Month: August 2005

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STEAL THIS VOTE: ANDREW GUMBEL, U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, “documents the simple truth: Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election.” – Paul Krugman, New York Times. Gumbel tells better than anyone else the historyof votes bought, stolen, lost and litigated – because of a corrupt political environment created by both parties. His new book is Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America .
More stuff to read: Andrew Gumbel responds to the “posse of internet screamers” who have called him a “conspiracy journalist” and a “left-wing hack.”

Plus: FROM BAGHDAD TO GAZA: MARK LeVINE talks about the human face behind the veil of “the axis of evil” – from young feminists wearing headscarves to Muslim metal heads. Mark teaches Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and writes for the L.A. Times, Tikkun, Le Monde, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Huffington Post; his new book is Why They Don’t Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil.

Also: “MACK THE KNIFE”: when Bertold Brecht wrote the song in 1928, he considered Mack the embodiment of the perfect capitalist — vicious like a shark. What happened to “Mack the Knife”? Will Friedwald explains: his book is Stardust Melodies: A Biography of 12 of America’s Most Popular Songs. (originally broadcast 6-18-02) PLAYLIST: “Mack the Knife”: Threepenny Opera/Original Cast (1954); Louis Armstrong (TV, 1965); Ella FitzGerald “Live in Berlin” (1960); Sonny Rollins “Sax Colossus” (1956).

NEW AUDIO: Listen to Tom Hayden, “An Exit Strategy for Iraq Now”

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COMMIE GIRL GOES TO CRAWFORD: REBECCA SCHOENKOPF, who writes the great “Commie Girl” column for the OC Weekly, flew to Texas last week to visit Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey. She also got a glimpse of President Bush, but only on TV at the hotel bar: “The president looked happy, relaxed, pretty great, and he should have,” she says: “his schedule that day had included a nap, lunch with Condi, some fishing, some ‘reading,’ a two-hour bike ride with reporters and a Little League game. It did not include a visit to Camp Casey.”

ALSO: THE GODLESS CONSTITUTION: Did the Founding Fathers want America to be “a Christian nation”? ISAAC KRAMNICK says the Founding Fathers had no problem with a Christian people — but they were firm in their insistence on a secular government. His new book is The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State.

PLUS: BACK FROM BAGHDAD: DAVID ENDERS of Mother Jones spent the past month in Iraq – he returned to Falluja, where US forces brought massive destruction and left a devastated city. His new book is Baghdad Bulletin: Dispatches on the American Occupation.

An exit strategy for Iraq now: TOM HAYDEN explains how to do it: shift from a military model to a peace process. Tom wrote about it for the L.A. Times op-ed page on Tuesday.

Gaza update: today the Israeli army moved in on Jewish settlers who are resisting the pullout, and Palestinians prepare to return to land they lost in 1967. ROANE CAREY will comment; he’s a senior editor at The Nation and co-editor of The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.

Also: KARL FLEMING began his life in the bleak, poverty-striken tobacco landscape of North Carolina. He went on to become one of the key civil rights reporters of the sixties, covering Bull Conner’s fire hoses and police dogs in Birmingham in 1963, the Birmingham church bombings, and the murder of three civil rights workers during Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964. now he’s written a stunning memoir: Son of the Rough South.

It’s Gaza pullout time! The long-awaited, and long overdue, withdrawal of Israeli settlers from the Gaza strip begins this weekend. Is this the first step towards a broader withdrawal — or the last? ROANE CAREY will comment; he’s a senior editor at The Nation and co-editor of The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.

Also: “Can America be happy?” America’s first great radical, Tom Paine, asked that question in 1776. His answer: “As happy as she please.” The unruly energy, democratic ideas and profound sacrifices of the American Revolution came not from the fabled “founding fathers.” They came instead from the bottom up. UCLA historian GARY NASH will explain: he says the American revolution was a people’s revolution; his new book is The Unknown American Revolution.

Plus: The story of black popular music: behind the funk of George Clinton, behind the Memphis soul of Otis Redding, stand the gospel music of Sam Cooke and Mahalia Jackson. ARTHUR KEMPTON will explain — his new book is Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music. PLAYLIST: Mahalia Jackson, “Take My Hand Precious Lord”; Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers, “Touch the Hem of His Garment”; Otis Redding, “I’ve Been Loving You too Long”; George Clinton, “Flashlight.”

A Socialist in the Senate? Vermont’s Socialist congressman Bernie Sanders seems set to win one of the few US Senate seats next year where no incumbent is running. JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation will explain.

Also: The Bush economy: our economic mythmakers hold that technology will overturn hierarchies, and that the democratizing of information and finance will lead us to a virtual social revolution. But, as DOUG HENWOOD demonstrates, the gap between rich and poor has never been so wide, and wealth never so concentrated. Doug’s new book is After the New Economy; he also edits the Left Business Observer.

Plus: GREIL MARCUS talks about ELVIS COSTELLO (originally broadcast 9-25-2001). Playlist: “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?”; “Less than Zero” (live in Dallas); “Shipbuilding” (“just a rumor that was spread around town”); “All This Useless Beauty”; “Every Day I Write the Book”

New in the audio archive: Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times talks with Jon Wiener on Radio Nation about the conservative Supreme Court justice who became a liberal: Becoming Justice Blackmun
Streaming audio: http://thenation.audioblog.com/deluge/d6cd1d5d-6ca5-115e-1563-fda82ee817ba.mp3
podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RadionationPodcast