Feb 22

Jeh Johnson: Congress Standoff Over DHS Funding Is 'Bizarre And Absurd'

Posted in: Today's Chili

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson lashed out at Congress for failing to reach an agreement to fund his department.

“It’s bizarre and absurd that we’re even having this discussion in these challenging times,” he told “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd on Sunday. “We’re talking about the possibility of shutting down Homeland Security because Congress can’t agree.”

Homeland Security will be forced to shutdown on Saturday if Congress doesn’t pass a bill to fund it. The Senate will vote on a House-passed bill on Monday, but it likely will fail, as Senate Democrats have managed to filibuster the legislation three times already.

Republicans are at odds over a proposed amendment included in the bill that would block President Obama’s executive action on immigration. The president has also said he would veto such a bill.

Watch Johnson’s comments in the video above.

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Feb 22

What Time The Oscars Start, And Everything Else You Need To Know About The Academy Awards

Posted in: Today's Chili

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oscar movies this year may be small, but they’re packing a lot of drama.

When the 87th Academy Awards kick off Sunday night at 8:30 EST, the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles will be buzzing with something the Oscars haven’t always had in recent years: genuine intrigue at who the night’s biggest winners will be. The Oscars may also have another sight unusual to Southern California: rain. Light afternoon showers are expected, which could dampen red-carpet arrivals (though the carpet itself is under a glass tent).

With a co-leading nine nominations, Alejandro Inarritu’s backstage comedy “Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” flies in with the strongest wind at its back. It topped the acting, directing and producing guild awards, which are often strong predictors of what the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will vote for.

“Birdman” also won best feature at Saturday’s Independent Film Spirit Awards, further boosting its momentum. At the pre-Oscars beachside bash, star Michael Keaton, who won best actor, proclaimed the film “bold cinema” and “a game changer,” a judgment shared by many in Hollywood who no doubt recognize something in Keaton’s character’s out-of-control ego.

But the coronation of “Birdman” is far from assured. Many believe the landmark of Richard Linklater 12-years-in-the-making “Boyhood” will ultimately prove irresistible to academy members. Best director also appears to be a toss-up between Inarritu and Linklater.

Three of the acting winners — Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”), J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash”) and Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”) — are virtual locks going into Sunday’s show, but best actor will be a nail biter. It could be the young British star Eddie Redmayne for his technically nuanced performance as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything,” or it could be Keaton’s career-topper in “Birdman,” as an actor trying to flee his superhero past.

But whether suspense will be enough to pull viewers to the telecast on ABC remains to be seen. Host Neil Patrick Harris will hope to continue the recent ratings upswing for the Oscars, which last year drew 43 million viewers, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast in a decade.

This year’s crop of nominees, however, is notably light on box-office smashes. Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” (six nominations including best picture) is the only best-picture candidate to gross more than $100 million domestically. (A runaway hit, it recently surpassed $300 million.)

Possibly worse for the Oscars is that the lack of diversity in the nominees this year (all 20 nominated actors are white) turned off many potential viewers and led some to call for a boycott of the broadcast. Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are likely to aim for a telecast more inclusive than the nominees.

Planned performers include Lady Gaga, Jack Black, Jennifer Hudson and Anna Kendrick, as well as Oscar-nominated original songs: Common and John Legend (“Glory” from “Selma”), Maroon 5 (“Lost Stars” from “Begin Again”), Tim McGraw (“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from “Glen Campbell . I’ll Be Me”), Rita Ora (“Grateful” from “Beyond the Lights”) and Tegan and Sara with the Lonely Island (“Everything Is Awesome” from “The Lego Movie”).

Oprah Winfrey (a co-star in “Selma”) will be among the presenters, as will Eddie Murphy, Chris Pratt, Kevin Hart, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum and John Travolta.

Increasingly, ratings are driven by moments that spark social media frenzy, like when Travolta famously mispronounced the name of singer Idina Menzel as “Adele Dazeem” at last year’s show. Sunday night, he gets a chance for redemption.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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Feb 22

Bill O'Reilly's Former Colleague Calls Him Out For 'Fabrication' Of Falklands War Story

Posted in: Today's Chili

A former colleague of Bill O’Reilly accused the Fox News host on Sunday of embellishing his war reporting experience in Argentina after the Falklands War.

