INQUIRER: The city’s new district attorney and the state Supreme Court are moving to all but decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use in an effort to unclog Philadelphia’s crowded court dockets. Under a policy to take effect later this month, prosecutors will charge such cases as summary offenses rather than as misdemeanors. People arrested with up to 30 grams of the drug – slightly more than an ounce – may have to pay a fine but face no risk of a criminal record. The shift is a major move in a reform agenda being hammered […]
THE LIMITS OF AMERICAN POWER: NATO Finally Cops To Slaughter Of Innocent Afghan Women; WikiLeaks Releases Baghdad Snuff Film
SALON: On February 12 of this year, U.S. forces entered a village in the Paktia Province [NOT pictured, above] in Afghanistan and, after surrounding a home where a celebration of a new birth was taking place, shot dead two male civilians (government officials) who exited the house in order to inquire why they had been surrounded, and then shot and killed three female relatives (a pregnant mother of ten, a pregnant mother of six, and a teenager). The Pentagon then issued a statement claiming that (a) the dead males were “insurgents” or terrorists, (b) the bodies of the three women had been found by U.S. forces […]
WORTH REPEATING: Health Care Reform Isn’t Totalitarianism, But Spying On Americans Sure Is
NEW YORK TIMES: The chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, Vaughn Walker, ruled last week that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was the law of the land for Mr. Bush and that when the government failed to get a warrant to wiretap, it broke the law. He also said that the government could not evade accountability with absurdly broad claims of state secrets. This ruling does not end warrantless wiretapping. The particular program The Times uncovered has been suspended; there are still others, however, and the 2008 FISA amendments permit warrantless spying. Judge Walker’s ruling […]
SPORTO: Goodbye Donovan
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY The Redskins? You’re shitting me, right? The Redskins?!? I’m blown away that the Eagles would trade Donovan McNabb to a place where he can shove it up their ass twice a season. And help a division opponent at the same time. There are only two possible explanations; the first is that the Eagles think McNabb’s skills have eroded to the point that he will hurt the Redskins instead of help them. I reject that idea. That must mean the other explanation is true, that the Skins made an offer significantly better than anyone else. This […]
ARTSY: Darwinian Tract Housing
AMERICAN PHILISOPHICAL SOCIETY MUSUEM: The Tract House: A Darwin Addition presents an evolutionary twist on classic religious tracts. Artist Lisa Anne Auerbach solicited tracts—manifestos, diatribes, stories, rants, and poems—written by the general public, friends, neighbors, artists, poets, and even a Nobel Prize winner in response to Darwin’s life and ideas. Auerbach and graphic designer Roman Jaster then created printed ephemera based on this writing. The resulting tracts feature the same off-beat illustrations, chaotic type styles and breathless urgency that are the hallmark of religious and political tracts without being kitschy or retro. She calls it a “spread-the-word” project. Auerbach worked […]
PIGGIE OF THE WEEK: PA A.G. Tom Corbett
This week A.P. Ticker calls out Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett for suing to repeal health care reform in a shameless bid to draw Tea Party support for his gubernatorial campaign.
BLACK WIDOW: The Face Of Moscow Subway Terror
ASSOCIATED PRESS: This undated picture provided Friday, April 2, 2010 by the Russian news agency NewsTeam, is claimed by the Russian Kommersant newspaper to show Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova, left, and her husband Islamist rebel Umalat Magomedov. Russian newspaper Kommersant said Friday that one of the Moscow subway suicide bombers was Abdurakhmanova, the 17-year-old widow of Magomedov, an Islamist rebel from the North Caucasus killed by Russian government forces in December, 2009. The March 29 subway bombings in Moscow killed 39 people. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Two ‘Black Widow’ Suicide Bombers Kill 35 In The Moscow Underground
EARLY WORD: I Am Iron Man Redux
In theaters May 7th TIME: A great restaurant just opened — or maybe it’s a club, or a Broadway show — and everyone’s raving about it, but nobody can get in. Movies, though, are the people’s entertainment; Hollywood exists to give its vast audience instant gratification, to have enough screens for all the masses to attend the big new movie on its opening weekend, and in its optimum format. You want to see the new hit film? No problem. Theater exhibitors will increase the number of screens showing it. Buy a ticket and walk on in. Not now. At […]
WORTH REPEATING: Can Animals Be Gay?
NEW YORK TIMES: A discovery like Young’s can disorient a wildlife biologist in the most thrilling way — if he or she takes it seriously, which has traditionally not been the case. Various forms of same-sex sexual activity have been recorded in more than 450 different species of animals by now, from flamingos to bison to beetles to guppies to warthogs. A female koala might force another female against a tree and mount her, while throwing back her head and releasing what one scientist described as “exhalated belchlike sounds.” Male Amazon River dolphins have been known to penetrate each other […]
THE PEACE CORPS DIARIES: Letter From Paraguay
BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH In Paraguay, there are 230 Peace Corps volunteers, ma o meno. That group is expected to rise to 300 or so in the coming year as Pres. Obama is pumping a lot more money into the agency as a whole. Peace Corps in Paraguay is also one of the biggest programs in the country — only Ukraine has more volunteers. Within the 230, 49 are in my “G” or training group. We will be working in three different sectors — Health and Sanitation (mine), Early Education, and Urban Youth. The Health and Sanitation group has about […]
I Wanted A Public Option But All Got Was This T-Shirt
THE ATLANTIC: The signing ceremony for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23rd was supposed to be a winning moment for President Obama. Unfortunately for the President, his historic victory after a 14-month legislative battle was momentarily overshadowed by Vice President Biden’s accidentally audible profanity. Many Americans were put off by the gaffe, a purportedly inappropriate slip during such a historic moment. Others were nonplussed. President Obama laughed off the comment, telling reported he wished he’d said it himself. Nobody issued an apology. A week later, the Democratic National Committee is trumpeting Biden’s gaffe in commemoration of […]
KEYSTONE AWARDS: Pimping Our Ride
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] The winners of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association 2009 Keystone Awards were just announced and we are proud to report that Phawker honcho Jonathan Valania’s PW cover story on the ACORN fiasco (see below) has won first place for NEWS FEATURE STORY. Wish we could say that ACORN made out as well. For those Phawker readers that are NOT ink-stained wretches, understand that the Keystone Awards are sorta the statewide Grammys for journalism, so this is kind of a big deal. Congrats to all the other PW, CP and Philly media types that won. You can see […]