“Crawford” Tells the Story of a Town, and a Nation, Ruined by Bush

[babylonsister]

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2009/03/09/6489/


“Crawford” Tells the Story of a Town, and a Nation, Ruined by Bush
Trish | Mar. 9, 2009


Crawford: a documentary from Crawford: The Movie on Vimeo.
(Trailer at link)


Do yourself a huge favor if you have a little over an hour to spend, and watch Crawford on hulu. The documentary tells the story of the town, and the people, that were used, chewed up, and spit out by George W. Bush.

“If Crawford was a product sold at Wal-mart,” said one particularly tragic resident, “I think more than anything that it would be white paint.”

Bush only moved to Crawford when his presidential campaign was well under way, and left the town even before his second term ended. He and Laura returned to Preston Hollow, the pricey Dallas suburb where they lived when he was governor. Their new 8,500-square-foot house was appraised for $2.1 million but was said to be bought by the ex-president for considerably more. The Bushes are also purchasing the McMansion next door.

Crawford, meanwhile, is like the rest of the country in the wake of Bush: bitterly divided, and in many cases, ruined. Hopes (like those held by the minister of one church, that Bush will someday pay a visit) are forever dashed, lives are shattered, and neighbors who were caught up in the Bush frenzy will never trust one another again.

The film was released last fall but overlooked as the country, weary with Bush fatigue, longed only to be rid of him. It’s worth some remedial watching now.

[RiverStone]

1. I wonder if Shrub ever ponders what a huge clusterfuck he created?

Doubt it.

[immoderate]

3. Real men don't ponder.

--imm

[HillbillyBob]

8. He can't have second thoughts..if he never had a first one

I forget who but it was a former aide or cabinet member said dumeru, was cold and unfeeling of others..so i guess no conscious thought for or of others ever enters his vacuum.

[liberal N proud]

9. The man with the shitty touch

Everything he ever touched turned to shit.

[Stevenmarc]

2. I watched it on Hulu, it's worth viewing.

[Stephanie]

4. thanks - just watched the trailer

looks great! there was a fascinating article in Vanity Fair about how bush ruined Crawford.

[arcadian]

6. Have you got a link to that article?

I'd like to read it.

[Stephanie]

7. here you go >

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2005/11/crawford200511

High Noon in Crawford
President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch was intended as a perfect backdrop for his cowboy image. But a grieving mother, a deadly hurricane, and disenchanted neighbors have brought a dose of reality to his doorstep.
by EVGENIA PERETZ
November 2005

When the 101-degree Crawford heat scorches the prairie, the dust blows through the sagebrush like a tornado, and fire ants attack your ankles like the Devil's minions, you won't see George Bush flinch. He's too busy beating the hell out of the underbrush, not caring at all whether he soils his work shirts. He doesn't talk fancy, but puts things "in English, or Texan." That's why he vowed to get Osama "dead or alive." His folks aren't "Washington types," but the guys "down at the Coffee Station," Crawford's one, tiny diner. You may have even seen him there on TV, shooting the breeze with them—his trucker and farmer buddies—telling the owner, Nick Spanos, to fire up the grill and make him a cheeseburger.

Like Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson before him, Bush has been impressively successful at packaging himself as that American archetype of honesty, courage, and unshakable conviction: the cowboy. The plan to become one was hatched in the late 90s, when the Connecticut-born Texas governor, who attended Andover and Yale, worked with his close adviser, Karl Rove, to prepare a run for the presidency. The first thing Bush needed was a ranch. In 1999, he picked one, a 1,600-acre spread in Crawford, current population 705, a "dry" town with one blinking traffic light. It was one of the most conservative corners in the country, overflowing with true believers, who would turn every available wall into a Bush photo shrine and tolerate no dissenters. He'd spend roughly 20 percent of his presidency there—more than any modern president has been on vacation—so the press would get a steady diet of him in his cowboy hat, walking tall down dusty roads.

For almost five years, the plan worked—until one mother from Vacaville, California, Cindy Sheehan, camped outside his ranch for most of the month of August, demanding a face-to-face meeting about why we went to war in Iraq and why her son Casey had to die there, a month and a half before his 25th birthday. Her astonishing presence, in addition to catalyzing a nascent anti-war movement, changed the meaning of Crawford—from Bush's cowboy backdrop to the walled-off vacation compound of an out-of-touch president. Then, after ignoring Cindy, he ignored Katrina. As he squeezed out his last vacation days, a major American city drowned.

[arcadian]

16. Hey, thanks

:hi:

[City Lights]

19. Thanks for the link, Stephanie.

Going to read it now...:hi:

[HillbillyBob]

5. IM so glad that amBushco was not from NC and especially

Yanceyville ....

[Sequoia]

25. ...or Mayberry.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. What he did to Crawford is a microcosm of what * did to the country and to the world.

[Mari333]

11. you can see it for free on www.hulu.com

its worth it.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Wait--he bought a house for more than the appraisal?!

