[Isaiah's "I Am The War Hawk You Have Been Waiting For" from December 1, 2009]
Some people pretended to care about the Iraq War -- at least while they could profit off their 'resistance.' Here are the ten worst.
1) Amy Goodman. She was
largely unknown before the Iraq War. She was a 'freak' to those on the
left who knew her because of her 2000 election day interview with Bill
Clinton. But she rode the Iraq War to fame
by playing last journalist standing and never forget that it was acting
on her part. As soon as she could, she ditched serious coverage of
Iraq. She's a fake ass and one who's revealed her true war mongering
ass to the world starting with her propaganda
coverage of Libya. (To its strong credit, BLACK AGENDA REPORT called
her out on that.) Read about Amy's filthy history here.
2) John Nichols. Professional propagandist John once pretended to so care about the Iraq War that he called someone out on the Iraq War vote -- Barbra Streisand. Miss Marmelstein Goes To Congress? No, she didn't. But John needed a villain for the column and he has a really hard time, weak-kneeded faux Socialist that he is, in standing up to actual Democrats in Congress so he tore into Streisand doing everything but arguing that "Coming In And Out Of Your Life" provided aid and cover to Saddam Hussein. Nichols achieved a special level of whoring when, in October 2006, he was promoting his just published book THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT and suddenly came to a full stop because Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was off the table. John knows who butters his bread as well as who lubes the dildo.
3) Leslie Cagan. Leslie will be remembered for two things. First, helping to destroy PACIFICA's financial future via the sweet honey deal she brokered Shame on her for making Marc Cooper look like a prophet, "The historic project of Pacifica Radio as it was conceived and nurtured over several decades is now dead. Bessie Wash, Amy Goodman, Utrice Leid, Juan Gonzalez, Dennis Bernstein, FAIR, John Murdoch and Leslie Cagan alike will serve as pallbearers." But Leslie's most famous for posing as a peace activist. In this capacity, she led United for Peace and Justice -- a gang of do-nothings who existed solely to stoke anger against the illegal war and harness it into a meaningless get-out-the-vote campaign for Democrats. It was for this reason that Cagan opposed protests against the war in DC after the Democrats took over both houses of Congress and why she insisted upon closing shop the day after Barack Obama was elected president. The man promised to end the Iraq War (he didn't). Shouldn't a genuine peace organization remain active to hold him to his promises? UFPJ was never a genuine peace organization.
4) Aimee Allison. Once known for being an objector in the Gulf War, Aimee used that to ride to low key fame and a co-hosting job on KPFA's THE MORNING SHOW. It was there that the anti-war activist or 'activist' or 'anti-war activist' lost all interest in ending the Iraq War but used her position to boost the campaign of Barack Obama, to share that she was FACEBOOK friends with Michelle Obama, to call for book burnings (specifically for banning and burning THE NEW YORKER). She now heads the centrist Democratic front group DEMOCRACY IN COLOR which tries to elect corporatist Democrats like Corey Booker and Kamala Harris. On the 16th anniversary of the start of the illegal war, she remains one of the country's greatest fake asses and one who has to work in her own organizations because no one else will have her. Remember when she got fired:
5) Medea Benjamin. I Need Attention Benjamin spends a lot of time screaming for attention. She just doesn't care about Iraq. (Which might be a good thing considering what she tried to do to Afghanistan in 2009.) She made that clear in the middle of a 2007 hunger strike for Iraq when she suddenly switched her focus to Palestine. She's forever dropping Iraq as though the war long ago ended when it didn't. Medea scrambled her brain on something. Maybe it was drugs? Maybe she was tortured by the CIA -- during the infamous pie-ing? Maybe she just couldn't handle the foul body odor of Jodie Evans? Whatever it was, something pulled her focus and she's little more than a dabbler these days -- one who lacks the focus even to Tweet. As Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) observed in 2014:
If there were a prize awarded for truly stupid twitter posts, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin should win with these words, "Obama spoke with Raul Castro yesterday. The ice is melting. Mojitos for all!" It is difficult to know where to begin in analyzing such nonsense. [. . .] As for Benjamin, anyone whose response to a foreign policy decision includes references to a cocktail should be ignored now and forever.
6) Norman Solomon. Norman was a voice of passion and truth and then along came Barack Obama. Norman became a case study in the self-help industry at that point and could have been the reason so many books were written: WHEN GOOD GIRLS TURN BAD, WOMEN WHO LOVE TOO MUCH, ACT LIKE A LADY THINK LIKE A MAN, HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU . . . Norman whored his reputation and good name in 2008. He was smart enough to disclose in his syndicated column that he was a pledged delegate for Barack but he didn't bother to make that same, needed disclosure when appearing on various PACIFICA radio programs. Norman was a powerful and needed voice. More than anyone who whored out, we miss Norman. If he'd admit that he was misled by Barack, we'd hug him in a minute. But if you don't own your mistakes, you don't learn from them.