Eric Engberg, a retired CBS correspondent who was working with O’Reilly in Buenos Aires at the time, says the scene in the capital was less dangerous than O’Reilly has led the public to believe.

“It wasn’t a combat situation by any sense of the word that I know,” Engberg, who worked for CBS for 26 years, told CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” “[O’Reilly] is trying to build it up into a more frightening and deadly situation than it was.”

O’Reilly initially drew criticism earlier this week when left-leaning magazine Mother Jones published a report questioning his claim that he “reported on the ground in active war zones from El Salvador to the Falklands” during his time with CBS and “survived a combat situation in Argentina during the Falklands War.”

The controversy seems to turn on whether the riots O’Reilly experienced — which took place after the Argentines surrendered, and in Buenos Aires, 1,200 miles from the Falklands — constituted a “combat situation.”

“I don’t know of any American foreign correspondent who had a weapon pointed at him. I didn’t hear any gunfire,” Engberg said of the riots. “Not only did I not hear any gunfire, as I say, I didn’t hear any sirens.”

News reports from the time do describe police firing guns, as well as throwing tear gas and firing rubber bullets, in response to rioters breaking windows and throwing sticks and stones. However, no fatalities were reported.

O’Reilly addressed the charges on Fox News’ “Media Buzz” on Sunday. Host Howard Kurtz asked O’Reilly whether he had misspoken by saying he had reported from an active war zone in the Falklands.

“All the CBS correspondents that were there were sent to cover the Falklands War … that was the description of what our job was,” O’Reilly responded. “When you have soldiers and military police firing into the crowd as The New York Times reports and you have people injured and hurt and you’re in the middle of that — that’s the definition [of combat].”

O’Reilly was referencing a New York Times report from 1982 that describes chaos in Argentina’s capital as demonstrators took to the streets. The report mentioned the sound of sirens and one instance of a policeman firing his weapon, though not into the crowd. “One policeman pulled a pistol, firing five shots over the heads of fleeing demonstrators,” the report reads.

“This is such a smear it’s unbelievable,” O’Reilly added.

Engberg first weighed in on the controversy in a Facebook post on Saturday. Bob Schieffer, another of O’Reilly’s former CBS colleagues — he was CBS News’ lead correspondent on the Falklands War — cast doubt on O’Reilly’s assertions by noting that reporters had been unable to reach the islands referenced in Mother Jones’ initial report. However, unlike Engberg, Schieffer did not address O’Reilly’s claims specifically.

On Sunday, Engberg told CNN’s Brian Stelter that he decided to speak out after seeing footage in which O’Reilly claimed he was the only reporter brave enough to cover the riots in Buenos Aires. “I was out there pretty much by myself because other CBS news correspondents were hiding in the hotel,” O’Reilly said, according to a clip played on “Reliable Sources.”

“What he just said is a fabrication — a lie,” Engberg said after CNN played the clip. Engberg added that other CBS News employees at the bureau — five correspondents and roughly 10 camera crew members — went out into the streets to cover the demonstrations.

“Nobody stayed in their hotel room because they were afraid,” Engberg said.

After Engberg’s initial claims, O’Reilly invited his former colleague to appear on “The O’Reilly Factor” to discuss the allegations, and called the CBS veteran a “coward” for declining to do so. Engberg explained his decision to Stelter on Sunday.

“I don’t want to turn this into an argument on his turf over what he did that night,” Engberg said. “I’m simply stating the facts. The facts speak for themselves. If he has a response to what the facts are, that’s fine — he can lay it out. I’m not going to argue about it.”

Video of both appearances below.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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Feb 22

Somalia's Al-Shabab Extremists Urge Attacks On U.S. Shopping Malls

Posted in: Today's Chili

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A video purported to be by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in the U.S., Canada, Britain and other Western countries.

The threat came in the final minutes of a more than hourlong video in which the extremists also warned Kenya of more attacks like the September 2013 assault on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in which 67 people were killed. The video included footage from major news organizations showing the assault on the mall and said it was in reprisal for alleged abuses by Kenyan troops against Muslims in Somalia. The masked narrator concluded by calling on Muslims to attack shopping malls, specifically naming the Mall of America in Minnesota, as well as the West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Westfield mall in Stratford, England.

The authenticity of the video could not be immediately verified by The Associated Press.

The narrator, his face wrapped in a black-and-white kaffiyeh-type scarf and wearing a camouflage jacket, spoke with a British accent and appeared to be of Somali origin.

“What if such an attack were to occur in the Mall of America in Minnesota? Or the West Edmonton Mall in Canada? Or in London’s Oxford Street?” the man said, then called for Britain’s Westfield mall to be targeted.

Speaking on morning talk shows in the U.S., Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called the video “the new phase” of the global terrorist threat and warned the public to be vigilant.

“These groups are relying more and more on independent actors to become inspired, drawn to the cause and they’ll attack on their own,” Johnson said, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I am very concerned about serious potential threats of independent actors here in the United States. We’ve seen this now in Europe, we’ve seen this in Canada.”

Asked about the specific threat against the Mall of America, Johnson said: “Any time a terrorist organization calls for an attack on a specific place we’ve got to take that seriously. What we’re telling the public is you’ve got to be vigilant. … There will be enhanced security there that will be apparent, but public vigilance, public awareness and public caution in situations like this is particularly important. It’s the environment we’re in.”

The Mall of America, one of the nation’s largest, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, said in a statement that it was “aware of a threatening video which includes a mention and images of the mall,” and said extra security had been put in place

Shoppers seemed undeterred Sunday by the threat.

“I’m more afraid of the cold today than any terrorists,” said Mary Lamminen, of St. Paul.

David Modrynski said he talked with his wife and son about whether to visit the mall after hearing about the video. “But we can’t stop living our lives because somebody says they’re going to do something,” Modrynski said.

While al-Shabab has carried out attacks in neighboring Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, which all have troops fighting the extremists as part of the multinational African Union force, the al-Qaida affiliate has never operated outside East Africa and the Horn of Africa.

Minnesota, home to the largest Somali population in the U.S., has been the target of terror recruiters in the past. Since 2007, more than 22 young Somali men from Minnesota have traveled to Somalia to join al-Shabab, and a handful of Minnesota residents have also traveled to Syria to fight with militant groups within the last year, authorities say. At least one Minnesotan has died while fighting for the Islamic State group.

On Thursday, a 19-year-old Minneapolis man who was stopped at a New York City airport in November as he and three others were allegedly attempting to travel to Syria was indicted on charges associated with supporting the Islamic State group.

Last week U.S. Attorney Andy Luger led a Minnesota delegation, including law enforcement officials and Somali community leaders, to a White House summit on countering extremism and radicalization. In his remarks, Vice President Joe Biden held up Minneapolis, Boston and Los Angeles as examples of communities moving ahead with programs to counter extremism locally.

In Kenya, the government dismissed the al-Shabab video.

“They’re using propaganda to legitimize what cannot be legitimized. When you lead a group to go and attack a shopping mall and kill innocent shoppers that cannot be legitimized, those were not soldiers,” Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said.

“Muslims also died in the Westgate attack. It’s in our interest to ensure Somalia is stabilized because the instability affects us. The video is cheap propaganda trying to re-write history and to get more support from those support them.”

___

Associated Press writers Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya; Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis, Kia Farhang in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Thomas Strong in Washington contributed to this report.

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Feb 22

Patriotism Reconsidered

Posted in: Today's Chili

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It is tempting to dismiss Rudy Giuliani’s recent judgment about President Barack
Obama’s love of country as a sign that America’s Mayor will say almost anything to get back in the spotlight. We should not give Giuliani and his unapologetic lack of respect for a sitting president more attention than they deserve.

Unfortunately, Giuliani’s comments warrant more scrutiny for two reasons. Let’s ignore his red-bating allegation that President Obama was influenced by communists as a child, and focus instead on his statement that the President does not love America. Trying to explain himself on Fox News, Giuliani complained that President Obama “apologizes for America, he criticizes America.”

The first reason to pay attention is that this is the latest example of a pattern in which partisans engage in the character assassination of the President of the United States, whoever he or she may be. Barack Obama has been targeted repeatedly with ridiculous allegations from the element of the Republican Party that plays on the gullibility of its followers and plays dirty, in this case by seeding doubt about where Mr. Obama was born, his religious affiliation, his upbringing, his motives and now his love of country.

It is the same scummy political warfare that branded John Kerry as undeserving of his medals from the Vietnam War (an assault than continues today), and accused John McCain of fathering a black child out of wedlock. It is politics without truth, principle or conscience, so vile that the American people should defeat any candidate or political party that practices or condones it. Even in politics and with due respect for the First Amendment, there is a line we should not allow our politicians to cross.

Second, Giuliani’s comment reveals a skin-deep definition of patriotism that is, dare I say it, un-American. It is the idea that dissent is disloyal and that anyone who criticizes America hates America. That is an ironically perverted definition of loyalty in a nation born from dissent and whose proudest moments have come in protests against its flaws including racism, misogyny, injustice and other offenses against our deepest ideals.

Let’s break it down. To have a conscience is not to hate oneself, and to speak for the nation’s conscience is not unpatriotic. If it were, then we would have to conclude that some of our most respected leaders were disloyal by acknowledging when the nation has been wrong. Abraham Lincoln loved America no less for opposing slavery. Ronald Reagan was not unpatriotic when he signed the law in 1988 that admitted we were wrong to intern 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. To love America is to love it warts and all, and to care enough to speak up when it has lost its way.

Giuliani’s comments are symptomatic of an element in our politics that has distorted patriotism all the way down to our grass roots. Last year in Colorado, for example, conservative members of the Jefferson County School Board near Denver attempted to revise the district’s history books to emphasize the “positive aspects” of America and to avoid material that seemed to condone “civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law”.

Yet civil disobedience has been the heart and soul of patriotism in American history — the peaceful exercise of revolution that Thomas Jefferson believed must occur regularly for a healthy democracy. To their credit, hundreds of the district’s students responded with civil strife by walking out of their classes in protest.

Let’s remember who we are. We are the nation that became the arsenal of democracy to defeat Nazism in World War II. But we also are the nation that shut its doors to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi prosecution; in 1939, we even refused to dock a ship carrying several hundred Jews, sending them back into the holocaust.

We are the nation that went to war with itself — a war that cost 750,000 lives — to end slavery and whose president signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But we are also the nation whose highest court ruled in 1857 that African Americans were property and that even those who lived in free states had to return to slavery.

We are the nation whose states ratified the 19th Amendment in 1920, extending the right to vote to women. But we did so only after denying women that right, and even the right to own property, for nearly 150 years.

We are the nation whose pioneers underwent incredible hardship to settle the West. But we are also a nation whose president and Congress in 1830 ordered the forced march of nearly 125,000 Native Americans 1,000 miles west so that white cotton farmers could take over ancestral Indian lands. Thousands of Native Americans died of starvation and illness on what became known as the Trail of Tears.

We are the nation that Winston Churchill characterized when he said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.” Churchill was generous because there are issues where we still have not got it right.

Our most loyal leaders are those who care enough to hold a mirror up to the American people so we can see our flaws. Patriotism is much more profound a virtue than putting a bumper sticker on the back of a Hummer or singing the national anthem at the Superbowl. True patriotism is not goose-stepping along with the crowd when it strays from the path the Founders mapped. And as President Obama himself has reminded us, “a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.” That is not the statement of a president who does not love the country he leads.

One blogger responded to criticism of Giuliani’s statements by posting a video in which then-Sen. Obama called President George W. Bush “unpatriotic” for running up the national debt by borrowing from China. While Obama’s grounds for that allegation were more substantial than Giuliani’s, Obama should not have gone there either.

