QUOTE: Authorities Investigate Cause of Celina Cass’ Death While Town Mourns
August 4, 2011 No Comment
“At night, I’m afraid that the person who did this will be out there and that they’ll come into our house and take me and my brother.” — BAILEY SWALLOW, 12, a resident of West Stewartstown, N.H., where a local girl, Celina Cass, was found dead in the Connecticut River; the cause of her death
Continue reading …White House: Taxpayers Will Cover Cost of Obama’s Midwest Bus Tour (Video)
August 4, 2011 No Comment
White House spokesman Jay Carney confessed to reporters today that taxpayers will end up paying for Obama’s bus tour across the battleground states this month promoting jobs. Carney wouldn’t say where the tour was heading. The bus tour will be … Continue reading → Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Gateway Pundit Discovery Date : 04/08/2011 17:22 Number of articles : 4
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Sure, there are already two live action Snow White films in production, but if there’s any studio that knows that fairytale, it’s Disney. As such, it shouldn’t be terribly unexpected that the House of Mouse would be coming out with its own retelling of the princess and dwarves story; what they’re doing with it, however, may be a bit of a surprise. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is moving forward with its far east, warrior-focused version of the tale; now called “The Order of the Seven,” it’s been in development for years, and, so says THR, will actually minimize the aspects associated with the Grimm legend. It will be trading those trappings for an ancient action storyline that will feature a band of warriors from around the world that, once downtrodden, are galvanized by meeting an English woman in China. As recently as February, the film was in development under the title, “Snow and the Seven,” and had what seems to be a similar storyline to what we see today: an Englishwoman goes to Hong Kong for her father’s funeral and realizes that her evil stepmother was plotting her murder, at which point she turns to the warriors for protection. Natalie Portman was rumored to be semi-attached to that project, but whether that’s still the case remains to be seen. Whoever gets the lead, to the extent that the film is still loosely based on the fairytale, will have stiff competition to be the definitive live action face of the beloved princess. Kristen Stewart is starring as a warrior-in-training princess alongside Chris Hemsworth and Evil Queen Charlize Theron in “Snow White and the Huntsman,” while Lily Collins will play a more traditional Snow White with Julia Roberts as Evil Queen and Armie Hammer as the dashing Prince. For more on Disney’s Snow White retelling, including who is in talk to direct, click over to The Hollywood Reporter.
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SYDNEY — Police were hunting Thursday for a masked man who chained a fake bomb to a young woman’s neck after breaking into her wealthy family’s home in an extortion attempt that Australia’s prime minister said resembled “a Hollywood script.” In a climactic scene late Wednesday, bomb squad specialists safely freed Madeleine Pulver after 10 harrowing hours with the device attached around her neck. The 18-year-old was not hurt and police later determined the device contained no explosives. A note of demands had been attached to the device, New South Wales state Police Detective Superintendent Luke Moore said, though he declined to specify what the demands were. “We are treating this as an attempted extortion – a very serious attempted extortion,” Moore said. The drama began on Wednesday afternoon in the upscale Sydney suburb of Mosman when Pulver’s family contacted police saying their daughter had been attacked and there was a strange device attached to her. Bomb technicians, negotiators and detectives rushed to the scene. Neighboring homes were evacuated, streets were closed and medical and fire crews waited nearby. Pulver told police a man wearing a mask broke into her home and confronted her while she was in the kitchen. The teen said the man forced her to stay still while he fitted the device to her neck, and then fled. When officials arrived on the scene, they found Pulver alone in the house with the suspicious device tethered to her neck by a chain. The family lives in one of Sydney’s ritziest areas and her father, William Pulver, is CEO of an information technology company. On Thursday, he fought back tears as he talked about his daughter’s horrifying ordeal. “We as parents are extraordinarily proud of Maddy,” William Pulver said, his equally tearful wife Belinda at his side. “I think she has woken up this morning in pretty good spirits. She’s a little tired, a little sore, from holding this damned device in place for about 10 hours.” Forensics officers spent Wednesday night combing through the family’s three-story home and scouring the surrounding streets for evidence. Moore said they had not identified a prime suspect and are trying to figure out how the man got into the house. “We are treating this as an individual incident,” Moore said. “We have absolutely no information to suggest this is linked to any other crime.” New South Wales state Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch said the device was quite sophisticated and was designed to look like a bomb as part of a “very, very elaborate hoax.” Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she was shocked when she heard about the case on Thursday. “When I looked at it this morning, the first thing I said was, ‘It’s like a Hollywood script – the kind of thing you would see at the cinema or on TV,’” Gillard told Fairfax Radio. “You would never expect it to happen in real life in Australia.” Pulver was examined and released from a Sydney hospital on Thursday. Students at the private girls’ school she attends were being offered counseling. “The school community is united behind the student and her family, and we thank God that she is not hurt,” Wenona School officials said in a statement.
