Tags: Celebrity,NEWS

We are doing a party to celebrate my baby Daddy in his birthday suit...
i can’t show u the pics here but clik below to SEE ALL HIS GLORY
(party info below)


DIRECTIONS? clik here

Tags: Celebrity,FRIDAYS,FIERCE,18&OVER,JOHNNYS,HIPOP

The possibility of an iPhone Nano has once again been served up for mass consumption by the Apple rumor mill, this time courtesy of a Web site called iDealsChina. The site claims that Apple accessory maker XSKN has been developing a case for a new version of the iPhone that is shorter and thicker than the iPhone 3G and that will be announced at Macworld in January.

MacRumors.com, which attempts to handicap the Apple rumor industry, notes that iDealsChina "has a very mixed track record" when it comes to reading the Apple tea leaves. The site did publish photos of case designs for what became the iPhone 3G, but incorrectly predicted that the second-generation iPod Touch would have GPS.

iPhone Nano rumors date back to the launch of the original iPhone, when a financial analyst predicted that Apple would have a slimmed-down version of the iPhone out for the 2007 holiday season. That obviously didn't happen.

could it be true? the case is on sale

Tags: iPhone/MAC

SO U LOVE YOUR IPHONE BUT WISH THE BATTERY LASTED LONGER THAN 2 HOURS...LOL
Double up, with this case that has an extra battery lining the inside...
HOT link the pick

Tags: iPhone/MAC

Michael Mineo is a Brooklyn resident who has charged that he was assaulted and sodomized with an object by New York City police officers while being arrested on a subway platform on Oct. 15, 2008.

The police say the assertion is not supported by civilian witnesses.

But a grand jury and the Brooklyn district attorney are investigating what happened to Mr. Mineo at a Brooklyn subway station, and additional witnesses have surfaced. Investigators say that medical records support Mr. Mineo’s assertion that he suffered internal injuries, and a transit officer has come forward to say that he saw a colleague jab a baton into Mr. Mineo’s buttocks.

Mr. Mineo has had multiple arrests, mostly on minor drug possession charges, but also one on an assault charge. That sprang from an April case in which he is accused of hitting a teenager over the head with a wooden stool in the tattoo parlor where he works as a body piercer.

Read More...

Tags: Politics,GODIAN

Tags: Celebrity,Music

kinda tastee

Tags: Body,GAYETY

All She wants 4 Christmas Is Jews...

Tags: Celebrity,Music,Comedy

Tags: Drag

Tags: Music,Regggaeton,Latin

Been loving this track for months...glad it is the new video

Tags: Pop,Music,Celebrity

Keanu Reeves is seen below in his underwear in a scene (not) from
the DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
They provided no press shots so, i had to include something of the stars...
this was him when he was still playig comedy’s,
now on 2 the movie.
THANX TO MY GOOD FRIEND who let us catch an early IMAX screening of this film
i can fill you in. I thought it was done really well. Keanu was type cast (as was everyone else including Will Smith’s son and every G.I.) The surprise is Kathy Bates. Love some Kathy and she plays a real BIATCH in this one. If you’re looking for non stop action and destruction you will be disappointed. If your looking for a great looking, great story with a VERY TIMELY MESSAGE, look no further. C it in IMAX, (really big Aliens)

Tags: Movies

Actor Will Smith talked to JoBlo recently while promoting Seven Pounds and told them that a sequel to his superhero movie Hancock will "definitely" be happening. When asked if he would play more superheroes in the future, Smith told them that "there were a lot of unexplored characters in the Hancock universe that would be ripe for a sequel and confirmed that we'll definitely see the rumored Hancock 2 in a few years." Hancock, which was released on the week of July 4th earlier this summer, earned a respectable $228 million at the box office. Enough to warrant a sequel, no question, but is another one really necessary?

YES!...this movie was a great twist on the superhero played out BS we been seeing, really spiderman a big Sand Man pounding buildings? I will take the much more believable plot in this one much less the amazing pre-quels they could make (thousands of years) and the mystery of the babies mother DYING WHILE GIVING BIRTH seems a bit odd for dinner conversation....hmmmmm, anyways u can poo poo this movie if u want, next time u earn 228 Million, u do that ....lol

Tags: Movies

If you live in Miami, you're probably in serious debt. The creditor? Your body. See, according to our calculations, you may owe a staggering amount of sleep. And you're dealing with the worst kind of loan shark, one that can't be put off with promises. Frankly, if you don't settle up soon, you could pay with your life.



Interactive Map: The Cities that Never Sleep

Consider this your statistical wake-up call. We tapped Experian Consumer Research for the percentage of people who say they sleep 7 hours or less every night, the percentage who snore or have sleep apnea (a shut-eye killer for the snorer and the snorer's partner), the percentage who report chronic insomnia, and the percentage who pop prescription sleeping pills (plus data from SimplyMap on those who take nonprescription pills). And finally, since TV is every insomniac's best friend, we asked the Nielsen Company who's holding the remote from midnight to 4 a.m.



Institute a Gag Order
You can tell how noisy the world has become just by looking at the bags under everyone's eyes: A National Sleep Foundation survey found that 1 in 3 people are frequently startled awake, most often by noise. Maybe that's why Boulder, Colorado, has banned heavy construction equipment after 9:00 p.m., and a New York City law allows the NYPD to disconnect car alarms that don't shut off. Visit nonoise.org/lawlib/cities/cities.htm for a list of existing noise ordinances. If your city has a law on the books, read up on it and file a complaint when someone raises a racket. If there aren't any ordinances, petition the city council.


iPod Rx
Can't sleep? Try a Liszt lullaby. Hungarian researchers found that people who listened to slow-paced classical music for 45 minutes before bedtime slept better and felt more alert the next day. Tunes that run 40 to 70 beats a minute can lower your BP and heart rate enough to help you slumber.

Tags: Health

Super Cutie On The Cover of 411 (make sure u grab a copy)

Tags: Body,Celebrity

This is so ACCURATE and FUNNY
Marc Shaiman, Jack Black, Margaret Cho & More

Tags: 700m,Politics,Comedy,GODIAN

MILK = YES
if i canot appeal to your pride in yourself and should learn our history side,
how about James Franco (the Green Goblin’s Son) as
(Madonna’s Ex Sean Penn) Harvey Milk’s Lover in Nude Scenes!




TRANSPORTER 3 = no (wait for dvd)
Action packed, yes, continues the story, yes,
Boring and Predictable with a really slow center and a hi we have to include a love making scene in every movie made part...yes...wait for video and save $10, yes.
GO 2 c... NO
u can c most of the action by clicking the picture and navigating to “how to drive like a transporter”





BOLT = YES
Sweet, Cute and another annoying reason to like Miley (she’s the real star)

Tags: Movies

download DIVA...it’s the next hit if u don’t Have the CD

Tags: Music,Celebrity

If u like Beats that serve the Vogue queens and u know what Baltimore House is...
check SAMIR.... His track Samir’s Theme...has been made into the fiercest MADONNA track in the longest, a new mix of
MILES AWAY by MADONNA (Aaron LaCrate and Samir B-More Gutter Remix)
that is hard to come by, but if u find it, you’ll thank me...

Tags: Music,Beats,Balls

If U Like it then u shoulda put Your Lips On It

Tags: Comedy,HIPOP,Music

Britney’s Circus has arrived and we are doing a party next Friday
(Dec 12th at Johnny’s)

do not expect any suprises with this cd it is not even HALF as good as BLACKOUT
however there are some Hits...Knowing the label they will not release them as singles and instead release some shit like Lace and Leather or My Baby (ewww)...lol
WHAT U WANT 2 DOWNLOAD
#1 Kill The Lights
#2 Mannequin
#3 Phonography
#4 Mmm Papi
#5 Trouble
#6 Shattered Glass.... maybe even CIRCUS
and unrelated to the CD but a good track is
CANDY FROM STRANGERS featuring LAze Royal

now realize im naming 6 out of 15...whereas BLACKOUT was basically all good.

MY MEGAMIX BRITNEY CD WILL BE RELEASED AT THE PARTY...
(Dec 12th at Johnny’s) DONT MISS IT

Tags: Music

Tags: Photography

We lost on Prop 8 Because of the quote un quote Christial Morality Police who are so far away from being Christ like it aint funny... but they won PROP 2 In Florida...hope ur happy Religious WRONG, u just took away the rights of other americans...are u sure u believe in this country?
ON A BRIGHTER NOTE.....
OBAMA WON...and we will CELEBRATE
please send the following video around.....great commercial about how the MORMONS and others want
into your bedroom and want their own form of communism to rule

Tags: Politics,GODIAN,THURSDAYS,DL,TORPEDO

if you have a friend who is for McCain Palin
please have them watch this...and PRAY for them...

Tags: Politics

THIS IS SO SCARY..HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!!! (sarcasm)
these people cannot call themselves Christian!
Long-time gay journalist Rex Wockner covered "The Call," the antigay rally in support of Prop 8 that took place in San Diego Friday. Michaelangelo Signorile played a clip last week from James Dobson's radio show where he claimed God grabbed him by the back and sent him there. Rex describes, it took a lot of guts to stand in the middle of that stadium. Pretty scary. Clearly these people have a lot of issues, and they scapegoat gays as the cause of all their and the country's problems. This is what we're up against in California on Tuesday.
clik here for the full story
and please donate your time and resources to
DEFEATING PROP 8 in California and in Florida VOTE NO ON 2!!!

Tags: Politics,GODIAN

U MUST VOTE
it is really Scary how many uninformed Republicans still want to vote Sarah Palin 4 President
WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN
IF YOU ARE A McCAIN PALIN SUPPORTER WE FOUND SOME SLOGANS 4 U

Tags: Politics

please reference the above HEADLINE / LINK
as i will update this conversation when I receive responses.


Alaska's largest newspaper endorses Obama
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's largest newspaper, endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Sunday after declaring Gov. Sarah Palin "too risky" to be one step away from the Oval Office. "Like picking (Republican presidential candidate John) McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time," The Daily News said. The newspaper said Obama "brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand." The Daily News said since the economic crisis has emerged, McCain has "stumbled and fumbled badly" in dealing with it. "Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it," the paper said. The Daily News said Palin has shown the country why she is a success as governor. But the paper said few would argue that Palin is truly ready to step into the job of being president despite her passion, charisma and strong work ethic. "Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency - but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation," the paper said.


>>>>>>>
REPUBLICAN RESPONSE
Regardless of that papers' opinion, Obama has less experience overall and no executive experience, plus more information comes out just about everyday about his marxist/socialist tendencies, ties, and influences.  He has done a good job of packaging and selling himself though!  Many Americans are confused about the distinction between being an eloquent speaker and presenter and a good leader with America's best interest at heart.  Today I heard about Obama talk about our negative, flawed Constitution from back in the 1990's. He really thinks the things that have made America the greatest country on earth (Founding Fathers wisdom, Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights) have problems and that he has been sent to deliver us into a new age)  If you would like to live in Venezuela under a Chavez type of government that's ideally where Obama would like us to be in the U.S.  I heard that when oil goes under $70 a barrel Venezuela can hardly keep the country's lights on and they're one of the richest oil producing nations.


>>>>>>>
INDEPENDENT RESPONSE
the quote making it's way around the web about Obama and the constitution was actually a conversation about it's origins and the founding fathers and slavery. How there were flaws in the Constitution because it really wasn't written FOR ALL PEOPLE, which is why there are AMMENDMENTS TO INCLUDE and why people still try and make it not FOR ALL PEOPLE by trying to AMMEND PEOPLE OUT (such as with marriage) This is not a Socialist or Communist desire to overthrow our GOV this is a thoughtful discussion about our heritage.


He does not think a Chavez GOV is the way to go, lol...and i know you are more intelligent then 2 believe that.


What happened to the man that introduced me to "New World Order"
(most of which came true under the Reagan-Bush Years)?

TRUE PATRIOTS?
"The original American patriots were those individuals brave enough to resist with force the oppressive power of King George. I accept the definition of patriotism as that effort to resist oppressive state power. The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility, and out of self interest -- for himself, his family, and the future of his country -- to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state." -Ron Paul

The McCain camp keeps throwing around MARXISM and SOcialism...
want to know what marxism really is?

the interesting thing an educated man finds is that REGULATION in capitalism comes from the tenants of Socialism and Marxism. Yet NO REGULATION would breed ANARCHY thereby not allowing CAPITALISM to flourish.

Who wanted to de-regulate de-regulate de-regulate?
McCAIN...maybe even the healthcare system?
[   In the current issue of a magazine for the American Academy of Actuaries, McCain discussed a change he wants to bring to the health care market: allowing people to buy plans across state lines. "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation," he wrote in the magazine called "Contingencies."   ]

The REAL "redistribution of wealth" has already happened with 
• the TRILLION DOLLAR WAR in IRAQ and no bid contracts
(with Halliburton and associates reaping the benefits)

• More Money going to private contracted soldiers then our own Military...

• the BAILOUT for corrupt banking system
(which all happened by repeating the illegal GAMBLING of the 1920's)

CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS? WHAT???

Watch CBS Videos Online
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4546583n


while we are on the war and
the election and
Halliburton...

[   A report by the Congressional Research Service undermines Vice President Dick Cheney's denial of a continuing relationship with Halliburton Co., the energy company he once led, Sen. Frank Lautenberg said Thursday.   The report says a public official's unexercised stock options and deferred salary fall within the definition of "retained ties" to his former company.   Cheney said Sunday on NBC that since becoming vice president, "I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years."   Democrats pointed out that Cheney receives deferred compensation from Halliburton under an arrangement he made in 1998, and also retains stock options. He has pledged to give after-tax proceeds of the stock options to charity.   Cheney's aides defended the assertion on NBC, saying the financial arrangements do not constitute a tie to the company's business performance. They pointed out that Cheney took out a $15,000 insurance policy so he would collect the deferred payments over five years whether or not Halliburton remains in business.   Lautenberg, D-N.J., asked the Congressional Research Service to weigh in.   Without naming Cheney or Halliburton, the service reported that unexercised stock options and deferred salary "are among those benefits described by the Office of Government Ethics as 'retained ties' or 'linkages' to one's former employer."   Lautenberg said the report makes clear that Cheney does still have financial ties to Halliburton. "I ask the vice president to stop dodging the issue with legalese," Lautenberg said.   ]

More evidence of Corruption on the Republican side?
HOW ABOUT BEING ANTI-GAY yet HAVING A GAY CHIEF OF STAFF?
HYPOCRITICAL?
Mark Buse is not just a Chief of Staff for a homophobic United States Senator, but he is helping that Senator get elected to the White House.
Does Mark Buse fit the Barney Frank rule? Without a doubt. While McCain voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, he supports amending state constitutions defining marriage as between a man and a woman. McCain knows our country needs everyone who wants to serve in the military and he knows that DADT is wrong, yet he swings to the right on repealing it.
Worst of all, and a demonstration of his inability to act rationally and with the country's best interests at heart, he picked someone who, if she becomes president (very likely), will be the most homophobic in American history.
With that in mind, and after confirming the information with two other sources, I decided it was time to present Buse the Roy Cohn Award for working against the interests of the lesbian and gay community while living as a gay man.
TAKE ACTION!
Does the McCain campaign truly support LGBT Americans? Let's see when FOCUS ON THE FAMILY weighs in. TAKE ACTION and CALL FOCUS ON THE FAMILY and THANK THEM FOR SUPPORTING JOHN MCCAIN even though he has gay Americans in high places on his staff, including his Chief of Staff.
You can reach FOF at 1-800-A-FAMILY (1-800-232-6459)! Call and thank them today


MCCAIN STRAIGHT TALK EXPRESS DERAILED
Key McCain advisors were lobbyists for shady lender

When Sen. John McCain addressed the nation's burgeoning mortgage mess last week, he insisted it was time for a little "straight talk."
"I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis," the GOP presidential hopeful insisted while unveiling his plan, which many have since described as friendlier to the mortgage industry than the Democrats' proposals.
What McCain did not say - which some believe smacks of politics - is that two of his top advisers were recently lobbyists for a notorious lender in the mortgage meltdown.
John Green, the senator's chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.
Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.
"They would be defined as the most blatant and aggressive predatory lenders out of everybody," said Bruce Marks, head of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.
Despite their past familiarity with the issue, neither Green or Berman had any input into McCain's plan for dealing with the lending crisis, aides to the Arizona senator said last week.
"Sen. McCain has never done anything that would violate the public trust and he has never done favors for special interests or lobbyists," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bonds.
While far from a bailout for the mortgage industry, McCain's plan focuses on less regulation for lenders - in sharp contrast with proposals by Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - and suggests as a first step convening a big meeting of top mortgage lenders.
But the migration of Green and Berman to McCain's campaign comes as the Arizona senator faces criticism on other fronts for aligning himself with lobbyists, whom McCain often derides - but relies upon to staff his campaign.
They include McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, a former telecommunications lobbyist, as well as Thomas Loeffler, McCain's national finance co-chairman, who recently helped Europe's Airbus consortium land a deal for Air Force tankers.


DIEBOLD
try googling DIEBOLD to find out the percentage of machines used in the electoral process...Cant find...yet every pic we see in magazines has a Diebold machine and Diebold even has the Camera's and security equipment at the majority of commercial Banks (which we just bought). This company is a company that was invested in by Halliburton which used to be chaired by...????)

