Tag: Film

Jamie Foxx: Secret Feminist

Trish

It’s hard to know what to think about Jamie Foxx. First he releases the song, “Blame It” which seems a cautionary tale to women about the effects of alcohol, an unusual subject for hip hop. The video, of course, is mostly getting press not for its content but for the star-studded and in some cases unlikely cameos. Ron Howard? I’m just sayin’.

Still, the song has a message.

Girl what you drinkin, go on let it sink in…
I was unaware how fine you was before my buzz set in

Now there’s this interview.

Foxx tells “Entertainment Tonight” that when he was on the Philadelphia-area set of his new flick, “Law Abiding Citizen,” last week, he was shocked to hear how local women discussed their experiences with domestic violence on a radio talk show about Chris Brown’s disastrous relationship with Rihanna.

“It was disturbing because a lot of the women were like, ‘Maybe I did deserve it, maybe I did bring this on myself,’ ” said the Oscar winner.

“I want to say to all the women in Philly … that’s hurting. No man should ever put their hands on you.”

Who knew Jamie Foxx was such an enlightened advocate for women? Now could someone please get Rhianna on the phone? I think Jamie Foxx needs to have a talk with her.

So-Called Liberal Media Skews Obama Approval Ratings…Downward

Trish

That pesky liberal media is at it again. Here’s the headline from CNN:

68% Give Obama Speech a Thumbs-Up

Hmmm…so if 68 percent liked it, then I guess 32 percent didn’t, right? Wrong. Actually, almost everyone liked it.

Sixty-eight percent of speech-watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey had a very positive reaction, with 24 percent indicating that they had a somewhat positive response and 8 percent indicating that they had a negative reaction.

Hold on, 68 percent were very positive, while another 24 percent were somewhat positive? So 92 percent were positive? But the headline says only 68 percent gave the speech a “thumbs-up.”

In fact, only 8 percent gave it a thumbs-down. But wait, there’s more.

Eighty-five percent of those polled said the president’s speech made them more optimistic about the direction the country is headed in over the next few years, with 11 percent indicating that the speech made them more pessimistic.

Eighty-two percent of speech-watchers say they support the economic plan Obama outlined in his prime-time address, with 17 percent opposing the proposal.

Yes, 85 percent said the speech made them feel more optimistic and 82 percent say they support it. And yet, we were told that only 68 percent give it a “thumbs-up.”

If that was the liberal media, I guess we can expect this headline from FOX:

Just Over Half of Americans Like Obama Plan

Bill Introduced to Legalize – and Tax – California’s $14 Bil Marijuana Industry

Jon Ponder

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, introduced common-sense legislation this week that could add $1 billion in revenue to the California treasury each year. The bill would de-criminalize the cultivation, distribution and selling of marijuana, and tax sales at $50 per ounce:

The black market for marijuana produces nearly twice the revenue of
California’s next biggest crops, vegetables and grapes — combined.

Ammiano says [taxing pot] save the state money in other ways.

“It would relate to saving a lot of money on law enforcement, on incarceration. It would also help the environment because as you know, rogue plantations of marijuana are not exactly eco-friendly,” said Ammiano Monday.

The federal government might not be inclined to go along if this passes at the state level. That alone is a huge “if.” In the past the feds have said growers and sellers would face prosecution if pot was legalized at the state level.

Ammiano says data indicate that 100 million Americans have smoked pot, which could mean there’s more support for de-criminalizing marijuana than people think.

In 1996, Proposition 215 legalized the use of marijuana for medical use in California, passing by by 1 million votes — 55 percent (5.3 million) to 44 percent (4.3 million).

The black market for marijuana produces nearly twice the revenue of
California’s next biggest crops — combined:

[…]

GOP Gov to Unemployed South Carolinians: Let Them Eat My Prayers

Jon Ponder

It may be apocryphal, but during the 18th century famines that led to the violent overthrow of the monarchy — and mass beheadings of the royalty — in the French Revolution, upon being told that the people were starving and had no bread, a noblewoman replied, “Let them eat cake.”

