The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Hero of the week: Norman Solomon
Activist and author Norman Solomon had a busy week.
It was the 10th anniversary of Colin Powell's lie-soaked presentation to the United Nations where Colin Powell used one falsehood after another to try to make the case for war on Iraq. It's how Powell earned his "blot."
Norman didn't just have to confront the lies Powell told, he also had to stand up against an MSNBC sweetheart, a Consortium News darling, Powell's guy pal Larry Wilkerson who wants you to know that Colin Powell didn't lie, no, he didn't, not Collie, not sweet Powell, not him.
You'd be shocked if you sat there and added up all the websites that reposted Lawrence Wilkerson's latest revisionary nonsense. You'd be even more shocked if you realized that these were left websites.
While Wilkie tried to spin, Norman Solomon turned out a column of truth, went on Democracy Now! and debated Larry (Amy was so supportive of Larry, wasn't she?) and then discussed Powell's presentation on CounterSpin.
Last week could have gone a different way. A lot of people seemed afraid -- like Amy Goodman -- to call out Wilkerson. If Norman was worried, he didn't show it.
But he did make the case in text, in video and in audio that Powell lied.