Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, fired back Thursday on Fox News at Democratic pundit Hilary Rosen for mocking her choice to be a stay-at-home mom who never entered the workforce.

On Wednesday, Rosen ignited a firestorm when she criticized Romney as someone who has “never worked a day in her life” and who therefore isn’t qualified to advise her husband on women’s issues.

Romney argued that raising children is a tough job in and of itself. “[Rosen] should have come to my house when those five boys were causing so much trouble, it wasn’t so easy,” she said. “My career choice was to be a mother, and I think all of us need to know that we need to respect the choices that women make.

Romney also said she’s in touch with the plight of women. “I know what it’s like to struggle. And if maybe I haven’t struggled as much financially as some people have, I can tell you and promise you that I’ve had struggles in my life,” she said.

Rosen has since apologized for her comments, calling her words “poorly chosen.” “I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended,” she said in a statement. “Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”

[National Journal]

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Ever since former President George W. Bush left office in 2008, he’s kept a pretty low profile. But on Tuesday, he made a rare public appearance to talk about taxes — specifically, how his tax cuts for the rich shouldn’t be allowed to expire.

Speaking at the New York Historical Society for the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s conference on “Tax Policies for 4 Percent Growth” — aimed at finding ways to achieve sustainable, annual economic growth of four percent, mainly by focusing on taxes — Bush maintains that keeping taxes low on the wealthiest Americans is the best way to grow the private sector, create jobs and boost the economy.

The tax cuts given to the rich during his administration — widely called the “Bush tax cuts” — were extended in 2010 and are set to expire at the end of 2012. Many economists argue that if they’re allowed to remain in place, they’ll have a negative impact on the economy and cause the national deficit to grow.

In arguing to keep them in place, Bush said, “I wish they weren’t called the ‘Bush tax cuts,’” adding that if they were called something else, perhaps opponents wouldn’t be so eager to jettison them.

Watch some of his remarks below.

[Forbes]

YouTube

Even stacked together in a jar, all those pennies you have are fairly worthless. However, they may soon become collectors’ items.

Canada, our neighbor to the North, has just eliminated the penny in their latest federal budget, following the example of nations like Australia and New Zealand. The Canadian national mint will stop producing the one-cent coin over the next six months, and businesses have been asked to return pennies to be melted down.

We thought it was a joke too, but apparently the Great White North is serious:

“Pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in announcing the federal budget. “They take up far too much time for small businesses trying to grow and create jobs.”

Not to mention they cost more than a cent to make, and the move will save Canada 11 million dollars a year.

With pennies no longer part of the equation, vendors will simply round to the nearest five or zero on the bill’s total.

And, from now on, Canada will be a place where thoughts cost a nickel. Watch Canadians react to the news that their government has rendered them “penniless” in the local news report below.

[via CBC]

Source: TheFW.com

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum went to Puerto Rico last week to gin up support for the GOP primary which took place on the island territory over the weekend. He probably would’ve been better off staying stateside, as he ended up getting crushed by GOP rival  Mitt Romney 83 to 8% in the contest.

Even the former Pennsylvania Senator’s attempt to do a little sunbathing turned against him when a photo of him laying out by the pool hit the internet.

When asked about the photo, Santorum conceded it didn’t paint such a pretty picture.

“They caught me sunbathing when I was in Puerto Rico,” Santorum said. “We took about an hour to sit out by the pool and catch a few rays, and so I guess a paparazzi got me.  I know, I probably should lose about 15, 20 pounds, but I’m working on it.”

Santorum is hardly the first politician who’s been caught with his shirt off. In fact, both Romney and Barack Obama have been famously snapped bare-chested at the beach. Albeit to generally better reviews than poor Rick. Check out those shots below, including one non-shirtless (thankfully) one of Windsurfing John Kerry.

BuzzFeed

YouTube

Obama Pacman

Source: TheFW.com

YouTube

In a video that won’t be making the already unpopular TSA any new friends, a 3-year-old toddler in a wheelchair is seen being searched by a TSA agent at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

Rocco was going with his parents, two siblings and grandparents to Disney World when he was pulled out of the security line. He was in a wheelchair because he had recently broken his leg.

Although his family was remarkably calm about the whole thing, and the agent who searched him was highly professional, the little boy looked scared and confused during his ordeal.

As you can see, the next person to be pulled out of the line is a senior citizen with a cane. Good to see TSA is tackling the real threats.

This video has re-ignited an old debate about who should get screened at airports. One the one hand, if terrorists and smugglers knew that the TSA never checks little kids in wheelchairs or senior citizens, they could use this information to do harm.

On the other hand, the chances that Rocco, traveling with his entire family to Disney World, was part of something nefarious seems about as close to zero as anything can be.

So should TSA agents be allowed to use more discretion in these cases? Or is what happened in the video just an unfortunate, but necessary, reality of the times we live in?

Source: TheFW.com

ESPN

Basketball-Fan-in-Chief Barack Obama’s career as a presidential bracketologist got off to a rousing start in 2009 when his pick to win the 2009 NCAA tournament, North Carolina, were indeed crowned champions.

However, his results haven’t been so good since then. After acknowledging he got “decimated” with his 2010 picks, Obama selected only number one seeds to reach the Final Four last year. Not only is this an easy move, but it’s also questionable from a statistical standpoint, and it didn’t work out for the Commander in Chief in 2011.

Looking to redeem himself in ’12, Obama again made his picks public with ESPN’s Andy Katz. The 43rd President selected one seeds Kentucky and North Carolina and two seeds Missouri and Ohio State (swing state!) to advance to the Final Four.

Going back to the well, Obama has North Carolina as the eventual champions.

“They’re an older team, a more experienced team,” Obama explained. “And, since they won it for me the last time I picked them, hopefully I’ll be able to get a little more redemption for the last two years.”

Watch the Prez make his picks below. Do you agree with his picks?

Source: TheFW.com

YouTube

The annual SXSW interactive conference in Austin is sometimes plagued with snail-slow internet speeds (when you can connect at all). But this year it’s been a little easier to find a wifi hotspot: just look for a homeless person. Yes, homeless people are now being used as wifi spots.

The marketing firm BBH has partnered with a local homeless advocacy group called Front Steps to make a small group of homeless men and women actual wifi hotspots. They’re outfitted with wireless internet devices and, for a small Paypal donation, conference-goers get internet access for as long as they want — and the money goes straight to the needy individual.

But the scheme has been met with a firestorm of criticism. The associated Twitter account, @HHSXSW, has been doing damage control as the hashtag #homelesshotspots lit up with thousands of detractors, many of whom feel the whole thing is demeaning to the very people it’s trying to help.

One of the homeless men involved, Melvin, said in an interview that he sees the silver lining:

I would say that these people are trying to help the homeless, and increase awareness. They’re trying not to put us in a situation where we’re stereotyped. That’s a good side of it, too — we get to talk to people. Maybe give them a different perception of what homeless is like. It’s all good.”

And in the video below, you’ll see another participant, Clarence, talk about the program in pretty positive terms, too.

What do you think? Is this offensive and “dystopian,” as the New York Times called it? Or is a win-win for everyone involved?

Source: TheFW.com

YouTube

As this video begins, one is impressed with the speed with which this garbage man jumps from his truck and begins disposing of the waiting trash bags. Now that’s one dedicated civil servant.

However, things quickly take a turn when his haste becomes rage and he begins smashing a trash bin on the side of his truck.

Looks like somebody didn’t eat his Wheaties this morning. Or perhaps chowed down on some steroids instead.

When he’s done with the trash can, he moves to the mailbox, ripping if from the ground, destroying it and then tossing it into the back of the truck. Although when he is done with his mail-icide, his garbage collector instincts take over, and he carefully picks up and disposes of the letters that had fallen out of the mailbox.

All in all, quite a bizarre display. So is this a case of a bad day on the job gone horribly wrong? According to the YouTube poster, the video is actually an April Fool’s Day prank he played on his boss. So turns out it was staged all along.

