MSNBC host Martin Bashir resigns over Palin remarks

 
MSNBC host Martin Bashir resigned Wednesday following controversy surrounding remarks he made on his show in November about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
"Upon further reflection, and after meeting with the president of MSNBC, I have tendered my resignation," Bashir said in a statement. "It is my sincere hope that all of my colleagues, at this special network, will be allowed to focus on the issues that matter without the distraction of myself or my ill-judged comments."
In a segment that aired on his show in November, Bashir called Palin a "world class idiot" after she equated the United States borrowing money from China with slavery.
Citing a diary item describing various punishments for slaves, Bashir suggested that Palin should be forced to eat excrement.
The host later apologized on air for his remarks and took a leave of absence.
“I deeply regret what was said, will endeavor to work hard at making constructive contributions in the future and will always have a deep appreciation for our viewers – who are the smartest, most compassionate and discerning of all television audiences," Bashir said in his statement Wednesday.
MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement: "I understand his decision and I thank him for three great years with MSNBC. Martin is a good man and respected colleague — we wish him only the best.”
MSNBC and NBC News belong to the same group.


source:nbcnews

Man Turns Face Into Tattoo Billboard For Internet Porn Sites, Regrets It.

He is now auctioning off more advertising space on his body to pay for laser removal surgery.

(Credit: ABC News)

Before legally changing his name to “Hostgator Dotcom,” Billy Gibby called himself “Billy the Billboard”  because of his willingness to tattoo brand logos on his face and body. After receiving sums in the range of $75 – $1,000, Gibby (Dotcom?) tattooed the logos for several Internet porn sites on his face.
And now he really, really regrets it.
Gibby told the Anchorage Press that he was suffering from untreated bipolar disorder when he made the decision to get the facial tattoos, and that his decision to do so was motivated by his “biggest fear” at the time — not being able to pay the rent and support his family of seven.
Now on medication for his bipolar, Gibby is hoping to remove the 20 tattoos covering his face. But in order to afford the expensive laser surgery, he needs a better job. But because of his facial tattoos, he is pretty unemployable, he told the Press.

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So he is auctioning off more advertising space on his body to finance the procedure.
“I have space on my arms, hands, chest and the legs,” Gibby told the Huffintgon Post.
But sorry, Romney-Ryan face tattoo guy, Gibby has limits. “I won’t take ads from companies that are racist and I won’t do political ads either,” he said.

Salon

Amanbra Guber Polls: One Contest Too Many Knocks, Intruges

Anambra Guber Poll: One contest too many knocks, intrigues

on November 19, 2013   /   in Politics 1:00 am   /   Comments

By CHARLES KUMOLU
THE conduct of the governorship election in Anambra State did not fall short of pre-election predictions that the exercise would fall in line with the state’s predilection to political drama.
Across the 21 local government areas last Saturday’s gubernatorial election was characterised by intrigues and seemingly calculated political anomalies.
No less a person than the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega confessed last Saturday that the governorship election in Anambra State was sabotaged.
The election was indeed one that was for many candidates, party supporters, and voters that was heralded by suspicion, fear, tension and unusual electoral permutations.

