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Today's
Stories
June
19, 2007
Ralph
Nader
Hillary's Stock and Trade
June
18, 2007
John
Ross
The Annexation of Mexico
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand
Martha
Rosenberg
Let Cheney at Him: Richardson the Oryx Hunter
Norman
Solomon
War at the Remote
Don
Santina
Memo to the Queen: Bobby Sands Died for Your Sins
Isabella
Kenfield
Landless Rural Workers Confront Lula
James
Brooks
America's Guilty Silence
Eva
Liddell
Planning to Lose: Democratic Stratagems
Sam
Husseini
Clinton Health Care Scam Revisited
Akiva
Eldar
Ariel Sharon's Dream
Website
of the Day
Frank
Zappa: the Cop Interview
June 16 / 17, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Psychopathology of Shrinks
John
Halle
Finkelstein and "The Progressive"
Robert
Fisk
Welcome to "Palestine"
Andy
Worthington
Return to Torture?
Uri
Avnery
The Gaza Cage
Fred
Gardner
Paris Hilton's Punishment: a False
Parable
Saul
Landau
Our Gang of Thugs: The 1970s as a
Context for Terrorist Violence
P.
Sainath
Heaven Can Wait: Creditors and the
Widows of Vidharbha
Missy
Comley Beattie
Calling Evil Its Name
Alan
Gregory
When ADM Comes to Town: Killer Tax
Breaks for Wildlife Destruction
Walter
Brasch
Bush and the Philosophy of Swiss Cheese
Website
of the Weekend
Obama Girl
June
15, 2007
Alan
Farago
View from the Construction Crane:
Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami
Andy
Worthington
The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri
Michael
Simmons
Terrorizing Artists in the USA
Franklin
Lamb
Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed
Sunni Army Solution
Gary
Leupp
The Day After We Attack Iran
John
Ross
Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico
Website
of the Day
The American Rationalist
June 14, 2007
Michael
Donnelly
Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen
Eco--Activism
Faisal
Kutty
Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False
Sense of Security
Harry
Browne
Ireland's Green Party Sells Out
Charles
Jonkel
From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference
Steven
Higgs
Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic"
in Indiana?
Bruce
Dixon
Black Power Through Low Power Radio
Bruce
K. Gagnon
What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan
for Antiwar Activists
Website
of the Day
Finkelgate
June 13,
2007
Glen Ford
Obama's
Siren Song
Marjorie Cohn
Repression
in Oaxaca
Bill Christison
A Grave Injustice at DePaul University
Charles Jonkel
Bears in a World of Indifference
Silvia Cattori
"I Was Not Prepared for the Horrors I Saw": an Interview
with Hedy Epstein
Richard Gott
Racism and TV in Venezuela
Firmin DeBrabander
How the Neocons Misread Machiavelli
William S. Lind
The Perfect (Sine) Wave: Bombing Railroad Stations in Iraq
Keith Rosenthal
Workers Score a Victory at Harvard
Website of the Day
GOP and Monty Python Explain: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"
June 12,
2007
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
to Sell a War
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Neocon Threat to American Freedom
P. Sainath
India's
Plutocrats and the Press
Ralph Nader
The Biggest Scam in the World
Omar Waraich
A Black Day for Pakistan's Press
Dave Lindorff
Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You
Harvey Wasserman
Confessions of an Anti-Nuke Jerk
Malini Johar
Schueller
It Takes a Bomb
Ramzy Baroud
War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire
Website of
the Day
Palestinian Chronicle Needs Our Help!
June 11,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
War on Journalists
Paul Craig
Roberts
Losing the Economy to Mythology
Uri Avnery
40 Bad Years: the Rot of Occupation
Norman Solomon
The Silence of the Bombs
Eva Liddell
Paris Hilton Doesn't Do Dishes: How Barbie Stood Up to Allen
Ginsberg
Rannie Amiri
Groundhog Day in Pakistan
Rachel Voss
Poetry and Politics in Nassau County
Christopher
Brauchli
A Wild West Tale, Starring Rev. Dobson and Bill O'Reilly
D. K. Wilson
Untangling Michael Vick from the Dogs
Website of
the Day
Paris, Mixed Up
June 9 / 10, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Dissidents
Against Dogma
George Ciccariello-Maher
Behind
Venezuela's "Student Rebellion": Who's Pulling the
Strings?
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Ricardo Alarcon, Vice President of Cuba
Robert Fisk
Believe It or Not in the Middle East
Brian Cloughley
Troop Support: Deceptions and Insipid Sentiments
Ron Jacobs
Condoleezza Rice Names the System
Ward Boston
Searching for the Truth About the USS Liberty
Conn Hallinan
Dark Plots in Byzantine Beirut
Leonard Peltier
The Ongoing War on Native American Religious Practices
Lawrence Davidson
Israel's New Anti-Boycott Task Force
John Ross
Mass Nude-In Complicates Church-State Scuffling in Mexico
Kate Allan
Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing
Fred Gardner
Ignorance Marches On
Stephen Fleischman
Little Boy, Fat Man and Iran
Monica Benderman
Reading Tom Paine in a Time of Crisis
Geoff Bailey
A Real Oil Conspiracy: Gouged at the Pump
Missy Beattie
Faith and War
Patrick Dyer
A Democrat Revs Up Ohio's Death Machine
Tim Lengerich
Dispelling the Cowboy Myth: an Interview with George Wuerthner
James Irani
and David Rahni
Perspectives on the Arrests of Iran-Americans in Tehran
Gary Leupp
The Unfair Treatment of Paris Hilton
Michael Tillery
The Heart of a Sportswriter: an Interview with David Aldridge
Michael Simmons
Beating Off the Squares: the Hipness of Anton Rosenberg
Poets' Basement
Laymon, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
This is Sea Shepherd!
