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How a Tiny Alaskan Indian Tribe Got Billions in Pentagon Contracts by Jeffrey St. Clair; Dems and Dives by Alexander Cockburn; Spooky Grants: More on the CIA's Recruitment of Campus Professors by David Price. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print edition of CounterPunch. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories April 6, 2005 Cindy Ellen
Hill April 5, 2005 Jim Connolly Paul Craig
Roberts Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Dan Smith Mark Engler Richard Oxman Greg Moses Website of the Day
April 4, 2005 Kevin Zeese Paul Craig Roberts Larry Birns
/ Sarah Schaffer Karyn Strickler Joshua Frank Michael Dickinson Surendra R.
Devkota Derrick O'Keefe Uri Avnery Website of the Day
April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Stan Goff John Ross Saul Landau Robert Creeley Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Greg Moses Fran Quigley Kurt Nimmo Nicole Colson Chris Genovali Alan Farago Lawrence Reichard Ben Tripp Avantika Regmi Lee Sustar Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Rahul Mahajan Charlie Cray
/ Jim Vallette Dave Lindorff Zeynep Toufe Suzan Mazur Michael Dickinson Stan Cox Ra Ravishankar Daniel Wolff
March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Ron Jacobs Tariq Ali Michael Dickinson Kanak Mani
Dixit Mitchell Zimmerman Xuan-Trang
Ho Dave Zirin Joe Bageant Jeff Halper Website of
the Day
March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Ralph Nader
/ Kevin Zeese Chase Madar Toni Solo Jackie Corr Ahmad Faruqui Mike Roselle Jude Wanniski Francis A.
Boyle Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of
the Day
March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Gary Leupp Sonia Cardenas Stew Albert Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Carl G. Estabrook
March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sonali Kolhatkar Sasha Kramer Kevin Zeese Tom Stephens Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Newton Garver Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp Peter Linebaugh Marc Robert Laura Carlsen Saul Landau
/ Puja Patel Dave Foreman Fred Gardner Jennifer Matsui Dave Lindorff Dharma Adhikari Joshua Frank Patrick Barr Christopher
Brauchli Ramzy Baroud Jackie Corr Ben Tripp Dr. Susan Block Mickey Z. Justin Taylor Richard Joseph Poets' Basement
March 25, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons Yoshie Furuhashi Pat Williams Mark Engler Rahul Mahajan Lance Selfa Ralph Nader John R. Llewellyn Jo Guldi
March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank Talli Nauman Martin Espada Dave Lindorff Elaine Cassel Jack McCarthy Jack Random Barbara Ferguson Suzan Mazur Dorreen Yellow Bird Andrew Wimmer
and Mark Chmiel
Patrick Bond Mike Whitney Becky White Michael Donnelly Niranjan Ramakrishnan Ashley Smith David Swanson Derrick O'Keefe Paul A. Moore Dalton Walker Patrick Cockburn
March 22, 2005 William Blum Jim Vallette Greg Moses John Farley Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Dave Lindorff James Petras
March 21, 2005 John Walsh Werther Mike Stark David Swanson James T. Phillips Mike Ferner Robert Jensen Paul Craig
Roberts Stew Albert Website of
the Day
March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Tom Reeves Saul Landau Alan Maass Ron Jacobs David Green John Blair Steve Greenfield Ben Tripp Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Sarah Schaffer Warren Hastings Poets' Basement
March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin Richard Thieme John Walsh David Swanson Ben Terrall David Boyle Dorreen Yellow Bird Mokhiber /
Weissman Greg Moses Website of
the Day
March 17, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Bill Quigley Brian Cloughley Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Dave Lindorff Jude Wanniski Alexander Billet John Ross Website of the Day
March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader William Cook Kevin Zeese Jackie Corr Alan Maass David R. Kolker Cindy Ellen
Hill Paul Craig
Roberts
March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Hadas Their
/ Katrina Yeaw Alison Weir Matt Koehler Evelyn Pringle Harry Browne
March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader David Miller Stan Cox Mike Roselle David Swanson Simona Sharoni Dave Lindorff Dorreen Yellow Bird Tom Barry Website of the Day
March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price Noam Chomsky Laura Carlsen Stan Goff Valentina Nicoli Michael Leonardi Saul Landau
/ Sarah Anderson Joe Bageant Manuel García,
Jr. Greg Moses James J. Brittain Ben Tripp Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Walter Brasch Ramzy Baroud Christopher
Brauchli Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Richard Oxman Poets' Basement
March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff William James
