In the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart plays a naive Boy Scout leader who is appointed to serve out the remaining term of a deceased senator. He arrives in Washington full of optimism, only to be disillusioned by corruption. When he threatens to blow the whistle on some shady dealing in his home state he is set up to take the fall. Instead he puts up a fight and holds a filibuster while the Boy Scouts get a petition together to send to the Senate to rescue their hero. All of this takes place because Mr. Smith uncovers a little bribery.
I wonder what would happen in a modern remake where Mr. Smith arrives in Washington, all rosy cheeks and full of fantasies about how American government works? How would he respond to the institutional corruption of PACs and lobbyists, corporate payola in the form of campaign contributions and enough pork-barrelling to feed the world’s poor (if it were real pork barrels)? Would he stand by? Would he blow the whistle? Would he join in the orgy of greed? I think we all know what Jimmy Stewart would have done. It would have been the whistle heard round the world.
But this is 2008, not 1939. The meagre tools of political smear campaigns in the past have been replaced by CNN, FOXNews, talk radio, the blogosphere and PhotoShop. I can picture it. Ann Coulter publishes Sedition: The Lies of Mr. Smith. Rush and the gang spew their venom 24/7. The tabloids publish pictures of "Mr. Smith" in S&M attire whipping some naked Boy Scouts. Canoe-Boat Veterans for Truth puts videos on YouTube of crying boys talking of how they were denied merit badges by the unscrupulous Mr. Smith who actually expected them to earn them ... not to mention stories of nocturnal semi-pagan ceremonies around campfires replete with hot cocoa and s’mores.
What does Mr. Smith do? Suicide is not an option for Jimmy Stewart. A filibuster, a time honoured democratic tool, is out – the Republicans have changed the rules and smeared them as undemocratic and unpatriotic. Larry King won’t go near him with a 10-foot pole and the op-ed pages of the Times and the Post won’t publish his response.
Beaten down, silenced, facing 20 to life as a prison-bitch he falls back on his final bastion: the constitution. Off he goes to avail himself of his uniquely American right to bear assault weapons. Loaded down with enough weaponry to make Charlton Heston have wet dreams, dressed like Rambo in a Boy Scout uniform, he makes Neo’s rescue of Morpheus in The Matrix look like a kindergarten field trip. Nobody has been this pissed off in an official setting since Jesus trashed the Temple.
The dust clears. The sounds of gunfire fade. The lobbyists and other agents of corruption lie wasted in the aisles of Congress, briefcases full of money blowing in the wind. Out steps Mr. Smith, this uniquely American hero (let’s face it, it couldn’t happen anywhere else), bloodied but unbowed, American flag flapping in the background to the strains of America the Beautiful as the screen fades to black. After all, this is fiction, the real world doesn’t work that way.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Say That Again? No Really ... You Are Kidding Right?
So Barack Obama's former Minister said that the U.S. brought 9/11 on itself. Horrors! Why would anyone want to attack that beacon of peace and freedom, that light unto the world the United States? Let's see. How about maintaining an economic embargo that killed thousands of children throughout the nineties? Oh, wait ... the Iraqis didn't do it. How about protesting that you support democracy and then funding repressive regimes around the world? How about using military and intelligence operatives and operations to disrupt and destroy democratic processes wherever there is the chance someone with different ideas might get elected?
I looked this up for a class I was teaching. The list of U.S. military interventions since 1890 (not including humanitarian or state of emergency deployments) runs 12 pages, single-spaced, size 12 font. The primary causes of intervention: foreign -- elections; domestic -- strikes. Yep, wouldn't want any of the world's poor to try to get a step up. Crush 'em if they try. Villify anyone who dares point out what the U.S. government has really meant by "freedom" in its actions: freedom for U.S. corporations to exploit the world's workers and rape the world's resources. Oops, did I say that? Okay let me correct myself: FREEDOM FOR U.S. CORPORATIONS TO EXPLOIT THE WORLD'S WORKERS AND RAPE THE WORLD'S RESOURCES. There, I feel better after that correction. How about you?
