28 February 2011

Yesterday's Beauty Gone Forever



Source: http://www.popeater.com/2011/02/28/jane-russell-dead-89/


Screen Legend Jane Russell Dead at 89
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By Tracey Harrington McCoy Posted Feb 28th 2011 08:40PM


Legendary pinup star Jane Russell died Monday of respiratory failure, the Associated Press reports. She was 89. The screen legend shot to fame in the '40s after starring in Howard Hughes' 1941 western, 'The Outlaw.' She also starred in 1953's 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' alongside Marilyn Monroe.

Russell became a star after Hughes distributed sexy publicity photos of her prior to the release of 'The Outlaw.' She soon became famous as a pinup for World War II GIs.

After 'The Outlaw,' Russell starred in 'The Paleface' opposite Bob Hope in 1948. Her next notable film was 'Gentleman Prefer Blondes.' She and Monroe played friends who seek romance in Paris and sing 'Two Little Girls From Little Rock.' In 2001, Russell spoke of the film, noting that Monroe was five years younger than her and that "it was like working with a little sister."

Russell then filmed the 1954 musical 'The French Line', which was shot in 3D. Its promotional campaign was short and sweet: "J.R. in 3D. Need we say more?"

The screen legend made the sequel 'Gentleman Marry Brunettes' in 1955--this time without Monroe. And she joined Clark Gabel and Jeff Chandler for two Western movies: 'The Tall Men' and 'FoxFire,' respectively. Her career began to falter in the 1960s.
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"Why did I quit movies?" she remarked in 1999. "Because I was getting too old! You couldn't go on acting in those years if you were an actress over 30."

After Russell retired from the screen, she became active in her church and other charitable foundations.

During her years in Hollywood, the screen star was married to pro football player Bob Waterfield. In 1968, their 24-year marriage ended in divorce. She then married actor Roger Barrett--who died three months later of a heart attack. Russell's third and final marriage was to developer John Peoples in 1978. He died in 1999 of heart failure.

"She always said I'm going to die in the saddle, I'm not going to sit at home and become an old woman," Russell's daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield told The Associated Press. "And that's exactly what she did, she died in the saddle."

Survivors include her children, Thomas K. Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert "Buck" Waterfield, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

27 February 2011

Protect the Motherland from Imperialists





Fearing China's peaceful re-emergence as the supreme global power, the imperialist pig-states conspired with the petty bourgeosie inside China to foment the putative "jasmine revolution."


However, the Chinese masses -- peasants, workers and People's Liberation Army stalwarts -- led by the great Chinese Communist Party saw through these sly tricks and smashed their pathetic attempts at counter-revolution.


For every one counter-revolutionary traitor, there are five million patriots who protect the Motherland.

21 February 2011

Social Media Revolution: Report says Libya's Kadaffi Out

What Reagan could not do, the social media did...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358972/Libya-protests-Gaddafi-fled-Venezuela-air-force-attacks-civilians.html

19 February 2011

This is Liberated Vietnam

Look how beautiful she is.  Stylish hair.  Fancy dress.  And straight white teeth too.  Liberated Vietnam  is sooo epic!

Dr. Chee Soon Juan: "If you walk one mile, I will walk ten"



See the Fairbank Report's piece on this courageous man.

http://fairbankreport.blogspot.com/2010/08/chee-soon-juan-courage-personified.html

17 February 2011

when pigs squeal...


Wisconsin Senate to vote on anti-union bill


AP – Protestors to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many …

By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Scott Bauer, Associated Press – 1 hr 54 mins ago

MADISON, Wis. – Protesters clogged the hallways of the Wisconsin state Capitol on Thursday as the Senate prepared to pass a momentous bill that would strip government workers, including school teachers, of nearly all collective bargaining rights.



The nation's most aggressive anti-union proposal has been speeding through the Legislature since Republican Gov. Scott Walker introduced it a week ago. After clearing a major legislative hurdle Wednesday night, it was headed to votes in the Senate and Assembly.



Hundreds of protesters massed outside the Senate chamber on the second floor of the Capitol early Thursday, hours before the planned vote. Republican leaders said it has the votes to pass in both the Senate and Assembly.



The bill marks a dramatic shift for Wisconsin, which passed a comprehensive collective bargaining law in 1959 and was the birthplace of the national union representing all non-federal public employees.



