Monday, September 17, 2018

David Walsh is giving me another headache

Hal is one of the films I saw at C.I.'s when we there this summer.  It was a strong documentary and one I would recommend.

I'm yet again, however, confused by David Walsh at WSWS.  His review, for example, includes this:


Shampoo was a commercially successful effort, co-written by Warren Beatty and featuring the actor—perhaps too prominently—as a prominent Beverly Hills hairdresser. It is meant to be a satire on the business practices, politics and sexuality of the Richard Nixon era. Jack Warden, Lee Grant and Julie Christie are particularly memorable in the film.


Excuse the f**k out of me?  Goldie.  Hawn.

Goldie Hawn.

Jill is the one that haunts you.  Jill is the one.  In high school drama class, we had to do monologues.  The school had five books of monologues -- four included Jill's speech with George where she wants to know how many women he slept with while he was with her.

If David Walsh wants to be the Socialist celebrating Lee Blacklisted Grant (whose husband eventually named names, by the way), that's fine.  But don't present as an art critic.

Goldie is amazing.

Yes, Lee won a sympathy supporting actress Oscar -- that's all it was, she gives her usual performance -- if the material's okay, she's okay.  If it's bad, she's chewing the scenery like in Valley of the Dolls and the Airport movie she did where she's the flight attendant getting drunk on the tiny bottles of booze.

But Goldie is the heart of the film.  Jack Warden's a buffoon in the film until he interacts with Goldie who humanizes his character Lester.

I also question this:

Scott, in her feature debut, examines Ashby’s life in Hal through interviews (Norman Jewison, Haskell Wexler, Cat Stevens, Lee Grant, Jon Voight, Louis Gossett Jr. and Jeff Bridges, along with contemporary directors, who were influenced by Ashby, such as Alexander Payne and David O. Russell)

Where's Jane Fonda?

Walsh even praises Coming Home but fails to note that Jane's on camera in the documentary.  Why isn't she mentioned? 


 The award-winning, staunchly anti-war Coming Home (with a screenplay co-written by the formerly blacklisted Waldo Salt) centers on a conservative military wife (Jane Fonda) whose husband (Bruce Dern) is deployed to Vietnam in 1968. As a volunteer in a veterans’ hospital, she meets and falls in love with a paralyzed Vietnam veteran (Jon Voight), who has become a determined opponent of the war

 There would be no Coming Home without Jane Fonda.  It was written by Nancy Dowd before Waldo and others came along.  She worked with Jane.  It was Jane's IPC Films that produced the film.  Jane hired Jon Voight and Bruce Dern and Waldo and Hal Ashby and Haskell Wexler (Wexler had earlier done the cinematography for Jane's documentary Introduction to the Enemy).

She's not just an actress -- or just an actress who won the Best Actress Academy Award for Coming Home.  She was the producer and the person behind the scene who got the film made.


Walsh has a real problem with women which may be why he also ignores Roseanna Arquette (also in the documentary) and director Allison Anders (also in the documentary) and director Lisa Cholodenko (also in the documentary).

When Susan of Random Thoughts voices problems with David Walsh's conception of women, there's a reason for that.  (Yes, I am stealing from C.I.'s comments in the gina & krista round-robin.)  Time and again, Walsh strips women of their credits and accomplishments.  So when he does yet another anti-MeToo piece, a lot of us are aware that he's never come off as someone who gives women credit for their accomplishments.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Monday, September 17, 2018.  Iraq finally has a Speaker of Parliament.

TASNIM reports, "The new speaker of Iraq’s parliament, Mohammed Rikan Hadeed al-Halbousi, praised Iran’s role in the Arab country’s liberation from terrorist groups and said in the era of 'unfair' sanctions against Iran, the Iraqi nation will side with the Islamic Republic." 



