"Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me.
But until that day, accept this justice as a gift..."
- Don Corleone: The Godfather -
I don't know about you, but I don't want a jurist in the Supreme Court, I want a moralist. I don't want someone who will strictly abide by 200 year old rules, I want someone who knows the difference between right and wrong. The founding fathers didn't get everything right. All they had to do was include five extra words in the constitution, "with a verifiable paper trail," and we'd have a different president, but the future of electronic voting was beyond their wildest dreams.
Bartcop calls it "The Bush Family Evil Empire," which is funnier but less exact than "The Bush Family Crime Syndicate." Evil is in the eye of the beholder but crime syndicates, hell, we've all seen The Godfather. We know how a crime syndicate works. When a position of importance opens up, not a moment's consideration is given to who's most qualified for the job. You advance someone in the syndicate. It's all payback; who deserves to fill the position as compensation for all they've done for the crime syndicate. That's how the Bush administration works. Who's the best person to sit on the Supreme Court? Obviously Bush's consiglieri, the female Tom Hagen, who protects "the family" at all cost. Loyalty trumps competence. Sometimes it's terrifying to discover a metaphor that works perfectly but I can't think of one single instance where Bush HASN'T acted like the head of a crime syndicate.
"The party runs the state. Politics drives economics. Important party officials are also economic operators. They thrive off their connections and rise in the party apparatus as a result of their self-enrichment. The past three chairmen of the Republican National Committee have all been Washington lobbyists.
"An oligarchy atop the party allocates favors. Behind the ideological slogans about the 'free market' and 'liberty,' the oligarchy creates oligopolies. Businesses must pay to play. They must kick back contributions to the party, hire its key people and support its program. Only if they give do they receive tax breaks, loosening of regulations and helpful treatment from government professionals.
"Those professionals in the agencies and departments who insist on adhering to standards other than those imposed by the party are fired, demoted and blackballed. The oligarchy wars against these professionals to bend government purely into an instrument of oligopolies.
"Corporations pay fixed costs in the form of legal graft to the party in order to suppress the market, drastically limiting competitive pressure. Then they collude to control prices, create cartels and reduce planning primarily to the political game. The larger consequences are of no concern whatsoever to the corporate players so long as they maintain access to the political players.
"The sums every industry, from financial services to computers, spends on lobbying are staggering. Broadcast media firms spent $35.88 million in 2004 alone on lobbyists in Washington, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Telephone companies spent $71.97 million; cable and satellite TV corporations, $20.22 million. The drug industry during the same period shelled out $123 million to pay 1,291 lobbyists, 52 percent of them former government officials. The results have been direct: The Food and Drug Administration has been reduced to a hollow shell, and Medicare can't negotiate lower drug costs with pharmaceutical companies. In the 2004 election cycle, the drug industry paid out $87 million in campaign contributions for federal officials, 69 percent of them flowing to Republicans."
Precisely how a crime syndicate works. Pay off the bosses, let them wet their beaks, and get control of your own private marketplace, with their deadly protection. It's the exact opposite of a free market. The only solution to cronyism I can think of is a new law stating "give one single penny to a political candidate or lobbyist, go to jail." Of course the only way to pass such a law is if money gets behind it, so I'll keep dreaming. Meanwhile, all good things must come to an end, which means the Bush administration might go on forever.
"[J]udges...should be always men of learning and experience in the laws, of exemplary morals, great patience, calmness, coolness,and attention. Their minds should not be distracted with jarring interests; they should not be dependent upon any man, or body of men."
- John Adams -
"To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment...
"[The President] would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure."
Romans, Greeks, and Hindus used to think a little red dot in the sky called Mars was the God of War. Babylonians use to think it was the God of death and pestilence. Now we know it's just a planet. The history of knowledge is the history of Gods that turned out to be no such thing, just ordinary events and objects that were inexplicable at the time, but which later came to have perfectly rational explanations that needed no voodoo. Nobody needs Thor the God of Thunder when we have a perfectly lucid explanation for why lightning makes noise. When anyone's God starts getting explained away by scientific evidence, they can desperately cling to outmoded beliefs and try to dispute the evidence or just find another God, one that can't be explained away by scientific evidence.
