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WHO RULES: THE ISRAEL LOBBY
OR UNCLE SAM?
The answer
at last! Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, assesses the Lobby's
power. "If the Israeli government wanted a law tomorrow
annulling the 10 Commandments, 95 U.S. Senators (at least) would
sign the bill forthwith." But, yes, in the end the dog wags
the tail.Fifty
years ago Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" blew the cobwebs
out of millions of young minds and drove a stake through the
heart of Eisenhower's America. Lenni Brenner remembers Ginsberg
in the East Village.Dr Mengele died in exile, in disguise. Dr Ishii
died rich and recognized, in his own Tokyo home. Christopher
Reed on Japanese WW2 medical tortures and how the U.S. covered
them up.CounterPunch
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Now!
There are so many scandals swirling
around Washington, D.C. it sometimes almost seems like there
might be some minor consequences from a few of them possibly,
at some point. Maybe. So far, nothing. I thrust the trembling
finger-bone of blame at the Washington press corps, that aptly-named
body that lies on a slab (this is a brilliant double entendre,
or 'twice tenderized', if you prefer to eschew French, in which
'corps' and 'body' suggest a cadaver, and 'lies on a slab' refers
to a newspaper full of falsehoods; thought I'd just point this
out rather than have such a witty line go completely unappreciated
by you cloth-headed dolts). It is this sniveling pack of milk-livered
sycophants, gelt-gelded golems of galimatias, that have led us
to this pass - - a press pass, if I may. Unless the news media
can be persuaded to do their goddamn jobs, it's bottoms up for
Bonzo, and the rest of us, too. We need reporting, and we need
it now.
If any of these so-called journalists
(anagram: insular jot) would please venture the relatively modest
career risk it entails to take a shot at the side of one of these
barnloads of scandal in return for the potential upside of saving
humanity from a thousand years of darkness that will make the
13th Century look like a weekend in the Hamptons, it would be
my pleasure to reciprocate with a bank check for $100, if that
helps any. I'll put a word in with the Pulitzer folks, too,
if that's an incentive. We need someone to break one of these
stories, pronto. Reminder: the latest scandal is Watergategate
(I thought of that myself, very pleased, thank you) , and the
potential bag will be something like 30 corrupt persons in high
office, probably including Porter 'Night Porter' Goss, head of
the CIA until about an hour ago when he suddenly stuffed a few
things in a portmanteau and shinned down the drainpipe to greener
pastures. But there are many others, and if you don't mind a
little plagiarism, there are plenty of reputable bloggers out
there that have already gone out on a limb and done all the handy
legwork on what's afoot.
List ye, O nogoodnik nescient
nanocephalous nugatory nabobs of natter: Alger Hiss is everywhere,
there's a plenitude of pumpkins. Donald Rumsfeld's dissembling
about those WMDs, remember that? Donald Death just gave a Q
& A in Atlanta during which he got called out on one of his
lies, stood there thunderstruck and gobsmacked because he was
caught dead to rights with a lie right in his teeth, and all
you did was report there were hecklers present. How about that
whole Valerie Plame thing? You remember, the scandal that has
got Karl Rove hiding behind the draperies in the Gannon Bedroom
at the White House? Report on it, for Chrissakes, and not just
to say he's had a slight change of job description. Mention
why that is. How about-O Lord, I am overcome, give me some scandals
in list form:
Memogate (an oldie but goodie,
look it up), Energy Taskforcegate, Yellowcakegate, Plamegate,
Abramoffgate, Gannongate, any one of about 380 Halliburtongates,
the Bush/Enron connection, or KennyboyLayGate, Hammergate ("DeLay
not; swift the flight of fortune's greatest favors", as
Seneca said), Taiwangate (Deputy Assistant Secretary Donald Keyser
passes documents to Taiwan, no story here apparently), Phone
Jamming On Election Night In New Hampshiregate (two dozen calls
to the White House during this little illegal operation, maybe
just birthday greetings to the First Lady, but shouldn't someone
investigate it?) UNgate (we wiretapped the United Nations, probably
mistaking the organization for an ordinary American citizen),
Wiretapping Ordinary American Citizensgate (this 'gate' suffix
is dreadful but I'm stuck with it now, bear with me), Fristgate
(insider trading), Cheney Shooting Somebody In The Headgate,
Katrinagate (New Orleans is still a nigrescent nightmare), let
us not forget Iraqgate, by which I mean the entire clusterfuck,
from Abu Ghraib to Zarqawi, The President Is Above The Lawgate,
Gasgate (demand is down, prices are up, nothing to see here,
folks, move along), Irangate, and how about GAAAAAARRRRRGHHH
SPLETCH SPURT SPURT SPURT Jesus Christ, my head just exploded.
Right, mop off the keyboard
and enough of scandals. Maybe there are just too many of them.
If Clinton, that prurient pork-swordsman, had sodomized ten
thousand interns, perhaps the weasels of the press couldn't have
kept up with it all and they would have abandoned the whole thing.
Maybe that is Bush's genius: there are so many juicy flies swarming
around the filth-caked nostrils of the dying wildebeest of his
presidency that a journalist hardly knows which one to swat first.
But in the name of Old Hob, please choose one and swat it.
It really is time to stop playing at journalists and start doing
the actual work.
If you're still all that fond
of Bush, or your salary-paying management suggests Bush might
not like an honest exploration of the steaming open sores appearing
like moon-craters all over the feculent backside of his government,
let us remember that it was Bush Himself that suggested he desired
an honest administration. I quote the great man from October
of the year 2000: "In my administration", said Bush,
"We will ask not only what is legal, but what is right,
not what the lawyers allow, but what the public deserves."
I suppose Bush delivered:.
The public has gotten exactly what it deserves. But at the
very least, I'd like it to make the news.
CounterPunch
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