'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Arianna Huffington: Déjà Vu All Over Again: It's Not the Economy, Stupid! (huffingtonpost.com)
Newsflash: According to this article in Roll Call, Congressional Democrats privately admit they really want to lose the 2006 midterm elections!
PETER JACKSON: Polls Give Democrats Lead in Pennsylvania (news.aol.com)
Santorum aired a TV spot featuring actors supposedly portraying four big donors to Casey's campaign meeting inside a smoke-filled jail cell. The senator's campaign later conceded that none of the men had given money to Casey's Senate campaign and that two of them had actually contributed to Santorum's campaign, which donated the money to nonprofit groups.
Benjamin Secher: Horror behind the glamour (telegraph.co.uk)
Four pages in, those affectionate introductory shots - a middle-aged man building sandcastles; newly-weds locked in charmingly awkward embraces - give way to a ferocious text by Baldwin. "The myth tells us that America is full of smiling people," he writes. "God knows what it is they're smiling about."
Josie Appleton: 'Where are the Margot Fonteyns?' (spiked-online.com)
Jeffery Taylor, former dancer turned dance critic, says PC attitudes towards touching children are ruining British ballet.
The day Mad Jack [Nicholson] drew a gun on set (telegraph.co.uk)
"So I came in the next day and Jack's hair was all over the place. He was muttering to himself and the prop guy tipped me off that he had a fire extinguisher, a bottle of whisky, some matches and a handgun somewhere. So I sat down at the table not knowing what to expect, and he set the table on fire after pouring whisky all over the place and stuck a gun in my face."
Michael Weiss: Some Kind of Republican (slate.com)
Was John Hughes really in favor of teen rebellion?
Roger Ebert: Awake in the Dark: Best of Ebert (rogerebert.suntimes.com)
I began my work as a film critic in 1967. I had not thought to be a film critic, and indeed had few firm career plans apart from vague notions that I might someday be a political columnist or a professor of English.
ROGER EBERT: Interview with Groucho Marx (March 8, 1970 ; rogerebert.suntimes.com)
He inhaled in meditation. "But they're gone. Gone to the hereafter. You know, I don't believe in religion, or the hereafter. Not at all. I discussed the subject with Chico and Harpo a couple of years before they died. They said they'd get in touch with me if there were a hereafter. But you know what?" He examined the ash of his cigar thoughtfully. "I never heard a word. Not a goddamn word."
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, dry and windy.
Bill Clinton - Chris Wallace/Faux News - 09/23/06 - Transcript
Warns Against Wide Torture Approval
Bill Clinton
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton joined a chorus of critics of Bush administration proposals for the treatment of suspected terrorists, saying they would give broad approval to torture.
"You don't need blanket advance approval for blanket torture," Clinton said in an interview with National Public Radio aired on Thursday.
"The president says he's just trying to get the rules clear about how far the CIA can go when they're when they whacking these people around in these secret prisons," Clinton said in NPR's "Morning Edition" interview, recorded on Wednesday.
"If you go around passing laws that legitimize a violation of the Geneva Convention and institutionalize what happened at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, we're going to be in real trouble," he said.
Bill Clinton
Honor Young, McMurtry
Americana Honors and Awards
Singer and songwriter James McMurtry took home album of the year and song of the year honors, and veteran rocker Neil Young was named artist of the year Friday at the fifth annual Americana Honors and Awards.
The awards, which honor American music based on the country, folk and bluegrass tradition, also recognized the Drive-By Truckers as duo/group of the year and guitarist Kenny Vaughan as instrumentalist of the year.
Held at the historic Ryman Auditorium, the awards show was hosted by Jim Lauderdale and featured appearances by Elvis Costello, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill and many others.
Daniels became the fifth recipient of the Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award, while the family of songwriter Mickey Newbury accepted the President's Award, traditionally given in posthumous recognition to an artist for outstanding career achievement.
Americana Honors and Awards
Donate $8 to Slavery Museum
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby called Friday on each American to contribute $8 to help build a national slavery museum amid the battlefields of the Civil War.
Cosby, who already has committed $1 million to the project, joined Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder on Friday in launching a new campaign to raise $100 million toward the Fredericksburg museum's $200 million price tag.
"The incentive is that they would join in with the rest of the United States of America in saying yes, as an American, I gave $8 to help build something that tells the story," he said in a teleconference with Wilder.
In a nation of some 300 million people, even a tepid response would surpass the $100 million goal, Cosby said.
Bill Cosby
Ancient Pet Cemeteries Found
Peru
Even in ancient Peru, it seems dogs were a man's best friend. Peruvian investigators have discovered a pre-Columbian culture of dog lovers who built pet cemeteries and buried their pets with warm blankets and even treats for the afterlife.
"They are dogs that were thanked and recognized for their social and familial contribution," anthropologist Sonia Guillen said. "These dogs were not sacrificed."
Since 1993, researchers have unearthed 82 dog tombs in pet cemetery plots, laid alongside human mummy tombs of the Chiribaya people in the fertile Osmore River valley, 540 miles southeast of Lima. The Chiribaya were farmers who lived from A.D. 900 to 1350 before the rise of Peru's Inca Empire.
"We have found that in all the cemeteries, always, in between the human tombs there are others dedicated to the dogs, full-grown and puppies," said Guillen, who specializes in the study of mummies. "They have their own grave and in some cases they are buried with blankets and food."
