Well-Made World #10

the U.S:

• Suzanne Goldenberg interviews prominent American neo-con Richard Perle. Without a book deal, this guy isn't pointing any fingers at higher-ups (or himself, for that matter).
• Richard Byrne on how American opportunist Al Gore's signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 played a significant role precipitating in the very problems he rails against in The Assault on Reason.
• No Empires does not support short-sighted uses of alternative energy.
• More on the planned american embassy in Iraq

Europe:

• Gay activists recently beaten in Moscow receive another slap in the face on the BBC's Today Show, where Robert Service, a professor of Russian history at St. Antony's College spoke of his "amazement at how open and tolerant the Russian people are today, so soon after Uncle Joe's demise," and explained that while the police acted brutally, they were "not wholly out of step with popular opinion in the country."
• Michelle Goldberg on the World Congress of Families, which brought together the American Christian right with Vatican officials, leading Polish politicians, and others from across the Americas, Europe, and Africa. She describes the impact this might have not only on everything from the spread of creationism to the fate of the children's show Telletubbies.

Well-Made World #9

• In Russia, gay rights activists are attacked by neo-Nazis, under the eyes of the police--and then the beaten activists are arrested.
• Israeli historian and No Empires hero Ilan Pappe's latest piece for Electronic Intifada, in parts one and two.
• Virginia Tilley on the academic boycott of Israel.

No Empires misses Alan Johnston.

A week and a half after Alan Johnston's 45th birthday, and nearly four months into his captivity in Gaza, No Empires takes a moment to join in solidarity with all those who eagerly await his safe return.

Well-Made World #8

• Rannie Amiri provides more much-needed insight on the situation in Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared camp, pointing to how Siniora's lax approach to Sunni radicals (in the hopes of undermining the Shi'a organization Hezbollah) has backfired.
• The US Congress today, predictably, passed the only version of George Bush's Iraq War spending bill that the President would not veto, confirming their own spinelessness and irrelevance about a year ahead of schedule. This at a time when a New York Times/CBS News poll finds public support for the war at its lowest point since the occupation of Iraq began. No Empires wonders if those responsible for the poll took their own editorial board/news directors into account, seeing as how they share responsibility for selling the fucking thing in the first place?
• Yvonne Roberts takes up the debate over a UK-centered boycott of Israeli products, and asks us to 'throw a stone at Goliath' in anticipation of June 9, a day of Global Action for Palestine. No Empires will be in Washington for the march.
• Robert Jensen weighs in on the all-too-important fight for tenure being waged by the estimable Norman Finkelstein, against the most powerful and most dishonest lobby in the world (spearheaded by the scourge of No Empires, Alan Fucking Dershowitz)--and draws incredibly disheartening conclusions about the state of US academia.
• Howard Friel on how the New York Times aids and abets Israel's impunity in the 'international community."
• Amjad Barham on why the international boycott of Israeli academic institutions is justified, and shows how the vast majority of Israeli academics are at the very least silent in the face of their country's misdeeds.
  

platform on the ocean

No Empires will love, and is waiting insatiably for, the Arthur Russell documentary.

Works Consulted #2

Daniel DeFoe, Moll Flanders (Dover Thrift Classics)

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (Universal Library/Grosset&Dunlap)

Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of State (Verso)

J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man (Viking Adult)

No Empires will hate

but will still see the Ian Curtis movie.

Well-Made World #7

For WMW #7, No Empires bears news of a number of threats on the part of the Bush administration and its allies:

• Israel's threats on prominent Palestinian politicians escalated today, as Ephraim Sneh, Amir Peretz's deputy, told radio listeners that "no one [in Hamas] has immunity." [WMW7 threat #1].
• From the trenches, Robert Fisk reports on the current crisis in Lebanon, where former residents of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Tripoli are being made refugees all over again.
• In response to the crisis, Tony Snow issues a warning to Syria [WMW7 threat #2].
• More on the Lebanese front: Laurie King-Irani lays the groundwork for a comprehensive understanding of the situation in Tripoli, and places it in the context of recent politics in the Levant.
• The Guardian reports on U.S. government claims of Iranian ties to Al-Qaeda and their combined plan for a "secret summer offensive." Whether this is baiting the enemy, or baiting the US public, No Empires is unsure. [WMW7 threat #3?]

Stop the Music

On May 26, 2oo7, No Empires will start work on a limited-edition, silkscreened demo tape to be distributed to twenty of our closest friends and family. See "NO EMPIRES LOVES" to get an idea of what No Empires would love to sound like.

Well-Made World #6

• In November of 2006, Joseph Massad began drawing parallels between the United States's support of the Chilean military in the overthrow the Allende government, and the current aid being given to Fatah (or, to be more explicit, to the faction of security forces led by Mohammed Dahlan, the new US bulldog in Palestine), in ostensible preparation for a coup against the democratically-elected Hamas government. Tony Karon has picked up this thread in his blog, where he gives a lucid analysis of the recent disheartening violence in Gaza, and asks: is this the time for the "Palestinian Pinochet" to make his move?
• Israel's national infrastructure minister, meanwhile, has declared that all members of the Hamas government are potential assassination targets.
• "For years, Israel was proud of the democratic miracle of an obedient army that did not accumulate too much power and served the elected government loyally, even though the country was engaged in a continual existential war." A Haaretz editorial uses the example of the army's disregard for court decisions regarding the separation wall in the West Bank--as well as an ever-increasing (illegal) settlement rate there--to show why this is no longer the case.
• John Loose brushes us up on our Coleridge: 'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure dome decree'. The American embassy under construction in Baghdad is costing upwards of 700 million dollars, and is the size of the Vatican. One shouldn't be too given to wonder why this is the case.
• No Empires officially believes that no action of the US Army, sadly, can be too surprising. But a secret plot to kill the most popular Shia politician in Iraq? Is it the Americans taking a page out of the Israeli playbook? Regardless, for their aims, it is a remarkably short-sighted move. Patrick Cockburn reports.

Screenings

During the months of June and July, 2007, before leaving the state/the country, No Empires will host two film screenings at a location yet to be decided. Relevant information will be posted.

Well-Made World #5

• No Empires will never understand why the US Army thinks this scheme will work.
• The ever-reliable, and brave, Patrick Cockburn interviews one of the most infamous "jackals" (Tariq Ali's phraseology) of the new Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, who, incredibly, was left off of the original "NO EMPIRES HATES" list.
  
• Sorry to be blunt, Mr. Tenet, but fuck your book tour, and fuck you. Too little, too late.
• Ashley Dawson explains that "while the World Bank's official inquiry denounces the Goodfellas-style strong-arm tactics and scatological language he employed during his tenure as president, it fails to focus on the broader forms of corruption promoted by Wolfowitz. Nor does it allude to the disastrously wrong-headed lending policies that ensure that the Bank's baneful influence will linger long after Wolfowitz's exit." She cites "fundamentally corrupt and undemocratic" appointment procedures at the World Bank and points to a "cronyism at the top extends far beyond Wolfowitz's shady package for his girlfriend" before going on to discuss the Bank's disasterous energy lending policies, which, of course, are unlikely to change once the Bank drops Wolfowitz.
• Bill Fletcher is a former president and executive of the TransAfrica forum, and he's rightly skeptical about the Obama candidacy.
• Ali Abunimah, the indefatigable, continues to push for a one-state solution in Palestine/Israel.
• Yesterday, the NYPD released as-yet-classified internal documents regarding its (extensive/costly/downright fucking frightening) preparation for the actions taken against the Republican National Convention in 2004. The New York Times, apparently looking to flex its "social conscience" muscle behind the ACLU (Mr. Keller, No Empires is not buying it!) has some feedback.
• No Empires supports single-payer health insurance, though this may, for now, be a losing battle: "The US ranked last [among Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand) in most areas, including access to health care, patient safety, timeliness of care, efficiency and equity. Americans were also last in terms of whether they had a regular physician."
• Regular contributor John Loose brings us an update on Washington's continuing and nefarious machinations in Venezuela.

Special Report: No Empires Does Not Support 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Just when No Empires started to feel a bit bad for Rosie ODonnell after the Trump/Rosie debacle a few months back, she has to go and publicize her crazy, counterproductive ideas: see this New York Times article on Rosie's upcoming 9/11 conspiracy segment on The View. Be sure to scroll down to the third comment, a case in point for the Times' Mike Nizza. Then take a look at the inimitable Alex Cockburn's recent work on 9/11 conspiracy theories and the left in Le Monde Diplomatique.

Some choice quotations from the Cockburn article:

"What the 9/11 conspiracists want us to believe is that the Bush/Cheney gang represent a new breed of evil, which might be the most dangerous deception of all, for it fosters the fantasy that a new administration, a Hillary Clinton or Al Gore administration, would pursue more humane policies."

"I am therefore sure that the Bush gang, and all the real conspirators of Washington, are delighted at the obsessions of the 9/11 conspiracists. It’s a distraction from the 1,001 real plots of capitalism that demand exposure and political challenge. As Theodore Adorno wrote: 'The tendency to occultism is a symptom of regression in consciousness'."

Obituaries

God strikes Rev. Jerry Falwell dead at the age of 73.

well-made world #4

• "Liberal interventionist"? More like total failure: No Empires feels badly for directing all this animus toward self-described Tony Blair. But, really, hasn't he earned it? Avi Shlaim reminds us that "Blair failed to understand that America's really special relationship is with Israel, not Britain," and in so doing, gained little and lost much for his country. This article may prove that The Guardian has yet to--completely--go the way of the New York Times' woefully lapdoggish attitude toward Israel.

• "The United States' government's primary nuclear weapons research and design contractor" sees a hunger strike on its campus. No Empires, in solidarity.
• Jean Bricmont calls Sarko's victory "an undeniable victory for the United States and Israel." Are YOU a declinist?
• Crime-stopper Rudy Giuliani is a true aggressor, as well as a disloyal Queens restaurant patron, No Empires can attest. Jennifer Roesch feeds No Empires' long-standing animosity. Really, really, don't vote for this fuck. Not even if your mom promises $75.
• Alex Cockburn: crazy, or the most relentless critical force in independent media?

the movement

In Brazil today, Pope Benedict XVI denounces both capitalism and marxism as godless, declining to name a political system of his choice. Of course, No Empires was blessed by the man only one year ago, which may put us in something of an awkward situation.

well-made world #3

to fuck with your weekend, and with love to moms:

• Patrick Cockburn--No Empires hopes that he will come to be seen as the pre-eminent journalist of the second Iraq war--puts paid to any positive assessment of George Bush and David Petraeus's (and Joe Lieberman's? and Christopher Hitchens's? and Hillary Clinton's? and Bill Keller's? and Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz's?) troop surge in Iraq.
• John Loose (much love!) directs No Empires to this Common Dreams article about a new hydrocarbon law being considered by the Iraqi Parliament.
• The improbably-named Steve Stalinksy--a rank-and-file member of the scum at the New York Sun, who so purposely supervened on issues of "academic freedom" in the MEALAC department at Columbia in 2005/6--purports a growing alliance between the "anti-global left" and Islamist movements in the Middle East.
• Kathleen Christison, a favorite at No Empires (along with her husband, Bill), on the "fake peace conference" taking place this week in New Mexico, to the tune of half of a million dollars.
• No consequences, it would seem, for the police who killed Jean Charles de Menezes in the London tube system in July of 2005

well-made world #2

• "Blair makes his unwilling exit against a backdrop of car-bombs and mass carnage in Iraq, with hundreds of thousands left dead or maimed from his policies, and London a prime target for terrorist attack." tariq ali on "bush's zombie," tony blair.
• haaretz's indomitable amira hass on biometric "smart cards" for palestinians.
• the latest on the abduction of bbc reporter alan johnston, who no empires respects as the pre-eminent western journalist working in gaza at the time of his kidnapping.
• electronic iraq on the destruction of the tigris, now a "graveyard of bodies"
• today in the bronx at about 2:30pm, no empires noticed road blockages--duly enforced by NYPD trucks and vans--between 161 st and 158 st on river avenue, directly under the 4 train, outside of yankee stadium. see this article about the singing of "god bless america" at the stadium during the seventh inning. no empires does not approve.
• no empires loves bernie williams.

LATE EDIT(S):
Taking its place alongside Dreams of a Nation, curated by Columbia's Hamid Dabashi--and developed concurrently with a volume of the same name printed by Verso and featuring essays by Michel Khleifi, Bashir Abu-Manneh, Ella Shohat, Joseph Massad, and Dabashi--is the Emily Jacir-curated Palestinian Revolution Cinema. Review at the Electronic Intifada.

and thanks to john loose once again,
more on blair by tariq ali.

Works Consulted #1

d.a. miller- the novel and the police (university of california press, 1988)

alejo carpentier - explosion in a cathedral (el siglo de las luces, 1962)
on u. of minn. press

judith butler - excitable speech: a politics of the performative (routledge, 1997)

well-made world #1

well-made world #1

• Azmi Bishara maintains both his innocence (of charges that committed treason last summer during Israel's invasion of Lebanon, while still a Knesset minister) and his standing as the most important--and most maligned--Palestinian intellectual in the world.
• Patrick Cockburn on the "Great Wall of Baghdad"
• Patrick's brother, Alex, reports on the self-implosion of John McCain (formally approved and applauded by us at No Empires), and laments the absence of a viable Third Party candidate in the 2008 Elections
• Judith Butler on the recently-published Jewish Writings of Hannah Arendt

Oh. And Alan Dershowitz is still a fucking piece of shit.

No Empires HATES

Thomas Friedman
Barack Obama
Lee Bollinger
The Doors

No Empires Loves

oscar mack.
raymond williams.
young elliott gould.
jean-paul belmondo.
the tronics.
young marble giants.
the raincoats.
john loose.
gee vaucher.