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Courtesy of the Karpel Group, today's Swag Tuesday prize is two tickets to Kylie Minogue's May 4th concert at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom. Tickets to Kylie's North American tour are now on sale via Ticketmaster and the artist's website.
April 28 Montreal Bell CentreEnter to win the tickets by commenting on this post. Only enter once and please remember to leave your email address in the text of your comment. If you cannot be in Manhattan on the day of the concert, your winning entry is transferable to your favorite Kylie fan. Entries close on Thursday at midnight, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.
April 29 Boston, MA Agganis Arena
April 30 Washington DC GMU Patriot Center
May 2 NYC, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
May 3 NYC, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
May 4 NYC, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
May 6 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre
May 7 Fort Lauderdale, FL BankAtlantic Center
May 8 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live Orlando
May 10 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theatre
May 12 Mexico City Sports Palace
May 14 Guadalajara, Mexico Auditorio Telmex
May 16 Monterrey, Mexico Arena
May 18 Dallas, TX Verizon Theatre
May 20 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl
May 21 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Auditorium
May 22 Las Vegas, NV Caesars Palace
Stay out of the comments if you haven't yet seen tonight's episode. Otherwise jump in and dish about the challenge and the elimination.
The younger Barbara Bush has joined her mother in endorsing same-sex marriage. The New York Times comments on the kids of prominent Republicans:
Ms. Bush is the latest child of a prominent Republican leader to embrace same-sex marriage, long considered anathema to the conservative movement. Gay rights advocates have been quick to seize on the generational split as evidence that the acceptance of same-sex marriage is blind to party affiliation and family values. Meghan McCain, the daughter of John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, has become an outspoken supporter of same-sex marriage, despite her father’s opposition to it. And Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has forcefully backed it as well — and is widely credited with helping to persuade her father to do the same. In the case of Mr. McCain, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush, it is not just their children who have supported it. So, to varying degrees, have their wives. Laura Bush, in a television interview in May, said, “When couples are committed to each other and love each other” they should have “the same sort of rights that everyone has.”
Outgoing White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today once again dodged Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson's questions about the president's 1996 position on same-sex marriage. One gets the sense that Gibbs is so ready to be through with this job.
Google has created a work-around for Egyptians cut off from the internet. Via the company's official blog:
Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection. We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet. We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.Nice work, Google.
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January 31st, 2011
04:21 PM ET
Anderson Cooper anchors AC360 live from Egypt tonight
The above video clip is from last night's two hour special from Egypt. Tune in tonight for the latest developments and news. Anderson Cooper 360 airs weeknight at 10pm ET on CNN.
More than half of the nation's AIDS patients who are on waiting lists to get medications are in Florida. Last week Sen. Bill Nelson wrote both the president and Florida Gov. Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott, warning of a catastrophic public health crisis over the lack of ADAP funding. In the below clip, South Florida AIDS activist Mark S. King lays out the situation and what can be done about it.
The right wing loathes those activist judges who are always imposing their agendas on the American people. Except when those judges are GOP appointees and do their bidding.
A federal judge in Florida has struck down the Obama administration's requirement that nearly all Americans buy health insurance, and questioned the constitutionality of the entire health care law. "I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate," wrote U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, the second federal jurist to rule against law that Obama signed last year. Two other judges have sided with the administration on the issue that may well wind up in the Supreme Court. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sakd the decision confirms that "the health spending bill is a massive overreach and Democrats 'exceeded the bounds' of Congressional authority." Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, praised the ruling, saying that "Congress does not have the legal authority to tell Utahns and other Americans that they must buy health insurance or else."It's totally legal and fair to require people to carry auto insurance. But not health insurance, cuz that's totally communist!
Gothamist notes: "One investigator was able to pay cash for a .9 mm semiautomatic even after telling the seller he probably wouldn't pass a background check. Instead of refusing the sale, as required by federal law, the gun peddler pockets the $500 and directs his shady customer toward the tent with the cheap ammunition."
"With the gay left it’s all stick and no carrot. Instead of working to change hearts and minds the angry gay left would rather go on witch hunts. The witch hunts by the professionally outraged gay protestor class may feel good, but I think they are incredibly counter-productive. To most of the world a chicken sandwich is just a chicken sandwich and folks who try to politicize everything usually end up doing more harm to their cause at the end of the day." - GOProud head Chris Barron, who also tweeted "The gay left = the American Taliban. Hateful, angry and dumb as shit."
Yesterday on TNT was the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. These awards are more serious than the Golden Globes, and help determine who would win an Oscar for the upcoming Academy Awards in late February. Many of the winners in the movie category also won their categories for the Golden Globes, so they are most likely going to win an Oscar as well. For a complete list of winners, check out:
http://http://www.sagawards.org/media-pr/press-releases/screen-actors-guild-honors-outstanding-film-and-television-performances-17th
For motion pictures, came big wins for "The King's Speech" and for the individual acting categories, winners that came out on top were Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, and Melissa Leo.
"THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
COLIN FIRTH / King George VI - "THE KING’S SPEECH" (The Weinstein Company)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
NATALIE PORTMAN / Nina Sayers – “BLACK SWAN” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
CHRISTIAN BALE / Dicky Eklund – “THE FIGHTER” (Paramount Pictures and Relativity Media)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
MELISSA LEO / Alice Ward – “THE FIGHTER” (Paramount Pictures and Relativity Media)"
As another awards ceremony ends, how can we forget about the fashion on the red carpet. Yesterday, there was a trend for hot pink (my fashion premonition has come true), along with an emerging trend I see that will appear more which are dresses with print.
Hailee Steinfeld wore a Prada striped dress. I felt it was fresh and very age appropriate for her. The dress was flattering on her young figure with a fitted form on the top and a mermaid flaring at the bottom.
Jennifer Lawrence wore a hot pink number by Oscar de la Renta. This color is so beautiful on any skin type, and the design of the dress was beautiful except the competing black belt with the shoulder straps. Hot pink is the color of now and the future my friends.
Mila Kunis and her Alexander McQueen gown turned heads. The jewel tones, and the floral print on the bottom of the gown looked like a breath of fresh air. She truly looked like a goddess floating on the carpet.
Best dressed for me of the night was newly single Eva Longoria. Despite her rough past couple of months, she looks as stunning as ever in this Georges Hobeika Spring 2011 Couture gown. This low cut dress has a beautiful creme color that draped beautifully on the bottom. The dress was also backless! Very sexy, yet very appropriate for her, go get it Eva!!!
The SAG Awards was a very positive night where actors came together and truly appreciated their craft along with other actors that work in the business-very UPLIFTING, instead of SAG-gy don't you think?
You Just Do You, Imma Do Me
Camille
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Jack Mirkinson is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He is currently working at the Huffington Post.
Anderson Cooper In Egypt: 'Nobody Has Any Answers For What's Going To Happen Here'
First Posted: 01/31/11 -- 03:27 PM Updated: 01/31/11 -- 03:50 PM
"It's a fast-changing situation," the CNN anchor said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "It feels like it changes every few hours."
Cooper has flown into the city to witness the massive popular uprising taking place in defiance of President Hosni Mubarak's government. He spoke to HuffPost from a site near Tahrir Square, which has become the site of huge protests and the focal point for the uprising.
Cooper said he saw more soldiers on the streets on Monday than on Sunday, when he arrived. "They are trying to have a show of force, to show that they are in control of the situation," he said. That meant cutting off certain roads, trying to enforce the widely-ignored curfew a little more, and trying to block people from getting to Tahrir Square.
The people who are protesting "are completely not satisfied" with the steps Mubarak has taken to reform his regime, Cooper said. "They will tell you that. Putting a former intelligence chief in as your vice president, that's not a sign of a president who wants to open up. Nothing short of Mubarak leaving is acceptable."
The Egyptian government has treated journalists with a heavy hand since the uprising began. They have been beaten and arrested, and have seen their equipment confiscated and destroyed. The regime has also cracked down on social media, blocked off most Internet access in the country, and moved to shut down Al Jazeera's Cairo operations.
It is under this backdrop that Cooper flew into Egypt on Sunday. He called the situation a "tricky" one, and noted that his CNN colleague Ben Wedeman had already had a nasty run-in with Egyptian security forces last week.
Exodus International invites you to pray away the gay at their upcoming Phoenix conference where the "ex-lesbian" wife of "ex-gay" former rentboy/drag queen John Paulk will speak. You may remember Paulk from the hilarious incident in which Wayne Besen busted him partying and chatting up menz in a DC gay bar, prompting Paulk to flee the room screaming as he shielded his face from Besen's camera. Whoopsie! Paulk was then forced to confess to Focus On The Family head James Dobson that he'd been in the bar for the purpose of "flirting." That got Paulk booted as chairman of the board of Exodus International. I guess they trust his wife to stay out of Phoenix gay bars.
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AC360: Revolt in Egypt
Posted: January 31st, 2011 -- 09:42 AM ET
Add a comment [to AC360ยบ blog]
Anderson Cooper reports
Pespi is giving away boatloads of money to organizations that have "great ideas" and today is the final day to vote for the Gay & Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), who wants to place Safe Space kits in 10,000 public schools. Right now GLSEN is in third place to win a $250,000 grant for the project. Note: You can vote with your Facebook login and that doesn't appear to place any message on your page. Clickety-click, y'all.
Over the weekend, Sharron Angle shared make-up and hair tips at a Las Vegas beauty show headlined as "An Evening Of Glamour." Yup.
(Via - Alan Colmes)
Five-time Oscar winning film composer John Barry has died at the age of 77. Here's a few of my favorites from his lengthy filmography.
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The foreigners are trying to get OUT of Egypt as soon as they possible can, and the reporters are trying to get IN at any cost... (Huh???)
More Arrivals, More Delays as American Journalists Enter Egypt
By Chris Ariens on January 31, 2011 11:31 AM
CNN’s Anderson Cooper arrived in Cairo yesterday and anchored two hours last night with Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Cooper, who Tweeted Saturday night that he was en route, has not Tweeted since.
CNBC’s Erin Burnett is in Cairo. She reported for NBC Nightly News and as part of a CNBC two-hour live special hosted by Melissa Francis and Tyler Mathisen last night as the global markets opened. Burnett was back on this morning on “Today,” MSNBC and CNBC. NBC’s Lester Holt is en route but is having a difficult time getting in. Kate Snow anchored weekend Nightly News both days.
Geraldo Rivera hosted his Fox News program for two hours Saturday and Sunday nights with reports from FNC Middle East & South Asia Correspondent Dominic Di-Natale.
ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, who hosted “This Week” from Cairo Sunday, was on “Good Morning America” today.
As Walmart ramps up its media blitz against the New York City government, hoping to finally gain a foothold in the nation's largest market, the Stonewall Democrats have issued a statement denouncing the company as homophobic.
"Walmart represents a culture of intolerance and insensitivity towards LGBT employees and issues that is unwelcome in New York. Just last year more than 100 Walmart stores were found to be promoting a children's book that suggested that gay people can overcome “sin” and convert to heterosexuality with the help of counseling. Walmart CEO Mike Duke signed a petition in his home state of Arkansas that was aimed at preventing adoption by gay and lesbian parents. The 2011 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates corporations on LGBT issues, gave Walmart 40%. That failing grade is in marked contrast to other retailers like Macy's and Costco which both received 100%. "Walmart's values are not our values and they are certainly not New York's. Stonewall Democratic Club is committed to building a city that is free from intolerance towards all LGBT people - a city that remains Walmart free."A Walmart spokesperson has denied the charge, saying that the company supports its LGBT employees. Today the company launched its second round of radio and newspaper ads urging the public to fight attempts to keep Walmart out of New York City.
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Added On January 30, 2011
CNN's Anderson Cooper talks to opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei in Liberation Square after his address.
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January 31, 2011
ABC's Amanpour, CNN's Cooper amp up Egypt TV
American TV coverage of the tumult in Egypt entered a new phase Sunday with the arrival of top network and cable anchors on the scene.
The day began for many American viewers with the sight of ABC's Christiane Amanpour on the ground in Cairo as military jets flew overhead and ended with a special two-hour live report on CNN at 9 p.m. anchored in part by Anderson Cooper who was also in Egypt.
I am sure TV insiders and some critics will start yapping soon about "big foot" anchormen and anchorwomen showing up and sucking the oxygen out of the room. Forget it. I thought both telecasts were impressive, and served both viewers and their news organizations well.
Take a look at Amanpour, who has been struggling to find her voice as a Sunday morning public affairs anchor on the third-place "This Week with Christiane Amanpour" back in her correspondent's khaki jacket gathering information, interviewing key figures, and synthesizing all of it at a million miles a minute.
Cooper was equally impressive serving as one leg of the three-part anchoring team that included Wolf Blitzer in Washington and Isha Sesay, of CNN International, in Atlanta. If developments in Egypt continue in the direction they look to be headed, I hope CNN sticks with this team. It is very impressive, and it has the same sense of authority that Amanpour brought to her telecast Sunday -- something both "This Week" and CNN prime-time has been struggling with.
I'll get some video of Cooper's work in Tahir Square up as soon as CNN posts it or sends an embed code my way.
And this needs to be said, that while CNN had two hours of live coverage from Egypt and elsewhere last night, MSNBC was showing "To Catch a Predator" reruns from "Dateline." This is the same MSNBC that was questioning CNN's journalistic judgment last week in its coverage of the State of the Union speech.
One last thing on the Amanpour video, what did you think of her interview with Mohamed ElBaradei? I was impressed, especially with how focused she was in getting him to respond to what the Obama administration has been saying. There is not a shred of doubt after this interview as to how disappointed ElBaradei is in President Obama's response.
"To ask a dictator to implement democracy after 30 years is an oxymoron," ElBaradei says.
Posted by David Zurawik at 5:59 AM
In recent years, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced a House resolution calling for the United States to recognize that it is a "Judeo-Christian nation." Another Forbes resolution called on the federal government to recognize that "the Holy Bible is God's word." Now he wants the feds to acknowledge that "In God We Trust" is the nation's official motto. Which it already is. But Forbes also wants the slogan plastered everywhere, as his resolution demands it appear "in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions." The resolution has 24 House cosponsors, including two Democrats.
(Via - The Friendly Atheist)
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(05:34 min.)
From: MOXNEWSd0tCOM
Added: January 31, 2011
Description: January 31, 2011 CNN
http://MOXNews.com
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psdShQIhLuA
Led by activist Peter Tatchell, on Wednesday eight British couples, four gay and four straight, will file a challenge to Britain's marriage and civil partnership laws with the European Court of Human Rights.
Peter Tatchell is coordinator of the Equal Love campaign, which seeks to end sexual orientation discrimination in both civil marriage and civil partnership law."Since November, four same-sex couples were refused marriage licenses at register offices in Greenwich, Northampton and Petersfield. Four heterosexual couples were also turned away when they applied for civil partnerships in Islington, Camden, Bristol and Aldershot," added Tatchell.The petitioners contend that Britain's "separate but equal" system violates the European Convention On Human Rights, to which the United Kingdom is a signatory.
"All eight couples received letters of refusal from their register offices, which we are now using as the evidential basis to challenge in the European Court of Human Rights the UK's exclusion of gay couples from civil marriage and the prohibition of straight civil partnerships. Since there is no substantive difference in the rights and responsibilities involved in gay marriages and heterosexual civil partnerships, there is no justification for having two mutually exclusive and discriminatory systems.
Improv Everywhere: "For our latest mission an ice skater stranded alone on the rink transformed from a novice into an expert in New York's Bryant Park. The project was a collaboration with Ice Theatre of New York."
The cereal brands at your grocery stores may soon be shouting and dancing at you courtesy of a new technology called eCoupling. An electric induction strip under the boxes powers the animation and records inventory levels as items are removed. Very Minority Report.
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 | GO! Egypt. GO! |  |
Correspondents around the world report on the reaction to the ongoing unrest in Egypt.
The LGBT activism group One Colorado and a coalition of gay-friendly faith leaders, unions, and education groups yesterday launched their campaign to legalize civil unions in Colorado. Box Turtle Bulletin blogger Daniel Gonzales sends us the below clip from the campaign's kick-off press conference.
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Added On January 31, 2011
After dismissing his cabinet, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tries to appease his people by asking for their input.
Infamous anti-gay activist Stephen Green, who is well known as a British version of Peter LaBarbera, has been divorced by his wife. Because he'd been beating her with a piece of wood.
Caroline Green was often punished by her husband Stephen for failing to be a dutiful, compliant wife, but his final act of violence against her — the one that prompted her long-overdue decision to divorce him — was all the more chilling because it was coldly premeditated. Stephen Green wrote a list of his wife’s failings then described the weapon he would make to beat her with. ‘He told me he’d make a piece of wood into a sort of witch’s broom and hit me with it, which he did,’ she recalls, her voice tentative and quiet. ‘He hit me until I bled. I was terrified. I can still remember the pain. ‘Stephen listed my misdemeanours: I was disrespectful and disobedient; I wasn’t loving or submissive enough and I was undermining him. He also said I wasn’t giving him his conjugal rights. ‘He even framed our marriage vows — he always put particular emphasis on my promise to obey him — and hung them over our bed. He believed there was no such thing as marital rape and for years I’d been reluctant to have sex with him, but he said it was my duty and was angry if I refused him.Green's wife also claims that their son had to be hospitalized after a beating from him.
RELATED: Last month the BBC raised the ire of LGBT activists when they interviewed Green as an "opposing voice" in a story about the birth of Elton John's son. Green has publicly endorsed Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals and his group, Christian Voice, has advocated for the overturn of Britain's laws against marital rape, saying that the Bible demands that all women must submit sexually to their husbands. Green has been the subject of numerous praising posts on Peter LaBarbera's site.
Broadway legend Carol Channing turns 90 today and the three-time Tony winner has granted a rare video interview in which she reminisces about her career and her status as a gay icon. Hit the link for the clip.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will sign his state's civil unions bill today in a 4PM ceremony expected to be attended by a huge crowd.
A capacity crowd at a historic downtown Chicago venue? No, it isn't a concert or even the big game — it's to watch civil unions become legal in Illinois. When Gov. Pat Quinn signs the historic legislation Monday afternoon, he'll be joined by up to 900 members of the gay community and their supporters, many of whom have been waiting years for this moment to arrive. Free tickets to the bill-signing event were long gone by late last week, and the governor's office planned to set aside a portion of the space at the Chicago Cultural Center as standing-room only.I'll look for a live video stream of the ceremony for posting later today.
