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Today's
Stories
April 3 / 5, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez del Solar
A Year
Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The Illegal
Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated US and
International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
March 30, 2004
William S. Lind
An Occurrence
in Pakistan: the Battle That Wasn't
Ron Jacobs
Assassinations, Hate Mail &
Justice
Mickey Z.
Tommy Boy Friedman Does "Imagine"
Neve Gordon
Strategic Motives of the Yassin Assassination
Mark Scaramella
The Founding Scam: Insider Trading is the American Way
John Chuckman
The Countessa of Empire: Condi
Rice's Idea of Democracy
Greg Moses
Live from Pasadena: Silhouettes of New Order
Rai O'Brien
What Kind of Democracy to Expect if the Opposition Takes Power
in Venezuela
Bill Christison
The
9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbinger for the Future
Website of the Day
Ghost Town: Riding Through Chernobyl
March 29, 2004
John Maxwell
Crisis
in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold
J. Michael Springmann
Email
Spying & Attorney Client Privilege
Robert Fisk / Severin
Carrell
Coalition
of the Mercenaries
The Black Commentator
Haiti's Troika of Terror
Doug Giebel
Candide in the Wilderness:
How Bush Policy Was Made
David Krieger
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Bargain
Mike Whitney
Rejecting the Language of Terrorism
Richard Oxman
The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American
Family
Kim Scipes
The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again
Michael Donnelly
End Game for Northwest Forests
Norman Solomon
The Media Politics of 9/11
Kathy Kelly
Last Lines Before Vanishing
Website of the Day
Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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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Weekend
Edition
April 3 / 5, 2004
Nader and/or Death?
The
Weather Above the Ground
By RICHARD OXMAN
"so rah-rah-rah democracy
let's all be as thankful as hell
and bury the statue of liberty
(because it begins to smell)
-- E.E. Cummings' last four lines of
Thanksgiving (1956)
"Everybody talks about the weather,
but nobody does anything about it."
--Charles Dudley Warner (or, possibly,
Mark Twain)
American and Brazilian officials can't agree on
whether or not the weather experienced in southern Brazil on
March 28th should be classified as an extra-tropical storm or...a
hurricane. Brazilians --with much PR put forth by tourist industry
leaders there-- have taken great pride in the fact that their
country has always been free of hurricanes. Regardless, the system
they came face to face with on Sunday was "totally different
from anything" they'd ever gone through, according to Laura
Rodrigues, a meterologist at the Santa Catarina State Weather
Bureau. (1) It undoubtedly "drenched the steeples, drowned
the cocks," as Lear would have observed.
Santa Catarina Civil defense official
Marcio Luis Alves said "at least 1,990 people lost their
homes and 9,590 were forced to flee. More than 30,000 houses
across the state were damaged, and 280 were destroyed."
(2) Just the tip of the iceberg...that's melting?
Is there a Jaws shark in the water syndrome
going on here? Certainly reports from Brazil's National Space
Research Institute about this 94mph monster (3) have to be greeted
with great skepticism.
These are ominous meterological times
with baleful portents on the horizon. If that was truly the first
full-fledged Category I hurricane in Brazil's history, we all
had better sit up and take notice. We're not talking about snow
in the Balearic Islands here, which is a bad enough turn itself.
The rejection of the Kyoto Treaty, the
delays in addressing imminent environmental catastrophe, on the
part of both Bush and Kerry --that alone-- warrants a thumbs
down for both candidates. As per Mickey Z's heartfelt article,
"Don't Turn Off, Turn ON",
I urge everyone to vote for Ralph Nader in the upcoming election.
If you don't act to make certain that neither Bush nor Kerry
gets in, you're signing the planet's death warrant. If you have
any doubts, look at Kerry the Lesser's statement below:
"When John Kerry is president, the
U.S. will reengage in the development of an international climate
change strategy to address global warming, and identify workable
responses that provide opportunities for American technology
and know-how."
These words, pulled from his website,
are not the sentiments of a man who acknowledges the present
storm of concern respecting planetary degradation. If you think
there's something to latch onto there that's an improvement on
Bush's much denigrated positions/actions vis-a-vis the environment,
you probably have too much faith in American technology, are
reading too much into "reengage," believe we have more
time than we actually have to address our imminent collapse and/or
think that it's not obligatory that Kerry say something to distinguish
himself from Dubya on this issue. Keep in mind, the words above
are the Democratic candidate's best shot.
Almost everyone involved in the interminable
Great Electoral Debate is behaving like the business community
in Amity, Peter Benchley's fictional eastern seaboard town, acting
as if The Great White Sharkies aren't about to drag us down to
the depths of Neptunian nether regions. Lots of time, they say,
if they're for Kerry; we can all work on him --iron out the rough
spots-- once he's deposed our Sitting Lifeguard. If they're for
Bush they simply gurgle that we're overreacting about Brazil
and the Balearics.
I ask you, nay, I beg you to look in
the eyes of those who would vote for Kerry, those who are claiming
that they're going to call up Click and Clack, NPR's sexist car
show, to find out how to fix The Old Massachusetts Model. Get
close to them. Listen to the tremor in their voice as they assure
you that they know how bad an option he is. Smell them. They've
got nothing to offer you. They're part of the whole electoral
distraction. What could be done with electoral politics, they're
not about to take advantage of; they're simply stepping on "this
side" of the politically correct line, compunding ignorance
with ignorance mouthing the hackneyed headlines, and putting
their faith in a rapacious remora (incapable of remorse). At
best, they're stupid, shortsighted and sure to secure our death
by drowning in the oceans' dead zones.
Don't forget (recent Green Party gubernatorial
candidate) Peter Camejo's words, "Kerry will be able to
do what Bush wants to do better."
Progressive voters are putting their
faith in reports that are coming down the pike from (Microsoft's
and WalMart's) NPR, (Archer Daniels Midland's) PBS and (Blair's)
BBC. Half-horrors like www.commondreams.org
and The New York Times are also the basis for much genuflecting,
and marching off half-cocked. Getting one's news --forming one's
opinions-- from such sources (with a touch of Mother Jones, The
Progressive and the like thrown in for good measure) is tantamount
to getting the March 28th weather report from Brazil's NSRI.
Sure, they might be right on regarding the wind velocity, but
the meaning of it all is sure to be missing. Put another way,
if you're relying on The Nation to give you an accurate take
on what's blowin' in the wind --Alexander Cockburn's column "Beat
the Devil" being the exception in that quarter-- it's like
going to the Santa Catarina Chamber of Commerce for advice on
whether or not to invest in a Bed and Breakfast chain (of straw
huts) there. My comments aren't to suggest that the discriminate
progressive stay away from the sources completely, but, rather,
to underscore that the requisite caution is not being exercised
in gleaning "facts" from them, and that the average
citizen --with very limited time/energy-- should probably be
steered elsewhere.
The drawbacks attached to the above sources
can be digested quickly by clicking on http://69.28.73.17/.
There Democracy Now! is lambasted for legitimate reasons, and
the darling of so-called dissenters, Amy Can Only Do Good, is
put into perspective; there's more on her as a liability below.
If you can vomit up all of the unnecessary
premises that infuse/proscribe your political discourse, your
thinking, you have a chance to rise above the storm. To wit,
as Mickey Z pointed out there are about 85 million eligible voters
who didn't cast their line in the waters in 2000. At your peril
you assume that we can't mobilize them between now and November
to vote for Nader, representing a truly significant difference
between "Coke and Pepsi." True, this ain't Seneca Falls
of 1848 or the first National Convention of women's rights in
1850 Worcester, Massachusetts. We have an entirely different
societal mindset, of course. But there is much common ground,
and it IS the opportunity of a lifetime for us all. Truly, a
watershed moment in the history of the world. It's up to you...and
the people you have one-on-one contact with between now and Halloween.
The politicians follow the spooky polls.
