Month: December 2004

SUSAN SONTAG died yesterday — She was a towering public intellectual who had the courage to test the limits of coventional thought and to challenge both the Right and the Left. We’ll have comment from STEVE WASSERMAN, editor of the Los Angles Times Book Review.
Read Steve Wasserman’s obit in the LA Times.
LISTEN TO STEVE WASSERMAN ON SUSAN SONTAG: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?pid=2094

The music that mattered–from the decade that didn’t: “Left of the Dial” is a Rhino 4-CD set covering the ’80s musical underground. GARY STEWART, who works under the slogan “Opinions Galore,” will talk about the music and the decade.
PLAYLIST: Pretenders “Message of Love” 1981; English Beat “Mirror in the Bathroom” 1980; Gang of Four “To Hell with Poverty” 1981; Dream Syndicate “Tell Me When it’s Over” 1983; X “”Johnny hit and Run Pauline” 1981; Husker Du “Don’t Want to Know” 1986

PLUS: IAN WILLIAMS of The Nation looks at the Palestinian elections and the phony neocon scandal over the UN’s Iraq oil-for-food program. Ian’s new book is The Deserter: Bush’s War on Military Families, Veterans and His Past.
LISTEN TO IAN WILLIAMS: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?pid=2112

KATHA POLLITT, columnist for The Nation, asks “how long did it take Republicans to write their thank-you note to the Christian right?” Answer: “About five minutes.”
Katha recommends supporting the National Network of Abortion Funds, www.nnaf.org.

Plus: in the wake of John Kerry’s shattering defeat, it’s once again the labor movement that has plunged itself into a far-reaching debate over the changes it needs to make to rebuild a progressive, more equitable nation. HAROLD MEYERSON reports; he’s a columnist for the LA Weekly and the Washington Post.

Also: the punk rock politics of JOE STRUMMER: he transformed punk from its early nihilistic politics into a social movement. Antonino D’Ambrosio explains; his new book is Let Fury Have the Hours: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer. Antonino also is founder/director of La Lutta New Media Collective.

AMOS OZ, the Israeli peace activist and novelist, says there is good news in the mideast: “the vast majority of the Israeli Jews and the vast majority of the Palestinian Arabs know now that in the end of the day, there is going to be a two-state solution.” His amazing new book, A Tale of Love and Darkness, describes his family in Jerusalem in the 1940s and 1950s.

PLUS: historian GEORGE CHAUNCEY says gay marriage is not the cause of the Democrats’ defeat at the polls: his new book is Why Marriage?: The History Shaping Today’s Debate Over Gay Equality.

AND: our Iraq war update with JUAN COLE: he knows more about Iraqi politics than anyone in America — he writes the “Informed Consent” blog at www.JuanCole.com.

Also: it was 24 years ago today that JOHN LENNON was killed — we’ll be playing some Lennon music and remembering him.

WEB EXTRA: HOWARD ZINN says the argument that “Kerry won” is a diversion from the left’s real task: building the anti-war movement. LISTEN TO HOWARD ZINN online: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?pid=2019