If you'd forgotten how sold out the mainstream media are, this sopping wet gushing embrace of Reagan should remind you. I've been watching the science fiction channel instead of footage of the latest travels of the Reagan hearse. Might as well, the information is as reliable, and at least they present it as fiction. For me, Reagan was a dumb face with a happy smile, just like Bush. But I think Reagan had better advisors, rather than the nincompoop neocons Bush has allowed to burrow into his brain like the Gaould worms that control human brain in the Stargate series.
I'm planning a conference for February, Healing America, to be held in early February, in Palm Springs, CA. (I run my other conferences there.) I figure we'll need healing them, whether Kerry wins or not. If he loses, I'll have someone lecture on how to move to Canada and how the resistance dealt with the gestapo. If Kerry wins, it will explore how visions of taking America back even further.
Here's a bit of fresh news from the NY Times (my headline)Surprise! Bush Sides With Big Business on Case that Will Raise Your Phone Bill The Bush administration decided not to challenge a court ruling that will allow four Bell telephone companies to charge more from competitors who use their networks. Who needs more taxes when Bush gives companies more of our money?
6/9
Sending a Message with Michael Moore's Movie, Fahrenheit 911
The way the movie business works nowadays, there's one number, more than any other, that grabs attention in the movie business. That's the first weekend's sales of the movie. If it's big, it grabs headlines. If it takes first place for the weekend, that grabs headlines. More important, if those big, first weekend numbers bring in a first place, the movie will tend to have stronger, longer "legs" meaning it will be offered by movie theaters for a longer period of time.
That's why it is so important that progressives and democrats fork out their $8 to $10 a seat to see Michael Moore's movie about George Bush on the first weekend. Don't wait. Making this movie a hit is important. It will send a message that the mainstream media will not be able to ignore. It will create a halo effect, so that regular moviegoers who might have ignored it will see it out of curiosity. The big first weekend box-office will open doors in more theaters, so the number of screens airing it will increase, making it accessible to more people.
A few weeks ago, the movie, The Day After, did very well, and that sent a message. Already it is one of the top 160 grossing movies in the US. But, according to www.imdb.com it is already 116th among top grossing movies when worldwide gross sales are included. This suggests that the negative reviews that the right wing media gave it hurt this movie, directed by Roland Emmerich, who also directed Independence Day, the number 10 top grossing movie in world sales. Of course, The Day After has only been out a few weeks, and it's sales will continue.
The point is, Michael Moore's newest movie has a shot at hitting numbers strong enough to keep it visible, to make it more controversial. If it makes serious money, that will put Moore in an even better position to get financing to make further muckraking, hard hitting movies, and it will show Hollywood that there's money to be made telling the truth about corrupt politicians, that there's a profit in funding movies that take on tough issues.
We want to see ten more Michael Moores out there creating hard-hitting films with a political edge. Some of them may have already made straight entertainment films. Who knows, maybe even superstar directors and screenwriters may be dying to do a movie that can make a difference. Maybe, instead of making movies about planetary catastrophes like earthquakes, tidal waves and ice ages, they'll take on the real threats to the planet-- extreme right wingers, megacorporations, massive religious fundamentalist movements, ecological monsters wiping out thousands of species... Hey, if Moore's movie shows that there's a profit in it.... why not?
And let's not forget Disney. I've long been a fan of Disney. They've had a hard time of it with fundamentalists for making movies that the religious nuts don't approve of. So it's not like they've just come out against the left wing. Also, they could have played hardball and tried to kill the movie altogether, or dragged out the fight to release it so it didn't come out until after the November elections. And they did fund the movie. So I'm not going to boycott them. But I will take a close look at the movie chains that run the movie and the ones that do not.
I expect that the smaller artsy theaters will carry the film first and I intend to support my local small theater, rather than the big chains. But it is a small theater and I'm guessing that it may sell out. If so, I'll go to the local Regal or AMC.
If they're smart, the DNC, MOVEON.org, and other democratic and left wing communications organizations will get the word out to people to see it on the first weekend, using email and maybe even running ads supporting the movie.
After all the movie tells the story about a corrupt political dynasty. The more people know about George Bush, the less likely they are to fall for his crinkly smile and folksy demeanor. Bush is a sociopath and his family is a cancer on the planet. This movie tells the truth about the Bush's and we should all do what we can to get that word out.
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Watching TV the last few days, flipping the channels, seeing how the major media showed shots of the hearse driving Reagan's body in the coffin to its next viewing place, the continuous focus on glorifying him... it's disgusting. Thank goodness for people like Ted Rall, who have been unafraid to tell the truth about Reagan, another extreme right wing dumb guy with charisma, just like Bush, who used his aw shucks persona to rip off the American public and perpetrate illegal war crimes.
