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Arts & Culture
Summer’s political blockbuster is Robert Kennedy’s Jr.’s 12-page “Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election?” article in the June 15 issue of Rolling Stone. We all know the legendary impact of being on the “cover of the Rolling Stone.” RFK Jr.’s heavily fact-checked article – there are 208 footnotes online at rolling stone.com – has re-ignited the debate over Ohio’s 2004 election. While the Free Press has never stopped digging, the last major national magazine article on the issue, “None Dare Call it Stolen,” appeared in Harper’s Magazine on September 7, 2005, a precursor to Mark Crispin Miller’s essential book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They’ll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them). If you haven’t read Fooled Again yet, I recommend it.
["Democracy has never existed in the United States....Those believing
otherwise are in deep denial."]
Contrary to the "catapulted propaganda", Enron, Haditha, and Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents or the work of a "few bad apples". American savagery and oppressive behavior pervades our society and predates our nation's birth. Building its patriarchal wealth on the backs of Black slaves and cheap labor while acquiring its territory through Native American genocide, predatory exploitation of non-Anglos, the poor, women, and the working class emerged as a pillar of America's socioeconomic "success" before we even declared our independence.
With the advent of the Industrial Age, transcontinental railroads, and the rapid proliferation of Capitalism, an increasingly empowered young nation with an insatiable lust for more land, resources, and profits began to seek prey beyond its borders. At the close of the Nineteenth Century, the American Eagle spread its wings as it began mimicking the rapacious behavior of its Western European ancestors.
Contrary to the "catapulted propaganda", Enron, Haditha, and Abu Ghraib were not isolated incidents or the work of a "few bad apples". American savagery and oppressive behavior pervades our society and predates our nation's birth. Building its patriarchal wealth on the backs of Black slaves and cheap labor while acquiring its territory through Native American genocide, predatory exploitation of non-Anglos, the poor, women, and the working class emerged as a pillar of America's socioeconomic "success" before we even declared our independence.
With the advent of the Industrial Age, transcontinental railroads, and the rapid proliferation of Capitalism, an increasingly empowered young nation with an insatiable lust for more land, resources, and profits began to seek prey beyond its borders. At the close of the Nineteenth Century, the American Eagle spread its wings as it began mimicking the rapacious behavior of its Western European ancestors.
You can take Greg Palast out of the San Fernando Valley, but you can't take the Valley out of this muckraking journalist.
The longtime Sun Valley resident has become an award-winning investigative reporter for BBC television and Britain's Guardian and Observer newspapers, as well as a New York Times bestselling author, but Palast credits his Valley upbringing with turning him into a prominent critic of President George W. Bush, Enron, globalization, the Iraq war and more. His embittered memories of growing up Valley during the McCarthy and Vietnam eras are anything but "American Graffiti"-like reveries.
"For me, the class war began in the Valley. ... We had this sense that there was a bright city over the hill. Cross Laurel Canyon and you entered the city of the winners. We were in the planet of the losers, below sea level, economically and socially. Most of my area was Chicano. We were the kids who worked at Bob's Big Boy, got your girlfriend pregnant, went to 'Nam - and, if that didn't kill you, overtime at the Chevy plant would."
The longtime Sun Valley resident has become an award-winning investigative reporter for BBC television and Britain's Guardian and Observer newspapers, as well as a New York Times bestselling author, but Palast credits his Valley upbringing with turning him into a prominent critic of President George W. Bush, Enron, globalization, the Iraq war and more. His embittered memories of growing up Valley during the McCarthy and Vietnam eras are anything but "American Graffiti"-like reveries.
"For me, the class war began in the Valley. ... We had this sense that there was a bright city over the hill. Cross Laurel Canyon and you entered the city of the winners. We were in the planet of the losers, below sea level, economically and socially. Most of my area was Chicano. We were the kids who worked at Bob's Big Boy, got your girlfriend pregnant, went to 'Nam - and, if that didn't kill you, overtime at the Chevy plant would."
Anne Coulter says we’re “Godless” — we “liberals.” And by “liberals,” she means anyone who wants to keep the government out of our underpants, out of Iraq, and out of the business of helping Big Business shoplift America.
It’s time someone took on the blonde bully.
Anne, I realize yesterday was special day for you, releasing your book on June 6 — 06-06-06.
Going through it, I must, admit, is heavy going: ‘Godless’ is a 300-page brick of solid meanness and pin-head hatreds packaged like a fashion magazine: Big Brother wears Prada.
You accuse those who don’t sign on to your list of prejudices as the Lord’s enemies. That’s not original, Anne: the Taliban thought of it before you and they too were partial to dressing in black.
You want to talk about Godless? OK, let’s go:
Would the Lord lie us into a war?
Would the Lord let thousands drown in New Orleans while chilling at a golf resort?
Would the Lord have removed tens of thousands of Black soldiers from the voter rolls as the Republican Party did in 2004?
It’s time someone took on the blonde bully.
Anne, I realize yesterday was special day for you, releasing your book on June 6 — 06-06-06.
Going through it, I must, admit, is heavy going: ‘Godless’ is a 300-page brick of solid meanness and pin-head hatreds packaged like a fashion magazine: Big Brother wears Prada.
You accuse those who don’t sign on to your list of prejudices as the Lord’s enemies. That’s not original, Anne: the Taliban thought of it before you and they too were partial to dressing in black.
You want to talk about Godless? OK, let’s go:
Would the Lord lie us into a war?
Would the Lord let thousands drown in New Orleans while chilling at a golf resort?
Would the Lord have removed tens of thousands of Black soldiers from the voter rolls as the Republican Party did in 2004?
"Governments don't keep secrets to protect the public, but to deceive the public."
Greg Palast happens to be talking about a certain Big Oil-friendly blueprint for the future of the Iraqi oil industry when he makes this point, almost in passing, in his just-released book, Armed Madhouse (Dutton), but he could be stating the general premise of the whole book, or of his career as a journo-sleuth in the Jack Anderson mold and stand-in for the little guy in the global economy. His raison d'etre is to ferret out those secrets and those deceptions and present them in all their cynical glory to the people for whom such knowledge is vital: you and me.
In my humble opinion, Palast, an American investigator better known beyond our borders, through his BBC current-affairs show "Newsnight," than here at home, is exactly what a journalist is supposed to be - a truth hound, doggedly independent, undaunted by power. His stories bite. They're so relevant they threaten to alter history - simply by letting the hoodwinked public in on the game while it's happening, which is precisely the role America's mainstream media have abdicated.
Greg Palast happens to be talking about a certain Big Oil-friendly blueprint for the future of the Iraqi oil industry when he makes this point, almost in passing, in his just-released book, Armed Madhouse (Dutton), but he could be stating the general premise of the whole book, or of his career as a journo-sleuth in the Jack Anderson mold and stand-in for the little guy in the global economy. His raison d'etre is to ferret out those secrets and those deceptions and present them in all their cynical glory to the people for whom such knowledge is vital: you and me.
In my humble opinion, Palast, an American investigator better known beyond our borders, through his BBC current-affairs show "Newsnight," than here at home, is exactly what a journalist is supposed to be - a truth hound, doggedly independent, undaunted by power. His stories bite. They're so relevant they threaten to alter history - simply by letting the hoodwinked public in on the game while it's happening, which is precisely the role America's mainstream media have abdicated.
"What if 'the greatest story ever told' is a lie?"
Given the immense reactionary power of today's Church, and the violent intolerance of its fundamentalist minions, what more radical question could be asked?
No film has ever been in position to give a more penetrating answer than THE DAVINCI CODE. And…praise the Goddess!…it largely delivers.
It will be easy to fault this flick, and many will, for all sorts of reasons, including its often ponderous tone and mournful pace.
But whatever their pitfalls, this movie is a strong companion to a book that embodies a healing challenge to the virulent virus of reactionary "Christian" fundamentalism.
With a staggering 45 million copies in print, Dan Brown's DAVINCI is a force of nature. It's a solid murder thriller, full of twists and gadgetry, hidden riddles and secret codas.
But that alone cannot begin to explain the story's huge appeal. As they say in New Age circles, "there must be a reason."
Given the immense reactionary power of today's Church, and the violent intolerance of its fundamentalist minions, what more radical question could be asked?
No film has ever been in position to give a more penetrating answer than THE DAVINCI CODE. And…praise the Goddess!…it largely delivers.
It will be easy to fault this flick, and many will, for all sorts of reasons, including its often ponderous tone and mournful pace.
But whatever their pitfalls, this movie is a strong companion to a book that embodies a healing challenge to the virulent virus of reactionary "Christian" fundamentalism.
With a staggering 45 million copies in print, Dan Brown's DAVINCI is a force of nature. It's a solid murder thriller, full of twists and gadgetry, hidden riddles and secret codas.
But that alone cannot begin to explain the story's huge appeal. As they say in New Age circles, "there must be a reason."
Just the two of us
she on the swing
me pushing
somehow
content
just to do that
timelessly
time and again
for how long?
Forever.
The park is dark
gorgeously quiet
chill and damp
a late green afternoon
in the early spring
on a Sunday
Mothers Day
only us
and the bambis.
