'Best of TBH Politoons'
Tonight
Erin Hart
710 KIRO - 9pm to 1am (pdt) Weekend Nights
The war comes home in an uncomfortable way for many of us. Cindy Sheehan
stands vigil for many and the man who started the war won't even bother to
meet with her--or many of the brave families who have faced the ultimate
horror. What is he afraid of?
And we aim for clarity. Talk to Eric McFadden of Catholics for a Faithful
Citizenship as a counter to Justice Sunday.
Find out more about Gaza and the withdrawal from as many sides and views as
we can find. And we check in with the Women in Black conference.
And Martha G (or is it Marty?) of Bartcop.com brings the best of the (charged) Jack Abramoff
links, because we deserve a break. All the links fit to laugh about and
then some.
Join in on 710 KIRO (we stream worldwide) AND
erinhartshow.com.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: Democracy where Iraqi women are 'half free', isn't democracy (JewishWorldReview.com)
Lincoln said our government could not endure "half slave and half free." The same can be said about most democracies, including ones we hope to establish in the Muslim world. In these countries, the unfree half is not slaves, but women.
Cindy Sheehan: 'This is George Bush's Accountability Moment' (smirkingchimp.com)
People have asked what it is I want to say to President Bush. ... I want to find out what that noble cause is. And I want to ask him: "If it's such a noble cause, have you asked your daughters to enlist? Have you encouraged them to go take the place of soldiers who are on their third tour of duty?
Howard Zinn: It is not only Iraq that is occupied. America is too (The Guardian)
The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at points in history and creating a power that governments cannot suppress.
Jack Kelly: Parent-trap snares recruiters: The tune changes at some homes when they hear 'sign here' (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted him wearing an American flag T-shirt. "I want you to know we support you," she gushed. Rivera soon reached the limits of her support. "Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him.
Sheerly Avni: Ten Hollywood Movies That Get Women Right (AlterNet)
Forget empowering, encouraging, affirming or celebrated -- here are ten movies that feature real women.
Hollis Gillespie: Show your ass (atlanta.creativeloafing.com)
Sometimes you have to do it with style.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another wonderfully overcast morning that hung around til mid-afternoon.
Will be visiting the Erin Hart Show on 710 KIRO a bit after 10 pm (pdt) tonight.
Call in!
Counter Group Folds
Clinton Library
A group that had hoped to build two museums to rebut the displays at the Clinton Presidential Library is folding.
"I'm giving up," said Houston businessman Richard Erickson, who established nonprofit Counterlibe Inc. last year to fund construction of a Counter Clinton Library in Little Rock and another in Washington.
In a separate e-mail Wednesday, Erickson informed one of his key supporters, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., that he couldn't raise enough money to continue.
Clinton Library
NBC Projects
David E. Kelley
Hot off the yellow legal pad of David E. Kelley is a pilot script that has generated considerable buzz around town.
Sources said the project is an hourlong comedy-drama in the vein of Kelley's "Ally McBeal" set behind the scenes at a network TV morning show. It's understood that the first place the show was pitched was NBC -- which had its share of morning-show drama on "Today" this year -- but sources cautioned that the Kelley camp and the network are in the discussion stage and far from any formal deal.
NBC and Kelley pacted last year on reality show "The Law Firm," but the unfavorable Nielsen verdict on the first two episodes, which aired this month, spurred NBC to grant a change of venue (namely sister cable network Bravo) for the remaining installments. Representatives for Kelley and 20th declined comment Thursday.
David E. Kelley
'CBS News on Logo'
Jason Bellini
Former CNN correspondent Jason Bellini has been named host and correspondent for cable network Logo's "CBS News on Logo," a series of daily news reports for the network's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender audience.
The reports, a product of a partnership between Logo and CBS News, will consist of three- to five-minute news segments airing across the network's schedule. The "CBS News on Logo" unit also will produce several longform reports a year consisting of instant news specials and more lengthy features. Logo launched June 30 with about 13 million U.S. subscribers. Both networks are owned by Viacom Inc.
Jason Bellini
'I Have Never Read A Book'
Victoria Beckham
Former Spice Girl singer Victoria Beckham, wife of England football captain David, confessed she has never read a book, a newspaper said.
"I haven't read a book in my life. I haven't got enough time. I prefer to listen to music, although I do love fashion magazines," she was quoted as saying.
Victoria Beckham
Writers Battle Censorship
'Jerry Springer - The Opera'
The writers of profanity-laden "Jerry Springer - The Opera" are angry.
The creators of the show that caused a record number of complaints when aired on British television say religious censorship is in danger of strangling the arts.
Comedian Stewart Lee, who wrote the script, is also fuming because a British provincial stage tour was postponed after a third of the venues pulled out due to fears about protests.
British Christian pressure groups have less political clout than their counterparts in the American Christian right, but Lee and Thomas think the chances of the opera now making it to Broadway are slim.
'Jerry Springer - The Opera'
Unveils Namesake Doll
RuPaul
You could practically hear the collective gasp at the August 4 launch of the RuPaul Doll at the Arcadia Gallery in New York when singer/actor RuPaul arrived -- out of drag.
There he was, further branding his RuPaul personality with a celebrity doll line, and he showed up not as the flamboyant RuPaul but as RuPaul Andre Charles, the man under the makeup and hair.
Billed as the first transvestite fashion doll and produced by Integrity Toys, the RuPaul Doll collection will be in stores later this month. Each doll has a suggested retail price of $59.99.
RuPaul
Pope Pulls Strings
Piotr Adamcyzk
The actor who plays Pope John Paul II in a new cable movie needed help from the new pope to obtain a visa to the United States for a publicity visit.
Piotr Adamcyzk plays the late pope in the Hallmark Channel movie "A Man Who Became Pope," which airs Monday.
The 33-year-old actor was having trouble leaving Italy for New York when Pope Benedict XVI intervened.
The new pope had recently screened the movie for Roman Catholic cardinals, bishops, priests and other church officials. They were so impressed with Adamcyzk's portrayal that when they heard of the actor's trouble getting a visa, they stepped in to make his U.S. publicity trip possible.
Piotr Adamcyzk
Not An Ooompa Loompa
Ezzy Dame
A Reno man who long claimed to have played one of Willy Wonka's Ooompa Loompas in the original 1971 motion picture now admits he was lying.
Ezzy Dame, a high-fashion hairdresser and art enthusiast, confessed the fib Tuesday in an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal. He said the false claim seemed harmless at the time but grew into a beast of a deception.
Dame said the nightmare began two decades ago after he put it on his acting resume under the advice of his agent in Los Angeles.
Ezzy Dame
Vienna Is Celebrating
Elvis Week
Mozart would be mortified. Beethoven would probably spin like an LP in his grave. But for next week, at least, they ain't nothing but hound dogs to Austrians obsessed with The King.
Vienna's Hilton becomes the Heartbreak Hotel on Monday, when "Elvis Week" - seven days of live music, memorabilia and screenings of Elvis Presley films - kicks off for those who love him in Europe, where he never gave a concert.
The festival coincides with the 28th anniversary of Presley's death on Aug. 16, 1977. But it underscores the singer's huge popularity in Austria, Germany and other countries where he's still got fans all shook up.
Elvis Week
Insurer Denies It's Liable
Limp Bizkit
An insurance company that issued a policy for rock band Limp Bizkit is asking a judge to rule it has no liability for any damages awarded as the result of a teenage fan's death at a 2001 concert.
According to a lawsuit filed by Diamond State Insurance Co., Jessica Michalik, 16, died after being trampled by fans at the "Big Day Out" festival in Australia on Jan. 26, 2001.
The suit in Los Angeles Superior Court said Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst "incited" the crowd to rush toward the stage. The band was not charged with any wrongdoing.
Limp Bizkit
Home No Longer Open to Public
Jerry Lee Lewis
Fans of rock 'n' roll icon Jerry Lee Lewis will no longer be allowed to tour his home. Lewis' Nesbit residence has been closed to the public for more than a year during his lengthy divorce proceedings with his sixth wife, Kerrie McCarver Lewis.
"This is a private residence now," Lewis' daughter, Phoebe, told the DeSoto Times Today. "We don't plan to open it back up."
Lewis bought the 15-room house on 30 acres in April 1973. It has been a popular tourist attraction for the past decade.
Lewis opened the house for tours when his fan club was under the direction of Kerrie McCarver Lewis. She no longer manages the Jerry Lee Lewis fan club.
Jerry Lee Lewis
Returns To Old Berlin Haunts
Queen Nefertiti
A famous bust of Egyptian queen Nefertiti, regarded by many as a Mona Lisa of the ancient world, has returned to Berlin's Museum Island, 66 years after being evacuated at the outbreak of World War Two.
Ever since its first public exhibition in 1923, the precision of the 3,300-year-old sculpture's symmetrical lines and its finely wrought features have drawn thousands of admirers from around the globe.
On show for most of the past 40 years at the Egyptian Museum in west Berlin's Charlottenburg district -- separated by the Berlin Wall from her former home in the east of the city -- Nefertiti has become an icon of the German capital.
Queen Nefertiti
What Fox News Channel Would Have Done to Rosa Parks
Cenk Uygur
Cindy Sheehan - in case you've been living in a box or you only watch the mainstream media - is the mom of slain Iraq War veteran Casey Sheehan. She is protesting in front of George Bush's Crawford ranch this month. This grieving mom has been characterized as a flip-flopper, accused of putting on a public circus, lambasted as a publicity seeking grandstander and criticized for not truly speaking for her family since an aunt and a godmother Matt Drudge found somewhere in the Sheehan family disagrees with her. The conservative attack machine is in high gear in the efforts to tear this woman down.
That made me think of how it would have been in the Civil Rights era if Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and the rest of the gang were around back then.
O'Reilly: "Rosa Parks claims she speaks for all of the African-Americans in the South, but in fact, we have found two African-Americans who say they disagree with her. They say she's just trying to gain publicity and doesn't speak for anyone in her race. They would know, they're black."
Hannity: "Could Rosa Parks be angling for a Senate run? What does she have to gain from her public stand? Coming up next, the incredible story of how this woman might be deceiving the whole country!"
Drudge: "We have found three members of the Parks family who say that Rosa doesn't speak for them. That, in fact, they are very happy with the government of the state of Alabama. The uncle, step-brother-in-law and niece three-times removed all agree that the better route is a dignified, respectful silent deference to authority. Developing …"
Limbaugh: "We have just found information that before Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus, there were numerous times, she sat in the back of the bus! Ah ha! A flip-flopper!"
Drudge: "More stories on Rosa Parks scandalous history of consistently sitting in the back of the bus before she changed her position and insisted she would only sit in the front of the bus. Developing …"
Malkin: "I think I speak for the entire Parks family, and especially her children, when I say that they are so embarrassed by their mother who is making a public spectacle of herself."
Hannity: "Rosa Parks has turned this whole so-called civil rights issue into a public circus. We have information that Ted Kennedy might have put her up to this. That amazing story when we come back!"
Colmes: "You're right, Sean. I'm sorry."
For the rest - What Fox News Channel Would Have Done to Rosa Parks - Cenk Uygur
In Memory
Alexander Golitzen
Alexander Golitzen, an art director and production designer who shared Academy Awards for his work on 1943's "Phantom of the Opera," 1960's "Spartacus" and 1962's "To Kill a Mockingbird" during a career that spanned decades, has died. He was 97.
Others included 1961's "Flower Drum Song" and 1969's "Sweet Charity."
The Moscow-born Golitzen and his family fled the Russian revolution and ended up in Seattle. Golitzen attended the University of Washington, where he earned an architecture degree, and moved to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, he became an assistant to a fellow Russian, MGM art director Alexander Toluboff. He went on to work at United Artists and later was supervising art director at Universal, where he oversaw movies for three decades.
Alexander Golitzen
In Memory
Lyle 'Spud' Murphy
Lyle (Spud) Murphy, a prolific Hollywood composer and arranger best known for developing a composing system widely used by professional musicians, has died. He was 96.
Murphy arranged two of band leader Benny Goodman's biggest hits, Get Happy and Jingle Bells, and also transformed the children's song Three Blind Mice into the theme for the Three Stooges show.
He got his first music job at 16 and landed in New York City in 1933, where he became well-known for his arrangements for band leaders, including Goodman.
Murphy moved to California in the late 1930s and worked at Columbia Pictures, but left there to serve in the merchant marine during the Second World War.
He resumed film work after the war and the by the late 1940s, arrangers had become fascinated with his writing techniques. One student persuaded Murphy to teach him his method and Murphy would go onto train hundreds of students in his composing and arranging process called the Equal Interval System.
Several colleagues described Murphy as a Renaissance man who spoke several languages, a student of boxing and an expert in astronomy, geography and the Titanic.
Lyle 'Spud' Murphy
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
