'Best of TBH Politoons'
TODAY!
Erin Hart
Feast on Talk with Erin Hart
today, Friday (23 November), filling in for Jay Marvin on
Boulder's Progressive Talk AM760.net
from 6am - 10am MST (8am - noon EST / 7am - 11am CST / 5am - 9am PST).
Will a few hundred thousand in Iowa decide the nominees for the Democrats?
Is Hillary regaining ground? Obama and Edwards are running neck and neck.
And what does that mean to the rest of us?
The Republicans are in disarray--Rudy is dealing with Bernie-gate--look for
Judith Regan to drop more bombshells--he may need more than 9/11, a verb
and a noun in a sentence (thanks Joe Biden!) to save him. Mike Huckabee is
funny, but he doesn't believe in evolution or other principles of scientific
fact.
Has the war dropped in your priorities? Are the Dems fighting hard enough
or are Congressional and Constitutional realities making it tough?
Or with housing drops and health insurance rises, is it again the "economy,
stupid"? Where and what are your political priorities?
And, immigration is a topic we cannot pass up.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Bill Moyers: My Father and FDR (TheNation.com; Posted on AlterNet.org)
"When Roosevelt was President, my father knew he had a friend in the White House. We should rekindle that spirit," Moyers says.
MOTOKO RICH: Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading (New York Times)
Harry Potter, James Patterson and Oprah Winfrey's book club aside, Americans - particularly young Americans - appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining. At the same time, performance in other academic disciplines like math and science is dipping for students whose access to books is limited, and employers are rating workers deficient in basic writing skills.
Naomi Klein: Shocked to death (latimes.com)
The jolts of global economics blast people out of the picture.
Jim Hightower: THE "ALL-NATURAL" FLIM-FLAM (jimhightower.com)
Is it true that all the CEOs and lawyers at big food corporations get their job training from flim-flam artists at carnival side shows?
Mark Morford: Give me sushi, give me death (sfgate.com)
This luscious tuna nigiri meets the ocean's plummeting fish stocks. Can you reconcile?
Roger Miller: The Life of Charles Schulz (Shepherd Express)
[David] Michaelis has produced a stunningly insightful and compulsively readable account of the life -- particularly the emotional life -- of the creator of "Peanuts," the famed comic strip about "born loser" Charlie Brown and his young friends.
ANTHONY MILLER: The Satirical Intellectual (lacitybeat.com)
Alexander Theroux on the paradoxes of love and the importance of plenitude and redemption.
Courtney Haden: Sittin' on the Dock of the Past: Remembering Otis Redding (Birmingham Weekly)
Almost 40 years since Redding died in the chilly waters of Lake Monona outside Madison, Wis., we wonder how we've managed to get along so long without the Big O.
Len Righi: VHS or Beta switches to a different format (The Morning Call [Allentown, Pa.]; Posted on Popmatters.com)
VHS or Beta formed in Louisville, Ky., in 1997 as a loud, noisy punk-rock band. But then things changed. "We were part of scene that grew very, very stagnant, and seemingly bitter," says guitarist-vocalist Craig Pfunder.
Mike McGonigal: Michael Hurley Returns After Never Really Leaving (Baltimore City Paper)
The drawling, iconoclastic singer/songwriter has released sporadic slow-burning, charming folk albums on little labels for 40-plus years -- now we're on the brink of a full-fledged Hurley revival.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
More fog, little sun.
Canada Rights Group Honors
Harry Belafonte
Calypso singer and activist Harry Belafonte will be awarded the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews's International Diversity Award at a gala dinner Thursday evening, the interfaith group said.
Best known for popularizing Caribbean music in the 1950s, Belafonte, 80, was a personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and supported the civil rights movement in its early days.
More recently, the first African-American to win an Emmy for his acting prowess has focused his efforts to abate poverty in Africa, and has been an outspoken critic of US resident George W. Bush.
Harry Belafonte
Holiday Meals for Homeless
Thanksgiving
Kirk Douglas, Harrison Ford and other celebrities shared the Thanksgiving spirit Wednesday by serving hot meals to homeless people on Skid Row.
Wearing red aprons and plastic gloves, they stood alongside volunteers at the annual feast at downtown's Los Angeles Mission, doling out turkey drumsticks, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, vegetables and pumpkin pie.
Actresses Nia Long and Calista Flockhart and "The Hills" reality TV star Spencer Pratt were among others passing out almost 3,000 plates of food to lines of men, women and children.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who said he has volunteered at the event for nearly a decade, said he cleaned the feet of some of the homeless.
"He washed my feet, and it was so special," Skid Row resident Yasmine Villalobos said. "I will remember it forever."
Thanksgiving
What To do With Tree-Sitters
Berkeley
University of California officials have won the legal right to oust a band of tree-sitters who've taken up residence in an oak grove standing in the way of a planned sports center.
But how do you uproot a tree-sitter in Berkeley, one of America's most politically correct cities?
As the protest nears its one-year anniversary, plenty of people have suggestions: Fire hoses, skunk spray and tranquilizer darts are among the thorny ideas Internet posters have planted.
The university wants to remove dozens of the picturesque trees, called evergreen coast live oaks, to build a $125 million training facility for its Golden Bears athletic teams.
Berkeley has changed since its '60s heyday as an epicenter of student protest, and the tree-sit doesn't appear to have generated huge interest on campus. "Unfortunately, a lot of the people are detached," said Jerlina Love, a graduate student who supports the sitters.
Berkeley
Seeks Restraining Order
Bill Nye
Bill Nye wants his ex-fiancee out of his life and it's not just because of some bad chemistry.
Nye, who hosted the educational PBS series "Bill Nye, the Science Guy," is seeking a permanent restraining order against Blair Tindall, alleging she tried to poison his vegetable garden, according to court records.
Nye, 51, identified Tindall as his ex-fiancee, even though the two announced in February 2006 that they were married by the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor and author of "The Purpose-Driven Life."
Tindall, author of "Mozart in the Jungle" and a former concert oboist, admitted in a declaration that she emptied two bottles of weed killer in the garden.
In court papers posted on the Web site The Smoking Gun, Tindall said that after marrying Nye, the two bought the Studio City home for $1 million. But when they found out their marriage license was "invalid," Nye "ordered me not to move into our home" and the relationship ended.
Bill Nye
Hospital News
Danny Federici
Keyboardist Danny Federici, an original member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, is taking a leave of absence from the group while undergoing treatment for melanoma.
Beginning Sunday (November 24) in Madrid, Federici will be replaced by Charles Giordano, who previously played in Springsteen's Sessions band.
On Monday in Boston, the E Street Band's set list was tilted toward material with which Federici is closely associated, including "Kitty's Back," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."
"Danny is one of the pillars of our sound and has played beside me as a great friend for more than 40 years," Springsteen said in a statement. "We all eagerly await his healthy and speedy return."
Danny Federici
Sue Over Song
The Romantics
The Romantics have filed a federal lawsuit against Activision Inc., the maker of "Guitar Hero," saying the popular video game infringes on the band's rights by featuring a soundalike recording of its 1980 hit "What I Like About You."
The song is one of about 30 songs featured on "Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s." The band also is seeking an injunction that could take the best-selling game off store shelves.
A copyright claim isn't the issue for the Romantics. The band's attorneys tell the Detroit Free Press that Activision properly secured permission to use "What I Like About You," allowing it to record a cover version.
But they say by creating an imitation so much like the Romantics' original, the California-based company infringed on the group's rights to its own likeness.
The Romantics
Invitation To Opry
Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels received a gift-wrapped surprise at his annual Christmas for Kids benefit: an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry.
Opry member Martina McBride presented it Monday night during the show at the Ryman Auditorium.
"I cannot even begin to tell you folks ... this is very emotional for me," Daniels, 71, told the audience. "I never ever in my wildest dreams, when I came to Nashville with my precious wife and son, dreamed that this would happen. To think that now my name will be added along with all these great country artists. Thank you."
Charlie Daniels
Ordered To Pay In Logo Dispute
Sony
Sony Music must pay the founder of a small record company $5 million for failing to put his company's logo on reissues of Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album, a federal appeals court ruled.
Steve Popovich, 65, who started Cleveland International Records in 1977 and soon afterward signed the chubby singer named Marvin Lee Aday, persuaded Epic Records to release the wildly successful album.
Epic was owned at the time by CBS. Sony, which bought out CBS Records, paid $6.7 million to Popovich and his former partners in 1998 to settle a lawsuit over royalties from the album.
