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November 22, 2005

11.22.05 | John Rendon, the Man Who Sold the War; SuicideGirls Revolt; Greenland's Glaciers Melting Really Fast
November 22, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Meet the "perception manager" of the Iraq war; New report reveals (surprise!) that in Iraq, up to $194 billion in oil profits are going to multinationals instead of the Iraqi people; migration and assimilation; displacing native peoples in the name of conservation; the questionable feminist ethics of SuicideGirls.com (and why 40 models recently walked out); "wasting" Falluja, one year later; Greenland's ice cap may be closer to melting than previously thought; avoiding everyday toxins; sexing up "sustainability"; Transgender Remberance Day; US disaster hot spots; and more, of course.

This Week's Picks:

  1. The Man Who Sold the War
    John Rendon is a man who fills a need that few people even know exists. One of the most powerful people in Washington, Rendon is a leader in the strategic field known as "perception management," manipulating information—and, by extension, the news media&mash;to achieve the desired result. His firm, the Rendon Group, has made millions off government contracts since 1991, when it was hired by the CIA to help "create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power." Working under this extraordinary transfer of secret authority, Rendon assembled a group of anti-Saddam militants, personally gave them their name—the Iraqi National Congress—and served as their media guru and "senior adviser" as they set out to engineer an uprising against Saddam. It was as if President John F. Kennedy had outsourced the Bay of Pigs operation to the advertising and public-relations firm of J. Walter Thompson.

    James Bamford | Rolling Stone
    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/8798997?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single7


  2. Multinationals, Not Iraqis, to Reap Oil Fortune
    Up to 194 billion dollars in Iraqi oil revenues are going to multinational oil companies under long-term contracts, and not to the Iraqi people, a social and environmental group alleged Tuesday.

    Middle East Online
    http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15066


  3. Assimilate or Die
    Do the French riots portend a coming cultural backlash against globalization?

    Mark LeVine | Mother Jones
    http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/11/assimilate_or_die.html


  4. Conservation Refugees
    It's no secret that millions of native peoples around the world have been pushed off their land to make room for big oil, big metal, big timber, and big agriculture. But few people realize that the same thing has happened for a much nobler cause: land and wildlife conservation.

    Mark Dowie | Orion
    http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-6om/Dowie_FT.html


  5. CARTOON | Consumerism For Beginners
    Just in time for the holidays.

    Clay Butler | Sidewalk Bubblegum
    http://www.sidewalkbubblegum.com/images/044.gif


  6. SuicideGirls Revolt
    It's not surprising that in the tattooed and pierced world of SuicideGirl erotica, some tempers would flare, some feathers would ruffle, some sexpots would get sullen. That's all part of the growling appeal of the alterna-porn Web site, which features DIY provocateurs posing in hair-dyed, body-modified, mostly nude glory, and which has created an online community for these "real" girls and the Web surfers who love them (at $9 a month). But few could have predicted that almost 40 of the close to 1000 SuicideGirls would stage a Web-out and stalk off the Web site amid claims that despite all its go-girl messaging, SuicideGirls.com is run by people who don't care much about female empowerment.

    Deirdre Fulton | Boston Phonenix
    http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/05016155.asp


  7. Wasting Falluja
    The ease with which the US has, for more than 2 ½ years "wasted" Iraqis, the ease with which culturally we participate in acts of wanton cruelty, demonizing of Iraqis, savage acts of inhumanity and barbarism, brutish violations of international conventions and laws, and our willingness to look the other way in the face of monstrous US induced misery, suffering and death, is symbolized graphically in the haunting specter of the US "wasting" of Fallujah one year ago: "Operation Phantom Fury."

    Scott Morris | ZNet
    http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=9147


  8. The Big Thaw
    Greenland's glaciers have begun to race towards the ocean, leading scientists to predict that the vast island's ice cap is approaching irreversible meltdown.

    Geoffrey Lean | UK Independent / CommonDreams
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1120-03.htm


  9. Avoiding Everyday Toxins
    New technologies have made it now possible to detect chemicals in increasingly low doses. But the chemical industry reassures us there is absolutely no reason to panic. Fred vom Saal thinks there ís reason to panic.

    Marco Visscher | Ode (via AlterNet)
    http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/28115


  10. Sexing up "Sustainability"
    "Environmental activists often still use an outmoded 1970s communications model: 'If you give them the info, they will change!' But it doesn't work; most of us just don't act because of information. We act based on emotion, cultural frames, and (often unconscious) values. To be effective, educators need to focus on the benefits, the vision and the solutions."

    Dorothy Bartoszewski | The Tyee
    http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/2005/11/15/SexSustainability/


  11. Transgender Women Criticize Police Treatment
    Nov. 20 is Transgender Remembrance Day, when individuals and groups worldwide honor those who have been killed as a result of prejudice. A recent report finds that despite hate-crime laws, police officers often mistreat transgender women.

    Justine Nicholas | Women's eNews
    http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2529


  12. INTERACTIVE MAP | Unnatural Disasters
    It's easy to see in hindsight. Yes, Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster, but it was aided by some very unnatural factors: developed wetlands and neglected levees, to name two. This interactive map from Grist highlights urban areas around the US that are particularly vulnerable to disasters—and what is being done to prevent them.

    Erica Gies and Katharine Wroth | Grist
    http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/11/18/map/index.html


  13. REVIEW | Is Jazz Dead?
    "Is Jazz Dead?" asks Stuart Nicholson in a provocative book title. The reply growled by trumpeter Lester Bowie in his 1968 composition "Jazz Death" still resounds today: "Well, that all depends on what you know."

    David Yaffe | The Nation
    http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051205/yaffe


- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Erica Wetter, Adam Barker
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali

Posted by erin at November 22, 2005 02:17 PM

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