How
the Press &
the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
January 5,
2005
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 31,
2004
Farrah Hassen
The
Palestinian Right of Return: a View from Syria
Dave Lindorff
US Air's Bold New Idea: Work for Your Boss for Free!
George Capaccio
Tsunami Hits Iraq
Mike Whitney
Iraq v. Tsunami: Media Duplicity
Peter Phillips
The Tsunami and the Corporate Media: Waves of Hypocrisy
Christopher
Deliso
War
and the Tsunami: Putting It in Perspective
December 30,
2004
Lila Rajiva
Unnatural
Disaster? Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Testing
Robert Fisk
The
Ghosts of Vietnam
Roger Burbach
Argentina
v. the IMF
Stan Cox
9/11 and 12/26: How to React
Walter Brasch
Bush and Tsunamis: Heartless in Crawford
Christopher Brauchli
Empire of the Misers
Alexandra Spieldoch
NAFTA Through a Gender Lens: "Free Trade" Pacts and
Women
Paul Kincaid Jameison
Grief, Relief and the Stingy West
Dan Bacher
The Water Kings of California
Paul Craig
Roberts
Unbecoming
Conduct
December 29,
2004
Dave Lindorff
Us,
Stingy?: It's All Relative
M. Shahid Alam
America
and Islam: Seeking Parallels
Ronald D. Hoffman
Tsunamis
and Nuclear Power Plants
Sam Bahour
/ Todd May
Elections
Without Democracy
Fred Gardner
Ricky Does 60 Minutes
Ali Khan
Who's Feeding the Bin Laden Legend?
John Hansen
Family Farms Are Being Fed to Corporate Sharks
Sam Lewin
How the Justice Department Continues to Screw the Sioux
Richard Oxman
As Time Goes By With Andy Goldsworthy
Mickey Z.
A Wave of Questions: Putting a Disaster in Context
Website of the Day
Banking While Muslim
December 28,
2004
Brian Cloughley
The
Chief Weirdo at the Pentagon: Rumsfeld Must Go
Joshua Frank
Privacy Piracy? What Howard Dean May Bring to the DNC
Jessica Leight
The
Chilean Miracle: Less Than Meets the Eye
Dave Lindorff
A
Shameful Response to Disaster
John Walsh
Disappearing the Anti-War Movement at the NYTs
Dave Zirin
The Death of Reggie White: an Off the Field Obituary
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Be Careful Not to Get Too Much Education: It's Happened to a
Lot of Good Christians
Ron Jacobs
Iran
2004: The Resistance and the Western Anti-War Movement
December 27,
2004
M. Junaid Alam
"Civilization
v. Barbarism": an Interview with Noam Chomsky
Michael Donnelly
Greens and Greenbacks: How Nonprofit Careerism Derailed the "Revolution"
Greg Moses
Texas Election Scandal: Forty Faxes and a Whisper
Toni Solo
Colombia's Appalling Vista: Justice With Eyes Wide Open
Brian Kwoba
Blaming the Victims of the 2004 Elections
Genna Goodman-Campbell
Honduras Validates Its Banana Republic Status, Again
Mike Whitney
Disappearing Act: Fallujah and the Media
Ari Shavit
"Zionism Has Exhausted Itself": an Interview with Amos
Elon
Richard Oxman
Reflections on a Handful of Activists
Saul Landau
James
Cason's Cuban Delusions
December 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Yup,
It's Moral Outrage Time
Diane Christian
The Christmas Christ
Dr. Susan Block
Faith-Based Sex
Gary Leupp
Rumsfeld, His Critics and the Draft
Ron Jacobs
Music in Wartime
Elaine Cassel
Articles I Didn't Write
Jim Minick
Beyond Organic
Poets Basement
Louise, Landau, Orloski, Albert
and Collins
December 24,
2004
Diane Christian
Winning:
Rummy and John Milton
Chad Nagle
Ukraine's
Real Underdog
Saul Landau
My Friend Richard Barnet
Greg Moses
Ramsey Muniz Speaks
Joe DeRaymond
The Endless War in Colombia: a View From Within
Borzou Daragahi
Iraq's Christians: Tolerated by Saddam; Targets Under Occupation
Mike Whitney
Rummy's Quagmire of Lies
Francis A. Boyle
O Little Town of Bethlehem: Another Christmas Under Occupation
William Loren
Katz
Florida 1837: Christmas Eve Resistance to the First US Occupation
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
December 20,
2004
Gary Leupp
Japan
in Iraq
Robert Fisk
An
Army Without Compassion
Uri Avnery
The Mountain and the Mouse
Francisco Letelier
My Case Against Pinochet
Patrick Cockburn
The Polls of Fear
Bill Conroy
Charles Bowden on the Legacy of Gary Webb: "He Drew Blood"
Yoshie Furuhashi
Chokeholds of a Giant: Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain
David Swanson
Media Blackout of Bush's War on Labor
Chad Nagle
Did Yushchenko Poison Himself?
