Tonights's Awful Bedtime Movie: Mad Monster (1942)


If any movie obeys Bad Monster Movie Law to the letter, it's "Mad Monster."

Dr. Lorenzo Cameron's colleagues consider him crazy, so he decides to prove them wrong -- by turning his gardener into a werewolf that kills them. Monster Movie Law is obeyed as 1) an unwilling assistant in turned into the monster, and 2) through the use of a "serum."

In compliance with Bad Monster Movie Law, the villain develops the monster to 3) exact revenge against colleagues who consider him crazy.

Well, technically they didn't call him crazy.

At some point in the film Cameron has an imaginary conversation with his colleagues where he tells them he developed a serum that turns America's soldiers into wolfmen so they can fight the Communist menace. The imaginary versions of his colleagues laugh at him, so logically he decides to instead use the serum to kill his real-life colleagues.

Finally, in compliance with Bad Monster Movie Law, the case is cracked by 4) a reporter the female lead has fallen in love with, and 5) the mad scientist and monster die in a laboratory fire.

From what I've seen on film, in the 1940s and 50s laboratory fires killed more people than heart disease and cancer combined.

What I Learned Today: When applying for a job as a low-level employee of a scientist who lives in a rural mansion always ask A) for a no-injection-of-serums clause, and B) where the fire extinguisher is.

Rapist/killer on the ANC? We owe Marion Barry an apology.

Think D.C. residents are silly for having a mayor who smoked crack?

Try having a Advisory Neighborhood Commission Chairman who could only attend meetings after getting a pass from the mental institution where he has been locked up since 1967 after he savagely raped and killed a Senate aide.

So I'm reading a story in this morning's Washington Post about a woman doing a documentary on the people confined to the city's mental hospital for the criminally insane. I was stunned by this sentence.

"[Lewis] Ecker, for instance, [institutionalized since 1967 after he raped and killed a Senate aide] was an elected neighborhood advisory commissioner in the 1990s in Ward 8, where St. Elizabeths is."

Yes, D.C. residents elected to the ANC a man who was confined to a mental institution for three decades after he brutally raped, sodomized and strangled a 24-year-old girl, leaving numerous bite marks on her body.

But that's all the article said. So I looked into it further.

Not only was he elected to the ANC, the ANC elected him chairman even though the hospital isn't sure whether he'll rape and kill again. Despite that, hospital officials let him out to attend ANC meetings.

Ecker lost his community privileges after "hospital officials found more than 20 sexually sadistic stories in his ANC office on the hospital grounds. He eventually admitted that he wrote the stories, casting himself as the protagonist who dominated and humiliated women. One of the female characters has the same first name as the prosecutor who is opposing Ecker's bid for more freedom."

And it's not like he was a model prisoner. According to the earlier Post article there have been "at least four occasions since the late 1970s when Ecker has been caught with sexually sadistic materials, ranging from the short stories to a card catalogue of women -- including his murder victim -- with sexual comments about them.

"He also has been caught with hospital keys, pictures of himself dressed in a hospital guard's uniform, as well as snapshots of him and his girlfriend and some patients in sexually provocative poses. And he has disappeared at least twice, once on a hospital field trip to the zoo, and another time for several hours when he was in an apartment with his former wife.

"Each time, (prosecutor Colleen) Kennedy said, Ecker initially denied wrongdoing, then changed his story several times before finally admitting culpability -- examples of what she says is his manipulative personality."

Who's stupider? Hospital officials for letting him out to run for office and attend ANC meetings? ANC members for naming him chairman? Or Ward 8 residents for electing him?

The Unnatural Nature of Conservationists

From this morning's Virginia Beach Virginian-Pilot:

A juvenile harbor seal was stranded Dec. 28, 2010, south of Little Island Fishing Pier in Sandbridge...The small seal was found with shark bites on the left side of its body. The next day, Puddy was taken to the aquarium's Marine Animal Care Center, where staff administered fluids, antibiotics, topical treatment for his wounds and nutritional support.


He was released back into the water yesterday amid much cheering, media coverage for the humans and photo opportunities.

I don't get supposed animal/nature advocates. Without treatment, the wounded seal likely would have been eaten by sharks. By interjecting themselves into nature, throwing the seal into an artificial human environment and treating it, they deprived sharks of needed food.

Between harbor seals and sharks, guess which one is in more need of saving. Many sharks species are near extinction because folks like these "rescuers" make them out to be threats.

One example is the dusky shark, which lives in the waters off Virginia Beach. Because of their slow reproduction rate they are nearing endangered status. Taking away potential food sources does more the limit biodiversity than help it.

These people don't care about nature. They just care about the few species that are cute enough to make them feel good about themselves, at the expense of nature itself.

Hail...Suspenseful Loss

Maybe Snyder and Shanahan are on to something.

According to analysis by The Wall Street Journal the NFL's second most exciting team this season was the Redskins.

Statistics company Thuuz created a metric measuring factors such as pace, parity and strange or rare plays like flea-flickers and fake punts, and processed it through an algorithm.

"The season-long prizefight between head coach Mike Shanahan and defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth—coupled with Mr. Shanahan's conflict with quarterback Donovan McNabb—certainly made the team exciting off the field. Turns out they provided plenty of fireworks on it, too. The 6-10 'Skins played in 12 games decided by six points or less and went to overtime four times, including a 30-27 loss to the Texans," the Journal reports.

All excitement aside, I'd rather suffer through a boring Redskins Super Bowl run.

Why I have a begrudging love for that teasip liberal LBJ

This story, from then-White House Special Assistant Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

"In the early afternoon, the President, with me next to him in the front seat, took his white Lincoln convertible, top down, for a drive around the ranch. It was incredibly hot; the dust clouds made it hard to breathe. But there was relief.

"As we drove around we were followed by a car and a station wagon with Secret Service agents. The President drank Cutty Sark scotch and soda out of a large white plastic foam cup. Periodically, Johnson would slow down and hold his left arm outside the car, shaking the cup and ice.

"A Secret Service agent would run up to the car, take the cup and go back to the station wagon. There another agent would refill it with ice, scotch, and soda as the first agent trotted behind the wagon. Then the first agent would run the refilled cup up to LBJ’s outstretched and waiting hand, as the President’s car moved slowly along."

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: The Day The Earth Froze (1958)


Based on the title, and the movie poster, you'd think it was a sci-fi movie about aliens or a mad scientist, maybe even with Russell Johnson.

Aim lower.

It's a joint Russo-Finnish movie based on a Finnish myth about a witch and magical harps.

Prepare for sweater-wearing, fish-breathed disappointment.

See if you can follow this.

Lemminkainen isn't a topical ointment, but a legendary Finnish mythological hero. He loves the fair Annikki, who is kidnapped by the evil witch Louhi, not to be confused with the bitter "Family Feud" host.

