Month: June 2005

HAROLD MEYERSON comments on the Bush speech defending the war Tuesday night — and on Donald Rumsfeld’s remark on Fox News Sunday that the war may go on for “eight, 10, 12 years.” Harold writes for the LA Weekly, The American Prospect, and the Washington Post op-ed page.

Also: GARY INDIANA explains Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rise to power. His new book is The Schwarzenegger Syndrome — it’s a witty and biting travelogue through the intersection of celebrity culture and American political life. Gary has published six novels; his essays have appeared in the Village Voice, the London Review of Books, and the LA Times Book Review.

Plus: Art and power in L.A.: CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT of the LA Times talks about the scandal at the Getty, the world’s richest art institution, over the lavish pay and perks for its CEO Barry Munitz — and about LACMA‘s King Tut show, which is now going on a 24/7 schedule to accomodate the crowds.

more stuff to read: In The Nation this week, Jon Wiener asks why Alan Dershowitz, famed defender of the First Amendment, wrote Gov. Schwarzenegger asking him to intervene in the publication of a book criticizing Dershowitz. The book is Norman Finkelstein’s Beyond Chutzpah.

“Worse than Watergate“: that’s what JOHN DEAN says about the Bush White House practice of secrecy and deception. John Dean of course served as counsel to President Nixon at age 31, a job he did for a thousand days.

Plus: So far this month in the Iraq insurgency, more than 450 Iraqis and dozens of U.S. troops have been killed. We’ll have our update on what the New York Times calls “the mystery of the insurgency” from U. of Michigan historian JUAN COLE: he writes the famous “Informed Comment” blog about Iraq at www.JuanCole.com

Also: John Brown was the militant abolitionist who led an assault on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in the hope of inciting a slave insurrection. Some people call him a terrorist, but he was right about one thing: slavery was a system of violence that could not be ended in the US without war. Columbia University historian ERIC FONER comments. (There’s a new book on John Brown, written by David S. Reynolds.)

Finally: SARAH VOWELL is one of the great voices of public radio in America today for her work on This American Life. Now she’s gone on the road to find the locations of American political violence — and to ponder their lessons — in her new book Assassination Vacation.

LISTEN ONLINE: http://thenation.audioblog.com/deluge/37b3ba25-81e3-db2e-61d2-42efc9541ef4.mp3