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Inside Iraq's Resistance HOT HOT HOT New CounterPunch Print Edition! Meet actual Iraqis and not just Western caricatures. Laith al-Saud interviews top man in Iraq's national resistance. It's not just Abu Ghraib and bids to kill Fidel Castro. Torture and assassination are integral parts of America's imperial machine. Don't miss Andrew Wimmer's searing journey into the soul of a nation that tortures as a way of life. Plus Alexander Cockburn on the killing of General Kassem. PLUS Sam Sillen's rollicking exhumation of Edmund Wilson as Malthusian Trostskyite. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Get the Email Edition of CounterPunch for Only $35 a Year Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Today's Stories October 1 / 2, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats Sink Deeper into the Ooze September 30, 2005 Mary Geddry Why I Marched: They Made My Son Kill Paul Craig Roberts Bush is Cooking Up Two New Wars Dave Lindorff Judith Miller's Strange Voluntary Jail Time Gregory Wilpert "The Osama Bin Laden of Latin America" Benjamin Dangl "Gringo, Go Home:" an Interview with Orlando Castillo James McMurtry We Can't Make It Here Anymore T.R. Johnson Return to the Ninth Ward   September 29, 2005 Sen. Russ Feingold Bush's Iraq War is Weakening America Carl G. Estabrook Obama the Enabler Ramzy Baroud Rhetoric and Reality of War Dave Lindorff What Opposition Party? Mike Whitney Brownie's Comic Opera Jozef Hand-Boniakowski What Noble Cause? Gary Handschumacher Getting Arrested with Cindy Sheehan Winslow T. Wheeler No Leaders in Congress Against This War: Lame Democrat and Tame Republicans   September 28, 2005 Dr. Eyad Serraj Letter from Gaza: What Disengagement Sounds Like William A. Cook Bush's Security Barrier Liaquat Ali Khan The Invention of Porno Torture Mike Whitney Apartheid Justice in America Joshua Frank Sheehan and the Democrats: Anybody Home? CounterPunch Wire New Orleans Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters Chris Genovali Cutting the Bears Out of the Great Bear Rainforest Linn Washington, Jr. White Affirmative Action: How John Roberts Got to the Top   September 27, 2005 Forrest Hylton Political Murder in Puerto Rico: a Matter for Our Movement Jason Leopold The Decline and Fall of Bill Frist Jennifer K. Harbury Torture is US Policy, Not an Aberration Ray McGovern Torture and Cowardice: Why are American Religious Leaders Silent? Mike Ferner Bringing the War Home: Arrested at the Pentagon Antony Loewenstein When the Truth Comes to Town: What You Can't Say About Israel in Australia Harry Browne Live from Hollywood: the IRA Disarms   September 26, 2005 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Assassination in Puerto Rico: the FBI Murders a Legend Joshua Frank Democrats Flee Peace Protests Lamis Andoni The Railroading of Taysir Alony Mike Marqusee Those Pesky "Urban Intellectuals": Blair, Spiro Agnew and the Antiwar Movement Rep. Cynthia McKinney They Can't Fool Us Anymore Ron Jacobs A Small March for Me, a Giant March for the Antiwar Movement Norman Solomon The Media and the Antiwar Movement John Chuckman Bush in a Bottle Paul Craig Roberts America is Running Out of Time   September 24 / 25, 2005 Kathy and Bill Christison Polluting Palestine: Settlements & Sewage Ralph Nader Stealing the Moment: How Corporations Cashed in on Katrina Saul Landau The Terrorist Resumé of Luis Posada Greg Moses A Movement Gathers Power on the Sorrow Plateau Roger Burbach Hugo Chavez's Mission Vijay Prashad America's Shame Laura Carlsen After NAFTA Robert Fisk When Man and Nature Conspire to Expose the Lies of the Powerful Dave Lindorff A Gusher Called Katrina: They Fix Oil Prices, Don't They? Kirkpatrick Sale / Thomas Naylor Secession from the Empire: the Middlebury Declaration Maj. Anthony Milavic The US Military and Torture: the View of a Former Interrogator Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti: the Time for Action is Now   September 23, 2005 CounterPunch News Service In Which, Phil Donahue Demolishes Bill O'Reilly Diane Farsetta Katrina and Right-Wing Think Tanks Robert Sandels Militarizing the Market Christopher Brauchli Bush: the Good Samaritan for Corporations Alan Farago Bird Flu Takes Flight Dave Zirin When Sports & Politics Collided: Redeeming the Olympic Martyrs of 1968 Maxine Conant A Simple Test for Bush David Price Workers Get Hit Twice: Katrina and Davis-Bacon Profiteering   September 22, 2005 Smith, Wood, Leas, and Greenfield Which Way Forward for the Green Party? a Report from Tulsa Patrick Cockburn Iraqis: This Government has No Authority Manuel Garcia, Jr. Thinking is Religious Freedom Lucia Dailey Trial of the St. Patrick's Four: Day One Mokhiber / Weissman Are You a Speed Freak? Russell D. Hoffman The Nukes in Rita's Path Kona Lowell God's Hurricane? Jason Leopold GOP Fiscal Policy and Katrina Website of the Day Robert Pollin on the Global Economy   September 21, 2005 Jorge Mariscal Military Recruiters: Counselers or Salesmen? Linda S. Heard Double Standards in Iraq: Basra Brit Jailbreak Joshua Frank NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan Eric Ruder "The Problem in Iraq is the US": an Interview with Camilo Mejia Pierre Tristam The Struts and Bull Presidency Dave Lindorff The Real Story of the German Elections Mike Ferner Sit Down in DC Missy Comley Beattie Bush's Katrina Bling Bling Jeffrey St. Clair W Marks the Spot Website of the Day New Orleans: Survivor Stories   September 20, 2005 Steve Breyman Toxic Gumbo: Katrina and Environmental Justice George Galloway Et Tu, Greg Palast? Patrick Cockburn What Happened to Iraq's Missing $1 Billion? M. Shahid Alam Gen. Musharraf and Israel: Is Pakistan Selling Out? Mike Whitney The Gitmo Hunger Strikers Winslow T. Wheeler It's Not Rocket Science Niranjan Ramakrishnan Back to the Future: North Korea's Gambit Paul Craig Roberts Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?   September 19, 2005 Gary Leupp Their Patience and Ours: Khalilzad Threatens Syria Rev. William E. Alberts Mainstream Religious Leaders in Bushtime: Guardians of the Status Quo Tom Gorman Padilla and the Death of the Republic: the Power to Hold Anyone Leigh Saavedra The Anti-War Movement Goes on Trial Mike Whitney Hurricane Hugo at the UN Ingmar Lee Compromise with a Chainsaw in the Rainforests of BC Katrina Yeaw Anti-War Mvt. in Italy: Hunger Strike Against Censorship Kathleen and Bill Christison Travels in Palestine: Horror Story   September 17 / 18, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Levee Town Ralph Nader The CEO's Chief Justice Diane Christian Abortion and the Politics of Death Ned Sublette Mr. Bush's Tuba William Cook Katrina and Poverty: the Poor Have No Lobbyists Barbara Ehrenreich Finding a Coach in the Land of Oz Nikolas Kozloff Demeaner of the Faith: Pat Robertson and Gen. Rios Montt Dave Lindorff One Big Sham: New Orleans as Potemkin Village Heather Gray Wake Up White America! C.A.N. "This is Solidarity, Not Charity": a Student Report from Louisiana James Petras From Victims to Vandals: Katrina and the Mass Media Bill Pahneles Born Again in New Orleans? Jeff Chapman Katrina's Victims and the Minimum Wage Dave Zirin Eton Thomas Rises to the Challenge Ron Jacobs The Politics of Withdrawal from Iraq Fred Gardner The Millworker's Argument Peter Harley The Wall and the Holes in the Wall Matthew Koehler Battering the Bitterroot National Forest Ben Tripp Some Optimistic Thoughts Poets' Basement Nettnin, Albert, Engel and Louise Website of the Weekend How to Identify Misinformation   September 16, 2005 Ishmael Reed Race, Katrina and the Media J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Bush's Judges and Black America James Petras The St. Patrick Four: the Feds Confront the Anti-War Movement Louis Proyect Brawl at Baruch: Hitchens vs. Galloway Christopher Brauchli Baked Brownie: Cooking a Resumé Naomi Archer "It's Not that the Government isn't Responding, They are Obstructing Responses" Edward Gibbon The Patron Saint of Defense Contractors Francis Boyle Grounds for Impeachment? Paul Craig Roberts America is in the Clutches of Autocrats   September 15, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Flirtations with Disaster Brian J. Foley The Profit-Driven War Justin E.H. Smith Frances Newton and the Prospects for a New Abolitionism Dave Lindorff Sacrificial Murder by Texas: Frances Newton Died for Bush's Sins Kevin Zeese Katrina and Iraq: the War Comes Home to Roost Jason Leopold Funeral Gate in New Orleans Todd May There are Palestinians Here!: the Demographic Factor Niranjan Ramakrishnan Brawl in the Family Pat Williams Lewis and Clark in Montana William S. Lind Swept Away in Iraq Saul Landau Bush, God and Katrina   September 14, 2005 Gary Leupp Managing Perceptions of Presidential Ignorance Evelyn Pringle Iraqis to Bush: Where Did All Our Money Go? Jordan Flaherty Back Inside New Orleans Jeff Chapman The WJS's Flawed War on the Minimum Wage Ramzy Baroud The Perils of Normalization with Israel Manuel Garcia, Jr. The Power of Water Mickey Z. Eugene V. Debs and the Legacy of Dissent Sam Husseini A Statement from Mother Nature Ralph Nader Questioning Judge Roberts   September 13, 2005 Uri Avnery Who Murdered Arafat? Werther Jackals and Jackasses JG Where's the Outrage Over the Jailing of Kevin Pina? Marlene Martin The Texas Killing Machine: Will Another Innocent Woman be Executed? Joshua Frank Katrina's Political Aftermath: Blame More Than Bush Ron Jacobs Saving America's Serengetti Dave Lindorff Compassion for the Camera Ben Tripp It's an Ill Wind Dave Zirin Galloway Goes to Washington Billy Sothern How the Other Half Lived in New Orleans Website of the Day Save the Life of Frances Newton   September 12, 2005 Bill Glahn Tears of Rage in New Orleans Jason Leopold How Michael Brown Helped Bush Win Florida Bill Simpich Confronting Nancy Pelosi Mike Whitney Padilla and the Death of Personal Liberty Justin Felux Free Kevin Pina!: US Journalists Arrested in Haiti Rep. Cynthia McKinney No One Came to Get Them Carol Norris Let Them Eat Toxins Robert Jensen Our Grief is Not Special Gideon Levy The Mean Streets of Tel Rumeida Paul Craig Roberts Power Grab in New Orleans Website of the Day New Orleans Artists Relief Fund   September 9 / 11, 2005 William A. Cook From New Orleans to Palestine Saul Landau How the US Supplied Iran with Nuclear Know-How Lance Selfa Confederacy of Dunces: Why FEMA Failed Col. Dan Smith Paying the Piper Elaine Cassel Judge Roberts: On the Far Right of a Far Right Party Ron Jacobs Food as Govt. Weapon in New Orleans Elisa Salasin My September 11th Christopher Brauchli When "Action" is Delay: Bush's Picnic & Plan B Evelyn Pringle War Pays: Douglas Feith's Platinum Parachute Tom Crumpacker The Posada Case: When Injustice is Justice Dave Lindorff The Big Blowback Robert Jensen Race Stories: the Heart of Whiteness Gary Bass A Civics Lesson from Katrina Dr. Susan Block Katrina Speaks! Steven Sherman The American Left and the Battle of New Orleans Col. Douglas A. Macgregor Escape from Oz: the Pentagon's Light Show Barghouti / Grima Re-Thinking the Mediterranean Jeff Berg Katrian and the Baghdad Dead: Bush's Tipping Point? Fred Gardner Marijuana Might Really Make You Cool Charles Sullivan It's Not Easy Being King Dan Vojir God's Ambulance Chasers Website of the Weekend On the Road in Louisiana September 8, 2005 John Chuckman Lessons from Hell Dan La Botz Rehnquist: the Chief Injustice Carol Norris The Psychological Aftermath of Katrina David Krieger Cindy, Katrina and Iraq Irma Thomas An SOS from the Soul Queen of New Orleans Roger Morris Legacy of Neglect September 7, 2005 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz John Wayne and the New Orleans Indians Werther Victor Davis Hanson: Bard of the Booboisie Chris Floyd No Direction Home Jason Leopold The Rich and the Dead Michael Donnelly Cassandra, Apollo and the Red Queen Niranjan Ramakrishnan Clueless in Crawford; Witless in Washington Linda Milazzo / John Stern Idiot Wind: Haley Barbour, Katrina and Hiroshima Gary Leupp Nepal: the Prachanda Path Pierre Tristam Commander-in-Zilch Fails New Orleans Kevin Zeese Kucinich Speaks: Dem Leadership Needs to Get Out of the Way Charmaine Neville How We Survived the Flood   September 6, 2005 Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Our Birmingham: Did Katrina Blow Off the White Sheets of American Racism? Dan La Botz Katrina: State Failure and Human Solidarity Larry Bradshaw / Lorrie Beth Slonsky Trapped in New Orleans: First By Floods, Then By Martial Law Chuck D. Hell No We Ain't Alright Debbie Dupre / Bill Quigley Thank God There's No One to Bomb in Retaliation Omar Wariach Edward Said vs. Orwell and Hitchens: "It's Racism at the Bottom" Mike Whitney Why Rehnquist Doesn't Deserve to be Buried on US Soil Carol Norris In the Wake of Katrina Norman Solomon Firing Mike Brown is not Enough Michael Neumann But What About the Snipers? September 5, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Resurrecting Karl Marx David Vest The Battle of New Orleans:It's Looking a Lot Like Fallujah John Blair Don't Rebuild New Orleans, At Least Where It Was Fidel Castro What Cuba Has Offered the People of the Gulf Coast Mike Whitney 80,000 Rodney Kings in New Orleans Alan Farago Talking Points for a City of Corpses Doug Giebel Bush's New Orleans: "So This is Where He Used to Come to Get Drunk" Mark Chmiel Beatitudes for This New American Century Carol Wolman, MD God to Bush: "You Blew It" Norman Solomon Bush's Answer to Cindy Sheehan: "It Was About Oil" Eli Stephens An Administration Without Shame Peter Linebaugh Loo! Loo! Lulu! Loot!   September 3 / 4, 2005 Alexander Cockburn From Mitch to Katrina Paul Craig Roberts Failure on Every Front Gary Leupp New Orleans and the System that Destroyed It Dave Lindorff Profiteering from Disaster: the Real Looters Wear Pinstripes Dan La Botz Time for the U.S. to Start Over Jonathan M. Feldman From Iraq to New Orleans: the U.S. as a "Failed State" Landau / Hassen The Cuban 5: In Prison for Fighting Terrorism Tim Wise In the Name of the Lord: "Those Looters Should be Shot" Mitchel Cohen People of the Dome: "Let Them Eat Shit..." Dave Zirin The Superdome: the Earth's Most Damnable Homeless Shelter Mike Ferner Waiting on the Outside World: Who Will Rescue America? Rep. Cynthia McKinney Shame on the Bush Administration Jason Leopold Bush's Demented Priorities: the State of Marriage Over the State of Louisiana Justin Felux Kayne West is My Hero: "Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" Monica Benderman Iraq War as Thrill Ride: Getting Off the Rollercoaster Ben Tripp Grab a Towel, You're Next Jordan Flaherty Notes from Inside New Orleans Bill Pahnelas A Rising Tide has Swamped All Boats Seth Sandronsky Hurricane Katrina Exposes the True Face of Capitalism Mark Donham Where's Karl Rove? Fred Gardner CHP Agrees to Follow Law; Justice Stevens Apologizes Joshua Frank Winning the West Jackie Corr The Privatization Mob Poets' Basement Albert, Engel, Louise   September 2, 2005 Evan Jones Katrina and the Corps of Engineers: Manufacturing Disaster David Stocker How Good is Your Levee? Frankly, Scarlet I Don't Think He Gives a Damn Dave Lindorff Baghdad on the Big Muddy Norman Solomon The Smirk of a Killer: Ending the Impunity of the Bush White House Mike Whitney How Bush Deals with a Disaster He Helped Create: Blame the Looters Eli Stephens What They Should Have Learned from Hurrican Ivan Ron Jacobs Katrina, Iraq and Blood Profits Christopher Brauchli Onward Christian Assassins Harvey Wasserman Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead CounterPunch Wire Faith-Based FEMA? Feds Directing Katrina Money to Pat Robertson Glen Ford Will the "New" New Orleans be Black?   