GOP Senator Blasts Republican Party For Voter Suppression Practices The Republican party has long been engaging in voter suppression antics to keep minority and democratic voters in general from the polls and now one of their own is calling them out on their bullisht. Think Progress As his own party pushed through the Wisconsin Senate the latest in a series of measures to make it harder to vote in the state, Sen. Dale Schultz (R) blasted the efforts as “trying to suppress the vote” last week. Schultz, who is not seeking re-election and was the lone Republican to oppose a bill last week to limit the hours of early voting in every jurisdiction in the state, was a guest on The Devil’s Advocates radio program on Madison’s 92.1 FM last Wednesday. Asked why his party pushed the bill, Schultz responded, “I am not willing to defend them anymore. I’m just not and I’m embarrassed by this.” Schultz argued that this and dozens of similar bills before the Senate this were based on “mythology” that voter fraud is a serious concern: “I began this session thinking that there was some lack of faith in our voting process and we maybe needed to address it. But I have come to the conclusion that this is far less noble.” Noting that Republican President Dwight Eisenhower championed the 1957 civil rights law, Schultz said that he could not “find any real reason” for his party’s effort to make it harder to vote: SCHULTZ: It’s just, I think, sad when a political party — my political party — has so lost faith in its ideas that it’s pouring all of its energy into election mechanics. And again, I’m a guy who understands and appreciates what we should be doing in order to make sure every vote counts, every vote is legitimate. But that fact is, it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud. The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted. And that we should be pitching as political parties our ideas for improving things in the future, rather than mucking around in the mechanics and making it more confrontational at the voting sites and trying to suppress the vote. Schultz added that the suppression was “just plain wrong,” adding, “It is all predicated on some belief there is a massive fraud or irregularities, something my colleagues have been hot on the trail for three years and have failed miserably at demonstrating.” The GOP-controlled Assembly has already passed a similar bill. A 2011 study by the non-partisan Brennan Center found just seven cases of voter fraud in Wisconsin’s 2004 election, out of three million votes cast — a fraud rate of just 0.0002 percent. Can’t deny your shady practices when one of your own calls you out!
Sweet black cat-chasing love Sources Say Queen Latifah Is Ready To Get Married The folks over at RhymesWithSnitch found this floating around the new Star Magazine , no tellin’ how legit it is, but it’s definitely plausible. After officiating 33 weddings for gay and straight couples during the Grammy Awards on Jan. 26, Queen Latifah has caught the marriage bug! The talk show host is so happy in her long-term relationship with girlfriend Eboni Nichols that she’s considering tying the knot very soon. The talk show host, 43, has been fiercely protective of her private life and has never confirmed her sexuality to the public, but those closest to her are revealing she’s ready to be more open. The couple were even spotted at L.A.’s Catalina Bar & Grill on Jan. 19, looking closer than ever. “They’re completely in love,” spills a friend. Might as well, all the other recently legalized gay couples are doin’ it. Image via FameFlynet
Damn shame….. Aunt Of Newborn Who Went Missing Identified As Kidnapper Police have identified the suspect in the recent kidnapping of a 6-day-old baby, who was thankfully found alive yesterday , as the step-sister of the child’s mother. via Fox News An hour after a woman reported her newborn son missing from a Wisconsin home, police were questioning her step-sister — found with a prosthetic pregnancy belly, baby clothes and a stroller, but no baby, according to court documents. It was more than 24 hours after Kayden Powell went missing before authorities discovered the infant, less than a week old, in a plastic storage crate outside an Iowa gas station, miraculously alive and well despite frigid temperatures. Kristen Smith of Denver had pretended to be pregnant, went to Wisconsin and stole her step-sister’s baby from his bassinet as his parents slept, court documents say. Then, as police closed in on her, she allegedly abandoned the infant, who was swaddled in blankets. Federal prosecutors in Madison charged Smith with kidnapping Friday afternoon, hours after an Iowa police chief found Kayden. The discovery of the infant shortly after 10 a.m. Friday capped a frantic search that involved police officers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. “I had tears in my eyes,” BP station manager Jay Patel said, recalling his reaction to the police chief telling him that the infant had been found. “It’s good news, but it’s sad, too.” The baby was taken to an Iowa City hospital, where he was reunited with his parents and released Friday evening. Lock her azz up and throw away the key!
