Phawker

[Illustration by ALEX FINE]

BY MICHAEL DONOVAN In this post-American Idiot world we live in, it seems just about everyone wants to make a Big Statement concept album. More often than not, however, the much-ballyhooed “concept” is more or less indiscernible (I’m looking at you, Mars Volta). So when I heard that the latest from Lupe Fiasco would be continuing the story of The Cool begun on 2006′s Food and Liquor, I was a bit skeptical- the concept album is a very hard feat to pull off, especially on a sophomore record.

As it turns out, The Cool is rather difficult to follow as a linear story. In fact, one might not even know the tracks were telling a tale unless properly debriefed. This hardly mars the record, though — in terms of a kickass hip-hop odyssey, Lupe’s still got game. All of what made Food and Liquor so much fun returns on The Cool. Tracks like “Gold Watch” recall the feel of “Kick, Push”- chill beats with borderline goofy lyrics (I like Street Fighter 2 I just really hate zanga/ If Only Ken and Ryu I find it hard to beat Blanka). On “Go Go Gadget Flow,” Fiasco shows that he’s no sophomore slump chump: “Hey hey don’t hate on me/ My tank on full your tank on e/ Look good on you look good on me/ Cause I’m a go and never gon s-t-o-p.” You can’t help but believe the man.

And beyond his own LPs, Lupe remains a selling point for other people’s albums: After appearing on Kanye’s 2005 effort Late Registration and netting the likes of Gemini, Pharrell, Jay-Z, and Jill Scott on his debut, Fiasco re-teams with Snoop Dogg on The Cool‘s “Hi-Definition.” Lupe has already garnered comparisons to Twista for his machine gun flow (throw on the aforementioned “Go Go Gadget Flow” for an exercise in insanity), and continues to receive the seal of approval from the industry’s biggest and brightest. His performance tonight at the Fillmore is WAY sold out. Out of the gate, this dude was six feet high and rising and he just keeps getting higher.

RELATED: Bill Cosby – a staunch critic of some rap music – is set to release a Hip-Hop album called State of Emergency, which will be a sanitized, issue-oriented CD. Sources told AllHipHop.com that the actor, comedian and philanthropist will address issues like proper parenting, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, Black-on-Black crime and the dropout rate in America’s high schools. Cosby’s album will not contain any profane language, nor will it offer any denigrating comments towards women. State of Emergency would be the 35th album for the legendary comedian, actor, who released his first album Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow in 1963.

BY SAM WOOD INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A pregnant woman was shot dead in the city’s Frankford section overnight, police said, but doctors at Temple University Hospital were able to save her child. The expectant young mother was killed by a single shotgun blast to her back shortly after 1 a.m. on the 4600 block of Griscomb Street, police said. The woman, who was 28 weeks pregnant, was found by police at 1:18 a.m. inside a parked car with her legs draped out the door. Her baby girl was expected to survive after an emergency delivery at Temple, police said. The child remains in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.A man, who investigators believe knew the woman, was also struck by gunfire but is in stable condition this morning. He was treated at Frankford Hospital with buckshot wounds to his right shoulder, left arm and back, police said. Police found two unlit molotov cocktails near the shooting scene. Police have no motive or suspect in the shooting, which is the city’s 23th homicide of the year. MORE

BY JEFF DEENEY Newly anointed police chief Ramsey released his crime fighting strategy yesterday, a very readable and accessible 22 page document that provides a first look into the mind of the man who will be leading the charge against violent crime as the Nutter administration ramps up. The Nutter administration continues to look promising to me; he’s moved fast to get promised policy documents into the public’s hands and there is a sense I think most of us share that some shit is finally starting to get done around here. Last week some major, desperately needed changes were announced regarding the Department of Human Services and the provision of child welfare protections. This week, we have a new direction for law enforcement. High fives, DJ Mike, for getting this party started right, and, most importantly, on time.

The plan, as you have probably heard by this point, will focus the city’s law enforcement resources on the nine police districts with the highest rates of violent crime without allowing a crime increase in the safer districts. There are some bold performance goals, including a 25% drop in homicides, a 20% decrease in other shootings, and a 20% decrease in other violent crimes. How, exactly, does Chief Ramsey intend to get that done? It’s a big task that’s going to require some major restructuring and resource re-allocation in the department, and the question is whether or not Ramsey will be able to effectively implement this institutional reorganization without a substantial increase in budget.

Ramsey repeatedly returns throughout the document to the stated needs of the residents in the nine districts. This is nice. One gets the sense in the early pages of the plan that Ramsey is going to at least attempt to be a bridge builder between law enforcement, neighbors, neighborhood grassroots organizations and social services providers.

The stated needs of nine districts shouldn’t surprise anybody:

“Residents want the police to stop the violence, eliminate illegal drug markets, get illegal guns off the street, increase police visibility, foot and bike patrols in the neighborhoods, improve communication between detectives and victims, participate as a full partner in intervention and prevention programs, address quality of life issues and crimes, focus on truancy and curfew violators, help intervene with young people who are threatening and frightening neighbors, and help improve school safety and passage to and from school. This is just a partial list of concerns, but they are common across the city.”

It’s important to note that the needs of the police force follow directly after the needs of the nine districts in Ramsey’s plan, and it gives you an indication of the sorry state that the Street administration left the police department in, and highlights the importance of balancing the needs of the people against the needs of city personnel.

“These (needs) include vehicles in working condition, modern technology and real-time information, more personnel, better training, improved deployment, and facilities that are habitable.”

Vehicles in working conditions. Habitable facilities. These should not be luxuries, but in Philadelphia, the land of ever-shrinking population and tax base, a city vehicle that starts when you turn the key is luxury. Uninhabitable facilities and failing equipment sends a message to officers. It says that the city isn’t really serious about fighting crime. These things keep morale persistently low. This is a good starting point for meaningful change.

The meat of this plain Jane plan (there is “nothing fancy” about it, according to Ramsey) centers around the simple idea of maintaining a sustained, elevated police presence in “Targeted Enforcement Zones” of high violent crime concentration, and staying on top of violent crime as it responds to increased police presence and starts to migrate elsewhere. Ramsey intends to get the man power he needs by restructuring the department, redeploying man power from special units and even administrative staff. New recruits will do mandatory tours in one of the nine districts, and existing officers will work overtime to provide adequate staffing during the crucial 3pm-3am time chunk when the majority of violent crimes occur.

It’s crucial to note the difference in tone set by Ramsey’s plan from those previously implemented, like Operation Safe Streets and its many sequels. Ramsey understands that his proposed elevated presence in the nine districts needs to be sustained, and it needs to be flexible, ready to move with the crime as it responds to his plan. Operations Safe Streets, by contrast, flooded known high drug and crime areas with an unsustainable level man power and was a relatively static measure that didn’t respond to crime trends.

The lesson of Safe Streets was that, of course, if you park four patrol cars one on each corner of Hancock and Somerset around the clock for weeks at a stretch, the open air drug markets that used to operate there will be disrupted. But what Safe Streets didn’t anticipate is that this disruption would be short lived, and that organized drug cartels would respond to law enforcement efforts, restructuring and redeploying their own resources into other areas. The end result was that drug distribution and its associated social problems spread out over a broader area, and when the costs of maintaining Safe Streets became too prohibitive and the program was phased out, the corners it targeted were reopened for business. The end result was that homicide rates weren’t impacted long term. I think both Ramsey and Nutter are pretty well versed in all of this and the plan reflects at least an attempt at the outset to learn from history.

There are far more specific details in the plan about executing warrants, working with parole and probation officers, improving homicide clearance rates and strengthening bonds to community groups; in fact, there’s too many bullet points to deal with here. I will say that the only concern I was left with at the end of the document was that there weren’t any budget numbers laid out, so it’s difficult to ascertain whether Ramsey’s intended substantial increase of overtime and infrastructure improvements are monetarily feasible.

