I'll be in LA for a wedding, not my own and while I'm there will be throwing a little screening party of scenes from my documentary which comedian, activist, and Onion Web Editor  Baratunde Thurston calls "inspiring."

Wendy Cohen, Jonathan Kim and Katie Halper invite you to a special screening party.

August 11 · 8:00pm - 11:00pm

The Jonathan Kim Cinema/apartment

2049 Holt Ave apt. 2049 Los Angeles, CA

Come see scenes from the almost finished documentary on Camp Kinderland, Another Camp is possible! The film is about the legendary social justicecamp which continues to thrive 80 years after it was founded by Yiddish-speaking secular Jewish workers Though it was never exclusively Jewish and had campers of color from the beginning, it's even more...diverse today. It's the only camp where you'll live in bunks named after Pablo Neruda and Hannah Senesh, perform in the Paul Robeson Playhouse and get your baseball bits from the Roberto Clemente Sports Shack. 

We're working on a new trailer and site but just to get an idea, visit AnotherCampIsPossible.org

Scenes from the film have been shown at NETROOTS NATION and on THE NATION Magazine's Cruise.

Katie Halper, the NYC-born/raised/based but LA-visiting director, and 3rd generation Kinderlander, will be there.

PLEASE RSVP to khalper@gmail.com so we know how many people to expect!

 

Here's what Here's what Baratunde Thurston, Comedian, Activist, Web Editor of The Onion, had to say about the film. 

"We often hear about the benefits of early childhood education, but Katie Halper's movie shows us moving images of a world in which kids are given the chance to imagine a better world, and the adults they become are actively building it. "Another Camp is Possible" is truly inspiring. Also, kids are really cute on screen.During the scene in which a group of children hypothetically allocate resources to build a more just world I remember thinking a) that's adorable and b) we should replace Congress with them."

Screening Series Showcase: Coming of Age

Time and location TBA. But will be at Netroots Nation on Thursday Evening 

The Dirty Immigrant Collective

Wednesday, July 14th @ 7:30 @ The Tank @ 354 West 45th street

get tix here

The Dirty Immigrant Collective is nearly off to Edinburgh to bust out some serious standup for the Scots. But before we go we're testing our chops at The Tank. Come see a bunch of really fucking stupendous comics with above average amounts of skin pigmentation and/or a family history of anti-bacon behavior on Wednesday July 14, 7:30pm. 

Featuring Negin "Mildly Fearful Leader" Farsad (Comedy Central, MTV), Lee "Bitch Slap in the Nuts" Camp (Showtime, Montreal), Katie "I'm Jewier Than You" Halper (Comedy Central, Huff Po), Seaton "Black Man" Smith (Montreal).

Please do come! Oh, and if you're from the UK, you should extra come because you can let us know if our shit translates to those weird talkin' UK people.

Love & Inappropriate Punchlines, 
the Gang of Dirty Immigrants!

The loverly people over at The Young Turks were kind enough to have me on their show again. I talk to Cenk Uygur about the Young Turks, the Ottoman Empire, Turkish Nationalism-- just kidding! I talk to him about Elena Kagan and The Supreme Court. Have a listen/ a look.

A SUPREME NIGHT OF COMEDY
A Laughing Liberally Special Event
Featuring Katie Halper, Harry Terjanian,
Jamie Kilstein, Lee Camp, Scott Blakeman,
Juliet Jeske & Elon James White

Wednesday, July 7th - 7:30pm
The Tank - 354 West 45th St
Tix: $10
Beers as low as $3!
www.thetanknyc.org

 

come unless you don't iike Upper West Side Jewish brainy women (I'm talking about yours truly AND Elena Kagan,)

More people seemed more upset over Helen Thomas's gaffe than they were over the killing of 9 people on board a Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. While Thomas's of-the-cuff comments were insensitive, they were not a call for Jews to "go back to Auschwitz" as some have suggested. Comments like Helen's, which call on a people to leave Israel and go back to where they come from, are made all the time by people who never apologize. If only Helen had called for the Palestinians, not the Jews, to get the hell out of Israel, if only her bias had been pro-Zionist, like most everyone else's in the mainstream media, not anti-Zionist, her comments would have been ignored or lauded. Those shouting the loudest for Helen's head are people who have little to no moral authority, having lied and/or displayed bigotry on several occasions without apologizing, being asked to apologize or being dropped by their speakers' bureau. Many of those who shamed and banished Thomas should hang their heads in shame, and promptly retire themselves from the stage of American politics and media.
For more examples of double standards or bigotry visit RetireAriFleischer (http://retirearifleischer.tumblr.com/) where you can also submit examples.
(I am Jewish, so when attacking me, please refer to me as a self-loathing Jew, not an anti-Semite)
Ari "the kettle calling the teapot ethnic cleanser"

Fleischer, who had been schooled on many occasions by Thomas, sent an e-mail to several publications and sites saying, "She should lose her job over this.... As someone who is Jewish, and as someone who worked with her and used to like her, I find this appalling. She is advocating religious cleansing. How can Hearst stand by her?"

Well, as someone who is Jewish, and as someone who has never liked Ari Fleischer, I find this appalling. By this I mean, both Fleischer's statement and the media's legitimization of Fleischer as a serious voice. And how can Washington Speakers Bureau (which represents Fleischer) stand behind him? Fleischer lacks the credibility and moral authority to call for anyone's firing but his own. To put it subtly, Ari Fleischer is a liar with blood on his hands who, unlike Helen Thomas, never apologized for his statements though they encouraged and supported a war that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. n addition to lying to the country about Saddam Hussein's weapon's of mass destruction, as White House spokesman, Fleischer has freelanced as a liar after, pushing the falsehood that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 as recently as 2009! Fleischer claims that Helen Thomas is advocating ethnic cleansing, but you would think he would avoid the subject of ethnic and religious cleansing, after he helped start the war in Iraq marked by hundreds of thousands ethnic and religious cleansing deaths and millions of ethnic and religious refugees.

