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Read Why It Happened! Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils Order Here! Today's Stories November 15, 2004 Werther On Reading the Duelfer Report November 13 / 14, 2004 Alexander Cockburn "Let Them Drink Sand!" David Domke Bush, God and the Election: a Theology of War? James Petras The Politics of Imperialism: Neoliberalism and Latin America Carl G. Estabrook How to Stop the GWOT: "Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil!" Stan Goff Torture and the Cinema Dave Lindorff The Ruins of Fallujah Mike Whitney Fallujah and the Erosion of American Power Ron Jacobs Waiting for the Last War to End Alan Maass The Rise and Fall of Gingrich: a Parable for Our Times Lenni Brenner "Next"...a Prison Tale Gary Leupp France's Little Vietnam: Imperialist France Destroys an African Air Force Jessica Leight / Larry Birns Haiti: the New Regime Shows Its Colors Heather Gray Whistling Dixie: Bush's Reelection, a Perspective from the South Jordan Green Ohio's Provisional Ballots: the State of Play Robert Fisk Arafat Ruled by Emotion and Cronyism Omar Barghouti The Death of Arafat and the Two-State SOlution Fred Gardner Marijuana: an Election Scorecard Christopher Brauchli When a POW Isn't a POW: the Other Torture Memo Joanne Mariner A Preview of the Scalia Court Dr. Susan Block Blue Values Patrick Timmons Violence at the Ballot Box: the War on Gay Rights Mickey Z. Rumor Club Poets Basement Hasan, Albert, Kent, St. Clair Website of the Weekend The Hand of God?   November 12, 2004 Forrest Hylton / Sinclair Thomson Insurgent Bolivia: the Roots of Rebellion November 11, 2004 Peggy Thomson Encounters with Arafat Joe Bageant Hung Over in the End Times: Heaven's Foot Soldiers Escape the Dog Patch Ben Tripp The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grief Edwin Krales Cuba's Response to AIDS: a Model for the Developing World Jordan Green How They Tried to Suppress the Black Vote in South Carolina Gary Leupp Guzman's Fist Mike Whitney Meet Your New AG: Alberto Torquemada Sam Bahour Palestine is Bigger Than Arafat Sylvia Shihadeh and Robert Jensen The Irony of Arafat Russ Wellen Why Do They Laugh at Us? Mark Scaramella Kerry's Enablers: the Clinton Cult Factor November 10, 2004 Joshua Frank The Bright Side of Bush's Reelection Mickey Z. The Worst President Ever?: Bush + Clinton = Bubya Stan Goff Debating a Neo-Con Mike Whitney Exit Ashcroft Dave Lindorff Taking a Leak on the Bush Bulge Ghada Karmi After Arafat Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste Letter from a Haitian Jail Rev. Bob Jones, III A Letter to President Bush: "God Has Granted America a Reprieve" Bernestine Singley Tampa Vote: Dispatches from the Ground Website of the Day Free Camilo Mejia     November 9, 2004 Meredeth Kolodner Rebuilding the Anti-War Movement Saul Landau The Appeal of George W. Bush: a Mystery for the World to Solve Brian Cloughley Diego Garcia and Freedom, Bush-Style Charles Glass US is Failing the Test of History in Iraq Robert Fisk Arafat Died Years Ago Paul Craig Roberts The American Century is Over Adam Federman Witch Hunt at Columbia: Middle East Profs Smeared as Anti-Semites M. Junaid Alam The Discredited Logic of ABB Tony Kevin Fallujah and the Making of a War Crime Pierre Tristam Zealots on the Mount: Get Voltaire on Speed Dial! Patrick Cockburn Crushing Fallujah Will Not End the Iraq War Website of the Day Don't Blame the Voters!   November 8, 2004 Roger Burbach Out of the Ashes: Bush Win is a Defeat for Democrats, Not the Left Dave Lindorff Lessons from a Quagmire: Fallujah, the Hue of Iraq Greg Moses After the Morning After: On the Homefront of the Civil War Greg Bates Nader's Election Legacy: Something to Stand On Michael Donnelly The Hit-and-Run Left: From ABB to CYA Nick Schwellenbach Gutting FOIA: the Harm of Too Much Secrecy Adam Jones Men vs. Civilians in Fallujah Amelia Peltz Note from Palestine: This Is Not the Time for Despair David Swanson The Media Black Out on Vote Fraud Brian Rainey The Devil Made Them Do It? Elections, Religion and the American People Poets' Basement Albert, Landau, Hamod Website of the Day A Report on the US Supply of Toxic Weapons to Iraq   November 6 / 7, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Don't Say We Didn't Warn You Jeffrey St. Clair Green Out Carl G. Estabrook Who Killed Cock Robin? Saul Landau Che: the Man and the Movie Gary Leupp Let There Be Conflict! Ben Tripp You Call This a Party? Paul Craig Roberts The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front Jordan Green Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM Fred Gardner Haul of Justice J.A. Miller Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered Ramzy Baroud Life Without Arafat Dave Zirin Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete Ron Jacobs The Arrow on the Doorpost Robert Oscar Lopez How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority Niranjan Ramakrishnan The November Surprise Dave Lindorff Silver Linings Richard Oxman Invitation to the Bodily Snatched John Whitlow Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky Rahul Mahajan Fallujah and the Reality of War Leila Matsui Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge   November 5, 2004 David Vest The Not-Bush Brothers: a Fond Farewell Elizabeth Boylan The Dems and Faith-Based Politics Conn Hallinan War Crimes and Iraq David Zonsheine Poetry and the Courage to Refuse Cynthia McKinney It's a New Day! Elaine Cassel Running from the Religious Right Chris Geovanis First Protect Your Vote: Lessons for Democrats on Fixing Elections from Chicago Rob Ritchie Election 2004 by the Numbers Jo Guldi The Beast of History is In     November 4, 2004 Sharon Smith The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism CounterPunch Wire Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004 Ben Tripp My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed! Michael Donnelly Why Not Blame Rosie? Vijay Prashad An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny Jules Rabin De Profundis: the Morning After Robert Jensen Politics and Professions of Faith: "Your Rich Men are Full of Violence" Zoltan Grossman Blue State Secession: the Only Solution? Jonah Birch 1968 and Today Dave Lindorff What Went Wrong? Jack McCarthy I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before He Was Against Him Donna J. Volatile Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare Paul Craig Roberts The Bright Side of Black Tuesday     November 3, 2004 James Hodge / Linda Cooper The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of Training Torturers Ann Harrison The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation Greg Moses Blues for Fallujah Anis Memon The Moral (Values) of This Election Mickey Z. Post Mortem Josh Frank The Dems Should be Ashamed Chris Floyd No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine spArk Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats Friedrich von Schiller Folly, Thou Conquerest Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame Now?   November 2, 2004 Gary Leupp Democratic Elections in Historical Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins Lance Selfa Selling the War on Terror Laura Carlsen The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good Neighbor? James Davis To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists Richard Oxman Getting Up with Osama Dr. Ira Kay A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency Jesse Walker Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election Thomas C. Mountain Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the "Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes"   November 1, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and Blew It Dave Lindorff Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns Greg Bates Nader Voter Survey Results Roger Morris Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do This Election Justice Diane Christian Death Tolls Lenni Brenner Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe Christopher C. Conway Can the Left Sink Any Lower? Francis Boyle Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors, Too Jason Leopold Rummy's Failed War Plan Website of the Day Dylan Resurrects "Masters of War"     October 30 / 31, 2004 JoAnn Wypijewski The Long March and the Million Worker March Winslow T. Wheeler Spartacus Tells All Bruce Anderson Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal Vicente Navarro They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime Robin Blackburn How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security Greg Bates A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick? Nancy Welch The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David Himmelstein William Lind Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For? Brian Cloughley Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies Suzan Mazur Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs Greg Moses Standing at the Graves of Iraq John Chuckman Osama's Endorsement Richard Oxman Why Not Accept Osama's Offer? Ken Avidor Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious Niranjan Ramakrishnan Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond Hope Bastian Strangling Cuba's Economy P. Sainath Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric Dave Zirin Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez Jon Swift The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It Ron Jacobs The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1 Alexander Billet Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"? Poets' Basement Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert Website of the Weekend The Origins of Halloween   October 29, 2004 Harry Browne No Justice for Peace Activist in County Clare October 28, 2004 Forrest Hylton "The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's Ghosts of October Col. Dan Smith Rebellion in the Ranks Alan Maass Jon Stewart v. the Pundits Ron Jacobs Ecstasy in Red Sox Nation Alexander Cockburn Kerrycrats and the War     October 27, 2004 Jules Rabin Crammed with Distressful Politics Dave Lindorff Bulgegate: the Lies Continue Katherine Van Tassel On the Home Front: Both Parties Ignore Working Parents Jeffrey St. Clair The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil   October 26, 2004 Brian Cloughley Three Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan William Blum Fear Factors Lenni Brenner The 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004 Ben Tripp The Chicken Salad Election Fidel Castro After the Fall Greg Bates The Nation's Flawed Calculus Walter Brasch Gag the Public: the War on Dissent Niranjan Ramakrishnan An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan Mickey Z. Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo Amir Taheri The Boom in Conspiracy Theories Alexander Billet Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry Doug Giebel The Religion of G.W. Bush Kathleen Christison Why I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't   October 25, 2004 Ralph Nader Letter from a Minnesota Highway Werther West Texas Wahabbism Dave Zirin Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan Fred Gardner Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License Omar Barghouti Executing Another Child in Rafah William J. Nottingham Lori Berenson's Story John Chuckman A Foolish Consistency Uri Avnery On the Road to Civil War   October 22 / 24, 2004 Alexander Cockburn You Can't Blame Nader for This Rev. William Alberts On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions Willliam A. Cook Killing for Christ Saul Landau George W. Bush: a Man of His Words? Bill Quigley I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children While Arresting Priest Christopher Brauchli Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really Means William S. Lind Fallujah and the Moral Level of War Sharon Smith Guilt Trippers for Kerry Greg Bates Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us" Justin E.H. Smith Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil? Rebecca Evans Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military Mike Whitney Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion M. Junaid Alam Purchasing Individuality in America David Krieger Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and Kerry David J. Ledermann The Emperor's New Crumbs Lawrence Reichard Same Old FBI Story Website of the Weekend Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling     October 21, 2004 Ben Tripp The Undecided Voter Examined Joshua Frank Kerry and the Environment: It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green Stan Cox What the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses Bill Martinez State Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply Mark Engler The War and Globalization Lina Britto and Lucia Suarez Bolivia: a Year After the October Insurrection Website of the Day Two Pampered Children of Wealth     October 20, 2004 Yitzhak Laor "Did You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian Child Jason Leopold Sinclair Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception Jesse Sharkey A Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School Students Col. Dan Smith Choking Free Speech About the Draft Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Using My Religion David Vest If Bush Wins, Blame Me Jack Random The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny Ron Jacobs Time to Kick It Up a Notch James Brittain Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside? Christopher Dols Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest Dave Lindorff First They Came for the Nurses... Website of the Day Banana Republican Catalogue     October 19, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair Party Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe Jeff Taylor Confessions of a Swing State Voter Matt Vidal American Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket" Victor Kattan "It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For": Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum William Loren Katz What Goes Around Comes Around Sean Carter O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims CounterPunch Wire Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?       October 18, 2004 Saul Landau Facts and Lies; Slogans and Truth Dave Lindorff Bulletin on the Bush Bulge Diane Christian Sheep and Goats: On the Language of Goodness Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency Uri Avnery Ariel Sharon's Philosophy Peter LaVenia Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank Mike Whitney O'Reilly at the Whipping Post Elaine Cassel The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11   October 16 / 17, 2004 Alexander Cockburn The Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern Leslie Brill Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the True Measure of Bush's Character Jules Rabin Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World Dave Lindorff About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was the President Just Glad to be There? Peter Linebaugh Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices Gary Leupp Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire M. Shahid Alam America, Imagine This! Ron Jacobs Trying to Cross Lake Champlain Fred Gardner The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It Jenna Orkin The Toxic Legacy of 9/11 Dave Zirin Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results David Hamilton Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader? Ralph Nader Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism Doug Giebel Thinking the Unthinkable Mark Engler Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador Derek Tyner Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence Thomas on the Million Worker March Evan Jones Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the South" Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert Website of the Weekend No More Bush Girls   October 15, 2004 Paul Craig Roberts Where Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting of America Laura Carlsen Wal-Mart vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon Greg Bates Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers Michael Donnelly News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine? Katherine Lahey The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear Hugo Chavez? Robert Jensen / Pat Youngblood Election Day Fears Leah Caldwell From Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse Website of the Day An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism     October 14, 2004 Darcy Richardson The Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown Willliam A. Cook Turning Myths into Truth Laura Santina Water, Women and War Evelyn Pringle Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug Importation Alan Farago Lessons from Nature Rep. Maxine Waters A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti Nicole Colson Maimed for Oil and Empire       October 13, 2004 Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Bill Quigley Aftermath of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti Sharon Smith Barak O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran Christopher Brauchli God and the Bush Administration Mike Whitney The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case Paul de Rooij Amnesty International: a False Beacon? Website of the Day Operation Truth     October 12, 2004 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz "Indian Country" Greg Bates The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters in Swing States Steven Conn Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader Jason Leopold Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from UN Oil-for-Food Program Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy Time for a Change of Course Timothy J. Freeman Dying for a Mistake Pierre Tristam Deconstructing Bush Niranjan Ramakrishnan The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience Bill and Kathleen Christison Israel as Sideshow Website of the Day John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters   October 11, 2004 Robert Fisk Iraq: Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises Kevin Pina The Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti Patrick Gavin Rethinking Columbus Day Chris Floyd Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan Daniel Wolff Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most Dangerous Nuclear Plant Walter Brasch The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and 40% of All Americans Mike Whitney The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink Ari Shavit "He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with Sharon's Lawyer Paul Craig Roberts The Debates and the Big Lie Website of the Day Dylan's Greatest Recording?     October 9 / 10, 2004 Alexander Cockburn "There Are No Innocents" Paul de Rooij Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry Adams M. Shahid Alam Making Sense of Our Times Laura Carlsen Protest and Populism in Latin America Fred Gardner Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court Col. Dan Smith Bush's Credibility Gap Paul Craig Roberts Faith-Based Economics Greg Bates What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand? Joshua Frank Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left Felice Pace Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement Walter A. Davis Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium William A. Cook The Agony of Colin Powell Phyllis Pollack Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later Poets' Basement Klipschutz, Albert, Ford Website of the Weekend Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes   October 8, 2004 Jennifer Loewenstein The Israeli Invasion of Gaza Moshe Adler Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities David Swanson Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition to Iraq War Dave Zirin CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team! Rep. Ron Paul The Draft is a Form of Slavery William S. Lind Keeping Our SA Up Samar Assad Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine Jim Ingalls and Sonali Kolhatkar The Elections in Afghanistan     October 7, 2004 Dave Lindorff All Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air Masha Hamilton Fear in Kandahar Christopher Brauchli Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay Jason Leopold Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush? Bruce K. Gagnon Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida Meredith Kolodner Where is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge     October 6, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair "Please, Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah Ron Jacobs Going Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives Michael Colby The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead? Tarif Abboushi More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates Matthew Behrens Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood Mike Whitney Rethinking WMDs John Pilger Stealing Diego Garcia Ben Tripp Kerry's "Triumph" Kevin McKiernan Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target Patrick Cockburn Elections Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq Website of the Day Is There an Islamic Problem?   October 5, 2004 Anthony Loewenstein Rupert Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes" Mark Clinton and Tony Udell The Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran Greg Bates Trading Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman Dave Lindorff What's the Frequency, Karl? Norm Dixon Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers Larry Kearney God Talk and Burning Children Bill Linville Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government Gary Leupp What Edwards Should Ask Cheney Website of the Day A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate   October 4, 2004 Diane Christian The Gates of Hell Joshua Frank An Interview with David Cobb Doug Giebel Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie? John Chuckman Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump Ramzy Baroud Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage Julia Stein Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM Sean Donahue Outsourcing Terror: Kerry and Special Forces Website of the Day Mapping Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks   October 2 / 3. 2004 Paul Wright John Kerry on Criminal Justice Kathleen and Bill Christison An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris Kathie Helmkamp My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill Phillip Cryan Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia Lenni Brenner The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio Fred Gardner Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel" Ron Jacobs It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia Ben Tripp Sticker Shock William S. Lind The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces Dave Zirin The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC Dave Lindorff Lies from the Great Debate Luscon Pierre-Charles Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway Zoe Moskovitz & Sasha Kramer Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti Nelson P. Valdes Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned Cuban Academics Alan Farago The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades Nancy Haley What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us? Alex Billet Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years Steve Fesenmaier Save and Burn: The War on Libraries Poets' Basement Smith, Holt, Albert   October 1, 2004 Steve Breyman Kerry's Missed Opportunities Rose Gentle My Son Died for a Lie Lee Sustar Iran in the Crosshairs Ralph Nader What We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy? Walter Andrews We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever Mike Whitney Pandora's Government Mickey Z. Debate This Saul Landau The Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases                   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.     Subscribe Online

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To contribute by phone you can call Becky toll free at: 1-800-840-3683 Onward, Alexander, Jeffrey and Becky November 15, 2004 Welcome to Ripley's Believe It or Not of Christianity God Bless America By JOHN CHUCKMAN "I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." Alexis de Tocqueville The international view of Bush's election was nicely summed up by the reaction of a group of my students from China. I teach economics at university part-time, and many of my students are from China. Lest you think their judgment clouded by communist ideology, please note the many Chinese students studying in Canada come from that country's bright, hardworking business class in the so-called New Economic Zone. American visions of rabid communists in China are as uninformed as American visions of realities in most places. These are practical, sensible people. The topic of the election came up during a break, and the genuinely puzzled looks on the students' faces were remarkable. How could America elect such an ignorant man? was asked by several. To reassure them, I explained that America, like a frightened puppy, was still clinging to the first human leg it had grabbed in the darkness. The explanation, though accepted with some laughter, was incomplete, but only in detail and not in substance. It is certainly closer to the mark than many sad efforts in America which hold that the nation has become somehow a very different place than it was. While all human institutions change under the influence of economic growth, there is little evidence of sudden change in America, only of continued movement in long-established directions. One of those directions is a divergence in social values between society at large and Christian fundamentalism. When societies grow, when new wealth accumulates, traditional values always come under great stress. This shows in countless ways, from the changing nature of marriage customs to the institutions by which a nation is governed. Were this not so, we would still be employed building pyramids for dead pharaohs. America's traditionalists in religion are disturbed by the social effects of economic growth, although they do not understand the connection with economics and hold to superstitious notions of people giving themselves over to evil. Short of a new Dark Ages taking hold in America (an idea novelist Margaret Atwood toyed with in The Handmaid's Tale), these social changes are not reversible, but that fact has little impact on the intense, driving needs of those who base their lives on narrow interpretations of ancient texts they can't even read. There is considerable evidence that fundamentalists are people who suffer from greater-than-average levels of defects like anxiety and paranoia. You only have to consider all the screaming, spewing revivalist sermons about damnation and the twisted nightmares of the Book of Revelations and parts of the Old Testament to understand the role of fear in fundamentalism. Of course, superstition itself is just fear's way of explaining the unknown. Not all Americans are fundamentalists, not even a majority, but there are enough of them (something like 40% claim to be "re-born") to form a powerful swing group in American politics. While America was founded under the leadership of non-Christian Deists and Skeptics (the true source for the best part of America's written, although often-abused, freedoms), fundamentalism has long provided a howling background chorus. There were two so-called Great Awakenings in early America, one in the colonial period during the 1730s and 1740s, and a second in the early Republic at the beginning of the 1800s. A broad view of history interprets the first of these as reaction to the influence of eighteenth-century Europe's new freethinking and skepticism. The second, something of an echo of the first, was fired to life by fear of new science and technology and the impact of the Industrial Revolution, to say nothing of intense dislike for foreigners with different views and Catholicism in general. The Great Awakenings were periods of intense evangelical fervor in America, the nation being then pretty much a backwater where many people lived fairly isolated lives with attitudes inherited from Puritan forefathers. New thinking, progress, and change pretty much kept going forward in the world despite these frenetic crusades, although people in America often did not feel free to speak their minds during the worst furies. The social and economic implications of the Great Awakenings were at odds with another of the nation's hottest interests. Americans were often described as crazed over any chance to make money, de Tocqueville, for example, observing, "I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men." Making money is not a pursuit that sits well with setting the clock back, although it wasn't until the early twentieth century that Freud explained how a great a role ambivalence plays in human minds. We are definitely in a new period of backlash against social change in America. People want the physical benefits of change and growth--television, jet travel, electronic organs, and credit cards (the complete toolkit of modern corporate evangelism)--but they also want to enjoy these with social relationships frozen in time, established before these things existed. There would be nothing disturbing about such confused, hopeless intentions were the people involved content to follow their chosen path without trying to drag others along, but they are not. They do not build Mennonite-like communities to separate themselves from unwelcome modern influences. No, they insist on changing the country to suit themselves, and increasingly exhibit a lust to change the entire planet to the same purpose. Some have characterized the Bush victory as marking the beginning of a third Great Awakening. I think there is some truth in this observation. America's fundamentalists want to escape the social consequences of such inevitable developments as gay marriage, abortion, and scientific research that begins to peel back the mysteries of Creation. And the events of 9/11 only reinforced long-standing suspicion and even dread of foreigners with markedly different cultures. God Bless America is a favorite expression of Bush's, as well as, judging from their bumper stickers, the more belligerent class of truck drivers. One wonders in Bush's case whether the words represent a habit akin to saying God Bless when someone sneezes, a habit he might have acquired during his years of snorting cocaine with its well-known consequence of nasal irritation. Of course, the association of Bush and belligerent truck drivers is not coincidental. Didn't the Teamsters embrace Nixon as their man? It is difficult for many outsiders--and that includes a substantial number of Americans--to understand the use of this totemic expression. Is God being called upon to give something He otherwise would withhold, or is he being commanded? In either case, the words resemble the prayers of the selfish and arrogant. I think what is intended is simply the constant association of God with America, at least certain people's idea of America, those who embrace vengeance, intolerance, xenophobia, and the beauties of extreme selfishness. Cynics might describe the habit of muttering the words as an unrelenting marketing campaign to make the unholy seem holy. Whatever the case, it does seem God has been handing America something other than blessings recently. Events from 9/11 to the black comedy of Bush's re-election after his getting the nation mired in a protracted and pointless war do require descriptions other than blessings. But for American fundamentalists, the words affirm that a genuine man of God is in office at last, most of them being blissfully unaware that the job of President is just that, a job, not a religious ministry. Most of them also are blissfully unaware of how hard their ancestors fought for genuine religious freedom--their chief ally in the battle being the religious skeptic Jefferson. Two centuries later, America's fundamentalists are perfectly ready to do unto others what was previously done unto their ancestors, that is, to impose their beliefs, views, and attitudes on others. The fit of fundamentalist attitudes with America's position in the sphere of world affairs is perfect, having moved in two centuries from a nation opposing a distant, arrogant imperial power to being the world's distant, arrogant imperial power. American fundamentalists' determination to judge and interfere with the private lives of others, their insistence in believing they hold the only truth--these attitudes perfectly support the interests of a smaller, far more privileged group of Americans who claim B-52s serve as tools for democracy and enlightenment. Bush may have spent most of his life peeing on other people, doing drugs, making money in crooked deals, and generally displaying contempt for exactly the class of people now devoted to his welfare, but to the fundamentalist mind the greater the stack of evidence for a destructive and undisciplined life, the greater is the blessing of its miraculous turnaround. It's quite a mysterious and unshakeable way of thinking. As I said, fundamentalists do not make a majority in America, but when their numbers are combined with the interests of those now benefiting from astronomical tax cuts and military contracts, they make a winning coalition. The Republicans' firm hold on the South--the Ripley's Believe It or Not of Christianity, being the location of the most bizarre experiments in fundamentalism--is little more than a long-term backlash against civil-rights laws of the 1960s. The same folks (they like that word), when called Southern Democrats, were just as intolerant, obsessive, and xenophobic.   What's Inside the New Post-Election Print Edition of CounterPunch! How Bush Might Have Been Defeated by Robin Blackburn; Terror and Death: Iraq Falls Apart: Patrick Cockburn reports from Baghdad; From Detroit to Baghdad: Death of an Interrogator by Alexander Cockburn. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! 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Miller Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered Ramzy Baroud Life Without Arafat Dave Zirin Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete Ron Jacobs The Arrow on the Doorpost Robert Oscar Lopez How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority Niranjan Ramakrishnan The November Surprise Dave Lindorff Silver Linings Richard Oxman Invitation to the Bodily Snatched John Whitlow Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky Rahul Mahajan Fallujah and the Reality of War Leila Matsui Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge WWW http://www.counterpunch.org