'Best of TBH Politoons'
Tonight
Erin Hart Show
Please join
Erin Hart
9pm to 1am PST tonight, tomorrow & Monday on 710 KIRO
as she sits in for Mike Webb.
And also on Boulder's Progressive Talk AM760.net on Dec 27th and 28th, from 5am to 9am PST.
Audio streams live - 710KIRO.com.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
House Judiciary Committee Minority Staff: Report | The Constitution in Crisis (Posted at truthout.org)
In brief, we have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war with Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and other legal violations in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration.
Paul Krugman: Tankers on the Take (The New York Times; posted on topplebush.com)
... I never had any illusions about intellectual integrity in the world of right-wing think tanks. It has been clear for a long time that so-called analysts at many of these think tanks are, in effect, paid to support selected policies and politicians. But it never occurred to me that the pay-for-play schemes were so blatant.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN): Pentagon Labels Gay Kiss-In A 'Credible Threat'
WASHINGTON, DC - According to recent press reports, Pentagon officials have been spying on what they call "suspicious" meetings by civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel.
Dr. Mark H. Shapiro : Looking Out for Number One (irascibleprofessor.com)
Two items crossed the Irascible Professor's desk recently that show the extent to which school and university administrators protect their own to the detriment of both faculty members and students.
Poor Elijah (Peter Berger): Great Expectations (irascibleprofessor.com)
Nearly twenty years ago a movie about math class won an Oscar nomination. Stand and Deliver told the story of a room full of poor, mostly Hispanic potential dropouts and their teacher, Jaime Escalante. In the film Mr. Escalante's high school students progressed from not knowing arithmetic to mastering calculus in a single term, largely because he expected great things of them. In real life it didn't happen that way. Mr. Escalante spent over a decade building his math program, including a sequence of feeder courses beginning in junior high. The real kids who made it through his high-flying calculus class worked for years to get there.
MARTHA RAFFAELE: Judge Rules Against Pa. Biology Curriculum (Associated Press)
HARRISBURG, Pa. - In one of the biggest courtroom clashes between faith and evolution since the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a federal judge barred a Pennsylvania public school district Tuesday from teaching "intelligent design" in biology class, saying the concept is creationism in disguise.
Sean Gonsalves: Is the U.S. Becoming a Police State?
Martin Luther King -- the most celebrated dove in American history -- was spied on because he was considered a threat. That means none of us is safe.
Norman Solomon: Announcing the P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2005
SELF-PRAISE STEALTH PRIZE -- William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer Effusive with praise for George W. Bush's second inaugural address on Jan. 20, Kristol told Fox News viewers that they'd just watched "a very eloquent speech ... one of the most powerful speeches, one of the most impressive speeches, I think I've seen an American president give." Appearing on the same network, Krauthammer was no less enthusiastic as he likened Bush to John F. Kennedy and called the speech "revolutionary." But neither pundit mentioned that they'd been advisers who helped to write the speech.
Annalee Newitz: Best. Monster. Ever. (AlterNet.org)
Monster stories are morality tales, and Peter Jackson's 'King Kong' is no different.
ROGER EBERT: "Forbidden Games" (A Great Movie)
We must turn to the past for a film as innocent as "Forbidden Games" (1952), because our own time is too cynical to support it. Here is a film about children using their powers of fantasy and denial to deal with death in wartime. A modern film would back away from the horror and soften and sentimentalize it. It would become a "children's film." But in all times children have survived experiences that no child should have to endure.
Roger Ebert: Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
There are individual moments of great beauty. One involves a night when the children catch fireflies and use them to illuminate their cave. The next day, Seita finds his little sister carefully burying the dead insects--as she imagines her mother was buried. There is another sequence in which the girl prepares "dinner" for her brother by using mud to make "rice balls" and other imaginary delicacies. And note the timing and the use of silence in a sequence where they find a dead body on the beach, and then more bombers appear far away in the sky.
ROGER EBERT: Purple Noon
If you've read Patricia High.smith's novels about Tom Ripley, you know they can make your skin crawl. Ripley is a criminal of intelligence and cunning who gets away with murder. He's charming and literate, and a monster.
Patriotic E-card
In These Times cartoons
Hubert's Poetry Corner
BROTHER PAT'S ODD JIHAD
Reader Comment
Re: Dover
Hi Marty,
I thought you would enjoy this.
Enjoy,
Chris
Daily Record/Sunday News
Dec 21, 2005 - They lied.
