Daily Dialogue — August 6, 2016

INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT

Joe and Valerie are having supper. The TV is on in the background. Joe is energized. Valerie is quiet.

TV (MATT FREI): The nightmare scenario of an attack on a major city is as real, if not more real, than it was a year ago…
JOE WILSON: Tucker Carlson said yesterday that Wilson’s wife sent him on a boondoggle. Said I needed the work. Who needs to work for free? Niger does have restaurants. The Opera. Reminds me alot of Paris.
RUMSFELD ON TV: We know if we do not fight the terrorists over there in Iraq, in Afghanistan and across the world, we will have to face them here.
JOE WILSON: Someone from Vanity Fair called. They want to do a piece on us. Cover-story. Five thousand words. In-depth interview. Photographs of the two of us. What do you think?
VALERIE: What do I think? Do I want my photograph in Vanity Fair? Is that the question?
JOE WILSON: It will give us a chance to tell our side of the story. It will mean a dozen, maybe fifty TV appearances. We have to do that. They’re killing us, on Fox, in the blogs. They’re drowning us out. We’ve gotta strike back.
VALERIE: I’m going to bed.
JOE WILSON: Val…what’s wrong? What did I say?
VALERIE: My name is everywhere, Joe. My real name. Everywhere. All this publicity and noise and fighting talk, where is it getting us?
JOE: Karl Rove told the Financial Times they’re rolling the earth movers over Joe Wilson. Quote. Earth Movers. Well, I’m sorry but they don’t get me without a fight. Not without a big fucking fight they don’t.
VALERIE: It’s the White House, Joe. You seriously think you can pick a fight with the White House and win. They’ll bury us.
JOE WILSON: They’ll bury us if we don’t. How loud can you shout Val? Say we get in an argument you think you’re right, and I think your wrong. You start making your point with all your might, and I start shouting back, except I’m the White House, and I can a shout a million times louder. Does that make me right? They lied, Val. That’s the truth.
VALERIE: By the time they’re finished here you won’t know what that is.

— Fair Game (2010), screenplay by Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth, book by Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Activism. Today’s suggestion by Lois Bernard.

Trivia: There is a coded message hidden in the end credits that has not yet been decoded.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Sometimes an activist is more of a re-activist as in the case of Joe Wilson, responding to the disinformation communicated by those in and around then President Bush.