'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Amnesty Takes Aim at 'Gulag' in Guantanamo (Associated Press)
London, May 25 - Amnesty International castigated the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay as a failure Wednesday, calling it "the gulag of our time" in the human rights group's harshest rebuke yet of American detention policies.
David Podvin: DARK VICTORY (MakeThemAccountable.com)
A Senate compromise pact has averted the showdown over the nuclear option, so Republican judicial nominees will now be confirmed ninety-seven to ninety-nine percent of the time, whereas the Democrats will stand up for democracy one to three percent of the time.
Paul Krugman: America Wants Security
(Click on "Columns," then on "America Wants Security")
At a gala dinner in his honor, Tom DeLay cited his party's recent achievements: "bankruptcy reform, class-action reform, energy, border security, repealing the death tax." All of these measures are either irrelevant to or actively hostile to the economic security of working Americans.
Bill Maher (huffingtonpost.com)
The accompanying poster shows a soldier, a cop, a fireman, and a teacher, and says, "We Say They're Our Heroes...But We Pay Them Like Chumps."
'The Daily Show' Embarrasses the 'Real' Media (bradblog.com)
It's a sad state of affairs in America when the fake news show, The Daily Show on Comedy Central is doing some of the best journalism on television.
Kevin Drum: GEORGE BUSH AND HIS SUPPORTERS.... (washingtonmonthly.com)
The good folks at PIPA have yet another interesting report out [in 2004]. The primary gist of the report is that when it comes to foreign policy, Bush supporters have a much worse grasp of factual matters than Kerry supporters.
PIPA: Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Program, Supported al Qaeda (A 2004 Report: pipa.org)
Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for developing them (25%).
Zack Pelta-Heller: Your Handy Home Censorship Kit (AlterNet)
A new device allows consumers to cleanse their DVDs of sex, profanity and violence.
Annalee Newitz: Fantasies of E3 (AlterNet)
The booth babes were treated the way little kids treat the people dressed as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck at Disneyland: as photo opportunities.
Mark Twain: "To the Person Sitting in Darkness"
" . . . manufactures a war out of materials so inadequate and so fanciful that they make the boxes grieve and the gallery laugh, and he tries hard to persuade himself that it isn't purely a private raid for cash, but has a sort of dim, vague respectability about it somewhere, if he could only find the spot; and that, by and by, he can scour the flag clean again after he has finished dragging it through the mud, and make it shine and flash in the vault of heaven once more. . . ."
ROGER EBERT: Cannes coda: Why it's all worth it
CANNES, France -- Suddenly calm has descended on Cannes, like a movie without sound.
I Drew This: Cartoon
Chelsea Boys: Gay Comic Strip (Adult)
Reader Comment
Pershing Square Rally
Hi Marty:
I should meet up with Marian someday!
I was at the Pershing Square rally too-the union paid for a sub and I figured that was okay, because my kids were winding down the year, and I was out there fighting for them. The rich people financing Musclehead don't need a sub.
Thousands of people screaming with rage-the ground even shook. The Ca School Employees Association marched in like a drum and bugle corps, hundreds of them with drums and whistles. Bus after bus after bus disgorging public employees who are furious. It was very impressive. It is depressing to talk to the paid whores gathering signatures-they don't know what they are doing and they don't even care.
This summer the Groper's forces will be hitting us hard, when we are off on our "vacation." Most of us will fight the bastard anyway.
Ed the Teacher
Proud Union Site Rep
Thanks, Ed!
This week on 'NOW,' David Brancaccio interviewed the woman who heads the nurses union - she was wonderful.
Laws were passed to limit the number of patients a nurse was expected to tend simultaneously - currently it's 6, the law mandates 5.
Anyone who's been in a hospital recently knows nurses aren't sitting on the couch, eatting bon-bons and reading Kafka.
Ahnold, the corporate whore, has taken money from his very special interests to think 6 patients is fine. And 7 would be even better.
It made me think of the heart valves from cadavers that keep Ahnold moving - and wonder if appreciated nurses during his hospital stay.
Poor delusional Austrian - thinks nurses, teachers, firefighters & cops are special interests. And responsible for 'ruining' the state.
Evil bastard.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and mild - fog rolled in early.
Had the new CPU put in this afternoon.
Been running late ever since.
Paying For Tower
Johnny Depp
Organizers of a memorial for Hunter S. Thompson plan to erect a 150-foot structure - courtesy of actor Johnny Depp - to shoot the gonzo journalist's ashes onto his ranch near here.
Jon Equis, the event producer working with Thompson's family, said the tower will be 12 feet wide at the base and 8 feet wide at the top, where a cannon will be placed.
Depp, who portrayed the author in the movie version of Thompson's book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" will pay for the tower, designed to resemble Thompson's "gonzo fist" emblem.
