MISSISSIPPI DAMNED DVD Release!

Congratulations to my friend Tina Mabry, whose multiple award-winning feature film MISSISSIPPI DAMNED is now available on DVD. The film dominated the 2009 independent film circuit, winning top prize at nearly every festival it appeared in, including the Jury Award for Best Feature Film at the 2009 Chicago Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Film at the 2009 American Black Film Festival, and the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding U.S. Dramatic Feature at the 2009 Outfest Film Festival.

Based on a true story, the film is about three poor black kids in rural Mississippi who reap the consequences of their family's cycle of abuse, addiction, and violence. It's available in a limited pre-sale for only a few more days at http://www.mississippidamned.com/store

The film excels in all areas, featuring gritty storytelling, extraordinary performances from a talented ensemble cast, and surehanded directing. But don't just take it from me, check out some of the praise it's earned:

"The film presents a brutally honest, extraordinary haunting and deeply emotional portrait of a dysfunctional family trying to come to terms with its own tortured legacy." - Ebony Jet Online

"Expertly directed and beautifully shot and scored, featuring unforgettable performances by a tremendous ensemble cast this a film of rare accomplishment."

- indieWIRE

"Raw and powerful...plaudits to filmmaker Tina Mabry for her tightly wound and powerfully explosive story." - The Hollywood Reporter

"Dark, uncompromising, and unflinching, Mississippi Damned is pure power all around." - Edge Magazine

"This riveting ensemble film is one of the most original American debuts I've seen in some time" - Phawker Blog

"Mabry has put together a stable of actors that make up easily the best ensemble I've seen this year." - Atlanta's Reel Fanatic Blog

"Mississippi Damned is a rare, exceptional film, one that covers enormous amounts of emotional territory and manages to impart sadness and hope in equal measures." - After Ellen

"It is the year's best film. Last year, I sat through all the nominees for Best Film for the Academy Awards and this independent film stands shoulder to shoulder with them. We can only hope that more people are able to view this film on a larger scale across country as it is a story which needs to be told." - The Rainbow Collective

Congratulations Tina!

Debunking the GOP's "tax cut=jobs" BS

The GOP's top priority is extending the Bush tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, because they argue that it will "create jobs." Here are a number of reasons this is horse shit.

#1 This tax cut has been in place for ten years. If it's such a job creator, why hasn't it been creating jobs all this time? Instead, we've seen thousands of jobs shipped overseas, record deficits, and a widening income gap between the rich and poor.

#2 People go into business to make a profit, not create jobs. Jobs are created when production cannot keep up with demand.

#3 The argument assumes that the wealthy will use the extra income to create jobs, when there's just as much or more reason to believe they'd invest it, spend it, or do any number of things before "Creating a job."

#4 Most job creation by the super wealthy is in underpaid workers overseas, because of #2.

#5 It is middle class consumer spending that has the largest impact on job creation, not the income of the wealthy few. If you really want to kick start the economy, money would best go towards the middle class, who will spend it on things they need, and create higher demand. But in contrast to their passion for giving tax cuts to the rich, the GOP has consistently fought against benefits for the middle class, like extending unemployment benefits.

#6 The tax rate for income above $250,000 used to be 90%, and this was during the prosperous 1950s and 60s. It had no stifling impact on job creation.

The GOP's "tax cut=job creation" is a bullshit reason for them to pad the pockets of the super wealthy, even at a time when more revenue is needed to pay down record deficits, and America's position as a world power is slipping to China. Their agenda is transparently about protecting the wealthiest Americans, even at the cost of country's economic health.

No, it was YOUR idea

You have to hand it to the GOP's marketing skills. After all, the party of the wealthy few has managed to convince millions of working class people to vote for them and against their own economic interests for years.

In the wake of the GOP's election victories, Mitch McConnell stated that "When the administration agrees with the American people, we will agree with the administration. When it disagrees with the American people, we won’t." How clever. The GOP creates a hyberbolic campaign frightening people about "Obamacare," "government takeovers," and looming tax increases to sell a plan that benefits corporations and the wealthy. Uninformed voters buy into this marketing, and now he claims that whatever the GOP does is just following the will of the American people. Not only that, but he also professes to know what the American people will or won't agree with from the Obama administration.

These guys could find a way to sell garlic to a vampire.

Okay, GOP, What'll It Be?

The Republicans took back the House and most of the Senate yesterday on a message of extending tax cuts for the wealthy, deficit reduction, and cutting spending. But as they take power, it will be interesting to see how they plan on executing that message, because it doesn't add up.

To begin with, it would have been nice if the same outrage over deficit spending emerged when Bush II was waging two unfunded wars, but that's another matter. The problem here is that you can't argue for both extending tax cuts for the wealthy while complaining about the deficit. The Bush tax cuts are responsible for $200 billion of the deficit annually, far more than Obama's stimulus plan.





















Similarly, the GOP argues for spending cuts as a way toward deficit reduction. But they only favor cuts in domestic spending, not defense, which accounts for over $300 billion, and not by ending the war in Afghanistan, which is one of the largest impacts on the federal deficit. In the GOP's "Plan for America," they outline $100 billion in domestic spending cuts. Merits of that aside, how would that alone be an answer to the deficit without addressing these larger expenditures?

You won the election, GOP, but now you have to tell us how you'll make sense of your agenda.