2012 fashion store blog

Former SC Gov. Sanford eyes US House bid Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/23/3154271/former-sc-gov-sanford-eyes-us.html#storylink=cpy

 COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who left public life two years ago after mysteriously disappearing to visit his then-mistress in Argentina, is poised to re-enter the political arena.

Acknowledging reports that he is seriously weighing a congressional bid for the seat he once held, Sanford wrote in an email late Saturday: "To answer your question, yes the accounts are accurate." Sanford promised "further conversation on all this" at a later date.

The two-term governor was a rising Republican political star before he vanished from South Carolina for five days in 2009. Reporters were told he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but he later tearfully acknowledged he was visiting Maria Belen Chapur, a woman he called his soul mate at a news conference announcing his affair. The two were engaged earlier this year.

The opening for Sanford comes after Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to fill the remaining two years of Sen. Jim DeMint's seat. DeMint announced earlier this month he was resigning.

News that Sanford, 52, may be interested in the seat comes days after his ex-wife, Jenny, appeared to be dipping her toe into the state's political waters.

She was reportedly on Gov. Nikki Haley's short list of candidates to fill the seat that went to Scott. Jenny Sanford later said she would think about a run for Scott's seat representing the coastal 1st Congressional District, the seat her ex-husband is now considering.

"I'd be crazy not to look at the race a little bit," she said Tuesday, before reports about Mark Sanford surfaced.

State Republicans said Scott plans to submit his letter of resignation from the House on Jan. 2, triggering a process of candidate filing and primaries leading up to a special election in May.

Mark Sanford knows the 1st District well. Elected to the seat in 1994 - Jenny Sanford managed his first campaign and was a close adviser for most of his career - he served three terms before voters elected him governor in 2002.

The former governor would bring name recognition and money to the race - two things especially important due to the short campaign season and wide-open field.

Whether voters are ready to welcome Sanford back to politics is another issue.

"It's absolutely absurd. He just has so much baggage. He was such an embarrassment to the state, we don't need that," said Gloria Day, a retired attorney in Charleston.

He avoided impeachment but was censured by the Legislature. He also had to pay more than $70,000 in ethics fines - still the largest in state history - after AP investigations raised questions about his use of state, private and commercial aircraft.

Others said Sanford's fiscal record is what's important, and Sanford is known as a libertarian-leaning ideologue who railed against spending and bucked Republican Party leaders before anyone even coined the tea party movement.

"Mark Sanford is a reliable fiscal conservative so I, like many conservatives, would be delighted to see him in the race," said Joanne Jones, vice chairman of the Charleston Tea Party, though she noted she'll wait to see the entire field before throwing her support behind a candidate.

Scott will be sworn in Jan. 3 to replace DeMint, who announced his resignation earlier this month to lead The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Scott, who would have to seek election in 2014, will become the state's first black U.S. senator and the first black Republican U.S. senator from the South since Reconstruction.

Rolling Stones night 2: Distance no obstacle for fans

More than three hours before the Rolling Stones were actually due out on stage, fans lined up outside the Prudential Center wearing their tongue shirts and bomber jackets.

Few waiting were actually from New Jersey, many coming from hours and thousands of miles away.

David Richman made the 12-hour drive from North Bay, Ontario in Canada. He came to Newark with his son Scott, 18, who gifted him the tickets as an early Christmas present. Though each one had a face value of $95, the pair ended up costing $1,100. The elder Richman attended his first Stones show in Toronto in 1972, but not again until tonight. All these years he'd never seen the point in shelling out so much money, nor journeying so far.

"Now I'm really excited," he said, standing at the front entrance to the Prudential Center. His favorite Stones song: "Brown Sugar."

Alexa Pariseau, 19, traveled from Kenosha, Wis., with her father Darryl. It'll be the first Stones concert for both of them. Her favorite song: "Far Away Eyes." Her father:

"Jumpin' Jack Flash, that's his favorite."

Though Pariseau's boyfriend wanted to see the show, too, he'll have to watch back home on pay per view. Two tickets cost the Pariseaus $2,200, which meant a lot of saving up for Alexa, who works a part-time job. While the Stones performed in Newark Thursday, she thought band would have more pressure to deliver tonight since the show is being broadcast. Still, she wasn't exactly sold on one of the special guests.

"Lady Gaga's good, but not enough for the Stones," she said.

John Gomes saw his first Stones show in 1964 in Long Beach, Calif. The band flew in on a helicopter, he said, and once in a limousine, were pummeled by eager female fans. For tonight's show, it took Gomes nearly six hours to drive from his home in Mount Shasta, Calif., to San Francisco, then six more hours to fly into Newark, though he was solely focused on the band.

"What the hell I want to see New Jersey for?" he asked.

Jake Brunello came just as far, but his arrival was made sweeter knowing he was not only hours away from seeing Mick Jagger live, but also cancer-free. While in treatment Brunello hadn't been able to make it to a Stones show since the Licks Tour in 2002, he said.

Russell Crowe Can’t Wait To Get Home: I Will ‘Try To Bring My Family Back Together’

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Russell Crowe attends the ‘Les Miserables’ New York premiere at Ziegfeld Theatre on December 10, 2012Caption After a whirlwind year of filming (he’s starring in five films coming out within the next year), Russell Crowe – who is reportedly estranged from wife Danielle Spencer – wants to make things right with his family.

“As soon as I finish this job & can get home, my priority is to try to bring my family back together,” the “Les Miserables” star, who is currently shooting “A Winter’s Tale” in New York, Tweeted earlier this week.

The actor also slammed reports claiming he’d been spotted getting cozy with Billy Joel’s ex-wife Katie Lee, writing, “These latest reports are false & cruel.”

Russell, who has two sons with Danielle (the family resides in Australia), took to Twitter again on Saturday, counting down the days until he can get back to his family, and letting followers know he won’t put up with negative comments.

“I have 3 shooting days to go, then the journey home begins,” he wrote. “Blocked quite a few people this morning, spreaders of hate, stupidity and bs gone.”

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, reports of the longtime couple’s split surfaced in October.

Russell’s incredibly full film schedule was said to be part of the reason for the reported separation, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, as the Oscar-winning actor had six films slated for release within a one-year span, including “Man with the Iron Fists,” “Les Miserables,” “Broken City,” “Man of Steel,” “Noah,” and “Winter’s Tale.”

Russell and Danielle met 22 years ago on the set of “The Crossing,” and dated, but eventually broke up.

The couple reconciled years later, and married in a chapel built especially for Danielle in 2003.

Linsanity: Jeremy Lin finally breaks out for Houston Rockets

2:08AM EST December 11. 2012 - Jeremy Lin always has been a late bloomer: lightly recruited, undrafted, two years on the bench and in the NBA Development League.

It took a quarter of a season, but Linsanity has reached Texas. The Houston Rockets point guard had a season-high 38 points Monday night in a 134-126 overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

GAME: Parker's triple-double carries Spurs

The Rockets were without their leading scorer, shooting guard James Harden, and Lin filled the void as he proved so capable of last season with the New York Knicks. His previous season-high points total was 21, on Nov. 2.

Lin had been mired in a funk lately, scoring 15 total points in his previous three games while losing minutes to backup Toney Douglas. But the expensive free agent busted out without Harden around.

Lin started out slowly, scoring two points in the first quarter, but then took over in the second and third, scoring 24 of Houston's 66 points in the high-scoring stanzas.

He finished 11-for-21 from the field, 4-for-5 from three and 12-for-12 from the line and added seven assists, three rebounds, two blocks and two steals for good measure.

BOX SCORE: Spurs 134, Rockets 126

Characteristically, Lin brushed aside his individual contributions.

"I'm thankful that I was able to get comfortable out there, but that's definitely secondary to the fact that we blew another close game," he said.

It was the breakout performance the Rockets needed from Lin, whom they invested $25.1 million in over the next three years. Lin burst onto the scene last February when the injury-plagued Knicks shuffled him into a starting and starring role, but his career before his two-month hot streak was full of D-League and DNPs.

Lin's game was not perfect. Near the end of regulation, with the score tied, he was ticking down the clock to set up a last shot when Danny Green poked the ball away from him.

"I had the ball to win it and didn't even get a shot up," Lin said. "That one hurt."

Jason Garrett leaned on players

IRVING, Texas -- When the Cowboys arrived in Cincinnati on Saturday night, coach Jason Garrett met with his captains Tony Romo, DeMarcus Ware and Jason Witten to discuss how the team would proceed after learning of the death of teammate Jerry Brown.

“I talked to our players about, ‘Hey, guys, what do you want to do Saturday night? Do you want to have a team meeting? Do you want to have offensive and defensive meetings? Is that the right thing to do? Is that the wrong thing to do? Does routine helps us? Does it hurt us? Just tell me what you think. I’m not going to stand here and say, This is the way you handle it. I can’t say that I know the way to handle it,’” Garrett said. “But I know collectively when we talked about it and worked our way through it, I think everybody was together on how we’re going to handle it.”

The Cowboys kept the Saturday routine as normal as possible with the exception of a 25-minute special teams meeting. Offensive and defensive meetings were shortened.

“Afterwards we had a snack in the dining room, encouraged everybody to go in there and hang out with each other,” Garrett said. “Some guys chose not to. A lot of guys did and kind of hung out and were together. Another thing I said at the outset of the meeting was if anybody wants to leave this meeting, leave the next meeting, you don’t feel up to hear all this stuff, leave. Do whatever you need to do. I'm not telling you how to handle anything. I’m just saying we are here for each other. If you feel like you don’t want to be a part of this, if you want to walk out of the room and take a moment for yourself, you do that. There were no restrictions. There wasn't a lot of structure. We just tried to handle it the best we could all together.”

Team chaplain Jonathan Evans ran chapel, “and did a great job, trying to provide some perspective on what the situation was,” Garrett said. “There were probably more players there than there normally would have been.”

December 3: After the UN

Sir, – Most people in Israel, after the vote in the United Nations General Assembly (“‘Palestine’ wins historic upgrade at UN,” November 30), are wringing their hands and saying that “it is a terrible situation, but what can we do?” We can do many things. The choice is ours.

We can tell our prime minister that we have had enough groveling to the United Nations, which really is dominated by the Arab world. We can tell the Palestinian Authority that we have had enough of its tantrums and refusals to accept the right of Jews to live anywhere, any place at any time.

Our trouble is that since the Oslo Accords we have been weak and meek. We could not have done worse than to adopt such a strategy. Let us now do what we must to build up Israel from strength.

We will never be liked, but we will at least be respected.

Sir, – Recent statements made by some Israeli leaders, that the UN vote “won’t change anything substantive on the ground,” may be true. But they miss the point.

People who do not fully appreciate that Israel has very little support in the UN, Europe or many other places may wake up one day and be surprised to find the UN attempting to force this virtual state called Palestine on Israel, regardless of any promises the Arabs made to negotiate.

What the Palestinians did by going to the UN violated the terms of the Oslo agreements, and no one seems to be talking about this, especially UN members.

This is an issue that can only get worse.

Before the UN begins threatening us, we need to complete our own country. We will catch hell either way. It is better to make a decision that is in our own best interests rather than be forced to respond.

Sir, – The international community, led by the US and EU, is constantly urging Israel and the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table. It would be well advised to invest its boundless energies in persuading the PA and Hamas themselves to first return to the negotiating table to settle their own differences.

It would seem that our next government should invest all its efforts in solving our pressing economic problems first, leaving the PA and Hamas agenda to those in the international community who are sincerely searching for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement.

It is difficult to understand why this eludes those who keep pressing Israel to take the initiative.


Sir, – The prime cause of the ever-rising anti-Israel and anti- Jewish upsurge around the world is the Israeli government – it has not told the world that on April 25, 1920, at San Remo in Italy, an international agreement was signed that created Syria, Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and Palestine.

Palestine, the agreement clearly said, was created for no other reason than to be the national homeland of the Jewish nation.

The borders were very roughly the same as biblical Israel, covering both the western and eastern banks of the Jordan River.

It is the Jewish nation that was cheated out of its lands, first by the British, and later by the UN.

For heaven’s sake, let the world know it is Israel that has been cheated, not the Arabs.

Sir, – David Ben-Gurion may not have had a choice when he decided to accept the UN partition of Palestine, as at the time the yishuv had a small population and almost no means of self-defense. What’s the excuse today?

Sir, – All that happened last week at the UN is that Mahmoud Abbas bought himself an “upgrade” using frequent terror points.

Sir, – Shlomo Slonim (“Accomplices in a campaign to annihilate a UN member,” Comments & Features, November 29) is right in that it is so clearly unjust to call for a Palestinian state at the UN when Gaza is run by Hamas terrorists, and the West Bank is run by Mahmoud Abbas, whose institutions openly glorify terrorists. The borders of this “state” are not even demarcated.

It’s about time the head of an Israeli government, when talking to the media, made simple reference to our Father in Heaven, who is always protecting Israel against all odds. Perhaps God is waiting for us to acknowledge His role and not imply we think all is from our own hands.
Sir, – Gil Hoffman, in “Myths and facts about a dizzying week in Israeli politics” (Frontlines, November 30), seems to miss the point in his analysis of apparent implications of the outcome of the Likud Party primaries and the fact that Bennie Begin, Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan are in unrealistic spots.

It’s not that the party has moved to the right vis a vis the issue of the conflict with the Palestinians. It’s that the three “ousted” individuals all believe in democracy (including respecting the minority), the rule of law, implementing decisions of the Supreme Court, etc., while many of those who were voted into more realistic positions do not.

That is the “move to the right” that the Likud Party has made, and it is an exceptionally dangerous one, in my opinion.

Sir, – Regarding “Energy expert: Fuel choice necessary for robust car market, but electricity not the answer now” (November 29), I strongly disagree with Dr. Gal Luft’s assessment about electric cars.

I believe Luft is looking at it from a theoretical rather than reality-based viewpoint. If he actually owned a Better Place car he would know that electric cars right now are most certainly not a “utopian” dream, but completely doable and practical in the here-and-now.

We purchased our Better Place 100 percent electric car over the summer. We are very pleased with our choice to do so and with everything about the car.

Better Place’s customer service is the best I’ve seen in any market here in Israel (I have lived here 17 years), with 24/7 phone availability and constant assistance, battery-changing stations popping up everywhere, and our own charging station right at home.

Admittedly, we do have to plan our travels more carefully.

But this is an easily surmountable inconvenience and I have no doubt the company is working toward technology that will allow larger-capacity batteries.

As far as the price, thanks to reduced taxes the purchase price of a Better Place electric car is about the same as any comparable new car. And loans are available through a special arrangement with Bank Igud on terms that are better than loans for anything else anywhere. The monthly fees for charging and changing batteries are slightly less than we spent on gasoline.

We did not expect to save huge sums, but we are definitely spending less.

I also strongly differ with Luft’s lack of confidence in Israel’s ability to lead the way in this market.

He lives in the US, where thus far they haven’t been able to work out all the details of electric cars. But here in Israel we have the unique opportunity to work out all the kinks in an geographical area that is small enough to drive through in a day. We can – and will – be a light unto the nations in the field of electric cars, as in so many other areas.

I highly recommend to anyone and everyone to take the plunge and make your next car 100% electric. There is no reason whatsoever to allow Luft’s pessimism to become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

The Kennedy Center Honors: Seven recipients and a whole lotta love

Here’s a sentence you won’t read every day: The president and first lady sat down with the members of Led Zeppelin, a former prima ballerina and Dustin Hoffman on Sunday night. And, um, Buddy Guy and David Letterman were there, too.

In other words, an unusual but somehow typical crew looked down from the main mezzanine box at the Kennedy Center for the 35th annual Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.

State Department dinner for Kennedy Center honorees:The recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors and other celebrities gathered Saturday for a State Department dinner.

Kennedy Center Honors 2012:An actor, a ballerina, a blues musician, a TV host and some legendary rockers are this year’s Kennedy Center Honors recipients.

As usual, the Honors — part performing arts carnival, part hall-of-fame induction ceremony, part fundraiser and fancy-schmancy dinner — had a little something for its honorees and a lot for everyone else.

There were TV stars saluting a TV superstar (Letterman); exquisite dancing (in tribute to honoree Natalia Makarova); a great movie actor, Robert DeNiro, attesting to the chops of an acting icon (Hoffman); raucous blues (for Guy); and even raucous-er classic rock (for Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones).

President Obama, during pre-ceremony remarks at the White House, noted correctly that such an unlikely collection of artists “had no business being on the same stage together” and that his speechwriters had struggled to find a smooth transition from “ballet to Led Zeppelin.”

The ceremony itself featured the high, the low and quite a few things in between.

In honor of Makarova, who defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1970, dancers performed pieces from her signature roles in “Giselle” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Makarova, attired in red-and-black head scarf and gown, watched in apparent delight. She was, incidentally, overlooking the same stage on which she was badly injured in 1982 when she was hit by falling scenery equipment during a performance of “On Your Toes” (undaunted by a gashed head and broken shoulder blade, she made it to the Broadway opening of the show two months later — and won a Tony for her performance).

Morgan Freeman, introducing fellow Mississippian Guy, said the musician “mastered the soul of gutbucket” blues and created “a bridge from blues to rock ‘n’ roll.” Which was a pretty good segue for tribute performances by Tracy Chapman, guitar legend Jeff Beck (accompanying Beth Hart on a soulful “I’d Rather Go Blind”) and Bonnie Raitt. The massed performance of “Sweet Home Chicago” had everyone on the lower level of the house on their feet (the grownups in the mezzanine stayed seated).

Letterman, who has probably made more people laugh than just about anyone in human history, was lauded by Tina Fey, who explained that Letterman “began his career as a choreographer and black opera singer in the 1950s.” She called him a national treasure “like the Grand Canyon, the Chicago skyline or the top two Kardashians.” Letterman, among many others, laughed heartily.

Alec Baldwin did his own Top 10 list (“Top 10 Reasons David Letterman Is Getting a Kennedy Centers Honor”), which stiffed except for his veiled reference to Jay Leno (“No. 7: He didn’t leave late-night for a six-month stint in primetime”).

Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night heir of Letterman’s, noted that in high school, he started a David Letterman fan club, and this became “the reason I would fail to make love to a live woman for many, many years.”