FRESH AIR Columnist Bob Sullivan covers Internet scams and consumer fraud for SNBC.com, where he writes a column called The Red Tape Chronicles. Sullivan’s latest book is about the hidden fees found in many phone, cable, credit card and other bills. All told, he says, corporations are nickel-and-diming their customers to death — or at least to the tune of $1,000 or more a year. The title? Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day — And What You Can Do About It. Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government […]
HILLARY’S CHOICE: Asphyxiation By Triangulation
RASMUSSEN: In New Hampshire, Monday’s tracking update shows Obama retaining his double digit lead over Clinton. Obama’s victory has triggered a political earthquake, but it would be foolish to assume that he will cruise to the nomination unchallenged by the formidable Clinton campaign team. MORE HUFFINGTON POST: Clinton needs to do something dramatic. She needs to give people a reason to believe in her, show that she’s not just an overly scripted politician who will never do anything that’s isn’t “safe.”An excellent way to do that would be to leave the campaign trail and go back to Washington with Chris […]
TODAY I SAW…
BY JEFF DEENEY TODAY I SAW a woman wearing an ankle-length denim coat over her pajamas. She had on a backward baseball cap and bedroom slippers. She was holding two quarters between her thumb and forefinger, waving them at the middle-aged Chinese couple sitting on stools at the take out joint counter on Lindbergh Boulevard across from the Bartram Village projects in the Southwest. The couple was protected by two offset Plexiglas panes that overlapped, creating a bulletproof shield that stretched the entire length of the counter. There was an open lane between the two panes where food and money […]
PRAYER FOR THE CITY: And So It Begins…
NEW DAY DAWNING: Michael Nutter sworn in as Mayor this morning. [Photo by CLEM MURRAY/INQUIRER]
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD: Iraq 2007-2008
SOURCE: New York Times [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
REWIND 2007: THE YEAR IN MUSIC
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THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS 2007
PUNK ROCK MOMENT OF THE YEAR The Monks Of Burma Rise Up * ALBUMS WE LOVED Radiohead In Rainbows As fine a Radiohead album as I have ever heard. The devoted will be immensely gratified, and new converts will be drawn in by all the buzz and what proves to be bewitchingly ethereal, yet altogether visceral, rock music. The 10-song In Rainbows collapses into one tidy package all the Radioheads we have come to know: folk-rock Radiohead, electronica Radiohead, alt-rock Radiohead, prog-rock Radiohead. Not only does the band seem to nail the shifting ways those genres contribute to each song, […]
GAYBO: TOMMY ZANE’S Top 10 YouTubes of 2007
BY TOMMY ZANE GAYDAR EDITOR Brit superstar soul singer Amy Winehouse tops my BEST OF with her prophetic, “Rehab.” Miss Winehouse also brought the noise in 2007 with other hot tracks including album title cut, “Back To Black,”“Tears Dry On Their Own,” and “You Know I’m No Good.” Topped off with a slew of Grammy Award nominations, it was truly an outstanding year for Miss Winehouse. Let’s hope Miss Beehive 1965 gets her health issues together for an even better 2008. #1-Amy Winehouse, “Rehab” #2-Mason/Princess Superstar, “Perfect (Exceeder)” #3-Verka Serduchka, “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” #4-Plain White T’s, “Hey There Delilah” […]
CINEMA: Blood Brothers
THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, 158 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK, FILM CRITIC Like a booby-trap designed to ensnare film buffs with the evanescent bait of familiarity, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film references so many iconic American classics that it takes on the momentum of one of those zingy montages they use on the Turner Classic Movie channel. Playing like a Tarantino film with more prestigious references, There Will Be Blood rarely lets a scene go by without nodding to John Ford, Orson Welles, or John Huston (he even shot the darn thing in the […]
IOWAS: A CHANGE IS GONNA COME or HOW THE PRIMARIES ARE LIKE A TRIP TO THE MALL
BY AMY Z. QUINN Look, it’s not that I’m not excited — moved, really — by the fact that a black man just won the Iowa caucuses. And if a person is elected president in November who is not a white man, it will be one of the proudest and most significant moments in America’s history. There, that’s out of the way. But I’d be a lot more emotional if the Democratic winner of Iowa ever actually won the presidency — since 1972, the only ones who have (Carter ’76 and Clinton ’96) were incumbents competing in Iowa the second […]
THE DUDE ABIDES: “Sometimes there’s a man – I won’t say a hee-ro, ’cause what’s a hee-ro? – sometimes there’s a man who, well, he’s the man for his time ‘n place, he fits right in there – and that’s the Dude.” –Big Lebowski
ASSOCIATED PRESS: DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Barack Obama, bidding to become the nation’s first black president, captured the Iowa caucuses Thursday night, opening test in the race for the 2008 Democratic nomination. Mike Huckabee rode a wave of support from evangelical Christians to victory in the Republican caucuses. MORE
JUNK SCI 2007: The Year Of Living Less Dangerously
EDITOR’S NOTE: At no time in recorded history have we possessed so much knowledge about health and nutrition, nor have we ever had such vast and effective machinery for disseminating that knowledge — and yet, for all intents and purposes, we live in hi-tech Dark Age with the vast majority of the global population essentially ignorant or confused about the basic facts of their own biology. How did this happen? Well, that’s a whole six-part mini-series in and of itself, but the short answer is that the bottom line of many a multi-national corporation is dependent on that ignorance, and […]
REWIND 2007: THE YEAR IN PHAWKER TALK
* UPDATE: We have since determined that there was nothing wrong with our camera equipment and that the only reasonable explanation for the ‘funny-ness’ is that the Mayor-elect chomped down two, possibly three buttons of peyote shortly before our interview this morning. If true, this is the kind of bold, visionary leadership we have been praying for. Truly, a ‘new day’ has dawned in Philadelphia. CLICK HERE TO SEE FOR YOURSELF. * Q&A With The Stooges’ Ron Asheton PHAWKER: Do you recall the first time you met Iggy — legend has it he saw you and your brother standing […]