Ngige, Obiano, Ubah and Nwoye

Though the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had boasted that the exercise would witness remarkable improvements on previous polls, its outcome, was to a large extent a mockery of that pledge.
So when early yesterday, the Returning Officer Professor James Epoke, declared the election inconclusive, not many were surprised or shocked by the development.
Early alarm by candidates
While promising a credible election at a stakeholders forum held three days to the election in Awka, INEC chairman, Prof Atahiru Jega had said, “we have made meticulous arrangements to ensure that the election is free and fair. We want to make Anambra elections the best elections we have conducted in this country.
We have done some in the past and we have learnt from our mistakes.”
Jega’s pledge was also strengthened by the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar who at the forum said, “It is possible to have a peaceful election but it depends on the people, because we have provided adequate security. I am appealing to Anambra people especially party chairmen to give peace a chance.”
However, whether the commission creditably conducted the polls, is in doubt given the outcome across the 4,608 polling units in the state.
Indications that the elections might not be as smooth as promised by INEC emerged at the stakeholders’ forum, where the All Progressive Congress, APC, candidate Senator Chris Ngige said INEC was yet to prosecute electoral offenders who ensured that his supporters did note vote at the 2010 governorship elections in most parts of Anambra Central and other parts of the state.
Ngige’s assertion added to claims made by some persons within and outside INEC in the days leading to the election that the exercise had already been programmed to favour a particular candidate.
Instructively, Ngige said “I contested in 2010 but could not enter some violent prone areas, we had no agents there but the results were declared.  Result sheets were not brought in some areas and our people were manhandled but results still came out and were recognized by INEC .  There are times when SPOs will come to deliver materials but will not drop result sheets as stipulated in the electoral act.  We need categorical statement on this. This is the first time three commissioners of Police are coming to Anambra for elections but I don’t know what the police has done with the previous reports.”
Election Day realities
In most areas visited by Vanguard on Election Day, it was discovered that materials arrived late, leading to the late commencement of accreditation and subsequently, voting.
The exercise, which was scheduled to commence at 8:00 am, did not kickoff until 11 am, when accreditation started in most polling units across the 4,608 polling units in the state.
Nonetheless, at most polling units in Awka South, Anaocha and Aguata, areas known as the home base of the incumbent governor, Mr. Peter Obi and All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, accreditation and voting started early enough.
Eligible voters
For instance when Vanguard visited Ichi Ward 2 polling unit Nnewi, the base of Labour Candidate, Chief Ifeanyi Uba most eligible voters complained about being disenfranchised.
Ubah corroborated this in his country home, that day when he said, “there are a lot of inconsistencies especially on the voters register. For instance in a ward that has about 700 voters, you will discover that only seventeen names will be found in the register. This situation does not speak well and does not signal that we will have a free and fair exercise,” Ubah added.
Across other senatorial districts, it was also the same tale of massive disenfranchisement, late and non arrival of electoral materials, alleged monetary inducements by agents of some candidates, forceful ejection of party agents among others.
Uncommon realignment between friends and foes
Prominent among the surprises thrown up is the uncommon realignment between hitherto political friends and foes.
This played out with the common voice echoed by three aggrieved candidates of the ACN, PDP and LP candidates, who called for annulment.
This development is against the backdrop of the consensus of the trio that the polls were allegedly programmed by INEC to favour APGA.
For analysts and some aggrieved voters, the move by the  candidates, is regarded as  a germane step  towards bringing their grievances to public glare.
At a press briefing jointly addressed by the trio, Ngige, who spoke on behalf of the candidates called for the cancellation of the eventual outcome.
Though the mood across the state is relaxed, many who spoke with Vanguard in Awka and its environs, expressed dissatisfaction that they could not vote despite turning out in their numbers.
For this and other reasons, they called for a fresh exercise.
But APGA is not taking the claims of rigging lightly. Its chairman, Umeh dismissed calls for annulment, adding that the exercise was credible.
He described those, who want cancellation as failed contestants, who have no stake in the state.
“INEC has done well but the few lapses are regrettable, the exercise was free and fair. The people crying blue murder are disappointed that they could not arm-twist INEC, “he added.

Vanguard

More blames thrown at Congress than President Obama over Park Woes during Shutdown.

U.S. Park Ranger Mirta Maltes stands near the road-closed sign leading to the Everglades National Park on Oct. 7 in Miami.

It may seem like a distant memory, but the images are indelible: grizzled veterans at the National World War II Memorial; armed rangers with massive signs and government SUVs; and county officials in Utah five national park areas.
The closure of the nation's 400 national parks, monuments, recreation areas, historic sites and battlefields during October's government shutdown became the searing emotional and political symbol of government gone awry.
Now comes an indication that the political fallout, if any, may harm congressional Republicans more than President Obama.
A national poll released Monday found that 60 percent of the 1,000 registered voters surveyed blamed the closure of national parks on Congress' failure to agree on a budget.
Roughly 30 percent believed that the Obama administration closed parks to make the government shutdown as painful as possible.
And 90 percent agreed that closing park areas was a problem. Roughly half of the respondents in every region of the country considered the closures a "big problem."
But the five-day survey, taken two weeks after the shutdown had ended, focused solely on the closure of national parks. It did not ask about any other impacts of the shutdown, such as , or WIC.
The survey was conducted by the Democratic polling firm of for the , a liberal think tank.
"The closing of the parks and other public lands during the shutdown was a teachable moment," says Hart president Geoffrey Garin.
More than 80 percent agreed that the barricades and closed signs blocking park entrances reminded them of the importance of national parks. And there's broad agreement about that across parties, including 90 percent of the Democrats in the survey, 77 percent of the independents and 74 percent of the Republicans.
Three-fourths agreed that the closures had dependent on parks tourism.
In fact, responding to the deep decline in park tourism, governors and local officials in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota and New York with state and private funds. to get eight national parks running again.
The poll also found widespread support for providing additional funding in general for National Parks and protecting them from budget cuts.

"Americans love their national parks and want them to be open and adequately funded," says Maureen Finnerty, a former parks superintendent who now chairs the
"Americans are sick and tired of those in Congress who use national parks and National Park Service employees as pawns in partisan budget showmanship games," Finnerty adds.
Still, most of those surveyed blamed both President Obama (53 percent) and congressional Republicans (60 percent) for the government shutdown that resulted in the closure of parks.
Relatively few trust Obama (37 percent) or Republicans in Congress (29 percent) to protect national parks and public lands.
And since the shutdown, the parks closures and the survey, the nation's political focus whiplashed to the failures of HealthCare.gov, the website that was supposed to facilitate the rollout of Obama's Affordable Care Act.
Garin of Hart Research acknowledges that the purported lessons of the shutdown may be fleeting.
"We don't know the durability of that conclusion from this teachable moment," he says.
The validity of the survey was questioned by reporters during an embargoed teleconference Friday.
"Asking about national parks is almost like saying, 'How much do you love kittens?'" said . "Saying [the shutdown] is a good reminder is not too shocking because national parks usually poll pretty well."
Garin responded with the assertion that "even when you explain that the point is to help reduce the budget deficit," people say "enough is enough" when parks are threatened.
But he also acknowledged that the poll's respondents "don't really see any of the players in Washington as necessarily doing enough to protect parks and public lands."
So, the great national park lockout of 2013 left the surveyed voters upset with and distrustful of both the White House and Congress. Only the parks survive with sympathy and reverence.
The survey, which used cellphones and land lines, consisted of randomly selected adults who said they were registered voters and had cast ballots in the 2012 presidential election. Democratic and Republican respondents were nearly evenly split with a quarter identifying themselves as independents.
Hart Research says the margin of error for the survey is +/- 3.1 percent.

NPR

Baldwin Suspended From MSNBC After Homophobia Scandal

Alec Baldwin's MSNBC show was pulled from the network's schedule for two weeks on Friday following the actor's latest homophobia scandal. Baldwin was embroiled in controversy after he was caught on tape swearing at a photographer. Most people thought he called the man a "c--ksucking f--g"; Baldwin denied saying the latter word, but apologized for saying the former one. In a statement, Baldwin apologized for his outburst: I did not intend to hurt or offend anyone with my choice of words, but clearly I have – and for that I am deeply sorry. Words are important. I understand that, and will choose mine with great care going forward. What I said and did this week, as I was trying to protect my family, was offensive and unacceptable. Behavior like this undermines hard-fought rights that I vigorously support...I want to apologize to my loyal fans and to my colleagues at msnbc – both for my actions and for distracting from their good work. MSNBC made no comment about the simmering scandal for days—something that led to heated criticism. Other cable news hosts, such as Anderson Cooper, also attacked Baldwin for making the comments. Baldwin is not the first MSNBC host to face a suspension for comments made outside the network. Most famously, Ed Schultz was yanked from the air for a week for calling talk show host Laura Ingraham a "slut." source:hoffpost