INQUIRER: Admitting that he tried to foil a federal investigation by erasing the memories of state Senate computers on orders of Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, technician Leonard P. Luchko this morning pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice and agreed to testify against the powerful Philadelphia Democrat. Luchko, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and 28 of obstruction of justice in a deal in which federal prosecutors promised to recommend that he spend no more than two years in prison. The guilty plea by Luchko, whose job was to manage computer services for Fumo and more than […]
HEAR YE: Conor Oberst Conor Oberst
Now playing on Phawker Radio! Conor Oberst plays the Troc Tonite! BY JONATHAN VALANIA Like Dylan in his prime, Conor Oberst writes long, elliptical narratives — weaving word-clotted threads of angst and regret, anger and shame, ecstasy and joy, through a camel’s eye of symbolism, creating word circuses that fascinate even when they flirt with meaninglessness. As with Dylan’s songs, when you boil them all down, they’re essentially about one thing: the wonder of consciousness. Baby I’m amazed, therefore I am.Both Bob Dylan and Oberst come from the Midwest — Dylan from Duluth, Minn., and Oberst from Omaha, Neb. (his […]
DAILY DOS: Colbert vs. Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld
NEW YORK TIMES: Last week was hardly the first time that we have found ourselves scratching our heads in anguished confusion about what, exactly, President Bush is trying to achieve by trashing the Constitution at Guantánamo Bay. But the sentencing of Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, to five and a half years in prison is a good moment to stop and reflect. Mr. Hamdan is hardly a high value target. The comedian Stephen Colbert captured the absurdity of the proceedings perfectly on Thursday night when he called the trial “the most historic session of traffic court ever.” It […]
Local Abortion Protester Deported From China
INQUIRER: Deported from China on the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, Michael McMonagle, 55, of Lansdale, [NOT pictured, left] believes he was able to draw attention last week to China’s problems of religious freedom and forced abortions. McMonagle, a veteran Catholic antiabortion activist, and two other protesters tried to pray and unfurl a “Jesus Christ is King” banner in Tiananmen Square on Wednesday and Thursday. But when the protesters tried to hold a news conference with foreign reporters in the square, Chinese police sent them packing. McMonagle returned to Philadelphia on Friday. “Just unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square […]
KILLADELPHIA: Cops Shoot Suicidal Teen In The Head
INQUIRER: Police wounded an apparently suicidal South Jersey teenager who they said broke into his grandparents’ South Philadelphia rowhouse early this morning. The teen, identified as Patrick McMurtrie, 18, of Turnersville, allegedly stabbed himself several times before lunging at police with a knife. An officer fired twice, striking him in the head. McMurtrie’s condition has been upgraded from critical to stable at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. About 2 a.m., police received reports of a white male breaking into a second-floor window in a narrow alley behind the 200 block of Gerritt Street. When officers arrived, they spotted someone in the […]
EUREKA: How To Make Yourself Disappear Completely
BBC: Scientists in the US say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people invisible. Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them “disappear.” The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre. The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people. The findings, by scientists led by Xiang Zhang, were published in the journals Nature and Science. The new system […]
RIP: Isaac Hayes, AKA Black Moses, Dead At 65
ASSOCIATED PRESS: MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless ”Theme From Shaft” won Academy and Grammy awards, has been found dead at home. He was 65. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill on Sunday. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis. The cause of death was not immediately known. In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before […]
CONCERT REVIEW: New Porno At The E-Factory
BY DAVE ALLEN If the New Pornographers were tuckered-out from their triumphant Friday gig at the All Points West Festival, they didn’t show it at their Saturday show at the Electric Factory. The Canadian sextet pumped up the song tempos to the breaking point without sacrificing the rich, ‘60s-inspired textures, sunbeam harmonies and endorphin-triggering melodies that have made them a beloved fixture of the indie scene for going on a decade. In a set drawn equally from their last three studio albums, with one or two throwbacks to 2000’s Mass Romantic, poise and polish held sway, with chugging instrumentals and […]
HOW WORLD WARS GET STARTED: Georgian Crackdown On Pro-Moscow Separtists Prompts Massive Retaliation From Russian Army; Bush Plays Volleyball
ASSOCIATED PRESS: GORI, Georgia — Georgian troops retreated from the breakaway province of South Ossetia on Sunday as their U.S.-allied government ordered a cease-fire and pressed for a truce, overwhelmed by Russian firepower in a conflict that threatened to set off a wider war. Russia deployed a naval squadron off the coast of another of Georgia’s separatist regions, Abkhazia, and its jets bombed the outskirts of Tblisi, the Georgian capital. Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said its soldiers were observing a cease-fire on orders of the president and notified Russia’s envoy to Tbilisi.”Georgia expresses its readiness to immediately start negotiations with the […]
BETRAYED: CeaseFirePA Shitcans NRA Double Agent
ASSOCIATED PRESS: PHILADELPHIA — A group advocating stricter gun laws is kicking out a woman who has been accused of being a spy for the National Rifle Association. The CeaseFirePA board of directors voted unanimously Friday to remove fellow board member Mary Lou McFate. The group also is exploring possible legal action against her, though spokesman Joe Grace declined to elaborate. McFate, an unpaid member of the CeaseFirePA board for seven years, is accused of portraying herself as a gun-control activist while being paid by the NRA to gather intelligence. A Chicago-based group, the Freedom States Alliance, expelled her from […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
LET THE GAMES BEGIN: Chinatown Celebrates The Olympic Opening Ceremonies + Making Time, Last Night [Photos by TIFFANY YOON] XINHUANET: PHILADELPHIA, the United States, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Chinatown in Philadelphia, Pa., turned into a sea of jubilance Friday night as thousands of local Chinese Americans and citizens gathered here to celebrate the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics over 10,000 km away.The event, named “evening of champions,” would “celebrate the spirit of Olympiad, capture the excitement of the Olympic Games and help to showcase the Chinese tradition and culture,” said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who also wished both Chinese […]
LOVIN’ SPOONFUL: Summer In The City
Amazing shadow puppet performance by Pilobolus Dance Theater on Conan.
DEATH OF PRINT: Inky Web Memo Is ‘Ritual Suicide’
THE INQUISITIR: The decision [to embargo content from the web until it runs in print] rests on two major presumptions that fail miserably. The first is that there is a scarcity of competition therefore people who want the news will have no choice but to buy the paper. Secondly, that anything they write of substance is worthy of buying the print edition to read it first when it will either end up on their website, or will be reported on other websites. Neither hold true. There may be only one major competitor in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Daily News) but both papers […]