Although much more conservative and restrained than, say, “Psywar,” this presentation, which builds upon the research of David Robb, raises some important questions about the relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon. [END] Permalink: Operation Hollywood
This is part three of six of “Evidence of Revision,” an eight-hour video collection which covers many a taboo subject in American history including the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, the causes of the Vietnam war, the social uprisings of the 1960s and ’70s, the Jonestown massacre, government mind control programs such as MKULTRA, and vote rigging and political corruption at the highest levels. Coming on the heels of part two’s in-depth discussion of the corruption of the Johnson administration, this installment shifts the focus onto the blackmailing of FBI head J. Edgar Hoover, who for years denied the existence of organized crime, and then returns to LBJ’s possible connections to the JFK assassination. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the President’s brother, made it clear that it was his ambition to relentlessly pursue the mafia and found no friend at all in Hoover in this. Perhaps we can find some insight in Hoover’s statement that “Justice is merely incidental to law and order. Law and order is what covers the whole picture.” [END] Permalink: Evidence of Revision 3: LBJ, Hoover and Others
Above is part one of six of “Evidence of Revision,” an eight-hour video collection which covers many a taboo subject in American history including the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK, the causes of the Vietnam war, the social uprisings of the 1960s and ’70s, the Jonestown massacre, government mind control programs such as MKULTRA, and vote rigging and political corruption at the highest levels. This installment, which opens with an excellent video collage on “conspiracy theory,” focuses on the highly suspicious assassination of U. S. President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. From a long and rambling introduction from a news commentator upon Kennedy’s arrival concerning the assassination of William McKinley to reports and video of two rifles and two different types of ammunition having been found in the Texas School Book Depository from where Kennedy was officially shot to the arrest and assassination of presumed killer Lee Oswald, himself, “Evidence of Revision” is a moving overview of the many questions which still remain concerning this watershed event. [END] Permalink: Evidence of Revision 1: The Assassinations of Kennedy and Oswald
This incredibly frank Vietnam war documentary takes a bold look at the outrageously cynical political maneuvering behind the United States’ military involvement in Southeast Asia, first as a financial and political backer of imperial France, then as an installer of various puppet regimes, and finally through the stupefying and horrific violence of the many years of combat which followed. No matter how much or how little you may know about the Vietnam war, “Vietnam: American Holocaust” is simply not to be missed. [END] Permalink: Vietnam: American Holocaust
Above, Michael Moore briefly discusses flack he allegedly received over his treatment of Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd in his most recent film, “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Mr. Moore may not have done outstanding work in his 9/11 and Columbine movies — despite being one of the first mainstream anti-Iraq war movies, “Fahrenheit 9/11″ barely scratched the surface with regard to the inside job that was September 11th, and “Bowling for Columbine” was way off-base in many respects — but this one was pretty good, all things considered. Below is the trailer.
Just before this one, Moore made another excellent film, “Sicko,” about the financing and accessibility of the U. S. medical care system versus health care in other countries including Canada, the UK and France. Below is its trailer.
“The Ground Truth” documents the stories of American soldiers who have been involved in the war in Iraq and their experiences both at abroad and after their return from the Middle East. They discuss the indoctrination and personality restructuring they experienced upon entering the military, beginning with the deceptive enticements of the recruitment table on through the suffering of combat and finally in the shattered lives they lead after their tours are over. [END] Permalink: The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War
While Bush’s Brain may overstate the relative importance of Bush advisor Karl Rove in terms of who was ultimately responsible for the agenda advanced by the Bush II administration, this film makes a strong argument that Rove, the Lee Sarason of the Bush White House, was a or perhaps the critical player in the operational policy machine that enabled the Neocons to grasp and maintain U. S. Presidential power the way that they did. [END] Permalink: Bush’s Brain
“The Corporation” is one of the best criticial overviews of the modern industrial corporation to date. Businesses fashioned in the model of a corporation have been granted legal personhood in the United States under the Fourteenth Amendment and all of the Constitutional rights which go along with that. Multinational corporations, operating across borders in what this film argues is a pathological manner, has had intense impacts on global ecology and society. From efforts to privatize Bolivia’s rainwater to sweatshop labor in China, “The Corporation” takes a look at the many consequences of the corporate directive to earn maximum profit with no inherent regard for anything else. [END] Permalink: The Corporation
Hugo Chávez was a Venezuelan military officer who led a failed coup attempt against the Venezuelan government in 1992 and was imprisoned for it. Several years later, he ran for President and won. The above video, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Chavez – Inside the Coup),” documents the brief 2002 coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez after he had been in power for several years. The coup succeeded for a day or two and then Chávez returned to power. A reply video titled “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Lies” has been produced. However, most of its arguments deal with relatively superficial to nearly irrelevant details of the situation. One of its more serious claims is that the general strikes immediately preceding the coup attempt which had been intended to bring down the government were headed by both the business union (FEDECAMERAS) and the labor union leaders (CTV) but it does not mention that CTV, which had made major concessions to neoliberal interests in the prior decade, suffered debilitating losses of support as a result of this alliance. (See Ellner’s “The Venezuelan Labor Movement Under Chávez” for more on Venezuelan labor movement history.)
This second and much shorter video, “Venezuela – Uncle Sam’s Coup,” features the work of Eva Gollinger, a dual U. S.-Venezuelan citizen who has dug up U. S. government documents related to the coup attempt. As her efforts uncovered, a CIA brief contained detailed information about the coup weeks in advance of its occurrence. The money trail behind the plot led these investigators straight to Washington, where records showed hundreds of thousands of American dollars being funneled into Venezuelan opposition groups in the year prior to the coup attempt. [END] Permalink: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised and Uncle Sam’s Coup
“The Panama Deception” is an Oscar-winning 1992 documentary about the U. S. invasion of Panama in December of 1989 to oust General Manuel Noriega, the then-leader of the country and a longtime CIA asset, under the pretense of “restoring democracy” to Panama. Civilian and military targets alike were attacked and destroyed in an overwhelming offensive by U. S. forces, leaving high numbers of townspeople dead and their houses burned to the ground. Civilians including cultural, political and trade union leaders were arrested and some were executed in the streets. The United Nations condemned strongly the illegal and unjustifiable massacre while the U. S. corporate media applauded the tactical efficacy of the operation. The new, U. S.-backed Panamanian leaders ushered in following the takeover then did their part in reducing Panama to an instrumentality of the United States even more so than under Noriega, who had, before his removal, shown some signs of breaking with the command in Washington. [END] Permalink: The Panama Deception
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