'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Brown: Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000 (washingtonpost.com)
A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred. The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.
Richard Wolf: New voter registration laws leave thousands off the rolls (usatoday.com)
Some of this year's elections could be decided by those who can't vote. Across the country, new laws restricting who can register and vote have reduced the number of people who are eligible. Some of those laws have been blocked in court. Even so, critics say, the damage has been done.
RICHARD ROEPER: Note to radio host: Road to hell paved with good intentions (suntimes.com)
These people from Westboro [Fred Phelps and his kin] are blaspheming God's name to try to advance their warped, sinful agenda -- but if you offer them airtime in exchange for a temporary retreat, isn't that letting them win? I'm more of a fan of the fight-fire-with-fire technique, as when groups of bikers have shown up at funerals and stood between the Westboro kooks and the mourners.
Matt Seaton: The figures don't add up (guardian.co.uk)
If you stop to think rationally for even a minute, it's blindingly obvious that cars - and driving as we know it - simply do not belong to the future.
Annalee Newitz: Geowankers Anonymous (AlterNet.org)
I proudly identify as a geowanker (also known as a high-tech map enthusiast).
AMY BENTLEY: The Politics on Our Plates (chronicle.com)
Few would argue with the premise that food has taken on new importance in the United States in recent years. ... Many are wringing their hands over what they see as the extinction of family meals and the disappearance of home cooking.
Meg Cabot: Practice Test (megcabot.com)
Okay, maybe it's just me, but considering all of the really bad drivers on the roads, I always thought it must be pretty easy to get a driver's license.
The importance of not being earnest (guardian.co.uk)
Jim Broadbent has made a career out of playing the grotesque and the silly. So is he really the man to portray Lord Longford in a serious drama? By Aida Edemariam.
Reader Comment
Re: Riverbend
Marty
I too have been a follower of Riverbend's blog "Baghdad Burning" and have been worried about her. A search of the web didn't bring up anything much. This was the most revealing from 'Booman Tribune' And like the writer, I too, hope that she is still alive.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/9/25/163718/450
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still mostly sunny and fall-like.
Winners Announced
Quills Awards
Nora Roberts, Maya Angelou and former Vice President Al Gore were among the winners Tuesday night of the second annual Quills Awards, a people's choice even for the book world.
Caroline Kennedy received an honorary award for her "commitment to providing support for education and literacy in New York," while Donald Trump and Harry Connick Jr. served as presenters along with several other celebrities, including Stanley Tucci and Suzanne Somers. The event was held at the American Museum of Natural History, where hundreds dined under a life-sized replica of a blue whale.
Winners were decided by the public, which voted through two online links, http://www.quillsvote.com and at http://www.quills.msnbc.com . There were no cash prizes.
Quills Awards
Leno Shills For $chwarzenegger
Phil Angelides
The Democratic challenger to California Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger is angry that TV host Jay Leno has invited the Republican incumbent on his show weeks before the gubernatorial election but so far has snubbed him.
$chwarzenegger, seeking a second term, was set to go on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" for an interview on Wednesday, marking his fifth appearance as a guest since he used that late-night program to announce his bid for public office in 2003.
Leno has so far declined to extend an invitation to Democrat Phil Angelides. A spokesman for Angelides, the state's Treasurer, said that move violates federal rules that generally require broadcast outlets to give opposing candidates equal time.
"The governor has spent $35 million in launching negative attack ads against Phil Angelides, and now NBC is just giving him further free time on national network TV to campaign," the spokesman, Brian Brokaw, told Reuters.
Phil Angelides
Mean Jean's Nemesis
Jack Murtha
Democratic Rep. John Murtha, the decorated Marine veteran who favors withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, will campaign against the congresswoman who labeled him a coward.
Murtha will travel to Cincinnati on Saturday to campaign for Victoria Wulsin, the Democrat challenging Rep. Jean Schmidt.
Last November, Schimdt was booed off the House floor when she delivered a message to Murtha, a Vietnam War veteran who was elected to Congress in 1974. "Cowards cut and run, Marines never do," she said.
Jack Murtha
SpongeBob's Lord Royal Highness
David Bowie
All it took was daddy's little girl to turn David Bowie from a rock star into the voice of a cartoon. Bowie will be a guest on Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants," playing a character called Lord Royal Highness in a show that will air next year.
Bowie, 59, said his 6-year-old daughter, Alexandria Zahra, is a huge SpongeBob fan and they watch the show together. He wrote in his blog that he's "hit the Holy Grail of animation gigs.
"We, the family, are thrilled. Nothing else need happen this year, well, this week anyway," Bowie said.
David Bowie
Tipsy Hosting
Sharon Osbourne
TV star Sharon Osbourne stunned the audience of her chat show The Sharon Osbourne Show by turning up drunk on set yesterday.
The feisty wife of Ozzy Osbourne, who was celebrating her 54th birthday, swayed and giggled her way through interviews with TV personality Michael Barrymore and singer Amy Winehouse - peppering her links with frequent exclamations of, "Oh f**k, I made a mistake."
But she insists she had a good excuse for her inebriation.
She told her audience, "I'm so sorry I'm p**sed but it's my birthday."
Sharon Osbourne
Jewel Collection Nets $20M
Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin's jewelry, more than 100 pieces that included her wedding ring from her marriage to Revlon billionaire Ron Perelman, has fetched $20.3 million at auction.
A hush came over the packed Christie's sales room Tuesday evening when the auctioneer announced the sale of the ring, a wide band set with four rows of bell-cut diamonds topped in 18-carat gold.
It sold for $130,000, surpassing a presale estimate of $50,000. The auction house did not disclose the buyer's name.
Among the other 103 lots, ranging from period jewels and gemstones, a 22.76-carat diamond ring was purchased by a private American collector for $1.8 million - the highest price of the night.
Ellen Barkin
House Shuttered
Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil has left the building, and not a moment too soon for some of the people living near television's Dr. Phil House.
Filming has wrapped at the house where troubled guests spent time living together for a weekly segment on the psychologist's popular "Dr. Phil" TV show, according to a statement released Tuesday by a spokeswoman for the show.
FilmL.A., a nonprofit organization that oversees production permits for the city, was advised not to issue any more for the Dr. Phil House after neighbors complained, said FilmL.A. President Steve MacDonald. But the show stopped seeking permits last month, according to the statement from Theresa Corigliano.
Dr. Phil
No Bets Allowed At Horse Track
Israel
Want to bet who will win the races in Israel's first official horse-racing stadium? You can't.
Most forms of gambling are illegal in the Jewish state, with Jewish religious law forbidding most types of betting and any activity that may suggest cruel treatment of animals. Only government-sponsored betting and gambling is allowed.
However, this has not stopped Israel from opening its first authorised horse-racing track in a hippodrome seating several thousand people. The Israeli government approved the $20 million (11 million pounds) project in 2004 and then began proceedings to legalise horserace betting. But the finance ministry has yet to approve the proposals.
Israel
Gets Star On Hollywood Walk
Ruta Lee
Actress Ruta Lee was honored Tuesday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where she once worked as an usher and candy girl.
"It's the pot at the end of the rainbow," she said as she was joined by her family and friends, including Debbie Reynolds and Alex Trebek, who hosted the mid-1970s game show "High Rollers" with Lee.
Lee got her start in show business in 1953 when she played a teenager in an episode of television's "The Adventures of Superman." She later appeared in "Funny Face" with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, as Tyrone Power's secret love in "Witness for the Prosecution," and as Frank Sinatra's leading lady in the Rat Pack comedy "Sergeants 3."
Ruta Lee
"CSI" Role
Roger Daltrey
His voice opens every episode of the "CSI" franchise. Now the Who lead singer Roger Daltrey will appear on the mothership series, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
Daltrey is set to guest star on an upcoming episode of the hit CBS show. Producers are keeping details about his character under wraps, calling it "a surprise role that will keep viewers guessing."
