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Today's
Stories
February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel
and the Bush Team
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
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
February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
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
February 28 / 29, 2004
Censorship at Seattle
P-I?
Blackout
on Views Critical of Mental Health Industry
By RICK GIOMBETTI
This past August six "psychiatric survivors"
affiliated with Support
Coalition International launched its "Fast For Freedom In Mental Health".
One of the demands of the six hunger strikers was to challenge
the American Psychiatric Association, the National Alliance for
the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and the Surgeon General to produce a
shred of evidence that any so called "mental illness"
is rooted in biology.
The strikers also wanted to bring attention
to the harm psychiatric drugs often cause people confined in
the psychiatric system. Most importantly, they were hoping to
get a little media attention for what they were doing. They did,
most notably stories in the Sunday L.A. Times Magazine and the Washington Post. The only coverage the
strikers got in Seattle was an August 29 Post-Intelligencer
editorial written by Seattle area psychologist Keith Hoeller
titled, "No Proof Mental Illness Rooted In Biology".
The P-I published not one, but two, rebuttals to Hoeller's
editorial. One by Frank Jose of NAMI and psychiatrist Ron Sterling.
Hoeller says the P-I has refused
to publish his rebuttal of Jose and Sterling. Hoeller says he
believes this marked the beginning of a pressure campaign by
the local branch of NAMI, NAMI Greater Seattle, that has led to him
being permanently banned from the pages of the P-I's editorial
section. Hoeller says he was told the P-I would no longer
be publishing his editorials by Reader Representative Glenn Drosendahl
over the phone last week.
This phone conversation took place after
the P-I had rejected an editorial by Hoeller in opposition
to mental health parity legislation, which is currently being
debated in the Washington State Legislature (Read the rejected
editorial below). Substitute House Bill (HSB) 1828 was passed
by the Washington State House of Representatives 64 - 33 on February
13. Hoeller's editorial was rejected a few days after SHB 1828
was forwarded to the Senate.
When I asked Glenn Drosendahl via e-mail
the reason(s) for the rejection of Hoeller's editorial and if
he was indeed permanently banned form the pages of the P-I,
he wrote that,
"I did not say Keith was permanently
banned from writing op-ed pieces for us. I said the op-ed editor
would like to hear from other voices on the subject now, since
Keith has submitted and had published six op-ed pieces already.
One other thing he may have misinterpreted from our conversation:
I did tell him he wrote well and persuasively, but that was not
the reason our op-ed editor rejected his piece now. It's only
that she wants to hear from someone else with that viewpoint.
Again, it's a matter of trying to get a different voice on that
side of the issue."
This is a position being taken by a newspaper
that editorialized in favor of the passage of SHB 1828
on February 3.
When I asked Drosendahl what other voices
on the side of the issue, like David Oaks of Support Coalition
International or Jeffrey Schaler of American University, opposed
to parity the P-I would like to hear from, I received
no reply.
The other issue I raised in my reply
to Drosendahl was the simple fact the Hoeller lives in Washington
state and is the only academic in his field of study in the state
willing to speak out against forced psychiatry and paying for
it with mental health parity. This is an interesting position
to take on this issue given that the P-I has editorialized
in favor of parity legislation and that Hoeller is a professional
academic with the credentials to write a rebuttal. Especially
considering that Drosendahl himself says that Hoeller does write
"well and persuasively" and that Hoeller has never
published an editorial about mental health parity before.
In his reply to Drosendahl, Hoeller stuck
by his version of their phone conversation. He says the P-I
has not only rejected his mental health parity editorial, but
anything else from him permanently. Hoeller continues to maintain
that this decision is the result of a combination of a pro-mental
health bias at the P-I and caving in to pressure from
the local chapter of NAMI.
Hoeller also says that he has been given
different reasons for not running his editorials since August:
"While the Seattle P-I was happy to publish my op-eds
for the last six years, since NAMI pressured them last August
they have not once, but twice, rejected op-eds by me. And the
reasons keep changing. About 3 months ago, Kimberly Mills rejected
an op-ed by me, saying the Seattle PI had a policy of not publishing
anyone twice within a six month period. Mr. Drosendahl told me
yesterday that the PI has no such policy."
Hoeller believes that the P-I
is coming up with pretexts for not publishing him and is not
actually following a stated guideline for publication in the
paper. Hoeller also wants to know what input from the public
the P-I received before publishing its editorial in favor
of the mental health parity legislation: "Who did the P-I
Editorial Board invite in, and who did they call, before writing
their Feb. 3 op-ed in favor of parity? Did they invite in, or
call, just supporters like NAMI and legislators who favor the
bills? Did they invite in, or call, ANY opponents to mental health
parity? They are supposed to invite in, or call, people from
BOTH sides before writing such an editorial."
Hoeller is also wondering what Glenn
Drosendahl's job at the P-I actually is. "He sounds
more like a lawyer hired to defend the line of the paper,"
Hoeller told me, "Not a representative of the paper's readers."
Finally, Hoeller says this is an issue
that is bigger than any of his rejected editorials. It also about
what Hoeller perceives to be a strong bias in the P-I
in favor of the NAMI position in favor of state sponsored coercive
psychiatry and mental health parity. Hoeller says the P-I
never interviews critics of coercive psychiatry for its objective
news articles.
Also, Hoeller says there is no mention,
or any investigative work, at the P-i in its news articles
regarding the well known fact that NAMI is a pharmaceutical industry
supported organization. Getting his editorial accepted for publication
would not be good enough for Hoeller. He wants these broader
issues of the way mental health issues are covered in the P-I
addressed as well.
I was unable to get any reply from the
P-I regarding Hoeller's response to Drosendahl. What is
clear in this matter is that the P-I has taken a position
in favor of legislation that has grave civil liberty implications,
for this legislation will increase funding, if implemented, of
the forced drugging of both in and out patients in the psychiatric
system in Washington state. The P-I has also rejected
an editorial with an opposing view point.
Those individuals with view points in
opposition to the P-I's official editorial position on
HSB 1828, regardless of where they live, should send either editorials
or letters to P-I president Roger Oglesby (rogeroglesby@seattlepi.com)
and CC Reader Representative Glenn Drosendahl (glenndrosendahl@seattlepi.com)
and ask them if your views are welcome in the paper.
Rick Giombetti
lives in Seattle. His blogsite is located at: http://rickgiombetti.blogspot.com.
He can be reached at rickjgio@speakeasy.net.
Click
here to read Keith Hoeller's op-ed.
Weekend
Edition Features for February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
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