Audrey Bilger: Laughing All the Way to the Polls (Bitch Magazine. Posted on Alternet.org)
Toss gender into the mix and things get more complicated. A woman who is perceived as too serious, like Hillary Rodham Clinton, gets called a ballbreaker; a woman who is too funny, as Ann Richards worried, might not be taken seriously. Male politicians have to strike a balance between the comic and the serious, but women, as the saying about Ginger Rogers's dancing goes, have to do it backwards and in high heels.
Andrew Tobias: Of Monomania and the Laffer Curve (andrewtobias.com)
Meanwhile, the interest we paid this past year on the National Debt was equivalent to about 40% of all the money we paid in personal income tax. And as the debt - and interest rates - rise further, the interest we pay will eat up an even higher percentage of tax revenues. That matters, because instead of using future tax revenue to meet urgent needs and strengthen our country, we will be paying it in interest to our friends the Chinese and Japanese and Saudis, from whom Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Bush have borrowed it on our behalf.
Ask Auntie Pinko! (democraticunderground.com)
January 5, 2006 · Between the illegal domestic spying, Plamegate, and the Abramoff scandal growing tentacles in every direction at once, I have to wonder if "the world as we know it" is ending, politically speaking. If so, what can we expect in a post-apocalyptic America? And will all this shady financial stuff and illegal power-grabbing take the Alito nomination and the fundy nutballs down in its wake?
"The Doorbell Rang" By Rex Stout: Thom Hartmann's "Independent Thinker" Book of the Month Review (buzzflash.com)
I confess. I'm a Nero Wolfe junkie, and have been for over 30 years. And, like Nero Wolfe's creator, Rex Stout (1886-1975), I have an extensive FBI file, having been considered a "troublemaker" back in my late-1960s SDS days in East Lansing, Michigan and San Francisco, California, just as he was when he agitated against the Republican establishment in the early 1940s in favor of stopping fascism in Europe. Both of us faced the Executive Branch of government before it was restrained in the post-Watergate era.
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'Ghost Whisperer', followed by a FRESH'Close To Home', then a FRESH'NUMB3RS'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Amy Sedaris, Dennis Regan, and the Temptations.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Daryl Hannah, Iron and Wine with Calexico.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'TVs Most Outrageous Moments', followed by another FRESH'TVs Most Outrageous Moments', then the SERIES PREMIERE'Book Of Daniel'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Matt Dillon, ANT, and Lil' Wayne.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Nathan Lane and Sarah Chalke.
On a RERUNCarson Daly (from 11/18/05) are Jeff Daniels, Amy Smart, Jokoy, Damian Marley, and Max & The Attack.
ABC opens with a FRESH'Dancing With The Stars', followed by a FRESH'Hope & Faith', then a FRESH'In Justice', followed by '20/20'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Cheryl Hines and David Banner.
The WB offers a RERUN'Beauty & The Geek', followed by another RERUN'Beauty & The Geek'.
Faux has a FRESH'Bernie Mac', followed by a FRESH'Malcolm', then a FRESH'Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy'.
UPN fills the night with 'WWE Friday Night SmackDown!'.
PLEASE check local PBS listings for a FRESH'NOW With Bill Moyers David Brancaccio', the MOST IMPORTANT program on over-the-air-TV.
A&E has 'Street Racing', 'Biography' (Tommy Lee), another 'Biography' (Howard Stern), and still another 'Biography' (Ozzy Osbourne).
