Month: April 2006

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ROBERT SCHEER says “Saddam Hussein, who did not have a nuclear weapons program and was fundamentally at odds with Bin Laden, now sits in prison, while the dictator of nukes-R-us Pakistan and the theocrats of Iran have had their power immeasurably strengthened by Bush’s policies. Go figure. Actually, it would appear the public already has, explaining why our fearless leader has fallen so far in the polls.” Bob’s new book is Playing President: My Relationships with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, and Clinton–and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush.
READ BOB SCHEER’s column at TruthDig.com
BOB SCHEER at the BookFest at UCLA: Sat. 4pm, Schoenberg Hall, with Mark Danner.

PLUS: Torture and Truth: MARK DANNER has reported from some of the most dangerous spots on the planet. He’s visited Iraq three times in recent years. His new book is The Secret Way to War.
READ Mark Danner’s interview at TomDispatch.com
MARK DANNER at the BookFest at UCLA: Sat 4pm, Schoenberg Hall, with Robert Scheer.

ALSO: REZA ASLAN explains Islamic faith, history and culture — and criticizes the argument that we’re invovled in “a clash of civilizations” with Islam. His book No god but God is out now in paperback.
REZA ASLAN at the BookFest: Sun 230, Ackerman Ballroom

OTHER GUESTS FROM THE SHOW AT THE BOOKFEST AT UCLA:
Taylor Branch (At Canaan’s Edge): Sun 230, Moore 100
Leo Braudy (From Chivalry to Terrorism): Sat 1030, Young CS 24
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (Blood on the Border): Sat 4pm, Moore 100
Chris Hedges (War is a Force): Sat 2pm, Haines 39
Adam Hochschild (Bury the Chains): Sat 1030, Young CS 24
Scott Ritter (Iraq Confidential): Sat 4pm, Schoenberg Hall
Clancy Sigal (A Woman of Uncertain Character): Sat 230, Young CS 50
Rebecca Solnit (A Field Guide to Getting Lost): Sun 1pm, Young CS 50
Kenneth Turan (Never Coming to a Theater Near You): Sun 3pm, Franz 1178
David Ulin (The Myth of Solid Ground): Sat 1pm, Royce
Sarah Vowell (Assassination Vacation): Sun 3pm, Royce
Steve Wasserman (former Book Review editor): Sat 1pm, Dodd 147
Amy Wilentz (Martyrs’ Crossing): Sat 4pm, Korn
Sean Wilentz (The Rise of American Democracy): Sat 10am, Korn

Tickets required; info at http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/ticketing.html

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KEVIN PHILLIPS talks about the newest stage of the Republican majority: “a nightmarish vision of ideological extremism, catastrophic fiscal irresponsibility, [and] rampant greed” – that’s how historian Alan Brinkley described Kevin’s new book, American Theocracy, in the New York Times Book Review.
READ Kevin Phillips online in The Nation this week.

Plus: HAROLD MEYERSON on the new immigrant rights movement: With each passing week, he says, “it seems to grow both larger and smarter.” Harold wrote about it in the LA Weekly; he also writes for The American Prospect and the Washington Post op-ed page.

Also: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix . . . .”
It’s the 50th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” – DAVID ULIN, book editor of the L.A. Times, comments on the poem that changed America.
READ David Ulin on “Howl”

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CHALMERS JOHNSON on “THE SORROWS OF EMPIRE”: Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, Chalmers Johnson maps America’s vast empire of military bases and the world that supports them. American militarism, he shows, is bankrupting the United States, even as it creates the conditions for a new century of virulent blowback. Chalmers Johnson’s bestselling book The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic is out now in paperback.
READ Chalmers Johnson’s new interview at TomDispatch.com.

ALSO: TOM DeLAY is finished. We’ll have analysis from JOHN NICHOLS —he’s The Nation‘s Washington correspondent, and writes “The Online Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

PLUS: Global Warming: The Tipping Point. We are approaching the point when one out of every five living things on the planet will face extinction as a result of greenhouse gases. Over the past decade, the world has seen the most power El Nino ever recorded, the most devastating hurricane in two hundred years, and the hottest European summer on record, which killed 26,000 people in two months. TIM FLANNERY will explain: his new book is The Weather Makers.
Take a look at Tim Flannery’s terrific web site: www.tim-flannery.com

More stuff to read: Jon Wiener, “Imposing our will is simply our way,” L.A. Times, Mon 4/3.