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Today's
Stories
December 10
/ 11, 2005
Ralph Nader
The
Widening Wasteland of American Media
December 9,
2005
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Roots
of Gitmo Torture Lie Close to Home
Dave Zirin
/ Mike Stark
On
Seeing Wesley Baker Die
Patrick Cockburn
Blair
Tries to Cover Up $1.3 Billion Iraqi Theft
Alexander Cockburn
Murtha Returns to Attack; Flays Bush
Lila Rajiva
Shooting the Mentally Ill
Gary Leupp
White House Liars on the Defensive
Jason Leopold
Rove Running Out of Answers, Time
Bruce K. Gagnon
So These Are the Democrats?
Andrew Cockburn
Meet
Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper
Website of the Day
"X-mas Time for Visa"
December 8,
2005
Kathy Kelly
Blessed
are the Merciful in Baghdad
James Petras
The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again)
William S.
Lind
Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory
Laura Carlsen
The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico
Justin Akers
Bush's Border War
Thomas Graham, Jr
A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space?
Norman Solomon
Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam
Tariq Ali /
Robin Blackburn
The
Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
Pigs at the Trough of War
December 7,
2005
John Ryan
Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate
Gary Leupp
Suicide
Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq
Fran Quigley
How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas
Jeremy Brecher
/ Brendan Smith
Bush
War Crimes: the Posse Gathers
Joshua Frank
Bird Dogging Hillary
William W.
Morgan
Rendition, Torture and Democracy
Dave Lindorff
A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage"
Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture
Website of
the Day
Witnesses to Torture
December 6,
2005
Ron Jacobs
No
One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel
Patrick Cockburn
Inside
Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder
Yifat Susskind
Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's
AIDS Policy
Mike Whitney
How Greenspan Skewered America
Pat Williams
Public Land Should Stay Public
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
to Europe: Trust Us
Website of
the Day
Debunking Woodward
December 5,
2005
John Walsh
The
Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did
They Know It?
Brian Cloughley
The Poor Dead: the Relative
Value of Human Lives
Mokhiber /
Weissman
The Corporate Crime Quiz
Robert Jensen
How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment
Norman Solomon
Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan
Peter Rost, MD
An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated
Federal Laws When They Fired Me
Lila Rajiva
The
Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons
Website of the Day
National Day of Counter-Recruitment
December 3 / 4, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
The
Revolt of the Generals
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Iraq,
Brains and Lies
Rev. William Alberts
The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod
Saul Landau
Latino
Troops Have Parents
Ralph Nader
Consumerama
Paul Craig
Roberts
Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
Mike Whitney
Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America
Allan Lichtman
The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government
Dave Lindorff
A Sudden Rush for the Exits?
Brian Concannon,
Jr.
Haiti's Elections
Fred Gardner
Oregon NORML Honors Growers
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
On Freeing the CPT
Carol Wolman
Remembering the 60s
St. Clair /
Vest / Walker / Pollack
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Free the CPT
December 2,
2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad
Mike Ferner
Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings
Over Baghdad?
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Questions
for the President
Manuel Talens
The Chávez Theorem
Peter Phillips
Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Alabama's
Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy
Website of
the Day
Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!
December 1,
2005
John Walsh,
MD
The
God Gaps
Ron Jacobs
Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq?
Jenna Orkin
EPA's
Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero
Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
Rank and File Resistance to Delphi
Missy Comley Beattie
Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play
Eli Stephens
The Reed and Kerry Show
Elaine Cassel
A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla
Website of
the Day
Rare Erotica
November 30,
2005
Allen / D'Amato
Incident
at Oglala 30 Years Later: the Long Struggle of Leonard Peltier
Mike Whitney
The Cheerleader at Annapolis
Kevin Zeese
The Hallucinations of Joe Lieberman
Norman Solomon
Colin Powell: Still Craven After All These Years
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon's New Party
Dave Lindorff
What Happened to All Those Bush/Cheney Bumperstickers?
Stephen Soldz
Mental
Health Workers in Iraq
November 29,
2005
Phil Gasper
Live
from Death Row: an Interview with Tookie Williams
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Ghost of Sangatte
Joshua Frank
Jack Abramoff's Bi-partisan Sleaze
Walter A. Davis
Life on Death Row: a Monologue
Gary Leupp
Bush the Dupe?
Len Colodny
Woodwardgate: Still Protecting the Rightwing
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Duke and the Enterprise: Randy Cunningham's Crash Landing
Bill Quigley
Human Rights Leaders Call for Release of Haiti's Political Prisoners
Website of
the Day
Watch Chomsky vs. Dershowitz Live, Tonight at 7PM, EST!
November 28,
2005
Chris Reed
The
"Bomb Al Jazeera" Documents Trial
David Isenberg
Cooked
Intelligence: the Dog that Didn't Bark
Ron Jacobs
Contraindications: a Review of Blood on the Border
Norman Solomon
The
Woodward Scandal Must Not Blow Over
Justin E.H. Smith
Schwarzenegger's Curious Power
Mickey Z.
Abbie Hoffman at 70: Steal This City
Mike Whitney
The Pentagon's Domestic Spying Operation
David Swanson
Is Impeachment an Election Issue?
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Grave Threat of the Bush Administration
Website of
the Day
"Don't Bomb Us!": a Blog by Al Jazeera Staffers
November 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
How
the Democrats Undercut John Murtha
Saul Landau
Who We Are: Torture and the Empire
Ralph Nader
Junk Television: Excluding Voices That Save Lives
Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?
John Ross
When a Language Dies
Gary Leupp
The Nepal Pact
Fred Gardner
Dr. Denney Goes to Arkansas
Christopher Brauchli
Compassion for Corporations: Northrup Grumman and Katrina's Victims
Dave Lindorff
US War Crimes List Keeps Growing
P. Sainath
See, Neoliberalism Really Works: Net Worth of India's Billionaires
Soars!
Timothy J.
Freeman
The Price of Freedom
Lila Rajiva
Of Mice, Men and GM Peas
Eric Ruder
Beat the Needle: Saving Tookie Williams
Seth Sandronsky
Working Toward Whiteness: an Interview with David Roediger
Joaquin Bustelo
What Really Happened at Mar del Plata
Lewis Alper
Is the President's Soul in Jeopardy?: an Evangelical Christian
Looks at Bush's Skull and Bones Initiation
Will Youmans
In Search of Paradise
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones' Rough Justice in Bush Time
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Barbara LaMorticella
Poetry and the City of Ideas
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Buknatski, Engel, Albert and Davies
Website of the Weekend
NLR: The Chequered Rainbow
November 25,
2005
David Price
How
US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons
Against the Japanese
Brian McKenna
Will
Bush Miss the Next Bhopal?
Jeff Halper
Peretz or Bust?
Ray McGovern
Will
the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal?
Leigh Saavedra
Thanksgiving at Camp Casey
Ingmar Lee
How Have the Mighty Fallen?
Website of the Day
Saving Cathedral Grove
November 24,
2005
James Petras
How
to Think About War and Peace
Bob Shirley
Thanksgiving
Torture: What the Puritans Fled
Mike Fox
Torture
Survivors Speak for Themselves
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Adrift?
Perhaps. A Draft? Never!
Greg Moses
Thanksgiving Delayed: TX High Court Blesses Inequality
Alexander Cockburn
Turkeys
in the Larger Scheme of Things
November 23,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
The
Great Gaza Border Deal: What Does It Mean?
Mike Whitney
Bush, Padilla and Thomas More
Stan Cox
Red, White and Blue Dawn: What a Bad Hollywood Film Can Teach
Americans About Life Under Occupation
Linda S. Heard
Targeting Al Jazeera
November 22,
2005
Kevin Gray
/ Mike Hersh
Maxine
Waters, the Real Leader of the Anti-War Caucus
Ralph Nader
What Do Dems Stand For?
Michael Donnelly
The "Vetting" of Bernard Kerik
Mike Ferner
The CIA's "Torture Taxi" in the Spotlight
Pierre Tristam
The Justice Deficit
Marshall Auerback
Bush's "Compassionate Conservativism": Neither Compassionate
Nor Conservative
Website of
the Day
I Don't Like Geldof
November 21,
2005
Mike Marqusee
Clinton's
Hypocrisies on Iraq
Josh Frank
Democratic Hawks: the Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement
Mike Whitney
Hugo Chavez vs. the King of Vacations
Norman Solomon
Getting Out of Iraq
Russ Baker
Woodward's Weakness
Robert Jensen
A National Day of Atonement
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lies
and Official Secrets
November 19
/ 20, 2005
Fred Gardner
The
Raid on MendoHealing
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The House GOP Has Done a Heinous Thing: Stop Playing Politics;
Get the Troops Out Now
Ron Jacobs
A Pathetic Congress: If It Walks and Talks Like a Withdrawal
Resolution, Why Won't You Vote For It?
