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Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by Kathy Kelly Click Here to Order 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly's Harrowing First-hand Account of Iraq Under the Squeeze of Sanctions and Missiles of Shock and Awe! Today's Stories August 1, 2005 James Petras The Corruption of Lula's Regime July 30 / 31, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Lost Nuclear Warheads Now in Iran? JoAnn Wypijewski Scenes and Silver Linings from Labor's Crack-Up: a Special Report from Chicago Sheldon Rampton War is Fun as Hell: the Video Games Recruiters Play Jack Z. Bratich Fingerprints of Power: a Summer of Double Super Secrecy Greg Moses How to Cool Your Heels in Texas When It's Late July Across the World Jordan Green From Woolworth to Wal-Mart: Economics and the Race Divide in a Southern City Patrick Cockburn Getting Out of Iraq: 5,000 US Troops Have Gone AWOL Brian Cloughley The Bush-Cheney Fixation on Iran Justin Taylor Harry Potter and the War on Terror Saul Landau Enhancements for the Imperial Life: Fashionism Takes Command! John Walsh Dems Field Another Pro-War Candidate: Meet Hack the Hawk Joshua Frank Color-Coded Justice: John Roberts's Racial Hang Up Ron Jacobs Who Needs Feminism? We Have Condi Rice! Fred Gardner The Ethan and Gavin Show John Chuckman Friedman on Terrorism: the Dumbest Story Ever Written Liaquat Ali Khan Lessons City Bombers Need to Learn from Newton and Donne Remi Kanazi Annexing Justice in Palestine Naveen Jaganathan The Gurgaon Riots Rock India Richard Heinberg Where is the Hirsch Peak Oil Report? Max Watts Francis Ona, the Napoleon of Mekamui Ben Tripp Write Your Own Editorial! Poets' Basement Whalen & Engel, Landau, Albert and Krieger   July 29, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Who's the Real Martyr? Judy Miller or Jim DeFede? P. Sainath The Class War in Gurgaon Niranjan Ramakrishnan How the West Was Lost: CAFTA and the Disassembling of America Dave Lindorff Marvelous Marvin Bush J.L. Chestnut, Jr. America's Racist Inventory: Oppression Breeds Violence Pat Williams Giving Away the Last Best Place Norman Solomon In Praise of Kevin Benderman: a Moral Leader of the Nation Goes to Prison Sen. Russ Feingold The Bad News About the Energy Bill July 28, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Departing Iraq William S. Lind The Duke of Alba and George W. Bush Gilad Atzmon Blair the Camera Man Joshua Frank Passing CAFTA: Blame the Democrats Lila Rajiva Vision Mumbai Submerged Amina Mire Pigmentation and Empire: the Emerging Skin-Whitening Industry Website of the Day Gateway to Underground News   July 27, 2005 Roger Morris The Source Beyond Rove: Condoleezza Rice at the Center of the Plame Scandal Gary Leupp Is Iran Being Set Up? Paul Craig Roberts US Falling Behind Across the Board Jackie Corr Class War on the Ruby River: the Billionaire with His Foot in His Mouth Mike Whitney The Coming End of the Housing Bubble Dave Zirin Why Lance Armstrong Must Break with Bush Christopher Bradley Why I Have Trouble Reading the News Norman Solomon Thomas Friedman, Liberal Sadist? Website of the Day Stormin' Norman   July 26, 2005 Suren Pillay The Enemy Within: When the "Other" is One of "Us" JoAnn Wypijewski Fission and Fizzle in Chicago: SEIU and Teamsters Quit the AFL Patrick Cockburn Iraq: the Unwinnable War David Anderson When the Greatest Outrage is the Lack of Outrage: NYC's Subway Searches Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton: Outflanking Bush from the Right Lenni Brenner Biography as Wish-Fulfillment: Jefferson, Hitchens and Atheism David Swanson Nuking Native Land     July 25, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts China-Mart Takes Over M. Shahid Alam Terrorism: America Defines Its Targets Uri Avnery March of the Orange Shirts Stan Cox Kreationism in Kansas Norman Solomon "Wagging the Puppy" Ramzy Baroud London Bombings: Barbaric, But Not Unexpected Mickey Z. No Gun Ri: 55 Years Later Website of the Day The Birth of a Hummingbird in 15 Images     July 23 / 24, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Islamo-Anarchs or Islamo-Fascists? Tariq Ali The War Comes Home Robert Fisk Something Happened Dave Lindorff Return of the Academic Witch Hunts Ricardo Alarcón Kidnapping in Miami: the UN, the US and the Cuban 5 Col. Dan Smith Living in a Twilight Zone: Troop Strength, Recruitment and the Draft Brian Cloughley The Pentagon's China Hypocrisy Kevin Zeese Growing Republican Opposition to Iraq War Bill Quigley Harrowing Hours in Haiti Fred Gardner The Reverberations of Raich Rep. Ron Paul The Patriot Act is a Threat to Liberty Joshua