'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Link
'No RNC'
A fab collection of posters for download for use in NYC to fight the Repukes:
Reader Links
Mike Malloy Links
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Breezy summer day.
Finally found the 'SCTV' DVD at CostCo today, but it's not in the budget this week.
The kittens sure like the screen door - tonight they were jumping at it like it was made of velcro.
Actor William Baldwin arrives at a Louis Boston party in Boston, Wednesday, July 28, 2004.
Photo by Chitose Suzuki
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Leaves N.Y. Delegates in Stitches
Al Franken
Comedian and liberal radio talk-show host Al Franken had New York delegates to the Democratic National Convention in stitches with a 25-minute monologue poking fun at state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and attacking resident Bush.
Noting that New York magazine had selected Spitzer as one of the state's 50 sexiest New Yorkers, Franken said Thursday, "Imagine if he had a full head of hair."
The treatment of Bush was far harsher: "He said he was against nation building. What I didn't realize was that he meant only our nation," Franken said.
Adding that he was pleased to have President Clinton on his Air America Radio show recently, Franken said, "You forget a president can actually think and talk at the same time."
Al Franken
Excellent Reading
The Case Against George W. Bush
By Ron Reagan
It may have been the guy in the hood teetering on the stool, electrodes clamped to his genitals. Or smirking Lynndie England and her leash. Maybe it was the smarmy memos tapped out by soft-fingered lawyers itching to justify such barbarism. The grudging, lunatic retreat of the neocons from their long-standing assertion that Saddam was in cahoots with Osama didn't hurt. Even the Enron audiotapes and their celebration of craven sociopathy likely played a part. As a result of all these displays and countless smaller ones, you could feel, a couple of months back, as summer spread across the country, the ground shifting beneath your feet. Not unlike that scene in The Day After Tomorrow, then in theaters, in which the giant ice shelf splits asunder, this was more a paradigm shift than anything strictly tectonic. No cataclysmic ice age, admittedly, yet something was in the air, and people were inhaling deeply. I began to get calls from friends whose parents had always voted Republican, "but not this time." There was the staid Zbigniew Brzezinski on the staid NewsHour with Jim Lehrer sneering at the "Orwellian language" flowing out of the Pentagon. Word spread through the usual channels that old hands from the days of Bush the Elder were quietly (but not too quietly) appalled by his son's misadventure in Iraq. Suddenly, everywhere you went, a surprising number of folks seemed to have had just about enough of what the Bush administration was dishing out. A fresh age appeared on the horizon, accompanied by the sound of scales falling from people's eyes. It felt something like a demonstration of that highest of American prerogatives and the most deeply cherished American freedom: dissent.
Oddly, even my father's funeral contributed. Throughout that long, stately, overtelevised week in early June, items would appear in the newspaper discussing the Republicans' eagerness to capitalize (subtly, tastefully) on the outpouring of affection for my father and turn it to Bush's advantage for the fall election. The familiar "Heir to Reagan" puffballs were reinflated and loosed over the proceedings like (subtle, tasteful) Mylar balloons. Predictably, this backfired. People were treated to a side-by-side comparison-Ronald W. Reagan versus George W. Bush-and it's no surprise who suffered for it. Misty-eyed with nostalgia, people set aside old political gripes for a few days and remembered what friend and foe always conceded to Ronald Reagan: He was damned impressive in the role of leader of the free world. A sign in the crowd, spotted during the slow roll to the Capitol rotunda, seemed to sum up the mood-a portrait of my father and the words NOW THERE WAS A PRESIDENT.
The comparison underscored something important. And the guy on the stool, Lynndie, and her grinning cohorts, they brought the word: The Bush administration can't be trusted.
Read the rest - The Case Against George W. Bush
Celebrities Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs (L), Norman Lear (C), Leonardo DiCaprio (2nd R), and Ben Affleck (R) watch the 2004 Democratic National Convention from a luxury box inside the FleetCenter in Boston, July 29, 2004. The party faithful will hear Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry formally accept the nomination with his speech that will bring the four day convention to a close.
Photo by Gary Hershorn
Named Goodwill Ambassador
Harry Belafonte
Acclaimed actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte was named a goodwill ambassador on Thursday for the upcoming Hans Christian Andersen bicentennial celebrations, organizers said.
Belafonte is the 47th celebrity tapped to help increase awareness about the famed fairy tale writer ahead of celebrations marking his 200th birthday in 2005. He will receive a diploma from Culture Minister Brian Mikkelsen on Aug. 6 at Copenhagen's downtown Tivoli amusement park.
Other ambassadors include American singer Suzanne Vega and actors Harvey Keitel, Connie Nielsen and Susan Sarandon, Brazilian soccer star Pele, Australian runner Cathy Freeman and Chinese basketball star and Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming. On July 9, Brazilian singer and culture minister Gilberto Gil was picked and received a diploma in Copenhagen.
Harry Belafonte
Initially Declined Invitation
Patti LaBelle
Patti LaBelle initially declined an invitation from producer Don Mischer to serenade the crowd on the opening night of the Democratic convention.
Lady Marmalade, it seems, was tired from a busy touring schedule and had just taken a much-needed vacation to the Bahamas. Then she decided rest could wait, and hopped on a plane to Boston.
"It was her decision, and her conviction that led her to do this," LaBelle's publicist, Patti Webster, said Thursday. "And her hope that things could change in November."
Patti LaBelle
End Motorcycle Odyssey in New York
Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman
Scottish actor Ewan McGregor on Thursday roared into New York City's Battery Park on his dusty motorcycle and ended a 20,000-mile odyssey from London with fellow actor and friend Charley Boorman.
The 33-year-old McGregor, of "Star Wars" film fame, and Boorman took more than three months to go through Eastern Europe and the punishing terrain of Mongolia, Siberia and Alaska.
A documentary of their journey will air on the Bravo TV series "Long Way Round," premiering on Oct. 28, and in Britain on Sky One.
Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
6 Degrees Of Kevin
Bacon Brothers
The Bacon Brothers - actor Kevin and his brother Michael - brought down the house at Brother Jimmy's in Cambridge when their band played at a reception for the Connecticut delegation hosted by Sen. Christopher Dodd.
But some in the crowd also entertained themselves Wednesday night by trying to link Dodd to the 46-year-old actor through "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," a game in which the goal is to connect the versatile Bacon to any other actor through six or fewer movies.
Dodd had a cameo in the 1993 movie "Dave," so partygoers racked their brains for much of the evening to come with the best way to link him to Bacon.
The winner, in four degrees: Dodd was in "Dave" with Kevin Kline; Kline was in "In & Out" with Matt Dillon; Dillon was in "The Outsiders" with Tom Cruise; Cruise was in "A Few Good Men" with Bacon.
But if you cheat and look it up online using the Internet Movie Database, you can do it in two steps: Dodd was in "Dave" with Laura Linney; Linney was in "Mystic River" with Bacon.
Bacon Brothers
Polly Letofsky of Vail, Colo., pushes her cart 'Bob' down a country road between Granby and Fraser, Colo., Tuesday, July 20, 2004. Letofsky, 42, has spent the last five years walking around the world to raise awareness of breast cancer. She expects to end the long journey as returns to Vail on Friday.
Photo by Ed Andrieski
Marks Centennial
Ravinia Music Festival
One of the longest-running traditions in American music began 100 years ago when a now-forgotten performer sat down at a steam calliope and let fly with "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home."
It was the Aug. 15, 1904 grand opening of Ravinia, a railroad-run amusement park that quickly evolved into a summer music festival.
Over the century, the calliope concerts were replaced with performances by the likes of Igor Stravinsky, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Frank Zappa. Now in its 100th anniversary summer, fans are again spilling across Ravinia's lawns for an eclectic lineup of 2004 concerts that includes the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Blues Traveler, George Thorogood, Tony Bennett and Renee Fleming.
For a lot more, Ravinia Music Festival
Engagement News
Brandy & Quentin Richardson
"Talk About Our Love" singer Brandy is engaged to pro basketball player Quentin Richardson, People magazine reported.
Richardson, 24, surprised the 25-year-old Brandy with an 11 1/2-carat diamond ring valued at $1 million at a reception Tuesday at Los Angeles' Century Club, the magazine said Thursday.
Brandy & Quentin Richardson
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Faces Drug Charges
Kimora Lee Simmons
Kimora Lee Simmons, wife of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, was arrested just after midnight Monday outside the couple's estate in Saddle River (NJ), according to published reports.
Simmons, 29, was charged with eluding an officer, possessing marijuana, careless driving and operating a vehicle while possessing a drug.
"It's our perception that this is just another example of a prominent member of the hip-hop community being made an example of. The Simmons family is extremely involved in their community and this is an attempt to denigrate Kimora's good name and that of her family," her lawyer, Stacey Richman said.
Kimora Lee Simmons
'Athena', the little owl that belonged to the nurse Florence Nightingale, is viewed by museum community educationalist Zoe Gilbert, who is wearing traditional clothing, at the Florence Nightingale Museum in London. The charity AgeCare has offered the stuffed bird, which died circa 1854, and various other personal objects to the museum's collection.
Photo by Toby Melville
Recounts Ozzy Strangling Horror
Sharon Osbourne
A tearful Sharon Osbourne said on Thursday that she would have shot her husband, rocker Ozzy Osbourne, when he tried to strangle her in 1989 if she had had a gun in their English home.
"He (Ozzy) was drinking and he was taking drugs and it got to the point where he got violent with me, and he nearly choked me to death and I called the police on him," Osbourne said, on the verge of tears.
"He's a gift from God but if I'd have had a gun I would have used it," she said.
"Thank God I didn't have a gun, that's why I'm so against guns or knives or anything like that, because I know if I'd have had one I'd have probably tried to defend myself," she said.
Sharon Osbourne
Takeshi Kitano, sitting in front of a poster for his latest movie 'Zatoichi, the Blind Swordsman,' ponders a question during an interview with The Associated Press at a Tokyo hotel Saturday, July 17, 2004. Sure, he's won some fancy international awards, and has a reputation around the world as a gifted auteur for such films as 'Hana-Bi' and now 'Zatoichi.' But in Japan, Kitano isn't taken very seriously.
Photo by Koji Sasahara
Axes Talent Competition
Miss America
The Miss America pageant is pulling the plug on its talent competition, eliminating the amateurish two-minute routines that have come to feature cheesy stunts such as tractor driving and trampoline jumping.
Instead, this year's crowning Sept. 18 will showcase some of the women performing in a videotaped montage culled from talent routines staged in preliminary competition.
Just one contestant chosen by the pageant's producers will perform live, after the selection of the five finalists for Miss America 2005. ABC-TV is trimming the telecast to two hours this year.
Miss America
A rare Bornean sun bear cub practices his climbing skills Thursday, July 29, 2004, at the San Diego Zoo. Six-month-old Danum is the first-ever of his species to be born in North America. Bornean sun bears are a subspecies of the Malayan sun bear, found in Southeast Asia and are the smallest member of the bear family. They have a distinctive yellowish crescent marking on their chest which people believe looks like the rising or setting sun. The San Diego Zoo is home to four Bornean sun bears.
Photo by Ken Bohn
'The Osbournes'
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