David Vest
The Politics of Surrender: It's as American as Robert E. Lee
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement
John R. Bomar
Staying the Course on "Freedom's Frontier": a Vietnam
Vet on Iraq
John Ross
The
Dragon Flies High, But Not Over Mexico
Phillip Cryan
Colombia: "Political Kidnapping" and Murder in Cauca
Dave Lindorff
RIP In These Times
Dick J. Reavis
The Future of the Daily Press
Jeremy Scahill
Vegetarian Between Meals: This War Can't Be Stopped by a Loyal
Opposition
Dan Wright
Cleaning Up Alaska's Scan Bay
John Stanton
Scowcroft Talks Turkey; Edmounds Fights Fascism
St. Clair / Vest / Walker
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones: Rarities
Dr. Susan Block
Our Night of Weimar Love
Poets Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford, Harley and Louise
November 18,
2005
Michael Neumann
The
Palestinians and the Party Line
Dave Lindorff
Murtha and the L Word
Michael Donnelly
Black November 15
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Uncrucify Them
Don Monkerud
A Decent Workplace
Tom Kerr
Grant Clemency to Tookie Williams
Trish Schuh
Faking
the Case Against Syria
November 17,
2005
John Walsh
A
Fractured Anti-War Movement
Rep. John Murtha
Iraq Must Be Freed from the US
Occupation
Brian J. Foley
We Are All In GITMO Now
CounterPunch
News Service
Guardian
Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes'
Slurs
Dave Lindorff
In Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians
Mark T. Harris
Coming Out in an Up-and-Coming Sport
Cockburn /
St. Clair
From
Reporter to Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward
November 16,
2005
John F. Sugg
Al-Arian
Speaks: In His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian
Talks About What the Jury Didn't Hear
Noam Chomsky
Putting Out the Englightenment
Dave Lindorff
Shake
and Bake: Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah
Evelyn Pringle
Laurie Mylroie's War
Sam Husseini
Trying to Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye
Pierre Tristam
Toturers' Theater
Greg Bates
Waffling Alito Charms DiFi
Farrah Hassen
Moustapha
AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast
Bill Christison
Evidence
Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars
Website of
the Day
Violent Oscillations
November 15,
2005
Todd Chretien
My
Evening in the No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco
Leah Caldwell
Death
of the Jailhouse Press
Frederick Hudson
Rosa's Wreath: Miss Parks and Robert Williams
Harry Browne
Bush-Linked Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares
Case
Jason Leopold
Secret CIA Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat
Ingmar Lee
Logging Lackies vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species
Diana Barahona
Showdown on the Silver Coast
Tom Andre
New Orleans, Two Months Later
Website of the Weekend
Ernest Crichlow: 1914-2005
November 14,
2005
Diana Johnstone
The
Origins of the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky
Paul Craig Roberts
Power Over All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus
Conn Hallinan
Provoking
Syria: Cambodia All Over Again?
Joshua Frank
Off She Goes: Hillary in Israel
Christopher
Reed
The
Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan
November 11
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
First
the Lying, Then the Pardons
Gwyneth Leech
Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ
in the Wake of Abu Ghraib
Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System
Michael Neumann
The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation
Saul Landau
Leakgate: the Screenplay
Sam Husseini
Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them
Brian Cloughley
Sleaze, Deceit and Torture
Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?
Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson
Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy Watch
Joe Allen
Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?
Roland Sheppard
Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Justin E.H.
Smith
Another Monkey Trial?
Ben Tripp
The Cost of War
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!
November 10,
2005
Peterside,
Ogon, Watts and Zalik
Delta
Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone
Pat Williams
Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate?
Steve Higgs
Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging
Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth?
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity Takes Over
Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the Crosshairs
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Why Did Libby Lie?
Website of the Day
Imperial Margarine
November 9,
2005
Gary Leupp
The
Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology
Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated on Terror Laws
Chris Floyd
The
Philosopher's Stone
Elaine Cassel
The
Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu
Ali
Joshua Frank
Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day
Alison Weir
Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You
Give Israel a Pass?
Diana Johnstone
Rage
in the Banlieue
November 8, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Still
No Jobs
Roger Burbach
Bush
v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat
Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising
Ralph Nader
"The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet"
Jim McGrath
Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day
David Bloom
McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight
Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism
November 7,
2005
Dick Reavis
The
Origins of Mr. Danger
Jason Leopold
Cheney and the Cover Up: the Vice President Lied
Dave Lindorff
What Country was Bush Talking About?
Eli Stephens
A Tale of Two Generals: the Lies of Colin Powell
David Swanson
The Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course: a Syllabus
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview Stan Goff
Matt Reichel
Paris Uprising: a Rebellion in Real Time
Naima Bouteldja
Paris is Burning
Jeff Halper
Israel
as an Extension of American Empire
Website of the Day
Dispatches from Paris
November 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Storm
Over Brockes' Fakery: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Lying,
Law Schools and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito
Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica: a Response to Certain Criticisms of My Essay
Roosa / Nevins
The
Mass Killlings in Indonesia, 40 Years Later
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Missing
the Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation
John Ross
The Zapatistas' Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections
Mike Whitney
Globalizing Sadism: the United States of Torture
Mark Engler
Will Big Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds
Juliano Mer-Khamis
They Shoot at Children, Too
Ron Jacobs
When Gen. Westmoreland Visited
Jill S. Farrell
Bird Flu and the Posse Comitatus Act
Missy Comley
Beattie
Trent Lott's Untroubled Sleep
Mitchel Cohen
People of the Dome, Revisited
Evelyn J. Pringle
Bush-Cheney and Big Oil's Big Summer
Reza Fiyouzat
Signs of Life or Last Gasp? Structural Problems in the Democratic
Party
Charles Sullivan
When Courage Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks
Zachary Richard
Return to Louisiana
Ben Tripp
Beginning of the End? Don't Start Cheering Just Yet
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
November 4,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blood
on the Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR
Dave Lindorff
A Majority Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried
Phillip Cryan
Crackdown
in Colombia
Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and Tax Breaks for the Very Rich
William S.
Lind
Exit Strategy: You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War
Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and Nukes
George Beres
Laurels for Negroponte?
Peter Montague
Why We Can't Prevent Cancer
November 3,
2005
James Petras
The
Libby Affair and the Internal War
Saul Landau
Torn
Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge
Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang! You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine
Joshua Frank
Sham Behind Closed Doors
Remi Kanazi
Dancing with Perseverance
Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or Racketeering?
Website of the Day
CIA Leak Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?
November 2,
2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Holy
Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad
Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy
John Walsh
The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
Brian J. Foley
Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)
Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back Syria
M. Junaid Alam
What Moral Values?
Todd Chretien
Judgment Day for the Governator
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats' Slap Happy Day
Website of the Day
Hands Off Dave!
November 1,
2005
Ron Jacobs
An
Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart
Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome
John Ross
Days
of the Dead on the Border
Bill Quigley
Why
Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?
Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary of Death to One of Life
Dave Lindorff
Thinking About Impeachment
Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN?
Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs. Parks
Michael Dickinson
To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond
Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off
October 31,
2005
Elaine Cassel
Libby's
Lies
Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed
Mike Whitney
Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald
Norman Solomon
After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself
Farooq Sulehria
Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns
Nicole Colson
Scapegoating Immigrants
Madis Senner
Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights
Paul Craig
Roberts
Scooter
and the Neocons
October 29 / 30, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?
Peter Linebaugh
The
Wedges of Hephaestus
Tim Wise
Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media
John Chuckman
Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words
Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland
Brian Cloughley
The Fifth Afghan War
M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness
Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at Kent State
Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives
Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for Bethlehem Steel?
Joshua Frank
Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?
Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?
Fred Gardner
Death of an Organizer
Michael Dickinson
Insult Your Country
Ron Jacobs
Autumn in America
Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting
Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Red State Update
October 28,
2005
Jared Bernstein
Inflation
Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record
Virginia Tilley
Embracing
the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine
Phil Gasper
The
Race to Execute Tookie Williams
Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi Graft Time!
Manual Garcia,
Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?
Monica Benderman
In the Name of Justice
Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald
Focuses on the Forgeries
Dave Lindorff
Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials
Otober 27, 2005
Saul Landau
The
Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War
Stuart Hodkinson
Bono
and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!
Ingmar Lee
Stop
the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq
Lila Rajiva
License
to Bill: Gates Does India
Ilan Pappe
The
Last Moment of Hope
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald
Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury
Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo
Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown
October 26,
2005
Kathy Kelly
For
Whom They Toll
Gary Leupp
Dialectics
of the Plame Affair
Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial
Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation
Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check
J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks
Website of
the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index
October 25,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?
Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel
Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings
Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros
Robert Day
Talk to Strangers
John Sugg
Judith
Miller and Me
October 24,
2005
Dave Lindorff
Revoke
Judy Miller's Pulitzer
Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra
Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial
Mike Whitney
Apres Rove
Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Palestine
October 22
/ 23, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
When
Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller
Billy Sothern
Letter
from the Circle Bar, New Orleans
Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment
Ralph Nader
An
Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers
Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?
Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?
Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union
Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!
Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About
Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake
James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness
Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Disasters are Us
Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal
Missy Comley
Beattie
CSI: Iraq
Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun
Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of
the Day
Indictment Watch
October 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
The
Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy
Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense
Budget
Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard
Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph
Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina
Michael Donnelly
Richard
Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots
October 20, 2005
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment
Comes to NYC
Ray McGovern
16
Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost
Jeremy Brecher
/
Brendan Smith
Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court
Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?
Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment
Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton
Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory
After Lucas
Cranach
Judy and Holofernes
Joe Allen
The
Scandalous History of the Red Cross
|
December 10 / 11, 2005
What We're Listening to
This Week
CounterPunch Play
List
JEFFREY
ST. CLAIR
1. Gang of Four -- Return
the Gift (V2)
The best of the post-Clash
Brit punk bands. Almost too smart for their own good, the Gang
of Four's arch lyrics are redeemed by the thrashing guitars,
the throbbing bass and their affinity for funk. At times their
music sounds like a found art collage, splintered with the accidental
noises and rhythms of urban streets. Return the Gift finds the
Gang of Four back in the studio re-recording and remixing a dozen
or so of their best songs from the 80s. The Gang's old nemesis
Margaret Thatcher has just been rolled into the hospital. If
some nurse or orderly could pipe this riotous version of "To
Hell with Poverty" into the Iron Lady's room it might
just finish her off: "In this land right now some are insane,
and they're in charge / To Hell with poverty, we'll get drunk
on cheap wine." The closest punk ever came to the exuberant
anarchy of Parliament.
2. Joe Zawinul and the Zawinul
Syndicate -- Vienna
Nights (BHM)
The Austrian keyboardist Joe
Zawinul was a fine hard bop pianist for Cannonball Adderly's
band before he began playing around with a Fender Rhodes and
changed the face of jazz. Miles Davis joked that he brought Zawinul
into his group because he liked the sound of his name, but it
was Zawinul's spacey and melodic compositions which Davis seized
upon for one of the most groundbreaking records of the 1960s:
In a Silent Way. Miles took more credit for that record than
he really deserved: Zawinul's keyboards and Wayne Shorter's sax
shaped that record. So Zawinul soon went his own way, eventually
founding Weather Report with Shorter, which would become the
best of the fusion bands creating a sound that was something
like a improvising electronic orchestra. When Zawinul arrived
in the States in 1958, he immediately made an impact in the music
scene, joining Maynard Ferguson's band. But he also threw himself
into the Civil Rights Movement, where he became friends with
Jesse Jackson, for whom he wrote two songs "Walk Tall"
and "Country Preacher". Jesse even contributed a proto-rap
as an intro to "Walk Tall," included on the Adderly
group's Country
Preacher album for Blue Note. Now 73, Zawinul continues to
make stunning new music with his group the Zawinul Syndicate,
as displayed in this 2005 recording live from Zawinul's Birdland
club in Vienna. The band, featuring the exotic voice of singer
Sabine Kabongo, moves through synth-bop, Latin funk and world
beat numbers to an elegant rendition of Duke Ellington's "Come
Sunday". (Ellington, by the way, was one of the first jazz
musicians to experiment with an electric piano). One of the most
exciting jazz records in many years.
3. Lightnin' Hopkins --
Lightnin'
Strikes Twice (Little Darlin')
The only blues artist who may
have recorded more songs than Sam Hopkins was John Lee Hooker.
Like Chuck Berry, Hopkins distrusted anyone associated with the
music business and refused to sign any kind of contracts. Berry
demanded to be paid in cash for each concert. Lightnin' Hopkins
demanded to be paid in cash for each song-- before he recorded
it. Hopkins learned the country blues directly from some of its
founders. Blind Lemon Jefferson and Texas Alexander taught him
to play guitar, although the sound he made with it is all his
own. One Houston oil baron paid $25,000 for a guitar so he could
sound like Lightnin', of course he never came close. That poser
was in good company, though. When Miles Davis returned to blues
in the 1980s with his neglected cd Star People, he said in the
liner notes that he wanted to make his trumpet sound like Hopkins'
guitar. In the early 1960s, jazz producer Aubrey Mayhew tracked
down Hopkins in his small house in poor neighborhood of Houston.
Hopkins consented to record 12 new songs, as long as he was paid
up front. "I only play when I need the money." When
he showed up at the studio, Mayhew had a band waiting for him.
Hopkins sent them home. "I play by myself," he said,
as he sat down on a folding chair and opened a bottle of gin.
Hopkins warned Mayhew that the songs, which he often improvised
on the spot, might not have his usual sound because he was playing
on a borrowed guitar. "This guitar don't know me and it
may not talk the way I want it to." Yet, these 38 songs
are vintage Hopkins, with some of the funniest titles in the
blues, including: "Chicken Mary," "Baby Don't
Tear My Clothes," "Chicka Choca Shalali," "I
Wish I Was a Baby," and "Chicken Minute." Yeah,
chicken (in all its variant meanings) was something of a fetish
for Hopkins.
4. Rhonda Vincent and the
Rage--Ragin'
Live (Rounder)
In baseball, Rhonda Vincent
would be called a five-tool player. The Missouri bluegrass diva
writes great songs, plays the mandolin, guitar and fiddle and
owns one of the soaring voices in American roots music. Vincent's
band, the Rage, is the best in bluegrass, lead by banjo icon
Kenny Ingram. The highlight of this set, recorded live in Missouri,
is her seething version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene."
5. Paul Desmond--Bossa
Antigua: Remastered (RCA)
Dave Brubeck's best albums
were really Paul Desmond records, shaped and colored by the sharp
melodies of his alto sax. When Brubeck took off periodically
to teach or fiddle around with orchestras, Desmond dove into
the studios with his own band, often featuring the guitar virtuoso
Jim Hall, a disciple of Charlie Christian. Desmond and Hall could
and did play nearly anything, from bop to swing, soul jazz to
a soft and deeply grooved brand of electronic fusion. Here they
tackle the bossa nova sound with impeccable results. Stan Getz
never did it any better.
6. Audioslave--Live
in Cuba (DVD/CD) (Sony)
Thanks to Ry Cooder and the
Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon, most Americans are under
the impression that Cuban musicians are older than Havana's cars.
(Of course, this is a more generous view than Ken Burns' history
of jazz, which concludes that it was an archaic form of music
from the 50s and 60s made by long dead black men.) Cubans have
been listening to and performing rock since the 50s. Sometimes
in clubs, sometimes in more underground settings, as is the case
in all countries. A lot of Cuban rock has been critical of the
Castro regime; it wouldn't qualify as rock music if it didn't
buck authority. In the 1960s, the government tried to suppress
the underground music, with about as much success as J. Edgar
Hoover, Richard Nixon or Tipper Gore in their various efforts
to intimidate US rockers, jazz players and rappers. Since then
things have been freer and the music, from Latin funk to heavy
metal, has thrived. Last spring Audioslave (the fusion of Rage
Against the Machine and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell) breached
the US embargo and played an outdoor concert before a frenzied
crowd of 60,000 in Havana's Anti-Imperialist Plaza. Audioslave's
singer Cornell engaged in a bit of grandstanding by saying that
they were the first American rock band to play in post-Revolution
Cuba. Not true. I'm no fan of Bonnie Raitt's music, but she performed
in Havana in 1999 and Carole King played there in 2003, followed
shortly by Joanne Osborne and Jimmy Buffet. Even so, Audioslave
played louder than any of those courageous souls and this
DVD, and accompanying CD, captures the whole riotous 2.5 hour
concert, which closes with a ruthless version of "Cochise."
