AMY GOODMAN: A little-noticed story surfaced a couple of weeks ago in the Army Times newspaper about the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. “Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months,” reported Army Times staff writer Gina Cavallaro, “the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.” Disturbingly, she writes that “they may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control” as well. The force will be called the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive Consequence Management Response Force. Its acronym, CCMRF, is pronounced “sea-smurf.” These “sea-smurfs,” Cavallaro reports, have “spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle,” in a combat zone, and now will spend their 20-month “dwell time” — time troops are required to spend to “reset and regenerate after a deployment” — armed and ready to hit the U.S. streets....
FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE.
It gets worse:
NAOMI WOLF: On October 1, 2008, President Bush deployed a brigade — which means three to four thousand warriors — somewhere in America. We do not know where they are deployed though citizens have informally reported to me having seen military vehicles and troops in Georgia and Alabama. We do know that their official mandate according to the first report is “crowd control” as well as action in the event of a mass civilian catastrophe. Initial reports described their technology “module package” as involving Tasers and rubber bullets.... The First Brigade is Bush’s force: they are not answerable to Congress or to the Governors of states: they are answerable to the Commander in Chief. In an Alternet posting, I interviewed Air Force Colonel (retired) David Antoon who noted that the troops must obey the president, even if he asks them to arrest Congress or fire on civilians or attack media outlets. If they do not obey orders, he notes, they face five years in prison.... Antoon himself calls the deployment “ominous.” Troops on our streets makes us something less than a democracy: one definition of a police state is when a leader sends his own military units into civilian streets. Meanwhile the civilian policing of citizens is becoming more brutal. Hundreds of preemptive arrests took place in St Paul, dozens of journalists were arrested.... In St. Paul, funds were sent in advance to pay off the lawsuits against police forces that were guaranteed to arise from the planned abuse of citizens. This sort of thing is happening across the country. The tactic has established a closed circle that has turned citizens’ law enforcement agencies into contractors of a state that is directing acts of increasing severity against US citizens. Now a military brigade is being deployed....
FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE.
Click here to see an interview with Naomi Wolf conducted in early October 2008.
For the past five years or so I hve been hearing rumors that Halliburton has been building (and has now finished building) 800 prisons throughout the USA, not yet functioning, but just waiting for the right crisis. I have not found reliable evidence for the specific quantity, readiness, functionality, locations, or details, but you might be interested in taking a look at page 5 of this Halliburton press release dated 26 January 2006: KBR has been awarded a contract announced by the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) component. The Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contingency contract is to support ICE facilities and has a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term. The contract provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States, or to support the rapid development of new programs.... Now, really, what are the chances of “an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States”? And what are the “new programs” that could come under “rapid development”?
FOR THE FULL PRESS RELEASE, CLICK HERE.
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When I recently sent Lorenzo Codelli a brief email message, he replied that he was at work with Tinto Brass on a movie called Fallo!, which, he explained, has a double meaning: “Phallus!” as well as “Do It!” Well, “Do It!” reminds me of a book by Jerry Rubin. I need to read it someday. But back to Fallo! : It will probably be on the order of Fermo posta Tinto Brass, a collection of six comic-erotic episodes, which take place in Cap d’Agde, Málaga, Casablanca, London, Cote d’Azur, and South Tyrol (a.k.a. Alto Adige).
I really like what one of the lead actresses, Maruska Albertazzi, had to say: “He’s a director who’s less obscene than he thinks.” Ironically, she graduated with honors in Media Studies with her dissertation on The Key. And so she gets a job working in a big-budget Tinto Brass movie. Oh, some people have all the luck. As for me, it’s back to the old grind....
TINTO BRASS EXPLAINS: “Il mio film è... indubbiamente fallocentrico, anche se, malgrado il punto esclamativo del titolo, più fallocritico che fallocratico!” My friend Marco kindly pointed this quote out to me and translated it too: “My movie is... undoubtedly phallocentric, even though, despite the exclamation point of the title, more phallocritical than phallocratic!” So there.
If you want to read what the press releases and the paparazzi are saying, check out the following sites:
Press Release Cinemotore Online A 70 anni Tinto Brass continua a farlo... (“Farlo,” get it?) Tinto Brass—NEWS I settant’anni di Tinto Brass
COMMENTS UPON FINALLY SEEING IT: Well, this one comes as a shock, but not because it’s shocking. The shock is simply that it isn’t shocking, just extremely explicit, with screen-filling close-ups of female genitalia. The stories are rather unremarkable, but it took me a third (or was it a fourth?) viewing to get it. This is sheer didacticism, made to desensitize the audiences to all the sex. And once you understand that and get over it, you can watch it again and actually enjoy yourself and even laugh pleasantly.
How many of you cinematographers would like to tackle this next scene?
For once, it’s pretty much right.
We’re seeing a little more image on video than we would at the cinema,
all the way to the rounded corners of the camera aperture.
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| The Italian Region-2 PAL DVD, which will not play on most US equipment. Option for Italian captions, which are quite helpful for non-Italians who get lost with all the dialects. One of Tinto’s Italian friends told me that there was a little more in the cinema than in this DVD. Oy. Charming little behind-the-scenes featurette in the supplements with a catchy tune and the enchanting sight of Raffaella Ponzo giggling ever so freely. Verily, everyone in this docu is enchantingly free. | The US Region-0 NTSC DVD. Both long and short versions are available, so be careful to order the longer one! |