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Cockburn / St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of
War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
July 2, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Suicide Right on the
Stage: the Demise of the Green Party
Saul Landau
Buzz Words and
Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind:
the Madness in His Method
Joe Bageant
Is Our President a
Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The
Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation
Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and
Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan Maass
Green Party in
Reverse
Website of
the Day
Michael
Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June 30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson Baker's
Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq Ali
Getting Away with Murder
in Iraq
Jennifer Van Bergen
Bush and the
Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of
the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen The Quiet
American
David Price
Fahrenheit 9/11
Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal
Occupation of Iraq
Stan Cox
Sanitized for Your
Protection: Ashcroft's War on Art
Henry David
Thoreau
On the
Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben Tripp
Who Dast
Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June 29, 2004
Patrick Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger
Handover
Robert Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi
Wonderland
Troy Selvaratnam
New York Times
Boosts Pet Developer
Harry Browne
Bush in
Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The
CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla &
Rasul: Who Really Won?
June 28, 2004
Patrick Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in
Iraq
Amira Hass
Confronting Myths and
Deadly Power
June 26 / 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's
All Here
Patrick Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's
New Stooge in Iraq
Dennis Hans
Once They Were
Sweethearts: Cheney, the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to
9/11
Ben Tripp
Adventures in Fuel
Efficiency
Dave Lindorff
That State Department
Terrorism Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the
Russian Gambit
Ali Tonak
Contamination at
Berkeley: Profit Motives, Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio
Chapela
Keith Rosenthal
The Withering of the
Anti-War Movement
Bryan Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11
Commission
Wayne Madsen
Another Case of
Blowback
Thomas St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist:
Indian-Hating in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
American
Swadeshi
June 25,
2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North
Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006
Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege: Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death
and Destruction
Amir Butler
Iraq: the Deadly
Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times
Plagiarism Scandal? Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly
News?
Greg Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to
Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John Lehman on the Iraq
/ al-Qaeda Links
Patrick
Cockburn
A Day in the Life of
Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing Death Threats
Harry Browne
On the Rebound: Bush
Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another Marxist for
Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Cheney and the
9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates:
Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID
Hypocrisy
Diana
Johnstone
Kerry and Kosovo:
the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush and Castro Face
Off
Dave Zirin
Barry Bonds vs. Boston:
"A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From Saddam, With
Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation
Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me
Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick
Cockburn
The Pretense of an
Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu
Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The Meaning of
Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in
US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter
Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to
the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton
Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity Committee for
Pacho Cortés
An
Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying No to
Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to
Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot
Camp to Boot Hill
June 21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's
Helpful Remarks
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press
Went Home: Chaos Upon Chaos
Cockburn /
Khan
Saddam May
Face Death Penalty
Uri Avnery
Irreversible Mental
Damage
June 19 /
20, 2004
Patrick Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone:
US is Paranoid and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen
Gringos
Diane Christian
Morality and Death:
a Meditation on Bush and Blake
Walter A.
Davis
Passion of
the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh Frank
How Democrats Helped
Bush Rape Mother Nature
Col. Dan
Smith
Respectable
Genocide?: the Crisis in Sudan
Brian Cloughley
A Profound
Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush
and the Timken Plant, a Year Later
Prudence Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport
Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and
Albert
Kathy Kelly
Dying to See Their
Kids
June 18,
2004
Chris Floyd
Blood
Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle
Green, Basketball Player & Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against
War
Justin E.H. Smith
The Christian Question
in American Politics
Gary Leupp
The "Long-Established"
Link?: Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June 17, 2004
Noel Ignatiev
Zionism,
Anti-Semitism and the People of Palestine
Kurt Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry
Conundrum
Ed Cardoni
The Persecution of
Steve Kurtz
Ron Jacobs
Power Relations:
Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do
Dave Lindorff
Philly Daily
News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg Moses
Geneva
Ignored
Norm Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam
with Chemical Weapons
June 18, 2004
Noel Ignatiev
Zionism,
Anti-Semitism and the People of Palestine
Kurt Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry
Conundrum
Ed Cardoni
The Persecution of
Steve Kurtz
Ron Jacobs
Power Relations:
Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do
Dave Lindorff
Philly Daily News:
"Four Wasted Years"
Greg Moses
Geneva
Ignored
Norm Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam
with Chemical Weapons
June 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
A Question for Kerry
Supporters
Davey D
Hip Hop
Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did
Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner Abuse?
Bruce Jackson
Harry Levin and
the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom!
Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder,
Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One
Big Sweatshop
Mario Benedetti
Obituary with
Cheers
Vicente Navarro
Meet the New Head of
the IMF: Who is Rodrigo Rato?
Website of the Day
Iraqi Oil
Revenue Watch
June 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to
Fortress Europe
Neve Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee
Problem Revisited
David Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu
Ghraib and CACI
John Blair
Lovelock's Misguided
Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God
Wins in TKO
Bill Quigley
Blood-Pouring
Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and
Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John Chuckman
John Kerry,
Political Placebo
Hot Stories
Alexander
Cockburn
Behold, the Head of a
Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The Death Train of the
WTO
Norman
Finkelstein
Hitchens as Model
Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassination
Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch
Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve J.B.
Prison
Bitch
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of
Propaganda in the Iraq War
Wendell Berry
Small Destructions Add
Up
CounterPunch Wire
WMD: Who Said What
When
Cindy Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk:
the Daughter I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The Erosion of the
American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach Bush: A
Draft Resolution
Click Here for More Stories.
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July
2, 2004
Moore's
Fahrenheit 911
Mocking
the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
By DOUGLAS
VALENTINE
"The question is not what goal is
envisaged for the time being by this or that member of the proletariat,
or even by the proletariat as a whole. The question is what is
the proletariat and what course of action will it be forced
historically to take in conformity with its own nature.
Karl Marx, "The Holy
Family"
They wept! They roared with laughter! At inappropriate times they
applauded, the politically correct, white middle class audience at the
Academy Theatre in avante guard Northampton, MA, home of Smith College,
and many fine restaurants.
But, then again, Michael Moore was preaching
to the choir, wasn't he? And that's the first of two big problems with
Fahrenheit 911.
The other big problem is this frivolous
film's utter futility.
Let's be realistic. Moore says the purpose
of his incoherent mockumentary is to get Bush out of office which,
in and of itself, "t'is a consummation devoutly to be wish'd." But the
political passing of George W. Bush has no meaning, for even if the public
shuffles him off, it's still left with Long John Kerry, and the strangling
coil of oppressive laws, secret decrees, and eternal imperialistic war
(with its attendant corruption) that Bush has wrapped so tightly around
America's neck.
"Ay, there's the rub."
Kerry is just another "money-grubbing,
ass-kissing, bromide-mouthing" politician, as Gail Sheehy might say, and
he is as acceptable to the Establishment as Bush. With Kerry in office,
the war on terror and the occupation of Iraq will continue apace, with
perhaps a little more of the stolen loot going to our anxious allies
waiting avariciously in the wings. In the larger scheme of things,
Fahrenheit 911 changes nothing: Halliburton keeps its blood-soaked
contracts, the Republicans control both houses of Congress, and no
neo-conmen go to the gallows for stealing $20 billion in oil revenues from
the Iraqi people (I'm curious to know how Christopher Hitchens
rationalizes that?), or for the massive war crimes they have committed.
Kerry's performance during the Iran-Contra investigation assures the rich
political elite of a continuing cover-up.
While watching the movie, I couldn't stop
thinking about how Moore had evidence of the torture at Abu Ghraib, and
didn't tell anyone! I wanted to stand up and scream: What's it all about,
Mickey? Is it just for the moment, or the money, we live? Or is it the
thrill of being catapulted into the stratosphere of American celebrity?
I thought to myself: I should have seen it
coming, when the nouveau riche glitterati gave the movie a twenty-minute
standing ovation at Cannes. Anything that so pleases the perfect people in
Porsches cannot, by definition, have any redeeming value.
A monumental letdown, Fahrenheit 911
is a sick exploitation film that tells us nothing new about ourselves, and
changes nothing in the world. Yes, the farcical clips of Bush making a
fool of himself add comic relief to the melodramatic footage of Bush and
his venal clique visiting vengeful tragedy upon the world, and profiting
from it. And, to his credit, Moore courageously goes where no man in the
corporate media has dared to go before: he loosely chronicles how the
tragedy unfolded, while being extra careful not to mention Israel. Here's
how the story goes: Bush steals the election, lets the main Saudi suspects
in the 911 mass murder case escape because his "daddy" is in business with
them, and then goes on a worldwide killing spree with the blessings of
Major Generals Rather, Brokaw, and Jennings.
You've heard it all before; any tenth grader
from Freyburg, Maine could have told us that.
To sum it up, Moore's swipes at Bush are
irrelevant during the current crisis-du-jour of capitalism. How much time
must we waste laughing at Bush, tripping over his tongue, before we grab
our pitchforks and storm, as family-values proponent Dick Cheney might put
it, the fucking White House?
The answer, to judge from the reaction of
the "progressive" and academically oriented audience I was sitting with,
is over and over again. Which, again, is the saddest part of watching his
film. I'm sure Moore didn't intend it, but his mockumentary is as much an
indictment of his adoring, bourgeois fan club as it of the criminal Bush
regime.
Even the film's unstated premise that
the government, on behalf of the rich, creates employment and a disposed,
easily indoctrinated lower class that will happily fight and die in
imperialistic adventures was put forth about a hundred and fifty
years ago.
Alas, to the earnest audience in
Northampton, this subliminal message seemed like a revelation.
So there we sat. When the clapping was over,
there was no place to go (save one of those fine restaurants). Like Bush
in Iraq, Fahrenheit 911 has no exit strategy. Nor was one ever
intended. F-911, like the psychological warfare campaign we are
subjected to by the Bush regime, is a cataract of powerful, contrived
words and images that generate raw, predetermined emotions that result in
a disturbing, but aimless, class-consciousness.
Douglas Valentine is the author of The
Hotel Tacloban, The
Phoenix Program, and TDY.
His fourth book, The
Strength of the Wolf: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1930-1968,
is newly published by Verso. For information about Mr. Valentine, and his
books and articles, please visit his web sites at http://www.douglasvalentine.com/
and http://members.authorsguild.net/valentine
Weekend Edition Features for June 12 /
13, 2004
Peter Linebaugh
Remembering the
Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's
Favorite Albums
Jeffrey St. Clair
Troy, Now and
Then
Gary Leupp
Not Really a Puppet
Government in Iraq?
Brian Cloughley
US Military in
Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner
Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben Tripp
The Polls
Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash
Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron Jacobs
The Return of the
Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object
Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher Brauchli
Federal Bureau of
Errors
Kurt Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi,
Again
Wayne Madsen
Israel's Slap at
Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera
Awakens the Arab World
Michael Donnelly
A Lightship in
the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg Moses
Who Will Tell Us
More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan Davis
Harry Potter &
the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather
Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire
in the 21st Century
Wayne
Saunders
The
Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets' Basement
Richey, Ford, La
Morticella, Albert
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