Paul Ryan talked extensively about budget cuts in last night’s V.P. debate . Now the Wisconsin Congressman’s showing how cut he is in Time! Mitt Romney’s running mate, 42, not only held his own against Joe Biden in the political ring, he looks like he could go 12 rounds in another ring right now. Rocking a backwards baseball cap (red, obviously), a tight t-shirt and his trademark grin, the possible future U.S. vice president is one cool (and ripped) dude. Politics aside, Paul and Janna Ryan make one good-looking, fit couple. Let’s see if Biden’s smiling ear-to-ear after a push-up contest with this guy! Tell us: Who won last night’s debate? Biden Ryan View Poll » Who are you voting for next month? Obama-Biden Romney-Ryan View Poll »
Michael Jackson’s kids Paris, Prince and Blanket threw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game in Gary, Ind., along with MJ’s sister La Toya. The King of Pop’s three children made the trip to their father’s hometown on Thursday to celebrate what would have been Michael Jackson’s 54th birthday . Prince Michael, 15, Blanket, 10, and Paris Jackson , 14, each took the mound to kick off the Gary Southshore Railcats baseball game. Check it out:
Deneeta Pope, the African-American ex-girlfriend of Republican V.P. nominee Paul Ryan, wants nothing to do with the upcoming Presidential election. She’s also a Barack Obama supporter , though she wishes Ryan well. Ryan mentioned in an interview years ago that he’s experienced racism in part because he has a black sister-in-law as well as a black ex-girlfriend. This came up again recently after some of Ryan’s policies have been criticized – fairly or otherwise – as detrimental to the African-American community. Deneeta Pope has since been ID’d … and wishes she hadn’t been. Pope said yesterday, a day after Paul Ryan’s acceptance speech at the RNC, “I’m not interested in talking. I don’t know why everyone is calling.” “I’m newly married and would just like to be left alone.” Deneeta did speak briefly on the newly-minted V.P. hopeful, though, telling the Daily Mail that while she remains an ardent Barack Obama backer, she can’t help but cheer for the #2 man on the GOP 2012 ticket at the same time. Pope, 40, said, “I am indeed a Democrat. That’s no secret. But although I have a different political association to Paul, I support him and wish him success.” “Paul is a very nice guy, a kind guy and a family guy.” Daneeta says that she remains in touch with the Wisconsin Congressman; Paul and his wife, Janna Ryan , were even invited to Pope’s wedding in May. Wonder if she has a Paul Ryan shirtless pic or two of her own. Election 2012 :
If the last Presidential race produced a fine docudrama, Game Change , based on the equally fine book, surely this year’s dust-up between the elephant and the donkey is worth dramatizing. Therefore, , submitted for your approval, is Movieline ’s notion of ideal casting and concepts for the 2012 GOP slate, complete with courtiers, financiers and mountebanks. Tentatively, we’re calling it Liar’s Poker . Let’s start at the outer circle of the power nexus and gradually move inward. John Sununu: Newspersons on the convention floor insisted no one was more excited during Wednesday night’s vitriolic Dem-bashing session than the former New Hampshire governor. We’d like to see the corpulent billy goat played by James Gandolfini, with a pursed scowl and a goiterous prosthetic under his chin. Scott Walker: The Wisconsin governor — who escaped being recalled after his campaign to disenfranchise that dangerous enemy, the state’s educators — could only be played by Vincent Kartheiser. The Mad Men actor would need to do it in Pete Campbell mode, perhaps removing what shreds of humanity and judgment Campbell exhibits to show that paradoxical phenomenon, a dead-eyed zealot. Sheldon Adelson: Shortly after Romney announced the ascension to running mate of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan — don’t worry, we’re getting to him — the Wisconsin congressman jetted to Las Vegas to meet with the casino-owning plutocrat, who’s under investigation via the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act. In our movie, Adelson would be represented by a doctored hologram of Goldfinger Bond villain Gert Frobe . Charles Koch: While we’re stacking up shot