Count Matt Lauer among those who cannot wait to see the calendar flip to 2013. Over the past few months, Lauer has been blamed for both the ousting of Ann Curry and The Today Show ‘s floundering ratings. Sources even say we may see Matt Lauer fired soon if more viewers don’t tune in to NBC on weekday mornings. With this pressure hanging over him, network insiders tell TMZ Lauer is “miserable” and is facing constant taunting on the streets, as Today fans refer to him as a “bad guy” and throw Curry’s poorly handled departure in his face. Lauer feels “abused,” according to the source, who adds of the harassment: “It’s driving him crazy. He’s so unhappy.” Lauer also denies any involvement in Curry’s firing, but many continues to insist he only signed a new $25 million contract this year because he was told Curry would be a goner. Still, don’t look for Lauer to be going anywhere any time soon. With many believing potential replacement Willie Geist isn’t ready for the job, NBC has no replacement for one of their most recognizable employees. Do you hope that changes in the near future, however? Sound off now: Should The Today Show fire Matt Lauer? Yes No Maybe View Poll »
In what has become the largest petition in White House history, 259,000 people have joined the online effort to label the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group. The petition was created on the White House website after WBC members announced plans to picket a vigil for children killed in the Newtown, Conn., shooting. Backlash came fast and furious. Anonymous hacked Westboro Baptist Church and has been trolling spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper hard. Now the petition seeks to have it designated what it is. Created on December 14, the hate group-labeling effort has 259,000 signatures, trouncing Texas’ secession petition to become the largest in White House history. Online petitions need 25,000 signatures before they are reviewed by the administration. The petition to gain hate group status for WBC states: “This group has been recognized as a hate group by organizations, such as The Southern Poverty Law Center, and has repeatedly displayed the actions typical of hate groups.” “Their actions have been directed at many different groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians.” “They pose a continued threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation.” While their nauseating actions have typically been protected by the 1st Amendment, hate group status would allow closer monitoring and potentially stiffer penalties. No word back from the White House yet … they seem to be besieged with online petitions, serious and otherwise, since establishing this online system.
You may be waiting in that line longer than usual if you’re shopping at Walmart next Friday. According to The Huffington Post : Organizers are planning a nationwide strike against Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, and are banking on a new strategy: online organizing. Labor organizers are working with social action nonprofit Engage Network as well as corporate watchdog nonprofit Corporate Action Network to pull off what they are calling a “viral” — meaning national and spreading online — strike. Brian Young, cofounder of the Corporate Action Network, said on a conference call coordinated by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Thursday, that organizers cannot cover the roughly 4,000 Walmarts across the country, but enabling self-appointed leaders online has widened and decentralized the campaign. The campaign is also mobilizing strikers and supporters through a Facebook app, multiple Facebook pages, a Tumblr and Twitter with the hashtag #walmartstrikers. The outreach leading up to Black Friday follows a series of unprecedented actions taken by Walmart workers against their employer and working conditions. In October, for the first time in the company’s 50-year history, more than 70 workers at multiple Los Angeles-area Walmart stores walked off the job, even though their jobs are not protected by an official union. The strike had a ripple effect, causing strikes in 12 other cities, in large part through online organizing. The success of these strikes, as well as one over the summer touted as the largest ever protest against the company, and a six-day pilgrimmage of warehouse workers in September, would not have been possible without Facebook, Twitter and other web sites, Young said. “Making Change at Walmart,” which organized the demonstrations and is a campaign affiliated with the UFCW union, has over 25,000 supporters on Facebook. Corey Parker, a Walmart worker from Mississippi, said on the conference call that he became active with OUR Walmart after finding out about it through a HuffPost article on Facebook. Now, he has mobilized workers at his store to strike on Black Friday because, he said, he realized that “not being able to make a living was not just an issue at my store.” Adding fuel to movement, Walmart announced Thursday that it will kick off its Black Friday sale at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, its earliest start ever. “Lots and lots of Walmart workers are going to be forced to not have Thanksgiving because they’re going to be preparing all day for the busiest shopping day of the year,” Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, said on the conference call. “This essentially cancels Thanksgiving for hundreds of thousands of workers.” “It’s not like Walmart is financially hurting. It’s not like they’re not making unbelievable sums of money. The price of this is really decimating an important family day in our country.” But Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo said of the sale, “Last year, our highest customer traffic was during the 10 p.m. hour and, according to the National Retail Federation, Thanksgiving night shopping has surged over the past three years.” “Most of our stores are open 24 hours and, historically, much of our Black Friday preparations have been done on Thanksgiving, which is not unusual in the retail industry,” he said, adding that the strikes planned for Black Friday, will not “have any impact on our business.” Regarding the action over the last few months, Restivo said, “While the opinions expressed by this group don’t represent the views of the vast majority of more than 1.3 million Walmart associates in the U.S., when our associates bring forward concerns, we listen.” In September, dozens of Walmart-contracted warehouse workers in Southern California’s Inland Empire walked off the job and went on a six-day, 50-mile pilgrimage to protest working conditions and retaliation for speaking up. More than a month later, the warehouse company NFI responded to some of the strikers’ working condition requests. “Just in the last week, we’ve seen the warehouse operators scrambling to replace broken and unsafe equipment, they’ve rented fans to increase ventilation, and they’ve added more water coolers,” Elizabeth Brennan, communications director for Warehouse Workers United, said on the conference call. However, the strikers who returned to work have continued to face retaliation, many times getting their hours cut from 35 down to eight, she said. Some of these warehouse workers will join striking Walmart workers on Black Friday, Brennan said. Do you support the strike?? Images via tumblr
Death of a major character ‘provides the story something it can’t do without,’ actress tells MTV News. By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Kara Warner Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes in “The Walking Dead” Photo: AMC
I’m not sure if Katy Perry is still banging John Mayer anymore, not that anyone really cares, but I’ve got these pictures of her over the weekend so I’m posting them anyway. The good news is her hair is back to a reasonable color and she’s wearing a completely see through dress, the bad new is she’s also wearing some of the largest granny panties I’ve ever seen in my life. I have boxer shorts smaller than those things. I think these used to be called bloomers. I don’t like it one bit.
Akram sent me this: ” The “Arab” Syrian Army and the “Free” Syrian Army are exchanging massacres in what seems to be a fevered race concerning who can kill the largest number of Syrians. The match is taking place in the Province of Homs. In Al-Houla (Homs), at least 92 civilians, 32 of them were children were killed in an artillery and tank bombing by the the Syrian Army (read here and you can watch… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Angry Arab News Service Discovery Date : 26/05/2012 01:55 Number of articles : 2
Here’s Amy Childs and her perfect big breasts and long legs at some event launching a new camera or something like that. Do people still buy these things? Anyhow, it looks like she’s showing us how easy it is to take a picture of herself. You know what that means, there’s got to be a camera out there with pictures of those big naked boobies. Probably in the bathroom mirror. Awesome. Now put one on the floor and see what that angle looks like. Good times.
