AP confuses actor Hal Holbrooke with diplomat Richard Holbrooke, but recovers like a pro; warns kids against the perils of ‘drifting’ and cusses out Japan for inventing it, then kinds loses it a little bit when he goes off on how flouride in the water is a communist conspiracy.
RIVER BOAT GAMBLOR: Foxwoods Responds To SS United States Proposal Like A Dog Shown A Card Trick
INQUIRER: If Harrah’s Entertainment and the Foxwoods Casino partners are interested in using the SS United States as the centerpiece of their proposed South Philadelphia gaming hall, they aren’t showing it. On Monday, supporters of the derelict ocean liner publicly unveiled their vision for restoring the historic ship and incorporating it into an ambitious casino complex on the Delaware waterfront. The 990-foot vessel would have to be moved about three-quarters of a mile north from its berth at Pier 82 to the 16-acre Foxwoods site. However, lawyers for Foxwoods and Harrah’s appear more focused on working out their own plan […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Restrepo At The NCC
The National Constitution Center and National Geographic Channel will host a screening of the feature-length documentary Restrepo on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 6:30 p.m., in conjunction with our Art of the American Soldier exhibition. Following the screening, filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington will participate in a discussion about the film. winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, chronicles a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, considered one of the most dangerous outposts in the U.S. military. The film will make its world television premiere on the National Geographic Channel on November 29. Prior to […]
RICH MAN POOR MAN: Mo’ Money, Mo’ Republican
[click to enlarge] RELATED: Despite what you are hearing about Tea Party Populism and hopping mad Main Streeters, one thing is indisputable. The more money you make, the more likely you were to cast a ballot for Republicans in the 2010 elections. The GOP was swept into office by a green tide of affluence. MORE RELATED: Who was the big winner in this week’s midterm election? The Republican Party? No. Former half-term Governor Sarah Palin? Not hardly. Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner? Nope. The Tea Party movement? Think again. Tuesday night’s big winner was undoubtedly Fox News. It did more than just […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] FRESH AIR Before a prostitution scandal ended his political career, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was a crusading prosecutor known as the “Sheriff of Wall Street.” As New York’s attorney general, he targeted corruption and shady business practices at some of the biggest financial institutions in the country. Filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new documentary, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, suggests that Spitzer’s demise wasn’t just about sex — that the many enemies Spitzer made on Wall Street and in the New York state capital at Albany may have contributed to his political demise. […]
ELECTION FORECAST: A Perfect Shitstorm
MOTHER JONES: The day before the election, pollsters are predicting that the Democratic wipeout could be even bigger than expected. There’s no question that the GOP will take the House, but Gallup suggests that Republican net gains could give their party a bigger House majority than any party has achieved before. […] The GOP needs to win just 39 Democratic seats to take the House, but projections are now up to 60 seats or more, with over 100 seats in play. And if Republicans end up on with an overwhelmingly majority, they will feel even more emboldened to find every conceivable […]
Corbett Tells Supporters To Suppress Philly Vote
INQUIRER: Seizing on an issue that could galvanize their base, some of the state’s top Democrats on Friday accused Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett of encouraging his followers to suppress voter turnout in Philadelphia. The Democrats pointed to remarks Corbett made Thursday to a Republican audience in Delaware County. Noting that Gov. Rendell was calling for a 50 percent turnout in Philadelphia, Corbett said, “We want to make sure they don’t get 50 percent. Keep that down.” The issue exploded after campaign aides to Corbett’s opponent, Dan Onorato, posted video of the remarks on YouTube. Rendell called the comments “almost […]
White House Statement On Philly Terror Threat
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release October 29, 2010 Statement of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Last night, intelligence and law enforcement agencies discovered potential suspicious packages on two planes in transit to the United States. Based on close cooperation among U.S. government agencies and with our foreign allies and partners, authorities were able to identify and examine two suspicious packages, one in East Midlands, United Kingdom and one in Dubai. Both of these packages originated from Yemen. As a result of security precautions triggered by this threat, the additional measures were […]
LADY BUGGING: Philly Dude Tells (Almost) All About His One Night Stand With Christine O’Donnell
GAWKER: Things got physical on the couch pretty quickly. It wasn’t long before we’d moved from the living room to my bed. I won’t get into the nitty gritty details of what happened between the sheets that evening. But I will say that it wasn’t half as exciting as I’d been hoping it would be. Christine was a decent kisser, but as soon as soon as her clothes came off and she was naked in my bed, Christine informed me that she was a virgin. “You’ve got to be kidding,” I said. She didn’t explain at the time that she […]
TEA FARTY: Joe Miller Drops To Last Place; O’Donnell Is Melting…Melting; Olberman Lowers The Boom
POLITICO: After several rough weeks on the campaign trail, a new poll out of Alaska shows Republican Joe Miller has fallen to last place in the three-way Senate race. A Hays Research Group poll released Thursday showed write-in candidates, presumably meaning Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in the lead with 34 percent, Democrat Scott McAdams with 29 percent and Miller with 23 percent. Murkowski is waging a write-in bid since losing the Republican primary to Miller. Miller’s plunge in the new poll comes on the heels of several misfires in the local and national press. Most recently, Miller’s employment records from […]
ARRESTED: For Drinking Coffee While Democrat
HUFFINGTON POST: A Democrat was arrested by local police at a public meet-and-greet event for Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Monday, with three men pulling him out of the building and pushing him to the ground for allegedly causing a disturbance in the coffee shop. Jon Taylor, the man at the center of the controversy, said he was “manhandled” by police from Louisa, Va. He and three other Democrats — including his wife, who held a sign promoting Cantor’s Democratic opponent Rick Waugh — went to the event with the intent to ask Cantor questions since he has refused to […]
The Corporate Takeover Of The Supreme Court
THINK PROGRESS: In an unfortunate interview with Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr, Justice Stephen Breyer rejected the notion that the Roberts Court is unusually pro-corporate because business interest “have always done pretty well.” Yet a new empirical study by the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center demonstrates that Breyer is mistaken. The study compares the right-wing Chamber of Commerce’s win-rate since Justice Alito joined the Court in January of 2006 to their win-rate twenty-five years ago, and the results are clear and undeniable. […] Significantly, this ideological shift in favor of corporations appears to be driven entirely by the Court’s conservative members. While a […]
REALITY CHECK: 8 Commonly Held Voter Fallacies
[via TRUTHOUT] 1) President Obama tripled the deficit. Reality: Bush’s last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama’s first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion. 2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy. Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the “stimulus” was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been. 3) President Obama bailed out the banks. Reality: While many people conflate the “stimulus” with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry […]