Iowa
Iowa is a state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states. In colonial times, Iowa was a part of Spanish Louisiana. After the Louisiana Purchase, people laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy made the transition to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, financial services, information technology and green energy production. Iowa is the 26th most extensive in land area and the 30th most populous of the 50 U. S states, its capital and largest city by population is Des Moines. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in, its nickname is the Hawkeye State. Iowa derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many Native American tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east.
The southern border is the Des Moines River and a not-quite-straight line along 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in Missouri v. Iowa after a standoff between Missouri and Iowa known as the Honey War. Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed by rivers. Iowa has 99 counties; the state capital, Des Moines, is in Polk County. Iowa's bedrock geology increases in age from west to east. In northwest Iowa, Cretaceous bedrock can be 74 million years old. Iowa is not flat. Iowa can be divided into eight landforms based on glaciation, soils and river drainage. Loess hills lie along the western border of the state. Northeast Iowa along the Upper Mississippi River is part of the Driftless Area, consisting of steep hills and valleys which appear mountainous. Several natural lakes exist, most notably Spirit Lake, West Okoboji Lake, East Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa. To the east lies Clear Lake. Man-made lakes include Lake Odessa, Saylorville Lake, Lake Red Rock, Coralville Lake, Lake MacBride, Rathbun Lake.
The state's northwest area has many remnants such as Barringer Slough. Iowa's natural vegetation is tallgrass prairie and savanna in upland areas, with dense forest and wetlands in flood plains and protected river valleys, pothole wetlands in northern prairie areas. Most of Iowa is used for agriculture; the Southern part of Iowa is categorised as the Central forest-grasslands transition ecoregion. The Northern, drier part of Iowa is categorised as the Central tall grasslands and is thus considered to be part of the Great Plains. There is a dearth of natural areas in Iowa; as of 2005 Iowa ranked 49th of U. S. states in public land holdings. Threatened or endangered animals in Iowa include the interior least tern, piping plover, Indiana bat, pallid sturgeon, the Iowa Pleistocene land snail, Higgins' eye pearly mussel, the Topeka shiner. Endangered or threatened plants include western prairie fringed orchid, eastern prairie fringed orchid, Mead's milkweed, prairie bush clover, northern wild monkshood.
There is little proof to suggest that the explosion in the number of high-density livestock facilities in Iowa has led to increased rural water contamination and a decline in air quality. In fact, covered manure storage in modern barns prevent that manure from washing away into surface water, as it does in open lots as snow melts and thunderstorms occur. Other factors negatively affecting Iowa's environment include the extensive use of older coal-fired power plants and pesticide runoff from crop production, diminishment of the Jordan Aquifer. Iowa has a humid continental climate throughout the state with extremes of both cold; the average annual temperature at Des Moines is 50 °F. Winters are harsh and snowfall is common. Spring ushers in the beginning of the severe weather season. Iowa averages about 50 days of thunderstorm activity per year; the 30 year annual average Tornadoes in Iowa is 47. In 2008, twelve people were killed by tornadoes in Iowa, making it the deadliest year since 1968 and the second most tornadoes in a year with 105, matching the total from 2001.
Iowa summers are known for heat and humidity, with daytime temperatures sometimes near 90 °F and exceeding 100 °F. Average winters in the state have been known to drop well below freezing dropping below −18 °F. Iowa's all-time hottest temperature of 118 °F was recorded at Keokuk on July 20, 1934. Iowa has a smooth gradient of var
Fozzie Bear
Fozzie Bear is a Muppet character known for his lack of innate and effective comedy skills. Fozzie is an orange bear who wears a brown pork pie hat and a red and white polka dot necktie; the character debuted on The Muppet Show, as the show's stand-up comic, a role where he employed his catchphrase, "Wocka Wocka!" Shortly after telling the joke, he was the target of ridicule from balcony hecklers Statler and Waldorf. Fozzie was performed by Frank Oz until 2001; the origin of Fozzie's name has been traditionally thought to be a pun of performer Frank Oz's name. It was believed that the character was named after Al Fuzzie, the mascot of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority in the mid-1970s. However, Oz confirmed on Twitter in 2018 that Fozzie was named after Frank Fazakas, a Muppet workshop person, nicknamed "Faz". Fozzie Bear was Oz's main character; the popularity of Miss Piggy overtook Fozzie's. One of his largest roles was in A Muppet Family Christmas, where he took all of his friends to his mother's farm for Christmas.
In 1988, a video titled Hey, You're as Funny as Fozzie Bear! was released, was intended to help kids develop comedic talent. During the 1990s, his roles became much smaller, due to the fact that Oz had turned his focus to directing non-Muppet films and reduced his time with the Muppets. Fozzie was only a supporting character in the Muppet films of that decade and only appeared in six episodes of Muppets Tonight. However, he returned to prominence when Eric Jacobson took over beginning with It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, in which Fozzie was the focus of a number of scenes; the original puppet is kept in the teddy bear museum in Stratford-upon-Avon, founded by Gyles Brandreth. Frank Oz first performed Fozzie in 1976 on The Muppet Show, he remained Fozzie's main performer until his departure from the cast in 2001. In 2002, Eric Jacobson became Fozzie's main performer and has continued to perform the character since then. Kevin Clash and John Kennedy puppeteered Fozzie for much of the production of Muppet Treasure Island and Muppets from Space respectively.
Victor Yerrid performed Fozzie for a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show, Muppets Ahoy!. Voice actor Greg Berg provided Fozzie's voice for the Saturday morning cartoon Muppet Babies, as well as its short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. In the reboot of Muppet Babies, Fozzie is voiced by Eric Bauza; the character regards Kermit the Frog as his best friend. Fozzie and Kermit have frequently been paired together in many movies and specials. In The Muppet Movie, Fozzie is the first Muppet. After Fozzie's unsuccessful comedy performance at the El Sleezo Cafe, Kermit invited Fozzie to come to Hollywood with him; the two friends sing the duet "Movin' Right Along" in the film. Several episodes show Fozzie as dedicated to Kermit responding to his instructions with a chipper "Yes sir." On those rare occasions when Kermit must be away from the theater, he invariably leaves Fozzie in charge of the show, although he invariably regrets it. In The Great Muppet Caper and Kermit are portrayed as twin brothers.
Fozzie's mother, Emily Bear, appeared in A Muppet Family Christmas special. To Fozzie's surprise, she was friends with Statler and Waldorf, despite the heckling they inflict on him. Fozzie has a cousin who appeared in the first season of The Muppet Show performed by Frank Oz. In the Muppet Movie, Fozzie makes reference to his uncle, whose Studebaker he traded in while his uncle was hibernating, his cousin is an audience member. In one episode of The Muppet Show, he begged the other audience members not to insult his cousin Fozzie, he has a friend called Jasmine the tortoise. In the first season of The Muppet Show, the show's opening featured Fozzie telling a joke during an instrumental portion of the theme song. Fozzie was featured in a sketch where he did a comedy monologue, in which Statler and Waldorf would heckle him. In the second season, Fozzie's comedy routines had gimmicks such as ventriloquism or performing on roller skates; as the series progressed, he did fewer comedy routines, becoming more involved in the show as a whole.
He performed as a magician occasionally. Fozzie uses Jewish humor on the show, a nod to Frank Oz's Jewish ancestry and the Borscht Belt comics that were popular in the mid-20th century. For example, "The Telephone Pole Bit" included a reference to Frank Oz's Polish Jewish father, in Fozzie's magic act, he pulls a rabbi out of his hat. Though his main job was to be the show's comedian, he has had a number of other roles on The Muppet Show, he sang and danced in many musical numbers, acted in sketches. He often helps backstage and attempts to plan out the show in one episode, write the script in another. In one episode, he and his mother Emily do a performance of Knees Up Mother Brown, in which he sings and Emily dances as Mother Brown in the chorus. In Episode 115, Fozzie annoys Kermit with a running gag, delivering a number of pun items, such as a "wire" and a "letter" for Kermit the Frog which turned out to be a clothes wire and the letter R, respectively. Another running gag is Fozzie's hat—as a bear, he is covered with fur, all over.
However, upon removing his hat, it is clear that his head shape is modeled on the pate of a bald headed man—thus, the juxtaposition of being both furred and bald
Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom, known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter and actress, in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and performer. During her career, she wrote music for films and recorded conceptual record albums that combined poetry and music. Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, the seventh of eight children to parents Marvin Olof Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad, his wife, Selma Amelia Egstrom, on May 26, 1920, she and her family were Lutherans. Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American. After her mother died when Lee was four, her father married Minnie Schaumberg Wiese. Lee first sang professionally over KOVC radio in North Dakota, she had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her a salary in food.
Both during and after her high school years, Lee sang for small sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy, of WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota, changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee. Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17, she returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy and was noticed by hotel owner Frank Bering while working at the Doll House in Palm Springs, California. It was here that she developed her trademark sultry purr, having decided to compete with the noisy crowd with subtlety rather than volume. Beringin offered her a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel East in Chicago. There, she was noticed by bandleader Benny Goodman. According to Lee, "Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into The Buttery, she was impressed. So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest, and although I didn't know, I was it. He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking.
I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing." She stayed for two years. In 1942 Lee had her first No. 1 hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place", followed by 1943's "Why Don't You Do Right?" which sold over 1 million copies and made her famous. She sang with Goodman's orchestra in Stage Door Canteen and The Powers Girl. In March 1943 Lee married Dave Barbour, a guitarist in Goodman's band. Lee said, "David joined Benny's band and there was a ruling that no one should fraternize with the girl singer, but I fell in love with David the first time I heard him play, so I married him. Benny fired David, so I quit, too. Benny and I made up. Benny stuck to his rule. I think that's not too bad a rule, but you can't help falling in love with somebody."...when she left the band that spring, her intention was to quit the footlights altogether and become Mrs. Barbour, fulltime housewife. It's to Mr. Barbour's credit that he refused to let his wife's singing and composing talent lay dormant for too long.
"I fell in love with David Barbour," she recalled. "But'Why Don't You Do Right' was such a giant hit that I kept getting offers and kept turning them down. And at that time it was a lot of money, but it didn't matter to me at all. I was happy. All I wanted was to cling to the children. Well, they kept talking to me and David joined them and said'You have too much talent to stay at home and someday you might regret it.'" She drifted back to songwriting and occasional recording sessions for the Capitol Records in 1947, for whom she recorded a long string of hits, many of them with lyrics and music by Lee and Barbour, including "I Don't Know Enough About You" and "It's a Good Day". With the release of the US No. 1-selling record of 1948, "Mañana", her "retirement" was over. In 1948, Lee's work was part of Capitol's library of electrical transcriptions for radio stations. An ad for Capitol Transcriptions in a trade magazine noted that the transcriptions included "special voice introductions by Peggy."In 1948 Lee joined vocalists Perry Como and Jo Stafford as a host of the NBC Radio musical program The Chesterfield Supper Club.
She was a regular on The Jimmy Durante Show and appeared on Bing Crosby's radio shows during the late 1940s and early 1950s. She recorded a popular version of "Fever" by Little Willie John, written by Eddie Cooley and John Davenport, to which she added her uncopyrighted lyrics, her relationship with Capitol spanned three decades aside from a brief detour at Decca. For that label she recorded Black Coffee, one of her most acclaimed albums and had hit singles such as "Lover" and "Mister Wonderful". In 1952, Lee starred opposite Danny Thomas in The Jazz Singer, a remake of the Al Jolson film The Jazz Singer, she played an alcoholic blues singer in Pete Kelly's Blues, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She provided speaking and singing voices for several characters in the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp, playing the human "Darling", the dog "Peg", the two Siamese cats, "Si and Am". In 1957, she guest starred on the short-lived variety program The Guy Mitchell Show.
Lee was married four times: to guitarist and composer Dave Barbour, actor Brad Dexter, actor Dewey Martin, percussionist Jack Del Rio. All the marriages en
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character and Jim Henson's most well-known creation. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the straight man protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, films and public service announcements through the years. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990. Kermit is performed by Matt Vogel, he was voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and in other animation projects, is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies. Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "The Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets; the latter song reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable worldwide since, in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
The earliest trace of Kermit first appeared in 1955 on Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded spring coat belonging to Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes. Kermit was a lizard-like creature, he subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status. His collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body; the origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website: While Jim Henson did have a childhood acquaintance named Kermit, it was not an uncommon name at the time, Jim always said that the Frog was NOT named after this child from his elementary school. Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father.
According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL: The late puppeteer had been the host of a show, "Sam and Friends," at WRC-TV in Washington when he was invited to tour WBAL's studios. Both were NBC affiliates and WBAL carried the show, Mr. Levin said. Mr. Henson was introduced to members including Mr. Cohen. "When he heard his name, Jim turned around, snapped his fingers and said to his wife,'That's what we call the frog – Kermit.' Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets on Sesame Street but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character. As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo, in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo.
In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki. Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death.
Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest, Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit. Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show. Muppet performer Artie Esposito performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances. Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies.
He provided the voice of an a
Beauty pageant
A beauty pageant or beauty contest is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants, although most contests have evolved to incorporate personality traits, intelligence and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria. The term refers to contests for women such as the Big Four international beauty pageants; the organizers of each pageant may determine the rules of the competition, including the age range of contestants. The rules may require the contestants to be unmarried, be "virtuous", "amateur", available for promotions, besides other criteria, it may set the clothing standards in which contestants will be judged, including the type of swimsuit. Beauty pageants are multi-tiered, with local competitions feeding into the larger competitions. For example, the international pageants have thousands of local competitions. Child beauty pageants focus on beauty, sportswear modelling and personal interviews. Adult and teen pageants focus on makeup and gowns, swimsuit modelling, personal interviews.
A winner of a beauty contest is called a beauty queen. The rankings of the contestants are referred to as placements. Possible awards of beauty contests include titles, tiaras or crowns, scepters, savings bonds and cash prizes; however and teen pageants have been moving more towards judging speaking. Some pageants award college scholarships, to multiple runners-up. European festivals dating to the medieval era provide the most direct lineage for beauty pageants. For example, English May Day celebrations always involved the selection of a May Queen. In the United States, the May Day tradition of selecting a woman to serve as a symbol of bounty and community ideals continued, as young beautiful women participated in public celebrations. A beauty pageant was held during the Eglinton Tournament of 1839, organized by Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, as part of a re-enactment of a medieval joust, held in Scotland; the pageant was won by Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, the wife of Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset, sister of Caroline Norton, she was proclaimed as the "Queen of Beauty".
Entrepreneur Phineas Taylor Barnum staged the first modern American pageant in 1854, but his beauty contest was closed down after public protest. Beauty contests became more popular in the 1880s. In 1888, the title of'beauty queen' was awarded to an 18-year-old Creole contestant at a pageant in Spa, Belgium. All participants had to supply a photograph and a short description of themselves to be eligible to enter and a final selection of 21 was judged by a formal panel; such events were not regarded as respectable. Beauty contests came to be considered more respectable with the first modern "Miss America" contest held in 1921; the oldest pageant still in operation today is the Miss America pageant, organized in 1921 by a local businessman as a means to entice tourists to Atlantic City, New Jersey. The pageant hosted the winners of local newspaper beauty contests in the "Inter-City Beauty" Contest, attended by over one hundred thousand people. Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington, D. C. was crowned Miss America 1921, having won both the popularity and beauty contests, was awarded $100.
In May 1920, promoter C. E. Barfield of Galveston, Texas organized a new event known as "Splash Day" on the island; the event featured a "Bathing Girl Revue" competition as the centerpiece of its attractions. The event was the kick-off of the summer tourist season in the city and was carried forward annually; the event became known outside of Texas and, beginning in 1926, the world's first international contest was added, known as the International Pageant of Pulchritude. This contest is said to have served as a model for modern pageants, it featured contestants from England, Russia and many other nations and the title awarded at the time was known as "Miss Universe". The event was discontinued in the United States in 1932 because of the Depression; the popularity of the Miss America pageant prompted other organizations to establish similar contests in the 1950s and beyond. Some were significant; the Miss World contest started in 1951, Miss Universe started in 1952 as did Miss USA. Miss International started in 1960.
Miss Asia Pacific International started in 1968. The Miss Black America contest started in 1968 in response to the exclusion of African American women from the Miss America pageant; the Miss Universe Organization started the Miss Teen USA in 1983 for the 14-19 age group. Miss Earth started in 2001, which channels the beauty pageant entertainment industry as an effective tool to promote the preservation of the environment; these contests continue to this day. The requirement for contestants to wear a swimsuit was a controversial aspect of the various competitions; the controversy was heightened with the increasing popularity of the bikini after its introduction in 1946. The bikini was banned for the Miss America contest in 1947 because of Roman Catholic protesters; when the Miss World contest started in 1951, there was an outcry when the winner was crowned in a bikini. Pope Pius XII condemned the crowning as sinful, countries with religious traditions threatened to withdraw delegates; the bikini was banned for other contests.
It was not until the late 1990s that they became permitted again, but still generated controversy when finals were held in countries where bikinis were disapproved. For example, in 2003, Vida Samadzai from Afghanistan caused
Muppets Most Wanted
Muppets Most Wanted is a 2014 American musical comedy film and the eighth theatrical film featuring the Muppets. Directed by James Bobin and written by Bobin and Nicholas Stoller, the film is a sequel to 2011's The Muppets and stars Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey, as well as Muppet performers Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel, Peter Linz. In the film, the Muppets find themselves unwittingly involved in an international crime caper while on tour in Europe. Aside from co-writer Jason Segel, the majority of the production team behind The Muppets returned for Muppets Most Wanted including Bobin and producers David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman. Bret McKenzie and Christophe Beck returned to compose the film's songs and musical score, respectively. Principal photography commenced in January 2013 at Pinewood Studios in England. Muppets Most Wanted had its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on March 11, 2014, was released theatrically in North America on March 21, 2014.
The film grossed $80.4 million worldwide. The film was dedicated to Muppet performer Jerry Nelson, who died during the film's development, Jane Henson, who died two months into production. Following the events of the previous film, The Muppets find themselves at a loss as to what to do until Dominic Badguy suggests the Muppets go on a European tour with him as their tour manager; as the Muppets begin their tour, a criminal mastermind named Constantine, a near-exact double for Kermit in appearance, escapes from a Siberian Gulag and joins his subordinate Dominic to begin a plot to steal the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Once the Muppets arrive in Berlin, Dominic secures them a show at a prestigious venue. Frustrated with the group's incessant requests and Miss Piggy's insistence they marry, Kermit goes for a walk at Dominic's suggestion. Constantine ambushes him and glues a fake mole onto his cheek slips away. Mistaken for Constantine, Kermit is banished to the Siberian Gulag. Taking Kermit's place, Constantine's blunders in imitating him are covered by Dominic.
After the Berlin performance opens with Constantine freezing at the audience, Scooter has to introduce the show. Constantine and Dominic steal paintings from a museum; the next morning, Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon and CIA agent Sam the Eagle grudgingly team up to apprehend the culprit whom Napoleon believes to be his nemesis "The Lemur" - the number-two criminal in the world. Meanwhile, in Siberia, Kermit has attempted several times to escape the Gulag but is thwarted each time by prison guard Nadya, not only aware of his true identity but is as infatuated with him as Miss Piggy is. Nadya orders Kermit to help organize the prisoners' annual talent show. Following hidden instructions on the stolen painting and Dominic divert the tour to Madrid, Spain. Constantine allows the Muppets to perform. During this show and Dominic break into a museum and destroy a roomful of busts to find a key needed for their plan. Though the performance is a disaster, the Muppets receive critical acclaim. Sam and Napoleon deduce that the connection between the crimes is the Muppet tour, the pair interrogates the Muppets, only to find that they are too ill-equipped to be guilty.
The instructions on the stolen key lead Constantine and Dominic to schedule the next show in Dublin, Ireland. In Dublin, Walter discovers that Dominic has been giving away show tickets and bribing critics to ensure a packed house and rave reviews, while Fozzie notices Kermit's resemblance to Constantine, they both realize that Constantine has taken Kermit's place and brought in Dominic as his accomplice. Constantine attacks Walter and Fozzie, but Animal fends him off and the three escape from the train to rescue Kermit. During the Dublin performance, Dominic steals a locket from a museum and Constantine proposes to Miss Piggy onstage. Fozzie and Animal reach the Siberian Gulag on the night of the performance, Kermit uses it as a front to allow them and all the prisoners to escape the Gulag. Kermit, Fozzie and Animal infiltrate the Tower as the wedding begins, Dominic manages to steal the jewels. Kermit interrupts the ceremony, revealing Constantine's ruse, but the crook takes Miss Piggy hostage and flees to a helicopter, where he is intercepted by Dominic, the Lemur and intends to double-cross him.
