BAGHDAD, Iraq — Eight American soldiers were killed in roadside bomb attacks Sunday, one of the highest single-day death tolls this year. They were among 12 U.S. service members whose deaths were announced on a day when car bombs killed scores of Iraqis across the country, threatening to deepen sectarian tensions. “All of us believe that in the next 90 days, you’ll probably see an increase in American casualties because we are taking the fight to the enemy,” Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army’s Task Force Marne, told reporters Sunday. “This is the only way we can win […]
Nutter Breathing The Thin Air Of Inevitability?
“Can I shake the hand of the next mayor?” asked Brown, a factory worker from Frankford. Michael Nutter obliged. Every step the former city councilman took in the Gallery mall Thursday afternoon brought more confirmation of his new status as the man with momentum in the Philadelphia mayor’s race. In recent days, Nutter reeled off a string of news-media endorsements, his TV ads gained traction, and the latest polls suggested that as the campaign enters its final stretch, voters have started to winnow down the five-man Democratic field in the May 15 primary to a contest between Nutter and Knox. […]
City Paper Gets Its Chocolate In Our Michael Nutter
BRAND WARS: This is a little embarrassing, it’s like showing up at the party looking hot and some bitch shows up in the exact same outfit!
LIVE & DIRECT: Dwight Evans For The Deaf
JONATHAN VALANIA REPORTS: The subtext of just about everything Dwight Evans has said so far: John Street is f**king up royally. As representative from Pennsylvania’s 203rd Legislative District, Evans pushed the city’s school district into the arms of the state like an unfit mother who loves her kids too much not to put them up for adoption — he says the city does not have the economic capacity to run the school system. Evans will bring back John Timoney — seemingly every other candidates idea of the Superman that can stop crime. Evans voted FOR casinos — BOO! — because […]
Fishtown Group Says ‘Sodom & Gomorrah? Bring It On!’
BY RONNIE POLANECZKY FISHTOWN ACTION isn’t waiting until May 15 to say whether a casino would be a good thing for the community. The newly minted pro-casino group wants to go on record, right here at Holy Name of Jesus Parish Hall, as being thrilled that SugarHouse Casino wants to build in the neighborhood. In fact, they say, the sooner SugarHouse can bring its 1,100 new jobs to the city, the better. These are jobs offering good salaries, benefits and pensions — and, in many cases, don’t require a college degree. Something not every Fishtowner has, or even wants to […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: Tom Knox For The Deaf
JONATHAN VALANIA REPORTS: Being a rich man trying to buy back City Hall for the common man in a city where the common man holds a profound mistrust of rich men is a fairly thankless job. You can almost see the weight of that burden dragging down the raw-boned, hang-dog face of Tom Knox. Which again brings us back to why anyone would want to be mayor. When your explanation for why you want to be mayor makes people want to ask you again ‘why the hell you want to be mayor?’ — well, you better have deep pockets. Marty […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even If And Especially When The President Deceives The Nation Into War
FRESH AIR Former CIA chief George Tenet said the Bush administration used him as a scapegoat over intelligence issues with the war in Iraq, and debate among top officials was absent when decisions were made to invade the country. In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes to air Sunday night, Tenet discussed claims made in his forthcoming memoir At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, which focuses in part on his dealings with the Bush administration in the weeks and months leading up to the Iraq war. In the memoir, Tenet expresses frustration with Vice President Dick […]
LIVE & DIRECT: Michael Nutter For The Deaf
JONATHAN VALANIA REPORTS: Michael Nutter speaks in complete paragraphs, with subsections A., B., and C. and attendant footnotes, which also have their own subsections A., B., and C. He is overflowing with good ideas, not just slogans. Smart, principled, and aspirational. Spidey senses tingling. Is he the The One to lead us out of of the Matrix of our own bullshit? (Spidey senses also warning against crossing metaphors) True, he needs a joke writer or a court jester. (Although he did just describe himself as “just another unemployed guy from West Philly looking for a job.”) His only crime is […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR For many people, Clarence Thomas will be forever linked to Anita Hill, accusations of workplace harassment, inappropriate jokes, and one of the most bruising confirmation hearings in modern history. As a Supreme Court justice, Thomas is arguably the most powerful black man in public life. And yet, most black Americans have not embraced the conservative Thomas — or worse, despise the man who was tapped in 1991 to replace retiring civil-rights icon Thurgood Marshall on the nation’s highest court. That’s according to a new biography of Thomas, Supreme Discomfort. The book, written by Washington Post reporters Kevin Merida […]
GAMBLOR: The Sands To Auction-Off Glass Sinatra Kept His Dentures In, Plus Some Other Stuff
The gambling hall is having a giant liquidation sale on Thursday, and many items once touched by New Jersey’s own Frank Sinatra are up for sale. There will be hidden treasures aplenty, according to organizers, including everything from the Plaza Club, a swank 19th-floor hideout that became Sinatra’s private playground whenever he stayed at the Sands. Chandeliers (priced at $4,250), a marble-and-wood bar, and leather chairs are among the furnishings from the club that are expected to go quickly. All told, about $1.5 million worth of merchandise is being sold off, from one-dollar towels and linens to the giant red […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: Bob Brady For The Deaf
Marty: Do you own a gun? Bob Brady: Yes. Do you know why I have a gun? I have children and grandchildren. JONATHAN VALANIA REPORTS: Bob Brady would be the perfect mayor for this city — if it were 1945. Big, beefy, with hands the size of Easter hams, grandfatherly in a Sopranos-esque kind of way, he is the prototypical loveable ‘Big Lug’ and as Philly as an old soft pretzel. Marty just asked him his prime motivation for wanting to be mayor: “We have to be safe as a city.” Solution: bring back beat cops. A return to the […]