Martin Muqtedar Khan Kathryn Ledebur Mike Whitney Dave Zirin Website of the Day
March 10, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith Larry Birns Michael Donnelly Luis Gomez Jackie Corr Uri Avnery Website of the Day
March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Ward Churchill Robert Fisk Bernice Powell Jackson Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Michael Donnelly James Reiss Vijay Prashad
March 8, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Kurt Nimmo Suzan Mazur Evelyn Pringle Giuliana Sgrena Elaine Cassel
March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Brian Cloughley John Chuckman Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Fred Gardner Richard Neville Uri Avnery
March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Tom Reeves Jenna Orkin Tom Barry Joshua Frank Moshe Adler Jane Stillwater Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir Christopher
Brauchli John Pilger Raúl
Zibechi David Krieger Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Bhishma Karki Joseph Pietri Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson
March 3, 2005 Pat Williams Brian Cloughley Dave Lindorff Amira Hass Greg Moses Lynne Landes Nelson P. Valdés John Ross
March 2, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Mike Roselle M. Junaid Alam Suzan Mazur Jackson Thoreau Michael Donnelly Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
March 1, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons David Lindorff Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders Ron Jacobs Tanya Garcia Joseph Pietri Kona Lowell Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Subcomandante
Marcos Norman Finkelstein Steve Niva Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams Steve
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April 6, 2005 The Debt Slaves of AmericaWhy the Media Can't Read the Bankruptcy BillBy DAVID SWANSON Washington, DC The most remarkable thing about the bankruptcy bill (which has now been postponed in the House until next week) is something that the corporate media is incapable of reporting on and probably in some cases incapable of even recognizing. Namely, this bill offers an ideal test for the Democrats. Most bills contain some redeeming features, some elements that are good for people, not just good for corporate profits. With most bills, a case can be made, however contorted and unconvincing, that it's actually worth voting for, or that it's better than some even worse alternative. Those arguments are almost impossible here, because several dozen amendments aimed at making the bill into something less than an outright atrocity have been voted down. In addition, the Democrats on the House Judiciary have laid out for their colleagues the case against this bill in a 54-page dissent that was leaked to Raw Story. This bill allows us to answer the question: "What if there were a bill that served purely and clearly corporate greed while damaging millions of non-wealthy Americans, would the Democratic Party stand against it? Would the Democratic leadership fight it? Would all members of this purportedly distinct political party vote for people over profits?" In the Senate, the answer is clearly no. In the House, things are uncertain. The vote is scheduled for next week. The corporate media is incapable of asking the question, because it is hampered by something called "balance." Balance means that for every proposal, there are two opposing claims, never one and never three, and that the two claims are equally meritorious, although the claim from the corporate side is a little more equal than the other one. So, a reporter who is willing to report as fact, as actual reporting with the reporter's name behind it, that the number of bankruptcy filings has increased, is unwilling to report on why those filings have increased. Instead, a reporter presents us with two views. The first, which is generally treated more respectfully, is that there is massive fraud underway, that people are using bankruptcy to get out of paying for their reckless shopping sprees, for their personal failures to practice the sort of noble restraint in their lives exhibited by Bill Bennett or Rush Limbaugh. The second, which is generally characterized as a "claim" or a "contention" in opposition to so-called "reform," is that the vast majority of bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses, job loss, divorce, or death in the family, and that bankruptcy is clearly a last resort for almost all who enter it, many of whom have prior to filing bankruptcy gone without medicine, utilities, or food. For links to studies on these matters, go to www.debtslavery.org and click on "Links." The reason that the media should not present these two viewpoints in a fair and balanced manner is that the first one has no evidence to support it, whereas the second does. The most extreme claim for