Today's
Stories
December 28,
2006
Norman Finkelstein
The
Ludicrous Attacks on Jimmy Carter's Book
December 27,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Farewell
to Our Greatest President: Adieu, Gerald Ford
Faruq Ziada
Is
There a Sunni Majority in Iraq?
Christopher Brauchli
Burning EPA's Books: What They Don't Want You to Read Might Save
Your Life
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Journey to Vietnam: Dare We Not Say Genocide?
Nikolas Kozloff
Saving
Caracas
Mark Schneider
Why Hope? Reasons for Optimism
December 26, 2006
Peter Stone
Brown
James
Brown: Please Don't Go
Tito Tricot
Chile: the Ghosts of Torture
Gary Leupp
Cowboys Differ on Iran Attack: Cheney/Bush vs. the Baker Commission
John V. Walsh
Dershowitz vs. Carter in Beantown: Peace Movement AWOL, Again
Reza Fiyouzat
Red Christmas: Why Santa Was Hot in China This Year
Ron Jacobs
The Golem: a Conversation with Marc Estrin
Website of
the Day
JB:
Prisoner of Love
December 25, 2006
Saul Landau
A
Jeep Trip with Fidel
Lang / McGovern
To
Surge or Not to Surge?
Michael Dickinson
Should Stupid Thoughts Be Crimes?: Deny Santa If You Will, But
...
Website of
the Day
James Brown, RIP
December 23 / 24, 2006
Marjorie Cohn
What's
Going On?
Jeffrey L.
Gould
The Capital of Salvadoran Memory: El Mozote After 25 Years
Diane Christian
The Rape of Iraq
William Loren
Katz
From the Raid on "Fort Negro" to Iraq: Lessons from
the First US Invasion
Greg Moses
This War Can't be Made Right by Winning
M. Shahid Alam
An Islamic Civil War: Chaos by Design?
Fred Gardner
Exposé as Inoculant: HRT, Zyprexa, Lilly and the Press
Dave Lindorff
Crime of the Century
Azmi Bishara
Ways of Denial
Ralph Nader
The BCS: a Monopoly on College Football
Seth Sandronsky
Fiscally Imperiled Social Security?
William Hughes
Cop Assaults Activists at Lockheed Protest
Ron Jacobs
Making Stones Weep
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to on New Year's Eve
December 22,
2006
David Rosen
Bush's
Foreign Sex Policy: Imperialism's Second Front
Christopher
Brauchli
When the Secret is the Question: Secret Prisons, Top Secret Interrogations
John Ross
Flashlights
in the Tunnel of Hate
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Political
Sell-Outs in Black and White
Rahul Mahajan
Dennis Kucinich: Maverick or Stalking Horse?
Arthur Neslen
Provoking Civil War in the Occupied Territories
Peter Rost, MD
The Secrets of His Success: Fired Pfizer CEO Walks Away with
$198 Million
Website of
the Day
10 Ways to Change the World in 2007
December 21, 2006
Rosa Mariam
Elizalde
An
Interview with Gore Vidal: "I am Jealous of Cuba"
Arundhati Roy
Breaking the News
Brian Cloughley
Poppies Rising: Afghanistan's Drug Catastrophe
Daniel White
Jimmy Carter in Austin: Time to Come Clean on the Shoot Down
of That Itavia DC-9
John V. Whitbeck
On Israel's Right to Exist
Sam Smith
Still Smearing Ralph Nader for 2000
Paris Reidhead
GM Ice Cream: Something's Fishy in Your Good Humor Bar
Kevin Wehr
Denying Disaster: Katrina and the Case for Impeachment
Website of the Day
Pesticides and Amphibians: a Vital New Database
December 20, 2006
Gabriel Kolko
Rumsfeld
and the American Way of War
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The Pentagon Measures the Chaos in Iraq
Tariq Ali
The War is Lost
Saree Makdisi
Israel, Apartheid and Jimmy Carter
Bruce Jackson
Saying "Oh!": John Mohawk and the Power to Make Peace
Dave Lindorff
Democrats Walk Into a Bush Trap on Iraq
Leslie Radford
The Winter Harvest of the South Central Farmers
Dave Jansson
Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Secessionists Confront the
Empire
Johnny Barber
Jesus is a Terrorist
Website of
the Day
Is It for Freedom?
December 19, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
Democrats
Prepare to Fund Longer War
Jonathan Cook
End
of the Strongmen
Greg Moses
Globalized Gulag: Palestinian Refugees and Children Held in Hutto,
TX Jail
Sean Penn
Georgie,
There's a Crowd Downstairs
Dave Lindorff
Innocents Abroad: Cracking Down on Gitmo Detainees Despite Overwhelming
Evidence Most Are Not Terrorists
Ralph Nader
Going
Postal
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Pink Tide?
Carlos Villarreal
The
Well is Poisoned: Victory Requires an Immediate Pull-Out
Website of
the Day
Chuck Spinney on the Pentagon
December 18, 2006
Luis J. Rodriguez
En
Lak Ech: Chicanos, Mayans and Mel Gibson
Norman Solomon
Washington Refuses to End the War: Powell, Baker, Hamilton--Thanks
for Nothing!
Uri Avnery
Lebanon: War Without a Plan
Ron Jacobs
More Troops, More Body Bags
Phil Gasper
Afghanistan: Bush's Other War Unravels
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Iran's Elections: The World Isn't Florida and Bush Isn't Its
Supreme Leader
William Blum
The United States of Punishment
Jim Goodman
So What's the Big Deal If Wal-Mart Makes a Mistake?
James Brooks
Talking Surge: Let's Kill Some More Before We Go
Maria C. Khoury
Walking Into the Art World: Designing a Palestinian Academy for
the Arts
Website of the Day
Got Powell
December 16 / 17, 2006
Weekend Edition
Vijay Prashad
A
Perilous Way to Socialism
Saul Landau
Filming Fidel
Anthony Arnove
The US Occupation of Iraq: Act III of a Tragedy of Many Parts
Paul Cantor
The Puppet and the Puppeteer: Pinochet and Kissinger
Annie Nocenti
Baluchistan's Fight: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes
Nicole Colson
Hard Times on the Killing Floor: Smithfield's Rotten Record
Stephen Gowans
Tehran's Holocaust Conference
Jordan Flaherty
A Catastrophic Failure: Foundations, Nonprofits and the Second
Looting of New Orleans
Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Faces 15 to Life
P. Sainath
There's No Such Thing as a Free Cow
Seth Sandronsky
The Democrats and Social Security: Watch What the Party Says
and Does
Nadia Hijab
An AIPAC Shot Across Baker's Bow?
Deb Reich
Dear Santa, (Or Someone): Greetings from the Occupied Holy Lands
Susie Day
Cops Shoot Another Rich White Man!
Albert Wan
Why Does It Take 50 Bullets?
Missy Beattie
Will the Next Leader Stand Up? Please!
Martha Rosenberg
Kicking the Wyeth Habit Saves Women's Lives
Lee Ballinger
The Devil's Highway: Clinton, Border Checkpoints and the Deaths
of the Yuma 14
Michael Dickinson
Kingdom of Fear
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Live/Evil: Listening to Miles Davis
Poets' Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
Website of
the Weekend
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
December 15,
2006
Eliza Ernshire
Palestinian
"Civil War" and the Israeli Chocolate Ration
Virginia Tilley
What
Are You Going to Do Now, Israel?
Mike Ferner
Roll Call for the Choir: If They Vote for War, Occupy 'Em!
John Ross
Mad Mel's Mayan Apocalypse
Fred Wilhelms
The Flip Side of Ahmet Ertegun: Where Did You Get Those Shoes?
Kevin Zeese
Dennis Kucinich's Strange Mission: Can You Be a Real Anti-War
Candidate in a Pro-War Party?
David Severn
Social Engineering Begins at Home: Jeffrey Skoll, Billionaire
Philantropist
Dave Lindorff
Sen. Tim Johnson Death Watch: Senate Gridlock May Be Best Outcome
Sunsara Taylor
As American as Shopping and Torture
Website of
the Day
June 2, 2004: When Iraq Was There For The Looting
December 14,
2006
Jonathan Cook
The
Recognition Trap
Riz Khan
An Interview with Jimmy Carter
Jason Hribal
Kasatka, the Sea World Orca
Pennick / Gray
The Plight of Black Farmers: Racism in the US Farm Program
Richard Levins
That Embezzled Anti-Castro Money
Pat Williams
The College Crisis: Universal Access, Student Loan Debts and
Pell Grants
Peter Rost, MD
Simply Irresistible: Do Women Prefer Bad Boys?
