Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: "Hi. Will you marry me? For a week?" (SF Gate)
It is the age of temporary everything.
Rachel Maddow: Voting Rights and Wrongs
"The right-wing hopes to disenfranchise 5 million poor people and students next year - people like 96-year-old Dorothy Cooper - to gain a lock on all three branches of government."-Andrew Tobias
Which Mitt Romney will show up?
Take the quiz and see.
Andrew Tobias: THE MYTH OF VOTER FRAUD
How dare the other side disenfranchise millions of citizens based on a myth that those at the top, at least, know is a myth. Have they no shame? Have they, at long last, no shame? Here it is, from yesterday's Times:
Paul Krugman: "Intellectual Styles Of The Rich And Clueless" (New York Times Blog)
Awesome cluelessness. And this is the head of a job-creation task force in a Democratic administration?
Paul Krugman: Stocks, Flows, and Fuzzy Math (New York Times Blog)
This deliberate fraud - because that's what it has to be - is an example of the reasons knowledgeable people don't trust the Tax Foundation.
Roger Ebert's Journal: Tea and Empathy
The Tea Party and the Wall Street demonstrators share the same conviction: They are the victims of theft by powerful institutions. The Tea Party blames government taxation. The demonstrators blame corruption in the financial industry.
Jim Hightower: Occupy Wall Street
It's silly to say that the protestors' purpose is indecipherable. Hello - they're encamped next door to Wall Street, isn't that a clue? They want what America's workaday majority wants: stop the gross greed of financial and corporate elites, and expel a political class that's so corrupted by the money of those wealthy elites that it has turned its back on the middle class and the poor.
Susan King: "Classic Hollywood: Vincent Price screenings at Aero, LACMA" (LA Times)
The actor's centenary is marked with showings of some of his horror films. Daughter Victoria Price recalls her father as a sweet, funny man.
Dancing with strangers: the disturbing videos of performance artist Laurel Nakadate (Guardian)
As a lonely student, Laurel Nakadate started engaging with the random men who talked to her. Then she made tense, unsettling films of their encounters. We sent Eleanor Morgan to meet the provocative performance artist.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Review
GOP Debate Oct. 11th
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Holy crap! We're having a heat wave. Ack.
Occupy Wall St.: "Finally!"
Michael Moore
At the culmination of his last muckraking documentary, 2009's "Capitalism: A Love Story," Michael Moore said he was not going to make another film until someone else -- a group, a movement, an individual, anyone -- stepped up with their own dissonant voice.
The controversial filmmaker seems to have gotten exactly what he wanted with the emergence of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
TheWrap's Steve Pond caught up with the documentarian earlier this week to discuss the protest and what he thinks they mean.
TheWrap: On your Web site a couple of days ago, you put up the sentence, "You are about to witness the end of 'Capitalism: A Love Story.'" Did you make the connection with that film right away?
Michael Moore
Current TV Talk Show
Jennifer Granholm
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm will host a new nightly political talk show on Current TV as the progressive cable network continues its rebuilding of its prime-time lineup.
"The War Room with Jennifer Granholm" will premiere in January at 9 p.m. Eastern time, following "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," Current announced on Wednesday.
Granholm, a Democrat, was the first woman to be elected governor in Michigan and served two terms beginning in 2003. She is a contributor to NBC's "Meet the Press," and recently co-authored "A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future" with her husband, Dan Mulhern. In that book they focus on how the changes forced on Michigan can be examples of what the nation must do to compete in a global economy.
Asked about the Occupy Wall Street movement, which claims that 1 percent of the nation's population is getting rich at the expense of the rest of America, Granholm said the protests are "a primal scream for somebody to do something. I think it's really important for democracy that it's happening, and I'm glad that Current has been covering it. It's a very important movement for Current to be part of."
Jennifer Granholm
PSAs For Military Families
Hollywood
Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey have lent their collective star power to First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden to create public service announcements on behalf of the nation's military families.
Produced for the Joining Forces organization and released Tuesday, the three 30-second PSAs illustrate the struggles of military families as they endure deployment overseas.
All three vignettes utilize Skype as their centerpiece, reflecting the realities of the 21st century communication. The First Lady and Biden created Joining Forces to support military families and the PSAs are intended to spread its message.
The organization focuses on employment, education, and wellness while raising awareness about the service, sacrifice, and needs of military families.
Hollywood
Gives Darfur Items tTo UConn
Mia Farrow
Actress and humanitarian activist Mia Farrow says she has donated videotapes, artifacts and other items from her advocacy in Sudan's Darfur region to the University of Connecticut.
Farrow, a Connecticut resident, tells The Hartford Courant (http://bit.ly/n0EEPe ) that the items document songs, dances and other rituals that are in danger of being lost as refugees struggled to survive in camps in that African nation.
The 35-hour video collection includes demonstrations of farming methods, children's stories, wedding ceremonies and other traditions among the Darfuris, who have struggled for years against genocide and starvation.
The items are now housed at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at UConn and available for viewing by researchers and others interested in the research.
Mia Farrow
Renewed For Third Season
'Boardwalk Empire'
Three episodes into its second season, HBO has renewed "Boardwalk Empire" for a third.
The Prohibition-era drama, created by Terence Winter and starring Steve Buscemi as politician-gangster Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, returned for its second season September 25.
Its first airing had 2.9 million viewers, close to its first-season average of 3.2 million viewers. Its executive producers include Martin Scorsese, Tim Van Patten, Stephen Levinson and Mark Wahlberg.
The show's first season won eight Emmys, including Scorsese's for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.
'Boardwalk Empire'
Picked Up For Full Season
"Ringer"
Sarah Michelle Gellar fans, breathe easy: "Ringer" will be sticking around for a while.
The CW has picked up the series for a full season, an individual with knowledge of the decision confirms to TheWrap.
Gellar, the former star of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," plays a woman on the run from the mob who assumes the identity of her wealthy twin sister -- only to find that the sister has troubles of her own.
The show is an especially important one for the CW as the network tries to expand beyond its target audience of young women.
"Ringer"
He's No Rupert
Phone Hacking
A Florida man was charged with hacking into the emails of dozens of people, including Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis, in a computer invasion scheme that targeted Hollywood celebrities, according to documents released Wednesday.
Christopher Chaney of Jacksonville hacked Google, Apple and Yahoo email accounts beginning last November and December, then hijacked the forwarding feature so that a copy of every email received was sent, "virtually instantaneously," to an email account he controlled, according to an indictment handed up Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.
There were more than 50 victims, including actress Renee Olstead, according to the indictment.
Chaney offered some material, including photographs, to celebrity blog sites and some of the files and photographs ultimately were posted, according to an FBI statement.
Chaney allegedly used the hacker names "trainreqsuckswhat," ''anonygrrl" and "jaxjaguars911." He is charged with 25 counts of identity theft, unauthorized access and unauthorized damage to a protected computer.
Phone Hacking
Fat Cats Whine
Class Warfare
They might not be among the jobless protesting against Wall Street, but the rich are angry, too. Furious over U.S. government gridlock, the wealthy have their own form of protest: Refusing to make political contributions.
A number of financial advisers say their wealthy clients have told them they will not make political contributions this year, many for the first time ever.
Bessemer Trust CEO John Hilton says in his 42 years advising ultra high-net worth investors, he has never seen clients so frustrated with the state of affairs in Washington.
He said a number of the firm's clients - who have an average of $30 million in investable assets - say they believe a lack of leadership and political wrangling are the primary cause of recent market problems - and the declines in their portfolios. Because of that, they say they're saying no to requests to make political contributions.
"People are pissed," said Alan Ungar, an adviser with Critical Capital Management Inc. in Calabasas, California. His clients have an average $1.6 million or more in assets invested with the firm. "This isn't about taxes," he said. "It's about the partisan dynamic."
Class Warfare
Pulls Ad
G.M.
What has General Motors been doing in the wake of its bailout-assisted turnaround? For one thing, trying to convince young American men that hot women will laugh at them if they ride a bike.
Check out this new print ad that the automaker has been running, to promote its college discount. A man on a bike hides his face in embarrassment as an attractive woman rides by in the passenger seat of a car, smiling at his pathetic-ness, apparently. The message isn't subtle: Riding a bike is hazardous to your sex life.
The ad provoked a storm of criticism on Twitter. "As a college student and an avid cyclist . . . . I'm proud to ride a bike, and so are millions of others. Bad move" wrote one user
G.M
Under Fire
Urban Outfitters
An open letter by a Native American woman from Minnesota has turned up the heat on the retail chain Urban Outfitters because of a line of "Navajo" items she claims are culturally offensive.
Sasha Houston Brown, 24, decided to take action after walking into an Urban Outfitters store in Minneapolis and seeing Navajo-labeled products that disturbed her.
She sent her complaint to the company's CEO by email and conventional mail, saying she was offended by "plastic dreamcatchers wrapped in pleather hung next to an indistinguishable mass of artificial feather jewelry and hyper sexualized clothing featuring an abundance of suede, fringe and inauthentic tribal patterns."
Brown told Urban Outfitters CEO Glen T. Senk that the collection was "cheap, vulgar and culturally offensive."
Urban Outfitters
NRA Poster Boy
Rep. Curry Todd
Tenn. lawmaker arrested on DUI, gun
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The sponsor of the law that made it legal to carry a gun into bars in Tennessee is facing charges of possession of a handgun while under the influence and drunken driving.
Rep. Curry Todd, a Collierville Republican, was pulled over in Nashville late Tuesday, according to court documents. Police said he failed a roadside sobriety test and refused to take a Breathalyzer test. A loaded .38-caliber gun was found in a holster stuffed between the driver's seat and center console.
A police affidavit said Todd was unsteady on his feet, "almost falling down at times." Officers concluded that Todd was "obviously very impaired and not in any condition to be carrying a loaded handgun."
State law makes it a misdemeanor for anyone to consume alcohol while carrying a firearm in public, and those who violate that law are subject to losing their permits for three years.
Todd sponsored a 2009 bill to let people with handgun carry permits take their weapons into businesses that serve alcohol, provided they don't drink. Although police and prosecutors spoke out against it, the measure passed and easily survived a veto from former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen.
Rep. Curry Todd
Guitar Auction
Richard Gere
Actor Richard Gere auctioned his extensive collection of classic guitars, to the tune of nearly $1 million.
Gere sold more than 100 guitars at Christie's on Tuesday, realizing a total of $936,438, the auction house said. Only four of the 106 instruments on offer failed to sell. The collection was expected to take in about $1 million.
The actor, known for film roles including "American Gigolo" and "Pretty Woman," will donate the proceeds to charities. He acquired the vintage American guitars and amplifiers over the past 40 years
The top lot was a Gibson 1960 Les Paul solid-body electric guitar, which sold for $98,500 including commission, beating the $90,000 high pre-sale estimate. It was bought by a private U.S. collector.
Three of the sale's top 10 lots were purchased by the CF Martin & Co. Museum in Nazareth, Pa., including a 1931 CF Martin guitar and case that went for $62,500, right in the middle of the pre-sale estimate range.
Richard Gere
Centenary Marked
South Pole
Dramatic black-and-white photographs, a frost-touched flag and other artifacts are going on display at Buckingham Palace to mark the 100th anniversary of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole.
Scott is an icon of the heroic age of polar exploration who reached the South Pole in January 1912 only to discover that he'd been narrowly beaten by Norway's Roald Amundsen.
Scott perished with four companions on the trek back to base camp. His stoicism in the face of doom burnished his stature as a national hero.
Photographs from the expedition are being shown at the palace on Oct. 21 along with other artifacts, including a Union Jack flown at the South Pole and later found with Scott's body.
South Pole
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