Sweet teaser.

Oh no. It’s Godzilla, isn’t it? Crap. I hated that remake. Triggered one of the WORST migraines I ever had.

Watched it. Webb tore Graham a new asshole. The only spot where I wished Webb would have said something was when Graham interjected: “I’m not questioning your patriotism” … like, who the fuck is Lindsay Graham to even think he’s in the position to make a ruling on Jim Webb’s patriotism? Fuck you, you, Huckleberry.

To be fair (to Webb), the comment by Huckleberry was made in cross-talk and just one of many slurs Huckleberry made against Webb.

Oh, and Jim Webb earned the Navy Cross for his service in Vietnam. Lindsay Graham was a lawyer in the National Guard and never left stateside during the first Gulf War.

It;s been confirmed that it’s NOT Godzilla, thank god.

“Fuck you, you” is the new “Fuck you” …

I’m sorry, I disagree. I did like the fact that Webb attempted to counter Graham’s nonsense, but in truth he let most of Graham’s worst muck slide.

That was no smackdown, that was a contest in troop-loving and more of the same.

El Cid – I think the fact that Graham was projectile vomiting so much muck is why Webb had a tough time countering it all, or even most of it. There’s a time limit after all, plus the overall concession to being civil first on such shows.

Webb doesn’t get personal until Graham does, but in the last two minutes the former really lets loose against the latter and it was great to see. But no, he didn’t have the time to counter most of it, but again, that’s the format of the show.

It is truly disgusting how Graham can so easily toss lives away based SOLELY on what he is ‘hearing’ from the Bush Administration. He has completely abrogated his responsibilities as a Senator.

==
Nitpick on the teaser-Light moves at ~300,000 km/sec. Sound travels at ~0.3 km/sec.

Ya know, our side needs a Coulteresgue speaker who will say things like “The troops don’t need a closeted homosexual from North Carolina blah blah blah.” It is way out of bounds and a bullshit tactic but if I’ve learned anything in the last 20 years, it’s that bullshit sells. Huckelberry’s flock would stampede away cause they’re stooooopid, stupid enough to vote for this lickspittle shithead. Our side doesn’t play to the stupid enough. We need one or two people, preferably men cause the stupid will discount the input of smart women because they’re women and that’s enough for the stupid. We really overestimate the stupid, the Republicans don’t.

Every time I see Lindsay Graham, I throw up a little in my mouth.

Just as gay has two defintions, so does c*#ksucker. He embodies both.

The Godzilla Witch Project.

You know, Godzilla didn’t actually give me much in the way of a migraine, or at least nothing beyond the three-day thing I get from anything loud and flashing viewed in the presence of the odor of popcorn, but I have a feeling the whole hand-held camera thing would not improve it.

I’m w/ TomMil. There’s stupid folks out there waiting to be won. Why should the Republicans have a monopoly on exploiting this precious, renewable, stupid resource?

I just wish Webb had said, “Will you shut the FUCK up and let me speak, please? ‘Friend'”? So does he, probably.

Cloverfield

Do I win a prize?

Ya know, our side needs a Coulteresgue speaker who will say things like “The troops don’t need a closeted homosexual from North Carolina blah blah blah.” It is way out of bounds and a bullshit tactic but if I’ve learned anything in the last 20 years, it’s that bullshit sells.

This makes me unutterably sad. I agree that Webb’s a good guy. I also agree with Righteous Bubba that what we saw was not a smackdown. No, what we saw in that clip was precisely the reason I pulled the plug on my TV in 1991 and haven’t had it since. I don’t truly HATE much, but I do hate what’s been passing itself off as public debate in this country (especially on TV) for the past couple of decades. Nobody listens, nobody is allowed to make a point, nobody is held accountable for responding to the actual question asked. I understand TomMil’s frustration, but the minute “my guys” accept the inevitability of discussion-as-unsupportable-and-irrelevant-smear, that’s the day there’s no such thing as “my guys” anymore.

Cloverfield is just the code name the viral marketing campaign has for it now. I think it is most likely a new Godzilla. The hint is that “Rob” is off to Japan and that is why his friends are throwing him the party.

I had a boyfriend who was totally into Godzilla and had every Godzilla movie. He mistook my willingness to put up with it for actual interest. I mean, I’m a fan of Japanese culture and all and I can appreciate Godzilla on a certain level but it’s hard to sit through some of the movies. I did like the fairies that always announced the coming of Mothra though. They were sweet.

No, I know the TITLE of it, dude, I just don’t know what it IS. Dig?

And in non-politics-related-program activities, what do y’all think this movie’s gonna be

Wrath of the Giant Giulani, or Mr. Mayor Returns

Just as “Fuck you, you” is the new “Fuck you,” Giulani is the new Giuliani.

Along the lines of all the Godzilla guesses, I’d guess a Rodan pic. But only because I saw something flying there.

J.J. Abrams? Should be interesting…

That was horrible, I agree. But Mortician, and all of you who are disgusted by not just the bullshit but the way it’s presented, go watch this Bill Moyers piece right now. You’ll be damn glad you did.

It’s Teh Drumbeat, picking up some rhythm….

mikey

BIOLLANTE FTW

I still think it is the new Godzilla. One hint is on the Slusho viral website. I went there and the only info is in some history about Slusho that talks about finding the secret ingredient for Slusho on the bottom of the ocean. Drinking it makes you huge, like a whale, like Godzilla? This is consistent with the Godzilla story. In one movie Godzilla’s old bones from a previous movie where he was killed sort of spontaneously reconstitute themselves on the ocean floor.

Gah! I know too much about this.

Smiling Mortician,

I’ve been a lurker here for what seems like years (I blame HTML Meneken for making it seem like an era—I joke), I’ve read your comments and I have nothing but respect for you. I ended that sentence with a period and not a “but” because I mean it. You are absolutely right, and you put your finger on the motivation of my comment. It is frustration. I am a victim in my belief in “American Exceptionalism”. I really believed in the the concept of a “Constitutional Democracy” and I believed that my fellow citizens would not allow that to be abandoned. These last few years I have watched my fellow citizens abandon those principles. What bothers me most is a recognition of my own naivete. If we all were to be absolutely honest, we would recognize that George W. Bush is the quintessential American President, he just treats this country the way the aristocracy has treated the rest of the world for as long as I can remember. He is just unsophisticated enought not to understand how important it is to keep up the charade for the American public. So, I decided that we should play their game. You are right, I was wrong. If we go down the path I advocated, we would prove Ralph Nader’s point, there is no difference.

My guess is that “Cloverfield” is just a code name, like “Longhorn” or “Cairo” at Microsoft, because it’s the name of a major street in Santa Monica. Maybe somebody’s office is on it.

It wouldn’t work either TomMil, because the only reason that Coulter is allowed to be on TV is because the right owns the media and they want her there. They would not allow her left analog air time for one second. It also wouldn’t work because the left, traditional Dems and Progressives alike, have a different culture than the right does.

I don’t have an answer for how we reclaim the media other than buying some ourselves. Conversation and bi-partisanship will not work. Ian Welsh had a brilliant piece on Firedoglake the other day.

When All They Understand Is Fear or Force

Republicans, as Krugman has observed, are a revolutionary power. They do not accept the legitimacy of the bipartisan non-parliamentary form of government that ruled the US for most of the post-war period. They do not accept that all three branches of government are co-equal. They do not believe that everyone has to obey the law. They are in Washington to get what they want, and if they can’t get it they will bring the entire machine to a shreeking halt.

The Republicans in general, and the Bush administration in particular really have only strategy – they always, always, give the other side nothing of any significance. They never cooperate, they never admit a lie, they never back down unless forced to do so. They understand only the most primal of motivations – fear and force. If you can’t force them to do something; if you can’t make them fear the consequences of not doing something, they won’t do it.

The only way you fight them is with force, they understand nothing else. Perhaps another strategy is exposure. Make the rest of America come to understand how sick these fascists really are.

Attention: sweaters make you gay and ruin your campaign. Blowjob from a female intern stat!

Mikey’s right. Watch the Moyers interview with Bruce Fein and John Nichols.

Is it the American remake of The Host?

Becoming the monster isn’t the answer.

How I break it down is: at the center of democracy is the unquestioned embrace of human dignity and equality. Everything else flows from that. Doesn’t mean I have to like you; doesn’t mean I won’t despise your politics; doesn’t mean I won’t fight you to my last breath to see that my ideas win and yours lose; doesn’t mean I might not want to see you removed from society and placed in prison if your crimes deserve it. But the minute I stop seeing you as a person– the instant I define you as a lesser creature whose basic dignity doesn’t matter, who can be tortured, humiliated, degraded, held down, eliminated— then I have crossed the line.

No, we don’t need to become the monster. We need to grab ahold of that central, revolutionary commitment to unassailable dignity upon which this country was founded and hold it high. We need to stop pretending that we can treat human rights and the dignity that they protect as niceties that we can maybe get around to someday when the world/country/neighborhood is safer. That shit ain’t America.

Anyway, that’s the compass I try to use. And its the only thing I know that makes me fierce enough to fight monsters without becoming one.

the blob.

http://www.1-18-08.com

That’s domain tracks back to paramount, it’s legit. FWIW I think Sony still the rights to Godzilla.

There’s a lot of talk about this being Cthulu, which, if so…wow.

Cthulhu, obviously.

Hey mikey, thanks for the link. I read the transcript this morning but haven’t watched it yet — the home DSL connection is too slow. I’ll watch it at the office tomorrow.

And yeah, TomMil, I think I get where you’re coming from.

And kingubu?

We need to grab ahold of that central, revolutionary commitment to unassailable dignity upon which this country was founded and hold it high. We need to stop pretending that we can treat human rights and the dignity that they protect as niceties that we can maybe get around to someday when the world/country/neighborhood is safer. That shit ain’t America.

Damn straight.

The only way you fight them is with force, they understand nothing else.

noen, I think Welsh’s point (or Krugman’s?) is pretty accurate if we’re talking about in-the-loop Republicans. But what of your generic GOP voter, who I think is more passive, tends to respond to emotion rather than logic, and values the status quo above almost anything else? With those people, the battle seems to be to get them to reach a sufficient level of awareness that there’s some bad shit happening and that it could negatively affect them. This is a tough battle to win, given that most of the Republicans I know tend to cover their ears and go LaLaLa when presented with facts.

Perhaps another strategy is exposure. Make the rest of America come to understand how sick these fascists really are.

This, I think, is exactly the right strategy. And it seems to be working, if the current polls are any indication. I propose we pool our pennies, buy up some time & space in the media (high- and low-tech, big- and small-market) and publish individual sound bites of American Fascism’s Greatest Contemporary Hits, complete with sourcing. And each piece would run with the tag “That shit ain’t America” (full credit to kingubu, of course).

I could have used more “stop living in fantasy land” from Webb, but he still did an okay job.

Well that’s interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Graham#Military_service
That’s very interesting.

Auguste is correct.

That terrifying and nameless trailer is for Cthulhu.

Yeah, that wasn’t much of a takedown. FFS, Webb’s son is/was in Iraq. Webb had all the ammo to truly smack that chirping bitch down, and got too caught up in holding his temper.
Dems have to learn to fucking act like they care. That’s a huge part of why they lose national elections. If Gore or Kerry had been caught acting human, who knows.

http://www.theparasitemovie.com is aliased to the http://www.1-18-08.com site also, the rumor has been that the monster was called “the parasite” on site. So I think it’s a new monster movie and not a re-tread. That would point away from H.P. Lovecraft.

Lovecraft’s copyrights all expire in 08 (as he died in ’37). OTOH that would give them only two weeks of people knowing the title to properly pimp the movie (assuming you can’t promote a title somehow covered by copyright–I have no clue).

I think it is Godzilla and that this one looks like it should. (again I have no clue)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOISbaA2G18 Godzilla done right?

History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men.

Either that trailer will end up being a very disappointing movie, or Godzilla. Which is the same thing. It’ll all end in tears, I say.

But, but, but he wrote a book that supports child molestation!

Liberals support child molestation!

There’s no way this thing is Godzilla.  The Japanese press would have known about it for months, if that were the case.

I dunno, Cthulu’s a little complex for most Yankee pig dogsAmericans, I think it’s Gamera, based on general denials that it’s GOJIRA (I’m GOJIRA, damnit, not Godzilla!) and a reference to a TV Guide interview in which Abrams said Gamera was his fave movie monster. I mean, Cthulu (am I missing stupid “apostrophes as accents” somewhere?) wouldn’t just show up & knock the head off the Statue of Liberty would it? It’d melt us all w/ the terror of its image, or unseen dread or what have you, eh?Maybe it’s a Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man sized G. W. Bush, and knocking the head off the Statue o’ Liberty is a bit of symbolism.
My next project? Thanks for asking, it’s a documentary: “GOJIRA vs. Lindsay Graham.” Guess how it ends.

The Giant Islamist

Cloverfield… J. Abrams. With a big writing assist from Drew Goddard, who wrote some of the non-suckey final episodes of Angel and Buffy. (Selfless, Xander looses an eye. Conversations with Dead People. The Angel where Conner came back. The Angel with the fucked up Vampire Slayer.) He`s also written alot for Alias and Lost.

Goddard loves to write about Daddy issues and Huge monsters that drive us insane (the weak ass Illyria shit).

Abrams has also been working on some weird viral websites like

http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com

Abrams and Goddard live for Lovecraft…. The space aliens and the ancient gods are comeing to Earth for another war. And ants with video cameras are going to tape it.

more stuff at aintitcool.com

For what it’s worth J. Abrams specifically disavowed the Ethan Hass stuff. Could be disinformation, but I’m leaning against it. I really wanted to believe to but I don’t think this is going to be Lovecraft’s moment in the sun.

The more I think about it, the last time I saw this level of conjecture and arcane sort of speculation, the end result was the Blair Witch Project. Right down to the handheld shots.

I’m not gonna see this first weekend out, just because I don’t wanna be that chump again.

This is a tough battle to win, given that most of the Republicans I know tend to cover their ears and go LaLaLa when presented with facts.

What’s worse is when they listen and actively disbelieve. I had a long, drawn-out argument with one of my supervisors at a horrible temp job I had about global warming, and when I said the planet is getting hotter, his counter-argument was “who says? if you find someone who says one thing, I can find someone who says another.” Source credibility is just not in their vocabularies. If Marine Biologist Ph.D. says CO2 sinks off the coast of Okinawa are killing coral reefs, and Bob McFoxNewsophile says that’s not true, a wingnut thinks that’s equal time. The reality-based community weeps.

Nope, not Godzilla and not Cthulu.

Gamera

or so some say…

This, I think, is exactly the right strategy. And it seems to be working, if the current polls are any indication. I propose we pool our pennies, buy up some time & space in the media (high- and low-tech, big- and small-market) and publish individual sound bites of American Fascism’s Greatest Contemporary Hits, complete with sourcing. And each piece would run with the tag “That shit ain’t America” (full credit to kingubu, of course).

That’s actually a really good idea. Don’t say ‘shit’ in your commercial, but otherwise, great idea.

The Godzilla Witch Project.

LOL

I know I’m already way, way late to the party, but…

1. Not Godzilla. The last Godzilla movie made in America flopped, and I can’t see the studios going back to a property they see as “unsuccessful,” especially so soon after the last one.

2. Not Gamera or Rodan. They’re minor-league next to Godzilla, and the studios would sooner revisit Godzilla, instead of the also-rans.

3. Not Cthulhu. Or at least I hope not Cthulhu, because smashing up cities is really not what Lovecraft was about. If it’s Cthulhu, I’m shootin’ Abrams in the face.

And finally, there’s no reason it has to be an established property. If you make a new monster, you don’t have to pay royalties to another studio. I know, I know: “Originality from Hollywood? But that’s harder than remaking something!” But still, a man can dream…

I’m just hoping this isn’t a case of “The trailer was better than the movie…”

Oh, and while I’m thinking of it, the trailer suggests some sort of seismic event at the first — the car alarms going off, the lights flickering off and then on, and even the TV stations say they think it’s an earthquake. However, the earthquake isn’t ongoing — it’s not causing seismic stress every time it moves.

That suggests to me either something coming up out of the ground, or something hitting the ground after a long jump or fall. So I’m thinking either some sort of tunneling mole-monster or a monster from space…

I’m guessing that is the teaser to the film adaptation of the video game “Rampage?” That would be sweet.

Nope, not Godzilla and not Cthulu.

or so some say…

But, Gamera is the friend to all children!

Profbacon, thanks for that. I’ll keep that dude on my radar from now on. He couldn’t save Buffy season 7, but once Whedon started writing the subtext as text, it was beyond repair anyway. Well, that and the fact that nothing happened for twenty goddamn episodes.

Supposedy the “Cloverfield” trailer was shot separately, so nobody even knows if the movie’s gonna be ground-level POV.

Some dude’s been making the rounds on horror blogs saying he knows for a fact it’s a remake of “The Host,” but the footage doesn’t bear that out. Smacks of monster-in-an-asteroid to me; a fine subgenre that’s due for revisiting.

I’m persuaded that it isn’t a Gamera flick, that wouldn’t sell very well here. Don’t think it is Cthulu either because there is already on opening this fall. And JJ Abrams wouldn’t want to do a simple remake anyway so I am guessing that “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” has it mostly right.

From what I hear the movie is only going to run around 30 million with 50% spent on CGI. I’m not sure you can do very much with that kind of budget so we probably won’t even see the monster very well. Which is ok I suppose, “Signs” was ruined when you saw the aliens, it’s much better when you let your imagination fill in.

“Signs” was ruined when you saw the aliens,

Not to mention that when you realized how stupid and unprepared these aliens were- trying to invade Earth without having even bought some decent guns- you could no longer take them seriously.

And the fact that their achells Heel was water. 70% of the planet is covered in it. There`s water in the goddamn air! They should have been boiling. No freaking space suits. And a physically strong Alien that can`t break out of a basement? Never say Signs…. I just get so pissed off thinking about that movie.

And the stuff about Slusho cola. Slusho was a drink on Alias. And if you look around sites that referance Slusho cola, a lot of them direct you to the Hanso Corporation and the Dharma project. Lost shout out.

Bad Robot and Mutant Enemy alums are working together to give birth to a giant city destroying baby.

Drew Goddard also wrote the story of the Immortal, a centuries old man who may or may not be evil, striding the two like a colossus, no real master.

I`ve heard the Godzilla stuff. I can`t buy it. It wasn`t just the piss-poor movie. It was Puff Daddy`s blasphmy of Kashmir which can NEVER be forgiven. No Godzilla remakes until P-Diddy stops making music.

This is future-reaching news footage of what will happen if the DemocRats take over the White House. And I’m not kidding.