Tag Archives: america

World Cup's start kicks off friendships

World Cup’s start kicks off friendships ». By Sports Editor. 600_madiba.JPG. It was Christmas in June for giddy soccer fans throughout the city Friday. A restless night’s sleep was greeted by the first hint of sunlight, … World Cup 2010 Video … “Chasing the Game”: A primer on the history of the U.S. national soccer team, its run-up to the South Africa World Cup , with profiles on its coach and players. Chasing the Game; America and the Quest for the World Cup …

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World Cup's start kicks off friendships

Congrats To Arianna On Her ‘Best’ Webby!

One has to give credit where credit is due. The Huffington Post is 2010’s ‘People’s Voice Winner for Best Political Blog’ and Arianna Huffington will receive her Webby Monday night in New York City. We are in awe of her humility… ‘I need to decide what this year’s speech should be, and would love your input. Submit your five-word speech in the comments section. We’ll publish the best ones on Monday… and if I end up using yours Monday night, you’ll get a signed copy of my new book, Third World America, as soon as it is published in September. ‘Okay, HuffPosters… start your creative engines!’ — Arianna Huffington , Help, I Need a Five-Word Speech for the Webby Awards! One can only be judged in this business by the accolades of one’s peers, and here’s a taste of the acknowledgments of those who admire the non-partisan, tolerant, inclusive Huffington Post most. Remember, Ms. Huffington once said that the fact Republicans read her site “is a reflection of our traffic, our brand, and the fact that we are increasingly seen … as an Internet newspaper, not positioned ideologically in terms of how we cover the news.” Those who voted for HuffPo’s victory are quite aware of their celebrated reputation for journalistic integrity… Huffington Post Defends Clooney’s “Faked-Up” Blog Entry Huffington’s House of Horrors The Huffington Post Slammed for Content Theft Plagiarism At The HuffPo Stossel Talks Politics With Huffington The Huffington Post as a News Source: An In-Depth Look The Missing Dirt On Arianna Huffington HuffPo Hugs a Domestic Terrorist : Bill Ayers Has a Column at Huffington Post The HuffPo Gets to Question Obama — Making History The Huffington Post’s War on Medical Science: A Brief History Huffington Post Smear of Gibson Uses Doctored Video For Huffington Post, Left Is Right The Puffington Host: The Many Versions Of Arianna Huffington, And Their Consequences Huffington Post: “Palin Will Run in ‘12 on More Retardation Platform” HuffPo Retracts False Limbaugh Quotes; When Will CNN & ThinkProgress? HuffPo’s Misogyny: The NSFW Path to Liberal Journalism Success” Arianna Huffington’s Journalism Charity Helps Nobody but Herself “How I Did It,” by Arianna Huffington Has the Huffington Post Become a Magnet for Israel Haters? Some of our older and more traditional news outlets are nowhere near as celebrated and respected as the Huffington Post (which has only been around since 2005). We should all strive to become Arianna Huffingtons. The world of journalism would be a better place for you and for me. h/t Huff-Watch

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Congrats To Arianna On Her ‘Best’ Webby!

Watch Mexico v. South Africa World Cup in 3D at ESPN restaurant …

South Africa fans arrive for the Opening Ceremony ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Group A match between South Africa and Mexico at Soccer City Stadium on June 11, 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa . … South Africa World Cup game at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Grill from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Friday. The ESPN Wide World of Sports Grill is one of the viewing locations for the World Cup games and believed to be the only location in America broadcasting games …

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Watch Mexico v. South Africa World Cup in 3D at ESPN restaurant …

More Washington Post Hijinks? Reporter Cancels Book Party Appearance Hosted by Democrat Operative

