FISH STORY: The candidate explaining that all of the robbers were “at least this tall, possibly taller.”* They wore “Tom Knox for Philadelphia” T-shirts.But instead of lending support, they were looking obtain some. Two men strolled into the Knox campaign office at Frankford and Cottman in the Northeast just before 1 this afternoon, produced a gun and demanded cash. After getting an undetermined amount, they fled. No one was tied up or hurt, and the robbers wore no masks, police said. INQUIRER: You Just Can’t Make This Shit Up — Or Can You? THE NATION: “In 1986 Karl Rove was […]
JERRY FALWELL, Agent Of Intolerance*, Is Dead
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and built the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.Ron Godwin, the university’s executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. “CPR efforts were unsuccessful,” he said. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell “has a history of heart challenges.” NPR: Jerry Falwell To Finally Meet Maker, Let The Great Reckoning Begin WIKIPEDIA: Falwell was […]
MAILBAG: I Heart TODAY I SAW
Dear Phawker, I’m from a small town (45,000) in Central Florida, across the river from where they launch the space shuttle and about a half hour from Orlando. I currently am fixated with Jeff Deeney’s “Today I Saw…” and I love the style in which the news is reported on your website, modern enough for college students and teenagers to be interested in it. I found out about the website after I read a post on the news group “alt.drugs.hard” (sorry if thats not exactly the publicity you were looking for) that mentioned a report in the Philadelphia Weekly about […]
WHY WE FIGHT: Because I Got High
Soldiers discover the rich, aromatic ganja orchards of Afghanistan.
FIGHT CITY HALL: A Voter’s Guide
PHILLY FOR CHANGE: Are You Ready For It?
ENDORSEMENT: Michael Nutter For Mayor
Because he is The One to lead us out of the matrix of our own bullshit. Michael Nutter has got game: he speaks in complete paragraphs, with subsections A., B., and C. and attendant footnotes, which also have their own subsections A., B., and C. He has run a campaign of ideas — smart, principled, and aspirational — for solving just about every problem this city faces, while his opponents have offered the usual empty sloganeering, racial semaphore and coded entreaties to their respective bases. If that makes you a wonk or a nerd — well, you can call us […]
MEDIA: Pentagon Puts Worldwide Ban On YouTube, MySpace, MTV, Photobucket And BlackPlanet
The Defense Department will begin blocking access “worldwide” to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander. “This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge,” the memo said. Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall, and the Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis. The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites […]
CJR: THE FORT DIX SIX FOR SKEPTICS
From Columbia Journalism Review’s daily online page: The Bush administration’s Justice Department has a vested interest in portraying every “plot” it busts as the next 9/11, regardless of how embryonic or feeble. It serves as a distraction from the administration’s failures in Iraq and elsewhere, it perpetuates the state of fear that has served this White House well in recent years, and it justifies the massive Homeland Security bureaucracy. Journalists, meanwhile, are at a decided disadvantage when trying to determine the seriousness — or lack thereof — of the threat, because the government holds all the cards. That’s why a […]
DOJ: U.S. Attorneys Fired For Not Bringing Trumped Up Voter Fraud Cases Against Swing State Dems
Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews. Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud — Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those […]
GAYBO: Holy Franz Ferdinand! SERBIA WINS!
TOMMY ZANE REPORTS: HELSKINKI, FINLAND — Marija Serifovic [PICTURED, LEFT] and her big Balkan ballad, “Molitva (Prayer)”, won the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest amid stormy accusations of incestuous country voting (don’t ask) to influence the results. When questioned at the winner’s press conference how she felt about her legion of gay and lesbian fans, Serifovic was pleased to hear congratulations, but stopped short of confirming speculation of her own sexuality. Ukrainian drag star, Verka Serduchka, came second with his rollicking accordion disco anthem, “Dancing Lasha Tumbai”, upsetting the Russian government which understood the song to mean “Russia Goodbye”. While hordes […]
HIZZONER ’07: Stay Parochial, Philadelphia!
[Click image to activate Internet] DAILY NEWS: Knox campaign manager Josh Morrow said neither Knox nor the campaign had anything to do with the flier. “We would never, ever, do anything like that, and whoever did it isn’t doing us any favors,” Morrow said.
ARTSY: THE PARIS HILTON AUTOPSY
EDITOR’S NOTE: When we heard the news that Paris is ‘dead’ and the autopsy is open to the public, we put our best Girl Friday on the first Chinatown bus up to New York to get the 411. Phawker Assistant Editor (and newly minted Temple University graduate!) Eva Liao just got back from Williamsburg where she shot the ‘corpse’ and did a video interview with the artist, Daniel Edwards, and got the lowdown on how the Paris Hilton Autopsy is intended to serve as a cautionary tale for young girls that emulate the fun-loving heiress. Sure, that bus ticket set […]