[“Kiddie Guernica” by RON ENGLISH] OP-ED NEWS: In a stunning admission, top officials at the Veterans Health Administration confirmed that the agency’s own statistics show that an average of 126 veterans per week — 6,552 veterans per year — commit suicide, according to an internal email distributed to several VA officials. Brig. Gen. Michael J. Kussman, the undersecretary for health at the VA, sent the email, dated Dec. 15, 2007. Kussman had inquired about the accuracy of a news report published that month claiming the suicide rate among veterans was 18 per day. “McClatchy [Newspapers] alleges that 18 veterans kill […]
LISTEN LIKE THIEVES: Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson “Anywhere I Lay My Head” MP3
I, POLLSTER: Phawker’s Hilariously Un-Scientific Pennsyltucky Primary Keystoned Cell Phone Poll
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A long time ago, in a Clinton campaign far, far away, James Carville famously declared that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Alabama in between. Aw, yeah: Pennsyltucky. We know thee well. It’s sort of like watching the Dukes Of Hazzard after smoking too much kielbasa. Like sweat socks with a Sunday suit. Like the Deer Hunter costumed by Wal-Mart. It’s the long dark Chicken Dance of the national soul. Lord help us all. Anyway, with the national press are already converging on the Keystone state to get some local color on their laptops, we feel an […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Audacity Of Hopelessness
[Photo by TIFFANY YOON] By Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer PHILADELPHIA — Hal Sawyer figures he knows just what is needed to deliver his precinct for Barack Obama in the gritty world of Philadelphia politics. He has rigged up his Dodge Caravan with a loudspeaker so he can drive through his neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia urging people to come out to Obama events. He has reams of contacts as a local committeeman, part of the city’s entrenched Democratic Party machine.So when Sawyer walked into an Obama campaign office and asked for a yard sign, the response took him […]
HELLEVATOR: Man Trapped For 41 Hours
GAWKER: In 1999, BusinessWeek production manager Nicholas White went outside to smoke a cigarette and, upon returning, got stuck in an elevator. For 41 hours. The story of his ordeal is woven through Nick Paumgarten’s new New Yorker feature about elevators. There is (sped-up) security camera footage of him the entire time. It’s mesmerizing, because you can imagine him slowly going insane, which is exactly what’s happening. NEW YORKER: White never went back to work at the magazine. Caught up in media attention (which he shunned but thrilled to), prodded by friends, and perhaps provoked by overly solicitous overtures from […]
KILLADELPHIA: 7 Dead Since U Went To Bed
INQUIRER: Philadelphia police are investigating the deaths of six men killed between Saturday morning and last night, all victims of violence. Police have no suspects in custody in a crime spree that Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey had two words for yesterday: “not good.” The job today, Ramsey said, will be to look at “anything that we can do to maybe make the situation less likely” to recur. Among factors that will be explored, he said, is whether the killings occurred in any of the city’s designated high-crime areas and, if so, whether enough officers are assigned there. In the […]
HEAR YE: Love Forever Changes
ROCK SNOB ENCYLOPEDIA: Baroque, psych-rock opus by the band Love; a Technicolor shapshot of L.A. circa 1967, a time and place awash in orange-sky sunshine and dark shadows. From 1965 to 1966, Love ruled the Sunset Strip, with enough record industry pull to get the Doors a record deal. They started the hipster Burt Bacharach appreciation society 30 years before Elvis Costello and Austin Powers via their gnarly, garage-stomp cover of “My Little Red Book.” Led by Arthur Lee–a charismatic frontman, gifted composer and hippie fashion plate who would later claim that Jimi Hendrix stole his look–Love recorded two albums, […]
ASSHAT OF THE WEEK: George Stephanopoulos
Why? If you have to ask, you’ll never know, but suffice it to say THIS and also this… TOP 10 QUESTIONS STEPHANOPOULOS DID NOT ASK JOHN MCCAIN THIS MORNING 1. Do you agree with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy? In February, you shared a stage with Pastor John Hagee and said you were “very proud” to have his endorsement. You also called the Reverend Rod Parsley, a man who said of Islam “America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed”, your “spiritual guide.” Do you believe […]
CHARM OFFENSIVE: The Empire Strikes Back
INQUIRER: Under siege for customer-service woes detailed on Comcastmustdie.com and other blogs, the Philadelphia cable giant has gone on the offensive, trawling the Internet for Comcast chatter. Eliason’s assignment is very specific: If someone has a Comcast problem and is talking about it online, he contacts that person and offers help. If Eliason thinks it’s an emergency that could spiral into unpleasantness, like an expletive-loaded blog bomb, he gets on the phone and cuts through the corporate red tape. Eliason’s blog spotting is part public relations and part acknowledgment that the Internet is playing a broader role in defining company […]
TOP FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LOU REED LAST NIGHT AT THE ELECTRIC FACTORY
1. For the first time since 1967, Lou has finally gotten his hair ‘right.’ 2. He’s got the face of a broke-in catcher’s mitt and the arms of an Olympic javelin thrower. 3. For the first time since New York, Lou has finally gotten his sound right. Three guitars, an accordion, upright bass, a guy on laptop, a drummer with mallets and Laurie Anderson on occasional violin. 4. Only Lou Reed would play “Sweet Jane” as the SECOND song of the night. And then “I’m Set Free” as the fourth, and then “I’m Sticking With You”, introduced with faux-exasperation that […]
THE SILLY SEASON: Chelsea ‘Queer For A Year’ In The Gayborhood; Stealing Hope To Buy Dope In Allentown
MSNBC: Chelsea Clinton stopped traffic Friday night as she wandered the streets of Philadelphia on a gay bar crawl, winning rave reviews for both her politics and her appearance. Led around the neighborhood by Gov. Ed Rendell, Chelsea was mobbed by local gays and lesbians, as she walked from one club to the next. They ran up to hug her, posed for pictures and certainly invaded her personal space. “I grabbed her ass,” one young woman exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter. “Chelsea, the gays love you!” one fan exclaimed, […]
CONFESSIONAL: Pope Regrets Misspent Hitler Youth
BBC: Speaking at a youth rally in New York, he said his teenage years had been “marred by a sinister regime”. The Pope was a Hitler Youth member as a teen, usual for young Germans at the time, and was conscripted by the German army near the end of World War II. As a teenager, the pope was forced to join the Hitler Youth and he was conscripted into the German army towards the end of World War II, serving briefly in an anti-aircraft corps. He deserted the German army towards the end of the war and was briefly held […]
