NEW MOVIE: THE ARKANSAS PRISON BLOOD SCANDAL (how can Hollywood support a clinton, Mr. Gere?)

thanx for heads up :)

You're welcome Mia T.

Been following this issue for years.

So, how is the release of this film being handled? Is there any advertising budget? How can I get a copy?

Hope this helps.

The 'sanitized' version of the blood scandal...where the VRWC is to blame.

The 'sanitized' version of the blood scandal...where the VRWC is to blame.

Actually, the website has the following:

Charges of cronyism and cover-up reach all the way to the administration of then-Gov. Bill Clinton. And, years before he would assume higher office, the question of "what did he know and when did he know it" comes into play.

I'd like to see it before I declare the film to be well-balanced, though, given all the crap that usually comes out of Hollywood.

Added "BLOODTRAIL" to the keyword database.

Those who are unfamiliar ( or whose memory has been dimmed by the passage of time ) with this grim tale of corruption, crime, and cronyism really need to read every article, and follow every link, in the database. You will have trouble believing what you are reading.

Note well the recurrence of names I regard as "FReepers of Legend," Budge, T'wit, Clive, askel5, adanC, Wallaby, to name a few, who did their best to track and publicize this little horror.

"I'd like to see it before I declare the film to be well-balanced, though, given all the crap that usually comes out of Hollywood."

A good policy, but is this film out of Hollyweird?

I applaud these efforts, but another one I'd like to see is to get recognition for vets who got Hep C in connection with their military service.

(Full disclosure: eye R wun.)

ALSO SEE:

THE FAILED, DYSFUNCTIONAL CLINTON PRESIDENCY
(DECONSTRUCTING CLINTON'S HOFSTRA SPEECH)
part1: The "Brinkley" Lie
AFTERWORD: ON CLINTON SMALLNESS--BRINKLEY MISSES THE POINT

The Real Danger of a Fake President:

Post-9/11 Reconsideration of The Placebo President

by Mia T, 1.06.02

Richard Gere stunned fellow liberals Monday by suggesting that President Bush is doing a better job of fighting AIDS than President Bill Clinton did.
Introduced by Sharon Stone at a fund-raiser at Cipriani 42nd Street for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the "Chicago" star hailed Bush for his State of the Union proposal to contribute $15 billion toward the AIDS battle in Africa and the Caribbean. Gere then addressed the track record of Bush's predecessor in the White House.
"I'm sorry, Sen. [Hillary] Clinton, but your husband did nothing about AIDS for eight years," Gere said.

GERE TAKES ON BILL, NY Daily News | 2/5/03

n May, 1996, American diplomats were informed in a Sudanese government fax that Bin Laden was about to be expelled -- giving Washington another chance to seize him. The decision not to do so went to the very top of the White House, according to former administration sources.

They say that the clear focus of American policy was to discourage the state sponsorship of terrorism. So persuading Khartoum to expel Bin Laden was in itself counted as a clear victory. The administration was "delighted".
Bin Laden took off from Khartoum on May 18 in a chartered C-130 plane with 150 of his followers, including his wives. He was bound for Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. On the way the plane refuelled in the Gulf state of Qatar, which has friendly relations with Washington, but he was allowed to proceed unhindered.
Barely a month later, on June 25, a 5,000lb truck bomb ripped apart the front of Khobar Towers, a US military housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The explosion killed 19 American servicemen. Bin Laden was immediately suspected...

US missed three chances to seize Bin Laden

Just look around this chamber. We have members from virtually every racial, ethnic, and religious background. And America is stronger for it. But as we have seen, these differences all too often spark hatred and division, even here at home. . . This is not the American way. We must draw the line. Without delay, we must pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And we should reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

bill clinton, State of Union Speech, January 27, 2000

"I'm sorry, but the president is one of the crudest men I have ever encountered in government service," says one female agent. "He has no respect for women."
Among the comments clinton made in presence of Secret Service agents:

. Frequent speculation on the oral sex skills of women the president saw or met in receiving lines;
. References to the size of a woman's breasts, legs or figure;
. Sexual jokes.

After the Monica Lewinsky story broke, however, clinton toned down his rhetoric and behavior in front of his Secret Service agents, but those who guarded the president say enough of them saw and heard things which could be damaging to clinton.

