Journalism

“Elvis Presley: America’s Secret Cold War Weapon.”  The King of Rock became a one-man special force against the East Germans, even as he questioned the validity of the conflict itself.
(excerpt from How We Forget the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America.)   The Daily Beast, Oct. 14, 2012.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/14/elvis-presley-america-s-secret-weapon-in-the-cold-war.html

Whittaker Chambers’ grandson David  says “Dr. Jon Wiener needs to set some facts straight”  in his article at Salon.com about visiting the Pumpkin Patch National Historic Landmark . . . .
And Dr. Wiener replies, “Readers can be assured I did indeed visit the site.”
. . . continued at Salon.com HERE

“A Visit to the Right’s Least Popular Museum.”    The GOP insisted Whittaker Chambers’ pumpkin patch become a historical site.  It averages two guests a year.  Salon.com, Oct. 13, 2012.
(Excerpted from How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America.)
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/13/wiener_excerpt/

Gore Vidal was not just a novelist and essayist; he also ran for Congress in 1960 in upstate New York. In a 1988 interview I asked him whether there was any gay-baiting in that campaign.

“Even then it was considered bad karma to fuck around with old Gore,” he told me. . .

. . . continued at the Huffington Post HERE

ERIC HOBSBAWM, who died October 1 at age 95, was one of the world’s greatest historians, and also a Marxist. He was not just an academic — he was also a lifelong Communist with a capital “C,” a full-fledged member of the Party since his teenage years.. . .
. . . continued at the LA Review of Books HERE.

Jon Wiener: How does Dylan sound to you on Tempest?

Greil Marcus: He sounds like himself. He sounds sly, as he’s always sounded. He sounds as if there’s a twinkle in his eye; as if there’s a joke he’s letting you in on, maybe halfway, and you’ll have to find your way to the end of the joke yourself.  That’s pretty much been his mode all along.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

David Rakoff, who died August 9 at age 47, was funny and smart about many things, including politics in America. “George W. Bush made me want to become an American,” he said in our radio interview in November, 2005. . . .

. . .  continued at TheNation.com HERE.

The head of the UCLA hospital, Dr. David Feinberg, and twenty-one other academics are going unpunished despite their role in perpetrating a healthcare fraud that has resulted in the largest fine ever paid by a pharmaceutical company in US history. . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

Gore Vidal was a citizen of the republic and a critic of the empire.  “We are the United States of Amnesia,” he wrote in The Nation in 2004. “We learn nothing because we remember nothing.”
More at TheNation.com,HERE.

The news has been full of speculation about why Mitt Romney won’t release his tax returns before 2010. People say maybe it’s because he paid zero taxes one year, or maybe he made a truly stupendous amount of money one year, or maybe they show he stayed at Bain Capital longer than he’s said.

I have a different theory: Romney won’t release his tax returns because they show he’s actually a Muslim born in Kenya. . . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE