“By the end of the week, he’ll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in Kindergarten.” — Senator Barack Obama, North Carolina, Today FRESH AIR The McCain campaign’s charge that Barack Obama has socialist leanings has put the spotlight on a word relatively uncommon to modern American elections. Linguist Geoff Nunberg explains how the “S” word was used in the past — and why it’s come up now. ALSO, Saturday Night Live‘s Seth Meyers is making waves with a broader TV audience this election season as the show expands its political parodies to Thursday […]
RE-BROADCAST NEWS: Q&A With Barack Obobble
This first ran on Phawker back in the late 1960s. Curiously, it seems more relevant today.
KAREN HELLER: Being Vincent J. Fumo
KAREN HELLER: Time for another installment of Fumo Family Values, currently playing in the James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse. Christian Marrone endured his second day yesterday as a prosecution witness in the federal government’s case against Vincent J. Fumo, all 139 counts. Marrone was the state senator’s former special assistant, assigned to the regional office. By special assistant, Fumo meant general contractor, jack of all (building) trades, and e-mail whipping boy – all, argues the government, at the taxpayers’ expense. Marrone is also Fumo’s son-in-law, though to judge by court behavior, any rapport between them is in the past, too. […]
HOT DOCUMENT: London Calling
Subject: attention Jonathan Valania – The Guardian From: richard.adams@guardian.REDACTED Date: Mon, October 27, 2008 8:27 am To: feed@phawker.com —————————— Jonathan – your piece in the Inquirer yesterday was fantastic. We’d like to re-run it on the Guardian‘s op-ed site for the amusement of British people and others. regards, Richard Adams (I’m in the Guardian’s DC bureau) EDITOR’S NOTE: 34,000 54,000 page views, a re-print offer from the GuardianUK, an encouraging word from Josh The Bricklayer (SEE BELOW), more incoherent hate mail than Charlie Manson gets in a year, one death threat, notice that I am officially […]
MAG: Does John McCain Have A Chappaquiddick?
HUFFPO: For the past two months, a major American magazine and an allied news service have been engaged in a legal battle with the United States Navy over records that they believe show that John McCain once was involved in an automobile accident that injured or, perhaps, killed another individual. Vanity Fair magazine and the National Security News Service claim to have knowledge “developed from first-hand sources” of a car crash that involved then-Lt. McCain at the main gate of a Virginia naval base in 1964, according to legal filings. The incident has been largely, if not entirely, kept from […]
FILIBUSTED: Ted Stevens Found Guilty On All Counts, Opening Door To A Filibuster-Proof Dem Majority
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven corruption charges Monday in a trial that tainted the 40-year Senate career of Alaska’s political patriarch. The verdict, coming barely a week before Election Day, added further uncertainty to a closely watched Senate race. Democrats hope to seize the once reliably Republican seat as part of their bid for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Stevens, 84, was convicted of all the charges he faced of lying about free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor. Jurors began deliberating last week. MORE DAILY KOS: Alaska disqualifies felons […]
DEATH OF PRINT: Inquirer Circulation Plunges In The Wake Of Outrageous Phawker Guest Editorial
EDITOR & PUBLISHER: For those holding out for some improvement in print circulation, this morning brings disappointment. The Audit Bureau of Circulations released the latest figures for the six- month period ending September 2008 and the report shows major drops in circulation at the big metros. According to ABC for the 507 newspapers reporting in this period, daily circulation slipped 4.6% to 38,165,848 copies. For the 571 papers, Sunday dropped 4.8% to 43,631,646 copies. For comparison purposes, in September 2007 reporting period, daily circ fell 2.6% and Sunday was down 4.6%. […] Daily circulation at The Philadelphia Inquirer slipped 11.0% […]
WINNER: Best Halloween Costume
DAILYKOS: So there I was, walking down the street minding my own business. I was sporting both my Obama ’08 baseball cap, and my “McCain + Palin = LIES” button. Suddenly, this short, angry old white guy runs up and punches me in the eye. I was so surprised I fell to the ground. Then he reached down, and using a sharp, yellowed fingernail he carved the letter “M” in my cheek. MORE HUFFINGTON POST: John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, commented on his blog there that “this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days […]
OCT. SURPRISE: U.S. Launches Attack INSIDE Syria
ASSOCIATED PRESS: DAMASCUS, Syria – U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as “serious aggression.” A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the foreign fighter network that travels through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area because Syria was out of the military’s reach. “We are taking matters into our own hands,” the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the […]
EDITORIAL: Why Whitey Can’t Vote
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don’t think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore. I give you Exhibit A: The last eight years. In 2000, Bush-Cheney stole the election, got us attacked, and then got us into two no-exit wars. Four years later, white people reelected them. Is not the repetition of the same behavior over and over again with the expectation […]
SMELLS LIKE VICTORY: 150,000 In Colorado
[Photos by SAUL MORA, STACEYFIGEL, K/J WILSON, EBATTY & STROH78] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Roaring toward the finish, Barack Obama presided Sunday over two Colorado rallies that together drew about 150,000 people, a startling turnout in a key swing state. In Denver, the city where he claimed his historic presidential nomination, Obama stepped on stage and seemed surprised at his own following. He saw an estimated crowd of more than 100,000 people — the largest U.S. rally to date in an Obama campaign full of them. “Goodness gracious,” Obama said as peered at the human mass in Civic Center Park. Smelling victory, […]
THE COST OF CHANGE: Priceless
The cost of change is, it turns out, astronomical — especially when the moneyed guarantors of the status quo will spare no expense to ensure that the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. Obama needs your help. In the first two weeks of October, the Obama campaign spent $105 million, while only raising $35 million during that same period, a precipitous drop from the pace of campaign donations in September. With just 10 days left in the campaign, every dollar counts. Phawker has been running a de facto fundraiser with Bruce Springsteen fans, offering a […]
SHPILKES*: Ex-Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Sandra Newman Pens Jew-Baiting Anti-Obama Email
NEW YORK TIMES: A new e-mail making the rounds among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania this week falsely alleged that Mr. Obama “taught members of Acorn to commit voter registration fraud,’’ and equated a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of their Jewish ancestors, who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s.” At first blush, it was typical of the sorts of e-mails floating around with false, unsubstantiated and incendiary claims this year. But where most of the attack e-mails against Mr. Obama have been mostly either anonymous or from people outside of mainstream politics, this […]