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This Needs To Be The Next Viral Video
Josh has a post on the front page pointing to an Andrew Sullivan's embed of this video. It is Republicans talking about McCain and war. Every voter need to see it.
The Working Class Heretic
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Comments (41)
EXCELLENT. HIGHLY recommended. This short vid is impressively researched, edited and scored. I stand in awe.
August 12, 2008 12:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm speechless. I think I might have to come back later to comment when I can get my composure.
I like how he used the theme from Requiem for a Dream. It works. Such a parallel, actually. The descent into obsession, madness, chaos, anarchy...
August 12, 2008 12:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice close, "He will make Cheney look like Gandhi
August 12, 2008 1:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I watched that comment live and thought it was the most damning thing I had heard this election cycle.
August 12, 2008 7:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely Recommended. This is what I truly believe is the truth of John McCain and it needs to be seen by everyone who has the least amount of sense in their heads.
August 12, 2008 1:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
WOW!
August 12, 2008 1:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
It shook me up to watch this... Hope it gets heavy circulation. Thanks!
August 12, 2008 2:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
E-mail the link to your address book.
August 12, 2008 7:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Scott Ritter's "Pick your city" quote is chilling.
August 12, 2008 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely! It was a really striking way to make the point of just how American's need to look further down roads and not just act for the sake of action.
August 12, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
That was the most striking and disturbing part. It really was a no nonsense, in your face, look at the reality of the situation. Wow, very powerful piece.
August 12, 2008 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
What most struck me was how clearly the video reveals McCain's obsession with war. Contrary to his grandpa like image, McCain is more akin to some character from Dr. Strangelove.
I believe that McCain is trapped re-living the Vietnam war over and over in his psyche. He'll somehow make Vietnam "right" by fighting and winning as many other wars as possible. Far from being the safest choice for president McCain is the most dangerous choice.
August 12, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
that should be the narrative frame around john mccain. if the obama camp is going to tie him to president bush, all they have to do is keep repeating that mccain is the most dangerous choice. mccain is the most dangerous choice.
August 12, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
One advantage to that frame is it happens to be true.
August 12, 2008 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
What's truly scary is that warmongering is BI-PARTISAN in nature, both Democrats and Republicans voted for the Iraqi invasion, giving der Fuhrer all the firepower and $$$ from the Treasury he needed. The war enjoyed widespread support until the "victory" became illusive and the war costly. Even with the current Georgian incident, the immediate instinct of a large number of Americans is to *fight* a war with Russia. This is a sick, belligerent society by and large. Those who are against wars are decried as appeasers, and the notion isn't even challenged in the mainstream.
August 12, 2008 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
For the third time today in the third thread, I think we should go back to the standard we used in WWII. No military involvement until we are attacked on our own soil.
August 12, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
That would be pre-empting the pre-emptive war doctrine, and you'd be described as a cheese-eating surrender monkey. I fear that even Obama would sign up for war to prove his national security cred. Didn't the Germans have a similar term about *their* national security and voted in the Nazis?
August 12, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is well past time that we stopped being scared of conservative warmongers calling us names. You cannont win an argument if you give up at the first ad hominem attack.
August 12, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok, I'll trade my parmigiano for your camembert.
August 12, 2008 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really powerful, Larry. The suffering evident on the faces of innocent children and brave soldiers in this video... what better evidence of something uninspired, visionless, rotten to its core and perverse? And all for a war of choice.
August 12, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent! We already have had one second rate fly-boy as president. We cannot afford another.
August 12, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok, I'll trade some of my parmigiano for your camembert.
August 12, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope that some DEM group makes a TV ad with the Buchanan quote from the end. That is priceless.
August 12, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely chilling and thought provoking.
August 12, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just emailed this to some undecided friends. I have been telling them for months that John McCain is fuckin' nuts. This helps.
Told them not to watch it while they eat.
August 12, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. I sent it to all in my address list.
August 12, 2008 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
This looks like a great video to me. Unfortunately, it's going to come across as the counterpoint to McCain's 'The One' ad for anyone who hasn't pulled their head out and been able to decide. It's very polished, uses very short soundbites, and presents a compelling image. In short, the SMFs who insist on making a decision the day before the election will put their hands over their eyes, ears and mouth all at the same time.
August 12, 2008 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is why we have to make a relentless drumbeat of the mantra "McCain is dangerous". It takes constant repitition to get through to the disengaged.
