'Best of TBH Politoons'
TODAY
Erin Hart
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Erin Hart on
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today (5 January) when she fills in for Jay Marvin from 6am - 10am MST (8am - noon EST / 7am - 11am CST / 5am - 9am PST).
Tune in if you're in the area, or listen online.
Welcome to the New Year and, after 12 long years, control of Congress by the
Democrats. What does this mean for the country? And a Mom and a Working
Woman now head the House! Will Nancy Pelosi pull together disparate parts
of our party. What do YOU want the Dems to do?
And Christy Harvey of the Center for American Progress joins us to talk
politics of the day.
Top of our issues: Iraq, Iraq and Iraq. GW Bush looks as though he is
headed back down the road to hell--what does that mean for our troops? And
should Democrats shut off funding? If so, how?
And can you believe the right wing clack machine already grinding the gears
of accusations, innuendo and outright LIES. Laugh, cry and roar at the
labels and framing they are already using.
What does the importance of Iraq to the American people mean to the
candidates in 2008? The Rocky Mountain News traces how much our troops are
suffering from lack of care. . .We have SOOOOO much to talk about.
Please keepin touch via erinhartshow.com - and -
links can be found here.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Leah Schnurr: Ontario says child can have 2 moms (Reuters)
A five-year-old Canadian boy can have two mothers and a father, an Ontario court ruled this week in a landmark case that redefines the meaning of family and examines the rights of parents in same-sex relationships.
JIM KUHNHENN: House Democrats to toughen ethics rules (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON - Don't look for members of Congress sharing box seats with lobbyists at an NBA game. Do look for more of them flying coach. The new Democratic-led House is scheduled to begin voting on Thursday on ethics rules that would expand current bans on some privately financed trips, eliminate gifts from lobbyists, prohibit travel on corporate jets and require greater public disclosure of targeted special interest legislation.
Liz Funk: How Bars Exploit Underage Women as Commodities (Women's eNews; Posted on AlterNet.org)
Bars and clubs often pay young, pretty women to attract more business. For owners, that means a boost in image and revenue. For women, it means an increased risk of harassment, or even rape.
Trans Facts (irascibleprofessor.com)
... the IP thought it might be interesting to take a closer look at the trans-fat "controversy", and the decision of governmental agencies not only to warn folks about the risks of consuming trans-fats but also to go so far as to ban them outright in restaurant foods as New York City has done.
Lionel Shriver: A four-year-old is thrown out of school for hugging (guardian.co.uk)
Last month in Waco, Texas, a four-year-old boy was suspended for "inappropriate physical behaviour interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment" after he hugged a teacher's aide.
Matt Seaton: New year's resolution (guardian.co.uk)
A few days before Christmas, I did someone a good turn - in that slightly self-conscious, Frank Capra-esque way that you do these things.
LAT's Stein doesn't want to have anything to do with readers (latimes.com)
Joel Stein says sending him an e-mail is about as useful as sending a study group report about Iraq to President Bush. "I don't want to talk to you; I want to talk at you. A column is not my attempt to engage in a conversation with you."
Mr. Ellie Pooh: Recycled Elephant Poo Paper Products
Elephant dung ... is a commodity that is freely available. On average, an adult elephant produces about 180-200 kg (500 lbs) of it per day. Moreover, it provides a way of converting a liability into an asset in conflict areas. Until now, no one had any use for it. However, project Maximus, designed to manufacture paper from it, may help change the perception of the farmers of the economic value of the elephant in conflict areas.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
JOHN NEGROPONTE AND HARRY STONEHILL
STILL TRUE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cold and rainy.
Here's a page with all the SAG Awards - 2007 - Nominations.
Grammy's President's Merit Award
Alpert & Moss
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who founded A&M Records, will be honored by the Recording Academy with the President's Merit Award for their contributions to popular music.
The duo will receive the award at a reception after the academy's Grammy Awards event on Feb. 11.
Alpert and Moss started A&M Records out of Alpert's garage in the early 1960s, nurturing it into music's largest independently owned label with a roster that included the Carpenters, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Sting, Sheryl Crow and Janet Jackson.
Alpert & Moss
Kenya Trip
Chris Rock
Three-time Emmy award-winner Chris Rock brought his show to Kenya and briefly visited one of Africa's largest slums before proceeding to an exotic game reserve.
Accompanied by his wife, Rock visited Kibera slums, home to an estimated 800,000 people, and pledged to seek ways of helping the poor.
Asked why he toured the sprawling settlement, Rock said: "I go whereever my wifes tells me to go."
Chris Rock
Religious Makeup
New Congress
The new Congress will, for the first time, include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history.
Roman Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, accounting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews and Episcopalians.
While Catholics in Congress are Democrats by a ratio of nearly 2-to-1, the most lopsidedly Democratic groups are Jews and those not affiliated with any religion. Of the 43 Jewish members of Congress, there is only one Jewish Republican in the House, and there are two in the Senate. The six religiously unaffiliated members of the House are all Democrats.
The most Republican groups are the small band of Christian Scientists in the House (all five are Republican) and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (12 Republicans and three Democrats) - though the top-ranking Mormon in the history of Congress will be Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the new Democratic majority leader.
Perhaps the most underrepresented group in Congress is the 14 percent of all American adults who, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey,which was conducted by scholars in the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, claim no religion at all.
New Congress
Ratings In 2006
Cable News
MSNBC finished 2006 stronger in the ratings than it did in 2005, the only one of the four news channels to show a year-to-year increase in both total-day and primetime viewership.
Fox News Channel remains by far the leader in cable news but suffered the steepest declines with a 14% drop in total-day viewership and a 20% decline in primetime, according to data released Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research. CNN and Headline News also showed year-over-year declines.
MSNBC, which is in third place in both total-day and primetime, withstood a challenge by a revamped Headline News. It also has seen improvements in several areas, including its so-called "Doc Block" of documentaries in late prime and a strong jump in the ratings -- and buzz-worthiness -- of "Countdown With Keith Olbermann."
Cable News
Haiti `Ambassador'
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean has been named a roving ambassador for Haiti, the foreign minister announced Thursday.
The 34-year-old hip-hop star will promote development in the country and represent Haiti at various events abroad, said Foreign Affairs Minister Reynald Clerisme.
Jean, a Haitian citizen who lives in the United States, wasn't immediately available for comment. His Yele Haiti foundation promotes arts, education and sports as a way to bring jobs and development to Haiti.
Wyclef Jean
Newsmagazine Axed
Geraldo Rivera
Geraldo Rivera is no longer at large, at least in the broadcast world. His syndicated newsmagazine, "Geraldo at Large," was canceled on Thursday and Rivera will return to weekend work at Fox News Channel.
The show's audience proved too small and too old.
Rivera's weekend show at Fox News Channel, "At Large with Geraldo Rivera," will resume after having been canceled because he took on the syndicated show. It runs both Saturday and Sunday. He'll also be a regular contributor to "The O'Reilly Factor."
Geraldo Rivera
Vegas Show To Close
Celine Dion
Celine Dion's Las Vegas concert extravaganza at Caesars Palace will close on Dec. 15 after a nearly five-year run.
The Grammy award-winning singer, who signed a three-year, $100 million contract, started the splashy gig, titled "A New Day," in March 2003. The run was later extended through 2007. A closing date had not been previously announced.
The final year of the show will include new costumes and new numbers. In late January, "A New Day" will be filmed for a TV special and DVD, producers said.
Celine Dion
Sued Over Reality Series
Snoop Dogg
For Snoop Dogg, nothing comes easy -- even starting a youth football league.
New York-based Natural Resources Media & Technology Group has filed suit against the rapper Snoop's Youth Football League Foundation, alleging the foundation made a deal for a reality television series chronicling Snoop's involvement in the league in violation of a pre-existing deal with 20th Century Fox to develop a similar feature film.
According to the complaint, filed last week in New York Supreme Court, the June deal purportedly gave Natural Resources exclusive pay-per-view, cable, home video and other video footage rights for the league in exchange for raising and providing more than $100,000 for the production and splitting revenue with the foundation.
But when Fox got wind of the planned production, its sent a letter to the parties involved -- which include Maryland-based production company TV One, Beverly Hills- based Strange Fruit Film and TV, and Jacksonville, Fla.-based Axcess Sports & Entertainment -- informing them of Fox's "exclusive rights to portray Snoop in any motion picture or television project or other production based on Snoop's involvement with his sons' football teams and leagues."
Snoop Dogg
Tax Woes For ABBA Star
Bjorn Ulvaeus
Swedish tax officials want former ABBA star Bjorn Ulvaeus to pay $2.1 million for undeclared royalties from the supergroup's hits dating back decades.
It is the second time the Swedish Tax Authority has claimed the 61-year-old singer dodged taxes by not declaring millions in royalties going back decades, officials said Thursday.
Victor Palm, a tax official, said the former star was "paying less tax" than he should, adding that the authorities suspect royalty payments to Ulvaeus were made to companies operating in foreign tax havens.
Bjorn Ulvaeus
Indian Mythology Series
Virgin Comics
Several Hollywood stars such as Nicholas Cage and Guy Ritchie are helping Oscar-nominated Indian director Shekhar Kapur produce a comic book series inspired by Indian mythology, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
Kapur, who directed "Elizabeth", said rock group Duran Duran were also interested in working with him on the comic books.
Richard Branson's Virgin Comics -- of which Kapur is a co-founder -- will publish the comics that are aimed to appeal to Indian and international audiences, the Mumbai Mirror said.
John Woo, director of hits including "Face Off" and "Mission Impossible-II", is also writing one of the stories, the newspaper said. The books will be released in Indian this year.
Virgin Comics
Pakistan Lifts Ban
Kite-Flying
Authorities on Thursday lifted a ban on kite-flying in a Pakistan province after the sport was forbidden last year following a series of deaths caused by reinforced kite strings, an official said.
The ban was lifted about a month ahead of Basant, an annual festival that heralds spring and is marked by flying colorful kites in the eastern province of Punjab and its capital, Lahore.
During Basant last year, seven people were fatally slashed by glass-coated or metal-reinforced kite strings, prompting authorities to ban kite-flying. They arrested hundreds who defied the new regulation.
Glass-coated or metal strings will be banned, and that authorities will issue licenses for selling kites and strings during this year's festival.
Kite-Flying
Fired By Nighclubs
Paris Hilton
Two nightclubs known as Club Paris will no longer be associated with their namesake - Paris Hilton, according to the club's owner.
Fred Khalilian said he "fired" the hotel heiress because she has failed to attend scheduled appearances at the location in downtown Orlando. The troubles started two years ago when Hilton showed up six hours late for the grand opening, Khalilian said.
Khalilian does not want to change the name of the Orlando club, or one opened in Jacksonville last year, because he said the name is so well-known. Instead of Club Paris representing Hilton, it will stand for the city, Khalilian said.
Paris Hilton
Cancelled
'The O.C.'
"The O.C.," the once-hot teenage soap opera that saw its ratings plummet like a delinquent student's grades, has been canceled. The final episode of the drama will air 9 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 22, Fox TV and Warner Bros. Television Production Inc. said Wednesday.
The finale "will deliver real closure to the series, to the story we began telling four years ago," series creator Josh Schwartz said in a statement. "It will be fun and emotional and I think really satisfying. It is the finale we always planned to do."
Fox ordered 16 episodes for the 2006-07 season and all will have aired when the series concludes in February, a network spokesman said Wednesday.
'The O.C.'
Top Latino DJ Arrested
El Cucuy
A top-rated Latino radio host who emerged as a leader in the Los Angeles immigrant rallies last year has been arrested on suspicion of threatening his wife and a police officer.
Renan Almendarez Coello, known to his audience as "El Cucuy" ("The Boogeyman"), was taken into custody on Wednesday, two days after police responded to a domestic violence call at his Los Angeles area home and found him gone.
Almendarez, 53, was booked on suspicion of making criminal threats against his wife and an officer investigating the domestic abuse accusations, which stem from a "family fight" on New Year's Day, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
He was credited along with fellow Latino radio personalities as Ricardo "El Mandril" ("The Baboon") Sanchez, and Eddie "Eli Piolin" ("Tweety Bird") Sotelo with mobilizing thousands of young Latinos to the cause.
El Cucuy
Enjoyed Drugs
William Rehnquist
A physician at the U.S. Capitol prescribed a powerful sleep aid for William Rehnquist for nearly a decade while he was an associate justice of the Supreme Court, according to newly released FBI records.
The records present a picture of a justice with chronic back pain who for many months took three times the recommended dosage of the drug Placidyl and then went into withdrawal in 1981 when he abruptly stopped taking it.
Rehnquist checked himself into George Washington University Hospital, where he tried to escape in his pajamas and imagined that the CIA was plotting against him, the records indicate.
William Rehnquist
Extreme Tree Hunters
Redwoods Rule
Equipped with a laser range finder, a head for numbers and an explorer's zeal, Michael Taylor has made a sport of finding and sizing up the tallest species on the planet - California's ancient coast redwoods.
In the space of eight weeks last summer, he and fellow amateur naturalist Chris Atkins, 44, discovered what are believed to be the three tallest trees in the world, all of them higher than 370 feet and as much as 2,200 years old. The discoverers christened them Helios, after the Greek sun god; Hyperion, his father; and Icarus, the mythological youth whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun.
Only 36 coast redwoods taller than 360 feet have been recorded. Atkins or Taylor had a hand in locating 28 of them. In the 370-feet-and-up category, there are only four. Atkins and Taylor found them all.
Redwoods Rule
Artwork Collapses
'Spaceship Earth'
A million-dollar stone sculpture, intended to remind future generations of the Earth's fragility, made its point a bit early, just three months after its unveiling, it collapsed. The 175-ton "Spaceship Earth" lay in ruins at Kennesaw State University after mysteriously falling to pieces last week.
University officials say they suspect water damage or glue failure, but agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are also looking into the possibility of vandalism, said Frances Weyand, a spokeswoman for Kennesaw State. However, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said Thursday that the agency had not been asked to look into the situation.
The Finnish-born sculptor, who goes by the name Eino, had called the work "Spaceship Earth" to honor environmentalist David Brower, a leader of the Sierra Club. It depicted a bronze figure of Brower standing atop the globe. The founders of California-based PowerBar had paid for the $1 million sculpture.
He said he used a resin made specially for stone, worked with an engineer and was assured that the globe would stay in one piece.
'Spaceship Earth'
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