quartermainefan

"Papers? Show me your papers." is what the nazis say in every old movie while the heroes are trying to get out of Europe.

Is it possible that the Democrats may not have been that enthusiastic about Walter Mondale or Michael Dukakis in the first place?

Walter Mondale was almost beloved by democrats. Dukakis they sort of blacklisted instantly. I don't recall Dukakis ever appearing at a convention again or giving a speech of note after 1988. He was a terrible candidate and deserved to lose. LLoyd Bentson was far better as a VP candidate and he got off the "you're no John Kennedy" line which has to be now the most famous debate zinger of all time.

I thought Chris Christie's speech was pretty flat. There were applause lines where there was an awkward moment of silence before the audience realized they were supposed to applaud. No one gave a better speech than Reagan at the 1992 convention, and what all the great speeches need is a little humor. Christie had nothing. I don't know how the speech was perceived but compared to Reagan or Anne Richards' speech where she spoke of "poor George" this was a real dud.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WxL3OU1dwmI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wtIFhiqS_TY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

These two both had a great way of delivering a line, but you gotta have a line to deliver. Christie's speech was total blah.

This is one of my favorite songs ever and it is out of print, not even on CD, not for sale on itunes to my knowledge. I haven't heard it in 15 years at least and finally someone uploaded it youtube

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KYwRdQuWC74" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

NJ Gov. Christie turned down Mitt's VP offer due to loss fears: sources

Gov. Chris Christie wasn’t willing to give up the New Jersey statehouse to be Mitt Romney’s running mate because he doubted they’d win, The Post has learned.

Romney’s top aides had demanded Christie step down as the state’s chief executive because if he didn’t, strict pay-to-play laws would have restricted the nation’s largest banks from donating to the campaign — since those banks do business with New Jersey.

But Christie adamantly refused to sacrifice his post, believing that being Romney’s running mate wasn’t worth the gamble.

“[Christie] felt, at one point, that [President] Obama could lose this. And, look, there still is that chance. But he knows, right now, you have to say it’s unlikely,” one source said.

The tough-talking governor believed Romney severely damaged his campaign by releasing only limited tax returns and committing several gaffes during his international tour in July.

Certain Romney was doomed, Christie stuck to his guns — even as some of his own aides pushed him to run, another source said.

“There were people around him that wanted him to reconsider, to actually push to be vice president. But he’s known there are real issues here. Chris knows the score,” the source said.

This is not primetime but this was one of my favorite shows as a kid in the 70s. There was a show called Wonderama with Bob McCallister and it is so alien to today's TV. It was I think a four hour live program hosted by Bob every sunday morning and would feature game show portions, animals and acts, singing and whatnot. Cartoons I think too. Then when it was time to go off every week Bob would sing this song which to this day I remember all the lyrics. Eventually it went national I think and was renamed "Kids are People too" but by then I was too old to watch I felt.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RNdMsvjPCE8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Speaking of James Stewart, John Ford was the most respected director in old Hollywood, winning four Oscars. Everyone says his masterpiece was The Searchers, but while it was very good nothing is better than The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. This is not a HD copy and it really has some beautiful visuals but I cannot recommend this movie strongly enough. It is a true classic just pop it into full screen and check it out.

<embed flashVars="playerVars=autoPlay=no" src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/7909877/o_homem_que_matou_liberty_valence_legendado.swf" width="600" height="338" wmode="transparent" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" name="Metacafe_7909877" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><div style="font-size:12px;"><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/7909877/o_homem_que_matou_liberty_valence_legendado/">O Homem Que Matou Liberty Valence (Legendado)</a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">The most amazing videos are a click away</a></div>

There is some little cartoon that runs before the full movie

It is tough to find a clear version of this over the actual opening, but The Incredible Hulk had the best piece of opening music ever I think

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rccD1EWenio" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Or perhaps this did

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1lih-z4G4jY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

These are some of my favorite themes

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Y7obvsi-gFQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Sb_7E_w8w0s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PA9t1nSGXXE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8MLfQRJQ40

I thought this was hilarious. Romney's "community outreach" has pages for polish americans, lawyers, and ranchers, but not one for African Americans.

http://thegrio.com/2...lacks-shameful/

That I think he knows is a waste of time. Polls show he enjoys roughly 0% support in the polls from this demo. It's a waste of time electorally speaking.

Anyway, I love Bill Mahar. He always speaks so honestly the common sense things the mainstream press refuse to say

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="+id+" width="440" height="366" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.crooksandliars.com/v/MjUzMjctNjA4MjE?color=C93033" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://embed.crooksandliars.com/v/MjUzMjctNjA4MjE?color=C93033" quality="high" wmode="transparent" width="440" height="366" allowfullscreen="true" name="clembedMjUzMjctNjA4MjE" align="middle" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object>

Oh, heavens no.... I'm not talking those kinds of consequences. I'm saying if your'e stupid enough to have sex that could result in pregnancy when you don't want it, or aren't ready.... then have the baby,

You have the baby. Can you? If you are physically unable to have a baby, on what basis do you start telling others they should have one.

As for the rest of your point (which is now rendered moot):

Give it up for adoption: outside of cute little white babies what are the stats on babies being adopted? Who is adopting these kids, you? Maybe I don't want to adopt those kids, I got a life of my own and down the road I want some of my own.

Give them to the gay parents: That's fine, except the very same people who want to stop abortions also want to stop gay people from adopting.

Have anal and oral sex: That's fine, except the very same people who want to stop abortions and stop gay people from adopting are also the same people who use local laws to make those sex acts illegal. Just ask Marv Albert what happened to him in Virginia because he got a blow job. Social conservatives have no answers to any of this except for their yearning for the shangri-la they think existed before those horrible 1960s started. Of course, back then wealthy people went away and had abortions anyway, only they didn't talk about it. The poor people had to take their chances with crackpot back alley doctors. So much better and oh so moral.

I never understood the logic of "you had sex, pay the consequences". Ok, a stupid teenager had sex and now she is pregnant. We could A) end the pregnancy or B ) force them to have the kid and ruin their lives, stop them from perhaps going to school and going on to whatever career they might have gone on to, maybe force them into a relationship they would never enter into normally, and subject the child to a life of potential poverty and misery. Well, that will teach them a lesson!

And once the lesson is taught what has teacher accomplished other than ruining two, perhaps three lives?

<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="360" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xlrtsa_abbott-and-costello-meet-frankenstein_shortfilms"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlrtsa_abbott-and-costello-meet-frankenstein_shortfilms" target="_blank">Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/crazedigitalmovies" target="_blank">crazedigitalmovies</a></i>

This is the best movie Abbott and Costello ever made, and a real treat. Bela Lugosi only played Dracula twice even though to this day when we think of Dracula's accent we really are hearing Lugosi. The final section when all the monsters come out is one of my favorite sequences ever because it would be so beyond insane if this was happening in real life.

Todd Akin's comment's were beyond offensive and reprehensible, and Romney has condemned them. Scott Brown has demanded Akin to withdraw from the race, and I hope other prominent Republicans will do the same:

http://news.yahoo.co...-145729298.html

To generalize this type of thinking to the entire GOP is a huge exaggeration. For some Democratic partisans, it seems that nothing a Republican can do or say is sufficient to convince them that the party doesn't "hate women." (It is very interesting to note that liberals have been hell bent on defeating Senator Brown, and his harsh comments about Akin certainly will not change that.)

Is it in the party's platform and the position of every republican running for office to be anti-choice or not?

This is why you just gotta love republicans and their almost Mr Spock levels of understanding science and medicine.

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) justified his extreme opposition to abortion by claiming that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant.

In an interview with KTVI-TV on Sunday, the GOP Senate nominee was asked if he supported abortion in the case of rape.

"From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," said Akin said of pregnancy caused by rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist."

That would be really cool, if somehow the egg got an "intruder alert!" warning and just told the sperm "sorry, closed for business, we don't want you here" You have to love this guy, the very embodiment of modern conservative thought.

But how else would we know about lesbian cabals running Washington?

http://www.huffingto...tm_hp_ref=media

That's really funny considering Condaleeza Rice was once Sec of State and Hillary Clinton is now. Maybe we need a lesbian cabal or two. Get Oprah for Press Secretary!

This is one of the finest movies ever made 'The Best Years Of Our Lives" with Fredrick March and Myrna Loy among others. It's about WWII vets having a difficult time adjusting to home.

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/20IGU4cVlMI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Long ago I remember someone like David Gergen saying on TV that politics was show business for ugly people. I really thought that was a great way of summing it up.

This was 6 years ago before he even got serious about working out. I would say Paul Ryan went into the wrong arm of show business.

One thing I love about silent movies is you watch these giant scenes and there was no FX then, they literally had to build these ancient cities and use hundreds of extras. That was when Hollywood was at its zenith and the studios were making magic.

I would like to recommend another classic, this from England. "Dead of Night", a horror anthology from 1945 that is at times brilliant.

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BRtlEEL4sp8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The story with the mirror and with the puppet are well worth watching.

George R R Martin just says it like it is!

"Show Us Your Papers"

I am way too busy these days for long political rants.

But I would be remiss if I do not at least make passing mention of how depressed, disgusted, and, yes, angry I've become as I watch the ongoing attempts at voter suppression in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, and other states where Republicans and their Teabagger allies control key seats of power.

It is one thing to attempt to win elections. But trying to do so by denying the most basic and important right of any American citizen to hundreds and thousands of people, on entirely spurious grounds... that goes beyond reprehensible. That is despicable.

It would really be nice if there were still some Republicans of conscience out there who would stand up and loudly denounce these efforts, a few men of honor and integrity for whom "win the election" does not "win the election at any cost." There were once many Republicans I admired, even I disagreed with them: men like Everett Dirksen, Clifford Case, Henry Cabot Lodge, William Scranton... yes, even Barry Goldwater, conservative as he is. I do not believe for a moment that Goldwater would have approved of this, any more than Robert A. Heinlein would have. They were conservatives, but they were not bigots, nor racists, nor corrupt. The Vote Suppressors have far more in common with Lester Maddox, George Wallace, John Stennis, and their ilk than they do with their distinguished GOP forebears.

The people behind these efforts at disenfranchising large groups of voters (the young, the old, the black, the brown) are not Republicans, since clearly they have scant regard for our republic or its values. They are oligarchs and racists clad in the skins of dead elephants.

And don't tell me they are libertarians either. No true libertarians would ever support a culture where citizens must "show their papers" to vote or travel. That's a hallmark of a police state, not a free country.

Bob Dole originally was perceived as the meanest man in Washington but towards the end he sort of morphed into this likable grouch. He had a quick mind and was good with the attacks, and that same quick mind naturally enough was good with the wisecracks.

Picking Ryan was a dream come true for the democrats because unlike so many hacks Ryan at least puts some ideas out--ideas to be destroyed and him along with it. Romney can duck every issue and say he is severely conservative and shoots varmints, but Ryan has talked actual specifics in the past. He won't be able to dodge like Palin and blame everything on the lamestream media.

Romney was ill served by his competitors this spring. Amateurs, religious lunatics, whack jobs and book peddlers are not going to prepare you for a real campaign. He doesn't have any response on this whole tax return issue and now he is bringing on a VP whose claim to fame is he wants to lower taxes on the rich! Newt said it best, "right wing social engineering" and I am sure we will be hearing that phrase more than once this fall.

Speaking of Tyrone Power, someone uploaded an entire classic, The Mark Of Zorro. Basil Rathbone is once again the baddie. It's a lot of fun and it is easy to see how a kid in 1940s could go for this.

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lMcTKNDB2TM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have not, but I did just recently watch the Robin Hood silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks, who I just adore.

rent it at amazon asap. It truly is the greatest swashbuckling movie ever. Errol Flynn in his prime I think was the greatest hero ever, and Basil Rathbone gets my vote for best character actor for villain. Claude Raines (who we see in both clips as evil Prince John) is just perfect too with a perfect accent for villainy. I think rottentomatoes gives it a 100% rating.