When public figures suggest that patriotism must be proved with frequent gushy pronouncements of love rather than the relentless blood-and-guts character-testing struggle that it really is, it is time for us to restore the true meaning of the concept.

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Feb 22

The Most Valuable Voters Of 2016 – NationalJournal.com

Posted in: Today's Chili

The election may come down to turning out minority voters and wooing seniors in the battleground states.

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Feb 22

The Little Guys Win at the Oscars

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The Gifting Suite at the W Hotel

The six-week public relations crush from the Academy Awards nominee announcements on January 15th, to the award show night on February 22nd, is a six-week glad-handing spin dance of red carpet galas, charity events, talk shows, luncheons, dinners, teas and cocktail parties that is an Oscar talent gauntlet. It is the power grind to the silver lining of success, the required social networking of Hollywood. Everyone wants a piece of the stars during awards season, and the stars want to be seen. Yet with all that taking, there is actually some giving that comes the stars way.

I attended one of the many gifting suites in the days before the Oscars, where nominees, stars and talent across the industry are invited to visit with and get gifts from a host of designers, manufacturers and vendors, everyone hoping to capture a little bit of their stardust.

“I was at Caan with friends eight years ago and we walked into a gifting suite and I immediately saw the business model,” says Amy Boatwright, one of the owners of Secret Room Events, a brand and product marketing firm in Los Angeles. “We do the Golden Globes, Emmys, Oscars, MTV Awards, there is nothing like a celebrity liking your product and using your product.”

And that’s the business model in a nutshell. Celebrity word of mouth, trumps just about everything else. It’s not contracted promotion, just sincere prestige if a celeb likes it. “We worked with a PJ company several years ago,” says Amy. “A celebrity mentioned them after our event and their sales took off. That’s the whole idea.”

Having your product in a gift bag starts at $1200, being there in person to be able to talk to celebrities or nominees starts at $5000 and shoots northward depending on your display size and position. The event was pretty crowded at the W hotel in Westwood, with a range of goods from fine wines to jewelry, rare books to aural readings, fine china, to health products and baby goods to sex toys and make up.

“It’s a business investment,” says wine importer Debbie Lane. Her company Testa Wines of the World is the sole importer of quality Chilean wines to the U.S. Their Undurraga labels were excellent, by the way, and so was her refreshing New York attitude. Her children, Craig and Bree were her marketing and sales department. This small family business started working out of their NYC apartment ten years ago until they built up a staff of 30. As they are re-building their brand, they were thrilled to connect with the celebrities that came over to try free wine and take home gift bottles. “You hope someone genuinely likes your product, so that their connection to you comes naturally,” she said.

Oscar nominee Julian Fere, who’s nominated for the live action short Butterland finds the whole experience other worldly. “Being French, this is totally unknown and bizarre to me. Are people in the U.S. used to this?” he asked delighted. “I couldn’t imagine this at home, I’m looking at it all like a child.”

“Performers are a little more used to the attention,” says Amy. She secretly enjoys meeting the directors and writers as they come through her suites. “They are so humble, they can’t believe it’s about them, or that it’s happening,” she says.

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Dustin Quick and John Savage

Agnes Olech, who’s starring as a character on True Detective‘s second season on HBO, loved the body care and make up. Andrea Bogart from Ray Donavan was enjoying the healthy and eco-friendly theme this year. A yoga advocate, she appreciated vendors like Rod Jackson, a barrel-chested, white-haired creator of his Nuwati Herbals line. He almost crushed my hand in his grip and was promoting his line of original herbals that fortified immune and good health. If he was a testament to his products, they worked.

Some of the stand out items to me were mint rare edition books like Moby Dick, and Paradise Lost from 1826 to Alice In Wonderland from 1872 and many in between from Imperial Fine Books and energetic healing sprays by Vanda which keep you “true to yourself.” I was pleased to see very high-end health products from Life Choice, a high end Canadian manufacturer who has won repeated national awards for their quality and high end ingredients. “Celebrities love these,” says Amy. “Anything to sustain health, anything for longevity.” I personally know about this brand from a radio show I did several years ago and got to know the owners. Eldon and Agnes Dahl are devoted healers with a dedication to high quality and specialize in rejuvenating health. I was thrilled to see them getting some well deserved attention.

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Rejuvination and Health from Life Choice

Breeda Wool, a tall red headed beauty in Unreal, airing this year on A&E, when asked her favorite product, told me she was torn between “either the complete works of Shakespeare (yes they were there in a mint 1800s rare edition in leather and gold gilt) or the sprawling dildos. (yes, they were there too, from a very high end Swedish manufacturer).” Breeda won the one liner of the day.

About 300 people rsvp’d to the event, and the turnout was excellent which started before lunch and ended at night. Amy noted this year’s health and nutrition angle was not planned, but very welcome as each year brings its own mix.

Other celebrities who attended agreed the event was fun, and even educational. Christie Lang, who starts in Once Upon a Time on CBS as Maid Marian was enjoying talking to the representatives from ancestrydna.com. She discussed the break in her own family’s history and how she’d love to know more about her family’s origin. Dustin Quick, voted one of the top 8 Indie Darlings at the Sundance Film Festival this year loved the “SoulVa” mist spray, that empowers and keeps you true to yourself by Vanda.

Al Sapienza, a veteran of Sopranos and House of Cards, you’ve loved him, or loved to hate him over the years, and who’s currently costarring in Ascension on CBS, was having a great time. “It’s my first one, if you can believe it,” said the storied performer with a career spanning three decades. “The people are nice and you get to see many interesting things you didn’t know about.” Perhaps he’ll unwittingly change the course of a company’s success by enjoying and discussing their product. That’s the little startdust they’re all hoping for. And then the little guys can win too.

Some of the highlights — if you’d like to see what the stars liked the best; the wine www.testawines.com, Rejuvination and Health www.life-choice.net, ancestry investigation www.ancestrydna.com, original jewelry nightfoxjewelry.com.

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Feb 22

The 20 Greatest Movie Songs Robbed of Oscar Nominations

Posted in: Today's Chili

Fifty years ago, Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger, arguably the greatest James Bond theme of all, and one of the most explosive musical compositions in the history of cinema missed winning the Academy Award for Best Song — in fact, it missed a nomination altogether. Yes, you read that correctly. Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger wasn’t even nominated.

Goldfinger’s omission makes even less sense when you see the forgettable song choices that actually received the nomination slots that year: Dear Heart, theme from the film Dear Heart and Where Love Has Gone, theme from the film Where Love Has Gone (anyone?)

For what its worth, Goldfinger is in great company when it comes to legendary movie songs that failed to garner any Oscar attention at all. In chronological order, here are 20 particularly shocking omissions from Oscar’s Best Song category…

1937: Someday My Prince Will Come — Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

Ranked at #19 in the AFI’s Greatest Film Songs of All Time, it seems unbelievable that this iconic Disney ballad sung to haunting perfection by Adriana Caselotti failed to get a nomination. In fact, no song from the Snow White songbook was nominated. Whistle While You Work, Heigh Ho — nothing. Even more surprising considering that Snow White was the first American feature film to have a soundtrack album released in conjunction with the film. While we’re at it, where was the love for other Disney heroine anthems A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes (Cinderella, 1950), All In The Golden Afternoon (Alice In Wonderland, 1951), and Once Upon A Dream (Sleeping Beauty, 1959) which resurfaced via Lana Del Rey in this year’s Oscar nominated Maleficent.

1944: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas — Meet Me in St. Louis

A heartbreaking holiday ballad so ubiquitous that many have forgotten it originated with Judy Garland in this great Vincente Minnelli movie musical. Another Christmas classic Oscar oversight: Silver Bells, which debuted in the 1950 film, The Lemon Drop Kid.

1948: Steppin’ Out With My Baby — Easter Parade

Penned by Irving Berlin, this song has legs (thank you Tony Bennett!) despite no Academy Award nomination in its heyday.

