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Special Report on the Global Trade in Body Parts in the New Print Edition of CounterPunch! Peter Linebaugh on the Resurrectionists: Organs of Chinese Prisoners Harvested While Still Alive; Group Executions for Mass Body "Harvesting"; Israel's Global Network for Body Parts; Kidney Belts Flourish from Romania to Iraq to the Philippines; Brave New World of "Organ Suppliers" and Organ Receivers Monitored by Berkeley Prof Nancy Scheper-Hughes; Origins of Body Part Market in 19th Century England; Body Snatching Gangs; Plus Bruce Anderson on How the Hippies and New Settlers of California's North Coast Became the Democratic Party Machine: Scratching Their Own Backs, Crushing Dissent. CounterPunch Online is read by over 20 million viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Introducing CounterPunch Books! Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Now Available! Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils Order Here! Today's Stories September 25, 2004 Alexander Cockburn C'mon Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose   September 24, 2004 Dr. Teresa Whitehurst The Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages to the Wolves William S. Lind Destroying the National Guard Mike Whitney The Bush Tent Show Nancy Welch What's at Stake for Women in 2004? Niranjan Ramakrishnan Logical Limbo Joshua Frank Fear Mongering 101 Victor Kattan An Interview with Afif Safieh Ben Terrall Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up? Kathleen and Bill Christison "Finally It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine   September 23, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Why Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?" Christopher Brauchli Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the Phony War on Terrorism Derek Seidman Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross Michael Neumann Three Years and Counting? How Time Flies   September 22, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Zarqawi's War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan Neve Gordon The Wall, the Court and Sharon Joshua Frank History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now Ron Jacobs Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship Jack Random Defending Dan? Rather Not Tarif Abboushi Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter Mickey Z Stupid White Guy Quiz John L. Hess Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate? Jeffrey St. Clair High Plains Grifter: The House Rules September 21, 2004 Gary Leupp "We Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment" to Securing a Middle East Realm Robert Jensen Large Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds? Elaine Cassel Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die Stanley Heller Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon Adam Federman America Will Disappoint the World, Again David Whitehouse What's Behind the Horror in Darfur? M. Junaid Alam How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American Paul Craig Roberts Attention Deficit America Website of the Day True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks Sex, Drugs & the Blues! Serpents in the Garden CounterPunch's Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available Click here to purchase   September 20, 2004 Cockburn / Buncombe Get Fallujah David Price Relying on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They Are Phone Polls Dave Lindorff How Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush Harry Browne Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up? Mark Wesibrot Bush's Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers Karyn Strickler The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse? Uri Avnery The Temple Mount Bombers       September 18 / 19, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Forgeries, Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery Jeffrey St. Clair High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy Patrick Cockburn Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart Fred Gardner Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture) Joe Allen The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets Against the War George Corsetti Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication Scott Handleman The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus Richard Ward Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya Conn Hallinan Ashcroft and Indonesia Lori Smith Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick... Dave Zirin Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East John L. Hess Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates Brian J. Foley W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him? Mickey Z. Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions Poets' Basement Vest, Landau & Albert Website of the Weekend Eye on the NYTs     Septemeber 17, 2004 Ray McGovern Gossing Over the Record Patrick Cockburn The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry Lee Sustar The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream Mike Whitney John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity Victor Kattan Black September Ray Hanania Israel's Demographics Greg Bates Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment Website of the Day The Road to Hell     September 16, 2004 Landau / Hassen Meet the New Villain: Syria Joanne Mariner Inside Darfur: a Photo Essay Patrick Cockburn US Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath Greg Moses Four Million Children Might Be News Joshua Frank Nader in the Battleground States Christopher Brauchli The Bush Drug Lottery Flops David Himmelstein Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance Website of the Day