Friday, March 28, 2008

Washington, You're Fired DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Wisdom of Patriot Act Questioned by Consciousness-Raising Documentary

If you’ve seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, you might remember the comical scene where John Conyers (D-MI) freely admits that neither he nor probably any other members of Congress had actually bothered to read the Patriot Act before allowing it to become the law of the land. Well, Washington, You're Fired is a rabble-rousing call to arms which retraces the bill’s legislative history to expose the 11th-hour shenanigans employed by the Bush Administration to get it passed.
For, according to filmmaker William Lewis, narrator of this incendiary documentary, we the people were abandoned by our representatives who irresponsibly gave away an array of our supposedly inalienable rights because they were being pressured in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Lewis says that the 800+ page bill that they voted on had been replaced at the last minute by a version written by Viet Dinh, a Harvard-educated lawyer working at the direction of Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Because the members of Congress had capitulated to intimidation rather than take the time to assess the Patriot Act point-by-point, Mr. Lewis says that they violated their Constitutional oaths and thus deserve to be kicked out of office for selling the electorate down the river. If even half of what he alleges is true over the course of this consciousness-raising expose’, then maybe it is high time we heed his advice and throw the bums out, and replace both Republicans and Democrats alike with ordinary folks willing to restore the panoply of rights lost in the wake of 9/11.
Watch out, Congress, if this grass roots movement does develop traction, you’re fired!

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 77 minutes
Studio: Bridge Stone Media Group

No comments: