It’s official: we have four more years of Barack Obama as Commander-in-Chief. The President was sworn in for the second time today, as Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath of office in the White House Blue Room a little before noon. It will take place again in public tomorrow on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Following the mishap in 2009, when Roberts misplaced the word “faithfully,” the judge read the oath this time around from a piece of paper. And all went smoothly, at least according to Sasha Obama, who reportedly turned to her father soon after his promise to uphold the Constitution and said: “Good job, daddy.” Obama, of course, already has a number of difficult tasks ahead of him. The economy isn’t exactly strong; a new NRA ad claims he’s a hypocritical elitist; and the top of gun control isn’t going away any time soon. How do you think the next four years will go? Very well, we’re on the right track! Better than the last four years at least Better than the first term of Mitt Romney would have been Terrible, we’re doomed! View Poll »
Aside from this guy hating on Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, yesterday’s game had to be one of the best we’ve seen in a very long time! Via NBC Sports: Ten months after Denver dumped Tim Tebow in favor of Peyton Manning, Tebow’s brother is delighted to see the Broncos advance no further in the playoffs this year than they did last year. Peter Tebow, the older brother of Tim Tebow, went on Twitter and took a shot at Manning during the Broncos’ loss to the Ravens after a play on which Manning struggled. Peter Tebow’s Twitter account (which gives his bio as “You can have this whole world, just give me Jesus”) is not verified. But Tim Tebow has made clear on his own verified Twitter account that the @PeterTebow account does belong to his brother. Peep the tweets below… SMH. Sounds like someone is salty that his brother lost his job with the Broncos still..let it go!!!
Colin Powell took a moment this morning to call out those shady Republicans who are blatantly racist azzholes… According to Think Progress: On Sunday, during an appearance on Meet The Press, Colin Powell condemned the GOP’s “dark vein of intolerance” and the party’s repeated use of racial code words to oppose President Obama and rally white conservative voters. Without mentioning names, Powell singled out former Mitt Romney surrogate and New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu for calling Obama “lazy” and Sarah Palin, who, Powell charged, used slavery-era terms to describe Obama: POWELL: There’s also a dark — a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party. What do I mean by that? I mean by that that they still sort of look down on minorities. How can I evidence that? When I see a former governor say that the President is “shuckin’ and jivin’,” that’s racial era slave term. When I see another former governor after the president’s first debate where he didn’t do very well, says that the president was lazy. He didn’t say he was slow. He was tired. He didn’t do well. He said he was lazy. Now, it may not mean anything to most Americans, but to those of us who are African Americans, the second word is shiftless and then there’s a third word that goes along with that. The birther, the whole birther movement. Why do senior Republican leaders tolerate this kind of discussion within the party? He’s absolutely correct…Discuss. WENN
This washed-up, racist rocker needs to have a seat! Via MSNBC : Ted Nugent is known for making controversial and even threatening statements, and now he’s comparing gun owners to the civil rights icon Rosa Parks. In an interview with WorldNetDaily, Nugent said, “There will come a time when the gun owners of America, the law-abiding gun owners of America, will be the Rosa Parks and we will sit down on the front seat of the bus, case closed.” Rosa Parks became known as the “first lady of civil rights” and “mother of the freedom movement” after she refused to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Al., in 1955—a nonviolent act of protest against segregation after centuries of oppression. Nugent invoked Parks’ name in response to a question about gun confiscation plans allegedly being concocted by the White House gun violence task force. Only one elected official, a Democratic lawmaker in Iowa, has actually proposed such a plan, but that hasn’t stopped the right from suggesting the White House has plans to confiscate guns from law-abiding owners. Nugent openly pontificated on the right-wing rumor of federally-mandated gun seizure. suggesting that “the heroes of the law enforcement” would rise up against it. “I do believe that there are enough soulless sheep within our government who would act on such an illegal order, but I believe the powers that be at the local, state, and regional law enforcement would halt such an illegal, anti-American order,” he said. The gun-loving hunter also took on the media for its reaction to the Newtown school shooting. “The media and the government is hell-bent on convincing that water is dry and we should all reconsider our conclusions about the dampness of H20,” he said. “These people are out of their cotton-picking minds, and they scare Americans who are committed to logic, truth and common-sense, and real solutions instead of the insanity that I witness from our government and media.” Nugent has had more than his share of harsh words for President Obama dating back to his days as a Senator. Last year Nugent said if the president were re-elected he would “either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” He’s also suggested that the president should be thrown in jail. What an insult to Mrs. Parks name…SMH. Images via tumblr
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn. massacre, the national conversation has included no lack of conjecture that the media we consume is to blame for the violence. Most famously, NRA second-in-command Wayne Lapierre’s Dec. 21 speech in Washington, D.C. featured a lengthy segment in which he pointed the finger at video games and movies and singled out a number of decades-old films as particularly culpable. Lapierre was roundly mocked for his tone-deaf diatribe, but he was hardly unique. Numerous public figures on the right and left have gone out of their way to make certain we spend more time talking about Quentin Tarantino and Natural Born Killers than about access to assault weapons. Is all this talk of violent media having an effect on the public at large? A poll conducted by The Hollywood Reporter suggests that it is., but only barely. The survey, conducted with pollster Penn Shoen Berland, asked “consumers of movies and television” how their opinions regarding violent media had been affected by the Sandy Hook shootings. The findings are inconsistent, but they reveal interesting information about the mind of film and TV fans. Among them: * 60 percent of respondents still believe mental illness is the primary cause of mass killings. * 44 percent of parents polled said that the shootings made them “more aware” of how much violence is in the media their kids enjoy. * 46 percent of all respondents felt Hollywood should make fewer violent movies. When only parents are considered, the number jumps to 54%. * Women were more than twice as likely as men to call for fewer violent films. * Only 6 percent of respondents said they want more violent films to be produced. * 70 percent of respondents older than age 30 — a category so broad as to almost feel unquantifiable — feel there is too much violence in advertising for film and TV. * Despite that get-off-my-lawn attitude, only 34 percent of total respondents said violent advertising should face greater restrictions. * In fact, even parents aren’t grabbing for the pitchforks. Only 34 percent of parents polled believe it’s the job of the president and Congress to pressure Hollywood to change advertising. In fact, 75 percent of all respondents believe the opposite. * Not surprisingly, political affiliation matters: 68 percent of liberals held the NRA more responsible than the media; 74 percent of conservatives blamed the media over the NRA. It’s important to note that methodology, sample size, and demographics are not revealed in the report. (At least not in the online version.) It’s entirely possible the respondents are all Nielsen families in a rush to get back to watching Hawaii Five-0 . It also should be considered that responses to polls taken in the immediate aftermath of a significant tragedy might not reflect a permanent, or even accurate, change in mood. With the massive outpouring of public grief, not to mention the very real terror people tend to feel about such events, there is essentially a massive amount of peer pressure placed on people to respond in the ‘correct’ way. Note that a similar phenomenon is seen in polls of American church attendance ; people report much higher levels of religiosity than their behavior suggests. We should therefore expect that responses to these questions include at least a few people saying what they think they’re supposed to say, rather than what they actually believe. What’s interesting is that despite the number of poll respondents who have concluded that something needs to be done about violence in the media as a result of Sandy Hook, the results do not show a corresponding desire for censorship. In fact, they show the opposite: instead of blaming film and video games for mass murders the way rock music was blamed for suicides and Satanism in the 1980s, the poll suggests that your average citizen actually wants to deal with the real roots of the problem. Unfortunately,that’s not happening. Nearly three weeks after the shootings, we have yet to see a single proposal to address gun violence. We haven’t even seen a real proposal of any kind from the national government (unless you count the demand for yet another study on the effects of video-game violence.). The only concrete action we’ve seen? A community near Newtown has established a buyback program… for violent video games . President Obama said, in his statement on Sandy Hook, that “we can’t tolerate this anymore.” And he’s right. But until we identify what it is we’re not supposed to tolerate, we’re stuck, and so far it looks like the conversation is successfully being misdirected away from guns and toward popular culture. I don’t need a poll to tell me that’s a bad sign. [ The Hollywood Reporter ] Ross Lincoln is a LA-based freelance writer from Oklahoma with an unhealthy obsession with comics, movies, video games, ancient history, Gore Vidal, and wine. Follow Ross Lincoln on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