Constantine ejects him from the helicopter and tries to take off with Piggy, but Kermit jumps aboard and the rest of the Muppets climb atop each other to stop the escape. Kermit and Piggy knock out Constantine and both criminals are arrested by Sam and Napoleon. Nadya arrives in London to arrest Kermit for escaping; the other Muppets tell her that if she arrests him she will have to take all of them as well. The Muppets perform at the Gulag with the prisoners participating, ending the film. Ricky Gervais as Dominic Badguy/The Lemur, the world's second most-wanted criminal and Constantine's accomplice who poses as the manager of a fictional international talent agency, his last name is pronounced "badgee". Ty Burrell as Jean Pierre Napoleon, a French Interpol agent who works with Sam Eagle on finding Constantine. Tina Fey as Nadya, a high-ranking prison guard at Gulag 38B, obsessed with Kermit the Frog. Interviewed by phone in the "Inside the Gulag" featurette, Nadya
The New Republic
The New Republic is an American magazine of commentary on politics and the arts, published since 1914, with influence on American political and cultural thinking. Founded in 1914 by leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between a humanitarian progressivism and an intellectual scientism, discarded the latter. Through the 1980s and'90s, the magazine incorporated elements of "Third Way" neoliberalism and conservatism. In 2014, two years after Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, purchased the magazine, he ousted its editor and attempted to remake its format and partisan stances, provoking the resignation of the majority of its editors and writers. In early 2016, Hughes announced he was putting the magazine up for sale, indicating the need for "new vision and leadership", it was sold in February 2016 to Win McCormack. Domestically, The New Republic as of 2011 supported a modern liberal stance on fiscal and social issues, according to former editor Franklin Foer, who stated that it "invented the modern usage of the term'liberal', it's one of our historical legacies and obligations to be involved in the ongoing debate over what liberalism means and stands for."
As of 2004, some, like Anne Kossedd and Steven Rendall, contended that it was not as liberal as it had been before 1974. The magazine's outlook was associated with the Democratic Leadership Council and "New Democrats" such as former US President Bill Clinton and Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who received the magazine's endorsement in the 2004 Democratic primary; the magazine endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 general election. Prior to 2014, while defending federal programs like Medicare and the EPA, it advocated some policies that, while seeking to achieve the ends of traditional social welfare programs used market solutions as their means, so were called "business-friendly". Typical of some of the policies supported by both The New Republic and the DLC during the 1990s were increased funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit program and reform of the Federal welfare system, supply-side economics the idea of reducing higher marginal income tax rates, which received heavy criticism from senior editor Jonathan Chait.
In its current incarnation, The New Republic is in favor of universal health care. On certain high-profile social issues, such as its support of same-sex marriage, The New Republic could be considered more progressive than the mainstream of the Democratic Party establishment. In its March 2007 issue, The New Republic ran an article by Paul Starr where he provided a definition of modern democratic liberalism: Liberalism wagers that a state... can be strong but constrained – strong because constrained... Rights to education and other requirements for human development and security aim to advance equal opportunity and personal dignity and to promote a creative and productive society. To guarantee those rights, liberals have supported a wider social and economic role for the state, counterbalanced by more robust guarantees of civil liberties and a wider social system of checks and balances anchored in an independent press and pluralistic society; the New Republic does not focus on domestic policy, as it brings analysis and commentary of various international affairs.
Support for Israel was a strong theme in The New Republic under Martin Peretz, the former owner of The New Republic: "Support for Israel is deep down an expression of America's best view of itself." According to journalism professor Eric Alterman: Nothing has been as consistent about the past 34 years of The New Republic as the magazine's devotion to Peretz's own understanding of what is good for Israel... It is not too much to say that all of Peretz's political beliefs are subordinate to his commitment to Israel's best interests, these interests as Peretz defines them always involve more war. Unsigned editorials prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq expressed strong support for military action, citing the threat of weapons of mass destruction as well as humanitarian concerns. Since the end of major military operations, unsigned editorials, while critical of the handling of the war, have continued to justify the invasion on humanitarian grounds, but no longer maintain that Iraq's WMD facilities posed any threat to the United States.
In the November 27, 2006 issue, the editors wrote: At this point, it seems beside the point to say this: The New Republic regrets its early support for this war. The past three years have complicated our idealism and reminded us of the limits of American power and our own wisdom. On June 23, 2006, in response to criticism of the magazine from the blog Daily Kos, Martin Peretz wrote the following as a summary of The New Republic's stances on then-recent issues: The New Republic is much against the Bush tax programs, against Bush Social Security "reform", against cutting the inheritance tax, for radical health care changes, passionate about Gore-type environmentalism, for a woman's entitlement to an abortion, for gay marriage, for an increase in the minimum wage, for pursuing aggressively alternatives to our present reliance on oil and our present tax preferences for gas-guzzling automobiles. We were against the confirmation of Justice Alito; the magazine has published two articles concerning income inequality criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States.
In its May 2007 issue the magazine ran an editorial pointing to the humanitarian beliefs of liberals as being responsible for the recent plight of the American left. In another article The New Republic fav
