"Liberals Putting Politics on Film"

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCLVII

At WaTi today (ellipsis in original).

The silver screen has become an election-year battlefield.

Hollywood's nimble liberals are at work crafting a well-timed cultural salvo against President Bush and those who support his campaign.

Efforts from Michael Moore and other filmmakers who criticize Mr. Bush and laud his Democratic opponent Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts will reach the public beginning in June, culminating just as voters head toward the polls in November.

"These shrill films use smear tactics which may make some profit initially, but they also stand to alienate a good portion of the American family audience. They spread heat, but no light," said Tom Snyder, editor of Movie Guide, a publication of the California-based Christian Film & Television Commission, which offers reviews based on traditional values.

"These are the people who also went after Mel Gibson and 'The Passion,' and their criticisms backfired. The film has become a blockbuster. Now Hollywood is targeting Christian Republicans this fall," Mr. Snyder added.

Sony Pictures already has optioned the film rights to former White House counterterrorism maven Richard A. Clarke's book, "Against All Enemies," which criticized White House terrorism efforts and received a publicity boost from Mr. Clarke's appearance before the September 11 commission last month.

Meanwhile, the trend among some filmmakers to peddle their agendas and slam political opponents has become so pronounced that an industry name has emerged for it: "Documentaries as Swing Vote," according to a symposium at an independent film festival in North Carolina last week, which featured Mr. Moore, actor Harry Shearer and others.

Mr. Moore intends to release a documentary called "Fahrenheit 9/11" — subtitled "The Temperature When Freedom Burns" — to theaters this fall, said "to contain explosive info about Bush," according to this week's Variety.

The film examines "what happened to the country after September 11 and how the Bush administration used the tragic event to push its agenda," the filmmaker told the entertainment weekly in a separate interview.

It also traces "why the U.S. has become a target for hatred and terrorism" and depicts "alleged dealings between two generations of the Bush and bin Laden clans that led to George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden becoming mortal enemies."

Mr. Moore's documentary originally had financial backing from Icon Pictures, Mel Gibson's production company, which dropped out of the agreement after "someone from the White House" warned the group about it, Mr. Moore told the North Carolina festival on April 4.

Filmmaker John Sayles has finished "Silver City," a political satire starring Richard Dreyfuss that follows "a grammatically challenged, born-again candidate who is the scion of a formidable right-wing dynasty," according to a review in the Hollywood Reporter in late March.

Newmarket Films, which will release the film "just in time to capitalize on what promises to be a contentious run for the White House," promises the script will "shake up the political season."

Not to be outdone, Harry Thomason — longtime Hollywood-based friend of former President Bill Clinton — will release "The Hunting of the President" in mid-June, based on the book by the same name by Arkansas journalists Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, which examined Mr. Clinton's impeachment.

According to a press release, the film will "explore the myths and truths of the nearly 10-year campaign to systematically destroy the political legacy of the Clintons."

Mr. Thomason hopes to promote his film through the California-based liberal activist group MoveOn.org and told an audience at a Texas-based independent film festival in mid-March, "Our object is to get as many people to see the film as possible."

The cast includes "right-wing pamphleteers ... religious fanatics and die-hard segregationists, all chiming in discord from the tops of their soapboxes," the release stated. But Mr. Thomason told his festival audience, "The culprit in our film turns out to be the press."

Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's stalwart campaign adviser, also is the subject of a film documentary.

"Bush's Brain," already screened at the Texas festival, is described as "an angry account of the current president's political tactics" by a Toronto Star reviewer.

Though he has yet to flaunt a Clinton-style celebrity entourage, Mr. Kerry already is warranting star treatment in three film documentaries about his life -- and the "dramatic" soap opera possibilities of a Vietnam veteran turned peace activist.

Two already have been screened for the press at smaller film festivals.

"Tour of Duty," made by filmmaker George Butler — who once profiled California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the weightlifting extravaganza "Pumping Iron" — will be released in September, accompanied by a book of photographic stills taken from the movie to be published by Time Warner.

"John Kerry has had the most interesting life of anyone in the political arena since Theodore Roosevelt," Mr. Butler told Variety this week.

"His history as a politician is that he's been underestimated and that he has enormous willpower, not unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger."

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 04/13/04 07:46:29 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Media.

John Kerry Is In Really Big Trouble Again

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCLVI

When even the New York Times writes about his campaign this way.

Are you more miserable now than you were four years ago?

It might depend on how you measure "misery."

Taking a new tack on an economic yardstick that dates back three decades, Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign has created a "middle-class misery index," which, not surprisingly, has "hit a record" under President Bush. To counter these numbers, Mr. Bush's re-election spin machine points to the original, simpler misery index, which it claims is "at a modern historic low for a president facing re-election."