"It depends on who Ken Starr calls," says one ex-agent. "The people who are on the job today are not necessarily the ones who know the most."
Turnover In clinton's Secret Service Detail 'Highest That Anyone Can Remember'

In the months that follow, reporters drop the issue. Feminists say little or nothing. Rape crisis center workers acknowledge that Broaddrick's case, including her reluctance to come forward, is typical of victims of sexual assault. But they decline to speak against clinton. Some cite the federal funding they receive as a result of the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law by clinton.
Why does the press continue to ignore the Juanita Broaddrick story?

The Placebo President:

How a Rapist can be a Policy Feminist

placebo effect n.

A beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patient's expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.

Sylvia Plath

he placebo effect immediately came to mind as I listened to Shelby Steele, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, debunk the following pernicious spin intended to save clinton.

To wit: A proven felon and utter reprobate can remain president; clinton can be a failed human being but a good president. (Interesting, prescient audio on this.)

The error in these statements arises, says Steele, from the belief that virtuousness is separate from personal responsibility so that one's virtuousness as an individual is determined by one's political positions on issues rather than on whether or not in one's personal life there is a consistency and a responsibility.

Steele's contention is that this compartmentalization, rather than being the amazing advantage the clintons would have us believe, in fact, spills toxicity into, corrupts, the culture.

If mere identification with good policies is what makes one virtuous then those policies become, what Steele calls, iconographic, that is to say they just represent virtuousness. They don't necessarily do virtuous things.

If clinton's semantic parsing strips meaning from our words, clinton's iconographic policies strip meaning from our society, systematically deconstructing our society as a democracy. . .

I would take Shelby Steele's thesis one step further. I maintain that iconographic policy functions like a placebo, producing a real, physiological and social effects.

The placebo effect is, after all, the brain's triumph over reality. Expectation alone can produce powerful physiological results. The placebo effect was, at one time, an evolutionary advantage: act now, think later

bill clinton is the paradigmatic Placebo President. Placebo is Latin for "I shall please." And please he does doling out sham treatments, iconographs, with abandon. To please, to placate, to numb, to deflect. Ultimately to showcase his imagined virtue. Or to confute his genuine vice.

clinton will dispense sugar pills (or bombs) at the drop of a high-heeled shoe... or at the hint of high treason...

clinton's charlatanry mimics that of primitive medicine. Through the 1940s, doctors had little effective medicine to offer so they deliberately attempted to induce the placebo response.

The efficaciousness of today's medicines does not diminish the power of the placebo. A recent review of placebo-controlled studies found that placebos and genuine treatments are often equally effective. If you expect to get better, you will.

Which brings me back to the original question: Can clinton be a failed human being but a good president?

Clearly he cannot. These two propositions are mutually exclusive. clinton's fundamental failure is a complete lack of integrity. He has violated his covenant with the American people.

Because clinton has destroyed his moral authority as a leader, he can no longer function even as a quack; the placebo effect is gone.

And so the Placebo President must now go, too.

deconstructing clinton… "just because I could" (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU! FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME!

September 11 changed a lot of things for me, Bill [O'Reilly]. I will say this, before September 11, I was definitely mildly myopic in terms of my political agenda. If you were Democrat you were probably right, and if you were a Republican you were probably wrong. Everything changed for me that day...
My entire worldview changed. If you would have told me September 9 that I would have been at the world series game filming George Bush throwing out the first pitch with my 6-year-old son crying, I never would have believed you, but I was. Because my whole worldview changed.
ROSIE O'DONNELL

COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005

Film-making was Kelly's great ambition. I hope he's done well with this. If not, I'm afraid that a poor effort might turn the tainted blood story into a joke. Oremus.

I found another Freeper friend -- probably long lapsed -- on the film's web site, but think it best not to give any hints.

My kind regards to you, T'wit.

FROM THE FACTOR8 WEBSITE:

For more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. Thousands of unwitting victims who received transfusions of a product called Factor 8 made from this blood died as a result.

Follow along as filmmaker Kelly Duda uncovers the tragedy that many consider a crime. Through exclusive interviews and key documents as well as never-before-seen footage, he builds a formidable case that cries out to be heard. See in-depth interviews with a wide variety of players including: victims in Canada who contracted the diseases, state prison officials, former employees, high-ranking Arkansas politicians, and inmate donors, all of which paint a horrifying portrait of what happened.

Why did the state of Arkansas and its prison system risk selling inmates’ blood for so long and how was it able to continue?

Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal is an unsettling look at the complex issues surrounding prison corruption, blood safety and government oversight. This feature length documentary takes the viewer into the underbelly of the good ole boy South, and, like a Grisham novel, delivers disturbing subplots of continued danger, amazing coincidences and a possible conspiracy.

At the heart of the documentary is one reporter’s dogged search for the truth. He discovers that his home state knew it was dealing a dangerous product, yet put profits over public safety while federal regulators looked the other way. Charges of cronyism and cover-up reach all the way to the administration of then-Gov. Bill Clinton. And, years before he would assume higher office, the question of “what did he know and when did he know it” comes into play.

Add death threats, burglary, and a murder to the story and a suspected campaign of fear and intimidation surfaces lending explanation to how this story was kept quiet for so long.

Even now, families are still grieving. People are still dying. Around the world major classaction lawsuits have been filed and criminal investigations are underway. While the rest of the globe looks to America for answers, the story remains largely untold and no one has ever been held accountable.

Factor 8 is one citizen’s attempt to set that right.

“In the early days of AIDS, we at the CDC were surprised that the hemophiliac community was infected so rapidly. This shocking documentary tells why.”

Dr. Donald Francis/ former head of AIDS Laboratory
at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

Profile

In late 1998, when Mark Kennedy of the Ottawa Citizen used Kelly Duda’s investigative work to break the Canada-Arkansas angle of the tainted blood story internationally, Duda had no idea how much hard work still lay ahead. It would take more than seven years for the whole story to be told. During this time, Kelly was followed, sued, burglarized, his tires slashed and his rear window smashed.

Early coverage in the Canadian press, The Economist, Salon, Investor’s Business Daily and other media outlets all can be traced back to the muckraking efforts of this one man.

Kelly has worked with CNN, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) and APTV (Associated Press Television) in their coverage of the use of tainted prison plasma in blood products. He was also part of the team for Fuji-TV that produced The Hepatitis C Epidemic: A 15-Year Government Cover-up. This program won a George Foster Peabody Award in 2003 and was watched by more than 12 million viewers in Japan.

Recently, Kelly was a consultant in two major class-action lawsuits in Europe and Japan where plasma from Arkansas’ prison system appeared. He is actively assisting efforts in Canada to compensate all hepatitis C victims of tainted blood, and assisting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in its investigation of the Arkansas prison plasma sales. He has also been in talks with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI about a possible investigation in the United States.

Kelly was involved in selecting questions put forth in a Senate inquiry on tainted blood in Australia. Evidence he uncovered linking Arkansas prison plasma to its use in the U.K. was presented to the Queen’s Council in Britain’s High Court and to the Ministry of Health. This information is also in the hands of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Previously, Kelly was as a legal researcher for several major law fi rms in the San Francisco Bay area and worked on various independent fi lm projects. Most recently, he was the “go-to” contact in Arkansas for controversial filmmaker Robert Greenwald’s (Uncovered: The War on Iraq) new documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

Kelly Duda is an Arkansas native. He received his bachelor’s degree in Film Studies & Broadcasting and Political Science from California State University, San José, and attended the university’s MBA program, with an emphasis in marketing. Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal is Kelly Duda’s first feature-length documentary film. It has taken more than five years to make.

“At last, Kelly Duda’s stunning film, FACTOR 8, gives the story of the tainted blood
tragedy its due. Through interviews with inmates, prison health offi cials, and Canadians
who contracted diseases from Arkansas blood, Duda explores the greed and politics that
underscored this tragedy.”

Mara Leveritt / Author of DEVIL’S KNOT: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
Contributing Editor to the ARKANSAS TIMES

“If young documentarians would choose subjects as important as that of Kelly Duda’s
FACTOR 8, we might be well on the way to making the world a better place.”

Penelope Spheeris / Director of THE CROOKED E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron;
The Decline of Western Civilization

“Kelly Duda’s film screams to be known about. The blatant abuse of power, the criminal
subjugation of prison inmates, and the complete absence of government oversight and
accountability make for a compelling, must-see story.”

William Gazecki / Producer/Director of WACO: The Rules of Engagement
(Academy Award nominee)

Director's Statement

Prior to the making of Factor 8, I never considered myself an investigative journalist. In fact, I had never written a newspaper article before in my life. I was an aspiring filmmaker who had a story thrown into his lap. Actually, it wasn’t even a story at the time but a series of events that allegedly took place in my home state in the 1980s. It was a tale I didn’t want to tell, but the more I looked into it, the more I found.

It didn’t take long before I realized that regardless of the cost and sacrifice, the story you’re about to see, which is a complicated one, had to be told. There where quite literally lives at stake. I felt a moral responsibility, a civic duty to do something.

