CNN Rigs Debate Questions

Or, the manufacture of consent, part n. Yes, "diamonds or pearls" is far more important than nuclear waste disposal.

Can anyone take this seriously?

IAEA Report on Iran

Document (PDF) linked in title above; check out analysis from The Real News (unembeddable, for some reason). Read the document; ignore the propaganda machine.

Final, Synthesis (AR4) Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Doesn't seem like the full report is posted yet; will update when it is.

Update: here's the full report.

• Release of the report: 17 November 2007, Valencia Spain
  • Download the Summary for Policymakers of the AR4 Synthesis Report
• Information for the press
  • Watch the webcast of the press conference
    (Starting 17 November 2007 11 am)

The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic Jameson

"[F]rom Frederic Jameson's Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke UP, 1991"; click the title above to read the first chapter of this book. Dovetails nicely with David Harvey's work.

How Dry We Are: A Question No One Wants to Raise About Drought, By Tom Engelhardt

The Real News -- Pakistan: State of emergency

Click on the title of this post for "[a] collection of interviews and news stories on Pakistan that The Real News produced before the state of emergency was issued on November 3."

Since the 3d, here's what The Real News has:

Pakistan: Democracy in crisis
Political opposition denounces emergency proclamation
Monday November 5th, 2007

Reporting from Karachi under martial law
Beena Sarwar in Pakistan
Monday November 5th, 2007

The Real News interviewee arrested in Pakistan
Asma Jahangir forced into house arrest under Pakistan martial law, two weeks after interview in TRNN studio
Monday November 5th, 2007


Emergency proclaimed in Pakistan
Eric Margolis: The democracy movement and the Islamic militants are fighting the dictatorship
Wednesday November 7th, 2007


Pakistan, democracy and militant extremism
Aijaz Ahmad: War against Islamic extremism cannot be fought as a war for America (1 of 2)
Tuesday November 6th, 2007

(2 of 2)



Police block Bhutto march
Detention, protests and violence foil Bhutto's plan for rally
Friday November 9th, 2007


Bush's Pakistan policy under scrutiny
As the White House continues to work with Musharraf, one presidential candidate calls for policy change
Tuesday November 13th, 2007

Will Musharraf resign?
With pressure building on Musharraf to step down, the army general says he is considering all options
2007-11-15

Turmoil in Pakistan continues
Aijaz Ahmad: Tougher martial law may be on the way
2007-11-16

Musharraf under pressure as U.S. envoy flies in
Aijaz Ahmad: Musharraf has cornered himself
Friday November 16th, 2007

The Real News on Iran

Iran Sanction Shuffle: Is the U.S. dancing alone?
Aijaz Ahmad: There is little global support for U.S. sanctions against Iran
Thursday November 8th, 2007

El Baradei and Iran’s nuclear ambition
Aijaz Ahmad: Can the U.S. hear El Baradei over the noise they are making about Iran?
Sunday November 11th, 2007

Same game, different rules!
Aijaz Ahmad on U.S. double standards in defining global nuclear issues
Monday November 12th, 2007

Israel's Next War?: A Frontline Special on Jewish Fundamentalists from 2005

Click on the title above to view the program.

They do not believe in peace talks. They do not want to share the land. They are well armed and are carrying out increasingly violent attacks, even targeting innocent civilians. They are members of Israel's militant far right, and they are threatening to become Israel's next big problem.

In "Israel's Next War?" FRONTLINE goes deep inside the world of militant Jewish radicals who pose a grave new threat to Israeli security and, potentially, to the region. "The dream of these extremists"—to blow up the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, one of the most important holy sites in the Muslim world—"should give us sleepless nights," says former Israeli Security Chief Avi Dichter. "Jewish terror is liable to create a serious strategic threat that will turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a conflict between thirteen million Jews and a billion Muslims all over the world."

In "Israel's Next War?" FRONTLINE profiles two young men—Shlomo Dvir and Yarden Morag—who planned to set off a bomb at a Palestinian girls school just as hundreds of young students arrived in the morning. The timing was carefully designed to harm as many children as possible. "It was my idea," says Shlomo Dvir in an exclusive interview from an Israeli prison. "Whoever gets hurt, gets hurt." Most Israelis reacted with shock and horror when Dvir and Morag's plan was revealed—but a small minority refused to condemn them.

Dvir and Morag's bomb never went off—an Israeli policeman lucked onto their plot at the last minute—and the investigation led Israeli security officials to an underground of other radical settlers who helped with this attack and others. These settlers are part of a much larger group of far rightists in Israel—the Kahanists, who are members of Kach, the outlawed party of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who rose to prominence in the 1980s with his message that nothing short of the expulsion of all Arabs from Jewish land will guarantee Israeli security.

"There are certain conditions, according to Jewish law, under which non-Jews may live here," says Shmuel ben Yishai, an Israeli settler in Hebron. "This doesn't apply to the Arabs, they don't fit the category. They have to get the hell out!"

"At a time when most in Israel are hoping for a fresh opportunity for peace with the Palestinians, a rift is developing between the extremists and the rest of the Israeli people," says producer Dan Setton. "And that rift will only grow if the extremists find a wider audience for their message." Right now, while some among the settlers might be sympathetic, relatively few are willing to act. Still, the security services are worried.

"The phenomena that we're talking about are not on the fringe," says Yitzhak Dar, head of the Jewish section of the Israeli security service. "The glue that holds them together is ideology. It's a very, very dangerous ideology….When they try to put it into action, through the murder of the prime minister, through the murder of the Arabs, through the massacre at the Hebron Mosque, it's the beginning of the end of a system that can defend itself."

Among the extremists, there is a feeling of persecution by the Israeli government.

"I think the government is mainly afraid of us because we represent an alternative," says Noam Federman, a prominent Kahanist who trained some of the school bomb plotters on how to withstand interrogation from Israeli police. "We basically explain the Arab problem as Rabbi Kahane saw it. We say this should be a Jewish country and I think that's what threatens them."

Mike Guzofsky, a transplanted New Yorker and leading Kahanist, is convinced that the very people who are now painted as extremists will one day be viewed as heroes. "I think the day will come when the secret service and the government will look for Jews who are willing to risk their lives and go into Arab villages and kick them out, kill them… and we have thousands of civilians with the military know-how to instigate a mega-attack against Arabs."

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Daily entries from the 17th century London diary

The original treeware blog. A post each corresponding day to the original; yes, it's been going on for a while. Really interesting stuff; great blogging idea! Check it out, from the "About" page:

This site is a presentation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the renowned 17th century diarist who lived in London, England (read more about him). A new entry written by Pepys will be published each day over the course of several years; 1 January 1660 was published on 1 January 2003.

If this is your first time here, you may want to read the the story so far, the frequently asked questions or some information about the text. You can also read the site using RSS and receive diary entries by email. If you want to post your own annotations you should also read the annotation guidelines.

This site is run by Phil Gyford. I'm happy to answer what questions I can (email me at phil [at] gyford [dot] com), but if you have a question about Pepys or his times you may be better off asking the knowledgeable people on the discussion group. If you want to talk about topics that aren't directly related to Pepys, then the social group may be for you.

Some of the Encyclopedia topics feature descriptions written by users of the site and their guidelines for doing this are here.

This site is created using Movable Type, PHP and MySQL.

The Federalist Papers

Fully searchable. On the same site, you can find The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

Chomsky on CSPAN In-Depth (3 hours; recent)

Commentary by Noam Chomsky on Iran and Neoconservatives

A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

More stuff by and on Harvey:

• "A War Waged by the Wealthy," Socialist Review, Interview by Joseph Choonara, February 2006

• Marxism, Metaphors, and Ecological Politics by David Harvey, Monthly Review, April, 1998.

• The Geography of Class Power, Socialist Register, 1998 (PDF)

• A Conversation with David Harvey, Logos 5.1, Winter 2006

  Neoliberalism and the City. Middlebury College, Rohatyn Center for International Affairs Symposium, "Urban Landscapes: The Politics of Expression". September 29, 2006

• On Neoliberalism: An Interview with David Harvey by Sasha Lilley, Monthly Review Zine, June, 2006. Here's an audio version.

• Neoliberalism and the City, 22nd Annual Urban Studies Public Lecture, November 2, 2006.

• The Neoliberal City, Feb 1, 2007 at Dickinson College, sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues

• Books: Amazon | Powells
• Explanation in Geography (1969)
• Social Justice and the City (1973)
• The Limits to Capital (1982)
• The Urbanization of Capital (1985)
• Consciousness and the Urban Experience (1985)
• The Condition of Postmodernity (1989)
• The Urban Experience (1989)
• Teresa Hayter, David Harvey (eds.) (1994) The Factory and the City: The Story of the Cowley Automobile Workers in Oxford. Thomson Learning
• Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (1996)
• Megacities Lecture 4: Possible Urban Worlds, Twynstra Gudde Management Consultants, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, (2000)
• Spaces of Hope (2000)
• Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography (2001)
• The New Imperialism (2003)
• Paris, Capital of Modernity (2003)
• A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005)
• Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development (2006)
• The Limits to Capital New Edition (2006)

George Orwell: The Real Room 101

Living Utopia: A Film About the Spanish Revolution

A Spanish production, with English subtitles. Goes in depth into the anarchist and labor movements in 19th-century Spain; very good stuff.