The song "Who Are You" by the Who has served as the theme for "CSI" since the show's launch in 2000. Two other Who songs, "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley," are the themes for spinoffs "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: NY," respectively.
Roger Daltrey
Classic Rock Driving Growth
Ringtones
While hip-hop acts may rule today's ringtone charts, yesterday's stars are introducing the format to a broader audience and drive tomorrow's growth.
Only about 10 percent of wireless subscribers buy ringtones today, primarily young adults purchasing hip-hop and R and B-themed content. Record labels and wireless operators are keen to expand their market, particularly as the dominant format shifts from polyphonic ringtones to master recording clips. Exploiting the vast library of catalog music, they say, is emerging as a key strategy in that effort.
Acts like Devo, the B-52's, the Ramones, the Allman Brothers Band and Jimmy Buffett are generating healthy ringtone sales, and even Pink Floyd has found its way onto the mobile deck. Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" is one of the best-selling catalog ringtones of all time, with more than 1.2 million units sold, and became the first licensed track to appear in a mobile videogame.
Indeed, catalog-based ringtones are now the format's fastest-growing segment. Universal Music Group (UMG), for instance, says catalog ringtones sales are up 80% from last year and now represent 10 percent of all its ringtone sales.
Ringtones
Wins Times Square Screen
News Corp
News Corp. has taken over the programming of a giant screen in Times Square and has started offering news, sports and other content from across its operations.
News Corp. said it won the screen deal from NBC as of October 1 under a 10-year agreement with One Times Square, with Panasonic Corp. of North America serving as a sub-lessee of the screen.
News Corp. will deliver at least three hours of live programming daily on the Panasonic Astrovision Screen, including an hour each of Fox 5's "Good Day New York," as well as Fox News' "Fox and Friends" and "Fox Report With Shepard Smith."
News Corp
An Asteroid Named Elko
UOFU03
Two Utah scientists who discovered an undocumented asteroid outside the orbit of Mars have won approval to name it for Elko, a Nevada town.
Patrick Wiggins and Holly Phaneuf were given the right to name it, and Wiggins chose the town where he was born.
The two spotted the asteroid on Nov. 2, 1999, and gave it the temporary name of UOFU03, for University of Utah object No. 3. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in France quickly confirmed the discovery and earlier this year gave it a designation as the 80,180th numbered asteroid.
UOFU03
Cable Networks
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Oct. 2-8. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses.
1. NFL Football: Green Bay vs. Philadelphia (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 9.43 million homes, 12.89 million viewers.
2. Baseball Divisional Series: N.Y. Yankees vs. Detroit (Friday, 8 p.m.), ESPN, 4.89 million homes, 6.56 million viewers.
3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.44 million homes, 5.05 million viewers.
4. Movie: "Halloweentown High" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.35 million homes, 4.37 million viewers.
5. Movie: "Halloweentown II: Kalabar" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.19 million homes, 4.26 million viewers.
6. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.11 million homes, 4.48 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.1 million homes, 4.13 million viewers.
8. "Law & Order: SVU" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.09 million homes, 4.07 million viewers.
9. College Football: Tennessee vs. Georgia (Saturday, 7:46 p.m.), ESPN, 3.088 million homes, 4.45 million viewers.
10. "Fairly Odd Parents" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.085 million homes, 3.92 million viewers.
11. Movie: "Cast Away" (Saturday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 3.03 million homes, 4.25 million viewers.
12. Baseball Divisional Series: St. Louis vs. San Diego (Thursday, 4:26 p.m.), ESPN, 2.88 million homes, 3.47 million viewers.
13. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.84 million homes, 3.71 million viewers.
14. Movie: "Cast Away" (Friday, 8 p.m.), TNT, 2.8 million homes, 3.81 million viewers.
15. "Law & Order: SVU" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), USA, 2.78 million homes, 3.52 million viewers.
Ratings
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