Friday on ExileStreet
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REYNOLDS |
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Ten Things We Have Learned About Palin
by John Mark Reynolds [author,
academic] 9/5/08
1. Palin is not Quayle.
Palin got the full media rush. That set her up to either fail like Quayle or to become a superstar. Quayle was treated unfairly, but he never gave a speech like Palin did tonight.
2. The media will overcompensate soon and give Palin a big hug.
The self-important mainstream media believes weathering its storm is a bigger accomplishment than being a mother or running a state. Palin took their best shot and won. Far from hating her, this will vindicate her in their eyes. She is the Real Thing now . . . as long as there are no other real problems found soon.
3. The Democratic Party cannot handle a smart Republican woman.
Senator Harry “Make Him Go Away” Reid called her shrill. Republicans should run to You-Tube with that commercial. [more]
Thursday on ExileStreet
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FINEFROCK |
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GOP CONVENTION
Naughty Bit Player: Maggie Heather Ainsley Murphy Jeanne Glenn Cojones Barracuda Palin
by Steve
Finefrock - Hollywood Forum [scriptwriter] 9/4/08
She’s got that naughty librarian vibe going, according to Craig Ferguson and Mark Steyn, clearly showing good judgment at their attraction to Alaska Republican Babe Governor Sarah “Barracuda” Palin in a June broadcast, when Palin dubbed Ferguson an honorary citizen. Hotties with cojones are coming into the spotlight in Republican politics – first in talk-radio and cable TV [Ann Coulter, Margaret Hoover, Kate Obenshain, Laura Ingraham, et al], now in the political arena itself.
A sucker myself for a babe with brains [BWB], an improvement over a gun-packing Alaskan gal pal’s moniker of WWB [Woman with Brains], Palin reminds me of several screenplay characters of my own creation. One politically-themed script embraced three versions of Palin: future VP enroute to likely conservative as President at story coda, plus a presidential confidante, and a carrier Tomcat pilot who took the prez on a flyaround, when a senator, early in the story. These cojone cuties carry over into a TV series, “A State of the Union” that borrows from that creative source. [more]
Wednesday on ExileStreet
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ROSENBERG |
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It's A Dead Heat - Again
by Joel
Rosenberg [novelist] 9/3/08
Governor Palin dramatically shakes up the race as Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Mahmoud bear down on the U.S. and Israel
Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden got a 10 point bounce coming out of their impressively orchestrated convention. They had been down two points going in; they were ahead by eight on Friday. But McCain's stunning choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has dramatically changed the equation.
According to a new poll out Sunday morning by John Zogby, McCain and Palin had a two point lead over Obama/Biden, 47% to 45%. A new CNN poll released Monday morning has Obama/Biden at 49% vs. McCain/Palin at 48%. That's a dead heat - again. But the momentum is now McCain's going into a very challenging week. A Republican convention. A hurricane moving towards the Gulf coast. An economy that's rebounding (up 3.3% last quarter). The Russian Bear reemerging. And the possiblity of a major war in the Middle East this fall. [more]
Tuesday on ExileStreet
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PRELUTSKY |
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The Marxist Brother
by Burt
Prelutsky [scriptwriter] 9/2/08
I must confess that I am spending an awful lot of time thinking about Barack Obama. I hasten to add that it’s not, as is the case with Chris Matthews, because the senator sends shivers up my leg. Rather, it’s because I simply can’t figure out how he’s managed to convince so many people that he should be the president of the United States. It’s a lot like trying to figure out how Las Vegas magicians make lions and tigers disappear.
To be perfectly honest, I invariably feel that way about the candidates the Democrats try to foist off on us. But, as a rule, guys like Dukakis, Gore and Kerry, are just typical party hacks. But at least none of them attended a racist church, they didn’t associate with known terrorists and they usually didn’t display their contempt for national symbols and the U.S. military quite so blatantly. [more]
Monday on ExileStreet
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FINEFROCK |
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GOP CONVENTION
“Oklahoma” to Minnesota’s Hotel Whiskey:
Their End is Nigh
by Steve
Finefrock - Hollywood Forum [scriptwriter] 9/1/08
"Oklahoma” became Oklahoma’s official state song in 1953 thanks to some quick-thinking Hollywood showbiz showcasing by a future Lt. Governor and Governor. Opposition was considerable in the face of young George Nigh’s resolution, with ticket sales still booming at the Broadway playbill of the world-famous “Oklahoma” – which introduced the American ‘musical’ genre to stage plays. Nigh found his proposal foundering as an oldster ridiculed lyrics in the proposed new official song, tearfully citing lyrics from the existing official song, eagerly ridiculing the rather ‘strange’ words and terms of the proposed replacement, while prancing around the floor of the House of Representatives to nodding heads of most members. [more]
Friday on ExileStreet
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GORIN |
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Two-thirds into the Year of the Rat …
And how Kosovo will get Israel Nuked
by Julia
Gorin [pundit/comedian] 8/29/08
Every 12 years, the Year of the Rat returns. According to the Chinese calendar, 2008 is the Year of the Rat, and if one looks up what a Rat year signifies, one finds, simply, "Chaos". Indeed, this Year of the Rat has seen the Olympics hosted by China itself - further legitimized by an American president's insistence on taking the unprecedented step of attending an out-of-country opening ceremony. The commu-fascist nature of Red China was on proud display during that ceremony, demonstrating a precision by every performer marching to the same beat to almost superhuman perfection. China's unaborted women and girls were featured prominently (though not seven-year-old singer Yang Peiyi, because of her imperfect teeth). [more]
Thursday on ExileStreet
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NEWMAN |
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The Time to See Henry Poole is Here is Right Now
by Marc T. Newman [media reviewer/critic] 8/28/08
Henry Poole is Here is a timely film in many senses of that word. To the ancient Greeks time was represented by chronos and kairos. chronos was the word that stood for the passing of time. kairos spoke to the idea of timeliness – as in the right or opportune time. In theological terms, kairos is the kind of time in which God acts. The beauty of Henry Poole is Here is how it uses Henry’s time in the film, and our time in the theater, to infuse chronos – the passage of both Henry’s and our own -- with a little much-needed kairos. [more]
Wednesday on ExileStreet
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FINEFROCK |
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Hydrocarbons, Potatoe, Ego Squared
& Biden’s Bronze Foot
by Steve
Finefrock - Hollywood Forum [scriptwriter] 8/27/08
You don’t win silver, bragged the Nike ad some years ago – you LOSE GOLD. Reiterated often by Rush Limbaugh, it comes to mind this Olympic weekend as third-rate, bronze-medal senator and third-try presidential candidate Joe Biden becomes the left’s unerring earl of gaffe in OTO’s VP slot [note: "OTO" aka Obama The One]. Not that long ago we can recall that the left was quick to ridicule any error or gaffe of our guy, the first George Bush, as spit out of the lie-hole of Texas governor Ann Richards at their ’92 convention: Poor George, she chortled at the podium, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
Oh, such laughter among the folks who always complain that the republicans are the meanies in politics. They do implicitly grasp in their political bone marrow the First Rule of political combat advanced by one of their intellectual godfathers, Saul Alinsky, in his classic combat manual, “Rules for Radicals”: RIDICULE. [more]
Monday on ExileStreet
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PRELUTSKY |
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The Myth Of Moral Equivalency
by Burt
Prelutsky [scriptwriter] 8/25/08
There was a time not all that long ago when most of us agreed about what constituted good and evil. But that time, I’m afraid, has come and gone and is now as passé as five cent cigars and 45 cents-a-gallon gasoline.
Our former sense of morality hasn’t been replaced by immorality, at least not entirely, but by something that’s probably more dangerous because it comes cleverly disguised as broad-mindedness. Those in the mass media and academia ridicule people who still believe there are nations, values and cultures, that are superior to others, and they regard those Americans who have the temerity to disagree with them as yokels, super patriots and religious hypocrites. The elitists trumpet moral equivalency as an ideal. And yet, time and again, they display their own double standards. The same folks who were so upset about George W. Bush’s time in the Air National Guard and his early problems with alcohol aren’t the least put out by Barack Obama’s avoidance of military service and his admitted use of illegal drugs. Apparently even moral equivalency doesn’t exist if one of the parties is a Republican and the other is a Democrat. [more]
Friday on ExileStreet
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REYNOLDS |
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No Theocracy Here: Saddleback Does
What American Christians Have Always Done
by John Mark Reynolds [author,
academic] 8/22/08
And lo it is a few days after the Saddleback Civil Forum and the republic is still safe. Extremists on both sides of religion and government issues are deeply disappointed.
The thin slice of religious people in America who are theocrats have long viewed Warren as an enemy. The Civil Forum confirmed their worst fears. Warren held a civil conversation with people whom he is not in agreement. He was polite to the “enemy” and yet he has not yet been smitten with boils or some other sign of displeasure.
The loud but small segment of the population that is extremely secular is also displeased. After all Warren asked questions about the religious views of the candidates. Next thing you know candidates will be taking the presidential oath of office on the Bible! [more]
Thursday on ExileStreet
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McINTYRE |
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from CaliforniaRepublic
Active Voter is Cure for Political Ills
by Doug McIntyre [radio
host/scriptwriter] 8/21/08
I spent a couple of hours watching Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain talk with the Rev. Rick Warren on my television. I just got one of those giganto flat-screen HD TVs and it's taken over my life. I'm watching anything as long as it's HD.
The other night, I spent an hour on some kind of miracle cure for an ailment I don't even have. I watched some of the Olympics; I watched a lot of baseball. I watched a couple of Mexican car-dealership infomercials because the girls had an endowment bigger than USC's and ... do I really need a second reason? I watched B-list celebrities milking the last 10 seconds out of the fame-teat and a cheaply shot commercial for a Persian restaurant not far from my house, which means I may have to move.
So I guess it was inevitable I would stumble upon Obama and McCain. [more]
Wednesday on ExileStreet
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REYNOLDS |
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Stunning: McCain Actually Won
by John Mark Reynolds [author,
academic] 8/20/08
Sunday night at the Saddleback Civil Forum Obama was good, but seemed to be playing it safe while McCain, dear old John McCain, brought his A game.
I am stunned, because I did not know he even had a B game.
John McCain was better than Senator Obama. I actually liked John McCain, liked him, for the first time in this campaign.
I tried to be neutral and thought Obama had nice moments, but when pressed on issues he had nothing much to say. When asked, we discovered that Obama loves his mother and his wife. His biggest choices were, well, not very big. Wrestling with issues of war and peace from the Illinois State Legislature lacks the force of McCain telling of his standing up to Reagan (!) on Lebanon. [more]
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