Thousands of protesters, including children and teachers from more than two dozen schools forced to close due to high absences, were expected in and outside the Capitol for a third day of protests. Schools in Madison, the state's second largest district with 2,600-union covered employees, closed for a second day.



Hundreds of people, many of them students from the nearby University of Wisconsin campus, slept in the rotunda for a second night leading up to the vote.



They chanted "Kill the bill!" and "Recall Walker!" early on Thursday. But there appeared to be little doubt the bill would pass.



The head of the 98,000-member statewide teachers union called on all Wisconsin residents to come to the Capitol on Thursday for the votes in the Senate and Assembly.



"Our goal is not to close schools, but to instead to remain vigilant in our efforts to be heard," said Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell.



The Legislature's budget committee passed the bill on a partisan vote just before midnight. Several opponents in the crowd broke into tears as Democrats on the committee encouraged them not to give up the fight.



"I'm sad. Scared. Disappointed," said Kelly Dzurick, a 31-year-old fifth-grade teacher in Elkhorn, who came to the Capitol on Wednesday night. "Nobody's listening to what people say."



Democrats have been powerless to stop the bill.



"The story around the world is the rush to democracy," said Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar. "The story in Wisconsin is the end of the democratic process."



In addition to eliminating collective bargaining rights, the legislation also would make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage — increases Walker calls "modest" compared with those in the private sector.



Republican leaders said they expected Wisconsin residents would be pleased with the changes and that the bill was about saving money. The union concessions would save the state $30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.



"I think the taxpayers will support this idea," Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said.



As protesters chanted "Recall Walker now!" outside the governor's office, Walker insisted he had the votes to pass the measure. He says it's needed to help balance the budget and avoid massive layoffs.



"We're at a point of crisis," the governor said. He has said he would call out the National Guard if needed to keep state operations, including prisons, running.



In an interview with Milwaukee television station WTMJ, President Barack Obama said he was monitoring the situation in Madison and acknowledged the need for budget cuts. But, he said, pushing public employees away from the bargaining table "seems like more of an assault on unions."



While other states have proposed bills curtailing labor rights, Wisconsin's measure is the most aggressive anti-union move yet to solve state budget problems. It would end collective bargaining for state, county and local workers, except for police, firefighters and the state patrol.



Wisconsin has long been a bastion for workers' rights. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was founded in 1936 in Madison.



But when voters elected Walker, an outspoken conservative, along with GOP majorities in both legislative chambers, it set the stage for a dramatic reversal of Wisconsin's labor history.



Under Walker's plan, state employees' share of pension and health care costs would go up by an average of 8 percent.



Unions still could represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.



In exchange for bearing more costs and losing bargaining leverage, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Walker has threatened to order layoffs of up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.



Republican-backed changes to the bill made by the committee Wednesday would extend a grievance procedure to public workers who don't have one and require more oversight and put a deadline on changes Walker's administration can make to the Medicaid program. It would also give a level of legislative oversight to Walker's ability to sell public power plants.



12 February 2011

Beautiful song for another beautiful day in L.A.

Yet again, Illegal Alien Kills Three, Injures Others...

