'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Comment
Re: Ray Charles
When I heard that Bonnie Ronnie had croaked all I had to say was, "How
could they tell?" -- unlike when I heard on the radio yesterday that Ray
Charles had died, which provoked an instant, "Well, shit!"
I couldn't believe MSNBC did a poll asking if people thought Ronnie was in
the top 2 presidents of the 20th century, and about 75% of the people said
"yes". I wonder whatever happened to some guy named Roosevelt that saw us
through the depression and WW-II ... and a cat from Massachusetts that
encouraged us to haul ass to the moon. Even Eisenhower was great in his
own way, dealing with all that cold war crap ... and Lyndon could fart.
Oh, well -- at least Kinky Freidman is going to run for gov here in TexAss.
They may not be making jews like Jesus anymore, but at least they made
one like Kinky. There may still be hope.
~ Ray
Thanks, Ray!
Reader Contribution
New Ten Dollar Bill
Reader Comment
Reagan Overkill?
I certainly can't be the only one beset by ennui unto death by constant attack of "Reaganitis"! An entire week "devoted" to fawning worshipfulness? Give me back some coverage of our young soldiers who continue to die in droves in Afghanistan and Iraq! Reagan was never a "god";-- he manufactured the whole of his Presidency from the perspective of one who'd had the glow of camera lights upon him his entire life, and POOF!!, --instant "leader".
No previous President has BS'd this nation with an entire week of personal dying, and closed down the Government / Wall Street. Hrumph! (Did you get your mail today?)
Let's go back and review his "leadership".
He had "handlers", just like all Presidents do. Image is everything, but crooks abound. So the guy was a "giant" on the world-stage, he ignored the looming threat of AIDS, ran poor mothers outta welfare on the chimera of Caddy-driving, bejeweled scammers, and began the slippery slope for America's disrespect among nations by riding roughshod over international treaties;-- spell Abu Graib, anyone?
Under his "stewardship", we shunted millions to arm and train the Taliban, and other Islamists who were then fighting the Soviets. We gave them the tools to attack us. He "set up" the whole "Tear Down This WALL" speech. We didn't have a problem then to prop them up, but good 'ol Reagan wasn't a good enough student of history to recognize that the dog always turns to bite the hand that feeds it. Al-Quida is of his making, and your tax-dollars helped him.
The best part of of "dead-president" worship will come back to haunt when Clinton /Carter go to rest. A whole week? Even murdered JFK wasn't that much of a martyr.
What a nation of compliant, unquestioning sheep we've become!
'Night, Ronnie;--- glad my late-night cable-channels have seen fit to omit your movies;--- my vote might change were I to ever see you as other than an actor.
-michelle v
Thanks, Michelle!
Reader Comment
Ray Charles v. Ronnie RayGun
Was watching CNN and they couldn't even talk about Ray Charles without interjecting Saint Ronald of the Monster Deficit into it.
They HAD to mention that "20 years ago, Mr. Charles sang 'America the Beautiful' for Ronald and Nancy Reagan."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was as if Ray hadn't accomplished anything else during his long, illustrious musical career.
There WAS an America BEFORE RapMaster Ronnie arrived on the scene, wasn't there?
- Terry C
NJ
Thanks, Terry!
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Paul Berenson
Another Side of the News
Not much in the news this week, so we'll catch up on the Iraqi prison scandal. LA Times has obtained new memos from Rumsfeld's office instructing military intelligence to "take the gloves off" in interrogations. This from late 2001!
Now we learn that the Administration claims that laws against torture don't apply to the President. Up the chain of command, while the military tries to stop it at 2 Star General Janis Karpinski.
Still no money from Air America for board-op work I did on April 11. So much for their committment to the Working Man. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!" Cash is real tight, too. Their phone is 646-274-4900 if you would like to call and tell them to pay LA Market Manager Bob Visotcky and me the money they have owed us for 2 months.
Tune in to "Another Side of the News" with Paul Berenson, Saturdays 9am-10am PST on KCSB-FM 91.9 or listen on
our webcast.
Your local phone calls are welcome at:
893-2424
893-2425
Outside of the Santa Barbara area:
1-805-893-2426
1-805-893-3757
If you're tired of the Limbaugh's, Fox News, Corporate Media, etc. and want to hear a Democrat with attitude, this is for you!
Join listeners and callers on the South Coast and across the nation listening on our webcast at
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still overcast mornings, beautiful afternoons.
Celebrated the first day of the kid's summer vacation by sleeping in. What a luxury.
