NATION: A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince [pictured, right], may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Tyrant’s Pardon Of The Truth
FOUR DEAD, TEN WOUNDED IN PITTSBURGH FITNESS CLUB MASSACRE Police say they’ve confirmed four people were killed in a shooting at a suburban Pittsburgh health club — including the gunman — and at least 10 others were wounded. A hospital reports one other person also has died. Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt says the gunman didn’t say anything and just walked into the room where shooting occurred at the L.A. Fitness Center in Bridgeville, a community of about 5,000 residents not far from downtown Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh International Airport. Debi Wozniak, of Dormont, a suburb of Pittsburgh, is […]
CHARMED: Bubba Frees Jailed U.S. Journalists
NEW YORK TIMES: SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, pardoned two jailed American journalists, the official KCNA news agency has reported, according to Reuters. The report came after former President Bill Clinton met with the reclusive and ailing Mr. Kim in Pyongyang on Tuesday. Mr. Kim granted “a special pardon,” KCNA said in a statement. It was not clear how rapidly the two journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, might be allowed to leave the country. They were being held near Pyongyang after having been sentenced to 12 years at hard labor for entering […]
BORN IDENTITY: Happy Birther Day, Mr. President
[Illustration by SEAN KELLY] BOSTON GLOBE: Barack Obama turned 48 today, bringing to an end a huge year for the commander in chief, one in which he accepted his party’s nomination, handily won the general election, and took office as the nation’s first African-American president. MORE CHUCK NORRIS: Mr. President, as more and more people realize that you are refusing to release your original birth certificate, further questions will fuel the fires of debate or at least hinder the embers from ever being snuffed out. Questions such as, “Does it really contain the Hawaiian physician’s name?” “Does it disclose something […]
Fed Stimulus Everywhere But Not A Drop To Drink
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] PHILLY CLOUT: One of the strange ironies we’ve noted in the budget process is that Philadelphia is currently poised to make massive citywide cuts at the same time the federal government is pledging to send the city millions of dollars as part of the $787 billion stimulus package. But here’s the rub. Nearly all the money coming from the feds is dedicated for very specific purposes and cannot go to general operating expenses. So if the city’s budget requests in Harrisburg don’t go as planned, and Mayor Nutter implements his “Plan C” doomsday budget, then the […]
CHARM OFFENSIVE: Bubba Goes To Pyongyang
NEW YORK TIMES: Former President Bill Clinton landed in North Korea on Tuesday to negotiate the release of two American television journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory, according to a person briefed on the mission. Citing television footage from Pyongyang, The Associated Press said Mr. Clinton was greeted at the airport by North Korean officials including the chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan and Yang Hyong-sop, vice parliamentary speaker. The footage showed him smiling and bowing as a young girl presented him with flowers. The reported presence of the nuclear negotiator raised the […]
TEABAGGED: ‘Outrage’ At Constitution Center Staged By Goon Squad Hired By Lobbyists For Big Medical
The crazies come out to discuss Healthcare Reform [Micah Mahjoubian: Town Hall meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter at the National Constitution Center in Philly on August 2nd, 2009. Believe it or not, this is well before the crowd got out of hand. Keep an eye out for the lady with the bible.] * HUFFINGTON POST: When Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) came to the National Constitution Center to answer questions about health care reform, they were greeted by an overflow crowd of approximately 400 people, the majority of whom […]
ORLY: ‘Queen Bee Of The Birthers’ Melts Down
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy PREVIOUSLY: Birthers Of A Bizarro Nation
HOT NOT DOC: ‘Obama’s Kenyan Birth Certificate’
[Click HERE to enlarge] WORLD NET DAILY: California attorney Orly Taitz, who has filed a number of lawsuits demanding proof of Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, has released a copy of what purports to be a Kenyan certification of birth and has filed a new motion in U.S. District Court for its authentication.[…] “I’m forcing the issue, where Obama will have to respond,” she said. “Before, they said, ‘You don’t have anything backing your claims,’” Taitz explained. “Now I have something. In fact, I have posted on the Internet more than Obama has. My birth certificate actually has […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR With the record business decimated by illegal downloading, the live concert represents the ailing music industry’s biggest source of revenue. But as journalist John Seabrook reports in The New Yorker, the live concert business has yet to reconcile two competing sides of its identity. For the world’s leading concert promoter and ticket seller — LiveNation and Ticketmaster, respectively — a concert is a moneymaking venture. For diehard fans of top-grossing touring artists like Bruce Springsteen and U2, it’s a unique experience of “instant cousinship” with other fans (as one pioneering promoter puts it). Meanwhile, Internet scalping on sites […]
White House Plans Counter-Offensive Against Insurers
NEW YORK TIMES: With Republicans mobilizing against the proposed health care overhaul, President Obama, Congressional Democrats and leading advocacy groups are laying the groundwork for an August offensive against the insurance industry as part of a coordinated campaign to sell the public on the need for reform. […] Revamping health care is the president’s top legislative priority, and people on all sides of the debate agree that August, when lawmakers leave Washington to take the pulse of constituents, will be crucial to shaping public opinion. With Republicans making headway by casting the legislation as a costly government takeover, Democrats have […]
MAKING NICE: The Beer Heard Round The World
[Courtesy of THE OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTOSTREAM] BOSTON GLOBE: They did not link arms, and there were no public apologies. But a subdued meeting over beers on the White House patio last evening appeared to achieve President Obama’s goal of encouraging a deeper dialogue on race between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley. The White House, which carefully choreographed the event, kept reporters out and would not disclose what was said after the unlikely trio, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, sipped their cold ones. But after the images of a peaceful dialogue were […]
SPITZER AGONISTES: Vanity Fair Investigating Whether Or Not Client #9 Was Set Up By Wall Street
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] GAWKER: The idea that Eliot Spitzer’s downfall was engineered by the financial industry whose profits he threatened with regulation has made the rounds on the internet for a while. Now Vanity Fair is siccing two investigative reporters on the story. Gawker has learned that Vanity Fair‘s Craig Unger and John Connolly are currently looking into the prospect that the banking and financial interests that Spitzer took on during his tenures as attorney general and governor of New York tipped off the feds to Spitzer’s proclivities and launched the investigation. MORE PREVIOUSLY: INJUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Was The Spitzer […]