'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Comment
Re: Pulitzers
Geez if these guys just do their jobs they get Pulitzers.
I wish I lived in a country where if the reporters honestly did their jobs they wouldn't get Pulitzers.
Pulitzer story #1,
Pulitzer story #2,
Pulitzer story #3,
Pulitzer story #4, and
Pulitzer story #5.
Sigh... so many scandals so little reporting.
Mick
Thanks, Mick!
Remember when Pulitzers were awarded for journalism, not stenography?
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
JAD MOUAWAD: Exxon Chairman Got Retirement Package Worth at Least $398 Million (nytimes.com)
Last year's high oil prices not only helped Exxon Mobil report $36 billion in profit - the most ever for any corporation - they also allowed Lee R. Raymond to retire in style as chairman of Exxon Mobil.
Harry Shearer: Institutional Memory. Who Needs It? (huffingtonpost.com)
The short attention span forever being ascribed to us in the reading/viewing public actually seems to be more of a problem for those on the other end of the media tube. I was reminded of this again over the weekend when I saw Tony Harris of CNN interviewing an official of the Tribune Freedom Museum (!) opening in Chicago, and the subject of censored songs came up.
Earl Hadley: The Raid On Student Aid (tompaine.com)
Republicans are stumbling. Their mismanagement of the Iraq conflict, immigration and the Dubai Ports World deal are impacting their polling numbers. Add their failure on college affordability to that list. The legacy of the Bush administration and this Congress has been one of broken promises and cuts to student financial aid.
Mark Oppenheimer: Remembering the radical chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr. (slate.com)
In January 1996, I visited William Sloane Coffin Jr. in Appleton, Wis., where he was a visiting professor at Lawrence University. I was 21 years old and in the midst of writing a senior essay about Coffin's sermons. The legendary Yale chaplain had agreed to be interviewed, but only in person; he thought that would be more fun than talking on the phone. And it was. After picking me up at the small airport, Coffin brought me and his dog, which had come with him in the car, to a little cemetery in town. We walked over to a tombstone etched with the name "Joseph McCarthy." The pooch sauntered over to the memorial slab, lifted his leg, and shot a nice, warm stream of urine on the dead senator's grave. "Our daily ritual," Coffin joked, leading me back to the car.
Christopher Hitchens: Judas Saves (slate.com)
Why the lost gospel makes sense.
Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: James Dobson (campusprogress.org)
Dr. James Dobson is undeniably a frontrunner in the Christianist right's crusade against all things tolerant and reasonable. Dobson founded the über-conservative Focus on the Family and Family Research Council, and broadcasts a radio address that reaches an estimated 7 million American listeners each day. Utilizing Focus on the Family's website, radio show, books and more, consumers can fill their heads with conservative advice on everything from movies to figuring out their husbands.
PAM BELLUCK: To Avoid Divorce, Move to Massachusetts (nytimes.com)
If blue states care less about moral values, why are divorce rates so low in the bluest of the blue states? It's a question that intrigues conservatives, as much as it emboldens liberals.
William Saletan: Junk-Food Jihad (slate.com)
Should we regulate French fries like cigarettes?
Troy Patterson: Confessions of a Pinup Girl
Mary Harron's The Notorious Bettie Page.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & seasonal.
The kid has spring break this week.
Sometime this week I'll mark 600 e-pages without a taking a day off. Jeez.
Added a new flag - Libya 
Urges Bush Impeachment
Neil Young
Veteran rocker Neil Young has recorded a protest album featuring an anti- Iraq war track with "a holy vow to never kill again" and a song titled "Let's Impeach the President," the singer said on Monday.
The 10-track set, called "Living with War," was recorded this month by a "power trio" -- electric guitar, bass and drums -- plus trumpet and a 100 voices, the 60-year-old Canadian-born musician announced on his Web site.
Young's longtime manager, Elliot Roberts confirmed that a song on the album is titled "Let's Impeach the President." He declined to disclose any further details about the record.