June 8,
2007
Serge Halimi
What
Sarkozy Learned About Politics from the US
Patrick Cockburn
The Turkish Incursion
Jeffrey St. Clair
Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty, Revisited
Paul Craig Roberts
The Secret War
William Blum
What If NBC Cheered on a Military Coup Against Bush?
Joshua Frank
Swing-State Strategy: Looking for a Spoiler
Lance Selfa
How the Six Day War Changed the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
A "Criminal Conspiracy" in the White House
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Summer of Love: Flashbacks of a Human Be-In
Website of the Day
Robert Pollin: "Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living
Wage"
June 7, 2007
Marjorie Cohn
The
Prison is the War Crime
Soldz, Reisner
and Olson:
A Q & A on Psychologists and Torture
Soldz, Reisner
and Olson, et al:
An
Open Letter to Sharon Brehm, President of the American Psychological
Association
Paul Craig Roberts
Losing Iraq, Nuking Iran
Bill Quigley
"How Long Must We Support a Mistake?"
Silvia Cattori
Sailing to Gaza
Carl G. Estabrook
What the June Bug Is: Politics in the Dismal Season
Ellen Taylor
Free the Tweakers!: The Good News About Meth
Corporate Crime
Reporter
BAE Systems, Prince Bandar and the $2 Billion Account at the
Riggs Bank
Brenda Norrell
Torture Training at Ft. Huachuca: Two Priests Face Prison for
Exposing Torture in Arizona
D. K. Wilson
What Gary Sheffield Really Said
Kevin Zeese
Iraq Occupation Coming to a Head Over Oil
Website of
the Day
How the Press Expired
June 6, 2007
Alain Gresh
Countdown
to War on Iran
Gary Leupp
Poddy's Crazy Prayer: Bomb Iran, For Israel and America!
Steven Sherman
The Perils of Humanitarian Intervention
Bruce Dixon
Is Bill Gates Trying to Hijack Africa's Food Supply?
Corporate Crime Reporter
The Professor and the Nukes
Brian M. Downing
The Iraq War and Presidential Politics
Ron Jacobs
Luv n' Hate: a Different Take on the Summer of Love
George Bisharat
The Mirage of the Two State Solution
Nicole Colson
Over to You, Dante: Falwell's Ministry of Hate
Bruce K. Gagnon
From Italy to Guam: A Global Peace Movement is Taking Shape
Website of the Day
How the Democrats Should Treat Bush
June 5,
2007
Michael Neumann
Canada
in Afghanistan
Jonathan Cook
The Shin Bet and the Persecution of Azmi Bishara
David Vest
The Democrats' War
Robert Fantina
America's Cuba Policy
Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury
CounterTerrorism as International Healthcare
John V. Walsh
Shaming the Official Antiwar Movement
Richard Cretan
Yellow Dog: The Strange Love of Martin Amis and Tony Blair
Adam Engel
Days of Dread: an American Tale
William S. Lind
The News from Anbar: Has Al Qaeda Over-Reached?
Myles Hoenig
Free the Oaks! Cut Down Those Yellow Ribbons!
Jim Minick
Lead-Foot Nation
Website of
the Day
Punk Rock Soap Opera
June 4, 2007
Nizar Latif
An
Interview with Moqtada al-Sadr
Diana Johnstone
Sarko
and the Ghosts of May, 1968
Gregory Wilpert
RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela
Paul Watson
The Anchorage Whale Killing Bureaucrats Summit
Susan Rosenthal,
MD
How Cindy Sheehan Unmasked the Democrats
Richard Ward
The Right of Return to New Orleans
Eva Liddell
Don't Support the Troops
Zahi Khouri
Four Decades of Occupation
Evelyn Pringle
The FDA, GlaxoSmithKline and the Avandia Disaster
China Hand
About Those North Korean Benjamin Franklins ...
Karyn Strickler
George W. Bush: a "Ficeist" Leader
Website of the Day
The Guantanamo Files
June 2 /
3, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
Last of the Texas Outsiders
Marc Levy
Iraq
Dead Ahead: a Brief Military History and Civilian Guide to Arlington
National Cemetery
Martin Smith
Camilo Mejía's War: From Foot Soldier for Empire to Rebel
for Peace
Diana Johnstone
Great Power Meddling in Kosovo
John Ross
The Oaxaca Volcano Stews
Uri Avnery
On Generals and Admirals
Sunsara Taylor
This is Not a Story About Cindy Sheehan
Richard Neville
Were the Hippies Right?
P. Sainath
The Farm Crisis and 100,000 Indian Widows
Missy Comley
Beattie
Let's Roar
Nisrine Abiad
and Victor Kattan
The Hariri Tribunal: a Fait Accompli?
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon, Bush and the Three Stooges
Margot Pepper
Deconstructing "Return to Sender"
Eric Stewart
Censorship and Cop Brutality in the New Bison Wars
Ralph Nader
The Halberstam Camp
Dan Bacher
A Victory for the Fish
Shaun Harkin
and Sandy Boyer
Irish War Protesters on Trial
Richard Rhames
Selling Five Acres in Crawford
Frederick Hudson
The Rediscovery of Ella Fitzgerald
Poets' Basement
Lindorff, Landau and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Gimme Shelter
June 1, 2007
Dave Marsh
The
FBI and the Godfather (of Soul): James Brown's FBI Files
Saul Landau
Return
to Cuba: 47 Years Later in Havana
David Phinney
How the Baghdad Embassy Was Built: Forced Labor and Worker Abuse
Robert Jensen
The Bigot and the Boycott
Stanley Heller
Arrest Robert McNamara
Yifat Susskind
Indigenous Women Fight Back
Robert Weissman
Corporate Power Since 1980
Paul Buchheit
Africa and Its Discontents
William S.
Lind
The Folly of Maximalist Objectives
Sherwood Ross
78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes
Stephen Lendman
Terrorism Defined
Website of the Day
Desert Autonomous Zone
May 31, 2007
Robert Bryce
The
Language Barrier
Patrick Cockburn
Killing with Impunity: Iraq's Militias Under the Surge
Gary Leupp
Appropriate Disillusionment: the Despair of Cindy Sheehan and
Andrew Bacevich
Kathy Kelly
Being Hope
Marjorie Cohn
The Unitary King George
Chris Kutalik
and Tiffany Ten Eyck
Fallout from the Sale of Chrysler: Jobs, Health Care, Pensions,
All in Jeopardy
Corporate Crime Reporter
Zheng Xiaoyu Meet Lester Crawford
Dave Lindorff
Our Monica: a Hero of the Constitution
Website of the Day
Know Your Rights!
May 30,
2007
James Ridgeway
The
Bi-Partisan Con on Synthetic Fuels
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon and the Planned US Airbase at Kaleiaat
Terrence E. Paupp
Withdrawal Symptoms
Uri Avnery
To the Shores of Tripoli
Alan Maass
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Green Masquerade: Corporate America's Latest Counter-Attack
Rock and Rap
Confidential
Watching the Detectives: the Political Censorship of Hip Hop
Ralph Nader
Taming the Giant Corporation
Nirmal Ghosh
China, CITES and the Fate of the Tiger
Jean Daniels
Dealing Democrats: Folding to Mr. 28%
Tom Barry
Meet Robert Zoellick: Bush's Pick to Head World Bank
Website of the Day
Petuuche Gilbert on the Rights of Indigenous People
May 29, 2007
Stephen Soldz
Shrinks
and the SERE Technique at Guantanamo
Eliza Ernshire
Refugees
Forever: Inside Bedawi Camp
Ron Jacobs
The Exit of Cindy Sheehan
Dave Lindorff
Whatever Happened to Signing Statements?
Evelyn Pringle
What Qualifies Bush to Lead Iraq War
Mike Whitney
Bush's New Middle East
David Swanson
How We Got Here: The Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
John Holt
Gating Montana, Part Two: the Feedback Loop
Cynthia McKinney
Dreaming of a True Memorial Day
Martha Rosenberg
Mad Cows, Mad Pigs and the Horse Slaughter Lobby
Website of the Day
The Ruminant
May 28, 2007
Bill Quigley
Katrina
Activists: "Less Meeting, More Fighting"
Col. Dan Smith
The Paranoid and the Dead
Cindy Sheehan
Why I Am Leaving the Democratic Party
Dr. Susan Block
Dr. Laura's Little Monster
Jeeni Criscenzo
What I Learned About Being a Dickhead
Douglas Valentine
Memorial Day: a Poem
Website of the Day
Peace TV
May 26 /
27, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greenhousers Strike Back and Out
Michael Donnelly
Green
Sabotage as "Terrorism"
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr's Dramatic Reappearance
Franklin Lamb
Inside Nahr el-Bared: "Another Waco in the Making"
Jean Bricmont
The Moral Collapse of the Moral Left
Gary Leupp
Cheney, Israel and Iran
James Petras
Imperial Rot: The Beginning of the End of the American Empire?
William Peace
Ashley Unlawfully Sterilized
Judith and John Sharpe
The Saga of Our Son, Lt. Commander John Sharpe: Under Investigation
for Antiwar Sentiments
Saul Landau
Four Dead in Ohio: From Kent State to Tiannamen Square
Paul Craig Roberts Democracy
in Iraq, Tyranny at Home?
Jonathan M.
Feldman
Congress and the Iraq War Vote
Dave Lindorff
Democratic Blood Money
Missy Beattie
Congress Plays Dead
Mike Whitney
Swan Song of the Democrats
Badruddin Khan
AIPAC Intervenes on Iran and Congress Folds, Again
Ron Jacobs
The Crime of Silence
Zoe Blunt
The Antidote to Despair
Arjun Chowdhury,
Mark Hoffman
and Kevin Parsneau
The Can-Do Troops and the New Anti-Politics
Heather Gray
The 1969 Riots Against the Chinese in Malaysia: a New Explanation
N. D. Jayaprakash
Disarmament Negotiations: A History and Prospectus
Joe Allen
and Paul D'Amato
Cartoons with Class
Poets' Basement
Gowani, Ford, Anderson and Simon
Website of
the Weekend
Addicted to War
May 25, 2007
Robert Jensen
What
the Finkelstein Tenure Fight Tells Us About the State of Academia
David Vest
So
You Thought They'd End the War
John Stauber
Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq
Evelyn Pringle
Congress Gives War Profiteers Another $100 Billion
Corporate Crime Reporter
Why Corporate Social Responsibility Programs are a Fraud
Susan Rosenthal,
MD
What's Missing from the Health Care Debate
Roberto Rodriguez
Us vs. Them in the Immigration Debate
Steve Fournier
Goodie, Goodie Goodling
Patrick McElwee
Venezuela and RCTV: Is Free Speech Really at Stake?
Robert Weissman
Resisting the Commercialization of Public Schools
Website of the Day
New DNC
Motto: "We Suck"
May 24, 2007
Franklin Lamb
Who's
Behind the Fighting in North Lebanon
Corporate Crime
Reporter
House Democrats Buckle to Big Oil: Strip Down Price Gouging Bill
Robert Fantina
Giuliani: Righteous, Indignant and Wrong
Norman Solomon
Deadly Illusions, Rest in Peace
Dave Lindorff
Kerrycrats All!: Now It's a Democratic War
Sen. Russell
Feingold
We are Moving Backwards on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Doctor of Last Resort
Mike Whitney
Paulson in China
Kevin Parsneau, Arjun Chowdhury
and Mark Hoffman
Becoming Imperialist: a Warning to Iraq War Critics
Caroline Paul
My Brother the "Terrorist": Animal Liberation and Prosecutorial
Overkill
Eva Liddell
In Defense of Lying on Job Applications
Website of
the Day
Johnny's
Jumped the Shark
May 23, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Opium:
Iraq's Newest Export
Rev. William
Alberts
Faith-Based Imperialism
Joe DeRaymond
Colombia's Civil War and the US
Sudhanva Deshpande
and Vijay Prashad
The Political Economy of a Crisis
Paul Craig Roberts
Republicans in Self-Destruct Mode
Glen Ford
A
Less "White" USA
Rannie Amiri
The Great Bank Heist of Tripoli
China Hand
China's Great Wall of Cash?