fraud that I've seen is 10 percent. But apparently there are no records from the FBI or the IRS to back that up. The American Bankruptcy Institute claims that at most 3 percent of filers get out of paying any debts that they actually could have paid. But let's assume for the sake of argument that 10 percent of bankruptcies are complete scams. In fact, let's double it. Let's say 20 percent. And let's ignore the glaring fact that the most blatant scams, involving loopholes for millionaires and corporations are maintained in this bill. Let's pay no attention to the asset protection trusts and unlimited homestead exemptions and cross-country corporate judge shopping and ability to deprive employees of their investments and retirement, and other unpleasantries behind the curtain. Let's set all of that aside. Who in their right mind writes a bill that drastically reshapes a legal system for everyone involved and designs it around 20 percent of the cases? And who in their right mind writes an article about that and doesn't question it? This bill does not, as media consumers might be forgiven for imagining, create a means test that will catch the 3 percent who cheat and present no problems for the other 97 percent. Currently there is a means test in the form of decisions by judges who look at all the information, including actual income and expenses. This bill would put in place a means test that does not look at actual numbers. It would calculate expenses based on standard government figures even if your rent is much more than what the government says rent should cost. It would base income on the past six months even if your income has dropped off. This bill would impose heavy legal costs and would require people to purchase counseling and if necessary travel great distances to get to it. No longer will cars be paid back at actual value, but rather at the full value of the loan. And judges will be able to make no distinctions between someone whose child has developed diabetes and someone who has gone on a shopping spree. Many people will be unable to file under Chapter 7 and make a difficult new start. They will be placed on long-term payment plans under Chapter 13. They will more often lose their homes. Some of the money from their child support payments will go first to creditors. But perhaps the best measure of this bill is what it does not do. It does not do any of the things that were proposed in amendments rejected in the Senate or in the House Judiciary Committee. These include amendments to, among many other thing:
The media has done a better job on this issue than on most. As usual, it's been most straight-forward in opinion columns and less so in most news articles. Even so, there have been some articles on studies of medical bankruptcies and even of the funding of congressional campaigns by credit card companies, auto loan companies, etc. I get the impression that some editors and reporters have too much decency to go where 18 Democrats and one Independent in the Senate were willing to. But the media has, as always, given us too much horse race and not enough facilitation of citizen involvement, predicting a near certain passage of the bill in the House, and praising the Republicans for being winners, even when acknowledging that their bill will hurt millions of people. Here's how Newsweek summed things up:
DebtSlavery.org is working to change this way of thinking. We've assembled a coalition during the past week to work, against all odds, to defeat the bill. The groups lobbying against it include Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America (pdamerica.org), AFL-CIO (aflcio.org), People's Email Network (usalone.com), National Community Reinvestment Coalition (ncrc.org), Democracy Week (democracyweek.org), Politology (politology.us), National Organization for Women (now.org), The Nation (nation.org), Black Commentator (blackcommentator.com), Public Citizen (citizen.org), Center for American Progress (americanprogress.org), Billionaires for Bush (billionairesforbush.com), and more. See the list at www.debtslavery.org These organizations have been encouraging their members to Email, phone, and fax Congress. Already, over 10,000 Emails have been sent through the Democrats.com and People's Email Network alone, plus thousands more from PDA. With lots more coming from coalition partners, at least 100,000 Emails are expected to be sent today and tomorrow. Targeting Democrats who have expressed support for the bill, members of the DebtSlavery.org coalition plan to hold rallies in protest at district congressional offices. Rallies, most of them led by Progressive Democrats of America, are planned for Wednesday in several states. For an up-to-date expanding list of these events, see www.debtslavery.org David Swanson is a board member of Progressive Democrats
of America.
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