Sunday’s Something To Think About
Today I watched The U.S. vs. John Lennon and was struck yet again by the similarities between the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly in the way the Justice Department was being used as a political arm of the Nixon administration. Witness this section of Attorney General John Mitchell’s Wikipedia entry:
During his successful 1968 campaign, Nixon turned over the details of the day-to-day operations to the superbly organized Mitchell. After he became president in January 1969, Nixon appointed Mitchell attorney general. Mitchell remained in office from 1969 until he resigned in 1972 to manage President Nixon’s successful reelection campaign. As attorney general, Mitchell believed that the government’s need for “law and order” justified restrictions on civil liberties. He advocated the use of wiretaps in national security cases without obtaining a court order and the right of police to employ the preventive detention of criminal suspects. He brought conspiracy charges against critics of the Vietnam War, and demonstrated a reluctance to involve the Justice Department in civil rights issues. “The Department of Justice is a law enforcement agency,” he told reporters. “It is not the place to carry on a program aimed at curing the ills of society.”
We’ve seen Mitchell’s ideas in action once again during the reign of Ashcroft and Gonzales in Bush’s Department of Justice. The civil rights division of the DoJ has been decimated by all accounts as the focus has shifted to pursuing obscenity and voter fraud cases, there is ample evidence of the DOJ’s concerted effort to roll back the civil liberties of American citizens through the auspices of the USA Patriot Act, and of their efforts to infiltrate and prevent peaceful dissenters from organizing.
Its as if Cheney and Rumsfeld never learned a thing from their involvement in the Nixon administration which obviously provided the blueprint for the Bush/Cheney. Apparently, time stands still when you are a frightened reactionary.
Anyway, the film is definitely worth renting (its available on Netflix). The film details Lennon’s conscious decision to use his fame (in very inventive ways) to protest the Vietnam War, and the Nixon administration’s efforts to silence him. U.S. vs. John Lennon serves as a reminder of how important it is to stand up for our rights as U.S citizens. Lennon didn’t get his green card until 1972, but he never backed down from the likes of John Mitchell, Strom Thurmon, J. Edgar Hoover, or the rest of Nixon’s goons. A running theme of the film is about just how frightened Lennon’s peace campaign had the Nixon administration. It really is amazing how afraid of peace they were–it kind of reminds you of another presidential administration doesn’t it? I also found myself noting the similarities between Lennon and Joe Strummer, even in the way they spoke–a bit uncanny. The film features extensive interviews with Yoko Ono, George McGovern, Walter Cronkite, Tom Smothers, Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, John Dean, as well as some great archival footage of Nixon, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and the Beatles. Gore Vidal offers up some great quotes for the movie, at one point reminding us that “Patriotism, as we all know, is the last refuge of scoundrels,” and George McGovern actually sings the chorus for “Give Peace A Chance.”
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Mullah Cimoc say ameriki people republican party now waking and the fog remove of the brain.
How bush destroy usa too much. destroy mental and emotional of amriki people.
but usa media so control (google: mighty wurltizer +cia) never to asking how bush becoming president.
this called the media coverup. bush family long time so corruption with intel community. am him bush jr. real republican? who these eviling people making him the president?
This make the cure for republican freedom people making majority. love the god, and love the family and working so hard every day.
but controlling hims of republican not this kind good person. him the wicked and loving the power and the torturing people, children of god, this too wicked. hims also loving the LBT (low back tattoo) and the killing the baby of abortion and ameriki woman becoming the slut for taking all the man.
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Strom Thurmond, holla at ‘cha boy! Cause you got that jungle fever and the only cure is some hot young dark thing you can wrap your decomposed tentacles around while you hang her brother from a tree. Say what? Trent Lott! Say what? I said Trent Lott! I can’t hear you! TRENT LOTT! Dixiecrats 4 Life!
Sorry off topic a little, but still something to think about and it is still Sunday… Rush Limbaugh says he’s lost 30 pounds in the last 40 days…he says he’s eating only 1400 calories per day and not exercising…how many calories are in an 80 mg of Oxycontin? I have a feeling the number goes into 1400 pretty easily…
Who did that song “Something to Talk About?” I wanna say Liz Phair, but I know that’s way off. Ohh…Bonnie Raitt, right? why do I think she and Liz Phair are both at the same latitude and longitude in their careers, all other things being equal? Just me?
Definitely just you……I can’t think of one way Liz Phair and Bonnie Raitt are similar except their gender. I think Raitt is AT LEAST 10 years older than Phair too.
Oh, I forgot the code here. Apologies. I know that we’re not supposed to mention two musicians without one of them being Joe Strummer, and if at all possible, they should both be Joe Strummer, just different periods of his life.
I think I could make a successful Ven diagram with Bonnie Raitt and Liz Phair. I think you know this. The overlap would be epic!