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Don't expect to see the Detroit-filmed "Red Dawn" remake on the big screen anytime soon.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, confirming reports the struggling company will be unable to release the film in the near future despite an original release date of Nov. 24.
While that may be a disappointment for Metro Detroiters hoping to spot local locations, it should come as good news to some in China who fear the film could spur anti-Chinese sentiment.
The remake largely follows the Soviet-invasion plot of the original 1984 film starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, except this time around the main characters are fighting off the Chinese (and apparently rocking out to Toby Keith).
Beijing's largest newspaper, the state-run Global Times, in June ran two editorials on the film, suggesting "U.S. reshoots Cold War movie to demonize China" and "American movie plants hostile seeds against China."
While conspiracy theorists have suggested the U.S. government attempted to block the "Red Dawn" in the face of Chinese pressure, former Mount Clemens resident George Joseph, who runs the unofficial Red Dawn 2010 website, tells the Daily Tribune he thinks that idea is laughable.
"The delay is very much a result of the MGM bankruptcy," he told the newspaper. "They are holding back other films too. It looks like once this deal and bankruptcy finalize they will look for a partner to distribute the films they have had on hold, including Red Dawn."
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Search and rescue teams are looking for a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor and its pilot that went missing during a flight over Alaska late Tuesday, military officials told NBC News.
The officials said the advanced stealth fighter jet was about 90 miles northeast of Elmendorf Air Force Base when it "dropped off the radar."
There was no mayday or any other communication from the pilot that would have indicated the plane was in trouble, the officials told NBC News. There have been no distress calls from the pilot since the plane went missing.
U.S. military helicopters and at least one C-130 have so far failed to turn up any sign of the missing fighter jet, according to NBC News.
Base spokeswoman Corinna Jones told The Associated Press Tuesday night that the pilot was the only person in the craft, which was on a training mission. Air traffic control lost contact with the jet at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time, she added.
Jones declined to identify the pilot, but noted the aircraft is assigned to Elmendorf's 3rd Wing.
ABC News’ Mary Bruce reports:
Sarah Palin has officially changed the modern lexicon, one tweet at a time. While one might expect the New Oxford American Dictionary to refudiate the former Alaska governor’s favorite verb, today they embraced it, announcing “refudiate” as the official 2010 word of the year.
"From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used 'refudiate,' we have concluded that neither 'refute' nor 'repudiate' seems consistently precise, and that 'refudiate' more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of 'reject.' "the New Oxford American Dictionary said in a press release.
Palin’s use of “refudiate,” launched critics into a frenzy when she first posted the made up verb on her Twitter page over the summer.
“Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate,” the 2008 vice presidential nominee tweeted in July, launching a string of harsh responses from the media. While some called Palin’s linguistic mash up egregious others said she would never hear the end of it (look who’s laughing now).
Palin later joked at her own expense, "'refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"
It’s been a big week for Sarah Palin. The debut of her new reality showSunday night was the number one program launch in TLC’s history and now she’s officially made her mark on the American vocabulary.
While Palin may have made “refudiate” famous, she is by no means the first person to coin the term. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary the Fort Worth Gazette was the first to publish the word in 1891. Nor is Palin the first politician to combine refute and repudiate; in 2006 Senator Mike DeWine asked “Fox and Friends” viewers to “refudiate” comments made by Senator John Kerry.
Refudiate beat out other tough competitors for the top spot in 2010, including “gleek,” “vuvuzela,” “retweet,” and “tea party.”
Whether you love it or hate it, you can longer refudiate the validity of “refudiate” and remember, never misunderestimate Sarah Palin.
SEOUL — In the homestretch of his nine-day, post-election foreign trip, a prickly President Barack Obama faced a barrage of questions about his domestic agenda and how he’ll govern with an emboldened Republican leadership in Congress....The president complained several times during his news conference about the U.S. media’s coverage of the G-20 summit. He pushed back at the suggestion that he’s weaker on the world stage because of the midterm elections and argued that his fellow leaders are no tougher on him than they were a year ago when he was new to the scene and his poll numbers were high.
“I remember our first G-20, you guys writing the exact same stories you’re writing now. Don’t you remember that, Sheryl?” Obama said to The New York Times’s Sheryl Stolberg.
Asked by CBS’s Chip Reid about complaints heard from other leaders during the summit, Obama shot back: “What about compliments?”
He appeared thin-skinned about the characterizations of his time at the summit, saying that nobody wrote about leaders setting the stage for financial regulatory reform at the last G-20 summit because it “wasn’t real sexy” and criticizing reporters’ “search for drama.”
“Sometimes, I think, naturally there’s an instinct to focus on the disagreements, because otherwise, these summits might not be very exciting — it’s just a bunch of world leaders sitting around intervening,” he said
The takeaways from the G-20 were incremental. The nations agreed on a “framework of cooperation” for economic growth, including to strive for market-determined exchange rates and to develop early warning indicators that signal trade imbalances. But the agreement lacked specific target numbers and deadlines — the countries’ finance ministers are tasked with following up on it next year — and Obama faced questions about whether he’d lost cachet on the world stage.
“When I first came into office, people might have been interested in more photo ops because there had been a lot of hoopla surrounding my election,” Obama said, adding that he now has relationships with key leaders, including Chancellor Merkel of Germany, President Lee of South Korea and China’s Hu Jintao — all of whom kept Obama from getting precisely what he sought out of the summit.
By Will HeavenLast night, an autocue was used in the Indian Parliament for the first time in its history. President Obama spoke for just 20 minutes with the help of “two textbook-sized panes of glass” that were installed by a technical team brought in – at some expense – from the US. “We thought Obama was a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address,” complained one Indian official to the Hindustan Times.
It’s no wonder, then, that Bush-sympathisers long for a return to “Dubyaspeak” and the plain rhetoric of his era. Even my colleague Mary Riddell, hardly a fan, finds the Texan language “attractive”.
As it happens, an example of this jumped out at me when I read today’s interview in the Times (£). Speaking to James Harding, the former president raised his voice, as if he was addressing a room full of people:
“If you believe that freedom is universal, then you shouldn’t be surprised when people take courageous measures to live in a free society. Then the fundamental question is: what is the role of free nations? Do we stand back and hope or do we stand up and help?”
And there you have it – a clever and delicate put-down from George W. Bush. After that last sentence, you won’t be able to look at the Obama Cairo speech the same way again. It’s far too easy to misunderestimate this man.
AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Over the last couple of years there has been an argument over whether college students should be able to carry concealed guns on campus.
More recently after the University of Texas shooting, the questions have come up again. So should college students should be able to carry their firearms on campus?
The West Texas A&M student body president is asking is it panic or just a long time coming? "I think that there is a place and time for guns or for weapons in general and I believe personally that weapons are a good thing, on the other hand to have weapons on campus could increase the risks of the students on campus," said Tim Vela, the student body president.
Some students think that having their gun on campus would help prevent casualties in situations like the Virginia Tech tragedy.
"Well when you go through the process of getting a concealed hand gun license you go through a course of conflict resolution in deciding when to use your fire arm because that is the last line of defense you wanna use, if someone is stupid enough to do that first they shouldn't have a license in the first place. If the federal government gives you a license you should be allowed to carry where ever," said Jay Gurley, a WTAMU student.
Namaste India! In all likelihood that will be silver-tongued Barack Obama's opening line when he addresses the Indian parliament next week. But to help him pronounce Hindi words correctly will be a teleprompter which the US president uses ever so often for his hypnotising speeches.According to parliament sources, a technical team from the US has helped the Lok Sabha secretariat install textbook-sized panes of glass around the podium that will give cues to Obama on his prepared remarks to 780 Indian MPs on the evening of Nov 8.
It will be a 20-minute speech at Parliament House's Central Hall that has been witness to some historic events, including first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's "tryst with destiny" speech when India became independent.
Obama will make history for more than one reason during the Nov 6-9 visit. This will be the first time a teleprompter will be used in the nearly 100-feet high dome-shaped hall that has portraits of eminent national leaders adorning its walls.
Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.
"We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact," an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.
Obama is known to captivate audiences with his one-liners that sound like extempore and his deep gaze. But few in India know that the US president always carries the teleprompter with him wherever he speaks.
(CNSNews.com) - The Center for Science in the Public Interest said Thursday it plans to go ahead with its lawsuit against McDonald’s to ban children's Happy Meals, which include free toys.
On Tuesday, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to pass a law regulating the practice of giving away free toys with restaurant meals for children.
Stephen Gardner, litigation director for CSPI, told CNSNews.com that his group applauds San Francisco’s action, but it won’t have any impact on the CSPI lawsuit, which is close to being filed.
“We have been talking with them (San Francisco) behind the scenes, encouraging them to move forward with this,” Gardner said. “It is a different piece of the puzzle than what our lawsuit will be, but it’s an important one.”
Gardner said he has lined up two plaintiffs -- a mother and a child -- and the details of when and where the lawsuit will be filed should be finalized in the next few weeks.
“The lawsuit is based on consumer protection laws, which say it is illegal to deceive consumers – in this case, children,” Gardner told CNSNews.com.
Happy Meals ads, Gardner claimed, are unfair to both children and parents.
“It’s a lay-down that children are deceived by this type of marketing because it’s not a theory but a scientific fact that young kids – 6, 4, even as high as 8 – do not understand advertising. They don’t know it’s advertising, their shields are not up and they just think it is a good message telling them to eat junk food. They are deceived,” he said.
“It is also unfair to their parents because it makes a parent’s job very hard and it inculcates a lifetime of Big Mac Attacks."
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla., Nov. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Thursday, November 4, the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) will hold a news conference with religious and civil rights leaders in the State Capitol Building to announce the filing of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an anti-Islam ballot measure (State Question 755) passed in yesterday's election. The measure amends the state constitution to forbid judges from considering Islamic law or international law when making a ruling.
(AP) — Oklahoma voters have approved a measure that would forbid judges from considering international law or Islamic law when deciding cases.
Republican Rex Duncan, the sponsor of the measure, called it a "pre-emptive strike" designed to close the door on activist judges "legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law."
Members of the Muslim community called the question an attack on Islam and some of them said they are prepared to file a lawsuit challenging the measure.
With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, deceased candidate, Democrat Jenny Oropeza, defeated Republican John Stammreich in the race for State Senate in the 28th district.
Oropeza, 53, died on Oct. 20. Because her death was within 10 days of the election, her name remained on the ballot.
The governor now has two weeks to declare her seat empty, and schedule a special election within three to four months. This allows Democrats a chance to find a new candidate to run for Oropeza's seat.
A week after her death, Democrats sent out mailers to residents, calling for voters to still reelect Oropeza. The mailers featured Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Democratic Party general counsel Martha Escutia.
Republicans responded to the mailers, filing a complaint that the pamphlets were too similar to official election documents and were confusing voters, violating California law. Stammreich and GOP Chairman Ron Nehring filed the complaint.
"The Republicans are trying to take unfair advantage of Jenny's tragedy,"the mailer reads, according to the Los Angeles Times. "They suggest that voting for Jenny will only result in a costly Special Election. I am asking you to vote for Jenny Oropeza. If a Special Election is called in a few months, you'll have the chance to thoughtfully elect your Senator for a new four-year term."
"This is wrong," Stammreich told the Daily Breeze. "This is the chief elections officer who is supposed to be safeguarding the election process. Instead, she has given her name and her office to an illegal attempt to sway this election."
The Obama administration should press Iran to release Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been jailed for over one year, expressed the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in a statement Friday. The non-partisan commission noted that past experiences with Iran have shown that pressure from the international community can influence the fate of prisoners.
“This case is further evidence that there is no transparency or justice in Iran’s so-called legal system for religious minorities,” remarked USCIRF Chair Leonard Leo. “Time is of the essence here. This man’s life is at stake. We call upon our government and the international community to press for his release and ensure that Iran takes no extreme action in this case or in others like it.”
Nadarkhani, the leader of a church network in Rasht, Iran, was arrested on Oct. 13, 2009, after he objected to the practice of forcing Christian school students – including his own children – to read the Quran. He argued that the Iranian constitution gives parents the right to raise children in their own faith.
The Northern Iranian pastor and later his wife, Fatemeh Passandideh, were charged with apostasy. While Passandideh was released earlier in October after spending four months in jail, according to sources in Iran and the U.S. government, Nadarkhani reportedly was orally informed that he has received the death penalty for apostasy. The Iranian pastor, however, has not yet received a formal verdict on his execution.
According to Present Truth Ministries, which assists the persecuted Church, the execution of Nadarkhani has been delayed. Present Truth Ministries reported last Saturday that Nadarkhani was originally scheduled to be executed on Oct. 24.
“He is currently under a sentence of death, but they are delaying the delivery of the verdict in order to put more pressure on him to turn away from Christ,” reported Jason DeMars of Present Truth Ministries.
“Once the written verdict is delivered, there will be 20 days to appeal to the Supreme Court,” DeMars added in his ministry’s website.
Nadarkhani is believed to have been pressured over the past year to recant his faith and return to Islam.
According to Voice of the Martyrs, if a death sentence is officially handed down and Nadarkhani is executed, his would be the first judicial execution of a Christian in Iran in two decades.
Barack Obama became president by brilliantly telling his own story. To stay president, he will need to show he can understand our story.
At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a “West Wing” episode.
But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on “West Wing,” gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour.
Hey, dude, you’re a politician. Act like one.
As the head of the Democratic Party, the president should have supported the Democratic candidate for governor in Rhode Island, the one the Democratic Governors Association had already lavished more than $1 million in TV ads on. If Obama was going to refuse to endorse Frank Caprio out of respect for Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican who endorsed him for president and is now running as an independent, the president should have at least stayed out of Providence.
Reductio ad absurdum: After two years of taking his base for granted, the former Pied Piper of America’s youth had to spar with Jon Stewart to try to get the attention of young people who once idolized him.
Obama still has the killer smile, but he’s more often sniffy than funny. When Stewart called White House legislation “timid,” Obama got defensive and offered a less-than-thrilling new mantra: “Yes, we can but ...”
“We have done things that people don’t even know about,” said Obama, who left his Great Communicator mantle back in Grant Park on election night.
In 2008, the message was him. The promise was him. And that’s why 2010 is a referendum on him.
With his coalition and governing majority shattering around him, President Obama will have to summon political skills — starting Wednesday — that he has not yet shown he has.
His arrogance led him to assume: If I build it, they will understand. He can’t get the gratitude he feels he deserves for his achievements if no one knows what he achieved and why those achievements are so vital.
Once it seemed impressive that he was so comfortable in his own skin. Now that comfort comes across as an unwillingness to be wrong.
We want the best people to govern us, but many voters are so turned off by Obama’s superior air that they’re rushing into the arms of disturbingly inferior pols.
Obama admitted to The Times’s Peter Baker: “There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short term it was unpopular.”
But who defines what’s “right”?
With the exception of Obama, most Americans seemed to agree that the “right” thing to do until the economy recovered was to focus on jobs instead of getting the Congress mired for months in making over health insurance and energy policy. And the “right” thing to do was to come down harder on the big banks for spending on bonuses instead of lending to small businesses that don’t get bailouts.
Many of us thought the “right” thing to do was to ratify the civil rights of gay Americans in marriage and the military. (A new Pentagon study shows that most U.S. troops and their families don’t care if gays are allowed to serve openly.)
In an interview with progressive bloggers, the president was asked why he was lagging behind Republicans like Ted Olson on gay marriage.
Noting that he has a lot of friends and staffers in committed gay relationships, Obama conceded only that his attitude was evolving. “I think it’s pretty clear where the trend lines are going,” the president said.
Trend lines? Really inspiring, dude.
Read the rest here: Can the Dude Abide? - NYTimes.com
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