'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
A NEW DIRECTION FOR YOUNG AMERICANS: A PROGRESS REPORT ON THE 110th CONGRESS
Andrew Tobias says on www.andrewtobias.com, "WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
The Democratic Congress has not yet done everything we might want. In part this is because we don't control the Executive branch; in part because we hold the Senate by the slimmest of margins - where for most things it is effectively 60 votes, not 51, that are needed for passage. Even so, in nine months we've done a lot." Then he directs us to this website.
Jim Hightower: SPEAK OUT FOR AMERICA'S DEMOCRATIC VALUES (jimhightower.com)
Now we have a frightening president who constantly tells us we must live in fear, that fear is our future, that fear is patriotic, that fear is now America. He even color codes it so we'll know whether it's a red-hot, super-scairdy fear day, or just a run-of-the-mill, orange-tinted fear day.
Paul Krugman Has a Conscience, Which Makes Him Contemptible to Republicans Who View Caring About the Needy as a Sign of Weakness (A Buzzflash Interview)
If you look at the polls that ask if you consider yourself a liberal, it's a relatively small minority. If you ask people do you think that the government should guarantee health insurance to every American, a huge majority says yes. So people think they're not liberals, but they're in favor of quintessentially liberal policies.
Froma Harrop: The Joys of Pick-and-Choose Reagan (creators.com)
The Republicans debating in Dearborn, Mich., predictably donned the cloak of the sainted Ronald Reagan. The presidential candidate most convincing in his Reagan-ness, however, was not there. He is, of all people, John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and a Democrat.
Mark Morford: The whine of voracious liberals (sfgate.com)
Does the extremism of some progressives spell danger to delicious evolution? Well, yes.
Warren Swil: The 'standy-by' electricity vampires (latimes.com)
Appliances that consume power even when turned off can cost you a bundle.
Joel Stein: In a warming world, Ed Begley's cool (latimes.com)
The actor and environmental activist evaluates how green-friendly a home is.
Ceri Radford: The Happy Endings Foundation hoax (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
As bookish news stories go, it doesn't get much better than this. 'The Happy Endings Foundation', which thinks 'sad books are bad books', wants to eradicate sad thoughts from literature! They believe children can't take miserable endings! They want to burn Watership Down, just like the Nazis! The founder of the campaign is rewriting the entire series of Lemony Snicket books to give them happy endings! They keep two campaign gerbils, who shred unhappy books, for God's sake!
Chuck Close: Capturing the Clinton charisma (telegraph.co.uk)
In an interview exclusively for Telegraph.co.uk, the American portraitist Chuck Close talks to Alastair Sooke about his vast painting of one of the world's most recognisable faces.
Rader Suggestion
Hava Nagila/Miserlou
Just what you never thought you'd hear:
Meshugga Beach Party doing Hava Nagilah/Miserlou (old surf classic). Miserlou is alleged to be originally Greek. Hearing those minor scales, I would say that's plausible.
Purple Gene Comment
Colbie is Cute
hey badtothebonebob...
Colbie is Cute....a little Jennifer Anniston smile with Michelle Branch inflections she is 22 and "Bubbly"
I must admit that the simplicity and innocence is pleasant to see and hear.
Purple Gene gives her 7 bubbles out of 10 for being sooooooooo effervescent!
Colbie @ YouTubes
Reader Suggestion
Ukulele Orchestra
Marty
The most awesomest thing you'll see today: "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" theme played on ukulele by Ukulele Orchestra of GB
Reader Comment
Annie Leibovitz Separated At Birth
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny day, rainy night.
'Redacted' Redacted
Brian De Palma
Director Brian De Palma is fighting battles on two fronts for his gritty Iraq war movie "Redacted," blasting the film's distributor and taking incoming fire from right-wing pundits.
He told a New York Film Festival audience late Wednesday that Magnolia Pictures forced him to black out the faces in a montage of real photos that runs at the end of the film.
"The irony of all this is that even though everyone (in Iraq) has a digital camera and access to the Internet, somehow we don't see any of these images," De Palma said. "Why are things being redacted? My own film was redacted."
The graphic photos depict victims of the war; with the black magic-marker etchings across their faces, though, the faces are now difficult if not impossible to recognize. Magnolia executives have said that it's impossible to get legal releases for the photos, while company owner Mark Cuban has been quoted as saying he found the unredacted images problematic.
Brian De Palma
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Billy Crystal
Carl Reiner, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg have all won it. Now, to borrow a famous movie line he wrote, Billy Crystal is having what they're having.
The comedian, actor, Broadway star and Yankees fan's many talents and passions were celebrated Thursday night at the Kennedy Center as he accepted the 10th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
"Does this mean I have to retire now?" Crystal asked as he cradled the award, a bust of Twain. "Usually when someone is given an evening like this, they're way too dead to say thank you."
