Human Rights
When Harry Met Hugo
Harry Belafonte — a man who’s given us great music, a man who put himself on the line during the civil rights era — is one of a number of celebrities to have spent the last several years shilling for the ruthless Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chavez. Supporters of Chavez often argue indignantly that the man is no dictator, that he
Benjamin Barber’s prescience
Political theorist Benjamin Barber (pictured, right) has been shilling for the Libyan regime for a number of years. On February 1 his article “No Democratic Dominoes in the Middle East” was published by HuffPo. It contained the following insight: Qadaffi himself is not detested in the way that Mubarak has been detested and rules by means other than fear. His
Nir Rosen, major war monger
After critiquing Nir Rosen’s shoddy excuse-making for terrorism in January 2009, I paid only slight attention to his work. But on the occasions when I stumbled onto his Twitter feed, I actually had to stop and wonder whether someone had hacked his account. The opinions were so extreme, so loutish, so flagrantly unprofessional, so obviously unbecoming of a Fellow at
“We were set upon”
This is why Egyptians have taken to the streets to demand Mubarak’s ouster – exactly this sort of thuggery, for decades, but always away from the cameras. Until now.
Castro’s latest
Via Jack Shafer’s Twitter feed, this AP story on Fidel Castro’s decision to fill three of the eight scant pages in the party-controlled newspaper Granma with nonsense from 9/11 Truther and Bilderberg conspiracy theorist Daniel Estulin. AP writer Will Weissert does a nice job detailing how Estulin’s work actually draws on the thinking (rather, “thinking”) of the extremist right. I’m
“America has disgraced itself”
I agree with this strongly worded assessment of the Cordoba controversy by Peter Beinart. Key point: Once upon a time, the “war on terror” was supposed to bring American values to Saudi Arabia. Now Newt Gingrich says we shouldn’t build a mosque in Lower Manhattan until the Saudis build churches and synagogues in Mecca—which is to say, we’re bringing Saudi
In support of Cordoba House
I’m proud that the president of my country, and the mayor of my city, have spoken out forcefully against the bigoted campaign to block the construction of a Muslim community center on Park Place in lower Manhattan. This is a phony issue ginned up by the right, in fact part of a wider outburst of xenophobia that actually has little