Sunsara Taylor, author of the widely debated BattleCry columns, sets forth in this manifesto a case for driving President Bush and his administration from office—anchored by an Oct. 5 boycott of work and schools nationwide.
“Of all possible explanations for the mainstream media’s preoccupation with the Clinton marriage, the most innocuous is nostalgia for a better time, when we were able to worry less about war, corruption, catastrophe and incompetence, and more about sex.”
Amir Taheri wrote the bogus Op-Ed claiming that Iran has a law requiring Jews to wear yellow badges. But on Tuesday, he was invited to the White House along with other “experts” to give Bush their “honest opinions.” With advice like that, our war in Iran will be a slam-dunk.
In the tradition of Sam Harris, Truthdig introduces secularist radio show host and author Barry Seidman, who argues in this essay that the new religious left could prove to be just as dangerous and divisive to the country as the religious right, because the admonitions of Abrahamic religious texts can never be reconciled with democracy.
The internationally renowned diplomat, peace activist and Democratic Party salon ringmaster is urging people to support Marcy Winograd, a peace candidate running against Jane Harman in California’s 36th Congressional
District.
The Bush family consistently acted to put Enron and its longtime CEO, Ken Lay, into a position to rip off investors and taxpayers. Why is the mass media ignoring that fact now that Lay has been convicted in arguably the most egregious example of white-collar fraud in U.S. history?
Truthdig salutes the 12 jurors who sacrificed four months of their lives to sift through the lies of former Enron chiefs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, convicting them on 25 counts of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. Interviewed after the case, jurors were incredulous that the two former titans were unaware of the crimes at their company. “Skilling was supposed to be a hands-on individual,” one juror told a newspaper. “It’s hard to believe a hands-on individual wouldn’t know what was going on.”
“We remember that many Americans have lost their limbs or their lives in on-the-job accidents that might have been prevented if overall media coverage had been anywhere near as transfixed with job safety as with, say, marital splits among Hollywood celebrities.”
The political satirist reports: “The election of former Vice President Al Gore to the White House could result in a disastrous phenomenon called ‘global boring,’ in which millions of people around the world would fall asleep in an unprecedented narcoleptic pandemic.”
Former Enron Chief Ken Lay may stand convicted, but as Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer has been writing for years, no accounting of the Enron scandal will be complete until we have full disclosure of Lay’s entanglements with the White House. Check out this classic Scheer column: “Enron is Whitewater in spades. This isn’t just some rinky-dink land investment like the one dredged up by right-wing enemies to haunt the Clinton White House—but rather it has the makings of the greatest presidential scandal since the Teapot Dome.”
Bender, the producer of every Quentin Tarantino movie, describes how he produced the Al Gore global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Check out:
Why he thought a guy nicknamed “The Robot” would a compelling documentary subject
His take on Gore’s inability to capitalize on global warming when he was in office
His recognition that climate change barely registers on most voters’ minds
That’s what the N.Y. Times calls the conviction of Enron honchos Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. But Truthdig contributing cartoonist Mr. Fish has a different perspective (click here to see the full cartoon).
Truthdig editor Robert Scheer has written about the crooks from Texas in his new book, “Playing President.” Click here to read some of those classic columns.
“Like many prophets, Gore has often been derided as an annoyance, an extremist and possibly a madman. Every great American mind of our time felt compelled to take a shot at him.”
” ‘He wouldn’t have taken my phone call a year ago,’ Bush said Monday of the new Iraqi parliament speaker. ‘He’s now taken it twice.’ Wow, and it cost only $200 billion and thousands of maimed and dead American soldiers to get the president’s call returned.”
Bender, the producer of every Quentin Tarantino movie, describes how he produced the Al Gore global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Check out:
Why he thought a guy nicknamed “The Robot” would a compelling documentary subject
His take on Gore’s inability to capitalize on global warming when he was in office
Bender’s recognition that climate change barely registers on most voters’ minds
Truthdig contributor Sunsara Taylor reports again from the front lines—a BattleCry Christian-fundamentalist rock music rally, where a “sexpert” claims that “condoms don’t work,” Navy SEALs stage mock assassination raids in the name of Christ, and evangelist Franklin Graham suggests that HIV/AIDS is a punishment from God.
(Third in a series. See: column 1, column 2)
“By all means, reform immigration with this deep obeisance to the Republican right-wing nut faction and their open contempt for ‘foreigners.’ But do not pretend for one minute that it is not a craven political bow to racism.”
Truthdig salutes New School University graduating senior Jean Rohe, whose commencement speech at Madison Square Garden on Friday preemptively struck against the address that Sen. John McCain was due to deliver directly after her.
Click here for links to the speech, biographical information on Rohe, and the instantly infamous response by one of McCain’s staffers in which he insulted Rohe’s graduating class and called her an “idiot” in print.
The satirist tells us that Bush, feeling low as he contemplates his public approval rating, has turned to a man who knows a thing or two about numbers.
“Bush has proved so incompetent as president that he lacks credibility. Sending thousands of troops southward now in an effort to appear tough only underscores his failure.”
“It is good news that the public is finally hip to Bush’s con, yet it is worrisome when surprisingly sensible proposals by the president on immigration are automatically rejected because of the source.”
Former New York Times Executive Editor Abe Rosenthal, who died this month, was a raging homophobe—a failing that proved tragic when the AIDS crisis erupted on his watch. Gay and lesbian studies pioneer Larry Gross explores what happened when America’s paper of record ignored one of the major civil rights stories of our time.
“Craziness would make a certain amount of sense. I mean, you announce you are going to militarize the Mexican border, but you assure the president of Mexico you are not militarizing the border…. It’s quite possible that lunacy and politics are closely related.”
Obama Will Back Israel
