'Best of TBH Politoons'
Sue's Magic TV
Another Fogz Presidential Interview
transcript.......
Chris Wallace (interviews Bush): "Mr. President, do you think people
should even be hinting that you ought have tried to catch bin Laden?"
(George Bush): "Well heck no, Chris, I don't, and those who drop these
hints are aiding the terrorists, see. And ya see, it's hard to catch
someone who don't wanna be caught, so you can't blame me, see? Look, I
mean I had only been in office a few very short 8 months, see, no body
ever told me there was some man named bin Laden, never heard of him or his
family either. No one gave me a highly detailed report and told me
point-blank that terrorism and OBL would be my most important job. So,
see, how can you expect a new preznit, up to his ears in cutting taxes for
the wealthy to prevent an attack? So, it's not my fault, see?"
(Chris Wallace with a little smirk on his face): "Thank you Mr. Bush for
your candid, in-depth and extremely intelligent answer to a hard hitting
question and you are absolutely correct. No one blames you for 9/11 and
here at Fogz we will never ask you what you thought on the morning of Aug.
6, 2001 after hearing the Presidential Daily Briefing regarding an eminent
attack, wherein Osama bin Laden was said to be determined to attack the
U.S. and hi-jack planes."
"We all realize you have been preoccupied with trying to privatize what's
left of our governmental programs and give them to your business buds, so
you shall now and forever remain totally blameless, same as always. And
thank you sir for staying so cool and calm through this really tough, no
holds barred interview."
- Sue Thomas
I saw it on my magic TV
Thanks, Sue!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The new Oprah? (guardian.co.uk)
Once a raging conservative, Arianna Huffington is now one of the world's most influential liberals. As her personal profile rockets, she seems set to become a brand name, says Suzanne Goldenberg.
Maureen Lipman: Darfur is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, so why aren't more people expressing their outrage? (guardian.co.uk)
Last week, the archbishop wrote an impassioned plea for the world to take heed of the appalling situation in Darfur. It began: "Here is an inconvenient fact about Africa: our genocides tend to happen away from television cameras."
James Foley: Enough With the 'One God' Stuff (AlterNet.org)
In the world today, one ancient religious ideology, monotheism, stands out as especially dangerous, repressive and loony.
Linda Villarosa: Outside the Lines: A Spirited Community (afterellen.com)
When Lisa C. Moore's apartment burned to the ground four years ago, she was in the middle of editing an anthology about black lesbian and gay spirituality. What did the fire mean? Was it a sign from God so obvious that even the New Testament's Blind Man of Bethsaida could see it? Or was the strange electrical mishap simply a cruel cosmic joke? Fire and brimstone indeed.
Bob Merrick: Deborah Gibson: Still Electric (out.com)
An exclusive chat with the pop princess about her new pairing with Jordan Knight, being a gay icon, and her crusade to out boy band members (just kidding).
Margaret Coble: I Love Rock and Roll (curvemag.com)
Joan Jett is a rock 'n' roll feminist and, yes, a lesbian icon. From her punk rock beginnings in the late 1970s with teen girl band the Runaways through her prolific solo career with her band the Blackhearts, with whom she's racked up nine Top 40 hit singles and eight platinum and gold albums, she's been a force to reckon with. And she wants you to know she's still going strong.
Kim Ficera: Don't Quote Me: Talk is Cheap (afterellen.com)
President Bush: My fellow Americans, until today I supported a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But after considering Mr. Brad Pitt's unselfish and extremely brave declaration that he would deny himself a wife in support of gay marriage, I've had a realization: If Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie don't marry, millions of others will follow suit, marriage will lose its meaning, and, well, Earth will be sucked into a worm hole and we'll all evaporate. And I can't have that on my conscientiousness. So, I withdraw my support of all anti-gay legislation.
Michael Jensen: The Office's Gay Co-Worker is One of the Gang (afterelton.com)
But like those millions of slightly ignorant Americans who bandy the word "fag" around, Michael isn't a bad person and he really did mean no harm. For him, gays are something found in the big city or on television starring in Project Runway. They aren't his co-workers because his co-workers are really, after all, just like him. So how is he supposed to know his words are harmful and bigoted to someone he knows and cares about?
DALE REYNOLDS: Pocket Venus: Selene Luna, burlesque queen and L.A. icon, brings her very queer life to the stage (frontierspublishing.com)
Gay folk know something about being outsiders, and that's one of the reasons both gay men and women embrace other people's outsider status as well.
Dan Savage: Savage Love (villagevoice.com)
It's the men who did the right thing-the men who sent face pictures and not just cock shots-who are going to suffer the most. However kinky these guys are, however naive they are, they shouldn't be punished for doing the honorable thing.
