It is my very great privilege to announce that Privilege an early masterpiece by the great Peter Watkins is coming out on DVD. Made in 1967 on the heels of the success du scandale politque of The War Game, Privilege was the first — and last — film by Watkins to be released by a major American studio, Universal. According to Watkins biographer Joseph A. Gomez –

“The idea for Privilege is said to have come fome a conversation between Terence Stamp and John Heyman, a former agent turned producer. Stamp suggested ‘making a film aof a pop singer who thought he was Jesus Christ.’ Heyman replied ‘I thought they all do.’ From these casual remarks grew the idea for a story which would ‘expose the rotten world of pop.’ “

There’s plenty of rot exposed in Privilege, but it has less to do with pop than the interface between show business and politics necessary for the functioning of a fascist state. Charting the rise and fall of a pop singer named “Stephen Shorter”( played by pop singer Paul Jones) whose act is a kind of PG-rated sado-masochistic spectacle in which he is mock beaten and chained by mock policeman as he please with his fans to “Free me!” Privilege was a very cold shower bath for a public enthralled by the bubbly cheer of the Beatles.

(You can find excerpts Here,

Here,

and

Here.)

Stamp’s Christ reference was clearly inspired by the brouhaha created when John Lennon opined that he and the other moptops were “Bigger than Jesus.” What, Privilege asks, would happen if rather than oppose pop, church and state climbed on board? Watkins answers this question in much his usual style via a drama presented in the form of a psuedo-documentary. With a greater budget at his disposal than ever before (or since) he created a film that a then-emerging singer named David Bowie quite obviously ripped off for his own act . At the same time it predicgts both the rise of Thatcherism and the Christian “Fundamentalist” right — which while having run its course with the Republican party, now threatens to sink its fangs into the Democrats.

Born in 1935, Peter Watkins is the most important political filmmaker of all time.

Yes, you read that right. After setting the BBC on its ear with his anti-war featurette The War Game (it was banned from boradcast but released theatrically and went on to win a “Best Documentary” Oscar) Watkins has led a cinematically nomadic existence managing to make works chiefly in the scnadanavian countreis, the best known being Edvard Munch. He did come stateside in 1971 to make Punishment Park an examination of what the U.S. government may well have in store for those who object to its policies (forget Gitmo, the incarceration facilities the film deals with were created decades ago and are still ready for operation if “necessary.”) Then there’s his epic anti-nuclear film The Journey. But to my mind what Watkins should best be remembered for (at this point) is La Commune (de Paris, 1871), a film so profoundly thorough as to make Jean-Luc Godard appear nothing more than a petty dilletante.

Watkins has said that when he made Privilege most of what he knew of pop music was as a result of seeing Lonely Boy, a National Film Board of Canada documentary on Paul Anka. But its less Koenig and Kroeter than Leni Riefenstahl that’s evoked in the many performance scenes in Privilege — with “Stephen Shorter’s” appearances producting mass hysteria in which sexuality gets re-rigged to fealty to the state — in a style Ken Russell and Derek Jarman would explicate further a few years later in The Devils. Clearly they would make a great double feature.

In Privilege we hear from “Stephen Shorter” a very catchy rendition of

“Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.”

Keep in mind the rest of the lyrics –

” At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.
Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.
Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.
Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,
blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ the King,
this through countless ages men and angels sing.”

But recall as well a Berlin named Irving –

“Oh
I got a message from below
‘Twas from a man I used to know
About a year or so ago
Before he departed
He
Is just as happy as can be
I’ll tell you what he said to me
He said, “If ever you get heavy-hearted
Pack up your sins and go to the devil in Hades
You’ll meet the finest of gentlemen and the finest of ladies
They’d rather be down below than up above
Hades is full of thousands of
Joneses and Browns, O’Hoolihans, Cohens and Bradys
You’ll hear a heavenly tune that went to the devil
Because the jazz bands
They started pickin’ it
Then put a trick in it
A jazzy kick in it
They’ve got a couple of old reformers in Heaven
Making them go to bed at eleven
Pack up your sins and go to the devil
And you’ll never have to go to bed at all
If you care to dwell where the weather is hot
H-E-double-L is a wonderful spot
If you need a rest and you’re all out of sorts
Hades is the best of the winter resorts
Paradise doesn’t compare
All the nice people are there
They come there from ev’rywhere
Just to revel with Mister Devil
Nothing on his mind but a couple of horns
Satan is waitin’ with his jazz band
And his band came from Alabam’ with a melody hot
No one gives a damn if it’s music or not
Satan’s melody makes you want to dance forever
And you never have to go to bed at all!”

The Speaker Squeaks:

President Bush has been a “total failure” in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill.
Pelosi shot back in unusually personal terms.
“You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject,” Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for “challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again.”

You know, Flying Spaghetti Monster damn her, she’s full of shit. Rather than a failure George W. Bush has been a spectacular success. He has upended the Middle East, invaded a country that was no threat to the United States in any way shape or form, and triggered a civil war that in combination with the U.S. invasion has killed over three million people.

No I’m not counting the hired killers of the U.S. army, the National Guard and Blackwater. Our famulsy “Free Press” does a good job of that.

And Bush’s crowning achievement? The shredding of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constutition. You know –

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Of course this has been in the cards for some time. Need I remind you all of an NYT item from November 8, 2006?

“House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi promised Wednesday that when her party takes over, the new majority will not attempt to remove President Bush from office, despite earlier pledges to the contrary from others in the caucus.
“I have said it before and I will say it again: Impeachment is off the table,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said during a news conference.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a second political party?

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended Bush.
“What the president said is a fact - this is the longest a Congress has gone in 20 years without passing a single spending bill, so it’s clear that the speaker is feeling some frustration at their inability to do so.”
Pelosi’s outburst was a departure. Her usual practice in public has been to call Bush’s policies a failure - not his presidency or him, personally. Pelosi’s remarks are the latest evidence of the Democrats’ throw-caution-to-the-wind approach to Bush in the waning days of a presidency weighed down by an unpopular war and soaring gasoline prices.
Election Day, after all, is just over four months away; Bush’s successor takes his seat on Jan. 20.
Pelosi’s counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, long ago took off the rhetorical gloves. Last month, he ridiculed Republicans who sided with Bush on a Medicare bill.
“Who would be afraid of him?” Reid, D-Nev., said as many senators looked on. “He’s got a 29 percent approval rating.”

So why then has a Democratic Party “led” congress approved of every war appropriation Bush has ever asked for and agreed to the wholesale shedding of FISA — the one provision providing us with a figleaf’s worth of protection from a virtual police state? Why are he Pelosi and all the others so cowed by a man the whole world knows to be a disgrace?

No wonder then that –

The public’s view of Congress is even worse. Its approval rating has hit a new low of just 18 percent, down from 23 percent last month, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. Bush’s approval is at 28 percent, about even with the 29 percent rating last month.
Only 16 percent of those surveyed thought the country was moving in the right direction, a new low as well, although statistically the same as last month’s 17 percent.

Terminally clueless — or cleverer than you think?

Last week Reid and other Democrats dropped any pretense of trying to fight the president on battles they were likely to lose - even on the most important part of their jobs, which is passing spending bills that keep the government running.
Of the 12 annual appropriations bills, Congress is likely to pass one or two and send Bush a temporary spending fix for the rest. That would have to suffice until a new president takes office, Reid told reporters.
Privately, Democrats have said that either candidate for president - Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain - would be easier to make laws with than Bush. But Reid made clear which he’d prefer.
“I would hope that before we would leave here this year that we would do a continuing resolution that would get us (through) until after Senator Obama becomes president,” he said.

And as I have already pointed out the Magic Negro is only tooo happy to see FISA fizzle.

Why?

Because Might Makes Right – that’s why!

But you don’t want to say that too loudly. That’s why Nancy should take her cue from this Kander and Ebb classic and sing it at her next
press conference. Enough of this “Failure” business dear. We know what you really think.

“When I was a tiny tot
Of maybe two or three
I can still remember what
My mother said to me…
Place rose colored glasses on your nose
And you will see the robins
Not the crows
For in this tense and tangled web
Our weary lives may weave
you’re so much better off
if you believe…
That there’s a little bit of good
In everyone
In everyone you’ll ever know
Yes, there’s a little bit of good
In everyone
Though many times, it doesn’t show
It only takes the taking time
With one another
For under every mean veneer
Is someone warm and dear
Keep looking…
for that bit of good in everyone
The ones we call bad
Are never all bad
So try to find that little bit of good!
Just a little, little bit of good
Is someone warm and dear
Keep looking…
For that little good in everyone
Although you meet rats
They’re not complete rats
So try to find that little bit of good!”

My, my, MY — what a big to-do over a very simple remark.

“Mr. McCain, who with his wife, Cindy, has an adopted daughter, said flatly that he opposed allowing gay couples to adopt. “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,” he said.”

What he’s proven is that if it isn’t working out with one family

You can go buy yourself another.

And on that note — take it away Randy!

“I like your mother
I like your brother
I like you
And you like me too
We’ll get a preacher
I’ll buy a ring
We’ll hire a band
With an accordion
A violin
And a tenor who can sing

When our kids are grown
With kids of their own
They’ll send us away
To a little home in Florida
We’ll play checkers all day
Until we pass away”