Friday, October 01, 2010
99ers Union Co-Founder Gregg Rosen on Fox News today
99ers Union Co-Founder Gregg Rosen on Fox News today, argued extending unemployment benefits is not a government handout, but an investment in the country. But the ignorant Fox host of the Varney & Company show wouldn't have any of that.
Fox is often referred to erroneously as a news network, when actually they have demonstrated time and again they are simply the air wave cable puppet for Republican talking points.
Gregg told the San Diego Unemployment Examiner, "When it was all said and done, when Mr. Varney asked me the following question, 'You think if we extend unemployment insurance for more than 99 weeks, that will put money into people's pockets, which they will then spend, raising demand?' I felt I could not have said it any better myself. He had just described the U.S. Economic System of Supply and Demand."
At the end of the interview, Varney refers to UI benefits as welfare, and Gregg promptly corrected him.
It is hard for anyone with a real message or someone talking on any subject that is not about improving the bottom line of the richest in America - to get a fair shake on Fox. Mr. Varney knows well the bedrocks of economic principle, yet still chose to abandon what he knows to be true, in favor of keeping his own job and spewing the lame, worn out Republican talking points.
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99er NOVO member Mignon Veasley-Fields renders Ed Schultz speechless
99er NOVO member Mignon Veasley-Fields rendered Ed Schultz speechless yesterday, blaming both the Democrats as well as the Republicans for the mess the 99ers find themselves in today.
In recent weeks, a group of the longest term unemployed has emerged called the 99er NOVOs, who are so angered by Washington inaction on a Tier 5 that they were refusing to vote at all in the upcoming elections, unless S3706 (The Americans Want to Work Act) was brought to the Senate floor for a vote first.
Mignon Veasley-Fields is a 61-year-old Los Angeles grandmother who has been out of work since June 2008. Her unemployment benefits ran out over three months ago. On Thursday's "Ed Show," Schultz did his best to get Veasley-Fields to encourage the NOVOs to cast ballots for Democrats in November despite their economic woes. Since the NOVO agreement was to halt their plans not to vote, if the bill was brought to the floor, Mignon assured Ed that the NOVOs would indeed keep their word. Unfortunately, the 99ers are not all on board with this decision.
"Well Ed, yes, we have committed that we are going to encourage our fellow 99ers to vote for either party that their choice. However, Ed, yesterday was very disappointing for us. And even though we are trying to tell them to vote, many of them are not going to vote even though the No NOVO says to go ahead and do this. They were disillusioned by what they saw on the Senate floor yesterday. We were grateful for Senator Stabenow for her effort, but we thought it was just sort of put together really quickly like a dog and pony show in order to get us to vote for them. This is a sentiment across this nation." Ms. Fields told Ed.
Schultz countered: "But if the Republicans, but Mignon, if the Republican Senator had not stood up, this would have gone through, and you would have had the votes, and you would have gotten an extension. It's the Republicans. Why take it out on the Democrats, the majority Party that time and time again has been there for the unemployed?"
To which Mignon replied: "Well you know, Ed, we have gone back in the history of the tiers. We as 99ers have tried to figure this out ourselves. What has happened is we can remember the time in which the Republicans said, "Sure, get another tier. Use the stimulus funds. And the Democrats said, 'No, we need to find sourcing for unemployment.' So now we're thinking back on that, and we're realizing it's not the Republicans. It was the Democrats that caused us to be in the situation that we're in. We want the Democrats to come back before this election, and we want them to come back and rectify this, Ed."
Of course, Veasley-Fields was right. The Republicans for over three months have stubbornly insisted that any additional tier be paid for either with stimulus money or some other part of the budget rather than just added to the growing deficit. Even while they demand the extension of the Tax cuts for the very rich, which would not be paid for and would add trillions to the deficit over the next 10 years.
So even as the Democrats are surely the lesser of the two evil choices Americans have this election day, it is very difficult for millions to get excited about voting when going hungry and homeless in droves every day.
Earlier in the video segment below, Ed calls upon President Obama to talk directly to the 99ers, saying: "Mr. President, you've got to speak directly to the unemployed. Directly to the unemployed. The people that don't have a job. the people that don't have benefits. the people that have been shafted by the republicans in recent weeks.” Shultz also pointed out: "I think if the Democrats, the majority party, think that 15 million unemployed voters can't make a difference in November, i think you've got another thing coming."
You can watch the full segment in the video below.
Rick Sanchez Fired From CNN After Comments About CNN and Jews
Just four minutes after this blogger posted a follow-up entry on Rick's silence on Twitter, a Google Search and dig threw the news area revealed that Rick Sanchez was fired according to The Huffington Post.
CNN issued this short statement.
Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.
And that ends a long career with CNN and Turner Broadcasting for Rick Sanchez. Rick is on his own "List You Don't Want To Be On."
Frankly, it's sad because Rick didn't have the chance to walk back his statement. Or, something happened where he was asked to do something he didn't want to do.
Maybe it was to apologize.
Frankly, what he did was stupid: getting on a radio to trash his company as being "ran by Jews" which isn't true and moreover, if it was true, so freaking what? It's not a bad thing.
Dumb. Just plain dumb.
It's not over. Stay tuned.
Rick Sanchez Fired? Not On Show Or Twitter After "Jews" Comments
If Rick Sanchez is fired, CNN's keeping the issue quiet. Emails on this have not been answered as of this writing, and may go unanswered. The kind of attention Rick brought to himself is not one CNN wants its sensitive stable of advertisers to be exposed to.
If you missed what Rick said, here's a YouTube video of his comments on Jon Stewart, who he think is a bigot but it doesn't include the CNN "Jews" rant. The talk is on Pete Dominick's SiriusXM Radio Show that was broadcast out of Atlanta. Here's the Stewart rant:
CNN's Rick Sanchez Says John Stewart Bigot, CNN Ran By Jews?
Two of the truth's he's telling is that Jon Stewart does have a staff that's not diverse, and thus does leave himself open to being called a "bigot." The other is that Jews, while the victims of heavy Worldwide discrimination, are not powerless.
As a former member of the local Hillel chapter and because of my last name (Abraham and a long story), the wonderful aspect of Jewish Culture is the practice of helping each other and society. That leads to the power of a social network that leads to being able to make sure friends get employed, even if they're not Jewish.
All of that was lost in the presentation of Rick's clumsy talk, which reflected more of a hateful bias than a loving one.
Pete went to Atlanta to do his SiriusXM Radio Show, which is where the interview took place. According to Pete Dominick's own site, Sanchez "railed" against Fox News and MSNBC, the two competing cable news networks, for their right and left news bias.
Then Rick turned his lather toward Jon Stewart: I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot." And from that point, Rick and Pete got into a discussion of what Rick meant by that.
But the question is, is Rick correct? Well, yes and no.
The Daily Show's Problem
The photo here, from a meetup panel discussion on late-night comedy writers, is a good illustration. In the front row, Salahuddin and Riddle are sitting next to Jason Ross and J.R. Havlan, both of The Daily Show, and both part of a stable of white male writers. A group that drew major criticism in the wake of the David Letterman Sex Scandal, where David admitted to sleeping with his assistant Stephanie Burkitt.
All of this doens't mean Jon Stewart is a bigot. Trying to find people who are good and of color is a task worth taking - Jimmy Fallon has done it. But it means that Jon may have an old man's view of American Culture that causes him to turn a blind eye toward black-influenced American Culture. That means his blinders can be removed; not so for a bigot.
CNN Ran By A Mix Of People
From the perspective of a person - this blogger - who's had a lot of experience with CNN and Turner Broadcasting, it's safe to say it's not "ran by Jews." Even with its unfortunate focus on the Tea Party Movement, CNN's staff has a healthy mix of talented women and men of all colors. CNN, for me, has been a positive experience and a wonderful organization.
Blake Lively owns 'The Town' By Nikky Raney
Blake Lively is known for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl - although Serena of Gossip Girl may get herself into some situations both roles are squeaky clean compared to the role Lively plays in The Town.
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| Photo Courtesy of Fanpop.com |
At first it is strange seeing the different side, but it is believable. Lively does an amazing job portraying Krista Coughlin - who goes from having a drunken sex scene with Ben Affleck's character Doug MacRay to taking care of her daughter. The movie is about Doug and his three friends who rob banks together and get themselves into situations which lead to dramatic irony. The audience is on the edge of their seats waiting for the characters to find out the twists and turns.
Although Lively is not the main character this movie is a big step in her career. Everyone knows Ben Affleck can act - it was undeniable that he would do a great job, but having Lively break away from the stereotypical roles she plays and go in a completely opposite direction is worth focusing on.
Lively will be given many more opportunities for diverse roles due to how well she played her role as Krista. Had Lively bombed the role she probably would not be given a second chance to break out from her tame roles.
The things that Serena goes through on Gossip Girl is nothing compared to what Krista has to go through in The Town. The movie as a whole is brilliant and the plot will really grab the attention of the audience - it is unpredictable and suspenseful. Four and a half stars out of five, only because the ending could have been done better.
By Nikky Raney
Journalist & Blogger
Breast Cancer Awareness Month - October
On January 14th, 2005, she called me to say that she had Breast Cancer. That was a total shock. It was also the beginning of the worst and definitely the weirdest year of my life.
Both my father and my stepfather died of another killer, Prostate Cancer, and both in March and in October of 2005.
Fortunately, Mom survived and after being given an effective drug called Femara. It's an early-stage drug that really works.
Medications aside, I'm glad she's here, even with all the arguments we have.
Easy A is more than a teen comedy By Nikky Raney
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| Courtesy of USA Today |
Easy A can be compared to a present day John Hughes film, with Olive resembling a Molly Ringwald character. The tone of the film is complete sarcasm; the majority of the dialog is all sarcasm based featuring witty one-liners. The movie keeps the audience engaged and laughing throughout its entirety.
In Olive’s English class the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is analyzed, and Olive gets very involved with the story line. After the extremely religious Marianne, Amanda Bynes, hears Olivia make up a story to her best friend Rhiannon, Aly Michalka, about losing her virginity Marianne suggests that Olivia embroider an “A” onto her wardrobe (like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter). The movie pokes fun at Christianity and could possibly be offensive to Christian viewers (but then again the entire movie is based around a girl lying about sleeping around).
The relationship between Olive and her parents is one that most teenagers would love – the sarcasm and witty punch lines are never ending when it comes to Olive, her parents and her adopted brother. At one point her brother, who is black, says that he will not have to worry about the genetics being passed down since he was adopted. The response from the father is, “How did you find out you were adopted?”
After this more and more boys find out that Olive is letting boys lie about doing things with her and Olive is offered gifts and money. Olive’s reputation gets so out of hand that she buys lots of sexy lingerie and embroiders an “A” onto every piece.
Penn Badgely plays the role of "Woodchuck Todd," Olive's long time crush, and he was Olive's first lie; when they were in eighth grade during a party the two were locked in a bedroom and expected to kiss, but Todd was not ready. Olive agreed to tell the rest of the party that the two had kissed when in fact they had not.
There is much more to this movie than what has been touched upon. Out of five stars this movie is about a four - the comedy is entertaining and is able to poignantly capture the feelings that teenagers feel in high school, but it is easy to get annoyed with how overly quirky and cartoony the characters are.
By Nikky Raney
Journalist & Blogger
Also posted on The Future of Journalism
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