BY PATRICK KERKSTRA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER When it comes to ruthless efficiency in local government, the Philadelphia Parking Authority would seem peerless. With an army of blue-uniformed parking enforcers blanketing Philadelphia each day, the agency has become one of the nation’s most aggressive towing, booting and ticket-writing juggernauts since state Republicans took control of it in 2001. The authority slaps nearly 1.6 million violation notices on the windshields of Philadelphia drivers annually, a 35 percent increase over 2001. Nearly 50,000 vehicles are towed, more than double the old figure. Meters require more feeding, the hourly rate at authority garages is […]
SIGN OF THE TIMES: Rain On The Scarecrow
PENNSYLTUCKY: Target Bin Laden, Strohl Valley, PA, Pop. 34, Sunday 3:47 PM [Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA]
INSTA-REVIEW: I’m Not There Soundtrack
NOW PLAYING: ON PHAWKER RADIO! BY ED KING ROCK SNOB You all know more about this I’m Not There pseudo-bio-flick that Todd Haynes, I believe, has had in the works for a number of years. Buskirk knows everything there is to know about this film, I’d bet. I’ve been looking forward to it. I love Dylan, I love many of Haynes’ films, and I like the concept of having various actors play Dylan at various points in his life: Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Tom Arnold, Charles Grodin…So Phawker drops this soundtrack album on us, and what’s a poor boy to […]
WORTH REPEATING: Triumph Of The Will
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Still from Triumph Of The Will directed by Leni Riefenstahl HERMAN GOERING*: Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. INTERVIEWER: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their […]
WORTH REPEATING: We Have Nothing To Fear But…
“They have to come up with super-human powers for Al Qaeda because they want to use Al Qaeda to justify a super-extreme agenda for the United States of America. If you really, really want to radically transform our government and radically transform who we are as a country; if you want East German style policing, and people informing on their neighbors, and you want to get rid of the Fourth Amendment, and you want endless wars conducted for profit; if you want to completely get rid of the safety net function and the regulatory function of the government; if you […]
HOT DOC: How To Restore The Fourth Amendment
Tell Harry Reid: No Immunity for Lawbreaking Companies The Senate is considering a bill that would grant immunity to any telecom company that assisted in the administration’s illegal wiretapping. Chris Dodd promised to put a hold on any such bill, and Joe Biden and Barack Obama pledged to uphold it. We believe that any bill coming before the Senate that includes provisions for so-called ‘amnesty’ for large companies involved in illegally spying on Americans should be opposed, and have authored a letter to this effect addressed to Majority Leader Reid. You can co-sign it below. The letter will also be […]
GAMBLOR: Sugarhouse Suing Its Way Into City’s Heart
INQUIRER: In suing the administration and City Council, SugarHouse joined the city’s other planned casino, Foxwoods, in forsaking the political process for the courts. Foxwoods Casino has also asked the Supreme Court to require the city to approve its project. (Virtually all issues connected with the licensing, planning and zoning of the state’s nascent slots industry go directly to the highest court, by law.) The lawsuit’s intent: “to force these guys to do what they’re legally obligated to do,” said SugarHouse’s lawyer, Stephen Cozen. Cozen was joined by labor leaders who urged the city to build the casinos now. Critics […]
EARLY WORD: The Mystery Tramp
REMINDER: I’m Not There Soundtrack Now Playing On Phawker Radio!
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
LARRY CRAIG’S BACKDOOR: Wonkette Friend Recalls Sneakin’ In With The Senator It was late in the Spring of 1987, and Phillips was a graduate student at George Mason University. “One of my favorite hangouts was The Follies,” Phillips explains, referring to the notorious and now-closed go-go boy bar La Cage aux Follies on Capitol Hill. “There were so many closeted neocons who trolled for cock and ass there, particularly cock and ass on younger men: Terry Dolan, Jon Hinson, and a bunch of other men who seemed to run in a close and secretive group. I had sex with some […]
OiNK TAKEDOWN: The Shit Hits The Fans
SHERIFF’S SALE: OiNK, a massive P2P file-sharing site with a reported membership of 180,000, was shutdown by Interpol on Tuesday. This ominous placeholder now greets visitors. Closed internet communities known as “ripping groups” often get demos, early mixes of commercial releases and promotional copies of pre-release albums in advance of release with a view to distributing the music as widely and as far ahead of release as possible. Each ripping group gains cachet amongst its peers for being the first to get new music and uses torrent sites to distribute the music as widely as possible. OiNK operated an exclusive […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea, veteran journalist Steve LeVine writes about the high-stakes political gamesmanship over control of the rich oil resources in that region. Caspian deposits “earned an early, almost mythic reputation,” he reports. “Marco Polo’s was perhaps the first written account. He reported a gusher that in a single hour produced ‘a quantity of oil sufficient to load up one hundred vessels.’” In modern times, the region’s rich petroleum reserves have been the object of schemes involving generations of Western industrialists, the governments of emerging […]