September 1, 2005 Dr. Greg Henderson, MD Situation Critical: a Doctor in the Flood Paul Craig Roberts How New Orleans Was Lost Mike Whitney Hurricane Donald: How Rumsfeld Smashed the National Guard Lee Sustar Left Behind to Drown: the Poor and Hurricane Katrina Dave Lindorff The Real Disaster: Bush and the Democrats Lynn Gonzalez The Cindy Spark: Mainstream America Stirs Chris Floyd The Perfect Storm August 31, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair New Orleans After Katrina John Walsh Democrats and the War Bernstein / Mishel Bush Economy: Incomes Down; Poverty Up! Alan Farago What are the Hurricanes Trying to Tell Us? Norman Solomon The National Guard Belongs in New Orleans, Not Baghdad Bryan Newbury "Hey, Shoot that Black Guy Running Off with the Bottled Water!" Jason Leopold What's Eating Cindy Sheehan? Website of the Day The Swiftboating of Cindy Sheehan   August 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Venezuela: Launch Pad for Muslim Extremism? Joshua Frank Bunny and the War Profireers Evelyn Pringle The Woman Who Blew the Whistle on Halliburton Gets Canned Urariano Mota To Die by Mistake: the Killing of Jean Claude de Menezes Ron Jacobs High Water Everywhere CP News Service An Open Letter to Alberto Gonzales: Free the Cuban 5 Roger Morris The War for the Future   August 29, 2005 Seth Sandronsky Pat Robertson, Big Oil's Televangelist Norman Solomon War Liberals and Cindy Sheehan Charles Sullivan Nation of Fools Paul Craig Roberts Does Anyone Know What We're Doing in Iraq? Website of the Day Monsanto Threatens "Bitter Greens" August 27 / 28, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Assassination: as American as Apple Pie (and Torture) Ricardo Alarcon The Cuban 5 in Atlanta: a Long March Towards Justice Diane Christian The Politics of Death: Assassination M. Shahid Alam How to be a Good Victim Laith al-Saud Baghdad Circus: Iraq's Constitutional Process Diane Farsetta School of the Americas Fights Back: PR Plan for Pentagon's "Demonstration Village" Saul Landau Reagan and Bottled Water: the Privatization of Everything Tom Barry Hurricane Hugo: Relating to Venezuela Nicholas Rowe Barenboim in Ramallah: an Unfinished Symphony George E. Bisharat Enforce the Ban on Settlements Dave Lindorff Another Mother for War: the Exploitation of Tammy Pruett Fred Gardner Pot Shots: Doing the Right Thing, Even If You Are Fearful John Francis Lee The Juggernaut of Jingo Evan Jones I.F. Stone on the Perils of Empire Ali Khan Defining Aggression Poets' Basement Albert, Nettnin, Engel, Ford, Krieger, Louise August 26, 2005 Lee Sustar Showdown at Northwest Ramzy Baroud Cindy Sheehan and the Power of the Ordinary Christopher Brauchli The Return of Edwin Meese Peter Harley The Wall as a Good Thing? John Snider Not One of the Gang Kathleen Christison Can Palestine be Put Back in the Equation?     August 25, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Hegemony Lost: the American Economy is Destroying Itself Cockburn / St. Clair Loewenstein's Big Mail Bag: Gaza and "the Shame of It All" J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Racial Politics in California They May Vote for You, But They Won't Have Lunch with You Chhandasi Pandya Libeling Venezuela Richard Ward Impressions from Camp Casey Norman Solomon Exploiting the 9/11 Anniversary: Will the Media Help Bush, Again? Joshua Frank Will the Real Leaders Please Stand Up? Seth Sandronsky GM, the UAW and US Health Care Lucinda Marshall The Democratic Unraveling: How Not to Mention the War VIPS Memo to Bush: Try a Circle of Wise Women Ralph Nader It's Time to Make the Iraq War Personal     August 24, 2005 Stan Goff Containing the Anti-War Movement: the Hayden Plan Rachard Itani Papal Double Standards Elisa Salasin The Militarization of Our Children Ron Jacobs Who Would Jesus Assassinate? John Chuckman Robertson and Posada: Bush's Kind of Terrorists Leibowitz / Heller Gaza: Disengagement or Military Redeployment? Douglas Valentine Suicide as Sacrament Thomas Nagy Congress Should Go to Crawford: an Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan Alexander Cockburn Hitchens Backs Down, Says Sheehan "Not a La Rouchie" Website of the Day Stations of the Cross       August 23, 2005 Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler Pat Robertson is Not a Christian Karen Kilroy Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City Protests: Violent Echoes of Kent State Stew Albert Fascism in America: Are We There Yet? Joshua Frank The Democrats and Cindy Sheehan Dave Zirin Pedaling Away from Principle: Lance Armstrong Cozies Up to Bush Julia Olmstead Our Reckless Chemical Dependence: A Little Round-Up With Your Precautionary Principle? CounterPunch Wire Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Legal Update Jason Leopold Bush's Lips Move, But He Says Nothing Diane Christian The Politics of Death     August 22, 2005 Sonia Nettnin Gaza Stripped, the Occupation Remains Mike Whitney "Shoot to Kill": Tony Blair's First Trophy Kevin Zeese The Latest Falsehood: the US is in Iraq to "Stablize It" Norman Solomon Bush's Bloody Option: Escalate the War in Iraq Christopher Brauchli Secret Talkers Jeff Bale The Left's Challenge in Germany Greg Moses Raw Talk Revival at Camp Casey Two     August 20 / 21, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Can Cindy Sheehan End the War? Saul Landau Terrorism Then and Now: Townley Talks Kevin Zeese an Interview with Tom Hayden Greg Moses A Daytrip without Cindy Ray McGovern Cindy Sheehan and Creative Protest Fred Gardner Merck Gets Whacked Martin Smith Rebellion in the Ranks: the Soldiers' Revolt in Vietnam Benjamin Granby Gaza's Economy: the Key to Sharon's Strategy? Frankie Lake Dirty Tricksters: How the Federalist Society Operates Joshua Frank Failing Nature: the Democrats and the Environment Ron Jacobs When Sympathy is Not Enough Tom Crumpacker Moral Values and the CIA Mike Ferner "All of Our Stories are Sad" James Petras Suicide Bombers: the Sacred and the Profane Col. Dan Smith The President's Dilemma Dr. Teresa Whitehurst What de Menezes Didn't Know Ben Tripp Moses on Top of Old Smokey Poets' Basement Landau, Albert, Engel and Louise     August 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn A Short History of Meat, Part 4: Cutting Up Mochie Neve Gordon After the Withdrawal Gary Leupp The Pandora's Box of Iraq's Constitution William S. Lind Getting Swept Vijay Prashad The Rosa Parks of the Anti-War Movement Dave Lindorff Something Has Happened Pat Williams Social Security and the American West John Pilger Free Speech and the War on Terror Elaine Cassel Judge Roberts and the Death Penalty     August 18, 2005 Alexander Cockburn A Short History of Meat, Part 3: Vegetarians, Nazis for Animal Rights, Blitzkrieg of the Ungulates Greg Moses Cindy, the Peace Train and the Little Ditch that Could Ramzy Baroud Theatrics in Gaza: the Disengagement That Isn't Joshua Frank Bush's Emotional Incapacities Monica Benderman For Cindy: There's No Glory in Dying Paul Craig Roberts Courthouse Jackboots: Corrupted Justice   August 17, 2005 Alexander Cockburn A Short History of Meat: Part Two, the March to Porkopolis Robert Jensen America's Good Germans? Carl G. Estabrook News Notes from the Global War on Terrorism Mike Whitney Greenspan and the Housing Bubble Niranjan Ramakrishnan Shaming the Shameless Norman Solomon Slurs, Lies and Innuendos: Blaming the Antiwar Messengers Dave Zirin In Defense of Felipe Alou Jennifer Loewenstein The Shame of It All: Watching the Gazan Fiasco CounterPunch Clarification     August 16, 2005 Greg Moses Mona in a Field of Crosses at Camp Casey, Texas Thomas Larson The Unmitigated Gall of Dinesh D'Souza Diana Barahona Uneasy Standoff in Venezuela's Media Wars Dave Lindorff The Inquirer's Minds Don't Want to Know Rep. Cynthia McKinney A Letter to President Bush: Meet with Cindy Sheehan Elisa Salasin Hitchens Slimes Cindy Sheehan David Krieger Amazing Grace and Cindy Alexander Cockburn A Short History of Meat: Part One, Peter's Dream Website of the Day Reclaiming Appalachia: a Mountain Takeover     August 15, 2005 Greg Moses Pilgrims of Protest in Crawford Paul Craig Roberts Slouching Toward Armageddon? Mike Whitney Failing in Iraq Robert Jensen The Challenges We Face CounterPunch Wire Judge Fines Voices in the Wilderness $20,000 for Taking Medicine to Iraq; Voices Refuses to Pay Norman Solomon Someone Tell Frank Rich the War Isn't Over Kathleen Christison Camp David Redux: Anatomy of a Frame-Up   August 13 / 14, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair When Down is Up: the "Stricken" President William Blum The al-Dubya Training Manual Gary Leupp High Tide for the Neocons? Jack Z. Bratich Secreting the News: Anonymous vs. Confidential Sources Brian Cloughley The Ridiculous Rice Ron Jacobs Klan Justice: Mississippi is Still Burning John Farley "Beyond Chutzpah" Too Hot for Harvard Bookstore? Dave Lindorff Making the World Safer...for Nukes Tim Wise Animal Whites: PETA and the Politics of Putting Things in Perspective J.L. Chestnut, Jr. There's Not One Real Liberal or Conservative in the Senate John Gershman The Bolton Opportunity Felice Pace Saving Northwest Forests: Time for a Fresh Look Fred Gardner Feds Takeover Prosecution of Dustin Costa David Krieger The Fable of the Emperor and the Grieving Mother Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Being a Protestant Fundamentalist Ben Tripp GWAT: a Tone Poem Poets' Basement Reiss, Nettnin, Engel and Louise     August 12, 2005 Christopher Brauchli Courting God: Justice Sunday II Greg Moses A Crawford Peace House Morning with Cindy Sheehan Ramzy Baroud Israel's Nuclear Puzzle Norman Solomon Cindy Sheehan's Message: Repudiating Bush and Dean Chris Genovali Why is a Canadian Politician Trying to End Protections for US Grizzly Bears? Chris Floyd Cheney and Halliburton, the Stench Gets Worse Tariq Ali Blair's New Authoritarianism     August 11, 2005 Saul Landau Globalization and Its Discontents Dave Lindorff Privatization will Harm Same Sex Couples Ralph Nader Dear Cindy Sheehan: May You Prevail Where Others Have Failed Talli Nauman Radioactive Border: the Hot Mounds of Samalayuca Gary Leupp Politics of an Outing: Plame, Ledeen and Iran Sharon Smith The New Anti-War Majority Paul Craig Roberts Why is Cheney Lobbying for a Boost in China's Nuclear Capability?     