Gillibrand To Male Colleague Who Called Her 'Porky': 'Thanks A--hole'

In promoting her new book, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has come forward with several stories of being called "chubby," "fat," and "porky" by her male colleagues in Congress.

In one incident from her early days in the Senate, Gillibrand describes an older senator who approached her from behind and squeezed her waist. "Don’t lose too much weight now," she recalls him saying. "I like my girls chubby.”

It's one of many episodes she recounted in an interview with People magazine that is not yet online but which was reported by the New York Post on Wednesday. Most of the remarks were directed toward Gillibrand during her self-described struggle with her weight during and after her second pregnancy.

In the House gym, she recalled, another of her male colleagues advised her to work out to avoid getting "porky."

"Thanks, a—hole,” she quipped in her book.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gillibrand-male-colleagues-called-porky

Killer Whale takes down a great white shark. WTF is Sea World thinking? (VIDEO)

Joni Ernst lied about role in military rape investigation.

In recent days, Iowa Senate hopeful Joni Ernst has pitched herself as a leader-in-waiting on the hot-button issue of sexual assault in the military, telling Time that she experienced harassment firsthand while serving and calling for investigations into sexual misconduct to be removed from the chain of command.

But Ernst’s familiarity with the issue goes beyond that: A decade ago, when she was serving in the National Guard in Kuwait, a soldier under her command was accused of rape in a case that military investigators later deemed unfounded. And her role in the case is coming under scrutiny as the Republican state lawmaker is locked in an election that could tip the balance of power in the Senate.

Ernst told the accuser in 2012 that she had nothing to do with the probe by the Criminal Investigation Command, or CID. “I was not involved with the investigation — period,” she wrote in an email to the woman. But a document obtained by POLITICO shows that Ernst took statements at the scene and provided them to CID investigators.

Ernst’s campaign would not make the candidate available for an interview, but representatives denied any discrepancy. They acknowledged that Ernst collected statements from occupants of the accused man’s tent and gave them to investigators, but said she had no bearing on the investigation. While the statements Ernst took may have been used to check the consistency of witness accounts, the campaign representatives said, the CID conducted an independent probe and concluded on its own that the rape allegation was unfounded.



http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/joni-ernsts-role-in-sex-assault-case-questioned-110333.html#ixzz3BZ4I0LXE

Arizona Republicans nominate someone more batshit than Jan Brewer.

PHOENIX — Doug Ducey, the state’s treasurer and former chief executive of an international chain of ice cream parlors, defeated five opponents in the Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. His victory reaffirms the hold of the Republican Party’s conservative establishment on Arizona politics despite a record turnout among independents, a more centrist constituency that makes up the largest voting bloc in the state.

Mr. Ducey amassed a diverse group of supporters, including Tea Party members, Chamber of Commerce leaders and even the retired pitcher Randy Johnson, a local legend of sorts for his role in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ only World Series title, in 2001.

He has argued that his business experience has readied him to lead the state. On the campaign trail, he courted voters over ice cream and liked to say that he helped build the chain, Cold Stone Creamery, from a local company into an international business “without tax breaks for chocolate-dipped cones.”

He is staunchly anti-abortion and pledged to use “fencing, satellites, guardsmen, more police and prosecutors” to secure the border.



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/us/arizona-and-florida-primaries-to-determine-candidates-for-governor.html?_r=0

Romney: I'm Not Running In 2016, But 'Circumstances Can Change'

Mitt Romney has insisted that he is not going to run for president again in 2016, but acknowledged on Tuesday that the situation could technically change.

On Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Romney reiterated that he is not going to run for president, according to audio recorded by Mediaite.

Hewitt then pressed Romney, asking him if he would change his mind if "circumstances change."

"I’m not going there, Hugh. I know you’re going to press, but you know, this is something we gave a lot of thought to when early on I decided we’re not going to be running this time. And again, we said look, I had the chance of running. I didn’t win. Someone else has a better chance than I do," Romney responded. "And that’s what we believe, and that’s why I’m not running. And you know, circumstances can change, but I’m just not going to let my head go there."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/romney-2016-circumstances-change

The NYT assassinates Michael Brown all over again.

As a boy, Michael was a handful. When his parents put up a security gate, he would try to climb it. When they left out pens and pencils, he would use them to write on the wall. He used to tap on the ground, so his parents got him a drum set; his father played the drums. He grew into a reserved young man around people he did not know, but joking and outgoing with those close to him.

Continue reading the main story
After his parents split up, he stayed with his mother though he remained close to all of his family, who lived near one another in north St. Louis County.

In the ninth grade at McCluer High School in Florissant, Mr. Brown was accused of stealing an iPod. His mother said she went to the school, eventually showing a receipt to prove the iPod was his. He left McCluer and went to two other high schools before going to Normandy for most of his final two years.

