THE NATION: Another GOP congressman has been indicted. This time it’s Rick Renzi [pictured below right, during what looks like a War On Drugs photo-op], indicted by a federal grand jury in Arizona today on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and extortion as part of a multimillion dollar land deal that allegedly improperly benefited Renzi and his business partners. Renzi, who announced his retirement in August, also happens to be a close ally of Senator John McCain. Renzi is a co-chair of McCain’s campaign in Arizona. The Arizona Republic describes the two men as “close.” In June 2006, McCain […]
Q&A: Dancing With The Devil & Daniel Johnston
WIKIPEDIA: Daniel Dale Johnston (b. January 22, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in a house adjacent to his parents’ home in Waller, Texas. Johnston has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is autistic.[1] His songs are often called “painfully direct,” and tend to display a blend of childlike naïveté with darker, “spooky” themes. MORE Phawker: Hi. How are you? Daniel Johnston: Good. I just woke up. And I just found a bunch of comic books I haven’t even looked at […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
THIS JUST IN: Milton Street Convicted Of Tax Evasion, But Beats Fraud Rap INQUIRER: The jury in the federal trial of T. Milton Street Sr. rendered its verdict today, convicting him of three counts of tax evasion for failing to file returns in 2002, 2003 and 2004; acquitting him on four counts of mail and wire fraud; and deadlocking on two charges that he filed false returns in 2000 and 2001. Codefendant John H. Velardi Sr. was acquitted on three counts of wire and mail fraud. The jury, which was drawn from nine counties, as far west as Lancaster and […]
CINEMA: Do You Know Where You’re Going To?
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (2007, directed by Alex Gibney, 106 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Everything I know about politics I learned at the movies. Take torture. It was watching all those WWII movies with my older brother that introduced me to the U.S. policy on torture and war, especially prison camp films like The Great Escape, The Bridge On the River Kwai and Stalag 17. In each of them, the U.S. soldiers were left fairly unmolested, forced by dumb luck to wait out the war in lousy P.O.W. camp conditions. Occasionally a Japanese or German commander […]
THE NEGRO PROBLEM: Fables Of The Reconstruction
BY JEFF DEENEY Last night, two law professors and about 40 attentive audience members braved the brutal cold to discuss race relations at the Free Library. If you caught Radio Times on NPR for the Deaf yesterday you heard one of them; Stanford professor Richard Thompson Ford talked his book “The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse,” with Marty Moss-Coane. The other professor was Michael Klarman; he teaches at the University of Virginia and has a new book called “Unfinished Business: Racial Equality in American History.” Klarman spoke first about the history of racial inequality in […]
HEAR YE: Adam Green Sixes & Sevens
NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! WHY? BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU!
HORRIBLE TRUTH: The Unbearable Triteness Of Being
“What we need is Britney Spears to stay home instead of traipsing all over town. That would solve the problem. We don’t need additional laws…. I’ve got laws coming out my ears to deal with this issue. What you have is several young women in this town and several young men basically making fools of themselves and tying up not only my resources but the resources of the media that would do better covering legitimate stories instead of a bunch of airheads running around out there… . Quite clearly some of these characters so favored by the paparazzi are clearly […]
COMING ATTRACTION: An Exclusive Interview With I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Director Sam Jones
In honor of you-know-who playing the Tower on Saturday we will be running an in-depth Q&A with Sam Jones, the director of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Sam is probably better known for his photography — you have seen his work, believe me. He recently published Here And Now (Harper Collins), a collection of his stunning celebrity portraiture, with forward by George Clooney. Speaking of which, Sam shot Clooney on Monday for this week’s TIME cover story. Small world.
HOT DOCUMENT: A Warning From Anonymous
DEAR PHAWKER, Just got back from working (video & sucking dick for dollars) at a hacker’s convention in DC. And Elvis, I’m scared. It was a whole lot less comic-book-guy than I expected. These guys are smart, scary and could speak for hours without me understanding one word. They had video screen captures of sites offering complete identities, credit cards, bank accounts… the “fullz,” at 50 for $20. They laughed at how easy it was to steal a complete identity – they did it live and showed real identities. A lot of Tom Cruise types with strange faraway looks. Theta […]
POTUS: ‘U Can’t Say Dallas Don’t Luv U, Mr. Obama’
STAR-TELEGRAM: DALLAS — Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena. The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security. Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order — apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service — was meant to […]
NEWS CLUES: ‘Painfully Localized’ Edition
THIS JUST IN: Uncle Miltie Jury Deadlocked, Could Mistrial INQUIRER: The federal jury considering fraud and tax charges against T. Milton Street ended a second full day of deliberations telling the judge they were deadlocked on seven charges. But U.S. District Judge Legrome D. Davis did not declare a mistrial, telling the 12 jurors he and the defense and government lawyers had decided that “you need to continue discussing the case.” At that point, shortly before 4 p.m., the jury decided to stop deliberations for the day and return tomorrow to resume their review at the federal courthouse in Center […]