home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq

The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! Why Wall St is Betting Millions on Obama In part 2 of her investigation, market veteran Pam Martens traces the money big Wall Street players are sluicing into Obama's war chest and exactly why they are investing big-time in the "campaign for change". Plus more on the "No federal lobbyists on my team" fraud. You've heard about the plutonium-powered spy transmitters the CIA tasked climbers to haul up 25,000 feet to the high peaks of the Himalayas? What happened to the one they lost and to the men who carried them? Peter Lee gives CounterPunchers the full amazing story. Get your copy 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 holiday presents. Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !

Today's Stories March 6, 2008 Vincent Navarro The Next Failure of Health Reform Peter Morici Why the Dollar is So Cheap George Ciccariello-Maher Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats   March 5, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair A Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader) Joanne Mariner After Guantanamo Fidel Castro The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa Christopher Brauchli The Turkish Invasions Steven Sherman Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left Dave Lindorff Busting Bush & Co. in New England James Murren Bombing Somalia Adam Engel Necropolis Now Website of Day Remember Song   March 4, 2008 Wajahat Ali Mumbo Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed William Blum How Could Hillary Have Known? Bill Quigley The Cleansing of New Orleans Ralph Nader The Prince Harry Solution Patrick Irelan Oil and Health in Venezuela James J. Brittain / R. James Sacouman Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America Norman Solomon The War Election Jacob Hornberger Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology Andy Worthington Guantánamo and the European Parliament Mike Averko Kosovo and the Press Website of the Day Tex-Mex Primary   March 3, 2008 Jennifer Loewenstein Gazan Holocaust Alan Farago American Politics and the Faltering Economy Richard Gott Colombian Deaths in Ecuador Wajahat Ali Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup Poll with John Esposito Paul Craig Roberts The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution Robert Weissman When Multinationals Say Adieu Uri Avnery Good Morning, Hamas Martha Rosenberg When Your Meat is a Downer Eva Liddell Leave the Next Dance for Bill Michael Donnelly Will Ferrell Does Flint Website of the Day Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues   March 1 / 2, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Race Card Paul Craig Roberts The Political Trial of Don Siegelman Kathleen and Bill Christison Nader the Best Antidote to American Imperialism Nelson P. Valdés Cuba After Fidel Christopher Brauchli Meet Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev: Friend of Bill, George and Dick Ron Jacobs Inside the Secret City: Bomb Making at Oak Ridge John Ross The New Conquistadores: Spain's Reconquest of Mexico Robert Fantina Posturing Over Patriotism: Obama and Those Lapel Pins Robert Weissman Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Rights Hypocrisy Mohammed Omer Fear in Gaza Remi Kanazi Barack Obama and the Politics of Xenophobia Bob Jackson Why is Yellowstone Destroying Its Bison Herd? Richard Rhames Casual Threats: Loaded with Mercury Franklin Lamb Lebanon Awaits the Arrival of the USS Cole Rannie Amiri Showboat Diplomacy: US Warships Steam Toward Lebanon David Michael Green The Three Faces of Hillary: the Politics of Flim-Flam Conn Hallinan Notes from the Southern Cone Faheem Hussain Prince Harry of Afghanistan and the Meaning of Normalcy Poets' Basement Gibbons, Orloski, Gardner and Ford Website of the Weekend The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Help!     February 29, 2008 Matt Gonzalez The Obama Craze Jonathan Cook Academic Freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel Joshua Frank Obama and Israel Anthony DiMaggio The Unilateral Presidency: Signing Statements and the Rollback of American Law Linn Washington, Jr. Cop Abuse in America Binoy Kampmark Hubris and Nemesis Robert Bryce Energy Efficiency May be a Good Thing, But It Won't Cut Energy Use Sonja Karkar Australia's Government Continues Its Love Affair with Israel Dave Lindorff A Manchurian Candidate in the White House? Obama or Bush? Website of the Day Olduvai George   February 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn "Iraq" Falls Apart Fred Gardner The Birth of NAFTA Michael Levitin The Crisis in Kosovo is Just Beginning William S. Lind The Fake State of Kosovo David Macaray A Ray of Hope for Organized Labor Stephen Fleischman Nader's Latest Run: Monkey Wrench or Cattle Prod? George Wuerthner The Myths of Forest Health: Why Ecological Logging is an Oxymoron Laura Carlsen The North American Union Farce Carl Finamore Why the Delta-Northwest Deal Hasn't Taken Off Michael Dickinson The Day I Bombed the House of Commons Website of the Day Plane Stupid   February 27, 2008 David Rosen Playing the Race Card: Obama, Love Across the Color Line and Political Dirty Tricks Vijay Prashad Bomber John: McCain and the 100 Year War Harvey Wasserman Incident at Turkey Point: Did Florida Go to the Radioactive Brink? Andy Worthington Guantánamo's Shambolic Trials: Pentagon Boss Resigns, Ex-Prosecutor Joins Defense Wajahat Ali Pakistan for Sale: an Interview with Ayesha Siddiqa on Pakistan's Military Economy Peter Morici The Auction-Rate Securities Fiasco: a Drama of Greed and Betrayal Stephen Philion Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today's Anti-War Movement Michael Donnelly Obama by Unanimous Decision Erica Rosenberg / Janine Blaeloch After the Land Deals: Will There be Any Wilderness Left to Protect? Website of the Day Dress Blues   February 26, 2008 Debbie Nathan Confessions of a Gitmo Guard Alan Dershowitz v. Frank Menetrez On Finkelstein Harvey Wasserman How Ohio Got Nuked Michael Colby Ralph Nader vs. the Fundamentalist Liberals Gary Leupp Condi vs. Putin on Bullying Belgrade David Orchard The New Conquistadors: Canada in Afghanistan Martha Rosenberg The Big HRT Fran Shor The Electoral Circus and Nader's Sideshow Serge Halimi The Dom Perignon Socialist Manifesto: Bernard Henri-Levy's Plan for the French Left Global Balkans Neo-Liberalism and Protectorate States in the Post-Yugoslav Balkans: an Interview with Tariq Ali Website of the Day Texistentialism   February 25, 2008 Roger Morris A Death in Damascus Anthony DiMaggio Military Bases, the Media and the Democrats Ralph Nader Why I'm Running Patrick Cockburn Iraq Broils Paul Craig Roberts Kosovo and the Empire Crazies Peter Morici Bernanke's Failing Policies: a Long Recession Looms Dave Lindorff General Welch's Whitewash: What We Still Don't Know About That Minot Nuke Incident Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Fanatics, Mountebanks and Drillers: a Bloody Oil Film Heather Gray James Orange, Civil Rights Legend Robert Weitzel Accomodating Torture John Halle Kucinich Goes Down Website of the Day Do the Trunk Monkey! February 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Mushrooming Clouds That Hang Over McCain Paul Craig Roberts Obama and Global Trade Wajahat Ali Omissions of the Commission: an Interview with Phillip Shenon on the 9/11 Commission Ralph Nader Neutering the FDA Jürgen Vsych "What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?" Fidel Castro Watching the US Presidential Campaign from Havana Andy Worthington Britain's Guantánamo David Macaray Unions Under Assault Jeremy Scahill The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence David Krieger Stanley Sheinbaum Caging the Cold War Monster Ron Jacobs Building for the Future Michael Garrity The Last, Best Hope for the Northern Rockies Brian McKenna Higher Ed's "Civic Engagements" Get Dumbed Down Missy Beattie Over the Hill with John McCain Fred Gardner American College of Physicians Takes Pro-Cannabis Stand (Mostly) Boris Kagarlitsky The Growth of the Russian Labor Movement Mike Ferner Kick That Barrel Dan Bacher On the Trail with the Border Angels Christopher Ketcham Hillary Goes Where Obama Fears to Tread Poets' Basement Davies and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Obama Mariachi   February 22, 2008 Mike Whitney The Bonfire of Capital Jason Hribal Elephants and the Circus: The Story of Janet Liaquat Ali Khan Arresting Musharraf Joshua Frank That Obama Glow: the Nuclear Industry's Golden Child Dave Lindorff Vicki's John: Ask Not What She Did for Him, Ask What He Did for Her! Liliana Segura When Torture is Old News: McCain's Blonde Diversion Robert Fantina Castro, Bush and Cuba: a Fiasco Waiting to Happen? Yifat Susskind The ABCs of Death: Bush vs. Africa's Women Norm Kent Pushing 60 with Pot Website of the Day Bush Gets Down in Liberia February 21, 2008 Saul Landau Fidel Steps Aside Elizabeth Schulte Left Behind, With No End in Sight: America's Long-Term Unemployed Helen Redmond Health Care as a Human Right Benjamin Dangl Undermining Bolivia Michael Levitin Kosovo's Dilemma Liam Leonard Fear and Loathing on the Emerald Isle Patrick Irelan Land and Food in Venezuela Linn Cohen-Cole Poor Ohio: a Second Letter to Hillary on Her Ties to Monsanto Michael Simmons Daydream Believer: John Stewart, the Miles Davis of Folk Music CounterPunch News Service A Message from the Women of Okinawa to US GIs Website of the Day Cop Abuse in Shreveport   February 20, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Lies and Spies Paul Krassner My Brief Encounter with Fidel Castro Fawzia Afzal-Khan The Pakistani Elections Farzana Versey The Great Dictator: Musharraf, Peace and the Autumn of the Patriarch Allan Nairn Dying for a Second Round: Israel's New Plan to Attack Lebanon John V. Whitbeck If Kosovo, Why Not Palestine? Niranjan Ramakrishnan A Balcony Seat to Our Own Balkanization? Steve Eckardt Cuba Sans Fidel: No News is Big News Lee Sustar Union-Busting at Freightliner Mike Ferner How Sick of It are You? Website of the Day The US Military Index   February 19, 2008 Uri Avnery Blood and Champagne Paul Craig Roberts Paying Insurgents Not to Fight Gary Leupp The Independence of Kosovo Fidel Castro The Moment Has Come David Macaray Management's Dirty Little Secret Reza Fiyouzat Buck the Circus! The Left and the Elections Valerie Morse The New Zealand Terror Raids: Land of the Long White Lie Walter Brasch Bush on Safari Website of the Day Don't Think Twice, It's Alright   February 18, 2008 Wajahat Ali Free Pakistan: an Interview with Imran Khan Diana Johnstone NATO's Kosovo Colony Paul Craig Roberts What Do We Stand For? Andy Worthington Gitmo: "We're Making This Up as We Go Along" Debbie Nathan Bernie Ward's Sex Tapes Anthony DiMaggio Following the Money Trail: the Democratic Party and the Business of Elections Bill Simpich Ten Years Ago, People Power Stopped Clinton in Iraq Eva Liddell A Short History of Super-Delegates: Hope, Yes! But Pay in Cash Christopher Brauchli The President Who Couldn't Keep His Word: Short-Changing Veterans Stephen Soldz Wikileaks is Under Attack! Johann Rossouw The Ouster of Thabo Mbeki: South Africa and the Costs of Neoliberalism Website of the Day Sick of It Day!   February 16 / 17, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Terrorists Still at Ground Zero, 7 World Trade Tower, Lower Manhattan Ralph Nader We the Corporations ... David Macaray The Big Buy Out: Did GM Drive Another Nail in Labor's Coffin? William J. Peace Wheelchair Dumping Ron Jacobs War on the Psyche: Shellshock and Redemption Diane Christian War Corrupts Alan Maass Oil, Blood and Greed: Taking Upton Sinclair to the Big Screen (and Beyond) Ramzy Baroud Iraq and the US Elections Michael Donnelly Genitalia First! Old Guard Feminists Play the XX Card Cpt. Paul Watson The Art of Finding Whalers James L. Secor China Diary: Spring Festival and New Year 2008 Eve Bachrach Bush Returns to Africa Nikolas Kozloff Hugo Chávez's Anti-Imperialist Army Stephen Gowans Steven Spielberg, Faux-Humanitarian Missy Beattie To Vote or Not to Vote? David Michael Green Warming Slowly to Obama Wajahat Ali Attack of the Info-tainment Circus Poets' Basement Gibbons, Willson, Mickey Z., Orloski and Reuther Website of the Day Yellowstone's Bison Need Your Help--NOW!     February 15, 2008 George Szamuely The Absurdity of "Independent" Kosovo Patrick Cockburn Ground-Truthing the Surge: Is the US Really Bringing Stability to Baghdad? Wajahat Ali Pakistan is Burning: an Interview with Steve Coll on the Taliban, Bin Laden and the Bush Administration Mike Whitney Henry Paulsen's Wild Ride on the Economic Hindenberg Alan Farago God and the Democrats Chris Genovali Alberta's Black Gold Rush Jacob Hornberger Courting Injustice: Scalia on Torture Dave Lindorff Snoops Always Ring Twice: Bush's Protect America Bill Bull Website of the Day Live From the Land of Hopes and Dreams     February 14, 2008 Kathleen and Bill Christison Palestine in the Mind of America Mike Whitney Swan Song for NATO Clancy Sigal Strike Notes from a Screenwriter George Wuerthner A Bloody Sham: the Yellowstone Bison Slaughter Peter Morici Is Bernanke Headed for the Exit? John Ross Drug War Mayhem Boils Over from Border to Border Allan Nairn Mafia Rules in the Middle East: If You're Big Enough, You Can Whack Anyone Rannie Amiri Lebanon's Warmongers Niranjan Ramakrishnan The New Tractatus: Where Wittgenstein Meets Feinstein Donna Volatile Be Careful What You Vote For, You Just Might Get It Seth Sandronsky The Student Squeeze: Fighting California's Tuition Hikes Website of the Day Conventions: the Land Around Us   February 13, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff Meet John McCain: Mr. Big Stick in Latin America Alan Farago Hell to Pay: Warren Buffett on the Goal Line Christina Kasica King's Dream Foreclosed: the Subprime Crisis in Black America Vicente Navarro How to Read the U.S. Primaries Hall Greenland Australia's Finest Hour Lee Sustar Strange Stimulation: Too Little for Those Who Need It Most David Macaray The Writers' Strike Finally Ends Roderick Frazier Nash Celebrating Wilderness Patrick Irelan Hugo Chávez and High Anxiety at the NYT Anthony Papa Mean Mister Mukasey: AG Tries to Block Crack Cocaine Releases Carl Finamore Another Parade Passes Me By: Don't Let Your Movement be Coopted by Politicians Website of the Day John He Is   February 12, 2008 Frank J. Menetrez The Case Against Alan Dershowitz Paul Craig Roberts War Without End Dr. Trudy Bond The Elephant at Gitmo: Camp 7 and the Torturer's Shrink Andy Worthington The Guantánamo Six: Why Charge Them Now? What About the Torture? Col. Dan Smith The Psychology of Killing: Close In or Far Away? Ronnie Cummins Globalization: Standing at the End of the Road Ralph Nader Open the Government John V. Walsh Antiwarriors, Divided and Conquered Dave Lindorff Obama and Progressive Change: Let's Hope the Movement Transforms the Candidate Michael Donnelly Who's Pimping Whom? The Clintons' Selective No Talk Rules Ron Jacobs La Lucha Continua: Castro's "Life" Ben Tripp Beggars Collide Website of the Day Springsteen and Youngstown   February 11, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair Lessons for Obama: When is a Delegate Not a Delegate? Wajahat Ali A Discussion with Walt and Mearsheimer on the Israel Lobby Ray McGovern Waterboarding for God and Country Allan Nairn The Shooting of Jose Ramos Horta Uri Avnery An End Foreseen? Chris Floyd American Psycho: the Meaning of Mitt Romney's Exit Speech Martha Rosenberg School Lessons in a Lunchbox: Lunchmeat from Tortured Cows Stephen Fleischman The Bonnie and Clyde of American Politics Marc Lamont Hill Not My Brand of Hope