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), who is reportedly running for president in 2009, has indicated he may refuse federal stimulus money, including extensions of unemployment insurance, despite the fact that South Carolina, one of the poorest and most backward states, has the fourth highest unemployment rates in the nation.

Sanford channeled his inner aristocrat on a C-SPAN call-in show yesterday, when he took a call from one of his constituents:

CALLER: I hope you all are not playing politics with this. People in South Carolina are hurting. You know how unemployment rates are high right now and going up higher. We are running out of money in the unemployment bank … we need money for that, the people that need help. And I’m one of them, I can’t get no help. […]

SANFORD: Well I’d say hello to Charleston because its home and I’d say hello to this fellow this morning and say that my prayers are going to be with him and his family because it sounds like he is in an awfully tough spot.

Like the rest of his party, Gov. Sanford had no alternative plan to offer the caller — not even cake — just prayers.

Signs of Hatred: Westboro Baptist Hate Group Protest at Oscars

Jon Ponder

In accepting his Oscar for Best Actor last night, “Milk” star Sean Penn said, “For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, and, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that way of support.”

The “signs of hatred” he referred to were held by protesters from a Kansas-based hate group that calls itself the Westboro Baptist Church, and that is infamous for its “God Hates Fags” signs and for staging ugly protests at the funerals of U.S. military servicemembers.

I found the photo over the protests above at LAist. It was taken on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue (that’s Hollywood High in the background), on the limo route about four blocks south of the Oscar venue. There are more photos of the protests in LAist’s Flickr account.

On a side note, on Feb. 19, the British government refused to allow Fred Phelps, the Westboro hate group’s leader, entry into the country on grounds he worked to incite hatred. Phelps had intended to lead a protest outside a production of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the murder of Matthew Shepard, who was killed because he was gay.

H/t: Trish

Sean Penn on Oscar Telecast: Prop 8 Supporters Will Face Shame

Jon Ponder

Sean Penn accepting the Oscar for his portrayal of Harvey Milk:

You Commie homo-loving sons of guns! I did not expect this, but I — and I want to be very clear that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me. Often. But I — I am touched by the appreciation and I hoped for it enough that I scribbled down — so I have the names in case you were Commie homo-loving suns of guns. And so I, I wanted you to thank my best friend Sato Masuzawa. My circle of longtime support, Mara, Brian, Barry and Bob. The great Cleve Jones. Our wonderful writer, Lance Black. Producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks. And particularly, as all us actors know, our director either has the patience, talent and restraint to grant us a voice, or they don’t, and it goes from the beginning of the meeting to through the cutting room, and there is no finer hands to be in than Gus Van Sant.

Finally, for those — two last finallys — For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, and, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that way of support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.

Lance Black accepting the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for “Milk” last night:

[…]

In Nation’s Largest County, 20% – 2.2 Mil – Now Receiving Public Assistance

Jon Ponder

The Bush economy lives on for the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County:

One in five Los Angeles County residents — nearly 2.2 million people — are receiving public assistance payments or benefits, a level county officials say will rise significantly over the coming months as the fallout from the recession continues.

The percentage of people on county aid already equals the figure at the height of the 2001-03 recession and far exceeds the one in seven who needed help during the economic downturn in the early 1990s and the one in nine assisted in the collapse of the early 1980s.

Unemployment stands at 9.5 percent, which means that one in 10 county residents are out of work. This is about the same level the county experienced during the first Bush recession in the early 1990s.

Recession Watch: 14,000 Americans a Day Are Losing Health Insurance

Jon Ponder

Layoffs are causing as many as 14,000 people to lose their health insurance every day, according to projections by the Center for American Progress and based on Urban Institute research:

Private companies — the health plans — have had at least since 1993 when they killed Hillarycare to come up with a solution. It’s been 16 years. Not only have they not solved the crisis, it is getting worse by the minute.

