Month: November 2006

no show today — instead tune in to hear the Pacifica Archives special “Say It Loud,” featuring the voices of Muhammad Ali, Michael Moore, Gore Vidal, Tariq Ali, Angela Davis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Lily Tomlin, and Malcom X.
please contribute online to the Pacifica Archives — and pick a premium. My favorite: The Ballad of Pete Seeger, an original radio documentary celebrating Pete’s life and times, and featuring a candid conversation with Tim Robbins, and historic audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

ALSO: more stuff to read: Michael Moore says “Monday marked the day that we had been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II.”

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American officials in Baghdad inhabit an isolated world: the Green Zone, a walled fortress filled with villas, swimming pools, and shiny new SUVs. It’s ground zero for cultural blindness, neo-con fanaticism, and imperial fantasy – the place where the American effort to remake Iraq was always doomed to failure. Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post tells that story in his new book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone – it was nominated for National Book Award.

Also: All governments lie: the story of I. F. Stone, iconoclast, rebel, and the most important independent journalist of the 20^th century.
Izzy exposed government lying about the Vietnam war simply by reading the government’s own documents. Myra MacPherson tells his story – her new book is All Governments Lie!: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I.F. Stone.

Plus: The secret history of disco: disco brought a polysexual, polyracial, polymorphous celebration to a space beyond the reach of church, state and family. We’ll talk about they way it became a worldwide phenomenon, and the way it ended in a homophobic, racist backlash. Our disco man is Peter Shapiro — is book Turn the Beat Around is out now in paperback. PLAYLIST: Bee Gees, “Stayin’ Alive”; Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive”; Sister Sledge, “We Are Family”; Chic, “Good Times.” (originally broadcast July 27, 2005.)

And: Your Minnesota Moment: yesterday in Minneapolis, USAir removed 6 Muslim imams from a flight, handcuffed and detained them for several hours — after passengers complained of “suspicious behavior”: praying to Allah.

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Brutal working conditions, food poisoning, animal cruelty, low wages, plus sex and drugs in the packinghouse: those stories are told in the new film “FAST FOOD NATION.” It opens on Friday. ERIC SCHLOSSER, who wrote the book and the screenplay, will talk about how they made what Manohla Dargis of the New York Times calls “The most essential political film from an American director since Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’” The film stars Patricia Arquette, Greg Kinnear and Kris Kristofferson.
Watch the trailer for “Fast Food Nation” — Participate in the “Fast Food Nation” campaign — Get the Sustainable Table Eat Well Guide

Also: The good news about Robert Gates: Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Defense is unlikely to get us out of Iraq, but he may help prevent a war with Iran. TOM ENGELHARDT explains — his new book is Mission Unaccomplished: Interviews with American Iconoclasts and Dissenters, and he edits TomDispatch.com, a regular antidote to the mainstream media.
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Plus: the story of the thousands of American lives unalterably shattered by racial hatred brought on by the passions of war. LINDA GORDON and GARY OKIHIRO have published a collection of never-before-seen photos of the WWII internment of Japanese Americans, shot by the great Dorothea Lange. The book is Impounded, and they have two great websites at LaborArts.org and JapanFocus.org. Linda teaches history at NYU, and Gary teaches international and public affairs at Columbia.

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JOHN NICHOLS on the Democrats and the war: Congressman John Murtha says the meaning of the election is “get out of Iraq.” But that isn’t what Nancy Pelosi said, or Hillary Clinton. John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation magazine and writes “The Online Beat” blog at TheNation.com. His new is book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism.

HAROLD MEYERSON on what the Democrats will do: vote to raise the minimum wage, negotiate with drug companies for lower prices on Medicare drugs, replenish student loan programs–and if Bush vetoes those things, run on that in ’08. Harold is executive editor of The American Prospect and op-ed page columnist for the Washington Post.

DANNY SCHECHTER on the media, the elections, and the war.  Danny writes “The News Dissector” blog; his new documentary is In Debt We Trust: America Before The Bubble Bursts and his new book is When News Lies: Media Complicity and The Iraq War.

AMY WILENTZ on Arnold’s appeal: in a state dominated by Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, one Repubican candidate wins 56-39%. How come? Amy’s new book about California politics, I Feel Earthquakes More Often than they Happen, is a bestseller.