Weekly Mulch: Fighting the Joe Millers of the World
by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
Joe Miller, Sarah Palin's choice candidate for one of Alaska's Senate seats, does not believe in climate change. That didn't bother Alaska voters: this week, Miller bested Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the state's Republican primary. If that weren't worrisome enough, it also emerged that the fossil fuel industry spent eight times more than environmental groups on lobbying in 2009, the year the House passed the climate change bill. It's been a bad year already for environmental causes, and as the November election edges closer, progressives might want to start working overtime to regain momentum on climate and energy issues.
Baton Rouge (FNS)-Facing both a massive oil slick from a sunken offshore drilling platform and a second year of declining tourism revenues along the Louisiana Gulf Coast caused by high gas prices, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal today introduced a new tourism promotion that he reports is going to "...make lemons into lemonade".
Jindal, flanked by British Petroleum's Director of Marketing Dick Timoneous and the Executive Director of the Louisiana State Tourism Board, Jenna Talia, announced that the "All The Oil You Can Carry Festival" would officially commence today just east of New Orleans, and last at least through the month of May.
Earlier this month, Orleans Parish District Judge Lynda Van Davis granted a new trial for Michael Anderson, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a trial plagued with problematic evidence. Prosecutors have appealed the ruling and indicated that they will go forward with a retrial if necessary, so the question of Anderson's guilt or innocence is far from settled. What is clear today, however, is that his first trial was marked by prosecutors' troubling concealment of important information that undermined the credibility of key witnesses against him. Playing fast and loose with such evidence is unacceptable. In a death penalty case, it is unconscionable.
Ever since the Haiti earthquake happened, it has invited quite a few comparisons to the disaster brought about in New Orleans by the federal flood. There are even those in the mainstream media who have asked if this quake is going to turn out to be Obama's "Katrina."
This is not surprising because there are some similarities in the situations--for example, the slowness in rescuing and getting aid to the survivors--which reminds casual observers of the way New Orleanians had to wait a week for food, water and rescue after her levees failed. Also, these catastrophes are manmade--Haiti's because of shoddily-constructed buildings, New Orleans' because of poorly-built and maintained levees--both of which had been disasters waiting to happen.
The long, lazy days of summer are upon us, and it's time to have a little fun-but it's also a great opportunity to volunteer a bit of spare time for a good cause.
So imagine how cool it would be if you could combine the two...and even better, do it in a way that doesn't take a bite out of your wallet...and even better yet, if it was something you and the kids could do together.
Imagine no more, because it has been done; which is why today we are going to be talking about lead in the soil of New Orleans, Operation Paydirt...and Fundred Dollar Bills.
"In a world of 1s and 0s...are you a zero, or The One?" The Matrix (1999)
The recent line of right-wing attacks on Barack Obama have been to emphasize his popularity and turn it against him by painting him as nothing more than a celebrity -- "an empty suit" was the phrase I heard one pundit use. Right-wing trolls and bloggers have commonly taken to referring to Senator Obama online as "The One." This attempt at sarcasm is a reference to the character 'Neo' from the movie, The Matrix. As they do this, I have to wonder if they realize who this makes them in their self-created Matrix scenario: Agents? Sentinels? If, in a world of ones and zeros, Barack Obama is "The One," what is John McCain?
by Justin Krebs
The Los Angeles chapter of Drinking Liberally had a special guest host on Tuesday night: Robert Greenwald, of Brave New Films, whose filmmaker activism has given us Iraq For Sale, the "Fox Attacks" series of shorts and, most recently, "When the Saints Go Marching In," marking the second anniversary of Katrina, which he screened and discussed with the crowded room of liberal Angelenos.
You can see the video here:
It's a natural for Robert to show his latest short to a DL crowd -- because Brave New Films doesn't just produce films...they socially organize around films, giving us the chance to become more than "viewers." We become participants in a conversation, activists for a cause and members of a movement...and for Robert, as for DL, the key ingredient is the community.
When Iraq For Sale was released on DVD, 4,500 house parties screened it in one week. Just as powerful films about Iraq were released on the big screen (The War Tapes) and HBO (Baghdad ER). But what do you do when the lights come up in the movie theaer, or when the credits roll on premium cable? It's not easy to start a conversation with a stranger in the cinema...and too often the energy of the experience dissipates on your walk through the parking lot.
Brave New Films offers an alternative. In Robert's own words:
Working with Drinking Liberally is part of BNF's DNA. Our ongoing commitment is to screen our work in every possible venue from church to school to pizza parlor to bowling alley to of course, Drinking Liberally. The shorts and the films serve to bring people together and in the process, community begins to emerge, activists energize others and our stories serve as means to encourage people to take action. Screening the films and shorts in group situations has a consistent impact in terms of getting more focus, more commitment, more passion for change from the group social dynamic.
Iraq For Sale is just one example of a new model for organizing around films (one that chapters of Screening Liberally are exploring further every month)...the happy hour gathering to view "When the Saints Go Marching In" and remember the impact of Katrina is another. In a private home, or a crowded bar, the effect is the same: you're not watching alone...and soon you are doing more than just watching, and you're doing it together.
September 9, 2007 - Univision Forum (Spanish)
September 26, 2007 - Hanover, New Hampshire
October 30, 2007 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 15, 2007 - Las Vegas, Nevada
December 10, 2007 - Los Angeles, California
January 6, 2008 - Johnson County, Iowa
January 15, 2008 - Las Vegas, Nevada
January 31, 2008 - California
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