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From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
May 21, 2002
President George W. Bush announced that the United States and Russia
will sign a new arms-control treaty that will reduce both countries'
nuclear arsenals by two thirds. The weapons will not be destroyed,
however, but simply put in storage.
It was reported that an F.B.I.
agent in Phoenix, Arizona, wrote a memo last summer warning his
superiors about the enrollment of possible terrorists in American
flight schools and cited Osama bin Laden by name.
The White House
acknowledged that President Bush received warnings in August that bin
Laden was planning to hijack aircraft. Some members of Congress called
for an investigation. "I don't think anybody could have predicted that
these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade
Center, take another and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would
try to use an airplane as a missile," said Condoleezza Rice, the
national security adviser.
The next day it was reported that in 1996
an Al Qaeda operative confessed on videotape to the F.B.I. that he had
planned to use his American flight training to fly a plane into C.I.A.
headquarters. In 1999 that confession and other information led to a
widely distributed intelligence analysis by the Library of Congress
warning that "suicide bomber(s) belonging to Al Qaeda's Martyrdom
Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives
into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency
or the White House."
Vice President Dick Cheney warned that a new Al
Qaeda attack on the United States was "almost certain."
A trucking
industry group offered the services of the nation's truckers in the
war on terrorism.
Thieves in Mexico stole a truck that was carrying
ten tons of sodium cyanide. The truck was later found, but most of the
poison was missing.
Lawyers for John Walker Lindh, the young American
who fought with the Taliban, used the Justice Department's new
interpretation of the Second Amendment to argue that firearms charges
against him should be dismissed.
American Green Berets landed in
Tblisi, Georgia, to begin training the army there to fight terrorism.
After NATO agreed to give Russia a more active role in the alliance's
decision making, particularly concerning terrorism and arms control,
Secretary of State Colin Powell observed that "we don't yet quite have
a cliche to capture this all."
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
--Roger D. Hodge
He's Been Busy, Again!
The Worried Shrimp
The Worried Shrimp - Deficit Dubya #32
Great Site
Uncommon Sense
Today's Uncommonsense leads with a new graphic - The Man Behind the
Monkey. Check it out.
And - new graphics all week!
Uncommonsense
Jeff Crook
Fun Site
Komix
Woo hoo! Komix have returned!
Thanks, Rob
Turtopia - Turtle rescue, Rehab and Rehoming
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Went into farmer mode today...2 of the tomato plants have blooms. Broccoli came up, too. And, the hibiscus is still flowering.
Watched 'Frasier'. Wow...what a cliff-hanger - Not.
Tonight, Wednesday, the week of 'season finales' continues, except for CBS - where it's the '37th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Jennifer Lopez, 1-Person Graduating Class, April Kleinschmidt and Patti Loveless.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are Clint Black, Greg Fitzsimmons, and Phil Lesh.
NBC starts the night with a 'special', 'The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments', followed by fresh 'season finales' of both 'The West Wing' and 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Robin Williams and Tommy Lee.
Scheduled on a fresh Conan is Rubyhorse.
Scheduled on a fresh Carson Daly are Marc Cuban and Rufus Wainwright.
ABC has an hour-long fresh 'season finale' for 'My Wife & Kids', then a fresh 'season finale'
of 'Drew Carey'. It's followed by a rerun 'Drew Carey' and then the 'special' 'David Blaine's Vertigo'.
Scheduled on a fresh Bill Maher are Bill O'Really, Rev. Al Sharpton, Elayne Boosler, and Ted Nugent.
The WB has the 2-hour fresh 'series finale' of 'Felicity'.
Faux starts the night with a fresh 'Simpsons' (even though they billed an episode on Sunday as the season finale), and then
90-minutes of 'Celebrity Boxing'.
UPN has a fresh 'season finale' of 'Enterprise', followed by a viewer's choice episode (AKA rerun) of 'Enterprise'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Disco / Concentration Camp Chic
Jenna 'Twinkle' Bush
Jenna Bush, Secret Service code name "Twinkle," shunned the bright lights of her mother's 10-day European tour.
"She doesn't want her picture in the paper, so she avoids the times that there are a lot of press," Mrs. Bush told White House reporters in her traveling
entourage who had only glimpses of Jenna along the way.
