Free Republic

Guests at a Super 8 motel in upstate New York were kicked out without notice this week to make room for migrants being bused in from New York City, according to local reports. Rotterdam town supervisor Mollie Collins told the Albany Times-Union that a Schenectady County official told her the migrants were transported from Texas to New York City before they were sent via bus to the motel in Rotterdam after the city signed a contract with the Super 8. She said it was not immediately clear whether the motel stay was temporary or how long the migrants had been...

Authorities in Louisiana say a 6-foot alligator showed up at the front door of a Super 8 Motel outside Baton Rouge and bit a guest. West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Mike Cazes told The Advocate his office got the call about the alligator around 4 p.m. Wednesday in Port Allen. Matt Marszal, the motel's front desk clerk, said the gator bit one of the motel guests who tried to catch it before Animal Control workers showed up. Marszal said the man was taken to the hospital. Once Animal Control workers arrived, he said the gator was subdued within 5 minutes.

"Super 8" is an almost scene-by-scene remake of "ET." That is not a compliment. Same-same. Kids. Evil U.S. military. Robotic killer soldiers/airmen. Misunderstood monster that just wants to get home. What a waste of time. Even the CGI is second-rate. There are a few differences. This time the alien is big and can raise hell with the military that has kept it captive and tortured it for 24 years (it's set in 1979 for absolutely no reason except to trot-out old cars, hairstyles, and music). The plot is moronic, with the kids saving the day, of course. The US Air...

The influence of Spielberg, who has blessed this project with his producer's credit, is all over every frame of this delightful movie. Super 8 isn’t quite up to the level of Steven Spielberg’s finest early-80s work — but it’s surprisingly close, a sci-fi movie with heart that is thrillingly directed by Spielberg worshipper J.J. Abrams. Is Abrams playing God? As Steve Martin put it, when his mad-scientist character was accused of this in The Man with Two Brains, “Somebody has to!” In a Hollywood that’s becoming increasingly reliant on special effects at the expense of story — of wowing you...

J.J. Abrams, which is becoming this generations Steven Spielberg, has taken inspiration from Spielberg in a movie that is more family entertainment than Science Fiction. This has the feel of a late 70s – early 80s flick from Spielberg, and I could very comfortably have believed that he made this in the interim between Jaws and E.T.. The movie had me virtually giggling inside, making me remember what it was like to see those movies as a young child. It brings us back to an era that I guess is now long forgotten, of blissful summers and imaginations gone wild....

So, given the news media's standard that any fleeting scenes of a day when 3,000 Americans were killed is inappropriate exploitation, can we expect the media to apply the same standard to John Kerry in the future about Vietnam where more than 50,000 Americans were killed? Kerry's primary campaign has already showcased video of him in Vietnam, video a 1996 Boston Globe revelation suggests may have been from a staged re-enactment conducted by Kerry. On FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume on Thursday, the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes mockingly quipped about any Kerry use of Vietnam: "‘57,000 Americans died there....