Tuesday, January 25, 2011

99ers Submit Your Questions to Obama Now


All 99ers are urged to submit your video questions to Obama now, either via YouTube or in text at Interview with Obama

If selected for response, Obama will answer your question on January 27, 2011 via the YouTube Channel worldview http://www.youtube.com/worldview

My question submitted today was basically: "99ers are dying every day NO JOBS to take had no money for 11 months. We go hungry and homeless every day! We cannot wait for Washington to get a jobs program going so what are you willing to do NOW to save these millions of HURTING Americans now?"

The video version can be seen below or at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QzFZvgXsVE

I urge all 99ers to vote on these important questions as I doubt Obama will address the 99er Nation in tonight’s speech.



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Donna Brazile @ CNN: SOTU as Prom

Always insightful, author, strategist, and professor Donna Brazile talks about the sudden, good-natured "civility" exhibited by Congress for tonight's State of the Union in an OpEd column today at CNN - How State of the Union became a prom. There remain two problems she's glossing over as she concludes, charitably...
"We don't all have to agree with each other, but for the good of the country, it's important that we sit together as Americans. After all, this could be good for the country, too."
Professor Donna Brazile, CNN Conributor
25 Jan 2011
First, it's patently political posing -- plain old posturing -- a ploy for the attention and implied praise of the pundits that probably won't impact one Congressional debate or vote, but will probably garner that holy grail, media coverage for most of the players.

Secondly, focus on the mechanics, or logistics, or whatever you want to call this staging of seating arrangements, inevitably detracts from time people spent reflecting on the President's actual message. Granting that GOP strategists are delighted to direct public attention to anything but President Obama's hour in the limelight, particularly in the wake of his speech dealing with the tragedy in Tuscon, it seems curious that their Democratic counterparts are being pulled in.

The narrative of tonight's State of the Union speech is fast becoming "they played so nicely together." Count the minutes in the coverage leading up to the State of the Union and particularly the post-speech dissection, bearing in mind that every minute spent on how members of Congress arranged their seats is akin to watching the royals - "Congress-watching" lacks substance, although it's probably easier for most pundits on the spur of the moment than genuine analysis.

I don't need to relive Joe Wilson's "You lie!" moment, but I've watched politics too long to fall for this pre-planned mugging for the cameras and the echo-chamber media, either. When they control the information the GOP wins the messaging battle; who wins if they can distract from the President's powerful post-Tuscon message by getting the media to talk about who sat with whom, and possibly draw a few extra eyeballs to the dueling GOP/Tea-Party responses?


Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, former Democratic Campaign Manager, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community. You can follow him as @kabiu on twitter.

99ers Expect State of Union Address to be All Fluff No Substance

Ask millions of longest term unemployed today and they will tell you, 99ers expect the State of Union Address to be all fluff and No substance whatsoever. After all, the 2010 speech was all about jobs, for the most part and nothing at all was done to that end the rest of last year.

The fact that President Obama has yet to utter the word “99ers” has become a great bone of contention among millions of UI exhaustees across the country. Many, like me are of the opinion that if tonight’s speech comes and goes with no mention of the 99ers by name, that is it - we are done supporting a President who refuses to acknowledge our existence - let alone actively seeks to resolve our suffering.

It pains me to say this, but unless President Obama is generous enough to throw the UI exhaustees a bone and address the 99ers directly during the 2011 State of the Union Address, I will be forced to begin working as hard at making him a one term President as I did to get him elected in 2008.

I cannot understand the appointments made to important economic leadership positions or why America is cow towing to every nation in the world but the needs of our own. Perhaps that is why I am not in a position of political leadership. I have never been accused of being "too politic" that is for sure, but I am very savvy about common sense solutions and it never has made much sense to me to put the wolves in charge of the hen house.

Today over 46 million people in this country are struggling to survive way below the poverty line - finally something we have in common with the population of China. Not exactly the “Push to compete globally” I was hoping for.

It would have been very nice had a 99er advocacy leader been asked to sit in one of the “seats of Honor” beside Mrs. Obama - but that would have been too much to hope for as those seats are mostly filled tonight by Americans connected with the tragedy in Tucson.

Please do not get me started on that subject again. Suffice it to say I do not approve of any official sanctioning of the premise that the tragedies of the few (no matter how dire) somehow outweigh the social holocaust of millions. More of a balance would have been nice, but even more important, what does it tell the loonies in America about the sort of attention they can garner when they decide to resort to violence - even if that violence was prompted by mental illness?

99ers are not the only ones who openly declare their strong belief that Obama needs to dedicate at least a portion of tonight’s speech to address the 99er situation. Ed Schultz of MSNBC has mentioned so on more than one of his radio shows of late and CNN’s Ali Velshi actually wrote letter to the President which he read on air recently (see video below).

Echoing the same sentiment is political strategist, James Carville. Mr. Carville is famous for assisting President Clinton with a single sentence: “It’s the economy, stupid”. When asked this evening on CNN what sentence he would sum up that Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tomorrow, Carville’s response was, “it’s jobs, stupid”. Carville went on to say that anything the President would say in his scheduled 9PM EST address to the nation would be “an utter waste of time” if it did not detail a plan to bolster job creation.

Let’s hope Obama heeds the call and ends his long silence on the tragedy of the American 99ers TODAY , as acceptance/acknowledgement is the first step which opens the door to resolving what ails you - especially the malignancy of long term unemployment in America today.

SPECIAL NOTE: To all you Tweeps out there Please Tweet the following all day long:
@WhipHoyer ; Steny, the disenfranchised '99ers are the worst part of the jobs deficit. As a nation we cannot leave them behind - #Obama #SOU

Ali Velshi letter to the President: Dear Mr. President, fix this mess, 99ers need help.



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Academy Awards 2011 Nominations List: The King's Speech Leads All

The Academy Awards 2011 Nominations List is out after the announcement this morning, and we have some surprises. But before we get to them, it must be noted that The King's Speech, produced by The Weinstein Company, which marketed the hell out of the movie during the awards consideration period, leads all movies with 12 nominations.

Jeff Bridges is nominated for Best Actor for True Grit. It's the second straight year for Bridges, who won last year for Crazy Heart.

No Chris Nolan or Ryan Gosling

One noted snub is the absence of a nomination for Ryan Gosling for his role in Blue Valentine.

But no Chris Nolan? His movie, Inception, was the hit of the Summer and a really well-done mind-bender of a film in more ways than one. How Nolan could be missed for Best Director is beyond reason, but it happened.

Living For 32 Snubbed

Living For 32, this blogger's favorite for Oscar Documentary Short, wasn't picked either. Perhaps the timing of the Arizona Shooting, which was relevant to Living For 32's subject matter, the Virginia Tech Shooting, was just off. In retrospect, the movie was perfect in that the conversation about the need for better gun control law enforcement has started yet again.

Here's the full list, below.

Nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Javier Bardem in "Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions)
Jeff Bridges in "True Grit" (Paramount)
Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Colin Firth in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
James Franco in "127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Christian Bale in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
John Hawkes in "Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions)
Jeremy Renner in "The Town" (Warner Bros.)
Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
Geoffrey Rush in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a leading role

Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole" (Lionsgate)
Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions)
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight)
Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine" (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Amy Adams in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
Helena Bonham Carter in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
Melissa Leo in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit"(Paramount)
Jacki Weaver in "Animal Kingdom" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Best animated feature film of the year

"How to Train Your Dragon" (Paramount), Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
"The Illusionist" (Sony Pictures Classics), Sylvain Chomet
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Lee Unkrich
Achievement in art direction

"Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney), Production Design: Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" (Warner Bros.), Production Design: Stuart Craig, Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas, Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Production Design: Eve Stewart, Set Decoration: Judy Farr
"True Grit" (Paramount), Production Design: Jess Gonchor, Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Achievement in cinematography

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), Matthew Libatique
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Danny Cohen
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Jeff Cronenweth
"True Grit" (Paramount), Roger Deakins
Achievement in costume design

"Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney), Colleen Atwood
"I Am Love" (Magnolia Pictures), Antonella Cannarozzi
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Jenny Beavan
"The Tempest" (Miramax), Sandy Powell
"True Grit" (Paramount), Mary Zophres
Achievement in directing

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), Darren Aronofsky
"The Fighter" (Paramount), David O. Russell
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Tom Hooper
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), David Fincher
"True Grit" (Paramount), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Best documentary feature

"Exit through the Gift Shop" (Producers Distribution Agency), A Paranoid Pictures Production, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
"Gasland", A Gasland Production, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
"Inside Job" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Representational Pictures Production, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Restrepo" (National Geographic Entertainment), An Outpost Films Production, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
"Waste Land" (Arthouse Films), An Almega Projects Production, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley
Best documentary short subject

"Killing in the Name", A Moxie Firecracker Films Production, Nominees to be determined
"Poster Girl", A Portrayal Films Production, Nominees to be determined
"Strangers No More", A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
"Sun Come Up", A Sun Come Up Production, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
"The Warriors of Qiugang", A Thomas Lennon Films Production, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
Achievement in film editing

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), Andrew Weisblum
"The Fighter" (Paramount), Pamela Martin
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Tariq Anwar
"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), Jon Harris
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Best foreign language film of the year

"Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions), A Menage Atroz, Mod Producciones and Ikiru Films Production, Mexico
"Dogtooth" (Kino International), A Boo Production, Greece
"In a Better World" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Zentropa Production, Denmark
"Incendies" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Micro-Scope Production, Canada
"Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)" (Cohen Media Group), A Tassili Films Production, Algeria
Achievement in makeup

"Barney’s Version" (Sony Pictures Classics), Adrien Morot
"The Way Back" (Newmarket Films in association with Wrekin Hill Entertainment and Image Entertainment), Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
"The Wolfman" (Universal), Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

"How to Train Your Dragon" (Paramount), John Powell
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Hans Zimmer
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Alexandre Desplat
"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

"Coming Home" from "Country Strong" (Sony Pictures Releasing (Screen Gems)), Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from "Tangled" (Walt Disney), Music by Alan Menken, Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from "127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Best motion picture of the year

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), A Protozoa and Phoenix Pictures Production, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
"The Fighter" (Paramount), A Relativity Media Production, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), A Warner Bros. UK Services Production, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
"The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features), An Antidote Films, Mandalay Vision and Gilbert Films Production, Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), A See-Saw Films and Bedlam Production, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), An Hours Production, Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), A Columbia Pictures Production, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), A Pixar Production, Darla K. Anderson, Producer
"True Grit" (Paramount), A Paramount Pictures Production, Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions), A Winter’s Bone Production, Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers
Best animated short film

"Day & Night" (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Teddy Newton
"The Gruffalo", A Magic Light Pictures Production, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
"Let’s Pollute", A Geefwee Boedoe Production, Geefwee Boedoe
"The Lost Thing", (Nick Batzias for Madman Entertainment), A Passion Pictures Australia Production, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
"Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)", A Sacrebleu Production, Bastien Dubois
Best live action short film

"The Confession" (National Film and Television School), A National Film and Television School Production, Tanel Toom
"The Crush" (Network Ireland Television), A Purdy Pictures Production, Michael Creagh
"God of Love", A Luke Matheny Production, Luke Matheny
"Na Wewe" (Premium Films), A CUT! Production, Ivan Goldschmidt
"Wish 143", A Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures Production, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
Achievement in sound editing

"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Richard King
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
"Tron: Legacy" (Walt Disney), Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
"True Grit" (Paramount), Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
"Unstoppable" (20th Century Fox), Mark P. Stoeckinger
Achievement in sound mixing

"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
"Salt" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
"True Grit" (Paramount), Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Achievement in visual effects

"Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney), Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" (Warner Bros.), Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
"Hereafter" (Warner Bros.), Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
"Iron Man 2" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment, Distributed by Paramount), Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
Adapted screenplay

"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Michael Arndt, Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
"True Grit" (Paramount), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions), Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Original screenplay

"Another Year" (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Mike Leigh
"The Fighter" (Paramount), Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Written by Christopher Nolan
"The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features), Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Seidler

Jeff Bridges Nominated For Best Actor, True Grit - Oscar Nominations 2011

The nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards have been announced and one pleasant surprise was the emergence of The Coen Brothers great work True Grit in several of the major award categories. That includes Best Actor for Jeff Bridges.

Bridges won Best Actor at the 2010 Academy Awards for Crazy Heart, and he's right back in the mix again this very next year. Bridges expertly played Roster Cogburn, the hardscrabble, irritable, gunslinger who protects young Hailee Steinfeld in the movie.

Steinfeld was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

More from this space.

Oscar Nominations 2011 Livestream Live Blog At 5:30 AM PT

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) says that the Oscar race begins today at 5:30 AM PDT, but really it's over at that time.

When the nominees are announced it will mark the end of the marketing period, where studios and producers try to get Academy voters to pick their films for the award categories they applied to be considered for.

Now, all of the ballots from Academy members are in (one hopes) and the votes are going to be tallied. But the real voting basis, who's nominated for what category, is announced today.

Oscars Livestream

You can watch the announcements online here via the Oscars livestream. The page with the video will appear with a click here: http://oscar.go.com/ Meanwhile, I'll provide the blog updates here, below.

Here we go with Tom Sherak and Monique!

The Result: True Grit Enters

The announcements are over, and overall the surprise is the solid entry of True Grit in the major categories. Jeff Bridges is rightfully nominated for his role as Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers take on the classic film that starred John Wanye in 1969.

True Grit was controversially snubbed at the Golden Globes.

Stay tuned for more commentary. The entire Oscars Nominees list is here.

Huff Post Shows Oil Glove From PetroEcuador Oil, Says It's Chevron

In a total freaking joke of a blog post, Joanna Zelman somehow managed to get the Huffington Post to allow her to post a totally fraudulent entry accusing American Oil Company Chevron of environmental damage to the tune of $100 billion.

 And their proof is a oil-stained glove that anyone who's paid close attention to this case knows comes from oil fields that are owned not by Chevron but by PetroEcuador, the state-owned oil company.

It's commonly known that only a fool would believe that Chevron or any American Oil Company would be responsible for such a high level of environmental damage. Chevron's not operated in Ecuador for almost 20 years. Over that time there have been well over 100 - YES 100 - oil spills, and as many as 118 by 2009, including several by PetroEcuador that have, for all practical purposes been covered up.

Why?

So Ecuador can continue its attempt to extort American Oil companies in an effort to maintain oil revenues for its rich, while exploiting and starving its poor. Everyone who knows this case knows that Ecuador's involved with it, and that the lead lawyer, Steven Donziger, has worked with the government of Ecuador as well as conspired to threaten judges and intimidate the court of Ecuador.

This Ecuadorian trial is a joke, but if you've got an ounce of sense, you're not laughing at all.  Ecuador's trying to get off scott free.  Shame.  Just a plain shame.

And shame on the Rainforest Action Network for helping the corrupt Ecuadorian effort.

Stay tuned.