'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
New(ish) Site
Mothers (and Others) Opposing Bush
We are Mothers (and Others) Opposing Bush because this administration's policies endanger our families and our country. We come from across the political spectrum and focus on issues central to families. Our plan is to mobilize mothers around the country. We are collecting a large database of supporters, holding visible activities and raising funds for a national media campaign aimed at spreading our message. Mothers have a certain influence and are very concerned about the world we leave for the world's children. We are an all-volunteer group with 120 chapters around the country (since May 2004).
Please visit our website, and learn more about our mission.
Links from Bruce
Matthew Miller Links
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Fresh Satire
Humor Gazette
Fresh satire from the Humor Gazette
Paul Berenson
Another Side of the News
US Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) charges that if the timeline of air defense response as promoted in the Kean Commission's best-selling book is correct, then the timeline presented repeatedly by NORAD during the last two years was completely wrong. Yet now no one at NORAD is willing to comment on their own timeline!
We have localized heightened terror alerts based on information a couple years old. The UN criticizes the US and Britain for using the threat of terrorism to sow fear. Bush defends the Iraq War...again, and Kerry has an exit plan.
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
our webcast.
Lee Harvey Oswald's New Job
Recycling History
Marty:
We toured the historic Old Jail in St. Augustine last week. This is a post-WWII Florida tourist attraction -- a mainstay of the rapidly-vanishing U.S. 1/Highway A1A old Florida tourist scene. Anyway, the attached photo shows how full-sized wax figures get recycled, to the delight of tourists.
The photo is a wax figure dummy of Lee Harvey Oswald, once owned by the Museum of Tragedy in St. Augustine. The Museum of Tragedy was a half-block away from the Fountain of Youth exhibit, another St. Augustine mainstay. For years, The Museum of Tragedy exhibited the actual ambulance in which Lee Harvey Oswald was transported from the basement of the Dallas County jail to Parkland Hospital on November 24, 1963. Accompanying the ambulance exhibit was a full-scale wax statue rendering of that famous AP photo in which Jack Ruby leans into Oswald (flanked by cops) with his pistol and fires the fatal shot into the gut. The very look/grimace on Oswald's face at the moment of impact is unforgettable to those who saw it, and is faithfully reproduced here in the wax rendering.
Sadly, the Museum of Tragedy went bankrupt in the mid- to late-1990s. Its assets were purchased by others at auction (a former FL state senator, George Albright, purchased the ambulance), and sadly, I believe the wax statute of Oswald is now lying down in an Old Jail cell bunk, dressed in a prisoner uniform with (unexplainably) a noose and blood. You have to see the whole wax figure's body to see how it is really a standing-up figure laid down, and is twisted at the torso, just as Oswald's was in reaction to the shot. I was quickly warned not to take photos at the Old Jail.
I believe the Museum of Tragedy's other exhibits included the Bonnie and Clyde deathmobile and Jayne Mansfield's crushed car -- the one in which she was decapitated in a 1966 rear-ender with a truck. Even though Jayne Mansfield herself was equipped with them, front-seat air bags were not standard on American passenger cars at the time.
Best,
-- Ed
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Weather is supposed to start warming up - rats.
Running later than usual.
Sonrise Coigney, wife of actor Mark Ruffalo, one of the stars of the drama film 'We Don't Live Here Anymore' poses wearing a t-shirt with her political statement a skull and crossbones with a likeness of United States president Bush at the film's premiere in Hollywood August 5, 2004. The film also stars Laura Dern, Naomi Watts and Peter Krause,is about married life and its discontents. The film opens August 13 in the United States.
Photo by Fred Prouser
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Appearing on 'Daily Show' Monday
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton has been all over television promoting his new book. But one show he won't be visiting is "Saturday Night Live."
The former president has turned down an invitation to be guest host of the NBC sketch-comedy series next season, spokesman Marc Liepis confirmed Friday. No reason was given for Clinton rejecting the offer, first reported by TV Guide Online.
But far from going into retreat, Clinton will sit down with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's "Daily Show" Monday at 11 p.m. EDT, presumably to say more about his best-selling memoir, "My Life," as well as global affairs and the presidential race.
Bill Clinton
Backing Fogerty on Tour
Bruce Springsteen
In what promises to fulfill a classic rock fan's dream, Bruce Springsteen says he and the E Street Band will play with John Fogerty on the upcoming Vote for Change tour.
"We're gonna back John," Springsteen told Jay Lustig in Thursday's edition of New Jersey's Star-Ledger newspaper. "John's coming, he doesn't have a band right now, so we're gonna do our best for him."
Asked if he would be on stage for that part of the show, Springsteen said, "Are you kidding me? I'm going to be playing those John Fogerty songs. You better believe it."
Bruce Springsteen
American actor and director Woody Allen, second from right, his wife Soon-Yi, right, American singer Paul Anka, second from left and Karen Moore, left, arrive at the 56th Red Cross Ball at the Salles des Etoiles of the Monaco Sporting Club, Friday, Aug. 6, 2004. Over 1,000 guests paid more than $1,000 each to attend the gathering, which is hailed as Europe's largest charity event.
Photo by Bruno Bebert
Tribute Planned
Ray Charles
Friends of the late Ray Charles will sing his praises during a tribute concert planned for the fall.
Bill Cosby will host and Michael McDonald, James Ingram, Gerald Levert and Angie Stone are slated to perform at the Sept. 29 concert at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, publicist Jerry Digney said Wednesday.
The event will raise money for the $15 million Morehouse College Center for the Arts in Atlanta.
Ray Charles
Rare German Language Film Found
Laurel & Hardy
Film archivists in Russia have discovered a rare German language version of a film by comic duo Laurel and Hardy, the Munich Film Museum has said.
The 40-minute movie, entitled "Spuk um Mitternacht" (Ghost at Midnight), is a rare production in which the comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy spoke in German with the help of speech coaches.
"Because dubbing was still difficult at the start of the sound era, (films) were shot in various languages," the museum said in a statement on Friday.
The museum said the film billed as Laurel and Hardy's first "German motion picture with sound" premiered in Berlin on May 5, 1931, and proved a big success.
Laurel & Hardy
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
'Smile' For American Audiences
Brian Wilson
Former Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson will bring his long-awaited "Smile" live performances to the North America this fall, after debuting the "lost masterpiece" in concert in the United Kingdom and Europe earlier this year.
The tour will kick off Sept. 30 at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, with 21 dates announced so far.
A re-recorded version of the album will be released Sept. 28 on Nonesuch Records. "Smile" was intended as the follow-up to the Beach Boys' classic 1966 album "Pet Sounds," but the sessions were cut short and the project abandoned. It has since grown in cult status as one of rock's most notorious "lost" albums.
Brian Wilson
Doves flutter over Peace Memorial Park at a ceremony commemorating the 59th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, Japan August 6, 2004. In background is the gutted A-bomb dome.
Photo by Eriko Sugita
Injured in Car Crash
Eartha Kitt
Actress and singer Eartha Kitt, the original Catwoman on the "Batman" television show, suffered minor injuries when the vehicle she was driving collided with another car and flipped over, police said.
Kitt, 77, of Weston, was treated at Norwalk Hospital and released, hospital officials said.
The accident occurred at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Compo and Post Roads, said Sgt. Jerry Shannon. Kitt's Land Rover was crossing Post Road when it collided with a car, causing her car to roll over onto its roof, police said.
Eartha Kitt
Ill With Chicken Pox
Christian Slater
Christian Slater's British stage debut has been delayed further because of chicken pox.
Organizers earlier this week scrapped the premiere performance of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," which was to open in Edinburgh Friday and run for three weeks in conjunction with the city's annual arts festival.
Producer Nica Burns said Friday that another three performances had been called off because Slater, 34, had developed a secondary infection that doctors fear might lead to pneumonia without proper rest.
Christian Slater
Early Episodes Coming to DVD
'Seinfeld'
The first three seasons of "Seinfeld" are coming to DVD Nov. 23, just in time for Festivus.
The episodes will be available in two four-DVD volumes as well as combined in a boxed gift set. Each volume will include about 12 hours of new content and have a suggested list price of $49.95, said the set's Sony-owned distributor, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
The gift set will have a list price of $199.95 and will include such quirky extras as a limited-edition script from co-creator Larry David, "Monk's Diner" salt-and-pepper shakers and collectible playing cards.
'Seinfeld'
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Home Burglarized
Paris & Nicky Hilton
Police confirmed Friday they were investigating a burglary at the Hollywood Hills home of Paris and Nicky Hilton.
Someone broke into the house Wednesday night, but detectives haven't identified a suspect, Officer Esther Reyes said. She wouldn't comment on what was stolen, citing the ongoing investigation.
Us Weekly magazine quoted an unnamed Hilton family member, who said the burglar took off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry and personal items.
Paris & Nicky Hilton
43-year-old Alberto Cristini of Italy swims past the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, August 6, 2004. The Italian pharmacist swam from the former prison island of Alcatraz to San Francisco with his hands and feet tied on Friday, the first such feat in more than three decades. 'I'm feeling good but a bit cold,' Alberto Cristini told Reuters shortly after completing the roughly 2-mile (3-km) swim in an hour and 50 minutes. 'The currents were were strong when I started out but everything turned out well.' Fitness guru Jack La Lanne, 89, who was born in San Francisco in 1914, pioneered a Alcatraz to San Francisco swim in 1955 while handcuffed. Crisitini is a resident of Rovigo near Venice.
Photo by Kimberly White
Brits Say Best Soundtrack
'Blues Brothers'
"The Blues Brothers" was rated the best movie sound track in a British straw vote. It nipped the sound tracks of "Pulp Fiction" and "Trainspotting" in a vote conducted for British Broadcasting Corp. digital radio.
"It's a 'Sound of Music' for hipsters, a film that lives and breathes music," said Andrew Collins, who drew 10,000 voters for his survey.
The BBC vote for best film sound track (with vote share):
1. "The Blues Brothers" (19 percent)
2. "Pulp Fiction" (18)
3. "Trainspotting" (17)
4. "Saturday Night Fever" (11)
5. "Dirty Dancing" (10)
6. "Grosse Point Blank" (8)
7. "Kill Bill" Vols. 1&2 (6)
8. "The Royal Tenenbaums" (4)
8. "Lost In Translation" (4)
10. "Fight Club" (3)
'Blues Brothers'
Flock To Ancient Homeland
Acadians
They came from Europe, South America, and the United States and Canada -- to form a "country of the heart" to honor ancestors deported by 18th century English colonialists.
More than 250,000 people who trace their lineage to the ancient land of Acadia, have flocked to maritime eastern Canada for a festival of culture, music and the French language -- the tongue of their forbears.
Their aim -- to create a "country of the heart -- to replace the lost territory of their ancestors, deported from the Atlantic coast of Canada by English administrators keen to stamp out French influence, between 1755 and 1763.
Acadians
ESPNs Censorship Sparks Scramble
National Scrabble Championship
It wasn't a four-letter word, but it was close enough to cause a stir at the National Scrabble Championship Thursday.
In the final round, eventual champion Trey Wright played the word "lez," which was on a list of offensive words not allowed during the tournament.
Normally, no word is off-limits, but because the games were being taped for broadcast on ESPN, certain terms had been deemed inappropriate, including the three-letter slang for lesbian.
"The ultimate absurdity is that you can't play the word 'redskins' on ESPN," he said.
National Scrabble Championship
Python Swallows Heating Pad
Alice Cooper
Alice the albino python had a little too much to eat for dinner.
Just hours before its owner, rocker Alice Cooper, was to take the stage at a theatre in Wallingford last weekend, the 2.4-metre-long snake ate a live rat and then swallowed a heating pad, wires and all, that had been left in its cage by mistake.
Before Saturday night's show, Cooper's roadies saw the snake's unusually large bulge and called at-risk snake helper Alison Sloan, who directed Alice to Higganum veterinarian Richard Jacobs.
"That's an outrageous X-ray," Jacobs said Thursday, looking at the pre-op picture that showed the wires and contacts from the heating pad - plus a rodent. "It's probably the most astonishing X-ray I've taken in my career."
Alice Cooper
In Memory
Rick James
Funk singer Rick James, best known for the 1981 hit "Super Freak," died Friday, apparently of natural causes, police said.
James, 56, died at 9:45 a.m. at a residence near Universal City, said Officer Esther Reyes, a Police Department spokeswoman.
After his big hit, James' fame began to fade as he became embroiled in legal problems and health troubles.
James was convicted in 1993 of assaulting two women. The first attack occurred in 1991 when he restrained and burned a young woman with a hot pipe during a cocaine binge at his house in West Hollywood. He was free on bail when the second assault occurred in 1992 in James' hotel room.
James was sentenced to more than two years in state prison.
In 1997, he released a new album, but a year later he suffered a stroke while performing at Denver's Mammoth Events Center, derailing a comeback tour.
In 1998 he also underwent hip replacement surgery.
Rick James
In Memory
Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey, whose film career began in 1927 with "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and stretched through the 1970s with "Airport" and television roles, died July 31 of heart failure, according to the Motion Picture and Television Fund. She was 87.
The versatile actress appeared in more than 100 movies and 40 TV shows that included musicals, comedies, Westerns and dramas. She usually played a supporting role to stars such as Joan Crawford and Betty Grable.
At age 10, Grey was encouraged by her mother to audition for "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and won the role of Little Eva.
From 1931, she worked steadily in films including "Gold Diggers of 1935" and 1939's "Idiot's Delight" with Clark Gable, whom she dated. Later films included "So This Is New York," "All That Heaven Allows" and "Airport" in 1970.
She appeared on TV shows including "Bonanza," "Burke's Law," "Marcus Welby, M.D." and the 1976 miniseries "The Moneychangers."
Virginia Grey
Laa Laa, a rare baby Francois' Langur monkey born July 6, gazes at the public from it's enclosure at London Zoo on Wednesday, August 5, 2004.
Photo by Fiona Hanson
'The Osbournes'
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