Mayor-elect Michael Nutter today named former Washington police chief Charles H. Ramsey as his pick for police commissioner, citing Ramsey’s “presence, record and passion” as key assets that he said will “turn the city around and bring about a new day in Philadelphia.” With nearly four decades of police experience, Ramsey comes to Philadelphia about a year after stepping down as the Washington police chief, a position he held from 1998 through 2006. Nutter made the much-anticipated announcement at the YMCA at 51st Street and Chestnut Street, one of the city’s most violent neighborhoods. Ramsey, who left as the top […]
HECKUVA JOB, COOKIE: The Brother Of The Guy Whose Job It Is To Investigate Blackwater Sits On The Board Of Advisors For…wait for it…Blackwater!
Earlier today CROOKS & LIARS posted video from a House hearing dealing with allegations that State Department Inspector General Howard “Cookie” Krongard impeded investigations into corruption in Iraq. During the hearing, Krongard repeatedly denied rumors that his brother, Buzzy Krongard was on Blackwater’s advisory board — but on tonight’s Countdown we learned that lo and behold, after returning from a break in testimony, Krongard informed the Committee that he had just spoken with his brother and that he did, in fact, sit on Blackwater’s board and that he was recusing himself from any further matters dealing with the mercenary contractor. […]
GAMBLOR: 18 Busted In Borgata For, Um, Gambling
TRENTON, N.J. — An illegal sports gambling ring run out of a high-stakes poker room in an Atlantic City casino was busted Wednesday and 18 people were arrested, including four with mob ties, a law enforcement official said. The four — affiliated with the Philadelphia mob — appeared to be the ringleaders, with six employees of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa also among those arrested, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the case.Five more people were being sought Wednesday. Borgata spokesman Rob Stillwell said the casino did nothing […]
WORTH REPEATING: Crime & Punishment
“It costs $32,000 to keep somebody in jail, I am prepared to spend $10,000 to give him a job [when he gets out].” — Mayor-elect Michael Nutter on his plan to lower Philadelphia’s 76% recidivism rate, which includes a $10,000 tax credit to any city employer that will hire an ex-con [Hat tip to MalcolmXPark]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
FBI SEZ: Blackwater Guards Massacred 14 Unarmed Iraqi Civilians WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case. The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department. Prosecutors have yet to […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
SHINING PATH: How Richard Gere Got His Buddha On As Richard Gere tells it, it was in 1978 that he literally and figuratively found his humanitarian path. “After [the film festival at] Cannes I went to India and Nepal,” he recalls. “It was outside of Pokhara, at the edge of the Himalayas, I took a walk through a village. There were no vehicles. I saw a hand-lettered sign that said, ‘Tibetan refugees.’ I walked up the path and it was otherworldly — it had a Brigadoon or Lost Horizons quality. Their minds and hearts were different from anything else I […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
Florida Gets Medieval On Ass Of GOP Legislator Caught In Potty Sex Sting Florida State Rep. Bob Allen’s troubles may only get worse. Seconds after he was convicted Friday of soliciting a sex act in a park bathroom, legislative leaders were discussing how to remove him from office. The lawmaker is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for the second-degree misdemeanor charge and could face a maximum 60 days in the county jail and a $500 fine. Prosecutors said after the verdict was announced that they intend to seek jail time. Because of the nature of the crime, prosecutors said, Allen […]
IMAGINE: What $611 Billion Could Buy, Besides Bullets
BOSTON GLOBE: If the Bush administration succeeds in its latest request for funding for the war in Iraq, the total cost would rise to $611.5 billion, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group. The amount got us wondering: What would $611 billion buy? 18 MONTHS OF FREE GAS FOR ALL U.S. drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days. * CONVERT ALL THE CARS IN AMERICA TO ETHANOL […]
SPECIAL REPORT: Ron Paul Drops Peace Bomb
And nobody got hurt.
TRUE OR FALSE: Ron Paul Is Our Kind Of Democrat?
[Photo by VIC SUEDE] FROM THE EDITOR: It is indeed a sad day when you have to go knock on the GOP’s door and ask to borrow one of their guys because ‘Hey, he’s our kind of Democrat.’ But alas that day has come…HOLD THE PHONE…what about THIS? Hmmm. Let us get this straight, Dr. Paul: you lent your name to an unnamed foundation and somebody there wrote that ham-fistedly bigoted Archie Bunker mumbo-jumbo under your byline? Hmm. Now don’t get us wrong, we think crucifying the utterer of every blunt, race-freighted remark is just a distraction from the thing […]
HONOR ROLL: Requiem For A Few Good Men
Four days before a deadline for Foreign Service officers to volunteer to go to Iraq or face the prospect of being ordered there, the State Department notified employees yesterday that “about half” of 48 open assignments there for next year have been filled. The plan to order diplomats to take posts in Iraq if enough volunteers cannot be found — the first time forced assignments have been contemplated since the Vietnam War — has been controversial within and outside the service. “If I need somebody to serve in Iraq, they have to serve there,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said […]
LIVE & DIRECT: Ron Paul Revere Rings Liberty Bell
FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RON PAUL AT INDEPENDENCE MALL 1. There were a LOT of people there. Upwards of 5,000, making it the BIGGEST Ron Paul rally to date. And it was not just the usual suspects — i.e., the angry loners Libertarians invariably attract, and the Ex-Deaniac Don Quixotes tilting at the latest maverick truth-teller on a political suicide mission — but women, children, families. People you see at Eagles games. Veterans, mechanics, Daily News readers. Ordinary, walking around people, desperate for someone to look them in the eye and tell them the truth. 2. His […]
THE SURVEILLANCE STATE: 1984 Already Happened
1984 Has Been Brought To You By The Fine Folks At AT&T! BY ELLEN NAKASHIMA WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER His first inkling that something was amiss came in summer 2002 when he opened the door to admit a visitor from the National Security Agency to an office of AT&T in San Francisco.”What the heck is the NSA doing here?” Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, said he asked himself. A year or so later, he stumbled upon documents that, he said, nearly caused him to fall out of his chair. The documents, he said, show that the NSA gained access […]