'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias: Eisenhowers for Obama (andrewtobias.com)
Yes, the hard right - the Karl Roves and the James Dobsons and the Rush Limbaughs - will do their best to destroy Obama and make him out to be something he's not. But if the liberals and the moderates and the Eisenhower Republicans - and even some 2004 Bush Republicans like the ones I met in Jacksonville - come out and vote November 4, the country could be reborn.
Mark Morford: We are doomed! Sort of! (sfgate.com)
Earth in crisis, food and water increasingly scarce, people freaking out. Should you join them?
Malcolm Gladwell: IN THE AIR (newyorker.com)
Who says big ideas are rare?
Lea Lane: A Green Room Memory of George Carlin (huffingtonpost.com)
Like some of the other original comics who died too soon -- Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Andy Kaufman-- George Carlin changed comedy, nudging and sometimes pushing it along.
Robert S. McElvaine: "George Carlin: An Irish Mensch" (huffingtonpost.com)
After one of George's hilarious shows, we talked about my theories on the meaning of vulgar language. I was struck by what a calm, deep-thinking person he was off-stage.
Chris Weigant: In Honor Of George Carlin, Examining Nipplephobia And Buttcrackphobia In America (huffingtonpost.com)
You would think, with cable television and the internet, that we've come a long way since Carlin's "Seven Words." But we really haven't.
Madeleine Marr: Virginia Madsen keeping busy with 3 movies in the works (McClatchy Newspapers)
It's not easy being a Hollywood actress after age 35. But at 46, Virginia Madsen still manages to nab parts with oomph.
Dixie Reid: 'WALL-E' director Andrew Stanton recalls a legendary luncheon (McClatchy Newspapers)
The lunch meeting grew into something of a legend over the years. It's gotten "mythified," says Andrew Stanton, who was there. And little wonder, since "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and the newest film from Pixar Animation Studios, "WALL-E" (in theaters on Friday), all were dreamed up that day.
John Anderson: Angelina Jolie has a killer role in 'Wanted' (Newsday)
Some things about the summer movie season are as predictable as ... well, the summer movie season. There will always be movies based on comic books - like "Wanted." There will always be movies worked on by five writers - like "Wanted." There will be movies starring Angelina Jolie cast as a kind of gun-wielding fashion model - like "Wanted." And action thrillers with body counts that rise faster than the national debt clock - like "Wanted."
David Hiltbrand: It seems as if the networks, particularly NBC, have just stopped trying (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Granted, summer has always been a dodgy time for television. But this is getting ridiculous. When I flip around at night lately, I feel like I did as a kid going through the lunchline at school. "These are my options? Really?"
'What else am I going to do? Run a hotdog stand?' (music.guardian.co.uk)
Last year, Meat Loaf broke down on stage mid-concert and tearfully announced that his singing career was over. As his tour kicks off in Britain this week, he explains himself to Patrick Barkham.
David Medsker: A Chat with Keith Murray, Singer/Guitarist of We Are Scientists (bullz-eye.com)
Bullz-Eye caught up with "singing guitarist" Keith Murray to discuss the factual accuracy of the band's press releases, the stigma of being described as a power pop band, and kitties.
Lisa Wrenn: Author Tim Winton transports readers to Australia's remote coastline (Contra Costa Times)
The west coasts of Australia and the United States have much in common, says Tim Winton. In fact, that's an international phenomenon that includes left coasts from Africa to Ireland. "Everyone on the east coasts look at the westerners as a bit more wild, a bit more gauche," explains the Perth-based writer, over tea in San Francisco. "Sometimes, it's more romantic, much more of a frontier."
CHRIS KENSLER: "Style Hero: Red Bra Saves Life, Just Like Wide-Brimmed Purple Felt New Wave-y Hat Did" (huffingtonpost.com)
An American hiker stranded in the Bavarian Alps for three days was rescued, thanks to her bright red bra. Jessica Bruinsma, 24, affixed her red sports bra to a cable used for logging on the mountain. When the timber transport system started up, her bra scuttled up the mountain where an alert lumberjack, who knew of her disappearance, retrieved the spandex distress signal and alerted authorities, who found the otherwise clothed hiker slightly injured, but otherwise fine on the narrow ledge to which she had accidentally fallen.
Video: Betty Bowers Explains "Prayer" to Everyone Else
A: Bird
Reader Comment
Exxon
Ain't this a kick in the head?
With the horrible Supreme Court decision in favor of the resource raping Exxon Corp, I find this article even more horrific
EXXON'S SHARE
The biggest single recipient of funds from the punitive award will be Exxon itself. Exxon stands to put about $110 million from the award in its own pocket thanks to a side deal cut in 1991 with seven Seattle fish processors. Those processors settled with Exxon for $70 million at the time but got to remain in the punitive lawsuit and pass any award they received back to the company. The deal was called "an astonishing ruse" by the federal judge in the case, but it was upheld on appeal.