AMC offers the movie 'Born On The Fourth Of July', followed by the movie 'Halloween', then the movie 'Friday The 13th'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - Spam;
[2:40pm] 'The Catherine Tate Show' - Episode 5;
[3:20pm] 'The Catherine Tate Show' - Episode 6;
[4pm] 'At Home with the Braithwaites' - Episode 1;
[5pm] 'Monarch of the Glen' - Episode 7;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'House Invaders' - Episode 11;
[7pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 37;
[8pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Clarke;
[9pm] 'My Family' - Episode 3;
[9:40pm] 'My Hero' - Episode 1;
[10:20pm] 'Kumars at No. 42' - Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen;
[11pm] 'Creature Comforts' - Episode 5;
[11:30pm] 'Peep Show' - Episode 4;
[12am] 'Peep Show' - Episode 5;
[12:30am] 'Peep Show' - Episode 6;
[1am] 'My Family' - Episode 2;
[1:40am] 'My Hero' - Episode 1;
[2:20am] 'Kumars at No. 42' - Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen;
[3am] 'Manchild' - Episode 1;
[3:40am] 'Manchild' - Episode 2;
[4:20am] 'Manchild' - Episode 3;
[5am] 'Without Prejudice' - Episode 2;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Inside The Actors Studio', followed by the movie 'Backdraft'.
Comedy Central has 'Comedy Central Presents', 'Reno 911!', an old 'Jon Stewart', an old 'Colbert Report', 'Premium Blend', and 'Larry The Cable Guy: Git-R-Done'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Godfathers', and 'Heroes Under Fire'.
IFC -
[6AM] Before Night Falls (2000);
[8:15AM] Secret Ballot (2001);
[10AM] Last Orders (2001);
[12PM] Radio Bikini (1987);
[1PM] IFC Short Film Showcase: January;
[2PM] Secret Ballot (2001);
[4PM] Lulu on the Bridge (1998);
[5:45PM] Short: A Moment of Clarity;
[6PM] At the IFC Center #9 (1642);
[6:30PM] The Daytrippers (1996);
[8:15PM] SLC Punk! (1999);
[10PM] Hopeless Pictures #3 (2005);
[10:15PM] Greg the Bunny: "Sleazy Rider" (2005);
[10:30PM] Dinner For Five #41 (2005);
[11PM] The Road Warrior (1981);
[12:45AM] IFC in Theaters (2005);
[1AM] Hopeless Pictures #3 (2005);
[1:15AM] Greg the Bunny: "Sleazy Rider" (2005);
[1:30AM] Dinner For Five #41 (2005);
[2AM] The Road Warrior (1981);
[3:45AM] IFC in Theaters (2005);
[4AM] Hopeless Pictures #3 (2005);
[4:15AM] Greg the Bunny: "Sleazy Rider" (2005);
[4:30AM] Dinner For Five #41 (2005);
[5AM] IFC Short Film Showcase: January. (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has 'Firefly', followed by a FRESH'Stargate SG-1', then a FRESH'Stargate Atlantis', then a FRESH'Battlestar Galactica'.
Sundance -
[6:15AM] A Foreign Affair;
[7:45AM] The Youth In Us;
[8AM] Pieces of April;
[9:30AM] Ford Transit;
[10:45AM] The Secret Lives of Dentists;
[12:30PM] Karmen Gei;
[2PM] Control Room;
[3:30PM] A Foreign Affair;
[5PM] Mott Music;
[5:30PM] The Secret Lives of Dentists;
[7:15PM] Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness;
[7:30PM] Pieces of April;
[9PM] What Alice Found;
[10:35PM] American Fame Part Two: Forgetting Jonathan Brandis;
[11PM] Kath & Kim: Kicking Up a Stink;
[11:30PM] I Am NOT an ANIMAL: London Calling;
[12AM] Orgazmo;
[1:35AM] Walker;
[3:15AM] Orgazmo;
[5AM] Control Room. (ALL TIMES EST)
Motown recording artist Martha Reeves, top, and Monica Conyers, wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, are sworn in as new members of the Detroit City Council during an inauguration ceremony in Detroit, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006.
Photo by Carlos Osorio
Jon Stewart has been tapped to host this year's Oscars, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced Thursday.
Stewart, 43, hosts Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," which has earned seven Emmys and a Peabody award. He has previous experience hosting awards shows, taking over the Grammys in 2001 and 2002.