It’s about cotdayum time ! Via The Daily Mail … With just three hours to go before the start of 2013, the White House and congressional Republicans have struck a deal to avoid falling over the looming fiscal cliff. These officials said a New Year’s Eve vote in the Senate to ratify the deal was possible later in the evening, barring opposition from majority Democrats. There was no immediate confirmation from aides to the top Republicans in Congress, Sen Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner. The measure would extend Bush-era tax cuts for family incomes below $450,000 and briefly avert across-the-board spending cuts set to strike the Pentagon and domestic agencies this week, according to a Democratic aide. Vice President Joe Biden was set to sell the agreement to Senate Democrats at a meeting at the Capitol on Monday night. The aide required anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. A White House source told Reuters that Democratic leaders Sen Harry Reid and Rep Nancy Pelosi have signed off on the deal. Earlier in the day, President Obama announced that a deal to avert billions of dollars of tax increases that will kick in at midnight is ‘within sight, but it’s not done yet.’ He lamented that he and Congress were unable to reach a ‘grand deal’ to tackle the debt and reform the tax code – but said he would settle for a plan to stop taxes from going up on all but the richest Americans. ‘Our most immediate priority is to prevent taxes from going up on middle class families tomorrow. I think that is a modest goal we can accomplish,’ he said. Think this is going to help our pockets in 2013?? Images via facebook
Despite a unique set of circumstances that made the idea feasible and rumors of his political ambitions, Ben Affleck will not be running for U.S. Senate. “I love Massachusetts and our political process, but I am not running for office,” the Argo director wrote on his Facebook page Monday, December 24. “We are about to get a great U.S. Secretary of State and there are some phenomenal candidates in Massachusetts for his Senate seat,” he added. “I look forward to an amazing campaign.” “Right now it’s a privilege to spend my time working with Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI), supporting our veterans, drawing attention to the great many who go hungry in the U.S. every single day and using filmmaking to entertain and foster discussion about issues like our relationship to Iran.” Rumors ran wild last week that Affleck would run for U.S. Senate in his native Massachusetts, replacing soon-to-be Secretary of State John Kerry. Hillary Clinton, currently the head of the U.S. State Department, made it clear she’d step down as soon as President Obama’s replacement is sworn in. A special election will be held in 2013 to fill Kerry’s seat in Congress’ upper chamber. During an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation last week, the actor-director played coy about the possibility he could throw his hat into the wide-open ring. “Well, one never knows,” he said. “I do have a great fondness and admiration for the political process, but I’m not going to get into speculation about my political future.” The husband of Jennifer Garner and father of three joked, “I’ve got a lot on my plate.”
Following a press conference in which the NRA lobbied for guns in school , organization president Wayne LaPierre appeared today on Meet the Press and defended his group’s position. “If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre told David Gregory, challenging the host by adding: “Most of the media, they’re protected by armed guards.” Wayne LaPierre on Meet the Press When asked if there was any gun legislation he would support, LaPierre refused to answer. Later on the show, Senator Chuck Schumer said LaPierre’s position is “so extreme and so tone-deaf, he actually helps the cause [of gun control]… He is so doctrinaire and so adamant, I think many gun owners don’t support him.” This issue, of course, is at the forefront of the country after Adam Lanza killed 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School just over a week ago. Congress is allegedly working on an assault weapons ban , while President Obama and Vice President Biden appear dedicated to the passing some kind of major legislation. Would you be behind it? Do you support a change in the gun control laws? YES. Fewer guns, fewer tragedies! NO. It’s unconstitutional and won’t stop anything! View Poll »
No love for thy neighbor? Florida Man Beats His Neighbor To Death With A Hammer A Tampa Bay man is in police custody after he allegedly snuck up on his neighbor and delivered a fatal beating inside their trailer park with a hammer. via Fox News A Tampa-Bay area man who authorities say attacked his neighbor with a hammer has been charged with second degree murder with a weapon. A Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office press release says 28-year-old Jarrett Kyle Brooks was booked into jail late Saturday. Authorities say Brooks approached Jonathan Acree from behind at a Thonotosassa trailer park, striking him in the head and neck multiple times with a hammer. Acree was pronounced dead at the hospital. The sheriff’s office SWAT team was called to the home where Brooks was barricaded. Authorities say he surrendered after tear gas was shot into the mobile home. There was no one else in the trailer. Investigators have not released a motive for the attack. A hammer?? What a horrible way to die…smh. Image via Shutterstock
