INQUIRER: During a daylong seminar today at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, former Vice president Al Gore finished an hour-long talk by issuing a challenge to the 500 attendees and students in the room “for each of you to become a part of the solution.” […] “We can build a consensus,” he said. “And we must. Because not too many years from now, the next generation will look back. And depending on what the world looks like at that point, they will ask either why this generation stood back and did nothing, or how they mustered the moral courage […]
BERSERKER: Army Shrink Massacres 12, Wounds 31
LOS ANGLES TMES: Reporting from Ft. Hood, Texas, Washington and Los Angeles — An Army psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to Iraq allegedly armed himself with two guns and opened fire Thursday afternoon on the grounds of Ft. Hood, the country’s largest military base, killing 12 people and injuring 31 others. Officials said that soldiers and civilians ripped apart their clothes to make bandages for fallen colleagues, many of whom were waiting at the base’s Soldier Readiness Center for medical and dental exams before deployment. The attack shocked the country and raised questions about base security. The suspected […]
Q&A: Ask The Yes Men
The Yes Men is a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call “identity correction” by pretending to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations. From their offices in Milwaukee, they create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on their websites to appear at conferences, symposia, and TV shows. Their newfound, self-proclaimed authority to express the idea that corporations and governmental organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public has met both positively and negatively with political overtones. Elaborate props are sometimes part of the […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR As manager of President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, David Plouffe stayed behind the scenes. Now, 10 months after Obama took office, Plouffe has written a memoir about the campaign, detailing the victory and the ways it changed the concept of campaigning. From the indecision surrounding Obama’s choice to run, to the Iowa caucus win, and through the final stages of the general election campaign against John McCain, Plouffe helped guide the campaign to a historic victory. His book offers an insider’s tale of a campaign that managed to harness — perhaps for the first time — the expansive […]
Italy Convicts 23 Americans In CIA ‘Rendition’ Trial
NEW YORK TIMES: MILAN — Twenty-three Americans, including a C.I.A. station chief, were convicted on Wednesday in a landmark case involving the seizure of a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan more than six years ago. But three of the higher-ranking Americans defendants were given diplomatic immunity, as were the two highest-ranking Italian defendants. And while the C.I.A. station chief in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, received an 8-year-term, and the other 22 Americans to 5 years each, all were tried in absentia and it is unlikely that any will serve. Still, the trial was an enormous symbolic victory for […]
1 STEP FORWARD 2 STEPS BACK: NJ Elects Karl Rove Stooge Guv; Philly Elects First Black District Attorney
INQUIRER: Christopher J. Christie, campaigning as an agent of change, overwhelmed a powerful Democratic advantage Tuesday to defeat Gov. Corzine and become New Jersey’s first Republican governor-elect in a dozen years. Portrayed by Corzine as a referendum on President Obama’s agenda, the campaign drew national scrutiny — and three visits from the president to support the incumbent. But Christie fought aggressively, campaigning in cities and other Democratic strongholds. Christie, 47, a former U.S. attorney from the North Jersey town of Mendham, turned back both Corzine and a vigorous campaign from independent Chris Daggett. Although New Jersey is a reliably blue […]
Q&A: With ACORN Founder Wade Rathke
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY For all the bad press that ACORN has received in the media in recent years — according to Lexis Nexus, from 2007-2008 there were 4,468 newspaper and wire stories that mentioned ACORN — the general public remains largely uninformed about what ACORN is and what exactly it does, outside of signing up Mickey Mouse to vote every four years. In short, ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now, provides a voice for the voiceless, advocating, organizing and agitating on behalf of the poor and disenfranchised — registering them […]
POTUS: When The Circus Comes To Town
[Photos by TIFFANY YOON] BY JONATHAN VALANIA For most news outlets, an invite from the White House Press office to cover the arrival and departure of Air Force One is old hat, and on this day most didn’t bother sending anyone to document the wheels down/wheels up of the President’s private bird at Philadelphia International. But Phawker was there with bells on. As you may have heard by now, the President of the United States was in town today for a sum total of two hours to make the case one last time for New Jersey to re-elect fellow Democrat […]
BRAVE NEW FILMS: How Fox News Slimed ACORN
PREVIOUSLY: Why The Right Hates ACORN, How They Took Them Down, And Why Philly Didn’t Take The Bait PREVIOUSLY: The Nutcracker Strikes Back! PREVIOUSLY: Cracking The Nutcracker PREVIOUSLY: The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Flow Chart
ADDICTED TO AFGHANISTAN: Karzai’s Brother, Suspected Drug Lord, Is On The CIA’s Payroll
[Artwork by SHEPARD FAIREY] NEW YORK TIMES: KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home. The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency […]
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS WHO NEEDS ENEMAS: Lieberman To Filibuster Any Bill With Public Option
CBS NEWS: During the 2008 elections, Joe Lieberman attended the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. and pulled a Zell Miller, delivering a rousing speech — for Lieberman, that is — supporting supporting John McCain over Barack Obama for president. Back in the old days, such an act of party disloyalty would have been automatic justification for banishment to political Siberia. But after their election victory in November, the Democratic leadership held its collective nose and cut a pragmatic deal: Lieberman, now a self-styled “independent minded Democrat” got to keep his chairmanship in the caucus, his chairmanship of the […]
IT’S IN THERE: Public Option Added To Senate Bill
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Fueling momentum behind the push for a new government insurance plan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday that his healthcare bill will include a compromise that would create a nationwide “public option,” while giving states the option to “opt out” of such a plan. “The public option is not a silver bullet, (but) I believe it’s an important way to ensure competition and to level the playing field for patients with the insurance industry,” Reid told reporters. “Under this concept, states will be able to decide what works for them.” Reid sent the proposal to […]