The problem with being a liberal who largely supports the war in Iraq is that occasionally, the Bush administration comes up with something so ass-rapingly obvious in its shady crookedness that one’s suspension of disbelief is not only strained, but torn bloodily out of socket.

The Bush junta has awarded the contract for post-war oil well construction to Halliburton—-the corporation that until 2000 had Dick Cheney as its CEO.

Come on guys….if you’re going to pull that kind of criminal BS, at least be subtle about it.

I’m not sure what’s worse: the fact that they did it, or the fact that the obviousness of the move is such an insult to my intelligence.

Of course, the media in this country is largely ignoring this—they’re too busy breathlessly supplying us with ’embedded’ reports and live shots of Baghdad. So far, the best coverage of this issue has come from Comedy Central’s Daily Show, with John Stewart.

GMS

Oscars…

So, as I do every year, I watched the Academy Awards last night, even with the surreal “War Commercials” (the updates from Peter Jennings that were placed during the commercial breaks, so that we wouldn’t forget, apparently). My reactions:

1) It was good to see awards going to “newbies”….Chris Cooper, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Adrien Brody, Nicole Kidman. It’s good to see genuine emotion in their responses. If I have to sit through YET ANOTHER award given to someone like Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep, who fawn and demure over the experience, even though they’ve been up there before….

2) Adrien Brody—grab that moment. Lip-lock on Halle Berry (her husband sitting in the front row, fer chrissakes), Shout down the orchestra, and make a statement on the war that is heartfelt, wishing for peace, and at the same time supportive of the soldiers over there. THAT’S how you do it.

3) “Fictional election results, giving us a fictional President…” OK, Mike, Look– I *agree* with you on that point, but come on, man: there’s a time and a place. This was neither. So, congratulations: in a room full of people who largely share your political leanings, you managed to be boo’ed off the stage. Fat-ass loudmouth.

4) Best Director to Roman Polanski: Given the fact that Peter Jackson, who has succeeded in filming something that people thought was unfilmable, did three films back-to-back-to-back, and pulled it all in under-budget wasn’t even nominated, I suppose that I shouldn’t be too surprised that the Academy gave the Oscar to an unrepentant child-raping sexual predator. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.

5) I find it delicious that for the rest of his life, Marshal Mathers now has the right to be called “Academy Award Winner Eminem.” “Lose Yourself” *was* the best song of that bunch—it was a perfect distillation of the film, but I was stunned that it actually won.

…aside from the above thoughts, the main result of watching the awards was, as is the case every year, a rise in my desire to actual get a screenplay finished and sold. Which is a good thing, I suppose.

GMS

I don’t want to turn this into a warblog, but I think that my fellow citizens on the left should read this interview with Paul Berman on Salon.com, in which he outlines his belief (and mine) that the left should be concerned about Islamism (Islamic totalitarianism), should be backing efforts to establish liberal democratic ideals in the Middle East, and should come to the realization that although Bush is an idiot, he’s right about Saddam. (It’s a subscriber-only piece, but if you’re not a subscriber, you can opt to view some ads and read the article anyway)

One of his most salient points is that what we’re doing in Iraq is literally in the best interests of most of the world, and the huge backlash against the US world-wide is almost entirely due to the staggering ineptness of Bush and his complete inability to communicate these interests effectively.

Personally, I think that what we’re looking at here, with the new American policy, is sort of a “democratic domino theory”. I think we looked at what the Soviets were doing to spread communism from the 50s through the 70s, and realized that they would’ve been even more successful if a) they had a stronger economy than they did (a fact which eventually destroyed the Soviets from within) and b) they didn’t have a rival power blocking them at every turn. Given the fact that we’ve got scads of money and are essentially the sole superpower, I think that somebody along the line realized that we might be able to actually pull it off.

I think that if we on the left put aside our hatred of the Bush junta (which we can deal with in 2004 by mobilizing liberal voters in vast numbers), we would be able to realize that the establishment of genuinely democratic governments (or at least more democratic than they are currently) and the taking down of totalitarian and fundamentalist regimes the world over is a goal that can help spread more liberal social ideals and values, leading to greater personal freedoms for more people. The only question is whether or not the left is going to make sure that they’re part of the equation, involved in the process, or if instead they’re going to spend their energies on complaint and protest and leave the establishment of these new societies to corporately-minded conservatives.

Something to think about.

GMS