'Best of TBH Politoons'
Freshly Updated!
Dick Eats Bush
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Ames: America's Decline Gives Bush Putin-Envy (The eXile. Posted on AlterNet.org)
Nothing could make America's decline as a global power more embarrassing for the national psyche than the fact that Russia is on the rise -- and USA's patriotic press going bezerk in the process.
Bryan Bender: Cost of Iraq war nearly $2billion a week (Boston Globe; Posted on makethemaccountable.com)
WASHINGTON - A new congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week - nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year - as the Pentagon spends more on establishing regional bases to support the extended deployment and scrambles to fix or replace equipment damaged in combatŠ
JANE MAYER: JUNIOR (newyorker.com)
The clandestine life of America's top Al Qaeda source.
Andrew Tobias: Inside (andrewtobias.com)
Let's be clear here: it is the president's belief that anyone who sanctions mistreatment of military prisoners under the definition of the U.N. Convention on Torture should be prosecuted as a war criminal. One simple question: how exactly does that now not apply to him? - Andrew Sullivan, September 2006
SHEA ANDERSEN: Breaking the Sound Barrier: Interview with Amy Goodman (boiseweekly.com)
AG: I think that conservative and liberal lines are breaking down right now. So I don't think it's about people's political persuasions. What's going on in Iraq right now is horrifying people across the political spectrum.
Jacob Weisberg : Why candidates aren't talking about what to do in Iraq (slate.com)
The biggest problem our country faces is the war we are losing in Iraq. The most shocking aspect of the national election we are holding in six weeks is that candidates aren't discussing what to do about it.
Aziz Huq: Terror 2016 (tompaine.com)
Ten years after the Military Commissions Act of 2006, they came for Bobby Jaffar and his family. Officers from a Joint Terrorism Task Force, clad in Kevlar and wielding assault rifles, didn't knock: They cracked the door down. Ten-year old Bobby and his 17-year old sister were seized. His father-Brooklyn-born with roots in Djibouti-and his mother-a Yemeni Green Card-holder-were taken away separately. It was the last time Bobby was to see them for many years.
The road to ruin (guardian.co.uk)
On the surface, Luisa Strudwick was doing fine. But she had a secret: she owed £52,000. This year, she joined the record number of people declaring bankruptcy in this country. Aida Edemariam hears her story and talks to two others who know what it's like to be overwhelmed by debt.
William Saletan: Junk-Food Jihad (slate.com)
Should we regulate French fries like cigarettes?
Live in Upper Arlington, Ohio? Borrow Bruce's Books (Upper Arlington Public Library)
Perform an AUTHOR search for "Bruce, David."
Reader Suggestion
Waterspout on Lake Michigan
Hey, Marty!
Ya gotta check out these pics of a waterspout on the lake near Holland, Michigan taken this morning... Awesome!
WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids news and weather - Waterspout spotted on Lake Michigan, funnel cloud in Fennville
The article is cool, too, as it explains how these tornados happen... I ran Coast Guard SAR boats outta Grand Haven and Muskegon just north of Holland for three years and I'll tell ya the 'Big Pond', as we called it, is full of surprises...
BadtotheboneBob
p.s. keep up the damn fine work!
Thanks, BTTB Bob!
Reader Correction
Re: Real Time
Hello
I think that your listing for HBO and Real Time with Bill Maher is a week
in the future. The show for tonight is a rerun according my HBO schedule
(see below).
Regards, Billy
---------------------
Real Time With Bill Maher
HBO Sep 29 10:00pm Add to My Calendar
Episode #80.
Professor Mary Frances Berry; Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.); magician Penn
Jillette; professor Fouad Ajami. Adult Situations; Language.
Original Airdate: September 1, 2006
Thanks, Billy!
Wish I'd remembered Bill announcing last week that this week would be a rerun. Ack.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
This cold is really kicking my ass.
Esquire's 'Sexiest'
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson's hourglass figure and plum movie roles have brought her many fans. Among them, clearly, the editors at Esquire. The magazine has just crowned her "Sexiest Woman Alive."
The 21-year-old actress poses in come-hither garb on the cover and inside pages of the magazine's November issue, on newsstands Oct. 18.