New speaker of ’s parliament, Mohammed Rikan Hadeed al-Halbousi, praised Iran’s role in the country’s liberation from terrorist groups and said in the era of “unfair” sanctions against , the nation will side with the Islamic Republic







Iraq's new what?

Saturday, Iraqi MPs finally elected a Speaker of Parliament.  Pakistan's THE NEWS reported, "Iraq´s parliament elected Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Halbousi as speaker on Saturday, marking an important step towards establishing a new government four months after an inconclusive national election."  In addition to being part of Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc (the winner of the May 12th elections), he was backed both by the outgoing prime minister Hayder al-Abadi and by Hadi al-Ameri whose milita bloc came in second in the May 12th elections.  al-Halbousi has been a member of Parliament since the 2014 elections. Following serving in Parliament, al-Halbousi became governor of Anbar Province. 


Mohammed al-Halbousi is elected as parliament speaker by 169 votes. A young engineer whose entire political experience is 4 years. He was Anbar governor since 2017. With hos election, Parliament speakership is out of Muslim Brotherhood after a long time. (1)





Pakistan's THE NATION notes, "Halbusi ran against three other candidates, including Vice President Osama al-Nujaifi and former Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi."   This was news -- at least the al-Obeidi part -- to THE WASHINGTON POST's Tamer el-Ghobashy.



Mohamed Al-Halbusi, the 37 year old Governor of Anbar has been elected speaker of parliament. This allows the much delayed process of forming Iraq’s new government to move forward (in theory). Halbusi beat out veteran politician/former def minister Khaled al-Obeidi.







Let's explore that for a moment -- in part because Tamer didn't.  How is Khaled al-Obeidi the former Minister of Defense?  I ask because the government's supposed to be dissolved but Hayder al-Abadi continues to meet with the Cabinet and al-Obeidi became Minister of Defense in October 18, 2014 as part of then incoming prime minister Hayder's Cabinet.


It's a four year term.  But for Khaled, it was less than two years.  Why was that?

He was stripped of his position just before he completed the second year of his term.  The Parliament held a no confidence vote.  He stood accused of corrpution.  In what world do you receive a no confidence vote in August of 2016 and be stripped of your post only to be elected Speaker of Parliament two years later?  You don't.  Why in the world would Tamer be seeing the defeat as newsworthy when there was nothing surprising about it?


NIQASH's Mustafa Habib offers this analysis:


vs on Iraq eternal ally of US: There is big misunderstanding by analysts about saying elect Halabousi to speaker of parliament is victory to Iran, loss for US. Actually, US feel more comfortable to Halabousi more than other candidates. (1) Photo: Nostalgia





  • The bulk of troops in Iraq are deployed in , the important processing contracts of US Army signed with Karbouli family and its partners, US forces build the most important military base in (Ein al-Assad) (2)





  • US forces succeeded with support of Halabousi in deploying their forces in "Qaim" the strategic town on the border with where Shiite factions on the other side were planning to open road Iran-Iraq-Syria through this town,guess what? Qaim is the capital of Karbouli family(3





  • In Dec. 2017 "Liwa' Altufuf" pro-Iranian militia sent message to his leaders explain the situation on the border & advised to push on Anbar gov to keep US troops out of the border, but the gov refused that. Other side, Halabousi supported training tribal program by US forces.(4)





  • Karbouli family knows very well that the keep Anbar away of collapse requires US forces, everyone knows the stay of US forces in Anbar is not opinion but demand of all local politicians and tribes.(5)


    Who’s better for US side? Halbusi? or Khaled al-Obeidi who does not have a strong party depends on it, he would be weak if he became speaker of parliament as it has been dismissed from his office as Minister of Defense in August 2016 (6)


    Here is the thing, the next move of Shiite Mps pro-Iran is to ask the parliament to discuss withdraw of US troops. Do think Halabousi will agree to this discuss simply? while he know that will put the city & reputation of his party at stake. (7)








    As for the other nominee?  That's actually more newsworthy, al-Halbousi defeating Osama al-Nujaifi whom the media identified as the Vice President.  He was that.  However, before becoming one of Iraq's three vice presidents, Osama was the Speaker of Parliament.

