THECONTROVERSIAL POLITICAL FILMS OF COSTA GAVRAS

COSTA-GAVRAS FILM "AMEN" THE HOLOCAUST & THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

COSTA GARVAS FILM " AMEN" 2002
deals with the Catholic Church & the Holocaust

Note: The Catholic church tried to have this poster banned but failed.





GERMAN CHEMIST KURT GERSTEIN DEVELOPS " ZYCLON B " as a disinfectant & discovers the SS is using it to kill Jews .
This horrifies him & he tries to leak this info to the world but it
appears no one not even Pope Pius XII want to do anything about it.

Directed by
Costa-Gavras

Writing credits
Costa-Gavras
Jean-Claude Grumberg

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ulrich Tukur .... Kurt Gerstein
Mathieu Kassovitz .... Riccardo Fontana
Ulrich Mühe .... Doctor
Michel Duchaussoy .... Cardinal
Ion Caramitru .... Count Fontana
Marcel Iures .... Pope
Friedrich von Thun .... Gerstein's Father
Antje Schmidt .... Mrs. Gerstein
Hanns Zischler .... Grawitz
Sebastian Koch .... Höss
Erich Hallhuber .... Von Rutta
Burkhard Heyl .... Director
Angus MacInnes .... Tittman
Bernd Fischerauer .... Bishop Von Gallen
Pierre Franckh .... Pastor Wehr

running time 132minutes

Anyway so I saw the disturbing Costa Gavras, 2002 film “ AMEN ” . The film is an indictment of Pope Pius Xii & the Catholic Church & of those leaders in the allied nations who did little or nothing to try to stop the murder of millions of Jews & other undesirables . The story centres around the real-life Kurt Gerstein a German chemist who developed the chemical “ Zyclon B” as a disinfectant but soon discovers the SS is using it as a method of extermination of the Jews & others designated as “ undesirable vermin” in order to purify Germany & Europe . Kurt Gerstein continues to work for the Nazi SS while trying to get this information out to the world but no one seems to either to believe what he says or they do not really care. A German Jesuit priest Father Riccardo Fontana joins Gerstein in attempting to inform the Catholic church in Germany which leads nowhere so Father Fontana goes to the Vatican to inform the Pope of the atrocities being committed. The Pope does nothing about it because he has allied himself with the Nazis against the Communists whom he saw as a greater threat than the Nazis . The Vatican is also more concerned with its own survival than with stopping such a slaughter of non-Christians . Anti-Semitism was always a hallmark of the Catholic Church though it is not politically correct these days to say this though history illustrates this attitude over & over again from at least the time of the First Crusade in 1092 when the Crusading Peoples Army first started out from northern Europe they went from one country to another murdering all the Jews they could find. The killing of Jews by Christians both Catholic & Protestant continued down ,at least, to the time of World War II .

The film Amen begins with a parade of Nazis playing music as a group of children & adults watch whom we discover are Mentally Retarded who are then bussed to an institution & are told to strip to take a shower & then they are gassed . The German church leaders discover what is going on & openly protest & so the Nazis embarrassed by this supposedly stops killing the mentally retarded & other unproductive Germans . Yet the church having been informed of the slaughter of the Jews refuses to use its power to save the Jews since they are not Christian Baptized German citizens & are therefore not their concern.

In the film Gerstein chooses to continue to work for the Nazi SS he says ,in order, to act as a witness to what is going on.

At the end of the war he is arrested as a War Criminal though he tells them everything he knows about the Extermination of the Jews & Gypsies ( Romani) & so he ends by committing suicide.

Father Riccardo in desperation decides he can not stand by puts a star of David on his clothes & gets himself put on one of the transport trains heading to one of the death camps & spends his last days as an inmate while watching the on-going slaughter .

Though the Catholic Church & the Vatican does not help the Jews we see the Vatican at the end of the war helping Nazi war criminals to escape justice. It is no wonder that Catholics & the Vatican attacked the film.

But the film also indicts the allies for not publicly condemning the German Nazis for murdering Jews & for not taking action such as bombing the transport trains, the railway tracks or the Death Camps themselves.

The lie we are sometimes told is the World War II was fought by the Allies in part to stop the Extermination of the Jews & others but there is little truth in this.

The British for instance fought in order to stop the Nazi invasion of Great Britain & therefore save themselves & so they needed to defeat the Nazi Regime .

The Americans were uninterested in the War until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor & then they realized it was also in their interest to declare war on Germany since Germany & Japan were allies .

I found the film to be intense & powerful especially the recurring image of the trains with their doors open & the cars empty traveling swiftly day & night nothing stops them - no matter what happens the trains continue to carry their human cargo to the death camps as a result of German bureaucratic efficiency - this image of the trains becomes relentless & is as devastating as an image as would be images of the Jews being slaughtered enmass.

Costa Gavras film Amen is as effective & disturbing as his other films such as his other controversial films "Missing" & “Z”& State of Siege & Betrayed.

DIRECTOR COSTA-GAVRAS












“ Missing ” 1982 starring Jack Lemmon & Sissy Spacek is about the American backed bloody Military Coup in Chile of 1973 which overthrew the legally elected President Allende who led a coalition government & who unfortunately wanted to improve the living conditions of the people of Chile & so was not a friend of the rich & powerful in Chile who were supported by the Americans & especially the large American corporations which had vast investments in Chile. The film centres around the true story of the disappearance of an American Charles Horman who disappeared like thousands of Chileans who supported President Allende

The 1969 film “ Z ”by Costa Gavras deals with the death of a populist leader in Greece who wants to bring down the corrupt military regime in Greece. In the course of the film we discover the events leading up to the murder of the populist leader who is referred to as “Z ” & the conspiracy by the Generals & members of the Greek government to have him killed .

And as the film critic Pauline Kael says about “Z”:

“Z is almost intolerably exciting - a political thriller that builds up so much tension that you'll probably feel all knotted up by the time it's over. The young director Costa-Gavras, using everything be knows to drive home his points as effectively as possible, has made something very unusual in European films - a political film with a purpose and, at the same time, a thoroughly commercial film. Z is undoubtedly intended as a political act, but it never loses emotional contact with the audience. It derives not from the traditions of the French film but from American gangster movies and prison pictures and "anti-Fascist" melodramas of the forties (Cornered, Crossfire, Brute Force, All the King's Men, Edge of Darkness, The Cross of Lorraine, et al.), and, like those pictures, it has a basically simple point of view. America stopped making this kind of melodrama (melodrama was always the chief vehicle for political thought in our films) during the McCarthy era, so Costa-Gravas has-the advantage of bringing back a popular kind of movie and of bringing it back in modem movie style. Z has been photographed by Raoul Coutard, Godard's cameraman, in Eastmancolor used in a very strong, almost robust way, and although the photography is perhaps a little too self-consciously dynamic and, at times, not as hard-focused as it might be, the searching, active style doesn't allow you to get away. Remember when the movie ads used to say, "It will knock you out of your seat"? Well, Z damn near does.

There hasn't been an exciting anti-Fascist suspense film around for a long time, and the subject of Z is so good that the audience is not likely to resent the use of melodramatic excitement the way it would now if the film were anti-Communist, like those Hollywood films of the early fifties in which our boy Gregory Peck was ferreting out Communist rats. Z is based on the novel by the Greek exile Vassili Vassilikos about the assassination of Gregorios Lambraki, in Salonika, in May, 1963...”

In the film “ BETRAYED ” Costa Gravas takes on the subject of the Extreme Right in the United States & their belief that the US government is in the hands of the Liberal Elite & Jews & therefore the Extreme Right believe it is their duty to bring down the Federal Government.

See:
Keeping the message in the movie
Costa-Gavras returns with Mad City
by MATTHEW HAYS
www.montrealmirror.com/

and check out reviews by Roger Ebert
as he says in his intro to his review of “ Z ”
“There are some things that refuse to be covered over. It would be more convenient, yes, and easier for everyone if the official version were believed. But then the facts begin to trip over one another, and contradictions emerge, and an "accident" is revealed as a crime.”

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/

AND on the career & politics of Costa Gravas see::
BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE
http://www.bfi.org.uk/



Also see controversy over the poster for the film in France:

Amen
BBC NEWS
Thursday, 21 February, 2002, 15:17 GMT
Swastika film poster escapes ban

Constantin Costa-Gavras's film is about a wartime pope
A French court has refused to ban a controversial film poster which merges a crucifix with a Nazi swastika.

On Thursday, Paris judge Jean-Claude Magendie ruled there was no legal objection to the poster that would warrant limiting freedom of expression.

The poster was designed by Oliviero Toscani, the Italian photographer behind the controversial Benetton adverts, and promotes the film Amen, which examines the Vatican's silence during the Holocaust.

It tells the story of real-life SS officer Kurt Gerstein, who tries to tell the world, and the Vatican in particular, about the Holocaust while simultaneously supplying poison gas to the Nazi camps.

The public silence of the Vatican during the widespread atrocities of World War II is arguably the most controversial issue in the Catholic Church's wartime history.

Discontent

Wartime pope, Pius XII, has been accused in the past of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust, although the Vatican has defended him, arguing that he worked behind the scenes to save Jews.

Poster of Amen in France
The film's director, Constantin Costa-Gravas, has defended the poster
The poster has also offended France's Roman Catholic bishops, but they have not publicly asked for it to be withdrawn.

Ten of France's most prominent Jews also voiced their discontent, including Chief Rabbi Rene-Samuel Sirat, although they have disassociated themselves from Agrif and the court action.

"We consider this amalgam of the Nazi emblem with a religious symbol to be unhealthy," the Jewish leaders said in a statement, which appeared in the weekly Christian magazine La Vie on Thursday.

And so it goes. Anyway that’s all for now.
GORD.

NIXON & THE KENT STATE MASSACRE ; WHEN DEADLY FORCE IS USED TO SILENCE DISSENT !!!

You know, you see these bums, you know, blowin' up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world, going to the greatest universities, and here they are, burnin' up the books, I mean, stormin' around about this issue, I mean, you name it - get rid of the war, there'll be another one.
-- Richard Nixon, New York Times, May 2, 1970

( CAN WE CONCLUDE FROM THIS THAT NIXON GAVE A GREEN LIGHT TO THE NATIONAL GUARD TO SHOOT & KILL STUDENT PROTESTERS ??? & WE WONDER HOW SOON BEFORE THE BUSH REGIME DECIDES TO MURDER THOSE WHO ARE AGAINST THEIR DIRTY LITTLE WAR IN IRAQ ??? )

"THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS " 1966 FRENCH FILM STILL RELEVANT & POWERFUL

Directed by
Gillo Pontecorvo
FILM " BATTLE OF ALGIERS " 1966, DIRECTED BY GILLO PONTECORVO : Writing credits
Gillo Pontecorvo & Franco Solina









BELOW: PHOTO OF CONFRONTATION BETWEEN FRENCH TROOPS
& ALGIERIAN " INSURGENTS"



















PHOTO SHOT FROM THE FRENCH FILM "BATTLE OF ALGIERS"
FRENCH POLICE OFFICER KILLED BY " INSURGENTS" AS VIOLENCE IN THE FILM ESCALATES ON BOTH SIDES.

The film plays more as a documentary than as a fictional portrayal of historical events. Both sides are depicted as committing acts of terror . French "death squads" murder & torture Arab Insurgents & attack Arab community indescriminately causing violence & hatred of the French occupying forces. The French, in fact, seem to forget they are foreign occupiers of an Arab/Muslim country. By committing trrorist acts on Arabs the French are exposed as " racists " & as acting in a barbaric fashion .