Louhi wants Annikki's father to build her a "Sampo," which is some fictional Finnish contraption that creates salt, grain and gold. When Lemminkainen tries to stop her, Louhi steals the sun/an extra light from the set, plunging the Earth into frozen darkness.

That's when the villagers get off their collective Finnish duff and create magical harps that turn Louhi into a pillar of salt. Kind of makes you wonder how Lemminkainen got to be such a national hero when he accomplished jack squat and a bunch of illiterate peasants had to do his job for him.

Louhi looks like she's made of clay and a road talks to people. I didn't know peyote grew in Finland. The original title was "Sampo," but was dubbed into English and released in the United States by American International Pictures in 1964, probably as some Soviet plot to destroy our morale.

This movie stinks. And it stinks of cabbage and pickled herring.

What I Learned Today: "The Day The Earth Froze" isn't a cinematic retelling of a popular Finnish myth so much as it's documented evidence of Soviet atrocities.

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: High School Big Shot (1959)


Marv is a total loser who looks like he was put together by a committee, and lives with an alcoholic dad. He also loves the very pretty Betty.

Betty pretends to love Marv, but she really loves bad guy Vince and his just using Marv to get out of writing an English paper. Betty dupes Marv into writing the paper for her. When the teacher finds out, Marv loses his college scholarship.

Wow. Lesson learned about trust. And...what? The movie's not over yet?

Oh, yeah. It gets more depressing.

Marv overhears a drug transaction at the docks. He's supposed to be a really smart kid, but for some reason this dope, still in love with Betty, tells her about his plans to steal the drug money hoping it will win her back.

The cold, manipulative Betty, of course, tells Vince, who plans to rob Marv.

Marv is a moron.

And you'll need Xanax to get through the rest of this.

Marv successfully steals the drug money, at which point Vince successfully robs Marv. Vince shoots Marv's friend. Marv shoots Betty. Marv drops the money into the water. Everyone else flees. Marv gets arrested.

Marv is a moron.

This movie isn't just awful, between everyone dying or going to prison, and its central message of never-trust-a-woman, it's bone-crushingly depressing. This thing makes "Precious" look like "Rocky 4."

Oh, before the movie was released the actor who played Marv died in a car wreck and wasn't found for three weeks. He was considered to be a future star.

Still haven't given up?

The movie stunk even though it was a total rip-off of Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing," released just three years earlier.

What I Learned Today: Most armed robbers started out in plagarism.

State of the Union: American Tradition Partnership debunks Obama’s green claims

State of the Union: American Tradition Partnership debunks Obama’s green claims
“Americans want Congress to deliver a ‘shellacking’ to Obama’s job-killing green agenda”

WASHINGTON -- American Tradition Partnership Executive Director Donald Ferguson released the following statement and fact sheet Tuesday night debunking false claims made by President Barack Obama about his environmentalist policies in his annual “State of the Union” address.

“Americans sent Obama a message in November – stop spending and get government out of the way. He did not hear you. His address Tuesday night was a tone deaf performance orchestrated by Big Green.

“Families are struggling with joblessness and rising prices, but Barack Obama chose to side with the radical green activists who are driving up costs and driving out jobs. Obama coldly ignored families and instead warmly embraced the radical green activists responsible for fewer jobs and higher prices. In November they demanded Washington cut off the special interest cash spigot. Instead Obama demanded Congress shower his Big Green allies with billions in new spending. Obama’s green agenda is a red light stopping economic growth.

“Obama’s demand that 80 percent of the nation’s power come from expensive, inefficient experimental sources is a prescription for disaster. Time and time again, Expensive Energy Mandates have always proven to jack up utility bills and kill jobs.

“Americans want Congress to deliver a ‘shellacking’ to Obama’s job-killing green agenda. His proposal for billions in new spending is just a rehash of his failed ‘stimulus’ boondoggle that poured mountains of cash into failed ‘green’ experiment. Defending federal bureaucrats like the EPA and wasting billions on green experiments are precisely what Americans rejected in November.

“Obama openly admitted his ‘green energy’ spending plan will cause your utility bill to, in his own words ‘skyrocket.’ His ‘green jobs’ spending spree proposal has been proven time and time again to be a jobs-destroying black hole. His plan to supposedly cut red tape includes massive loopholes allowing bureaucrats to exempt virtually every expensive regulation and he continues to defend the EPA’s plans to chase jobs overseas. People wanted to hear what he would do to get government out of the way of economic recovery. They were instead pounded with repeated calls for the same government waste, meddling and explosive spending that got us into this mess.”

Obama’s quotes are taken from an advance copy of the speech released by the White House.

Founded in 2007 as Western Tradition Partnership and launched nationwide in 2011 as ATP, the group is supported by grassroots members from across the nation. ATP is a fast-growing non-profit organization dedicated to fighting environmental extremism and promoting private property and responsible development and management of land, water, and natural resources.

For more information on ATP, go to http://www.americantradition.org. For more information on this issue, or to schedule an interview, contact Executive Director Donald Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or at donald.f@americantradition.org.

STATE OF THE UNION: SEPARATING FACT FROM GREEN FICTION

OBAMA’S GREEN FICTION: “We’ll invest in…clean energy technology – an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people… I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources.”

ATP’S FACTS: So-called “renewable power” is inefficient, hideously expensive and destroys jobs.

RENEWABLE ENERGY KILLS 2.2 JOBS FOR EVERY JOB IT CREATES

(George Will, The Washington Post, ‘Tilting at green windmills,’ June 25, 2009)
“(Gabriel) Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report that, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it.
“Calzada says Spain's torrential spending -- no other nation has so aggressively supported production of electricity from renewable sources -- on wind farms and other forms of alternative energy has indeed created jobs. But Calzada's report concludes that they often are temporary and have received $752,000 to $800,000 each in subsidies -- wind industry jobs cost even more, $1.4 million each. And each new job entails the loss of 2.2 other jobs that are either lost or not created in other industries because of the political allocation -- sub-optimum in terms of economic efficiency -- of capital. (European media regularly report "eco-corruption" leaving a "footprint of sleaze" -- gaming the subsidy systems, profiteering from land sales for wind farms, etc.) Calzada says the creation of jobs in alternative energy has subtracted about 110,000 jobs elsewhere in Spain's economy.”
Source: George Will, The Washington Post, ‘Tilting at green windmills,’ June 25, 2009

WIND POWER’S PROMISE BLOWS AWAY

A deal for a $900 million “wind farm” in Iberdrola, California was struck down by an administrative law judge who ruled “the Manzana Wind Project is not cost-competitive and poses unacceptable risks to ratepayers” and “it will subject the ratepayers to unacceptable risks due to potential cost increases resulting from project under-performance, less than forecasted project life, and any delays which might occur concerning transmission upgrades and commercial online date.”

The Manzana debacle is just one of many that plague the expensive, inefficient “wind energy” lobby.

Source: American Tradition Institute, http://atinstitute.org/blog_post/show/68

SOLAR POWER PROVES TO BE A DIM DEAL

A solar power company went belly-up even after Massachusetts taxpayers showered it in $58 million in subsidies, and officials gave it a sweetheart $1 a year lease.