Zoe Blunt
Tales from the Tree Tops: Veteran Tree Sitter Tells All
Nivien Saleh
Who's to Blame for Iraq?
Website of the Day
Debating the Israel Lobby
May 22, 2007
Robert Fisk
A
Front Row Seat for the Bloodbath in Lebanon
Joshua Frank
Hillary Clinton's Achilles Heel?
Harvey Wasserman
Drop Dead, New Yorkers: Giuliani and the Toxic Fallout from 9/11
David Mos Masumoto
An Orchard Without Workers
Sonja Karkar
Israeli Forest Named After Australian Prime Minister
Conn Hallinan
The Afghan Quagmire
Dave Lindorff
A Widening Chasm on Impeachment
Jeffrey Kolakowski
Meet Us in Detroit: an Open Letter to John Konyers
Evelyn Pringle
A Misleading Suicide Warning
Jim Baumer
Politics Gary, Indiana-Style
Website of the Day
Should the Democrats Fear Mike Gravel?
May 21, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Secret US Plot to Kill Sadr
Nicole Colson
Much Ado About the Fort Dix Pizza Plot
John Ross
Shooting for the Top: Mexico's Drug Gangs Take Aim at Calderon
Stephen Fleischman
Werewolf of Washington: Wolfowitz Comes Full Circle
M. Shahid Alam
Chosenness and Israeli Exceptionalism
Ron Jacobs
Green Mountain Days: Return to Vermont
Peter Rost, MD
Pfizer CFO Resigns
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades Save Florida?
Paul Buchheit
The Dark Side of Democracy Promotion
Website of
the Day
Code Monkey: Live!
May 19 /
20, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
Why
America Lost the War in Iraq
Uri Avnery
The Next War
Peter Gelderloos
My Arrest in Spain: The Easy Road from Tourism to Terrorism
Saul Landau
Bush's Accomplishments
Robert Fantina
Iraq's History: Lessons for the Present and the Future
Fred Gardner
Hemp vs. Pot, a False Dichotomy
Ralph Nader
Timid Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
Jean Daniels
Waiting for Obama
Reza Fiyouzat
Vietnam Syndrome: Dead or Alive?
Missy Beattie
Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani and Osama's Fatwah
Robert Alvarez
Magical Thinking About Nuclear Waste
Sonja Karkar
The Palestinians of Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Mumia Case on Hold
Jeff Sher
Keep Workers Healthy and Reduce Health Care Cost: Eliminate Co-Pays
Julian C. Holmes
Torture, Maine Style
Clancy Sigal
Red Mutiny: 11 Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin
Prairie Miller
The Murder of Fred Hampton
James Murren
The Dog Ate Karl Rove's Homework: When Turd Blossom Met the Teachers
of the Year
Poets' Basement
Davies, Valentine and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Yellowstone's Shame: Harassing Newborn Bison
May 18,
2007
Adam Jones
When
Does Genocide Purify? Ask the Pope
Sharon Smith
The Death of Triangulation Politics?
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney's Middle East Adventure
Peter Rost,
MD
Bribes and Spies in the Drug Industry
Denise Maloney Pictou
The Murder of Our Mother, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash: After 31 Years,
It is Time for Justice
David Swanson
Of Snoops and Dupes
Ali Khan
The Lawyers' Mutiny in Pakistan
Susan Rosenthal,
M.D.
Cho Seung-Hui Delivers His Message
Samer Assad
Israel and the Refugees: Fifty-Nine Years of Dispossession
CP News Service
Bidding for Extinction: Ivory Trade on eBay Threatens Survival
of Elephants
Website of the Day
Another War Criminal Goes to Harvard
May 17,
2007
Tariq Ali
The
General vs. the Judge
Yifat Susskind
Honor
Killings in the New Iraq: The Murder of Du'a Aswad
Dave Zirin
Being Ali or Being Owned: an Open Letter to LeBron James
Brian J. Foley
Hell, No, Harry Won't Go!
W. John Green
The Godfather of Colombia: Uribe and the Para Scandal
Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
Challenges for the New Sanctuary Movement
Badruddin Khan
Rebirthing the Neocons: Bernard Lewis' Latest Call to Arms
Martha Rosenberg
From Cockfighting to Foie Gras: On the Menu and on the Docket
China Hand
Pope Rat in Brazil: "The Amazon Tribes Longed for Christianity!"
Dan Vojir
Falwell's Tinky Winky Legacy: Who Will Battle the Telebubby Threat
Now?
Website of the Day
Welcome to the Terrordome
May 16, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Chalabi
Speaks
Ashley Dawson
Who's Afraid of Wolfowitz?
Joshua Frank
Obama's Cash Flow: Maverick or Kidder?
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Corporate Drug Pushers
Ray McGovern
A Four-Letter Word for Tenet
Glen Ford
Black Labor and the Big Mission
Joe Bageant
The Ghosts of Timothy Leary and Hunter S. Thompson
Sonja Karkar
The 59-Year Catastrophe
Mickey S. Huff
Preaching Hate: Farewell, Falwell
John Chuckman
Falwell's Lone Act of Kindness
Kaz Dziamka
What Ever Happened to Rogerian Argument?
Website of
the Day
We're All Going to Hell
May 15,
2007
Michael Neumann
Two
States, One State and Snake Oil
Patrick Cockburn
An American Nightmare
Ashley Smith
How the US Set Iraq on Fire
Marc Gardner
Parole and the Long-Distance Trucker
Dave Lindorff
and Linn Washington, Jr
Mumia Case Reaches Its Climax
Ben Terrall
Benchmark as Theft: Iraq Oil Workers Strike to Stop Privatization
Ron Jacobs
Cheney Threatens More War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Seabrook
Marcus Mabry
Shopping During Katrina
Dr. Susan Block
Cheney and the DC Madam's Cookie Jar
Website of the Day
Save Jean Klock Park from the Mega-Developers!
May 14,
2007
Jennifer Roesch
Giuliani
Time: the Mussolini of Manhattan
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Humans,
CO2 and Climate Change
George Bisharat
For Palestinians, Memory Matters
Diane Wachtell
The Real Imus Lesson
Ramzy Baroud
From Palestine to Rotterdam
Rosemary and
Walter Brasch
When the National Guard Goes Missing: An Ill Wind and American
Policy
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Blair's Exit
Roberto Rodriguez
The Elusive Bars of Justice
Jonathan Culp
Cutting Out Collage: Copyright and Art in Canada
Website of
the Day
Uranium Rock
May 12 /
13, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Who
are the Merchants of Fear?
Patrick Cockburn
State of Surge
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Line Fever: a Trip Across the Dark Side of Montana
Diane Farsetta
Untold Stories from the Pat Tillman / Jessica Lynch Hearings
Ralph Nader
Strip Mining the Newsroom: Mr. Zell and the Tribune Company
Jean Bricmont
The Great Illusion: Sarkozy and the "Decline" of France
Marcus Breen
Cheering Sarkozy: the US Media and the Rightwing Takeover of
France
Joe Bageant
Rising Above Politics
Conn Hallinan
European Missiles and the Camel's Nose
Fred Gardner
The Unreported I-880 Fire
Juan Santos
and Leslie Radford
Public Terror: Escalating the War on Migrants
Eve Bachrach
Inside Colombia's Flower Industry
Missy Comley
Beattie
Shame
Ron Jacobs
The Bitterness of Regis Debray
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Sepoy Mutiny After 150 Years
Susie Day
Jesus Christ Weds Pat Robertson
Poets' Basement
Newberry, Engel, Landau, Katz and Davies
Website of the Weekend
The Shipyard: Recycling as Art
May 11,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Blair's
Depature: the View from Baghdad
Kathleen Christison
Playing at Peace
Mike Ferner
Collateral Genocide
John Holt
Gating Montana: A Ghastly Disneyland with High Rise Outhouses
Laurie Hasbrook
This Minute and Then the Next: a Plea from an Antiwar Mother
Christopher
Brauchli
The Children of Limbo: Will the Pope Finally Set Them Free?
Margaret Kimberley
GOP Openly Embraces Gipper Values: Racism, Violence and Control
Dave Lindorff
Use It or Lose It: The Democrats and the Impeachment Clause
Nicole Colson
Anger Erupts at Conditions in For-Profit Indiana Prison
John V. Walsh
Beware the Do-Gooders in Body Armor
Website of the Day
Take the Terrorist Quiz!
May 10,
2007
Tariq Ali
Adieu,
Blair, Adieu
Patrick Cockburn
Killing of Teachers Turns Iraqi Sunnis Against al--Qa'ida
Neve Gordon
and Yigal Bronner
In Israel Not All Blood is the Same: The Death of Samir Dari
Marjorie Cohn
Fighting Terror Selectively: Washington and Posada Carriles
David Rosen
The New Disappeared: Sex Offenders, Civil Confinement and the
Resurrection of "Evil"
Alan Farago
Why the Everglades Have Dried Up: Developers and the South Florida
Drought
John Hellman
France: From Pétain to Sarkozy
Kathy Rentenbach
A 100 Days of Rafael Correa
BANCO
The Stage is Set for Sentencing Another Innocent Black Man
Richard Rhames
Is Paris Burning?
Website of the Day
Tame the Corporation
May 9, 2007
Jeff Leys
Iraq
and Afghanistan Supplemental Spending, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign Minister on Iran and Iraq
Glen Ford
No Black Plan for America's Cities
Paula Rothenberg
Feminism Then and Now
Kathryn Weber
A Conversation with Norman Finkelstein
John Chuckman
The Likely Historical Significance of the War in Iraq
Jordan Flaherty
Looking for Justice in Jena, Louisiana
Dave Lindorff
Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush
Stephen Lendman
Criminalizing Speech: the War on Free Expression in a Post-9/11
World
Website of
the Day
"Fifth and Market": a Short Film About the Iraq War
May 8, 2007
Dave Lindorff
The
Great Oil Robbery
Patrick Cockburn
The Horrific Stoning Death of a Yazidi Girl Sparks Waves of Revenge
Killings
Corporate Crime Reporter
Snuff Politics: Democrats Escalate Attack on Single Payer
Ralph Nader
The People's Crusade of Mike Gravel
Malini Johar Schueller
Decoding Harlan Ullman: Shock and Awe as Sexual Fantasy
Juan Santos
The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children in LA
Dave Zirin
Jason Whitlock, the Clarence Thomas of Sportswriters?
Joshua Frank
The Price of Fire in Latin America
Evelyn Pringle
Serotonin Syndrome
Eamonn McCann
Irish Peace Dividend for Discredited Premiers
Website of the Day
The Pagan Science Monitor
May 7, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Great Wall of Baghdad Rises
Monica Benderman
Land of Opportunity
Greg Moses
Hutto Prison Rebuffs UN Rapporteur
Rannie Amiri
The Sham at Sheikh: Iraq Regional Conference a Flop
Fitrakis / Wasserman
Media Silence on Kent State Revelations
Fred Wilhelms
Another Royalty Forfeiture From SoundExchange: And This Time
It's Secret!
Ramzy Baroud
The Hourglass of Blood: Darfur Revisited
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats Don't Own the Antiwar Movement
T. W. Croft
Home Movies from a Weekend in Paris--And Related Dreamscapes
Sonja Karkar
Prizes for Supporting Israel?
Website of the Day
Posada Carriles: the Declassified Record
May 5 / 6, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Trying
to Catch Up with the Voters
William Blum
How America Has Changed Iraq
Uri Avnery
Exercise in Escapism
Franklin Lamb
Harvard's Twisted Report on Israel's Invasion of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Elective Surgeries Kill
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The American Moral Meltdown Accelerates
Missy Beattie
Lying and Dying: The Moral Sensibility
of Military Recruiters
Robert Fantina
Bush's Veto: Hypocritical Words and Actions
Carla Blank
American Massacres and the Media
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The Long Ordeal of Harold Wilson
Stephen F. Jackson
Taking It to Drummond: Paramilitaries and Mining Companies in
Colombia
P. Sainath
The Jailing of Indian Farmers
Anthony Papa
Time to End New York's War on Itself
James T. Phillips
Blather Cancer
John Ross
Last Days of the Willie Loman of the EZLN
Stephen Lendman
Chavez's Oil Policy Sparks Panic at Wall Street Journal
Ben Terrall
Iggy Pop at 60
CounterPunch
Newswire
Advice from a Geezer Assassin
Poets' Basement
Valentine, Engel and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Mountain Justice Summer
May 4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
How
the Surge is Failing
Col. Dan Smith
From Watergate to Gonzogate
Norman Solomon
FOX on Wall Street
Azmi Bishara
Why is Israel After Me?
Ron Jacobs
Sitting in on Senator Kohl and the War
Dave Lindorff
Clinton and Byrd are Calling for Revocation of the Wrong AUMF
Kevin Zeese
The Democrats Cave to Bush
Bob Fitrakis
Why Four Died in Ohio: Kent State, Gov. Rhodes and the FBI
Janet Kauffman
"Stop the Mudness!" Bare Earth is Scorched Earth
Website of
the Day
Let Us Gather in Missouri!
May 3, 2007
Jeff Halper
The
Livni-Rice Plan for the Middle East: a Just Peace or Apartheid?
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's
Best and Brightest: From Dr. Keroack to Bernard Kerik
Dave Zirin
Talking Sports from Death Row: an Interview with Kevin Cooper
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Big Pharma Gets Its Hooks into Seton Hall Law School
Robert Fisk
Olmert Comes Undone
Mike Ferner
Bush Veto, Right for the Wrong Reasons?
Mike Whitney
A Stock Market Post-Mortem
Pham Binh
The Democrats and War Funding
Dave Lindorff
Kucinich's Impeachment Train: Look Who Just Stepped Aboard
Michael A.
Johnson
Tenet on 60 Minutes
Website of the Day
Olivia Wilde: the Interview
May 2, 2007
Saul Landau
Would
Jesus Wear a Rolex on His TV Show?
Dr. Susan Block
Hookergate II: Madame Julia's Big Black Book of Cheesy Republican
Sex Acts
Carla Blank
Historical Amnesia: Worst U.S. Massacre?
Margaret Kimberly
The Candor of Mike Gravel: "These People Frighten Me"
Kevin Zeese
Durbin Gives Edwards More to Apologize For
Carlos Villareal
How "Law and Order" Covers for Bigotry in the Immigration
Debate
Michael Dickinson
Trouble in Turkey: Criminalizing Political Art
Tim Shorrock
A Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul: Corporate Interventionism
as Trade Policy
Alevtina Rea
The Myth-Makers of Estonia
William S.
Lind
General Incompetence: Col. Yingling and the Military Brass
Website of the Day
Good News: Rost's "ZubeGate Exposé Prompts Congressional
Inquiry
May 1, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
How
Rumsfeld Micromanaged Torture
Fred Gardner
Affirmative Abstinence: Adios, Randall Tobias, the Man Who Turned
His Wife's Suicide into a Sales Pitch for Prozac
Chase Madar
Are Working Class Jobs Bad for Your Health?
Ralph Nader
Cheney and the BYU 25: Faith, Accountability and Protest in Utah
John V. Walsh
Edgy Dems Snarl at Their Antiwar Base
Joshua Frank
Obama, Incorporated
Leslie Radford
The Migrant Trap and the Migrant's Way Out
Shaun Harkin
An Interview with Nativo López on Immigration Bills and
Protests
Dave Lindorff
Murtha Talks Impeachment
Peter Rost,
MD
Inspector General Requests Meeting with Pfizer Whistleblower
Peter Linebaugh
May Day and Magna Carta
Website of
the Day
Impeachment? Why Bother?
|
June
19, 2007
Barry Bonds and Jack Johnson
The
Unforgiven
By DAVE ZIRIN
BARRY BONDS: Home Run King. As the San
Francisco Giants slugger approaches Henry Aaron's record for
career homers, this probability seems to be turning otherwise
rational people upside down, as Bonds has encountered an almost
surreal level of hostility. The rage was on full display this
past weekend in Boston, where Bonds had already made friends
in 2004 by saying, "Boston is too racist for me." (To
read background on that particular tempest in a Boston teapot,
check out "Barry Bonds vs.
Boston" )
But the bellowing fury directed
at Bonds is hardly resigned to the good people of Beantown. Outside
the San Francisco Bay Area, it has become a peculiar kind of
national obsession.
Sports has always had its anti-heroes,
but the antipathy directed at Bonds by both media and "fans"
has been of a different texture. It doesn't just boo: it seethes.
Some say they can't stand Bonds
because they suspect -with the smug certitude of having received
holy writ -that he has used steroids. (For a full discussion
on the hypocrisy of anti-steroid hysteria, check out my article,
"The
juice and the noose,"
Others say it is his "surly
attitude," or "bad sportsmanship."
But much of the reaction to
Bonds is simply bad old-fashioned racism. Not since Jack Johnson
has an athlete become the repository for so much racial animus
-and revealed broader gaps in Black and white perceptions-as
Barry Lamar Bonds.
