Are Politicians Failing Our Lobbyists?
May 16, 2008
Panelists discuss the alarming trend of politicians who break their promises to the lobbyists who helped elect them.
Lay off Ralph Nader
March 14, 2008
‘Nader deserves a pulpit to speak the truth’, writes Chris Hedges.
He is the only candidate who has not lined his pockets with tens of millions of dollars of corporate campaign money, talked out of both sides of his mouth about the war in Iraq, NAFTA and health care, and has dedicated his life to battling the corporations who make war on working men and women.
For all of Barack Obama’s flash and charm, his campaign is as slick and empty as a television commercial. For all of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s mastery of detail, she and Bill have been a scourge to the working class, from NAFTA to welfare reform to her service on the board of Wal-Mart. So if you want to feel good about yourself and chant slogans such as “Yes we can,” go ahead. But leave Nader alone. If honesty, vision and integrity were qualities that mattered in a national election, Nader would be president.
Fanatics, Mountebanks and Drillers
February 26, 2008
A Bloody Oil Film. Saul Landau and Farah Hassan on There Will Be Blood.
“There Will Be Blood” implicitly warns against fanatics in an era when one form of that breed occupies the White House and other major mountebanks consume countless daily hours of TV and radio time.
“I see the worst in people,” confesses self-made oil man Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s gritty California epic, “There Will Be Blood.” This statement alone should warn audiences that they should proceed cautiously before identifying with this protagonist. The opening of the film shows a minutes-long, no-dialogue sequence of Plainview mining for silver under harsh conditions and breaking a leg without uttering a complaint. So intensely does he feel the need to find mineral wealth that extreme physical suffering offers no obstacle. The abrasive sounds of mining and the sight of men working invoke John Huston’s “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” “Blood” should remind studios that audiences don’t need flashy cuts or intricately choreographed violence and special effects to get lured into the drama of a movie.
Pariah or Prophet?
February 26, 2008
I am delighted to hear that Ralph Nader is running for president once again. While the Democrats have rushed to denounce him, frankly, they have only a slim chance of beating McCain if they continue on their present Republican-lite course. Nader’s entry should help liven up the debate and put Democrats on the spot.
Here is Chris Hedge from February 2007 explaining why he’d be supporting a Nader candidacy should he run again.
I can’t imagine why Ralph Nader would run again. He has been branded as an egomaniac, blacklisted by the media, plunged into debt by a Democratic Party machine that challenged his ballot access petitions and locked him out of the presidential debates. Most of his friends and supporters have abandoned him, and he is almost universally reviled for throwing the 2000 election to George W. Bush.
I can’t imagine why he would want to go through this one more time. But when Nader hinted in San Francisco that he might run if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton became the Democratic Party nominee, I knew I would be working for his campaign if he indeed entered the race. He understands that American democracy has become a consumer fraud and that if we do not do battle with the corporations that, in the name of globalization, are cannibalizing the country for profit, our democratic state is doomed.
An Extraordinary Encounter
February 17, 2008
Jemima Khan meets Pervez Musharraf.
As Pakistan votes tomorrow in its postponed elections, Jemima Khan is granted a rare interview with Pervez Musharraf, the country’s beleaguered leader
On the way to the Camp Office in Rawalpindi, I cross the bridge and pass the petrol station, which mark the spots of two recent attempts on the life of the now deeply unpopular President. I have a horrible fear that, bamboozled under the spotlight of his renowned charm, I may start to simper. My ex-husband, one of the President’s most vocal critics, has already told me he thinks this is all a terrible idea. “It will be misinterpreted in Pakistan. Besides, you’ll be too soft on him,” he said.
Penn on the Bush-Cheney Junta
January 28, 2008
This is a bit old, but only came across the audio now.
