home / subscribe / donate / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events

New Print Edition of CounterPunch! What Kerry Would Do; What Nader Should Do: by Robin Blackburn; Even Richard Ben Cramer Can't Criticize Israel Without Being Smeared by Heather Williams; Assassinating Teen Agers on the West Bank by Scott Handleman. CounterPunch Online is read by over 20 million viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Introducing CounterPunch Books! Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Coming in August! Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils Order Now! Today's Stories August 14 / 15, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair War on the Poor: "A Risk No Sane Person Would Take" M. Shahid Alam The Civilizing Mission: Some Economic Results Saul Landau God and Botox John Ross Echoes of Mexico City, 1968 Katherine Lahey "Uh! Ah! Chávez No Se Va!": Democracy and Venezuela Medea Benjamin Hugo Chavez and the Poor of Venezuela Yves Engler The Media and the Venezuela Referendum Justin Podur The NYTs and Chavez: More Than the Usual Bias Eric Drooker Gaza Stripped Dave Lindorff A29 Could be a Very Slow Day Rebecca Brigham The Aftermath of Guatemala's Strike: Promises Still Unfulfilled   August 13, 2004 Lee Sustar Report from Caracas Mickey Z. McProtests R Us: Why are the Dems Trying to Gag Anti-War Protesters? Stan Goff There He Goes Again: Kerry's "Energy" Plan Norman Madarasz Thoughts on Najaf: How Could the US Ever Be Considered a "Terrorist" State? Victor Kattan Press Freedom, Censorship and the War on Terror Oscar Heck Is Mendoza Off His Rocker? Chavez Opponents Pledge to Post Results Online Before Polls Close CounterPunch Wire Military Families File "Stop Loss" Suit Milan Rai Najaf: Bush Started It Website of the Day The Yes Men   August 12, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair How Bush Got (and Lost) His Wings Lenni Brenner Take It on Faith: Kerry's See-Through-Monk's Robe Lee Ballinger The Coors and the Kerrys: Drink Up, Kids! Tariq Ali The Handover Fiction Yves Engler What's at Stake in Venezuela William S. Lind Seeing Through the Other Side's Eyes Christopher Brauchli Getting Bush's Goat Website of the Day The Sucker Puncher   August 11, 2004 Ceylon Mooney Who Woke Up Sen. Joe?: Watchers of the NJ Turnpike Voices in the Wilderness Hands Off Najaf Ray McGovern Porter Goss as CIA Director? Robert Jensen US Supports Anti-Democratic Forces in Venezuelan Recall Annie Higgins In Memory of Nick Pretzlik: As Good as It Gets Alexander Cockburn Bush v. Kerry: Not Even a Dime's Worth of Difference Website of the Day Nick Pretzlik   August 10, 2004 William A. Cook Silencing the Voice of the People Todd Chretien California Greens at the Crossroads: Will It Be Nader or Cobb? Dave Lindorff Chicago on the Hudson? Richard Gott Loathed by the Rich: Why Chavez is Headed for a Big Win Toni Solo Bluebeard's Castle: Disappearing the Right to Development Dave Zirin Carl Eller's Plea Rep. Ron Paul Police State, USA Patrick Cockburn If the Chalabis Were Corrupt, They Weren't Alone Website of the Day The Surveillance-Industrial Complex   Sex, Drugs & the Blues! Serpents in the Garden CounterPunch's Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available Click here to purchase   August 9, 2004 Tito Tricot Pinochet Must Still be Tried: a Murderer and a Thief on the Loose Ron Jacobs In Memory of Deep Throat: the Day Nixon Was Gone Norm Dixon Crisis in Sudan: Oil Profits Behind West's Tears for Darfur Kurt Nimmo The Politics of Entrapment Elaine Cassel Welcome to Bush's America Gary Leupp Why Iraqi Christians are Moving to Syria   August 7 / 8, 2004 James Petras The Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of Abu Ghraib Fred Gardner Run Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain Justin Delacour Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela Brian Cloughley Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd? Joshua Frank The Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader Iain A. Boal On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection Chris Floyd All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome Andrew Fenton Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti Aseem Shrivastava Saga of an Anguished Afghan Neil Corbett See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush Carol Miller / Forrest Hill Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only 12% of the Vote Tarek Milleron Breaking the Principled Voter Donald Macintyre The Battle of Najaf Ron Jacobs Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies Mickey Z. Kid Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO Poets' Basement Adler, Ford and Albert     August 6, 2004 Joshua Frank David Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity Derek Seidman An Interview with Stan Goff Mike Whitney The Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla William S. Lind Corruption in the Marine Corps David Price In the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki     August 5, 2004 Mike Ferner The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off Message Bruce Anderson Two Rejections Robert Fisk The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman Todd Chretien Florida Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader Peter Linebaugh Doing Time for Political Crime: Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail     August 4, 2004 Mickey Z. Two Traditions: WMD and Disinformation Justin Huggler The Hunt for Bin Laden John Ross Mexico's Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison   August 3, 2004 Uri Avnery The Oligarchs Ray McGovern The 9/11 Commission Chimera Jack McCarthy Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida Eric Ruder Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star John L. Hess Crying Wolf: Orange Alert! Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004 Jules Rabin The Man Who Didn't Walk By Website of the Day No Wall   August 2, 2004 Robert Jensen Kerry's Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War Joshua Frank Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity Mike Whitney The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American Police State" Gary Leupp Beyond Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions July 31 / Aug. 1, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Kerry: He's the (Any) One Merlin Chowkwanyun Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of a Narrow Policy Spectrum" David Lindorff The Shame of the DNC John Chuckman The Disturbing Words of John Edwards Brian Cloughley All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility Christopher Brauchli "Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face of Compassionate Conservatism Fred Gardner A World of Pain Michael Donnelly How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly David Nally Genocide in Darfur? Joshua Frank Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon Sam Bahour Colin Powell and My Grandmother Diane Farsetta The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the Voting Booth Harold Gould Was Iraq a Mutual Charade? Van Bergen / Stephens Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater Lee Sustar A New Model for the Labor Movement? Ron Jacobs The Lost Art of Hitchhiking M. Junaid Alam An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik Poets Basement Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair Website of the Weekend Cross Cultural Poetics   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   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.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition August 14 / 15, 2004 Is California Spying on Pro-Cannabis Doctors? Medical Board Should See Her Patients' Files, Says Dr. Marian Fry By FRED GARDNER California Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson and State Sen. John Vasconcellos moved Aug. 11 that the Joint Legislative Audit Committee determine whether the state medical board has been investigating doctors for no other reason than that they specialize in cannabis consultations. The medical board is the state agencies that issues doctors' licenses -and can revoke them. At least nine of the 15 cannabis consultant MDs have been investigated; it's a costly, time-consuming, stressful ordeal no matter what the outcome. None of the complaints triggering the investigations have come from patients in the almost eight years since Prop 215 passed; it's disgruntled law enforcement officers who are siccing the Board on the pro-cannabis docs. The request for an audit fell one vote short because Sen. Kevin Murray, a Southern California Democrat, didn't show. We asked a reliable source if Murray's absence was a matter of political ambivalence or sheer negligence and were told that it was the latter, with some pejorative adjectives thrown in. This was a costly screw-up, a missed opportunity to expose the criteria by which the Board's Enforcement Division decides which doctors to pursue. Last week Marian Fry, MD, appeared before Administrative Law Judge Ruth Astle in Oakland to ask for dismissal of the Medical Board's case against her on the grounds that her files had been obtained improperly. Fry, who does cannabis consultations from an office in Cool, California, was represented by attorney Lawrence Lichter. The Attorney General's office, representing the Medical Board, accuses Fry of providing substandard care to five patients. "Every patient I've been asked about by the medical board has passed through the criminal justice system in either El Dorado or Sacramento County," Fry says. "The complaints all came from district attorneys, not the patients themselves." The three patients named in the accusation with whom Fry is still in contact refused to release their files to the Board, and she assumes the others would have, too. Conveniently for the Board, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency had raided the home and offices of Fry and her husband, attorney Dale Schafer, in September, 2001, confiscating 24 file cabinets containing 6,000 patients' records. The Board acknowledges that it obtained Fry's records from the DEA. Lichter was able to site a section of the California penal code listing the steps that have to be taken before law enforcement agencies can share medical information. Fry's prosecutors downplayed the significance of the statute, arguing that "law enforcement agencies share information all the time," and that it had been done "pursuant to statute." But the statute they cited was a federal law authorizing the DEA to release information, not authorizing a state agency to receive it. Judge Astle expressed concern about the Medical Board obtaining records without patients' consent, or a warrant, or a subpoena, or the involvement of a judge. She requested more briefing and continued the hearing on the motion to dismiss till October 1. Leveque's Unspoken Testimony Just as in California very few doctors were willing to approve the medical use of marijuana after the voters made it legal in 1996, so, too, in Oregon there was widespread reluctance. In fact, only one doctor was known to have a fearless, unbegrudging attitude: Phillip Leveque, DO, PhD. And so Leveque, a 78-year-old PhD pharmacologist and doctor of osteopathy, immediately became the doctor of last resort for Oregonians whose regular doctors wouldn't sign their applications for state-issued medical marijuana cards. Or who didn't want to ask, or didn't have regular doctors. Leveque's license was suspended for three months in 2002 because he hadn't been conducting physicals (which were not explicitly required) or keeping records (for security reasons). The Board created "the Leveque Rule," insisting on physical exams, and Leveque hired a physician's assistant to conduct them when he resumed practice. But his license was suspended against last December, and he is convinced that the medical board is out to get him as payback for the dent he made in Prohibition. This Saturday Leveque will be speaking in Fort Bragg at the Medical Marijuana Patients'Union conference. He wrote the following speech for presentation to the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, after being invited to testify on April 1. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee and hardworking staff; Thank you for inviting me here today to dispel many of the myths about cannabis -- which has in fact been used as medicine for at least five thousand years. Let me introduce myself by saying that I am a World War II veteran and survivor of General Patton's army; I was a scout and point man in the infantry. Today I am taking care of more than 500 veterans of all wars, including World War II. I have been a professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology for 25 years in ten different medical schools throughout the United States, including Georgetown University, and I have studied cannabis for more than 50 years. Medical testing on cannabis was conducted by Lilly, Parke-Davis, Squibb, and Merck, long before the U.S. Food & Drug Administration ever existed. Until 1937, when it became no longer legal, Cannabis had been prescribed or recommended for more than 100 medical conditions listed in the U.S. Dispensatory, a reference guide for pharmacists. Current medical research has affirmed those earlier studies. Cannabis is used medicinally by 70,000 California permit-holders today. In Oregon, 10,000 patients have permits; their applications have been signed by 1,300 different physicians. Ten states in our country already accept cannabis as treatment for glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, cancer, the wasting disease of cancer and the side-effects of cancer therapy, Alzheimer's rage, severe nausea, epilepsy, spasmodic muscle conditions (including those of the intestine), asthma and severe pain of any origin. If cannabis use were harmful, that would certainly be a well-known statistic. It is not. In fact, there has not been a single medical report of fatal overdose of cannabis. It is less dangerous than Washington D.C. water. In my experience, the average patient in Oregon is 47 years of age, has used cannabis effectively for about 30 years, and has abandoned standard medications like morphine. Patients tell me and other physicians that cannabis is more effective for them than any of the standard pharmaceuticals that they had been prescribed - including Marinol, the ten-dollar-a-pill synthetic form of THC. (You will be interested to know that Oregon's Medical Marijuana Program saves the VA and the state millions of dollars.) The Oregon Medical Marijuana Law requires that the doctor see the patient face-to-face before signing the Attending Physician Statement. All of my patients were given physical examinations, had a review of previous doctors' records with an evaluation of the therapy the patient had received. If the sum total of documentation and an observation indicated patient eligibility, I would then confirm the previous doctors' records and sign the application for the permit. After the eligible patients received the signed application, they would send the application to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program office, which issues the permit. I do not approve, recommend, or prescribe marijuana. My role is to document whether said patient, in my opinion, has one of the ailments that the State of Oregon has determined may be aided by the use of cannabis under the State of Oregon rules and guidelines. This is the procedure I follow, and to the best of my knowledge and understanding it complies with "the Leveque Rule." - The Oregon Medical Marijuana Law. I thank you for this interview for myself, my 4000 patients, my 500 veterans and the 600,000 Oregonians who overwhelmingly voted to legalize Medical Marijuana back in 1998. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Leveque was convinced not to come to Washington by the Marijuana Policy Project's "Congressional Liaison," Steve Fox. The young lobbyist told the old doctor that testifying would be humiliating and dangerous. But the truth is, Fox feared Leveque wouldn't project the image of slick respectability MPP is striving for. Bryan Epis Getting Out on Bail A martyr of the medical marijuana movement has been released from Terminal Island - at least for a while ­ after 22 months behind bar. On Aug. 6 the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals directed the District Court Judge who sentenced Bryan Epis in September 2002 to let him out on bail while a related case heads for the U.S. Supreme Court. As recounted by Epis's attorney, Brenda Grantland, "Bryan was convicted of conspiracy to grow 1,000 marijuana plants, in a federal trial in which the jury was repeatedly instructed that medical marijuana was not a defense to a federal criminal charge. Despite the instructions, a lot of medical evidence came in at trial including testimony about the five patients that were growing together in Bryan's basement and sharing the work and harvest. All of them had doctors' recommendations -- so under the Ninth Circuit's decision in Raich v. Ashcroft, all of the plants shared between the five patients would be exempt from federal control, since their activities were legal under state law." The Bush administration is going to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to overturn the Raich decision, which held that marijuana grown and consumed entirely within a state where it's legal has no impact on interstate commerce and therefore the feds have no jurisdiction. It will heard in the first few months of 2005. The later the better from Bryan's point of view ­last year the Supremes reversed 77% of the appeals court decisions they reviewed. Fred Gardner can be reached at fred@plebesite.com   Weekend Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004 James Petras The Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of Abu Ghraib Fred Gardner Run Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain Justin Delacour Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela Brian Cloughley Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd? Joshua Frank The Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader Iain A. Boal On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection Chris Floyd All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome Andrew Fenton Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti Aseem Shrivastava Saga of an Anguished Afghan Neil Corbett See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush Carol Miller / Forrest Hill Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only 12% of the Vote Tarek Milleron Breaking the Principled Voter Donald Macintyre The Battle of Najaf Ron Jacobs Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies Mickey Z. Kid Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO Poets' Basement Adler, Ford and Albert WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /