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.



[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!]

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.

Brad Jefferson - Animoto CEO Interview At Pre-Crunchies Party

On Friday this blogger had the opportunity to interview Brad Jefferson, the CEO of Animoto, and during the Pre-Crunchies Party to introduce the firm's new offices at 333 Kearny Street in San Francisco. Animoto is an online platform that takes your photos, music, and other media and creates high-quality videos. The firm's about 7 years old, and the platform has about 1 million registered users.

As described in the blog post on the party itself, the offices look like they're right out of a sci-fi movie. You know, the kind where the scientist is this young, cool, hipster cat. That's Animoto's SF digs, and Jefferson's office.

His office carries the theme too: it's entirely glassed in, and reminds you of those experiments where the person's locked into a room without any connection with the outside World except that you can look in on him. But it's also a place where Jefferson can see what's happening in the office without leaving his bubble.

Bubble aside, we talked about Animoto.

"There's four of us that co-founded the company. The inspiration was about how you get really high quality video to the masses. So, instead of using (video) editing tools, how do you have them just point to their photos, pick a song, and have it done for them. Something they'd just really be proud to share. Almost like a movie trailer of your photo album. One of the key parts of that," Brad said, "was Stevie Clifton, our CTO."

"He was working as a lead animator for ABC's documentary group. In that role he was trying to figure out how to automate his job. How to do some of the real heavy lifting that real animators have to do, in an automated manner. A lot of us grabbed on to that, and said 'that's great for you, but if we could make this a mass-market kind of thing, that would be a big idea. So that's what we quit our jobs for."

The Future Of Animoto

Brad says that the ability to see photos in the way Animoto allows is "pretty jarring" to some, and leads to a lot of possible applications for the future, though he did not explain what those would be.

Copyright Issues?

With all of the photos one can use to create a video using Animoto, you'd think there would be a number of users that ran up against copyright issues. Jefferson explains that's not the case because the terms of service "explicitly state that you cannot use copyrighted material, so we haven't had that much of a problem." That's a cool way of saying the users follow the Animoto rules.

Animoto Roll-outs

On February 8th, right after the Super Bowl, Animoto will roll out its new website with an improved "user experience," and introduce an ability to access HD quality so you can view videos on your digital television at home. Also, Brad says the time that it takes you to get your videos is going to be "reduced drastically."

Jerry Brown's Plan To End Redevelopment In California Wrong-Headed

California Governor Jerry Brown is known for attacking sacred cows but sometimes he does so without a clear vision of the real objective and how to achieve it. Such is the case with California Redevelopment Agencies (CRAs), which Brown wants to do away with as part of his State of California Proposed Budget.

Governor Brown thinks the move will return $1.7 billion to the general funds of California cities; but such a claim shows Brown doesn't understand Redevelopment, how it works, and what it's supposed to do.  The real objective of returning $1.7 billion will not be done in the way he says, and for several reasons.

First, California Redevelopment is designed such that it allows cities to establish redevelopment areas to keep property taxes. And contrary to popular view, redevelopment revenues from project areas can be used to provide services in those project areas. Many cities have done this, including Oakland.

Indeed, California Redevelopment Law was used by the City of Santa Ana to keep all of its property tax revenue. And while the law was changed to prevent that action by other cities, the City of Santa Ana's example proves that Redevelopment itself keeps property tax revenue under civic, and not state and county share, control. Yes, counties hate CRA's because they keep city property tax revenues from county collection and use. But counties can and do negotiate "pass-through" agreements to get some of that CRA prop tax revenue.

The bottom line is Governor Brown's wrong here and doesn't "get" how Redevelopment works.  The truth is that cities use California Redevelopment to keep property tax revenue and can use it for services.

Second, such a proposal as Brown's brings out every wingnut who has an issue with Redevelopment jumping on the Brown bandwagon, bringing up issues that can be easily fixed with a tweak in the law. For example, many suburban cities don't use their affordable housing set-aside monies. They should be forced to give 50 percent of those funds to a total pool that's then redistributed to the CRAs that have the greatest predetermined need.

Third, if Governor Brown really wants to attack a sacred cow and solve this budget problem, go after Prop 13.

Proposition 13 got us into this mess by throwing an intergenerational choke-chain around California's revenue collection system in 1978. Now, the near-depression recession we faced added another choke chain California has to deal with. The state has too many people chasing too few resources. The only way to reduce the population and increase the resources is by a three-percent increase in property taxes state-wide.

It would present a brutal and ugly fight. Hell, it might cost Brown his job and he'd have the shortest executive career since that pope who got poisoned, but it would be worth doing to really get at the actual problem plaguing California today: it's property tax system.

Be brave Jerry. Do it.

Sen. Mark Pryor's Support Of GOP-ish Amy Russell For Judge Upsets Arkansas Dems

Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor has incurred the wrath of Democrats in his state by pushing Amy Russell, the wife of Bob Russell, his former chief of staff, for a federal judgeship. The problem is Amy Russell is said to be a Republican.

What's bothersome to the Arkansas Democrats is that while blacks have called for black judges to be nominated, both Pryor and the once-sitting-Senator Blanche Lincoln gave them, what one blog called "the finger." Now, here comes Russell, and while she's black and the wife of Pryor's former Chief of Staff, she's not a Democrat.

That's interesting and it shows how far racial politics have come. It's not enough that the judge be black, but also be a Democrat. Personally, that kind of concern may be a good thing because it signals the mainstreamizing of black politics. It also says that, as Eugene Robinson has written, we are "disintegrating" into several groups that don't associate with each other in the way we did in the past.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing at all.

I'm also not exactly certain that a black Republican judge is less desirable than a black Democratic judge. Both are likely to be rather conservative socially and sympathetic to those who may come up in life's short end, if you will.

Still, it places Obama in a bit of a pickle. The basic objective is to keep the party happy, so Obama should just punt on this one. It looks like Arkansas Dems are out for blood.

Rahm Emanuel Can't Run For Mayor Of Chicago, Court Rules

Rahm Emanuel, former Congressman and Chief of Staff in The Obama White House, in a really shocking turn of legal events, can't run for Mayor of Chicago as of this writing. Here's the video by The Associated Press:



According to The New York Times, an Illinois Appeals Court, in overturning the decisions of the Chicago Board Of Elections and a Cook County Judge, had ruled that Emanuel can't run because he didn't meet the basic state residency requirements.

Rahm, who has a wide lead in polling and fund-raising, has said that his time working in The White House should not, essentially, be held against him because he was doing national service.

Now, the matter is certain to go to the State Supreme Court.

Boy, you can imagine what choice cuss words Rahm had for the two judges who went against him. Bet the house he threw something - maybe a paper weight.

But all kidding aside, this blogger can't think of a single time a white house staffer has quit to immediately run for local public office. This is without precedent, and therefore subject to wide legal interpretation.

The news comes just at the time when Rahm's the leader in both polling and in fund-raising, and by a wide margin. It's reported that Emanuel has raised $11.4 million to date. By contrast, Gery Chico, his closest challenger, has scored four times less money from donors than Emanuel.

YouTube Video Mendenhall Humps Roethlisberger Draws Varying Comments

(Rating: NC-17) Rashard Mendenhall, the Pittsburgh Steelers best running back, decided to dry-hump his teammate and QB Ben Roethlisberger toward the end of Sunday's AFC Championship game against the New York Jets. If you've not seen the video, here's my version, asking for your comments, which have been posted on the YouTube video:



While the reason for Mendenhall action, which has went viral on the Internet (it's still on Google Trends and has been since Sunday evening) and on YouTube, and has not yet been publicly explained, many have offered comments on it and at Vloggerheads.com and YouTube.

Here's a sample:

Now you know how it feels Roethlisberger
CMCCvideos 2 hours ago


i think tosh from tosh.o dressed up as mendenhall for that play
50redraider 2 minutes ago


the ref runs over to try and get a closer look
slamshrk31 29 minutes ago


People seriously did stuff like that on my high school football team lmao. I wouldn't call this proof that he's gay, this is just what happens when you have a bunch of huge guys with testosterone bleeding out of their eyeballs lol.
edAVP1138 14 hours ago


LOLOLOL, I don't believe he is gay. Just having a little to much fun. I just hope he doesn't do that in the locker room, then for sure he is gay.
fieldx200 2 hours ago


@fieldx200 Exactly. He's just messin' around.
cwarren 1 hour ago

In a way, the variation in reactions shows what American society is willing to tolerate in 2011; the bar is much higher.  It may be due to the constant daily presentation of sex and sexual images in mainstream online platforms.

It's hard to find a good, definitive study on this, and most of what's out there focuses on how men react to women, and if not that then porn.  But the middle ground: the constant presentation of ideas and lifestyles associated with sex - from sex tapes to sex scandals, racy celeb photos, sex issues, and Gay and Lesbian sexuality - and its impact isn't studied, or if it is, the study's not widely known.

But it's an important matter that deserves serious consideration and conversation.  It should not be buried. Advances in communications technology are presenting a giant social mirror.  The question is what will we see next and can we handle what we see?

99er Nation / Tier 5 PepTalks Continue: Jobless Talk Rant by Paladinette

The 99er Nation / Tier 5 PepTalks continue via the most recent version of the Jobless Talk Rant by Paladinette, this weekend.

The rant for this week is titled: Fight Back wisely and features Key talking points and the current 99er campaign.

The latest in a series of rants uploaded to encourage the weary 99ers into battle mode begins with a clip from Martin Luther King that is as relevant today as when MLK spoke the words nearly 25 years ago.

"My rants are intended to be weekly pep talks for Americas unemployed especially those in the 99er nation."

• Fighting back wisely means relentless focus upon our stated goals: Jobs for the Nation and until those Jobs are available - BENEFITS for the Duration!!!



• Be Visible & Take Action -- GET OUT THERE into the home offices of all your own Congressional reps in the House and Senate and NEVER forget they work for YOU!!!!!!

Strength in Numbers - Listen to The definition of SOLIDARITY as Webster describes it: "unity or agreement of feeling or action, esp. among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group"


• No More infighting / divisiveness within the 99er Community!

• Peaceful protests against banks on bonus hand out days! Look for upcoming articles from the Unemployment Examiners on this very soon and then ACT on them PLEASE!

Any of you wary of joining the U-Cubed Union of the Unemployed - PLEASE REALIZE that U-Cubed is FREE and is simply a means to the desired end. The committed and creative leadership within this organization is even greater than that of the American99ersUnion - and that is NO Disrespect for that entity. I belong to that union too and support all of their efforts. It is just that U-Cubed has the money, the presence and the dedicated Tech support, Administration and KNOW HOW of dozens of dedicated professionals with years of experience of how Washington Works, what it takes to fight this fight wisely and lead the charge. We need the support of every unemployed and underEmployed person in this country and all those who love and support us in this fight for our very survival - to join forces into an entity that Cannot be ignored any longer...

To that end PLEASE - Join Today 


U-Cubed on:


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


TWITTER: @U_Cubed 


WEBSITE: http://www.unionofunemployed.com



Paladinette ends this RANT with a humorous “Blast From the Past” that should bring back fond childhood memories for many in the 99er Nation.



[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!]

Jay Cutler Eviscerated On Twitter And On NFL Network After Packers Bears

Chicago Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler's image is taking a massive beating in the wake of his leaving the NFC Championship Game with a knee injury in the 3rd Quarter. 

Cutler's being eviscerated on Twitter and on the NFL Network, which looped telecast game recap continues to communicate NFL player dissatisfaction with Cutler's decision to take himself out of the game.

The Twitter tweets are just plain blunt and mean:

Megakingordie BIG JAY
#cutler man couldn't handle the pressure if not the offensive coordinators are horrible cuz everytime I watch #cutler mans gettin sacked


jazzypoohstar Jasmine
The thing that got me bout #cutler knee injury in ok u injured but u standing up straight on sidelines wtf #fake #fail your team
12 minutes ago

And that last tweet is notable because it did look like Jay could move around, and the question is would it have been enough for him to play from the Shotgun the rest of the way? To millions, including NFL Network's Deion Sanders, it looked like he quit on his team and the City of Chicago.

As Deion so well put it, there's a difference between perception and reality and the perception is that Cutler just quit. The Jacksonville Jaquars Maurice Jones-Drew's tweets were particularly hard on Cutler:

Jones_Drew32 Maurice Jones-Drew
RT @DoObieGibson: Jay Cutler's injury status: Bruised Ego <--- man so critical yet true 10 hours ago 

Jones_Drew32 Maurice Jones-Drew Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT.. 10 hours ago 

Jones_Drew32 Maurice Jones-Drew All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee... I played the whole season on one... 10 hours ago

Bears Defend Cutler

One group coming to Jay Cutler's defense are the Chicago Bears players. After the NFC Championship Brian Urlacher said "Nothing like jealous people at home watching. Players around the league you said right? Yeah, I love jealous people when they are watching our game on TV while their season is over...Jay was hurt. I don’t question his toughness, he’s tough as hell. He’s one of the toughest players on our football team. He doesn’t bitch, he doesn’t complain when he gets hit. He goes out there and plays his ass off every Sunday, he practices every single day, so no we don’t question his toughness."

Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith said "For us, Jay hurt his knee, he couldn’t go. He tried to go, that last series there of the first half, took a shot to the knee, tried to go, went in and worked on him a little bit at the half but he came out. He just couldn’t go, team, doctors and all, there was no decision really. He was injured."

Jay Cutler's NFL May Be Not-For-Long

While the words may die down, they will not go away. This game will haunt Jay for the rest of his life. Until he makes a gutsy performance, Jay Cutler will always be defined by his play and decisions made on Sunday January 23rd, 2011 during the NFC Championship Game. If Jay has any heart for the game, he's going to be called on to show it again and again.

Cutler's up against the enduring image of Brett Favre playing on bad knees yet running around the field like a little kid at play. Or Phil Rivers playing on a torn ACL in the 2008 AFC Championship Game.

That last fact is the most damning one for Jay. Cutler's image is in the tank; he's got to lift it out of there next season.