Playahata

Poster’s Note: So you’re going to let this guy make you reschedule on the opening night of the football season at that? Of course we know the corporations and wealthy really run it, but other than that who is really running the country? Sometimes I wonder….

President Barack Obama will deliver an address to Congress outlining his new jobs agenda on Sept. 8 instead of the original date the White House requested on Wednesday.

White House Adviser Dan Pfeiffer announced Wednesday morning that the president requested to speak to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 7, which would have conflicted with a Republican presidential debate planned at the same time. House Speaker John Boehner rejected the request and suggested the president deliver his speech a day later. A Boehner spokesman said Boehner’s office had never been consulted about the president’s plans.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced the change, but challenged Boehner’s claim that Republicans did not know about the original date. (more…)

For AT&T Merger, Facts Trump Politics
By Craig Aaron

Today the Justice Department filed suit to block AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile.

In announcing the suit, Sharis Pozen, the DoJ’s top antitrust enforcer, said, “Any way you look at it, this deal is anti-competitive.” We at Free Press couldn’t agree more. And for once, policymakers put the law above politics and stood up to a powerful company.

This victory simply wouldn’t have happened without intense public pressure generated by calls and letters from hundreds of thousands of activists. And thanks to the support of our members, we filed thousands of pages of research to tear down the mountain of AT&T propaganda and deflate the air of inevitability surrounding the merger in Washington.

The DoJ lawsuit is built on the arguments that Free Press (more…)

The United States government has made the shocking admission that its 1940s-era scientists deliberately infected Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases – and even gave a dying woman syphilis. The horrifying revelation was made this week by a panel commissioned by President Obama to investigate the dark chapter in American medical history.

More than 1,300 Guatemalans were given various STDs between 1946 and 1948 to see if the diseases could be treated with penicillin, and at least 83 people died during the trials, the panel discovered. The findings, some of which were revealed to the White House last year, prompted Obama to call his Guatemalan counterpart to apologize.

The scientists’ methods were stunning even when considering the different medical ethics in the post-World War II era, according to the presidential panel. (more…)

At least 25 top United States companies paid more to their chief executives in 2010 than they did to the federal government in taxes, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The companies — which include household names like eBay, Boeing, General Electric (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and NBC Universal, which is jointly owned by Comcast Corp. and General Electric) and Verizon — averaged $1.9 billion each in profits, according to the study by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal-leaning research group. But a variety of shelters, loopholes and tax reduction strategies allowed the companies to average more than $400 million each in tax benefits — which can be taken as a refund or used as write-off against earnings in future years.

The chief executives of those companies were paid an average of more than $16 million a year, the study found, a figure substantially higher than the $10.8 million average for all companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. (more…)

Despite the devastation caused by Hurricane Irene this weekend, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today stood by his call that no more money be allocated for disaster relief unless it is offset by spending cuts elsewhere. The Washington Post reported this morning that FEMA will need more money than it currently has to deal with the storm’s aftermath and is already diverting funds from other recent disasters to deal with the hurricane, but Cantor’s comments suggest Republicans won’t authorize more funds without a fight.

Cantor took the position following the tornadoes that devastated Joplin, Missouri and elsewhere in the spring and summer, and after last week’s earthquake, the epicenter for which was in his district, but the hurricane’s level of destruction is far beyond that of those disasters. Still, Cantor told Fox News that while “we’re going to find the money,” “we’re just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to do so.”

Source: Think Progress
By Alex Seitz-Wald

Poster’s Note: All those rappers bragging about all the useless stuff they own need to donate to this! I bet many of them will be crying broke when he ask folks to chip in.

Not A Joke: Pharrell Builds A Stunning, $35M Afterschool Space For Kids
The $35 million Pharrell Williams Resource Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, will provide a dazzling place for kids to do their homework.

Pharrell: rapper, producer, fashion designer, muse, and now… patron of do-gooder architecture!? Move over, Brad Pitt!

The N.E.R.D. front man has plans to build a $35 million, 30,000-square-foot youth center in his hometown, Virginia Beach. Designed by Chad Oppenheim of Miami-based Oppenheim Architecture + Design, it’s a futuristic tree house, of sorts, with glass-and-steel boxes jutting out from the canopy of a lush little forest. There, kids will be able get help on their homework, tinker in a digital music lab, and meet with mentors, among other activities. The Pharrell Williams Resource Center is slated for completion in 2013. It’s being built in partnership with the city of Virginia Beach.

The project got underway after Pharrell and Oppenheim met at the art love-fest, Art Basel, in 2008, and bonded over a shared vision to “make the world a better place,” the press release describes. “Pharrell had a unique experience growing up with a local educator that gave him the confidence to pursue his talents,” Oppenheim tells Co.Design, “and he wants to provide the same atmosphere for future generations.” (more …)

Update – More Evil: Son now suspected in Death of prison cellmate http://news.yahoo.com/austin-powers-actor-suspected-prison-death-232103665.html

A former on-screen villain could spend the rest of his life in jail after being found guilty of a horrific real-life crime. Joseph Hyungmin Son, 40, who played Dr. Evil’s sidekick “Random Task” in the first “Austin Powers” movie, was convicted of torture last week in connection with the 1990 abduction and gang rape of a 20-year-old California woman. The Orange County woman was walking her dog on Christmas Eve and looking at holiday lights in the neighborhood when she was snatched off the street and attacked, KTLA reported. (more…)

Poster’s Note: How anyone can still worship under this man is beyond my understanding?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Beyonce is going to be a mom!

The superstar – glowing in a long, flowing crimson gown with a side-swept ponytail – cupped her hands around her stomach as she posed on the black carpet at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, showing off a small baby bump.

This will be the first child for the “Run The World” singer, who married hip hop mogul Jay-Z in April 2008.

Poster’s Note: More “beef” for the love of entertainment on the way? Perhaps, even though no names were stated. Sounds like Lil’ Wayne is possibly going after Jay-Z, for Jay-Z possibly dissing his “daddy”.Hip-hop, is just like the WWE. .

Rick Perry, leading Republican Presidential Candidate, and people thought Bush was bad.

While hundreds of thousands of Americans converge on the National Mall to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this weekend as the president dedicates a memorial to the slain civil rights leader, Rick Perry, the newly minted Republican Party presidential front-runner, will be attending a retreat with a man who believes King deserves no such honor.

The “call to action” retreat, reported by Politico’s Jonathan Martin earlier this month, will be hosted by a prominent San Antonio doctor, Jim Leininger, and his wife Cecilia. Among the co-hosts of the Fredericksburg, Texas event, which is being called a “get together to discuss the 2012 election,” rather than a fundraiser, will be David Barton, the founder of the evangelical Christian group WallBuilders. (more…)