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Meat and Empire
The pig-raising factories of Smithfield Farms stretch from Mexico to Rumania and back to home sty in North Carolina, where swine flu first mutated. Viewing Earth from outer space an alien ecologist might conclude cows are the dominant species of our planet. Alexander Cockburn on the conquest landscapes of the meat-producers. Nanotechnologies, say their boosters, are changing the way people think about the future. They rush to buy nano-products. But how safe are they? Steven Higgs has a chastening message for us. And Senator James Abourezk concludes his vivid “Adventures in Indian Country”, with the story of the occupation of Wounded Knee. Yes, he was there and he was one scared senator. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories May 15-17, 2009 Alexander Cockburn May 14, 2009 Michael Hudson Andy Worthington Paul Craig Roberts Jonathan Cook Ray McGovern Lance Selfa David Green Dave Lindorff Frida Berrigan Sue Udry Website of the Day May 13, 2009 Brian M. Downing Gareth Porter Robert Sandels Ricardo Alarcón Eric Walberg Dave Lindorff Deepak Tripathi William S. Lind Kevin Zeese Franklin Lamb Website of the Day May 12, 2009 Gary Leupp Richard Neville Wajahat Ali Dean Baker Franklin Lamb Norman Solomon Paul Craig Roberts Lisa M. Hamilton Bob Fitrakis / David Macaray Website of the Day May 11, 2009 Andrea Peacock Michael Hudson Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader John Kelly Saul Landau Dave Lindorff David Michael Green Anthony Papa Paul Krassner Website of the Day May 8-10, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Wolf Steve Niva Neve Gordon Mike Whitney Warren Hinckle Serge Halimi Gareth Porter Sharon Smith Andy Worthington Mark Weisbrot Rosa Miriam Elizalde Cyber Command and Cyber Dissident: More of the Same? David Macaray Missy Beattie Ron Jacobs Diane Farsetta Ramzy Baroud Phelie Maguire Robert Fantina Kevin Zeese Margaret Flowers, MD Dave Lindorff Richard Rhames Ben Sonnenberg Kim Nicolini Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 7, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts Chris Floyd Andy Worthington Alan Farago Ray McGovern Dave Lindorff Eric Toussaint / Ana M. Malinow, MD Jeff Armstrong Norman Solomon Website of the Day May 6, 2009 Doug Peacock Patrick Cockburn Richard Neville Manuel Garcia, Jr. Winslow T. Wheeler Deepak Tripathi Stephen Soldz Reuven Kaminer David Macaray Kevin Zeese Marjorie Cohn Coalition for an Ethical Psychology Website of the Day
May 5, 2009 William Blum Uri Avnery Steven Higgs Dean Baker Daniel Wolff Sibel Edmonds Carole King Klein Fidel Castro Belén Fernández Dan Bacher Website of the Day May 4, 2009 James G. Abourezk Jeff Leys Patrick Cockburn Andy Worthington Jaime Avilés David Swanson Paul Craig Roberts P. Sainath Eugenia Tsao Benjamin Dangl Sami Al-Arian Website of the Day May 1 - 3, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Peter Linebaugh Jeffrey St. Clair / C. G. Estabrook Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Pierre Sprey / Andy Worthington Mairead Maguire Nadia Hijab Diane Farsetta Michael Calderón-Zaks Richard Rhames Russell Mokhiber Ramzy Baroud Rannie Amiri Deb Reich Steven Higgs Brian Cloughley David Michael Green Farzana Versey Jim Goodman Carl Finamore Christopher Brauchli Susie Day David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Peter Stone Brown Poets' Basement Dominguez, Orloski and Springate Website of the Weekend April 30, 2009 Ellen Cantarow Dana L. Cloud Paul W. Lovinger / Binoy Kampmark Brian Downing Frank Snepp David Swanson Conn Hallinan Ron Jacobs John Goekler Jasmine L. Tyler / Website of the Day April 29, 2009 Joann Wypijewski Patrick Cockburn Andy Worthington Chris Floyd Dave Lindorff Jeremy Scahill Doug Henwood Michael Hudson Russell Mokhiber Eric Toussaint Website of the Day April 28, 2009 Uri Avnery Jeremy Scahill Dean Baker Michael D. Yates Conn Hallinan John Stauber Tom Barry Harvey Wasserman Jeff Nygaard Frederico Fuentes Website of the Day April 27, 2009 Pam Martens Patrick Cockburn Andrew J. Bacevich Guardian of the Status Quo: Obama's Sins of Omission Mitu Sengupta Franklin Lamb Firmin DeBrabander Dave Lindorff Russell Mokhiber Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Rev. José M. Tirado Website of the Day April 24-26, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Marjorie Cohn Andy Worthington Jeremy Scahill Chris Floyd Mike Whitney Anthony DiMaggio Chris Kromm Saul