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Today's
Stories
February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbit Lerner and the Gospels
February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
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.
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February
24, 2004
The Merchants of Fear
Smearing
Nader
By DOUGLAS O'HARA
"The worst Democrat is better than
the best Republican." That's what my grandfather, a union
man, used to say and it's still considered political bedrock
in my family. I, on the other hand . . .
I'm reminded of my grandfather's saying
because a version of this idea is now circulating among the Anyone
But Bush crowd furious at Ralph Nader's announcement to run for
president. The problem with the Anyone But Bush position is that
we know what Anyone But Bush looks like: he looks a lot like
Bill Clinton. In 1992, beleaguered by twelve years of Reagan
and Bush, the Democratic Party united behind a pro-business moderate
Democrat. The result, as you may care to remember, was NAFTA,
GATT, "the end of welfare as we know it," don't ask-don't
tell, the Telecommunications Bill, the Defense of Family Act,
etc., etc.
My grandfather didn't live to see the
Clinton presidency, so I don't know how he would have reacted.
He may indeed have held firm in his belief. Or, noting that in
his day a Democrat was someone who represented the interests
of the working class while Democrats now tend to be an especially
craven species beholden to corporate interests who bother to
distinguish themselves from Republicans, if at all, on the basis
of abortion and a handful of lifestyle issues, he might have
decided that this new situation requires a new strategy. Perhaps
he would have judged that his loyalty was not to the Democratic
party but to the causes that the Democratic party used to champion.
I do know, however, that he was unlikely to have shrieked at
someone who voted for a candidate who actually represented his
or her interests.
I should say up front that I voted for
Ralph Nader in 1996 and in 2000. I should also say that I remain
uncertain how I'll vote in November. It is a difficult decision
whether to vote for someone who represents your interests but
is unlikely to win or to vote for the lesser of two evils who
is more likely win. Only a clod would insist that it's an obvious
choice one way or the other. You see, I'm sympathetic to the
pragmatic argument, but there is a point where pragmatism becomes
concession, and I don't see much that's pragmatic about supporting
a party that made zero concessions to its progressive block while
making countless concessions to a president who didn't even win
the popular vote. The blaming by liberals of Nader and Nader
supporters for the abject failures of the Democratic party, therefore,
must stop right now and once and for all.
The Democratic party used to respond
to threats from third parties by stealing their ideas in order
to render those parties superfluous. After all, there's no reason
for to vote for a third party if one of the two parties can deliver
what the third party promises. In 1935, for example, when a poll
by the Democratic National Committee revealed that Huey Long
was likely to receive three to four million votes if Long ran
for president as an independent in 1936, FDR launched what became
known as "the second hundred days," during which time
the Social Security Act, the Wagner Act, and the "soak the
rich" Wealth Tax Act were passed. According to William Leuchtenburg,
as the Wealth Tax Act was being read in the Senate, "Long
swaggered through the Senate chamber, chortling and pointing
to his chest." That's the kind of treatment third parties
deserve. But the Democratic party did nothing of the sort after
the 2000 election. In fact, even after a disastrous Bush-lite
campaign in the 2002 election cycle--with no interference, I
might add, from third party candidates at the national level--Terry
McAuliffe still assumed that progressive Democrats would return
to the fold come 2004. For liberals to insist shrilly that would-be
Nader voters ought to line up and suffer gladly McAuliffe's incompetence
and contempt is simply too much. A nationally recognized candidate
with Nader's platform and record only comes along maybe once
or twice in a lifetime. We would be fools to dismiss his campaign
and seek to silence his supporters out of hand before we can
figure out how we might use it, and them, to advance those causes.
I'm open to suggestions, but the only way I know how to make
a major party listen is to cost it elections. I agree, it's maddening
and outrageous that it may take two presidential elections for
the party leadership to learn the lesson that FDR learned by
glancing at a prospective poll, almost as maddening and outrageous,
in fact, as demanding that progressive voters vote for a centrist
candidate even when there hasn't been a progressive law passed
in this country for thirty years.
"But Nader's not electable,"
the liberals cry. Notice, however, it's only liberals who worry
about "electability." A friend pointed out to me that
if the Republican voters had worried about electability in 2000,
McCain would have won the nomination hands down and be sitting
in the oval office right now without any controversy haunting
his election. But they voted instead for George Bush. Why? Because
Bush convinced them that he would prosecute a pro-business agenda
more effectively and reliably than the sometime populist McCain.
They knew it didn't matter if a member of their party was elected
if he didn't represent their interests once in office. Being
a Republican means something more than merely projecting a cultural
identity. The same used to be true for Democrats before liberals
began worrying about things like electability. As David Brooks
pointed out, this year's Democratic nomination process became
"an election about itself, with voters voting on the basis
of who could win votes later on." And you know you're in
a very ugly place when David Brooks has you pegged dead to right.
Why aren't Republicans worried about
electability? Because they figured out how to advance their causes
without having to win every single election. Once Republicans
reduce the "opposition" party to the role of band-aid
while they take a time-out to sharpen their swords, it's not
a crisis if they occasionally lose a general election. Democrats
would do well, for example, to enlarge and empower labor unions
rather than being laissez faire toward them which would have
the effect of enlarging and empowering the Democratic electoral
base. But did the previous Anyone But Bush administration do
anything like this? No. Clinton and his supporters were happy
taking the executive foot off the gas pedal and coasting toward
the cliff rather than racing toward it like Republicans. It's
been easy for George Bush to ram his agenda through Congress
because he didn't so much as have to turn the car around, there
was nothing to undo from the previous Anyone But Bush administration.
There was no need for him to spend political capital passing
NAFTA because Anyone But Bush already did it. Should we kill
Iraqi civilians with bombs? Why not? Anyone But Bush killed them
with a decade of sanctions. Ought we to try to pass a federal
law prohibiting gay marriage? Oh, that's right, Anyone But Bush
beat us to it. The liberals at The Nation warn us that a sound
defeat of a Nader candidacy "can only hurt those causes"
which he's worked so hard for. But no one has yet to explain
to me either the difference it makes whether a Republican president
ignores those causes or a Democratic one does, or why an Anyone
But Bush candidate, who can win his party's nomination without
embracing universal health care or instant runoff voting, would
then take up these issues if he happens to win the general election.
In short, which of Nader's causes, which I'm assuming are our
causes, is John Kerry going to entertain let alone advance if
he wins the presidency? Go ahead, name one.
New Mexico governor Bill Richardson chimed
in with perhaps the most common smear against Nader when he says
that the decision to run was all about Nader's ego: "It's
his personal vanity because he has no movement. Nobody's backing
him." I, for one, couldn't care less whether Nader's decision
is purely selfish or purely selfless. These are moral categories
and frankly have no place in evaluating a candidate's political
positions. Again, my attraction to Nader's candidacy isn't due
to his person but to his politics. This is one of the problems,
as I see it, with Dennis Kucinich's campaign. He often seems
more interested in convincing us that his beautiful soul has
a beautiful sensibility than in figuring out a way to give his
positions efficacy.
Nader supporters will undoubtedly be
criticized for not understanding how serious the situation is,
how much rides on the 2004 election. But I wonder if it's possible
to see Nader supporters as seeing things as much more dire than
the average liberal sees them. That is, if one cares to project
into the future, what would things look like if we merely repeated
the last twelve years, if Anyone But Bush wins two of the next
three presidential elections and a reactionary Republican wins
just one. Ask yourself, is that a country any of us could stand
to live in?
I would not be misunderstood. This is
not an endorsement for Nader and I remain uncertain how I will
vote in November. But I think it's important that liberals understand
what's attractive and potentially useful about his campaign and
why eventual Nader voters don't deserve liberals' scorn half
as much as registered Democrats, who voted for Bush by the millions
despite the significant centrist concessions to them. Go screech
at them.
Douglas O'Hara
for the moment resides in Chicago as he finishes his dissertation
on the politics of space in 1590s London. He can be reached at:
doh@uclink.berkeley.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
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