And the people said – SPEAK BM…. SPEAK, and so I shall, about good ol’ fashion Voter Fraud Americana style; wednesday morn. They plopped a TV just outside the fishtank so now everytime I go to drink my mat?, I’m staring at one of their mugs. Just now JFK shouted: “Tomorrow we’ll be going to the polls, one of the most beautiful things on earth.” Hmmmmmm… NO sir. You are wrong. Thank you.
We had a viewing of Wag the Dog last night at the ranch. That beautiful piece of filmmaking came out in 1997, and is still completely telling when it comes to politics in America. I’ve been reading through the script this morning, and there is some dialogue that I am just in love with:
Motts (Hoffman):We’ve just found out They Have the Bomb. We’ve Just Found Out They Have The Bomb, aaaand… No, No wait a second, no, no, wait a second, No. The Bomb’s not…it’s not there — because they’d have to have a rocket and that shit n’they’re a buncha wogs– it’s …it’s a suitcase Bomb. Ooookay. It’s a suitcase bomb,
and it’s …. in Canada! Eh? Albanian Terrorists have placed a suitcase Bomb in Canada, in an attempt to infiltrate the bomb into the USA.
Brean – (DeNiro): Leav’t alone. Wha’d television ever do to you?
AMES (Heche): IT DESTROYED THE ELECTORAL PROCESS.
Brean: No no, forget it, stop the song, our war just ended.
Johnny Dean (Willie Nelson): Are you gonna need me any longer, cause I was just about to go get drunk.
Motts (Hoffman): Trump that, Senator Neal, you Howdy-Doody-looking Vontz.
I can’t get enough of that word…. VONTZ!
I digress, this isn’t about how much I love the film. What I wanted to talk about is how applicable the film still is today in this era of elections and war pageants.
At the beginning of the current madness in Iraq, this US tried all the standard Wag the Dog tactics that had worked for them in Gulf Conflict 1: like the patriotic speeches, the painting of the hero left behind (that girl who was allegedly captured, now completely silenced), and the staged pulling down of the statue. But throughout this thing, they’ve also invented new ways to wag the dog, in-bed reporters, news channels like Fox to provide seemingly unbiased brainwashing, presidential visits with fake turkey dinners, that sort of thing.
One thing that is encouraging, to some extent thanks to blogs and other media watchdogs, these bullshit tactics have often been exposed. Forcing the administration to have to get more outlandish and to some extent – desperate with their propaganda.
One thing I realized, as I was laughing my ass off at that genius human being Willie Nelson, there is no song with this war-pageant. Is there? You know where all the top 20 artists put on headphones and stand in a room together. Guess it doesn’t work anymore. I remember during papa Bush’s war, there was a song… that whole “Proud to be an American” which went along with the Yellow Ribbons and the T-Shirts supporting desert storm. My favorite T-shirt in Wag the Dog reads: “Fuck Albania.” The parallels are eerie. I guess the biggest benefactors over the past 4 years were not only rich Bush friends, but also the flag manufacturers.
Hey if you want to watch Outfoxed and get angry, like myself and Ms. Thingk did this weekend, here’s a link to the whole thing via Dutch Public TV, relax – it’s in English.
Today’s Sounds: Dutch Public Television Running Around an Indian Reservation to Depress us all.