Because they can say shit like this out loud in a court of law with a completely straight face: “The Philadelphia Inquirer has been published in Philadelphia since 1828. It’s over 180 years old and it is an institution and a treasure to its community,” said McMichael. He said no one — including the local investor group that bought the newspapers for $515 million in 2006 — foresaw how the economy and other factors would rout the newspaper industry. “These people put $150 million cash into this thing,” McMichael said of the investor group brought together by Tierney, who is […]
MUGSHOT: What’s Wrong With This Picture?
BEAVER COUNTY TIMES: NEW CASTLE, PA — Jordan Anthony Brown doesn’t mesh with his new surroundings. He’s swimming in his jail-issued shirt, and his pant legs are cuffed six times to keep them off the floor. He cries and is scared. He misses his dad. He wants to go back to school. He wants to go home. Jail isn’t a place for an 11-year-old, his attorney said. “It’s surreal, just surreal,” said New Castle attorney Dennis Elisco, who is representing the boy. “Bizarre, really.” Jordan Brown is accused of shooting and killing 26-year-old Kenzie Houk and her unborn son Friday […]
STRANGER THAN FICTION: ‘The Land Of Twins’
NEW YORK TIMES: CÂNDIDO GODÓI, Brazil — A sign at the entrance to Cândido Godói says, “Garden City and Land of Twins.” More than 80 percent of its 6,700 residents are of German descent. They began arriving around World War I, lured by the prospect of cheap land, an agreeable farming climate and incentives from the Brazilian government to colonize the area.The twins phenomenon is centered in the 300-person settlement of São Pedro, the part of Cândido Godói where the Grimms live. “It can’t all be explained by genetics,” said Mr. Grimm, himself a twin. Geneticists would like to disagree […]
THE INQUISITION: Doctors Examining British Gitmo Detainee Cite Signs Of Multiple Severe Beatings
THE GUARDIAN: Former British resident Binyam Mohamed arrives back in Britain tomorrow after his release from Guantanamo Bay. British and US lawyers claim that sustained beatings — which have only recently stopped — have left him with severe psychological and physical problems. Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain suffering from a huge range of injuries after being beaten by US guards right up to the point of his departure from Guantánamo Bay, according to the first detailed accounts of his treatment inside the camp. During medical examinations last week, doctors discovered injuries and ailments resulting from apparently brutal treatment in […]
POLLS: Legalizing Marijuana More Popular Than GOP
YGLESIAS: Inspired by this Chris Bowers post, here’s a chart I made comparing public support for legalizing marijuana to the approval ratings for Rush Limbaugh and various Republican Party leaders that I found on PollingReport. MORE FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.COM: The first poll, conducted last week by Rasmussen Reports, has 40 percent of Americans in support of legalizing the drug and 46 percent opposed. The second, conducted in January by CBS News, has 41 percent in favor of legalization and 52 percent against. And a third poll, conducted by Zogby on behalf of the marijuana-rights advocacy group NORML, has 44 percent of Americans […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #10 The week that was in just five minutes, read by a stoned daisy that sounds uncannily like me.
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Journalist Jane Mayer expects that an upcoming Supreme Court case will force the Obama administration to clarify its policy towards fighting terrorism — and to define its stance on preventative detention of suspected terrorists. In her article, “The Hard Cases”, which appears in the Feb. 23 issue of The New Yorker, Mayer details the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, an alleged Al Qaeda sleeper agent who has been held for more than five years in an isolation brig, despite the fact that he never stood trial or was convicted of a crime. Though Marri was seized and […]
HASSAN CHOP: Founder Of TV Network Designed To Improve Islam’s Image In U.S. Beheads Wife
[“Judith Beheading Holofernes” by Carravagio] ASSOCIATED PRESS: ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The crime drips with brutal irony: a woman decapitated, allegedly by her estranged husband, in the offices of the television network the couple founded with the hope of countering Muslim stereotypes. Muzzammil “Mo” Hassan is accused of beheading his wife last week, days after she filed for divorce. Authorities have not discussed the role religion or culture might have played, but the slaying gave rise to speculation that it was the sort of “honor killing” more common in countries half a world away, including the couple’s native Pakistan. Funeral services for […]
A-ROID: Yes He Did
NEW YORK TIMES: Every time Alex Rodriguez defaulted Tuesday to saying he was stupid, naïve or ignorant for taking steroids, I thought of Dean Wormer’s words to the flunking frat boy Flounder in “Animal House:” “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.” And pleading youthful amateurishness to actions taken at 25, 26 and 27 is no way to go through baseball, either, if you’re injecting yourself, or your cousin is injecting you, with boli, believed to be the street name in the Dominican Republic for Primobolan. “He kept using the excuse of naïveté and curiosity […]
HOT DOC: What Kind Of Man Reads Phawker?
Hi, phawker (phawker). Barack Obama (BarackObama) is now following your updates on Twitter. Check out Barack Obama’s profile here: http://twitter.com/BarackObama Best, Twitter PCMAG: Is it finally time to take the Twitter plunge? The free service that lets users micro-blog 140 characters at a time had accumulated around 1.9 million users as of December 2008, according to comScore. If you are just now jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, or are intimidated by your inexperience with Twitter etiquette and acronyms, allow us to share some Twittery tips that will make your experience easier and more enjoyable. MORE HOPE: Let The Stimulation Begin! […]
GALLUP: 71% Of Americans Want Bush Investigated
AOL NEWS: Despite President Obama’s “inclination to look forward,” repeated gain at Monday’s press conference, a new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that as many as 71% of Americans want investigations of the Bush administration. Respondents were asked about investigations into Bush administration use of torture, warrantless wiretaps, and politicization of the Justice Department. While a significant majority in each case wanted investigations, a minority portion of them wanted investigations without criminal charges. Somewhat surprising is the fact that even Republicans show significant support for investigations, with 52% favoring investigations of the politicization of the DOJ, 44% on torture, and 41% […]
WAITING TO EXHALE: Sheriff Declines To Prosecute Michael Phelps For Violating Stupid Pot Laws
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BLOOMBERG NEWS: Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing in 2008, won’t be prosecuted in connection with his admission that he smoked from a bong at a South Carolina college party in November. The Richland County, South Carolina, sheriff’s department announced the decision at a news conference. Sheriff Leon Lott said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Phelps. “We had a photo and him saying he was sorry for inappropriate behavior,” Lott said during a televised press conference. “He never said, ‘I smoked marijuana.’ We didn’t have physical evidence.” Lott […]
BUSH DOCTRINE: Anal ‘Rape By Instrumentality’
HARPERS: Army Private Brandon Neely served as a prison guard at Guantánamo in the first years the facility was in operation. With the Bush Administration, and thus the threat of retaliation against him, now gone, Neely decided to step forward and tell his story. “The stuff I did and the stuff I saw was just wrong,” he told the Associated Press. Neely describes the arrival of detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, he details their sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous […]