House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday said that lawmakers and the media should move past the controversy surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge last year, noting that the governor has “held people accountable.”
“It’s time to move on,” he said during a Thursday press conference. “I think the governor made clear that mistakes were made.”
Boehner would not address whether Christie should campaign for House Republicans now that the state legislature is investigating potential political motives behind the lane closures.
The federal government is running a separate probe into Christie’s use of Sandy relief funds.
After sending out a tweet asking the good folks on Twitter to tell them their issues, the good folks on Twitter took them up on it and began telling the GOP their issues. Below are just some of the responses.
I'm still pissed when I think about the Red Wedding. RT @GOP: Tell us your top issues. Let’s win big in 2014.
Amazing, that the man who could be behind the traffic nightmare on the world’s busiest bridge in Fort Lee New Jersey, explained recently that he loves being a governor because one of the perks is getting away from traffic.
A little girl named recently asked the New Jersey governor the question, what do you enjoy most about being governor. The BridgeGate centerpiece then went into a long explanation, stating that he hates traffic and that anytime he travels to New York, they stop traffic so that his entourage could drive through.
For the first time, the world is hearing the chilling voice of Adam Lanza, the man responsible for the horrific shooting of twenty first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown Connecticut.
In an audiotape of a call Lanza made to an Oregon college radio station obtained by The Daily News – and vouched for by two old friends – the madman waved a giant red flag that he was about to explode almost exactly a year before the Sandy Hook massacre.
Using the name Greg and apparently taking pains to disguise his voice, Lanza weighed-in on mass murder by comparing “a teenage mall shooter” to Travis, a chimpanzee who became infamous after ripping the face off a Connecticut woman in 2009.
In doing so, Lanza provided a frightening look not seen thus far into the twisted logic and troubled mind of the 20-year-old killer.
“His attack can be seen entirely parallel to the attacks and random acts of violence that you bring up on your show every week, committed by humans, which the mainstream also has no explanation,” Lanza says of Travis at one point.
“I just … don’t think it would be such a stretch to say that he very well could have been a teenage mall shooter or something like that.”
Those words, uttered on Dec. 11, 2011, did not set off any alarms with “Anarchy Radio” host John Zerzan, who is himself a controversial fringe figure.
How out of touch are Republicans? Maybe this examoke will help you answer that question. This Republican actually said that spousal rape is not really rape, because the woman is “sleeping in the same bed” with her husband and she’s “wearing a nightie.”
The statement was made by virginia’s state Sen. Richard H. “Dick” Black.
Democrat Shawn Mitchell had uncovered the 2002 video of Black talking about spousal rape for an attack ad during the 2011 campaign for Virginia state Senate.
Republicans practically live off the words of this man. He could do no wrong.
Picking one’s nose is not necessarily a bad thing, but someone in Rush’s class could pay to have his picked. We’re hearing congressional Republicans aren’t busy these days.
The question is, did he feast on his findings afterwards?
The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.
The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations.
The Bush administration banned profiling in 2003, but with two caveats: It did not apply to national security cases, and it covered only race, not religion, ancestry or other factors.
Since taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been under pressure from Democrats in Congress to eliminate those provisions. “These exceptions are a license to profile American Muslims and Hispanic-Americans,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in 2012.
Of course my wish would be that we won’t actually need to implement these suggestions, but if you happen to find yourself arrested, these suggestions from Free Advice are on point.
1. Don’t try to convince the officer of your innocence. It’s useless. He or she only needs “probable cause” to believe you have committed a crime in order to arrest you. He does not decide your guilt and he actually doesn’t care if you are innocent or not. It is the job of the judge or jury to free you if he is wrong. If you feel that urge to convince him he’s made a mistake, remember the overwhelming probability that instead you will say at least one thing that will hurt your case, perhaps even fatally. It is smarter to save your defense for your lawyer.
2. Don’t run. It’s highly unlikely a suspect could outrun ten radio cars converging on a block in mere seconds. I saw a case where a passenger being driven home by a drunk friend bolted and ran. Why? It was the driver they wanted, and she needlessly risked injury in a forceful arrest. Even worse, the police might have suspected she ran because she had a gun, perhaps making them too quick to draw their own firearms. Most police will just arrest a runner, but there are some who will be mad they had to work so hard and injure the suspect unnecessarily.
3. Keep quiet. My hardest cases to defend are those where the suspect got very talkative. Incredibly, many will start babbling without the police having asked a single question. My most vivid memory of this problem was the armed robbery suspect who blurted to police: “How could the guy identify me? The robbers was wearing masks.” To which the police smiled and responded, “Oh? Were they?” Judges and juries will discount or ignore what a suspect says that helps him, but give great weight to anything that seems to hurt him. In 24 years of criminal practice, I could count on one hand the number of times a suspect was released because of what he told the police after they arrested him.