“Evergreen Solar Inc., once a poster-company for Gov. Deval Patrick's green-jobs agenda, announced plans on Tuesday to shutter its Devens manufacturing plant and move more than 800 jobs elsewhere after accepting $58 million in state subsidies to expand in Massachusetts…

“…The company accepted $58.6 million in grants, loans, land, and tax incentives over the last few years as incentive to expand in Massachusetts and add at least 350 new jobs to the economy.”

Massachusetts is just the latest state to discover “solar” power is expensive, inefficient and a jobs killer.

Source: American Tradition Institute, http://atinstitute.org/blog_post/show/62

EXPENSIVE ENERGY MANDATES FUEL UNEMPLOYMENT, HIGH COSTS

American Tradition Institute, a sister organization of American Tradition Partnership, recently completed an economic study of the costs of Montana’s Expensive Energy Mandate, forcing utilities to buy power from the politically-connected wind and solar lobby. ATI finds:

Between 2010 to 2015, the Expensive Energy Mandate will cost Montanans an additional $1.865 billion over conventional power, within a range of $1.102 billion and $2.886 billion.

By 2015 Montana will lose an average of 1,874 jobs, within a range of between 1,172 jobs under the low cost scenario and 2,893 jobs under the high cost scenario.

In 2015, the RPS mandate will reduce annual wages by an average of $520 per worker, within a range of between $325 per worker $803 per worker.

Due to higher home energy costs, in 2015, annual real disposable income will fall by $175 million, within a range of $109 million and $270 million.

Source: American Tradition Institute, http://atinstitute.org/blog_post/show/66

OBAMA’S GREEN FICTION: “To reduce barriers to growth and investment, I’ve ordered a review of government regulations. When we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we will fix them.”

ATP’S FACTS: Obama’s regulatory review includes loopholes allowing bureaucrats to exempt even the costliest regulations, and is nothing more than a do-nothing attempt to fool employers.

OBAMA’S REGULATORY REVIEW EXEMPTS THE WORST REGULATIONS:

(The Wall Street Journal, ‘Obama’s Rule-Making Loophole,” Jan. 24, 2010)

“Among many others, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement that it was ‘confident’ it wouldn't need to alter a single current or pending rule…

“Perhaps the EPA's confidence owes to a little-noticed proviso in Mr. Obama's order. When the agencies weigh costs and benefits, the order says, they should always consider ‘values that are difficult or impossible to quantify, including equity, human dignity, fairness, and distributive impacts.’

“Talk about economic elasticities. Equity and fairness can be defined to include more or less anything as a benefit. Under this calculus, a rule might pass Mr. Obama's cost-benefit test if it imposes $999 billion in hard costs but supposedly results in a $1 trillion increase in human dignity, whatever that means in bureaucratic practice. Another rule could pass muster even if it reduces work and investment, as long as it also lessens income inequality…

“… The current EPA is a perfect case study. One of Administrator Lisa Jackson's top priorities is ‘explicitly integrating environmental justice considerations into the fabric of the EPA's process,’ as a July 2010 memo to all senior regulators put it.

“‘Environmental justice’ is the left-wing grievance movement that claims pollution has a disproportionate effect on minorities and the poor. Ms. Jackson's memo introduced new regulatory guidance—that is, rules about how to make rules—so every EPA action has ‘a particular focus on disadvantaged or vulnerable groups.’

“Ms. Jackson wrote that a new goal for rulemaking, enforcement and permitting is to have ‘a measurable effect on environmental justice challenges.’ But these amorphous concepts are not measurable at all. According to this guidance, EPA must nonetheless consider them when estimating the ‘economic impacts of regulations,’ and even its scientific analysis should "encompass topics beyond just biology and chemistry." So put on your lab coat and complete a randomized controlled experiment in politics.”

Source: The Wall Street Journal, ‘Obama’s Rule-Making Loophole,” Jan. 24, 2010

# # #

'We, The Spiteful': Dems turns their hate on Middle America

You know how I like to point out liberalism is a philosophy founded on a dim view and blazing hatred of your fellow American, a belief system that preaches the liberal is morally and intellectually superior to the moronic cattle?

Well, hear it directly from a liberal.

"If the left wants to understand American voters, it needs to once and for all stop sentimentalizing them as inherently decent, well-meaning people being duped by a tiny cabal of evil oligarchs--because the awful truth is that they're mean, spiteful jerks being duped by a tiny cabal of evil oligarchs. The left's naive, sentimental, middle-class view of "the people" blinds them to all of the malice and spite that is a major premise of Middle American life."

That quote appears directly underneath a photograph mocking a mentally retarded child.

Malice? Spite? Mean, spiteful jerks? If there's anything liberals do better than condescension, it's projection.

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Taiwan's take on the Olbermann ouster



My favorite part is their depiction of the typical MSNBC viewer as a literal pot-smoking hippie.

The problem, summed up.

"The American people say: don't touch Social Security, don't touch Medicare, don't cut defense. That's 84 percent of the federal budget. If you can't touch 84 percent of the federal budget – and, by the way, they also don't want to touch revenue. You're down to 16 percent of the budget, at a time where we're borrowing forty cents of every dollar they spend." Retiring Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Phila. abortionist racks up more adult victims

Karnamaya Mongar survived 18 years in a Nepalese refugee camp, only to be butchered alive in an American abortion mill referred to her by a D.C. clinic (most likely Planned Parenthood.)

According to prosecutors, Dr. Kermit Gosnell even kept human body parts lying around the mill in garbage bags.

Along with the thousands of children killed by Dr. Gosnell, some of whom he delivered alive and killed by cutting their spinal cords with scissors, 19-year-old Semika Shirelle Shaw died of severe internal infections after his abortion equipment punctured her uterus and colon.

Before she died, Shaw reported she likely wasn't the only adult female victim, as other abortion "patients" were dumped, bleeding, on recliners in the office. "I kind of wondered what he was up to there. He told me he did abortions up to the eighth month."

Abortion advocates claim the repeated adult deaths over a period of years occured because Dr. Gosnell's clinic hadn't been inspected in 17 months.

But who blocks attempts to inspect abortion mills, as well as any attempts to pass legislation requiring abortion mills to meet minimal health and safety standards?

Abortion advocates.

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: Voodoo Man (1944)


What appears to be rural gas station is really a trap for lone young women driving the back woods. Kidnapped by the gas station manager, they end up in a dungeon beneath Bela Lugosi's mansion.

Lugosi uses voodoo and black magic to steal their life essence so he can bring his wife back from the dead. He's assisted by John Carradine, who rather than play his usual role of a highly intelligent doctor or scientist, plays Lugosi's dazed, dimwitted, creepy assistant.

The movie is pretty silly, but it has the always-awesome Carradine, and Lugosi turns in a good performance. But, the movie is still pretty silly. At one point the gas station owner supposedly chants "Bomboona Never Fails" while Lugosi and Carradine voodoofy some girl.

