Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Bill Press: Tea Party Triumphs: Good News for Democrats (Tribune Media Services)
What a difference a year makes. Last summer, both Republicans and Democrats considered the idea of a Tea Party a joke. Tea Partiers were good at raising hell at town meetings, but they were too scattered and too undisciplined to be taken seriously.
Mark Shields: How the Tea Party Will Change the GOP (creators.com)
For the first and only time in a remarkable political career - which began in 1966 when he captured a "safe" Democratic state legislative seat and included winning campaigns for the state Senate, for lieutenant governor, for two terms as governor and then nine terms to the U.S. House - Mike Castle, on a Tuesday night in September 2010, lost an election.
Froma Harrop: Democrats Need to Turn Off Fox News (creators.com)
During the 2000 presidential campaign, Democrat Al Gore became captive of the right-wing noise machine. The activists and their media had gone honking nuts over President Clinton's sexual indiscretion. Vice President Gore thought these people mattered and so distanced his campaign from a popular Democratic president.
Susan Estrich: Beyond Party (creators.com)
Schadenfreude means taking pleasure in the failure of others, which is the Hollywood vocation and, lately, that of Democrats, as well.
Jim Hightower: GOUGING CONSUMERS WITH HIGH-FLYING FEES
Why do airline executives hate their customers? Not so very long ago, airlines boasted about flying "the friendly skies," but that happy slogan has now been perverted into flying "the abusive skies."
Anon: My son was wrongly labelled as having special educational needs (guardian.co.uk)
One parent recalls the Kafka-esque process that resulted from a teacher's misplaced concern.
Daniel Gross: You're Rich. Get Over It. (slate.com)
People who make $250,000 or more a year can afford a tax hike.
Mark Miller: How to Cut Expenses in Retirement (huffingtonpost.com)
Wagner's story underscores an important point about retirement planning: Income and assets are just one set of values in the retirement security equation; on the other side sit lifestyle and spending.
Amy Kaufman: Hanson - and its music - grow up (Los Angeles Times)
Members of the former teeny-bopper band are married with children, and now seem to embody the antithesis of all things pop.
PATRICK GOLDSTEIN: Will Casey Affleck end up in movie jail after admitting 'I'm Still Here' was a hoax? (latimes.com)
Judging from the early reaction inside Hollywood, Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix will have a lot of explaining to do in the coming days. It turns out that Affleck's "I'm Still Here," which purported to be a documentary, depicting an out-of-control Phoenix self-destructing before our very eyes, was actually a hoax.
Lindy West Interviews the Ever-Testy Adam Carolla (thestranger.com)
I ask Adam, this person on the other end of the line, about his family-the only group that matters.
"They're cute as sh*t. I love the sh*t out of those kids."
roger ebert's journal: Men Passed this way long ago
About 32,000 years ago, in a limestone cave above the Ardèche River in Southern France, humans created the oldest cave paintings known to exist. They spring from the walls with boldness and confidence, as if the artists were already sure what they wanted to paint and how to paint it. Perhaps 25,000 years ago, a child visited the cave and left a footprint, the oldest human footprint that can be accurately dated.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Cleaning House' Edition
Flint (MI) public housing authority, in an effort to fight crime in the projects, is considering a requirement for all current and prospective residents to take a drug test to keep their federally subsidized apartments.... Housing Commission Executive Rodney Slaughter said he wants a drug-testing program modeled after the city of Indianapolis, where public housing residents are required to take annual drug tests. If a resident tests positive, they would have 30 days to test negative or seek help...
Flint eyes drug tests for public housing | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Would you support such a policy in your community?
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Links from RJ
Two-Fer
Hi
Two possible links of interest for you - quite far afield! Thanks for taking a look as ever!
BadtotheboneBob
Pink Football
High school football teams unite to fight cancer
Who sez footballers are just a bunch of mindless macho guys, eh?
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Coastal eddy has returned.
'Politically Incorrect' Clips
Bill Maher
Tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell, whose Republican primary upset in Delaware's Senate race shocked the GOP, canceled appearances Sunday on two national news shows.
Meanwhile, comedian Bill Maher dug up a clip of O'Donnell appearing on his "Politically Incorrect" show in 1999 in which she says she "dabbled in witchcraft."
Maher said on "Real Time with Bill Maher" that he has more clips of O'Donnell and will continue to air them until she appears on his show.
On Sunday, O'Donnell had been set to appear on "Face the Nation" on CBS and "Fox News Sunday."
Bill Maher
London Hotel Opens Shrine
Jimi Hendrix
A London hotel which was the last known address of Jimi Hendrix opened a shrine to the legendary guitarist on Saturday to mark the 40th anniversary of his death.
The Cumberland Hotel - off London's Park Lane - has revamped a room favoured by the star to pay homage to Hendrix, and allow fans to stay the night.
Hendrix was a regular guest at the property during the 1960s and he conducted what was to be his last ever interview, with music journalist Keith Altham, in one of the hotel's fifth-floor suites just days before his untimely death in 1970.
To mark today's 40th anniversary of Hendrix's death, the hotel, operated by the Guoman group, has created a Hendrix-inspired suite.
Jimi Hendrix
Freddie Mercury Biopic
Sacha Baron Cohen
"Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen has been signed up to star in a movie about flamboyant rock star Freddie Mercury, producers said Friday.
Peter Morgan, who wrote "The Queen," is working on a screenplay about the frontman of the band Queen, who died of AIDS-related causes in 1991.
The as-yet-untitled film will climax with Queen's barnstorming appearance at the 1985 Live Aid concert in London.
The announcement was made by GK Films, which is producing with Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions and Queen Films.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Nigeria's Version
Sesame Street
Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch have some new friends.
Meet Zobi, a yam-eating taxi driver, and Kami, a talkative five-year-old living with HIV.
"Sesame Street," the U.S. show which started 40 years ago on state-run television as an attempt to help underprivileged children learn, hits Nigeria next month with some uniquely West African twists and renamed "Sesame Square."
Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.S. President Barack Obama's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Nigerian take on the hit series remains true to its educational roots.
Sesame Street
Show Revamps
Carson Daly
With the debut of its 10th season on September 20, NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly" is overhauling its format to become predominantly focused on music, offering live performances, behind-the-scenes artist segments and spotlights dedicated to emerging acts.
"Before we ditched the studio, we'd been locked into that kind of late-night feel: monologue, then a desk thing, then the lead guest," says Daly, who started out as a VJ on MTV's "TRL" and as a DJ at KROQ Los Angeles. "Music has always been kind of an afterthought in the world of late night, which was a dumb thing for me since it's the epicenter of who I am. This new format enables us to include music wherever we want."
Among the acts that will be featured on upcoming episodes are Alberta Cross, the Walkmen, Japandroids and Broken Bells. "Carson's like, 'If we can do an entire half hour on music, that's what we want to do,'" says Davis Powers, music booker for "Last Call." "Certainly we'll program it where if it's a big-name act, they can take the whole half hour. But our main goal is to program our half-hours as music-heavy as possible so you're getting variety and different types of content."
Aside from reality TV shows, music-centered programing is almost nonexistent on network TV. While IFC's "360 Sessions" and select episodes of Sundance Channel's "Iconoclasts" provide cable viewers an in-depth look at recording artists and their work, this sort of programing rarely appears on the broadcast networks.
Carson Daly
Make Homosexuality Illegal
Montana GOP
At a time when gays have been gaining victories across the country, the Republican Party in Montana still wants to make homosexuality illegal.
The party adopted an official platform in June that keeps a long-held position in support of making homosexual acts illegal, a policy adopted after the Montana Supreme Court struck down such laws in 1997.
The fact that it's still the official party policy more than 12 years later, despite a tidal shift in public attitudes since then and the party's own pledge of support for individual freedoms, has exasperated some GOP members.
Gay rights have been rapidly advancing nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Texas' sodomy law in 2003's Lawrence v. Texas decision. Gay marriage is now allowed in five states and Washington, D.C., a federal court recently ruled the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional, and even a conservative tea party group in Montana ousted its president over an anti-gay exchange in Facebook.
Montana GOP
Failed Drug Test
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan has confirmed on her Twitter page that she failed a court-ordered drug and alcohol screening, and she said that if asked, she is ready to appear before the judge in her case and face the consequences for her actions.
In a series of messages posted late Friday, the actress said "Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test."
She also said, "Substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn't go away over night. I am working hard to overcome it." Lohan often posts updates with the account that's verified by Twitter as belonging to the actress.
A person familiar with the case, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, confirmed the positive test results for The Associated Press earlier Friday. The person declined to specify what substance triggered the positive result, which the source said occurred within the last month.
Lindsay Lohan
Avoiding Jail
Paris Hilton
The district attorney in Las Vegas says Paris Hilton will avoid jail time on drug charges under the terms of a plea deal worked out with prosecutors.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Friday Hilton has agreed to plead guilty Monday to two misdemeanors stemming from her Aug. 27 arrest in Las Vegas.
A copy of the plea agreement obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows Hilton will plead guilty to drug possession and obstructing an officer to avoid two consecutive six month-sentences in the Clark County Detention Center.
Instead, Hilton will serve a year of probation.
Paris Hilton
No Arrest Warrant
Julian Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is free to leave Sweden, after prosecutors said there was no arrest warrant against him for an alleged case of rape, one of his lawyers said Saturday.
Bjorn Hurtig said an investigation was still under way but the head of the whistleblowing website had been given no summons for questioning.
"I have been told that there is no arrest warrant against him," meaning Assange could do what he liked, including going abroad, Hurtig said.
Assange, 39, has said the allegations against him are part of a "smear campaign" aimed at discrediting his website, which is locked in a row with the Pentagon over the release of secret US documents about the war in Afghanistan.
Julian Assange
Historian Cracks Case
Raymond Chandler
When it came to death and where someone spends their eternal rest, literature's most hard-boiled detective, Philip Marlowe, was pretty cynical.
"What does it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or a marble tower?" author Raymond Chandler's legendary protagonist asked not long after Marlowe had plugged a bad guy in "The Big Sleep."
When it came time for Chandler's big sleep, however, his sentiments were different. The man who put Los Angeles on the literary map with detective novels that dismissed the place as "a big, hard-boiled city with no more personality than a paper cup" actually was a romantic who had planned to spend eternity alongside his beloved wife, Cissy Chandler.
That the two would end up about a block apart, one in a cemetery, the other on a mausoleum warehouse shelf, and that it would take decades to unite them, is a story with as many twists and turns as a Chandler novel.
Come next Valentine's Day, however, the story is expected to take on a very un-Chandler-like happy ending. The two are to be reunited during a scheduled celebration at the writer's grave in San Diego's Mount Hope Cemetery. Those events were set in motion earlier this month when a judge ruled that Cissy Chandler's remains should be placed with those of her husband, who died at age 70 in 1959.
Raymond Chandler
In Memory
James Bacon
James Bacon, who began his career at The Associated Press in the 1940s and spent 75 years chronicling Hollywood's biggest stars as a reporter, author and syndicated columnist, died Saturday. He was 96.
Bacon died in his sleep of congestive heart failure at his Northridge home, according to family friend Stan Rosenfield.
As a reporter for the AP for 23 years and later as columnist for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Bacon had a knack for befriending A-list celebrities. He palled around with John Wayne, shared whisky with Frank Sinatra, was a confidant of Marilyn Monroe and met eight U.S. presidents.
Bacon accompanied Taylor's physician to her home to break the news of the death of her third husband, Mike Todd, in a plane crash. After filing his story with the AP, Bacon, the only reporter in the house, briefed the mob of reporters outside, Rosenfield said.
Posing as a coroner, he once made his way past a police barricade to get Lana Turner's first-hand account of the fatal stabbing of her lover Johnny Stompanato by her daughter Cheryl Crane.
Operating during an era when press agents posed few restrictions and alcohol flowed freely, Bacon often found himself drinking with the subjects of his stories. Rosenfield said reporters and columnists from competing newspapers were often ordered never to leave an event until Bacon did.
After a St. Patrick's Day lunch with John Wayne went into the night, the pair hired a taxi to take them from Los Angeles to see the famed swallows return to Capistrano. After arriving at the Southern California mission in the early morning, a priest told them they were a week early. They took the taxi back to LA.
Years later, Bacon broke the story of Wayne's cancer.
He spent 18 years at the Herald Examiner and then went on to write books. He wrote three bestsellers, "Hollywood Is a Four Letter Town," ''Made in Hollywood" and Jackie Gleason's autobiography "How Sweet It Is," which he co-authored.
Most recently, he wrote a weekly column about Hollywood's golden years for the glossy magazine Beverly Hills 213, where his last piece appeared in June.
Born James Richard Hughes Bacon on May 12, 1914 in Buffalo, New York, he was inspired to become a journalist by his father, Thomas Bacon, who worked for William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.
In 1942, Bacon joined the AP in Albany, N.Y., as a general assignment reporter, before serving in the Navy during World War II. He rejoined the AP in Chicago in 1946 and moved to the Los Angeles bureau two years later.
Bacon is survived by his wife of 44 years, the former Doris Klein; their children James B. Bacon of Granada Hills, Calif., Thomas C. Bacon of Manhattan Beach, Calif., and Margaret Bacon Smith of L.A.; two children from his first marriage, Roger Bacon and Kathleen Brooks, both of Ventura, Calif.; 15 grandchildren; seven great grandchildren; and a sister, Patricia Wilt of Lock Haven, Pa.
James Bacon
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