INQUIRER: Ashley Dupre, arguably the world’s most famous call girl, is being sued by a North Jersey woman who claims Dupre stole her identity. Dupre’s sexual liasons with Gov. Eliot Spitzer were made public in March and brought down the powerful New York lawmaker. After the scandal broke, the producers of the Girls Gone Wild videos scoured their vaults, found explicit footage of Dupre, and released the film. In the widely distributed video, Dupre identifies herself as “Amber Arpaio.” The camera zooms in on a New Jersey drivers license with Arpaio’s name and picture on it. Arpaio, 26, who works […]
POLL: Tale Of Two Americas
NEW YORK TIMES/CBS NEWS POLL: After years of growing political polarization, much of the divide in American politics is partisan. But Americans’ perceptions of the fall presidential election between Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, also underlined the racial discord that the poll found. More than 80 percent of black voters said they had a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama; about 30 percent of white voters said they had a favorable opinion of him. Nearly 60 percent of black respondents said race relations were generally bad, compared with 34 percent of whites. Four in […]
ONLY IN THE TOWN WHERE THEY BOOED SANTA CLAUS: Jeering Protesters Brand Dalai Lama A ‘Liar’
COMMUNIST PARTY STOOGES?: Protesters at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Sunday THE POPULIST: The Dalai Lama is in town today, and appeared at the Kimmel Center during the lunch hour. Instead of an oasis of calm and spiritual awakening, the pavement outside was the scene of rage and tears. Vocal protesters, cordoned off by the police to the south of the Center, held placards reading “the Dalai Lama is lying.” One man held a bullhorn and led the group of 40 in jeers. The group consisted mostly of Caucasians, including women with short-cropped hair dressed in saffron-and-crimson monk-like garb, Chinese and Chinese-Americans. […]
WHY WE FIGHT: Chinese Democracy
[Photo via DAILY MAIL] REUTERS: Construction over the next two decades will be unprecedented as the number of city dwellers rises by over 350 million — more than the U.S. population — to 926 million in 2025 from 572 million in 2005. By 2025, China will have 221 cities with more than 1 million people, compared with 35 in Europe today. China will need to build between 20,000 and 50,000 new skyscrapers — the equivalent of up to 10 New York Cities. TED KOPPEL: China’s streets have gone from being jammed with bicycles to being jammed with cars. The nation […]
WELDONGATE: Feds Charge Curt Cohort With Destruction Of Evidence As The Noose Tightens
INQUIRER: In a statement, Grimes’ attorneys said she was “extremely remorseful,” but defended her lobbying work. “Any suggestion that Ms. Grimes engaged in any inappropriate, illegal or improper conduct with regard to her role as a lobbyist is incorrect and unfounded,” the statement said. Her lawyer, Richard L. Scheff of Philadelphia, declined further comment. Two FBI agents interviewed Grimes at her home in October 2006 and asked her about how she got into lobbying and her contacts with Weldon, according to the criminal information filed in Washington yesterday. At the end of the interview, they gave her subpoenas seeking records […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The war on terrorism has had devastating social and political costs, and it is the United States government — not foreign enemies — that has caused much of the damage, says investigative journalist Jane Mayer. Mayer’s new book is The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. In it, The New Yorker writer contends that the policy implemented after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks promoted an agenda that sought to increase presidential power. Further, many of the Bush administration’s strategy decisions violated the Constitution and impeded the […]
GRIM RUMBLINGS: Is Wachovia Next?
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The situation is increasingly bleak for Wachovia Corp. and the bank’s mortgage portfolio will continue to lose value, “seriously jeopardizing” the company’s ability to generate earnings, an influential analyst warned on Tuesday. The latest note of caution came as the government moved to reassure people their money is safe in the nation’s banks. Yet fears about the system persisted and financial shares were broadly lower Tuesday, signaling another tough day for the stock market. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to brief Congress Tuesday on the economy, which has been walloped by high energy prices and fallout […]
MEDIA: The New Yorker’s Terrorist Fist Jab
HUFFINGTON POST: [Yesterday], the New Yorker released its cover for the July 21, 2008 issue — and the reaction was swift and furious. The cover by Barry Blitt, called “The Politics of Fear,” shows Michelle and Barack Obama depicted as the worst of the prejudiced, smearing characterizations that have dogged them over the course of the campaign: Michelle Obama as a revolutionary in military fatigues, packing AK-47 and ammo; her husband dressed like the Muslim he is stubbornly accused of being. Both of them stand in the Oval Office, with a portrait of Osama bin Laden behind them over a […]
HELLO DALAI: Tibetan Spirtual Leader Comes To Town
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) — The Dalai Lama said Sunday that “it’s totally wrong, unfair” to call Islam a violent religion. The Tibetan spiritual leader, appearing at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, offered a defense of Islam in response to a question about the rise of violent religious fundamentalism. He added that he has made a point of reaching out to Muslims since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Dalai Lama arrived at Lehigh on Thursday for a series of talks on a 600-year-old Buddhist text. He took a break Sunday to lecture on “Generating a Good Heart,” and afterward took […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Zooey Deschanel has always been an anachronistic sort of gal. At age 8, when she wrote her first song, she was “really into the early 1900s.” “I think it was called ‘I’m Having Fun at the Fair,’” she tells NPR’s Alex Cohen, her big blue eyes peering out beneath bangs that have inspired fashion columns. “Did it have words?” asks the other half of She & Him. M. (short for Matt) Ward is sitting next to her at the Vista theater in Hollywood, where they’ll perform that night. “Yeah, it was very ‘Meet Me in St. Louis,’” she […]
PANIC: Fed Mulls Takeover To Avoid Meltdown
NEW YORK TIMES: Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered mortgage finance companies, plummeted again on Friday as the Bush administration sought to allay market fears. Following a report that the administration was considering a plan to take over one or both of the companies and place them in a conservatorship if their problems grow, Fannie Mae stock was down 25 percent in midday trading compared with Thursday’s closing price; Freddie Mac stock was down 21 percent. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been hit hard by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Their shares are plummeting and their borrowing […]
LESSNESS: The Plummeting Value Of American Life
ASSOCIATED PRESS: It’s not just the American dollar that’s losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn’t worth what it used to be. The “value of a statistical life” is $6.9 million in today’s dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May — a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago. The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years. Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences. When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on […]
This Is Why We Love Al Franken
RELATED: A 2005 study by Public Citizen found that 43% of Senators and Representatives who left office since 1998 went on to become lobbyists. [via CROOKS AND LIARS]