Rendition - Politicks
I watched a movie recently called "Rendition" with Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep.
I admit that I got the movie because I love the actors - had no idea what it was about - but just wanted something to entertain me on a lazy weekend day.
It has stuck with me.
The movie was interesting done - very well lit - the colors were amazing. The actors did wonderful jobs with a horrific subject. The "you don't know it until the end" flashbacks were intertwined so that you came away really thinking about how one act is really tied to many people - even those not immediately obvious.
It could have been easy to think of it as just another Hollywood movie about the way the world has changed since 9/11 and how absolutely corrupt the American Government has become....that is how it works.
Hollywood will take a subject and cover it so many different ways that you become desensitized to the subject matter. It becomes a Hollywood movie instead of based in reality. Its no longer "real".
What stopped me from just seeing a Hollywood Movie was the Documentary called "Outlawed" which actually speaks to one man who experienced Extraordinary Rendition along with the family member of one such man reading his journal. It made the subject matter become very real.
And then I started noticing myself going "but they hide the faces and read from papers that may or may not be "real" so is it still Hollywood?" We here in America haven't heard the stories of these two people - their not in "OUR" news. So can it be true? I started doing what can happen when you don't want to face a subject that is so horrific, so beyond what you ever thought your own country could take part in...you turn away and find explanations to make it a softer kinder nation.
IF (and please don't post all the yes it is just see this....I'm a conspiracy theorist - I don't believe the web anymore as I've seen absolute lies posted on websites that are supposed to be neutral and just reporting the facts - so don't bite into my word here....)
IF these atrocities are happening and our government is aware of the fact that these countries do torture, how is our government any better than a 3rd World country where torture is something that happens every minute?
It just brings home the concept that our government needs an overhauling - not a radical take up arms overhauling - but it needs some serious cleaning out and change. And the only thing I can think of is to start with the election process - whether it be for county, city, state or nation - it needs changed.
I can think of several things that would "fix" our government.
First - Change how we vote - we don't need an electoral college anymore - put the vote to the people - we have the technology.
Second - If you want to run for any office - you get to raise ONLY $10,000. You get one commercial aired per day (air time to be donated by the tv stations and commercials evenly split between the 3 major stations NBC/ABC/CBS). You cannot spend anything more. If people want you to come talk, it has to happen via skype so that no costs are incurred. You don't get to write off any campaign expenses. You cannot use special interest groups to get more commercials on the air as only ONE commerical can air per day for your campaign. One dissenting commercial per candidate gets aired per day - as you must allow dissent. Even cooler - create a 30 minute block of time that the commercials are ran every day so if you are politically inclined you go to the commercials. You can post webblogs to your campaign site as often as you want to - people can go to your website if they need money.
Third - Change how the President and Vice President are chosen - the person with the most votes is President, the person with the second highest votes is Vice President. Only allow two people per party to run for the final vote. Encourage more parties (how can we be truly democratic if you really only have two parties).
These are just ideas and I admit - I'm not the most politcally inclined - so when I start seeing that its broken - its REALLY broken.
Just my two cents today.
I admit that I got the movie because I love the actors - had no idea what it was about - but just wanted something to entertain me on a lazy weekend day.
It has stuck with me.
The movie was interesting done - very well lit - the colors were amazing. The actors did wonderful jobs with a horrific subject. The "you don't know it until the end" flashbacks were intertwined so that you came away really thinking about how one act is really tied to many people - even those not immediately obvious.
It could have been easy to think of it as just another Hollywood movie about the way the world has changed since 9/11 and how absolutely corrupt the American Government has become....that is how it works.
Hollywood will take a subject and cover it so many different ways that you become desensitized to the subject matter. It becomes a Hollywood movie instead of based in reality. Its no longer "real".
What stopped me from just seeing a Hollywood Movie was the Documentary called "Outlawed" which actually speaks to one man who experienced Extraordinary Rendition along with the family member of one such man reading his journal. It made the subject matter become very real.
And then I started noticing myself going "but they hide the faces and read from papers that may or may not be "real" so is it still Hollywood?" We here in America haven't heard the stories of these two people - their not in "OUR" news. So can it be true? I started doing what can happen when you don't want to face a subject that is so horrific, so beyond what you ever thought your own country could take part in...you turn away and find explanations to make it a softer kinder nation.
IF (and please don't post all the yes it is just see this....I'm a conspiracy theorist - I don't believe the web anymore as I've seen absolute lies posted on websites that are supposed to be neutral and just reporting the facts - so don't bite into my word here....)
IF these atrocities are happening and our government is aware of the fact that these countries do torture, how is our government any better than a 3rd World country where torture is something that happens every minute?
It just brings home the concept that our government needs an overhauling - not a radical take up arms overhauling - but it needs some serious cleaning out and change. And the only thing I can think of is to start with the election process - whether it be for county, city, state or nation - it needs changed.
I can think of several things that would "fix" our government.
First - Change how we vote - we don't need an electoral college anymore - put the vote to the people - we have the technology.
Second - If you want to run for any office - you get to raise ONLY $10,000. You get one commercial aired per day (air time to be donated by the tv stations and commercials evenly split between the 3 major stations NBC/ABC/CBS). You cannot spend anything more. If people want you to come talk, it has to happen via skype so that no costs are incurred. You don't get to write off any campaign expenses. You cannot use special interest groups to get more commercials on the air as only ONE commerical can air per day for your campaign. One dissenting commercial per candidate gets aired per day - as you must allow dissent. Even cooler - create a 30 minute block of time that the commercials are ran every day so if you are politically inclined you go to the commercials. You can post webblogs to your campaign site as often as you want to - people can go to your website if they need money.
Third - Change how the President and Vice President are chosen - the person with the most votes is President, the person with the second highest votes is Vice President. Only allow two people per party to run for the final vote. Encourage more parties (how can we be truly democratic if you really only have two parties).
These are just ideas and I admit - I'm not the most politcally inclined - so when I start seeing that its broken - its REALLY broken.
Just my two cents today.