THE SUN: BRITAIN’S Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle was in the Priory clinic last night suffering from exhaustion. The singer, dubbed SuBo, had an “emotional breakdown” following Saturday’s final in which she was runner-up. But the talent show favourite was still eyeing a mega United States tour. The 48-year-old virgin, tipped to earn £8MILLION, survived tears and a tantrum to finish second in Saturday’s gripping final of telly’s Britain’s Got Talent. But the pressure finally told late yesterday as the Scots singer – dubbed SuBo by fans – was rushed to the private clinic suffering from exhaustion. Show aides had […]
WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES: Demonized Abortion Doctor Killed En Route To Church By Pro-Life Fanatic
[Painting by LOOSLI] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation’s few providers of late-term abortions despite decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher. The gunman fled, but a 51-year-old suspect was detained some 170 miles away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said. Although Stolz refused to release the man’s name, Johnson County sheriff’s spokesman Tom Erickson identified the detained man as Scott Roeder. He has not been charged in the slaying and was expected to […]
CINEMA: Hell And Back
DRAG ME TO HELL (2009, directed by Sam Raimi, 96 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Seventeen years since the last Evil Dead film, fanboy icon Sam Raimi returns to his goo-oozing roots with the tightly-wound thriller Drag Me To Hell. The doomed bank officer Christine may be seen living through the worst three days of her life but fans of the manic mayhem with whichRaimi originally found fame will rejoice like a curse has been lifted. In a plot that crackles with contemporary resonance, Allison Lohman plays Christine Brown, a nervously ambitious banker desperate to show her boss […]
Ye Olde Old Media Vs. New Media Debate
STEVE VOLK: The problem is getting “young people” to read newspapers — either in print or online — and personally, it’s not my experience that, as Doctor suggests, we need the brightest minds of the Harvard Crimson to “reinvent journalism” in order to make that happen. I happen to work in a town, Philadelphia, overrun by bloggers. The reinvention of journalism is happening all around us here, where Will Bunch of the Daily News continues to be the hardest-working man in show business, writing a book, stories for his paper, and a blog, Attytood, that makes me feel part of […]
SEPTA GIRL: Beware The White Cadillac Man
BY PHILLY GRRL There are those people who refuse to take SEPTA at night. I am not one of them. On any given week, out of a mixture of sheer stubbornness and necessity, I join the throngs of second-shift workers on their way home. Riding at night is different. Gone are the students and suit-and-tied office workers who pack the aisles during the day. The buses go faster. There is no lingering at stops. People are tired and their tiredness gives way to a sort of looseness that only appears at night. That particular night, I sat at the bus […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: The Inky Yoo Torture Protest
Photo by PHILLYBITS BY KYLEE MESSNER “Phoo on you, we hate Yoo,” chanted Norman Koener, head member of Philadelphia’s World Can’t Wait chapter. Unfortunately for Koener, a crowd of photographers and Delaware Valley War Veterans were the only ears listening to World Can’t Wait’s pleas to stop torture. Sporting a mask resembling torture lawyer John Yoo, Koener and WCW carried on with their protest against torture and waterboarding demonstration as planned for the National Day Against Torture. Hoping to gain support for prosecution against those responsible for committing torture at, the organization laid their attacks on the U.S. government as […]
TONITE: When I Say ‘Obama!’ U Say ‘Ayers!’
Come to Moonstone Arts Center tonight. Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn will be in Philly TONIGHT for a discussion and signing of their new book RACE COURSE: AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY, along with activist and poet Haki R. Madhubuti, who will read from and sign copies of his latest release LIBERATION NARRATIVES: NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS 1966-2009. And, I’ll be there! How could you miss out? Bill and Bernardine will discuss how systemic racial inequality in the criminal justice system, education, and housing illustrate the powerful pull of bigotry in our times. Open Q & A with the audience will follow. […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
SPECIAL REPORT: The Good News Flower Hour
SPECIAL REPORT: GNFH #23 Today is SAY NO TO U.S. TORTURE POLICY Day. We made this reminder so you don’t forget. You’re welcome. RELATED: Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged. At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube. Another apparently shows a female prisoner having […]
EARLY WORD: Stop The Death Star, I Wanna Get Off
TORTURE IS A WAR CRIME! FIRE, DISBAR AND PROSECUTE TORTURE ARCHITECT JOHN YOO! RELEASE THE PHOTOS! PROSECUTE THE WAR CRIMINALS! EVENT: Press Conference and Waterboarding Demonstration When: Thursday, May 28th, 2009 4:30 PM Where: The Philadelphia Inquirer 400 N. Broad Street (Philadelphia, PA)–In the face of the Obama administration’s refusal to release a reported 2,000 more photographs of detainee abuse – in spite of being ordered by a federal court to do so – torture opponents in fifteen (15) U.S. cities will hold visible protests to demand that the government make the photos public. […]
BOARD GAME: Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
MORE [h/t P. RYDDY] * THE WORLD CAFE As a child, Benjy Ferree dreamed of becoming an actor. After discovering his love of music, he moved to Washington, D.C., and began playing gigs at local clubs. Before long, Ferree’s vintage Americana music had caught the eye of a label, which put out Leaving the Nest, a folksy, acoustic and blues-filled album that won the singer many new fans. Ferree’s new follow-up, Come Back to the Five and Dime Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee, tells the tragic story of Disney actor Bobby Driscoll in song. Though he sticks to Americana, Ferree adds […]
GUNS N’ ROSES: Judge Acquits Gun Shop Protesters
MONICA YANT KINNEY: Twelve religious activists pulled off a legal miracle yesterday: They convinced a judge – who once worked for the Philadelphia Police Department, of all places – that it’s OK to break the law if the harm you cause is less than the harm you think you’re preventing.The unusual case pitted ministers, a rabbi, and one self-described professional “peacemaker” against James Colosimo’s eponymous gun shop on Spring Garden Street. So many people came to listen – 150 by my count – the trial had to be moved to a bigger courtroom. For six hours, a passionate prosecutor in […]
ALL THAT YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND: Sniffing Out The Paper Trail Of Prez Obama’s SCOTUS Pick
NEW YORK TIMES: Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s judicial opinions are marked by diligence, depth and unflashy competence. If they are not always a pleasure to read, they are usually models of modern judicial craftsmanship, which prizes careful attention to the facts in the record and a methodical application of layers of legal principles. Judge Sotomayor, whom President Obama announced Tuesday as his choice for the Supreme Court, has issued no major decisions concerning abortion, the death penalty, gay rights or national security. In cases involving criminal defendants, employment discrimination and free speech, her rulings are more liberal than not.But they reveal […]