'Best of TBH Politoons'
PURPLE GENE'S
PORTA-POTTY POETRY
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Greg Mitchell: Columnists War Breaks Out at 'NYT' (Editor & Publisher. Posted on AlterNet.org)
New York Times columnists Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman and David Brooks battle it out over Reagan and racism.
Annalee Newitz: Who to Vote For When the Top Candidate Stinks
Sometimes when there are no good candidates at the moment, you have to vote for the one who'll be best in the future.
Mark Morford: Outrage fatigue? Get over it (sfgate.com)
Are you sick of being sick? Suffering way too much Bush-induced nausea? Well, tough.
Warren Buffett and NBC's Tom Brokaw: The Complete Interview (cnbc.com)
Tom: Are you surprised there's not more talk in this presidential campaign about economic fairness and economic justice?
Warren: Yeah. I-- I-- I am surprised-- it may be that everybody wants to be cautious-- while they're looking to get nominated, but-- but the degree to which the-- economic-- well, the taxation system has tilted toward the rich and away from the middle class in the last ten years is-- is dramatic, and I don't think it's appreciated. And I think it should be addressed.
Jim Hightower: MERRILL LYNCH CHIEF TAKES A FALL (jimhightower.com)
... he gets $5.4 million in deferred pay. Then there's a nice cushion of $27.4 million in pension money for him. Also, to make his fall feather soft, O'Neal was given $131.4 million in stock payments. That adds up to more than $160 million - not bad for poor performance! It certainly is far-cushier treatment than he gave to the 20,000 Merrill workers that he so mercilessly fired when he became CEO five years ago.
Leo Benedictus: Meet Amazon's star music reviewer (guardian.co.uk)
Ever heard of Peter Harris? He is a 56-year-old former IT executive living in Leicester. No? Well there's a good chance that you have seen his work, because Harris is an online superstar - the undisputed No 1 reviewer on Amazon.co.uk.
Another side of Dylan (guardian.co.uk)
He has been painting for years - but it has fallen to a tiny gallery in eastern Germany to stage Bob Dylan's first exhibition. Kate Connolly reports.
James Bone: The six-year love affair with Liz that netted Hugh Grant a $17m profit (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Hugh Grant made millions of dollars last night from his six-year love affair with a screen goddess called Liz.The star of "Notting Hill" had a long relationship with the actress Liz Hurley, but the money came instead from his obsession with film legend Elizabeth Taylor.
Reviewed by Helena Frith-Powell: 'Memoirs' by Nana Mouskouri with Lionel Duroy (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
I have always been fascinated by Nana Mouskouri. She is the singer with the strange name and the big black glasses. I can't name of any of her songs, but I picked up her book, called simply Memoirs, with a feeling of anticipation. Now I might finally get an answer to the question that has been puzzling me for years: why does she always wear those big black glasses?
Free Download: Phoenix Tales: Stories of Death & Life by Gregory Bernard Banks (lulu.com)
Life, death, hope, faith, spirituality, love, and the deeper mysteries behind them all, are the best ways to sum up the overall theme for "Phoenix Tales: Stories of Death & Life." This collection of literary short stories blends fantasy with splashes of science fiction and horror to tell seventeen dark and unique tales. Each story in some way puts its lead character into situations where life or death choices must be made.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and hot.
Thurman & Jones Hosting
Nobel Peace Concert
Uma Thurman will join Tommy Lee Jones as co-host of the Nobel Peace Concert honoring former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s climate change panel, organizers announced Wednesday.
The Dec. 11 concert, held the day after the Nobel Peace Prize is presented in Oslo, draws top music and film stars, and is broadcast to more than 100 countries, a news release said.
Organizers earlier announced that Jones, who was Gore's roommate at Harvard University, would be one of the concert's hosts.
The lineup of performers includes Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox and Melissa Etheridge, who won an Academy Award this year for the song "I Need to Wake Up," which was featured in Gore's environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
Nobel Peace Concert
People's `Sexiest Man Alive'
Matt Damon
Matt Damon has been named the "sexiest man alive" by People magazine, an honor that has been bestowed twice on his pals George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
The 37-year-old actor is featured on the cover of People's annual issue, on newsstands Friday. Damon, who is married to Luciana Bozan, said the honor came as a surprise.
