'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
SARAH PHELAN: CENSORED! (sfbg.com)
The 10 big stories the nation's major news media refused to cover last year
EDWARD WONG: To Stay Alive, Iraqis Change Their Names (NY TIMES)
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the young man clutching a sheaf of papers at the birth certificate office, except for his name: Saddam Hussein al-Majid.
Tom Curry: Voter burnout or voter turnout (msnbc.msn.com)
Democratic prospects look good as candidates head into the home stretch.
Mark Blumenthal and Charles Franklin: Election Scorecard
Where the midterm elections stand today.
Thom Hartmann: The Undeclared War on America's Middle Class (AlterNet.org)
Under the guise of free market capitalism, conservative policies have made 80-hour work weeks the norm. Working harder for less money means middle class families are getting screwed.
Annalee Newitz: Weaponized Data (AlterNet.org)
Something changed the Internet forever during the surreal years after 9/11: Data mining was weaponized.
Andrew Brown: The man who wrote his own fan letters (guardian.co.uk)
Lee Siegel is an American man of letters. Unfortunately for him, they are not all published under his real name.
Only another 5,500 calories to go ... (guardian.co.uk)
A Swedish university has replicated Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me junk food binge under lab conditions. The early results are surprising, says Marten Blomkvist.
Gillian G. Gaar: The De-Evolution Will Not Be Televised (seattleweekly.com)
In the early '70s, Gerald Casale was a student at Ohio's Kent State University, majoring in comparative 20th century English literature. Then, on May 4, 1970, the National Guard, in an event that would become infamous in the nation's history of anti-war protests, gunned down four students, two of whom Casale knew. At that moment, everything changed.
Can I Vote? (canivote.org)
Find out how to find out . . .
. . . whether you're registered - and where to vote if you are
. . . what kind of ID you'll need
. . . and more.
Jeff Crook
Don't Be Evil...
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Much cooler than yesterday.
CBS is sure doing a half-assed job scripting Too-Perky-Katie's 'news' show. If they were doing a whole-assed job,
every story wouldn't end with "for more, check out our website at cbsnews.com."
Well, hell - if there's more info on your website, why should anyone waste time watching an overly botoxed chirping Katie, grin and grimace her way through the headlines (while her forehead never moves)?
And then there was Pigboy - WTF is CBS doing giving that hillbilly heroin addict face time?
Preaching the Rove-approved 'islam-o-fascist' talking point, he worked the lowest common denominator of bigotry - they wanna see us dead.
Seems to me, Moslems might not be the only group delighted by Pigboy in a 'just add maggots' moment.
No new flags.
Hosting Oscars
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres has been tapped to host next year's Oscars, the Academy of Motions Pictures Arts and Sciences said Thursday.
It will be the comedian and TV talker's first time hosting the Oscars show and first appearance on the award show. She has hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards telecast twice and co-hosted it once, and hosted the Grammys twice.
The 79th Annual Academy Awards are scheduled to be broadcast live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 25. This year's Oscarcast, in March, was fronted by "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart.
Ellen DeGeneres
Signs On For 4 More Years
David Letterman
From the home office at the Ed Sullivan Theater: David Letterman is staying at CBS for another four years.
Letterman, 59, finalized a contract extension with CBS that will keep him at the helm of "The Late Show With David Letterman" through the 2009-10 season, sources said. Negotiations on the pact have been underway on and off for months, but sources close to the network and the Letterman camp say the talks went smoothly and there was never any doubt that the Emmy-winning late-night host would extend his tenure at "Late Show," which originates from the famed Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City.
The harmony between Letterman and CBS stands in stark contrast to the situation 4-1/2 years ago, when Letterman was being heavily courted by ABC and reportedly felt under-appreciated at CBS. At the time, Letterman wound up striking a two-year renewal deal that included a series of one-year options, while sources said this time around the deal is a four-year commitment.
David Letterman
Technical Glitch Ends Hillary `GMA' Chat
Hillary Rodham Clinton
A technical glitch abruptly cut off an interview with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday's edition of ABC's "Good Morning America."
The network was showing a tape of Clinton's interview with Cynthia McFadden - promoting a "Nightline" story, when the sound cut off just as McFadden was beginning a question.
Viewers heard instead voices from a confused control room, with one producer saying, "What is going on?" The network cut to McFadden live in the studio as she tried to explain what was said in the interview.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Disney Tries To Blame Clinton
'The Path To 9/11'
A "terribly wrong" miniseries about events leading to the Sept. 11 attacks blame President Clinton's policies, former Clinton administration officials said in letters demanding that ABC correct it or not air it.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Clinton Foundation head Bruce Lindsey and Clinton adviser Douglas Band wrote in the past week to Robert Iger, CEO of ABC's parent The Walt Disney Co., to express concern over "The Path to 9/11."
The two-part miniseries, scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday and Monday, is drawn from interviews and documents including the report of the Sept. 11 commission. ABC has described it as a "dramatization" as opposed to a documentary.
"For dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, and time compression," ABC said in its statement. "We hope viewers will watch the entire broadcast of the finished film before forming an opinion about it."
'The Path To 9/11'
Keep "Path to 9/11" Propaganda Film Off The Air
walt disney's cryogenically frozen head
Pulls 'The Path To 9/11' Class Room Guide
Scholastic Publishing
Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, today announced that it is removing from its website the materials originally created for classroom use in conjunction with the ABC Television Network docudrama neo-con propaganda, "The Path to 9/ll," scheduled to air on the ABC Television Network on September 10 and 11, 2006. A new classroom discussion guide for high school students is being created and will focus more specifically on media literacy, critical thinking, and historical background.
The new guide clearly states that Scholastic had no involvement with developing the ABC docudrama, and that the company is not promoting the program, but that the program can provide a springboard to discussion about the issues leading up to 9/11, terrorism and the Middle East. The guide will focus on three issues:
Scholastic Publishing
Recall 9/11 With Bush
Emma E. Booker Elementary
Tyler Radkey and other second-graders at Emma E. Booker Elementary School didn't know what to think when an aide leaned in and whispered something to President Bush on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
"His face just started to turn red," said Tyler, now 13 and in seventh grade. "I thought, personally, he had to go to the bathroom."
For a puzzling seven minutes, the youngsters read aloud from the story "My Pet Goat" while the shaken president followed along in front of the class, trying to come to grips with what he had been told - that a second plane had just hit the World Trade Center and the nation was under terrorist attack.
Tyler, his hair neatly braided, is in the lower left-hand corner of the now-famous Associated Press photo of Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispering news of the second plane and the words, "America is under attack."
Emma E. Booker Elementary
Records 10,000th Song
Songs of Love Foundation
When Ashley Abernathy was 9 years old and suffering from leukemia, her spirits were lifted by a serenade from David Lee Roth.
The song was produced by the Songs of Love Foundation, a Queens-based nonprofit that records personalized tunes for chronically or terminally ill children and young adults. This month, the foundation expects to reach a milestone with its 10,000th recording.
The foundation plans to celebrate during a Black Eyed Peas concert Sept. 8, when it will enlist assembled fans to sing tune number 10,000. The song is for Saeed Boynes, 14, who has sickle cell anemia and is being treated at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx.
The Songs of Love Foundation was founded in 1996 by John Beltzer, 46, a musician and songwriter whose Queens apartment doubles as a recording studio. It is named after a song written by Beltzer's brother Julio, who committed suicide 12 years earlier - the final act of a struggle with depression and schizophrenia.
Songs of Love Foundation
Melbourne Lane Named In Honour
Dame Edna
Melbourne has named a city lane in honour of its most famous cross-dressing megastar Dame Edna Everage.
Melbourne City Council voted late Wednesday to rename the lane, previously known as Brown Alley, after comedian Barry Humphries' alter ego, who began a career mocking his hometown's suburban ways back in 1956.
"Dame Edna has helped put Melbourne on the map for 50 years and now we should return the favour," Lord Mayor John So said. "Dame Edna should forever have her own place in Melbourne."
Dame Edna
Releasing Pop Album In November
Yusuf Islam
English musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, is eyeing a November U.S. release date for his first album of pop music in 28 years.
"An Other Cup," recorded on Islam's own Ya imprint, will be released by Atlantic Records; internationally, the set will be released by Polydor.
Produced by Rick Nowells (Dido, Madonna), the set features contributions from former sidekicks guitarist Alun Davies and keyboardist Jean Roussel, as well as from Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour, who is famed for his work with Peter Gabriel. Islam played guitar, piano and keyboard.
Yusuf Islam
Loses DUI Cherry
Paris Hilton
Celebrity Paris Hilton was arrested in Hollywood early on Thursday for suspected drunk driving, but she said the incident had been blown out of proportion and that she may have been speeding to get a late-night burger.
Hilton, 25, the heiress to the Hilton hotel dynasty known for her hard-partying lifestyle, was pulled over by police in Hollywood around 1 a.m. for driving erratically.
She told KIIS-FM radio in an interview on Thursday morning that she had been to a charity fund-raiser party after a long day shooting a music video and had just one margarita.
"I had one margarita (and) was starving because I had not eaten all day," she said. "Maybe I was speeding a little bit and I got pulled over. I was just really hungry and I wanted to have an In-N-Out Burger."
Paris Hilton
Notice Paris wasn't driving to Pink's, or
Fatburger - she was headed to IN-N-OUT.