6/8
Back from the mythic journeys conference, and inspired to see things from a mythic, archetypal perspective. I interviewed Huston Smith, the world famous expert on religions of the world and Matthew Fox, catholic priest who was de-frocked by the pope for his liberal views.
This torture business, with the Whitehouse lawyers rationalizing that the POTUS can get away with anything is unbelievable.
A thought. Republicans LOVE terrorists. They keep the fear factor up, occasionally create crises that rally people around the US leadership and keep the money flowing to their favorite contributors.
May 30
BushNational Security: 300,000 bodies and $300 Billion Short, but He Still Has His Strut
It's hard to imagine how a Bush supporter can feel that Bush is doing a good job with national security.
If we weren't in Iraq, where there are close to 150,000 troops and at least an additional 150,000 mercenaries, troops from other nations and privately hired workers, we'd have all those human resources available to commit to protecting the security of the nation, to deal with the threat and causes of terrorism. If we didn't have the Iraq War we'd have over $300 million more dollars to spend on dealing with the threat and causes of terrorism, rather than seeing that Bush plans to cut the funding for homeland security for the next budget year.
Imagine if we took the $300 billion spent on Iraq, with so little to show for it, and applied it to beefing up our national security, creating new systems for making our shipping, our roads and railways, our air traffic, our water, electricity and food supplies safer? Imagine if we had 150,000 people available to function in different roles of national security.
But we don't. instead we have a new proposal for a budget that cuts homeland security funding. We are engaging in a disastrous quicksand disaster that has drastically increased the ability of terrorists to recruit new suicide bombers because the US has moved from being beloved and respected to being hated and reviled, from being admired for it's freedom and democracy to being held in contempt and disgust for its heinous torture, crooked politics, and international lies and, broken agreements and disrespect for longtime allies.
The only thing Bush still has going for him, in terms of nation security is his strut and his too oft repeated collections of limp, impotent mantras-- "evildoers," "go the distance,"
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It's been said that in WW2 the people trusted the wisdom of their president and followed his lead. Well, back then, the people had the wisdom to elect a great president, not the corrupt idiot we have in office. God! I'd like to see him jailed.
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Readers are disgusted that the US Gov milked the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman, not releasing the truth about his death.
I was browsing at a bookstore yesterday evening and met the head of a NASDAQ company-- nice guy. The topic of Abu Ghraib came up. He raised what I've come to expect to be the standard right wing response. The terrorists are bad guys, we can't be nice guys with them if they are in prison. If they do bad things, that justifies us acting badly, torturing them. I don't buy it. We do not drop our standards to the level of the worst dregs of humanity. We act the way we would want our prisoners treated and no less. It's a simple matter of reciprocity. Anything less is not acceptable and is a failure to keep faith with our soldiers.
May 29
The Movie, Day After Tomorrow, is a Blockbuster, Great Entertainment Winner; It's projected to Top $100 million this weekend and even better, it could hurt Bush by Rob Kall OpEdNews.com
May 28
Expanding the Cracks in and Crashing Down the Right Wing, Republican Wall by Rob Kall
May 27
Could Bush Step down from the 2004 Race? Would McCain Beat Kerry, While Bush and His Policies Are Melting Down? Is McCain the Leading Edge of a Movement among Republicans to reject Bush and the failed policies that have tarnished the GOP? By Rob Kall
May 24
You've Been Drafted; to Save the Planet... from Bush and the Republican Horde-- no matter your age or sex by Rob Kall
May 22
Was Bush Suckered into Iraq by Iran? thru Achmed Chalabi, the WMD threat "insider neocon sweetheart expert" who was an Agent for Iranians, by Rob Kall
May 22
A note sent to John Zogby, suggesting some different poll questions.
Why not match John McCain up against John Kerry? As Bush plummets,
McCain is one of the few Republicans remaining with integrity. My guess is
McCain would do much better than Bush.
If you also ask about republicans standing independent of Bush and DeLay,
you might actually help the US by showing republicans that they need to
act independently.
I'm a democrat, and really would not want to see McCain running against
Kerry, since I think McCain would run away with it, but I am also a
patriot, and at least then, there would be two honest people running for
president. And that's a win win for everyone.
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Fox TV calls Thomas Hamill, the Halliburton employee who was kidnapped, a hero. Why? For being a prisoner? For getting paid a lot to go to Iraq to work for Halliburton? For being pro-Bush? So he's a more appealing guest interview? Fox is trash TV, the Bush's version of Pravda propaganda. Any people who work on salary for Fox claiming to be journalists should be automatically blacklisted from appearing as journalists anywhere else.
May 17
my email to Matt Drudge, upon him using a picture of John kerry's daughter at cannes, with a semi-see-through gown (it is in bad taste and terrible judgement, in light of her father's candidacy.) :
subject heading: Kerry daughter shot proves you're a total scumbag
I guess you