The police are apparently too dimwitted to bother checking out the gas station where all these girls keep disappearing, but the whole voodoo life stealing operation falls apart when a reporter happens to break down at the station and stumbles upon Bela's love dungeon.

What I Learned Today: Avoid gas stations that offer regular, unleaded and chloroform.

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)


I have never been able to make it through this entire movie, and that's coming from someone who woke up early on opening day to see "Gigli" in the theater.

"The Beast of Yucca Flats" is written and directed by the (in)famous Coleman Francis, so you know right away you're going to be treated to bleak, depressing actors thrown into a bleak, depressing New Mexico landscape, and an airplane will somehow be involved.

But this film is even bad by Coleman Francis standards, even with Tor Johnson in the lead role. Really bad. As in, possibly the worst ever made. At least "Plan 9" had some charm and "The Creeping Terror" was inoffensive. This movie is just a painful stabbing of the eyes.

If untreatable, soul-crushing depression could be captured on film, it'd have a three-picture deal with Coleman Francis.

Long story short, the movie opens with a a naked woman being strangled. No explanation of why, and by the time the film ends, you never get one. It pretty much had nothing to do with the film, and it was reportedly added after the film was completed by Francis. For some reason Coleman Francis films tend to include scenes of women being shot or killed for no real reason.

The movie picks up from there as Tor Johnson is a defecting Soviet scientist. As he arrives he and his military escorts are attacked by KGB gunmen. Tor mall-walks away from the mayhem and into the desert.

Lost, he wanders onto a nuclear test range where an atomic bomb is being tested. No fences or security or anything. Bomb goes boom, Tor goes radioactive and Soviet scientist is transformed into a murderous monster.

That's where any attempt at a coherent plot ends. Tor kills some people, the police shoot other people, and since this is a Coleman Francis film, not only is the lead character shot in the end, he's shot from an airplane.

Yes, just like in "Red Zone Cuba." Coleman ripped off his own endings.

This movie reeks, even when compared to other Coleman Francis films. At least "The Skydivers" had some tension and "Red Zone Cuba" had an interesting plot.

"The Beast of Yucca Flats" appears to be something Coleman just made up on the spot when he somehow got Tor Johnson. He didn't even try (actors who were shot by gunmen just stop acting like they were shot.) In fact, it was filmed with no dialogue or sound. Everything was just dubbed in later.

I don't say this lightly, but "The Beast of Yucca Flats" could be the worst movie ever made.

What I Learned Today: Standing next to a nuclear blast doesn't kill you, it just gives you anger management issues.

Amanour: Persian for 'partisan hack'

Christiane Amanpour implicates the Tea Party in...the Kennedy assassinations?



Because we all know how much a Communist and an anti-Israel leftist loved listening to a nine-month old Sarah Palin, and how it's all somehow linked to a non-political act by a schizophrenic obsessed with grammar.

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: Zombie Nightmare (1986)


"Zombie Nightmare" stars Jon Mikl Thor as a baseball player cut down by hooligans, who seeks revenge on them in zombified form.

Strike one, it's a mid-80s zombie film.

Strike two, it's a Canadian production of a mid-80s zombie film.

Strike three, it's a Canandian production of a mid-80s zombie film starring Adam West as an evil police detective.

The film opens with a flash back as a young Jamaican girl is accosted by street toughs as she leaves a lame baseball game. A guy who looks like a reserve John Candy steps in to save her, but is stabbed by thugs as his young son looks on.

Flash forward 30 years and the young son is a popular, well-adjusted baseball player. He stops the armed robbery of an offensive Italian stereotype, only to be run over by a speeding car driven by the kids who sat in the back of your high school history class.

The group of disrespectful teens, which includes a young Tia Carrere, is led by a Shawn Levy, who would later direct movies like "Cheaper by the Dozen," "The Pink Panther" and "Night at the Museum." In this film, however, he was trying too hard to be Corey Haim, yet still was a pretty cool movie punk.

Unable to cope with the loss of her husband, and now her son, the mother calls upon the now-grown girl to perform a voodoo zombification ceremony, so her son can seek his revenge. Zombie son seeks that revenge with a baseball-bat fueled vengeance,

The rash of young people's heads being snapped off attracts the attention of local police. Detective Batman leads the investigation, shooting down theories by his partner that they're not dealing with a typical, living, serial killer.

More teens are killed, until the detective tracks the killer to the local cemetery, where he, Zombie and Voodoo Lady are held at gunpoint by Batman. Batman fearlessly confronts the zombie, because under International Zombie Charter, zombies can only kill those who killed them. Batman shoots the zombie, killing him, and reveals to his partner he knows Voodoo Lady because HE was the street tough who 30 years ago tried to rape her and killed Zombie's dad.

Forgetting the zombie charter, long-dead zombie dad bursts from his grave and drags Batman into a hellish world of dry ice and stage lights.

The filmmakers compensated for the lack of good special effects, good makeup, good sets, or good acting through...not much. What you're left with is a silly, nonsensical movie that becomes even sillier and more nonsensical when you factor in the Canadian exchange rate. Along with being a bodybuilder, Jon Mikl Thor is also an accomplished heavy metal musician and composed much of the film's music.

The film's most redeeming qualities? Roger Corman is one of the producers, and they somehow tricked Motorhead into offering "Ace of Spades" as the theme song.

What I Learned Today: Canadian zombies can be stopped either through a shot to the head, or a game misconduct penalty.

The Left's post-election meltdown continues

After months of whining Republicans were the "Party of No," Democrats are now the "Party of No F&^# Way!!!" in this insane, rambling, profane rant* by the same radical group that ran ads accusing American generals of being traitors to the United States for not leaving Iraq.

And if ObamaCare is really as wildly popular as they desperately insist it is, why are they doing everything they can to avoid a vote on protecting it?

* Go to any liberal message board. You'll find many can only communicate through a series of profanities, obscenities and references to rape, genitalia and fecal matter.
http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Obama flinches on free trade opposition, but still hasn't budged

From today's Financial Times:

President Barack Obama warned Beijing that its prosperity has been based on free trade and the stability provided by the presence of the US military in Asia even as he lauded China’s success.

At a press conference on Wednesday with Hu Jintao, China’s president, Mr Obama urged Beijing to end discrimination against US companies, allow its currency to appreciate and respect human rights, including in Tibet. Mr Obama stressed that China offered enormous opportunities for the US, saying: “We want to sell you planes, we want to sell you cars, we want to sell you software.”


Kudos to Obama for at least faking sincerity. He still opposes free trade, but the continued decline of the United States' economy under his control is proving even to him his statist ways are flawed. Obama's lip service to free trade does not mark a move away from his job-killing policies, but are intended to mollify employers, whose lobbyists can easily be bought off with platitudes and empty gestures.

Obama's changed tone doesn't reflect a change in substantive policy, but it does show he does react to negative stimuli. Continued political pain is prescribed to treat his malignant statism.

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: Gor II (1989)


Some guy with an Italian name (I can't spell it. Just take a few consonants, a lot of vowels, put in a blender and pour it on paper) stars as Professor Tarl Cabot, a mild-mannered man who is actually the heroic protector of a planet called Gor.

The film opens as this second-string Fabio and his weaselly friend Watney spend a night out hitting on hopelessly '80s women, and hop into his hopelessly '80s sports car. Through the power of bad special effects they are transported to Gor, where the residents have called upon him to protect them from their evil Queen and the evil high priest Xeno, played by a bored Jack Palance.

The Queen plans to kill the King and take the throne for herself and enlists the help of Jack, who is dressed like a leather Bootsy Collins. With weasel friend and his newly-reunited Gor girlfriend, Italian dude sets out to on an adventure that promises bad stage fighting and copious plot holes.

After about 90 minutes of needless cleavage and thonged Europeans hitting each other with prop swords, the Queen is defeated, Jack leaves the set with his paycheck and the audience leaves to demand their money back.

As bad as the movie is, from what I hear it's not nearly as disturbing as the creepy books it's based on.

Wait For It...: Cabot's name is said 55 times in just the first 10 minutes of the movie, mostly in an excrutiating scene in which Watney whines the name over and over again as they wander through the desert. It's so bad the Pentagon has actually weaponized the dialogue and dropped it on hostile nations.

What I Learned Today: Now I know what the Pope would look like if the Church were sponsored by Tandy Leather.

Drunk owl taken into police custody

For some reason all I can picture is an owl being wrestled to the ground by three officers while he screams he used to be on TV, and they'd better not litter.

From Der Spiegel:

An owl that had evidently drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles was so inebriated that it got picked up by police. The bird will be released once it has sobered up...

..."It wasn't staggering around and we didn't breathalyze it but there were two little bottles of Schapps in the immediate vicinity," said Otruba. "We took it to a local bird expert who has treated alcoholized birds before and she has been giving it lots of water."

Loudoun supervisor Stevens Miller wins national ‘Watermelon Award’


Stevens Miller wins ‘Watermelon Award’
Strident advocacy of Chesapeake Bay scheme earns supervisor national ‘dishonor’

WASHINGTON -- Dulles District Supervisor Stevens Miller has been singled out by the nation’s largest grassroots advocate of rational environmental policies for an annual “dishonor” highlighting politicians who are “green on the outside but red on the inside.”

American Tradition Partnership's “Watermelon Awards” help citizens recognize which elected officials pose the greatest threat to their jobs, property and freedoms.

“By clinging to junk science and attacking citizens who oppose his agenda of higher taxes and bureaucratic control over homes, Stevens Miller’s extremism and bumbling stand out nationally,” said ATP Executive Director Donald Ferguson. “In Stevens Miller’s mind, there isn’t a job, a home or a business in his district that shouldn’t be sacrificed to appease Mother Earth.”

Miller earned the award for his advocacy of a private property control policy that blames Loudoun residents for water pollution in the Chesapeake, despite the fact virtually no scientific evidence backs such claims. Under the Miller-backed plan, many Loudoun homeowners and employers would not be allowed to erect anything on land larger than 50 feet by 50 without permission from the government, at a cost of thousands of dollars.

“We would mail him the award, but we’re not sure where he’s claiming residency in this week. It’s ironic to get a lecture on carbon footprints and the evils of suburban homes from someone who claims multiple suburban homes,” said Ferguson.

Throughout 2011 ATP will inform constituents about Miller’s agenda of tax hikes, fewer jobs and sprawling government. “Stevens Miller got even fewer votes than Creigh Deeds did in House District 86 and he already has several primary challengers. Even Democrats oppose Miller's radical environmentalist agenda,” said Ferguson.

ATP has previously telephoned residents of his, and other supervisor’s, districts on several occasions urging them to directly contact their supervisors to express their opposition to the Chesapeake Bay property control plan.

Miller has also earned notoriety for a rambling speech at the Board dais claiming human activity would cause Artic icecaps to melt so quickly Loudoun residents would be stranded in floodwaters.

Even Miller’s non-environmental agenda over the last three years is bizarre, including voting down funds to restore a Revolutionary War statue because he was frightened by the soldier’s fake rifle, referring to Loudoun residents as “gangrene” and “cancer” for expressing concern over gang crime, accusing his fellow Democrats on the Board of being racists and apologizing to the violent street gang MS-13 after another supervisor criticized the violent street gang.

Formerly known as Western Tradition Partnership, ATP adopted its new name in January to reflect its rapid national growth.

ATP does not advocate the election or defeat of candidates.  Supported by grassroots members from across the nation, ATP is a fast-growing non-profit organization dedicated to fighting environmental extremism and promoting private property and responsible development and management of land, water, and natural resources.  ATP is active nationwide.
 
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Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1970)


Sticking with the "evil descendant of Dr. Frankenstein" theme, "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" isn't just one of Lon Chaney's last films, it's a literal Frankenstein's movie -- made up of parts of older, dead films.

Long story short, cute hippie girls are disappearing in California. The culprits? An evil relative of Dr. Frankenstein and his mute assistant, played by Chaney.

Dracula shows up and point them to the dead-again corpse of the original Frankstein's creation, which is buried in California for some reason. One can only guess the zombie retired to Encino to sell jewelry. He is reanimated and shenanigans ensue.

I can't find a coherent recap of the film anywhere, much less one that explains how it ends. That can mean only one thing. This is going to hurt.

Fun Facts:
Many of the props used in the film were used in the classic 1931 Frankstein film.

The original plot called for Frankenstein's zombie to be turned into a vampire by Dracula, but the fangs kept falling out of the actor's mouth.

While the story takes place over just a few days, several of the actors age dramatically in the film because much of the film was made up of footage shot years earlier for a different film about bikers. That's why some scenes have biker characters that appear and disappear for no explained reason.

This was one of at least three Dracula-meets-Frankenstein films produced in the late 1960s/early 1970s.

B-movie legend John Carradine was the director's original pick to play Dracula.

What I Learned Today: "Kidnap by descendants of Frankenstein and their disfigured lab assistants" was a common threat faced by America's young women between 1958 and 1970.

Your latest ObamaCare preview

From today's U.K. Guardian:

The NHS is gambling with patients' health by increasingly banning operations for hernias, cataracts and arthritic joints to save money, one of the UK's most senior medical figures said...

...The NHS in England needs to save £20bn by 2014-15 as part of an efficiency drive. Black said increasing numbers of trusts are postponing or axing provision of dozens of elective surgical procedures, including those for gallstones and tonsil and adenoid problems.


Think that doesn't affect you? Remember, this deadly rationing is precisely what Obama admitted is part of his health care acheme.



http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)


Typical low-budget late 1950s drive-in fare.