Rachel Kramer Bussel: Boys' Toys (villagevoice.com)
The words sex toy usually bring to mind women using vibrators like the beloved Hitachi Magic Wand, or gay males wearing nipple clamps.
RJ Eskow: Death of a Torture Victim (smirkingchimp.com)
The citizens of the homeland didn't hear about it when he died, and many of them wouldn't have cared. They should be grateful we're occupying their country, some said. We're building new roads and bringing them our civilization. And didn't we let them elect their own leaders?
Christian Right Propaganda Posters (atheism.about.com)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny with lots of pollen.
The kid has his first cold of the new school year.
Added a new flag (#156) - Uzbekistan 
Return Postponed
`The Boondocks'
"The Boondocks," the comic strip about a black family living in the suburbs, will take a longer hiatus from the nation's newspapers than originally planned.
Aaron McGruder, who in February put his strip on what was supposed to be a six-month hiatus, has not decided when, or if, he will return to newspapers, Universal Press Syndicate announced Monday. The syndicate stressed that McGruder has made no statement about retiring.
The comic was to return in October and new strips would have had to be in by mid-September to meet newspapers' deadlines for printing them, said Lee Salem, president of Kansas City-based Universal Press.
McGruder, 31, is busy with a Cartoon Network animated TV show of his comic and other ventures and didn't believe it was the right time to decide whether to return to newspapers, Salem said in a telephone interview from Washington D.C.
`The Boondocks'
Draws Big Ratings
Wallace-Clinton Interview
Political combat pays: "Fox News Sunday" drew its best ratings in nearly three years for this weekend's electric confrontation between former President Clinton and newsman Chris Wallace.
The Sunday talk show had its best ratings since the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003, according to Nielsen Media Research's measurement of the top media markets. It even outrated the morning's dominant show, "Meet the Press," although the NBC show was displaced from its usual time slot by golf. (Two versions of the interview were the two most-watched clips on YouTube on Monday, totally more than 800,000 views.)
Wallace-Clinton Interview
Does Internet 'Star Trek'
George Takei
Prim Sulu has become a barbarian. With flowing hair and leather clothes, George Takei agreed to age 30 years for an Internet download episode of "Star Trek." The 50-minute production by Trekkie enthusiasts is being filmed at an old car dealership in the Adirondacks.
The new episode, "World Enough and Time," has Sulu being unexpectedly transported. "I find myself on another alien planet. I live 30 years of my life there. I have a child," Takei said.
Then he returns to the starship Enterprise.
"It turns out to be only a minute or two that's passed on the Enterprise. I'm a changed man."
George Takei
All the News That's Fit For Us to See
Newsweek
For a little thought experiment, go to the website of Newsweek's international edition. There, running down the left side of the page, are three covers, all the same, for the European, Asian, and Latin American editions of the October 2 issue.
Each has a dramatic shot of a Taliban fighter shouldering an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). The cover headline is: "Losing Afghanistan," pointing to a devastating piece on our Afghan War by Ron Moreau, Sami Yousafzai, and Michael Hirsh, "The Rise of Jihadistan." which sports this subhead: "Five years after the Afghan invasion, the Taliban are fighting back hard, carving out a sanctuary where they--and Al Qaeda's leaders--can operate freely." The piece begins: "You don't have to drive very far from Kabul these days to find the Taliban." (In fact, the magazine's reporters found a gathering of 100 of them in a village just a two-hour drive south of the Afghan capital.)
Now, go back to the international edition and take another look. Scroll down the page to the cover which doesn't match the others. That's the one for Newsweek's American edition. No Taliban fighter. No RPG. Instead, a photo of an ash-blond woman with three young children dressed in white, one in her arms, and the headline: "My Life in Pictures." The woman turns out to be Annie Liebovitz, photographer of the stars, and the story by Cathleen McGuigan, "Through Her Lens," has this Taliban-free first line: "Annie Leibovitz is tired and nursing a cold, and she' s just flown back to New York on the red-eye from Los Angeles, where she spent two days shooting Angelina Jolie for Vogue."
"The Rise of Jihadism" is still inside, of course; now, a secondary story. After all, Angelina Jolie is ours, while a distant botch of a war in Afghanistan..? As the magazine's editors clearly concluded, while the rest of the world considers the return of the Taliban, let us eat cake.
Newsweek
Criticizes Iraq War
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson criticized the war in Iraq while recently promoting his new film "Apocalypto" at a Texas film festival.
Gibson, 50, drew parallels between the collapsing Mayan civilization depicted in the movie and the United States at a screening Friday at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, the Hollywood Reporter said Monday.
"The precursors to a civilization that's going under are the same, time and time again," the actor-director said after a screening of an unfinished cut of "Apocalypto," his first directorial effort since "The Passion of the Christ."
"What's human sacrifice if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?" he said at the festival, which is devoted to new science fiction, horror and fantasy films.
Mel Gibson
Lifetime Award
Julie Andrews
The Screen Actors Guild on Monday said it will give Dame Julie Andrews, star of "The Sound of Music," its Life Achievement Award when it hands out its annual acting honors next January 28.
Andrews, who will turn 71 on October 1, has enjoyed a long and successful career on stage and television and in films that include such hits as "Mary Poppins," for which she won the 1964 Oscar for best actress.
Born in England, Andrews got her start on the British stage and became a major Broadway star in the 1950s and 1960s. She conquered Hollywood as the lovable nanny Mary Poppins and followed with 1965's smash hit "The Sound of Music."
Julie Andrews
Fans Hear About Author
Grace Metalious
It's been 50 years since the novel "Peyton Place," a story of sex and murder in a tiny New Hampshire town, has been titillating readers around the world.
The novel was an instant success among readers when it was released on September 24, 1956. But it set off an uproar in Gilmanton, where writer Grace Metalious lived with her family when the book was published.
Yesterday, "Peyton Place" fans gathered in Laconia to learn about Metalious and how her life was changed by the novel's controversy and popularity.
Grace Metalious
Suit Tossed
Liza Minnelli
A New York judge on Monday dismissed a $10 million spousal abuse suit against Liza Minnelli filed by her estranged husband David Gest, who claimed the entertainer assaulted him in a drunken rage.
"The plaintiff complaint must be dismissed in its entirety. There is no triable issue of fact," said Judge Jane Solomon of state Supreme Court in Manhattan, adding there was conflicting evidence about the extent of Gest's injuries.
The civil suit is separate from divorce proceedings between the singer-actress and Gest, an event producer and promoter. Minnelli has also filed a separate counterclaim against Gest, saying he alienated people in show business, costing her work.
Liza Minnelli
U.K. Documentary Maker To Probe
Haditha
The death of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha in what witnesses there say was a massacre by U.S. Marines is the subject of Nick Broomfield's next movie, the British director said.
Broomfield, known for pop-culture documentaries like "Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam," "Kurt & Courtney" and "Biggie and Tupac," said here Friday that he will use dramatic reconstruction rather than traditional techniques to tell the story.
Iraqi witnesses say Marines shot 24 men, women and children in Haditha, in western Iraq, in reprisal for the killing of a comrade by a roadside bomb. Military investigations into the incident are ongoing, though no charges have been filed.
Haditha
Says Her Lawyers Overreacted
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey says her lawyers shouldn't have gone after the man who is trying to promote her as a candidate for president.
"I feel flattered by it," the 52-year-old talk-show host told The Associated Press on Monday. "My lawyers overreacted, I think, by sending him a cease-and-desist order because it really is a flattering thing."
It should have been handled in a phone call, said Winfrey, who said she's thinking of calling Patrick Crowe of Kansas City, Mo., herself.
Oprah Winfrey
Viacom Cuts Salary And Bonus
Sumner Redstone
Viacom Inc., a media conglomerate that owns MTV and VH1, said Monday that it was cutting the cash salary and bonuses of its chairman and controlling shareholder, Sumner Redstone, and linking most of his compensation with the performance of the company's stock.
The new employment agreement ties Redstone's pay more closely with the interests of shareholders. It is also in line with similar pay packages the company gave to Philippe Dauman and Thomas Dooley, two longtime confidants of Redstone who recently returned to run the company after Redstone ousted former CEO Tom Freston.
Under the new agreement, beginning in 2007, Redstone's salary will be reduced to $1 million per year from $1.75 million and deferred compensation of $1.3 million per year will be eliminated.
Also, Redstone's target cash bonus will be reduced to $3.5 million per year from $6.1 million. He will also receive an annual award of stock options having a grant-date value of $3 million and an annual award of performance share units with a grant-date target value of $3 million.
Sumner Redstone
New Book
Tommy Chong
Tommy Chong, one half of the legendary comedy duo Cheech and Chong, exudes as much serenity sipping on a cup of coffee in a downtown hotel as one might expect from a lifelong pothead.
But three years ago, the Canadian-born Chong had good reason to freak out - agents for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency burst into his California home and busted him for selling bongs online, the first time an obscure law dealing with such offences had ever been enforced.
In his new book "The I Chong: Meditations From the Joint" (Simon and Schuster), Chong insists the feds came after him, at the behest of the Bush administration, because he'd frequently spoken out against the war on terror and the erosion of civil liberties after 9-11.
"I was the first one they'd ever charged under that law," says the 68-year-old Chong, in Toronto on Monday promoting his book. "Symbolically, I represented the antiwar movement. I represented the hippies. And they're scared to death of the hippies, because the hippies are the ones who stopped the Vietnam War."
Tommy Chong
First-Canceled?
'Happy Hour'
The folks at Bravo's "Brilliant But Cancelled" Web site, which is running a sweepstakes asking viewers to guess which new television show will be the first this fall to bite the dust, have put an asterisk besides Fox's "Happy Hour."
Fox has pulled the comedy from this Thursday's schedule, but insists the show will be back in November. Much of Fox's prime time is pre-empted for the baseball playoffs and World Series in October.
Brilliantbutcancelled.com lists the show as on "life support." Only 4.4 million people watched the show on Thursday, about a quarter of the audience for CBS' "Survivor: Cook Island" and less than half of that for NBC's "The Office" in the same time slot, according to Nielsen Media Research.
'Happy Hour'
Watercolour And Sketches At Auction
Adolf Hitler
Watercolours and sketches attributed to Adolf Hitler are up for sale Tuesday, forcing a tiny auction house in southwest England to install multiple telephone lines to accommodate an expected crush of bidders from Canada to New Zealand.
The 21 watercolours and two sketches were found in a farmhouse in Belgium, not far from where Hitler - then an aspiring artist - was stationed in Flanders during the First World War.
Still, it is impossible to say with certainty whether Hitler painted them. The experts who authenticated them in the 1980s are now dead. Even so, the works could sell for up to US$8,000 apiece, Walton said.
Adolf Hitler
Paints Graceland
Thomas Kinkade
Known for his paintings of cozy cottages, country gardens and churches, artist Thomas Kinkade has created a similar tranquil scene in his painting of Elvis Presley's famous home.
Kinkade, who finished the oil painting in about three hours on Friday, said he wanted to paint Graceland as if it were a brisk autumn morning with a fire in the fireplace. Kinkade described his 401st painting set for release as a "sketchy painting," a study that he will take to his California studio to refine it for a finished portrait to be released in March.
Roughly 10 million Americans have a Kinkade painting at home. The wall hangings and spin-off products are said to fetch $100 million a year.
Thomas Kinkade
Sought UFO Unit Cover-Up
Britain
Britain's Ministry of Defense sought to prevent the public from knowing about the work of a unit that investigated reported sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, a published report said Monday.
The Guardian said that documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to two academics showed that ministry officials had hoped to expunge information about the unit, known as DI55, from records routinely released after 30 years.
A defense ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said that during the 1970s - at the height of the Cold War - officials were concerned about a Soviet invasion - not extraterrestrial activity.
Britain
In Memory
Martha Holmes
Martha Holmes, a former Life magazine photographer known for her signature pictures of famous people including painter Jackson Pollock and film stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, has died. She was 83.
A native of Louisville, Ky., Holmes was hired by Life in 1944 from the Louisville Courier-Journal, after another Life photographer on assignment there noticed her work. She was the third female addition to the elite magazine staff, and worked mainly out of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and later New York.
In 1949, she photographed Pollock at work with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. The image became a U.S. postage stamp, "with the cigarette airbrushed out," Burrows said.
Holmes depicted Bogart and Bacall standing by a table at a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing on Communist influence in Hollywood in 1947, CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow driving a tractor on his Connecticut farm, and Eleanor Roosevelt walking in woods with a group of orphans.
Other notable subjects were United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis, comedian Groucho Marx, jazz immortal Louis Armstrong and singer Frank Sinatra.
She was married for 46 years to Arthur Waxman, a theatrical executive and early general manager of the Actors Studio. Waxman died in 1998.
Martha Holmes
In Memory
Patrick Quinn
Veteran actor and union official Patrick Quinn died Sunday of a massive coronary in at his summer home in Pennsylvania. He was 56.
Quinn had recently been appointed executive director of Actors' Equity Assn. after serving as president of the New York-based 45,000-member organization since 2000,
The Philadelphia native began his Equity career in 1970. He made his Broadway debut in a revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" with Zero Mostel and boasted 10 other Broadway credits, including "A Class Act," "Beauty and the Beast" and the revival of "The Sound of Music."
Quinn's TV credits included recurring roles on "Bosom Buddies" with Tom Hanks, "As the World Turns," "All My Children" and guest appearances on all three versions of "Law & Order." He also voiced characters in the animated films "Aladdin," "Pocahontas" and "Anastasia."
Patrick Quinn
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