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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! How Cops Extort Confessions;
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
How Cops Extort Confessions;
How the U.S. “Justice System” Really WorksNinety-two per cent of felony convictions in the U.S. are obtained by plea bargains or confessions. Without them the “justice system” would grind to a halt. In an important piece in our latest newsletter, available only to subscribers, Emily Horowitz shows how totally innocent people will “confess” under police pressure, even without physical torture. Horowitz outlines the powerful case for banning confessions altogether. Also in this new edition Marcus Rediker, co-author of the legendary The Many Headed Hydra, writes of popular heroism and resistance in the favelas of Medellin, Colombia. Alexander Cockburn reports on how America’s oldest bank, patronized by the global elites, washed billions smuggled out of Russia, and how the Russians might win their money back, shaking the world’s banking system if they do so. Serge Halimi describes the real battle for the soul of Europe. 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 August 30 / 31, 2008 Andy Worthington August 29, 2008 Mike Whitney Brian Cloughley David Ker Thomson Joanne Mariner Neve Gordon Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Michael Donnelly August 28, 2008 Judy Gumbo Albert Paul Cantor Saul Landau / Andy Worthington Ben Terrall Leonard Peltier Niranjan Ramakrishnan Donna J. Volatile Website of the Day
August 27, 2008 Anthony DiMaggio Jordan Flaherty Ralph Nader Melissa Checker Bob Sommer Cynthia McKinney Ali Khan M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Dave Lindorff David Macaray Website of the Day
August 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Michael D. Yates Paul Craig Roberts Andy Worthington Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Huwaida Arraf Joseph Grosso Sheldon Richman Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day August 25, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook James McEnteer Uri Avnery Will Potter Robert Jensen Stephen Lendman Wajahat Ali Carl Finamore Website of the Day August 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patty O'Grady Nicole Colson Steve Conn Deepak Trapathi Robert Fantina Jonathan M. Feldman Joshua Frank Osama Qashoo Howard Lisnoff David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Alan Farago Michael Winship Richard Rhames David Rosen Patrick B. Barr Jamie Newlin Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 22, 2008 Boris Kagarlitsky Laura Carlsen Bob Barr Marwan Bishara Peter Morici Manuel Garcia, Jr. Charles Mostoller Sumbul Ali-Karamali Keith Rosenthal John F. Miglio Website of the Day August 21, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Loserville: How Obama Blew It Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner Wajahat Ali Ron Jacobs Rostam Purzal Anthony Papa Website of the Day August 20, 2008 Michael Neumann Ray McGovern Eric Walberg Fidaa Abed Daniel Haack Mike Whitney Website of the Day August 19, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Deepak Tripathi Marwan Bishara Saul Landau William S. Lind Martha Rosenberg James Brittain Pratyush Chandra David Macaray Website of the Day August 18, 2008 Tariq Ali Gary Leupp Uri Avnery John Ross Farooq Sulehria Luis Rodriguez Manuel Garcia, Jr. Noah Baker Merrill Charles Thomson Website of the Day August 16 / 17, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Deepak Tripathi Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Robert Fantina Ray McGovern Nicole Colson Fatima Bhutto Jean-Luis Rocca David Michael Green Ramzi Kysia Dave Lindorff Lisa Martinovic Richard Rhames Don Santina Rannie Amiri Ramzy Baroud John Stanton Howard Lisnoff Ron Jacobs Seth Sandronsky Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
August 15, 2008 Steve Niva David Remington Michael Winship Paul Craig Roberts Farzana Versey Harvey Wasserman Felice Pace Julian Critchley Website of the Day August 14, 2008 Saul Landau / Conn Hallinan Mike Whitney Reza Fiyouzat Ralph Nader Christopher Brauchli The Cheerleader in China Jack Bradigan Spula Patrick Irelan John Walsh Dan Bacher Website of the Day
August 13, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts David Remington Brian Cloughley Glen Ford Brendan Cooney Dave Lindorff Tom Lewis Stan Cox Alan Farago Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day August 12, 2008 Uri Avnery Anthony DiMaggio Bill Christison Eric Walberg Kate Connolly Diane Farsetta Peter Morici Thom Rutledge Lee Patton Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day August 11, 2008 Ishmael Reed Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Douglas Kammen William Willers Greg Moses Jeff Leys Cynthia McKinney Alan Farago Website of the Day August 9 / 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Bruce Jackson Kevin Young Chris Floyd Joshua Frank Robert Fantina Brendan Cooney Mark Almond Lois Gibbs Rev. William Alberts Kathy Kelly John Ross David Michael Green Bill Moyers / Ron Jacobs Richard Rhames David Yearsley Lee Sustar Brenda Norrell Ben Terrall Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 8, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Manuel Garcia, Jr. M. Shahid Alam Andy Worthington Lawrence J. Korb David Model Alan Farago Diop Olugbala Firmin DeBrabander Website of the Day August 7, 2008 Dr. Trudy Bond William Blum Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Robert Weitzel Jacob G. Hornberger Binoy Kampmark David Macaray Howard Lisnoff Website of the Day August 6, 2008 Marc Herold Greg Moses Sheldon Rampton Kevin Young Michael Estrada Robert Weissman Dr. Susan Block Cindy Sheehan Ace Hoffman Website of the Day August 5, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Jeff Halper Patrick Cockburn Nancy Welch Peter Morici Sousan Hammad Eamon Martin Shepherd Bliss Tim Matson Website of the Day August 4, 2008 Uri Avnery Saul Landau David W. Remington Rev. Jesse Jackson Dave Lindorff Peter Morici Joanne Mariner Ramzy Baroud Christian Wright Website of the Day August 2 / 3, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler James Abourezk Andy Worthington Brian Cloughley Robert Fantina Benjamin Dangl Marlene Martin David Yearsley Fatemeh Keshavarz David Michael Green Obama as Dukakis Harvey Wasserman Jason Hribal Phyllis Pollack Laray Polk Ron Jacobs David Macaray David Rosen Dan Bacher Joe Allen Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 1, 2008 Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff Rannie Amiri Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli M. K. Bhadrakumar Patrick Cockburn James J. Brittain Dan Bacher Website of the Day
July 31, 2008 Michael Hudson Carl Finamore Mike Whitney Joshua Frank Andy Worthington Ralph Nader Bill Moyers / Robert Weissman Dave Lindorff Website of the Day July 30, 2008 Brian M. Downing Chuck Spinney William S. Lind David Ker Thomson Karl Grossman Mike Whitney Martha Rosenberg James Murren Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Website of the Day July 29, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair John Ross Peter Morici Alison Weir Gary Leupp David Macaray Brenda Norrell Marjorie Cohn Eric Ruder Website of the Day July 28, 2008 Dr. Bryant Welch Kathy Kelly Mike Whitney Peter Morici Christopher Brauchli Clifton Ross Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
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Weekend Edition The Musical PatriotKaty Perry Meets MozartBy DAVID YEARSLEY There’s no publicity cheaper nor more effective than censure. When Jean-Luc Godard’s, Hail, Mary, a modern re-telling of the Virgin Birth was condemned by the Archdiocese of Boston in 1985, the pious outrage only sent more people to see the film. The Catholic condemnation centered not on the updating of the story to modern times, with Mary a gas-station attendant and Joseph a cab driver, but on the way Godard’s camera lovingly explored the full-frontal contours, the peaks and valleys, of Myriem Roussel’s exquisite form. Theologically speaking, the Virginal body, in any representation, should not be so zealously inspected: the Conception, it seems, was not only immaculate, but fully-clothed. Alerted to the high point of the movie by John Paul II and the Boston Archbishop Bernard Cardinal Law — who, as history would show us, should have had his mind on the lecherous intentions of some of his priests, rather than the visual proclivities of cinema-goers — e hastened in late-adolescent droves to the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge, Massachusetts to see the film. Sadly, the film was a snoozer, and the fact that Mary’s body was for a few tender moments the object of Godard’s gaze, did not add much to the torpor I felt in that sold-out darkness. Law must never have seen the film, for there was nothing in the offending scene of the eroticism that marked Godard’s previous attentions to the naked bodies of Jean Seberg in Breathless and Brigitte Bardot in Contempt: it turned out that the director had treated Mary with true and chaste devotion. Still, retribution was forthcoming. The Orson Welles theatre was destroyed by fire a few months later. I have not ruled out foul play, be it divine or human … Less dazzling than the pontifical white and cardinal red of Wojtyla and Law’s cassocks and are the vestments of displeasure donned by pop commentators during the recent rise of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and its more provocative companion “UR So Gay” to the top of the single charts both in the US and the UK. If not for the shouts of disapproval over the cleverly irreverent lyrics and magnificently superficial music, the likes of this Bach-loving, Proms-listening, clavichord-playing, Musical Patriot would never have pulled his nose from this musty manuscript of Renaissance polyphony. The main charge against Perry is insensitivity to gay people. The song opens with the hackle-raising: “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf/While