Bush Call Off Your Dogs!: The US Can End
the Killing it Started in Haiti
by Glen Ford and Peter Gamble

In willful ignorance and
with every bad intention, the U.S. corporate media ask the ridiculous
question, Should the US intervene in Haiti, or not? The bloody answer
screams back from the Haitian mountains and cities: Washington has
already intervened militarily in Haiti, through its surrogates’ armed
invasion from the Dominican Republic. The Americans set loose the dogs of
war, and can rein them back in – if Washington chooses. Any discussion
that fails to acknowledge the U.S. role in nurturing the
several-hundred-man force that has systematically overrun much of the
country, is a conversation divorced from reality. . . (full
article)

Invading Iraq to Appease
Bin Laden
by Ahmed Amr

Chances are, you don’t
depend on Murdoch’s morons or CNN’s neo-con pundits for your daily news fix.
Otherwise, you wouldn’t be searching alternative media sites for the real
reasons we went to war. By now, events have confirmed your initial hunch
that the WMDs were a bogus contrived ‘intelligence failure’ to justify the
invasion of Iraq. As Wolfowitz would put it, the WMDs were just a
‘bureaucratic’ sideshow to rally Americans and get ‘international
legitimacy’, a British requirement to shield Tony Blair from breaking
English law. With the absent WMDs no longer an issue, one needs to focus on
how the war was sold inside the Bush administration. How exactly did the
White House insiders talk themselves into this mess? The secret agenda for
this undeclared ‘preemptive’ war of choice may never be fully known. Chances
are, each faction of the Bush administration had a unique rationale for
promoting the invasion. . . (full article)

Gaffes and Gullibility: The
NY Times Gets it Wrong
by Jim Lobe

If Walter Lippman,
perhaps the most influential US press critic and foreign-policy columnist of
the 20th century, were alive today, chances are he would shake his head
knowingly and mutter something like, "The more things change, the more they
remain the same." After all, it was in 1920 that he and a colleague, Charles
Merz, wrote in their analysis of New York Times coverage of the Bolshevik
Revolution between 1917 and 1920 that the newspaper's reporting on Russia
during that period was "nothing short of a disaster". In an article in The
New Republic magazine, they wrote that the Times had reported the imminent
or actual end of the Soviet regime "not once or twice, but 91 times in the
two years from November, 1917 to November 1919". "They [Times journalists]
were performing the supreme duty in a democracy of supplying the information
on which public opinion feeds, and they were derelict in that duty," added
Lippman and Merz. How had the Times gotten things so wrong? Eighty-four
years later, the same question is being asked about the performance of the
mass media - especially the Times - on reporting about Iraq, particularly
the prewar and even postwar assumptions that the country possessed vast
stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and had reconstituted its
nuclear-arms program. . . (full article)

Star Wars
by Peter Kurth

What a shame to think that the
universe has only 30 billion years to go before it loses its battle with
some “mysterious, repulsive force” and either “expands so incredibly that it
ends in a Big Rip” or, conversely, changes course and smashes us to a pulp,
in a final, cataclysmic “Big Crunch.” Scientists are calling this force
"dark energy," with a nod to Einstein, but in fact they have no idea what's
causing it. "Galaxies are receding from each other at an ever-faster pace,”
is the most they can say. "Gravity is losing,” news that's bound to upset
the God Bless America, One Man-One Woman, Four Cars in Every Driveway crowd.
. . (full article)

An Enemy of the People
by John Chuckman

Ralph Nader has defined a
perfect moral dilemma for thinking Americans. He finds himself in a
situation resembling that of Dr. Stockmann in Ibsen's drama, "An Enemy of
the People." Dr. Stockmann discovered the municipal baths were
contaminated, but good burghers worried about the destructive effects of
the truth on the town did not want the doctor revealing it. A number of
America's good burghers, fearing the effect of Nader's candidacy on the
Democratic candidate's prospects, have warned him against running for
office, some are reported to have stopped supporting the many worthy
public-service organizations he founded, and some are writing nasty little
pieces calling him names. . . (full
article)

Edward Said, the late great
Palestinian fighter for the liberation of his people, was entirely too
charitable when he criticized Israel’s ‘generous offer’ of Bantustans for
the native people of the Holy Land. The tiniest proposed Bantustan by the
former Apartheid regime in South Africa was larger than the entire land area
of Gaza. And larger than the 42% of the West Bank that make up the barbed
wire enclaves and walled ghettos Sharon is offering as his version of a
‘Palestinian State’. "The
monstrosity that is the Apartheid wall speaks volumes about how far Israelis
have strayed from even the most minimal notions of liberty and justice. Even
as you read this, an ugly concrete wall is being constructed to prevent a
Palestinian farmer from reaching the fields where his ancestors planted the
family’s olive trees. In many cases, his family will literally be deprived
from even embracing the rays of the sun. Sharon’s Apartheid wall will cast
an all day shadow like a permanent fog to suffocate entire neighborhoods."
Extended families will have to make
choices on which side of the wall to reside. Ailing parents will not be
visited for evening coffee. Local schools, hospitals, churches and mosques
will be on the ‘other side’ of an eighteen-foot barricade. Virtually, the
entire occupied population will be within walking distance of the wall.
These are not Bantustans by any stretch of the imagination, more like large
walled compounds. In America they call them prisons. The open spaces outside
your front door are jail yards. Passes will be required to move from one
barbed wire enclave to another. . . (full
article)

When Outsourcing Is (Not) Good For US
Workers
by Seth Sandronsky

In America, those who
work or are struggling to find it are catching hell. The jobless recovery,
plus state and local government spending cuts are helping to depress wages
as the cost of health care soars. Some U.S. political elites and media
commentators smell blood. Their talk reflects this feeding frenzy. . .
(full article)

The Greenspan Solution: Cut
From Those Who Need It the Most
by Norma Sherry

Franklin Delano Roosevelt must be turning in
his grave. Entitlement programs, hogwash. Medicare, phooey. Medicaid, who
the hell cares? After-school programs, let them take care of themselves.
Social Security, let ‘em cake. The New Deal is a dead deal, who cares
about the little weasels? According to Federal Reserve guru, Alan
Greenspan, who is obviously in touch with the man and woman on the street,
in the ghetto, in the old-age home, in the nursing home, living hand to
mouth, he proclaims the answer to our financial woes of an overly
exuberant and financially-bankrupt administration is to cut from those who
need it the most. Greenspan offered his latest mutterings, not as a
spokesperson of the Federal Reserve, as if one could separate the man who
wields so much power from his titled position of “Federal Reserve
Chairman”. Not one word did he whisper to our billions of dollars to fight
a war that should never have been. Not one word did he growl about the tax
breaks zealously given to our corporations. The same corporations, by the
way, who have tax shelters up the ying yang, off-shore headquarters
created solely to exonerate them from our tax-paying laws, and who have
de-railed the American worker by importing and exporting cheap labor.
Nada. Not a word. . .
(full article)

February 26-27

Dances With Cruxifixes
by Leilla Matsui

The
carefully crafted controversy surrounding actor Mel Gibson's much hyped
directorial debut "The Passion of the Christ" over its alleged
anti-Semitic message (Jews killed Christ, now they want to kill my movie)
will likely succeed in tempting millions of Americans to sit through a
film with subtitles for the first time in their lives. How they'll manage
to move their lips in the dark with Mars Bars and corn dogs stuffed in
their mouths is anyone's guess, which is probably why it's never been
tried before. America's Christian majority have cause to rejoice over
Hollywood's temporary transformation into "Holywood". Families can now
safely venture into cineplexes without worrying about what Pee-Wee Herman
may have left on the seat. So much for "secular excitement." Some might
argue that a man being impaled, flayed alive and left to bake in the
desert could hardly be categorized as wholesomely edifying entertainment,
unless of course you're Mel Gibson's dominatrix. . . (full
article)

Spying On UN Secretary
General Part Of Larger Campaign to
Undermine UN Missions In Iraq
by Jason Leopold

More evidence emerged
Thursday about the United States and Britain’s underhanded tactics aimed
at undermining the United Nations Security Council as it considered a
U.S.-backed resolution in launching a preemptive strike against Iraq last
year. Clare Short, a former member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s
cabinet, told the BBC that British intelligence officials spied on UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan during the run-up to war in Iraq so it could
learn how Security Council members would vote on the resolution. Short
said she read transcripts produced by British spies who allegedly bugged
Annan’s office before the Iraq war. A UN spokesman said any such
espionage, if true, would be illegal. . . (full
article)

Janet Jackson, George
Bush, and No. 524:
There Are No Half-Time Shows in War
by Walter Brasch

On the day that Justin
Timberlake ripped open Janet Jackson’s blouse during the half-time of the
Super Bowl to reveal a bejeweled breast and create a national firestorm of
protest, American Soldiers 523 and 524 died in Iraq. Along with the two
American soldiers, 14 were wounded. Also that day, two suicide bombers
killed more than 100 Kurds and wounded more than 200. Back in the United
States, CBS, which broadcast the game, MTV which produced the half-time
show, and Viacom, which owns both CBS and MTV, said they were shocked and
outraged that Timberlake and Jackson would do such a despicable act. The NFL
said it was “embarrassed.” The two singers claim the blouse-ripping was the
result of a “wardrobe malfunction.” The network, of course, said little
about the crotch-grabbing rump-slapping other parts of the show. . . (full
article)

UN Spying and Evasions of
American Journalism
by Norman Solomon

Tony Blair and George
W. Bush want the issue of spying at the United Nations to go away. That’s
one of the reasons the Blair government ended its prosecution of
whistleblower Katharine Gun on Wednesday (Feb. 25). But within 24 hours, the
scandal of U.N. spying exploded further when one of Blair’s former cabinet
ministers said that British spies closely monitored conversations of U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq last
year. . .
(full article)

The US lawyer representing the
government of Haiti charged today that the US government is directly
involved in a military coup attempt against the country's democratically
elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ira Kurzban, the Miami-based
attorney who has served as General Counsel to the Haitian government since
1991, said that the paramilitaries fighting to overthrow Aristide are being
backed by Washington. . . (full article)

Criminal Dissent: Are Recent Tactics in
Iowa Part of a Larger Bush Administration Effort to Punish Dissent?
by Bill Berkowitz

In the early 1970s, Guy
Goodwin, a Special Prosecutor working for U.S. Attorney General John
Mitchell -- who was soon to become a star player in President Richard
Nixon's Watergate scandal -- convened grand juries across the country to
target radicals, anti-war activists, unions, and others. Goodwin,
characterized by the Center for Constitutional Rights as the "grand
inquisitor of the politically motivated grand jury," was a man on a mission.
Unlike thirty years ago, the convening of grand juries by John Ashcroft's
Department of Justice is only one weapon in the administration's
anti-dissent arsenal, Michael Avery, President of the National Lawyers Guild
(NLG) told TomPaine.com in a telephone interview. "This administration is
trying to criminalize dissent, characterize protesters as terrorists and
trying to intimidate and marginalize those opposed to its policies," Avery
said. It has opened the floodgates to all kinds of investigative activities
and now "police agencies across the country are actively engaged in spying
and compiling dossiers on citizens exercising their constitutional rights."
. . . (full article)

The Military Death Toll
While Enforcing the Occupation of Iraq:
US-uk Military Fatalities Post May 1, 2003
by Paul de Rooij

Paul de Rooij's weekly examination of
"coalition" deaths in Iraq since May 1, 2003
(full article)

A Challenge to the Politics of "Lesser
Evilism"
by Alan Maass

The Democrats claim that they oppose George
W. Bush and his right-wing agenda. But they save their real poison for
challengers from their left. Last weekend, Ralph Nader announced that he
would run as an independent candidate in the 2004 presidential
election--and was met with a tidal wave of abuse and slander. "It’s
dishonesty of the highest level to say ‘I’m running as an independent,’
when all he’s doing is helping elect Bush, and he knows it," ranted New
York City Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman, a former member of Congress. "He’s
nothing but a shill for George Bush." New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
declared that "it’s about [Nader], it’s about his ego, it’s about his
vanity, and not about a movement." It takes a special kind of arrogance to
dismiss as a "shill" someone with Ralph Nader’s decades of political
accomplishments--or for a power-hungry hack like Bill Richardson to
suddenly offer himself as a spokesperson for "the movement." But when it
comes to denouncing Nader, nothing is out of bounds. . . (full
article)

Why I'm Running for
President
by Ralph Nader

The following is a transcript of a news
conference with Ralph Nader at the National Press Club in Washington, DC,
February 23, 2004, transcribed by Federal News Service Inc: Today
I enter the 2004 elections as an independent candidate for the presidency
of the United States, to join with all Americans who wish to declare their
independence from corporate rule and its domination. The exercised
sovereignty of the people in our history has brought forth solutions to
the people, the justice they created and the futures they desired for
their children. . .
(full article)

Ralph's Dark Side: Mr. Nader and the
Newmanites
by Doug Ireland

When Ralph Nader announced his
presidential candidacy on Meet the Press, that he’s running wasn’t as
surprising as his rationale for doing so. Nader offered as his principal
reason his “desire to retire” George Bush. Just how did Nader assert his
candidacy would do that? Why, because he’ll take votes from “conservatives
furious with Bush over the deficit” and “liberal Republicans who see their
party being taken away from them.” The notion that Nader this year could
ever peel off enough right-wing votes from Bush to tip the election against
him is, quite simply, delusional. Pretending he could do so is only the
latest evidence that Nader has completely lost his judgment. . . Worse,
Nader has now jumped into bed with the ultrasectarian cult-racket formerly
known as the New Alliance Party and its guru, Fred Newman . . . (full
article)

Winning with Ralph Nader
by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

Listening to Democrats
screaming about Ralph Nader's entry into the presidential race we finally
understand the mindset of those Communist dictatorships that used to take
such trouble to ensure that the final count showed a 99 percent Yes vote
for the CP candidate. It's a totalitarian logic. "Anybody But Bush" chorus
the Democrats. But they don't mean that. They mean, "Nobody But Kerry".
And if John Edward wins big in the primaries next week, they'll start
shouting "Nobody But Edwards".What they're saying is that no one has the
right to challenge Bush but a Democrat, whoever that Democrat might be, no
matter what that Democrat stands for. . . (full
article)

Birth of a New Movement for
Civil Rights: Separate is not equal. That’s the message of the gay civil
rights movement that has burst forth across the US, inspired by the fight
for the right of gays and lesbians to marry.
by Elizabeth Schulte, Steve Trussell and Sherry Wolf

Thousands of gays and
lesbians lined up at City Hall in San Francisco when Mayor Gavin Newsom
announced February 12 that the city would issue marriage licenses to
same-sex couples, in defiance of state law. "A lot of us had already said
‘I do’ in our own private ceremonies years earlier," said Kathryn Lybarger,
describing the scene. "But the tears coming down this time came from the
understanding that we were saying ‘I do’ together, for the first time in
history. My friend James said it felt something like the end of apartheid,
or the Berlin Wall coming down." By February 20, more than 3,000 couples
had taken part in wedding ceremonies. "There’s going to be a lot of push
around the country for gay marriage now" . . .
(full article)

Damn the Dams: An Interview with Medha
Patkar
by Robert Jensen

Over the past two
decades the struggle against dam projects that threaten the right to life
and livelihood for the people of India's Narmada valley has grown into one
of the world's largest non-violent social movements. Activist Medha Patkar
has been at the center of these struggles, gaining worldwide notoriety for
sharp analysis and courageous activism that has included long fasts,
police beatings and jail. . . (full article)

The Crats of
Hebron
by Mary La Rosa

Hebron,
Ancient City,
HolyCity....not aCity any more:
Hebron, hallowed or not, like most cities or towns in the Occupied
Territories, oncebeautiful places in which to live,
delightful cultural and religious places to visit, is now a divided military
zone. Instead of villages and squares there are divisions with zone names
like "Area H-2", for areas where people once lived free from occupation
and were able to honor sacred places in a diversity that supplied prosperity for many. Hebron is a city illegally occupied by an
army that does not belong there, but who are there to provide safety and
protection for settlers who do not belong there either.
(full article)

The Governor of Ohio, Bob
Taft, and other prominent state officials, commute to their downtown
Columbus offices on Broad Street. This is the so-called “Golden Finger,”
the safe route through the majority black inner-city near east side. The
Broad Street BP station, just east of downtown, is the place where
affluent suburbanites from Bexley can stop, gas up, get their coffee and
New York Times. Those in need of cash visit BP’s Diebold manufactured
CashSource+ ATM machine which provides a paper receipt of the transaction
to all customers upon request. Many of Taft’s and President George W.
Bush’s major donors, like Diebold’s current CEO Walden “Wally” O’Dell,
reside in Columbus’ northwest suburb Upper Arlington. O’Dell is on record
stating that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes
to the President” this year. On September 26, 2003, he hosted an Ohio
Republican Party fundraiser for Bush’s re-election at his Cotswold Manor
mansion. Tickets to the fundraiser cost $1000 per couple, but O’Dell’s
fundraising letter urged those attending to “Donate or raise $10,000 for
the Ohio Republican Party.”
(full article)

Mandatory Same-Sex
Marriage
by Richard Oxman

Gavin Newsom, San
Francisco's sweetheart of a mayor, did a fine job on Ted Koppel's show the
other night. The congresswoman from Colorado who was trying to trip him
up with suggestions that same-sex marriage would open the door to
proselytizing for polygamy was perfectly put in her place. He called her
on the "red herring," making several other three-pointers from about
half-court in Teddy's gym. And he did it all with winning ear-to-ear
smiles, providing (political) over-the-shoulder saves a la Willie Mays at
the Polo Grounds. Or, rather, the Jordanesque equivalent. . . (full
article)

Anticipating the Capture of Osama bin Laden
by Ahmed Bouzid

Howard Dean's bubble
didn't burst in Iowa with his manic rebel yell of defeat, nor was it
punctured by Al Gore's kiss of death: the bubble vanished on December 13,
2003, the day Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces. . . There is a
cautionary tale and an important lesson here not only for the current
Democratic front-runner, but also for the opposition in general. John
Kerry -- if his bandwagon continues to fill merrily -- and those who are
managing his campaign need to psychologically prepare the electorate for
the possible capture of Osama bin Laden. Democrats simply cannot afford a
replay of their Dear-in-the-headlights Saddam capture performance. . . (full
article)

February
24-25

The Breast That
Changed the World
by Barbara Sumner Burstyn

In my living room in
New Zealand, half-way through last week's episode of the banal, overhyped
The Osbournes, it dawned on me what was so weird: you could hear every
word. Watch the same show in the US and you need to lip-read your way
round the almost continuous beeping-out of bad words. The same day I read
yet another attack on Janet Jackson. Across America her supposedly
sexually explicit breast baring has unleashed a torrent of moral effluvia.
Book-ended with the "outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury"
Super Bowl viewers were said to have suffered was the so-called scandal
being fanned round John Kerry, the Democratic presidential hopeful with
the allegedly sleazy past. It seems America just can't get enough of moral
outrage. It's as if a new spirit of moral conservatism is sweeping the
country that goes far beyond a few outraged citizens complaining away the
rights of others to listen to the Osbournes swear and curse. . . (full
article)

Halliburton, VP Cheney’s Former
Company Faces
Second Criminal Probe In Four Years
by Jason Leopold

Halliburton and its former
chief executive, Vice President Dick Cheney, could become President Bush’s
Achilles heel come the November presidential election. On Monday, the
Pentagon said it launched a criminal investigation into allegations that
Halliburton Inc. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root overcharged the federal
government upwards of $65 million for fuel delivered into Baghdad during
the Iraq war. . . (full article)

The Sleaze Behind
Our Science: The Conflicts of
Interest Revealed
by the MMR Story are Everywhere
by George Monbiot

Pity
Andrew Wakefield. The doctor who suggested that there might be a link
between the MMR vaccine and autism, causing thousands of parents to refuse
to let their children have the jab, is being paraded through the nation with
the label "cheat" hung round his neck. The General Medical Council is
deciding whether to charge him with professional misconduct, MPs have called
for an inquiry, and the newspapers are tearing him to bits. There's little
doubt that he messed up. Some of his findings have been disproved by further
studies, and we now know that when he published his paper he failed to
reveal that he was taking money from the Legal Aid Board. The board was
paying him to discover, on behalf of parents hoping to sue for damages,
whether or not the jab was harmful. It looks like a conflict of interest,
and his failure to disclose it was wrong. But the crime for which the new Dr
Evil is being punished is everywhere. The scientific establishment is rotten
from top to bottom, riddled with conflicts far graver than Dr Wakefield's.
Such is the state of science today that if, for example, there HAS been a
genuine rise in the incidence of autism, and if that rise is linked to an
environmental pollutant or the side-effects of a valuable drug, it's hard to
see how we would ever find out. . . (full
article)

Inequality and Unity
in the 2004 Presidential Election
by Seth Sandronsky

Separate and unequal.
That reality is now a part of the 2004 run for the White House. Democratic
senator and presidential candidate John Edwards says there are “two
Americas” of rich and poor. The gap between them has been growing. . .
(full article)

Kicking Around a Peace Prize
by Walter Brasch

The wire services
distributed it.
The news media published it.
Even Netscape put it on its front page.
George W. Bush was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Yes, that George W. Bush. . . (full
article)

Israel's Contempt for the International
Court of Justice is
Inimical to Its Own Interest
by Neve Gordon

Imagine a domestic
terrorist cell loose in the city. They have already murdered a few people.
The intelligence agency claims that members of the black community are
harboring them, and their victims are almost always white. Since the city is
more or less segregated, the police commissioner decides to erect a 25 foot
concrete wall around the different black neighborhoods. All access to and
from each neighborhood is blocked, except for a single gate which is open
from 7 am to 9 am and then again from 5 pm to 7 pm. Special permits to pass
through the gate are distributed to a select few. The black population is
outraged. Their leaders protest the siege and decide to sue the police. In
their petition to the court they underscore that the commissioner’s reaction
constitutes a form of collective punishment informed by racism. Thousands of
innocent men and women cannot reach work, their children cannot attend
schools or universities, hospitals are out of bounds, and patients are dying
because they do not receive medical care. “Our life has become unbearable,”
they say. A date is set for the trial, but a few days before the hearing,
the police commissioner notifies the public that he is unwilling to show up
in court. He summons a press conference and tells the reporters that this is
a security issue, not a legal one. This disturbing story is but an analogy
of the Israeli and Palestinian positions now being argued at the Hague. . .
(full article)

What To Do? Violence Reconsidered
by Richard Oxman

Why are so many people
on the Left caught up with whether or not they can hold Bush accountable for
Crimes Against Humanity? They do a good tap dance around our ongoing
genocidal practices respecting Native Americans, making sure that "genocide"
is only used with reference to Nazi practices of the past. Very convenient
for pulling a red herring respecting our own abominations. But the
practice flies in the face of the fact that we have not been honoring the
very standards we adopted at Nuremberg. In addressing the justification
Americans used to put others to death in 1946 at the trials in Germany, U.S.
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson underscored that ''only as this standard
is accepted, supported and enforced that we can move onward to a world of
law and peace." Our own lebensraumpolitik with regard to Indians,
our daily genocidal policies continuing into the New Century, are
overshadowed by more sexy onslaughts abroad, ones that don't require lefties
to acknowledge their complicity in crimes here at home. American citizens
living today did not start the well-documented Red genocide, but they
certainly enjoy the fruits of what their ancestors have wrought. However,
whether it's the fact that we violated international law in escalating our
war with Iraq, in mining Nicaraguan harbors, or in decimating the Native
Ameican population, we are not living in a nation of laws. Have not been
for quite some time; the only difference since 9/11, perhaps, is that it's
now bone clear to the vast majority of people in the world.I'm afraid the
only alternative to the absence of law is violence. And we are begging for
it. (full article)

What?
by Adam Engel

Bush is an aberration .
Unlike more skillful Republican front men — Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton –
he does not know how to say one thing and do the other. He says what he
means and means what he says. Which is terrifying. He believes in all that
crap about God and Democracy etc, whereas Clinton -- a Republican by any
definition of the term -- knew how to make the folks feel good, while
prosecuting the grim business of Empire. . . (full
article)

By all rights John Kerry should
have been at the top of his form, the night he won the Wisconsin primary.
Even though the six biggest states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, New
York and California have yet to vote, he's been hailed as the Democratic
nominee, with hit teams already on the rampage, hunting down prospective
Nader supporters, rounding up all known and prospective third party
defectors from the Democratic standard, forcing them to kneel and kiss the
Democratic Party platform under pain of death, while playing a tape of DNC
chair Terry McAuliffe screaching "convert or die!" Kerry has emerged from
the bruising kiss of imputed scandal and, unless Ms Alex Polier or other
women inconveniently crop up again, Teresa Heinz won't have to wield the
carving knife she has threatened to deploy to her husband's private parts if
his path to the White House is derailed by sexual scandal. Polier not
withstanding, never has a candidate had to put up with less in the way of
the baptism of sewage that is a vital part of the primary process. Dean and
Clark drew all the fire. John Edwards, who could slice up Kerry in a minute,
has adamantly refused to unleash his forensic artillery. So did Kerry have
the jaunty mien of triumph, that night in Madison? Not that we could see.
His long face, albeit abbreviated by corrective surgery, remained lugubrious
and he stumbled his way tiredly through Bob Shrum's phrases. The one thing
all Democrats this year want is a winner. He doesn't feel like a winner to
us. . .
(full article)

Medicare For All: Now or Never?
by P.
Anthony Farruggio

Forget all the rhetoric, all the logic of the argument. The bottom line is
that this current private healthcare " non system" is beyond repair- its
dead in the water. It does not work and is literally ' killing" millions of
Americans with its negligence and stupidity. The time has come for a better
and more practical way to insure the health of all of our citizens My
proposal is not without flaws, yet generally a huge step in the right
direction- something to build on. . (full
article)

Debate on
Ralph Nader's Presidential Run

Trusting Democrats:
A Familiar Trap
by Mickey Z.

Gadfly is not a word
you hear very often...even the New York Times saves it for special
occasions. For example, when reviewing a book by cognitive scientist Steven
Pinker a few years back, the newspaper of record could not resist taking a
cheap shot at Pinker's MIT colleague, Noam Chomsky...calling him a
"short-tempered political gadfly." On February 23, 2004, the Times dusted it
off again for use in a headline: "Nader, Gadfly to the Democrats, Will Again
Run for President." I guess Ralph has managed to earn a place of honor
alongside Chomsky in the Fit-to-Print hall of shame. Let's get this over
with quickly: Ralph Nader's announced bid for the presidency only disturbs
me in the sense that he chose to run as an independent. Eschewing the Green
Party not only hurts Nader's chances of getting on ballots, it foolishly
ignores the importance of cultivating a movement to go along with the
theory. We must never look to one person for answers and Nader's shunning of
the Greens, I feel, is a tactical error. Having said that, I must say I'm
not surprised to witness the venom being launched in Nader's direction from
frenzied centrists and lefties alike. . . (full
article)

Democrats, Blame Yourselves
by John Turri

Democrats have no one to blame but
themselves. A year ago, you might have thought that the Democrats would at
least nominate someone who hadn't voted in favor of the PATRIOT [sic]
Act and for giving George Bush carte blanche in Iraq. Sadly, you
would have been wrong. If enough Democrats had really wanted Ralph Nader
to not run, they could have prevented it. . . (full
article)

Nader's Tin Ear
by Norman Solomon

With his announcement
Sunday on "Meet the Press" that he's running for president in 2004, Ralph
Nader appears to be politically tone deaf in a year when the crying need
to defeat George W. Bush could hardly be louder or more urgent. . .
(full article)

Nader’s Nadir? Not a Chance!
by Josh Frank

Watch out for the
Democrat backlash, Ralph Nader is running for President as an Independent.
Of course most agree Nader’s run will not accrue nearly as many votes as
his 2000 tally. Nonetheless these weak-kneed liberals are fearful of their
deranged “spoiler” scenario. Hollow political observers like The Nation’s
Eric “I have no spine” Alterman will surely bark a shrill (read kick-me
dog) denouncement of Nader’s bid -- the whole while failing to articulate
a coherent strategy for challenging the corporate entrenched Democrats as
they genuflect at the feet of the Republicans’ every whim. . . (full
article)

The Lone Ranger Of Righteousness
by Paul Rogat Loeb

It's
my right to run.
This is Ralph Nader's core case in announcing his 2004 presidential
candidacy. Yes, Nader has a legal right to run. He also has a legal right
to donate $100,000 to the Republican Party and become a Bush Pioneer, but
that doesn't mean it's a good idea. . . (full
article)

Ralph Nader’s Candidacy Should Not Be Discouraged
by Joseph P. Diaferia

Will he be a spoiler? Will he hurt the
Democrats’ chances of defeating Bush? Did he cost Gore the presidency in
2000? These are inevitable questions whenever the subject of Ralph Nader’s
presidential aspirations arises, and now that he has declared himself a
candidate in the 2004 presidential contest, a chorus of “please don’t
run Ralph” has already emerged among many rank and file Democrats.
While a united front against the Bush regime is necessary, a Nader
candidacy should not immediately be deemed incongruous to such unity. . .
(full article)

Eight Questions for Ralph
Nader
by Ted Glick

Dear
Ralph, Now
that you've now announced your intention to run as an independent for
President this year, and as someone who supported your efforts in 1996 and
2000 and who was open to the possibility of your being the Green Party's
Presidential candidate until about two months ago, I have a number of
questions . . . (full article)

February 21-22

Chalabi,
Garner Provide New Clues to War
by Jim Lobe

For those still puzzling
over the whys and wherefores of Washington's invasion of Iraq 11 months ago,
major new, but curiously unnoticed, clues were offered this week by two
central players in the events leading up to the war. Both clues tend to
confirm growing suspicions that the Bush administration's drive to war in
Iraq had very little, if anything, to do with the dangers posed by Saddam
Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or his alleged ties to
terrorist groups like al-Qaeda – the two main reasons the U.S. Congress and
public were given for the invasion. . . (full
article)

Dangerous To Your Health
by Yves Engler

Watching
the U.S. presidential campaign get under way from north of the border, I
sometimes feel like shouting “It’s healthcare, stupid.” . . . (full
article)

Newsweek recently ran
an article on money laundering in Latin America. It identified Nicaragua's
ex-President Arnoldo Aleman as one of a super-corrupt elite along with
Mexico's Carlos Salinas and Guatemala's Alfonso Portillo. Portillo
recently high-tailed it to Mexico. Aleman is in gaol. But, these
individuals barely reach the ankles of their United States and European
counterparts. Corruption has a history, context and consequences the
self-censoring corporate media seldom connect. . . (full
article)

A Prayer for Reverend Al: Let Him Buy His
Soul Back from the Republicans
by Doug Ireland

In his 2003
autobiography, Al on America, the Rev. Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr.
admits, “I have been guilty of letting ungodly things around me.” And that
was never more true than with the latest revelations about Sharpton, who
has now been exposed as a cat’s-paw for the national Republican Party. . .
(full article)

In yet another bizarre
twist of “foreign policy” under the Bush administration, the State
Department ruled that permitting aging musicians like Ibrahim Ferrer, 76
year-old member of the Buena Vista Social Club, to attend the Grammy's
would be "detrimental to the interests" of our country. . . (full
article)

Standing Up For Workers'
Rights
by Stewart Acuff

"The boss said he would sell the company or
burn it down before he would see a union at Sterling." To the cheers of a
responsive Washington, DC audience on December 10, 2003, Sterling Laundry
worker Evelyn Thomas vowed to continue the battle for the freedom to form
a union at her workplace, in spite of fierce employer opposition. Thomas'
tale was just one of the dozens of horror stories told by workers who
rallied on International Human Rights Day to call attention to the
widespread abuse of the rights of workers. In 90 events in 37 states, tens
of thousands of workers and their allies campaigned to restore the freedom
to form a union guaranteed under American law and international human
rights codes, but sadly eroded in our country today. . . (full
article)

Richard Perle, Executioner
by Kurt Nimmo

Native Americans had
an expression for it. Forked tongue. Now we call them liars, backstabbers,
dissimulators. People who say one thing and do another. Cheats,
double-dealers, hypocrites. Dirty tricks and skullduggery. For as Mark
Twain once quiped, "A lie can travel half way around the world while the
truth is just putting on its shoes." "I think, of course, heads should
roll," yawped the Prince of Dissimulation, Richard Perle. "When you
discover that you have an organization that doesn't get it right time
after time, you change the organization, including the people." . . . But
wait a minute. Something's wrong here. As I recall the CIA was dissing
Perle and Cheney and the Neocon Gang that Can't Shoot Straight for their
spurious intelligence, most of it coming from Feith's Operation of Special
Plans. . .
(full article)

We Must Voice Dissent: An Interview
with a Japanese Scholar
and Activist Ichirou Tanaka
by Josh Frank

Ichirou
Tanaka is an elder, scholar, activist and teacher living in Tokyo and
Nagano Japan. He was recently visiting New York City with his wife Yuko.
They performed with their musical choir at Carnegie Hall. This interview
took place at the Beacon Hotel on December 2nd 2003. . . (full
article)

Chasing Judith Miller Off
the Stage
by Derek Seidman

When I heard that
the New York Times correspondent Judith Miller was going to be speaking at
a local campus last week, I was eager to check her out. Ever since I read
Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power’s atrocious review of Noam Chomksy’s
“Hegemony or Survival” in the Times book review last month, I’ve been
increasingly on the lookout for these intellectual-defenders of an
“enlightened” imperialism. Moreover, seeing Judith Miller (also a Pulitzer
winner) was especially enticing, as she has been embroiled in controversy
for her role in the Iraq war. . .
(full article)

February 19-20

Missing in Action in Iraq: Americans Hear
About their 500 Dead Soldiers.
What About the 10,000 Dead Iraqi Civilians? by Naomi Klein

It was Mary Vargas,
a 44-year-old engineer in Renton, Washington, who carried U.S. therapy
culture to its new zenith. Explaining why the war in Iraq was no longer
her top election issue, she told Salon that, “when they didn't find the
weapons of mass destruction, I felt I could also focus on other things. I
got validated.” Yes, that's right: war opposition as self-help. The end
goal is not to seek justice for the victims, or punishment for the
aggressors, but rather 'validation' for the war's critics. Once validated,
it is of course time to reach for the talisman of self-help: 'closure.' In
this mindscape, Howard Dean's wild scream was not so much a gaff as the
second of the five stages of grieving: anger. The scream was a moment of
uncontrolled release, a catharsis, allowing American liberals to
externalize their rage and then move on, transferring their affections to
more appropriate candidates. All of the front-runners in the Democratic
race borrow the language of pop therapy to discuss the war and the toll it
has taken — not on Iraq (a country so absent from their campaigns it may
as well be on another planet) but on Americans. (full
article)