The experience of the French in Algiers can be compared to the American Occupation of the Sovereign nation of Iraq. The Americans also use questionable tactics in fighting the People of Iraq who resent being occupied & treated as second-class citizens in their own country. The dictator Saddam has been replaced by a repressive police-state run by the Americans.


In the course of the film we watch as a common thief slowly becomes politicized & becomes a leader of the resistance of the FLN ( The National Liberation Front)


We also watch as frustrated police officers begin to take matters into their own hands & secretely plant bombs in the Arab neighborhoods til the violence escalates & the French government sends in a battalion of Special Forces which appeases the French residents while infuriating the Arab citizens. We also get to witness several unsettling scenes of French soldiers torturing captured Arabs who may or may not be armed insurgents.
On the other hand we see the horrible carnage caused when Algierean insurgents plant & explode bombs in Cafes & clubs.


In the end the French in 1964 are forced to give over control of Algiers to the Arabs. But only after ten years of intense violence & the deaths of a million or so people.




See for instance :
review & outline of Algierean struggle for independence-
Issue 202 of SOCIALIST REVIEW Published November 1996

The big picture

"Battle of Algiers" By Gillo Pontecorvo

'The Battle of Algiers was released in 1964, two years after the Algerian people won their war for independence from France. It was one of the most hard fought national liberation struggles, with 1 million Algerians killed out of a population of 9 million. Gillo Pontecorvo reconstructs the main political events in Algiers between 1954 and 1957.

It is a powerful film. The French government banned it until 1971. It was also shown by other national liberation movements ­ the Viet Minh in Vietnam, the IRA in Ireland and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Cinematically it has influenced generations of film producers, from Costa Gavras's Z and Missing to Oliver Stone's Platoon and Salvador.

The film follows the life of Ali La Pointe from street hustler and petty crook to a commander of the FLN (National Liberation Front) bombers in Algiers. The film is shot in black and white and, without one foot of newsreel, creates the illusion of on the spot reporting. Pontecorvo uses mainly amateur actors. The film shows the brutality of the French, with harrowing scenes of the execution of two FLN activists, the Pieds Noirs' (European settlers) bombing of the Casbah and the torture of FLN suspects. It explains why individuals commit acts of terrorism and how the FLN became a mass organisation.

The war for independence raged all over Algeria but the film concentrates on the city of Algiers. The Muslim quarter known as the Casbah was home to over 100,000 Muslims despite being only 1 square kilometre. The FLN turned it into a `no go area' for the French. Many of its buildings were hiding places and bomb factories, from which was launched the bombing campaign of the French zone.

Although Pontecorvo leaves the audience with no doubt that he supports the FLN, he is not uncritical of the tactics used. In some of the film's most powerful scenes, he shows the results in slow motion of bombs going off both in the Casbah and in a Pieds Noirs cafe, milk bar and air terminal. As the camera pans across the carnage all you hear is a haunting, sorrowful piece of music by Bach accompanying the look of anguish in all the victims' faces. "

ANYWAY, THAT's All for now,
GORD.

WEBSITE OF NOTE: WHITEHOUSE.ORG ** PARODY**

For scathingly humorous look at the Bush Regime check out The Whitehouse .org. see :
http://www.whitehouse.org
http://www.chickenhead.com/
WHITEHOUSE.ORG **PARODY**
Posted by Picasa


Here are some samples of the headlines for articles at the Whitehouse website:

05.01.2006: President Demands That America's Slave Class Sing National Anthem in Jesus' Language Instead of Mumbo-Jumbo Mexicanese

04.17.2006: Defending Sec. Rumsfeld: President Refutes Treasonous Criticism from Generals Who Are Just Too Wussy-Assed to Re-Up and Waste More Ragheads

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Normally, before addressing the press corps, I like to crack up my aides behind that curtain by pretending to puke or...

But not today. Today I stood back there and made that face I call "Crapping Bullets." That’s right, I'm deadly serious now; just lookit my scowl. I am here right now because I will drop everything I am doing to defend the only guy who makes sense in my whole Administration: Don Rumsfeld.

I mean, sure, Don is crazy as a rabid bull with a flaming rattlesnake wriggling up his ass. Just look at him – in the right light, with that clammy translucent skin, mother... looks just like the Angel of Death. Yet unlike the rest of my cabinet, at least he's not a total imbecile, or senile, or the tool of any particular industry – unless you count the Apocalypse as an industry. Don just likes to f... shit up, and he's super-good at it. And gents, if ever there was a time for the USA to f... shit up, that time is NOW.

And:
05.04.2006: President Responds to Bill Clinton's Communist Plot to Deny America's Youth the FREEDOM® to be Diabetes-Ravaged Lardasses: "You're not the Decider anymore, Clintoon. I'm the mother... Decider, and if I decide that the free market should turn America's public school kids into rotten-toothed, jiggle-titted pigbeasts, swilling 20 oz. vanilla Cokes between their Intelligunt Desine and McJesus Theory classes, then that's how it's gonna be!"

PRESIDENT'S EASTER STATEMENT COMMEMORATING THE 1976th ANNIVERSARY OF JESUS CHRIST'S MAGICAL REANIMATION INTO AN ÜBER-RIGHTEOUS ZOMBIE OF SALVATION...

GORD.

NEIL YOUNG 9/11 ATTACK & HIS SONG "LET'S ROLL"

9/11 attack on World Trade Center
Posted By Picasa & BLOGGER BOT

Before I forget check out review of Neil Young's " Living With War "also check out review at
http://freethoughtguy.blogspot.com/
FreeThought by a FreeThinker

Freethinker: "One who forms opinions on the basis of reason independent of authority; especially one who doubts or denies religious dogma."
Monday, May 15, 2006
Living With War

Living With WarWar! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing ... except for inspiring creative sparks like Living With War. Neil Young's new song collection (a self-described "metal folk protest") is a passionate call-to-arms against the Iraq War and its excesses (soldiers coming home in boxes, lying leaders, telephone taps, etc.).


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Anyway back to Neil Young’s new recording “ Living With War “

http://homepage.mac.com/chadhermann/iblog
NEIL YOUNG & 9/11
LIVING WITH WAR AND STUPID QUESTIONS
Posted: Sat - April 22, 2006 at 05:57 PM Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman. Tunes
impeach the correspondent.

" Sibila Vargas on CNN interviews Neil :
Ms. Vargas unleashed what may be the single worst and stupidest question in the history of television interviews:

VARGAS: This music, right, is already causing a stir, actually. You've got one song that's called "Let's Impeach the President." What is this song about? "


YOUNG, on people will dismiss or belittle his opinion because he's originally from Canada: I'm proud to be a Canadian. I'm proud to be living in the United States. I'm proud to be paying taxes here for 40 years. I'm proud of my three American children, my lovely American wife, my American family, and all of the people who have supported me here for 40 years. It just so happens that I came down here because I'm an artist, and I came down here because, in Los Angeles, I could get things happening and so I could make it so people could hear me. That's why I came down here. This is a great country, and I believe in this. But I think there's a conscience in the country, and I don`t think it's being spoken. Only part of it is being spoken. It's a full thing. Everybody needs to get into it; everybody needs a chance to say what they think.

YOUNG, on possible backlash: I'm not in the least bit concerned. I expect it. I respect other people's opinions. That's part of what makes the United States and Canada and all free countries great, is the fact that you can differ with your friend and you can still sit down at the same table and break bread with your friend.


See:
News Hounds
We watch FOX so you don't have to.
John Gibson Condemns Neil Young's Patriotism
Reported by Deborah - April 28, 2006
http://www.newshounds.us/2006/04/28

Neil Young's LIVING WITH WAR: 'It may just be the Fahrenheit 9/11 of rock'
BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger Jim Cirile Gets an Exclusive Pre-Release Listen to Neil Young's Groundbreaking New Protest Album…

Neil Young wants to keep on rockin' the free world.
His new record, Living With War, makes very clear that if the Bush regime is allowed to continue, there may not be a free world to rock for much longer.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002720.htm

And as to whether Neil Young appreciates the enormity of the attack on 9/11 , here is an article from Media Matters .org :

MEDIAMATTERS
www.mediamatters.org
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605020006

Tue, May 2, 2006 2:43pm EST
Gibson suggested "forgetful" Neil Young watch United 93 to refresh memory of 9-11 -- but Young wrote a song about Flight 93


On the April 28 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson alleged that singer/songwriter Neil Young's latest album, Living With War (Reprise, May 2006), which is critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq, indicates that Young is "forgetful" and has "amnesia," and that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are "a distant memory" for him. Gibson suggested Young go see the newly released movie, United 93 (Universal, April 2006), a fictionalized account of events aboard United Airlines Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on September 11, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Gibson even questioned whether Young "would accept free tickets from me" to see the movie. But far from "forget[ing]" about Flight 93, Young wrote a song in 2001 titled "Let's Roll," "[i]nspired by a Newsweek story recounting the fatal flight," as The Washington Post noted at the time.

The title and refrain of "Let's Roll" refer to the words reportedly spoken by passenger Todd Beamer before he and several other passengers attempted to storm the aircraft's cockpit and regain control of the aircraft. From "Let's Roll" (Are You Passionate? Reprise, April 2002):
I know I said I love you,

I know you know it's true,

I got to put the phone down,

And do what we gotta do.

One's standing in the aisleway,

Two more at the door,

We got to get inside there,

Before they kill some more.

Time is runnin' out ... let's roll.

Time is runnin' out ... let's roll.


And for more reviews & comments about Neil Young see:

A news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat
Friday, April 14, 2006
New Neil Young Album: "Life in War"
http://www.thrasherswheat.org/2006/04/new-neil-young-album-life-in-war.html
with lots of info & links

CNN.com
ENTERTAINMENT
Neil Young: 'Let's Impeach the President'
Rocker records protest album, 'Living with War'
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/18/leisure.young.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

beepbeepitsme
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Neil Young urges Bush impeachment on protest album
http://beepbeepitsme.blogspot.com/2006/04/neil-young-urges-bush-impeachment-on.html

Teacher. Wordsmith. Madman. > Tunes >
LIVING WITH WAR AND STUPID QUESTIONS
impeach the correspondent.
http://homepage.mac.com/chadhermann/iblog/C212657653/E20060422085708/

And from The Guardian Unlimited
The Observer Blog
Friday April 28 2006
Living With War
By Susan Smillie / Music 11:57am
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2006/04/28/living_with_war_1.html

By ryan irelan
Neil Young - Living with War
http://www.ryanirelan.com/past/2006/04/29/neil-young-living-with-war-3/

Washingtonpost.com.
Recordings
Neil Young's Antiwar Howl

By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
( the review is mostly negative noting Neil Young is a Canadian & much of what his songs refer to is old news ??? but the war in Iraq continues as do the renditions & torture & the lies & the Propaganda - the Washington Post I guess needs to vent out of a sense of guilt & shame since it has for the most part become part of the Bush Regime’s Propaganda Machine like CNN & CBS etc. Its hard to believe this was the newspaper which broke the Watergate Story & the Pentagon Papers but oh how the Times have changed but not for the better as Dylan had hoped as we move backwards to the fifties & the Good Old Cold War Era !!! )


COUNTERPUNCH
Weekend Edition
April 29 / 30, 2006
A Call to Arms
Neil Young Kicks Out the Jams
By RON JACOBS
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs04292006.html

BELLACIAO
May Monday 1st 2006 (02h12) :
Neil Young’s Songs of Impeachment
by Jan Frel
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=11796
LET’S IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT / by Neil Young

Anyway that's all for now,
GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK
GORD.

