Month: April 2009

Banana Republicans

by digby

Who said this?

“It’s important for people to understand that in a democracy, there will be a full investigation. In other words, we want to know the truth. In our country, when there’s an allegation of abuse … there will be a full investigation, and justice will be delivered. … It’s very important for people and your listeners to understand that in our country, when an issue is brought to our attention on this magnitude, we act. And we act in a way in which leaders are willing to discuss it with the media. … In other words, people want to know the truth. That stands in contrast to dictatorships. A dictator wouldn’t be answering questions about this. A dictator wouldn’t be saying that the system will be investigated and the world will see the results of the investigation.”

h/t to Andrew Sullivan

ACTION: Tell Congress To Open Impeachment Inquiry Into Jay Bybee

by dday

Thanks again to all of you who signed petitions and made phone calls and helped push the resolution to open a Congressional inquiry into Torture Judge Jay Bybee, which the California Democratic Party adopted at its convention yesterday. I have been told by the authors of the resolution that the pressure from the outside really aided their efforts.

The passage of the resolution was a beginning, not an ending. I view the impeachment of Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit Court as a moral and legal imperative, but also an entryway into the larger fight for justice and accountability for those who authorized and directed torture in our name. I agree with Jerrold Nadler that impeachment should not be seen as a compromise measure, a way to satiate those concerned with accountability. “There can’t be a compromise — you have to follow the law … If the facts say that some former high-ranking official should be prosecuted, the fact people will get angry should be irrelevant … If we do not investigate the torture that is clear that it occured, and if the evidence is there prosecute, not only are we disobeying the law, not only are we being immoral, but we are inviting torture of our people in the future.”

Bybee’s impeachment can start us down the path to restoring the rule of law. And now the largest state Democratic Party in the country has spoken. They have said that the myth about torture being a useful tool to extract actionable intelligence from terror suspects is not only irrelevant when it comes to lawbreaking but also entirely false, according to the CIA’s own inspector general. They have said that Judge Bybee’s appalling judgment and slavish acceptance of John Yoo’s flawed legal reasoning represents a greater evil – the evil of thoughtlessness – and a greater responsibility for the actions committed thanks to his off-handed signature. They have said that Bybee’s understanding of his own wrongdoing outweighed by his desire to be a federal judge shocks the conscience, and that far from being rewarded for his obedience to his conservative minders, he should bear responsibility for it, to the fullest extent possible.

So what do we do now? Members of the California Democratic Party include 34 members of Congress, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and six men and women who sit on the House Judiciary Committee, where an impeachment inquiry would be remanded. They need to hear that their party just recommended that they open an immediate Congressional inquiry into Judge Bybee, with all appropriate remedies and punishments available. In fact, the entire House Judiciary Committee needs to hear this. Thanks to my friends at Firedoglake, they will. We have put together a contact list for the entire House Judiciary Committee, and you can, with just a few clicks, compose a letter to any member of that Committee telling them of the CDP’s action and demanding immediate action on an inquiry.

House Judiciary Committee
John Conyers, Michigan	Howard Berman, California
Rick Boucher, Virginia	Jerrold Nadler, New York
Robert C. Scott, Virginia	Mel Watt, North Carolina
Zoe Lofgren, California	Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas
Maxine Waters, California	Bill Delahunt, Massachusetts
Robert Wexler, Florida	Steve Cohen, Tennessee
Hank Johnson, Georgia	Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico
Luis Gutierrez, Illinois	Brad Sherman, California
Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin	Charles Gonzalez, Texas
Anthony Weiner, New York	Adam Schiff, California
Linda Sánchez, California	Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Fl
Dan Maffei, New York	Lamar S. Smith, Texas
Jim Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin	Howard Coble, North Carolina
Elton Gallegly, California	Bob Goodlatte, Virginia
Dan Lungren, California	Darrell Issa, California
Randy Forbes, Virginia	Steve King, Iowa
Trent Franks, Arizona	Louie Gohmert, Texas<
Jim Jordan, Ohio	Ted Poe, Texas
Jason Chaffetz, Utah	Tom Rooney, Florida
Gregg Harper, Mississippi

In addition, you can call your members of Congress and tell them that they must support an immediate inquiry into the actions of Jay Bybee, federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Congressional switchboard at 1-866-220-0044 can connect you to your member of Congress as well. Here are some talking points:

• Jay Bybee signed the August 1, 2002 memo approving certain torture techniques to be used on mentally ill terror suspect Abu Zubaydah.

• The CIA’s Inspector General found that the torture of Abu Zubaydah and others foiled no terror plots and sent intelligence personnel on wild goose chases and false leads around the world. (McClatchy, 4.24.09)

• The California Democratic Party is the largest state party in the country, and they have spoken with one voice to demand hearings on Bybee.

• We are required by the Convention Against Torture to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who authorized and committed acts of torture.

• Judge Bybee’s presence on the 9th Circuit disgraces the federal bench and saps at our moral authority in the world. Congress has a duty to step in and impeach him.

We now have this resolution as a tool. Let’s use it to pry open the Congress and provide the opening of some accountability for these heinous acts committed in our name.

.

Atheism’s Now Fit To Print

by tristero

Atheism makes it to Page One of the Times. However, a close look at the article makes it clear that, in reality, the actual number of atheists in the US is vanishingly small. Despite their finessing of the issue, there is one helluva difference between checking the box labelled “no religion” – which can mean just about anything – and atheism, for example. And, strictly speaking, “secular humanism” is not a synonym for atheism, either.

Despite their numbers – or perhaps because of them – atheists today are often the victims of genuine discrimination. It is impossible for an avowed atheist to hold high national office and, despite Obama’s oft-noted shout out to non-believers at his Inaugural, the entire ceremony was a religious love-fest. True, I wouldn’t have missed Rev. Joseph Lowery’s address for anything, but seeing the vile, lying Rick Warren up there was mega-creepy.

So it is good, extremely good, that atheists and atheism have gained so much national status. And hopefully, atheism as an ethics and a belief system will evolve to the point where no one feels they need to go out their way to make excuses for assholes like this simply because they affirm the non-existence of God.

***

Special Note: Many commenters have concluded, or assumed, that I am an atheist. Apparently, the logic goes something like this. Since I despise christianists, since I like PZ Myers, since I’m a staunch advocate of Church-State separation, therefore, I must be an atheist.

The reasoning is fallacious. I know plenty of devout Christians who loathe James Dobson. As for PZ, I suspect that even Bill Donohue would like PZ Myers if he could be induced to share a beer or three with him (well, maybe not, but my point is that PZ is eminently likable and intelligent, and I think that even if, or especially because, I disagree with him on some things). As for Church-State, I can’t think of a single more crucial social issue for the religiously observant to support. From that flows genuine religious freedom and tolerance.

Which is not to say that therefore I’m religious. Over the course of several thousand posts, I’ve made it a point – as I do in all media – to make it clear that whatever my personal beliefs – or lack of them – might be, they are no one’s business but mine. I will say, however, that whatever you might think my personal beliefs/non-beliefs might be, my respect for both religious expression and non-expression is a matter of long public record.

More importantly, whatever my possible faith, or possible lack of same, might be, it is absolutely, completely, thoroughly irrelevant to the cultural/political/artistic/scientific issues that publicly concern me. That is what is meant by an advocacy of Church-State separation and I take a dim view of anyone who claims that their “faith” compels them to support or denounce a political agenda. No faith worth its name requires someone to check their brain at the door, or absolves an individual of responsibility for their actions and beliefs.

Go Breathe Your Own Air

by digby

Oh no. Here comes the heavy hand of government telling everyone what to do again:

In Texas, Byron Steele High School was closed and all its extracurricular activities were canceled “to reduce the risk to students, staff and the community,” said Dr. Sandra Guerra, a regional director for the state health department. She urged students not to hang out together anyway as “that would defeat the purpose.”

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas asked the C.D.C. to send 37,430 doses of Tamiflu.

According to one expert involved in telephone discussions about flu preparedness on Saturday, there was debate among officials about whether to move some of the stockpile closer to Texas and California.

Since Governor Perry wants Texas to secede from the union because of all the onerous taxes and regulations I feel sure he’d agree that Californians should have the stockpile closer to them since they are happy to remain part of the United States.

In fact, all those people who don’t want to pay their taxes and think the federal government is useless should probably figure out how they plan to deal with a possible pandemic by their own libertarian selves. After all, the worst words in the world are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you, right?”

Maybe they could put an ad on Craigslist for “pandemic management needed.”

