'TBH Politoons'
Tonight
Erin Hart Show
Please join
Erin Hart
9pm to 1am PST tonight and also Monday on 710 KIRO
as she sits in for Mike Webb.
Also, Erin fills in on Boulder's Progressive Talk AM760.net on Dec 27th and 28th, from 5am to 9am PST.
It's the holiday extravaganza. Rummy is running or withdrawing or is a
RUSE? And the NSA is spying on EVERY call overseas, so that means your Aunt
Minny in Vancouver and Brother Bob in Afghanistan or Argentina. Sigh.
And yes, we will address the war on Christmas--is there one? Are the
churches being deserted on Sunday for good reasons or bad? And what about
all who do not celebrate Christmas--how do you feel?
Plus has shopping gone too wild? Are experiences better than gifts? Are
donations given acceptable? Have you had your Scrooge moment?
Sunday night we are joined by Faith Forward and the Anti-Defamation League
to talk about the meaning of tolerance and anti-discrimination against all.
Then Marty (or is it Martha?) from
BartCop
Entertainment will be stopping by with
loads o'links & hot blogs.
And the year in review--King George's anno horribilus--let's look back,
shall we?
We check in with Media matters and probably the Nation. Plus movie reviews
from the family, Pedro leaps into the season and sticks his toes into a lake
for the first time--getting so big and so brave. And so gentle with little
children. Hooray for woman's best friend.
Enjoy all--count your blessings and join us. Merry Christmas to all and to
all a Good Chanukah! Enjoy and In Joy, to all of you who have supported
this show and liberal talk radio, our deepest thanks.
May 2006 bring us much relief, joy and our country back in safe hands.
Audio streams live - 710KIRO.com.
Freshly Updated
Dick Eats Bush
Comment From Hubert
Re: zEN mAN pHOTO
pRAISE tO tHE mAX fOR tODAY'S pHOTO!
eVEN nSA aND gEORGE w eNJOYED iT?
hUBERT wILSON
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Sylvia Topp: Who Is Bush's Jesus? (villagevoice.com)
Bush calls Christ his favorite philosopher. But which verses in the New Testament does Bush approve of?
Jack Shafer: You, Too, Can Be a TV Pundit! Follow these simple steps (slate.com)
And no matter what you do, don't answer pre-interview questions with the preface, "It's very complicated." TV isn't the place for complicated discussions of politics. Save your learned dissertation for that 500-word newspaper op-ed you're hoping to place in USA Today.
We're All Christians Now
A Catholic theologian explains how even atheists can get to heaven.
Roger Ebert: Rumor Has It (3 Stars)
Now here is a curious thing. When I see Jennifer Aniston playing any halfway ordinary character, I have the same reaction: Hey, a friend of mine has somehow gotten into the same movie with all of those stars. I've never actually met Aniston, although once at Sundance I saw paparazzi fight to photograph her with Brad Pitt, in response to a tragic shortage of pictures showing them together. Most of these photos later appeared on the covers of gossip mags with the couple torn in two by a jagged line and Angelina Jolie leering over the bar code, but none of that has anything to do with how I feel when I see Aniston in a movie. It's the damnedest thing. I don't ever do want to meet her, because then I might lose her as a friend.
Andrew Tobias: The Perfect Holiday Eve Message
Women's E-news: Cheers and Jeers
Katrina Rapes Counted; U.S. Cuts Social Programs
Best Films of 2005
1. A History of Violence
Commentoon: Spending Cuts (womensenews.org)
Hubert's Poetry Corner
CHRISTMAS WITH YOUR WIFE?
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND FROM MANY A W FAN!
MAY YOUR CHRISTMAS BE MERRY,
BUT BE EVER SO WARY
OF BUSH AND THE NSA!
IF FROM THEIR WAY YOU STRAY,
YOU WILL MAKE THEIR LIST
BECAUSE THEY WILL BE REALLY PISSED -
ESPECIALLY AFTER THIS!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny day, foggy night.
So, we took dear old Dad & the Babe down to Seal Beach - thought we'd enjoy a mid-afternoon meal at Ruby's out on the pier.
Turned out the morning fog never burned off there and more was rolling in. It was so foggy we couldn't see the mid-point of the pier.
Got out to Ruby's just in time to have the door locked in our faces - they were closing at 3pm.
Came home, fixed food, then took them to LAX so they could continue their journey to Arizona.
Since LAX looked like it was going to get fogged in, they hopped an earlier flight.
We live in a very small house, and couldn't put up the tree til our company left.
Guess what I'm going to be doing in the wee small hours...Ack.
Not An Easy Sell
USO
During world war two American troops away from home for Christmas were
entertained by Marlene Dietrich, Bing Crosby and the Marx Brothers. Even
in Vietnam Bob Hope was guaranteed to put in an appearance. But soldiers
in Iraq are more likely to get a show from a Christian hip-hop group, a
country singer you have probably never heard of and two cheerleaders for
the Dallas Cowboys.
It is a far cry from the days following the September 11 2001 attacks,
when some of the biggest names in show business, from Jennifer Lopez to
Brad Pitt, rallied to the cause. "After 9/11 we couldn't have had enough
airplanes for the people who were volunteering to go," Wayne Newton, the
Las Vegas crooner who succeeded Bob Hope as head of USO's talent
recruiting effort, told USA Today. "Now with 9/11 being as far removed
as it is, the war being up one day and down the next, it becomes
increasingly difficult to get people to go."
Newton said many celebrities have been wary of going because they think
it might be seen that they are endorsing the war. "And I say it's not. I
tell them these men and women are over there because our country sent
them, and we have the absolute necessity to try to bring them as much
happiness as we can."
Some of the entertainers still willing to travel are die-hard true
believers - rock musician Ted Nugent carried a Glock handgun to shows in
Iraq last year and said in a radio interview that he manned a machine
gun on a Humvee. But many of the USO's regular performers are fierce
critics of the war, among them the comic and star of Good Morning
Vietnam, Robin Williams, who told USA Today he would like to return to
the Middle East in the spring for what would be his fourth tour since
2002. "I'm there for the [troops], not for W," he said in a reference to
the president. "Go, man. You won't forget it. You'll meet amazing
people," is his message to stars that ask him about the tours. But the
comedian said he mostly tries to keep politics out of the show after he
did a few jokes about Bush's brainpower at a base in 2003 and got a
chilly reception.
Other critics of the war who regularly perform include the leftwing
comedian Al Franken (who is headlining the current tour along with
Christian hip-hop group Souljahz) and the punk legend and actor Henry
Rollins, one of the Bush administrations most vocal critics.
USO
Where the fuck are all the compassionate conservatives?
Guess that much like 5-Deferment Dick 'Go Fuck Yourself' Cheney, they have better things to do.
Hallmark-Released Album Goes Gold
Michael McDonald
Singer Michael McDonald got an early Christmas present from Hallmark when the holiday album he released through the card store went gold in a matter of days.
McDonald's album, "Through the Many Winters: A Christmas Album" sold more than a half-million copies within two weeks of arriving in Hallmark's stores in November, said Ann Herrick, who runs the store's seasonal music program.
Michael McDonald
Final Game
'Monday Night Football'
After a 36-year run, "Monday Night Football" will air its last touchdown Monday night on ABC. A change in the broadcast rights will move the second-longest-running primetime series to ESPN, leaving behind a legacy of memorable moments, high drama and well-known characters that will live on in TV history.
In its heyday, it seemed like everyone was watching. Not only did it showcase the best of America's most popular sport, it did it with style and drama. "Monday Night Football" revolutionized the way sports were shown on television -- but not just that: "Monday Night Football" revolutionized when sports were shown on television. Long before ESPN, "Monday Night Football" propelled them from weekend afternoons to primetime.
And just as important, it was must-see TV for the complex, combustible relationship among superstar commentator Howard Cosell and his two co-stars, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith and New York Giants halfback Frank Gifford. On Tuesday morning, Americans talked about the game, the highlights from the weekend's other matchups and what Meredith and Cosell had said the night before.
For many reasons, "Monday Night Football" was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. And just as surprising, no one wanted it when it then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle shopped the idea to the three networks in 1969.
'Monday Night Football'
Baby News
Johnsons
Don Johnson and his wife, Kelley, are expecting their third child. The baby is due around May, Johnson's publicist, Elliot Mintz, said Friday.
The couple married in 1999 and have a 5-year-old daughter, Grace, and a 3-year-old son, Jasper.
Johnsons
Recently Sold
Uncle Tom's Cabin
In the brisk Washington real estate market, the white colonial was an easy sale - three bedrooms, easy access to a major commuting route and an acre of land, a rarity in the tightly packed suburbs. However, the 18th-century house had one thing the McMansions could never claim - the original Uncle Tom's cabin.
Attached to the side is a small, one-room building, its walls made of graying split oak beams. A massive stone chimney rises at the back, above the large hearth where slaves once tended meals for a plantation owner.
Among the farm's slaves was Josiah Henson, the man whom Harriet Beecher Stowe used as a model for the Uncle Tom character in her 1852 novel on slavery, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
The house was once the anchor of a 3,700-acre farm that sprawled over much of modern-day Rockville. It was owned by Isaac Riley, who bought Josiah Henson and his mother in the 1790s.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
50th Year of Tracking Santa
NORAD
The military agency dedicated to detecting any threats against the United States and Canada is marking the 50th year of reporting Santa's sleigh ride.
With help from several civilian companies, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, operates a Web site reporting Santa's progress and helps answer telephone calls and e-mails from people around the world.
Last year, the tracking Web site received 912 million hits from 181 countries, and the Santa Tracking Operations Center answered nearly 55,000 phone calls on Christmas Eve.
NORAD
Oklahoman of the Year
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood is more than an American Idol: She's Oklahoman of the Year as well.
Oklahoma Today magazine picked the country singer who won Fox's talent competition this year, saying the Checotah native encompasses all that makes the state great and has the character and humility to be so honored.
Previous Oklahomans of the Year include singer Garth Brooks in 1993 and last year's recipient, Fern Holland, a human rights activist honored posthumously for her work in Iraq.
Carrie Underwood
Six 'Moments' of 2005
AFI
The film documentary "March of the Penguins" and video iPods are among the American Film Institute's "Moments of Significance" during 2005.
The six noteworthy events, decided by AFI's 13-person jury process, were determined to have had an impact - either positive or negative - on the world of the moving image.
Among the important changes in movies this year, AFI said this week, were films reacting to 9/11 and the new realities created in its wake.
For the rest, AFI
In Memory
Argentina Brunetti
Argentina Brunetti, a character actress who played the worried wife of Mr. Martini in the classic film "It's a Wonderful Life," has died. She was 98.
Brunetti died in her sleep Tuesday in Rome, said Ben Ohmart, whose Boalsburg, Pa.,-based publishing house, BearManor Media, released Brunetti's autobiography. She had moved to Rome last year to live with her son, Mario, and his family, he said.
Brunetti starred in dozens of films and television shows over a career spanning more than 50 years.
She portrayed Dean Martin's mother in the 1953 comedy "The Caddy," in which Martin sings "That's Amore" to her, and performed with Desi Arnaz in the 1949 film "Holiday in Havana."
Her TV credits include "Hopalong Cassidy," "The Untouchables," "Kojak" and "Everybody Loves Raymond."
Her Hollywood career began in 1937 with contract work dubbing the voices of Jeanette MacDonald and Norma Shearer into Italian. She earned her first credited role as an Italian immigrant in Frank Capra's 1946 holiday film "It's a Wonderful Life," in which James Stewart's character helps her large family buy a house.
Off screen, Brunetti was a founding member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and wrote a weekly column for foreign language publications in Canada and Italy.
Her autobiography, "In Sicilian Company," which chronicles her family's show business adventures, was released in October. She also hosted a weekly blog, "Argentina Brunetti's Hollywood Stories."
Argentina Brunetti
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