When I started this blog a few years back, I wanted to try to make some sense out of the 9-11 attacks. My main goal was to try to get the people that read my stuff (around 200 of you now)to start thinking globally. I really felt that people would really start to wake up in this country and realize that there IS a world out there and, as of September 11th, we have been brought to the front lines of it, hence the name Notes From The Front.For a time, it actually did look like the citizens of this country would take an interest in United States foreign policy and its effect on the countries with which we are involved. It seemed that my childhood dream of our people thinking more internationally and less nationally would finally be realized.
After all, there were people from all over the world that died in the 9-11 attacks. Right? Boy, was I wrong.
We have gone from being the United States of America to the United Simpletons of Abnegation.
The current administration and their lapdogs in the media spun a cozy cocoon around our borders and have proceeded, since that day, to alternatively pummel us with patriotic cotton candy and fear of the unknown. And those of us that escape this brainwashing don't like to talk about politics...gawd, it's like so serious and stuff!We have gone willingly into our cocoon because we are all bunch of fucking cowards who would rather live in a fantasy land of bullshit than confront the world and the horrors we have created in it. A shining example of how far we have actually sunk is our soldiers in Iraq sending Paris Hilton letters of comfort while she was sleeping off her 8 year drunk in prison, recently related to her on the Larry King Show on CNN.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I realize that they were probably just horny dudes but I think their priorities are way off. And, by the way, aren't they supposed to be worrying about themselves and their unit? And what about the media? Good lord, the coverage alone of Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith is proof enough of my cocoon theory. The other night my wife and I wanted some news...real news...not the nonsense that passes for news on the "big" networks....real news, y'know what's happening in the world, important issues in our country, and intelligent stories that spark the mind with wonder. Instead, as we flipped around, we got:
Paris Hilton discussion on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.
Dangerous Minds, a true crime story of murder and rape on MSNBC.
Greta Van Sustren discussing a.....true crime story of murder and rape on Fox News.
Great.
Imagine being someone who actually thinks THIS is what is important in the world. Sheesh. Thankfully, though, since I have a satellite dish, I get Link TV. Link TV is Television without borders. It shows newscasts from around the world, including several from the Middle East. It runs documentaries on a variety of subjects in a variety of countries. They are all extremely insightful and highly intelligent. When I watch them I feel enlightened as opposed to fearful, angry, and ignorant like the powers that be want us to feel when we watch what laughably passes for news on the major networks. It was on Link TV that I first saw the film Breakdown. And it was one of those moments...
You know what I am talking about, right? It's like you have your life before you heard Abbey Road by the Beatles and your life after you heard it. You are altered. You are changed in such a way that there is no going back. Your width of vision is expanded and it is impossible to look at things in the same way again. This film caused one of those moments for me and I will never, ever be able to look at our country in the same way again.
Breakdown essentially confirms everything I have said on this blog and goes even further to sharpen and clarify United States foreign policy in the Middle East. It is a film in six parts, each about twenty minutes, that includes:
-The specific lies the Bush Administration told leading up to the Iraq War.-Details about the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia AKA The real reason why Al Qaeda attacked us on 9-11.
-Footage of our support of Saddam Hussein's murderous rampages in the 1980s
-The dollar and the Euro AKA why we really attacked Iraq.
-How US Energy Policy, as early as May of 2000, has dictated our foreign policy.
-A stunning interview with John Perkins, a former economic "hit man" for the US government, which details how our government essentially acts like the Mafia when it comes to Third World countries.
-Nauseating testimony from troops, who have been on the ground in Iraq, relating what is actually going on over there as opposed to the lies or non-coverage we hear on a daily basis in the lamestream media.
After watching this film, I went to the gym to work out and try to get my head around what is essentially the main point of the film: The United States government thrives on terror. Terror is good, which is the title of the fourth chapter of the film. It's good business for our whole country. As I was thinking about this, I looked up to one of the TVs above me and saw the following sentence on the Fox Ticker on Fox News:
TERROR THREAT IN LONDON-GOOD FOR GOP.....AND STOCKS!!
They are not even bothering to try to deny it anymore. They don't care. They know that most our country doesn't even vote (for the president that is, plenty more do for American Idol). They know that most of our country is too busy worried about discovering new ways to become fatter and more brain dead. They know that most of you are too biased, too busy, or too lazy to watch a film like Breakdown.
Prove them wrong. Buy this DVD by clicking here. The cost is about 15 bucks and it is well worth it. Use the information in it to pick the right candidate to lead out country in 2008. Start talking to people about what the film says and why it is so vital for us to change the course of this country. If we don't start to make an effort for change, the greedy bastards that have run this country for the last 44 years will run it straight into oblivion.
The daily torture that we inflict upon the peoples of the world coupled with the denial that it is actually happening has already caused many Americans to lose their lives. Do you want more people to die? Are you ready to expand your width of vision?
Let your voice and your mind be heard.
Tuesday: A clip from Breakdown entitled "The Exploitation of 9/11."
16 comments:
I'm going to break the ice here. Was going to email you Mark, but i think i'll post it instead.
Just read your new post and i want to say something, as seems usual, eloquent, stirring, bold and sincere. I didn't expect the Abbey Road watershed comparison, that kind of made me speechless. Directors of ANY creative project love words from the heart, and that was a very original (& felt like heartfelt)complement.
I (*big*) smiled because that's happened to me too, but it was funny ironic, the breaking news strap, i think i saw something similar when making the film re: Iran, on Fox too! (i watch Fox a lot.. it's very slick presentation, love their weird & wonderful infotainment segments, it's ice cream that you want more of because you're never satisfied, as with all propaganda -- and i consider maybe 80% of worldwide tv big network news: more propoganda than news, having worked in the field with the BBC and others, Fox is partial truth wrapped in an easy-to-digest, simplified + stereotyped message -- so, your observation of their ticker tape headline was funny :) With the Iran story more than a year ago, it was something like (and this was Neil Cavuto's show..) 'Will a War on Iran be good for the Stockmarkets??' The answer from all the panelists was a resounding YES! I love Fox's FU attitude and high on militarism nerve : 'let's get the bastards before they get us and spin it good.'
So thank you for the review. The only reason i made this film, and it took two and a half years, and more than maybe 25+ small to medium investors, because it self-developed and ended up having a high end pbs figure budget (to give an idea, a Frontline doc costs around $500 or $600,000 per hour) so, the only reason i made it was to spread awareness.
I could've made a film about or including soft porn (not really my field of expertise in any way but sexier def sells) football players, War as seen from a completely different perspective (like perhaps a dog's, because i saw a really sweet film on CNN, about a stray iraqi dog that a soldier adopted, and i found it really touching... ) or with the money & time spent on this film, the world was my oyster, i could have made it a lot more funny (although it's not boring!) i could have spent three months searching for ossama with my american cameraman, and by the way, if we'd have found him, wouldn't that have shown our leaders a thing or two about perseverence and success. So, my point is, a big picture look at why we're here and exactly how we got here and where we're going, wasn't really going to be a money-spinner. I've learnt a lot. I'm writing a new film and this one WILL be funny but also (i hope) highly instructive. I think the world does not want direct truth. The world (myself included, although i like truth, i don't mind the impact or aftertaste) wants glamour and escapism fun flash and flesh. So, you have to wrap truth in beauty comedy or sex appeal. I tried to do that in Breakdown -- the people are very charismatic, i think the editing is good (i would even say beautiful in places) and the content + pace, compelling. But it's not Paris or Diehard. Actually, it is Die harder, but no one wants the real-life version and Breakdown is more psychological than FX-packed.
I wanted to say, that were none, one or 200 hundred of you to buy the film (and people are buying as they hear of it since launching the web site option) the money is all yours -- i agree with mark -- the communication channel is the thing, i don't think there's enough of it in the states, or the world, and i would definitely use any money from my brand new (post breakdown) project to launch a new media channel or something creative (in which mark could be the new naked news reader... just kidding!!! in which mark could be the "chief international correspondent" - i hate those titles - of 'WEASK Blog' (What Every American Should Know :) or What Every Arab Should Know) and ask the really simple, elementary, child-like, occasionally shockingly rude questions to world leaders, that would silence them evoke truth from them or have them evict him (Mark) from future News Conferences :)
So, if anyone had a good idea of how to spend the $15 bucks or $1,000 from any (breakdown) sales at all that occur through this News From the Front Blog, and there was a democratic vote, let's say someone wanted to spend it on a soldiers' fund and others wanted to spend it a children of war fund and others on a camera for mark to do more video conferencing on the blog fund and others (i won't name names, but i have my suspicions... :) on a let's all go and talk politics at a scampily-clad women serving us food for a night fund -- whatever -- and there was a vote on it, i'd be very happy with that. I have hopes and plans that the ideas-exchange will continue. The future is hopeful.
Thanks for the post Mark :)
Why does the left invariably think that if people don’t agree w/ them that they are sleeping, non-thinking droids?
…So you surfed and surfed and finally found your perfect news source. That’s nice… Is this something new? Isn’t that what most people do?…They search until they find the news source that fits nicely into their comfort zone and reinforces their belief system. …give them the big warm fuzzy that “I’m right and they’re wrong.”
Here’s a therapeutic exercise to generate input for your next article. Let’s take today’s situation (or, say, just after 9/11 if you want to do an exercise re-writing history) and have everyone submit a rough draft of how they’re approach foreign policy. Anyone who says “we’ll be more thoughtful” or “we’ll try to learn from others” or some other nondescript tripe will immediately be disqualified. I’m looking for concrete stuff like, I’m going to bomb Iran on day 1 or I’ll negotiate w/ North Korea by giving them all of our first-borns if they promise to be nice to us. I’m very curious what people would really do when it’s time to put away the bumper stickers and deal w/ the realities of the world because I’ve always said that once people strip away the blathering rhetoric, we’re not all that different in opinions.
Btw, I hate the Beatles.
Yes but do you like Woody Allen? Always one of my litmus tests for whether or not I will get along with someone alright...The Beatles and Woody Allen..
I think you excercise is a good one, Dave, for a future blog post. I'd like to hear your thoughts throughout the week on the clips I am going to put up. I think if we are going to do what you say we have to first define exactly what our foreign policy is currently and that is the main theme of this film. Is that definition accurate? Is it biased?
I don't think you are a sleeping, non thinking droid. I do think many people, liberal, conservative, or whatever, in this country are that way. Most people don't have discussions like you and I do, Dave. They talk about really inane stuff, y'know? While all the while their government is up to some awfully crooked behavior.
Another great post. I saw that same John Perkins lecture on C Span. Neocons that post here...have you heard of this guy? Do you believe what he is saying?
I have to put Woody Allen films in the same league as plays by Shakespeare; I go to them because I know they’re supposed to be good, but in the end, I just don’t like them. The artfulness just doesn’t win out over the dryness of the material. ...but I'll probably still see them all at some point…just kind of a cultural education thing.
Well, at least you don't hate him.
Hey, Scooty Libby gets a free pass. I wonder who else is above the law.
If any of what you have posted here, markadelphia, comes a shock to anyone, they are obviousy a moron. The United States is numero uno as far as "terrorism" goes. Ask anyone in any country we have fucked over for the last--oh I don't know---221 years.
Brilliant! ...just brilliant! Thank You Eddie…ah, the jocularity.
Now Eddie, he didn't get a free pass...he had to pay 225 k AND he is on probation. C'mon, having to finance what amounts to a medium-priced house in one of the more urban areas of the U.S. And that probation...holy shit...can you imagine having to cope with that for two whole years!?! Think about what has happened to that man's career! It is essentially ruined...who is going to pay for that? So, even though he won his freedom, he still loses. I am very glad though that President Bush has respected the judge and juries decision and mitigated his sentence using all his years of judicial training to give Mr. Libby a fair and reasonable punishment for what was clearly a frame-job. Can you believe what those people said about him anyway...that lying bitch from the NY Times and that fat-assed blogger!?! What a sad commentary on our country when people's testimony forms the basis for indicting a patriot like Scooter Libby. People can say what they want, but we will never know the truth about what Scooter Libby said or did, and based on what I know of him, there is NO WAY that he passed on information about that tree-hugging democrat-lover Valerie Plame. And even if he did..so what? She deserved it...her and that "man" she calls a husband. Can you imagine the nerve of that guy? Of course you have to feel sorry for him a little having fallen for the lies that the Nigerian government told him about that yellow cake. The sad thing is that he made the mistake of spreading those Nigerian lies to the government. We all know that Saddam had bought that stuff and God knows what he would have done with it...probably turned it into bombs for Al-Qaeda to drop on us. I don't know about you all, but thank god we are fighting back. I just hope that when we win the war in Iraq we will get after those damn Reds again. They were the only enemy worth fighting...them and the Nazis.
We could certainly do an entire month's worth of review on Scooter Libby or Joe Wilson. But the commuting of sentence was the right thing to do. It didn’t excuse him but removed the portion of the sentence that was inconsistent (and in my opinion politically motivated).