Landau Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Manuel Garcia, Jr. David Michael Green Ramzy Baroud Rannie Amiri Laura Carlsen Richard Morse Nikolas Kozloff Kent Peterson Robert Bryce Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Financial Experts Ron Jacobs Richard Rhames Stephen Martin David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend April 23, 2009 Eamonn Fingleton Ray McGovern Michael Ratner Alan Farago Rob Larson Nadia Hijab Fawzia Afzal-Khan Dave Lindorff Helen Redmond Adam Federman Website of the Day April 22, 2009 Chris Floyd Joanne Mariner Vijay Prashad Gareth Porter Dean Baker Peter Morici Winslow T. Wheeler Barucha Calamity Peller Harvey Wasserman Aisha Brown / Teo Ballvé Website of the Day April 21, 2009 Randy Rowland Dave Lindorff Fidel Castro George McGovern Greg Moses Benjamin Dangl Sonia Nettnin Frank Barat Binoy Kampmark John V. Walsh David Macaray Website of the Day April 20, 2009 Mike Whitney Andrea Peacock Henry A. Giroux Liaquat Ali Khan Fred Gardner Stephen Soldz Nadia Hijab Dave Lindorff P. Sainath Nelson P Valdés Mark Engler Belén Fernández Website of the Day
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May 15-17, 2009 The Conservative CounterstrikeLapel Pins, Arugula and MustardBy ROBERT FANTINA Conservative Republicans (probably a redundant term since there seem to be no other kind of Republicans anymore) have tried relentlessly but in vain to find something to criticize about President Barack Obama that would have staying power. It almost seems they are competing to see who could find the most ridiculous issue to accuse him of that would actually stick. First, as a candidate, he was criticized for not wearing an American flag lapel pin. How, they asked, hands wringing in anguish, could someone who sought to become the president of the United States not wear an American flag lapel pin? What kind of traitor was he? When that was accepted for the nonsense it was, a new line was tried. Although he has attended Christian churches since his youth, it was suggested that he was, horror of horrors, a Muslim. After all, his middle name is Hussein. That must mean he is Muslim which, for reasons that were never explained, would have been enough to disqualify him from the presidency, at least in the eyes of those singing that particular song. Unfortunately for the hapless conservatives, this accusation didn’t hold much water either. So, they thought, perhaps they could say he was In the mean time, apparently unbeknownst to these conservatives, two wars were raging, the economy was imploding, U.S. homeowners were losing their homes in record numbers and tens of millions of citizens were without healthcare. The education system was failing, the infrastructure collapsing, and international relations were in tatters. But while the conservatives were busy avoiding the very real problems facing the nation and the world, the voters, for once, seemed to be paying attention, and elected Mr. Obama president. Since his inauguration he has worked, not exactly tirelessly, but at least somewhat effectively, to undo the damage of eight years of conservative Republican rule. Yet the conservatives are still seeking something – anything – to bring down his popularity. And now one might say that they are finally scrapping the bottom of the mustard jar. Yes, Mr. Obama had the audacity to order Dijon mustard on his hamburger. One supposes he didn’t order a side of ‘Freedom Fries’ with his burger, since that may have been sufficient to cancel out the Dijon sin. One also supposes he did not request arugula on it, (harking back to another, earlier failed attempt to paint him with the brush of elitism) or in addition to what is now being called Dijongate, we would have Arugulagate and, if one can excuse the pun, that would be quite a mouthful. What does this say about the U.S. conservative movement? It appears that it has had its heyday, and like the once-popular party guest whose jokes eventually wear thin as much as he keeps telling them, he simply stays too long, not realizing that all the other guests have left and the hosts are yawning in a corner. During the ‘Reagan Revolution’ the conservative movement ran the show, financing anti-government terrorists in Nicaragua and generally, as infamously proclaimed in Mr. Reagan’s campaign advertisements, ‘bringing America back’, apparently to the Dark Ages. Mr. Reagan’s vice president eked out a single term to succeed him, but was defeated for a second term by President Bill Clinton. His eight years of relative peace and prosperity culminated in the election of his vice president, Al Gore, but the Supreme Court stepped in and appointed a second Mr. Bush, thus giving the conservative movement a second lease on life. Mr. Bush embraced that new lease on conservative life fully, about the neck, sufficient to throttle it and bring it to its gasping state today. So where does that leave the struggling Republican Party? With discarded lapel pins, dried up arugula and now, if not egg on their collective face, at least a generous amount of mustard, none of which the nation seems to be in any dire need of. But when one has run out of ideas, and when those one had in the past seemed to have been implemented with the most dismal results (bankrupting the country; starting two unnecessary and unwinnable wars, to name just two), perhaps looking back at these cherished relics offers some comfort. It is pointless to think that these arch conservatives will attempt to look for some reasonable solutions, since there does not seem to be much recognition that society has not remained stuck in 1980, when they were able to run roughshod over the poor and middle class; the first decade of the new millennium, it turns out, was an unfortunate anomaly, not a resurgence of their tired values. And so they persist, hoping against all hope (not to mention mounting evidence) that some trivial, worthless, meaningless non-issue will turn the public against its new and popular president, causing his removal from office and sending him straight to the Guantanamo torture chamber he seeks to close. Then the conservatives, led most likely by their shining star, Rush Limbaugh, can once again take the White House and put the Constitution back into the shredder from which Mr. Obama retrieved it, painstakingly taping it back together. Occasionally they pull something out of their discredited closet that is more serious that mustard, but from which U.S. citizens and the rest of the world recoil. Former vice-president Dick Cheney makes the rounds of talk shows proclaiming the benefits of torturing political prisoners, a practice he and his former boss approved for eight years. Missouri Senator Kit Bond warns darkly that closing the U.S. torture chamber at Guantanamo threatens U.S. security. Why, they might ask themselves, does no one seem to be paying attention? Could it be that eight years of running roughshod over human rights, domestically and internationally, has taken its toll? Is it possible that U.S. citizens have finally seen through the scare tactics of red alerts, Muslim-bashing and a terrorist under every bed? It seems that this may be the case. While one underestimates the gullibility and limited attention span of the U.S. voter at one’s peril, it appears that some line has finally be crossed, and said voter would rather have an intelligent, thoughtful president than one he or she would be comfortable having a beer with. One could pity the poor Republicans, but they have done too much damage to warrant any sympathy. When one shoots oneself in the foot with one’s own gun (probably unregistered and unlicensed), onlookers only shake their heads in disbelief at the stupidity of such action. When one continues doing it, onlookers simply walk away. But we must let them carry on; they will eat their freedom fries and foretell the doom and destruction of the world while the rest of us try a little Dijon on our burgers. The only thing we have to mourn is the apparent demise of the two-party system, brought about by the not-too-tragic suicide of the GOP. We can all wait with bated breath for the next nonsense to erupt from the mouths of the Dick Cheneys, Rush Limbaughs and Sarah Palins of the world. (Let us not forget Governor Palin, she who has pushed her teenage, unmarried daughter to tell the world the glories of sexual abstinence even as she carts around her own baby; does anyone but this writer notice any irony in this bizarre situation?). But as they go about seeking something with which to discredit the president, he and others will make a far greater attempt to govern within the bonds of that old and neglected document, the Constitution, than was done for the past eight years. And the world can rest a little easier, knowing that Mr. Bush is gone, replaced by Mr. Obama. Robert Fantina is author of 'Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776--2006. |
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