The Left
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
Glenn Greenwald and Egypt, continued
A quick follow-up on Glenn Greenwald’s blundering comments about the anti-Hillary protests in Egypt: Indeed, the tomato-throwing protesters were anti-Islamist, not anti-Mubarak. In fact, this report indicates the protesters were riled up by bogus claims regarding the Obama administration’s Egypt policy — claims spouted by hysterical right-wingers in the U.S. including Michele Bachmann and Frank Gaffney. So Greenwald, rushing to validate
Glenn Greenwald thinks he understands Egypt
Regarding the protests against Hillary Clinton that occurred in Alexandria, Egypt, Glenn Greenwald tweeted this: And then this: As if the Arab world is one undifferentiated mass of anger at the U.S. In fact, this report (hat tip David Toube via FB) on the demonstrations includes the following line:
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
Viva Palestina’s bigotry
Much attention is focused on Tony Blair as he testifies before the Iraq Inquiry, but I want to say a quick word about Blair’s sister-in-law, Lauren Booth. A recent convert to Islam, Booth is someone whose politics, like George Galloway’s and Cynthia McKinney’s and Gilad Atzmon’s, can only be properly described as far-right — although all these individuals and their
Assange and Shamir
I think it’s safe to say that political activists who compare themselves to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ought to be regarded with a high degree of skepticism. Alas, many on the left regard Julian Assange of WikiLeaks the way he views himself. Katha Pollitt of The Nation has written this very eloquent piece about the belittling of Assange’s rape charges.
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
Oliver Stone’s theory
“Jewish domination of the media.” I didn’t think my opinion of this huckster could sink any lower. Comments from Norm Geras, Judeosphere, Z Word, Modernity Blog. Stone has issued an apology. Translation: he’s sorry for revealing to an interviewer that he’s essentially a far rightist, an apologist for dictators, a man without a shred of moral comprehension, an ignoramus who