MATT TAIBBI INTERVIEW

From C-SPAN2:

From Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington D.C., Matt Taibbi, contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine, explores the political landscape of post-9/11 America in "The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire." Mr. Taibbi presents his thoughts on the war in Iraq, the machinations of Congress, the 9/11 truth movement and his time as a churchgoer. Matt Taibbi discusses his book with David Corn, Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine. Following the taping of After Words, Matt Taibbi and David Corn took questions from the audience at Politics and Prose bookstore.

Click here to watch the interview.

So I've been grooving a lot on Taibbi lately. He's something of a Frank Rich for people born after the baby boom. That is, Taibbi's political analysis is solid, but it's peppered liberally with the kind of stuff that I like to write about here, cultural contextualization, what it all means for ordinary people, and in terms of movies and music. It only makes sense that he writes for Rolling Stone, but really he transcends the venerable baby boomer magazine, or at least what the magazine has become. He's the true heir to Hunter S. Thompson, only without the guns and peyote.

Anyway, this is a fun interview, particularly the stuff about his time infiltrating Cornerstone Baptist Church in San Antonio, headed by Pastor John Hagee, one of the looniest fundamentalists in the country. And David Corn, formerly of the Nation magazine, now with Mother Jones, conducts the interview--Corn is the guy who first figured out that federal laws may have been broken when Robert Novak blabbed in a column that Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent. So you've got a pretty brilliant guy on the other side of the table.

It's about an hour long. Go check it out.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$