Same Shit
Different Asshole!
by Kim Petersen

The Democrats had a chance to elect a presidential
candidate who was truly against war. No, not Howard Dean, he was a
political opportunist who courted the progressive vote. He came out
against the Persian Gulf Slaughter under the command of President Bush Jr.
but he was not against the continuance of the occupation. On the other
hand there was a candidate who embodied a
progressive platform on almost every position: Dennis Kucinich. . .
So why did Kucinich’s campaign for the Democratic
presidential nomination never really get off the ground? (full
article)

How Washington Set the Stage for Haiti’s
Uprising:US-Connected Businessmen and Military
Thugs Behind the Opposition
by Lee Sustar

The media has a standard
story line to explain the uprising in Haiti--one-time populist leader
Jean-Bertrand Aristide has become a corrupt authoritarian who is relying on
armed gangs to crush a popular uprising. In reality, the anti-Aristide
opposition that is behind the uprising shaking Haiti today is a
Washington-connected collection of Haitian businessmen and a scattering of
former leftists. If they succeed in their aim of ousting Aristide, they’ll
try to turn back the clock to the days when military officers and
paramilitary gangs ruled Haiti through sheer terror. Any doubts as to the
nature of the rebellion in the city of Gonaïeves should be put to rest by
the role played by leaders of the military dictatorship of the 1980s. . . (full
article)

Secretary of State Colin
Powell’s current policy toward Haiti can be described at best as irrelevant,
and at worst as a covert effort to stand by as a coup de main comes
down on Haitian democracy as a result of the forcible removal of President
Aristide from office. . . (full article)

The Collapse of Howard Dean’s Cyber-Bubble
by Norman Solomon

The saga of Howard
Dean is a cautionary tale about politics and the Internet. His campaign
rode a big wave of cyberspace hype -- and then sank. . .
(full
article)

Not Quite A Dream Team: Some of John
Kerry’s Foreign Policy Advisers
Should Give Pause to Progressives
by Laura Flanders

John Kerry's primary
victories are mounting and "anyone-but-Bush" voters are hankering for a
show-down with the Resident. The Massachusetts Senator's "bring it on"
victory speeches get big-d Democrats fired up, but when it comes to
foreign policy, Kerry is hardly the anti-Bush many are longing for. . . (full
article)

Coming Soon: The Dirtiest Show on Earth
by John Chuckman

Crowds cheering, bands
marching, costumes glittering, high-wire stunts, and even animal acts (if
the latest Bush stories about Kerry are to believed) - all these and more
are coming this fall to America's local fairgrounds and national airwaves.
American elections are not noted for depth of content. Despite constant
disparagement, sound-bites often are the only way to know what all the
racket is about. . . (full article)

In the face of
increasing internal and international pressure, the United States today
proposed a compromise, hybrid system for Iraqi elections. “The model for
the upcoming elections,” said Paul Bremer at a hastily arranged press
conference in the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad, “is a combination of the
originally proposed 'caucus system' together with an election of the Iraqi
president carried out in the American style. There can now be no complaint
from anyone,” Mr. Bremer stated, “because the caucus part of the system is
as free and open as in my own country, and because the next Iraqi
president will be elected, just like in the United States.” . . .
(full article)

Iraq Hawks and Deceptive
Intelligence
by Ray McGovern

Oh what a tangled
web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. But when we've practiced
for a while, we markedly improve our style.A
time-honored aphorism. And the second-sentence Karl-Rove corollary has
been applied with consummate skill -- until now. The web is unraveling.Chief U.S.
weapons inspector David Kay cut the main strand last month, making it
clear that the president and his advisors were wrong to claim that war was
necessary to ''disarm'' Saddam Hussein of ''weapons of mass destruction.''
There were none.Kay's
refreshing honesty threw a wrench in the works of the White House PR
machine, which remains in a state of disrepair. . .
(full
article)

The Military Death Toll While Enforcing the
Occupation of Iraq:
US-uk Military Fatalities Post May 1, 2003
by Paul de Rooij

For the second time in
less than a decade, anti-immigration advocates have been operating under
the radar waging a campaign to take over the nation's oldest environmental
organization. This time they've added a small group of animal rights
activists to their team. This unlikely coalition is hoping to elect
several of its candidates to the Sierra Club's Board of Directors. . .
(full
article)

Corporation as Psychopath
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

People ask -- Rob,
Russell, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. What can we do about
it? We say -- read one book, see one movie. . . (full
article)

The Other Superpower: Fraternity,
Solidarity and the World's People
by Manuel Valenzuela

A year ago I was in
Barcelona, Spain, participating in the February 15th worldwide march
protesting against what was to be the coming American invasion of Iraq.
There I was, one of one and a half million people, out of a metropolitan
population of four million, marching through Barcelona's beautiful and
vibrant streets that were suddenly transformed into rivers of humanity,
overflowing as if hit by a giant flood of energized Mediterranean water. We
were all witness to a systemic metamorphosis of asphalt to flesh, millions
standing shoulder to shoulder, squeezed as tight as a can of sardines, under
the control of one collective movement that guided us all to our final
destination. . . (full article)

Whither The Nation?
by Ralph Nader

Nader responds to an "Open Letter to Ralph
Nader" from The Nation magazine, that implores him to not run for president
in 2004 . . . (full article)

Wisconsin's Warning
Signs
by Doug Ireland

A close reading of the
Wisconsin
exit polls ought to have Democrats rather worried about John Kerry’s
chances of taking back the White House. . .
(full article)

Palestinian Issue Riddles
Bush’s 2005 Budget
by Sam Bahour

In
his January 20, 2004 State of the Union speech President Bush was
criticized for not even mentioning the plight of the Palestinians.
President Bush completely ignored the blatant Israeli policy of human
rights violations that the Israel military occupation has sustained
against the Palestinians for decades now. Furthermore, he surprisingly
dropped from his speech any mention of how he envisions to constructively
involve the US toward a just solution to this conflict. One can only
assume that President Bush views that addressing the violence-riddled,
Palestinian-Israeli conflict is neither “necessary” nor “expedient.” The
same cannot be said for his proposed $2.4 trillion Budget of the United
States Government for Fiscal Year 2005, which was transmitted to Congress
on February 2, 2004 and covers the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2004.
The budget is planned to be brought to the floor of both the House and
Senate between July 1 and September 30 and is riddled with references to
the Palestinian issue. The references to Palestinians in the budget are
many and repetitive. Not only has the Bush Administration failed in
realistically engaging the issue toward a peaceful resolution, but, viewed
through the proposed budget, President Bush has totally adopted the state
line of Israel on almost every account. Bottom line, the Israeli military
campaign against Palestinians will continue and the US taxpayer is
knowingly, or otherwise, footing the bill. . . (full
article)

February 18

How Far Will the US Go to
Maintain Its Illegitimate Primacy in Iraq?
by Tariq Ali

The whole world knows
that Bush and Blair lied to justify the war, but do they know the price
being paid on the ground in Iraq? First, the blood price - paid by
civilians and others this week as every week. More than 50 people died on
Tuesday [2/12] when a car bomb ripped through Iraqis queuing to join the
police force. The US military blamed al-Qaida loyalists and foreign
militants for this and other suicide bombings. But occupations are usually
ugly. How then can resistance be pretty? (full
article)

Anatomy of Terror
by John Chuckman

Trying to bring reason to the
subject of terror seems hopeless. The subject is crushingly-weighted with
hatreds, prejudice, and political lunacy. But the attempt is important
because the subject may dominate the lifetimes of most readers. Terror is
both a real phenomenon and a fraud. It is real in that groups with deep
grievances do sometimes kill innocent people in their attempt to influence
events from a position of political and military weakness. Yet, following
the vast and organized murder of the twentieth century, there is nothing
distinctive or unusual about killing innocent people when trying to get your
way. The United States and some other states now do it all the time to
advance narrow interests. Politicians who most loudly decry terror display
the dishonest, insincere thinking Dr. Johnson characterized as "cant." In
this sense, terror is a fraud. . . (full
article)

War Hawks Undermined by Zarqawi Letter
by Jim Lobe

A letter purportedly
written to senior al-Qaeda leaders by a key associate, Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi,
appears to undermine a major thesis of hard-core neo-conservatives who led
the U.S. drive to war in Iraq. . . (full
article)

CIA Intel Reports Seven Months Before
9/11 Said Iraq Posed No Threat
to US, Containment Was Working
by Jason Leopold

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
are now investigating whether the intelligence information gathered by the
CIA was accurate or whether the Bush administration manipulated and or
exaggerated the intelligence to make a case for war. . .
(full article)

Body Count Redux
by Ivan Eland

During the Vietnam War,
the U.S. military released body counts of enemy and friendly dead to the
media, which reported them voraciously. Invariably, the military’s
data—showing more enemy than friendly dead—was designed to give the
illusion that the United States was winning the war. What the data didn’t
show was more important: that a tenacious enemy fighting for its homeland
would be willing to incur high casualties and outwait an opponent with a
short attention span. Similarly, in Iraq, the U.S. military gleefully
reports that attacks against U.S. soldiers have dropped by more than half
since their peak in November of last year and that firefights between U.S.
soldiers and Iraqi guerrillas in Iraqi towns have also diminished. But
like the body counts in Vietnam, the American public should be wary of
such rosy assessments. . . (full article)

Washington Must Dramatically Raise its
Profile Regarding Haiti
or Await the Deluge
by Larry Birns and Jessica Leight

Unlike his U.S.
counterpart, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has said that
his government is considering dispatching French troops to Haiti as part
of an international police force to put down the present violence in the
country. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell must do more than
simply say that he is “disappointed” with the quality of leadership that
Jean Bertrand Aristide has afforded Haiti. In response to Powell’s
statement, many Haitians could respond that despite Aristide’s many
shortcomings, his level of performance compares favorably to the Bush
administration’s failed strategy towards the island, which has been based
on freezing all aid to Aristide and waiting for the inevitable chaos to
descend. Throughout Aristide’s three-year exile in Washington and after
his restoration to the presidency in 1994 (after a U.S.-led regional force
landed in Haiti), Washington has treated the Haitian president as a
potentially dangerous figure who must be curbed in order to fence off his
radical politics and messianic tendencies. . .
(full
article)

How To Get Bush
Elected (memo to Karl Rove)
by Heather Wokusch

What the hell are you doing
Karl? GW's approval ratings have plummeted to 47% and if the Democrats
actually build a coherent opposition (OK, big if ...) you could be joining
millions of other Americans pounding the pavement during Bush's only term
in office. Karl, get serious. Republican-owned voting machines and Bush
Sr.'s handpicked Supreme Court won't be enough to bail out GW this time
around. You need an action plan to guarantee November, and here it is in
ten easy steps . . .
(full article)

The Sorrows of Bush's
Endgame: A Review of Chalmer's Johnson's
The Sorrows of Empire
by Kurt Nimmo

If you listen to the Bush
Ministry of Disinformation, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly --
and millions of Americans do, every day -- you get the impression people
opposed to Bush's plan for endless war are Marxist nutbars and shrill
hate-America malcontents. Sure, some of them are Marxists. But most of them
are normal people. In fact, some of them are even former CIA consultants.
Like Chalmers Johnson. . . (full article)

