GOP Vixen

Diary Of An Indie Filmmaker: Part IV

CHAPTER IV: Shake The Flake

Shake 'em. Shake 'em before they break your heart. You knew they were a flake to begin with because they told you everything you wanted to hear but in the end didn't really say anything at all. You knew they were a flake because you were always trying to reel them in, get a straight answer, a real commitment, a concrete thing actually DONE. Don't try to figure them out. Just shake 'em. I can't tell you how many of them have wasted my time and gas and postage and hopes. This production has now become a No Flake Zone.

But good things are happening. Promising things. Found a co-producer who did a splendid ten minute short that if we can sustain that same quality over a hundred minutes will assure we end up with a great film. I wasn't sure this was the guy until I met with him and he showed me two notebooks filled with plastic page protectors for all the insurance forms, contracts, agreements, receipts, and further proof that he's good at all the shit work that makes a film.

I wasn't sure this was the guy until he told me he wanted to find locations (the worst job there is), and that he wasn't going to take the job unless his wife liked the script as much as he did. She did and I hired him. He's ambitious, organized, believes in the script, gets the whole Bowfinger thing, and knows that shit work produces a film not the fun creative stuff. Oh, I got hundreds of people eager to see a first cut and give me notes in the comfort of a dark air conditioned room. But what I need are just a few willing to sit in heavy traffic under a hot sun to track down the perfect family restaurant owned by a fella willing to let us in for free. This may be the guy. We'll see. But I like him and think he'll make a great partner.

Found a composer. Not any composer. A real composer. He's done features you've heard of and currently scores a couple television shows. He likes to help new filmmakers, contacted me through a friend, and said if the script was great he'd do it. He loved the script and agreed to score it if we can marshall the forces to get it on film. He asked me a great question too. When I started talking about the type of music I was interested in, he asked me to send him what I listened to while writing the script. Is that brilliant or what? It's the smartest question anyone's ever asked me.

The Budget: Met with one of those boutique agencies I discussed in last weeks diary. Told them I wouldn't meet with them unless they brought a detailed estimate. They did. And wouldn't you know it was a mere $500 less than my entire budget! Never saw that coming. Of course that leaves nothing for locations, meals, set decoration, and tape stock. (They always think you have more money and want ALL of it). But he paid for my waffles and now I have the prices and rates needed to create a budget for these supposed investors. A sucker play, but I'm in no position to let my common sense get in the way of even a no shot at a few more thousand dollars.

Still trying to hunt down a DP and Sound Engineer. These are going to be the hardest roles to fill even though I'm paying them with the equipment we use once the film's over. I've just posted a want ad on Craig's List and will hit the film schools this week with fliers. Once these positions are locked, the groundwork is being built to roll out the rest. And if my co-producer is what he promises to be... Well, we'll see. If he flakes, he's gone. I'll do it my damn self.

Finally I want to thank Jason and Govindini from Libertas for having dinner with the Hot Little Number and I and letting us pick their brains late into Friday night. Being able to learn from two smart people who've already been through it was invaluable. We also had a helluva good time.

Jimmy Carter's An Asshole

Listen to the worst President of the 20th century bad-mouthing Bush and America on foreign soil while we're at war:

"I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A.," he told a news conference at the Baptist World Alliance's centenary conference in Birmingham, England. "I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts."

Carter said, however, that terrorist acts could not be justified, and that while Guantanamo "may be an aggravating factor ... it's not the basis of terrorism."

What does that mean, Jimmy? Does it mean, "Uh,oh, now they're really pissed at us?" Do you have a television? Did you see 9/11? Really? You think G'itmo made as bad as it can get somehow worse? Or, are you just too desperate to bash America during wartime on foreign soil to use what little common sense you have?

And what more do they need to justify their acts than a sick belief that God wants us exterminated? After that, you tool, it's all propaganda. Duh. What if they said they were going to attack us because Jimmy Carter is one ugly stupid motherfucker? Would you buy that? I wouldn't. I'd agree, but not buy it.

That no torture's occurred at G'itmo means nothing to you. That intelligence from those detainees has helped the war effort and stopped terrorist attacks means nothing to you. That you are a Useful Idiot of the enemy certainly means nothing to you.

"I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false," he said Saturday.

