'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Allen L Roland, Ph.D.: DICK CHENEY: AMERICA'S MOST DANGEROUS AND SHAMELESS UNINDICTED CRIMINAL
ROLLING STONE revealed the unvarnished truth ~ Dick Cheney is as big a loser as George W Bush . It's the blind leading the blind ~ no wonder we are in such deep trouble.
James Moore: The Gun and the Bottle (huffingtonpost.com)
This brings us to the heart of the matter. There was no reason to delay reporting the incident to authorities unless Cheney was worried about a blood alcohol test. He had just shot a man and if the local police showed up and the vice president of the United States of America had booze on his breath, we would be talking today about something more than jokes on The Daily Show. There would almost certainly be political fallout and charges of irresponsibility.
MAUREEN DOWD: Shooter Slips on a Silencer (The New York Times)
This version of "The Most Dangerous Game" neatly follows the four-step Bush-Cheney cycle: Step 1: Set out to pick off what you think is an easy target, like quail this time or pen-raised and netted pheasant in the past, or a certain sanction-caged Iraqi dictator.
DAN SAVAGE: Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Ex-Gay Cowboys (The New York Times; Posted on andrewtobias.com)
If anything, supporters of traditional marriage should want gay men out of the heterosexual marriage market entirely. And the best way to do that is to see that we're safely married off - to each other, not to your daughters. Let gay actors like Chad Allen only play it straight in the movies.
Andrew Tobias: Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People
Andy Frank: "I suspect the Republican tax cuts for the rich are more a tool than an end in themselves. My suspicion is that their primary goal is a dismantling of the last century's programs that help the poor. As they cannot come right out and say this, they first institute tax cuts which most people shortsightedly approve. These tax cuts result in a large deficit. Then, to reduce the deficit, we see these reductions in programs that help the poor. The result is one entirely against the religious teachings most Republicans claim to be guided by."
Sarah Hughes edges Slutskaya, Kwan for gold (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
Another American teen-ager is wearing the Olympic gold medal that was supposed to belong to Michelle Kwan. Sound familiar? Sarah Hughes, with the performance of her young life, soared from fourth place to win the free skate and the title [in 2002] in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic figure skating history.
Daniel Akst: Bang for Your Buck
You have $1. How should you spend it to do the most good?
Copenhagen Consensus
Hubert's Poetry Corner
TEXAS TWO-TIMIN' THE DICK$TER
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny & cool.
Running really late - we went to see 'Southern Baptist Sissies' at the
Zephyr Theatre in West LA, courtesy of the fabulous Keoni.
Tonight was the final performance of
Leslie Jordan -
he also plays Karen's nemesis Beverly Leslie on
Will & Grace.
The show is wonderful & highly recommended - will write more tomorrow.
Well, will write more if my left hand will let me.
Monday while trying to brush a dead fig leaf off a cactus, I scraped the knuckles on my left hand.
Wasn't much of a scrape - barely broke the skin. But woke up Tuesday with a much larger hand than I went to bed with.
It's still a bit puffy and typing's a bitch.
No new flags.
Honored by British
Edward R. Murrow
A plaque honoring legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow was placed on the facade of his old apartment building in London on Wednesday.
Murrow, who worked for CBS, died in April 1965. But he has recently been back in the spotlight because of George Clooney's new film, "Good Night, and Good Luck," which depicts Murrow's clashes in the 1950s with Sen. Joseph McCarthy over the threat of communism.
During World War II, Murrow lived in a flat on a small street in central London. The building survived the blitz and property developers.
The plaque, put up by the state-run English Heritage organization, marks Flat 5 at 84 Hallam Street as the home of Murrow from 1938 until 1946.
Edward R. Murrow
Releasing Rare Photo
Anita Thompson
The widow of "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson said on Tuesday she would release a rarely seen photo of the writer on the first anniversary of his death.
Downloads of the black-and-white picture, which she took at the landmark hotel Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, will be available after midnight, February 20, from www.gonzostore.com, Anita Thompson said.
"He has a beautiful grin, totally at peace and still up to something mischievous," said Anita Thompson. "It's a special photo."
She said she is posting the photo as an appreciation to her husband's readers, saying "their support has been incredible and something I didn't expect. He loved his readers."
Anita Thompson
Helps Groups Aiding Battered Women
Salma Hayek
Hollywood actress Salma Hayek has made donations to groups aiding battered women in her native Mexico, calling domestic violence a problem that touches every corner of the globe.
Hayek, nominated for a best actress Oscar for her role in the 2002 film "Frida," on Tuesday made a $25,000 donation to a battered woman's shelter in her hometown Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz state on Mexico's Gulf Coast.
A day earlier she donated $50,000 to anti-domestic violence groups in the northern city of Monterrey, 435 miles north of Mexico City.
The 39-year-old works with the "Speak Out Against Domestic Violence" campaign of the Avon Foundation, which cites statistics that domestic violence affects one in three women worldwide.
Salma Hayek
Auction for Storm Victims
Habitat for Humanity
An online charity auction for Gulf Coast hurricane victims will give bidders a chance to score celebrity-donated items and VIP events, including a round of golf with Samuel L. Jackson.
Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to host a "Housewarming for Habitat" celebrity auction on eBay from Feb. 20 through March 9.
Proceeds will go to the Habitat for Humanity Operation Home Delivery Fund to rebuild homes devastated last year by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
High-rolling bidders can buy an hour in the studio with rap star Snoop Dogg, a round of golf with former NBA champ Clyde Drexler and a copy of the script of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," signed by actor Michael Douglas, who produced the 1975 film.
Habitat for Humanity
Berlin's 'Michael Moore Moment'
'The Road to Guantanamo'
It did not take long for the entertainment press to liken British film director Michael Winterbottom's "The Road to Guantanamo" to Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a polemic against the Bush administration.
Winterbottom's offering, a harsh if one-sided look at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, is the critics' favorite to take the Berlin Film Festival's top prize, the Golden Bear.
"There are still 500 people in Guantanamo, a lot of them have been there for four years, virtually no-one has received a trial and no-one has been found guilty," said the film maker in an interview on Wednesday.
'The Road to Guantanamo'
Musical Broadway Bound
Bob Dylan
Can Twyla Tharp do for Bob Dylan what she did for Billy Joel on Broadway?
"The Times They Are A-Changin'," a new musical conceived, directed and choreographed by Tharp and using Dylan songs, will open next fall on Broadway. Exact dates and the theater will be announced.
The show currently is on view at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, where it received mostly positive reviews. The San Diego Union-Tribune called it an "exciting, flawed, phantasmagoric fable," while the San Francisco Chronicle said it "looks like a success."
Bob Dylan
Show in Seattle
Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle, who walked away from a $50 million contract last year for the third and fourth seasons of his Comedy Central variety show, has scheduled a surprise standup show at the city's Paramount Theatre.
Tickets for Sunday's 7 p.m. show go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and were priced at $52.50, excluding fees, according to a calendar listing on the Paramount's Web site.
Last May, Chappelle, 32, stunned the entertainment industry by leaving his show in mid-production. He spent two weeks in South Africa before returning home to his farm near Yellow Springs, Ohio, northeast of Cincinnati. Since then, he's resumed performing live standup.
Dave Chappelle
Takes Charge at BET
Debra Lee
Debra Lee never expected it would come to this. Twenty years after she decided to leave an elite Washington D.C. law firm to manage contract negotiations and legal affairs for a little-known, black-owned cable company, Lee is now chairman and CEO of Black Entertainment Television - the most prosperous African-American business in the country.
Last month, the 51-year-old Lee succeeded Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson as head of the multibillion dollar media empire, becoming the highest ranking African-American female executive at BET's parent company, Viacom, Inc.
Lee was instrumental in taking BET public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1991 and again in 2000, when Viacom purchased the network for $3 billion.
Debra Lee
Attorney Indicted in Wiretapping Scandal
Terry Christensen
A prominent attorney who represented billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian in a high-profile securities lawsuit was indicted Wednesday for his alleged role in an illegal wiretapping scheme involving Hollywood celebrities and executives that has already ensnared nine others.
Terry Christensen, 65, of Beverly Hills was charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of intercepting wire communications. If convicted of both counts, Christensen could face up to 10 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors allege Christensen conspired with private investigator Anthony Pellicano to illegally wiretap the phones of Kerkorian's former wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, who was involved in a court battle against an unnamed Christensen client.
Six people, including Pellicano, have pleaded not guilty to federal charges in connection with the wiretapping scandal. Two people have pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced later this year.
For a lot more, Terry Christensen
Court Voids Loss of Parental Rights
Deborah Rowe
Michael Jackson's ex-wife, Deborah Rowe, won a round Wednesday in her battle over their two children, with an appeals court ruling that her parental rights were not properly relinquished under the law.
The ruling by the California 2nd District Court of Appeal set the stage for further litigation between the former couple. Jackson could appeal the ruling further.
While acknowledging that Rowe initiated the proceeding to give up her parental rights in 2001 and made it clear she wanted Jackson to have sole custody, the appellate court said the judge presiding over the matter did not handle it properly.
Deborah Rowe
'Pond' Photo Sets Record
Edward Steichen
A photograph of a pond taken by Edward Steichen sold for more than $2.9 million on Tuesday, easily setting a world record for the highest-priced photograph ever auctioned, Sotheby's said.
"The Pond-Moonlight," taken on Long Island in 1904, sold for $2,928,000, including the buyer's premium, Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said. It was bought by Peter MacGill, of Pace/MacGill Gallery, on behalf of a private collector.
The previous record for a photograph sold at auction, $1,248,000, was set in November by Richard Prince's "Untitled (Cowboy)."
Also surpassing that record on Tuesday were two photographs of the artist Georgia O'Keeffe taken by Alfred Stieglitz, her husband. A photograph of her hands sold for $1,472,000, and a portrait of her nude sold for $1,360,000, Weigman said. Both went to West Coast dealers.
Edward Steichen
Coach Has Reality Show
Bob Knight
Bob Knight's reality show will be rated PG. The Texas Tech coach puts 16 walk-ons through the paces in a new reality show that begins Sunday on ESPN. "Knight School" will give one Tech student the chance to play on his basketball team next fall.
Over six episodes, the players experience drills, scrimmages and the occasional wrath of the hot-tempered coach with 866 wins, third-most in men's Division I history.
Knight has the final say on whether the winner makes the Red Raiders' roster after spring and fall workouts. Texas Tech (12-12, 4-6 Big 12) could use the help this season.
Producers had the ultimate editorial control of 26,000 minutes of footage that was edited to 300.
Bob Knight
Watercolor Set To Break Record
JMW Turner
An 1842 watercolor by JMW Turner could well set a saleroom record when it goes under the hammer in June, auctioneers Christie's said on Wednesday.
The Blue Rigi: Lake of Lucerne is expected to fetch more than two million pounds ($3.47 million), putting it on target to beat the current record for a Turner watercolor on paper of 2.04 million pounds set in 2001 by Heidelberg with a Rainbow.
It is also within striking distance of the world record for a British work of art on paper of 2.6 million pounds set in 2000 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Pandora.
JMW Turner
In Memory
Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez
Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, a comedic entertainer and character actor died of natural causes at his home Feb. 6, said his grandson, actor Clifton Collins Jr.
Gonzalez Gonzalez began his entertainment career at age 7, when his parents pulled him out of school to entertain migrant workers and residents in the American Southwest.
In 1953, he appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's TV quiz show "You Bet Your Life," and his banter with the legendary entertainer stole the show. John Wayne saw the performance and signed Gonzalez Gonzalez to his production company.
The films with Wayne, among them "The High and the Mighty," "Rio Bravo" and "Hellfighters," and guest appearances on such TV series as "Gunsmoke" made Gonzalez Gonzalez one of the most recognizable Mexican-American actors at the time.
Because he often played sterotypical roles, had a heavy accent and frequently served as comic relief, Gonzalez Gonzalez was criticized in later years as perpetuating negative Latino images.
But his grandson said Gonzales Gonzales took what roles were available.
The early end to his education meant he never learned to read or write. Collins said his grandfather memorized lines by having his wife read to him, and that if a script changed, directors would feed him lines on the set.
Gonzalez Gonzalez is survived by his wife, Leandra, three children and other descendants.
Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez
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