What's the Historical Alternative?
by Fran Shor

It is becoming more evident
every day that the presidential race in 2004 will be a match-up between
John Kerry and George W. Bush. Ralph Nader is still toying with the idea
of running although he is getting lots of discouragement from Democrats
and even Green Party members. As a former Green Party activist who worked
in the Nader campaign in Michigan in 2000, I, too, would discourage him
from mounting an independent run for the Presidency in 2004. While Nader's
efforts in 2000 could be seen as an outgrowth of the struggles for global
justice and hoped for reforms in the US political system, these are less
evident now in an age of revanchist US imperialism abroad and political
repression at home. Moreover, what constitutes the historical alternative
in 2004 is a question which, so far, very few on the left have yet to
address. . . (full article)

Bush -- Is the Tide Turning?
by Rahul Mahajan

For at least six months, I
have been resisting early pronouncements of Bush's political death. Most
of them seemed to be composed of wishful thinking, extrapolating from
simple facts -- the disaster of the Iraq occupation, the mostly jobless
recovery, the lies about weapons of mass destruction -- to that
phenomenally elusive quantity that is public opinion. If Ronald Reagan was
the Teflon president, then until recently Bush seems to have been made of
some special plastic developed by an advanced alien civilization. . . (full
article)

A History of Threat Escalation:
Remembering Team B
by Tom Barry

The most notorious
attempt by militarists and right-wing ideologues to challenge the CIA was
the Team B affair in the mid-1970s. The 1975-76 "Team B" operation was a
classic case of threat escalation by hawks determined to increase military
budgets and step up the U.S. offensive in the cold war. Concocted by
right-wing ideologues and militarists, Team B aimed to bury the politics
of détente and the SALT arms negotiations, what were supported by the
leadership of both political parties. . . Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush
Support Team B . . . (full article)

Bush Wins Triple Trifecta
as Worst President Ever
by Harvey Wasserman

The worst president in
our lifetime" is how many Americans view George W. Bush. But Bush is not
merely the worst president in recent memory. He's the worst in all US
history. And he's won the distinction not on a weakness or two, but in at
least nine separate categories, giving him a triple trifecta. . . (full
article)

February in Iowa, like
most places across the country, promises little. There's still nearly two
months left of winter, and the state flower -- the wild prairie rose -- is
months away from its June re-emergence. When the high-profile Democratic
caucuses ended weeks ago with a surprise victory for Massachusetts Senator
John Kerry, the national media quickly pulled up stakes and moved on.
Recent developments in Des Moines, however, once again focused the
nation's attention back on the Hawkeye state. While it may not have been
as big an event as the University of Iowa Hawkeyes vs. the Iowa State
Cyclones, the rights of the state's citizens to organize and protest an
unpopular war without interference by the government came under fire in
the waning days of Iowa's winter. . . (full
article)

Just Another Day
by Nick Pretzlik

Loud enough to wake
me, the burst of automatic fire was sufficiently distant not to alarm. I
turned on my side and went back to sleep. It was three in the morning. Dawn
heralded a perfect day ­ clear, crisp air, blue sky and wintry sunlight
glinting on pools of water lying in the fields, the result of the wet
weather, which had effected the region since Christmas. Fifty kilometres
away to the north two meters of snow had fallen on the Golan Heights. From
my room in the refugee camp, high on the steeply rising hillside, I had a
clear view across the broad agricultural plain, which stretches from Jenin
eastwards beyond the Apartheid Fence and the Green Line to the Palestinian
Israeli town of Nazareth visible in the far distance. . .
(full article)

To Wear Hijab or Not: A Complicated
Question
by Sarah Eltantawi

The government of France
approved on Tuesday [2/12] by a vote of 494 to 36 a ban on religious emblems
in state schools. France’s Commission of Reflection on the Principle of
Secularity and Jacque Chirac, in his December 17, 2003 speech, made it clear
that the measure, which would ban the wearing of head scarves by Muslim
girls, Jewish skull caps and crucifixes in public school was well on its way
to being implemented. . . At a recent conference called the U.S. Islamic
World Forum co-sponsored by the Brookings Institute and the state of Qatar
that I had the pleasure of attending in that country, I had the opportunity
to meet incredible European activists who forced me to reassess and fine
tune my previously idealized notions of secularism. These activists and
intellectuals were actively challenging the exclusionary and ultimately
internally inconsistent and illogical way European secularism is often
enforced, usually on the Arab and/or Muslim "other". One attendee described
the enforced secularism of his country, Belgium, as ‘neutrality, our way’;
‘our’, meaning, plainly and simply, white and Christian. I oppose the French
ban on the head scarf, but not only for the obvious reason that in
principle, the ban trumps the laudable ideal of individual freedoms and
liberty. . .
(full article)

Clark Endorses Kerry: Moore's Lesser Party
Lives
by Mickey Z.

When War Criminal Wesley
Clark dropped out of the race the other day, my thoughts were with Clueless
Mikey Moore. He must have been heartbroken. Clark's smiling visage has
vanished from
http://www.michaelmoore.com ...without an explanation in sight. But,
fear not, dear clueless one...your hero has given you yet another chance at
love. "Request permission to come aboard, the Army's here." With those
words, War Criminal Wesley (WCW) made his appearance at a rally for John
Kerry (Stormin' Norman Soloman's "pragmatic choice"). Reciprocating in
appropriately military style, Senator Pragmatic replied: "This is the first
time in my life I've ever had the privilege of saying `Welcome aboard' to a
four-star general." . . . (full article)

Of Mice and Money Men: The
Sinister Grip that Disney Exerts on Children's
Imaginations May Now Be Loosening
by George Monbiot

If Comcast's takeover
of the Disney Corporation goes ahead, the world's biggest media
conglomeration will be built around one of humankind's most ancient
practices. Investing animals with human characteristics is something we've
been doing since we first applied charcoal to the walls of a cave. Ten
thousand years later, as the $500m we have just spent watching Finding
Nemo suggests, we still see ourselves as animals and animals as ourselves.
. (full article)

For some odd reason,
people are always giving Bush the benefit of the doubt. It must be the
office, even though Bush took that office illegally by way of Supreme
Court putsch. . . [Some] are clueless about the true nature of Bush
and the Straussian neocons. It is now perfectly clear Bush and Crew conspired to
make a whole lot of bogus stuff up in order to trick the American people
into supporting illegal and immoral invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. One
doesn't even need scratch the surface anymore -- all one need do is simply
look in the right direction.
(full article)

Is the US Funding Haitian
Contras?
by Kevin Pina

If you read about Haiti
today in the mainstream press, you find a barrage of negative stories
about Aristide and Lavalas with descriptions of demonstrations and general
strikes calling for Aristide's resignation, fraudulent elections, a
politicized police force, drug-dealing officials and violent mobs of
government supporters attacking the political opposition. The overarching
message is that Haiti has become a lawless state ruled by a leader with
waning popularity whose only hold on office is to call out the violent
shock troops of his Lavalas movement. Most stories filed by news agencies
like Reuters and the Associated Press have little room to provide any real
in-depth analysis or historical context. Stories that do probe a little
deeper are almost always exclusively negative about Haiti's current
leadership or make startling revelations pounding yet another nail of evil
into the coffin of the body politic of Lavalas. But are we really getting
the whole story? (full article)

Haiti: Waiting for Something Bad to
Happen
by Jessica Leight

Political violence in
Haiti continues to mount, placing the country’s hard-won democracy in an
increasingly perilous position and raising widespread fears of a violent
coup that would return a military-led caretaker junta to power. Those who
are guilty of jeopardizing the nation’s stability include a collection of
brigands who participated in the 1991-1994 military junta, along with
paramilitary thugs and those guilty of human rights violations in that
period (like Emmanuel Constant, and Gen. Raul Cedras),
as well as members of the island’s tiny economic elite. . . Given the
opposition’s heavy dependence on U.S. support, an open and specific
denunciation of their obstructionist tactics by the Bush administration
could immediately force the Democratic Convergence and Group 184 to
abandon their attempts to overthrow the Aristide government by
intimidation, threats and street violence. Refusing to force them to turn
to negotiation, the administration has not uttered even a weak
acknowledgment of the latter’s culpability in the deteriorating situation
in Haiti. Instead, it covertly works for Aristide’s resignation, which in
fact is Washington’s very policy, as it acknowledges that it is preparing
to house upwards of 15,000 Haitian boat people after they are interdicted
on their way to Florida. . . (full article)

What had been an
increasingly disloyal and violent opposition is now leading an openly
anti-democratic insurrection, as anti-Aristide forces turn Haiti into a
hellish war zone, using sequestered weapons to sack a number of cities.
An existing explosive political stalemate has been worsening since
December, when the rebels adopted a violent street strategy along with an
inflexible policy of non-negotiation to oust President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. Yet for the State Department, Haiti's desperate struggle to
preserve its hard-won democracy was given low priority. Strangely, given
the likely crushing impact on U.S. domestic politics registered by tens of
thousands of desperate Haitians who predictably will soon undertake the
perilous voyage to Florida, Secretary of State Colin Powell remains almost
languorous in the face of daily fierce melées in Port-au-Prince.
Meanwhile, the Haitian opposition organizes a blatant power grab through
belligerent demonstrations aimed at unseating Aristide. Now Haiti has
entered into an endgame with portentous consequences, as armed opposition
mobs loot a number of cities and scores of residents are killed. . . (full
article)

John Kerry: Media Darling
by Justin Felux

As fans of the increasingly
irrelevant Howard Dean campaign are quick to point out, the media has been
very nice to John Kerry. According to an analysis by Media Tenor, 37.2
percent of the coverage of John Kerry's campaign since his victory in the
Iowa caucuses has been positive whereas only 10.2 percent of the coverage
has been negative. Kerry has been described as "handsome," "articulate,"
"a war hero," "statesmanlike," and "strikingly Lincolnesque." This may
simply be due to John Kerry's interesting personal history and calm
demeanor. The media always likes a compelling saga, and it is easy to
portray Kerry's life in such a way. However, it is interesting to note
that while the media has indeed been very nice to John Kerry, over the
course of his career John Kerry has been very nice to the media. . . (full
article)

We await Michael Moore’s
concession speech after his hero, General Wesley Clark, tasted the ashes of
defeat in Tennessee and Virginia and sensibly threw in the towel. If Dean
was the hero of the dot coms, Clark was a creation of the Arkansas-Hollywood
axis embodied in Clinton-era stage managers such as Harry and Linda
Thomason, Mary Steenbergen and Ted Danson. It was supposed to be The Man
from Hope: The Sequel, this time with a genuine military officer, rather
than Bill the Draft Dodger. . . At Clark’s elbow was Bruce Lindsay, former
law partner of Bill Clinton and later his White House counsel. Lindsay put
it about that Clark’s mission was to stop the meteoric surge of Howard Dean
and Clark told reporters that the Clintons had urged him to get into the
race. . . Across the last thirty years it’s hard to think of a Democratic
candidate seemingly assured of his party’s nomination who has had less of a
baptism of sewage in the primaries than Senator John Kerry. Normally a
front-running candidate can expect a roughing up from his sparring partners.
But Dean drew all the fire, with Clark as prime diversion and Kucinich as
the small white hope of the progressive crowd. So Kerry’s dismal record has
been allowed to remain in decorous seclusion. . . (full
article)

