May 11 2012

Project Cornlight: Bringing Hollywood to the Heartland

Category: cultureSusieQ @ 3:03 pm

Big Hollywood spotlights Iowa native Tanna Frederick:

Project Cornlight: Bringing Hollywood to the Heartland

The Iowa native knows better, having founded her state’s Independent Film Festival where she meets plenty of talented filmmakers who call Iowa home. “A lot of local artists have picked up a camera and started filming things. Kids I graduated with are making films and doing well in the indie circuit,” says Frederick, star of “Irene in Time” and “Hollywood Dreams.” It’s astonishing to see.” And she’s taking steps to make sure we see even more of it. Frederick’s new Project Cornlight initiative will let Iowans tell their stories on the big screen. The new Project will enlist Iowa-based writers, directors and actors to create independent films to be distributed on a national scale. The effort also hopes to increase tourism, support area filmmakers and positively impact the local economy.


The stories will reflect the heartland, she says, featuring characters “you can’t get unless you come to Iowa,” says Frederick, who’s also excited about an upcoming Cornlight feature about two hermits who fall in love. “These stories, for me, are so rich and exciting, not things you see elsewhere. You can’t record them on a sound stage … the only place you can film it is Iowa.”


May 10 2012

Kickstarter Revives Steve Jackson’s Ogre

Category: cultureShannon @ 9:51 am

The PA Report – Steve Jackson’s Ogre wins at Kickstarter: more games will be printed, and each game will be better

Ogre is a war game released in 1977, and has since gone through a number of updates and revisions. The game has been out of print for years, but Steve Jackson was interested in the idea of bringing a full board game based on the rules into production. Jackson had planned to print around 3,000 copies of the new version of the board game, until the company’s COO had an idea: Why not support the game with a Kickstarter campaign?

I spoke with Jackson about the decision to ask for fan funding to support the game’s release. “Phil Reed saw it more than a year ago. It just took him a while to get me to try it,” he said. “I didn’t think we ‘needed’ it, because we could have funded the project from our own cash flow. Now I’m sold. The extra visibility, and the incredible degree of fan interaction made it very worthwhile.”

The original goal was $20,000, and as of this writing the amount raised is $654,198, with 70 hours to go. The surprising thing about that amount is that it came from only 4,122 backers; the initial estimates of the 3,000 print run weren’t far off. What no one saw coming was that fans didn’t just want to buy the game, they were willing to pay to make the game better.

Kickstarter has been instrumental in launching several new board games.  Board game publishing has a steep barrier to entry for any up and comer.  And Kickstarter is no guarantee of success.  But, Kickstarter allows a way to test demand for a product and mitigate the risk associated with bringing a new title to market.  But what Steve Jackson is proving with his Ogre campaign is that it can be extremely valuable tool to relaunch existing games.   And if a project takes off like Ogre did, it will mean that the games that do get published will be even better.

hat tip Moe Lane

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May 09 2012

Obama Wins NC Primary and Gay Marriage Ban Passes

Category: 2012,PoliticsSusieQ @ 6:57 am

I just wanted to get that juxtaposition in there.

I imagine that lefty blogs will be doing some juxtaposin’ of their own.  Headline manipulation is the favorite hobby of the professional left.   The headlines dog-whistling Romney’s win will show up any minute now.   You know: Romney wins NC , the South, homophobia, racism all that.

But the slowly evolving Obama still has not stated his evolving stance on gay marriage  publicly.  He is free to sit on the fence without anyone questioning him.  He may just avoid North Carolina all together.  President Gutsy-Call, indeed, is in need of some good old fashioned  mockery at the hands of twitter virtuoso Ace.

And considering the overwhelming support for traditional marriage in NC, a state that Obama won in 2008, I don’t think he will be making any public pronouncements on the matter before the election. Or after it for that matter, even if he wins he won’t have to publicly show support for it, he can just nominate Dan Savage to the Supreme Court.

Elsewhere? Legal Insurrection has the roundup:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/05/richard-mourdock-wins-indiana-primary/

Mourdock sends Lugar to Zululand.  It was a landslide, bigger than predicted.  Score one for the Tea Party in 2012.  Thanks for your six terms of service, Sen Lugar.  But its time to go.   Is Hatch next?  They do need breeding pairs in the Zululand Rhino Reserve.

Also, a very interesting result in WV.  LOL. Go read the whole thing.

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May 08 2012

In the News: 2012-05-08

Category: GeneralSusieQ @ 10:50 am

 

In the News:

2012-05-08

Council Bluffs
CR Gazette
Des Moines Register
The Iowa Republican
Red State

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May 06 2012

None Dare Call It a Dog Whistle

Category: media,Politics,UncategorizedSusieQ @ 10:01 am

Obama launches his campaign on Karl Marx’s birthday.  Of course he does.  And no, I don’t think he is just messing with your head, as POHdiaries suggests.

Between this and the progtastic (and meaningless) campaign slogan: ‘Forward’, I think he is doing what those on the right are accused of doing every day.  Namely, signalling the less ‘photogenic’ portion of his supporters that he will come through for them.

After his last election.  When he has more flexibility.  Transmit that to Vladimir.

The far left has been disappointed in Obama because he hasn’t jailed the capitalist oppressors. Yet.

These dog whistle messages to the card carrying communists (and there are more than one would like to think, see any OWS rally) are meant to ease their concerns so they don’t go and do something drastic.  Like stay home.  Or statement-vote for an out of the closet socialiast.  (VotePSL.org)

Democrats are notoriously good at beating down any 3rd party attempt from the left.  At least since 2000, whn Ralph Nader’s 14 popular votes allowed the Supreme Court to appoint King George the 43rd.  But I digress.

As Breitbart said,  “I bought a dog whistle.  I bought a dog whistle factory”

http://pohdiaries.com/obama-campaign-officially-launches-on-may-5th-karl-marx-birthday/

 

 


May 04 2012

Is Lugar Headed to Zululand? Indiana Senate Primary

Category: 2012SusieQ @ 11:31 am

New Indiana Poll has Mourdock up 48-38 over Lugar in Indian Senate primary.  The Tea Pary supported Mourdock has a very good chance of retiring long time Rino to the Zululand Rhino Reserve.

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion has the details. This is a race that Prof. Jacobson has been watching as part of Operation Counterweight.

In what is likely to be the final live-caller public poll ahead of Tuesday’s Indiana Senate Republican primary, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock has opened up a ten point lead over Sen. Richard Lugar, whose 35-year Senate career is in serious jeopardy. A Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll conducted by Democratic and Republican pollsters on Monday and Tuesday of this week shows Mourdock leading Lugar 48 percent to 38 percent.


May 04 2012

Unemployment falls as record number of people give up on Obama economy.

Category: PoliticsSusieQ @ 10:16 am

The Labor Department says the unemployment rate fell to 8.1% – down from 8.2% last month.  Good news, right?  Not exactly.  As Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge points out the labor force participation rate is the lowest since 1981.  Welcome back, Carter.

In April the number of people not in the labor force rose by a whopping 522,000 from 87,897,000 to 88,419,000.  This is the highest on record. The flip side, and the reason why the unemployment dropped to 8.1% is that the labor force participation rate just dipped to a new 30 year low of 64.3%

The real unemployement rate is 11.6%, a number you will not see in the mainstream media, and the job creation rate is dismal.  Over a half million Americans dropped out of the labor force.  Ed Morrisey notes the biggest and steepest plunge has taken place since the Obama recovery started in June 2009.

 

HT: Neosexist

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May 03 2012

Creepy POTUS Tweet Deletes Iowa from the US Map…Replaced with Dear Leader’s Face

Category: 2012SusieQ @ 8:16 am

Creepy.  Just Creepy.  Doesn’t the preezy have advisors to tell him that this kind of narcissism is very off-putting?

Obama Tweets: No Red or Blue States…Barack States!

…there are no red or blue states … just the Obama States. You have to love the narcissism of a president who posts a picture of himself at the center of America, presenting himself as greater than the country, all of which is united under his hopey-changey administration.

This is 1984-type stuff. This is the most polarizing president in American history, and he’s busy telling us that we’re all united under his auspices. War is peace. Poverty is wealth. Polarization is unity. United States is Barack States.


May 01 2012

Victims of Communism Day | The Volokh Conspiracy

Category: UncategorizedSusieQ @ 12:43 pm

http://volokh.com/2012/05/01/victims-of-communism-day-4/

Rebranding May Day to commemorate the 100s of millions victims of worldwide Communist genocide. 


Apr 23 2012

Obama to use HHS ‘Slush Fund’ to Hide Medicare Cuts Until After Election

Category: 2012SusieQ @ 11:06 am

Obama admin to use $8.3 billion “slush fund” to fake out seniors? Update: GAO auditors demand end to slush fund « Hot Air

How does Barack Obama keep from getting ousted by seniors who discover that their Medicare Advantage options for 2013 will be greatly reduced, if not eliminated altogether?  After all, ObamaCare’s $500 billion in cuts to the highly successful private-public partnership begin in 2013, assuming that the Supreme Court keeps the law in place this summer. 

Those cuts are necessary to fund the Medicaid expansion that comes in 2014 to provide funding for coverage of many — but not all — of the currently uninsured. 

Unfortunately for Obama, seniors would normally discover how badly ObamaCare has damaged their options in mid-October during the Medicare open-enrollment period for supplemental coverage, just a couple of weeks before voters have to go to the polls to select the new President, House, and one-third of the Senate.  Since seniors are the most reliable voting bloc in the US, this would prove disastrous for Team Obama.

Obama can temporarily prop up Medicare Advantage long enough to get re-elected by exploiting an obscure bit of federal law. Under a 1967 statute, the HHS secretary can spend money without specific approval by Congress on “experiments” directly aimed at “increasing the efficiency and economy of health services.”

The GAO is not amused:

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said it’s not clear that the $8.3 billion Medicare Advantage bonus program will improve quality because most of the money is going to plans just rated average. The auditors did find, however, that the bonuses would temporarily ease the pain of unpopular cuts to insurance plans under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law.

Ahead of presidential and congressional elections in which seniors are a key group of swing voters, the administration has been working hard to portray itself as a good steward of Medicare, by cracking down on waste and fraud, improving benefits, and keeping costs under control. The GAO report could become a blemish on its record.

 

 


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