'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
PAUL KRUGMAN: Sweet Little Lies (The New York Times)
Four years into a war fought to eliminate a nonexistent threat, we all have renewed appreciation for the power of the Big Lie: people tend to believe false official claims about big issues, because they can't picture their leaders being dishonest about such things.
Frank Rich: Sunday in the Market With McCain (The New York Times)
John McCain's April Fools' Day stroll through Baghdad's Shorja market last weekend was instantly acclaimed as a classic political pratfall. Protected by more than a hundred American soldiers, three Black Hawk helicopters, two Apache gunships and a bulletproof vest, the senator extolled the "progress" and "good news" in Iraq.
Brent Budowsky: Don Imus and the Cancer of Communications (pundits.thehill.com)
There is too much hatred, derision, disrespect, smearing, slander, polarization, division and bigotry that has infected American politics and American media. What Don Imus said about the Rutgers women's basketball team was only the latest example of a sickness that is spreading - and in certain corporate boardrooms even encouraged as good for business. This problem is far larger than Imus, the idea that it's profitable, beneficial or cute to spit hate, venom, or ugliness in our politics and media.
David Sirota: The Courage to Vote Yes (sevendaysvt.com)
Why voting to fund the war was the best way to end it.
ADAM REILLY: Self-inflicted wounds (thephoenix.com)
Memo to the anti-war movement: don't blame the media
Christie Keith: Review of "Suffering Man's Charity" (afterelton.com)
... if you walk in with any sort of firm expectation at all, you'll be disappointed. Unless, that is, you're expecting your typical, everyday gay horror/comedy/romance/psychodrama/homage to classic films/splatter movie/thriller with David Boreanaz ["Buffy," "Angel," "Bones"] in a bra and panties, tied to a chair with Christmas tree lights while being tortured to death by his repressed gay landlord who's in love with him. And that's just the first half. After that, it gets weird.
Christie Keith: Alan Cumming's Queer Sensibility (afterelton.com)
The actor and director on desire, dark comedy and his latest film, "Suffering Man's Charity."
Kate Sullivan: Listening to Vintage 'American Top 40' Episodes on XM (laweekly.com)
Some of the fluffiest of the 70s pop fluff has proven to be not only enduring, but iconic.
Will Hogkinson: Rebel with a cause (arts.guardian.co.uk)
Amoral and blackly funny, Joe Orton's plays were made to be filmed. But his most cinematic creation was his own life.
Tip From Kip
Let's Buy Dick Cheney a Cheeseburger
Don't forget!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and clear.
PEN/Borders Literary Service Award
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal has been named the first winner of the PEN/Borders Literary Service Award, given to "a truly distinguished American writer whose critically acclaimed work helps us to understand the human condition in original and powerful ways."
The breadth and depth of Gore Vidal's brilliant work, his courage in speaking out, even at times when free speech has been at risk in our country, and his lifelong commitment to democracy, justice, reason, and common sense make him the ideal recipient of the inaugural PEN/Borders Literary Service Award," Borders Group CEO George Jones said Tuesday in a statement.
There is no cash prize for the PEN/Borders award.
Gore Vidal
Concert Planned
Paul Stookey
Paul Stookey, famous for songs of social protest with the US folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, will stage concerts here for the families of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea, his agent said Tuesday.
The benefit concerts will be held on May 18 and 19 at a civic hall, joined by Japanese singers, with proceeds going to fund a campaign to help kidnap victims, Yasu Nagai told a news conference.
Stookey has recorded a song about Megumi Yokota, who was kidnapped by North Korea in 1977 at age 13, and the agony of her ageing parents who believe she is still alive in the communist state.
In September 2002, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, mostly by sea, to train spies in Japanese language and culture.
Pyongyang insisted that eight of them were dead, with Megumi having killed herself due to depression after marrying a Korean and bearing a child. But her parents believe their daughter is alive and kept under wraps, probably because she knows too much about the secretive nation.
Paul Stookey
Pardon Sought
Jim Morrison
Gov. Charlie Crist is being asked to pardon the late Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, 38 years after he was convicted of exposing himself during a Miami concert.
Dave Diamond, a cable TV producer from Dayton, Ohio, wrote to Crist last month asking for the pardon. Diamond said the goal is to remember the Melbourne, Fla., native as an artist, not a rock 'n' roll bad boy with a rap sheet.
Morrison was charged days after a concert at Dinner Key Auditorium in Coconut Grove in 1969. He alleged exposed himself and simulated a sex act, which he denied doing.
He was acquitted on a felony charge for lewd and lascivious behavior, but was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity.
Jim Morrison
"Ghost Rider" Creator Sues
Gary Friedrich
The creator of Ghost Rider has sued Marvel Enterprises, Sony Pictures Entertainment and several entities over what he claims is an unauthorized "joint venture and conspiracy to exploit, profit from and utilize" his copyrights to the comic book character.
Gary Friedrich and his company filed the 61-page complaint April 4 in federal court in Illinois claiming 21 violations based on the production and marketing of Sony's recent "Ghost Rider," starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes. Friedrich claims the copyrights used in the film and in related products reverted from Marvel to him in 2001.
Friedrich alleges copyright infringement, and accuses Marvel of waste for failing "to properly utilize and capitalize" on the Ghost Rider character. Marvel's attempts to do so, Friedrich claims, have only damaged the value of his work by failing to properly promote and protect the characters and by accepting inadequate royalties from co-defendants. Friedrich also claims that toymaker Hasbro and videogame firm Take-Two have improperly created merchandise based on the characters.
Friedrich created the character of Johnny Blaze and his alter ego Ghost Rider in 1968. Three years later, he agreed to publish the character in comic books through Stan Lee's Magazine Management, which eventually became Marvel Entertainment.
Gary Friedrich
Fire Destroys Home
Johnny Cash
A fire destroyed the lakeside home of the late country singer Johnny Cash on Tuesday.
The cause is unknown, but Hendersonville Fire Chief Jamie Steele said the flames spread quickly because construction workers had recently applied a flammable wood preservative to the exterior of the house. The preservative was also being applied inside the house.
Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, lived at the home from the late 1960s until their deaths in 2003.
The property was purchased by Barry Gibb, a member of the Bee Gees, in January 2006. Gibb and his wife, Linda, had said they planned to restore the home on Old Hickory Lake and hoped to write songs there.
Johnny Cash
Apple Corps. Chief Exec. Quits
Neil Aspinall
Apple Corps., guardian of the Beatles' commercial interests, said Tuesday its chief executive, a longtime friend of the Fab Four, has quit.
Neil Aspinall, a school friend of Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison, was the band's first road manager and would drive them between gigs in his van.
He later became their personal assistant and in 1968 was given a management role at Apple Records, the band's own record label.
The company said in a statement that Jeff Jones, a former executive vice president at Sony BMG, has been appointed as Aspinall's replacement. There was no explanation for why Aspinall decided to quit.
Neil Aspinall
Sitcom Pulled
Andy Richter
Andy Richter's latest bid for sitcom success has been cut short by NBC, which has pulled his new show "Andy Barker, P.I." from its Thursday slot after just four airings.
The last two installments of the show's six-episode order will air Saturday. This Thursday, NBC will air an original episode of "Scrubs" in the 9:30 p.m. slot vacated by "Barker."
The critically acclaimed "Barker" starred the former "Conan O'Brien" sidekick as an accountant who accidentally becomes a detective. O'Brien co-created the show.
Andy Richter
In Custody
Joe Francis
The founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire was taken into custody by federal marshals early Tuesday to face a contempt of court citation after initially defying a federal judge.
Joe Francis was booked into the Bay County Jail, said Ruth Sasser, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office. "His attorneys continue to work toward a settlement," Ronn Torossian, a Francis spokesman, said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
Francis, 34, makes an estimated $29 million a year from videos of young women baring their breasts and in other sexually provocative situations.
He drew the contempt citation during negotiations in a civil lawsuit brought by seven women who were underage when they were filmed by his company on Panama City Beach during spring break in 2003.
Joe Francis
Advertisers Skittish
Don Imus
Some of Don Imus' sponsors are pulling their advertisements due to the furor surrounding the shock jock's on-air racial slurs about the Rutgers University women's basketball team, said an executive for a leading media-buying agency on Tuesday.
"He's put himself in a tenuous position. Clients have asked us to pull their advertising because it's controversial and offensive," said Dennis McGuire, vice president and regional broadcast director for Carat USA, a media-buying agency, which manages over $6 billion in U.S. billings.
Jerry Del Colliano, a professor at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, said he believes that any pullback by advertisers will be temporary if at all.
"It's very hard to sustain a boycott. It's temporary at best, history shows us that. This was another case of going too far and Corporate America pushing and encouraging a personality to be over the edge," said Del Colliano. "This is the usual canned outrage from two corporations who encouraged the behavior in the first place," he said.
Don Imus
Faces Felony Charges
Snoop Dogg
US rap star Snoop Dogg could face up to four years in prison after being hit with felony weapons and drugs charges, Los Angeles prosecutors said Tuesday.
The district attorney's office said the 35-year-old rapper -- real name Calvin Broadus -- would be arraigned in Pasadena on Wednesday on charges of gun possession by a felon and sale or transportation of marijuana.
The charges relate to an incident last October at Burbank's Bob Hope airport when police discovered marijuana in the musician's vehicle while confronting him over a parking violation.
Snoop Dogg
Cleaner Sued
Beatles Photos
Boxes of photographic material - including the only remaining original transparencies from a 1963 Beatles photo session - were thrown out by a cleaner despite a note warning they weren't trash, a lawsuit filed in Britain's High Court claims.
Apple Corps. Ltd., guardian of the Fab Four's commercial interests, and EMI Records Ltd., which distributes the Beatles' music, filed the lawsuit against the cleaning company, Crystal Services PLC, earlier this year.
The lawsuit, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, says more than 450 photographs, negatives and transparencies were lost, most of which were EMI's photographic archive from 1997.
Some of the material may be replaceable, the claim acknowledges, but one box included seven transparencies of Beatles photos taken in 1963 by Angus McBean. The photos were used on the cover of "Please Please Me," the Beatles' first official album, and the "Red Album," a compilation released in 1973.
Beatles Photos
L.A. Radio Host Acquitted
El Cucuy
A radio host who has one of the top-rated shows among the city's Hispanic listeners has been acquitted of a misdemeanour charge of making a criminal threat involving his son.
The court commissioner who acquitted Renan Almendarez Coello on Monday also dismissed eight other counts including battery and vandalism, prosecutors said.
Almendarez, who was born in Honduras, started his radio career when he was a teen. His show is titled "El Cucuy de la Manana," or "The Boogeyman of the morning."
El Cucuy
Which Did Rove's Bidding?
US Attorneys
The real story of the U.S. Attorneys scandal that has so endangered the tenure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is not that of the eight fired prosecutors. It is that of the 85 U.S. Attorneys around the country who were not let go.
There is mounting evidence that the Bush administration was pressuring U.S. attorneys to politicize their prosecutions prior to the 2006 elections, on the apparent theory that stirring up trouble for Democrats in battleground states might ease concerns about abuses by White House aides, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay, former California Congressman Duke Cunningham and the various and sundry GOP solons who had been linked to no-longer-so-super lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
And it certainly looks as if some of the U.S. Attorneys who refused to bow to the pressure to mount prosecutions that might embarrass Democrats were removed from their positions because of their regard for the rule of law.
But what about the U.S. Attorneys who were not fired?
US Attorneys
Prime-Time Nielsen
Ratings
Prime-Time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for April 2-8. 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" (Tuesday), Fox, 26.67 million viewers.
2. (1) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 26.1 million viewers.
3. (3) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 21.69 million viewers.
4. (8) "House," Fox, 20.35 million viewers.
5. (X) "CBS NCAA Basketball Championships," CBS, 19.56 million viewers.
6. (5) "Dancing With the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 18.24 million viewers.
7. (9) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 15.93 million viewers.
8. (28) "Shark," CBS, 15.1 million viewers.
9. (12) "Dancing With the Stars Results" (Tuesday), ABC, 14.99 million viewers.
10. (X) "Without a Trace," CBS, 14.12 million viewers.
11. (96) "`Til Death," Fox, 13.95 million viewers.
12. (18) "NCIS," CBS, 13.79 million viewers.
13. (16) "Survivor: Fiji," CBS, 13.58 million viewers.
14. (X) "60 Minutes," CBS, 13.17 million viewers.
15. (25) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 12.1 million viewers.
16. (X) "Prelude to a Championship," CBS, 11.94 million viewers.
17. (15) "Lost," ABC, 11.66 million viewers.
18. (13) "Deal or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 11.45 million viewers.
19. (X) "Cold Case," CBS, 11.33 million viewers.
20. (30) "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit," NBC, 11.16 million viewers.
Ratings
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