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Tariq v. Krauthammer Just wanted to let you know that Tariq
Ali will be debating Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer
on counterSpin on Tuesday, November 13, 2001. Is the Attack
on Afghanistan justified? Is it effective? What are the consequences?
counterSpin is a nightly current affairs debate program hosted
by Sharon Lewis and broadcast nationally across Canada on CBC
Newsworld, Canada's public, 24-hour news channel. This show
will be archived on our web site at http://www.counterspin.tv
soon after it is broadcast. Thanks. Oden and the Greens Bruce Kyle's "Anatomy of a Green Smear" contains three errors. (1) "[A]t an ugly convention last summer GPUS broke away from GPUSA" is incorrect. GPUS has existed since 1996 as the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP), and voted to change the name in July in preparation for the FEC application. (2) "The GPUS press release on the Oden incident is a marvel.... [T]hey want to slam GPUSA as a mere splinter group." The press release from GPUS says nothing about GPUSA. GPUS does not consider GPUSA a "splinter group" (a chronological absurdity, since GPUSA was founded a few years before ASGP) but a separate Green organization with its own structure, platform, and policies. (3) "[I]t's a shame that GPUS, if it is the true Green Party, doesn't have room for her." On the contrary, Ms. Oden rebuffed the chance to join GPUS. At a contentious national GPUSA meeting in Carbondale, Illinois earlier this year, GPUSA split into two camps. One of them sought some kind of unity with or integration into ASGP/GPUS, the other rejected the proposal entirely. Ms. Oden belonged to the second camp. Many people (and, I believe, some state Green Parties) in the first camp disaffiliated from GPUSA after that meeting; some of them are now very active at the national level of GPUS. Actually, 'membership' in GPUS is a non-issue, since GPUS is not a membership organization but a confederation of autonomous state Green Parties represented by delegates in GPUS's Coordinating Committee. (It's like talking about individual membership in the US Congress.) If Ms. Oden is registered Green in her home state of Maine, she's as much a member of GPUS as nearly all other Greens registered to vote in states with affiliation; if Ms. Oden is active in promoting the Maine Green Party and its candidates she's also promoting GPUS. I look forward to seeing these errors corrected on the CounterPunch web site. The rest of the article is opinion, including Mr. Kyle's belief that GPUS's caution over the airport incident was motivated by personal or factional animosity, and not worth further efforts to dispute. Thanks You're the Problem I can't help but feel that you guys are part of the problem in America. What ever happened to "love thy neighbor"? This is why I try to avoid anyone involved in politics. First the Republicans try to dig up dirt about the Democrats, then the Democrats try to dig up dirt about the Republicans. Just think of all that could be accomplished if everyone spent the "trashing" time actually helping each other. It's sad when people actually use the "You must be a Democrat/Republican" line to put people down. Reading the articles on your site and others like it make me feel ashamed to be part of the American people. I just hope any of you can look in the mirror and stomach what you see. Vanessa Campbell I'm not normally much of an alarmist... I found this article to be particularly disturbing when I first read it. It seems, to me, that the primary use would be to control crowds on US city streets. What I found particularly disturbing was the gee-whiz response of the media -- nobody ever questioned the need for such a vehicle. http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/ RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- With its bulletproof
glass, grenade launcher, laser gun and the ability to foil
pursuers with oil slicks and smoke screens, the Army's new
SmarTruck is a vehicle worthy of James Bond. Urban warfare "The reason we were thinking about urban warfare is because the Army increasingly is being pulled into policing duties," Fuller said. The article was opportunistically recycled
on 27Oct01: The vehicle can be used in domestic settings where a tank is not appropriate, Skalny said. Cary Renquist |
Naderite Green for Oden I am a Naderite Green. I attended the
ASGP Convention in Denver that nominated Nader. I worked hard
on Nader's 2000 campaign and ran for Congress in the 5th CD here
in California. I have been appalled by these attacks on Nancy
Oden. I do not know here personally but her experience is very
similar to one that happened to a local reporter for the Sacramento
News & Review (see http://www.newsreview.com/i Ken Adams Truth? This morning, ABC "reporter" Sam Donaldson on WBZ radio in Boston said, listing the crimes of al-Queda, "They [al-Queda] put Anthrax in envelopes." The overall context was a comment on Bush's speech last night. So, have I missed something? Leaving aside that fact that no proof has been publically released about who did the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th; I thought the government-media verdict was still out on where the Anthrax came from and who is responsible for using it. Granted that Donaldson's comment is just one drop of a wave of propaganda from the corporate media (becoming a wing of the government) but it struck me because it was said so matter of factly, in passing, with (of course) no qualifier or challenge and on a radio station with a huge signal and audience. Maybe it's useless to catalog all the jingoism, assumptions, and lies of the capitalist media. And why bother pointing out their lack of facts when it comes to vilifying a terrorist organization? And while I believe that the Anthrax attacks were real (and wish that the postal unions would at least consider going on strike over how they are being handled); I think it's worth trying to expose the pattern of propaganda that is designed to keep people in the U.S. in a constant state of fear. The Cold War, including McCarthyism and all the rest of it, was largely kept going by fear. Fear of nuclear war primarily. This war, including its new McCarthyism, is obviously being fueled by fear of terrorism. And as the government lines up its next targets... Iraq, Syria, Berkeley... it's clear the corporate media will say anything to keep the juggernaut rolling. Maybe Counterpunch should work towards a daily publication? Jeff Booth Give Winston His Due
Brandon Bragato Oden Brought It on Herself First of all, I read you faithfully in the NY Press, and would like to proclaim myself a huge fan off all things Cockburn (& St. Clair). I am also not a fan of the military, or flag-waving, and I fear a national ID card program as both totalitarian and useless in preventing Sept. 11-type hijackings. Now as for Ms. Nancy Oden: if you are honest with yourself, you must know that her airport story is the story of a petty snob, who lives to flatter herself for her "radical" politics. What strikes me most about her encounter at the Bangor airport is not the overbearing security presence, but the fact that this person could not handle, in fact, had no idea how to handle, dealing with police or military, and obviously considered any such personnel completely beneath her. Again, if you can be honest with yourself, is there any doubt that when Ms. Oden entered the airport, she had her mind made up to be actively uncooperative with authorities? This just after the horror and brutality of Sept. 11, the events of which centered on airports. At the very beginning of her tale, Ms. Oden says "You know how they are when they're all puffed up with themselves," describing the men, and by her account women, ordered to prevent deadly attack on Ms. Oden herself. Later, these soldiers are "untrained, ignorant, don't-know-how-to-deal-with-the-public, machine-gun-armed young guys". Hooray for the all-inclusive, enlightened left! Ms. Oden thought the soldiers could use some help with a stuck zipper, incompetents that they are. Hey guys, why so edgy? I'm just reaching for my bag! When called on her obvious recalcitrant attitude, Ms. Oden "slowed down some more". How charming! She'll show the fascists! "It was almost like they were expecting me." You wish. The list of examples of Ms. Oden's offensive condescension and apparent chronic cluelessness is about as long as your entire piece. I must ask you gentlemen, why are you taken with Ms. Oden's story? Yes, we all have very good reasons to be wary of armed authorities, and to grab hold of our rights and freedoms when they're challenged, but are you proud to defend Ms. Oden's behavior? Would you tolerate any Village Voice writer who chose this time in history stick it to the man with the gun in her face, man? Or would you promptly cut them down to size. I would greatly appreciate a response. Joe Dessereau There's a new new-left political party on the horizon, the Fair System Party; which promotes using our current computer technology to incorporate social justice... Use the system to change the system: Fair System = Larger Votes for Poor People! http://www.FairSystem.com Beyond democracy, beyond communism, beyond socialism ...yet still capitalism! Elections = Revolutions, Revolutions = Elections. Anyone looking to assist with this political movement, the Fair System Party; welcome! Steve G. Green PUS on Oden We're surprised and a little disappointed that CounterPunch didn't bother to talk to anyone from the Green Party of the United States (GP-US) <http://gpus.org> before publishing "Greens, Airports and ID Cards" <http://www.counterpunch.org/oden3.html>. GP-US, which the CounterPunch article calls "Naderite Greens," is the party in which 34 state Green Parties (Missouri's Green Party last week received accreditation as a member) are represented, and which was recognized by the Federal Election Commission on November 8 as the national party of the Greens. GP-US, which until July 2001 existed as the Association of State Green Parties, organized the 2000 national convention in Denver at which Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke were nominated. Mr. Nader is helping to raise money for GP-US and for state parties, but plays no role in the administration of GP-US or its policies and platform. We decided for several reasons to express uncertainty over the allegations about Ms. Oden's treatment at Bangor International Airport and issue a disclaimer dissociating GP-US from Greens/Green Party USA (GPUSA) and its press release on the Oden incident. Our initial reaction when many of us read about the incident was outrage. But when we looked closer at the different accounts, some gaps in credibility became apparent, in Oden's story, in the airport security version, in the Maine newspaper reports. We're still not sure whether this was a case of someone targeted for political activities or someone who chose the wrong international crisis for a flap during an airport security check (or both). It's obvious from Ms. Oden's own account that her behavior was odd. Many clear cases of violated civil rights and liberties are emerging that we need to protest, especially in the wake of the recent anti-terrorism bill, but the Green Party can't afford to squander political and media capital on the defense of someone's right to raise a stink at an airport metal detector. (The personal e-mail remarks about Ms. Oden quoted in CounterPunch, by the way, are the opinions of individuals who may or may not be party members and who do not represent GP-US.) The GPUSA press release on the incident gives the impression that GPUSA is the national Green Party, even though GPUSA counts fewer than five state Green Parties in its membership. The GPUSA release created some potential problems for GP-US at the beginning of a week which included both Election Day -- 31 Green victories in local races across the US, raising the total number of Green officeholders to 116 -- and the FEC hearing on GP-US's application for national committee status. Since GPUSA was hostile to GP-US's FEC application, the GP-US media team needed to clarify the distinction between GP-US and GPUSA immediately. The Green Party of the United States remains the last best hope of challenging the Democratic-Republican corruption of democracy. I believe we're now the only party with national status that opposes the war on the people of Afghanistan and demands that the September 11 atrocities be treated as international crimes to be tried in an appropriate court according to international law. My apologies for the alphabet soup of acronyms. Scott McLarty |