Levellers, True Levellers, and The Diggers of 1649

Americans in the Spanish Civil War

Watch the The Spanish Earth, mentioned in the film above, here.

Russia: Land of the Tsars

Barbarians

Another good set of documentaries...

The 20th Century on Trial: GÜNTER GRASS & NORMAN MAILER, Interviewed by and in Conversation with Andrew O’Hagan

Mailer's last public appearance, and he called it, too.

Video version here.

Norman Mailer, 1924-2007

Legendary Radio Broadcaster and Oral Historian Studs Terkel on the Iraq War, NSA Domestic Spy Program, Mahalia Jackson, James Baldwin, etc.

Paintings by Anna Dvorak

Good stuff; check it out!

The Battle of Actium, 31 B.C.: Documentary

Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, "Voices of a People's History of the United States,"Wednesday April 26 2006

Voices of a People’s History of the United States is a primary-source companion to A People’s History of the United States. For this new book, Zinn and Arnove have selected testimonies — speeches, letters, poems, songs, memoirs, protests — from our rich history of resistance. Here, in their own words, are Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Emma Goldman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Paul Robeson, Helen Keller, Bob Dylan, Angela Davis, Rachel Corrie, and scores of others.

Howard Zinn, a professor emeritus of political science at Boston University, is the author of twenty books, including You Can't Remain Neutral on a Moving Train, a powerful memoir of his life and political activism, and A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, a history written from the standpoint of those who have been marginalized politically and economically and whose struggles have been largely omitted from most histories.

Howard Zinn Bio and Cross Links

Anthony Arnove is the editor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People's History of the United States and Terrorism and War. He also edited Iraq Under Siege. He is a regular contributor to ZNet and his writing has appeared in The Nation, The Financial Times, International Socialist Review, L'Humanité, Le Nouvelle Observateur, and other publications.

Anthony Arnove Bio and Cross Links

This event is now available in audio and video format. Each video segment is approximately 15 minutes long. Hover over each number to view the readings in that segment. Audio is available in full or by individual reading, in the order of delivery from the event.

Audio Files

Entire Event, 1.5 hours, in one Real Audio file
Patrick Lannan introduces the event and Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn reads and introduces the guest readers
Rubén Martinez reads Bartolomé de Las Casas
Kerry Washington reads maria Stewart
Marisa Tomei reads Harriet Hanson Robinson
Ruben Martinez reads a North Star editorial
Kerry Washington reads Sojourner Truth
Howard Zinn reads Frederick Douglass
Jane Fonda (with N. Scott Momaday) read Susan B. Anthony
N. Scott Momaday reads his work and from Black Elk
Marisa Tomei reads Emma Goldman
Lucille Clifton reads Fannie Lou Hamer
Howard Zinn reads from his own work
Lucille Clifton reads Yuri Kochiyama
Jane Fonda reads Cindy Sheehan
Howard Zinn closes the event and thanks all the guest readers
Downloadable Podcast of this event is now available.

Amira Hass in conversation with Ahdaf Soueif

• Amira Hass reading and presentation, April 13, 2005
• Amira Hass conversation with Ahdaf Soueif, April 13, 2005

In the end, my desire to live in Gaza stemmed neither from adventurism nor from insanity, but from that dread of being a bystander, from my need to understand, down to the last detail, a world that is, to the best of my political and historical comprehension, a profoundly Israeli creation. To me, Gaza embodies the entire saga of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it represents the central contradiction of the state of Israel – democracy for some, dispossession for others; it is our exposed nerve. —from Drinking the Sea at Gaza, Amira Hass

Amira Hass lives in Ramallah in the West Bank, where she covers Palestinian affairs for the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz, making her the only Jewish Israeli correspondent on Palestinian affairs to live among the people about whom she reports. The child of Holocaust survivors, she was the recipient of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize for 2003 in recognition of her work in the Gaza Strip. She is the author of Drinking the Sea at Gaza:Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege and Reporting From Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land.

Ahdaf Soueif, one of the most widely read Arab fiction writers in English, was born in Cairo, Egypt and spent part of her childhood in London. Her acclaimed novels include Aisha, Sandpiper, In the Eye of the Sun and Map of Love. Her most recent book, Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground, is a collection of essays and journalism covering an array of subjects including a vist to Palestine, women who choose to wear the veil, and post-September 11th commentary. Soueif was in Santa Fe in 2003 as a featured writer for Lannan’s Readings & Conversations.

Noam Chomsky @ York University (Nov 9th, 2007)

Just an excerpt; if more is posted, I'll update this post.

Noam Chomsky in Germany, 2004