He won the 2005 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his book, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction" and has appeared in movies including "The Faculty," "Death to Smoochy" and "Big Daddy."
The 78th annual Academy Awards will air March 5 on ABC from Hollywood.
The slave cabin that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' is seen in Rockville, Maryland, January 5, 2006. Montgomery County's planning board voted unanimously to buy a one-acre (.405 hectare) property in the heart of one of the Washington area's hottest real estate markets. The parcel includes both the cabin and an attached 18th century house.
Photo by Jonathan Ernst
The creators of Comedy Central's "Reno 911!" are taking their cop spoof to the big screen.
"Reno 911!: Miami," which starts shooting January 23 in Miami and Los Angeles, finds the officers visiting a national police convention in Miami Beach at the height of spring break. When the convention center is bio-attacked, it's up to Reno's "finest" to save the day.
The 20th Century Fox/Paramount production will be directed by the TV series' co-creator, Robert Ben Garant, who also co-wrote the script of the improvisational-based project and will star.
The cast also includes co-creator/writers Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney as well as series stars Niecy Nash, Mary Birdsong, Cedric Yarbrough, Carlos Alazraqui and Wendi McLendon-Covey.
Following the hugely successful resurrection of Family Guy, Fox execs are reportedly in talks to bring Futurama back from the dead.
The studio has begun talks to revive the Emmy-winning animated series and produce a limited number of new episodes, thanks to a resurgence in the show's popularity on DVD and in reruns, Variety reports.
For Futurama to return, the studio would need to re-sign the show's production team, as well as voice stars Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio.
In the meantime, Futurama lives on in comic-book form, with all-new stories continuing to be released by Groening's Bongo Comics.
New York's Metropolitan Opera has received its largest ever cash gift from an individual -- a $25 million donation that will plug a $4 million deficit as it battles falling box-office revenues.
The Met said in a statement on Thursday the gift from longtime arts patron Mercedes Bass and her husband, Texas investor Sid Bass, was the largest single unrestricted gift to the opera in the company's 123-year history.
The New York Times reported last month the Met was making midyear budget cuts of 5 percent to save money as subscriptions fall and it increasingly relies on discounted student and corporate tickets to fill seats.
Budget pressure has also threatened the Met's 75-year-old program of live radio broadcasts and it has been aggressively campaigning to raise funds to save the internationally popular Saturday afternoon broadcasts.
Lin Wei-lin, a member of the Zhe Jiang Kun Ju Opera from China, performs during a dress rehearsal at the Novel Hall, Thursday Jan. 5, 2006, in Taipei, Taiwan. The Zhe Jiang Kun Ju Opera will be performed in Taiwan for the first time from Jan. 5-7.
Photo by Chiang Ying-ying
The abandoned Buchardi church in Halberstadt, eastern Germany, is the venue for a mind-boggling 639-year-long performance of a piece of music by US experimental composer John Cage (1912-1992).
Entitled "organ2/ASLSP" (or "As SLow aS Possible"), the performance began on September 5, 2001 and is scheduled to last until 2639.
The first year and half of the performance was total silence, with the first chord -- G-sharp, B and G-sharp -- not sounding until February 2, 2003.
At 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Thursday, the first chord was due to progress to a second -- comprising A, C and F-sharp -- and is to be held down over the next few years by weights on an organ being built especially for the project.
Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for "dividing God's land."
"God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says `This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, `No, this is mine.'"
In Robertson's broadcast from his Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, the evangelist said he had personally prayed about a year ago with Sharon, whom he called "a very tender-hearted man and a good friend." He said he was sad to see Sharon in this condition.
He also said, however, that in the Bible, the prophet Joel "makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who 'divide my land.'"
President Bush flashes a smile and the University of Texas Longhorns' hook'em horns sign before making remarks at the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education at the U.S. State Department, Thursday Jan. 5, 2006.
Photo by Lawrence Jackson
A judge tossed out Michael Jackson's $10 million lawsuit against a New Jersey man over memorabilia the pop star claimed had been stolen.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday because Jackson had stopped pursuing the case he filed two years ago, according to court papers.
Vaccaro, an Asbury Park construction company owner, said he was awarded the memorabilia after years of legal wrangling stemming from a failed business venture that wound up in bankruptcy court.
A stone excavated from a Maya royal tomb in San Bartolo that shows the earliest example of Mayan writing ever found lies in a plastic tub in a laboratory in Antigua, Guatemala, January 5, 2006. The 2,300-year-old glyphs were excavated last April in San Bartolo, the same site in northern Guatemala where archaeologist William Saturno found the oldest murals in the Mayan world.
Photo by Daniel LeClair
Paris Hilton is accused of spewing "vicious lies" about an altercation with a romantic rival at a London nightclub, and harassing a business promoter in two lawsuits set for court this month.
The first suit pits the hotel heiress-actress against diamond heiress-actress Zeta Graff, who is seeking at least $10 million in damages for Hilton's comments in a July New York Post story.
Former Hilton publicist Rob Shuter said in a deposition that Hilton asked him to help plant the story and that he gave the paper comments attributed to himself, Hilton and anonymous sources that were dictated by Hilton.
A hearing also is set for the same day on the second lawsuit in which promoter Brian Quintana, 37, alleged that Hilton harassed and badmouthed him in the news media and threatened his life. He is seeking a restraining order.
A member of Cirque du Soleil performs during a final dress rehearsal for the performance 'Alegria' at the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, London January 4, 2006. The touring international cast of acrobats, dancers, actors and musicians from 13 countries perform a baroque blend of aerial acts and dances for their tenth annual run in London.
Photo by Toby Melville
Most of the gray wolf pups born in Yellowstone National Park last year have died, a federal wolf expert says, and he believes a dog disease - parvo virus - may be behind the dramatic loss.
Just 22 of the 69 pups born last year are still alive, said Doug Smith, the park's wolf project leader. That's the biggest drop in pup numbers since wolves were reintroduced to the park 11 years ago, with the greatest toll seen on the park's northern range. There, he said just eight of the 49 pups born last spring survived.
Over the next few weeks, Smith said, officials plan to catch Yellowstone wolf pups and take blood samples to see if the suspicions about parvo virus are true. The disease can cause extreme diarrhea and dehydration and kill more vulnerable animals, like young pups.
Barry Cowsill, a member of the popular 1960s singing family The Cowsills, was found dead on a wharf nearly four months after he disappeared when Hurricane Katrina flooded the city. He was 51.
Cowsill's body, recovered Dec. 28 from the Chartres Street Wharf, was identified with dental records Tuesday, said Dr. Louis Cataldie, head of the state hurricane morgue in Carville.
Cowsill, who lived on and off in New Orleans, had not been heard from since he left phone messages for his sister Sept. 1, his family's Web site said.
"They tell us he'd been dead for quite some time," Richard Cowsill, his brother, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We love him and we're going to miss him, but he's in a much better place, in my mother's arms."
The Cowsills - the inspiration for the TV series "The Partridge Family," recorded a series of top hits between 1967 and 1970, including "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" and "Hair." They also were spokespersons for the American Dairy Association, appearing in commercials and print ads for milk.
In addition to his siblings, Cowsill is survived by two daughters and a son.
Richard Cowsill said no memorial service was planned and that his brother would be cremated. "He always said when I leave this place, you better party. And that's what we're planning to do," he said.
Polar bear Olinka, right, and her daughter Lara watch their new neighbours on their first day at their new home at the zoo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006. The one-year-old polar bear cub and her mother came to Gelsenkirchen from the zoo in Vienna. Lara weighs 80 kilograms and prefers bread to fish. After one year, Olinka will leave little Lara and return to Vienna.
Photo by Martin Meissner
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