ASSOCIATED PRESS: The monthlong saga over Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to drastically curb collective bargaining rights for public workers in Wisconsin took a turn Friday that could force a dramatic rebooting of the entire legislative process. A judge temporarily blocked the law from taking effect, raising the possibility that the Legislature may have to vote again to pass the bill that attracted protests as large as 85,000 people, motivated Senate Democrats to escape to Illinois for three weeks and made Wisconsin the focus of the national fight over union rights. MORE GAWKER: Dissident members of the internet hacktivist group Anonymous, […]
JAPANIMATION: Nuclear Poo Poo Fallout Boy
RELATED: BBC reports that Japan’s nuclear agency raised the assessment of the severity of the crisis from level 4 to 5 on a 7-level international scale for nuclear accidents, matching an earlier assessment by the head of France’s Nuclear Safety Authority Tuesday. Level 5 is used to describe an accident with “wider consequences.” The move puts it on the same level as the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the US, and two levels below the Chernobyl meltdown. MORE RELATED: Astonishing ‘Before’ And ‘After’ Satellite Images Of Japan
HOT DOC: Another Brick In The Pay Wall
Dear New York Times Reader,? Today marks a significant transition for The New York Times as we introduce digital subscriptions. It’s an important step that we hope you will see as an investment in The Times, one that will strengthen our ability to provide high-quality journalism to readers around the world and on any platform. The change will primarily affect those who are heavy consumers of the content on our Web site and on mobile applications. ? This change comes in two stages. Today, we are rolling out digital subscriptions to our readers in Canada, which will enable us to fine-tune the […]
SIDEWALKING: The Shadow Factory
Trenton, New Jersey 8:36 AM yesterday by JEFF FUSCO
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 […]
HOT DOC: Worst Nigerian Phishing Spam EVER!
—————————- Original Message —————————- Subject: THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR ATM CARD WITH ME.. From: “MR ROGERS MOORE” <test@test.com> Date: Thu, March 17, 2011 7:45 am To: feed@phawker.com ——————————————– ATM CARD PAYMENT NOTIFICATION OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF OPERATION INTERNATIONAL CREDIT SETTLEMENT, ATTENTION HONORABLE BENEFICIARY. We receive an email that you are dead and you ask one Albert R J Pitre to come and claim your ATM Card of (5million, five hundred thousand United States dollars. ($5.5,000, 000.00USD). Your ATM Card that has been with us since 1 month now and he has also agreed to pay […]
A Heartbreaking Story Of Staggering Heartbreak
DAILY MAIL: Even amid the carnage and despair of Japan’s tsunami victims, the plight of the 30 children at Kama Elementary School is heartbreaking. They sit quietly in the corner of a third-floor classroom where they have waited each day since the tsunami swept into the town of Ishinomaki for their parents to collect them. So far, no one has come and few at the school now believe they will. Teachers think that some of the boys and girls, aged between eight and 12, know their fathers and mothers are among the missing and will never again turn up at […]
Phawker Presents The Eighth Installment Of BLOTTO
BY LANCE DOILY The day started off abruptly enough when I was awakened by the crash of the dumpster being slammed back down to the pavement by the garbage truck, but at least I knew it was still morning. The last thing I remembered before passing out under the stairwell last night was fighting a much older man for a cinderblock, which I ended up using for a pillow. I found him snoozing behind a stack of tires using a sun-bloated possum carcass to rest his head. I checked for a pulse, quickly ran his pockets for valuables (book of […]
Anthony Weiner Congratulates The GOP-Controlled House For Courageously Defunding Car Talk
Well played, sir. RELATED: In a mostly party-line vote, the House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that would permanently bar NPR from receiving federal funds, the latest escalation in conservatives’ campaign against the broadcaster. MORE
FUNDRAISING: Help Fund A Koch Brothers Expose And Get A Badass Shep Fairey ‘Kochtopus’ T-Shirt
BRAVE NEW FILMS: With a net worth of 43 Billion the Kochs have already spent decades of their lives and over 324 Million of their wealth exerting their influence. The Kochs accomplish their goals by funding a massive array of right wing front groups, think tanks and tea party efforts. They largely operate outside of the public eye, and target their funding to infiltrate public opinion, the media, judicial decisions and legislation. Over three dozen organizations are funded by the brothers, and they spend additional money lobbying and backing conservative candidates. Everything the Kochs do is to fight for a […]
Charlie Sheen And The Post-Empire State Of Mind
BRETT EASTON ELLIS: You’re completely missing the point if you think the Charlie Sheen moment is really a story about drugs. Yeah, they play a part, but they aren’t at the core of what’s happening—or why this particular Sheen moment is so fascinating. […] Anyone who’s put up with the fake rigors of celebrity (or suffered from addiction problems) has a kindred spirit here. The new fact is: If you’re punching paparazzi, you look like an old-school loser. If you can’t accept the fact that we’re at the height of an exhibitionistic display culture and that you’re going to be […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Wave Of Mutilation
NEWSWEEK: All of those broken bones in northern Japan, all of those broken lives and those broken homes prompt us to remember what in calmer times we are invariably minded to forget: the most stern and chilling of mantras, which holds, quite simply, that mankind inhabits this earth subject to geological consent—which can be withdrawn at any time. For hundreds, maybe for thousands of people, this consent was withdrawn with shocking suddenness—all geological events are sudden, and all are unexpected if not necessarily entirely unanticipated—at 2:46 on this past clear, cool spring Friday afternoon. One moment all were going about […]
HACKTIVISM: Anonymous Takes On The Oligarchy
RELATED: A group of decentralized hacker activists — or “hacktivists” — known as Anonymous announced a new plan on March 14 to take on the Federal Reserve System, the International Monetary Fund, the Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank, and the entire “global banking cartel.” In a video posted on YouTube (watch below), the group said “Operation Empire State Rebellion,” as the effort is being called, would entail “a relentless campaign of nonviolent, peaceful civil disobedience” until the group’s demands are met and “a rule of law is restored.” And it has already announced several demands which U.S. and […]