The Campaign Doctor: Can Bob Shrum Beat
Karl Rove?
by Doug Ireland

Bob Shrum, the pricey
Washington hired gun, is the tête pensant of John Kerry’s campaign.
A veteran of the latter-day JFK’s Senate races, Shrummy, as he’s known to
friend and foe alike, attached himself to Kerry like a mollusk early on in
this presidential effort. He’s the first to have the senator’s ear in the
morning and the last to whisper in it at night. Not much gets by Shrummy,
who is known for his sharp elbows. Unless Kerry is caught in bed with a
dead girl or a live boy (to borrow ex–Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards’
colorful metaphor for a campaign-crippling scandal), the junior senator
from Massachusetts will be coronated in Boston as the Democrats’ nominee.
So it’s not too early to pose the question: Is Shrum up to beating Karl
Rove? (full article)

"Anybody But Bush": The
Big Abdication
by T. Patrick Donovan

Following the strategy
of "Anybody But Bush" in the upcoming presidential election is equally as
dangerous as Bush getting re-elected. Why? . . . (full
article)

The BBC and the Quiet Ethnic
Cleansing of Palestinians
by Paul de Rooij

At present, ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians is ongoing and systematic, yet it is difficult to
find any reference to this crime against humanity in most news media. The
issue is not so much slanted coverage as scant or selective coverage of the
misery Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. Although the BBC has a
reputation for fair and balanced reporting, when it comes to
Israel-Palestine a different standard seems to be applied, as even gross
violations of human rights are not reported. . .
(full article)

Israel: Democracy or Demographic Jewish
State?
by Ed Hollants

The
last few months have suddenly seen a flurry of activity. There have been an
unprecedented number of political initiatives which have seemed to hold out
the hope of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or at least of
bringing such a solution closer. There have been the Geneva Accord, the
Olmert initiative, Sharon’s plan with its mention of withdrawals from
settlements in Gaza, the People’s Voice, One Voice, and even the colonists
want to present their own plan. You might ask yourself: why now, when there
is virtually no pressure on Israel? Nobody seems to care any more about, for
example, the daily civilian casualties in the Occupied Territories. The
Americans have their hands full with Iraq, and there are presidential
elections next year.It
is that it has become more widely understood in Israel itself that a
military solution is a recipe for disaster, and that the only solution is a
political one? It seems more likely that the realisation is dawning that
expected demographic developments are such that there will soon be a Jewish
minority in what is now Israel, including the Occupied Territories. This
would mean the end of Israel as a Zionist state.
. . (full article)

Return to Rafah: Journey to a Land Out
of Bounds
by Jennifer Loewenstein

Said
Zoroub drives a white pick-up truck with the words "Rafah Municipality"
painted on the driver's side in Arabic and English, a gift from the
Norwegians. [1] Less than an hour after my arrival in
Rafah, Zoroub, the mayor, receives an urgent call on his cell phone. An
Israeli bulldozer has struck a water main eight feet under the earth in the
process of demolishing homes along the border between Rafah and Egypt. This
has cut off the water supply to the western half of the city. From the
passenger side of the municipality truck I get to survey the latest damage.
. .
(full article)

One Fine Curfew Day
by Nuha Khoury

Nuha Khoury recounts another day in the life
of Palestinians under Israeli lockdown in Bethlehem . . (full
article)

Saved from Execution, But Still on Death
Row
We Won’t Let Kevin Cooper Die
by Alan Maass

The man the state of California
was determined to murder has been saved from execution. But Kevin Cooper
remains on death row--and we won’t let him die. With pressure building
around the state, across the U.S. and even internationally, a federal
appeals court stepped in February 9 to stop Kevin’s execution and require
testing of evidence that his lawyers say will prove he is innocent in the
murder of four people in 1983. A few hours later, the Republican-dominated
U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the appeals court decision. Kevin’s
life was spared--no thanks to California officials who were ready to see him
dead rather than allow an investigation that could expose a 20-year-old
frame-up by racist police and fanatical prosecutors. . . (full
article)

Bush's Nuclear Hypocrisy
by Robert Jensen

President Bush's call for
changes in international rules on the sale of nuclear equipment would
effectively revoke the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty's provision allowing
countries to pursue atomic energy if they pledge not to build nuclear
weapons. Bush argued for the change by saying that the world's consensus
against proliferation "means little unless it is translated into action.
Every civilized nation has a stake in preventing the spread of weapons of
mass destruction." But there is another important aspect of that
international consensus, also written into the Non-Proliferation Treaty,
which the United States signed . . . (full
article)

The Military Death Toll While Enforcing the
Occupation of Iraq:
US-uk Military Fatalities from May 1, 2003 through Feb 8, 2004 by Paul de Rooij

Paul de Rooij's weekly examination of
"coalition" deaths in Iraq since May 1, 2003
(full article)

On November 7, 2001,
BBC Television's Newsnight and the Guardian of London reported that the
Bush administration thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Khan, known as the
"father" of Pakistan's atomic bomb. This week, Khan confessed to selling
atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran. The Bush Administration
has expressed shock at disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on
terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to
the British news teams' sources within US intelligence agencies, shortly
after President Bush's inauguration, his National Security Agency (NSA)
effectively stymied the probe of Khan Research Laboratories, the Pakistani
agency in charge of the bomb project. CIA and other agents told BBC they
could not investigate the spread of “Islamic Bombs” through Pakistan
because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia. . .
(full article)

An Odd Accusation From Ralph Nader
by Norman Solomon

After several
decades as one of America’s great public-interest advocates, Ralph Nader
has developed an extraordinary response when people say they don’t think
he should run for president in 2004. . . (full
article)

February 10-11

Inquisition in Iowa: Feds
Go After Activists at Drake University
by Kurt Nimmo

It looks like Ann Coulter may get her way. Like many on the extreme right,
Ms. Coulter considers those of us engaged in dissent against the actions
of the government to be "either traitors or idiots." Coulter said as much
in her screed, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on
Terror. "The myth of 'McCarthyism' is the greatest Orwellian fraud of our
times," writes Coulter. "McCarthy was not tilting at windmills. Soviet
spies in the government were not a figment of right-wing imaginations." No
doubt Coulter believes AG Ashcroft and the Bush federal judiciary is not
"tilting at windmills," either. It is not communists in the State
Department they are going after, but antiwar and environmental activists.
In this particular instance, antiwar activists attending a forum held at a
private university in Iowa. . . (full
article)

Clear and Present Danger: The War President Contextualizes
by Kim Petersen

Despite being self-avowedly unfazed by opinion samplings, President Bush
faced with dismal polling figures did something he has done most sparingly
while in the Oval Office: he allowed himself to be interviewed by the TV
media on Sunday, February 8 by Tim Russert of Meet the Press. . . (full
article)

US Iraq Policy Uncovered
by Ivan Eland

Only in the U.S. can the halftime show at the Super Bowl cause more public
outrage than a president’s floundering attempts to justify getting more
than 500 American soldiers killed and more than 3,000 wounded in an
unnecessary invasion and occupation on the other side of the globe. If the
American people actually were to pay attention to the President’s remarks
on this week’s Meet the Press show, the naked truth about the Bush
administration’s Iraq policy could become more exposed than Janet Jackson.
(full article)

Bush's Budgets Make us the Irresponsible Generation
by Holly Sklar

If President Bush's new budget passes, we won't need a special commission
to uncover its faulty intelligence. The budgetary weapons of destruction
are real, homemade and visible. . . (full
article)

The Many Faces of John Kerry: Pro-War, Anti-War, Insider, Outsider,
Liberal, Conservative
by Elizabeth Schulte

"A man defined by inner conflicts." That’s how the Boston Globe described
John Kerry in a five-part series in June 2003. "The gung-ho Vietnam hero
turned articulate antiwar protester; the shaggy-haired liberal rebel
turned feisty prosecutor; a politician whose core beliefs included a
skeptical view of government," wrote the Globe. Sounds familiar? Someone
wrote a book about it in the 1800s -- it’s called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
During his 19 years as a career politician and Washington insider, Kerry
has never let a little thing like principle get in his way. He’s made a
career out of balancing between the Democratic Party’s conservative and
the liberal wings. . . (full article)

Playing the "War Hero" Card
by Justin Felux

Thanks to Michael Moore's recent misuse of the word "deserter," the media
has rediscovered the report done by the Boston Globe in May of 2000 about
George W. Bush's war record. . . The Democrats, in a pathetic and
desperate attempt to play the "war hero" card, suddenly want to compare
their candidate's war record with Bush's. DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe has
appeared on television several times criticizing Bush's war record,
contrasting it with the record of John "War Hero" Kerry, apparently not
realizing the irony of a party that supposedly represents the left making
such an argument. Say what you will about George W. Bush, but being AWOL
from the National Guard is one of the few honorable things he's ever done!
IF you're AWOL from the National Guard, that means you aren't shooting
Vietnamese villagers. A cursory look at Kerry's war history makes George
W. Bush look like a veritable saint. . . (full
article)

The Two John Kerrys: Will We Get the Populist or the
Lord of Special Interests?
by Doug Ireland

John Kerry is a man with two faces. There’s the fire-breathing populist
whose thundering stump speeches against special interests made him
Comeback Kerry, who won in Iowa and New Hampshire and became the
Democrats’ indisputable front-runner. And then there’s Corporate Kerry,
who has taken more money from lobbyists in the last 15 years than any
other senator, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission
data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) —
and who has repeatedly carried water for the special interests that
smothered him in campaign cash. . . (full
article)

Das Kanibal
by Leilla Matsui

The announcement of Natsuo Kirino's nomination for an Edgar Award by the
Mystery Writers of America couldn't have been better timed. In the wake
of recent scandals involving Mad Cow, German Cannibals, Avian Flu, (and
now Janet Jackson's offending breast meat), her critically acclaimed novel
Out seems almost prophetic in its damning assessment of alienated,
technology driven food production and its often fatal consequences. . . (full
article)

Press Freedom Under Fire
by Heather Wokusch

If the first casualty of war is truth, then the War on Terror has dealt a
body blow to those trying to get at the bottom of the story: journalists.
. .
(full article)

Howard's End
by Doug Ireland

Howard Dean finally won a first-place victory this weekend—he came out on
top in the caucus run by Democrats Abroad in... Sweden. . . . The Deaniacs
will need more than conspiracy theories to justify their campaign’s
implosion.
(full article)

Protests Matter
by Josh Frank

Despite the early protests that were unable to halt the US government’s
illegal invasion of Iraq, the international activist community has seen
some remarkable victories over the past 12 months. Neoliberal trade
discussions will never be the same. The cabals that dictate global
economic policy cannot hide from the disenfranchised and their allies.
The disruption of the WTO talks in Cancun was a victory, not only because
the event was forced to end early—but also because it was a testament to
the fact activists are making a difference. It proved our protests do
matter. . . (full article)

A New National Security Problem
by Yokoyama Yutaka

Something disturbing has happened. By admitting that the pre-war claims
about Weapons of Mass Destruction were wrong but continuing to defend all
aspects of the war, the president of the USA has in effect confirmed the
existence of a new national security problem. Commonly held understandings
about what constitutes a serious threat to the USA can no longer be
assumed, and consequently the technical ability of the government to
evaluate real danger is sharply compromised. For the time being, there is
no official distinction in the USA between a threat that requires
immediate military intervention and a threat that does not require
immediate military intervention. Until the Bush administration states
their understanding of this distinction, communication about potentially
very real threats will continue to be seriously compromised and
ineffective. . . (full article)

Questions Mount Over New Hampshire's Primary
by Lynn Landes

It's been all downhill for Howard Dean since he lost the New Hampshire
primary by a significant margin. But, now questions are being raised about
the security of New Hampshire's voting system in the wake of a recent
analysis of the election results. It could add up to nothing, but it does
underscore how easily technology can be used to sabotage the voting
process. . . (full article)

