Posts

Fox Reporter Won’t Name Sources in Aurora Shooting Story; Faces Jail

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The New American

Fox News reporter Jana Winter is so committed to keeping secret the identity of her sources of information in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shootings that she is willing to face jail time rather than expose the unnamed persons. Though both a Colorado judge and a New York judge have ordered her to turn over her notes related to the killings — that likely contain the names of her law-enforcement sources — Winter has so far refused.

On July 20, 2012, James Holmes opened fire on unsuspecting patrons in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70. Fox News sent Jana Winter to cover the aftermath. Just five days later, Winter broke her exclusive story that Holmes had forwarded a notebook to a University of Colorado psychiatrist “filled with details about how he was going to kill people.” Her story was based on information she had received from law-enforcement sources who were not to discuss the case because of a gag order issued by County Judge William Sylvester.

Forbes reported,

As one might expect, the defense attorneys were not happy with the revelation, claiming that the failure of the unnamed sources to honor the gag order — and Winter’s reporting of what she had learned — violated Holmes’ right to receive a fair trial.

The defense team began an investigation into the violation of the gag order, and called a number of law-enforcement officers to the stand, all of whom denied having leaked the information. It was at that point that the defense team persuaded Colorado Judge Sylvester to issue an order forcing Winter to turn over her notes on the story. But because Winter lives in New York, she could not be forced to comply with the order.

Manhattan Judge Larry Stephen then stepped in to offer his assistance and signed off on a subpoena requiring Winter to turn over all her materials associated with the Holmes case, as per the Colorado judge’s order.

Read more from this story HERE.

Batman Theater Shooter Converts To Islam

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Associated Press

The man who shot up an Aurora, Colo., movie theater during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” last summer has reportedly converted to Islam and prays up to five times a day.

A prison source say the beard James Holmes sported in court last months represents his new-found faith. The source said Mr. Holmes has turned Muslim as a way of justifying his horrific crimes on July 20 which left 12 people dead and 58 people wounded, the Daily Mail reports.

“He has brainwashed himself into believing he was on his own personal jihad and that his victims were infidels,” the source told the National Enquirer.

Mr. Holmes now prays five times a day, sticks to a strict Muslim diet and spends hours each day studying the Koran, the source told the Enquirer.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: Hollywood is the November 2012 “tie-breaker”

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: shredded77

President Barack Obama on Monday told gathering of wealthy donors – many from Hollywood — “you guys are the tie-breaker” in the upcoming presidential election. “You and the American people,” he added.

Obama made the comment at a fundraiser in upscale Westport, Conn., just hours after he accused Romney of being “Robin Hood in reverse” at another fundraiser in Stamford, Conn. Dubbing the former Massachusetts governor “Romney Hood,” Obama said Romney wants to take from the middle class and give to the rich.

The Westport fund-raiser was held in the home of movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Actress Anne Hathaway was seated closest to Obama at his table. Screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin, whose NBC show “West Wing” was about a Democratic president, was also in attendance as well as talk show host Jerry Springer and actress Joanne Woodward, according to the White House press pool reporter.

Obama paid tribute to the stars in the audience.

“I want to thank Anne Hathaway for taking the time to host us. She’s spectacular,” Obama said, according to the official White House transcript. “And I did get a chance to see Batman and she was the best thing in it. That’s just my personal opinion. Aaron Sorkin — who writes the way every Democrat in Washington wished they spoke. Aaron, thank you.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Rapper Ice-T: Despite Aurora, gun rights are “the last form of defense against tyranny” (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

While many pundits have been quick to advocate for gun control in the aftermath of the Aurora, Colo., theater rampage that killed 12 and wounded 58, rapper Ice-T took to the airwaves to defend gun rights.

Speaking with Channel 4 London’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the rapper and “Law & Order: SVU” actor said: “The right to bear arms is because that’s the last form of defense against tyranny. Not to hunt. It’s to protect yourself from the police.”

Guru-Murthy pushed back against the rapper who penned “Cop Killer” by asking if a link between the Second Amendment and the tragedy in Colorado exists.

“No, not really. You know what I’m sayin,’ if somebody wants to kill people they don’t need a gun to do it,” the rapper responded.

Ice-T’s comments stand in stark contrast to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s remarks immediately following the theater massacre.

Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the video:

 

Photo credit: Tom Mooring

Gun sales explode in wake of Aurora shooting

/0 Comments/in , /by

The theater shooting in Colorado last week continues to generate discussions about firearms in America, but it is doing more than just getting people to talk. Gun sales in Colorado have skyrocketed in the days since the Aurora, CO massacre.

James Holmes, 24, is being held in connection with the Friday morning outburst that left 12 people dead and injured dozens more. Authorities allege that Holmes opened fire shortly after the midnight screening of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises began at the Century Aurora 16 theater. Only hours later, though, locals were lining up in droves to equip themselves with the same kinds of weaponry.

Jake Meyers tells the Denver Post that he arrived for work at Rocky Mountain Guns and Ammo on early Friday to find a line of 15 to 20 people waiting outside of the store. Three days later, he said surging gun sales yielded “probably the busiest Monday all year” and that, for the first time all year, firearms classes taught by the store’s staff were booked for three weeks straight.

