Month: September 2013

Categories
Politics

Vladimir Putin Calls Sec.Kerry a Liar on Syria

Things aren’t exactly warming up between the Obama administration and Vladimir Putin, even as President Obama arrived in St. Petersburg for the G-20 summit.

Putin called Obama Secretary of State John Kerry a liar over Kerry’s testimony this week before Congress.

The question may be al-Qaeda’s influence on the Syrian rebels, an issue Kerry has downplayed.

Speaking to his human rights council Wednesday, Putin said, “This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them (the Americans), and we assume they are decent people, but he is lying and he knows that he is lying. This is sad.”

Putin has criticized Obama administration claims that Bashar Assad’s government attacked the rebels with chemical weapons.

Last month, Obama canceled a summit meeting with Putin after a series of U.S.-Russian disputes, including Russia’s decision to grant asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

As for the new flap over Kerry’s testimony, the Associated Press reported:

“It was unclear exactly what Putin was referencing, but Kerry was asked Tuesday while testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if the Syrian opposition had become more infiltrated by al-Qaeda.

“Kerry responded that that was ‘basically incorrect’ and that the opposition has ‘increasingly become more defined by its moderation.’ …

“In testimony Wednesday, Kerry said he didn’t agree that ‘a majority (of the opposition) are al-Qaeda and the bad guys.’ Extremists amount to 15 to 25% of the opposition, he said, including al-Nusra and many other groups that are ‘fighting each other, even now.'”

Asked about Putin’s comments, National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said, “Well, we certainly would side with Secretary Kerry in that back-and-forth.”

Categories
Politics trayvon martin

Rapper Plies Honors Trayvon Martin

The death of Trayvon Martin has had a huge impact on the African-American community and while some honored the teen by blacking out their profile pictures on social media and wearing hoodies, rapper Plies went an entirely different route.

In a video message to his fans, the Florida rapper reveals his new gold Trayvon Martin chain. While unorthodox, Plies appears to be sincere with his gesture.

“I wanted to make sure the little homie was with me at all times,” he said. “He impacted my life just that much.”

Plies went on to pay his respects to the Martin family for the loss of their child and promised that Trayvon will never be forgotten.

“Trayvon, I’m gonna keep you around my neck at all times…It’s just that important to me.”

The “Bust It Baby” emcee isn’t the only rapper to honor the memory Trayvon Martin. West Coast emcee The Game showed of his portrait tattoo of Travyon earlier this year

Categories
Barack Obama Politics

It’s All Smiles and Handshakes for Obama and Putin -PIC

Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted American President Barack Obama today as Russia plays host to the G 20 Summit. Unlike past impressions of what seemed to be a rocky relationship between the two leaders, this meeting brought smiles, handshakes and brief pleasantries.

Small gestures indeed, but considering that the two leaders are on opposite sides of the spectrum on any possible bombing of Syria, these gestures speak volume.

All eyes will be on these two as the Summit proceeds.

Categories
ObamaCare Politics

New Study Finds Obamacare Premiums “Lower Than Expected”

A new Kaiser Family Foundation study found “lower than expected” premiums for the new Obamacare health insurance exchanges.

“While premiums will vary significantly across the country, they are generally lower than expected. For example, we estimate that the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office imply that the premium for a 40-year-old in the second lowest cost silver plan would average $320 per month nationally. Fifteen of the eighteen rating areas we examined have premiums below this level, suggesting that the cost of coverage for consumers and the federal budgetary cost for tax credits will be lower than anticipated.”

Categories
Politics

GOP Sources Say Boehner Will Step Down after Midterm Elections

His two terms as Speaker of the House has been a tremendous failure. Now sources are saying that John Boehner will step aside after the midterm elections.

Former aides to John Boehner and other high-level GOP operatives are increasingly convinced that the House speaker will step aside after the 2014 midterm elections, according to interviews with a dozen Republican sources.

All summer, rumors have been swirling around the Hill and K Street that the speaker has had enough and that 2014 would be his last year with the gavel. Then the message went out in July: Boehner (R-Ohio) is not leaving.

Boehner told his inner circle at dinner that there was no truth to the talk, and authorized his people to spread the word around town. A story appeared in Politico the next day, reaffirming Boehner’s stated commitment to stay past 2014.

“These inside-the-Beltway parlor games take place every two years. The speaker has made clear publicly he intends to remain in his position in the next Congress,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told HuffPost.

But not everyone close to the 63-year-old speaker is so sure. “He has to say that. He can’t not say that. The minute you say [you’re leaving], you’re done,” said one former GOP leadership aide who is part of Boehner’s circle. “Everybody around him thinks this is his last term.”

Despite the effort by Boehner to tamp down speculation that he will depart the House after the 2014 midterms, multiple cooks in Boehner’s kitchen cabinet think the Republican is still strongly considering making his exit just over a year from now.

Categories
Music

Eddie Murphy Releases a Reggae Single with Snoop Lion

Eddie Murphy took to Twitter, hus only tweet to introduce his brand new reggae singke, Red Light. The single features Snoop Lion.

Close your eyes as this song plays and I’m sure you’ll think it’s Bob Marley.

