Month: September 2004

FRANK RICH, who writes those great essays about politics and popular culture in the New York Times every Sunday, will talk about politics, fiction, and the new Philip Roth novel, The Plot Against America, in which a fascist is elected president of the U.S. — in 1940.

Also: IAN WILLIAMS, UN Correspondent for The Nation, will preview the upcoming presidential TV “debate” –and talk about whether Bush’s Vietnam-era record in the Texas Air National Guard is now off-limits in the mainstream media. Ian’s new book is Deserter: George Bush’s War against Military Families, Veterans, and his Past.

Plus: “THE YES MEN” is a movie that follows a couple of anti-corporate activist-pranksters as they impersonate World Trade Organization spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world. “We target people we see as criminals,” the Yes Men explain, “and we steal their identities to try to make them honest.” Ella Taylor of the LA Weekly calls the film “an uproarious and appalling piece of consciousness-raising.” (“The Yes Men” is currently playing in LA at the ArcLight and Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex.)

WEB EXTRA: Watch “The Yes Men” movie trailer online: http://www.theyesmenmovie.com/intro.html

HOWARD ZINN talks about Kerry, Iraq, and activism — and the new film about his life, “Howard Zinn: You Can’t be Neutral on a Moving Train.” It opens in LA at the Music Hall Friday Oct. 15. “He has changed the consciousness of a generation” — Noam Chomsky.
LISTEN TO HOWARD ZINN AUDIO ONLINE: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?pid=1853

from the archives: MacArthur award winner DAVID WILSON talks about the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Plus: cultural comedies and political tragedies: LAWRENCE WESCHLER talks about his new book Vermeer in Bosnia. He’s speaking at the L.A. Public Library Thursday at 7. “There’s no writer alive with more raw and contagious enthusiasm for the world” –Dave Eggers.

MARJANE SATRAPI‘s comic strip memoir Persepolis described growing up in the Iran of the Ayotollas as the daughter of Marxist radicals; the book was captivating, funny and smart. Now the sequel is out: Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return: it’s about her teenage years: sex, drugs, rock n roll — and a million dead in the Iran-Iraq war. She’ll talk about her life and work.

Also: What should Kerry do? HAROLD MEYERSON of the LA Weekly, the American Prospect and the Washington Post op-ed page has some ideas.

Plus: How they could steal the election: RONNIE DUGGER will explain; he knows more about the problems with computerized voting than anyone alive. He’s the founding editor of The Texas Observer and has written biographies of Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, as well as hundreds of articles for Harper’s Magazine, The Nation, The New Yorker, and The Progressive.
LISTEN TO RONNIE DUGGER AUDIO ONLINE: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?pid=1843

What Kerry can do to fight Bush’s war psychology: PAUL KRUGMAN: the New York Times op-ed columnist explains. His book is The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century.

Plus: American deaths in Iraq reached the 1,000 mark yesterday — and the number of Iraqis killed in the war is uncounted. ANNE GARRELS will comment; she was back in Baghdad for NPR last month. Her book is Naked in Baghdad; she’ll be at Writers Bloc tonight/Wed. at 730 in conversation with Robert Greenwald at the Writers Guild Theater, 135 S. Doheny, Beverly Hills.

And the REVEREND BILLY of the Church of Stop Shopping will be in court next week challenging an injunction that bans him from coming within 250 yards of “all the Starbucks in the State of California.” The injunction reads: “The defendent shall not annoy, harass, strike, threaten, sexually assault, batter, stalk, destroy personal property of, or otherwise disturb the peace of the… Starbucks Corporation.” The Rev. Billy asks, “Is this taking the ‘personhood of the corporation’ over the top?”

WEB EXTRA: take a look at the new TV ad from “Texans for Truth” about Bush’s air national guard service: http://texansfortruth.org/

This week in New York, as Republicans gathered in Madison Square Garden for their convention, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to say no to the Bush Agenda. Liza Featherstone was there and will report. http://alternet.org/waroniraq/15196/

Also: In Iraq the battle of Najaf is over: But who won? Ian Williams, UN Correspondent for The Nation, will have comment and analysis. His new book is Deserter: George Bush’s War on Military Families, Veterans, and His Past.

Plus: the Bush White House announced a change in American policy towards Israeli settlements in occupied territory. We’ll have an update on Mideast news from Roane Carey, editor of The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.

And Bernardine Dohrn talks about the Weather Underground; she lived underground for most of the seventies. Now the award-winning “Weather Underground” documentary is out on DVD.

Web Extra: Check out the GREAT “Real People” TV spots (“I voted for Bush in 2000, but I’m voting for Kerry in 2004”) directed by Errol Morris. Online at https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/switchad_winners.html