Torture still used in Iraq, Amnesty says (msnbc.msn.com)
Detainees in Iraq are still being tortured receiving electric shocks and beatings with plastic cables despite U.S. promises to prevent such abuse after the Abu Ghraib scandal, a report by an international rights group said ....
Dr. Mark H. Shapiro: Ready or Not, Reading Matters (irascibleprofessor.com)
So long as these dumbed down texts continue to be adopted by state and local school boards there is little hope that the average college-bound student will be exposed to the more difficult reading assignments that would help him or her develop the kind of reading skills that will be needed in college.
RICHARD ROEPER: Stuff you didn't see on TV (suntimes.com)
When Felicity Huffman wins best actress for "Transamerica," [at The Independent Spirit Awards] she tells a story about a grip working on the film. As he held a flashlight in his mouth and perched on a ladder while trying to right some sort of malfunction, the grip said, "This f------ film better win some f------ awards." Huffman recounts the story, thanks the grip by name and says, "Here's the f------ award."
There are new calls in Washington to reform a system that gives enormous power to special interest lobbyists. It's a good idea, but any reforms in this realm will almost certainly be ephemeral. As former House Speaker Tip O'Neil once observed, "money is the mother's milk of politics," and lobbyists funnel a lot of the stuff into political campaigns.
Mother's Milk (The K Street Poem)
Money, Money is what talks, No one in the Beltway walks; Nothing tops the mighty power Of this endless dollar shower.
Need a special taxing break? Legislators soothe the ache. Having trouble with a reg? Heavy hitters need not beg. Money, money, is what talks, No one in the Beltway walks.
Year by year the anger grows 'Bout these tawdry money flows. Pols beat breasts and wring their hands, When they're done the old way stands. Money, money, is what talks, No one in the Beltway walks.
All imbibe this mother's milk, Feeling not a twinge of guilt; They're convinced it's well deserved, Look at all the hours they slaved. Money, money is what talks, No one in the Beltway walks.
Worse than favors and collusion, Legislators' self-delusion; From their sellout "public service" Maybe only God can save us. Money, Money is what talks, No one in the Beltway walks.
The Long Beach Freeway (I-710), two center lanes, are empty after traffic was stopped for almost 5 hours Wednesday, March 8, 2006, after a chase and standoff. Eduardo Medina, an alleged kidnapper was taken into custody after surrendering to officers who had surrounded his vehicle with armored battle wagons.
Photo by Damian Dovarganes
Some old pals from the high desert made their annual pilgrammage to the Valley to have their taxes done, and, in keeping with tradition, I was going to drive out & visit them.
The festivities pictured above started around 10:30am & continued til a little after 3pm, just in time for rush-hour. Yee haw.
Missed a fine lunch & a wonderful dinner, but did get there in time to wave as they backed out of the driveway. Sigh.
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Survivor: Panama', followed by a FRESH'CSI: The Original One', then a FRESH'Without A Trace'.
On a RERUNDave (from 2/6/06) are Ben Roethlisberger and Harrison Ford.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Wynonna, Emilie de Ravin, and D.C. Benny.
NBC begins the night with a RERUN'Will & Grace', followed by another RERUN'Will & Grace', then a RERUN'My Name Is Earl', followed by a RERUN'The Office', followed by a RERUN'ER' (starts 1 minute before the top of the hour).
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Larry the Cable Guy, and Neko Case.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Salma Hayek, Triple H, and Street Drum Corps.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson Daly are Flavor Flav and The Academy Is...
ABC starts the night with the movie 'Bringing Dow The House', followed by 'Primetime'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel it's TBA.
The WB offers a RERUN'Smallville', followed by the SEASON FINALE'Beauty & The Geek'.
Faux has a FRESH'American Idol', followed by a FRESH'The O.C.'.
UPN has a RERUN'Everybody Hates Chris', followed by a RERUN'Love, Inc.', then a RERUN'Eve', followed by a RERUN'Cuts'.
A&E has 'Mark Hacking', 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', and 'Dallas SWAT'.
AMC offers the movie 'A View To A Kill', followed by the movie 'The Man In The Iron Mask' (Leonardo DiCaprio version), then the movie 'The Man With The Golden Gun'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus - Episode 3;
[2:40pm] 'Comics Unleashed - Episode 3;
[3:20pm] 'Comics Unleashed - Episode 4;
[4pm] 'At Home with the Braithwaites - Episode 5;
[5pm] 'Monarch of the Glen - Episode 10;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'House Invaders' - Episode 12;
[7pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 26;
[8pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Hinton;
[9pm] 'The Night Detective' - Episode 7;
[10pm] 'The Night Detective' - Episode 8;
[11:30pm] 'Little Britain' - Episode 5;
[12am] 'Little Britain' - Episode 6;
[12:30am] 'Little Britain' - Episode 7;
[1am] 'The Night Detective' - Episode 7;
[2am] 'The Night Detective' - Episode 8;
[3am] 'The Avengers' - Get-A-Way;
[4am] 'The Avengers' - Have Guns Will Haggle;
[5am] 'The Avengers' - Look, Stop Me If You've Heard This One, But...;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'West Wing', 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', another 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', and still another 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'.
Comedy Central has 'Comedy Central Presents', 'Reno 911!', last night's 'Jon Stewart', last night's 'Colbert Report', 'Chappelle's Show', 'South Park', 'Drawn Together', and 'Distraction'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Bruce Bartlett.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Lorraine Bracco.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Ancient Discoveries', followed by a FRESH'Decoding The Past', and a FRESH'Declassified'.
IFC -
[6AM] The Last Waltz (1978);
[8AM] Ugetsu (1953);
[9:45AM] Proof (1992);
[11:15AM] Mediterraneo (1991);
[1PM] IFC Short Film Showcase: March;
[2PM] Ugetsu (1953);
[3:45PM] IFC in Theaters (2006);
[4PM] Proof (1992);
[5PM] My Knees Were Jumping: Remembering the Kindertransports (1996);
[7PM] Dinner For Five #38 (2004);
[7:30PM] Diamonds (1999);
[9:05PM] Gangster No. 1 (2000);
[11PM] Polyester (1981);
[12:30AM] Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994);
[2:45AM] Media Lab Results (2006);
[3AM] Polyester (1981);
[4:30AM] Way Off Broadway (2001). (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has the movie 'Post Impact', followed by the movie 'The Day After'.
Sundance -
[7AM] Mermaids;
[9AM] McVicar;
[11AM] Purple Hearts;
[12:20PM] Particles of Truth;
[2:05PM] Mermaids;
[4PM] Return to Kandahar;
[5:05PM] McVicar;
[7PM] The Nomi Song;
[8:40PM] Personal Goals;
[9PM] Ladette to Lady: Ladette to Lady: Episode 1;
[10PM] Margaret Cho's Revolution;
[11:30PM] Monkey Dust: Episode 1;
[12:00AM] Heathers;
[1:45AM] Picnic With Weissman;
[2AM] Ladette to Lady: Ladette to Lady: Episode 1;
[3AM] Coldblooded;
[4:35AM] L'eau Froide. (ALL TIMES EST)
Meryl Streep, second left, Streep's daughter Mamie Gummer, left, Sarah Jones and Julia Stiles, right, pose together backstage after a performance of Sarah Jones' one-woman Broadway show 'Bridge and Tunnel,' Tuesday, March 7, 2006, in New York. Meryl Streep hosted a benefit night at tonight's show for the organization 'Equality Now,' which works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world.
Photo by Diane Bondareff
Freeman
Morgan Freeman offered sage advice to University of California, Los Angeles, students Tuesday as he accepted the university's Spencer Tracy Award for outstanding screen performances.
"Once you've gotten the job, there's nothing to it," said Freeman, 68. "If you're an actor, you're an actor. Doing it is not the hard part. The hard part is getting to do it."
Freeman added that he was honored to join a group of Tracy Award recipients including Jimmy Stewart, Michael Douglas, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks and Anthony Hopkins.
Sharon Stone is ready to do her part for Mideast peace: The "Basic Instinct" actress said Wednesday she "would kiss just about anybody" to end the Israel-Arab conflict.
She arrived in Israel on Tuesday for a five-day trip sponsored by the Peres Center for Peace, founded by Nobel Peace laureate Shimon Peres in 1996 to improve relations with Arabs. It's her first visit to the Holy Land.
Stone, joined by Peres at a news conference, said she couldn't solve the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, but could use her fame to help encourage peace efforts.
"I would kiss just about anybody for peace in the Middle East," she said, drawing laughter from a throng of Israeli reporters. Stone playfully turned down calls to give Peres a peck on the cheek.
Actor Kirk Douglas holds a scarf that he found on the ground in the receiving line at the Bridges of Hope Kuwait American Foundation benefit dinner to benefit the rehabilitation of schools in Afghanistan in Washington Wednesday, March 8, 2006. To the right is his son actor Michael Douglas.
Photo by Gerald Herbert
Call it Charlie Brown with a twist. Brothers Keenen Ivory, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, of "Scary Movie" and "In Living Color" fame, have created a series of animated children's shows, with books and toys to follow.
Its name: "Thugaboo."
The series of three specials will premiere on Nickelodeon, then air on the network's all-animation channel, Nicktoons, a network spokeswoman said Wednesday.
A liberal activist group bought newspaper and television ads to accuse three conservative leaders of hypocrisy for promoting Christian values while amassing money and political power. The targets of the spots said the accusations were lies.
The ads are aimed at Ralph Reed, a Christian conservative running for lieutenant governor in Georgia; James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family; and Louis Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition.
The liberal group, Campaign to Defend the Constitution, is spending $200,000 for a full-page ad that ran Wednesday in The New York Times; an online campaign; and a television ad starting Wednesday on cable news in Washington, D.C., New York and Colorado Springs, Colo., where Focus on the Family is based.
The ads accused all three conservative leaders of involvement with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has admitted to conspiring to defraud Indian tribes, often in relation to gambling and casino interests.
Jason Ritter, the actor-son of the late John Ritter, has been presented with the Martin E. Segal Award for outstanding achievement by Lincoln Center.
Xian Zhang, the first woman to hold an official conductor title at the New York Philharmonic, also received the award. She served on the conducting faculty of Beijing's Central Conservatory before coming to the United States in 1998.
Zhang and Ritter each received $5,000 for future study and career advancement. The awards, given annually to two rising young artists, were presented Monday.
Ritter, 26, made his Lincoln Center debut in Wendy Wasserstein's "Third" last November. This fall, he will appear in the new CBS comedy "The Class."
In this photo released by Hard Rock Cafe, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, right, the surviving original members of the legendary rock group, The Who, attend a press conference on Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at Hard Rock Cafe in London. At the press conference, Townshend and Daltrey announced details of their Hard Rocks Global Ambassadors of Rock Tour, a worldwide concert series celebrating the companys 35th Anniversary.
Bob Dylan will perform at Denmark's annual Roskilde Festival as part of his Never Ending Tour, organizers said Wednesday.
The legendary rock and folk singer is due to release a new studio album later this year. Other artists scheduled to appear at the June 29-July 2 festival include Guns n' Roses, Morrissey and Deftones.
First held in 1971, the festival in Roskilde, 40 kilometres west of Copenhagen, was inspired by the 1969 Woodstock Festival in upstate New York. The Danish event, which in recent years has been shown on MTV, attracts visitors from throughout Europe and North America.
Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band will open this year's Rochester International Jazz Festival in a benefit for musicians thrown out of work by Hurricane Katrina, festival organizers said on Wednesday.
Allen -- a clarinet player better known as a film director and a neurotic screen character -- will play the fifth annual Rochester festival on June 9. He and his band have performed in New York for almost 25 years but rarely play outside the city.
Festival artistic director John Nugent said on the organization's Web site he was determined to snare Allen and his seven-member band after watching the documentary "Wild Man Blues," which tracks their 23-day concert tour of Europe in 1996.
A court commissioner has signed off on an unusual restraining order against celebutante Paris Hilton, ordering her to stay at least 100 yards away from an event producer who claimed she threatened him - unless they're at a party together.
Brian Quintana was granted the three-year restraining order against Hilton last month after he testified that the celebutante harassed and threatened him after their friendship soured.
Because Quintana, 37, and Hilton, 25, occasionally attend the same social events, their attorneys drafted an untraditional restraining order that was approved by Superior Court Commissioner Tim Murphy on Monday.
The agreement stipulates that when they attend the same parties, "the stay-away distance may be shortened to 25 feet," according to court papers.
Nancy Sinatra holds a bottle of Jack Daniels at a curtain call following the West End debut of 'Sinatra', at the Palladium, central London, Wednesday March 8, 2006.
Photo by Andrew Parsons
Boy George, in a plea bargain deal that spared him possible jail time, agreed Wednesday to enter a drug rehabilitation program and perform community service to resolve his arrest last year on a cocaine charge.
The former pop star, whose real name is George O'Dowd, entered his guilty plea to third-degree false reporting of an incident in Manhattan Criminal Court. He only spoke to answer questions from Judge Anthony Ferrara with a simple "yes."
Under the deal, O'Dowd will enter a drug program in England and perform five days of community service in Manhattan. He will pay a $1,000 fine and must avoid arrest on any charges over the next six months.
In this undated handout image of a publicity campaign provided by Mexico's National Women's Institute, an inflatable doll dressed as a maid is seen. Mexican television is showing jarring scenes of inflatable sex dolls dressed as office workers - part of a campaign by Mexico's National Women's Institute to dramatize the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace.
After motorist T. Allen Morgan got a speeding ticket in Coopertown - a town known for its heavy-handed traffic enforcement - he tried to pay his ticket like a good citizen.
But he added a little note on his check which angered Mayor Danny Crosby. The mayor refused to accept the check, sparking the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to launch an investigation Monday.
Crosby told Morgan that he had to either write another check that didn't have the words "for speed trap" written in bold letters or face the charges in traffic court.
Last month AAA officials said the automobile association was considering adding Coopertown to its list of national "strict enforcement areas," an honor shared by only seven other cities.
An Iraqi woman walks past the painted protection wall in the centre of Irbil, a city in the Kurdish controlled north 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, March 8, 2006. Daily killings, bombings and escalating violence confine most Iraqi women to their homes and a tormented lifestyle, as the world celebrates March 8, International Women's Day.
Photo by Sasa Kralj
Firing his latest salvo against a practice known as payola, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday filed suit against Entercom Communications Corp., accusing the radio broadcaster of accepting secret payments in exchange for airplay.
Spitzer claimed that Entercom, one of the biggest U.S. radio broadcasters, illegally traded air time for gifts, promotional items and personal trips, and solicited and accepted payments from record labels for playing recordings by such artists as Avril Lavigne, Liz Phair and Jessica Simpson.
He accused Entercom executives of being "closely involved" in the illegal practices. "What makes this case especially egregious is the extent to which senior management viewed control of the airways as an opportunity to garner illegal payments from record labels," Spitzer said in a statement.
Entercom, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, operates more than 100 radio stations in many large U.S. metropolitan areas, including Boston, Denver, Kansas City and Seattle. It owns and operates stations in Buffalo and Rochester, New York.
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