STRANGER THAN FICTION: Two-Headed Baby Worshiped As A God In India A BABY born with two faces is doing well one month on from her birth. Tot Lali was born in a northern Indian village with two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes – but only two ears. Hundreds of pilgrims have visited Lali, worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, and her impoverished parents to touch her feet out of respect and receive blessings. The baby has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini, 25 miles from New Delhi. When she left […]
NO WAY OUT: The Blight At The End Of Tunnel
NEW YORK TIMES: The senior commander of multinational forces in Iraq warned Congress Tuesday against removing “too many troops too quickly” and refused under stiff questioning to offer even an estimate of American force levels by the end of this year. Those comments from Gen. David H. Petraeus were met by sharp criticism from a senior Democrat, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, that the Bush administration had adopted “a war plan with no exit strategy.” General Petraeus said that security progress has been “significant but uneven.” Under questioning, he declined to estimate American troop levels beyond the withdrawal by July […]
NEWS CLUES: ‘All Politics Is Polygamy’ Edition
GUY NOIR: Feds Reveal Details Of Fumo’s Snooping On Political Friends & Foes Prosecutors yesterday filed a 93-page document in federal court identifying more than 2,000 potential exhibits in their prosecution of state Sen. Vince Fumo. Fumo, who announced last month that he would not seek re-election, is set for trial in September. The disclosure of the evidence by prosecutors — ordered by the federal judge presiding over the case — relates to many of the charges against Fumo. Among the more interesting items on the evidence list: A Sept. 22, 2002, fax from Frank Wallace, a private investigator hired […]
CHINESE DEMOCRACY: Just Do It
Boy on his father’s shoulders, Paris, earlier today. [Photo by VESPA RIDING GRANNY] NPR: Police in the French capital said Monday that the last part of the Olympic torch relay in the city had been cancelled after they were forced to douse the symbolic flame several times and carry it in a bus to avoid anti-China protesters. The announcement followed a day in which the police were forced to play a game of cat-and-mouse with protesters in an effort to keep them at bay as the relay took place. Security officials in Paris extinguished the Olympic torch five separate times […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Inanity Of Evil
SALON: Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days: “Yoo and torture” – 102 “Mukasey and 9/11” — 73 “Yoo and Fourth Amendment” — 16 “Obama and bowling” — 1,043 “Obama and Wright” — More than 3,000 (too many to be counted) “Obama and patriotism” — 1,607 “Clinton and Lewinsky” — 1,079 [MORE]
RAW FOOTAGE: Snuffing The Torch Of Tyranny
Or trying to, anyway. This is INSANE. Can’t believe the Chinese government thought this torch thing was gonna work out for them. Touring across the globe, the torch is like the world’s greatest car chase, and it shines a light on Tibet from now to the lighting ceremony. Burn, baby, burn. VIDEO: Olympic torch relay flame attack, Ladbroke Grove, london (2008)
I, POLLSTER: Phawker’s Hilariously Un-Scientific Pennsyltucky Primary Keystoned Cell Phone Poll
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A long time ago, in a Clinton campaign far, far away, James Carville famously declared that Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and Alabama in between. Aw, yeah: Pennsyltucky. We know thee well. It’s sort of like watching the Dukes Of Hazzard after smoking too much kielbasa. Like sweat socks with a Sunday suit. Like the Deer Hunter costumed by Wal-Mart. It’s the long dark Chicken Dance of the national soul. Lord help us all. Anyway, with the national press are already converging on the Keystone state to get some local color on their laptops, we feel an […]
RIP: Moses Charlton Heston Dead At 84
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing “Ben-Hur” and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the ’50s and ’60s, has died. He was 84. Heston spokesman Bill Powers says the actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia was at his side. Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s disease, saying, “I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure.” With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal […]
WORD: Of Chickenhawks & Hi-Tech Lynchings
[“The Negro Soldier” by THOMAS HART BENTON] By Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss April 3, 2008 [via THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE] In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines. In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.) The […]
WORTH REPEATING: McCain Booed At Lorraine Motel
HUFFINGTON POST: Senator John McCain, “who says he will court the African-American vote this year and campaign in places Republicans often shun,” spoke in Memphis on Friday to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.But his speech was met with boos and interruptions from many in the audience, as he apologized for repeatedly opposing the creation of a holiday to celebrate King’s legacy. (The image of a black man holding an umbrella over McCain’s head while he gave the speech didn’t exactly complement the moment.) McCain voted against the creation of a […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Sensible Subway Violence
SUBTERRANEAN JUNGLE: Another Brutal Subway Attack By Gang Of Teens By Tyesha Tazwell’s count, there were a dozen of them — six girls, six boys — hanging around together. One of the girls tried to get Tazwell’s attention by uttering a polite-sounding “Excuse me.” Then they pounced. Tazwell, 24, said it took only a few seconds for the teens to knock her to the ground. They pounded her face with a barrage of kicks and punches, stole her purse and chanted “Watch your mouth! Watch your mouth!” when she finally got to her feet and tried to get help. Police […]
You Can Kill A Man, But You Cannot Kill His Dreams
BBC: To many, 40 years after his death, Martin Luther King has become a sort of secular saint. In 1968, many whites in Tennessee saw things differently. He was a rabble-rouser, an agitator, possibly a Communist. In a society built on open racial divisions, his arrival in Memphis in support of striking black sanitation workers was a source of white anger and resentment. In that very different America, not everyone was saddened by his death. Dr King died of a bullet wound to the throat just after 6pm on 4 April. He had been standing on the balcony of the […]
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Withholds Election Returns, Arrests Foreign Journalists, Raids Opposition Party
[Still from Zimbabwe Countdown directed by MICHAEL RAEBURN] NEW YORK TIMES: Zimbabwe’s government staged separate police raids on Thursday against the main opposition party, foreign journalists and at least one democracy advocate, raising the specter of a broad crackdown aimed at keeping the country’s imperiled leaders in power. With the government facing election results that threaten its 28-year reign, security officers raided the Miekles Hotel in central Harare on Thursday afternoon, searching rooms that the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had rented for election operations, said Tendai Biti, the party’s general secretary. About the same time, a […]