NEIL YOUNG'S SONG " OHIO" & THE KENT STATE MASSACRE , MAY 4, 1970

FOUR DEAD IN OHIO : KENT STATE MAY 4, 1970
Posted by Picasa

Tin soldiers and nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in ohio.


neil young lyrics
http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/ohio.htm




PICTURE POSTED BY PICASA

STUDENT SHOT BY NATIONAL GUARD DURING PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION : KENT STATE MAY 4, 1970 IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS Neil Young composed the song "Ohio" after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine and then taking a walk in the woods. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings. Soon, the lyrics "Four dead in Ohio" became an anthem to a generation. In some parts of the country, the song was banned from playlists because of it's "anti-war" and "anti-Nixon" sentiments.
Four Dead in Ohio - allison krause,william schroeder, jeffrey miller, sandra scheuer-

NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING AT STUDENT ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATERS


AND AS MICHAEL CORCORAN IN " WHY KENT STATE IS IMPORTANT TODAY " SAYS: The students were unarmed, and the closest was more than 60 feet away from the Guard at the time of the shooting. There was no warning shot; the National Guard never issued an apology; and no one ever spent a day in jail for the killings despite the fact that the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, appointed by President Nixon in 1970, found the shootings to be ''unwarranted and inexcusable."
http://www.boston.com/
By Michael Corcoran | May 4, 2006





In a speech made in April of 1970, Agnew advised police to ". . . just imagine they (students) are wearing brown shirts or white sheets and act accordingly." VICE PRESIDENT SPIRO T. AGNEW
Posted by Picasa

Note I AM HAVING TROUBLE POSTING PICTURES , SORRY ABOUT THAT.

ANYWAY GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK ,
GORD.

NEIL YOUNG " LIVING WITH WAR " & NEOCONS ON THE WARPATH

NEIL YOUNG ACCEPTS INDUCTION INTO ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME 1995.
Posted by Picasa

" We don't all have to believe in what our president believes to be patriotic. And we also -- you know, this talk about a 9/11 mentality. No one, George Bush or anyone else, owns the 9/11 mentality. It belongs to the United States of America; it belongs to every one who was sitting there with their family watching TV, watching those buildings get hit by those jets; it belongs to George Bush and his family; it belongs to John Kerry and his family; it belongs to me and my family, my American family. So I have a post-9/11 mentality. It's just not the same as George Bush's."
NEIL YOUNG




NEIL'S GARAGE NEIL YOUNG'S HOMEPAGE INCLUDES FREE -STREAMING OF " LIVING WITH WAR " & FORUM ON THE GREAT DEBATE http://www.neilyoung.com/
Posted by Picasa

NEIL YOUNG 'S " LIVING WITH WAR " CANADIAN ROCK & ROLL LEGEND SHARES HIS ANGER & OUTRAGE AGAINST THE WARMONGERING BUSH REGIME

"I raise my hand in peace ... I never bow to the laws of the thought police ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again ...

"In the big hotels ... in the mosques and the doors of the old museum ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again." Neil Young from new album LIVING WITH WAR
Posted by Picasa

Finally there is a positive sign for all of us who are against the dirty war in Iraq & who have lamented that so few seem willing to take on the Bush Regime . Neil Young has somewhat reluctantly taken up the challenge in his new album “ Living With War “. Hopefully this will send a message to other Rock & Pop musicians & song writers especially those of the younger generation to express their anger & dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs in the United States & around the world. By our continued silence the shameful atrocities in Iraq & elsewhere will continue . With our continued silence Death Squads & torturers will continue their immoral & illegal activities with impunity all in the name of protecting our freedom & preserving our Democratic way of life but at such an awful & horrendous costs. Finally Neil Young for one is saying “ Enough is Enough ".

Neil Young is expressing our collective outrage & anger & feelings of helplessness & frustration that the world has gone mad & there is nothing we can do about it . By speaking out Neil Young is helping to renew our hope that maybe it is possible for us to have an impact on how our society is to be shaped.

Neil Young - Living With War

I'm living with war everyday
I'm living with war in my heart everyday
I'm living with war right now

And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man
And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again
And when the night falls, I pray for peace
Try to remember peace (visualize)

I join the multitudes
I raise my hand in peace
I never bow to the laws of the thought police
I take a holy vow
To never kill again
To never kill again

I'm living with war in my heart
I'm living with war in my heart in my mind
I'm living with war right now

Don't take no tidal wave
Don't take no mass grave
Don't take no smokin' gun
To show how the west was won
But when the curtain falls, I pray for peace
Try to remember peace (visualize)

In the crowded streets
In the big hotels
In the mosques and the doors of the old museum
I take a holy vow
To never kill again
Try to remember peace

The rocket's red glare
Bombs bursting in air
Give proof through the night,
That our flag is still there
I'm living with war everyday
I'm living with war in my heart everyday
I'm living with war right now

Neil Young

As Jan Frel comments in his article “ NEIL YOUNG’S SONGS OF IMPEACHMENT”

“ With Neil Young and Pearl Jam releasing devastating anti-Bush albums in the coming weeks, it looks like rock has rejuvenated its protest past.” And goes on to add:

“ Where have lyrics like that been the past five years? Young himself wondered the same question. "I was waiting for someone to come along, some young singer 18 to 22 years old, to write these songs and stand up," Young told the L.A. Times. "I waited a long time. Then I decided that maybe the generation that has to do this is still the ’60s generation. We’re still here." All 10 of the songs on Living with War directly address the issues of our political era...