Still, the video is somewhat reminiscent of the footage of the FedEx driver who badly mishandled a computer monitor during home delivery. You can check that one out below.

Source: TheFW.com

YouTube

Evangelist Pat Robertson knows why tornadoes decimated parts of the Midwest last week: people didn’t pray hard enough.

During a recent episode of his show, ‘The 700 Club,’ Robertson was asked by a viewer why God “sent” the tornadoes. In response, he said, “If enough people were praying, [God] would’ve intervened…you could pray, Jesus stilled the storm, [Jesus] can still storms.”

He also blamed people who live in tornado-prone areas, saying, “Why did you build houses where tornadoes were apt to happen?”

It’s not the first time Robertson, 81, has made these kinds of controversial comments about natural disasters. He blamed the 2010 earthquake in Haiti on Haitians’ “pact with the devil,” and when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, he suggested the storm was God’s punishment for allowing abortion to be legal in the US.

[Huffington Post]

CNN

If you were affected by the deadly tornadoes that swept across several southern and midwestern states last week but don’t have insurance to cover the damage, don’t look to Ron Paul for sympathy.

On Sunday, the GOP presidential candidate and self-described libertarian told CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ that victims of those violent storms shouldn’t be given emergency financial aid from the federal government.

“There is no such thing as federal money. Federal money is just what they steal from the states and steal from you and me,” Paul said, adding, “The people who live in tornado alley, just as I live in hurricane alley, they should have insurance.”

No word on how he’d deal with people who do have insurance but whose insurers refuse to pay (as often happened after Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters), but while he feels it’s okay for the National Guard to step in with care and shelter in major emergencies, he thinks people too often count on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for financial assistance.

“To say that any accident that happens in the country, send in FEMA, send in the money, the government has all this money—it is totally out of control and it’s not efficient,” Paul said.

[National Journal]

Franklin Roosevelt holds the record for the most times a president got the honor, hurling nine different times (eight opening days and an All-Star Game). Here’s a look back at some of the more memorable performances of presidents over the past century:

PRESIDENT OBAMA

President Barack Obama tossed the ball to Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, kicking off the 2010 baseball season in the nation’s capital. His pitch sailed high and wide. After the President was criticized for taking time off to attend a baseball game, he stayed home in 2011. With his reelection in mind, will Obama take the mound at a ballpark this spring?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

After the September 11 attacks, America looked to President George W. Bush for leadership. He delivered it in many ways in the days afterward, including his appearance at Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the World Series. His fastball represented much more. At that “troubled time,” said a blogger on the National Archives website, “a baseball game helped us come together” and “a pitch showed the resolve of a nation.”

PRESIDENT CLINTON

President Clinton was the first president to make his pitch from the mound — previously they came symbolically from the stands. He let go of a slow, hanging pitch that he says he wasn’t happy with. “Most of my practice pitches were much better,” he said.

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON

On Opening Day in 1965, President Johnson opened the season with the Washington Senators. Even some of the opposing Red Sox players were amazed by the moment, as you can see in the footage below.

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT

In his first Opening Day pitch, President Roosevelt misses his mark. “Roosevelt’s pitch is wild but we’ll forgive him. Everybody knows he has plenty on the ball,” the announcer says.

PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON

A jovial President Wilson throws out the first pitch at an unnamed game. Could it have been the 1915 World Series? That was when President Wilson became the first president to get the ceremonial honors at a World Series game.

Infrogmation, Flickr

The king cake is a traditional Mardi Gras food. It is usually a ring-shaped pastry, sometimes filled with cheese or jelly and sprinkled with the colors of Mardi Gras. It began as an Epiphany treat, celebrating the arrival of the Three Wise Men to the stable where Jesus was born. Oh, and it’s delicious.

The king cake tradition was brought to New Orleans by French and Spanish settlers who associated it with the Mardi Gras carnival. A dessert synonymous with celebrations definitely belonged with Mardi Gras and has been shared during the festive season ever since.

The secret of the king cake is that there is always a small trinket, often a plastic baby representing the Baby Jesus, baked inside that one lucky eater is bound to bite into. Of course, the lucky person who gets the baby in the cake gets special privileges, but is also usually responsible for bringing the next cake.

To get into the spirit of the impending Mardi Gras celebration, and to make your mouth water a bit, here are some delicious looking king cakes we found.

The Drizzled King Cake

niseag03, Flickr

The Beaded King Cake

all of olive, Flickr

The Discus King Cake

syvwlc, Flickr

The Mickey Mouse King Cake

Loren Javier, Flickr

The Go Big or Go Home King Cake

Aldon, Flickr

The King Cupcake

kristen_a (Meringue Bake Shop), Flickr

Double King Cake All the Way

HorizonsSC, Flickr

The Doing It Wrong King Cake

lesteph, Flickr

The Baby in the King Cake

mikebdoss, Flickr

The Eaten King Cake

mikebdoss, Flickr

An Amazing Rap About King Cakes

Want to Make One? Here’s How

Source: TheFW.com

jburgin, Flickr

For a die-hard shopper, there’s little more frustrating than buying something at full-price, only to see it go on sale shortly thereafter.

To ward that off, retailing giant JC Penney has announced that starting Feb. 1, it’s discounting all merchandise by at least 40 percent — permanently.

The store said Wednesday it’s abandoning the hundreds of sales it typically has every year in favor of a new three-tiered pricing plan: “Every Day” low pricing daily, “Monthly Value” discounts on select merchandise each month, and clearance deals called “Best Price” during the first and the third Friday of each month when many shoppers get paid.

The goal is to remove the guesswork by offering more predictable pricing so customers can rely on getting a deal there no matter what — which will hopefully make them loyal Penney’s shoppers.

The chain is also rolling out an updated logo and a new advertising campaign with popular talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres as its new spokeswoman. In addition, a 96-page color catalog highlighting “Monthly Value” items will be mailed each month to 14 million customers.

The plan, the first major move by former Apple executive Ron Johnson since he became Penney’s CEO in November, is being implemented to try to make Penney’s stores more profitable — and more attractive to younger shoppers, who often see the chain as “boring.”

But Charles Grom, a retail analyst at J.P. Morgan, said it will be difficult to change shoppers’ buying habits. “Shopper fatigue has been building for several years with the advent of the Internet and the ability for shoppers to compare prices,” he said. “If (Johnson) can try to pull this off, it will be impressive. But it’s hard for retailers to change the image of a company. He has a lot of wood to chop.”

Take a look at Penney’s latest television commercial below:

[Associated Press]

John Moore, Getty Images

If you’re a political junkie, there was lots of news about the GOP nomination race to keep you busy on Thursday — but the story that grabbed most of the headlines involved salacious allegations made by one of Newt Gingrich’s ex-wives.

Marianne Gingrich, the second wife of the thrice-married former speaker of the House, gave an explosive interview to ABC’s ‘Nightline’ in which she said Newt asked her for an “open marriage” so he could carry on an affair with Callista — his current wife — who was his congressional aide at the time.

The story had everyone buzzing, so it wasn’t surprising when CNN reporter John King started off the GOP candidate debate in South Carolina on Thursday night by asking Gingrich if he wanted to respond to his former wife’s claim.

“No,” Gingrich replied, before saying he’d address the allegations anyway. What followed was a scathing attack on the media for even giving the story credence to begin with, but he eventually got around to denying Marianne’s claims, calling them “trash” and false.

“To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine,” he chided King, as the Republican crowd in attendance cheered.

The South Carolina GOP primary is Saturday, and it’s an important one — in election cycles past, the winner of the contest has gone on to become the Republican nominee every time since the state’s front-of-the-calendar primary began in 1980. Many polls show Gingrich rapidly closing the gap between his numbers and those of presumed frontrunner Mitt Romney.

Watch Newt respond to his ex-wife’s story below:

[CNN]

Laura Lezza, Getty Images

At least two Americans are among the estimated 16 people missing after a cruise ship hit a reef on Friday night and capsized off the west coast of Italy with 4,200 passengers and crew aboard.