I push
the swing goes forward
it comes back
I push again
we are silent
except occasionally
I ask
"Do you know
how much I love you?"
"Yes Daddy."
Her four front teeth
two on top
two below
are now out.
She'll be seven
in two weeks.
That toothless gap
makes her talk
with a new lisp
excruciatingly cute
that devlish grin
fully vented
she pushes her tongue through.
I have to hug her.
When we're together
at moments like these
nothing lacks
there is no need
no further desire
no hole in space
or in time
that is not filled
with our love.
Thank you
for this
whoever You are.
But most of all
her Mother.
It is her day
and
she on the swing
me pushing
somehow
content
just to do that
timelessly
time and again
for how long?
Forever.
The park is dark
gorgeously quiet
chill and damp
a late green afternoon
in the early spring
on a Sunday
Mothers Day
only us
and the bambis.
I push
the swing goes forward
it comes back
I push again
we are silent
except occasionally
I ask
"Do you know
how much I love you?"
"Yes Daddy."
Her four front teeth
two on top
two below
are now out.
She'll be seven
in two weeks.
That toothless gap
makes her talk
with a new lisp
excruciatingly cute
that devlish grin
fully vented
she pushes her tongue through.
I have to hug her.
When we're together
at moments like these
nothing lacks
there is no need
no further desire
no hole in space
or in time
that is not filled
with our love.
Thank you
for this
whoever You are.
But most of all
her Mother.
It is her day
and
"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat"
Starring Patrick Cassidy, at the Palace Theater until May 7, 2006.
Here's a show that's so unrelentingly good natured, camped-out, perfectly staged and precisely performed that it's virtually impossible to dislike. The Broadway in Columbus version that's just opened at the Palace simply overwhelms, with immense good heart and impressive technical competence, any potential pitfalls of cliche. It is also a spectacular advertisement for pure athleticism and the virtues of physical fitness.
This Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice gem has been around a long enough to be termed a standard. It's so regularly performed by school groups that half America's parents must have seen it at least one time or another. The story is Biblical, the music tuneful and, at the Palace, the staging just a shade shy of Las Vegas glitz-perfect.
In other words, take your kids, from ages six (we did that!) on up, not to mention your parents. Leave all critical blase at the door, and just sit back for a good time.
Starring Patrick Cassidy, at the Palace Theater until May 7, 2006.
Here's a show that's so unrelentingly good natured, camped-out, perfectly staged and precisely performed that it's virtually impossible to dislike. The Broadway in Columbus version that's just opened at the Palace simply overwhelms, with immense good heart and impressive technical competence, any potential pitfalls of cliche. It is also a spectacular advertisement for pure athleticism and the virtues of physical fitness.
This Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice gem has been around a long enough to be termed a standard. It's so regularly performed by school groups that half America's parents must have seen it at least one time or another. The story is Biblical, the music tuneful and, at the Palace, the staging just a shade shy of Las Vegas glitz-perfect.
In other words, take your kids, from ages six (we did that!) on up, not to mention your parents. Leave all critical blase at the door, and just sit back for a good time.
For the past two years, I've nearly disappeared from BBC Television screens and from newspapers so my team could focus on our most important investigation yet. I've put it in a book: Armed Madhouse. The book travels from Beijing to New Orleans to Caracas to Baghdad to New Mexico ... a five-part investigation of global economic piggery so deep, dark and devious you just have to scream or cry -- or laugh.
Don't be fooled by the fact that 'Armed Madhouse' is entertaining -- this is my most serious reporting yet -- connecting oil panic, Hurricane Katrina, Chinese currency, Venezuela's petrodollars, disappearing ballots, Thomas Friedman, more oil, and the murder of General Motors. These are dispatches from the front lines of the class war.
Don't be fooled by the fact that 'Armed Madhouse' is entertaining -- this is my most serious reporting yet -- connecting oil panic, Hurricane Katrina, Chinese currency, Venezuela's petrodollars, disappearing ballots, Thomas Friedman, more oil, and the murder of General Motors. These are dispatches from the front lines of the class war.
Tsotsi: Written and directed by Gavin Hood, based on the book by Athol Fugard. Running time: 94 minutes.
Tsotsi, the recent Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film, is currently playing at the Drexel East Theater. The film centers on a young hoodlum (Presley Chweneyagae) from the Soweto township of Johannesburg, South Africa. He goes by the name of “Tsotsi,” which is the local street slang for “thug.”
Tsotsi, the recent Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film, is currently playing at the Drexel East Theater. The film centers on a young hoodlum (Presley Chweneyagae) from the Soweto township of Johannesburg, South Africa. He goes by the name of “Tsotsi,” which is the local street slang for “thug.”