Naomi Wolf // Current

Prominent Feminist says, "I LOVE YOU ANGIE!!"

First off, I love Angelina Jolie. I'm just going to put that out there into the cyberspace. I don't want to sleep with her...but I think she's awesome. Apparently Naomi Wolf, author of the famous feminist text, The Beauty Myth, agrees! In fact, Woolf agrees so much she wrote an article in Harper's Baazar about why Jolie is the best thing...ever.

"

Wolf breaks down Angie's mystical appeal thusly:

She's Hot.

Bosomy and wasp-waisted, with that curtain of hair and those crazy pillowy lips, she is an obvious male sex fantasy...Polls also show that if women — not just lesbian and bisexual women but straight women — had to choose a female lover, they would want to sleep with Angelina Jolie. In other words, women both identify with her and desire her.

She Has it All.

She makes the claim, with her life and actions, that, indeed, you can get away with it. All of it. Against every Western convention, she has managed to draw together all of these kinds of female liberation and empowerment. And her gestures determinedly transgress social boundaries — boundaries of convention, race, class, and gender — giving many of us a vicarious thrill.

She Flies a Plane.

Women are so used to being dependent on others (certainly on men) for where they go, metaphorically, and how they get there. Flying a private plane is the classic metaphor for choosing your own direction; usually, that is a guy thing to do, yet there was Jolie, with her aviator glasses on, taking flying lessons so she could blow the mind of her four-year-old son. That is the ultimate in single-mom chic: Even before she had reconstructed a nuclear (or postnuclear) family with a dad at the head of it, she was reframing single motherhood from a state of lack or insufficiency to a glamorous, unfettered lifestyle choice.

She Takes Lovahs.

Equally ostentatiously in her role as lover, she took for her own pleasure the male seen as the most desired of the tribe, Brad Pitt, who is always ranked at the top of indexes of male beauty and virility. As for the constraints of social convention — ahem, he was still married? You can have a variety of feelings about this, but Jolie's evident disdain of that social constraint certainly, for better or worse, put her in the same self-entitled category as those men who have traditionally taken what they wanted and let the emotional chips fall where they may.First off, I love Angelina Jolie. I'm just going to put that out there into the... more

catchiecoo
added this
5 months ago
|
4 comments

The End Of America: Movie

Its not over yet, as we speak the Bush administration is looting our treasury and our... more

uppityprogressive
added this
12 months ago
|
30 comments

Naomi Wolf interviews Sgt. Matthis Chiroux about IVAW arrests

Video from http://www.youtube.com/user/glassbeadian "Naomi Wolf discusses with... more

DandelionSalad
added this
1 year ago
|
3 comments

The end of America and ten steps to fascism: this is step nine

Our country is convulsing with change. We are in the midst of a high-stakes national... more

chelseagreen
added this
1 year ago
|
4 comments

Watch The End of America - SnagFilms

In a stunning indictment of sweeping policy changes during the Bush years,... more

beedee
added this
1 year ago
|
6 comments

Is America Fascist?

By Sherwood Ross
October 20, 2008 “Information Clearinghouse“

If it hasn’t gone the way of Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany, it’s sure teetering on the brink. America is a nation in deepening crisis, a nation whose leaders repeatedly plunge their citizens into, and make them pay for, serial wars abroad, while stealing their liberties at home. USA has become a country that trashes its citizens(New Orleans), tortures its enemies(Abu Ghraib), threatens other nations with nuclear fire(Iran), flouts international treaties(UN Charter re Iraq), and spies on(FISA), and intimidates, its critics(No Fly). Americans that can clearly see the totalitarian machinations of Vladimir Putin in Russia and Hu Jintao in China are blind to the fascism threatening to envelop them as well.

Webster’s defines fascism as “a totalitarian governmental system led by a dictator and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism, militarism, and often racism.” A comparison of 20th century fascist and communist regimes with President Bush’s USA indicates the machinery for a full-blown totalitarian takeover is now in place, even if no coup has occurred. As Naomi Wolf writes in “The End of America”(Chelsea Green)the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill’s Section 333 allows the president “to declare martial law and take charge of the National Guard troops without the permission of a governor when ‘public order’ has been lost…” and to “send the guard into our streets during a public health emergency, terrorist attack or ‘other condition.’”

The enabling crowbar was the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It gives the president authority to set up his own system for bringing alien combatants to trial while denying them protection of the Geneva Conventions. “The president and his lawyers now claim the authority to designate any American citizen he chooses as being an ‘enemy combatant,’” Wolf writes of power usurpation that characterized the post-World War One epoch in Europe and Asia.

Thus, Congress has empowered Bush just as Germany’s Reichstag empowered Hitler, Wolf writes, recalling Hitler’s boast, “Democracy will be overthrown with the tools of democracy.” Hitler’s Interior Minister issued Clause 2 that gave police the power to hold people in custody indefinitely and without a court order, powers the U.S. Congress today has conferred upon “The Decider” in the White House. Mussolini’s used the less grandiose “Il Duce” or “The Leader.”

According to Michael Ratner, director of the Center For Constitutional Rights, New York, “the president can…designate people enemy combatants and detain them for whatever reason he wants…there are no charges and prisoners have no lawyers, no family visits, no court reviews, no rights to anything, and no right to release until the mythical end to the ‘war on terror.’”

continued at above linkBy Sherwood Ross October 20, 2008 “Information Clearinghouse“ If it hasn’t... more

DandelionSalad
added this
1 year ago
|
12 comments

Naomi Wolf: stand up for the constitution

Naomi Wolf Interview on The Today Show, Oct 17, 2008. Video from... more

DandelionSalad
added this
1 year ago
|
11 comments

The End of America

We are excited to announce the web release of "The End of America" - a feature-length documentary based on Naomi Wolf's bestselling book of the same name - this coming Tuesday, October 21. Our own Michael Ratner and Maria LaHood as well as our client Maher Arar are featured, and CCR is privileged to partner in the online premiere of this powerful and provocative film.

Naomi Wolf, a long-time supporter and ally of CCR, set out on a national tour over the past year to discuss the evolution of America from a functional democracy into a closed, fear-driven society with a terrifying absence of due process. She lays out what she calls the 10 steps necessary to end a democracy and shows us just how close we are to completing them:

Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
Set up an internal surveillance system.
Harass citizens' groups.
Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
Target key individuals.
Control the press.
Treat all political dissents as traitors.
Suspend the rule of law.

In her film, Naomi Wolf makes a plea for Americans to stand up and fight for our most cherished rights. One thing you can do is check out our new 100 Days Campaign (with this link) and stay tuned for ways to get involved in telling the next administration what they must to do to restore, protect and expand our constitutional rights.

You can also screen THE END OF AMERICA for your friends and neighbors one of two ways - you have a unique opportunity to get a copy of the film now before it hits stores in early 2009. Host a free public screening of the film before November 4, 2008 and they'll provide you with a free DVD. Show it at school, work or place of worship; take it to your local coffee shop or bar; urge organizations you're a member of to host a free screening. They'll send you posters and postcards to promote your event. For more information contact myamerica@katahdinproductions.com. You can also support the project by purchasing a special Election Edition DVD, available to Center for Constitutional Rights members through this indiepix films on-line store link.We are excited to announce the web release of "The End of America" - a feature-length... more

Marilynn_Murray
added this
1 year ago
|
31 comments

Wolf: The coup is now!

Naomi Wolf warns us that the coup occurred on October 1, 2008 when the first brigade... more

uroborus8
added this
1 year ago
|
59 comments

Thousands of troops are deployed on U.S. streets ready to carry out “crowd control”

photo used with permission by http://stpaulrnc.shutterfly.com/20 by Naomi Wolf... more

DandelionSalad
added this
1 year ago
|
34 comments

Naomi Wolf: Give Me Liberty (must-see video)

"Interview with Naomi Wolf author of “Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American... more

DandelionSalad
added this
1 year ago
|
15 comments

Who is afraid of Naomi Wolf: Sarah 'Evita' Palin to Usher in Rovian Police State

It sounds like the rabid rantings of some poor demented shlub posting at the... more

vincius
added this
1 year ago
|
0 comments

This might be the last true American election

According to Naomi Wolf. She forsees America is changing from a democracy to a facist... more

yonie
added this
1 year ago
|
1 comment

✯ Revolution March Live PA feed all day long from RevolutionBroadcasting.com!!! ✯

Can't make it to the Revolution March? Tune in to RevolutionBroadcasting.com for live... more

Hawkmang
added this
1 year ago
|
4 comments

Is a little part of you afraid?

This is a personal question from me to the rest of the Current community. I'm hoping... more

beedee
added this
1 year ago
|
30 comments

A Call to Arms: Practical and Necessary Actions in Support of Democracy

Now if I've never I talked politics with you personally before, it's important that you understand that I am not talking about partisanship, but merely our obligation as a free citizenry to hold our leaders accountable. It does not matter if a D or an R follows their name, the whole point of the Bill of Rights and our system of checks and balances was to ensure that power was dispersed. The United States was formed in order to throw off the bonds of a tyrannical and repressive system which allowed no means of criticizing its leaders. It was not formed to spread that democracy elsewhere, it was not formed to promote the will of God, it was merely a system by which ordinary people could decide if their leader was doing a good job or a bad job. The end is the means, and it in no way can come at the end of a spear.

Before I let you watch the video, I just wanna be sure that to remind everyone that Bush can declare martial law at any time under the Defense Authorization Act of 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurrection_Act

This was an actual amendment to the Insurrection Act which gives the power of the president to federalize the national guard. Here's a fun key change in what can trigger this authority. Originally, the president could only enact martial law under these conditions:

"insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy"

Now, it's been expanded to include:
"natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or OTHER CONDITION [emphasis mine. Yeah, that's not vague at all]"

...but don't worry, because this can only happen if:

"domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order." [hmmm, so like if all of the National Guard was stuck in Iraq this could happen, but then who would actually deal with this crisis? If only we had a privatized army run by a hardcore partisan Republican that was accountable to no one... Oh yeah, Blackwater! Whew!]

And here's the key passage for me:

"opposes or obstructs the EXECUTION OF THE LAWS of the United States or IMPEDES THE COURSE OF JUSTICE under those laws."

[Continued in the comments, damn your 4,000 character limit Current.com! And when the hell am I gonna get the HTML capabilities I deserve! Just kidding, it's all love. But seriously, someone get me some HTML capabilities, I miss my formatting!]Now if I've never I talked politics with you personally before, it's important that... more