That, in a nutshell, is exactly why we're in the economic cesspool we're in. That f'in' idiot can't even figure out how to buy a house right.

[crispini]

14. Dirty little secret (not-so-secret) in Dallas is that the appraisal district

regularly undervalues the houses of the rich and famous below market. And they wonder why we're in the hole we are.

[knitter4democracy]

18. You're kidding! Well, then why not just pay what the appraisal is?

Isn't there that old canard that a rich man stays rich because he doesn't spend money? If I were buying a house there, I'd refuse to pay more than the appraisal and walk away if they refuse to budge.

[WI_DEM]

13. fake ranch to go with his fake accent. As Kerry said he's all hat and no cattle.

[nichomachus]

17. Didn't even wear a hat all that much

and he's petrified of horses.

[spanone]

15. they were part of a 'horror movie' set....bu$h* was to crawford as judy garland was to oz

[SoCalDem]

20. He only "bought" it to taunt the press.

They were forced to stay a mile or so away at a separate place, and sweat to death in front of that "Hee-Haw" hay-bale in the background, while he was comfy in the "main house".. That's why he went in August..and spent so much time there

and the "town" was small enough, that there was nothing for them to do there, and they probably got tired of interviewing ther locals with a week or two.

and when foreign leaders were "treated" to visits there, they too were more or les off-limits to the press..

It was perfect for a secretive snake such as Bush, the lesser.

[gratuitous]

23. You would think . . .

That as crappy as Bush treated the presstitutes, they wouldn't have been quite so fawning in their coverage of him. When Bush would sputter about how "I unnerstan'" or "The Amurrikin people unnerstan'" some complex problem or other, just once I would have liked to have seen a reporter ask, "And just what do you understand about" the complex problem?

Just once. Stop him dead in his tracks.

[TahitiNut]

21. A Potemkin Village is a tried-and-true propaganda tactic.

It was so obvious that even a naked emperor would laugh.

[Peace Patriot]

22. Here's a Crawford success story: the Lone Star Iconoclast--

that feisty little small town paper in Crawford that opposed Bushwhackism from the very beginning. I remember feeling so heartened by this newspaper's brave stance, in the depths of Bush Junta's power, circa 2003-2004--at a time when I really wondered if America, my beloved country, was dead and gone forever. Here were these great, small-town newspaper people fighting back, in what seemed like a hopeless struggle at the time. They fought back--and the world responded! Many people bought subscriptions to help them out, including me. I feel proud of having been a small part of the successful effort to save this newspaper.

You can still get a subscription, and you can now also read it on-line: http://lonestaricon.com/


Some of its history, from Wiki:

The Lone Star Iconoclast was founded in 2000 in Clifton, Texas to cover the area of Crawford,Texas, as a community newspaper emphasizing politics and activism in its coverage. Crawford is the adopted hometown of President George W. Bush.

The newspaper is published by Smith Media, Inc. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief is W. Leon Smith, and its senior editors Don. M. Fisher, Nathan Diebenow and Deborah Mathews. The publication is also host to columnists Jerry Tenuto, Paul Derrick, Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, Lloyd Garver, Bartee Haile and Ned Hickson. Additionally, The Lone Star Iconoclast features Investigative Reporter Stephen Webster, who has penned a number of the publication's more widely read features since 2005.

The Lone Star Iconoclast is perhaps best known for its 2004 editorial endorsing John Kerry for President. In 2000, prior to the creation of The Iconoclast, another of Smith’s newspapers, The Clifton Record, had endorsed Bush as perhaps becoming “a uniter, not a divider” in Washington.

The result of the 2004 editorial was a boycott of the newspaper in Crawford and other areas of Central Texas, including cancellation of most of its subscriptions and virtually all of its advertisements. Retribution in the form of threats and promises of financial ruin followed, with thousands of phone calls, letters, e-mails, and personal visits to the newspaper.

But as people from throughout the country became aware of what happened and the editorial began to be republished in newspapers throughout the world and on Internet sites, new subscriptions came in, as did several support advertisements, which have helped the newspaper survive.

The editorial “John Kerry Will Restore American Dignity” was eventually read by millions worldwide, becoming one of the most-read single editorials ever, and catapulted The Iconoclast to worldwide attention and resulted in scores of international media interviews of its publisher. The editorial uncovered the “hidden agenda” of the Bush Administration and took to task the federal debt, attempts to privatize Social Security, the Administration’s staunch opposition to stem cell research, the President’s failed handling of the aftermath of 9/11, and the lies that led to the war in Iraq.

Shortly after publication of the editorial, due largely to a favorable response from coast to coast, the newspaper was transformed into an independent national publication, with emphasis on politics and stories that other members of the mainstream media often tend to ignore, such as the dangers of depleted uranium radiation, certain attacks upon First Amendment rights and the costs of America's War on Drugs.

(MORE)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Star_Iconoclast

[snooper2]

24. I protested in Crawford Texas before the war started...

one stoplight town...