Court Stays Profanity Ruling
FCC
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday put on hold a Federal Communications Commission ruling that four television broadcasts of profanity violated decency standards and gave the agency two months to consider rebuttals by the broadcasters.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stayed enforcement of the agency's March decision that profanities uttered on ABC's "NYPD Blue," CBS's "The Early Show" and the 2002 and 2003 Billboard music awards shows on Fox were indecent. The FCC did not propose any fines for the incidents.
The appeals court stayed the decision "which applies the standards announced in the Golden Globe Order" and also granted the FCC's request for the case back for 60 days.
The FCC acknowledged that it failed to give the networks an opportunity to respond to its findings that the shows violated decency standards and asked the court to give it time to consider their arguments.
FCC
'Der Ring des Nibelungen'
LA Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is to stage its first "Ring" cycle of four classic Wagnerian operas, thanks in part to a $6 million gift from businessman Eli Broad who wants to boost the city as cultural destination.
LA Opera general director Placido Domingo told a news conference on Wednesday the gift would make the long-cherished goal of staging all four operas in Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" a reality.
Broad, founder-chairman of financial services company SunAmerica and leader of a drive to put Los Angeles on the world's artistic map, said he hoped the production would increase the city's standing.
LA Opera
Focus Of London Opera
`Gadhafi'
He's been called a terrorist, a pariah and a statesman. Now Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is an operatic hero.
The larger-than-life dictator is the central figure in "Gaddafi: A Living Myth," the highly anticipated season-opener from the English National Opera.
Composer Steve Chandra Savale has called the show - complete with a chorus of uniformed female bodyguards belting out songs of praise for their leader - "an anti-musical."
`Gadhafi'
'Allies' Ban Women From Mecca
Saudis
Officials are considering an unprecedented proposal to ban women from performing the five Muslim prayers in the immediate vicinity of Islam's most sacred shrine in Mecca. Some say women are already being kept away.
The issue has raised a storm of protest across the kingdom, with some women saying they fear the move is meant to restrict women's roles in Saudi society even further. But the religious authorities behind the proposal insist its real purpose is to lessen the chronic problem of overcrowding, which has led to deadly riots during pilgrimages at Mecca in the past.
It was unclear why the step was being considered now, but officials say they have growing concerns about overcrowding, particularly at Mecca's Grand Mosque. The mosque contains the Kaaba, a large stone structure that Muslims around the world face during their daily prayers.
The chief of the King Fahd Institute for Hajj Research, which came up with the plan, told The Associated Press Thursday that the new restrictions are already in place. There have been word-of-mouth reports of women being asked to pray at new locations away from the white-marbled area surrounding the Kaaba in recent weeks.
Saudis
Not Extinct Afterall
Giant Palouse Earthworm
It's 3 feet long, pinkish in color, smells like a lily and must be saved from extinction, conservationists said Thursday in asking the federal government to protect the Giant Palouse Earthworm under the Endangered Species Act.
Long thought extinct, the worm was rediscovered in the past year to occupy tiny swatches of the heavily farmed Palouse region along the Washington-Idaho border.
"This worm is the stuff that legends and fairy tales are made of," worm supporter Steve Paulson declared. "What kid wouldn't want to play with a 3 foot-long, lily smelling, soft pink worm that spits?"
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not yet seen the petition regarding Driloleirus americanus, agency spokesman Tom Buckley said in Spokane.
Giant Palouse Earthworm
Point To Trump's Golf Course
Fake Signs
Phony signs promoting Donald Trump's new golf course have cropped up along Los Angeles freeways, stumping transportation officials and Trump executives alike.
Commuters first spotted the fake signs for the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes a week ago. Since then, California Department of Transportation workers have pulled down at least four of them.
Most mimic the green freeway directional signs common throughout California.
The illicit signs have been seen along the Harbor Freeway, near Pacific Coast Highway and next to 405 Freeway ramps.
Fake Signs
In Memory
Remy Belvaux
Belgian filmmaker Remy Belvaux, whose sole feature "Man Bites Dog" became a cult hit, has died, his family said Wednesday. He was 38.
Shot on a micro budget, "Man Bites Dog" purported to be a fly-on-the-wall TV documentary about the life of a cynically jovial serial killer. The 1992 movie walks a dangerous line between black humor and abject horror as the TV crew gradually becomes more implicated in the killer's gruesome crimes.
Belvaux also starred in "Man Bites Dog" with Andre Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde, who has gone on to be a major star in France. The trio also produced the movie, which won a string of awards after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival.
Despite the movie's impact, Belvaux never shot another feature, instead turning to directing commercials for which he won several industry awards. "He leaves us one masterpiece and tons of regrets," his family said in their statement.
Remy Belvaux
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