Living in the USA

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Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq: THOMAS RICKS of the Washington Post has written a devastating story about the incompetence and folly of the Bush administration’s war. Michiko Kakutani (NY Times) called it “staggeringly vivid and persuasive.”

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Plus: Joe Lieberman is dead meat: HAROLD MEYERSON explains how Ned Lamont defeated the pro-war senator in the Connecticut Democratic primary on Tuesday – and what it means for American politics. Harold writes for the LA Weekly, the American Prospect, and the Washington Post op-ed page.

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Also: the war in Lebanon: ROANE CAREY comments on Israel’s continuing bombing of Lebanese civilians, and Hezbollah’s continuing rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Roane is senior editor at The Nation and editor of The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.

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Finally: MIKE DAVIS pays tribute to DOROTHY HEALEY – the lifelong activist died Sunday. She was 91. “The Left’s ‘greatest generation’ – those tough-as-nails children of Ellis Island who built the CIO, fought Jim Crow in Manhattan and Alabama, and buried their friends in the Spanish earth – have now almost entirely passed from the American scene. It is an inestimable, heart-wrenching loss, and it is now symbolized by the death of Dorothy Ray Healey.”  (Photo by Darrow Montgomery)
READ Marc Cooper on Dorothy; Harold Meyerson on Dorothy

More stuff to read:
Jon Wiener, “Israeli Doves Challenge the War” at TheNation.com.
Jon Wiener, “Beyond My Lai: New Revealations of Vietnam Atrocities” at TheNation.com

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Over the weekend Israel bombed Qana, killing 56 civilians, 37 of them children. Israel officially apologized but claims Hezbollah tactics are responsible for civilian deaths in Lebanon. ADAM SHATZ, literary editor of The Nation, comments. Adam wrote about Israel and Lebanon for the LA Times op-ed page Tuesday. He’s also editor of Prophets Outcast: A Century of Dissident Jewish Writing About Zionism and Israel.

WEB EXTRA: Report from inside Israel, from Gideon Levy of Haaretz: “Israel is sinking into a strident, nationalistic atmosphere and darkness is beginning to cover everything.”

ALSO: Pro-war Sen. JOE LIEBERMAN may be defeated in the Connecticut primary next Tuesday by anti-war challenger Ned Lamont. Bill and Hillary have endorsed Lieberman; the New York Times has endorsed Ned Lamont. JOHN NICHOLS explains: he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Online Beat” blog at TheNation.com.
UPDATE: New poll Thurs 8/3 has Lamont ahead 54-41.

PLUS: Stranger in a Strange Land: “Before I came to America from England, I asked an American journalist in London what kind of reactions to expect. “Well, when they hear an English accent Americans usually add twenty points to your IQ,” he replied. Recalling that the authors of The Bell Curve had claimed that black people have an IQ fifteen points lower than whites, I was heartened to think that even in the eyes of the most hardened racist I would still come out five points ahead.”” GARY YOUNGE is a correspondent for The Guardian.

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Israel in Lebanon: is there a way out? IAN WILLIAMS, UN Correspondent for The Nation, says the UN could help – but first George Bush has to tell Israel to stop. An analogy: imagine if, when the IRA engaged in terrorists attacks on the British, the Brits shelled and strafed Dublin, bombed Dublin’s airport, and knocked out roads, power stations, and cell phone transmissions across Ireland.

Also: On a mission to build a peaceful, pot-friendly Shangri-La in rural Michigan, Tom Crosslin and his lover Rollie Rohm founded Rainbow Farm, a campground and concert venue. The farm quickly became the center of marijuana activism in Michigan, drawing thousands of hippies, blue-collar libertarians and militiamen to its annual hemp festivals. Eventually local authorities began an all-out campaign to shut the place down. Faced with mandatory jail terms and the loss of the farm, Tom and Rollie burned Rainbow Farm to the ground in 2001 – and the next day the FBI and the state police shot and killed them. DEAN KUIPERS of LA CityBeat tells that story – his terrific new book is Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke.

PLUS: Once upon a time you dressed so fine: on the 40th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” — GREIL MARCUS talks about the “explosion of vision and humor that forever changed pop music.” His book Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads is out now in paperback.
Playlist: Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone” — Highway 61 Revisited
Jimi Hendrix, “Like a Rolling Stone” — Jimi Plays Monterey
Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone” — Live 1966
(originally broadcast 4/13/05)

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Israel has killed over 300 Lebanese, most of them civilians, while Hezbollah rockets have killed 30 Israelis, 15 of them civilians. In Gaza, one Israeli soldier has died from his own army’s fire, while Israel has killed 103 Palestinians. Israel claims this disproportionate violence will destroy Hezbollah and Hamas, but in the past popular outrage over Israeli attacks on civilians has strengthened Israel’s enemies. (photo credit: LA Times: Beirut on 7/16)
We’ll have analysis from three angles:

AMY WILENTZ on the Israelis — she was Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker, and she’s a contributing editor of The Nation. She wrote a prize-winning novel about Palestinians and Israelis, Martyr’s Crossing.

HAROLD MEYERSON on Bush’s response: “The world’s sole remaining superpower has been super-absent from any role in mediating and mitigating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — partly because until recently the president didn’t believe in diplomacy, partly because he believed that the key to regional stability was deposing Saddam Hussein.” Harold writes for The Guardian in London, the LA Weekly, the American Prospect, and the Washington Post, where his piece “The Guns of July” appears today.

ADAM SHATZ on Hezbollah: Adam interviewed the head of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, at his headquarters in Beirut in 2003. Adam is literary editor of The Nation; his article “In Search of Hezbollah” appeared in the New York Review. He’s also editor of the book Prophets Outcast: A Century of Dissident Jewish Writing about Israel and Zionism.

NEW: READ ADAM SHATZ ON “NASRALLAH”S GAME” at THENATION.COM

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Democrats want to “wave the white flag of surrender” in Iraq: that’s what President Bush says. Vice President Cheney accuses the Democrats of “defeatism” in the global war on terror. And now Republicans are planning to use the war to win at the polls in November. TOM HAYDEN talks about on the politics of the war – and what the peace movement can do in the upcoming elections.
Tom has been working on “An Exit Strategy for Iraq”.

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Plus: TIMOTHY LEARY: “While he may have been the leading spokesmodel for LSD, Leary remained to the end an old-fashioned booze hound, as well as a snake-oil peddler of the most traditional American sort. Had he been born a decade or two earlier, he would probably have been offering to cure arthritis through the application of the electric belt.” That’s what LUC SANTE says — he is the author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, and he teaches writing at Bard. His piece about Timothy Leary was the cover story in the New York Times Book Review.

Also: A story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict told through the experiences of two families with claims to the same stone house in the town of Ramla. The book is The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, and the author is SANDY TOLAN – he’s written for the New York Times Magazine and dozens of other magazines and newspapers. HE’s also produced dozens of radio documentaries for NPR and PRI. He teaches international reporting at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and he writes for the PBS Frontline web site.

No show today: the KPFK fund drive continues.

More stuff to read: Jon Wiener: “White House Hound Dog Visits Graceland: What The King could tell the President” at TheNation.com/The Notion.

No show today — the KPFK fund drive continues.
Web Extra: take a look online at the trailer for a new documentary, “The U.S. versus John Lennon” — or go to www.theUSversusJohnLennon.com. The film, which opens September 15, provides a compelling look at Lennon’s transformation from lovable mop-top to anti-war activist –and also tells the true story of how and why the U.S. government tried to silence him. (The trailer is also running in theaters, before the Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”) The message: “War is over — if you want it.”

ALSO: VICTOR NAVASKY in L.A.: the Publisher Emeritus of The Nation will be reading and signing A Matter of Opinion at 730pm Friday 6-23, at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., L.A.. Victor is also a guest on The Tavis Smiley Show on Friday, KCET Channel 28, 11pm.

no show today — it’s the KPFK fund drive.
BUT there’s more stuff to read: my sardonic comment on “BUSH IN BAGHDAD” at TheNation.com.

Your Minnesota Moment: go see the Robert Altman-Garrison Keillor film “A Prairie Home Companion” — it’s terrific, even if you’re not from St. Paul. Ella Taylor explains why in the LA Weekly.

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Election Analysis with HAROLD MEYERSON: Phil Angelides will challenge Arnold in November; Jerry Brown defeated Rocky Delgadillo for the Democratic Party nomination for attorney general; and Democrat Francine Busby lost the San Diego Congressional seat vacated by Randy “Duke” Cunningham to a Republican.
Harold is Political Editor of the LA Weekly, editor at large of The American Prospect, and op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.

Plus: KATHA POLLITT talks about VIRGINITY OR DEATH! And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Time. “Witty, astute and relentlessly logical” – Publishers Weekly. For Example, Katha argues that creationists should be permitted to oppose the teaching of evolution so long as they agree to forgo the benefits of the theory –such as flu vaccines.
Katha is a poet, essayist, and columnist for The Nation.

Also: The years after punk: in the new book Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984. SIMON REYNOLDS says that the postpunk of early eighties stands as “a fair match for the Sixties” in terms of the idealism, the urgency, the excitement, and the musical innovations of the era.
PLAYLIST: Public Image Limited, “Public Image” single (Oct 1978); Gang of Four, “Natural’s Not In It,” Entertainment (1979); The Specials, “A Message to you Rudy,” The Specials (1979); Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime,” Remain in Light (1980)