August 10, 2005 Tim Wise Indian Mascots and White Rage Ron Jacobs Rumsfeld's Delusions Joshua Frank Dean and the PDA: Don't Believe the Hype Cynthia McKinney The 9/11 Op-Ed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Refuses to Run Rick Wilhelm Peter Jennings, Excuse Maker for War and Empire Stan Goff Homegrown Resistance     August 9, 2005 Mike Ferner What One Mom has to Say to Bush: Cindy Sheehan in Dallas Monica Benderman Is Being a Conscientious Objector Now Criminal? Mike Marqusee Making Excuses for Killing De Menezes Rep. Cynthia McKinney Strange Fruit and Tree-Shakers Paul Craig Roberts Watching the US Economy Crumble     August 6-8, 2005 Alexander Cockburn How the British Destroyed India Jason Leopold Halliburton and Iran: Still Doing Business After All These Years? Ray McGovern Iran, Truth-Tellers and the Devotees of Preemption David Krieger From Hiroshima to Humanity Sharon K. Weiner / Robert Jensen From Hiroshima to Iraq and Back Fred Gardner The Budtender's View of a Rip-Off     August 5, 2005 Bill Christison New NIE Report on Iran's Nukes will Not Deter US's Posture of Extreme Aggressiveness Paul Craig Roberts Kelo: a Supreme Assault on Personal Liberty Alexander Cockburn The Taj Mahal as Kitsch; the Editor and the Water-Walking Guru     August 4, 2005 Tom Barry Inside Bush's "World Democracy Movement" Lila Rajiva John Bolton's New Internationalism Greg Moses Bush Teaches Intelligent Design in Prison Alexander Cockburn Indian Journal: Why Indian Farmers Kill Themselves August 3, 2005     August 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Broken Arrows and Iran: a B-52 Pilot Remembers Paul Craig Roberts The Kelo Calamity: Money, Power and Eminent Domaine William A. Cook Innocent Victims: From Hiroshima to Lower Manhattan Dave Zirin Bush's Texas Rangers: a Crackhouse for Juiced Players? Dave Lindorff Court Packing and Worker Rights José Pertierra Why Hamdi Isaac Yes and Posada Carriles No?   August 2, 2005 Ramzi Kysia Disengagement and Diaspora: High Walls and Razor Wire in the Hebron William A. Cook Words Without Meaning: Torturing Bodies and Language Paul Craig Roberts When Armageddon Gets No Press Mike Whitney Chertoff's Preemptive Crackdown: 600 Arrests, Only 76 Charged Ron Jacobs Be a Hero: Demand That Johnny Come Home Norman Madarsz Before the Stun Gun: Jean Charles de Menezes, RIP Tim Wise The Faulty Logic of "Terrorist" Profiling     August 1, 2005 Virginia Rodino Why Bono and Geldof Got It Wrong: War and Global Poverty are Linked Diana Barahona Return to Venezuela: Land Reform and Neighborhood Doctors Joshua Frank Gitmo's Kangaroo Courts: First Torture Them, Then Rig Their Trials Mike Whitney The Consolidation of Powers: Rubber Stamp Roberts Norm Dixon The Worst Terror Attacks in History Norman Solomon Operation Withdrawal Scam James Petras The Corruption of Lula's Regime     July 30 / 31, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Lost Nuclear Warheads Now in Iran? JoAnn Wypijewski Scenes and Silver Linings from Labor's Crack-Up: a Special Report from Chicago Sheldon Rampton War is Fun as Hell: the Video Games Recruiters Play Jack Z. Bratich Fingerprints of Power: a Summer of Double Super Secrecy Greg Moses How to Cool Your Heels in Texas When It's Late July Across the World Jordan Green From Woolworth to Wal-Mart: Economics and the Race Divide in a Southern City Patrick Cockburn Getting Out of Iraq: 5,000 US Troops Have Gone AWOL Brian Cloughley The Bush-Cheney Fixation on Iran Justin Taylor Harry Potter and the War on Terror Saul Landau Enhancements for the Imperial Life: Fashionism Takes Command! John Walsh Dems Field Another Pro-War Candidate: Meet Hack the Hawk Joshua Frank Color-Coded Justice: John Roberts's Racial Hang Up Ron Jacobs Who Needs Feminism? We Have Condi Rice! Fred Gardner The Ethan and Gavin Show John Chuckman Friedman on Terrorism: the Dumbest Story Ever Written Liaquat Ali Khan Lessons City Bombers Need to Learn from Newton and Donne Remi Kanazi Annexing Justice in Palestine Naveen Jaganathan The Gurgaon Riots Rock India Richard Heinberg Where is the Hirsch Peak Oil Report? Max Watts Francis Ona, the Napoleon of Mekamui Ben Tripp Write Your Own Editorial! Poets' Basement Whalen & Engel, Landau, Albert and Krieger       July 29, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Who's the Real Martyr? Judy Miller or Jim DeFede? P. Sainath The Class War in Gurgaon Niranjan Ramakrishnan How the West Was Lost: CAFTA and the Disassembling of America Dave Lindorff Marvelous Marvin Bush J.L. Chestnut, Jr. America's Racist Inventory: Oppression Breeds Violence Pat Williams Giving Away the Last Best Place Norman Solomon In Praise of Kevin Benderman: a Moral Leader of the Nation Goes to Prison Sen. Russ Feingold The Bad News About the Energy Bill     July 28, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Departing Iraq William S. Lind The Duke of Alba and George W. Bush Gilad Atzmon Blair the Camera Man Joshua Frank Passing CAFTA: Blame the Democrats Lila Rajiva Vision Mumbai Submerged Amina Mire Pigmentation and Empire: the Emerging Skin-Whitening Industry Website of the Day Gateway to Underground News     July 27, 2005 Roger Morris The Source Beyond Rove: Condoleezza Rice at the Center of the Plame Scandal Gary Leupp Is Iran Being Set Up? Paul Craig Roberts US Falling Behind Across the Board Jackie Corr Class War on the Ruby River: the Billionaire with His Foot in His Mouth Mike Whitney The Coming End of the Housing Bubble Dave Zirin Why Lance Armstrong Must Break with Bush Christopher Bradley Why I Have Trouble Reading the News Norman Solomon Thomas Friedman, Liberal Sadist? Website of the Day Stormin' Norman                   Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition October 1 / 2, 2005 Serious Cinema The Constant Gardener By SAUL LANDAU "When you're blue," my uncle told me, "see a happy movie. If you feel good, find a depressing film." I reflect on his advice. Escape at the movies. That's what the industry does, after all, sell products at the box office like the pharmacy sells them over the counter or by prescription, to take you up or bring you down. In Spanish "diversion" means entertainment, so why I feel unsatisfied when commercial films designed to draw mass audiences for corporate profit don't fulfill my serious critical expectations? Indeed, producers design products to "divert" viewing publics from their actual problems and guide them instead to fantasy land where they elude life's issues. The film industry, like the auto industry, sells a shiny commodity, on the outside. But, like cars, they break down when subjected to the test of time -- serious scrutiny. Given the limits imposed by commercial film grammar, how do socially conscious script writers insert social content? The unwritten rule forces writers to adopt acceptable Hollywood grammar; then they can insert "messages." So, to deal with major issues, films lure audiences with sympathetic actors. In Salvador, Oliver Stone treats US repression and Salvadorian revolution through the antics of pot-smoking reporter James Woods. While investigating a story, he "discovers" murderous US-backed evil and to add balance -- dubious revolutionary zeal. In Under Fire, Nick Nolte plays the photo-journalist who records the horrors of the US-backed Somoza regime. The Constant Gardener, an adaptation of John Le Carre's most recent novel, also follows in the celluloid footsteps of environmental adventures like Erin Brockovich (2000) and The China Syndrome (1979). In order to expose the pharmaceutical conglomerates and their intimate relations with the British government in the era of globalization, the producers find sympathetic actors and use their stories tragedies to reveal the ugly truth. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz do for The Constant Gardner what the sexy and magnetic Julia Roberts did for the muckraking film about the evil energy corporation. Erin discovered that PG&E has polluted, covered up and lied. She succeeds, of course, after enduring the outrageous slings and arrows aimed at the crusaders who dare tackle big business and big government usually combined. Similarly, Jane Fonda took on the nuclear gang in The China Syndrome. Both films depict the perfidy of the corporate-business partnership that makes profits by screwing the public. At the end of such movies, audiences leave the theaters saying "thank God for people like Jane Fonda or Kimberly Something." Or, "lucky we have people like Julia Roberts or Erin Whatsername." More realistic than comic book heroes, these Hollywood characters guide the spectator into vicarious and visceral identity with the hero, not the issue. The stomach takes over the emotions and the critical brain cells doze. Look at Erin Brockovich's poster showing sexy Julia Roberts! "She brought a small town to its feet and a huge company to its knees." The emphasis falls on "she," not "brought a small town to its feet," which is a crude metaphor at best. More convincing than a cartoon superhero, Erin has earthly issues, like three kids and no income. She gets a biker dude to fall in love with her the compulsory sex scene -- and then converts him into Mr. Mom who watches her kids. She possesses the contradictory qualities that make her believable. She's smart and compassionate, willful and resourceful. As Erin, Julia Roberts got to wear tight blouses that showed cleavage that helped her acquire a lawyer boss (Albert Finney) who had sufficient age and belly to form a sympathetic screen character. Like others who got close to her, he falls prey to Erin's force and inner and outer beauty as well as her manipulative skills. Millions identified briefly -- with this Julia or Erin as she fought and beat the big corporation. The real Erin did organize a community and a law suit against California's PG&E and a jury found the utility giant guilty of poisoning ground water in Hinkley, CA. They