Married to the MOB

Last week the health care reform act was signed into law. This act had been the center of one of the most intense debates in recent times. There were several troubling incidents that occurred before and after the vote. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver was spit on. Several other minorities including congressmen John Lewis found themselves the victims of racial slurs. Senator Barney Frank was verbally abused due to his sexual orientation. After the health care vote, several offices of Democratic legislators were vandalized. Many congressmen, such as Bart Stupak received threatening phone calls. Republican representatives John Boehner and Eric Cantor were very quick to denounce these acts. Although I think they were right to denounce these actions, I think they were too little and may have been too late.

For the better part of the last eight years, I have watched the Republican Party use fear as a political tool. This fear became more pronounced during the 2008 presidential campaign. Sarah Palin used fear of Muslims to try to win votes. She tried to paint her opponent as an outsider. She tried to take the racism that this country was founded on and use it as a political tool to get votes. At the Republican convention, I watched speech after speech of people belittling education and community service. This anger and contempt gave rise to the tea party movement that claims to be a party concerned with the political direction of the country.

I don’t believe that all Republicans are racists. I think there are many legitimate policy debates that we should be having. I do think that many of them have used racism as a tool. My issue is that I have watched the Republican leadership cater to the fringe elements of their party to get votes. Even on the day health care was passed, several congressmen were seen waving a flag that symbolizes revolution to encourage the same crowed of protestors who would later be spitting on congressmen. They were encouraging the very ranks of the people who would perform drastic actions that they would later denounce. The Republican leadership fans the flames of hatred and then when it gets out of hand, they say they are appalled by the actions of the few and claim that they have no responsibility. They can’t try to use hate to get an advantage and then turn around and say they had nothing to do with it when someone gets hurt.

The other sentiment that the Republicans are cultivating is the idea that if they don’t get what they want, it is all of a sudden time to have a revolution. I contend that during the past 200 years of our country’s history we have had lots of disagreements. We didn’t have a revolution or a civil war every time there was a disagreement. What usually happens is once a decision is made we all move forward as Americans. We put aside our differences and do what we can to make it work. Instead of doing that, the Republican Party has decided just the opposite. They have decided that they are going to obstruct and even DISMANTLE the government. This idea may be coming from the fringe, but it is being supported by the main stream elements of the party. The governor of the state of Texas was talking about succeeding from the union. The Republican governor of the second biggest state in our union was entertaining talk of succession in an attempt to gain votes from the right wing fringe of his party.

In 2000, Al Gore lost a very controversial election. Did he stand up and try to secede from the union? He recognized that this thing called America is bigger than any political party. He conceded the race to George Bush in accordance with the Supreme Court decision. I had to watch George Bush wreck this country for the last 8 years and I didn’t want to secede from the union. For eight years I watched Dick Cheney and that group of nuts trash the very principles this country was founded on. I accepted that in a democracy sometimes my team looses an election. That does not mean I want to destroy the country. It means I have to peaceably persuade those around me to vote my way next time. I wish the Republican leadership would show the same respect for our history.

The Democratic Party also has a crazy left wing fringe. There will always be people who go to political extremes. The problem I have with the Republicans is how they are dealing with it. A perfect example took place during the 2008 elections. In the early part of 2008, the left wing fringe said that John McCain was not an American because he was born in Panama. He was born in Panama on a navy base while his father was in the armed forces. When the left wing nuts brought this fact up, Barak Obama, Hilary Clinton, and John Edwards all said “Of course John McCain is an American, this isn’t relevant and we are going to debate the real issues that this county is facing.” The Republican response to Obama’s origins is something very different. The Republican leadership gives ambiguous answers about Obama’s “certificate of live birth” to appease the right wing nuts in their party.

The Republicans cannot have it both ways. If they want to stoke the more radical elements of their party then they have to accept responsibility when things get out of control. All Mitch McConnell has to do is stand up and say “BARAK OBAMA WAS BORN IN AMERICA. I HAVE SEEN HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE. HE WAS BORN IN HAWAII. The leaders of this major political party could say “We may have political disagreements but Obama is probably not a Kenyan Marxist Communist and the Democrats probably aren’t the Nazis”. The truth is that the Republicans have not said that because they are trying to get votes. We had congressional elections and the people in office are the elected representatives. The majority of people in their states put them there. We have been a country for 200 years because of the rule of law. We are not some developing nation that fights a civil war every time a new king takes power.

