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On Cherry Pond: Going Up Against Big Coal in West Virginia

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Mike Roselle: - Feb. 23 (Opinion) - The first time I was on Cherry Pond it was ramp season, and I joined Judy, Bo, Larry and Ed for the much anticipated spring ritual, in which the tasty wild onions are harvested and cooked in butter with potatoes. It was a steep hike through rugged country, and from the ridge you could see Coal River Mountain, the highest peak around, all the way up to Kayford Mountain, which is no more. Kayford Mountain is now a huge pit, where bulldozers, trucks and dynamite can be heard for miles around. ...You can still see Clay’s Branch today if you drive by, but you won’t see Cherry Pond Mountain. Cherry Pond is gone.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Terribly Bloodied, Still Breathing

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Caoimhe Butterly - Jan. 17 (Special Report) - We have learned the language of the war that the Israelis are waging on the collective captive population of Gaza- to distinguish between the sounds of the weaponry used, the timing between the first missile strikes and the inevitable second- targeting those that rush to tend to and evacuate the wounded, to recognize the signs of the different chemical weapons being used in this onslaught, to overcome the initial vulnerability of recognizing our own mortality.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

McCain and the International Republican Institute

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Nikolas Kozloff - Jun. 09 (News Report) - Though Arizona Senator John McCain seldom talks about it, he has gotten much of his foreign policy experience working with a cloak and dagger operation called the International Republican Institute (IRI). Since 1993, McCain has served as Chair of the outfit, which is funded by the U.S. government and private money. The group, which receives tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year, claims to promote democracy world-wide. On the surface at least, IRI seems to have a rather innocuous agenda including party building, media training, the organization of leadership training, dissemination of newsletters, and strengthening of civil society.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Of Whiners and Poor Losers

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Dave Lindorff - Jun. 04 (Opinion) - Why Hillary Shouldn't Be Obama's VP

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Linking Internet Censorship and Atomic Reactor Terror

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Harvey Wasserman - May. 30 (Opinion) - The Times found it "profoundly disturbing that an influential senator would even consider telling a media company to shut down constitutionally protected speech." The ACLU has warned that similar efforts "could be a precursor to proposals to censor and regulate speech on the internet."

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why Iraq Could Blow Up in John McCain's Face

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Patrick Cockburn - Mar. 08 (News Analysis) - Seldom has the official Iraqi and American perception of what is happening in Iraq felt so different from the reality. Cocooned behind the walls of the Green Zone, defended by everybody from US soldiers to Peruvian and Ugandan mercenaries, the government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki pumps out alluring tales of life returning to normal that border on fantasy.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 08:59:28 -0700

CounterPunch - By Oren Ben-Dor - Jun. 24 (Opinion) - Apartheid in historic Palestine originated, and has persisted, in the ideology of creating a state in which Jews would be separated from non-Jews in terms of their stake in the political community. It was an apartheid mentality that nourished the desire of establishing and maintaining a state with a Jewish demographic majority and character. The well-planned ethnic cleansing, in 1948, of 750000 indigenous people was apartheid practice par excellence. It is apartheid which prevents the expelled and their descendants from returning: this apartheid denies residence to expellees from my former home district, the Galilee, but grants it, not just to Israeli-born Jews like me, but to Jews all over the world. It is apartheid law that creates a wall of discrimination between Jewish and Arab citizens of the Israeli state. It is an Apartheid mentality that prompts some Israeli Jews to view their Arab fellow-citizens as a "demographic threat".

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The Language Barrier

Thu, 31 May 2007 20:22:28 -0700

CounterPunch - By Robert Bryce - May. 31 (Opinion) - Most of the time, I believe that the U.S. and other Western countries, can, if they really work at it, bridge the cultural gap and reach some kind of understanding with the Arab and Islamic worlds. At other times, I think that the cultural differences are just too great. Lately, I have been leaning toward the latter view. That change in thinking comes on the heels of news that the U.S. military has kicked out 58 Arabic language experts because of their alleged homosexuality. Although the military wants to focus the debate about the firing of the 58 linguists on their sexual preferences, the broader issue is about America's dire need for more personnel who can speak, read, and write Arabic. The U.S. military in Iraq--and the entire U.S. government--is so short of people who can speak Arabic that any loss of personnel with Arabic language skills is a tremendous blow. And now, the military has dismissed nearly five dozen of the personnel who are most needed.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Dershowitz Vs. Finkelstein: Who's Right and Whos' Wrong?

Fri, 11 May 2007 08:31:13 -0700

CounterPunch - May. 11 (Opinion) - The feud between Alan Dershowitz, a senior professor at Harvard Law School, and Norman Finkelstein, a junior professor of political science at DePaul University, is back in the news. Finkelstein is up for tenure this year, and Dershowitz has been waging an aggressive campaign against him. Both Finkelstein's department and an outside committee voted in favor of tenure, but the dean then recommended against it. As of this writing, the university has not made a final decision.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 8 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A Momentary Glimpse into Daily Life in Iraq

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:00:10 -0700

CounterPunch - By Sherwood Ross - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - And just as the students and teachers who perished at the hands of a crazed killer on the Virginia Tech campus had done nothing to deserve their fate, neither have the people of Iraq committed any crime to endure the unendurable they are suffering at the hands of a president who professed to be "horrified" at the events on a peaceful campus. If a South Korean student is regarded as a berserk killer for murdering thirty people what is President Bush, whose invasion to control oil-rich Iraq has cost nearly three quarters of a million lives, created four million refugees, and plunged the Middle East into turmoil?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

If the Iraqis Get Revenue Sharing, Exxon Gets Their Oil

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 10:08:30 -0700

CounterPunch - By Richard W. Behan - Mar. 30 (Special Report) - The Iraq Accountability Act passed by the House and the companion bill passed in the Senate contain deadlines for withdrawing our troops from Iraq, in open defiance of the President's repeated objections. He threatens a veto, but he might well be bluffing. Buried deep in the legislation and intentionally obscured is a near-guarantee of success for the Bush Administration's true objective of the war-capturing Iraq's oil-and George Bush will not casually forego that.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 10 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Toxic Waste in the Sub-Prime Market

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:45:16 -0700

CounterPunch - By Robin Blackburn - Mar. 22 (News Analysis) - In recent months 'sub-prime' defaults have jumped. A Lehman Brothers analyst warns that some $225 billion worth of sub-prime loans will be in default by the end of 2007 but others say the figure will be nearer $300 billion. The 'equity tranch' is now dubbed 'toxic waste' by the insiders and analysts are waiting to see which bodies float to the surface...The vulnerable in today's America certainly include the aged and unemployed who risk their one possession by re-mortgaging their home to an investment bank. But many of the middle class find themselves vulnerable too. In recent years they have lost health care and pension benefits and have been tempted by easy credit into purchases they discover they can ill-afford.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ethanol: Feed a Person for a Year or Fill Up an SUV?

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:02:07 -0800

CounterPunch - By Robert Bryce - Mar. 05 (Opinion) - The ethanol scam just keeps getting more and more absurd. In January, three U.S. senators -- two Democrats, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barack Obama of Illinois, along with Indiana Republican Richard Lugar -- introduced a bill that would promote the use of ethanol. It also mandates the use of more biodiesel and creates tax credits for the production of cellulosic ethanol. They called their bill the "American Fuels Act of 2007." The most amazing part of the press release trumpeting the legislation is its fourth paragraph, in which Lugar declares that "U.S. policies should be targeted to replace hydrocarbons with carbohydrates." Let's consider that for a moment. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the U.S. economy was primarily based on carbohydrates. For most people, horses were the main mode of transportation. They were also a primary work source for plowing and planting. Aside from coal, which was used by the railroads and in some factories, the U.S. economy depended largely on the ability of draft animals to turn grass and forage into usable toil. America's farmers were solely focused on producing food and fiber. And while the U.S. was moderately prosperous, it was not a world leader.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Targeting Iran

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 15:24:02 -0800

CounterPunch - By Paul Craig Roberts - Jan. 27 (Opinion) - The American public and the US Congress are getting their backs up about the Bush Regime's determination to escalate the war in Iraq. A Massive protest demonstration is occurring in Washington DC today, and Congress is expressing its disagreement with Bush's decision to intensify the war in Iraq. This is all to the good. However, it misses the real issue--the Bush Regime's looming attack on Iran.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Gateway to the Next Mexican Revolution?

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:14:23 -0800

CounterPunch - By John Ross - Dec. 28 (Editorial) - After a tumultuous year in which the red and black flags of civil insurrection unfurled on the barricades and the rancor of "los de abajo" ("those from below") took fire, newly sworn-in president Felipe Calderon and his transnational backers are banking on fading the color scheme to a ubiquitous gray in 2007. Their success will be measured by the fight back of a popular resistance that has surged from the bottom in many parts of the country during 2006.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer