August 30, 2012

The Only Clint Eastwood Video You Have to Watch Before His #GOP2012 Speech

A film declared "fascist" by angry liberal critics. (Eastwood said he didn't mind, so long as they paid to see it.) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_Callahan.JPG">Wikimedia</a>

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Tonight’s “mystery speaker” at the GOP convention in Tampa is not hologram Gipper, but the non-hologram Dirty Harry, sources confirmed to numerous media outlets.

After a few days of rabid Twitter-based speculation, the Romney campaign revealed that legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood is slated to speak at the Republican National Convention some time after a musical performace by American Idol Taylor Hicks, but before a speech by Marco Rubio. Eastwood threw his weight behind Romney earlier this month, when endorsing the former Massachusetts governor at an Idaho fundraiser.

Instead of analyzing Eastwood’s ideological leanings (which he has described as a blend of Milton Friedman and Noam Chomsky), take a gander at the only footage you really need to see before his convention address. Here he is, with the president of the United States: 

Full disclosure: I’m an unabashed fan of the 82-year-old filmmaker, whatever his politics. But as the self-professed libertarian and “Eisenhower Republican” is going all-in for Romney/Ryan 2012, it is worth reading this:

Eastwood: These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?!…They go on and on with all this bullshit about “sanctity”—don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.

…right next to this:

Romney: On my watch, we fought hard and prevented Massachusetts from becoming the Las Vegas of gay marriage…When I am president, I will preserve the Defense of Marriage Act and I will fight for a federal amendment defining marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman!

I am not suggesting a supporter must agree with everything his or her candidate believes or says; just throwing it out there.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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