City Belt

LETTER FROM LEBANON: THEY HAVE NO WINE

By Patrick McGreevy

We visited Qana six weeks ago. To get there from Beirut, you pass through Tyre and then head southeast. The village clusters about a hilltop less than eight miles from Lebanon's southern border, and about thirty miles from Nazareth. There is a scholarly debate about whether this was the site of the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus is said to have performed his first miracle, creating wine from water. The Roman historian Eusebius and St. Jerome both believed this was the place. On our first journey to Qana a year earlier, we had looked in vain for the stone wine jars, when a boy and girl on a donkey had instructed us to follow them. I later photographed the girl. Now I wonder about her whereabouts and her safety.

'GREEN' LEGISLATION: MIKE FERGUSON

Editors' Note: 'Green' Legislation is an occasional column that attempts to shed light on the ways big money influences voting patterns.

A few weeks ago, we reported on Rep. Mike Ferguson's (R-7) vote against Net Neutrality.

There's someone else very opposed to Net Neutrality, and his name is Ed Whitacre. He just happens to be Chairman of the Board and CEO of AT&T. He has said: “The Internet can’t be free ... for a Google or Yahoo or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes free is nuts.”

Mike Ferguson is facing a tough challenge this year, from Democrat Linda Stender. The race is already receiving national attention as "one to watch." Stender has raised a ton of money ($899,955 as of 6/30), mostly through smallish donations. But she is still way behind Ferguson in the money race. He's raised $2,047,068 (also as of 6/30).

His biggest contributor? AT&T -- the telecom giant has given Ferguson $61,400 for this election, about three times as much as the next highest donor. Since 2000, AT&T has given him $92,350.

So why would Ferguson be for Net Neutrality? It's only going to impair his largest benefactor's ability to rake in dough.

All figures courtesy of The Center for Responsive Politics

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HOW THEY VOTED: MAKING THE WORLD A SAFE PLACE (FOR NUCLEAR WAR)

The Bill: H R 5682 (United States and India Nuclear Cooperation Promotion Act)
Date Passed: July 26, 9:17 p.m.
About: This act reverses US policy, and allows India to buy American nuclear reactors and fuel, despite the fact that India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and has tested nuclear weapons in 1998 and 1974.

THE AGENDA: EXECUTIVE ORDER

Friday | 7.28.06
Comedy.
Does this guy look familiar to you? What if I told you that he was the carjack victim on the very last episode of Seinfeld? If that doesn’t help connect the dots, I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway. John Pinette was named Stand-Up Comedian of the Year in 1999, and he does a mean impression of the Chipmunks. Isn’t that enough of a reason to check out his act? He’s at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick through Sunday night.

DAY JOB: TRIS MCCALL

In Jersey City, mention the name Tris McCall to people, and they’re likely to free associate a variety of things: The New Jack Trippers, 111 First St., the 2004 election, live music, urban development, Jersey pride, and, of course, the Tris McCall Report. He's been very active in the city's artistic, and at times political, scenes, but at heart he's a musician. I'm Assuming You're All In Bands is his latest release. He recently took a moment to reflect on the ever-blurring lines between his life’s work and art.

LETTER FROM LEBANON: CRIMINALIZING CIVILIANS

By Patrick McGreevy

In the days before the US-commanded forces unleashed the second siege of Falluja in November 2004, a quarter million women, children and old men fled the city, but males between the ages of 15 and 45 were denied passage. They were essentially criminalized and forced to remain in a zone upon which hell was about to descend. These poor souls were condemned to a legal category that philosopher Giorgio Agamben calls hominus sacres, those without rights who can be killed without it being called the murder of a human, homicide.

WHAT ABOUT THEM, BOB?

So the big news in Washington yesterday was the speech to Congress by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Lots of congressmen and women boycotted the speech (more on that later), since there seems to be a cynically political contest in Congress to see who can most strongly stand behind Israel's bombing of Lebanon, or as they'd prefer to frame it, its right to "self-defense."

'THE UTILITY COMPANY OF TOMORROW'

Layoffs, monopoly power, and a recipe for price gouging: What’s not to love about the PSE&G/Exelon merger?
By Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

Corporate PR materials from Exelon claim they are "creating the utility company of tomorrow." It's got a nice ring to it -- after all, who could possibly be against tomorrow?

But after spending a couple weeks trying to understand the proposed merger between the Chicago-based energy giant and Public Service Enterprise Group, PSE&G’s parent company, I became increasingly frustrated. The more corporate jargon and empty PR platitudes I read and heard the more I wanted to turn off my computer and read an Us Weekly.

THE 'FIGHT' OF HIS LIFE

While Cory Booker's tenure as Mayor of Newark is just beginning, Marshall Curry's documentary of Booker's first Newark campaign is as relevant as ever.
By Jon Whiten

Photo by Angela Jimenez

Marshall Curry is the young documentary filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated Street Fight, which chronicles 2002’s mayoral election in Newark between Cory Booker, who was recently sworn in as mayor, and Mayor Sharpe James, an old-school Democrat who’d been a key player in Newark politics for decades. Curry shot the film almost entirely alone, over five months, with an out-of-pocket cost of about $200,000. With the renewed interest in Newark and Booker as he has taken office, received death threats from jail, and pledged to tackle crime in the city, we thought it appropriate to speak with Curry about his film.

LETTER FROM LEBANON: ASYMMETRICAL ETHICS

By Patrick McGreevy

The Center for American Studies and Research at American University of Beirut has had two exciting and fruitful years. In the open atmosphere of Beirut, we have been able to foster a dialogue about the full range of encounters between America and the Middle East. Our mission to promote international understanding and to increase knowledge of the US in the Arab World seems more important than ever. There is much uncertainty here, but we are determined to continue. When peace returns, and our lectures and activities resume, I will need support, and I will need some brave scholars willing to visit Beirut.