I have fishermen friends who have lost their livelihood due to the spill destroying Herring stocks, their compensation? Less than $9000 per year from the date Hazelwood's drunk driving destroyed the pristine Prince William Sound. You can still find oil under the rocks and see it's sheen on the water.
Source
Vic in AK
Thanks, Vic!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Unveil Top 10 comedies, Dramas
Emmy Organizers
Emmy organizers for the first time ever on Thursday unveiled a list of the top 10 comedies and 10 dramas competing to be nominated for U.S. television's highest honors, which are presented in September.
Traditionally, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences does not reveal its short list of the 20 shows under consideration for best drama and best comedy series nominations, which this year will be announced on July 17.
The top 10 comedies feature six programs from the broadcast networks lead by Emmy winners for the last two year, "30 Rock" and "The Office," both on NBC, as well as CBS's bawdy sitcom "Two and a Half Men," Fox's animated series "Family Guy" and ABC newcomer "Pushing Daisies."
HBO dominated the four cable TV comedies on the short list with veteran programs "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Entourage," as well as recent arrival "Flight of the Conchords." They are joined by Showtime's "Weeds," about a pot-dealing mom.
Emmy Organizers
May Consider New "Embedded" Ad Rules
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission voted to consider new regulations requiring that viewers are more clearly notified when television advertisers have paid to feature products ranging from soft drinks to cars in television programs.
Current rules require broadcast programs to carry notifications, but the FCC is considering whether to require those notices to be bigger and longer, and whether they should be posted at the beginning or end of a program.
A group of 23 consumer and health advocacy groups wrote in a June 19 letter to the FCC urging the agency to tighten the rules on the embedded ads, as well as a related tactic known as "product integration" which weaves product promotions into the script of a TV program.
The advocacy groups, including Public Citizen and the Parents Television Council, cited industry estimates of a 13 percent increase in the number of product placements in prime time network television in 2007.
FCC
NBC Vs. Quincy
Jack Klugman
All Jack Klugman wanted was access to his decades-old "Quincy M.E." contract, which had been misplaced over the years. And on Wednesday, that's exactly what a Los Angeles judge gave him.
According to the lawsuit, Klugman's attorney, Neville Johnson, asked NBC lawyers in July for copies of the contract after NBC reported the series "accumulated over $66 million in net losses." The request was the first step in conducting an audit to verify NBC's reports.
The studio's lawyers responded that they were unable to send the contract, but that Johnson could view the 30-year-old documents in their offices, but that copies or notes of the papers were prohibited.
"Because the defendants offered to provide plaintiffs with access to the contract they seek, the court finds good cause to order defendants to provide that access again and to permit the copying of the documents for purposes of judicial economy and to promote the ends of justice in an effort to resolve the dispute," Alarcon wrote in his tentative ruling.
Jack Klugman
Extends Deal With CBS News
Lara Logan
CBS News has extended the contract of one of its stars, Lara Logan, who will now be based in Washington, D.C.
The South African native will become the network's chief foreign affairs correspondent, a tweak from her previous title of chief foreign correspondent. She'll continue as a "60 Minutes" correspondent.
Well known for her coverage of the war in Iraq and elsewhere around the world, Logan joined CBS News in 2002. She has been a correspondent for the U.K.'s ITV, a freelancer for CBS News and ABC News in London and CNN. She was a senior producer for Reuters Television in Africa and began her career as a reporter for the Daily News and Sunday Tribune in her South African hometown of Durban.
Lara Logan
Fights `Face Violence'
Stephen Colbert
With a bruised forehead, Stephen Colbert has found a new cause celebre: fighting the glamorization of "face violence."
As he did after breaking his wrist last year, Colbert has transformed a real-life injury into a mock crusade. Colbert was injured Saturday, and while he's been cagey about the cause, he's made no attempt to hide the scarring between his eyebrows this week on "The Colbert Report."
In extreme close-up Monday, he detailed the wreckage: "What the hell is going on right here? What the hell did I do to myself on Saturday? I've got stitches up there and it looks like I'm growing a little map of Norway down the side of my face."
Colbert has declined to say how the injury happened. (His publicist and Comedy Central also declined to comment.) Instead, he has said what's important is his new responsibility to fight "face violence" in Hollywood films.
Stephen Colbert
Doesn't Wear Prada
Pope Benny
According to the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the bright red loafers that Pope Benedict XVI wears are not designed by the Milanese fashion house Prada, as has long been rumored.
"Such rumors are inconsistent with the simple and somber man who, on the day of his election to the papacy, showed to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square and to the whole world the sleeves of a modest black sweater," it said.
Three years ago around Christmas, he showed up for his weekly public audience in St. Peter's Square wearing a fur-trimmed stocking cap that could have passed for a Santa Claus hat. The hat, as it turned out, is a "camauro," which dates back to the Middle Ages and figures in many papal portraits.
On a separate occasion, Benedict sported a sumptuous red velvet cape trimmed in ermine - another piece of traditional papal attire that had long been abandoned.
L'Osservatore Romano said the pope's interest in clothes has nothing to do with fashion and everything to do with liturgy - what symbolism traditional garments can bring to the Christian liturgy.
Pope Benny
Seeks Damages Over Film
Alex Gibney
Filmmaker Alex Gibney said on Thursday he was seeking more than $1 million in damages from a company he says failed to properly distribute and promote his Oscar-winning feature documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side."
The movie focuses on America's use of torture in prisoner interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks.
It had made around $280,000 worldwide by June 1, according to movie Web site Box Office Mojo, a fraction of the multimillion dollar takings of other recent documentary Oscar winners.
Gibney said he has filed for arbitration against the film's distributor THINKFilm, accusing the company of inadequately distributing and marketing the film after its Oscar win in February.
Alex Gibney
Violates Probation
Mindy McCready
Mindy McCready has been arrested in Tennessee and charged with violating her probation. Authorities accuse the 32-year-old country singer of falsifying her community service records.
Williamson County Sheriff's Department officer Charlotte Spencer says McCready turned herself in Monday, posted the $5,000 bond and was released two hours later.
She is on probation for a 2004 drug charge.
Mindy McCready
Ruling Leaves Victims Stunned
Alaska
Mike Lytle, a third-generation fisherman from the coastal village of Cordova, said many residents there were walking around stunned, shaking their heads.
A lot of people he knows were planning their retirements with the $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp. was expected to pay the nearly 33,000 victims of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
But the Supreme Court dashed their hopes Wednesday, deciding to cut the punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $507.5 million. That translates to an average of $15,000 per victim.
Wednesday's decision to reduce the amount to one equal to about four days worth of Exxon Mobil's last quarter profits was hailed by the business community and decried by environmentalists and Alaskans.
Alaska
Dispute Over Elvis Coffin Photo
National Enquirer
A legal dispute has erupted over a National Enquirer photo of Elvis Presley lying in his coffin.
The man who bought the American Media Inc. building in the city of Boca Raton, David Rustine, contends in a lawsuit filed in federal court that he wants the Elvis photo if it still exists or $1 million if it was destroyed.
The building had to be cleaned because of anthrax contamination.
The company hired to decontaminate the building, New York-based Sabre Technical Services, contends in a countersuit that AMI advised that all the Enquirer photos be destroyed as part of the anthrax cleansing process.
National Enquirer
(Another) California DUI
Dr. Jan Adams
The plastic surgeon who operated on Kanye West's mother before she died last fall has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
Police said Dr. Jan Adams was seen using an off-ramp to get on a freeway early Thursday in the Northern California town of Vallejo, and was driving on a suspended license from a previous DUI.
The former host of TV's "Plastic Surgery: Before and After" had operated on 58-year-old Donda West the day before she died of likely heart disease coupled with surgery complications.
The state was investigating whether Adams' medical license should be revoked or suspended because of two previous alcohol-related arrests.
Dr. Jan Adams
Scholars Make Finds
Nazi Archive
From prison brothels to slave labor camps, 15 scholars concluded a two-week probe Thursday of an untapped repository of millions of Nazi records, and hailed it as a rich vein of raw material that will deepen the study of the Holocaust.
It was the first concentrated academic sweep of the long-private archive administered by the International Tracing Service since it opened its doors last November to Holocaust survivors, victims relatives and historical researchers.
German historian Christel Trouve said the nameless millions of forced laborers began to take shape as individual people as she studied small labor camps - which existed in astonishing numbers.
Among the striking revelations was the identification of the man who rescued an 8-year-old boy in Buchenwald, Israel Meir Lau, who later became Israel's chief rabbi.
Nazi Archive
Crisis Continues
Honey Bees
Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday.
About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.
In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.
The House Appropriations Committee approved $780,000 on Thursday for research on the disorder and $10 million for bee research. The money awaits approval by the full House and Senate.
Honey Bees
In Memory
Ira Tucker Sr.
Ira Tucker Sr., longtime lead singer of the gospel group the Dixie Hummingbirds, which influenced many other performers and backed up Paul Simon on "Loves Me Like a Rock," has died. He was 83.
Among those influenced by the band were the Temptations, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Al Green, according the National Endowment for the Arts, which honored the Hummingbirds in 2000.
They became widely known to Top 40 radio listeners in 1973, when Simon's "Loves Me Like a Rock" reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart. Besides singing backup with Simon, the Dixie Hummingbirds also produced their own version, which won a Grammy for best soul gospel performance.
The Dixie Hummingbirds traces its history to 1928, when founder James B. Davis formed it as a student quartet in Greenville, S.C. Tucker, born in 1925 in Spartanburg, S.C., was still in his teens when he auditioned for Davis in the late 1930s.
He was the band's lead singer for decades thereafter, bringing a mixture of gospel and blues to the group's style, and adding an energy and versatility to their performances, according to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, which inducted the group in 2000.
Ira Tucker Sr.
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