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Now Available from CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included) Today's Stories March 18, 2004   Gary Leupp The Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost   March 17, 2004 Marjorie Cohn Spain, the EU and the US: War on Terror or Civil Liberties? David MacMichael Untruth and Consequences Michael Donnelly Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer Tom Stephens "Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware Wayne Madsen Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out Karyn Strickler Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections Peter Linebaugh Bush: Blanc Blanc   March 16, 2004 Lenni Brenner James Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights Scott Boehm Madrid Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days Alexander Lynch From Franco to Aznar: the History Behind the Spanish Elections Sam Hamod and Alfredo Reyes The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way: Executing David Clayton Hill Mike Whitney The Case for a Nuclear Iran Robert Fisk The Bloody Price of the "War on Terror" Bill Christison The Aftershocks from Madrid CounterPunch Photo Wire The Passion of St. Teresa Website of the Day Join the War on Art!   March 15, 2004 Harry Browne Terror Nothing New to Europe Mike Whitney Justice Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism Lidice Valenzuela Haiti: a Coup without Consultation Greg Moses Lessons from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs Mickey Z. Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health Asaf Shtull-Trauring AWOL in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer CounterPunch Wire Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!   March 12 / 14, 2004 Gabriel Kolko The Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power Saul Landau Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie! William Blum Neo-Con(tradictions) William S. Lind Why They Throw Rocks Rahul Mahajan The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us All Less Safe Neve Gordon Demographic Wars Kurt Nimmo Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists Mickey Z. The "New" UN Blames the Poor Mike Whitney War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge Helen Scott and Ashley Smith Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup? Justin E.H. Smith Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy of the American Prison Brandy Baker Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On Robin Philpot Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana Mokhiber / Weissman The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding Dave Zirin She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith Daniel Wolff The Lord's Pier     March 11, 2004 Ron Jacobs Bedtime for Democracy Bill Kauffman Hey, Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People? James Hollander Slaughter in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally? Norman Solomon They Shoot Journalists, Don't They? Patrick Gavin The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return Becky Burgwin You're Messing with the Wrong Generation John Sugg The FBI is on My Trail March 10, 2004 Hammond Guthrie Read This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?" Chris Floyd Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another Bush Brings Hell to Haiti Elizabeth Corrie Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie Mike Whitney US Press Torpedoes Aristide M. Junaid Alam An Anti-Civilizational War? Bob Feldman The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934 John L. Hess An Overload of Crises Gary Leupp On Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"   March 9, 2004 Greg Weiher The Zarqawi Gambit, Part 2 Ben Tripp Word Up! Let's Have a Conversation Tom Barry Neo-Cons Target Syria Sharon Smith The Hypocrites in the Catholic Church Robert Fisk The Same Old Iraq Doug Giebel The Bush Strategy: Laughing All the Way Ralph Nader Pension Rights, the Trail of Broken Promises Daniel Estulin In Memory of Ricardo Ortega: a Great Journalist, Killed in Haiti Dave Lindorff Martha Stewart's Cloudy Day Saul Landau Will the Filthy Rich Dump Bush? Website of the Day Imperial Armies in the Garden   March 8, 2004 Amy Goodman An Interview with Aristide Eric Ruder An Interview with Robert Fatton on the Coup in Haiti Robert Jensen The Presidential Library Terrorist Connection Mike Whitney Expel the US from the Security Council Jason Leopold How Cheney Helped Cover Up Pakistan's Nuclear Proliferation Mazin Qumsiyeh Why is Apartheid Touted as a Solution? Kevin Alexander Gray The Legacy of Strom Thurmond Derek Seidman Radical Continuity: an Interview with Paul Buhle Steve Perry Kerry Fiddles While He Could be Burning Bush Website of the Day Patriot Act Game     March 6 / 7, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Understanding the World with Paul Sweezy Robert Pollin Remembering Paul Sweezy Jeffrey St. Clair The Politics of Timber Theft Tom Reeves Bush's Mass Deportations: 63,000 and Counting Charles Lewis Who Mugged Howard Dean in Iowa: Kerry, Torricelli and a Mysterious Frontgroup Tom Jackson My Breakfast with Sen. Judd Gregg Kurt Nimmo Is Venezuela Next? Alan Cisco A Report from Caracas Jack Random Haitian Democracy be Damned Colin Piquette Oh, Canada: the Coup Coalition Lee Sustar Labor's State of Emergency William D. Hartung Iraq and the Costs of War David Sally Rebuilding Amérique Mark Scaramella When God Mooned Moses: Test Your Bible Knowledge Mickey Z. What We Can Learn from Ashcroft's Gallbladder Ron Jacobs Politics and Baseball Dave Zirin The Longest Jump: the Blackballing of Phil Shinnick Poets' Basement John Holt and Larry Kearney Website of the Weekend National Day of Action for Rachel Corrie   March 5, 2004 Chris Floyd Uncle Sugar: How the WMD Scam Put Money in Bush Family Pockets Ron Jacobs Chaos Reigns: Haiti and Iraq Lisa Viscidi Guatemalan Refugees: a Difficult Return Yves Engler Canada and the Coup in Haiti Mike Legro Those Bush Ads: Some Dead Bodies Are Worth More Than Others Javier Armas A Night of Inspiration: Oakland Benefit for Grocery Workers Strike Bennett Hoffman "Who Cares About Haiti, Anyway?" Bill Christison Faltering Neo-Cons Still Dangerous Website of the Day Haiti Support Group   March 4, 2004 Diane Christian Sex and Ideals Sen. Robert Byrd Stop the Stonewalling, Mr. President: Fairy Tales, Bush and the 9/11 Commission Norman Solomon Assuming the Right to Intervene: The US Press and Haiti Jack Brown A Fragrant Saga of Mexico's Greens Hal Cranmer The John Kerry Experience David Lindorff Greenspan's Pension Sam Smith The Election is Over, We Lost Christopher Brauchli Goin' to the Chapel: The Gay and the Dead Brian D. Barry The "Perfect" World of E-Voting: A Computer Scientist Reports from the Polling Booth Richard Oxman Arsonists for Haiti? Peter Phillips Haitian Fantasies: Mainstream Media Fails Itself, Again Tariq Ali Notes on Anti-Semitism, Zionism and Palestine Website of the Day What If Boeing Ads Told the Truth?     March 3, 2004 Heather Williams / Karl Laraque Marines Retake Haiti Jack McCarthy Guy's Our Guy: "I am the Chief. My Hero is Pinochet." Robert Sandels The Purloined Label: The Struggle Over the Havana Club Trademark Juliana Fredman / James Davis Israeli Organized Crime JG The Yuppie Silence on Haiti Emilio Sardi The Colombia/US Free Trade Deal: It's About More Than Trade Alan Farago Swimming in Sewage Mike Whitney "Blood Will Have Blood": 143 Murdered in Liberated Iraq CounterPunch Wire Nader's Legislative Record in the 1960s Steve Perry Kerry Advisory: Remember Lena Guerrero Nelson George/ Marcus Miller Miles Davis & Hip Hop: a Conversation Website of the Day $10,000 Is Yours for the Taking: The USS Liberty Challenge   March 2, 2004 William Blum If Kerry's the Answer, What's the Question? Conn Hallinan Haiti: the Dangerous Muddle JoAnn Wypijewski The Bravo H-Bomb Test: One WMD They Couldn't Hide Mike Whitney Regime Change in Haiti: the Bush Dominos Keep Falling Ra Ravishankar Afghanistan, the Liberation That Isn't: an Interview with Mariam from RAWA Dan Bacher Merle Haggard & the Politics of Salmon: "Clearcutting is Rape" Greg Moses Oscar White Brandy Baker Mel Gibson's Minstrelsy Show Little Tucker Carlson What I Did on My Vacation Robert Fisk All This Talk of Civil War, Now This Merle Haggard Kern River Website of the Day Rebel Edit   March 1, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Morris Thanks War Criminal in Front of Billions Richard Oxman Oscar's Obit: Thanking Bob McNamara Elaine Cassel Writing and Reading as "Terrorism" Mickey Z Thomas Friedman's Education Mike Whitney George Will and Anti-Semitism: a Cul-de-Sac of Prejudice Heather Williams Haiti as Target Practice: How the US Press Missed the Story Cathy Crosson Chanson d'amour haïtienne Website of the Day God Hates Shrimp February 28 / 29, 2004 Stephen Green Serving Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Team Gary Leupp Another Senseless Bush Battle: Defining and Protecting Marriage William A. Cook Israel: America's Albatross Ron Jacobs Kucinich: Good Fight; Wrong Battlefield Ben Tripp A Nosegay of Posies: Queer Weddings at Last! Leilla Matsui Dances with Crucifixes Mike Whitney Dismantle the Military Goliath Yoel Marcus Down and Out in the Hague Uri Avnery The Dancing Bear Linda S. Heard Britons and Americans Condemned to a Hobson's Choice Al Krebs Unmasking a Secret American Empire: Land, Water & Cotton Stan Cox Life (Pat. Pend.): Genetic Commandeering JG The Haiti Boomerang: "After The Looting & Pillaging, Your Hunger Will Remain" Rick Giombetti Censorship at the Seattle P-I on Forced Psychiatry Keith Hoeller The Bankruptcy of Mental Health Insurance Parity Dave Zirin Colorado Football: Buffalo Swill NADERAMA Alan Maass Nader and the Politics of Lesser Evils Michael Donnelly Regime Rotation: Anybody But Bush...Again? Niranjan Ramakrishnan Exeunt Serenaders; Enter Nader Doug Giebel So Nader's Running? Get Over It Bruce Jackson An Open Letter to Naderites CounterPunch Wire Stalinists for Kerry! and Other Roars from the Crowd Poets' Basement Davies, Scarr, Kearney & Albert February 27, 2004 Thomas C. Mountain A White Jesus During Black History Month? Laura Carlsen Americans Abroad: Bush is Persona Non Grata John B. Anderson Nader's Campaign Brings Back Memories: Creating an Open Electoral Process Jason Leopold Spying on Kofi Annan John Chuckman Nader, Risk and Hope Standard Schaefer An Interview with Michael Hudson on Putin's Russia Ray McGovern Punished for Honest Intelligence Saul Landau The Haiti Redux Website of the Day Bush: Why I'm Running for Re-election   February 26, 2004 Brandy Baker Is Nader on to Something? Jacques Kinau AEI to Colombia: "Can't Give You Anything But Guns, Baby" Norman Solomon Bugging Kofi Annan: UN Spying and the Evasions of US Journalism Greg Weiher A Purloined Letter: the Zarqawi Gambit Walt Brasch Janet Jackson, Bush & No. 542: There are No Halftime Shows in War Shadi Hamid The Music World Explodes in Anger Norman Madarasz As Canadian as Corruption Chris Floyd Bullets and Ballots Virginia Tilly The Deeper Meaning of the Wall Amy Goodman / Jeremy Scahill Haiti's Lawyer Says US is Arming Haiti's Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries Website of the Day Clear Channel Sucks   February 25, 2004 Dr. Susan Block Saddam's Sex Therapist and the Rape of Free Speech Bruce Anderson Treacherous Bastards: The Greens and the Dems and Nader Ron Jacobs Our Power is on the Streets and in Our Hearts Mike Whitney Bush and Gay America: the Politics of Duplicity Sam Husseini Jesus in 100 Words John L. Hess Kick Off or Flub? Sam Hamod Bush's Newest Red Herring Cockburn / St. Clair Winning with Nader Website of the Day VotePact   February 24, 2004 Ralph Nader Why I'm Running for President Greg Moses Rally the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution Douglas O'Hara The Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader Phillip Cryan Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid Lens on Latin America David Lindorff John Kerry's China Connection Jason Leopold Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges Gary Younge Haiti: Throttled by History Kromm, Masri & Purohit Why No Democracy in Iraq? Steve Perry Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College February 23, 2004 Neve Gordon Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial at The Hague Kurt Nimmo Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll" Jonathan Franklin US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada Al Krebs The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader Josh Frank Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance Bruce Jackson Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush" Gary Leupp A Misguided Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels           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.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

March 18, 2004 The Broadcast Indecency Act An Indecent Attack on the First Amendment By Rep. RON PAUL FLOOR STATEMENT OF HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 10, 2004 We will soon debate the "Broadcast Indecency Act of 2004" on the House Floor. This atrocious piece of legislation should be defeated. It cannot improve the moral behavior of U.S. citizens, but it can do irreparable harm to our cherished right to freedom of speech. This attempt at regulating and punishing indecent and sexually provocative language suggests a comparison to the Wahhabi religious police of Saudi Arabia, who control the "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice." Though both may be motivated by the good intentions of improving moral behavior, using government force to do so is fraught with great danger