My argument is not with the fringes of the Republican Party, such as the tea party movement. We live in a country where people are free to voice their political opinion no matter how weird those views may seem to others. We live in a place where people have the right to assemble and petition the government. Some of my own political ideas are on the fringe (like the Federal Reserve stealing our money, we are running out of oil and Cheney should be investigated for war crimes just to name a few). The ideas that are being voiced in this debate are being supported by the leaders of the party. Sarah Palin was the vice presidential candidate of one of this country’s major political parties. These are not a bunch of crazy fringe nuts. These are the so-called leaders of a political party who have disrupted our civil discourse, encouraged the worst parts of our national consciousness, and then want to have no responsibility for the repercussions of these actions. The Republican establishment cannot not have it both ways. They can either be a political party with a dissenting viewpoint who works within the framework of our system to advance an agenda, or they can be a mob.

In my opinion, the Republican Party has ceased to become a political party and has become a mob. They have tied their political future to the fringes of their movement. They have married themselves to the mob. This will make them increasing more irrelevant and eventually unelectable. They will have to go so far to the right to win their primaries that they will have no chance in a general election because they will loose the middle. They continue to alienate large parts of the country. They have already alienated black people, women, Latin@s, gays and people younger than 20. If the Republican Party wants to save itself then it needs to have constructive ideas. It needs to argue their position effectively. When they lose (and they are in the minority, so it will lose at least until the next elections), they must all put aside our differences and do what is necessary to advance our country. The Republicans are behaving like a kid who is loosing a board game so they just flip the table over. They should instead realize that since they are in a democracy they will have another chance to make their case to the American people. They should think about what they stand for instead of what they don’t.

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Pulp OBAMA!!!

“You ain’t got no problem, Jules. I’m on the MUTHA’ FU#$%R. Go back in there and chill them nigg!@#s out and wait for the wolf, which will be comin’ directly.”

That line was from the movie Pulp Fiction and was spoken by the character Marcellus Wallace. In the midst of a stressful situation, a frantic Jules calls his boss Marcellus Wallace and demands that Mr. Wallace take action to get him out of the mess he is in. The calm and cool collected boss with a few choice words reassures him that he is taking steps to fix the problem.

As I watched the political news cycle unfold in recent weeks, I see several comparisons between the situation in the movie and the political scene in Washington, DC.


The Crisis

There are several things that happened this year that have caused some people to perceive a crisis. In the 2008 elections, the Democrats won sweeping majorities. Early in 2009, the Democratic congress passed a stimulus package that despite much opposition. There was a bailout of the Auto Industry that no one liked, but most think had to be done. There was a heated debate regarding healthcare – one of the Democratic Party’s major agenda items. There were 2 governor elections that the Democrats lost. And the final straw seemed to be the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts after the death of Ted Kennedy. Most Democrats started freakin' the heck out. This was akin to a frantic Jules calling Marsellus Wallace and freaking out. He wanted a solution to his problem, he wanted his boss to appreciate his dilemma, and he wanted assurances that things were going to work out.

To add to this, there were many people in the Democratic Party who have been critical of the administration. Some claimed that Obama was not moving fast enough. Some said he was not delivering the change he promised. Some claimed that he was not doing enough. Some felt that if he didn’t move more to the left that he would alienate the very people that put him in office. It seemed that the change we could believe in was coming apart at the seams.


The Response

A response to all this came at the State of the Union Address. Obama gave what many political experts call one of the best speeches of his political career. He reiterated his agenda with an optimism that had been lost in recent months. He provided a historical context, and reminded viewers that the reasons we are in the pickle we are in now have more to do with the previous administration than the last year. It was political mastery completely putting his opponents on the defensive.

About a week later he did something even more impressive. He went on live television in a room full of his political enemies and had a debate. This was the best setting for the Republicans – he was out numbered and the debate was at a time of their choosing. He then proceeded to make them look like idiots on national television. He deflected their rhetoric with well thought out answers that were completely sensible and completely improvised. He then used the opportunity to debunk much of the political mythology.

The final part of this response was to debate his most controversial legislation on live television. The “Health Care Summit” was a forum in which Democratic and Republican law makers sat down with the president for SIX HOURS on national TV to debate health care reform. Once again, Obama shined, taking maybe the most complex political issue of our time and arguing specific points of such a complex issue.


The Wolf

I think this was Obama’s finest two months in office for several reasons. The first reason is the nature of the response. Obama won by a decisive majority. The Democrats won the Senate and the House in the last election. I believe the Democrats underestimated their position. America made a choice. In 2008, the American people were presented with two different directions to take the country. The majority of people chose Obama and the Democrats. The last few months were the first time I felt the Democrats were governing from this position. It is time for the Democrats to do what they were elected to do. I think they waited a year too long before they started governing. I hope it was not too late.

The two live debates were truly significant. To go on live TV and to debate an issue as complex as health care would be impressive in itself. To handle every single question without batting an eye is amazing. I am trying to picture George Bush going on national TV and debating health care with the level of competence that Obama did. To go into a room filled with your political adversaries and be the smartest person in the room is amazing. I think this will completely change what we expect of a president. In this YouTube and Podcast streaming society that we live in, we are going to expect every president to be able to do this. I think he has raised the bar for everyone that comes after him.

I am going to make a statement that may be pretty crazy when you consider that Obama has been in office for a little more than a year. Obama is the greatest politician of our generation. Whether you agree with Obama’s policies or not. Whether you think he is an American citizen or not. Whether you think he is a communist or not. Whether or not you think he is has been propped up by the American media. Obama is the greatest politician since FDR; maybe the greatest politician in American history. Even if you disagree with his policies (and I disagree with some of them), I hope that you can appreciate what you are witnessing. I am not saying that this is a good thing. Being good at politics is a means and not and end. The ends are to be debated, but the political means by which Obama is proceeding are nothing short of spectacular.

Obama is much like The Wolf (Harvey Keitel) character in Pulp Fiction. He walks into the room completely in control of the situation, completely informed and completely in charge. He instructs all the people in the room to get the job done. He recognizes the urgency of the situation and motivates the major players to take action. He takes on the problems of the situation one by one, but keeps in mind the over all goal. Whether he gets the job done remains to be seen, but the way he deals with the politics is like watching MJ play basketball.


I guess that makes me Marsellus Wallace. The Democrats just need to chill out. Yes Scott Brown is a Senator. Yes the Democrats have lost 2 governorships in the last 2 elections. Every night Glenn Beck finds a new conspiracy theory and Sean Hannity complains about loosing his country. Sarah Palin’s book is selling like hotcakes. The tea party movement is getting louder and angrier. CHILL THE FREAK OUT!!!!!! The Democrats will loose seats, but we will still have a majority. Two years from now unemployment may be under 10%. When that happens, the Republicans will still be the party that voted against the stimulus. They will still be the party of “NO”. The angry hoards will not burn down Washington. Just chill out and wait for The Wolf who will be coming directly!

Imagination

On Sunday the Academy Awards winners will be announced. This is one of the few award shows that I actually watch. I watch the Toni awards because I LOVE musicals and if I am going to pay 80 bucks for show I want to know something about it. I watch the Grammys but I only watch the performances. I don’t watch who actually won. I do watch the Oscars every year. I don’t watch the Red Carpet or Barbara Walters or all that other non-sense. I could care less about who is wearing what. I just like movies and I see a lot of them. This year I saw everything nominated in a major category plus all of the short films that were nominated. The big change in the format was increasing the list of best picture nominees from 5 to 10. I was fortunate enough (or crazy enough) to see all of the nominees. Here is what I thought of the movies nominated for best picture this year. I will also mention what films I think should win in the other categories.

NOTE: I am not going to discuss specific plot details of these movies but I am going to give you my conclusions so read at your own risk. I wouldn’t want to ruin anyone’s element of surprise.


District 9

Lots of people HATED this movie. Honestly I can see why they did. It is a very slow pace especially in the beginning. On the surface in look likes a sci-fi movie with ugly aliens and unflattering scenery. The handheld camera documentary look is also uncomfortable to some people. This movie also does not have any "A" list movie stars. The actors in this film to must American s are unfamiliar at best. Once you get passed all that, this movie was really good. First, the actual movie making was spectacular. It does not get the credit I think it deserves because the technology is so subtle. The effects are so well blended into the movie that you may not even notice them at first. The fact that you just accept what you are seeing as real is the triumph of the visual part of this movie. The story is very interesting. It is suppose to be a parallel of South Africa during the Apartheid government. One of the best things about science fiction is that it can use alien races and sci-fi tech stuff to make you consider the other side of an equation. This movie does that very well. If you are not thinking carefully you could find yourself rooting for the good guys I, I mean the bad guys.


Up

I am a big fan of Pixar. I am big fan of their creativity as well as their technical innovation. I do not think I have seen a bad Pixar movie. “Up” is the story of an old man who takes a trip to South America. It is a typical Disney story where he meets many cute friends and talking dogs along the way. There were 2 aspects of this story that I found very interesting. The first is how this movie deals with the idea of regret. What we want to accomplish when we are kids vs. our adult expectations are very often different. How reconcile those differences is important. It is often difficult but worthwhile to realize what we have actually accomplished vs. what we have not. If one is not careful they can find themselves regretting what they did not do instead of celebrating what they have done. The other theme I found interesting was the perceptions we have as children and how they change as we move into adult hood (I AM ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT A SPECIFIC PART IN THE PLOT OF THIS MOVIE). In this movie the main character’s childhood idle turns out to be the villain of the movie. How the main character looks at the world as a child vs. what he sees as adult turn out to be very different. This also highlights how we perceive people in the media. Sometimes we do not realize that the media image of a person we see is quite different from the reality of who this person actually is. I believe this movie is one of Pixar’s better efforts.


A Serious Man

I ABSOLUTLY HATED THIS MOVIE. Sorry but I just didn’t get it. I like the Cohen brothers but this movie did nothing for me. It is the story of a sub-urban Jewish family in the 1970’s. This family has there own set of weird personalities and its on set of problems. I like the situations that the characters find them selves in but there is just not enough for me. I found the “chapters” and the choices to divide the story telling effort not worth the time I needed to invest in the movie. The prologue of the movie had no tie in or if it did I missed it. At the end of the movie I was left with the feeling “What did I just do for the last two hours?” I can appreciate the moving making skill of this movie but not the actual movie.


The Blind Side

I read this book a few years ago. Michael Lewis is one of my favorite sports authors. I would suggest that every football fan should read "Everybody’s All Americans" by Sally Jenkins and "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis. The Blind Side is a football strategy book about the evolution of the Left tackle position. More accurately it is about how changes in offensive and defensive strategy have impacted the left tackle making it one of the highest paid positions in sports. The author uses the Michael Oher back-story as a framing for this strategic analysis. The movie itself focuses on the Tuohy family and Michael Oher a homeless kid who is given a chance to excel at football. I was saddened when I think of the potential that we will never have a chance to see developed because I believe there are many gifted people who will never get the opportunity to succeed at something. This movie and this story are an example of what can be accomplished when some people are simply given a chance.


An Education

I liked this movie a lot. I love the acting. I love the pace of this movie. While the story was very, very, creepy I was still completely sucked into it. Having said that, this movie pissed me off more than any other movie this year!!! This movie is about an older man who has an affair with a 16 year old girl. The thing that pissed me off was not this relationship (although it was very very VERY creepy) but the views expressed about women in general specifically the idea of education in the lives of women in 1960s England. The main character in the movie is confronted with the question “Why should I work to go to Oxford if in the end I am just going to be a housewife or teach kindergarten”. The role that women were expected to play in the 1950s-and 60s to me is absolutely revolting. I like to believe that we have come much farther than that. I believe that there is much more work to be done in the feminist arena as long as Women are 50% of the population and 66% of the workforce yet they own ONE PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S ASSETS. As long as that statistic is accurate out entire society is doing us a disservice. Some would argue that there are biological reasons for this reality. I would contend that we will never really know as long as there are economic and education inequalities that are infused in the fabric of our society. I believe that education is essential for any individual to have a chance at upward mobility.


Up In the Air

I really liked this movie. I am not really a George Clooney fan. To me he will always be the goofy stock boy with the long hair on “The Facts of Life”. I was not expecting to like this movie as much as I did. The main character in this movie is a man whose job is to go around the country and fire people. In this movie, when a big firm has to lay off a bunch of people they hire George Clooney to “drop the hammer” on their employees that they are planning to layoff. The subplot of this movie also deals with the characters personal life. It raises questions about the role that our jobs play in our lives and asks the question “How much do we sacrifice for our jobs?” What are the ramifications when we sacrifice our relationships for material possessions? One cannot question the timeliness of this movie. If this movie were made 10 years ago it would not be nearly as effective. It also very possible that that this movie was more effective to me because of what stage I am in my life. I am not sure if I would be as moved by this movie if I saw it 10 years ago or 10 years from now.


Precious

This was by far one of the most disturbing movies I have ever seen. It tells the story of an inner city teen named Precious and the many things that happen in her young life. I do not believe this movie is typical of the inner city. I do believe that this movie highlights the many challenges that people in the inner city face. I believe that the success or failure of a person is ultimately determined by the individual. I do not think it is helpful to blame others for the problems in your life. I do think that we must acknowledge that there are people who are born into circumstances (through no fault of their own) that can effect there life outcomes. I think that we must realize that there are people that are born into circumstances that will make it harder to succeed. There are several barriers that are put up that can block the path of an individual to success. I believe that we as a society must do a better job of realizing these barriers exist and must work to remove the machinery that creates these barriers.


Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite story tellers. Reservoir Dogs is one of the best movies ever. The Movie Inglorious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s latest film.
This movie was a great blend of suspense, humor, and gratuitous violence. The core of this movie plays on our desire to see wrongs righted and to see a happy ending. This movie takes place in occupied France during the Second World War. It is a great historical juxtaposition of the Native American Apache Resistance and the Nazi Campaign in France. The movie is centered on an American Commando Unit charged with performing paramilitary action and eventually takes part in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This movie blurs the line between heroes and terrorist while the humor and violence can make you question your own sanity for liking it.


The Hurt Locker

This movie was at the Philadelphia film fest last year. It tells the story of a U.S. Army unit in Iraq charged with diffusing bombs. On the news, we hear statistics of people who died in the Iraqi theater. Many times the small number of casualties may seem acceptable to us until you consider that each one of those people is an individual. Each one of those numbers is a person with a family and a life to put on hold to do a very dangerous job. This movie shows how people cope in a very dangerous situation. It also portrays the human side of these events as well as being a good action movie that will make your heart race in places.


Avatar

I thought this was the best film of the year. This movie could completely change my expectations for science fiction movies. I now want to see every science fiction movie in 3D IMAX. The technological leap in movie making is also pretty remarkable. The fact that 2 Sci-fi movies were nominated for best picture made my little geek heart happy. This movie looks amazing. I think the story is just as impressive as the actual movie making. I love movies that put my position on the wrong side of the movie. When you consider the role that America has had in the destruction of indigenous populations as well as the way we have exploited resources it makes the message of this movie very powerful. I do not believe it is intended as a guilt trip but I think it makes us ask some very important questions about what it means to be American. It makes us ask what level of exploitation is acceptable to support our lifestyle. I am not going to ride a bike to work or get rid of my cell phone but I have to think about the consequences of that choice. Do we have a responsibility as Americans to use some (not all) of the wealth that this country has taken from others to make the world a better place? This move finds a clever way to do this while making you look at 10 foot tall blue people and glow in the dark trees.


In a 2008 Harvard Commencement speech, the author J.K. Rolling defined imagination. She said “It the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.” Perhaps that is the biggest power the movies have. I have never lived under Apartheid. I have never been homeless. I have never been told education is a worthless endeavor because I am female. I have never had to diffuse a bomb while under sniper fire. The ability to make a person think about someone else’s point of view if only for a few hours is a worthwhile endeavor. This is only the first part of the power of movies. There is also the possibility of movies like other art forms can not only allow us to empathize but to prompt us to take action. The informative power of movies when coupled with their entertainment value can be something very special and will probably keep me going to the theater for a very long time.

These are my picks. They are who I think should win. I have gotten more picks “right” than “wrong” only one time in the last three years.

Best Picture – Avatar
Best Actor – Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Best Actress – Carey Mulligan – An Education
Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Best Supporting Actress – Anna Kendrick – Up In the Air
Best Director – James Cameron – Avatar
Best Original Screenplay – Inglorious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay – Up In the Air

On another note the animated shorts this year were all AMAZING. They are usually released on DVD. I highly recommend trying to find them. I think the best of these is called Logorama.