William Buckingham and Alan Bonsell wanted to bring God into high school
biology class, and in the process, they lied.
They lied about their motives.
They lied about their actions.
They lied about what they did or didn't say at public meetings.
They even lied when they claimed newspaper reporters lied in stories about
Dover school board meetings.
In his ruling on the Dover case, U.S. Judge John E. Jones III said it was
"ironic" that individuals who "proudly touted their religious convictions
in public" would "lie" under oath.
Yes, ironic - at the very least. But also sinful according to the 9th
Commandment.
Source
Thanks, Chris!
Yep, there's enough irony to open a mine.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & warm.
Dear old Dad & the Babe's flight was delayed a couple of hours, even though the website of the airline said the plane was on time. So much for modern technology.
It turned out the airline's baggage eating equipment was ravenous, and the Babe's bag was shredded. Literally. Her shoes were spilled down the carousel, her undergarments got a good public airing and everything left in her makeup bag was one congealed mess of broken glass & goo.
The remaining pair of jeans looked like lacy denim leggings - only the waistband was intact.
The women who worked in the baggage claim area were very pleasant & took care of the claim, but what a way to start a vacation.
Of course the airline won't be cutting a check anytime soon, especially with the holidays, so instead of buying presents for her grandkids in Arizona, she has to replace her clothes & 'stuff'.
Added 2 new flags - Luxembourg (#99) & Senegal (#100)
Aids Charity for Nomads
Robert Plant
Robert Plant has secured a $60,000 donation for a Carefree, Ariz.-based charitable organization that aids nomadic people in drought-stricken West Africa.
Plant, former frontman for Led Zeppelin, had committed proceeds from a four-song CD by his band, Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation, but it failed to generate the royalties he had expected.
The 57-year-old rocker made an appeal to PAR Charitable Trust, a small grant-making organization, which agreed to make up the financial gap needed to build and operate school dorms for 200 children for three years, TurtleWill founder Irma Turtle said recently.
TurtleWill offers medical treatment, school funding and employment training for tribal people in remote regions of Ethiopia, Mali and Niger.
Robert Plant
Ties the Knot
John - Furnish
Britain's showbiz royalty - Sir Elton John and Canadian filmmaker David Furnish - exchanged vows and diamond wedding bands Wednesday during a ceremony that capped the first week of legalized civil unions in the United Kingdom.
Opting to use the 17th century town hall where Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles wed in April, John and Furnish sealed their union with a kiss before facing hundreds of photographers and fans packed together on the cobbled streets around Windsor's town hall.
Furnish, a Canadian-born filmmaker, and John have been together for 12 years. Both have said they understand the implications of their union.
The few who attended included John's mother, Sheila, and stepfather Fred, and Furnish's parents, Gladys and Jack.
John - Furnish
Dismisses Sitcom Role
Al Sharpton
Report:
Al Sharpton, who was previously in talks with CBS to star in a sitcom, says he's not interested in being a TV star after all.
The Democrat, who has run for president, mayor of New York and the Senate, was earlier this month reported to be working with CBS on a pilot tentatively titled, "Al in the Family" - an allusion to the Archie Bunker classic `70s show.
The 51-year-old activist-minister said there had been discussions with Paramount Television, but those talks had ended. The show was to have been about a family with "conflicting social and political views."
Al Sharpton
Join ABC's Final MNF
Gifford & Meredith
"Dandy" Don Meredith and Frank Gifford will return to ABC a final time Monday to bid farewell to "Monday Night Football" in its last game on the broadcast network.
Neither Meredith nor Gifford, who were part of a three-man broadcasting team with the late Howard Cosell, will appear live when the New York Jets play host to the New England Patriots at 9 p.m. ET Monday. They will appear in taped segments that will air at the opening of the game.
Gifford, the former New York Giants star who appeared on "Monday Night Football" from 1971-97, appeared in a retrospective on the show's 500th program. But Meredith -- part of the original on-air team with Cosell and Keith Jackson -- has continually declined to come out of retirement.
Gifford & Meredith
Seeks Clemency
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke has asked New Jersey's acting governor to grant clemency to a 65-year-old woman who has been in prison for more than 16 years for murdering her police officer-boyfriend.
The 35-year-old actor said in an e-mail Tuesday that his mother knows Melvina McClain, who is serving a 30-year-old sentence for shooting Detective Louis Glenn in a bar in 1986, and that she "believes in her entirely."
McClain, who worked as a city parking violations officer, has claimed that Glenn assaulted and threatened her during their relationship.
