WIRED: Time Warner Cable plans to test its controversial, new scheme to have users pay by the gigabyte in Rochester, New York, but the area’s freshman congressman calls usage caps greedy and plans to introduce legislation to stop it. New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa called TWC’s proposal to switch its 8.4 million cable broadband customers to metered internet billing an “outrageous plan to tax the American people.”Massa, a longtime blogger at the liberal site DailyKos, says he will be joined by a “legion of activists” and called the fight against usage caps a “national issue of generational consequences.” However, […]
WARNING: Reading The Philadelphia Inquirer May Cause Hairy Palms, Blindness, Eternal Damnation, Etc.
Not that there’s anything wrong with it. [Video: Afternoon Delight with John Thornton]
This Is Why Mel Gibson Is Getting D-i-v-o-r-c-e-d
ONEINDIA: Russian popstar Oksana Pochepa [pictured, above] admits she was the girl photographed frolicking with Mel Gibson on a beach, and adds that she has fallen for the actor. Pochepa says she is smitten by the 53-year-old actor and hopes their love is “strong and long-lasting.” Just weeks after the snaps were published, the movie legend’s wife Robyn Gibson, 52, filed for divorce. “This is serious and I hope that our union will be real and strong and long-lasting,” the Sun quoted Pochepa as saying. “We are different people, but Mel is a grown man and knows precisely what he […]
Spanish Prosecutors To Bring Bush 6 Up On Charges
DAILY BEAST: Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo, several reliable sources close to the investigation have told The Daily Beast. The six defendants—in addition to Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, University of California law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Defense Department general counsel and current Chevron lawyer William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff David […]
EARLY WORD: Book ‘Em, Danno
The Free Library Festival—a burst of books, music, and inspiration on the Parkway—will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19, 2009. Join us at the Parkway Central Library for two days full of stimulating talks by award-winning writers, live music, children’s entertainment, and a bustling literary marketplace thronged with booklovers and booksellers. A fun, free way to spend the day, the Free Library Festival connects booklovers from throughout the mid-Atlantic region with the culture makers of the literary world. MORE And look for an exclusive Phawker Q&A with the mighty Joe Queenan later this week! Joe Queenan | […]
MOBY: Shot In The Back Of The Head
Animation by David Lynch. Song from the forthcoming Moby album Wait For Me, due out June 30th on Mute.
YARRRR: Somali Pirates Seize Another Freighter
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Two maritime security contractors say Somali pirates hijacked a freighter in the Gulf of Aden overnight. They say the M.V. Irene E.M. is the latest target of pirates who appear undeterred by U.S. and French navy attacks that killed seven bandits in the past week to free four hostages. That includes the weekend’s dramatic rescue of the American captain of a U.S. freighter. The contractors did not know the ship’s owner or where it is licensed. They spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday because it is a sensitive security issue. The Irene is at least the third […]
VERDICT: Phil Spector Guilty Of Murder
NEW YORK TIMES: Phil Spector, the rock music impresario behind hits like “Da Doo Ron Ron,” and “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling,” was convicted Monday of murdering a struggling actress at his mansion in 2003 after a night of drinking. Music producer Phil Spector, center, surrounded by his defense team during closing arguments at the retrial murder case in Los Angeles in March. Mr. Spector, 68, faces at least 18 years in prison. The jury, ending a five-month trial, reached its decision after 27 hours of deliberating whether he shot the woman in a fit of anger or, as his […]
RIP: Harry Kalas, Voice Of The Phillies, Dead At 73
[Photo by jasonford] INQUIRER: Harry Kalas, the Phillies’ Hall of Fame announcer, died at 1:20 p.m. today, the Phillies announced. Mr. Kalas collapsed in the press box at Nationals Stadium in Washington at about 12:30 p.m. and was rushed to George Washington University Medial Center. The cause of the death was not announced. Today’s game against the Nationals will be played, but the team will not visit the White House tomorrow. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas has been taken by ambulance to a Washington area hospital after he was found passed out in the press box at Nationals […]
Bankrupt Phila. Newspapers Denies That Paying Out $1.4 Million In Exec. Bonuses Was Mismanagement
INQUIRER: The filing by Philadelphia Newspapers called the senior lenders’ ire over a $350,000 bonus paid to chief executive Brian P. Tierney a “red herring,” designed to capitalize on public outcry over bonuses at AIG and other companies funded by taxpayer money. The filing said Tierney’s bonus was paid out of a pre-established bonus pool of $1.5 million, of which $1.34 million was paid at the end of 2008 to 45 employees. The filing also said the pre-petition lenders had previously offered Tierney a management-incentive plan that would have paid him more to work for them and institute their plans. […]
O BRUTHA: Obama’s U-Turn On Habeas Corpus
SALON: So [candidate] Barack Obama — the one trying to convince Democrats to make him their nominee and then their President — said that abducting people and imprisoning them without charges was (a) un-American; (b) tyrannical; (c) unnecessary to fight Terrorism; (d) a potent means for stoking anti-Americanism and fueling Terrorism; (e) a means of endangering captured American troops, Americans traveling abroad and Americans generally; and (f) a violent betrayal of core, centuries-old Western principles of justice. But today’s Barack Obama, safely ensconced in the White House, fights tooth and nail to preserve his power to do exactly that.I’m not searching for ways to criticize Obama. I […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Neko Case At The Keswick
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER A tomboyish siren with a thick red mane and lungs of fine Corinthian leather, Neko Case is equal parts gender warrior and indie aesthete, a potent hybrid aptly evoked by the Joan-of-Arc-in-a-muscle-car tableau on the cover her new album, Middle Cyclone. Case is also in possession of what is arguably the greatest voice of her generation — clarion in tone; trans-national in its reach; and bottomless in its capacity to transmute wryly-observed public fictions into inescapable private truths that all more or less boil down to: I am woman, hear me ruminate. That voice […]
RIP: Delfonic Randy Cain Dead At 63
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Randy Cain [pictured, above right], a founding member of the soul group the Delfonics, which had such hits as “La La Means I Love You,” has died. He was 63. Cain’s death Thursday at his home in Maple Shade, N.J., was confirmed by investigator Rob O’Neal of the Burlington County medical examiner’s office, who declined to release other details. MORE WIKIPEDIA: The Delfonics are a Philadelphia soul singing group, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their most notable hits include “La-La (Means I Love You)“, “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” “Break Your Promise,” […]