Neil Young
Peace Concert Moved
Roger Waters
Pink Floyd veteran Roger Waters has moved the venue of an upcoming rock concert in Israel to a mixed Jewish-Arab village seen as a symbol of peace following Palestinian protests, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Haaretz daily said Waters chose to hold his June 22 show in Neveh Shalom, a small community near Israel's boundary with the West Bank, instead of the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv, to encourage co-existence.
Famed for the 1970s hit "Another Brick in the Wall," Waters has been an outspoken critic of Israel's West Bank "wall" -- a vast network of razor-wire fences and concrete barricades that puts large swathes of occupied territory under Israeli control.
Waters has said that he remains firm in his opposition to the barrier but will not penalize Israeli fans with a boycott.
Roger Waters
Sale Raises $700,000
Elton John
A haute couture yard sale from the wardrobe of flamboyant pop star Elton John has raised more than 700,000 dollars to help fund the fight against AIDS, a spokeswoman for the organizers said.
All the proceeds from the five-day sale that ended Friday at the Rockefeller Center in New York will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Maya Israel said.
The Elton John AIDS Foundation has distributed over 60 million dollars since 1992 in support of programs to educate about AIDS prevention, to fight prejudice against AIDS-infected patients and to provide services to those living with AIDS.
Elton John
Declines War Protests
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda says she would like to tour the country and speak out against U.S. involvement in Iraq, but her controversial history of Vietnam War protests leaves her with "too much baggage."
"I wanted to do a tour like I did during the Vietnam War, a tour of the country," the Oscar-winning actress said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "But then Cindy Sheehan filled in the gap, and she is better at this than I am. I carry too much baggage."
Last month, the Georgia Senate overwhelmingly rejected a resolution honoring Fonda, an Atlanta resident, for her work preventing teen pregnancy, donations to universities and charities, and role as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.
Jane Fonda
Two US Films Draw Ire
Arab Censors
Two Oscar-winning US films have caused headaches for government censors in the conservative Muslim Arab states of the Gulf, including booming and relatively tolerant Dubai.
"Syriana" is a sinister tale of the United States' goals of "fighting terrorism", promoting democracy in the Middle East and securing its oil and military interests. It premiered in theatres in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday with two minutes of controversial scenes cut out.
As for "Brokeback Mountain", a story of two male cowboys falling in love in the conservative American West, its Beirut-based distributor, Italia Films, said it had dropped plans to try to show the movie in the Gulf after discussing its taboo topic with concerned ministries and receiving negative feedback.
Homosexuality is a serious offence in the Gulf, punishable by flogging and imprisonment. In February, 11 men were sentenced to six years in jail in the UAE after a raid on a gay party in a desert hotel.
Arab Censors
Atlanta Capitol Portrait Enlarged
Martin Luther King Jr.
After decades of being dwarfed by the framed faces of other dignitaries, the portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in Georgia's Capitol has been enlarged.
The new painting, unveiled in an elaborate ceremony Monday, is 50 percent larger than the old one, which had become surrounded by bigger and bigger portraits of Georgia politicians.
The old painting, which depicts King seated at the foot of a shadowy Lincoln Memorial, will begin a tour of the Georgia public schools that have been named for the Nobel laureate.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Year-Long British Festival
Shakespeare
Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has begun the biggest festival in its history, which will see all of the playwright's works staged between now and next year.
"The Complete Works" festival began last week with the classic tale of star-crossed lovers "Romeo and Juliet" and will run through to April 2007 with theatre troupes from across the world taking part.
The official launch of the unprecedented season takes place on April 23 -- the 442nd anniversary of Shakespeare's birth -- in the Bard's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon, west central England, where the RSC is based.
Shakespeare
Plea In Pellicano Wiretap Case
John McTiernan
"Die Hard" director John McTiernan, the biggest name indicted so far in the Hollywood wiretapping scandal involving disgraced celebrity sleuth Anthony Pellicano, pleaded guilty on Monday to lying to federal agents.
Appearing before U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, the 55-year-old director admitted he had misled investigators probing whether Pellicano illegally eavesdropped on dozens of Hollywood celebrities, journalists and business executives.
McTiernan admitted that he had lied to agents when he said that he had not asked Pellicano to wiretap producer Charles Roven, with whom he worked on the 2002 film "Rollerball."
John McTiernan
'A Graphic Adaptation'
9/11 Report
The best-selling report by the commission that examined the September 11 attacks is being adapted into a graphic book, which the publisher hopes will widen the audience for the panel's findings.
"The 9/11 Report, A Graphic Adaptation" will be published in September.
The graphic book cuts the panel's more than 500-page report down to 144 pages of stark comic-book-style images depicting the sequence of events for each of the four hijacked planes, according to a partial advance copy of the Farrar, Straus and Giroux book obtained by Reuters on Monday.
9/11 Report
Ferrari Case Charges
Bo Stefan M. Eriksson
A Swedish businessman involved in the high-speed crash of a rare Ferrari on a coastal highway pleaded not guilty Monday to embezzlement and other counts involving the alleged theft of a collection of exotic cars.
Bo Stefan M. Eriksson, 44, did not speak during the hearing charging him with felony counts of embezzlement, grand theft and possession of a gun by a felon. He also was charged with two misdemeanor counts of drunken driving.
Bail was set at $5.5 million to cover the $3.8 million cost of the cars and because Eriksson was considered a flight risk, prosecutor Tamara Hall said.
Bo Stefan M. Eriksson
Watch Sold At Auction
Buddy Holly
The diamond-studded watch Buddy Holly was wearing when he was killed in a plane crash has been sold at auction for $155,350 US.
The buyer was a woman near San Francisco who wanted to remain anonymous, said Heritage Auction Galleries spokesman Doug Norwine. He said she was a "tremendous" fan of the rock 'n' roll pioneer and had even flown to London and New York to see a musical based on his life.
"She didn't buy it as an investment," Norwine said. "She just really loved his music and is starting her collection."
Buddy Holly
Painting Gets 1st Public Display
Eugene Delacroix
The image on the canvas swirls in a frenzy of violence - two horses tangled in a fight set against a dark, turbulent landscape.
Frozen in a clash, it's unclear which will win. One is posed with his front hooves kicking up, his mane a wild blaze of blond. The other has lunged for a strike as his dark brown tail whips toward his head.
It's the newest acquisition of the Clark Art Institute, an oil painting by Eugene Delacroix dating to the late 1820s that until now has never been publicly displayed.
Eugene Delacroix
2006 Winners
Pulitzer Prize
The 2006 Pulitzer Prize winners, announced Monday:
JOURNALISM
PUBLIC SERVICE - Two Prizes: The Sun Herald of South Mississippi and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
BREAKING NEWS REPORTING - Staff of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING - Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi and R. Jeffrey Smith of The Washington Post.
EXPLANATORY REPORTING - David Finkel of The Washington Post.
BEAT REPORTING - Dana Priest of The Washington Post.
NATIONAL REPORTING - Two Prizes: James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times and the staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service.
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING - Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley of The New York Times.
FEATURE WRITING - Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colo.
COMMENTARY - Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times.
CRITICISM - Robin Givhan of The Washington Post.
EDITORIAL WRITING - Rick Attig and Doug Bates of The (Portland) Oregonian.
EDITORIAL CARTOONING - Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY - Staff of The Dallas Morning News.
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY - Todd Heisler of the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colo.
ARTS
FICTION - "March," by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
DRAMA - No Award
HISTORY - "Polio: An American Story," by David M. Oshinsky (Oxford University Press)
BIOGRAPHY - "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer," by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (Alfred A. Knopf)
POETRY - "Late Wife," by Claudia Emerson (Louisiana State University Press)
GENERAL NON-FICTION - "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya," by Caroline Elkins (Henry Holt)
MUSIC - Piano Concerto: 'Chiavi in Mano,' by Yehudi Wyner (Associated Music Publishers)
SPECIAL CITATIONS
- Edmund S. Morgan, honored for what Pulitzer officials described as "his creative and deeply influential body of work as an American historian that spans the last half century."
- Thelonious Monk, honored posthumously for "a body of distinguished and innovative musical composition that has had a significant and enduring impact on the evolution of jazz."
2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners
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