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By Patrice Greanville

9/1/07

There’s a widespread assumption in leftwing circles that increasing concentration of media ownership is, ipso facto, the main if not sole culprit for the appalling performance of mainstream journalism in our time. Surely there’s a lot to decry, but is media consolidation and deregulation the cause for this calamity? And if the American media have indeed fallen from grace, as it is claimed, where in time do we locate this mythical “golden period” when the media establishment did measure up to its social mandate?

That the American media are palpably in what we might call today a pathetic and degenerate state, if not a free fall toward irrelevancy, should be obvious to thoughtful observers. This reflects the larger forces at work: As US capitalist democracy and general culture evolve due to their inexorable dynamic into ever more predatory and cynical iterations (Bush is more a symptom of the disease than its cause), so do the “relative” quality of the nation’s formal institutions, whether they be at the political center or adjunct, such as the media. But I think that attributing the obscenely bad performance of the corporate media—and television in particular—to concentration is somewhat erroneous. I realize this is by now, mainly thanks to the work of Ben Bagdikian and others, an article of faith on the liberal left. The usual mantra is “It’s the media concentration, stupid!”. But in order for me to believe that claim, that a few decades ago, when diversity of ownership was more widespread than now, everything was honkey dorey in Ed Murrow heaven, you’d have to show me first a period when the American media was substantively better than today, and that, friends, is hard to do, no matter how many media icons you roll out to worship.

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By Pablo Ouziel

9/1/07

In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003, George Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was the “central focus of my life” and “a matter of life and death.” He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, “if someone guaranteed it”.

Again in 2006, during an interview with Charlie Rose, when Charlie asked him about that particular statement, with the following question; “You would have gladly given away ninety percent of your fortune in a minute?” Soros replied; “One hundred percent, because I think it would have made a tremendous contribution to mankind.”

According to Forbes Magazine in March 2007, George Soros´s net worth stood at 8.5 billion U.S dollars and placed him as the 80th richest man in the world, surely this sum should be enough to creatively remove President Bush from office. I am surprised that in a country which prides itself on its entrepreneurship, intellect and creativity, where garage start-ups with tiny financial sums are part of the corporate culture and many have gone on to become world leading multinationals, there are no entrepreneurs available to draft a concise and effective strategy to guarantee George Bush’s removal from office, supported by Soros’s 8.5 billion dollar fund.

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By Vi Ransel

9/1/07

It’s an ancient tradition derived
from the scapegoat of Leviticus
whereby the wrongs of others
are transferred to an innocent

who’s then sent out alone to die
symbolically bearing others’ sins,
absolving from greed, lust, pride and hate
the community that condemned him.

A corpse is laid out, sin eater employed
to eat bread and salt from its belly
thereby absorbing the corpse’s sins
for the wages of just a few pennies.

Relegated to the wrong side of the tracks
in housing fallen to disrepair
destitute even of hope
a place one stumbles only in error.

The poor clean the toilets, wait the tables,
kill the meat and mow the lawns,
raise the children of the “Upper” Class,
walk their pampered dogs and park their cars.

They assemble the latest electronics,
sew our blue jeans and our wedding gowns.
When we buy cheap Chinese goods at Wal-mart
they’re the “associates” who check us out.

The poor care for other people’s parents
left alone and sad in nursing homes.
They’re the receptionists in upscale spas,
the charming girls in nail salons.

They’re dishwashers who scrape half-full plates
left by those who can afford to go out to eat.
They stock store shelves and work in warehouses
where corporations ship and receive.

They empty bed pans and wipe up vomit.
They’re janitors and maintainence men.
And a lot of them help to build the jails
they’re disproportionately incarcerated in.

The people they serve hardly speak to them
though they provide indispensible services
because they’re living proof of a “lower” calss,
which makes most Americans nervous.

The fact that they exist at all is a slap
in the face of the American polity,
so they’re treated like a shameful excresence
on the ass of American society.

But like the ghetto homelands of South Africa,
America has embarrassing pockets of poverty.
And the economic apartheid we practice,
makes the poor exiles in their own country.

And when the poor are all used up, having been
consumed by predatory corporations,
they’re discarded like so much garbage
for being too old, too sick or disabled.