August 12, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
We saw hints of this kind of real journalism at the end of the Viet Nam war. But since then and Watergate, the corporate porky pigs have bought up the MSM, so we just don't get to see the truth, because they know the American people will not pay for this death and torment and torture if they get a look at it in the daily news. Thus the monkeyboy in chief's orders that no photographs of coffins should be taken.
So where is the MSM? Owned lock stock and oil-barrel by the worst rogues in the history of the world. Dante's demons will have to clearcut a new level of hell to hold them all.
If not for the internet, we would all be in the dark.
Viva la Blogs!
August 12, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rec'd and sent to everyone in my universe.
August 12, 2008 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I despise and resent the use of U.S. troops and other war casualties in this video
August 12, 2008 9:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, much better to plug your ears and cover your eyes so you or anyone else never has to really see what war means. It would make people easier to kill that way I guess.
August 12, 2008 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely!!!
This isn't a propaganda campaign using the troops or casualties as pawns. This is showing what the hell John McCain means by "there will be more wars".
While we may understand this sentence intellectually, it is a different ballgame when that scenario is viewed in pictures.
That is the reality. More people need to see this reality. This is not stratego we are playing here. There is blood. There are children dying. There are troops crying. That is the reality. That is what the American people need to see.
August 12, 2008 10:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
tk is right. It's exploitation.
August 12, 2008 10:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
There oyu go again. No, exploitation is landing on a carrier and proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" when 3,000+ Americans have yet to be killed for a blunder.
Exploitation is twisting uncertain intelligence into political justification for starting a war.
Exploitation is keeping press photographers out of the hangars at dover Air Force Base — for the first time in any war since the base has existed — so that the public will never see the row upon row of flag-draped coffins containing the limited remains of our soldiers.
And you and tk want to shield us skeered little Americans from the truth, too? That's not just exploitation, it's attempted mind control. Have fun hangin' with Dubya back in Crawford.
August 12, 2008 10:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Showing reality is not explotation. It is part of the information we need to be able to excercise the franchise.
August 12, 2008 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have nothing against educating the American public about the realities of war. But this is a complicated subject, Larry, and you should do more research before you assume you understand what you are looking at in this video.
For starters, some of the still-photography images in this video are quite famous, award-winning photos, and I'm sure the filmmaker Aaron Hodgins Davis does not have permission to use them. The one I recognize is the photo of a U.S. soldier holding a dead Iraqi child in his arms. The child is wrapped in an orange-striped blanket, the soldier's face is hidden from view, buried in the blanket. I could be misremembering, but I think it originally appeared in TIME or Newsweek. As far as I can tell, all of the images of the dead and wounded are shot by professional photojournalists, so many (if not all) have already appeared in the mainstream media.
As with print journalists, not all photojournalists are created equal. Some are embeds with U.S. troops on assignment for corporate media. You don't know the motivation behind all of the images in this video, and there are no credits for tracking down the original sources to investigate.
Nor do you know the motivation of the filmmaker. Who is this guy? You should look him up before you suggest promoting him. In a cursory search, I could find nothing about him. His anonymity sends up a red flag for me.
Why don't you look at more images and read all points of view, including what war porn is so you can recognize it when you see it? For still another perspective, I'd suggest Chris Hedges' 2007 piece in the The Nation called "The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness."
August 13, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I despise and resent the way that the DoD has been hiding them and restricting acces to funerals even in cases where the family wanted the media present.
August 12, 2008 11:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Powerful stuff and so very scary. I sent it out and will also throw it in to various blog comments.
I can still hear Pat Buchanan saying of McCain "He will make Cheney look like Ghandi"...
August 12, 2008 9:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
This brought tears to my eyes.
Considering the incompetence that has cost so many American AND Iraqi lives - which could have been prevented had we had someone in the White House that appreciated dissent instead of quashing it.
Just think how different things would be today had we followed Gen. Shinseki's recommendation of 350k-500k troops...
The White House - where competence goes to die.
I see those bloodied children and can't see the difference between them and my own children. The blowback from this debacle will follow all of us - the rest of our lives - regardless of who gets into office next January.
August 12, 2008 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Larry,
Yes to all of your points, and it's not your video. It's only your recommendation.
But it's a little different when it's personal, wouldn't you agree?
As the poster "rtbag" said, there are probably copyright issues too. Photos and videos taken by the military is free from copyright by the way.
And you know what would be much more persuasive than a photo of a coffin or a butchered civilian? A photo of a Soldier, sitting by a humvee, utterly exhausted. Gazing down. Faraway look in his eyes. Or her eyes. Tired of war.
August 13, 2008 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
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