Author: Randy Slovacek

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Down Under: Homophobic campaign ad not going over well

Ugly politics happening down under as politician, Bob Katter, has begun running a nasty, anti-gay, homophobic ad. The ad is so disdainful that his gay half-brother has issued a rebuttal to the hate-inciting campaign ad.

The ad was meant to highlight the Liberal National Party leader’s personal support for gay marriage.

It was condemned as homophobic by gay and lesbian groups and the leaders of both major Queensland political parties.

It was also blamed for sparking a homophobic and racist graffiti attack on a Queensland minister’s office.

After speaking out against the commercial on Monday, Carl Katter – Bob Katter’s half brother – says he felt compelled to make a new advertisement with the activist group GetUp.

“It was sad, it was sick and I knew somebody had to respond,” he said in a statement.

Here is Carl Katter’s rebuttal:

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Highway bill passes in the US Senate with bipartisan support

A two-year, $109 billion measure providing federal funding for the nation’s roads, rails bridges and airports for the next two years passed the Senate on a 74 to 22 vote Wednesday with broad bipartisan support.

The Senate bill’s supporters — Democrats, Republicans, labor unions and business groups — say the bill will help create or sustain almost 3 million jobs, mostly in the construction industry.

Of the 22 Senators who voted against the job creating bill, all were Republican.

Despite Senate passage, the fate of federal transportation funding is unclear in the House. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio)hasn’t ruled out a vote on the Senate bill, but his aides said this week he is still negotiating details with GOP lawmakers.

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142 Advertisers have now dropped Rush Limbaugh Show

ThinkProgress has obtained an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks listing 96 national companies that have “specifically asked” their advertisments not be played during the Rush Limbaugh Show.

Premiere is the distributor of Limbaugh’s program. The advertisers have also requested to be excluded from other right-wing hosts including Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. According to the memo, the listed companies’ advertisements should be excluded from these programs because they have been “deemed to be offensive.”

Just some of the companies that have dropped the RLS:

21st Century Insurance • Hotels.com • Rite Aid • Ace Hardware • Honda • Robitussin • Acura • IBM • Sam Adams • Advance Auto Parts • Icy Hot • Sam’s Club • Advil (All products) • Intuit/Small Business • Schiff – Digestive Advantage • Alacer/Emergen-C • Schiff – Mega Red • Allegra (all products) • Johnson & Johnson (All Brands) • Schiff – Move Free • Kohl’s • Schiff – Sustenex • Ally Bank • La Quinta • Scotts Miracle-Gro (all products) • American Express • Lifetime • Autozone • Little Caesars • Sony • Lowe’s • State Farm • British Petroleum • Luxottica • Staples • Bullfrog Sunblock • Macy’s • Sterling/Kay Jared Jewelers • Caltrate • MasterCard • Subway • Centrum • McDonalds • Takeda Uloric • Chapstick • Midas • The Home Depot • Clorox (Pinesol/Homecare) • Napa Auto Parts • ThermaCare • Cortizone • National Realtor • Toyota • DeVry • NBC-TV • Discover Card • Office Depot • Twinings of London • Domino’s Pizza • Office Max • Tyson/Wright Brand Bacon • Exxon/Exxon Mobil • One Main Financial • Unisom • Farmers Insurance • United Healthcare • Ford • Orkin • U.S. Army • Outback • U. S. Postal Service • General Motors (All products -GM Certified Service • Chevy • Onstar • Cadillac • etc) • Preparation H • Visa • Gold Bond (all products • ProNutrients (all products) • Walgreens • Grainger • Progressive Insurance • Wal-Mart • Green Mountain Coffee • Prudential • Wells Fargo • Hallmark • Radio Shack • Wrigley • H&R Block • Rent-A-Center • Yahoo!

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American Idol contestant to be booted tonight without singing a note

Jermaine Jones will reportedly get kicked off tonight’s (March 14) episode of “American Idol” before even singing a note, thanks to several warrants out for his arrest and violent crimes he allegedly hid from producers by giving a fake name to police.

Zap2it spoke with him yesterday (March 13) before an alleged on-camera confrontation about his covered-up crimes, and he sounded optimistic about his performance.

“I feel pretty good after last week. I’m thrilled with my song choice this week,” he tells us of the tune he picked, which falls in line with this week’s theme of ‘songs from the year you were born.’ “I think it really suits my voice better than any song I’ve sung thus far, so I’m feeling pretty good.

Jones gave no indication that he knew he’d be leaving the show, and seemed happy to perform on the Top 12 show. After the TMZ story broke, Jones tweeted on his official “Idol”-sanctioned Twitter account, “Awww I will no longer b on the show.” The tweet was quickly deleted — along with the entire account, giving credence to the story, although FOX has not commented on the matter.

I haven’t watched the show in years, but clearly things have devolved a bit since the days of Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

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Wealthy GOP voters like Mitt Romney best

Among individuals making more than $100,000, Mitt Romney regularly wins more votes than his competitors.  The wealthy really like Mitt Romney.  The less fortunate?  Not so much.

In Alabama, Romney took home 36% of top earners, which is 5 points more than Santorum, and 11 points more than Newt Gingrich.

The story was much the same in Mississippi, where the former Massachusetts governor won votes from 34% of individuals who reported incomes above $100,000. Santorum won among voters making between $50,000 and $100,000, while Gingrich had his best showing with those making less than $50,000.

The contrast is even more striking in states like Michigan and Ohio, where Romney did well enough to win the primaries.

In his home state of Michigan, Romney won 48% of primary voters making more than $100,000. Santorum was second with 34%.

In Georgia, where every candidate in the field was trounced by Gingrich, Romney still won among voters making more than $200,000 (Gingrich won when the limit was extended down to $100,000.)
(source)

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New Pew Poll shows Romney leading nationally but losing to Obama

A new Pew Research poll shows that Romney is, again, the favorite nationally among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents for the nomination, leading Rick Santorum 33 to 24 percent in a poll that was in the field through Sunday.

A month ago, Santorum and Romney were in a statistical tie, with the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania slightly ahead.

However, a large percentage of voters surveyed by Pew, 59 percent, see Romney losing to President Obama.

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Jake Gyllenhaal in new music video by The Shoes

Very violent, but well made I think.

From Spinner.com:

The dark visual is half slasher sendup, half ‘American Psycho,’ (in fact, Bret Easton Ellis tweeted to say that he “really really likes” the video earlier today), a far cry from Gyllenhaal’s recent turn in ‘Prince of Persia,’ or his last video role, playing tennis with Joe Jonas in Vampire Weekend’s visual for ‘Giving Up the Gun.’

“Jake Gyllenhaal and I had been talking about working together on something, and I got sent ‘Time To Dance’ by The Shoes, who are my favorite band, so I wanted to bring Jake in on that,” explained ‘Time to Dance’ director Daniel Wolfe, in an interview with Spinner/RPM. “I pitched the idea to him, and he liked it, which was great.”