callers, why not add in what we’ve always supposed was the cuddly Koch brother, played by The Colbert Report namesake and fellow Super PAC maestro Stephen Colbert (after a salt-and-pepper dye job). It could be a recurring role in the sequel — should the GOP win, Koch will be dictating a lot of policy behind the scenes, Nucky Thompson-style. Chris Christie: Speaking of Jersey devils, the Garden State’s governor reminds us oratorically of Broderick Crawford haranguing his fellow hicks in All the King’s Men . But to conjure up Christie’s trademark spasms of sputtering resentment, we’ll have to go with John Goodman in full Walter Sobchak mode from The Big Lebowski . Put him next to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal — is it too ethnocentric to suggest Dev Patel in age makeup as his re-enactor? — and you’ve got both sides of the big and small governor divide covered. Karl Rove: Could a smoke-filled room of Republican strategists be complete without the man Bush 43 — now only to be found on fading posters, milk cartons and brief, flatulent sizzle reels — called “Turd Blossom”? We like the idea of Philip Seymour Hoffman portraying Karl Rove. Paul Ryan: Now, if we’re really serious about licking socialism, about crushing the Ellsworth M. Tooheys and freedom haters, we need the party’s newly minted charismatic, Ryan himself. We need someone in his early 40s with an obviously fit torso, a beady-eyed, intense presence…Tom Cruise? They have the same falcon’s profile, a shared missionary zeal. But Cruise has been there, done that. He played a magnetic, striving Republican presidential wanna-be in the generally unloved Lions for Lambs . Why risk it? So, maybe Zachary Quinto? Smart actor, a screenwriter ( Margin Call ) of in his own right. But can he bring the sexy? Nah. A rehabbed Charlie Sheen? RPatz? Some wags have suggested Zach Woods, who plays the geeky middle manager Gabe on The Office , but again, he doesn’t have the pecs. Good Lord, Crispin Glover? Actually, it’s got to be Jake Gyllenhaal. Remember him in Rendition , telling his bloody-minded boss, Meryl Streep, “This is my first torture”? Jake has the chops to show the inner agonies of Ryan as the ideologue takes a spiritual haircut to bring his thoughts on abortion and even the budget in line with Romney’s non-positions. Dick Cheney: In a Kubrickian touch, we’ll show the Catholic deer hunter (his brag) shooting skeet on the White House lawn with his stooped and stolid Republican predecessor, played by Richard Dreyfuss, natch. Janna Ryan: Watching from nearby with a worried expression will be the 2012 vice presidential candidate’s pretty wife, Janna, who resembles Anne Coulter without the devouring rage and — well, let’s just keep this gentlemanly. Jessica Chastain, a veteran of the mute performance from working with Malick, can stand in. Ann Romney: Of course, there’s the presidential candidate’s wife in a poignant secondary role. Aces at pubic speaking, a courageous warrior against her afflictions, she’s deservedly popular. We like Felicity Huffman, fresh from Desperate Housewives , with some equitation lessons and a big jug of peroxide. Willard “Mitt” Romney: He is, of course, the key casting challenge. Playing the absence of human presence is a feat, and choosing someone who’s merely boring is a dangerous choice. Perhaps Stephen Collins, who’s a canny enough performer (e.g., The Three Stooges ) to make vapidity sing? How do you reveal the soul of a man who seemingly learned his affect from the dead presidents on Mt. Rushmore — a figure described by Chris Matthews after Ann Romney’s speech as “almost a statue of a person…a Conehead who doesn’t seem like an earthling”? Actually, what’s needed is a classic actor’s touch. Perhaps another hologram, deploying Montgomery Clift, just a shade less numbed than the victim of Nazism he played in Judgment at Nuremberg . The Cliftian genius at showing the searching, slightly haunted eyes, the brain-snatched stop-start verbal tics, and the nervous half-smile, has to win the day. Of course, we’ll need Mitt to sign off on that casting; we don’t want to see Clift, even in hologram form, getting summarily fired, as in “I’m going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.” So, there you have it — oh, shoot, we forgot Seamus. Somewhere out there