Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room

In the heyday of its hubris the trading floor of the gargantuan room full of the most macho men in Houston had two long staircases. One led to Lay and the other to Skilling. They were known as the two smartest guys in the room. These were two men, born poor, who were going to rule the world by being the smartest guys in the world. And for a while, they came pretty close. They ran the seventh largest company in the country, Enron

They certainly had California on a very short leash. During the days of wild expansion and wealth we had no energy. We had rolling blackouts and paid exorbitant prices for electricity. The power plants had plenty of capacity to make power, but they were being constantly told by Enron, who bought and sold their power, to shut down or ship energy to the desert. Enron was doing this to drive down supply, thereby allowing it to increase prices exponentially. With thirty billion dollars of high tech wealth going to Houston, the bubble did indeed start leaking.

And what happened to California? George W., Ken Lay, Schwarzenegger and Michael Milken, four staunch deregulators, had a secret meeting shortly before the Gray Davis recall and, the rest is history. Previously, natural gas and electricity were regulated heavily by state and federal governmental agencies. This changed largely as a result of political clout on the part of Enron by virtue not only of its size and deceptive appearance of profitability, but Ken Lay's relationship with the Bushes.

They were also able to use their power to get permission to use what they call mark-to-market accounting which allows them to, essentially, post self-proclaimed imaginary profits. This is what allowed Enron to post quarter after quarter of profits that never really existed. They were losing money on power plants in India and bad arbitrage bets while posting profit. The accounting got pretty creative, to say the least. And we all know what happened to Arthur Anderson, who traded scruples for fees.

Thousands of people who lost their jobs and pensions worked for a company whose motto was "Ask Why". Had those employees asked a few more questions they might have realized that the company they worked for had no real way to make money and was, in fact losing money as analysts raved, and people bought and Lay and Skilling and Fastow secretly sold. The one analyst who did question Enron was fired because of his questions.

The lawyers who approved all this and looked the other way were never asked too many questions, they just said, we'll make some tougher laws. And they did. Sarbane Oxley has been a very lucrative source or revenue for lawyers and accountants. Will that protect us?

The film, according to its director Alex Gibney, is not just about a few bad men. It's about the allure of money. It about how easy it is to bluff and buy everyone: the people who worked there, professional stock analysts, governments, the media.... everyone! We're all so impressed by people who exude confidence and money. It's all about appearance. We've become so lost and superficial.

We're a nation imbued constantly with information, seemingly so sophisticated and well informed. But we've lost our true source of knowledge, our inner guides that would have asked simple basic questions. It was only after Bethany McLean at Fortune started asking questions and pointed out that the emperor had no clothes, and Enron had posted years of phony profits, and manipulated the seventh largest economy in the world (California) from raging profitability to near bankruptcy that people finally clued in.

Meanwhile Lay, Skilling and Fastow made off with hundreds of millions of dollars that are now sitting in offshore accounts that will never be found. They were indeed smarter than the regulators who sought to control them and analysts who examined them. Being smart and unethical can get you pretty far, as I'm sure Milkin told Lay at the secret meeting. They may do a few years at tennis jail but, they'll live the rest of their lives in luxury. They won't even feel guilty. That's the dark side of the American dream, as Gibney called it, the belief that money is enough of a goal, enough of a measure of worth.

Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price

The title says it all: Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price. The worlds largest corporation is known for its low prices. Without those, all the ludicrous propaganda (and they are sure laying it on thick now) in the world could not build a retail company to that size. People shop there, in the billions, to save money. But what is the cost? The cost is countless towns across this country that have either no downtown or no town, at all, wiped out, left with an empty box store and empty promises. The cost is countless Chinese women and girls working twenty hours at a time at a sewing machine. The cost is making widow Walton and the four kids five of the richest people on the planet.

Walmart uses harassment and intimidation to prevent unions from forming at their sites. There is no unionization at any Walmart, except in Germany, because their government actually protects its citizens from corporate exploitation. There is an atmosphere of secrecy, lying and paranoia pervasive throughout the company. Ex-managers told about the techniques they were forced to use to cheat the workers. But, no current Walmart employees would talk.