December 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
They Hated Gary Webb
Saul Landau
Gen.
Pinochet Should Also Face Charges in DC
Patrick Cockburn
Losing
Mosul: Once They Called It a Model for the Occupation
Douglas Valentine
Wolves
and Revolution in Venezuela: a Caracas Romance
Ray McGovern
Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear: the New China / Russia Alliance
Fred Gardner
DEA Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly
Jean-Guy Allard
Locked Up Naked in a Hole Within a Hole: Have the Cuban 5 Been
Tortured in US Prisons?
Ron Jacobs
Drifters Escape, Again: Encounters with Berkeley's Police
Raymond G.
Helmick, S.J.
The Law and Peace in the Middle East
Sean Sellers
Values Voters, Desperate Housewives and Sweatshop Tacos
Lee Sustar
Christmas
on the Picket Line at CNH: "They Want to Break Our Unions"
Richard Thieme
Webb's Wife: "Gary Was Never the Same After They Attacked
Him"
Sam Bahour
WANTED:
Middle East Negotiator
Joshua Frank
The
Spin Doctor: an Interview with Mickey Z.
Dave Lindorff
A Man Who Confers with God Should Have Good Hearing
Stan Cox
What Kids Cost: Dallas v. Delhi
Chris Frasier
Farming By Numbers: More Poets, Fewer MBAs
Poets' Basement
Katz, Melek, Harley, Albert and Ford
December
17, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
CounterAttack:
How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Dave Lindorff
Racism:
Philly Style
Dan Bacher
Bush Abandons Salmon Restoration
Marisa Jacott
NAFTA and the Environment: Trade Still Runs Roughshod
Francis Thicke
How Now, Industrial Cow?
Rupert Cornwell
The Inuit Strike Back
Website of the Day
Franz Boas Unrolls Over in His Grave
December
16, 2004
Michael
Neumann
How We Became Barbarians
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Ralph Nader
Gabriel
Espinoza Gonzales
The Dubious Career of John Bolton
Christopher
Brauchli
Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer
Patrick
Cockburn
Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali"
on Trial
Mike
Whitney
Gearing Up for a Draft?
Walter
Brasch
Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics
Bill
Conroy
How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI
Website
of the Day
Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb
December
15, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Baha Mousa?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Monster Under the Bed
Heather
Gray
Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony
Dave
Lindorff
The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections
Luis
Hernandez Navarro
To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee
in Mexico and Central America
Joshua
Frank
The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy"
Greg
Moses
Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio?
George
Caffentzis
The Petroleum Commons
December
14, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections
Larry
Birns / Seth DeLong
Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying
Anything
Richard
Thieme
My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and
That's What Kept Me Going"
Patrick
Cockburn
A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq
is Getting Worse
Chris
Floyd
Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's
America
Akiva
Eldar
A One-time Hanukkah Miracle
Burbach
/ Cantor
The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger
and the Teflon Tyrant
December
13, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed
by the CIA's Claque
David
Phinney
"Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid
Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality
for Douglas Feith
M.
Junaid Alam
The War is the War Crime
Robert
Jensen
The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing
Richard
Oxman
Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left
Greg
Moses
Send No Messengers of Defeat
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
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.
|
January 5, 2005
New Year Bageantry
The
Oxman/Bageant Exchange (Part One)
By
RICHARD OXMAN
SPECIAL NOTE
TO THE READER: The Multi-Issue
Alternative Magazine, EnergyGrid, conducted an excellent interview
with Joe Bageant recently; I recommend that you check it out
after plowing through what's below. Who is JB? Well, if you ask
me...I think you're better off not knowing at this juncture...if
you don't know yet...reading through what he has to say here...and
then diving into what he's put out there for one and all to date
(much of it accessible as per footnote #1 below). Trust me on
this, if you will, just like Joe did...not knowin' me from Adam
and the Ants. By the way, a reader introduced us...making this
possible. Hi, Chuckie!
