WATERGATE TAPE: Nixon Describes Fred Thompson As A Useful Idiot Fred Thompson has made much of his role 30 years ago as a young Senate lawyer helping to lead the investigation of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon. But a much different, less valiant picture of Thompson emerges from listening to the White House audiotapes made at the time, as President Nixon plotted strategy with his aides in the Oval Office. Thompson’s job on the Watergate committee was to lead the Republican side of the investigation. As the investigation picked up speed, Nixon grew increasingly concerned about whether Thompson […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, talks about his book I Am America (And So Can You!) and his successful television show.The former correspondent and contributor to The Daily Show created his own Emmy-nominated late-night show to parody Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor. In I Am America, Colbert targets race, religion, sports and the American family as well as more mundane topics like breakfast cereal. RADIO TIMES Three Philadelphia funeral home directors were charged last week with selling bones and tissues from the deceased without permission from the donor or his or her family. We […]
TO OUR READERS: Did You ‘Buy’ The New Radiohead?
FROM THE EDITOR: If so, I wanna talk to you. I am reviewing the new album for the Inquirer and would like to know what you paid and why. Also, to the best of my knowledge the album has NOT leaked to the Internet, if you know otherwise please do tell. You can reach me at feed@phawker.com. Thanks.
AUTHOR, AUTHOR: The Bard Of Main Street USA
[illustration by ALEX FINE] Richard Russo, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls, spoke to PHAWKER about what spurs him to write about small-town life, class and it’s relation to geography in his new book, Bridge of Sighs, and his newest screenplays. He will be speaking at the Free Library tonight. PHAWKER: How has winning the Pulitzer changed how you live and write? RICHARD RUSSO: Well I got caller ID. [laughs] That’s one way it’s changed how we live. I think it changed my writing more; it was just such a wonderful thing to happen that I kind of […]
I HEART BLACKWATER!
A new low in right-wing toadying! USA TODAY: Today, at 38, [Erik] Prince, chief of Blackwater USA, has a real army — or at least the makings of one, with weapons, aircraft, armored vehicles and a thousand or more battle-hardened security personnel… Prince landed an internship in the early 1990s in the White House under then-President George Bush. Again, he was disappointed. He later told the Grand Rapids Press: “I saw a lot of things I didn’t agree with — homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kinds of bills.” But he didn’t reject […]
GAMBLOR: Dick Sprague IS Gamblor!
In a front page article Saturday on attorney Richard Sprague’s efforts to quash a grand jury investigation of his client, Louis DeNaples, we inexcusably forgot to mention that Sprague and his children own a little more than 13 percent of SugarHouse Casino. SugarHouse plans a $550 million casino on Delaware Avenue straddling the Fishtown/Northern Liberties border. DeNaples, a prodigious campaign contributor from Scranton, hopes in the coming weeks to reopen the once-famous Mt. Airy Lodge in the Poconos as the state’s first standalone slots parlor.Until recently, Sprague also represented the chief architect of the 2004 law that legalized slots in Pennsylvania, […]
BLACK OPS: It Was 40 Years Ago Today…
REUTERS: Guevara was captured by CIA-backed Bolivian soldiers on October 8, 1967, and was shot the next day in a schoolhouse. His bullet-riddled body, eyes wide open, was put on display in a hospital laundry room and later buried in an unmarked grave. He was 39. MORE
KILLADELPHIA: Cops Kill 15-Year-Old With Iron
INQUIRER: A 15-year-old who reportedly lunged at police with a clothing iron was fatally shot this afternoon by an officer who responded to an emergency call for help from the teen’s mother in their Crescentville home, police said. Vanore said that at about 1:30 p.m., police responded to a 911 call for help on a domestic disturbance at a residence in the 600 block of Brill Street. Shortly after arriving, there was a confrontation with the teen, who “had an object in his hand that he was using as a weapon,” Vanore said. A police source said the object was […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
AWOL G.I. BUSTED IN GREAT PUMPKIN HEIST BENTLEYVILLE, Pa. — A soldier accused of deserting the Army and two other men tried to steal a 200-pound pumpkin from a grocery store, state police said. A trooper on patrol early Thursday saw a pickup truck driving fast out of the store parking lot with two men drinking beer in the truck bed next to the giant gourd, police said. One of the three men, Jordan Ivill, was arrested on a warrant accusing him of leaving the base at Fort Benning, Ga., without leave, police said. Summons charging the two other men […]
MISSION OF BURMA: Let My People Go!
[illustration by ALEX FINE] ASSOCIATED PRESS: A relentless crackdown on Myanmar’s pro-democracy activists showed no sign of easing with the junta announcing yesterday that 78 more people have been detained in spite of global outrage and new sanctions. The latest arrests, reported by the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, brought to nearly 1,000 the number of people the military regime acknowledges holding in detention centers. In addition, it says 135 Buddhist monks remain in custody. RELATED: Who Swats A Butterfly With A Sledgehammer? U.S. CAMPAIGN FOR BURMA: Sign Their Petition For U.N. Action Here JIM CARREY: The Eternal Sunshine […]
VOX POPULI: People Are Strange
From Philly.com a few minutes ago: Hard to say what is more shocking and appalling: That 1502 people actually took the time to vote on such an issue or that 789 people actually want to duly deputize the underpants police. What’s next? Bad breath? Problem hair? Is this what you people want?
WORTH REPEATING: Dead Letter Office
BY DAN RUBIN INQUIRER COLUMNIST What happened to the mailboxes? That’s what Republican committeeman Jim Finnegan wanted to know this summer as he made his twice-a-week rounds through the narrow streets around Kensington and Allegheny. “There used to be three in front of the 7-Eleven at Kensington and Ontario,” Finnegan says. “Then one at Jasper and Ontario, one at Frankford and Ontario, and then one at Jasper and Westmoreland.” That was a few months ago. Now they’re gone. All told, he says, a dozen mailboxes from his division have disappeared. The U.S. Postal Service says it’s aware of the situation. […]