Continue reading …The Hill reports : The Senate will pass the House’s bill to fund the Federal Aviation Administration through September to end the week-and-a-half long partial shutdown of the agency, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Thursday.
Continue reading …ABC’s Jon Karl Blames House GOP for FAA Shutdown, Skips Democratic Obstruction
August 4, 2011 No Comment
Good Morning America's Jon Karl on Thursday placed the blame for a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration on House Republicans, ignoring the role Senate Democrats have played. 4000 thousand FAA workers have been furloughed, construction projects have been stopped, but Karl complained, ” What's the hold up? Republicans are insisting on cuts to a program that subsidizes flights to small rural airports .” He then played a clip of Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer attacking, “It's the issue of hostage taking. It's as if someone puts a gun to your head and says 'give me your money' and you say, 'Why won't you give them their money?'” Democrats weren't mentioned once. The House has passed a short-term FAA funding bill through the September recess. As The Hill reported, “But Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) put a stop to those plans when he insisted on a 'clean' bill from the House, which will not return to Washington until Sept. 7.” Instead of explaining this, Karl focused on the Republican-controlled House. He narrated, “I caught up with the Republican House Transportation Secretary John Mica on the phone as he was leaving town. How can you leave town without it being resolved?” GMA viewers might be perplexed by Mica's response. He explained, “Well, last time I checked I didn't have a vote in the U.S. Senate.” This was the only time the word “Senate” was uttered in the whole segment. In a House letter that offered more information than a confusing four second clip, Mica informed: After 4 1/2 years and 20 previous extensions – 17 of which were passed by a Democrat-controlled Senate and House – Senate and House Democrats are now arguing that they don't like the process, but it's doubtful that complaining about the process is comforting to the families of those 4,000 furloughed FAA employees. As Redstate.com explained, there is a component of the standoff that relates to funding of little-used airports: The House bill cut a subsidy program to three rural airports, where the cost of subsidized flights was hopelessly uneconomical.
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There is a notable double standard that exists between what Republicans and Democrats are allowed to say. The same words can be construed as racist or sexist when coming from a Republican, but entirely admissible when coming from a Democrat. Rep. Allen West recently wrote a strongly-worded letter targeting Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for berating him behind his back on the House floor. He received a number of complaints calling him sexist, while Wasserman Schultz, who has made a number of similar, potentially offensive comments, received none of the same flak. Do you think the overt push for political correctness has led to this double standard?
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New site struggles as users flock to sign petitions including one demanding return of capital punishment The government’s new e-petitions website crashed as the public tried to sign a range of petitions including ones calling for a return to capital punishment and withdrawal from the European Union. The Direct Gov website went live with a list of e-petititons on Thursday morning, but repeatedly crashed through sheer weight of numbers as it opened for business with the publication of the first tranche of e-petitions. Calls for the restoration of capital punishment were made, along with calls for the legalisation of cannabis. The leader of the House, Sir George Young, has given an assurance that he hopes petitions with more than 100,000 signatures will get the chance to be debated and voted on in the Commons. Strongly supported e-petitions will be handed to the backbench business committee in the hope that time can be allocated for the issues be voted upon and not just debated. The chair of the committee, Natascha Engel, said she welcomed the attempt to reconnect parliament with public but added she “was worried the government is creating a demand and an expectation that cannot be met”. She pointed out that the committee had been promised time to stage one debate a week, but was in practice being given less than one day a month. “It is a real concern that we do not have the time as a backbench committee as it is to stage the existing backbench demand for debates, and so hold government to account,” she said. She added that she would be calling on the government to speed up its pledge to set up an elected House business committee by 2013, responsible for overseeing all parliamentary time in the Commons. The government appears to be giving less backtime time than it promised because its legislative programme is taking longer than expected to complete. But there is also a suspicion that the government does not like the difficult debates sometimes arranged by the backbench committee, including recent examples on Afghanistan, circus animals and prisoner voting. The committee holds public hearings in which MPs lobby the committee to allocate time for a debate on their chosen topic. Engel is concerned that, with a threshold as low as 100,000 for e-petitions, the committee will be flooded with demands for debates that it cannot meet. Some issues can be debated or aired in Westminster Hall, but there is no vote at the end of these debates. Ministers agreed to the new procedure in a bid to reconnect parliament with the people. It is likely that some tabloid papers will now put pressure on MPs to back popular opinion and vote for the restoration of capital punishment in serious cases such as the murder of a policeman. Leading rightwingers believe there is latent support for the proposal amongst MPs. The issue has not been debated by parliament for 13 years, but polls show support capital punishment has fallen to 16% for “normal” murders. David Cameron has voiced his opposition to capital punishment, saying it is not the mark of a civilised nation. Other proposals on the site include “make prison mean prison – bread and water, that is it”. There are also calls to withdraw from the European convention on human rights, lift the smoking bans in prisons, and for an absolute right to self-defence in the home. A large number of petitions relate to aspects of criminal justice, with many favouring a more punitive approach in which the rights of victims are put first. One petition recommends the televising of court proceedings, and another that the price of alcohol be increased. Among a list of 154 rejected petitions, most relate to sport on TV, with the majority of those calling for Formula One to be kept on free-to-air terrestrial stations. House of Commons George Young David Cameron Capital punishment Internet Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Oregon Democrat David Wu has made his resignation from the House official, reports Roll Call . Wu—who announced his attention to step down after he was accused of having an “unwanted” sexual encounter with the teen daughter of a campaign donor—is the fourth member of Congress this year to…
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Madeleine Pulver freed unhurt after 10 hours strapped to fake bomb in case prime minister said was ‘like a Hollywood script’ The parents of an Australian teenager who was trapped for about 10 hours with what turned out to be a fake bomb strapped round her neck said she was “a little tired, a little sore” after her ordeal in the wealthy Sydney suburb of Mosman. Madeleine Pulver, 18, was freed unhurt from the device late on Wednesday by bomb squad specialists. Police later said there had been no explosive, but confirmed that there was a note making demands. Det Supt Luke Moore, of New South Wales police would not reveal the note’s contents, but said: “We are treating this as an attempted extortion, a very serious attempted extortion.” As police launched a manhunt for a masked man said to have broken in to the family home, Madeleine’s father Bill Pulver, a wealthy business executive, fought back tears as he talked about his daughter’s horrifying ordeal. “We as parents are extraordinarily proud of Maddy,” he said, his wife Belinda at his side. “I think she has woken up this morning in pretty good spirits. She’s a little tired, a little sore, from holding this damned device in place for about 10 hours.” Pulver said his daughter was “incredibly grateful” to officers who spent hours with her “showing little regard for their own personal safety”. The drama began on Wednesday afternoon when the family contacted police saying Madeleine had been attacked and a strange device attached to her. Nearby homes were evacuated and streets cleared. The teenager told police a man wearing a mask broke into her home and confronted her while she was in the kitchen. The man forced her to stay still while he fitted the device to her neck, before fleeing the house. Moore said they had not identified a prime suspect and were trying to establish how the man got into the house. “We are treating this as an individual incident,” Moore said. “We have absolutely no information to suggest this is linked to any other crime.” New South Wales police’s assistant commissioner, Mark Murdoch, said the device was sophisticated and was designed to look like a bomb as part of a “very, very elaborate hoax”. Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, said she was shocked when she heard about the case. “When I looked at it this morning, the first thing I said was, ‘It’s like a Hollywood script – the kind of thing you would see at the cinema or on TV’,” she told Fairfax Radio. Australia James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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