By Foster Kamer 2/09/12 5:10pm

HOW THINGS WORK

IE_2010_RSLC_Pruitt

Did Oklahoma A.G. Scott Pruitt, Mortgage Settlement Holdout, Sell Out His State for Wall Street?

The American government finally has something to show for the some of the largest banks in American preying on the American people and taking the economy down while they did it: a $28 Billion settlement. The settlement was agreed upon by the big five mortgage providers (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial) and 49 of the 50 attorney generals. This comes after months of talks and holdouts by the attorneys general of Delaware, California, Nevada, and New York’s own Eric Schneiderman, who wouldn’t agree to the settlement until they felt they’d won something for their states.

But there were only 49. The 50th A.G., the one who didn’t join? It’s Scott Pruitt, the Attorney General of Oklahoma. Why did he hold out? Read More

By Rex Reed 10/05/11 10:15am

movies

Temple and Dozier.

Dirty Girl is a Sleazy Rider

The title character in Dirty Girl must have been written for Madonna. The movie is a randy romp about a road trip between a bottle blonde bimbo and a gay, overweight blob that heads for a brick wall early and stays there. Trashy, teenaged Danielle (Juno Temple) is a mess. Dressed in striped, low-cut, middy tops, killer hot pants and boots, with too much mascara and a permanent scowl only half-hidden behind huge pink-tint sunglasses, her schoolmates scoff at her behind her back, labeling her the campus slut. Easily distracted from everything but boys, slovenly about homework and indifferent to the town’s conventional ideas of morality, she’s a misfit in Norman, Okla., “back in the day.” Read More

By Rebecca Sinderbrand 3/26/07 12:00am

Gore Jousts, Crowd Laps It Up

If Hillary Clinton had peeked outside the committee hearing room before taking her seat on the dais today to welcome Al Gore back to the Senate, she would have seen an overflow crowd that stretched deep into the Dirksen building—including more than a dozen singing anti-war protestors dressed in choir robes, and a man toting Read More

By Staff 9/12/06 4:53pm

New York Times to Ditch TV Stations

The New York Times Company announced this afternoon that it plans to get rid of its broadcast group, including nine local TV stations. The release follows:

THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY ANNOUNCES PLAN TO SELL ITS BROADCAST MEDIA GROUP

NEW YORK, September 12, 2006 – The New York Times Company announced today that it plans Read More

By Staff 9/05/06 10:50am

The Rowback Point: Malcolm Gladwell Discovers the NCAA

Yesterday, New Yorker technical-generalist Malcolm Gladwell used his blog to launch a full attack on the NCAA, describing the hypocrisy and draconian tactics of the college-sports regulatory body.

Gladwell is nothing if not a quick study. A week before, in writing about former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Rhett Bomar, he failed to mention Read More

By Staff 1/02/06 12:02pm

Fourth Quarter: Pop?

Gray Lady real-estate blogging arriviste Damon Darlin over at The Walk-Through is unconvinced by doomsday forecasts for the real-estate market or speculation the bubble–if there is one–is about to burst.

We don’t pretend to understand things like flipping condos in Marin County or those weird speculation deals in Oklahoma that Erik Estrada advertises Read More

By Sheelah Kolhatkar 12:00am

Gloria Steinem

What is Gloria Steinem’s advice to young women these days? To do “whatever they fucking well please,” America’s foremost feminist said, stabbing into poached eggs at a brunch-mobbed diner on a recent Sunday. “ Ha ha ha! … Have some fries.”

Ms. Steinem, a luminous 71, still curses, looks hot and paints her nails. Read More

By Charles Taylor 10/03/05 12:00am

Feeble Assault Backfires— Let Fans of Porn Rejoice

What kind of person is arrogant enough to believe that, for the good of society, our sexual fantasies should be policed? In Pornified, Pamela Paul jumps on that tired old horse named Pornography Is Eroding Our Moral Fiber, and winds up proving only that one nag deserves another.

There isn’t room here to annotate the Read More

By Baz Dreisinger 1/26/04 12:00am

How Jews Play the Part: Assimilation with a Score

MakingAmericans:Jewsandthe Broadway Musical, by Andrea Most. Harvard University Press, 253 pages, $29.95.

In the oft-quoted scene from Annie Hall , Woody Allen’s Alvy Singer recalls being asked, “Did you eat?” and hearing instead “Jew, eat?” It earns a hefty laugh; in kvetch- cum -comedy, nothing is funnier than the paranoid Jew who sees “Jew” Read More

By Terry Golway 6/23/03 12:00am

Bishops Force Out Their Inquisitor

It would be impossible to count the number of people who have suggested that America’s Roman Catholic bishops should not hide or suppress evidence of clerical wrongdoing. This advice is so obvious as to be banal: Who could possible disagree? Who could possibly take offense?

Frank Keating, the former Oklahoma governor and head of a Read More