The Abu Ghraib Index     September 15, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Hell on Haifa Street Ron Jacobs Oppose War, Not Just Bush David Lindorff Blanking Out Dissent Joanne Mariner Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word? Angela Godfrey-Goldstein An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid Dave Zirin Is the NFL Ready for Us? Yigal Bronner "They Are Building Walls Around Us"     September 14, 2004 Gary Leupp The Problem of Chechnya Jennifer van Bergen What's Wrong with Torture? Stan Goff Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot Patrick Cockburn The Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances Anis Memon Nader in Michigan Michael Donnelly The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes Werther Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles Website of the Day Osama Bin Forgotten?       September 13, 2004 Gabriel Kolko Elections, Alliances and the American Empire Phillip Cryan How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's War Patrick Cockburn One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm Dying! I'm Dying" Noah Leavitt The War on Civil Liberties Robert Jensen Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11 Mike Whitney Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy John Chuckman Stop Talking About the "Election" Mike Burke Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine Issues CounterPunch Wire The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes I Get" Website of the Day Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity   September 11 / 12, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Swatting at Flies Fred Gardner Yet Another Prozac Scandal Saul Landau When Our Assassins Go Free Jennifer Van Bergen How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American Roger Burbach / Jim Tarbell The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire Christopher Reed 9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to Worldwide War Casualties Francisc Catalin An ABC of American Interventions Carl Estabrook Big Science and Government Terror Bernard Chazelle Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study Sharon Smith Third Party Blues Dave Lindorff Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority Mike Whitney Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan? Frederick B. Hudson Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith Mickey Z. Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11 Ron Jacobs Redneck Music for the New Century Greg Moses Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial Benjamin Dangl / Andrew Kennis An Interview with Leslie Cagan Poets Basement Del Papa, Albert, Gelman     September 10, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Disappointment at Samarrah? Michael Donnelly Democrats v. Democracy Alan Farago Mosquitoes in a Hurricane Doug Giebel Karl Rove's Terror Playbook Mike Whitney Bob Graham's Political Tsunami David Domke God's Will, According to the Bush Administration     September 9, 2004 Joe Bageant Karaoke Night in Bush's America Ed Kinane Abducted in Baghdad Peter Bohmer The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future Todd May The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution Jeremy Scahill The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad Joshua Frank Green House Party Gasses Fran Shor The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist Act Patrick Cockburn Welcome to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad Website of the Day Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero   September 8, 2004 Patrick Cockburn This Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq Dave Lindorff Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead Bulent Gokay Russian and Chechnia After Beslan Lisa Viscidi Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala Niranjan Ramakrishnan Byrd's Eye View Mike Whitney Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony Stan Goff Body Count: 1001 Website of the Day Bush and the Love Doctors     September 7, 2004 Diane Christian Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker Joshua Frank Greens Unravel from Within Patrick Cockburn Fallujah Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000 Ron Jacobs Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men" Chris Floyd Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed Dr. Carol Wolman No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade John Ross The Politics of Darkness North / South     September 6, 2004 Alexander Cockburn An Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted For Taft-Hartley? Ralph Nader The Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for Working People Lee Sustar What's Driving the Attack on Pensions? Kathleen and Bill Christison Dual Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel     September 4-5, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Elephants and Gramsci Ted Honderich The Way Things Are Sasan Fayazmanesh The Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do Douglas Valentine What the World Should Know About Guantanamo Patrick Cockburn New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles Gary Leupp Neo Cons Under Fire Fred Gardner Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt William A. Cook The Day of the Lemming Dave Zirin Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom John Chuckman The Day the World Ended Karyn Strickler God Save the Endangered Species Act Vanessa Jones Bad Day with an Ikea Cup Mike Whitney Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate Mark Donham Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast Mickey Z. McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain Alan Farago Can the Everglades be Fixed? Poets' Basement Landau and Albert     September 3, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair High Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb Rahul Mahajan Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response Carl Estabrook The Book of Slaughter and Forgetting Joshua Frank The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again Gary Leupp Music to My Ears: Sunday's March James Hollander Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide? Mark Engler Republicans Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out Jesse Sharkey Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education Jane Stillwater Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid Stephen Green Serving Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel     September 2, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair High Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks Max Gimble Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves in Guatemala James Petras President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities Christopher Brauchli Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote Twice, Let Them" Todd Chretien & Jessie Muldoon Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller? Jack Random Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer Alan Maass The Real Vietnam Christa Allen Contre Bush Website of the Day [Redacted]     September 1, 2004 Alexander Cockburn The Stench of Doom Kathleen and Bill Christison Poor Larry Franklin Dave Lindorff Kerry's Litmus Test Josh Frank Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up John L. Hess Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops Mike Whitney Deconstructing Arnold Jack Random Kindergarten Night at the RNC Andrew Wilson War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us? Jeffrey St. Clair High Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words     August 31, 2004 Joseph Nevins Escapism and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs Matt Vidal Beyond Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy Neve Gordon Kerry and the Middle East Dave Lindorff Bush the Peace Candidate? Mike Whitney NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran Jack Random Opening Night: Playing the War Card Jeffrey St. Clair High Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One) CounterPunch Photo of the Day Pete Seeger in NYC     August 30, 2004 Justin Podhur The Disappeared Mayor Shaun Joseph The Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com Mike Whitney Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly Want? Ron Jacobs Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate David Lindorff Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy Dave Zirin USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate Sam Husseini Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History     August 28 / 29, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Zombies for Kerry Patrick Cockburn Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US Ray McGovern Blowing Smoke on Intelligence Dr. Juan Romagoza From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor Ray Hanania An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous! Fred Gardner Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot Diane Christian Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live William S. Lind The Desert Fox Paul D'Amato The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry Joshua Frank Greens at the Crossroads Mickey Z. Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests Winslow T. Wheeler Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange Justin E.H. Smith The New Age Racket and the Left Thomas St. John Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Ali Tonak Help the NYPD? Mark Engler New York Says "No" Justin Felux Haiti: the Attica of the Americas Poets' Basement Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod     August 27, 2004 Gary Leupp Neocon Musings Robin Cook The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib Diane Christian Disarming Michael Donnelly Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party? Jack Random 4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters Mike Ferner "To the Swift Boats!" Mazin Qumsiyeh 7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners Veronza Bowers, Jr. "You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"   August 26, 2004 M. Shahid Alam The Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology? Diane Christian War Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu Derek Seidman "They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get Organized David Lindorff Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally Christopher Brauchli Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble Stew Albert Reporting Suspicious Activity Mark Donham Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court Saul Landau Pinochet: the Al Capone of the Southern Cone Website of the Day The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See     August 25, 2004 Amelia Peltz Can I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time? Noah Leavitt Defining and Redefining Torture Ron Jacobs Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About Democracy James Brooks Coronado Crosses the Jordan Akiva Eldar How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan" Gemma Araneta Chavez's New Brand of Populism Philip Cryan Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia CounterPunch Wire Cheney Opens the Closet Door     August 24, 2004 Jeremy Scahill John Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate Gary Leupp "We Want Them to Go Away" David Domke God Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism William Loren Katz The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in Venezuela Jonah