Don't you.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton started out with
five "activist" women in the face of extreme chauvanism,
a long tradition of institutionalized kowtowing (in great part
religion-based), and the threat of very real economic "sanctions"
if anything was even attempted. You stand --man or woman-- poised
at the head of a long line...that suffered horribly on our behalf.
They are, to me, Category I Weatherwomen.
There IS Light. You are the catalyst,
the White Rose of a dissenter that the Powers never counted on.
Stop putting up posters. Stop trying to finesse the electorate
vis-a-vis the internet. Stop holding small meetings which honor
"process" at the expense of getting something done.
Whether or not your current progressive actions are your exclusive
activist activity, most people should stop working in their "little
corners" for now because they really don't have quality
activist energy left over once they're finished with them. For
what I'm proposing. What to do? Avoid putting your head on the
chopping block. Contact each and every person you know and bond
with them as an individual. First of all, guard against counterproductive
rationales of various stripes; everyone has a responsibility
to join hands here. Don't organize a club of any kind. Don't
deal in dues. Get them to agree on supporting Nader, for all
of his very serious faults (4), and be a part of this national
mobilization that can actually pull an "Ali" on Bush
and Kerry's "Liston." This is what is meant by Hope
and Vision.
I'd be honored to provide technical support,
additional practical advice upon request. Perhaps you're open
to there being untried techniques for recruitment, even if you
have decades of doing under your belt.
If Ralph doesn't get in on the Upset
of the Century (and the Century Before), you can be sure that
his garnering even as little as twice as many votes as he got
last time around (when the Greens were supporting him in full
force) would shake the world. At the very least, it would give
earthcrackling optimism in quarters that count, creating constructive
ripples you can't possibly forsee. I believe that the impact
would rise far above anything that shocked The Powers when Perot
put in his bid; remember, that was a precedent that was supposed
to have been put to bed. And the rattled reigning rogues might
very well be so shaken as to overreact in unpredictable, but
desirable ways.
Nothing of the sort can be expected from
any of our other options. Kucinich --as a Democrat-- has too
many fingers tied behind his back, and Peltier's profile is much
too low for us to get off the ground with it in the time remaining.
Leonard is a lost cause for the moment, and Dennis has already
been answered by the people he's trying to attract, has been
put in place by those he's chosen to associate with on a partisan
basis. His campaign is doing virtually nothing to attract the
85 million we're talking about here, and if you try to work on
his behalf in that realm, I'm afraid you'll be greeted by legitimate
complaints respecting his Democratic links. It's as if DK simply
wants to keep progressive talk on the table for the Dems. Cobb?
David's facing a Goliath with a weakened, divided Green Party
for his feet, a too-traditional approach to party politics in
his sights (ruining his aim), and a overly heavy stone in his
hand, which can be characterized as his Late Appearance (in terms
of both a possible June nomination and national non-entityness).
Did I leave out anyone derserving of
honorable mention?
With all due respect to Ted Glick (see
footnote #4 below), whose twenty-nine years of invovlement in
organizing alternatives to the two main parties has convinced
him that "there are three mutually reinforcing, overall
tasks which we must be about if we are to ever get to the point
of having a progressive party which can actually challenge for
power," THERE IS NO TIME FOR SUCH A TRADITIONAL PARADIGM
TO BE PUT INTO PLACE. Besides, until progressives take stock
of where such models of action have brought us to to date --the
very edge of planetary extinction (5)-- I wouldn't recommend
following such ideal scenarios regardless.
People like Glick are not acknowledging
what the public is likely to do once the little-known events
--such as what happened in Bolivia on the 30th (6)-- visit our
shores. That's partly a function of the people in this Ostrich
Land not making it very easy to do so. For a taste, however,
the concerned reader can digest Michael Burns' prescient piece
"Put
Up Or Shut Up: 3 11's Meaning Pre-next 9 11".