ROX: In talking to you recently,
you mentioned in passing that you were very popular with the
Generation X crowd in England. What's your guess on why that
is?
JB: At first I was surprised.
Then later it was explained to me by one of the exers that they
were identifying with the American beatnik aspect and the anti-authority
nature of my work. Also, like them, I see much virtue in getting
loaded and rowdy.
ROX: Your "The
Covert Kingdom: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Texas"
(from May of this year) --which many of my friends consider the
best online take of the Bush crowd in 2004-- paints a picture
of the left being lost in space vis-a-vis realities on the American
Ground these days. What must "progressives" wake up
to...to have a chance at moving in solidarity nationwide against
The Extreme Right Roar? (TERRoar!)
JB: Hoooboy! That's a biggun.
See, I don't believe the U.S. really has a political left. It
just has personalities who consider themselves leftists and make
an identity gig of it. If we really had a left, then I could
walk out this door to a leftist party headquarters and take political
action. It's not like I can call up the local chapter of the
Rifondazione Comunista, as in Italy. It's not like I can stop
by the newsstand and buy a copy of Liberazione. Americans kid
themselves about having choices. Hell, they won't even dare call
themselves leftists. They've backed off into calling themselves
"progressives." That is totally gutless. What is the
alternative to "progress?" The Stone Age? I think the
U.S. has a cottage culture industry called the left. And it has
a body of middle class professionals and semi-professionals who
cannot bring themselves to associate with Republicans, so they
call themselves "liberals.'" But liberals are too comfortable.
So they deny reality. They are not going to do anything so long
as they are comfortably insulated in the middle class. They are
not going to wade into that hate filled ditch of political action,
real political action that requires sacrifice, to battle for
America,Äôs soul---not as long as they are still living
on a good street, sending their kids to Montessori and getting
their slice of the American quiche. I guess what I'm saying is
that until we get a real left in this country, one capable of
creating change through radical action, one willing to risk everything
for what they believe, we should not be talking about what our
pseudo-left should be doing. Our pseudo-left is doing exactly
what it should be doing. Posturing, bickering amid itself and
boring the hell out of the rest of America.
I just realized that I didn't
come close to answering your question: What must "progressives"
wake up to...to have a chance at moving in solidarity nationwide
against The Extreme Right?
American progressives need
to wake up to the fact that they are just as big a part of the
world's problems as the Republicans, so long as they insist on
living the American lifestyle. As long as they continue to thoughtlessly
consume the world as if it were their birthright. All talk and
no walk. Buying organic toilet paper and voting for evasive Democratic
hacks just isn't going to cut it guys.
ROX: Being Left of Left means
never having to say you're sorry, Joe. Seriously, though, Joe...all
of that is valuable, "keeper words" one and all, as
they say. In your November "Dining
with Rhinos" piece --I loved your bouncing off of Ionesco,
by the way-- you mention something about wanting to get away
from the herd, "shopping hard for a house in Andalucia,
or St. Kitts, or Normandy, places where there are still secular
humanists political parties of the type the rhinos see as the
heart of evil." In terms of our ecocidal momentum, is it
possible to depart...without feeling "irresponsible"
on some level? Can one even get away at all? And...if one is
concerned with planting seeds that may not bear fruit until after
one's lifetime...aren't the immediate pleasures of relocation
problematic?
JB: One man never beat a mob
on the mob's own turf. But one man can sure as hell get outside
the turf and lob hand grenades at the mob. Can one even get away
at all? Of course not. But I don't have to suffer the daily insults
of America's military capitalist mindwarp ALL the time for christsake!
I think I can leave the country for months at a time...get away
to think and write and screw and feel free. And to hear some
other voices and opinions from the outside world. It is impossible
to do so inside this capitalist military state, where information
is so controlled and the citizenry's behavior and attitudes are
so heavily modified by media, consumer advertising, etc. Also,
the older I get the more I appreciate simplicity...like buying
vegetables in the market and spending all day preparing them.
