Recent Posts

The ACLU is suing the Obama administration over its surveillance of domestic phone calls, arguing that the the once-secret NSA program is illegal, should be stopped, and its  records purged.  PETER BIBRING will explain; he’s Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.  SEE the NSA “PRISM” slideshow HERE.
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Plus: It’s the 50th anniversary of the New York Review of Books, which started publication during the NYC newspaper strike of 1963.  ROBERT SILVERS is founder and still editor–he’ll talk about how the mag started , how it’s stayed alive–and how it’s never lost money.

also: A secret army, a war without end–and a journalist determined to uncover the truth: That’s the story of the film “Dirty Wars” and it’s playing now in LA at the Landmark on Pico and nationwide – it’s about Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for The Nation magazine.
He’ll be doing a live Q&A in LA tonight at the Landmark on Pico in West LA after the 7:40 screening.  WATCH the “Dirty Wars” trailer HERE.

The FBI  spent two years investigating the song, “Louie, Louie,” searching its lyrics for obscene messages.  The problem: some junior high school boys in Sarasota, Florida said it was a dirty song — and their parents complained to J. Edgar Hoover.
“Air Talk” segment on KPCC with Patt Morrison: HERE.

Flying into Venice for a long-awaited vacation, the biggest thing we could see from the air was not the Piazza San Marco, or the Doge’s Palace, or the Basilica—the biggest thing in Venice was a cruise ship docked in the passenger port.
In town an hour later, we saw the posters, which said (in Italian, of course), “Defend the City—Take Back the Lagoon—Days of International Struggle Against the Big Ships—June 7-8-9.” We had arrived just in time. . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com: HERE.

In the New York Times Book Review, there was “a mediocrity, and a lack of passion, character and eccentricity, a lack of literary tone itself.”
50 years of the New York Review of Books: my Q&A with Robert Silvers at the LA Review of Books: https://lareviewofbooks.org/interview/50-years-of-nyrb-an-interview-with-robert-silvers

We win: Southern California Edison announced Friday it will shut down the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant south of Los Angeles.
Permanently.
Read more: http://www.thenation.com/blog/174714/we-win-san-onofre-nuclear-power-plant-will-be-shut-down#ixzz2VdIYeVQm

The world’s most famous artist has a new piece, exhibited here for the first time — it consists of six large scale-model dioramas illustrating different elements of his eighty-one-day imprisonment.
Read more: http://www.thenation.com/blog/174711/ai-weiwei-political-art-venice-biennale#ixzz2VdHCmkeP

Alarmed about “the number of companies recruiting young people to work for nothing,” British tax officials are forcing nine companies to pay more than $300,000 in back wages to unpaid interns. . . .
…continued at TheNation.com, HERE and at The Nation HERE

Dartmouth College students who filed a federal complaint against the school for failing to report sexual assaults are themselves being charged by the school with violating the student code of conduct.  Their crime: “failing to follow college officials’ instructions” about participating at a protest. . . .
. . . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE

“When it comes to selecting a commencement speaker, the nation’s top 100 universities lean decidedly left,” Fox News argues.  My debate with Kevin Hassett, Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, on KPCC’s “Air Talk” with Larry Mantle.
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2013/05/30/32034/few-colleges-invite-conservatives-to-be-keynote-sp/

For the record: oday’s show on KPFK was pre-empted by special fund drive programming.