Brandy Rayana Norwood (born February 11, 1979), known professionally as Brandy, is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, television entertainer, actress, and film producer. In 2009, she introduced her rap alter-ego Bran’Nu.[1]
Born into a musical family in McComb, Mississippi and raised in Carson, California, Norwood first appeared in a supporting role on the short-lived ABC sitcom Thea in 1993. Her engagement led to her own star vehicle, successful UPN sitcom Moesha in 1996, and resulted in roles in the 1998 horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and the TV films Rodgers and Hammerstein‘s Cinderella (1997) and Double Platinum (1999), two of television’s best rated special programs.[2]
In 1993, she signed a recording contract with Atlantic, releasing her self-titled debut album a year after. Following a major success with Grammy Award-winning “The Boy Is Mine“, a duet with singer Monica, and her second album Never Say Never in 1998, a series of successful records established her as one of the most successful of the new breed of urban R&B female vocalists to emerge during the mid-to late 1990s. Her latest studio album, Human (2008), was her first effort to be released on the Epic label after a label change in 2005.
The RIAA ranks Norwood as one of the best-selling female artists in American music history, having sold over 10.7 million copies of her five studio albums in the United States and over 30 million records worldwide, to date.[3][4][5] Additionally, she has won over 100 awards as a recording artist.[2] In 1999, Billboard ranked Norwood among the top 20 of the top pop artists of the 1990s.[6] Brandy has also been ranked among the top 50 greatest teen stars of all time.
Currently, Norwood is competing on the eleventh season of Dancing with the Stars, which premiered on September 20, 2010 on ABC.[7] Brandy and her partner Maksim were shockingly eliminated on November 16, 2010 finishing the competition in 4th place.
3 Chics sending mega love to our sista Brandy! Girl, we know you brought the grace, class, and mad skills to the dance floor. Those “REAL” Americans out voted Brandy’s fans,(basically, if folks didn’t vote for Brandy, you really can’t complain.
Did ABC rig the results? We know you’re the better, talented more skilled performer.
HAPPY HUMP DAY, Folks!
David Leppard
TWO serving MI6 officers have allegedly leaked confidential information to a firm of private consultants with links to the
family of the president of Kazakhstan.
The consultants are said to have been commissioned to obtain the information at a time when the American justice department
was investigating allegations of bribes paid by American oil companies to **********, the Kazakh president, and his top
officials.
A 300-page report, said to have been prepared by the consultants, purports to summarise confidential MI6 files on political
and economic issues affecting the oil-rich state.
One MI6 officer is said to have divulged that MI6 was “closely observing” the role of Hurricane Hydrocarbons, a Canadian oil
company, and financial arrangements involving oilfields in Kazakhstan. A second MI6 officer is alleged to have revealed
information that the service held on Akezhan Kazhegeldin, the former Kazakh prime minister. The report also contains
information that it claims was given by Scotland Yard detectives.
The leaked document has been circulating in Washington for several months. Lawyers with knowledge of the case accept that the
authors of the report may have embellished details of their contacts with law enforcement officials on both sides of the
Atlantic.
Yesterday a Whitehall security official said the report did not appear to match MI6’s own records. Arman Baisuanov, a
counsellor at the Kazakhstan embassy in London, denied that his government had been involved in any inappropriate or illegal
activity.
********** is chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee which is responsible to parliament for overseeing the affairs
of MI6. He said he was alarmed at suggestions that serving British intelligence officers might have leaked information that
could have found its way into the hands of people whom the agency was monitoring.
“If true, these allegations raise very serious concerns and I expect the government to investigate them,” he said.
The Sunday Times has seen a copy of a report by Global Options Management, a firm of private security consultants with
offices in Washington and, previously, in London.
The company is chaired by **********, who is an economic adviser to the Kazakhstan government and a director of the country’s
sovereign wealth fund. Political opponents of the Kazakh regime claim that ********** is ********** “point man” in Washington
and that he helps to manage some of the Kazakh leader’s wealth.
********** last week declined to comment. **********, his spokesman, said: “********** is a respected business consultant
based in the United States who rigorously abides by the laws and regulations of any country in which he operates.”
Privately, aides said ********** was “aware” of a report. But, shown a copy of the relevant extracts of the report, they
declined to comment publicly.
********** has admitted in the past that he has had dealings with **********, the president’s daughter who is an opera
singer. But he denies that his firm had been hired by her to compile the document.
**********, the president’s former son-in-law, has claimed that ********** has diverted billions of dollars in state assets
and has long taken commissions from foreign companies doing business in Kazakhstan.
Выдаем кредиты приглашаем к сотрудничеству агентов, выгодные условия для сотрудничества
Приглашаем надежных партнеров в свой бизнес или станем партнерами в Вашем бизнесе.
http://www.ikvostok.ru
инвестор ищет проект
Alvin Greene’s Elevator Does Not Leave the Basement! Ya know someone needs to help this Brother…
Alvin Greene Requests Jury Trial On Obscenity Charge
Alvin Greene ran around during his post election event and called himself a warrior.
Former U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene wants a jury to decide whether he’s guilty of the obscenity charges he’s facing. He’s charged with misdemeanor and felony counts of showing pornography to a USC student in a dorm computer room, then asking to go to her room.
Greene was in a Columbia courtroom Tuesday and the prosecutor handling the case thought Greene was going to plead guilty. The solicitor’s office had offered to let Greene plead guilty to just the misdemeanor charge.
But Greene changed his mind and asked for a jury trial. That will take place in January at the earliest.
“I’m really angry about what happened today. I was expecting to be over with this and have him sentenced today,” said Camille McCoy Tuesday afternoon. She’s the USC student Greene is charged with showing the pornography to.
“I would like to see him in handcuffs,” she said.
Her mother Susan added, “We thought that was going to happen today. That would be our dream, for him to go to jail.”
Greene faces a maximum of three years in prison on the misdemeanor charge and five years on the felony.
Greene was the surprise winner of the South Carolina Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. He lost to incumbent Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in the general election.
November 17, 2010 1:33 PM
Democrats Press GOP Lawmakers to Turn Down Government Health Care
A group of House Democrats has released a letter to Republican congressional leaders calling on them to announce which of their members will be forgoing their congressional benefit health insurance (which is subsidized by the government) in light of their party’s opposition to health care reform overhaul legislation.
“If your conference wants to deny millions of Americans affordable health care, your members should walk that walk,” four Democrats write in the letter, which is addressed to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader John Boehner. “You cannot enroll in the very kind of coverage that you want for yourselves, and then turn around and deny it to Americans who don’t happen to be Members of Congress.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20023107-503544.html
Maya Angelou to Receive Nation’s Highest Civilian Honor
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 | 3:00 PM
President Obama is gearing up to announce this year’s recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Although the full list hasn’t been released, a White House source tells ESSENCE exclusively that two of the honorees — selected for their contributions to the United States’ national interests, world peace or culture — are notable African-Americans.
I have NO objections to Ms. Angelo as a recipient of this award.
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Breaking News Alert: GM to price stock at $33 per share in one of the largest IPOs in history
November 17, 2010 5:08:08 PM
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General Motors said Thursday that it will price its stock at $33 a share for its initial public offering, making it one of the largest IPOs in history.
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com
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Republicans postpone Obama meeting to avoid another ass-kicking, and then lie about it
By David Neiwert
According to Fox News, the canceled summit meeting between President Obama and Republican House leaders to discuss the extension of the Bush tax cuts was just a matter of conflicting schedules.
But according to El Hacko Supremo Glenn Thrush at Politico, it’s actually about Republican hurt feelings because President Obama supposedly “crashed” a GOP House gathering in January:
The roots of the partisan standoff that led to the postponement of the bipartisan White House summit scheduled for Thursday date back to January, when President Barack Obama crashed a GOP meeting in Baltimore to deliver a humiliating rebuke of House Republicans.
Obama’s last-minute decision to address the House GOP retreat – and the one-sided televised presidential lecture many Republicans decried as a political ambush – has left a lingering distrust of Obama invitations and a wariness about accommodating every scheduling request emanating from the West Wing, aides tell POLITICO.
“He has a ways to go to rebuild the trust,” said a top Republican Hill staffer. “The Baltimore thing was unbelievable. There were [House Republicans] who only knew Obama was coming when they saw Secret Service guys scouting out the place.”
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/republicans-postpone-obama-meeting-a
For slain soldier’s mom, Bush’s book reopens old wounds
Jane Bright, who lost her son in Iraq, finds no sympathy and no humor in the former president’s account of his most critical decisions.