These castoffs through no fault of their own
are condemned by the corporate supremacists
who looted their pensions and 401Ks
to eke out a long and miserable existence.

It’s gone on so long it seems normal,
and corporate-owned media report it that way.
It’s as if poverty were invsible
and America’s conscience had been mislaid.

So the sin eaters continue to scramble
for scraps from the CORPSE-porations’ table,
bearing the burden of unpardonable sin,
our homegrown, American scapegoats.

And treating the poor as if this is their fault
hides the fact that it is America’s decision
to absolve the criminal perpetrator
and blame the sin-eating victim.

So you’ll never see a T-shirt that says
“Poor and Proud in the U.S.A.”
because in the United States of America
the P.I.A. are M.I.A.

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By David Truskoff

8/30/07

“America is, by far, the most violent country in the world when measured against comparable, industrialized nations. Violence is deeply rooted in our society and has become woven into the fabric of the American lifestyle. A culture of violence has emerged that invades our lives at every level, from our most intimate relationships at home to our schools and work environments. For many of us, violence has become an acceptable strategy for solving conflict, exerting power and control, obtaining possessions, and satisfying emotional desires. Moreover, violence has itself become entertainment, glamorized in the behavior of both real and fantasy heroes.”

—California Attorney General Daniel E. Lungren

Attorney General Lungren made that statement back in 1995. The situation has not improved. It has, in fact, become much worse. There have been 202 homicides in the city of Baltimore alone this year, (2007) The city is headed for at least 300 murders this year. Those are murders alone. It does not include the hundreds of non-fatal shootings.

On any given day in America one can turn on the television set and watch Kick Boxing, women boxing, extreme fights (where anything goes– biting, kicking, punching and knees to the groin) There is also a daily fair of so called wrestling (where grown men break metal chairs over the backs of their opponents and perform other insane violent acts.) Add to that the films such as the one that was on while I was writing this piece. I left it on because I was too busy to shut off the set after the news and it was so resonant with what I was writing about. The film was entitled “Wyatt Erp”. In the movie men are shooting men in scene after scene. If you do not want to watch a movie, there are many violent detective stories that include all kinds of murder and mayhem for you to enjoy.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Vi Ransel

8/30/07

The Earth
is neither our enabler
nor our bitch
with which
we can do as we please
with impunity.

It may appear to us
that she doesn’t mind
or is unable to resist
our abusive advances.
But her conception of time
is infinite
and the brief minute
of our existence
is just that,
an infinitesimal blip
on her millennial radar screen.

And should we cross the line
we are unaware she has drawn

… gone …

like dinosaurs
stumbling over the tripwire
of evolution’s Claymore mine.

And our Mother
will merely turn the page
and write an alternate story line.

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Abdul Basit

8/29/07

As natural calamities like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and droughts continue ceaselessly on one hand while endless and inconclusive debates about the reasons for Climate Change take place on the other, the time for firm action to counter Climate Change is getting shorter and the options for slowing the impact of Global Warming are getting fewer.

Expounding upon my article ‘Manifesto to counter global warming and climate change’, in which I stressed the importance of sustainable development, I would like to further address some of the challenges and hurdles that are slowing the implementation of policies and programs to counter Climate Change.

Sponsored Intellectuals

One of the main hindrances to Climate Change resolution is the frequent dissemination of specious reports by Climate Change deniers sponsored by certain oil corporations which are creating confusion among the general public. These sponsored intellectuals of the establishment and the corporatocracy are trying to find new reasons to prevent actions to counter Climate Change, seldom realizing that by their action they are endangering the very existence of mankind for meager monetary inducements. Some of the most common arguments of these sponsored intellectuals are that these natural disasters are part of the cyclical process and all measures to counter it are futile.

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By Jonathan Lenglain

8/29/07

Power and property is concentrating in ever fewer hands, and things are beginning to hurt us in a way that we seek to wrest that power from the bloodlines of the privileged few. Poor Americans are numb and discouraged. Everywhere they hear that they live in a free country where they call the shots, yet their political agenda never comes close to the president’s desk. Every day, Congress deals directly with the concerns of big business lobbyists camping on the floors of Congress, while the White House brokers deals with contractors in Iraq or Afghanistan. Never mind sweeping reforms improving the health care, housing, and tax systems, which are on the agenda of America’s poor. And now that we’ve witnessed the most flamboyant series of illegal activities committed by our government at home and abroad in the name of anti-terrorism, are we finally ready for action?