The infamous Dr. Frankenstein's grandson is living in Los Angeles where he and his bosses, and his deformed dwarf assistant, are developing a serum that stops the aging process. Oh, and unbeknownst to his boss, he's using experimental serums to turn his boss' pretty young niece into a ghoulish, disfigured killing machine that's wearing a lacy nightgown for some reason.

In need of a dead body to experiment on, crazy scientist takes the niece's friend on the worst date ever. Things don't go to plan and some dwarf-choking, acid-tossing and a raging fire later pretty niece and handsome colleague escape to live happily ever after. At least until the foundation finds out about all the dead dwarves and neck snapping and pulls the research grant.

I think I've seen this one before but I may be thinking of another film about an insane descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, of which there are several. I could be completely wrong about the plot as well, as it makes no sense.

Fun Fact: Harold Lloyd, Jr., son of the legendary silent film actor and comedy pioneer Harold Lloyd, appears in a supporting role.

What I Learned Today: Not to bother asking why the film is called "Frankenstein's Daughter" when it's really about "Frankenstein's Grandson's Boss' Niece and Some Girl She Happens to Know."

Beaumont ISD: Bringing people together on King Day

The Beaumont (Texas) Independent School District is back in the news, this time after Regina-Howell Elementary handed out flyers to the children urging them to take part in the local Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade, not just to push a political agenda of "peace, social justice and global interdependence," but to "counter the presence in the parade of militaristic organizations like the JROTC, ROTC, Police and Sheriff's Department."

Even stranger, the text of flyer was plagarized from a left-wing San Diego group that protested that city's 2006 MLK parade.

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: The Screaming Skull (1958)


How scary is this movie? So scary the producers open the film with a guarantee of free burial for anyone who dies of fight while watching it.

Thankfully for the producers they issued no such guarantee for those who die of boredom.

Long story short, transparently evil dude marries wealthy woman and moves her to his home after his previous wife dies at the home under mysterious circumstances.

New wife is haunted by ghosts and random skulls, which threaten to send her back to the insane asylum where evil dude found her, meaning he would inherit her fortune.

Movie actually expects you not to figure this out in the first 15 minutes, to the point where the futilely try to make you think the mentally handicapped groundskeeper did it.

But there is at least something of a twist at the end (evil dude gets his ghostly comeuppance.)

Not sure what makes this endearingly bad. The acting is fairly well done. The sets aren't cheap. The plot, while inane, is a pretty cool idea. Maybe it's the fact that, like all great bad movies, and especially American International Pictures productions, they just didn't try that hard.

'the us loses ground on economic freedom'

Terry Miller, director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation, writing in The Wall Street Journal (go here to read the full column):

"...Is it the end of capitalism? Many were predicting just that last year. The 2011 Index of Economic Freedom, released today by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, tells a different story...One hundred and seventeen countries, mainly developing and emerging market economies, improved their scores..."

Despite the global trend, there is cause for concern.

"...The U.S. dropped to 9th place in the 2011 Index, with its lowest economic freedom score in a decade...Those who fear we are losing economic vitality and leadership to Asia have cause for concern. Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand dominate the top of the economic freedom rankings. Economic growth rates in those countries averaged 6.8 percent in 2010.

"On the diplomatic front, U.S. economic leadership is being seriously challenged for the first time since World War II. U.S. pleas for more government spending and tighter market regulation have fallen on deaf ears at recent meetings of the G-20. And many countries around the world, particularly those whose economies have emerged from the deprivations of communism, show no desire to return to the government domination of the past."

So while the rest of the world emerges from the shadow of post-World War II collectivism, the United States is burrowings its head into that ashheap. Hope and change, indeed.

Sweet Grass county citizens join Western Tradition Partnership and Montana Citizens for Right to Work lawsuit against Montana political officials

Sweet Grass county citizens join Western Tradition Partnership and Montana Citizens for Right to Work lawsuit against Montana political officials
Citizens seek to protect their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights after State Rep. threatens citizens right to engage in free speech free from government interference.


The Sweet Grass Council for Community Integrity (SGCCI) requested today that Judge Sherlock of Helena add their names as a plaintiff to a an ongoing free speech and association lawsuit against state officials filed by Western Tradition Partnership (WTP) and Montana Citizens for Right to Work.

SGCCI members engage in constitutionally protected political speech and association activities. As a result, SGCCI shares the concerns of the existing Plaintiffs that the Commissioner of Political Practices’ office may be used by people that disagree with its message as a state-sanctioned forum for political harassment and that the Commissioner of Political Practices will seek to apply unconstitutional Montana laws and regulations to their activities. Specifically, SGCCI will seek a judicial determination that they are not a political committee, namely an incidental political committee, under Montana law

The filing by the unincorporated group SGCCI and two of its members comes after State Rep. John Esp (R-Big Timber) threatened to file a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices and have state officials prosecute and investigate two of its members for speaking out as individuals against him during the 2010 election cycle.
In the days leading up to the 2010 primary election, Sweet Grass County residents Doug Lair and Bob Faw signed a letter to local residents exposing Esp’s record, and his false libel campaign about his opponent’s religion. Esp narrowly won the primary, and weeks later drove to Lair's home, threatening to have the Office of Political Practices in Helena criminally prosecute him and others.

“John Esp delivered the message to back off, but as far as I’m concerned, the government is supposed to work for the people, not the other way around. Citizens shouldn’t be bullied when speaking out about a public official’s record,” said Lair. “If they’re trying to shut down free speech in Sweet Grass County, it must be happening elsewhere, so we’re standing up so we can get back to this nation’s Founding principles and uphold the Constitution. We are compelled to join this case in order to strike down as unconstitutional the laws that John Esp and a long-line of others in Montana are using to harass those who seek to make our voices heard and our position on issues publicly known."

The suit seeks to stop the Office of the Commissioner of Political Practices from exercising its overly broad enforcement and investigative powers, and from fining individuals and organizations by declaring every group in Montana who exercises its rights to engage in political speech as a “political committee” regardless of how de minimis their activites and without determining whether the organization is a political party committee or has the major purpose of electing or defeating a candidate for public office. United States Supreme Court jurisprudence makes clear that regulable political committees are organizations that expressly support or oppose candidates for public office. Like WTP and Montana Right to Work. SGCCI does not engage in such “express advocacy”.

Just days before the November election, and a mere 48 hours after WTP handed the OPP Unsworth and Bullock an embarrassing defeat in state court , Unsworth released an legally unsupported ruling wrongfully accusing WTP of impropriety, including false accusations the group was funded by a Saudi Arabian conspiracy. Despite the desperate timing of the ruling, WTP refused to allow their free speech rights to be chilled and continues to champion free-market policies and issues.

SGCCI now joins WTP’s 1st Amendment lawsuit seeking reforms to the OPP, which has suffered numerous court defeats in its previous attempts to suppress speech, most notably in 2009 when the Ninth Circuit federal court blasted the former Commissioner of Political Practices, Dennis Unsworth, for "petty bureaucratic harassment" of citizens with conservative viewpoints.

