Coming soon to a Phawker near you.
OK, Let’s Go Through This One More Time: Free Trade Agreements Are Good For American Workers? How?
WASHINGTON POST: At the factory here owned by New Balance, the last major athletic shoe brand to manufacture footwear in the United States, even workers on the shop floor recognize that in purely economic terms, the operation doesn’t make sense. The company could make far more money if, like Nike and Adidas, it shifted virtually all of these jobs to low-wage countries. So employees try working each shift to make it up. Conversations on the shop floor are sparse at best, and the tasks at each work station have been stripped of waste and precisely timed. Workers cut leather for […]
UN-STOP THE PRESSES: If The 2004 Election Was Stolen But Nobody Cares Does It Still Make A Sound?
If true, the last eight years, or at least 2004–20008 would be null and void, triggering a complete meltdown in all three branches of government: legislative (every law signed by POTUS, null and void), executive (every executive order issued by POTUS null and void) and judicial (every supreme court appointment by POTUS and ensuing decision null and void) — chaos that would upend the game in unexpected and radical ways. Which may explain why this story is getting no traction: nobody at the higher levels of the corporate media seems willing to be the one who takes down the house […]
THIS JUST IN: Inquirer Building Sold To Bart Blatstein; No Plans To Move It To Northern Liberties
PHILADELPHIA MEDIA NETWORK: PMN announced today that it entered into an agreement with Tower Investments, Inc., owned by Bart Blatstein, to sell the building that is home to PMN headquarters at 400 North Broad Street, in addition to the sale of an adjacent parking garage and lot. The purchase price is not being disclosed. PMN is exploring options with respect to their future space, including the possibility of remaining at the 400 North Broad Street location or identifying new space in the region. “As Philadelphia Media Network continues its successful digital transformation, the efficient utilization of our assets will be […]
Only YOU Can Stop Fraud, Corruption And Abuse
BY ALEX POTTER Philadelphians for Ethical Leadership, a non-profit group headed by Ben Mannes, a former Washington, D.C. police officer who now lives in Port Richmond, held a meeting last night at the Central Library they called “A Citywide Forum on Public Integrity” hoping “to give citizens a better understanding on what behavior constitutes public corruption, what the contributing factors to public corruption are, who investigate the different types of public integrity issues, and how best to report it.” A panel of two men with pedigrees in rooting out corruption at various levels of government was present to discuss ways […]
BREAKING: Gov. Christie Rushed To Hospital By State Police; Still Large And In Charge, Says Spokesman
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The 48-year-old governor was driven to Somerset Medical Center by his state police security detail out of an “abundance of caution,” said Christie spokesman, Michael Drewniak. Christie suffers from asthma and all indications are the governor will be OK, Drewniak said. Maria Comella, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, told The Associated Press that Christie is “fine and in charge.” Close friend and adviser Bill Palatucci said Christie was “getting tests and working from the hospital.” Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno was in her office at the Statehouse. Christie attended an education conference and a congressional fundraiser in Iowa on […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Destroying America To Save It
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Nietzsche said, “We do not place especial value on the possession of a virtue until we notice its total absence in our opponent.” Oh how I’ve come to revere such virtues as honesty, integrity and fairness since the debt/deficit reduction talks commenced! And, it’s that very reverence that now leads me to wonder what nature of maleficence courses through the veins of a political party/movement that descries patriotism in the destruction of a nation for the sake of affording more wealth to its already wealthiest. What’s equally befuddling is why they would choose to adopt such […]
CINEMA: Space Oddity
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976, directed by Nicholas Roeg, 139 minutes, U.K.) * BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC True to its title, The Man Who Fell To Earth begins with David Bowie’s alien Newton crashing down from the sky in his alien vessel. It isn’t just Newton, Nicholas Roeg’s experimental sci-fi epic also seems like an alien document sent from a far-off place, that place being the mid-1970s. Before Star Wars‘ arrival, mid-70s sci-fi was still heavily influenced by the mystical vagaries of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Roeg’s film, which brought rock phenomenon David Bowie to the […]
TONITE: When You’re Strange
RELATED: Memphis mama Amy LaVere‘s second album was produced by Jim Dickinson, and she’s gorgeous. What else do you need to know? OK, she slaps a mean doghouse bass, has recorded at Sun Studios, and played with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band [and she played pioneering rockabilly filly Wanda Jackson in the film Walk the Line.] LaVere sings with a coquettish innocence that, frankly, doesn’t fool me for one minute. She knows just what she’s doing, and it sounds fantastic. She moves musically from cocktail shuffle to galloping rockabilly, and will undoubtedly move you as well. Bring napkins. MORE AMY […]
MUST SEE TV: True Blood Mud
The Muppets take on HBO’s hallucinatory vampire sex romp. Also, Bert and Ernie were gay all along! Shhhh! Michelle Bachmann might hear.
Post Office To Foreclose On Phawker Founder’s House
MY FOX PHILLY: The Ben Franklin post office in Philadelphia was informed Tuesday that it will likely be shut down, as the U.S. Postal Service attempts to reel in spending by closing thousands of locations across the country. The unassuming, three-story brick building, which pre-dates the Revolutionary War, would lose a post office but potentially gain a pharmacy, a grocery store or “other appropriate retailers,” the Postal Service. The Ben Franklin post office remains the only one in the country that doesn’t fly a U.S. flag. That’s because there wasn’t a U.S. flag in 1775, when Franklin founded what has […]
Philly Poets Take First Place In International Slam
BAY CITIZEN: On the steps of San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House at around 11 p.m. last Saturday night, 17-year-old Kai Davis finally ran out of words. The silence was a little disconcerting, given the fact that words—specifically Davis’s gift for summoning them, piecing them together, and spitting them out in corkscrewing contortions—were what earned her Philadelphia-based slam poetry team top honors at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival just minutes beforehand. […] Philadelphia’s Davis, along with teammate Jamarr Hall, launched into an impression-riddled critique of popular music. With dreadlocks bouncing, Davis mocked Lil Wayne’s lethargic rhyme […]
Michelle Bachmann’s Wacky Homophobia Is All Fun And Games Until Kids Start Turning Up Dead
MOTHER JONES: The first was TJ. Then came Samantha, Aaron, Nick, and Kevin. Over the past two years, a total of nine teenagers have committed suicide in a Minnesota school district represented by Rep. Michele Bachmann—the latest in May—and many more students have attempted to take their lives. State public health officials have labeled the area a “suicide contagion area” because of the unusually high death rate. […] There’s no sure way of knowing why any of the kids took their own lives, but gay rights activists quickly honed in on one factor they saw as contributing to an unhealthy […]