“It’s been insane,” Meyers says.

“A lot of it is people saying, ‘I didn’t think I needed a gun, but now I do,’ ” Meyers adds. “When it happens in your backyard, people start reassessing — ‘Hey, I go to the movies.'”

Read more from this story HERE.

Amoral Quest for Power Where Truth is Irrelevant

/0 Comments/in /by

In the first Harry Potter adventure, a pithy statement is attributed to the villain, Lord Voldemort. He described his own worldview thusly: “There is no good and evil. There is only power and those too weak to seek it.”

Now, that serves as a fairly reasonable motto for the political Left in our day. It is the functional ethic of all liberalism. Oh, to be sure, they’ll prattle on like tonsured prelates about what everyone else should do to live in a manner that is good and right. Also, they’ll preach for days in breathless indignation over the evils they see in their opponents.

But behind the curtain, good and evil are nothing more than useful labels to them. They can’t be more than that, and the reason is that liberalism is the politicized denial of God and His laws. Deny that God’s commandments are, in fact, binding on people, and you’ve effectively done away with the concepts of good and evil.

By asserting that point, I am only repeating what the foremost atheistic philosophers have always acknowledged and taught. In atheism, there is no reason for maintaining categories like good and evil, since there is no transcendent law-giver or judge.

I bring all this up because it is this quote from Voldemort that has bounced around in my head since ABC news famously jumped the gun last weekend in announcing that the Aurora/Batman shooter may have had Tea Party ties.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: kevin dooley

Colorado Gun Club Owner Rejected Aurora Shooter’s Membership Application Last Month

/0 Comments/in , /by

Shooting suspect James Holmes applied to join a Colorado gun range last month but never became a member because of his behavior and a “bizarre” message on his voice mail greeting, the range’s owner said Sunday.

Police said James Holmes began buying guns at Denver-area stores nearly two months before Friday’s shooting. He also received at least 50 packages in four months at his home and the University of Colorado that authorities are investigating to see whether they contained materials for the potentially deadly booby traps that police found in his apartment.

At the same time, the quiet 24-year-old was in the final weeks of the first year of a rigorous Ph.D. neuroscience program, where he took a three-part final exam required for students to progress in the program and was scheduled to give a presentation on MicroRNA Biomarkers before abruptly leaving in June.

Holmes is being held without bond on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder after a shooting rampage minutes into a premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora early Friday that left 12 people dead and 58 injured.

He is scheduled for an initial hearing Monday and has been assigned a public defender.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Rob Jung

 

Christian Bale on Colorado shooting: ‘Words cannot express the horror I feel’

/0 Comments/in /by

Christian Bale, who stars in “The Dark Knight Rises” as Bruce Wayne / Batman, released a statement on Saturday, July 21, about the shooting at a midnight screening of the film in Aurora, Colorado, where a gunman killed at least 12 people and left 59 people injured.

The 38-year-old actor said in his statement obtained by OnTheRedCarpet.com, “Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.”

Christopher Nolan, the director of “The Dark Knight Rises,” released a statement on July 20 and called the shooting “devastating.”

“The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me,” part of Nolan’s statement said. “Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”

James Eagan Holmes, a 24-year-old University of Colorado medical school student, was arrested for the shootings.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Thorsten Becker

Teenager rescues single mom and children after boyfriend runs out of theater in Aurora shooting

/3 Comments/in /by

A 19-year-old man stepped up when he saw a young mother and her children in danger the night of the Batman premier theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. Jarell Brooks is by all accounts a hero, but he doesn’t want you to think of him that way. However, he very possibly saved three lives early Friday morning, and for that, he deserves the highest praise one can get.

Brooks and Patricia Legarreta, the woman whose life he saved, reunited on Good Morning America yesterday to talk about their experiences. Legarreta said she doesn’t remember everything that happened but is aware that without Brooks, she and her children would not be alive today.

Brooks said that he didn’t know that James Eagan Holmes had entered the theater until he saw and heard the gunshots because he was just six rows from back of the theater. He obviously didn’t realize that Legarreta’s boyfriend (now fiancé), Jamie Rohrs, had run out after leaving four-month-old Ethan on the floor after panicking. All he saw during the chaos and the smoke was a woman struggling to get her scared children out of harm’s way.

Legarreta’s four-year-old daughter, Azeria, was asleep when the shooting began, so when she woke up, she was disoriented. She fell in the process of trying to escape because of that, and Legarreta described tearfully how she did what she could to get her out. “Just blocking her, shoving her, just making sure she’s not getting hurt,” she said, obviously distraught and shaken at the thought of how close she came to losing her children that night.

Brooks was on his way out the door and was at the end of the aisle when he saw her. “My kids!” she yelled, and the teenager knew what he had to do. “My goal was to get this family out, without getting hit myself. I managed to do one.” Both he and Legarreta were hit by the gunman’s bullets.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: “People were saying this was a terrorist attack”; 14 dead, 50 wounded in Colorado

/14 Comments/in , /by

At a midnight showing this morning of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, a gunman shot numerous movie goers and apparently set off explosives.