The data [showed that] a 1 percentage point rise in the national unemployment rate causes 2.4 million people to lose employer-sponsored health coverage.

Of these, the think tank said, 1 million people turn to Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and 1.1 million end up uninsured.

Data released on Thursday showed U.S. jobless numbers rose to a record high in early February of 4.99 million people, an unemployment rate of 3.7 percent.

The percentage of these uninsured people who will be forced into bankruptcy and maybe homelessness because they can’t pay their medical bills is unknown.

The antiquated, employer-based system, which is unique to the United States, imperils the health and well-being of over 47 million of us today. And while the system collapses beneath us, the health plans remain enormously profitable, and they will spend whatever it takes to protect the status quo and thus their profits.

In 1993, the health plans spent a reported $1 billion to kill the Clinton health insurance reforms. They bought the “Harry and Louise” ads, as well as a lot of Republican influence and fear-mongering spin. Scrapping the current system for the sort of government-based insurance every other country on earth, we were told is “socialism” — a word the GOP has been scarifying since the McCarthy era.

Think about it. You were probably educated in a “socialized” school system here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. Wherever you live today, you undoubtedly are served by “socialized” police and fire departments. On the other hand, if you’ve ever had to deal with health-insurance company bureaucracy, ask yourself — how much scarier could it be if Humana and Blue Cross were nationalized?

Despite ever-mounting evidence to the contrary, Republicans still like to say that the private sector is better at solving problems than the government. In this case, private companies — the health plans — have had at least since 1993 when they killed Hillarycare to come up with a solution.

It’s been 16 years. Not only have they not solved the crisis, it is getting worse by the minute. Maybe it’s time for them to get out of the way.

Republicans Rewrite the Tale of the Little Red Hen

Trish
Red Hen Republicans?

Once upon a time there lived a man in a big white house. He looked outside one day and saw many, many people suffering. “Hey everybody,” he said, “people are suffering and things are going to get worse fast. Who wants to help me write a stimulus bill?”

So Democrats and Republicans started putting together a stimulus bill but there was trouble almost immediately. “We don’t want to help everyone,” Republicans said, “we just want to give more tax breaks to our rich friends even if it wrecks the economy once and for all.”

Their leader, Michael Steele, even complained that Democrats don’t know how to create wealth. He was right that the best way to make some people rich is to let the people with the most money keep it all and borrow from others to pay for wars and private contractors and new bureaucracies that Republicans invent and give names like Homeland Security. That really does create wealth, just not for everyone.

So the Democrats pitched in to write the legislation and then the man in the big white house asked, “Who will help me pass the stimulus bill?”

Again, Republicans refused.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said, “…our efforts continue to keep the measure from being a spending free-for-all…Having been disappointed with both bailout measures, I believe my vote in opposition was appropriate.”

Democrats passed the package anyway, and the man in the big white house signed it and said, “Who will help me spend the money in the stimulus bill?”

Mica elbowed up to the front of the line.

“The timing couldn’t be better,” Mica said in a joint statement with [Democratic Florida Rep. Corrine] Brown, regarding $750 million in transportation funding in the bill, some of which is likely headed for the [Central Florida Commuter] Rail project.

“I applaud President Obama’s recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America’s future,” Mica said in a separate statement.

And so, the man in the big white house worked very hard to get a bill to help the people, and even though the Republicans didn’t help him, he shared the money in the stimulus package with them anyway.

“He’s a socialist,” the Republicans said. “Why, he’s practically red.”

Homeless Woman Handed the Mic at Obama Meeting

Trish

The extraordinary thing about this clip from Obama’s recent town hall in Florida is not his reaction to a homeless woman who wants, not a car or a park, but a kitchen and a bathroom for her family. No, the extraordinary thing is the fact that she was allowed in the room. Can you imagine someone like this being at a George W. Bush or John McCain or Sarah Palin — or any other Republican — event? And being on the front row? Could not happen.

Big ol’ h/t to Steve Schale.