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Today's
Stories
December 20 / 21, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
December 19, 2003
Elaine Cassel
Courts
Rebuke Bush for Trampling the Constitution
Robert Fisk
Raid
on Fantasyville: Shooting Samarra's Schoolboys in the Back
Zoltan Grossman
The
Occupation Has Failed to "Capture" the Loyalty of Iraqis
Mike Whitney
Bush's
Afghan Highway to Nowhere
Harold Gould
Has the Radical Arab Strategy Really Worked?
Gary Leupp
The
Neocon's Dream Memo
December 18, 2003
Ann Harrison
A
Landmark Victory for Medical Pot
John L. Hess
Catfish
Blues: The SOB's from Out of Town
Karyn Strickler
Ebola
is Good for You!
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Duryodhana
Dies
Harry Browne
Hail
Jim Hickey, the "Irish Hero" of the Colonial Occupation
of Iraq
Hammond Guthrie
Captured in Abasement
December 17, 2003
Robert Fisk
Saddam's
Cold Comforts
Gideon Levy
"Don't
Even Think About the Children"
Marjorie Cohn
The Fortuitous
Arrest of Saddam: a Pyrrhic Victory?
Andrew Cockburn
Saddam's
Last Act
December 16, 2003
Robert Fisk
Getting
Saddam...15 Years Too Late
Mahajan / Jensen
Saddam
in Irons: The Hard Truths Remain
John Halle
Matt
Gonzalez and Me
Josh Frank
The
Democrats and Saddam
Tariq Ali
Saddam
on Parade: the New Model of Imperialism
December 15, 2003
Robert Fisk
The Capture
of Saddam Won't Stop the Guerrilla War
Dave Lindorff
The
Saddam Dilemma
Abu Spinoza
Blowback on the Stand: The Trial of Saddam Hussein
Norman Solomon
For
Telling the Truth: the Strange Case of Katharine Gun
Patrick Cockburn
The
Capture of Saddam
Stew Albert
Joy to the World
December 13 / 14, 2003
Bill and Kathleen Christison
Chickenhearts
at Notre Dame: the Pervasive Fear of Talking About the Israeli
Connection
Stan Goff
Jessica Lynch, Plural
Tariq Ali
The Same Old Racket in Iraq
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Map is not the Territory
Marty Bender / Stan Cox
Dr. Atkins vs. the Planet
Christopher Brauchli
Mercury Rising: the EPA's Presents to Industry
Gary Leupp
On Marriage in "Recorded History", an Open Letter to
Gov. Mitt Romney
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The Saga of Iran's Alleged WMD
Larry Everest
Saddam, Oil and Empire: Supply v. Demand
William S. Lind
How to Fight a 4th Generation War
Fran Shor
From Vietnam to Iraq: Counterinsurgency and Insurgency
Ron Jacobs
Child Abuse as Public Policy
Omar Barghouti
Relative Humanity and a Just Peace in the Middle East
Adam Engel
Pretty Damn Evil: an Interview with Ed Herman
Kristin Van Tassel
Breastfeeding Compromised
Ben Tripp
On Getting Stabbed
Susan Davis
"The Secret Lives of Dentists", a Review
Dave Zirin
Does Dylan Still Matter? an Interview with Mike Marqusee
Norman Madarasz
Searching for the Barbarians
Poets' Basement
Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Dean on Race
December 12, 2003
Josh Frank
Halliburton,
Timber and Dean
Chris Floyd
The
Inhuman Stain
Dave Lindorff
Infanticide
as Liberation: Hiding the Dead Babies
Benjamin Dangl
Another Two Worlds Are Possible?
Jean-Paul Barrois
Two States or One? an Interview with Sami Al-Deeb on the Geneva
Accords
David Vest
Bush
Drops the Mask: They Died for Halliburton
December 11, 2003
Siegfried Sassoon
A
Soldier's Declaration Against War
Douglas Valentine
Preemptive
Manhunting: the CIA's New Assassination Program
John Chuckman
The Parable of Samarra
Peter Phillips
US Hypocrisy on War Crimes: Corp Media Goes Along for the Ride
James M. Carter
The
Merchants of Blood: War Profiteering from Vietnam to Iraq
December 10, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
The
War According to Newt Gingrich
Pat Youngblood / Robert
Jensen
Workers
Rights are Human Rights
Jeff Guntzel
On Killing Children
CounterPunch Wire
Ashcroft Threatens to Subpoena Journalist's Notes in Stewart
Case
Dave Lindorff
Gore's
Judas Kiss
December 9, 2003
Michael Donnelly
A
Gentle Warrior Passes: Craig Beneville's Quiet Thunder
Chris White
A Glitch
in the Matrix: Where is East Timor Today?
Abu Spinoza
The Occupation Concertina: Pentagon Punishes Iraqis Israeli Style
Laura Carlsen
The FTAA: a Broken Consensus
Richard Trainor
Process and Profits: the California Bullet Train, Then and Now
Josh Frank
Politicians as Usual: Gore Dean and the Greens
Ron Jacobs
Remembering
John Lennon
December 8, 2003
Newton Garver
Bolivia
at a Crossroads
John Borowski
The
Fall of a Forest Defender: the Exemplary Life of Craig Beneville
William Blum
Anti-Empire
Report: Revised Inspirations for War
Tess Harper
When Christians Kill
Thom Rutledge
My Next Step
Carol Wolman, MD
Nuclear
Terror and Psychic Numbing
Michael Neumann
Ignatieff:
Apostle of He-manitariansim
Website of the Day
Bust Bob Novak
December 6 / 7, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
The
UN: Should Be Late; Never Was Great
CounterPunch Special
Toronto Globe and Mail Kills Review of "The Politics of
Anti-Semitism"
Vicente Navarro
Salvador Dali, Fascist
Saul Landau
"Reality
Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq
Ben Tripp
How Bush Can Still Win
Gary Leupp
On Purchasing Syrian Beer
Ron Jacobs
Are We Doing Body Counts, Now?
Larry Everest
Oil, Power and Empire
Lee Sustar
Defying the Police State in Miami
Jacob Levich
When NGOs Attack: Implications for the Coup in Georgia
Toni Solo
Game Playing by Free Trade Rules: the Results from Indonesia
and Dominican Republic
Mark Scaramella
How to Fix the World Bank
Bruce Anderson
The San Francisco Mayor's Race
Brian Cloughley
Shredding the Owner's Manual: the Hollow Charter of the UN
Adam Engel
A Conversation with Tim Wise
Neve Gordon
Fuad and Ezra: an Update on Gays Under the Occupation
Kurt Nimmo
Bush Gives "Freedom" Medal to Robert Bartley
Tom Stephens
Justice Takes a Holiday
Susan Davis
Avast, Me Hearties! a Review of Disney's "Pirates of the
Caribbean"
Jeffrey St. Clair
A
Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston
Mickey Z.
Press Box Red
Poets' Basement
Greeder, Orloski, Albert
T-shirt of the Weekend
Got Santorum?
December 5, 2003
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
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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Weekend
Edition
December 20 / 21, 2003
The Slick Swindler
Senator
Max Baucus, Thanks
By JOSH FRANK
"I'm questioning my own equation
is my own equation relevant somehow?
The flags are waving, the news is breaking
see the man who can't pick out his own tie
If I'd been taught from the beginning
would my fears now be winning?"
"Education," Pearl Jam
At the naïve age of eighteen, while still
in high school, I had the pleasure of flying across the country
to Washington D.C. for a weeklong youth workshop on leadership
and democracy. I remember the teary excitement I had knowing
I was about to meet both of my Montana senators. Back then I
was a proud registered Democrat, having joined the Party only
two months prior-the prospect of rubbing shoulders with a veteran
of my Party was sure to be the highlight of the trip.
The swank décor of the hallways
on the Hill mesmerized me as I winded through the legislative
chambers. The bright carpet and gorgeous young interns meandering
around the foyers made me think that perhaps politics had its
subtle rewards. My intrepid journey from wing to wing led me
to the bustling office of Montana Senator, Max Baucus.
Max wasn't in, so a cheery office assistant
led me to a committee meeting that Baucus was attending. "It
will be just a few minutes," she said as she continued to
chat with me about the beauty of Montana. She had grown up in
Great Falls or somewhere, and missed the quiet open range and
the starry nights. I must have reminded her of what she was like
before she decided to test the dirty waters of Washington politics.
About five minutes later, Max scurried
out and shook my hand as if I were the elected official he had
traveled a thousand miles to meet. "So glad to finally meet
you'" he said. "How in the hell does he know who I
am," I thought. He didn't, he was just politikin.
Max wasn't a good old boy like his rival
Republican from Montana, Conrad Burns, but Max was sleazy in
his own way. His gaudy single knot tie and wing-tip shoes caught
my attention. I remember wondering how long Mr. Baucus had been
away from the Big Sky Country. I didn't really care. He was
the Democrat I had come to see.
I asked him about Washington life, and
we poked fun at Conrad Burns, who I had met earlier in the day.
Conrad's office was filled with wide leather couches and trophy
animals that hung on his plush papered walls. We joked about
Burn's assistants who had never even seen Montana, but were advising
him on how he should vote on specific legislation. I thought
to myself, "Man, Democrats really are a lot cooler than
Republicans." It didn't hurt that Max knew my uncle who
ran a little grocery store in Lockwood, a small town outside
of the city where I grew up. It made me think Max was one of
us, a regular guy who represented regular folks. I let the used
car salesman attire slide, the guy was alright.
My trip ended soon after. I had met some
interesting people, seen a lot of monuments and museums, and
was enthralled with how the system actually worked. Or at least
I thought I knew how it functioned. The runners, the lobbyists,
the rookies, the senior congressman, the reporters, and oh those
interns. I thought I had it down. I couldn't wait to get home
to tell my family what I'd learned, who'd I'd met, and how Sen.
Baucus even knew my Dad's brother. I was even contemplating on
how best to help his upcoming election campaign. A young Democratic
enthusiast, that was me! Probably a lot like the present day
Deaniacs who are daily canvassing my neighborhood with their
cheeky grins and bouncy gaits. Yeah, I was annoying as hell.
It wasn't more than six months after
my trip before the thin earth began to shatter beneath my feet.
I had read in the paper that Max Baucus had supported the North
America Free Trade Agreement a few years prior. By then I was
diving into environmental issues, and came across NAFTA as well
as the senators that supported it. Max Baucus was at the top
of the hit-list. I couldn' t believe it.
I learned that Baucus sat on the influential
committees like Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Environment
and Public Works, as well as Finance and Joint Taxation. I learned
how this man I had come to admire (for no real reason other than
his bashing of a Republican) had rolled over to campaign contributors.
I found out how his seat on the Finance committee scored him
bundles of cash from corporations I had never even heard of like-JP
Morgan, Brown & Foreman, and Citigroup.
I also learned how my hero supported
Welfare Reform, Fast Track, and President Clinton's Salvage Rider
Act, which blatantly raped the Montana forests I loved so dearly.
And a year later in college I read an article by Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair on Baucus and actor Robert Redford's environmental
swindling. I was crushed. "How could he," I pondered,
"if the Democrats aren't saving our natural resources, who
is?" I was irate.
That anger has festered in me to this
day. Max Baucus may still be the most corporate entrenched Democratic
politician in Washington, and Montana has suffered tremendously
because of it. Low employment, a broken public school system,
a degraded natural environmental, and the exponential evaporation
of the once hallowed family farm-Montana's hurting and the Democrats
don't seem to give a damn.
The dangly tassels on Max's fancy wing-tip
shoes will forever annoy me. That and his decorative silk tie
should have signaled to me that this politician didn't represent
Montana -- but rather the interests of out-of-state corporations
that lined his thick campaign coffers.
It is doubtful Max has ever hiked or
driven through Montana's Yaak River basin, where a massive Forest
Service sale has violated critical grizzly bear habitat. I'd
bet he's never seen what the massive clear cuts have done to
the region's ecosystem, or apologized for the legislation he
supported back during the Clinton years that's to blame for it
all. Many groups have challenged the illegalities of the outright
pillage. And all have lost or been dismissed because the Salvage
Rider law has given the Forest Service "discretion to disregard
entirely the effect on the grizzly bear." All this from
the party I once belonged.
I can't fathom that Baucus has sat down
and talked to the hundreds of poor single mothers in rural Montana
that can't afford to put their kids in daycare, because they
are forced to work at places like Wall-Mart for a little over
five bucks an hour. I am sure they'd love to tell him how grateful
they are for their new found careers. Unlike many progressives,
the Iraq War isn' t the focus of these Montanans' qualms with
our government. They are turned off by politics because they
have trouble keeping food in the fridge and buying holiday gifts
for their kids. For most of us it's a luxary to be politically
active.
Right now many people believe its only
President Bush who has undermined everything progressives have
fought for. I once thought the same. I hated Republicans for
their outright disregard for the little guy. But my quick voyage
out east when I was a teenager turned into a life lesson, where
I have learned that political affiliation means little when talking
about actual policy positions. I think this is a lesson we must
all keep in mind as we approach the upcoming national elections.
Let's not allow fancy rhetoric or party loyalty to pull us off
the path of progressive change. Max Baucus will be in office
until 2006, and he's not the only charlatan that will be either.
We are up against many on both sides of the aisle. I guess I
should give credit to Baucus for teaching me Democrats aren'
t to be trusted anymore than Republicans. Thanks for the education
Max.
Josh Frank
is a writer living in New York. He can be reached at frank--joshua@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for Dec. 13 / 14, 2003
Bill and Kathleen Christison
Chickenhearts
at Notre Dame: the Pervasive Fear of Talking About the Israeli
Connection
Stan Goff
Jessica Lynch, Plural
Tariq Ali
The Same Old Racket in Iraq
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Map is not the Territory
Marty Bender / Stan Cox
Dr. Atkins vs. the Planet
Christopher Brauchli
Mercury Rising: the EPA's Presents to Industry
Gary Leupp
On Marriage in "Recorded History", an Open Letter to
Gov. Mitt Romney
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The Saga of Iran's Alleged WMD
Larry Everest
Saddam, Oil and Empire: Supply v. Demand
William S. Lind
How to Fight a 4th Generation War
Fran Shor
From Vietnam to Iraq: Counterinsurgency and Insurgency
Ron Jacobs
Child Abuse as Public Policy
Omar Barghouti
Relative Humanity and a Just Peace in the Middle East
Adam Engel
Pretty Damn Evil: an Interview with Ed Herman
Kristin Van Tassel
Breastfeeding Compromised
Ben Tripp
On Getting Stabbed
Susan Davis
"The Secret Lives of Dentists", a Review
Dave Zirin
Does Dylan Still Matter? an Interview with Mike Marqusee
Norman Madarasz
Searching for the Barbarians
Poets' Basement
Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Dean on Race
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