Liliana Segura Obama and Torture: the Sounds of Silence and Equivocation Peter Morici Challenges for the New President Christopher Brauchli A Drug Rant from a Former Taker Website of the Day Annie vs. the Blue Angels   February 8 / 10, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Does the GOP Have Aces Up Its Sleeves? Patrick Cockburn Will Moqtada al-Sadr's Truce Hold? Mike Whitney The Great Bust of '08 Anthony DiMaggio How the Press Covers Waterboarding Andy Worthington The Guántanamo Trials: Where are the Terrorists? Linn Cohen-Cole Hillary, Will You Renounce Your Ties to Monsanto? Firmin DeBrabander Notes from the Foreclosure Front: Suing Your Way to Solvency Cpt. Paul Watson The Other Whaling Industry: How Greenpeace Cashes In on the Suffering and Deaths of the Great Whales Kenneth S. Pope Why I Resigned from the American Psychological Association Jacob G. Hornberger American Soldiers Will Pay the Price for Bush's Torture Policy Robert Bryce Beyond Group Think on Climate Change: If More CO2 is Bad ... Then What? P. Sainath The Last of the Buccaneer Editors Allan Nairn Give Me Back My Land Fred Gardner / Pebbles Trippet "The District Attorney of Shasta County Doesn't Know the Law!" Andrew Wimmer Growing Up Catholic: Ignorance is Death Robert Fantina America's Disgrace: the Case of Omar Khadr David Michael Green Partycide in Six Easy Steps: Watch the Democrats Destroy Themselves Kevin Zeese Is Dennis Kucinich Being McKinney'd? Peter Morici Wall Street Gives Bernacke a Vote of No Confidence Chris Driscoll Could Nader be the Come-Back Kid of 2008? Prairie Miller Black August: Bringing George Jackson's Life to the Screen Poets Basement Davies and Buknatski   February 7, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Why Baghdad Will Explode Again Bill Christison Potholes Bigger Than Ever for Palestinians David Anderson NBC's "To Entrap" a Predator: Perverting Justice for the Sake of Ratings Ron Jacobs Innocent Flesh: Recruiting Kids to Kill Nikolas Kozloff Hugo Chávez's Coca: It's the Real Thing Jane Rockefeller The Moral Economy of an Anti-Poverty Foundation Andy Worthington On Waterboarding: Two Questions for Michael Hayden Dave Zirin Instep Intifada Saul Landau The "Honestest" Candidate Since Lincoln Susie Day Our Blob in the White House Website of the Day George Carlin on Voting   February 6, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair Super Tuesday's Vote for Chaos Ben Rosenfeld Informant Games: The Disturbing GreenScare Case of Briana Waters Vijay Prashad An Intellectual Hustler Lays It All Out Joe Bageant Nine Billion Little Feet on the Highway of the Damned Michael Donnelly What White Women Do In Private Voting Booths Allan Nairn Does the US Need a Civilizing Mayan Invasion? Kathryn Gray Wilderness on Edge: The Fate of Donner Summit Ray McGovern Powell's UN Fiasco Sheldon Richman The Whining Empire Paul Cantor / Roger Sparks A Presidential Aptitude Examination John Chuckman Political Bits and Pieces Website of the Day Save the Albatross February 5, 2008 Winslow T. Wheeler The Chaos in America's Vast Security Budget Tariq Ali Why I Will Not Participate in the Turin Book Fair Stephen Soldz The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq: Did Rumsfeld Authorize War Crimes? Chris Floyd Strange Fruit: America's Gulag and the Good War William S. Lind Saddam's Secret War Strategy: Die and Win Martha Rosenberg Live From the Killing Floor Heather Gray Conversations with Georgia Voters Ayesha Ijaz Khan Obama, Bhagwandas and the Battle for a Secular Politics David Macaray Unions Need to Stop Being So Nice Eliza Ernshire Making Music and Laughing Till the Tears Run Brenda Norrell Hated Nation Website of the Day The Things I Used to Do     February 4, 2008 Marc Levy Winter in America Patrick Cockburn The Bird Market Bombings Saree Makdisi Strangling Gaza Uri Avnery From Stalingrad to Winograd Alan Farago Let's Get Bambi! Someone is Slaughtering Florida's Key Deer Ben Tripp Spare Change: the Whine of the Progressive Voter Paul Wolf Civil Wars North and South Paul Craig Roberts Why Were the 9/11 Tapes Destroyed? Joshua Frank MoveOn's Obama Endorsement: Why There's No Hope for Change John Halle Whither Progressive Democrats? Website of the Day How to Cheat in School   February 2 / 3, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Hot Democratic Properties Pam Martens Bankers Gone Bonkers: Global Finance and the Insanity Defense Ralph Nader The Great Clinton-Obama Debate: Questions They Weren't Asked John Ross Hilaria vs. "El Moreno" Wajahat Ali Hillary, Obama and the Clash of Civilizations: an Interview with Imam Zaid Shakir Robert Fantina A Colony by Any Other Name: Iraq as Stepchild of the American Empire B. R. Gowani Not All Veils and Guns James L. Secor China in Winter: On the Western Edge of the Great Snow John V. Walsh The Invisible Green Primary Niranjan Ramakrishnan Barack's Bubble, Bubba's Trouble Dave Zirin Who Stole the Super Bowl's Soul? Jeremy Scahill Blackwater and Blood Fidel Castro Reflections on Lula Joe Allen Tet Reconsidered: the Turning Point in the Vietnam War Stephen Lendman Life in Occupied Gaza Patrick Irelan What Happened to the Streetcars? Andrej Grubacic Ziga Vodovnik Caligula's Horse: the USA, New Europe and Kosovo Josh Karpoff