That first misery index, invented by the late Arthur Okun, an economic adviser to former Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, was an easy-to-grasp gauge that combined monthly unemployment figures with the annual percent change in the consumer price index, otherwise known as inflation. It peaked at about 21 back in 1980, and in February sat at 7.29, which is down a tiny bit since President Bush took office (See chart at www.house.gov/jec/press/2002/miseryindex.pdf) and, as noted by the campaign, lower than where it was when Bill Clinton sought re-election in 1996 (8.22), not to mention Mr. Bush's father in 1992 (9.46), Ronald Reagan in 1984 (12.49) and Jimmy Carter in 1980 (20.46).

Though it has been cited in practically every national (and many local) elections for more than a generation, this misery index was apparently not good — or, perhaps, complicated — enough for the Kerry camp. So they collected seven data points (median family income, college tuition, health-care costs, gas prices, bankruptcy rates, homeownership rate and private-sector job growth) to make their own index. All but one of these indicators — home ownership — have fallen over the past three years.

"We were trying to pick the kitchen-table issues," explained Gene Sperling, chief of Mr. Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, and an architect of Mr. Kerry's economic plans. "We were trying to look at what are the things that most affect families' pocketbooks every day."

This newfangled misery index, in case you weren't confused yet, is measured in the opposite way from its better-known progenitor — a higher number means less, not more, misery.

Under President Bush (the current one), the Kerry misery index has fallen 13 points, the worst three-year decline ever (other bad patches were 1979-82 and 1989-92, which, depending on your perspective, either creates a convenient pattern around new Republican presidents or an odd coincidence relating to the start of decades). Mr. Sperling's old boss, former President Clinton, saw this middle-class misery index shoot up (remember, up is good, down miserable) 23 points during his tenure; the current President's father watched it fall (down = bad) 12 points.

The Bush campaign denounced the new index as "bogus," noting that it gives President Carter a better rating (plus 6) over his tenure than President Reagan (minus 5).

Are you more miserable now than when you started reading this?

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

The. New. York. Times!

See also John Kerry Is In Really Big Trouble.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 04/13/04 06:03:42 PM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & John Kerry & Media.

Re: Major Test for Catholic Bishops in the USA

When I blogged ten days ago, I understood that John Kerry's marriage to Julia Thorne had never been declared null and void. Since then, I have discovered that the status of their union is hotly disputed in the public domain. I apologize for having been hasty in that regard.

As to an annulment being a confidential matter — well, I think that's just plain silly. (The grounds for petitioning for a declaration of nullity, and the determination of their veracity, is another question.) Getting married is a public act, with public consequences, and the validity of a marriage is not a matter for the internal forum. Whether a couple that publicly claims to be married is actually married is everybody's business. That's why we issue marriage licenses, and announce banns, and publish notice of civil divorce decrees.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 04/13/04 05:29:29 PM
Categorized as Religious.

"Renewal"

A little poem of mine, not published before, is sixteen years old today.

Renewal

Spring
is sprung—
bad cliché.
But, ah! it's true:
trees bud and blossom;
birds build, eggs hatch, chicks cry;
daylight grows each day.
Ferns curl, unfurl:
even as
they do,
I.

E. L. Core

© 1988 ELC

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 04/13/04 08:17:02 AM
Categorized as Literary.

Desperate Stand in Fallujah

And in Washington, DC.

We've been taking a beating in Fallujah and elsewhere in the Sunni Triangle. I don't think it's been a revolutionary uprising: I think it's a desperate stand of desperate men resorting now to the tactics of the near- but not-quite-impotent. Their desperation isn't a sign we did the wrong thing in warring against Saddam Hussein: it's a sign we did the right thing.

Similarly, the recent outbursts from the socialist senior senator from Gaymarriagechusetts Massachusetts and the senior ancient senator from West (By God) Virginia are the desperate stand of desperate men.

Not by mere coincidence did these diatribles come from the oldest-serving (serving?) members of that august (guffaw) body. Nor were those old farts distinguished gentlemen chosen (oh, yes, chosen) to vent their spleens because they are so highly respected; indeed, it can be well argued that each has become a living caricature of a thinking, feeling human being himself.

No. They were chosen because they have nothing to lose. Kennedy & Byrd have more money (Kennedy, at the least) and more power than most wealthy, powerful people dream of. Even if each was sent packing home tomorrow, they would still have more money, and wield more influence, than most people dream of.

They need to be sent a message, loud and clear: they need to be put quite resoundingly into the distinct minority in that august (guffaw) body come next January. Likewise, the terrorists still operating in Iraq need to be put firmly in their rightful place. In the ground.

I am confident that America will do both.

For what little it's worth, I stand with George W. Bush, our military establishment, and our fighting men and women. It may very well be a generation or more — especially with so many enemies of America in mainstream media — it may very well be decades before it's widely acknowledged that our nation has done the right thing, and is continuing to do the right thing, the thing that must be done: taking the war on terrorism to the terrorists rather than waiting for them to continue to bring it to us — which they would most certainly do.

In the meantime, pray with me for our leaders, for our warriors, for the innocent who suffer, and for those who have given their lives in the advancing cause of freedom for everyone, everywhere.

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 04/13/04 06:54:54 AM
Categorized as International.

"Only Lunatics Keep Fighting an Unwinnable War"

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCLV

Giving Morford and Sorensen a run for their money.

That would be Ted Rall.

We shouldn't still be having this conversation.

To anyone possessing a milligram of common sense, it has been obvious from the start — before the start — that invading Iraq would be disastrous. Any American capable of reading between the lines sensed trouble when the Bush Administration's giddy predictions of flower-throwing Iraqis never materialized to greet our advancing columns. Even the silliest Pollyanna must have shuddered a little when it came to light that the war's singular Kodak moment, the toppling of Saddam's statue in Fardus Square, turned out to have been just as phony as the "evidence" recited at Colin Powell's UN speech.

A year later, 630 U.S. soldiers lie dead, young lives sacrificed on the altar of the vainglorious ambitions of an insane cabal of neocon morons hell-bent on transforming the Middle East into an American Raj. Thousands more, some of them so misled by their unelected president that they thought they were avenging September 11, lost their limbs and eyes to bullets and bombs fired by people they expected to be their new best friends. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been murdered by the professional liars illegally occupying the White House in a search for weapons the experts damn well knew Iraq no longer possessed.

The delusional leaders of our occupation army are fond of pointing to signs of progress. Occupation viceroy Paul Bremer likes to rattle off statistics: 2,500 renovated schools, three million vaccinated children, 18,000 reconstruction projects underway, healthcare spending up 30 times, a 29 percent increase in the value of the Iraqi dinar. Hey, it's the least we can do — after all, Iraq wouldn't need new schools or hospitals if we hadn't bombed their old ones. But, in the end, infrastructure doesn't much matter.

There are three categories of civilians in an occupied country: patriots, collaborators and opportunists. In the calculus of hearts and minds, anything short of 100 percent popularity qualifies as total failure. It's an impossible standard, which is why no nation has ever successfully invaded and occupied another in the 20th century. Even if a majority like living under foreign control, a dubious assumption at best, an occupation is nonetheless doomed. As long as one percent of the population spends its evenings blowing up enemy convoys, fence sitters will be scared to collaborate. In Iraq, that one percent — or five, or whatever — shows no sign of letting up.

Read and understand: They hate us simply because we're there. Leave, and the hatred goes away. If you doubt that, visit Hanoi as a tourist.

Exacerbating an impossible situation is the fact that we're playing right into the hands of the insurgency. Last week residents of Fallujah hung the carbonized corpses of ambushed American mercenaries (not, as widely reported, civilians) from a bridge. This week a U.S. army of retribution has surrounded the city to carry out Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal cry for vengeance: "It would be good not only for elemental justice but for Iraq and its future if a large force of coalition troops led by U.S. Marines would go into Fallujah, find the young men, arrest them or kill them, and, to make sure the point isn't lost on them, blow up the bridge." The Associated Press reported that a U.S. Apache helicopter gunship, mimicking Israeli tactics on the occupied West Bank, fired missiles into residential neighborhoods.

The Iraqi resistance wants us to retaliate; provoking us into lashing out is why they attack us in the first place. Each act of retaliation kills and injures innocents, proving to the opportunists that we're the monsters the patriots say we are. We're radicalizing the previously moderate segment of the population.

Were there some possible future, even 20 or 30 years from now, wherein enough stability had been achieved to allow us to hand off power to a democratic government that truly represented the interests of all Iraqis, I'd argue that we should tough it out no matter the cost. The chance of that, however, is zero.

"The message to Iraqi citizens," says Bush, "is that they don't have to fear that Americans will cut and run." The Iraqis don't fear our departure; they crave it. Moreover, they count on it.

"We can't leave," Newsweek quotes an officer with a major security firm in Iraq (hmm). "If it takes a million f---ing American lives, we have to stay."

The hell we do. Sooner or later, one way or another, we're leaving — as defeated and bankrupt and demoralized as we were when we fled Saigon. The only question now is: how many more people are we going to kill before we cut and run?

The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 04/13/04 06:37:24 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode & Media.