'Best of TBH Politoons'
TODAY
Erin Hart
Join
Erin Hart on
Progressive Talk AM 760
today 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.
We have an array of guests to analyze GW's speech, so be prepared to talk about it -- you are the analyst who means
the most: the vote, the citizen.
This is Bush's WAR. But all of us are going to pay. It is OUR country. So tune in to AM 760 where you actually have a voice and are heard.
Talk about all of it: from the escalation, the cost to our troops and
Iraqis, the price paid in region, the separation of powers, the legacy of
this heartbreaking situation.
Our guests so far:
Ari Berman of The Nation who will be posting a
blog tonight on www.thenation.com. We will talk to Congressman Mark Udall
and probably Congressman Ed Perlmutter about the Congress and how and what
they will do about. (Since the press reports the first troops of the
escalation are on their way, what CAN Congress do?)
And we will talk to Jeremy Broussard, a veteran who has founded VoteVets.org
and to Michael MacPhearson, Executive Director for Veterans for peace who
served in the Gulf, visited Iraq in 2003 and has a son who has done a tour
in Iraq and may get called back in this "surge".
Please join us. We will need at least two days to dissect this together, here, where America actually gets a voice.
Please keep in touch via erinhartshow.com - and -
links can be found here.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Dear Mr. President: Send Even MORE Troops (and you go, too!) ...from Michael Moore
Dear Mr. President, Thanks for your address to the nation. It's good to know you still want to talk to us after how we behaved in November.
SARAH PHELAN: A reporter stands up to the army (sfbg.com)
Sarah Olson refuses to testify against an antiwar soldier -- and faces felony charges.
Wal-Mart and Energy (Excerpt from NY Times)
As a way to cut energy use, it could not be simpler. Unscrew a light bulb that uses a lot of electricity and replace it with one that uses much less. . . . if only Americans could be persuaded to swallow them. But now Wal-Mart Stores, the giant discount retailer, is determined to push them into at least 100 million homes.
Joe Nickell: Siege of 'Little Green Men': The 1955 Kelly, Kentucky, Incident (csicop.org)
On the night of August 21, 1955, during the heyday of flying-saucer reports, a western Kentucky family encountered-well, that is the question: what were the humanoid-like creatures that terrified a family at their farmhouse? What actually happened at Kelly, Kentucky, that evening?
Adam L. Penenberg: Is Google Evil? (ctnow.com)
The search engine giant may have too much information for its own good.
Lucy Robinson: What's the fuss about sodomy? (guardian.co.uk)
Heterosexual anal sex does not seem to concern society nearly as much as sexual orientation does.
David Wildman: Letters from Iwo Jima (weeklydig.com)
Clint Eastwood's ode to the fallen Americans at Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, was a dire disappointment-possibly his worst film since his orangutan days. His latest effort, Letters From Iwo Jima, centers around the same battle, only seen from the opposite side. It seems that such serious suckage can't strike twice in the same place. Letters is everything that Flags wasn't: a gutsy, smart, entertaining film.
Meghan O'Rourke: The Copycat Syndrome (slate.com)
Plagiarists at work.
Chris Suellentrop: Dog Gone (slate.com)
Scooby-Doo creator Iwao Takamoto died this week, but his legacy lives on.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Gray and cold.
Shows Footage From Darfur
George Clooney
Previously unseen footage recorded by actor George Clooney and his journalist father Nick while traveling to the border of the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan will be aired Monday.
At a premiere of the documentary Wednesday attended by members of Congress and Martin Luther King III, the Clooneys -- with George speaking by video conference from California -- discussed their film and their concern that governments are not doing enough to stop what the younger Clooney called the first genocide of the 21st century.
"I will remember forever how the people there were hanging from such a thin thread and there were so many ways for them to die and yet they were optimistic," George Clooney told the audience.
Clooney said he was pessimistic that the plight of the refugees would improve in the short term but hoped to increase political pressure for international action.
George Clooney
MTV President 'Resigns'
Michael Wolf
A high-profile executive at MTV Networks is leaving the company as part of an upheaval of Viacom Inc.'s executive ranks, a Viacom spokesman said on Thursday.
Michael Wolf, a former McKinsey & Co. managing partner and well-known media strategist, will step down as MTV Networks' president after spending a little over a year at the company.
Nicole Browning, president of affiliate sales and marketing at MTV Networks, a 20-year veteran, is also leaving the company, Viacom said.
Michael Wolf
New Line Feud
Peter Jackson
"Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson has been barred from making "The Hobbit," in the latest twist to a bitter public feud between Hollywood studio New Line and the New Zealand film-maker.
Bob Shaye, the co-chairman of studio New Line, which oversaw production of Jackson's Oscar-winning adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Rings" trilogy, told Sci-Fi Wire website that Jackson would "never" shoot "The Hobbit."
Jackson is embroiled in a legal wrangle with New Line over royalties from the "Lord of the Rings" films, which have grossed more than three billion dollars in ticket sales alone since 2001.
Shaye also expressed anger that several members of the "Lord of the Rings" cast had declined to participate in upcoming events to mark New Line's 40th anniversary, blaming Jackson's lawsuit for the apparent boycott.
Peter Jackson
Performances Set
Grammy Awards
The Dixie Chicks, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Gnarls Barkley will all perform at next month's Grammy Awards, where they will vie compete for the coveted album of the year prize.
Also named in the initial lineup was Beyonce, another nominated artist. The event will take place on February 11 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Additionally, Pink, Rihanna and actors Terrence Howard and Samuel L. Jackson will serve as presenters.
Grammy Awards
Baby News
Esme Louise Sutter
Former "Married ... With Children" star Katey Sagal has become a mother for the third time at the age of 52 with help from a surrogate, People magazine reported on its Web site.
The actress and her writer-producer husband Kurt Sutter, 43, welcomed their first child together, Esme Louise Sutter, on Wednesday, People reported.
Sagal, best known for playing slovenly matriarch Peg Bundy on the long-running Fox comedy "Married ... With Children," has a 12-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son from a previous marriage, the magazine added.
Esme Louise Sutter
Jury Announced
Berlin International Film Festival
Hollywood screenwriter and director Paul Schrader will chair the 57th Berlin International Film Festival jury including stars such as Gael Garcia Bernal and Willem Dafoe.
The jury, which chooses the winners of the Berlinale's coveted Golden and Silver Bear top prizes, will also include Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, German actor Mario Adorf, Hong Kong film producer Nansun Shi and Danish film editor Molly Malene Stensgaard.
The Berlinale, running February 8 to 18, ranks just below Cannes and alongside Venice among Europe's premier film festivals.
Berlin International Film Festival
Loves Her Propagandists
Condi
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R-Tool) let slip her media preferences on Thursday, saying "I love every single one" of Fox News network's correspondents and also favors CBS anchor Harry Smith.
In comments overheard on an open microphone between morning television interviews, including one with Fox, the top U.S. diplomat said: "My Fox guys, I love every single one of them."
But Rice told an aide that when she was next in Iraq she would like to do a "one-on-one" interview with CBS "The Early Show" anchor Harry Smith.
"He's a decent guy. I know they are like 55 in the ratings, but I like him," Rice said in comments monitored by Reuters on a television feed.
Condi
Sold For Two Billion Dollars
Alliance Atlantis
Canadian media titan CanWest Global Communications and US investment bankers Goldman Sachs have agreed to buy Alliance Atlantis Communications for two billion US dollars, they announced.
The Toronto-based owner of 13 Canadian specialty television channels and holder of the worldwide distribution rights to the hit television franchise "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" outside the United States had been in secret talks with CanWest and Goldman Sachs for months, the parties had said earlier Wednesday.
But a deal was only announced by Alliance Atlantis's controlling shareholder Southhill Strategy at the close of North American markets. Southhill is owned by Alliance Atlantis executive chairman Michael MacMillan, and Seaton McLean.
Alliance Atlantis
Digital Photography
Graham Nash
Graham Nash sang at Woodstock, has penned many popular tunes and, with longtime partners David Crosby and Stephen Stills, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But the author of "Our House," "Immigration Man" and "Teach Your Children" shows particular pride in his own photography and digital image printing business Nash Editions.
The British-born Nash started taking photos as a boy, but did not show his work until ex-girlfriend Joni Mitchell, the singer-songwriter who inspired "Our House," connected him with a gallery in 1990.
Graham Nash
Adopt A Gargoyle
Shakespeare's Church
Adopt a gargoyle. Sponsor a spire. It could help save the 800-year-old Holy Trinity Church, where William Shakespeare was baptized and where he lies buried with his wife, Anne Hathaway. Church officials hope fans of the Bard around the world will help raise $6.3 million needed to repair a cracked spire, broken windows and eroding bricks - and address damage from years of dry rot and death watch beetle.
It's a common story in the parishes of England, where hundreds of medieval churches need frequent loving care. The Church of England estimates some $680 million worth of repairs are under way or urgently needed, and few of the crumbling churches have connections to anyone as famous as Shakespeare.
The Friends of Shakespeare's Church already has an American fund raising arm - but church officials are concerned by the drop in Britain's tourist numbers following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as well as the July 7, 2005, suicide assault on London's transit system and more recent terrorism alerts. The number of U.S. tourists fell 13 percent from 2000 to 2005, when 4.2 million Americans visited Britain, according to government figures.
Shakespeare's Church
Denies Comcast
FCC
U.S. regulators have denied a request by Comcast Corp. to continue to require its subscribers use its own television set-top boxes, in an effort to allow consumers choice over how they receive TV services.
Federal Communications Commisssion (FCC) said on Wednesday it would not waive a requirement for Comcast to market set-top boxes that are compatible with TV services offered by other cable operators instead of the current practice of selling its own cable box with subscriptions.
The FCC had ruled that by July 1 cable operators and consumer electronics companies must use compatible technology for television delivery when building such boxes.
When a customer subscribers to a particular service, they would receive an external cable card that could be inserted into the box to receive the correct television signals.
FCC
FDA As Lapdog
Big Pharma
Drugmakers have agreed to pay millions in new fees to help U.S. health officials step up their review of television commercials before they reach consumers, industry and government officials said on Thursday.
Under the five-year plan, companies will pay the Food and Drug Administration a one-time fee plus additional charges for each commercial submitted. The fees, about $6.25 million a year, aim to help the FDA analyze the growing number of TV drug ads for misleading claims and other problems before they air.
Billy Tauzin (R-Revolving Door), head of the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said lied fees negotiated between the FDA and industry balance safety. They are "designed to make sure millions of patients continue to receive safe and effective medicines in a timely manner," he added.
Big Pharma
In Memory
Robert Anton Wilson
RIP Robert Anton Wilson
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