'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: FOREIGN SPYING ON AMERICANS (jimhightower.com)
Government snoops and spooks, infiltrators and interrogators, phone tappers and data miners, psy ops and spy cameras, the CIA and FBI, the Pentagon and your local police, Homeland Security and the Patriot Act - and, of course, the Department of Dick Cheney - all are watching our movements, monitoring our political efforts, surveilling any opposition to the established authorities, and routinely making a mockery of our rights of free speech, assembly and privacy.
David Podvin: Stupid and Evil (makethemaccountable.com)
Conservatives believe America must fight the terrorists over there or we will have to fight them over here, so George W. Bush has deliberately transformed Iraq into the Middle Eastern version of a roach motel. The concept is that while Americans maintain occupation villains from throughout the Islamic world will flock to the country and - as the commercial famously boasts - they will check in but they won't check out. The strategy has two major flaws...
Mark Morford: Jesus Loves Your Crappy Videos (sfgate.com)
Behold GodTube.com, the place where sex, humor and warm spiritual inclusiveness go to die
Katherine Seligman: Angst and empathy abide in Haight, Magnet for city's refugees home to all (sfgate.com)
I remember the day my 4-year-old son sat down on the curb and refused to move. "'I'm pretending I'm homeless," he said, when I asked him to get up. Several years later, he found a used syringe in one of the planters on...
Will Durst: What's Wrong With America (alternet.org)
What's wrong with America is our national obsession with "me." Nobody ever thinks about "us" anymore. And the presidential primary process is the latest example.
Brad Dorfman: From Starbucks to Wal-Mart, consumer pulls back (Reuters)
From lattes at Starbucks to clothing at Wal-Mart, U.S. consumers are showing signs of lethargy and have retreated from their free-spending ways.
Andy Cowan: Slow down, people! (latimes.com)
'Back to school' in July? Christmas cards on Halloween? Why do we live so fast?
Richard Roeper: Famous family not cause of 3-ring craziness (suntimes.com)
A lovely actress is in town with her children and her movie-star significant other. They are world famous for their movies and their dramatic love affair and their causes and their growing family.
Reader Comment
Best Link Ever
M,
This is the best-ever link out of the thousands I've appreciated over the years from your page. As a lifelong student and near-worshipper of Warhol Reed and Nico, even I learned and yearned over this. Great stuff.
Peter Hogan: All Tomorrow's Parties: The Warhol Years 1965-1967, Part One (popmatters.com )
Thanks!
-F
Thanks, F!
That was a link from Bruce - he always finds interesting things.
Reader Comment
TV Star
That's it !!!...We're BONED!!!!...Game over MAN!
Purple Gene Reviews
'The Quickie'
"The Quickie" is a "Quickie" about a "Quickie" !
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot, still cranky.
Leads Darfur Torch Relay
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow joined genocide survivors in a torch-lighting ceremony Wednesday at a Rwandan school where thousands died in a 100-day frenzy of killings in 1994.
The 62-year-old actress, whose screen credits include "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo," is leading an Olympic-style torch relay through countries that have suffered genocide to press China, host of the 2008 games, to help end abuses in its ally Sudan's Darfur region.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been chased from their homes in Darfur since 2003, when tribes of ethnic African farmers rebelled against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of neglect and discrimination.
The school where Farrow appeared Wednesday is Ecole Technique Officielle, where 2,000 Rwandans were executed during the country's genocide.
Mia Farrow
Lends Voice To PBS' `Arthur'
Matt Damon
Matt Damon, who plays former assassin Jason Bourne in "The Bourne Ultimatum," has a much fuzzier role in an upcoming episode of PBS' "Arthur."
Damon, bedecked with bear ears, plays himself as part of "Postcards From You," an initiative to encourage young viewers to make their own videos. He voices the character.
His guest appearance on the animated children's show about a friendly aardvark is set to air Sept. 3.
Matt Damon
Sci Fi Pulls Plug
'Painkiller Jane'
Sci Fi Channel is pulling the plug on "Painkiller Jane."
The female-centered action-hero series starring Kristanna Loken is wrapping production on its 22-episode first-season order, which will run as planned. Sixteen episodes have aired so far, with the season/series finale slated for September 21
The cancellation of "Jane" comes on the heels of the strong Friday premiere of another Sci Fi series based on a comic strip, "Flash Gordon," which scored the channel's best series premiere numbers this year.
'Painkiller Jane'
Poe Grave Legend
Sam Porpora
The legend was almost too good to be true. For decades, a mysterious figure dressed in black, his features cloaked by a wide-brimmed hat and scarf, crept into a churchyard to lay three roses and a bottle of cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. Now, a 92-year-old man who led the fight to preserve the historic site says the visitor was his creation.
