'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Suggestion
Media Tracker
Hey Marty -
The Center for Public Integrity has upgraded Media Tracker, its popular
Web-based guide to ownership of the nation's broadcasters.
The site contains newly updated profiles of
the nation's 42 largest broadcast and telecommunications companies -
including information regarding company holdings, profits and even executive
salaries.
The Media Tracker was created to allow journalists, researchers and the
public at large to learn who owns the media in their area. The tracker
contains ownership information on every radio and television station and
cable television system in the United States, searchable by zip code or
city. The updated version has a number of new features:
Weekly Link
Koko Rips Bush's RNC Speech
In a political first, trainers signed Bush's RNC acceptance speech to Koko, a gorilla who has been speaking sign language for 25 years. Koko signed back scathing, sarcastic and insightful quips that seem to answer the question of whether Bush is smarter than a gorilla or not.
BUSH: "We learned of passengers on a doomed plane."
KOKO: Yeah, and then sat there for 7 minutes reading a children's book called The Pet Goat.
BUSH: "We are on the path to the future and we're not turning back."
KOKO: That should win over the anti time travel contingency. I'm sure disrupting the space-time continuum would be playing right into the hands of the terrorists. At least it's a campaign pledge he can actually keep.
Links from Bruce
More Zen Stories
from Mark
BC '04 Banner Sighting
Look at the banner I found on my way to work!
-- Mark
Paul Berenson
Another Side of the News
The Hate Convention's over. Wasn't that fun with the purple band-aids to mock our brave soldiers. Oregon Delegate Jana Kane told Candy Crowley that there was no disrespect to our troops intended. She had spoken with a woman whose husband was killed in Iraq yesterday (Sunday.) Funny thing, no Americans were killed in Iraq on Sunday, only in Afghanistan. CNN let the lie slide.
How sweet and gentle watching Maria Shriver sitting with George H. W. Bush. I wasn't aware that the Governor of California toured Iraq. Who paid for it? We DO know who paid for him to travel to the GOP Convention...Pfizer Inc. They also gave him a $100,000 political contribution. Now he's going to veto a legislative package to help Californians buy drugs from Canada. "Vee may not agree on every issue" but they do agree on making sure the top 2% get everything, and the bottom 98% get nothing.
What BLATHER!!! Schwartzenegger was like the Nuremburg Rallies with the huge Flag in the background, all cheering for him, and the glowing close-up of his face filling the screen for the conclusion!! Forget Fox, CNN is the most insidious propaganda machine out there!!
Tune in to "Another Side of the News" with Paul Berenson, Saturdays 9am-10am (PDT) 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 (CA) 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.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit cooler & windy.
Planted a fig tree in the backyard a few years back. Thanks to the squirrels & opposums never got a single fig - til yesterday.
The tree is loaded this year.
Gonna go look for things to do with 'em.
Ringmaster Norman Barrett, left, with clowns Charlie Cairoli, right, and Hollywood actor Paul Newman as Butch Bolognese during rehearsals of a special one-off performance at Zippos circus in Highbury Fields, London in aid of UK Children's Charities Thursday Sept. 2, 2004. The performance will be held later Thursday.
Photo by Andy Butterton
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Unheard Songs Aired By BBC
The Clash
The world's first airing of legendary "lost" music and film footage of influential punk band The Clash has been shown by the BBC.
Former band members Mick Jones and Paul Simonon were interviewed on BBC Two's Newsnight about the reissue of their landmark 1979 LP London Calling.
It is being released this month to mark its 25th anniversary, along with discs of unreleased demos and studio footage.
The unreleased demos make up part of the so-called "Vanilla Tapes", a collection of long lost Clash recordings recently rediscovered by guitarist and singer Mick Jones.
They were taped at the band's favoured rehearsal space known as Vanilla, in Pimlico, central London, in summer 1979, only weeks before the "proper" London Calling sessions were recorded at Wessex Studios.
The Clash
At the link above you can listen to some of the 'Vanilla Tapes'.
Fire fighters try to extinguish a fire at the Anna Amalia Library in the eastern German town of Weimar, September 2, 2003. Up to 30,000 rare books were destroyed in the fire, authorities said on Friday.
Venice Film Festival
Jonathan Demme
With a strong American presence at this year's Venice International Film Festival, it didn't take long for U.S. politics to rear its controversial head.
On just the second day of the 11-day festival, director Jonathan Demme -- in town with a remake of the political thriller "The Manchurian Candidate" -- spoke at a news conference here Thursday and took aim at the current state of U.S. politics.
"As an American, I really feel my country is in a lot of trouble," Demme said without naming names. "I think our leaders have taken us in a really bad direction on so many levels."
"I feel that our leaders really want to own the world for two reasons," he said. "One, there are endless profits from owning the entire world, and because if you own and control the world, there is a relief from fear."
The director went on to lament the current entanglement of money and politics. "That is the big struggle of the moment, and it is coming to a head in a couple of months," he said. "We have untold millions who want to return to a richer sense of democracy."
Jonathan Demme
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
CBS Auction
CBS is auctioning off everything but the kitchen sink to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation - and promote the network's new fall season.
The network will put up for bid on eBay from Sept. 8-26 a slew of CBS memorabilia and celebrity experiences, such as David Caruso's "CSI: Miami" sunglasses or dinner with Rupert Boneham of "Survivor: All-Stars" fame.
Not hungry for dinner with Boneham? How about dance lessons with Tom "Big Tom" Buchanan, also from "Survivor: All-Stars"? Not a "Survivor" fan? Take a tour of the "Big Brother" house instead. Know a CBS soap lover who's about to get hitched? She can walk down the aisle in a wedding dress worn by Brooke Logan Forrester from "The Bold and the Beautiful" or Harley Davidson Cooper from "Guiding Light."
On the attainable side are signed photos of CBS cast members while the not-so-attainable include forecasting the weather on "The Early Show." There are plenty of tickets, too. Access to the 100th "CSI" episode party, the "Survivor: Vanuatu_Islands of Fire" finale and the Country Music Awards show will be available.
CBS Auction
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Doing Real-Time Episode Like '24'
'ER'
"ER" is taking a note from "24" by doing a real-time episode, and is bringing actor Ray Liotta along for the ride.
The episode, to air Nov. 11, will follow every moment of guest star Liotta's hospital visit. He plays an alcoholic ex-con with cirrhosis of the liver and a host of other problems.
The real-time narrative is a first for the NBC emergency room drama. "ER" has previously experimented with different structures, but the series' famous live broadcast in 1997 wasn't in real time.
The season premiere of "ER," which continues last season's cliffhanger car accident ending, will air Sept. 23.
'ER'
Three hand bags made by George Vargas out of potato chip bags, paper, and string are displayed in his home in Springfield, Mass. on Sept. 2, 2004.
Photo by Nathan K. Martin
Pulled From Oregon Jail
'Nip/Tuck'
"Nip/Tuck," which had won fans among inmates for its surgical gore and sexual innuendo, has been pulled from the airwaves at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.
"We decided it was all too much," Doug Harder, a spokesman for the medium-security prison in Pendleton, told The Oregonian recently. "Way too graphic."
Since the behavior problems with "Nip/Tuck" only popped up during group viewings, the ban will not apply to the 10 percent of the 1,621 inmates who have personal televisions in their cells, officials said.
'Nip/Tuck'
Suffered Wardrobe Malfunction
Miss Universe
White smoke billows from the crater of Mount Asama on Friday Sept. 3, 2004. Mount Asama, one of Japan's largest and most active volcanoes, erupted Wednesday night for the first time in 21 years, spewing lava and smoke into the air. The volcano is located about 150 kilometers northwest of Tokyo.
Photo by Toshikazu Baba
Acknowledges Settling Past Claims
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson, saying he must respond to "untruths and sensationalism," acknowledged Friday that he has reached financial settlements with people in the past to avoid the public embarrassment of going to court.
Jackson's statement was issued just hours before the scheduled broadcast of a "Dateline NBC" report alleging that the entertainer paid $2 million to the son of an employee at his Neverland Ranch in 1990 to avoid a child molestation accusation. The statement did not mention the NBC report.
Jackson acknowledged that he has made financial settlements in the past to avoid litigation but added, "I would never harm a child."
Michael Jackson
Sightings on the Rise
'Black Triangles'
They have become legendary in UFO circles. Huge, silent-running Flying Triangles have been seen by ground observers creeping through the sky low and slow near cities and quietly cruising over highways.
The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), has catalogued the Triangle sightings, sifting through and combining databases to take a hard look at the mystery craft. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, NIDS is a privately funded science institute with a strong research focusing on aerial phenomena.The results of their study have just been released and lead to some unnerving, still puzzling conclusions.
The study points out: The United States is currently experiencing a wave of Flying Triangle sightings that may have intensified in the 1990s, especially towards the latter part of the 1990s. The wave continues. The Flying Triangles are being openly deployed over and near population centers, including in the vicinity of major Interstate Highways.
A key NIDS conclusion is that the actions of these triangular craft do not conform to previous patterns of covert deployment of unacknowledged aircraft. Furthermore, neither the agenda nor the origin of the Flying Triangles are currently known.
For a lot more, 'Black Triangles'
A discarded tea pot adorned by keys and other houshold objects combined with a vivid imagination helped create this sculpture titled 'Downhearted,' by artist Janine Hilder, on display at Sydney's James Harvey Gallery. Hilder and fellow artist Philip Hammial delight in using found and discarded bits and pieces from coins, keys and cutler to bike chains and industrial scrap to assemble their 'junk art'.
Photo by Rick Rycroft
In Memory
William Pierson
William Pierson, a raspy-voiced movie, television and stage actor perhaps best remembered for his role as Marko the Mailman in the Billy Wilder film classic "Stalag 17," has died. He was 78.
Pierson died from respiratory problems on Aug. 27 at Valley View Care Center in Newton, N.J., publicist Dale Olson said Friday in Los Angeles.
Pierson originally played Marko in the Broadway version of "Stalag," the dark comedy-drama set in a prisoner-of-war camp in World War II Germany. Wilder brought him to Hollywood in 1953 to recreate the role for the film.
Other film credits included "Operation Madball" and "Fun With Dick and Jane."
He had a long career in television, dating to the medium's Golden Age when he appeared on such shows as "Studio One" and "Kraft Theatre."
He also had a recurring role on "Three's Company" as Dean Travers and appeared on such shows as "The Facts of Life," "One Day at a Time," "All in the Family" and "Diff'rent Strokes."
He is survived by his brothers, Jeffrey of New Jersey and Howard of Florida.
William Pierson
An injured cow hangs in the transport net of a helicopter as it is airlifted from a mountainous meadow in Riemenstalden, Switzerland, Friday, Sept. 3, 2004. The Swiss Air Rescue organization Rega brought the animal to a nearby road, where it received veterinarian treatment.
Photo by Urs Flueeler
'The Osbournes'
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