Playing my little parlor guitar. Napping with my dogs in the
afternoon. Frankly, I'd like to slip away to a more contemplative
life, but if you are born in this country you gotta buy back
your fucking life before you are allowed to change it. The state
owns us from birth. Ensnares us in its economic system as productive
and consumer units. As far as planting seeds that may not bear
fruit in our lifetimes, well, that's a global proposition, isn't
it? You can do that from anywhere because it is about how you
conduct your daily life. I think it is as much about what you
refuse to do as what you do. Of course I am very much full of
shit and tend to do as little as possible whenever possible.
So screwing off and leaving the world alone, not using much of
it up, appeals to me. That and internationalist solidarity of
mankind. But even to accomplish that, we need to slow down, shut
the fuck up and think about the world and our places in it. THEN
we can commence to raise hell against the systems that enslave
us.
ROX: I don't remember where
I read about your final moments with your dad...on his deathbed,
but it was touching...the business of what was appropriate, not
appropriate to bring up in that setting. What is your guess...that
he would have said in response to what you just laid out? Forgive
me, please, if I'm being insensitive here.
JB: No, you're not being insensitive.
I wouldn't have put the subject out there if I were unwilling
to discuss it. I'm sure his response would be total incomprehension.
Fundamentalist faith such as his, and that of my family and some
100 million other Americans, is a religious throwback. Religious
fundamentalism is sort of a blind default setting in mankind's
programming. It is not about any kind of comprehension. Hell,
my dad only went to about the eighth grade, so I never expected
to sit around and discuss existentialism or Marxism with the
guy. But growing up in that religious environment gave me enough
language and insight to discuss right and wrong and moral things
with him. His faith was quite a bit deeper than the stuff of
the Bush election ballyhoo. I don't think he ever bothered with
such things as the abortion issue. He was more interested in
his daily connection with his creator. Talking to God in the
back room of the house trailer where he died. He had a whole
little scene back there with his meditations, which he wrote
in the margins of his Bible, and his country music records....my
grandpap's old pocket knives, his wartime memories. It was an
entire world, physical and metaphysical, in that tiny room of
his, a place where he could listen to old time fiddle tunes and
talk to God too. Pretty good deal, huh!
ROX: You can say that again...on
national TV, if you will! What impact would you say the personal
nooks and crannies we all have to go through has...on left solidarity?
What do our various "quirks" (for want of a better
expression right now) mean...what "should they mean"
to us...vis-a-vis talk/thoughts about solidarity? I consider
this stuff of paramount importance...for one, since it's not
addressed at all; and that's a separate subject from another
interesting angle...the black/dark view that's shared among many
old leftists. Right now I'm thinking that...maybe...I don't really
want you to answer those questions; perhaps we'll save them as
a teaser of sorts for a Part II. But I'm very interested in the
many people you've had relationships with...people who have intrigued
me --to say the least-- over the years. People like Timothy Leary,
Stephen Gaskin, Allen Ginsberg. Trungpa Rinpoche, William Burroughs,
John Lilly and Marshall Mcluhan...and the "unknowns"
you've mentioned like Marc Campbell of Taos, New Mexico and Jack
Collum of Boulder, Colorado. I noticed that you didn't bring
up Ward Churchill (someone I know you know very well) in the
EnergyGrid Magazine
interview. I'm particularly interested in what your view on what
Marxism and corporatism have to do w Native Americans...since
I greatly respect Ward's position...and I understand you differ
slightly there.
JB: I guess what I was trying
to say in that last reply is that we cannot do it all with our
minds. The left is too intellectual. Our hearts should be rivers.
Empathy is far more important than intellect, to me at least.
As far as the "impact of personal nooks and crannies on
the left's solidarity," I'm not quite sure what you mean...other
than the fact that the U.S. left is severely handicapped by our
overblown American notion of individuality and personal uniqueness.
