Loretta Lynch could become the first black woman to serve as Attorney General of the United States if the Senate approves President Obama’s nomination.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s new book, “Off the Sidelines,” brings sexism in the senate to the forefront with works like porky, baby and chubby being thrown around, you’d think this was the 1980s.
Cory Booker, the charismatic mayor of Newark, is now a member of the U.S. Senate from New Jersey after winning a special election on Wednesday. The Democrat, heavily favored in polls, defeated conservative Republican Steve Lonegan. Booker had an 11-point lead with the vote 90 percent counted. Booker, 44, spoke to supporters in Newark and thanked them for turning out to vote against the backdrop of the 16-day government shutdown . “You didn’t just vote, you believed that your vote and choice mattered,” he said. “It would have been easy to listen to this frustrating negativity and stay home.” “But here in New Jersey, more than a million people rejected cynicism and came out on a Wednesday, in the middle of October, to fight the cynicism.” Booker is the first black U.S. Senator from New Jersey and joins Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina as the nation’s only two black U.S. senators. He will fill the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who died in June at age 89. Booker had planned to run for this seat in 2014. Lautenberg’s passing prompted a special election, however, and Gov. Chris Christie, who is running for re-election now, set the October 16 date. Christie, like Booker a possible White House contender in 2016 or down the road, could have scheduled the Senate race for Election Day, November 5. Democrats said was avoiding being on the ballot with Booker, who could attract Democratic turnout. He said he wanted to fill the Senate vacancy ASAP. Booker, a Rhodes scholar and Yale Law School graduate, rocketed to fame in the state’s largest city, which has long struggled with poverty and crime. Booker is known to rub shoulders with celebrities and is a near-constant presence on Twitter, where he recently befriended stripper Lynsie Lee . Newark received a $100 million gift to its schools from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who said he had met Booker and was impressed by his plans. A bachelor, Booker has long been rumored as a future presidential candidate. Whether that happens or not, he’s one step closer to it being possible now.
The Jonas Brothers are handsome, well-dressed, good dancers and solid singers. But that doesn’t mean Nick, Kevin and Joe make like Michelle Rodriguez . They only swing one way, the boy band members tell the latest issue of Out . “We have a lot of gay friends and gay fans. It’s a boy band stereotype; people assume, but we don’t take offense,” Joe tells the publication of the chatter, while Nick adds: “Prior to us being a band, I was a super theater geek. I loved theater and I still do, and I care about fashion, and I care about a lot of things that I feel like stereotypes are attached to.” The siblings are touch on something even more controversial than their sexuality: Miley Cyrus and her recent raunchy antics. Asked about the singer’s infamous VMA routine , Joe admitted: “It wasn’t my favorite performance of hers. I think that there’s one way of saying you’ve grown up, and there’s another way – I think that’s her way.” Still… Cyrus has a number-one single. Her album is expected to sit atop the charts when it goes on sale next week. “She’s smart,” Nick says of his ex-girlfriend. “She’s very smart. We’ve always known that about her. She’ll always be successful. [The performance] was funny – I was laughing.” As for their own upcoming album? Kevin hopes people will keep their minds open: “We have a lot of people hearing new stuff, and maybe they have had misconceptions in the past of who we are as a band. At the end of the day, I think people are surprised to know that we’re a rock band at our core.”
The first government shutdown in 17 years, which is in effect as of this morning, has people everywhere pointing fingers and/or scratching their heads. In a nutshell, the federal government is closed after Congress could not reach an agreement on the funding to keep it running past September 30. The GOP-controlled House passed a short-term funding bill conditional upon a repeal of a medical device tax and a one-year delay in the implementation of Obamacare. Clever way to block policy labeled as toxic since it passed in 2010? Pointless, desperate political gambit? All depends who you ask. The Democratic-controlled Senate and President Barack Obama weren’t having any of it, and with both sides at an impasse and no end in sight, here we are. Government Shutdown Mocked Around the World Will Republicans’ hard-line approach resonate with Americans? Will it have consequences – either good or bad – for the GOP in future elections? That’s for the pundits to speculate on right now, but the Republican House majority does not see itself as at fault (unlike the New York Daily News cover above). Rather, they say Obama and the Senate Democrats brought this upon America because of their failure to negotiate or listen to what the people clearly want. Or so they claim. Either way, it’s little surprise that blame is being cast on both sides and the jokes are flying freely throughout the nation and world at this debacle. Talk to THG: What do you think of the government shutdown? Love it! Suck it Obamacare! Hate it! It’s both pointless and harmful! Wait … what’s going on? Is Breaking Bad really over? View Poll »