SGCCI website can be found at http://www.sweetgrassroots.org.

###

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: City On Fire (1979)


If there's one thing the 1970s did better than Bigfoot movies, it was all-star disaster movies.

Airport.

The Poseidon Adventure.

Earthquake.

The Towering Inferno.

City on Fire?

On paper it sounds great. Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Leslie Neilsen (an accomplished dramatic actor) and "Poseidon Adventure" star Shelley Winters.

But on film we end up with "City On Fire," a 1979 bomb about a city that bursts into flames because of the oil refinery that's located in the heart of downtown for some reason.

Neilsen is the mayor of a generic Midwest city who decides to build an oil refinery in the middle of his city. A disgruntled employee sabotages the equipment and several reels of stock footage and a pneumatic catapult rental later the entire city is in flames.

It's up to a hard-drinking reporter trying to get her career back on track (Gardner,) an in-charge fire chief (Fonda) and a sassy nurse (Winters) to save the survivors who are now trapped in a hospital surrounded by the firestorm.

Despite the talented cast, even they can't save the film from hammy acting, bad special effects and tons of stock footage. Filmed in Montreal, this "Midwestern" features French language signs and TV stations whose call letters start with "C."

Thankfully it's so bad it's fun to watch.

The film was produced near the end of Neilsen's distinguished dramatic career. He would go on to even greater fame the next year in "Airplane!," a spoof of 1970s disaster films.

What I Learned Today: Midwesterners build their cities out of flash paper and oily rags.

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Irony, defined.

Perhaps hoping to win a gold medal for shamelessness, Al Sharpton took to the pages of The Washington Post to blame Sarah Palin's map showing where she was spending money for a shooting by someone who never saw it.

Sharpton. Accusing others of inspiring murder through inflammatory words.

Google "Tawana Brawley," "Freddie's Fashion Mart murders" and "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business." For someone so quick to blame his political opponents and demand their free speech rights be revoked, he still refuses to apologize for several incidents in which his own speech has been cited in a mass murder and a libel suit he still refuses to pay.

The media backlash continues to grow

Liberals are quickly making their shameless reaction to the Tucson shootings their new Wellstone funeral.

The Arizona Republic calls out Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for blaming political speech by those he disagrees with, when in fact the gunman was completely detached from reality, was a "left-wing liberal" obsessed with Gifford since 2007 and his own department ignored months of repeated death threats from the gunman.

"...Dupnik stood before the cameras interpreting the shootings as politically motivated, despite an increasing weight of evidence depicting the shooting suspect, Jared Loughner, as a mentally ill young man who rambled incoherently about pervasive bad grammar and other apolitical obsessions," the Republic writes in a Jan. 12 editorial.

"...Still, Dupnik used the opportunities to blame Arizona's lax, new gun laws and, again, the angry "rhetoric" of talk radio...With each passing hour, we learn more about the 22-year-old suspect. And everything we learn adds to the profile of a deeply troubled young man detached from reality. There is nothing to date that suggests any partisan motivation for his crimes, whether right-wing or left.

"Dupnik needs to recall that he is elected to be a lawman. With each additional comment, the Democratic sheriff of Pima County is revealing his agenda as partisan, and, as such, every bit as recklessly antagonistic as the talk-show hosts and politicians he chooses to decry."

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Crazy acts spur crazy claims

Mentally unstable cartoonist Ted Rall claims Tucson shootings the "premature ejaculation" of a right-wing revolution, citing the Feb. 2010 plane crash into an Austin, Texas IRS building and the Sept. 2010 attack on the Discovery Channel's headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. by a gunman claiming to have a bomb.

Two problems Ted.

Joseph Stack, the Austin plane attack pilot, was rabidly anti-Bush, a supporter of many Democrat causes and complained communism wasn't more popular.

More importantly, he was a mentally ill wacko who didn't follow a set political agenda.

As for the Discovery Channel attack, James J. Lee tried to blow up the network because they weren't aggressive enough in blaming humans for global warming. His manifesto extensively cited Al Gore and the population control beliefs of environmentalist (and Democrat-supporting) groups like the League of Conservation Voters.

More importantly, he was just a wacko who wasn't ordered to do it by any political figure.

Blame game, and penis obsession, fail.

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: Snowbeast (1977)


The 1970s Bigfoot movie is a proud genre of film and sadly, "Snowbeast," a 1977 made-for-TV flick starring Clint Walker of "Killdozer" fame, is probably as good as they get.

Actually, it's not bad for a 1970s TV movie about Bigfoot. Of course, that's kind of like saying not bad for a homeless meth addict.

Typical monster movie. Large group of people with backstories gather at ski lodge for the Winter Carnival. Something is either killing people, or tearing their clothes and spilling red tempera paint.

A man with problems (Bo Svenson,) his patient wife (Yvette Mimieux) and the local grizzled sheriff (Walker) investigate. More puffy 1970s down jackets are senselessly ripped and smeared with red paint.

I just hope the final scene incorporates a funky 1970s car chase soundtrack. Wokka-chikka, wokka-chikka, wokka-chikka, ba-da-POW, ba-da-POW!

SPOILER: In the film's climax, the man overcoming personal problems kills Snowbeast by stabbing it in the heart with a ski pole. In an odd coincidence, Clint Walker nearly died six years earlier when a ski pole pierced his heart. Being Clint Walker, he was back at work filming in Spain just eight weeks later. The ski pole never recovered.

What I'll Learn: Snowbeast is impervious to inflation, gas lines or hostage crises. He just keeps on truckin'.

If the Left want to round up people for 'incitement to violence,' start with Obama



If members of the radical left, such as prominent Democrat activist Markos Moulitsas, are so concerned about political violence they're demanding their political opponents be rounded up and arrested for an act with no apparent connection to conservative speech, perhaps they just start by executing an arrest warrant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"Federal authorities have arrested a Philadelphia man and charged him with threatening to kill House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his family. Norman Leboon will be charged with two federal counts: threatening to kill a member of Congress and interfering with his federal duties, and posting video online containing such threats. He is scheduled to appear in federal district court in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon." "Man arrested for Eric Cantor death threat," Politico, Mar. 29, 2010


Philadelphia? Who could possibly have said what there?

"Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight? That’s exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl." "Obama: ‘If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun’," The Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2008


And then there's this.

"Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with "Don't tread on me" printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room at St. John's Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was awaiting treatment for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face...The SEIU guy came up to him and said, "Why is an n-word like you handing out these flags?" "Kenneth didn't say anything to the guy. Before Kenneth could even say anything or act in any way shape or form, the SEIU representative punched him in the face. He went to the ground. Subsequently, two other SEIU representatives or members, however you want to say it, jumped on top of him, yelled racial epithets at him...kicked him, punched him." "Eye Witness to St. Louis Scuffle: 'SEIU Representative Punched Him In the Face," The Weekly Standard, Aug. 7, 2009.


