Washington Extra – Action or inaction
Pizza as a predictor?
Congress returns next week and will decide by action or inaction whether the federal government shuts down.
The White House sounded a note of optimism (which at this point is the only way to go — best to save the podium pounding for when it gets down to the wire).
“All of us agree that a government shutdown would be bad for the economy,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “We believe that a compromise can be reached. But I’m not going to speculate on a position, what position we may or may not hold down the road.”
True, nobody really wants the government to shut down. So a compromise is likely.
One indicator to watch to see whether it is close to a resolution: Lawmakers behind closed doors sending out for pizza around 9 p.m.
On the other coast, actors hoping for an Oscar may want to send something tastier than pizza to Heidi, the cross-eyed opossum in Germany that will try to predict the winner.
General Odierno gives “The Hurt Locker” friendly review
As the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno must have on-the-ground knowledge of the American military teams that defuse roadside bombs in Iraq.
So it seems like high praise, indeed, that he complimented the Oscar-winning movie “The Hurt Locker” for how it portrayed the sacrifices made by bomb disposal soldiers in the Iraq war.
“I think what I like about it is, it shows, first, the camaraderie that is required here, the tension, the risk that’s involved in some of the jobs that we do here,” Odierno said in an interview with PBS Newshour.
“I’m sure many people would say it could be a bit more accurate in some areas, but I believe it’s a good representation of the sacrifice, dedication that it takes here in order to combat such a very difficult mission of terrorism and fighting a war on terrorism,” he said.
“The Hurt Locker”, an Iraq war drama about a team of bomb-defusing specialists, won the Oscar for best picture and placed Kathryn Bigelow into history books as the first woman ever to win the Academy Award for best director.
Photo credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson (Bigelow poses with her Oscar for “The Hurt Locker”)
As I have been to Iraq twice, as an infantry marine, and come back twice, I don’t understand the issue with the “cereal scene.” I don’t know if Death thinks it “spoiled” the movie, or what, but as a combat vet, that was THE most moving and instantly understandable moment of the whole movie. For any civilian who wonders why “war is a drug” or why the protagonist wanted/needed/or had to go back (regardless of his own opinions of the Iraq war) the “cereal scene” instantly captured, the moment i saw it, what it is like to come home from war. FOR ME, it elucidated that flat-out feeling of the over abundance and POINTLESSNESS of everyday materialistic society. How our society is jam-packed with imagery and glorification of pointless party-lives, social status, idolatry, and material shit. I have never felt more alive than when i feared that at any moment i could die. War gives life meaning, not bc you are serving some higher cause, but bc you come to realize, in the most personal way, that breathing is better than not breathing. It is as simple as that, it awakens you. Unfortunately, with extreme highs come extreme lows. You understand that there is no higher purpose, divine meaning, or purpose at all, for anything. Life is pointless, however, life is meaning. Whereas the protagonist is chasing that high that war gives him, his fellow sergeant (Sanborn) just cares to survive. For some, war is an elixir and for others, it is a smelling salt. To conclude, i found the “cereal scene” to be the most insightful part of the whole movie.
from Fan Fare:
Oscar beckons Sarah Palin … for shopping.
(Reporting by Zorianna Kit)
What a difference a year makes! Last year, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was catching flak for her shopping habits during her 2008 campaign. This year, she's strolling around Hollywood's Oscar gift suites with family members having items given to her -- leopard print sandals to match her leopard print jacket, for instance.
The morning after her appearance on "The Tonight Show", and amid reports she was in Hollywood talking to TV executives about a possible TV show (see below and here on the blog), the former Alaska Governor turned up at the Silver Spoon gifting suite in West Hollywood with daughter Willow, grandson Trip and an entourage of about seven people, according to the suite's organizers.
The gifting suites, in case you don't know, are set up by merchants to promote their products during Hollywood's Oscar week when the town is filled with A-list celebrities. The idea is to have your product photographed or in some way associated with a celebrity and, as a result, people will want to buy it. And who better to help sell a product than politician-turned-celebrity Palin?
So, what did Palin get? Well, right from the start she wrote a check for $1,750 to the American Red Cross, which was collecting donations at the suite for Haitian relief. "That was the first thing she did before even checking in and saying 'hello,'" said The Silver Spoon's Lorena Bendinskas. She said suite organizers had invited Palin because she had been a big supporter of the Red Cross. Notably, Palin and her entourage came and left before the suite opened officially on Wednesday morning.
Then, Palin and family got down to the business of shopping -- Oscar style. They went to each vendor and were "gifted" items including hats and sunglasses by Perry Ellis, Jenna Leigh Lingerie, Stone candles, Wembe soaps, skincare products from Bloom.com and eyelash condition from Lash food. Stopping at fashion line C&C California, she picked out a tanktop for daughter Willow. At Bandals Footwear, she found those leopard sandals to match her jacket, and she seemed especially excited about Danish-designed Aiaiai headphones for traveling and exercise.
Meanwhile, on its Hollywood Insider blog late Wednesday night, Entertainment Weekly magazine reported that Palin and reality TV producer Mark Burnett have been making the rounds of Hollywood production houses and TV networks pitching a TV docudrama about Alaska. Several reports described it as a Planet Earth-type look at the state from Palin's point-of-view. You can read about it here.
A film classic ripe for a Washington-style update?
It’s Oscar nomination day, which means some in snow-covered Washington DC — Hollywood for ugly people, if you believe the old saying — are daydreaming about what it would be like to make a blockbuster film. “Avatar” seems to have the inside track in this year’s Academy Award race, but isn’t there an old classic movie ripe for a Washington-style remake?
How about “Meet John Doe”? It’s a Frank Capra morality piece made in 1941, where a soda jerk can speak basic truth and a rail-riding hobo is played by Gary Cooper, the George Clooney of his day. Everybody’s scrounging for a job and a buck, they’re laying off the old pros at the local newspaper and a cigar-chomping oil magnate wants to get into politics. Barbara Stanwyck plays a hard-driving columnist who fakes a letter from a mythical “John Doe” who says he’s going to leap off the city hall roof on Christmas Eve to protest widespread corruption and the state of the world in general.
But that’s all background. What makes it made-to-order for a 2010 remake is what happens when Gary Cooper a.k.a. “John Doe” speaks to a big gathering, reading remarks written by the columnist, who’s now in cahoots with the oil magnate: the crowd loves him so much they go out and form grassroots John Doe Clubs, just to be neighborly. No politicians allowed. They’re not partisan, they just want to make things a little better.
The oil magnate has another idea, to use the John Doe Clubs as a platform for his political ambitions. Meantime the columnist and the hobo fall in love, and decide they really are altruistic and want “the people” to succeed. It all winds up on the city hall roof in the snow on Christmas Eve, with (really) the “Ode to Joy” playing in the background.
OK, here’s the 2010 version: picture Scott Brown, the new Massachusetts senator, as this century’s John Doe, arriving in Washington to find a Senate tied up in knots, a House in disarray and a White House mired in debt and war. He’s buoyed by support from the John Doe Clubs of the 21st century, the Tea Party movement. Another Washington outsider, a telegenic former governor with ambitions of her own, is drawn to the nouveau John Doe and to the Tea Partiers. They go to the Tea Party convention but find their maverick message competing with entrenched Washington interests. Nobody goes up to the city hall roof, but the two newcomers emerge from the fray older and wiser and open their own PR shop.
Now the fun part — casting! Clooney would be perfect in the Scott Brown/John Doe role. Sandra Bullock would be ideal as the media star but why not get an acting amateur with real potential: Sarah Palin. For the person embodying the power elite, maybe Jack Nicholson. Again, there’s a non-actor who could fill the bill — Rush Limbaugh. He bears an uncanny resemblance to Edward Arnold, who plays the part in the original. And Limbaugh already has the cigars!
This is a screenplay that practically writes itself — so hit those keys!
