MEDIAITE: Limbaugh later accused President Obama of being behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, saying that it was driven by Tea Party envy from left-leaners. “The Democrats are so jealous of [the] Tea Party, they can’t see straight,” Limbaugh said. “Obama’s responsible for this. This kind of thing is not spontaneous, they didn’t bubble up out of nothing; they’ve had to create this, they’ve had to pay for it. They’re advertising.” MORE GAWKER: The Occupy Wall Street protests have been going on for a month. And it seems the FBI and NYPD have had help tracking protesters’ moves thanks to […]
EARLY WORD: Sister Christian Gets Her Due
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973), the pioneering gospel musician, will be honored by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with the dedication of an Historical Marker at her former North Philadelphia home (1102 Master Street) on Monday, October 24, 2011 at 1:00PM. In addition, on this day, there will be a free film presentation of the recently released documentary, The Godmother of Rock & Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, in the Central Philadelphia Library (1901 Vine Street) auditorium at 7:30PM. The film is produced and directed by Mick Csaky. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of gospel music’s first superstar and its original […]
THE HORROR: Plot Thickens At Tacony Dungeon
INQUIRER: The woman charged with keeping four adults with mental disabilities locked in a squalid Tacony basement while collecting their Social Security checks may have victimized dozens of others, police said Monday. When Linda Ann Weston was arrested Sunday, she had identification records for as many as 50 people in her possession, including power of attorney paperwork, forms of identification, and Social Security numbers, according to Philadelphia Police Lt. Ray Evers. The documents suggest that Weston has been running a wide-ranging fraud operation, he said. “She might have been doing this for years, probably since she got out of prison,” […]
SIDEWALKING: Teach Your Children Well
Washington Square, 10:09 AM by JONATHAN VALANIA
The Super Hassles Of Being A Real-Life Superhero
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Fabio Heuring was standing outside a Seattle nightclub with a friend on a Saturday night, smoking cigarettes, when a man bolting from a bouncer ran into them. Enraged, the man ripped off his shirt in the middle of the street and prepared to give Heuring’s buddy a beating. Just then, in swooped a bizarre sight: a self-proclaimed superhero in a black mask and matching muscle-suit. He doused the aggressor with pepper spray, much to Heuring’s shocked relief. A couple hours later, though, using those tactics on another group of clubgoers would land the superhero – Benjamin Fodor, better […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR MAUREEN CORRIGAN: Sometimes the stories that stay with us aren’t the classics or even all that polished. They’re what some critics call “good-bad” stories: The writing may be workmanlike and the characters barely developed, but something about them is so potent that they’re unforgettable — so unforgettable they can attain the status of myth. I’ve long wanted to give a nod to one of these “accidental myth-makers,” novelist and short-story writer Jack Finney. The fact that Finney would have turned 100 this month gives me an occasion. Finney started out in advertising before he became a science-fiction and […]
CAIN UNABLE: The Hermanator Is A Koch Sucker
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation’s capital. But Cain’s economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity. Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an […]
N. LAWRENCE MIDNIGHT SINGERS: Last Great Sat. Night
Dir. by Scott Colan
DEENEY: Abusing The Disabled For Fun And Profit
DAILY BEAST: A shocking discovery on a weathered but quiet stretch of Longshore Avenue in the working-class Tacony neighborhood shook Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon: four cognitively impaired disabled adults were found malnourished, chained to a water heater, and locked behind a steel door in a filthy 15-by-15-foot closet in the basement of an apartment complex. The details of the story are still taking shape. The four adults and their “caretakers”—charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, and various other crimes—arrived in the city by way of Florida just a few weeks ago, but lived in Texas prior to that. What brought them […]
#OCCUPY CITIZENS UNITED: Dr. Cornel West Arrested On The Steps Of The Supreme Court
CBS NEWS: Author, commentator, civil rights activist and Princeton University professor Cornel West has been arrested while protesting on the steps of the Supreme Court about corporate influence in politics. A Supreme Court spokeswoman says 19 people were arrested Sunday afternoon after they refused to leave the grounds of the court. MORE RELATED: The rallies started last month in New York’s financial district, where people have been staying in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. They widened to 1500 cities today, including Sydney and Toronto, the organisers said, in a “global day of action against Wall Street greed”. MORE RELATED: The global […]
EARLY WORD: Motopony Ride
BY TONY ABRAHAM Seattle based hard-soul/glitch-folk indie-rockers Motopony, led by former fashion designer Daniel Blue and joined by Buddy Ross and friends play Johnny Brendas tomorrow night (SUN. OCT. 16TH), promoting their debut self-eponymous album at Johnny Brenda’s. Phawker talked to Daniel (while the band was in the back of a van en route to Canada) about Motopony, music, the tour, Daniel’s artistic history, and the band’s explosion since the album was re-released last May. PHAWKER: So before Motopony, you were a fashion designer with your own label. What sparked your transition to music? DANIEL BLUE: In a lot of […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Elizabethan Age
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I’ve got two words for Occupy Wall Street (and Occupy Everywhere Else for that matter): ELECT ELIZABETH! As in Elizabeth Warren for those few (hopefully) of you who may not already be aware of who she is and what she represents. Looking for a purpose, someone or something to rally around, some kind of game-changing action to take? Here’s a suggestion: Get out of the parks and start hitting the bricks to help Elizabeth Warren Occupy a U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts! And, when you’re finished with that, spend the next four years making it possible for her to […]
EARLY WORD: Party Like It’s 1969
THE OCCUPATION PARTY: This Saturday at 5pm we take Times Square with music, performance and a message that the people of this country – not the banks, not the corporations – hold the true power. It’s a rare moment that a grass roots protest movement takes over the national conversation. From the Occupation of Wall St., a thrilling national movement has emerged. This Saturday, October 15th, hundreds of cities across the country will host demonstrations in support of the #Occupy movement. In New York City, dozens of community groups, unions, student organizations and lots and lots of regular folk are […]