'Best of TBH Politoons'
Tonight
Erin Hart
710 KIRO - 9pm to 1am (pdt) Weekend Nights
Uncertainty principle prevails--will Cindy Sheehan's movement continue?
Will President Bush escape protestors in Tamarack, Idaho?
Will the Gaza pullout, wrenching and painful, lead to better days in Israel
and the Palestinian Territories?
And the monorail is back in the news--will a consultant team and the people
who support prevail? Will Cindi Law's controversial and anti-Jewish comments
hurt the cause? Does monorail still ignite the public's imagination?
John Roberts, John Bolton and WHO WHO WHO will be punished for outing
Valerie Plame and trying to stick it to Joe Wilson????
Reader Comment
Re: Purple Gene on Bill Maher
I never saw what the big deal with Bill Maher was anyway.
He fawns all over that fascist slut, (M)ann Coulter.
He did nothing but trash Bill Clinton while he was in office and he's made no secret that he thought the Viet Nam Debacle was a noble cause (even though his ass was never on the line over there).
His attitude towards women is disgusting.
Never saw what was great about him, sorry!
Terry C
NJ
Thanks, Terry!
Bill's first guest on Friday's show was Paul Hackett, who was smart, funny & undeniably studly.
The roundtable segment offered Asa Hutchinson, Kellyanne Conway (an Ann Coulter clone, right down to the bottle-blonde hair, pasty complexion, and pickle up the ass posture, but with a better bra), and Chris Rock.
While Maher had no problem calling Kellyanne a liar, he didn't extend the same set of rules to Asa.
The program was capped with a satellite visit from Phyllis Schlafly who was balancing the most amazing display of 'hair' on top of her head.
The kid said it looked like she arrived in the old bat-mobile.
Mr. Hawk Reviews
Brian Wilson's Smile
As I was recently in the store with a little extra change in the pocket, I
decided to pick up a copy of Brain Wilson's Smile. I won't got into the
legends behind this as you can find a million of them. When I popped it in I
listened with two main questions in mind.
Question one, is it worth the hype?
The answer to this must be yes. Though the styling and music seems a bit
dated for my 21st century tin ear, it has a very pleasing sound. In runs
with a sync that is rarely heard these days. The vocal mixings recall a more
innocent musical age. The much cleaner sound of the 60's is everywhere
without the heavy bass lines which pollute today's music. ( My personal pet
peeve: I don't want to have to be paying for the hearing aids for some
people 20 years from now) I've listened to Good Vibrations 6 times already
and am still impressed by the subtle harmonies.
Question two, would it have been the classic that people keep saying it was.
I sat down last night and listened to it and imagined if it had been done by
the Beach Boys in 66. There is no doubt in my mind that the Beatles Summer
of Love would have been known as the Beach Boys Smiling Summer had it been
released. The overlying themes would have made Sgt Pepper sound like a pale
imitation. When I reviewed the albums released about that time I find it
surpasses all of them.
I highly recommend this cd for anyone. Even your heavy metal, head banging
purple haired kids can listen to it.
~ Mr. Hawk
Evolution is only a theory but so is gravity. Let's see you jump out that
window and pray you don't fall.
Thanks, Mr. Hawk!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias: THE DEFICIT (Aug 19)
Did you hear the great news from all the media outlets earlier this week, that the federal budget is expected to be only $331 billion this year? As usual, I've heard no one challenge the White House spin on this. The TRUE deficit is nearly $200 billion higher. That's because the White House always forgets to include the money we are borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund.
Lyn Davis Lear: War and Peace: Falling Through the Partisan Looking Glass (huffingtonpost.com)
George Bush reported [recently] that we are doing well in Iraq, but insisted that it was premature to talk about bringing troops home. What kind of a fantasy land does he live in?
Paul Begala: Anti-War Imagery and the Iconography of Hate (tpmcafe.com)
It seems to me the American people never really forgave the Democrats for being right about Vietnam.
Will Durst: FAQ: Cindy Sheehan, 'Peace Mom' (AlterNet)
Who exactly is this Peace Mom anyway?
Molly Ivins: Free Speech: Going, Going ... ( AlterNet)
Corporations' efforts to curb free speech through lawsuits are unfortunately succeeding.
Norman Solomon: Blaming the Antiwar Messengers (AlterNet)
While President Bush anxiously awaits the end of his vacation, right-wing media assaults on Cindy Sheehan are just beginning.
ROGER EBERT: Evil in film: To what end?
On Aug. 12, I published two zero-star reviews, of "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" and "Chaos."
Peace Takes Courage
If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention: Animations
Mark Fiore: Victory Is ...
Google Logo Maker
Make your own logo for Google; Mine is Bruugle.
Commentoon Archive
Reader Find
RE: Peach Sticks
Marty--
Here is the web site with the picture and recipes for freezer pops and jams.
I don't remember seeing freezer pectin but they say it's in a pouch. I had some liquid pectin for arthritis relief and that was in a pouch.
Slightly O/T, I'm watching the Little League World Series and am glad to see that the youth of America (and the world) are learning the proper spitting techniques that will serve them so well in later life.
Steph in Wooster
Thanks, Steph!
Will be checking for freezer pectin - have plain, old regular powdered pectin here, but don't like to tweak recipes til I'm a bit more familiar with the results.
And watermelon jam, too - cool! The kid loves watermelon.
So many guys chewed tobacco in my high school there were planters at the ends of the halls so they had somewhere to spit.
There was also a rule not to spit in the planters, but it was preferred over the floor. Loogies are slippery.
Thanks, again, for finding the 'peach sticks'.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still cool & pleasant.
Sounds like the raccoons are running relay races on the roof.
Ashes Blast Off
Hunter S. Thompson
With a deafening boom, the ashes of Hunter S. Thompson were blown into the sky amid fireworks late Saturday as relatives and a star-studded crowd bid an irreverent farewell to the founder of "gonzo journalism."
As the ashes erupted from a tower, red, white, blue and green fireworks lit up the sky over Thompson's home near Aspen.
The 15-story tower was modeled after Thompson's logo: a clenched fist, made symmetrical with two thumbs, rising from the hilt of a dagger. It was built between his home and a tree-covered canyon wall, not far from a tent filled with merrymakers.
The private celebration included actors Bill Murray and Johnny Depp, rock bands, blowup dolls and plenty of liquor to honor Thompson.
For the rest, Hunter S. Thompson
Operatic Spin On History
Roger Waters
Back in his days with Pink Floyd, Roger Waters took on the big issues of life. In high-concept projects like "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall," he grappled with such challenging topics as social oppression, the long shadows of war, the interplay of money and power, and the abuse of authority.
Since 1989, Waters wrestled with many of those same concerns in a genre new to him: opera. The result, "Ca Ira," an opera set during the French Revolution, arrives in stores September 27 from Columbia/Sony BMG Masterworks.
"All my life," muses Waters, whose father died in World War II, "I have been preoccupied with the great tragedy of losing family in wars. The pain of losing a parent or a child in (an act of) violence that is purposefully and directly generated by political forces is in a certain way harder to bear than if someone dies in, say, an accident. The death feels more preventable."
Roger Waters
Raising Funds
Olivia Newton-John
Inspired by the words of Maya Angelou, breast cancer survivor Olivia Newton-John is spotlighting the disease with a musical version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer's poem "Phenomenal Woman."
The song is the lead single to Newton-John's upcoming 10-song collection, "Stronger Than Before." The album will be available exclusively in Hallmark's Gold Crown stores August 29-October 31.
For each purchase of the $9.95 CD in the United States, Hallmark will make a $2 donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Newton-John recorded the song with Beth Nielsen Chapman, Diahann Carroll, Patti LaBelle, Amy Holland, Delta Goodrem and Mindy Smith -- all of whose lives have been affected by cancer.
Olivia Newton-John
Tells All: 'Don't Be Afraid'
Smithsonian
Braving summer showers, billboard workers mounted a 70-by-35-foot artwork on the curved facade of the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum on Friday, its message encouraging passers-by: "Don't be afraid."
The work, "Directions - Jim Hodges," consists of the three-word saying, written over and over by delegates to the United Nations in their own languages. The Hirshhorn staff lists 85 inscriptions, two of them in what it calls unidentified "mystery languages."
The "global chorus," as Hodges calls it, expresses "a reassuring phrase in response to an unspecified distress, allowing viewers to develop interpretations of its meaning that might range from the personal to political," the museum says on its Web site.
Smithsonian
Gets Retro With Cover Tunes
Dolly Parton
It's almost a given for veteran singers to dust off the American songbook and cut an album of standards. But Dolly Parton does them one better on "Those Were the Days."
Not only does she put a country spin on songs such as "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Crimson and Clover" and "Me and Bobby McGee," she gets some of the artists who wrote or popularized the originals to join her.
Roger McGuinn, Kris Kristofferson, Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Norah Jones, Judy Collins and many others lend their talents.
For a lot more, Dolly Parton
Joins Hollywood Rockwalk
Iron Maiden
Heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden has put its mark in cement - along with the bony hand of its album cover skeleton mascot, "Eddie."
Band members added their handprints - with a fake skeleton hand to stand in for Eddie's - to the Hollywood Rockwalk on Friday. The sidewalk gallery is outside the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard.
Iron Maiden was formed in 1975 by bassist Steve Harris, 49, in the East End of London and went on to become one of rock's most influential heavy metal bands. Their 1982 album "The Number of the Beast" featured the single "Run to the Hills" that reached the Top 10 in UK sales.
Iron Maiden
Ratings For Rabies Radio Sink
Twin Cities
Twin Cities listeners have been tuning out political talk radio.
Locally, conservative-talk icon Rush Limbaugh's show has lost 43 percent of its audience among 25- to 54-year-olds in the past year. Sean Hannity's show is down a whopping 63 percent. The shift is serious enough that "we're weighing where these shows fit for us in the future," according to Todd Fisher, general manager at KSTP (1500 AM), which carries both syndicated programs.
Many Americans also are switching the dial. While ratings for political talk radio typically drop the year after an election, experts around the country sense something else in the air. Many metro listeners are turning to local, often sports-oriented shows.
Twin Cities
Time Running Out On Boyhood Home
Jimi Hendrix
Time is running short for a group hoping to make the boyhood home of Jimi Hendrix the centerpiece of a community music center.
On Thursday, King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson refused to extend a temporary restraining order that barred the city from demolishing the modest two-bedroom house.
However, Robinson said she thought the effort to preserve the house was worthwhile and gave the owners until Sept. 1 to seek emergency relief from the state Court of Appeals.
Jimi Hendrix
Shakespeare for Cowboys
Montana
Ranchers from miles away lounge in lawn chairs under a canopy of cottonwoods, munching on Indian tacos and homemade pie, as "The Taming of the Shrew," unfolds. Babies sleep on blankets spread in the grass, while older children watch, eyes wide, or dart among the trees with friends.
Many have never seen a production such as this, and appreciate the chance to see Shakespearean theater - or any professional theater for that matter - performed live in this north-central Montana farming town of about 1,500, surrounded by wheat fields, the chalky bluffs of the Missouri River and not much else.
Welcome to Shakespeare, cowboy style.
Bozeman's Shakespeare in the Parks theater company was created in 1973 to bring free productions to rural, underserved communities that dot the Northern Rockies. Since then, the company has traveled over more than 250,000 miles of dirt and paved roads and performed before more than half a million people.
Montana
Third-Generation Caretaker
Dhia Mhesen
Dhia Mhesen rattles off fact after fact about this ancient mud brick city, the site of a giant ziggurat and the reputed birthplace of Abraham -- the prophet revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike.
"The ziggurat was the temple of the moon god," said Mhesen. "And over there is the house of Abraham. The bible calls this place Ur of the Chaldeans."
Mhesen, 46, is the third generation caretaker at Ur, a 4,000 year-old city located near Nasiriyah, 375 kilometers (235 miles) southeast of the Iraqi capital. The site is also known as Tell Muqayyar.
For a lot more, Dhia Mhesen
Kin Threaten Suit Over Film
Idi Amin
The family of late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin threatened to sue the producers of the "The Last King of Scotland," the film version of the acclaimed novel about the notorious despot's rule.
Amins eldest son, Taban Amin, said the family might sue for defamation but at least deserved millions in compensation for the depiction of his father in the movie which wrapped up on-location shooting in Uganda earlier this month.
He said the family -- consisting of his prolific father's 42 children and several widows -- would seek four to five million dollars from Cowboy Films, which is producing 'Last King' with Hollywood star Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin.
Taban Amin expressed frustration that his father was being singled out for criticism by the movie industry, lamenting that "there were other dictators on the continent whose deeds have not yet attracted filming interest."
Idi Amin
Book Vending Machines
Paris
Readers craving Homer, Baudelaire or Lewis Carroll in the middle of the night can get a quick fix at one of the French capital's five newly installed book vending machines.
"We have customers who know exactly what they want and come at all hours to get it," said Xavier Chambon, president of Maxi-Livres, a low-cost publisher and book store chain that debuted the vending machines in June. "It's as if our stores were open 24 hours a day."
"Our biggest vending machine sellers are The Wok Cookbook and a French-English dictionary," said Chambon, who added that poet Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal - The Flowers of Evil - also is "very popular."
Paris
Mystery Solved?
Judge Crater
Move over, Mark Felt. Just three months after the identity of "Deep Throat" was finally made public, authorities were chasing a new lead in one of the 20th century's other great unsolved mysteries:
What ever happened to Judge Joseph Crater?
A recently discovered letter asserting that Crater, a newly minted judge at the time, was murdered and buried near the Coney Island boardwalk after his August 1930 disappearance prompted tabloid headlines Friday about a case that's lingered since the Great Depression.
"1930 CRATER VANISH 'SOLVED,"' proclaimed the New York Post, although police said that wasn't quite the case. A Long Island woman discovered a letter left by her late grandmother, who claimed her husband once heard over drinks that a city cop, his cab-driver brother and several accomplices had killed Crater and buried him on the current site of the New York Aquarium.
Judge Crater
Drug Suspect's Pet Attacks Officer
Spanky The Squirrel
A police officer in Massachusetts was treated at a hospital after a drug suspect's squirrel attacked him during an attempted arrest, according to a Local 6 News report.
Officer Dwayne Flowers said he and his partner were attempting to arrest a woman wanted on drug charges in Leominister, Mass., when her loose pet squirrel attacked.
"The claws are very sharp, I guess he mistook me for a tree," officer Flowers said. "The squirrel was moving at such speed, I didn't see it and neither did my partner standing shoulder-length away from me."
Flowers drove to a hospital after the attack while other officers captured Spanky the squirrel and arrested its owner.
For the rest - with pictures - Slideshow
Mandatory Reading
Hypocrites and Liars
by Cindy Sheehan
The media are wrong. The people who have come out to Camp Casey to help coordinate the press and events with me are not putting words in my mouth, they are taking words out of my mouth. I have been known for sometime as a person who speaks the truth and speaks it strongly. I have always called a liar a liar and a hypocrite a hypocrite. Now I am urged to use softer language to appeal to a wider audience. Why do my friends at Camp Casey think they are there? Why did such a big movement occur from such a small action on August 6, 2005?
I haven't had much time to analyze the Camp Casey phenomena. I just read that I gave 250 interviews in less than a weeks time. I believe it. I would go to bed with a raw throat every night. I got pretty tired of answering some questions, like: 'What do you want to say to the President?' and 'Do you really think he will meet with you?' However, since my mom has been sick I have had a chance to step back and ponder the flood gates that I opened in Crawford, TX.
I just read an article posted today on LewRockwell.com by artist Robert Shetterly who painted my portrait. The article reminded me of something I said at the Veteran's for Peace Convention the night before I set out to Bush's ranch in my probable futile quest for the truth. This is what I said:
"I got an e-mail the other day and it said, 'Cindy if you didn't use so much profanity '. There's people on the fence that get offended.'
And you know what I said? 'You know what? You know what, god damn it? How in the world is anybody still sitting on that fence?'
For the rest, Hypocrites and Liars
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