The request for clemency has the backing of the state Office of the Public Defender, which filed a clemency petition in June with the State Parole Board.
Ethan Hawke
Hospital News
David Ewart
A former violinist for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was burned on his hands in a house fire that also critically injured his son and his father and destroyed a priceless violin, officials said.
Violinist David Ewart, 48, was listed in critical but stable condition at the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks with second-and third-degree burns to his face, hands, chest and back, said hospital spokeswoman Debbie Groveman.
Ewart has performed on more than 800 recordings by artists including Neil Diamond, Ricky Martin and Elvis Costello, and on the soundtracks for movies such as Spider-Man 2, The Notebook-TAB and Million Dollar Baby.
The fire early Tuesday gutted the family home, with damage estimated at $1.5 million US, fire inspector Ron Haralson said. The cause had not been determined.
David Ewart
Cape Cod Home For Sale
Jack Kerouac
The Cape Cod house once owned by Beat writer Jack Kerouac is up for sale.
In 1966, Kerouac, best known for his book On the Road, moved with his mother from Florida to Hyannis. The hard-drinking writer had just finished Sartori in Paris. After his mother suffered a stroke, Kerouac married his third wife, childhood acquaintance Stella Sampas, at the house on Nov. 18, 1966.
By 1967, the Kerouacs had moved to Lowell, where the writer was born. At least three other families have owned the Cape Cod house since then, according to property records.
The current owner of the three-bedroom, two-bath house, James Upton, said with his three children now grown he no longer needs the space. He bought it in 1986 for $115,000 US and is now asking $356,000.
Jack Kerouac
3 Stabbed at Record Party
Notorious B.I.G.
Three people were stabbed early Wednesday at a Manhattan club that was hosting a record-release party for a new collection of duets featuring slain rapper Notorious B.I.G.
Detectives also were investigating a shooting near the club, named Exit, that occurred around the same time. It was unclear if the two incidents were related.
Police said that at 3:10 a.m. patrol officers heard gunfire at a parking garage near the club. Inside, they found three men with gunshot wounds; all were taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Notorious B.I.G.
Opening For Stones
Brooks & Dunn
One of country's hardest rock bands will open for one of rock's hardest country bands. Brooks & Dunn will warm up for the Rolling Stones in Omaha, Neb., Jan. 29.
"We've thrown around the concept of opening for the Stones forever," singer Ronnie Dunn said Tuesday. "I can't believe we're doing it."
When the duo got word of the invitation from their manager, they were told not to call or tell anyone until it was final.
Brooks & Dunn
Lawyers Fight Restraining Order
David Letterman
Lawyers for David Letterman want a judge to quash a restraining order granted to a Santa Fe woman who contends the CBS late-night host used code words to show he wanted to marry her and train her as his co-host.
A state judge granted a temporary restraining order to Colleen Nestler, who alleged in a request filed last Thursday that Letterman has forced her to go bankrupt and caused her "mental cruelty" and "sleep deprivation" since May 1994.
Nestler requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least 3 yards away and not "think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering."
Lawyers for Letterman, in a motion filed Tuesday, contend the order is without merit and asked state District Judge Daniel Sanchez to quash it.
David Letterman
Pulled From Nebraska Lake
Double-Mouthed Trout
This fish didn't have a chance. A rainbow trout pulled out of Holmes Lake last weekend had double the chance to get hooked: It had two mouths.
Clarence Olberding, 57, wasn't just telling a fisherman's fib when he called over another angler to look at the two-mouthed trout. It weighed in at about a pound.
"I reached down and grabbed it to take the hook out, and that's when I noticed that the hook was in the upper mouth and there was another jaw protruding out below," said Olberding.
Don Gabelhouse, head of the fisheries division of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said a two-mouthed fish was new to him, too.
Double-Mouthed Trout
Inspired 'Hamlet' - Said Haunted
Kronborg Castle
There is something spooky going on around the Danish castle that inspired William Shakespeare as the scene for his play Hamlet.
Employees insist that the grounds inside the bastion of the 431-year-old Kronborg Castle are haunted.
It all started in June, when a new restaurant, called Kronvaerket, opened at the castle, Jeannett Pedersen, of the restaurant staff, said Wednesday.
Most of the employees have reported strange happenings at the restaurant, such as two seeing inexplicable gray shadows waft by and another claiming to have seen the ghost of an old man in the kitchen, Pedersen said.
Kronborg Castle
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
