Not to pile on, but there’s something about Dick Cheney’s gruff personality that invites awkward and amusing moments. If you don’t want to be compared to the emperor from “Star Wars,” it’s probably best not to act like such a menacing puppet master.
Karl Rove had quite a surprise as he left the American University campus last night in Washington, D.C. More than a dozen students surrounded Rove’s car after he visited a group of campus Republicans, with some protesters lying down to block the vehicle and others pelting and kicking it before security cracked down.
The Congressional Black Caucus has agreed to cosponsor two debates with Fox News, one for Democrats and the other for Republicans. But as Robert Greenwald and the folks at Fox Attacks demonstrate in this video, the network has a history of attacking black America.
In this episode of “Hometown Baghdad,” Adel, Ausama and Saif comment on the violence that has become so commonplace a daylong gun battle feels more like an inconvenience than cause for alarm.
Mark Green, the new president of Air America, tells Truthdig why it didn’t work, what he’s going to do to fix it and what you can expect in the future from America’s largest progressive radio network. Pictured above, Al Franken, who was an Air America host.
CNN’s John Roberts refutes John McCain’s idealized presentation of Iraq a day after the senator said the U.S. troop surge was working. McCain tried to claim that the media are stuck in a time warp of three-month-old bad news, but it turns out he was either misinformed, mistaken or lying about the results of the surge in Baghdad.
Conservative ideologues have apparently abandoned the ridiculous claim that the jury’s still out on global warming. The new talking points, as outlined in this Heritage Foundation video, are as follows: Global warming has happened before, it won’t be catastrophic and it’s not worth endangering the global economy.
Iraqi-American rapper TIMZ responds to the war with this video, titled simply “Iraq.” The first verse is meant to be from the perspective of an Iraqi, the second from an American. Both have the intensity that has made the genre such an effective avenue for political and social commentary.
Former Truthdigger of the Week Dr. Joel Hunter, author of “Right Wing, Wrong Bird,” joins the podcast this week to explain why things didn’t work out with the Christian Coalition and why global warming and poverty bother him as much as gay marriage and abortion.
On Friday’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher eviscerated the Bush administration for outing Valerie Plame. There are no revelations here, but Maher’s hard-hitting analysis of the scandal will satisfy even the most Plame-exhausted viewer. Warning: HBO language.
Last week the Iraq war entered its fifth year. We mark the occasion by revisiting striking moments from March 19, 2003, onward. It would be impossible for one slide show to capture every iconic frame or ghastly scene. Still, these images remind us that little has changed in the years since George Bush stood before a banner reading “Mission Accomplished.”
The Senate told Bush to shove his “take it or leave it” offer and ordered subpoenas for key figures in the U.S. attorney scandal. Sen. Pat Leahy had this to say about the president’s above-the-law attitude: “A system of justice does not serve at the pleasure of any person in this country.”
Conan O’Brien casts his picks for the Hollywood version of Plame-U.S. Attorneys-Iraq-gate. With news that Warner Bros. plans to make the Valerie Plame Wilson story, this comedy routine feels somewhat prescient, although we seriously doubt Jabba the Hutt would agree to play Karl Rove.
Someone apparently unrelatedrelated to the Barack Obama campaign created a parody of Ridley Scott’s classic “1984” Apple commercial, with Hillary Clinton in the role of Big Brother. In true Youtube fashion, it was quickly followed by a video response with Obama as the bad guy. Update: Original video creator’s identity exposed!
These are stories from Iraq, told by people who live there. It’s easy to forget that amid the carnage and chaos we read about, regular people are simply trying to live out their lives in peace.
J.J. Goldberg, editor in chief of the venerable progressive Jewish daily the Forward, joins the podcast this week to talk about the complexity of Zionism, the misguided intentions of neoconservatism and why AIPAC isn’t quite as sinister as you might think. Above, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with President Bush.
Wow. CNN’s Jack Cafferty really doesn’t like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. After calling him the definition of a “weasel,” Cafferty asked America whether the AG should resign. Surprisingly (or not), CNN didn’t get one e-mail saying Gonzales should stay.
Be glad Zbigniew Brzezinski, historian and national security adviser under Jimmy Carter, isn’t sizing up your job performance—the man just does not give out A’s. Brzezinski dropped in at “Late Edition” on Sunday and graded Bill Clinton and both Bushes on their international relations skills, slapping George W. Bush with an F.
Our collection of favorite videos this week includes Sen. Chuck Schumer nailing the Bush administration on the firing of U.S. attorneys, the Discovery Channel drooling over a weapon that kills Americans, and “The Simpsons” dressing down Fox News.
Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald (“Outfoxed,” “Iraq for Sale”) and his team have worked tirelessly to collect these memories of fallen Iraq veterans from friends, family and colleagues. For more information, click here.
Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer and contributors James Harris and Josh Scheer celebrate the dignity and tenacity of Truthdigger of the Week Valerie Plame Wilson.
“The Simpsons” has never shied away from biting the hand that feeds it. In this classic clip, the show eviscerates Fox News in what may be the greatest ever indictment of the network. It’s worth watching multiple times just to take in the “crawl.”
In this recent clip from “The Colbert Report,” author Michael Eric Dyson instructs the show’s self-professedly “colorblind” host about the differences between race, bigotry and racism. Displaying his keen sense of racial sensitivity, Stephen Colbert claims that the only way he knows he’s a white man is “because I have a late-night talk show.”
Jon Stewart pokes fun at the Democrats after a recent press conference that did little to assuage the concern that they don’t entirely have their stuff together. Say what you will about the Republicans, they know how to work a talking point. Speaking of which, don’t miss Dick Cheney’s entrance music at the end of the clip.
Why Do They Hate the West So Much, We Will Ask