The Breast That Ate Pittsburgh
by Peter Kurth

Almost 60 years ago, at the end of World War II, an American journalist in
London asked George Bernard Shaw what he foresaw as the future of the
victorious Allies – in particular, the United States. “Three hundred years
of the Dark Ages,” Shaw answered promptly. “After that, things will be
fine.” I wish I could believe him, not that it matters -- by the time
enlightenment hits these shores again, I’ll have shuffled off this mortal
coil and joined the Lord at that great big Super Bowl in the sky. As Texas
writer Beth Henry remarked last week on the media website Axis of Logic,
“Things have gotten really creepy in the land of the Humvee.”. . .(full
article)

February 9

Pits of Cherry Picking:
Bush and Blair Must Resign
by Kim Petersen

In this worst of times for Iraqis and US soldiery, an unrelenting third
world resistance battles the world?s only superpower in the bombed-out
vistas of Mesopotamia. What magnifies the empire?s abjectness is that it
has called on other willing nations to assist its occupation against an
insurgency that is led by remnants of Ba?athist forces with some
foreigners. The coalition fighters are themselves, however, uninvited
foreign interlopers. President Bush evinces a shamelessness and
desperation in his current pleading with the UN -- oft an object of his
scorn -- to rescue his buns from the political fire. Roller-coaster
polling results are now indicating a downward trend in Bush?s political
fortunes. Bush who rode meteoric highs in the polls like his father before
him is poised to become a one-term president like his father. Bush Sr.
extracted US troops from the initial onslaught against Iraq but the
economy slid on his watch and his running-mate Dan Quayle was seen as a
liability. Increasingly Vice President Dick Cheney, who finds himself a
subject in a judicial inquiry in France, is now looking like the
proverbial albatross for Bush?s re-election chances. While his father was
hard-pressed on two of the three fronts, Bush Jr. looks to be in trouble
on all three fronts. . . (full article)

On Not Being Anti-American
by Barbara Sumner Burstyn

Writers of columns like these get a lot of hate mail. Apart from the
letters that are personally abusive, the most common criticism of this
weekly missive is my so-called anti-American stance. It seems that if you
write anything negative about America, you get branded. So why do it? (full
article)

The Military Death Toll While Enforcing the Occupation of Iraq:
US-uk Military Fatalities from May 1, 2003 through Feb 8, 2004
by Paul de Rooij

President George W. Bush's choice to co-chair his commission to
investigate intelligence failures prior to the Iraq War is a long-time,
right wing political activist closely tied to the neo-conservative network
that led the pro-war propaganda campaign. . . (full
article)

US Presidential Politics And Jobs
by Seth Sandronsky

In January, U.S. firms hired 112,000 new workers, the Labor Dept.
reported. In December, 16,000 new jobs were created, up from a revised
total of 1,000. Thus 2004, a year that will end with a presidential
election, began with a rebound in hiring. However, the January jobs data
fell short on two counts. . . (full
article)

Slouching Toward Theocracy: President Bush's Faith-Based Initiative
is Doing Better than you Think
by Bill Berkowitz

"If the presidency is a 'bully pulpit' as Teddy Roosevelt claimed,"
Stephen Mansfield writes in the introduction to his recently published
book The Faith of George W. Bush, "no one in recent memory has pounded
that pulpit for religion's role in government quite like the forty-third
president." Bush's "unapologetic religious tone" and his willingness to
"speak of being called to the presidency, of a God who rules in the
affairs of men, and of the United States owing her origin to Providence,"
also separate him from recent predecessors. . . (full
article)

Donald Rumsfeld's Heart
by Mickey Z.

When Secretary of Defense (sic) Donald Rumseld recently defended US
motives and actions in Iraq, the man Henry Kissinger called "the most
ruthless" he'd ever met, summed up his feelings as such: "I know in my
heart and my brain that America ain't what's wrong in the world." Those
eloquent words called to mind something Bush the Elder once said: "I will
never apologize for the United States of America. I don't care what the
facts are." To paraphrase the Australian philosopher Barry Gibb: "How deep
is your denial?" (full article)

The US Begs for UN Backing in Iraq
by Phyllis Bennis

The U.S. is eager for the UN to return to Iraq to provide political cover
for its occupation. The quagmire on the ground in Iraq plus recognition
that the rest of the world, and most Iraqis themselves, reject Washington
's claim of legitimacy, is the basis for the Bush administration reversing
its earlier anti-UN positions to beg the international organization for
help. . . (full article)

Sharon's Escape from Alcatraz
by Ran HaCohen

Sharon's recently announced intention to unilaterally evacuate the
occupied Gaza Strip did come as a surprise. Up to the last couple of
months, the so-called founding father of Jewish settlements in the
occupied territories had insisted that no settlement would be dismantled,
at least not before a final peace agreement with the Palestinians was
reached ? which practically means forever, since Sharon believes a peace
agreement is unreachable in any foreseeable future (quite correct, given
Israel's rejectionist positions). And now, all of a sudden, the announced
evacuation of Gaza. Has Sharon "finally understood" what the peace camp
has been saying for decades? Well, not quite. . . (full
article)

John Kerry: One of the Hollow Men
by Norman Solomon

No one in Congress better symbolizes the convergence of political
opportunism and media pandering than John Kerry. Thirty-one years ago, as
a Vietnam veteran, he denounced the war in Southeast Asia. Today, Kerry is
gaining distinction among Democrats as one of the prominent hollow men in
the Senate. . . (full article)

Oops, I Lied My Ass Off Again!
by Allen Snyder

Sent to me by an anonymous White House insider, this is an
as-accurate-as-I-can-make-it transcript of a recording of a speech a
guilt-ridden George W. Bush has allegedly been working on. Trust me, the
voice is unmistakable. . .
(full article)

The Splendid Failure of Occupation, Part Seven
Is Hitlerism a Mentality?
by B.J. Sabri

Is ?depleted? uranium toxic? The US says no. However, ?depleted uranium?
radioactivity causes a host of deleterious side effects including:
depression of the immune system, male sterility, leukemia, uterine,
ovarian, thyroid, and prostate cancers, in addition to birth defects and
mutation of DNA. Because the U.S. persists in its denial of DU toxicity
and continues to reject reports by international scientific organizations
and by facts on the ground confirming its deadly health consequences to
humans and livestock long after war, we proposed confronting this issue
from a different angle. . . (full article)

February 7

Distinguishing Neocon Commentary from Drivel
by Kim Petersen

Charles Krauthammer is a Washington Post contributor awarded a Pulitzer
Prize for his “distinguished commentary.” His recent offering, “Calling
Iraq’s Bluff,” would be better distinguished as drivel. The title itself
says it all. In what way was a disarmed Iraq, dissected by no-fly zones,
supposed to be bluffing? Some attempt had to be made to overcome the
reddish glow of neocon embarrassment following weapons inspector David
Kay's inescapable admission that there weren't any of the WMD that
President George Bush and his cabal insistently pronounced were in Iraq.
Krauthammer diverts attention to an assertion about "WMD-related
activities." The Bush cabal decided upon an invasion of Iraq not based on
"WMD-related activities" but because they claimed to know Iraq had the
real WMD and they knew where they are! . . . (full
article)

Howard’s End: No Big Loss for the Left
by Josh Frank

In Vermont, the Prosecution Never Rests. During his tenure as governor of
Vermont, Howard Dean openly claimed that the legal system unfairly
benefited criminal defendants over prosecutors. . . Back in 1999 Dean
blocked Appel from accepting over $150,000 in federal grants, which was to
be used to help the state represent mentally-ill defendants. . . His
internet support has turned out to be narrow and unfounded. Dean has also
squandered an unprecedented amount of money on vile TV and radio ads that
pushed him off balance in Iowa and New Hampshire. The Democratic
Leadership Council, the insider group that really calls the shots, has
shunned his bid despite his corporate tenure in Vermont. And the media has
focused in on his fiery demeanor and personality quarks, mislabeling him a
lefty radical, even though he’s a centrist through and through. . . (full
article)

Still Smoke and Mirrors
by Ray McGovern

For some reason February 5 has been chosen two years running for rhetoric
aimed at what Socrates termed “making the worse cause appear the better”—
last year by Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN and Thursday by CIA
Director George Tenet at Georgetown University. As in the case of Powell’s
spurious depiction of the threat from Iraq, Tenet’s disingenuous tour de
force becomes more embarrassing the closer you look. . . (full
article)

Go Find Me A Way To Do This: Part One
How Bush and Blair Chose War and Then Chose The Justification
by David Edwards and Media Lens

Sometimes it really is possible to fail to see the wood for the trees. We
need to be clear that Tony Blair is claiming that the threat of Iraqi WMD
justified a massive war against Iraq. We are to believe that after a major
conflict in which 88,500 tons of bombs were dropped in 1991, after eight
years of inspections, and after more than a decade of continuous bombing
raids, and of crippling sanctions imposed under the most intensive and
sophisticated surveillance operation in history, both Blair and Bush
received intelligence suggesting that Iraq was a “serious and current
threat”. As we now know, this alleged intelligence is said to have been
related to WMD and links with al-Qaeda that did not exist. We are to
believe, then, that a rush of terrifying information relating to
non-existent perils -­ a rush so overwhelming that long-standing policy
was abandoned ­ suddenly emerged to lead Bush and Blair to believe that
nothing less than war was required to avert the danger...
(full article)

Go Find Me A Way To Do This: Part Two
How Bush and Blair Chose War and Then Chose The Justification
by David Edwards and Media Lens

Returning from a visit to Baghdad in late January, Bishop Thomas J.
Gumbleton of Detroit described how he was "shocked and discouraged" by
what he had seen: "I was overwhelmed with sadness over what is happening
to the people of Iraq, and also to the US troops there." With unemployment
approaching 60 percent and food supplies dwindling, Gumbleton reported,
ordinary Iraqis "are humiliated and feel degraded" as they try to cope
without electricity, telephones and - in some places - running water:
"Without exception, people said things were worse now than before the
war." Gumbleton noted that US officials live and work in the Coalition
Provisional Authority's compound, nicknamed the “Dream Zone”: "Inside the
Dream Zone, they don't know what is going on in the city... They don't
know the deprivations the people are putting up with. They don't have
jobs. Right now, people are getting the same amount of basic food as they
have been getting through the oil-for-food program, but there is the fear
that could be running out. The city is just very depressing." . . . (full
article)

The WMD Blame Game
by Mark Engler

In the face of growing public and Congressional pressure, President Bush
has reversed his opposition to an independent investigation of flawed U.S.
intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Will
Americans finally get the critical examination they deserve into the
fraudulent claims used by the administration to justify its "preemptive"
war? (full article)

The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

2003 was not a year of garden variety corporate wrongdoing. No, the sheer
variety, reach and intricacy of corporate schemes, scandal and crimes was
spellbinding. Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst companies, for sure. .
.
(full article)

Iraq's governing council (IGC) has quietly approved a plan to replace some
existing legal women's rights with Islamic law or “Shariah,” according to
44 U.S. lawmakers, who warn Washington of a “brewing women's rights
crisis” in the U.S.-occupied country. This comes as women are facing
broader assaults on women's rights and political power in Iraq. . . (full
article)

Haiti Fatigue?
by Mickey Z.

A February 5, 2004 New York Times editorial declared Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's second presidency "is declining into despotism." Reporting from
the land of Supreme Court-decided elections, the Times (fresh off
suggesting Sharpton and Kucinich go away quietly) laughingly offered this
solution to the people of Haiti: "make sure that the next presidential
election, due late next year, is fair and on time." . . . (full
article)

The New Underclass
by Barbara Sumner Burstyn

At first reading it seemed like a breakthrough. In Britain, the Government
has just announced its plans to remove the right to anonymity for people
who donate sperm, eggs and embryos. Under a storm of protest from
organizations fearing the drying-up of sperm supplies, Melanie Johnston,
the Public Health Minister in Britain, said she firmly believed
donor-conceived people have a right to information about their genetic
origins. Scandinavian countries have always had open sperm donor files and
most clinics in the US have the option of open files, while clinics in New
Zealand do not accept anonymous donors, so the British move is very
timely. Except, that is, for an entire generation of donor-conceived
people. . . (full article)

Are We Fighting a Real War on Terror at All?
by Ivan Eland

The Bush administration recently made it known that a major offensive
against al Qaeda would be launched in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the
spring. It was even hinted that Osama bin Laden might be caught this year.
To the average Super Bowl-watching American, it might seem strange to warn
dangerous and already elusive foes that you are coming to get them.
Conspiracy theorists among us (who occasionally prove to be right) would
conclude that the Bush administration already knows Osama’s location and,
to have the maximum political impact, is just waiting to round him up
shortly before the election. Of course, this conclusion would be a very
cynical interpretation of the Bush administration’s actions—which, given
the administration’s secrecy and twisting of intelligence to hype the
Iraqi threat, may not be entirely unwarranted. Under that scenario,
however, the risk for President Bush and his minions is that Osama would
once again manage to disappear before they could capture him—leaving them
empty-handed before the election. . . (full
article)

Nepal & the Bush Administration: Into Thin Air
by Conn Hallinan

Tucked into the upper stories of the Himalayas, Nepal hardly seems ground
zero for the Bush administration's next crusade against “terrorism,” but
an aggressive American ambassador, a strategic locale, and a flood of U.S.
weaponry threatens to turn the tiny country of 25 million into a
counter-insurgency bloodbath. . . (full
article)

February 6, 2004

The Perle and Frum Totalitarian How-to Manual
by Kurt Nimmo

I admit not buying or reading the screed written by Richard Perle and
David Frum, An End to Evil: How to Win the War On Terror. I don't want to
encourage the neocon duo, although I am certain thousands of people are
snapping up the book like hotcakes fresh off the griddle, and a
considerable number are buying into the crackpot ideas of the Neocon Duo.
I found a bunch of quotes from the book published on the InfoShop website.
Most of the quotes deal with domestic repression, neocon suggestions for
putting the thumbscrews to Muslims, and the US relationship with other
countries. The quotes on domestic issues are interesting because Perle
usually talks about blowing up small third world countries -- or on really
bad hair days, France -- and usually says little about the neocon plan for
America. . . (full article)

An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Bush and the Left's
Strategy for the Elections
by M. Junaid Alam

Professor of Linguistics at MIT and author of many best-selling political
works, most recently Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky has been renown
for his incisive and hard-hitting criticism of U.S. foreign policy for
decades. Recently, M. Junaid Alam, co-editor of the new leftist youth
journal Left Hook, was able to interview Professor Chomsky on the nature
of the Bush administration, the American left’s strategy in upcoming
elections, domestic and foreign consequences of continued occupation of
Iraq, and the basis for US-Israeli relations. . . (full
article)

Talk of "Intelligence Failures" Masks Success of Bush
Propaganda Campaign
by Rahul Mahajan and Robert Jensen

The Bush political machine pulled off another propaganda coup with the
announcement that the president will appoint a commission to look into the
so-called "intelligence failures" before the Iraq War. Those two words do
a lot of political heavy lifting for the president; by framing the issue
as a question of intelligence failures, not political propaganda, the Bush
people hope to divert attention from the fact that they lied to promote
the war. . .
(full article)

Intelligence Failures for Dummies
by Ahmed Amr

So, what exactly is new under the blazing Iraqi sun? We went from a
baffled General Conway declaring that “WE WERE SIMPLY WRONG” to David Kay
admitting that the administration's intelligence on Iraq was "ALMOST ALL
WRONG". For fifty cents, or maybe a buck, you could have picked up a copy
of the LA Times and arrived at the same conclusion as General Conway. It
cost David Kay a few hundred million dollars. The difference makes those
six hundred dollar toilet seats seem like a screaming bargain. Stock up on
them pronto. What ever you do, don’t send David Kay to buy them. . . (full
article)

The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
by Norman Solomon

Ninety-five days before the invasion of Iraq began, I sat in the ornate
Baghdad office of the deputy prime minister as he talked about the U.N.
weapons inspectors in his country. “They are doing their jobs freely,
without any interruption,” Tariq Aziz said. “And still the warmongering
language in Washington is keeping on.” The White House, according to Aziz,
had written the latest U.N. Security Council resolution “in a way to be
certainly refused.” But, he added pointedly: “We surprised them by saying,
‘OK, we can live with it. We’ll be patient enough to live with it and
prove to you and to the world that your allegations about weapons of mass
destruction are not true.’” Speaking that night in mid-December 2002,
Tariq Aziz -- dressed in a well-cut business suit, witty and fluent in
English -- epitomized the urbanity of evil. As a high-ranking servant of a
murderous despot, he lied often. But not that time. . . (full
article)

Bush to 9/11 Families: "Enough Already"
by Bill Berkowitz

While the Bush Administration never tires of reminding the American people
that the president's war on terrorism, his invasion of Iraq, and the
Patriot Act I and II are all rooted in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, it has tired of one little bitty aspect of this
post-9/11 period: the investigation by the ten-member bi-partisan
independent commission. White House officials, along with House Speaker
Dennis Hastert (R-Ill), have decided to oppose extending the time limit
for work by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United
States, "virtually guaranteeing that the panel" will have to be done with
its work by the end of May. . . (full
article)

The Breast that Consumed America
by Dennis Rahkonen

Having quickly concluded that the MTV-produced Super Bowl half-time show
was a disgustingly depraved display of scant talent that brought American
entertainment to a new low, I retreated into my kitchen to manufacture a
ham sandwich. As my nearly empty mustard squeeze bottle was fwooping out
the last of its contents, my daughter yelped a particularly emphatic "Oh,
my God!" Yes. I completely missed Janet Jackson's now legendary breast
baring. . . (full article)

February 2

Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating the Spooks
by Kurt Nimmo

Bush's so-called independent commission looking into "intelligence
failures" will be handpicked by the administration. It will be similar to
the 9/11 investigative commission -- that is to say it will produce
results acceptable to Bush and the spooks. The chairman of the 9/11
commission is Thomas Kean. Consider Kean emblematic. . . (full
article)

The Awesome Destructive Power of the Corporate Power Media
by Glen Ford and Peter Gamble

Howard Dean has joined the list of victims of U.S. corporate media
consolidation. Dean shares this distinction with Dennis Kucinich and the
people of the formerly sovereign state of Iraq, among many others. Dean
was stripped of half his popular support in the space of two weeks in
January while John Kerry – tied in the polls with Carol Moseley-Braun at
seven percent just two months earlier – rose like a genie from a bottle to
become the overnight presidential frontrunner. Both candidates were
shocked and disoriented by the dizzying turns of fortune, and for good
reason. Neither Dean nor Kerry had done anything on their own that could
have so dramatically altered the race. Corporate America decided that Dean
must be savaged, and its media sector made it happen. . . There can be no
meaningful discussion of the options available to progressive forces in
the United States unless it is first recognized that the corporate media
in the current era is the enemy, and must be treated that way. . .(full
article)

Mistake Prone: John Kerry as "Pragmatic Choice"
by Mickey Z.

In a recent article, Stormin' Norman Solomon continues his anyone-but-Bush
crusade by telling us that John Kerry is "not a progressive candidate" but
is "probably the best bet to defeat Bush -- and, as president...would be a
very significant improvement over the incumbent." All right, that's
Norman's opinion...and in light of his recent articles, it's no surprise.
But since he chose to mock Clueless Mikey Moore's love affair with War
Criminal Wesley Clark, I have to mention that Solomon went on to offer the
following. . . (full article)

Bush’s Budget Priorities
by Seth Sandronsky

Under President Bush, federal government spending, borrowing and taxing is
news. What is and is not said about this reveals much. . . (full
article)

With All Deliberate Stupidity: US Self-Isolation Makes Iraq
a Virtual Non-Issue in the Elections So Far
by Daniel Patrick Welch

The king is dead -- long live the king! Okay, so the old lefty saw about
"it-doesn't-matter-who-gets-elected-they're-all-the-same-anyway" might
have less punch this time around. The Bush-led extremist puppet show that
has hacked and brutalized its way into power is so evil, so corrupt, so
completely dangerous down to the cellular and atomic level that it would
be unthinkable not to wish them gone whatever the cost. Still, preventing
evil is not the same as promoting good. A grim duty, perhaps. But hardly
one that stirs the soul. Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. The
rigged two-party shell game has, exactly twice, by my count, been forced
to slay The Beast, or at least to lull it to sleep for another few
decades. . . (full article)

Zionism is Still the Issue
by Ghada Karmi

For those who have forgotten or never understood what Zionism was all
about, two remarkable, recently published pieces will make salutary
reading. The first is an interview with the Israeli historian, Benny
Morris, that appeared in the Israeli daily Haaretz on January 4th 2004 and
the second is an article by Morris in the January 14th edition of the
London Guardian newspaper. In these he explains with breathtaking candour
what the Zionist project entailed. Few Zionist outside the ranks of the
extreme right have been prepared to be so brutally honest and Benny Morris
claims to be on the political left. More significantly, it was he who
first exposed the true circumstances of Israel’s creation. Using Israel
State archive documents for his groundbreaking book on the birth of the
Palestinian refugee problem published in 1987, he was hailed as a
courageous "revisionist historian." His work suggested to many that,
having learned the facts of the case, he was bound to be sympathetic to
the Palestinians. In the last few years, however, he has been expressing
ever more hardline views, as if he regretted the pioneering research that
helped expose the savage reality of Israel’s establishment. This shift
seems to have culminated in his most recent utterances about the nature of
Zionism. Unpalatable as these are, we must thank him for saying so bluntly
what all Zionists, however "liberal", at bottom really think but do not
say. . . (full article)

Stopping the Rot: Hunger is Reflection of Policies That Benefit the Few
by Devinder Sharma

In the mid 1980, the sale of Banita, a minor girl from Kalahandi in Orissa,
had shocked the nation. Two decades later, the nation refused to even
notice the cries of a one month old baby who was sold by her mother for a
mere Rs 10 (approximately 21 cents). For Sumitra Behera, 35, a resident of
Badibahal village in Angul district of Orissa, selling her one month old
daughter was perhaps the only way to feed her two other daughters --
Urbashi, 10, and Banbasi, 2. In the month of December 2003, three other
families grappling with hunger in Angul, Puri and Keonjhar in Orissa had
reportedly sold their children. . . (full
article)

The Clint Stones: Oscar Honors Violence Part I
by Richard and Sylvie Oxman

"Mystic River," Clint Eastwood's latest film (nominated for five of the
top six Oscar categories) is nothing short of an abomination. As it now
stands, it's slated to follow "Mystic Pizza" -- another New England flick
with predictable plot elements -- in VideoHound's Guide. However, this is
NOT a movie review. Rather, it's a plea for the public to create a
Cultural Revolution (w/o Mao, thank you very much). That's all. In this
time of violence escalating out-of-control worldwide, along comes a movie
touted as taking a position against violence...which not only feeds The
Monster, but feeds It with gusto. Mucho macho gusto. . . (full
article)