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

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: "Deadly Snail vs. Kung Fu Killer" (1977)

What's worse than a poorly-thought out, poorly-edited, poorly-acted nonsensical movie?

A poorly-thought out, poorly-edited, poorly-acted nonsensical kung fu movie.

Chang is a farm worker for his evil uncle. How evil? He's hiding from Chang the fact that Chang is in fact the heir to the estate.

For some reason Chang rescues a sea snail injured by snakes. A beautiful woman appears to him in a dream, telling him he can heal the snail with a drop of his own blood.

The snail transforms into...the beautiful woman. She falls in love with Chang and they marry. Rick Santorum's dire warnings of man/sea snail marriages have come horribly true.

Some nephew flirting and demons later, an evil woman, engaged to the nephew who flirts with the beautiful woman but who wants to marry Chang, convinces the evil uncle to steal the ring that holds the beautiful woman's power.

The evil woman and evil uncle throw the beautiful woman/sea snail into the sea. Sea snail's sisters open a can of jellied pain and the union of man and marine mollusk is preserved.

What I Learned: China's opium epidemic apparently extended well into the 1970s.

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

San Fran will use government force to coerce employers into "hiring locally"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — This city is about to enact one of the nation’s toughest ordinances requiring its officials to hire locally, over the objections of neighboring counties that say it will hurt their residents.

Under the ordinance, city contractors and subcontractors working on city-financed construction projects worth $400,000 or more would be required to hire at least 20 percent of their workers from San Francisco. The requirement will increase by 5 percent each year until it reaches 50 percent in 2017.

Contractors will be forced to pay penalties if they do not meet the requirement...

Of course, this is the same city council who boycotted Arizona for implementing the same policy, only on a wider geographic scale.

Here's a better idea. The government butts out of the business of business.

Employers should be free to hire whomever they want from whereever they want, and at whatever wage they mutually agree to. The purpose of government is not to use its legal monopoly on violence to bully and coerce people into living by the personal standards of powerholders.

http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

Tonight's Awful Bedtime Movie: "Eegah!"

"Watch out for snakes!"

Long before he was Jaws, Richard Keil was an eons-old teenage caveman in this 1962 bomb.

Another one of director Arch Hall, Sr.'s vehicles for his singing, dancing, poor man's Elvis son Arch Hall, Jr., "Eeegah!" is widely known as one of the worst movies ever. So bad, Michael Medved picked it for his book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time." (Actually, Arch Hall, Jr. isn't all that bad. Though, he eventually left films to become an airline pilot.)

In this one, Junior's girlfriend nearly runs over caveman Richard Keil. Her father, a somehow famous adventure book author (played by his father, director Arch Hall, Sr.) sets out to find him in the desert.

When he doesn't return, Junior and girlfriend set out to find her dad/his dad. But not before a long and pointless dune buggy scene. (For some reason, Junior's ownership of a dune buggy seems to be a major plot point.)

Oh, and a forced and seemingly unending musical number, seeing as the entire film was just a reason for Arch Hall, Sr. to push his talented, but not that talented, singing son.

Once they get off their duff and go look for him, Jaws kidnaps the cute girl and keeps her in his cave, along with his/her dad. Oh, and he also keeps thousands of years worth of dead relatives in the cave, whom he talks to.

Junior rescues them, so Jaws follows them to the modern day city to get his girl back. Movie ends with folks cleaning up caveman with a pool skimmer.

Acting, non-rambling dialogue and editing are not strong points. In an infamous scene, as Junior, cute girl and his/her dad walk away from the car, a poorly dubbed voice belonging to none of the actors bellows "Watch out for snakes!"

Despite having few words of actual dialogue and just grunting his way through the film, Kiel's pretty cool in this one. A delightfully and legendarily awful movie.