John Was Here

15 May

When I talk about recreating the spirit of that world, the music is as important as the dialogue and the behavior. From 1947 on, music scored what was happening in the streets, the back rooms. And it affected, sometimes, the behavior of the people, because this music was playing in the streets. Jukeboxes were brought out during the summer. Windows were open, and you could hear what everybody else was listening to. It expresses the excitement of the time. Simply, it’s the way I saw life. The way I experienced life. - Martin Scorsese.

(Source: jimmyconways, via bbook)

Senator John McCain declared that all evidence led him to believe it was a “massive cover-up.” Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said the situation was as bad, if not worse, than Watergate, a measure he defended as impeachable for President Obama. Other Republicans have slingshot the same outrageous charges against the White House. This is the tone of debate at the Benghazi hearings — a series of policy Q&As that have gotten the GOP factually nowhere but emotionally everywhere.

House Republicans, led by Representative Darrell Issa’s oversight committee, have dragged out the September attacks, which claimed the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. officials at our Libyan consulate, for almost seven months now. The New York Times editorial board described the hearings this week as “conspiracy-mongering and a relentless effort to discredit President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.” And for good reason.

10 May

Tears.

(Source: isaidgoodpeacock, via meatbeardsandbutts)

10 May

nevver:

This must be the place

10 May

Local Learns Politics: How We Go To War In 2013 · NYU Local

On May 1st, 2003, former President George W. Bush delivered a speech on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in front of a large banner that read “Mission Accomplished.” It was the culmination of America’s return after 9/11: Apaches had just bombed downtown Baghdad to smithereens, Saddam Hussein was in our custody, everyone in the country was bumping “Hey Ya” and 50 Cent just dropped Get Rich or Die Tryin’. Uncle Sam was back and better than ever.

And, of course now, we know the rest of the story. Operation Iraqi Freedom had opened a can of blood-sucking worms centuries in the making. Hussein’s removal would ignite a decade-long civil war between the Sunnis, Shi’ites and Kurds, with the troops of the American occupation standing right in its crossfire. Its result? The death of 4,000 soldiers and over tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens; a fractured Mesopotamian democracy; a half-ass stalemate on America’s lengthy war record. “Mission Accomplished” was the farthest thing from the truth.

Last Monday, we “celebrated” the tenth anniversary of Dubya’s terribly ironic address but coincidence could not have struck at a worse time. Enter Syria.

**Last political column for NYU Local evah**