May Monday 1st 2006 (02h12) :
Neil Young’s Songs of Impeachment
http://bellaciao.org

And John Strauber in his article “ NEIL YOUNG CLOBBERS THE THOUGHT POLICE “ gives an enthusiastic review of “ Living With War “ and explains :

“ I'm listening to Neil Young's new album, Living With War. It's not my first time; I was lucky enough to be at a private listening last week in California. But now, along with millions of others connected to the Internet, I'm hearing it free of charge through my computer speakers, courtesy of Mr. Young and his absolutely brilliant bunch of guerrilla marketers and movement builders.


Shock and Awe is one the best rock anthems Neil has ever penned or played: "Back in the days of shock and awe.... history was a cruel judge of overconfidence ... Back in the days of mission accomplished our chief was landing on the deck. The sun was setting on the golden photo op. Thousands of bodies in the ground brought home in boxes to a trumpet sound. No one sees them coming home that way.... We had a chance to change our mind, but somehow wisdom was hard to find..."

As he ends his article:

“ Living With War closes appropriately with America the Beautiful, the hundred-voice choir providing the perfect closure to one of the strongest and certainly the most-brilliantly released calls for peace and justice ever from a musician of Young's stature. In releasing Living With War as he has, Young is clearly challenging his artistic peers, fellow patriots and all of us. The challenge is to amp it up and take the movements for peace and justice to a new level, riding again the wave of unity and love of country that went up in toxic smoke after Bush and Cheney hijacked post-9/11 sentiment and flew America into the lies, damned lies and mess of Iraq.”

AlterNet: blog
www.alternet.org/bloggers/frel/archive/
Neil Young Clobbers the Thought Police
John Stauber on Fri, 04/28/2006

And here from Rolling Stone is a sampling from a review of “ Living With War” by David Fricke:
http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/

“ In a time of crisis, subtlety is not an option, and speed is essential. Neil Young recorded the nine original songs on this album in six days, just a month ago. He wrote four of those songs on the day he cut them. And in all nine, Young charges the current president and his administration with, among other things, lying, spying, waging war with no right or reason and dereliction of duty to the nation's founding ideals. He then calls for the most extreme judgment available to the American people in "Let's Impeach the President," with rusty-fuzz guitar, the righteous muscle of a hundred-strong choir, a trumpet playing "Taps" and the self-incriminating voice of Bush himself.

Living With War is one man's opinion: Young reports, you decide. But it is an indictment of the sorry state of open debate in this country -- and its rock & roll -- that the most direct, public and inspiring challenge to the Bush presidency this year has been made by a sixty-year-old Canadian-born singer-songwriter who, even at his most apoplectic, can't resist a line like "trippin' down the old hippie highway" ("Roger and Out"). It is also an impressive measure of Young's refusal to burn out or fade away that he states his case with clarity as well as dirty garage-trio momentum. For me, the most damning lines in "Let's Impeach the President" have nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do with Washington's shameful delinquency at home: "What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees?/Would New Orleans have been safer that way/Sheltered by our government's protection?" “

to listen to “ Living With War” check out Neil Young’s Homepage NEIL’s GARAGE at http://www.neilyoung.com/
And : http://livingwithwar.blogspot.com/
the purpose of which is as Neil says:

NEIL YOUNG - Living With War

"...this is about exchanging ideas... it's about getting a message out. It's about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say is what they think. But like I said before.. ya know.. red and blue is not black and white. We're all together. It's a record about unification." -Neil Young (4/18/06)
This Blog contains links & hundreds of comments positive & negative. It is worth some serious attention.

But as expected the Neocons & the militant supporters of the Bush Regime are not pleased by Neil Young’s songs of protest & are up in arms that a Canadian would have the audacity to criticize the Bush Regime’s War in Iraq & challenge its attempt to create a “ Police State” . Here is an example of the Neocons opinion from The National Review:


LIVING WITH WAR
National Review
May 5, 2006
The Week
by the Editors

“ -- You can't get away from the topic of immigration nowadays. Here comes aging falsetto folk-rock singer Neil Young with a ditty in which he urges us to impeach President Bush. Sample: "Let's impeach the president for lying, / And leading our country into war; / Abusing all the power that we gave him, / And shipping all our money out the door . . ." You get the idea.

What's this got to do with immigration? Well, Neil Young is not a U.S. citizen. He's Canadian. He can't even vote. He's been in America for 40 years, and has never bothered to take out citizenship. And this interloper from the land of moose and Mounties is telling us to impeach our president! For goodness' sake. If it's not Mexican fence-jumpers trying to dictate legislation to us, it's fur trappers from the wilds of Ontario insulting our head of state. America's business is everyone's business, it seems.

Here, perhaps, at last, is useful work for some enterprising American leftist to do: record a song calling for the impeachment of Neil Young's head of state, which would be Her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. Britain's fighting in Iraq too, after all. “


It is true that Neil young is a Canadian but what has that got to do with anything. Americas internal politics & its international policies have an affect on much of the world - America is the only remaining Superpower & has one of the largest militaries in the world & has some tens of thousands nuclear weapons enough that is to turn the whole world into rubble. Neoconservatives believing that their country has the duty & the right to decide what is best for the world & to take whatever actions necessary to interfere with the internal politics of countries whose policies & Regimes are not to their liking.

Since the Bush Regime believes its role is to create a “ New World Order ” & thereby increasing its influence around the world; it is therefore the duty of not just Americans but also people from other countries to speak out if they disagree with the policies of the present regime in the United States.

It is somewhat disturbing how the Editors of The National Review have such disdain for Canada describing our country as a “ land of moose & Mounties “ & describes our citizens as “ fur-trappers from the wilds of Ontario” & a lot worse such as being a leftist country ruled by Marxists or as a third rate country etc. if you care to read the comments posted on various websites & blogs .
This also shows the ignorance of the so called educated Neoconservatives who seem to believe Canada is still ruled by the Queen of England.

Anyway this could be a good thing if at the very least this controversy would be a “ Wake-Up Call “ to Stephen Harper & his band of Neocons who seem to resent the fact that they themselves are not real Americans. They are American wannabes who want to make over our country into a carbon-copy of the United States as it has been & is being transformed by the Current Bush Regime which slavishly puts into practice the Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss & Neocon True Believers & their allies in the Christian Right movement.

Maybe the tide is finally turning in our favor...one can only hope ?

Anyway that’s all for now
GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK
GORD.

Also see:
conservativeblogtherapy.blogspot.com/2006/04
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Neil Young and Pink are wrong...

And see:
CENSORSHIP
Ten-year-Old Forbidden from Singing Pink’s Anti-Bush Song at School Talent Show
By Matthew Rothschild
May 9, 2006

LEO STRAUSS & NEOCONS & THE RULE OF THE ELITE

BUSH , STRAUSS & "THE NOBLE LIE "
Posted by Picasa



"... It behooves us to remember that Hitler had the utmost contempt for parliamentary democracy. He was impatient with debate and dispute, on the grounds that they were a waste of time for the great genius who knew instinctively the right choices and policies that the people need.
Hitler had a profound contempt for the masses - the same contempt that is readily observed in Strauss and his cohorts."
SHADIA DRURY commenting on the political philosophy of Leo Strauss

"There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work."
William Kristol

...one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.
Irving Kristol

“ Leo Strauss was a great believer in the efficacy and usefulness of lies in politics. Public support for the Iraq war rested on lies about Iraq posing an imminent threat to the United States – the business about weapons of mass destruction and a fictitious alliance between al-Qaida and the Iraqi regime. Now that the lies have been exposed, Paul Wolfowitz and others in the war party are denying that these were the real reasons for the war. ”
SHADIA DRURY

The idea that Strauss was a great defender of liberal democracy is laughable. I suppose that Strauss’s disciples consider it a noble lie. Yet many in the media have been gullible enough to believe it.”
SHADIA DRURY

AND as Robert Locke says about the influence of Leo Strauss on Neoconservatives including himself :

“ IN CONTEMPORARY American intellectual life, there is only one school of conservative intellectuals that has taken root in academia as a movement. They are the Straussians, followers of the late Leo Strauss (1899-1973)... he is essential to the conservative revival of our time and he offers the intellectual depth we are so desperately in need of.

...consider the following list of his students or students of his students: Justice Clarence Thomas; Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; former Assistant Secretary of State Alan Keyes; former Secretary of Education William Bennett; Weekly Standard editor and former Quayle Chief of Staff William Kristol; Allan Bloom, author of The Closing of the American Mind; former New York Post editorials editor John Podhoretz; former National Endowment for the Humanities Deputy Chairman John T. Agresto; and, not meaning to class myself with this August company but in the interests of full disclosure, myself.

The great significance of Strauss for mainstream conservatives is that his is the deepest philosophical analysis of what is wrong with liberalism. ..”

Leo Strauss, Conservative Mastermind
By Robert Locke
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 31, 2002

(Note my comments are in Italic)

Anyway, I want to present some bits & pieces about the German philosopher , Leo Strauss who emigrated to the United States just before World War II . As a result of his experience in Germany with the fall of the Weimar Republic & the rise of Adolph Hitler & the NAZI Party he became convinced that the rise of Hitler was a direct result of the unwise & somewhat foolish & silly philosophy of “ modern liberalism ”which he believed was based in relativism but his solution is anti-democratic & is really steeped in Nietzsche’s notion of “The Will to Power ”.

The Mind-Set or belief system as it were of the Bush Regime & its Neo-Conservative supporters is rooted primarily in the philosophy of Leo Strauss . It is therefore helpful to understand the political thinking of Leo Strauss & his followers in order to fathom the twisted logic of Neo-Conservatism & its influence on the Bush administration . This is not really an easy task as the ideas of Strauss & his followers often seem to be based on perverted & twisted & convoluted logic if it can be called logic .
Just listen to Rumsfeld or Bush trying to explain their actions or beliefs & when caught in a contradiction they explain it away with a bit of verbal gymnastics or how they were misunderstood or not heard correctly ,or maybe it wasn’t even them that was filmed saying whatever it was since who knows since all is relative etc. Part of the problem is there is the version they tell to their Straussian Fellow-Travelers & that which is tailored to specific groups like the Christian Religious Right or other special interest groups & that which they reveal to the Media & the Public & there are things they might say on some right-wing radio show but they wouldn’t say on CNN or CBS etc.


It should be noted that the current administration or Regime in Canada is led by Stephen Harper who is also a neoconservative who has surrounded himself with like-minded people who are far more radical than traditional Canadian conservatives in their views on social issues & the role of government & Canada’s relationship with the United States & with the United Nations. Harper like Bush & co. wants to bring about radical changes in the way that our present system of government works to bring it more in line with the Bush Regime which has been consolidating more & more power into the Executive branch & the “ Oval Office ” as it were and reshape the relationship between the federal government & the provinces.
( I wonder if he has considered moving the Capital to Calgary where he feels more at home -just a thought )



As Michael Enright says in his CBC radio interview with Shadia Drury:

Since his death in 1973, Leo Strauss has become arguably the most important political philosopher of our age. Shadia Drury discusses how his ideas of promoting fear, elitism, secrecy, and lying have helped to undermine democracy and build a world where violent pre-emption is becoming the norm.

Leo Strauss was a political scientist at the University of Chicago, who specialized in ancient philosophy. He died in 1973, but the German-born professor is widely credited with influence far beyond the ivory tower. That his ideas govern the government of the United States, particularly its foreign policy and so-called "war on terror."

Shadia Drury is both a scholar and a critic of Strauss, and has written several books and articles about the man and his ideas. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Justice at the University of Regina, where she teaches political science and philosophy.

CBC SCHEDULE
THE SUNDAY EDITION DATE: 10/4/05. BROADCAST INFORMATION . .www.cbc.ca/insite/THE_SUNDAY_EDITION/2005/4/10.html
also at ICH.com

And in an interview by Danny Postel for OPENDEMOCRACY 10/18/03 he begins with these remarks about Shadia Drury :

Perhaps no scholar has done as much to illuminate the Strauss phenomenon as Shadia Drury. For fifteen years she has been shining a heat lamp on the Straussians with such books as The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss (1988) and Leo Strauss and the American Right (1997

And here is a long excerpt from an article on Strauss by Shadia Drury:

Saving America
Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives
Evatt Foundation: Publication: Saving America - 10 September 2003
By Shadia B. Drury

Shadia Drury gets to the bottom of neoconservatism.

“There is a growing awareness that a reclusive German émigré philosopher is the inspiration behind the reigning neoconservative ideology of the Republican Party. Leo Strauss has long been a cult figure within the North American academy. And even though he had a profound antipathy to both liberalism and democracy, his disciples have gone to great lengths to conceal the fact. ..This picture of Strauss as the great American patriot, who was a lover of freedom and democracy is pure fabrication. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Strauss's disciples have inherited a superiority complex as well as a persecution complex. They are convinced that they are the superior few who know the truth and are entitled to rule...They are afraid to reveal that Strauss was a critic of liberalism and democracy, lest he be regarded as an enemy of America. So, they wrap him in the American flag and pretend that he is a champion of liberal democracy for political reasons - their own quest for power. The result is that they run roughshod over truth as well as democracy.

...Strauss's American disciples continue to complain that they are oppressed, beleaguered, and ostracized by the liberal academy, and the equally liberal media.

The Straussians are the most powerful, the most organized, and the best-funded scholars in Canada and the United States. They are the unequaled masters of right-wing think tanks, foundations, and corporate funding. And now they have the ear of the powerful in the White House...

According to Strauss, ancient philosophers (such as Plato) were wise and wily, but modern philosophers (such as Locke and other liberals) were foolish and vulgar. The wise ancients thought that the unwashed masses were not fit for either truth or liberty; and giving them these sublime treasures was like throwing pearls before swine. Accordingly, they believed that society needs an elite of philosophers or intellectuals to manufacture "noble lies" for the consumption of the masses...

In contrast to the ancients, the moderns were the foolish lovers of truth and liberty; they believed in the natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They believed that human beings were born free and could be legitimately ruled only by their own consent.

The ancients denied that there is any natural right to liberty. Human beings are born neither free nor equal. The natural human condition is not one of freedom, but of subordination. And in Strauss's estimation, they were right in thinking that there is only one natural right - the right of the superior to rule over the inferior - the master over the slave, the husband over the wife, and the wise few over the vulgar many.

...Strauss referred to the right of the superior to rule as "the tyrannical teaching" of the ancients which must be kept secret. ..for two reasons - to spare the people's feelings and to protect the elite from possible reprisals. After all, the people are not likely to be favourably disposed to the fact that they are intended for subordination.

...Only weeping, worshiping, and sacrificing could ennoble the masses. Religion and war - perpetual war - would lift the masses from the animality of bourgeois consumption and the pre-occupation with "creature comforts." Instead of personal happiness, they would live their lives in perpetual sacrifice to God and the nation.”

Anyway I hope this gives the reader some idea of what a strange & shadowy world these neocons like Wolfowitz & Rumsfeld & Harper occupy as they traverse their inner labyrinth world of duplicity, deception & lies . And so it goes as Vonnegut says or even HI HO !
GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK
GORD.

Here are websites refer to or related to Leo Strauss & the Neocons:

Leo Strauss, Conservative Mastermind
By Robert Locke
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 31, 2002

And from the perspective of Neo-Conservative see articles carried in FRONTPAGE MAG. COM
http://www.frontpagemag.com

also check out for the real deal on neoconservative commentary at
THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY
The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.

The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.

William Kristol, Chairman
http://www.newamericancentury.org/

LEO STRAUSS AND THE POSSIBILITY OF PHILOSOPHY.
http://www.questia.com
by STANLEY ROSEN

THE WEEKLY STANDARD
The Neoconservative Persuasion
From the August 25, 2003 issue: What it was, and what it is.
by Irving Kristol
08/25/2003, Volume 008, Issue 47
http://www.weeklystandard.com/

COUNTERPUNCH
November 2, 2005
Lies of the Neocons: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
The Philosophy of Mendacity
http://www.counterpunch.org
By JOHN WALSH

June 2, 2003
The Strategist and the Philosopher
Leo Strauss and Albert Wohlstetter
By ALAIN FRACHON and DANIEL VERNET
Translated for CounterPunch by Norman Madarasz
COUNTERPUNCH.COM

AND:
Leo Strauss
by Milo Clark
http://www.swans.com
July 5, 2004
(Swans - July 5, 2004) It is time to do Leo Strauss some more.

Leo Strauss' Philosophy of Deception
By Jim Lobe, AlterNet. Posted May 19, 2003.

Many neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz are disciples of a philosopher who believed that the elite should use deception, religious fervor and perpetual war to control the ignorant masses...

The Ambivalence of Classic Natural Right: Leo Strauss on Philosophy, Morality, and Statesmanship
MARC D. GUERRA
http://www.questia.com/

JUDEO-CHRISTIAN DECADENCE
AT THE FOUNT OF POWER

By: Al Cronkrite
http://www.etherzone.com/

POP OCCULTURE
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
The Secret Kingdom of Leo Strauss
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2004/11/secret-kingdom-of-leo-strauss.html