Categories
Politics

Republicans Claim Obama Sending Secret Foot Signals to Muslims

I knew this was going to happen. But I didn’t think the nuts in the Republican party would come up with this.

Remember that newly released photo showing president Obama with his foot on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office? Well the theories coming from the Republicans are many. But the most outrageous one I’ve heard so far is this: the president is sending a secret foot message to the Muslim world.

This explanation comes from our usual nuts at WorldNetDaily. In a post discussing the photo, Andrea Shea King explained that Muslims consider showing the bottom of one’s shoes as a sign of disrespect,  so Obama’s action was a secret sign of support to the Muslim world.

How many of our fellow countrymen thought the same thing when viewing this official White House photo (by Pete Souza) of the president with his shod foot firmly planted upon an historic American treasure – the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office?

Is it possible I might have misinterpreted this photo, which played prominently on the Drudge Report site last Sunday? Is it possible President Obama had a White House photographer release this official image to the world to send a wordless message of support to the Muslim Brotherhood, Arab street and Islamic community in general? To convey his disdain and disregard for all things traditionally American? It is, after all, common knowledge that the Arab world considers the bottom of one’s shoes the ultimate sign of disrespect. And it’s not the first time he’s done it.

Like Right Wing Watch reports, “Republican presidents from George W. Bush to Gerald Ford were also photographed with their feet on the Oval Office desk,” so maybe they too were sending secret foot messages to Muslims.

Categories
Featured Racism

Black Woman Awarded $280,000 Because Her Boss Used the ‘N’ Word

(AP) — The lawyer for a black U.S. woman whose claim against a black boss’s N-word rant brought a $280,000 jury award says she hopes the case teaches society something.

“It’s the most offensive word in the English language,” attorney Marjorie M. Sharpe said Tuesday.

A jury sided with 38-year-old Brandi Johnson against the boss, Rob Carmona, in a case that explored a word that is a degrading slur when spoken by whites but at times is used affectionately among blacks, even in the workplace.

Johnson said she hopes the word now “won’t be tolerated no matter what your race is.”

Carmona, a 61-year-old black man of Puerto Rican descent, had testified that he was dispensing tough love. “I come from a different time,” he said in court Tuesday.

He had tried to defend his use of the word, saying it had “multiple contexts” in the black and Latino communities, sometimes indicating anger, sometimes love.

Johnson had recorded his March 2012 tirade about inappropriate workplace attire and unprofessional behavior, and it was played for the jury.

She said she cried for 45 minutes in the restroom afterward.

“I was offended. I was hurt. I felt degraded. I felt disrespected. I was embarrassed,” Johnson testified.

In a statement, the organization Carmona founded, STRIVE East Harlem, said it was disappointed but was exploring options, including an appeal.

Categories
Featured

This Woman Eats Dog food for a Living

It sounds barking mad but one woman is so confident in her company’s brand of dog food she even EATS the dog’s dinner – to make sure it tastes just right.

Human taste tester Lucy Postins not only samples every individual ingredient that goes into the food but even chows down on the final product too.

British Lucy, 38, insists on all the recipes being made in a human food facility instead of a pet food rendering plant, and then tests for the likes of flavour, aroma and colour which is an indication of freshness.

Her company The Honest Kitchen was the first pet food manufacturer to achieve a ‘human grade’ rating from the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) which means the final product is legally allowed to be described as ‘human grade’ on the product labels

Categories
Entertainment Syria

Jon Stewart Returns – Look… a Red Line!

After taking the summer off to direct a movie in the middle east, Jon Stewart returned to his day job on Comedy Central last night and did what he does best – deliver the news of the day, better than most so-called “news organizations.”

There was a small issue of a red line that needed addressing.

Categories
Featured News

Man Raped Woman who has HIV

An English man is literally shaking in prison awaiting test results to see if he contracted the HIV virus from woman he raped in her bed after breaking into her home in the middle of the night.

Karma is something, ain’t it?

From the British MailOnline.com: 

A man who was put behind bars today for forced sex faces an agonizing wait to find out if he has caught HIV from his victim.

Richard Thomas, 27, collapsed when police informed him about the woman’s medical status and is still waiting to hear if he has contracted the incurable virus.

… His barrister, Virginia Hayton, said that he still cannot recall the attack but when told about it he said that the woman “would not lie, she tells the truth. If she says I have done it, I have done it.”

h/t – rollingout

Categories
dead Politics

Arial Castro Found Dead in Jail Cell

The man who held three women captive in his home for nearly a decade before one escaped and alerted authorities has been found dead and is believed to have committed suicide, a prison official said.

Ariel Castro, 53, was found hanging in his cell around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, located south of Columbus in central Ohio, JoEllen Smith, Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman, said early Wednesday.

Prison medical staff performed CPR before Castro was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 10:50 p.m.

He was in protective custody because of the notoriety of his case, meaning he was checked every 30 minutes, but was not on suicide watch, Smith said. She said suicide watch entails constant observation.

Castro was also watched closely in Cuyahoga County Jail in the several weeks after his arrest and before his case was resolved by a guilty plea, with logs noting his activity every 10 minutes. He was taken off county jail suicide watch in early June after authorities determined he was not a suicide risk.

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