'Best of TBH Politoons'
Today & Tomorrow
Erin Hart
Feast on Talk with Erin Hart
today, Thanksgiving Thursday (22 November), and Friday (23 November), filling in for Jay Marvin on
Boulder's Progressive Talk AM760.net
from 6am - 10am MST (8am - noon EST / 7am - 11am CST / 5am - 9am PST).
Will a few hundred thousand in Iowa decide the nominees for the Democrats?
Is Hillary regaining ground? Obama and Edwards are running neck and neck.
And what does that mean to the rest of us?
The Republicans are in disarray--Rudy is dealing with Bernie-gate--look for
Judith Regan to drop more bombshells--he may need more than 9-1-1, a verb
and a noun in a sentence (thanks Joe Biden!) to save him. Mike Huckabee is
funny, but he doesn't believe in evolution or other principles of scientific
fact.
Has the war dropped in your priorities? Are the Dems fighting hard enough
or are Congressional and Constitutional realities making it tough?
Or with housing drops and health insurance rises, is it again the "economy,
stupid"? Where and what are your political priorities?
Immigration is a topic we cannot pass up at a Thanksgiving feast. Pause to
be grateful while we are passing the gravy.
Think I'm a guest today - probably in the last hour of the show. Give us a call!
PURPLE GENE'S
PORTA-POTTY POETRY
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: Thanksgiving (from 2002; creators.com)
Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays. But there is something almost un-American about it. It is a day opposed to striving, to getting more. Time to stop adding up the numbers on the scorecard of life. We freeze in place, look at our situation and give thanks for whatever is there.
Andrew Tobias: TG
I feel so blessed (in a secular way) I could cry.
Jim Hightower: CONGRESSIONAL BETRAYAL (jimhightower.com)
Bush's approval rating is down to a new low of 24 percent in the latest Zogby Poll. Before Democrats gloat, however, note that Congress's approval rating is down to - brace yourself - 11 percent. ... The Democratic congress's approval rating is so low because... well, they deserve it for so gutlessly betraying us.
Will Durst: No Nukes For You!
Whether or not Bush gives a country nukes boils down to this: its not enough for them to be like us, they also have to actually like us.
Digby: The GOP Has Become the Party of Moral Depravity (TomPaine.com; Posted on AlterNet.org)
The conservative movement made hay for 40 years claiming that liberals were "morally depraved." Let's look at the record.
Andre Banks: Howard Zinn's "Rebel Voices: A Call for Civil Disobedience" (AlterNet.org)
Rebel Voices, the dramatic counterpart to Howard Zinn's work, brings together American voices pulled from speeches, articles, memoirs and interviews to highlight a national tradition in short supply in recent years: civil disobedience.
My wild life (guardian.co.uk)
Singer Emily Maguire thought her UK tour would involve playing a few folk clubs - but ended up onstage at the Albert Hall. She tells Emine Saner about her rough-and-ready life in the Australian outback, the python behind her piano and how a car crash changed her life for the better.
Christopher Goodwin: Dangerous waters (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
With a new film released this week, Werner Herzog tells why he'll go to great lengths to tell an extraordinary story.
Barbara Ehrenreich: Roaches in the World's Most Expensive Dessert (ehrenreich.blogs.com)
Can you spare a tear for the ultra-rich? One week after achieving the Guinness World record for the world's most expensive dessert - a $25,000 "Frrozen Haute Chocolate" containing 5 grams of edible 23-karat gold - the New York restaurant Serendipity 3 was shut down by the health department.
Sidelines (guardian.co.uk)
Alice Wignall on toys for boys | 'Dumb' blondes | Random acts of feminism.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Plans of Adan Garcia
A Holiday Remembrance
Reader Update
Klutzo the Clown
Klutzo the Clown Tasered..Klutzo Dead
Accused sex offender A. Paul Carlock, who performed for children as Klutzo
the Clown, died Friday morning ....
KevKev in Apache Junction
How grim! Thanks, KevKev!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still foggy & cool
Blocks 'Recess' Appointments
Senate
Two days before Thanksgiving the Senate had a 22-second session, a fleeting moment in the life of an occasionally droning body but plenty of time for majority Democrats to keep President Bush from making "recess" appointments.
Senators have been taking turns standing sentry duty this week - just to prevent Bush from circumventing the confirmation process by immediately installing people in federal posts while the chamber is in recess. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who carried out that less than glamorous task Tuesday, is a relative newcomer, a low-ranking freshman and a senator who lives just minutes from the Capitol; he wielded his gavel before an empty chamber Tuesday, devoid of senators and even the young pages who serve as messengers.
"I'd much rather be doing this than allow the president to skirt the confirmation process in the Senate," Webb said in a statement. "This is an exercise in protecting the Constitution and our constitutional process."
Senate
Finally Get Hollywood Star
Munchkins
The Yellow Brick Road finally ended on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday as the Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz" got their star after a 68-year wait.
