ASSOCIATED PRESS: Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an abnormal heartbeat Wednesday morning and, upon the advice of White House doctors, went to the hospital for a procedure to “restore his normal rhythm.” For the 67-year-old Cheney, who canceled a campaign event he was to attend later Wednesday in Illinois, it will be the second time in less than a year that he will have the outpatient procedure — which consists of an electric shock. The vice president’s office said that after experiencing a problem, Cheney saw the White House physician. It was discovered there that he was experiencing a recurrence […]
NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Another Foreclosure Suicide
LA TIMES: A series of financial setbacks left Wanda Dunn facing eviction from the house in Pasadena where her family had lived for generations. Dunn, 53, told neighbors that she would rather die than leave. Early Monday, the day of her expected eviction, firefighters pulled her body out of the house as it burned. She apparently had set it on fire before shooting herself in the head, authorities said. “We knew it was going to happen,” said Steve Brooks, who lived across the street. “It was nobody’s fault; it was everybody’s fault.” As Brooks watched the flames, he noticed that […]
LASSO OF TRUTH: Wonder Woman Is Anti-Palin
THE HILL: Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on television in the 1970s, slammed Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin as the “anti-Wonder Woman.” Carter made her remarks in response to a question from Philadelphia Magazine about comparisons between Wonder Woman and Gov. Palin (Alaska), the GOP’s first veep nominee. “She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ve got to live their lives,” Carter added. “And a superior religious self-righteousness … that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin. She did it all, didn’t she?” Carter said that […]
MUST SEE: Species, Asshole Americana
[Al Jazeera English: Misconceptions of Obama fuel Republican campaign] Astonishing how little progress has been made since the Salem Witch Trials. [Hat tip to WOOKIFIED]
THE HATE NOISE: Anthrax Hoaxes Shutdown Obama Campaign Offices In Philadelphia And New York
CBS: PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) — A threatening letter containing a suspicious powder forced evacuations at a Barack Obama campaign office in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon. According to police, a letter with a suspicious powder was sent to an Obama-Biden field office in the 1500 block of Christian Street. The letter was apparently opened by a volunteer at the office.”The letter was somewhat threatening in nature and it contained a substance that we believe to be a hazmat,” Captain Mike Gillespie said shortly after the incident. Police, fire and hazmat crews responded to the scene shortly after a 911 call was […]
FAILOUT: The Masque Of The In-The-Red Death
TECH CRUNCH: The collapse of so many major financial institutions in the past year, and over the past few days especially, is hard to fathom in its enormity. Sometimes you need a good visual to put things in perspective. The New York Times has an interactive graphic up on its site that pretty much says it all. It shows that $4 trillion has been wiped off the total market capitalization of the U.S. stock market since last October. Of that, nearly $1 trillion is from the decline in the financial sector alone. MORE EDGAR ALLAN POE: THE “Red Death” had […]
EARLY WORD: The Milkmen Died For Your Grins
Psst! Hey, Bub. The Dead Milkmen are playing a ‘secret’ show at Johnny Brenda’s on October 25th, the day before their official reunion show for R5 Productions, under the name ‘Les Enfants Du Prague.’ Don’t tell nobody! THE DEAD MILKMEN: Punk Rock Girl If you don’t got Mojo Nixon, then your store could use some fixin’!
BRADLEY EFFECT IN REVERSE: Crackers Crackin’ Up
“Keep The N*gger Out Of Office” Cops: Man threatened voter officials over tardy registration card OCTOBER 8–Angered by a delay in the receipt of his voter registration card, a Louisiana man today threatened election officials, claiming that he urgently needed to cast a ballot to “keep the n*gger out of office,” according to police. Wade Williams, 75, was arrested this morning on a felony terrorizing charge after allegedly calling the Registrar of Voters and warning that he would come to the state office and empty his shotgun unless he got his registration card. Using profanity and racial slurs, Williams told […]
YES WE CAN: Winning The Battle For Pennsyltucky
HOPE IN THE RUINS: Obama in West Philly, Saturday ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has nearly closed the deal in Pennsylvania, as anxiety over the economy overcomes lingering concerns about his inexperience and qualms about his race, according to more than three dozen political operatives, pollsters and analysts across the state. A surge in Democratic voter registration is also helping. Some Republicans in the state say privately it is all but impossible for Republican Sen. John McCain to win Pennsylvania. Others are hopeful but nervous. Still many remain optimistic, noting that the race has been marked by wild […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the National Security Agency stepped up its efforts to collect intelligence domestically by filtering millions of phone conversations and e-mail messages. In his new book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 To The Eavesdropping On America, journalist James Bamford reveals that the ultra-secret agency has half a million people on its watch lists. Bamford has been writing about the inner workings of the NSA since his first book, The Shadow Factory: A Report On America’s Most Secret Agency, was published in 1982. He is also the author of Body […]
CAPTURED: The Face Of Murderous Road Rage
INQUIRER: A South Philadelphia man is charged with attempted murder for allegedly critically injuring another driver on the Schuylkill Expressway earlier this month. Christian Squillaciotti, 33, of the 400 block of West Shunk Street, is charged with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and related offenses, Deputy Commissioner Kevin Bethel announced during a morning press conference at Police Headquarters. Squillaciotti, a competitive martial artist and ex-Marine, surrendered about 6 p.m. yesterday while family members consoled him after police alerted him that they were on their way to avoid a potential confrontation. When police searched Squillaciotti’s home yesterday evening, they […]
USSA: This Bank Is Your Bank, This Bank Is My Bank
NEW YORK TIMES: Describing the government’s financial bailout plan as “extensive, powerful and transformative,” Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said on Tuesday that the injection of $250 billion into the nation’s banks was needed to restore confidence and avoid a collapse of the financial system. Speaking shortly after President Bush used similar terms to describe the proposal, Mr. Paulson said the Treasury would make $250 billion available to banks to help recapitalize those banks and to get them lending again, among themselves and to businesses and consumers. “The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take […]
GAYDAR EXTRA: The Horror! The Horror!
“Last House on the Right” is the Dumpsta Players’ Halloween homage to the horrors of the Bush dynasty, currently dying on the West Lawn of the White House like a stinky old fish nobody bothers to throw back in the water. FYI, The Dumpsta Players are a wild trash-glitz drag troupe who flaunt not only their facility for choreographed pandemonium, but their talent for serious, on-edge skits fraught with social commentary and good old fashioned grab-your-pitchfork American outrage. This time out, the cast of misbegotten characters includes: Cuntaleeza Rice, Siouxsie Sioux, Rev. Allawaysus Wright, Dr. Mendrakis, and, my personal favorite, […]