Johnny Depp
Pulls Out Of MTV Show
Nine Inch Nails
The rock band Nine Inch Nails said on Friday it canceled plans to appear on next week's MTV Movie Awards after the network questioned the band's plans to perform in front of an image of resident Bush.
The band was slated to perform "The Hand That Feeds," the first single from its latest album.
A Los Angeles Times review called the song "a warning against blind acceptance of authority, including that of a president leading his nation to war."
"We were set to perform 'The Hand That Feeds' with an unmolested, straightforward image of George W. Bush as the backdrop. Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me," Nine Inch Nails' leader Trent Reznor said in a statement posted on the band's Web site.
Nine Inch Nails
Seeking Fans' Help For New Documentary
The Who
The two surviving members of The Who are producing a documentary about the British rock band's turbulent history, an ongoing 40-year saga of death, drugs and timeless music.
Guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey have joined forces on the feature-length project with director Murray Lerner, an Oscar-winning documentary director who first filmed the band during the 1970 Isle of Wight festival.
"There will be very unusual stuff, hopefully, that never was seen before," Lerner told Reuters. "We're looking for material like fights between them, on and off the stage, unruly fans that make it difficult, weird incidents on the stage, interviews with ex-wives and girlfriends."
To that end, the filmmakers have set up a Web site, www.thewhomovie.com, seeking material from fans.
The Who
Sucking Up To Wingnuts
Mary Kay
Cosmetics-peddling giant Mary Kay is pulling out of a planned ad buy on Desperate Housewives following criticism from a conservative Christian group.
The American Family Association doesn't explicitly mention the hit ABC dramedy on its Website, afa.net, but, in a post, the group's leader, Donald E. Wildmon, questions how Mary Kay, whose company philosophy is "God first, family second and career third," could buy into a show that he says promotes infidelity, seduction and promiscuity.
Wildmon's minions apparently got the ear of the Dallas-based makeup mavens--one of the largest purveyors of cosmetic and skin-care products in the world. The Associated Press quotes a Mary Kay corporate spokesperson saying the company has rejiggered its advertising plan for this summer and fall, partially as a result of calls from concerned employees and Mary Kay customers, and "will not have Desperate Housewives in that mix."
This is not the first time the American Family Association and its Website, which bills itself as "America's Largest Pro-Family Action Site," has gone on the offensive against Desperate Housewives.
Last year, Lowe's, Tyson Foods and Kellogg's were among the advertisers who reportedly pulled their ad dollars from Housewives after receiving emails, letters and phone calls from angry AFA members.
Mary Kay
Adds Voice To UN Anti-Poverty Campaign
Luciano Pavarotti
Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti will bring his tenor voice to a global anti-poverty campaign, using his concerts in Ireland this week to urge his audiences to back the cause, a UN official said.
Pavarotti has offered to show, during his concerts Thursday and Saturday, several short films on the Millennium Development Goals "to call on his audiences to take action to reach the targets" of the campaign, said Eveline Herfkens, UN chief Kofi Annan's executive coordinator for the campaign.
The films will also be shown at more than 40 concerts during his global farewell tour in 2005 and 2006. Pavarotti has been a UN "Messenger of Peace" since 1998.
Luciano Pavarotti
Visitors To Arkansas
'Billgrimage'
Six months after the opening of Bill Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock, the director of a museum in Clinton's birthplace is seeing a new tourism phenomenon: the "Billgrimage."
The spillover of visitors from the library has given the cash-strapped birthplace museum its first operating surplus in eight years.
The library in Little Rock draws more than 1,500 visitors a day, and some of them also make the 115-mile drive to Hope to see the white house where Clinton lived as a child with his mother until he was 4.
Many tourists simply drive by the house and slow down. Some stop at the Hope Visitor Center and Museum down the road.
More than 1,000 people passed through the visitor center during the first half of May, compared with 800 for the entire month last year, said Gary Johnson, who runs the place.
'Billgrimage'
Switches to ABC
Country Music Association
The Country Music Association awards show will be televised next year by ABC after 34 seasons on CBS.
Ed Benson, head of the CMA, said the switch will mean several million dollars more in licensing fees. He also said ABC presented an attractive marketing plan to promote the show on its other programs.
It will originate this year from New York City after being staged in Nashville.
Country Music Association
Father Sentenced
Lindsay Lohan
Teenage actress Lindsay Lohan's father was sentenced Friday to up to four years in prison on guilty pleas to a variety of crimes, including driving while impaired and attempted assault, a prosecutor said.
Michael Lohan was sentenced to 1 1/3 to 4 years for a series of incidents stretching over a year, Nassau County prosecutor Joy Watson said. The latest occurred in February, when he was charged with drunk driving after running his car into a utility pole on Long Island.
Michael Lohan also pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment for making a threatening phone call to another brother-in-law, and to criminal contempt for breaking a court order by driving onto his estranged wife's driveway.
While awaiting sentencing on the shoe attack, Lohan was charged with driving while intoxicated and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle after his car went off the road, struck a pole and burst into flames. He was not injured.
Lohan, 45, had been driving with a suspended or revoked license and had a blood-alcohol level nearly double the legal limit, Watson said. He pleaded guilty Friday to the reduced charge of driving while impaired.
Lindsay Lohan
'America's Next Top Model'
Twiggy
Janice Dickinson is no longer in the running to judge who will become "America's Next Top Model." The loudmouth supermodel and author has left the UPN reality show and will be replaced by Twiggy Lawson on the upcoming fifth season.
Dickinson, author of "No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel" and "Everything About Me Is Fake ... and I'm Perfect," was the most outspoken member of the model hunt's judging panel, dishing harsher-than-harsh critiques to contestants and getting into spats with fellow judges since the first season.
Also gone as a judge is stylist Nole Marin. He'll be replaced by runway expert J. Alexander, a former male model who's taught catwalk technique and guest judged in previous seasons - or "cycles," the show's term for each installment.
Twiggy
Predict Abundant Harvest In Cambodia
Royal Cows
Cambodia's royal cows have signalled bountiful harvests of rice, beans and corn this year in a traditional ceremony marking the start of the ploughing season.
King Norodom Sihamoni presided over the ceremony in front of Phnom Penh's national museum, where thousands of people gathered as royal astrologers watched what the cows ate to predict the coming year's rainfall and harvests.
The royal cows were led to seven dishes -- rice, corn, beans, sesame, grass, water and alcohol -- laid out on trays.
"The royal cows ate 90 percent of the rice offered to them, meaning the rice harvest this year will be good," chief astrologer Kang Ken declared before thousands of onlookers.
"The cows also ate 95 percent of the beans and 95 percent of the corn, meaning that bean and corn harvests for this year will be plenty too," he said.
Royal Cows
In Memory
Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert, the actor best known as the constantly befuddled city slicker-turned-farmer in television's "Green Acres," has died. He was 99.
Albert died of pneumonia Thursday at his home in the Pacific Palisades area, in the presence of caregivers including his son Edward, who was holding his hand at the time.
Albert achieved his greatest fame on "Green Acres" as Oliver Douglas, a New York lawyer who settles in a rural town with his glamorous wife, played by Eva Gabor, and finds himself perplexed by the antics of a host of eccentrics, including a pig named Arnold Ziffel.
He was nominated for Academy Awards as supporting actor in "Roman Holiday" (1953) and "The Heartbreak Kid" (1972).
The actor moved smoothly from the Broadway stage to movies to television. Besides the 1965-1971 run in "Green Acres," he costarred on TV with Robert Wagner in "Switch" from 1975 to 1978 and was a semi-regular on "Falcon Crest" in 1988.
He was a tireless conservationist, crusading for endangered species, healthful food, cleanup of Santa Monica Bay pollution and other causes.
His break in show business came during the '30s in the Broadway hit "Brother Rat," a comedy about life at Virginia Military Institute. Warner Bros. signed him to a contract and cast him in the 1938 film.
According to Hollywood gossip, he was caught in a dalliance with the wife of Jack L. Warner and the studio boss removed him from a film and allowed him to languish under contract.
The actor left Hollywood and appeared as a clown and trapeze artist in a one-ring Mexican circus. He escaped his studio contract by joining the Navy in World War II and served in combat in the South Pacific. He received a Bronze Star for his heroic rescue of wounded Marines at Tarawa.
Albert managed to rehabilitate his film career after the war, beginning with "Smash-up" with Susan Hayward in 1947.
Among his other films: "Carrie," "Oklahoma!" "The Teahouse of the August Moon," "The Sun Also Rises," "The Roots of Heaven," "The Longest Day," "Miracle of the White Stallions," "The Longest Yard" and "Escape to Witch Mountain."
Edward Albert Heimberger was born in Rock Island, Ill., grew up in Minneapolis and worked his way through two years at the University of Minnesota.
Amateur theater led to singing engagements in nightclubs and on radio. During that time he dropped his last name "because most people mispronounced it as 'Hamburger.'"
Moving to New York, Albert acted on radio and appeared in summer stock before he broke into Broadway and the movies.
"Green Acres" made Albert a rich man and allowed him to pursue his causes. He traveled the world for UNICEF. He continued acting into his 80s, often appearing in television movies.
Edward Albert, 54, who became a prominent actor in "Butterflies Are Free," "40 Carats" and other films, said he put his career on hold for the past eight years to aid his father, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
Albert was married to the dancer-actress Margo for 40 years until her death in 1985. In addition to his son, Albert is survived by a daughter, Maria Albert Zucht, and two granddaughters.
A private funeral was planned.
Eddie Albert