It will take Nike execs a few years to devise a way to coopt
any of these songs.
7. Dixie Hummingbirds--The
Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds (MCA)
The Dixie Hummingbirds are
a black gospel group from Virginia, which hit it big with "Loves
Me Like a Rock" two decades before Paul Simon rode the song
on one of his comebacks. Many gospel groups tend toward a similar
sound, but the music of the Hummingbirds is unmistakable. The
Birds' sound is marked by Ira Tucker's sweet voice, their sense
of humor (they loved to parody other acts, particularly the Blind
Boys of Alabama) and Harold Carroll's stinging lead guitar, which
he wields with more firepower than most rock bands. "Christian
Automobile" is one of the funniest and hippest gospel songs
ever recorded.
8. The Clancy Brothers and
Tommy Makem--Irish
Songs of Drinking and Rebellion (Legacy)
Along with the music of Woody
Guthrie, Charley Patton and Robert Johnson, these are the boisterous
songs that inspired the young Dylan. You can see why. As Patrick
Clancy says in the liner notes, "If you hear a lot of singing
from your neighbor's home at midnight, just know there is drinking
going on." And perhaps a little plotting against the man.
Is Whack Fol the Diddle!the Irish equivalent of A wop-lop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom?
9. Last Charge of the Light
Horse -- Getaway
Car
Energetic and subversive rock
with literate lyrics reporting from the ruins of the Bush economy
by a new Long Island band with Texas roots. If the Labor Movement
in this country had a lick of sense, it would make a video of
"Cartwheeling" and splash it before the nation during
halftime of the Super Bowl, before people nod off during the
Stones' geriatric set. Last Charge is propelled by a rumbling
father-and-son rhythm section and the speed-demon lead guitar
of Jean-Paul Vest, which just might remind you of the late Freddie
King.
10. John Lennon -- Acoustic
(Capitol)
Yoko Ono assembled this assortment
of outtakes, doodles and live performances a couple of years
ago. Lennon composed mostly on the piano, but the guitar pieces
here have the feel of music in the midst of creation and re-invention,
especially the chilling and raw version of "Cold Turkey."
This CD also contains the live version of "John Sinclair",
about the ordeal of the White Panther, Beat poet, blues historian/musician
and sometimes CounterPuncher, who in 1969 was sentenced to 10
years in prison for possessing two joints. Lennon's defense of
Sinclair prompted J. Edgar Hoover to open an FBI file on the
singer, which eventually swelled to hundreds of pages. One of
the best of the posthumous Lennon releases.
By the time Jeffrey St.
Clair was 18, he'd been 86'd from more bands than Dickey
Betts. Complaints can be registered to: sitka@comcast.net.
PHYLLIS
POLLACK
1. Ice Cube-The
Predator (Priority Records)
It is ironic that despite having
traveled from the CIA to NWA, to a solo career then on onto his
stint with the group Westside Connection, Ice Cube is arguably
more known for his film career than for his noteworthy rapping
and writing skills. Director/producer Oshea Jackson contributed
significant musical works before Hollywood beckoned. Sampling
The Isleys and The Moments, the track "It Was A Good Day,"
which is found on this album, is arguably is one of the best
songs Cube ever recorded. The Predator has been through so much
drama, that he can say "It Was A Good Day," merely
because he didn't have to use his AK. Ice Cube shows how it
is the simple things in life that bring content, although at
the end of the day, it always seems that trouble somehow always
looms ahead. On the album, he talks about issues that effect
the community, and assisted by Muggs, he explains why "We
had to Tear this Motherfucka Up."
2. Ice Cube--Lethal
Injection (Priority Records)
Politically charged and searing,
this scorching album delivers a platform in the form of 12 soulful
and gritty tracks. "What Can I Do?" is an admonishment
from Ice Cube, addressing the lack of opportunities that are
available to anyone who has a felony conviction on his criminal
record, or who has no education. During the song's intro, a voice
is heard, saying, "In any country, prison is where society
sends its failures, but in this country, society itself
is failing." Ice Cube, through his delivery on the
various tracks on Lethal Injection, warns the listener
not to fail himself.
3. Ice Cube--Amerikka's
Most Wanted (Priority Records)
Upon his bitter split from
the platinum-selling, seminal gangsta rap group, N.W.A., a sense
of competition pervaded between the two camps. It was within
this atmosphere that Cube brought Amerikkka's Most Wanted.
With N.W.A.'s producer, Dr. Dre, already established as the best
hip-hop producer on the West Coast, Cube made a brilliant move
for his debut album, in acquiring the production team that was
hailed as the best on the East Coast, the Bomb Squad, the stellar
unit that produced hits for Public Enemy. Comprised of Eric Sadler,
Hank and Keith Shocklee and Public Enemy's Chuck D and Flavor
Flav, with the Squad, this early East-West collaboration would
up the ante. "The Product" of the ghetto looks pessimistically
at the future and sees no hope, as a result of what he sees around
him, and from receiving no encouragement; expectations of him
run low, and therefore, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"My life is fucked, but it ain't my fault, 'cause I'm
the motherfucking product." This is really "The
Product," about whom Cube asks, "Am I the
nigga you love, or the one you love to hate?" This
is the challenge that Cube presents, as he makes the listener
wonder, who is it that is really the most ready to Kill
At Will?