Then, apparently the dear reverend had the temerity to suggest that white people still mistreat black people in the United States. Yeah, like that ever happens. What a nut. What a kook. What a racist. What a ... Rodney King. Is the KKK on the terrorist watch list? It's not? Why not? What about Aryan Nations? What about all the myriad ways black people are routinely debased and degraded: seen New Orleans lately. And not just in the U.S. In Canada, in Europe, even in Africa where we can't be bothered to fight Aids or repression or genocide because ... Well, because why exactly? Does it have anything to do with the persistent cultural overhang of 300 years of race-based slavery? If you think it doesn't maybe it is time you took a drive out of your neighbourhood or maybe read a book by an author whose name isn't Stephen King or Harlequin Romance or just read a book. How about just taking your head out of your butt and opening your eyes. White people still mistreat black people. No. Ya think?
And then poor Obama has to make a speech where he has to manage to spout what he must know is crap without damaging his soul all in order to preserve his political standing because the last thing the electorate needs to know is the TRUTH. Because after decades of ET, FOX News, Survivor and endless Idol reruns most of the American electorate has their heads ensconced so far up their collective asses that not only can't they handle the truth ( it might make their heads explode -- what fun) but it would take every proctologist in the world working 24 hours a day a million years to pull all those heads free.
And that is the TRUTH.
I looked this up for a class I was teaching. The list of U.S. military interventions since 1890 (not including humanitarian or state of emergency deployments) runs 12 pages, single-spaced, size 12 font. The primary causes of intervention: foreign -- elections; domestic -- strikes. Yep, wouldn't want any of the world's poor to try to get a step up. Crush 'em if they try. Villify anyone who dares point out what the U.S. government has really meant by "freedom" in its actions: freedom for U.S. corporations to exploit the world's workers and rape the world's resources. Oops, did I say that? Okay let me correct myself: FREEDOM FOR U.S. CORPORATIONS TO EXPLOIT THE WORLD'S WORKERS AND RAPE THE WORLD'S RESOURCES. There, I feel better after that correction. How about you?
Then, apparently the dear reverend had the temerity to suggest that white people still mistreat black people in the United States. Yeah, like that ever happens. What a nut. What a kook. What a racist. What a ... Rodney King. Is the KKK on the terrorist watch list? It's not? Why not? What about Aryan Nations? What about all the myriad ways black people are routinely debased and degraded: seen New Orleans lately. And not just in the U.S. In Canada, in Europe, even in Africa where we can't be bothered to fight Aids or repression or genocide because ... Well, because why exactly? Does it have anything to do with the persistent cultural overhang of 300 years of race-based slavery? If you think it doesn't maybe it is time you took a drive out of your neighbourhood or maybe read a book by an author whose name isn't Stephen King or Harlequin Romance or just read a book. How about just taking your head out of your butt and opening your eyes. White people still mistreat black people. No. Ya think?
And then poor Obama has to make a speech where he has to manage to spout what he must know is crap without damaging his soul all in order to preserve his political standing because the last thing the electorate needs to know is the TRUTH. Because after decades of ET, FOX News, Survivor and endless Idol reruns most of the American electorate has their heads ensconced so far up their collective asses that not only can't they handle the truth ( it might make their heads explode -- what fun) but it would take every proctologist in the world working 24 hours a day a million years to pull all those heads free.
And that is the TRUTH.
The National Hooligan League
Chris Simon: seven previous suspensions, stomps guy with skate, gets 30 games.
Chris Pronger: seven previous suspensions, stomps guy with skate, gets 8 games.
?
Moronic, simply moronic. Period.
If the Leafs don't get a capable general manager this time -- and by capable I mean one who can actually assess and draft future talent not sign has-beens -- I swear that I am becoming a Habs fan. Okay maybe Ottawa. Let's face it, the camel that picked the Giants to win the Super Bowl is likely a better candidate for GM -- and more likely to draft star players -- than anyone who has been employed in that job since 1967.
Chris Pronger: seven previous suspensions, stomps guy with skate, gets 8 games.
?
Moronic, simply moronic. Period.
If the Leafs don't get a capable general manager this time -- and by capable I mean one who can actually assess and draft future talent not sign has-beens -- I swear that I am becoming a Habs fan. Okay maybe Ottawa. Let's face it, the camel that picked the Giants to win the Super Bowl is likely a better candidate for GM -- and more likely to draft star players -- than anyone who has been employed in that job since 1967.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