People's "sexiest man alive" list began in 1985 with Mel Gibson. Others on the list: Clooney (1997 and 2006), Pitt (1995 and 2000), Denzel Washington (1996) and Johnny Depp (2003).
Matt Damon
Bush Tops List
`Frigid 50'
He's not exactly a movie star. He doesn't even play one on TV. But resident Bush nonetheless has been named the coldest person in Hollywood.
The online magazine Film Threat placed Bush at the top of its "Frigid 50," an annual ranking of the "least-powerful, least-inspiring and least-intriguing people in Hollywood" in contrast to the "hot" lists that celebrity magazines often compile.
Film Threat's editors point out that Bush has been parodied in movies like "Transformers" and "American Dreamz" and scrutinized in documentaries such as "Sicko" and "No End in Sight."
"With all due respect to Hollywood," they wrote, "the mighty W is as much a cinema celebrity as the next despotic tyrant."
`Frigid 50'
Spielberg & Willis
Golden Globes
Steven Spielberg will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" at the 2008 Golden Globe Awards.
Josh Brolin made the announcement Wednesday at The Beverly Hilton, calling Spielberg a "one-of-a-kind talent."
Spielberg will be presented with the Cecil B. DeMille trophy at the 65th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 13. The awards will air live on NBC.
Rumer Willis, 19, the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, was named Miss Golden Globe, who assists in the awards ceremony. The honor is traditionally granted to the offspring of a well-known celebrity.
Golden Globes
Sweden Celebrates
Astrid Lindgren
Sweden celebrated the life of its most beloved children's book author, Pippi Longstocking creator Astrid Lindgren, on the 100th anniversary of her birth on Wednesday.
Around 1,000 children gathered in the southeastern Swedish town of Vimmerby where Lindgren was born a century ago to sing songs she wrote, lay wreaths on her grave and participate in a torch-light procession to her childhood home.
Junibacken, a children's theme park that recreates Lindgren's fantasy world and is one of the most visited spots in the Swedish capital, also threw a birthday bash for the author, who died on January 28, 2002. It offered the day's visitors cake and juice and a range of theatre pieces based on her books.
Astrid Lindgren
Wedding News
Pompeo - Ivery
Ellen Pompeo, who plays Dr. Meredith Grey on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," tied the knot with record producer Chris Ivery last Friday in a ceremonial office at City Hall, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a witness.
Pompeo, 38, and Ivery became engaged last November, after dating for three years. In an interview last August, she said they didn't plan a big ceremony because "we want one thing to ourselves."
Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Patti Harris were the two witnesses, and an official from the city clerk's office performed the ceremony, Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said.
Pompeo - Ivery
Hospital News
Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace, who gave birth to twins earlier this month, has been hospitalized with blood clots in her lungs, a complication of her recent pregnancy.
"She was brought to the emergency room in Atlanta," CNN spokeswoman Janine Iamunno said in a statement Tuesday. "Her doctors found two blood clots in her lungs, which occurred as a result of the pregnancy. She is currently recovering and is expected to be released by the end of the week."
Grace, 48, gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, after doctors induced labor two months before her due date. The babies were born Nov. 4. John David weighed 5 pounds, 1 ounce and Lucy Elizabeth weighed 2 pounds, 15 ounces.
She had developed a pulmonary edema - fluid in the lungs - and doctors told her it would be better for her health, and that of the children, if they induced labor early, the network said.
Nancy Grace
Rupert & Rudi! & Bernie
Judith Regan
One-time book publishing powerhouse Judith Regan filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit Tuesday saying her former employers asked her to lie to federal investigators about Bernard Kerik, the former police commissioner who was once her lover, and tried to destroy her reputation.
Regan, who worked for HarperCollins Publishers LLC, said the smear campaign stems from her past intimate relationship with Kerik, who was police commissioner under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and from the political agenda of News Corp., the parent company of HarperCollins.