Frank Framing Abortion: Gonadal Politics and the Democrats Shivali Tukdeo Project Mumbai Makeover: Casualties of Development Gilad Atzmon Blair's "Evil Ideology" James Petras Baghdad: Barbarism and Civilization (a Fiction) Ben Tripp When Being American Was Fun Poets' Basement Krieger, Louise, Buknatski, Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Remember the West Memphis 3   July 22, 2005 Heather Gray Home Grown Axis of Evil: Corp. Agribusiness, the Occupation of Iraq and the Dred Scott Decision David Domke The American Press and Credibility Lance Selfa Battle of the Insiders: No Heroes in the Plame Leak Scandal JoAnn Wypijewski Is This Really an "Insurgency" to Shake Up the Labor Movement?   July 21, 2005 Rose Ann DeMoro The Top 10 Problems with the "Crisis" in the Labor Movement William Blum London: Another Casualty in the War on Terror J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Whites Need to Learn Something: Dixie is Everywhere Christopher Brauchli Strange Affairs: Liberals and Alberto Gonzales Joshua Frank Plame Blame Game: the 5 Ws Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Time for a Reality Check Patrick Cockburn The True, Terrible State of Iraq and the Link to London Website of the Day Who Blew Up the Murrah Building?     July 20, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Judge Roberts: Business as Usual Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Red Christmas Ray McGovern Did Dick Finger Valerie?: the Hand of Cheney Chris Floyd Judge Dread: John Roberts and the "Enemy Combatants" Uri Avnery "Silence is Filth" Dave Lindorff Westmoreland's Body Count Goes Up by One Norman Solomon Gen. Westmoreland's Death Wish Bill Quigley Travels in Haiti with a Wanted Priest       July 19, 2005 Tariq Ali An Isolated Regime John Ross Jihad Meets G-8 Davey D. More Clear Channel Censorship: "Don't F--K Around with Tha Police" Greg Weiher Muzzling Saddam: the Old Bait-and-Switch in Iraqi Jurisprudence Brian McKinlay An "Arse Licker" Goes to Washington: John Howard's Grand Tour Norman Solomon Nukes for India; Threats for Iran Dave Lindorff Get Back to Where We Once Belonged Bill Christison Bush's Itinerary: First Stop Syria, Next Stop Iran Joshua Frank Laura's Justice?: Meet Edith Brown Clement   July 18, 2005 Joshua Frank An Interview with Ward Churchill M. Shahid Alam A Muslim Problem: Did Thomas Friedman Flunk History? Jude Wanniski Memo to Patrick Fitzgerald Ron Jacobs A Weekend to Stop the War Mike Whitney The Straight Line Between Falluja and King's Cross Station William MacDougall From "Bring It On" to "London Can Take It" Seth Sandronsky Temporary Recovery: New Frontiers in Labor Flexibility Richard Lichtman The Consolations of George Lakoff Paul Craig Roberts Can Congressional Republicans End Bush's Wars? Website of the Weekend Novels of the Neo-Cons   July 15 / 17, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Don't You Dare Call It Treason Jeffrey St. Clair Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton Paul Craig Roberts Economic Treason Harry Browne "What They Do to Us, They Will Do to You": Shell Oil in Mayo, Ireland Uri Davis, Ilan Pappe and Tamar Yaron A Warning from Israel Andrew Rubin End of the Enlightenment: an Open Letter to Stephen Plaut Patrick Cockburn Iraq's Ghost Battalions J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Changes in Selma: Standing Up to Racism in the South Fred Gardner A Professional Bust Christopher Brauchli An Olympic Feat: How to "Double" Aid with No New Money Chris Floyd The Great Iraq Oil Giveaway Ben Tripp The Dark Incontinent Col. Dan Smith General Abizaid, I'm Glad You Asked Jason Leopold What Did Rove Say and When Did He Say It? Jack Random Miller Time Norman Solomon War and Venture Capitalism George Ochenski Liberate Montana's Rivers: Come One, Come All! Website of the Weekend Vote for CounterPuncher David Vest     July 14, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Sticky Fingers: the Making of Halliburton Subcomandante Marcos This is What Will Do and How We Shall Do It: the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona Dave Lindorff No More Moral Relativism: the US is a Terrorist State Joshua Frank Rove Agency: Liberals and the CIA Jude Wanniski Those 8 Black Pages: What's the Real Story on Karl Rove? Dave Zirin Storming the Castle Kevin Zeese Exit Strategy: Within Reach? Robert Jensen War Myths and the Press Reza Fiyouzat A Worldwide Call to Free Akbar Ganji Carol Norris Governor Paranoid: Schwarzenegger Comes Unhinged Website of the Day Nate Osborn: Heroic Human Rights Activist and CounterPuncher   July 13, 2005 Brian Cloughley Cold Blooded Murders in Iraq George