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California Congresswoman Fighting For Legislation That Could Have Prevented Husband's Death
Tweet Share on Facebook July 17, 2012 CommentThroughout the long political career of her husband, who served 14 consecutive terms as a California congressman, Doris Matsui donned increasingly more important hats: housewife, socialite, Clinton campaign volunteer, then public liason in the White House.
And when Bob Matsui died in 2005 just days after he entered the hospital with pneumonia, Doris took on that role too—replacing her husband as the representative for California's 5th congressional district.
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PHOTO CAPTION CONTEST: Willow Smith in John Kerry's Chairman Seat
Tweet Share on Facebook July 17, 2012 CommentActress and activist Jada Pinkett Smith testified gravely before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday about human trafficking, saying it "robs us of the thing we value most, our freedom."
Jada was accompanied on Capitol Hill by her daughter Willow, who took a slightly different approach to the issue.
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Book Says Supreme Court Gig Crashed Sonia Sotomayor's Personal Life
Tweet Share on Facebook July 17, 2012 CommentA new book by sitting federal judge Frederic Block pulls back the curtain on some of the most high-profile crimes and judges of our time, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a close friend of Block's.
In Disrobed, an advance copy of which was obtained by Whispers, Block reveals that when Sotomayor first heard she might be nominated to the Supreme Court, she voiced "misgivings" about doing it.
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BMG Shuts Down Romney Campaign's Singing Obama Ad
Tweet Share on Facebook July 16, 2012 CommentA Mitt Romney campaign video posted on his campaign website appears to have been taken down due to a "copyright claim by BMG_Rights_Management." The video included January footage of President Obama singing Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" juxtaposed with headlines accusing Obama of awarding donors and lobbyists.
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Anti-Obama Documentary May Not Be Screened in D.C. Despite Big Opening
Tweet Share on Facebook July 16, 2012 CommentWhen the film 2016: Obama's America opened in a single theater in Houston, Texas this past weekend, it grossed an unexpected $31,610 from a single screen, beating per-theater averages of past presidential documentaries such as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
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Mitt Romney Answered Questions About Bain SEC Filings During Massachusetts Gubernatorial Campaign
Tweet Share on Facebook July 16, 2012 CommentMitt Romney appeared on five news networks Friday in an attempt to mitigate the fallout of Thursday's Boston Globe report, which showed the GOP presidential nominee may have not left Bain Capital in 1999, as he said, but instead in 2002.
The Globe report cited SEC documents from Bain that described Romney as "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president," even after 1999. Romney called the allegations ridiculous on Friday, and said it was beneath the dignity of President Barack Obama to raise the issue.
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Obama Campaign Brings Out the Big Guns: Beyoncé
Tweet Share on Facebook July 16, 2012 CommentThe better half of hip hop's greatest power couple is bringing her star power to the Obama campaign. In an ad released by the campaign, Beyoncé reads a letter she wrote about first lady Michelle Obama posted to her blog in April. The new mom writes,
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Cory Booker Takes To Reddit To Talk Romney, Birtherism And The War On Drugs
Tweet Share on Facebook July 16, 2012 CommentNewark Mayor Cory Booker, whose prolific tweeting, superhero stunts, and candid but "off-message" comments have made him a familiar political face nationwide, dove into the free-wheeling world of Reddit Sunday, participating in a "Ask Me Anything" session with users of the site.
Reddit, a social news site that grabs more eyeballs monthly than many traditional news sites, has previously featured "Ask Me Anything" discussions with celebrities, comedians and even Congressmen Darrell Issa and Jared Polis.
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Why Obama and Romney Should Court Heavy Metal Fans
Tweet Share on Facebook July 13, 2012 CommentIt's been said that independent voters are going to decide November's election. If that's the case, maybe Barack Obama and Mitt Romney should be spending some more time wooing voters at heavy metal concerts. According to a new joint analysis of Americans' music habits and political beliefs, people who listen to metal bands are most likely to be independent voters.
The Echo Nest, a company that analyzes online music plays for companies such as Spotify, MTV, and several record companies, compared artist plays with self-professed political leanings (culled from Facebook and other social networks) to determine if there was a correlation between artist and political leanings. The results aren't terribly shocking: Fans of country artists are most commonly Republican, while Madonna, Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna top the Democratic list.
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Grover Norquist Hits Back At George H.W. Bush
Tweet Share on Facebook July 13, 2012 CommentAnti-tax warrior Grover Norquist was on a plane Friday when Parade magazine released its interview with George H.W. Bush, in which the former president denounces Norquist and his notorious Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
"The rigidity of those pledges is something I don't like," Bush told Parade of the promise, which has been made by 238 representatives and 41 senators who say they will never vote for a tax increase. "The circumstances change and you can't be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist. It's -- who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?"
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