NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR “Bush’s War,” a two-part special from the PBS series Frontline, investigates the lead up to — and the justification for — war in Iraq. Journalist and Frontline producer Michael Kirk joins Fresh Air to discuss the program. “Parts of this history have been told before,” Kirk says on the series Web site. “But no one has laid out the entire narrative to reveal in one epic story the scope and detail of how this war began and how it has been fought, both on the ground and deep inside the government.” Kirk has produced over 200 national TV […]

HEAR YE: The Raconteurs Consolers Of The Lonely

Now playing on Phawker Radio! Why? Because we love you! BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT So The Raconteurs are back with a second album. Who woulda thought The Raconteurs would turn out to be a real band and not just a Jack White side project wank-off one-off? Not me, buddy boy. Not me. I tip my tricorn hat to the Raconteurs for kicking it old school, turning this thing around so quickly and releasing it without all the pomp and circumstance that usually precedes White Stripes release. But I just wish this album didn’t suck so bad. To wit: “Consoler […]

What’s Good For The Silly Gooses Of Wall Street Is Good For The Soon-To-Be Foreclosed Ganders Of Main St.

Hillary Clinton delivers economic policy address this morning at Penn [NICK POWELL] BY NICK POWELL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Flanked by a Pennsylvania Dream Team of Governor Ed Rendell, Mayor Michael Nutter, and Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, Senator Hillary Clinton attacked the Bush administration, spared Barack Obama, and outlined her new four-point plan to save the country’s reeling economy this morning at the University of Pennsylvania. Clinton began today’s press conference by praising both Rendell and Nutter for their “visionary leadership” and for their efforts to fix “an issue critical not only for Pennsylvania but for our country.” Clinton also made a brief […]

CINEMA: Show Trial In The Kangaroo Courthouse

THE CHICAGO 10 (2007, directed by Brett Morgen, 110 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC In 1980, radical activist Abbie Hoffman titled his autobiography “Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture.” Poor Abbie, his revolution never arrived and when he committed suicide in 1989, his Hollywood biopic was nowhere in sight. Robert Greenwald took a well-meaning yet flat-footed stab in 2000 with Steal This Movie (it’s hard to imagine that the hulking Vincent D’Onofrio was anyone’s idea of Abbie Hoffman), and now documentarian Brett (The Kid Stays In The Picture) Morgen tells the story of the 1968 Democratic National […]

DEADLINE: Register Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace

How to register Monday is the last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania’s April 22 primary. Only voters registered with a party can vote in that party’s primary. Individuals may register at a county voter registration office or at other designated sites.For information, call 1-877-868-3772 or go to www.votespa.com. The site, from the Pennsylvania Department of State, includes a registration form for downloading. [via the PHILLY.COM]

KILLADELPHIA: 6 Shot, 4 Dead In Easter Massacre

DAILY NEWS: Easter weekend in the city was nothing to celebrate. Four men were shot to death and two others were riddled with bullets but somehow managed to survive. The latest murder victim was a 22-year-old man shot multiple times on 11th Street near Diamond, North Philadelphia, at about 6 p.m. yesterday. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital. A 24-year-old man was shot to death shortly after 2:30 a.m. yesterday in the Phuong Phanh Coffee Shop, a Vietnamese restaurant on 5th Street near Duncannon Avenue in Logan, police said. He was killed with a single gunshot inside the […]

HEIL HANNITY: Fox News Pitbull Tied To Neo-Nazis

HUFFINGTON POST: The folks over at NewsHounds have been watching their Fox News Channel quarry dither over Senator Barack Obama’s associations with pastor Jeremiah Wright, and noted Fox’s own Sean Hannity getting himself tripped up in the guilt-by-association tango. Seems that one of Hannity’s close chums is a neo-Nazi named Hal Turner who used to be a radio host, is apparently the top man in Bergen, NJ white-supremacist circles, and probably spends a lot of his time in his basement with Star Wars action figures acting out Holocaust-denier versions of The Return of the Jedi. In short, just the sort […]

WORTH REPEATING: Iraq On $5,000 A Second

NICHOLAS KRISTOF: The improvement is real but fragile and limited. Here’s what it amounts to: We’ve cut our casualty rates to the unacceptable levels that plagued us back in 2005, and we still don’t have any exit plan for years to come — all for a bill that is accumulating at the rate of almost $5,000 every second! Granted, the cost estimates are squishy and controversial, partly because the $12.5 billion a month that we’re now paying for Iraq is only a down payment. We’ll still be making disability payments to Iraq war veterans 50 years from now. Professor Stiglitz […]

DIGITAL DIVIDE: Municipal Wireless A Bridge Too Far

NEW YORK TIMES: It was hailed as Internet for the masses when Philadelphia officials announced plans in 2005 to erect the largest municipal Wi-Fi grid in the country, stretching wireless access over 135 square miles with the hope of bringing free or low-cost service to all residents, especially the poor. Municipal officials in Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and 10 other major cities, as well as dozens of smaller towns, quickly said they would match Philadelphia’s plans. But the excited momentum has sputtered to a standstill, tripped up by unrealistic ambitions and technological glitches. The conclusion that such ventures would not […]