It’s probably safe to assume that a lot of reporters in the mainstream media lean to the left side of the ideological spectrum. And it was seen throughout the health care debate over the past year and a half – that somehow we need to raise the rhetoric beyond hyperbole like death panels, etc. One of those reporters was The Washington Post’s health care reporter Ceci Connolly, who last summer appeared on MSNBC and made such a plea . And since then, she made other gestures to show she was in line with the Obama administration on this issue. Well, lo and behold, according to a story by Jeremy Peters posted on the New York Times Media Decoder blog , Connolly canceled an appearance at a party for the book, “Landmark: The Inside Story of America’s New Health Care Law and What it Means for All of Us,” which according to her Web site Connolly is “one of the main authors of the first definitive book on the 2010 health care law.” “[T]he Post found itself in another potentially embarrassing and ethically compromised position on Wednesday after one of its most senior reporters abruptly canceled an appearance at her own book party, which was being sponsored by a public relations firm with strong ties to the Democratic Party,” Peters wrote. That communications firm was Blue Line Strategic Communications, a public relations firm run by Michael Meehan and David DiMartino. Peters reported Meehan, a Democratic communications strategist, has had some very close ties to several Democrat campaigns. “Mr. Meehan was most recently an adviser to Martha Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general who lost to Senator Scott Brown, the insurgent Republican candidate who captured Edward M. Kennedy’s former seat,” Peters wrote. “He was also a senior staff member in the Senate for years, working for some of the most powerful members, including John Kerry, Tom Daschle and Barbara Boxer.” Connolly’s questionable association with Blue Line Strategic Communications comes on the heels of abandoned plans by the Post’s publisher Katharine Weymouth to charge lobbyists and trade groups thousands of dollars for access “to top congressional and administration officials for $25,000 a plate” at a dinner party at her home. According to Peters, the book party went on with Connolly. However it does further beg the question if the Post’s reporting throughout the ObamaCare debate was really “objective.”

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More Washington Post Hijinks? Reporter Cancels Book Party Appearance Hosted by Democrat Operative

How do we boycott BP?

Could we choose an other gas station to fill our tanks? Where do we go? Exxon? Shell? They are all EVIL! They are all destroying our world and we are part of the problem and always will be. Deliberately or not we are all accomplices until we do something about it. The core spirit of the Organic Legion's movement is to eradicate a problem, boycotting the source. Why wasting our time and effort to get a ban on plastic bags or stopping the next offshore/onshore oil drilling that will cause more environmental catastrophes when we could stop this altogether? Stop oil dependency and the oil monopoly now. Alternative, safe technologies exist and work effectively, enough to power every vehicle and every home in America and all over the world. Stop this EVIL now, they run the economy and our lives. They are contaminating our soil, our water and the future of our children and generations to come. We are the people, we are the almighty, we can change things. Let's unite and rise as one to stop this poison that is here to stay and this cruel greed. Do we really want to wait until everything turns to “black” to realize what's happening? WE hold a power, the power to change things once and for all. Nobody can't take that away from us! Sign the petition below: http://environment.change.org/petitions/view/no_more_drill_baby_drill Thank you for taking action by stopping the oil dependency and its monopoly on our economy, environment and our lives. Spread the word, change the WORLD! From OrganicLegion.org: http://organiclegion.org/pt/How-do-we-boycott-BP/blog.htm added by: lookatmypix

Did Politico Inadvertently Reveal Too Much Detail About Cynical Democrat Sales Pitch for Amnesty?