Gindin With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media Fran Schor Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah Joe Bageant Driving on the Bones of God Website of the Day The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC   August 23, 2004 Winslow Wheeler Don't Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror John Pilger Bush May Be the Lesser Evil Stan Goff Swift Boat Dogfight Bill and Kathleen Christison Notes from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild Mike Whitney The Unraveling of Afghanistan William Blum Brave New World of Iraqi Sovereignty Ralph Nader A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial     August 21 / 22, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair "They Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on Drugs Landau / Hassen Failing the Mission? Form a Commission Brian Cloughley The Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts Josh Frank Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So Mike Whitney Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib Ron Jacobs Day Labor Blues Mickey Z. Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin Fred Gardner Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants Dave Zirin Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot Josh Saxe Witnessing Police Brutality in LA Yanar Mohammed Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings Helen Williams Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad Michael Donnelly Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery Elizabeth Schulte The Crisis in Affordable Housing Poets' Basement Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger                                   Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition September 25 / 6, 2004 We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion The "Logic" of Lesser-Evilism By TODD CHRETIEN You should always worry when someone uses the old "taken to its logical conclusion" line of argument. It usually means that they are about to make some ridiculous claim about you and then spread it around as much as possible. That is exactly what Ted Glick has done in his latest hit piece on Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo called "Kerry and Progressive Party Building." Here's what he says, "Peter Camejo was the first one I heard put it out, back in April: 'Kerry will do what Bush wants to do better.' In other words, Kerry and the Democrats are the greater evil, not the Republicans which, followed to its logical conclusion, means that Camejo hopes that Bush/Cheney will win re-election." Now Ted, I could go for the cheap retort that "taken to its logical conclusion" the argument you make in favor of voting for Kerry means that you hope Kerry wins so that he can get tough on Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and, in his words, "stop sending mixed signals." After Bush has backed two unsuccessful coups, I'm not sure what MORE Kerry has in mind, but it can't be anything other than evil, lesser or greater, you make the call. But, of course, Ted, you hope for nothing of the kind. You are a staunch opponent of U.S. intervention in Latin America and would join Nader/Camejo in denouncing any American administration's threats against Venezuelan sovereignty. So, let's leave aside your musings about Camejo's "hopes," as you put it, and instead return to solid ground of reality. Your basic argument is that "Since World War II the strongest, national, progressive third party movements have developed when Democrats were in power. The first example was the Henry Wallace/Progressive Party effort in 1948 when Harry Truman was president. Then there was the 1968 national Peace and Freedom Party effort when Johnson was President. The decade of the '90's, when Bill Clinton was in office, was a decade which saw the emergence of three major efforts, the Green Party, the Labor Party and the New Party." That is exactly right. We can go back even further in American history to make your point. In the 1890's the Populist Party built a coalition of poor Black and white farmers in opposition to the Democratic Party's rule in the South and Democratic President Grover Cleveland's anti-labor policies in the North. In 1920, the Socialist Party and Eugene V. Debs got 900,000 votes, running from inside a jail cell in protest of Democratic president Woodrow Wilson's entry into World War I. By 1936, the Communist Party had 60,000 members and was central to the creation of the millions-strong Congress of Industrial Organizations. FDR's increasing hostility to the surging labor movement, and his total failure to end the Great Depression, opened the door to building a powerful labor party. This same cycle began, as Ted points out, in the 1990's under Clinton. Lest we forget, Clinton killed more Iraqis in his time in office than Bush I and II combined, shredded the remaining rags of the welfare net, super-sized the WTO and nearly doubled the prison population, all while presiding over the greatest polarization between rich and poor in the United States since the 1920's. So the question is, after 150 years of trying, has it been impossible to build a mass party of the people to the left of the corporate Democrats? In 1896, the Populists abandoned their independent party to support liberal William Jennings Bryan. In the 1920's, the Socialist Party's right wing expelled John Reed and the left, in order to project a more "moderate" appeal to the electorate. In 1936, the Communist Party headed-off the creation of a powerful labor party and helped re-elect FDR because Stalin wanted FDR as a friend against Hitler. They have been loyal Democrats ever since. The increasing belligerence of the McCarthyites in the 1950's, sent all the third party forces back into the Democrats. And Nixon's carpet