[   Stephen Spoonamore is a registered Republican, leading cybersecurity expert, and a whistleblower. In early September he gave an explosive deposition on the means and methods by which the 2004 presidential election in Ohio was stolen, and identified specific individuals with first hand knowledge of who carried out these thefts.  Stephen Spoonamore details his objections to electronic voting, and explains howDiebold voting machines such as those used in Ohio and a number of other states, can be hacked. Among other things, Spoonamore explains the several ways that a Diebold voting machine can be hacked from a remote location. How the chain of custody of  voting results can be easily hacked, and how electronic voting systems are capable of subtracting as well as adding votes. Spoonamore reviews the "Georgia patch" which was used to flip the 2002 US Senate election in Georgia. "There is no electronic system in the world that cannot be hacked... Diebold is lying." "Diebold machines are brilliantly designed to steal elections..." "People do not want to believe that Americans would  steal elections..."    ]
DIEBOLD PATCHES ELECTION  IN GEORGIA


On a lighter note...but please watch because i know my REPUBLICAN friends are not Pre-schoolers, yet Sarah Palin and John McCain insist that being intelligent is elitist. I am insulted for the Republican party that (A) McCain would stop being the MCCain of 4 Years ago and ride the Bush train and (B) Pick such an ill equipped running mate as Sarah Palin who feels she needs to "Talk down to" those americans she feels are the "Real Americans" in the "Heartland" not the "Real Americans" who live where the constitution was written on the north east coast...but ya know, wink wink...
Bob the builder,
cindy the citizen,
jim the jailman,
joe the plumber,
susan the storeclerk...etc...

here's the clip...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=189162&title=the-candidates-labels


I thought the american dream was that a young poor child could have his parents work hard, he could go to school, graduate with honors, become a lawyer, choose to give back to the community and maybe one day even become president...



THIS IS THE CHOICE

an ill tempered,
hypocritical,
894th out of 899 Graduate
who seeks Wealth to the top 2% Only Ticket

-versus-

an even tempered,
inspired,
intelligent,
First in His Class,
Wealth to the 95% of us Ticket

Learned people can only pick OBAMA
if you are voting because of ABORTION...Obama is not PRO ABORTION
READ CATHOLICS FOR OBAMA
the only other reason you could choose McCain ...
racism...and racists are stupid...we all used to be black
get over it...
HERE

Tags: Politics

MY BABY DADDY JUST BROKE THE RECORD!


T.I Breaks Own Record With Hot 100 Burst
T.I. breaks his own recently set record for the largest leap to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, as "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna explodes 80-1. The track sold 335,000 downloads this week, besting Mariah Carey's prior digital debut week high-water mark of 286,000 with "Touch My Body."

Tags: HIPOP,Pop,Music

Record Company Sues Lil' Kim Over New Album

October 09, 2008 , 10:45 AM ET
A record company has sued Lil' Kim for $2.5 million, saying the Grammy-winning rapper hasn't delivered all the recordings their contract requires.

Brookland Media filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Manhattan's state Supreme Court. Lil' Kim's lawyer, Londell McMillan, says Brookland sued "to leverage their own position" in the contract dispute.

The lawsuit says Brookland contracted with Lil' Kim this year and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on recordings, equipment and advance payments.

Court papers say the rapper later tried to change the contract and refused to continue recording unless Brookland agreed. The papers say she had recorded only a few tracks toward a new album by the beginning of September.

Brookland wants the court to declare the contract valid and bar Lil' Kim from recording for another company.

Tags: HIPOP,Music

SUPPORT HALLMARK CARDS

...WE NEED TO STAY AWARE OF THE HATERS...

Antigay activists are targeting Hallmark because of the decision to create greeting cards for same-sex couples. The Family Policy Network in California is urging people to write Hallmark. Pam Spaulding's got a bunch of the the twisted letters up. You should go see them all, but here are a few:

* Dixie in Watsonville, CA writes, "God created Adam and Eve to marry not Joseph and Steve or Mary and Eve!"

* Kathy in Mission Viejo, CA writes, "You are putting the dollar over principle. How many cards will you sell to homosexuals vs. non homosexuals? Do the math!"

* Sherrie in Carmichael, CA writes, "I have been collecting Precious Moments figurines for many years now. I won't be buying them from your stores anymore."

* James in Cobb Mountain, CA writes, "Please remove all cards & greetings that support the homosexual lifestye; as it is SIN; and against The Word Of God; Our Families; and Nation."

Tags: GODIAN,Politics

Todd Palin Was Registered Member of Alaska Independence Party Until 2002
By Kate Klonick - September 2, 2008, 3:25PM

The McCain camp today disputed rumors that presumptive vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was ever registered with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party by releasing years of voter registration history . . . but it looks like that doesn't apply to her husband.

This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.

Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.

Tags: Politics

Finally, a hybrid supercar — the Fisker Karma — cleans up the streets.
By Nicholas Mosquera, October 2008
MensVogue.com

Fisker Karma



When it's not plugged in, the Karma gets a charge from its solar cells; $80,000, fiskerautomotive.com. (Photo: Fisker Automotive)

Despite all the auto-industry talk of apocalypse-averting advances, things are not looking good. Gas is four dollars a gallon and that whole global-warming thing still hasn't been worked out. Fortunately, times are changing: The Fisker Karma, a marriage of sexy and sustainable, is the first hybrid that could humble a supercar. Its designer, Henrik Fisker, is the legend behind the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9. The 45-year-old Dane partnered with Quantum Technologies, the engineering firm that developed a plug-in powertrain for Delta Force. The result is the $80,000 four-seater Karma (top speed: 125 miles per hour; zero to 60 in six seconds). "I think there's the fear that to do an environmental car, it has to be small and light," Fisker said from his Irvine, California, headquarters. Instead, the Karma has the height of a Porsche 911, the length of a Mercedes CLS, and the width of a BMW 7 Series.

But it's the Pentagon-pedigree power source that's whiplashing heads. After an eight-hour top-up from any regular outlet, the lithium-ion battery powers the Karma for 50 miles with zero emissions before the high-rpm, gearless gas engine kicks in to keep the battery charged for another 300. Also, there are solar panels on the roof of the car for carbon-neutral recharging. Since 78 percent of Americans drive less than 40 miles a day, Fisker believes he's divined one answer to hydrocarbon abuse — at least until hydrogen takes over. "Current hybrids, they're there to improve fuel economy," he said. "Ours is about not using gas at all."

The first 100 Karmas — including Al Gore's — will arrive by the end of 2009. Later, Fisker will open 44 U.S. dealerships and sell 15,000 Karmas annually. The only fuel on their drivers' minds will be the caffeinated kind.

Tags: Gadgets,Home

Peter Rauhofer Press Release about White Party Miami!

In response to a recent press release from Miami White Party promoter Hilton Wolman, I would like to take this opportunity to shed some light on several facts which White Party has chosen not to acknowledge. This is a classic case of 'pot and kettle', as it was Hilton Wolman himself, who two years ago (as Twilo's promoter) chose to have two competing events (Saturday and Sunday) against White Party, with shuttle buses going all night from the official location at Nikki Beach to Twilo, where Twilo kept 100 percent net profit. This was after weeks of on-going negotiations for the official White Party event at Twilo had fallen apart.

Over the past 10 years, I've supported my services and donated lots of money to White Party only to continuously get mistreated and disrespected by Ric Siclari, who runs that questionable organization. I've experienced numerous instances of extremely unprofessional treatment in the form of bounced checks, hotels not booked/not paid, flights & ground transportation not provided, and it has even gotten to the point where I've had to have my lawyer chase them (for 8 months!) for non-paid deejay fees.....Still, after all the consistent mis-treatment, I've continued to spin for White Party as I wanted to contribute to the good "cause" and not disappoint my fans.

Each year White Party blatantly takes advantage of the power of being a "Charity organization for HIV/AIDS" to make people feel guilty for not participating or contributing. They've burned bridges through their never-ending pattern of ignorance and disrespect towards countless deejays/artists, clubs, promoters, and even volunteers (their revolving-door volunteer staff quits year after year as they are always getting blamed for White Party's mishaps). This consistent mis-treatment sadly reflects in their heavily falling number of attendance throughout the last years.

For the past 10 years, White Party has never officially issued an annual report about income or portion of proceeds donated for their "White Party Events". Even to this day, when logging into their official site I find it strange that an organization of this nature does not disclose the amount donated. Even AFTER having all costs covered by sponsorships, they find every avenue possible to increase their net profit through scams such as ticket price-gouging and short-changing their DJs (I know from first hand experience).

Every charitable organization in the world opens their books and reveals exact numbers in order to inform the public of how much money they made/donated. White Party has left EVERYTHING in the dark for years and continues to do so (while conveniently lining their pockets at everyone's expense). The most you can find on their website or in advertisements is the phrase "Benefiting Care Resource". Benefiting whom? Their CEO?

When making a simple request for information that should be provided by default, people such as Ric Siclari only seem to produce run-around excuses and never disclose the actual facts. Perhaps this is another reason why he changes his staff every year as too much information can be collected by his "volunteers" (who all have horror stories to tell as they face this unprofessional organisation first hand).

When White Party approached me again this year to participate, I decided to do so only if they finally revealed where the profit distribution goes or at least how much of a percentage they actually donate. They again refused to give out ANY information and threatened to "destroy my image" if I did not participate on their terms. It had come to a point for me where this is behavior was no longer acceptable for a "Charity" organization. I decided to refrain from ever working with White Party until they choose to open their books (like any other reputable organization would) and show more respect to the talent that actually makes their tickets sell.

After White Party announced the official deejay line-up for 2008, I received numerous emails from disappointed fans as to WHY I am not participating this year. In addition to the initial frustration I have with the White Party Organization, this is one of the main reasons I decided to have my own event. Plenty of people suggested I do my own "charity" event after they also discovered all of White Party's questionable facts.

With no malicious intent, I've decided to throw my own event in Miami. Without the benefit of sponsorships or charging outlandish entry fees, I'm providing top level DJ's/Live acts and a great venue/party atmosphere. Not only am I donating proceeds but I am also covering all costs out of my own pocket to provide a great event that is backed by honest motives.

This event will be featuring, besides myself, DJ Offer Nissim, DJ Tracy Young and Suzanne Palmer Live. This will be the first WORK Party in Miami @ Mansion with a portion of the proceeds going to the Elton John Aids Foundation. This is reputable organization that allows everybody to track for themselves what money is being donated (www.EJAF.org). If you compare this charity's website with White Party's website, you will notice the difference between a genuine charity and one that is extremely untrustworthy.

At the end of the day, we are not forcing anybody to attend our event. I find more comfort in the fact that I am STILL contributing to people with HIV/AIDS and at the same time giving everyone a choice to decide for themselves which organization is more reputable and where their money should go.

Peter Rauhofer

Tags: Politics,WhiteParty,GODIAN,SUNDAYS

The box office king this weekend was a lil dog...(click here for wallpapers)


The underdog in limited release, Bill Maher's documentary "Religulous" opened well, placing No. 10 with $3.5 million in 502 theaters, averaging $6,972. The Lionsgate release follows Maher as he travels the world to mock one of his favorite topics, organized religion. This per screen average ACTUALLY PLACES THE MOVIE AT #3 for the weekend. Out-shining 7 major release films with much bigger backing. Seems to be a thirst for TRUTH and KNOWLEDGE.

By comparison, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" averaged $9,020 in 3,215 theaters; "Nick and Norah" pulled in $4,957 in 2,421 locations; "Appaloosa" did $4,799 in 1,045 cinemas; "An American Carol" took in $2,325 in 1,639 sites; and "Flash of Genius" did $2,120 in 1,098 theaters.


1. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," $29 million.

2. "Eagle Eye," $17.7 million.

3. "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," $12 million.

4. "Nights in Rodanthe," $7.4 million.

5. "Appaloosa," $5 million.

6. "Lakeview Terrace," $4.5 million.

7. "Burn After Reading," $4.08 million.

8. "Fireproof," $4.07 million.

9. "An American Carol," $3.8 million.

10. Religulous, $3.5 million.

Tags: Movies,Comedy,Politics

RELIGULOUS
...opens friday oct 3 watch the trailer here

Tags: Movies,Comedy,Politics,GODIAN

I'm glad I didn't have to fight in any war. I'm glad I didn't have to pick up a gun. I'm glad I didn't get killed or kill somebody. I hope my kids enjoy the same lack of manhood.
Tom Hanks

Tags: Quotes,Politics,Celebrity

Tags: Photography,Comedy,GAYETY,Sports

Paul Newman Dies at 83,
Remebered for film roles that touched Millions
and the Millions He Made For Charity...

Sweet Charity
Newman's Own by the numbers -- Looking at the charitable contributions of Paul Newman's nonprofit food company

250
Proceeds (in millions of dollars) generated by Newman's Own since its founding in 1982

100
Percentage of after-tax profits and royalties from sales that go to charity

14
Countries that sell Newman's Own products

175
Number of Newman's Own products available

27
Flavors of salad dressing (biggest seller: Lighten Up Balsamic Vinaigrette)

11
Hole in the Wall Camps around the world for children with serious medical conditions

135,000
Children who have attended a Hole in the Wall Camp, all free of charge
______________________________________________________________

Wanna c a movie?
start with Newman’s Classic...
• CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF ESSENTIAL (1958)
If you cut the repressed homosexuality from a play that's all about repressed homosexuality, is anything left? Surprisingly, yes. The Production Code forced writer-director Richard Brooks to omit the real reason that Brick, the hobbled hero of Tennessee Williams' 1955 play, drinks all day and won't touch his hungry, hot wife. But Newman, staring into his highball glass with sorrow and terror, solves the problem simply by playing Brick as if the inner truth is still the same; he's matched by Elizabeth Taylor at her near-best. This textbook example of how star voltage can electrify compromised material brought Newman his first of nine Oscar nominations for acting, and vaulted him to the status of an idol. ''I think you've even gotten better-looking since you went on the bottle,'' Taylor's Maggie the Cat insists. Looking at her newly trim costar, it's hard to disagree.

CLIK HERE for his 80+ FILM Credits

Tags: Celebrity,Movies

MADONNA’s VOGUE...McCain Style

Tags: Politics,Comedy,Balls

The advertising campaign promoting Microsoft has hit a new low. And no, we don't mean another pointless, rambling commercial about nothing. According to metadata dug up by Flickr user LuisDS, the "I'm a PC" ad campaign images were made on a Macintosh. What's that sound? It's the sound of a million Mac users, laughing.

So how should Apple respond?
- Ignore it as being beneath their attention, like the Zune.


ALSO THOUGHT THIS WAS FUNNY...
the new PC ADS MAKING FUN OF THE MAC ADS GET A FIX...

Tags: iPhone/MAC,Comedy

Levi's joining to defeat Calif. gay marriage ban
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) | Sep 26, 9:49 AM

Levi Strauss & Co. is putting its famous pockets behind defeating a ballot initiative that would outlaw same-sex marriage in California.

The San Francisco-based jeans maker said Thursday it will co-chair with Pacific Gas & Electric a group trying to drum up opposition to Proposition 8 in the business community.

Chief Executive Officer John Anderson said the move is consistent with Levi's long history of supporting civil rights causes.

The company ended racial segregation of its California factories in the 1940s and was the first Fortune 500 company to offer health benefits to the domestic partners of its unmarried employees.

In July, PG&E donated $250,000 to the campaign to defeat the gay marriage ban and announced it hoped to persuade other corporations to do the same. Because PG&E is a public utility, though, taking a controversial political stand is less risky for the company than it might be for businesses with greater competition.

Levi Strauss has pledged $25,000 to Equality for All, the coalition leading the No on 8 campaign, says company spokesman E.J. Bernacki. Robert Haas, the company's chairman emeritus, and his wife have given $100,000, Bernacki said.

Two labor unions, the California Council of Service Employees and the California Teachers Association, each have given $250,000. Telecommunications company AT&T has given $25,000.

The referendum seeks to amend the state constitution to overturn the May state Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage here. The amendment's sponsors so far have raised more money in the race than its opponents, who hope that recent $100,000 contributions from actor Brad Pitt and director Steven Spielberg will motivate Hollywood celebrities and moguls to give.

Also Thursday, a Southern California-based business advocacy group came out against Proposition 8. The board of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, which represents businesses in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles voted "by a significant margin" to oppose the measure, said President Stuart Waldman.

While a few board members argued against VICA taking a stand, maintaining that Proposition 8 was not a business issue, many more directors said it would cost them money and talented workers if the amendment passed, Waldman said.

"The most eloquent argument we got from an employer is they spend so much on human resources dealing with different benefits under domestic partnership rules versus married employees," he said.

unrelated but hysterical
FREE LEVI.org
a new website from Bill Maher hoping to FREE LEVI from the grips of hypocrisy, the rpublican party and the Palin family.

Tags: Politics,Comedy,GODIAN

Palin pushes 'fence sitters' to the left .

The St. Petersburg Times published a report showing state voters were actually turned off by Sarah Palin, who made appearances in Florida this weekend:

"The one thing that frightens me more than anything else are the ideologues. We've seen too many," said 80-year-old Air Force veteran Donn Spegal, a lifelong Republican from St. Petersburg, who sees McCain's new running mate as the kind of "wedge issue" social conservative that has made him disenchanted with his party.

Her visit to Florida was meant to energize voters—Florida is the largest "swing state" in the country, where Obama and McCain are within one or two percentage points of each other in the polls—and her rally reportedly drew approximately 60,000 attendees. But undecided voters surveyed for the story said even though they hadn't supported Obama, they were "turned off" by Palin's ideas and would vote for the Democratic ticket as a result.

Palin was originally praised by the Log Cabin Republicans, as she appeared to be moderately supportive of GLBT issues. She even went so far as to say "I don't judge" about the lives of gay people, when interviewed by Charles Gibson for ABC News. However, it was revealed that she has repeatedly spoken out against the community when it comes to issues such as domestic partnerships.

Tags: Politics

Tags: Politics,Health,Environment

From the premier episode of Knight Rider

TECH BOY
“Listen ZOE, I have advanced degrees in Applied Physics, Quantum Physics, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry as well as Discrete & Applied Mathematics...”
ZOE
“And i speak 9 Languages, we should make a baby...”
TECH BOY
“Really”
ZOE
“No”

Tags: Quotes

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“You know how many people came to me calling me gay ‘cause I wear my jeans the fresh way? Or because I said, “Hey, dude, how you gonna say “fag” right in front of a gay dude’s face and act like that’s OK?’ That shit is disrespectful.”