Illegal aliens. Eeek! I said the forbidden term. For the past few years the “preferable” but less accurate term to describe that group has been “illegal immigrants.” Even that modified term has been too harsh for advocates of amnesty who prefer the completely inaccurate term, “undocumented workers.” However, in order to cynically sell the public on amnesty, the Democrats are willing to temporarily swallow their pride and use “illegal immigrants” according to a Politico article written by Carrie Budoff Brown who reveals a lot more cynicism on the part of the Democrats than she probably intended: Long pilloried for being soft on illegal immigration, top Democratic officials have concluded there’s only one way they can hope to pass a comprehensive immigration bill: Talk more like Republicans. They’re seizing on the work of top Democratic Party operatives who, after a legislative defeat in 2007, launched a multiyear polling project to craft an enforcement-first, law-and-order, limited-compassion pitch that now defines the party’s approach to the issue. The 12 million people who unlawfully reside the country? Call them “illegal immigrants,” not “undocumented workers,” the pollsters say. I’m sure Ms Brown just wanted to demonstrate how “smart” the Democrats have become on the amnesty issue but in that attempt she has also revealed an incredible level of cynicism on their part. Here is more of Brown revealing how the Democrats are attempting to fool the public through the cynical use of nice sounding words: Strip out the empathy, too. Democrats used to offer immigrants “an earned path to citizenship” so hardworking people trying to support their families could “come out of the shadows.” To voters, that sounded like a gift, the operatives concluded.  Now, Democrats emphasize that it’s “unacceptable” to allow 12 million people to live in America illegally and that the government must “require” them to register and “get right with the law.” That means three things: “Obey our laws, learn our language and pay our taxes” — or face deportation.  Right about now I can almost hear Democrat officials hissing to each other about how Brown was way too upfront in revealing their attempt to sell the amnesty snake oil to the public. And now Brown names names: President Barack Obama uses the buzzwords. So does the congressional leadership. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), author of the Democratic immigration plan, scolds advocates who refer to illegal immigrants as “undocumented workers.”  “Buzzwords.” Which means the folks who use them like Obama and Schumer are also amnesty snake oil salesmen. Thanks for that revelation, Carrie. However even these meaningless snake oil buzzwords are a bit too much for some of the liberals to swallow such as amnesty advocate Frank Sharry: Even then, the poll-tested words and phrases will only go so far if Democrats fail to exert discipline and unify behind the get-tough message. And at this point, not all immigration reform advocates have bought into the rhetorical hard line, which aims squarely at winning the political center. Even Sharry, who spearheaded the effort, declines the advice of pollsters to excise “undocumented workers” from his lexicon, saying it feels too much like it plays into conservative efforts to “dehumanize” immigrants. Of course, what article about the cynical manipulation of emotions via buzzwords would be complete without the input of the logic-denying Democrat advisor, Drew Westen ? “When [voters] hear ‘undocumented worker,’ they hear a liberal euphemism, it sounds to them like liberal code,” said Drew Westen, a political consultant who has helped Sharry hone the message through dial testing. “I am often joking with leaders of progressive organizations and members of Congress, ‘If the language appears fine to you, it is probably best not to use it. You are an activist, and by definition, you are out of the mainstream.’” Have you noticed how Democrats have begun mouthing words in support of border security before amnesty can be considered? All a poll driven act according to Brown’s revelation: …Podesta and Sharry assembled a roster of boldfaced Democratic pollsters — Stan Greenberg, Celinda Lake, Guy Molyneux — to figure out how the party would ever get away from one of the most devastating GOP lines of attack, that a comprehensive immigration plan amounted to “amnesty” for illegals. The results made Greenberg a convert. His surveys of swing districts in 2006 and 2007 concluded that Democrats took a political risk by discussing immigration. Greenberg thought frustration with immigrants would spawn an environment similar to the welfare backlash in the 1990s and that Democrats needed to get tough on border security before talking about citizenship.   But polling that Greenberg, Lake and Molyneux conducted in 2008 proved to Greenberg that Democrats could talk in a way that won over voters. It needed to sound tough and pragmatic, but not overly punitive, the pollsters said. The message beat the amnesty charge in their polling. Got that? The call for border security is just a poll driven act on the part of the Democrats?   More poll driven pretension: The most significant shift in language involves the path to citizenship. Pollsters determined that Democrats sounded as though they wanted to reward illegal immigrants , even though lawmakers almost always laid out that requirements and delays that would precede citizenship. “It comes back to this idea: We give permission; we set the terms; it’s under our control; and if you meet those conditions, you are us, welcome to America,” Westen said of the new frame . The “new frame” i.e. the “new act.”   So thank you, Carrie Budoff Brown, for revealing the incredible level of “fool the public” cynicism on the part of the Democrats on the issue of amnesty. It was probably unintentional on your part to reveal so much but thanks anyway.