Website of
the Day
The Sound of Rummy
December 13,
2006
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
is Beyond Repair
Greg Moses
The Dixie Chicks Come Home to Roost
Elizabeth Schulte
Hungry for the Holidays
Joshua Frank
Death By Coke
Debra Eschmeyer
Corporations Control Your Dinner
Leon Hadar
Baker's Rescue Mission: Too Little, Too Late
Peter Rost, MD
I've Been a Very Bad Boy
Margaret Knapke
Mow bé and Malachi, Presenté!
Reza Fiyouzat
Are Cows Free?
Fred Wilhelms
A Last Minute Appeal: If You Know One of These Musicians Let
Them Know They Are Owed Money--By Friday!
Website of
the Day
The Crimes of Augusto Pinochet
December 12, 2006
Fernando A.
Torres
The
Last Man of the Junta: an Open Letter to Kissinger from One of
Pinochet's Political Prisoners
Paul Craig
Roberts
America's
Injustice System is Criminal
Stephen Soldz
Abusive Interrogations
Uri Avnery
Baker's Cake
William S. Lind
Knocking Opportunity: From Vulcans to Vultures in Iraq
Missy Beattie
Convicted for Our Convictions: Trespassing for Truth at the UN
Dave Lindorff
The 35-Year Long Scream: Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Vet's
Tears
George Pyle
Our Perverse Farm Plan: Where Christmas Comes Every Five Years
Norman Solomon
Is the USA the Center of the World?
Website of
the Day
Citizens' War Tribunal
December 11,
2006
Virginia Tilley
Banning
Mandela
Roger Burbach
The Condor Model: the Atrocities of Pinochet and the US
Col. Douglas MacGregor
There's Only One Option Left: Leave!
Fawwas Traboulsi
Lebanon on the Brink
Ron Jacobs
Death of a Pig: Poetic Justice for Pinochet
Gideon Levy
The Cruel Line into Gaza: Elbow to Elbow, Like Cattle
Mary McGrane
Burning Books at Harvard Law
Bernardo Ruiz
The Disappeared of Oaxaca: a Message from One of the Actors in
Apocalypto
Website of the Day
La Cancion de la Unidad
Video of the
Day
Killing
Castro: Congresswoman as Contract Killer?
December 9
/ 10, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Liberal
Consensus for More Troops in Iraq
Sen. Gordon Smith
Out of Iraq: Cut and Run or Cut and Walk
Greg Grandin
Jeane
Kirkpatrick, Mid-Wife of the Neo-Cons
Paul Craig Roberts
How Many More Will Die for Bush's Ego?
Col. Dan Smith
The Vietnamization of Iraq: Inside the Military Training Program
Ralph Nader
The Man from NAM: John Engler's Trail of Destruction
Behrooz Ghamari
The Donkey and the Date: Iran's Upcoming Municipal Elections
Rev. Willliam Alberts
Doing Unto Others: Pastor Haggard and President Bush
James T. Phillips
The James Gang: "Did You Kill Her?"
Bennis / Leaver
A Bi-Partisan Occupation
Dave Lindorff
A Congress of Hucksters and Pipsqueaks
Nikolas Kozloff
Robert Gates and Venezuela: Another Saber Rattler in Latin America
Seth Sandronsky
Activating White Racism
Lucinda Marshall
McKinney and Karpinsky: Silenced for Telling the Truth
Mike Whitney
Something's Gotta Give: James Baker vs. the Lobby
John V. Whitbeck
Recommendation No. 80
Faisal Kutty
Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Merely a Western
Construct?
Hugh Sansom
Smearing Jimmy Carter: an Open Letter to the New York Times
Robert Gold
My South American Journey: Impunity in Colombia
Boots Riley
Crash and Burn: an Urgent Message from The Coup
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Engel & Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Alive in Mexico
December 8, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
The
Iraq Study Group's Cautious Appraisal
Leutisha Stills
Just
How Progressive is the Congressional Black Caucus?
Norman Finkelstein
The Media Lynching of Jimmy Carter
Will Youmans
Mr. Lieberman Comes to Washington: Brookings Hosts an Ethnic
Cleanser
Peter Rost, MD
What Went Wrong at Pfizer?
Jonathan Demme
My Friend Bruce Langhorne: a Great Musician Needs Your Help!
