Tag Archives: Veteran

SMH: Investigation On Ohio Obama Supporter Who May Have Voted For The President 6 Times In 2012 Election

She sure looks like a nice lady and not one to be voting six times under other people’s names and such… Via Fox News: The Obama/Biden lawn sign remains proudly planted in front of Melowese Richardson’s Cincinnati home, three months after the presidential election. It seems that President Obama has an especially ardent supporter in the veteran Ohio poll worker. Richardson told a local television station this month that she voted twice for Obama last November. She cast an absentee ballot and then voted at the polls as well. “Yes, I voted twice,” Richardson told WCPO-TV. “I, after registering thousands of people, certainly wanted my vote to count, so I voted. I voted at the polls.” Authorities also are investigating if she voted in the names of four other people, too, for a total of six votes in the 2012 presidential election. “I’ll fight it for Mr. Obama and for Mr. Obama’s right to sit as president of the United States,” Richardson vowed when asked about the voter fraud investigation that is now under way. Richardson is one of 19 people suspected of illegal voting by the Hamilton County Board of Elections in the last election. Richardson’s granddaughter, India Richardson, confirmed to Fox News that her grandmother voted for her, by submitting an absentee ballot in her name. India told Fox News that she is not angry, and gave her permission to cast her absentee ballot. “It wasn’t a big deal,” she said. But election authorities say voting more than once, or in someone else’s name, is a big deal because it is illegal and threatens the credibility of the nation’s election system. As part of a new effort to root out any voter fraud, Secretary of State Husted has ordered all 88 of the state’s county Board of Elections to hold public hearings on any credible voter fraud allegations or claims of voter disenfranchisement during the 2012 election. He said any substantiated allegations should be turned over to prosecutors. “Once the election is over, and once the winner is declared, everybody forgets about it. I want to make sure that we don’t forget about it, that we make sure we do, essentially, an audit of that process to ensure that we know what happened, and then use that evidence to guide us going forward. … We need to learn from that last election so that we can be better before the next one gets here.” “Fraud does happen,” noted Husted. “Most attempts are caught by the system. But there are cases that do slip through, as this one does, and we need to make sure that we really send a strong message, that if you do this, you are going to be held accountable. It might mean fines, it might mean jail time.” Voter fraud, said Husted, “undermines public confidence in democracy, and that’s why we need, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, to root out all cases of voter fraud.” SMH. Thoughts???

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SMH: Investigation On Ohio Obama Supporter Who May Have Voted For The President 6 Times In 2012 Election

William Shatner Refers to JJ Abrams as a "Pig"

Tell us how you really feel, William Shatner. In an interview with Joel Amos of Movie Fanatic, the veteran actor – and the man who originated Captain James T. Kirk – is asked about JJ Abrams helming both the updated Star Trek franchise and Star Wars franchise. How does Shatner feel about the director? “He’s probably the most talented director of that ilk we have,” Shatner says, adding, however, that Abrams has “gone too far” and is actually “being a pig” these days. Head over to Movie Fanatic now for more from Shatner and stay tuned for updates on this burgeonign cat fight.

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William Shatner Refers to JJ Abrams as a "Pig"

Hamburger Heaven: Late Whopper Lover Has Fast Food Funeral, Gets Buried With Final Favorites From Burger King!

Turns out you can have it your way, even after you’re dead. Funeral For Pennsylvania WWII Veteran Includes Procession Stop At Burger King A York Pennsylvania war vet loved his Burger King so much his daughter had his funeral procession make one final stop at the before burying him. Via NY Daily News reports : David Kime Jr. “lived by his own rules,” daughter Linda Phiel said. He considered the lettuce on a burger his version of healthy eating, she said. To give him a whopper of a send-off Saturday, the funeral procession stopped at a Burger King where each mourner got a sandwich for the road. Kime got one last burger too, the York Daily Record reported. It was placed atop his flag-draped coffin at the cemetery. Phiel said the display wasn’t a joke, rather a happy way of honoring her father and the things that brought him joy. “He lived a wonderful life and on his own terms,” she said. Kime, 88, a World War II veteran, died Jan. 20. Restaurant manager Margaret Hess said she knew his face and his order. She and her crew made 40 burgers for the funeral procession. “It’s nice to know he was a loyal customer up until the end — the very end,” she said. No disrespect to the dead, but which do you think will decompose faster — him or the burger? R.I.P. APImages

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Hamburger Heaven: Late Whopper Lover Has Fast Food Funeral, Gets Buried With Final Favorites From Burger King!

What People Are Missing In The NY Times Story On Lindsay Lohan

After Lindsay Lohan’s  got busted for allegedly slugging another woman at a New York nightclub in November, I wrote her off as a lost cause , but Stephen Rodrick’s fascinating New York Times piece  about Paul Schrader’s making of The Canyons with Lohan left me thinking that there’s still a talented actress in that scandal-ravaged psyche worth saving. Although Lohan exhibits plenty of ridiculous (and tragic) behavior in the story that would prove my original point, and the media has predictably chosen to run with that, I was struck by a few passages in the story that indicate Lohan is more than just a self-destructive starlet whose career is hanging by a thread.  Here are three of them: “The next day, Lohan arrived relatively on time for a makeup test. She sat behind a table with a can of Sprite, looked into the camera and flashed a wholesome smile that would not have been out of place in the world’s best soda commercial. Schrader grabbed my arm and pointed at Lohan’s image. ‘See? That’s why we put up with all the crap. You can shoot bad movies with actresses who are always on time. But look! The rest is just noise.’” Then there’s Rodrick’s description of Lohan’s preparation for a scene in which she was required to be scared and emotionally naked: “All that remained was to get a close-up of Deen touching Lohan’s face with a blood-streaked finger. Only half of Lohan’s face would be in the shot. Most actresses would pop in some Visine to well their eyes with tears and be done with it. Instead, Lohan went back to her room, and everyone waited. I was standing by her door, and soon I could hear her crying. It began quietly, almost a whimper, but rose to a guttural howl. It was the sobbing of a child lost in the woods. She came out of her room, and I watched the shot on a monitor. Now, without the garish makeup, Lohan looked sadly beautiful, and it was easy to see why men like Schrader were willing to put their lives in her hands.” The last excerpt appears at the very end of the story when, after all of the drama of shooting The Canyons,  Rodrick asks the writer of Taxi Driver and the director of Affliction and the underrated Auto Focus , if he regretted casting Lohan: “He shook his head. “No, she’s great in the film.” Schrader then told me a secret. Until the screening disaster, Schrader had been in talks with Lohan to star in a remake of John Cassavetes’s “Gloria,” about a woman on the run from the mob. The director lighted up, childlike; hope triumphing over memories of being stripped naked. “It doesn’t involve a co-star. She would be perfect for it.” One of the things that makes Rodrick’s piece so good is that with passages like that, the reader has to make a judgement call: Is Schrader deluded because he really needs this film to move the needle, or is that the veteran filmmaker in him — the one who’s worked with Robert De Niro , Martin Scorsese and his brilliant, late brother Leonard Schrader — talking?  I say it’s a mixture of both, but more of the latter. And though Rodrick certainly leaves the impression that The Canyons is a problematic film (that was rejected by the Sundance Film Festival), he also writes this passage about Lohan’s performance that suggests that, with a lot of tough love and self-discipline, her career is salvageable. “But about 15 minutes in, something clicked….Lohan was equal parts vulnerable and dissolute.” I know what you’re thinking: That line is a distillation of Lohan’s recent life, but go back and re-read the description of Lohan’s crying scene. In the right hands, Lohan is capable of tapping into all of chaos and pain she’s experienced and putting it into her performance. It’s too bad that Exorcist: The Beginning was such a debacle for Schrader.  LiLo could probably turn in quite a performance as a woman possessed.  As the Times piece demonstrates, the promising actress that Lohan once was is still alive in her.  It’s just that the demons keep dragging her down. More on Lindsay Lohan: Lindsay Lohan Busted Again − Is She Beyond Help? Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter.  Follow Movieline on Twitter. 

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What People Are Missing In The NY Times Story On Lindsay Lohan

Colorado Shooter James Holmes Appears In Court, Disturbing New Details Emerge

Veteran officers tear up when describing the bloody crime scene, evidence shows suspect bought movie ticket weeks earlier. By Gil Kaufman James Holmes Photo: Colorado University

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Colorado Shooter James Holmes Appears In Court, Disturbing New Details Emerge

‘The Hobbit’ Perched Atop The Box Office Again

Peter Jackson ‘s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey surpassed the competition at the box office over the long New Years weekend, outgrossing powerhouse newcomers Django Unchained and Les Misérables in their first full weekends in theaters. The first installment of the Hobbit trilogy grossed a chart-topping $48.3 million in the Friday to Tuesday holiday period in 4,100 theaters. That was nearly $3.788 million more than the overall box office’s runner-up, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained , though it should be noted that that title screened in 1,090 fewer theaters. The result is that Django scored the highest per screen average among the top 10, with $14,788 vs. The Hobbit ‘s $11,780. Django grossed $44.513 million over the long weekend. Fellow Christmas opener Les Misérables took in $41.14 million over the five-day holiday, placing third and a strong $14,620 average. The Box Office Top 10 with numbers from the New Years Friday – Tuesday holiday: 1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Gross: $48,300,511 (Cume: $238,001,325) Theaters: 4,100 (PSA: $11,780) 2. Django Unchained Gross: $44,513,232 (Cume: $77,833,497 – Xmas Day Opener) Theaters: 3,010 (PSA: $14,788) 3. Les Misérables Gross: $41,140,685 (Cume: $87,579,110 – Xmas Day Opener) Theaters: 2,814 (PSA: $14,620) 4. Parental Guidance Gross: $23,667,732 (Cume: $38,456,424 – Xmas Day Opener) Theaters: 3,367 (PSA: $7,029) 5. Jack Reacher Gross: $21,262,535 (Cume: $51,815,693) Theaters: 3,352 (PSA: $6,343) 6. This Is 40 Gross: $18,678,740 (Cume: $42,609,030) Theaters: 2,914 (PSA: $6,410) 7. Lincoln Gross: $12,122,623 (Cume: $136,652,420) Theaters: 1,966 (PSA: $6,166) 8. The Guilt Trip Grosss: $10,424,431 (Cume: $24,834,787) Theaters: 2,431 (PSA: $4,288) 9. Monsters, Inc. Gross: $9,831,867 (Cume: $21,958,331) Theaters: 2,618 (PSA: $2,463) 10. Rise of the Guardians Gross: $7,644,497 (Cume: $92,891,627) Theaters: 2,055 (PSA: $2,381) [ Source: Box Office Mojo ]

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‘The Hobbit’ Perched Atop The Box Office Again

Memo to Antoine Fuqua: Spike Lee Should Shout His Beef With Quentin Tarantino Not Share It Over Coffee

So, right before 2012 ended,   Training Day director Antoine Fuqua piped up from Capri, Italy to assert that Spike Lee should not have publicly criticized Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained for the movie’s spaghetti-western-style depiction of slavery. And to that I can only say, “Huh?”  If ever there’s a movie made to be publicly, loudly — and heatedly — debated, it’s QT’s anti-slavery epic.   If you were offline for the holidays, here’s a recap of the situation:  As Movieline’s Brian Brooks reported  on Dec. 27, Lee declared that he has no intention of seeing Django Unchained . “I can’t disrespect my ancestors,” the Red Hook Summer director told Vibe magazine. He further elaborated via Twitter that “American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust.” Enter Fuqua, who took issue with the noisy way that Lee’s expressed his criticism. While at the Capri, Hollywood Film Festival in Italy, Fuqua told   The Hollywood Reporter  told the publication: “That’s just not the way you do things….If you disagree with the way a colleague did something, call him up, invite him out for a coffee, talk about it. But don’t do it publicly.” (Fuqua further defended Tarantino, albeit without actually having seen Django. ) For starters, I have to say that the idea of Spike Lee quietly and politely expressing his opinion — about anything —  is pretty funny.  Lee is a New Yorker, and a filmmaker who has succeeded precisely because he has no reservations about giving voice to controversial ideas, whether verbally, in written form, or through his preferred medium of film, that the average person and a lot of establishment filmmakers would be afraid to tackle. But whether Lee is talking about his beloved New York Knicks or Tarantino’s portrayal of slavery in Django Unchained , he’s going to speak his mind and he’s going to do it in a way that will insure a lot of people hear him. Back in 2008, Lee tangled with Clint Eastwood when he criticized the veteran filmmaker for not including any black soldiers in two movies about World War II, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima .  “Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood . In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version,” Lee said at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Eastwood eventually responded that Lee should “shut his face,” and the Do The Right Thing director fired back: “We’re not on a plantation.” In 2012, Lee also sounded sour on the subject of Star Wars creator George Lucas’ movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails . In response to comments that Lucas had made in the media about the studios inability to market black action films, Lee told The Daily Beast: “Here’s a question—this is very important—did George Lucas not understand that the marketing departments of all these Hollywood studios are all white? He only discovered that for  Red Tails ?! I’ve been saying this stuff for years. It’s not new!” It’s Lee’s nature to be argumentative and controversial, and Tarantino should welcome his fellow filmmaker’s barbs. For one, thing, Tarantino likes to stir the pot, too, albeit it in a more politically correct way. Before Christmas, he appeared on a Canadian talk show to contend that slavery still exists in the United States via the war on drugs and America’s penal system — on that issue, I suspect he and Lee would see eye to eye — and he has also suggested that a true debate on slavery and its ramifications has been avoided.  (“People are a little too sensitive to talk about stuff,” Tarantino said during his on-camera time in Canada.) Samuel L. Jackson made a similar point when I interviewed him about Django . “We’ve been avoiding really talking about it,” he told me, and he’s right.  So, with all due respect to Fuqua, I applaud Lee’s decision to speak his mind, and I’d love to see Tarantino answer him.  What would really be great is to get Tarantino, Django Unchained producer and filmmaker Reginald Hudlin , Fuqua, Jackson and Lee to debate this issue loudly, publicly — and heatedly. It’s time. Read More On Django Unchained:  Quentin Tarantino Says Slavery Still Exists Via ‘Mass Incarcerations’ & The ‘War On Drugs’ Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django’ Klansmen Inspired By John Ford: ‘To Say The Least, I Hate Him’ [ The Hollywood Reporter , Huffington Post , The Daily Beast ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.

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Memo to Antoine Fuqua: Spike Lee Should Shout His Beef With Quentin Tarantino Not Share It Over Coffee

Piers Morgan to Larry Pratt: You’re an Idiot

Piers Morgan’s “interview” with gun rights advocate Larry Pratt grew increasingly heated and even devolved into name-calling Tuesday night on CNN. “You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?” Morgan asked Platt. Piers Morgan-Larry Pratt Interview The most, a longtime advocate of more restrictive gun laws, has spoken out strongly in favor of gun control since the Newtown, Conn., shooting Friday. Piers Morgan absolutely went off on guns that day, shortly after 27 victims, including 20 young children, were shot and killed in the horrific tragedy. Last night’s return to the topic ended on an even more bitter note. Morgan hosted Pratt on Tuesday, and the executive director of Gun Owners of America argued that schools would be safer with more guns. Morgan noted America’s “enormous problem” with gun violence and said the U.S. has “the worst rate of gun murder and gun crime of any of the civil countries in this world.” Pratt countered that with the other side of the gun control debate – arguing that laws promote violence because people are unable to defend themselves. Gun bans in other countries, he said, have not lowered crime rates either. Morgan bristled, said that was not true, and basically called Pratt a moron. “It seems to me you are morally obtuse,” Pratt calmly responded. “You seem to prefer being a victim to being able to prevail over the criminal element. I don’t know why you want to be the criminal’s friend.” “What a ridiculous argument,” Piers said. “You have absolutely no coherent argument. You don’t actually give a damn about the murder rate in America.” Morgan ended by calling Pratt an idiot, to which Pratt sarcastically thanked him for the high level of debate; Piers said Pratt is incapable of such a thing. Whose side are you on? Should there be more gun control?   YES. Fewer guns, fewer tragedies! NO. It’s unconstitutional and won’t stop anything! View Poll »

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Piers Morgan to Larry Pratt: You’re an Idiot

Sam Donaldson DUI Arrest: ABC News Veteran Flunks Field Sobriety Test!

Veteran ABC News reporter and political correspondent Sam Donaldson got arrested for DUI this month in Delaware. Bet you didn’t see that coming! According to law enforcement, the 78-year-old was pulled over after he had driven onto the shoulder of the road. Officers detected the presence of alcohol. Police performed a field sobriety test on Sam. He tanked. Donaldson was arrested for DUI and was taken to a nearby station where he was booked and “released to an adult pending his appearance in court.” He was said to be very cooperative during the incident. That’s nice at least. No word if Sam had been hanging out with Diane Sawyer drunk beforehand.

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Sam Donaldson DUI Arrest: ABC News Veteran Flunks Field Sobriety Test!

Pure Comedy: Veteran Rhode Island Police Officer Uses Dance Moves To Direct Traffic [Video]

Rhode Island Police Officer Directs Traffic Using Dance Moves This veteran police officer has been on the job for 20 years and says if he has to direct traffic, he might as well bust a move while he’s at it. YouTube

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Pure Comedy: Veteran Rhode Island Police Officer Uses Dance Moves To Direct Traffic [Video]