'Best of TBH Politoons'
TODAY!
Erin Hart
Please join Erin Hart on
AM760 Progressive Talk in Denver today as she fills in on
the Jay Marvin show from 6a - 10a MST (8a - noon EST | 7a - 11a CST | 5a - 9a PST).
Internet
listeners, please go to www.am760.net and listen live!
HERE'S THE REAL MATH, KARL ROVE!
Corruption plus failed policies in Iraq and Afghanistan plus close to 2800 of ours dead and thousands of Iraqis dead equals
CHANGE IN AMERICA.
The bums have been hurled from office and a new day for Democrats and
Democracy dawns in the House where we won more than predicted by many and
possibly in the Senate where two races (as of this writing) hang by a
ballot.
Time for minimum wage, Medicare drug program reform, true health care
reform, reform and renewal of safer policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WE banded together to say time for a
New Day in America. Turnout was a record in many states. Single, married,
straight, gay, none of the above: we insist on a Balance of Power that
allows ALL of us to have a say.
Are Happy Days Here Again? Much depends on our new Speaker and our first
WOMAN Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. She has promised us integrity and honesty in
Washington, DC.
Thanks to all of
you who voted to restore our country to sanity. LET'S TALK, SHALL WE?
Progressive Talk - AM 760
Visit The Erin Hart Show for updates,
or check here - Erin Hart Show Links.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrea Hopkins: Democrat win may shift focus to U.S. middle class (Reuters)
The election victory by U.S. Democrats has been hailed as a repudiation of Republican President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq, but Democratic Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown believes economic populism and pocketbook pain is what put him in power.
DAVID CRARY: Losses on ballot measures jolt religious (AP)
From the country's heartland, voters sent messages that altered America's culture wars and dismayed the religious right - defending abortion rights in South Dakota, endorsing stem cell research in Missouri, and, in a national first, rejecting a same-sex marriage ban in Arizona.
H.R.550: A Bill for Verifiable Elections that Democrats Should Pass
Title: To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent paper record or hard copy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Holt, Rush D. [NJ-12] (introduced 2/2/2005) Cosponsors (219)
Latest Major Action: 2/2/2005 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, and Edward W. Felten: Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine
Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks.
STEAL AN ELECTION IN UNDER A MINUTE (Scroll down for the Video)
Andrew Tobias (andrewtobias.com) says: Click here to watch a demo from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy on how to steal an election on Diebold machines undetectably - in under a minute. The demo simulates an election between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. Guess who wins.
Catch 22 (guardian.co.uk)
We're encouraged to eat sustainable fish but the system isn't working and stocks are running out. Patrick Barkham meets the Hastings fishermen who do everything right but struggle to get by.
Jonathan Jones: 'One of the 20th century's great artists' (guardian.co.uk)
Avant-garde, surreal, gothic - who would have thought cartoonist Walt Disney had such a dark side?
Dorian Lynskey: Bond producers gamble on the theme tune (guardian.co.uk)
Any desire for sonic risk-taking was surely extinguished last time around by Madonna's Die Another Day. Accurately dubbed "the worst Bond theme ever" by Elton John, this baffling electro-pop folly had roughly as much to do with James Bond as it did with seal-clubbing or the treaty of Versailles.
The Wall St. Poet
Big Tent Dems
thepeskyfly.blogspot.com
Jeff Crook
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, but cooler.
No school for the kid.
Added a new flag - Uganda 
Booker Prize Winner Credits Chimpy
Kiran Desai
Indian novelist Kiran Desai said she may never have won the Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, had George W. Bush not been U.S. president -- as he put her off becoming an American citizen.
The Man Booker Prize is open only to British and Commonwealth citizens and Indian-born Desai has yet to apply for a U.S. passport, although she has lived in New York for 20 years.
"George Bush won once and he won the second time and I couldn't bring myself to (apply)," Desai said late last month in an interview in Toronto as she voiced her disapproval of the president's foreign policy.
"So I really owe George Bush my Booker, in an odd way. It's really very funny."
Kiran Desai
Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame
Joni Mitchell
Folk music icon Joni Mitchell and country pioneer Wilf Carter are among artists to be inducted next year into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Organizers say the music legends are among four songwriters and 25 songs to be celebrated at a black-tie gala in Toronto on Jan. 28.
Classic songs to be inducted include Mitchell's "Help Me" and "Big Yellow Taxi" and Sylvia Tyson's "You Were on My Mind," recorded with her then-husband Ian Tyson.
Joni Mitchell
Museum Commemorates
John F. Kennedy
The day John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, Klaus Schuetz sensed something special as he waited in city hall for the U.S. president's arrival. Thousands of people, some with tears in their eyes, chanted Kennedy's name along the motorcade route and packed the square outside.
"I have never seen the city vibrate the way it did on this day," said Schuetz, an official in Mayor Willy Brandt's administration at the time, and later mayor himself.
For people of Schuetz's Cold War generation, the emotion of that eight-hour visit, on June 26, 1963, lingers after more than 40 years - one reason why the 35th U.S. president and his family are being commemorated with a new museum opening Saturday in the German capital.
John F. Kennedy
Record Art Sale
Christie's
Christie's fall sale of Impressionist and modern art lived up to its billing as the biggest auction in history, led by a group of four Nazi-looted Klimts restored to their rightful heirs that raked in nearly $200 million.
The Klimts included a portrait that fetched the third-highest auction price ever, while new records were also set for Gauguin, Schiele and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner at the $491,472,000 sale.
In the end, however, the night belonged to Klimt, and to Maria Altmann, a Los Angeles nonagenarian and the niece of the Austrian couple Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer who lost the works to the Nazis.
The four paintings, led by the portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer II," fetched a total of $192.7 million including Christie's commission -- double the expectations for the works by the Austrian artist which had never been offered on the open market.
Christie's
Transplanted To Thursdays
'Men in Trees'
ABC is transplanting its new Anne Heche drama "Men in Trees" to Thursday from Friday, effective November 30.
The show will air in the 10 p.m. slot, following "Grey's Anatomy." Freshman drama "Six Degrees," which failed to gain traction in that period, has been pulled off the schedule and is set to return with new episodes in January.
Despite largely positive reviews, "Trees" has had a quiet run on Fridays, trailing offerings on CBS and NBC. In its most recent airing, the series averaged 6.9 million viewers.
'Men in Trees'
Pulled From Auction
Picasso
British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's Art Foundation has withdrawn a Picasso painting worth up to $60 million from a planned Christie's auction later on Wednesday amid claims by a German man that he owns the piece.
The Lloyd Webber foundation and Christie's said ownership claims by Julius Schoeps meant a "cloud of doubt has been recklessly placed" on the ownership of the painting from Picasso's Blue Period, "Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto."
A U.S. judge on Monday briefly halted the planned auction, but gave the go ahead for the sale on Tuesday and dismissed Schoeps' case, saying the case lacked federal jurisdiction.
But late Wednesday, lawyers for Schoeps filed a civil complaint in Manhattan Supreme Court seeking damages of $60 million from the foundation and the return of the painting.
Picasso
Wins Ruling In Casino Spat
Kevin Costner
The South Dakota Supreme Court has backed Kevin Costner in a legal battle over a Deadwood casino he owns, ruling Thursday that the actor-director doesn't have to sell his share in the business to sever his relationship with two partners.
The actor wants to become the sole owner of the Midnight Star, an eating and gambling establishment where costumes Costner wore in various movies line the walls.
Costner owns 93.5 percent of the casino. He hired Francis and Carla Caneva to manage the operation and gave them ownership of 6.5 percent. He fired them in July 2004, asking them to part ways as partners, and dissolved the partnership when they declined.
The justices said the property must be revalued but need not be sold. If the casino is determined to be worth no more than the $4.9 million Costner has put into it, the Canevas will not be entitled to any money, his lawyer said.
Kevin Costner
Reaching Out
Columbian Rebels
Colombia's largest rebel group is calling on Denzel Washington, Oliver Stone and Michael Moore to help it reach a deal with the government on exchanging imprisoned guerrillas for rebel-held hostages, including three U.S. citizens.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as the FARC, issued a letter made public Thursday asking the celebrities to advocate the swap to the American people.
"To the people of the United States, we ask for your always generous solidarity to pressure resident Bush and his government to support a prisoner exchange in Colombia," said Raul Reyes, the chief spokesman for the FARC.
The letter was also addressed to leftist academics Noam Chomsky, James Petras and Angela Davis, as well as activist Jesse Jackson.
Columbian Rebels
Pitches Laptop
Denise Richards
A spokeswoman for Denise Richards blamed aggressive paparazzi for a run-in that prompted the Hollywood actress to toss a pair of laptops from a balcony, causing minor injuries to two elderly women.
Howard Blank, a spokesman for the River Rock casino resort in the Vancouver suburb, confirmed an incident took place Wednesday evening.
Global TV reported Richards was filming a scene for the movie "Blonde and Blonder" when she allegedly confronted a photographer trying to take her picture. Richards threw the laptop computers off a balcony, hitting two elderly women sitting in the lobby below.
Denise Richards
Arrested In Santa Monica
Daniel Baldwin
Daniel Baldwin has been arrested on suspicion of stealing a sport utility vehicle.
Baldwin was stopped Wednesday by officers in Santa Monica who saw him in a white GMC Yukon reported stolen in neighboring Orange County, authorities said.
The actor was taken to jail and booked for investigation of grand theft auto. Bail was set at $20,000.
Daniel Baldwin
Tax Collectors
Eunuchs
They are India's new tax collectors. Dancing and singing to the beat of drums, about 20 eunuchs in bright saris began going from shop to shop, asking the owners to pay overdue municipal taxes in Patna, the capital of Bihar, one of India's most impoverished and lawless states.
They were hired by Patna's Municipal Corporation on Wednesday after the city's tax arrears ran into the millions, said Atul Prasad, the municipal administrator.
Indian rulers once castrated boys to create eunuchs to work in their harems. But eunuchs today are generally males with partial genitals or who opt for castration because of strong female feelings.
They often make a living on tips for dancing at weddings and blessing newborn babies, and are believed to be stubborn and do not take no for an answer.
Eunuchs
Heir Celebrates Return Of Munch Painting
Gustav Mahler
Ending a 60 year wait, the heir of composer Gustav Mahler will finally be reunited with a painting by Edvard Munch that the family says was taken unfairly from them after they fled the Nazis in 1938.
The latest high-profile art restitution case ended on Wednesday with an agreement by the Austrian culture ministry to return the Norwegian artist's landscape "Summer Night on the Beach" to Marina Mahler, the renowned composer's granddaughter.
Her grandmother, Mahler's wife Alma who herself fought to have the painting returned, died in 1964 aged 85.
Gustav Mahler
Spy And Composer
Johann Jacob Froberger
A long lost manuscript of works by German 17th century keyboard maestro Johann Jacob Froberger, also believed to have been a part-time spy, goes on sale later this month with a price tag of 500,000 pounds ($953,500).
Froberger, who eventually rivaled the stature of his former teacher the Italian composer Girolamo Frescobaldi, was hailed in his lifetime and beyond as one of the greatest masters of 17th century keyboard music.
The previously unrecorded book, bearing the arms of Leopold I on both covers, contains 35 pieces of keyboard music of which 18 are completely unknown.
Froberger, who is credited with inventing the Baroque suite for keyboard, was born in Stuttgart in 1616.
Johann Jacob Froberger
Russia May Block Release
'Borat'
A government agency said it would refuse to grant permission for Sacha Baron Cohen's controversial comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" to be shown in theaters in neighboring Russia, its distributor here said Thursday.
The Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography said the film could offend some viewers and contained material that "might seem disparaging in relation to certain ethnic groups and religions," according to Vadim Ivanov, theatrical sales director at Twentieth Century Fox C.I.S.
The agency informed the company in a letter that it would not grant the permission required to show the film in theaters, but later said the decision was not official, Ivanov noted. "This story is not over," he said.
'Borat'
CBS Splitting Season In 2
'Jericho'
CBS will split the first season of its nuclear-holocaust drama "Jericho" into two half seasons of all-original episodes. Back-to-back episodes of veteran comedy "The King of Queens" will fill in for the rookie series while it is on hiatus.
The first half of "Jericho's" freshman season will end November 29 with a cliffhanger finale. The series, starring Skeet Ulrich, will return February 14 with a recap of the first 11 episodes, followed by a new episode every Wednesday for the rest of the season.
The pattern mirrors the fall/spring season scheduling for Fox's "Prison Break" introduced last year and a similar template employed this year by ABC's "Lost."
'Jericho'
In Memory
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, who co-founded the French weekly L'Express and encouraged Europe to emulate the United States, died Tuesday. He was 82.
Servan-Schreiber, a journalist, essayist and politician, died of complications from bronchitis two days after he was hospitalized in the town of Fecamp in northwest France, his son Edouard said.
After a stint as an international affairs reporter at Le Monde daily, Servan-Schreiber co-founded L'Express with journalist Francoise Giroud. He was only 29.
Servan-Schreiber was also known during the Cold War for his support of America and a free-market economy. He put John F. Kennedy on the cover of the magazine in the 1950s, long before his election as U.S. president, and he traveled to meet with Kennedy several times while he was in office, his son said.
Servan-Schreiber later made the jump from political observer to politician, serving as head of the center-left Radical Party from 1971 to 1979.
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
In Memory
Ed Bradley
Ed Bradley, the award-winning television journalist who broke racial barriers at CBS News and created a distinctive, powerful body of work during his 26 years on "60 Minutes," died Thursday. He was 65.
Bradley's consummate skills were recognized with numerous awards, including four George Foster Peabody awards and 19 Emmys, the latest for a segment on the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till.
Born June 22, 1941, Bradley grew up in a tough section of Philadelphia, where he once recalled that his parents worked 20-hour days at two jobs apiece. "I was told, `You can be anything you want, kid,'" he once told an interviewer. "When you hear that often enough, you believe it."
After graduating from the historically black Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania), he launched his career as a jazz DJ - he was a lifelong jazz fan - and news reporter for a Philadelphia radio station in 1963. He moved to New York's WCBS radio four years later.
He joined CBS News as a stringer in the Paris bureau in 1971, transferring a year later to the Saigon bureau during the Vietnam War. He was wounded while on assignment in Cambodia. He was named a CBS News correspondent in early 1973 and moved to the Washington bureau in June 1974. He later returned to Vietnam, covering the fall of that country and Cambodia.
After Southeast Asia, Bradley returned to the United States and covered Jimmy Carter's successful campaign for the White House. He followed Carter to Washington, in 1976 becoming CBS' first black White House correspondent - a prestigious position that Bradley didn't enjoy.
He jumped from Washington to doing pieces for "CBS Reports," traveling to Cambodia, China, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. It was his Emmy-winning 1979 piece on Vietnamese boat refugees that eventually landed him on "60 Minutes."
Bradley is survived by his wife, Patricia Blanchet.
Ed Bradley
In Memory
Basil Poledouris
Emmy-winning composer Basil Poledouris, best known for his powerful music for action-adventure films of the 1980s and '90s, died of cancer in Los Angeles on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. He was 61.
Poledouris worked on the scores for the early Arnold $chwarzenegger vehicles "Conan the Barbarian" (1982) and "Conan the Destroyer" (1984), and his orchestral-and-choral compositions came to be considered high points in the genre of music for fantasy films.
His other feature credits included "The Blue Lagoon" (1980), "Robocop" (1987), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), and "Free Willy" (1993). He won an Emmy in 1989 for his folk-based Western score for the miniseries "Lonesome Dove."
The Kansas City, Mo., native is survived by his mother and two daughters. No services are planned.
Basil Poledouris
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