'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Theodore C. Sorensen: The New Vision (washingtonmonthly.com)
The speech I want the Democratic nominee to give: ... My campaign will be based on my search for the perfect political consensus, not the perfect political consultant. My chief political consultant will be my conscience. ...
GOP tax cuts equal the amount of the current deficit
and
GOP tax cuts equal the amount of the current deficit
The House Budget Committee held a hearing with Dr. Peter R. Orszag, Director of the Congressional Budget Office. Orszag says that the amount of money lost to Bush's tax cuts equals the amount of the current deficit.
China shuts 180 food plants for tainted ingredients (usatoday.com)
China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday.
Jim Hightower: WASHINGTON IS KILLING AMERICA'S TROOPS (jimhightower.com)
George W - still clinging to his disgraced neo-con fantasies - and the congressional leaders of both parties - unwilling to use their budgetary and oversight authority - are the ones who have 150,000 American men and women trapped in Iraq's civil war. The troops are doing all they can, yet they have been betrayed by a White House and Congress that has no strategy to make "victory" possible and is unwilling either to provide the massive troop strength it would take to secure that countryŠ or to bring our troops home.
Jim Hightower: GEORGE W'S GLOBAL WARMING "PLAN" (jimhightower.com)
Big news! In an apparent effort to get his job approval rating higher than 30 percent, George W has conceded that global warming does exist, and he has proposed his very own plan for coping with it.
Joel Stein: The key to iHappiness (latimes.com)
Despite his tech-lust, he'll pass up on the iPhone hype for now.
'I'm not just that big gay bloke' (guardian.co.uk)
John Amaechi was already a rare thing - a British sportsman who had become a huge star in American basketball. Then he came out. Now, he tells Gary Younge, he feels that he is famous for all the wrong reasons.
Jevon Phillips: 'Buffy the Musical' stakes its claim in L.A. (latimes.com)
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has always had a problem with stuff staying dead. The TV series, whose last episode aired in May 2003, is still drawing crowds to the big screen. No, not for the campy 1992 movie version, but for the critically lauded television show -- specifically, the musical episode entitled 'Once more Š with feeling.'
Hannah Pool: Question time (guardian.co.uk)
'You can't say all strippers are abused': Dita Von Teese, the 'queen of burlesque', on fame, fortune and feminism.
Reader Suggestion
Safety
UMMMMM...errrrrr.......well
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Rumor has it JD's a bit under the weather, but resting comfortably.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit warmer.
Legion of Honor
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand performed her first-ever concert in France this week - and was rewarded with a medal of the Legion of Honor.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy awarded the medal to Streisand in a ceremony Thursday, the first time he has bestowed the honor since taking over from Jacques Chirac last month.
"You are the America that we love," said Sarkozy, who is seen as more U.S.-friendly than Chirac. "Women like you ... do a lot to bring our two peoples together."
Streisand told Sarkozy, a conservative, that he reminded her of former U.S. Presidents Kennedy and Clinton, "who appreciated art and recognized the importance of the arts in the world."
Barbra Streisand
Raps Africa Leaders
Hugh Masekela
South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela accused African leaders on Thursday of doing nothing to stop killing in Darfur and injustice in Zimbabwe as they prepared to discuss plans for a continental government.
Trumpet player Masekela, who had also campaigned against apartheid in South Africa, joined African civil society groups in calling for action on Darfur and Zimbabwe days before the start of an African Union summit in Accra, Ghana.
The main item on the summit agenda is a proposal to build a United States of Africa and create an executive structure to govern it. Some African rights activists say the meeting should be working instead to end conflicts and abuses on the world's poorest continent.
Masekela was scathing about what he called the inability of African leaders to tackle problems on their own doorstep, such as the crisis in Sudan's west Darfur region, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed in a conflict between government-backed militias and rebels.
Hugh Masekela
Introduces `Pledge'
Al Gore
Al Gore on Thursday called on people around the world to sign a "7 Point Pledge" promising personal action in curbing global warming.
The former vice president unveiled the pledge at a press conference to promote Live Earth, the July 7 event of concerts stretching across the globe. Gore was joined by Live Earth founder Kevin Wall and Cathy Zoi, the CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Audiences at the eight Live Earth concerts and its many other events will be asked to sign the pledge, also available at LiveEarth.org. Those who sign it promise to pressure their country to sign treaties to cut global warming pollution, personally reduce carbon dioxide pollution, and plant trees, among other things.
The concerts will be broadcast in the U.S. on NBC, Telemundo, the Sundance Channel, Bravo, MSGOP and Universal HD. They will also be broadcast online at LiveEarth.MSN.com.
Al Gore
Draws Inspiration From Borat
Michael Moore
Michael Moore looked to his friend Borat to help muster the nerve to sail into Guantanamo Bay.
Moore met "Borat" creator Sasha Baron Cohen at last fall's Toronto International Film Festival. Cohen was there to screen "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," which went on to become a $100 million hit, while Moore showed off footage shot for his health-care documentary, "Sicko," which was to open nationwide Friday.
Cohen told Moore he had drawn inspiration from the filmmaker's documentaries, in which Moore doggedly pursues corporate and political bosses and puts himself into uncomfortable situations.
"I said to him, `But yeah, I've never done anything like wrestle naked with another guy on the floor of an insurance-brokers or mortgage-brokers convention," Moore told The Associated Press. "So after I saw `Borat,' if he says I was an inspiration for those things, I now have to up the ante for him. So we sailed into the mined waters of Guantanamo Bay with sick 9/11 workers and a bullhorn."
Michael Moore
Germany Flip-Flops
Tom Cruise
The German Defense Ministry is scrambling to qualify its stance on the Tom Cruise World War Two thriller "Valkyrie," saying Thursday that, despite reports to the contrary, it has no opposition to the film shooting in Germany.
The ministry now says that, while it hasn't received an official request from "Valkyrie" producers United Artists to shoot in the country, it would "look agreeably" upon any such application.
The Defense Ministry said Thursday that it wasn't even responsible for approving film shoots at Bendlerblock because they are only tenants on the land. The location is under the authority of Germany's Finance Ministry, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
The source of the "Valkyrie" controversy seems to have stemmed from a posting on the Web site of conservative German member of parliament Antje Blumenthal. Blumenthal posted a statement Friday claiming that Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung had pledged to her that Cruise would not get permission to shoot because of the purported danger posed by his Scientology.
Tom Cruise
Cites Racism For Firing
Isaiah Washington
"Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington said racism was a factor in his firing from the hit ABC series after he twice used an anti-gay slur.
Washington, who initially used the epithet during an onset clash with a co-star, told Newsweek magazine that "someone heard the booming voice of a black man and got really scared and that was the beginning of the end for me."
He tried to make amends by expressing remorse and volunteering to enter a counseling program to understand how the confrontation got out of hand, he told Newsweek.
"My mistake was believing that I would get the support from my network and all of my cast mates across the board. My mistake was believing I could correct a wrong with honesty and sincerity," he said in the interview posted online Thursday.
Isaiah Washington
Pleads No Contest
Eve
Eve must wear an alcohol-detecting ankle bracelet for 45 days after pleading no contest Thursday to driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit.
The rapper-actress was not in Superior Court when her attorney entered the plea to a single misdemeanor count. Under the plea agreement, a second count of driving under the influence was dropped.
Eve, whose real name is Jihan Jeffers, was arrested early April 26 after her gold Maserati struck a center median on Hollywood Boulevard.
Eve had faced a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. After her plea, she was sentenced to 36 months of probation and a $390 fine. With fees and restitution for repairs to the median, her bill could top $1,400.
Eve
Outlaws Female Mutilation
Egypt
Egypt on Thursday finally banned all female circumcision, the widely-practised removal of the clitoris which just days ago cost the life of a 12-year-old girl.
Officially the practice, which affects both Muslim and Christian women in Egypt and goes back to the time of the pharoahs, was banned in 1997 but doctors were allowed to operate "in exceptional cases".
On Thursday, Health Minister Hatem al-Gabali decided to ban every doctor and member of the medical profession, in public or private establishments, from carrying out a clitoridectomy, a ministry press official told AFP.
A survey in 2000 said the practice was carried out on 97 percent of the country's women.
Egypt
Spurs Police Chase
Dutch Driver
A Dutch farmer watched in disbelief as a driver under the influence of cocaine drove a slalom course through his corn field, only to be joined by two police vehicles in hot pursuit, adding to the damage.
Police, backed up by a helicopter, eventually managed to corner the 35-year-old driver after he careered into a neighboring orchard and crashed into a ditch.
"Shoot out two tires... then the problem is solved," irate farmer Ad van Schendel told police, according to the Brabants Dagblad newspaper.
Dutch Driver
Nielsen Cable
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of June 18-24. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses.
1. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 6.38 million homes, 8.81 million viewers.
2. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 4.77 million homes, 7.38 million viewers.
3. Auto Racing: Nextel Cup/Sonoma (Sunday, 5 p.m.), TNT, 4.43 million homes, 6.52 million viewers.
4. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 4.02 million homes, 5.98 million viewers.
5. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.91 million homes, 5.81 million viewers.
6. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.86 million homes, 5.64 million viewers.
7. "Heartland" (Monday, 9:59 p.m.), TNT, 3.17 million homes, 4.30 million viewers.
8. Movie: "Spy Kids 3" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.13 million homes, 4.84 million viewers.
9. "Army Wives" (Sunday, 10 p.m.), Lifetime, 2.96 million homes, 3.89 million viewers.
10. "Family Guy" (Wednesday, 11:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon Adult Swim, 2.95 million homes, 3.652 million viewers.
11. "Futurama" (Wednesday, 11 p.m.), Nickelodeon Adult Swim, 2.92 million homes, 3.645 million viewers.
12. "Twitches" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 2.83 million homes, 3.82 million viewers.
13. "Hannah Montana" (Friday, 6:30 p.m.), Disney, 2.77 million homes, 3.87 million viewers.
14. (tie) "Hannah Montana" (Friday, 6 p.m.), Disney, 2.73 million homes, 3.69 million viewers.
14. (tie) "Hannah Montana" (Friday, 7:30 p.m.), Disney, 2.73 million homes, 3.90 million viewers.
Ratings
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