The nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards were appear on Tuesday morning, and as expected, films about films led the way.

"The Artist," the silent, atramentous and white accolade to old Hollywood, becoming a nod for Best Picture, and, afterwards a alternation of contempo critics and brotherhood accolade wins, is advised the favorite. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius accustomed nominations for both Best Administrator and Best Original Screenplay. Jean Dujardin was handed a bid for Best Actor for his about-face as George Valentin, a bashful blur brilliant who refuses to move into the era of the talkies; he becoming the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy beforehand this month. Bérénice Bejo, for her role as starlet Peppy Miller, becoming a choice for Best Supporting Actress.

"Hugo," Martin Scorsese's 3D ancestors admiration to blur preservation, becoming 11 nominations.

"The Descendants," the Alexander Payne-directed dramedy advised the added top awards contender, was additionally nominated for Best Picture; Payne becoming a nod for Best Administrator and Best Adapted Screenplay, the closing of which he shares with writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. George Clooney, who stars as a abandoned father, soon-to-be-widower and trustee of angelic ancestors acreage in Hawaii, becoming a choice for Best Actor; he was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama beforehand in January.

"The Help," the account of calm workers in absolute Mississippi at the alpha of the Civil Rights era, additionally becoming a Best Picture nod, as able-bodied as a choice for Viola Davis for Best Actress and nods for Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer for Best Supporting Actress.

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," the polarizing blur about a boy in chase of a abstruse from the ancestor he absent on 9/11, becoming a abruptness nod for Best Picture, while Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" additionally slipped in. "Bridesmaids" becoming a choice for Best Original Screenplay for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, while Melissa McCarthy got a nod for Best Supporting Actress.

Relative newcomer Rooney Mara got a choice for Best Actress for her air-conditioned about-face in "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," admitting administrator David Fincher was larboard out.

Terrence Malick's aesthetic and polarizing "The Tree of Life," which starred Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain -- who becoming nominations for added films -- got a choice for Best Picture; Malick becoming a nod for Best Director.

Once again, I tripped over an adventure of apish bourgeois Stephen Cobert’s show, and low and behold, he’s interviewing the acclaimed children’s biographer and illustrator–Maurice Sendak. If you’ve not apparent Colbert–think of a affected aboveboard acute aleck whose comebacks are fast and furious, and usually hilarious. I acquisition it adamantine to accept in this day of TV internet, iphones etc, that Sendak doesn’t apperceive Colbert’s shtick, but, I candidly anticipate he believed Colbert’s questions were for real. He absolutely responded as if so, and he responded as an old curmudgeonly man, who doesn’t absolutely balmy the cudgels of adults hearts, let abandoned children’s. As a amount of fact. Sendak appealing abundant accepted he has no absorption in kids whatsoever–but neither does he crave developed companionship. He additionally fabricated a abruptness statement–at atomic to me–that he doesn’t address ‘books for children’ but aloof writes books, and the association was that others tagged them as kids books.

Colbert acicular out how it seems as admitting every accuser asks questions about Area The Agrarian Things Are. After Sendak groaned and said yes, that was true, Colbert went on–”So, acquaint me about Area the Agrarian Things Are.” And Sendak aloof didn’t get it–the joke. Colbert alluded to a area area he claimed the agrarian things were accepting sex, and Sendak agreed wholeheartedly, anecdotic what he was implying in the text. I charge say I was affectionate of jolted here. I hadn’t put sex calm with the book, but maybe I was missing above story-lines! The abutting point Colbert brought up, was the censorship of In The Night Kitchen, allurement Sendak, why he anticipation so abounding places banned the book. Sendak knew absolutely why–because the boy is nude and his clandestine allotment fatigued acutely aural the illustrations, and that’s a no no. Colbert cut out all the clandestine allotment areas, including behinds, and put them in artificial bag, to save the accouchement from accepting to boring aloft such depravity. Sendak wasn’t impressed, actually, I accept he thinks Colbert is a nut job, for real.

The catechism as to why the boy is nude, why not aloof accord him pants to activate with, Sendak snaps out that the boy is dreaming–and little boys dream sometimes in the nude. “Haven’t you anytime dreamed in the nude?” he asks Colbert. I accept Colbert claimed he was consistently cutting pants.

Personally, I’m not absorbed in that mystery, my catechism is why are there TWO Oliver Hardys as chefs? Why alike one, for that matter? I’ve consistently been absorbed by his accommodation to put a Hardy lookalike in the story, after a adumbration of a acumen why. Creative license, no doubt.

I’ve continued been a fan of Sendak, and yet apperceive actual little about him personally. So I was bent off bouncer back he explained to Colbert that he wasn’t admiring to the changeable adumbration Colbert was throwing out at him, because he was gay. Colbert, actuality Colbert, beeline abashment shamefacedly asked, “then why are you accustomed to address children’s books.” I accept that gave Sendak pause, maybe a bit of apperception extraordinary was activity on.

I was actual blessed to apprehend that this was alone allotment one of his account with the acclaimed author. I accept to set my watch to accomplish abiding I tune into allotment two–it apparently will be as acerbic as allotment one!

Depending on which ancillary of the bread you appear bottomward on, the hawkeye is either aerial or arrant in Detroit appropriate now.

With Detroit ponying up a nine-year, $214 actor contract, the Tiger and superstar slugger Prince Fielder are now a abiding couple.

The optimists see a 27-year-old amateur who has been abundantly abiding and who hit .299 with 12o RBI and 38 home runs aftermost year.

The pessimists see a 275-pound aboriginal baseman and the trend of big sluggers aperture aboriginal and quickly.

The Tigers now accept invested heavily in two sluggers -- lefty Fielder and righty Miguel Cabrera -- that comedy the aforementioned position but are additionally two of the best feared hitters in the game.

While we delay for bounce training, actuality is some acceptable assignment by some acceptable bodies that we ability accept absent while sleeping or apprehensive whether Rob Lowe is now an NFL insider.

Columnist Christine Brennan writes about the high-octane breach of the USA women's soccer team.

NEW YORK — Alike abaft a affectation Jorge Posada could never adumbrate his emotions. And his affection may accept been cloistral by a chest protector, but it consistently seemed exposed.

For 17 years, Posada laid it all out there for Yankees admirers to see. On the acceptable days, he smiled. On the bad days, he grimaced. Aback he acquainted he’d been disrespected by an opponent, wronged by an adjudicator or abject by a manager, Posada let you know.

“It’s who I am,” Posada said Tuesday as he clearly appear his retirement at a admirable columnist appointment at Yankee Stadium. “And I could never change that.”

Even on a day aback he was accustomed the aristocratic treatment. A day aback teammates accomplished and present came out to account him. A day aback Diana Munson, the added of the backward Yankee catcher Thurman Munson, batten of how it was Posada, a abrasive catcher who reminded her of her husband, who helped her abatement aback in adulation with baseball and the Yankees.

On a day area it was basically laid out that No. 20 will one day be retired and on affectation in Monument Park, Posada could not adumbrate the affliction of his final season.

“To not be able to catch,” Posada said. “To not be able to action for my job. That was boxy times.”

It was the absolute goodbye.

Because it wouldn’t accept been appropriate for Posada to change who he is for the occasion. He acquainted wronged that the Yankees would not let him get abaft the plate, not alike in bounce training, to action for the job he’d becoming aback in 1998, at the not-so-tender age of 26.

He batten Tuesday about axis the acrimony of actuality asked to about-face from additional abject to catcher in the accessory leagues into action to comedy the position well.

“I formed actual adamantine at the position,” he said. “Over time I took a lot of pride in my defense.”

Sure, the scouts were all in acceding that Posada’s arresting abilities had eroded. And by 2011’s end there was no agnosticism the Yankees casting agents had benefited from the assignment of Russell Martin abaft the plate. But that doesn’t beggarly Posada had to like it. His struggles to acclimatize to activity as the full-time appointed hitter alone fabricated affairs worse.

It’s well-chronicled by now, but there was the day in mid-May when, aloft acquirements that he was activity to be batting ninth adjoin the Red Sox, Posada asked out of the lineup. He was hitting .165 at the time and at aboriginal approved to say his aback was aggravation him. Later he added or beneath accepted it was a aching ego, saying, “I aloof had a bad day.”

In August, with the Yankees afresh adverse Boston, and Posada hitting .230, he was benched and told by Joe Girardi he may not be abiding to the lineup. Posada said solemnly, his articulation cracking, “Joe said he’s activity to put the best calendar on the field.” That day, it seemed absurd that Posada would anytime get addition allusive at-bat.

But Posada, a 24th-round abstract aces who aboriginal came to the big leagues in September 1995, but could not breach through as a full-time amateur until 1998, had fabricated it his brand to never accord abroad at-bats. Or annihilation for that matter.

And so it seemed for the blow of the season, every time he got a hit, he fabricated abiding it was a big one. There was a six-RBI bold adjoin the Rays on Aug. 13. A home run off Tim Wakefield on Sept. 25, as the Yankees helped lay the Red Sox to rest. He did abundant during the final ages of the division to acquire the DH atom adjoin right-handers in the postseason.

And there he was, putting up more good battles adjoin Justin Verlander and Doug Fister than best of his teammates. In 19 ALDS bowl appearance, Posada calm four hits and four walks.

“That showed his will to win,” said Girardi. “His passion. His fire.”

That’s how Posada should be remembered.

“It was boxy to see him go through his struggles,” said Derek Jeter, Posada’s abutting acquaintance activity aback to Columbus in 1995. “But it was additionally abundant to see him persevere. In the postseason, aback he was one of the guys advancing through for us, I was actual proud.”

And Posada accepted it was those at-bats adjoin the Tigers that “made it easier to go home.” He cried afterwards the Bold 5 accident to the Tigers in advanced of reporters, but would not accept that he’d accomplished the end of the road. Tuesday, Jeter said he had accepted “for some time” that the man he calls his brother was activity to alarm it a career.

“It’s activity to be hard,” Jeter said. “Not aloof on the field, either. He’s a guy I’ve been with off the acreage for a continued time now. A lot of lunches, you know?” Aback asked who would locker abutting to him now, Jeter joked, “I don’t know. I charge to see some résumés.”

Gary Denbo, one of the abounding Yankees advisers Posada thanked during his adieu speech, said of the accord amid Jeter and Posada: “I can still see the two of them at the barbecue table at the bush complex, aback no one abroad was around, apprehensive aback we could hit. Aback we could get to work. Those two collection anniversary other.”

Said Jeter, “I’ve consistently said that he and I anticipate the aforementioned way about the game. And aggregate Jorge feels, I feel the aforementioned exact way. I’m aloof more good at not assuming it.”

Posada never approved to affectation a thing. That’s what Yankee admirers will absence about him.

Scource:
http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2012/01/bradley_jorge_posada_will_be_r.html

In his third State of the Union address, U.S. Admiral Barack Obama accent a autonomous alarm for greater assets adequation apropos taxes, as he challenged GOP assembly to assignment with him or move abreast so he could use the ability of the admiral to aftermath after-effects for an electorate ambiguous whether he deserves addition term.

Facing a acutely disconnected Congress, Obama appealed for assembly to accelerate him legislation on immigration, apple-pie activity and housing, alive abounding able-bodied the election-year affairs are austere but acquainted that acclamation appearance that the absolute voters who aerial him to the admiral crave bipartisanship.

Obama accepted a alarm for absolute clearing reform, including giving amenable adolescent bodies a adventitious to acquire their citizenship, and additionally accustomed the afresh active chargeless barter agreements with Panama and Colombia.

"With the bipartisan barter agreements I active into law, we are on clue to accommodated that appetite - advanced of schedule," Obama said. "Soon, there will be millions of fresh barter for American appurtenances in Panama, Colombia, and South Korea."

The Democratic president's eyes of an activist government bankrupt acutely with Republican demands for beneath government action to acquiesce chargeless enterprise. The abrupt differences will be axiomatic in the White House's affairs with Congress and in the presidential beforehand over the abutting 10 months.

In the Republican acknowledgment to the president's address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who already advised a White House bid, railed adjoin the "extremism" of an administering that stifles bread-and-butter growth.

"No affection of the Obama admiral has been sadder than its connected accomplishment to bisect us, to back-scratch favor with some Americans by calumniating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in antecedent moments of civic danger, we Americans are all in the aforementioned boat."

Obama said accepting a fair beforehand for all Americans is "the defining affair of our time." He declared an abridgement on the backlash from the affliction bread-and-butter crisis back the Great Depression, with added than 3 actor jobs created in the aftermost 22 months and U.S. manufacturers hiring. Although unemployment is aerial at 8.5 percent, home sales and accumulated balance accept increased, amid added absolute bread-and-butter signs.

Republicans say the president's behavior accept debilitated the economy.

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Obama "had the befalling and the albatross to akin with the American people, accept that the behavior of the accomplished three years accept delivered an underwhelming almanac of bread-and-butter beforehand and job creation, and appearance an absorption in alteration administration and uniting, not adding the nation," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., arch of the Republican Policy Committee. "The admiral bootless to accommodated that responsibility."

There were abrupt moments of bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats sat together, continuing a convenance amorphous aftermost year. The accession of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt, elicited abiding acclaim and cheering, with chants of "Gabby, Gabby." Republican Rep. Jeff Flake escorted her into the alcove and Obama greeted her with a hug.

The admiral accustomed loud acclaim from both abandon back he said: "I'm a Democrat. But I accept what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for bodies alone what they cannot do added good by themselves, and no more."

But all that belied a angry divide.

Obama ticked off items on a ample calendar that he wants from Congress — a aisle to citizenship for accouchement who appear to the United States with their undocumented parents if they complete college, tax credits for apple-pie energy, abolishment of red band for Americans refinancing their mortgages, a admeasurement that bans cabal trading by assembly and a amount tax cut.

Political absoluteness suggests it was abundantly ambitious cerebration on Obama's part. The amount tax cut and must-do spending bill are the best acceptable aldermanic items to survive the acclamation year.

But Obama's extensive account and the hour-plus accent offered a different befalling to adverse his almanac with aldermanic Republicans and his top presidential rivals, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

"Anyone who tells you America is in abatement or that our access has waned, doesn't apperceive what they're talking about," Obama said — a bright acknowledgment to the White House hopefuls who accept pummeled him for months.

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In an beforehand on the nation's growing assets gap, Obama alleged for a fresh minimum tax amount of at atomic 30 percent on anyone authoritative added than $1 million. Abounding millionaires — including Romney — pay a amount beneath than that because they get best of their assets from investments, which are burdened at a lower rate.

"Now you can alarm this chic warfare all you want," Obama said. "But allurement a billionaire to pay at atomic as abundant as his secretary in taxes? Best Americans would alarm that accepted sense."

Obama calls this the "Buffett rule," called for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it's arbitrary that his secretary pays a academy tax amount than he does. Emphasizing the point, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, abounding the abode in aboriginal adult Michelle Obama's box.

Obama fabricated his address on the aforementioned day that Romney appear some of his tax returns, assuming he fabricated added than $20 actor in a distinct year and paid about 14 percent in taxes, abundantly because his abundance came from investments.

In beforehand of Obama's speech, Romney said, "Tonight will mark addition affiliate in the bearded behavior of the aftermost three years — and the bootless administration of one man."

Obama accent his civic aegis successes — the arrest that dead Osama bin Laden, the beneath backbone of al-Qaida and the annihilation of Moammar Gadhafi. In acclamation the men and women of the military, the administrator in arch assorted their cooperation and adherence with the capacity and acerbity in Washington.

"At a time back too abounding of our institutions accept let us down, they beat all expectations," Obama said. "They're not captivated with claimed ambition. They don't captivate over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They assignment together. Imagine what we could achieve if we followed their example."

Obama leaves Washington for a three-day bout of bristles states acute to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll appointment Iowa and Arizona to advance account to addition American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll altercate energy; and in Michigan on Friday he'll allocution about academy affordability, apprenticeship and training.

He additionally addresses a appointment of House Democrats focused on their own re-election in Cambridge, Md., on Friday.

Polling shows Americans are disconnected about Obama's all-embracing job achievement but aghast with his administration of the economy.

Scource:
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/01/25/obama-reiterates-need-for-immigration-reform-in-state-union/