Ablogalypse Now

Outfoxed

Hot on the heels of Fahrenheit 9/11's overwhelming success, a new documentary is taking aim at Fox News and Rupert Murdoch's relentless War on Journalism.

Post Fahrenheit Thoughts

When my wife and I arrived at the theater yesterday evening, the line for Fahrenheit 9/11 was a good 200-300 feet long and stretched all the way from the ticket office to the opposite wall and back towards the mall entrance.

A local news team was on hand and a young reporter in a pink dress was walking around and interviewing moviegoers while attempting to keep her balance on a pair of high heels that were thin as toothpicks.

"Hey, news people," a guy a few feet behind me said as the camera swung to focus on him. "President Bush is Number ONE!!!" The man then brandished his middle finger as proof that Bush was in fact Number 1.

The crowd was definitely the largest I've seen for this type of movie, and the largest I'd seen in awhile. I typically don't like to see documentaries on the big screen but I was anxious to see if all the hype leading up to the film had been worth it.

Just then I saw an older guy toting a full-sized American flag and a folding chair walk up to a spot near the line and began to set up what I assumed was going to be some sort of anti-Moore protest table. As the guy's wife began to set up the portable table they had brought along, mall security came over and informed them that they were on private property and would have to leave if they were not going to see a movie.

After a long wait, the line finally began to move and we soon found ourselves a couple of prime seats within the theater, which was soon filled to capacity as the house the house lights went down.

What followed after was 121 minutes of the most gut-wrenchingly powerful and quite often, hilarious film footage I have ever seen.

Beginning with the stolen election of 2000, Moore paints a gripping picture of a man who was swept into office on a raft of lies and whose utter incompetence was momentarily redeemed by the national tragedy of 9/11, an event that the Bush Administration chose to exploit to keep the nation on a permanent, fear-based war footing.

Yes, Moore does rake Bush over the coals, and rightly so. But he also blasts Democrats for not speaking out against the raw injustice of the 2000 election and later, for going along with the national tide of bloodlust that preceded our invasion of Iraq.

Moore also chides the media for the 2000 election debacle and for their complete and utter failure to do their jobs prior to, and during the Iraq war.

Also criticized are the Saudi royal family, the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, and every other company that has profited from the war in Iraq.

Critics say that the film is misleading. I hate to say it, but they're right.

Moore makes no mention at all of the fact that Bush spent the first 40 years of his life as an arrogant and obnoxious alcoholic.

But seriously, I'm not sure how people can make this claim when the facts about the slimy ties that bind the Bushes, the Bin Ladens, the Saudis, Halliburton and Iraq are all laid out for everyone to see.

I suggest that Bush supporters should watch this movie and pretend that it's Bill Clinton that's being skewered. Put him in the middle of all those entangling alliances and be honest with yourself about how it would make you feel.

I seem to recall conservatives going apeshit during the Clinton Administration a few years back when all the allegations of Chinese influence peddling surfaced. If the thought of excessive Chinese influence is so bad, then why is it any different with the Saudis?

Yes, Moore does show scenes that are gruesome and heart-wrenching in their depiction of the suffering of US soldiers and Iraqis as well. But he does this to underscore the madness of an unecessary war that was justified by a series of lies and the manipulated emotions of a nation still raw from the horror of 9/11.

One of the film's more disgusting moments is at the very beginning when filmgoers are treated to the hideous sight of Paul Wolfowitz soaking his comb in his mouth before running it through his hair.

Moore covers a great deal of ground in the film and succeeds in bringing together a number of disparate threads that were either ignored or downplayed altogether by the so-called mainstream media. Most people are too damned busy or otherwise distracted to catch all this stuff as it happens and Moore does a great job of revealing all the entangling alliances that led up to the Iraq war.

Words can be damning things, and there are few images more damning than the film footage of George Dubya speaking to a well-heeled crowd and saying, "This is an impressive crowd. The haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base" or tooling around on a golf course, exhorting world leaders to fight terrorism with all their might before hoisting his golf club and saying, "Now, watch this drive!"

As Moore says, the facts laid out in F911 are irrefutable, but F9/11 is essentially an op/ed piece. As is the case with any fact, there will always be at least two different ways of looking at those facts.

Bush's detractors will see an election stolen by a dimwitted stooge of neo-conservative military-industrial interests who exploited a national tragedy to keep people in a state of perpetual fear while enriching his base and imposing an Orwellian domestic agenda.

Bush supporters will see a valid election that was validated even further by 9/11 and that everything since has been right, good, and necessary because of America's position as the sole remaining superpower.

Either way, anyone who truly cares about this country owes it to themselves to see the facts for themselves and to think long and hard about where we've been, where we are, and where we're going.

ADDENDUM

I went to see it again last night. This time at a different theater. There were fewer people this time around and the crowd was less rowdy than the one that showed up for opening night.

Petty Muckraking From the Associated Press

The Associated Press is now reporting that John Kerry accepted a $2,000 campaign contribution from the recently arrested son of South Korea's former president, and that some of Kerry's money people met several times with a South Korean government official who was trying to launch some sort of Korean-American political group.

While this may seem suspicious to some, it certainly does not even come close to the cozy relationship that Bush enjoyed with Enron and that the Bush family continues to enjoy with the bizarro Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon.

Breakfast with Hunter

I feel shame at not having found out about this sooner.

"'Breakfast with Hunter' is a feature length documentary starring the infamous outlaw journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Edited by director Wayne Ewing from cinema verite film and digital video that he shot over many years on the road with Dr. Thompson, Breakfast with Hunter follows several story lines in the trials (literally) and triumphs of this cultural icon who created his own genre of writing - Gonzo journalism."

Gene Simmons Steps In It Down Under

Currently in Australia for series of weekend shows, famed bass guitarist and amateur social scientist Gene Simmons recently saw fit to offer this bit of analysis on the current conflict between the Western and Arab world.

"This is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it's willing to just live in the sands of God's armpit you've got another thing coming," Simmons said during an interview on Melbourne's 3AW radio Thursday. "They want to come and live right where you live and they think that you're evil....You can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff — none of the women have that advantage,"

This from a man who claims to have slept with about 4600 women, who once wrote a song about screwing a 16-year-old girl (when he was 28), and who also has his own line of tongue-shaped condoms.

NewsMax Hacks Bash Randi Rhodes

Continuing to pander to the paranoid, "black helicopters are coming to get me" Dale Gribbles of the world, rabid right-wing media outlet NewsMax now has their panties in a bunch over Air America's resident firebrand Randi Rhodes.

Under the sensational pseudo-tabloid headline "Air America Host 'Jokingly' Calls for Bush Hit" - an unnamed NewsHacks 'reporter' lamented an off-hand comment Rhodes made during her Monday show.

I listened to that show, as I do most days, and my recollection of it was Randi comparing the Bush Family to the Corleones with George W. playing the part of the hapless dimwit Fredo who gets whacked at the end of The Godfather II for shaming and betraying his family.

Posted, like the rest of the copy on the site in 18-point Courier, the NewsHacks story went on to say:

"Comparing Bush and his family to the Corleones of "Godfather" fame, Air America host Randi Rhodes reportedly [emphasis added] unleashed this zinger during her Monday night broadcast: "Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw."

"Rhodes then imitated the sound of a gunshot."

Oooooh. How dare she? What an outrage, right? The Secret Service should follow NewsHacks' suggestion to kick in Randi Rhodes' door any time now, right?

WRONG!

My take on Randi's quip was the implication that Dubya has embarrassed himself and the Bush family name so thoroughly that it was surprising that some of the more level-headed members of his family, and not some random "somebody", hadn't whacked him yet.

And besides that - as God-fearing, peaceful conservatives often like to say when they are calling people they don't like "terrorists", advocating a nuclear strike on Foggy Bottom, or implying that people like Senator Hillary Clinton should be assassinated - it was after all, only a joke or taken out of context and not meant to be taken seriously.

So lighten up, assholes. We put up with 8 years of this crap when Bill Clinton was in office so just sit down, shut up, and take your fucking medicine.

My 1.5 Minutes of Fame!

Sitting at my desk this afternoon listening to the one and only Miss Randi Rhodes on Air America when I hear her put out a call for predictions on what "October Surprise" Bush will unveil to slam-dunk the 2004 election. The grand prize? Nothing less than a brand-new waffle iron!

So.....in a fit of rushed inspiration I quickly fired off the following:

"Digging deep into the Lee Atwater Bible of Republican Dirty Tricks, Rove and Bush will produce a Photoshop-altered image of a Speedo-clad John Kerry serving mimosas to young boys at a NAMBLA pool party hosted by Michael Jackson and Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman). On the heels of the subsequent media firestorm that will ensue, Osama bin Laden will be "captured" and brought to the U.S. along with Saddam Hussein where they will both be strapped to the hood of a specially-designed presidential race car that George W. Bush will pilot for an obligatory victory lap at the NASCAR Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 being held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on October 31. Cheers! Dave in AZ"

Like an idiot I hit the "Send" button too soon and the post got cut in half. So I sent the last half with the NASCAR bit which Randi proceeded to read at about 2 hours and 10 minutes into her show today.

A replay of today's show will air later tonight or early tomorrow morning. Now if I can only find a way to record it.

Curious? Submit your "October Surprise" prediction here.

A Pundit's Folly

In the current issue of Time magazine, conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer attempts (“The Trouble with Apologies”) to defend the Bush regime’s ongoing inability to own up to their growing list of political blunders.

Putting George Dubya on the same ground with the likes of F.D.R., Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln, Kraphammer argues that Bush is justified in his stubborn refusal to admit he fucked up.

Kraphammer does get it right when he said, “any judgment about the President’s judgments requires context.” But not the contexts (The War on Terror, and War in General) that he cites.

The context that is worth considering when it comes to any discussion of George W. Bush is the cold hard fact that he did not win the presidency – he stole it. It is precisely because of this that makes everything Bush does inherently suspect and open to debate.

Those who suggest that what’s done is done and that all the naysayers and malcontents should just get over it and close ranks behind the President are out of their fucking minds.

Had the 2000 election been a hands-down clean sweep for the Fortunate Son, the chances are pretty good that he would be cruising along smoothly right about now the way Bill Clinton was heading into the 1996 election.

But that’s not the way things worked out. Bush and his gang of fixers stole the White House and have left their slimy handprints on everything they have done since then.

As further proof of Kraphammer’s delusional state, he goes on to refer to Pakistan a, “our most significant ally in the war on terror.”

Uhhhhh. Excuse me? Is Kraphammer talking about the same Pakistan whose top nuclear scientist put a virtual garage sale of nuclear technology out on the open market for the highest bidder? The same Pakistan who then turned around and gave the guy what amounted to a slap on the wrist?

Conservatives can bitch about how much of Bill Clinton’s skirt-chasing was forgiven by the left, but it is downright chilling how much bullshit the right is willing to look past in order to keep their favorite boy in power.

The O'Franken Factor...

..now has it's very own blog. Check it out.

Randi's On A Roll......

Tune in here.....(RealPlayer required)