Update: I hadn’t realized that one of the costs the Republicans ridiculed and ultimately took out of the stimulus bill was money to fight pandemics. Susan Collins made sure it was stripped from the Senate version.

It’s very tempting to say that those states whose leaders refused to fund this should be at the end of the line, but unfortunately it won’t do any good when it comes to public health. You have to make sure the jackasses get treated as well or we all suffer. But I would hope that someone will remind their constituents of their shortsighted partisanship when the time comes.

h/t to bb

Be Careful What You Wish For

by digby

Those who are following this very closely already know this, but since the lines being drawn among the villagers seem to be being drawn around whether the illegal, immoral torture regime was effective, perhaps this should be emphasized more strongly:

The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any “specific imminent attacks,” according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.

That undercuts assertions by former vice president Dick Cheney and other former Bush administration officials that the use of harsh interrogation tactics including waterboarding, which is widely considered torture, was justified because it headed off terrorist attacks.

The risks and effectiveness of waterboarding and other enhanced techniques are at the center of an increasingly heated debate over how thoroughly to investigate the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation programs.

“It is difficult to quantify with confidence and precision the effectiveness of the program,” Steven G. Bradbury, then the Justice Department’s principal deputy assistant attorney general, wrote in a May 30, 2005, memo to CIA General Counsel John Rizzo, one of four released last week by the Obama administration.

“As the IG Report notes, it is difficult to determine conclusively whether interrogations provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks. And because the CIA has used enhanced techniques sparingly, ‘there is limited data on which to assess their individual effectiveness’,” Bradbury wrote, quoting the IG report.

Nevertheless, Bradbury concluded in his May 2005 memos that the program had been effective; that conclusion relied largely on memos written after the still secret report by Inspector General John Helgerson.

Helgerson also concluded that waterboarding was riskier than officials claimed and reported that the CIA’s Office of Medical Services thought that the risk to the health of some prisoners outweighed any potential intelligence benefit, according to the memos.

The IG’s report is among several indications that the Bush administration’s use of abusive interrogation methods was less productive than some former administration officials have claimed.

It’s right there in the memos if members of the media would care to read them. Why that should be ignored in favor of some specific memo Dick Cheney clings to as proof of the efficacy of torture is beyond me. From what we can tell in the Bradbury memos,despite his efforts to distort the conclusion, the CIA itself could not find these tactics to be obviously useful and they had every reason to try to do so. After all, this is torture we’re talking about, and all the memo writing and IG reports indicate those involved were very well aware of the shocking nature of these tactics. If they could have found these things to be unambiguously useful they would have done so.

I’m not sure why everyone in the media is ignoring this unless they still think of Cheney as their daddy and just can’t wrap their minds around the fact that the man is actually a psychopath. I’m sure that’s tough to deal with.

The ACLU got a very heavily redacted copy of that IG report sometime back which showed absolutely nothing of value. But it may still come out:

Jameel Jaffer, the director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, called the report a “crucial document” and said its declassification is the subject of a court case before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“We hope that we’ll be able to negotiate a less redacted version of that report,” Jaffer said, adding that the release of the Justice Department memos has increased pressure for more revelations.

“It’s a crucial document,” he said. “It will shed light on what kind of measures the CIA was using before August 2002” and whether they exceeded limits imposed by the Justice Department lawyers.

Two of the memos declassified last week _ a May 10, 2005, assessment of individual enhanced techniques and a May 30, 2005, assessment of U.S. obaligations under an international anti-roture agreement, cite the IG report at least 34 times, often quoting it verbatim. Those citations provide the first glimpse of the spy agency’s inspector general’s analysis of the interrogation program.

One of the unintended consequences of Cheney’s requests for more documents to prove his case (and his allies’ hysterical accusations of partisanship and reckless assertions of the necessity of torture) is that they may end up forcing the Obama administration to release more damning information. The fact that so many conservatives and their toadies take on faith that torture must have worked says more about their personal psychologies than anything else. That they don’t care that torture is immoral and illegal says something much darker and disturbing than that.

(Certainly none of them should ever be allowed anywhere near nuclear weapons again. They have shown they have no limits.)

As California Goes …

by digby

Congratulations to dday, the Courage Campaign and the LA Democrats, for pushing through the resolution at the California Democratic Convention to begin an inquiry to (potentially) impeach Judge Jay Bybee. This was a truly grassroots effort that came out of simple human outrage that a man who authored those repulsive torture memos could possibly be allowed to pass judgment on others as a judge in one of the highest courts in the land.

The next step will be to make the California Democrats — and there are a boatload of them — do what their state party wants them to do. More on that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t be prouder of my pal and colleague dday who really pushed this thing into the blogosphere and testified at the convention for passage. Just shows to go you that some of us bloggers aren’t just cheeto eating blowhards. Those of you who are in LA should come to the Santa Monica Drinking Liberally next Thursday and help me get him drunk.

Back In Bidness

by digby

I think most thoughtful people would agree that one of the most signs that our nation is is serious trouble is the fact that we are determined not to hold our elites accountable for serious lawbreaking, particularly that which endangers the nation. But just as serious is the fact that our elites continue to reward themselves for failure that endangers the nation:

The rest of the nation may be getting back to basics, but on Wall Street, paychecks still come with a golden promise.

Workers at the largest financial institutions are on track to earn as much money this year as they did before the financial crisis began, because of the strong start of the year for bank profits.

Even as the industry’s compensation has been put in the spotlight for being so high at a time when many banks have received taxpayer help, six of the biggest banks set aside over $36 billion in the first quarter to pay their employees, according to a review of financial statements.

If that pace continues all year, the money set aside for compensation suggests that workers at many banks will see their pay — much of it in bonuses — recover from the lows of last year.

Now, it’s true that some of this is going to regular employees as overdue raises. But the idea that these people have to be paid bonuses or they will leave for greener pastures remains the main excuse. Apparently, talented people will leave in droves if you don’t allow them to continue to make obscene amounts of money, even when the companies they work for are responsible for a systemic failure of massive proportions:

“I just haven’t seen huge changes in the way people are talking about compensation,” said Sandy Gross, managing partner of Pinetum Partners, a financial recruiting firm. “Wall Street is being realistic. You have to retain your human capital.”

[…]

Wall Street, of course, has a long history of high wages. Not all that long ago, most investment banks were private partnerships, and the workers were also typically the owners. Even when those firms began listing their shares on public stock exchanges, a standard was set in which half of their revenue was paid out to workers.

Their argument is that such lofty pay retains the best employees, who help earn more money, ultimately benefiting shareholders. The set-asides in the first quarter for pay can also help raise morale within the banks.

I like how they are referred to as “workers.” Let’s just say that the obscene compensation that caused all the short term thinking that led to the financial crisis wasn’t going to the secretaries or the office managers. The vast majority of this “compensation” goes to the high flyers. Indeed, one reason these companies are able to crank up the free money machine again is because they’ve cut their workforces way back at the lower end and added the workload to the remaining low level workers. These low level workers didn’t get their raises or bonuses either.

But the excuse that they have to pay these people such high wages because they will go elsewhere is puzzling to me. Are there really a lot of high paying jobs available in the financial sector right now? That seems pretty unlikely to me. And in fact, I’d have to assume that if there’s one place where the competition is fierce and wages should be stagnating or falling, it’s there. At least if the system were based on market principles.

But it isn’t, is it? It’s crony capitalism where the Big Money Boyz circle the wagons to preserve the ridiculous system they devised among themselves to keep that river of money flowing at the top — no matter how many ridiculous risks their industry took and lost. It’s quite the scam.

The Times indicates that the answer to this problem is that shareholders should simply sell their shares if they don’t like what’s happening, which is the equivalent of telling Americans they can always move to another country if they don’t like what the government is doing. The real answer is that as the owners, the shareholders should demand that the companies change their compensation system or they will boot out the entire board. It’s hard to believe anyone they replace them with could do any worse.

Space Cookie

by digby

Peggy Noonan just said on CNN that Obama is doing too much because bailing out the banks is a full time job. Apparently, Peggy thinks the president’s job is to burn the midnight oil running spread sheets.

She also thinks the Republicans have missed the boat because they haven’t answered the questions: what would you do? She then said that we needed to be very worried about the Chinese and that Rove almost killed the GOP by destroying the base(!)

As for torture, she avoided the talk about “mystery” and “walking away” but she said that the world knows things (torture) were done wrong but that we need to move on. She claims there’s no need for investigations but that we need more journalism. And then she gestured to Jon Meechum and Walter Isaacson saying she wants “these two gentlemen to look into everything” and added that the loss of journalism is the greatest threat. She said it all with her usual meandering lugubriousness.