Regan, 54, says in court papers that News Corp.'s political agenda centers on Giuliani's presidential ambitions. It was Giuliani, a Republican, who appointed Kerik police commissioner and recommended him to resident Bush for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Regan says "it is now widely accepted" that one of Giuliani's vulnerabilities is the 52-year-old Kerik. Because of Regan's affair with Kerik, court papers say, a senior News Corp. executive told her he believed she had information about Kerik that could hurt Giuliani's campaign and she should lie to federal investigators.
Judith Regan
How Low Will Faux Go?
"Family Guy"
Fox is producing fresh episodes of its animated comedy "Family Guy" without the participation of its striking creator Seth MacFarlane, who does many of the main voices, sources said.
The last episode completed before the Writers Guild of America strike began November 5 aired Sunday. Fox and sibling studio 20th Century Fox TV had the choice of going into reruns or continuing the show without MacFarlane, whose outspoken defiance of his employers has made him a cause celebre for striking writers.
20th TV had no comment on the matter Tuesday but confirmed that it remains in production on new episodes. The first episode finished without MacFarlane's blessing has been delivered to Fox. Sources said it is one of three very close to completion, with others in various stages of production.
In addition to executive-producing the show, MacFarlane voices the characters of Peter, Brian and Stewie Griffin, the male members of the hapless Rhode Island family at the core of the domestic satire.
"Family Guy"
Cancels NYC Show Tapings
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres has pulled the plug on plans to tape her show next week in New York, where Writers Guild East members had vowed to protest her decision to stay on the air during their strike.
Michael Winship, president of the East Coast branch of the Writers Guild, said the organization was "delighted" with DeGeneres' decision to stay on the West Coast.
"She knows that the Writers Guild East would have been there to protest her lack of solidarity, not only with her Guild writing staff but all the striking members of the Writers Guild, of which she is a member," Winship said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Ellen DeGeneres
Issue Threat
Catholic Bishops
Roman Catholic voters and lawmakers must heed church teaching on issues ranging from racism to abortion or risk their eternal salvation, U.S. bishops said Wednesday.
The bishops didn't recommend specific policies or candidates in the 2008 election, and emphasized that "principled debate" is needed to decide what bests promotes the common good. But they warned Catholics that their votes for politicians and laws affect more than just civic life.
While the 30-plus-page document touches widely on Catholic social justice teaching, the bishops said that fighting abortion should be a priority.
Catholic Bishops
Fish Can Live For Months Out Of Water
Mangrove Rivulus
A tropical fish that lives in mangrove swamps across the Americas can survive out of water for months at a time, similar to how animals adapted to land millions of years ago, a new study shows.
The Mangrove Rivulus, a type of small tropical killifish, seeks refuge in shallow pools of water in crab burrows, coconut shells or even old beer cans in the tropical mangrove swamps of Belize, the United States and Brazil.
When their habitat dries up, they live on the land in logs, said Scott Taylor, a researcher at the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Program in central Florida.
The fish, whose scientific name is Rivulus marmoratus, can grow as large as three inches. They group together in logs hollowed out by insects and breathe air through their skin instead of their gills until they can find water again.
Mangrove Rivulus
Discovered In Wales
P-38 Fighter
Sixty-five years after an American P-38 fighter plane ran out of gas and crash-landed on a beach in Wales, the long-forgotten World War II relic has emerged from the surf and sand where it lay buried.
Beach strollers, sunbathers and swimmers often frolicked within a few yards of the aircraft, unaware of its existence until last summer, when unusual weather caused the sand to shift and erode.
The revelation of the Lockheed "Lightning" fighter, with its distinctive twin-boom design, has stirred interest in British aviation circles and among officials of the country's aircraft museums, ready to reclaim another artifact from history's greatest armed conflict.
Based on its serial number and other records, "the fighter is arguably the oldest P-38 in existence, and the oldest surviving 8th Air Force combat aircraft of any type," said Ric Gillespie, who heads a U.S.-based nonprofit group dedicated to preserving historic aircraft. "In that respect it's a major find, of exceptional interest to British and American aviation historians."
P-38 Fighter
Lawsuit Continues
"Pittsburgh"
Jeff Goldblum's movie "Pittsburgh" can air on cable TV and otherwise be distributed but a judge refused Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a stagehand who objected to being the focus of a sexual double entendre in the film.
Debbie Sue Croyle sued the film's producers and directors and a cable channel currently airing the movie, saying she did not sign a release to appear in the "mockumentary," and that she was humiliated. Goldblum was not sued.
The movie centres on Goldblum's appearance in a 2004 Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera production of "The Music Man" at the Benedum Center, where Croyle worked as a stagehand.
In her scene, Goldblum uses sexual innuendo while Croyle rubs alcohol on his skin and blows air on it before trying to tape a microphone to him.
"Pittsburgh"
Sells For $16.2 Million
Diamond
An 84.37-carat white diamond touted by Sotheby's for its size and beauty sold at auction Wednesday to Guess clothing company founder Georges Marciano for just under $16.2 million.
The jewel - the largest top-quality, brilliant-cut white diamond ever to appear at auction - had been valued by Sotheby's at between $13.3 million and $17.8 million.
The diamond has received the highest possible grading, Sotheby's said. It is D-color, or finest white, has flawless clarity, and its cut, polish and symmetry have all been graded excellent, it said.
Diamond
Operating Manual Posted
Gitmo
The U.S. military's operating manual for the Guantanamo prison camp has been posted on the Internet, providing a glimpse of the broad rules and tiniest minutia for detaining suspected terrorists.
The 238-page manual, "Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta," is dated March 27, 2003, and signed by Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who was then the commander of the prison that still holds about 300 al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.
It appears to be an authentic copy of the rules as they existed at the time at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention operation, Lt. Col. Ed Bush, said on Wednesday.
The manual was posted last week on the Wikileaks.org Web site, which invites whistle-blowers around the world to anonymously publish state documents containing evidence of government corruption and injustice.
Gitmo
Mississippi Bound
Elvis is Alive Museum
Andy Key, 38, said he's "open to the possibility" Presley is alive, but he's counting on there being enough skeptics out there to make his new business a success.
With an $8,300 eBay bid, Key won the Elvis is Alive Museum's collection and plans to move the museum from its current site in Wright City, Mo., to Mississippi, where Key lives and Presley was born.
Included in the collection are photographs, books, FBI files, DNA reports and other memorabilia that aim to support the theory that Presley never died.
Key said he'd like the museum to complement the tourist attraction in Tupelo, Miss., where Presley was born and bought his first guitar. He's considering opening it in Laurel, Jackson or Hattiesburg, Miss.
Elvis is Alive Museum
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Nov. 5-11. Day and start time (Eastern) are in parentheses.
1. NFL Football: Ravens vs. Steelers (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 7.32 million homes, 9.89 million viewers.
2. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.69 million homes, 5.27 million viewers.
3. "Hannah Montana" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.54 million homes, 5.47 million viewers.
4. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.52 million homes, 5.13 million viewers.
5. Movie: "The Santa Clause" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.38 million homes, 5.10 million viewers.
6. Football: Michigan vs. Wisconsin (Saturday, 12:01 p.m.), ESPN, 3.34 million homes, 4.40 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.33 million homes, 4.52 million viewers.
8. "Wizards of Waverly Place" (Saturday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.05 million homes, 4.60 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.03 million homes, 4.01 million viewers.
10. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 12 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.952 million homes, 3.86 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 12 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.945 million homes, 4.36 million viewers.
12. "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" (Saturday, 7:30 p.m.), Disney, 2.93 million homes, 4.39 million viewers.
13. "South Park" (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), Comedy Central, 2.92 million homes, 3.97 million viewers.
14. "Wizards of Waverly Place" (Friday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 2.87 million homes, 4.01 million viewers.
15. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.85 million homes, 3.94 million viewers.
Ratings
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