I am very intrigued by what is going on in the presidential race in 2008.  One one hand we have the Republican candidate John McCain, a man who considered moving to the Democratic party at one point and one whom the conservative Republicans are having trouble supporting. His big strengths are his military background (considering the current war) and a bit of "hero status".  On the other hand we have Hillary and Obama, two reported socialists who are battling for the nomination to the supposed detriment of the Democratic party.

What's going to happen here, and what will the consequences be for this country with any one of the three at the helm?

Let me begin by saying that I am a realist. I have some conservative views but the older I get I find that I lean more toward the libertarian viewpoint.

That being said, I feel that the country is headed for four more years of a classic S.N.A.F.U. regardless of who is elected. How did I get there? The two party system that we all know and love has become blurred to the extent that they are indistinguishable from each other. Even the party fundamentalists are coming full circle. The only thing that McCain is running on so far is his military experience. I have the utmost respect for him in this matter but I do not see how that is going to ease my pain at the grocery store or the gas pumps. Clinton has some great new government handouts, i'm sorry, programs, but she hasn't told the largest producing class, the middle, how much it is going to cost them yet. All I hear from Obama is "hope" and "change". Well, change just for the sake of change terrifies me more than any horror movie and I "hope" I am not the only one.

If there was any time in this great country's history that we could use a viable third party candidate I believe it is now. I fear though that the majority of the voting populace has been so brainwashed that they can only see the big letter D or R when they enter the booth.

If I can help lift your spirits anymore just let me know. I think I will keep stocking up. 

Obama will most likely win just because as a nation people are unhappy and change sells when things are bad.  And things are really bad. We've got the largest debt in our history, dollars about half of a euro, fuel and food at record highs and climbing (ask the Europeans how high it can climb), in a "war" that may last til I'm dead and longer, our civil rights being chipped away little by little, jobs dissapearing, homes losing value. 

And our congress, while the country's going to hell in the wicked witch's handbasket, thinks it should be spending it's time trying to figure out whether or not Curt Schilling's trainer shot him in the ass with steroids. I don't care if he stuffed Richard Gere's gerbil up his ass, and neither should they.

As far as who will benefit from an Obama presidency or a McCain presidency, just follow the money.  The Bush family is heavily invested in oil and defense contractors.  Hmmm . . what businesses just happen to be making money right now.?

Just follow the money.  Obama or McCain will pass legislation that benefits their friends, family, and major supporters. 

The talking heads on the right and left just keep most of the country polarized and seperated over one silly issue or another like:

abortion: whether you like it or not, it's a woman's right, and that right ain't goin' nowhere (if men could get pregnant, we'd have 24-hour drive thru abortion clinics)

guns:  (nobodys gonna take them)

gay marriage:  who cares. Like they can do the institution of marriage anymore damage than us heterosexuals have done it.

immigration: unless you mow lawns, lay asphalt or insulation, shingle roofs, or change the sheets in hotels, they're not gonna take your job.  This whole wall business reminds me of Fiddlers Green.  It would be interesting to know which politicians are invested in the construction companies building the wall.

The "war":  won't be over soon, even if Obama wins.  He'll bring some troops home as a token, but we're gonna keep a strong military presence around all that sweet Iraqi oil, believe you me.  We're still in Japan and Germany 60 years after WWII ended.  We ain't leavin' Iraq anytime soon.

Religion:  Whatever.Whomever.  Just stay the hell out of my government and courts.

Social Security:  would be just fine if they would just quit stealing it for some reason or another.

So vote for the guy who floats your boat but don't expect a savior.

Zombiemaster's dead on when he says we need a third party, but I don't think as a whole, we have the brains or guts to pull it off.  Probably happen just like history tells us it always does.  As the empire crumbles, the people pick up aZrms and put some other asshole on the throne.  I'll probably be dead before the next revolution.  oh well.

For the record:  politically I'm a moderate Libertarian with liberal anarchistic leanings and religiously I'm a liberal Quaker with naturalistic pagan philosophies.

I am going with pumpboy on this one. I think if Obama gets to be President he will be assassinated, we have way to many skin heads etc.

It's like you've basically read my mind, Pumpboy.

no ESP, Cryp -- you know it's just common sense.  They benefit from using this bullshit to keep us seperated, guarateeing that one of the republicrats get in and third parties stay out.  They've been doing it for along time, but I haven't seen anyone as bold about screwing us as this new group of "neocons"-- they don't mind whippin' out the big one in public.  They don't even give the constitution enough respect to sneak up on it -- they just screw it to it's face.  With a grin.

Just the fact that you are able to acknowledge a definition for a "moderate Libertarian" and a "liberal Quaker" deserves a commendation. Kudos my friend.

Thanks Man.

In the end we're screwed either way. A third party won't win in a two party system. If you want to figure out who to vote for, look at what the candidates have accomplished in the last 8 years. It's actually harder than it sounds. If you don't follow  politics its hard to go back and look at what a presidential candidate has done because you'll just find a bunch of propaganda. (Something stupid I have to vent about I was watching SNL and John McCain was on and it was surreal that guy can't even try to be funny and I'm still not sure if that was what he was trying to do. Obama and MCain both did introductions on Lifetime for the SHOW aRMY wIVES... wtf)

so anyway I blame people for not voting for Kucinich in their primarie

No, the definition of painful was when McCain, Obama, and Clinton appeared in videotaped messages...on WWE Raw.  The sheer level of fail was mind bogglingly astounding.  A third party actually could work...right now.  In another election, probably not, but the disinterest with congress (17% i think approval rating) would help a third party win...if they could actually field a charismatic, interesting, candidate.  I mean, look at Ross Perot.  He got huge votes in an election nothing like this.  It's possible a third party could work, but the climate has to be right.  Personally I'd prefer no parties.  Then the candidate wouldnt have to play to a platform/hardcore base as much.

I must say this is probably the most civil discussion on politics that I've seen on an internet forum in...well...ever.  You folks are really impressive--we all but kill each other over this nonsense in my neck of the woods.  I'm plotting the untimely demise of several of my relatives even as I type this because they took umbrage over my intention to write in great Cthulhu in the upcoming (looks like somebody has volunteered for the requisite sacrifices: iyaa, iyaa fthgn; yee-haaaa; etc.).

All this talk about us all being doomed and stocking up has given me a great idea for a horror movie.  Think of a society vaguely like the one in Mad Max: a number of institutions are still intact (some law enforcement, cell phone networks, and the internet), but things are getting really flakey around the edges.  Let's say there has been a perfect storm of wars and terrorists attacks (what the Hell? why not throw in a plague or two?) that have completely disrupted fuel supply lines all over the world (the U.S. still has some oil, but it's disappearing fast), food is becoming scarce, and massive rioting has largely laid waste to the major metropolitan areas. Needless to say people are freaking out and trying to find some degree of safety anywhere they can.  Enter Irwin (yeah, I know, sucky generic name, but it's the best I could come up with on short notice): basically he's a cannibal who alternates between overpowering and slaughtering people who blunder onto his isolated rural property and actively luring people to him through the remnants of the internet, the cell phone networks, and short wave broadcasts through which he promises food and safety.

Irwin was completely undistinguished before "the troubles" but he has become a really formidable, cold calculating yet unrelentingly brutal sociopathic killer.  When his victims make it to him, he's average-sized and seems to be somewhat deformed although nobody can pinpoint an actual defect.  He seems harmless enough and puts his victims at ease by being true to his word and giving them a place to stay and some food (meat pies and dried meat...concocted from previous victims).  Turns out that in addition to having the place riddled with booby traps, he's 10 times stronger, faster, and more resilient than any human has a right to be (needless to say he's cunning and completely merciless).  Also, he seems to be becoming larger and less human as time progresses.  The angle that I'm working on with him is that he's not something new (a mutant or something produced in a lab or anything)--his kind have always been apart of humanity, it's just that when a civilization falls apart, something is triggered in people like Irwin (it's not something that runs in a family--it just turns up every now and then) that causes them to change into something that is more suitable to exploit the chaotic new order.  It's from people like him that we get all of our legends of goblins, orgres, vampires, giants, and lycanthropes.  

Some of the themes I would delve into with him would be "I have met the enemy and he is us", the whole Lovecraftian "we are barely gnats in the grand scheme of things", alienation, social decay, what does it mean to be human, transformation, and--the old favorite--what are you really willing to do to survive.  Furthermore, his victims could be an assortment of the various political types (when it comes to politics, I am an equal opportunity abaser) for various flavors of social commentary.  I would unwind the plot with the group staying with him slowly discovering all sorts of small things (like, say, photographs of him when he was really runty but more normal looking and/or ear-rings in the meat pies) that eventually all add up to show the world of hurt that they are now in.  I figure that the group could find the spot in the basement or backyard where he has been burying his lombotomized victims up to their mouths and feeding them mush to tenderize them (yes, I'm totally ripping that off from "Coma" and "Hotel Hell") after a few of them have already "disappeared" and then the fight would be on.  Also, could it be that one of the group is just like Irwin, just not as far along?  ;-)

I thought that "Ogre" might be a good name for the movie.  I was thinking "Troll" (after the internet trolls who wander from forum to forum picking pointless fights just to argue with people) would also be good, but that name has already been taken by a couple of especially cheesy '80s movies.

i like it

 I'm glad somebody does.  Still I seem to be hearing crickets in the background and the equivalent to a deafening silence.  Serves me right for posting one of my crackpot ideas on what is perhaps an inappropriate venue.

Heh!  This was almost certainly as far as the idea was going to go anyway.  ;-)

I like it too.  Is it just me or does it seem a touch sci-fi AND horror?  It actually seems kinda like it crosses a bunch of genres.

don't be discouraged dude.  It's a very original idea which is something Hollywood seems to be sorely lacking in.  Turn it into a screenplay and send it around -- you just may be suprised.  Remember King had 200 rejection letters before selling his first novel, Carrie and that was even rejected quite a few times.  And Star Wars was almost not even made- that's how bad the studio was down on it.

If they can make three Sleepaway camps and even manage to have folks talk about how great they are?  Are you kidding me?

Yours is Shakespeare compared to some of the drivel they puke out at us.

Don't make me come over there.....:-P  lol

Suffice to say, I own the box set and I want to meet Felissa Rose.  I'm not claiming their some brilliant thing, but non-Jason/Freddy slasher movie wise, they're rather amusing and fun and cheesy.  A good time to me.  They're no Exorcist, anyone who believes that is nuts.

 Oh I like to mix up genres.  Event Horizon was on of my favorite Horror movies as well as one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies.  It was just a haunted house in space (not to mention that I thoroughly enjoyed Sam Neil's performance--he also made Mouth of Madness somewhat bearable).  I borrowed elements from a number of different movies from various genres and from various discussions I read on the Ossuary forums (as I said, particularly stocking up and holing up comments).  Arguably, various commentators here might be considered co-creators.  I also figure Horror is where you find it.  Some of the most horrific scenes and concepts that I've come across weren't in movies that would necessarily be considered part of the Horror genre.

I really don't have an original bone in my body (truly original ideas are pretty rare these days anyway--the South Park episode talking about how the Simpsons have already done everything covered that rather nicely), but what I can do is reshuffle various elements until I come up with something that at least seems vaguely original.  I like to think of it as creative regurgitation.  ;-)

Something all of us ought to consider doing sometime is writing a round-robin story in which somebody starts it with a basic scenario and then everybody takes turns writing a section of the story.

Pumpboy: this is something you mentioned in another post, but your Halloween bashes sound like the best possible get-togethers. 

I don't want to bash Rob's Halloween into the ground.  I realy like  Rob Zombie alot.  Always have.  And alot of people like his Halloween movie.  So I don't want to beat the proverbial dead horse ya know.

How 'bout in the jungles of Brazil, a monkey finds a steel drum of Trioxin -- cut to a group of beautiful cleavage-bearing  biologists preparing for their amazon trip.

PS: And of course, at all times the monkeys will be nude :)

And I'm not making any references to bestiality.  The cleavage is for my viewing pleasure.  (the history of cleavage and horror run hand-in-hand)  The monkeys don't care about boobs-- these monkeys want . . . BRAAAAAAAAIIIIINS!!!!

oo oo ee ee

I just threw in the nudity to interest Molly.

I think I need to call Webster's because that should be in the dictionary.  lol.

Well, Joe Biden is certainly an interesting choice as Obama's VP.  One thing about Biden is, he will not hesitate to take on the role of the Attack Dog for Obama.  The Democrats seldom have anyone actually take on that role, while the Republicans have been doing it for a couple of generations.  Not sure it will help Obama actually get elected, but despite the fact that the American people always say they hate negative campaigning, the Republicans have been pretty successful at it for a long time.  Karl Rove, the so-called "Architect", and the late Lee Atwater certainly proved that elections can be won or lost by how much time and money you spend smearing the other guys reputation.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-- I just realized you were talking about my party-- all this time I thought you were talking about me bashing Rob's movie--duh.   LMAO-- I've never typed LMAO before.

Anyone who can make it is certainly welcome-- 10-27-08  just outside Richmond, VA--dusk til dawn. It's always been open --the more the merrier--no cash required. Food and beverages supplied. It's been my gift each year to the spirit of Halloween/Horror.  And I get sick pleasure from it.

Bring a friend -it's nice when someone shows up with their own bag of blood.

Kids are welcome and a few kids will be there--but we don't hold back much so it's definitely an R-rated event.  Parents--you have been forewarned. There will be alcohol, but no under-age drinking.

There will be creepy things and people that will be trying to scare the shit of you and there will be smoke and fog and strobe lights and open flame. 

Costumes are required and we give out trophies.

But back to your suggestion, there was a time in the wee hours of the morning last year when the crowd had dwindled down to about 20 people and everyone had been partying,scaring, dancing, when about 10 of us were sitting around the bonfire talking horror movies-- it was a great calm period in the midst of the madness. 

I'm not going to put my address out on the forum--but if anyone wants to come, e-mail me and we'll chat about it--just to make sure we have the same expectations of what happens that night. 

It doesnt matter which one of us you vote for, your planet is doomed...DOOMED!!!!