Democracy's Blooper Reel

Quaint. Obsolete. Stupid. Juvenile.

From the AP:

"Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches at the United States Military Academy, said the images showed 'stupid' and 'juvenile' behavior - but not necessarily a crime."

Odds & Ends from the Cinesphere

I don't just read depressing news all day. (Although it is true that I sometimes allow the Drudge Report to automatically and none-too-soothingly auto-refresh for hours at a time.) I also read about and watch an awful lot of movies. Here are the latest movie bits buzzing through my brain.

First up, the geniuses at IFC made Henry Rollins a film critic. Horrifying.

Just in time to piss off the far right and the anti-drug crusaders, Cheech & Chong are making another movie! By the way, you can see screenshots of Tommy Chong's now defunct online headshop here. Cheech calls Ashcroft (who busted Chong) a "fucking Nazi" but they're happy for the publicity.

San Francisco cops are re-opening the murder case of Meredith Hunter at the infamous Rolling Stones concert at Altamont in 1970. The police are reviewing footage of the killing from the incredible Maysles Bros. doc Gimme Shelter.

The seasoned political experts over at Film Threat have inexplicably chosen Michael Moore to top their annual "Frigid List" of the "coldest people in Hollywood." According to FT, we should blame Michael Moore for the Democrats' big loss last November. And I thought it was the queers' fault.

If Michael Moore's "anti-American" hijinx make your blood boil, get a load of Will Smith, who had the nerve to tell a German reporter that "nothing changed" for him on 9/11. Opined Smith:

"In the '60s, blacks were continuously the victims of terrorist attacks. It was civil terrorism, but terrorism nonetheless. We are used to being attacked. That constant state of vigilance - a sort of defensive state - that hasn't changed at all. For me, nothing has changed at all."

Too bad Smith didn't speak up sooner so Trey Parker & Matt Stone could include him in their toothless "satire" on Hollywood liberals.

Jumping on (creating?) the Smith controversy, the right wing watchdog group PABAAH or Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood (talk about a mouthful) urges its members to boycott Smith's movies. I have plenty of good reasons to skip Will Smith movies, but none of them has to do with his reasoned opinions about the war on terror.

In addition to petitions attempting to try Michael Moore for treason and demanding the revival of HUAC, PABAAH's wacky site includes a running list of celebrity "traitors" to America. PABAAH urges members to boycott the films of anyone and everyone on the list. The problem is that if the knuckle-draggers over at PABAAH actually boycotted everyone on that list, they'd have to abandon their regular trips to the cineplex for something else. Reading perhaps? Imagine resigning yourself to a life of Ann Coulter books and Toby Keith albums just to avoid seeing commie propaganda like The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (featuring voice work by enemy-of-the-state Alec Baldwin.)

The PABAAH loonies are so ideologically-pure that some want to boycott movies by people who have worked with individuals on the blacklist. Hence the internal debate over including Republican Clint Eastwood on an alternate list of Hollywood heroes. Forum moderator "Will" from Colorado indignantly writes:

"Just for the record:
I have a life size poster of Clint Eastwood that I have had for years. But he does not deserve to be on the "Patriot" list. He produced Penn's (Sean) and Robbin's (Tim) movie.

It seems to me that it was done on purpose to give these losers a job. It is too much of a coincidence. Don't you all think?"

Who passes ideological snuff with PABAAH? Why such luminaries as Bo Derek, Orson Bean, Dave Mustaine, Shannon Doherty and Jim Nabors. (OK, OK cheap shot.) In fact, that list also includes James Woods, Joe Pesci, George Lucas and of course Arnie and Mel. Ironically, for all the right wing's crowing about the influence of Hollywood on the political process, the two most explicit examples of the collision between politics and pop culture are Schwarzenegger and Gibson.

Oh yeah, and John Larroquette of TV's Night Court made PABAAH's "Patriot List" too. This despite the objections of dissident members suspicious of the actor's French surname. (I kid you not.)

Another "slow news week"

"The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says I love to make a grown man piss himself." -- Charles A. Graner, Jr. on the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib

Snarky insider Wonkette calls this a "slow news week." As much as I love Wonkette, she seems more fixated on Cheney's bulge than on the tidal wave of big, bad news which came out over the past week.

In addition to the Pentagon's Psy-Oops! non-scandal, there was the leaked report from the Red Cross alleging widespread torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay. Among the allegations, that doctors participated in interrogations by offering medical information useful in torturing prisoners both physically and psychologically. For once, those Nazi comparisons to our Homeland Security apparatus are starting to ring painfully true.

This follows non-stories earlier this week that the Pentagon knew about the conditions at Abu Ghraib prison months before the scandal broke. And just today, the LA Times reports that conditions at the prison were so bad that even the CIA raised concerns. That's ironic, when you consider that they wrote the book on US torture methods.

More non-scandalous, non-news this week comes from the Pentagon itself. A 102 page, high-level internal report prepared by something called the Defense Science Board lambastes US conduct in Iraq. One small sample:

"Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather they hate our policies," adding that "when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy."

This report wasn't written by Ramsey Clark or the Commies over at Salon. It was prepared by and for the Pentagon. Just the latest in a seemingly endless barrage of internal criticism from the military itself. But if you think such reports are news, you must be reading the overseas press!

Oh yeah, and let's not forget all those frivolous lawsuits and activist judges who made it such a slow news week.

Nor the stolen election. Not that one. The other one.

And finally who can forget the biggest non-news of all? November was our bloodiest month in Iraq yet!

With the presses practically grinding to a halt, we need a big scoop fast. Perhaps a death verdict for Scott Peterson or another hottie schoolteacher sleeping with her male student.

Punk'd by the Pentagon

The only thing more shocking than the news that the Pentagon is willfully lying to the media as part of its psy-ops campaign is the discovery that we aren't really all that shocked. The story: CNN dutifully reported that US forces were invading Fallujah weeks before it actually happened. Why? Because the Pentagon lied to the media in order to test the insurgents' response to a potential attack. Call it a trial balloon.

A choice quote:

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said U.S. personnel are never allowed to deceive reporters, and he said he is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the Gilbert interview.

"We are looking into reports where people may have gotten more creative than they should have," he said.

The target of these so-called "psy-ops" campaigns is our so-called "enemy" in Iraq. But there's precious little analysis of the effect such disinformation has on US citizens (and for that matter an already grossly misinformed electorate.)

Maybe no one really cares too much about these revelations because they're simply the most explicit example of the generally toothless reporting and analysis already offered by the media. Throughout the run-up to the war, the "shock and awe" campaign, the capture of Saddam and the presidential election, the reputedly "liberal media" has taken to Bush Admin talking points like kittens to milk. It's pathetic (and unlike my analogy, not nearly as cute.)

As part of the general trend toward secrecy and disinformation, even the Pentagon-friendly practice of using "embedded reporters" is coming under fire.

As the War in Iraq (or is that "on Iraq") steadily escalates, lazy libs are given to calling it Vietnam 2.0. But Tomdispatch makes the case that Iraq resembles another more recent quagmire.