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Today's Stories January 31, 2008 Saul Landau William Loren
Katz January 30, 2008 Cockburn /
St. Clair Christopher
Ketcham Robert Weissman Neve Gordon Paul Craig Roberts Joanne Mariner David Macaray Liaquat Ali
Khan Raymond J. Lawrence Dan Bacher Website of the Day
January 29, 2008 Franklin C.
Spinney Mike Whitney Alan Farago Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp R. F. Blader Ahmad Faruqui Fran Shor Jeremy Scahill Allan Nairn Website of the Day
January 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts Allan Nairn Eyad al-Sarraj
/ Sara Roy Martha Rosenberg Corporate Crime
Reporter David Michael Green Jennifer Van
Bergen Nancy Oden Divya Karnad James L. Secor Website of
the Day
January 26 / 27, 2008 Uri Avnery JoAnn Wypijewski Ralph Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Paul Watson John Ross Fred Gardner Allan Nairn Joshua Frank Binoy Kampmark James T. Phillips Stan Cox Eamonn McCann Ron Jacobs Seth Sandronsky Ben Terrall Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
January 25, 2008 Douglas Valentine Patrick Cockburn JoAnn Wypijewski Heather Gray Marjorie Cohn Erica Rosenberg Alan Farago Robert Weissman Laura Carlsen Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
January 24, 2008 JoAnn Wypijewski Paul Craig
Roberts Alexander Cockburn Kathleen Christison Jeff Halper Stanley Heller George Wuerthner Patrick Cockburn Jeff Sher Patrick Irelan Charles Modiano Website of
the Day
January 23, 2008 David Rosen David Isenberg Farzana Versey Paul Craig
Roberts Alan Farago Allan Nairn Kenneth Couesbouc Niranjan Ramakrishnan Michael Donnelly Norman Solomon Website of the Day
January 22, 2008 Paul Craig
Roberts JoAnn Wypijewski Al Giordano Felice Pace Paul Wolf Robert Weissman Dave Lindorff Marjorie Cohn Richard Neville Don Fitz /
Zaki Baruti Ben Terrall Sam Husseini Website of
the Day
January 21, 2008 Kevin Alexander
Gray Linn Washington,
Jr. Pam Martens David Macaray Uri Avnery Omar Barghouti Joe DeRaymond B.R. Gowani Shepherd Bliss Jean-Guy Allard Dan Bacher Website of
the Day January 19 / 20, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau China Hand Conn Hallinan Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Andy Worthington Paul Armentano Seth Sandronsky Michael Donnelly Patrick Irelan Martha Rosenberg Sherwood Ross David Michael
Green James Rothenberg Daniel Gross Peter N. Carroll Susie Day Paul Krassner Poets' Basement Website of the Day
January 18, 2008 Allan Nairn Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner Alan Farago P. Sainath R.F. Blader Andy Worthington John Jonik Brian McKenna Daoud Kuttab Website of the Day
January 17, 2008 Paul Craig
Roberts Christopher
Brauchli Robert Fantina Patrick Irelan Paul A. Moore Stephen Lendman Beena Sarwar Walter Brasch Brenda Norrell Adam Federman Website of the Day
January 16, 2008 Jeffrey St.
Clair Franklin Lamb Julian Sanchez Sharon Smith Allan Nairn Ayesha Ijaz
Khan Andy Worthington Richard Behan Website of the Day
January 15, 2008 Andrea Peacock Wajahat Ali Joe Bageant Ralph Nader John Ross Elaine Cassel Peter Morici Beena Sarwar Robert Weissman Binoy Kampmark Dave Zirin Website of
the Day
January 14, 2008 Ishmael Reed Roger Morris Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Allan Nairn William Blum Alan Farago David Macaray Eva Liddell Zoe Blunt Website of the Day
January 12 / 13, 2008 Andrew Cockburn Saul Landau Corey D. B. Walker Col. Dan Smith Eric Toussaint Ron Jacobs Fred Gardner Stan Cox Jacob G. Hornberger Ramzy Baroud Joseph Grosso David Díaz-Arias Stacey Warde Dan Bacher Michael Dickinson Website of
Weekend
January 11, 2008 Dave Lindorff Paul Craig
Roberts Andy Worthington Kenneth Couesbouc Jeff Ballinger Christopher
Brauchli Manuel Garcia, Jr. Andrew Silverstein Marwan Bishara Robert Weissman Patrick Irelan Website of
the Day
January 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Bob Wing Michael Donnelly David Macaray China Hand Ayesha Ijaz Khan Rannie Amiri Website of the Day
January 9, 2008 Cockburn /
St. Clair Dave Lindorff John Chuckman James Bovard Alan Farago Russell Mokhiber William S. Lind Peter Morici Josh Reubner Mike Roselle Website of the Day
January 8, 2008 Paul Craig
Roberts Russell Mokhiber Robert Fantina Dave Zirin Shamako Nobel John Ross Brenda Norrell Laura Carlsen Patrick Irelan Evelyn J. Pringle Jonathan M.
Feldman Michael Dickinson Website of
the Day
January 7, 2008 Chris Floyd John Blair Uri Avnery Andy Worthington Binoy Kampmark David Macaray Ralph Nader Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Gideon Levy Dave Lindorff Website of
the Day
January 5 / 6, 2008 Douglas Valentine Kevin Young Richard Rhames Saul Landau Marc Lynch Robert Fantina Donna Volatile Jelle Bruinsma Bob Sutcliffe Harvey Wasserman Missy Beattie David Swanson Jacob Hornberger Shepherd Bliss Ron Jacobs Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
January 4, 2008 Cockburn /
St. Clair Jonathan Cook Paul Craig Roberts Stan Goff Dave Lindorff Niranjan Ramakrishnan Allan Nairn Joshua Frank Peter Morici Mary McInnis Website of the Day
January 3, 2008 Fatima Bhutto Pam Martens Joanne Mariner Zoltan Grossman David Domke Norman Solomon Nikolas Kozloff Jacob G. Hornberger Martha Rosenberg Russell Means Website of the Day
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January 31, 2008 This Campaign is a B-Movie with a B-List of CharactersThe Usual Suspects Once AgainBy DAVE LINDORFF With the presidential race now effectively pared down to four candidates, thanks to the departure of John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani, we're left with a really "B-grade" contest: a bomber (John McCain), a bummer (Hillary Clinton), a betrayer (Mitt Romney) and Obama (that's Barack with a B). McCain, the bomber, wants to "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," ensuring not just mayhem in Persia, but chaos, bloodshed and disaster across the Middle East and surely retaliation here at home for a generation to come. Here's a guy who made his name by getting himself shot down while committing war crimes against the people of a backward nation in Southeast Asia, who glommed onto Sen. Russ Feingold's clean government initiative after carting off wheelbarrows of cash from Charles Keating in the savings and loan scandal (McCain was one of the infamous Keating Five), and who claimed to be a renegade Republican and "straight talker" until he decided in 2004 to cling tightly to President Bush and become the mad Texan's biggest apologist during his second benighted term. And, after months of pandering to the Christian right and the neocon loonies, he now wants us to believe he's a maverick and "middle-of-the-roader." Hillary Clinton, the bummer, wants to bring her "experience"-that's the eight years of her so-called "co-presidency" with hubby Bill-to the White House again. That "experience," for the benefit of those suffering short-term memory loss, includes kicking off the first term by caving in to inappropriate criticism from the generals and backing down on a promise to end the ban on gays in the military, undermining habeas corpus with the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, gutting welfare benefits for the nation's hard-pressed poor, locking up millions of black and Hispanic Americans on non-violent drug charges, allowing the clearcutting of original growth forests on national lands, giving away mineral rights to mining companies, establishing the precedent for unilaterally attacking other nations (Sudan and Afghanistan), expanding the military budget in peacetime, failing to defend abortion rights, appointing hacks to federal court posts, failing to stand by good appointments to those courts in the face of right-wing attacks, and of course, in Hillary's own case specifically, throwing away for a generation a unique chance to establish a nationalized health care system in America. The very idea of re-"experiencing" any of that eight-year national disaster is my definition of a bummer. Mitt Romney, the betrayer, spent his years in Massachusetts at least pretending to be a New England liberal. He introduced a kind of state-based health insurance plan that at least had the potential of making health insurance available to every person in the state, but has since been running away from it in practice, for fear of sounding too liberal. As governor he supported a woman's right to control her own body, and to seek and obtain an abortion if she wanted one, but when it came time to run for president, he claimed to have undergone a miraculous conversion to the view of the hard right: that a woman is nothing but a vessel for growing and delivering babies. Claiming to care about the workingman, Romney, as a venture capitalist, actually betrayed workers, eliminating their jobs in the interest of his own and his partners' personal profits. And then there is Barack Obama, a man who is trying to gain the presidency on sheer sophistry. "Change" is his mantra, but change to what? He doesn't really say. His whole campaign is a feel-good exercise in ducking the issues. The United States has been pillaged relentlessly since at least the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon paved the way, with his recognition of China, for the wholesale offshoring of American industry to Asia. Administrations since then, Democratic and Republican, have been competing with each hasten the hollowing out of the American economy. Will Obama "change" this? No. He has no plan to undo the North American Free Trade Act, or to demand changes in the World Trade Organization rules. American labor unions are dying. Does Obama plan to "change" that by undoing decades of one-sided laws and regulations making it easy for employers to crush unions? No. He hasn't said a word about defending, much less expanding the rights of workers. Health care is in crisis. Does Obama have a solution? No. He is wedded to the same approach as Hillary Clinton, which leaves the blood-sucking insurance industry in charge of financing (and denying) care. The US is being bled to death by military expenditures, which in total account for more than half of the US budget when honestly accounted for in full. Does Obama plan to slash that spending, which is greater than all the military budgets of the rest of the world's nations combined? No. He has not said a word about cutting military spending (nor is he committed to ending the Iraq occupation). The Constitution has been undermined, particularly over the last six years, to the point that it is unrecognizable, with the presidency now more appropriately called an elected dictator, and Congress now little more than a talk shop. Does Obama plan to "change" that by voluntarily restoring the presidency to what it is supposed to be: just on co-equal branch of a tripartite government? He hasn't said a word about restoring checks and balances. Obama's "change" rhetoric is as empty as was Ronald Reagan's talk about America's being a "shining city on a hill." In the choice between a bomber, a bummer, a betrayer and Obama, it hardly matters who comes out on top. My guess is whoever wins, we get more military spending, more war, fewer jobs and fewer rights. Rep. Ron Paul, for all his flaws (and they are many, including a racist attitude on immigration, a sexist attitude on abortion, and a doctinaire view of primacy of the rights of property), is looking better and better. At least he would end the Iraq War, cut the military budget significantly, and restore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Let's hope he quits this B-rated presidential campaign and runs as an independent or Libertarian. Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His n book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Lindorff's newest book is "The Case for Impeachment", co-authored by Barbara Olshansky. He can be reached at: dlindorff@yahoo.com
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