4. Patti Smith--Horses
(Sony Legacy)
This 30-year anniversary double
disc set contains the original disc, and a live performance of
the tracks recorded in June of 2005. Coming in the midst of
more arguments about the punk rock poetess not being inducted
into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, one of the beauties of punk
was that it didn't need to be validated.
5. Ladysmith--Black
Mambazo (Heads Up Records)
The Grammy winning vocal ensemble
from South Africa delivers 13 tracks, including several duets
with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Zap Mama and Taj Mahal. Led
by Joseph Shambala, Apartheid is drowned out and destroyed by
powerful voices like these.
6. Disturbed--The
Sickness (Giant Records)
Edgy and raw, the sonic aggression
of Disturbed will chase away whatever ails you. Agitated rhythms
push and fight their way throughout this disc. Although "Down
With The Sickness" is their trademark song this album, the
entire disc is well worth the beat down. Aggravated riffs and
will not only make you go numb, they'll "Stupify."
Violent auditory fetishes never sounded so good. This heavy
metal platter, full of pleasures as it is, will help even the
undead wake up and shake it up.
7. Body Count--BodyCount
(Sire/Warner)
Before Hollywood snatched Ice-T
away, his heavy metal band, Body Count, helped piss off more
people than his streetwise raps (most notably Tipper Gore, who
was already on a self-inflated, and very personal mission against
Ice). The version that I'm listening to is no longer in print,
because it contains the song "Cop Killer." A second
version of the album was released in the midst of the furor over
the song, which replaced the track with a collaboration between
Ice-T and Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy, ironically titled
"Freedom Of Speech." Body Count no longer exists,
but police brutality does. Ice rocks the house with tracks like
"KKK Bitch," "Evil Dick" and "Mommas'Gotta
Die Tonight." This is message music at its best, and Tipper,
you can still go fuck yourself.
8. AC/DC--Back
In Black (ATCO Records)
Heavy metal Aussies shoot to
thrill on this album, sending up the message that "Rock
And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution." Angus Young teaches us
that you never know what's in a man's shorts, and the lesson
is well taken. Heeding the call of "Hells Bells,"
this album produced by "Mutt" Lange still rings as
hard as the day it was released. Let AC/DC put some love into
your stereo, and you can have a drink on me. Rockin' since 1973,
after the death of their late vocalist Bon Scott, this band is
as vicious as ever. High voltage doesn't come with much more
power than this.
9. Redbone--The
Essential Redbone (Sony)
Formed by Pat and Lolly Vegas,
these two Native American brothers from El Lay played on their
heritage when forming their image and music. Capturing Latin,
American Indian, and rock rhythms, the group hit their commercial
peak in the early and mid Seventies. Worth revisiting, the functified
"Witch Queen Of New Orleans" puts a spell on you, as
does "Maggie." Come and get your love with no reservations.
You can still hear a message from a drum.
10. Sly Stone--Anthology
(Epic Records)
Sylvester Stewart recorded
lyrically relevant music that still stands the test of time.
And lame presidential administrations He can still take you
higher, and will tell you that you can make it if you try. We
wanted him to stay, so he'd be around today, workin' in the studio,
but dammit, it just didn't happen that way. In Sly's world, "Everybody
Is A Star," and you can still get down, even if you just
"Sing A Simple Song." This is an album that takes
a "Stand." He says he wants to take us higher, and
after listening to this album, we believe him.
Phyllis Pollack lives in Los Angeles where she is
a publicist and music journalist. She can be reached through
her blog.
JEAN-PAUL
VEST
1. Peter Case -- Full
Service No Waiting (1998)
Great songs, especially the
opening track "Spell of Wheels," about a group of small-time
crooks leaving Kansas City at night, in the snow, and surviving
a scare on the road to Minnesota. Andrew Williams' intimate production
puts the band in your living room.
2. Radiohead -- Hail
to the Thief -(2003)
No one ever made music like
this. Can't get comfortable with it, and can't stop listening.
No idea what the lyrics are about, and it doesn't matter. "There
There" is a highlight.
3. Wilco -- A
Ghost Is Born (2004)
"When the Devil came,
he was not red -- he was chrome"
4. Bob Mould Band -- LiveDog98
A live overview of his solo
career, through "Last Dog and Pony Show." Songs that
were good on the original albums become great. "I Hate Alternative
Rock" pretty much sums it up. Loud and hard. Not for the
faint of heart.
5. Miracle Legion -- Drenched
(1995)
If you haven't yet discovered
Miracle Legion, now might be the time. "Drenched" was
their first album on the Morgan Creek label, and the slickness
of the recording suggests that the label and producer might not
have understood what made this band great. But "Snacks and
Candy," about the murder of Yusef Hawkins in the Bensonhurst
neighborhood of Brooklyn, is chilling. Sung in a gleeful rush,
Mark Mulcahy's narrative is from the point of view of one of
Hawkins' white attackers, which makes it all the more gut-wrenching.
