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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! Hillary Clinton's Fatal Vices Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair dissect HRC in her White House years and conclude their series on the woman who may be the next president. PLUS Eva Liddell on the man who really set the course of the Bush presidency PLUS Andy Worthington on the battle for the rights of the Guantanamo detainees PLUS Debbie Nathan on what the border crackdown has done to the women crossing the Rio Grande. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair

Today's Stories September 3, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Brits Flee from Basra September 1 / 2, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Entrapment Snares Larry Craig Andy Worthington Britain's Guantánamo Saul Landau The Tragic Ordeal of the Cuban Five David Keen An Occident Waiting to Happen: Intellectuals and the War on Terror Patrick Cockburn The Collapse of Iraq's Health Care Services Diana Johnstone Back in Uncle Sam's Pocket George Longstreth, MD & Karen Longstreth, RN The Sorrows of Occupation: Life in the West Bank Linda M. Woolf A Sad Day for Psychologists--a Sadder Day for Human Rights Ralph Nader Wrapping the World with Advertising Fred Gardner The Trial of Mollie Fry, MD Ben Tripp Enquiry in America Today David Michael Green American Indigestion: Why Bush Governs from the Gut Missy Comley Beattie Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: What the GOP Hasn't Learned About Tolerance Michael Dickinson Who's Cheating: Remembering Princess Diana Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Larry Craig to Wesley Clark Ron Jacobs A Sports Nation of Millions Poets' Basement Buknatski, Davies and Mickey Z Website of the Weekend On the Road with Jack Kerouac and Steve Allen   August 31, 2007 Jeff Gibbs Why I Am Not Going to the Protest Paul Craig Roberts The War Criminal in the Living Room Ray McGovern Do We Have the Courage to Stop War with Iran? Robert Weissman The Benchmarks Iraq is Missing Matt Vidal Subprime Lending and Shady Mortgages Robin Mittenthal The Biofuels Trap Chris Kutalik Auto Makers Push Health Care Trust Solution for Industry in Crisis Richard Forno Watching Freedom's Watch Binoy Kampmark Dianified Dave Zirin Kenneth Foster Lives Website of the Day Free the Jena 6   August 30, 2007 Gary Leupp Larry Craig on the Seat John Ross Dead Forest Defenders Anthony DiMaggio Arabic as a Terrorist Language: the Right-Wing Assault on the Gibran Academy Jordan Flaherty Racism and Criminal Justice in New Orleans Michael Donnelly The Sierra Club Greenwashes Al Gore (and Desecrates John Muir) Russell Mokhiber Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is for Fighting Dennis Brutus and Patrick Bond Global Financial Apartheid William S. Lind The Truth Tellers Martha Rosenberg They Call Him Dr. Cruel Jeff Leys / Brian Terrell Seasons of Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project Website of the Day Bragg: "Old Clash Fan Fight Song" August 29, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Maliki and The Mass Shia Pilgrimage to Kerbala Winslow T. Wheeler The Costs of the Afghanistan War David Rosen The GOP's Outed All-Stars: The Forced Freeing of Gay Men from the Republican Closet Dave Zirin Confronting Katrina Paul Craig Roberts More Shame, More Sorrow Diane Farsetta Christie Todd Whitman's Nuclear Spinning Wheel Ben Davis Who Won't Stand Up for Kenneth Foster?: Charles Rangel, For One Alan Farago The Housing Crisis and the Environment Jenna Orkin Echoes of 9/11: Another Fire at Ground Zero Don Monkerud The Vanishing American Vacation Richard Nasser Surfing Gaza: More Uplifting News from NPR Website of the Day Don't Sleep on the Struggle   August 28, 2007 Uri Avnery The Language of Force Bill Quigley Katrina, Two Years Later Joshua Frank The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains China Hand "I am Alden Pyle:" Bush's Vietnam Fantasy Firmin DeBrabander Drug Wars: From Afghanistan to Baltimore Charles Peña Nuclear Fear Factor Andy Worthington Good Riddance, Gonzales Ramzy Baroud Abbas and the Abyss Anthony Papa Roger Stone's New Patsy Ashley Smith Drawing the Line at Kennebunkport Website of the Day B is for Bomb August 27, 2007 Jorge Mariscal The General Reports Bill Christison Why the US and Israel Should Lose Middle East Wars Manuel Garcia, Jr. 911 Emergency! Calling Robert Fisk!: You are Now Entering a Black Hole Anthony DiMaggio Chronicle of a Coup Foretold?: Bush, al-Maliki and the Press Bruce A. Roth India and the New Nuclear Era John Walsh Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Roadshow, Part 2 Dave Lindorff Gonzo's Gone Ron Jacobs