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Today's Stories April 15 / 16, 2006 Ralph Nader Remembering Rev. William Sloan Coffin April 14, 2006 Col. Dan Smith Candor or Career?: Why Few Top Military Officials Resign on Principle Saul Landau Ho Chi Minh City Moves On Without Regrets Stan Cox The Real Death Tax Kevin Zeese Hersh vs. Bush on Iran: Who Would You Believe? Brian McKinlay Bad Times for Bush's Buddies Howard Meyers Dwarves, Knives and Freedom: Bush, Jr. is No LBJ Ishmael Reed The Colored Mind Doubles: How the Media Uses Blacks to Chastize Blacks Website of the Day Asshole: a Film Strip   April 13, 2006 CounterPunch News Service Powell's "Bitch"? Norman Solomon The Lobby and the Bulldozer Stanley Heller Time to Shake Up the Peace Movement Jeff Birkenstein Bush and Freedom of Speech Evelyn J. Pringle Not So Fast, Mr. Powell Michael Donnelly The Week the Bush Administration Fell Apart Kamran Matin Synergism of the Neo-Cons: What's Going On In Iran? Website of the Day "Don't Be Afraid of the Neo-Cons"   April 12, 2006 Vijay Prashad Resisting Fences Alan Maass The Suicide of Anthony Soltero Dave Lindorff Bush's Insane First Strike Policy: If You Don't Want to Get Whacked, You'd Better Get Your Nation a Nuke ... Fast Ron Jacobs Resistance: the Remedy for Fear Ramzy Baroud The Imminent Decline of the American Empire? Randall Dodd How a Wal-Mart Bank will Harm Consumers Missy Comley Beattie The Boy President Who Cried "Wolf!" P. Sainath The Corporate Hijack of India's Water Website of the Day "The System is Irretrievably Corrupt"   April 11, 2006 Al Krebs Corporate Agriculture's Dirty Little Secret: Immigration and a History of Greed Lawrence R. Velvel The Gang That Couldn't Leak Straight Sonia Nettinin Palestinian Health Care Conditions Under Israeli Occupation Willliam S. Lind The Fourth Plague Hits the Pentagon: Generals as Private Contractors Robert Ovetz Endangered Species in a Can: the Disappearance of Big Fish Pratyush Chandra Nepalis Say, "Ya Basta!" Grant F. Smith The Bush Administration's Final Surprise? Laray Polk Loud, Soft, Hard, Quiet: Marching Through Dallas for Immigrant Rights Francis Boyle O'Reilly and the Law of the Jungle: How to Beat a Bully on His Home Turf José Pertierra A Glimpse into the Mindset of Terrorists: Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch and the Downing of Cubana Flight 455 Website of the Day The Dead Emcee Scrolls   April 10, 2006 Ralph Nader Tinhorn Caesar and the Spineless Democrats Heather Gray Atlanta and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Uri Avnery The Big Wink Joshua Frank Big Greens and Beltway Politics: Betting on Losers Seth Sandronsky Immigration and Occupations Michael Leonardi The Italian Elections: "Reality is No Longer Important" Evelyn Pringle Did Bush Pull a Fast One on Fitzgerald? Tom Kerr FoxNews Does Ward Churchill Lucinda Marshall The Lynching of Cynthia McKinney Website of the Day Brown Berets April 7 -9, 2006 Alexander Cockburn If Only They'd Hissed Barack Obama Jeffrey St. Clair The Saga of Magnequench: Outsourcing US Missile Technology to China Patrick Cockburn The War Gets Grimmer Every Day David Vest The Rebuking and Scorning of Cynthia McKinney Dave Lindorff The Impeachment Clock Just Clicked Forward Gary Leupp "Ideologies of Hatred:" What Did Condi Mean? Elaine Cassel The Moussaoui Trial: What Kind of Justice is This? Saul Landau Vietnam Diary: Hue Without Rules James Ridgeway "This is Betty Ong Calling": a Short Film Ron Jacobs Why Iran was Right to Refuse US Money John Walsh Kerry Advocates Iraqization: Too Little, Too Late Ramzy Baroud The US Attitude Toward Hamas: Disturbing Parallels with Nicaragua Christopher Brauchli Bush Finds Democracy Has Its Limits Todd Chretien What the Pentagon Budget Could Buy for America Jonathan Scott Javelins at the Head of the Monolith John Bomar What They're Saying About Bush in Arkansas Michele Brand Iran, the US and the EU Ronan Sheehan Remember When the Irish First Met the Chinese? Mickey Z. Let Us Now Praise OIL Don Monkerud March of the Bunglers Michael Dickinson The Rich Young Man: a Miracle Play Website of the Weekend The Case Against Israel and Munich: Compare and Contrast     April 6, 2006 John Ross Mexico's Most Toxic Presidential Election Ever Dave Lindorff Time to Get on Message with the Sissy French Don Monkerud The Strange Case of the American Worker Robert McDonald The Texas Railroad to Death Row: How Prosecutors Fabricated a Case Against Rodney Reed Boris Kagarlitsky A Marriage of Convenience in Ukraine Remi Kanazi The Assault on Cynthia McKinney Niranjan Ramakrishnan Untangling the Issues in the Immigration Debates Robert Fisk A Lesson from the Holocaust for Us All   April 5, 2006 Dick J. Reavis Pancho Bin Laden and the Terrorists' Tombs Mark Brenner Workers in the Aftermath of Katrina: Survival of the Fittest Brian Cloughley Nailing the Lies: Come Clean, Mr. Bush Jozef Hand-Boniakowski Why Democrats Are At Least Half of the Problem Matt Vidal Republican Bliss: the Selfish Road to Happiness Juan Santos The Politics of Immigration: a Nation of Colonists and Race Laws Alan Maass Week of the Walkouts JoAnn Wypijewski Malevolent Power at Ft. Sill: the Army Slays Its Own Website of the Day My Life in the Bush of Ghosts   April 4, 2006 Jackson Thoreau How the Hammer Got Nailed: Taking Down Tom DeLay Gary Corseri Osama's Favorite Writer?: an Interview with William Blum Dave Lindorff Provocative Humanitarianism?: Bashing Hugo Chavez at the NYT Paul Craig Roberts Belligerent to the Bitter End Norman Solomon When War Crimes Are Unspeakable: Bush, Always the Accuser, Never the Accused Michael Carmichael The Christocrat: Condi Does Britain Winslow T. Wheeler Is the F-22 Worth the Price-Tag? Ingmar Lee Is Another World Possible?: Report from Karachi Michael Neumann The Israel Lobby and Beyond Website of the Day West Point Graduates Against the War   April 3, 2006 Saul Landau Vietnam Diary: "What Socialism?" Richard Thieme The CIA: Cowboys, Indians and Whistleblowers, an Interview with David MacMichael Timothy B. Tyson Race, Class and Rape at Duke Omar Barghouti The Israeli Elections: a Decisive Vote for Apartheid Iwasaki Atsuko "As Israelis, We Also Fight for Palestinians:" an Interview with Jeff Halper Julian Edney A Terrible Weapon in the Hands of the Rich Roger Morris Catfight Among the Conservatives   April 1 / 2, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel's "Night" Ralph Nader Exxon/Mobil: the Corporate Superpower of Superpowers Dave Zirin The Press Mob, Their Rope and Barry Bonds: Damn Right Race Matters David Underhill Walkin' to New Orleans Earl Ofari Hutchinson Do Immigrants Really Take Jobs from Urban Poor? Dave Lindorff Sen. Orrin Hatch: Defender of Presidential Lawlessness P. Sainath Where India's Brave New World is Headed Fred Gardner Debunking "Amotivational Syndrome" Clancy Chassay Hamas or Al Qaeda? The Gun or the Ballot Box? Heather Gray The Inspiring Face of Immigration: Australia and the American Rural Southeast Greg Moses Austin Students Walkout: "We're a Group This Country Needs" John Chuckman When the Violent Enforce the Peace: America's Brutal Tactics in Iraq Ron Jacobs Leaving Iraq Now is the Only Sensible Solution Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Holt, Engel, Subiet, Ford and Davies Website of the Weekend Pentagon Thievery   March 31, 2006 Gary Leupp Better Off Under Saddam: an Inventory Patrick Cockburn Mosul Slips Out of Control Saree Makdisi Israeli Elections Big Winner: Avigdor Lieberman Ron Jacobs Where Capital is Not God: France Shows the Way Mark Engler There's Much More to be Done on Third World Debt Relief Curtis F.J. Doebbler An Appeal to International Lawyers: Hold Bush Accountable for Flauting International Law Laith al-Saud Iraq is Not in Civil War (Yet); It's Under Occupation Website of the Day Boobies, Dolphins and Flying Fish: Sailing the African Coast     March 30, 2006 Uri Avnery Israeli Elections: What the Hell Has Happened? Sen. Russell Feingold A Fact Check on a Presidential Crime: Myth vs. Reality on Bush's Warrantless Wiretapping Program Winslow T. Wheeler The Saga of the Joint Strike Fighter: Just Because Its High Tech and Costs $247 Billion Doesn't Mean It Works Dave Lindorff A Strategy of Massacres? Juan Santos The Ghost of George Wallace: Immigration and White Racism Frida Berrigan Privatizing the Apocalypse Joshua Frank War in Search of a Justification Vonnie Edwards Letter from the LA County Jail Neve Gordon Does Kadima's Victory Put the Peace Process in Reverse? Website of the Day The Women of New Orleans Speak   March 29, 2006 CounterPunch News Service Fake Saddam Interview Put Out by Israel Lobby Catspaw, Endorsed by NeoCons' Pet Cassandra, Now Wiping Egg From Face Patrick Cockburn Bush's Call for Ouster of Iraq PM Widens Rift with Shias John Ross When Water is Not a Human Right Omar Barghouti When is Killing Arab Civilians Considered a Massacre? William S. Lind Truth in Advertising from the Army? Missy Comley Beattie Missing in America Earl Ofari Hutchinson AWOL: Black Leaders and Immigration Website of the Day Colombia Support Network Needs Your Help   March 28, 2006 Sharon Smith Liberal Hypocrisy on Immigration: Krugman and Clinton Say Shut the Door Paul Craig Roberts Bush is No Conservative Tariq Ali Karachi Social Forum: NGOs or WGOs? Manuel Garcia, Jr. God's Torturers: from Torquemada to Opus Dei Ramzy Baroud False Impressions: the Media and the Middle East Evelyn Pringle Fentanyl's Body Count: the FDA's Math Problem Seth Sandronsky Inflation and Speculation Patrick Cockburn Shias May Now Turn on US Forces   March 27, 2006 Patrick Cockburn War Crime in a Mosque Joshua Frank The Democrats' Daddy Warbucks Ron Jacobs The Case of the Anti-Minutemen Five Jeff Lays Eternal Spending for a Never-Ending War Davey D. We Didn't Cross the Border, the Border Crossed Us Robert Billyard "I Did Not Join the British Army to Conduct US Foreign Policy" Jim Rigby Why We Let an Atheist Join Our Church Lisa Viscidi Justice and Impunity in Latin America: the Case of Rios Montt Nick Dearden Refugees: Thirty Years in the Western Sahara Gideon Levy Are We Done Killing Children, Yet? Website of the Day "Love Me, I'm a Liberal " (Updated) March 25 / 26, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Why There's No Strategy to End This War Patrick Cockburn The Battle for Baghdad: It's Already Begun Ralph Nader Bush's Divorce from Reality Christopher Reed Slave Labor and Hell Ships: Mitsubishi Awaits Judgment for Its War Crimes Jeff Ballinger Memo to Walter Mosley: the Crisis in Black Leadership Joseph Massad Blaming the Israel Lobby Brian Cloughley The Fifth Afghan War Chris Floyd Death in the Village of Isahaqi Elaine Cassel Abortion Politics: The FDA and Plan B Dave Zirin Death Row Talks Back to Etan Thomas John Chuckman Sorry, Prime Minister, Afghanistan is Not Canada's War Sharon Smith "Si Se Puede!": On Chicago's Streets Christopher Fons A City With Latinos Chris Kromm Coretta Scott King a Communist? There's a History Here John Bomar Neurotic-in-Chief: Bush's "Change of Course" Ron Jacobs More Than Just a Band Maymanah Farhat What MoMA Does to "Islamic" Art St. Clair / Walker / Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Harley, Davies, Engel and Subiet Website of the Weekend Peacecast   March 24, 2006 Cockburn / Sengupta / Duff How the CPT Hostages were Freed P. Sainath Bribe or Die Todd Chretien Jim Crow Goes Fishing: the Racist War on Immigrants Marty Omoto The Other California Michael Carmichael Islamophobia at Downing Street: Tony Blair's Bipolarity Peter Phillips Impeachment Movement Grows; Media Yawns Gabriel Kolko The US Empire vs. Reality Website of the Day Music for Peace   March 23, 2006 Charles V. Peña Bush's Pro-Terrorism Defense Budget Joe DeRaymond El Salvador 2006: a Broken Nation Robert Fisk "US Authorities Say..." Jonathan Cook The Emerging Jewish Consensus in Israel Tom Engelhardt Whatever Happened to Congress?: an Interview with Chalmers Johnson Joshua Frank Political Lemmings: the Democrats and the Precipice Norman Solomon The Ultimate Scapegoat: Blaming the Media for Bad War News Robert Fitch / Joe Allen An Exchange on the State of Organized Labor Patrick Cockburn Kirkuk's Dr. Death CounterPunch News Service On the Proper Way to Address a Bible-Waving Republican State Senator from Maryland Website of the Day Bird-Dogging Kerry   March 22, 2006 David MacMichael Iranian Nuclear Showdown: an Unnecessary Crisis Juan Santos Brown Skin, Yellow Star: Making Latinos Illegal Paul Craig Roberts Hollow Nation: Americans Don't Live Here Anymore Patrick Cockburn Iraq's My Lai?: Shooting Any Iraqi Who Moves Ramzy Baroud The Jericho Raid Jason Leopold The Mysterious "Official One": Woodward's Plame-Leak Deep Throat Dennis Perrin Killer Lies from Cheney's Harlot William Blum The Cuban Punching Bag Jeffrey St. Clair Contract Casino Website of the Day Bird Flu: Will It Cross Over?   March 21, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Delusional Speech Winslow Wheeler Lipstick on the Pig: the Fiasco of Congressional Earmark Reform Tom Engelhardt Cold Warrior in a Strange Land: an Interview with Chalmers Johnson Arnold Oliver To the Guy Who Called Me a Traitor: Dissent and the Iraq War Earl Ofari Hutchinson When Black Cops Go Bad: the Killing of Elio Carrion Mike Whitney Death Squad Democracy William A. Cook Israeli Human Rights: Starve the Palestinians Sophia A. McLennen Assault on Higher Education: the Conservative Push for the Right Student   March 20, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts A Collapsing Presidency Dave Lindorff Howard Dean Tells CounterPunch: DNC No Foe of Impeachment Ralph Nader The DNC's "Grassroots Agenda": Howard Dean's Plea for Advice Diane Christian License to Lie: Over to You, Dante Jeff Halper "To Hell with All of You": the Power of Saying No Harry Browne Unhappy St. Patrick's Day: Bush's Crackdown on Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein Norman Solomon Why are We Here?: Is There a Right Way to Wage a Wrong War? Patrick Cockburn Death Squads on the Prowl; Iraq Convulsed by Fear Website of the Day Abugate   March 18 / 19, 2006 Cockburn / St. Clair Three Years On: Where's the Resistance Here on the Home Front? Werther Bombs and Butchers: "Where Do We Get Such Men?" Chris Kromm Katrina Aid Package: Much Too Little; Much Too Late Patrick Cockburn Halabja: Kurds Destroy Monument to Victims of Saddam's Poison Gas Attack Elaine Cassel Abortion Politics and Animus for Women: Can Justice Kennedy be Swayed? S. Brian Willson Iraq Vets and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Fred Gardner The War on Kids Brian Cloughley General Insanity: the Prevarications of Gen. Peter Pace Laura Carlsen Challenging Disparity: Toward a New US Policy in Latin America Eamon Martin Life in the Shadows of the Empire: Mysterious Photographers of Nothing Julie Hilden Free Speech in the Classroom: Teachers Don't Enjoy Enough Legal Protection Alison Weir So Much for "Sunshine Week": AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Krieger, Louise, and Engek Website of the Weekend Are the Elites Turning Against the Effects of the Israel Lobby?   March 17, 2006 Eduardo Galeano Abracadabra: Uruguay's Desaparecidos Begin to Appear Greg Moses Bush and Nuclear Preemption: Do You Feel Safe With This Man's Finger on the Button? Richard Falk / David Krieger The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is Dying: What Now? Cindy and Craig Corrie Three Ways to Remember Rachel Amira Hass Hamas's Haniyeh: "I Never Sent Anyone on a Suicide Mission" Mike Marqusee Reasons to March James Petas and Robin Eastman-Abaya Philippines: the Killing Fields of Asia Website of the Day Black Shamrock   March 16, 2006 Norman Solomon Hook, Line and Sinker: War-Loving Pundits Tom Philpott Neoliberalism at the Garden Gate: Community Farming in LA Heather Gray Anne Braden: the South's Rebel Without a Pause Amira Hass Is Hamas Playing into the Hands of Israeli Hardliners? Missy Comley Beattie Dangerous-to-Society Women: Locked Up in the Tombs Sen. Russell Feingold President Bush has Broken the Law; He Must be Held Accountable Lucinda Marshall President Ken Doll: Bush Insults Women on Intl. Women's Day Andrew Bosworth From the Man Who Voted Against Katrina Aid: Joe Barton's War on CITGO Clancy Sigal In Celebration of Dachau's 73rd Anniversary, Halliburton Gets Concentration Camp Contract Website of the Day Help Rebuild the New Orleans Public Library March 15, 2006 Jonathan Cook Israel's Raid on the Jericho Jail Winslow Wheeler Hiding the Cost of War: Paying for Iraq with Supplemental Funding Diane Christian Sharon's Stroke Ron Jacobs New Tenants for Abu Ghraib?: a Cell for Kissinger and Haig Missy Comley Beattie How Many Brinks to Pass? Jared Bernstein The Minority Wealth Gap Noam Chomsky The Crumbling Empire Website of the Day French Students Reclaim the Streets of Paris   March 14, 2006 Earl Ofari Hutchinson No Requiem for a Black Conservative: the Fall of Claude Allen Dave Lindorff Why the Gitmo Tribunals are a Bad Idea: Exhibit A, t he Moussaoui Case Kevin Zeese Divide and Rule in Iraq Gone Awry Todd Chretien Counting the Dead in Iraq: Why is the Left Understating the Carnage? Jason Kunin Canada in Afghanistan: "We're Here Because We're Here" Thomas Palley The Economics of Outsourcing Cockburn / St. Clair Pages from the Liberals' War Website of the Day Golf Courses and Swimming Pools   March 13, 2006 Uri Avnery The Missing Word Dave Lindorff Extra, Extra! Media Reports on Censure Motion Mike Whitney South Dakota's Taliban: the Fanatics are on the Loose David Green Questions of Solidarity: Blacks and Jews in Neo-Con America Jeremy Scahill Rest Easy, Bill Clinton: Slobo Can't Talk Any More Mike Ferner Up Against the Wall, Son: Hungering for Justice During My First Congressional Testimony Corey Harris Memories of Ali Farka Touré Paul Craig Roberts Killing Off Milosevic: Was Serbia a Practice Run for Iraq? Website of the Day Prayer Flags for Peace March 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Democrats: When the War Was Lost Ralph Nader Bush at the Tipping Point Paul Craig Roberts Why Did Bush Destroy Iraq? Ben Tripp My Night at the Oscars: the Happy People Speak Out John Strausbaugh The Cowboys and the Village Voice: Alt Press Flagship Goes Corporate Landau / Hassen Why "We" Fight "Their" Wars Robert Bryce A Thousand Pages of Rage Gary Leupp Why They Really Think They Must Defeat Iran Fred Gardner "But He's Good on Our Issue" Ron Jacobs Condi and Iran: Folly, Tragedy and Farce Jonathan Scott Science Fiction's Black Oracle: the Genius and Courage of Octavia Butler Ramzy Baroud Who Will Stop Bush's Militant Militarists? Jordan Flaherty Gitmo on the Mississippi: Life Under the Klan Wasn't This Bad John Chuckman Parable of the Hatchet: the Fallacy of Nation-Building in Afghanistan Joe Allen Smearing Ron Carey and the TDU: Bob Fitch's Hatchet Job Julia Kendlbacher Amazonia: Where All Life Matters St. Clair / Walker / Pollack / Vest Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Harley, Ford and Subiet Website of the Weekend No Hay Ser Humano Ilegal   March 10, 2006 Ben Rosenfeld The Great Green Scare and the Fed's Case Against Rod Coronado: a War on the First Amendment Lila Rajiva The Gitmo Documents: Miller, Boykin, Cambone and Feith Saree Makdisi From Rachel Corrie to Richard Rogers: the Wall, the Javits Center and the Bullying of an Architect Elena Shore FBI Grills US Professor Over Support for Venezuela Joshua Frank How the Green Party Slays Their Own Dave Zirin Lynching Barry Bonds Aura Bogado An Interview with Subcomandate Marcos   March 9, 2006 John Walsh Neocon Daniel Pipes Advocates Civil War in Iraq as Strategic Policy Annie Zirin Leftwing Generals: the Dark Side of Liberal Imperialism Brian McKenna We All Live in Poletown Now: GM and the Corporate Uses of Eminent Domain Chris Floyd Scar Tissue: How the Bushes Brought Bedlam to Iraq Rachard Itani "Over There": Iraq as Soap Opera Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Action Thing Wylie Harris Immigration and Jeffersonian Democracy: Free Borders Make Good Neighbors Alexander Cockburn Ex-State Department Security Officer Charges Pre-9/11 Cover-Up Website of the Day About Pace: Expelling Anti-War Students   March 8, 2006 Patrick Bond The Loans of Mass Destruction: Wolfowitz's Anti-Corruption Hoax at the World Bank Brian Concannon, Jr. Elusive Victories in Haiti Pat Williams Buyer's Remorse: Bush, the View from the Purple States Lance Selfa The Democrats and Dubai: the Politics of Distraction Mokhiber / Weissman Have You Ever Been Convicted of a Felony? Walter Brasch Compromising Civil Liberties Vijay Prashad For Them Indian Mangoes: Anatomy of an Agreement Website of the Day Rachel Corrie: a Call to Action   March 7, 2006 Werther Half a Trillion Dollars: It's an Awful Lot of Money to Make Us Less Safe and Less Free John Blair Dr. Strangelove is Our President: Global Peace Through Nuclear Weapons Dave Lindorff The Impeachment Groundswell and Bush's Last Hope: the Democrats Mike Whitney No Immunity: Israel's Policy of Targeted Assassination Warren Guykema Who is Afraid of Rachel Corrie? Sen. Russell Feingold Misleading Testimony About NSA Domestic Spying Robert Jensen Why I am a Christian (Sort Of) Norman Solomon Digitalized Hype: a Dazzling Smokescreen? Bernie Dwyer Hopeful Signs Across Latin America: an Interview with Noam Chomsky Website of the Day Golem Song March 6, 2006 Ralph Nader Bush and Katrina: "Situational Information?" Dave Zirin Why Did Pat Tillman Die? an Investigation Reopens Vanessa Redgrave Censorship of the Worst Kind: the Second Death of Rachel Corrie Walter A. Davis Theater, Ideology and the Censorship of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" Joshua Frank Down By Law: the Mysterious Case of David Cobb Nate Mezmer A Second Look at "Crash": More Myths About Blacks and Racist Cops Paul Craig Roberts America's Bleak Jobs Future Website of the Day Crossroads: Race, Class and Art March 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Dubai Ports Purchase: National Insecurity, Imported or Homegrown? Jennifer Van Bergen Bush's NSA Spying Program Violates the Law Steven Higgs Dying for Their Work: Westinghouse Workers and the Highest Level of PCBs Ever Recorded Winslow T. Wheeler The Generals, the Legislators and the Gulfstream VIP Transports Ron Jacobs Stealing Back Adam's Rib Rev. William E. Alberts Remember Damadola Colin Asher Goodbye, Dubai: the Teamsters and the Ports Fred Gardner Denney's Law "Pariah" Scapegoats and Shunning: Sexual Fascism in Progressive America John Scagliotti Brokeback Mountain: Pain is Not Enough Seth Sandronsky When the White House Walks Away: Bush, Arnold and the Flood Risk in the Central Valley Joan Roelofs A Challenge to Rebuild the World Arjun Makhijani The US / India Nuclear Pact: a Bad and Dangerous Deal Ardeshr Ommani Destroying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Diana Barahona An Open Letter to Freedom House: Release Info on Your Federal Grants Ben Tripp Bonzo, Wherefore Art Thou? St. Clair / Socialist Worker Staff Playlist: What We're Listening To Poets' Basement Engel, Davies, Buknatski Website of the Weekend The Return of Pearl Jam March 3, 2006 Laura Carlsen Mexico: the Power of Corruption and the Corruption of Power John V. Whitbeck Two States or One? Chris Floyd The Monolith Crumbles: Reality and Revisionism About Iran Mohamed Hakki Wolfowitz at the World Bank: Cronyism and Corruption Pratyush Chandra Bush in India: Dinner with George and Manmohan John Scagliotti Why are There No Real Gays in "Brokeback Mountain"? Website of the Day Support the IRC!   