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Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)

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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a rural accent, wears horn rims, has a young child with Downs Syndrome and favors drilling for oil and gas. "We need oil, we're hurting,and the pristine Alaskan wilderness can stand a little mucky-muck if we can increase our revenues" is what she's basically saying in this Glenn Beck interview clip. Interviewed in early June, she's also asked around the two-thirds mark about the possibility of being McCain's running mate.

From her Wikipedia bio:

In 1984, Palin was first runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, winning a scholarship to help pay her way through college. In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.

Details of Palin's personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose burgers, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane. Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.

Palin holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics. She briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart.

Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP at an oil field on the North Slope and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile "Iron Dog" race four times. The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.[3] Todd is a Native Yup'ik Eskimo. The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage.

On September 11, 2007, the Palins' son Track joined the Army. Eighteen years old at the time, he is the eldest of Palin's five children. Track now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September. She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7.

On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Downs syndrome. She returned to the office three days after giving birth. Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," Palin said. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"

From the L.A. Times "Top of the Ticket" Andrew Malcolm on 8.1: "Questions have now arisen over whether Palin used her office to try and fire her ex -brother-in-law from a state trooper's position. Palin asserts the charge is untrue, but the Alaska Senate this week approved the hiring of an independent investigator to look into the allegation.

"Our colleague Frank James over at the Swamp has more details on this governor we're likely to hear more about in coming years."

Noted<< previous | next >>Specs Thing

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 29, 2008 at 7:49 AM

comment #1

Richardson says ...

Jeff, looking at some of the lower threads, it looks like the timeline of posts is or was getting screwed up. Has that been fixed?

Posted by Richardson at August 29, 2008 8:02 AM

comment #2

Count Thread says ...

I would trust Sarah Palin (and her oil-drilling husband) on what Alaska can stand far more than anyone who has never visited the "pristine wilderness" of the ANWR mud swamp.

Posted by Count Thread at August 29, 2008 8:09 AM

comment #3

buster says ...

That's not Palin on the cover, that's a photo chop ... take a few aspirin and let us know when your head feels better after having just kneed yourself in the forehead.

Posted by buster at August 29, 2008 8:17 AM

comment #4

Howlingman says ...

I'm still lost as to how drilling for oil in ANWR or off-shore will somehow translate to lower gas prices. Are there plans to nationalize Exxon-Mobil or something?

Posted by Howlingman at August 29, 2008 8:18 AM

comment #5

vansmith says ...

Oh lets call the whole thing off...

Posted by vansmith at August 29, 2008 8:19 AM

comment #6

Richardson says ...

Howlingman - Colbert explained it pretty well last week; the reason oil prices are so high now is that oil speculators bank on oil futures; they pay more now because they expect it to be worth even more later. Supposedly, if we begin drilling, even though it will have NO results for 5-10 years, speculators will lower the prices because they will expect something to come of it.

Posted by Richardson at August 29, 2008 8:22 AM

comment #7

Count Thread says ...

BTW, one thing strikes me-- we're not only guaranteed to have an African-American or a woman in the administration, we're also guaranteed to have a leader from either Hawaii or Alaska, too.

America in the 21st century, all grown up. . . politics aside, I hope that this closes the book on America being a racist or sexist country.

Posted by Count Thread at August 29, 2008 8:23 AM

comment #8

buster says ...

politics aside, I hope that this closes the book on America being a racist or sexist country.

Progress, not success....

As Jeff points us constantly, this country is still rife people who won't vote for Obama because's black, and--as Jeff proves constantly--people who have issues with women regardless of their political leanings.

Posted by buster at August 29, 2008 8:26 AM

comment #9

Howlingman says ...

Richardson -- speculators have less to do with it than with refinery capacity, of which we are sorely lacking. To wit: gas prices in Canada (still America's largest energy supplier) are higher than they are here, because the oil pumped from the ground and pulled from the oil sands are shipped to the US for refining, then BACK to Canadian pumps. The market still sets the price, and for all their debatable impact, I doubt drilling in Alaska will have a noticeable impact on the price; all it takes is the threat of another hurricane in the Gulf to drive it up.

Posted by Howlingman at August 29, 2008 8:30 AM

comment #10

krout says ...

Pick Flick!

Posted by krout at August 29, 2008 8:32 AM

comment #11

p.Vice says ...

Just what we need: a proud cro-magnon she-beast running the country. And now Palin as VP?

If she was runner-up Miss Alaska, they must have some stone-cold ugly bitches up there.

Posted by p.Vice at August 29, 2008 8:54 AM

comment #12

George Prager says ...

It's the Harriet Miers move. She's going to drop out in a month and then McCain's attitude will be "You forced Huckabee on me you bastards!!!!"

Posted by George Prager at August 29, 2008 9:20 AM

comment #13

Ponderer says ...

At last! A vice president whose sole qualification is scoring in the 95th percentile on "Hot or Not."

Posted by Ponderer at August 29, 2008 9:21 AM

comment #14

theultimatebiu says ...

Like I said before......really stupid choice. Its obvious sexist pandering at its worst.

Posted by theultimatebiu at August 29, 2008 9:32 AM

comment #15

SpinDozer says ...

' Supposedly, if we begin drilling, even though it will have NO results for 5-10 years, speculators will lower the prices because they will expect something to come of it.'

'What the drilling advocates are saying is that the prospect of increased oil supply some time in the next decade from drilling in the now proscribed regions is driving prices down for delivery in the next few months.

Strange as it seems, such a contention is theoretically possible. NYMEX oil futures contracts extend out to December 2016. If people were expecting big new future supplies, you could be seeing selling in those back month contracts, perhaps hedged by buying of the contracts to be settled in the very near future, a trading tactic called a calendar spread.

In a condition called backwardization, oil futures contracts for the long-term future trade at a discount to contracts to be settled in the next few weeks. If the Kudlow thesis is right, the current selloff should have seen more selling in the longer-term contracts than in the current contracts, reflecting the belief that supplies in the next decade will be more plentiful.

In reality, just the opposite has happened. '

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JH16Dj03.html

Posted by SpinDozer at August 29, 2008 9:43 AM

comment #16

lazarus says ...

Let me get this straight--her husband works for BP? That seems like something the Democrats will have a field day with. It's a lot worse than whatever Joe Biden's son is doing.

So you can go after her about the drilling in Alaska, but you can also say her family works for one of the big oil corporations that's jacking up gas prices and stuffing its coffers with everyone's hard-earned cash. Easy, no?

Posted by lazarus at August 29, 2008 10:01 AM

comment #17

BurmaShave says ...

Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trigg? I love how much this was a fuck you to Romney and his Tags and Mutts and whatever. Who would have thought a guy named Barack Obama would have the least pretentiously named children?

Posted by BurmaShave at August 29, 2008 10:04 AM

comment #18

Todd says ...

George Prager you might be right in that she may go byebye due to the unexpected stress on her family (State Investigation) if Mccain doesn't see a big bump in the polls.

Posted by Todd at August 29, 2008 11:00 AM

comment #19

Richardson says ...

"and for all their debatable impact, I doubt drilling in Alaska will have a noticeable impact on the price"

I should say, I do agree with you on this, I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. I just thought that Colbert did a great job of explaining the argument in simpler terms than, say, SpinDozer's post (no offense, Doze).

Posted by Richardson at August 29, 2008 11:15 AM

comment #20