4. Don’t give permission to search anywhere. If they ask, it probably means they don’t believe they have the right to search and need your consent. If you are ordered to hand over your keys, state loudly “You do NOT have my permission to search.” If bystanders hear you, whatever they find may be excluded from evidence later. This is also a good reason not to talk, even if it seems all is lost when they find something incriminating.
5. If the police are searching your car or home, don’t look at the places you wish they wouldn’t search. Don’t react to the search at all, and especially not to questions like “Who does this belong to?”
6. Don’t resist arrest. Above all, do not push the police or try to swat their hands away. That would be assaulting an officer and any slight injury to them will turn your minor misdemeanor arrest into a felony. A petty shoplifter can wind up going to state prison that way. Resisting arrest (such as pulling away) is merely a misdemeanor and often the police do not even charge that offense. Obviously, striking an officer can result in serious injury to you as well.
7. Try to resist the temptation to mouth off at the police, even if you have been wrongly arrested. Police have a lot of discretion in what charges are brought. They can change a misdemeanor to a felony, add charges, or even take the trouble to talk directly to the prosecutor and urge him to go hard on you. On the other hand, I have seen a client who was friendly to the police and talked sports and such on the way to the station. They gave him a break. Notice he did not talk about his case, however.
8. Do not believe what the police tell you in order to get you to talk. The law permits them to lie to a suspect in order to get him to make admissions. For example, they will separate two friends who have been arrested and tell the first one that the second one squealed on him. The first one then squeals on the second, though in truth the second one never said anything. An even more common example is telling a suspect that if he talks to the police, “it will go easier”. Well, that’s sort of true. It will be much easier for the police to prove their case. I can’t remember too many cases where the prosecutor gave the defendant an easier deal because he waived his right to silence and confessed.
9. If at home, do not invite the police inside, nor should you “step outside”. If the police believe you have committed a felony, they usually need an arrest warrant to go into your home to arrest you. If they ask you to “step outside”, you will have solved that problem for them. The correct responses are: “I am comfortable talking right here.”, “No, you may not come in.”, or “Do you have a warrant to enter or to arrest me in my home?” I am not suggesting that you run. In fact, that is the best way to ensure the harshest punishment later on. But you may not find it so convenient to be arrested Friday night when all the courts and law offices are closed. With an attorney, you can perhaps surrender after bail arrangements are made and spend NO time in custody while your case is pending.
10. If you are arrested outside your home, do not accept any offers to let you go inside to get dressed, change, get a jacket, call your wife, or any other reason. The police will of course escort you inside and then search everywhere they please, again without a warrant. Likewise decline offers to secure your car safely.
The idea of “couch potatoes” tends to conjure up images of overweight, lazy unkempt slacker-types. We’ve heard about the research that has shown that the more hours of television watched per day, the higher the risk for overweight or obesity. The long-held belief was that television junkies weighed more because they snacked more while glued to the tube. But did you know that the actual position of lying down for long periods of time is actually dangerous to your health?
How Being Lazy Affects Fat Cells
A new study out of Tel Aviv University, published in The American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology, found that preadipocyte cells, which are fat cell precursors, change into fat cells more quickly and crank out even more fat when you lie down or sit down. These extended periods of siting or resting horizontally where we put weight on parts of our bodies are referred to as times of “mechanical stretching loads.”
In simple terms, being inactive causes your body to create more fat within your already-existing fat cells, so the cells themselves become larger. Constantly putting pressure on your body’s cells causes fat cells to spread out and grow bigger.
The Damage Is Irreversible
What’s more alarming is that more and more research is finding that the detrimental effects that prolonged leisure time has on your body can’t be “canceled out” by exercising, even if you do vigorous exercise such as running or cycling. This means you can’t justify spending hours stretched out in front of your television simply because you work out that same day. Even an hour at the gym will not counteract the irreversible, harmful effects that hours of inactivity have on your body.
A recent study published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that men who reported spending two or more hours per day sitting in front of a television had twice the risk of having a heart attack or cardiac “event” than the men who reported watching less television. And men who said they spent four or more hours being sedentary had a 50% higher chance of dying from any cause. Exercisedid not negate the risks associated with the hours of television watching. There are multiple other studies that found similar results.
Preventing Cell Damage
Now, scientists are conducting studies to determine the exact minimum amount of time of leisure activity that causes these changes in fat cells. In the meantime, experts currently recommend limiting sedentary activity – such as time spent watching television, playing video games, or surfing the Internet – to one hour a day or less.