When his mother moved out of the Normandy District, he moved in with his paternal grandmother so he could remain at that school. But he continued to alternate between his parents and maternal grandmother.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/us/michael-brown-spent-last-weeks-grappling-with-lifes-mysteries.html

Pediatricians' Rx for schools: Later start times

CHICAGO (AP) — Pediatricians have a new prescription for schools: later start times for teens.

Delaying the start of the school day until at least 8:30 a.m. would help curb their lack of sleep, which has been linked with poor health, bad grades, car crashes and other problems, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a new policy.


The influential group says teens are especially at risk; for them, "chronic sleep loss has increasingly become the norm."

Studies have found that most U.S. students in middle school and high school don't get the recommended amount of sleep — 8½ to 9½ hours on school nights; and that most high school seniors get an average of less than seven hours.



http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/medical/article/Pediatricians-Rx-for-schools-Later-start-times-5709383.php

Democrats Build Ground Game in Arkansas

Democrats aren't advertising this office and 39 others like it that are scattered around Arkansas—in fact, their locations are a closely guarded secret. When I visited last week, having tracked it down through creative public-records sleuthing, I took Chita Collins, the field organizer on duty there, by surprise. But I wanted to see the evidence of what Democrats have been claiming they're building in states like this one, and what could be crucial to their uphill quest to keep the Senate: an Obama-style community-organizing effort of unprecedented scale for a non-presidential election.

The office in Pine Bluff is a cavernous, mostly empty space. Six full-time, paid staff work out of the unit, which is open seven days a week. Long tables line the right side of the room; three staff offices—messy and largely uninhabited thanks to some recent water damage—line the back. A long list of rules scribbled on a paper tacked to the wall begins with these two bullet points: "Goals are mandatory. Meetings are mandatory." Another handwritten sheet bears a quotation from Barack Obama: "Yes we can."

Every weekday morning and evening, this space fills up with volunteers. Some stay in to make phone calls; others are sent out with a list of addresses to knock on doors, looking for voters. (On weekends, the effort intensifies.) Weeks like this, when it's 95 degrees out with 50 percent humidity, it is punishing work, but they have been at it for months, and they will not stop until November. "Oh yeah," says Collins, a friendly Pine Bluff native in her 40s, when I tell her I'm trying to confirm this field organization really exists. "We real."
This year, Arkansas is home to one of the nation's most intense Senate races, as incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor faces a challenge from a first-term congressman, Representative Tom Cotton. Like many of this year's competitive Senate contests, it features a Democratic incumbent desperately trying to survive in deeply hostile territory—in this case, a state Mitt Romney won by 23 points, or more than 250,000 votes. Other seats Democrats are trying to hold onto are in similarly tough states such as Alaska, North Carolina, and Louisiana.


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/inside-the-democrats-plan-to-save-arkansasand-the-senate/379028/

Game Of Thrones' Neil Marshall Wants To Direct a Black Widow Movie

Good news for fans of Scarlett Johansson and Black Widow: Neil Marshall, known for directing episodes of Game Of Thrones, would love to direct a Black Widow movie.

Speaking with Vanity Fair recently, Neil Marshall stated he is interested in directing a movie with a strong female lead who doesn't have a whole lot of superpowers:

"I think I’d like to do a big movie with a strong female lead, whether or not she would be a superhero. I’m more interested in characters like Scarlett Johansson in Lucy. I’m less interested in people with superpowers because I can’t identify with them. Very rarely do they get killed off, and when they do get killed off, chances are they’re going to be back . . . somehow. Yes, I’d love to do a big splashy movie with a great female lead, but it has to be someone I can believe in."
With Scarlett Johansson and Black Widow then brought up:

"I would love to do a Black Widow movie. That’s perfect, I would love to do that. That character is really interesting, she doesn’t have any superpowers, she just has extraordinary skills, and the world that she comes from, being this ex-K.G.B. assassin, I find that really fascinating, yeah."

http://movies.cosmicbooknews.com/content/game-thrones-neil-marshall-wants-direct-black-widow-movie

Scott Walker donor promised millions in tax breaks while laying off 1,900

The board overseeing the state’s flagship job-creation agency has quietly approved a $6 million tax credit for Ashley Furniture Industries with a condition allowing the company to eliminate half of its state workforce.

As approved by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. board, the award would allow the Arcadia-based global furniture maker to move ahead with a $35 million expansion of its headquarters and keep 1,924 jobs in the state.

But it wouldn’t require Ashley to create any new jobs, instead granting the company license to lay off half of its current 3,848 Wisconsin-based workers in exchange for an enterprise zone tax credit, one of the most valuable and coveted state subsidies.

The board’s decision has not been made public because a contract with the company has not been finalized. But in a statement Friday, in response to questions from the State Journal, Ashley Furniture confirmed it is seeking state subsidies that include terms allowing for job reductions.



Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/wedc-board-ok-d-ashley-furniture-getting-million-tax-credit/article_6fe5690f-64d0-5829-bc51-3dc59533abe9.html#ixzz3BMmuBBlj