March 2, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts How the Economic News is Spun Dave Lindorff Troops to Bush: Get Us Out of Here! Ramzy Baroud Middle East Democracy: the Hamas Factor Saul Landau Halfway Down the Road to Hell Joe Allen The Murder of George Jackson: an Interview with His Lawyer, Stephen Bingham Steve Shore Berlusconi on Capitol Hill: "I Am Italy!" Denise Boggs Roadless and Clueless: Wilderness Logging Greenwashed by Enviro Groups Norman Finkelstein The Attacks on Beyond Chutzpah Website of the Day ScreenHead   March 1, 2006 Mairead Corrigan Maguire The Human Right to a Nuclear Free World Niranjan Ramakrishnan The India That Can No Longer Say No Faheem Hussain Bush in Pakistan Antony Loewenstein Spinning Us to War with Iran: an Aussie Perspective Elizabeth Schulte The Charge to Overturn Roe Has Begun Mike Whitney Sudan: Beware Bolton's Sudden Humanitarianism John Ryan Canada and the American Empire Michael Donnelly Brokeback Mountain: a No Love Story Tom Reeves Haitian Election Aftermath Website of the Day Mardi Gras Index: Reuilding of New Orleans Stalled         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition April 15 / 16, 2006 The Hidden and Mounting Toll of AIDS New York's Katrina By EDWIN KRALES Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster that covered New Orleans with water and forcefully uncovered that city's social conditions. Glaring examples of the horrible treatment meted out to the poor, mostly African American survivors have been staring us in the face for the past seven months. Daily, we read or hear about another event in the aftermath of the hurricane that tears to shreds the concept that we live in a "free and equal society." That the American Dream is a nightmare for millions of people is the result of our economic system and our attitudes about people who are poor. The worst treatment is reserved for poor people of color. Unfortunately, another natural disaster is unfolding. It is not as dramatic as Katrina, but it is far more dangerous. It is AIDS in poor African American communities and poor communities of color in New York City. Just as the warning signs that a Katrina-like hurricane could happen in New Orleans, the warning signs that New York City's health "levees" could soon burst have been with us for years. In both cases, the science and technology to ameliorate the disasters have been developed and used around the world, and in both cases, little has been done here at home. New York City puts poor people of color and poor African Americans starting life at a disadvantage. The current Infant Mortality Rate (deaths of infants under 1 year old per 1,000 live births) tells the story. The overall city rate is 6.1. Overall Puerto Rican rate is 7.5. Overall African American rate is 11.6. The highest rate in the city is in the mostly poor, mostly African American neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn--12.2. The lowest rates are in mostly white, middle-upper class Kips Bay and Yorkville in Manhattan--1.9. Things don't improve as these children get older. In a Population Reference Bureau report, The Concentration of Negative Child Outcomes in Low-Income Neighborhoods by Mark Mather and Kerri L. Rivers, dated February 2006, tell us what should be obvious. "Research has shown that children growing up in poor neighborhoods are at higher risk of health problems, teen pregnancy, dropping out of school, and other social and economic problems compared to children living in more affluent communities." They go on to say: "There are significant racial and ethnic differences in the proportion of children residing in poor neighborhoods.While about 8 percent of non-Hispanic white children lived in poor neighborhoods in 1999, Asian/Pacific Islander children were nearly twice as likely to live in such neighborhoods (17 percent), and American Indian and Latino children were more than 5 times as likely (45 percent and 42 percent respectively). African American children fared the worst. They were 6 times as likely to live in such neighborhoods (48 percent). Overall there were 5.2 million African American children living in poor neighborhoods in 1999-more than children from any other racial or ethnic group." The analysis of state-level data suggest "that negative outcomes for children are most highly concentrated in the Mississippi Delta and southwestern United States. New York and Rhode Island also stand out due to high concentrations of negative child outcomes in poor neighborhoods." In its 2004 report, "Health Disparities in New York City," The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene gives us a current picture of the health, or lack of it, in New York City. In their introduction, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, Health Commissioner, and Dr. Adam M. Karpati, Division of Epidemiology, tell us, "While great gains have occurred in improving overall health and reducing health disparities, the persistence of racial, ethnic, economic, or other social inequalities in health is unacceptable." Keep in mind when reading these statistics that they show the results of the "great gains" that have been made. Life expectancy (the average age to which a newborn is expected to live): "In 2001, life expectancy in New York City's poorest neighborhoods was 8 years shorter than in its wealthiest neighborhoods." White men live 6 years longer than African American men. White women live 3 years longer than African American women. Premature death (Death before the age of 75):" The rate of premature death is more than twice as high in poor neighborhoods than in wealthy neighborhoods." Except for suicide, the death rates for the following diseases are higher in poor neighborhoods than rich neighborhoods. Heart disease, Cancer, Influenza and Pneumonia, Diabetes, Stroke, Chronic lower respiratory disease/Emphysema, High blood pressure, Liver disease/Cirrhosis and Kidney disease Why would anyone think that when AIDS came to town the impact on our poor population would ultimately be any different? At the beginning of the epidemic, the face of AIDS was, for the most part, a middle-class, gay white male. Now, more than twenty years later, the face has changed color, gender and class. In 1985, only 7 percent of AIDS cases in the U.S. were women. In 2004, the number ballooned to 27 percent, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2001 to 2004, about 83 percent of women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were