Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia had a very
successful premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, but director Nicholas Wrathall and his team still need help with the final
archival materials and post production.
You can help...and be mentioned in the credits!
Check out the Kickstarter campaign.
But deadline is fast approaching… please get involved.
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Here's the official website of Nicholas Wrathall's new documentary Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia:
The documentary garnered a great review by Erica Abeel (author, Conscience Point) in HuffPost:
For sheer entertainment value, few docs can equal Gore Vidal the United States of Amnesia...a portrait of the novelist, playwright, polemicist, public intellectual, and bullshit detector. Screenings at the Tribeca Film Fest [sold out].... Vidal (who died at 86 in 2012) was of the aristocracy and related to American royalty (his mother married an Auchincloss). Yet he betrayed his class a la FDR with a vengeance. An iconoclast ahead of his time, he candidly wrote about homosexuality in an early novel, The City and the Pillar, which got him blacklisted by book critics at the New York Times. He knew everyone and went everywhere but became mordantly critical of privilege and what he called the "American Empire," offering, in his view, "socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor."
The documentary was written up in Rolling Stone recently, and Robert De Niro stated that it was on his personal short list of must-see films at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Ron Mwangaguhunga of IFC TV tweeted "amazing documentary on the irrepressible Gore Vidal "The United States of Amnesia" is the best doc I've seen in years.…"; Carl Ansley the tech entrepreneur and investor in TapMesh and TxVia tweeted, "really funny, thought-provoking shit-stirring stuff. Needs/deserves/will get a wide audience"; and Bevy Smith tweeted it was "More than a doc it was an autobiography" of a man she "long admired."
See the interview with Nicholas Wrathall on HuffPostLive about the documentary:
Remember, you can help fund the completion of this documentary to ensure it enjoys a post-Tribeca life.
You can make a tax-deductible contribution via USA Projects (deadline May 13, 2013) or you can contribute via Kickstarter (deadline May 11, 2013).
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On October 28th, 1886, President Grover Cleveland led the dedication ceremony for the Statue of Liberty (officially named Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde).
One-hundred twenty-six years later to the day, "Lady Liberty" is bracing herself for some pretty darn breezey weather! Hurricane Sandy is, to quote NY1's head meteorologist, "for real, on her way, and looks to be pretty strong." The MTA is closing the subway system at 7:00 p.m. tonight and suspending bus service at 9:00 p.m. PATH trains will suspect service at midnight. New York City schools are closed tomorrow, Monday, October 29th.
It's advised that during the storm's height if you don't have to be outside, don't be, and if you're on the lower levers of a building with street- or park-facing windows, keep your shades closed since they could help contain glass in the highly unlikely event of flying debris shattering your window.
Well, at least New Yorkers will have something to talk about around the water cooler on Tuesday morning...and on social media since a few hours ago, ad nauseum.
Image: Wikipedia photo; watercolor Storm Heading for New York by HikingArtist
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Helen C. Whitney and Gregory A. Prince, Ph.D. invite Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to seize the opportunity to inform Americans about Mormonism from his perspective by answering nine questions they propose:
1. How have your early experiences within the Mormon Church -- particularly your two-year proselytizing mission to France and your service as Bishop and Stake President -- shaped your character and your worldview?
2. How does Mormonism's boundless optimism, which transcends even death in a manner unlike any other religion, shape your vision of America's present and future?
3. All religions have fabulous foundational stories. The Mormons are no exception. The difference is that their theology is younger and famously literal. It tells us that God has a body, that there is a plurality of Gods who eat and drink and mate as we do, that the golden plates were real, and that when we die there is a concrete and specific heaven where families are reunited. How has the singular physicality of your faith shaped your view of the world, not only as a private citizen but as a national leader?
4. When Mormons are asked about Joseph Smith's powerful final vision about man becoming God, "God-like" is almost always substituted for becoming God. But Mormonism's oft-quoted tenet is unambiguous: "As God is, man may become." Can you explain this core belief in a way that addresses the charge of blasphemy made by other religions?
5. Why do your new positions on immigration, social welfare, gay rights and abortion differ from official positions of the Mormon Church? Can you place these differences in a context that reassures Americans that Mormonism is not a philosophical monolith -- that indeed there is ample room within the label of "devout Mormon" for people as diverse as you and Senator Harry Reid?
6. What your church labels "sacred" is frequently termed by others "secret" or even "sinister," leading many to conclude that Mormons may not always be telling us what they truly believe. How can you assuage these suspicions by articulating your beliefs?