1953: That’s Entertainment — The Band Wagon

Ironic that Oscar would ignore a song that has become an anthem for the entertainment industry much like Hooray For Hollywood (which was also snubbed by the Academy in 1937 when it premiered in the film Hollywood Hotel).

1961: Can’t Help Falling In Love — Blue Hawaii

Maybe the Academy didn’t take Elvis Presley’s movies seriously enough to recognize the amazing music that he was creating for the screen. This timeless ballad holds up today as it did in 1961. Same goes for Love Me Tender and Jailhouse Rock, two other Elvis movie song classics unfortunately ignored by Oscar.

1964: A Hard Day’s Night — A Hard Day’s Night

A Hard Day’s Night, The Fool On The Hill, I Am The Walrus, Ticket To Ride, Help!, or Your Mother Should Know — all songs introduced in Beatles movies and all Academy eligible but The Beatles never received a Best Song Oscar nomination for their musical contribution to film.

1964: Goldfinger — Goldfinger

No Oscar love for the gold standard of Bond themes. Opening with an impenetrable wall of blaring horns and building to a thrilling climax: six glass smashing seconds of the word “gold” as torpedoed by Shirley Bassey’s lethal weapon of a voice. At two minutes and 50 seconds, the song is a movie unto itself. Other great Bond themes ignored by Oscar: Duran Duran’s A View To A Kill, Tom Jones’ Thunderball, and Bassey’s other Bond masterpiece, Diamonds Are Forever. Until 1973’s Live & Let Die, Oscar ignored Bond music.

The original title sequence to Goldfinger:

1967: To Sir With Love — To Sir With Love

It was the #1 pop single for the year 1967, and one of the very best movie songs of all time yet mysteriously forgotten by Oscar. Lulu, we love you!

Lulu singing To Sir With Love (and sounding incredible!) in 2007:

1968: Springtime For Hitler — The Producers

Though Mel Brooks deservedly won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for The Producers, this hilarious, daring number should have been recognized with at least a nomination. Perhaps the song was too edgy/darkly comic for the Academy’s tastes at the time.

1969: Everybody’s Talkin’‘ — Midnight Cowboy

Deemed ineligible by the Academy because folksinger Fred Neil had recorded it in 1966, Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talkin’ is such an integral part of Midnight Cowboy, you can’t imagine the film without it.

1971: Pure Imagination — Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Though the film did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Score, this touching ballad, sung memorably onscreen by Oscar nominated actor Gene Wilder, should have been a shoo-in for the Best Song category.

1977: Theme from New York, New York — New York, New York

How did the Academy miss the boat on this one? Oscar winner Liza Minnelli belting her dramatic best in this showstopping Kander & Ebb theme to a Martin Scorsese film. With this pedigree, it really is surprising that Oscar stopped “spreading the news.”

1977: The many hits from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack — Saturday Night Fever

One of the biggest movie musical triumphs ever with multiple number one songs — all of them sensational: Stayin’ Alive, How Deep Is Your Love, More Than A Woman, and Night Fever by The Bee Gees, and Yvonne Elliman’s stellar If I Can’t Have You. When I look at what made the Best Song Oscar cut that year, I seriously have to question was Someone’s Waiting For You from The Rescuers or The Slipper & The Rose Waltz from The Slipper & The Rose really better?

1980: Call Me — American Gigolo

New York City’s coolest new wave rockers, Blondie + European disco producer Giorgio Moroder = a perfect musical marriage, and the #1 song of 1980 would’ve livened up the Best Song category that year. “Call me — call me for your lover’s lover’s alibi” belted a kickass Debbie Harry in the song’s fiery finale, but the Academy did not return the call. What did make the cut? People Alone, the Love Theme to The Competition…(anyone?)

1980: Magic or anything from Xanadu

This delectable, ear candy collaboration between Electric Light Orchestra and Olivia Newton John transported the listener to a magical synth pop world of neon disco lights, shooting stars and Greek Gods. Though it’s revered as a cult classic today, in 1980 the movie tanked hard, which didn’t help its Oscar chances.

1985: Don’t You Forget About Me — The Breakfast Club

“Hey Hey Hey Heeey!” Simple Minds’ worldwide smash practically defines 80s teen angst pop culture — and in its heyday was massive — so it’s surprising that the Oscars forgot about it. In fact, the mid-80s was jam-packed with worthy contenders ignored by Oscar including Kiss by Prince (Under The Cherry Moon, 1986), Holding Out For A Hero by Bonnie Tyler(Footloose, 1984), To Live & Die In L.A. by Wang Chung (1985), Crazy For You by Madonna (Visionquest, 1985), If You Leaveby O.M.D. (Pretty In Pink, 1986), Living In America by James Brown (Rocky IV, 1986), Sexcrime by Eurythmics (1984, 1984), This Is Not Americaby David Bowie with Pat Metheny (The Falcon & The Snowman, 1985), Invincible by Pat Benatar (The Legend of Billie Jean, 1985), Is Your Love Strong Enough by Bryan Ferry (Legend, 1985), and MANY others.

1989: Fight The Power — Do The Right Thing

The greatest hip hop song ever to be created for a film (written upon the request of director Spike Lee) Public Enemy’s explosive anthem has been hailed by Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Time Magazine, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, AFI, and The National Endowment for the Arts, but was ignored by Oscar.

1993: This Is Halloween — The Nightmare Before Christmas

Brilliant, brooding, spookhouse of a number — a real highlight in the Tim Burton canon. Should’ve been a nominee.

1995: Gangsta’s Paradise — Dangerous Minds

Deemed ineligible for the Oscar due to the samples it used — shame because this wasn’t just a number one smash, but a big symphony of sound — and a wonderful complement to the hit film, which was incidentally scored by Wendy & Lisa, who worked on the music for Purple Rain that collected the Oscar for Best Score in 1984.

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Feb 22

Wind-powered drone can fly for hours at a time

Posted in: Today's Chili

Wind-powered drone can fly for hours at a timeThe average consumer drones that are becoming more and more popular these days run on batteries, which means at best they can stay in the air between 20 and 30 minutes at a time. But XAir Unmanned Aerial Systems, a California startup, has begun work on a drone model that is powered by the wind, with a prototype that was … Continue reading

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Feb 22

IE Users Not Please With Norton AntiVirus Update.

Posted in: Today's Chili

sshot51f1656ec3d95Since 2014, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been stuck in  second place after Google Chrome overtook it as the biggest browser in terms of market shares. Unfortunately for Internet Explorer, Norton Internet Security Antivirus has after a slight blunders, deviated them further from their plan of becoming first again. The incident happened after an overnight update to Norton AntiVirus that has prevented Internet Explorer from working at all.

By using other browsers, aggravated users had then took to Norton’s official forum to vent and rant about the blunders.

In a thread started by a 4years forum contributor, Sunfox, who wrote

“Running NIS on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit with IE11 (latest updated). Sometime this evening, IE11 started crashing. In fact, it crashed an already-open browsing session, and now trying to start it up just instantly causes a “Internet Explorer Has Stopped Working” error.

It wasn’t an isolated incident according to the contributor, who also wrote:

I have a third PC that’s barely used for anything, also running W7 Pro / IE10… started it up, IE was fine, forced Norton to update (said last updated 6 hours ago)… bam. IE10 stopped working. This is not a coincidence.”

Other forum members has then quickly concurred with the findings and figured out that an update to the AntiVirus had indeed broken something critical relating to IE.

Forum contributors continuously shared their plights with one another until about 0400 GMT, at which point a member of Symantec staff  posted the solution:

“Kindly run manual live update (right click on Norton icon on tray notification area > ‘Run live update ‘),” helpfully adding “Kindly stop using work-arounds.”

After which point the problem seemed fixed. Users still affected by the snafu are advised to re-run Norton LiveUpdate. If you’ve been hit, that will hopefully fix your issue. Good luck!

IE Users Not Please With Norton AntiVirus Update. , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

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