And Edward G. Robinson will lead them.

This is totally stupefying (via Boing Boing). How did this group of people get through this whole ceremony without once stopping to think, "Hey, I've seen this before...":

"We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion's Market,' or God's control over the economic systems. While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble."

Click and Clack both thank you.

After hearing no less than three of my friends' names mentioned as donors to the Public Radio pledge drive this week, I went ahead and plopped down some cash myself this morning.

And if anyone else is within reading-range of this blog and hasn't donated yourself, I hereby order you to do so. Go. Now.

All Shook Up

Neatorama posted an item titled "Things You Probably Don’t Need, #1" yesterday, and the object of derision was a creepy lifesize animatronic Elvis head.

Apparently the thing can be had for only 200 bucks at SkyMall, but in case you are actually interested, I would caution you to check out your local Tuesday Morning store first. The one near my house has had three of these things on the shelf for quite a long time. Every month or so, I go check their toy aisle for any new discount LEGO and the three Elvis's are there to greet me: One on the top shelf, one on a middle shelf and one on the floor. I keep thinking they're going to start rolling and bouncing around like those giant disembodied heads in Spirited Away.

Oooh, there's some nightmare fuel for ya!

MST3K: The List (revised)

It's been over two years since I posted a list of the MST3K episodes available on DVD. Since then, Volume 12 was released, Volume 10 was re-released with the Godzilla vs. Megalon disc removed (over rights issues) and replaced with The Giant Gila Monster, and the 20th anniversary set is being released today. Below is the updated list of episodes (those on DVD are in red).

K04 Gamera vs. Barugon
K05 Gamera
K06 Gamera vs. Gaos
K07 Gamera vs. Zigra
K08 Gamera vs. Guiron
K09 Phase IV
K10 Cosmic Princess
K11 Humanoid Woman
K12 Fugitive Alien
K13 SST Death Flight
K14 Mighty Jack
K15 Superdome
K16 City on Fire
K17 Time of the Apes
K18 The Million Eyes of Su-Muru
K19 Hangar 18
K20 The Last Chase
K21 The Legend of Dinosaurs

101 The Crawling Eye
102 Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy (with short: Commando Cody & the Radar Men from the Moon - Episode 1)
103 Mad Monster (with short: Commando Cody & the Radar Men from the Moon - Episode 2)
104 Women of the Prehistoric Planet
105 The Corpse Vanishes (with short: Commando Cody & the Radar Men from the Moon - Episode 3)
106 The Crawling Hand
107 Robot Monster (with shorts: Commando Cody & the Radar Men from the Moon - Episodes 4 & 5)
108 The Slime People (with short: Commando Cody & the Radar Men from the Moon - Episode 6)
109 Project Moonbase (with shorts: Commando Cody & the Radar Men from the Moon - Episodes 7 & 8)
110 Robot Holocaust (with short: Commando Cody & the Radar Men from the Moon - Episode 9)
111 Moon Zero Two
112 Untamed Youth
113 The Black Scorpion

201 Rocketship X-M
202 Sidehackers
203 Jungle Goddess (with short: The Phantom Creeps - Episode 1)
204 Catalina Caper
205 Rocket Attack USA (with short: The Phantom Creeps - Episode 2)
206 The Ring of Terror (with short: The Phantom Creeps - Episode 3)
207 Wild Rebels
208 Lost Continent
209 The Hellcats
210 King Dinosaur (with short: X Marks the Spot)
211 First Spaceship on Venus
212 Godzilla vs. Megalon
213 Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

301 Cave Dwellers
302 Gamera
303 Pod People
304 Gamera vs. Barugon
305 Stranded in Space
306 Time of the Apes
307 Daddy-O (with short: Alphabet Antics)
308 Gamera vs. Gaos
309 The Amazing Colossal Man
310 Fugitive Alien
311 It Conquered the World (with short: Snow Thrills)
312 Gamera vs. Guiron
313 Earth vs. the Spider (with short: Speech: Using your Voice)
314 Mighty Jack
315 Teenage Caveman (with shorts: Aquatic Wizards & Catching Trouble)
316 Gamera vs. Zigra
317 Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (with short: The Home Economics Story)
318 Star Force - Fugitive Alien II
319 War of the Colossal Beast (with short: Mr. B Natural)
320 The Unearthly (with shorts: Posture Pals & Appreciating Your Parents)
321 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
322 Master Ninja I
323 The Castle of Fu-Manchu
324 Master Ninja II

401 Space Travelers
402 The Giant Gila Monster
403 City Limits
404 Teenagers from Outer Space
405 Being from Another Planet
406 Attack of the Giant Leeches (with short: Undersea Kingdom - Episode 1)
407 The Killer Shrews (with short: Junior Rodeo Daredevils)
408 Hercules Unchained
409 Indestructible Man (with short: Undersea Kingdom - Episode 2)
410 Hercules Against The Moon Men
411 The Magic Sword
412 Hercules and the Captive Women
413 Manhunt in Space (with short: General Hospital - Part 1)
414 Tormented
415 The Beatniks (with short: General Hospital - Part 2)
416 Firemaidens of Outer Space
417 Crash of the Moons (with short: General Hospital - Part 3)
418 Attack of the Eye Creatures
419 The Rebel Set (with short: Johnny at the Fair)
420 The Human Duplicators
421 Monster A-Go-Go (with short: Circus on Ice)
422 The Day the Earth Froze (with short: Here Comes the Circus)
423 Bride of the Monster (with short: Hired! - Part 1)
424 Manos, The Hands of Fate (with short: Hired! - Part 2)

501 Warrior of the Lost World
502 Hercules
503 Swamp Diamonds (with short: What to Do On A Date)
504 Secret Agent Super Dragon
505 Magic Voyage of Sinbad
506 Eegah!
507 I Accuse My Parents (with short: The Truck Farmer)
508 Operation Double 007
509 Girl in Lover's Lane
510 The Painted Hills (with short: Body Care & Grooming)
511 Gunslinger
512 Mitchell
513 The Brain That Wouldn't Die
514 Teen-age Strangler (with short: Is This Love?)
515 Wild, Wild World of Batwoman (with short: Cheating)
516 Alien from L.A.
517 Beginning of the End
518 The Atomic Brain (with short: What About Juvenile Delinquency?)
519 Outlaw
520 Radar Secret Service (with short: Last Clear Chance)
521 Santa Claus
522 Teenage Crimewave
523 Village of the Giants
524 12 To the Moon (with short: Design for Dreaming)

601 Girls Town
602 Invasion USA (with short: A Date With Your Family)
603 The Dead Talk Back (with short: The Selling Wizard)
604 Zombie Nightmare
605 Colossus and the Head Hunters
606 The Creeping Terror
607 Bloodlust
608 Code Name: Diamond Head (with short: A Day at the Fair)
609 The Skydivers (with short: Why Study Industrial Arts?)
610 The Violent Years (with short: Young Man's Fancy)
611 Last of the Wild Horses
612 The Starfighters
613 The Sinister Urge (with short: Keeping Clean & Neat)
614 San Francisco International
615 Kitten with a Whip
616 Racket Girls (with short: Are You Ready For Marriage?)
617 The Sword and the Dragon
618 High School Big Shot (with short: Out of This World)
619 Red Zone Cuba (with short: Speech: Platform, Posture & Appearance)
620 Danger!! Death Ray
621 The Beast of Yucca Flats (with shorts: Money Talks! & Progress Island)
622 Angel's Revenge
623 The Amazing Transparent Man (with short: The Days of Our Years)
624 Samson vs. The Vampire Women

701 Night of the Bloodbeast (with short: Once Upon a Honeymoon)
702 The Brute Man (with short: The Chicken of Tomorrow)
703 Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell
704 The Incredible Melting Man
705 Escape 2000
706 Laserblast

801 Revenge of the Creature
802 The Leech Woman
803 The Mole People
804 The Deadly Mantis
805 The Thing That Couldn't Die
806 The Undead
807 Terror from the Year 5000
808 The She Creature
809 I Was a Teenage Werewolf
810 Giant Spider Invasion
811 Parts: The Clonus Horror
812 The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living & Became Mixed-Up Zombies
813 Jack Frost
814 Riding With Death
815 Agent for H.A.R.M.
816 Prince of Space
817 Horror of Party Beach
818 Devil Doll
819 Invasion of the Neptune Men
820 Space Mutiny
821 Time Chasers
822 Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

901 The Projected Man
902 The Phantom Planet
903 Puma Man
904 Werewolf
905 The Deadly Bees
906 Space Children (with short: Century 21 Calling)
907 Hobgoblins
908 The Touch of Satan
909 Gorgo
910 The Final Sacrifice
911 Devil Fish
912 Screaming Skull (with short: Robot Rumpus)
913 Quest of the Delta Knights

1001 Soultaker
1002 The Girl in Gold Boots
1003 Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders
1004 Future War
1005 Blood Waters of Dr. Z
1006 Boggy Creek II
1007 Track of the Moon Beast
1008 Final Justice
1009 Hamlet
1010 It Lives by Night
1011 Horrors of Spider Island
1012 Squirm (with short: A Case of Spring Fever)
1013 Danger: Diabolik

Keeping us honest

In the search for someone to blame, one of the groups McCain supporters are pointing to is the ever-scorned Mainstream Media for declaring Obama virtually the winner long before election day. Since they blame the MSM for everything else, it should come as no surprise that they blame them for simply reporting the polls as they stand. They got nothing else.

Besides, it's a simple truth that the media, in terms of elections, don't like landslides. They like horse races that make it interesting and suspenseful until the wee hours of November 5th. As evidence, have a look at Slate this morning, which featured as one of it's three top stories this headline:

Click on it, and your presented with the latest map (with electoral vote count):



"Closing the gap", indeed. Obama needs 270 electoral votes to win and he has all but two of that number in the "Safe Dem" column. Hell, even McCain's home state of Arizona has gone from "Safe" to "Lean Republican". Say what you will of Reagan's landslide in 1984, at least Mondale retained his home state.

But I'm not getting cocky. Keep counting, folks.

What a difference eight years make.

A 2000 flashback:



A 2008 update:



True.

"There'll be pork in the treetops come morning!"

A quick note: One new poll has Obama slightly ahead in Georgia.

Georgia.

That is all.

"It Conquered the World" Redux Trailer

My latest YouTube project, which took long enough to complete:



For those of you unfamiliar with the original, go check out the IMDb page.

"They're not going to throw good money after bad."

This Yahoo! story provides a companion piece to the Slate analysis I mentioned in my previous post. Here's a sample:

Republicans attuned to conservative third-party efforts say that with less than two weeks to go until Election Day, the prospects for any 11th-hour, anti-Obama ad campaigns are highly unlikely.

Many in the party, including inside the McCain campaign, have held out hope that a deep-pocketed benefactor would emerge to bankroll ads in the campaign's final days — spots that might, for example, resurrect the most incendiary clips from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

But thanks largely to lack of passion for McCain within the conservative base, diminished hopes that he can win and a sharp decline in the stock market that has badly pinched donors' pockets, veteran Republican operatives say it appears almost certain that what could be the most damaging line of attack against the Democratic nominee will be left on the shelf.

"It's Oct. 21, and if you can't say it by Oct. 21, then chances are you're not going to say anything," said Chris LaCivita, the strategist behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. LaCivita has been working for a new conservative third-party group this year, the American Issues Project.