HIs latest Hot Song From The VMA’s (better live)

Tags: Quotes,HIPOP,Politics,Pop

NEWS FROM THE 17th ANNUAL International AIDS CONFERENCE
The discovery
Researchers from the University of Texas have discovered HIV’s Achilles heel -
a tiny strand of amino acids in a key viral surface protein that never mutates. They’ve also engineered an antibody that latches onto the genetic material and destroys the virus.

The Significance
Past efforts to fight HIV infections have been thwarted by HIV’s ability to mutate. With the discovery of a vulnerable, unchanging part of the virus and a compound that homes in on it, the researchers have uncovered what some are saying could be a cure.

What’s Next
Lab and animal studies have been competed, and the researchers are now securing funding for the human trials. In the world of HIV research however, it is the human trials where things fal apart. Even without a hitch, a marketable product is at least 5 years away.

Say a prayer that all goes well for your Brothers and Sisters fighting this disease.

Tags: Health

Be Careful People....
It’s kool to feel we have come so far with rights and acceptance, but there are still those who hate us enough to kill. Also, while I’m at it, can I just mention that while you read this article please catch the killers movie choice. Some of my friends have said that I’m stupid for not watching or liking horror films. My response is that when you have seen Horror first hand and you are mentally stable, you have no need to experience it again for fun...




Man Confesses to Weekend Murder of Gay NYC Student in Chelsea

A suspect has confessed to the murder of Kevin Pravia, a 19-year-old gay student who was killed in his apartment on 15th street in the Chelsea district of Manhattan over the weekend following a party near the city's South Street Seaport.

Report: Neighbors, friends pay respects, mourn.

PraviaAccording to the NY Daily News, Pravia's body was discovered — a cord around his neck and a plastic bag shoved down his throat — by his roommate Josephine Madonna, when she returned from a weekend trip:

"Police sources said they were testing theplastic bag, sheet and cord for forensic evidence and looking through surveillance video to see who came in and outof the building. The student's death has not been officially ruled a murder. An autopsy was inconclusive and further tests were needed. As cops dug for clues, Pravia's mother, Paula, made a grim pilgrimage to New York from Peru, Mass., to identify her son. Police said there was no evidence of forced entry or sexual assault. A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said Madonna and Pravia, friends from Massachusetts, moved into the Chelsea building just two week ago. He was gay and Madonna is straight, the neighbor said. 'His [moving boxes are] still in the hallway,' she said. Another neighbor, Teresa Hicks, 41, was startled when Madonna, who was away for several days, screamed when she found the body in the fifth-floor apartment. 'The girl was shouting, 'My God! My God! He's dead,'' Hicks said."

The NY Post reports: "A 22-year-old Queens man has confessed to killing a Pace University student, who was found strangled in his Chelsea apartment Sunday, police sources said today. The unidentified suspect told cops that he choked and robbed victim Kevin Pravia, 19, after meeting him in Union Square at about 6 a.m. Sunday and accompanying him back to his home. The suspect allegedly told investigators that he bought drugs from Pravia before they went to the apartment - though police sources said they doubt the drug buy claim. Exactly why they went back to the apartment was unclear. But after arriving there and hanging out for a while, Pravia fell asleep, the suspect told cops. That when he allegedly tried to rob the student. The suspect told cops that he punched the sleeping teen, put an electrical cord around his neck, stuffed a plastic bag in his mouth and strangled him."

pictured here...the killer


Killer of Gay Teen's Gloating Explanation: 'Because I Wanted To'

Jeromie Cancel, the killer of gay NYC student Kevin Pravia in his Chelsea apartment over the weekend has shown no remorse over the killing following his confession:

Cancel Soto, 22, brutalized 19-year-old Kevin Pravia, sat near the honor student's corpse to watch the horror movie 'Saw' and then bragged about the murder to his father, the sources said. Asked why he did it as he was marched out of the 10th Precinct stationhouse Tuesday night, Cancel shouted, 'Because I wanted to. You got a problem with that?' Cancel's father, Jesus Soto, said his son had turned up to boast after the killing. 'All the time he was gloating, like it didn't mean nothing to him,' Soto said, recounting Cancel's bizarre appearance at his Queens apartment. 'He was not remorseful, like he was happy with what he did,' said Soto, 40. 'He had this big smile on him.'"

After the Killing...Cancel stole a cell phone, iPod, and laptop before leaving the apartment. According to the NYDN, "Cancel has been arrested four times in Florida, including for drug possession and for stealing a car, officials said. He was charged with murder and manslaughter in Pravia's death."

Tags: GODIAN,700m,Politics

I just watched the Film THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS...it got me thinking about that famous line from our Declaration....I have not read it since i was a kid. Funny how much it applies to our current situation and our current President “who would be king”....

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Tags: Politics

Sarah Smiles...
Must be painful to tell all those lies and breed all that hate and keep your pitbull lipstick on.
I want to like her because her relatable skills are such. I will just pray in terms she will understand.
“One Day Soon Sarah Palin, I Pray that you see the light of the human race. This light is not the color of your skin, or the prosperity of your own individual party, or the denial of being to other humans who are just trying to BE.
Let us BE. Help heal the world, not separate. Speak of the issues not shady rhetoric.
The light comes from inclusion not separation. Lord, help her see the light”

Do you feel better isolated or adored?

Exactly!

Your welcome.



Sarah Palin: Experience vs Pregnancy vs the Female Vote vs the GOP


A note to all from Alaskan housewife Anne Kilkenny: "So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . ."



"Sarah Palin admitted yesterday her "beautiful daughter" Bristol was five months pregnant and would marry Levi. The baby is due in late December"....Self-described "f---in' redneck" Levi Johnston is baby's father...

McCain's lousy record on teen pregnancy: "Republican John McCain, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits."

Bristolroad.jpg Washington Post's Sally Quinn: "McCain claims he knew about the pregnancy, and was not at all concerned. Why not? Not only do we have a woman with five children, including an infant with special needs, but a woman whose 17-year-old child will need her even more in the coming months. Not to mention the grandchild. This would inevitably be an enormous distraction for a new vice president (or president) in a time of global turmoil. Not only in terms of her job, but from a media standpoint as well. McCain's cynical choice has created a dilemma for many women. For still-angry Hillary Clinton voters, they will have to decide if they want to vote against their concscience and political interests by voting to elect a Republican woman who's even more conservative than McCain."

POLITICO: New Palin details may help...

Baltimore Sun columnist: "So this is what being pandered to feels like..."

Palin sets off mommy wars: "When Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was introduced as a vice-presidential pick, she was presented as a magnet for female voters, the epitome of everymom appeal. But since then, as mothers across the country supervise the season’s final water fights and pack book bags, some have voiced the kind of doubts that few male pundits have dared raise on television. With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as the country learned Monday, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument among women about whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try.

DailyKos: Palin candidacy 'Death Watch'...

Obama on Palin 'experience': "My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month...Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina."

Obama: Palin's family off-limits. "Let me be as clear as possible. I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president. How a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics, and I hope that anybody who is supporting me understands that's off-limits."



Republicans try to brush off pregnancy "tempest" at Convention: "Finally, Cindy McCain walked onstage Monday night in a yellow dress that looked like a rain slicker, to something of a hero's welcome from the crowd. (Her daughters, Meghan and Bridget, and her mother-in-law, Roberta McCain, watched from the VIP box just off the floor.) 'As John has been saying for the last several days,' McCain said, 'this is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats.' It's an odd line for a party that claims to have the market cornered on patriotism; if they're not Americans when they're being Republicans, what are they? But if things work the way the McCain campaign hopes, the public will forget that Obama asked the 5 million-plus people on his own campaign's e-mail list to send money to the Gulf (and redirected his Web site's donation pages to the Red Cross)."

John McCain turns on the media, his onetime "base": " As the relationship has deteriorated, McCain has stopped hosting his once-famous 'straight talk' get-togethers on his campaign plane. He also has abandoned regular press conferences. Instead, he stops occasionally to read short written statements in front of cameras, like he did Aug. 31 in Jackson, Mississippi; then walks away from questions shouted by reporters. His campaign plane is custom configured with a lounge area designed for hosting question-and-answer sessions with the press. McCain inaugurated the lounge on one of the plane's first flights and hasn't used it since."

Tags: Politics

Why the media should apologize By: Roger Simon

September 4, 2008 10:50 AM EST

ST. PAUL, Minn. — On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry.

On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.

We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?

Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.

It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn't be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.

Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head Wednesday night (and several in the audience wish she had hit some reporters on the head instead) when she said: "I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.”

But where did we go wrong with Sarah Palin? Let me count the ways:

First, we should have stuck to the warm, human interest stuff like how she likes mooseburgers and hit an important free throw at her high school basketball tournament even though she had a stress fracture.

Second, we should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).

Third, we should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: "Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.

Why go there? What trees does that plant?

Fourth, we should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul.

Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a "cloud of rhetoric.”

Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.

Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.

Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.

Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be)

The official theme of the convention's third day was "prosperity," but the unofficial theme was "the media are really, really awful."

Even Mike Huckabee, who campaigned for president this year by saying "I am a conservative, but I am not mad at anybody," discovered Wednesday night that he is mad at somebody.

"I'd like to thank the elite media for doing something," Huckabee said, "that, quite frankly, I didn't think could be done: unify the Republican party and all of America in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin."

And could that be the real point of the attacks on the media? To unify the Republican Party?

No, that is simply the cynical, media view.

Though as Lily Tomlin says, "No matter how cynical I get, it's just never enough to keep up."

I couldn't resist that. For which I am sorry.

Tags: Politics

Ex-Nanny Fran Drescher is throwing a benefit to fight Proposition 8 (the ballot measure that would define marriage as between a man and a woman in California) with her ex-husband Peter Jacobson tonight for $100 a head. It's sold out.

Drescher told E!'s Marc Malkin: "I don't know if you realize this, but I'm a gay icon. But even if I weren't, I'm a political activist who believes in preserving the American dream which is tolerance of diversity and the separation of church and state…It's simply un-American not to be tolerant of different lifestyles. If you wanna live in a single-minded, religious-based country you're in the wrong place. It's not about being gay or straight…If two people are in love and they want to be married, they should have the right to do this."

Tags: 700m,Politics

(clik photo for link to video demonstration)

There's a huge security problem in the latest iPhone 2.0.2: if you have your Phone password protected, using a very simple trick gives anyone full access to your cellphone private information in Mail, SMS, Contacts, and even Safari. The two-step trick is even simpler to the one used in the past to gain access to the phone to install unlocking cards or jailbreak. Fortunately, there's a way to avoid this obvious security breach until Apple fixes it.

First, password protect your phone and lock it. Then slide to unlock and do this:

1. Tap emergency call.
2. Double tap the home button.

Done. You are now in your favorites. This seems like a feature, because you may want to have emergency number in your favorites for quick dial. The security problem here is double. The first: anyone picking up your phone can make a call to anyone in your favorites. On top of that, this also opens access to your full Address Book, the dial keypad, and your voice mail.

If that wasn't bad enough, the second one is even worse: if you tap on the blue arrows next to the names, it will give you full access to the private information in a favorite entry. And it goes downhill from there:

• If you click in a mail address, it will give you full access to the Mail application. All your mail will be exposed.
• If there's a URL in your contact (or in a mail message) you can click on it and have full access to Safari.
• If you click on send text message in a contact, it will give you full access to all your SMS.

Hopefully, this major security break that fully exposes your most private information will be solved as soon as possible. Until then, you can avoid any potential breach doing the following:

1. In the iPhone home, go to Settings.
2. Click on General.
3. Click on Home Button.
4. Click on either "Home" or "iPod".

This way, the double-click on the home button will take the user back to the unlock screen (if you use "Home") or the iPod screen. I recommend using Home. You will lose the ability to quickly access your favorites for a quick call—which is one of my favorite features—but that's better than having all your private mails, contacts, and SMS database compromised. UPDATE: Evidently Apple has a fix coming in their next firmware update, but we've got no word on when that release is planned

Tags: iPhone/MAC

Official sues: Don't tell voters about same-sex law
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.23.2008

PHOENIX — Secretary of State Jan Brewer has gone to court to avoid having to tell Arizona voters that state law already bars same-sex marriage.
In a lawsuit filed Friday, Brewer said the only thing she needs to explain on the ballot is approval of Proposition 102 would amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman
She wants to limit the legally required explanation of the effect of voting "no" on the measure would "have the effect of retaining the current laws regarding marriage."
And she wants Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Aceto to block efforts by Attorney General Terry Goddard to expand the explanation to say existing laws already include "a statutory ban on same-sex marriage."
Brewer said she believes the measure is clearer without the language Goddard wants. She also said one reason she wants the shorter version is she heard from the group pushing Proposition 102 that it believes mentioning the existing law would confuse voters and cause many to vote against the measure.
Goddard, however, said voters are entitled to know what laws already are on the books.
He contends that adopting the limited description Brewer wants actually could cause more confusion, that some people might conclude that if they vote against Proposition 102 they would be allowing gays to marry.
Goddard also pointed out that the language he wants is exactly the same as was used two years ago, when a similar measure was on the ballot. Goddard said neither side filed legal protests to that wording.
This time, however, Peter Gentala, attorney for Arizonans for Marriage, is objecting.
In a letter to Brewer, Gentala said a poll conducted after voters defeated the 2006 proposal shows some people who voted against it — voters who were exposed to the language about existing state law — said they thought they were voting for the constitutional ban.
Gentala also said telling people same-sex marriages already are against the law "includes an argument against the proposition." He cited comments by Gov. Janet Napolitano, who, in announcing her opposition to Proposition 102, said it is unnecessary because "we already have a statute that defines marriage."
Gentala, staff attorney for the Center for Arizona Policy, which worked to convince legislators to put the issue on this year's ballot, refused to comment on his letter to Brewer.
The fight comes as proponents, stung by the defeat two years ago, seek to get it approved this time. One thing they did is narrow the scope.
The 2006 measure would have not only constitutionally banned gay marriage but also barred state and local governments from recognizing civil unions or providing benefits such as health insurance to the domestic partners of their employees. It lost by 54,000 votes out of nearly 1.5 million ballots cast.
This proposal, rewritten by the Center for Arizona Policy, deals only with marriage.
Proponents of Proposition 102 agree the Legislature made same-sex marriage illegal in 1996, a law that was upheld by the state Court of Appeals, a decision the Arizona Supreme Court declined to review.
But backers point out that California also had a law banning gay marriage until that state's Supreme Court ruled in May that gays are constitutionally entitled to the same rights as heterosexual couples, including the right to wed.
Brewer said mentioning existing Arizona law "confuses people."
"The bottom line is, we're dealing with the constitution, and they want to kind of muddy it up with the statutes," she said. "And I don't agree with that."
The California decision was based on a conclusion that constitutional rights trump state statutes.

Tags: Politics,700m

Family Affair: Miami attorneys Jeff Hearne and Mark Balzli are among the first gay couples to register as domestic partners in Miami Dade County. They are raising a son, Aidan.
(Photo by Juan Carlos Rodriguez)
By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
AUG. 14, 2008, FLoridai Blade

One step toward equality
Miami Dade’s DP registry brings assurance to countless unmarried couples.

August 18 promises to be a landmark day in Miami-Dade County for the multitude of unmarried couples living in long-term, committed relationships.

At 10 a.m. the Miami-Dade community services department will open the county’s first domestic partnership registry. County commissioners approved the measure May 20, with an 8 - 4 vote.

The decision was hailed as a thorough, if not long overdue, victory for the gay community and for countless unmarried straight couples.

As the department prepares for what could be dozens of gay and straight couples lining up on the ninth floor of the county building to be among the first to register, Amendment 2—the statewide measure to recognize only one-man-one-woman marriages—looms on the Nov. 4 ballot.

If 60 percent of Florida voters approve it, Amendment 2 could render the county registry null and void.

That threat, however, is not enough to scare off as many as 30 couples whom GLBT organizers expect to register Monday.

Sonya Perez, a spokesperson for the community services department, said the county will provide the couples a waiting room and an on-premises notary Monday to help finalize the documents of those couples who have not yet finished their paperwork. County workers will be specially assigned to handle the amount of applications on Monday as well, Perez said.

For two Miami couples, attorneys Mark Balzli and Jeff Hearne, and gay activist Kirk Arthur and chemical engineer Alfredo Iglesias, the event is more than just a photo op.

Both couples say the registry is a small step toward a larger goal: that of marriage equality.

Both couples have children. Balzli and Hearne, together for six years, are raising their son Aidan, who, at 8 years-old, is obsessed with dinosaurs. Arthur and Iglesias’ 19 year-old son Alfie lives on his own in San Diego, Calif.

Together the couples represent two successful gay families at different points in their lives. And each have taken measures to get some form of legal recognition for their union. The attorneys were among the first couples to register as domestic partners in Miami Beach in 2003. Arthur and Iglesias were married July 11 in California. Their marriage, however, is not legally recognized in Florida due to current state laws.

Both couples said they were determined to step forward to be officially recognized here at home.

“The legislation says the county will honor our partnership,” Balzli said. “It’s not going to hurt. We have an eight-year-old boy and we don’t want to have issues.”

The registry is especially beneficial to GLBT families with children: Florida is the only state in the U.S. that specifically outlaws gay couples from adopting together, and while the registry does not overturn that law, it does provide limited legal recognition of guardianship for both parents.

The Miami-Dade registry will also give couples more leverage in emergency circumstances to deal with their finances and property in case one of them passes away.

“It’s not marriage, but it’s a start,” said Orlando Gonzales, SAVE’s interim executive director. “After we achieve [marriage] then there will be another celebration.”

For the meantime, Gonzales said, the new registry provides an opportunity for the public to break through preconceived notions about the gay community. He said the registry will help “quantify” how many GLBT people are in serious committed family relationships. That information, he said, will help inform future policy making.

Like most gay couples who’ve built lives together, Arthur and Iglesias say they don’t need a certificate to define their relationship, after 13 years together in a committed relationship.

But Arthur and Iglesias said the new registry provides an extra measure of security. Aside from establishing a legal recognition of their bond, being registered will serve to keep things, “straight” with the public.

“It solves a lot of the ambiguities,” Iglesias said.

“It just feels good,” Arthur chimes in. “You have a word that people understand, and there’s no question.”

Miami-Dade’s registry is the latest controversial issue to swing in the gay community’s favor. In 2002, SAVE was instrumental in beating a repeal of the county’s Human Rights Ordinance which barred sexual orientation discrimination. The county was at the center of the 1970s gay movement when county commissioners defeated Anita Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign, which would have repealed a local Dade county ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Heddy Peña, SAVE’s former executive director, played a key role in winning commissioner’s support for the Miami-Dade registry. She said while she recognizes the historic nature of the inaugural date, she is not quite ready to celebrate.

“For the moment it’s a step forward,” she said. “But in the long run, depending on what happens with Amendment 2, it could be a step back.”

Peña stepped down from SAVE last week to focus her efforts on the campaign to defeat Amendment 2, which threatens to disband the registry if approved by voters Nov. 4. She said she will be “showing up” to the county building Monday.

SAVE’s board of directors will likely announce its choice for its next executive director, Gonzales said. In the meantime the organization will focus on defeating Amendment 2, and thus protecting the rights that the Miami Dade registry provides.

Tags: Politics,Family,700m

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Tags: Quotes

watch Mens Basketball Highlights


watch Diving Highlights
watch Syncro Diving Highlights

watch Wrestling Highlights




watch Gymnastic Highlights


watch Trampoline Highlights
Trampoline STROBE version


Lesbian, gay athletes bring home medals from Beijing .
Gold for out competitors in diving, soccer and handball
By RYAN LEE, Southern Voice

With the 2008 Summer Olympics now a memory, here’s the final medal count for
known gay and lesbian athletes who competed in Beijing:

GOLD

Gro Hammerseng & Katja Nyberg, Norway, Handball: Part of gold medal-winning team.

Natasha Kai, USA, Soccer: Part of gold medal-winning team.

Matthew Mitcham, Australia, Diving: Gold medal winner in men’s 10 meter platform competition.

SILVER

Vicky Galindo & Lauren Lappin, USA, Softball: Part of silver medal-winning team.

BRONZE

Linda Bresonik, Germany, Soccer: Part of bronze medal-winning team.

DID NOT MEDAL

Judith Arndt, Germany, Cycling: Finished sixth in the women’s time trial.

Imke Duplitzer, Germany, Fencing: Lost in the second round of individual epee competition.

Rennae Stubbs, Australia, Tennis: Lost in second round of women’s doubles with teammate Samantha Stosur.

Victoria Svensson, Sweden, Soccer: Lost in quarterfinal match to Germany.

Tags: Tv

BEIJING — Two elderly Chinese women who applied to hold a protest during the Olympics were ordered to spend a year in a labor camp, a relative said Wednesday.

The women were still at home three days after being officially notified that they would have to serve a yearlong term of re-education through labor, but were under surveillance by a government-backed neighborhood group, said Li Xuehui, the son of one of the women. Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison his 79-year-old mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77. "Wang Xiuying is almost blind and disabled. What sort of reeducation through labor can she serve?" Li said. "But they can also be taken away at any time."

Beijing announced last month that it would allow protests in three parks far from the Olympic venues during the games but they had to be approved in advance. Of the some 77 applications lodged so far, none has been approved, and rights groups have called the zones a charade.

The elderly women, Wu and Wang, small and gray-haired, make unlikely activists. Wang, who used to sell ice cream, walks with a wooden cane, one hand holding onto Wu for support. But Li said they have been fighting since being kicked out of their Beijing homes in 2001 to make way for redevelopment. They complained to district officials, then to city authorities, and finally demonstrated 16 times this year in two of Beijing’s most sensitive areas — Tiananmen Square and Zhongnanhai, the compound where China’s leaders live and work. After Beijing announced the Olympic protest zones, Wu and Wang applied repeatedly for a permit but failed to get one.

The cases of Wu and Wang "show that while China has now proven it is able to host international events to perfection, it still has a long way to go before it respects even minimal international human rights standards," said Nicholas Bequelin of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"China is riding roughshod over its promises to allow lawful protests during the games," he said.

Wu Dianyuan, center, and Wang Xiuying wait to apply for a protest permit
as an officer asks them to move on. . AP/NG HAN GUAN

my thought
-I ONLY HOPE THAT THE INTERACTION WITH SO MANY RATIONAL FREE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD HAS INFECTED THE GROSS IRRATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. CHANGE COMES THROUGH EXTENDING A HELPING HAND, UNFORTUNATELY, AT THE MOMENT, CHINA SEEMS MORE LIKELY TO CUT THAT HAND OFF, RATHER THAN ACCEPT IT.

Tags: Politics

y’all know i don’t eat meat, but this is quite funny...

Tags: Comedy,Food

Watch the movie, great story bout life, love and work...

Tags: Movies

New Pic, New Office, BALD Head...lol

Starting finally cataloguing the 5000 remaining records...
will keep u guys posted with sale info...

Tags: Photography

Call Me now, i haven’t heard from u in the longest....

631-960-7178


actually this is not my number....but u need to send this to anyone with Halitosis

Tags: Comedy

I think we agree, the past is over.
George W Bush

I think there is a Trojan horse lurking in the weeds trying to pull a fast one on the American people.
George W Bush

I think war is a dangerous place.
George W Bush

I understand small business growth. I was one.
George W Bush

Tags: Quotes,Comedy,Politics

from EW...
The so-called Dark Knight curse continues. Morgan Freeman is the latest victim, following an Aug. 3 accident in which he flipped his car off a Mississippi highway — although at press time the 71-year-old Oscar winner was said to be recuperating nicely. In a statement, his publicist revealed that the actor underwent four and a half hours of surgery to repair nerve damage to his left arm and hand. There's no word on what the injuries mean in terms of his upcoming projects, which include the lead role in The Human Factor, Clint Eastwood's biopic about Nelson Mandela. — Benjamin Svetkey

Tags: Health

2xist releases what they are Caling LIQUID Cotton Collection.
Looks like the OUTLINE collection....clik 2 buy or learn more...

Tags: Body,Home

Whats all this “NO HOMO” shit?
If you need to say NO HOMO, U probably are...i do not agree with CAMRONS take on it. because even if it’s not about somebody being gay but someone saying something gay its still so GAY of you, lol. PS, how does one thats not a homo really know what is homo...and we didn’t forget bout your pink suits Camron (no homo, right....)
While were on it, the guys who dis him, D-BLOCK and DiPLOMATS talkin so much shia and walkin around doing the GAYEST THING OF THE LAST 10 YEARS, the Hip Hop Fashion of SAGGING.
The funniest thing about these “Straight Hard Thug’s” wearing their jeans this way is 3 fold.
1. If you really gangsta you would know enough that you may need to run from popo sometime and ya jeans being half off would slow that exposed ass down,
2. Most people, think rappers started the trend of baggy jeans and pants falling and hanging off your waist, but Judge Greg Mathis says that's not the case. According to his Honor, this trend started in prison as a result of inmates not being allowed to wear belts. Because their pants would hang and sag, this style came to be known as saggin'. When these young men would be released back into society, they brought saggin' with them and other young black males in the neighborhood copied the style as something that says macho or cool. This is a prison thing, young man, is this something you want to identify yourself with? Do you want to be like criminals? That's what saggin' reflects! Judge Mathis went on to say embracing prison practices creates a prison mentality. Case in point, I saw one young black man at the festival with pants down below his waist and a chrome replica of a .45-caliber pistol on the front of his jeans. What message is that symbol sending about him and what does it say about how he sees himself? Rappers made saggin' popular and somewhat mainstream with our youth as well as with whites, Asians and Latinos, but what rappers didn't do was start this trend. Prisoners did, and that's who our young men are imitating by wearing their pants the way they do.
3. It has often been argued that showing your boxers in jail has a very particular meaning. "You're letting another man know that you're available," It seems that the only reason you would expose your ass on the street, is because you want someone or something in your ass. So if your selling your ass in this way to a “GIRL” because your “STRAIGHT”, what’s she gonna do with it? Seems very DL, no?

That shia is seriously GAY and i mean GAY how straight people say Gay when they are being shady, not Gay like “i am a Homo Gay”.
So this new fad of NO HOMO is just another way to discriminate against Gays and make fun of em...
This Shia is NOT meant as kind to “HOMO’s” although i do like the ideas thrown out in one of these below...lol...(which one, hmmm) ...
Im not saying loking at saggers aint cute, just saying, if u think about it, its STUPID.

NO HOMO is more stupid than funny... which would make it hella STRAIGHT, as in, “I made another No Homo Video for YOUtube today, but i called NO STRAIGHT, so it’s o.k.””







Ok, i need to lighten up,



SATISFACTION?


Last word...
TAKE IT LIKE A woMAN


Ok, One More Word,
If you keep wearing ya jeans past yo ass its gonna drive ya crazy. If you don’t believe me, just ask the very first man who ever rocked that style PRESIDENT CHARLEY seen below

Tags: Politics,Comedy

Some times you might be interested in,
Also, most of the Boxing and Gymnastics finished Today (
I went on NYtimes.com and got the schedule, you can pick your own favorites and recieve a customized schedule of events HERE

Tags: Tv

Nature is perfect because it does not serve itself.
-Lao Tzu

Tags: Quotes

App Store - 60 Million Downloads
by Roberto Baldwin for maclife.com

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Steve Jobs reported that iPhone/iPod touch owners had downloaded more than 60 million applications from the iTunes App Store. While most of the downloads were for free apps, Steve reported that the App Store had generated $30 million in revenue in its first 30 days.
Steve also revealed that Apple does indeed have the capability to "turn off" an app remotely. The capability was discovered last week and and has some users concerned about privacy. Steve told the Wall Street Journal that Apple would only pull the lever if a malicious app appeared on iPhones. Adding that he hoped they would never have to pull that lever.
An Apple spokeswoman also commented on the removal of the I Am Rich app, saying it was a judgement call on Apple's part.

Just because 99.999% of the population would regard the I Am Rich app that was pulled from the App Store a complete waste of money, there are always a few folks with money to burn.
Eight fools, er wealthy individuals, purchased the app before it was pulled from the App Store, and according to its developer Armin Heinrich, customers "really love the app" and that they had "no trouble spending the money."
If people are willing to buy a dog collar for $480,000, a $1000 on an iPhone app is a deal. 
Source LA Times

Tags: iPhone/MAC

The American Family Association, a group of misguided folks, hate the word GAY. So much so that they have a filter on their news feed website which changes the word GAY to HOMOSEXUAL (every instance). So here’s what happened.
Tyson Gay who won the 100-meter trials for the Bejijing Olympics got filtered to become, TYSON HOMOSEXUAL. The story read, “Tyson Homosexual clocked in at 9.68 seconds”....(lol). It furthered, “Wearing a royal blue uniform with red and white diagonal stripes accross the front, along with matching shoes...Homosexual dominated the competition.”
The funniest part is that their news stories go to the Associated Press wire and it’s policy states that stories not be rewritten once published, so....they had to stick with their version of events and become the laughingstock of the news world.

Tags: Politics

While they FIRE gay Linguists left and Wrong,
the idea is to now beg and spend TAX money for...

Army Linguists Net $150,000 Bonus
James Joyner | Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Army is looking at paying incredibly large bonuses to people fluent in Arabic and other strategically important languages.

The Army may begin paying a retention bonus of as much as $150,000 to Arabic speaking soldiers in reflection of how critical it has become for the US military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks.
Only one other job in the Army, Special Forces, rates such a super-sized retention bonus. Now, as the military makes a fundamental shift toward rewarding the linguistic expertise it needs the most, it is expanding a program to train and retain native Arabic and other speakers from the same regions in which it is fighting.
[..]
After the invasion of Iraq and the insurgency that followed, the US military recognized its dearth of linguistic competence in the country it had just toppled, and it scrambled to identify Arabic and other linguists. The military’s conventional language training program, the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., could not churn out enough American soldiers proficient in Arabic, Kurdish, Dari, Pashtu, and Farsi, and the military quickly turned to private contractors to fill the gap. Numerous programs have sprouted up, including one at Fort Lewis, Wash., where soldiers are given a 10-month immersion program in language and culture.
But the Army has also been quietly growing its own capability to recruit and train Arab-Americans and others as American soldiers to do high-level work overseas. The Army now has more than 600 such linguists, known by their military job designation as “09 Limas.” They come from places like Morocco, Egypt, and Sudan, but are recruited by the Army wherever there are large Arab-American populations, including Dearborn, Mich.; Miami; Dallas; Los Angeles; and Washington, D.C. The Defense Department is now authorized to put green-card holders on a fast track to US citizenship. The 09 Lima linguists are in so much demand that the Army is raising the number it will recruit next year, from 250 to 275.
But as the US government recognizes the long-term commitment it is making to Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, the competition for these native speakers is fierce among other government agencies such as the FBI and CIA, as well as other military services and private contractors.
This was inevitable if largely a problem of the Defense Department’s own making. Many of us recognized this need in the early 1990s, when it was obvious that we had far too few linguists and that Southwest and Central Asian languages would be in high demand. The fact that DoD will hire private contractors at princely wages, thereby essentially bidding against itself on this front, isn’t helping.
The obvious downside of the bonus approach, aside from it being expensive, is that it could radically skew the pay structure of the force. Depending on how many years the bonus is spread out over, you could have private E-1s making more money than bird colonels.

Tags: Politics

No, really, my brirthday is coming in October and i really want this TABLE ...lol....REALLY!!!

Orange Slice End Table
USA
circa 1960's
Fun, summery resin top table in the form of an orange slice. Beautifully executed resin work. Chrome base with white plastic tipped feet. California design.

I had a pair of these not long ago, the only one's I'd ever seen, and they sold within hours of posting. This one was offered to me by someone who had seen my listing.

Price
$3,200

Condition
Excellent original condition.

Measurements
Height: 1 ft. 3 in.
Diameter: 1 ft. 4 in.

Specifications
Number of items: 1
Reference: U0803208137361

Tags: Home

Sen. Obama Responds to Jennifer Chrisler’s Questions on Family Policy
Just three weeks ago, presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain said in a NYTimes interview that he does not “believe in gay adoption.” The Family Equality Council immediately responded, issuing a statement questioning McCain’s grasp on the reality of American families.
A great deal of press ensued, including this AP article that generated interest in the issue nationwide. Even though our efforts to raise the visibility of McCain’s divisive statement resulted in increased attention to LGBT family issues, we didn’t think that a press statement went far enough.
On Wednesday, July 23 Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of Family Equality Council, issued identical letters to Sens. McCain and Obama, outlining the vast array of family types in this country and asking both candidates to explain how their administrations would work to recognize, respect, protect and celebrate all loving families in the US. One week later, Sen. Obama issued the following statement in response to Jennifer:
Dear Jennifer,
While we live in a nation that is enriched by a vast array of diverse traditions, cultures and histories, it is our commonality that most defines us. The desire to build a life with a loved one, to provide for a family and to have children who will grow and thrive — these are desires that all people share, regardless of race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. My own experience has taught me this lesson well. I was born to a single mother, my devoted grandparents helped raise me, and then I married the woman of my dreams and had two beautiful daughters. The love that has blessed each of those households has been strong and sure, and I know that millions of families across this nation share the same blessings.
We know that the cost of the American dream must never come at the expense of the American family. For decades we’ve had politicians in Washington who talk about family values, but we haven’t had policies that value families. Instead, it’s harder for working parents to make a living while raising their kids. It’s even harder to get a break.
That’s why I’ll double spending on quality after-school programs - so that you can know your kids are safe and secure. And that’s why I’ll expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers; to let parents participate in school activities with their kids; and to cover elderly care. And we’ll finally put federal support behind state efforts to provide paid family and medical leave. We’ll require employers to provide seven paid sick days each year. We’ll enforce laws that prohibit caregiver discrimination. And we’ll encourage flexible work schedules to better balance work and parenting for mothers and fathers. That’s the change that working families need.
But we also have to do more to support and strengthen LGBT families. Because equality in relationship, family, and adoption rights is not some abstract principle; it’s about whether millions of LGBT Americans can finally live lives marked by dignity and freedom. That’s why we have to repeal laws like the Defense of Marriage Act. That’s why we have to eliminate discrimination against LGBT families. And that’s why we have to extend equal treatment in our family and adoption laws.
I’ll be a president that stands up for American families – all of them.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
The Family Equality Council applauds Sen. Obama for his timely and thoughtful response to serious questions that define the health and safety of millions of American families. As of today, we have heard nothing in return from Sen. McCain.

Tags: Politics

Coral Reefs Face Extinction
Friday, Jul. 11, 2008
By BRYAN WALSH

You don't have to be a marine biologist to understand the importance of corals — just ask any diver. The tiny underwater creatures are the architects of the beautiful, electric-colored coral reefs that lie in shallow tropical waters around the world. Divers swarm to them not merely for their intrinsic beauty, but because the reefs play host to a wealth of biodiversity unlike anywhere else in the underwater world. Coral reefs are home to more than 25% of total marine species. Take out the corals, and there are no reefs — remove the reefs, and entire ecosystems collapse.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what appears to be happening around the world. According to a comprehensive survey by the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) published Thursday in Science, one-third of the more than 700 species of reef-building corals are threatened with extinction. Compare that to a decade ago, when only 2% of corals were endangered. Using criteria established by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature — a group that publishes an annual Red List of threatened animals — that makes corals the most endangered species on the Earth. The assessment's results, presented at the annual International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, come just a week after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that more than half of the coral reef ecosystems in U.S. territory are in fair or poor condition. "We're losing the coral in the coral reef," said William Platt, a coral reef expert with NOAA.
The causes of the coral's demise are manifold, but they all come back to one culprit: us. Overfishing — especially the kind that uses dynamite or poison to kill whole schools of fish — destroys the coral directly, while polluted runoff from agriculture simply chokes them. Development in booming coastal economies from the Caribbean to Southeast Asia further threaten the delicate reefs. Tourism — in the form of diving and snorkeling — can also cause damage. As with so many other endangered species around the world, there doesn't seem to be enough space for healthy coral reefs and unchecked human development. "It's just a litany of bad actions," says Brian Huse, the executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance. "Over the past 35 to 50 years, we've lost 25% of our reefs worldwide. Put it altogether, and you can see why."
Disease plays a role as well, with whole coral colonies wiped out by sudden sickness. That rise in illness may be linked to warmer sea temperatures, which is caused by climate change. And it's global warming that poses the most serious threat to the survival of coral. Corals have a symbiotic relationship with a kind of algae that provide nutrients and energy through photosynthesis — not to mention the vivid colors we associate with coral reefs. When corals are stressed by rising temperatures, the algae are expelled by the coral, turning the reefs bone white. That's a "bleaching event," and bleached coral are left weakened and defenseless against disease. Increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere also lead to more acidic seas, which impairs the ability of corals to form their skeletal reefs. (In acidic water, the reefs simply dissolve.) "Corals appear to be particularly sensitive to the buildup of CO2," says Kent Carpenter, the lead author of the Science study and the director of GMSA. "The corals will be the canary in the coal mine in terms of the effect climate change will have on our oceans."
In one way, protecting the coral is not that different from protecting any endangered species. First, we need to cut back on activities that ruin their habitat, the shallow waters close to our coast. Agricultural runoff — already responsible for the oceanic "dead zones" seen in the Gulf of Mexico and other heavily built up coasts — has to be curtailed, as does the senselessly destructive fishing practices that have us tossing dynamite or poison into the waters. One of the best strategies is to expand the range of territory protected by marine reserves — national parks of the deep. And here the Bush Administration — usually anything but environmental — deserves real credit. With a stroke of a pen in 2006, President George W. Bush created the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a 140,000 sq. mi. protected area northwest of Hawaii. Larger than every other national park in the U.S. combined, the monument protects 10% of the shallow coral reef habitat in U.S. territory. These kind of reserves need to be expanded, to limit the influence of human activity on delicate corals.
But we could make the entire ocean into a marine park and still lose the coral, if we can't stop climate change. As temperatures rise in the ocean, bleaching events will become more and more common. According to a study published in Science late last year, if CO2 levels continue rising unabated, by 2100 coral could be utterly extinct. "If we can't contain the CO2 problem and enact strong coral reef conservation measures, we will lose them," says Carpenter. The depressing fate of the coral could be a reminder that climate change has the power to undo all the work of wildlife conservation over the past century — if we let it.

Tags: Politics,Environment

Right Now, at this very moment, we have a mind,
which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.
-the 14th Dalai Lama

Tags: Quotes

The T Train:
NYC Will Get Its First New Subway Line in 70 Years
By David Hirschman 07.21.08

NYC subway map of the future.
New Yorkers are used to waiting for the subway and all, but this is ridiculous. Their first new line in 70 years— the T— is finally getting built. The Second Avenue Subway, as it's known, was proposed in 1929 and has been on the drawing board in this incarnation since 1999. Workers are now rerouting utilities and preparing to assemble a 250-foot-long tunnel-boring machine at 92nd Street. Next June, as part of the $4.3 billion Phase I, it'll begin gnawing its way south through 20 blocks of Manhattan schist (bedrock!) to 72nd, where a new station will be built. Ultimately, after decades of work, the new T Line will unite the Upper and Lower East Sides.

The tunnel-boring machine will cut through 50 feet of Manhatten shist (bedrock) a day.

Tags: Travel,NYC

Im showing u guys this because i remember this Liquor from my favorite movie
MOULIN ROUGE (Kylie Minogue played the Green Fairy...lol)
15th Anniversary: Absinthe Goes From Banned Drug to Legal Liquor
By Brian Ashcraft 07.21.08


The green fairy returns.
Photo: Dan Saelinger

In the 20,000 years or so that humans have been getting piss-drunk, no spirit has earned a worse rap than absinthe. Said to turn mild-mannered imbibers into raving maniacs, it was banned in the US and much of Europe in the early 1900s. (Remember Van Gogh's ear incident? Some scholars blame the green fairy.) The chemical culprit was thujone, a toxic compound found in the crushed flowers and leaves of absinthe's key ingredient, wormwood. Or so we thought.
Three years ago, Wired sent me to meet Ted Breaux, a chemist and microbiologist who had reverse engineered the liquor's recipe and discovered that there was barely any thujone present (November 2005). During harvest and distillation, he explained, its concentration was reduced to a minuscule five parts per million.
Breaux's research — finally published this spring in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry— and that Wired story have helped change absinthe's image from drug to drink. The US has been slowly peeling away its ban, and in March, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved the sale of absinthes that were "thujone free" (containing less than 10 parts per million).
To date, there are four brands on US shelves: Lucid (Breaux's formula), Kuebler, Green Moon, and St. George Absinthe Verte. "The US is lucky in that its first absinthes are high-quality products, distilled from whole herbs," Breaux says. "In the European market, 80 to 90 percent is industrial junk."
Under the Jade label, Breaux is making his own absinthes in France and trying to get them green-lighted for sale in the US. "Even at this point, gaining that approval seems to involve more luck than anything," he says. Luck, and a little chemistry.

Tags: Food

Oral arguments set in Sen. Craig sex-sting appeal

Craig will attempt to withdraw guilty plea
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) | Aug 1, 10:27 AM
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will get his next day in Minnesota's courts on Sept. 10. That's the date for oral arguments on his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in a sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.
Craig was arrested last summer in a bathroom stall by an undercover officer who said Craig solicited sex. Craig pleaded guilty, but later said that was a mistake.

A Hennepin County judge refused to allow Craig to withdraw his plea. Now a three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals will consider the Republican's case.

MY NOTE:
Michaelangelo Signorile (best known for his show on the
GAY satellite chanel of SIRIUS sattelite radio) is going on an
un-official LARRY CRAIG TOUR
following around McCain to cities that Larry has had public sex in...lol

Tags: Politics

Fashion ROCKS 5th ANNIVARSARY SHOW...
coming Tuesday September 9th, 2008 to CBS
mark your calendar....(last year was hot!)...c below
Timbaland - The Way I Are (Live Swarovski Fashion Rocks)

Tags: Fashion,Tv,HIPOP

According to fragrance site Scented Salamander, "The perfumer-composer for the fragrance is Antoine Lie and to him it had to smell like 'a guy coming out of a shower. He's clean, but not fragranced. And he puts on leather pants.' There is also an outdoorsy aspect to the scent and themes of 'metal, leather, sensuality, beauty and radiance' inspired by Tom of Finland's drawings. Perfume wearers will be carded -- that's right -- as a suggestive sketch is part of the inner packaging (7 limited edition sketches). You will have to be 21 in the US and 18 elsewhere."
Notes include a crumpled leaf, suede, metal, pepperwood, iris, tonka, vetiver, and musks.
A crumpled leaf? And what's tonka — little toy cars?
The fragrance promises that it "does not disturb the odor of men" which I guess means you'll still be able to inhale the rich aromas of musky armpit, taint, and other places your nose might care to travel.

I think they should have just been honest about it and mixed the folllowing:
Poppers, leather and armpit / sweat smell.
but hey, what do i know...maybe it smells terrific...lol

Tags: Home

Two days before a shotgun-wielding Steven Kazmierczak shot 21 students inside a lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, taking the lives of five people as well as his own, 15-year-old Lawrence "Larry" King was shot in the head at the E.O. Green School in Oxnard, California, reportedly for being gay. He was in the eighth grade.
Three days after the shooting, on February 15, King was taken off life support and pronounced dead.
King's killer, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, apparently targeted the student because he was openly gay and sometimes dressed in women's clothes. King also wore makeup and jewelry to class on occasion. It's possible that McInerney, who has been charged with murder and the commission of a hate crime, will be tried as an adult, which means he could face 50 years to life in prison if convicted.
King's death came 10 years after the brutal murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was also killed because of his sexual orientation. But for some reason, King's murder generated just a fraction of the media coverage that follows most school-shooting incidents. In fact, most of the initial reports about the killing were turned out by local news agencies, and the national media didn't catch up until several days later.
A series of candlelight vigils have been held throughout the U.S. in the wake of the student's death (an estimated 1,000 people marched in Oxnard the weekend following the murder), in an effort to raise awareness of what many feel was a largely underreported case. MTV News attended one such vigil on Friday night, just outside of Los Angeles, where dozens gathered — not with candles but glowsticks — to remember King.
Now the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a leading gay-rights student organization, has decided to make King's murder one of the central themes of this year's annual Day of Silence on April 25.
"This year, we're going to incorporate, within the Day of Silence, a way for students to remember Lawrence King and sort of use it as a day to honor him and to bring attention to what happened," said GLSEN spokesperson Daryl Presgraves. "The overall themes will include King and the immediate need to address anti-LGBT harassment. If ever there were a sign that schools need to realize how far such harassment can go, and why it's important to address it now, it's Lawrence King."
Since King's murder, there have been 30 candlelight vigils throughout the country, with one planned for Washington, D.C., early next week (a complete list of these events can be found at GLSEN.org). Presgraves wasn't sure exactly how the national Day of Silence would commemorate King's passing, but said the theme of the day will be remembering the slain student.
"It's a prevalent and pervasive problem in all of our schools," he said of anti-LGBT violence and bullying, adding that he's not quite sure why King's death was all but ignored by the national media. "For whatever reason, there's still a lack of willingness to address the anti-LGBT bullying that goes on in schools. We don't know why, but there's still sort of this sense of having our heads buried in the sand. What happened to Lawrence King is a much more isolated incident, but what happened leading up to his death happens to youth every day, all the time. He was just expressing himself, and we're seeing more of this — youth are being open at an earlier age, and they are proud of their identities, but that doesn't mean someone won't bully them for it. In this case, King was bullied to such an extreme ... you can't get worse than that."
In addition to organizing the national Day of Silence, GLSEN pushes for anti-LGBT-bullying legislation, and works with schools to tackle the problem. Currently, there are only 10 states that protect students from bullying based on sexual orientation: California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. Five of those states protect students based on gender expression and identity (California, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota and New Jersey).
"We encourage all states that it's something they can start addressing," Presgraves said. "In almost every state, there is something that can be done right away."

In memory of Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King1/13/1993 - 2/13/2008
Do not stand at my grave and weep,I am not there. I do not sleep.I am a thousand winds that blow,I am the snow on the mountain's rim,I am the laughter in children's eyes,I am the sand at the water's edge,I am the sunlight on ripened grain,I am the gentle Autumn rain,When you awaken in the morning's hush,I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight,I am the star that shines at night,Do not stand at my grave and cry,I am not there, I did not die.

If we all do what we can regarding Hate Crimes Legislation...Then the spirit of this senselessly slain child will definitely not die. We must keep diversity alive and protected in our nation and in the world.
___________________________________________
What actions youth can take:
1. Request this page as a My Space friend: Make sure Lawrence King is not forgotten.
2. Organize an action within your own school to fight again anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and name-calling. Here's how:
A. Organize a Day of Silence to raise awareness of the silence that LGBT and ally students face every day - www.dayofsilence.org.
B. Find and support allies in your school - www.dayofsilence.org/ally.
C. Find out about your school's safe schools policies by setting up a meeting with your principal.
You can reach out to the GLBT NATIONAL YOUTH TALKLINE 1-800-246-PRIDE (1-800-246-7743). The GLBT National Youth Talkline provides telephone and email peer-counseling, as well as factual information and local resources for cities and towns across the United States.
If you need any additional support or would like to talk to someone, please contact the TREVOR PROJECT HOTLINE at 1-866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386).
Things Adult Organizers Can Do Right Now:
1. Partner with local organizations to organize a community action or vigil in memory of Lawrence and other youth who were lost to violence based upon sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. The Ventura County Rainbow Alliance organized a vigil Friday night, February 15, in Ventura County, where Lawrence lived. Many other vigils are expected to take place in California and the rest of the country over the course of the next week.
2. Help others learn about Lawrence. Share his story with your peers, friends and family, and through media such as blogs, listserves, letters to the editor, press releases and more.
3. Prepare resource information, such as community organizations and counseling/wellness services, for LGBT youth and allies to contact. This is an emotional and scary time for a lot of people, and it is important to know where to go for support.
4. Get involved with local organizations that work to create safe schools for all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. If there is not one in your community, start one!
Actions Educators can take:
Here are some resources available for educators to use around this issue.
Ten things Educators can do... To ensure that their classrooms are safe spaces for ALL students. You can download this resource and more here: Ten things Educators can do
Zero Indifference: A How-to Guide to Ending Name-Calling in Schools. You can download this resource here: Zero Indifference


Additional Links
GLSEN - Remembering Lawrence
Lawrence King Memorial
1,000 march in Oxnard in tribute to slain teen - Los Angeles Times

Tags: Politics

-from Charlene on the Nick At Night Show...Designing Women

“I asked this Northern woman, ‘Where y’all from?’ And she said, ‘I’m from a place where we don’t end sentences with prepositions.’ So I said ‘OK, where y’all from, bitch?’”

Tags: Quotes,Comedy

"I will work hard to make sure Americans aren't deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change," said McCain.

Really?
Jealous of the eloquence of Obama? Not surprised. He not only speaks eloquently, he also thinks eloquently. Funny how the republican best suited to continue in George W’s footsteps would find fault with such an inspiring figure. Who are you inspiring Senator McCain? Talk about the issues. Barack Obama can hold his own in an issue debate with you. So stop playing so LCD (lowest common denominator). Personal attacks show your ineptitude, not your opponents.

I hope Obama continues his string of wins and has face to face DEBATES with John McCain. We will see who the intelligent countrymen choose as president. We shall see your true colors Mr McCain as you get tongue tied and change your response to more personal topic and going on the attack.

Even your wife makes our country look inept. The recent comeback to Michelle Obama was so unnecessary. Michelle said "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." This is not a negative comment. She was being GENUINE. She further explains "What I was clearly talking about was that I'm proud in how Americans are engaging in the political process," she said. "For the first time in my lifetime, I'm seeing people rolling up their sleeves in a way that I haven't seen and really trying to figure this out -- and that's the source of pride that I was talking about.".Does she have many other comparative reasons for such pride in the past 20 years? There is real CHANGE afoot. I say that the LEAST GENUINE AWARD GOES TO CINDY MCCAIN (Johns Wife)...for her “comeback” to this statement by Michelle.

“I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you? If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country,” Mrs. McCain said while revving up the crowd and introducing her husband. “I just wanted to make the statement that I have and always will be proud of my country,” ....REALLY
your PROUD of our war with IRAQ?
your PROUD of our DEFICIT?
your PROUD of fixed elections?
your PROUD of our president who stumbles nearly every speach?
your PROUD of REGAN selling arms to the very people we are now at WAR with?
your PROUD of our insatiable WASTE and over-consumption?
your PROUD of our ranking as number 18 out of 24 for EDUCATION Worldwide?
your PROUD of our ranking as 53rd in the WORLD for FREEDOM of The Press?
your PROUD of AMERICA’s HEALTHCARE SYTEM?...out of the six nations studied... Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last.

I could go on like this for hours but I am tired of being the logical, intelligent, caring American today... leave the ball in your court. Forward this info. Expand on these ideas. Point out the hypocrisy When you see it.
We’ll all be better off...
oh, and btw...
VOTE OBAMA

Tags: Politics

NEW BOOK NYC GO-GO takes a long hard look at the exhibitionists of New York City’s underbelly and for $23.10 on Amazon that’s cheaper than a night at the bar stuffing singles into the G-strings. Best yet, you can take em all home (no fee) lol...There are some legendary dancers in the linked pictures “New Book” above...including June and Jason...the publisher swears my copy is on it’s way, but i thought i’d help spread the word. If the teaser pics are any indicator...Count me and Big Kim in!!!!

Tags: Body,Photography,Books

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 24 MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL GATHER to watch the 80th annual Academy Awards Show. This year like the last several will be no exception, the best picture category will go to something mediocre and hardly worthy. Still, fun to watch the famous squirm in their seats waiting uncomfortably for the winner is....NONE OF THESE....Atonement,ok. JUNO heartwarming, but best picture?? MICAHAEL CLAYTON, great picture, not BEST picture. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, mildly entertaining, totally fucked up story and an ending no one understands except for the old men voting apparently. THERE WILL BE BLOOD, perhaps for best Actor, NOT best picture.
these are your nominees
ATONEMENT
JUNO
MICHAEL CLAYTON
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
i say fuk that....i saw a ton of great movies last year...any of these tips the oscars list
300
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
BLADES OF GLORY
BOURNE ULTIMATUM
EL CANTANTE’
LAST MIMZY
LA VIE EN ROSE
PERSOPOLIS
RATATOUILLE
SHOOT EM UP
SICKO
SMOKIN ACES
TRANSFORMERS
FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE TO THE LIST...

THEN WATCH ON FEB 24 AND BE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE REST OF US.
On the bright side,, at least they didnt nominate SWEENIE TODD
which was OK but DEFINITELY NOT PICTURE OF THE YEAR. Although the Golden Globes thought so...lolololololololol
critics....ha, what do they know.

CLIK HERE FOR THE FULL LIST

Tags: Politics,Tv,Movies

Welcome to Funplex, the first record of the 21st century from the B-52s. "It's loud, sexy rock and roll, with the beat pumped up to hot pink," says guitarist Keith Strickland. Eleven fresh new songs, crafted by the groundbreaking band that put Athens, GA on the musical map in the late '70s, and conquered the world with its savvy hooks, unconventional approach to music-making and original style. “Funplex sounds like us, updated," adds Fred Schneider. "It's the B-52s now – or fifteen years from now."
From the opening burst of "Pump," with Keith’s garage-rock guitar and Kate, Fred and Cindy's one-of-a-kind vocal interplay, Funplex is instantly recognizable as prime, yet contemporary, B-52s. Vibrant selections including "Keep This Party Going," "Ultraviolet," and "Hot Corner" reaffirm the quartet's status as "the world's greatest party band." Yet they continue taking risks, too, yielding future favorites such as the transcendental "Juliet of the Spirits" and "Love in the Year 3000," where atmospheric introductions unfold into multi-layered harmonies and burbling beats. On the propulsive title track and first single, the three vocalists adopt distinct characters, running amok on diet pills and slinging tacos in a sprawling shopping center. "It's the seedy underbelly of the mall," chortles Fred.
The creative odyssey of Funplex began with Keith Strickland, who composes the music for the group. "I had been listening to a lot of electronic dance music and early rock and roll. I was inspired to use these two aesthetics together with our own sound to write some shameless dance-floor party music." At home in Key West, FL, he commenced crafting new tracks that retained iconic features of the band's sound – such as their primal guitar   hooks – while also emphasizing grooves. What emerged were originals like "Eyes Wide Open," with its throbbing low-end and oddball percussion, and the chugging, unvarnished "Too Much to Think About." Songs that can stand (or shimmy) shoulder-to-shoulder with the best work by newer contemporaries like LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and the Killers.
"I'm trying to convey a feeling when I write," Keith explains. "I like to think of my instrumentals as landscapes. The chord changes, rhythms and sound quality of the instruments are all aspects of a sonic space, which is designed for Cindy, Fred and Kate to step into. I want them to feel inspired by the music and expand on that feeling with their melodies and lyrics ... little did I know that with our new songs ... they were going to get all sexy."
The other members of the band were busy incubating new songs, too. "I'm always writing lyrics," says Fred, “I have notebooks full of ideas, not just for songs, but cartoons, films, everything." The band began meeting regularly at Nickel & Dime Studios in Atlanta, GA for Stage Two of the writing process. Working with Keith’s foundations, Kate, Fred and Cindy commenced with their trademark "jamming," creating melody lines, lyrics, and vocal harmonies, turning over myriad ideas until they hit upon the ones that served each song best. 
"During the 'jamming' process Cindy and I usually focus a lot on melodies ...then the harmonies start to flow....and the magic begins," Kate elaborates. "Sometimes we start with title or subject ideas but we often go to our laptops and jam out on lyrics while listening to the music."
"Most people could not do this," confesses Cindy of their democratic modus operandi. "What we're trying to do is rare, but it works out. And you get a song that is multi-faceted, and has different senses of humor, and depth to it." For instance, the initial spark for "Juliet of the Spirits" came from Keith, according to Kate: "He made a suggestion to look to the Fellini movie" – 1965's Giulietta degli spiriti – "for lyrical inspiration, since his movies have always been an influence on our look and our hair! Cindy, Fred and I took it from there." The title "Deviant Ingredient" may have sprung from a line of Cindy's poetry, yet the song's vocal twists, and vivid images of trawling the martini mile, are born from all the members' intersecting imaginations.
To help formalize the sound of Funplex, the band recruited producer Steve Osborne (Happy Mondays, Doves, KT Tunstall), who had favorably impressed Keith with his work on New Order's 2001 return to form, Get Ready. "Steve was strong, directed everybody well, had great ideas… and he understood us, too," says Cindy. "A lot of people wouldn't know what to do with our band, but he appreciated the quirkiness, and made it work. Can you imagine what a hard job that must have been?"
While Osborne and his team – programmers Pete Davis, Dave McCracken, and Damien Taylor, and engineer Dan Austin – helped refine subtle percussion and keyboard parts, enhancing the original tracks, they also made sure to retain a hefty dose of spontaneity. "We didn't do a whole lot to the vocals," reveals Kate. "The philosophy was to keep them a little raw. A lot of attention was paid to the individual tracks, but we were careful not to sound too slick or overproduced."
Recording took place in two locations, first at the Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, NY, followed by John Keane Studio in Athens, GA. Working at the latter venue, in particular, enhanced the good vibes that surrounding the making of the record. "It felt like coming full circle," says Kate. The studio was literally just a few blocks from the site of the house where the band played its first show, at a party on Valentine's Day, 1977. "We were tapping back into that wellspring of creativity," she continues. "It was like the spirit of when we started. My voice teacher used to say tension is the enemy of all art, and being in Athens melted away any tension. It's so easygoing there."
You'll find glimpses of the band's Athens, GA roots in the lyrics of "Hot Corner," too. "That was a real corner by our old studio, in the Morton Building, where a lot of hot action took place," Kate recalls. "Like 'Love Shack,' the song is a mix of all things Athens: the bus station where Keith and Ricky worked, the dance parties we crashed, the crazy outfits we wore."
The B-52s have come a long way since their revolutionary 1979 self-titled debut, featuring the evergreen "Rock Lobster." Following the loss of founding member Ricky Wilson in 1985, the group rebounded with their triumphant 1989 smash Cosmic Thing, which spawned the Top 10 hits "Love Shack" and "Roam." Although their last recordings to be made commercially available were the songs "Debbie" and "Hallucinating Pluto" for the 1998 anthology Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation, the band has remained a popular and active live touring act.
Looking back at band’s pioneering fusions of punk, new wave, and vintage rock, it would be tough to imagine the contemporary musical landscape existing without having encountered the intersected spirits of Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, and Cindy Wilson. "We all cross-pollinate, and create a wonderfully crazy blossom," explains Fred. Botanists don't need a name for this stunning specimen, though. It already has one, known around the world: the B-52s.

LINKS TO OLD VIDEOS
PRIVATE IDAHO
ROCK LOBSTER
LOVE SHACK

Tags: Music,80's

So u think your fat ass couldn’t e a vegetarian?

Try a copy of SKINNY BITCH

If you can't take one more day of self-loathing, you're ready to hear the truth: You cannot keep shoveling the same crap into your mouth every day and expect to lose weight.
Authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin are your new smart-mouthed girlfriends who won't mince words and will finally tell you the truth about what you're feeding yourself. And they'll guide you on making intelligent and educated decisions about food. They may be bitches, but they are skinny bitches. And you'll be one too-after you get with the program and start eating right.
Rory Freedman, a former agent for Ford Models, is a self-taught know-it-all.
Kim Barnouin is a former model who holds a Masters of Science degree in Holistic Nutrition.
They have successfully counseled models, actors, athletes, and other professionals using the Skinny Bitch method. They both live in Los Angeles.
PRAISE
“What makes this diet easy to swallow is the book's tough-love attitude — part best-friend counsel, part drill-sergeant abuse and a dash of sailor mouth, wrapped in a pretty chick-lit package.”— iVillage, Diet & Fitness
“It made me laugh . . .”— Marie Claire UK
"A cleverly titled book with useful information on healthy eating..." — Elle UK
"Don't hate them—be them. The authors of Skinny Bitch offer women a no-holds-barred approach to being thin and fabulous." — Metro
“The authors are brazen . . .They’re not trying to win popularity contests . . . they just want healthy people.”—Associated Press News Syndicate
“Ready to jump-start [the year] with an electric prod to the system?. . . They tell it like it is, and without delicacy.”—Chicago Sun Times
“As the authors rightly point out, thanks to slick marketing and food-industry lobbying, we’ve reached such a collective level of ignorance about health and nutrition that a diet telling us to eat lots of meat and no fruit becomes wildly successful. ‘You are a total moron if you think the Atkins Diet will make you thin’ they tell us. Harsh? Yes. But it’s also true. …there’s more solid advice in Skinny Bitch than in most diet and health books.”— Bitch, Anniversary Issue
“By no means for the faint hearted . . . this is as hard hitting as it comes!”—Hot Stars (UK)
“This diet book doesn’t sugar-coat what you have to do to lose weight.”—Grazia
“Sensible advice . . .”—Health & Fitness UK
“Kim Barnouin, a former model with an MS in Holistic Nutrition and Rory Freedman, a former modeling agent, have achieved the seemingly impossible by writing a diet book that’s as sassy and entertaining as it is packed with reliable information.”— Energy Times
“This book is an absolutely hilarious read because the authors treat you like they know you well. They yell at you, they insult you and they call you some very nasty names. But since they are giving out their strongly-held beliefs and advice on living a healthy lifestyle — and you know in your heart they're right — it is refreshingly in-your-face funny.”— Cathy Mathias, Florida Today
"Skinny Bitch is outrageous, wickedly irreverent, and right on the mark. Any young woman who pays attention to this book will become healthier, thinner, and more powerful." — John Robbins, best-selling author of Diet For A New America and Healthy at 100
“Skinny Bitch combines a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude with cogent analysis and scientific proof to make an engaging, wickedly irreverent, and iron-clad case for eating healthfully. If I had it in my power, I’d provide a free copy to every young woman in the developed world; we could then become, instead of the fattest next generation in history, the healthiest.”— Ingrid Newkirk, President, PETA
"Skinny Bitch dishes up scientifically sound information that will change your health and your life. Its 'in-your-face' approach is at once engaging and humorous, and belies its serious and well-researched underbelly. It’s the spark that will start your personal revolution. Pick it up. Read every last word. Healthy and skinny you will be."— Amy Joy Lanou, Ph.D., Senior Nutrition Scientist, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Tags: Books,Vegetarian

Getting paid 4 this? (as well he should!)
David Beckham introduces Emporio Armani underwear for men. Sexy and streamlined, the classic brief and stretch boxers, made from modal and cotton for the utmost in luxurious comfort. Shop the full range of colors and styles at emporioarmani.com. More fashion styles coming this spring as well as exclusive video footage of David Beckham in the latest Emporio Armani underwear.

U MIGHT WANNA CLICK THE LINK FOR THE SLIDE SHOW (really)

Tags: Body,Fashion

Gay contestants on reality TV -- ''Make Me a Supermodel,'' and ''The Amazing Race'' have helped shape the public's perception of homosexuality

By Sean Smith for entertainment weekly magazine.

If you haven't been watching Bravo's newest reality series, Make Me a Supermodel, you're missing a whole lot of gratuitous on-air nudity and — now that we have your attention — one of the most provocative relationships on television. Ronnie, a gay 24-year-old student from Chicago, is enamored with his roommate, Ben, a straight (and recently married) 22-year-old prison guard from Nashville. Here's the kicker: Ben not only welcomes the attention but seems to have genuine affection for Ronnie. This unconsummated ''bromance'' has become the show's buzziest story line — and it's igniting plenty of will-they-or-won't-they speculation. Right now, it's nearly impossible to find a blog that doesn't refer to the duo as ''adorable.''
If the culture war is indeed over, then it's safe to say that reality TV played a major role in helping to end it. Had a show like Supermodel existed 20 years ago, a guy like Ben would have been far more likely to refuse to bunk with a gay man than to flirt with him. But reality TV — despite all the ways in which it inspires the worst in human nature — is a remarkably effective weapon in the fight for gay acceptance. Ever since MTV launched The Real World in 1992, guys like Ben have grown up watching young gay people grapple with the same dramas and traumas as their straight peers. In its third year, The Real World featured Pedro Zamora, a charismatic young gay man who was HIV-positive. His death, soon after the season ended, touched millions and shaped their views on homosexuality.
According to a recent poll, the majority of college freshmen now approve of gay marriage, and it's worth noting — as compared with 2004 — that the topic has rarely come up during the presidential primaries. It all makes a certain kind of sense: Gen-Y'ers have seen lesbian Jackie Warner run a successful business on Work Out. They watched a gay male couple win The Amazing Race 4 and two loving lesbian ministers lose it last season. Even MTV's execrable teen ''dating'' show, Next, has routinely featured same-sex-themed episodes. Gay characters show up on Top Chef and Survivor with little comment. The judges on that bastion of tolerance, American Idol, went out of their way to praise — not ostracize — a gay male auditioner this year. America's Next Top Model has had bisexual and lesbian contestants; Project Runway, on occasion, enlists a straight male one. And when a record-setting 6.2 million people tune in to the finale of the MTV reality series A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila to see whether the bisexual vixen picks a guy or a girl for a showmantic relationship, it's clear the world has changed.
Of course, none of this resolves the most pressing moral dilemma still facing us today: Should we actually be rooting for Ronnie and Ben to hook up? Probably not. But it's hard to avoid. They're pretty adorable together.

Tags: Body,Tv

Ladies and Gentleman...
On Day 1, we need a President who is not in the pocket of Special Interest, does not agree with the War, cares enough about Gay Rights to make them a major part of his Campaign Speech given in a southern CHURCH....

Some of you are scared of what could happen if we don’t have the status quo in office,
well look at what has happened with it...
I like Bill Clinton as much as the next guy, but can you say that u TRUST Hillary with not being a corporate push over?

read
The Buck Stops Here, Unless You Marry It (Or Were Sired By It, Or Are Its Cousin...)

Skull & Bones

If you are still a Republican (with the party not standing up for Republican values)
I have no way to help you, because you have already decided to just vote along party lines
by still calling yourself a Republican through the last 30 years of Non-Republican Republicans.
BUT
if you are Independent or Democrat, I urge you to be an idealist for once.
Don’t pick Hillary because you feel it is the safe choice.
Everyone wanted to have a beer with George W and how much money has been made off this War in no bid contracts by Mr B and Mr C?


I firmly believe that Obama should be the next President Of The United States.
This is why...
GAY RIGHTS
If you were to discuss Gay Rights with Hillary, she will do what is politically correct.
If you were to discuss Gay Rights with Obama he will do what is Morally correct. (and has already stated so).
WAR
If Hillary makes a mistake (like voting for the war) she can’t even admit it...and tries to blame others
(just like George W)
ECONOMY
The Economy will get better with ANY president who isn’t trying to line their pockets with LOBBY money, INSURANCE money, WAR money....can you say that For Hillary?
LEADERSHIP
Much like my lead in story where Barack speaks for Gay Rights In a conservative Church, He continually shows this mark of Leadership. All along the campaign trail, if there was mis-information aimed at him, he responded honestly and with facts. Hillary gets asked a question and somehow turns it around to be about something else.
HEALTHCARE
This one looked tough at first glance especially with recent articles....HOWEVER
the real facts are:
OBAMA’s plan provides for realistic changes and honesty about what is required.
Hillary’s plan (although “universal&rdquo mandates everyone just PAY, there is no idealism in a universal plan that does not attack the Premium rates, Realistically look at why we pay 50% more for prescriptions than nearly EVERY OTHER COUNTRY, etc, etc,....
So to that article that says you must AIM high by trying for “Universal Coverage”
I agree, but not
“AIM FOR HIGH INSURANCE PREMIUMS THAT ARE HIGH BECAUSE INSURANCE COMPANIES PAY OFF SENATORS...”
IN GOOD COMPANY
list of supporters for BARACK OBAMA
As of January 17, 2008
 Public and Elected Officials 
 
1.   Thomas Daschle, Fmr. Dem. House Majority Leader
2.   Adrien Fenty, Mayor of Washington DC
3.   Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Governor
4.   Dick Durbin, US Senator of Illinois
5.   Richard Daley, Mayor of Chicago
6.   Ted Sorenson, JFK Advisor/ Speech Writer
7.   Zbigniew Brzezinski, Fmr. Pres. Carter’s NSA
8.   Tim Keane, Governor of Virginia
9.   Phil Leventis, SC State Senator
11.Kay Patterson, SC State Senator
12.Arthur Davis, Alabama US Congressman
13.Bill Beck,  Mayor of Durham, NC
14.Frank Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines, IA
15.Harris Woffard, Fmr. PA Senator
16.Glenn Reese, SC State Senator
17.Carol Shea-Porter, US Congresswoman NH
18.Barbara Lee, California Representative
19.Betty MacCollum, NM Congressman
20.Dave Loebsack, IA Congressman
21.Jim Hodges, Fmr Governor of South Carolina
22.Douglas Wilder, Mayor of Richmond VA
23.Paul Hodes, US Representative of NH
24.Steve Rothman, Representative of New Jersey
25.Gwen Moore, Representative of Wisconsin
26.Willie Hines, Chairmain/ Council of State-Wisconsin
27.Jim Doyle, Governor of Illinois
28.Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, NJ
29.Jeremiah Healy, Mayor of Jesrey City, NJ
30.Ned Lamont, US Senator, Connecticut
    (Fmr candidate Chris Dodd’s aide)
31.Dave Bieter, Mayor of Boise, Idaho
32.Mike Burket, Idaho Rep.
33.Edgar Malepeai, Idaho Rep.
34.Nicole Lefavour, Idaho Rep.
35.Les Bock, Idaho Rep.
36. James Ruchti, Idaho Rep.
36.Wendy Jacquet, Idaho House Minority Leader
37.Gary Hart, Colorado Senator ( Twice Pres. Candidate)
38.Ethel Kennedy, Senator Bob Kennedy’s Widow
39.Jesse Jackson Jr. Rep. Illinois
40.Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. -Civil Rights Leader, Rainbow Coalition
41.Bobby Rush, Illinois State Rep.
42.Emil Jones, Illinois State Rep.
43.Michael Fitzgerald, IA State Treasurer
44.Tom Miller, Iowa Attorney General
45.Tim Johnson, South Dakota Senator
46.Bill Perkins, NY State Senator
50. Ben Nelson, Nevada Senator
51. Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona
      (seen as potential VP in any Dem. Admin.)
52. Bill Bradley, US Senator, NJ
53. Hank Johnson, Georgia Congressman
54. Jim Doyle, Governor of Wisconsin
55. Patrick Murphy, PA Congressman
56. John Kerry, Mass US Senator, 2004 Pres. Candidate
57. Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts
58. Shirley Franklin, Mayor of Atlanta
59. Kasim Reed, Georgia State Senator
60. Claire McCaskill, US Senator from Missouri
61. John Conyers, US Congressman, D Michigan
62. Patrick Leahy, US Senator, D Vermont
63. Tony Knowles, Fmr Governor of Alaska
 
    Celebrities, Public Figures  
 
1.   Andrew Sullivan, Commentator
2.   Oprah Winfrey, TV Show
3.   George Clooney, Actor
4.   Will Smith, Actor
5.   Halle Berry
6.   Scarlett Johanson
7.   Zach Brafff
8.   Chris Rock, Comedian/Actor
9.   Usher, musician
10. Larry David
11. Cornel West, Professor Princeton Univ.
12. Kal Penn
13. James Whitmore
14. Ken Burns, NH Filmaker
Hill harper, CSI’s tv series Actor
David Geffen, Geffen Records (former Clinton supporter)
  
 
        Civil Rights / Religious and Community Leaders 
 
1.   Rev. Joseph Lowery, Civil Rights Leader
2.   Dr. C T Vivian, Civil rights Leader
3.   Dr. Michael Battle, interdominational Theol. Sem.
4.   Rev. Dr. Lawrence Carter Sr, MLK Int’l Chapel, Morehouse college
5.   Rev. Gerarld Durley, Progressive Baptist Church
6.   Dr. Robert Franklin Jr, Emory Univ.
7.   Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, Ray of Hope C. Church
8.   Rev. Dr. Mathew Johnson, Christ. Fellowship Bapt. C.
9.   Rev. Lester McCorn, Faith AME Zion Church
     10.  Rev. George Moore, St Philip AME Church
     11.  Rev. Anthony Motley, Lindsay Street Bapt. C.
     12.  Rev. Keneth Samuels, Victory Bapt. Church
     13.  Rev. E Dewey Smith Jr, Greater travelers Rest. BC
     14.  Dr. T. Dewitt Smith Jr, Progressive Ntl Bapt. Conv.
 
 
       Newspapers and Workers Unions
 
1. MinesotaBrown, Newspaper
2. Portsmouth Herald, NH
3. Boston Globe, Mass
4. Marshalltown-Republican Newspaper, Des Moines
5. Nevada Culinary Union ( 30,000 local affiliates)
6. Nevada SEIU; part of 450,000 nationwide members coalition of unions called  “Unite-Here”
7. Las Vegas- Review Journal (Nevada’s largest paper)
8. Nashua Telegraph, NH
9. Valley News, NH

Tags: Politics

How could u not love Dolly? Especially when after 17 years she decides her new new CD should be called “BACKWOODS BARBIE”. Brilliant. I just watched the BIOGRAPHY 2 hour special and was happy to hear that she’s as savvy a business woman as she is a beautiful woman. She says that she modeled her look after the town tramp, yet she’s never been trashy. Starring In 9to5, Steel Magnolias, Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, Straight Talk and more she always entertains, and although i am not the biggest country fan, i will admit she turned it out on “I’M GONE” (u really should clik the link...it’s a kekekekekeke...)
and if ur down to ride a roller coaster or grab some vittles u can always hit
DOLLYWOOD

PS...for allu youngin’s she originally wrote and had a hit twice with
I Will Always Love You
then a third time for the BODYGAURD soundtrack with WHITNEY HOUSTON
which became one of the biggest selling singles of all time.
Dolly turned Elvis down when he wanted to record a version of the song because they wanted part of her publishing rights, she said no-go...painfull for her at the time, but thannx to Whitney, a decision that eventually made her Millions and Millions of dollars.
DUMB BLOND she’s not
backwoods barbie, maybe....

Tags: Music

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 10
THE 50th Annual Grammy Awards on CBS. Performances by BEYONCE, ALICIA KEYS, CARRIE UNDERWOOD, FOO FIGHTERS (backed by a full orchestra) + more...
Will Kanye beat Amy Winehouse for Disc of the year?
Is Beyonce going to Win Over Rihanna?
ooh the excitement (yawn)
but what else are you gonna do before you hit VOODOO or CLICK on Sunday.
????

Tags: Tv

He’s not “family,” but Emmy-winning Family Guy and American Dad creator Seth MacFarlane consistently packs his irreverent animated sitcoms with queer gags and subplots, even devoting entire episodes to hot-button gay issues such as marriage and adoption rights. With his sexy baritone (similar to Family Guy’s alcoholic dog Brian, just one of the many colorful characters he voices himself), the 34-year-old devoted Democrat drew us in to discuss what makes homosexuality so damn funny, and—step aside, Dumbledore—out one of his most popular characters as “almost certainly gay.”
By Brandon Voss
From The Advocate Magazine

I hope you’re prepared for my very gay line of questioning. I spent half the holidays with my gay cousin, so I think I’m good to go.
How did your cousin inform your views on homosexuality?We went to see him in a show when he was in high school or college, and I remember my parents talking about the fact that he might be gay and just doesn’t know it yet. It turned out that they were right. With certain parts of our family, it was taken for granted—“Oh, he’s gay”—and we didn’t think any more of it. Other parts of the family were, at times, less enlightened about it. At one point somebody said, “Maybe there’s a way for him to be cured,” which was fucking horrifying to hear from somebody that you love. But I credit my parents for raising me to be a logical person. I went to a very conservative boarding school called Kent with a lot of Republican students from very wealthy families, and a lot of times that does come with an unfortunate amount of negative traditionalism. I certainly remember hearing students use the word “fag” and whatnot, but it didn’t really register with me just because I hadn’t been directly exposed to any openly gay people yet. But then when I was, it was nice to find out that my brain was already set up the right way, so I didn’t give a shit.
Were you ever mistaken for gay, perhaps due in part to your longtime love of musical theater?Oh God, yeah. Big deal.
Did that ever cramp your style romantically?No. If anything, it would’ve helped. Hot chicks love gay guys.
What inspired Family Guy’s season 4 gay marriage episode “You May Now Kiss the…Uh…Guy Who Receives,” in which Brian’s flamboyant cousin Jasper visits with his Filipino boyfriend?A couple of years prior I had teamed up to write a pilot with two writers, both of whom were gay. One of them said that when he travels through the Midwest with his partner they have to go through this fucking dog and pony act when they stop at a hotel and the guy behind the counter says, “You want one room or two?” They have this charade where they’ll say to each other, “Is one room OK with you?” “Yeah, I’m cool with that if you are.” “Yeah, no big deal, we’ll just take one.” That was one of many conversations I had with them where I thought to myself, Why is it that Johnny Spaghetti Stain in fucking Georgia can knock a woman up, legally be married to her, and then beat the shit out of her, but these two intelligent, sophisticated writers who have been together for 20 years can’t get married? It’s infuriating and idiotic. I’m incredibly passionate about my support for the gay community and what they’re dealing with at this current point in time. I have arguments with people where I get red in the face, screaming at the top of my lungs.
According to DVD commentary, [your “standards and practices” legal department] had you say that an antigay propaganda video shown in the episode was made by “Pat Robertson Industries” to ensure that Fox wouldn’t be called homophobic. Are they always so paranoid when it comes to gay issues?It just depends. Religion is a lot more sensitive on a weekly basis to standards and practices than anything, which pisses me off. I was surprised that we were forced to add that Pat Robertson thing, because you had this unbelievably radical antigay film—obviously it was something we were making fun of. I thought, Aren’t people smart enough to know better?
The Parents Television Council voted the episode, along with many others, “Worst TV Show of the Week.” Do you appreciate that honor?Oh, yeah. That’s like getting hate mail from Hitler. They’re literally terrible human beings. I’ve read their newsletter, I’ve visited their website, and they’re just rotten to the core. For an organization that prides itself on Christian values—I mean, I’m an atheist, so what do I know?—they spend their entire day hating people. They can all suck my dick as far as I’m concerned.
Using the news anchor couple Greg and Terry you’ve also tackled LGBT issues on American Dad, most recently in the adoption episode “Surro-Gate.” Do you think you’re influencing viewer opinion?I certainly hope that we’re doing a small part to advance progress in that area. But there are some bits that we do on Family Guy and American Dad that are just pure comedy which I hope are not influencing people. 
Which character do gay fans respond to the most? Generally they respond to Stewie, because he’s arguably the most complex character. He originally began as this diabolical villain, but then we delved into the idea of his confused sexuality. We all feel that Stewie is almost certainly gay, and he’s in the process of figuring it out for himself. We haven’t ever really locked into it because we get a lot of good jokes from both sides, but we treat him oftentimes as if we were writing a gay character.
Is it odd how much people care about this cartoon baby’s sexuality? Yeah. We’ve had letters from homophobic fans in the past, and I sort of relish the idea of saying, “Yeah, well, you know what? Your favorite character, Stewie, is gay.”
Why did you base the voice of American Dad’s effete alien on Paul Lynde? I’ve always been a huge fan of his. It’s just a voice and characterization that I’ve always found so hysterically funny and just so unabashed. There’s an old Hanna-Barbera tradition of using character actors from the ’50s and ’60s as springboards for animated cartoon voices. No one had really touched Paul Lynde, and he seemed like such an obvious choice. They just re-released that Paul Lynde Halloween special and I picked up a copy. You just can’t take your eyes off the guy.
What makes homosexuality such a ripe source for humor? You know, that’s a very good question. There are obviously many different types of gay personalities, but what’s funny to me is when a gay character expresses mischievous guilt about something in which there are no stakes, like, “Ew, I’m going to watch one more episode of Sex and the City—don’t tell anybody!”
What are your favorite gay stereotypes? Certainly the singsong stereotype—you know, the guy who makes a joke and then has to say, [singsong] “Kidding!” We didn’t end up doing this with Greg and Terry because we thought they would be funnier taking the form that they do, but I’m always amused when there’s a gay couple and one is clearly the husband and one is clearly the wife. But there’s so many more, and I’m sure we’ll discover some new ones as we go along.
From Family Guy’s gay marriage episode title to Greg and Terry’s “pitcher” and “catcher” license plates, there also seems to be a fascination with the idea of tops versus bottoms. I’m not quite sure, but it is a source of comedy. It’s as if there’s paperwork involved before the sex can take place.
Unfortunately, gay groups haven’t always gotten the joke, like the controversial 2005 Family Guy bit in which Peter’s barbershop quartet informs a man that he has “full-blown AIDS.” Yeah, that was one that caused a lot of upset. But the strange thing is that never once in that gag did we say this was a gay guy. I heard from several people, “Well, he had a goatee, so he must be gay.” I’m like, “What? I had a goatee at one point!” On top of that, with most of the gags where it seems like we’re taking a potshot at black people, Asian people, Jewish people, or gay people, the joke is that Peter is an idiot. The character is Archie Bunker without the knowledge of what he’s doing. He has the mind of a child, basically, and a source of big laughs is when he doesn’t realize he’s doing something inappropriate. So that gag sort of took it to the next level. If you have to break terrible news to somebody, what’s the most sugarcoated, upbeat way to do it? We thought, A barbershop quartet might be nice.
Do you have gays on staff with whom to consult on gay content? One of our broadcast standards people—the censors—is gay, and I’ve had many, many conversations with him about a lot of these issues, making sure that we’re handling it in the right way. We have a few artists who are gay, and actually two of our executive producers are gay—I wonder if I’m allowed to say that in the press. [Laughs] For the first three seasons of Family Guy we had a gay writer who was really instrumental in building the relationship between Brian and Stewie that we kind of take for granted now. That’s something I didn’t really think of when I created the show, but it emerged in the writers’ room, particularly out of the pen of this one writer who really had a knack for those characters and opened the door for us to explore that facet of Stewie’s personality.
In American Dad’s season 2 Log Cabin Republicans episode “Lincoln Lover,” Stan makes a statement that “Gays are the new blacks.” Do you think that’s true? That’s a joke line, but in some ways, yes—to a less intense extent. You’re not dealing with things like segregated drinking fountains, but the fundamental civil rights issues are the same. I get particularly angry when I hear a black pundit speaking out against the gays. My thought is, Well, wait a minute, you fucker. You got yours and you’re denying them theirs? You of all people should understand what they’re going through. It just burns my blood.
Did your recent donation to Barack Obama’s campaign have anything to do with his stance on gay issues?It’s funny, but lately I’m leaning more toward [John] Edwards.
What? Aren’t you concerned about pissing off Oprah? I think I can handle that. Hey, a man can change his mind. It’s interesting that flip-flopping is considered a negative thing in politics. I’ve never understood that. I take the Bill Maher point of view: Give me the guy who can change his mind when presented with new information.
In the gay world, flip-flopping is considered a positive. [Laughs] Well, there ya go.
How do you feel about the young straight community’s cavalier use of the word “gay” to describe stupidity or weakness?I’ve used that term, but it’s like a homonym—no pun intended. Like the word “fag” is a derogatory term but also a British cigarette. There’s that whole George Carlin routine where he talks about the word “nigger.” He says that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that word—it’s the racist asshole using it that you gotta be worried about. Unless they’re hiding it well, there’s nobody on our staff who’s bigoted or homophobic. We’re all very progressive, and as a result we feel comfortable making jokes. We know what our own beliefs are, so no matter what we do it can’t possibly come from a negative place.
You’ve called Fox’s decision to air unfinished Family Guy episodes without your final approval during the writers’ strike “a colossal dick move.” How will you heal from that? Ultimately there will have to be some sort of reconciliation. When the strike is over we have to dry the tears pretty quickly and get back to work. It’s not like I’m going to be turning my nose in the air when I pass one of the bigwigs in the hall. Nothing’s to be gained from that. But the longer it goes on the more I perceive it as a handful of very rich well-dressed white men not wanting to give up a few hours on their private jets. The people at the top of the financial food chain have to give up a little bit—and by a little bit I mean a little bit.
What can we expect from the as yet unscheduled episode titled “Family Gay”? That has to do with Peter being injected with the gay gene as part of a scientific experiment to determine whether or not it’s a learned trait or something that you’re born with. The good news is that at the end of the episode we establish that it’s the latter. Basically, Peter’s in a gay relationship for an episode and winds up in one of those straight camps.
If you inexplicably woke up gay tomorrow, what would be your first order of business? I would seek out Justin Timberlake and get him to admit it.
If a house party full of America’s gay celebrities literally burst into flames, which one would you run in to save first?John Travolta. But if he’s not there for some reason, how about David Hyde Pierce? I’m acquainted with him and he’s a good man. And if we ever did a Family Guy Broadway musical, we would need him to play Stewie.

Tags: Tv,Comedy

Outing campaign roils D.C. black Baptist churchMore than 100 members named as gay in e-mails to pastor, congregationBy LOU CHIBBARO JR. | Jan 30, 2:14 PM
One of Washington’s largest black Baptist churches was rocked by a female member of its choir who sent separate e-mail messages to the pastor in December and January outing more than 100 church members as gay, mostly male choir members. The outings added to the inner turmoil experienced by a large number of gays who attend services at the 7,000-member Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, located on Rhode Island Ave., N.E., according to a gay former member who provided copies of the e-mails to the Blade. “I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do,” the church choir member said in one of her e-mails to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr., the church pastor. The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay. She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay. “The following people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my prayer is that you will sit them down from their ministries,” she told Owens in the December e-mail. “Because they are ushering in the presence of sin, lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits.” She sent a copy of her e-mails to a Yahoo list group that goes to more than 300 church members, the gay former church member said. The gay former church member redacted all of the names from the copies of the e-mails he sent to the Blade, including the name of the choir member who orchestrated the outings. Officials with the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington-based group that advocates for African-American gays, and the D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Men & Women, said they have seen or spoken with people who have seen un-redacted copies of the e-mails. “There’s no doubt that these e-mails included all those names and they were read by a lot of people,” said Brian Watson, president of the D.C. Coalition.Owens and Greater Mount Calvary Associate Pastor T. Cedric Brown did not return calls seeking comment by press time. Owens became the subject of media attention in April 2006 when he used the word “fag” in a sermon on Palm Sunday. “It takes real men to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior,” Owens said in the sermon, which was recorded by the church. “I’m not talking about no faggot or no sissy,” he said. “Let the real men come down here and take a bow — all the real men. I’m talking about straight men … praise God that you’re straight.” The church’s web site includes a listing of twice-monthly sessions of a ministry called “Breaking the Chains of Homosexuality,” which it says helps gays change their sexual orientation through counseling and prayer. Minister Dennis Sawyers, an expert in “ex-gay” ministries, is listed as the leader of the church’s efforts to counsel gays. The former gay member of Greater Mount Calvary who provided copies of the outing e-mails to the Blade, has withheld his own name. He used the pen name “Jeff Hammer” in his own e-mail correspondence with the Blade. He said Owens responded to the first e-mail by calling a meeting of all members of the church’s numerous singing groups. The groups include the Alfred Owens Chorale, the Sanctuary Choir, the Celebration Choir, Voices of Calvary and the Male Chorus, among other groups. “He said he only wanted to help people who wanted help to not be gay and that he was willing to help anybody change from being gay,” the former church member said. The former member quoted Owens as telling people attending the meeting, “The Bible says that wheat and tares grow together but there are too many tares. When the tares outnumber the wheat I got to do something.” According to the former church member, Owens said, “I’m going to meet with all the people mentioned in the e-mail and use my discernment to figure out who needs to be monitored or sat down from what they do …” “My name was not on the list in any of these e-mails, but I think it is horrible,” the former church member said. “We give, pay tithes, dues and whatever, and this is how we are treated,” he said. “This is discrimination, humiliation and just mean.” Sylvia Rhue, director of the National Black Justice Coalition’s religious affairs program and a licensed clinical therapist with a doctorate in human sexuality, said she was troubled but not surprised to hear that a large number of gays continue to join and worship at a church like Greater Mount Calvary. “We know that many of the gays that go there like the traditional setting of a church like that,” she said. “It tears at your soul. It has the potential of causing depression, drug use and other harmful effects.” Rhue said the NBJC recently released a publication called “Guide To Welcoming Congregations in the African-American Tradition,” which offers suggestions on how traditional black churches can be open and supportive of gays while remaining faithful to biblical teachings. Watson of the D.C. Coalition said he knows a number of gays who remain members of Greater Mount Calvary, something Watson said he finds difficult to understand. As someone one who was raised in a church-going family in Oklahoma City, Watson said he attended services at Greater Mount Calvary when he moved to D.C. “I did not join because the views there are clearly homophobic,” he said. “But it seems to be one of the more popular churches among black gays … I don’t know why these people keep going back there.” Rick Rosendall, a spokesperson for the D.C. Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, said he, too, was troubled over why so many gays would continue to attend and support a church that is less than welcoming to them. “Our city has several welcoming and affirming congregations,” he said. “In the end, there is little that can be done for people who utterly refuse to respect themselves enough to stand up for themselves. If this particular incident wakes up some people and causes them to reevaluate their association with anti-gay churches and ministers, that could be the start of a salutary movement.” The choir member who initiated the outing campaign at Greater Mount Calvary introduced herself to Bishop Owens as a deeply concerned member of the church. “I am a female who has been a member of the Alfred A. Owens Chorale over five years,” she wrote in the first e-mail. “I have many friends in all of the choirs. However, people talk in my choir and I have overheard so many conversations, and pictures tell no lie.” She added, “90.9 percent of the tenors in Sanctuary choir are homosexual. 99.9 percent of all the tenors in Celebration Choir are homosexual, including xxxxxx, but he is very undercover, aka, down low with his sex life.” After naming more than a dozen men she claims are gay, she pointed to someone else she said was gay who “serves on the ushers board” and who “is always at gay parties drinking and drugging and is currently living with his boyfriend, Deacon xxxxx.” She said another choir member “visits the gay clubs in the area weekly, i.e., the Bachelors Mill, the Delta, the Fireplace and Halo. He also attends private sex parties that male members of your choirs are having at their homes and hotels.” The gay former church member who sent the outing e-mails to the Blade also sent a copy of a separate e-mail from an outraged gay church member who was among those named in the first two e-mails as gay. “I do not believe that someone would [have] the nerve to put my name to a list of known gays,” he wrote in an e-mail sent to Owens and members of the church Yahoo group. “This has gone too far, I am not going down by myself.” He went on to name other gays, including some in high-level church positions. “It is so bad that in the last e-mail we are turning on each other,” the gay former church member, who sent copies of the e-mails to the Blade, said. “Although I wanted to remain anonymous, someone has to do something.” Leaders of two of D.C.’s largest gay churches, acting Pastor Mark Byrd of Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, and Bishop Kwabena Rainey Cheeks of Inner Light Ministries, did not respond to requests for comment on the Greater Mount Calvary outings by press time.

Tags: GODIAN,Politics

Amanda Lepore has been New York City´s IT girl since the early 1990's. She originates from New Jersey. She had her first cosmetic surgery at the age of 15 and then had a sex change in her final year of high school. Once a married suburban housewife, she fled her failing marriage for the bright lights and exciting scene of NYC.
She soon became a fashion icon and she appeared on the pages of "Project X" magazine. Amanda would later go on to become muse and model for photographer David LaChapelle appearing in his books, television commercials and other international photo shoots. Aside from being a talented model Amanda has mastered the art of self styling. Her signature looks are the epitome of Hollywood bombshell glamour. Her talent to transform herself from character to the next has made her one of the most sought after and photographed club celebrities internationally.
Her debut singles "Champagne", and "My Hair Looks Fierce" produced by Fatal Art Syndicate with lyrics written by Cazwell, are just some of the many projects Amanda has created. Her "Time Tranny" Swatch watch, which to date is the fastest selling limited edition Swatch along with other merchandise using her likeness continue to be exceedingly popular. Amanda currently resides in New York City and is pursuing film and acting projects.

THIS FRIDAY DEC 28th AT COLISEUM FT LAUDERDALE

The famous Amanda Lepore grabs some MILK, a hot outfit and her hit records just 4 u this Friday.
don’t miss it!!!!

Tags: Comedy,Coliseum

I’M SOOOO HOT FOR HER

Because she look so much like a hot boy.....lol...tru..I kept seeing Dani around town here in Miami before catching recent episodes of A SHOT AT LOVE. Everytime i would run into her i was like, i could soooo be with that girl...i was just amazed by how beautiful she was. Not the feminine or the masculine but the best of both worlds. Exquisite Beauty u r Dani.....I really wish my favorite Girl the best. It’s really good she didn’t win the show, cause the prize wasn’t too spectacular....(Tila???)
Now maybe i get my shot at love. ;-} lemme stop....
witness the drama on MTV HERE

MWA’s 2 u Dani!!!!!

ADD HER ON MYSPACE

(below is article from EXPRESS GAY NEWS)
After making it to the final round of an MTV bisexual TV dating show, Fort Lauderdale’s Dani Campbell is being called America’s favorite lesbian. Campbell, a 29-year-old Deerfield Beach firefighter, won over legions of fans with her appearance on “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.” She has garnered the most postings of all the contestants on the show’s website, www.iamonmtv.com. She even has more hits than the show’s protagonist, Tila Tequila. Campbell appeared at New Moon Lounge in Wilton Manors to sign autographs and view the final episode with packed house of enthusiastic fans. She lost. The series aired during prime time and quickly became a pop culture sensation. It centered on Internet starlet/singer Tila Tequila, whose real last name is Nguyen. Tequila, who identifies as bisexual, had to choose a mate from among 16 men and 16 women. Campbell, one of just two butch girls in the cast, surprised many fans by making it to the finals, where she faced off against fresh-faced film student Bobby Banhart. At New Moon, the crowd squealed and cheered during Campbell’s date scenes with Tequila. They roared when Campbell rocked the mic rapping for her would-be girlfriend. They cried when Tequila chose Bobby. “I love Dani,” said Nikki Wiggins, a 25- year-old loan officer from Hollywood. “She’s real, she tells the truth and she’s hot.” Wiggins said that Campbell made a strong impression on her. Before watching the show Wiggins said she never felt attracted to girls who are not “girly.” “Dani opened my mind,”Wiggins said. And while organizers tried to shush the crowd as the episode built to the final moment, the energy in the room could not be quieted. At one point during the show, Campbell jumped up on a cocktail table and shouted, “Bobby sucks” during the segment that showed Banhart and Tequila making out in a hot tub. The crowd immediately took up the chant: “Bobby sucks! Bobby sucks!” The emotions spilled over when in the final moments Campbell was rejected. Nobody in New Moon could believe it. “It can’t end like that,” Pardo shrieked at the television screen. “I’m so pissed.” But for Campbell, watching the final episode was comforting. Due to a confidentiality agreement, she could not tell anybody the outcome from the time the show finished shooting in September. “It’s just a big relief to be able to speak about it,” she said. “At the beginning of the show, I really didn’t care. But then I got to know [Tequila] and soon I started developing feelings.” Campbell’s fans consider her a positive representation for young lesbians, and it’s likely that Campbell will tour college campuses for publicity. But her publicity tour kicked off with a rocky start. Campbell’s appearance at a fund-raiser for the Taravella High School was canceled by Broward County School District officials. Keith Bromery, the district’s spokesman, told the Miami Herald that the reason the event was canceled was not because of Campbell’s sexuality but because of the amount of sex and alcohol featured on the show. Bromery was quoted as saying, “The episode that I saw was a woman in various degrees of undress laying prone on a bar with guys drinking shots out of her belly button.”

Tags: Tv

Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige has something to tell you about fighting AIDS, creating a hot new album and doing the hard work of living with joy.

MARY J CD RELEASE PARTY EXCLUSIVE AT COLISEUM FRIDAY DEC 28

Excerpted from The Advocate

Mary J. Blige has a fantastic body, fit and surprisingly curvy. Today it’s poured into a pair of formfitting jeans, a chic orange turtleneck, and dark leather boots. Huge, dark sunglasses set off her trademark blond bob wig. She’s curled up in a chair in a small room at the Beverly Hills Hotel after our lunch downstairs, her legs dangling over the arm. She stares out the window as her husband-manager Kendu Isaacs puts a CD-R of songs from her new album, Growing Pains, in the room’s outdated CD player. As the beat-driven music starts to play, Mary drops her head slightly forward and nods hard to the beat. Her entire upper torso jooks in classic B-girl style. She sings along to the words, going into her own zone. This is career-high music for Mary -- some of her best singing, strongest songwriting, and most inspired production ever. But it’s likely to further alienate many of the fans that vibe to Miserable Mary, Addicted Mary, Depressed and Suicidal Mary. The new material is a continuation of the process begun on her Grammy award–winning 2005 album, The Breakthrough -- Mary’s chronicling of her new and hard-won states of mind and being. She’s happy. When told that the album, which was then a month and a half from being released, would likely inspire grumblings of dissatisfaction among some of her old fans, Mary swings her legs around, sits up straight, and says in that globally famous no-bullshit voice, “Thank you. That’s honest, what you just gave back. I like that.”
Actually, throughout our conversation, honesty is what Mary J. Blige gives me. It’s well-known that celebrities come to this magazine to send a little love to their big gay following, but often enough, that’s just business. This is different. This is deeper. “The majority of my fans are gay,” Mary says matter-of-factly. “The majority of them are, and I have to really make sure that they know I’m paying attention to the fact that they support me, and I support them.”
Asked at what point she realized that the children had made her their own, she immediately replies, “I realized that years ago. Like, probably during...was it Share My World or Mary? It was probably during the Mary album that I realized I had so many gay fans, because one of my managers at the time was gay and him and all his friends were die-hard Mary fans. And then there’s a lot of gay women that love Mary J. Blige -- a slew of gay women. And that’s never been something to bother me. Never. Because we’re all people at the end of the day.” She pauses for a second, then continues.
“When I was growing up,” she says thoughtfully, “my neighborhood was full of everyone -- black, white, Latino, gay, straight. A lot of people that I knew were gay, but they were great people. They were good people. It’s not like they were alien. They were just people. That [acceptance] was just something that was always in me. I’ve never been a judgmental person because I have been through so much hell myself…”
And you yourself have been judged, I say to her.
“Exactly. I’ve been judged so much that I’d be a fool, or I’d be dead wrong to myself, to have something negative to say about anyone that’s doing anything that’s their choice, you know what I mean?”
In the fight against AIDS, Blige has done more than support from the sidelines. She has jumped in on our side. Longtime fans know of her involvement with AIDS organizations and awareness programs like Minority AIDS Project and her being a spokeswoman for MAC cosmetics’ Viva Glam III and IV campaigns. The death of her friend and songwriter Kenny Greene (who was responsible for many of MJB’s early hits, most notably “Love No Limit” and “My Love&rdquo was her personal impetus for involvement in the cause. But it was noticing the silence around the disease that finally prompted Blige to take action.
“I was motivated,” she says, “by the fact that it came and was so huge, and then all of a sudden it disappeared, and it was the thing that everybody swept under the rug. It was the elephant in the room that nobody’s looking at. It made me be like, Oh, this is right at our front door. This can touch us. So why wouldn’t I want to get involved with something that can help save all our lives, save everybody’s lives? That’s why I wanted to get involved, because I knew that…” She pauses. “I had friends that… One of my gay friends that was a songwriter with me, Kenny Greene, was one of my really good friends and he died from AIDS. I was like…” She sighs deeply and falls silent before resuming the conversation. “And then everybody was just dropping off, dropping off, dropping off, but no one was saying anything.”
Of course, part of that silence is rooted in homophobia, either inflicted or absorbed. Or both. And while much mainstream conventional wisdom (catch the layered oxymoron there) has it that the African-American and hip-hop communities are more homophobic than whites, Mary doesn’t see it that way.
“The real hip-hop,” she stresses, “the real people don’t even care about that. They’ll love you and accept you no matter what because they know who they are. There are a lot of people trying to figure out who they are and what they’re gonna be. There’s a lot of confusion in that. Confusion causes a lack of identity.
“I’ve heard a couple of guys say foul things, and those guys are not around me anymore because when they say things like that, I’m looking at them like, What makes you so scared? You don’t know who you are? I guess it all boils down to them not being sure about themselves and what they wanna do, whoever that is. I won’t say any names. And I don’t dislike them or anything -- it just makes me wonder about them period. ’Cause if you’re not sure about that, then you ain’t sure about a lotta things!” she laughs.

Tags: Music

What's behind Hollywood's plastic surgery obsession? Radar spoke with industry insiders—from casting directors to A-list doctors—for the truth about the insane pressures, the elaborate subterfuges, and the costs of playing the perfection game?

See before-and-after shots of Angelina Jolie and others
F
OR MERE MORTALS, the holidays are a chance to congregate with loved ones, rationalize gluttony, and exchange unwanted gifts. For Hollywood celebrities, they're traditionally a time to sneak off to one's surgeon's office for some urgent nips and tucks. With only weeks remaining until awards season—the series of televised events that kicks off with the Golden Globes on January 13—planning is everything. By Thanksgiving, anxious stars are already discreetly arranging to have their palms Botoxed (to avoid sweaty red-carpet handshakes), their laugh lines rendered mirthless with Juvederm injections, and their droopy eyelids carved away. As the ceremonies draw nearer, last-minute earlobe plumpings are not unheard of.
Recently, Rose McGowan lost out on a role in the upcoming film Speed Racer, reportedly because her overstretched eyelids had begun to evoke those of an alien kitten
Each time major celebrities alter their bodies, they're risking millions of dollars in potential earnings and the livelihoods of their entire teams. With the stakes so high, the effects must be subtle. No one wants to be the next Meg Ryan, whose 2001 misadventures in lip enhancement left America's erstwhile sweetheart looking like a duck, a lapse in judgment at which Hollywood still shudders. "She basically installed a vagina on her face," says producer Clifford Streit (American Psycho), adding helpfully, "When your lips get that big, your eyes look too small." More recently, Rose McGowan lost out on a role in the upcoming film Speed Racer, reportedly because her overstretched eyelids had begun to evoke those of an alien kitten.
Even minor procedures are performed in grim secrecy. For A- and B-list stars, admitting to any plastic surgery is only slightly less taboo than admitting to a taste for sodomy. "Everybody lies about it," says actress Julie Bowen (Boston Legal, Ed, Lost). "The men I know are a bit more open, but the girls will lie and lie and lie, even though you're staring right at their scars." Bowen, 37, one of the most defiantly flat-chested successes in the business, has no need to fib: "I haven't had any surgery," she insists, "but I'm totally fascinated with the idea."
She's not the only one. Although much of America has grown blasé about plastic surgery and sees little wrong with a self-esteem-boosting nose job (or three), Hollywood's lies perpetuate our national fixation with its frozen faces. In the tabloid era, editors at InTouch and Star endlessly examine renowned noses for telltale nostril changes, and paparazzi stake out the offices of high-profile doctors like Arnold Klein, a Beverly Hills dermatologist who somehow survived his association with Michael Jackson to become one of Hollywood's elite injectors. Meanwhile, awfulplasticsurgery.com, a website run by a Los Angeles customer service representative, draws more than one million hits a month, exposing the stars' scalpel antics with tantalizing (if sometimes dubious) photo evidence.
Still, thanks to patient confidentiality and stealth tactics, some of the harshest aspects of the industry's bizarrely conflicted relationship with plastic surgery go unreported.

To uncover the real truth about daily life inside this collective neurosis, Radar talked to dozens of entertainment-industry insiders—casting directors, talent managers, actors, and agents—many of whom insisted on anonymity. Several others declined to talk even off-the-record. "You've got to understand the desperation," says Streit. "Hollywood is a sea of desperation surrounding the Beverly Hills Hotel."
This is a town, after all, where stars meet their surgeons for whispered face-lift consultations on the sidelines of their children's soccer games, and use underground parking garages to skulk into opulent "recovery retreats" after surgery. It's a place where Lionel Richie's estranged wife, Diane, anxious to sustain her plastic surgery habit, explicitly demanded $20,000 a year in annual upkeep in her 2004 divorce filing. (Which is arguably a bargain: Some doctors charge that much per day to clear their schedule for a marathon fix-it session, and Demi Moore allegedly dropped some $330,000 for her pre–Charlie's Angels body makeover.) Even high-profile Scientologists, so famously opposed to pharmaceutical self-improvement, have their own plasticizers, such as Edward Terino, M.D., who reportedly performs church-sanctioned "silent" nose jobs in the belief that any music or chitchat in the operating room might subconsciously taint the anesthetized believer.
The fetish for looking generically ageless is by no means confined to on-screen talent. "Actors aren't the only ones to feel the pressure," says Greg H., who spent 23 years in Hollywood as a top casting director, agent, and talent manager before decamping for Seattle. "It's everyone: producers, writers, assistants ... the executives' wives are easily the worst."
"Actually," says producer and manager Douglas Urbanski (The Contender), who's repped stars such as Gary Oldman (his current producing partner) and Isabella Rossellini, "the realtors are probably the most plastic-surgerized people going. L.A. is such a fucked-up place. Where else do you have to look flawlessly sexy to sell a house?" As the Los Angeles Times recently observed, perfection has become the city's