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Debt Deflation Arrives

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Michael Hudson - Jun. 30 (News Analysis) - 6.9 per cent of national income is being earmarked to pay down debt – the highest savings rate in 15 years, up from actually negative rates (living on borrowed credit) just a few years ago. The only way in which these savings are “money in the bank” is that they are being paid by consumers to their banks and credit card companies. Income paid to reduce debt is not available for spending on goods and services. It therefore shrinks the economy, aggravating the depression. So why is the jump in “saving” good news?

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How a Former Prisoner Took Down a Big Shot from the Private Prison Industry (and Cheney Pal)

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paul Wright - Jun. 09 (Special Report) - Puryear's judicial nomination did not go unnoticed; it drew the attention of a former CCA prisoner turned criminal justice advocate who opposes private prisons. By conducting extensive research, securing widespread media attention, contacting members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and recruiting organizational allies, he coordinated an opposition campaign that managed to stall -- and ultimately scuttle -- Puryear's nomination.

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Bush's Shocking Biblical Prophecy Emerges: God Wants to "Erase" Mid-East Enemies "Before a New Age Begins"

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Clive Hamilton - May. 25 (News Analysis) - The revelation this month in GQ Magazine that Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary embellished top-secret wartime memos with quotations from the Bible prompts a question. Why did he believe he could influence President Bush by that means? The answer may lie in an alarming story about George Bush's Christian millenarian beliefs that has yet to come to light.

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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.

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CounterPunch: Trying to Revive the Bubble Economy: Obama's Awful Financial Recovery Plan

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Michael Hudson - Feb. 13 (Special Report) - Martin Wolf started off his Financial Times column for February 11 with the bold question: “Has Barack Obama’s presidency already failed?” The stock market had a similar opinion, plunging 382 points. Having promised “change,” Mr. Obama is giving us more Clinton-Bush via Robert Rubin’s protégé, Tim Geithner. Tuesday’s $2.5 trillion Financial Stabilization Plan to re-inflate the Bubble Economy is basically an extension of the Bush-Paulson giveaway – yet more Rubinomics for financial insiders in the emerging Wall Street trusts. The financial system is to be concentrated into a cartel of just a few giant conglomerates to act as the economy’s central planners and resource allocators. This makes banks the big winners in the game of “chicken” they’ve been playing with Washington, a shakedown holding the economy hostage. “Give us what we want or we’ll plunge the economy into financial crisis.” Washington has given them $9 trillion so far, with promises now of another $2 trillion– and still counting.

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Obama's Work Ethic

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Harry Browne - Jan. 21 (Opinion) - The idea that slaves helped build American greatness because (among other things) they preferred work to leisure is so offensively stupid that it clearly wandered into Obama’s speech via sloppiness rather than by design. (This is in itself undermines his reputation for wordcraft and attention to detail: the only reference to slavery in the inaugural speech of the first African-American president was permitted to carry this crazed logic.) Maybe we can just write it off as the sort of thing that happens when you’re absent-mindedly knitting together clichés and you drop a stitch. Nobody seems to have noticed it or taken offence anyway.

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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.

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Sam Bahour: No Other Option?

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Sam Bahour - Jan. 13 (Opinion) - We live every day under the bitter burden of Israeli military occupation and we know that this question, presented as rhetorical—did we really have an option? —has a rational answer. Allow me, from my vantage point as an economic development professional, to touch on some of the other options that could have been chosen.

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The Blood-Stained Monster Enters Gaza

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Uri Avnery - Jan. 12 (Opinion) - War – every war – is the realm of lies. Whether called propaganda or psychological warfare, everybody accepts that it is right to lie for one’s country. Anyone who speaks the truth runs the risk of being branded a traitor. The trouble is that propaganda is most convincing for the propagandist himself. And after you convince yourself that a lie is the truth and falsification reality, you can no longer make rational decisions.

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America's Own Kleptocracy

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Michael Hudson - Sep. 21 (Opinion) - Overnight, the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve have radically changed the character of American capitalism. It is nothing less than a coup d'êtat for the class that FDR called "banksters." What has happened in the past two weeks threatens to change the coming century - irreversibly, if they can get away with it. This is the largest and most inequitable transfer of wealth since the land giveaways to the railroad barons during the Civil War era.

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The Next Cuban Missile Crisis?

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Nikolas Kozloff - Sep. 12 (News Report) - AIn a move that undoubtedly set off alarm bells in Washington, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced that Venezuelan and Russian ships could soon hold joint naval exercises in the Caribbean. "Russia's naval fleet is welcome here," Chávez said on his weekly broadcast program. "If it's possible, we'll stage an exercise in our Caribbean waters." Russian naval vessels, including a nuclear cruiser, are due to call on Venezuelan ports in late November or December, Chávez said.

