'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Noam Chomsky: A predator becomes more dangerous when wounded (guardian.co.uk)
Washington's escalation of threats against Iran is driven by a determination to secure control of the region's energy resources
Nat Hentoff: Obama: Who Is He Now? (villagevoice.com)
In Chicago and the Illinois State Legislature, Barack Obama made a difference-he did not just 'hope'
Melinda Henneberger: Dems Dump FOX (huffingtonpost.com)
The Nevada Democratic Party today backed out of a FOX News-sponsored presidential debate after Fox President Roger Ailes's recent remarks jokingly comparing Democratic Senator Barack Obama to al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
Ted Widmer: Arthur M. Schlesinger, 1917-2007 (thephoenix.com)
I remember a story he told once about a single book, Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, and how it might have saved humanity. At the time of the Cuban missile crisis, when the world was on the brink, John F. Kennedy got a hold of Tuchman's book, which explained how a series of bone-headed military experts had embroiled Europe in World War I. Chastened by this lesson from history, Kennedy avoided the advice from his hardliners that would have plunged the world into darkness.
Amy Goodman: Harry Belafonte, The Lion At 80
Harry Belafonte, the first African-American to win an Emmy, is a living library of the civil-rights movement and liberation struggles worldwide. He enters his ninth decade as fearless as ever.
The comedy of cruelty (guardian.co.uk)
At its peak, Are You Being Served? pulled in 22 million viewers. But in fact it was a cowardly, fear-filled sitcom, says Stuart Jeffries.
RICHARD ROEPER: Battle worthy: Gloriously violent '300' sets bar for cinematic 'comic books' (suntimes.com)
Listen up, men! And women! But not kids! If you thought "Gladiator" was a bit too stingy with the bloodshed, if you felt "Sin City" could have been more stylized, if you hate it when the masses refer to graphic novels as "comic books," this is your day.
Jim Emerson: The Host (3 1/2 stars)
A horror thriller, a political satire, a dysfunctional family comedy, and a touching melodrama, Bong Joon-ho's "The Host" is also one helluva monster movie. This Korean-Japanese co-production is the recombinant offspring of all those science-fiction pictures of the 1950s and '60s in which exposure to atomic radiation (often referred to as both "atomic" and "radiation") or hazardous chemicals (sometimes also radioactive) results in something very large and inhospitable: "Them!" (giant ants), ...
RICHARD ROEPER: My spare change for homeless gets wasted on Lotto fantasies (suntimes.com)
How do you feel about the homeless buying lottery tickets?
Tom Tomorrow: A Cartoon for Bill Maher
Reader Comment
Extra Mad Cat
Marty
Has anyone else noticed that the "Mad Cat" seems "Extra Mad" these days?
I've noticed that the volume of his vitriole has been turned up several notches.
We are all going through these turbulent times together...and I myself feel a little angrier and a lot less patient....while the rich eat cake, call names and kill, us working class hippies and political idealogues feel helpless and hopeless.
Maybe what I'm hearing from the "Mad Cat" is a cry for help.... maybe a stint in the "I hate the Repug Nazi fucking fascist lying gay porn born again bimbo bastards" REHAB!
I advise all readers to send letters of sympathy to that "Mad Cat" .....I'm hearing a cry for help and a lot of pain!
AD
Interesting, AD!
Hadn't really noticed.
Just figured that, as always, JD's tongue was planted firmly in his cheek.
Reader Comment
Re: zenman guillotine
zenman guillotine on Tuesday's page.
AS stupid (in her usual outrageous way) that this comment from Coulter was, is this how WE react ? Is this any zEN way (or any kind of commendable way) to react, to ask for the head of the offender ?
Or is this the limbaugh/coulter way ?
Very disapointed.
You should feel ashamed until at least noon tomorow...
JP
Thanks, JP!
Just figured zENmAN's tongue was planted firmly in his cheek.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and pleasant.
We're suppposed to break temperature records today, though.
Gas is $3.09/gal at the local Chevron station.
Global Ambassador For YouthAIDS
Ashley Judd
Hollywood star Ashley Judd, in India to promote AIDS awareness, was forced to stay in a dingy cinema in Mumbai's red-light district to escape being mobbed by enthusiastic fans, organisers said Saturday.
Judd, a global ambassador for YouthAIDS -- a wing of the non-profit group Population Services International (PSI) -- was keen to interact with sex workers in the narrow-laned Kamathipura district of India's financial capital.
But "we had to postpone plans as there were too many people," said K Balaji, a spokesperson for the Washington-based organisation in India.
Judd's personal security staff helped her leave the cinema and bundled her into a waiting car, delaying her programme by several hours.
She returned later to meet with the sex workers, Balaji said.
Ashley Judd
Education Is Key
Samuel L. Jackson
When actor Samuel L. Jackson was growing up, people encouraged him to be a doctor, lawyer or a teacher. But he said acting gave him the greatest satisfaction.
Jackson, who is in town filming a movie, encouraged young students, most of them four or five years old, to apply themselves in school and "find that one particular thing that makes you smile when you do it, that impresses your friends when you do it.
Jackson, a Morehouse College graduate, said education is the key.
Samuel L. Jackson
Cancel Fox News Debate
Nevada Democrats
Nevada Democratic Party officials said on Friday they were canceling a presidential debate co-sponsored by Fox News, following a joke chairman Roger Ailes made about Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
In a letter sent to Fox, Nevada State Democratic Party Chairman Tom Collins and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Ailes "went too far" with comments made the night before.
The joke by Ailes came during a speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation First Amendment Dinner on Thursday night and -- while playing on similarity between Obama's name and Osama Bin Laden.
