'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
MATT APUZZO: Tax cheat escapes $100 million repayment (Associated Press Writer)
WASHINGTON - Poorly written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever.
Howard Zinn: Are We Politicians or Citizens? (progressive.org)
As I write this, Congress is debating timetables for withdrawal from Iraq. In response to the Bush Administration's "surge" of troops, and the Republicans' refusal to limit our occupation, the Democrats are behaving with their customary timidity, proposing withdrawal, but only after a year, or eighteen months. And it seems they expect the anti-war movement to support them.
Paul Krugman: Emerging Republican Minority (The New York Times)
Remember how the 2004 election was supposed to have demonstrated, once and for all, that conservatism was the future of American politics? I do: early in 2005, some colleagues in the news media urged me, in effect, to give up. "The election settled some things," I was told.
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF: You, Too, Can Be a Banker to the Poor (The New York Times)
For those readers who ask me what they can do to help fight poverty, one option is to sit down at your computer and become a microfinancier. That's what I did recently. From my laptop in New York, I lent $25 each to the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a baker in Afghanistan, and a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic.
Ripe target (guardian.co.uk)
To its fans, the US supermarket chain Whole Foods Market is proof that green shopping can be glamorous. But its critics claim the store has got greedy and betrayed its organic ideals. And now it's coming to Britain. Alex Renton reports.
RICHARD ROEPER: UCLA looking like the Helen Mirren of basketball (suntimes.com)
Have you ever noticed how newspaper columnists and TV pundits like to talk about their predictions only when they get lucky and they look like geniuses?
These feet were made for walking (guardian.co.uk)
Forget jogging , gyms and fancy sports gear - the best way to lose weight, avoid illness and improve your brainpower is to take a daily walk, says Peta Bee.
'I have never been a bimbo' (guardian.co.uk)
Connery's the best Bond, the Queen's stuck in the past, and Iraqis are dying because we want oil ... as she returns to the stage, Honor Blackman talks to Stuart Jeffries.
Purple Gene Reviews
Wynonna Judd
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Talked to dear old Dad. Last week he & the Babe were supposed to be enjoying one of their polka cruises.
They decided to drive down to Pittsburgh, instead of flying out of Bradford (BFD), and got there around noon on Saturday for a flight that left around noon on Sunday.
Sunday, good old Useless Air cancelled their flight. Flights were cancelled on Monday, too, so they really got to know the Pittsburgh airport.
Tuesday they were finally able to leave, but the cruise had departed from Florida on Sunday, so they had to fly to San Juan, P.R.
They enjoyed their abbreviated cruise, but had more problems with their air carrier getting out of Florida, and they got back to Pittsburgh a day late.
Turned into a very expensive vacation with the added 4 nights in hotels and 2 unscheduled flights.
Blasts Steven Spielberg
Mia Farrow
US actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow blasted corporations and director Steven Spielberg Wednesday for helping China stage the 2008 Olympic Games despite Beijing's support for Sudan's government.
Farrow wrote in a Wall Street Journal column that Spielberg, a special consultant for the games, and corporate sponsors such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's should join calls for China to use its leverage over Khartoum to protect civilians in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.
"That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough," Farrow, who has traveled twice to Darfur, wrote in a piece co-signed by her son, Ronan.
"But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg -- who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies -- to sanitize Beijing's image," they wrote in the column titled "The Genocide Olympics."
Farrow warned the American director and Oscar winner for the Holocaust film "Schindler's List" that he risked becoming a modern version of Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, known for her 1936 Berlin games film "Olympia."
Mia Farrow
Campaign For Free Internet
Musicians
Independent, lesser-known musicians and smaller record labels launched a nationwide campaign Tuesday to support the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, which they said is under fire from providers who want to charge a fee to have some Web sites load faster than others.
The Rock the Net campaign, made up mostly of musicians who are on smaller record labels or none at all, said they're fearful that if the so-called "Net neutrality" principle is abandoned, their music may not be heard because they don't have the financial means to pay for preferential treatment.
Former musician Jenny Toomey, who is now executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group for independent musicians, said the issue is so important, it has attracted big-name artists such as R.E.M., Sarah McLachlan and Kronos Quartet, a classical musical string ensemble.
Musicians
Searches For New Concert Venue
Al Gore
Plans by environment crusader Al Gore for a climate change rock concert at the U.S. Capitol are running into some Republican opposition.
The former Democratic presidential candidate wanted to hold one of seven worldwide "Live Earth" concerts on the National Mall in the U.S. capital on July 7 but two other groups secured that space for events.
An alternative to use the Capitol's west lawn -- proposed by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine -- now is on hold in the U.S. Senate.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky last week objected to approving the resolution to hold the concert on the Capitol grounds because he and the Senate Rules Committee had not yet reviewed it.
Al Gore
Pritzker Prize
Richard Rogers
British modernist architect Richard Rogers, whose Pompidou Center in Paris opened to career-threatening catcalls but fast became a beloved public space, won architecture's highest award on Wednesday -- the Pritzker Prize.
The 73-year-old Rogers, whose major works also include the Lloyd's of London headquarters in the City of London and the rainbow-colored, nearly mile-long Terminal 4 at Barajas airport in Madrid, will receive the $100,000 grant for a lifetime of achievement at a ceremony on June 4 inside a prize of British architecture -- the Banqueting House, built in 1619 by Inigo Jones.
In announcing Rogers selection, Thomas Pritzker, president of the U.S.-based Hyatt Foundation, said, "Rogers is a champion of urban life and believes the potential of the city to be a catalyst for social change."
Richard Rogers
Different Cover Art
'Harry Potter'
Publishers in Canada and the United States have unveiled their cover art for the hotly anticipated seventh and final Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," coming out July 21.
In Canada and the rest of the English-speaking world, except the U.S., British artist Jason Cockcroft is providing the cover illustration for the children's edition of the book, Raincoast Books announced Wednesday.
In the United States, Scholastic Inc. announced that illustrator Mary GrandPre has designed the cover for the book. Her illustration features a dramatic gold and orange sky as a teenaged boy in glasses reaches upward.
'Harry Potter'
Focuses On 400 Years Of Opera
Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh turns this year to a celebration of the exuberance of opera to mark the 60th anniversary of its international festival of the arts, founded in 1947 the dark days of austerity following World War Two.
The festival's new director, Australian Jonathan Mills, said in announcing the program on Wednesday that he had been working "at breakneck speed" to put together an international offering since he took over last October from Brian McMaster, director of the festival for the previous 16 years.
The festival, which has developed into a global phenomenon and attracted over 400,000 people last year, runs from August 10 to a grand fireworks finale on September 2. It plays in parallel with the exuberant and raucous Fringe festival, and alongside festivals of literature, film and jazz.
Edinburgh Festival
True Grit Award
Larry King
Larry King will receive the True Grit Award next month from the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Health Center.
The 73-year-old host of CNN's "Larry King Live" will receive the honor at the annual Odyssey Ball, to be held April 14 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Jamie Lee Curtis will host the event.
"How fitting that in 2007, as we commemorate the centennial of my dad's birth, we also pay tribute to another great American, Larry King, with this award," board chairman Patrick Wayne said in a statement.
Larry King
Arrested In Crash
Taboo
Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after a collision, police said.
The 31-year-old hip-hop singer, whose real name is Jaime Luis Gomez, was taken into custody Tuesday morning after a collision in Industry, about 20 miles east of Los Angeles, said Los Angeles sheriff's Lt. Mark Relyea.
Gomez was released that evening with a citation for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, possession of a prescribed medication without a prescription and driving under the influence, Relyea said.
Taboo
Wants Vegas Robot
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.
It has been claimed that his plans include an elaborate show in Vegas, which would feature the giant Jacko striding around the desert, firing laser beams.
It is the centerpiece of an elaborate Jackson-inspired show in Vegas, according to Andre Van Pier, the robot's designer.
Michael Jackson
Blames Rage On Disorder
Mary Weiland
Scott Weiland's wife said an imbalance of medications for bipolar disorder caused rowdy behavior that left hotel rooms trashed and led to her arrest for allegedly torching the Velvet Revolver rocker's clothes.
Burbank police said the couple argued Saturday afternoon at the luxury Graciela Hotel, leaving two rooms damaged. Mary Weiland was later arrested for allegedly burning her husband's clothes outside their Toluca Lake home, investigators said.
"The weekend's difficulties were brought on by a reaction to an imbalance in medications used to treat my bipolar disorder," she said in a statement released Tuesday by the couple's spokeswoman, Bryn Bridenthal.
"Reports that we were fighting at the Graciela Hotel are untrue," she said. "Scott was simply trying to help me calm down. I want to make it very clear that he did not hurt me in any way."
Mary Weiland
Doesn't End Alimony
Sex Change
A woman's sex change operation does not free her ex-husband from his alimony obligation, a judge said Wednesday.
Attorneys for Lawrence Roach, 48, had argued his 55-year-old ex-wife's decision to switch genders and change her name from Julia to Julio Roberto Silverwolf voided their 2004 divorce agreement.
Circuit Judge Jack R. St. Arnold, however, ruled that in the eyes of the law, nothing changed significantly enough to free Roach from his $1,250-a-month obligation.
The judge said since Florida courts have ruled sex-change surgery cannot legally change a person's birth gender, Roach technically is not paying alimony to a man.
Sex Change
Court Says Not A Copy
'The Da Vinci Code'
Britain's Court of Appeal rejected a lawsuit Wednesday from two authors who claimed novelist Dan Brown stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code."
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh had sued Brown's publisher, Random House Inc., claiming he had copied from their 1982 nonfiction book, "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail."
Both books deal with the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child, and that the bloodline continues.
One of the judges said copyright protects an author's labor in researching and writing a book, but doesn't extend to facts, theories and themes.
'The Da Vinci Code'
No Charges Filed
Anthony Lovato
Prosecutors declined to file charges Tuesday against the former lead singer of disbanded punk group Mest in the fatal stabbing of a man during an argument.
Anthony Lovato, 26, who fronted the suburban Chicago punk band, was arrested early Sunday after calling police to report the altercation, authorities said.
"There was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing was not a justified use of force in self-defense," said Jane Robison, a district attorney's office spokeswoman.
Anthony Lovato
Donates Free Van
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson has donated a new minivan to an orphanage in this border city. Dozens of cheering children greeted the singer and actress Sunday as she arrived at the Elim orphanage in Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Laredo, Texas, in a white 2007 Chrysler minivan that she had won at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Simpson, accompanied by her mother and father, who is also her manager, gave the keys to Guadalupe Carmona, the orphanage's founder and director. Shestayed for about 40 minutes, posing for photos with the children and signing autographs.
Simpson first visited the orphanage in 1996 and last month announced she would donate a car. But few expected Simpson to deliver it in person.
Jessica Simpson
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