This is ridiculous. Legislation Attacks Abortion According to Raw Story Legislation to ban Islamic law in North Carolina now also contains a number of anti-abortion measures, potentially closing all but one abortion clinic in the state. “This attempted sneak attack on women’s reproductive rights is absolutely shameful,” Sarah Preston of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina said Tuesday. “Issues as vital and personal as access to comprehensive health care and doctor-patient relationships deserve to be debated in an open, public process – not hastily pushed through without notice and under the cover of night during a holiday week.” House Bill 695 originally sought to prohibit courts from using Sharia and other foreign laws in family law proceedings. The North Carolina Senate Judiciary committee on Tuesday unexpectedly tacked on six anti-abortion measures late in the afternoon and sent the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) said she was “appalled” by Republicans’ attempt to use “procedural tricks” to ram the anti-abortion measures through the state Senate. The legislation would now allow any health care provider to opt out of providing abortion-related services, prohibit health plans offered through federal health care exchanges from offering abortion coverage, outlaw sex-selection abortions, require doctors to stay in the room during the entire abortion procedure, force abortion clinics to obtain patient-transfer agreements with local hospitals, and mandate that abortion clinics meet the same stringent standards as outpatient surgical centers. “These loathsome restrictions and the deceitful method through which the Senate tried to pass them are an obvious effort to not simply prevent women in North Carolina from having comprehensive access to much-needed health care, but to not even give them an opportunity to weigh in on legislation that will have wide-ranging impacts on women and doctors all across our state,” Preston added. Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Morganton) told the News & Observer that abortion clinics should be regulated the same way as surgical centers. Just one clinic in the state currently meets that standard, which includes regulations on corridor widths and room sizes, among many others. “The politicians who responsible for this backdoor maneuvering have taken seriously the rising tide of activists gathering weekly outside the General Assembly to oppose anti-choice legislation. Unfortunately, the lesson they’ve taken is that the best way to accomplish their goals is to hide their maneuvers from the public,” said Suzanne Buckley of NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina. Do you think closing the majority of abortion facilities will force women to seek extreme ways to get rid of unwanted children? Continue reading →
Kendra Spears is engaged to a prince and will soon become royalty. But Beyonce already is royalty and – according to a report in The Daily Star – she therefore has a few demands while performing the Mrs. Carter Show abroad. A source tells that publication that Beyonce is “extremely regimented and is taking everything extremely seriously, so she expects her list of demands to be adhered to.” Among those alleged demands: No junk food. Her crew can only wear clothes made 100% from cotton. The use of titanium straws to drink a special alkaline water served at exactly 21 degrees. Red toilet paper. Freshly painted white walls in her dressing room. Also, a new toilet seat. The salad bar must only be comprised of green items. Beyonce is performing this week in London at the famous O2 Arena. Hence, London residents, why there is a lack of red toilet paper at your local convenience store.
Considered by many to be a rising conservative star after just a few months in the Senate, Ted Cruz (R-TX) is reportedly mulling a presidential bid. Friends of the senator say that he’s been listening to enthusiastic supporters and discussing the 2016 election and a possible campaign with associates. “We all see a path, and he does, too,” one former colleague said. While he’s new to the U.S. Senate, by 2015 he will have spent as much time there as the current President did before launching his White House campaign. Also, in a wide open field against Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul (potentially, among other), there’s no clear favorite standing in his way. In a statement, Cruz said his focus was on electing conservatives in 2014 and defending liberty, calling the 2016 buzz ”a continued source of amazement.” “The simple fact that I am working hard with like-minded Senators to keep my promise [should not be] seen as newsworthy or cause for wild speculation.” Fun fact: Ted Cruz, 42, was born in Canada! Scholars generally agree that he can run because his mother was a natural-born U.S. citizen. His father, a Cuban immigrant, is a naturalized citizen.
This guy isn’t scared of nothin’! Via Politico … House Speaker John Boehner couldn’t hold back when he spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last Friday. It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal. “Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present. Reid, a bit startled, replied: “What are you talking about?” Boehner repeated: “Go f— yourself.” The harsh exchange just a few steps from the Oval Office — which Boehner later bragged about to fellow Republicans — was only one episode in nearly two months of high-stakes negotiations laced with distrust, miscommunication, false starts and yelling matches as Washington struggled to ward off $500 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts. The White House and Congress knew of the self-imposed deadline for more than 17 months and they still blew past it, as a president fresh off a strong reelection victory tested — and ultimately broke — the Republican Party’s fidelity to its tax-cuts-only governing philosophy. It took a late intervention of two Senate veterans — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Joe Biden — to rescue the negotiations. Their relationship, forged over two decades on Capitol Hill, helped move Congress to a resolution because it wasn’t burdened by the raw political conflicts of the past and the legislative fights still to come. But even those longtime Washington hands couldn’t prevent a New Year’s Day drama in the House. Boehner weathered a revolt against the bill, which played out during two meetings in the Capitol basement in which his fellow GOP lawmakers lashed out at having to accept the measure without spending cuts. After hours of uncertainty — even insults against “sleep-deprived octogenarians” from the Senate who passed the bill in the dead of night — the House gave final approval to the deal, 257-167. It was carried by 172 Democrats and 85 Republicans. And it exposed another split: Boehner voted yes, but his top deputies, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California, voted no. We don’t think anyone’s too happy with the ‘deal’ these fools made…SMH. Images via facebook
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