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Did Oprah Pick Another Fibber? Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel's Night In his special report Alexander Cockburn interviews former Wiesel colleague and Holocaust survivor Eli Pfefferkorn. What Raul Hilberg, the Holocaust's greatest historian, really thinks about Wiesel's "Night". Also in this special issue: Is Hugo Chavez Hitler or Father Christmas? Larry Lack tells the full story of Venezuela's hand-outs to Uncle Sam's Shivering Poor. Plus, Jeffrey St Clair profiles the Endangered Visigoth and traces the rise and possible fall of Rick Pombo, destroyer of nature. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of 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 donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
Today's Stories March 21, 2006 Sophia
A. McLennen March 20, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Dave
Lindorff Ralph
Nader Diane
Christian Jeff
Halper Harry
Browne Norman
Solomon Patrick
Cockburn Website
of the Day
March 18 / 19, 2006 Cockburn
/ St. Clair Werther Chris
Kromm Patrick
Cockburn Elaine
Cassel S. Brian
Willson Fred
Gardner Brian
Cloughley Laura
Carlsen Eamon
Martin Julie
Hilden Alison
Weir Jeffrey
St. Clair Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
March 17, 2006 Eduardo
Galeano Greg
Moses Richard
Falk / David Krieger Cindy
and Craig Corrie Amira
Hass Mike
Marqusee James
Petas and Robin Eastman-Abaya Website
of the Day
March 16, 2006 Norman
Solomon Tom
Philpott Heather
Gray Amira
Hass Missy
Comley Beattie Sen.
Russell Feingold Lucinda
Marshall Andrew
Bosworth Clancy
Sigal Website
of the Day
Jonathan
Cook Winslow
Wheeler Diane
Christian Ron
Jacobs Missy
Comley Beattie Jared
Bernstein Noam
Chomsky Website
of the Day
March 14, 2006 Earl
Ofari Hutchinson Dave
Lindorff Kevin
Zeese Todd
Chretien Jason
Kunin Thomas
Palley Cockburn
/ St. Clair Website
of the Day
March 13, 2006 Uri
Avnery Dave
Lindorff Mike
Whitney David
Green Jeremy
Scahill Mike
Ferner Corey
Harris Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn Ralph
Nader Paul
Craig Roberts Ben
Tripp John
Strausbaugh Landau
/ Hassen Robert
Bryce Gary
Leupp Fred
Gardner Ron
Jacobs Jonathan
Scott Ramzy
Baroud Jordan
Flaherty John
Chuckman Joe
Allen Julia
Kendlbacher St.
Clair / Walker / Pollack / Vest Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
March 10, 2006 Ben
Rosenfeld Lila
Rajiva Saree
Makdisi Elena
Shore Joshua
Frank Dave
Zirin Aura
Bogado
March 9, 2006 John
Walsh Annie
Zirin Brian
McKenna Chris
Floyd Rachard
Itani Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Wylie
Harris Alexander
Cockburn Website
of the Day
March 8, 2006 Patrick
Bond Brian
Concannon, Jr. Pat
Williams Lance
Selfa Mokhiber
/ Weissman Walter
Brasch Vijay
Prashad Website
of the Day
March 7, 2006 Werther John
Blair Dave
Lindorff Mike
Whitney Warren
Guykema Sen.
Russell Feingold Robert
Jensen Norman
Solomon Bernie
Dwyer Website
of the Day
Ralph
Nader Dave
Zirin Vanessa
Redgrave Walter
A. Davis Joshua
Frank Nate
Mezmer Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn Jennifer
Van Bergen Steven
Higgs Winslow
T. Wheeler Ron
Jacobs Rev.
William E. Alberts Colin
Asher Fred
Gardner "Pariah" John
Scagliotti Seth
Sandronsky Joan
Roelofs Arjun
Makhijani Ardeshr
Ommani Diana
Barahona Ben
Tripp St.