Galloway We Can't Separate the London Bombings from the Political Backdrop Carlos Fierro A Supreme Waste of Time Sarah Knopp Hate on the Border Norman Solomon "Isolated Pockets of Problems": the Fake Optimism of Washington's Warriors Mickey Z. Water on the Brain Jim Minick The Right Tree in the Right Place Pat Williams American Indian Education for All Andrew N. Rubin Life Behind the Wall: "We are No Longer Able to See the Sun Set" Website of the Day "London's Burning": the Mikey Mix     July 12, 2005 Laith al-Saud Voices of Resistance: an Interview with Dr. Mohammed al-Obaidi of Iraq's Peoples' Struggle Movement Kara N. Tina "This is How We Do It": Report from the Gleneagles Battlefield William A. Cook The London Bombings: Why Has It Come to This? Jack Bratich 2 Live Cruise: Tom Cruise v. Big Pharma Amina Mire The Problem with Speaking in the Name of Others Dick J. Reavis Lessons from the Christian Jihadists: the Virtues of Burning Crosses and Colored Smoke Kevin Zeese Depleted Uranium: States Take Action to Protect Their Vets Paul Craig Roberts No-Think Nation Website of the Day Coke Gags Indian Artist     July 9 / 11, 2005 Alexander Cockburn After the Bombings Uri Avnery War of the Colors in Israel Sheldon Rampton Blaming Galloway: Rhetoric vs. Reality in London Bill Christison Hiroshima's 60th Anniversary and Nukes in Iran: an Opportunity or Just More Hand-wringing from the Peace Movement? Robert Fisk Blair's Alliance with Bush Bombed Stephen Winspear Collateral Damage in London? Saul Landau Mission Accomplished: Iraq is Broken Behrooz Ghamari Thomas Friedman's Muslim Problem Karl Beitel False Promises and Real Debt Relief Brian Concannon, Jr. Throwing Gasoline on Haiti's Fires Fred Gardner Sentencing Season John Whitlow And What Does the Market Say? Niranjan Ramakrishnan The London Blasts: Who's Being Transformed, Them or Us? Lila Rajiva Witches and Bastards Laura Carlsen CAFTA: Deepening the Inequities Jackie Corr Ted Turner and Jiminy Cricket Dave Lindorff "My Brother Went Over There Gung Ho; Now He's Just Bitter" N. D. Jayaprakash Why the CIA Tried to Kill Chou En Lai at the Bandung Conference Seth Sandronsky Meet the "Truth Tour": Rightwing Radio Hosts Go to Iraq Norman Madarasz The Choking of Brazil's Worker Party Ben Tripp The Inevitability of George W. Bush Poets' Basement Louise, Albert, Landau, Davies and Engel Website of the Weekend The Mother of All Enemies Lists     July 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Blowback Hits Britain: Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception Tariq Ali The London Bombings: Why They Happened Monica Benderman One Soldier's Fight to Legalize Morality Rick Jahnkow Beyond Opt-Out: the Counter-Recruitment Movement Christopher Brauchli Dear Vet: If You Want to Eat While You Recuperate, You Gotta Pay Extra Kim Peterson Bombs in the Underground: Terror Begats Terror Joshua Frank Leakers and Liars: Inching Toward Indictments? Norman Solomon Messages from the Carnage Website of the Day An Interview with Ray McGovern   July 7, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr John Walsh More Hawkish Than Bush: Dems in Full Battle Cry Mike Marqusee Message from London Gilad Atzmon London's Burning Nicole Colson Showdown at the Supreme Court Jack Random Judith Miller, Anti-Hero Norman Solomon Judith Miller, Drum Majorette for War Len Colodny Is Bob Woodward Still Protecting Al Haig? Cockburn / St. Clair Judy Miller: the Luckiest Martyr                                                             Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition July 30 / 31, 2005 Lula's "Workers' Regime" Plummets in Stew of Corruption By JAMES PETRAS "Nobody has the moral authority to discuss ethics with me" President Lula da Silva Corruption has devastated the Lula regime in Brazil. Every sector of Lula's "Workers Party"(PT) has been implicated in bribery, fraud, vote buying, theft of public funds, failure to report illicit campaign financing and a host of other felonious behavior, revealed almost daily between May-July 2005. All of Lula's closest and most important advisers, congressional leaders and party bosses have been forced to resign and are under congressional investigation for illegal large-scale transfers of funds into electoral campaigns, private enrichment, and financing full time functionaries. So far the only officials not implicated in felony investigations are Lula and the millionaire ministers who direct the regime's neo-liberal policies. Even here Lula's president of the Central Bank--Mireiles--is under investigation for tax evasion and fraud from the time he was the director of the Bank of Boston. Apparently the millionaire cabinet members, unlike the upwardly mobile arrivistes of the Workers Part have no need to rob the public treasury--they earn plenty speculating on the market or exploiting workers and peasants. What are the politics of the pervasive corruption endemic in the PT? Why has a party which began a quarter of a century ago as a vibrant, democratic, participatory parter, based on social struggles and movements degenerated into a corrupt elite party backed by financial speculators and agro-mineral interests and run by greedy upwardly mobile professionals? In the early 1990's the PT expelled militants, converted the party from a 'movement-party' to an electoral party and transferred decision-making from popular assemblies to parliamentary and state officials. The PT turned to professional electoral advisers, paid electoral campaigners, and increased dependence on the mass media. The predominance of electoral politics and mass media campaigning required greater financing at a time when fewer militants were willing to contribute to the electoral machine. The party and parliamentary elite increasingly developed ties with private sector contractors to secure contributions in exchange for public contracts. With the rise of Lula to the Presidency these practices multiplied, as thousands of PT functionaries occupied posts and began to develop their own private sources of financing. Lula's neo-liberal agenda and appointment of big businessmen and bankers to the key economic posts was based on securing the support of the right-wing parties in Congress, as it adversely affected popular social movements, trade unions and especially public sector unions. The political problem that Lula faced in securing the support of the rightwing congress-people was two fold: most of the political offices were taken by the PT officials, hungry to capitalize on their electoral victory, hence Lula could not compensate the right with offers of office; secondly while the right was completely in accord with Lula's policy, they were political rivals, they competed for support of big business. In order to secure their votes Lula's closest advisers then resorted to bribing the rightwing parliamentarians--with payments reputed to be $12,000 (USD) a month per congress-person, paid via a public relations firm which worked with the Lula regime. The PT was no longer an ideological party of the left, having adopted a program of promoting agro-business, (receiving 90 per cent of agricultural credits), finance capital ($90 billion paid out in debt payments in 30 months--more spent in debt payments in one month than for education, health and agrarian reform in a year) and mining and petroleum. What held the PT together was the "patronage of office"--corruption, co-option, enrichment and clientelism. Political power and the values of neo-liberal 'individual enrichment' became the dominant motive for seeking influential positions. The opposition from the right--from the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Front Party, is not over programmatic differences. The opposition is attempting to recapture the big business base, the support of the IMF, World Bank and international financiers whom Lula has attracted to his government. The principle groups "crying for Lula" are not the urban workers or rural dispossessed, but the bankers, foreign investors, millionaires and speculators who have gained billions during his reign of office. The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal are greatly disturbed that the corruption investigations will prevent Lula from carrying out the rest of his reactionary neo-liberal agenda. As the FT (July 22, 2005,) states "The corruption scandal seems likely to postpone any further reforms of the sort that have bolstered Mr. Lula da Silva's reputation on Wall Street. Day-to-day government has been paralyzed by the scandalmeasures to introduce a public-private financing initiative will go on the back burner, as well as a proposal to grant autonomy to the Central Bank." Thanks to the corruption investigation and the "paralysis" of Congress, Lula will not be able to privatize the remaining public services and infrastructure and hand over the Central Bank to the financiers (the more autonomy from Congress, the greater the integration into the financial sector). The actual workers in the public sector scheduled for "public-privatization" have had their jobs, salaries and pensions preserved, thanks to the corruption scandal of the "Workers" Party. While Lula has lost key allies for his neo-liberal transformation of Brazil, he has moved further to the right--replacing PT cabinet ministers with