7) Michael Franti. Another bi-racial trying to pass as Black is the way he's now referred to in the Bay Area. Michael was once a movement in the music world. He'd sing truths like "We can bomb the world to pieces but you can't bomb it into peace." Like Norman, Michael's pretty head was turned by Barack and he never got it on straight again. He was unable to call out The Drone War or Barack continuing the Iraq War. In other words, he was a fair weather peace activist. And no one needs that. Too bad for Michael because, before his head was turned, he had recorded YELL FIRE which was a classic of the 00s. He seemed to have so much going for him and he gave it all away to be a groupie for Barack.
8) Ani DiFranco. As bad as things got for Michael, they were far worse for Ani DiFranco. Despite recording 19 studio albums, she never managed to record a classic studio album. LIVING IN A CLIP, her live album, was the closest she came (it made it to number 59 on the album charts). She pretended to care about the Iraq War. Maybe she actually did care? If she did it was a viral care, a 24-hour kind of care. She walked away. It gets worse. She did the hideous album WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? in 2012. Never before had folk music harnessed its commitment in order to prop up a man killing people with drones. It was as though BOB ROBERTS had come to life. Kat called it out in "Kat's Korner: Ani DiFranco's embarrassing odor." If you weren't getting how crazy Ani had become, a few years later, she was miffed because women were refusing to attend her 'retreat' on the grounds that it was on the grounds of a business celebrating slavery.
9) Matthew Rothschild. The original fake ass. Yes, THE PROGRESSIVE is worse without him but it wasn't so great when he was still around. Matthew 'cared' about Iraq when there was something in it for him. Otherwise? Ask him to cover Winter Soldier, as we did, and hear him reply, "Sure." And then watch him to ignore it. Point out that Cindy Sheehan is being harassed by the government and ask him to write about it and he'll tell you absolutely. But then he won't. In 2007 and 2008, he loved to play one trick in particular -- ask people why they were supporting a candidate who voted for the Iraq War. He did that in print and on THE PROGRESSIVE's radio show. Excuse us, he did that to people who supported Hillary Clinton. He did not do it to people who supported John Edwards. It was a funny form of concern. By 2009, he was no longer concerned at all. A film about him would be entitled HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THE WAR AND WHORE MYSELF OUT. For more on Matthew, see Betty's "Kiss my Black ass, Matthew Rothschild" and Marcia's "Matthew Rothschild patronizes Black people" as well as this site's "The Black Roundtable,"
10) Kim Gandy. She was so convincing when she pretended to care about ending the Iraq War. Remember when she was president of NOW and Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House and she pretended it was important to end the war? And she insisted "Peace is a feminist issue"? Even had that slogan posted at NOW's website? Then she never mentioned peace again once BBB left the White House.
2) John Nichols. Professional propagandist John once pretended to so care about the Iraq War that he called someone out on the Iraq War vote -- Barbra Streisand. Miss Marmelstein Goes To Congress? No, she didn't. But John needed a villain for the column and he has a really hard time, weak-kneeded faux Socialist that he is, in standing up to actual Democrats in Congress so he tore into Streisand doing everything but arguing that "Coming In And Out Of Your Life" provided aid and cover to Saddam Hussein. Nichols achieved a special level of whoring when, in October 2006, he was promoting his just published book THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT and suddenly came to a full stop because Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was off the table. John knows who butters his bread as well as who lubes the dildo.
3) Leslie Cagan. Leslie will be remembered for two things. First, helping to destroy PACIFICA's financial future via the sweet honey deal she brokered Shame on her for making Marc Cooper look like a prophet, "The historic project of Pacifica Radio as it was conceived and nurtured over several decades is now dead. Bessie Wash, Amy Goodman, Utrice Leid, Juan Gonzalez, Dennis Bernstein, FAIR, John Murdoch and Leslie Cagan alike will serve as pallbearers." But Leslie's most famous for posing as a peace activist. In this capacity, she led United for Peace and Justice -- a gang of do-nothings who existed solely to stoke anger against the illegal war and harness it into a meaningless get-out-the-vote campaign for Democrats. It was for this reason that Cagan opposed protests against the war in DC after the Democrats took over both houses of Congress and why she insisted upon closing shop the day after Barack Obama was elected president. The man promised to end the Iraq War (he didn't). Shouldn't a genuine peace organization remain active to hold him to his promises? UFPJ was never a genuine peace organization.
4) Aimee Allison. Once known for being an objector in the Gulf War, Aimee used that to ride to low key fame and a co-hosting job on KPFA's THE MORNING SHOW. It was there that the anti-war activist or 'activist' or 'anti-war activist' lost all interest in ending the Iraq War but used her position to boost the campaign of Barack Obama, to share that she was FACEBOOK friends with Michelle Obama, to call for book burnings (specifically for banning and burning THE NEW YORKER). She now heads the centrist Democratic front group DEMOCRACY IN COLOR which tries to elect corporatist Democrats like Corey Booker and Kamala Harris. On the 16th anniversary of the start of the illegal war, she remains one of the country's greatest fake asses and one who has to work in her own organizations because no one else will have her. Remember when she got fired:
2010 was when the people had experienced enough and made a point to say so.
