Erik Moe Art & Design

The erosion of our civil liberties under this administration has been well documented and alarming, but did any of us ever foresee a day when we would lose our right to dance to our iPod at the Jefferson Memorial. What would old Thomas have to say?

At last night’s Oscars, Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side won the Best Documentary prize. I finally had a chance to catch the film late last week at the National Archives* and think that (for once) the best – and most important – of the nominated films definitely won. Taxi is a well-researched and troubling look at the expanding use of torture in the U.S. military since 9/11. Gibney builds a strong argument that very specific methods of torture have come into use through a carefully orchestrated fog of conflicting demands, intentionally leaked documents, and purposefully vague orders from the Department of Defense and the White House. These indirect orders leave low-ranking troops vulnerable to court marshalls while shielding top level officials from war crimes trials. The film takes its title from the case of an innocent taxi driver named Dilawar who was captured along with his passengers at an Afghan army checkpoint and eventually died as a result of repeated beatings while in U.S. custody at Bagram Air Base. Taxi goes on to explore the suspension of habeas corpus rights – unprecedented in U.S. history – that make it impossible for detainees to find out why they are being held and tortured. The film can be tough to stomach for its use of footage of physical abuse and sexual humiliation at Bagram, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo, but since these crimes are being done in our name and in violation of our own Constitutional principles, the film is essential viewing.

UPDATE: *Yes, I appreciate the irony of watching a film about the Bush administration’s abuses of the Constitution in the very building that the executive branch displays the Constitution.

TechPresident sent a belated valentine card yesterday to our disbanded cohort of digital Dodd Squad-ers. Joshua Levy critiques Maverick McCain’s emails and thinks the Republican frontrunner should call us up for advice. Somehow I don’t think that would work out well for any of us, but the sentiment is appreciated.

By request (and against my better judgment), you can now support my residential campaign by buying these buttons at CafePress.

The Sunday before an election is traditionally a time when newspapers make endorsements. In that spirit, here are a few notes in support of two candidates for this coming Tuesday’s primaries and caucuses: Illinois Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Presidential nomination and Al Franken as Senate nominee for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party in my home state of Minnesota.

On the cold weekend morning when Sen. Obama announced his candidacy last winter, I had been living in Chicago for about four months. The widespread enthusiasm for Obama in Chicagoland seemed genuine, honest, and – despite constant fawning from media sources I tend to distrust – unmanufactured. As I worked on Chris Dodd’s campaign over the intervening year, I watched cable news dig into and tear apart every minute detail of the “top tier” candidates’ personal and political lives to justify their omnipresent “BREAKING NEWS” graphic. Amid this caustic environment, Obama has continued to turn out huge crowds and energize groups that have historically had little voice in the nominating process. His campaign has raised absurd amounts of money through small online donations, making him much more of a true “people’s candidate” than a candidate of corporations and the wealthy. His early decision to pursue community organizing in crime and poverty-ravaged neighborhoods of Chicago rather than the easy money of corporate law shows the kind of commitment to common good that should be at the core of a progressive Presidency.

Al Franken’s netroots-savvy campaign has similarly energized Minnesota progressives. Over the past several years he has done serious legwork across the state to prove that he is not a novelty candidate merely coasting on his celebrity. In his years as a comedian (sorry, “satirist”), author and radio commentator he has been a leading voice in the effort to reject the very framing of American politics: we do not live in a blue and red nation, but in a have and have-not nation – with the disparity growing rapidly. As a Minnesotan, I will be honored to have Franken take on Norm Coleman in November and add his name to the proud list of prominent progressive Minnesotans that includes Humphrey, Mondale, and Wellstone.

After much consideration, I am pleased to announce my candidacy for Resident of New York. Can I count on your support?

Once you do something twice, is it a tradition?

After looking at Movie City News’ masterful chart of 2007 critic’s lists I realized just how many good films I did see this year, despite feeling like I was in something of a film-free coma as I learned the ways of Washington campaigning. Still, there are plenty of foreign and indie movies in the “class of 2007″ that didn’t play D.C. or Chicago (where I lived until May) in a timely manner (or at all). With that, please consider the following in-exhaustive list thoroughly and unnecessarily disclaimed:

1. I’m Not There – Todd Haynes’ experimental Bob Dylan biopic was far and away the most incredible thing I saw on the screen in 2007. Not only did Haynes create six unique personas loosely based on the life and times of Mr. Dylan, but he adapted and invented lush visual languages to go along with each storyline. So what if the average viewer might not get all the references from Dylan’s career? I can’t say for sure how the film reads to audiences unfamiliar with Ginsberg, Pennebaker, Baez, Guthrie, or even Bringing it All Back Home, but I suspect it stands as a whirlwind lesson in how myth and art blurred to form our new national pastime: deconstructing celebrity. And besides, is a little cultural literacy too much to ask of an audience?
2. There Will be Blood – Daniel Day-Lewis is riveting as usual in his performance as pioneer-turned-oilman Daniel Plainview. Paul Thomas Anderson’s depiction of the emerging petroleum economy circa 1900 is a fine reminder that the energy industry we have now has been an all-corrupting mess from the start. Plus, it’s loosely based on Oil! by Upton Sinclair, with whom I’ve been obsessed since reading Chris Bachelder’s U.S.! early in ‘07 (in which Sinclair has the ability to rise from the grave and keep on muckracking through the 20th Century). So Blood tidily brings it all back home.

UPDATE: Paul Dano’s supporting role as the creepy, hapless, opportunistic preacher in There Will be Blood means he is two-for-two in supporting roles in second place films on my two annual exercises in list minimalism (he played the quiet brother in last year’s number two, Little Miss Sunshine).

In a sign that the battle is indeed continuing, ex-Dodd über-blogger Matt Browner Hamlin and his always frequently sound commentary has a new home over at Hold Fast. Do stop by. While you’re visiting, complement him on his lovely tattoo-themed WordPress installation.

Image: Dodd concession speech at Temple for Performing Arts, Des Moines, Jan. 3, 2008

Thanks to all for the kind words on the Dodd campaign and our online efforts. I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to online campaigning and working with the netroots than I had with the Dodd internet team: blogger Matt Browner Hamlin, internet director Tim Tagaris, data dude Brett Schenker, and tech directors Aaron Welch and Tim Cullen. The real props, of course, go to Senator Dodd who stayed true to himself and showed real leadership in the Senate and on the campaign trail regardless of what the poll numbers said. If all campaigns fought that way, we’d be living in some kind of Star Trek future world by now.

Meanwhile back in the Senate, the FISA bill Dodd fought back just before Christmas is coming back to the floor.

Stay tuned - the fight goes on.

This morning I’m on my way to Des Moines to help with Chris Dodd’s final push for the Iowa caucus. I haven’t blogged at all really about my work for the campaign these past months (graphics, web design). With Christmas behind us and the caucus just seven days away, it is long overdue that I educate all twelve of my readers a bit about Senator Dodd and why he deserves your consideration. Thankfully, Mike Caulfield of Blue Hampshire has done the hard work and put together a timely endorsement post that uses a great series of clippings from throughout the Senator’s long career to make a case for Dodd as an experienced change candidate. Also, he seems to be the only candidate who’s participated in a “donut fight.” Off to Iowa!