An Open Letter to the President…Four and a Half Years Later
Four and a half years ago, I addressed the issue of war in an open letter to our President. Today I would like to again speak to him and his, directly. Mr. President, Mr. Cheney, Ms. Rice et al: Indeed America has a rich history of greatness -indeed, America is still today a devastating military superpower. And because, in the absence of a competent or brave Congress, of a mobilized citizenry, that level of power lies in your hands, it is you who have misused it to become our country’s and our constitution’s most devastating enemy. You have broken our country and our hearts. The needless blood on your hands, and therefore, on our own, is drowning the freedom, the security, and the dream that America might have been, once healed of and awakened by, the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
Our Model Dictator
January 28, 2008
‘The death of Suharto is a reminder of the west’s ignoble role in propping up a murderous regime’, writes John Pilger.
In my film Death of a Nation, there is a sequence filmed on board an Australian aircraft flying over the island of Timor. A party is in progress, and two men in suits are toasting each other in champagne. “This is an historically unique moment,” says one of them, “that is truly uniquely historical.”
This was Gareth Evans, Australia’s then foreign minister. The other man was Ali Alatas, the principal mouthpiece of the Indonesian dictator General Suharto, who died yesterday. The year was 1989, and the two were making a grotesquely symbolic flight to celebrate the signing of a treaty that would allow Australia and the international oil and gas companies to exploit the seabed off East Timor, then illegally and viciously occupied by Suharto. The prize, according to Evans, was “zillions of dollars”.
Two Jewish Jokes (and a Hain in the Middle)
January 27, 2008
UK’s Israel lobby receives overdue attention, and it is already causing some jitters in the Jewish press. Here’s Gilad Atzmon with details (via Peace Palestine).
A story is told of a Londoner, a Jewish man who was riding on the London Underground reading an Arab newspaper. A friend of his, who happened to be riding in the same underground car, noticed this strange phenomenon. Very upset, he approached the newspaper reader.
“Moishe, have you lost your mind? Why are you reading an Arab newspaper?” Moishe replied, “I used to read the Jewish newspaper, but what did I find? Jews being persecuted, Israel being attacked, Jews disappearing through assimilation and intermarriage, Jews living in poverty. So I switched to the Arab newspaper. Now what do I find? Jews own all the banks, Jews control the media, Jews are all rich and powerful, Jews rule the world. The news is so much better!”
New Labour: Who’s Your Daddy?
January 17, 2008
First Levy, then Abraham, now this. Ben Russell writes about ‘The diamond dealer whose donations have proved awkward for both parties‘. Does New Labour get money from any place other than Israel? Also, isn’t it curious that Israeli diamonds don’t get classified ‘blood diamonds’? After all, they come from a conflict zone.
The international diamond merchant Willie Nagel – one of the key backers of Peter Hain’s campaign for the Labour deputy leadership – was embroiled in a political funding controversy a decade ago that involved his links to the former prime minister John Major.
The businessman, who gave Mr Hain’s campaign a £35,000 interest-free loan on top of a £5,000 donation, was embroiled in a row after donating £20,000 to Mr Major’s constituency association. The Independent revealed in 1997 that Mr Nagel had tried to interest the Prime Minister in an unmanned aircraft developed by Israel, despite the fact there was an embargo on Israeli equipment at the time.
Pakistan Army Inc.
January 13, 2008
‘Angry Pakistanis turn against army‘, reports Christina Lamb. I have reservations about the Sunday Timses
IT IS the most expensive - and talked about - property development in Pakistan, but few can get near it. Hidden behind barbed wire, the new state-of-the-art army headquarter to replace a garrison in Rawalpindi is costing a reputed £1 billion and will cover 2,400 acres of prime land in Islamabad, including lakes, a residential complex, schools and clinics.
Originally intended to represent the best of Pakistan, the new army HQ is now being seen as a symbol of all that is wrong with the country.
Amid nationwide anger over the killing of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and a widespread belief that the country’s military or intelligence may have been involved, the population is turning against the army for the first time.