6. Aimee Mann -- Lost
in Space (2002)
Eleven songs exploring addiction
from various viewpoints. "Hate the sinner but love the sin
-- let me be your heroin."
7. Scout -- This
Soft Life (2003)
Not as many great songs as
1990's "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time," but
"Come On & Go" and "Here Come the Waterworks"
show off Ashen Keilyn's voice and writing skills to full advantage.
8. Paul Westerberg -- Eventually
(1996)
"eyes like two hubcaps
at the bottom of the river" -- The guy can write great songs,
when he feels like it.
9. Jen Scaturro -- i
am jen "Broken" EP
I'm not generally a fan of
electronic music, but these home recordings are compelling. "Today
I learned something about myself," sings Scaturro, and then
lets the weight of that sink in. "Broken in All the Right
Places" is a light-hearted take on plastic surgery.
10. The Who -- The
Who By Numbers (1996 reissue)
Still great.
Jean-Paul Vest is the founder, singer and lead guitarist
for Last Charge of the Light Horse. Their new CD is Getaway
Car . Visit the Last Charge web
site or contact JP at jp
AT bluesandcastle.com.
LEON DESPAIR
1. Jessica Vale, The
Sex Album (Explicit)
Weird disco music composed/extracted
from "highly manipulated" field recordings of people
having sex. I guess the subjects knew they were being recorded.
People who think disco has something to do with sex might enjoy
Vale's project. Anyway, it's nothing like MY idea, which was
to get recordings of Clinton playing sax, Nixon and Truman banging
away on piano, and Pope John Paul II fumbling at the guitar,
and play along with them, at them, and against them, till we
get a few things undone.
2. Cater the Unstoppable
Sex Machine, 1992: The
Love Album (Capitol)
Where else are you gonna hear
such tunes as "Only Living Boy in New Cross" and "Is
Wrestling Fixed?"
3. Enya, Amarantine
(Reprise/WEA)
All the proof anyone needs
that Enya is the evil anti-Madonna. It's amazing how much she
sounds like her blond nemesis! Take the Material Girl out of
the disco, fill her full of newage (rhymes with brewage), stick
her in a long red dress that makes her look like some new insect,
and this is what you get. Definitely not cut on the bias. I was
hoping she'd come out in front of a band this time. But it's
selling faster than the insurgency in Iraq is growing, and I'll
probably end up liking it in spite of myself. What I really want
from the creator of "enyanomics," who has sold an average
of over 10,000 CDs per day since 1988, is half an hour to talk
gear with her.
4. Bill Neely, Texas
Law and Justice (Arhoolie)
Unlike "contemporary Christian"
singers, Bill Neely comes right out and warns you fair and square
about "Satan's Burning Hell," and informs you kindly
that you'll find "No Pockets In A Shroud" when it's
"Sun Setting Time In Your Life." And you thought Steve
Earle was radical!
5. Johnny Hartman, I
Just Dropped By To Say Hello (Grp)
One of the top male vocal jazz
albums of all time. When Hartman sang a ballad, it stayed sung.
For one thing, he never tried to "sound jazzy," thank
heavens. Great support from Illinois Jacquet, playing sax as
though the instrument were invented in a dream.
6. Archie Roach, Jamu
Dreaming (Hightone)
The legendary Australian aboriginal
singer-songwriter was in fine voice on this CD. "Walking
Into Doors" is the most powerful man-to-man plea for an
end to male violence against women that I've ever heard. "She's
sick and tired of walking into doors," and it ain't a woman's
job to stop this crap, mate. For that you need to go find a man.
7. Bad Livers, Dust
On The Bible (Quarter Stick)
Jewish bassman Mark Rubin and
his cow-town punkabilly bluegrass pardners go forth and launch
a raid on unsuspecting church folk. It started me to wondering,
how many people have recorded "Workin' On A Building"
now? Everybody from Elvis to the Cowboy Junkies to the Swan Silvertones
and the Johnson Mountain Boys.
8. Red Clay Ramblers, It
Ain't Right (Flying Fish)
"I don't want to sing
in Satan's choir" (a fine old gospel drinking song) and
the stupendous "Regions of Rain" (where "some
cop's on my ass over one lousy joint" and "maybe a
bribe under cover of night will buy me a flight out of here")
make this a must-have.
9. Lennie Tristano, Concert
in Copenhagen (Orchard)
Solo performance by an under-rated
pianist who was playing "free" jazz a decade before
Ornette Coleman.
10. Chet Baker and Stan
Getz, The
Stockholm Concerts (Polygram)
My favorite Chet Baker (non-vocal)
recording. The best cuts from this three-CD set are available
on a single CD called "Line For Lyons," if you can
find it.
Leon Despair can be reached at leondespair
[AT] gmail [DOT] com.
|
Coming in the Fall
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher
Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
WHAT'S
INSIDE
Grand
Theft Pentagon:
Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror
by Jeffrey St. Clair
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