January 8th, careful listeners were put on notice when Joseph managed to get through on the caller line and informed Aimee Allison (KPFA's
The Morning Show), that despite
her (repeated and false) claims that everyone on the left had supported
Barack Obama in the 2008 election, many did not drink the "Obama-aide"
and that the "Obama-aide" was dispensed by
"media types" who were far from honest. Whether he knew it or not,
Aimee was one of those "media types" and she quickly attacked Joseph on
air and hung up on him. Back then, that might have appeared to be
winning behavior by the Cult of St. Barack. Of course,
the reality is that as the year drew to a close, Aimee Allison found
herself fired from KPFA.
5) Medea Benjamin. I Need Attention Benjamin spends a lot of time screaming for attention. She just doesn't care about Iraq. (Which might be a good thing considering what she tried to do to Afghanistan in 2009.) She made that clear in the middle of a 2007 hunger strike for Iraq when she suddenly switched her focus to Palestine. She's forever dropping Iraq as though the war long ago ended when it didn't. Medea scrambled her brain on something. Maybe it was drugs? Maybe she was tortured by the CIA -- during the infamous pie-ing? Maybe she just couldn't handle the foul body odor of Jodie Evans? Whatever it was, something pulled her focus and she's little more than a dabbler these days -- one who lacks the focus even to Tweet. As Margaret Kimberley (BLACK AGENDA REPORT) observed in 2014:
If there were a prize awarded for truly stupid twitter posts, Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin should win with these words, "Obama spoke with Raul Castro yesterday. The ice is melting. Mojitos for all!" It is difficult to know where to begin in analyzing such nonsense. [. . .] As for Benjamin, anyone whose response to a foreign policy decision includes references to a cocktail should be ignored now and forever.
6) Norman Solomon. Norman was a voice of passion and truth and then along came Barack Obama. Norman became a case study in the self-help industry at that point and could have been the reason so many books were written: WHEN GOOD GIRLS TURN BAD, WOMEN WHO LOVE TOO MUCH, ACT LIKE A LADY THINK LIKE A MAN, HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU . . . Norman whored his reputation and good name in 2008. He was smart enough to disclose in his syndicated column that he was a pledged delegate for Barack but he didn't bother to make that same, needed disclosure when appearing on various PACIFICA radio programs. Norman was a powerful and needed voice. More than anyone who whored out, we miss Norman. If he'd admit that he was misled by Barack, we'd hug him in a minute. But if you don't own your mistakes, you don't learn from them.
7) Michael Franti. Another bi-racial trying to pass as Black is the way he's now referred to in the Bay Area. Michael was once a movement in the music world. He'd sing truths like "We can bomb the world to pieces but you can't bomb it into peace." Like Norman, Michael's pretty head was turned by Barack and he never got it on straight again. He was unable to call out The Drone War or Barack continuing the Iraq War. In other words, he was a fair weather peace activist. And no one needs that. Too bad for Michael because, before his head was turned, he had recorded YELL FIRE which was a classic of the 00s. He seemed to have so much going for him and he gave it all away to be a groupie for Barack.
8) Ani DiFranco. As bad as things got for Michael, they were far worse for Ani DiFranco. Despite recording 19 studio albums, she never managed to record a classic studio album. LIVING IN A CLIP, her live album, was the closest she came (it made it to number 59 on the album charts). She pretended to care about the Iraq War. Maybe she actually did care? If she did it was a viral care, a 24-hour kind of care. She walked away. It gets worse. She did the hideous album WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? in 2012. Never before had folk music harnessed its commitment in order to prop up a man killing people with drones. It was as though BOB ROBERTS had come to life. Kat called it out in "Kat's Korner: Ani DiFranco's embarrassing odor." If you weren't getting how crazy Ani had become, a few years later, she was miffed because women were refusing to attend her 'retreat' on the grounds that it was on the grounds of a business celebrating slavery.
9) Matthew Rothschild. The original fake ass. Yes, THE PROGRESSIVE is worse without him but it wasn't so great when he was still around. Matthew 'cared' about Iraq when there was something in it for him. Otherwise? Ask him to cover Winter Soldier, as we did, and hear him reply, "Sure." And then watch him to ignore it. Point out that Cindy Sheehan is being harassed by the government and ask him to write about it and he'll tell you absolutely. But then he won't. In 2007 and 2008, he loved to play one trick in particular -- ask people why they were supporting a candidate who voted for the Iraq War. He did that in print and on THE PROGRESSIVE's radio show. Excuse us, he did that to people who supported Hillary Clinton. He did not do it to people who supported John Edwards. It was a funny form of concern. By 2009, he was no longer concerned at all. A film about him would be entitled HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THE WAR AND WHORE MYSELF OUT. For more on Matthew, see Betty's "Kiss my Black ass, Matthew Rothschild" and Marcia's "Matthew Rothschild patronizes Black people" as well as this site's "The Black Roundtable,"
10) Kim Gandy. She was so convincing when she pretended to care about ending the Iraq War. Remember when she was president of NOW and Bully Boy Bush occupied the White House and she pretended it was important to end the war? And she insisted "Peace is a feminist issue"? Even had that slogan posted at NOW's website? Then she never mentioned peace again once BBB left the White House.
