Unteachable Mitt Romney Talks About His Owner Friends In Sports

A reporter asked Mitt Romney today where he thought free agent Peyton Manning should play football next season. Ahh, there’s a nice birthday softball question for ya! All he had to say was that he’s a Patriots fan, so he hopes Manning doesn’t play for a team in the same division. This is all he had to say. And he did! But only going out of his way to saysomething completely unnecessary,again, that has probably left his campaign manager sobbing for ever accepting such a gig.

Is the idea here to take Jay Leno’s bad jokes before he has the opportunity to use them?

And at one point, Mr. Finebaum asked Mr. Romney, as a New    England Patriots fan, where he thought Peyton Manning should go as a free agent, and the candidate highlighted his friendship with football team owners — echoing comments in which he explained his affinity for Nascar by noting he knew the owners of Nascar teams.

“I’m surprised to hear that Denver’s thinking about him,” Mr. Romney said. “I don’t want him in our neck of the woods, let’s put it that way.”

“I’ve got a lot of good friends, the owner of the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets, both owners are friends of mine,” he went on to say. “But let’s keep him away from New England.”

And what kind of fan is “good friends” with the people who run his team’s rivals? You’re supposed to ACTUALLY HATE the human beings in other cities with teams that play your team, in a game. Hate them and want nothing good to happen to them or their families, ever! Mitt Romney has never been to the United States.

[NYT; Image which may or may not be the most photoshopped thing ever, but who cares, via Mitt Romney Is A Tool]

The First Lady Will Appear at The Letterman Show

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama is returning to the late-night stage.

The first lady will appear on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on March 19. Mrs. Obama will discuss her Joining Forces initiative, which supports military families, and her plans for the program’s one-year anniversary.

CBS, which airs Letterman’s show, says this will be Mrs. Obama’s first appearance on the program. But she has made other stops on the late-night talk show circuit to promote her initiatives and stump for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Her recent appearances include “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night” program. Both shows are on NBC.

5 Guys 1 Pillow Video } Underwear Pillow Fight

   

Andrew Christian is on a roll with yet another sexy video: “5 Guys 1 Pillow“. This latest videos shows five hot guys horsing around and having a pillow fight in their undies. The music playing in the background is Jessie and the Toy Boys‘ “Lets Get Naughty,” which of course is perfect.

For this video, AC teamed up with Jeffrey Sanker and White Party 3D 2012, taking place in Palm Springs in April. Andrew Christian will be on site in Palm Springs for two exclusive performances: 1) at the Boxers or Briefs Party on Friday, April 6, Andrew Christian models will be re-creating the YouTube sensation “Freshman Car Wash” video, 2) and at the Splash! Pool Party on Saturday, April 7, the boys will re-create the “Pink Paradise Pool Party” video. You can also see the live performance of the song in the video when Jessie and the Boy Toys perform live at the Closing Party!

Check out Andrew Christian’s latest sexy video below.

Watch the extended version here: http://www.andrewchristian.com/whiteparty

 

Breaking } Ravi Wont Testify on Gay Roomates’ Suicide

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Jurors in the trial of a former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another will not hear directly from the defendant.

FILE-- In a March 9, 2012 file photo Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student waits before court proceedings in New Brunswick, N.J. Dharun Ravi, 20, is accused of using a webcam for the central crime, then using Twitter, instant messages and texts to tell friends about it. He's charged with 15 criminal counts, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy. His roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide in September 2010, just days after the alleged spying. (AP Photo/The Star-Ledger, John Munson, Pool, file)

 

Dharun Ravi's defense lawyer rested his case Monday without calling Ravi to testify.

The jury could begin deliberating on Tuesday or Wednesday after lawyers give their summations and the judge gives instructions.

Ravi's lawyer, Steven Altman, said Monday that although he didn't think there was anything to gain from having his client testify, the jury might hear from him indirectly in closing arguments. Altman said he may play for them a video of a nearly hour-long statement Ravi made for an investigator days before he was charged. In it, Ravi acknowledged using his webcam and seeing what was happening in his dorm room, but he said he did not intend to do any harm.

The trial captured in detail the actions of Ravi and his randomly-assigned freshman roommate, Tyler Clementi, over a few days in September 2010, beginning when Clementi asked for privacy so he could have a guest over and continuing past when he committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.

The suicide made Clementi a national symbol of the difficulties young gays can face.

Ravi is not charged with his death. He faces 15 criminal counts, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Seven of the charges are related to allegations that he tried to cover his tracks by changing a Twitter messages, deleting text messages and telling another witness what she should say.

Testimony stretched over 12 days and included about 30 witnesses, including several college students, along with school officials and investigators. Jurors also heard from the other man in the streamed video; he was identified only by the initials M.B.

Without a chance to hear testimony from Ravi, who told Judge Glenn Berman that it was his own decision not to get on the witness stand, jurors may give more consideration to the one instance they did get to hear his voice. It came in a video of an interview he gave police on Sept. 23, 2010.

Ravi looked composed for an 18-year-old wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops when he was brought into a police station. Word had spread that Ravi used his webcam to view Clementi in a private moment with another man, just days before Clementi committed suicide.

As he was questioned, Ravi looked directly at the investigator who grilled him and accused him repeatedly of lying. He talked quickly but his voice didn't trail off.

Throughout the trial, Ravi sat about 20 feet from jurors wearing a suit, his formerly unkempt hair trimmed neatly. Sometimes, he fiddled with his tie. Sometimes, he cracked a smile. Sometimes, he whispered to his lawyers.

Born in India, Ravi came to New Jersey with his family as a young child. He and his family live in the upscale central New Jersey community of Plainsboro.

The son of a computer software firm executive, he has designed some software on his own.

The younger Ravi had a custom-made computer that functioned on both Microsoft and Apple Macintosh operating systems. That technical accomplishment — while not unheard of — impressed the detective assigned to examine the machine.

He was gregarious and good enough at calculus that other students came to him for help.

In high school, he ran track and played ultimate Frisbee, then joined the disc team when he got to Rutgers. He was proud when he bought new cleats for the sports, describing them in a text message to a friend as "purple and flashy."

At Rutgers, he planned to major in economics. The university assigned him and Clementi to be roommates at random. They didn't meet before they moved in at the end of August.

When he met with police, he was asked to explain a Twitter post in which he said: "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 pm and 12."

On the video, he said he meant that sarcastically. "When I'm uncomfortable about something," Ravi explained during the interrogation, "I joke about it."

To convict him on the most serious charge — bias intimidation — prosecutors will need to convince the jury that he acted out of animus against gays. He faces up to 10 years of prison if he's convicted of bias intimidation, which is considered a hate crime in New Jersey. Most people convicted of the other charges he faces don't get jail time.

Throughout the trial, defense lawyers have worked hard to show that he didn't.

As prosecutors called college students to testify, defense lawyers asked them all a variation of the same question: Did he ever say anything bad about gays? In each case, the answer was "no."

But there was a bit more to it than that. Some students said Ravi told them he was "uncomfortable" having a gay roommate.

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Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

Come and SEE Life Savers at Pride In Australia

The Lifesavers With Pride crew are a highlight of every Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and 2012 was no exception! Enjoy stunning images by French photographer Franck Weens.

Yahoo Goes After FaceBook in Court

• Charles Arthur and agencies
• guardian.co.uk

Yahoo has filed a lawsuit against the social networking site Facebook, claiming infringement of patents. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Yahoo is filing a lawsuit against Facebook claiming infringement of patents covering advertising, privacy controls and social networking, following through on a threat it made last month.

In a court filing , the former web giant - which has been reduced to a shadow of its former self as internal strife and the rise of Facebook have eaten away at its position - said that Facebook, founded in 2004, infringes 10 of its patents.

Yahoo had first threatened the suit last month. It demanded that the giant social network, which is preparing to go public in what may be one of the largest public offerings ever, should license the patents.

Facebook, in response, pledged to defend itself vigorously against what it called "puzzling actions" by Yahoo. "We're disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook, has decided to resort to litigation," the company said in a statement.

The patent claims could cast a spotlight on Facebook's vulnerabilities as the company tries to complete an initial public offering of stock this spring. At the end of 2011, only 56 US patents had been issued to Facebook. That's a relatively small number compared with other big tech companies. Yahoo, founded in March 1996, has filed more than 1,000 patents covering various aspects of its operation.

Lawsuits over patents, even in the realm of software rather than physical hardware, have become increasingly common in US business, where the US Patent Office is seen as more willing to grant patents on programmatic functions. Oracle is currently suing Google over patents that it claims to have which relate to the Java computing language and which it says are infringed by the Android mobile operating system.

Similarly, a number of software developers who have written apps for Apple's iPhone and Google's Android software have been targeted by companies in the US claiming ownership of patents covering their functions.

But software patent lawsuits often fizzle out. Oracle has withdrawn a number of those which it claimed to have, while Microsoft and a number of other companies succeeded in defeating a claim in February by Eolas, which claimed a patent on the "interactive web" - one in which Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, personally testified.

Yahoo defended its lawsuit, saying it has invested "substantial resources in research and development" over the years that have led to patents of technology that other companies have licensed. "Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved," the company said in a statement.

Yahoo, which has seen its revenue fall steadily over the past three years, made hundreds of millions of dollars from a patent settlement that it reached with Google just before that internet search leader went public in 2004. That covered the system used to generate the advertisements seen beside search results: Yahoo owns Overture, the company which first came up with the idea of keyword-targeted adverts to go with searches.

Yahoo will be hoping for a similar result this time round. It has been steadily losing share to Facebook in online display advertising: in 2008 it hit a high, when Yahoo's share of US display revenues peaked at 18.4% and Facebook had just a 2.9% share. According to eMarketer, in 2011 Facebook's share of overall US display advertising revenues grew to 14%, up from an 11.5% share in 2010, while, Yahoo's share of US display ad revenues fell to 10.8% in 2011 from 14% in 2010.

• Twitter has bought the blogging site Posterous, "This team has built an innovative product that makes sharing across the web and mobile devices simple – a goal we share," Twitter said in a statement. "Posterous engineers, product managers and others will join our teams working on several key initiatives that will make Twitter even better."

Posterous has previously raised $10.4m in venture capital funding, with $5m being injected last September, which implies that its sale price will have been well above that value.

Oprah Could Not Contain Her Emotions With Whitney’s Sis in Law

She's usually the rock who holds it together as people open up about their lives to her.

But even veteran interview Oprah Winfrey couldn't contain her emotions as Patricia recounted the awful moment she discovered her sister-in-law Whitney dead.

Both Oprah and Patricia dissolved into floods of tears during the first television interview with the family since Whitney's death last month.

Tough talk: Whitney Houston's sister-in-law Patricia Houston spoke out about the moment she found the singer dead in her hotel room

Recalling the fateful day, February 11, Patricia explained how Whitney had eaten lunch in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton and she was returning from running an errand when she went to go and see the singer in her room. 

She explained: 'I headed down the hallway I heard screaming.'

'I was going to her room she had been asking for me she had called my phone twice and I was going to see her.'

Patricia explained: 'I headed down the hallway to her room and I heard screams and I saw the hairstylist (Mary) drop to her knees and I kept walking very slowly a woman opened her door.'

Emotional story: Oprah broke down in tears as Patricia told how a Mary a hairstylist and makeup artist had found Whitney before she entered the hotel room

Emotional: Both Patricia and Oprah were reduced to tears as Mrs Houston explained the events of February 11 

'I saw the makeup artist drop to her knees and I knew something was wrong I was just numb I walked I told her to dial 911.'

At this point both Patricia and Oprah Winfrey broke down in tears at the emotional story.

After regaining her composure Patricia continued: 'I got close and I turn the corner Mary was at the door and she is screaming "Oh my god" I told her to stop and I said "calm down"'

'When I got into the room I saw Ray (security guard) trying to revive her to the point of exhaustion. I said "Ray", the paramedics were coming in at that point, I said "Ray let it go"'. 

'He said "I tried" he was so out of breath I felt so badly for him.'

Patricia said Whitney was in the bathtub and had a peaceful look on her face. 

She explained: 'She was in the tub – I don’t know how she got there. They had to pull her out of the tub and were trying to revive her.' 

'We had a spiritual connection': Patricia told Oprah how close she and the late singer were

Patricia, who was not only Whitney's friend but also her manager, said the paramedics asked her to leave. 

She said: 'I couldn’t leave her and I said don’t touch me please and I saw them cover her up and I knew that that was it. I knew that was it. Just looking at her and watching that I still could not believe it I could not believe it.'

While all this was going on Whitney's daughter Bobby Kristina was also at the hotel and was in fact sitting on the balcony of her own hotel room down the hall. 

Oprah made sure she got the details of that day clear and said: 'Mary found her and Mary called Ray who was across the hall and you were the next person in that room?'

Patricia replied: 'I believe so yes.'

Describing her relationship with Whitney Patricia had said: 'There was a spiritual connection.'

Changing: Patricia said in the years before Whitney's death she was changing her life around, but was 'looking for love in other places'

She also said that she felt Whitney's spirit was still with her and speaking to her - something Whitney's daughter Bobbi Kristina had spoken of earlier. 

Patricia said: 'Her spirit is so strong she is always telling me ‘I got you’ I got your back.'

Later in the interview Patricia also said that she always feared drugs would end the singer’s life.

Patricia also said she was 'kidding herself' to say that she hadn't worried about the tragic singer's lifestyle over the years.

Speaking for the first time to trusted U.S talkshow host Oprah, Patricia, who is married to Whitney's brother, was asked if she thought drugs would end up 'taking' Whitney Houston. The 'handwriting was kind of on the wall,' she replied.

The pop star was changing how she lived, Patricia said, and 'it wasn’t about substance abuse or anything like that relative to the ... latter days or anything like that.'

Revealing: Bobbi Kristina and Gary Houston are also interviewed on Oprah

'It was just more of a lifestyle. I was afraid for other things,' she added, 'I saw her chasing a dream, you know, looking for love in all the wrong places.'

Whitney was found unresponsive in a Los Angeles hotel room on February 11. The exact cause of death is yet to be confirmed, as toxicology results are still pending.

'Were you always afraid of that day, February 11, showing up in your life?' Oprah asked her. 'Were you always afraid of getting a phone call or hearing that this is the day that it's happened?'

'If things hadn't changed. But things had, were, changing,' Patricia responded. 'Things were really changing with her. Very much so. ... I was afraid for other things.'

Worried: The family reveal to Oprah they were 'afraid' for Whitney's future, Patricia is seen here with Whitney just three days before she died in LA

Patricia also spoke about the Thursday night before her death when she Bobbi Kristina and Whitney attended a party together.

At the pre-Grammy event Whitney was said to have had a fight with former American Idol contestant Stacy Francis. 

Patricia said she went to the event as 'sister protector' and saw Whitney and Stacy exchange angry words but said there was no violence.

Remembering Whitney: The interview ended with Gary and Patricia singing a Whitney track and Gary and Oprah broke down in tears

When asked if the father daughter pair have a relationship she said she didn't really know but added that 'their last meeting in California was sweet.'

Houston, 48, was found in a Beverly Hills hotel room bathtub on the eve of the Grammy Awards. Investigators found several bottles of prescription medication in the room, and tests were being conducted to determine the cause of her Feb. 11 death.

The pop star, whose hits included 'I Will Always Love You,' had a history of substance abuse.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

By SARAH FITZMAURICE 

GaGa and Her Mom Sit With Oprah } See Preview

 

Lady Gaga and Oprah, two of the world’s most powerful women, have been spending a lot of time together lately. Two weeks ago, Gaga launched her Born This Way Foundation at Harvard University with the help of Oprah, and now Mother Monster — alongside her own mother, Cynthia Germanotta — has opened up her home for an exclusive interview that will air on Oprah’s network next Sunday. Head below to check out a sneak peak of the two-hour interview.

Oprah gives us an inside look at the life of Lady Gaga by going inside the star’s New York apartment that she grew up in, and speaks with her mother about raising a superstar. The full two-hour special, part of her “Oprah’s Next Chapter” series, airs on Sunday March 18 at 9 p.m. OWN.

. idolator.com

Jake Gyllenhaal cracked-out fencer in ‘Time to Dance’ video} Sauna Shot

 by Cyd Zeigler jr..

Jake Gyllenhaal, he who earned a cult gay following for his role in Brokeback Mountain, stars in a new music video for ‘Time To Dance’ by The Shoes. In the bizarre video he plays a fencer (or a guy with a fencing fetish) who goes on a cracked-out murderous rampage. There’s even a gratuitous sauna shot for all his gay fans.

http://outsports.com

‘Equal' Access Housing Rule } HUD Secretary

•  
  U.S. Secretary for Housing & Urban Development, Shaun Donovan speaks at The White House LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Conference on Housing & Homelessness held at Wayne State University in Detroit. DETROIT FREE PRESS OUT-HUFFINGTON POST OUT-NO MAGS--NO ARCHIVE-MANDATORY CREDIT (The Detroit News, Max Ortiz / AP)

  A new rule took effect this week barring those who own or operate U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-funded housing from asking about an applicant's sexual orientation or gender identity, an Obama Administration official announced Friday.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said the new equal access to housing rule "says clearly and unequivocally that LGBT individuals and couples have the right to live where they choose."

Donovan made the announcement at a White House conference on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender housing and homelessness in Detroit. The daylong conference at Wayne State University brought together advocates, community leaders and the public to discuss the issue of the tens of thousands of homeless youths across America who are LGBT.

Detroit has the only nonprofit agency in the Midwest that focuses on LGBT youth — the Ruth Ellis Center, which co-hosted Friday's conference

The new rule, Donovan said, represents "a real demonstration of how important this issue is to me, to the president to the entire administration."

"If you're denying HUD housing to people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity — actual or perceived — you're discriminating," he said. "You are breaking the law, and you will be held accountable."

Barbara McQuade, the Detroit-based U.S. attorney and a panelist in one of the sessions at Friday's conference, called the new rule "a big deal."

"I really applaud the administration, which isn't waiting around for Congress" to act on this issue, she said.

A letter on the new rule was sent out to HUD grantees, said Raphael Bostic, assistant secretary for policy development and research at HUD.

"This is serious and something people need to pay attention to," Bostic said.

LGBT young people represent a dramatically high proportion of an estimated 600,000 or more homeless youths across the country — between 20 percent and 40 percent, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. But only about 5 percent of young people identify themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are about four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers, according to the CDC. And one in three is thrown out by their parents, according to data collected from youth across the country by the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University.

Donovan said Friday plans are under way to conduct the first-ever national study of LGBT housing discrimination. He called it a "historic and important study" that HUD designed based on town halls conducted on the issue. The study is designed to get "a clearer picture of the problem" and to make "the case that LGBT discrimination is real and that we need to do something about it."

___

  Verena Dobnik in New York contributed to this report.