BEANIE TO DELUCA: Big Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy

FROM THE INQUIRER: In prison, he hadn’t written a word. “I wasn’t in that state of mind,” said Sigel, who’s as well-respected a lyricist within rap as he is notorious outside it for his run-ins with the law, which include a 2003 attempted-murder charge. (He was acquitted.) “I wasn’t Beanie Sigel then,” he says. “I was 57613-066.” When he came up with “Return of the Bad Guy,” Sigel thought it would be the title track of his next album. But “Bad Guy” did not even make it onto his fourth album, which comes out Tuesday. It’s called The Solution. “I want […]

DUBIOUS ACHIEVMENT: Cops Open Fire On SUV In Old City For Driving Erratically After Last Call

The headline pretty much says it all, although it raises more questions than it answers. First question is why is a SEPTA officer engaging in a car chase so far from the nearest subway? Second question is why are cops jumping in front of speeding SUVs? I mean, setting aside an apparent deficiency in basic police training, that just flies in the face of the laws of physics — which very clearly states that in the instance of Man Vs. Speeding SUV, man ALWAYS loses. Lastly, why are cops opening fire on a crowded city street, just as the bars […]

FREE BILAL: AP Photog Gets Day In Kangaroo Court

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi investigating magistrate on Sunday convened the first criminal hearing in the case of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by the U.S. military without charges for nearly 20 months. Hussein was present for most of the nearly seven-hour, closed-door proceeding in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq before magistrate Dhia al-Kinani. It was the first time Hussein or his lawyers have seen any of the materials gathered by the U.S. military against him since his arrest in Ramadi on April 12, 2006. Al-Kinani, however, issued an order that the proceedings and details of […]

WORTH REPEATING: The Rape Of Arkansas

FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST: Wayne Dumond raped Ashley Stevens, Clinton’s distant cousin, in 1984 when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Forest City, Arkansas. He was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 years. In 1992, Jim Guy Tucker, who became governor of Arkansas after Clinton left office, reduced Dumond’s sentence to 39.5 years.Shortly after taking office in 1996, Huckabee announced his intention to commute Dumond’s sentence to time served. A public outcry ensued. Twenty women members of the state House of Representatives protested the commutation proposal. The editorial pages of some Arkansas newspapers […]

WORTH REPEATING: Why Nothing Will Ever Come Of The CIA Torture Tape Scandal…Nothing At All…Zilch

From THINK PROGRESS: Sen. Whitehouse Reveals Secret DoJ Legal Memos: Bush Determines What Is Constitutional [Friday] morning, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered an impassioned floor speech to help frame the debate over FISA reform. Using his privilege as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Whitehouse said he has “spent hours poring over” secret opinions issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) — and he took notes. Whitehouse is a lawyer, a former U.S. Attorney, a former legal counsel to Rhode Island’s Governor, and a former State Attorney General. He said he sought and received permission […]

HOT DOCUMENT: I Heart(less) Huckabee

In 1992, Mike Huckabee ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. During the campaign, the Associated Press submitted a detailed questionnaire to candidate Huckabee. The following are his responses to questions about AIDS treatment and research: “It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.” When […]

TAO OF MITT: Boxers, Briefs & Magic Underpants

[“Plural Marriage?” by JESSICA HAGY for McClatchy Newspapers] So Mitt — while you’re all in a sharing mood, which is it? Boxers, briefs, or Magic Mormon Underpants? Yes, it’s Mormon week out there in primary land, and on Thursday, Romney took The Pledge, declaring Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior and saying that freedom and religion can be, like, friends with benefits but can’t actually be a couple-couple … or something like that. Actually, what he said was that while the government can’t, and he wouldn’t, pre- or proscribe a specific denomination, everybody should get religion. The quote was that […]

BREAKING: Police Shootout At Allentown Mall

It is with a curious mixture of pride and sarcasm that we report to you that our ancestral home — Allentown, PA — has just earned the dubious distinction of being the latest holiday shopping shoot-em-up story in the wake of Omaha. Admittedly, this is nothing to brag about but as This Is Your Mall On Guns stories go, it sure beat this and is WAY better than this. Likewise, we must give props to our old alma mater — the Allentown Morning Call — for being on top of shit and nailing this on all fronts: Over at the […]