Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273353870?client_source=feed&format=rss
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President Barack Obama waves to reporters as he steps off the Marine One helicopter and walks on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, as he returns early from his Hawaii vacation for meetings on the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama waves to reporters as he steps off the Marine One helicopter and walks on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, as he returns early from his Hawaii vacation for meetings on the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer of Md., pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, where he urged House Republicans to end the pro forma session and call the House back into legislative session to negotiate a solution to the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. walks to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Amid partisan bluster, top members of Congress and President Barack Obama were holding out slim hopes for a limited fiscal deal before the new year. But even as congressional leaders prepared to convene at the White House, there were no signs that legislation palatable to both sides was taking shape.
The Friday afternoon meeting among congressional leaders and the president ? their first since Nov. 16 ? stood as a make-or-break moment for negotiations to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts.
Obama called for the meeting as top lawmakers alternately cast blame on each other while portraying themselves as open to a reasonable last-minute bargain.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid all but conceded that any effort at this late date was a long shot. "I don't know timewise how it can happen now," he said.
For Obama, the 11th-hour scramble represented a test of how he would balance the strength derived from his re-election with his avowed commitment to compromise. Despite early talk of a grand bargain between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that would reduce deficits by more than $2 trillion, the expectations were now far less ambitious.
Although there were no guarantees of a deal, Republicans and Democrats said privately that any agreement would likely include an extension of middle-class tax cuts with increased rates at upper incomes, an Obama priority that was central to his re-election campaign. The deal would also likely put off the scheduled spending cuts. Such a year-end bill could also include an extension of expiring unemployment benefits, a reprieve for doctors who face a cut in Medicare payments and possibly a short-term measure to prevent dairy prices from soaring, officials said.
To get there, Obama and Reid would have to propose a package that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell would agree not to block with procedural steps that require 60 votes to overcome.
Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, McConnell cautioned: "Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything the Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."
Nevertheless, he said he told Obama in a phone call late Wednesday that "we're all happy to look at whatever he proposes."
If a deal were to pass the Senate, Boehner would have to agree to take it to the floor in the Republican-controlled House.
Boehner discussed the fiscal cliff with Republican members in a conference call Thursday and advised them that the House would convene Sunday evening. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an ally of the speaker, said Boehner told the lawmakers that "he didn't really intend to put on the floor something that would pass with all the Democratic votes and few of the Republican votes."
But Cole did not rule out Republican support for some increase in tax rates, noting that Boehner had amassed about 200 Republican votes for a plan last week to raise rates on Americans earning $1 million or more. Boehner ultimately did not put the plan to a House floor vote in the face of opposition from Republican conservatives and a unified Democratic caucus.
"The ultimate question is whether the Republican leaders in the House and Senate are going to push us over the cliff by blocking plans to extend tax cuts for the middle class," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said. "Ironically, in order to protect tax breaks for millionaires, they will be responsible for the largest tax increase in history."
Boehner, McConnell, Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi are all scheduled to attend Friday's White House meeting with Obama. Vice President Joe Biden will also participate in the meeting, the White House said.
Despite the urgency to act, the rhetoric Thursday was quarrelsome and personal.
The House of Representatives is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker," Reid said on the Senate floor. He attributed Boehner's reluctance to put a version of Senate bill that raised tax rates on incomes above $250,000 for couples to fears he could lose his re-election as speaker next week.
"Harry Reid should talk less and legislate more if he wants to avert the fiscal cliff," countered Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner.
If a deal is not possible, it should become evident at Friday's White House meeting. If that occurs, Obama and the leaders would leave the resolution to the next Congress to address in January.
Such a delay could unnerve the stock market, which performed erratically Thursday amid the developments in Washington. Economists say that if the tax increases are allowed to hit most Americans and if the spending cuts aren't scaled back, the recovering but fragile economy could sustain a traumatizing shock.
But a sentiment is taking hold that despite a black eye to its image, Congress could weather the fiscal cliff without significant economic consequences if it acts decisively next month.
"Going over is likely because at this point both sides probably see a better deal on the other side of the cliff," Jared Bernstein, Biden's former economic adviser, wrote in a blog post Thursday.
By letting current tax cuts expire and rise, Bernstein and others say, Republicans would be voting to lower taxes next month, even if not for all taxpayers. Democrats ? and Obama ? would be in a stronger position to demand that taxpayers above the $250,000 threshold pay higher taxes, instead of the $400,000 threshold that Obama proposed in his latest offer to Boehner.
And the debate over spending cuts, including changes to politically sensitive entitlement programs such as Medicare, would have to start anew.
___
Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Charles Babington and David Espo contributed to this report.
___
Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn
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Source: http://www.articleswide.com/article/12174-Destination_Of_Your_Desired_Product.html
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(Anne Hathaway stars as Fantine in the latest screen version of Victor Hugo?s classic.)
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ? Somewhere between opera and operetta, Les Mis?rables is a heart-on-its sleeve narrative concert.
