S&M: Turns Out Strom Thurmond Owned Al Sharpton

ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — Geneaologists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Daily News said professional genealogists, working at the newspaper’s behest, recently uncovered the ancestral ties between one of the nation’s best known black leaders and a man who was once a prominent defender of segregation. “I have always wondered what was the background of my family,” the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. “But nothing _ nothing _ could prepare me for this.” “It’s chilling. […]

HIZZONER ’07: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

By CATHERINE LUCEY & BOB WARNER LAST NIGHT, Philadelphia’s five mayoral candidates were asked how they would stem the city’s tide of violence. One would declare an emergency. One promises job training. One wants to reverse the mind-set of violence. One said education, not crime, is the issue. And one didn’t show up. Crime — considered the No. 1 issue to voters — was the focus of a mayoral forum held last night at St. Joseph’s University and sponsored by the school’s Institute of Violence Research and Prevention. The above responses were, in order, from: former Councilman Michael Nutter, businessman […]

HIZZONER ’07: Is Milton Street The Black Moses?

T. Milton Street, who hopes to replace his younger brother as mayor, offered an interesting political wager yesterday. Street promised to drop out of the mayoral race if he fails to draw a minimum of 5,000 supporters to a noon rally at City Hall on March 1. “If they don’t show up, then I’m out,” Street said. “That’s the end of it. You don’t have to worry about me again. All right? OK?” As Street called upon the city masses to rise up and join him, another mayoral candidate beseeched voters and television- news crews to ignore Street’s clown-like antics. […]

PERMA-WAR: Iranian Targets Locked And Loaded

BBC NEWS — Diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran. That list includes Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon – which it denies. The Natanz plant is buried under concrete, metal and earth Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces […]

NEW JFK MOVIE: Welcome To Dallas, Mr. President

DALLAS (Reuters) – Previously unreleased footage of John F. Kennedy’s fateful motorcade in Dallas moments before he was gunned down was released on Monday, a surprising new detail in a saga that has gripped the United States for four decades. The silent 8mm film shows a beaming Jacqueline Kennedy close up in vivid color waving to the crowd. A group of excited bystanders — women sporting big 1960s hairstyles — waves to the cameraman shortly before the motorcade sweeps past. The president’s coat is clearly if briefly seen bunched up on his back — a detail that will be scrutinized […]

HIZZONER ’07: Something ‘Funny’ About Brady’s Money?

In early summer 2003, at least 27 city judicial candidates, among others up for election that November, wrote checks to a political action committee called the Appreciation Fund.They gave $200, $500, $1,000 at most. Nearly half the money raised paid for a July banquet honoring U.S. Rep. Bob Brady [pictured, left, with Johnny Doc] , then celebrating his 18th year as chairman of Philadelphia’s Democratic Party, as well as the retiring 60th Ward leader, Isadore Shrager. The rest of the money sat unspent – until two months ago. That’s when the Appreciation Fund was almost depleted, with more than half the […]

HIZZONER ’07: Milton Out On Bail, Campaign Sets Sail

T. Milton Street Sr., who last week announced his candidacy for mayor of Philadelphia, was handcuffed and jailed for five hours Monday on charges that he ignored traffic tickets in two South Jersey towns. Street, 67, who is facing trial on federal corruption and tax evasion charges, said he was “totally shocked” by Monday’s events, which began when a Moorestown patrolman who knew that his township had a warrant for Street’s arrest recognized the former Pennsylvania state representative and hot dog vendor buying a newspaper in a 7-Eleven store. After posting $3,250 bail, Street was freed from the Burlington County […]

VIET NOW: Iraq Amputee Disinvited From Bush Photo-Op For Wearing Shorts In Summer Time

WASHINGTON POST — No one questions Sgt. Bryan Anderson’s sacrifice. He holds the gruesome honor of being one of the war’s five triple amputees. Bryan, 25, lost both legs and his left arm when a roadside bomb exploded next to the Humvee he was driving with the 411th Military Police Company. Modern medicine saved him and now he’s the pride of the prosthetics team at Walter Reed. Tenacious and wisecracking, he wrote “[Expletive] Iraq” on his left leg socket. Amputees are the first to receive celebrity visitors, job offers and extravagant trips, but Bryan is in a league of his […]

OBAMA: The Man Comes Around, Wallets Open Sesame

The [fundraising] event was closed to reporters, an edict efficiently enforced by the senator’s staff. “I don’t want to put the folks raising money on the spot,” Obama said on his way into a ballroom at the Sheraton City Center Hotel, adding that he likes frank question-and-answer sessions with donors. “It gives people a chance to look under the hood and kick the tires,” he said. The dinner was Obama’s first big money event outside his hometown of Chicago since he announced his candidacy Saturday at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., the site of Abraham Lincoln’s famous “House […]

Hizzoner ’07: Milton Street In It To Win It, If Acquitted

Milton Street just held an impromptu press conference in City Hall to announce that he’s running for mayor in the Democratic primary. As for the pesky matter of his recent federal indictment for tax fraud? He said he didn’t know why that would be an issue, since, in his words, he hasn’t done anything wrong. He pointed out that he hasn’t been convicted of anything. Reporters also asked him about the residency requirement to run for mayor. Street seems to live in New Jersey — that’s where reporters tracked him down on the day of that indictment. He didn’t directly […]

GOD BLESS AMERICA: Dems Introduce Bill To Restore Constitution, Halt Construction Of Naked Men Pyramids

WASHINGTON POST — A group of Senate Democrats introduced legislation yesterday that would restore habeas corpus rights to all detainees in U.S. custody and would narrowly define what it means to be an “enemy combatant” against the United States, a measure designed to challenge laws ushered in by the Republican-controlled Congress last year. The bill, titled the “Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007,” strikes at the core of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 by giving detainees access to U.S. courts. It was introduced by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.), a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. The bill would […]