If your name is Rihanna, and you are the celebrity who sang the song Please Don’t Stop The Music, please do not continue reading this post. You will get your feelings hurt. For the rest of us, below is a picture showing the best way to disobey Rihanna.
We’re like real rebels!
Get it???
More good news for the economy. Reuters is reporting that retail sales rose solidly in February as Americans bought automobiles and other goods even as they paid more for gasoline, suggesting consumer spending this quarter will hold up despite higher taxes.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales increased 1.1 percent, the largest rise since September, after a revised 0.2 percent gain in January.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected retail sales to rise 0.5 percent last month after a previously reported 0.1 percent gain in January.
So-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, rose 0.4 percent after advancing 0.3 percent in January.
U.S. stock index futures erased earlier losses, while prices for Treasury debt fell. The dollar rose against the yen and extended gains versus the euro.
The retail sales data was the latest to suggest momentum in the economy as fiscal policy tightened, marked by the end of a 2 percent payroll tax cut and an increase in tax rates for wealthy Americans on January 1.
Is it ironic that Judge Judy is actually being sued?? 
Probably not, but it does make for a good twist.
It seems Judge Judy Sheidlin is actually caught up in quite the domestic issue here. Apparently, a Judge Judy Show producer, Randy Douthit, gave the judge a steal on some Christofle chinaware. This china must be quite the tableware as it is claimed to be worth over a whopping $500,000. You must be able to see right through yourself when looking at this china.
Randy Douthit’s ex-wife, Patric Jones, is alleging that Judge Judy received the china from Douthit for an exchange of only $50,000 without her knowledge or consent of the trade. And as you’ve probably figured out by now, the divorce was clearly a bitter one since Jones is looking to reclaim what she believes is rightfully hers and hers alone.
To add more to the twist, Patric Jones is also claiming that Douthit agreed to decrease his salary upkeep on the show in order to get a better deal in the divorce settlement. So, even though the divorce has been settled, the war is still brewing.
Judge Judy is of course denying these claims and she’s also denying that this lawsuit even exists,
I have not seen any complaint by the former Mrs. Douthit, however, I don’t owe this lady a cent. And if this 50-year-old woman would spend her time more productively at trying to find a job, instead of abusing the judicial system with frivolous lawsuits, we would all be a lot better off.
Ah, Judge Judy, even outside the courts you still have your sass.
I must say it would be quite interesting to see Judge Judy Sheindlin on the other side of the bench and maybe even get just a little taste of her own medicine.
Growing Up Black In China – A CNN story about a young girl named Lou Jing who was born with an African-American father and a chinese mother. She currently lives in China and deals with the stereotypes and racism that follows her.
Ah fans. Your poor little hearts would shed a tear hearing this news. Maybe one of your many mails found its way to Taylor Swift’s trash bin, never opened. And you thought you had made a real celebrity connection. So sad.
The letters, many of which were unopened, were found in a south Nashville recycling bin at the weekend by Kylee Francescan when she was disposing of her own rubbish.
She told Nashville’s News 2: ‘I was like, ‘That’s weird. There were like hundreds of letters in there to Taylor Swift and I’m like, “Oh my gosh!”
‘I didn’t know if they were stolen [or] discarded, so I threw them in a box. And I’m like, “Somebody needs to let Taylor know.”‘
Many of the letters, which came from around the globe, were handmade cards covered with pictures, hearts and sparkles.
Francescan said she did not open any of the letters, and decided to contact the media because she believes the singer needed to find out about the discarded letters.
She added: ‘It did bother me [because] I know how much her fans mean to her.’
They were addressed to Taylor Swift Entertainment, a post office located at a shopping centre at 242 West Main Street in Hendersonville.
The owner of the mall told Nashville’s News 2 Investigates she does receive box loads of fan mail at the post office box, and that a member of her staff picks up mail periodically.Nashville’s News 2 took the fanmail to her record label, Big Machine Records on Music Row.
A worker at the company said he was unsure why the letters were in the dumpster
Did you miss the big news today? Well fear not, for I am here to bring it to you!
Paul Ryan went on television today to explain his brand new, same old budget. But something happened while he was, once again, promising to repeal ObamaCare. The truth about his budget and what he and his Republican friends are trying to do, slipped out. And Americans heard first hand that Paul Ryan and the Republican party want to “destroy” the healthcare system for the American people.
This actually happened today and these are actually Paul Ryan’s words.
A New York police officer was convicted on Tuesday in a bizarre plot to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women, ending a trial whose outcome hinged on the delicate legal distinction between fantasy and reality.
What’s the difference between protected speech (like online fantasies) and threats that warrant legal action?
The trial had drawn widespread attention in part because it involved a police officer’s disturbing behavior, but also because it raised a fundamental question: When does a virtual crime, contemplated in Internet chat rooms, become an actual crime?
There was no evidence that any of the women whom the officer, Gilberto Valle, was accused of plotting to kill were harmed. But prosecutors argued that the officer took actual steps to further his plot, like conducting surveillance of potential victims and researching them in a law enforcement database.
Officer Valle, 28, could be sentenced to life in prison for one count of kidnapping conspiracy.
The trial highlighted some of the darkest corners of the Internet, where fetishists hide behind Web identities like Girlmeat Hunter, which Officer Valle used, and engage in role-playing fantasy about cannibalism and sexual torture.
One of Officer Valle’s lawyers, Julia L. Gatto, called the verdict “devastating” and said the defense did not believe that the government had proved its case.
“This was a thought prosecution,” Ms. Gatto said. “These are thoughts, very ugly thoughts, but we don’t prosecute people for their thoughts. And we’ll continue to appeal and continue to fight for Mr. Valle.”
The verdict came on the 12th day of Officer Valle’s trial in United States District Court in Manhattan. He was also convicted of illegally gaining access to the law enforcement database. He faces up to five years in prison on that count, prosecutors said.
h/t New York Times
With a plate full of crises already looming in President Obama’s second term – North Korea’s nuclear threats, the Drone Program, domestic gun control and continued GOP obstructions on every front – the latest battle is an oldie and not a goodie. It appears Obamacare has resurfaced with a great wave of ‘pomp and circumstance’.
Over this past weekend, many Republicans have begun their 35th war on ObamaCare, threatening to destroy the very fabric of its existence in the name of Debt Reduction. Now, the wiz kid of the previous election, Vice Presidential Candidate Rep. Paul Ryan has devised a plan (Again) to eliminate ObamaCare and reduce the debt in the same swing. After the fiscal cliff fiasco, Ryan said, “We’re not going to re-fight the past because we know that’s behind us,” but he doesn’t apply that logic to ObamaCare, which he and his fellow Republicans do want to relitigate… again!
Fighting to repeal ObamaCare was “never a doubt” in Republican minds, he said Tuesday.
This is completely ironic, mind you, because if you recall, Obamacare was patterned after the Mitt Romney health care plan he formulated in Massachusetts while he was governor. Also, if you recall, then Vice Presidential candidate Ryan, also formed his own plan. (Do you follow me?) When asked by a reporter what he thought of the Paul’s plan, Romney said, “I’m the one running for president. We’ll go by my plan.”
It appears that Rep. Ryan has no one holding him back now, so here is the brand new same old same old Paul Ryan Plan… again, Part 2.
It’s a 10-year fiscal plan that takes aim at repealing ObamaCare’s 2010 health care overhaul in which Paul projects savings of $4.63 trillion over 10 years, yielding a surplus of $7 billion by fiscal 2023. “Our opponents will shout austerity, but let’s put this in perspective,” Ryan wrote in an op-ed posted to The Wall Street Journal’s website Monday night. “On our current path, we’ll spend $46 trillion over the next 10 years. Under our proposal, we’ll spend $41 trillion. On the current path, spending will increase by 5 percent each year. Under our proposal, it will increase by 3.4 percent.”
But who benefits from this plan and who will be hurt by it?
As always, tax cuts for the wealthiest and the poor will see programs slashed, if not cut completely. The budget would take its heaviest toll on entitlements that support the poor, including Medicaid and food stamps, while holding Social Security harmless. Why the poor and middle class are always targeted by Republican programs has been a mystery to millions of Americans especially when the wealthy seem to not be phased by any loophole they can squirm through.
