Those Who Avoid Vietnam Are Doomed To Repeat It

FROM ATTYTOOD: Lyndon B. Johnson, Jan. 10, 1967: I wish I could report to you that the conflict is almost over. This I cannot do. We face more cost, more loss, and more agony. For the end is not yet. I cannot promise you that it will come this year–or come next year. Our adversary still believes, I think, tonight, that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist. We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent […]

Yvonne De Carlo, AKA LILY MUNSTER, Dead At 84

FROM WIKIPEDIA In 1947 she played her first leading role in Slave Girl and then in 1949 had her biggest success. As the female lead opposite Burt Lancaster in Criss Cross, she played a femme fatale, and her career began to ascend. The 1957 film Band of Angels featured her opposite Clark Gable in an American Civil War story, along with Sidney Poitier and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. For the next several years, she was constantly working although many of the films failed to advance her career. Cast in The Ten Commandments (1956) in a leading role (as Zipporah, Moses’ wife), […]

HOLLA: THE WIRE, It’s Better Than Television

BY JAMES DOOLITTLE For all you bitchasses who still refuse to believe that the greatest thing since the marriage of McNugget and Honey Mustard Sauce is actually found on television, excuse time is OVER! No longer can you complain about not having HBO, or having to shell out mad money for a slew of Blockbuster rentals. Starting tonight, the first season of “The Wire” begins airing on BET, and as I said — NO EXCUSES! Even if you don’t have basic cable, you at least know someone who’s stealing it. Mind you, this isn’t a bandwagon you can jump on […]

NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR Clint Eastwood has examined the Battle of Iwo Jima in two recent films. His latest movie, Letters from Iwo Jima, explores the perspective of the Japanese soldiers who fought it. RADIO TIMES HOUR 1 Last month, JONATHAN NEWMAN resigned as chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Marty talks with him about his work and experiences in Harrisburg overseeing the $1.7 billion state store system. HOUR 2 Should NJ abolish its death penalty? A recent report by the New Jersey Death Penalty Commission recommends that lawmakers vote to end capitol punishment. NJ re-instated the death penalty in 1982, […]

Radio Ratings Go Paper-Less, Assessing The Shittiness Of Commercial Radio Will No Longer Kill Trees

On January 11, Arbitron will release the very last radio ratings for Philadelphia that will be produced by paper-and-pencil diaries. The new electronic Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings service will be initiated in Philly on January 11. The Fall 2006 book is being designated the ?currency? in the market until the release of the March 2007 PPM ratings report. The January 2007 and February 2007 PPM ratings are to be released as demonstration data…Instead of Winter Phase 1 and 2 Arbitrends reports, subscribing stations will receive monthly PPM-based audience estimates using the installed PPM sample, which is planned to be […]

TIERNEY Considering Selling Off Inquirer Building & Everyone Work From Home — In Their Pajamas

PHILADELPHIA The owner of Philadelphia’s two largest newspapers said Tuesday it is considering selling the historic building that serves as the publications’ headquarters, a landmark that has graced the downtown skyline for 82 years. Jay Devine, a spokesman for Philadelphia Media Holdings, said the company had interviewed several real estate firms about a potential sale of the building that houses The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. The company, which has cut more than 100 editorial and advertising jobs since Jan. 1, is in the appraisal and planning stage for a possible sale of the Beaux Arts structure. ?They’re just […]

In Cherry Hill, They Call Grade Fixing ‘Hacking,’ While Over In Camden They Call That ‘Administrating’

A Cherry Hill High School East senior and a recent graduate were charged with computer theft after authorities said they hacked into the school computer system and improved grade records for four other students, police and school officials said yesterday. Charged was Jonathan To, 18, a Drexel University freshman who graduated from the elite high school last year. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. A 17-year-old high school senior, whose name was withheld by police because he is a minor, was charged with the same crime. He could be imprisoned in a juvenile facility until he […]

RIGHT WING WELFARE: Santorum Accepts Pity Hire From So-Called ‘Think Tank,’ Thinks He’d Be Perfect Posterboy For Their New AMERICAN ENEMAS Service, Daughter Still Inconsolable About Election Returns

FROM RIGHT WEB: The Ethics and Public Policy Center, founded in 1976, was the first institute to break ground in the new frontal attack on the secular humanists. It has been on the cutting edge of the neoconservative-driven culture war against liberalism and the associated effort to ensure right-wing control of the Republican Party. When he founded EPPC, Ernest Lefever said that part of the role of a ?small ethically oriented center? like EPPC was to ?respond directly to ideological critics who insist the corporation is fundamentally unjust.? Lefever said he was motivated to start the organization because “U.S. domestic […]

LOCAL GIRL MAKES GOOD: Former Fixture Of Area Poetry Slams Voted Into Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame

BY AMY Z. QUINN She’s hardly the most famous performer to ever come out of Jersey — The Boss and The Chairman Of The Board still hold those titles — but without a doubt, Patti Smith, the High Poetess of Punk, remains the greatest communicator of the kind of nameless electric angst that drives Kids In Search Of Something to head north on the Jersey Turnpike and never look back. When Patti beat it out of Gloucester County, fleeing a factory job and a year short of her degree at then-Glassboro State Teacher’s College, she was armed with a book […]

NOW HIRING: Chilled-Out Entertainers That Will Work For Donuts, Free Ammo And Half Off Well Drinks

With his department already slated to grow by 200 officers this year, Police Commissioner Syl-vester Johnson says he plans to ask for 100 more officers for a new entertainment unit operating along the nightclub-packed Delaware Avenue. Johnson took the unusual step of making his budget priorities known just two weeks before Mayor Street is scheduled to offer the last budget proposal of his mayoralty. “I’m going to give 1,000 percent, everything I have, to make sure that this year we reduce crime,” Johnson said, noting that he remains loyal to the mayor despite making the plan public before telling him. […]

GUNCRAZY: Vowing To End Blizzard Of Hot Lead, Dueling Mayoral Candidates Show Off Battle Scars From Back When They Were KEEPIN’ IT REAL, Yo

Mayoral candidates U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and state Rep. Dwight Evans [NOT pictured, right] yesterday both claimed to have been struck by gunfire during their teen years. Fattah said he was struck in the legs by a shotgun blast in the mid-1970s while breaking up a gunfight and was treated at Mercy Hospital in West Philadelphia. Evans said he was working in food services at Rolling Hill Hospital in Elkins Park in 1969 when a co-worker accidentally dropped a gun. It hit the floor, went off and sent a bullet ricocheting off his ear, Evans said. Both mentioned their battle […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER On her debut, the deftly titled Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Emily Haines sets her husky alto whisper against melancholy piano chords and waltzing rhythm beds, coloring her reveries with mournful strings, funereal brass and swooning Moog atmospherics. Performing Sunday night in the cathedral of the sold-out First Unitarian Church, Haines was backed by Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor and ex-Mercury Rev bassist Paul Dillon – neither man a stranger to the notion of a light touch making the silences in between the notes positively deafening – and Moog operator-projectionist Todor Kobakov. A comely blonde […]