Human Rights
Oliver Stone’s Chávez
Oliver Stone has made a documentary called “South of the Border,” about the new left-wing populist wave in South America, and in particular about Hugo Chávez, a man Stone much admires. On “Real Time with Bill Maher” the other week, Stone praised Sean Penn’s earlier appearance on the same program. Penn, Stone said, had done “a great job” defending Hugo
“My children were crying on top of my wife’s body.”
That’s one of many quotes from survivors featured in “Terror in Mumbai,” a new HBO documentary narrated by Fareed Zakaria. It’s solidly in the running for the most profoundly disturbing hour of television I’ve ever seen. Now, a year having passed since the attacks, and with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh currently visiting Washington, it’s a good time to reflect
Political odds, ends
I didn’t vote for him on November 3, but Mike Bloomberg has done the country a service and I wanted to acknowledge it. In stark contrast to his predecessor, the insufferable demagogue Rudy Giuliani, Bloomberg has voiced support for Eric Holder’s decision to try KSM and other 9/11 defendants in a civilian court here in New York. One now sees
Exonerating Todd Willingham
David Grann’s New Yorker piece on Todd Willingham, who was all but certainly innocent of the crime for which he was executed in 2004, is essential reading, and the full text is online. Willingham couldn’t afford decent legal representation and so was done in by two crackpot arson investigators; a quack psychologist who testified that Willingham’s Iron Maiden and Led
Robeson’s legacy
From Peter Applebome’s NYT account of politics and historical memory in Peekskill, New York, specifically as relates to Paul Robeson: [Robeson] became a pioneering and uncompromising human rights advocate. He spoke out against segregation decades before the civil rights movement began, and was a fierce opponent of colonialism when that was barely an issue. He also became an enthusiastic, unflagging
Amy Goodman, hack
Protests are heating up again in Iran, so comment on the following is timely. In June 2007 I remarked on Amy Goodman’s fawning interview with left extremist John Pilger, a declared supporter of the Iraqi insurgency, an admirer of Hezbollah and apologist for Palestinian suicide bombers, and a Balkan genocide revisionist to boot. (Pilger considers himself part of the “peace