WATERGATE TAPE: Nixon Describes Fred Thompson As A Useful Idiot Fred Thompson has made much of his role 30 years ago as a young Senate lawyer helping to lead the investigation of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon. But a much different, less valiant picture of Thompson emerges from listening to the White House audiotapes made at the time, as President Nixon plotted strategy with his aides in the Oval Office. Thompson’s job on the Watergate committee was to lead the Republican side of the investigation. As the investigation picked up speed, Nixon grew increasingly concerned about whether Thompson […]
I HEART BLACKWATER!
A new low in right-wing toadying! USA TODAY: Today, at 38, [Erik] Prince, chief of Blackwater USA, has a real army — or at least the makings of one, with weapons, aircraft, armored vehicles and a thousand or more battle-hardened security personnel… Prince landed an internship in the early 1990s in the White House under then-President George Bush. Again, he was disappointed. He later told the Grand Rapids Press: “I saw a lot of things I didn’t agree with — homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kinds of bills.” But he didn’t reject […]
GAMBLOR: Dick Sprague IS Gamblor!
In a front page article Saturday on attorney Richard Sprague’s efforts to quash a grand jury investigation of his client, Louis DeNaples, we inexcusably forgot to mention that Sprague and his children own a little more than 13 percent of SugarHouse Casino. SugarHouse plans a $550 million casino on Delaware Avenue straddling the Fishtown/Northern Liberties border. DeNaples, a prodigious campaign contributor from Scranton, hopes in the coming weeks to reopen the once-famous Mt. Airy Lodge in the Poconos as the state’s first standalone slots parlor.Until recently, Sprague also represented the chief architect of the 2004 law that legalized slots in Pennsylvania, […]
BLACK OPS: It Was 40 Years Ago Today…
REUTERS: Guevara was captured by CIA-backed Bolivian soldiers on October 8, 1967, and was shot the next day in a schoolhouse. His bullet-riddled body, eyes wide open, was put on display in a hospital laundry room and later buried in an unmarked grave. He was 39. MORE
MISSION OF BURMA: Let My People Go!
[illustration by ALEX FINE] ASSOCIATED PRESS: A relentless crackdown on Myanmar’s pro-democracy activists showed no sign of easing with the junta announcing yesterday that 78 more people have been detained in spite of global outrage and new sanctions. The latest arrests, reported by the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, brought to nearly 1,000 the number of people the military regime acknowledges holding in detention centers. In addition, it says 135 Buddhist monks remain in custody. RELATED: Who Swats A Butterfly With A Sledgehammer? U.S. CAMPAIGN FOR BURMA: Sign Their Petition For U.N. Action Here JIM CARREY: The Eternal Sunshine […]
WORTH REPEATING: Dead Letter Office
BY DAN RUBIN INQUIRER COLUMNIST What happened to the mailboxes? That’s what Republican committeeman Jim Finnegan wanted to know this summer as he made his twice-a-week rounds through the narrow streets around Kensington and Allegheny. “There used to be three in front of the 7-Eleven at Kensington and Ontario,” Finnegan says. “Then one at Jasper and Ontario, one at Frankford and Ontario, and then one at Jasper and Westmoreland.” That was a few months ago. Now they’re gone. All told, he says, a dozen mailboxes from his division have disappeared. The U.S. Postal Service says it’s aware of the situation. […]
MAILBAG: It’s A Fat, White, Closeted Thing…
DEAR PHAWKER, Oh please, what a stretch this is. Is shows the bias and desperation of the liberal media. Any thinking reasonable person can see there is absolutely no link between Lou Pearlman’s alleged sexual activities and donating money to a political candidate. It’s an orchestrated attempt to elect Democrats. How stupid do they think we are? DON L [The answer to your question is: Anybody voting Republican that is NOT white, super-rich and hiding something is, in our estimation, like a turkey voting for Thanksgiving. Just callin’ ’em as we see ’em. — The Ed. ]
WORTH REPEATING: Battlefield Of Dreams
“It had been four days since Meghan O’Sullivan left her job at the White House. Just four days since she gave up her Secret Service pass, her classified hard drive and her entree to the president. Four days since she gave up any day-to-day responsibility for Iraq. Too soon, evidently, for the dreams to end. “In fact, I was dreaming about Iraq last night,” she said. “And I woke up and thought, ‘When do you think this will stop?’” As President Bush‘s top Iraq adviser while the war sank into an abyss over the past few years, O’Sullivan lived it […]
HOT DOC: Lou Pearlman Loves Little Boys & The GOP
Lou Pearlman is the slimy, Jabba-esque Svengali behind NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys. And according to the New York Post & Vanity Fair, he was REALLY behind those boys. He is currently in federal custody after a year on the lam — ducking fraud charges in a $315 million ponzi scheme — hiding out in, get this, Indonesia. Hmmm. Cue the Gary Glitter song. Maybe Larry Craig can explain why he only gave to Republicans. If he doesn’t know, I’m sure Tom Foley does. By the way, Lou, Representative Ric Keller looks like a real piece of work, gotta smile […]
JUST WONDERING: What Is Jannie Blackwell Hiding?
“I don’t believe we should have so many laws we don’t know when we’re breaking them.” — Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, In Today’s Inquirer. RELATED: The ethics reforms were derailed last month, when a resolution enabling legislation to change Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter failed. The resolution would have let voters decide by a ballot question on the May primary whether charter amendments should be permitted to empower City Council to enact ethics reforms….Jannie Blackwell voted against the resolution, which required two-thirds of City’s Council’s votes to pass. [via PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL] * RELATED: Blackwell noted her lone opposition to the ethics-reform […]
FREE SPEECH: Peace Activists Stopped At Border
WASHINGTON — Two high-profile American peace activists on Thursday accused the Canadian government of denying them entry into Canada solely because of past arrests in the U.S. for peaceful protests against the war in Iraq. Medea Benjamin, founder of the women’s peace movement CodePink, and former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright were detained for several hours by Canadian authorities at the border crossing between Buffalo, N.Y. and Niagara Falls, Ont., then turned back because their names appeared on an FBI database detailing their misdemeanour convictions. “We believe the Canadian government should not be doing the dirty political intimidation work for the […]
WORTH REPEATING: Born In The USA
The Boss on 60 Minutes, in a segment that airs Sunday: In the interview, Springsteen points out the direction in which the U.S. is going, by his estimation. “I think we’ve seen things happen over the past six years that I don’t think anybody ever thought they’d ever see in the United States,” says Springsteen. “When people think of the Unites States’ identity, they don’t think of torture. They don’t think of illegal wiretapping. They don’t think of voter suppression,” he tells Pelley. “They don’t think of no habeas corpus,” he says, referring to the people being held by the […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
D.A. DESCRIBES HOUSE OF HORROR FUNERAL PARLORS, ILLEGAL SKIN TRADE District Attorney Lynne Abraham said the men operated funeral homes and a crematorium in which body parts were taken and sold to various tissue banks, which, in turn, sold the parts to hospitals in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York for tissue transplants. The tissue was used in operations in which patients required connective tissue replacements for arteries, joints, and dental work. The parts — bones, cartilage, and skin — were taken from 244 people in the Philadelphia area, she said. She said the bodies were “sometimes stacked in the […]