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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Sep 16, 2014
September 16, 2014
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The White House:
The White House announced late yesterday that the U.S. is sending an estimated 3,000 military troops to the west African nation of Liberia as part of the OBAMA administration's Ebola virus-response strategy. In a statement, the White House said, "U.S. Africa Command will set up a Joint Force Command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to provide regional command and control support to U.S. military activities and facilitate coordination with U.S. government and international relief efforts."
Liberia is the hardest-hit of the four west African nations that have confirmed Ebola cases, accounting for more than one-half of the fatalities. (Pacelli)Bid'ness is Bid'ness:
Surge soda is set to make a comeback.
Coca Cola's caffeine and sugar-laden drink was popular in the 90s, but discontinued in 2002. Coca-Cola says a "passionate and persistent community of brand loyalists" calling themselves The Surge Movement finally convinced the company to bring the soda back. The drink will only be available online in a twelve-pack of 16-ounce cans. You can buy the citrus-flavored concoction exclusively at Amazon.comfor $14 a pack. By the way, each can has 56-grams of sugar. (Still)Trash talk and satellite dish:
The gossip mongers over at the National Enquirer claim that First Lady MICHELLE OBAMA is gearing up for life as a single woman! Apparently Mrs. BARACK OBAMA is planning to drop 50-grand on some cool clothes and another 50 on cosmetic work. Word is she's vowing to drive men positively "crazy" as a "crushing payback" for her hubby's womanizing ways. (Lee)
Fashion Emergency:
Urban Outfitters is offending people again. This time, they've had to pull a "vintage" Kent State sweatshirt covered in what appears to be bloodstains. What the hipster retailer calls "ironic,"everyone else just recalls as a sad day in the nation's history --the 1970 shooting by National Guardsman at the school in which four students were killed. Urban Outfitters has since apologized --again.
Editor's note: Urban Outfitters is like the JUSTIN BIEBER of retail stores... always doing something obnoxious and offensive for attention, and annoying enough that you can't just ignore them. (Bartha)Grace notes:
ROBIN THICKE and PHARRELL WILLIAMS gave their depositions for the lawsuit filed against them by the children of MARVIN GAYE. The Hollywood Reporter says those depositions were given back in April and made public yesterday by the judge overseeing the case. Robin got very upset when the lawyer for the Gaye family tried to play the mashup of "Blurred Lines" and the song it was allegedly stolen from, Marvin's 1977 classic, "Got To Give It Up." Robin said (quote), "This is [like] Stanley Kubrick's movie Clockwork Orange. Where he has to sit there and watch... Mozart would be rolling in his grave right now."
Robin also fessed up that when he told GQ magazine that he and Pharrell came up with "Blurred Lines" together in about 30-minutes and then recorded it, he was lying. Robin admitted that he was high on Vicodin and alcohol when he showed up at the studio, and that Pharrell actually did all of the work. All Robin did was sing.
Robin said that months later after the song was a hit, he wanted more credit for the creation of the record. Pharrell gave Robin a co-writer credit and explained in his own deposition that the music business is notorious for giving artists more credit than they are do just to make a buck. Pharrell admitted that while he was influenced by "Got To Give It Up," he did not set out to copy the song. (Marino) -
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