To prevent this irreparable damage to your body, aim to cut back your tube time by several hours each week until you are viewing no more than an hour per day. In addition to slashing your risk of several health problems, you may find that you have more time for other activities you love. Or, use the extra free time to explore new hobbies or interests.
Video footage from the helmet of a rescuer on a plane crash in San Francisco last year appears to show emergency teams failing to assist a teenaged survivor, moments before she was accidentally run over by a fire truck.
Three passengers died when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 clipped a seawall with its landing gear, skidded off the runway and burst into flames at the end of an otherwise routine flight from Seoul to San Francisco on July 6.
One of the victims, Ye Mengyuan, 16, had been pulled alive from the plane and placed near one wing.
But the Chinese teenager was later run over and killed by a fire truck, which did not spot her lying under a layer of fire retardant foam. US prosecutors decided in October not to bring charges against the firefighter driving the truck.
CBS on Thursday broadcast segments of the video, allegedly obtained by a person close to the family of the victim.
Shanell Mouland wrote a blog thanking Eric Kunkel, not shown, for entertaining her daughter Kate, 3, who has autism, during a flight this month. Credit: GoTeamKate.com
When Shanell Mouland boarded a Philadelphia-bound plane out of Orlando early this month with her family, she was bracing for the worst.
Mouland was headed home to New Brunswick, Canada, Jan. 5 with her husband and daughters Grace, 5, and Kate, 3, who has autism and doesn’t like to sit for long. They were returning from a week spent at Walt Disney World.
“We knew that flights were difficult for her,” Mouland said. “And we knew this was going to be a tough one.”
When businessman Eric Kunkel sat down next to them on the plane, Kate immediately started reaching for him and calling him “Daddy.”
Instead of ignoring Kate, Kunkel put down his work and spent 2.5 hours during the flight playing games with the preschooler, calming her and keeping her busy with pictures of his puppies.
“You could have shifted uncomfortably in your seat,” she wrote. “You could have given her that smile that I despise because it means ‘Manage your child, please.’ … Thank you for entertaining Kate so much that she had her most successful plane right yet. And thank you for putting your papers away and playing turtles with our girl.”
Mouland’s blog entry became a global sensation, getting more than 70,000 likes on Facebook.
It took one day for the blog post to reach Kunkel, an IT executive and married father of one in Villas, N.J.
”I would have never expected this to happen and I didn’t, so it’s a little overwhelming at times,” he said. “It makes me feel good.”
“Sometimes the simplest things are such a big deal,” Mouland told ABC News today. “But it’s a big deal for him to treat her like a little person.”
Pearl Pearson, 64, a diabetic, deaf driver who resides in Oklahoma City was allegedly viciously beaten for seven minutes by police because he did not respond during a traffic stop, reports the Black Youth Project.
The January 3 incident began when Pearson was pulled over by police officers. Even though the fact that Pearson is deaf is clearly marked on his driver’s licence and on his vehicle, officers allegedly punched Pearson in the face as soon as he rolled down the window.
Read more details below:
1. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol pulled Pearl over late in the evening on January 3, 2014. Pearl pulled over as he should.
2. Pearl’s driver’s license indicates he is Deaf. He also has a placard in his driver’s door that says, “Driver is deaf”.
3. Pearl pulled over and rolled down his window, expecting an officer to ask for this identification. An officer struck him in the face before Pearl had the chance to do anything. As you can see, he was struck multiple times.
4. An interpreter was never provided while Pearl was under the care of law enforcement. Not during the booking, hospital, or time at the jail was an interpreter provided, even through Pearl requested one.
5. Pearl was left wondering “why” the the entire time. He has no clue why he was beat. Pearl and his family are still not sure, but are ready for some answers.
6. Pearl’s own son is a police officer, as was his son-in-law, who is now a deputy sheriff. He respects law enforcement and knows how to respond when pulled over. There is no reason for someone like Pearl to be hurt like this by those who are meant to protect and serve.
Capt. George Brown, spokesman for the OHP, said, “After an internal review of facts surrounding the arrest of Mr. Pearl Pearson, Chief of Patrol, Col. Rick Adams, has directed investigators to expand the focus of their investigation in order to determine if there were any violations of state law. If through the course of this investigation, it is determined there were violations of department policy and/or state law, the appropriate action will be taken. To date, the office of the chief has not received any outside complaint regarding this event. State Troopers Foster and Hayes remain on suspension with pay pending the results of this investigation.”
See KFOR news report below:
A fundraiser benefiting Pearson is scheduled for January 16.
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