Factor 8 is one person’s search for answers. I warn you, much of what you’ll see will shock you. Factor 8 upsets the apple-cart, and may challenge your world view, and your views about leadership, government, and human nature. I know it did for me.

Lastly, if you are at all impressed by this documentary, know that there are tens of thousands of stories out there right now waiting to be told which the major media have elected not to cover.

When all “500 channels” are own by six business conglomerates, when newspapers don’t own themselves, when cinema verite, and style-over-substance “reality” programming rule the day, when sound bites are the extent of our news coverage, and when “spin” has become an accepted way for disseminating the truth, I ask you, where can the true spirit and expression of the independent voice be heard?

Factor 8 is a story told in the “free press” tradition. And it is a testament to the fact that with a digital video camera, a cell phone, and a laptop, real stories by real people can still be told.

Production Notes

It may sound sensational, but I assure you it’s true. In the process of making Factor 8, I received strange phone calls, I was followed, my house was broken into, my tires slashed, and sensitive information -- including my personal notes -- mysteriously appeared on the Internet. I also had a gun pointed at the back of my head, there was a murder, and a key inmate informant was whisked out of state and put into isolation.

When I went looking for the governor’s papers of Bill Clinton, to find state documents relevant to my investigation, I was told that 4,000 boxes had been hidden away in private storage and could not be found.

When I went to the Arkansas State Health Department to request records regarding disease rates at the prison and anything about the plasma program, I was stonewalled. I actually had to sue the state agency just to get access to its files that by law are suppose to be a matter of public record.

When I went to the Arkansas State Police Headquarters key documents had disappeared.

When complete strangers showed up out of the blue asking me what I was doing and with whom did I work for, I had to ask myself, “what’s going on here?”

One thing is for certain, if I had a dollar for every time someone (in the past 7 years I’ve been investigating this story) told me to “be careful!” I could have paid my rent several times over.

Then in January 2004, I was sued, and shortly before Factor 8 was to screen in Park City, Utah, a federal Judge blocked my premiere. The case was eventually dismissed, but not without costing me two more years of my life and a lot of heartache. ... Not exactly what I expected to happen to me in my home state.

Now victims around the world are asking me for information. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have talked to me about its investigation into the Arkansas shipments, and so has the U.S. Department of Justice about the possibility of its own investigation. I am working with activists in the U.K. pushing for a criminal investigation there, and with Congressmen in Japan and with the major media in Australia regarding their questions about shipments of tainted Arkansas prison plasma. Yet, despite global interest, few Americans know of this travesty.

“Kelly Duda’s emotive film Factor 8 shocks as it highlights the immorality of the ‘blood for money’ U.S. prison plasma trade, and haemophiliacs in the U.K. are forced to confront the reality of the poison they dared to call ‘treatment.’ Factor 8 draws the viewer into a seedy world of prisoner exploitation and gross safety violations, a world where as one former inmate put it, ‘nobody cared.’”

Carol Grayson / Spokesperson / Haemophilia Action United Kingdom

This didn't come out of Hollywood. Mostly it was footage shot by Kelly Duda, usually in Arkansas, in connection with his and Blood Trail author Michael Galster's investigation of the tainted blood story.

There may yet BE a real Hollywood make of the story. I do not have any definite news for you about that, alas.

And back atcher!

Before they had their falling out, Mike used to call Kelly one gutsy investigator, and he'd still say so. Kelly was certainly that! I went with the two of them on a mission to pick up a key document. A former legislator had found it in his garage; apparently all other copies had been rounded up and destroyed.

It was scary poking around the backwoods of Clintonista Arkansas in those days. Mike is a gun buff and he was packing, big time :-) Kelly -- unarmed -- made the pick-up.

This didn't come out of Hollywood. Mostly it was footage shot by Kelly Duda, usually in Arkansas, in connection with his and Blood Trail author Michael Galster's investigation of the tainted blood story.

Well, what's this Kelly Duda's background? Is he a native Arkansan just concerned about evils done by a former governor? Or is he some sort of leftist who will grudgingly admit that Clinton was involved but try to shove most of the blame onto the Reagan administration?

... which Linda Bloodworth-Thomason would aptly write and produce....

Uh oh. Looks like I found my own answer:

Most recently, [Duda] was the "go-to" contact in Arkansas for controversial filmmaker Robert Greenwald’s (Uncovered: The War on Iraq) new documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

This being said, he may present something interesting in Factor 8. I'll go see it, but I'll keep a sharp eye on the film to see if it attempts to deflect fault away from Clinton.

see post 13

clinton Legacy Bump!