African American or Latina. The area with the biggest population of African Americans in the U.S. is the borough of Brooklyn, New York. Twenty-one percent of Brooklynites are poor compared to the U.S. average of 12 percent. Brooklyn is also home to two of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City where more than one-third of the residents live in poverty and between 25 and 30 percent have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. One-fifth of African American men aged 40-49 are HIV positive. African Americans of all ages are 25 percent of New York City's population but account for 50 percent of AIDS deaths. African American women have 27 times the AIDS infection rate and 9 times the death rate of white women. African American men die at 6 times the rate of white men. The February 4, 2006 edition of The New York Times tells us [that the Manhattan neighborhood of] "Chelsea with a large population of gay white men continues to have the highest rate of newly diagnosed cases in the city, 153 per 100,000 people in 2004. Central Harlem is close behind with 119 newly diagnosed people for every 100,000. Yet infected people in Chelsea are half as likely to die from the disease." Is there something different in the biological or genetic makeup of African Americans compared to whites that make them more likely to die from HIV? No. The problem lies with class, racism and our economic system. Health care is just another commodity to be bought and sold. Whoever can afford it gets the best health care. If you can't afford good health care, good housing and good food, drop dead. As the statistics cited above show, poor people, people of color and women have always been expendable in our society, and nothing much has changed since HIV moved into the 'hood. Whether the problem is a hurricane or a disease, the rich have already taken the high ground. The high ground in a hurricane is the area least likely to be flooded if the levees break and where immediate social support will be provided if there is a flood. The high ground in health care is private care. Using the most advanced medicine and the best doctors, all things are tailored to the individual being treated. Social support in the form of housing, nutritional care, psychological counseling, etc. is known to be in place. Everything done is first analyzed for its efficacy. Poor people and people of color are relegated to the low lands, the places that usually flood. Social support is poor at best and usually nonexistent. People are expected to fend for themselves. If there is no money to escape the flood, tough. If a flood finds the poor in a hospital or nursing home, they have the right to drown. If they survive, our democratic society grants the poor the right to sleep in the muck. The low lands in health care is one size fits no one. Poor people are expected to buy their health care like rich people do, or expect nothing. Nothing is personalized. Little is provided. In an article I wrote in 2002, I pointed out that New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation asked permission to close 27 satellite clinics in poor neighborhoods six months before 9/11, despite the disparity in health care (Body Positive, Vol. 15, No. 4, 2002). Since then "speed-ups" have been added to cutbacks in services across a broad spectrum from medical care to transportation. Doctors in publicly funded clinics are pressured to reduce time spent with their patients. In one major public hospital, seven minutes is the amount of time doctors are "encouraged" to spend. The time spent is not the result of improved time management techniques or careful analysis. Harris Interactive conducted a survey for The Commonwealth Fund called "The Commonwealth Fund 2003 National Survey of Physicians and Quality of Care." Its purpose was to examine "physicians' use of quality improvement tools " The survey found "few physicians have incorporated quality improvement methods into their practices. Only one-third of doctors have been involved in any redesign efforts aimed at improving performance. And just a third have access to any data about the quality of their own clinical performance, while seven of 10 physicians do not feel the public should have access to quality-of-care data." People who maintain that the system has failed the poor are wrong. The system is working exactly as it is supposed to work. The poor are to be managed, not helped. The problem of the AIDS epidemic is not being ignored. In fact, in 2005 Dr. Scott Kellerman was appointed the New York City assistant commissioner of HIV/AIDS by Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City's Health Commissioner. His assignment from Dr. Frieden: stop the spread of HIV in New York City, a difficult task under the best circumstances. Before Dr. Kellerman came to New York, he worked for ten years at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, spending the last five years in HIV programs. Unfortunately, Dr. Kellerman came from an administration where 68 percent of sex education funds were spent on the failed policy of abstinence only, so he couldn't possibly get any insights there on what to do in New York. While the CDC was bungling the AIDS fight-back, the Europeans reduced AIDS deaths by 42 percent between 2000 and 2004. During the same period, the U.S. AIDS death rate declined 19 percent for whites and 7 percent for African Americans. It also decreased among Asians/Pacific Islanders, but increased among Latinos and Native Americans/Alaska Natives. Obviously the Europeans were doing something we were not, despite the fact that we had the same medications. At a meeting on January 12, 2006 with several of New York City's oldest and largest AIDS service organizations, Dr. Kellerman promoted an approach to fighting AIDS that largely excludes the needs of the people he is ostensibly trying to help. He asked the ASOs to consider only one aspect of care--keeping clients in primary care. Dr. Kellerman's approach is often called the "medicalization" of AIDS. It maintains that the context of life is irrelevant because of the absolute efficacy of the medication being used. In Kellerman's view, the person receiving the care is just a "unit" who needs only to be worked on to be treated effectively. Kellerman asked the ASOs to work like a surgeon who can perform a life-saving liver replacement operation without relying on any understanding of the patient to be successful. He said in essence to take out the bad medication adherence and the bad predatory anti-safe-sex attitudes, and to replace them with good ones. As far as we know, however, there is no behavior organ in the human body that can be replaced by a surgeon. On the other hand, material support, education we call counseling and positive social interaction will bring about a change in irresponsible behavior. This vision is similar to solving the problems of the poor African American flood victims in New Orleans by sending them thousands of miles from the flooded areas, as if they, not the flood, were the problem. The use of "medicine only" to treat disease is not an accident. The English Guardian Weekly, January 13-19, 2006, tells us that in Washington DC, "Drug makers are the biggest lobbyers." Drug makers have a kennel of 3,000 lobbyists who spent $681 million between 1999 and 2004. Those puppies spent that money on our "impartial representatives" to whom they have access because hundreds of lobbyists are ex-members of Congress and former Federal employees. The $681 million they spent is chump change compared to the billions they anticipate in profits for their efforts. Lobbyists also belong to and finance various committees that help our encumbered incumbent leaders get re-elected. If elected officials or appointed functionaries of those officials take a position that Big Pharma doesn't like, they may find themselves denied access to the cash-laden feeding trough they rely on. One of the ways Big Pharma uses lobbying money to get its way is by "helping" to design and fund studies that support its quest for greater profits. In an article about the safety of artificial sweeteners, "The Lowdown on Sweet" by Melanie Warner, the February 12, 2006 edition of The New York Times gives a perfect example of Big Pharma science in action: "In an analysis of 166 articles published in medical journals from 1980 to 1985, Dr. Ralph G. Walton, a professor of psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine found that all 74 studies that were financed by the industry attested to sweetener's safety. Of the 92 independently funded articles, 84 identified adverse health effects" Is it any wonder that so many people don't trust the "scientific" explanations of our intrepid health department leadership? After the need for air, water and food, housing is the most important human need. The National AIDS Housing Coalition says that housing is the lynchpin of the prevention of disease, including HIV. In its 2005 report, Housing Is the Foundation of HIV Prevention and Treatment--Results of the National Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit, The Coalition says "Recent studies that examine the relationship of housing status to HIV prevention and care show strong correlations between improved housing status and reduced HIV risk, improved access to medical care, and better health outcomes. Homelessness or unstable housing is directly related to greater HIV risk among vulnerable persons. For persons with HIV, being homeless is a barrier to starting outpatient care, staying in care and starting antiretroviral therapy (ART). For those engaged in HIV care, improved housing status is directly related to higher levels of ART adherence, lowered viral loads and reduced mortality. Indeed, appropriate housing protects individuals from 'exposure' to a range of individual and public health threats, including HIV, violence, harmful drug use, and incarceration. Housing protects and stabilizes not only individuals but also their families and communities." It is doubtful that the New York City Department of Health or FEMA is unaware of these facts linking housing and disease prevention. We must realize that the goals of the DOH and FEMA are different than our own. When they talk about "health" they mean corporate health--profit. Individual health may be sought after only if it does not interfere with the quest for profit. Corporate and real estate speculators in New Orleans who own the will and the ears of the politicians there, expect to make huge profits on land in the "sick" wards that was once occupied by displaced Katrina survivors. In the March 16-21, 2006 edition of CounterPunch magazine, Bill Quigley tells us that rather than fund reconstruction of the largely African American poor Ninth Ward of New Orleans, FEMA is spending an estimated $60,000 each on trailers because corporate profit is higher on building trailers than on rebuilding homes. The housing situation for poor people with AIDS in New York City is also a catastrophe. There are an estimated 30,000 people with HIV/AIDS living in shelters or primitive housing or on the streets. I've visited some of my AIDS clients in Single Room Occupancy hotel rooms infested with roaches or rodents. I've been in heatless apartments and apartments without functioning kitchens or refrigerators needed to keep medication from spoiling, where a tenant's complaint could lead to an illegal eviction. Coalition for the Homeless released its seventh annual "State of the Homeless" report on January 4, 2006. The Executive Director, Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, stated: "This decade is turning out to be the worst decade for homeless New Yorkers since the Great Depression. The number of children in city shelters has risen by more than half since the 1990s, while the population of families in shelters has skyrocketed." Dr. Kellerman's boss, Dr. Frieden, said he was looking for a "radical way" to fight AIDS. He wants to change New York State laws so people can be given an HIV test without counseling and without their written consent, ostensibly in order to get into treatment earlier. He is appropriately concerned that in 2004 1,038 people already had AIDS when they were tested for HIV, which usually means they have had the infection for years without treatment. The Body, an online HIV/AIDS magazine, reported on February 2, 2006: "Under current state testing laws, a patient must give written consent to receive an HIV test, and physicians must detail reasons why a patient may not want to consent to testing. Dr. Frieden urged the state to make HIV testing a routine part of medical care; allow verbal instead of written consent to HIV testing; and do away entirely with counseling patients why they may not want testing." In addition, "Frieden wants state law changed to allow public health officials to consult directly with patients and their doctors." These consultations would be based on confidential data collected by the state health department from various laboratories. Almost seven weeks later, on March 21, 2006, Housing Works AIDS Issue Update reported that the bill Commissioner Frieden put before the state legislature was not at all "radical" but far more "reactionary" than the law changes presented on February 2. Frieden wants a poor person to be merely a disconnected object to be "operated" on. A health care worker just has to tell the person that an HIV test is being given. Equally draconian is the requirement that all AIDS service programs, both medical and social, must provide whatever information the health commissioner wants about any person with HIV/AIDS, essentially stripping people of their personal rights and making informants of their caregivers. Logically it follows that refusing the HIV test or refusing to turn over the information demanded will make criminals of the people in the front lines of the fight against AIDS and accelerate the epidemic. It is estimated that in 2005 about 25 percent of HIV-infected people didn't know they were infected. If they did not practice safe sex, they were unwittingly spreading the epidemic. Frieden's bill, if enacted, would increase the percentage of unknown infections by driving people away from clinics and ASOs. In the present political atmosphere, the oppressive tone of the bill is familiar but unacceptable. If the commissioner's intention were to write a bill to help drive people away from HIV testing and counseling, his suggestions would make more sense. He fails to understand that people want to be helped. They don't want to be sick or spread AIDS. But they must be helped within the context of their own lives, not in a fantasy world that a spin doctor wants us to believe they live in. HIV carries only 9 genes, but it is heavy with stigma. The stigma against poor people who are HIV positive is real. The pressure of the stigma increases if they are also African American, Latino, women, old, or not conventionally sexually motivated or identified. Charles A. Emlet, in his article Measuring Stigma in Older and Younger Adults with HIV/AIDS: An Analysis of an HIV Stigma Scale and Initial Exploration of Subscales, quoted a 2002 UNAIDS report. "people with HIV/AIDS from racial and ethnic minorities are seen not as individuals living in the contexts of marginalization, but as the cause of their own misfortune." Since our society will not or cannot protect people from stigmatization, many need to be under cover so they can keep their jobs and stay in their churches. They need to stay under cover so their children can have playmates. They need AIDS service organizations and clinics where they can get food, medication, housing and education about their illness. They need to go to a place where they can be themselves for a while without fear of being "turned in." Then they can be recruited in the fight against AIDS. The confidence the NYC DOH has in our hospital's ability to deal with this sensitive issue stands reality on its head. The largest annual health care quality study is conducted by HealthGrades, whose April 6, 2006 report, HealthGrades patient safety study shows increase in hospital incidents, gaps among state, hospitals, gives a more accurate picture. "Patient safety incidents in American hospitals grew from 1.18 million to 1.24 million among the 40 million hospitalizations covered under the Medicare program, and incidents varied widely from state to state, and among the best and worst hospitals" Minnesota did the best. Louisiana ranked 28th. New York came in 50th, next to last, with New Jersey bringing up the rear. What does this mean? The HealthGrades report gave several examples. Here is one. "Of the 304,702 deaths that occurred among patients who developed one or more patient safety incidents, 250,246 were potentially preventable. Medicare beneficiaries experiencing one or more patient safety incidents had a one-in-four chance of dying during their hospitalization, a rate that is unchanged since HealthGrades' first study. Can you imagine someone saying "Gee, I can't wait until my Medicare kicks in next year so I can go to a New York hospital for counseling about managing the complexities of HIV/AIDS"? What can we do? First, we can stop the Frieden bill. Replace it with anonymous, universal counseling and testing of people who are at risk of catching HIV. Provide food, housing, counseling and health care for all people in New Orleans and New York. Second, we can work for universal health care independent of corporate interests. We can hire the Europeans to build state-of-the-art "levees" for pathogen and flood control in New York and New Orleans. Get the money by ending the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. Build a political party independent of the corporate controlled Democratic-Republican cabal. There is still time before we all drown in AIDS-contaminated water. Edwin Krales is an AIDS Nutritionist and Health Educator who lives and works in New York. He can be reached at edwinkrales@hotmail.com

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