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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! General Petraeus' Fake War
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
General Petraeus' Fake War
How the Press and Congress Eagerly Swallowed It
EXCLUSIVE to subscribers in our latest newsletter, Gareth Porter dissects two years’ worth of successful lying by Gen Petraeus and his propaganda team. Guess what? The FBI AND DOJ didn’t specially target Muhammad Ali. Those G-men were just following normal procedures! Alexander Cockburn reviews the latest effort to “revise” the Sixties. Dick Cheney “didn’t understand the legalities.” James Abourezk describes his efforts to close down the lethal liquor operators that prey on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Whatever happened to the class war? Read Serge Halimi and find out. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories July 5 / 6, 2008 Robert Fantina July 4, 2008 Kathy Kelly Dave Lindorff Paul Krassner Jackie Corr Laray Polk Dan Bacher Walter Brasch Charles Modiano Website of the Day July 3, 2008 Sharon Smith Andy Worthington Laura Carlsen Peter Morici Ramzi Kysia Martha Rosenberg Anne Landman Dave Zirin Kristin Bricker Website of the Day
July 2, 2008 Patrick Irelan Vijay Prashad Brian Cloughley Ralph Nader Robert Fantina Dave Lindorff Parvez Ahmed Robert Bryce Website of the Day July 1, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Mike Whitney Douglas Macgregor Steven Higgs Andy Worthington Binoy Kampmark Dave Lindorff Roger Burbach Richard W. Behan Gary Leupp Website of the Day June 30, 2008 Peter Lee Jeff Sommers David Macaray Martha Rosenberg David Price Alexandra Early June 28 / 29, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Joan P. Mencher Nikolas Kozloff Jason Hribal Alan Maass Robert Fantina Bill Moyers / Mike Whitney Justin E. H. Smith Pham Binh David Yearsley Christopher Ketcham Jeremy R. Hammond Kathleen M. Barry Walter Brasch Brett Drugge Susie Day Website of the Day June 27, 2008 Franklin C. Spinney Jonathan Cook Brian Cloughley Saree Makdisi Liliana Segura Paul Krassner William S. Lind Candace Cohn Ron Jacobs Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day June 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff William P. O'Connor Saul Landau Ashley Smith Dave Lindorff David Macaray Binoy Kampmark Matt Reichel Remi Kenazi Website of the Day
June 25, 2008 David H. Price Stephen Soldz Andy Worthington Marjorie Cohn Joanne Mariner Ralph Nader Robert Weissman Christopher Brauchli Suren Pillay Seth Sandronsky Website of the Day June 24, 2008 Ishmael Reed P. Sainath Nikolas Kozloff Gregory Kafoury Betty Shamieh Mike Whitney Andy Worthington Bill Christison Philippe Marlière Website of the Day June 23, 2008 Michael Hudson John Ross Peter Montague Ramzy Baroud Robert Fantina Robert Weitzel David Macaray Howard Lisnoff Richard Rhames Gail Dines Tim Matson June 21 / 22, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Pam Martens Mike Whitney Chris Floyd Tim Wise Paul Craig Roberts Michael Winship Ron Jacobs Ramzy Baroud Alan Farago Michael Yates Dave Lindorff Bernard Chazelle Linda Mamoun Jo-Shing Yang Robert Jensen Website of the Weekend
June 20, 2008 Robert Oscar Lopez Paul Craig Roberts Bouthaina Shaaban Bill Quigley Moshe Adler Patrick Cockburn Andy Worthington Norman Solomon Martha Rosenberg June 19, 2008 Ralph Nader Chellis Glendinning Neve Gordon Dave Lindorff Sheldon Richman George Bisharat Jackie Corr Farzana Versey Website of the Day June 18, 2008 Nicole Colson Rev. William E. Alberts Vijay Prashad Parvez Ahmed Bob Moss Dave Lindorff David Wilson June 17, 2008 Conn Hallinan Wajahat Ali Marjorie Cohn Uri Avnery David Macaray Rannie Amiri Website of the Day June 16, 2008 Uri Avnery Corey D. B. Walker Howard Lisnoff Dennis Loo Paul Craig Roberts June 13 / 15, 2008 Douglas Valentine Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Peter Linebaugh Ishmael Reed Joe Bageant Harry Browne Andy Worthington Jeff Sharlet Binoy Kampmark Alan Farago Brian Cloughley Manuel Garcia, Jr. Reza Fiyouzat Patrick Bond / David Yearsley Niranjan Ramakrishnan Ronnie Cummins Dan Bacher Michael Dickinson Seth Sandronsky Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Brian McKenna Patrick Cockburn B. R. Gowani Dr. Trudy Bond Cindy Sheehan John Mohawk Remi Kanazi Robert Day Website of the Day |