On the cover, she wears a bra and a white Calvin Klein mini-dress; In a series of photos inside (showing her as an "enigmatic trailer-park temptress," the magazine says), she wears cleavage-baring black lingerie paired with an open white robe, among other get-ups.
Scarlett Johansson
Enters Record Books
'Doctor Who'
The cult science fiction series "Doctor Who" has won a place in the record books as the longest-running television show of its type, a fitting accolade for the time-travelling adventurer.
The book "Guinness World Records" said on Friday more than 700 episodes of the program, which first aired on the BBC in 1963, had been broadcast, covering 173 story lines and showcasing 10 different actors in the role of the Time Lord.
That the series has lasted so long is partly thanks to iconic villains such the "Daleks" and the Cybermen, and also because the main character can regenerate, allowing the series to keep fresh by bringing a new lead actor.
Helping maintain consistency are props such as the Doctor's time traveling machine the Tardis, his companion -- usually young and female -- and his robot dog K-9.
'Doctor Who'
Cartoon Series For Fox
Robert Smigel
Fox is developing a cartoon series with Robert Smigel, the comedian famed for the foul-mouthed puppet Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.
"Animals," which Smigel will write with Greg Cohen ("King of the Hill"), is described as a parody of suburban life using the animal kingdom.
The order is part of Fox's aggressive effort to find a fifth show to complement "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," "King of the Hill" and "American Dad" for an all-animated Sunday lineup.
Robert Smigel
Tops List Of Books Under Wingnut Fire
Harry Potter
The Harry Potter series, along with such classics as John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and a children's series called Captain Underpants, top the list of books that have come most under fire in the last six years, according to the American Library Association.
The ALA, which began tracking efforts to pull books off school shelves and from libraries in 1990 and which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week through September 30, said J.K. Rowling's boy wizard series led the pack of books most challenged so far this century because of its use of witchcraft and for inciting, according to its detractors, bad behavior.
Also on the Top 10 list of books most challenged in the 21st century are Maya Angelou's acclaimed autobiography "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings", the story of an African American childhood in the 1930s Depression, which was rapped as containing racism, homosexuality and offensive language.
"The Chocolate War", by Robert Cormier, and "Forever", by Judy Blume, both came under attack for sexual content and offensive language while Robie Harris' "It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health," a guide for middle school students, was panned for being too graphic.
The other books on the list are Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice series, Walter Dean Myers' "Fallen Angels" and the Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz.
Harry Potter
Released From Ankle Bracelet
Duane 'Dog' Chapman
TV reality star Duane "Dog" Chapman, out on bail while international criminal charges are pending, had his electronic monitoring ankle bracelet removed Thursday for a trip to New York.
A judge agreed to temporarily free Chapman, the star of "Dog The Bounty Hunter," of the ankle bracelet so he could attend previously scheduled appearances on the East Coast, said his attorney, Brook Hart. Chapman will return to Honolulu on Wednesday.
Chapman was released on $300,000 bail Sept. 15, a day after he and two co-stars were arrested for illegal detention and conspiracy in the capture of a cosmetics company heir (and convicted rapist) in Mexico.
Duane 'Dog' Chapman
Released From Honolulu Hospital
Don Ho
Don Ho was released from a hospital Thursday following a two-week stay after having a new pacemaker installed.
"I'm recuperating from the hospital! I feel great," the 76-year-old Waikiki crooner said as he had lunch at one of his favorite restaurants.
Ho said Thursday he hasn't decided when to resume his show at the Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber hotel.
Don Ho
Spokane Theater Renamed
Bing Crosby
Mitch Silver, owner of the Metropolitan Performing Arts Center, has announced that it will be renamed the Bing Crosby Theater on the suggestion of Eastern Washington University journalism professor Bill Stimson.
Silver told The Spokesman-Review the late crooner's widow, Kathryn Crosby, has offered to come to Spokane for a benefit Dec. 8 to raise money for the sign changes and a lobby display.
Crosby was born in Tacoma but grew up in Spokane, where he acquired his nickname and got interested in music while studying at what's now Gonzaga University. He died in 1977 at 74 after recording more than 1,700 songs, including the famous version of "White Christmas."