Seven of the nine surviving Munchkins -- thought to be the only living actors from the 1939 movie classic -- traveled from across the United States to see their star unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard.
Tuesday's honor was the result of a campaign led by a Chicago movie theater owner Ted Bulthaup, who became friends with some of the Munchkin actors a few years ago and was amazed to learn that they did not have a star on the Walk of Fame.
A petition drive and support from Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Garland friend Mickey Rooney helped the Munchkins earn their pink travertine plaque.
Munchkins
AP Challenges Photographer's Detention
Bilal Hussein
A series of accusations raised by the U.S. military against an Associated Press photographer detained for 19 months in Iraq are false or meaningless, according to an intensive AP investigation of the case made public Wednesday.
Evidence and testimony collected by the AP show no support for allegations that Bilal Hussein took part in insurgent activities or bomb-making, and few of the images he provided dealt directly with Iraqi insurgents.
"Despite the fact that Hussein has not been interrogated since May 2006, allegations have been dropped or modified over time, and new claims added, all without any explanation," said the nearly 50-page report compiled last spring by lawyer and former federal prosecutor Paul Gardephe.
The U.S. military notified the AP last weekend that it intended to submit a complaint against Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29. Under Iraqi codes, an investigative magistrate will decide whether there are grounds to try Hussein, who was seized in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on April 12, 2006. The AP has retained Gardephe to defend Hussein before the Iraqi court.
Bilal Hussein
Blasphemy Hearing Winds Up
BBC
A court hearing about whether a Christian activist can prosecute British state broadcaster BBC under blasphemy laws wound up on Wednesday, and judges will deliver a written verdict at a later date.
Stephen Green of Christian Voice was at London's High Court this week to try to overturn a decision by a district judge not to allow him to pursue his case against BBC director-general Mark Thompson and Jon Thoday.
Thoday is the producer of musical "Jerry Springer-The Opera," which the BBC aired in 2005. Green argues that the show is blasphemous, likening Jesus to "the perv in a nappy."
Civil liberties group Liberty, which made a written submission in the case, called Britain's blasphemy law "outdated" and "ripe for repeal," and argued that the offence of blasphemy violated the European Convention on Human Rights.
BBC
'Song of America'
Janet Reno
Though Janet Reno is credited as the executive producer of "Song of America," a three-disc boxed set that chronicles the history of the United States in song, she is quick to downplay her role.
"I had the easy way," Reno, the former U.S. attorney general, told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
But while her nephew-in-law, producer Ed Pettersen, may have done a lot of the heavy lifting on "Song of America," which features new interpretations of seminal songs like "Dixie's Land" and "The Times They Are A Changin'," the set reflects Reno's vision.
Through 50 songs, reinterpreted by artists including John Mellencamp, the Black Crowes, Martha Wainwright and Devendra Banhart, the story of America and the different challenges it has faced, from war to racism to the Depression, is retold for today's audiences.
For an interview - Janet Reno
Hospital News
Quaid Twins
The newborn twins of actor Dennis Quaid were among three patients accidentally given 1,000 times the common dosage of a blood thinner, but hospital officials said that none of the overdose victims had suffered any ill effects.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center declined to identify the patients, but a representative for the actor told The Associated Press that they included the two-week-old children of Quaid and wife Kimberly, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace.
"Dennis and Kimberly appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers and hope they can maintain their privacy during this difficult time," Quaid's publicist, Cara Tripicchio, said in a statement.
Quaid Twins
Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back
Wounded Soldier
The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.
Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
One of them is Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills.
Wounded Soldier
Judge Orders Broadway Show To Reopen
"The Grinch"
All the Whos down in Whoville will have holiday work this year after a Manhattan judge ordered the Broadway production of "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas!" to reopen despite the ongoing stagehands strike.
"I'm going to grant the injunction" against the lockout, state Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman said Wednesday. "I think one Grinch in town in enough."
Her ruling came a day after she heard arguments from producers of the show and owners of the theater housing the $6 million production. Producers, citing a special contract between the show and Jujamcyn Theaters, wanted the show to go on.
The theater owners plan to appeal Freedman's decision. But unless they prevail, the "Grinch" will return with an 11 a.m. show Friday, said John Kuster, attorney for the producers.
"The Grinch"
Under Fire After Guest Killed
Spanish Talkshow
A Spanish television station faced demands to scrap a popular talk show on Wednesday after a man stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death just days after she refused a marriage proposal broadcast on the program.
In a case recalling similar incidents in the United States, the Spanish man, who was shown on his knees unsuccessfully begging the Russian woman to take him back, went to her home in Alicante five days later and stabbed her fatally in the neck.
The Association of Television Viewers in the eastern region of Catalonia demanded that television station Antena 3 drop its popular "Patricia's Diary" show, which attracts more than 2 million viewers a day.
With a constant parade of weeping, quarrelling guests, Patricia's Diary specializes in getting ordinary people to reveal their most intimate problems and confront errant loved ones in front of an afternoon television audience.
Spanish Talkshow
Denied Japan Visas
Velvet Revolver
Grammy Award-winning U.S. hard rock band Velvet Revolver said it would not perform in Japan this month as scheduled because the authorities had refused them visas due to previous run-ins with the law.
Japanese immigration officials appear to have taken exception to the backgrounds of various band members "which have included arrests," the band said in a statement on its Web site.
A spokesman for the immigration department at the Justice Ministry said he could not comment on individual cases.
But under Japanese law, anyone with a drug conviction can be refused entry.
Velvet Revolver
Allies Defend Punishment For Rape Victim
Saudis
The Saudi judiciary on Tuesday defended a court verdict that sentenced a 19-year-old victim of a gang rape to six months in jail and 200 lashes because she was with an unrelated male when they were attacked.
The Shiite Muslim woman had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicted of violating Saudi Arabia's rigid Islamic law requiring segregation of the sexes.
But in considering her appeal of the verdict, the Saudi General Court increased the punishment. It also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the woman, Saudi news media said last week.
The reports triggered an international outcry over the Saudis punishing the victim of a terrible crime.
Saudis
Debate Over Who Wrote Line
'Don't Squeeze the Charmin?'
Never mind any questions of whether any squeezing actually took place. The real question is who gets credit for creating the catchphrase "Please don't squeeze the Charmin."
Just days after the death of actor Dick Wilson, who portrayed harried store clerk Mr. Whipple in Charmin commercials, two retired copy writers are each claiming they were the one who wrote the line.
Norman Schaut and John Chervokas, both in their 70s, say they worked at New York ad firm Benton & Bowles in the early 1960s but did not know one another. Both have clear memories of being the originator of the phrase at the center of the campaign that Advertising Age magazine ranked the 51st best of the 20th century.
A spokeswoman for Proctor & Gamble said there's no paper trail proving which Benton & Bowles employee brainstormed the enduring slogan.
'Don't Squeeze the Charmin?'
New Category Of Star
Oddball White Dwarfs
Eight unusual examples of a burned-out celestial object known as a white dwarf detected in our Milky Way galaxy represent a previously unknown category of stars, astronomers said on Wednesday.
White dwarfs mark the end point in stellar evolution for all but the most massive of stars in the universe, with about 97 percent of stars, including our sun, destined to finish their existence this way, according to astronomers.
White dwarfs result from the collapse of star cores in dying stars whose nuclear fusion has ceased. They usually have a mass about that of the sun, but are only a bit larger than Earth because they have blown off their outer layers, leaving behind only a small, dim and extremely dense core.
University of Arizona astrophysicist Patrick Dufour said previously known white dwarfs have fallen into two categories: those with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and those with a helium-rich atmosphere. But Dufour and three other scientists, writing in the journal Nature, described eight white dwarfs that break the mold by possessing carbon atmospheres.
Oddball White Dwarfs
Sells For $1M
"Tres Personajes"
An abstract masterpiece by a Mexican artist that was found in the trash by a woman who knew little about modern art has been sold for more than $1 million.
The painting "Tres Personajes" by Rufino Tamayo was discovered in 2003 by Elizabeth Gibson, who spotted it on her morning walk on Manhattan's Upper West Side. She said she took it home because "even though I didn't understand it, I knew it had power."
The brightly colored abstract work was purchased for $1,049,000 by an unidentified private American collector bidding by phone at Sotheby's Latin American Art sale Tuesday night.
Gibson spent four years trying to find out about the painting, finally discovering on the "Antiques Roadshow" Web site that it had been featured on the popular PBS program and described as a missing masterpiece stolen in 1989.
"Tres Personajes"
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Nov. 12-18. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses.
1. NFL Football: 49ers vs. Seahawks (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 6.67 million homes, 8.96 million viewers.
2. "SpongeBob: Atlantis SquarePantis" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 5.30 million homes, 8.76 million viewers.
3. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 7:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.92 million homes, 5.96 million viewers.
4. "SpongeBob: Atlantis SquarePantis" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.79 million homes, 5.20 million viewers.
5. "Behind the Pantis" (Monday, 8:45 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.75 million homes, 5.77 million viewers.
6. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 6:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.70 million homes, 5.37 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 7 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.56 million homes, 5.28 million viewers.
8. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.45 million homes, 5.10 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 6 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.40 million homes, 4.86 million viewers.
10. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.37 million homes, 4.61 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.31 million homes, 4.99 million viewers.
12. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.31 million homes, 4.96 million viewers.
13. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.23 million homes, 4.50 million viewers.
14. Democratic Presidential Debate (Thursday, 8 p.m.), CNN, 3.10 million homes, 4.04 million viewers.
15. "Back at the Barnyard" (Sunday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.10 million homes, 4.30 million viewers.
Ratings
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