Weekend Edition The Musical Patriot Rubbert Shines, as US Envoy Puts Foot in His MouthBy DAVID YEARSLEY Berlin Darkness has finally fallen on the 4th of July in Berlin: almost eleven in the evening and the rain has let up just enough for the Americans to start their fireworks. I can hear them pounding away to celebrate the official opening of the new American embassy today next to the Brandenburg Gate with George Bush, the Elder, cutting the ribbon. A block away from where I’m now writing, framed in one of the large window of this Art Nouveau apartment, shines the newly renovated clock tower of the Schöneberg Town Hall where Willy Brandt held forth as Berlin’s Mayor during some of the hottest days of the Cold War, and where Kennedy made his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner“ speech. The square-jawed figures atop the Town Hall look-on impassively as the rockets glare redly over the center of the action in the New Berlin. I began my celebrations as any true patriot, especially a musical one, would: with a trip to the Schöneberg District’s incomparable Hans Wurst Nachfahren, Puppet Theatre. Luckily I had my kids in tow, since I suspect that unattached and unshaven men appearing at morning performances of children’s theatre is a practice likely frowned on even in this notoriously permissive city. We could hardly believe our luck that this morning’s show was the Brementown Musicians, with score by the Kurt Weill of modern puppet theater, Rainer Rubbert. This is in no way meant to be a back-handed compliment to the composer.. If I had to choose from the embarrassment of riches in Berlin’s operatic treasure chest – there are still three world-class opera houses in this city of little more than three million residents – I would go for a Rubbert show over Verdi, Wagner, or Mozart at the Deutsche Oper, the Komische Opera, or the Staatsoper, the ascendant house of the three, one ruled by the despotic and politically-connected Daniel Barenboim. Rubbert has “serious“ credits to his name, and is currently at work on a full-length, five act opera called Kleist, whose historical protaganist commits suicide after shooting his mortally-ill female companion. I didn’t bother to inform my own kids on the subject matter of the composer’s current project. I’m not sure if plumbing the depths or entertaining the kiddies is a more demanding task. Rubbert’s score for The Brementown Musicians calls for a small ensemble of instruments accompanying four voices, those of the puppeteers, each of whom plays one of the animals and one of the robbers. The music achieves the near impossible, that which only the rarest of books and theatre for children also manages: to captivate the young and unjaded, while offering complexity, depth, irony, and many other good things to the overseers of the underage. Snuggling ostentatiously alongside the Brandenburg Gate, the completed American Embassy fills in the last open spot on the Parisier Platz. While the German architecture critics hammered the new building, allow me to strike a momentarily defensive tone and point out that it isn’t as bad as the ersatz fortress of the French Embassy across the plaza, though Jens Bisky, writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung was certainly right to complain about the entrance to the new American building with its goofy little S-shaped canopy. Bisky complained that this dumb detail makes the building look like ‚“a provincial swimming pool.“ My answer to that: “is there anything more American than an provincial swimming pool?“ Meanwhile, the Tagespiegel, the West Berlin newspaper of Cold War vintage and viewpoints, saw promise in the building, while recognizing some of the silliness in its already dated brand of flippant post-modernism. Putting a brave face on things, Stephan-Andreas Casdorf argued that although the building looked like a “Court House in Fresno“ – believe me, it doesn’t – it nonetheless helped to make a now–complete set of buildings flanking the Brandenburg Gate a “friendly ensemble.“ Friendly if you a turn a blind eye to the sunken bollards that can spring up with the press of a button should terrorist tanks come blasting out of the heavily forested Tiegarten park across the street. What no one seems to ask is why there is an embassy in the first place. In this age of high-definition communications and jet travel what real purpose can it serve. The New American Embassy is huge and one has to ask what all those people are doing in there, especially the ambassador himself, William R. Timken, Jr. a fat-cat industrialist and former chairman of the National Manufacturers’ Association. He’s been in the job for almost three years and still doesn’t speak any German. One can hardly imagine that his is a nuanced approached to diplomacy at any level. Himself a puppet, Timken would be advised to work on his German by spending his mornings at the Hans Wurst Theater and ask himself why a singing donkey on his way to Bremen has more to contribute to this city and to the world than he does. David Yearsley teaches at Cornell University. A long-time contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, he is author of Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint His latest CD, “All Your Cares Beguile: Songs and Sonatas from Baroque London”, has just been released by Musica Omni. He can be reached at dgy2@cornell.edu
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