PEREZHILTON: “Sources reveal exclusively to PerezHilton.com that U.S. officials will be holding a press conference shortly to announce the death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. South Florida police organizations are calling in reinforcements before the announcement is made, we?re told.” THE AGE: “Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque today said President Fidel Castro was still recovering from his operation last year and was keeping busy, having personally instructed him on his visit to Brazil. While attending the Forum for East Asia Latin American Co-operation (FEALAC), Roque, in an interview with AFP, dispelled rumours about Castro’s health taking a turn for […]
THE TROUBLE WITH DEENEY: Philadelphia Weekly’s Coverboy Answers His Harshest Critics
BY JEFF DEENEY The Next Mayor blog has a couple substantial posts talking about Showdown on Hurley Street. I would suggest reading them and getting involved in the larger discussion about poverty, crime and violence that’s bound to get louder as the change over to the Nutter administration draws nearer. I figured that the article would spark some strong responses both positive and negative; a lot of what I’ve written has. Let me address some points raised. * Blogger Phil starts out by saying, “An article from today, The Showdown on Hurley Street, struck me as hysteria.” In the larger […]
QUACKERY: Ride The Ducks To Buy NJ Aquarium?
The company that owns the Ride the Duck amphibious tours in Philadelphia is now interested in owning the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. Steiner and Associates hopes to complete a deal by the end of October that would sell both the Adventure Aquarium in Camden and the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky to the Herschend Family Entertainment Group. Herschend spokesperson Valerie McCarty says the aquarium would compliment what the company already does in Philadelphia. [KYW]
TED NUGENT: Still An Asshole After All These Years
WARNING: Crass language and moronic antics. Interesting that out of the entire field of presidential candidates, he only threatens to gun-rape (orally and otherwise) minorities and women. What a tough guy.
MUST HEAR RADIO: God Save Artie Lang, Please
FRESH AIR In early June 2005, Lange began missing work at the Howard Stern Show, prompting concerns of a possible relapse of past substance abuse. The situation climaxed in Lange behaving incoherently and belligerently on-the-air. He infamously sneered at Howard and crew that: “Artie’s going to do what Artie’s going to do!” Stern later commented that this statement had scared him. Lange missed the entire week of work. At the time, Lange’s absence from the show went largely unmentioned and was written off as stress from doing the radio show and beginning production of his movie Beer League. The […]
JUNK SCIENCE: I Am Omega Man
BY ELIZABETH FIEND LIVING EDITOR Never even heard of vitamin F, have you? Well, that’s why I’m here. Vitamin F is more commonly known as a group of three EFAs, or essential fatty acids. If you’ve ever heard the phrase fish is brain food, EFAs are the reason why that’s true. There are three essential fatty acids we require for optimum health. Omega-3, -6 and -9. These fatty acids are required by our bodies to maintain healthy brain, cell and blood function as well as healthy immune, digestive and nervous systems. The “essential” means that this is a nutrient our […]
SILENCING THE LAMB: Cops Find 11-Year-Old Boy Locked In Kensington Drug Dungeon, Arrest Parents
Police serving a search warrant inside a Kensington home during a narcotics investigation found an 11-year-old boy home alone and locked in a small cell-like chamber in the basement. The boy was found in a locked 8-foot-by-10-foot chamber in a home in the 500 block of East Clearfield Street about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday by members of the Police Department’s Intensive Drug Investigation Squad, police said. Inside the chamber was a small cushion, which appeared to be used as a mattress, and a bucket containing urine and feces, police said. Police said evidence indicated the boy had been in the chamber […]
THAT’S COMCASTIC!: Spectacor Sports Baron Ed Snider Is Funding The Movement To Save The War
So in looking into this so-called Freedom’s Watch, we came across this donor’s list on The Politico, which had a name on it that caught our eye: “The donors include Sembler; Anthony Gioia, a Buffalo businessman who was Bush’s ambassador to Malta; Kevin Moley, who was Bush’s ambassador to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva; Howard Leach, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman who was Bush’s ambassador to France; Dr. John Templeton of Pennsylvania, chairman and president of the John Templeton Foundation; Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast Spectacor, the huge Philadelphia sports and entertainment firm; Sheldon […]
THE QUALITY OF MERCY: C.H.O.P. Still Rocks
For the fifth straight year, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia tops the list of “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” compiled by U.S. News and World Report. CHOP, as the pediatric medical center is frequently called, has also finished No. 1 for five years running on Child magazine’s list of the nation’s best children’s hospitals. This year, rankings were based not just on reputation, but on statistics about services, performance and quality of care, the magazine said in a news release.The magazine surveyed 122 children’s hospitals and got 113 replies that even delved into such difficult procedures as bone marrow transplants and heart […]
WAR PIGS: Ari Fleischer Is An Ignorant Slut
See here for the backstory. Ex-White House snake oil salesman spokesman Ari Fleischer, fresh off his immunity-from-prosecution deal in the Valerie Plame investigation*, is on Hardball to hype the Save The War ad campaign being rolled out in 20 states by Freedom’s Watch. (“For people who believe in peace through strength, the cavalry is coming.”) The Hardball guest-host cues up one of the ads featuring a double amputee Iraq vet who asserts, more or less, that if we pull out now he will have lost his legs in vain. When it’s over the host asks Fleischer for the vet’s name. […]
WORTH REPEATING: Diane Arbus (1923-1971)
“I want to photograph the considerable ceremonies of our present because we tend while living here and now to perceive only what is random and barren and formless about it. While we regret that the present is not like the past and despair of its ever becoming the future, its innumerable, inscrutable habits lie in wait for their meaning. These are our symptoms and our monuments. I want simply to save them, for what is ceremonious and curious and commonplace will be legendary.” — Diane Arbus, American Photographer
AUDIT: Federal, State & Local Government Among The Biggest Employers Of Undocumented Workers
If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee. A 2006 audit showed federal, state and local governments are among the biggest employers of the half-million persons in the U.S. illegally using “non-work” Social Security numbers — numbers issued legally, but with specific instructions that the holders are not authorized to work in the U.S. The Social Security Administration used to, but no longer does, issue non-work numbers to legal aliens who […]