Don't let your mind wander to where they're
undoing Ralph's seatbelt or deflating his airbag, which is what
would happen, of course, if things really got out of hand. That's
one reason why, by the way, Glick and his Cobb coterie are wrong
about Ralph being on an ego trip. An interesting sidenote of
difference, by the way, between Ralph and, say, Dennis Kucinich,
is that whereas they both support the indefensible plan to "hand
over" Iraqis to the UN (if they'll take them under the present
slaughterhouse conditions), DK --as a Dem-- could not possibly
change that stance, but RN could. Such acts, even such potential,
would spell the literal end of him, and there's no stronger argument
regarding the need for all of us to mobilize in the way that
I'm suggesting. Votes for Nader are not sufficient. It must go
hand-in-hand with brainstorming about what we're going to do
when the fascism, already unacceptable, becomes increasingly
overt.
Everything points toward it being a "queer
and sultry summer," to invoke the poet suicide, and I fear
that the "electrocution of the Rosenbergs" may be witnessed
many times over before the fall. Our liberties cannot stand with
the present, arrogant momentum. The bombs concealed in bags or
luggage will honor their appointments with the nation's transit
systems. Who believes that "ratcheting up" security
measures has a life? Who will be killing us with false promises?
Who cannot see that we MUST concede something?
On a more positive note, each and every
person in this nation wanting Universal Health Care --as per
Mickey's article-- should be picking up the pitch put forth here.
In short, if you ever want individuals who don't pay their fair
share of taxes to shoulder the lion's share of that burden, Ralph's
your only ticket. Ever. If inroads aren't made by this November,
it'll never happen. That's what's behind the panic attacks of
Chomsky and Parenti, moving them both to untenable positions.
To pull America's Rhea Head completely out of the Waste Land
Sand, however, one must force others to glare at, absorb the
horrific fact that the Powers are simply preparing to up the
ante, now that they've proven to themselves that the public will
accept stolen elections. They may let a little of the foul air
out of the room, momentarily, by letting Kerry lead the goosestep
with sinewy slippers, but they're poised to pull the plug on
our "airs of democracy."
And aside from the potentially unifying
issue of Universal Health Care, all progressives, and probably
ALL unregistered voters and ALL non-voting registered voters,
can acknowledge that Ralph's proposals for cutting corporate
welfare alone warrant your support. C'mon...even if you hate
Nader, here's your chance to set things up so that you can put
him in Malcom's fateful ballroom, on Martin's blood-stained balcony.
Amy Goodman is coming to Santa Cruz,
California --where I presently sit and write to you-- on April
28th. I don't know who's bringing her here, but it's a huge mistake,
an enormous waste of energy respecting the issues addressed above.
Not because Amy hasn't done wonderful things, but because we
don't have time to devote to supporting her new book...which
I assume is what she's touting on this latest tour. The Rio Theatre
here, which will be the local venue for this monumental distraction,
previously hosted Dennis K. twice. We don't need to hear from
Amy regarding the dangers of neo-cons or media manipulation in
this so-called progressive community. We can easily do without
Dennis launching into the "evils of Iraq," either in
person or from the mouth of The Goodman Woman. And we can do
without her subliminal ABB subversiveness. Besides, the question
is begged as to why anyone needs The Exceptions to the Rulers;
such a question is verboten in capitalist quarters of The Movement
where felled trees are easily forgotten. What we need from everyone
in the Santa Cruz community --which put in horribly poor electoral
showings for both Kucinich and Camejo (only 5%!)-- is an effort
that will follow a new paradigm. And that must be multiplied
throughout the nation.
To do so, one must first acknowledge
that --for reform-- large political parties, to paraphrase Foucault,
do more to stabalize power relations than to change them. Ditto
for large organizations. Specifically, in America, resistance
rises only just barely above the level of obedience, merely sufficient
to force change minimally. In short, almost every paradigm for
action from the past is obsolete, archaic in terms of potential
effect. It's not that we should abandon boycotts or voting or
physical confrontation, etc. But if you're going to vote, say,
you had better do so in a singular way, getting highly creative,
detouring from derivative patterns. Overtly political play, for
instance, challenges society's rules on a fundamentally deep
level, is highly unpredictable, and opens up the greatest possible
possibilities of change. That's where outrageous plans for Ralph
Nader derive their legitimacy.