If I had only been listening with half an ear I would have thought that I was hearing some very stoned woman having a stream of consciousness conversation with herself at a Grateful Dead concert. I half expected her to bring up the dolphins again. What in God’s name is she smoking? And why is she on my TV?

VICTORY: Resolution of Impeachment Inquiry Into Jay Bybee Will Pass CA Dem Party Today

by dday

Several weeks of hard work have paid off, and the California Democratic Party is poised to provide a major tool in the fight for justice and accountability for the Bush torture regime. The Resolutions Committee included on their consent calendar the resolution to begin a Congressional inquiry into Judge Jay Bybee and other lawyers who wrote opinions justifying and providing the fig leaf of a rationale for torture, with all punishments allowable under the law, including impeachment.

Without the release of the OLC memo from August 1, 2002, showing Bybee admitting that waterboarding gives the impression of imminent death and allowing it anyway, showing Bybee allowing the CIA to put detainees in a small box with bugs in a Room 101-style exploitation of phobias, I’m not sure this resolution would have passed. But the release massed a groundswell of support from the grassroots. My petition to urge the CDP to support the resolution gathered 4,827 signatures in about a week. Courage Campaign hopped aboard as well and got 9,000 or so sigs on their petition. Activists called the CDP offices and pushed for passage. And the party got the message.

Resolutions can go flat if they aren’t picked up and used as a tool. Today, when it passes the full party on the convention floor in a few hours, we can celebrate. Tomorrow, we put this to work. Thanks to everyone who put in the time and effort to get this done.

UPDATE: Here’s the full text of the resolution:

CALLING FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF JUDGE JAY BYBEE AND OTHERS FOR THEIR ROLE IN ALLOWING TORTURE AS PART OF “ENHANCED INTERROGATION”

Whereas, former Assistant Attorney General, and current Federal Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Jay Bybee signed the “Bybee Memo,” or “Torture Memo” of August 1, 2002, which advised the C.I.A. that “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment was at times allowable under U.S. law, and authored, co-authored and signed other memos on “extraordinary rendition” and “enhanced interrogation,” more of which are being currently revealed to the American public as the new Administration brings them to light; and

Whereas the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment, the supreme law of the land under Article VI of our Constitution, requires the prosecution of those who authorize torture, and it has been established that waterboarding is torture; and

Whereas, on January 15, 2009 before leaving office, President George W. Bush, in an effort to cover his culpability, and the culpability of others, had his Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice issue a memo stating that certain opinions issued in 2001-2003 with respect to “the allocation of authorities between President and Congress in matters of war and national security do not reflect the current view of this Office;”

Therefore be it resolved that the California Democratic Party supports resolution of inquiry and vigorous investigation of these and related actions by the Congress of the United States, including the full use of Congressional subpoena power authority and all appropriate remedies, to disclose completely the possible criminal actions of Judge Jay Bybee and others to the American people and to take necessary and available action with appropriate remedies and punishment allowed by law; and

Be it further resolved, that a copy of this resolution with its original authorization be sent to the Office of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and that copies of the signed resolution be sent to each Democratic member of the California delegation to the United States Senate and House of Representatives.

.

Saturday Night At The Movies

Mercy Mercy Me: Top 10 Eco-flicks

By Dennis Hartley

Goddammit they just changed the recycling bin rules in Seattle again, just when I finally had it down. It used to be that paper and cardboard went in one bin, and glass in another. Aluminum cans were OK in either one (THAT really challenged my cognitive sorting skills for the first 6 months or so). “Yard waste” was defined as…well, yard-ey things like pulled weeds, trimmed branches and dead leaves. It was OK to put fruit and veggie scraps in with the yard waste. Greasy pizza boxes were OK too. But chicken bones and meat scraps were verboten. Those were “garbage”. Now they just changed it all around again. Meat scraps are now “yard waste”. You can even throw your glass bottles into the bin that was previously restricted to paper, cardboard and the occasional bi-curious aluminum can. This begs a question: WTF goes in my “garbage” can now? And who is this Seattle “trash czar” who makes these arbitrary changes, I wanna know? Who is this Recycling Bin Laden who makes taking out the garbage such a dreaded terror in my life?