Clair / Socialist Worker Staff Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend March 3, 2006 Laura
Carlsen John
V. Whitbeck Chris
Floyd Mohamed
Hakki Pratyush
Chandra John
Scagliotti Website
of the Day
March 2, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Dave
Lindorff Ramzy
Baroud Saul
Landau Joe
Allen Steve
Shore Denise
Boggs Norman
Finkelstein Website
of the Day
March 1, 2006 Mairead
Corrigan Maguire Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Faheem
Hussain Antony
Loewenstein Elizabeth
Schulte Mike
Whitney John
Ryan Michael
Donnelly Tom
Reeves Website
of the Day
February 28, 2006 Sen.
Russ Feingold Ralph
Nader Joshua
Frank Aziz
Haniffa Benjamin Dangl Norman Solomon Mike
Ferner Sharon
Smith Website
of the Day
February 27, 2006 Buncombe
/ Cockburn Paul
Craig Roberts Ingmar
Lee Ron
Jacobs Dave
Lindorff Pat
Wolff Lila
Rajiva Website
of the Day
February 25 / 26, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Lila
Rajiva Lee
Sustar Jennifer
Van Bergen / Madis Senner Justin
E.H. Smith Paul
Craig Roberts Jason
Leopold Gilad
Atzmon Zahid
Shariff Fred
Gardner Dick
J. Reavis David
Stocker John
Bomar Mike
Marqusee Pratyush
Chandra Ben
Tripp Dr.
Susan Block Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
February 24, 2006 Alan
Maass William
S. Lind Dave
Lindorff Pierre
Tristam Meg
Bannerji Robert
Jensen Mark
Engler Jennifer
Loewenstein Website
of the Day
February 23, 2006 Chet
Richards Jonathan
Feldman Joshua
Frank Ron
Jacobs Amira
Hass Samah
Sabawi Norman
Solomon Christopher
Reed Website
of the Day
February 22, 2006 Robert
Pollin Phil
Doe Pirouz
Azadi Saul
Landau Brian
McKinlay Sam
Smith Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Diane
Farsetta Website
of the Day
February 21, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Franklin
Spinney Dave
Lindorff Alevtina
Rea Bruce
K. Gagnon Dave
Zirin Bill
Quigley Website
of the Day
February 20, 2006 Jennifer
Van Bergen Rachard
Itani Gideon
Levy Joshua
Frank Newton
Garver Pratyush
Chandra Seth
Sandronsky Cockburn
/ St. Clair Website
of the Day
February 18 / 19, 2006 Werther Uzma
Aslam Khan Joe
DeRaymond Edward
F. Mooney Paul
Craig Roberts Elaine
Cassel P.
Sainath Thomas
P. Healy Brian
Concannon, Jr. Fred
Gardner Rep.
Cynthia McKinney Brian
Tokar Chan
Chee Khoon Andrew
Freedman St.
Clair / Walker Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
February 17, 2006 Floyd
Rudmin Gervasio
Rodríguez Gary
Leupp Ramzy
Baroud Amira
Hass Matthew
Koehler Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Debbie
Nathan Website
of the Day
Febrauary 16, 2006 Lila
Rajiva Norman
Solomon Ron
Jacobs Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
February 15, 2006 Brian
Conacnnon, Jr. Dave
Lindorff Saree
Makdisi Joshua
Frank Amira
Hass CounterPunch
Wire Robert
Bryce Website
of the Day February 14, 2006 John
Sugg Don
Santina William
A. Cook Ray
McGovern John
Ross Website
of the Day
Lila
Rajiva Christopher
Brauchli Dave
Lindorff Ron
Jacobs Mike
Whitney Michael
Neumann Website
of the Day
February 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Ralph
Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Pat Williams Fred Gardner Saul Landau John Chuckman Roger Burbach Seth Sandronsky Website of
the Weekend
February 10, 2006 Carl
G. Estabrook Sen.
Russell Feingold Roxanne
Dunbar----Ortiz Saree Makdisi Website of
the Day
February 9, 2006 Dave Lindorff Mike Marqusee Paul Craig Roberts Peter Phillips William S. Lind Christine Tomlinson Innocent Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's Eavesdropping Program Will Youmans Robert Robideau Richard Neville Peter Rost Website of the Day
February 8, 2006 Ron Jacobs Stan Cox Sen. Russ Feingold Robert Jensen Rep. Cynthia McKinney Niranjan Ramakrishnan Don Monkerud David Swanson C.L. Cook Christopher
Fons Jeffrey Ballinger Website of
the Day
February 7, 2006 Edward Lucie-Smith Robert Fisk Paul Craig Roberts Neve Gordon Joshua Frank Peter Montague Jackie Corr Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
February 6, 2006 Christopher
Brauchli Robert Fisk John Chuckman Jenna Orkin Paul Craig
Roberts
February 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Mike Ferner James Petras Alan Maass Fred Gardner Ralph Nader Bill Glahn Saul Landau Laura Carlsen James Brooks Mike Roselle John Holt Sarah Ferguson William S.
Lind Niranjan Ramakrishnan Seth Sandronsky Derrick O'Keefe Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Elisa Salasin St. Clair / Vest Stew Albert Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
February 3, 2006 Toufic Haddad Heather Gray Tim Wise Conn Hallinan Eva Golinger Daniel Ellsberg Dave Zirin Robert Bryce Website of
the Day
February 2, 2006 Winslow T.
Wheeler Stan Cox Rachard Itani Mike Whitney Amira Hass Norman Solomon Michael Simmons Christopher
Reed Website of the Day
February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith Jason Leopold Cindy Sheehan Joseph Grosso Earl Ofari Hutchinson Steven Higgs Robert Robideau R. Siddharth Jim Retherford Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
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March 21, 2006 The Fiasco of Congressional Earmark Reform Lipstick on the Pig By WINSLOW WHEELER The Congressional Research Service has
produced a new report on "earmarks" in appropriations
bills. Otherwise known as "pork," defense appropriations
earmarks continue to climb in both number and cost. Congress'
self-appointed "pork busters" and other reformers have
now moved beyond talking at and studying the problem; now they
are offering cosmetic non-solutions. Because the total defense budget has been growing during the period of this stable percentage, the cost and number -- of defense pork items is permitted to grow each year. That would keep the herd of congressional supplicants to the Appropriations Committees and the "leadership" of those committees all happy and satisfied. That there is any such quota
is merely this author's, not CRS', The CRS reports implicitly raise some other questions. McCain forgot to ask CRS to study earmarks in authorization bills. He restricted his research request to just appropriations bills, thereby obviating any revelations about the persistent porking in the National Defense Authorization bill, annually reported out of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Indeed, exposing the number of earmarks in bills from the Senate Armed Services Committee, where McCain sits as a senior member, would be problematic for the new tack he has taken on "busting" pork. In the flurry of activity to reform earmarking and lobbying in the aftermath of the Duke Cunningham scandal, McCain and others have introduced "The Pork Barrel Reduction Act." It would define "pork" as earmarks in appropriations bills that are not "authorized." By that, he means projects not approved by the relevant Senate "authorization" committee for defense matters, namely, McCain's own Senate Armed Services Committee. Put simply, according to McCain, it's "pork" if the Appropriations Committee added it, but it's not pork if the Armed Services Committee added it. There would be some legitimacy to McCain's distinction if the review process for earmarks in the Senate Armed Services Committee were somehow different from, and superior to, that in the Senate Appropriations Committee. That, however, is not the case. In both committees, the process consists of the committee staff soliciting the view of bureaucrats in the Pentagon. If the latter want, or at least can tolerate, the additional spending, the committee will almost certainly accept the earmark and some spending for it; if the DOD bureaucrat does not want the "add-on," it will almost certainly be rejected by either committee. Put simply, the process employed by the Armed Services Committee for assessing pork is virtually indistinguishable from that of the Appropriations Committee; McCain attempts to draw a difference where there is none. The only possible difference in the review of pork is the political tests the chairmen and ranking Democrats on the two separate committees apply. As their staff has repeatedly explained to other Senate staff, Sens. Ted Stevens, R- Alaska, and Daniel Inouye, D- Hawaii, at the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee tend to limit pork for senators who vote against their bills. In their joint review of pork at the Armed Services Committee, Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., tend to be less crude politically and to rely solely on the judgment, or at worst forbearance, of DOD bureaucrats without an intervening filter of a political smell test. In neither committee is there a truly objective review, such as by the Congressional Budget Office for the actual cost or by the Government Accountability Office for actual need or effectiveness. Moreover, in neither committee is any requirement imposed that the business contracting for earmarks be competed between the firm intended by the member to get the contact and others, perhaps in a different state. Doing so would likely reduce cost and improve quality but would defeat the point of the whole operation: to bring home, not to others, the bacon. However, even the counterfeit reforms of McCain's "Pork Barrel Reduction Act" are too strong for other senators. The "Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006" has been jointly offered to the Senate by Sens. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, ( the chairs of the Senate Rules and Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committees, respectively). That bill, which also addresses the related issue of lobbying ethics, states that earmarks must now be explained as to their "essential government purpose" and who in Congress proposed them. But in requiring this useful and welcome public information, the bill would define earmarks in a most unusual manner. According to Lott and Collins, it's only an "earmark" if it's for a "non-federal entity." That meaning is not particularly clear, but, based on discussions with Senate staff from the two committees that wrote the bill, it would appear that an item like an additional VIP aircraft, known as a C-37 transport, for generals and members of Congress to travel in would be directly appropriated to a very "federal entity," namely the U.S. Air Force, and the producer Gulfstream would only be the secondary, not definitive, recipient. In other words, this and most of the thousands of other earmarks to the Defense Department or its component parts would appear in this legislation not to be an earmark, as defined by the bill and, therefore, not subject to the disclosure the bill requires. That gigantic loophole was apparently insufficient for the authors of the Lott/Collins bill; they further defined an earmark as only a provision that appears in the text of bills, and ultimately laws. In other words, the thousands of earmarks that committees like Armed Services and Appropriations add to committee reports and "joint explanatory statements" that accompany bills in their final form would also not be "earmarks." Only a tiny fraction of the 2,847earmarks CRS found in the 2006 defense appropriations bill, certainly fewer than 50, appear in the text of the bill, not accompanying reports. Only that tiny fraction would be covered by the Lott/Collins proposal, and of those only the ones intended for a "non-federal entity." People familiar with the Lott/Collins and McCain bills predict that there will be an attempt, probably by McCain, to close the loopholes in the Lott/Collins bill by requiring that any earmark to actually receive federal spending must appear in bill text, and to cover federal, as well as non-federal, earmarks. In short, these "toughening" amendments would merely change how pork is displayed and would not require that it be objectively evaluated or contracted with any due diligence whatsoever. There is no plan to put real teeth in the McCain definition of "pork." If these planned amendments are successful, the ultimate result would be to let pork continue to grow; it would first be endorsed by the Armed Services Committee and it would then be listed in the text of appropriations bills, not just reports. Perhaps they should rename the bill; "The Putting of Lipstick on the Pig Act of 2006" would be appropriate. Perhaps, happily, none of this is likely to pass. Ostensibly because it was being burdened with an amendment on the "Dubai ports" issue, the Lott/Collins/McCain legislation was pulled from being the pending business of the Senate, and the body moved on to debating other legislation. It is entirely possible that senators did not want to endure even the cosmetic earmarking requirements to be imposed and/or the other lobbying reforms (such as they may be) in the bill. It is unclear if the bill will return to become Senate business, but if it does, the game plan is quite clearly to keep the Senate pork machine well greased. Winslow T. Wheeler is the Director of the Straus Military
Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. He spent
31 years working for US Senators from both parties and the Government
Accountability Office. He contributed an essay on the
defense budget to CounterPunch's new book: Dime's
Worth of Difference. Wheeler's
new book, "The
Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security,"
is published by the Naval Institute Press.
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. |