Ray McGovern
Senate Democrats Give Gates a Free Pass
Lucinda Marshall
What She Wore
Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn
The Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
John Lennon's FBI Files
December 7,
2006
Alex Friedman
Rev.
Phelps' Hate-Fueled Fanatics Find a Home in the Kansas Prison
Industry
Maureen Webb
Risk Scoring and the National Insecurity State
Paul Craig Roberts
Catastrophe Still Awaits
Dave Lindorff
Prosecutor Admits: Mumia Abu-Jamal Had "No True Defense"
Matt Vidal
Drug Pushers, Inc.: Power and Profit in the Legal Drug Trade
Yifat Susskind
Looking for a Few Good Principles: What Should be Done in Iraq
Rodriguez / Jones
NYPD's Death Squads: From Diallo to Sean Bell
Website of
the Day
2006, Remixed
December 6, 2006
Robert Bryce
Omitting
the Obvious with James Baker: From the S&L Crisis to the
Iraq Study Group
William S. Lind
The Boomerang Effect: When Will the First IED Strike Cincy?
Zoe Blunt
The Clearcut Truth About the Great Bear Rainforest
Corporate Crime Reporter
The New Conventional Wisdom: Prosecute Individuals, Not Corporations
Amira Hass
A Regrettable Indifference: Israel's Treatment of Palestinian
Prisoners
Richard W. Behan
The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War
Sophie McNeill
Why Hezbollah is Broadcasting Sunday Mass
December 5, 2006
Virginia Tilley
Apartheid
Israel: a Beacon of Hope?
Sharon Smith
The New Washington Consensus: Blame the Victims in Iraq
Joe Bageant
Somewhere a Banker Smiles
Ron Jacobs
A War Washington Can't Win
Norman Solomon
Media Consensus, Stay in Iraq!
Mike Whitney
Rumsfeld's Final Snowflake: "I Was Just About to Change
Everything ... "
Derrick O'Keefe
Regimes Unchanged: Chavez's Victory Strengthen's Cuba
Julian Assange
The Road to Hanoi
Missy Beattie
Bush, the Unhappy Helmsman
Website of
the Day
Lessons of Suez and Iraq
December 4,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Gaza
and Darfur
George Ciccariello-Maher
Tears of the Escualidos: Election Diary, Venezuela
Ray McGovern
Lame Ducks, Hold That Nomination!: a CIA Insider's Take on Gates
John Ross
Repression on the Menu in Mexico
Walden Bello
Hurricane Milton: Friedman, Bayonets and Markets
Peter Rost,
MD
Pfizer's Clueless Executives
Stephen Lendman
The Withering of the Bush Dynasty
Gideon Levy
This Ceasefire will Go Up in Flames
Website of the Day
The "Babes" of Hizbullah?
December 2
/ 3, 2006
Weekend Edition
Barucha Calamity
Peller
The
Dirty War of Oaxaca
Paul Craig
Roberts
Is Bush Sane?: When Denial Goes Pathological
Ralph Nader
The Big Boys of Financial Crime
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Committee of Enablers: Is Gates Fit to Serve? Are the Senators?
Amira Hass
The Checkpoint Generation
Maymanah Farhat
Depoliticizing Arab Art: Christie's and the Rush to "Discover"
the Arab World
Dave Lindorff
Fighting the Iraq War--At Home
Fred Gardner
Dr. Jimenez Defends His Practice Methods
Col. Dan Smith
The Semantics of Civil War
Raed Jarrar
Maliki's Monopoly of Power
Seth Sandronsky
US Prison Nation: Locking Up Surplus Labor
K.-Y. Taylor
The Bride Wore Black: the Shooting of Sean Bell and the Resurgence
of American Racism
Yifat Susskind
Greed, Dogma and AIDS
David Rosen
Made in China: the Global Trade in Sex Toys
Ron Jacobs
All Hands on Deck!: the New Pirates of the Caribbean
Nikolas Kozloff
Venezuela Prepares to Vote
Talli Nauman
Fighting La Choya: the Secret Toxic Dump on the Border
Alan Gregory
Shadow Trout: Why Hatchery Fish Aren't Real
Joe Allen
RFK and Hollywood Mythmaking: Emilio Estevez's Beatification
of Bobby Kennedy
St. Clair /
D'Antoni
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Ford and Orloski
Website of
the Day
Demo for Oaxaca
December 1,
2006
Greg Grandin
Midnight
in Mexico: Calderón's Inauguration Behind Closed Doors
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The
Mumia Case After 25 Years: Still More Keystone Kops Antics
George Ciccariello-Maher
Sleeping with the Enemy: At Home with the Anti-Chavistas
Brian J. Foley
Taking Responsibility for Iraq
Dave Zirin
Rebel Athletes: Organizing the Jocks for Justice
Joshua Frank
The Montana Formula: Jon Tester's Neopopulism
Chris Floyd
Hideous Kinky: Thomas Friedman Comes Undone
Ingmar Lee
Atomic Porker Strikes Indian Point Nuke Plant
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Dark Fire: the Fall of WTC 7
Website of the Day
No Gun Ri Revisited
Video of the
Day
Drunken Hack Goes Ape at Aussie "Pulitzers"
November 30, 2006
Jonathan Cook
Palestinians
Are Being Denied the Right of Non-Violent Resistance
Tariq Ali
Axis of Hope: Venezuela and the Bolivarian Dream
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Confirmation
Hearings as Kabuki Dance
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
Heat and Steel: the Thermodynamics of 9/11
William S. Lind
More Troops Into a Lost War?
Ray McGovern
Gates is Rumsfeld Lite
Fidel Castro
"It is Our Duty to Save Our Species"
Agustin Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: So Close to the West, So Far From Democracy
CP News Service
The Arrest of Gerardo Bonilla: Muralist Among Oaxaca's Disappeared
Website of
the Day
The Life and Times of H-Bomb Ferguson
November 29, 2006
Glen Ford
Barack
Obama and the Winds of War
Chris Sands
Blood, Snow and NATO: the Latvian Summit Viewed from Afghanistan
Rochelle Gause
Dispatch from Oaxaca: Where Murderers Still Stalk the Streets,
Protected by Police
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
The Physics of 9/11
Norman Finkelstein
HRW's Shameful Press Release on Palestine
Peter Rost,
MD
Pfizer's Shell Game: the Contraction Begins
Gary Leupp
CIA Report: No Evidence of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program
Joe DeRaymond
From Norman Morrison to Malachai Ritscher: Self-Immolation as
Anti-War Protest
Christopher Fons
Prostituting Democracy: History, Latvia and Bush's Night on the
Town in Riga
Sibel Edmonds
Auctioning Off Former Statesmen and Dime-a-Dozen Generals
Website of the Day
Bombing a Mosque
November 28,
2006
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
Nears the "Saigon Moment"
Winslow T.
Wheeler
SASC-ing Robert Gates
Michael Ratner
The War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld: a Q&A
John Ross
The War on Rebel Journalists
Molly Secours
Racism Kills: From Michael Richards to the NYPD
Peter Rost,
MD
Big Pharma and "the Pill": Profits, Branding and Experimentation
on Women
Lucinda Marshall
War Chic
Website of
the Day
"Action" in Iraq
November 27,
2006
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Genocide
or Erasure of Palestinians: Does It Matter What You Call It?
Uri Avnery
An Evening in Jounieh
Nikolas Kozloff
The Rise of Rafael Correa: Ecuador and the Contradictions of
Chavismo
Michael Donnelly
Freedom Air: Keeping the Skies Safe from Nipples and Muslims
Ben Terrall / John Miller
Bush's Big Indonesian Photo-Op
Robert Jensen
Digging In and Digging Deep
Sol Littman
Missing Canada's Health Care System in Tucson
Website of
the Day
State Minimum Wages: a Policy That Works
November 25
/ 26, 2006
Gabriel Kolko
Factors
in Our Colossal Mess
Saul Landau
Republic
of the Repressed
William Blum
New Congress, Same Quagmire
Ralph Nader
The Trouble with the Bubble
Fred Gardner
The War on Us: Another 1.9 Million Victims
Daniel Wolff
Return to District 8, New Orleans
M. Shahid Alam
Pitting the West Against Islam
James J. Brittain
Censorship in Colombia: the Arrest of Freddie Muñoz
George Ciccariello-Maher Contingency and Counter-Contingency
in Venezuela
Aseem Shrivastava
India on 20 Cents a Day
Seth Sandronsky
The Washington Post's War on Social Security
Julian Assange
The Curious Origins of Political Hacktivism
Christopher Brauchli
The Rout and the Honeymoon: In and Out of Bed with Bush
Michele Naar-Obed
A Letter to the Judge Who Sentenced My Husband to Federal Prison
for Protesting Nuclear Weapons
Ramzy Baroud
Reclaiming America
Christiane
Passevant /
Larry Portis
Women in the Israeli Army: Two New Films
Adam Engel
Striving of His Day-Days: a Prose Poem
Jeffrey St.
Clair /
David Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Davies, Gibbons, Louise, Buknatski, Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
The Black Agenda
November 24,
2006
Charles Glass
How
to Let Lebanon Live
Gideon Levy
A Prayer in Paradise
Jonathan Cook
Syria as Fallguy
Ron Jacobs
Build a Fire on Main Street: Stop the War, Now!
Brian McKenna
Native Resurgence Spurs Hope: Giving Thanks to America's Indians
Kim Ives
The UN Fails Haiti, Again
November 23,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
The
Democrats and the Slaughterhouse
November 22, 2006
Kathleen Christison
The
Massacre at Beit Hanoun
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's Lone Victory: Defeating the Bill of Rights
Mike Roselle
Green Muscle on Election Day: Now is the Time for Boldness
Dave Lindorff
The First Task of the New Congress
Greg Moses
Up From Chiapas: Giving Thanks to Women's Revolution
Dave Zirin
Born Under Punches: the Pimping of Mike Tyson
Nadia Martinez
Dealing with Ortega
Sherwood Ross
Why the World Needs Trade Unions Now More Than Ever
David Kalbfeisch
I Am A Navy Veteran Against Wars
Gilad Atzmon
Palestinian Solidarity in a Time of Massacres
Website of the Day
Sorry, Charlie: No Draft
November 21,
2006
Robert Bryce
The
Ongoing Myth of Energy Independence
John V. Walsh
Spoilers of the World Unite!
Luis Hernandez Navarro
Lessons from the Teachers of Oaxaca
Kevin Zeese
An Interview with Michael Isikoff on Iraq
Peter Rost, MD
Rules of the Game: How Big Corporations Avoid Paying Their Taxes
Evelyn Pringle
Drug Your Fetus: How Big Pharma Hits on Pregnant Women
Roger Morris
Reason in an Age of Folly (and Felony)
Don Monkerud
Here Come the Democrats ... So?
Website of the Day
The Grind
November 20,
2006
David H. Price
American
Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of
Iraq
Col. Dan Smith
Usurpation of Power
Katherine Hughes
Compassion on Trial in War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the
Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir
Dave Himmelstein
Ziodammerung: Netanyahu and the End Times
Robert Jensen
Opportunities Lost
Joe Mowrey
America's Progressive Nightmare: Here Come the Armani Democrats
Mike Whitney
Housing Bubble Smack Down: Alan Greenspan, Homewrecker
Carl N. McDaniel
Living Within Limits
Robert Fisk
Shia Walk
Ramzy Baroud
Killing Hope in Beit Hanoun
Website of the Day
Iraq:
the Hidden Story
November 18
/ 19, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Top
Dems to Voters: "Shut Up! We've Got a War to Run!"
Ralph Nader
The Hole in Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Lost the Senate
Barucha Calamity Peller
Who Will Live on in the Oaxaca Uprising?
John Ross
Halliburton Wrecks Mexico
Dave Lindorff
The Albatross: Why the Democrats Should Cut Loose Joe Lieberman
Fred Gardner
The Adverse Effects of Marijuana: California Medical Survey
Ron Jacobs
Back in the Aether Again: Thomas Pynchon's Stunning Return
Larry Portis
The Songs of Basilio Martin Patino: Father of the New Spanish
Cinema
Frida Berrigan
The Weapons Bonanza: a Perfect Storm of Profit
Wes Enzinna
Ghosts of Dictatorships Past: the School of the America's and
Memory in Latin America
Elizabeth Schulte
The Fall of Donald Rumsfeld: Architect of a Disaster
Peter Rost,
MD
The Credit Card Trap
Martha Rosenberg
We're Drinking What? Milk, rBST and Monsanto's Rats
Seth Sandronsky
University Unity: California's Professors and Students Unite
Missy Beattie
Explore This!
Adam Engel
Data Days
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Newberry and Curtis
Website of the Weekend
A Modest Proposal for the Art World
November 17,
2006
Greg Grandin
The
Road from Serfdom: Milton Friedman and the Economics of Empire
Joseph Massad
Pinochet in Palestine: Fateh's Unholy Alliance
Kevin Zeese
George McGovern's Return to Capitol Hill: "A Down-to-Earth
Disengagement Plan"
Gideon Levy
After the Rain of Death
Bill Quigley
WMDs Protected!: Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison
David Swanson
Last Chance for the Democrats?: a Tale of Two Conyers
Sherry Wolf
Gay Rights: When Will the US Catch Up with Africa?
Jerry Beisler
What James Webb Knows
Website of the Day
Thanks for the False Memories!
November 16,
2006
Kathy Kelly
Sources
of Violence
Col. Douglas
MacGregor
Was It Only Rumsfeld?
Norman Solomon
Operation Last Resort: the Media Offensive to Prolong the Iraq
War
Nikki Thanos
From Oaxaca to Portland
Cindy Sheehan
Impeachment Proceedings
Lena Khalaf
Tuffaha
Jimmy
Carter and the "A" Word: Will the Democrats Listen
to Carter on Palestine?
Gloria La Riva
Where is the Justice? Anti-Castro Terrorist Gets Only 4 Years
Pat Williams
How the Democrats Won the West
Kerry Joyce
From Rummy to Rahmmy: Bob Novak's New Source
CP News Service
Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Non-Organic Food as "Organic"
David Letterman
Top 10 Slogans for Wal-Mart Wine
James Ridgeway
Did Robert Gates' Planning Help Bring Black Hawk Down?
Website of
the Day
A Conversation with West Point Grads Against the War
November 15,
2006
Jennifer Loewenstein
Alice
in Erez: the Gaza Crossing
David Rosen
Rev. Ted Haggard and the Eclipse of Evangelical Fury
Ashley Smith
A Socialist in the Senate?
Landau / Hassen
Talking Tough on Iraq Isn't Courageous
Walden Bello
Iraq After November 7: New Challenges for the AntiWar Movement
Sibel Edmonds
The Highjacking of a Nation
Austin / Bernstein
Why Bill Cosby is Wrong to Link Black Culture to Economic Decline
Yitzhak Laor
This Merchandise, Security
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: a Brief Argument Why
Gail Dines
"Borat": It's a Guy Thing
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November 14, 2006
Werther
Beltway
Bromo-Seltzer: a Sneak Peak at the Baker Report
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Benching Scowcroft
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Korea, Vietnam and Iraq Syndrome: Alive, Well and Gaining Strength
David MacMichael
Gates to the Pentagon
William S.
Lind
Lose a War, Lose an Election
Sharon Smith
Democrats, Born to Compromise
Laura Carlsen
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Ron Jacobs
The Perishing Republic
Peter Rost,
MD
Whistleblowers: Who Are They?
Carol Norris
Post-Campaign Ad Stress Disorder?
Website of
the Day
A Map of the US Nuclear Arsenal
November 13,
2006
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Screw
the Palestinians, Full Steam Ahead
Bill Quigley
Robin Hood in Reverse: the Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast
Paul Craig Roberts
The Democrats and Civil Liberties: Will They Turn a Blind Eye?
Uri Avnery
Call It What It Is: a Massacre!
Joe DeRaymond
The Strange Return of Daniel Ortega
Norman Finkelstein
Jimmy Carter's Roadmap
Col. Dan Smith
The Pentagon's Revolving Gates: Out with the Old, In with the
Old
Shepherd Bliss
After the Party
Dave Lindorff
What Vote-Theft Conspiracy?
Missy Beattie
For Better / For Worse: Will Laura Stay the Course?
Trenticosta / Fleming
Vindication for the Angola 3
|
December
28, 2006
Privatizing
New Jersey's Toll Roads
Highway Robbery
By ANTHONY COWELL
Governor Jon Corzine intends to sell
New Jersey's toll roads to private investors for $10 billion.
Selling or leasing publicly owned toll roads degrades our public
and financial security. Toll road takeovers led by Goldman Sachs,
where Governor Corzine was the Chairman and CEO before taking
elected office, prove the point.
Goldman Sachs took the Indiana
Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway private in 2005. Goldman invested
its own money in both deals. Goldman worked every side of these
deals, collecting fees as lobbyists, deal makers and investors.
After privatization, tolls
on the Indiana Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway immediately doubled.
Drivers unable to afford the tolls now use alternate roads,
increasing congestion and pollution. But these severely negative
impacts to the public don't concern MIG Cintra, the Australian
and Spanish corporations that operate these toll roads. MIG
Cintra's motivator is greed. MIG Cintra prohibits any competition
with its toll roads. It forbids any expansion of adjacent roads.
And when MIG Cintra took over the Indiana Toll Road, the 600
people formerly employed by the Indiana Department of Transportation
were told to start looking for new jobs. MIG Cintra holds a
locked down monopoly where states must pay protection cash to
a toll road mafia led by Goldman Sachs, foreign corporations,
and super rich investors.
MIG Cintra uses "access
management" schemes to squeeze every possible dollar from
toll road users. "Time of day pricing" imposes punitive
tolls on certain vehicles, like trucks, to keep them off the
road. "Premium pricing" allows access to congestion-free
express lanes, although users pay an even higher toll for the
privilege. This is happening on public toll roads that taxpayers
bought and paid for generations ago.
MotherJones magazine (January/February
2007) destroys the false promises of toll road privatization
so desperately sought by Governor Corzine. The bottom line is
that Goldman Sachs is promising New Jersey quick cash in exchange
for control of public infrastructure, including toll roads, but
soon airports as well.
Goldman Sachs operates as lobbyist,
advisor and investor in selling public assets at fire sale prices
- completing the three act play known as "Conflict of Interest."
Perhaps the play should be presented in four parts, with Governor
Corzine playing the lead role for his former paymaster. And
who is Goldman Sachs? In 2006, Goldman paid its executives $16.5
billion; the average salary at Goldman is $623,000. A confraternity
of the super rich has New Jersey's public wealth in its gun sights,
but New Jersey must protect its transportation infrastructure
from Wall Street snake oil salesmen.
Corporations have no duty to
the public. They exist for profit, not public safety or security.
Transportation infrastructure belongs to the people of New Jersey,
who rightly expect that public servants will operate pubic property
for the benefit of the people. Does MIG Cintra have its own
police force to patrol these roads? Who will the police answer
to when the Turnpike is sold, a corporate board of unaccountable,
non-elected businessmen? When there's an accident, who responds?
If deadly chemical, biological or nuclear agents are released
on the Turnpike, will MIG Cintra's executives and Goldman Sachs'
investment bankers respond in space suits to protect our citizens?
Governor Corzine insists that
complicated issues are at hand. Is that really so? Goldman
Sachs already worked these issues out in Indiana and Illinois.
How much is at stake? The risk to New Jersey is immeasurable
in lost jobs, safety and profits, but profits for Goldman and
its investors are huge. Goldman's calculations on other deals
show that investors break even after fifteen years but
these deals last 100 years, which proves that Goldman orchestrates
public asset sales at bargain basement prices. In reality, it's
fraud. Profit estimates also assume significant toll increases
every year or every other year. These deals allow private owners
to operate public roads as monopolies for 85 years.
As Governor Corzine arranges
the sale of the Turnpike, you can rest assured of two things:
Turnpike tolls will climb every year, and New Jersey politicians
will make the super rich even richer by giving them the roads
you own. For political cover, the Governor may choose another
investment bank, or require Goldman to partner with another bank.
The rotten result for us is the same. If that's good public
policy, I'm proud to be thick-headed.
Governor Corzine, Ray Lesniak,
and Bill Gormley are desperate to sell the Turnpike. They whine
that toll increases are intolerable, that maintaining toll roads
costs too much. So they won't raise tolls. Rather, they'll
sell the roads to private operators, and let them raise the tolls.
In reference to privatizing the Turnpike, Mr. Lesniak has said
"we are going to allow tolls to go up every year."
Where is the public benefit? A few dollars in property tax
relief? It's not worth it.
Aren't Democrats against selling
out our public wealth, not to mention our safety, to private
corporations? Don't Democrats oppose privatizing Social Security?
Isn't toll road privatization the same thing? Our toll roads
are vital, money making assets, but privatizing toll roads is
the public finance equivalent of strip mining, which permanently
destroys the environmental infrastructure level by level.
We can't trade transportation
infrastructure for a few bucks up front, because, in the end,
we'll be much poorer, and much less safe.
Anthony Cowell is a writer and a lawyer, and was
a Deputy Attorney General in New Jersey. He can be reached at
cowellma@verizon.net.
|
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