Dead Soldiers and the Antiwar Movement Ron Jacobs Carl Oglesby's War Paul Krassner Tom Waits Meets Super-Joel Website of the Weekend Company Woman: Hillary and Wal-Mart   February 1, 2008 Ray McGovern The Iniquities and Inequalities of War Diane Farsetta The Wild Career of James "Dow 36,000" Glassman Patrick Cockburn The Most Dangerous Country in the World for Journalists Tariq Ali Et Tu, New York Times? Allan Nairn Eating Dirt for Lunch in Haiti Rannie Amiri Collective Punishment in Beirut Ramzy Baroud People Power in Gaza: They Simply Did It Kenneth Couesbouc The Mother of All Snowballs Peter Morici Recession Looms Mumia Abu-Jamal Witha "Brutha" Like This: Bill Clinton as White Negro Rosemary Jackowski 27 Reasons Nader Should Run for President Scott Campbell Direct Action to Stop the War Re-emerges Website of the Day Betes et Hommes   January 31, 2008 Saul Landau Return to Afghanistan Andy Worthington Horror at Guantánamo Mike Whitney Rate Cut as Dagger: America's Teetering Banking System Jeff Ballinger Sustainability for Dictators Initiative? Clinton Praises the "Suharto of the Steppe" Tiffany Ten Eyck The Saga of the Freightliner Five William Loren Katz Waterboarding: Torure or Mystery? Alan Farago Why the Republicans are in Deep Trouble Col. Dan Smith Oh Say Can You See the 2009 Budget? China Hand Slouching Toward Islamabad Dave Lindorff The Usual Suspects Once Again Wadner Pierre Fake Democracy in Haiti Website of the Day One Big Union   January 30, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair McCain vs. Clinton? Christopher Ketcham The Genius of the Development Industrial-Complex Robert Weissman America By the Numbers: The Shameful State of the Union Neve Gordon An Experiment in Famine Paul Craig Roberts Regulation or Deregulation, Which is Worse? Joanne Mariner How Anti-Terror Laws Threaten Free Speech David Macaray Labor's Only Real Weapon Liaquat Ali Khan Is NATO Committing Genocide in Afghanistan? Raymond J. Lawrence Prankster-in-Chief: Bush's Troubling Non-Verbal Communication Dan Bacher The Collapse of the Central Valley Salmon Website of the Day Onward Through the Fog   January 29, 2008 Franklin C. Spinney Bush's New War Budget: the $70 Billion Hand-Off Mike Whitney The Great Credit Unwind of 2008 Alan Farago Buyer Beware: Florida, the Candidates and the Latin Builders Association Patrick Cockburn "The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction" Gary Leupp "We Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans:" a Sibel Edmonds Timeline R. F. Blader A World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania Ahmad Faruqui Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect Fran Shor Obama, the Kennedys and "Change We Can Believe In" Jeremy Scahill Secret Trials and Criminal Convictions: the Ordeal of the Blackwater Protesters Allan Nairn Bush's SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All Website of the Day The Ghost of Rambo   January 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Return to Fallujah Paul Craig Roberts The End of American Liberty Allan Nairn The Breaking of the Gaza Wall Eyad al-Sarraj / Sara Roy Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza Martha Rosenberg Obit for the "Front Page" City Corporate Crime Reporter How They Rip Us Off David Michael Green Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War Jennifer Van Bergen What's Left? Nancy Oden Survival Tips for Hard Times Divya Karnad Saving India's Sea Turtles James L. Secor Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp Website of the Day Yellow Journalism?         Subscribe Online

March 6, 2008 "Endogenous Right" vs. "False Left" in Venezuela Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats By GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER In the aftermath of the December referendum defeat, internal tensions within the Chavista coalition have begun to deepen as various sectors duke it out to control the future direction of the Venezuelan Revolution. To be clear: this process is a necessary one. But recent weeks have see the so-called "endogenous right," the well-known bloc of moderate, centrist, bureaucratic-minded Chavistas, landing a series of body blows to more leftist elements, threatening internal democracy and the radicalism of the Revolution in the process. In this counterattack, the role of Chávez himself has been ambiguous, at times demanding revolutionary self-criticism and at times assailing such criticism as a threat to unity. Tascón in the Crosshairs Intra-Chavista tensions exploded after the president named José David Cabello, younger brother of conservative Chavista strongman and Governor of Miranda State (and arguably second-most-powerful Chavista) Diosdado Cabello, to head the Venezuelan tax agency (SENIAT). This choice itself was dubious: as infrastructure minister, José David Cabello had accomplished little of note. Further, former SENIAT head José Vielma Mora, a straight-shooter who could do no wrong in the agency, had revolutionized tax collection in the country (that is, established tax collection where there had been very little previously). In response to what was arguably a political (and nepotistic) appointment, Chavista firebrand Luis Tascón (best known for making public a list of