'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader(s) Request
from Nancy [(and Shari) and Deb]
There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act
which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour
hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about
eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go
home only hours after surgery against the wishes of their doctor, still
groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.
Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a
petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House
signed on.
PLEASE!!!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below and
help women with breast cancer get the care they need and deserve!! There
is no cost or monetary pledge involved. You need not give more than your
name and zip code number.
www.lifetimetv.com/reallife/bc/pledges/bc_mast_pledge.html
~~ Nancy [(and Shari) and Deb]
Thanks, Nancy, & Shari, & Deb!
More than a few of my friends (& relatives) have experienced various 'drive-through' procedures. In comparable veterinary-surgery, the patient is hospitalized (at least) overnight.
3 readers thought this was important enough to send - please take a minute & click - thanks
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another overcast day.
The kid enjoyed his day off.
I don't know WTF is going on, but I'm having trouble with my mail. Currently, I use 5 mailboxes, divided among 3 ISP's. All of them are acting up. If you send mail and it bounces, please, send it again - and feel free to use a couple of addys at a time.
The ever-fabulous Michael Dare is either running late, or his e-mail bounced. Regardless, I'm bummed.
Did you acknowledge Bartcop's 1000th issue? A penny an issue is the deal of the 21st century! A thousand pennies would be $10. A thousand dimes - $100. A thousand $.....well, hope you get the idea. Make BartCop Radio happen!
Tonight, Tuesday, CBS opens with a FRESH 'JAG', followed by a FRESH 'The Guardian', and then
a FRESH 'Judging Amy'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Suarez, and Jay-Z.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers is TBA.
NBC starts with a 'special' - 'The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments 3', then a FRESH 'Frasier', followed by a FRESH
'AUSA', and wraps the night with the Season Finale of 'Kingpin.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are the Women of "The View", Trista Rehn, and Ben Taylor.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Christopher Walken, Laura Prepon, and Nada Surf.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Michael Clarke Duncan, Harland Williams, and Unwritten Law.
ABC offers a FRESH '8 Simple Rules', folloed by a FRESH 'Jim', then a
FRESH 'Bonnie', followed by a FRESH 'Less Than Perfect', and finally, a FRESH 'NYPD Blue'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Field Mob, Jamie Kennedy. Janeane Garofalo is this week's guest co-host.
The WB has a FRESH 'Gilmore Girls' and a FRESH 'Smallville'.
Faux has a FRESH 'American Idol', followed by a FRESH '24' (Day 2: 8pm - 9pm)
UPN opens with a FRESH 'Buffy', then a FRESH 'Abby', followed by a FRESH 'Half & Half'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Actor Danny Glover, second from right, and singer Bonnie Raitt , third from right, were among the thousands of people who turned out for anti-war protest in downtown San Francisco on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2003.
Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez
Pirated CNN Video
Faux
During coverage of the space shuttle Columbia's disintegration, the folks in CNN's control room thought the picture they saw on rival Fox News Channel looked familiar.
So they tried a little experiment.
The producers superimposed a tiny "CNN" logo on the upper left corner of the network's screen as it showed the shuttle breaking into pieces. Blip! The same logo appeared on Fox News Channel.
Then they decided to abruptly switch cameras so a picture of correspondent Miles O'Brien appeared. For two seconds — until it was hurriedly replaced with a view of NASA's mission control — it looked like O'Brien was working for Fox, too.
A Fox News Channel spokesman did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Earlier, a station representative told Broadcasting & Cable magazine that its request to explain the apparent piracy was "a waste of time."
For the rest, Faux
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Buys Web Publishing Tool Blogger
Google
Internet search company Google Inc. has agreed to acquire Pyra Labs, the handful of Web developers who helped jump-start the personal publishing phenomenon known as blogging, Pyra's founder said on Sunday.
Word of the deal spread after Pyra Labs Chief Executive Evan Williams confirmed on his personal Weblog that his team of six developers would join Google.
In typical blog fashion, the news spread first on Saturday from San Jose Mercury technology columnist Dan Gillmor's eJournal diary to other blog sites. Then in a statement on Monday, Google spokesman David Krane said his company had recently acquired Pyra Labs.
Weblogs, or "blogs" for short, are a form of grass-roots online diary publishing that give ordinary people with limited technical knowledge the ability to update personal Web sites. A blog consists of short, frequently
updated postings that are arranged chronologically, highlighting the latest material.
Blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com/), the flagship site of Pyra Labs, boasted in January that one million users had registered to use its Blogger software. Blogger offers a free, ad-supported version of its software and a $35
version for commercial publishers.
Rivals to Pyra's Blogger software include Movable Type, Radio Userland and LiveJournal.com. Several blog diarists, including former Financial Times journalist Nick Denton, questioned whether and how Google would ensure equal access
to all blog publishing systems, not just Blogger-based content.
Google
Canadian Director, writer and producer Norman Jewison holds his Board of Governors Award at the American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards in Los Angeles, California on February 16, 2003.
The ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards were inaugurated in 1986 to recognize and inspire artistic and innovative cinematography in narrative filmmaking.
Photo by Adrees Latif
Frank's Younger Sister
Patrice "Candy" Zappa
Frank Zappa's younger sister, Patrice "Candy" Zappa, has put together a fond rememberance of her big brother. "My Brother Was a Mother: A Zappa Family Photo Album" (California Classics) features more
than 60 previously unpublished candid shots of the Zappa clan. The author recounts growing up in Baltimore with her father, a barber, and brother Frank, who'd go on to become the frontman for the Mothers of Invention.
Patrice "Candy" Zappa
Covers Nine Inch Nails
Johnny Cash
At 70, Johnny Cash is rocking out with his cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt."
The video for the searing song is getting play on MTV2 and VH1, and the song is in regular rotation on rock station KROQ-FM.
Directed by Mark Romanek, the video combines images of the young Cash from concerts and movies with new footage of the elderly singer crooning "You can have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down."
Johnny Cash
Mark Romanek site with Johnny Cash video
Say They're Back on Track
Baywatch Women
Three "Baywatch" beauties have had tumultuous lives since the show ended, but Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra and Yasmine Bleeth say they're back on track and happy.
Anderson, who is engaged to rock-rapper Kid Rock (Bob Ritchie) and recently announced that she was diagnosed with hepatitis C, said she's concentrating on her family.
Electra, who had a brief marriage to Dennis Rodman in 1998, has settled down with rock guitarist Dave Navarro. She said she and her fiance "stay home, eat and cuddle."
A "Baywatch" reunion movie, set to air Feb. 28 on Fox with all three actresses, is Bleeth's first acting job in a year. She was arrested in September 2001 and sentenced to two years' probation on a
cocaine-possession charge. She said she has been sober for a year.
The arrest was "a wake-up call." She has settled down with new husband Paul Cerrito, whom she met in rehab.
Baywatch Women
Signs of the Coming Bush Fall
Artistic Sign Language
by Bernard Weiner
Sign is symbol, symbol is sign. Consider:
*Powell goes to the United Nations so that the missile attacks on Baghdad and Basra can begin -- and, in the lobby of that grand building, Picasso's "Guernica" painting, which depicts the horrific results of the Nazi bombing of that Spanish town, is covered over prior to Powell's arrival. No use embarrassing the U.S. by reminding folks of what's in store for Iraqi civilians.
*Ashcroft, in his police-state zeal, begins shredding the Constitution's Bill of Rights with its guarantees of due-process of law, and, early on, has the huge lobby statue of the Goddess of Justice draped and covered over because of its exposed breast. How appropriate to shroud Justice so that she can't see what's being done in her name.
*First Lady Laura Bush cancels a poetry workshop at the White House because she suspects that a number of America's high-profile poets, in the sacred grounds of that seat of power, will raise the issue of the coming war with Iraq.
Did you notice the thread that unites these events? In all three cases, symbolic shrouds are placed over art, so that nobody will notice the bad things that are being done in American citizens' names.
For the rest of a good read, Artistic Sign Language
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Releasing Dance Version of Lennon Song
Yoko Ono
John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono has recorded a dance version of the late Beatle's final song, her record label said Monday.
Ono has teamed up with British pop act the Pet Shop Boys for a dance remix of her husband's song "Walking on Thin Ice."
The single will get its first public performance in the United States Monday according to the Web Site of disc jockey Danny Tenaglia, who remixed the record.
Yoko Ono
A purple crocus emerges six weeks early in a garden in Kodiak, Alaska, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2003, during what is emerging as the warmest February on record, which follows the rainiest January ever recorded,
according to the National Weather Service.
Photo by Marion Owen
Horton Foote Special Achievement Award for Screenplay Writing
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton will be honored Saturday with the Horton Foote Special Achievement Award for Screenplay Writing.
Thornton, who won an Academy Award for his 1997 film "Sling Blade" and has acted in such popular movies as "Armageddon" and "Primary Colors," will receive the award as part of the 14th
annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration.
The award honors Foote, who won Oscars for his screenplays for "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Tender Mercies."
Billy Bob Thornton
Shortening The Leash
Lauren Bush
Lauren Bush has been told to stay home. According to New York magazine, the White House told the First Niece she could not spend June studying in London or walk the runway in several couture shows
due to security concerns. With war looming, the Secret Service has deemed Europe too dangerous.
Instead, the beautiful Bush may end up taking acting lessons in New York and spending time in the Hamptons with her mom, Sharon.
Lauren Bush
Bob Dylan, LL Cool J, and Crosby, Stills & Nash
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Bob Dylan, LL Cool J, and Crosby, Stills & Nash will join several hundred jazz, blues and homegrown Louisiana musical acts at the newly expanded New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, scheduled April 24 to May 4.
The addition of a day of Thursday performances to Jazzfest's first weekend created 80 additional performance slots for the festival's 34th year. Louisiana artists will fill most of the new slots, said Quint Davis, the festival's producer and director.
Other notable bookings include Fats Domino, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, saxophonist Ornette Coleman, New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton and jazz singer Cassandra Wilson.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
News Quality Falls
Big TV Stations
Television stations owned by big, out-of-town companies tend to produce lower-quality newscasts than those owned by smaller groups, a study by a journalism think tank has concluded.
Newscasts at stations owned by large television networks also fared poorly in the study. It was released Sunday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, affiliated with the Columbia University School of Journalism.
The report comes as the Federal Communications Commission considers relaxing restrictions on the number of TV stations companies can own.
The five-year study, which examined roughly one-quarter of the nation's local TV stations, gave an "A" grade to only 11 percent of stations owned by the 10 biggest media companies. Thirty-one percent of stations owned by small groups earned the top grade.
Theoretically, large companies would be able to offer their stations greater resources, but they also could see the newscasts as places to boost profits by spending less.
Big TV Stations
www.journalism.org/
Robert Ebert (R) poses for photos backstage with cinematographer Haskell Wexler (L) after Wexler presented Ebert with a special award of recognition at the American Society of Cinematographers 17th
Annual Outstanding Achievement Awards in Los Angeles, California on February 16, 2003. The ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards were inaugurated in 1986 to recognize and inspire artistic and
innovative cinematography in narrative filmmaking. Ebert's award was the first time ASC has recognized a film critic or journalist.
Photo by Adrees Latif
Asked To Provide A 'Healthy Snack'
Pot Brownies
Five students at an El Dorado County High School are in trouble after school officials say they brought pot-laced brownies to school to share with their classmates.
The students' homework assignment in health class at Oak Ridge High School last Friday was to bring in a healthy snack. Instead, they allegedly brought in a dessert made with marijuana.
The teacher, who did not eat a brownie, quickly realized what was happening and turned the brownies over to administrators.
The students involved, who are 14 to 15, quickly confessed.
The five students have not been allowed to return to school since the incident and could be expelled.
Pot Brownies
Another Day, Another Law Suit
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's attorneys say they will ask a judge to throw out a lawsuit by the singer's former business manager who claims Jackson owes him $13 million.
According to court documents, Jackson alleges someone forged his name on an agreement to pay Myung Ho Lee for business advice.
Lee sued last April alleging Jackson backed out of a deal he signed on Sept. 14, 2001.
In an affidavit Jackson said, "This is untrue ... I was not even in Los Angeles" on that day.
Lee, head of Union Finance and Investment Corp., handled the singer's business affairs starting in 1997. In his lawsuit, he argues that Jackson was aware of Lee's fees and commissions when he authorized him to make deals.
Michael Jackson
The Smoking Gun: - Michael Jackson - page 1
The Smoking Gun: - Michael Jackson - page 2
The Smoking Gun: - Michael Jackson - page 3
The Smoking Gun: - Michael Jackson - page 4
Racists Blame Token
California Republicans
California Republicans meet to elect a new chairman this weekend after a racially charged campaign for party leader that has further divided the fractured state GOP.
Party Vice Chairman Bill Back, a retired aerospace executive from Wheatland, faces Duf Sundheim, a Palo Alto attorney, to lead a party that lost every statewide office to Democrats in November for the first
time since 1882. Republicans also are in the minority in the state Legislature.
The controversy started last month, when an essay surfaced that Back had circulated in 1999 suggesting the country might have been better off if the South had won the Civil War.
The essay was written by conservative commentator William S. Lind and was part of an e-mail newsletter Back sent to party activists.
Back said he disagreed with much of the essay, which he said appeared in a portion of the newsletter that is a forum for different views he doesn't necessarily endorse. He apologized for circulating
it and blamed the Sundheim campaign for "triggering ... this whole discussion," which Sundheim denied.
The essay's appearance prompted a response from party Secretary Shannon Reeves, the state GOP's highest-ranking black official. Reeves wrote to party directors condemning the essay as "bigoted
propaganda," called on Back to drop his candidacy and accused Republican officials of having "no sensitivity" about racial issues.
"Black Republicans are expected to provide window dressing and cover to prove that this is not a racist party, yet our own leadership continues to act otherwise," Reeves wrote.
In response, board member Randy Ridgel, a Back ally, called on Reeves to "stop parading" his race around.
"Your sniveling letter makes me sick, young man; you are a superstar because you are a black Republican, and you love it," Ridgel wrote in an open letter Back distributed to supporters. Reeves
dismissed Ridgel's comments as ignorant and offensive.
Additional public responses from party members followed. University of California Regent Ward Connerly, a black opponent of affirmative action, condemned Reeves' letter as "damaging to our party."
The 32 Republicans in the Assembly, while mentioning no names, decried the letters as "shocking, offensive and intolerant."
Both have promised continued support for the party reforms and have vowed not to alter the explicitly anti-abortion party platform.
California Republicans
A buffalo cow and her calf wander in a fenced-in area of the Mesick farm, in this Oct. 21, 2002 file photo, in Castleton, N.Y. The nations buffalo industry may be struggling, due to oversupply and lower-than-expected
demand, but the Mesicks, who own a dairy farm, say things would be much worse for them if they didnt have buffalo.
Photo by Jim McKnight
'The Osbournes'
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