The settlement required Sony to place the Cleveland International logo on future Meat Loaf albums but Sony did not add the logo to "Bat Out of Hell" for more than a year.
Sony
Faces Trial
Boy George
Former Culture Club singer Boy George will stand trial in February charged with falsely imprisoning a male escort by chaining him to a wall, a court ruled Thursday.
Thames Magistrate Court in London set a date of February 25 for the trial after the 1980s pop star was indicted last week over an alleged incident at his flat in the trendy Shoreditch area of east London.
Boy George -- famous for 1980s hits such as "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" and "Karma Chameleon" -- spoke during the minute-long hearing only to confirm his real name, George O'Dowd.
It is alleged that the 47-year-old singer-turned DJ falsely imprisoned a 28-year-old at his home in Ravey Street, Hackney, east London, on April 28.
Boy George
Rifle Auctioned
Geronimo
A Springfield rifle owned by the famed Apache warrior Geronimo fetched $100,000 (48,500 pounds) during an auction of Wild West guns and weapons that brought in more than $1 million.
Lawman Wyatt Earp's double-barrelled shotgun garnered $65,500, while a sabre attributed to U.S. Army cavalry commander George Custer sold for $20,315 at the Bonhams & Butterfields auction on Tuesday.
At the 800-item auction, buyers also spent $4,183 for a 32-caliber pistol reportedly carried by frontier scout Calamity Jane at her death.
Geronimo
Early Portrait Fetches $5.3 Million
Elizabeth I
The earliest known full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, thought to have been commissioned to help the English monarch "advertise" herself to potential suitors, sold on Thursday for 2.6 million pounds ($5.3 million).
The life-sized painting by Antwerp artist Steven van der Meulen, who went on to become an important English court painter in the 1560s, had been expected to fetch between 700,000 and one million pounds, auctioneer Sotheby's said.
"Like her father, Henry VIII, she was incredibly conscious of how important her image was," said Emmeline Hallmark, head of the Sotheby's British paintings department.
"This painting is so pretty and decorative, and the symbolism alludes to the fact that she is in the ripeness of her life," she told Reuters, adding that the portrait was probably made when Elizabeth was around 30 years old.
Elizabeth I
Swedish Women Protest
Bara Brost
A group of Swedish women is making waves by taking their tops off at public swimming pools in a protest against what they call gender-biased rules on swim wear.
About 40 women have joined the network and staged topless protests in at least three cities, said Sanna Ferm, 22, one of the founders of the group called Bara Brost, or Bare Breasts.
"The purpose of the campaign is to start a debate about why women's bodies are sexualized," Ferm said Wednesday.
She said the fact that men can be bare-chested in public swimming pools but not women is "a concrete example of how women have fewer rights than men."
Bara Brost
In Memory
Maurice Bejart
French choreographer Maurice Bejart, considered one of the great figures in contemporary dance, died on Thursday in a Swiss hospital at the age of 80, a spokeswoman for his Bejart Ballet Lausanne said.
Bejart, a former dancer who also directed operas and films, had been in and out of hospital in recent months, suffering from kidney and heart problems which left him exhausted.
Bejart put legends including Rudolf Nureyev, Jorge Donn, Patrick Dupond, Suzanne Farrell and Sylvie Guillem through their paces in bold productions on world stages from the Paris Opera to the Bolshoi.
In 1987, he moved along with most of the dancers in his 20th Century Ballet to Lausanne after 27 years in Brussels, and its name was changed to Bejart Ballet Lausanne. The Swiss lakeside city offered it better conditions and hefty annual subsidies.
Bejart, born in the southern French city of Marseille, came to prominence with a celebrated production of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in 1959.
Other creations, some allegorical, included "Bolero," "Songs of a Wayfarer," "Firebird" and "Souvenir of Leningrad." He also directed Verdi's "La Traviata" and Mozart's "Don Giovanni."
His creation, "The Clergy House has lost none of its Charm, and the Garden none of its Lustre," set to the song "Let me Live" by the rock group Queen, is a tribute to Queen singer Freddie Mercury and Donn, an Argentine-born Bejart protege best remembered for his wild solo of "Bolero," music by Maurice Ravel. Mercury, Donn and Nureyev all died of AIDS, a scourge that has decimated the dance world.
Maurice Bejart
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