'Best of TBH Politoons'
TODAY!
Erin Hart
Join Erin Hart
as she fills in for Jay Marvin on Boulder's Progressive Talk, AM760.net
today, from 6am to 10am MST (8am - noon EST/7am - 11am CST/5am - 9am PST).
Streams live online at am760.net.
We are awaiting word from the DNC about a guest about Immigration issue--as
we ponder what does it mean to be an American? What is American culture?
What makes it distinct--what do those Pubbies mean when they use the
Balkanization argument?
And we review what our options are now for Iraq. Sen. Ken Salazar repeats
he thinks we can't just get out--so what do we do?
Andy Card was finally dealt out (couldn't resist) - will the analytical
President's man Josh Bolten ride his Harley into glory at the loser White
House. Or are they just crying "deal".
We have two guests to talk DC shop: Kirsten Powers of Change the Party and
Ari Berman from The Nation magazine.
For updates, check erinhartshow.com.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
FRED GRIMM: More election shenanigans in Sunshine State (miami.com)
Not even the toadies on the Florida Public Service Commission would allow their corporate buddies to get away with this.
MATT TAIBBI: How to Be a Lobbyist Without Trying (rollingstone.com)
"I'll tell you who's got a lot of balls," he said to me. "Senator Conrad Burns. He talked about his lobby-reform plan today, but check it out, he's throwing a thousand-buck-a-plate birthday party for himself tomorrow night. I'm surprised he didn't show up on the Hill today in a fucking Hamburglar costume."
Kris Axtman and Mark Clayton: Worker right or workplace danger? (csmonitor.com)
... Oklahoma is one of only two states with statutes that specifically prohibit employers from banning weapons on their own property. (Kentucky is the other state.) ConocoPhillips and several other employers are challenging the 2003 Oklahoma law in federal court.
PAUL KRUGMAN: North of the Border (The New York Times)
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," wrote Emma Lazarus, in a poem that still puts a lump in my throat. I'm proud of America's immigrant history, and grateful that the door was open when my grandparents fled Russia.
JEFFREY KLUGER: Polar Ice Caps Are Melting Faster Than Ever... More And More Land Is Being Devastated By Drought... Rising Waters Are Drowning Low-Lying Communities... By Any Measure, Earth Is At ... The Tipping Point (Time; Subscription Required)
The climate is crashing, and global warming is to blame. Why the crisis hit so soon--and what we can do about it
Ellen Goodman: Ruthie has two daddies (Washington Post Writers Group)
Would foster care really be better for this child?
Dan Kennedy: Little People, Big World (slate.com)
Will TLC's new reality show change our perception of dwarfs?
Reader Question
My 'Burg Years
Marty,
I need your opinion. My memoirs from the '60's are nearly ready. I've narrowed it down to two titles. Which do you like better?
A) The Tortoise and the Pubic Hair
B) The Young and the Breastless
Willow
P.S. Do you still have Ram Spirit®?
Willow, for accuracy's sake, have to go with 'The Young & The Breastless'.
And while I may no longer have much Ram Spirit®, that doesn't mean I can't wish you a 'Mary Cooney'.
Or wonder if Leonard ended up on a dinner table somewhere.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lots of rain.
Was wakened by the drone of circling helicopters - a cop on the way to work was shot in her driveway about a block from here around 6am.
The media vulturecopters clattered overhead for nearly 4 hours. The block was still yellow-taped off, with a small forest of antennae-sprouted eng trucks lining the street, when I brought the kid home from school.
Then, a little after 8pm, during a heavy downpour, the doorbell rang - 2 female LBPD officers, one with a notepad, looking for anyone who might have been up at the hour. The were courteous, but concerned and businesslike.
Told us it was currently believed the officer was the victim of a car-jacking that went awry, which hasn't been reported (yet) in the local media.
Somedays the backwoods don't seem so bad....
Put up a page of all the Juno Award nominations.
No new flags.
'Brokeback' Top Film
GLAAD Awards
"Brokeback Mountain" lost out in the best-picture Oscar race, but the film about the troubled love affair between two cowboys has taken the top film prize from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Other winners at the GLAAD awards included Newsweek for magazine reporting; "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for an episode focused on gay people's coming-out stories; USA Today for newspaper coverage; and Melissa Etheridge for best music artist.
Presenters, performers and guests at the event included Sandra Bernhard, the pop band Erasure, and Czech model Petra Nemcova, who presented an award for photographer David LaChapelle.
GLAAD awards
Apologizes for Comments
Morgan Spurlock
The filmmaker who ate nothing but McDonald's meals for his Oscar-nominated film, "Super Size Me," apologized for a profanity-laced, politically incorrect speech at a suburban Philadelphia high school.
Among other things, Morgan Spurlock joked about the intelligence of McDonald's employees and teachers smoking pot while speaking at Hatboro-Horsham High School last week.
"It is never my intent to insult or demean anyone - and I understand how some of my remarks may have offended some in attendance and if you feel they did, then I am deeply sorry," Spurlock wrote in "A Letter of Explanation" posted Sunday on his blog.
Although some in attendance believe Spurlock commented on "retarded kids in the back wearing helmets," the filmmaker said in his blog that he only referred to himself as retarded. He said the comment about helmets, which prompted teachers to lead special education students out of the room, was meant as a "slacker reference" to a character in the upcoming film "Benchwarmers."
Morgan Spurlock
Tougher Bargaining Pays Off
Screen Actors Guild
In its first Hollywood labor deal under a new, more militant leadership, the Screen Actors Guild on Tuesday reached agreement with producers of cable television cartoons on sharply increased pay for voice performers.
The tentative pact, raising by 20 percent the payments actors earn for reruns of their work on basic-cable animated shows, came after SAG moved a step closer toward a possible showdown with producers over separate residuals paid for live-action cable programs.
In a series of membership caucuses during the past week, SAG's rank and file voted overwhelmingly to authorize union leaders to call a strike in negotiations over the basic cable contract covering such shows as "The Shield," "Monk" and "Nip/Tuck."
The strike authorization, which a guild source said was endorsed by more than 90 percent of those voting, marks the first such move since a strike vote paved the way for a bitter six-month walkout against the advertising industry in 2001.
Screen Actors Guild
Developed Show Court TV
John Waters
After his new Court TV show comes on the air, the wedding invitations will probably start drying up for filmmaker John Waters.
The pencil-mustached Waters is developing a series, "'Til Death Do Us Part," that will dramatize the events of a married couple where one spouse eventually kills the other.
Waters will star as "the groom reaper," appearing as an unexpected guest at the couple's wedding, then guiding viewers through the story as the relationship disintegrates. The series doesn't have a start date.
John Waters
To Receive Film Award
Arquette Family
The Arquette family - which includes actors Clifford (AKA: Charley Weaver) , Lewis, Rosanna, Richmond, Patricia, Alexis and David - will be honored with the American Film Institute's sixth Platinum Circle Award, said Carole Mitchell, president of AFI Associates, a fundraising branch of the organization.
The award, along with posthumous tributes to Clifford and Lewis Arquette, will be presented during a May 10 luncheon at the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel.
Past recipients include the Penn family, Fonda family and Walter, Carol and Charles Matthau
Arquette Family
'Gnomeo & Juliet' A No-Go At Disney
Elton John
The Elton John movie "Gnomeo & Juliet," an animated musical based on William Shakespeare's tragic romance, is no longer in production at Walt Disney Feature Animation, the studio said Monday.
John was producing the movie about small star-crossed lovers through his Rocket Pictures banner, and was engaged to write the songs.
The crews at Walt Disney Feature Animation who were in production on the project have been reassigned to other projects, a Disney spokeswoman said.
Elton John
British Court
Apple Vs. Apple
Apple Corps Ltd., the Beatles' record company and guardian of the band's musical heritage and business interests, is suing Apple Computer Inc., claiming the company violated a 1991 agreement by entering the music business with its iTunes online music store.
The case will be heard by Judge Martin Mann, who said during pretrial hearings that he was the owner of an iPod digital music player, which is used with the iTunes music store.
At issue is a 1991 pact that ended a long-running trademark fight between the two Apples in which each agreed not to tread on the other's toes by entering into a "field of use" agreement over the trademark.
Apple Corps - founded in 1968 and owned by surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the widow of John Lennon and the estate of George Harrison - is seeking both an injunction to enforce the 1991 agreement and monetary damages for the alleged contract breach.
Apple Vs. Apple
Live In Liverpool
Holy Fish
Muslim worshippers are flocking to see a pair of fish in the British city of Liverpool which appear to bear the words "Allah" and "Mohammed", their owner said.
Ali Al-Waqedi, 23, said he went into a local pet shop to show his children the animals but he had not been planning to buy anything.
"We started to have a look at the Oscar fish because they had such an unusual colour. Then I saw that one of them had the word Allah. It was so clear, and it made me very happy," he said.
"Then we saw that another one had the word Mohammed, and that was even better. To see the Allah fish was exciting, but to have the Allah and Mohammed fish in the same tank was unbelievable."
Holy Fish
Car Trouble of Her Own
Ferrari Owner's Wife
The wife of the man accused of wrecking a rare $1 million Ferrari on Pacific Coast Highway is having her own car troubles.
33 year old Nicole Persson, the wife of Stefan Eriksson, was stopped by Beverly Hills Police while driving along Wilshire Boulevard behind the wheel of a $450,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.
Officers say the McLaren had British plates but no registration tags. They also say Persson did not have an appropriate driver's license. She was cited and the car was impounded.
Ferrari Owner's Wife
Creates Huge Marine Park
Kiribati
A tiny island nation in the Pacific Ocean has created the world's third-largest marine reserve, as global efforts to preserve biodiversity widen to include everything from insects to fish to forests.
President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati announced the formation of the park on Tuesday at the 8th United Nations conference on the Convention on Biological Diversity under way this week in Brazil.
The Phoenix Islands Protected Area bans commercial fishing to protect more than 120 species of coral and 520 species of fish inside its 73,800 sq miles. It is the world's first marine park with deep-sea habitat, including underwater mountains.
Kiribati
World Prepares
Solar Eclipse
Tourists and scientists were gathering at spots around the world for the first total eclipse in years, a solar show that will sweep northeast from Brazil to Mongolia and blot out the sun across swathes of the world's poorest lands.
Superstition will follow around the world, as it has for generations.
One Indian paper advised pregnant women not to go outside during the eclipse to avoid having a blind baby or one with a cleft lip. Food cooked before the eclipse should be thrown out afterward because it will be impure and those who are holding a knife or ax during the eclipse will cut themselves, the Hindustan Times added.
Solar Eclipse
Settles Suit
Larry Krueger
A former talk-show host for the San Francisco Giants' flagship radio station who was fired last year after making racial remarks about players on the team settled a lawsuit with the station Monday.
Larry Krueger said his suit was settled in San Francisco Superior Court, though he signed a confidentiality agreement that keeps him from disclosing the terms of the settlement.
Krueger and producer Tony Rhein sued their former employer in October, claiming they were used as scapegoats in the flap. They accused KNBR-AM of firing them to appease the team so it wouldn't pull its broadcast contract with the station. KNBR owns approximately 1.5 percent of the team.
Krueger and Rhein also said a statement by Salvadore posted on KNBR's Web site explaining the firings omitted key facts of the case and damaged their professional reputations.
Larry Krueger
Changing Judges
'Divorce Court'
Lynn Toler, an attorney who served as an elected judge on the Cleveland Heights Municipal Court in Ohio, is taking over the syndicated series 'Divorce Court' from seven-season incumbent Mablean Ephriam.
Toler will step in when the show returns for its eighth season this fall, according to a spokesman for series producer Twentieth Television.
"Divorce Court" has been on and off the air since it debuted in 1957, according to the reference book "Total Television." The current Twentieth Television version first aired in 1999.
'Divorce Court'
In Memory
Britt Lomond
Britt Lomond, who played the dastardly Capitan Monastario in the 1950s TV series "Zorro" and was a staple on other Western series including "Death Valley Days" and "Rawhide," died last week. He was 80.
Lomond died of kidney failure at a Huntington Beach nursing home, according to Tyler St. Mark, his friend and former publicist.
He later turned to directing and production work, but his fame stemmed from playing opposite Guy Williams' Zorro from 1957-58. A postage stamp depicting Lomond as Monastario was issued by the Netherlands in 2004.
Lomond, a Chicago native who grew up in New York City, served as a paratrooper in the Pacific during World War II and was awarded three Purple Hearts and both the Silver and Bronze Stars.
Britt Lomond
In Memory
Nikki Sudden
Cult British musician Nikki Sudden died Sunday after a show the night before at New York's Knitting Factory, Billboard.com has learned. He was 49.
No cause of death has been made public yet, according to Secretly Canadian label head Chris Swanson, whose company reissued 10 of Sudden's albums in recent years.
Always a prolific artist, Sudden had just completed a new solo album, "The Truth Doesn't Matter," and had a gig booked in London on Wednesday with his band the Jacobites. According to a post from longtime group member Dave Kusworth on Sudden's MySpace.com page, the show will go off as planned in memoriam to Sudden.
Sudden rose to fame with his brother Epic Soundtracks in Swell Maps, a late 1970s rock combo that has remained influential despite its brief lifespan. Soundtracks died of unknown causes in 1997. In 1990, he collaborated with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry on the album, "The Jewel Thief," which was later reissued as "Liquor, Guns & Ammo."
Nikki Sudden
R.I.P. Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden
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