'Best of TBH Politoons'
Monday, May 28th
Erin Hart
Please join Erin Hart when she fills in for Jay Marvin on AM760 Progressive Talk, Monday, May 28th, from 6am - 10am MDT (8am - 12noon EDT, 7am - 11am CDT, 5am - 9am PDT)
Kick off the Summer with searing discussion.
An immigration bill only Kafka would love, the Democrats pulling of the
deadline, Bush's intransigence on the veto if a deadline for withdrawal
present, and Monica Goodling's testimony about Attorney General Alberto
Gonzalez and the broken Department of (In)Justice.
All that and Memorial Day thoughts about the troops and the nature of war.
The Erin Hart Show
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Annalee Newitz: 09 F9: A Simple Way to Stand Up Against the Latest Assault on Digital Rights
The entertainment industry's latest digital rights management scheme shows that Hollywood studios and electronics manufacturers will do anything to suck more money out of the public.
Jim Hightower: THE SWEATSHOP LOBBY (jimhightower.com)
The corporate chorus sings with perfect harmony about the glories of globalization, insisting that all countries simply must re-write their laws to let the benefits of globalization flow to all. So... now that China has stepped forth to open the flow - why are the corporate globalists suddenly in a protectionist panic, mounting the most furious lobbying effort ever to shut off the benefits?
Bill Gallagher: All the President's Men in Trouble (niagarafallsreporter.com)
The debate did offer an insight into the sick minds of the two front-runners -- Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Both are unfit for the presidency. Giuliani -- who is certifiably nuts, by the way -- came out forthrightly for torture, especially water-boarding. He wants people interrogating suspected terrorists "to use every method they could think of." Romney wants "to double Guantanamo" and deny uncharged detainees any access to lawyers.
Brent Budowsky: The Gore Book: Sweeping Indictment, Rousing Challenge, Massive Best-seller (pundits.thehill.com)
The real presidential campaign begins now with the publication of Al Gore's sweeping, passionate and uncompromising indictment of Bush, Bushism and American politics in the Bush era.
Gore Vidal on Cuba (truthdig.com)
The iconic author and historian speaks with Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer about his recent tour of Cuba, why he thinks the island has a bright future and why the United States, the world's only superpower, has an inferiority complex.
Sicko (michaelmoore.com)
The reviews are in. They're overwhelmingly positive.
Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: Jerry Falwell (campusprogress.org)
Jerry Falwell died On May 15, 2007. He will live on in thousands of Nightline, cable news, and C-SPAN videotapes, and stacks of direct mail in landfills. Falwell fought determinedly for the causes he believed in, and, to his credit, he at least did not appear to be getting filty rich off his ministering, unlike some people. Campus Progress honors Jerry Falwell's fighting spirit - and the ever-present threat of his way of thinking - by keeping this bio in cyberspace, written in the present tense: The Reverend Jerry Falwell has a bad case of Foot-in-Mouth disorder (a disease reaching epidemic proportions among right-wingers.)
Can animals be gay? Penguins, flamingos and whales think so (guardian.co.uk)
Laura Barton on the pair of gay flamingos named Carlos and Fernando.
Mark Morford: rejoice, The Hummer is Dead (sfgate.com)
It might be the end of the world's most phallically sad SUV. But has the damage been done?
You can cool the planet (marketwatch.com)
Using solar energy would be nice, but there are plenty of other ways to be earth-friendly that require only effort, not money.
Reader Comment
Re: Tarantino
Marty
Is Quentin Tarantino related to bob Hope? That pic sure looked like a
young Hope
Paul
Thanks, Paul!
The picture reminded me of Mac Tonight
(YouTube - Mac Tonight!).
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The sun broke through a little after lunch.
Order of the British Empire
Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie, who stars in the hit TV medical drama "House," was made a member of the Order of the British Empire on Wednesday.
Queen Elizabeth II presented the honor to Laurie at Buckingham Palace.
The 47-year-old actor has been part of the comedy establishment in Britain for more than 20 years. He was a member of the Cambridge Footlights comedy group along with Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry.
Laurie and Fry landed their own sketch show, "A Bit of Fry and Laurie," in 1987. They also starred in "Jeeves and Wooster," a hugely popular TV version of P.G Wodehouse's comic stories.
Hugh Laurie
Fans Get Marathon Screening
`Star Wars'
Seventeen hours in a darkened theater not so far away? Welcome to the "Star Wars" marathon.
A free showing of all six "Star Wars" movies began Wednesday morning at the Los Angeles Convention Center and was expected to end at 2 a.m. Thursday.
The event kicked off a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of the original film.
Lucasfilm Ltd. supplied the digital prints for the movies and is involved in "Star Wars Celebration IV" at the Convention Center. That event, open to fan club members Thursday and to the paying public Friday through Monday, was to include costume contests, exhibitions of movie props, autograph opportunities from "Star Wars" celebrities and even a Storm Trooper "Olympics."
`Star Wars'
15th Years
Jay Leno
Jay Leno, marking his 15th year as host of "The Tonight Show" on Friday, understands his role with NBC's late-night institution like a good comedian knows timing.
The late-night ratings leader isn't making a big deal of the anniversary. But he's planned a few surprises for Friday's show and allowed NBC to invite some media attention. The network also set up a Web site where viewers can dabble in creating their own "Tonight" music video and promos.
In an interview this week, Leno was low-key about the event. He spoke just after he'd taped a show and bolted the NBC studio, as he usually does, for his vast warehouse garage a few miles away. His collection of rare and fast cars and motorcycles is stored there.
Jay Leno
Losing 100 Newsroom Jobs
'SF Chron'
Management at Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle informed the newspaper guild Thursday that it plans to cut 80 union and 20 management positions in the newsroom, according to the guild, representing about a 25% reduction.
"It is about as grim a scenario as you can come up with," Carl Hall, a longtime union activist and former guild president who attended the Thursday meeting said of the cuts. "It is going to be very painful, dramatic, and dreadful."
In a statement, Michael Cabanatuan, president of the Northern California Media Workers Guild, said management described the cuts as necessary because the paper is losing substantial funds. It has suffered steep circulation drops in recent years.
'SF Chron'
Baby News
Samuel David Cheney
Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick 'Go Fuck Yourself' Cheney, gave birth to an 8-pound, 6-ounce baby boy at 9:46 a.m. Wednesday morning at Sibley Hospital in Washington.
Cheney and her partner of 16 years, Heather Poe, named their son Samuel David Cheney. The White House released a picture of Lynne and Vice President Cheney with the boy, their sixth grandchild.
Cheney and Poe live in Virginia, which has a constitutional amendment banning the marriage of same-sex couples and does not allow gay second parent adoptions.
Samuel David Cheney
1 Charge Dropped
David Faustino
A disorderly intoxication charge against David Faustino was dropped, but the man who played Bud Bundy on "Married with Children" still faces a drug charge.
The charge was dropped Tuesday because Faustino's arrest May 12 was sufficient punishment for the disorderly intoxication charge, Linda Pruitt, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office said.
Faustino still faces a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession, punishable by up to a year in prison, Pruitt said. He has pleaded not guilty. Trial is scheduled for July.
David Faustino
Battles Film Insurer
Robert De Niro
Four years after going public with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, actor Robert De Niro is waging a courtroom battle against the insurance carrier for a Hollywood film that was delayed by his illness.
De Niro filed a motion on Friday seeking to dismiss a $1.8 million lawsuit brought last year by the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., which claims he misrepresented his health status to them days before shooting was scheduled to start.
The $1.8 million figure is the amount Fireman's Fund reimbursed filmmakers under its policy for the cost of delayed production on the movie "Hide and Seek," during De Niro's cancer treatment, according to court documents.
Fireman's Fund in turn sued the 63-year-old Oscar winner for fraud, saying he misled the insurance company by failing to disclose at the time he signed a health certificate on October 13, 2003, that he had just undergone a prostate biopsy.
Robert De Niro
Grandkids Confirmed In Mexico
Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson
A prominent Mexican cleric confirmed two grandchildren of Mel Gibson in a brief ceremony Tuesday attended by the director of "The Passion of The Christ."
Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus Carlos Quintero Arce told reporters he performed the ceremony for Gibson's grandchildren and for several adults in the chapel of his home in Hermosillo, the capital of northern Sonora state. He did not identify the adults.
Gibson spent more than an hour at Quintero's house, then left without speaking to reporters. His plane departed Hermosillo Tuesday evening.
Gibson and his wife, Robyn, have seven children. It was not immediately clear which of his children the confirmed grandchildren were from.
Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson
Predicts SAT Performance
Finger Length
A quick look at the lengths of children's index and ring fingers can be used to predict how well students will perform on SATs, new research claims.
Kids with longer ring fingers compared to index fingers are likely to have higher math scores than literacy or verbal scores on the college entrance exam, while children with the reverse finger-length ratio are likely to have higher reading and writing, or verbal, scores versus math scores.
Scientists have known that different levels of the hormones testosterone and estrogen in the womb account for the different finger lengths, which are a reflection of areas of the brain that are more highly developed than others, said psychologist Mark Brosnan of the University of Bath, who led the study.
Exposure to testosterone in the womb is said to promote development of areas of the brain often associated with spatial and mathematical skills, he said. That hormone makes the ring finger longer. Estrogen exposure does the same for areas of the brain associated with verbal ability and tends to lengthen the index finger relative to the ring finger.
Finger Length
Celebrated In Sweden
Linnaeus Tricentenary
Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko were the guests of honour Wednesday at festivities in Sweden marking the 300th birthday of Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, who invented the current system of classifying organisms.
The emperor, a marine biologist known for his interest in the goby fish, is an avid fan of Linnaeus and an honorary member of the Linnean Society of London, an academic institute named after the Swede.
In his groundbreaking book Systema Naturae, published in 1735, Linnaeus, also known as Carl von Linne, the name he was given after he was knighted by the Swedish king in 1757, classified the animal, plant and mineral worlds, defining each species by a double name in Latin.
Linnaeus Tricentenary
Brought Few Bargains
Power Deregulation
This wasn't supposed to happen with deregulation. Electric bills were supposed to go down. Instead, Ellie Dorchincez can almost see the dollars evaporating every time she turns on the lights or opens the freezer at her small Farm Fresh grocery store.
Her electric bill, which used to be about $800 a month, has jumped to $1,800. She's shut down a large freezer of frozen treats and now closes the store an hour early to cut costs but fears she still may have to raise prices and lay off some workers.
The cause of her distress is a common problem: the failure of deregulation to deliver its promise of lower electricity prices. In many states, it's had the opposite effect with sharply higher rates -- 72 percent in Maryland, up to 50 percent in Illinois.
Not one of the 16 states -- plus the District of Columbia -- that have pushed forward with deregulation since the late 1990s can call it a success. In fact, consumers in those states fared worse than residents in states that stuck with a policy of regulating their power industries.
Power Deregulation
No BFD - It Was Coors
Beer Train
A string of runaway rail cars spilled beer in downtown Denver Wednesday after they crashed into a parked locomotive and derailed.
No one was hurt, and the railroad's mainline operations were not affected, said Steve Forsberg, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, based in Fort Worth, Texas.
Forsberg said a switch engine was assembling a train around 4:30 a.m. when the crew lost control of the 34 cars, which rolled downhill into the stationary locomotive.
A tanker car carrying Coors beer overturned and spilled its contents onto the rail yard, Forsberg said. Another car carrying asphalt was damaged and leaked.
Beer Train
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