Forget about recruiting people in tradtional
ways. They are either too bent or too filled with bravado. Either
overly ambitious or resigned to the pits. Enamored of talk and
evasive of responsibility. Dispense with the notion that there
is a Movement to build. The potential elements are too fragmented,
irreparably separated by egoism, territorial claims and/or the
overwhelming demands of simply keeping up with communications
in highly specialized little corners. Some are simply too stuck
in the past.
Americans use up resources like there's
no tomorrow, and their politicians and dissenters both move at
a pace to suggest that there are endless tomorrows.
People have asked me for quite some time
for specific forms of activism that will make a difference. Well,
here you have it. I recommend that each reader not only vote
for Nader, but work incessantly (and pretty much exclusively)
on getting others to do the same; just one of Plath's figs will
do nicely. Get people to register, and get registered voters
to commit to Ralph. Whatever your little preferential corner
dictates, drop it for now, as much as possible. Try your damndest
to make this your top priority from now till Touchdown Time.
It doesn't require money and it doesn't need a website. It does
call for less "progressive talk" about the latest "shocking
revelations," and much more hands-on contact. You can do
the math without me, but this revolutionary flight of fancy cannot
take wing without you.
If you want to be a part of changing
the status quo without violence and without waiting, some unprecedented
decisions are going to be required. If you're involved with feeding
and sheltering people, you had better continue, and do the Nader-related
work part-time. Ditto regarding caring for abused spouses and
the physically sick. However, if you're primarily engaged in
activities like gathering signatures to stop this or build that...perhaps
you can reprioritize. Space does not permit further elaboration
here, but it's clear that people need to be pushed to jump out
of their routines, as dedicated as they may be for a particular
progressive cause. Perhaps it's time to place a moratorium on
the energy/hours spent on protesting our presence in Iraq, the
latest gender-related legislation and/or work vis-a-vis gun control.
I'm not the god to decide. You are. But the bottom-line is that
there is no solidarity at present, and no prospect for any that'll
make an impact, the progressive pages of praise for this or that
effort/promise notwithstanding.
That's what I'm proposing here, a basis
for solidarity. A solidarity that will force the kind of defeat
of U.S. troops that's necessary for world sanity and survial.
(7) A solidarity that will lead to the overthrow the government
as it's unpleasantly/presently practiced.
In the late 60s, the Weather Underground
began to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government . Well,
Arianna Huffington --over three decades later--- put out a work
titled, How to Overthrow the Government, but it was an entirely
different animal than the agenda of the beloved "Days of
Rage" rascals. Bernadine Dohrn, Mark Rudd et. al. addressed
the government's suppression of dissent for what it was, part
of the warp and woof of U.S. capitalism. Today, "dissenters"
delicately distinguish between Skull and Boners; they conveniently
forget their own ranting and raving about the (Coke and Pepsi)
lack of difference between Gore and Bush prior to the electoral
theft of 2000. AH can somehow urge us to "Push for character
education in our schools, to help teach our children right from
wrong" (as a step toward the "overthrow") without
addressing America's theft of Native American lands or its genocidal
history, so tactfully handled in the textbooks. I guess that
I shouldn't be so surprised by a book that applauds Joe Lieberman
as a modern American hero.
And I shouldn't be so disappointed with
leftists who argue that their agonizing years of experience have
taught them that the only way to influence an election is to
energize a party base. Becket was right, "Habit is the great
deadener." It's understandable that people without vision
would grope for the walls they know are there in the dark. If
understandable, it's not acceptable that the blind fail to acknowledge
that al-Queda is not our enemy, that what al-Queda represents
will follow wherever Kerry or Bush plan to take us (as per Kurt Nimmo's penetrating piece
of April 2nd).
The Left is tamely playing the role of
Dissenting American Segment. It's got about as much potential
bite as the No Hate Zones festooned around the country. It's
not that there aren't significant confrontations building nationwide.