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Did Politico Inadvertently Reveal Too Much Detail About Cynical Democrat Sales Pitch for Amnesty?

Sting and Soros Hook Up For A Duet Of Pro-drug Stupidity

Editor’s Note : The following was originally posted at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood . Seeing that George Soros and Sting  are working together to “end the drug war” puts me in mind of a story an Army buddy who works in the DEA told me about busting in the door of a drug house only to find three occupants – the oldest four years old, having been left in charge while his “parents” went out to score meth.  Yeah, drug use is a victimless crime – if you ignore the victims. Apparently not content to subsidize the whining of the nonentities at Media Matters, Soros is taking a break from his adventures in currency manipulation and general scuzziness to enlist entertainment celebrities like Sting in his newest quest.  The Drug Policy Alliance  is the result, a group whose members, as its founder puts it, “come from across the drug use spectrum.”  Yes, the junkies, stoners, hopheads, dope fiends, pill-poppers, and Lindsay Lohan are unanimous:  Drug laws are bad, and it’s probably BusHitler’s fault. The threshold problem with comments by Sting such as, “The war on drugs represents an extraordinary violation of human rights,” is that Sting presumably not only believes this piffle, but further believes that he can put down his bass and offer meaningful input into the discussion.  This assumption of competence is a common delusion among celebrities, and here it has more potential for damage than most mindless celebribabble. Now, Sting is not alone – no one in that clip says anything worthwhile.  One woman, who is bald for no apparent reason, states that “The War on Drugs is a war on people of color,” as if Americans decided they would outlaw crack because they fear that black people might enjoy themselves.  Montel Williams shows up to explain that drug laws prevent him from making choices about his own body, but the awful tie and ridiculous earring he chose to wear make a powerful argument against allowing him to make any kind of choices at all. Tony Papa also appears.  He went to jail for 12 years for being part of a drug deal – oh, I mean committing “a nonviolent drug offense” – and became an artist on the taxpayer’s dime.  While most of us will likely ask “Why only 12?,” naturally Papa is worshipped by trendy leftist celebrities .  Some Hollywood half-wit even scooped up the rights to his inspiring story.  So, to repeat, Tony Papa joined a drug conspiracy, got arrested, went to jail, leveraged that into becoming a hip artist and the subject of a movie, and yet he is somehow the real victim. Of course, there’s also the perennial “America imprisons more people than anywhere else in the world!” meme.  In fact, the only drug incarceration problem in America is that too few drug dealers are incarcerated.  Sting suffers from the same delusion that afflicts many of his celebrity pals.  He seems to think that if the kind of people who deal drugs didn’t have drugs to deal, they would naturally flock to the world of hard work and responsibility.  Oh, if only drugs weren’t illegal, the drug dealing scumbags who infest our ghettos, barrios and college sociology departments would morph into clean-shaved, untatted workerbees eagerly embracing the world of 9-5 employment.  Yeah, it was outlawing meth and crack that turned the scumbags into scumbags.  At one point, the clip promises “new solutions” to the drug problem.  Then Sting pops back up, smug and self-satisfied, to announce that drug laws violate his individual sovereignty.  Uh, typically, when you say you are going to provide new solutions you might consider, you know, providing some new solutions instead of some new cliché. I certainly enjoy Sting and his pals’ new-found appreciation of my personal autonomy and “sovereignty over my body.”  I assume they’ll be standing by me when I reject the government’s interference in my health care decisions.  Unlikely.  If you think consistency is one of their strong points, perhaps you’ve been smoking the same stuff as them. Now, Sting was always annoying but here he is reaching new heights of crappiness and pomposity in direct proportion to his declining relevance.  It’s always a pleasure to hear some Brit mega-millionaire who glides around his English manor practicing tantric sex sound off on American domestic policy.  Please Sting, save us!  Unleash the full intellectual firepower you’ve amassed writing forgettable smooth jazz/rock fusion tunes for people who buy their music at Starbucks.  Just because you’ve been waited on hand and foot for three decades by a coterie of professional sycophants telling you you’re wiser than Buddha and smarter than Einstein doesn’t mean it’s true.  There may be a case for looking at our drug laws, but these nimrods don’t make it.  The most compelling points are made by the conservatives at National Review and the libertarians at Reason .  Sure, pot smokers steal your snacks, listen to Phish and sound-off with long, disjointed monologues about the miracle of hemp, but I have a hard time getting too bent out of shape by them.  Many celebrities are among them , but Sting and Soros aren’t just talking about causal stoners.  They think we ought to go open season on meth, crack and whatever else these degenerate half-wits today are ingesting.  No thanks – I’d prefer not to live with the mess you’re rich enough to ignore. The fact is that His Stingness knows nothing – or cares nothing – about the unspeakable devastation drugs cause, particularly within the inner cities.  Instead of standing behind the one truly effective response to urban drug terror – throwing the bastards in a cell and dropping the key down the Guatemalan sinkhole – His Majesty Sting decrees that drug dealing scumbags should run free, then retreats back behind his gates and armed guards to further hone his delayed orgasm skills. Well, Sting, let’s discuss your really keen points about why poison ought to be legal.  But let’s expand the scope of our discussion to include some other celebrities who might be able to provide us with some valuable insights.  Let’s invite Michael Jackson , Heath Ledger , Brad Renfro , DJ AM , and Brittany Murphy to weigh in with their points of view.  Oh wait, they’re all dead.  So are just a few others . Like a Sean Penn who can’t help but fly into some hellhole, figuratively fellate the local anti-American strongman then jet back to Santa Monica in time for dinner at Pizzeria Mozza, Sting wanders out of his fairy-tale life for a few minutes to tell the benighted peons in the real world how they need to live their lives before retiring back inside his palace behind three layers of security.  The violence, the abuse, the wasted potential brought on by drugs mean nothing to him; what is important is his own act of scolding his lessers for failing to conform to his personal vision. That’s Sting’s high – lording over others as if he was something more than a glorified cruise ship bassist who got lucky and didn’t have to spend his career cranking out covers of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” for Corona-swilling passengers during runs between San Diego and Puerto Vallarta on the S.S. Living Hell .  And like so many in the entertainment world, he’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of possession of stupid ideas – with intent to distribute.