Well, the Iraqi people disagree with you. And like all liberals desperately clinging to to their world-view, Carter must invest whole-heartedly in the delusion Bush lied about WMD and there simply never was an Iraqi vote in overwhelming favor of democracy. This denial must be upheld at all costs or it all comes crashing down around them. It's simply easier to be pro-fascist and anti-American than admit they might be wrong. Than admit our war of liberation is moral and just and an act of self defense.

These are not good people.

UPDATE: And yes, I 'm questioning his patriotism.

It's All Coming Back To Me Now

In a comment discussion with blogger and author Michael Prescott he laid out a list of the Clinton White House scandals that had faded from my memory:

Hillary's cattle futures, Bill's Troopergate, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, the travel office, IRS audits of conservative think tanks, the Secret Service's arrest of a guy for asking Clinton a tough question at a town hall meeting ... not to mention the corrupt cronies they surrounded themselves with - Ron Brown, Web Hubbel, Janet Reno (she was either corrupt or just grossly incompetent, I'm not sure which) ... and their hatchetmen like Dick Morris and Harold Ickes ... and the general air of sleaze emanating from the Clinton White House, with Bill hanging out in the Oval Office in a sweatsuit, telling people what kind of underwear he wore, making "jokes" about his critics being racists, implying that talk radio hosts were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing ...

I don't know if he missed anything but until my head stops spinning it will be impossible to think about it. But Hillary wants to be President? Sheesh. Can this really happen?

UPDATE: Michael adds in the comments: 

I had forgotten the pardons of Puerto Rican terrorists. Clinton also pardoned some sleazy millionaire crony of his just before leaving office - I've repressed the details.

On the other hand, conservatives went overboard in accusing Clinton of even worse things, like murder, drug smuggling (remember Mena Airport?), and treason. These wild claims undercut the credibility of the more serious criticisms.

Yes, they did. Some conservatives also made fun of Chelsea and I was living in NC when Jesse Helms made some crack about Clinton having to worry about the military should he visit. Helms lost my vote.

Ganji's time is running out

Akbar Ganji, the Iranian investigative journalist imprisoned for implicating government officials in political assassinations, is on the 50th day of his hunger strike today. Some developments:

• BBC reported yesterday that former Iranian prez Hashemi Rafsanjani called for Ganji to be released. "But the spokesman for the judiciary has said the only way Mr Ganji could be freed is if he requested a pardon. The writer has  refused to do this, for fear of renouncing what he wrote."
• Agence France Presse reports that one of Ganji's lawyers was arrested. AFP also quotes Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmood Hashemi Shahrudi, as saying Ganji had hurt any prospects for reconsidering his case by making statements that had irritated the Islamic regime while last on leave from prison. "'He wrote another manifest during his leave and made comments that deprive him of his right and even some of his words are criminal,' Shahrudi was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA."
• Reporters Without Borders writes that Masoud Bastani, an Iranian journalist who reports for reformist papers and was covering the Ganji case, was thrown in jail on July 25.
• Regime Change Iran pulls a Sunday op-ed from the L.A. Times that says in part:
  •  "Iran's most important political prisoner, the journalist Akbar Ganji, is close to death after nearly 50 days on a hunger strike, but most of the world has not even heard the news. Nor have most Iranians. The press, which was operating in an atmosphere of relative freedom and independence at the height of the reform movement several years ago, is today too intimidated to publish the bedside letter distributed this week, in which Ganji says unequivocally of the country's supreme leader: 'Mr. Khamenei must go.'"

Regime Change Iran responds to this, "Western reporters seems to have forgetten that the Iranian media has been banned from reporting the news on Ganji." See above Reporters Without Borders report.

Every time I'm checking for updates on this story this evening, I'm anticipating the headline that Ganji will have passed away. Will it be one of the top stories? Will it make many page ones across the U.S.? Most Americans don't even know his name or what he stands for. One can only hope they soon will, and that Ganji won't have to die for that to happen.

UPDATE: Write on Ganji's behalf!!! A reader forwarded the e-mail of the Iranian Foreign Ministry -- matbuat@mfa.gov.ir

How to cause terror without being a terrorist

Someone has a little problem with the definition of the "T" word. From AP:

"A suspect in the failed London transit bombings admitted Saturday to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike, not a deadly one, a legal expert familiar with the investigation said. ...

(Osman) Hussain was calm and coherent at a hearing in a Rome prison Saturday, but doesn't consider himself a terrorist and may be gearing up to fight his extradition to Britain, his court-appointed lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa, said. ...

'Muktar (Said Ibrahim) urged us to be careful' La Repubblica quoted Hussain as telling his interrogators. 'We didn't want to kill, just sow terror.'"

What a doof. Ship him back to Britain ASAP and let him explain how he's not a terrorist, but wanted to sow terror. I'm sure the bobbies will understand.

Clinton gets offer he can't refuse

From today's Pravda:

"Godvin Kipkemoi Shepkurgor, a resident of Kenya, offers 20 cows and 40 goats for Bill Clinton's daughter. The Kenyan man is still waiting for Bill Clinton to respond to his letter, in which he asked for Chelsea Clinton's hand in marriage.

Shepkurgor wrote the letter in 2000, when Bill Clinton arrived in the neighboring state of Uganda with an official visit. According to African traditions, the Kenyan man offered 20 cows and 40 goats for Chelsea Clinton's hand.

'I have learnt a lot about the Clintons family, and I was impressed with their firm Christian principles, their values and their simplicity,' Shepkurgor told France Presse news agency. The man added that he was deeply in love with Chelsea Clinton. 'This is my first the one and only true love,' the man said."

Hee. Hee hee. Hee hee hee hee hee...

 

Heads and tales

The highlights and lowlights of the headlines for July 31, 2005:

• Feinstein Gears Up for Roberts Hearings, AP -- My favorite part of the story about the California senator getting ready to grill the SCOTUS nominee: "Feinstein, 72, a centrist, backed Roberts when Bush nominated him in early 2003 for the U.S. Court of Appeals..." A centrist on what planet?
• Police investigate Saudi link to London attacks, Daily Telegraph -- Authorities investigating possibility that bombings were planned in Saudi Arabia. De ja vu.
• Honeybees will detect explosives, Daily Telegraph -- So which would you rather be exposed to, a bomb or a bee swarm?
• Afghan Women Put Lives on Line to Run for Office, Washington Post -- Some of the same boobs who swore that oppression was about protecting women make clear that they're actually intimidated by them.
• Abu Dhabi free from unsightly dishes, Gulf News -- Sure, it saves cleanup time in the kitchen, but one can only cup so many foods in his or her hands.

Registering for china is for infidels!

Frist: What Happened To Principle?

I oppose embryonic stem cell research. But I don't think those who disagree with me like Rudy Giuliani and Mort Kondracke are bad people; are baby killers. My problem with Frist is his compromise of a fundamental principle for what is obviously a cynical attempt to re-position himself for a Presidential run in 2008. What Frist is doing is as pathetic as what Hillary's doing.

If you believe life begins at conception and deserves protection from destruction before birth, how can you favor embryonic stem cell research -- which is nothing more than a first term abortion? There's no intellectual base for the position Frist just took. Only a political one.

Rudy supports abortion rights. Frist doesn't. But I'll vote for Rudy because he's a man of principle. We're at war, Frist. Peddle your triangulation elsewhere.

"What’s the big freaking deal?"

That's what the Anchoress wants to know about the big headline hi-lited on Drudge about Bush's 50th trip home as President:

To me, this is just extreme pettiness. The man wants a change of scenery. He goes HOME. He doesn’t poll to see where he should vacation. He doesn’t decide he needs to go out of town for a while, so he’ll take a trip to India with a 712 person entourage, or to Africa, or to Malibu or Martha’s Vineyard, and he doesn’t put his getaway on the taxpayer dime.

The man goes home ten times a year - sometimes just for a weekend. Include holidays like Christmas and Easter, Thanksgiving and his August vacation, and you’re talking about 6 little stopovers a year. What’s the big freaking deal? Why [is] that...sooooooo terrible?

President Clinton did not have a home to go to when he was in office. This president does, and he chooses to go there.

You have to really, really hate a man to begrudge him time in his own home. You have to be a very small, niggling sort of person to do that.

In other words: You have to be a liberal.

You can leave your hat on

All four suspects in the 7/21 goofed London bombings have been apprehended:

We especially love that Muktar Said Ibrahim and Ramzi Mohammed were ordered to strip (for the tabloids, no less). It's very "Commando" meets "The Full Monty."