dream of revenge come true.
After all, it was Reagan who called for a bloodbath in the town
after he ordered the National Guard into Berkeley in response
to the 1969 Third World Strike at the university and the People's
Park insurrection the same year. It was Reagan and his henchmen
who had helped imprison, murder and isolate the Black Panthers
and the radical left in the Bay Area. It was Reagan who was partially
responsible for the rightwing resurgence in Americaa resurgence
that has yet to ease it deadly grasp. As the television screen
showed the assassination attempt over and over again, we wondered
if the old fascist would make it through. Like our buddy Loren
said as we watched, it's not that he would wish anyone dead;
it's just that he wouldn't shed any tears if Reagan ended up
that way--sooner rather than later.
Berkeley was one place in the country
that did not rejoice when Reagan won the presidency. In fact,
a spontaneous protest of several thousand people erupted. The
protest ended with the man being burned in effigy and an occupation
of the administration building at the university. My friend R
and I were among forty-five people who refused to leave at closing
time and were dragged out by the police. The District Attorney
did not prosecute any of us. Instead, he brought us each in for
a meeting where he tried to convince us that we should work through
the system. After all, he told us, he never really effected change
until he quit demonstrating in the streets and went back to school
to get his law degree. Then he got to tell us hardcore dropouts
and radicals to register to vote.
After watching the reruns of the shooting
a couple dozen more times, R, Loren and I headed over to Telegraph
Avenue to see what was happening. The word of Reagan's bout with
death had reached the street rather quickly and people were beginning
to party. The scene was (in a muted way) slightly reminiscent
of those pictures you may have seen of the liberation of Paris
in World War II or the streets of Teheran after the Shah was
unseated from power. People were openly sharing their beers and
other drinks while the police stood around somewhat nervously,
wondering how to react. Some punkers in a hearse drove up the
street several times honking their horns and shouting, The King
is Deadout the windows of their vehicle. Street veterans of the
battles of Berkeley in the Sixties and Seventies drank deeply
and smiled. Shop owners who shared our opinions beamed. The party
went on until dark. Reagan survived, probably because he would
have needed a stake driven through his heart to die.
I had become aware over time of how different
our lives and ideas were from mainstream America. After Reagans
election this distance became even greater. Every time I left
the Bay Area the Reagan effect was omnipresent. People actually
liked the man despite his complete lack of depth or character.
Perhaps, now that I think of it, that is why they liked himbecause
he had none of either. The rebirth of anti-Left and ultimately
anti-democratic impulses under Reagan were not only tolerated
by most US citizens, they were celebrated. Greed and material
ownership were heralded as the ultimate realization of the American
dream. Freedom was defined solely in terms related to the freedom
to manipulate others in the pursuit of profit. If I were more
of a religious person, I wouldn't hesitate to say that it was
mammon, not God, who ruled America. This, in spite of the commonly
held belief that America's wealth was somehow related to Gods
beneficence--a belief perpetrated by the moralistic hypocrites
who had helped finance Mr. Reagan's election (and who peopled
his administration).
Another development that was part and
parcel of Ronnie Reagan's "morning in America" was
the increasingly desperate scene on the streets. A life that
seemed to be a matter of choice for a good number of my fellows
when I first hit the street had become a struggle for those of
us who remained and those who arrived daily, thanks to the growing
unemployment. We were living an American hallucination, although
how much of it was someone else's hallucination and how much
of it the result of our own psychedelic-fueled vision will never
be determined. Nonetheless, our dream was looking more and more
like a nightmare. Somewhere in the country there was an abundance
of wealth, but it surely wasn't on Telegraph Avenue, the transient
communities of the nation, its inner city ghettoes, prisons,
or the road and train yards. In these places where the very poor
gathered, people fought each other over six packs of beer and
packages of cigarettes while in the opposite economic sphere,
the battles were (like always) over money and politics.
That hallucination has become the everyday
reality some twenty years later. Unemployment continues to rise
and most of those folks who were on the outside then do not even
register in the statistics anymore. The powers of the police,
who had too much power, then, are greater than even the most
paranoid of us could have envisioned. The Islamic fundamentalist
guerrillas that he funded to fight the Soviets have come back
to pay their respects. Ronald Reagan's heir apparent--George
Bush--has not only done the old guy one better by stealing the
White House, he has much of Reagan's court in the palace with
him. It is a court that believes it has no obligation to the
rest of the world, much less this nation. Morning in America?
Those guys must have stolen some of those night-vision goggles
that the military uses, because it's been dark around these parts
for a while.
Ron Jacobs
is author of The
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground.
He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 1 / 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
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