Month: October 2008

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Could McCain win? It’s not impossible:  JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation will look at the polls and the undecided voters in the swing states.  We’ll also have Your Minnesota Moment: Al Franken’s campaign to retire Senator Norm Coleman, and our new hero, El Tinklenberg, running against  Michelle Bachmann for the House seat for St. Cloud — she’s the one who called for a media investigation to determine which members of Congress are “anti-American.”

Also: VOTE SUPRESSION is a key part of the Republican strategy – but in order to change the outcome in a state, the vote must be close.  ANDREW GUMBEL will explain – he wrote Steal This Vote; his new piece at TheNation.com is “Protect This Election.”

And: NO on 8: JENNY PIZER of Lambda Legal Defense runs through the arguments about the initiative banning gay marriage in California.  Two key facts: Prop. 8 has nothing to do with schools.  Prop. 8 is about equality for all.

More stuff to read in the Huffington Post: my “Six Ways McCain Could Still Win”
At TheNation.com: my “Rich Old White Men: Still the Problem.”

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MICHELLE OBAMA: AMY WILENTZ explains how right-wing pundits made her into “a Black Power sistuh,” and how they raised the question: “Is she too black for America?”  In fact Michelle is a solid citizen of the black working and middle class, highly educated and motivated—and she’s had to downplay her education at Princeton and Harvard Law to avoid the Republican charge of being an “elitist.”  Amy Wilentz wrote about Michelle for the Washington Post.
WATCH Michelle Obama on Larry King Live –
READ “Meet Michelle” at the campaign website
WATCH MICHELLE dance with Ellen
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Also: “Century of the Self” — the award-winning BBC documentary on the engineering of consent in politics and the marketplace — how consumerism replaced democracy in our culture.  Starring Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Jerry Rubin and the great Wilhelm Reich — written, produced and directed by Adam Curtis, who made the celebrated documentary “The Power of Nightmares.”  We’ll be featuring “The Century of the Self”as the KPFK Fund Drive continues–we’ll be asking you to support “radio powered by the people” and featuring this DVD as a thank you gift for a pledge of $90.

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How can we explain the incompetence, the corruption, the waste, the giveaways, the bridges to nowhere and the no-bid contracts in Washington, D.C., today?  The Republicans “have not done these awful things because they are bad conservatives,” says TOM FRANK; “they have done them because they are good conservatives.” They want government to fail, he argues, because that gives them a stronger argument for cutting regulations and taxes that reduce corporate profits.  We’ll be speaking with Tom about his new book THE WRECKING CREW: How Conservatives Rule, and featuring the book as a thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive.

Plus: BOOGIE MAN: THE LEE ATWATER STORY is the award-winning documentary about the man who made George H.W. Bush president and paved the way for Bush Junior.  It explains how the culture war became the Republicans’ weapon of choice, and how blatant lies put several Republicans in the White House.  “Immensely relevant, compelling…Honestly, every adult in America should see it before casting another vote.” – Elizabeth Weitzman, NY Daily News.  We’ll be featuring “Boogie Man” as a thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive.

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“In a nation ruled by swine,” Hunter Thompson wrote, “all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely.”  Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is Alex Gibn ey’s documentary narrated by Johnny Depp.  Legendary critic Andrew Sarris calls it “the most absorbing film, fiction or nonfiction, I have seen this year.”  We’ll be speaking with ALEX GIBNEY about Hunter Thompson and “Gonzo” – we are featuring the DVD as a thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive.

Also: “The Real McCain” is Robert Greenwald’s fact-filled documentary about the man who would be president — we’ll be featuring it as a thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive.

Plus: ART SPIEGELMAN, who wrote the unforgettable comic-book Holocaust memoir MAUS, has a new book out: BREAKDOWNS: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@#*!  It includes a legendary and long out-of-print 1978 collection of Spiegelman’s comics, seminal works that changed how comics are made – along with Art’s story of his own young life and work.  We’ll be featuring Art Spiegelman’s BREAKDOWNS as a thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive.  Art will be speaking and signing at Vroman’s Bookstore, 995 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, this Saturday at 500pm.