Lastly, there will be plenty of discussion, I’m sure about Ramsey’s trotting out the “Broken Windows” theory, which he claims, is “an effective tools for the police and communities to reclaim and maintain neighborhoods.” The bottom line is that nothing is conclusive about the long term impact of broken windows policing, which amounts to strictly enforcing quality of life infractions with the intention of creating a ripple effect of increased order that will resonate through the system, causing a decrease in crime, ala Guliani-era New York. Just about every heavy weight social thinker has weighed in on Broken Windows at one point or another over the past 25 years, and for every Steven Levitt who says that Broken Windows is a correlate and not a causal factor for crime reduction you have a Malcolm Gladwell who thinks that order maintenance is an integral part of law enforcement that definitely reduces crime in the long term.

The problem in figuring out exactly what, if anything, Broken Windows does, is that crime is an enormously complicated proposition with myriad associated correlates and cultural particularities. Teasing out the impact of one correlate from another when crime drops suddenly and precipitously like it did in the 1990s in New York is difficult to say the least, and compelling cases can be made for a number of different hypotheses while irrefutable proof can be offered for none.

However, the one thing that nearly all Broken Windows theorists will agree on is that in the 1990s one major correlate involved in the falling crime rate in New York was an economic surge. Basically, if you’re going to police quality of life issues, running hookers and vagrants out of Times Square, it doesn’t hurt to have a long line of multinational corporations waiting to flood the same space with millions of dollars worth of investment. Unfortunately Philadelphia in 2008 is not the center of global finance the way New York was in the 1990s, and we’re entering into what some forecasters are predicting might be a long and deep recession. You can run the ladies off Kensington Avenue, you can board up abandos, and you can scrub off graffiti, sure. Then what?

This isn’t to say that Ramsey shouldn’t follow through with Broken Windows policing. Why? Because if you remember a couple paragraphs back when the residents of the nine districts got to speak their piece, they asked Ramsey to do it. But I think if there will be any real, lasting impact from Ramsey’s plan, it’s going to come from the “nothing special” increase of a well resourced and flexible police presence in the highest crime areas of the city.

The next step? Implementation. It looks great on paper, now lets see if Ramsey gets it done. In a couple months we’ll check back on the PPD and see how effectively the plan is being rolled out.

More about Broken Windows:

The Atlantic Monthly article that started it all

Shattering “Broken Windows”: rebuttal to the Atlantic article

Malcolm Gladwell rebutting Freakonomics author Steven Levitt on Broken Windows

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeff Deeney is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in PW, City Paper and the Inquirer. He focuses on issues of urban poverty and drug culture.

BY AMY Z. QUINN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer you towards the gooey center. Why? Because we love you!

ON THE COVERS

CITY PAPER: Long story short: Grumpy old men bond in front of the abortion clinic, rendered affectingly by Doron Taussig. I’m not sure exactly what it is that brings John Dunkle — an anti-choice activist who seems about a half-step away from Erich Robert Rudolph — and Erich Schmidtt — a pro-choicer who seems sane if only because he’s not the one quoted in the story approving the killing of abortion doctors — together in friendship, or how the women who must face both these men on their way into the Planned Parenthood office in Reading feel watching their little buddy movie play out during what is probably one of the more difficult moments in life.

Of course, John could tick off Erich, too. Another morning, they were standing out front of the clinic when a particularly baby-faced girl came walking up. Without ever looking at her, John went into his mantra. “Don’t kill your daughter, don’t kill your son,” he said.

Erich looked at the girl, and he looked at John, and he got this incredible urge to just paste the guy. Shaking with anger, he slipped inside the clinic to calm himself down. The clinic manager was standing by the door.

“That girl looked like she couldn’t have been older than 15,” Erich said.

“Fourteen,” the manager replied. “Impregnated by a 22-year-old man, incidentally.”

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be thinking about what a well-written rumination on friendship this is (true), and how interesting it is to see someone walking on that thin ledge between religious zeal and extremist fanaticism (also true). Maybe I’m supposed to be thanking God that Dunkle has rational people like Schmidtt in his life, but I can’t get past my weary anger at the way people — OK, men — bring their own agendas to the abortion debate.