There she was, leaving an Air Force jet in Paris behind a military valet's walking wall of Neiman Marcus garment bags. In Budapest, she tarried on the plane
until the press was loaded into the motorcade.
By the third and final stop, in Prague, White House officials had written into the official schedule that Jenna would leave the plane first. She would be in
Mrs. Bush's limousine before anyone else, including her own Secret Service agents, had a chance to retrieve their carry-on bags.
Jenna travels to Berlin on Wednesday to see her dad and then returns to the United States while he and the first lady continue on to official visits in Russia and France.
Israel Hernandez, deputy to senior Bush adviser Karl Rove and a close friend of the Bush family, has been traveling in the official party to keep Jenna company. When
resident Bush was governor of Texas, Hernandez, now 31, was often called upon to help look after the twins when the parents were away, friends recall.
At a remembrance ceremony at the Terezin concentration camp outside Prague, Jenna stood inconspicuously near the back of a military band. She wore an outfit that had to
do double duty at a Paris nightclub six days earlier: a black blouse with slashed sleeves over fitted black slacks, with a wide woven belt.
In the presidential box of Budapest's Magyar Allami Opera House, Jenna lingered in the back shadows and did not take a front seat beside her mother until the house lights
went dark for the evening's performance of Madame Butterfly. The following night, she was designated to sit at her mother's front table for a formal dinner on the lawn of
the U.S. ambassador's residence, but ordered up some last-minute rearranging for a table at the back.
Barbara, who finished up another year at Yale University two weekends ago, traveled with her mother to England and Italy last summer but stayed away altogether from this
European trip that was her mother's official coming out on the international stage.
Jenna 'Twinkle' Bush
Claims He Was 'Misquoted'
Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent was the target of the Osbourne family's rage after hearing Nugent's comments about The Osbournes show. Nugent told the New York Post, "I think it's
an indictment to the soullessness of modern man that we get a kick out of witnessing a magnificent creature reduced to a blithering hopeless idiot." Nugent says
the paper didn't print his complete statement.
"My first comment was that, isn't it fantastic and thank God. I think it saved Ozzy's life that he met and eventually married Sharon--I hope he finally realizes he
is married to Sharon--because she really has managed what is left of Ozzy into a wonderful, wonderful, increased quality of life," he explains. "I'm confident that
they're sharing it with the best of their ability with their children."
Nugent adds, "However, what is displayed on the Osbournes TV show is what I said it was. Its success could be an indictment to the soullessness of my fellow Americans
who don't just watch it because it's funny, because it's not funny when you see people that have a scattered shambles of a life like that. And they can criticize me
and make fun of me for killing Bambi and all that other vacuous transparencies. But I wish nothing but the best for the Osbournes."
Nugent wants to get on the phone with Osbourne to clear the air and to try to get Osbourne and family pointed in the right direction. "I would like to speak to Ozzy
personally about it because I mean no ill will," he adds. "What I mean is strictly a good will and offer any advice that even a feeble guitar player may be able to
offer, but it's all I have. So I would like to offer what I have and that is that he should really, really make every effort to steer his children away from drugs,
alcohol, tobacco, and fast food, all of which seem to be entering their lives and I think they're going to pay the price for it."
Ted Nugent
Oxford Scholar
Chelsea Clinton
When Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the trendy Chelsea section of London in the 1970s, they decided they would give its name to the child they hoped to have, Chelsea Clinton said.
"My parents were here during Christmas in 1978," the daughter of the former U.S. president said Monday as she visited the Chelsea Flower Show. "They were hoping to have a child
and if it was a girl they said it would be called Chelsea."
She continued, "They also loved the song `Chelsea Morning' by Joni Mitchell, which is great because I love my name."
Clinton, who is studying international relations at Oxford University, posed for photographers in front of a patch of tulips at a special preview of the Royal Horticultural Society's famous flower show.
Chelsea Clinton
Wows Apollo Audience
Wonder & Marsalis
We all know Stevie Wonder can sing — but can he swing?
He proved he could do both Monday night, jamming with Wynton Marsalis and his septet at Jazz at Lincoln Center's spring gala at the Apollo Theater.
Wonder not only played piano as the band performed John Coltrane's "Giant Steps," he also sang a jazzed-up version of his own hit, "Living for the City" in
front of an adoring crowd.
"It is truly an honor to be at the Apollo," said Wonder, noting his own performances at the historic theater when he was a child prodigy.
Other performers at "Comin' Home To Harlem," were Tony nominee Vanessa Williams, musician Roland Hanna and Savion Glover, who received a standing ovation after
delivering a dazzling tap performance. Whoopi Goldberg served as the evening's host.
Wonder also provided some comedy. When the 52-year-old sat at the piano, he grabbed the sheet music in front of him, then put it aside and quipped: "Didn't really need to read right now."
The gala was a benefit for Jazz at Lincoln Center, which bills itself as world's largest arts organization dedicated to jazz. Marsalis is its artistic director. Among
the guests were actress Angela Bassett and news anchor Peter Jennings.
Wonder & Marsalis
Start Africa Tour
Bono & O'Neill
Sporting blue wraparound shades and an open-necked shirt, Irish rock singer Bono proved the perfect foil to U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill as the unlikely traveling companions embarked on a tour of Africa.
U2 frontman Bono confessed he had only brought one soup-stained tie and said the immaculately groomed O'Neill, dressed in a light gray suit, was a "very brave man" for letting such a messy pop star on his plane.
Bono let O'Neill do much of the talking on the first stop of the 11-day tour Tuesday, saying "I'm the amateur here among the professionals."
Bono and O'Neill's fact-finding tour started in former British colony Ghana and will then head to South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia, taking in some of the poorest, most disease-ridden places on earth.
Bono has in recent years campaigned tirelessly for erasing the public debt of poor countries, mostly in Africa. The bottom 28 countries in the U.N. human development index are all in Africa.
A participant in fellow Irishman Bob Geldof's 1985 Live Aid famine-relief concert, Bono has set up his own group called DATA (Debt, Aid, Trade for Africa),
advocating economic aid, lower export tariffs and money to fight AIDS.
The U.S. Treasury chief is a noted critic of past aid spending by international financial institutions like the World Bank, and is strongly promoting private-sector initiatives.
Bono & O'Neill
Don't Forget the Classics
Tony Bennett
Today's hit songwriters should go back to the drawing board and learn from literary greats like Shakespeare and Cole Porter if they want their works to stand the test of time.
That's the advice from veteran singer Tony Bennett -- the man famed for leaving his heart in San Francisco -- who paid tribute to the old masters as he
collected a lifetime achievement award in Beverly Hills on Monday.
Bennett, 75, received the Pied Piper Award during a black-tie dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel organized by the American Society of Composers, Authors
and Publishers (ASCAP), which collects public performance royalties on behalf of more than 120,000 members in the United States. Previous recipients of
the honor include Fred Astaire, Rosemary Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.
In addition, Bennett reserved a special mention for Taylor, who received a Founders Award from ASCAP.
"I'd like James Taylor to run for president instead of the one that we've got in right now."
Tony Bennett
Cheap, Cheap, Cheap
'Survivor' Class
Let's hope "Survivor: Marquesas" winner Vecepia Towery has better manners than her predecessors. At a reunion party Saturday night at Don't Tell Mama on West 46th
Street, original $1 million winner Richard Hatch refused to pay for the two-drink minimum for himself and his boyfriend. Ethan Zohn and Diane Ogden were relatively
well-behaved, but we're told that Kel Gleason left a 25-cent tip on a $19.75 bill. When the offended waitress handed back Kel's quarter, the cheapskate insisted she keep it.
'Survivor' Class
Set For 300th 'Simpsons'
Blink-182
Pop-punk band Blink-182 will be the guest stars on the 300th episode of "The Simpsons." While the trio couldn't be more thrilled, they could have been more prepared.
Bassist Mark Hoppus told Rolling Stone he and bandmates Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker had two lines. Hoppus said he blew both of them, but
appearing on the venerable TV series was one of the best things to ever happened to him.
The episode, which will air next season, has Bart moving out of the Simpson home and getting his own apartment, with Blink-182 and pro skater Tony Hawk as neighbors.
Blink-182
1970 - Padres / Pirates
Dock Ellis
LSD and the No-Hitter
Coming Back to Life
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead have been reincarnated.