Workers are systematically demeaned and demoted. Discrimination runs rampant and blatant. Women and minorities have barely scraped the lowest rungs of management. Workers are typically forced to work off the clock, for free. They refuse to pay overtime. They keep the weekly hours so low that workers must stay on public assistance.

Walmart externalizes its costs not only through making the state pick up the cost of its health care, but from the enormous amount of direct subsidy it has received from states and innocent towns that welcomed them with open arms. Walmart comes in like stealth and cuts incredibly favorable deals based on glossy promises with town councils before the Chamber of Commerce even knows what's happening. Rarely do they even find out the subsidies Walmart got.

There are problems in their parking lots, which seem to attract crime since they are large, dim and not monitored. Walmart spends its money protecting the merchandise. Once you pay for the stuff, you're on your own. Again, this costs a town in police time that the taxpayers have to pay for.

I commend Robert Greenwald for making this film, which is part of a movement to stop Walmart. He's doing a thankless job, and could be making lots more money doing other types of films. He is shining a bright light on a huge social problem.

I wish he made it easier to glean the facts. I think filmmakers, who usually focus on entertaining, often underestimate the statistics and facts that are so important to educating people about social issues. While involved in the anti-nuke movement in the 80's, facts were a huge part of the dissemination and education. I really wanted to have a place on this DVD I could go to and find out exactly how much the Waltons have, and how the revenues flow in the company. Greenwald said he went to great pains to make sure every statement was supported by research, but they came in two-second bursts between lots and lots of personal whining, and frankly, as sympathetic as I am, it was too much.

I think he should have done a bit more than mock the company and tug our heartstrings with idyllic visions of small town life. He does a disservice by appearing too biased and should have taken a more intelligent approach, offering real argument to points that Walmart could legitimately make in its own defense, such as the fact that it takes those on the lowest rungs of society and gives them at least some minimal leg up. Had he made the facts more central, I would have mentioned them here and they would become much more a part of the conversation.

I haven't been to a McDonalds since watching Super-Size Me and this film isn't exactly making me want to run to my nearest Walmart, which, fortunately, is not in my town. That's OK, Walmart probably wasn't that upset about losing Palo Alto. They prefer to exploit the poor. Whether they buy there, which they do, or work there or sweat their life away making the crap we all need so desperately... the poor are at Walmart... and are paying a very high price.

Wilson Pickett

Wow, what a month for soul. First Lou Rawls, now Wilson Pickett. Thanks for some great tunes. Mustang Sally and In The Midnight Hour are two of my favorite songs to sing. Wilson wrote the former with Aretha Franklin for a member of her band. Aretha was giving out Cadillacs, but this guy wanted a Mustang. He also wrote Land of 1000 Dances, another great song. Like so many of his peers, he put some half a century into music, performing up until a year ago. Thanks Wilson, you'll be missed.

Steal This Movie!

This incendiary title, a twist on the title of Abbie Hoffman's primer, Steal This Book!, on how to live freely, and for free, in an unfree world, would have ruffled a lot more feathers in a post-Napster world. And watching the 1999 film and its commentaries, I can only imagine what would have been said had the film come out a few years later, after Bush's election and his little Son of Vietnam excursion.

I recently reviewed another Robert Greenwald film, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism and will soon review his upcoming feature, Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price, and his 2003 documentary Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War. But, now I know what turned Robert Greenwald from a very average Hollywood director into a man willing to use his skills to make socially important films. It was his love for his children... and Abbie. Abbie's ideals, and how he lived his life, inspired many. And, thanks to Greenwald, will continue to do so.

