LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.  
March 12, 2010
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Featured Reports
AP / Mikhail Metzel

The Winner and Still Champion, the Olympic (Ka-Ching!) Movement

It’s amazing to think how little was left of the Olympic movement in 1984, when it crawled into Los Angeles on its last legs.
Featured Reports
Oscars
AP / Amy Sancetta

An Oscar for America’s Hubris

What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing.
Featured Reports
AP / Jason Reed, pool

Kucinich: ‘Heads They Win, Tails We Lose’ (Update: Transcript)

Rep. Dennis Kucinich tells us why he isn't buckling under pressure to vote for the president's health care reform bill.
 
A/V Booth

Ah, if only former Rep. Eric Massa truly was the “ray of sunshine” Glenn Beck was so keenly wishing for ... before Massa actually showed up on Beck’s set and dashed the Fox News host’s hopes of mining Massa’s tale of persecution at the, er, hands of naked Rahm Emanuel for all it was worth.

Larry King got right to the point in his interview with former Congressman Eric Massa on Tuesday’s “Larry King Live,” asking Massa directly if he was gay. This was a question Massa was not about to answer, because, as he informed his confused host, “It insults every gay American ... it somehow classifies people.” Oh.

Is it fair to call this a meltdown? The war in Afghanistan—and the media’s lack of interest in it—is certainly a subject worth losing one’s temper over. Rep. Patrick Kennedy had trouble using his indoor voice during Wednesday’s debate in the House.

 
Arts and Culture
El Monstruo

The irascible poet, journalist and all-around troublemaker’s take on his love affair with the city called El Monstruo, through centuries of rapine and revolution.

Jack Bauer

Jack Bauer made a good run of it, but it’s looking like this eighth season of “24” will be the last for one of the top TV relics of the Bush era. Variety reported Tuesday that “20th Century Fox TV and Fox appear ready” to pull the plug on the show, but according to James Poniewozik of Time, “24” might morph into a movie franchise.

'Mad Men' dolls

They don’t come with the full range of accessories to complement their onscreen characters—e.g., cigarettes, cocktails, someone else’s dog tags—but Mattel’s new line of “Mad Men” Barbie dolls at least includes a mistress, in the form of a plastic Joan Holloway. But Joan’s famous assets ... (continued)

 
Digs

When China Rules the World

China will soon become “the most powerful and influential country in the world,” says celebrated journalist Martin Jacques. But to what end?

 
 
Reports

It took the case of “JihadJane” to illuminate what should have been obvious by now: Anyone who claims to be able to identify a potential terrorist by appearance or nationality is delusional. There’s a reason why all of us have to take our shoes off at the airport.

Amazon has sent a message to states buckling under budget deficits: If you make us play by the same tax rules as other businesses, we’ll punish you.

John Roberts

The chief justice is a big crybaby. To listen to John Roberts, you’d think that mobs of pitchfork-waving Democrats had accosted a handful of trembling justices.


In the wake of the just-concluded Winter Games—aka They Can Even Sell This Stuff?—it’s amazing to think how little was left of the Olympic movement in 1984, when it crawled into Los Angeles on its last legs.

There is a pathetic quality to our discussion of deficits and fiscal responsibility because we never face up to how much we need government to do.

When Elizabeth Cheney, William Kristol and their media friends slander Justice Department attorneys as the “al-Qaida 7” and malign the “Department of Jihad,” they are engaging in the smear tactics that became synonymous with Joseph McCarthy.

Oscars

What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing. According to press reports, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally found a movie about the Iraq war they liked because it is “apolitical.”


Truthdig Podcast

Rep. Dennis Kucinich tells us why he isn’t buckling under pressure to vote for the president’s health care reform bill: “Every plan that’s put forth by our government ends up benefiting the health insurance industry.”

An unusual trial begins in Israel this week, and people around the world will be watching closely. It involves the tragic death of a 23-year-old American student named Rachel Corrie. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer.

Internationally speaking, there are only two subjects to talk about in the Middle East. These are Israel, the Palestinians and the Americans; and Iran and Israel.

 
Ear to the Ground
McMillen

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Thursday against Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Miss., after the school district decided to cancel this year’s prom rather than let a lesbian student, Constance McMillen, don her choice of formal wear and take her girlfriend to the dance.

Pinera inauguation

Chile’s new president, conservative billionaire Sebastian Piñera, came in with a bang and a tsunami warning on Thursday. Just minutes before his swearing-in ceremony, a 6.9-magnitude aftershock rattled Chileans, still shaken from last month’s giant quake, and cut Piñera’s inaugural festivities short.


Well, that didn’t take long. China now has more billionaires (89 if you include Hong Kong) than any other country except for the U.S., which, to be fair, has been working overtime to transfer wealth upward. Unlike the U.S., the Chinese government has promised to distribute its bounty to “make our society fairer and more harmonious.”


File this under scary stories about drugs that lead to bad policy, but U.S. health officials just announced that about 7 percent of 12-year-olds have tried to get loaded by inhaling household chemicals. The little huffers far outnumbered junior pot smokers (1.4 percent), but, even at this age, alcohol is America’s drug of choice.

Massa

Former Congressman Eric Massa is no longer in the House, but his tarnished legacy may live on a little longer there if House Minority Leader John Boehner has his way. Rep. Boehner wants to revive the ethics investigation into sexual harassment claims against Massa, with the aim of finding out what House Democratic leaders knew about the Massa mess and when they knew it.

The Swedish parliament took a vote Thursday on an important wording issue, and the end result led to diplomatic strain between Sweden and Turkey. That’s because the word that parliament members decided on was genocide, and the incident they were applying it to was the mass killing of Armenians in Turkey in 1915.

Satan and Job

It would make sense that the Vatican would have an official head exorcist, and indeed it does. He’s 85-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, and after wrangling many an unclean spirit in his time, he now has a book out with the catchy title “Memoirs of an Exorcist” and thinks he’s seen you-know-who in the details of recent sex scandals in the Holy See.

 
 
 

 
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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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