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If I had to nominate a film as the most action packed ever, this would be it but it is far from being a no brainer. Its simple story actually takes on depth and complexity as it progresses.

The plot is straightforward – a police SWAT squad raid on a Jakarta based crime lord’s tower block fortress goes horribly wrong. This is not a Bruce Willis Die Hard variant though.

Iko Uwain plays Rama, whose wife is heavily pregnant. He finds himself selected for a daring raid on a ruthless gangland boss who has turned a run down old tower block into his private empire. Seen as a place too dangerous for the police to approach after various previous raids failed, the block has become a safe haven for many hardened criminals and their gangs.

Lieutenant Wahyu, played by Pierre Gruno organizes a hush-hush no holds barred kill on sight raid by a hand picked team to finally bring down the ageing crime lord, Ray Sahetap’s Tama Riyadi.

After initial success in securing the lower floors, the raiders are soon discovered and the crime lord, on the top floor, masterminds a counter-attack, seeing the raiders on CCTV. He has snipers attack them from neighbouring properties and machete, knife and gun wielding hordes pour in on the police from above and below, sandwiching them in the middle floors.

As their numbers are decimated and the survivors find that the raid was unauthorized by the government or police, questions are asked of the leader of the team as to why he is acting of his own accord.

The film spotlights the Indonesian martial art known as Poencak Silat, and there are several stunning fight sequences choreographed and filmed in tight claustrophobic spaces. There is no wirework or trampolining leaping around. Only a mid-film stunt where the hero plunges through a window onto a fire escape platform looks contrived.

A breath-taking thoughtful high-octane drama that actually leaves you giving a damn about its heroes. The film is sub-titled Redemption.

Arthur Chappell

Film, movie, review, Poencak Silat, Martial arts, Indonesia, choreographed, Iko Uwain, Arthur, Chappell,

FILM REVIEW THE DICTATOR 2012

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Arthur Chappell

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FILM REVIEW IRON SKY 2012

FILM REVIEW IRON SKY 2012

FILM REVIEW IRON SKY 2012

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An under-rated comedy about Nazis on the moon – effectively, Allo-Allo in space with several nods to Dr. Strangeglove and contemporary political satire on US politics. The un-named president is undoubtedly Sarah Palin (played by Stephanie Paul.

To boost her re-election campaign, Palin sends male models to the Moon, where the poor wretches discover a Nazi moon-base in the shape of a swastika. One is killed right away, while the other, James Washington, played by Christopher Kirby, is kept alive and forcibly turned Aryan instead of being left black.

A Nazi scientist, a kind of demented Einstein figure, and my favourite character in the nonsense to follow, is impressed by modern cell-phone technology. To him, a computer should take up most of a room; He finds that the phone-chips can rapidly speed up his space-fleet development ready for the Fourth Reich’s invasion of Earth.

A team of Nazis is sent to Earth to steal more mobile phones though buying them might have been more discreet. 

Washington finds himself taken along for the ride, and that a woman groomed as a new Eva Braun for the next Fuhrer, begins to fall in love with him. She tries to convince him that Hitler was right by showing him Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator. Unfortunately, it is the full-uncut version and not the ten-minute pro-Nazi re-edit she is familiar with. She is converted to anti-Nazi opinion.

As the new technology is taken to the moon, an invasion fleet is launched, with spaceships resembling giant metallic zeppelins.

Palin responds to the threat by launching a secret US space force – a Star Trek style Federation fleet. The Americans try to keep the show to themselves but the rest of the World has its own secret space fleets too, and everyone joins in. Only Finland has missed out on the space war fleet craze.

As the Nazis are wiped out, the Americans insist on securing rights to their secret technologies on the Moon, resulting in the other UN delegates turning on them with a punch up in the UN offices. As the credits role, nuclear bombs are seen exploding around the Earth.

Nukes are also used on the Nazi moon-base but seem to explode like conventional bombs.

The film works best in being shamelessly silly – when it tries to be clever and contemporary it falls rather flat.

The special effects, especially in the space dogfights are worthy of George Lucas.

UK distribution of the internationally produced film has been very odd. The film was given an initial single day UK release though some cinemas gave in to fan demands for at least a full week of viewings. The film was given a simultaneous UK cinema and DVD release. Definitely worth seeing in any medium though by no means perfect. It is thoughtful, brave and very entertaining.

Arthur Chappell

                               And here we are in the middle, listening to first one aggressor then the other tell us what we could care less about over and over again.  We simply want to know what the policies will be to get us out this mess that, at least two, administrations have gotten us into.  when do we get a Congress that will do the business of the PEOPLE as apposed to the business of lining Congress’s pockets ?  When does the ” insider trading “  in congress stop , long enough to get SOMETHING done for WE THE PEOPLE.  Their Childish antics have cost this generation and the next two generations the birthright that Hundreds of thousand brave men and women fought and DIED for.

                                But, we made history!  We elected the first politically socialist president of our modern era. Woodrow was, at least, a “closet commie”; Frankie D was a leaner( eleanor was the flaming socialist), Jimmie tried some Keynesian economic theories that brought the US to the brink of Bankruptcy ; and our current incumbent( making history with his every breath) is about to send us into an economic abyss that will defy recovery for several years( if not decades).

                                  Lets us leave History to the Historians! Let’s try yo elect some REAL REPRESENTATIVES, who will Serve the People,  Not rape them! We need to let the Iconoclasts in congress and the whait house that just because they are over educated IDIOTS, they are no better than we, and we can send them packing ! 

Perhaps too large to mail, a rotting human torso was found ina suitcase on the same day. CTV reports that a maggot-covered torso was discovered by a janitor in a building on Snowdon Street in Montreal. The gruesome discovery made on the very day the severed foot and hand were found in the mail may just be coincidence, but it was certainly a disturbing day in Canada. The janitor, Mike Nadeau, discovered there was a lock on the suitcase, so he opened it with cutters. He tells the Ottawa Citizen, “I noticed flies and when Ilooked closer I saw maggots … there was no head and (the torso) was all grey.” The Canadian Press confirms that the torso was that of a male,but there is no word on whether the foot and hand are from the same body. Police in Ottawa cannot confirm the cases are connected, but are working closely with Montreal police.

Mitt Romney certainly be the sole challenger to President Barack Obama in the upcoming elections 6 November. The former Massachusetts governor won this strategic support from the Republican Party cadres after the fall of its competitors.

According to news agency Reuters, Romney had pocketed the support of the 1144 cadre of elected Republicans, enough to make him appear as the candidate who carried the opposition in the U.S. Congress. Strategic support he got from the cadre of Republicans in the state of Texas on Tuesday.

He will be officially announced as a presidential candidate in the Florida Republican convention in late August. However, Romney’s campaign team had about five months to prepare to challenge Obama, who again brought the Democrats to govern the U.S. over the next four years.

Romney claimed to be honored to have absolute support from Texas. “Whatever the challenges ahead, we will attempt to return America back on track, namely the provision of full employment and prosperity,” said Romney told supporters.

Now, following her task is to choose a vice presidential candidate while raising funds for the following campaign. According to the observers, Romney is likely to rely on the issue of the weak U.S. economy and continued high levels of unemployment to attack Obama.

Romney is a Mormon adherents of the first major party that will compete in the presidential election.

Republicans will officially announce his candidacy at the convention in Florida in late August.

Romney’s victory was expected since a few weeks ago when his opponents down or stop the campaign.

With the 1086 delegate votes he had in Texas, Romney collected 58 living alone to exceed the 1144 threshold.

He will continue his father, George Romney, former governor of Michigan who failed Republican presidential candidate in 1968.

The poll also indicates that Mitt Romney will be competing with Obama in November.

Attacking each other

“I am honored that the American people across the country offer their support in my candidacy and I feel very honored for having won the delegate votes to become the 2012 Republican presidential nominee,” Romney said in a statement.

The former Massachusetts governor also attended a fundraising event in Las Vegas with Donald Trump conglomerate. Ahead of the event, the Obama campaign released a video discussing the comments Trump is accusing the president was born in Kenya.

The video was trying to contradict the difference between Romney and Senator John McCain, Republican candidate in 2008 presidential election, which contacted a woman who called Obama a Muslim.

“Why Mitt Romney did not do the same thing?” the video says. On Monday, Romney lamented that Trump’s comments.

“I do not always agree with everyone who supported me. And I guess they do not always agree with all the things I believe in,” said Romney told reporters.

Previously, the Romney campaign also released an ad criticizing Obama’s policy of providing federal loans to the solar panel manufacturer that went bankrupt.

Experts say the results of theNovember election depends on what is happening in several states including Colorado and Nevada, as the candidates compete to get the votes of independent voters. T

he next question is who is chosen Romney to be his running mate.

Upon victory, Romney said:

Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last three-and-a-half years behind us. I have no illusions about the difficulties of the task before us. But whateverchallenges lie ahead, we will settle for nothing less than getting America back on the pathto full employment and prosperity.

Romney only needed 38% of the Texas vote to obtain his 1,144 delegates to the convention, and he won in excess of 70% according to Associated Press estimates. Romney wasn’t in Texas when his victory came. Instead, he was at a fundraiser in Las Vegas with thestill-politically controversial former GOP candidate Donald Trump. Trump returned to his “birther” stance in recent days – something of which Romney will not partake.

Identity as a Muslim does not make the Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, hampered in carrying out its role as a non-portfolio Minister and also chairman of the British Conservative Party. Admittedly, the identity of that just makes it challenging to make a change.

“Many say that the incidence of 9/11 changed the world and the perception of Islam. As a Muslim who was born and raised in England, it also changed my world,” said Warsi began his public lectures at UI (University of Indonesia), Tuesday, May 29, 2012.

It tells the woman of Pakistani descent, he faces pressure from two groups of people after the events of 9/11. Apart from the white British because he was considered too ‘colored’ and too female, Warsi also under pressure from the British Muslim community.

Had started to work outside the UK in 2002 because they feel uncomfortable, Warsi finally returned with a determination to make Britain a great place to Islam, and Islam became convenient for the UK.

“With the current circumstances, it seems easier just to polarize the West and Islam. My vision is to unite them with values​​,” said alumni of the University of Leeds.

According to him, religious values ​​as well as humanity’s most fundamental starting from the protection of minorities. Recognized Warsi, the current efforts of minority protection in the UK is much better than ever before.

Sayeeda Warsi is not unusual figure in his party, whose leadership is dominated by white people of the prosperous southern region.

Prime Minister David Cameron in 2007 raised Warsi to the House of Lords, Baroness makes titled

Anonymous ‏@YourAnonNews TANGO DOWN http://KKK.COM #OpBlitzKrieg

Anonymous Operations ‏@Anon_Central #OpBlitzKrieg – Tango Down – Ku Klux Klan http://www.KKK.com // Follow @AnonOpsLegion – For more info! | #Anonymous

Anonymous ‏@AnonIRC Ku Klux Klan http://kkk.com/ TANGO DOWN #OpBlitzKrieg

Discussing the recent action, ZachWalton at Web Pro News reports:

Anonymous has been staging these kind of operations for a while. The Twitter account for @OpBlitzkrieg points to an underground Tor powered Web site called nazileaks. The purposeof the group is to attack and steal information from neo-nazi and white supremacy groups. While the actual stealing of information seems to have slowed down over time, the samegroup seems to have picked up launching DDoS attacks against the same sites.

Anonymous was busy over Memorial Day weekend. In addition to harassing neo-Nazi and KKK websites, Anonymous also hacked and defaced drone maker Alpha Unmanned Systems on Saturday, May 27.

Last January, as part of Operation Blitzkrieg , Anonymous hacktivists gained access to and released member information from the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), the major neo-Nazi party in Germany. In addition to making public the identity of NPD supporters and donors, Anonymous also released internalNPD emails. The action shut down 15 websites linked to Germany’s neo-Nazi National Democratic Party, including one far right platform called Altermedia.

Granted, most people have political opinions along with taking some position on the balance control between left and right: perhaps left -4 or right- 6. Most people enjoy a good debate about issues and the various positions of elected officials. That’s just normal, just human. The problem is those folks who crank the dial all the way over to right or left and then crank a bit more until the dial cracks, left or right “11.”

Some people get paid to be this way. They have talk radio shows or newspaper columns which focus on a narrow base of people with narrow opinions and narrow tastes in opinion. Give me enough money and I’ll rant about a political point of view, and if the money’s good enough, I won’t even ask which side I’m hired to promote. That’s not personal, it’s business. A well researched analysis takes time and effort, and if it pays far more to blurt out unsubstantiated opinions in a loud voice, why not?

I’m concerned with ordinary people, some of whom are actually friends of mine. These are folks I can sit down with over dinner, share a glass of wine and have interesting discussions about art, literature, music, business, food or films. Yet, when the subject of politics comes up they instantly switch from Dr. Jeckle to Mr. Hyde, becoming raging, frothing beasts and throwing all rationality out the window.

Some of the remarks I’ve heard from my friends on the far left include: All business people, capitalists and the wealthy are immoral liars who only want to enslave workers. Or, Israel is the most evil society in history, their citizens are religious thugs who are subjugating the poor Palestinians, who are all kind, sweet and innocent. Or all poor and homeless are saints and anyone who doesn’t give them food or a place to stay is a heartless right wing beast. Or, if you’re white, you’re automatically bad. Any other race or ethnic group is automatically good. And in these positions there is never any gray areas. It’s all or nothing.

My friends on the far right say any tax on a business is persecution and a way for the unworthy to get a free ride. Or global climate change is a hoax perpetrated by a conspiracy of left wing scientists. Or, anyone who falls on hard times is a loafer, a criminal and probably a drug addict. Or, any woman who isn’t content to be barefoot and pregnant is a commie slut. Or, anyone who isn’t a devout Christian is a tool of the devil. Again, there are no gray areas.

And, what can I say when friends morph like this in my living room? My eyes widen, and I nod nervously, hoping that they’ll calm down before throwing one of my lamps through a window. If I dare disagree with them, and they are packing a weapon, I’m toast.

Sometimes the only way to out is to try to change the subject. Often I try, “Well, how about those 9ers?” But, unfortunately, I don’t follow football, so sometimes I make that remark in the middle of basketball season, and they think I’m stupid. Oh well, better stupid than having someone on my roof with an Uzi, screaming, “Kill the infidels!”

583 words

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is promising to maintain an American military “with no comparable power anywhere in the world.”

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee faced a San Diego crowd estimated at 5,000 on Monday in what was billed as a Memorial Day service, not a campaign rally. But he drew clear contrasts with President Barack Obama.

Romney is warning against shrinking America’s military in Europe’s image. He says America must have the world’s strongest military to win wars and to prevent them.

Romney was joined by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam veteran who says Romney is “fully qualified” to be the nation’s commander in chief.

Obama paid tribute to veterans in the Washington area Monday.

A new Gallup poll shows veterans prefer Romney over the president.