Journalism

At a high school in Riverside in 1991, student Aaron Salinger wrote the lyrics to “Imagine” on the stripes of an American flag as an art project. It was Lennon’s birthday and the Persian Gulf War was underway, and Salinger and his friends carried the “Imagine” flag in an antiwar demonstration. Aaron’s mother, Sharon V. Salinger, now dean of undergraduate education at UC Irvine, remembers being summoned to the principal’s office after Aaron was suspended for “desecrating the flag.” . . . Continued at LATimes.com HERE.

Lennon’s legacy lives on, 30 years after his death : CNN’s  Candy Crowley interviews Jon Wiener on “State of the Nation.”  WATCH Streaming video HERE.

Sarah Palin could win the presidency in 2012—that’s what Frank Rich [1] said in the New York Times on Sunday—but not in a two-person head-to-head race. For Palin to beat Obama, a third-party candidate would have to run, and take votes away from Obama.

And we have a potential third-party spoiler, Rich says: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

“LENNONYC” tells the story of Lennon’s move to New York City in 1971 with Yoko Ono, his anti-war activism, the Nixon Administration’s effort to deport him, and the music he made in the last nine years of his life. It features interviews with musicians who worked with Lennon, plus immigration attorney Leon Wildes, photographer Bob Gruen, historian Jon Wiener, and Yoko Ono, who provided never-before-seen home movies. Director/writer: Michael Epstein.

Of all the characters in the last 40 years of Doonesbury, my personal favorite is Mr. Butts—and not just because he appeared on the cover of The Nation (Jan. 1, 1996).  Garry Trudeau has had lots of more compelling characters, but Mr. Butts in his own way was perfect: the smiling cigarette-man who was unfailingly cheerful about how cool it was for kids to smoke.

Mr. Butts crossed over from the comics to real life in 1994, when University of California tobacco researcher Dr. Stanton Glantz received a big Fedex box with the return address “Mr. Butts.” The box, as I reported in The Nation . . .
. . .continued at TheNation.com HERE

The election day exit polls had some good news for Obama: voters don’t blame him for “current economic problems.” But the same poll also had some really bad news for him.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer defeated challenger Carly Fiorina by a ten-point margin on Tuesday, winning a total of 3.8 million votes, more than the combined vote total of ten Tea Party senate candidates.

The Tea Party Senate candidates made big news, but they ran mostly in small states. Also, several lost.

. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE.

California’s initiative to legalize marijuana failed to win a majority at the polls Tuesday. Prop 19, which received 3.3 million votes but lost 54 percent to 46 percent, would have would have legalized possession and cultivation of marijuana and authorized cities and counties to regulate and tax commercial marijuana production and sales.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

When the votes are counted on Tuesday night in California, Democrats will easily sweep the top contests. Senator Barbara Boxer is likely to defeat challenger Carly Fiorina, 51-46 per cent (Nate Silver’s projection at 538.com), and last week’s California Field poll shows Democrat Jerry Brown ahead of Republican Meg Whitman in the gubernatorial race by 10 points.

Why are the Republicans doing so badly in California, when they are anticipating sweeping victories so many other places?

. . . Continued at TheNation.com HERE.

As Californians prepare to vote Tuesday on a statewide initiative to legalize marijuana, The Jewish Journal, Los Angeles’s Jewish weekly, features a cover story on whether legal pot is good for the Jews.

The answer, in brief: the rabbis are ambivalent.

. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE