ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS: WASILLA — Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so. According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn’t fully […]
GAYDAR: Livin’ La Dolce Musto
BY AARON STELLA Amidst the revelry of the Mr. Gay Philadelphia pageant, I was able to finagle a future interview out of Michael Musto, famed gay-celeb columnist for the Village Voice in NYC. So a couple of weeks later, I hopped on the Chinatown bus headed for Village Voice’s headquarters in NYC. Musto, dressed in a crisp black and white vertical-striped shirt and baggy black slacks, (and of course, wearing his trademark Sally Jesse Raphaels) explained to me that the Voice was moving. Most everything was packed in boxes and hardly anyone was in the newsroom. We found a quiet […]
WORTH REPEATING: Georgia Ass Fault
THOM FRIEDMAN: On Wednesday, The New York Times on the Web flashed a headline that caught my eye: “U.S. to Unveil $1 Billion Aid Package to Repair Georgia.” Wow, I thought. That’s great: $1 billion to fix Georgia’s roads and schools. But as I read on, I quickly realized that I had the wrong Georgia. We’re going to spend $1 billion to fix the Georgia between Russia and Turkey, not the one between South Carolina and Florida. Sorry, but the thought of us spending $1 billion to repair a country whose president, though a democrat, recklessly provoked a war with […]
10 YEARS AFTER: It’s Google’s World, U Just Search It
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Success was hardly assured for two Stanford University graduate students and their nascent search engine, operated from a couple of cramped dorm rooms and burdened with a goofy name. But their brainchild, Google, incorporated 10 years ago, has blossomed into one of the world’s most valuable businesses — simultaneously sparking fear and admiration in competitors while making information infinitely more accessible to hundreds of millions of people. Few companies have left such an indelible mark in such a relatively short period of time. But can the Mountain View, Calif., online Goliath continue its winning streak for another […]
FOX NEWS: Swiftboating From The Broadcast Booth
[FOX Attacks Obama Like Kerry • FOX ATTACKS • Season 1 – Part 2] Tune in November 4th and see why 2008 won’t be like 1984 2004.
PAPERBOY: What’s Black & White & Dead All Over?
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
RAW FOOTAGE: Beat The Press
[“Peace officers” at work: Police Intimidate Press at RNC & Brutalize Protesters] The violation of the First Amendment will not be televised, for obvious reasons.
RAW FOOTAGE: Armies Of The Night
Stormtroopers unleash thunderous salvo after salvo of tear gas grenades at peaceful protesters at Republican National Convention. Hat tip to GNOOZE for actually doing some journalism at the RNC. The talking head chick completely loses her shit at one point, but then she collects herself and does her job and you are in the moment. And what a sadistic moment it is. Forget Denver, this is Chicago ’68 redux. And then there’s this. I don’t remember seeing this on the news. Did we invade Minnesota?
HOT DOCUMENT: Citizen Mom Gets A Job
Hey folks, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always felt like the year really starts in September. My school days are far behind me, but this time of year always feels like the beginning of something. To that end, I want to let you know about my new venture, a column for the Philadelphia City Paper. It debuts with the Sept. 4 issue (that’s Thursday, for any of you suffering Monday-holiday discombobulation) so please pick up a copy or look for it on www.citypaper.net . The plan is for the column to run weekly, and not many subjects will […]
FREE THE PRESS: Democracy Now! Host Amy Goodman Arrested By Stormtroopers At RNC
WHITE RIOT: Battle-ready Minneapolis Police jealously guard toy store. [Photo via NEWSHOUR] ST. PAUL, MN — Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen [below]. Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfully detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s […]
BIG TENT: The Knocked Up Teens Of Pro-Life Mothers
REUTERS: The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child. Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin’s five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said. […]
MEOW MIX: You’ve Come A Long Way, Maybe
Why did John McCain choose Alaska’s Sarah Palin, the Hottest Governor In America (a title she’ll only hold until Gavin Newsom wins California, but whatever) as his pick for vice-president? And come to think of it, given the two had only reportedly met once before she was tapped, is the former beauty queen even really his pick or just a Hillary Lite spokesmodel for social conservatives?…DEVELOPING… People don’t know anything about her, so the first words thrown out about her by right-wing pundits, “a maverick in Alaska,” threaten to stick. Look for a lot of talk in Minneapolis about where […]
THE DARK SIDE: Comcast Killed The Internet Star
GIGAOM: Karl Bode over on DSL Reports reports that Comcast will institute a 250 GB cap on its broadband connections starting Oct. 1. Expect other carriers to follow suit and make tiered broadband a reality. Much as I would like to think otherwise, this is the end of the Internet as we know it. The caps are a move to ensure that the gouging scheme put in place by Comcast and other cable providers stays intact and they can continue to sell their video-on-demand services. It was a point I made when I wrote, Why Tiered Broadband Is The Enemy […]