It's just that there's no building of anything going on that's
going to make a difference. MoveOn is not going to be moving
on the Powers...ever. ON (the funny little "Only Nader"
thing), however, resonates, has a radical ring.
A prohibition on government giveaways,
including R&D giveaways, competition in allocating government
resources, no liability caps, no discount loans, payback for
bailouts, elimination of all corporate tax expenditures, an end
to government market promotion, reasonable pricing provisions,
a surtax on local and state corporate welfare, prohibition of
government subsidies to criminal corporations, limits on executive
compensation in government-supported corporations, an SEC requirement
for corporate welfare disclosure, sunsetting of corporate welfare,
funding for town meetings, reforms regarding all forms of export
assistance and overseas marketing promotion programs, elimination
of the Price-Anderson Act (which enables the Nuclear Industry
to prosper), regulation of corporate welfare beneficiaries' political
influence, reining in the IMF and ESF and so much more that Ralph
Nader would change...if enough people got behind him...would
cause a "revolution" in this country that could lead
to even more radical alterations of the status quo.
Nader's severe "weaknesses"
could be addressed in the process, and people who haven't even
been voting for years could be truly inspired, eventually joining
hands with citizens who have been wasting their votes for quite
some time. You see, no Democrat can deliver anything remotely
like an elimination of offshore tax shelters, and that is only
one of many revolutionary turns that must be taken if we're going
to truly transform this society of ours.
A friend of mine traveling with Ralph
to North Carolina State University recently provided a telling
quote the other day (analyzing the letters from old friends urging
him not to run): "And the more I got of these, the more
I realized that we are confronting a virus, a liberal virus....
And the characteristic of a virus is when it takes hold of the
individual, it's the same virus, individual letters all written
in uncannily the same sequence.... Not one...ever said 'What
are your arguments for running?'"
We must kill the virus.
Wake up and sing, America! It is your
last chance. To paraphrase Camus, in The Myth of Sisphyus, the
single most important dilemma that Americans face is the issue
of whether or not to commit electoral suicide this fall. The
current cynicism and sanctioned form of traditional party-politics-resignation
only feed the "sour air" of our bell jar, to use Sylvia
P's imagery again. To be "realistic" you've got to
believe in the impossible. We don't want to get to the point
where we're wishing, like Twain, that Noah missed the boat.
I was living in Hawaii in August, 1992
when Hurricane Iniki slammed into Kuaui. Words cannot describe
the experience. Steven Speilberg was filming one of his dinosaur
movies at the time, and had to hole up till calm descended on
the island. Someone in his crew had just joined him, having barely
escaped the devastation of Florida's Hurricane Andrew a few days
earlier. He was never the same again. In fact, none of us were.
As a hurricane approaches, the skies
will begin to darken and winds will grow in strength. Then, something
takes over which is beyond the sounds, much more ominous than
the unearthly, unprecedented vibrations.
As Bush and Kerry march in lockstep toward
November's likely Category VI tragedy, I urge you to adopt the
mask of the post-modern Weatherwoman/Weatherman, and let everyone
know which way the apocalyptic wind is blowing. But keep in mind,
if you will, that Bob Dylan is now appearing in television ads
for Victoria's Secret.
The old models are death warmed over.
(1) Telephone interview with Jack Beven
of the U.S. Hurricane Center.
(2) Michael Astor of the Associated Press
3/30/04.
(3) As per a private U.S. forecasting
company, AccuWeather.
(4) Although I have some serious reservations
about his take, one can see Ted Glick's latest piece, "2004
and the Left", for a delineation of Nader's drawbacks.
Please note that what he says about Nader's neglect of racism
and sexism, to name only two issues, can be "addressed"
in short order; the same cannot be said of Kerry's deficiencies.
(5) See http://www.commondreams.org/
and http://story.news.yahoo.com/
(6) See http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/
(7) See http://www.zmag.org/
Richard Oxman,
in the Weather (Underground) vein, has taught college students
from Nippon to New York (where he protected youngsters from the
Vietnam draft for many years). He can be reached at mail@onedancesummit.org.
Weekend
Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
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