'Best of TBH Politoons'
M Is For Mashup - Jan.31st 2007
Groundhog Day
By DJ Useo
Groundhog Day Gets It's Own Album
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
'If it can happen to me, it could happen to anyone' (guardian.co.uk)
One moment Mustafa al-Mansur was discussing anti-terrorism strategies with the police. The next he was in a cell, under suspicion himself. Now, released without charge, he tells Madeleine Bunting what his ordeal means for Britain's Muslims.
Canada pays torture victim in U.S. case (Associated Press)
Canada's prime minister apologized to Maher Arar on Friday and announced the government would compensate him $8.9 million for its role in his deportation by U.S. authorities to Syria, where he was tortured while held in prison for nearly a year.
PAUL KRUGMAN: The Sum of All Ears (The New York Times)
For those hoping for real action on global warming and energy policy, the State of the Union address was a downer. There had been hints and hopes that the speech would be a Nixon-goes-to-China moment, with President Bush turning conservationist. But it ended up being more of a Nixon-bombs-Cambodia moment.
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman: First criminal convictions from Ohio's stolen 2004 election confirm recount was rigged (freepress.org)
The first felony convictions of two Cleveland poll workers stemming from Ohio's stolen 2004 election confirm that the official recount in that contested vote was, in the words of county prosecutors, "rigged." The question now is whether further prosecutions will reach higher up in the ranks of officials who may have been involved in illegalities throughout the rest of the state.
BEN STEIN: The Hard Rain That's Falling on Capitalism (The New York Times)
Empires come and go. Economic systems come and go. There is no heavenly guarantee that capitalism will last forever as we know it.
Full MOT, please doc (guardian.co.uk)
Ever worried that blood might be clotting near your brain without you knowing? Or whether you have inherited your father's weak heart? On turning 50, David Bodanis decides to get himself checked out.
Psst! Have you heard? (guardian.co.uk)
The next time someone in a pub insists on telling you about an exciting new band or drink, be very suspicious. They may have been paid to talk it up. As advertisers adopt increasingly sneaky ways of selling their products, Leo Benedictus charts the rise of 'stealth' and 'buzz' marketing.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Books (athensnews.com)
* When she was a child, children's book illustrator Amy Schwartz borrowed and read many library books. At one point, she borrowed and read books by authors whose names began with W, Y, and Z because she thought that books from that section of the children's library were more advanced than the other books.
Politicial Cartons: The Illustrated Daily Scribble
No Nonsense Humorous Art (humorink.com)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
A mostly rainy day. Finally.
Berkeley Exhibit
Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero's trademark fleshy figures exchange their voluptuousness and humour for tense, muscled torsos and gritted teeth in an exhibit of the artist's Abu Ghraib paintings on view at the University of California.
The Colombian painter is famous for his plump portrayals of everything and everyone from dictators to fruit. But the photographs of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers, which became public in 2004, disturbed him in a way that could only be exorcised through work. His anger over the treatment of Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison is obvious in the 43 paintings and drawings displayed.
"All my life, I did subjects that were rather pleasant," Botero said at a news conference to mark Monday's opening. "But from the moment I started the first sketch, I felt rage. ... I was thinking, 'This is not right. This is not possible."'
The monumental, often larger than life pieces show anonymous prisoners bound, beaten, forced into sexual postures, arranged in pyramids of bodies, threatened with snarling dogs. Botero said one of the functions of art is to keep dialogue alive - to provoke thought after debate has died in living rooms and television sets.
Fernando Botero
Mayor Loses Hockey Bet
Stephen Colbert
After losing a hockey bet with Stephen Colbert, the mayor of Oshawa, John Gray, now must pay up - by declaring his own birthday, March 20, to be "Stephen Colbert Day" in his city, just east of Toronto.
"Mr. Mayor, let me ask you something: How are you planning to spend your `Stephen Colbert Day?'" the host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" asked Gray over the telephone on Monday's show as a graphic of a moose wearing a "mayor" sash appeared in lieu of a headshot.
Before his brief interview with Gray, Colbert reminded his viewers about the terms of the wager.
"If Oshawa wins, I will wear an Oshawa jersey on my show. But when the Spirit kicks Oshawa's moose haunches, I don't want to declare `Stephen Colbert Day' on my birthday, I want to declare it on your birthday," Colbert said to cheers and applause.
Stephen Colbert
Reuniting For Grammy Awards
The Police
The Police will reunite to perform at this year's Grammys ceremony, the Recording Academy announced Tuesday.
The award-winning group, which won five Grammys and turned out hits such as "Roxanne" and "Every Breath You Take," will open the event - 23 years after breaking up amid internal conflict.
CBS will air the 49th annual Grammy Awards ceremony live from Los Angeles on Feb. 11.
The Police
Guest Judge On 'Grease'
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Here's the word: Andrew Lloyd Webber will be a guest judge on the Feb. 11 edition of the reality TV-er "Grease: You're the One that I Want," NBC announced Tuesday.
The composer, whose Broadway hits include "Evita," "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera," will weigh in on the remaining 12 finalists, who are competing to play Danny the slick greaser and Sandy the naive good girl (John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the classic 1978 movie version) in the revival of "Grease" coming to Broadway this summer.
The hopefuls - split evenly between guys and girls - will perform songs from Broadway musicals, including Webber's shows, in the two-hour episode.
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Visits New Orleans School
Bill Cosby
Standing on the front steps of one of New Orleans' most troubled schools, Bill Cosby said the education and well-being of the city's children are not getting the attention and support they deserve from the state.
Cosby lent his celebrity status to a group pushing for improvements in city schools. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the state has taken over most of the city's schools from the problem-plagued local school board, and many of those schools are suffering from teacher shortages and overcrowded classrooms, among other problems.
Local and state education officials met Tuesday with Cosby and a group calling itself the Downtown Neighborhoods Improvement Association of New Orleans. Among the improvements Cosby and the group are requesting are a lower student-teacher ratio, reduction in the number of security guards on school campuses and hiring of more counselors, social workers and psychologists.
Bill Cosby
Did Web Site Spoil Food Network Outcome?
'Top Chef''
Food & Wine magazine's Web site posted interview features Tuesday with the two "Top Chef" finalists in an attempt to prove it wasn't working with inside information when one of the profiles was spotted a day earlier.
Viewers will find out for sure Wednesday when the pre-taped competition between Ilan Hall and Marcel Vigneron is shown on Bravo. "Top Chef" has been cable's most popular prime-time series in January.
Eater LA, a Web log devoted to Los Angeles' restaurant and nightlife scene, said that for about 15 minutes a Food & Wine story identifying Hall as the reality-show winner appeared on the magazine's Web site on Monday afternoon. Eater LA quickly trumpeted it.
'Top Chef'
Seals Comics Deal
Kiss
The rock group Kiss has partnered with comic-book production company Platinum Studios to create a new comic-book entertainment company called the Kiss Comics Group.
This is not the first time there have been comics featuring the members of the band, but it will be the first time that Kiss -- under the banner of Kiss Catalog Ltd., run by original members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley -- will produce its own comic-book-based characters.
The co-venture aims to be more than a publisher; it plans to expand the comic-book characters' images onto multimedia platforms including print, mobile, online, film, television and licensed merchandise.
Kiss
Files Suit
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton filed a federal lawsuit Monday, seeking to shut down a Web site that displays personal photos, videos, diaries, and other belongings once kept at a storage facility.
The Web site was launched last week claiming the items were auctioned off after Hilton neglected to pay the Los Angeles-area storage facility. It also promises visitors who pay a fee of $39.97 access to Hilton's passport, medical records and other legal documents.
The 25-year-old heiress said a moving company was supposed to pay the storage fees and was "shocked and surprised" to learn her belongings were sold at a public auction.
Paris Hilton
Grammy Opinions
Michael Bublé
Grammy nominee Michael Bublé says he wants nothing to do with next week's awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
The Vancouver-based crooner is angry that his category will not be presented during the live TV broadcast. "They give away our best traditional pop award at a dinner before the Grammys, so I just think that's bullshit. I think it's absolute crap," Bublé, 31, said in an interview Tuesday with The Canadian Press.
"Our category is now selling way too many records to be given away at a dinner before, so I'm just not going to show up."
"Why should I go to the Grammys?" he said. "Because I'll lose. ... They might as well have already scratched Tony Bennett's name into the damn thing. I'm not going."
Michael Bublé
Pledge As Good As A Deed
Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir
A doctor accused of pledging to treat al-Qaida members can be prosecuted because medical care counts as material support to terrorists under federal law, a judge said Tuesday.
Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, an Ivy League-educated doctor, had argued it was unconstitutional to prosecute a doctor for providing medical services.
He was arrested in May 2005 at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., accused in a plot to assist terrorist organizations along with a New York jazz musician, a Brooklyn bookstore owner and a former Washington, D.C., cabdriver. Sabir has pleaded not guilty and remained jailed since his arrest.
"Here, Sabir is alleged essentially to have volunteered as a medic for the al-Qaida military, offering to make himself available specifically to attend to the wounds of injured fighters," the judge said. "Much as a military force needs weapons, ammunition, trucks, food and shelter, it needs medical personnel to tend to its wounded."
Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir
Allege White House Pressure
Scientists
U.S. scientists felt pressured to tailor their writings on global warming to fit the Bush administration's skepticism, in some cases at the behest of an ex-oil industry lobbyist, a congressional committee heard on Tuesday.
A survey by the group found that 150 climate scientists personally experienced political interference in the past five years, for a total of at least 435 incidents.
Rick Piltz, a former U.S. government scientist who said he resigned in 2005 after pressure to soft-pedal findings on global warming, told the committee in prepared testimony that former White House official Phil Cooney took an active role in casting doubt on the consequences of global climate change.
Cooney, who was a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute before becoming chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, resigned in 2005 to work for oil giant ExxonMobil.
Scientists
Stonehenge Village Found
Durrington Walls
A village of small houses that may have sheltered the builders of the mysterious Stonehenge - or people attending festivals there - has been found by archaeologists studying the stone circle in England. Eight of the houses, with central hearths, have been excavated, and there may be as many as 25 of them, Mike Parker Pearson said Tuesday at a briefing organized by the National Geographic Society.
The ancient houses are at a site known as Durrington Walls, about two miles from Stonehenge. It is also the location of a wooden version of the stone circle.
The village was carbon dated to about 2600 B.C., about the same time Stonehenge was built. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was built at about the same time, said Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.
Durrington Walls
Another Lawsuit
Sacha Baron Cohen
Wa wa wee wa, is Borat in trouble again? Following lawsuits from Southern conservatives, frat boys, Romanian villagers and seemingly every other group in the "U.S. and A.," Sacha Baron Cohen could be facing even more legal difficulties over his wacky comedic creation, Borat Sagdiyev. This time his accuser is an Israeli comedian who claims that Borat's signature exclamation of excitement - "Wa wa wee wa" - belongs to him.
According to "Good Evening With Guy Pines," an Israeli entertainment news show, Dovale Glickman plans to sue the Golden Globe-award winning comedian for copyright infringement.
The Israeli comedian coined the phrase 16 years ago, for a character on the hit Israeli comedy show "Zehu Zeh." Glickman further popularized the expression in a series of TV commercials for the Israeli yellow pages. It caught on and is still commonly heard on the street in Israel.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sued For $50M
Brandy
The parents of a woman killed in a freeway crash involving Brandy sued the actress-singer for $50 million Tuesday. The wrongful-death suit claims Brandy was driving recklessly when her Land Rover struck the back of a Honda driven by Awatef Aboudihaj, 38, "The Insider" first reported.
The suit was filed on behalf of Aboudihaj Ahmed and Labridi Zohra in Los Angeles Superior Court.
It comes a day after the California Highway Patrol recommended Brandy be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in the Dec. 30 accident. The city attorney's office is reviewing the case.
Brandy
Nielsens Top 20
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for January 22-28. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (1) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 33.87 million viewers.
2. (1) "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 32.6 million viewers.
3. (7) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 21.5 million viewers.
4. (5) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 21.17 million viewers.
5. (8) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 18.86 million viewers.
6. (11) "Deal or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 17.61 million viewers.
7. (15) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 15.85 million viewers.
8. (X) "Cold Case," CBS, 15.13 million viewers.
9. (25) "Heroes," NBC, 14.9 million viewers.
10. (17) "NCIS," CBS, 14.83 million viewers.
11. (X) "Hallmark Hall of Fame: Valley of Light," CBS, 14.78 million viewers.
12. (21) "24," Fox, 14.47 million viewers.
13. (15) "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.27 million viewers.
14. (24) "Shark," CBS, 14.11 million viewers.
15. (12) "CSI: NY," CBS, 13.35 million viewers
16. (30) "New Adventures of Old Christine," CBS, 12.81 million viewers.
17. (X) "CSI: Miami" (Thursday), CBS, 12.23 million viewers.
18. (26) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 12.09 million viewers.
19. (61) "Men in Trees," ABC, 10.66 million viewers.
20. (65) "America's Funniest Home Videos," ABC, 10.43 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Rev. Robert Drinan
The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest elected to Congress on an anti-war platform during the height of the Vietnam War, has died. He was 86.
"He was a profile in courage in every sense of the word, and the nation has lost one of the finest persons ever to serve in Congress," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
A staunch human rights advocate, Drinan worked for desegregation, impeachment of a president and abolishment of the draft.
He represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House for 10 years during the turbulent 1970s. He stepped down only after a worldwide directive from Pope John Paul II barring priests from holding public office.
But he wore his liberal views more prominently. He opposed the draft, worked to abolish mandatory retirement and raised eyebrows with his more moderate views on abortion and birth control.
He became the first member of Congress to call for the impeachment of Richard Nixon - although the call wasn't related to the Watergate scandal, but rather what Drinan viewed as the administration's undeclared war against Cambodia.
"Can we be silent about this flagrant violation of the Constitution?" Drinan demanded angrily back then. "Can we impeach a president for concealing a burglary but not for concealing a massive bombing?"
After leaving office in 1980 - "with regret and pain" - Drinan continued to be active in political causes. He served as president of the Americans for Democratic Action, crisscrossing the country giving speeches on hunger, civil liberties, and the perils of the arms race.
Rev. Robert Drinan
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