2006 Sentencing guidelines: http://www.ussc.gov/2006guid/5a.html
Perjury sentencing guidelines: http://www.ussc.gov/2004guid/2j1_3.htm
Average sentences imposed: http://www.sgc.wa.gov/sgc/stats/FY2005_Statistical_SummaryT2.pdf
Politics aside, he should have received a sentence of approx. 15 to 21 months.
The average sentence actually imposed is approx. 16 months.
One must take into account that he was convicted on 4 counts.
One must take into account that he had no previous criminal record.
So…Is 30 months a bit steep? By purely non-political standards, yes, it is. But we all know that this is really political now isn’t it????
Just Dave,
The point is he will be serving NO TIME. Where are the often-spoken conservative values of honesty, "responsibility" and fairness? Do they only apply in situations that involve democrats...republicans are exempt? What about a black-and-white reading of the situation? Scooter Libby broke three laws. He was convicted of those crimes. He is being punished with a sentence that is considerably less than what he earned according to the sources you cited and considerably less than people who have similar convictions (Martha Stewart for example) have gotten. Those are not opinions, they are facts. Add to that the perjury sentences listed in your source do not take into account the nature of the perjury and the fact that Libby outed a CIA agent has to bear more weight than someone who perjured themselves for some other reason.
Enough of this bullshit relativism already. Your argument that his sentence was politically motivated is the equivalent of all of the race-motivated arguments that have gotten people (how about O.J.?) out of paying for their crimes.
Are you honestly going to put forward the opinion that Libby and all currently convicted Republicans are victims of prejudice?
John, that is a sticking point and I agree w/ you on many of the facts.
a) I would argue whether he was truly guilty or not but alas, as a “jury of his peers” found him so, he should pay the appropriate price. But I find it hard to believe that he should serve time for a “faulty memory” (as he claims) when that is the defense dejour for defendants from Bill Clinton to Hillary to Valerie Plame herself. I guess for some 'not remembering' works and for others, they go to jail.
b) In a perfect world, he would serve the standard sentence and I’d have no problem with it. That would be fair. But the judge didn’t issue a standard sentence; he issued a “political” sentence…and he was essentially rebuffed by a higher authority for it.
c) I would never be as bold as to say that one party is exempt. Not in the least and anyone who knows me would concur.
d) He was not (NOT…N-O-T) convicted of outing Valerie Plame; that distinction goes to Richard Armitage and the prosecutor knew it. He knew it before he put Libby on the stand or anyone for that matter...so WHY was he putting people on the stand? The case was essentially closed at that juncture. Pure politics.
e) I in fact did take into account the nature of the perjury which is why I cited those spots. Look closely at them. Did he obstruct the investigation? No…how could he since the prosecutor knew full well that Armitage was the man he was looking for in the first place.
f) OJ was as guilty as the day is long. However the people of Los Angels deemed it a greater crime to be a racist than a double-murderer; essentially convicting Mark Furman.
g) There is a prejudice, but it works both ways at different times. It’s a tit-for-tat world and Fitzgerald just go his ‘tat’ for the ‘tit’ of wasting all this time on something that could have been done in a week.
I agree w/ your bit on relativism, but the nation has become so polarized that there is no simple justice anymore; it’s all political. Where will it end? Let’s say we string up Libby and say, ok, from now on it’s just pure justice, no politics. Kinda’ like Vito Corleone calling for no additional vengeance after Sonny is killed. Will we then string up, say, the CIA person who revealed the finance surveillance program? He’s guilty of revealing state secrets isn’t he? Should he (she??) pay a price, politics be damned? ...how about the chap who revealed the NSA program? Or the other leaks that happen daily?... Will we string up John Kerry who leaked something like 2 or 3 currently employed CIA agents during the congressional hearings on this? Will William Jefferson even step down after his egregious actions? It has got to work both ways. And right now it’s not, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the GOP is going to push back too.
It has been my thesis for years that the Republican party acts like the Mafia in THIS country. They are essentially an organized gang of thugs involved in a criminal enterprise: i.e., the stealing of elections, illegal prosecution of innocents for political gain (the whole Justice Dept. scandal), the humdrum, everyday corruption of selling out the American people to Halliburton, the drug companies and big defense contractors, and the petty dealings of most every Republican with the likes of Jack Abramoff et al.
And it turns out the capo in all of this is Dick Cheney. Remember before the election when everyone said that Dick would be pulling all the strings? And the Republicans all scoffed and said Bush was his own man? Well, it turns out that Dick has been the man behind the curtain the whole time. Georgie boy is his puppet and dupe.
As far as Woody Allen goes, you have to distinguish his early films from his more recent ones. Bananas and Sleeper are great fun, like high-brow Marx Brothers movies. Love and Death and Annie Hall are philosophical comedies that are funny at many different levels. Films like Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point are about the funny twists of fate that can save or destroy people's lives.
There's no question that Allen's later films have taken a more serious bent, but they're all comedies at some level. The split comes in the mid-1980s -- if you find his recent stuff too dry check out his work from before 1985.
Uh... yeah. i think he will do that. ANYTHING WRONG that anyone does in this Administration, or friends of (this Administration) or enemies of my (perceived) enemy, whom i am unjustly warring & killing, is RIGHT. And friends of friends will always find a reason to lie, cover up for or absolve you. Thank you for the cool sarcasm and wit of all above.
Just Dave...I still am not seeing the justice here. Let's say that you are right and that the prison portion of the sentence was harsh, does that mean that it should be erased wholesale by said higher authority? There is very little justice there, even Martha Stewart did her time and I suspect it would not be any harder or easier for Libby to do his stint, but he is not going to do ANY of it and that is bullshit.
Politics may be polarized in this country, but we can not afford to allow the justice system to do the same. I don't particularly care about any other cases out there in the past or present, I AM concerned about this one and the precedent that it sets. If we allow all judgments to be evaluated on the basis of race or political alignment we do not have a judicial system, we have a popularity contest and that is simply unacceptable. I think it is a huge stretch to call this a politically motivated conviction based on the evidence that has been presented, the fact that he WAS found guilty.
You mentioned some scenarios that raise questions about at what level the law should be enforced. Revealing state secrets is one thing, but only if those secrets are really state-originated and not the work of people in the government who feel they are above the law and the checks and balances of the system. Those programs were at best questionable and more than likely illegal. Revealing illegalities should not and has not been illegal in and of itself.
Scooter Libby should be going to jail whether it is 16 months as you suggested or the 30 months that he was sentenced to or the 43 months that shows up in at least one of the sources you cited. Instead, he gets a minor slap on the wrist and the country gets to see that the judicial system works, but can be over-ridden by a man who has no professional training as a judge or lawyer and clearly has a vested interest in protecting a former staff member. It stinks. It stinks of corruption and cronysm (sp?).
I can admit my faults in this case. I’m polarized. In a perfect world, Libby would serve the average (and whatever ancillary things come about such as disbarment, fines…) and that’d be that. I don’t necessarily believe he “was” guilty but I can accept that a jury did. But because of the political nature of this event, because he was hounded, because Fitzgerald was on nothing more than a fishing trip, because Fitzgerald knew who the leak was and chose not to go after him but to go after someone else (is entrapment too strong a word here??), my political tit-for-tat comes up and I say, fine…you do that and we’ll just commute the sentence. If someone pokes me in the eye, I’m going to push them right back.
I could not agree more on precedence being set but you can’t pick and choose which case or law you’re going to support. The precedent has already been set and, from my chair, it appears to be set by the left. You may want to only focus on this one case, but I’m looking at the bigger picture on why some of this polarization exists (in the justice world in this instance) and the case I mentioned on William Jefferson is a perfect example. He’s dead bang guilty, but you barely hear a peep in the news, he doesn’t have the dignity to step aside himself and congress is doing nothing about him…and congress even has the gall to condemn the FBI for raiding his home. Delay & Gingrich & Lott (demons to the left) all stepped aside due to the mere appearance of impropriety. Same for Foley (the intern-loper (ha ha clever eh?)); he resigned in shame…what about Gerry Studds? He did the same thing (and worse) but goes on to serve 5 more terms. Jefferson? Still there last I heard. End all is that you can’t very well accuse me of wanting blanket pardons for the right and then come back after I mention part of the polarization problem and say that you don’t care about those cases, only about this one. That’s part of the problem.
Regarding the state secrets: whether said programs/secrets are well-regarded by me or you is irrelevant. These people are in an agency that keeps secrets. Their job requires that and makes it a crime to break that secrecy. It is not within their pay grade to say what should and should not be a state secret. I was in the army and you’d better believe that Uncle Sam would have something to say if one day I up and decided that I didn’t like my marching orders and I was going to leak that valuable information.
You touch on the pardon process… Of course any President may or may not have professional training as a judge. Most presidents don’t. But I’d stack up the quality of individual that Bush pardons (course he didn’t “pardon” Libby) over those of Clinton’s any day of the week. But if everyone is against pardons, there’s a simple remedy, change the constitution.
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