Each has tried his best to show the other the error of his ways. John tries to tell Erich that he is acting as his own God — that if there’s no divine standard, and Erich can make his own definition of a human being, then so can Hitler, and so can Pol Pot. Erich, of course, is happy to discuss what kind of standard the Catholic Church offers. He has brought in a Bible and read to John, challenging him to defend the content.

Maybe the pro-life guy would be better off in church, or out in the community getting involved in the lives of young people so they don’t get pregnant in the first place. Then the pro-choicer wouldn’t have to spend his days escorting scared young girls who are trying to undertake a perfectly legal medical procedure and both of these old men could stay home and mind their own business.

PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY: Kia Gregory profiles Michael Coard, the defense attorney trying to keep cop killer John Lewis from death row. Coard is one of those tiresome windbag types who tries to use rhetoric to cloud a seemingly straightforward sequence of events. Guy walks into a Dunkin’ Donuts, whips out a gun and holds up the place. Cop walks in. Guy shoots cop, steals his gun and flees. But to Coard, it’s like this:

He then presents the five degrees of murder, from first degree, which carries a penalty of life in prison or the death penalty, to involuntary manslaughter, which carries a stint of two and a half to five.

“Let’s say hypothetically he did it,” he says about Lewis. “Let’s say hypothetically that many of the young black men—too many—in and around Philadelphia are committing similar crimes. There are two explanations as to why young black men commit a disproportionate number of crimes. One is the lack of opportunity due to the legacy of slavery and current racism and discrimination, or that young black men are genetically predisposed to crime. Clearly they’re not genetically predisposed to crime. So what if a John Lewis or anybody like him was able to graduate from high school like many white boys and get a decent job like many white boys? If John Lewis or people like him got the same opportunities that middle-class white boys got in America, you wouldn’t see people like him committing crimes like this.”

But in the same breath Coard argues that he doesn’t buy into “those bullshit, weak-kneed excuses that the white man is keeping us down.”

Yawn. Wake me up at the sentencing hearing, OK? The thing I really don’t get about this guy is how he makes these arguments after telling this great story about how he chose NOT to stab someone back in the day and “there but for the grace of God go I.” Which proves life is about choices, until you find a lawyer who’ll say it’s whitey’s fault.

INSIDE THE BOOK

CP: Wow, a $12 tip on a $280 dinner bill — now that’s a shitty tip ! What’s that, you say you spent part of the meal snickering at the diners’ use of the wrong cutlery and their wine selections? Well, here’s another tip: Try not being a presumptuous a-hole and your customers might like you more. Heating it up at the Concert for Oil. Obama is black power !

PW: Super Bowl Sunday? I’ll take Dan Deacon over Tom Brady any day. As the Metro turns. Actors other than Heath Ledger who died too young. River Phoenix is not on the list.

WINNER: PW, because I hate religious fanatics more than blowhard lawyers

PREVIOUSLY: Hacker Swarm Declares War On Scientology

9 p.m. TONITE on TV12: The Beatles’ stoned second film venture presents Ringo as the target of a mad scientist and Indian cultists. Hilarity ensues.

FRESH AIR

Sergei Tretyakov was an operative of the KGB, the former Soviet intelligence service. When the Soviet Union dissolved, the agency changed its name, but its mission remained the same. Tretyakov was nominally a press officer at the Russian mission to the United Nations in New York. In reality, he was running a number of intelligence agents who, in turn, were trying to get information out of Americans and others at the U.N. In 2000, Tretyakov became one of the highest-ranking Russian spies ever to defect to the United States. Four years later — with both FBI and CIA agents present — he met with Pete Earley, the author of books about several Americans who had spied for Russia. The result of their meeting is Earley’s book, Comrade J, the story of Tretyakov’s career. Tretyakov says he sees the book as a kind of “wake-up call” for Americans.

