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February
6, 2002
David
Vest
The
Enron Creature
February
5, 2002
Norman
Madarasz
Dispatch
from Pôrto Alegre
Tom Malinowski
What
to do with
Our "Detainees"?
Dita Sari
Why
I Rejected the
Reebok Human Rights Award
February
4, 2002
Eric Miller/Beth
Daley
Five
Weapons Systems
That Bilk the Taxpayers
Kenneth
Roth
Dear
Condoleezza,
You've Misstated the
Geneva Convention
Robert
Jensen
The
Occupation Must End
Shahid
Alam
How
Different Are
Islamic Societies?
David
Vest
Everybody
Says I Loathe You
John Chuckman
American
Politics of Grief
February
3, 2002
Zoltan
Grossman
War
and New Military Bases
February
2, 2002
Francis
Schor
Carlucci's
Strange Career
February
1, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
The
Great Ashcroft Cover Up
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
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CounterPunch
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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February 6,
2002
War Against "Axis of Evil"
Is a
Cover for Corporate Corruption
By Tom Turnipseed
In his State of the Union address, George W. Bush
played sheriff to a world bedeviled by evil-doers and outlaw
nations. It was a cunning cover for the unfolding saga of consummate
corporate corruption of American politics, exemplified by Enron's
evil influence in the White House and Congress. The U.S. Chief
Executive turned global-sheriff-in-chief, aroused waves of standing
ovations from dutiful deputies in a Congress compromised by
campaign contributions and cozy connections with Enron and Arthur
Andersen. Both sides of the aisle are wary of aftershocks from
time-bombs of Enron-like corporate wrong-doing that could explode
if finger-pointing hearings are held by members of the House
and Senate. Along with similarly situated corporations and the
White House, many ranking members of Congress are racing to
distance themselves from the ethical evil of Enron.
According to the N.Y Times on February
3, 2002, some of the members of Congress-"Democrats and
Republicans alike"--- "professing moral outrage over
Enron's collapse" while investigating the causes of the
Enron/Arthur Andersen scandal "may need to look no further
than the mirror". The Times reported that corporate lobbyists
armed with enormous amounts of campaign contributions, mainly
from the accounting industry, used these newly outraged investigators
in Congress to successfully push through legislation in 1995
that shielded companies--- like Enron---- and their accountants---like
Arthur Andersen-from investor lawsuits. These same senior member
of Congress, now "outraged" by the $60 billion loss
to investors from the Enron/Arthur Andersen scam, also helped
defeat a legislative proposal in 2000 that would have outlawed
the practice of accounting firms being both consultants and
auditors for the same corporation as was the case with Enron/Arthur
Andersen. A couple of these "outraged" foxes who are
now investigating who ate up the hens they were guarding for
"the people" are Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana who
received $289,743 from the accounting industry since 1989 and
Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut who took $505,453 since'89.
At the behest of the accounting industry, Dodd fought for the
controversial "tort reform" legislation of 1995 that
ended joint and several liability for corporate wrongdoing while
he was Chairman of the Democratic Party. Also playing the cynical
game was President Clinton who took $450,020 from the accounting
industry since '89, but much more from the trial lawyers who
opposed the Gingrich-pushed tort reform measure. So Clinton
vetoed the legislation, while the chairman of his party rounded
up the necessary votes to successfully override Clinton's veto.
Incumbent Congressmen have bi-partisan
fear of extended media coverage of their campaign contributions
and cozy corporate connections that involve a revolving door
between corporate America and their Congressional staff members.
They have a gnawing apprehension that a lengthy look at their
corporate contributions and connections would make it clear
to everyone that they try to please the monied interests who
pay them the most.. These pompous, paid-for incumbents do not
really give a damn about everyday, working class citizens who
try to obey the laws and play by the rules.
Offering cover to a corrupted Congress,
high sheriff Bush's call for a never-ending war against evil
ones, everywhere, received frequent and thunderous applause
from its members. Bush's Texas drawl and country slick sales
pitch for "war" offers the perfect cover for the rich
and powerful members of Congress who desperately need a diversion
from the Enron environment that was facilitated by their own
corporate connections. Sheriff Bush declared an endless man-hunt
and state of war against terrorism and described Iraq, Iran
and North Korea as an "axis of evil". His war talk
and appeal for enormous increases in military spending drew
numerous, bi-partisan standing ovations from Senators and Congressmen.
Defense spending is deviously divided up and spread out among
their states and districts to generate a pork barrel momentum
for military expenditures. So Bush's saber rattling created
an unsettling unanimity for such war making and a continuance
of the troubling tradition of go-it-alone U.S. military adventures
where partisanship ends at the "water's edge". It
is troubling, narrow nationalism because everyone in the U.S.
has ancestors who came from across the waters, including Native
Americans. The United States' military/defense corporate complex
is the most powerful and sophisticated weapons industry in history
and Sheriff Bush's message of fear and retaliation against terrorism
and an "axis of evil" nations helps create a willing
market for their deadly products. The incumbents in Congress
will either appropriate the money to pay for the killing tools
from us taxpayers or run a bigger deficit to do so.
Sheriff Bush's perpetual call-to-arms
got very mixed reviews from our European Allies at NATO and
the World Economic Forum in New York. At a global security conference
at NATO with U.S. officials threatening to go-it-alone against
Iraq, a British member of Parliament questioned if Washington
would move against Iraq without support from Europe, Egypt
and Russia and "would it matter?" A German Legislator
said, "It can't be that you act on your own and we trot
along afterwards", and another said that unilateral action
by the United States would cause huge problems. At the Economic
Forum, European and other diplomats felt the use of "axis
of evil" to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea was "vivid
evidence that a superpower on a roll is now looking for trouble",
according to the N.Y. Times. The Times also reported that foreign
economists at the Forum reject the optimism of U.S. officials
about the economic recovery of the U.S. economy.
The war hawks in Congress are rallying
round Sheriff Bush and have joined his global posse to round
up all terrorists and defeat all evil nations. They are mindful
of the save-the-incumbents war-time adage of not changing horses
in the middle of the stream, so they give the Sheriff standing
ovations. They are thankful for the cover as they duck and
dodge the Enron/Andersen fallout and raise more money from their
corporate chieftains for their own reelections.
Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer
and civil rights activist in Columbia, South Carolina. <www.turnipseed.net>
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