I just want to alert tpmcafe readers to an article I wrote with Robert Nathan, who is co- exec producer on the TV show Law & Order. It's about the image of unions and working people in contemporary movies and TV (major studios). I think that tpmcafe readers would enjoy debating it--why or why not popular culture images working people. What is the image of unions in popular culture? We focus on the amazing and iconic film Norma Rae, the story of the old Textile Workers Union of America (today UNITE HERE and my former union) campaign to unionize JP Stevens. You can read about it here:The Nation magazine

While we're all obsessed with a U.S. presidential race a year and a half out, there is an actual race going on now in France for president--and the collapse this week of the Italian government. What does this have to do with the U.S.? A lot--if we are hoping to have reliable allies and, for those of us who are progressives--even more if we are hoping to have reliable European allies who will strongly and assertively promote democratic values around the world. Ironically, to American ears, at least, one of the parties who has been most forceful in promoting a democratic--and interventionist (although not along Bush lines) international policy has been the very short-lived Prodi government in Italy, which fell this week.

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Without taking a position on whether or not Leonard Peltier should have been pardoned by Bill Clinton, I do have to post to say that I doubt that the reason the Clinton campaign and mogul David Geffen are at war (of words) is due to whether or not Peltier was pardoned or not as my tpm colleague Larry Johnson writes.

The race is on for big bucks and big names and while America likes to scapegoat Hollywood, the fact is that a huge chunk of presidential campaign cash comes from movieland--and this year both Dems and Republicans are racing out to the bask in the sunshine and adoring audiences as they briskly raise cash. The reason that the Clinton-Geffen-Obama slugfest is out in the public is most likely due to one thing: who's on the "A" list at a fundraising party, who's on whose "A" list, and who can disqualify someone from someone else's "A" list to gain advantage.

The fact is, the politicians love to run with and run against Hollywood at the same time, but if you want to add big bucks and big names to your roster, you have to go there. And...what's more, it's not such a bad place to go.

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