Despite the title of his first film, the unforgettable, not to mention unforgivable, Xanadu, Greenwald was no Orson Wells and his film was no Citizen Kane. Yet, two decades later he took a real life stab at Murdoch, the Hearst of our day. How did he transition from being a cog in the Hollywood machine, to taking on Murdoch, Bush and Wal-Mart? His daughters were reaching the age of awareness, early twenties, and he realized they knew very little about what happened in the sixties.

That's surprising in a way. We're talking about the Baby Boomers the huge population bubble was young, idealistic and vibrant, not to mention loud, then. They refused to fight the war of their parents, changed the world, opened up jobs for women, opened up homes for blacks. We questioned authority, questioned assumptions. We wanted more than the dark, violent reality of our parents.

So why did Greenwald, a boomer himself, need to make a film in order to educate his kids? Because, despite the flowing skirts and highly embroidered tops on every young girl today, this is no Age of Aquarius. That embroidery comes from Chinese children paid pennies and the flower children of yesterday now have mow & blow Mexicans tending their flowers. Despite its size and ideals, not to mention television coverage, we are talking about a lost generation.

I guess the days of white kids fighting for social justice are over. Did they ever really care? Or did most just want to avoid the draft? It's the latter, which is why the anti-war movement shriveled up after they brilliantly went to the lottery method of drafting. Yes, we still have people out there today, helping the poor to vote, going on missions, etc. We'll always have people who do care about social justice, but will we ever have someone with the courage and creativity of an Abbie Hoffman? I don't know.

The man had a genius for promotion that would dwarf Steve Jobs and Bill Gates combined. Did he use it like they did... to build his own personal empire and ego? No, he went into the lions den, took beating after beating, lived underground, barely seeing his young son, america, for six years. He never looked to make a cent off his considerable fame. In fact, he gave the money he made from selling the film rights to one of his books to the Black Panthers.

There are a handful of men who have really affected me, inspired me, meant something to me in my life: Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, Ken Kesey, Tim Leary, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Of these, I sometimes think I love Abbie best of all. He was the truest and purest revolutionary and understood that it was not really about the art and the words and the fun. Those were the methods, the instruments, and without the underlying goal of social change, it was without true meaning. The first three are artists. Tim, a teacher. Jerry Rubin, I love him, but by the time I interviewed him in 1979, he was about money. He complained about Lennon being holed up in the Dakota but, when I asked him what he was doing to promote change, he turned it back on me, saying, essentially, protest is for college kids.

Abbie never had any other purpose but protest and guerilla theater. He started his career as a freedom fighter in the south registering black voters and getting his head bashed in. And, that's pretty much how he ended up. He called himself a professional defendant. A victim of manic-depression, his career as defendant, refugee and orphan of America took its toll, ultimately resulting in his suicide in 1989. He paid a high price to illustrate for America the corporate interests that control our society.

Who do we look to today? Accidental tourists like Hank Barry, Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen did challenge the powerful control of the media but they want nothing more than cash and control themselves. How many more have to die in Iraq before someone shows some awareness, principals and courage? Will we ever see people like Abbie Hoffman again? If not, the world is a far sadder, dimmer place for the loss.

Abbie Hoffman was unique. His charm was his uninhibited freedom and courage. No one stopped Abbie from speaking his truth, ever. And, we all knew it wasn't just his truth. It was THE truth. The truth no one wanted to face about this country: what we are, what we do , what we stand for. Abbie made us look at that gritty reality as he threw cash at greedy stockbrokers and surrounded the Pentagon for a levitation. He did it in a colorful, almost lighthearted way... to bring people in. He had all the right goals and all the right methods... and he truly changed the world for the better. His life should serve as an example for all of us.

Globes Embrace Liberal Values

Hollywood has spoken. First, the Guilds, then the Globes and I'm sure the Oscars will follow suit. What is it that Hollywood is telling us by its selection of films to reward this year? Felicity Huffman said it best last night, "As actors we are taught to shed our skin, but sometimes we need to find out who we really are. This is for all those men and women who risk alienation and ostracism and live their life on the margins in order to be who they really are".

She was talking to her fellow artists, most of whom know that individuality and authenticity can carry a high price. These artists are also well aware of the fact that 98% of their fellow artists live in relative obscurity and poverty, paying the true price of being an artist.

No one talked about Titanic the straight love story because it was real clear why Cameron got the Oscar, and everything else, that year. The film was a massive achievement by Cameron. No one thinks that about Ang Lee. Heath and Jake hate the guy's guts and have actually come out and said, publicly, that the guy can't direct his way out of a paper bag. He abandoned them, barely talked to them. You could see Heath, an amazing actor (check him out in Lords of Dogtown, you can't even recognize him), just uncomfortably smirking his way through Ang's accolades as his acting was overlooked.

So, what is it about Brokeback, Capote, Transamerica, Good Night and Good Luck, Crash and Walk the Line? These are all stories that help us embrace liberal values of tolerance. Capote was gay, Cash a drug addict and alcoholic. They both emerged as authentic and original artists, but walked the line, living always a hair's breath away from being a freakish outsider. Morrow stood up to the powers that be of his day, and put everything on the line to do so. The non-biopics are filled with characters that illustrate what people have to face these days in order to stand up and be someone a little different and what challenges our tolerance.

Roger Ebert, Richard Roper and everyone else is commenting about what a strong slate of films has been made this year. It's been a year filled with relevant, social commentary coming out full force from Hollywood. So, what's going on? In the early 70's, after more than enough years of war and Nixon, Hollywood (via Bob Evans) finally figured out that the public was refusing to go see the mindless drivel the studios were putting out, and started to react. A spate of rebel films made by radical directors ensued and we saw many years of good movies.

Now it's 2006. We've had six years of lies and war and flag-waving bigotry. We've got Alito and Roberts and and a tow the line, deaf dumb and blind Congress supporting a trio of zealots isolated in the Oval Office. If anyone thinks this is not related to what we see Hollywood supporting and rewarding, think again... and don't forget Weeds... about the soccer mom/drug dealer... she won too! I mean really, once the revolution gets to the suburban housewives... you know they've really stepped over the line.

Outfoxed and Unprecedented

Unprecedented is a look at the 2000 Presidential election that led to the appointment of George Bush to the position of President of the United States. It follows the chain of events starting with election eve when we saw unprecedented confusion about the winner of that election. Earlier that day, Gore was projected the winner, with many question mark states going to him. Florida was also projected to go to Gore. All the major networks were forecasting Gore. That is, until Jack Welch, president of GE, which owns NBC, went into the studio, put his hand on the shoulder of the man who projected the winners and said, "You know, I think it's time we called Florida for Bush".

The film takes a much closer look at the players and irregularities. Even with such glaring coincidences as having the candidate's brother as Florida's Governor and the chief election official in the state being an active campaigner, at least, for Bush, the American public and even Al Gore himself, with the whole party in tow, just rolled over like it was some kind of soccer match.

In fact, I take that back, soccer players would be screaming foul. When the US bombs and subverts our enemies, or, our friends, as we just bombed Pakistan today, the people take to the streets in protest. I just saw them today, there's always lots of footage of foreigners out there shouting about fucked up US policy. Well, you know, there were people protesting in Washington when Bush was inaugurated, not many, but certainly enough to warrant news coverage. However, the media, en masse, ignored it.

I guess it would be naive to think that more information, better, more accurate reporting, would make any difference. Yet, the film does shed more light on what the Republican leadership in Florida did to insure his brother's election. I mean, it's not like Florida is exactly known for encouraging blacks to vote, intimidation and disenfranchisement of black voters went on throughout the south since slavery was abolished. There was a huge effort to get out the black vote in Florida in the years leading up to 2000, because many local elections were unexplainably going to Republicans.

But, come on, they took 92,000 people off roles and refused to allow them to vote. Were these 92,000 random people? Not exactly, they paid a company $400,000.00 to ascertain who should be deleted. Ostensibly, they were removing felons. When other states have done this in the past, it cost a fraction of the price. But, then again, they weren't getting the smart sort the Republicans were going for. They knew it would come down to Florida, and, they had to make sure Florida would go to Bush. When you consider the fact that Bush won Florida by a margin of less than 600 votes, it just shows how much Bush had to subvert the electorate to get that win.

And, I'm not even going to get into the computerized voting, but, let's just say that throughout the south election results from computerized voting have been going to many republicans who were not the true winners. There was no way to prove it. The machines leave no paper trails, there is no way to examine the tallies because the makers of these machines will not let anyone look at their technology. But, in all cases, the exit polls pointed to different winners. And, they were all considered upset elections, in that all prior polling projected a Democratic winner. The companies that conduct these polls threw up their hands in disgust and quit. Ever hear any news stories about all this? Me neither.

The film was made by Joan Sekler and Richard Perez in 2002, well in time to warn us, yet, two years later, we reelected Bush. How did we lose our democracy not once, but twice, to same liars? Well, that gets us to the second film, Outfoxed.

While the media in this country, in general, turn a blind eye to the corporate forces that effect what we are shown and told about, and how it is covered, it gets even more egregious than that. This is the subject of Robert Greenwald's film, Outfoxed, which turns the light on Rupert Murdoch. This man's media holdings are unbelievable. It absolutely boggles the mind that one man, a blatant zealot, no less, is allowed so many media outlets. He owns over 100 cable channels, nine satellite broadcasting networks, a major movie studio, 175 newspapers. Frankly, I can't even remember it all, but News Corp's holdings are beyond extensive. I would estimate a fifth of all US media is Murdoch, an Australian.

And, if you think this is some kind of neutral, benign ownership... think again. Fox News was allowed three years to operate as a fairly traditional news outlet. It was successful and trusted, and in 1988 that trust was completely subverted. At that point, Murdoch started to implement an autocratic leadership style that dictated exactly what was run on the channel. He sent daily memos telling staff what stories to run and how to run them. Anyone working for him that countered the right-wing extremist views he held, was fired.

What makes all this so dangerous is that the shows run on Fox network do not look like the unabashed propaganda they are. They are formatted to look and feel very much like real news shows and many, many people believe that is exactly what they are. It's not like they run a little banner throughout the 24/7 propaganda day saying this is really opinion. Quite the opposite. Their motto is "fair and balanced". The film had interviews with a number of past employees speaking to the methods used to make the extremist right-wing swill seem like real reporting, such as putting up seedy looking, unqualified shills to present mildly liberal, if weak, views.

Yes, it's hard to believe there are people stupid enough to buy all this, but there are. I'm sure Bush owes many, many votes to Rupert and gee, what a coincidence that US law, changed under Bush, now allows him even more media outlets to own. And we are talking exponential numbers here. The amount of media outlets that can be owned by one company went from a handful to hundreds.

The Republicans (and the Democrats) are working hand in hand with the huge conglomerates in charge of 98% of our media outlets to keep ownership in as few hands as possible. The goal is to concentrate the power in the hands of a very few, extremely wealthy, and powerful individuals who will work very hard to keep the status quo. So, if you ever ask yourself why the media did so little to challenge a clearly unfair Presidential election, or why Copyrights, originally for seven years, now last for over 75, or why our news coverage is so different from the rest of the world's.... now you know. Will you do anything about it? Will you start getting more of your news from the internet? Will you start blogging about the problems, or write to your Congressperson or FCC Commissioner about these issues?

I hope so. Do it for MLK, who had some dreams about fairness and equality and democracy. They're still dreams. Anyone who thinks that the interests of the massive majority of average people who work hard and vote are in control in this country today better get a clue and start looking at what is really going on. Take a look at the films of Robert Greenwald over the past few years and educate yourself. I assure you, it will be quite an eye-opener. Let's do something unprecedented and refused to be outfoxed by a cadre of individuals who love the power we've turned over to them while playing the thought-provoking Mariah Carey on our iPods.