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Today's
Stories
July 31, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
Sex, Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
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.
|
July
31, 2004
"Hope
is on the Way"
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
By
JOHN CHUCKMAN
I heard several lines from John Edwards'
convention speech on the radio before I clicked it off. Anymore
and I would have vomited.
As it was, I experienced a
horrible flashback to being a twelve-year old at the Midwest
Baptists' Camp Sycamore, sitting in the sweltering cinderblock
meeting hall, shirt stuck to the back of a card-table chair,
while a strutting little preacher sprayed beads of sweat and
globs of spit into the twilight yelling about hell.
John Edwards is pure Elmer
Gantry.
Well, what would you expect
from a guy who spent twenty years chasing ambulances, looking
for deep pockets to sue, always waving his arms and smiling like
a chipmunk? America's litigation lawyers and its evangelists-for-profit
have a lot in common, and when they come from places like Dog
Bite, North Carolina, it's almost impossible to tell them apart.
There's always a syrupy sweet exterior, the beneficent smile--just
think of Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson--in the ruthless pursuit
of things that human society would be better off without.
Here's a few lines from John's
official site on how he sees his career:
For 20 years, John dedicated
his career to representing families and children hurt by the
negligence of others. Standing up against the powerful insurance
industry and their armies of lawyers, John helped these families
through the darkest moments of their lives to overcome tremendous
challenges. His passionate advocacy for people like the folks
who worked in the mill with his father earned him respect and
recognition across the country.
That sounds like a promo for
the next episode of "Rescuing Little Nell from the Clutches
of Snidely Whiplash." Of course, it's what the words don't
say that is often important. Why did John only stand up for "families
and children"? Is there something wrong with representing
people without families or children? Of course not, but his language
is reclaimed manure from the Republican family-values compost
heap.
John stood against armies of
lawyers? No, actually John swelled the ranks of lawyers who now
swarm America like the aftereffect of a lab-accident release
of killer bees, spreading conflict and fear everywhere they appear.
The blurb doesn't say that in twenty years John had made himself
a very rich man through litigation, that is by helping to raise
insurance premiums for everyone, but that's the truth. "Standing
up against the powerful insurance industry" could just as
well read, "Mining the huge revenues of the insurance industry
for all he could haul away."
Like any of America's current
crop of crocodile-tear evangelists hoping to witness a repeat
of the miracle of the loaves and fishes from a collection plate,
John helped families through their "darkest moments,"
just managing to accumulate a fortune by the time he was in his
forties. Well, I'm not against success, just against misrepresenting
what it is you did.
Since most litigation is socially
disruptive and economically unproductive, there is something
particularly disturbing about one of its predatory practitioners
seeking high office. After all, it is the abject failure of American
legislators to provide sufficient enlightened laws and decent
regulations that makes the threatening jungle where litigation
flourishes.
Reading the balance of John's
speech on the Internet had the advantage of not having to hear
his backwoods, folksy tone and watch his flamboyant, well-practiced
gestures, but I still quickly grasped why John was so successful
at litigation. People would settle just to escape having to hear
him for months in court. My favorite passage of his speech is
this:
When you wake up and sit with
your kids at the kitchen table, talking to them about the great
possibilities in America, you make sure that they know that John
and I believe at our core that tomorrow can be better than today.
Like all of us, I have learned a lot of lessons in my life. Two
of the most important are that first, there will always be heartache
and struggle-you can't make it go away. But the other is that
people of good and strong will can make a difference. One lesson
is a sad lesson and the other's inspiring. We are Americans and
we choose to be inspired
Apart from the fact that half
of all America's marriages end in divorce, you could never convince
me that there are many of the remaining families who sit around
a breakfast table talking up "the great possibilities of
America." Can't you just see squirming kids, screaming about
how someone ate all the Lucky Charms or what a jerk the math
teacher is, falling silent as a father decides to lift his Lincolnesque
brows, perhaps having offered the blessing for the morning's
Pop Tarts, to invoke the great possibilities of America? Doesn't
that sound just a little bizarre? If this is what happens at
John's house, you should be afraid of his holding office. If
this isn't what happens at John's house, why is he saying it?
The truth is, and I'm sure
John knows this, few families even sit together at the breakfast
table in America, and, if they do, there's a better-than-even
chance that a television is mindlessly blaring the whole time.
As for millions of poor families, there is no breakfast on the
table. Isn't that why Head Start supplies the kids with food
at school? Even in suburban middle-class families, it's all they
can do to each make it out of the door on time with rush-hour
commutes and drop-offs for the privileged kids' heavy schedule
of activities.
And how do like that injunction
about adding to the breakfast-table sermon, "you make sure
that they know that John and I believe at our core that tomorrow
can be better than today." John and I believe at our core?
Why can't they just believe? Why must it be at their core, whatever
that means? The word suggests a nuclear reactor rather than a
human being. Anyway, more than a few disturbed personalities
in history lay claim to some kind of mystical core something-or-other.
Frankly, this statement is so patronizing and ridiculous, it
makes me wonder about John's rationality.
And what does John mean about
tomorrow being better than today? It resembles the words of a
certain old American religious huckster who used to open his
pitch for money by saying "Something GOOD is going to happen
to YOU!" But it is worse than that, because it is so utterly
implausible and silly. He is giving you an injunction to talk
seriously to your kids about the fatuous advertising claims of
two bought-and-paid-for politicians.
John has one or more mini-sermons
in almost every brief passage. You'd think he was running for
church deacon instead of high political office. I like his great
first lesson, "there will always be heartache and struggle-you
can't make it go away." Is that what the leaders of a great
nation are supposed to talk about? Do we need national elections
to hear lines borrowed from Oprah Winfrey?
Then there's, "But the
other is that people of good and strong will can make a difference.
One lesson is a sad lesson and the other's inspiring. We are
Americans and we choose to be inspired."
John probably has in mind the
kind of "inspired" a preacher talks about, as the inspired
Word of God. That kind of inspired allows of no mistakes, because
God can't make any. It also allows of no questions or critics.
Nice stuff for a politician to embrace--feel self-righteous while
effectively telling people to shut-up.
In the real world, and it is
the job of politicians to deal with the real world, inspired
is not always a sound state of mind. Inspired about what? Inspired
to do what? People are just as likely to be inspired to do terrible
things as good things. The word is often used by the flunkies
of great tyrants. Germans regularly used the word to describe
Der F?hrer. The ghastly blood-letting of Vietnam was inspired
by a loopy, religious-like belief in the need to stop communism.
Would you say that that smiling humbug, Pat Robertson, was inspired
when he recently advocated America's invading Iran to overthrow
the heathens?
The passage is full of question-begging
phrases. Make a difference to what? I can't help thinking of
the cliche about the path to hell being paved with good intentions.
Sorry, John, but there's no shortage of leaders with strong wills
in the world, and each of them believes in his own goodness.
That fact is almost certainly one of the human race's true curses.
The rest of John's speech is
sprinkled with soul-deadening cliches and even contradictions.
At one point, he said, "I stand here tonight ready to work
with you and John [Kerry] to make America strong again."
Well, I think the last thing any thinking person on the planet
wants are people working to make America stronger. America has
destabilized two countries, killed tens of thousands of innocent
people, tortured, and improperly imprisoned simply because it
had the power to do so. Power is like that, as Lord Acton so
wisely said, it corrupts. Chase after enough of it, and you get
absolute corruption.
John's speech takes on the
theme of two Americas, and were he to deal with the genuine problem
of two distinct and separate societies in America (actually,
I think it is three, including the wealthy class represented
by all the Presidential candidates)), he might have said something
worthwhile. John tells us: "Because the truth is, we still
live in two different Americas: one for people who have lived
the American Dream and don't have to worry, and another for most
Americans who work hard and still struggle to make ends meet.
It doesn't have to be that way." But it was John himself
who already told us how struggle and difficulties won't go away,
so what's he saying?
On education, John says: "We
shouldn't have two public school systems in this country: one
for the most affluent communities, and one for everybody else.
None of us believe that the quality of a child's education should
be controlled by where they live or the affluence of their community."
John must know perfectly well
that education is not primarily a responsibility of the federal
government under America's 18th-century Constitution, so what's
he talking about? What does he propose to do to change a situation
where some suburban high schools have PhDs teaching and classes
enjoy trips to Europe, while urban schools have labs with rusted
taps and Bunsen burners that don't work?
The truth is that all good
things in America, including medical care and political influence,
are rationed according to ability to pay. So why would education
be any different?
John adds: "We shouldn't
have two different economies in America: one for people who are
set for life, their kids and grandkids will be just fine, and
then one for most Americans who live paycheck to paycheck."
What does that mean, beyond populist hot air? I have no idea,
and I suspect John doesn't either.
Here's Preacher John on adversity
and hardship: "and you know what happens if something goes
wrong-a child gets sick, somebody gets laid off, or there's a
financial problem, you go right off the cliff. And what's the
first thing to go? Your dreams." Your dreams? I really think
dreams are the last thing people experiencing hardship worry
about. They are worried about getting through with a shred of
dignity, perhaps about surviving. Is John offering them genuine
help or an airy hand-out of dreams and inspiration?
Here's a few selected gems
from Preacher John on 9/11:
We will do whatever it takes,
for as long as it takes, to make sure that never happens again,
not to our America. We will strengthen our homeland security
and protect our ports, safeguard our chemical plants, and support
our firefighters, police officers and EMT's. We will always use
our military might to keep the American people safe.And we will
have one clear unmistakable message for al Qaida and the rest
of these terrorists. You cannot run. You cannot hide. And we
will destroy you.
Does John think there are people
in America--other than its substantial population of militia
types, survivalists, millenarianists, and those looking forward
to Armageddan--who want that to happen again? Does he think there's
people, other than the two million or so in America's prisons,
who don't support police?
John's promise to hunt down
terrorists is pure comic-book superhero, and isn't it exactly
what the delusional Bush believes he's been doing all along?
What does John propose that is different? He says absolutely
nothing about using proper diplomatic and legal channels to hunt
down violent criminals or about strengthening international institutions.
No, it's all America this and America that, the same totally
narcissistic stuff that's making the world sick of hearing from
America. Nobody wants a friend who only talks about himself and
refuses to help anyone except on his own terms, but Americans
like John think those same qualities somehow become attractive
traits in world relations. Like his partner-candidate, Kerry,
he promises only more threats about not hesitating to use the
military to kill more people.
Keep in mind that John, sitting
as he does on a Senate intelligence committee, has an extremely
high intelligence clearance and ask yourself what he was able
to forecast or advocate either before or after 9/11. Not much
is the answer. John's pet project now is to start a new domestic
spy agency--still another multi-billion-dollar agency on top
the vast existing network of intrusive agencies and one dedicated
specifically to spying on the homeland's residents. Does that
sound like someone genuinely concerned about rights and freedoms?
Someone should ask John if he is committed to rescinding the
execrable Patriot Act, but I doubt he'd receive an honest answer.
Having Preacher John teamed
up with Kerry--that drearily ambitious man whose concept of bravery
ran to shooting civilians safely from a riverboat in Vietnam--leaves
me with a bleak outlook for America and thereby the world. That
this dishonest pair and the insipid Bush are the best America
offers as leaders says something terrible about that frighteningly-powerful
nation: it suffers a devastating poverty of imagination and spirit.
Weekend
Edition Features for July 10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
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