By Steve Lopez
November 17, 2010
Jane Bright, who lives in Newbury Park and lost a son to the war in Iraq, doesn’t intend to buy former President George W. Bush’s new book. As much as possible, she has tuned out the hoopla over “Decision Points,” for which Bush was paid a reported $7 million.
“I don’t have words to describe how I feel when I see this man’s face,” said Bright. “I mean, he’s responsible for my son’s death.”
Twenty-four-year-old Army Sgt. Evan Ashcraft was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade along with two other soldiers on July 24, 2003, while guarding an oil refinery.
But even though she has no interest in reading “Decision Points,” in which Bush describes how he made critical decisions in his life — including the invasion of Iraq — Bright hasn’t been able to avoid hearing about the book on the radio and elsewhere.
She knows Bush still defends the war, contends the world is a better place because of it, and says that although he regrets that weapons of mass destruction did not exist, intelligence at the time indicated that they did.
Having spoken to Bright several times since her son was killed, I think she’s made the right decision in not reading the book. I’ve read a lot of it, including all of the portions about the war, and my blood is boiling. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have lost a son and then read such a self-serving, distorted account of a decision that cost so many American and Iraqi lives.
It isn’t enough to admit, as Bush does, that the intelligence was wrong. He should have explained why he and his cohorts cherry-picked intelligence that justified the war, discounting reliable reports, including U.N. inspection records, that downplayed the threat.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1117-lopez-20101117,0,6930460.column
Breaking News Alert: Murkowski wins Alaska Senate race, AP reports
November 17, 2010 3:14:14 PM
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has become the first Senate candidate in more than 50 years to win a write-in campaign, the Associated Press reports.
Murkowski emerged victorious after a painstaking, two-week count of write-in ballots showed she has overtaken tea party rival Joe Miller.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/NQU5FR/RNPO5R/O3UM6B/HHAEFY/M630N/UP/h
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com
DANCING WITH THE NON-STARS!
Yes reality shows are popularity contest – until the Palins entered. This was a decent show where the weakest players were eliminated and never made the finals. People at the onset were voting based on popularity AND TALENT. There is no way I can be convinced that people arent voting for Palin based on POLITICS ONLY. The network should have never gone this far when picking Palin. In a deeply divided, POLITICAL, country in government, NOW its allowed into wholesome family entertainment. Palin doesnt deserve to be in the finals, period.bRANDI WAS MOST TALENTED SO WHY COULDN’T PALIN SUPPORTERS RECOGNIZE THAT AND VOTE FOR HER?
No one without talent has gotten this far so what makes her different? The POLITICIZATION of DWTS is the beginning of the end to what once was a decent show. The Palins play to win when both the Mother and the Daughter have NO TALENT whatsoever, they just want what they want.They don’t believe you have to have any smarts at all to be Vice-President of the United States. Nor do they believe you have to have any talent whatsoever to win a talent competition. This is crazy! What is this country coming to? Give the Palins and their ilk back their part of the country and leave me with the democracy.
TV networks & cable are catering to white wing, white trash, and they have been since 2008.
TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT THESE MUGSHOTS:
G.O.P. Opposition Dims Hope for Arms Treaty With Russia
By PETER BAKER
Published: November 16, 2010
President Obama’s hopes of ratifying a new arms control treaty with Russia by the end of the year appeared to come undone on Tuesday as the chief Senate Republican negotiator moved to block a vote on the pact, one of the White House’s top foreign policy goals, in the lame-duck session of Congress.
Post a CommentThe announcement by the senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican point man on the issue, blindsided and angered the White House, which vowed to keep pressing for approval of the so-called New Start treaty. But the White House strategy had hinged entirely on winning over Mr. Kyl, and Democrats, who began scrambling for a backup plan, said they considered the chances of success slim.
Winning approval of the treaty will only become harder for the White House next year, when Democrats will have six fewer seats in the Senate, forcing the administration to rely on additional Republican votes to reach the 67 needed for ratification.
The treaty, which would force both countries to pare back nuclear arsenals and resume mutual inspections that lapsed last year for the first time since the cold war, is the centerpiece of two of Mr. Obama’s signature goals: restoring friendly relations with Russia and putting the world on a path toward eventually eliminating nuclear arms. A failure to ratify the treaty could freeze both efforts and, some analysts said, undermine Mr. Obama’s credibility on the world stage.
