Asawin Suebsaeng

Interactive Writing Fellow

Asawin Suebsaeng is the interactive writing fellow at the Washington, DC, bureau of Mother Jones. He has also written for The American Prospect, the Bangkok Post, and Shoecomics.com.

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A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn., Asawin came back to DC with hopes of putting his flimsy Creative Writing major, student newspaper tenure, and interest in human rights and political chicanery to some use. He started cutting his teeth at F&M's student-run weekly, The College Reporter, serving as editor in chief. He has interned at The American Prospect, been a reporter for the Bangkok Post, and scribbled for ShoeComics.com. His favorite movie is either Apocalypse Now or Pirahna 3D, depending on the day or mood.

"Game Change": A Remake of Frankenstein, Featuring Sarah Palin

For political junkies, HBO's new drama will amount to little more than a deeply unsatisfying guilty pleasure.

—By Asawin Suebsaeng

| Thu Mar. 8, 2012 4:00 AM PST

Ed Harris and Julianne Moore in "Game Change" (2012)

Game Change
HBO Films
115 minutes

At its core, Game Change is a Gothic fable in the most classic and traditional sense: A well-intentioned (political) scientist sets out to perform a feat of tremendous galvanism. In his pursuit of this big dream, he inadvertently creates a monster—one he comes to disown. In a flash, the beauty of the dream vanishes, and breathless horror and disgust fills the creator's heart. But too late! The monster is unleashed on the world, leaving a trail of chaos, defeat, and bewilderment in its wake. The scientist later confesses at length his confounding regret.

In this version, campaign strategist Steve Schmidt is Dr. Victor Frankenstein, John McCain is the corporation that he works for, all of America is the unsuspecting village people, and Sarah Palin is [cue the music....] the Adam of Schmidt's labors.

Game Change, which premieres on HBO on Saturday, March 10, at 9 p.m. EST to a flurry of Beltway anticipation, zeros in on the more depressing chapters of the 2008 presidential campaign, namely the former governor of Alaska and mayor of Wasilla. In adapting the bestseller by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, the filmmakers jettison much of the 2010 book's inside scoopage—on the Obama camp, Rudy Giuliani, the Clintons, John Edwards messin' 'round—to focus exclusively on the fumbling, dysfunctional McCain campaign.

Senior adviser Steve Schmidt (played by a feisty, riveting Woody Harrelson) is the story's reluctant protagonist. He's brought aboard the McCain Train to tighten up messaging and restore a sense of discipline. His signature master stroke comes just days before the nominating convention, in which he leads the push to scrap McCain's original post-partisan plan to tap Joe Lieberman as his running mate. McCain's one-sentence directive for locking down an emergency replacement?

"Find me a woman."

And thus enters "game-changer" Palin—in top hockey-momming form—with her poise and social-conservative street cred. McCain gets a bump in the polls, the Republican base gets a much-needed shot of energy.

[Read the full article]

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Iran War Watch: Netanyahu Gives Obama a Badass Biblical Scroll

—By Asawin Suebsaeng

| Tue Mar. 6, 2012 12:35 PM PST

Spoiler Alert: The Jews win.

Are the United States and Iran on a collision course over the Middle Eastern country's controversial nuclear program? We'll be posting the latest news on Iran-war fever—the intel, the media frenzy, the rhetoric.

The following will sound a lot like a scene from Kung Fu Panda. It happened during the high-profile meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.

Bloomberg's Jonathan Ferziger has the story:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Barack Obama a Purim Megillah scroll, which tells the story of how Jews prevailed over a plot to kill them in ancient Persia, which is present-day Iran.

Netanyahu gave Obama the gift...during a White House meeting, two days before the Jewish holiday of Purim begins.

In case you're not familiar with the details of said Hebrew scroll: The Megillah, commonly known as the Book of Esther, is the part of the Hebrew Bible that tells the story of how a hard-partying Persian king was convinced by an evil adviser that it'd be fun to decimate the Jewish minority population in his dominion. He declares a government holiday in the month of Adar during which his subjects are given carte blanche to murder Jews and steal their property. Long-story-short, the Jews do a fantastic job of defending themselves against the state-sponsored onslaught, and then proceed to commit a hugely successful counter-slaughter of the Persians. (This bit of Biblical spin has long since found a home in the annals of fascist and far-right propaganda.)

Flash forward a couple dozen centuries, and the Jews now have something of a home-plate advantage over Persian foes: They are the regional superpower. They have backing of the only global superpower. The track record of the Israeli military—and special ops forces—has achieved a Hollywood-level of renown. Oh, and one other thing: They have nuclear bombs.

Iran War Watch: The GOP Candidates React to Obama's AIPAC Speech

—By Asawin Suebsaeng

| Mon Mar. 5, 2012 12:40 PM PST

President Barack Obama at the 2012 AIPAC policy conference.

On Sunday, President Obama delivered his address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference in Washington, DC. Though he condemned the recent "loose talk of war," Obama used the 34-minute speech as an opportunity to talk tough on Iran and to reject containment policy:

I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as I've made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests... And I know that Israeli leaders also know all too well the costs and consequences of war, even as they recognize their obligation to defend their country.

The president gave the much anticipated speech one day before his high-profile meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a meeting during which the Israeli leader is expected to further pressure the White House on upping the war rhetoric. During the speech, Obama did not specify what lines the Iranian government would have to cross to provoke an American military operation. (Click here for a complete transcript.)

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Iran War Watch: Threatening Pakistan

—By Asawin Suebsaeng

| Fri Mar. 2, 2012 2:52 PM PST

The Pakistani government is moving forward with plans to construct a pipeline that would deliver natural gas from Iran. The multibillion-dollar project has been kicked around for six decades, with both parties now shooting for a December 2014 completion date.

For some reason, the State Department really isn't too fond of this:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has threatened Pakistan with sanctions if the country continues with plans to build a natural gas pipeline to Iran. The U.S. is moving to squeeze Iran financially in a bid to force it to drop its nuclear program. But Pakistan has been unwilling to line up behind the U.S., saying it needs Iran, a neighbor, to help it meet a massive energy shortage.

Mrs. Clinton told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee Wednesday that sanctions could be triggered if Islamabad presses ahead. As Pakistan’s economy already is in dire straits, the sanctions could be "particularly damaging" and "further undermine their economic status," Mrs. Clinton said.

Pakistan's top bureaucrat in the Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry, Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry, said the pipeline was crucial for Pakistan's energy security – the longstanding Pakistan position. But he added that Pakistan was "committed not to create any problems."

Despite the possibility of rough sanctions, Pakistani officials confirmed this week that the pipeline deal is still a go. "We are a sovereign country and we will do whatever is in the interest of Pakistan," Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani affirmed during an online Q&A.

Any potential sanctions targeting Pakistan's fragile economy would be in sync with the Obama administration's approach to pressuring the Iranian regime—economic sanctions recently imposed on Iran are harsher than they have been in decades, and international sanctions are taking a serious toll on the country's central bank and oil sales.

So in case you were wondering, yes, there are indeed other ways in which the US-Pakistan relationship can get even lousier.

"Project X": Drunk, Foul-Mouthed Nerds Seduce Hot Girls and Blow Stuff Up

—By Asawin Suebsaeng

| Fri Mar. 2, 2012 4:00 AM PST

"Project X" (2012).

Project X
Warner Bros.
88 minutes

This weekend, you could go see the highly anticipated The Lorax, with all its Truffula tufts and fleecy anti-greed morality.

The new animated movie has a stout, gremlin-type creature talking how bad it is to screw over wildlife for profit. The CGI is truly eye-popping. And there are a whole lot of gyrating bears. So, yes, you should go see The Lorax. You absolutely should do that.

You totally, definitely should.

Or, you could succumb to 90 minutes' worth of bi-curious girls, rowdy gentlemen, loud music, self-destruction in the suburbs, booze guzzled, pills popped, and cops in riot gear. (In short, all the things that make life worth living.)

The rager quickly descends into a hyper-violent mess that can only be described as a cross between 10-Cent Beer Night and a party thrown by The Who.

And just to be perfectly clear, this movie isn't a remake of the other Project X, a 1987 film in which Helen Hunt and government-trained super-chimps almost trigger nuclear catastrophe. This year's Project X is steeped in a far greater realism: Three chemically altered nerds throw a house party with 1,500 other horny teenagers and almost burn an entire neighborhood to the ground in the process.

The film, produced by director Todd Phillips of The Hangover and Old School fame, is shot in contemporary found-footage/mockumentary mode—think: cinéma vérité, by way of Cloverfield and Parks and Recreation. If you've seen Revenge of the Nerds, Risky Business, and Superbad, you'll recognize the plot: Three high-school outcasts seek to up their social standing and prove to "bitches" that they are "large-scale ballers." So when one of them gets the family home all to himself on his birthday, the boys invite half of LA to attend their all-night blow-out. After some mass-texting and old-fashioned word of mouth, they wind up with a carouse so epic—two DJs, a "Naked Girls Only" pool, a moonbounce, every harmful substance imaginable—that Kanye West is rumored to be in attendance.

And thus the evening bacchanalia descends into a hyper-violent mess that can only be described as a cross between 10-Cent Beer Night and your average party thrown by The Who.

[Read more in the Mixed Media blog]