Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld thinks people who oppose the Iraq war are confused and lacking in courage. See the Associated Press report of his speech here, and read the entire text here.

Then tell us what you think - if you're not too confused to do so...

8/29/2006 2:21:05 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

Tim Collins, a Portland-based solo performer, has a piece on HBO's The Wire contest, which you can see here. Check it out and tell Tim what you think!

8/24/2006 1:44:43 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier today, the Phoenix received a copy of an email which Janis Beitzer, director of the Portland Downtown District, had forwarded on to members of the PDD. The email is from Mike Harris, owner of the Stadium sports bar on Congress Street. It confirmed months of rumors about a certain noteworthy corporation looking into purchasing his spot.

"Out of respect to all of you," Harris wrote, "I wanted to inform you first, before the
newspapers and the general public were told. The Stadium will be the
location of the newest Hooters Restaurant in the country."

According to the email, Harris says he has "spent the past nine months and well over a hundred thousand dollars putting together this franchise deal." Hooters, based in Atlanta, is an international restaurant chain known for its well-endowed waitresses, aka "Hooters Girls". According to the Hooters website, the company owns more than 435 restaurants around the world. The Hooters Girl, the website states, "is as socially acceptable as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, or a Radio City Rockette."

Harris apparently expects flak from some members of the Portland public due to the sexually explicit nature of Hooters, since most of his two page email tries to prove the company isn't nearly as bad as people might think:

"I am sure there is going to be some initial skepticism and a lot of
questions. I was probably the biggest skeptic of all, but after sitting down
with members of Hooters corporate and visiting several of their locations, I
saw how professional this company is run."

And later:

"Again, I'm sure there will be a handful of people who will be hesitant in
the beginning, but I know once they see that this is nothing more than a
restaurant, there is nothing rude or illegal going on, the company even
chooses NOT to promote or sell liquor."

Harris writes he will need to invest another $750,000 to ready the Stadium for the Hooters folks. Whether the rest of Portland will be ready for them remains to be seen.

 

8/23/2006 5:19:40 PM by Sara Donnelly | Comments [0] |  

Well, they've done it now. The Bush Administration has sued both the state of Maine and the Verizon corporation, seeking to stop the investigation being mulled by the Maine Public Utilities Commission (see "State Will Not Investigate Verizon - Yet," by Jeff Inglis and Laura Lanz-Frolio, August 11).

Specifically, the administration is seeking to stop Verizon from answering questions posed by the PUC regarding Verizon's participation (or non-participation) in a program in which phone companies provided huge logs of their customers' calls to the federal government, as reported back in May in USA Today.

What does this mean? Well, we can be sure that the feds don't want Verizon to answer because the answer would reveal something of the federal program. But are they concealing something legal, or not? Under Maine law, phone records must be kept private. So Maine authorities would seem to be well within their jurisdiction to determine whether a state law has been broken.

What do you think the feds' move means?

8/21/2006 7:36:08 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

It mostly speaks for itself: a video of Portland's first-ever Zombie Kickball Tournament, from the Eastern Promenade.

The video is by Brad Ungar and Alex Bilodeau, and includes, near the end, the incredible quote: "You can still get through them with a good stiff-arm, but if you screw up, you're, you know, just consumed and you join the legions of the undead."

8/14/2006 11:18:46 AM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [1] |