Bing Crosby
Settles Child Custody With Ex-Wife
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson and his ex-wife, Deborah Rowe, have settled their lengthy legal battle over custody and visitation rights for their two children, their lawyers said Friday.
"We're still dealing with the details but it addresses all of the disputes between the parties," said attorney Marta Almli, who represents Rowe. "I can't say anything about the terms of the settlement but I don't think it would have happened if both parties didn't agree it was appealing to both of them."
She declined to give details on whether the settlement involves monetary payments to Rowe and visitation rights with the children, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.
Michael Jackson
Chocolate By The Bald Man
Chocoholics
Slices of chocolate pizza. Syringes that squirt liquid chocolate into your mouth. Warm double chocolate fondue
Israeli restauranteur Max Brenner's new chocolate bar off New York's Union Square, Chocolate By The Bald Man, caters for chocoholics of all ages -- and is pretty much a disaster for anyone trying to watch their weight.
Sitting in his restaurant that has the feel of a European cafe but with zany wallpaper and pipes across the ceiling giving it the look of a chocolate factory, Brenner explains that he set out to create a chocolate culture.
Chocoholics
Italians Sue For Damages--And Win
Flight Cancelled
Three Italian doctors stranded in Chicago for 36 hours when an airline cancelled their flight finally did what frazzled flyers around the world have only dreamed about: they sued the airline -- and won.
Claiming "distress", "suffering" and even "physical and psychological pain", the trio took Italy's Alitalia to court for scrapping their flight out of Chicago and taking 36 hours to get them on a new one.
A judge in southern Italy ordered Alitalia to pay them a combined total of 4,500 euros (3,000 pounds), well beyond standard compensation, to cover "moral damages" and legal fees.
"Until now the burden of a cancelled flight has been carried by the passenger," said Paolo Martinello, head of consumer association Altroconsumo, which provided the doctors' lawyers. "The companies need to know that if the aircraft doesn't take off, if there's a problem at the airport, it will cost them."
Flight Cancelled
Morbid Update
Alistair Cooke
A former funeral parlor owner and embalmer accused in a plot to plunder corpses for profit admitted to investigators last year that he and his partner rarely got permission to take body parts for transplants, according to court documents.
The papers, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, detail a long statement given by Joseph Nicelli before he was charged in a plot to secretly remove skin, bone and other parts from hundreds of bodies from funeral homes in New York City, Rochester, N.Y., Philadelphia and New Jersey.
Nicelli implicated Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon, as the mastermind of a scheme that made millions of dollars by selling the stolen tissue to biomedical companies that supply material for procedures including dental implants and hip replacements. Among the looted bodies was that of "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004.
Part of Nicelli's job was to try to restore bodies to so that grieving families wouldn't notice bones had been removed, he said. In one instance in 2003, a daughter complained that "her father looked shorter in the coffin," he said.
Alistair Cooke
Tainted By Cross-Dressing Cheats
Ethnic Games
Touted as a celebration of sport, culture and national unity, the Ethnic Minority Games held in southwestern China descended into a farce of cross-dressing cheating and mob violence, state media reported.
Athletes representing China's 55 ethnic minorities assembled in southwestern Yunnan province last week to compete in blow-pipe darts, horse-riding events and other traditional sports.
Results of the women's dragon-boat racing event were reviewed after athletes complained of "big women with Adam's apples," Xinhua said. Referees subsequently found that several of the competitors were actually men wearing wigs.
Ethnic Games
Confirmed As World's Tallest Tree
California Redwood
A redwood tree discovered in a remote California forest has turned out to be the world's tallest tree, edging out one nearby that had been the previous titleholder, a botanist said on Friday.
Humboldt State University Professor Steve Sillett told Reuters the record-setting tree, named Hyperion, is 379.1 feet (115.5 metres) tall, besting the previous record holder, the 370.5-foot(112.9 metre)-tall Stratosphere Giant.
Researchers exploring remote and rugged terrain this summer in the Redwood National and State Parks along California's northernmost coast also discovered two other redwoods taller than the Stratosphere Giant, suggesting there had been many more massive ancient redwoods in the area, Sillett said.
California Redwood
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