Every American seems to think the sun rises and sets on his or
her ass. Americans cannot seem to get over themselves. Consequently,
empathy for mankind's planetary misery is in short supply...more
of an intellectual concept than a reality to soft, moody, self-absorbed
American lefties. They all come from the 25% of Americans who
get a college degree. They have no fucking idea what it is like
for the other 60-70% of Americans who have to survive in our
brutal corporatized state without the benefit of genuine education,
insight or even honest news programming to see what is going
on around them. These workers are being cultivated as a human
crop by global business. A crop of toilers, consumers, and when
need be, mechanized killers to be sent abroad. The one thing
the thinking left and urban liberals will not do is trod the
soil of the Goth---subject themselves to my people here in places
like my hometown, Winchester, Virginia. Subject themselves to
the unwashed working class America, that church-going, hunting
and fishing, Bud Lite drinking, never-been-to-Europe- and-don't-wanna-go,
provincial America. The people who cannot, and do not even care
to, locate Iraq or France on a map--assuming there is even an
atlas in their homes. Few educated lefties will ever find themselves
sucking down canned beer at the local dirt track or listening
to the preacher explain the infallibility of the Bible on every
known topic from biology to the designated hitter rule, never
attend awards night at a Christian school or get drunk to Teddy
and the Starlight Ramblers playing C&W at the Eagles Club.
Well HO! HO! HO! Welcome to my world! As for Marxism and Native
Americans, I leave that to The Ward. He's right and everybody
knows he's right. But just as he is Native American and speaks
from that standpoint, I am European and speak from mine. And
Marxism is the default political affiliation of intellectuals
the world round, not just Europeans. Being conceived in the glory
days of the industrial revolution, naturally it is overly concerned
with production and failed to take into account environmental
degradation, etc. But we can compensate for what Marx could not
have foreseen. I don't go for all that eye-glazing Marxist intellectual
crap, and positively cannot stand Marxist gatherings in the U.S.
But common sense and a lifetime of experience tell me that Marxism
makes sense. I used to live on an Indian reservation at Plummer,
Idaho, and hung out with an ancient Wobbly named George Bowmer...a
crippled up old logger who repaired chainsaws. He never even
finished high school, grew up in a remote logging camp in the
Selkirk Range skidding logs with mules and fighting for the union
when he was 12. He showed me what internationalism is and how
it can reach around the world in solidarity simply because man
is man, truth is truth and class struggle is ever necessary.
He understood that he had brothers in labor in places like Argentina
and Chile, though he would never have been able to locate those
places on a map.
ROX: In your Dining with Rhinos
piece you focus on Berenger and his "buddies," of course,
but there's another Berenger in another Ionesco play, Exit the
King...which your dad's deathbed is now reminding me of. In that
dying is seen as "illumination" through the shedding
of old "clothes," now-unecessary possessions and postures.
What balls and chains do leftists have to leave and the roadside?
What dodges and tics do they have to give up...for us to advance?
To move on "to the other side," say, as opposed to
going where outfits like MoveOn would have progressives go.
JB: Well, the most sincere
fundamentalist Christians certainly see death as you described
it: "illumination" through the shedding of old "clothes,"
as in the old hymn, "I'll have a new body, oh lord, I'll
have a new life!" As to what the left has to do to advance....
hell, I don't know. Like I said, I don't even believe we have
a real left. Just folks who wish we did, including me. I am not
an intellectual or a social strategist, just a laboring son of
the blue collar American South who somehow ended up being a writer
instead of a truck driver. As far as moving on "to the other
side," I dunno what that means to you. But to me it means
crossing over and joining the rest of humanity we claim to care
so much about. Sacrifice, which for Americans means putting money
where the mouth runs. Sell your house and give the money to the
needy of Bombay. I know you must be laughing at that one. But
I mean it. This spring I will be buying a place in the Caribbean
or Europe, but I will not own it. I plan to legally deed it over
to some deserving poor family on the condition that I can stay
there when I visit, or live there in exile if necessary. In the
Caribbean it would be an Indian or black native family. In Spain
I think it would be a Roma family. I never want to own another
house again, muchless two of them. I'd like to go out of this
world completely broke, having used little and leaving nothing
to my heirs. I don,Äôt believe in inherited wealth.
You can imagine that this sort of thing is not too popular with
my wife and family...but that's what I mean about trying to walk
the walk. It necessarily makes one's life harder. To me, that's
what "moving to the other side means." It means evolving
one's mind and soul to a more liminal place, focusing one's eyes
beyond the grave. Being a Marxist does not preclude a spiritual
life, a recognition of a larger cosmic order of things. Ultimately
being a leftist is about liberation of all kinds, don't you think?