That group, known in the political community as AIP, was eyed by some in the GOP as a potential major player in taking on Obama. It spent nearly $3 million in key states in August on a tough ad tying the Illinois senator to '60s-era domestic terrorist William Ayers and promised additional spots in the fall campaign.

That never happened.

"Donors just weren't willing to give the money," explains LaCivita. "They were hurt badly in the market crash and they were always concerned about how McCain would react."

The timing of the financial crisis couldn't have been worse for Republicans. When Lehman Brothers went under on Sept. 15, McCain was tied or in the margin of error in national polls. But when his poll numbers fell along with the stock market, wealthy conservatives saw little reason to invest their shrunken holdings on what was far from a sure thing.

"Republican donors, at the end of day, aren't stupid," said another Republican familiar with third-party activities this cycle. "They're not going to throw good money after bad."

And it wasn't just the economic bad news — McCain did little to help his own cause.

Two Republican sources involved in third-party groups said the Arizona senator's second debate performance in early October, a pivotal moment in the campaign when he and running mate Sarah Palin had begun to ratchet up their attacks, was deflating to some donors.

These sources said that after McCain didn't use the Nashville debate to aggressively go after Obama, one prominent conservative financier remarked: "I'm not going to bother investing anymore."

Money can't buy happiness.

That's true, though I also believe that it can make certain amounts of unhappiness go away.

I though of this while reading this article on Slate. I'm keeping myself from getting cocky about Obama's chances (though there is a submerged part of me that is perpetually giddy these days). But when I read the article above, there was a nice sigh of relief knowing that one of those major stresses of life ("Do we have enough money to pay for everything?") is pretty much a non-issue for the Obama campaign less than two weeks before the election.

And the most sublime part of all is that the money came from his supporters like myself and Mrs. Mosley. It reminded me of a quote from Markos Moulitsas, which neatly sums up the entire election:

"There's one other delicious irony at work -- don't you find it funny that McCain, the Republican, is embracing government funding for the election while Obama, the Democrat, would rather be self-reliant?"

One number goes down...

...and another number goes up.



Just keep on counting.

Salon gets letters

I second Alex Koppelman's reaction to this letter: Wow.

I am sick to death of the negativity and lack of substance offered by McCain's campaign. The Ayrs [sic] "connection" is ludicrous, and the attempt to paint the "good touch, bad touch" training program for kiddoes is disgusting. Books could, and will be written about Palin's shallowness, and the arrogance that attempted to foist her on us. If these are products of the "'Straight Talk' Express" then I'd hate to see full blown Bushism.

BTW, I am a white Southerner, the descendant of a Civil War-era Tory. My family was voting Republican by 1868, if not 1864 -- way before all these Johnny-come-latelies, whose ancestors were in the Klan. Regardless, I cannot stand any more hubris, incompetence, cronyism, profiteering, lies, malfeasance, mismanagement, or perversion of justice -- whether by Bush, his enablers in Congress, or their successors.

I have guns and plenty of them. I am not fearful of losing them.

I have several Bibles. I am free to read them or not; and to interpret them as I wish. I am not fearful of losing that, either.

And I am not looking over my shoulder for some gay who will ask for my hand in marriage. And even if one were to do so, all I need do is decline.

I believe in the literal truth of the Bible; and I believe in my heart that it teaches abortion is murder. But the GOP has been in power more than long enough to overturn that. I conclude that it is not going away.

The concern I have -- greater than "God, guns, and gays" -- is going to war for a pack of lies. Bush's hands are bloodier than any abortion doctor's and he has exchanged the nation's moral high ground for a miry pit. He has perverted justice, and permitted Alberto Gonzales and Monica Goodling to pervert Justice. And I don't think Bush has the capacity to even realize that he's done anything wrong.

Blaxploitation 101

It's an unanswerable mystery of life that this didn't make it into the AFI 100 Quotes List (NSFW):



Hat Tip to Metafilter for informing us of the dearly departed mothaf&ka.

It's NSFW anti-McCain/Palin video Saturday!

This was found by Mrs. Mosley:

The More You Know

Audio is NSFW:

See more Hayden Panettiere videos at Funny or Die

It's not too late to cast Peter Mayhew as one of the horses.

Though I've known about Daniel Radcliffe starring in the Broadway show Equus for quite some time now, I didn't know until this morning that he's joined in the cast by Kate Mulgrew. Boy, that's almost a Geekdom Perfect Storm, right there.

Joe the Plant

Martin Eisenstadt tells us "You don't know Joe" (via Crooks and Liars):

Turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher from the Toledo event is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbacher of Milford, Ohio. Who's Robert Wurzelbacher? Only Charles Keating's son-in-law and the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan. The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes giving well over $10,000 in the last few years.

You see, that's what happens when you have a Presidential candidate that doesn't know anything about the Internets. They sit on info that might have been difficult to track down twenty years ago but is relatively easy to find today via strategic Googling.

Of course, McCain's campaign staff doesn't have that excuse. No, they're just hoping that the mainstream media outlets simply won't pick up on it because they're too enthralled interviewing Joe the Plumber. And they may be right. We'll see.

And as Martin says in the piece, none of this makes Joe a bad guy necessarily, but it does tarnish the average "Joe" image he's quickly building up. It also makes it appear that the whole moment between Joe and Obama was orchestrated to lead up to the debate and McCain's use of him as a political prop.

It's not exactly a shameful tactic (not compared, say, to equating Obama to terrorists), but it is a very political one, and not one that puts McCain in a good light.

Keep on counting

"Very funny"? Not so much.

Why does this man have a show?

I've been watching ads for this schmuck for what seems like years now on TV, online and in movie theaters, and my conclusion each time is that he's building a career on impressions that were tired and played out fifteen years ago.

Shatner, Nicholson, DeNiro, Pacino and John friggin Madden?!?! There are new ones, of course, such as Dr. Phil (who's enough of a parody himself) and Charles Barkley (which at least gets hims points for being willing to do a black guy). But he still doesn't impress me all that much with his talent.

Perhaps it's a "everything old is new again" phenomenon and his audience is composed mostly of people young enough to not remember his antecedents both great (Rich Little) and small (Kevin Pollack). I was a big Rich Little fan growing up, and I can tell you this guy is no Rich Little (and he's barely Kevin Pollack).

If nothing else, I just wish I could go to a movie theater and not be exposed to his massive jawline spread eighty feet wide and flapping in front of me.

Here he comes to save the day!

This was on CNN's front page just now:

Nice match of picture with headline, guys. He really exudes superhero-ness.

I have to say that seeing this guy lately is kinda depressing. He seems so beaten down and resigned to it all. Plus, I'm guessing launching an unprovoked war and saying "stay the course" for six years is much more fun than an economic bailout.

Another birthday come and gone

And though I marked a milestone yesterday by turning 35, some things don't change no matter how old you get. Like birthday gifts, for instance:





Thanks, sweetie.

Yep, we're related.

Via Neatorama:

McCain meets his base

This is pretty much the definition of "You Reap What You Sow":

The anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is acting to tamp it down. McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Barack Obama's character, he described the Democrat as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events this week as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Obama. Some in the audience are making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of "traitor," "terrorist," "treason," "liar," and even "off with his head" have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

McCain changed his tone Friday when supporters at a town hall pressed him to be rougher on Obama. A voter said, "The people here in Minnesota want to see a real fight." Another said Obama would lead the U.S. into socialism. Another said he did not want his unborn child raised in a country led by Obama.

"If you want a fight, we will fight," McCain said. "But we will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." When people booed, he cut them off.

"I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity," he said. "I just mean to say you have to be respectful."

Presidential candidates are accustomed to raucous rallies this close to Election Day and welcome the enthusiasm. But they are also traditionally monitors of sorts from the stage. Part of their job is to leaven proceedings if tempers run ragged and to rein in an out-of-bounds comment from the crowd.