and has no chance of success. Regulating speech is a dangerous notion, and not compatible with the principles of a free society. The Founders recognized this, and thus explicitly prohibited Congress from making any laws that might abridge freedom of speech or of the press. But we have in recent decades seen a steady erosion of this protection of free speech. This process started years ago when an arbitrary distinction was made by the political left between commercial and non-commercial speech, thus permitting government to regulate and censor commercial speech. Since only a few participated in commercial speech, few cared-- and besides, the government was there to protect us from unethical advertisements. Supporters of this policy failed to understand that anti-fraud laws and state laws could adequately deal with this common problem found in all societies. Disheartening as it may be, the political left, which was supposed to care more about the 1st Amendment than the right, has ventured in recent years to curtail so-called "hate speech" by championing political correctness. In the last few decades we've seen the political-correctness crowd, in the name of improving personal behavior and language, cause individuals to lose their jobs, cause careers to be ruined, cause athletes to be trashed, and cause public speeches on liberal campuses to be disrupted and even banned. These tragedies have been caused by the so-called champions of free speech. Over the years, tolerance for the views of those with whom campus liberals disagree has nearly evaporated. The systematic and steady erosion of freedom of speech continues. Just one year ago we saw a coalition of both left and right push through the radical Campaign Finance Reform Act, which strictly curtails the rights all Americans to speak out against particular candidates at the time of elections. Amazingly, this usurpation by Congress was upheld by the Supreme Court, which showed no concern for the restrictions on political speech during political campaigns. Instead of admitting that money and corruption in government is not a consequence of too much freedom of expression, but rather a result of government acting outside the bounds of the Constitution, this new law addressed a symptom rather than the cause of special interest control of our legislative process. And now comes the right's attack on the 1st Amendment, with its effort to stamp out "indecent" language on the airways. And it will be assumed that if one is not with them in this effort, then one must support the trash seen and heard in the movie theaters and on our televisions and radios. For social rather than constitutional reasons, some on the left express opposition to this proposal. But this current proposal is dangerous. Since most Americans- I hope- are still for freedom of expression of political ideas and religious beliefs, no one claims that anyone who endorses freedom of speech therefore endorses the nutty philosophy and religious views that are expressed. We should all know that the 1st Amendment was not written to protect non-controversial mainstream speech, but rather the ideas and beliefs of what the majority see as controversial or fringe. The temptation has always been great to legislatively restrict rudeness, prejudice, and minority views, and it's easiest to start by attacking the clearly obnoxious expressions that most deem offensive. The real harm comes later. But "later" is now approaching. The failure to understand that radio, TV, and movies more often than not reflect the peoples' attitudes prompts this effort. It was never law that prohibited moral degradation in earlier times. It was the moral standards of the people who rejected the smut that we now see as routine entertainment. Merely writing laws and threatening huge fines will not improve the moral standards of the people. Laws like the proposed "Broadcast Indecency Act of 2004" merely address the symptom of a decaying society, while posing a greater threat to freedom of expression. Laws may attempt to silence the bigoted and the profane, but the hearts and minds of those individuals will not be changed. Societal standards will not be improved. Government has no control over these standards, and can only undermine liberty in its efforts to make individuals more moral or the economy fairer. Proponents of using government authority to censor certain undesirable images and comments on the airwaves resort to the claim that the airways belong to all the people, and therefore it's the government's responsibility to protect them. The mistake of never having privatized the radio