YES MEN: In a dramatic announcement at the National Press Club today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reversed its position on climate change policy, and promised to immediately cease lobbying against the Kerry-Boxer bill. Not. Within minutes of the announcement, it was revealed that the “Chamber spokesperson” was an impostor, and the press conference an elaborate hoax designed by activists to draw attention to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fight against public interest on climate change. At the close of the news conference, real Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Eric Wohlschlegel barged into the room visibly rattled, and declared the event […]
New York Times To Slash 100 Newsroom Jobs
MEDIA DECODER: The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs — about 8 percent of the total — by year’s end, offering buyouts to union and non-union employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday. The program mirrors one carried out in the spring of 2008, when the paper erased 100 positions in its newsroom, though other jobs were created, so the net reduction was smaller. That round of cuts included some layoffs of journalists — about 15 to 20, though The Times would not disclose the […]
THE EARLY WORD: For The People, By The People
POLITICO: The movie, “By The People: The Election of Barack Obama” screens tonight at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington in advance of a release on HBO on the anniversary of last year’s election. And it represents a rare glimpse behind the curtain of discipline and discretion that surrounded the Obama campaign – a glimpse that came even though some highly-placed campaign operatives feared the presence of cameras in their midst. It’s this cycle’s version of “The War Room” or “Journeys With George” – the political documentary whose unparalleled access will make it a defining document of the […]
BOOKS: Q&A With Author Ali Eteraz
BY PHILLYGRRL Twenty-eight year old Ali Eteraz’s Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan was hardly in bookstores a week before the November issue of Opraha’s O Magazine featured it on its fall reading list. But before he was a published author, Eteraz was a Philadelphian, writing in cafés around the city, albeit one with a reputation for a now-inactive, popular reformist Muslim blog. And now Eteraz has come back to Philadelphia for a reading from his book at the Free Library tomorrow night. In the book, Eteraz narrates his transformation from a young boy attending a madrassa in Pakistan […]
SPORTO: The Anatomy Of Defeat
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY I’ve got two boys under five years old and that alone means that I know more about Time Outs than Andy Reid. OK, that was a cheap shot. But when the Eagles got the ball down 13-9 with 3:42 left in the game, weren’t you shocked that they had all their timeouts left? The Eagles under Reid have made a habit of using their timeouts too early. They’d burned all their 1st half T.O.s with 4:30 left in the 2nd quarter, which didn’t stop Donovan McNabb from trying to call a extra one with 27 […]
INHALE TO THE CHIEF: DOJ Instructs Prosecutors To Stop Wasting Time And Money Busting People In Compliance With State Medical Marijuana Laws
[Artwork by REUBENSLP] ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday. Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws. The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless […]
THE REPEAT: Phils Trounce Dodgers 11-0 In Game 3
[Photo by KEVIN BURKETT] NEW YORK TIMES: After the fifth inning Sunday night, the Phillie Phanatic delighted the bundled-up crowd at Citizens Bank Park by knocking out a Los Angeles Dodgers fan in a fake boxing match. The skit played out in front of the Dodgers’ dugout, where the mismatch presented only a temporary distraction from the blowout unfolding in front of them. The Phillies pummeled the Dodgers, 11-0, to seize a two-games-to-one advantage in the National League Championship Series. They obeyed the rousing “Beat L.A.” chants that rumbled through the stands in the bottom of the first inning by […]
JUDAS PRIEST: Wilmington Catholic Diocese Declares Bankruptcy To Block Clergy Sex Abuse Trial
[“Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X” by FRANCIS BACON] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Delaware’s Catholic Diocese of Wilmington filed for federal bankruptcy protection on Sunday night, on the eve of a civil trial in a high-profile sex abuse case against the diocese and a former priest.The bankruptcy filing automatically delays the case in Kent County Superior Court, the first of eight consecutive abuse trials scheduled in Delaware. The diocese covers Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and serves about 230,000 Catholics. It is the seventh U.S. diocese to file for bankruptcy since allegations erupting seven years ago against Catholic […]
LOST IN TRANSLATION: Why I Don’t Like Tokyo OR Where’s Godzilla When You Really Need Him?
BY EVA LIAO TOKYO CORRESPONDENT Simply put, I don’t LOVE Tokyo. But sometimes I’m not even sure I LIKE Tokyo. It’s not an opinion I like to voice, especially since I assume most of the people living here are huge Tokyo proponents. And I’m not a wet dish rag kinda gal — there’s usually no point in complaining, especially to people who probably disagree. When people ask me what I really think of Tokyo, I feel like I’m not supposed to tell the truth. Sometimes I lie. I fear my reasoning for disliking Tokyo will come up short, that my […]
SHERIFF: Charges Pending In Balloon Boy Saga
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The sheriff of Larimer County, Colo., said late Saturday that charges will be filed in the case of the 6-year-old boy who vanished into the rafters of his garage for five hours while the world thought he was zooming through the sky in a flying-saucer-like helium balloon. The boy’s father, Richard Heene, met with sheriff’s officials earlier in the day amid lingering questions about whether he perpetrated a hoax. Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden didn’t say Saturday night what the charges would be, but he did say the parents, Richard and his wife, Mayumi Heene, aren’t under arrest. […]
D’OH: Shepard Fairey Lied About ‘Hope’ Image Source
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Shepard Fairey’s claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his famous Barack Obama “HOPE” poster became a widely watched court case about fair use that now appears to have nearly collapsed. By Friday night, his attorneys – led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University – said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material. Fairey himself admitted that he didn’t use The Associated Press photo of Obama seated next to actor George […]
CINEMA: That Barton Fink Feeling
A SERIOUS MAN (2009, directed by Joel & Ethan Coen, 105 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The re-focusing of purpose that the Coen Brothers exhibited so breathtakingly in No Country For Old Men continues with their latest film, A Serious Man. An Old Testament fable set in a square Jewish suburb circa 1970, this black comedy of one man’s weakening faith has many of the elements of a classic Coen’s film: garish period detail, fleeting interactions with the grotesquely plain and a normal guy done in by the wickedness of fate. Yet with its exceptionally tight script, theCoens’ […]
DJ AM: Gone Too Far
Gone Too Far Ep. 101 Amy Gone Too Far Ep. 101 Amy DJ AM travels to his hometown of Philadelphia to meet the family of Amy, a 23-yr-old heroin addict who has been stealing from her loved ones to pay for her drugs. NEW YORK TIMES: By the end of the hourlong show, which had its premiere Oct. 12, Amy is shown having gone through rehab successfully with Mr. Goldstein’s support, her hair nicely cut and a healthy glow in her face. It is a happy ending, much like the one Mr. Goldstein seemed to be living when he filmed […]