'Best of TBH Politoons'
Update From Colby
Re: Katherine Harris
Hi,
Apparently Katherine Harris pushed for a $10 million appropriation for Mitchell Wade's company over the objections of her staffers. Wade is one of "Duke" Cunningham's bribers.
Also, I've seen her new campaign commercial for the Senate and it is so lame it should be put down to put it out of it's misery.
Katherine And The Briber
Colby B
in Frostproof
Thanks, Colby!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Holly Hobbs: Preying on Predators? (styleweekly.com)
In the wake of vigilante murders, sex-offender registries have come under fire; a Richmond man dodges a flying rock.
Andrew Tobias: Myth-Busting (andrewtobias.com)
It's awkward to brag, but for the last quarter century, at least, it's Democrats who've had some vague notion about how to manage money. Our National Debt was $1 trillion the year Reagan took office and will be $10 trillion the day Bush leaves (unless he uses emergency powers to extend his term). Of that incremental $9 trillion, $8 trillion will have been racked up under just three presidents: Reagan, Bush, and Bush. The interest we must pay on that debt every year, even at today's relatively low rates, already is equivalent to 40% of all the personal incomes taxes Americans pay - and will almost surely be even higher by the time Bush goes.
Will Durst: Why Bush Won't Fix the Gas Price Problem (AlterNet.org)
It's not complicated: Bush is an oilman, his father is an oilman, and all the people who gave him money that put him in the White House are oilmen.
'Everywhere I turned, I ran into sexual abuse' (guardian.co.uk)
The real conspiracy in the Catholic church has nothing to do with the Da Vinci Code, says Patrick Wall - it's the cover-up of paedophile priests. Mark Honigsbaum meets the former monk who is leading a crusade to hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Germaine Greer: Why women don't relax (guardian.co.uk)
Men fish, play golf, watch football, play computer games. Women shop. But don't confuse that with having fun, says Germaine Greer - men may spend their free time relaxing, but for women it's just another form of work
David Barber: The Legend of 'Howl' (boston.com)
In which one ecstatic, idol-shattering poem heralded the '60s counterculture--and spawned the myth of its own radical break with the past.
Schoolmatters.com
Greatschools.net
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The lovely marine layer hung around til late afternoon, again.
No new flags.
'An Inconvenient Truth'
Al Gore
"An Inconvenient Truth" is no ordinary documentary. Nor are the people behind it marketing it in the usual way.
Along with the film's star, former Vice President Al Gore, they are on a mission to make sure that as many people see the movie as possible. That's not because they want to make gobs of money -- though that would be nice. No, they believe that this movie can save the planet.
The project began just a year ago when Laurie David, the environmentalist wife of "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David, and "Pulp Fiction" producer Lawrence Bender saw several of Gore's PowerPoint lectures designed to persuade humankind -- especially Americans, who use up most of the resources on this planet -- to rescue Earth from the swift pace of global warming. They convinced the recovering politician that he could find a new ally in Hollywood by letting them make a movie version of his spiel. "After we saw his presentation, I saw it as a movie instantly," Bender says. "He was showing it to 500 people at a time. Why not show it to millions?"
Moving at an urgent clip, David and Bender secured full financing from socially conscious Participant Prods. CEO Jeff Skoll ("Syriana," "Good Night, and Good Luck") brought in TV director Davis Guggenheim ("Alias") and rushed the documentary into production.
Al Gore
Invites Miners For A Beer
Dave Grohl
American grunge rocker Dave Grohl has sent a message of support to two Australian gold miners who have been trapped underground for 10 days and asked them to meet him for a beer.
Grohl, lead singer with the Foo Fighters and former drummer with grunge group Nirvana, sent a fax to the miners after one of them requested his music as he awaited rescue.
Miners Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 35, were trapped a kilometre underground at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine in Tasmania on April 25 by a massive rockfall inside their shaft and rescuers are still working to free them.
Mine manager Matthew Gill told the media earlier this week that one of the men had requested Foo Fighters music on an ipod being sent down through a food chute to them, adding he believed it was country and western music.
Asked what had prompted Grohl to send a message, Gill said: "Probably because I said he was country and western he was trying to correct the record."
Dave Grohl
John Lennon Songwriting Award
Ben Sures
Folk artist Ben Sures has won a John Lennon Songwriting Award for Any Precious Girl from his 2003 album Goodbye Pretty Girl.
The singer, who is based in Toronto and originally hails from Regina, will receive a $5,000 US advance from EMI Music Publishing, as well as free manufacturing for the first 1,000 units of his next CD.
The win also qualifies him for the Maxell Song of the Year contest, which features a $20,000 cash prize and is judged by performers including John Legend, Elton John, Carlos Santana, Enrique Iglesias, Tim McGraw and the Black Eyed Peas.
Ben Sures
Disney Wins!
Commercial Clutter
Commercial clutter on primetime TV is on the rise, with cable networks for the first time passing broadcasters, according to a new study by New York-based ad buyer MindShare.
Using data from consulting firm TNS Media Intelligence, MindShare tracked every minute of primetime in 2005 and found that each of the Big Four broadcasters except CBS had more than 15 nonprogram minutes per hour.
Nonprogram minutes include network commercial time, local spots, promos and public service announcements. The 10 cable networks included in the study had 5% more nonprogram minutes in 2005 than in 2004, while broadcast clutter was up only 2% in some cases and down in others.
ABC again had the most nonprogram minutes at 15:26, up from 15:21 in 2004. NBC's total stayed the same at 15:01, while the CBS total surged to 14:52 from 14:15 in 2004. Fox, on the other hand, decreased its total by six seconds to 15:00.
Commercial Clutter
Promoting Tolerance
Rubicon
A Jordanian media firm hopes its new TV cartoon series can achieve what politicians have failed to do so far: bridge the cultural divide between East and West.
It sounds like a tall order, but the Rubicon firm - named after the river Caesar crossed to establish the Roman Empire - is armed with an equally mighty motto: "to embark on a mission from which one cannot turn back."
Even more important is that the cartoon, called Ben and Izzy and aimed at eight to 11 year olds, has royal backing from Jordan's media savvy rulers, King Abdullah and Queen Rania, who have made it their goal to promote tolerance.
Rubicon
Takes a Spill From Scooter
James Gandolfini
"Sopranos" actor James Gandolfini took a tumble after his motor scooter collided with a taxi, but was said to be unhurt.
Gandolfini, who plays mob boss Tony Soprano on the hit HBO series, was motoring along a street in lower Manhattan Wednesday when the accident happened.
Gandolfini left the scene in another taxi and arranged for his crippled Italian scooter to be picked up to be fixed.
James Gandolfini
Rocking Out at Benefit
Dr. Phil
TV psychologist Phil McGraw will be joined onstage by Christina Aguilera, Andrea Bocelli and country stars Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans and Martina McBride at a benefit concert to raise money for nationwide after-school programs.
"JCPenney Jam: The Concert for America's Kids" will be held June 14 at the Shrine Auditorium and televised Aug. 22 on CBS.
Proceeds will support the JCPenney Afterschool Fund, which provides programs for students.
Dr. Phil
Details Business Woes
Marion 'Suge' Knight
Rap music mogul Suge Knight testified Friday that his Death Row Records struggled after he was jailed several times and hit with a $107 million judgment in a case by a couple claiming they helped start the label.
Knight answered questions about his business at a federal bankruptcy hearing intended to give his creditors a chance to ask about his assets and his debts of more than $100 million.
Testifying in a near mumble, Knight told a bankruptcy trustee that his incarceration handicapped the label that had topped the charts in the 1990s with artists such as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur.
Knight didn't answer a number of questions and repeatedly conferred with an accountant. He said he had never seen a profit and loss statement but had reviewed income tax returns.
Marion 'Suge' Knight
Splitting Custody
Bach - Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff and estranged wife Pamela Bach have been awarded joint custody of their two daughters. A Superior Court judge on Thursday said the actor and actress will have alternating weeks with their daughters Taylor, 16, and Hayley, 12. They also will alternate custody annually for holidays such as Christmas and the children's birthdays.
"My wife and I have been able to reach an agreement that we feel is in the best interest of our children, which affords them the opportunity to spend significant time with each of us," Hasselhoff said in a statement read Friday by his publicist, Judy Katz.
"It was in the best interests of the children and that's why they did it - (to) put it behind them and move on," said Gary Mitchell, the attorney who represented Bach.
Bach - Hasselhoff
Sued by TV Producer
'Dog Whisperer'
A television producer is suing dog trainer Cesar Millan, star of TV's "The Dog Whisperer," claiming that his Labrador retriever was injured at Millan's training facility after being suffocated by a choke collar and forced to run on a treadmill.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Superior Court, "8 Simple Rules" producer Flody Suarez says he took 5-year-old Gator to the Dog Psychology Center on Feb. 27 to deal with fears of other dogs and strangers.
Hours after dropping the dog off at the facility, Suarez claimed a worker called to inform him the animal had been rushed to a veterinarian. He later found the dog "bleeding from his mouth and nose, in an oxygen tent gasping for breath and with severe bruising to his back inner thighs," the lawsuit claims.
The facility's workers allegedly placed a choke collar on the dog, pulled him onto a treadmill and forced him to "overwork." Suarez says he spent at least $25,000 on medical bills and the dog must undergo more surgeries for damage to his esophagus.
'Dog Whisperer'
House Comes With Tortoise
Eliza
A family house in southern England has gone on sale with a unique feature -- a tortoise that has been in residence for more than half a century.
Eliza, who lives under a rose bush in the garden, has been there since World War Two and is now considered to be a fixture of the five-bedroomed property in the city of Exeter.
"It is a beautiful house. Central Exeter. Nice big family home. What is unusual is that it has this big sunny, south-facing back garden where Eliza has lived since 1940," a spokesman for city real estate agents Palmer Collins said.
Eliza
Founding Member Of Sha Na Na/Forensic Linguist
Robert Leonard
As he walks to the stage of a Hofstra University lecture hall, Robert Leonard's attire is every bit the college professor: blue blazer and shirt, charcoal slacks, yellow tie, glasses.
He's a long, long way from the summer of 1969 when the uniform of the day was a gold lame jumpsuit. Leonard was a founding member and bassist for Sha Na Na, a zany doo-wop group that played one of its first gigs at Woodstock.
Leonard's specialty today is forensic linguistics - employing the science of language to help identify the writers of ransom notes, threatening letters and other correspondence. Leonard directs Hofstra's forensic linguistics program while also consulting for law firms, advertising agencies, TV networks, police and government agencies.
He spent two years with the band before being offered a fellowship at Columbia.
"I wanted to do both, but I was afraid if I stayed in the group I couldn't do Columbia," Leonard recalls. "So I said I'll retire at 21 from the music business. I've been on the Johnny Carson show, what more do I need? I've been at Woodstock, I've drunk with Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix.
Robert Leonard
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