PETER JACKSON’S lavish remake of King Kong hit the screens in mid-December to overwhelmingly positive reviews, some even calling it a “masterpiece.” Starring Naomi Watts, Adrian Brody and Jack Black, the 2005 version of the 1933 classic is undoubtedly a well-made film and, in many parts, very entertaining.

Jackson’s recreation of 1930s New York and the computer-generated Kong demonstrate enormous steps forward in the technical aspects of filmmaking.

And, in sharp contrast to the original 1933 film and the embarrassing 1976 remake, Jackson begins the film with a collage of Depression-era America, replete with Hoovervilles, soup lines and demonstrations against evictions.

He even includes among the crew of the ill- fated ship a sailor reading Joseph Conrad’s anti-colonial classic Heart of Darkness.

But it’s here that Jackson’s innovations end. His attempt to put a liberal veneer on a deeply reactionary film ultimately fails as he falls back on the old script that can only be described as racist and a portrayal of island “natives” that is just as revolting.   more »

A more apropos term for what is taking place in the United States would be "Totalitarian Democracy." This is a term created by Israeli historian J. L. Talmon (1916-1980) and from his 1952 book The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy.

In his book, Talmon posits just how a system of government of lawfully elected (though we know that is not the case anymore) representatives maintain a one-party nation-state whose citizens, "while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government."

This change didn't start with W, though his administration has done more to point us in the direction of Messianic Democracy than any since Reagan''s.

No, it started with Nixon when the neocons began to see hopes for the dismantling of the very structure of "Social Contract" governance that was instituted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

This is the wet dream of the Repugs, a return to yesteryear as it were. A return to the days of Karl Rove's "favorite" president -- William McKinley.   more »

ANOTHER MARIE ANTOINETTE MOMENT

There is no shortage of numbers and studies detailing the widening gap between what American companies pay workers and the millions of dollars those same companies pay top executives.

But just in case anyone hasn't been paying attention, here enters David Brooks, chief executive of the bulletproof vest manufacturer DHB Industries Inc., to provide a fuller picture.

Mr. Brooks has made hundreds of millions of dollars through the company, principally from federal and municipal contracts for bulletproof vests.

But while 18,000 of those vests were being recalled by the United States military, some from Iraq, Mr. Brooks was in the midst of throwing a private party for his daughter and her friends at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.

The bash was headlined by a list of performers that could easily have carried the Super Bowl halftime extravaganza. The superstar rapper 50 Cent and the front men from the rock group Aerosmith were among the night's many performers.

According to The Daily News in New York, the party's estimated $10 million price tag - a figure Mr. Brooks albeit called greatly exaggerated - culminated with guests reportedly walking out carrying gift bags valued at $1,000 each, stocked with digital cameras and video iPods.   more »

Israel's Prime Minister was a ruthless military commander responsible for one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century.

President George Bush acclaims Ariel Sharon as 'a man of peace', yet the blood that was shed at Sabra and Chatila remains a stain on the conscience of the Zionist nation.

As Sharon lies stricken in his hospital bed, his political career over, how will history judge him?

I shook hands with him once, a brisk, no-nonsense soldier's grip from Sharon as he finished a review of the vicious Phalangist militiamen who stood in the barracks square at Karantina in Beirut.

Who would have thought, I asked myself then, that this same bunch of murderers - the men who butchered their way through the Palestinian Sabra and Chatila refugee camps only a few weeks earlier - had their origins in the Nazi Olympics of 1936.

That's when old Pierre Gemayel - still alive and standing stiffly to attention for Sharon - watched the "order" of Nazi Germany and proposed to bring some of this "order" to Lebanon. That's what Gemayel told me himself. Did Sharon not understand this. Of course, he must have done.   more »

In Oakland, California, young people, some not yet of voting age, strut down a street where the faces are black, Asian or Hispanic. Many do not speak English. The teenagers dressed in baggy pants, grew up in these grey streets, flanked by decaying warehouses, garages, body shops and taquerias.

A group of Central American day laborers wait for work on a corner where old newspapers blow and empty plastic soda cups litter the sidewalk. Occasional cars stop and hire some of them to help move furniture or clean a back yard. The Central Americans ignore the black teenage posse...
...In Piedmont’s hills, teenagers don’t walk the streets in groups. They drive expensive cars and wear whatever their expensive tastes dictate. They don’t achieve identity, respect and self-esteem through things. They’ve always had everything they wanted.

Unlike the teenagers in the flats, the Piedmonters understand that the primary job of police is to protect them and their property in case larcenously intentioned kids from the flats should wander up there.   more »

Lance Cpl. Blake Miller appeared in numerous newspapers as the "Marlboro Man," including this cover of the New York Post

Also, scroll down to read a pointed article by Naomi Klein, "Smoking While Iraq Burns," written in November 2004, on the pro-war symbolism of the iconic photo.

So whatever happened to Lance Cpl. Blake Miller -- the U.S. Marine pictured as a kind of war-weary "Marlboro Man" in one of the most widely published iconic images of the Iraq war?

The 2004 photograph by Luis Sinco of the Los Angeles Times showing Miller, face dirty under a helmet, a cigarette dangling from his lips, went around the world and back again, hitting front pages everywhere.

Now Miller, of Jonancy, Ky., is a civilian "and is having trouble adjusting to civilian life," CBS News reports.

Back home, he got married in June, but on duty during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, Miller suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and was granted an honorable discharge from the Marines in November.   more »

Bush’s dysfunctional relationship with the truth seems to be shaped by two complementary factors – a personal compulsion to say whatever makes him look good at that moment and a permissive environment that rarely holds him accountable for his lies.

How else to explain his endless attempts to rewrite history and reshape his own statements, a pattern on display again in his New Year's Day comments to reporters in San Antonio, Texas? In that session, as Bush denied misleading the public, he twice again misled the public.

Bush launched into a defense of his honesty by denying that he lied when he told a crowd in Buffalo, NY, in 2004 that "by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order."

Two years earlier, Bush had approved rules that freed the National Security Agency to use warrantless wiretaps on communications originating in the United States without a court order.

But Bush still told the Buffalo audience, "Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so."   more »

Bill O’Reilly: Carefully listen to the archival footage in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” If you don’t notice your strong resemblance to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, ask someone who doesn’t work for Fox to explain it to you.

No one is in greater need of forthright new year’s resolutions than big media outlets. In a constructive spirit, therefore, here are some resolutions for them in 2006.

* Daily newspaper editors:

Just about every paper has a “Business” section, where the focus is on CEOs, company managers, profit reports and big-time investors. But a lot more readers are working people -- and a daily “Labor” section would be a welcome addition to the newsprint mix.

* Public radio executives:

As a counterpoint to the daily national program “Marketplace,” public radio can widen its news repertoire by developing a show called “Laborplace.”   more »

6 JANUARY

The Bush Aministration: Now Known as "Scandalot"

The Weasel Words of War: Information Manipulation [Propaganda]

Iraq: It's All Over Now, Bushie Blue

Kennedy & His Alcoholism: He Should Give Up & Go Gracefully

The 'Cause' of New Imperialism: Control of Energy Sources

Noam Chomsky on the Bush Regime: "Driving the World to Destruction"

America Chokes on Its Own Vomit

Charles Kennedy Admits He's an Alcoholic