FRESH AIR Dick Cheney is arguably one of the most powerful vice presidents in American history, but much of his work is done behind the scenes. In his new book, Angler, journalist Barton Gellman details the forty-year political career of Bush’s second in command. Gellman is a special projects reporter on the national staff of The Washington Post. In 2002, he shared the Pulitzer with the Post staff for the paper’s reporting after the Sept. 11 attacks. Angler expands the Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles about Cheney that Gellman and Jo Becker wrote for the paper in 2007. RADIO TIMES […]
YOU CAN PUT LIPSTICK ON A STONEWALL BUT: Palin Refuses To Speak To ‘Troopergate’ Investigator
ASSOCIATED PRESS: ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin is unlikely to speak with an independent counsel hired by Alaska lawmakers to review the firing of her public safety commissioner, a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday. Democrats charged that the McCain campaign was trying to stall the investigation. “The partisan presidential campaign of McCain/Palin has interfered and is picking partisan targets to smear in order to make this investigation look like something it isn’t,” said Patti Higgins, chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic Party. “Rather than cooperating with the investigation, the Republican presidential campaign is doing everything it […]
HEAR YE: DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same. As it. Ever. WAS. EDITOR’S NOTE: Rolling Stone asked me to cover the opening night of the David Byrne tour at Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem tonight. The tour ends November 8th at the Tower. Standby for a complete report. WIKIPEDIA: In December 2007, David Byrne announced on the BBC Radio music show, The Weekender, that he was working with musician/producer and former collaborator Brian Eno on a brand new album of “proper songs”, describing it as a “completely different thing” from My Life […]
WHO KILLED WALL STREET: Phil ‘Stop Whining’ Gramm, McCain’s Econ Advisor/Belarus Ambassador
MOTHER JONES: As the news broke of the Lehman Brothers meltdown and the rest of the latest financial crisis, John McCain, speaking at a campaign rally in Florida on Monday, angrily declared, “We will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. This is a failure.” And in a statement released by his campaign, McCain called for greater “transparency and accountability” on Wall Street. If McCain wants to hold someone accountable for the failure in transparency and accountability that led to the current calamity, he should turn to his good friend and adviser, Phil Gramm. […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Acclaimed novelist and essayist David Foster Wallace, 46, was found dead in his home Sept. 12; reports attribute his death to suicide. His 1996 novel Infinite Jest was a critical and popular success, while in recent years he has written short-stories and nonfiction. And he wrote a celebrated Rolling Stone profile of John McCain in 2000; it was revised and this year as McCain’s Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express With John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope. Wallace was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1997. Fresh Air remembers him with an […]
SEE YOU ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: Pink Floyd Keyboardist, Rick Wright, Dead At 65
ASSOCIATED PRESS: LONDON (AP) — Richard Wright [pictured, far left], a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65. Pink Floyd’s spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member’s family did not want to give more details about his death. Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965. The group’s jazz-infused […]
HOT DOC: XPN Events Are Now A ‘Nobama’ Zone
—–Original Message—– From: Roger LaMay [mailto:REDACTED@xpn.org] Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:38 AM To: xpn-staffREDACTED Subject: XPN Welcomes……Everybody We would like all visitors to XPN events to feel comfortable and as part of a community. WXPN staff and volunteers should not wear partisan political shirts or buttons when working an XPN event. Thank you! * WASHINGTON POST: Obama’s August total easily outpaced Republican John McCain, who raised $47 million during that month, a personal best. Obama broke the record $55 million he raised in February and has taken in nearly half a billion dollars since he launched his presidential bid […]
KILLADELPHIA: Two More Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
INQUIRER: Two men were shot and killed early yesterday, police said. Dwayne Davis, 30, was gunned down in a residence on Memphis Street near Allegheny Avenue, in Port Richmond, shortly after 12:30 a.m., said Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl. Davis was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital at 1:20 a.m. Riehl said the motive was robbery. * Police this morning identified a 33-year North Philadelphia man who was killed in a shooting late last night. Shortly after 11 p.m., police responded to a report of a person with a gun at the intersection of 20th Street and Susquehanna Avenue and found […]
STROKE OF DOOM: Wall Street Dominoes Collapse
NEW YORK TIMES: In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself on Sunday to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, said it would seek bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer. The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of hundreds of billions of dollars in losses […]
HOMELAND INSECURITY: Big Brother’s Excellent Misadventure And Terrifying Constitutional Crisis
EDITOR’S NOTE: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED WASHINGTON POST: A Near-Meltdown As the election season got underway in early 2004, a secret battle over the legality of warrantless domestic surveillance brought the Bush administration to the brink of a mass exodus from the Justice Department and FBI. A guide to who knew and did what about the surveillance program: Dick Cheney The vice president, conceived and supervised the domestic surveillance program. He kept President Bush out of the loop on the legal crisis until it was nearly too late. David S. Addington Counsel to Vice President Cheney, fought against any concession to […]
SNL: Lipstick Traces
“A Nonpartisan Message From Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton” HUFFINGTON POST: McCain spokeswoman Carly Fiorina has weighed in on the major issue of today, namely, 30 Rock creator Tina Fey’s portrayal of vice presidential contender Sarah Palin from this weekend’s Saturday Night Live. Fiorina, astonishingly, termed it “disrespectful.” […] In Fiorina’s opinion, Fey was “sexist” and failed to delve into Palin’s substance. Speaking of Palin’s substance, today on the stump she loudly declared that she’d end the practice of Wall Street rewarding incompetent CEOs with “golden parachutes.” Palin made no note of Fiorina’s own $21 million-dollar ripcord,, […]
INFINITE JEST: David Foster Wallace Kills Self
NEW YORK TIMES: David Foster Wallace, whose darkly ironic novels, essays and short stories garnered him a large following and made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, was found dead in his California home on Friday, after apparently committing suicide, the authorities said. Mr. Wallace, 46, best known for his sprawling 1,079-page novel “Infinite Jest,” was discovered by his wife, Karen Green, who returned home to find that he had hanged himself, a spokesman for the Claremont, Calif., police said Saturday evening. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: David Foster Wallace used his prodigious gifts as a writer […]
Jill Greenberg Puts Lipstick On John McCain’s Pig
[Photos by JILL GREENBERG] PHOTO DISTRICT NEWS: When The Atlantic called Jill Greenberg, a committed Democrat, to shoot a portrait of John McCain for its October cover, she rubbed her hands with glee. She delivered the image the magazine asked for—a shot that makes the Republican presidential nominee look heroic. Greenberg is well known for her highly retouched images of bears and crying babies. But she didn’t bother to do much retouching on her McCain images. “I left his eyes red and his skin looking bad,” she says. After getting that shot, Greenberg asked McCain to “please come over here” […]