What could possibly have incited SEIU to punch people at town halls? (Assuming you're one of those types believe people are mindless sheep who only act when commanded to.)

"(White House officials) showed video clips of the confrontational town halls that have dominated the media coverage, and told senators to do more prep work than usual for their public meetings by making sure their own supporters turn out, senators and aides said..."If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard," (White House deputy chief of staff Jim) Messina said, according to an official who attended the meeting. "White House to Democrats: 'Punch back twice as hard'," Politico, Aug. 6, 2009

Yes, the violent attack occurred within 24 hours of reports the White House called on Democrats to "punch back."


If liberals think Sarah Palin should be silenced and even arrested because her PAC produced a map that used a crosshair graphic to depict districts they were spending money in, surely they'd agree Obama's vivid, violent call to Philadelphia activists is deserving of detention in Guantanamo Bay.

Or maybe they should just agree that insane, irrational people do insane, irrational things with no need to popular figures to command them, and that exploiting a horrible tragedy to issue demands the government silence your political opposition is in itself a troubling cry for help?

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com
Funny how the media are immediately blaming Palin for this, but after the Fort Hood shooting in which the shooter cried "Allahu Akhbar" they frantically called for people not to draw any conclusions.

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: The Capture of Bigfoot (1979)



The 1970s gave us a lot of bad stuff. Hostages, oil crises, gas lines, "The Star Wars Holiday Special" and stagflation.

They also gave us a spate of low-budget Bigfoot movies.

So you know Bill Rebane, director of legendary bombs like "Monster A Go-Go" and "The Giant Spider Invasion," had to get in on the action with his own Wisconsin-based film.

Behold, "The Capture of Bigfoot."

Shot in Gleason, Wisconsin, from what I gather it's your typical Bill Rebane movie.

1) Something kills unappealing Midwestern redneck.

2) Unappealing authority figure investigates.

3) Lots of unappealing Midwesterners are killed by puppets.

4) A confused and disappointed audience make their way to the box office to demand refunds.

In this case, said monster is a giant Monchichi that was worshipped by the Indians, who the scenery-chewing villainous businessman is paying some local hunters to capture so he can turn it into a tourist attaction.

So basically the villain is a cross between Monty Burns, Marlin Perkins and South of the Border.

By the power of poor production values and plot holes, it's all somehow resolved in a way no one can explain.

This one's going to hurt.

What I Learned Today: The only thing more depressing than Wisconsin's backwoods in the winter is a Bill Rebane movie about Wisconsin's backwoods in the winter.

It's good to be king

"I’ll turn the page on the imperial presidency." - Candidate Obama, speaking at DePaul University, Oct. 2, 2007

"President Obama challenged congressional Republicans to embrace the "shared responsibility" of governance even as the White House appears ready to use unilateral executive powers to battle Capitol Hill...Obama is expected to make more frequent use of executive orders, vetoes, signing statements and policy initiatives that originate within the federal agencies to maneuver around congressional Republicans..." - Reporter Julie Mason, The Washington Examiner, Jan. 3, 2011


"Rebuking his predecessor for the second time today, President Obama declared that he will not use "signing statements" to disregard parts of laws because he disagrees on policy grounds, but only when he strongly believes the provisions are unconstitutional...'There is no doubt that the practice of issuing such statements can be abused. Constitutional signing statements should not be used to suggest that the president will disregard statutory requirements on the basis of policy disagreements,' wrote Obama." - "Obama rebukes Bush on signing statements," The Boston Globe, Mar. 9, 2009

"Obama said during his 2008 campaign that he wouldn't use signing statements, codicils presidents can attach to bills challenging or refusing to enforce parts of a law, the way his predecessor, President George W. Bush, did. But since taking office, Obama issued signing statements on budgetary matters, foreign aid, commission appointments and more..." - Reporter Julie Mason, The Washington Examiner, Jan. 3, 2011

List of signing statements by now-President Barack Obama, which hinge on policy disagreements and not constitutionality

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Democrat Underground's Conspiracy of the Day!: "Top US official murdered???,,,Arkansas bird kill related?"


Put on another layer of tinfoil and prepare to accuse Karl Rove when your car doesn't start. "Democrat Underground's Conspiracy of the Day!" is back!

The senseless murder of former Reagan administration and *gasp!* Bush administration official John Wheeler, and the weird but not impossible mass deaths of redwinged blackbirds in Beebe, Arkansas...

...only on Democrat Underground would they be linked through what is clearly a Republican conspiracy to kill us all in this thread, "Top US official murdered???,,,Arkansas bird kill related?"

Democrat nutroots, quoting a European internet site, have concluded that since Wheeler once did a subcontracting job for the Mitre Corporation, then clearly he was murdered by the new Republican Congress because he was going to blow the whistle on their plans to gas the American people. All those dead birds was just one of the tests.

Let's see if we can follow this winding path of paranoia and delusion.

1) James Wheeler did a consulting job for the Mitre Corporation two years ago and once wrote about the effectiveness of chemical weapons decades ago.
2) Mitre is developing the navigation systems for drones that our military is clearly using to wage chemical warfare against the Afghan people (citation needed.)
3) A bunch of red-winged blackbirds died somewhere in Arkansas.
4) Clearly they were poisoned by the eeeeevil military in a test of their chemical-warfare-against-civilians plot (citation needed.)
5) Clearly, James Wheeler knew about this, seeing as he is one of the literally hundreds of thousands of people who once did work for the corporation that supposedly designed the navigation systems for the eeeeevil military's supposed war-on-civilians drones (citation needed.)
6) So clearly, James Wheeler's death was a hit ordered by the new Republican Congress to cover up their super-duper-top secret bird killing planes.

If that's not scary enough, these are the same people who want to make your health care decisions for you.

Some of the better comments.

"ahh, a chem attack that makes more sense...The timing would be interesting also, around the change over of congress" Poster "RandomThoughts"

"Can't ignore this one" Poster "JohnnyLib2"

"Makes perfect sense now, not news to the media I have no doubt but I also have no doubt if this story gets big it will soon be made to be seen as a joke" Poster "AuntPatsy"

"[Wheeler had] an inside view of USAF/CIA drone contractors, such as . . . wait for it . .Blackwater/Xe Services and all the associated goings-ons. You know, the post-9/11 "Global Assassinations Are Us" people. If we want to get really far-ranging, there was the suicide bombing that took out the CIA Predator team at that base in Afghanistan who was let into the compound after the Xe Guards (and the CIA's own security people) didn't search the bomber." Poster "leveymg"

"well, that does seem to make some sense. it didn't seem the end of the world was coming (unless of course we kill ourselves), nor did shooting guns on New Year's sound plausible. Follow the money, as they say." Poster "WhiteTara"

The Gentlewoman from the State of Denial

“Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go,” said Pelosi.



National Debt Tops $14 Trillion … Increased 60% Under Speaker Pelosi

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com