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Coming in October
From Common Courage Press

Today's Stories

August 29, 2003

Lenni Brenner
God and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party

Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters Give Their Views

 

August 28, 2003

Gilad Atzmon
The Most Common Mistakes of Israelis

David Vest
Moore's Monument: Cement Shoes for the Constitution

David Lindorff
Shooting Ali in the Back: Why the Pacification is Doomed

Chris Floyd
Cheap Thrills: Bush Lies to Push His War

Wayne Madsen
Restoring the Good, Old Term "Bum"

Elaine Cassel
Not Clueless in Chicago

Stan Goff
Nukes in the Dark

Tariq Ali
Occupied Iraq Will Never Know Peace

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Behold, My Package

Website of the Day
Palestinian Artists

 

Recent Stories

August 27, 2003

Bruce Jackson
Little Deaths: Hiding the Body Count in Iraq

John Feffer
Nuances and North Korea: Six Countries in Search of a Solution

Dave Riley
an Interview with Tariq Ali on the Iraq War

Lacey Phillabaum
Bush's Holy War in the Forests

Steve Niva
Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?

Website of the Day
The Dean Deception

 



August 26, 2003

Robert Fisk
Smearing the Dead

David Lindorff
The Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate

Sarmad S. Ali
Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner

Christopher Brauchli
Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists

Juliana Fredman
Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints and a Palestinian Madonna

Larry Siems
Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala

Elaine Cassel
Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers!

Saul Landau
Bush: a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure?


August 25, 2003

Kurt Nimmo
Israeli Outlaws in America

David Bacon
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime

Thomas P. Healy
The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out

Norman Madarasz
In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the Iraq Invasion

Salvador Peralta
The Politics of Focus Groups

Jack McCarthy
Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer?

Uri Avnery
A Drug for the Addict


August 23/24, 2003

Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld Does Bogota

Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Insults to Intelligence

Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor

Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful Fungus

Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon

Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!

David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary of 9/11

Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield

Dave Lindorff
Marketplace Medicine

Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and Free Speech

Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy

José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?

Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America

Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine

Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations

William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films

Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable

Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam

Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry

 

August 22, 2003

Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista Nicaragua

John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity

Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited

Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?

Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey

Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids

Ron Jacobs
The Darkening Tunnel

Website of the Day
Current Energy


August 21, 2003

Robert Fisk
The US Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing

Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?

Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq

Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps on the Wrists

Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show

Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks

Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?

Vicente Navarro
Media Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush

Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad

 

August 20, 2003

Robert Fisk
Now No One Is Safe in Iraq

Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad

Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?

Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark

Ramzi Kysia
Peace is not an Abstract Idea

Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway

John L. Hess
A Downside Day

Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay

Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake Up Call"

Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype

 

August 19, 2003

Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen

Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South Pacific

Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism

Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense

Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna

John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques

Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say

Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities

 

August 18, 2003

Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace

Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure

Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson

Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!

Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay

Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context

Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge

Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War

Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson

Website of the Day
Fire Griles!

 

Congratulations to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD

 

 

August 16 / 17, 2003

Flavia Alaya
Bastille New Jersey

Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps

Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50

Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?

William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles

Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk

Wenonah Hauter
Which Electric System Do We Want?

David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?

Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist

Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline for August 14, 2003

David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue

Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin

Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number

Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert

Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder


 

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

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

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August 30, 2003

Take Back Your Time Day

A Message of Simplicity for Labor Day

By TOM and JUDY TURNIPSEED

Americans spend more time working than the Japanese. Europeans work nine less weeks a year than U.S. workers. Even medieval peasants worked less hours than we do! It is time to fight overwork and time poverty in America. Our time is all we have and none of us know how much time we have remaining in our lives.

In the past two weeks we celebrated our 40 wedding anniversary and Tom's 67th birthday. We took time to enjoy extended conversations about how we are spending our time on a week-end anniversary trip in the Blue Mountains of North Carolina. At the Simplicity Congress in Seattle last week-end along with other friends in the increasingly relevant and energized Simplicity Movement we again committed ourselves to becoming more thoughtful and intentional about what we do with our time.