those who signed the 2004 petition for Chávez's recall), an assembly member hailing from the combative state of Táchira, came forward with what he claimed was evidence of the younger Cabello's corruption while in MINFRA. While the evidence was perhaps inconclusive, Tascón was merely following Chávez's own recent demand that revolutionaries denounce corruption, and calling for an investigation into the matter. The counterattack was fierce and swift, and came not from José David Cabello, but from his elder brother, Diosdado. Focusing his ire on the fact that opposition news outlet Globovisión had been invited to Tascón's press conference, Cabello appeared on Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), dismissing Tascón as an "instrument of the Empire," who was only sowing discontent and division within the Chavista ranks, a charge which was to be repeated by Assembly President Cilia Flores. Cabello went on to suggest that Tascón had "traveled for a month to visit Bill Gates," saying that "that must have been where they injected him with a microchip." Tascón, according to Cabello, represents "the false left, which is our true enemy." A "Unanimous" Expulsion? Cabello was joined, moreover, by Jorge Rodríguez, until recently vice president and currently devoted entirely to the formation of the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and both declared on national television that Tascón had been "unanimously" expelled from the yet-to-be-born party. This declaration was peculiar, not least because it would be near-impossible to get all 1,676 members of the Party's Founding Congress to unanimously agree to anything. Further, since the party has yet to officially exist, no-one is more than an "aspiring militant" at this point. Tascón, an "aspiring militant" to a party which does not yet exist, was nevertheless allegedly expelled via a "unanimous vote" which probably never happened. Tascón was no stranger to controversy within the Chavista ranks. When he released the "Tascón List" of recall signatories, he earned the adulation of many but also the ire of more than a few, and not only within the opposition (where he has come to be solidly hated). Tascón has himself boasted in recent days that he has been expelled on four separate occasions from the official organs of Chavismo (the MVR and PSUV), most recently for his defense, however limited, of Raúl Baduel, the retired general and longtime Chávez ally who openly broke with the President in November over the planned constitutional reform referendum. "If I had criticized a mayor in any small town in the country, nothing would have happened," insists Tascón. His only error, it seems, was to pick a fight with the brother of such a powerful figure. He went on to say what is more or less an open secret in Venezuela: "Diosdado [Cabello] is the head of the endogenous right." Tascón, moreover, does not think his own revolutionary credentials are in any doubt: "Everyone knows that on April 11th [2002, during the coup against Chávez], I was in Miraflores [Palace], and on the 13th of April, I was with the 2nd [Army] Division in Táchira convincing the commander to resist the coup. Where were Diosdado and Cilia Flores?" Diosdado Cabello is, according to Tascón, "very powerful, he is even more powerful than [former Chávez advisor Luis] Miquilena during his time in the government." Miquilena, we should recall, was the chief representative of the "endogenous right" of a previous era: after a stint as Chávez's chief advisor, wielding almost absolute authority behind the scenes, Miquilena left the Chavista coalition in early 2002, taking with him a legislative majority and eventually supporting the April coup. In recent days, it has come out that the alleged expulsion vote against Tascón had not occurred at all, and that a debate was scheduled on the matter in the party's founding congress for future days. But the fact that two Chavista heavy-hitters had spoken in the name of what is supposed to be a democratic and grassroots party certainly does not bode well. And the fact that Chávez himself has admitted to having intervened personally to demand Tascón's expulsion, for a "lack of discipline and irresponsibility," bodes even worse. The "Uncontrollable" Lina Ron For a few days, this tension simmered gently, but it returned to the surface with a bang. On February 24th, an explosive device detonated at the headquarters of the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce (Fedecámaras), killing one. Fedecámaras, recall, has long been antagonistic to the Chávez regime, having participated in the 2002 coup, and it was none other than Fedecámaras president Pedro Carmona Estanga who would step in as interim president, dissolving all constitutionally-sanctioned powers and establishing a short-lived dictatorship. Since then, Fedecámaras has toned down their hostility slightly, but is still seen by most Chavistas as enemy number one (several revolutionary collectives staged a militant protest on its steps in early 2007). The victim, it has since been claimed, was a Chavista, and a member of the "Venceremos Guerrilla Front" which has allegedly claimed the bombing in an effort to "rescue the Bolivarian process." Three days later, February 27th, marked