LIVE FROM THE WASILLA WITCH TRIAL: Obama supporters vastly outnumber Palin supporters out front of the Irish Pub, Philadelphia, 6:41 PM [Photos by KEVIN C. BROWN] BOSTON HERALD: Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is scheduled to appear at a tavern near Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square — but to leave before the presidential debate.The Irish Pub is to welcome ticketed guests at 5 p.m. Friday. One of the owners, Mark O’Connor, tells The Philadelphia Inquirer that Palin is expected to show up between 7 and 7:30 p.m. and greet people. O’Connor says she should leave around 8:30 p.m., half an hour […]
KILLADELPHIA: Court Kills New Gun Laws Dead
INQUIRER: Philadelphia officials cannot enact gun laws tougher than Pennsylvania’s law, a state appeals court ruled today in throwing out city ordinances that would have limited gun purchases to one a month and banned assault weapons, among other things. Commonwealth Court dismissed a lawsuit against the Legislature filed by two members of Philadelphia’s City Council, Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller. The court cited language in several gun ordinances the council passed last year that the measures cannot take effect unless the Legislature were to let municipalities enact stricter laws. That has not happened. “While we understand the terrible […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
[Illustration by JAY BEVENOUR] FRESH AIR Australian singer Nick Cave and and his band, the Bad Seeds, are best known for angry, twisted, ballad-like lyrics. Their 2008 album, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, was inspired, in part, by the Biblical story of Lazarus. It is Cave’s 14th studio album. In an article about Cave in Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty writes, “Over the years Cave’s songwriting has become more intricate and challenging, almost literary in its ambitions. He’s one of the few artists in rock & roll, or any medium, really, who’s managed to get better with age.” RADIO TIMES Hour 1 We […]
BREAKING: Milton Street Gets 30 Months Behind Bars
ACTION NEWS: The older brother of former Philadelphia Mayor John Street has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison and fined $413,000 for not filing tax returns. Prosecutors say Milton Street willfully avoided paying taxes on nearly $3 million in income. He was sentenced Friday, handcuffed and ordered to start serving his time immediately. MORE
BREAKING: McCain Blinks, Palin Wins Pageant
WASHINGTON POST: The news that John McCain will debate Barack Obama tonight in Mississippi is a concession by the Arizona Senator that his attempt to score a quick political victory on legislation to bail out the financial sector did not pan out as he had hoped. McCain suspended his presidential campaign with much fanfare on Wednesday, insisting that the crisis in financial markets and the seeming stalemate on Capitol Hill required that politics be set aside for the good of the country. But, over the intervening 24 hours, McCain saw what looked at first like a brilliant political gambit turn […]
MEDIA: A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We sat down with the comedians for a provocative talk about the political landscape, the way they (and other, more traditional media outlets) cover it, and whether or not we’ll ever see the alleged ”change” we’ve been promised by every candidate. ”Do you mean change we need, or change we can believe in?” asks Stewart. ”Any change is as good as a vacation at this point,” says Colbert, who set his conservative TV pundit character aside for the chat. ”I don’t know if you’ve paid much attention to the past eight years, but it has been a shitburger […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran spoke at the United Nations this week, his translator was Hooman Majd. But Majd isn’t a professional translator. He’s been a record executive, a film producer, and a writer. Based in New York, he’s written for GQ, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Salon.com; he’s also a contributing editor at Interview, and he contributes occasionally to The Huffington Post. His new book is called The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal’s deputy bureau chief of the Middle […]
JUST A JELLO SHOT AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY: Sarah Palin To Watch Friday’s Debate At The Irish Pub
MYFOX: Palin will be at the Irish Pub on Walnut Street on Friday night for a public debate watching party, if the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama continues as planned. DEVELOPING… CITIZEN MOM: So, you know how I hate to be a contrarian, but it’s worth disagreeing with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who last week told City Paper’s Tom Namako that the upcoming election is “not about Sarah Palin.” I know what Dean meant, of course — that Democrats have to focus on running against John McCain, not the Moose Shootin’ Mama. Except it looks like […]
WORD: The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One
JOHN K. GALBRAITH: Today, the signature of modern American capitalism is neither benign competition, nor class struggle, nor an inclusive middle-class utopia. Instead, predation has become the dominant feature—a system wherein the rich have come to feast on decaying systems built for the middle class. The predatory class is not the whole of the wealthy; it may be opposed by many others of similar wealth. But it is the defining feature, the leading force. And its agents are in full control of the government under which we live. Our rulers deliver favors to their clients. These range from Native American […]
PALIN Vs. COURIC: Deer Meets Headlights
Lord help us all. RELATED: Why Won’t John McCain Release His Medical Records?
PANIC: McCain ‘Suspends’ Campaign, Desperate To Stem Free Fall In The Polls, Getting Crushed By Econ.
POLITICO: McCain suspends his campaign, and asks to postpone Friday’s debate, to address the financial crisis. Both candidates have been marginal players; McCain, though, seems to have the potential to make himself a major one, and his move is a mark, most of all, that he doesn’t like the way this campaign is going. But in terms of the timing of this move: The only thing that’s changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling. MORE WASHINGTON POST: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll gives Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama a nine-point lead over Republican nominee John McCain. […]
EARLY WORD: The Buena Obama Social Club
Michael T. Regan is, as you may well know, the City Paper’s staff photographer. He is also a friend of Phawker. Astute readers will recall his excellent Tom Waits photo essay (with wry commentary from local filmmaker Jon Michals) which ran here earlier this summer. On Sunday, he will be unveiling photos from a recent trip to the sultry, forbidden (for Americanos, anyway) land of Cuba. Michael tells us there will be food, music and it’s all for a good cause — kinda like Cuba, without the failed Marxism and odious totalitarianism: A portion of the proceeds will benefit Urban […]
G-MEN: FBI Probes Wall Street Collapse
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Federal investigators have opened preliminary probes into the financial troubles of four high-profile companies that are at the center of the current financial turmoil that the Bush administration says requires an unprecedented proposed taxpayer-funded bailout to clean up.The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s preliminary inquiries are focusing on whether fraud helped cause some of the troubles at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and American International Group Inc., according to senior law-enforcement officials. Lehman and AIG declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie and has both companies […]