[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY On the afternoon of Nov. 26, 2008, death came ashore at the Indian coastal city of Mumbai in the form of 10 Pakistani assassins aboard a rubber dinghy. Young and cocky, the killers were dressed in bluejeans and cargo pants, pumped up on steroids and ripped from months of rigorous physical training. They brandished AK-47s and carried backpacks loaded with grenades and ammo. When fisherman asked them what was going on, the gunmen told them in fluent Marathi to, in effect, go fuck themselves. The fishermen reported the incident […]
TIME HAS COME TODAY: Sestak Beats Specter
JOE SESTAK: “I respect the man, but it is time. It is time for a different generation.” 9:47 PM: Sestak is currently up by 13,000 with 42% of the vote counted. Reportedly two thirds of the Philadelphia vote has already been counted. Specter’s only hope was the African American vote and it appears that he didn’t get it, or at least not enough of it to make a difference. Because this is the Internet, where being first trumps being right, we are going out on a limb here and declaring Joe Sestak the winner. 10:12 PM: Associated Press just called […]
SPECTER VS. SESTAK: The Thrilla In Pennsylvania
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW: Pennsylvania voters go the polls Tuesday for a primary election that could determine more than who bears the Democratic and Republican standards in November. The results will measure Obama’s influence with voters, the credibility of party hierarchies, the fate of a Capitol’s worth of incumbents, and the mood of a key swing state. “What’s at stake is the message to Washington and the political direction of our country,” said Lara Brown, political science professor at Villanova University. “It could literally moderate all the policy in Washington.” MORE DICK POLMAN: Two Capitol Hill insiders have been summarily dumped by […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With Your Host AP Ticker
AP goes off on the big fake ID scandal at PennDOT and the teacher hiring freeze at Philadelphia School District, plus the Flyers rocked and Lady Pha Pha got cold-cocked. Get in here!
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Philadelphia Daily News reporters Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for the 10-month series “Tainted Justice,” an expose of alleged corruption among members of an elite narcotics squad on the Philadelphia police force. During their reporting, Laker and Ruderman uncovered allegations against officers that included committing sexual assaults, disabling surveillance cameras during drug raids to hide their misdeeds, and filing fraudulent warrants. During several raids, the police allegedly stole thousands of dollars in merchandise and money from small retailers. As a result of Laker and Ruderman’s investigation, hundreds of drug cases […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: Piggy Of The Week
A.P. takes on Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider for continuing to shove his Republican views down the throat of a city that is overwhelmingly Democratic.
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Writer Hampton Sides was a 6-year-old living in Memphis when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. “I remember the tension,” he says. “I remember seeing tanks, and I remember feeling that our city was ripping apart.” Four decades later, Sides, an editor-at-large for Outside magazine and the author of the historical books Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder, has returned to the subject of King’s assassination. In his new book, Hellhound on His Trail, Sides carefully weaves the movements of King’s assassin, James Earl Ray, with those of King, who had traveled to Memphis […]
LIVE FREE PA: Shoot First, Get A Clue Later
SALON: Gun nuts are the folks sponsoring “LiveFreePA,” a fun-filled gathering May 8 where participants can shoot their guns at old cars that represent bad liberal ideas like gun control, healthcare reform and property taxes, as well as taxes and regulations on tobacco and alcohol (h/t BuzzFlash). “It’s just a unique way to say we’re against these policies — shooting them down,” organizer Nate Benefield told a Lancaster paper. “I don’t really know where we came up with it, but it seemed appropriate.” “Appropriate” isn’t the word I’d choose, but hey, it’s a free country. Apparently, Ted Nugent headlined the […]
A MAN IN FULL: Clint Eastwood At 80
JOE QUEENAN: Because he started out as an actor, and very quickly became an actor that a large segment of the population positively adored, in the same way that they adored Jimmy Cagney and Cary Grant and both Hepburns, Eastwood has long benefited from a personal relationship with the American people that no other living director can even dream of. (In my lifetime, only Alfred Hitchcock, who came into everyone’s living room once a week to deliver his weird, deadpan introductions to his creepy TV series, has enjoyed this sort of ongoing, intimate rapport with the American people. But little […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: With A.P. Ticker
A.P., um, comes clean about how his porn-filled backpack was mistaken for a bomb causing authorities to shut down Philadelphia International. Plus, the latest scuttlebutt on the Flyers and Fightins.
OUT RAGE: Tea Party Says Lindsey Graham Too Gay; Babette Josephs Says Her Challenger Not Gay Enough
INQUIRER: Veteran Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) last Thursday accused her primary opponent, Gregg Kravitz, of pretending to be bisexual in order to pander to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters, a powerful bloc in the district. “I outed him as a straight person,” Josephs said during a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, as some in the audience gasped or laughed, “and now he goes around telling people, quote, ‘I swing both ways.’ That’s quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy’s a gem.” Kravitz, 29, said that he is sexually attracted to both men […]
SCRAPPLE TV NEWS: Special Pulitzer Prize Edition
A.P. Ticker interviews Daily News reporters Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker, recipients of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize or investigative journalism.
ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS: CNBC Sparks Debate With ‘Marijuana & Money’ Special Report
CNBC: “Marijuana & Money ” explores virtually every angle and aspect of the marijuana debate, from the economics of taxation and law enforcement; the likely business models of production and consumption; the lobbying effort and public health debate; professional and workplace issues; and, of course, the rapidly evolving world of legalized medical marijuana. Much of this you can track through individual state pages and a state-by-state tables. In some three dozen articles, videos and slideshows—and another dozen, diverse commentaries(pro, con and neutral) from major players and thought leaders in the arenas of politics and government, law, medicine, sociology, religion and […]