TGATP’s Take On for 2/7/11

(Photo: JustJared.com)

The situation in Egypt is an example of what happens when a country’s governing body ignores the needs of its people.  High unemployment has repeatedly been stated to be one of the major reasons for the uprising.  With up to 30 million people currently unemployed and 30,000 people joining the ranks of the 5 million+ 99ers (those who have exhausted their benefits and are still jobless) every week, the US could see a similar situation.    This week it was announced that just 36,ooo jobs were created in January.  That’s 36,000 jobs vs. 30 million people, who need them, or one job per 833 applicants!  And don’t be fooled by the so-called 400, 000 drop in unemployment recipients.  Those people obviously did not get jobs as 36,000 is not 400,000!  The 400,000 is actually the number of people, who are now 99ers living in poverty and no longer being counted as unemployed.  I bet you if you check the welfare rolls for January/February, you will find a proportional rise of approximately 400,000 there.

The Obama Administration needs to immediately a) extend the unemployment benefits to stop the sharp increase in people living in poverty and thwart the accompanying avalanche of foreclosures and evictions and b) actually deliver on its promise of a New Deal type program for jobs.  At Christmas, the American people were falsely led to believe that the long-term unemployed were provided for in the subterfuge that saw Obama falsely claiming to have extended the rich folks tax cuts, ONLY because he wanted to help the unemployed with a 13-month extension. But there was a blatant lie.  The so-called 13 months is only for people to complete existing weeks, did not provide any additional weeks, and does not apply to the majority of unemployed people.  In fact, only about 1.5 million of the 30 million unemployed benefited from this so-called extension.  But we will be paying for those tax cuts that add $700 billion to the deficit for a zillion moons to come!  This was a case of Obama and his minions purposely lying to the American people and kowtowing to the rich at the expense of the poor and was, in my mind, a low point in Obama’s presidency.  Sweeping growing poverty under the rug will only lead to an unsightly bulge that the American Government will eventually trip over.  Representative Barbara Lee of California has introduced H.R.6556: “The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Expansion Act of 2010, that would provide assistance to the long-termed unemployed.  But it is currently stuck in committees.  Let’s hope that Obama will get behind it and force its passage.  Last week on ABC’s This Week, Hillary Clinton stated that “When the government of a country ignores the needs of its people, eventually the people revolt.” Perhaps she needs to take that message to the President and the halls of Congress.

While some people by divine act of God may be able to kick horrible habits on their own (I have twice – smoking and drinking), I am skeptical about the reality of “home rehab” for someone as enabled as Charlie Sheen!  Sheen has been through rehab three times already and has gone right back to his crazy Bacchanalian lifestyle.  So, while I am very hopeful for him to finally crossover to sobriety, the at home thing bodes badly.  And I was completely appalled by the CBS executive who stated that “he always did his job”.  With all the near death adventures that Sheen was engaging in off screen, it was ridiculous that the network enabled him for so long.  Any one of these   cocaine-fueled escapades could have resulted in his death.  Would he have been able to “do his job” then?

And speaking of Hollywood folks behaving badly, I seriously hope that this latest Lindsay Lohan story is not true!  Why, oh why, would she be stealing???  Stars can have any thing they want!  The “loan” excuse sounds somewhat fishy because if that were true, why would the store be giving surveillance tapes to the cops.  Unless they just don’t like Linds and wanted the publicity.  And where is this so-called stylist to back-up her story?  Poor dear is supposed to be sober now, so she can’t claim that it was a drunken mistake.

Wendy Williams got me going on the Halle Berry/Gabriel Aubry saga this week!   I feel that the situation is just unnecessarily ugly and unfortunately, does not cast Ms. Berry in a very good light.  People Magazine is reporting that she “tired of having to support Aubry”.  But he is a male model and they don’t get paid half of what their female counterparts make, while she is a very high paid Oscar-winning actress.  So what did she expect?  Very few people end up making the kind of dosh that Hollywood folks do.  That would be like Donald Trump getting sick of supporting Melania!  In addition, in a world where it has become the norm for men to provide sperm for children they do NOT end up being fathers to, Aubry is to be applauded for wanting to co-parent his child.  And unless she can produce some taped evidence, I don’t buy the story that Aubry supposedly called her the “n-word.” It just doesn’t jibe.  I have dated tons of White guys and no matter what the disagreement, neither of us ever ended up calling each other a racial slur.  In my experience, we haven’t even seen each other as a different race.  And since Aubry’s child is half-Black the story is even more suspect.  By all accounts, he adores his little girl; so I highly doubt he would use a racial slur that would apply to her too!  Since the accusation comes from a disgruntled former partner of Aubry’s, it is even more suspect!  It was just awful of Halle to spew the hateful “You were just good for one thing!” at a man that gave her five years and a beautiful child!  The common denominator in all these bad relationships is Halle, so perhaps she needs to really examine her choices.  As an older Mom, she was so lucky even have Nahla, it is time to stop the madness and put that beautiful baby first!

Lauren Conrad was such a mean girl when I met her that hearing that her star is descending is not unhappy news here at TGATP!  The premise of her latest MTV reality attempt sounded about as boring as watching grass grow, so it is no surprise that is was canned.  Surely no one actually still thinks that reality TV is actually “reality TV” !  It needs story arcs and drama to keep viewers coming back, so naturally a lot of it is manufactured!  Conrad made this statement about her show’s failure to get picked up: “We agreed going into the project that this show would be an aspirational one, focusing on my career and my goals and not my personal relationships.  We delivered the show that we sold and are sorry MTV didn’t feel their viewers were savvy enough to appreciate it.” How unprofessional to have taken that obvious swipe at MTV by insinuating that they think their viewers are stupid and I can’t stop laughing at the “aspirational” line? Does she think she is Joel Osteen now??   Is she honestly so self-important that she thought that anyone, other than her Mom, would actually find a show about her day-to-day work life compelling TV?  She was only interesting on “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” because she was part of an ensemble that created some drama.  In fact, she was the LEAST interesting of the characters with Audrina, Whitney, (both lovely girls in person) and, even the train wreck that was Speidi, making for better TV!

And finally, Kim Kardashian, or should I say, Kim’s booty made a big splash in the news this week!  On her E! show “Kourtney and Kim Take NY”, the lovely Ms. Kardashian tearfully claimed that despite the fact that she stripped naked, got painted silver, and posed for a ton of pictures (which we all know she had final approval over), she had no idea that they were actually going to end up in the pages of the magazine!   She later backpedaled once the editors of W stroked her by claiming that the pics were “works of art.” I love Kim as she is, unlike the aforementioned Conrad, lovely both inside and out.  But come on, when you pose nude, ya pose nude!  And with a bodacious body like that just own it, Kim!

That Girl At the Party

I am a proud blogger of 11 years, Founder of Canappetit, PR person, Web and Cannabis Entrepreneur, Founder of the LTN Card, the Let Love Festival and the Henley Foundation, aunt to 12 and human to Bodhi and Yoko Rey

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