The cost of change is, it turns out, astronomical — especially when the moneyed guarantors of the status quo will spare no expense to ensure that the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. Obama needs your help. In the first two weeks of October, the Obama campaign spent $105 million, while only raising $35 million during that same period, a precipitous drop from the pace of campaign donations in September. With just 10 days left in the campaign, every dollar counts. Phawker has been running a de facto fundraiser with Bruce Springsteen fans, offering a […]
SHPILKES*: Ex-Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Sandra Newman Pens Jew-Baiting Anti-Obama Email
NEW YORK TIMES: A new e-mail making the rounds among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania this week falsely alleged that Mr. Obama “taught members of Acorn to commit voter registration fraud,’’ and equated a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of their Jewish ancestors, who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s.” At first blush, it was typical of the sorts of e-mails floating around with false, unsubstantiated and incendiary claims this year. But where most of the attack e-mails against Mr. Obama have been mostly either anonymous or from people outside of mainstream politics, this […]
All This Happened While You Were Sleeping
WHAT KIND OF MAN READS PHAWKER? Get Your War On‘s David Rees, 215 Fest, Latvian Club, 7th & Springarden, 11:35 PM Last Night [Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA] Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com. Tonight, David Rees announced that Get Your War On will cease production with the inauguration of President Barack Obama, God willing, on January 20th.
JOHN MCCAIN: The Vet Who Didn’t Vet
[unvetted: A Dr. Seuss style telling of the McCain and Palin tale.] EDITOR’S NOTE: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
TONITE: John Hodgman To Rock 215 Fest
215 FEST: We are proud and pleased to announce that the festival starts off this year with an arched, eyeglass-vaulting eyebrow on TONIGHT, when the one and only Mr. John Hodgman, the mild-countenanced, somewhat disturbed author of /The Areas of My Expertise/, and /More Information Than You Needed to Know/, and world-renowned expert on the little-known history of mole men gambols upon the hallowed, tastefully weathered boards of the Latvian Society. Mr. Hodgman will be joined by his friends, among them the incomparable *David Rees,* creator of the famed clip-art comic /Get Your War On/, and the world’s first blogger to […]
UPDATE: She Made It All Up
KDKA: A Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Ashley Todd confessed to making up the story & is facing charge Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter “B” in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker. Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car. Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began […]
KILLADELPHIA: 5 Dead In 22 Hours
INQUIRER: Police identified the victims as Jose Ortiz, 45, of the 3200 block of Rorer Street and Roberto Beltran, 38, of the 2900 block of Howard Street. The victims dropped immediately and were declared dead at the scene. Police were still trying to determine whether both men, with criminal histories, were targets.Police said one of the men killed was a suspect in other killings in the area, and authorities said yesterday’s slayings might have been retaliation. The crime scene was at an open-air market on West Indiana Avenue near Mutter Street, where casual merchants do a brisk business selling a […]
CINEMA: Wedding Crasher
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008, directed by Jonathan Demme, 113 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It is odd to see a director of the stature of Jonathan Demme fumbling around as awkwardly as he does in his latest film, Rachel Getting Married. Before the phenomenon of his Silence of the Lambs, Demme was known for creating quirky and well-observed characters as well as demonstrating a pulpy sense of excitement carried over from his years of making b-movies with Roger Corman. Since Lambs, Demme’s films have become increasingly turgid and self-important (like his two Philly-lensed pictures, Beloved and Philadelphia), so […]
SLUDGE REPORT: Drudge Pimping Shady Story About Pro-Obama Slasher Disfiguring A McCain Volunteer
So, while you were sleeping, the Drudge Report has been blaring (upper left hand corner!) an outrageous story about a white McCain volunteer from Texas working in Pittsburgh who was mugged by a black man, who then noticed a McCain sticker on her car and proceeded to punch the woman in the face and carve a “B” in her face. Here’s how the Pittsburgh TV news station WTAE covered it… PITTSBURGH — A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, apparently because of her political views, Pittsburgh police said. According to […]
New York Times Endorses Obama For President
NEW YORK TIMES: Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation’s future truly hangs in the balance. The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable. As […]
PHUCK: Phils Lose Game Two Of World Series 4-2
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Squeeze plays, a wacky checked swing and a fresh face out of the bullpen. These plucky Tampa Bay Rays pulled out all their tricks at Tropicana Field to tie the World Series. James Shields stymied the slumping Philadelphia Phillies, rookie David Price got the final seven outs and Tampa Bay rebounded from a rare home loss with a 4-2 victory Thursday night that made it 1-all. MORE RELATED: Dear Tampa Bay Rays fans: Your stadium is shit. We Philly fans know all about shit stadiums. Yours is one. We don’t have one anymore. I hate looking at the […]
TURNABOUT: McCain Needs To Come Clean About His Association With Convicted Felon Raffaello Follieri
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Anne Hathaway’s former boyfriend was sentenced Thursday to 4 1/2 years in prison for cheating investors of millions of dollars by claiming he had Vatican connections that enabled him to buy Roman Catholic Church property at a discount. U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl said Follieri had engaged in a significant fraud that hurt investors, will financially ruin him and will cause him to be deported after his prison term. The judge also cited Follieri’s “lavish personal expenditures,” which prosecutors have said were financed with his investors’ money. MORE THE NATION: The photograph substantiates reports that in late […]