The surviving members of the jam band announced Tuesday they were reuniting as The Other Ones for a two-day concert in East Troy, Wis.
"Terrapin Station — A Grateful Dead Family Reunion" will mark first time Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir have staged a concert together
since the death of Jerry Garcia, the Dead's leader and founder, according to their spokesman. Garcia died in 1995 of a heart attack.
The festival, which takes its name from a 1977 Grateful Dead album, will be held Aug 3-4. The concerts will feature performances by the four surviving members
as a band and also with their separate projects: Phil Lesh & Friends, Weir's Ratdog, Hart and Bembe Orisha, and Kreutzmann's TriChromes.
Other performers slated to appear are Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Warren Haynes and Jorma Kaukonen. The festival will feature two concert stages, as well
as a memorabilia tent with Grateful Dead items.
Grateful Dead
Official Grateful Dead Web site
California Republican of the Year?
A Democrat!
Tom Palmeri was surprised in March when he was named a California Republican of the Year. The Covina City Council member is, after all, a Democrat.
"I think it's just fabulous that they bypassed (Republican gubernatorial candidate) Bill Simon," Palmeri said. "I haven't been a Republican since Reagan's first term in office."
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which raises money for Republican congressional candidates, gave Palmeri the honor. They also sent him a
certificate and listed his name along with 161 other honorees in a Wall Street Journal advertisement.
Palmeri also learned that his awards did not come free.
"All I keep getting is this bill for $150," he said. "And they'd like me to use my credit card."
California Republican of the Year?
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Self-Proclaimed Nightmares
Heidi & Tom
The wedding may be off for Heidi Fleiss and Tom Sizemore. The former Hollywood madam has moved out of the actor's Beverly Hills home after a loud fight on Thursday night, friends tell us.
Benedict Canyon neighbors who heard the argument said Sizemore sounded so agitated, they feared for Fleiss' safety.
According to an ear-witness, Sizemore was "screaming at the top of his lungs" about losing a bag containing $50,000 worth of, um, personal property.
"We'll have to sell the house," Sizemore is said to have bellowed. The spy also reports that Fleiss seemed more concerned about another woman who apparently
had taken an interest in Sizemore — prompting the "Blackhawk Down" star to declare, "She hit on me!"
Sizemore was arrested in L.A. in 1997 after he allegedly knocked his ex-wife, "The Bold and the Beautiful" actress Maeve Quinlan, to the floor during an
argument. He later claimed that he had "had too much to drink and got too loud."In a recent interview, Sizemore recalled that at one of their first meetings,
he told Fleiss, "I want three months of your undivided attention." Fleiss responded, "I'll give you three hours, but you don't want anything to do with
me — I'm a nightmare!" To which Sizemore replied, "I'm a nightmare, too."
Heidi & Tom
Big Dog Watch Continues
Bill Clinton In Tokyo
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton greets well wishers after delivering a lecture at Tokyo's United Nations University Tuesday May 21, 2002. Clinton is visiting Japan after
representing the United States at East Timor's independence ceremonies.
Photo by David Guttenfelder
To Spend 35 Hours Atop Pillar in New York
David Blaine
Magician David Blaine, who has endured being entombed in a block of ice for 61 hours and being buried below ground for a week, was hoisted on Tuesday to the top of an 80-foot
pillar in midtown Manhattan, where he intends for stand for 35 hours.
Amid cheers from a few hundred fans and curious passersby, Blaine stepped onto the pillar, which at its peak has a width of about 22 inches. Event organizers said Blaine is
not harnessed to the column and the only concession made to safety is two handles on either side of Blaine, which he can clutch onto in the event of intense winds.
The stunt will culminate on Wednesday night when Blaine, who models himself on the legendary Harry Houdini, dives from the platform onto corrugated cardboard boxes. The end
of the spectacle will be shown live on an ABC television special called "David Blaine's Vertigo."
David Blaine
BartCop TV!
Honors First Supporter
Bruce Springsteen
Rocker Bruce Springsteen dedicated a park in his hometown over the weekend in honor of a resident who supported the town's youth and took in the Boss' first band.
Former Castiles bandmate George Theiss joined Springsteen at the ceremony Saturday, paying tribute to Gordon "Tex" Vinyard, who in the 1960s let the
fledging group practice their repertoire of Beatles and Rolling Stones tunes at a duplex he owned.