JACK JOHNSON
In 1908, when Jack Johnson
became the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, his victory
created a serious crisis in the "conventional wisdom"
about race. When Johnson told the world to go to hell and openly
consorted with white women, crisis became hysteria. The media
whipped up a frenzy around the need for a "great white hope"
(a phrase coined by author Jack London) to restore order to the
boxing world-and the world in general. Former champion Jim Jeffries
was coaxed out of retirement and said, "I am going into
this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is
better than a Negro."
In the weeks before their fight,
Johnson-in stark contrast to the standard African-American posture
of the day-was more than willing to be heard. In a July 4, 1910,
Philadelphia Inquirer story titled, "Johnson believes he's
Jeff's  master," he is quoted
as saying, "I honestly believe that in pugilism I am Jeffries'
master, and it is my purpose to demonstrate this in the most
decisive way possible. Let me say in conclusion that I believe
the meeting between Mr. Jeffries and myself will be a great test
of strength, skill, and endurance. The tap of the gong will be
music to me."
This might seem tame by contemporary
standards, but at the time it was verbal TNT. To say he was a
white man's master a mere fifty years after the formal end of
chattel slavery was simply explosive.
But Johnson wasn't merely despised:
he was hated by one Americaand revered-if not loved-by another.
A piece in the Dallas Morning
News titled, "Negroes praying for Johnson," reads,
"Some others fear trouble if he [Johnson] wins and are consequently
boosting Jeffries. For the first time Independence Day will be
enjoyed as a real holiday by the Negroes tomorrow."
When Jeffries and Johnson finally
squared off, the ringside band played, "All Coons Look Alike
to Me," and promoters led the all-white crowd in the chant
"Kill the nigger." But Johnson was faster, stronger,
and smarter than Jeffries, knocking him out with ease. In an
early incarnation of the information superhighway, young children
working as "telegram runners" ran through city streets
shouting out the progress after each round.
As Johnson wrote in his autobiography,
More than 25,000 people had
gathered to watch the fight, and as I looked about me, and scanned
that sea of white faces I felt the auspiciousness of the occasion.
There were few men of my own race among the spectators. I realized
that my victory in this event meant more than on any previous
occasion. It wasn't just the championship that was at stake-it
was my own honor, and in a degree the honor of my own race. The
"white hope" had failed.
This was no idle boast. As
the New York World wrote, "That Mr. Johnson should so lightly
and carelessly punch the head of Mr. Jeffries must come as a
shock to every devoted believer in the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon
race."
But far more important than
respect gained from the New York World, was his folkloric status
in the Black community. As one spiritual sang,
"Amaze an' Grace, how
sweet it sounds,
Jack Johnson knocked Jim Jeffries
down.
Jim Jeffries jumped up an'
hit Jack on the chin,
An' then Jack knocked him down
agin.
The Yankees hold the play,
The white man pulls the trigger;
But it make no difference what
the white man say,
The world champion's still
a nigger"
After Johnson's victory, there
were race riots around the country-in Illinois, Missouri, New
York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas, and Washington, D.C.
Most of the riots consisted of white lynch mobs attacking Blacks,
and Blacks fighting back.
This reaction to a boxing match
was the most widespread racial uprising that the U.S. had ever
seen-or would see-until the 1968 assassination of civil rights
leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Right-wing religious groups
immediately organized to ban boxing. Congress actually passed
a law banning boxing films.
Even some Black leaders pushed
Johnson to condemn African Americans for rioting, and to toe
the line. But Johnson remained defiant. For this mortal sin-and
a variety of venal ones-he faced harassment and persecution for
most of his life. He was forced into exile in 1913 on the trumped-up
charge of transporting a white woman across state lines for prostitution.
As Johnson wrote in his autobiography, "In the Ring and
Out," as soon as he defeated Jeffries, "From that minute
on, the hunt for the 'white hope' was redoubled, and when it
proceeded with so little success other methods were taken to
dispose of me.
Booker T. Washington, the Black
leader who founded the Tuskegee Institute and believed that Blacks
should abstain from any kind of agitation, couldn't stand Johnson.
He said with unvarnished scorn,
I can only say at this time,
that this is another illustration of the almost irreparable injury
that a wrong action on the part of a single individual may do
to a whole race. It shows the folly of those persons who think
that they alone will be held responsible for the evil that they
do. Especially is this true in the case of the Negro in the United
States today. No one can do so much injury to the Negro race
as the Negro himself. This will seem to many persons unjust,
but no one can doubt that it is true. What makes the situation
seem a little worse in this case, is the fact that it was the
white man, not the black man who has given Jack Johnson the kind
of prominence he has enjoyed up to now and put him, in other
words, in a position where he has been able to bring humiliation
upon the whole race of which he is a member.
Washington's contempt for Johnson
didn't stop him, however, from setting aside a special assembly
room at his Tuskegee Institute to hear special telegraphic reports
of Johnson's fights.
A far different reaction to
Johnson was articulated by Washington's great rival, W. E. B.
DuBois. DuBois, a towering intellectual, was one of the first
to try to put the moralizing about "violence" in sports-and
the street violence associated with Jack Johnson-in some sort
of context. As he wrote in the Crisis, the organ of the NAACP,
in 1914,
"There is today some brutality
connected with boxing, but as compared with football and boat
racing it may be seriously questioned whether boxing deserves
to be put in a separate class by reason of its cruelty. Certainly
it is a highly civilized pastime as compared with the international
game of war which produces so many "heroes" and "national
monuments." Boxing has fallen into disfavor-into very great
disfavor. The cause is clear: Jack Johnsonhas out-sparred an
Irishman. He did it with little brutality, the utmost fairness
and great good nature. He did not "knock" his opponent
senseless. Apparently he did not even try. Neither he nor his
race invented prize fighting or particularly like it. Why then
this thrill of national disgust? Because Johnson is Black."