"We did it, myself and my tour guides," said Sam Porpora. "It was a promotional idea. We made it up, never dreaming it would go worldwide."
Porpora's belief that he resurrected the international fame of Poe, that master of mystery and melancholia, is questioned by some Poe scholars. But they do credit Porpora, a former advertising executive, with rescuing the cemetery at Westminster Presbyterian Church where the writer is buried.
Porpora's story begins in the late 1960s. He'd just been made historian of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, built in 1852. There were fewer than 60 congregants and Porpora, in his 60s, was one of the youngest. The overgrown cemetery was a favorite of drunken derelicts.
Sam Porpora
Engagement News
Jimmy Fallon
33-year-old actor-comedian Jimmy Fallon proposed to his girlfriend, movie producer Nancy Juvonen, last weekend, his representative said Wednesday.
The former "Saturday Night Live" cast member popped the question at Juvonen's family home in New Hampshire, presenting her with a diamond ring designed by Neil Lane, said Keleigh Thomas.
It will be the first marriage for both.
Jimmy Fallon
Visiting 'Live With Regis and Kelly'
Kathie Lee Gifford
Kathie Lee Gifford will drop by "Live With Regis and Kelly" to celebrate the daytime talk show's 20th anniversary.
Gifford, who left as co-host in 2000, is slated to appear Sept. 14, when Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa take a look back at the show's most memorable moments. Ripa joined the show as co-host in 2001.
"Live" will celebrate its 20th season in national syndication with two weeks of on-air festivities starting Sept. 3 and ending with Gifford's guest appearance.
Kathie Lee Gifford
Catching More Heat
'Dateline NBC'
"Dateline NBC" denied Wednesday an Esquire article's claim that its "To Catch a Predator" producers tried to manipulate Texas police officers into arresting a D.A. who killed himself when confronted by police at his home last year.
Meanwhile, NBC is facing a $105 million federal lawsuit filed by the man's sister as well as a lawsuit by a former producer who said she was fired because she questioned the "Predator" lawsuit on ethical grounds. ABC News also confirmed Wednesday that its newsmagazine "20/20" was conducting an investigation into the death of Kaufman County prosecutor Bill Conradt and the role of "Dateline" in it.
It was "Dateline" and Perverted Justice, the consultant to the series that has used TV to entrap would-be child sex predators, that led police in Murphy, Texas, to set up a sting that would collar suspects and provide compelling TV all at the same time. The "Dateline" series has led to several convictions from the more than 200 people who have been snared, all with the cooperation of "Dateline" and law enforcement.
'Dateline NBC'
Reunite In Las Vegas
The Osmonds
The Osmond Brothers, joined by siblings Donny, Marie and Jimmy, took the stage this week to tape a 50th anniversary reunion show to be aired on PBS next year.
A meeting of no less than seven singing Osmonds onstage hadn't happened in more than 20 years, the siblings say, although no one seems to remember the exact date of the last full family concert. That's likely because some combination of the clan is perpetually performing.
"We do over 200 shows a year," Wayne Osmond told The Associated Press Tuesday before the second night of taping for the TV special, "Still."
The PBS concert celebrates the anniversary of the Osmond family's original foray into show business, the creation of the Osmond Brothers barbershop quartet in 1957.
The Osmonds
Berlin's Ellington Hotel
Elvis Exhibit
A German man gazes reverently at a silver can of deodorant and a white bottle of "high potency" antacid. He knows that these two items, on display at a Berlin exhibition, once belonged to his hero, "the King."
With thinning black hair slicked back Elvis-style, the Berlin-born man was sporting a silk shirt with the smiling face of Elvis Presley across the back and an Elvis shoulder bag.
"Elvis is definitely getting bigger in Germany," the 43-year-old, who identified himself as Freddy, told Reuters. "It's not just the older people, it's the younger ones too. He's making a comeback here."
Freddy was one of hundreds of visitors who flocked to Berlin's Ellington Hotel to see the biggest collection of original Elvis memorabilia ever shown outside the United States to commemorate the king's death 30 years ago on August 16, 1977.
Elvis Exhibit
Sued By Former Lawyers
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's former entertainment lawyers have filed a lawsuit claiming the pop star owes them more than $113,000.
The law firm Lavely & Singer of Los Angeles says Jackson agreed in arbitration last year to pay them $180,000 in three installments.
Jackson failed to make the final payment of $113,750 before the July 31, 2007, deadline stipulated in the settlement, the firm alleges in a complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
A judge last month ordered Jackson, 48, to pay more than $256,000 in legal fees to another firm that handled some side issues during his 2005 child molestation trial.
