INQUIRER: What a whirlwind ride for Janelle Stangl. The topper is today, when the September issue of Maxim — the one with tennis’ Anna Kournikova on the cover — officially hits newsstands, and inside, there’s Stangl, touted as one of the NFL’s four “most gorgeous” cheerleaders. Not bad for an Eagles rookie. Less than four months ago, Stangl, 21, who hails from Bethlehem, Pa., was a junior studying dance at the University of Arts. Then she got picked to join the Eagles cheerleading squad…. Last week during practice, Stangl was surprised by who was texting — her mom. She’d found […]
FIRE IN THE HOLE: You Sunk My Swiftboat!
BOOK ‘EM, OBAMO: Obama plunges into a murky sea of lies to fight Swiftboat assholes with disinfecting sunshine and reality-based facts. [Not pictured, knife clenched between teeth and can of whup-ass in back pocket] HUFFINGTON POST: As promised, Barack Obama’s campaign is hitting back hard against smear author Jerome Corsi’s New York Times best-selling book The Obama Nation. In an exhaustive 41-page PDF document entitled Unfit for Publication — a riff on Corsi’s 2004 Unfit for Command, which targeted John Kerry — the campaign documents every false claim they have been able to find in Corsi’s current tome. MORE FIGHT […]
LYING LIARS: Fox News Is LYING To America
[Brave New Films: When It Comes to Obama, The FOX is WRONG! • FOX ATTACKS • Season 1 – Ep.6] Really, it’s astonishing any of these people draw a paycheck from broadcasting. How do they sleep at night? Jesus Christ on a crutch, has the bar really been set this low?
BLUE HAWAII: What, Me Worry?
BLOOMBERG NEWS: The U.S. presidential race is a tossup as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has lost what was once an eight-point lead over Republican rival John McCain, according to a new poll. The Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said today that Obama now leads McCain 46 percent to 43 percent among registered voters, down from June when the Illinois senator enjoyed a 48 to 40 advantage. His lead narrowed to five points in July, the survey said. MORE WASHINGTON POST: An analysis of political contributions from soldiers on the battlefield has produced some unexpected […]
Most U.S. Corporations Pay Zero Federal Income Tax
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress. The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period. Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO’s estimate. MORE *** GOOGLE STREETVIEW CAPTURES DRUNK MAN PASSED OUT ON MOM’S LAWN [via GIZMODO/Hat tip to S. DANTZER]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Hostile womanizer, award-winning editor, crack addict, bad parent, coke dealer, New York Times columnist — David Carr has been all of those, sometimes simultaneously. But he doesn’t know all the details — or isn’t sure, after years of telling and retelling colorful anecdotes about himself, that he remembers them right. So for his memoir The Night of the Gun, Carr put on his investigative-reporter hat to reconstruct his various sordid lives. He interviewed friends, ex-friends, family members and colleagues, all in the effort to document the man he has been, rather than the myth he’s in the habit […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
LET THE GAMES BEGIN: Chinatown Celebrates The Olympic Opening Ceremonies + Making Time, Last Night [Photos by TIFFANY YOON] XINHUANET: PHILADELPHIA, the United States, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Chinatown in Philadelphia, Pa., turned into a sea of jubilance Friday night as thousands of local Chinese Americans and citizens gathered here to celebrate the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics over 10,000 km away.The event, named “evening of champions,” would “celebrate the spirit of Olympiad, capture the excitement of the Olympic Games and help to showcase the Chinese tradition and culture,” said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who also wished both Chinese […]
DEATH OF PRINT: Inky Web Memo Is ‘Ritual Suicide’
THE INQUISITIR: The decision [to embargo content from the web until it runs in print] rests on two major presumptions that fail miserably. The first is that there is a scarcity of competition therefore people who want the news will have no choice but to buy the paper. Secondly, that anything they write of substance is worthy of buying the print edition to read it first when it will either end up on their website, or will be reported on other websites. Neither hold true. There may be only one major competitor in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Daily News) but both papers […]
MEDIA: Inky Puts Brakes On The Internets
BUZZ MACHINE: What the hell are they thinking in Philadelphia? Inquirer ME Mike Leary just sent a memo saying they are going to hold all but breaking news for the paper and even restrict bloggers from using their blogs to work on stories in progress. Let me make this very clear to Inquirer ownership and management: You are killing the paper. You might as well just burn the place down. You’re setting a match to it. This is insane. Even the slowest, most curmudgeonly, most backward in your dying, suffering industry would not be this stupid anymore. They know that […]
RESURRECTION: The Second Life Of No Depression
Plans for a major overhaul of NoDepression.com — the website of the former bimonthly alternative/roots-music magazine No Depression — are well under way this summer, with the new site set to be launched in late September. NoDepression.com, which will be edited by the magazine’s founding co-editor Peter Blackstock, will include regular blogs by many of the magazine’s most frequent contributors, including Blackstock and fellow founding co-editor Grant Alden. The new site will also include record reviews and live reviews, features on emerging artists, news updates, the current website’s popular upcoming-releases list, reader-participant discussion forums — and, perhaps most significantly, a […]
THE DEATH OF PRINT: Why Pigs Can’t Fly
PHILLY MAG: According to a report released today by Standard & Poor’s, the owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News has received a forbearance agreement from its creditors that will run through September 10th. Philadelphia Media Holdings, the investor group put together by publisher Brian P. Tierney to acquire the papers and philly.com in 2006, will face a serious financial penalty — interest on its debt will climb a full percentage point — in exchange for being allowed to skip payments during that period. PMH has also offered to surrender $15 million from its revolving line of credit, reducing […]
OVERHEARD: Sucking In The 70s
[From today’s edition of Fresh Air] TERRY GROSS: I happen to know you play bassoon. RAINN WILSON: Yeah, I do. TERRY GROSS: Which is great, it’s a great instrument, a lot of people don’t even know what it sounds like. RAINN WILSON: Sounds a little like this [makes bassoon sound]….I think. TERRY GROSS: It’s a hard instrument to play. RAINN WILSON: It’s very hard, it’s a double reed. It’s also a ‘girl repellent.’ TERRY GROSS: [laughs uproariously] RAINN WILSON: So all you aspiring bassoonists out there, thrown down the bassoon and pick up the electric guitar. TERRY GROSS: You have […]
GOD, GAYS & GUNFIRE: Knoxville Church Shooter Was The Quintessential Karl Rove Wedge Issue ‘Values Voter’
ASSOCIATED PRESS: KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday. A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson’s small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, “he hated the liberal movement” and was upset with “liberals in general as well as gays.” Adkisson, a 58-year-old truck driver on the verge of losing his food stamps, had […]