BONDS
Barry Bonds is today's Jack
Johnson. Like Johnson, he is a dominator in his sport, a pantheon
player: the only person in baseball history with 500 home runs
and 500 stolen bases, a seven-time Most Valuable Player, and
eventual home run king.
He is also, like Johnson, someone
who plays with a mammoth chip on his shoulder, a chip handed
down-as one writer put it-"like an heirloom" from his
father, Bobby Bonds, a talented player of the 1960s skewered
by the media and front offices for his own pro-pride, pro-union
politics.
It is hardly difficult to find
sportswriters or sports fan blogs slamming Bonds as a steroid
using, foul-mouthed malcontent. But even players have broken
ranks to jump on his back. Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling,
a man with GOP senatorial aspirations said, "He admitted
to cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes, and cheating
on the game." (Actually, none of that is true. Leaked grand
jury testimony had Bonds saying he unintentionally used a steroid
cream. The other two allegations are unproven.) It was so bombastic,
sports columnists and talk radio yappers criticized Schilling
and he was forced to offer an apology.
But the same writers who slammed
Schilling perhaps did so because he was taking their shtick.
The amount of media detritus hurled at Bonds boggles the mind.
As Jeff Pearlman, a writer
for ESPN wrote,
Barry Bonds is an evil man.
A truly evil man. As a husband, he has cheated on both his wives.
As a father, he has been absent and indifferent. As a role model,
he has spit at autograph seekers and directed kids to "f--
off." As a Giant, he has held a franchise hostage and refused
to help teammates in need. As a blatant abuser of steroids and
human growth hormone, he has deprived the game of integrity and
turned its record books into mush.
Jemele Hill, one of the scant
few African-American women with a high profile voice in sports
wrote,
God, can you smite Barry Bonds
before he breaks Major League Baseball's all-time home run record?
(OK, maybe smiting is a little extreme. Could you conjure up
some locusts every time he bats? Give him a few boils? Crack
a stone tablet over his head?) I know the Bible says vengeance
is your department. But might you consider speeding things up?
Dan Le Batard, a columnist
for the Miami Herald, said something very incisive about Bonds'
relationship to the media in an interview with the remarkable
sports blog The Starting Five:
He's got no use for us. Every
step of the way we agitate his defiance all the more. Every step
of the way he has less reason to trust us. Think about it this
way. If Barry Bonds and Terrell Owens are the two most controversial
athletes in sports, do they have an arrest between them? What
are they really doing that makes them so polarizing? They are
urinating on some of our Utopian ideas of sportsmanship.
Owens is a revealing parallel.
He has never been accused of ingesting anything anabolic, but
still is torn apart by the press for our entertainment. But it's
the comparison to Jack Johnson that carries more than abstract
similarities. Like Johnson, Bonds has also earned the ample attention
of the federal government that has joined the media in the Get
Barry Brigade.
In 2004, Attorney General John
Ashcroft, a man perhaps best known for losing his Missouri Senate
seat to a dead man while slobbering on the Confederate flag,
hosted a press conference to announce a forty-two-count indictment
against four men in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO)
case. It was odd for the U.S. Attorney General to be front and
center, with the cameras on full blast. This was like shooting
a fawn with an AK-47-a case of extreme overkill. The worst-kept
secret was that the case had nothing to do with BALCO's leader,
a former bassist for the band Wild Cherry named Victor Conte.
This was about BALCO's most famous client-Barry Bonds.
Since that time the FBI has
even approached players about wearing a wire in an effort to
get Bonds on tape admitting steroid use. The FBI could then presumably
prosecute him for perjury in the BALCO case, where he said he
unintentionally used a steroid cream. Mike Celizic, who reported
the story for MSNBC, called the investigation a "witch hunt.
It's not about cleaning up the game; it's about putting Barry
Bonds in jail." He is right. Federal prosecutors have made
it all too clear that they want to imprison Bonds for perjury,
tax evasion, anything short of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.
One writer cited an agent saying, "He's our Capone."
The anti-Bonds cottage industry
has become so bombastic, so disproportionate to his alleged offenses,
that it is having an ugly and divisive effect on society.
Consider an ESPN/ABC News poll
released in May. Black fans are more than twice as likely as
their white counterparts to want Bonds to break Aaron's record
of 755 homers (74 percent versus 28 percent) and nearly twice
as likely to think that the slugger has been treated unfairly
(46 percent versus 25 percent), according to the poll. Black
and white supporters of Bonds were then asked why they believed
that the slugger is so hated. About 41 percent of Black fans
said suspected steroids use was the reason, while 25 percent
cited race and 21 percent blamed Bonds' "in your face"
attitude. By contrast, two-thirds of white sympathizers cited
the steroids issue, with virtually none mentioning race.
When asked about the poll,
Jemele Hill said: "It's too bad some people are more concerned
with race than right. Blacks have been unjustly persecuted in
the court of law and public opinion, but supporting one lout
doesn't erase, compensate [for] or change those injustices."
But the Black-white divide
on Bonds is not about people being "more concerned with
race than right." Rather, it represents a visceral response
to the way Bonds has been subjected to criticism when white players
with reputations of steroid use haven't gotten nearly the heat
he has. For instance, suspicions have swirled around future Hall
of Fame pitcher Roger Clemens, but he hasn't come close to receiving
Bonds' level of media and investigative scrutiny.
I have been a guest on both
mainstream sports and Black radio, and the Bonds discussion is
like visiting two alternate universes. Mainstream radio is a
veritable "I hate Barry" parade. Callers typically
deflect charges of racism by saying: "We're not racists.
We just hate his guts because he's a cheater!" But on Black
radio, I am sometimes seriously asked, "Do you think Bonds
will be physically harmed?" That I'm asked such a question
points up how dangerous the atmosphere surrounding Bonds' march
to history has become.
AARON'S STANCE |