must be a descendant of Nixon’s Irish setter, King Timahoe. Of course, that worthy was coddled around Camp David and the Rose Garden, and the Presidential pooch this time needs to be made of sterner stuff. So don’t bother to propose your dog for the gig unless it has the genes for a long afternoon in the wind. Fred Schruers, a freelance writer living in Los Angeles, has contributed to Rolling Stone, Premiere , the Los Angeles Times , and many other publications. Follow Fred Schruers on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan for Vice President this morning, and apparently thinks very highly of him, as Paul received a promotion within five minutes! Okay, not really, but in introducing the Wisconsin Congressman and rising GOP star to a Norfolk, Va., crowd, Romney finished his remarks with a gaffe: “Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!”
Mitt Romney Chooses Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan As Vice Presidential Running Mate Moneymakin’ Mitt has made his choice for VP running mate and it’s 42-year-old, seven term Congressman from Wisconsin, Paul Ryan: With the political world watching, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney misspoke while introducing his running mate. Romney mistakenly introduced Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan on Saturday as the next president of the United States. Ryan, of course, has been tapped to serve as Romney’s vice presidential nominee. A sheepish Romney puts arms around Ryan and clarified his mistake before Ryan took the microphone. Romney says that he makes a mistake every once in a while. But he says he didn’t make a mistake with his selection of Ryan The ticket made its debut at a naval museum in Norfolk, Va., the initial stop of a bus tour through four battleground states in as many days. The USS Wisconsin, berthed at the museum, was their bunting-draped backdrop, a symbol of the nation’s military strength as well as an obvious reference to Ryan’s home state. First Romney, then Ryan, a generation younger than his patron, jogged down the ship’s gangplank to the cheers of hundreds and the stirring soundtrack from the movie “Air Force One.” As his family came on stage, Ryan knelt to embrace his daughter and two sons before kissing his wife. While word of Ryan’s selection leaked late Friday night and was posted by the campaign to its phone app before the speeches, Obama’s campaign withheld its reaction until the Republicans had spoken. “The architect of the radical Republican House budget, Ryan, like Romney, proposed an additional $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, and deep cuts in education from Head Start to college aid,” Jim Messina, the president’s campaign manager, said in a written statement. “His plan would also end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher system, shifting thousands of dollars in health care costs to seniors,” he said Here’s more about Ryan and his policies: At 42, Ryan is a more than two decades younger than the 65-year-old Romney. His conservative credentials are highly regarded by fellow Republican House members, while numerous polls during the primaries of winter and spring found that Romney’s credentials were suspect among the party’s core supporters. A seven-term congressman, Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee, and primary author of conservative tax and spending blueprints that the tea party-infused Republican majority approved over vociferous Democratic opposition in 2011 and again in 2012. They envision transforming Medicare into a program in which future seniors would receive government checks that they could use to purchase health insurance. Under the current program, the government directly pays doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. Ryan and other supporters say the change is needed to prevent the program from financial calamity. Critics argue it would impose ever-increasing costs on seniors. Other elements of the budget plan would cut projected spending for Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor, as well as food stamps, student loans and other social programs that Obama and Democrats have pledged to defend. Do you think this “middle class” guy from “Wisconsin” can help old Money Mitt out??? Source Source 2 AP Images