Peru
Dayton Art Institute
Rembrandt
Six paintings and several etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn as well as works from other Dutch masters - long housed in the Netherlands' national Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam - are hanging in the Dayton Art Institute on the first stop of a U.S. tour.
The traveling exhibit opens to the public on Sunday and will be in this Midwestern city for three months before moving on to Phoenix and then Portland, Ore. It comes on the 400th anniversary of Rembrandt's birth.
The exhibit, "Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Treasures from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam," also includes self-portraits, still lifes and landscapes painted by other Dutch masters such as Jan Steen, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van Goyen and Nicholaes Maes.
Rembrandt
L.A. Judge Lets Lawsuit Proceed
Dom DeLuise
A Superior Court judge rejected a motion Friday to throw out comedian Dom DeLuise's lawsuit claiming his former daughter-in-law caused him emotional and financial distress when she sued him for $2 million.
DeLuise is suing Brigitte DeLuise, her lawyer, Steven Zelig, and Zelig's law firm for their suit claiming the comedian, his wife, Carol, and their money managers tried to cut off his former daughter-in-law financially.
Brigitte DeLuise dropped her lawsuit in January, but refiled it on June 23. She divorced Dom DeLuise's son David DeLuise in August 2003.
Dom DeLuise
Hoping To Cut A Deal
Duane 'Dog' Chapman
TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman hopes to work out a deal to avoid extradition to Mexico to faces charges of illegal detention and conspiracy in his capture of a cosmetics company heir there three years ago, his lawyer said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has until Oct. 16 to file papers in support of their extradition, but Chapman's attorney, Brook Hart, hopes to resolve the issue before then.
Chapman has said he would offer an apology, pay a fine, forfeit the bail he posted in Mexico and make a charitable contribution, Hart said.
Duane 'Dog' Chapman
Persists With Oprah '08 Web Site
Patrick Crowe
Patrick Crowe says he is having a blast promoting talk-show icon Oprah Winfrey for president. Winfrey's lawyers are not.
Crowe has been unofficially campaigning for the first lady of daytime TV for years. The Kansas City man's Web site, http://www.oprah08.net, comes complete with a campaign song and volunteer sign-up. He also sells "Oprah for President" T-shirts.
The retired math teacher's unflappable support has recently drawn the ire of Winfrey's lawyers, who sent Crowe a letter on Aug. 22 demanding that he remove her picture from the Web site and a book he is selling. The letter said Crowe's zeal has crossed into copyright and trademark infringements.
But Crowe is persistent. The Web site remained up Saturday, and he has been fielding requests for radio interviews.
Patrick Crowe
Oklahoma Visit
Mel Gibson
Noted anti-Semite Mel Gibson visited two Oklahoma towns this week to attend screenings of his new movie, "Apocalypto."
Gibson did not make a public appearance during screenings held at the Riverwind Casino in Goldsby and Cameron University in Lawton. At the entrance of the casino - where the film was shown Friday to a mostly American Indian audience - reporters were kept behind partitions.
He arrived at Cameron on Thursday morning wearing a mask and wig so he wouldn't be noticed, university spokeswoman Amber McNeil said.
Mel Gibson
Image Counts Coup
'Land of Smiles'
Military coup leaders in Thailand - often called the "Land of Smiles" - apparently don't want to ruin that image. They've ordered soldiers to smile.
Army radio broadcasts are reminding soldiers to be friendly and courteous, especially to children and anyone who wants to take pictures with them.
Since Tuesday's overthrow of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, tanks and soldiers have been stationed at strategic points around Bangkok, becoming a must-have photograph for many Thais and tourists.
Many Thais have described this as the friendliest coup the country has ever seen. Thailand has a history of violent military coups, and the last one in 1991 ended with at least 50 pro-democracy demonstrators gunned down in Bangkok.
'Land of Smiles'
New Morning Show
Rick Dees
When Rick Dees returns to the local radio waves Monday after a two-year break, he will be counting on star power in the form of Jack Nicholson to make a splash in a market where 86 competing signals pour into the city.
In turn, Movin' 93.9 - formerly country KZLA and now Dees' new home - is not only counting on the legendary DJ's longtime popularity to lure listeners but also on a new format that uses liberal doses of Spanglish.
Both Dees and co-host Patricia Lopez will lapse into the popular mix of Spanish and English whenever the mood strikes during their Monday-through-Friday morning show, which will run from 5 to 10.
The new morning show, which will debut at 5 Monday, borrows from "Mex 2 the Max," the innovative music video program Lopez hosts on LATV, a growing bilingual television network beamed into 3million homes. Lopez, who grew up in L.A. and is a former Elite model and CBS Evening News entertainment reporter, was chosen, Dees said, because she's quick-witted and vivacious in front of the microphone.
Rick Dees
Thanks, Fred!
In Memory
Sir Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Arnold, the first British composer to win an Academy Award, died Saturday at the age of 84 after a short illness, his carer said.
Arnold, who won an Oscar for the music to "The Bridge on the River Kwai" in 1958, died in the hospital in Norfolk county, eastern England, after suffering from a chest infection, said Anthony Day, Arnold's companion and care-giver for 23 years.
Arnold composed more than 130 films scores, including "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness," for which he received one of Britain's Ivor Novello awards in 1958; "Hobson's Choice" and "Whistle Down the Wind."
Arnold also composed nine symphonies, seven ballets, two operas, a musical and over 20 concertos and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, in 1970.
Sir Malcolm Arnold
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