Once again, Bill O’Reilly appeared on the David Letterman Show to promote his new book, “Culture Warrior.” I must admit that O’Reilly more than held his own against Letterman despite the fact that the crowd was clearly against him. Although I think he’s wrong on many issues, O’Reilly offered clear arguments for his position while Letterman admitted that he didn’t know the issues.

Some say he arrogant. Can y’all blame him?
It was straight embarrassing how y’all played him
Last year shoppin my demo, I was tryin’ to shine
Every motherfucker told me that I couldn’t rhyme
Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem
Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams
I use it as my gas, so they say that I’m gassed
But without it I’d be last, so I ought to laugh

Kanye West “Last Call”

Since it’s election season, I’ll be spending the next few days reviewing political books that are of particular importance to the upcoming contests. Keep in mind that the ratings at the bottom do not suggest that I agree with an author’s position. Rather, they speak to the rigor, depth, and level of engagement that are offered by the text.

State of Denial: Bush at War Part III
By Bob Woodward

In his third book since George W. Bush became President of the United States, Bob Woodward takes a strikingly different tone than his previous two installments. While the other tomes were highly supportive of the Bush Administration, State of Denial presents a different side of the commander-in-chief and his cabinet.

State of Denial tells a story of deception, confusion, and outright incompetence in a wartime White House. Unlike his previous book, Woodward shows Bush as a pathologically stubborn leader who refuses to withdraw troops from Iraq, “even if Laura and Barney [the dog] are the only ones who support me.”

The book also details the Bush Administration’s consistent refusal to speak truthfully in public about the war in Iraq. Despite his rising attacks against American forces, Bush continued to offer a mendaciously optimistic picture of the war’s progress. Regarding the 9/11 attacks, Woodward alleges that Condi Rice gave “the brush-off” to George Tenet when he tried to warn her about impending terrorist attacks two months before they occurred. Woodward also tells an insider’s story of Andrew Card’s (and Laura Bush!) 18-month-long attempt to oust Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Of course, people in the Bush Administration have rightly pointed out that Woodward did not have the insider access to the White House that he did in the first two books. In fact, unlike the other projects, he did not interview the president for State of Denial. Others have said that Woodward is merely a political weathervane, whose books merely resonate with popular opinion. While there is merit to both of these claims, Woodward has nonetheless painted a powerful, engaging, honest, and appropriately unsettling portrait of Bush and his crew.

BARBERSHOP RATING: 4.5/5.0 CLIPPERS

Dirtier By The Day
By Keith Boykins 

I knew it would come down to this. With just a week and a half before the election, the Republicans are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the Democrats. President Bush and top Republicans wasted no time in playing the “gay card” on Thursday, citing the New Jersey marriage decision as a reason why Democrats can’t be trusted to run the Congress.
“Yesterday in New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises doubts about the institution of marriage,” the president said on Thursday. Bush’s audience at an Iowa fundraiser (notice they don’t let him out at the rallies, only the fundraisers) applauded when he declared that marriage is “a union between a man and a woman.” He added, “I believe it’s a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended.”

Presto! And we’re back to the 2004 campaign.

For the rest of the story, click here. 

CEOs use shame and intimidation to keep workers “productive,” but the real shame is on executives who make eight-figure incomes while their lowest-paid employees trudge between food banks.

Worker’s Rights Are About Dignity As Much As Wages
By Barabara Ehrenreich

I was on a radio show in Minneapolis, listening to the callers tell their tales of economic woe: an eight-month job search followed by a job at half the person’s former pay; an eighteen-month search leading to serious depression; a five-year search leading to nothing at all. During a commercial break, my host — the amiable Jack Rice — noted that almost all these stories were told in the third person, usually as something that had happened to a spouse. Were some of the callers just too embarrassed to own their own stories–too crushed by the shame of layoffs and unemployment?

Shame hangs heavy over the economic landscape: the shame of the newly laid-off, the shame of the chronically poor. It’s easy enough for enlightened members of the comfortable classes to insist there’s no reason for shame: You didn’t bring the layoff down on yourself; you didn’t determine that the maximum wage in your line of work would be in the neighborhood of $8 an hour.

Snap out of it, I want to say. Blame the economy or its corporate chieftains. Just don’t blame yourself!

But shame is a verb as well as a noun. Almost nobody arrives at shame on their own; there are shamers and shamees. Hester Prynne didn’t pin that scarlet A on her own chest. In fact, it may be wiser to think of shame as a relationship rather than just a feeling: a relationship of domination in which the mocking judgments of the dominant are internalized by the dominated.

Shaming can be a more effective means of social control than force. The peasant who stepped out of line could be derided for daring to question his “betters.” The woman who spoke out against patriarchal restrictions could be dismissed as a harridan or even a slut.

For the rest of the story, click here.