Ravens Hold 49ers -- Netflix's House of Cards -- O'Reilly Lied -- Sniper Chris Kyle Killed -- Kerry Gets To Work -- Democrats Demand Additional 'Revenue' -- Obama: Tax Loopholes Next -- S. Korea/US Begin Naval Exercises
BALTIMORE STOPS 49ERS 3RD QUARTER COMEBACK
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| Image: Bleacher Report |
NEW ORLEANS -- From blowout to blackout to shootout, Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens had just enough power to survive one of the most electric Super Bowls ever.
America's biggest sporting event came to a half-hour standstill in the third quarter when most of the Superdome lights and the scoreboards went dark. By then, the Ravens had a 22-point lead.
Everything changed after that, though, and the 49ers staged a sensational rally before Ray Lewis and Co. shut it down. But there were plenty of white-knuckle moments and the Ravens (14-6) had to make four stops inside their 7 at the end.
NETFLIX'S HOUSE OF CARDS OFFERS BRIGHT FUTURE
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| Netflix |
It’s hard to imagine the happiness at Netflix when they realized that House of Cards — the company’s much-heralded premiere of self-produced original programming – would debut its complete 13-episode run on the same week that the U.S. Senate held a hearing to confirm John Kerry as Secretary of State. After all, the updated American version of the 1990s BBC political drama launches with Kevin Spacey’s character, Congressman Frank Underwood, learning he won’t be nominated for that very position, a devastating insult that inspires his secret campaign to undermine the newly elected administration he pretends to serve. The show, it seemed, couldn’t be any more topical.
The problem for this new House of Cards is that despite this timely coincidence, the content of the show often feels curiously old-fashioned, especially in the context of its innovative format. That’s squarely the fault of the writing; for every smart move that writer Beau Willimon (The Ides of March)makes in updating the basic setup and plot of the BBC original for a modern American audience, he undermines his good work with clumsy dialogue and scenes that are too on-the-nose and out-of-step with the kind of sophisticated, layered writing we’ve come to expect from shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad or even Game of Thrones.
O'REILLY'S JFK ASSASSINATION FIB
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| USA Today |
Bill O’Reilly’s bestselling book on the JFK assassination, “Killing Kennedy,” partly follows the travails of O’Reilly himself as a young reporter trying to uncover the truth behind the president’s death. As author and former Salon politics editor Jefferson Morley highlighted this week, however, O’Reilly’s firsthand accounts appear lacking in the truth department.
In an incident detailed in the book (and flagged by media outlets including USA Today) O’Reilly claims he was tracking down an interview with George de Mohrenschildt, a Russian expat with possible CIA connections who was friends with Lee Harvey Oswald. Investigators looking into the JFK assassination were seeking information for de Mohnrenschildt when he reportedly committed suicide in 1977. According to “Killing Kennedy,” O’Reilly was on the Russian’s doorstep when he heard “the shotgun blast that marked the suicide.”
SEMIAUTOMATIC HANDGUN USED TO KILL 'AMERICAN SNIPER' NAVY SEAL CHRIS KYLE
| Associated Press |
The former Navy SEAL was found shot dead with a second man, Chad Littlefield, after a gunman opened
fire and was later taken into custody. Kyle wrote a best-selling autobiography detailing his 150-plus kills of insurgents from 1999 to 2009. The gunman was identified as Eddie Ray Routh, 25, who may have been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, according to local media.
He lived by the gun, and he died by the gun.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/american-sniper-author-chris-kyle-fatally-shot-article-1.1254181#ixzz2JuYTxg2M
The military’s most famous sniper — Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who claimed to have killed more than 150 insurgents from long distances in the Iraq war — was gunned down point-blank by a mentally unstable vet at a Texas shooting range Saturday.
Kyle, 38, was visiting the Rough Creek Lodge range outside Fort Worth with friend Chad Littlefield when deranged vet Eddie Ray Routh, 25, fatally shot both men, police said.
Routh, a former Marine, fled and was later arrested at his home outside Dallas, where cops retrieved the semiautomatic handgun used to kill both men.
Kyle, a highly decorated Iraq veteran, wrote the best-selling book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/american-sniper-author-chris-kyle-fatally-shot-article-1.1254181#ixzz2JuYTxg2M
SECRETARY KERRY HAS BUSY FIRST WEEKEND
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| Associated Press |
It's possible that John Kerry might be too excited about his new job. Rather than kicking back and letting everyone enjoy their weekend, Kerry got right to work, calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss his commitment to peace in the Middle East, as well as other issues in the region. He also talked with officials from Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, and Turkey, then spent his lunch break chatting with George Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan.
REID SAYS NEW REVENUE VITAL IN A BUDGET DEAL
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| ABC News |
WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid drew a red line in the budget showdown with Republicans, saying Democrats will demand additional revenue as part of any deal to alter the mandatory spending cuts set to hit at the beginning of next month.
The comments, made in an interview Sunday with ABC's "This Week," come as Senate Democrats weigh options for averting at least some of the March 1 cuts, known in Washington as the sequester. One Democratic proposal would seek to offset some of the roughly $85 billion in cuts this year with a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.
"There are a lot of tax loopholes that should be closed," the Senate's top Democrat said in the interview aired Sunday. He cited tax provisions for oil companies and for companies with operations overseas. The White House has called for similar steps as part of any deal to avert some of the March 1 cuts.
OBAMA SAYS LOOPHOLES MAY BE NEXT
| Reuters |
WASHINGTON — President Obama said in a televised interview on Sunday that he could foresee a budget deal in Congress that did not include further increases in tax rates but instead focused on eliminating loopholes and deductions.
Mr. Obama has generally insisted that all revenue options, including higher rates, should be considered to slow the rise of federal budgetdeficits. But in the interview with Scott Pelley of CBS News, he said, “I don’t think the issue right now is raising rates.”
Having just raised rates on people earning more than $450,000 a year, Mr. Obama said the focus now should be on targeted spending cuts and changes to the tax code, which he said favored the wealthy.
SOUTH KOREA, US BEGIN NAVAL DRILLS AMID NUCLEAR TENSIONS
The scheduled drills, involving a US nuclear submarine, come after North Korea said it was planning to carry out its third test of a nuclear device.
| Associated Press |
The US and South Korea have promised "significant consequences" if it goes ahead with the underground explosion.
The North has criticised the naval drills as "war-mongering".
The exercises, taking place off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, involve live fire, naval manoeuvres and submarine detection drills.
Officials have stressed they were planned before the latest rise in tensions.
But South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Jung Seung-Jo said the presence of the nuclear-powered submarine USS San Francisco in the region "would itself serve as a message to North Korea".
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