The Defense Department will begin blocking access “worldwide” to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander. “This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge,” the memo said. Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall, and the Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis. The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites […]
CJR: THE FORT DIX SIX FOR SKEPTICS
From Columbia Journalism Review’s daily online page: The Bush administration’s Justice Department has a vested interest in portraying every “plot” it busts as the next 9/11, regardless of how embryonic or feeble. It serves as a distraction from the administration’s failures in Iraq and elsewhere, it perpetuates the state of fear that has served this White House well in recent years, and it justifies the massive Homeland Security bureaucracy. Journalists, meanwhile, are at a decided disadvantage when trying to determine the seriousness — or lack thereof — of the threat, because the government holds all the cards. That’s why a […]
DOJ: U.S. Attorneys Fired For Not Bringing Trumped Up Voter Fraud Cases Against Swing State Dems
Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations, according to new documents and interviews. Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year, five were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud — Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those […]
GAYBO: Holy Franz Ferdinand! SERBIA WINS!
TOMMY ZANE REPORTS: HELSKINKI, FINLAND — Marija Serifovic [PICTURED, LEFT] and her big Balkan ballad, “Molitva (Prayer)”, won the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest amid stormy accusations of incestuous country voting (don’t ask) to influence the results. When questioned at the winner’s press conference how she felt about her legion of gay and lesbian fans, Serifovic was pleased to hear congratulations, but stopped short of confirming speculation of her own sexuality. Ukrainian drag star, Verka Serduchka, came second with his rollicking accordion disco anthem, “Dancing Lasha Tumbai”, upsetting the Russian government which understood the song to mean “Russia Goodbye”. While hordes […]
HIZZONER ’07: Stay Parochial, Philadelphia!
[Click image to activate Internet] DAILY NEWS: Knox campaign manager Josh Morrow said neither Knox nor the campaign had anything to do with the flier. “We would never, ever, do anything like that, and whoever did it isn’t doing us any favors,” Morrow said.
ARTSY: THE PARIS HILTON AUTOPSY
EDITOR’S NOTE: When we heard the news that Paris is ‘dead’ and the autopsy is open to the public, we put our best Girl Friday on the first Chinatown bus up to New York to get the 411. Phawker Assistant Editor (and newly minted Temple University graduate!) Eva Liao just got back from Williamsburg where she shot the ‘corpse’ and did a video interview with the artist, Daniel Edwards, and got the lowdown on how the Paris Hilton Autopsy is intended to serve as a cautionary tale for young girls that emulate the fun-loving heiress. Sure, that bus ticket set […]
TOM FERRICK: A Referendum For Change?
In fact, if we all try hard enough, we can envision an end to the decline in the city’s fortunes and a revival of political integrity and civic activism.This election could offer proof that there is a constituency for a Philadelphia that is neither corrupt nor contented. That we can be a city that draws new people and new jobs, an ancient urban place that is still brimming with vitality — with more to come. Hope is a fragile thing, but it’s out there, in the neighborhoods in the suddenly crowded streets of Center City, among the new and old […]
MUMIA: It’s Do (Over) Or Die Time — Again
BY EMILE LOUNSBERRY INQUIRER STAFF WRITER On July 3, 1982, a Philadelphia jury took just four hours to sentence Mumia Abu-Jamal to death for murdering Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Nearly a quarter-century later, Abu-Jamal has remained alive through a series of appeals. His bid to escape the death penalty is now at a critical stage. The case will be argued this week in the region’s federal appeals court, and if Abu-Jamal loses, Philadelphia’s most controversial death-row inmate will be in imminent peril of lethal injection. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit […]
Supporters Of Fort Dix Six Need To Work On Media Relations Skills, Assault On DN Photographer Not Helping With ‘Wouldn’t Hurt A Fly’ Defense Strategy
ALL SIX MEN arrested in an alleged plot to massacre soldiers at the Fort Dix Army base in South Jersey were ordered held without bail yesterday at a hearing in federal court in Camden. U.S. Magistrate Joel Schneider said the men posed a danger to the community and might flee if released. DAILY NEWS: Judge Says ‘Bail? No Fuckin’ Way!’ SAY CHEESE: Unidentified man attacks Daily News photographer Alejandro Alvarez outside Federal Courthouse in Camden, yesterday.
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION + WILCO Together at last! This is like a public radio wet dream come true. Around che Phawker, we listen to Prairie Home Companion with a geeky regularity uncommon for people not yet in assisted living situations, and we sure loves us some Wilco. Rebroadcast at 2 PM Sunday on WHYY 91FM. The new and wonderful Sky Blue Sky drops Tuesday — expect one of those insufferable long-ass Valania navel-gazers on the topic any day now, and don’t forget to check out ED KING’s ‘live review’ of Sky Blue Sky — but in the mean time, you […]
FUJIYA & MIYAGI: Ankle Injuries
Hat tip to Citizen Mom.