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October 03, 2012
LINH DINH
Voting for Death
CHRISTIAN CHRISTENSEN
Why Opposing Islamophobia is not a Defense of Extremism
WILLIAM BLUM
Syria, the Story So Far
DARWIN BOND-GRAHAM
Still Searching for Answers to a Police Killing
NICHOLAS PARKER
A Short History of Black Voter Suppression
MARTHA ROSENBERG
Is Your Child Mentally Ill?
RAMZY BAROUD
The Empire Trapped
JON MITCHELL
Agent Orange in Okinawa: the Smoking Gun
LINN WASHINGTON, JR.
Prosecutorial Misconduct and the Death Penalty
G. REZA GHORASHI
The Future of Iran
LOUIS PROYECT
The Contradictions of Real Socialism
HILLARY GIBSON
Homophobia, American-Style
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
Neoliberalism and the Defanging of Feminism
October 02, 2012
RALPH NADER
Rigging the Presidential Debates
MARK SCHULLER
The Global Food Crisis
RAOUF J. HALABY
Palestine, a Broken Bone in History
JONATHAN COOK
Israel’s Refugee Pawns
DAVID MACARAY
They’re Called “Scabs” for a Reason
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Cynthia McKinney On Leadership
DAVE LINDORFF
Protestors Win in 2004 RNC Protest Mass Arrest Case in NYC
THOMAS MOUNTAIN
Heroism and Apocalypse in the Libyan Desert
MICHAEL BRENNER
The Iraq Phoenix
ISRAEL SHAMIR
Breaking News: Julian Assange Mossad Agent!
ALAN FARAGO
Mapping Our Insecurities
GEORGE WUERTHNER
The Decline of the Sage Grouse
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
Empty Spaces
October 01, 2012
FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY
What is the Difference Between Benjamin Netanyahu & Colin Powell?
PATRICK COCKBURN
The Waning of American Power in the Middle East
STEVE BREYMAN
Five Reasons Not to Intervene in Syria
MICHAEL ARRIA
The Problem With Massachusetts And Elizabeth Warren
DEAN BAKER
Why Cracking Down on China Means Cracking Down on Romney and His Pals
BENJAMIN WOODS
The End of Political Theatre
MICHAEL TRACEY
Video Leaks of NYPD Raid on Zuccotti Park
BINOY KAMPMARK
Paper King of the Gray Lady
MICHAEL DONNELLY
Hypocrite Narcissist Explains Things to the “Raging, Rancid” Left
SHELDON RICHMAN
The Hubris of Romney and Obama
JOHN V. WALSH
National Pentagon Radio (NPR) Watch
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
Statement of Solidarity With People of India
Weekend Edition
September 28-30, 2012
ESAM AL-AMIN
Professor Obama Lectures the Muslim World
VIJAY PRASHAD
Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran
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THE ARAB SPRING AT A CROSSROADS — Esam Al-Amin surveys the new Middle East, from the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, to the aftermath of the overthrow of Qaddafi and the civil war in Syria, and outlines the economic and political challenges facing the fledgling Arab democracies; THE BI-PARTISAN PLAN TO GUT MEDICARE: Dave Lindorff digs beneath the rhetoric to expose the grim similarities in both Obama and Romney’s schemes to degrade Medicare by cutting spending, reducing eligibility and privatizing services. KAFKA IN SEATTLE: Kristian Williams details the surreal ordeal of Matthew Duran, thrown into federal prison even though prosecutors admit he committed no crime.
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October 03, 2012
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Criminal v. Criminal

Voting for Death

by LINH DINH

America, you have become a nation of enablers and apologists for tyranny and mass murder. You condemn the Nazi and gulag guards of times past even as you celebrate your own mercenaries and torturers, even as you explain away, if not outright cheer, the unspeakable crimes committed by your sons and daughters. You don’t care who you kill, as long as your soldiers are paid, and your munitions, bomb and tank factories are humming.

Safely ensconced in academic luna parks, your leading intellectuals lean slightly right or left, but never enough to rock this blazing gunboat, lest they sour the cocktail parties or, god forbid, have their tenure revoked. Mouths stuffed with antipasti, they’re expert at sidestepping Israel’s prolific crimes, 9/11, Bin Laden’s faux death or the parasitic Federal Reserve, and as another joke election nears, they’re all gung ho about candidates who back illegal wars and banking frauds, since each is supposedly the lesser of two evils.

For the past five presidential elections, winning candidates have won 52.9%, 50.7%, 47.9%, 49.2% and 43% of the popular votes respectively, so there hasn’t been an overwhelming mandate for any of them, but with the runner ups from the other major party often close behind, and in 2000, actually ahead in the popular vote count, the two-party system has gotten a stranglehold on our public life and pocketbooks. As for our senators, only two are not Democrat or Republican. An American election, then, is basically a rigged referendum for this thoroughly corrupt and murderous system, and simply by voting, you will give it the green light to go on killing and looting. Every four years, we’re railroaded into sanctioning endless war and bottomless corruption. If disappointed, we’re then steered by our brainwashing and dumbing down media to a near clone of our current rapist.

The Good Old Party spooks the upper and middle classes by threatening, If you don’t vote for us, the Dems will take your hard-earned cash and give it to the freeloaders, crackheads and other miscellaneous losers, while the Democrats, in turn, scare the lower rungs by snarling, If you don’t vote for us, the Republicans will let your retired, diapered ass rot under a bridge, on a piece of cardboard, but lordy, lordy, lordy, it is already happening, but let us not sweat the details.

It is fitting that as our most important vote has become nearly meaningless, we’re offered myriad opportunities to vote for all sorts of irrelevant acts and personalities, from singing oafs to dancing buffoons, to steroid-charged sluggers. Americans have never voted so much for so little.

Each party paints the other as the greater evil, though both are equally whorish to a military...

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