"It's true that Barack Obama is on the move," Ailes said during the speech. "I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said 'Why can't we catch this guy?"'
Nevada Democrats
Greets Troops In Japan
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson greeted thousands of U.S. troops and their family members at a U.S. Army base south of Tokyo Saturday, taking a break from days of parties with die-hard fans and well-heeled business people.
About 3,000 troops and their family members gathered at a fitness center at Camp Zama. Jackson walked around shaking hands and exchanging words to thank them for their service.
"Those of you in here today are some of the most special people in the world," Jackson told the crowd, reading from a statement. "It is because of you in here today, and others who so valiantly have given their lives to protect us, that we enjoy our freedom."
Michael Jackson
Hit In Kazakhstan
Borat
The new Borat DVD is selling out - in Kazakhstan.
Residents of the central Asian country are rushing to order Sacha Baron-Cohen's comedy hit, according to the Amazon website.
"With the controversy the film caused around the world, it seems residents of Kazakhstan are now desperate to see what all the fuss is about - so much so that they are willing to pay the 505 Kazakhstani Tenge charge to have the DVD delivered from the UK," a spokesman said.
Borat
New Orleans Return
Fats Domino
Fats Domino broke into soft song as he stepped slowly through his gutted house in the city's flood-ravaged 9th Ward on Friday. Sometimes the Hall of Fame piano man murmured a line of his familiar lyrics. At other moments, he just seemed to be thinking out loud, with a tune.
Domino - whose real name is Antoine and who is known in New Orleans nearly as much for his reclusiveness as for hits such as "Blueberry Hill," "Blue Monday" and "Ain't That a Shame" - rode out Hurricane Katrina in the 9th Ward, where the Aug. 29, 2005 storm did some of its worst damage. His family and agent had reported him missing and learned days later that he had survived when they saw a photo in The Times-Picayune that showed him stepping off a rescuer's boat.
After Katrina, Domino was taken to the Superdome, then by bus with other evacuees to Louisiana State University's basketball arena in Baton Rouge, where he reunited with his family. They left the arena and spent two days at the off-campus apartment of Tigers quarterback JaMarcus Russell, who knew a friend of Domino's family.
Fats Domino
NYPD Problem
Busta Rhymes
A movie production company was forced to begin its first day of shooting Saturday without Busta Rhymes after the NYPD raised security concerns.
The Police Department declined to detail its specific concerns about Rhymes, who angered officers last year when he refused to cooperate with the investigation of his bodyguard's murder. The man was shot during the filming of a music video.
Rhymes is a cast member in "Order of Redemption," which began shooting in midtown Manhattan. Julianne Cho, associate commissioner with the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting, confirmed the shooting had started - and that Rhymes was absent.
Busta Rhymes
A Step Closer
James Brown
James Brown's body was placed in a crypt Saturday at the Beech Island home of one his daughters, family and friends of the soul singer said.
White balloons were released and Brown's adult children and other family members and friends sang and prayed over the singer's body, said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who presided over the noon ceremony.
Also at the service were Brown's partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, and the couple's young son, who led the procession. "This is what James wanted, for the family to come together. Everyone really felt like James was there with us," Hynie told The Associated Press by phone.
The crypt likely will not be Brown's final resting place. A public mausoleum is being built and its location will be announced once it is completed, the family said.
James Brown
Old Hip-Hop Foes Unite
Diddy & Snoop
U.S. rap stars Sean "Diddy" Combs and Snoop Dogg, once bitter rivals in a notorious feud between east and west coast hip-hop in the 1990s, said on Friday they had buried the hatchet once and for all.
At a news conference in Helsinki to launch a joint European tour, they said they had "moved on" from the days when members of the two music scenes clashed rather than collaborated.
During the 1990s, Combs and Snoop Dogg were on opposite sides of a high-profile hip-hop feud between the east and west coasts of the United States.
Snoop Dogg, 35, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, said Notorious B.I.G. would be amused to see the two musicians linking up.
Diddy & Snoop
Extends Peanut Butter Recall
ConAgra
ConAgra Foods Inc. has extended its recall of all peanut butter produced at a plant in Georgia by more than a year, back to October 2004, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.
The recall covers all Peter Pan peanut butter and all Great Value peanut butter beginning with product code 2111, including peanut butter toppings.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 425 people have fallen ill from the outbreak of salmonella that has been traced back to the plant in Sylvester, Ga.
ConAgra
Republican Family Values
Fine With Philandery
Newt Gingrich's admission of an extramarital affair as he pursued President Clinton's impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky scandal has won praise from another conservative Christian leader: the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
It's also helped to gain Gingrich an invitation to deliver the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University. Gingrich is considered a possible Republican presidential contender, although he has not announced any intention to run.
Falwell, in his newsletter, said he has usually been able to tell when a man who has experienced "moral collapse" was genuinely seeking forgiveness. "My sense tells me that Mr. Gingrich is such a man," he wrote.
Fine With Philandery
Messages In Bottles
Stuart Conway
Incurable romantic Stuart Conway has spent the last 10 years throwing messages in a bottle into the sea off Britain -- but now his local town council says it's time to recycle.
A quirky eccentric ever eager to spread a little happiness, he has a website offering to print out people's innermost secrets, pop them in an empty bottle and hurl the lovelorn missives into the English Channel.
The self-styled "postman for emotions" has personally "mailed" almost 4,000 messages -- but only a sprinkling of them have washed up on beaches in France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
But media attention for the offbeat service proved to be a doubled-edged sword. Brighton and Hove Council would like him to desist.
Stuart Conway
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