Recommended Current Movie Releases

First of an occasional recommendation list of current movies and videos.

THE UPSIDE OF ANGER -- Joan Allen, Kevin Costner as neighbors in a romantic comedy with Allen living with her four daughters whose husband just left her and Costner as an ex-ballplayer.
Three and a half stars

OFF THE MAP -- Joan Allen and Sam Elliott as a couple and their daughter living as a couple of hippies in the early seventies. They're living off the land when an IRS agent shows up to find out why they haven't been filing taxes. Three and a half stars

MILLIONS -- Story about two brothers 7 and 9 years old and what they do when a bag containing a large amount of cash falls from a train and onto their cardboard clubhouse. 4 stars

GUNNER PALACE -- A documentary that observe soldiers in Iraq, in a half destroyed palace, as they work, play, talk and play games amid the daily bursts of sudden violence. 4 stars

OLD BOY -- Korean vengeance film. Pulp Fiction meets China Town. Very original. 4 stars

VIDEO

WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW? -- Semi-documentary starring Marlee Matlin who takes us through, quantum physics to the meaning of life and religion. 3 stars

THE CORPORATION -- You probably never thought of a corporation as a person but legally it is. This is a pretty objective look at what a corporation is and how it is programmed to function. An eye-opening documentary. 4 stars (due out April 8)

Pictures (or cartoons) Worth A Thousand Words #1

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WHO GET'S TO LIVE?

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Who Get's to Live?

This whole ordeal with Terri Schiavo is so obviously political. This woman suffered from bulemia and from a lack of potassium suffered a heart attack and wound up where she's at. My understanding is that this is irreversible. So she will be as she is through her life. Her wishes to her husband was never to be on life support. At least, and I know it was more, 16 judges have heard this case and judged on it. So, the victims wishes are not important in this issue.

Remember, this is happening in Florida, Bush needs to pander to the religious right who were responsible for him being in office. They want some of that political capital he's spending. Let's say you, John/Jane Q. Public, were in this same situation; and in this country, unscientifically, I believe there are many similar situations. Would there be a fight to spend a spot on the medical treatment tray on someone who is existing in a manner she rejects.

If you remember back in December, this planet had one of it's most horrendous disasters. It took George 3 days to acknowledge that it happened. It took him , what something like 10 minutes to break out of his stupor on 9/11 and start to act on the tragedy. Now, he blasts out of Crawford on a weekend, believe me it's unheard of, to do an emergency hearing on this.

This administration should be ashamed of doing something like this. It's basically using this situation for its own gains. What about the sanctity of marriage? Why don't they respect the wishes of the husband as related to him by his wife, his life's partner. How can you ever start to think about trusting this administration?

Iraq -- The Cash Cow

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Iraq -- The Cash Cow

The United States has charged a former employee of Halliburton and a Kuwaiti subcontractor with defrauding the US government of millions of dollars in a contract scam in Iraq. Two men -- Jeff Alex Mazon, a former employee of Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton; and Ali Hijazi, the managing partner of a Kuwaiti business, LaNouvelle Trading and Contracting Company -- were indicted on charges of devising a scheme to defraud the US of more than $3.5 million.

The subcontract specified that KBR was to pay LaNouvelle more than $5.5 million, nearly $5.5 million more than the KBR estimate of the job - about $680,000. Hijazi allegedly presented Mazon with a $1 million dollar check in exchange for Mazon's favorable treatment of Nouvelle.

Now most of the companies involved in the Iraqi reconstruction are US-based and most of those are tied to Halliburton. Considering the unemployment in Iraq and the fact that they can re-build their country cheaper than we can, even if there was not corrupt overcharging. The only reason US contractors seem to be there is to loot the coffers.

The international watchdog group Transparency International (TI) said in its Global Corruption Report 2005 that profiteering threatens to undermine the reconstruction of Iraq. Peter Eigen, chairman of TI said, "When the size of a bribe takes precedence over value for money, the results are shoddy construction and poor infrastructure management. Corruption wastes money, bankrupts countries and costs lives."

Authors of the report have said, "Funds poured into rebuilding countries such as Iraq must be safeguarded against corruption. If urgent steps are not taken Iraq will become the biggest corruption scandal in history." Attempts by donors like the World Bank (Wolfowitz will make sure that's under control) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to hasten the pace of reconstruction can heighten the chances of waste and fraud.

The report referred to how the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the US Department of Defense initially had only 80 people examining the largest reconstruction program in history, half the number needed according to the Association of Inspectors General, and eventually outsourced oversight to private companies, giving rise to potential conflicts of interest.

And the small contractor isn't even able to bid the contracts. A phenomenon of "contract bundling" which joins together two or more separate procurement requirements into a super-sized contract, effectively disqualifying smaller companies because only the very largest contractors are able to compete.

I wonder if this will keep that deficit going, and going, and going like the energizer bunny. Suck us dry George.

It's The Oil Stupid

According to Greg Palast in BBC News on Thursday March 17 the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Sadaam had been conquered. It was a face off between neo-cons at the Pentagon, and a combo of big oil and the US State Department.

"Big Oil" apparently won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, they learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants. Apparently there was going to be a coup to overthrow Hussein and insert someone else . . . the industry-favored plan was pushed aside fo a new plan to sell off Iraq's oil fields.

This fueled the insurgency . The insurgents mantra --"Look, you're losing your country, you're losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable. They saw that privatization was coming and the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, etc.

Philip Carroll ,former CEO of Shell Oil USA stalled the sell-off scheme and would have nothing to do with it while he was involved.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4354269.stm

R We Confused?

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HAPPY SAINT PADDY'S DAY TO YA !!!!!

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The Big Fat Solution to Social Security Problem

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The Big Fat Solution to Social Security Problem

One of the problems with social security is that over the past 200 years or so Americans have been progressively adding years on to their lives. This had a lot to do with better health care, medicines and regular exercise. So as you live longer you collect longer, which is part of the problem.

Now we come to find out that about 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese. Add to that a lack of available health care, high costs of medicine and sedentary lifestyles and you can expect another report that recently came out. The report claims that due mainly to obesity, the life expectancy of American is going to be predicted to go down instead of up for the first time in about 200 years.

So the problem is kind of reversing itself. If you don't live long enough to collect the social security that you have coming it remains in the coffer. I say this with my tongue partially in my cheek, but it almost makes sense.

Oil and Economic Vulnerability

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Oil and Economic Vulnerability

Cude oil prices, as of last week, are about 2 cents a barrell below the all-time high. Our dependency upon OPEC has not only left the United States vulnerable to geopolitical forces beyond our control but has influenced American policy in the Middle East for the past fifty some odd years. With crude oil prices near $56/barrell and the average price of regular unleaded gasoline selling for more than $2/gallon, our dependence on foreign oil is clearly an economic vulnerability and risk that we must soon remove.

The United States consumes more than 25 percent of the world's oil each year, despite the fact that we control only 3 percent of the world's oil and gas reserves. In the years ahead, imported oil is on track to grow to 68 percent of our total supply by 2025, with U.S. crude production at the lowest level in 50 years.

Our dependence on foreign oil is more than an economic problem. A lot of the money we spend on imported oil is going to nations that support the radical Islamist terroristsagainst whom we're engaged in a global war. The Institute of the Analysis of Global Security estimates that 22 percent of the world's oil is controlled by states that sponsor terrorism and are under U.S./United Nations sanctions. So we're fighting the war on terrorism and paying for both sides of the war. We can't even afford to cover our side. Gal Luft, executive director of the institute said, "On the one hand, we are sending our troops and dollars to fight for freedom and democracy all over the world, and on the other hand, we are sending money to people who don't like us.

So, I think we really need to start working on alternative fuel sources, working harder and faster to build hybrids and maybe start walking and riding bikes more often, which can help take care of another growing problem in this country. We can't afford to waste another quarter century in coming to terms with our dependence on imported oil.

Do As I Say Not As I Do

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Do As I Say Not As I Do

On the one hand this administration is cutting out bankruptcy as an option for people in dire financial situations. Telling us on one hand to reign in our spending while turning a blind eye to the overwhelming amount of credit card offers that we are bombarded with on a daily basis. While the administration spends like a 'drunken sailor' on what's necessary for their own agenda while cutting programs that benefit the majority of us.

As David Walker, the head of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, pointed out, "The federal government's obligations, current liabilities, and unfunded fiscal committments are over $43 trillion and rising . . .Yes, that's trillions with 12 zeros rather than billions with nine zeros."

Until you really get your head around these numbers it's hard to put it in perspective. Take for example -- the estimated net worth of American families is slightly over $47 trillion, and nearly all of it -- 90 percent -- would be needed to cover the government's current obligations and accordinbg to the GAO, it would take real double-digit growth over the next 75 years to pay off our current debt -- an impossible task, considering that the growth rate during the 1990s boom years averaged just 3.2 percent. These debt projections exclude such things as -- over the next ten years -- permanent tax cuts ($1 trillion), privatizing social security ($1.5 trillion over the first decade; $3.5 trillion in the second. His talk about cutting the deficit in half by 2009 does not include such things as the Iraq war and social security privatization.

And his attempt to balance this out would be to slash or eliminate programs that affect the quality of life of millions of Americans, such as education, Medicaid, clean water and clean air, the Head Start Program ans the program that assistance to low-income pregnant women.

DO AS I DO -- should be the new saying and this administrtation needs to be much more responsible with what is affecting 90% of us.