Taking It to the Streets Binoy Kampmark Poshed Up: Why the Beckhams Should Go Back to Brighty Russell D. Hoffman My Favorite Scientist: John Gofman, Bane of the Nuclear Industry Website of the Day George W. Told the Nation   August 25 / 26, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Don't Carpool with Nouri al-Maliki James Petras The Great Financial Crisis Jeffrey Buchanan / Chris Kromm Where Did the Katrina Money Go? Marjorie Cohn Turning Iraq into Vietnam Rev. William E. Alberts Jesus, the Theological Prisoner of Christianity Robert Fantina Ari Fleischer, Freedom Watch and the Pro-War Lobbyists Brian Concannon Whitewashing the History of Abolition Ralph Nader What Do They Have to Hide? Laura Carlsen Extending NAFTA's Reach Fred Gardner Notes from Hempfest David Michael Green History, the Last Refuge of Scoundrels Stephen Soldz Why Mary Pipher Returned Her APA Award Mike Ferner Combatants for Peace: Former Enemies Find New Way Forward Paul Krassner Mort Sahl's Punchline Ben Tripp Resistance is Impossible--But Not Futile Missy Beattie President Druzilla Website of the Weekend Blue Print for Gulf Renewal   August 24, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts A Hegemonic Hubris Greg Moses A Cruel and Unusual Excuse William Schroder Bush, Vietnam and Iraq Alan Farago The Pain of Paper Millionaires Jackie Corr Uncle Ben Bernacke and the Nanny State Jeff Ballinger Naomi Klein and the Path Not Taken Bill Quigley Pere Jean-Juste Comes Home Dave Zirin Inching Toward Insanity Richard Rhames Deaver and the Making of Reagan Ryan Haygood How Newark Can Mend Website of the Day Lindorff's Iraq Rag   August 23, 2007 Kathy Kelly We Shouldn't be Causing This P. Sainath Meeting the Mahatma Ron Jacobs Bush, Vietnam and 14 More GIs Dead Christopher Brauchli Beyond Kafka: Mistakes, Soreheads and Eavesdropping D.K. Wilson When Sports Journalists Talk Race Joshua Frank The Weeds of Willapa Bay Dan Bacher Schwarzenegger's True Lies About Dams and Canals Brenda Norrell Bush's House of Snakes: Indians, Border Biometrics and Migrating Corporations John Wright The Ongoing Tragedy of Afghanistan David Vest Elvis and Racism, Round 2 Website of the Day Urgent Plea: the Black Agenda Report Needs Your Help!   August 22, 2007 Norman Finkelstein Remembering Raul Hilberg Marc Levy Sleepless in Iraq Lawrence R. Velvel When Courts Bow Down to Secrecy Ray McGovern Bush's Iran War Drums Beating Louder Norman Solomon How to Survive at the Pentagon on $2 Billion a Day John Walsh Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Road Show Michael Dickinson Little Brother is Watching You William S. Lind Operation Kabuki?: the Credibility of David Petraeus Bill Hatch A Short Walk into the Valley of Death Kenneth E. Foster and John Joe Amador How We Will Protest Our Executions David Vest Predictable Parallels: CNN and PBS Website of the Day The Once and Future Steve Perry August 21, 2007 Saul Landau The FBI's New Power Alan Farago Sand Houses and Missing Beaches John Stauber Iraq: the Gift that Keeps on Bleeding Phillip Rizk Gaza and the Jordanian Option Debbie Nathan Giuliani's Garden District Binoy Kampmark The Art of Sinning Martha Rosenberg The Fastow Economy Sunsara Taylor Back to School During Wartime Website of the Day Coffee with the Troops   August 20, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Padilla Jury Opens Pandora's Box Uri Avnery Stumbling Toward Another War Rannie Amiri Nasrallah's Surprise: a Warning from Beirut's No Bluff Zone John Ross The Fine Art of Bad Elections Harvey Wasserman The Senate's Radioactive Rip-Off Robert Billyard Canada's Disgrace: the Cases of Maher Arar and Omar Khadr Dave Lindorff Excuse Us, Nancy Pelosi James Rothenberg Why Your Vote Will Never Matter David "DC" Larson To Smear a King Website of the Day Bird Cinema August 18 / 19, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Exit Karl Rove, Everyone's Useful Demon Saul Landau The FBI in War and Peace Ralph Nader Greed and Folly on Wall Street Patrick Cockburn A Bloody Week in Iraq Robert Fantina Cannon Fodder: Beau Biden and other "Deployable Assets" Robert S. Eshelman Azar's Story: an Iraqi Refugee Living in Syria P. Sainath The Last Battle of Laxmi Panda Dave Lindorff Tossing Fuel on a Fire: US Military Aid to Israel Anthony DiMaggio Iraq, Iran & the Vanishing Context in American News Fred Gardner The Politics of Schizophrenia Ron Jacobs The Virtues of Resistance Tom Turnipseed War Profiteering and Corruption: From Lexington, S.C. to the White House Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: Special Preachers, Priests and Clerics Edition! Ben Tripp I'm So Screwed Andrew Wimmer Living With Grief Nancy Oden Where Inmates Can Grow for Free N.D. Jayaprakash