bombing of North Vietnam and invasion of Cambodia and Laos, re-directed the forces of the anti-war movement behind Democrat George McGovern. But, you don't have to go back into history to understand this. We are living through the answer today. Skip to the 1990's. Clinton's vicious attacks gave rise to a new third party movement in the form of the Nader campaign of 2000. Now, as you ought to remember, Greens were not the only ones who supported Nader in 2000. Many independents, anarchists, socialists, union members and activists of all stripes did as well. This left-wing alliance made a great start, building networks, raising issues and showing that millions of people were ready to challenge the two-party system. Along comes Bush's horrifying administration. Traditionally, the American left now forgets why it began organizing a third party against the Democrats in the first place and throws its weight behind whatever Democrat happens to be on offer. All sorts of "this year is different" arguments are created. Usually, the Democrats promise the left a few crumbs in order to mop up. When the Democrats don't even offer crumbs, then the argument that the Republicans are "fascists" is hauled out. Nixon is a fascist. Reagan is a fascist. Bush I is a fascist. Bush II is a fascist. Thus the left throws away any bit of momentum it has created fighting the Democrats and falls into the historical cycle of disorganizing the third party challenge by driving it back into the Democrats or running for cover. You are a prominent Green Party member and supporter of David Cobb's campaign. In your article you argue that Cobb's "strategic states" campaign will avoid the "deep and broad anger" directed against the Nader/Camejo campaign for its full-on challenge to the corporate Democrats. (Don't worry about us. I can't imagine that anything would be worse than the abuse the Democrats are heaping on us today.) Cobb's invisible campaign itself is a guarantee that no one will blame the Green Party for stealing votes from the Democrats this year... or remember that it even ran a campaign. But, I'm glad you point out that Cobb DOES have a "strategic state" plan and that you support him BECAUSE it allows you to "maximize and defend the progressive vote on election day," that is, Kerry's vote. Every time I've made that point, irate Cobb supporters call and email saying I am "lying." Thanks for clearing that up. But something surprising has happened this year. Nader and Camejo have refused to take a dive this year, and millions of people are supporting them. This is really remarkable. Especially since most of the best-known figures on the American progressive left are supporting Kerry. Just see the letter signed by 70 former Nader supporters from 2000 calling for a vote for Kerry. Taking this stand shows the world that there are millions of people in the United States who refuse to vote for either of the pro-war candidates. All by itself, that fact is worth voting for Nader. But probably even more important is the lesson that ordinary people are learning across the country as they flock to hear Nader and Camejo in their tens of thousands. That lesson? Fredrick Douglass was right. Power, be it Democrat or Republican, concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will. If we can't build up a third party force that challenges the Democrats and Republicans EVERY election year, year after year, war after war, cut-back after cut-back, execution after execution, lay-off after lay-off, HMO after HMO, then we may as well just stop fooling around and join the Democratic Party now. Ted, do you think that all of us Nader supporters are "hoping" Bush wins? Or is it just possible, that we have a legitimate point of view and that we might be right? Maybe it's time we listen to Malcolm X's advice from 1964, The Democrats "get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return. All they did when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes didn't need big jobs, they already had jobs. That's camouflage, that's trickery, that's treachery, window-dressing. I'm not trying to knock out the Democrats for the Republicans, we'll get to them in a minute. But it is true - you put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last...." The whole left, Black, white, Asian, Latino, union, anti-war, global justice, civil rights, all of us, have been putting the Democrats first for 150 years and they've been putting us last. I think that's sufficient evidence to try some different logic. Todd Chretien is a frequent contributor to CounterPunch and the International Socialist Review. He can be reached at: toddchretien@comcast.net Weekend Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004 James Petras The Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of Abu Ghraib Fred Gardner Run Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain Justin Delacour Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela Brian Cloughley Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd? Joshua Frank The Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader Iain A. Boal On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection Chris Floyd All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome Andrew Fenton Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti Aseem Shrivastava Saga of an Anguished Afghan Neil Corbett See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush Carol Miller / Forrest Hill Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only 12% of the Vote Tarek Milleron Breaking the Principled Voter Donald Macintyre The Battle of Najaf Ron Jacobs Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies Mickey Z. Kid Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO Poets' Basement Adler, Ford and Albert WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   /