Theiss said the band's association with Vinyard and his wife, Marion, began in the opposite fashion. Theiss and the band's drummer were practicing
next door when Vinyard came over to complain about the noise.
"We just started talking about music, he took an interest and became our manager," Theiss told the Asbury Park Sunday Press.
The Vinyards were like second parents to the band. "They fed us, talked to us, bought us guitar strings and whatever else we needed to make music," Theiss said.
Springsteen said the couple's influence on his musical development is immeasurable. Vinyard cosigned a loan so Springsteen could buy a decent guitar and amplifier.
"They are the unsung heroes of rock 'n' roll without which we wouldn't have had a place to practice and hone our craft," the 52-year-old said.
Bruce Springsteen
Says Goodbye
Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell waves goodbye Wednesday to the world of daytime talk. Unfortunately for television executives, much of the audience has already left.
Talk show ratings are plummeting, with daytime TV viewers increasingly likely to watch news networks, courtroom shows, relationship programs like TLC's "A
Baby Show," or turn off the set entirely.
"Live with Regis and Kelly" is alone among the top 10 talk shows in not losing viewers this year. Jerry Springer, Rikki Lake, Montel Williams, even daytime
queen Oprah Winfrey — four years removed from her planned retirement — have seen ratings drop.
Talk show ratings have been slipping for at least five years, accelerating lately, said Marc Berman, a television analyst for Media Week Online.
But even O'Donnell wasn't immune to the audience erosion; her viewership is down 19 percent this year. She has said she's leaving for personal reasons — to spend more
time with her family and do other things — not because of ratings.
The most closely watched new show on the horizon will be from Dr. Phil McGraw, Winfrey's self-help guru. Not only does he have Winfrey's imprimatur, he's forbidden by
contract from competing against her in the same time slot, meaning some of her audience will be available.
Other new shows in the works feature medium James Van Praagh, "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh and the crew of "Good Day Live," a Los Angeles-based morning show.
Rosie O'Donnell
Plans Discount-Free Travel Season
Walt Disney Co.'s California Theme Parks
The Walt Disney Co.'s California theme parks will not offer any discounted admissions this summer, reflecting improving business at Disneyland and Disney's California
Adventure, a spokesman said on Monday.
The lack of promotions during this year's important summer travel season comes in sharp contrast to last year, when Disney's then-newly opened California Adventure offered
big discounts at the height of summer vacation to offset disappointing attendance in the park's opening months.
Since then, both California Adventure and the adjacent Disneyland have offered frequent discounts in a bid to attract budget-conscious and travel-averse customers during
the economic slowdown and post-Sept. 11 travel crisis.
Disneyland and California Adventure are currently offering southern California adults admission at the children's price through June 19, said spokesman John McClintock.
News of the promotion-free summer comes as Disney experiences steady improvement in its theme park attendance, especially in its southern California parks that depend more
on local demand and less on out-of-state and international travelers than Disney World in Florida.
Walt Disney Co.'s California Theme Parks
Unearthed in Britain
Ancient Roman Transvestite
The remains of a young Roman man who dressed as a woman and probably castrated himself show a previously unknown side of Britain's ancient history, archaeologists said Tuesday.
Excavations at Catterick, northern England, unearthed the skeleton of a fourth century man buried wearing a jet necklace and bracelet, a shale armlet and a bronze anklet.
"He is the only man wearing this array of jewelry who has ever been found from a late Roman cemetery in Britain," Dr. Pete Wilson, senior archaeologist at English Heritage told Reuters.
"In life he would have been regarded as a transvestite and was probably a gallus -- one of the followers of the goddess Cybele who castrated themselves in her honor."
Although the skeleton was discovered in 1981, it took nearly 20 years for archeologists to work out the puzzle of a male body adorned with female jewelry.
The mother-Earth goddess Cybele was worshipped in noisy public festivals and would-be priests castrated themselves using special ornamented clamps.
Roamin' Roman
Still Seeking Volunteers
'The Osbournes'
Page 2 !
Put up a page devoted to 'The Osbournes'
C'mon....send your thoughts, your impressions, your views, your favorite quotes...
Scroll down for lots of addys to pick from (or 'from which to pick', for the truly anal retentive).
