[Shadow_Group] Left Hook Updated

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Left Hook


www.lefthook.org<http://www.lefthook.org/>


Latest Release: Thursday, November 18, 2004

American Occupation: Think Rampaging Elephants

Joe Ramsey

Most reasonably informed people by now will concede that the US invasion 
of Iraq was something between a mistake and a crime, and that the case 
for war in Iraq was made based upon mis-information, if not outright 
lies. There were no WMDs or active WMD programs in Iraq. There were no 
Saddam-Al Queda terror links. The Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and 
the recent reports of US soldiers executing unarmed Iraqis in Falluja 
cast doubt on whether American forces are (capable of) respecting Iraqis 
human rights. The war in Iraq has made the US more hated and less 
secure, and is sucking up US tax dollars that could be much better spent 
elsewhere. All, or most, of this, for most people in my neck of the 
woods (Tufts University), is more or less uncontroversial.

Thus the most common defense of the occupation I get today is a 
metaphorical one:-Iraq is a pot in a store, they say-"'We' broke it, so 
now we've bought it." "Iraq is now ours to fix." I hear it again and 
again. "We can't just leave it broken."

In this article, I would like to offer a radical revision of this 
ubiquitous cliché.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Ramsey111804.html<http://lefthook.org/Politics/Ramsey111804.html>>

Democrats Commit Suicide: Harry Reid, Wrong Choice for Senate Minority 
Leader

Joshua Frank

The Democrats, obviously still mourning John Kerry's embarrassing loss 
to George W. Bush just two weeks prior, have drawn up a new game-plan in 
hopes that it will help them challenge their purported rivals in 
elections to come.

Well, it isn't really a new plan, just a fresh spin on an old failing 
strategy. The Democrats again believe, even after Kerry's stubborn loss, 
the only way to beat the neocons is to outflank them to the right. Take 
on their "values" and surpass their fanaticism.

The saga began to unfold following Democratic Senate minority leader Tom 
Daschle's horrific defeat to Republican John Thume in the South Dakotan 
Senate race on November 2. After Daschle's loss Democratic National 
Committee chair, Terry McAuliffe, was on the phone rallying support 
behind one of his favorite Senators, Nevada's own, Harry Reid.

Reid, an admitted friend of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, was being 
tapped for the position well before Daschle's loss, and quickly gained 
enough support to assure his appointment and upcoming confirmation. A 
conservative Mormon, Reid, who was born and raised in Nevada, could just 
as well have ran as a Republican when he chose to do so in 1982.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Politics/Frank111804.html<http://lefthook.org/Politics/Frank111804.html>>

Bankruptcy, Overcapacity and the U.S. Airline Industry

Seth Sandronsky

Do you recall the "new" economy hype of last decade? Its cheerleaders 
claimed that the American business cycle was over. With the luxury of 
hindsight, we see the foolishness of that claim. On that note, consider 
the U.S. airline industry today. Its revenues are down. Expenses are up, 
led by rising oil prices. So domestic carriers are slashing their costs 
by any means necessary. This process brings into clearer view the social 
conflict between airline employers and employees.

Currently, there are too many airline flights for too few business and 
leisure customers. The NY Times of Sept. 14 reported that airline 
overcapacity "is plaguing the industry." Overcapacity is a condition in 
which more goods are produced or services provided than can be sold to 
buyers. Air transport is a service. Overcapacity is not a condition of 
nature but a consequence of a certain social formation.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/History/Sandronsky111804.html<http://lefthook.org/History/Sandronsky111804.html>>

A review of Michael Tigar's re-released "Law and the Rise of Capitalism"

Chad Faldt

Michael Tigar's book "Law and the Rise of Capitalism" is an excellent 
book for leftwing youth to read in order to gain a historical 
understanding of capitalism and its institutions- in this case the 'Law' 
and "legal ideology"- in their historical development, extending all the 
way back to the Roman Republic/Empire, and then moving, in this 
republished version all the way to legal developments in the late 20th 
Century.

- (Read full) <http://lefthook.org/Reviews/Faldt111804.html<http://lefthook.org/Reviews/Faldt111804.html>>

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