From THINK PROGRESS: Sen. Whitehouse Reveals Secret DoJ Legal Memos: Bush Determines What Is Constitutional [Friday] morning, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered an impassioned floor speech to help frame the debate over FISA reform. Using his privilege as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Whitehouse said he has “spent hours poring over” secret opinions issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) — and he took notes. Whitehouse is a lawyer, a former U.S. Attorney, a former legal counsel to Rhode Island’s Governor, and a former State Attorney General. He said he sought and received permission […]
HOT DOCUMENT: I Heart(less) Huckabee
In 1992, Mike Huckabee ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. During the campaign, the Associated Press submitted a detailed questionnaire to candidate Huckabee. The following are his responses to questions about AIDS treatment and research: “It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents.” When […]
THIS JUST IN: Stockhausen Is Dead
He was number 5. WIKIPEDIA: Who was Karlheinz Stockhausen?
TAO OF MITT: Boxers, Briefs & Magic Underpants
[“Plural Marriage?” by JESSICA HAGY for McClatchy Newspapers] So Mitt — while you’re all in a sharing mood, which is it? Boxers, briefs, or Magic Mormon Underpants? Yes, it’s Mormon week out there in primary land, and on Thursday, Romney took The Pledge, declaring Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior and saying that freedom and religion can be, like, friends with benefits but can’t actually be a couple-couple … or something like that. Actually, what he said was that while the government can’t, and he wouldn’t, pre- or proscribe a specific denomination, everybody should get religion. The quote was that […]
BREAKING: Police Shootout At Allentown Mall
It is with a curious mixture of pride and sarcasm that we report to you that our ancestral home — Allentown, PA — has just earned the dubious distinction of being the latest holiday shopping shoot-em-up story in the wake of Omaha. Admittedly, this is nothing to brag about but as This Is Your Mall On Guns stories go, it sure beat this and is WAY better than this. Likewise, we must give props to our old alma mater — the Allentown Morning Call — for being on top of shit and nailing this on all fronts: Over at the […]
THIS JUST IN: Wilco At The Tower
February 23rd, tix go on sale December 15th.
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR During the famously chaotic filming of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, another director was at work on the set: Documentary director Eleanor Coppola, the auteur’s wife. Her footage, along with cast and crew interviews shot a decade later, became the celebrated documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, which premiered on the Showtime cable channel in 1991. The documentary, which takes its title from the Joseph Conrad novel that inspired Apocalypse Now, has been described as a revealing insider look at how stressful moviemaking can be, as well as a deeply personal chronicle of one director’s battles with […]
MEET THE PHAWKERS: Like A Party In Your Pants!
And everyone is invited! BiG TeA PaRtY FUNDRAISER; PARTY; MOVIE NIGHT! Saturday Dec. 8th, 7-10 pm at Molly’s Bookstore 1010 S. 9th St., in the heart of the Italian Market $3 donation to get in; $5 raffle tix Watch the VERY first BiG TeA PaRtY episode and see our favorites. Party, Schmooze, Have Fun!
RECONSIDER THIS: My So-Called Life
BY EVA LIAO Here’s one for the kids of my generation, the kids who grew up stuck between the loud, crude fads of the ’80s and the comparably apathetic, bereaved children of today. Here’s to the victims of a less dramatic, and all-the-more innocent decade known as the ’90s. Last month the DVD series of My So-Called Life was released to the elation of the pathetically nostalgic, such as myself. It’s been 13 years since the show last aired on ABC, running only one season. The series came to an unexpected halt once lead actress Claire Danes, who was only […]
REALITY CHECK: On CP’s Baby ‘Mama Drama’ Story
BY JEFF DEENEY Doron Taussig’s City Paper article “Mama Drama” details the backlash from one grassroots women’s coalition against the escalation of foster care placements by the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. The escalation comes in the wake of scathing news probes into an alarming number of child deaths taking place under DHA’s watch. It’s a touchy subject that draws strong reactions from all sides: DHS feels like they have stepped up to the plate, doing what was absolutely necessary to stamp out a crisis. Conversely, any mother, no matter how incapable of adequately caring for a child she may […]
THE LINCOLN BITE: Curing Hunger With Just $5
BY COLLEEN REESE One of the pains of living in Philadelphia is gormandizing on entirely too much stuff. We snag our egg-and-cheese sandwiches off greasy trucks and never for a second wonder what’s truly in them — the egg-and-cheese that is, not the trucks. The guy at the deli knows your name and the names of your best friends and cousins, but we never really sit down and just breathe with them. So when I walked into joe Coffee Bar and it tugged gently at me to sit down for a little stolen moment, I was almost hesitant. I was […]
MONEY SHOT: Amy Winehouse Gobs Paparazzi
EDITOR’S NOTE: This may be the greatest celeb candid ever taken. It actually captures the loogie in mid-flight! Shades of Johnny Cash’s immortal middle finger! Seriously, give that guy a Pulitzer. And if anyone has earned the right to spit in the camera’s eye, it’s Miss Beehive 1965. God save Amy Winehouse. Please, God, we don’t ask for much. RELATED: The troubled singer Amy Winehouse finally has something to look forward to after receiving six Grammy nominations this afternoon. Winehouse, who has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately, received the second-highest number of nominations for the […]