ROX: I really love you, what
you're saying, Joe. Truly. And, yes, I certainly do think being
a leftist means liberation of all kinds. I asked ten fans of
yours who are in contact with me regularly to submit questions...with
the idea that I'd pick one or two to throw out during this interview.
I picked one at random here...from someone who adored your "Sleepwalking
to Babylon" piece (2)...thinking it's watershed material...but
who brought things back to your Ionesco/Rhinos article. Here
are his words...which I'd like you to respond to briefly: "Joe
Bageant I like because he reflects the voice of the common peoples
with all their prejudices from TV and ads but I did not like
the rhino stuff because rhinos are very smart animals with little
darting eyes, not at all stupid but very territorial (they protect
excellently their young, females even more fiercely...). Ionesco
was wrong."
JB: You are right in that no
animal deserves to be compared to Americans these days. But don't
dismiss a wonderful piece of satirical art because it doesn't
accurately portray every aspect of the animal kingdom.
ROX: In the interests of moving
expeditiously, and in acknowledgement of the short attention
span of readers and limited heartbeats available for most...I'm
going to be presumptuous and assume that we can make this a twelve-part
series of sessions for the next time capsule buried...or at least
turn it into a two-part ding-a-ling for online addicts...by asking
you to close with three questions...directed AT/TO the reading
public. To wit, three interrogatives that you'd like them to
contemplate.
JB: You lost me old buddy.
I don't know what the heck you are talking about! Regarding "To
wit, three interrogatives that you'd like them to contemplate."...I
have no idea. However, here is what I consider the most important
philosophical question anyone can ever ask themselves: "What
is the question to which my life is the answer?" (3)
ROX: I remember you saying
something recently about appreciating being turned onto Ricardo
Dominguez and the Electronic Disturbance Theatre --hackers of
a sort-- and I'd like to get your hit on something he said in
an interview with Ben Shepard and Stephen Duncombe in 2000 (which
can be found in Duncombe's Cultural Resistance Reader): "And
having been enamored of Genet, I felt that being a book thief,
since that's what I knew, well that's the way I would live. And
I started stealing very expensive Verso books and Lyotard's wallbook
on Duchamp, $350, and I would sell them at Mercer Books."
He's talkin' about how --early on-- he managed to survive. And
since I know you like Genet...I'd like to hear what you think
of people "doing what they have to" to get by. Particularly
since you made a huge distinction between the average, "cultured"
lefty and the masses they supposedly want to help...but who they
are light years from understanding. Get through that, and I've
got one more inconsequential cutie I'd like to lay on you. This'll
be the swansong until Part II, okay?
JB: Well, I was quite impressed
with the concept of the Electronic Disturbance Theatre. Much
of this stuff is new to an old guy like me, who has been simply
out here alone in his own corner of the left field for so long.
As for the book stealing by a college educated middle class person,
it sounds a bit suspect to me. But who am I to judge? There were
years in the 1960s-70s when I dealt drugs to help support my
wife and child (not to mention sustain a good stash of my own.)
I've been a thief on occasion, and found I have neither the talent
nor the nerves for it. On the other hand, I've been in the company
of criminal angels...thieving junkie jazz players and their hooker
wives in New Orleans (Ed and Kathy and Karen, if you are out
there and still alive, contact me) and the like who showed me
why and how the heavens turn on eternity's star strewn axis.
I know there is angelic criminality, just as the face of eternity
is set in human misery and its heart is divine deviance. But
I do not think it is something you can just go out and do because
you think it is cool or makes a political point. It is not the
kind of thing that can be contrived. You need to be born under
a bridge in Rio or Bombay, or cast upon the American wastelands
of Columbine High school for it to come naturally.
ROX/JB: Happy New Year!!
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Joe's collected downloadable
essays can be accessed at www.coldtype.net
(2) "Sleepwalking to Fallujah"
has been used too.
(3) Joe tips his hat to Tim
Leary heary.
Richard Oxman can be found these days reading Joe
Bageant's material in Los Gatos, California; contact can be made
at dueleft@yahoo.com.
The Ox's never-before-revealed "biography"
is available at http://news.modernwriters.org/
Some of his recent writing
can be found in his Arts & Entertainment section and Features
(under Social) there.
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement |