'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Suggestion
Teacher Faces Prison
Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut, has been convicted of impairing the morals of a child and risking injury to a minor by exposing as many as ten seventh-grade students to porn sites.
It's a short story: On October, 19, 2004, Amero was a substitute teacher for a seventh-grade language class at Kelly Middle School. A few students were crowded around a PC; some were giggling. She investigated and saw the kids looking at a barrage of graphic, hard-core pornographic pop-ups.
The prosecution contended that she had used the computer to visit porn sites.
The defense said that wasn't true and argued that the machine was infested with spyware and malware, and that opening the browser caused the computer to go into an endless loop of pop-ups leading to porn sites.
Amero maintains her innocence. She refused offers of a plea bargain and now faces an astounding 40 years in prison (her sentencing is on March 2).
Teacher Faces Prison
Ed
Thanks, Ed!
That's horrific.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Lam: Living the American Dream ... in a One-Bedroom Apartment (New America Media; Posted on AlterNet.org)
The middle class is clinging to its precious status by contending with far smaller living spaces than those of previous generations.
Bob Sommersby: IN WHICH IT'S FINALLY REVEALED! (dailyhowler.com)
So we'll all understand recent life on the planet, "these small-ante falsehoods" have been the principal language of our political discourse for the past fifteen years. For example, twenty months' worth of such "small-ante falsehoods" decided the outcome of Campaign 2000; the U.S. army is in Iraq today because of those small-ante falsehoods. ... The RNC has slavishly cultivated such small-ante tales-and yes, the RNC has devoted itself to such tales because they have been so effective.
Murdoch's Senior Moment In Davos (fair.org)
The rapid Internet circulation of his disclosure of Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch's recent admission that "we tried" to shape the agenda of the Iraq War is accompanied by Howard's warning that the Web is "a public forum over which the message controllers have not yet imposed their domination. I emphasize 'not yet.'"
Steve Outing: Where News Consumption Is Heading (editorandpublisher.com)
I quizzed an assortment of people who I think have a good handle on where media and news habits are heading. I hope that folks running newspaper companies right now will listen to them, because they're telling you what sorts of things you should be investing in to survive as viable media companies.
Brett Arends: Cheney's Fund Manager Attacks - Cheney (TheStreet.com; Posted on nevadathunder.com)
The oil-based energy policies usually associated with Vice President Dick Cheney have just come under scathing attack. There's nothing remarkable about that, of course - except the person doing the attacking.Step forward, Jeremy Grantham - Cheney's own investment manager.
'I dislike the term gifted' (guardian.co.uk)
He's finished his third novel, is adding Mandarin to his language library and is keen on particle physics. But what does Michael Dowling, 11, make of chips, sweets and his peers? Zoe Williams finds out.
Annalee Newitz: The Self-Appointed Censors of GoDaddy
The long-term sustainability of free speech online is in the hands of capricious companies.
WILL FRIEDWALD: Strayhorn Gets His Credit (nysun.com)
Since his death in 1967, the composer Billy Strayhorn has come to represent a lot of things. As the drummer Chico Hamilton puts it in a new PBS documentary called " Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life," which makes its premiere tonight, " Billy Strayhorn was a sound, he was a time, and he was a movement, which anybody around him would embrace. That's saying something, you know?"
Richard Poeper: Nothing Super about ads that pile on the hits, continue to miss (suntimes.com)
Sometimes you just have to hold onto your pop culture hopes, even though you know they're not going to come true. Wouldn't it be great if the millions of people who actually care about Paris Hilton saw the racist, catty, slutty, stupid party girl on the "Paris Exposed" tapes and collectively decided to ignore her?
'We can fit you in after 10pm' (guardian.co.uk)
Tim Hayward on the worst night of the year to dine out, Valentine's.
ted haggard "miracle"
Th' Rev
my take on the ted haggard "miracle"
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast, and another very foggy night.
West African Nation Lays Claim
Whoopi Goldberg
When the government of one of the world's poorest nations learned that Whoopi Goldberg had taken a DNA test showing her ancestors hail from here, the news reverberated through the halls of parliament.
It was, the country's leaders decided, a chance to change the image of this West African nation plagued by coups since wresting independence from Portugal in 1973. If the world could only grasp that a Hollywood celebrity traced her roots to this forsaken corner of the globe, it could bring goodwill from afar - even fame for Guinea-Bissau, they reasoned.
So they decided to write a letter on official stationery embossed with the country's star-shaped seal. It was hand-delivered to the U.S. Embassy, which passed it on to the State Department in Washington with instructions for delivery to the Oscar-winning actress.
For a special for the Public Broadcasting Service that aired last year, prominent black Americans agreed to take a DNA test. Goldberg learned that her genetic makeup is overwhelmingly Papel and Bayote, tribes indigenous to this country on Africa's western seaboard.
There are only two television channels in Guinea-Bissau and both broadcast in Portuguese. After the government learned of Goldberg's ancestry, national TV began showing her movies with Portuguese subtitles. "Sister Act" and "Sister Act II" were instant hits in the capital, but in much of the country's brush-covered interior, access to TV is rare.
Whoopi Goldberg
Bidder Offers $4.25 Million
Air America
Lawyers for Air America, the liberal talk-radio network launched by comedian Al Franken in 2004, have asked a U.S. bankruptcy court to approve a sale of the company to a real estate mogul for up to $4.25 million.
Details of the proposed sale were revealed in court documents filed by Air America on Tuesday, a week after Franken announced on his talk show the offer by SL Green Realty Corp. founder and chairman Stephen Green to purchase the network.
As outlined in this week's filing, Stephen Green would repay as much as $3.25 million borrowed by Air America since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2006, plus $500,000 in cash and up to $500,000 owed on the network's lease of its corporate headquarters in New York.
Under the tentative deal, Green would assume no other debts, according to the documents. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Air America listed $20.3 million in liabilities and $4.3 million in assets.
Air America
Buy Mural & Get Free House
Banksy
The owners of a five-bedroomed house in southwestern England are giving it away to the person who buys the giant mural that star street artist Banksy sprayed on one of its outside walls three years ago.
The predominantly green, blue and red mural, which is five feet tall and 25 feet long, contains the words "click," "clack" and "boom" and is in the style of New York subway graffiti.
"Some people did want to buy the house but they wanted to paint out the mural, which they considered as vandalism," a spokesman for the local Red Propeller Gallery said.
"The owners just couldn't accept that, so they decided to sell the mural instead and give away the house," he added.
Banksy
Names Contract Negotiators
Writers Guild
"Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry, "Dreamgirls" writer-director Bill Condon and 15 others were named on Tuesday to the Writers Guild of America negotiating team to hammer out a new labor contract with film and TV producers.
The committee, chaired by TV writer John Bowman ("Saturday Night Live," "In Living Color"), is expected to hold its first talks with representatives of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers in July.
Other WGA West members of the new negotiating committee include Neal Baer, Carlton Cuse, Stephen Gaghan, David A. Goodman, Carl Gottlieb, Susannah Grant, Carol Mendelsohn, Marc Norman, Shawn Ryan, Robin Schiff and Ed Solomon. WGA East members include Terry George, Brian Koppelman and Rafe Yglesias.
Writers Guild
New Sirius Radio Channel
Frank Sinatra
Forty years after collaborating with her father Frank for the No. 1 hit "Something Stupid," Nancy Sinatra will perform a key role on a station launched by Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. largely devoted to the music of Ol' Blue Eyes.
Sinatra said on Wednesday she will host a regular weekly show and make available more than 1,700 songs, radio interviews and live performances by her late father, whose hits included "New York, New York" and "My Way."
"I want his legacy to continue through this century and into the next," Sinatra said at the launch of the channel, which will use family archives and dedicate more than half its playlist to her father.
Frank Sinatra
Go Subversive
Knits
On the surface, it's an art exhibition that would make any grandmother proud, with a knitted christening blanket and miniature cardigans, but a closer look might make granny's hair curl.
"It Sucks" is knitted across the christening blanket, the tiny sweaters and mittens are crafted from medical wire used to insert intravenous needles, and condom amulets are on a list of items being knitted for U.S. troops overseas.
David McFadden, chief curator of New York's Museum of Arts and Design, said he saw the potential for an exhibit rattling conventional views of the needle arts after being part of a jury at a lace exhibit in Belgium several years ago.
Knits
Propagandist Testifies
Tim Russert
Tim Russert made it onto the evening news on Wednesday - and not just on NBC. The "Meet the Press" host's key testimony at the perjury trial of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was covered on all three network evening newscasts, although Russert was less visible on ABC and CBS.
On the stand, Russert contradicted Libby's earlier claim that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff was told that Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA in a phone conversation with the NBC newsman.
Russert said he didn't know who Wilson was at the time of the conversation.
Tim Russert
Trial Could Be Televised
Phil Spector
The judge in the murder case against Phil Spector said Wednesday he's leaning toward allowing the trial to be televised and will make a decision after hearing from lawyers later this month.
The 67-year-old music producer - famed for creating the "wall of sound" recording technique that revolutionized rock music - is charged with killing actress Lana Clarkson in his suburban mansion on Feb. 3, 2003.
Attorneys on both sides said they wanted time to consider the proposal. The next pretrial hearing is set for Feb. 16.
Phil Spector
Widow Sues Over Estate
Deborah Koons Garcia
The widow of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia is suing to gain access to unpublished tapes of her late husband's musical performances.
Deborah Koons Garcia filed a civil suit Jan. 31 in Marin County Superior Court against a limited liability corporation, comprised of the rocker's beneficiaries including Koons Garcia, that oversees business involving his estate.
According to the lawsuit, Koons Garcia wants to professionally restore the so-called "Garcia Tapes," but others in the limited liability corporation have stalled the process. The suit asks a judge to clarify the terms of the agreement that led to the formation of the business entity.
Deborah Koons Garcia
Vietnam Cuts Sentence
Gary Glitter
British ex-rocker Gary Glitter, imprisoned in Vietnam for sexually molesting two young girls, on Wednesday had his three-year sentence reduced by three months, his lawyer said.
The time served is being counted from the date of his arrest in November 2005 and the decision by a panel of judges means he will be released in August 2008.
Every year at major national holidays, the Vietnamese president grants amnesties or reductions of sentences for prisoners. In 10 days' time, Vietnam will ring in the Lunar New Year, or Tet, the Southeast Asian country's most important celebration.
Gary Glitter
Frostbite From Barefoot Run
D.J. Brown
A teenager who wanted to continue the family tradition of running around the garden barefoot during halftime of the Super Bowl game has learned a painful lesson.
It was 17 below zero at halftime Sunday in this city about 30 miles northwest of Minneapolis, and D.J. Brown's dad said it was too cold to continue the tradition. But the 18-year-old senior at Buffalo High School ran outside in his T-shirt and jeans, threw off his socks and shoes, and ran around the block.
Brown said he was outside only five minutes, but his feet started swelling and blistering when he got back inside. The pain was excruciating.
He was treated for second-degree frostbite on both feet at the burn center at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and was on crutches and pain medication Monday. His burn specialist said he should be fine, but it'll take a few weeks.
Brown, who said he's a straight-A student, chalked up his actions to "teenage arrogance."
D.J. Brown
Church Painting Sparks Row
Vladimir Lenin
A half-finished painting in a Greek Orthodox church of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin cutting off the beard of a Christian saint has offended traditionalists who want the revolutionary painted over.
The row erupted when photographs of the interior of the Church of the Holy Virgin in the northern town of Kilkis were featured in the media.
The church's head priest, Father Dorotheos, defended the subject matter chosen by the painter, Costas Vafiadis, who started work on the project four years ago.
Other than the image of the former Soviet leader tormenting St Luke - painted as a symbol of communist oppression of the Church - Vafiadis has also included modern Greek writers and intellectuals among old saints and holy men.
Vladimir Lenin
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