The intense and thrilling experience that was the legendary, sung-through, ?80s stage show set in squalid revolutionary France, Les Mis?rables was an adaptation of Victor Hugo?s 1862 political novel and, in any form, is a testament to the human spirit.
And if the movie doesn?t quite replicate the parade of privileged moments of the stage play, it still resonates with intense emotionality and extravagant romanticism.
(3? stars out of 4)
In short, it casts a spell.
Hugh Jackman stars as prisoner-turned-politician Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who, after spending nearly two decades in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, breaks parole and runs off to start a new life, becomes a factory owner and then the mayor of a small town.
Russell Crowe plays Javert, Valjean?s former prison guard, now a ruthless inspector, obsessively pursuing Valjean for decades.
And Anne Hathaway is destitute factory worker Fantine, a single mother turned prostitute whose young daughter Valjean promises to look after.
Their fates will intermingle during the 1862 uprising as French revolutionaries man the barricades.
Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne offer youthful romantic support, while Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen contribute comic relief as greedy and disreputable innkeepers.
Director Tom Hooper, coming off his 2010 Oscar for best director (for The King?s Speech), demonstrates with this epic production that that was no fluke.
Instead of the usual way of filming musical numbers, which is having the performers lip-synch to prerecorded tracks, Hooper had his performers sing live during filming.
This proves to be a tremendous advantage in some cases.? Jackman, anchoring the film and changing considerably as his narrative arc unveils, is terrific throughout as singer and actor.
And Hathaway?s delivery of ?I Dreamed a Dream? is one of the most impactful in movie history: in one long, dramatic closeup, she sings her heart out while breaking ours.
But in other cases -? for example, with Crowe, who is not suited to this style of singing -? the unique approach reveals troublesome shortcomings, in singing if not in acting.
The screenplay by William Nicholson, based on the musical play by Alain Boublil, with memorable music by Claude Michel-Schoenberg and remarkably timeless lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, makes room for eighteen musical numbers ?- including ?One Day More,? ?Bring Him Home,? and ?On My Own.?
Not all soar, but all register.
Following dozens of screen adaptations of Les Mis?rables as far back as the silent era, this is the first musical version.
Offering virtually no spoken dialogue, it isn?t perfect. But the class warfare on display, the portrait of the downtrodden, the focus on inequality and injustice, makes the film seem a lot less like a period piece than you might think.
As the sad songs mount up, you might even find yourself thinking of it as ?Occupy Wail Street.?
So we?ll barricade 3? stars out of 4 for a stirring musical drama with many moments of magnificence.? Unless you?re allergic to screen musicals, don?t Miz it.
More Bill Wine Movie Reviews
CBS Philly Entertainment News
Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/12/26/movie-review-les-miserables/
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WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) ? The ex-con who lured two firefighters to their deaths in a blaze of gunfire left a rambling typewritten note saying he wanted to burn down the neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said Tuesday as they recovered burned human remains believed to be the gunman's missing sister.
Police Chief Gerald Pickering said 62-year-old William Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, armed himself with a revolver, a shotgun and a military-style rifle before he set his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on Christmas Eve.
"He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people," Pickering said.
The rifle he had was a military-style .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber weapon used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Pickering said.
The chief said police believe the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.
Pickering declined to divulge the full content of the two- to three-page note left by Spengler or say where it was found, but read one line from it: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."
The human remains were found in the charred house that Spengler shared with his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl. A medical examiner will need to determine the identity and cause of death because the body is badly burned.
Spengler killed himself as seven houses burned around him Monday on a narrow spit of land along Lake Ontario in this suburb of Rochester. A friend said Spengler hated his sister but the chief said the note left by him did not give a motive.
No other bodies were found, and police late Tuesday said the on-scene investigation had been completed.
Two firefighters were shot dead in the ambush and two others are hospitalized in stable condition.
Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. Monday to put out the fire, Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.
Authorities said Spengler hadn't done anything to bring himself to their attention since his parole. As a convicted felon, he wasn't allowed to possess weapons. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said Spengler led a very quiet life after he got out of prison.
A friend, Roger Vercruysse, lived next door to Spengler and recalled a man who doted on his mother, whose obituary suggested contributions to the West Webster Fire Department.
"He loved his mama to death," said Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about six months ago.
Vercruysse also said Spengler "couldn't stand his sister" and "stayed on one side of the house and she stayed on the other."
The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.
Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as Spengler carried out his ambush. The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun - high powered ... semi or fully auto."
Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one of the wounded men fled, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.
The police officer who exchanged gunfire with Spengler "in all likelihood saved many lives," Pickering said.
The dead men were identified as police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer; and 19-year-old Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher.
Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years in the department, and he called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."
The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were in stable condition Tuesday at Strong Memorial Hospital, the chief said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.
Hofstetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.
The shooting and fires were in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.
___
Associated Press writer Mary Esch in Albany contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-killed-2-firemen-left-note-killing-plan-165807219.html
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