In 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy asked the nation to disregard his religion. In 2000, George W. Bush informed the nation that Jesus was his favorite philosopher. In his new book, God in the White House, Randall Balmer explores the interplay between religion and politics in America, tracking the “religionization” of the Oval Office across the last half of the 20th century. How did faith become such an important criteria for the presidency? Balmer is a professor of American religious history at Barnard College and the author of several books on the evangelical experience in the United States. His newspaper columns are distributed nationally by The New York Times Syndicate, and he earned an Emmy nomination for hosting the PBS adaptation of his second book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America.

RADIO TIMES
Hour 1
Reaction to the Florida primary results. We’ll talk with PETER BROWN who runs the Quinnipiac Florida poll about how this morning’s results compared with expectations leading up to the primary. Also we’ll hear from ALAN ABRAMOWITZ a political science professor at Emory University in Georgia. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3

Hour 2

(Rebroadcast tonight at 11)
Pedestrian friendly urban planning. For the past century American cities have been designed with the car in mind. But what if planners made people the top priority, where walk-ability was the number one priority. We’ll talk about this new movement with EUGENIE BIRCH, author of The Urban and Regional Planning Reader and Co-Director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania, and with CHRISTOPHER LEINBERGER a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. His new book is the Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3

THE WORLD CAFE

A guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer, Richard Hawley is best known for his work in the U.K. bands Longpigs and Pulp. Now a versatile and charming solo artist, he’s enjoyed a career renaissance in recent years. Hawley has released four solo albums to date, most recently last year’s Lady’s Bridge. The disc expands on the sophisticated pop-rock sound Hawley has honed over the years, especially after the Mercury Prize-nominated Cole’s Corner. In addition to his solo work, Hawley has also collaborated with artists such as Hank Marvin, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, and Gwen Stefani.

RICHARD HAWLEY: Serious

Check out this frame-by-frame breakdown of film footage shot by drycleaning magnate Abraham Zapruder standing on the Grassy Knoll of the Senate during the State Of The Union address Monday night. Senator Clinton, the Lady In Red, comes over to shake Ted Kennedy‘s hand, and in the process triangulate the Kennedy/Obama Bridge To Camelot. In reaction, Obama moves back…and to the left. Back…and to the left.

[Courtesy of MARRIED TO THE SEA]

MR. NUTTER GOES TO WASHINGTON: Takes Nation’s Capital By Storm

WASHINGTON – Mayor Nutter’s dinner was getting cold. There were dozens of hands to shake before he could eat. Fellow mayors, business executives, nonprofit leaders and lobbyists: They lined up three deep, hoping for a moment of his time. Nutter is accustomed to that sort of attention in Philadelphia. But in Washington? “It’s a little strange when you’re out of town,” Nutter said as he finally broke free of the crowd at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors last week. Less than a month into his administration, it has become clear that Philadelphians aren’t the only ones curious about Nutter, suggesting he could play a role on the national stage. On Monday of last week, for instance, Nutter was a guest on a six-minute segment of MSNBC’s Hardball, opining on the presidential race and explaining what it took for candidates to build multiracial support. Nutter was back on the network the next morning, discussing urban challenges such as housing and infrastructure.The next day, Nutter and other mayors met with Senate Democrats at the Capitol. Hours later, he joined presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Gov. Rendell in Philadelphia for an appearance at City Hall. “People see a new mayor trying to take on a whole host of challenges, from crime to education to creating jobs, and there’s enthusiasm, and people get a little curious,” Nutter said. “We want folks all across the country to know more about us, and a big part of my job is being an ambassador, telling people who we are.”[via INQUIRER]

*

I BLOGGER: Stephen A. Smith Pitches Tent In Cyberspace

A native of Hollis, Queens, who built his foundation as a journalist over the course of 14 years in New York and Philadelphia, Stephen A. Smith is now widely recognized as one of most popular voices on ESPN as well as one of the preeminent voices in the African-American Community. After graduating from Winston-Salem State University, Smith’s journalism career began as a high school sportswriter at the New York Daily News in the summer of 1993. Just 14 months later, he departed to cover college basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer. As the years went by, Smith rose in the journalism profession, covering everything from college basketball and football at Temple University, to national college basketball and football, and ultimately the National Basketball Association, his dream job. After four years as a beat writer on the Philadelphia 76ers, he became an NBA Columnist in 2001. By March 2003, Smith was promoted to General Sports Columnist, becoming one of only 21 African-Americans in the nation to hold such a title at that time. [via STEPHENA.COM]

*

NJ Best Buy HR Falls For Phony Email, Dishes Ex-Employee Dirt To ‘Competitors’

Stung by a scathing job reference, a Burlington County man filed a federal lawsuit last week claiming that Best Buy, his former employer, blackballed him. Michael Oliveri, 47, said it was impossible to find a new job after he was fired in August 2006 from Best Buy, the electronics and appliance megamart. In his suit, Oliveri said he became suspicious after offers at Circuit City and Target were abruptly withdrawn. So Oliveri, of Columbus, hatched a plan. He created an e-mail account using the name of a Target employee. Then Oliveri sent a note to his former company asking for a “candidate reference.” According to Oliveri’s lawsuit, Best Buy’s district human resources manager, Ann McCafferty, allegedly responded: “I will give you the skinny on him but you can’t say you got any info from Best Buy or we can be sued. Just don’t hire him and say you went with a better candidate. He was hired as GM and demoted after 12 months or so because he sucked. He is desperate for a job because supposedly his wife left him because he has no job. I would not touch him. Again, do not forward this email to anybody or say where you heard the info from because we were not allowed to give this info out, but I would hate you to get stuck with this guy!” New Jersey law prohibits interference with a prospective employment relationship. [via INQUIRER]

DENVER — Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters’ sympathies, The Associated Press has learned.

The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two aides.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.

Four in 10 Edwards supporters said their second choice in the race is Clinton, while a quarter prefer Obama, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo poll conducted late this month. Both Clinton and Obama would welcome Edwards’ backing and the support of the 56 delegates he had collected. MORE

BY ERIC BOEHLERT FOR MEDIA MATTERS My guess is that Fox News guru Roger Ailes has been reaching for the Tums more often than usual early in the New Year, and there are lots of reasons for the hovering angst. Let’s take an extended multiple choice quiz. Right now, which of the following topics is likely causing the discomfort inside Ailes’ Fox News empire?

A) CNN’s resurgence as the go-to cable destination for election coverage.
B) The incredible shrinking candidacy of Fox News’ favored son, Rudy Giuliani.
C) The still-standing candidacy of Fox News nemesis and well-funded, anti-war GOP candidate Rep. Ron Paul.
D) The Democratic candidates’ blanket refusal to debate on Fox News during the primary season.
E) Host Bill O’Reilly being so desperate for an interview from a Democratic contender that he had to schlep all the way to New Hampshire, where he shoved an aide to Sen. Barack Obama and then had to be calmed down by Secret Service agents.
F) Former Fox News architect and Ailes confidante Dan Cooper posting chapters from his a wildly unflattering tell-all book about his old boss. (“The best thing that ever happened to Roger Ailes was 9/11.”)
G) The fledgling Fox Business Network, whose anemic ratings are in danger of being surpassed by some large city public access channels.
H) Host John Gibson‘s recent heartless attacks on actor Heath Ledger, just hours after the young actor was found dead.

Bottom line is that Fox News is in for a very rough 2008. And the umbrella reason for that is quite simple: Eight years ago the all-news cable channel went all-in on the presidency of George Bush and became a broadcast partner with the White House…and made an obvious decision to appeal almost exclusively to Republican viewers. The good news then for Fox News was that it succeeded. The bad news now for Fox News is that it succeeded. Meaning, when the GOP catches a cold, everybody at Fox News gets sick. MORE

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan’s senate has endorsed a death sentence handed down by a court to a reporter and journalism student accused of blasphemy, the parliament media office said Wednesday. The senate, called the Meshrano Jirga (House of Elders), issued a statement Tuesday backing last week’s decision by the Balkh province primary court and criticising international pressure over the case, an official told AFP.

The court sentenced Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, to death for distributing articles downloaded from the Internet that were said to question the Koran and the role of women in Islam. “The Meshrano Jirga endorses the Balkh primary court’s verdict on sentencing to death Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh who has been sentenced over insulting Islam and misinterpretation of Koran verses,” said the statement read to AFP.

The house also “strongly criticises those domestic and international organisations which are pressurising Afghanistan’s government and legal authorities when pursuing such people,” it said. The statement was signed Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of the senate who was briefly Afghan president in the early 1990s and is a close ally President Hamid Karzai. MORE

RELATED: Film About Afghanistan Banned In…Wait For It…Afghanistan!

RELATED: Afghanistan risks sliding into a failed state and becoming the “forgotten war” because of deteriorating international support and a growing violent insurgency, according to an independent study.The assessment, co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, serves as a warning to the Bush administration at a time military and congressional officials are debating how best to juggle stretched warfighting resources.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS: Japanese Firms Gives Employees Time Off For Heart Break

BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhuanet) — If you are in Japan working in a company called Himes & Company, you can have a “heartache leave” if you feel frustrated over the ending of a relationship. This Tokyo company’s latest employee benefit sets a new standard for employer compassion. Their lovelorn staff can take paid time off after a bad break-up with a partner. “Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, ” said Miki Hiradate, chief executive of the company. Its workers 24 and younger can take one full day of heartbreak leave per year, while those 25-29 get two days and those 30 and older, three. “Women in their twenties can find their next love quickly, but it’s tougher for women in their thirties, and their break-ups tend to be more serious,” Hiradate added. The company also made the news by instituting paid sales shopping leaves, giving employees four morning off per year to shop. “Before, women could take half-days off to go to sales, but you’d have to hide your shopping bags in lockers by the train station,” Hiradate said. “But with paid leave, we don’t have to feel guilty about bringing our shopping bags to work, and we can enjoy the best part about sales shopping – talking about our purchases afterwards.” [via CHINAVIEW]

*

THERE WILL BE TITS: Upscale Nudie Bar Chain Buys Up Crazy Horse Too

Adult-nightclubs operator Rick’s Cabaret International Inc. said it will acquire a 100 percent interest in The End Zone Inc, owner of Crazy Horse Too adult nightclub in Philadelphia, under an amended purchase agreement. The 25,000 square foot club at 2908 South Columbus Blvd., decorated in fine marble and plush furnishings, opened in January 2006, will be rebranded Rick’s Caberet. It is located minutes from the major Philadelphia sports complex where Philadelphia Phillies, 76ers, Flyers and Eagles games are played and near the site of a proposed new gambling casino. “This will be a significant acquisition for us and we look forward to bringing the Rick’s Cabaret brand of upscale adult entertainment to the Philadelphia market,” said Eric Langan, president and CEO of Rick’s Cabaret. “The venue already has the feel of a fine country club, but with significant changes we are planning – including installation of a sports bar and converting part of the venue to a high-end steak house – we believe that, once acquired, it is capable of becoming one of our strongest performers in terms of revenue and profit.” [via REUTERS]

*

PHASERS SET FOR KILL: Penn Erecting Gigantic Cancer-Zapping Raygun Thing

The future of cancer treatment at the University of Pennsylvania crawled through the streets of South Philadelphia this morning. Half of it anyway. A caravan of police and construction workers shepharded a 110-ton hunk of steel and copper at 5 a.m. to the hospital at Penn. The oversized load is half of a cyclotron, which accelerates sub-atomic particles to two-thirds the speed of light. The second half of the device will arrive Wednesday. The cyclotron will weigh more than a Boeing 747-400 aircraft when it is put together. When fully operational in July 2009, the equipment will be used to deliver ultra-precise beams of radiation to shrink patient tumors and minimize damage to surrounding tissue. The cyclotron will be the centerpiece of what Penn says will be the largest proton-beam therapy center in the world. [via INQUIRER]