had to pay more than $300 million to more than seventy residents of the area. The film did show that people could fight back and win some measure of justice, if they had as a leader someone of unusual will and courage. Similarly, The China Syndrome provided cinematic reality to latent fears of citizens about the downside of nuclear energy. In case the safety officer in a nuclear plant, even someone slightly more competent than Homer Simpson, suffers a sudden lapse of attention, an American Chernobyl could result. Like Erin, The China Syndrome featured a courageous woman. Jane Fonda as Kimberly Wells plays an ambitious but small time TV reporter, an opportunist with career aspirations. Kimberly on a routine assignment at the local nuclear plant hears the plant's PR man refer to "a routine turbine trip." Having a reporter's nose, she learns that this kind of "routine" could lead to a "meltdown""called The China Syndrome, a series of events that could lethally radiate Southern California. Because of cost-cutting on safety so as to increase the bottom line, the corporate grubbing nuclear gang allowed a similar occurrence three months after the film's release, at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. This gave the film a sense of immediacy. The Constant Gardner deviates from the other films that expose the murder and larceny built into corporate globalization. John Le Carre, a former British spook, gets angrier as he grows older. Beginning with his portrayal of England's national security apparatus in Spy Who Came In From The Cold, he has revealed the insight of cynicism that lay behind the West's crusade against communism. When Blair partnered with Bush in invading Iraq, Le Carre went ballistic and rightly so. In Absolute Friends, a story of two old spooks and their friendship, Le Carre shows the stupidity of continuing such "national security" nonsense and ends up with one of the most convincing denunciations written of the invasion of Iraq. Once a servant of empire, Le Carre has become a world class outraged anti-imperialist. Constant Gardner captures this rage without violating the book, as most commercial films do to the literature that spawned them. Although it follows traditional grammar -- boy meets girl, gets girl and loses girl love story -- it takes people beyond the personal and into the story of the immense sin against the people of Africa committed by the imperialists over centuries. In Kenya, Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List, The English Patient and End of the Affair) plays Justin Quayle, an obedient and gently British diplomat, who marries a younger and much more radical Tessa, (Rachel Weisz, from Constantine, The Shape of Things). Justin doesn't catch Rachel's political commitment as he putters in his garden. He loves her so much he seems oblivious to the facts of her daily life with Kenya's urban poor. Then, the police found the murdered corpses of Rachel and her black African activist partner as they returned from a trip to another part of Kenya. Thus, commercial grammar and social content merge. Although mysterious messages allude to Rachel's infidelity, Justin embarks on a mission: find his wife's killers. In so doing, he confronts corporate pharmaceutical monsters whom Tessa had fingered as using Africans as guinea pigs in drug experimentation. The drug companies who insisted that Africans pay retail price for anti-AIDS medications also forced natives to take experimental drugs in order to obtain their AIDS treatments. Worse, Justin's colleagues inside the Foreign Service emerge as collaborators in murder and its cover-up. The Africa of CG takes on qualities missing indeed the opposite of from Black Hawk Down, where gangs and thugs seem to rule the streets. Director Fernando Meirelles used shots of Nairobi' squalid slums as he did in City of God to convey both the reality of poverty in modern Africa and the transcendent humanity of the slum dwellers. The Constant Gardner places blame where it belongs for the exploitation of Africans: on the globalized corporate executives and their government servants. The film also casts its shadow over the cooperative lackeys who run the police and government in Kenya. The key villains, from the United States and Great Britain, mouth the usual platitudes about the inevitability of everything and the "you can't fight progress" crap. After the two hour vicarious experience aided by a strong musical score and vivid cutting, my brain still worked. I reflected on the absence of a well organized global movement to take on this monstrous conspiracy that operates under banners of "free trade" and other such benign euphemisms. Such a movement actually began when people from all over the world gathered in Seattle in 1999 to oppose the unelected elite who make global decisions about how the world economy. This coalition has grown more powerful and hopefully, films and books like CG will get them more recruits. That will test the strength of its social message. Saul Landau is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies.

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