Do they understand that taking away any program from those that are in need only demoralizes that individual, that family, that community? And does the super rich Congressional Republicans really believe that Americans truly want to live on Food Stamps and Unemployment Benefits? Or have a Medicare program that doesn’t work for them?
Here’s the final analysis Rep. Ryan. During the 2012 election, America did not support your “plan” of action. They came out in record numbers and voted for the President’s approach in November. As a matter of fact, a new McClatchy-Marist poll of registered voters shows that, generally, voters, by 53 to 37 percent, prefer to reduce the deficits by mostly cutting government programs and services rather than mostly by raising taxes..
The White House chimed in on the Ryan plan stating,
“By choosing not to ask for a single dime of deficit reduction from closing tax loopholes for the wealthy and well-connected, this budget identifies deep cuts to investments like education and research – investments critical to creating jobs and growing the middle class. And to save money, this budget would turn Medicare into a voucher program–undercutting the guaranteed benefits that seniors have earned and forcing them to pay thousands more out of their own pockets. We’ve tried this top-down approach before. The President still believes it is the wrong course for America.”
It’s an attempt to make himself and his party look ‘busy,’ the same old, tired attack on Obamacare – a healthcare program that at last count, had the support of 9-GOP Governors over the past 3 weeks. Rep. Ryan and a group within the rank and file Republicans have decided to give it another go. But all of this is just another attempt to tarnish the legacy of President Obama.
Congressional Republicans have not backed the President’s plans or his direction for this country unless they felt cornered. And this is just an addendum or a harbinger of the Republicans wish for the future. Posturing for the 2014 elections? Digging in for the 2016 White House? Yes and Yes. But make no mistake about it, with Americans polling in high numbers that the wealthiest should take on more of the tax burden than the poor, Rep. Ryan and his GOP surrogates have an uphill fight or if you prefer, going up stream, up a creek without a paddle.
Still Out of Touch with America. The good thing is, the longer they stay out of touch with America, the longer they’ll stay Out of the White House. In that case, Stay the Course.
Simply put, the answer is George W Bush. Yes, the brother of Jeb Bush and the dismal eight years in office would hang around Jeb’s
neck if he announces his plans to run for President in 2016.
Peter Beinhart made this observation;
It won’t be enough for a candidate merely to keep his or her distance from [George] W. John McCain and Mitt Romney tried that, and they failed.
“I don’t think there’s any Bush baggage at all,” the former Florida governor said onFox News Sunday. “I love my brother. I’m proud of his accomplishments.” On Meet the Press, he added that “history will be kind to George W. Bush.”
Unfortunately for Jeb, history is written by historians. Three times since 2009, pollsters have asked them to rank American presidents, and in those rankings, W. has come in 36th, 39th, and 31st. Only Millard Fillmore, Warren Harding, William Henry Harrison, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan rank lower. Ordinary Americans agree. Three times since George W. Bush left office, pollsters have asked the public to rank recent presidents. And three times, W. has ended up second to last, ahead of only Richard Nixon.
Speaking for the majority of Americans in this country, and in agreement with those who took that poll, I think it is safe to say that we’ve had it up to here with the Bushes. We have successfully navigated ourselves out of the Bushes and we don’t plan on going back. The goal is moving forward, not back to the future.
n pl -ties
1. the state or quality of being austere
2. (often plural) an austere habit, practice, or act
3. (Economics)
a. reduced availability of luxuries and consumer goods, esp when brought about by government policy
b. (as modifier) an austerity budget
You’ve heard the word used a lot. Austerity can only work effectively in a poor economy if participated in by all its citizen. But as usual, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan wants austerity to ride on the backs of the middle class and the poor in a proposal he feels will balance the federal budget in 10 years without raising taxes any further. He proposes to do this by executing $4.6 trillion in additional government spending cuts. Same story as last year Mr. Ryan. No one liked it then, no one’s going to like it much now.
Ryan plans to unveil the House Republican budget today, and the details haven’t changed much from the last time he proposed the same cuts for the middle class with no mention of closing loopholes for the rich or reform of the Bush tax cuts which allows the rich to hold onto their dollars at a greater rate than the average citizen.
The House Republican Budget Plan,
“Because the U.S. economy will grow faster than spending, the budget will balance by 2023 and debt held by the public will drop to just over half the size of the economy,” said Ryan. Of course it’s a budget the Obama Administration will not be able to sign-off, continuing the stalemate.
Austerity my a_ _! ♦
A new study headed by Dr. Robert E. Bristow, director of gynecological oncology at the University of California, says that there are widespread, persistent flaws in the care of women with this disease, which kills 15,000 a year in the United States alone.
About 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed annually, and most of them are being discovered too late for even aggressive treatment to do much good. Worldwide, there are about 200,000 new cases a year.
Oncologists around the country say the main reason for the poor care is that most women are treated by doctors and hospitals that literally lack expertise in the complex surgery and chemotherapy that can prolong life.
“If we could just make sure that women get to the people who are trained to take care of them, the impact would be much greater than that of any new chemotherapy drug or biological agent,” said Dr. Bristow
The study found that about a third of patients received the best possible care, confirming a women’s best course of action would be to consult physicians in hospitals that offer treatment of the disease as their primary care. ♦
All on the heels of a recent Major League Baseball and DEA investigation into whether A-Rod and cousin Yuri were involved in obtaining performance-enhancing drugs from a Coral Gables anti-aging clinic operated by Anthony Bosch, a name that’s come to be synonymous with the words ‘Big Sports figure accused of using performance enhancing drugs.”
Sports Illustrated reported in February 2009 that Rodriguez had tested positive for anabolic steroids during the 2003 season, when MLB and its Players Association conducted surprise testing to see if the drug had inundated the sport. When Rodriguez tested positive, he dragged Sucart into the controversy.
And the plot thickens… ♦
“Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale,” Mr. Donilon said in a wide-ranging address to the Asia Society in New York.
Lukewarm warming words from the big boys on the block, but I suppose one’s government has to be delicate in such matters.
The U.S. “demand” came two days after Chinese foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, rejected mounting evidence that his country’s military was involved in cyber attacks on American corporations and some government agencies.
At a daily news conference in Beijing, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, repeated her government’s position opposing internet cyber attacks and said she wanted nothing more than to have an open “constructive dialogue” with the United States and other countries about cybersecurity issues. Perhaps China can create some type of innovative software to help America protect against…Chinese…cyber atta…ok, scratch that. ♦
Later pilgrims…
Better watch what you say on Fox News. Zerlina Maxwell is now getting it first hand as the vile and hate from the Fox faithful comes her way.
What was Zerlina’s mistake? She went on Fox’s Hannity show and spoke the truth. She had the nerve to say that arming women with a gun to prevent rape or blaming women who are rape victims is not the way to begin solving the problem.
Zerlina, who is also a rape survivor, expressed that changing the focus to the men committing these acts, should be an important part of the discussion. On the Fox show, Zerlina said this;
The entire conversation is wrong. I don’t want anybody to be telling women anything. I don’t want men to be telling me what to wear how to act, not to drink, and I don’t honestly want you to be telling me that I needed a gun in order to prevent my rape.
Well of course, that was enough to cause some viewers to send Zerlina these tweets:
On Monday, Zerlina went on MSNBC’s The Ed Show and vowed to continue fighting to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to the limelight. “I’m certainly taking steps to protect my emotional health, but I will not be quiet because I refuse to be bullied into silence.”
Watch the video below.
Kim Kardashian went to the extreme to stay beautiful and young. In the latest episode of “Kourtney and Kim Take Miami”, the pregnant girlfriend of Kanye West visited a clinic specializing in the so-called “vampire” facial to try out the latest beauty technique.
The skincare treatment involved drawing blood from her arm. The plasma was then extracted from the blood and was injected back into her face using nine tiny little acupuncture-style needles. “It stings a little,” the doctor warned her before starting the procedure.
Though she got some numbing cream slapped on her face to help ease the pain, Kim still cried in agony during the painful process. “Owww,” she wailed. “Oh my God. I will never get a facelift if it feels like that.” Her BFF Jonathan Cheban, who was in the room, couldn’t bear to watch it.
