Today's
Stories
October 22 - 24, 2010
Rannie Amiri
Palestine's Olive Harvest Horror
October 21, 2010
Diana Johnstone
French Fury in the EU Cage
Joanne Mariner
A Glimpse into the Silicon Heart of the CIA's Drone Program
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Biggest Problem: China as Collateral Damage
Lawrence Davidson
Invisible Israel?
Bill Quigley /
Laura Raymond
Artist Resistance in Honduras
Alan Farago
The Next Idiot Might Be You
David Smith-Ferri
Building Bamiyan Peace Park
Tolu Olorunda Educational Heroes and Myths
Website of the Day
Don't Just Deplore Bullying--Fight It!
October 20, 2010
Philippe Marlière
France Erupts: Sarkozy Under Siege
Tariq Ali
Red Hot France; Tepid Britain
Anthony Pahnke / Mark N. Hoffman
Digging Deeper: the San Jose Mine Disaster in Context
David Smith-Ferri
Bamiyan (Afghanistan) Diaries: Day One
Patrick Madden
QE2 and Foreclosures: Bank of America's Wager
Ishmael Reed
Professor Joe, Oakland's Next Mayor?
Dean Baker
Mortgage Mayhem
Mike Roselle
I'm Not Going Down Without a Fight
Dave Marsh
The Great General Johnson
Pete Redington
Dork is the New Cool
Website of the Day
The Poster Boy of Foreclosures
October 19, 2010
Pam Martens
The Koch Empire and Americans for Prosperity
Uri Avnery
The State of Bla-Bla- Bla
Ralph Nader
The Media and the Far Right
Clarence Lusane
From the White House to Obama's House: Race and Political Transition
Sherwood Ross
Union-Busting in Iraq
Trudy Bond
The Despot of Oklahoma:
Mr. Coburn Goes to Haiti
Sherry Wolf
Our Not-So-Great Depression
Yves Engler
Why the UN Rejected Canada's Bid for the Security Council
Camilla Fox /
Chris Genovali
Killing Carnivores for Cash
Erin McManus
Hanoi Jane: War, Sex and Fantasies of Betrayal
Website of Day
Solar Done Right
October 18, 2010
Mike Whitney
How to Kickstart the Economy
Jonathan Cook
Settler Takeover of Israeli Police
Martha Rosenberg
The Return of Mad Cow Disease?
Stewart J. Lawrence
Does Jerry Brown's Campaign Have a Death Wish?
P. Sainath
The Narcissism of the Neurotic
James Zogby
Texas Takes a Dangerous Step Backwards
Ken Cole, Ralph Maughan / Brian Ertz
Governmental Disdain for Wolves
Patrick Brennan
Matt Taibbi's Epiphany: Dumping on the Tea Party
Jack Heyman
Justice for Oscar Grant! Jail for Killer Cops!
John Grant
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Think
Website of the Day
Eating in Public
October 15 - 17, 2010
Alexander Cockburn
Daughters of the Gipper
Slavoj Žižek
What is the Left to Do?
Paul Craig Roberts
The War on Terror: What's It All About?
Adrienne Pine /
David Vivar
Saving Honduras?
Peter Lee
The Detention of Xie Chaoping
Jonathan Cook
My Loyalty Oath
Bitta Mostofi
Admiring Ahmadinejad and Overlooking Activists
Franklin Lamb
On the Road with Ahmadinejad in Lebanon
Rannie Amiri
A Small Shove Back
Robert Alvarez
Nuclear Testing and the Rise of Thyroid Cancers
Joe Paff
Beyond Brown v. Whitman:
the Late Great State of California
David Rosen
Sexy Sisters: the New Republican Women
David Correia
Greenwashing the Wal-Mart Way
Sam Hitchmough
Competing Americas: the Rise of the Tea Party
Ramzy Baroud
The Tide Has Changed
Dave Lindorff
Don't Act, Don't Lead: Obama Stiffs Gays in the Military Again
Graham Usher
Waiting on America
Gary Leupp
The Non-Jewish Immigration Loyalty Oath
David Macaray
In the Trenches of Union Politics
Ron Jacobs
Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" and Obama's iPod
Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Wall Street and the Criminalization of Immigrants
Lawrence Swaim
How Neo-Cons Became Honorary Christians
Linn Washington
Corporate Charter Schools Get the Cash
David Ker Thomson
Under Democracy
Norman Solomon
Progressive Canaries
Michael Dawson
Electric Evasions: the Green Car Con
John Stanton
Defense Contractors From Hell
Jayne Lyn Stahl
Leaving Las Vegas
Paul Buchheit
Stop the HURT
Ziad Abbas
Palestine: Without Water, There is No Life
Anthony Papa
Life for an $11 Robbery
Hardy Jones
New Threats to Dolphins: Toxins and Viruses
Missy Beattie
The Bedbug War: Nearly Helpless
Charles R. Larson
Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes
Peter Stone Brown
Music Under the Radar
David Yearsley
Apollo's Fire
Poets' Basement
Moser & Rihn
Website of the Weekend
On This Earth
October 14, 2010
Mike Whitney
Bernanke Ponders the "Nuclear" Option
Jonathan Cook
The Transfer Scenario
Dean Baker
Globalizing Health Care
Marjorie Cohn
Israeli Raid on Gaza Flotilla: US Fails to Condemn, Despite UN Finding
Stewart J. Lawrence
Sex and the Orgasm Gap: Are Men Still Dominating Women in Bed?
Carl Finamore
San Francisco's Hotel Frank(enstein): a Horror Show for Employees
Dave Lindorff
9 Million Stolen Homes:
Getting Tough on Banker Crime
Raúl Zibechi
Brazil's Elections: the Continuation of Lulismo
Willie L. Pelote
Shock Therapy for California?
Website of the Day
Can Mushrooms Rescue the Gulf?
October 13, 2010
Vijay Prashad
The Waning of Obama
Uri Avnery
His Father's Son:
the Real Bibi
Dean Baker
The Counterfeit Recovery
Winslow T. Wheeler
Where is the Payoff for Huge Pentagon Budget Hikes?
Patrick Bond
"To Exist is to Resist:" From Apartheid South Africa to Palestine
Michael Winship
Cash You Can Believe In
Myles B. Hoenig
Are We Expendable? An Education Manifesto From the Trenches
Tom Turnipseed
Money Talks (and Swears)
Website of the Day
The Return of Ben Tripp, as Zombie Novelist
October 12, 2010
Ralph Nader
Tricks and Traps in the Fine Print
Franklin C. Spinney
Techno War: Money Talks, Counter-measures Walk
Mike Whitney
The Future is Ugly
Robert Alvarez
The Tritium Deficit
Deepak Tripathi
India's High Stakes Foreign Policy
Chris Genovali / Camilla Fox
Death Cults Among Us:
the War on Wolves
Harvey Wasserman
Calvert Cliffs on the Brink
Robert Jensen
Soils and Souls: the Promise of the Land
Mark Weisbrot
How to Change the IMF
Charles R. Larson
America's Religious Veneer
Website of the Day
How You Can Help Fund Radical Grassroots Green Groups (and Double Your Money)
October 11, 2010
Michael Hudson
Why the U.S. Has Launched a New Financial World World War
Bill Quigley
A Million Haitians Slowly Dying
Linn Washington
American Justice on Trial
Paul Krassner
Eat, Pray, Be Disappointed: an Open Letter to Obama
Jonathan Cook
Israel's Other "Peace" Plan
Cal Winslow
Big Money, the Big Lie and Fear
Sherry Wolf
Why are Liberals Building the Right?
Peter Stone Brown
Brother Solomon Burke
David Michael Green
How Do You Take Your Tea?
Jayne Lyn Stahl
Disclose This
Website of the Day
"Seize the Jail! Tear It Down!!"
October 8 - 10, 2010
Alexander Cockburn
The Soros Syndrome
Paul Craig Roberts
America's Third World Economy
Alain Gresh
What Does a "One State Solution" Really Mean?
Patrick Cockburn
Is Pakistan Falling Apart?
Rannie Amiri
An Evaporating Palestine
Conn Hallinan
Ecuador: Coup or Riot?
Ramzy Baroud
Dying to Win
Saul Landau
Harboring Terrorists
Sam Smith
What's Missing in the Talk About Education Reform
Yvonne Ridley
On the Road to Damascus, Thinking of Monty Python
Ellen Brown
Foreclosuregate:
a Massive Fraud
Santwana Dasgupta
A View From the Top of the World
David Macaray Labor Secretaries: Frances and Elaine
Gerald E. Scorse
Tax System Favors Wealth Over Work
Tony Newman
The Perils of Prohibition
David Ker Thomson
Soundtrack for a Beating
Christopher Brauchli
Authentic Dishonesty: Newt and Dinesh Save America!
Jon Mitchell
Oliver North, Ospreys and Agent Orange
Kevin Zeese
The Longest War
Steven Best
Rethinking Revolution
Missy Beattie
Invasion of the Blood-Sucking Bedbugs
Binoy Kampmark
England's Football Inc.
Charles R. Larson
Egypt's Camus?
Kim Nicolini
"Social Network:"
Narcissism and Claustrophobia Among the Techno-Elites
Dave Marsh
"American Idiot:" Finally, a Musical That Rocks
David Yearsley
The Dark Side of Musical Enlightenment
Poets' Basement
Three by Peter Branson
Website of the Weekend
Help the Great Michael Fracasso Revolutionize the Music Industry
October 7, 2010
Franklin Lamb
Bracing for Israel's Next Attack on Lebanon
Dean Baker
Currency Wars and Accounting Identities
John Ross
The Torture Bandwagon
Ron Jacobs
A History of Repression
Harvey Wasserman
A Solar Victory and a Military Defeat
Stanley Heller
Timidity on the Mall
Gamal Nkrumah
The Greening of Al Qaeda?
John Blair
Big Coal's Revolving Door in Indiana
Charles R. Larson
What Do Conservatives Read? Questions for the Supreme Court
Website of the Day
The Palestine Chronicle Needs Your Help!
October 6, 2010
Bill Quigley /
Rachel Meeropol
Pennsylvania Has Been Monitoring You!
Jonathan Cook
The Dangers of Recognition
Jeffrey Sommers
Latvia's "Mandate" for Neoliberal Austerity
Jayne Lyn Stahl
Passing the Peace Pipe Instead
Tanya Golash-Boza
Immigration Policy Enforcement and the War on Terror
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
When They Call You "Illegal:" Words, Names and Meg Whitman
Guy Bouthillier
Trudeau's Darkest Hour: Forty Years After Canada's War Measures Act
Alvaro Huerta
The People Who Make Your Garden Grow
Don Monkerud
Republicans at War with America
Website of the Day
Only Lazy Ranchers Blame Wolves
October 5, 2010
Stewart J. Lawrence
Obama Reneges on Key Agreement with Immigration Advocates
Ghania Mouffok Rape City? The Women of Hassi Messaoud
Neve Gordon
Untenurable:
the Firing of Ariella Azoulay
Ralph Nader
Rowing for the Planet:
Roz Savage Goes Solo
Mark Schuller
Unstable Foundations: Human Rights and Haiti's 1.5 Million Displaced People
David Macaray
Big Leg Up for Labor in Delta Battle
Julie Hilden
The French Criminal Defamation Conviction of Google and Its CEO
Richard Anderson-Connolly
A Voter's Manifesto
Ahmad Barqawi
Confiscating Childhood in the Occupied Territories
John Halle
Heads Up for the Greens
Website of the Day
Busted for Growing Too Many Veggies!
October 4, 2010
Pam Martens
Inside the Flash Crash Report
Stephen Soldz
Guatemalan Research Horrors and US Hypocrisy
Jonathan Cook
Obama's Cave-In to Israel
Mark Weisbrot
Target: Ecuador
Conn Hallinan
Bedding Down With the Devil in Indonesia
Fred Gardner
Non-Psychoactive Pot?
Cpt. Paul Watson
Dying to Amuse Us: Where Do Captive Dolphins Go?
Sarah Knopp
The Suicide of Rigoberto Ruelas
Website of the Day
The Death of Aseel Ashleh
October 1 - 3, 2010
Alexander Cockburn
Obama's Dud Svengali
Ray McGovern
Obama's Men
George Ciccariello-Maher
Ecuador Between Three Wagers
Michael Hudson
"A Financial Coup d'Etat"
Franklin C. Spinney
The Pentagon Game
Wajahat Ali
A Foreclosure Story
Saul Landau
The Nuclear Gang Rides On
Ramzy Baroud
Farewell to Arms
Rannie Amiri
Hariri's House of Cards
Bruce McEwen
When Life Isn't a Video Game
Dave Lindorff
Now the Government is X-Raying You While You Drive
William Blum
In Struggle With the American Mind
David Swanson
The Book the Pentagon Burned
Sherry Wolf
Who Killed Tyler Clementi?
Lawrence Davidson
Overcoming AIPAC is Not Enough
Tanya Golash-Boza
Legalize Them All!
John Severino
The Struggle for Lieu Lieu
Missy Beattie
Politicians and the Prosperity Gospel
Belén Fernandez
How Israel Battles "Barbs of Criticism"
Binoy Kampmark
Miliband and Labor's Conundrum
Mohamed Abdel-Baky
The Coffee Incident: Nasser's Strange Death, 40 Years Later
Elvis Mendéz /
Jeff Napolitano
Marching Off a Cliff on October 2?
David Ker Thomson
We're in For It Now
Charles R. Larson
America's Self-Inflicted Wounds
David Yearsley
Marsalis and His Men
Poets' Basement
Crittenden, Boyce and Gaffney
Website of the Weekend
The Religious Knowledge Quiz
September 30, 2010
Franklin C. Spinney
Peace Process to Nowhere
David Macaray
Teamsters Organize Legal Marijuana Growers
Susan Galleymore
Dumping the Navy Way
Michael D. Yates
Fear and Loathing at Saint Vincent College
Russell Mokhiber
The Grunt Work of Democracy
Eric Walberg
The New Turkey / Russia Axis
Mark Weisbrot
Venezuela's Elections: Why They're Not a Game-Changer
Charles R. Larson
From Il to Un
Website of the Day
Return of the Art Student Spies?
September 29, 2010
Dean Baker
Foreclosure Funny Business
Michael Hudson
America's China Bashing
Martha Rosenberg
Frankensalmon and the FDA
Brian Ehrenpreis
Holbrooke's Hypocrisy on Drones
Michael Winship
Ireland Hits the Skids
George Lakey
"Why Did You Go to Jail?"
Patrick Bond
South Africa is Dead in the Water
Sheldon Richman
The Anti-Anti-Authoritarians
Website of the Day
Socialist Contingent on Oct. 2
September 28, 2010
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh & Karla Hansen
Why Doesn't the US Talk to Iran?
Jonathan Cook
Reasoning Against Peace
Julie Hilden
Is Powell's Bookstore a Criminal Pornographer?
Russell Mokhiber
Massey My Masta
David Macaray
HBO Limited
Stewart J. Lawrence Voice for Immigrants Wins Historic Seat
Brian McKenna
Muckrake Your Town
Laura Flanders
Is the Drug War a Class War?
Linh Dinh
Welcome to the Recovery
Bouthaina Shaaban
You Only Get the Truth From Former Officials
Website of the Day
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
September 27, 2010
Pam Martens
Scientists, Secrets and Wall Street's Lost $4 Trillion
Ron Jacobs
The FBI Raids in Context
Patrick Irelan
The Redistribution of Wealth: Steal From the Poor, Give to the Rich
Greg Moses
How ICE Illegally Deprived Saad Nabeel of His Freshman Year
Dave Lindorff
Spreading Democracy in Afghanistan: One Journalist Arrest at a Time
Jayne Lyn Stahl Ahmadinejad Steals the Show, But Citigroup is the Real Culprit
Uri Avnery
Gandhi's Wisdom: Reflections of a Professional Grumbler
George Wuerthner Wolf Restoration: a Challenge to the Old Guard
James McEnteer
Chile: Miner Problems, Major Paralysis
David Michael Green The Dismantling of Civil Society
Website of the Day
Scrambled Eggs: "Organic" Factory Farms?
September 24 - 26, 2010
Alexander Cockburn
Masturbating on the Edge of the Apocalypse
Paul Craig Roberts
The Collapse of Western Morality
Ishmael Reed
Being Black and "Difficult" in Hollywood: an Interview with Lou Gossett, Jr.
Patrick Cockburn
After the Flood:
Six Million Pakistanis Have Lost Everything
Ralph Nader
A Ten Percent Shift? Craven Republicans and Spineless Democrats
Anthony DiMaggio
Are Government Workers Overpaid?
Julien Brygo
Glasgow's Two Nations
Rune Engelbreth Larsen
The Danish Cartoon Affair: How and Why It All Began
Gary Leupp
The Handwriting is on the Wall
Norman Solomon
Higher Consciousness Won't Save Us
Shir Hever
Why Does Israel Still Occupy Palestinians?
Ramzy Baroud
Why Mitchell Said "No" to Hamas
M. Shahid Alam
Zionist Dialectics
David Rosen /
Bruce Kushnick
Cheap Date: the Comcast / NBC Merger
Rannie Amiri
A Blurred Line in Bahrain
Russell Mokhiber
True Majority and Pepsi: Dancing with the Liquid Candy Queen
David Macaray
High Noon for California Nurses
Missy Beattie
Anything Can Happen
Rich Wiles
Ramadan in Aida Camp
David Model
Pragmatic Idealism: Rationalizing Foreign Policy
Harvey Wasserman
Another Feeble-Headed Nuke Drops Dead
Jeff Deasy
The FDA and Frankenfoods
Laura Flanders
Running for the Exits
Jesse Strauss
Lessons From Arizona
Tom Stephens
The Structural Readjustment of Detroit
Binoy Kampmark Going Mad in Delhi
Stephen Martin
Money, Inc.
Charles R. Larson
Red Capitalism in Vietnam
David Yearsley
Jewels of Silent Film Music
Poets' Basement
Davies and Chaet
Website of the Weekend
How to Lose a Million Jobs
September 23, 2010
Doug Peacock
Global Warming, Killer Bears?
Dana Frank
Repression's Reward in Honduras?
Mark Weisbrot
The Rightwing Upsurge in the U.S.: Less Than Meets the Eye?
John LaForge
The End of Combat My Eye
Martha Rosenberg Animal Experimentation Funny? Yes, Says This Researcher
Jay Arena
Return to Iberville: Birthplace of Jazz, Graveyard of Public Housing?
Alvaro Huerta
The Curious Case of Latino Republicans
James Rothenberg Managed Misconceptions
Website of the Day
FBI Tailed Iowa Groups
September 22, 2010
Conn Hallinan
The Real Merchants of Death
Joanne Mariner
When Machines Kill
Jonathan Cook
Locking Up Activists
Ron Jacobs
New Orleans After the Press Went Home
Jonathan M. Feldman
Why the Swedish Left Lost
Shamus Cooke
The Bi-Partisan Attack on Public Workers
Michael Winship
Where's Ed Newman When You Need Him?
Anthony Papa
Rejecting Paris
Website of the Day
Hollywood Through Yul Brynner's Camera
September 21, 2010
John Ross
The Next Mexican Revolution
Dean Baker
The Terrible Tale of TARP
Steve Breyman
The Myth That Kills
Robert Bryce
The Real Problems With Wind Energy
Yvonne Ridley
Condemned by Their Silence
Jesse Strauss
Fallout From the Mesherle Verdict
Bouthaina Shaaban
Democracy in Arab Eyes
Binoy Kampmark
Switzerland and the Criminal Mind
Website of the Day
Revisiting the Black Panthers
September 20, 2010
Michael Hudson
Where is the World Economy Headed?
Gareth Porter
Bait-and-Switch in Afghanistan
Dave Lindorff /
Linn Washington
New Tests Show Key Witnesses Lied at Mumia Abu Jamal Trial
Pam Martens
A Whistleblowing Mom and Goldman Sachs Plaintiffs Confront the Same the Reality
Ralph Nader
Safer at Most Speeds
Stephen Crawford /
Shawn Fremstad
A Better Way to Measure Poverty
Marjorie Cohn
The Persecution of Pfc. Bradley Manning
Lawrence Davidson
Martin Peretz in Love
Steve Early
Scoundrel Time at Kaiser
Jayne Lyn Stahl
The Scandal That Wasn't
Website of the Day
The Lesser Evil
September 17 - 19, 2010
Alexander Cockburn
Autumn of the Driveler
James B. Rule Elizabeth Warren's Challenge: the Banks and Their Protectors
Saul Landau /
Nelson Valdés
The Confessions of Roger Noriega
Ishmael Reed
Why Some White Progressives Make Me Sick: Black Men and the White Left
Mike Whitney
Housing:
The Swelling Backlog
Diana Johnstone
Serbia Surrenders Kosovo to the EU
Rannie Amiri
The Saudi Arms Deal: Stirring Persian Gulf Waters
David Rosen
Tea Party Panic: the Fear of Sex, Race and Inter-racial "Pollution"
Ramzy Baroud
Regarding US Muslims: a Misguided Debate
Richard Phelps
Burning and Building
Sheldon Richman
They Died for Iran
Alan J. Singer
Beware the Jabberwockies
Margaret Kimberley
The Charter School Con
David Tresilian
On the Trail of "Blood Diamonds"
Missy Beattie
American Graffiti
Mark Weisbrot
The Future of the Internet
Marco Antonio Martínez García
Pollution Knows No Borders
Stewart J. Lawrence
Rolling the Dice on Immigration Reform
Linh Dinh
Kill Them: Michael Enright's America
Jim Goodman
The Food Crisis is Not About a Food Shortage
Abdel-Moneim Said An Aesthetic Desert: Egypt's Stolen Van Gogh
John Grant
The Farce That Keeps on Giving in Afghanistan
Robert Jereski
Banning Methane Mining
Billy Wharton
Street Politics on 9/11
Shahid Mahmood
The Cartoonist and the Pastor
Charles R. Larson
You Are What You Think
David Yearsley
Unexpected Encounters With Greatness
Poets' Basement
Taylor, Cirino and Crissman
Website of the Weekend
Gogol Bordello: Immigraniada
September 16, 2010
Laura Carlsen
Plan Colombia for Mexico
Alexander Cockburn
Remembering Ben Sonnenberg
Clancy Sigal
The Poor Man's Artillery:
What IEDs Can Do
Gareth Porter
Blowback in Kandahar
Patrick Cockburn
Pakistan Flood Survivors Now Face Threat of Malaria
Philippe Marlière
France's Great Pension Swindle
Lawrence Davidson The Great Muslim Scare: Here Come the True Believers
John Severino
In Chile, Two Kinds of Terrorism
Website of the Day
The Gitmo 176
September 15, 2010
Mike Whitney
Doomsday for Lehman
Alan Nasser
Driving Another Nail Into the Coffin of the New Deal
Nelson P. Valdés
The Cuban Model and
Castro's "Confession"
David Correia
If Only Glenn Beck Were a Cyborg: Inside the Singularity Movement
Ron Jacobs
The Dutchman and Pastor Jones
Saif Shahin
Iran: War Talk, Peace Talk
Shamus Cooke
When Corporations Own Congress
Michael Winship
Escaping Tolerance
Mohamed Abdel-Baky
Egypt Going Nuclear
Betsy Ross
No Bull
Charles R. Larson
The Politics of Onanism:
the Anti-Masturbation Candidate
Website of the Day
Tools for Radicals
September 14, 2010
Kathy Kelly
Banning Slaughter
Israel Shamir /
Paul Bennett
Assange Besieged
Esam Al-Amin
Three Sides of the Qu'ran Burning Triangle
Dean Baker
Economist Failure:
the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations
Stewart J. Lawrence
Have Immigration Activists Won the Battle But Lost the War?
Benjamin Dangl
Chile's Ghosts
David Macaray
When the Work Breaks You Down
Sheldon Richman
Obama the Neoconservative
P. Sainath
How Right You Are, Prime Minister!
Harvey Wasserman
Is the Nuclear Renaissance Dead Yet?
Website of the Day
Unseal Nixon's Grand Jury Testimony
September 13, 2010
Michael Hudson Obama's Thatcherite Gift to the Banks
Mike Whitney
The Hyper-Inflation Mirage
Mark Weisbrot
The Venezuelan Economy: the Media Gets It Wrong Again
Michael Barker
Foundations and the Environmental Movement: an Interview with Daniel Faber
Ralph Nader
Doomsday for Democrats?
Michael Dalton
Return to the Cove of Blood: a Report From Taiji
Marjorie Cohn
Business as Usual in Iraq
Richard Trumka
How the Corporados Wrecked Retirement
Dave Lindorff
Growth Has Little to Do With Jobs or Reducing Poverty
David Michael Green
I Have a Dream
Website of the Day
The Blues Collective
|
Weekend Edition
October 22 - 24, 2010
From ROT to Wall Street
Owning the Shares of Shame
By MISSY BEATTIE
In the days following 9/11, the world was told the “official" story. People “jealous of our freedoms” wanted to destroy our way of life.
George Bush said, “Anybody who would attack America the way they did, anybody who would take innocent life the way they did, anybody who’s so devious, is evil.”
Bush was referring to terrorists—and he was right. Because his response to the attack was to exact a Reign OF Terror (ROT) during which innocent lives have been taken since bombing began in a frenzy of vengeance.
As Bush boarded Air Force One in Florida on September 11, 2001, he told an agent, “Be sure to get the First Lady and my daughters protected.”
Laura Bush’s reaction to that day: “I was horrified. I thought, ‘Dear God protect as many citizens as you can.’ It was a nightmare.”
For Afghans and, then, Iraqis, it has been so much more—nightly nightmares and daily daymares.
“Be sure to get the First Lady and my daughters protected”?? Just allow that directive to penetrate your consciousness and think of the Afghan and Iraqi fathers who would give anything, anything to protect their wives and children.
And think of servicemen and women Bush consigned to multiple deployments in what has become the longest war in US history.
According to George Bush, his “decision” weighed heavily on his psyche and heart:
Any time you commit troops to harm’s way, a president must make sure that he fully understands all the consequences and ramifications. And I wanted to spend some time on it alone. And did. Could we win? I didn’t want to be putting our troops in there unless I was certain we could win. And I was certain we could win.
Yet, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill told author Ron Suskind “from the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go.” In fact, O’Neill said that this was discussed 10 days after the inauguration, eight months before 9/11. “It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying, ‘Go find me a way to do this.’”
A way was found.
The warnings that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack our country were clear. Multiple countries provided this intelligence. Starkly revealing is the declassified memo, dated August 6, 2001 and sent to President Bush as part of his Presidential Daily Briefing, with the title: Osama bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.
On 9/11, Dick Cheney was bunkered in the White House. He said: It’s important to emphasize it’s not personal. You don’t think of it in personal terms. You’ve got a professional job to do.”
Cheney’s “professional job,” ROT, swiftly was executed. The plan he carried in his briefcase became the Bush Doctrine, one of acting preemptively against states developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Even if those countries were NOT developing WMD. September 11 provided Cheney the opportunity for which he lived and breathed, for which his diseased heart continued beating, while nationalistic Americans shouted “USA, USA, USA” and “God Bless America.”
More than nine years later, family members of those killed on 9/11 have not seen justice. The 9/11 Commission, tasked to investigate the crimes, was negligent. And neutered. The media, politicians, and a fearful public failed to demand accountability.
Now, the wand has been passed to Barack Obama, the man who, as candidate, orated hope and change. He, like the 9/11 Commission, is an epic failure. Under his leadership, the war has widened with the droning of Pakistan and Yemen.
This week, I received a mass email from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright—a plea for a donation to continue the Democratic Party’s hopiness and changiness, so we can be certain after Election Day that we “kept the country we love on the right path to the future.” Immediately, I thought of Albright’s appearance on 60 Minutes in 1996 when Leslie Stahl questioned her about US sanctions on Iraq: “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?’
Albright answered: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price—we think the price is worth it.”
We are paying the price today with an achievement of hate status throughout the world. And we are collapsing from immorality’s weight via a racist foreign policy and a classist/racist domestic policy.
Meanwhile, politicians from both mainstream parties, including the Tea-wingers, “perform” with jaw-dropping stupidity and incivility, exploiting anything and everything to win a trip to Easy Street—DC’s path of influence and ineptitude. During the debates, we have heard nothing of substance, no acknowledgment or questioning of war. Insults and accusations have been hurled. On the campaign circuit, Mama Grizzlies roar “reload,” Mafioso wannabes are ready to do something or other with someone’s kneecaps, and, well, the traditional, lackluster, robotic, career hunker downers, like Harry Reid, are trying, desperately, to retain their jobs.
But they are one and the SAME—possessed by Wall Street.
And we the people, whether we choose to vote or not, are witnesses to evil; we corner the market, ruthlessly, owning the shares of shame.
Missy Beattie lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Her email address is missybeat@gmail.com.
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Escape From Afghanistan
Kabul: Patrick Cockburn reports on the only realistic U.S. option – a deal with the Taliban and Pakistan. Delaware: JoAnn Wypijewski reports from the Christine O’Donnell campaign. Moscow: Follow the money -- Boris Kagarlitsky on what the battle between President Medvedev and Mayor Luzhkov is really all about The CIA: Steve Hendricks tracks down a renderer. Subscribe now! If you find our site useful please: Click here to make a donation. CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.
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