Back to the Beginning

Well, I’ve come full circle, and it just goes to show that, as a professor once told me, things really do come in waves and you have to be ready when they come back.

I started this blog in August, and I’m really the only one who’s ever read it aside from a surprising amount of people who wanted to know what I was calling the “the most underrated movie of the year,” which really just proves that blown out of proportion headlines truly do work.  My first post was about being in a movie slump, where I just couldn’t bring myself to watch many movies, my netflix que was stationary, and any movies I did watch, I just felt pretty numb to them.

Well, I’m in another one, and once again it’s driving me to write in this blog.

The only thing that’s getting me through this movie slump is TV.  Specifically, Breaking Bad.

This one show may get me out of my slump.  It’s that damn good.

Binge

Been on book binge the last week or so.  Movie binge the month before that.  Apparently I do this.  Lookng back, I see that I tend to get really into things, then jump into something else for a while, then jump back.  Okay … I really only do it with book and movies, which is good I suppose.  At least I’m not out there bingeing on booze for a month, switching to crack for a few weeks, and then moving on to hookers.  So that’s good.  Movies and books are better anyways.

Recently:

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (intense as hell)

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon (hilarious and incredibly endearing)

Coraline by Neil Gaiman  (amazing)

Aliens: No Exit by Brian Evenson  (very cool)

… the Oscars.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything here, but I figured I should say something about the Oscars.  It’s been said before, but holy crap the Oscars sure know how to play it safe.

I’m glad Benjamin Button is there.  It was one of my favorite films in a while.  But the fact that The Dark Knight was snubbed is amazing.  For me The Dark Knight was probably the best film of the year.  It might be tied with Benjamin Button just because they’re so different it’s hard to really pick one, but certainly it was better than the rest of the Oscar nods.  This is not saying that the rest were bad–not by any means.  They were all excellent films.

But come on … The Reader?  Really?

Dark Knight should’ve had nods in best picture, best screenplay, and best director.  There’s no excuse.  I can only say that the Dark Knight was too good for the Oscars anyway.  And so is Christopher Nolan.

I can only hope that at least Fincher wins Best Director.

To the New Democratic Majority:

I always give the Democrats the benefit of doubt.  I believe that they can accomplish some good.  Maybe it’s because I grew up in Red Sox country.  I always have hope that good things will happen, even though it’s often a pessimistic hope.  While an ineffective Democratic Party is still more useful than an effective Republican party, I always still hope for that effective Democratic Party.

The Democrats have made it to the World Series, but it’s a long road to the win.  I’ve been disappointed by the Democratic Party before, but I’m hoping.  I’m hoping.

Don’t fuck it up.

W.

“Forget the myths the media’s created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”
– Deep Throat, All the President’s Men

These words boomed in the back of my mind as I watched Oliver Stone’s new film W.. In fact, these words have been running through my mind for quite some time, really any time I look at the state of the country, but this film has hit on something.  This film is not a damning statement against policy, or even an attack on character.  It’s an examination of a man’s life and how he got to where he is now.

The film looks at the man behind the decisions, and, although the film’s focus is on Bush, we get a glimpse of his entire cabinet.  We do not see them as figureheads, but as people.  People with flaws—human flaws.  It’s a dramatization for sure, but one that seems most likely accurate.  The people that got us into this mess are exactly that: people.

Watching, you begin to understand that these are people with their own strange neuroses and insecurities.  These are deeply flawed people with their own emotional scars and their own personal reasons for doing things.

Except these people are in charge of the country.  Their mistakes can and do affect the lives of millions.  Some of them are not very bright.  Others are but have Machiavellian intentions.  But either way, things did get out of hand.

I’ve been away for awhile …

Yeah, it’s been a busy few weeks.  School, school, school.  Geomorphology has turned out to be quite the bitch to get through, but I keep plugging away at it.

Saw W. today. It was really well done–much better than I was expecting.  Josh Brolin was amazing.

Now back to the pile of reading I still have to do.  I’ll try and update this a little more often than I have lately.

Kucinich on the House’s Failure to Protect the American People

Originally posted on CommonDreams.org:

The following statement was presented on the floor of The House of Representatives after Congressman Kucinich voted against the Wall Street bail out plan, H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008:

The public is being led to believe that Congress has reconsidered its position because we have before us a better bill than we had a few days ago. It is the same bill plus hundreds of new pages for hundreds of millions of tax breaks. What does this have to do with the troubles of Wall Street?

Driven by fear we are moving quickly to pass a bill, which may produce a temporary uptick for the market, but nothing for millions of homeowners whose misfortunes are at the center of our economic woes. People do not have money to pay their mortgages. After this passes, they will still not have money to pay their mortgages. People will still lose their homes while Wall Street is bailed out.

The central flaw of this bill is that there are NO stronger protections for homeowners and NO changes in the language to ensure that the secretary has the authority to compel mortgage servicers to modify the terms of mortgages. And there are NO stronger regulatory changes to fix the circumstances that allowed this to happen.

We should have created a mechanism for our government to take a controlling interest in mortgage-backed securities and use our power to work out a new deal for the homeowners. We could have done this. We should have done this. But we didn’t.

Now millions of Americans will face the threat of foreclosure without any help. And the numbers will soon rise for a number of reasons. Not only because of the Alt-A, jumbo mortgages which will soon be reset at higher interest rates, but because the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is pushing up rates on adjustable mortgages and more than half of the US adjustable mortgage rates are tied to LIBOR. Homeowner defaults will grow in significant numbers. Let’s see if Congress will be as quick to help homeowners on Main Street as they were to help speculators on Wall Street.

Now the government will have to borrow $700 billion from banks, with interest, to give banks a $700 billion bailout, and in return the taxpayers get $700 billion in toxic debt. The Senate “improved” the bailout by giving tax breaks to people in foreclosure. People in foreclosure need help paying their mortgage, they do not seek tax breaks.

Across our Nation, foreclosures continue to devastate our communities, people are losing their jobs, and the prices of necessities are skyrocketing. This legislation, just like the one we defeated last week, will do nothing to solve the problems plaguing American families or help them to get out from underneath the oppressive debt they have been forced to take on.

Unfortunately, there has been no discussion of the underlying debt-based economy and the role of our monetary system in facilitating the redistribution of wealth upwards.

It is not as though we had no choice but to pass the bill before us. We could have done this differently. We could have demanded language in the legislation that would have empowered the Treasury to compel mortgage servicers to rework the terms of mortgage loans so homeowners could avoid foreclosure. We could have put regulatory structures in place to protect investors. We could have stopped the speculators.

This bill represents an utter failure of the Democratic process. It represents the triumph of special interest over the triumph of the public interest. It represents the inability of government to defend the public interest in the face of great pressure from financial interests. We could have recognized the power of government to prime the pump of the economy to get money flowing through out society by creating jobs, health care, and major investments in green energy. What a lost opportunity! What a moment of transition away from democracy and towards domination of America by global economic interests.

Years ago, in a Cleveland neighborhood, I saw a hand-scrawled sign above a cash register in a delicatessen. The sign said: “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.” The sign above the Speaker’s rostrum reads “In God We Trust,” but we are paying the cash to Wall Street.

It is not as if we had no other choice but to pass this bill.

Dennis Kucinich is a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from Ohio.

Why I Love Dennis Kucinich

“The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren’t we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren’t we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers’ money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren’t we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren’t we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren’t we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?

Why aren’t we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren’t we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren’t we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn’t it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls.”

– Dennis Kucinich

minor rant

School is in full swing and my schedule sucks.  Two night classes, scattered day classes, and a crappy work schedule have made my week very packed.  I’m also trying to find time to read, watch movies, write, go out and actually have a life, and do homework.  For some reason, this semester seems more busy than usual.

I have a lot of reading this semester and lot of written homework (papers and -ugh- statistics homework).  I also have been trying to finish way too many books on my own time.  A bunch half-started, a few half-finished.  Right now working on Hedge’s War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning and Junot Diaz’s The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao.  Also got a few books about to be overdue at the library.  Why did summer have to end? Oh and Netflix movies.  Gotta mail those tomorrow.  Damn.

The Craponomy

Corporations and other forms of big business spend billions of dollars to lobby against government restrictions being imposed on them.  The government rolls over for them in order to get the dough.  The lack of restrictions allows big business to become reckless, eventually leading to economic downfall, which not only affects the U.S., but the whole world.

The events on the stock market yesterday are evidence of this.  But it is the business’s fault.  They begged and bribed their way through, pleading for no government involvement.

Yet, what do we see now?  The government bailing out bankrupt companies.  Apparently socialism is only available for corporations.  Any time someone brings up corporate restrictions, big business immediately goes on the offensive.  “Socialism!” they cry. “Pinko!” they shout.  But not when bad things happen to them.  We’ll still hear their cries of socialism when someone tries to stop this from happening again, but big business will continue to go running to the government for a handout when things go bad.