India Backtracks on Disarmament Rick Smith Reflections on Cuba: an Interview with Doug Morris Missy Beattie The Suicide Bomber Poets' Basement Engel, Ford, Orloski and McLellan Website of the Weekend Imperial Storm Troopers in Action August 17, 2007 Joanne Mariner Terrorizing Social Protest Paul Craig Roberts China is not the Problem Shepherd Bliss Returning to the Scene of the Crime: Chile, 30 Years Later Dave Lindorff Convicting Padilla: Bad News for All Americans John Muthyala The Water and the Road: Katrina, Poverty and the American Dream Patrick Cockburn Deepening Divsions in Iraq Sherwood Ross Military Interrogators are Posing as Lawyers at Gitmo Phil Doe The Old West Moves East: the Political Science of Colorado River Water David Michael Green Karl Rove and the Damage Done Website of the Day Gorilla Slaughter: a Personal Account August 16, 2007 Jonathan Cook The Second Lebanon War, a Year Later Christopher Brauchli Babes in Toxic Toyland Norman Solomon Backspin for War Lee Sustar / Orlando Sepuldeva Victory on the Picket Line: How Immigrant Workers Won Their Strike Against Cygnus George Bisharat Boycott Movement Targets Israel Binoy Kampmark Tasteless: Gordon Ramsey and the Death of Gastronomy Evelyn Pringle Protection Racket?: the FDA and Avandia Hugo Blanco The Epic Struggle of Indigenous Andean / Amazonian Website of the Day Burning Man: the Field Recordings         Subscribe Online

September 3, 2007 Boom and Bust in the Housing Market Redefining the American Dream By MATT REICHEL Last Thursday, President Bush unveiled new plans to help stem the current financial crisis. His objective is to give sufficient help do delinquent borrowers without providing a complete "bail out," while also assuring that home ownership would remain "at the center of the American Dream." The problem is that home ownership represents an extreme commodity fetish that is rapidly driving the economy into the tank. The current crisis is far more serious than the busting of the tech sector seven years ago because it goes to the core of what makes capitalism work: confidence in the market. Investment banks and lenders have lost confidence in the American debt system because Adjustable Rate Mortgages were dished out with reckless abandon to thousands of unqualified applicants over a five-year span that coincided with the so-called "housing boom." Many economists will come to the defense of the American juggernaut, and note that recently released growth indicators have the economy chugging along at a greater than 4% clip in the second trimester of 2007. The expected 3.4% rating was exceeded largely thanks to efforts to shorten up trade in-balance in the commercial sector, with exports going up 7.6% and imports going down 3.2%. This has opened up enough capital for enterprises to increase investment by 11.1%. Of course, growth is not so awesome a measure of human well-being. In fact, it is largely decided by demand and consumption of goods and services, so that, if anything, high growth confirms that a society is materialistic more so than "well off." It is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts: countries with an assured degree of wealth and material desire will continue to grow because they continue to desire to show off their wealth. This has an entire society focused on the upward slope: the stocks go up, the GNP goes up, and we all go up!!! In fact, Americans are not well off, and haven't been well off since the destruction of all forms of social democracy in the country. The poverty rate remains above 12%, dwarfing those of all of the major Western European powers. Meanwhile, 47 million Americans, about 18%, are without health insurance. And, as Michael Moore elegantly demonstrated, the other 82% are grossly under-insured. Furthermore, as I have seen during my summer holiday to visit family and friends, the country is not culturally well off. After one has spent enough time in Europe, it becomes difficult to return home. One is transported into a culture of capitalistic simplicities, where people have entire telephone conversations about their new car and flat-screen televisions. They carry on about their rich and satisfied life, as if they were all little princes and princesses spattered throughout the empire, believing themselves to be gorgeous in spite of their sub-par attire and bloated belly. Even Johnny Depp went running, raising his family in southern France alongside Belle pop star Vanessa Paradis. His slam, not quite stated so elegantly, went as thus: "America is dumb, is something like a dumb puppy that has big teeth - that can bite and hurt you, aggressive . . . like it's a kind a toy - a broken toy maybe. Investigate a little bit, check it out, get this feeling and then get out." This cuts to the important theme of the aggressive nature of Americans: a constructive criticism offered by many of the most respectful European intellectuals who have spent time in the states. It's as if the critics of the aggressive and cocky America, once plentiful in earlier epochs, have been locked up and penned somewhere. Perhaps they are just afraid to critique out of fear of sounding anti-American in a time of "national emergency." Or maybe they find it taboo to lash out at the great American Dream. I, for one, find it revealing that the president has spoken of protecting the "American Dream of home ownership." This is a moment of truth for the empire, as even the emperor has admitted that the American dream has nothing to do with liberty and justice. And, of course, it would be tough for him to toot the horn of these greater ideals during a summer in which they were jubilantly signed away by congress, who has invited the Gestapo into our private phone conversations and emails. And sure my language can be shunned as irrationally strong, but I have spent years away only to recently return to experience first hand the horrible state of affairs in the Land of the Free. People are paranoid: a paranoia fed by irrational illusions of grandeur, wherein every last citizen finds him and herself so important that they most certainly will be the next attacked. This is despite the fact that plenty of innocent Americans are attacked everyday: 4,000 troops have come back in body-bags, over 2 million Americans are sitting behind bars as I type, and nearly 300 million together are made to actively participate in the destruction of the planet through an irrational dependence on the automobile. Of all the reasons to be paranoid in this country, from overly aggressive cops, to lack of social protections, to a congress ready to unleash the hounds on its own citizens, people are fearful of Arabs blowing up buildings. They got two of our buildings, and we got them back with two of their countries. Many more buildings in the U.S. will rest vacant or see the wrecking ball as the foreclosures continue to mount. Eventually, banks will tighten mortgage-lending practices, perhaps requiring that applicants have no outstanding student debt: a requirement that would preclude, what, 99.9% of Americans? As the defaults continue to pour in and the wrangling over asset value terrorizes international markets, the next great victim will be the almighty dollar. Already at record lows, the American currency will lose another half of its value in the next year, thus deepening the stock market crisis and trashing the value of American goods and services. Then, one great thing will change. Americans will see what the rest of the world has already perceived for years: they are living in a "third world country." The terminology is not so nice, but it was American economic and political leaders who invented the phraseology, so I find it quite appropriate in this case. In my mind, "first world countries" are those that have developed the economic and social sophistication to provide all of their citizens with health care and a free system of high quality education. If you haven't developed these two great social institutions, you have no right to make claims to first world grandeur. Americans have made this claim because of their cute Hollywood pizzazz that has left the impression that great wealth lingers here. Surely, there is wealth to be found, but the "American dream" has consistently prevented it from enriching the entire populace. So when George W Bush calls for the protection of the American dream in his vain effort to save the American economy, the left should reply by re-defining the American dream. I think there is a left here somewhere hidden behind a rock. I used to know some people, usually on the payroll of an organization getting the bulk of its funding from folks like the Macarthur foundation. Perhaps they have been so chained by the orthodoxy of the not-for-profit left that they forgot about how to think for themselves and take a stand for the America they love. Take a Stand for Mark Twain's America, Eugene Debs' America, Albert Parsons' America, Mario Savos' America, Kurt Vonnegut's America, Upton Sinclair's America, and Martin Luther King Jr's America! Let's start talking about the Other American Dream: the dream of providing life, liberty and happiness for all, even if a big suburban abode can't be part of the equation. Matt Reichel is an American English teacher and diplomacy student living in Paris. He can be reached at: reichel_matt@yahoo.fr Your Ad Here

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