Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 100

'Stolen' Moment

Sometimes forget how much I loved early Beth Orton.

11 Years Ago: U.S. Declares 'End of Fighting' in Iraq

Yes, we all remember the Mission Accomplished speech on the carrier, but that came in early May, 2003.   It was on  April 14, 2003, three weeks earlier, that U.S. commanders declared that the fighting was over.  Polls showed that most Americans agreed we had won easily and the war was over.  But check out this prescient letter to the editor buried in the NYT, in response to Rumsfeld's claim that looting and chaos showed that freedom was "untidy" but the future in Iraq was bright:

I believe that looting, lawlessness and continuous danger are the result of winning an ill-conceived war. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon have fielded the finest troops and the best equipment in the history of the world.

As wars go, this one was won with lightning speed and relatively few civilian and military casualties. Every maneuver was carefully orchestrated.  But the planning for postwar Iraq was practically left to chance. The Iraqis, whom we liberated, have to deal with looting and lawlessness. The troops who are stationed in Iraq are in constant danger. We have still not established law and order in Afghanistan, which we ''liberated'' in 2001.

Perhaps the way to defend the United States is not to attack all the countries that harbor terrorists, but rather to be part of a worldwide coalition to catch and bring terrorists to justice.

SUSAN STERN Chestnut Hill, Mass.

 Greg Mitchell's new book Iraq and media malpractice is "So Wrong for So Long." 

Will Rogers, and 'The Heartbeat of America'

One of the all-time great Americans, a hero of my new ebook When Hollywood Turned Left, is Will Rogers.  If you only know him as someone who  might have been on the radio a bit or in a movie or two or maybe wrote a newspaper column here in there or was on Broadway--as impersonated in the hit about his Ziegfeld Follies days--then you can catch up here.

One of the most tragic accidental deaths of an American occurred in 1935 when a light plane helmed by famed pilot Wiley Post crashed in Alaska, killing him and the man often described as "the most popular" American of his time, Will Rogers. The phrase "nation mourned" is often tossed about carelessly, but in this case it was true. Historians claimed it was greatest outpouring of genuine affection since Lincoln passed away. NBC and CBS radio went off the air for 30 minutes in mourning and movie screens all over the country darkened their screens for awhile.

Rogers was simultaneously the country's most popular radio personality and newspaper columnist and one of the top three movie stars. Unfortunately, many Americans today (those who even know about him) think of him as merely a humorist or celluloid comedy star, but he was also the nation's most influential political commentator, and from a progressive point of view, always promoting the "common man." He was, in short, the Will of the people. His views on the economy, FDR and the need for bold action--and comments on the Upton Sinclair movement and election race in California featured in my book--are particularly interesting in the Obama era.

In the wreckage of the plane in Alaska was found in his typewriter a sheet of paper with the beginning of one last column: "Now I must get back to advising my Democrats."

Perhaps the question most often asked in America was: Did you see what Will Rogers said? Some of his wisecracks had turned to cliche ("All I know is what I read in the papers"); others entered the American language as folk sayings or punch lines:

• "Every time Congress makes a joke it's a law, and every time they make a law it's a joke."
• "We hold the distinction of being the only nation that is goin' to the poorhouse in an automobile."
• "This would be a great world to dance in if we didn't have to pay the fiddler."
• "My idea of an honest man is a fellow who declares income tax on money he sold his vote for."

Will Rogers was America's "most complete human document... the heartbeat of America," Damon Runyon had observed. Reviewing one of his books, a New York Times critic insisted that "America has never produced anybody quite like him, and there has rarely been an American humorist whose words produced less empty laughter or more sober thought." The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr praised his facility in puncturing foibles "which more pretentious teachers leave untouched."

Rogers's life was an American amalgam. He liked to brag that his ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower -- they met the boat. Rogers was born in Oklahoma Indian Territory in 1879, and he was part Indian, but his parents were prosperous Methodists. Before settling down as a political philosopher and movie star in the 1920s, Rogers worked as a cowboy, a circus performer, and a comedian. Rope tricks were his specialty, but Rogers was no bumpkin: He lived in New York City for many years while appearing with the Ziegfeld Follies, before moving to Santa Monica, and he often traveled abroad.

Although he never took the trouble to vote, Rogers read newspapers and magazines voraciously and hobnobbed with politicians and foreign dignitaries, gathering material for his seemingly spontaneous political gibes. "This man Rogers has such a keen insight into the American panorama and the American people," Theodore Roosevelt said back in 1918 when Will was still twirling rope, "that I feel he is bound, in the course of time, to be a potent factor in the political life of the nation."

A few years later, Rogers was mentioned as a presidential candidate, and he regularly received a strong write-in vote in state and national elections. This was one way for a populist voter to protest without turning Socialist. The humorist ran a mock campaign for president in 1928 as the candidate of the Anti-Bunk party ("He Chews to Run") in the pages of Life, the humor magazine. The National Press Club appointed him America's congressman at large, and others called him the Unofficial President. At the Democratic National Convention in 1932, he received twenty-two votes as Oklahoma's favorite-son candidate and was so excited he slept through the balloting. Another Oklahoman named Will Rogers, no relation, ran for Congress in honor of the comedian -- and won by fifty thousand votes.

To those who complained that his humor was becoming too topical, Rogers replied, "I hope I never get so old that I can't peep behind the scenes and see the amount of politics that's mixed in this medicine before it's dished out to the people as 'Pure statesmanship.'" He once compared the U.S. Senate to Siberia--the place "where they send all the rich men. " He proposed as his epitaph: Here lies Will Rogers. Politicians turned honest, and he starved to death.

During the early years of the Depression, he voiced the despair of the common man and appeared at countless benefits to raise relief money. "What is the matter with our country anyhow?" he wondered. "With all our brains in high positions, and all our boasted organizations, thousands of our folks are starving, or on the verge of it. Why can't there be some means of at least giving everybody all the bread they wanted, anyhow?" He boosted FDR's election, and when Roosevelt was about to take office, Will sent along a list of soon-to-be-immortalized suggestions:

"A smile in the White House again, why, it will look like a meal to us."

"Kid Congress and the Senate, don't scold 'em. They are just children that's never grown up... Keep off the radio till you got something to say... Stay off that back lawn with those photographers. Nothing will kill interest in a president quicker... "

"If somebody gets all excited and tells you, 'Wall Street has just done a nose dive,' tell them, 'Those Republican organizations don't interest me in the least. Why, there is 115 million of my subjects don't know if Wall Street is a thoroughfare or a new mouthwash.'"

Roosevelt, a big Rogers fan, followed his advice almost to the letter. When the president declared a bank holiday, Rogers commented:

The whole country is with him... Even if he does something wrong they are with him, just so he does something... If he burned down the Capitol, we would cheer and say, "Well, we at least got a fire started anyhow." ... We have had years of "Don't rock the boat." Go on and sink it if you want to. We just as well be swimming as like we are... For three years we have had nothing but "America is fundamentally sound." It should have been "America is fundamentally cuckoo." Every American international banker ought to have printed on his office door, "Alive today by the grace of a nation that has a sense of humor."

Rogers called the NRA "decency by government control," although he was suspicious of the Brain Trust gang and theorists in general. "I don't know what additional authority Roosevelt may ask," he advised, "but give it to him, even if it's to drown all the boy babies, for the way the grown-up ones have acted he will be perfectly justified in drowning any new ones."

Some accused him of writing the president's speeches, but he explained that he was the Dumb Brain Truster and that the difference between him and Roosevelt was that "when he's talking he knows what he's talking about, and when I'm talking, I'm just guessin'."

Hardly.

Aaron Swartz Booking Video

Wired has obtained lengthy video of the booking of the late Aaron    in 2011 which started his downward slide. 

At the 27-minute mark, he presses for more details about why he was arrested. From his tone, he sounds surprised to learn that MIT is pressing felony charges.
Swartz: “So they said that I broke into MIT, is that it?”
Officer: “Yeah, they charged you with two counts of B&E in the daytime, to commit a felony.”
Swartz: “At MIT?”
Officer: “Yeah.”
Swartz: “Huh. I mean, walking into MIT isn’t breaking-and-entering, right?”
Officer: “I have no idea what the circumstances are, man.”
Most people aren’t at their best when being booked by police. Swartz was exactly at his best: asserting his rights in a casual, shlumpy posture that disarms his opponents without insulting them. Able to defy authority one minute, and joke around with it the next, the booking video is an exhibit in miniature of the qualities that made Swartz such an effective activist, and makes his loss such an enduring shame.
“You seem like a good kid, man,” the booking officer remarks, near the end of the process.
“I think I am,” says Swartz.

Take a Letterman

Reacting to Letterman news:  Jon Stewart opened show with Colbert news, clips (the famous gay-banana-crack-up), on this "wild" day.   Recalls the difficulty in not cracking up on air with Stephen doing his bits.  Jon observes:  "The exciting news is I no longer need a cable subscription to enjoy Stephen Colbert."  Then paid tribute to Letterman as the "best" TV host there ever was but says Stephen is "up to the challenge."

"No greater joy than to see a geninuely good man get the success he deserves."  Looks forward to seeing Colbert's name on marquee of the Ed Sullivan theater...

Then Stephen opens.  Claims he'll miss Letterman on the air now.  Has watched him all the time since college and "he influenced every host who came after him, and some who came before.  And I tell you, I do not envy anyone they try to put in that chair.  Those are some big shoes to fill--and some really big pants." Brief and out.

Meanwhile, the right-wing freakout continues. 

Danger, Man: Greenwald Returning to USA Tomorrow

Glenn has smartly stayed away, post-Snowden, but may be on flight now, or in a few hours, to make tomorrow's Polk Awards ceremony (it's always a good one from past) when he gets one of the biggies.  Laura Poitras also coming for it from Berlin.   Greenwald, from Mike Calderone's piece just now:

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Greenwald said he’s motivated to return because “certain factions in the U.S. government have deliberately intensified the threatening climate for journalists.”

“It’s just the principle that I shouldn’t allow those tactics to stop me from returning to my own country,” Greenwald said.

Greenwald suggested government officials and members of Congress have used the language of criminalization as a tactic to chill investigative journalism.

Before Miley Wrecked the Title

One of the best albums of past couple decades, Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball (produced by Daniel Lanois), getting re-issue with extra CD and video DVD, as I've noted.  Now here's link to whole thing streaming--and liner notes by Gillian Welch, who first gained notice with song on the album (other cuts by Lucinda, Dylan, Steve Earle, Jimi Hendrix, the McGarrigles, Lanois, etc.).  BTW, "Wrecking Ball" was title of Neil Young tune...

From Gillian:

It was a powerful and timely statement from an artist already looking back on a quarter-of-a-century career. It is of inestimable worth when an artist tells the truth. To my ear, this is a truthful record, and as such a timeless one. Nevertheless, it would be an omission not to mention how meaningful Wrecking Ball was in the moment it came out, especially for those of us who were casting about Nashville, trying to figure out the possible relevance and face of folk music at the close of the 20th century. The record’s sound was haunted but present. The songs were frank admissions of love, failure, longing, loss, and faith. There were unflinching recollections of memories, painful and dear, and there was something beautifully unfettered and impolite about the whole thing. It definitely stirred up Nashville, which has repeatedly had to reconcile its longstanding musical traditions with its desires to be current. Harris had confronted the maelstrom head on.

At the time, I was not fully aware of how brave this was.

Fallon Acts Petty

Last night with Stevie Nicks.

Colbert Gets Letterman's Seat

It's official--Stephen gets five-year CBS deal.  Some fans will celebrate, others mourn.   (Colbert to NYT just now:  "I won't be doing the new show in character, so we'll all get to find out how much of him was me." I'm looking forward to it."So, looking back: When I was at E&P, I may have been the first to cover and quote in full  the infamous Stephen Colbert roasting of Bush, to his face,  at the White House Correspondents Dinner.  Also: great zingers at the sleeping press. And Joe Strupp was in the hall and got the first reaction quote from Stephen on the less-than-riotous reception from wounded media and White House figures.  So here it is again. 

It's Even Steven/Stephen

Whatever happened to these guys? A stroll down memory lane for a classic "Daily Show" debate on Islam vs. Christianity with Steve Carell vs. Stephen Colbert, on Islam vs. Christianity: