another 1? that's what i wrote about quickly last night. blogger was going down. i was rushing and had less than ten minutes to write - you don't just finish, put a period and are done. you have to click on 'publish post' then on 'index' then on publish site or something. unlike c.i., it doesn't take me forever to do that. the last step alone takes c.i. over 15 minutes. it takes about 3 minutes for me. so i started that at ten minutes 'til blogger went down and had to be done 3 minutes before. it was a 7 minute post. but every 1 who wrote that i read this morning (i had volunteer work this afternoon), enjoyed it. i'll be (briefly) continuing it tonight.
who will save women from eric alterman? that's what i asked last night. 1 name i'd like to add, that eric alterman doesn't mention, is janeane garofalo who was speaking out before the invasion and speaking out after. but she doesn't get a mention because no woman is considered worthy of mention.
that's the way it goes with the lisper, always trying to big boy up. always trying to fit in with the boys. you saw it in that wretched book, what liberal media, that repeated the lie about naomi wolf. not only did he repeat the lie that she did fashion for al gore, he offered that the slams were fair, he guessed. the slams weren't fair and they weren't true and that should have been the 1st tip off that the effite elite is a little too convinced of his own opinion to do any research. but then intellectual gods don't need it and the mental midget seems to think he walks on clouds.
what you notice in all of his writing in total is how proud eric alterman is of himself. he's like his own stage mother waiting back stage and saying, 'isn't he wonderful?'
play his own stage mother maybe the only women enter his world. they are ignored in his writing.
i'm counting 13 men he names on his honor roll (that includes his 'honorable mentions') and, as i pointed out last night, no women. this despite his use of the word 'people':
. . . i've picked a short (representative) honor roll of people in a variety of fields . . .
'people'? it's a list of men, a baker's dozen. 'representative'? well maybe he thinks the nod to valerie plame ... she pops up not by name but as 'his wife' - him being joe wilson. she's an unnamed extra - she's sissy spacek in jfk. rather amazing considering that the outing of her has resulted in scooter libby being indicted in the ongoing investigation.
at a time when naomi klein and katha pollitt are on leave (to finish books), the nation can't afford to have no woman on staff. get ruth rosen or some 1 else to write a column. eric alterman's not interested in writing about women - thinks it might make him look 'soft' probably (so he's left looking like sal mineo's plato in rebel without a cause).
when he wrote his column, he probably thought 'what a man i am.' he's something. it probably didn't even occur to him that he left out women. women never enter his mind.
i've named 3 (naomi klein, janeane and arundhati roy) and those aren't the only 1s. there's kim gandy, there's susan sarandon, there's laura flanders, there's alice walker, there's maxine hong kingston, there's barbara lee ... there are plenty of women. but they don't register to a sexist like alternman. that's what he is. he gives space in his lame book for ann coulter's attacks on gloria steinem but never bothers to point out that they're wrong.
why? he's too delighted that a woman's being slammed?
he's a creep. he presents himself as a savior but women need saving from him.
and, the point i didn't have time to make last night, the answer to the question: women will have to save themselves. the boys lining up with him or scared to call him out (and we can all think of 1 man who's made it a point to correct every 1 who repeated the lie on naomi wolf but can't bring himself to note that eric alterman lied) won't save us.
as usual, women will have to carry their weight and some half-assed man who's ego is larger than his ability to make a coherent argument. his view of the country (he lacks a world view or else keeps it hidden) is 1 that only sees men.
we'll have to save ourselves and 1 way to do that is not to mistake him for a friend to women. he's not. we don't register with him. he can't even relate to janeane as an adult. he has to fall back into little school boy mode and do the sort of crap that might be mildly amusing from a third grader but is b.s. from a grown man. (he insults her and does so in a voice he thinks is sexy. for any 1 who ever wanted to have sex with sylvester the cat, the voice may be sexy. i can't imagine that's many women though. maybe men fantasize about having sex with sylvester?)
so we need to know the enemy and we need to not get taken in by claims that he's a brave voice for the left. he's dismissive of women and he doesn't even have the excuse of coming of age in the dark ages. he didn't come up with norman mailer. he has no use for women so women should have no use for him. if he comes on the radio, turn him off. if he's pushing his new book, don't buy it. (since he has no concept of layout, you'll be helping your eyes as well as your brain by avoiding it.)
we don't exist in his writing so we shouldn't support it. put your money and word of mouth behind someone who can acknowledge women and their accomplishments. we can save ourselves - thank god, since i'm not seeing a lot of men rushing to call him out for his sexist writing.
it's thursday so let's talk about flashpoints which airs monday through friday on pacifica radio. flashpoints had a strong week. yesterday, there was a great interview with dahr jamail where dahr talked about how the mainstream media keeps missing the story (intentionally?) and gave an example of edward wong's straight-from-the-pentagon details. (wong writes for the new york times.) the interview was done by a woman and i'm still learning names, so give me time.
tonight, phyllis bennis was a guest dennis bernstein interviewed tonight. she spoke of the need to stop the war on iran and to send a message that we were against it. you can go to united for peace and justice and sign a letter that she recommended. the un security counsel meets april 28th so if you're wanting to sign the letter do it soon. bennis spoke of a number of issues involved including the fact that the fallout from a war on iran would be immense.
tonight also offered some strong reporting from palestine. including noting that 1 child and 2 others were killed. who by? well if was mainstream media, you'd never know would you. that coverage acts as though palistinian children just hop on a gun, held by no 1, and it accidentally goes off. with phyliss, dennis asked about palestine and the ongoing occupation there. i think 1 thing the iraq war is doing is making us wake up to realities of occuapation.
maybe i'm kidding myself? but i think people are beginning to realize self-rule and to realize that under an occupation, no 1 is free. (or safe.) israel needs to leave the occupied territories and the wall is much worse than a joke. chris hedges has written of that and how the wall will, we're all sure just by chance, veer here and there to take the best lands. that's 1 reason for the wall. here's another reason, once they get up a physical barrier, they'll truly be claiming the land in an end-of-story way. talk of returning to pre-1968 borders will go out the window because 'well ... there's a wal there now.'
this is an important issue to dennis bernstein. it's important to me as well but since i'm going to be noting flashpoints, if you're not able to deal with it, you may want to bow out on this site.
tuesday had an intersting report with iraqi voices. that's not something you hear very often on corporate radio (even when it appears to be public like npr - dennis may be more irritated by the fluff on npr than i am.) if none of the above has grabbed you yet, monday's guest was
pratap chatterjee talking about how corporations in iraq profit in the blood bath. in addition, you heard voices from a demonstration speak of anthony soltero, the young boy who took his own life when his school's vice-principal reportedly told him he would be going to prison for taking part in the world can't wait walk outs, that he wouldn't go to the middle school prom and that his mother would face a huge fine. his mother spoke but so did a group of students. they spoke of how there were rumors being put out now that anthony didn't even walk out and that wasn't true because they were there. to me, those rumors are a really awful smear campaign because you're talking about a child and a child that is dead. to strip him of something he did that really mattered to him (and that he should have been able to take pride in) is to deny his very existance.
thursday's highlight is my attempt to raise awareness of pacifica radio. flashpoints is the show i'm going with. i like dennis' passion and the topics covered. if you're some 1 that's not covering your ears and screaming 'did he just criticize the israeli government!' this may be a show you should check out. but you should know about it. i need to learn every 1's name. including the woman who i believe is a co-host. there's also a man who does a report, i think his name is robert. so stick with me on thursdays and we'll try to learn about the show and note some of the topics and guests. but for those who've pledged their all to the israeli government, you aren't going to be happy. either skip thursdays or skip this blog all together. c.i. had a wonderful point (many, but i'm focusing on 1). during the whole uproar over the ports security, c.i. asked every 1 to remember that governments are 1 thing but that people are people. we wouldn't want the world to judge us by the bully boy. don't judge another people by their leader. their leader or their policies may have strong resistance from the people. that's an important point to make. there are israelis who oppose the occupation and the murders that go on in the name of 'security.' don't mistake the israeli government as a reflection on the entire country.
elaine wrote an amazing piece on the darfur screamer who tells you there is only 1 option (force, of course). what is going on there is hideous but screamers would do well to grasp that tragedies are going on every where. pretending that palestinians attempting to live with a gun barrel (or rocket launcher or tank) in their faces isn't reality. palestinians are being slaughtered. i think dennis made the point this week that this was genocide. it is and we need to stop avoiding the issue.
