'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Link
Sick Of This Crap!
It is imperative that you read this week's issue of sickofthiscrap.com. If you don't, it could bring another attack, a devastating attack against America. Our very lives are at stake.
This week's issue features:
* Assault Weapons R Us
* 1,000 Served Up
* Absent Without Leave
* Global Storming
Join us won't you join us? We're just a click away....
New DVD
'Bushisms'
Marty,
Check out this DVD comedy project 'Bushisms,' based on the best selling series of books.
The DVD is hosted by Comedy Central's Brian Unger, and features commentary from Bushisms editor Jacob Weisberg (Slate.com) and Al Franken (Air America).
Adrian
Reader Comment
A Free Press
Ah, the UK's FREE press
Reader Comment
Re: Bumper sticker
Mark's version of the bumper sticker looks lovely, but it's Voldemort, not Voldemart!
Linda >^..^<
Thanks, Linda - you weren't the only one who noticed.
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Reader Comment
Re: Bumper sticker
That should be Voldemort. Voldemart is where you buy cheap stuff from underpaid workers.
Yotta
Thanks, Yotta - OTOH, in over 100 bumper stickers, this is the first one from Mark with a misspelled word, which I find remarkable!
Thought Trawler - A Dublin Band
'Bush's Bitches'
Just days after their Friday night launch in Dublin's Sugar Club in
Ireland, Thought Trawler released their scathing, straight for the
jugular attack on the world's most powerful leader.
"Bush's Bitches" goes where no band has gone before in its bold
venomous lyrics and honest portrayal of a corrupt administration.
Finally we have an Anti Bush anthem that has the guts to hold nothing
back. His lies, his family's business dealings and his warping of the
media all come under fire. Yet this is no acoustic folk protest
ballad , "Bush's Bitches" is a slickly produced Punk Rock track that is
spattered with 21st century electronica.
With the immediacy of the elections just around the corner the band do
not want to waste anytime in getting the track out and have decided to
put it on to their website for free downloading thus maximising it's
exposure. What makes it even more interesting is that such a viscous
attack on Bush comes from a country that he has very little to do with.
The track illustrates the high level of ill feeling against what he has
done with the presidency that is sadly prevalent all around the world.
As an American citizen living abroad take it from me that we are not
liked at the moment, more so now than ever before.
To download the song click on to
www.thoughttrawler.com and hit the MP3 page.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Weather has cooled off a bit.
Updated this year's Emmy Awards page with Sunday nights
'Creative Emmy Awards' winners.
Dan Castellaneta, who performs the voices for Homer, Krusty, Grampa, Willie, Barney and Mel in the animated series 'The Simpsons,' holds his award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance at the 2004 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004.
Photo by Chris Pizzello
Hosting American Music Awards
Jimmy Kimmel
Late-night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel will host the American Music Awards for the second consecutive year when the three-hour special airs live on ABC Nov. 14.
The comedian, writer, producer and sports prognosticator is the host of the network's late-night gag show "Jimmy Kimmel Live," which features a diverse line-up of guests that he described as "celebrities, athletes, comedians, musical acts, human interest subjects and dangerously crazy people."
Further details on the special, along with announcements of presenters and performers, are still under wraps. Nominations for the American Music Awards, meanwhile, will be announced Tuesday.
Jimmy Kimmel
Nominees for 2005 Induction Class
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
U2, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Randy Newman and the O'Jays are among the nominees for the 2005 induction class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
They are joined on the ballot by the Pretenders, Buddy Guy, Wanda Jackson, the J. Geils Band, Conway Twitty and Percy Sledge.
The Sex Pistols, the Stooges, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the late Gram Parsons were previously nominated but remain on this year's ballot.
Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording. A Foundation committee nominates eligible artists, who are then voted on by an international body of about 700 music experts. Results will be announced in December, with the induction to take place in New York next spring.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Actor-director Peter Fonda, left, receives The Gary Cooper Spirit of Montana Award from fellow actor Jeff Bridges, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004, at the HatcH Audiovisual Arts Festival at the Ellen Theater in Bozeman, Mont.
Photo by Mark Sullivan
Wins Seoul Peace Prize
Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, has been named as the winner of the 200,000-dollar Seoul Peace Prize for his efforts to promote democracy, officials said.
He is the seventh winner of the prize which was established in 1990. Previous recipients include UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and international relief organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam.
Vaclav Havel
Sexiest Newscaster Says Playgirl
Keith Olbermann
The countdown to the No. 1 sexiest male newscaster ends with ... Keith Olbermann - at least according to a Playgirl magazine online poll. The host of MSNBC's nightly "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" had linked his Web site to the Playgirl Web site and urged viewers to vote for him. The strategy worked: He came away the winner with 24 percent of the 50,000 votes cast.
Olbermann says any campaigning that took place was tongue-in-cheek, and definitely not his idea.
"I'd like to explain that I don't run the (Web) page - those are several of my late producers whom I have, in fact, just strangled with my bare hands," he joked. "My only interest was that I finish ahead of Andy Rooney. You want to finish sixth or eighth out of 18, just as long as you're ahead of an 85-year-old man."
That, he was. Rooney of CBS's "60 Minutes" tied for fifth place with the boyish Bill Hemmer from CNN. Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity came in second and Anderson Cooper of CNN was third. And Fox's Bill O'Reilly received about 200 write-in votes.
Keith Olbermann
Tonight On AMC
'Republicans in Hollywood'
Talk about provocative titles: This one comes up in the newish series "The AMC Project" and is called "Rated 'R': Republicans in Hollywood."
AMC thinks there are some of those Republican animals around (hidden in closets?), and so does documentarian Jesse Moss, who did Democratic activism and now has been commissioned to find these elusive beasts.
Moss works low budget and hangs around these scenes for his mission, but to little good effect, though he has some chats with such admitted Republicans as Drew Carey (who prefers "libertarian," which is "a conservative who still gets high"), John Milius, Pat Sajak, Patricia Heaton, Vincent Gallo, Ivan Reitman, Lionel Chetwynd and Ben Stein.
They think Republicans are becoming more emboldened. But the case isn't very well made, and Moss puts the message on his screen that Mel Gibson, Chuck Norris, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Bruce Willis and Heather Locklear "declined to participate in this program." (Coincidentally, the episode is sandwiched between reruns of "The Terminator.")
'Republicans in Hollywood'
Gives Cars to Audience
Oprah
Oprah Winfrey celebrated the premiere of her 19th season by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.
Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written about their need for a new car. One woman's young son said she drove a car that "looks like she got into a gunfight"; another couple had almost 400,000 miles on their two vehicles.
Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 people onto the stage. She gave each of them a car - a Pontiac G6.
She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a 12th car. But when everyone opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.
The cars, which retail for $28,000, were donated by Pontiac.
Oprah
Henry Rolins (L), the lead singer in the rock band Black Flag joins fellow musicians, including Marky Ramone on drums and CJ Ramone (not pictured) on base, as they perform during The Ramones 30th anniversary concert party at the Avalon Theatre in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California September 13, 2004. Original band member Joey Ramone, whose real name is Jeff Hyman, died in 2001 of lymphatic cancer. Founding member Johnny Ramone, who is suffering from prostate cancer was not able to attend.
Photo by Jim Ruymen
Baby News
Monica Bellucci
Italian star Monica Bellucci and her husband, French actor Vincent Cassel, became parents over the weekend to their first child, a baby girl named Deva, Bellucci's agent told AFP.
"Everybody's doing well," the agent, Laurent Gregoire, said. He said the baby was born in Rome on Sunday but gave no further details.
The name Deva is of Sanskrit origin and means divine.
Monica Bellucci
March to Protest Film
Buddhist Monks
More than 500 Buddhist monks marched in the Sri Lankan capital Monday expressing outrage and demanding a ban on an upcoming Hollywood movie, threatening to fast - even to death - if their objections were not heeded.
"Hollywood Buddha," made by independent filmmaker Philippe Caland, will be released in California Sept. 24. It's about a struggling Hollywood producer who rents a Buddha statue at the behest of a Buddhist friend who believes it will bring him luck selling his feature film.
Saffron-robed monks from the Patriotic National Movement marched to the U.S. Embassy denouncing an advertisement of the movie that shows a man seated on the head of a Buddha statue.
Last week, lawmakers in predominantly Buddhist Thailand expressed similar outrage over the movie.
Buddhist Monks
Sued by 'Pop Idol' Creator
Simon Cowell
The creator of U.K. talent show "Pop Idol" and its U.S. spinoff "American Idol" is suing his former collaborators, including Simon Cowell, claiming that their new project is a rip-off of the global "Idol" format.
Simon Fuller's production company 19 TV said in a statement it sued the makers of "The X Factor," Cowell and Fremantle Media, for copyright infringement and breach of contract.
"The X Factor," which premiered on U.K. broadcaster ITV last Saturday, sees a panel of judges -- including the infamously acerbic Cowell and Sharon Osbourne -- select wannabe stars from hundreds of hopefuls. In its later stages, the show pits the judges against one another when each has to act as a mentor to their preferred candidate.
Simon Cowell
Dishes on the Bush Family
Kitty Kelley
Kitty Kelley, author of gossipy, controversial best sellers about Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra, the 62-year-old Kelley has spent the past three and a half years getting as close as she can to the Bush family, talking to those willing to talk, hunting for documents that range from academic records to private memos to tax returns.
Not everybody believes what she writes, but millions still want to read her. Her new book, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty," comes out this week with more than 700,000 copies in print and an already scandalous reputation for its allegation that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David while his father was president.
"She wouldn't be such a best seller if her books didn't deliver something," says Bob Wietrak, a vice president of merchandising for Barnes & Noble, Inc. "People know she spends a lot of time on her books, does a lot of homework, does a lot of digging and she writes a good story."
"The Family" is a fast-paced, 600-plus page summary of the Bushes, dating back to the early days of Prescott Bush, grandfather of the current president, and leading right through the U.S.-led war in Iraq. It is told as both political and personal drama, complete with unhappy marriages, sibling jealousy, drugs, alcohol and the endless pursuit of money and power.
Although she says she has voted for both Democrats and Republicans, Kelley's book includes observations often attributed to liberals. The first President Bush is portrayed as elitist and out of touch, while the current president is seen as intolerant of dissent and beholden to the "radicalized right."
Kitty Kelley
Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber plays a rare 18th century Italian cello made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, at Christie's auction house in London Monday Sept. 13, 2004. The cello is expected to sell for some 300,000 pounds (up to US $500,000) at a forthcoming Musical Instruments sale. Webber recorded 'The Look of Love' by Burt Bacharach as the media viewed the cello, and the recording will be includee included in a new album.
Photo by Alastair Grant
In Memory
John (Buddy) Conner
John (Buddy) Conner, a California blues singer whose career took him around the world and spanned five decades, died Sept. 3. He was 74.
Conner died at Atla Bates Summit Medical Center from septic shock, according to friends and family.
An eclectic vocalist, Conner was well known for singing the blues - along with jazz, gospel and R&B - with a distinctive voice that won fans around the globe.
"Buddy was one of the most beautiful people I've ever met in my life - personally and professionally," said Calvin Keys, an Oakland-based jazz guitarist. "He was one of the most devastating vocalists I ever heard."
Conner's career took him to New York, Hong Kong, Guam and Japan. He worked with musicians such as organist Jimmy Witherspoon and pianist and band leader Earl (Fatha) Hines.
Conner also won awards and performed at various local festivals, including the Monterey Jazz Festival. Although Conner sang on dozens of recordings for other artists, his own release, Can't Hide Love, didn't come out until 1996.
John (Buddy) Conner
Art conservation expert William Shank shows a reproduction of a work found hidden beneath Pablo Picasso's 'Rue de Montmartre' painting, obtained by using X-ray technology and digital enhancement, during its unveiling at Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum September 13, 2004. The hidden scene under 'Rue de Montmartre', which dates from Picasso's first visit to Paris, is a Parisian nightclub scene similar to 'Le Moulin de la Galette'. Shank created a black and white image and color analysis of minute cracks in the painting, allowing him to reproduce the picture without damaging the later work.
Photo by Vincent West