the 19th anniversary of the epic anti-neoliberal Caracazo riots of 1989, in which the army was deployed to the poor barrios of Caracas, slaughtering thousands. Repression was concentrated in the historically-militant 23 de Enero (January 23rd) zone of Western Caracas, and exactly 19 years later, 23 de Enero would again find itself at the center of police attention in the aftermath of the Fedecámaras bombing. In a symbolic occupation of the Archbishop's Palace organized by Chavista students, National Assembly deputy Pedro Lander and revolutionary organizer Lina Ron denounced the police searches that had been carried out, and rejected the "criminalization" of the deceased Venceremos militant. Ron even went so far as to deem the deceased a "martyr" of the revolution, coming dangerously close to supporting the Fedecámaras bombing. That the government would respond to such a claim would seem to be a strategic necessity, but the way Chávez did so raises some urgent questions. Echoes of Chile? Calling in to the Chavista evening show La Hojilla ("The Razor"), hosted by firebrand Mario Silva, Chávez went on the offensive: "I can't understand her I won't say that she's an infiltrator, no. I wouldn't say that she's consciously operating in the ranks of the counterrevolution, but it would be interesting to research the terrible damage that the ultra-left did to Salvador Allende, how the ultra-left was infiltrated by the CIA without realizing, and generated events that provided the justification for the right to do what they did Lina, you need to show some revolutionary discipline!" This is a far cry from Chávez's traditional line about Allende's fall: that the revolution was unarmed, and that Allende failed to make arms available to the workers and the people through the creation of radical militias. In the early years of Chávez's efforts to organize a clandestine revolutionary force within the military, this view even became a code that the rebels would use to greet and identify one another. Quoting Fidel Castro's words, spoken in response to the 1973 coup, they would greet one another with the following: "If every worker, if every laborer had a rifle in their hands, the fascist Chilean coup would never have happened." But now it seems as though Chávez wants to portray some armed popular organizations as the enemy, not the savior, of the revolutionary process. This was not the first time Ron had been deemed "uncontrollable" by the President to whom she swears allegiance to the death. Within a span of months in 2002, Chávez had deemed her both "a soldier who demands the respect of all Venezuelans" and "uncontrollable," and prior to that, as Chávez was briefly overthrown in an April 2002 coup, Ron languished in jail for her insistently radical street action. And nor will this be the last time the two tangle: it was only recently that Chávez named Ron to a PSUV steering committee, and once this conflict eases, she may very well find herself back in the good graces of her beloved Comandante. This back-and-forth, perhaps, is the inevitable result of the distance that exists between a revolutionary leader and a popular insurgent, but it is worrying nonetheless, and especially for what it suggests. A Critical Moment for the PSUV In this struggle, now thankfully out in the open, between the radical and conservative sectors of Chavismo, no strategic arena is more crucial than the nascent PSUV. But as we have seen, this conflict between Chavista left and right has led to an imposition of authoritarian solutions in what was meant to be a directly democratic party structure. And this pre-emptive attack on party democracy didn't stop with the expulsion of Luis Tascón. The party's temporary "leadership" recently made public the list of candidates for upcoming elections to the party's national directorate. While many had hoped that the party structure would allow local leaders, elected by their battalions, to reach the founding congress and occupy leadership roles, this has evidently not been the case, since all 69 candidates are national leaders. The right has a significant presence, too, in the candidacies of Cabello the elder, Rodríguez, Francisco Ameliach, Nicolas Maduro, and that pillar of opportunism Francisco Arias Cárdenas. The way the candidates were chosen, too, remains unclear and reeks of top-down dedazo authoritarianism. Allegedly, each delegate from a local battalion was able to put forward three names. From these, it seems that Chávez himself (surrounded by advisors, por supuesto) identified which would stand as candidates (leaving the party base with no idea how many nominations each had received). Of these, 15 will be elected, to which Chávez himself will add 5 (thereby guaranteeing a "power quota" for all influential Chavistas). In another recent show of undemocratic party politics, Chávez was recently speaking to the PSUV Founding Congress, where he mentioned having seen the results of an earlier vote to close the Congress a week early. As he was talking, however, delegates began to shout that such a vote had never been taken. If we follow the embarrassment criterion, however, it would seem that Chávez was misled by Rodríguez and Cabello. Radicals fighting it out within the PSUV's founding