Science and God are always at loggerheads, with science painting God into a corner it'll never get out of without leaving footprints all over the place. It's a march into the future that always goes in one direction. Science constantly explains things we didn't understand before, whittling away at portions of reality for which we used to have to give God sole credit.
When the Red Sea parted for Moses, was it God or just an extremely low tide brought about by an unusual configuration of the moon and the sun that could only be explained after Newton discovered the laws of planetary gravity? When Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead, was it divine or some primitive form of CPR that postponed the inheritances of Lazarus's children? If there's a rational explanation for some miracle, it takes a lot of moxie to keep clinging to the primitive notion that God had anything to do with it. God's too busy to do things just to impress you.
Here's a list of 100 things nobody knows (thanks to Howard Anshell). Oh sure, Isaac Newton came up with a formula showing HOW gravitational forces work, but WHAT are gravitational forces, WHERE do they come from, and WHY do they work that way? Nobody knows. We can move around freely in three of four dimensions, but time only goes in one direction. Why? Nobody knows. Nobody knows the structure of water, why there are ice ages, how organs know when to stop growing, what triggers puberty, or if there's other life in the solar system. You can't ask a scientist. You can't ask a priest. The answer's not in the bible or the Encyclopedia Britannica. Why? Nobody knows, and maybe no one will ever know. Does that prove there IS a God or there ISN'T a God? Nobody knows. Not me, and anyone who claims they do is lying.
"It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true." - Bertrand Russell -
"Whatsoever you believe, you project. Belief is a projection. It is just like a projector in a movie film-house: you see something on the screen which is not there. The projector is hidden behind, but you never look at the projector, you look at the screen. The projector is at the back, and the whole game is going on there, but you look at the screen. The whole game is going on in your mind, and a mind filled with belief always goes on projecting things in the world, it sees things which are not there."
- OSHO -
Project Censored's Top 25 News Stories that Didn't Make the News
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the cost of "prosecuting" a war against Iraq at up to $9 billion per month, on top of an initial outlay of up to $13 billion for the deployment of troops to the Persian Gulf region. That comes to 2.25 billion a week.
Iraq is already a major exporter of oil and until recently has been producing at close to its peak sustainable production capacity of 2.8 million barrels a day.
($/bbl)
PRICE*
CHANGE
%
TIME
Nymex Crude Future
66.24
-.55
-.82
09/30
IPE Crude Future
63.48
-.36
-.56
09/30
Dated Brent Spot
62.56
-.39
-.62
09/30
WTI Cushing Spot
66.24
-.55
-.82
09/30
2.8 million barrels times $66.24 = 185.472.000 million dollars per day = 1.298.304.000 billion dollars per week. Rounded off about 6 billion dollars a month. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/index.html This is all updated Military news. Get ready for a long night of reading.
The closest numbers I can find for U.S. Troops in Iraq is 180 thousand. 2.25 billion dollars divided by 180.000 = 125 thousand dollars a week to keep each soldier in Iraq. It is estimated that it would cost 5 to 8 billion dollars to bring them all home. I say bring 'em home and save us a couple bucks.
I think with six billion dollars a month in oil revenue in a country of 25,000.000 people they could pretty well take care of themselves. Each Iraqi would have 240,000.00 thousand dollars a month in personnel income. That ain't chump change in anyone's book. You know!!! When you start adding up, multiplying and dividing the figures, nothing seems to add up other than some pretty hefty numbered bank accounts.
All my figures are up to date and straight from the record.
- Joe T -
Stupid Answers of the Week
Last week's incredibly stupid question...
If DeLay was indicted, does that mean his indictment was delayed? And if his indictment was delayed, how come he's already got it?
Well, Michael Dare, whenever I get a stupid question like this one, I tell my whale story. It always works, especially with people bitching about their jobs.
The Blue Whale is the largest animal ever to live on the earth, larger than the largest dinosaurs. It can grow to over 100 feet long and weigh as much as 150 tons. Its tongue weighs two tons and has a mouth the size of a boxcar. The Blue Whale eats as much as four tons of krill (a small shrimp) per day. Yet - yet - the animal's esophagus is a mere four inches in diameter. Do you know why? BECAUSE THAT'S THE WAY IT IS!
Peace
-Joe
"I am interested in the fleeting moment, the gesture, that action that can be found in the everyday. Moments that are often missed, that are nothing and at the same time part of a greater rhythm of our life on earth. In these there is something specific to the time and place, yet universal. These are the spaces in-between. These are the moment of action and reaction, of new beginnings, a complete story. Or they are just as they appear - a simple glance, a wave, a walk."
-Morgan Showalter-
It means that this particular indictment was DeLayed.DeLay has never "got it" but maybe he's gonna getit...hopefully without too much delay or DeLay.
- mitch
This isn't much of an answer, but, then again, that wasn't much of a question...
While DeLay's away The GOP mice in Congress will play And make sure DeLay stays away While they plunder. This is the rhymin' reason The demon (in season) Will be in a 'pree-son' (Groan) bending over On his knees and Begging to not Be beat asunder. Nothing could make life keener Than Earle taking some Tide To Nasty Tom, that dirty Campaign money cleaner And notorious D.C. wiener For every criminal Misstep and blunder. How long the sentence? We can only wonder. - RSJ
all i can say is "let us not delay, lets just get a rope"
- johnny iguanna - the revolution is on NOW
BECAUSE HE'S IN DENIAL.
- JD
It's been delayed for fifteen years. DeLay himself will tell you that the ethics charges he's been facing since 1991 had to be stonewalled. This is the guy who was told at a GOP fundraiser in Dallas that it's against federal law to smoke in a government building replied, "I AM the government" and lit up. See one of the King Louis, "L'Etat, C'est moi (I am the state)." This is also the guy who sent his own staffers down to Florida in 2000 to "spontaneously" demonstrate against Gore's call for a recount. See "Jew For Buchanan," the single most informative collection of documented facts about the most colossal theft in American history.
- Jimmy McConnell
Tom's indictment was delayed a safe distance after the elections last year, and after the redistricting in Texas that helped keep the House a GOP bastion of the oily right. The indictment was political: DeLay should have been in jail years ago, but by waiting so long the DA (who has gone after many Dems) let a slimy crook stay at large to do damage.
- TTFN, Baron Dave
PS: Good wishes for your son!
My Cape May blow off.
You have to be Tennessee this movie.
We'll have to see if it looks New Orleans.
I missed you before and I'm sure I'll Michigan.
After the accident you really didn't notice Bismarck, North Dakota paint we used to cover it.
Did you have the soup du Georgia eat just a sandwich?
- chris from boca
ps what was the question?
Because delayed is so past tense ... so last week. For that matter, so is Delay. I hope this clears things up for you.
- Dave Cogan
This week's Stupid Question is best viewed in the light of a classical Stupid Question followed by its classic Stupid Answer.
In other words: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood ?"
"A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood."
- Herr Bookmonger
it's the soul of wit!
- the mcfarland clan
How much indictment could Delay delay if Delay could delay indictments?
- Harry Houck
"You're more delusional than you think I am."
- Duck Dodgers
Stupid Question of the Week
I have in front of me a bottle of 100 325mg aspirin tablets that cost about a dollar. I also have a bottle of 100 81mg aspirin tablets that cost about three dollars. Why does the one with less aspirin per tablet cost more money?
Even stupider question: Did the earthquake in Pakistan kill bin Laden?
Einstein dies and goes to heaven. At the Pearly Gates, Saint Peter tells him, "You look like Einstein, but you have NO idea what some people will do to sneak into Heaven. Can you prove who you really are?"
Einstein ponders for a few seconds and asks, "Could I have a blackboard and some chalk?"
Saint Peter snaps his fingers and a blackboard and chalk instantly appear. Einstein proceeds to describe with arcane mathematics and symbols, his theory of relativity.
Saint Peter is suitably impressed. "You really ARE Einstein!" he says."Welcome to heaven!"
The next to arrive is Picasso. Once again, Saint Peter asks for credentials.
Picasso asks, "Mind if I use that blackboard and chalk?"
Saint Peter says, "Go ahead."
Picasso erases Einstein's equations and sketches a truly stunning mural with just a few strokes of chalk.
Saint Peter claps. "Surely you are the great artist you claim to be!" he says. "Come on in!"
Then Saint Peter looks up and sees George W. Bush. Saint Peter scratches his head and says, "Einstein and Picasso both managed to prove their identity. How can you prove yours?"
George W. looks bewildered and says, "Who are Einstein and Picasso?"
Saint Peter sighs and says, "Come on in, George."
Satan Doesn't Want You to Know
The herb rosemary is jam-packed with carnosol, a powerful antioxidant that can not only render deadly carcinogens harmless but might have the power to actually shrink tumors.
Don't Take My Word for It
"Take a chance and you may lose. Take not a chance and you have lost already."
- Soren Kierkegaard -
"In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known."
- Thomas Pickering -
"There's been much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the environmental community since Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) pushed his overhaul of the Endangered Species Act through the House of Representatives last week. All eyes are now on the Senate to see whether Pombo's bill - described as 'so toxic it's radioactive' by Jamie Rappaport Clark, who oversaw implementation of the ESA during the Clinton administration - will make it through that august body and onto the desk of President Bush, who's indicated his support.
"Despite assumptions that the Senate - the more deliberative, and generally more eco-friendly, chamber of Congress - would block an initiative so controversial, enviros worry that Pombo is harrowingly close to getting his way. 'I can't remember a time when any major environmental statute was under greater threat,' said John Kostyack, senior counsel at the National Wildlife Federation.
"Pombo, a former rancher who once famously (and fraudulently) claimed that his family farm was hobbled financially because it was designated as critical habitat for the endangered kit fox, has been trying to dismantle the ESA for more than 12 years. His bill is designed to wipe out the critical-habitat protections esteemed by many conservationists, thereby making it impossible for the government to prohibit harmful projects on lands deemed necessary to the recovery of imperiled species.
"In a big coup for property-rights activists, the legislation would also require the feds to pay landowners for lost profits if the presence of an endangered species limits their development options. Because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lacks funding to make such payments, this could effectively eliminate regulatory restrictions on commercial developers, according to critics...
"The measure could actually encourage more development plans for sensitive habitat, according to Erich Zimmermann, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense. 'Pombo's bill creates a perverse incentive for landowners to come up with a plan to develop on the most biologically sensitive areas of their property, simply so that they can cash in on a government rebate.' The bill is so rife with loopholes, said Zimmermann, that 'there's nothing in it that would stop landowners from collecting multiple times on proposals for species-threatening projects on the same piece of property.'"
"If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything."
- Bill Lyon -
"Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them."
- Hermann Hesse -
"Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
- P. J. O'Rourke -
"One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory."
- Rita Mae Brown -
"Because it lacks consciousness, I must admit that a word cannot praise me. Undoubtedly, the cause of my delight is that another is delighted with me. But what does it matter to me whether another's delight is in me or someone else? His alone is the pleasure of that delight. Not even a trifling part of it is mine."
- Santideva: Bodhicaryavatara -
"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."
- Mohammad Ali -
"I am breathing in and liberating my mind. I am breathing out and liberating my mind."
- The Sutra on Full Awareness of Breathing, translated by Thich Nhat Hanh -
"The freedom to create is somehow linked with facility of access to those obscure regions below the conscious mind."
- Loren Eiseley -
"Stoop and you'll be stepped on; stand tall and you'll be shot at."
- Carlos A. Urbizo -
"I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me."
- John Cleese -
"Unhappy the land where heroes are needed."
- Bertolt Brecht -
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
- Charles Mackay -
"We are terrible animals. Our planet's immune system is trying to get rid of us and should."
- Kurt Vonnegut: The Daily Show, 9/13/05 -
"If as if often said, the world is ordered to some plan (whether one formed prior to its creation or one derived from the inexorable logic of order and growth makes no difference) then in all things there must be both the miniature representation of higher glories and the enhanced depiction of smaller matters."
- Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lictor -
"If you're out there murdering people, on some level you must want to be Christian."
- Betty White to serial killer she's trying to convert: Boston Legal -
"If you keep thinking 'That man has abused me,' holding it as a much-cherished grievance, your anger will never be allayed. If you can put down that fury-inducing thought, your anger will lessen. Fury will never end fury, it will just ricochet on and on. Only putting it down will end such an abysmal state."
- Sunnata Vagga -
"I'm not trying to counsel any of you to do anything really special, except to dare to think, and to dare to go with the truth, and to dare to really love completely."
- Buckminster Fuller -
Everything Else
Doing a good job of copying the style of Mark Fiore, the National Lampoon enters the head of our VP with Dick Cheney's Energy Policy.
Short issue this week because, hey, I've got work to do.
dIsInFoTaInMeNt ToDaY is free and may be reproduced in any form, preferably parchment. It consists of information from dozens of sources, cut up, thrown in the air, and recycled randomly. It is sent all over the place, so I apologize if you're seeing the same thing twice. If you see a joke, graphic, or news item that came from or through you, thanks, send more, and please accept the fact that much of dIsInFoTaInMeNt ToDaY is unacknowledgeable, and if I sought permission from everyone whose bastardized material showed up here, I'd never get anything else done. Please note that I don't even put my own name on it. If you're still pissed off, hey, it's either satire or fair use.
Amitabh Pal: Randall Robinson Interview (progressive.org)
Randall Robinson is a disillusioned man. So much so that he decided to leave the United States in 2001 and settle down in St. Kitts, where his wife is from. He has written a book, Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land, explaining the reasons for his relocation. Robinson hasn't completely quit the United States, though. He still maintains a home in Virginia and comes back often for visits.
Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side' (timesonline.co.uk)
RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published [recently]. ... "The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so."
The kid is keeping up his campaign for an ant farm.
Heh - it's already taken care of, but I still need to order the ants so they're here in time for his birthday.
Tonight, Tuesday:
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'NCIS', followed by a FRESH'Amazing Race: Family Edition', then a FRESH'Close To Home'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Woody Harrelson and Fiona Apple.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Dennis Hopper, Cheryl Hines, and Paul Weller.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'Biggest Loser', followed by a FRESH'My Name Is Earl', then a FRESH'The Office', followed by a FRESH'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Josh Flitter, and Clint Black.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Rosie O'Donnell, Chris Elliott, and Jamie Cullum.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson Daly are Alyson Hannigan, pro golfer Jason Gore, and Sean Paul.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Jim', followed by a FRESH'Rodney', then a FRESH'Commander In Chief', followed by a FRESH'Boston Legal'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Anthony Anderson and Maggie Grace.
The WB offers a FRESH'Gilmore Girls', followed by a FRESH'Supernatural'.
Faux has LIVE'MLB Baseball - American League Championship Series - Game 1', and fills the night on the left coast with RERUNs of 'Malcolm' and 'Simpsons'.
UPN has a RERUN'America's Next Top Model', followed by a FRESH'Sex, Love & Secrets'.
A&E has 'American Justice', 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', still another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', yet another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', 'Airline', and another 'Airline'.
AMC offers the movie 'Braddock: Missing In Action III', followed by the movie 'The Delta Force', then the movie 'Delta Force 2'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - The Naked Ant;
[2:40 pm] 'Blackadder' - Dish & Dishonesty;
[3:20 pm] 'Blackadder' - Head;
[4pm 'Jonathan Creek - The Wrestler's Tomb - Part 2;
[5pm] 'Monarch of the Glen' - Episode 9;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'House Invaders' - Stourbridge;
[7pm] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 32;
[8pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Lidstone;
[9pm] 'Footballers Wives' - Episode 6;
[10pm] 'NY-LON' - Episode 4;
[11pm] 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' - The Naked Ant;
[11:40pm] 'My Family - Serpent's' Tooth;
[12:20am] 'My Family' - Pain In The Class;
[1am] 'Footballers Wives' - Episode 6;
[2am] 'NY-LON' - Episode 4;
[3am] 'Take Me' - Episode 1;
[4am] 'Take Me' - Episode 2;
[5am] 'Take Me' - Episode 3;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Comedy Central has 'Drew Carey's Green Screen Show', 'Reno 911!', last night's 'Jon Stewart', 'Comedy Central Presents' (Patrice O'Neal), 'Reno 911!', 'South Park', 'Chappelle's Show', and last Thursday's 'Showbiz Show With David Spade'.
On a RERUNJon Stewart is Jeff Garlin.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Wild West Tech', 'Shootout!', and a FRESH'Man Moment Machine'.
IFC -
[6AM] Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2005);
[8AM] You See Me Laughin' (2002);
[8:15AM] You See Me Laughin' (2002);
[9:30AM] At The IFC Center (2005);
[10AM] Beijing Bicycle (2001);
[12PM] Home Movie (2002);
[1:15PM] Running With The Bulls (2003);
[2PM] Trust (1990);
[4PM] Beijing Bicycle (2001);
[5:45PM] IFC October Short Film Showcase (2005);
[6:45PM] The Sweet Hereafter (1997);
[8:45PM] IFC in Theaters (2005);
[9PM] M. Butterfly (1993);
[11PM] Hopeless Pictures #8 (2005);
[11:15PM] Greg the Bunny #8: "The Blues She is My Friend" (2005);
[11:30PM] The Festival #2 (2005);
[12AM] Hopeless Pictures #7 (2005);
[12:15AM] Greg the Bunny #6: "The Addiction" (2005);
[12:30AM] The Festival #1 (2005);
[1AM] M. Butterfly (1993);
[3AM] Hopeless Pictures #8 (2005);
[3:15AM] Greg the Bunny #8: "The Blues She is My Friend" (2005);
[3:30AM] The Festival #2 (2005);
[4AM] Hopeless Pictures #7 (2005);
[4:15AM] Greg the Bunny #6: "The Addiction" (2005);
[4:30AM] The Festival #1 (2005);
[5AM] Running With The Bulls (2003);
[5:45AM] IFC in Theaters (2005). (ALL TIMES EDT)
SciFi has 'Surface' (episode 1), 'Surface' (episode 2), 'Surface' (episode 3), and 'Surface' (episode 4).
Sundance -
[7AM] The Al Franken Show: (09/13/05);
[8AM] The Spirit of Annie Mae;
[9:15AM] Osama;
[10:45AM] Village of Idiots;
[11AM] The Al Franken Show: (09/13/05);
[12PM] Held Hostage in Colombia;
[1PM] Party Girl;
[2:45PM] Trembling Before G-d;
[4:15PM] The Jimmy Show;
[6PM] The Staircase: Chapter 6 - The Prosecution's Revenge;
[7PM] Oleanna;
[8:30PM] I Am NOT an ANIMAL: London Calling;
[9PM] TransGeneration: Episode 4;
[9:30PM] Osama;
[11PM] TransGeneration: Episode 4;
[11:30PM] The Al Franken Show: (09/16/05);
[12:30AM] Monster;
[2:30AM] The Al Franken Show: (09/16/05);
[3:30AM] Condor: The First War on Terror;
[5AM] Party Girl. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Actor Loudon Wainwright, left, pictured with his son Rufus, during the arrivals for the New York premiere of the film 'Elizabethtown,' in which Loudon has a part, Monday, Oct 10, 2005.
Photo by Stuart Ramson
Yoko Ono picked up an award on behalf of John Lennon - and appeared to take a dig at his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney.
Accepting the special trophy at the Q Awards, Ono said Lennon had sometimes felt insecure about his songs, asking why "they always cover Paul's songs and never mine."
"I said, `You're a good songwriter, it's not June with Spoon that you write. You're a good singer, and most musicians are probably a little bit nervous about covering your songs,'" she said Monday.
Geena Davis is still president but there's a new commander behind the scenes of "Commander in Chief," ABC's hit freshman series.
Steven Bochco, of "NYPD Blue" and "Hill Street Blues" fame, is taking over production of the White House drama from its creator, Rod Lurie, Touchstone Television said over the weekend.
Lurie will remain as executive producer of the series and has signed a two-year deal with Touchstone, a division of ABC's parent company Disney, to develop and produce new series.
Reports that Lurie and ABC had creative differences over upcoming story lines were inaccurate, network spokesman Kevin Brockman said.
Author Joan Didion takes a moment before she read from her latest book 'The Year of Magical Thinking,' in New York, Monday, Oct. 10, 2005. The book is a collection of essays about the years following the death of her husband John Gregory Dunne.
Photo by John Smock
Court TV has snapped up rights to all 13 episodes of NBC's short-lived series "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," and will start airing them in December as a two-hour block from 7-9 p.m. Saturdays.
The deal for the most recent series in Dick Wolf's franchise includes one never-before-seen episode of the courtroom drama, which stars Bebe Neuwirth and Fred Dalton Thompson. The show debuted on NBC in March, but performed poorly in the ratings.
Olivia Newton-John is still hoping her missing boyfriend returns - more than three months after he disappeared.
"I love him very much and this is very hard to go through," Newton-John said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "He has a young son so we still hold out hope that he will come back."
Newton-John's longtime boyfriend, 48-year-old Patrick Kim McDermott, failed to return from a June 30 overnight fishing trip off the California coast.
The Coast Guard has been investigating his disappearance as a missing person case, including the possibility that McDermott had staged his disappearance.
Actor Orlando Bloom (R) and his father Colin pose for the photographers as they arrive for the premiere of the film 'Elizabethtown' in New York October 10, 2005. The film directed by Cameron Crowe will be released on Friday.
Photo by Albert Ferreira
Early poems written by Bob Dylan at college and a medallion worn by Jimi Hendrix during his pyrotechnic 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival will go under the auctioneer's hammer in New York next month.
The sale of rock and pop memorabilia at Christie's will also feature a rare set of handwritten lyrics by The Doors frontman Jim Morrison and a Tom Tom drum used by former Beatle Paul McCartney in the late 1950s.
The auction will be held in Christie's New York showroom on November 21.
A cluster of Pinot Grigio grapes are held up by a picker as the moon rises in the background during a night harvest at Luna Vineyards in Napa, Calif., Sunday Sept. 18, 2005. The aptly named winery is having its first harvest by night this year. It's not your typical harvest scene, but picking after dark is becoming increasingly popular with vintners who say the cooler temperatures are easier on grapes and workers.
Photo by Eric Risberg
All the props and sets from the Wallace and Gromit movies were feared destroyed in a fire on Monday, the day after the plasticine pals' debut feature film went straight to the top of the North American box office.
Production house Aardman Animations said a blaze at a warehouse in Bristol, western England, was thought to have wiped out its entire history, including models, memorabilia and awards from the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit short films.
"We woke up to the most fantastic news this morning that 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' had debuted in the United States at number one," said company spokesman Arthur Sheriff.
"But this has really thrown us," he added. "It's our entire history."
Comedian Louis Nye, who created a national catchphrase belting out "Hi, ho, Steverino!" as one of the players on Steve Allen's groundbreaking 1950s TV show, has died. He was 92.
Nye died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles after a long battle with lung cancer, his son, Peter Nye, told The Associated Press on Monday.
Nye had worked regularly in nightclubs and on television until only a couple of years ago, his son said. He had a recurring role from 2000 to 2002 in the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as the father of Jeff Garlin's character.
When he joined Allen's show in 1956 he was already well established as one the era's hippest comics, appearing regularly on radio, in clubs and on early TV shows.
On "The Steve Allen Show," which ran until 1961 under various names, he quickly endeared himself to audiences as Gordon Hathaway, the effete, country-club snob who would welcome Allen's arrival with the "Hi, ho, Steverino!" salutation.
After the show's run ended, Nye appeared often on TV game shows, in films and as a regular on "The Ann Sothern Show." He also played Sonny Drysdale on "The Beverly Hillbillies".
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