It seems that things are in such a state that even Alexander Hamilton, the great conservative antagonist to the men we love to quote so much (like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry,) would be on our side. He would be at the forefront of movements to tear things down, and rebuild something new.

Of course, this is the Hamilton credited with building the current economic system almost single-handedly. The man who wanted big government under the patronage of the wealthy, who thought a Bill of Rights was stupid, and whose last words were “Our real disease is DEMOCRACY.”

But Hamilton was a real Genius in a Mozartian sense, and so his flamboyant failings are colorful reminders that this master nation-builder was just human after all. Hamilton was also a slave-abolitionist, a prolific writer devoted to a free-press, and an honorable gentleman who hated corruption, greed, and especially incompetent government.

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Interview with Adrienne Kinne,
member of Iraq Veterans Against the War,
conducted by Scott Harris

Editor’s note: This Q&A is a special interview with Adrienne Kinne, conducted after their workshop at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta.

ADRIENNE KINNE: I was in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves from 1994-2004 as an Arab linguist in military intelligence. I served stateside in that capacity.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What triggered your interest in IVAW and actually to join them?

ADRIENNE KINNE: Actually, I was mobilized in the Reserves after 9/11 almost immediately. And, working as an Arabic linguist in military intelligence, I saw kind of behind the scenes that the intelligence really was not there. I mean that the sources of intelligence were from groups that had interests in getting Saddam Hussein out of Iraq and that they were funded by our country. And I personally couldn’t understand why we were giving any credence to any of the intelligence out there. And I didn’t support the invasion of Iraq, but I really didn’t know how to do anything about it. So I stayed in the military until the Stop Loss was over and I was able to get out, and still I didn’t know really what to do or how to make my voice heard or how to speak out against the war.

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By Adam Engel

8/28/07

The Possessed Man is not a bad man, nor a good one. He is terrified. Alone among friends and family, he “works” to support his family, but is not exactly sure of what he does. He “administrates creative product strategies,” according to the Job Description on file at Human Resources.

The Health Insurance covers his wife and two kids, both under seven years of age and subject to all manner of illness and disease. Then there were the pregnancies themselves, and the drugs he must take daily to function at his job without drinking, or veering into violence, or bursting into tears. He’s covered by the company plan, but loopholes open and money falls through. Deductibles. Co-payments.

He is no longer interested in his friends, the few that he still has, or in having friends at all. What good are they, except to drink with, and he’s not supposed to drink while on his pills — though he does anyway. And don’t think this is all confidential, that they don’t know, the ‘they’ at the company, whoever they might be, that he sees a head-drugger to stay on top of things.

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Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

Photo and Caption Credit: Library of Congress

Fear of immigrants was widespread in the United States. In this cartoon, published five years after the Haymarket Square riot and one year before the Homestead Strike, illustrator Grant Hamilton placed a judge scolding Uncle Sam: “If Immigration was properly Restricted you would no longer be troubled with Anarchy, Socialism, the Mafia and such kindred evils!” From New York Harbor behind them comes a horde of arriving immigrants labeled “German socialist,” “Russian anarchist,” “Polish vagabond,” “Italian brigand,” “English convict,” and “Irish pauper.”

By Stephen Lendman

8/28/07

As Labor Day approaches, what better time to assess the state of working America. It’s under assault and weakened by decades of eroding rights in the richest country in the world once regarded as a model democratic state. It’s pure nonsense in a nation always dedicated to wealth and power, but don’t try finding that discussed in the mainstream. Today, it’s truer than ever making the struggle for equity and justice all the harder. That’s what ordinary working people now face making beating those odds formidable at the least.

In a globalized world, the law of supply and demand is in play with lots more workers around everywhere than enough jobs for them. It keeps corporate costs low and profits high and growing with Business Week (BW) magazine reporting in its April 9 issue “the share of (US) national income going to corporate profits (compared to labor) is hovering around a 50 year high.” BW then quoted Harvard economist Richard Freeman’s research paper saying only “a global pandemic that kills millions of people” could cause a labor shortage and elevate worker bargaining power.

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