'Best of TBH Politoons'
Update From Colby
Katherine Harris
Hi,
Katherine Harris is losing ground in the polls in spite of running campaign ads across the state. She still leads against her Republican opponents, but is now
33 points behind Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.
I guess she could change her fashion style back again and return to wearing
her coat made out of 101 Dalmatians.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Allan Uthman: Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State (Buffalo Beast. Posted on Alternet.org)
From secret detention centers to warrantless wiretapping, Bush and Co. give free rein to their totalitarian impulses.
David E. Kelley, James Spader, and The Writers of "Boston Legal" (wingsofjustice.com)
Each time we watched James Spader's closing arguments in the "Boston Legal" episode titled "Stick It," we wondered: "Why don't Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi say this? Why aren't there Democratic Party advertisements on television with this message?"
From Boston Legal, "Stick It," March 14, 2006
ALAN SHORE: When the "Weapons of Mass Destruction thing" turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up! Huh! They didn't.
Dennis Myers: Check the date (newsreview.com)
Consumers are slowly discovering that their credit card companies are playing games with them again, this time with the monthly due date on bills.
The Simpsons as philosophy (news.bbc.co.uk)
The Simpsons is more than a funny cartoon - it reveals truths about human nature that rival the observations of great philosophers from Plato to Kant... while Homer sets his house on fire, says philosopher Julian Baggini.
Timothy Noah: Pryor's Priors (slate.com)
Richard Pryor's FBI file.
Andrew Shanahan: How private is your back garden? (guardian.co.uk)
Naturists everywhere will today be doing what they do best in celebration of the triumph of Lynett Burgess - the district nurse acquitted by magistrates who decided she had not committed any crime by sunbathing naked in her back garden.
Boulder's Progressive Talk AM760
Erin Hart
Join Erin Hart when she
fills in for Jay Marvin on Boulder's Progressive Talk, AM760.net
this Monday, Memorial Day, 5am - 9am (PDT) [6am - 10 am MDT].
Skip Dreps of the NW Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America talks about the state of veteran's rights. The scoop on Nicholson and Principi, headed for elective office? Says who?
5.3 million vets are losing their disability insurance and another 26.5 lost their identities--what to do about all this!
Then we will explore the ethics of Enron, how the bad guys FINALLY may get some comeuppance anyway. What is the fallout from this huge scandal--and does it pay to be loyal to corporations anymore?
And Rabbi Daniel Weiner joins us to talk about the morality of business and the gay rights issues facing Colorado voters this fall.
Are Bush and Blair REALLY taking responsibility or is that all a lot of hooey. And the year so far in scandal, sigh.
Plus your barbeque tips for the long hot summer ahead. We already know who we want to boil in oil. . .
Check out erinhartshow.com when you can, and visit bartcop entertainment for details about the show.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast & pleasantly cool.
I am sick of the way the democrats in this state are advertising for the coming election.
They're so busy slagging each other (yes, I know it's a primary) that when November rolls around they'll have provided Ahnold & the repukes all the ammo they need.
Stop flinging your shit at each other. I don't care who started it.
Perhaps the pre-school initiative should be first tried out on the politicians.
Even pre-schoolers are expected to behave.
You wanna fling some shit? How about Ahnold and the energy meeting with Cheney during the California Reaming of 2001. Or how Ahnold dismissed the lawsuit Gray Davis filed against Enron & the Pioneers as a result of the Reaming? Jeez.
Added a new flag - Mali 
Reveals Showtime Contract
Smithsonian
The Smithsonian Institution has given U.S. lawmakers a copy of its semi-exclusive television contract with Showtime Networks Inc. - a deal criticized by researchers, filmmakers and others.
Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small told the House Administration Committee that the Smithsonian is locked into the contract for three decades, though many details have not made public. Thursday, he disclosed that the Smithsonian is guaranteed $500,000 a year and can earn more depending on the popularity of the Smithsonian on Demand channel, a new cable television venture.
The committee was given a copy of the 170-page contract, but it was to be kept confidential. The secrecy surrounding the contract displeased the House Appropriations Committee, which cut the proposed Smithsonian budget by $20 million.
A group of more than 214 academics and filmmakers have protested the deal, calling it "anticompetitive." They argued in a letter to Small that it would "discourage independent filmmakers from creating projects for other media outlets."
Smithsonian
Settle Lawsuit
CBS & Howard Stern
Shock jock Howard Stern regained control of the master tapes from the last 20 years of his terrestrial radio program in a Friday settlement of the contentious lawsuit brought by his former bosses at CBS Radio.
Stern's new employer, Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., agreed to pay $2 million to CBS Radio in return for the rights to the classic recordings, according to a statement released by both sides.
"As part of the settlement, CBS Radio will receive payments relating to the conveyance of its rights in the recordings of `The Howard Stern Show,'" the statement read. "Sirius, for its part, will make a total payment of $2 million related to this conveyance."
The remaining details of the settlement remained confidential, according to the statement.
CBS & Howard Stern
Announces Filmfest
Michael Moore
Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, who engineered a film festival last summer in this northern Michigan resort town, announced Friday that he will present the second-annual Traverse City Film Festival.
To take place July 31 to Aug. 6, the festival will be two days longer than its predecessor and feature about twice as many films - nearly 50 in total.
Organizers are still picking the lineup, which will be announced next month. It will include prize winners from some of the world's top festivals this year, a tribute to Stanley Kubrick, and classic favorites that will again be shown free of charge each night.
Michael Moore
ESPN Series Strikes Out
Barry Bonds
A documentary TV series about baseball slugger Barry Bonds struck out with viewers as his quest to surpass Babe Ruth's lifetime home-run tally dragged on, and ESPN said on Friday it was pulling the program off the air early.
The Walt Disney Co.-owned channel plans to air a ninth episode of "Bonds on Bonds" on Monday before halting the series sooner than originally anticipated, ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys told Reuters.
Excitement over Bonds' achievement has been diminished by widely held suspicions he was using steroids at the height of his career, though Bonds denies ever knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
Barry Bonds
'Jane Eyre' Revised
Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte offered to rewrite parts of "Jane Eyre" after a legal threat from the headmaster of the school on which she based the infamous Lowood school, newly discovered letters show.
The letters, written by the headmaster's grandson in 1912, will be put up for sale next month by auction house Mullock Madeley, documents expert Richard Westwood-Brookes said on Friday.
According to the letters, the description upset headmaster Reverend William Carus-Wilson, who wrote to his former pupil Bronte and threatened her with legal action after recognizing himself and his school from her description of Lowood.
But the letters, discovered a month ago and written by Carus-Wilson's grandson Edward, show Bronte dissuaded him from pursuing his case by sending him a 1,400-word sketch, expurgated of the offending passages.
Charlotte Bronte
Baby News
Kingston James McGregor Rossdale
It's a boy for Gwen Stefani and her rocker husband Gavin Rossdale. Kingston James McGregor Rossdale was born by Caesarean section Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to Stefani spokesman Dave Tomberlin. The baby weighed 7 1/2 pounds.
"Both mother and child are doing well," Tomberlin said in a statement.
Kingston James McGregor Rossdale
Baby News
Ava Dillon
41-year-old star of the HBO show "Entourage" Kevin Dillon became a first-time father last week when his wife, 28-year-old model and actress Jane Stuart, gave birth to a daughter, Us Weekly magazine reported on its Web site Thursday.
Ava Dillon was born in a Los Angeles-area hospital, the magazine said.
Ava Dillon
Paid Hacker To Spy?
MPAA
Valence Media, a company accused of aiding online movie pirates, says the group that represents Hollywood studios hired a computer hacker to spy on it.
Valence Media, which operates the Web site http://www.torrentspy.com, was sued in February by several movie studios for allegedly helping people locate and download pirated copies of films.
On Wednesday, the company sued the Motion Picture Association of America, saying the trade group paid a hacker $15,000 to break into Valence Media's computers and obtain private information, including e-mails, financial information and trade secrets.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims an MPAA employee approached an unnamed hacker, who was not an employee of Valence, and asked him to collect information on the company and its three principals.
MPAA
Another Anniversary
Aung San Suu Kyi
Hopes ran high among supporters of detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi that she would be released when her house arrest order expires Saturday, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to the ruling junta's chief "to do the right thing."
Police went to the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner's home Friday evening but there was no indication of the reason for the visit.
Officials would have to deliver a new order to hold her past the expiration of her detention. But if she was to be released, they also would be expected to visit to make arrangements.
Suu Kyi, who has spent about 10 of the last 17 years in detention, was most recently taken into custody on May 30, 2003, after her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob as she was making a political tour of northern Myanmar.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Returned to Van Hapsburg
Bran Castle
More than 60 years after it was seized by communists, the Romanian government is to hand back one of the country's most popular tourist sites, the fabled Dracula Castle, to its former owner, the culture minister said Tuesday.
The castle, worth an estimated $25 million, was owned by the late Queen Marie and bequeathed to her daughter Princess Ileana in 1938. It was confiscated by communists in 1948 and fell into disrepair. It will be transferred on Friday to Dominic van Hapsburg, a New York architect who inherited the castle from Princess Ileana decades after the communists seized it, minister Adrian Iorgulescu told a news conference.
At the gates of Bran Castle, peasants sell Dracula sweaters hand-knitted from the thick wool of local sheep, cheesecloth blouses, and Vampire wine. The castle is the most famous of 15 citadels and fortresses in the area, which were built by peasants to keep out marauding armies of Turks and Tartars and cruel local medieval lords.
Bran Castle
Convicted In Animal Protest
Pamelyn Ferdin
An animal rights activist who was the voice of Lucy in several Peanuts television specials, was convicted of illegally demonstrating outside the home of a city animal services employee.
Pamelyn Ferdin, who also appeared as a child on The Odd Couple and The Brady Bunch, and her husband, Jerry Vlasak, each were convicted on misdemeanor counts of trespassing and targeted demonstration.
A city ordinance prohibits a demonstration from occurring within 30.5 metres of a person's residence.
The conviction results from an incident in June 2004 when Ferdin, 48, and Vlasak, 49, handed out leaflets critical of city animal shelters outside the home of David Diliberto, director of field operations for the city's Department of Animal Services. The couple also went to Diliberto's door.
Pamelyn Ferdin
There He Goes, Again
Marion 'Pat' Robertson
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says he has leg-pressed 2,000 pounds, but some say he'd be in a pretty tough spot if he tried.
The "700 Club" host's feat of strength is recounted on the Web site of his Christian Broadcasting Network, in a posting headlined "How Pat Robertson Leg Pressed 2,000 Pounds."
According to the CBN Web site, Robertson worked his way up to lifting a ton with the help of his physician, who is not named. The posting does not say when the lift occurred, but a CBN spokeswoman released photos to The Associated Press that she said showed Robertson lifting 2,000 pounds in 2003, when Robertson was 73. He is now 76.
Andy Zucker, a strength-training coach at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, said leg presses of more than 1,000 pounds represent "a Herculean effort, and 2,000 pounds is a whole other story."
The CBN Web site attributes Robertson's energy in part to "his age-defying protein shake." The site offers a recipe for the shake, which contains ingredients such as soy protein isolate, whey protein isolate, flaxseed oil and apple cider vinegar.
Marion 'Pat' Robertson
Politicized Commission Confirmation
FCC
The U.S. Senate on Friday confirmed telecommunications lawyer Robert McDowell to fill the third Republican seat on the Federal Communications Commission, breaking the 2-2 deadlock at the agency.
The five-member FCC regulates the telecommunications and media industries, and the arrival of McDowell as the third Republican would enable the agency to move forward with a review that could lead to easing media ownership restrictions.
McDowell, 42, has been a lawyer for Comptel, a trade association that represents telephone and Internet companies that compete against bigger carriers like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications. The Senate approved McDowell by unanimous consent and he fills a seat that expires in 2009.
FCC
Loves Paddle Boat
Lovesick Swan
A swan has fallen in love with a plastic swan-shaped paddle boat on a pond in the German town of Muenster and has spent the past three weeks flirting with the vessel five times its size, a sailing instructor said Friday.
Peter Overschmidt, who operates a sailing school and rents the two-seat paddle boat on the Aasee pond, said the black swan with a bright red beak has not left the white swan boat's side since it flew in one day in early May.
"It seems like he's fallen in love," said Overschmidt. "He protects it, sits next to it all the time and chases away any sail boats that get anywhere nearby. He thinks the boat is a strong and attractive swan."
Lovesick Swan
In Memory
Desmond Dekker
Desmond Dekker, who brought the sound of Jamaican ska music to the world with songs such as "Israelites," has died, his manager said Friday. He was 64.
Dekker, who lived in England, collapsed from an apparent heart attack at his home on Thursday, manager Delroy Williams said.
Dekker's 1969 song "Israelites," a Top 10 single in both Britain and the United States, was the first international hit produced by Jamaica's vibrant music scene. With its haunting vocals and irresistible rhythm, it introduced the world to ska, a precursor to reggae.
Born Desmond Dacres in 1941, Dekker worked as a welder in Kingston before signing with Leslie Kong's Beverley's record label and releasing his first single, "Honor Your Father and Your Mother," in 1963. It was followed by Jamaican hits including "King of Ska."
Some of his most popular songs celebrated the culture of violent street toughs, or "rude boys" - "Rude Boy Train," "Rudie Got Soul" and "007 (Shanty Town)," which featured on the soundtrack of the seminal Jamaican film "The Harder They Come."
He also had a hit with "You Can Get It If You Really Want," written by his label-mate Jimmy Cliff.
Dekker, who was divorced, is survived by a son and a daughter. Funeral details were not immediately available.
Desmond Dekker
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