Official Movie Trailer for "Midnight in Paris" Without question, my favorite movie of last year was "Midnight in Paris," which spoke deeply to my writer-obsessed, Francophile little heart. But as a liberal surrounded by the right-wing noise
June 3, 2012

Official Movie Trailer for "Midnight in Paris"

Without question, my favorite movie of last year was "Midnight in Paris," which spoke deeply to my writer-obsessed, Francophile little heart. But as a liberal surrounded by the right-wing noise machine of 'taking back their country' to the 'good ole days' when 'life made sense,' the lesson of the dangers of nostalgia resonated as well. In the movie, Owen Wilson discovers that he has mysteriously traveled back in time to the '20s, a time he's romanticized with Ernest Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds. He meets Picasso's current lover, Adriana, and becomes instantly smitten. Adriana longs for the good old days of the Gilded Age of Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas. Degas, however, agrees that the best time was the Renaissance.

And so it goes. No matter when one live, the past looks infinitely more satisfying. Don't believe me? Look at this quote, which is largely credited to Socrates via Plato (although in fairness, the authorship is disputed):

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

I find myself often wondering what 'good old day' the Republicans want to go back to. It's obviously not the '70s of free love. Is it the '50s of bobby sox and poodle skirts? Do they also remember Jim Crow and botched back alley abortions? That's as much a part of the '50s as Pat Boone. Do they want to go back to the '40s of the Greatest Generation? Are they also willing to accept the 86.45% top tax rate? Yes, we can look at the past with rose-colored glasses, but we're in the here and now. We need to make today better, not wax nostalgic (and incompletely) for a long dead past.

ABC's "This Week" Round table discussion on the economy, Mitt Romney's governorship, John Edwards, Michael Bloomberg and wedge issues in the election: Stephanie Cutter, President Barack Obama's re-election deputy campaign manager; Eric Fehrnstrom, adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, ABC News' George Will, Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, and Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Economy, Election 2012: Govs. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., and John Kasich, R-Ohio; Round table: Romney Senior Adviser Kevin Madden, Former McCain ’08 Senior Strategist Steve Schmidt, President of the Center for American Progress Neera Tanden, and Atlanta’s Mayor Kasim Reed (D).

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: John Heileman, New York magazine; Andrea Mitchell, NBC; Andrew Sullivan, Daily Beast; Katty Kay, BBC. Topics: Will Romney's strength on the economy trump Obama's likability? Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne. Meter questions: Will voters blame Obama PERSONALLY for his campaign's negative attacks on Romney? YES: 11 NO: 1; Will TV ads more effectively portray 2012 as a referendum of Obama rather than a choice? YES: 9 No: 3.

MSNBC's "Up with Chris Hayes" - Panel: Michelle Bernard, Michael Steele, Fmr. RNC Chairman, Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers (AFT); Bob Herbert, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the progressive think tank Demos. Guests: John Nichols, The Nation magazine; Ari Berman, The Nation magazine; Judith Browne-Dianis, Co-Director, The Advancement Project; Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, authors of “The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track”. Topics include: The Wisconsin recall election; Florida’s voter registration law; Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein on their new book “The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track” and why they’ve been shut out of the Sunday news talk shows

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" - Panel: Former Gov. Douglas Wilder (D-Virginia), former mayor of Richmond ; Ari Melber, The Nation; Karen Finney, Fmr. DNC Communications Director; Robert Traynham, Former Santorum Communications Director; Jay Smooth, Longtime Hip-Hop DJ, WBAI and Video Blogger, illdoctrine.com; Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy. Topics include: The case for President Obama’s re-election; Wisconsin’s recall election; The epidemic of violence in our cities.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - David Axelrod, adviser to the Obama campaign; Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman. Panel: Former Governor Ed Rendell, D-Penn., Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, The Washington Post's Michael Gerson (the former Bush speech writer) and The Week's Bob Shrum. David Sanger author of, Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power and Daniel Klaidman, author of, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of The Obama Presidency.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Polarization in politics, Syria: Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Mark Warner, D-Va.; Economy, implication of Tuesday's recall election in Wisconsin: Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va.; Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Roundtable: Washington Post's Dan Balz, the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore and Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Syria: Fawaz Gerges. How the US dropped the ball in competitiveness: Harvard’s Michael Porter, the most-cited man in business. Mitt Romney's plans for the U.S. economy: Romney's senior economic adviser and the dean of Columbia Business School, Glenn Hubbard.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" - pre-empted for coverage of Queen's Jubilee

"Fox News Sunday" - Economy: Ed Gillespie, Romney campaign adviser; Steven Rattner, who led Obama's auto task force. Round table: Implications of Wisconsin's recall election: Juan Williams, Chip Saltsman, A.B. Stoddard, David Brody.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

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