But hey…enough about my trashy issues. In honor of Earth Day (week), I’ve cobbled together my picks for the Top 10 Eco-flicks. As per usual, my list is presented in no particular ranking order. Note: this week’s post is 100% biodegradable (it’s a com-post!).

Baraka -This 1992 film is frequently mentioned in the same breath as Koyannisqatsi; while it does utilize similarly expansive, bird’s-eye view cinematography, supervised by the same DP (Ron Fricke, who also directed here) Baraka succeeds in standing on its own, with its own unique vision. The title is a Sufi term that roughly translates to “a blessing”, and indeed, this global cultural/anthropological travelogue (sans narration) is ultimately a journey that seems more spiritual in nature than the earlier film. Some of the imagery recalls the eco-political themes explored in Koyaanisqatsi (particularly in a striking sequence depicting the environmentally devastating Kuwaiti oil well fires that occurred during the first Gulf War) but it is still left up to the viewer to connect all the dots. Breathtaking, mesmerizing, and best enjoyed on the largest screen you can find.

The Emerald Forest– Although it may give an initial impression as a heavy-handed (if well-intentioned) “save the rainforest” polemic, John Boorman’s underrated 1985 adventure (a cross between The Searchers and Greystoke – The Legend of Tarzan) goes much deeper. Powers Boothe portrays an American construction engineer working on a dam project in Brazil. One day, while his wife and young son are visiting him at his job site on the edge of the rainforest, the boy is abducted and adopted by an indigenous tribe who call themselves “The Invisible People”, touching off an obsessive decade-long search by the father. By the time he is finally (and serendipitously) reunited with his barely recognizable, now-teenaged son (Charley Boorman), the challenge becomes a matter of how he and his heartbroken wife (Meg Foster) are going to coax the reluctant young man back into “civilization”. Tautly directed, lushly photographed and well-acted.

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster -Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: there’s no accounting for some people’s tastes. But who ever said an environmental “message” movie couldn’t also provide us with some mindless, guilty fun? Let’s have a little action. Knock over a few buildings. Wreak havoc. Crash a wild party on the rim of a volcano with some Japanese flower children. Besides, Godzilla is on our side for a change. Watch him valiantly battle Hedora, a sludge-oozing toxic avenger out to make mankind collectively suck on his grody tailpipe. And you haven’t lived until you’ve heard “Save the Earth”-my vote for “best worst” song ever from a film (much less a monster movie!)

An Inconvenient Truth– It’s the end of the world as we know it. Apocalyptic sci-fi has become scientific fact-now that’s scary. Former VP/Nobel winner Al Gore is a Power Point-packing Rod Serling, submitting a gallery of nightmare nature scenarios for our disapproval. I’m tempted to say that this chilling look at the results of unchecked global warming is only showing us the tip of the proverbial iceberg…but it’s melting too fast.

Koyaanisqatsi-Released in 1982, this is a profound, mesmerizing tone poem for all the senses, and one of those films that nearly defies description. I think I have watched it almost as many times as I have seen 2001 – A Space Odyssey (its nearest kin). It’s the first (and best) of a film trilogy. The title is taken from the ancient Hopi language, and describes a state of “life out of balance”. There are likely as many interpretations of what the film is “about” as there are people who have viewed it; if I had to make a broad generalization, I would say it’s about technology vs. nature. But you’ll have to experience it for yourself (if you haven’t already!). Director Godfrey Reggio, cinematographer Ron Fricke and composer Philip Glass were born to work together on this project; the result of their creative trifecta is sheer artistic perfection. Reggio followed up in 1988 with Powaqqatsi (well worth watching, but comes off a bit like a coffee table book variation of its predecessor) and the well-produced yet curiously uninvolving Naqoyqatsi in 2002.

Manufactured Landscapes-A unique eco-documentary from Jennifer Baichwal about photographer Edward Burtynsky, who is an “earth diarist” of sorts. While his photographs are striking, they don’t paint a pretty picture of our fragile planet. Burtynsky’s eye discerns a terrible beauty in the wake of the profound and irreversible human imprint incurred by accelerated modernization. As captured by Burtynsky’s camera, strip-mined vistas recall the stark desolation of NASA photos sent from the Martian surface; mountains of “e-waste” dumped in a vast Chinese landfill take on an almost gothic, cyber-punk dreamscape. The photographs play like a scroll through Google Earth images, as reinterpreted by Jackson Pollock. This one is a real eye-opener!

Never Cry Wolf-A precursor to recent fare like Grizzly Man and Into the Wild, this 1983 gem from director Carroll Ballard (The Black Stallion) is an intelligent and atypically uninhibited entry in the Disney “true-life adventure” oeuvre. Based on the book by Canadian naturalist Farley Mowat, it weaves an exhilarating Jack London-style tale of a wildlife biologist (Charles Martin Smith in his best role) roughing it alone on the Alaskan tundra to conduct a long-term study of wolves and their impact on the ecosystem. There has been some controversy over the years challenging Mowat’s grasp of animal science and the validity of some of his claimed escapades in the wild; but whether or not he took creative license in the source book does not diminish the tremendous entertainment value of this wonderful film adaptation. I lived in Alaska for many a moon, and I must say that Hiro Narita’s cinematography captures the almost spiritual beauty of the region perfectly.

Princess Mononoke-I think it’s fair to say that anime master Hayao Miyazaki and his cohorts at Studio Ghibli have consistently raised the bar on the possibilities of the art form with each successive project. Respect for nature has been an abiding theme throughout much of Miyazaki’s work, so it’s tough to pick a favorite from his catalog; but for the sake of our eco theme this week, I’m going to recommend Princess Mononoke (trust me, once you’ve watched one Miyazaki, you’ll want to see ‘em all-unless you’ve got a heart of stone). Most of the patented Miyazaki themes are present here: humanism, white magic, beneficent forest gods, female empowerment, and (especially in this film) pacifist angst in a ubiquitously violent world. I should note for neophytes that while this film does have a fair amount of violence, that particular element is atypical of Miyazaki; if you prefer to start with one of his kinder, gentler offerings, try My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service (my all around favorite of his). For another Miyazaki film with a strong environmental theme, you might want to check out Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Silent Running-In space, no one can hear you trimming the verge! Bruce Dern stars as an agrarian antihero in this 1972 sci-fi adventure, directed by legendary special effects ace Douglas Trumbull. Produced around the time that “ecology” was just becoming a hot new buzzword, its “message” may seem heavy-handed to contemporary audiences, but it remains a cult favorite to genre fans. Dern is the resident gardener on a commercial space freighter that houses several bio-domes, each one dedicated to preserving various species of vegetation (in this bleak future, the Earth has become completely barren of all forms of organic growth). While it’s just a 9 to 5 drudge gig to his blue collar shipmates, Dern’s character views his cultivating duties as an almost sacred mission (much to the eye-rolling bemusement of his cohorts). When the interests of commerce demand that the crew jettison the domes to make room for a more lucrative cargo, Dern goes homicidally off his nut (all in the interest of ecology, of course), eventually ending up alone with two salvaged bio-domes and a trio of droids (Huey, Dewey and Louie!) who collectively play Man Friday to his space-stranded Robinson Crusoe. Again, some of the political allegory feels terribly dated (Dern’s loutish crewmates represent the corporate lackeys who toe the line for The Man, and he is the DFH who wants to save the greenhouses at any cost) but this is still one of my favorite sci-fi films. Joan Baez sings two songs on the soundtrack.

Soylent Green-“It’s people!” The late Phil Hartman got lots of mileage recycling this 1973 film’s most oft-quoted line on SNL, and as a result, even those who have never watched this cautionary science fiction yarn know what kind of critters go into the Soylent Corporation’s little green fritters (wafers, actually). The year is 2022, and traditional culinary fare is but a dim memory, thanks to extreme overpopulation and severe environmental depletion. Only the wealthy can afford the odd priceless tomato or stalk of celery; most of the U.S. population lives on highly processed Soylent “product” (wait a minute-this is sci-fi?) The government encourages the sick and the elderly to politely move out of the way by providing handy suicide assistance centers (considering the current state of our Social Security system, that doesn’t sound like much of a stretch anymore either, does it?). Oh-there is some ham being served up onscreen, courtesy of Charlton Heston’s scenery-chewing turn as a NYC cop, investigating the murder of a Soylent Corporation exec. Edward G. Robinson (in his final role) steals all his scenes as Heston’s partner. His moving death scene carries the added poignancy of preceding his real-life passing (from cancer) less than two weeks after the production was completed.