Friday, March 25, 2011

Jersey Shore Season Three Finale





The season three of Jersey Shore has come to an end and how ironic that in the finale Sam and Ron have ended once again.

The next season will be shot in Italy - yes Italy. It'll be pretty horrible when Snooki figures out that there are no "guido, gorilla, juice heads" in Italy, and to be called a guido is actually very offensive to many Italians.

The season four has not started to be filmed yet, but TMZ reported that the Jersey Shore boys have been practicing their Italian with Rosetta Stone.

Anyway, the finale was a big blow out. Deena blocked Vinny from getting any actions, JWOWW and Roger became official girlfriend and boyfriend, Situation apologized to Sammi, Sammi and Ronnie ended....for the 392031239025th time...

Snooki in the end of the episode confesses that if she had to choose between RON or SAM to come back to the Shore house - she would choose Ron.

Vinny got so drunk - SO drunk. It was hilarious. He was passed out and he was just - wow. Hilarious.



The season finale was good - Situation said a lot of comical things; it would have been nice if he had been able to impress the audience at Donald Trump's roast.

Well, looks like it'll be a while until there's anymore Jersey Shore - but the reunion will be worth watching. There's enough footage online to keep every JERSDAY going on.

And Snooki's words of advice:
"Have sex with an old man, steal a plant, and then get arrested, and then do whatever."

But she and Deena ended up cooking some grilled cheese sandwiches; looks like the ladies have some kitchen skills after all.

Snooki would like to run for president with Deena as her Vice. Oh what a world that would be.


P.S. Don't ever compare Deena to Angelina OR Vinny and Snooki to Ronnie and Sammi.

New UI Claims decline - Unemployed 99ers Under Attack Why Won’t They FIGHT BACK?


New UI Claims declined last week, but unemployed and 99ers are under attack in every state. So why won’t they FIGHT BACK?


Jobless claims declined by 5000 to 382000 in the week ended March 19, 2011. BIG DEAL as that is still an annual job loss rate of 20 MILLION in the USA. Why don’t they ever mention that on the NEWS? I skimmed over 55 related articles by the big news outlets and their affiliates like FOX, CBS, ABC, Huff-Post, Associated Press, Reuters and the like and NOT EVEN 1 of them pointed out the annual job loss rate of 20 million - NOT ONE!


Several State legislatures are trying to pass Bills which would require drug tests for jobless benefits. Isn’t is funny how they gripe and moan about not having the money to pay UI benefits - but they want to incur the extra expense of administering a drug testing policy?

So far Oregon, South Carolina, Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Texas and at least seven other states have introduced this type of legislation and it has also been suggested as well on a federal level - but this legislation has of course failed every time.

Does anyone see any resemblance between leaders of Foreign oppressive regimes calling their protesting masses “Druggies” and our own American politicians inferring the American unemployed masses are also on drugs? The leader of Libya, the ousted leaders of Egypt and Tunisia as well as Yemen's current leader all have done so. Many Republican Senators, members of Congress and certain State legislators have too. It is outrageous and they seem to all be working from the same disgusting, disrespectful playbook.

When those in power in any country lose respect for their hurting masses - it is easier to dismiss them as victims of Drug Induced Lunacy than to deal with the problem honestly and effectively. To suggest that the Long Term Unemployed are all druggies is absurd and anyone saying so is trying to abdicate their own guilt in condemning millions of their fellow Americans to hunger and Homelessness.

Another unbelievable epidemic in America is how many states are either not taking advantage of the Federal UI extensions Obama traded Wealthy American tax breaks for last December. These states are actually not only hurting the long term unemployed who live in those states - but many states are also cutting back on the number of weeks their initial claims can be paid out. Funny how the GOP won the right to word that legislation in such a way last December to assure states had to enact new laws of their own in order for the unemployed to take advantage of these “so called” extension of UI Benefits - BUT NO additional LAWS were required for the RICH to take advantage of their tax breaks. The reason is quite clear. Neither Obama or the Congress wanted anyone to be able to get that extra UI Benefits money being extended to the more recently long term unemployed.

So with 11 states refusing that extra money and perhaps more to come, you would think now they have enough money to cover the expense of extending benefits to the 99ers RIGHT? But nobody is even discussing this fact are they? The money is already allocated - considered spent and spent in the 2011 budget.

I decided to call Rep. Lee of California to suggest this idea and the staffer seemed unimpressed. So I called Boehner then Cantor’s office and to my amazement - Boehner’s & Cantor’s people showed far more interest in what I had to say. Those I spoke to on the Speaker’s staff asked me how I came up with that idea. I responded by asking them “why didn’t you think of that? Isn’t that why we pay you the big bucks?”

At a time when America is still losing jobs at a rate of 20 MILLION per year - is NOT the time to punish those who lose those jobs-ESPECIALLY when it is our government who is responsible for greasing the wheels of our demise via lucrative incentives for all corporations who send our jobs abroad.

CNN Money this week reported: Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are all close to cutting the initial weeks one can claim UI from 26 to 20. This would not be such a bad thing if they would take the amount of UI benefits one would get for 26 weeks and pay that to you in 20 weeks instead - or even lower the UI payroll tax deducted from a worker’s paycheck - but NO! They are trying to increase what the average worker pays into the system and cut the benefits received and also reduce the amount the employer pays as well. More proof that these politicians work only for the corporations and NOT for “WE THE PEOPLE.”

So why aren’t we Fighting back? First thing is we are so spread out and disconnected from each other. Many 99ers are in the age group where we do not FaceBook, Tweet or fully use Social Networking on the INTERNET. Well If you register with the 99ers Data Base you will not need to mess with the crap often associated with Facebook or other sites. Personally I cannot stand Facebook and view it merely as a necessary evil these days. Twitter has also been basically useless to the unemployed cause as it comes to anything more than visibility. Before everyone slams me for saying that, let me clarify. Twitter has done NOTHING at all to advance the cause for extending UI benefits - that is a fact. Visibility is important but UI Benefits to survive and Jobs to thrive are the goals here.

Rhonda Taylor of Rhode Island, frequent contributer here on Jobless Talk, Co-Host of her own Blog Talk Radio show Re-Difining the American Dream and prolific 99er advocate extraordinaire has created a data base for 99ers. The purpose of this is to have a way to contact as many of those in the 99er Nation for protests and gives her a geographical "map" of sorts so she will know how many busses will be needed and from what locations for the big Washington 99er convergence planned for this Spring.

Rhonda has proven herself trustworthy and since she will be administering the 99er Data Base - I have already registered and suggest all unemployed Americans do the same. Register now here.

It is not just the 99ers who need to fight back. We need every Jobless American to stand with us in this fight for our survival. We are all 99ers. Some of us are the 99ers of yesterday, others the 99ers of today and the rest of the unemployed are the 99ers of tomorrow. Only the way things are going - if the politicians have their way NOBODY will even get 99 week of UI in the future - needed or not. Don't wait for it to happen to you. Every week the 99ers go without income - more people lose their jobs because ours is a consumer based economy in America. There is simply no way approximately 7 million jobless who no longer can buy goods or services cannot have a detrimental effect on the economy. 99ers were the first hit by the crumbling economy and the last to get hired apparently - or we would have jobs by now.

OK, I am not saying that there are not some on UI benefits who prefer to collect benefits rather than working. Fact is there are people who game the system in every walk of life, but the tired old argument that UI Benefits must be withheld in order to motivate the unemployed back into the workforce clearly lacks merit or substantiation if over a year after the benefits have stopped - you still have been unable to secure employment. Same goes with the other lame assertion that the long term unemployed are too picky in accepting employment they feel is beneath them. Come on man - Nobody in their right mind would prefer hunger and homelessness to working a minimum wage job. Any proclamation to that effect is as worthless as the party spewing such.

It continues to baffle me how, with millions of 99ers out there in America - how few of those have opted to be involved in their own fight for survival.

EXAMPLE: U-Cubed (Union for the Unemployed) is a free, well organized and fully funded community service project of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) designed to assist the millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans, and to provide them with a structure that allows them to take advantage of their growing numbers. U-Cubed is just over 1 year old and yet has less than 5,000 members at present. We really need to change this. There is a direct correlation between the states with high U-Cubed involvement and politicians not pushing around the unemployed. Check it out.

Speaking of U-Cubed: Eight California cities made the U-Cubed March Madness Unemployment brackets, but Fresno, CA ranked #1 "Most Unemployed" City in America with an unemployment rate of (17.2). See the brackets

***If you are not yet engaged in U-Cubed Please DO SO TODAY

U-Cubed on:

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/ucubed

TWITTER: @U_Cubed

WEBSITE: http://www.unionofunemployed.com

Get out there and meet with real activists. Find them locally in groups like U-Cubed, on College Campus or other community (computer) bulletin boards, contact MOVE-ON.org and US Uncut.


The weather is getting better out there now so no more excuses. I realize that the 99ers for the most part are an aging population but none of us are getting any younger and if you want to get any older - you had better stand up and fight for your survival in whatever way you can. Be visible and proactive. Do whatever you can to demonstrate clearly to our elected officials in your own state and Nationally that you mean business and you will not just go away and die.


SEND THEM a

CLEAR MESSAGE: We will not be ignored and we WILL stand up and FIGHT for our survival.


[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]




What's it Like in Japan right now

I got a chance to interview Jesse Mendoza of Jordan International Aid who is in Japan right now doing relief work. You can listen to the live interview, below. Numbers and reports from the area are changing all the time. Jesse gave me some idea of what it is like there right now in the affected areas. These photos are from his trip there, now, where they brought supplies, food and infant formula.



First Hot meal in the shelter since the earthquake



For those who can't listen in, here are some bullet points. It goes without saying, there are a lot of challenges.


NGOs are being asked to not come because of the lack of accessibility.


Because of the nuclear exposure, relief groups that had come have left again.


A single meal of a bowl of rice and some soup is what people are getting per day.


It is very cold and snowing.


There is no electricity.


Some water has too much radiation to be given to infants.


There is still a great deal of widespread fear and distress. Listen here:





Doc Gurley is a Harvard Medical School graduate and is a practicing board-certified internist, and the creator of the Memoriam app - the first, and only, app to allow disaster-relief workers to speak for the dead. You can follow Doc Gurley on Facebook. Get more health posts at www.docgurley.com, or jump on the Twitter bandwagon and follow Doc Gurley. Also check out Doc Gurley's joyhabit and iwellth twitter feeds - so you can get topic-specific, effective, affordable tips on how to nurture your joy and grow your personal wellth.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Donald Trump's Idiotic Statements Enrage Whoopi Goldberg




The Long Island Press reports on Whoopi Goldberg's behavior during Donald Trump's visit to The View.

Trump has talked about his plans to run for presidency and that he will make a solid decision by June whether or not he wants to try his luck as a GOP nominee.

While on The View Trump questioned whether or not President Barack Obama was actually born in the United States - something that has been tackled many times and an issue that had been thought to be resolved and turned into whether or not Hawaii was actually a state when Obama was born there.

Trump said the following while on the air:


“I want him to show his birth certificate, there is something on that birth certificate that he doesn’t like.”


“The point is I cant rely on some newspaper that they show, I want him to show his birth certificate."


Whoopi Goldberg was not happy with this whatsoever and said that Trump's statements were racist and that never has a white president been asked to reveal his birth certificate - which is true. And Obama is only half black, and he was raised by his white mother.

Trump denied that race was a factor. Here's the video:



Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mike Anderson Offered $2.2 Million

Kansas City Star reports that Mike Anderson, Missouri coach, has bbeen offered $2.2 million to coach the Arkansas Razorbacks.


Although that is said the news site also says that Steve Owens, the interim University of Missouri system president is not revealing anything:

I think it is safe to say that we are all big fans of Mike Anderson,” Owens said on a conference call Tuesday morning from the MU Board of Curators meeting in Rolla, Mo. “We appreciate very much what he does on the court and particularly off the court. But any hypothetical contract negotiations, we don’t confirm either their existence or their status.”


There are also talks that this could be a contract extension. So it is unclear what exactly is going on - so guess it will have to wait until the media is able to contact and get an answer straight from Anderson.

Don't call her "Liz" Taylor: What Zennie glossed over

I'm not going to pretend expertise on Hollywood, because the one film course I took in college was a practical lesson in the dangers of sitting in a dark room shortly after eating dinner. The Taming of the Shrew and Singing in the Rain were great movies, for example, but expecting a college student to stay awake with a full stomach was, I'd say, a tactical blunder on the part of my otherwise talented professor.

That experience reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the late star:

"I really don't remember much about Cleopatra. There were a lot of other things going on."

~Elizabeth Taylor
Even those of us with merely a casual interest in film, though, can recognize that Elizabeth Taylor had a certain flair for being her own woman: her off-screen impact is undeniable, her candor about movie-making and stardom remains refreshing.

"I sweat real sweat and I shake real shakes."

~Elizabeth Taylor

At a time when divorce remained so rare as to be newsworthy, Elizabeth Taylor, clearly among Hollywood's royalty despite claiming she was forced into an acting career, could dominate the headlines with the start or end of another chapter in her series of marriages.

"I've only slept with men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?"

~Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor, perhaps best-known for playing Cleopatra opposite Richard Burton, leveraged the fame and glamor by branding jewelry and perfume. Zennie did a nice summary, and you can already find countless obituaries that list her awards and accomplishments; her biography is studded with accomplishments. But here's the thing:

"When people say, 'She's got everything', I've got one answer:
I haven't had tomorrow."

~Elizabeth Taylor
That's the best summary of Taylor's legacy. There are films, and awards, all the expected trappings of a mega-star with a lengthy career - but Elizabeth Taylor wasn't content to be a movie icon, her passion and impact by remaining engaged in life outside the studios eclipsed her acting -- she wasn't content to wait for tomorrow.
Thomas Hayes is a New Media Advisor, Political Consultant, Journalist, Entrepreneur, and former Congressional Campaign Manager; he believes in "follow the money" when following politics, and continues his 12-step recovery from the years spent as a Programmer/Database Administrator by carrying his camera nearly everywhere and writing on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.
You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter.

Elizabeth Taylor Passes at 79; End Of An Era In Hollywood

Actress Elizabeth Taylor, long the symbol of Hollywood glamour, gossip, and elegance, passed away at 79 years old, after being hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles with what was called congestive heart failure. Taylor, a two-time Academy Award-winner, had suffered from complications related to that medical condition, but was expected to live through it. She did not.

End of An Era

Elizabeth Taylor's passing marks the end of an era, when Hollywood stars were treated like royalty. She will be most remembered for her breath-taking beauty, her movies, and her eight marriages, most notably to Eddie Fisher.  The woman who once said that the acting career was "forced on me," went on to become the highest paid actress in Hollywood in 1960, when she signed a $1 million deal to star in Cleopatra.

 It was during that film that Taylor began the legendary romance with Burton, who played Mark Antony - both were already married at the time.

Here's Taylor making her dramatic entrance in the epic film:



A Four-Time Oscar Nominee, Two-Time Winner

Taylor was nominated for a "Best Actress" Oscar five times, winning twice, for her performance as "Gloria Wandrous" in BUtterfield 8 (1960), and for her role as "Martha" in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Elizabeth Taylor was said to have had a "passion" for jewelry, and wore many creations purchased for her by Richard Burton. Then, later, she designed works for The Elizabeth Collection, sold by at Christie's, and launched three perfume lines: "Passion", "White Diamonds", and "Black Pearls," all which earned an estimated $200 million in sales.

Taylor was a long-time friend of the late Michael Jackson, who she met in 1985 during an AIDS-related event. Jackson created and performed this song called Elizabeth I Love You, in her honor:




For more on Elizabeth Taylor, visit her Wikipedia page, and CNN.com.