Michael Jackson
Letter Omits 'Iraq'
Rumsfeld Resignation
The word "Iraq" doesn't appear in former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation letter. Neither does the word "war." In fact, the deadly and much-criticized conflict that eventually drummed him out of office, comes up only in vague references, such as "a critical time in our history" and "challenging time for our country," in the four-paragraph, 148-word letter he wrote to resident Bush a day before the Nov. 7, 2006 election.
According to a stamp on the letter, Bush's office acknowledged receipt the next day, as voters were going to the polls. Bush announced Rumsfeld's departure a day later, after the massive anti-war vote that swept Democrats into control of the House and Senate.
The elusive letter - which the Pentagon denied existed as recently as April - surfaced this week in response to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests by The Associated Press.
Asked why Bush decided to wait until after the election to announce the resignation, White House spokeswoman liar Dana Perino said Wednesday that Bush wanted to avoid "the appearance of trying to make this a political decision."
Rumsfeld Resignation
Gator Trys To Break Out Of Zoo
Reggie
Reggie the alligator, who recently debuted his own habitat exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo, made a break for it this morning by climbing over a wall and hightailing it to the zoo's loading dock.
Zoo staff members noticed Reggie was AWOL and immediately searched the grounds. They found him by the loading dock just before the facility opened at 10 a.m.
While they held him in the zoo's quarantine area, staffers inspected his habitat and discovered he escaped by climbing a side wall.
Reggie - who was fished out of Lake Machado in Harbor City earlier this year and brought to the zoo among much pomp and circumstance - was expected to be returned to the exhibit by noon, under the watchful eye of zookeepers.
Reggie
Nielsen Cable
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Aug. 6-12. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses.
1. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 5.52 million homes, 7.53 million viewers.
2. Auto Racing: Nextel Cup (Sunday, 2 p.m.), ESPN, 3.90 million homes, 5.56 million viewers.
3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.72 million homes, 5.45 million viewers.
4. "Saving Grace" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 3.69 million homes, 4.80 million viewers.
5. "Monk" (Friday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.64 million homes, 5.10 million viewers.
6. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.47 million homes, 5.06 million viewers.
7. "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.32 million homes, 4.80 million viewers.
8. "Ella Enchanted" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.26 million homes, 5.00 million viewers.
9. "Psych" (Friday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.14 million homes, 4.43 million viewers.
10. "Hannah Montana" (Tuesday, 7 p.m.), Disney, 3.074 million homes, 4.39 million viewers.
11. Movie: "Drake & Josh: Really Big Shrimp" (Monday, 12:00 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.071 million homes, 4.16 million viewers.
12. Movie: "Finding Nemo" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), Disney, 3.03 million homes, 4.45 million viewers.
13. "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.02 million homes, 4.20 million viewers.
14. "Army Wives" (Sunday, 10 p.m.), Lifetime, 2.98 million homes, 3.74 million viewers.
15. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 2.91 million homes, 4.14 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Stanley Myron Handelman
Stanley Myron Handelman, who for decades took his subtle, brainy brand of humor to comedy clubs, TV screens and workshops for aspiring comics, has died. He was 77.
Known for his trademark newsboy cap and oversized glasses, Handelman became a TV variety show fixture in the 1960s and 1970s, appearing frequently on "The Tonight Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," and "The Merv Griffin Show."
His comic observations during his regular appearances as a down-on-his-luck pushcart salesman on "Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers" in 1968 and 1969 brought him additional prominence.
Handelman was born in New York City's borough of Brooklyn, where his high school classmates voted him "class wit." He developed his comedy act at New York area clubs in the 1950s, eventually appearing as a frequent opening act for Frank Sinatra.
As Handelman's career as a television comic ebbed in the 1970s, he began teaching standup comedy classes in Los Angeles, some under the moniker "The Flying Handelmans," until his death.
Stanley Myron Handelman
In Memory
Robert Todd Williams
Robert Todd Williams, a Russian River vintner who founded Toad Hollow Vineyards and turned it into one of Sonoma County's most recognizable wine labels, has died. He was 69.
Williams, whose younger brother is actor Robin Williams, died Tuesday at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to the Healdsburg-based winery. He had suffered from a heart condition in recent years.
Williams, also known as "Dr. Toad," partnered with vintner Rodney Strong to open Toad Hollow Vineyards in 1993 and turned the boutique winery into a major wine producer over the past 14 years. Its labels feature irreverent names and drawings of dapper toads and frogs.
Robert Todd Williams
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