7. Given that your church's highest leadership councils consist entirely of white males, that it denies its lay priesthood to women and that it played the decisive role in the passage of California's Proposition 8, how can you assure the American public that the composition of your administration and the policies that you would pursue would be reflective of, and responsive to, the diversity that is the foundation of this nation's strength?
8. When asked about the part of his Baptist faith that meant most to him personally and as the nation's leader, President Clinton spoke movingly -- and in his words --a bout "the God of second chances." Human fallibility and the possibility of divine redemption -- these were Clinton's themes. What element of Mormon history or theology has had special resonance for you and has shaped your view of human nature, and of God?
9. Of all the misconceptions surrounding your religion, which one has offended you the most? Or, to interject a lighter note, what misinformation or stereotype has caused you to roll your eyes and even laugh when you are with your Mormon friends?
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THE CHURCH OF SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN (EPISCOPAL)
CHRISTMAS EVE
Choral Music & Carols 10:30 PM
O Magnum mysterium – Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557–1612)
Salve regina – Poulenc (1899–1963)
Sing lullaby – Howells (1892–1983)
Procession & Solemn Mass 11:00 PM
Sermon by the Reverend Stephen Gerth
Missa ‘Laetatus sum’ – Victoria (1548–1611)
O Magnum mysterium – Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557–1612)
Bethlehem Down – Warlock (1894–1930)
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If you're a Facebook user who's switched over to Facebook's new Timeline view for your profile, you can use the image shown here as your Timeline "cover", the large banner-like image at the top of your Timeline.
Click on the image to enlarge it. Then right-click and Save the image to use it.
It reads:
If the Republicans don’t extend the payroll tax cut by January 1st, taxes for a typical American family will go up by $40 each paycheck. Write what $40 per check means to you. Visit WhiteHouse.gov. Or Tweet it: #40dollars.
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Calls from the usually opposing US Chamber of Commerce and the ALF-CIO to invest in America's transportation infrastructor date back to January.
From recent remarks by President Obama:
At the end of September, if Congress doesn’t act, funding for our roads and bridges will expire. This would put a stop to highway construction, bridge repair, mass transit systems and other important projects.... And it would affect thousands of construction workers....
.....Right away, over 4,000 workers would be furloughed without pay. If it’s delayed for just 10 days, we will lose nearly $1 billion in highway funding that we can never get back. And if we wait even longer, almost 1 million workers could be in danger of losing their jobs over the next year.
....In Virginia, 19,000 jobs are at risk. In Minnesota, more than 12,000. And in Florida, over 35,000 people could be out of work if Congress doesn’t act.
That makes no sense – and it’s completely avoidable....
via www.webwire.com
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Michael Gerson and Mark Shields converse with Jim Lehrer about the debt ceiling politics unfolding in Washington.
Shield's summary of the Republican position, one
'Well, if you put a penny of revenue, a penny of revenue, if you even suggest that a registered nurse in an emergency room and a New York firefighter shouldn't pay taxes twice the rate of a hedge fund manager, we leave. We're not going to be a party to that.' That's -- that's basically where they were.
......
This whole experience, Jim, of this deficit and debt ceiling has so diminished everybody involved in it. I saw embarrassment, total professional and personal embarrassment, on the part of members of Congress this week that they were a part of this. And that diminishes confidence and trust and optimism about the government's ability to do anything. That's one of the casualties of this.
Think Progress notes:
Institute for Policy Studies’ (IPS) Sam Pizzigati... cites an IPS paper from last spring to make the argument that if corporations and households making more than $1 million paid the same rates as they did in 1961, our debt would virtually disappear in a decade:
Some numbers — from an Institute for Policy Studies report released this past spring — can help us better visualize just how monumental this political failure has been. If corporations and households taking in $1 million or more in income each year were now paying taxes at the same annual rates as they did back in 1961, the IPS researchers found, the federal treasury would be collecting an additional $716 billion a year. In other words, if the federal government started taxing the wealthy and their corporations at the same rates in effect a half-century ago, the federal debt to investors would almost totally vanish over the next decade.
As ThinkProgress has previously reported, the richest Americans are paying their lowest taxesin a generation. Additionally, Center for American Progress experts Michael Linden, Seth Hanlon, and Jordan Eizenga have shown that the United States is actually very low-tax compared to other developed countries.
There's some evidence that the coalition government's austerity measures in the UK aren't helping the economy there: UK GDP grew by a mere 0.2% over the last nine months. Some may argue that's because the full effects of the austerity measures haven't kicked in yet. Others may point out that President Obama's stimulus package has done little better for the US. Still others may then point out that the stimulus package was about 22% tax cuts, actually, not direct stimulus. Some might complain that the tax cuts weren't sufficiently aimed at corporations or too strongly geared towards the President's commitment to fulfill his campaign pledge to cut taxes for the middle class. Others might note that almost none of the stimulus was directed towards a massive new works (jobs) program. Yet others might then point out that it's hard to imagine what those jobs would be. Is it realistic to have out of work Americans doing the hammer, nails, and shovel sort of work the WPA used in the 1940s, since today's severe infrastructure needs--everything from roads and bridges to internet access and energy supply and distribution improvement--are comparatively technical? Some might then argue that the WPA didn't help the economy; that employment and the economy improved because the US switched toward war-related production. Others then note that war-related production is government-sponsored job creation: the government is the buyer, paying with taxpayer or borrowed money, and offering incentives to businesses to switch over to war-related production.
Yet others would say all of this is less important than the wealth disparity problem in America.
But others, like Michael Gerson (above), might note that dysfunctionality in Washington makes action on wealth gaps, including the racial one, or pretty much anything else, unlikely.
The discussions and back-and-forth can go on and on.
Mr. Shields got the first word in this post, so Mr. Gerson can have the last:
In normal times, a worsening social problem like the wealth gap [between whites and blacks] might unite creative liberals and compassionate conservatives in an unlikely policy alliance. Meetings would take place at the New America Foundation. Bipartisan legislation would be introduced. It is a Washington I can remember — but now seems impossibly distant.
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Everybody knows that President Obama tried to stimulate the economy with a huge increase in government spending, and that it didn’t work. But what everyone knows is wrong.
Think about it: Where are the big public works projects? Where are the armies of government workers? There are actually half a million fewer government employees now than there were when Mr. Obama took office.
So what happened to the stimulus? Much of it consisted of tax cuts, not spending. Most of the rest consisted either of aid to distressed families or aid to hard-pressed state and local governments. This aid may have mitigated the slump, but it wasn’t the kind of job-creation program we could and should have had. This isn’t 20-20 hindsight: some of us warned from the beginning that tax cuts would be ineffective and that the proposed spending was woefully inadequate. And so it proved.
It’s also worth noting that in another area where government could make a big difference — help for troubled homeowners — almost nothing has been done. The Obama administration’s program of mortgage relief has gone nowhere: of $46 billion allotted to help families stay in their homes, less than $2 billion has actually been spent.
via www.nytimes.com
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He was also among the smartest in the half-million force, scoring a perfect score on his aptitude test, a feat the Army says is rare.
Andrew was so well-liked his comrades named a combat outpost for the soldier with the infectious smile. COP Wilfahrt sits 6 kilometers from Kandahar. To his buddies, it is not named for a gay soldier, but for one who fought with valor.
"Mom, everyone knows [I'm gay]. Nobody cares," he told his mother in their final conversation, a phone call from Afghanistan on Thanksgiving.
.....
Andrew never denied his sexuality. But like so many, he struggled with what it means to be gay in America. Yet it was only one part of him. He was so much more. In the note on his laptop, he never used the words gay or homosexual to define himself. His younger sister, Martha, says it's the least interesting thing about him.
via www.cnn.com
A smart, wise younger sister. She gets it.
Also from the news profile:
Jeff's greatest regret is not hugging his son when he first told him he was gay. "This is how it is for an old fool of a man. This moment is the burden I carry."
.....
Republican Rep. John Kriesel, who lost his legs while serving in Iraq, sent Andrew's photo around the floor during debate in the Minnesota House. A few years ago, he said, he would have defined marriage as solely between heterosexuals. But his military service changed that.
"This amendment doesn't represent what I went to fight for," he told lawmakers."I cannot look at this family and look at this picture and say, 'You know what, Corporal, you were good enough to fight for your country and give your life, but you were not good enough to marry the person you love.' I can't do that."
Andrew didn't have a significant other. If he had, the partner wouldn't have been allowed to escort his body home from Dover Air Force Base, nor would he have received Andrew's $100,000 death benefit.
.....
"We will never forget him and are honored to have served with such an outstanding person," platoon leader 1st Lt. Brandon LaMar said in a letter informing the family of the naming of the outpost.
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