Mondoweiss

Studs Terkel

By James North
Studs Terkel was the smartest person I ever met, and the greatest single influence on me as a writer.  He was much more than his folksy, cigar-chomping red-checked-shirt persona, authentic as that was. 
The last time I saw him was one evening maybe 10 years ago just off Michigan Avenue, in downtown Chicago.  He was in a long conversation with a homeless person who he obviously knew, long after most of us passed by the homeless with barely a thought. 
I told him I was just back from Mexico, and I gave him the latest on Mexican politics.  He was entirely conversant with affairs outside of Chicago.  "The Mexican ruling party sounds just like that fucking right-wing Berlusconi, in Italy," he added.
I was part of a group celebrating with him in 1984, when he won the Pulitzer prize for The Good War.'  He was characteristically modest.  "It's not 'great' news," he insisted.  "But it is 'good' news."
With Division Street America in the late 1960s, Studs basically founded the field of oral history -- telling large truths through individual people, mainly in their own words.  So many books have used his approach that we sometimes forget he started it.  (I basically just copied his methods and applied them to southern Africa in Freedom Rising -- as I said to him when he had me on his radio program.)
Being interviewed once by Studs was one of the great experiences of my life.  He was so good at it that compared with the rest of us he was like White Sox (and Orioles) shortstop Luis Aparicio next to little leaguers.  First, he actually had done his homework; he had my book next to him, marked up throughout with his green felt pen. He had a performer's sense of timing.  He had worked as an actor, and he used his experience to play a role: the likeable old guy, befuddled by his big, ancient tape recorder, who really needed your help.  Before ten minutes had passed, you found yourself telling the old gent about things you didn't even realize yourself.
I have one more strong memory of him: his sensitivity.  I reviewed one of his later books in a small but valuable publication called In These Times, and, almost as an afterthought, I mailed him a copy of the review.  He contacted me immediately, with profuse thanks.  A negative notice had just appeared in another publication, and he said my review had been just what he needed.
We met for lunch, and I asked him a little delicately if he was sensitive to criticism, after all the honors he had received.  He was close to 80 years old at the time.  "Of course I'm sensitive," he said.  "That other review hurt my feelings, and my morale was low."

Jewish Left Can Only Rise Again by Condemning Neocons as Deluded Jews

A smear on a good man--Khalidi--in the desperate last days of a presidential race is one of those thrilling political events that is supposed to produce spine-tingling rhetoric. Obama didn't deliver, of course, because he's tight with the Is lob. Josh Marshall did.  And here's Glenn Greenwald with a great piece on Salon. He takes the issue where it should go-- to the Jewish neocons who have saddled up McCain like an old nag. Because let's face it, the Jewish left will not revive until Jews reject the Iraq neocons as a Jewish movement and condemn its Zionist orientation, and then look at what's happening over there in Is-rul. Greenwald is doing that:

Palin 'Scares the Hell Out of' Ed Koch (and Plenty-um Other Jews)

Blogosphere Kills the Newspaper Argument, Etc

Obamaguity

Last night in an interview, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC tried to get Obama to criticize the Republican Party, and he wouldn't. Obama's playing for Republicans now.

It's time to identify a central characteristic of this great politician: his ambiguity. Obama is neither black nor white, he is neither progressive nor conservative, indeed even his sexuality can seem ambiguous. His femininity is part of his enormous charm. Look how lithe he is next to masculine McCain. Ambiguity has served Obama very well indeed. For instance, he alienated no one at Harvard Law School--the stories are always about him engaging a group of people in a spirited discussion of issues, and giving nothing away, never taking a stand. Despite the famous woodshed moment on the Senate floor with Joe Lieberman after Lieberman attacked him, I bet he hasn't burned that bridge either. 

Canadian School 'Rusticates,' Deems 'Offensive' Jewish Critics of Israel

Throwing Khalidi Under Bus, Obama Is Said to Tap Emanuel, Former Volunteer in Israel

Here is how Obama threw Khalidi under the bus, per the JPost:

Stop the Bomb (But Allow Iranian Nuclear Enrichment)

Columbia U. Provost Embraces His 'Friend, Rashid'

From The New York Times today:

“It just seems really ironic to me that Rashid would be singled out as a figure in the trumped-up controversy,” Alan Brinkley, Columbia’s provost and a friend of Mr. Khalidi’s since 1985, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “In a field that is often politicized, he is respected by people on the right as well as the left.”

Remarkably Decent

editorial in Washington Post on Khalidi. "Idiot Wind." Good hedline. Though it contains the usual prevarication about Khalidi's "complex" views. The only good Palestinian is a mute Palestinian. The only good Palestinian valorizes ethnic cleansing of his people. And some day an Israeli prime minister will acknowledge same, and then the American press will discover the suffering of the Palestinians. Disgrace.