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82_28 wrote:Cryptogon also seems to think this to be a story of interest:
http://cryptogon.com/?p=18560
Clips of "Casino Jack" at link.
(make note, I was about to throw together a post about Colorado, Casinos, freemasonry, mining, the geographical shape of CO etc just a couple weeks ago. I never got around to it, because I needed to think about it some more.)
Three years ago, Tom Tancredo — who, at the time, was a Republican congressman from Colorado and is now the American Constitution Party’s nominee for governor of that state — made the shocking claim that he would like to bomb the Muslim holy sites in Mecca and Medina. “If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” Tancredo told an Iowa conservative group. “Because that is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do.”
Tancredo’s comments were roundly denounced, even by members of his own party. “Historically, we’ve tried to avoid doing what the Nazis did, and that’s bombing every kind of possible target. … There are some things that are off limits,” Mike Huckabee said at the time. The State Department also slammed Tancredo, saying his comments were “reprehensible” and “absolutely crazy.”
At one point, Tancredo tried to pretend he never suggested bombing Mecca and Medina, telling CNN that it was “absolutely untrue” that he ever said such a thing. Now, however, Tancredo admits he said it, and that he still believes it. During an interview with a local radio station Thursday, when asked if he still believed in bombing Mecca, Tancredo said he did and that it was “quite defensible”:
HOST: If you say, you get involved with talking about bombing Mecca and Medina, is it possible that there would be a fatwa on Colorado?”
TANCREDO: You guys, remember, the statement that I made, in the context in which it was made, I think is quite defensible. I still do, and I still would say it. It is just that I would have absolutely no reason to say it as the governor of the state of Colorado. There are a lot of other issues of which I would become involved. So it is kind of goofy to say, ‘What if he said something like that again?’ Well, you know, the fact is that there is a lot of people who, just as you say, are worried about these issues. But if they are not relevant to the state of Colorado, I am probably not going to be talking about it.
Listen here:
When Tancredo began his third-party run for governor, Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams wondered whether Tancredo would run on a platform of “impeach Obama and bomb Mecca.” Tancredo has already written an op-ed calling for the president’s impeachment, and now the second half of Wadham’s hypothetical has come true.
Filmmaker George Hickenlooper dead at 47
Saturday the Denver Post confirmed that film director George Hickenlooper was dead. The 47-year-old filmmaker was in Denver promoting his new movie Casino Jack, produced by and starring Kevin Spacey as controversial Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, which was showing at the Starz Denver Film Festival. The cause of death is being investigated. He is survived by wife Suzanne and son Charles. It is always disturbing when folks in their prime leave us too soon.
Here’s The Playlist. And the LAT’s Steven Zeitchik spoke to Hickenlooper recently, as he was rooting for his cousin John, mayor of Denver, to win election as Colorado’s governor on Tuesday:
“There’s something unique about the United States, a sense of individual rights and freedoms, and a sense of social and civic responsibility that we contributed to so much of the world,” he said. “We lost that mission in the 1980s and 1990s, when we entered a gilded age, and the culture of individualism became a culture of avarice. It’s seen in every aspect of our culture. Everything is totally commodified, even in box office. Do you care how many Big Macs McDonald’s sold last week? How is that relevant? And that kind of feasting and ravenous thinking has seeped into the pores of our culture such that we’ve lost a sense of ourselves.”
The last time I communicated with Hickenlooper, he and New York documentary director Alex Gibney were facing off in the comments section of a November 2009 TOH blog post over who had the right to use the title “Casino Jack.” Hickenlooper had gone fictional with his film, Casino Jack (which played Toronto and other fests; I see it on Monday) while Gibney had stuck to the doc approach with Casino Jack and the United States of Money, which earned $177,000 at the U.S. box office for Magnolia Pictures.
Hickenlooper made his name by directing the must-see 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, an exhaustive portrait of filmmaker Francis Coppola during the filming of Apocalypse Now!. Hickenlooper’s last three films were indie projects that did not connect with wide audiences: the Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl, starring Sienna Miller (TWC, 2006), the documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003), and The Man From Elysian Fields (2001).
Hickenlooper was preparing to shoot in November the drama How to Make Love Like an Englishman starring Pierce Brosnan as a professor. Alas, that will now not happen.
'Casino Jack' Director George Hickenlooper Found Dead at 47
November 1, 2010
Source: The New York Times, The Wrap
by Ethan Anderton
Over the past couple months the festival circuit has been graced by the presence of director George Hickenlooper, the man behind such films as the Apocalypse Now behind-the-scenes documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Factory Girl and, most recently, Casino Jack starring Kevin Spacey as hated lobbyist Jack Abramoff. However, whilst in Denver, Colorado visiting his cousin, mayor John Hickenlooper, and attending yet another film festival, The New York Times reports that the filmmaker was found dead over the weekend. At 47 years-old, Hickenlooper has apparently died of natural causes and no foul play is expected. Read on!
As far as his friends and family are aware, Hickenlooper had not been experience any health problems and the director had been quite energetically, and excitedly promoting Casino Jack at various film festivals in Toronto, Austin and other U.S. locales. Documentarian Mogran Spurlock even chronicled some of his festival activities in the AMC documentary Committed, an hour-long chronicle of four different filmmakers as they find themselves caught up in the hustle and bustle of the Toronto International Film Festival. From that documentary alone, you could really get a sense of Hickenlooper's warmth, passion and humble demeanor.
From The Wrap, Roger Ebert remorsed, "The is hearbtreaking," while Casino Jack star Kevin Spacey recently made a statement about the tragic death of the filmmaker:
"I can’t believe he's gone because George was so alive, bubbling with energy, drive, commitment, an open heart and a brilliant sense of humor. He was one of a kind. My experience working with him was nothing short of fantastic: from our prison visit with Jack Abramoff, to script meetings, pre-production discussions and finally our first day of shooting. From that day until our last event premiering Casino Jack in Toronto last month, he was a joy to be around. His sensibility and outlook served his everyday. All of us who knew him – who had the chance to collaborate with him – who saw the child in him that he never lost - always looking at life with wonder and curiosity – will miss him with enormous admiration and affection. Tonight I raise a glass in his honor. Rest in peace, my friend."
I think we can all join Mr. Spacey in raising our glasses to George Hickenlooper, a man who dabbled in documentaries and fact-based dramas, and a loved filmmaker and friend to many in his field. In addition to his aforementioned work, the director was also responsible for directing the short film Some Call It a Sling Blade which Billy Bob Thornton wrote and directed before it was adapted into the feature length film Sling Blade. The industry has lost a truly gifted talent behind the camera and our thoughts go out to his friends and family.
Hickenlooper, Tancredo (Constitution Party), Maes (Tea Party) for gov... I might have to vote dem!? Damn!
82_28 wrote:(make note, I was about to throw together a post about Colorado, Casinos, freemasonry, mining, the geographical shape of CO etc just a couple weeks ago. I never got around to it, because I needed to think about it some more.)
82_28 wrote:What good are these polls then? They were saying they were just mere points away from one another.
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