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Sting and Soros Hook Up For A Duet Of Pro-drug Stupidity

Newt Gingrich, Carpetbagger For God, Made a Movie About the Pope

Not the current pope, alas, who could actually use some conservative hagiographical spin right about now, but the previous pope — John Paul II, whose efforts to combat totalitarianism through faith are chronicled in the Gingrich-produced documentary Nine Days That Changed the World . The former House Speaker and Georgia Republican has traveled with the film to the late pope’s homeland of Poland, where he spoke Wednesday of the political change that Catholicism can effect under Communist regimes in Cuba and China. And, one can only presume, in America, where the film will make the university rounds this fall just in time to combat the Obama-flavored socialist scourge jockeying for public office. Hold it just a second, Newt — I thought you were a Baptist ?

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Newt Gingrich, Carpetbagger For God, Made a Movie About the Pope

A Loss Won’t Silence the Democratic Left

By E.J. Dionne, Jr. This week’s primaries should have been good news for Democrats. Instead, a stray comment from an Obama aide briefly threatened a civil war in the Democratic Party, which needs all the unity it can get. Related Entries June 9, 2010 A Loss Won’t Silence the Democratic Left June 9, 2010 Senate Protester Gives Herself the Pelican Treatment

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A Loss Won’t Silence the Democratic Left

Why We Can’t Just ‘Look Forward’

By Joe Conason The years of detainee abuse and constitutional violations cannot be dismissed so easily, because the past is still with us—and so are the dangers that drew America’s leaders toward the dark side. Related Entries June 9, 2010 A Loss Won’t Silence the Democratic Left June 9, 2010 Senate Protester Gives Herself the Pelican Treatment

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Why We Can’t Just ‘Look Forward’