Not so much this week, at GOP rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and other states.

When a visibly angry McCain supporter in Waukesha, Wis., on Thursday told the candidate "I'm really mad" because of "socialists taking over the country," McCain stoked the sentiment. "I think I got the message," he said. "The gentleman is right." He went on to talk about Democrats in control of Congress.

On Friday, McCain rejected the bait.

"I don't trust Obama," a woman said. "I have read about him. He's an Arab."

McCain shook his head in disagreement, and said: "No, ma'am. He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

He had drawn boos with his comment.

It's a little large for a sidebar

"I can review that film in three letters, George."

And now BEHOLD as I summarize a cinematic classic in the snarky parlance of the Internet!

"Meh."

Gastroformers

This is for my good friend at the old Red and White:

Tilt!

It's just like the Y2K bug, except really depressing!

The National Debt Clock in New York’s Times Square — first erected in 1989 when the debt was less than $3 trillion — cannot keep pace with the growing national debt, now at more than $10 trillion. NBC’s Brian Williams reported last night that “the debt has been piling up so fast lately they had to drop the dollar sign to make room for an extra digit.” A new clock with two extra digits will go up next year.

Securing the Stifler vote

The Internet has produced so many delightful little phenomenon in our popular culture.

Take URL's, for example.

Back when George Lucas was working on the first of the three prequels (and we were still under the impression that they might be worth a damn), some savvy online folks discovered that his company had registered a buttload of URL's that had new character names in them. It was their pre-emptive strike against cybersquatters, but it inadvertently revealed some details of the new film that people were clamoring for.

This practice still exists today. Not just for movies but for any sort of large enterprise. Like, say, presidential campaigns:

The GOP sure knows its base, you gotta hand it to them. A little digging by Govgap.com reveals that www.votefortheMILF.com links directly back to JohnMcCain.com, then on to Sarah Palin’s page and a video message.

The only investment port in a storm

Mrs. Mosley recently started working for a new company called Lender's Processing Services. As generic as that name sounds (and as confusing as her job can sound when she describes it to me), I can't help but be excited by it being name checked by Jim Cramer as the only safe investment during the current economic crisis:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=872296055

Sorry, it appears that Jim doesn't allow embedding. Despite his affection for constant movement (as evidenced by hiring a cameraman who can't stand still for three seconds), he's making sure his video stays in one spot, darnit.

Layin' pipe

In lieu of watching the debate, I'm tuning in to some of the live blogging. Here's the most interesting comment I've read so far (from Salon):

By the way, is anyone else watching CNN and absolutely fixated on their graph showing the real-time reaction of a group of uncommitted voters in Ohio? What I find really interesting is how high the numbers go whenever either candidate talks about energy independence. (Though, interestingly, it looked like women hated Palin's resurrection of the "Drill, baby drill" line, while men liked it.)

"Unhelpful, but f&cking funny."

This is why I tune into Zero Punctuation every week. Hi-larious:

Giancarlo Esposito Quote of the Month: October 2008

Not much time to work on this month's quote, so I'm going to the IMDb and grabbing it instead of seeing the actual movie.

Not that I was in a big hurry to see Nothing to Lose, a 1997 action-comedy starring Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence. From the evidence of the quotes, it would appear that Giancarlo's character, named Charlie Dunt, was pretty unlikable. If nothing else, it proves that his characters like to kick foreigners out of the driving seat of their own cars (see Night on Earth):

English Driver: Here, you blokes want a lift somewhere?

Charlie: Where you from?

English Driver: London.

Charlie: Me too!

English Driver: Really?

Charlie: Yeah!

English Driver: That's terrific! Hop in me car, let's go then. C'mon, jump in, let's go. Oh this is great.

Charlie: Hey would ya scoot over a smidgeon? [Shoves the English Driver out of the car and drives off]

Charlie: Sorry 'bout that! Cheers, mate! Ha ha ha ha!