The Simplicity Movement is all about a more sustainable and enjoyable way of living. We confirmed a consciousness of more simple, peaceful, and just solutions to the oppression, conflict and killing that permeates the policies of our American Empire and our "can't have enough stuff" consumerist culture. Who we are is so much more important than what we have!

Take Back Your Time Day has become the first major initiative of the Simplicity Forum and is also the project of the Center for Religious, Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell University. October 24, 2003 is the first annual Take Back Your Time Day and the date is symbolic of the nine weeks remaining in the year that we work more than Europeans. The idea of Take Back Your Time Day was conceived by John de Graaf, a leader in the Simplicity Movement and award winning documentary film maker best known for his PBS classic "Affluenza" . De Graaf is National Coordinator for Take Back Your Time Day and he said that "Americans are reaching a breaking point as far as overwork is concerned." in a Labor Day Press Release.

John de Graaff is also editor of a book of essays entitled "Take Back Your Time", published by Berrett-Koehler. The book describes the essence of our time depravity by authors who are leaders in the Simplicity Movement as well as presenting essays on time poverty by experts on workplace, family, health, and public policy issues.

On this Labor Day we should contemplate the symbolism of Take Back Your Time Day and begin thinking how we can catch up with the Europeans. They have public policy mandating minimum paid vacations, a shorter work week and better pay for low-income workers who work two jobs to make ends meet. If we really want a strong America for all Americans we can do no less.

Most Americans do not have enough time for their families and other basic responsibilities. Since 1970 the number of families eating dinner together has diminished by one third and only about one half of the American people took a full week's vacation this summer. We have an epidemic of over-scheduled kids and under-connected families. Time is a family value and our families are obvious victims of overwork in America. Couples spend an average of twelve minutes a day talking with each other. We average only forty minutes a week playing with our children. Since World War II, Americans have taken our gains in productivity in more stuff and money and none in more time for ourselves and our families Encouragingly, Senators Orrin Hatch(R-Utah) and Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) have authored Senate Resolution 210 that proclaims October as "National Work and Family Month"and makes "reducing the conflict between work and family a national priority". It will come up for a vote in early September and we hope that folks will encourage our Senators to support this meaningful resolution.

A new poll, commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream finds that 60% of Americans "feel pressure to work too much" and 83% wish they had more time to spend with their families. 75% said they "think that Americans are too focused on work and spending".

Take Back Your Time Day has been endorsed by labor unions, churches, and family organizations and our campaign is promoting local teach-ins on college campuses and educational events and potluck suppers at churches for October 24th.

Last Saturday evening the Simplicity Congress in Seattle presented a fun talent show and we did a wife and husband duo of "The Simplicity Poem", A Parody of "I'm Late, I'm Late" with apologies to Lewis Carroll, Sammy Fain and Walt Disney. Here are some sample verses:

"I'm late, I'm late, For a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye, I'm late ,I'm late, I'm late."

"Consumption reigns, Our lives are out of whack, Our time is not our own---to play, to rest, to dream, We must get back on track."

"No time to cook a meal at home, No time to play with kids, It's sad to say,

It's the American way, And here's the reason why you (you see)"

"The ads tell me to buy, buy, buy, And you, and you, and you. I'm mall-ward bound , consumption to be found, I hurry off to shop, shop, shop, I just can 't seem to stop, stop, stop. Shop till we drop, shop till we drop"

"Just slow it down, take back your time and then-get others to, 'sides me and you, and you and me, and me and you."

"The future's clear to see. simplicity is here to stay, and here's the reason why (you see), It's overdue, there is no turning back, It's up to us to 'save the world'

"AND THAT'S A FACT"

Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer, radio talk show host, and a member of the National Steering Committee of Take Back Your Time Day. Judy Turnipseed is the business manager of Turnipseed and Associates and is a member of the Simplicity Forum's Alliance of Leaders.

 


Weekend Edition Features for August 23 / 24, 2003

Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld Does Bogota

Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Insults to Intelligence

Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor

Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful Fungus

Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon

Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!

David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary of 9/11

Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield

Dave Lindorff
Marketplace Medicine

Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and Free Speech

Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy

José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?

Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America

Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine

Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations

William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films

Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable

Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam

Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry

 

 

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