congress have been left to scramble to compile a "leftist slate" for the national directorate election, but finding 15 leftists on the list is no easy task. Some have suggested: * Vladimir Acosta, an outspoken professor and critic of bureaucratic and moderate tendencies within Chavismo who seek a truce with the opposition. * Mario Silva, and avowed communist and host of VTV's La Hojilla, who nodded in assent as Chávez attacked Lander, Ron, and Tascón, and who some fear may have close ties with the secret police (DISIP). * Roberto Hernandez, National Assembly member representing the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV). * Vanessa Davies, a former urban guerrilla with the once revolutionary Bandera Roja (Red Flag) who is now better known as a mild-mannered VTV television host. * Elias Jaua, also of Bandera Roja but now Land and Agriculture Minister, who issued a scathing if abstract statement (carefully-worded given his cabinet post) against everything from divisions within Chavismo to collaboration with the national bourgeoisie. * Erika Farias, head of the Guevaraist Frente Francisco Miranda, an organization focusing on ideological training for young people, which combines radicalism with dogmatism. *Noeli Pocaterra, Edgildo Palau, national indigenous leaders. *Lidice Navas, Fernando Soto Rojas, and Elisa Osorio, three members of the "Socialist Assemblies," an umbrella group comprising various revolutionary collectives (like Liga Socialista, Utopia, M-28). Again, not an easy task, and none of these candidates do justice to the most revolutionary sectors of Venezuelan social movements. But the objective, of which many speak openly, is to do anything to prevent Diosdado Cabello and allies Jorge Rodríguez and Francisco Ameliach, representatives of the bureaucratic and moderate Chavista right, from consolidating control over the PSUV at such an early stage. In this, as in everything, Chávez's own role is ambiguous, as he has given public endorsement to three members of the "radical" slate: Silva, Davies, and Farias. But his support, strategic or otherwise, for Diosdado Cabello et al almost ensures them a spot on the committee, even if not elected (Chávez himself, as president of the PSUV, is able to name five additional members). In one positive sign, retired general Alberto Müller Rojas was recently named by Chávez as the PSUV's first Vice President. Müller, we should recall, only recently returned to Chávez's inner circle after an acrimonious public debate in which the retired general, an advocate of decentralized militia structures and people's war, accused the President of cowing to conservative members of the military hierarchy in his insistence on military "professionalism" and "apoliticism." Both Müller's substantive political positions and his willingness to express disagreements openly give cause for optimism, but against what backdrop? It seems as though Chávez has taken the same lesson from his referendum defeat that he did from the 2002 coup that briefly removed him from power. Both prompted an immediate moderation in tone and an effort to build bridges with sectors of the bourgeoisie. (A notable exception in the present moment, of course, is Chávez's surprisingly aggressive tone toward Colombian narco-terrorist Alvaro Uribe and sympathetic words for the FARC rebels with whom he had been negotiating humanitarian prisoner releases.) But this is the wrong lesson to learn from the December referendum defeat. Rather than an alienation of the middle class, the low turnout in that election indicated the alienation of much of the Chavista base, the poor and most revolutionary members of Chavismo who remained unconvinced that the referendum would have deepened popular protagonism in the Bolivarian Revolution. In the past, such moderating moments in Chávez's discourse have later been revealed to be merely strategic, providing the necessary subterfuge for radicalizing the revolution. Given that we are in the aftermath of Chávez's first electoral defeat, we can hope with some justification that his attack on the radicalism of the "ultra-left" is similarly strategic, but if by historical accident this moderation becomes bureaucratically ingrained in the structures of the PSUV, its effects will be harder to expunge in the long-term. Thanks to Federico Fuentes for providing invaluable information for this report. George Ciccariello-Maher is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at U.C. Berkeley. He is currently writing a people's history of the Bolivarian Revolution, and can be reached at gjcm(at)berkeley.edu.

Now Available! How the Press Led the US into War Buy End Times Now! New From CounterPunch Books The Secret Language of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy WINNER OF THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARD! Click Here to Buy! Cassidy on Tour Click Here for Dates & Venues "The Case Against Israel" Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Click Here to Buy! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order!   Grand Theft Pentagon How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn   Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont     CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed