[CLICK TO ENLARGE] NEW YORK TIMES: After months of wrangling, Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress struck a deal on Thursday to overhaul the rules on the government’s wiretapping powers and provide what amounts to legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants after the Sept. 11 attacks. The deal, expanding the government’s powers to spy on terrorism suspects in some major respects, would strengthen the ability of intelligence officials to eavesdrop on foreign targets. It would also allow them to conduct emergency wiretaps without court orders on American targets for […]
BE VERY AFRAID: John McCain Creeps Out SNL
Not since Eric Roberts in Star 80 have we been this creeped-the-fuck-out by an actor’s performance. John McCain is either an INCREDIBLE thespian or the man has a very, very dark side. From 2002. You be the judge.
BY POPULAR DEMAND: Men Who Wear Speedos
via SCRAPPLE TV RELATED: WTF Is Darren Finizio?
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
WHYY, the leading public broadcasting station in the greater Philadelphia region, presents It’s Our City, a new multi-platform civic engagement project produced by the station’s award-winning News & Information Service. The project will officially launch at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 20 with a LIVE 60-minute TV special with Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and host Dave Davies, senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Showcasing WHYY’s broadcast capabilities, this interview will be simulcast on WHYY TV12, WHYY’s primary digital channel 12.1 (Comcast Channel 240, FiOS Channel 812), on WHYY 91FM, and the It’s Our City Web site (www.whyy.org/city), which will also launch […]
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Big Oil Wins
NEW YORK TIMES: BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, […]
MEOW MIX: Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner!
Last night’s Anderson Cooper 360 featured a lively, if baffling, panel discussion about what Michelle Obama’s racial identity is going to mean to her husband’s supposedly post-partisan, post-racial politics presidential run. At one point, Cooper asked his guest whether discussion is needed of the fact that while Barack’s multi-racial identity has been one of the campaign’s most important cultural signifiers, “her racial identity is less mutable”? Translation: He may be the Tiger Woods of politics but she’s a black woman from Chicago, straight up. Since DoubleSecretThesis-gate didn’t exactly catch fire, do we need to instead debate the cultural implications of […]
I, SWINGER: Obama Now Leads In 3 Key Swing States
QUINNIPIAC POLL: With strong support from women, blacks and younger voters, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the apparent Democratic presidential contender, leads Arizona Sen. John McCain, expected to be the Republican candidate, among likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to simultaneous Quinnipiac University Swing State polls released today. This is the first time Sen. Obama has led in all three states. No one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the Electoral College. Results from the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University polls show: * Florida: Obama edges McCain 47 – 43 […]
REPORT: ‘There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes.’
After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account. —Maj. General Antonio M. Taguba (USA-Ret.), preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives REPORT: Broken Laws, Broken Lives shows the human consequences of harsh and unlawful US interrogation practices. This landmark report reveals the excruciating pain and continued suffering of men who, never charged with any crime, endured torture at US detention facilities […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR While his nicknames may be ever-changing, Sean Combs himself is immediately recognizable as one of the richest and most influential people in hip-hop. In the past few years, the rapper-turned-mogul has found two new projects to juggle in addition to producing records, designing clothing and managing restaurants: acting on Broadway and rocking the vote with his “Vote or Die” campaign. Combs starred in the stage revival of A Raisin in the Sun in 2004. A television adaptation was released on DVD in May.Combs talks to Terry Gross about his almost obsessive rehearsal process for that show, about losing […]
BREAKING: Gore Set To Endorse Obama
Dear Jonathan, A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States. Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges — including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America. This moment and this election are too important […]
FATHER’S DAY: Barack Obama Saved Quincy, Illinois
What’d you do? John McCain made his priorities clear, making kissy-face with the Foreign Minister of Iraq and stressing the necessity of a 100-year lease on American military bases in Iraq while Obama filled sandbags to help save an American city.
THE AMERICAN GULAG: McClatchy Publishes Hard-Hitting Overview Of Gitmo, Who’s There, How They Got There, And Why Most Shouldn’t Be
BY TOM LASSETER OF MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens and perhaps hundreds of men whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments. McClatchy interviewed 66 released detainees along with a number of local officials, primarily in Afghanistan, and reviewed available U.S. military tribunal documents and other records. Most of the 66 were low-level Taliban grunts, innocent Afghan villagers or ordinary criminals, the McClatchy investigation found. At least seven […]