Man charged with 3 counts of murder in Va. attacks

MANASSAS, Va. – A Salvadoran man who was ordered deported nearly a decade ago but never left has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in a series of shootings and a knife attack in a Virginia suburb of Washington, authorities said Friday.
Jose Oswaldo Reyes Alfaro, an illegal immigrant, was charged in the pair of attacks blocks apart Thursday night that left three people dead and three others injured, Manassas Police Chief Doug Keen said.
Reyes Alfaro knew all of the victims, he said, but police were still sorting out the exact relationships.
The killings touched off further discussion of illegal immigration in Manassas and surrounding Prince William County, which was one of the early flashpoints in the national debate over whether local authorities should play a role in enforcing the nation's immigration laws.
"It's another abject failure of the federal government," said state Delegate Jackson Miller, R-Manassas, a former city council member and police officer. "Now we have three innocent victims in my city, about a mile from my house there's a murderous rampage. I am furious. ... Yet it happens over and over and over again, and then we have to hear all of these apologetic excuses as to why we shouldn't be addressing criminal illegal aliens on the state or local level. It's just disgusting."
A similar uproar ensued in August when an allegedly drunken driver struck a car carrying three nuns, killing Sister Denise Mosier, 66. The man charged in that crash, 23-year-old Carlos Martinelly Montano, had been turned over to immigration authorities but was released pending a deportation hearing.
Nancy Lyall of the immigrant advocacy group Mexicans Without Borders said it was misleading to link an isolated criminal case with the issue of illegal immigration. In Prince William County, she said, "the undocumented population is a very, very low percentage of those who are accused of violent crimes."
She predicted that advocates of tougher immigration enforcement would use the Alfaro case to "stereotype every person that's here without documentation."
While the Georgetown South development where the killings happened has been plagued with crime and some gang activity, Keen said they were not gang-related.
Brenda Ashcraft, 56, and her son William Ashcraft, 37, were shot and killed in the first attack called into police shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday. A 34-year-old woman was injured and remains hospitalized, and a 15-year-old girl was treated and released.
In the second attack, Keen said 48-year-old Julio Cesar Ulloa was shot and killed, and a 77-year-old woman suffered head wounds from a large knife.
Brenda Ashcraft's niece, Melissa King, said Friday that her aunt had been a victim of domestic violence by her boyfriend, whom she only knew as "Jose."
"He'd been causing trouble but she was too afraid to call police," King said, standing a few doors outside Ashcraft's home.
"They were good, good family, just full of love and support. This was not drug-related. This was not gang-related ... It was just domestic violence."
King said she has lived in the same neighborhood as her aunt her entire life.
"I know it's a bad neighborhood with crime, but so many people came out last night to offer us support. It was really like one big family," she said. She called her aunt "one of the rocks in our family. She'd give you her last piece of bread, her last dollar."
Reyes Alfaro made an initial appearance Friday morning in Prince William General District Court, and was ordered held without bond. His court-appointed lawyer, Kimberly Irving, declined to comment Friday except to say that she only spoken with her client briefly.
Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert said Friday that it's likely the charges will eventually be upgraded to capital murder — which would make Reyes Alfaro eligible for the death penalty — but a final decision has not been made because the investigation is still ongoing.
"Of course it's a very heinous crime," Ebert said.
Manassas, a city of nearly 37,000 about 30 miles west of the nation's capital, has averaged about two homicides a year since 2005, according to annual crime reports through 2009. 

11 February 2011

barbie girl -- dawn yang

Waay back in 2005, we featured the story of plain Jane, Dawn Yang (also Yeo), who miraculously transformed herself into a super hottie via plastic surgery.  We said then that we did not oppose cosmetic surgery per se; we just wanted people to reflect on their reasons for undergoing the knife.


But Dawn did not use her new found beauty -- and she is really, really beautiful now -- for good.  Instead, she became an airhead party girl.  So we thought we would share this video we found on Youtube.  

Another One Bites the Dust: Egypt's Mubarak Out

Liberate Me, Please

05 February 2011

Justice Taiwan Style


Taiwan leader in rare apology over executed soldier



Taiwan leader in rare apology over executed soldier AFP/File – Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou has extended a rare apology to the family of a soldier feared to …
TAIPEI (AFP) – Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou extended a rare apology to the family of a soldier feared to have been wrongly executed for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl 15 years ago.
Ma on Tuesday hugged the mother of Chiang Kuo-ching, who was 21 years old when put to death by a firing squad in 1997, and also bowed to a portrait of the soldier, TV footage live from the family's home near Taipei showed.
"I know you and your family have been suffering for this for more than 10 years," Ma, whose first language is Mandarin, said in heavily accented Taiwanese.
"The government has acted wrongly in this case. As the head of state, I'm obliged to apologise to you on behalf of the government."
Chiang, an air force serviceman, was convicted by a military court in 1996 of raping and murdering the girl at an air force base in Taipei.
His father, who died last year, believed he had been wrongly convicted and repeatedly appealed to the top ombudsman body supervising government employees, the Control Yuan, and to the judicial authorities.
In a letter home, Chiang had insisted he was innocent and was coerced by a group of air force intelligence officers into confessing.
The Control Yuan impeached the military court last year, saying the evidence against Chiang, including fingerprints gathered at the crime scene, was insufficient.
In response, the prosecution authorities last year ordered the formation of a special group to look into the case.
The prosecutors last week ordered the arrest of a man who has twice been jailed for sexually abusing little girls since 1997 and served in the air force in 1996.