SALON: Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, had between $1,000 and $15,000 invested in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT. The fund aggressively “shorts” long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, meaning that it performs well when U.S. debt is undesirable. (A short is when the trader hopes to profit from the decline in the value of an asset.) According to his latest financial disclosure statement, which covers the year 2010 and has been publicly available since this spring, Cantor still has up to $15,000 in the same fund. Contacted by Salon […]
BEWITCHED HANDS: Work
The Bewitched Hands, “Work” from Tato Maizza on Vimeo. Kinda like Air meets Apples In Stereo. We likey. JIM DEROGATIS: The reference points are numerous: The anthemic choruses can recall the Arcade Fire; the rollicking rhythms are resonant of the Feelies on “The Good Earth”; the indelible hooks bring to mind the New Pornographers at their most exuberant, and the layered, repetitive, and sometimes wordless vocals are pure Stereolab. All of this name-dropping would mean nothing, however, if the songwriting wasn’t so strong. MORE
HOT DOC: Obama Justice Dept. Directs Federal Prosecutors To Go After Medical Marijuana Providers
NORML: On Wednesday the Obama administration for the second time in two years issued a Department of Justice memorandum regarding the state-sanctioned use and production of medical cannabis. However, unlike the release of the 2009 ‘Ogden memo,’ which the administration promoted with great fanfare, the issuance of this week’s ‘Cole memorandum’ is strategically being downplayed by the Justice Department. As for the content of the memo, which you can read in full here, it’s hardly surprising — particularly in light of the administration’s recent, and highly public threats to lawmakers in states wishing to enact medical marijuana laws or expand […]
BLOTTO: Drinking Yourself Gay
BY LANCE DOILY It was Thursday and I had already had my fill of Murph’s for the week, so I ended up at another one of my usual haunts, Slunt Huskers off Rt. 23 in Little Falls. I could drink heavily here due to the fact that the bartenders would rarely charge me, and there was a trough underneath the bar that allowed us all to relieve ourselves to our heart’s content without having to fuck around with the complexities of a urinal. Everyone at the Husker knows me as a Schaefer man. Born and bred that way, it’s been […]
MITTS COME OFF: Romney Blames Obama For Plant Closure In Allentown; Plant Owner Says Otherwise
MORNING CALL: When Barack Obama visited the struggling Allentown Metal Works in December 2009, the factory’s industrial landscape and its rugged workers made a perfect backdrop for the president to talk about his efforts to jump-start the economy. On Thursday afternoon, its workers gone, its windows boarded up and its lot overgrown with weeds, the century-old building again made a perfect political backdrop. This time it offered Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney a place to tear into the incumbent Democrat’s record on the economy. “This president came here and called this a symbol of hope,” Romney said, standing before a […]
IF YOU CAN READ THIS YOU ARE PROBABLY FROM OUT OF TOWN: 40% Of Students Are Illiterate
INQUIRER: More than 40 percent of city students still can’t read or do basic math at grade level. MORE RELATED: Literacy statistics and juvenile court: 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate. More than 60 percent of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate. Penal institution records show that inmates have a 16% chance of returning to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70% who receive no help. This equates to taxpayer costs of $25,000 per year per inmate and nearly double that amount for juvenile offenders. Illiteracy and crime […]
ALBUM REVIEW: Bad Meets Evil Hell: The Sequel
BY MATTHEW HENGEVELD If the collaboration of Eminem and Royce Da 5’9 seems a bit odd, or AstroTurf-y, it’s because it is. What’s true is that Eminem and Royce had a track together on 1999’s Slim Shady LP titled “Bad Meets Evil” and recorded a handful of non-album tracks, including a track titled “Renegade,” which eventually was re-dubbed with Jay-Z vocals and became part of the classic Blueprint album. However, “Bad Meets Evil” is more revisionism than reality. Eminem’s group D12, particularly lead-member Proof, had a falling-out with Royce and released a barrage of ‘diss’ tracks towards one another for […]
LAW & ORDER: From Perp To Prosecutor
PHILLY.COM: A veteran Philadelphia homicide prosecutor who was forced to resign last week was asked to leave because she accessed the expunged arrest record of a young prosecutor whom District Attorney Seth Williams personally hired in October. Sources told the Daily News that MK Feeney, who worked in the D.A.’s Office for 15 years, abruptly resigned last Thursday after digging up information about Kevin Harden Jr., a 25-year-old assistant district attorney who was arrested several times as a youth. Harden has been arrested a handful of times, mostly for drug offenses, sources said, and survived being shot five times in […]
MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD: How Comcast Gets To Do Pretty Much Whatever The F*ck They Want To Do
INQUIRER: The presidential motorcade will head for a 5:30 p.m. big-ticket fund-raiser at the Mount Airy home of David Cohen, Comcast’s executive vice president and a Democratic mahoff. MORE RELATED: The president is listed as speaking at 8:30 at a private residence in Philadelphia, according to a copy of the president’s schedule, which the source confirmed as the Cohen event. Cohen oversees government affairs for the company. MORE PREVIOUSLY: The bonds between the cable industry and the world of politics are coming into HD-worthy clarity these days. Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen will host a fundraising dinner for President […]
THE DOG AND PONY SHOW: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Ginned Up Game Of Chicken Known As The Debt Ceiling Crisis
MOTHER JONES: On August 2 (or maybe a few weeks later), the US government will reach the legal limit on how much money it can borrow—a.k.a., the “debt ceiling.” It’s currently set at $14.3 trillion. The government borrows money to pay for everything from tax refunds to wars and veterans’ benefits, not to mention repaying our creditors, which include China, Japan, the United Kingdom, state and local governments, pension funds, and investors in America and around the world.A debt ceiling has existed since 1917. Before that, Congress had to provide its stamp of approval each time the Treasury Department wanted to […]
POSTSCRIPT: The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father
BY COLONEL TOM SHEEHY Eddie Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III on December 23, 1964, in Evanston, Illinois. Should this man ever decide to write his autobiography, he already has the title: “Longing To Belong” which is also the name of a song from his praiseworthy new album, “Ukulele Songs.” The need to have a relationship to people, places, and things seems to be an enduring theme running through much of Vedder’s music over the last two decades. As such, Vedder has made it his business to establish a very strong connection with Philadelphia which harkens back to the […]
EARLY WORD: Greetings From Asbury Park
All Tomorrow’s Parties returns to the USA this September in the new location of Asbury Park, N.J. bringing an I’ll Be Your Mirror event to the iconic waterfront. For the inaugural U.S. I’ll Be Your Mirror, Portishead will curate and headline their first East Coast shows since 1998 on the Saturday & Sunday. As well as Day Tickets, ATP have to date been selling two types of weekend pass – ‘Three Day Jeff Mangum’ passes that include Jeff Mangum’s Friday show and guarantee access to one of the Portishead shows (as well as everything else at the festival) and ‘Three […]
The Hilarious Cultural Insensitivity Of Jon Stewart
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Oh, for Fox Sake – Stewart Eviscerates Stewart www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook So Fox News is currently trying to paint Jon Stewart as a racist for using his Amos & Andy voice when impersonating GOP-pizza-guy-for-president Herman Cain. Stewart responds with a funny-as-shit montage of his greatest cultural/racial/ethnic stereotype hits, as if to say, ‘if you want to play the race card, let’s play 52 pick up, bitches.’