26
Feb
Could IT (Fascism) Happen Here?
If you missed the Academy Awards: all the winners are posted on Oscar.com
Why no commentary on Iraq War by anyone, save for two nominated docs? Military Families Speak Out held an event outside the Oscars but I never heard about it during the broadcast. Few filmmakers spoke out on issues, even the issues raised in their films. And even though Inconvenient Truth, the doc about global warming with Al Gore, not by Al Gore, won, everyone kept saying how it wasn’t political but moral with admonitions to viewers to do more to save the earth with no mention of the world’s major polluters or the policies behind the global warming crisis. The Oscars were Green this year. Did that mean there were no giant limos in use?
The politics of that issue was totally depoliticized. More on this tomorrow. Just note that freedom of speech is not really encouraged, or allowed and will be penalized if it ruffles certain sensibilities. Better to follow the script.
Noted Toronto reviewer Geoff Pevere, “….there’s just something about the sloppiness of the real world that the escape-engineered machinery of Hollywood is naturally disinclined to cozy up to and the close proximity cleavage and carnage makes for a queasy juxtaposition. Certainly the event’s producers know this. Not only have strict rules been set in the past for presenters to stay on script, those who have strayed – like Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins – have found themselves temporarily banned from the ceremonies for making political statements.” Yesterday’s NY Times featured a story on a film attacking Michael Moore.
There’s No Business Like Show Business….
IT CAN HAPPEN HERE
MORE DEBATE ON IRAQ
HATE SPEECH VS FREE SPEECH
I spent part of the day at the Angelika Theater in lower Manhattan watching The Lives of Others. While the subways rattled on in the background, I was transported back into an afternoon I spent in Leipzig in Eastern Germany visiting a Stasi Museum, an office of the former DDR East German Security Police, complete with its surveillance equipment and letter opening machines that are dramatized in the Academy Award winning best foreign film.
www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/ -
The movie tells the story of a Stasi agent who, while listening in on a prominent playwright, became sympathetic to him and in the end protected him by filing false reports and removing evidence of his having written an expose of life in that police state. It reminded me of a story in which a police spy in what was then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, another kind of post colonial police state, falls in love with a member of the Communist Party and confesses to his perfidy. She takes him to the Party Chairman who turns him from a spy for the power to a spy for the Party. He is trapped, unlike his German counterpoint who was a “good man” and, by the end, showed his humanity.
The film is worth seeing and very moving, but that view of East Germany’s past may offer a peek into our future in these United States of Surveillance where the technology is much improved since the Cold War. The Busheviks have improved on the techniques of spying and torture developed by the Bolsheviks. Abu Ghraib and Gitmo put the Stasi to shame. In many ways, there is a straight line from the wars of aggression launched in the old Berlin to the one now occupying Baghdad.
The film showed the state blacklisting that took place in those bad old days. Yes, but lets not get sanctimonious. Blacklisting in Hollywood was done by dicta for years, but today it is the market which dictates with access to funding and distribution often guided by ideology and our own cultural commissars who specialize in depoliticizing politics.
No wonder that writers like Joe Conason are asking “Can it Happen Here”—a reference to the dangers of Fascism in the USSA. His book is IT CAN HAPPEN HERE”
Can it happen here? Is it happening here already? That depends, as a recent president might have said, on what the meaning of “it” is.
To Sinclair Lewis, who sardonically titled his 1935 dystopian novel “It Can’t Happen Here,” “it” plainly meant an American version of the totalitarian dictatorships that had seized power in Germany and Italy. Married at the time to the pioneering reporter Dorothy Thompson, who had been expelled from Berlin by the Nazis a year earlier and quickly became one of America’s most outspoken critics of fascism, Lewis was acutely aware of the domestic and foreign threats to American freedom…
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/02/19/conason/
SURGE OF VIOLENCE IN BAGHDAD
As President Talibani is flown to Jordan for a medical crisis, the role of The Mehdi Army is back in the News. On Sunday morning, the New York Times suggested he may now be supportive of the US. By Sunday Afternoon, another story contradicted that one:
A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a university and Moktada al-Sadr called on Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with the U.S. military…. The radical Shiite cleric Moktada Al-Sadr condemned the security plan in a signed statement, declaring that it had no hope of success as long as American troops were involved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/world/middleeast/25cnd-iraq.html?ex=1330059600&en=7b32a5d30cc523b3&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
MOTHER JONES: IRAQ 101
http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/iraq_101.html
GOP IDENTITY–A VICTIM OF THE BUSH WAR OBSESSION?
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/16781003.htm
CONDI SAYS BUSH WILL DEFY CONGRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Democratic-controlled Congress not to interfere in the conduct of the Iraq war and suggested President Bush would defy troop withdrawal legislation.
But Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers would step up efforts to force Bush to change course. “The president needs a check and a balance,'’ said Levin, D-Mich.
A TIMES: US INTELL ON IRAN WRONG, WRONG, WRONG
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usiran25feb25,0,4451045.story?coll=la-home-headlinesAP: “Americans are keenly aware of how many U.S. forces have lost their lives in Iraq, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. But they woefully underestimate the number of Iraqi civilians who have been killed.”
CONDI ALSO SAYS SHE WILL TALK TO IRAN, WHILE OTHERS REPORT BOMB PLANS
AP reports:
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. would hold direct talks with Iran if Tehran suspended its nuclear program. Iran’s president, however, pledged to move ahead with enrichment activity that Washington contends masks weapons development.,
SY HERSH: NEW STRATEGIC DIRECTION
While the mainstream media seems to be avoiding the Pentagon’s contingency plans for war with Iran, The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh is out with more details of the plan in the New Yorker:
In the past year, the Saudis, the Israelis, and the Bush Administration have developed a series of informal understandings about their new strategic direction. At least four main elements were involved, the U.S. government consultant told me. First, Israel would be assured that its security was paramount and that Washington and Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states shared its concern about Iran.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17173.htm
US Funds Terror Groups to Sow Chaos in Iran
By William Lowther in Washington DC and Colin Freeman
America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear program.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17170.htmCOULD THIS HAPPEN?
Michael Klare has written the speech he expects/fears we will all hear:
Klare writes: “Sometime this spring or summer, barring an unexpected turnaround by Tehran, President Bush is likely to go on national television and announce that he has ordered American ships and aircraft to strike at military targets inside Iran. We must still sit through several months of soap opera at the United Nations in New York and assorted foreign capitals before this comes to pass, and it is always possible that a diplomatic breakthrough will occur — let it be so! — but I am convinced that Bush has already decided an attack is his only option and the rest is a charade he must go through to satisfy his European allies. The proof of this, I believe, lies half-hidden in recent public statements of his, which, if pieced together, provide a casus belli, or formal list of justifications, for going to war.”
_http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=169271_
(http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=169271)THE BRITISH PRESS IS FOCUSING ON IRAN
US SET TO GO: THE TELEGRAPH
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=F5LPPORPDWBFXQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/02/24/wiran24.xml)ISRAEL READY TOO:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022507B.shtmlUP TO FIVE FLAG OFFICERS MIGHT RESIGN IF IRAN IS BOMBED
Some of America’s most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defense and intelligence sources.
Tension in the Gulf region has raised fears that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely before President George Bush leaves office. The Sunday Times has learnt that up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack.
“There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if Bush ordered an attack on Iran,” a source with close ties to British intelligence said. “There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible.”. . .
A generals’ revolt on such a scale would be unprecedented. “American generals usually stay and fight until they get fired,” said a Pentagon source.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1434540.ece
YET PROTESTS IN THE STREET STILL GET MINIMAL ATTENTION
Before I tell you about protests in the UK, a comment on Lara Logan’s 60 Minutes report on the soldiers who have filed a redress petition with the Congress. Pre-broadcast reports hinted at a strong report on military protests but the one we saw was tooing and froing, reporting the dissent, offering putdowns of it, assuring the public that these soldiers mostly support the war, are not radical etc etc.
The real military dissenters were not shown, and their organizing and protests not covered. There was nary a mention of Lt Watada and other dissenters—instead we had another mealy mouthed middle of the road on the one hand, and then on the other—not the braver 60 Minutes attitude that we used to know. (And why was Mike Wallace there—I thought he retired!)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/22/60minutes/main2505412.shtmlAnd now on to the UK with several links courtesy of Paul O Hanlon:
Here are 20 photos from the `Troops out of Iraq, No Trident` demonstration in London on Saturday 24th February:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/363284.htmlThe BBC1 evening news only gave about 10 seconds to the demo while ITN’s 11.15 bulletin was even worse with a three second glimpse of the protest. The BBC website report is not bad however:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6392095.stmBBC report of `Ban the bomb` march in Glasgow:
http://news.bbc.comPROTESTS IN PRAGUE
Thousands of people rallied in Prague on Saturday protesting US plans to deploy an anti-missile base in the Czech Republic
Police used stun grenades to break up the rally.
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=7931&cid=48&p=25.02.2007
DEBATING THE WAR ON TERROR
New York Times columnist Frank Rich says that President Bush is not only blowing the war in Iraq but has dropped the ball on the war on terror. He believes the intelligence that says Al Qaeda is back and even raises the prospect of a nuclear weapon being unleashed in the US. He takes reports of new US intelligence warnings seriously. There was a good exchange of views on this in THE WEEK with less alarmism all around.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/opinion/25rich.html?hp
Meanwhile…..
FORGET BIN LADEN SAYS US GENERAL
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4578111.htmlSECURITY CHIC
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2303012.eceMUGABE THE MAD
Mail & Guardian: Mugabe Celebrates Birthday
Zimbabwe’s veteran President Robert Mugabe lavishly celebrated his 83rd birthday on Saturday, with a warning to his opponents planning protests against a proposed extension to his rule. “Appropriate measures will always be taken to maintain law and order. This is a message we also send to the sponsors and instigators of the opposition,” he said.
MESSENGER’S FINAL MESSAGE OF UNITY
DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) — Ailing Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan delivered Sunday what was billed as his last public address, calling for Christian-Muslim unity ahead of what he predicted will be apocalyptic times.
“I have set before you this day two signs — one of life, one of death,” Farrakhan told followers on the eve of “Saviours’ Day,” the birthday of Nation of Islam founder Fard Mohammed.
“Choose life that you and your seed may live. Thank you, Allah, for allowing me to finish my lecture.”
Farrakhan, 73, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the 1990s. He underwent surgery in 2000 to remove an intestinal ulcer stemming from his treatment, and announced last September that doctors had discovered a similar ulcer, along with “serious infection and inflammation.”
