Feds Probe John Edwards Hush Money Allegations

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WASHINGTON POST: The news that former senator John Edwards is under federal investigation for possibly using campaign dollars as hush money for his mistress is simply the latest blow to a man who rose faster and fell harder than almost anyone in modern political history. The North Carolina Democrat acknowledged in a statement to the Raleigh News & Observer that the U.S. Attorney’s office is looking into whether any of the money donated to his campaign was used to keep film maker Rielle Hunter, with whom Edwards had admitted an affair, quiet about their relationship. “I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly,” Edwards said in the statement. “However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true.” The admission of an investigation is a new low for Edwards, who has already acknowledged an affair with Hunter even as he was running a campaign for president and while his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer. MORE

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CAT STEVENS: If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out

PITCHFORK: As Coldplay do battle with Joe Satriani in court after the guitar hero claimed the Britpop superstars stole his 2004 song “If I Could Fly” for their smash “Viva La Vida,” Cat Stevens (who currently goes by the name Yusuf Islam) is looking to get in on the action. According to UK rag The Sun (via NME), Stevens is now claiming Chris Martin and company actually stole “Viva La Vida” from his 1973 song “Foreigner Suite.” Apparently, the bit in question can be found here, at the 5:15 mark — seems like a stretch but judge for yourself. MORE

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WIKIPEDIA: Harold and Maude is a cult classic film directed by Hal Ashby in 1971. The film, featuring slapstick, dark humour, and existentialist drama, revolves around the exploits of a morbid young man – Harold (played by Bud Cort) – who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, as he develops a relationship with septuagenarian Maude (played by Ruth Gordon). Hal Ashby, the director of the film, shared certain ideals with the era’s youth culture, and in this film he contrasts the doomed outlook of the alienated youth of the time with the hard-won optimism of those who endured the horrors of the early 20th century, contrasting nihilism with purpose. Maude’s past is revealed in a glimpse of the concentration camp ID number tattooed on her arm. Harold is part of a society in which he has no personal importance; and existentially, therefore, he is without meaning. Maude, however, has survived and lives a life rich with meaning. It is in this existential crisis, shown against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, that we see the differences between one culture, personified by Harold, handling a meaningless war, while another has experienced and lived beyond another war that produced a crisis of meaning, the Holocaust. The film was a commercial failure when it was released, and the critical reception was extremely mixed; however, it has since developed a large cult following.[4] MORE

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