jacking off listening to Mozart.” First, I’ll allow myself a fusty chortle over the contorted semi-rhyme of “scarf” with “Mozart,” predicated as it is on the incorrect pronunciation of the Austrian Wunderkind’s name. Asphyxo-auto-eroticism gone awry with the aid of the finale of the Jupiter Symphony and a tastefully chosen accessory—Mozart will never be the same after this tableau has impressed itself on the classical connoisseur’s imagination. Still, Mozarteans might take comfort that their man has gotten his biggest boost ever through this undreamt-of gift of product placement. Mozart may be “gay” but at least he’s out of the closet and onto the center stage — or better still the iPod — of global pop culture. The song uses “gay” in its pejorative, colloquial sense, and that is a bad thing. That the text is funny is a major inconvenience. The fair-minded will surely turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this trash. But not before one more look and listen. I could go on with a disquisition on the hypnotic melancholy of the song’s unlikely hook — a lengthy (by the standards of pop) minor rumination with echoes of Ennio Morricone’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” whistling across the Perry video’s mock-happy blue sky backdrop. I might also comment at great length on the counterpoint between this wistful instrumental undergirding and the coldly delivered insults of the song’s text. But I won’t. Rather I’ll simply say that the video, which stars the dolls Ken and Barbie, with Perry as the dyspeptic, guitar-strumming narrator, confronts a question that has haunted generations of children: the dubious status of Ken’s gender. Why is there nothing down there? Does the song say that gay men are, like Ken, emasculated? Certainly not. Rather, I see “UR So Gay” as a brave confrontation, cloaked in acerbic humor, with the primal moment of millions of American childhoods. Relive if you dare, all you boys and girls, that morning when you pulled open the drawers of the arch-suburban male effigy and got that first shocking look … f anyone should be offended by all this it is the real butt of Perry’s sly diatribe—the sensitive, so-called “heterosexual,” male, who, as the lyrics would have it, acts “so gay, and doesn’t even like boys.” He must endure all the raised eyebrows and murmuring questions about his sexual orientation, simply because, according to Perry, he likes Mozart, nice scarves, electric cars, and must have sun screen of “SPF 45, just to stay alive”—ouch! another slashing bit of doggerel that cuts me to the quick. I’m going to put down that Palestrina manuscript right now, and go rotate the tires on my Hummer in full view of all the neighbors. But not before I have my way with Perry’s international mega-hit “I Kissed a Girl.” This over-produced, electro-shock dance number also conjures the specter of same-sex eros. It’s guilty of offense mainly by association with “UR So Gay,” but also because the meeting of lips is, as it were, glossed as mindless fun, done “just to try it.” The kiss is merely Perry’s “experimental game” and its lingering “taste” of the kissee’s “cherry chapstick” bears no promise of lasting love, not to mention, same-sex marriage. The video begins with tracking shots of Perry recumbent on a king leisure bed, wearing the smallest of possible tutus and stroking a kitty. This cinematic version of erotic massage is intercut with jerky images from a girls-only dance party featuring red-leather gloves, diverse bustiers, and fishnet stockings. Though throbbing with excitement over the girl-girl kiss, the video never actually shows us that supposedly transgressive act. Instead, Perry stares saucily into the camera while the camera caresses her in a manner reminiscent of Godard, though the great auteur would doubtless be disgusted by the comparison. It is as if she is admiring herself in a two-way mirror, with the greedy consumers of her image lurking on the other side, as mesmerized with her bod as she herself is. Perry’s publicity machine has cleverly amped up the titillation factor by prompting commentators to recall that both the popstar’s parents are Methodist missionaries still circling the globe to spread the Word. The full-leather rig means so much more when it is worn by the naughty preacher’s daughter. But when the world—including mom and dad—is watching, little Katy turns out to be a good girl after all. She’ll tell, but she won’t kiss. At its close, the video informs us that it was all only a fantasy. Perry wakes up next to her slumbering male bedmate with a mischievous grin on her face. The video and the dream are over. But what really must anger those offended by all this is that the tune and the words that cling to it so greedily are still in our mind and on our lips. And on theirs, too. 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 Omnia. He can be reached at dgy2@cornell.edu
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 Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed                   |