Did the grocery shopping and stopped by Reptiles Unlimited for fresh crickets for
Jo the (lucky) lizard & the taratula, Shelob. The crickets add a nice counterpoint to the TV.
Singers India Arie and Michael McDonald arrive at the induction ceremony for 35th annual National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York, Thursday, June 10, 2004.
Photo by Louis Lanzano
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Receives Life Achievement Award
Meryl Streep
Inhuman. Shape-shifter. Spirit channeler. Too perfect. Those were the unusual accolades bestowed upon Meryl Streep by some of her famous colleagues Thursday night as the actress received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute.
Jim Carrey, Jack Nicholson, writer-director Nora Ephron and Shirley MacLaine all paid tribute to the Oscar winner.
Streep, 54, has two Academy Awards: supporting actress for 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and lead actress for 1982's "Sophie's Choice." She holds the record for most total Oscar nominations with 13.
The ceremony also included presentations by James Woods, Claire Danes, Diane Keaton and director Mike Nichols. It was taped for broadcast on the USA Network June 21.
For a lot more, Meryl Streep
A copy of a draft of handwritten lyrics to 'Prove It All Night' by Bruce Springsteen, is part of an exhibit titled 'Springsteen - Troubadour of the Highway,' at the Newark Museum in Newark, N.J., Friday, June 11, 2004. The exhibition runs from June 17 to Aug. 29, 2004.
Photo by Mike Derer
Alaska DJ Off Air for Reagan Remark
Spider Bui
A disc jockey at a university radio station who turned a Sunday radio show into a "celebration" that Ronald Reagan "was finally dead" has been suspended.
The disc jockey, a University of Alaska Fairbanks undergraduate who goes by the call name "Spider Bui," said his show was a reaction to the media's positive portrayal of Reagan after his death Saturday. Managers at KSUA-FM said the show was in poor taste and was put on without permission.
No tape of the show was available. According to the disc jockey, he berated Reagan for his foreign policy in Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan, and for what the student called a "homophobic" response to the AIDS epidemic.
"I said that I was sick of all of the media that was glorifying Reagan and rewriting history that was pretty despicable," he said. "Basically, what the gist of the show was, it was a celebration that Ronald Reagan was dead, was finally dead."
He said he played requests such as "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and told listeners he wanted to "walk over the newly laid dirt" on Reagan's grave. One listener said the disc jockey advocated urinating on Reagan's grave, but the student said he does not remember saying that.
The disc jockey said more than two-thirds of his callers supported his message, and that he stands by everything he said.
Spider Bui
Conservative Family Values
Rush Flushes #3
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said on Friday that he and his third wife, Marta, had mutually decided to end their marriage of 10 years.
A statement issued through Los Angeles-based public relations firm Sitrick and Company said the Limbaughs "have separated pending an amicable resolution." It was not clear whether either party had formally filed for divorce.
Limbaugh and his third wife, a former aerobics instructor he met on the Internet, were married in May 1994 at the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a ceremony officiated by Thomas himself.
His two previous marriages ended in divorce.
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Blues Documentary to Benefit Musicians
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd is spending a good part of this month filming a blues music documentary that will raise funds for Southern musicians in need.
Across a 10-day period that began June 8, the blues guitar prodigy will record and film performances with the likes of B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins and "Steady Rollin"' Bob Margolin in juke joints, on front porches and in other comfortable settings.
Filmmaker Noble Jones will direct the project, which will see future release on DVD and CD. Talking Heads alumnus Jerry Harrison will produce the audio recording. A "substantial share of the profits" from the project will benefit the
Music Maker Relief Foundation (MMRF).
Along with Shepherd and King, the MMRF's advisory board includes Bonnie Raitt, Dickey Betts (Allman Brothers Band), Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and Col. Bruce Hampton.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Gary Loveland, who is donating his work to the removal of a 14-foot wide by 16-foot tall mural of Tillie, an arcade clown on the wall of the partially demolished Palace Amusements, marks spots for cutting through the wall around it, in Asbury Park, N.J., Tuesday, June 8, 2004. To remove the 48-year-old mural, which they hope to complete Thursday or Friday, workers will saw through the concrete blocks on all four sides, the bottom was done Tuesday, and insert a steel frame around it. A crane will thenlift out the mural, which is estimated to weigh at least 15,000 pounds, and transport to a storage site. Bruce springsteen has used Tillie's image on tour t-shirts, books, calenders, videos and the cover of a CD single.
Photo by Daniel Hulshizer
Independence Air
Carville & Matalin
Bob Dole did it for Pepsi, Viagra and Visa. Jimmy Carter did it for a pancreatic cancer foundation. Now political consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin are jumping into advertising together, touting a new Washington-based airline that will debut June 16.
Independence Air, which will be based at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, wanted two political personalities that epitomize the qualities it wants to be known for: feisty, independent and somewhat irreverent.
Passengers will also hear Carville and Matalin during the safety announcements on flights. "Put your Wall Street Journals down and pay attention," Carville tells the right side of the plane. Matalin tells the left side, "We must ask you to stop whining, just for a moment."
Carville & Matalin
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Markets Pa$$ion Videos to Churches
$am's Club
Mainstream retailer Sam's Club began offering 50-copy "church packs" of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ this week, in a twist on usual ways of selling to religious groups.
Advance sales for the film's Aug. 31 release on DVD and video cassette already have exceeded expectations for the retailer, the warehouse club division of Wal-Mart Stores.
Sam's is selling 50 DVDs in a pack for $898 US, a rate of $17.96 apiece, and 50 videocassettes for $795, a rate of $15.90 apiece.
$am's Club
photo removed by request - 03/15/16
A cheerleader sported a boomerang-like hairdo ahead of The Sydney Hair Expo June 11, 2004. The expo will be held over the forthcoming Queens Birthday long weekend holiday and will host 22,000 members of the global hairdressing community.
Photo by Will Burgess
Aquatic Plant Threatens
Maracaibo Lake
Venezuela's government announced it would spend US$1.5 million dollars to stop the spread of an aquatic plant that is threatening the nation's largest waterway.
A state of emergency has been declared in Maracaibo Lake, one of South America's largest bodies of water, due to the spread of a green plant known as "duckweed" or "Lemna," Environment Minister Ana Elisa Osorio said Wednesday.
The plant has spread over 10 to 20 percent of the lake's 13,500 square kilometer (5,400 square mile) surface, according to Gonzaolo Godoy, a marine biologist from western Zulia state who has closely studied the phenomenon.
The plant feeds off nitrogen and phosphorous contained in sewage and river runoff that reaches the lake, said Godoy.
Prior to the discovery of oil in Venezuela, the world's No. 5 exporter, Lake Maracaibo was uncontaminated and was widely considered to be an ecological paradise.
Maracaibo Lake
Mount Bromo volcano spews smoke at sunrise, three days after the popular tourist site erupted killing two people, 75 km (46 miles) south of Surabaya, the capital of East Java June 11, 2004. Indonesia sits astride the geologically active Pacific 'ring of fire.' It has more than 100 active volcanoes.
Photo by Darren Whiteside
Hollywood Cares For Its Own
'The Old Actors Home'
Tucked away on a lush 50-acre spread in a far corner of the suburbs, Hollywood cares for its own.
For over six decades, Mack Sennett, Norma Shearer, Mary Astor, Johnny Weissmuller and scores of other film-world notables have spent their late years here. So have far less famous folks from behind the scenes at Hollywood's dream factories.
The official name is the Motion Picture and Television Fund's Woodland Hills campus - a state-of-the-art, full-service retirement facility with a $100 million annual budget.
Yet for many, it will always be "The Old Actors Home."
The quaint moniker refuses to die, despite official pleadings that the property also includes a hospital and accepts all kinds of workers from the movie and TV industries, from extras to producers.
For the rest, 'The Old Actors Home'
Sited In Yukon
Sasquatch
Conservation officer Dave Bakica is convinced that whatever two men saw early last Sunday morning, it shook them up. Marion Sheldon and Gus Jules were traveling out of town along the Alaska Highway on an all-terrain vehicle between 1 and 2 a.m. when they passed what resembled a person standing on the side of the highway.
Thinking it was a person from their small community who might be in need of a ride, they turned around.
As the two lifelong Teslin residents and members of the Teslin Tlingit Council approached to within 20 feet, they noticed the figure was covered in hair, but standing upright the entire time.
"I have no doubt they saw something, and are convinced it was not a bear or anything in the ordinary," Bakica said. "They are convinced this was something out of the ordinary ... And they are pretty shook up over it."
For the rest, Sasquatch
A skull of a saber-toothed cat, Machairodus Giganteus, is displayed at Guernsey's auction house in New York, Wednesday, June 9, 2004. Its an unusual sale, 'Dinosaurs and other Prehistoric Creatures at Auction,' which consists of more than 300 lots and takes place June 24.
Photo by Ed Bailey
'The Osbournes'
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