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Iran: The Roots of the Crisis
By Jeff Kisseloff
The demonstrations that are tearing Iran apart are unique in the sense that it seems to be one of those rare times when the anger isn't focused on American political or economic policies.
It should be, though.
How much of the current crisis could have been avoided if the CIA and the Dulles brothers and Teddy Roosevelt's grandson Kermit hadn't enacted Operation Ajax in 1953 to overthrow Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, who had threatened to nationalize Iran's oil resources. As a result of the coup, big oil had a much more friendly leader in General Faziollah Zahedi, the Iranian people got screwed out of their wealth, and Kermit Roosevelt had a fuzzy green amphibian named after him.
(0) CommentsJune 17, 2009
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Worst Vice President Ever? How Do You Pick Just One?
By Jeff Kisseloff
In his guise as Irish barkeep Mr. Dooley, the great Finley Peter Dunne once wrote about the vice presidency, "It isn't a crime exactly. Ye can't be sint to jail f'r it, but it's a kind iv a disgrace…At a convintion nearly all th' dillygates lave as soon as they've nommynated th' prisidint f'r fear was iv thim will be nommynated f'r vice-prisidint…"
Tom Lehrer also hit the nail on the head when he sang about Hubert Humphrey, who was then living in relative anonymity as LBJ's second in command: "Second fiddle's a hard part I know, when they don't even give you a bow." Come to think of it, so did David Frye, who used to do a dead-on impression of Humphrey saying, "I'm as pleased as punch to be running the White House elevator." (At the risk of piling on, I also remember Frye telling a great joke about the Humphreys getting into bed on election night 1968, and Hubert saying, "Muriel, when you wake up tomorrow you'll be sleeping with the president," and as the sun came up in the morning, Muriel shook him awake and said, "So is Dick coming here, or am I going there?")
Anyway, I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when I was reading Stephen Holmes's review of Angler: The Cheney Vice-Presidency by Barton Gellman." The review got me thinking (something has to) about whether Dick Cheney was the worst vice president in American history, so I did a little research.
(19) CommentsJune 12, 2009
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The Tank Man of Tiananmen
By Jeff Kisseloff
For most of the people reading this, the single most enduring image of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 is the video of the lone young man, armed only with what appeared to be a small parcel, facing down a column of tanks (although New Yorkers might have thought he was simply directing them to a parking space).
That's television for you. Its cameras can go anywhere and take two-minutes worth of the most important event on the planet and make you think that it has captured the core of the story.
And of course, that's complete BS.
(2) CommentsJune 2, 2009
Jeff Kisseloff
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