Lanny "Defenders of Coups from Honduras to Helen"
Davis

The former Clinton White House counsel turned lobbyist quickly echoed the call to fire Thomas: "She should be at the least suspended from all privileges in the White House press room since bigots don’t merit such privileges. And I believe Hearst should consider a similar suspension of her position as a nationally-syndicated columnist until she owns up to her bigotry." Davis was so distraught, he had to cry on the shoulder of bigotry-battling Don "nappy-headed hos" Imus.

Davis shares Fleischer's penchant for lying both for himself and for governments he advises. As a lobbyist, Davis represents client known for their bigotry and ethnic/religious cleansing leanings, including the Pakistan dictatorship of the 1990's and the current coup government in Honduras, which in addition to being illegal, has committed countless human rights violations, assassinated 43 citizens and 9 journalists (as of today, June 15), and discriminates against union activists, lgbt, and indigenous people. See Lanny Davis and his lies in action as he debates historian Greg Grandin, who offers a fact check here.

Sarah "I love Jews (for Jesus)" Palin
Sarah Palin rushed to her blackberry to condemn Helen, tweeting "Helen Thomas press pals condone racist rant?Heaven forbid"esteemed"press corps represent society's enlightened elite;Rest of us choose truth" Though barely, intelligible, Palin seems to be calling Thomas a racist, indicating that she has not yet been taught the word antisemitism, bless her heart. Turning on a television, reading other tweets, or going onto the internets would have shown Sarah that the press was anything but condoning of Thomas. Palin is a paragon of tolerance, who upon hearing that Obama beat Clinton in a primary said, "So Sambo beat the bitch. Despite Palin's love for Israel--which she can see from her window on a good day--evident in her Israel flag pin, she herself has pal's around with many an anti-Semite. She herself attends a church where preachers say things like "It's high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations... if you look at the Israelites, that's how they work. And that's how they are, even today" and believe that Palestinian attacks on Jews are God's "judgement" for their not converting to Christianity.

Palin supports radical Jewish settlers who make the right wing Likud party look like refuseniks and wants them to kick out the Palestinians: "I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon,because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.[ Even if it’s [in] Palestinian areas] I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expand." Sarah Palin loves Jews so much she wants us to have plenty of space to move into for the rapture when we can either convert or burn for all eternity. Sarah Palin is a Pro-Israel anti-Semite!

Mike "Helen and Palestinians Should Pack Their Bags" Huckabee
Mike Huckabee thinks he's pretty clever when he attacks Helen for telling the Jews to go home and says "Helen, I got a suggestion. Maybe it's time for you to go home." Huckabee, who calls Thomas's comments "outrageous, anti-Semitic, racist, indefensible," backs himself up with the ultimate authority, the bible. "They are home. Read Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34, that’s why they are where they are." Firstly, I'm pretty sure when a Muslim cites the Koran to justify political policy, we call him a Fundamentalist. Secondly, like Thomas, Huck himself advocates a one state solution which expels a group from their home. So why doesn't that anger people? Where are the accusations of ethnic cleansing and bigotry? (In case you don't get my rhetorical question, the answer would be, because while it's anti-Semitic to advocate that Jews leave, it's A OK to advocate that Palestinians leave.)

Huckabee may not tell the Palestinians to get "the hell out" but he's Southern, not nearly 90 years old, and is talking on TV program and not on the fly. Who knows what Huckabee would say if an imam shoved a camera in his face at a White House event celebrating Muslim Heritage Day. That would never happen because the White House and this country doesn't "do" Muslim Heritage Day. But imagine what an unprepared Huckabee might say. "Basically, there really is no such thing — I need to be careful about saying this, because people will really get upset — there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian. " Phew! He actually said that and nobody got upset or even noticed! Except for Matt Druss of Think Progress's The Wonk Room.

Chuck "Peace in the Middle East Through Strangulation" Schumer
Speaking of theocratic discussions of geopolitics, the bigot police described above must be preparing their attack on Chuck Schumer who, speaking at an Orthodox Union event last week explained just how different Palestinians are from Jews: The Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Jewish state, in a two-state solution... “they don’t believe in the Torah, in David." Speaking as a true mensch, Schumer stated that to strangle them [Gaza] economically until they see that’s not the way to go, makes sense." It certainly does make sense unless you want to weaken Hamas, limit the entry of arms and weapons, make Israel safer. But if you want to inflict collective punishment on a population AND strengthen Hamas, delegitimize Israel, and marginalize moderate Palestinians, strangle on!

Come for the speakers (Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Bill Moyers, Arianna Huffington, Rep. Alan Grayson, Rep. Donna Edwards, Richard Trumka, Andy Stern, Markos Moulitsas, Van Jones, Phil Angelides, Gov. Howard Dean, Deepak Bhargava, James Rucker, Peter Lewis) stay for the comedy!

We will be performing at America's Future Now Conference!
Laughing Liberally Comedy Hour

@ 8pm @ Omni Shoreham Hotel
Washington, DC in Congressional AB Room

Lee Camp, Negin Farsad, Katie Halper, Seaton Smith, Elon James White