    If you're not getting that only one of the two was newsworthy, maybe this FACEBOOK post will help you out:


    النجيفي يستقبل المبعوث الرئاسي الأميركي وسفير الولايات المتحدة الأميركية في العراق
    ***
    استقبل السيد أسامة عبد العزيز النجيفي رئيس تحالف القرار العراقي يوم الأثنين 17 أيلول 2018 السيد بريت ماكغورك المبعوث الرئاسي الأميركي والسيد دوغلاس سيليمان سفير الولايات المتحدة الأميركية في العراق .
    تم في الاجتماع بحث ومناقشة آخر تطورات الوضع السياسي فيما يتعلق برئاسة مجلس النواب ورئاسة الجمهورية ورئاسة الوزراء ، والبرنامج الحكومي ، وسبل الوصول إلى تشكيل حكومة قادرة على مواجهة متطلبات البلد والنهوض به ..
    أكد السيد النجيفي على ضرورة الاسراع في انتخاب رئيس الجمهورية وتكليف رئيس مجلس الوزراء وحسب التوقيتات الدستورية ، مشددا على الحرص على تحقيق التوافق الوطني ، وعدم السماح بكسر الارادات وصولا إلى تحقيق غايات لا تخدم الوطن والمواطنين
    وأشار إلى أن العراق بحاجة إلى رئيس جمهورية يتمتع بالخبرة والكفاءة ويكون قادرا على الحفاظ على الدستور والسهر من أجل عدم التجاوز عليه . كما أن الضرورة تقتضي النجاح في اختيار رئيس مجلس وزراء معتدل ومقبول ينآى بالعراق عن الصراعات الدولية ، ويتمتع بقدرة اقامة أوسع العلاقات مع المجتمع الدولي بما يخدم مصلحة العراق .
    من جانبهم عبر المبعوث الأميركي والسيد السفير عن تقديرهم لخبرة وكفاءة السيد النجيفي والحاجة إلى نصائحه وارشاداته لدعم المسيرة السياسية في العراق .
    521 Views

    That's Osama's post about  meeting earlier today with US Special Envoy Brett McGurk.  I seriously doubt that Brett met earlier today with Khaled al-Obeidi.

    Back to the current Speaker, ALJAZEERA noted:

    Mohammed al-Halbousi, a Sunni politician and the former governor of Anbar province, won 169 votes in a secret ballot conducted at Saturday's session of the 329-seat assembly, according to reports.
    Aged 37, he will be the youngest speaker of parliament in Iraq's history. 



    Some hailed the election of a Speaker of Parliament on Saturday as a huge step forward -- this despite the fact that it was supposed to have taken placer much earlier.  Raya Jalabi and Ahmed Rasheed  (REUTERS) noted, "Parliament had been due to elect a speaker and two deputies during its first meeting on Sept. 3, but failed to do so as lawmakers were unable to determine which competing bloc had the most seats.  The move is not that big.  Saturday was supposed to also have seen the Parliament elect two deputy speakers but that didn't happen.  On Sunday Hassan Karim al-Kaabi (a Shi'ite) was elected first deputy and Bashir al-Haddad (a Kurd with Barzani's KDP) was elected second deputyRUDAW notes that both the KDP and the PUK backed al-Haddad.  QANTARA reports that Shi'ite cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr put forward Hassan Karim as the nominee for first deputy speaker.  There's still no president and still no prime minister-designate.  Elections were four months ago.   
    Today, Mohammed Sabah (AL MADA) reports that the Parliament is now saying that they can name a president without also naming the largest bloc (naming the largest bloc would require naming the prime minister-designate).
    They have a Speaker of Parliament but not much else.

    Ruth's updated this morning:


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