Six passengers have been confirmed dead since the Costa Concordia ran aground near Tuscany, tearing a 160-foot hole in its hull and causing the ship to sink. The captain, Francesco Schettino, 52, blames the disaster on rocks not on his navigational charts, but has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

In an emotional news conference, Costa Cruises boss Pier Luigi Foschi tearfully apologized and said, “The company will be close to the captain and will provide him with all the necessary assistance, but we need to acknowledge the facts and we cannot deny human error.”

Foschi said the ship’s route was entered correctly and that “the fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa… He wanted to show the ship, to [go] nearby this island of Giglio, so he decided to change the course of the ship to go closer to the island.”

Survivors described the chaotic scene and said crew members were unprepared for an emergency situation, forcing many passengers to jump overboard and swim for land when the angle of the listing ship made boarding life boats impossible.

In addition, environmentalists worry that the ship could break up and leak its 2,300 tons of fuel. Italian Environment Minister Corrado Clini said his government would declare a state of emergency to release extra funding to avoid such a spill.

Laura Lezza, Getty Images

Laura Lezza, Getty Images

[BBC]

Watch the two-minute review of the most popular people and unforgettable events that were searched in 2011.

WRIC, YouTube

If anyone is going to get a lumps of coal in his or her stocking this year, it’s Martha Nicholas. The Virginian woman was arrested Wednesday for bilking kind-hearted people out of money by falsely claiming she had cancer. Nicholas, 42, duped even her husband and children along the way, claimed she was a four-time cancer patient and participated in multiple cancer fundraisers

In fact, an investigation by the Hanover County Sheriff’s department revealed “no evidence of any cancer treatment at any medical facility that had been publicly identified by Martha Nicholas during her many public appearances and testimonials.”

Despite this, her attorney Sam Simpson said it wasn’t a scam and that his client has a mental disorder: “There is an illness. It’s a mental illness, and I can’t say more about this.”

Nicholas is out on bond and will be arraigned December 16.

[WRIC]

YouTube

A new Rick Perry ad in which the Texas governor and presidential hopeful laments that gays can serve openly in the military but kids can’t pray in school hasn’t recieved the YouTube reception his campaing was hoping for.

In fact, in just three days Perry’s “Stronger” spot amassed almost twice as many dislikes on the video sharing site as Rebecca Black‘s spectacularly maligned ‘Friday’ video has since September 16.

To make matters worse for Perry, his approaching 500,000 dislikes are only counterbalanced by about 10,000 likes  – whereas over 70,000 tone-deaf souls have actually checked the like box after viewing Black’s ode to everybody’s favorite day of the week.

Check out both hated videos below, and let us know which one makes your blood curl more.

[via The Huffington Post]

Source: TheFW.com

NASA

Monday marks the day when astronomers made a startling announcement: after years of searching, they’ve discovered an Earth-like planet outside the solar system that may very well be habitable.

The new planet Kepler 22b circles a star about 600 light years away — close by astronomical standards — and has a size and distance from its own star that could make for an average surface temperature of just 72 degrees.

Scientist Natalie Batalha of the Kepler space telescope discovery team said the planet is “right smack in the middle of the habitable zone” since it isn’t too hot or too cold to harbor oceans as Earth does. Liquid water has long been considered key for development of life on a planet’s surface.

“This is a phenomenal discovery in the course of human history,” says planet hunting pioneer Geoff Marcy of the University of California-Berkeley, a Kepler investigator, adding Kepler 22b “is the smallest, most nearly Earth-size, planet ever found in the lukewarm zone around another sun where life could thrive.”

[USA Today]

YouTube

Back in February, 19-year-old University of Iowa student Zach Wahls spoke out about his family on the floor of the Iowa House of Representatives as it considered House Joint Resolution 6, which would’ve ended civil unions in the state.

Zack’s personal interest in the bill? He was raised by two lesbians.

His speech was eloquent enough that all these months later, it’s making the rounds again — and deservedly so. Watch it below and prepare to be moved.

[via MoveOn]

Source: TheFW.com