Thursday's ceremony was taped for broadcast Nov. 12 on PBS.
Billy Crystal
'Dixie-Chick'ed By County Radio
Faith Hill
Faith Hill's "The Hits" debuted modestly at No. 12 on the U.S. album charts this week on the heels of tepid airplay for the album's first single.
"Lost" peaked at No. 32 on Hot Country Songs in August. The second single "Red Umbrella" is off to a better start -- No. 36 and rising after three weeks -- but Hill has had mixed success with country radio in recent years.
In September, Hill told Billboard sister publication Radio & Records that she feels some distance from country radio right now. "For some reason there's a disconnect between me and them -- and that comes from them. I do give radio challenging material, I realize that."
Faith Hill
Fans Bemoan Demise Of Sing-Along
'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" didn't exactly die when the show and its demon-fighting heroine went off the air three years ago. Driven by a fiercely loyal following, fans put together the sing-along event, a la "Rocky Horror Picture Show," where people turn up for midnight screenings of a musical episode of the show, often dressed up in costume as their favorite characters.
Lawyers for Twentieth Century Fox Television, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., told a licensing company that had given the green light for the sing-along events that it had gone beyond limits of the show's licensing agreements.
Chris Alexander, a spokesman for the studio, said that "significant payments" would have to be made to Hollywood unions for the show to be screened in movie theaters, which is a highly unusual arrangement anyway and usually reserved for situations like one-time charity events.
That came as a shock to Clinton McClung, who had organized the sing-along events. "I understand how the entertainment industry works, but I don't understand why it has to work against me," he said.
'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
Blacklisted Actress Still Spry At 90
Marsha Hunt
Marsha Hunt turns 90 on Wednesday, but you'd hardly know it. Her lovely face remains, remarkably, relatively unlined. She's slim and vigorous. And she has total recall of her life in Hollywood, including the infamous blacklist that almost killed her career.
Her 89th year has been a busy one. She was a guest of honor at the Noir Film Festival in San Francisco, where one of her films, "Raw Deal," was shown. And she later acted in a short noir drama filmed nearby. "I got it in one take," she says proudly.
Last spring, the mid-century screen star recited a traditional poem at the Hollywood Bowl's annual Easter sunrise service. She was supposed to read the selection, but because of an eye ailment she memorized all 96 lines, getting through it "without a net to catch me."
Then there's the fan mail. "It pours in," she says, because of screenings of her movies on cable's AMC, TCM (which is showing a half-dozen of her movies on her birthday) and European television.
Marsha Hunt
Star On Walk O'Fame
Roger Moore
Best known for playing James Bond on the big screen, Roger Moore now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of an address that includes the spy's signature 007.
Moore, 79, received his permanent spot on Hollywood Boulevard on Thursday, accompanied by friends and family.
Moore has done some acting since leaving the Bond franchise. He has raised funds for UNICEF in underdeveloped countries and received a Commander of the British Empire award from the British government in 1999. He also was awarded a knighthood in 2003 for his work with UNICEF.
Moore's star sits in front of 7007 Hollywood Blvd., an ice cream parlor that claims to be the birthplace of the hot fudge sundae.
Roger Moore
Germany's Ann Coulter
Eva Herman
Weeks after being fired from her own talk show for making sympathetic statements about the Nazis' family values, a German anchorwoman has returned to the limelight by walking off somebody else's talk show.
Eva Herman had been invited to the popular "Die Johannes B. Kerner Show" on Tuesday to address the issues surrounding her forced retirement from public broadcaster NDR. Instead of backpedaling, however, she stood by her remarks and even volunteered a new incendiary sound bite, about Hitler's building of the Autobahn.
After protests from some of her fellow guests, Herman departed with little prompting by host Kerner.
Blond, blue-eyed and brazen, Herman has written two populist tomes celebrating the sanctity of motherhood and the decline of family values, "The Eva Principle" and "The Noah's Ark Principle -- Why We Must Save the Family."
As a response to Tuesday's brouhaha, the right-wing DVU party will demonstrate in Hamburg on Saturday to demand "Freedom of Speech for Eva Herman."
Eva Herman
Wouldn't Get On The Bus
Foxy Brown
Foxy Brown, who is serving a one-year jail term, twice refused to get on a correction department bus Friday for a court appearance, the prosecutor's office said. The 28-year-old rapper was arrested in August and accused of striking Arlene Raymond, 25, after the pair got into a fight July 30 over Brown blasting her car stereo near her home in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
On Friday, Brown refused to be taken from Rikers Island prison to be arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
She is now scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, the prosecutor's office said. If Brown refuses, the court could issue an order allowing correction officers to put her in handcuffs and force her onto the bus.
Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, is serving a year in jail for violating probation - skipping her court-ordered anger management classes and traveling out of the city without permission. The probation stemmed from her fight with manicurists in a New York City nail salon three years ago.
Foxy Brown
6 Locations Raided In Probe
Anna Nicole Smith
State authorities investigating circumstances surrounding the overdose death of Anna Nicole Smith raided six locations Friday, including the offices and residences of two doctors.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown declined to say what charges could be filed but said the probe involved the "prescribing and dispensing practices of several California licensed doctors and pharmacies."
Search warrants were served, and there were no arrests, he told a news conference. He added, "You don't go to a judge and get a search warrant for somebody's home unless you think some rather serious crime has been committed."
Anna Nicole Smith
'The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson'
Anita Thompson
It wasn't a reckless obsession with liquor, drugs and gunplay that made the late Hunter S. Thompson the undisputed king of Gonzo journalism, his wife says. Instead, it was old-fashioned principles such as working hard and telling the truth, enlivened by the glee Thompson took from learning and from being right.
"I don't deny his lifestyle, because his lifestyle was pretty extreme," Anita Thompson told The Associated Press, but that lifestyle was made possible by his success as a reporter and writer, not the other way around.
In her new book, "The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," Thompson says her husband built his career with a tireless dedication to the craft of reporting, a keen awareness of his own shortcomings and his personal blend of patriotism: loving his country while mistrusting authority.
And in a wide-ranging interview, she spoke about a rift between her and Hunter Thompson's son and the agonizing doubts that dogged her in the days after her husband's suicide.
For the rest - Anita Thompson
Vatican Publishes Papers
Knights Templar
It's not the Holy Grail, but for fans of "The Da Vinci Code" and its tantalizing story line about the Knights Templar, it could be the next best thing.
Ignored for centuries, documents about the heresy trial of the ancient Christian order discovered in the Vatican's secret archives are being published in a limited edition - with an $8,377 price tag.
They include a 14th-century parchment showing that Pope Clement V initially absolved the Templar leaders of heresy, though he did find them guilty of immorality and planned to reform the order, according to the Vatican archives Web site.
But pressured by King Philip IV of France, Clement later reversed his decision and suppressed the order in 1312.
Knights Templar
Hollywood Accident
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom was involved in a minor car crash on a Hollywood street early Friday morning, police said.
Witnesses told police the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star was driving alone on Fountain Avenue when another vehicle cut him off and he hit a parked car, said Officer Ana Aguirre.
Bloom, 30, wasn't injured and filed a report with police, Aguirre said.
"No alcohol was involved, and he wasn't speeding," Aguirre said. There was minor damage to his car and the parked car, she said.
Orlando Bloom
TMZ.com reports there was a passenger in the car, who was injured.
Rivalry Becomes Physical
Pepsi Vs Coke
The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said.
The two deliverymen were "apparently bickering back and forth" while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said.
No charges have been filed, but police characterized the incident as a misdemeanor simple assault.
Pepsi Vs Coke
In Memory
Charles Griffith
Charles Griffith, who wrote the screenplay for the original "Little Shop of Horrors" movie and co-wrote the update, has died. He was 77.
Griffith was known for his work on low-budget horror-comedy films in the 1960s and 1970s and often collaborated with director Roger Corman.
Griffith wrote the script for the 1960 cult classic "The Little Shop of Horrors," directed by Corman, and later helped write the screenplay for the 1986 film adaptation of the musical.
The original film, shot in black and white in about two days, featured a young Jack Nicholson in one of his early roles as a pain-loving dental patient.
Griffith, born Sept. 23, 1930, in Chicago, was introduced to Corman in 1954 through a friend. He got his first feature writing credit on Corman's "It Conquered the World" in 1956, and the two worked on more than a dozen films.
Griffith also wrote "The Wild Angels," a Corman film starring Peter Fonda that was widely considered a forerunner to "Easy Rider." He also directed a handful of films, including "Eat My Dust," a movie whose script he wrote that starred Ron Howard.
Survivors include his wife, daughter and four grandchildren.
Charles Griffith
In Memory
Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual leader who spread his message of world peace and harmony at concerts and road races and once led meditation groups at the United Nations, has died. He was 76.
Chinmoy, who also performed on flute at concerts sponsored by his centres, counted several famous musicians among his followers, most notably the British jazz-rock fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, who used Indian musicians in his 1970s Mahavishnu Orchestra, a name chosen by the Indian guru.
Guitarist Carlos Santana was introduced to the guru by McLaughlin and became a follower until a falling out in the early 1980s.
His organization, the Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles, was responsible for collecting and distributing medical supplies throughout Asia and Africa, according to his website.
Sri Chinmoy
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