and TV airwaves does not justify ignoring the 1st Amendment mandate that "Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech." When everyone owns something, in reality nobody owns it. Control then occurs merely by the whims of the politicians in power. From the very start, licensing of radio and TV frequencies invited government censorship that is no less threatening than that found in totalitarian societies. We should not ignore the smut and trash that has invaded our society, but laws like this will not achieve the goals that many seek. If a moral society could be created by law, we would have had one a long time ago. The religious fundamentalists in control of other countries would have led the way. Instead, authoritarian violence reigns in those countries. If it is not recognized that this is the wrong approach to improve the quality of the airways, a heavy price will be paid. The solution to decaying moral standards has to be voluntary, through setting examples in our families, churches, and communities- never by government coercion. It just doesn't work. But the argument is always that the people are in great danger if government does not act by: -Restricting free expression in advertising; -Claiming insensitive language hurts people, and political correctness guidelines are needed to protect the weak; -Arguing that campaign finance reform is needed to hold down government corruption by the special interests; -Banning indecency on the airways that some believe encourages immoral behavior. If we accept the principle that these dangers must be prevented through coercive government restrictions on expression, it must logically follow that all dangers must be stamped out, especially those that are even more dangerous than those already dealt with. This principle is adhered to in all totalitarian societies. That means total control of freedom of expression of all political and religious views. This certainly was the case with the Soviets, the Nazis, the Cambodians, and the Chinese communists. And yet these governments literally caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of people throughout the 20th Century. This is the real danger, and if we're in the business of protecting the people from all danger, this will be the logical next step. It could easily be argued that this must be done, since political ideas and fanatical religious beliefs are by far the most dangerous ideas known to man. Sadly, we're moving in that direction, and no matter how well intended the promoters of these limits on the 1st Amendment are, both on the left and the right, they nevertheless endorse the principle of suppressing any expressions of dissent if one chooses to criticize the government. When the direct attack on political and religious views comes, initially it will be on targets that most will ignore, since they will be seen as outside the mainstream and therefore unworthy of defending- like the Branch Davidians or Lyndon LaRouche. Rush Limbaugh has it right (at least on this one), and correctly fears the speech police. He states: "I'm in the free speech business," as he defends Howard Stern and criticizes any government effort to curtail speech on the airways, while recognizing the media companies' authority and responsibility to self-regulate. Congress has been a poor steward of the 1st Amendment. This newest attack should alert us all to the dangers of government regulating freedom of speech-- of any kind. Ron Paul is a Republican congressman from Texas. Weekend Edition Features for March 12 / 14, 2004 Gabriel Kolko The Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power Saul Landau Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie! William Blum Neo-Con(tradictions) William S. Lind Why They Throw Rocks Rahul Mahajan The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us All Less Safe Neve Gordon Demographic Wars Kurt Nimmo Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists Mickey Z. The "New" UN Blames the Poor Mike Whitney War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge Helen Scott and Ashley Smith Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup? Justin E.H. Smith Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy of the American Prison Brandy Baker Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On Robin Philpot Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana Mokhiber / Weissman The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding Dave Zirin She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith Daniel Wolff The Lord's Pier Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /