Oh, that 'campus' beat

After having previously profiled what we'll generously call "Eisenhower Democrats" in college last February, The Nation's campus beat turns it's glazed eyes to SNAP in the November 6, 2006 issue (page 14).

Oh, those movers and shakers. They're building a better world, one election turnout at a time. Color us unimpressed.

When not self-congratulating themselves, they offer dopey statements. Such as when Aja Davis explains 'political activism' to readers thusly: "You can't always be chained up to a tree. Sometimes you've got to go and put on a suit and deal with someone you don't agree with" before hastening to explain that she agrees with the candidate she worked for. Sometimes you've got to go and put on a suit?

Possibly. If you can afford a suit. This offensive-on-so-many-levels article ticked us off and we queried on campuses to see how many male or female students had a suit? Answer? Not many. But then it's not really about activism on campus, the article, it's about "power players."

We keep expecting the campus beat in The Nation to evolve into some sort of "Power 100" (though with the space provided to this beat, it would probably be reduced to ten). A Power Issue where they, like Forbes and Premiere, could offer up a list that wouldn't do much that qualifies as reporting but would get a lot of ink from outside the magazine.

SNAP, the article tells you, is making a difference via "fundraisers with supporters including Geraldine Ferraro and Barney Frank", and their "goal was to get young people back on the ground for the 2006 midterms." You go, SNAP, you do that work that the League of Women Voters and countless others having been doing for years before you. The end product to all this labor? "We set out to build power, and now we've got it," says Snappateer Jared Maslin. And what could be more "powerful" than influencing the 2008 Democratic presidential choice, which, for the record, SNAP believes it will. Endorsement! (Union endorsements didn't save Howard Dean, but, hey, when your goals are so tiny, dream big.)

It's endorsing in the mid-terms too! And they 'proved' their power because instead of donating money to a campaign, they provided a salary for a campaign worker from their ogranization. Clearly, they've gone the campus work-study route.

Well, remember, you can't always be chained to a tree. Though if SNAP strikes you as the last organization to be chained to a tree, rest assured, it strikes us that way as well.

Probing the soft, moneyed side of campus 'activism,' the campus beat at The Nation continues to be a joke. And on that topic, their yearly student essay will be coming up shortly. Remember kids, if you want to win, trash everyone your own age.

And if you want coverage in the campus 'activism' section of The Nation remember that it's not about independence, it's about getting the big money and doing very little with it. No dreamers, no visionaries, allowed. You better be a top-down organization interested in top-down processes. And, though not mentioned in the article, being Yale based helps as well.

Out in the real world, where real activism goes on, the campus beat can't be bothered. Which is probably why there's outrage among many students who've read the piece of crap entitled "SNAP!" ("You go, Yale!" apparently was already taken.) Five of us read the article and were immediately disgusted (but it's just the sort of 'insight' we'd expect from someone who hates Alexander Cockburn). The five were Ava, Jess, Ty, Dona and Jim. C.I.'s attitude was, "Well what do you expect from him?" C.I.'s attitude changed while speaking to seventeen groups of students over three days and hearing repeatedly about how much they loathed this article.* Mike and Wally passed it around their campuses to get reactions and found similar aminosity towards the article.

Fitting into the established power structure and begging for a seat at the table plays really well to The Nation's campus beat and that may be the saddest thing about the beat. (We're not just referring to one or two articles.)

As with the essay chosen last year, the 'voice' of students presented seems to be only those who please their elders either by being co-opted (the Eisenhower Democrats) or by slamming their peers. (We'd suggest to Davis that she flesh out her "You can't always be chained to a tree. Sometimes you've got to put on a suit . . ." 'thesis' because it has essay winner written all over it.) Otherwise, their tales are told through 'older voices' such as when the student led immigartion rights movement began last spring (with school walk outs), The Nation offeed up Roberto Lovato's "Voices Of A New Movimiento" (June 19, 2006) which featured a 26-year-old as the 'youngest' voice and ended with an 'elder' telling a story about students showing up at a James Sensenbrenner town hall chanting "Si se puede." Apparently, none of the students could be reached for comment.

What does that tell you? The movement was sparked by mass walk outs from schools and The Nation couldn't find anyone under 26 to speak to? We're all eagerly awaiting the second post-election edition of The Nation with the hopes that it can stop being an organ for the Democratic Party and get back to being a part of independent media. We know that won't happen with the first edition which will struggle to tell us what the election 'means' -- in a higher minded, focus people, kind of manner. Right now, we're plenty bored. The "peace" columinst tells us that this is the "Torture Election." And we're wondering when they'll get a real peace columnist who'll cover the peace movement?

One student explained to C.I. how ticked off he was with groups like SNAP by noting a member of the group had come up to him supposedly to talk but was obviously working from a list of talking points beginning with, "You know this election is really important and it's important that you vote and vote wisely." As the student noted to C.I. and the others present, "I'm a poli student. I don't need some newly converted 'activist' speaking to me in patronizing tones about voting." He said he was sick of it and that's a sentiment we can share.

From Dan Berger and Andy Cornell's "Ten Questions for Movement Building and Reflection" (LeftTurn):

What young people don't want to deal with is patronization or abandonment, people who focus on their glory days or on lecturing 'the youngens.' What young folks do want are older activists who remain steadfast in their resolve and organizing, who seek to draw out the lessons from their years in the struggle (and are clear about where they differ with others of their age cohort without being sectarian), who look to younger activists for inspiration and guidance while providing the same, and who are focused on movement building. Building on the more multigenerational roots of Southern organizing, two older organizers in Greensboro beautifully summed this up at an event in saying, "We aren't done, we're not leaving, and we're in this together."

We agree. And guess what, the 'years in the struggle' doesn't translate (despite the campus beat of The Nation's apparent belief) into electoral politics.

[*Dona also took part in these speaking gigs. ]

13 Things You Can't Tell By Looking at Them (Movies)

In the fourth season of Friends, "The One with the Embyos" (a comedy classic) reveals that although Rachel claims her favorite movie is Dangerous Liasons, it's actually Weekend at Bernie's. With that in mind, we thought we'd do a piece on the movie you like that no one would ever guess. Participating in this mini-roundtable are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and, me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills) and Wally of The Daily Jot

Dona: The Summer House. My aunt took me to see this film and it was playing at an independent theater with six screens, a coffee bar and about a dozen other things I wasn't used to at my local cineplex. I remember being so impressed. Then we saw the movie. I thought it was funny. Either it wasn't or the frou-frou crowd frowned on laughing. I was the only one laughing and there were several people hissing "SHHH!" at me throughout the movie. I found Jeanne Moreau enchanting but left with the desire never to visit another independent cinema and didn't for many years after. I was probably in first grade, maybe second, and for years I would get nervous if we even drove past an independent theater. I'm not joking about this. I've never seen the film since but when I was a little kid, it tickled me.

Elaine: I vaguely remember the movie and I believe it was billed as a comedy. I think it says something about the crowd you saw it with that they not only wouldn't laugh but would also hiss at a little child. My pick is Dumb & Dumber. It's an idiot film. It really is. I'm not a fan of Jim Carey films. Either they leave me cold or, like with Liar! Liar!, I'm thinking something like, "Yeah, I loved this film . . . when it was called All of Me and starred Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin." But there are moments in that film that crack me up. When they're singing "Mockingbird." When they do the Pretty Woman shopping spoof. In the last thirty minutes, it's just coasting but that was the most appealing Jim Carey's ever been on the big screen for me.

Jim: Interesting. I'll go with the first Austin Powers. To me that's funny. Each sequel got worse. Elizabeth Hurley was a part of the action and story. Each one after treated the female lead like the new "Bond girl." The only scene in any of the two sequels that made me laugh was in the second one where Dr. Evil and Scott go to father-son group therapy.

Rebecca: The Carrie Fisher scene. And it's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. I noted mine, at The Common Ills, before I ever started blogging, so some people may be disappointed, but it's Valley of the Dolls. I love that bad movie. I love the bad acting. I love the bad writing. Best-worst scene of all time, my opinion, when Neely and Tony, two Hollywood entertainers, end up in the nut house and sing a duet which leads to the other patients applauding. Sharon Tate looks lovely throughout and I love the hair styles.

Betty: I'll go with the look of a film as well. Back in "the old days," TV stations, cable and broadcast, used to show a lot of movies. I'm tempted to go with something like Godzilla vs. Mothra but the ones I really looked forward to were the sixties movies. Not the good stuff that holds up, but the silly stuff. Like, If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium. But my favorite, the one where everyone knew not to disturb me, was What's So Good About Feeling So Bad? It stars Mary Tyler Moore and . . . Help.

C.I.: George Peppard.

Betty: Thank you. There's this bird, a toucan, and he's spreading this disease of 'feel good.' I love the look and the hair styles. And Thelma Ritter's very funny in it. It's a film that I've looked for on DVD and never found. I mean, I see the $6.99 reduced stack of DVDs and I will dig through everyone in there thinking, "It could be here!" If the kids are with me, I'll still do it unless one of them is sick. And I mean sick where they're in pain. We were at the drug store getting medicine for my youngest son's pink eye last month and I saw one of those reduced displays of old movies. I asked, "How you holding up?" He was just excited that he got to play hookie. So I dug through them all. Before anyone panics, my hands were clean, I wasn't spreading pink eye.

Ty: I've never thought about that. I mean, at a drug store, digging through stuff, which I have done, a lot of people coming in there are sick. I'll be more careful in the future. I'm going to go with Outrageous Fortune. This is an "aunt tale" too, like Dona's. My aunt had just broken up with some guy and she was sobbing all day and that thing was playing on TV. We'd all been avoiding her and my grandmother had told her she was making a fool out of herself. She'd been sobbing all day and I mean loud, gut wrenching sobs. I was walking past the living room trying not to make eye contact but she saw me and called me over. She asked if I'd watch TV with her. I'd never seen the movie and don't think I even knew anyone in it at the time. But we watched and she was laughing and I was laughing. At first, I was just laughing because she was laughing. Then I really got into the movie. I told that story to Jim not long after we first became college roommates back in NY and he got me the DVD for my birthday that year. George Carlin cracks me up in that and so does Bette Midler. Shelly Long's a little too prissy but it works in the film. And the airport scene, where Midler and Long are pretending to be foreigners, when the woman says, "That was the biggest load of crap" always makes me laugh.


Jess: That's a movie I never saw until the three of us were roommates and it is a funny one. I'm trying to think of one like that for me but I'm really not having any luck. The closest would probably be Throw Momma From The Train. Danny DeVito's really funny in that and Billy Crystal is at times. I can do without the whole date where he and his girlfriend sit in the train. But I'm not thinking of anything else, so I'll go with that. DeVito's really funny.


Cedric: Carwash. It's a dumb movie, it's frequently a static movie. You wait for stuff to happen and most of what does happen appears to be an accident but, in those moments, it cracks me up. When I was a little kid, the theme song would get me excited.

Mike: Song. I'm going with a song too. This is supposed to be one of the really bad movies of all time. My sister recorded this off cable, one of the stations with commercials, and that's how I saw it. At Long Last Love. It's got Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shephard and Madeline Kahn. My sister, my oldest, would put it on and clear out the living room. Everyone would go running, "Ma! Dad! She's watching that movie again!" It actually became like a bonding thing between us because I was the only one who'd watch it with her and I was so young that we really didn't have a lot in common. I should probably check and see if it's available on DVD because she's still got that tape and still watches it.


Wally: Do you ever watch it with her?

Mike: Oh yeah. And she still complains that I'm the only one who will. Even her husband won't watch it with her.

Wally: Okay. Do we want to insert Kat here?

Ava:Let's do that after you go. Kat phoned and we got her input on this feature and another one.

Wally: Mine is The Jerk with Steve Martin. I thought that was the funniest thing when I was growing up. That Caddyshack and National Lampoon's Vacation. Now I watch it and I see all these holes in the story and all these other problems and there are bits that really aren't funny. But I still laugh at the movie. It must crack others up too, that guy in My Chemical Romance looks like Steve Martin in The Jerk.

Kat: Hair. The worst musical of the 70s. Even more so than the disaster that is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club. That one just took a great album and turned into a lousy film by inventing a story. This one took a successful play and destroyed it. There was no respect for the structure and they felt they could rearrange the order of the songs. By the time Charlotte Rae shows up, you know it's laugh or cry. It's a train wreck that you can't look away from if you watch more than a second so, if you've been spared so far, avoid it at all costs. Even Treat Williams' hair is phoney.

Ava: I'm going with a musical as well but really more of a series of musicals. The Annette & Frankie beach movies. They're laughable. They're bad movies in every sense. But I can watch them and enjoy them. In one Annette sings "A Girl Needs A Boy," counter to Frankie's version, and it's probably her finest moment in the series. You also get Candy dancing around in her fringes and the character Eric von Zipper. Don Rickles shows up in Beach Blanket Bingo -- "that's the name of the, that's the name of the game." I'm embarrassed to say that I can sing along with probably every song in those movies.

Jim: That's everyone but C.I., right? Okay, this actually started because we usually watch a movie, the core six, after we finish the edition. We're all about to fall over and we usually want a comedy which we'll usually fall asleep during. One time, C.I. picked one and we were all kind of shocked. "You like this film?" we asked because it seemed so non-C.I. That's when we started teasing that it was like Rachel saying her favorite film was Dangerous Liasons but really . . . So we'll end with C.I.

C.I.: I think it's due to Bob Hope's work offscreen that shocked everyone so. Bob Hope's the star of the film and I really do love it. It's one of my earliest favorite films and I'm sure I could quote the whole thing by now. The film is My Favorite Brunette and it stars Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Hope's Ronnie Jackson, a baby photographer, whose office is next door to private detective Sam McLoud's, played by Alan Ladd. McLoud's out of town and Hope ends up posing as McLoud when Lamour's Carlotta comes knocking. It's a very funny movie, funny with dialogue, slapstick, throw away bits. On the latter, the movie opens with Hope on death row and he explains to reporters what happened. At the end, I don't think I'm giving anything away, it's a comedy from the forties, the execution is called off. When the excutioner finds out, he's upset. The excutioner is played by Bing Crosby and when Dorothy Lamour sees him, she can't take her eyes off him. Hope has to grab her chin and turn her back towards him. Hope, Crosby and Lamour starred in a series of films and it's a nod to those.

Jess: I really do like that movie. I think my favorite line is when Hope says about Lamour, "Nutty as a fruitcake, and with all that beautiful icing."

C.I.: So there's that and there's also a really strong visual for a forties comedy. It's a film noir spoof and you get that lighting and a great deal more.

Jim: So those are our picks of films you might not guess qualified for favorites. As Mike noted Tuesday, a lot of people are busy these days. For that reason, we've been avoiding a roundtable on books. After the election, we intend to do our next roundtable. One book we're hoping to cover is Cindy Sheehan's Peace Mom.

Did war resister Kyle Snyder return to the US Saturday?

According to Mike Howell's "U.S. army deserter ready to head home" (Toronto Star, ran on Friday), war resister Kyle Snyder "will return to the United States tomorrow [Saturday] and turn himself into the military."

Did it happen? We can't find any press coverage of it. Are we now to the point (a point that the media, big and small, have been flirting with for some time) where resistance is the tree falling in the woods? If resistance happens when no one is around, did it make a sound?

Original reports (from Courage to Resist) had Kyle Snyder returning at the first of November. Possibly, Howell was mistaken? Though possible, it hardly seems likely since Howell's spent a great deal of time covering war resisters including Kyle Snyder.

Another little reported story was noted on Friday in C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Meanwhile, Citizen Soldier announces the opening, today, of "the first soldiers' coffeehouse of the current Iraq war in Watertown, NY." More information can be found at Citizen Soldier and at Different Drummer, the name of the coffeehouse. It is a movement and for those wanting more information on the importance of the GI coffeehouse to a peace movement should view David Zeiger's Sir! No Sir! documentary.

With or without coverage, the movement is alive and well. We're not so sure we can say the same about media, big and small.

Patricia Heaton's Pep Talk (parody)

Hey there, pretty girl in the mirror. Wooh-hoo, you are looking good, baby, looking good! Screw Doris Roberts, you are beautiful!

Today is your day!

The sixties are back and you are so all over them!

Three cans of hairspray this morning on that lovely hair. Screw Pantene, you were always a Suave girl.

And now you're bringing back the sixites!

The good parts.

Like the John Birch Society.

And polyester! You are so bringing back polyester!

You go, girl, you go!

You can wear stretchy polyster, white, and coo "Happy Birthday" to the Bully Boy. He's your Bully! He's a Bully just like you are!

Who has more fun than you on a set? Throwing tantrums and screaming at everyone! You rock! You rule!

You are the Anita Bryant of today!

You've taken on the Terry Schiavo issue. So what if America was against you? Rush loves you. Hannity loves you.

It got you a part in the most talked about mini-series of the year!!!!!

Now you gotta peddle the wares again and what better way than to come out against that hideous Michael J. Fox? His Alex Keaton may have fooled a lot of people, but not you, never you.

Your agent said, "Patty, you have no friends in this town, you can't act, you're pudgy and ugly, you're wrinkled and your voice is irritating."

What does he know!!! F**king moron!

You're PATRICIA GOD**MN HEATON!

You're already booked for the 2008 G.O.P. convention!

You're stylish! You're important! You're beautiful, baby!

Everybody Loves Patricia!

You'll be back on TV in your own sitcom in no time. That's what Roger Ailes says! And he never lies!

And this time, no stupid Ray Romano droning on and on, no Doris Roberts trying to upstage me. It'll be my show!

America loves me! The good parts at least!

Gold Star of the Week: The Progressive

In the new issue of The Progressive (November 2006), on page 19, they feature five photos. The first two are from the anti-war protest at the UN 9-19-06 by United for Peace and Justice. The other three are of of an August gathering. August 11, though the text doesn't tell you. The Veterans for Peace conference in Seattle, though the text doesn't tell you that either. The photos are by Jeff Paterson of Not In Our Name and they're of war resister Ricky Clousing who self-checked out of the military and, on August 11th, announced that he was turning himself in.
The issue obviously went to print before they could update. Clousing is serving three months (of an eleven months sentence), was demoted in rank, and, upon completion of the three months, will receive a dishonrable discharge.

To date, this is the only coverage the independent print media has given Clousing. (Though big media did show interest in the story.) More information on war resisters can be found at Courage to Resist.

MyTV's Fascist House

This week on MyTV's Fascist House, The First Lady Is Missing! But her art exhibit goes on!



The First Lady decided to work in the visual field and came up with an exhibit entitled "The Destroyer." Shortly after, she vanished. Rumors have her vacationing in Gitmo.

Bully Boy attends the opening of the exhibit with Condi Rice. They hem and haw and the sexual tension between them will remind you of Brenda & Dylan or Pacey & Joey or
Mr. Ed & Wilbur.

Big Denny Hastert gets stood up at the last minute and considers attending stag. Instead, he calls Mark Foley who suggest he call the Congressional Page program for a hook up. So he ends up escorting the 16-year-old Roy (played by Fall Out Boy's delightful Pete Wentz)who threatens to have another Fall Out Boy moment even though no cell phones are around.

Musical guests Barbara & Jenna perform "Vogue" and demonstrate that talent is AWOL from this family.

MyTV's Fascist House airing 365 days a year, 52 weeks. All new episodes!

So what's up?

Quick note to clue in the people who are wondering. (And cut down on e-mails that are coming in since the highlights wen up.) We have six features completed. We have seven illustrations. Rebecca's still trying to get them all up at her site. Problems with Blogger/Blogspot (repeated) that were network wide, resulted in our decision this morning (at or around five in the morning) to go to sleep and do a late edition today.

We had six features completed. Those will be going up. While they are, we'll be working on at least two additional features. Fingers crossed, this will all be done within two hours.

We'll use the illustrations Rebecca can get up at her site. Sometimes, adding an illustration to an entry requires several attempts. Translation, patience.

We also will be pasting the majority of what we have completed into Blogger/Blogspot. Due to the problems, we lost several features when we'd attempt to save them. One of which was Ava and C.I.'s latest TV review. We were able to use "recover post" (a feature in Blogger/Blogspot) to recover most of the review. The conclusion is missing and we're of the opinion that that will just have to do. Everything we paste over here (text) will also require hunting down links. So two hours may be an unreasonable expectation but that's what we're shooting for.

We have input from Kat on two features this edition. We also got that readers are sick to death of 'horse race coverage'. That was the biggest complaint in the e-mails, that everywhere you looked or listened, you were being swamped with that. We have avoided it before and we avoided it this week. But the e-mails were asking for something extremely different so we tried to hit the arts aspect more this week.

If, like most readers who come to this site, you knew how you were going to vote a month ago and are feeling talked down to in the saturation of "It's election time!" coverage, don't worry. There won't be anything like that here. You won't hear how 'groovy' Harold Ford Jr. is. You won't be told "This guy wrote 'Still The One!'" or any of the other 'coverage' that has you so bothered.

We'll leave the puff Meet-the-Candidate!-And-Vote!-For-Him/Her! to others.

Reminder, Kat's site is still active

Kat is in Ireland but her site is still active. Monday, Betty posted her thoughts on Kyle Snyder. Saturday morning, C.I. posted on students and activism. Ruth was unable to log in Wednesday (a problem for several Blogger/Blogspot sites) and wasn't able to post.

Though she's in Ireland, Kat did dictate a new review ("Kat's Korner: The death of Ani DiFranco?") over the phone to C.I. last night. In addition to that, while C.I. was on the phone with her, we (Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava) were pestering like crazy to speak to Kat. C.I. put her on speaker after she finished dictating the review. We were able to get her input on a feature we're doing on Tina Turner and she also weighed in on a roundtable we did on movies. So we've got Kat's input on two features.

She's assuming that she will be in Ireland through next week and possibly one more.