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Raiding Democracy in St. Paul

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Majorie Cohn - Sep. 02 (News Analysis) - In the months leading up to the Republican National Convention, the FBI-led Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force actively recruited people to infiltrate vegan groups and other leftist organizations and report back about their activities.

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Pools of Fire

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Jeffrey St. Clair - Aug. 10 (Special Report) - All this makes Shearon Harris a very inviting target for would-be terrorists. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security has fingered Shearon Harris as one of the most vulnerable terrorist targets in the nation. Potential atomic terrorists don't have to steal plutonium, take a crash course in physics, or concoct a bomb to manufacture a radiological nightmare scenario in the heart of the Carolinas. All they have to do is penetrate the security fence of a lightly guarded commercial reactor and find a way to ignite the pools of high-level radioactive waste. The easiest method is to disrupt the circulation of the water system that keeps the pools cool. The resulting fire would be virtually unquenchable.

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The Anthrax Attacks and the Assault on Civil Liberties

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Paul Craig Roberts - Aug. 05 (Opinion) - The Bush Regime stands against against the truth. That is why it pretends to have the power to prevent executive branch officials wanted for questioning by Congress from appearing before the people's representatives. Nothing could make clearer the contempt that the Bush Regime has for the American people and their elected representatives than its arrogant claim that it is unanswerable to them. Obviously, neither the President nor the Vice President respect their oaths of office. If they will betray such a serious oath, won't they lie about everything?

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The Anthrax Attacks and the Assault on Civil Liberties

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Paul Craig Roberts - Aug. 05 (Opinion) - The anthrax scare is one more example of the Bush Regime's use of disinformation to advance an undeclared political agenda. As Glenn Greenwald reminded us last week in Salon, the Bush Regime used Brian Ross at ABC News to spread the lie far and wide that US government tests proved that the anthrax mailed to various Americans, including prominent US Senators, was made in Iraq by Saddam Hussein. This lie was essential for scaring Congress into passing the Bush Regime's Gestapo laws, such as the PATRIOT Act, and for overcoming opposition to invading Iraq.

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Even the Government's Nuclear Agency Thinks an Atomic Renaissance Is a Bad Idea

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Harvey Wasserman - Jul. 28 (Special Report) - A devastating blow to the much-hyped revival of atomic power has been delivered by an unlikely source -- the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC says the "standardized" designs on which the entire premise of returning nuclear power to center stage is based have massive holes in them, and may not be ready for approval for years to come.

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Who's Actually Winning in Iraq?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Patrick Cockburn - Jun. 26 (Special Report) - Everybody in Iraq overplays their hand at one time or other. The US position in Iraq has slightly improved over the last year but the improvement is limited. But by trying to impose a security pact on Iraq that would turn Iraq into a client state the Washington is fueling a fresh insurgency.

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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.

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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

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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."

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McClellan's Revelations

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CounterPunch - By Col. Dan Smith: - May. 29 (News Analysis) - One can only wonder at the temerity of the timing for the release of the latest book by a former Bush administration insider - Scott McClellan's What Happened - on May 26, 2008, Memorial Day.

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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.

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Hillary, Will You Renounce Your Ties to Monsanto?

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

CounterPunch - By Linn Cohen-Cole - Feb. 10 (Opinion) - Dear Hillary: By polling logic, I should be your supporter -- Democrat, woman, white, liberal. But this past summer I saw a News Hour show on farmers committing suicide in Maharastra, India, which affected me deeply. I started learning what was happening to farmers and to food and how the Clintons are connected.

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Hilary Clinton in Arkansas (pt 2/3)

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:17:46 -0800

CounterPunch - By Alexander Cockburn - Nov. 15 (Special Report) - The plan Mrs. Clinton came up with showcased teacher testing and funding the schools through a sales tax increase, an astoundingly regressive proposal since it imposed new costs on the poor in a very poor state while sparing any levies on big corporations. The plan went through. Arkansas' educational ranking remained abysmal, but Hillary won national attention as a "realistic Democrat" who could make "hard" choices, like taxing welfare mothers.

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The Second Lebanon War, A Year Later

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:47:55 -0700

CounterPunch - By Jonathan Cook - Aug. 16 (News Analysis) - This week marks a year since the end of hostilities now officially called the Second Lebanon war by Israelis. A month of fighting -- mostly Israeli aerial bombardment of Lebanon, and rocket attacks from the Shia militia Hizbullah on northern Israel in response -- ended with more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and a small but unknown number of Hizbullah fighters dead, as well as 119 Israeli soldiers and 43 civilians.

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