“Failure to pass the New Start treaty this year would endanger our national security,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has led negotiations with Mr. Kyl, said in a statement. It would mean “no verification regime to track Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal,” Mr. Biden said, and would sour a relationship that has helped open a new supply route to troops in Afghanistan and increase pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/world/europe/17start.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
It’s all about NO, OBAMA for these MOFOs. Nothing but politics, while America’s security is at stake here. I LOATHE this MOFOS.
Verizon echoes Comcast: Feds shouldn’t reign over Internet service providers
By Cecilia Kang
Verizon Communications, ahead of a change in Congress, urged self- regulation of the Internet as the Federal Communications Commission attempts to assert more authority over broadband service providers like it.
Tom Tauke, Verizon’s executive vice president of public affairs, said in a meeting Tuesday hosted by the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, that so-called net neutrality rules proposed by the FCC and its push to govern broadband service providers “have resulted in court rebukes and considerable uncertainty.”
“After haggling over the issue for over five years, we are essentially in the same place we were when this debate started,” Tauke said. “There still is no identifiable problem to be solved, and instead, as predicted, technology and market forces are ensuring that access to the Internet is open to consumers, as well as to developers of content and services.”
Tauke’s comments echo those of his counterpart at Comcast, the nation’s largest broadband service provider earlier this week.
The FCC’s proposal has been met with considerable opposition from big network carriers. But consumer groups, Web applications firms such as Facebook and Google and smaller Internet service providers such as Cox have supported the FCC’s rules.
Verizon and Google proposed baseline guidelines that would prevent ISPs from blocking or speeding/slowing downloads of Web pages. Their agreed proposal would not have applied to wireless services. Verizon and Vodafone own Verizon Wireless, the nation’s biggest wireless service providers in terms of subscribers.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has not indicated if the commission would pursue its net neutrality proposal this year. Industry watchers will look to December for the FCC to push forward with its plan, which analysts and observers say the agency may try to accomplish under its questionable jurisdiction over ISPs.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said at a conference sponsored by public interest groups in New Mexico Tuesday that he continued to support the rules.
“Our job now … is to correct course by reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service, and call an apple an apple, and then craft rules and procedures that will protect consumers against discrimination, protect against a privatized Internet, and protect against the cannibalization, cable-ization and further consolidation of broadband technology,” Copps said, according to a release by Free Press, a public interest group that co-sponsored the event.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/11/verizon_echoes_comcast_feds_sh.html?wpisrc=nl_tech
Ex-justice want even more diversity on high court
Stevens visiting Houston for Progressive Forum event
By MIKE TOLSON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Nov. 15, 2010, 10:27PM
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens served on the nation’s highest court longer than all but two members, retiring in June at the age of 90. Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975, Stevens came to be regarded as the leader of the more liberal faction of the court, though he periodically departed from liberal members on matters such as affirmative action and prohibitions against burning the American flag. He was replaced by Elena Kagan.
Stevens is in Houston to appear at a public event sponsored by the Progressive Forum tonight at the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater. The event, billed as a conversation with Stevens and Progressive Forum President Randall Morton, is sold out.
Stevens spoke with Chronicle reporter Mike Tolson.
Q: You were replaced by Elena Kagan. Some Republican senators objected to her lack of judicial experience. Should that matter?
A: The qualifications do not require it. It’s a help, of course, if you have been a judge, particularly if you have been a federal judge. It gives you a head start, in a sense. But there are many fine members of the court who never had judicial experience before — Bill Rehnquist, Byron White, Lewis Powell. Experience as a trial lawyer is every bit as important and valuable as experience as a judge.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7296456.html
Op-Ed Contributor
Pretty Good for Government Work
Warren Bufett
DEAR Uncle Sam,
My mother told me to send thank-you notes promptly. I’ve been remiss.
Let me remind you why I’m writing. Just over two years ago, in September 2008, our country faced an economic meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the pillars that supported our mortgage system, had been forced into conservatorship. Several of our largest commercial banks were teetering. One of Wall Street’s giant investment banks had gone bankrupt, and the remaining three were poised to follow. A.I.G., the world’s most famous insurer, was at death’s door.
Many of our largest industrial companies, dependent on commercial paper financing that had disappeared, were weeks away from exhausting their cash resources. Indeed, all of corporate America’s dominoes were lined up, ready to topple at lightning speed. My own company, Berkshire Hathaway, might have been the last to fall, but that distinction provided little solace.
Nor was it just business that was in peril: 300 million Americans were in the domino line as well. Just days before, the jobs, income, 401(k)’s and money-market funds of these citizens had seemed secure. Then, virtually overnight, everything began to turn into pumpkins and mice. There was no hiding place. A destructive economic force unlike any seen for generations had been unleashed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/opinion/17buffett.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
US Supreme Court
I’m a Bit Flummoxed By Facebook, Admits Justice Breyer
Judges on the nation’s top court are handicapped by a lack of knowledge about the Internet when deciding related cases, a U.S. Supreme Court justice admits.
Speaking today at Vanderbilt University Law School, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said he had recently watched a movie about the origins of the Facebook social networking site and found it perplexing, reports the Associated Press.
“If I’m applying the First Amendment, I have to apply it to a world where there’s an Internet, and there’s Facebook, and there are movies like … The Social Network, which I couldn’t even understand,” said Breyer, who is 72.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/im_a_bit_flummoxed_by_facebook_admits_justice_breyer?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_email
So the big, fat, slovenly, cheesy, 12 sandwich eating heffa won on DWTS last night. Is there no election conservatives won’t steal?!?!
And don’t think for one minute that ABC wasn’t complicit in the THIEVERY. The Sno’ Ho Palin and Seccestionist Todd were sitting in the audience eating it up too.
I felt for Brandy, she knew they STOLE her spot in the finals. FUCK them all!
Bristol could at least lose some weight. I’m not hating on chunky folks cause I’m chunky as well. But how is it errybody else has lost 10, 15 or 20 pounds butBriatol just keeps getting bigger and bigger …and bigger…
I’oint know! Is she preggers?
3Chics called this in September.
http://3chicspolitico.com/2010/09/04/bristol-palin-sorry-but-youre-no-star/
LOL@”12 sandwich eating heffa.”
Hello Ametie!
Get well SG2!
Hi Dannie. Thanks for stopping in and spreading some well wishes for our sista SG2! We so appreciate it. It is truly heartfelt. So thank you!
Your welcome!!!
Fearing ugly exit, GOP officials trying to quietly remove Steele
By Michael O’Brien – 11/17/10 06:00 AM ET
They fear that alienating Steele could cause headaches for the party’s attempt to win back the White House in 2012.
Republican leaders have started to clamor for change atop the RNC while acknowledging that if Steele wages a tough fight for a second term as chairman, it could evolve into a politically messy spectacle.
There’s widespread concern about the appearance of dumping the chairman of the RNC for the wrong reasons — particularly the first African-American chairman of the RNC when we have the first African-American president,” said former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.).
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/129581-fearing-ugly-exitgop-officials-trying-to-quietly-remove-steele
Michael Steele tells the GOP:
SO the RE-thugs are SCURRED of the big bad, BLACK POTUS!
The Politico has a story up tonight about how and why the bipartisan, everybody-get-along summit between President Obama and congressional Republicans ended up getting postponed. And a key part of it, according to Hill Republicans, is the GOP’s distrust of Obama after he “crashed” their caucus retreat last January. You’ll remember, this is when President Obama went and spoke at the House GOP retreat in Maryland and actually took pretty free-ranging questions from House Republicans — somewhat akin to ‘Question Time’ in the UK parliament. (See video of the event here.)
Now, because I think it’s essential to understand the point, I’m going to quote the first three grafs of the piece in full.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/11/thats_the_story_galacticfail_edition.php#more?ref=fpblg
http://3chicspolitico.com/2010/11/13/the-baltimore-masacre-replay-president-obama-addresses-the-gop-caucus/#comments
A Bloomberg-Scarborough 2012 Ticket?
We’ll believe it when we see it: The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough have discussed a 2012 independent bid for the White House. Bloomberg would take the top slot on the ticket, Fineman says. Scarborough says, “We haven’t discussed it directly. Have people discussed it in his sphere and in my sphere? I think so.” Bloomberg’s aides declined to comment.
Read it at The Huffington Post
Now Joey Scar, you’ll have to cough up that dead intern, if you’re planning a VP run. GTFOH
$$$ Bloomberg knows, just as Wall Street, that PBO’s doing something right for Average Americans, ya think!
I didn’t click on the link either, Opulent. HuffPo’s soooo transparent.
Hrrrmph!! I am not going to read that trope!!.
Happy Hump day, Everybody! :-)
Sending lots of love and healthy wishes to our 3 Chics, SouthernGirl2.