officials from the Conservative Party and PMDB -- the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party--and others. Because of Lula's support of Wall Street, the City of London and the IMF prescriptions there is absolutely no chance of a coup. As the saying goes, military coups never happen against the IMF. The biggest loser in the debacle of Lula's regime has been the Landless Workers Movement, which has continued to support the government even as scores of peasant activists have been killed, tens of thousands of land squatters have been forcibly evicted and Lula has continually reneged on every promise of agrarian reform. During the height of the corruption scandal, even as Lula made more explicit his widening coalition with the right wing parties of landlords and speculators, the MST joined the co-opted trade union bureaucrats in organizing a pro-Lula demonstration against "destabilization" and corruption. The pro-Lula policies of the MST has not only severely weakened the struggles of the landless peasants but has divided the opposition and strengthened the "old right", Social Democratic and Liberal Front parties. While some speculators have reduced their exposure in the Brazilian stock market, the big investment houses are still rushing to secure profits from the high-yielding Brazilian assets, paying the highest interests rates in the world--between 18per cent and 25per cent. The speculative bubble, which spurred 5 per cent growth in 2004, has come to an end. Brazil is expected to grow at approximately 2 per cent in 2005, with manufacturing entering into a recession, thanks to the free market policies, which have inundated the Brazilian market with cheap Asian industrial goods. While the opposition parties and mass media pursue the deepening corruption scandal up to the innermost circle of the Lula regime, big business and banking interests are not in favor of replacing Lula prior to the elections of 2006. The Financial Times (July 25, 2005) in an editorial continues to praise Lula's free market performance but advises him to "take more responsibility for have allowed (corruption) to happen" and "to re-organize his government around a programme to secure stability". In the meantime with the cooling off of the commodity boom, the Brazilian currency overvalued by 20 per cent, manufacturers are hoping that Lula will be replaced by Vice President Alencar of the Liberal Party, a major textile owner and defender of state promoted industrial policy and lower interest rates. Whether Lula remains in office or is ultimately forced to resign depends not so much on how closely he is implicated in the corruption scandals, as is the impact of his departure on the financial markets. In either case, whether Lula resigns (or is impeached) or remains, the major investment consultants expect the opposition to continue the monetarist neo-liberal policies, which Lula promoted so ardently, even to the point of buying congressional votes to reduce pensions, freeze minimum wages and subsidize agro-business exporters. It is the supreme irony that the once independent militant Landless Workers Movement joins Wall Street in defending a regime immersed in corruption. At least the bankers have harvested $100 billion in interest and principle, the MST has over 40,000 displaced land squatters to add to the 200,000 families living in plastic tents by the side of highways. "Don't cry for Lula", a banker told me, "he spoke for them but he worked for us." When Lula is no longer able to buy, convince, co-opt or corrupt congress-people, or manipulate the populace and is no longer effective in pursuing neo-liberal reforms, the ruling elite will toss him aside. The Lula regime has accomplished many "firsts" in Brazilian history during its first 30 months in office. No government has moved so far and so fast to the right. No government party has had more top party leaders, congress-people and ministers and functionaries under investigation for fraud in such a brief period. No government has paid more in foreign debt interest and principle in such a short time. No government has created more multi-millionaires in 30 months. No government has disillusioned more poor voters in such a brief period. James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, owns a 50 year membership in the class struggle, is an adviser to the landless and jobless in brazil and argentina and is co-author of Globalization Unmasked (Zed). His new book with Henry Veltmeyer, Social Movements and the State: Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina, will be published in October 2005. He can be reached at: jpetras@binghamton.edu