skippy the bush kangaroo

us hopes to shake djibouti

trouble in kenya? well, what better place for the us to set up camp than neighboring djibouti, which is so poor it can't even afford a joke for this space?

"but djibouti is also a telling example of a problem that has bedeviled the bush administration's war on terror" says the new york times: "the struggle to harmonize its own military goals with the needs of the countries in which it is operating. put simply, the administration seems to be better at taking the fight to its enemies than helping its friends."

djibouti is close to yemen and somalia, as well as kenya, so it's a perfect place for the us to send 800 special ops and other troops, and for the cia to get involved with. however, mr. bush's administration has only allocated $8.7 million in assistance to this poverty-stricken african country, even though they have become our newest ally in the war against terror. " 'it is a small country with huge problems,' said jorge mejia, the head of the unicef office in djibouti."

one would think a launching place to fight the war against terror would be worth more than $8.7 mill.

it takes big bells to prop up the holiday economy

you can tell skippy still has some residual flu symptoms by the very badly wrought pun in the headline, but it's good news for the economy as the traditional "busiest shopping day of the year" saw huge crowds chasing bargains the day after thanksgiving.

"retailers, hoping for a green christmas, anticipated crowds of people lining up for big pre-dawn discounts at stores nationwide on friday," said cnnmoney.

"in omaha, neb., a 52 year-old woman was knocked to the ground when hundreds of people rushed the doors at the early morning opening of the nebraska furniture mart. diana mckeever received several stitches to her knee and was released from the hospital," says yahoo news.

"now, in a surprise to many economists, those asphalt lots are starting to fill up - just in time for the holiday season. the catalysts for the turnaround seem to be relief that the us is not at war with iraq, a better tone to the stock market, and the perception that layoffs are slowing down. and those clever marketers are luring americans with sales - big sales - on almost everything in the store," says the christian science monitor.

an independent survey found retail sales were up 12.3% on friday, compared to last year, according to shoppertrak. and wal-mart reported the biggest one day sales ($1.43 billion) ever yesterday.

indeed, reuters is suggesting that the "data suggest weak spot may be ending," although we will believe it when our out-of-work friends all have jobs again. consumer confidence is up slightly, durable goods orders are up, jobless claims are down, and the manufacturing index rose a bit. even the stock market posted its eighth straight week of gains.

let's all hope santa will bring us a real economy for christmas.

say hello

to the blog driver's waltz.

also, let it be known that south knox bubba has a new url. mark it well.

happy belated thanksgiving

so sorry we weren't around to wish all of our readers and friends in blogtopia (yes! i coined that term!) a happy thanksgiving. skippy was sick in bed for 3 days (actually, only in bed for part of it, but mostly asleep in his recliner chair). some sort of sleeping laryngitis flu caught hold of skippy, and there was nothing to do but rest and drink plenty of fluids.

well, even though some would say the world is going to hell in a hand basket, there are still plenty of things to be thankful about. skippy is particularly thankful for mrs. skippy, and he recommends that everyone who has family take care of them, and be nice to them this holiday season. family is always more important than you'll ever realize, and you can never get from the rest of the world what your family can give to you, whether you want it or not.

also, even though the wrong person might be in office (whatever office you are thinking about at this juncture) we are still in a democracy as of this morning, so that is also something to be thankful for.

and let's even give thanks for the little things, like our own personal blogs, and all our blog buddies out there. with the upcoming troubles in the world, it is good to have friends.

we hope you had a great thanksgiving, and have plenty of leftovers (skippy will finish off the last slice of pumpkin pie tonight after he signs off the internet), and we hope you gave thanks to whatever deity you pray to, and if you don't pray, we hope at least you were humble.

carnival!

hey, the latest carnival of the vanities is up, and you can see it at silflay hraka or blogcritics! as usual, there's plenty of fine blogging involved, and good writing too, including some new cyberfaces, so please go check it out!

our entry was rather lame this week, as we have been busy with real life (finishing up the polish on the second draft of our screen play, thank you very much!) but we especially like amish tech support's emulation of mad kane with the little mermaid salute to stomach virus on disney cruise ships.

also of note: occam's toothbrush on poll data

say hello

to them durn lib'ruls and ideas etc. and mean mr. mustard and negro please and starship tim and crinkle cutz and plum crazy and t.c. mitts and jerry brito

yikes! censorship is alive and well

little did we realize that weblocker, no relation to dan blocker, will not allow anyone to access any of the blogspot blogs. slacktivist tells us the whole sordid story.

we know we have actually used the word "penis" once in a while, (as in, "that darn john ashcroft really wrinkles my penis") but we never thought of ourselves as pornographic (at least, not under this screen name.)

ah well, that is too bad. anyone with any suggestions as to how to fix this problem, or at least funnier jokes than ours, please email us and share.

mild to light blogging...with real life intruding

sorry, kids, we have been busy living our real lives out there, and have had very little time to blog.

off hand, we've been busier than a security guard at the nigerian miss america pagent.

we hope to resume regular blogging schedule later this week.

in the meantime, may we suggest visiting any one of the many fine blogs on our pemanent blogroll? they are all good, except for one. and you know which one that is.

grunge vs. bush

pearl jam apparently (along with the rest of us) has a bone to pick with mr. bush. their new album riot act contains a song entitled bush leaguer. it's a not very subtle condemnation of mr. bush:

he's not a leader/ he's a texas leaguer . . . drilling for fear/ makes the job simple/ born on third, thinks he got a triple.

woah! try to keep an evenflow, eddie!

wtf is always good

maru the crankpot consistantly provides accurate, if colorful commentary on the state of the nation, and more importantly, the state of the media reporting the nation.

there are too many good posts on her blog to single them out. we recommend you just take your time and peruse the whole thing.

top story tonight: the ecomony sucks!

forbes.com reports that the organization of economic cooperation and develoment is warning that a new gulf war could be disastorous on the world's economy. not to mention the folks standing in front of the bullets.

according to forbes:

"if an oil price shock were to occur, it would come at a very different stage of the (business) cycle, ie during a weak recovery, rather than at the tail-end of a boom," the oecd said. the u.s. military have to shoulder much more of the financial burden of fighting -- estimated at $1 billion per day -- since its allies are either unwilling or unable to pay. plus, the potential for further stimulus from monetary and fiscal policy in the united states, the world's largest economy, is already limited. rate cuts have taken borrowing costs to a 40-year low and public finances are heading into deficit.

and we love spin! economic indicators in october were flat, and that's good news! because, it's better than going down, right? right? we mean, it's not losing any ground, so treading water is much better than drowning, right? sounds good, till you read this paragraph: "only consumption has consistently fueled the recovery through the first 10 months of this year," conference board economist ken goldstein said, adding that the leading indicators "are not pointing toward a more positive outlook."

but hal r. varian at the new york times puts a lot of faith in the federal reserve's sunny outlook for the economy: "in the case of output forecasting, [berekely economists christina and david] romer suggest that the Fed's advantage may in fact be, at least in part, a result of better access to data since the fed manages the collection of information used to compute the index of industrial production." and then mr. varian ends with a resounding "let's hope the rate cut works." that's the spirit!

but if you're still confused at to mr. bush's economic policy, don't worry; brad de long's post wile e. coyote explains bush administration fiscal policy should clear up all questions.

don't drop the baby!

tom daschle is getting a lot of flack for holding baby rush limbaugh over a 4th floor hotel railing...oh wait, that was michael jackson, sorry.

no, senator daschle's complaint is that threats against his family have increased, and he puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of talk radio in general, and rush limbaugh in particular.

of course, mr. limbaugh had something to say about it: ''it's not just against me, but it's against you folks, the entire audience,'' limbaugh said. 'you all now are being characterized as unsophisticated barbarians. you don't know the difference between politics and entertainment."

well, if the animal pelt fits, wear it.

we do wonder about talk radio's inability to let the left engage in the same vitrol the right thinks it has the patent on. as soon as a leftist goes overboard, it's like they committed pedarasty or something. but when the right does it, it's just good "entertainment."

well, we are certainly not one to point this out, but it's never good to feed the energy vampires.

the little twit responds

lynn sislo, who for some reason took such great umbrage at our recent tip jar rant that she began her post about it by calling skippy a little twit (there's some damn fine writing!) has responded to our (we thought) calm and reasoned discourse on her blog comments section. aside from her claim that she's a better writer than skippy (could be) and at least a good a writer as instapundit (not sure), she pretty much rambles, without actually addressing our points.

we will not bother our readers of skippy's main blog with the ongoing debate of fred allen-jack benny proportions. but if you'd like to read our response to her response to our response...yada yada yada...please go to our sister blog skippy junior.

also, we'd like to point out that conrad of the gweilo diaries has kindly directed his readers into the fray with this clever post.

it takes one to know one

al gore says mr. bush is ineffective. specifically, on the war against terror.

mr. gore was vp during the 8 of the most prosperous and peaceful years in recent american history, and he still managed to lose the election. guess he knows ineffective when he sees it.

however, we must admit, we agree with what he says:

afghanistan "is falling back into chaos," mr. gore said. "osama is back. al qaeda has reconstituted itself and, according to the director of central intelligence, possesses just as severe a threat to us right now as it did during the weeks leading up to sept. 11. meanwhile, the president has been out on the campaign trail, beating the drums of war against saddam hussein."

when the guy's right, he's right.

south knox tip jars

we agree with south knox bubba's take on the whole blogging tip jar fiasco.

too wet to build

forbes magazine says the wet weather last month was probably the cause for housing starts to be down in the biggest drop since january (because apparently last february and march weren't wet).

but all the news isn't bad. "ground breaking for new homes had posted its biggest gain in seven years in september as buyers seized on low mortgage interest rates to snap up homes in droves. the october rate was still 4.7 percent higher than the 1.531 million level in october 2001."

so as long as it doesn't snow this winter, things'll be fine.

as creedence clearwater revival said, there's a bathroom on the right

are there any more obnoxious commercials on tv than catherine zeta jones hawking t mobile? what the hell is t mobile anyway, and why does she care if we use it or not?

although we admit we like the "ivory toad of shanghai" spot, the one where the couple are arguing over the lyrics "pour some sugar on me" until they call the library to get it straight, is just plain ridiculous. is there anybody in the world who doesn't know what def leppard was saying? (the guy in the commercial insists that they are singing "pour some shook up raman" - "you know, soup"). it's not that hard to understand.

but that brings us to one of our favorite pass times: indecipherable, or misunderstood, rock lyrics.

mrs. skippy's inability to understand the old group the hollies "all i need is the air that i breathe and to love you" is one of our personal favorites. she swears when she was a teeny bopper in the 60's she heard them say "all i need is some lsd and to love you." of course, context is a major factor here.

but some lyrics are just down right impossible. who knows what aretha franklin is saying after she spells out the word in "respect"? she says, "r e s p e c t, tell me what it means to me, r e s p e c t" and then what? we swear it sounds like "take some pcp!" (again, context).

anyone else with good, wrong lyrics are encouraged to email them to us, and we will print them in this space.

more on tip jars

heavens! little did we suspect that our little rant about bloggers who ask for donations via paypal would start something. great, we can't get bush out of office but we can sure piss off blogtopia (yes, i coined that pharse, and pissed it off en toto, as well)!

not only did it appear in this week's carnival of the vanities, but it has inspired laurence simon of amish tech support into his own rant as well. and then we find this screed (calling skippy a "little twit" and believe us, mrs. skippy is happy to report that skippy is anything but little!) from some blogger named lynn sislo, who has been blogging since march and gets about 80-100 hits a day, and then accuses us of trolling for hits.

my my, we had no idea people would take this so personal! it's just a blog, folks; if you want to get worked up about something, as we said in our original screed, go volunteer some where or do charity work or make an actual difference. don't get mad because we point out that begging for pennies is simply that: begging for pennies.

luckily, we have some supporters as well as detractors. kevin holstberry over at ideas, etc. agrees with our basic premise. also, sisyphus shrugged (who apparently doesn't have permalinks, sorry) and easy bake coven have rallied to our defense. we thank everyone, both who agree and disagree, for participating in the great communications experiement we like to call blogging.

we try to have no regrets as we go through life, but we must admit that we are sorry if our little diatribe upset talkleft in any way, for she has not responded to our email. talkleft is a fine blog, even with a paypal link on it [ed. note: it is actually an amazon honor system link], and we highly recommend it to all. and, we'd even recommend lynn's blog, even though she had the bad manners to call skippy a little twit (also, check out her comments section to see our response).


and, while we're at blogname-dropping, thanks to the gambling gringo for the link, and thanks to madeleine kane for furthering our use of the word "blogtopia" all the way over to corante tech news daily!

carnival!

ok, kids, carnival of the vanities number 9, the popular feature on silflay hraka's blog, is up and running! lots of good writing there, check it out. or if you can't make it all the way over there, it's also posted on blog critics!

freedom of information act? we don't need no stinkin' freedom of information act!

congress looks set to pass the homeland security bill, which promises to give the administration even more authority to keep secrets from the public than it has now.

" 'this unnecessary blanket authority,' said sen. robert byrd, d-w.virginia, a vociferous opponent of the legislation, 'will give the president carte blanche to expand the culture of secrecy that now permeates this administration'."

"the house language, said the ACLU's [tim] edgar, 'is a disaster for the public's right to know' about issues that could directly affect lives, ranging from defects in railroad tracks to problems in blood supplies. The broadened language, said the associated press managing editors' bill felber, 'is not necessarily a good thing for public knowledge'."

oh well. we didn't want to know what the government really know about 9/11 before hand, anyway, did we?

meteor update

folks, we have just learned that tonight, not tomorrow night, will be the best time to watch the leonid meteor shower in the skies. it looks like the peak will hit here in north america about 5:30 eastern, 2:30 pacific, so set your alarms!

here's a few more tips for viewing, and here's a page to help you figure out what time is best for your location.

look to the skies!

hootie and the blowhards

there now rages a current debate in blogtopia (yes! i coined that phrase!) as to whether or not liberals get away with more crap than conservatives are allowed to by the pc police when it comes to writing satire.

here's calpundit's view.

here's instapundit's view.

here's what atrios has to say.

for the record, here's a funny liberal, and here's a funny conservative.

blogging around

here's such a good idea, we are considering stealing it for our own blog. devra at blue streak has a link category called "blogs of the week" (which, we assume, changes every week; if not, get donkey! and journal of doubt are in for some great advertising this year...)

sciatica links us to yesterland, a web version of the discontinued rides once found at disneyland...

and somebody came to our blog from a translated version of jeanne d'arc's body and soul (aus deutche, no less!)

wow, dr. menlo has gotten into the act, along with the unablogger and good sh*t! really, we read these blogs for the articles, no, we do!

we found out from ampersand that letters from gotham, one of our fav conservative blogs, has called it quits! what is there something going around?? goodbye, diane e., you will be missed!

finally, the homework is done!

as promised, we finished an essay for blogcritics this weekend. it details our disappointment over the willy-nilly writing on the otherwise-excellently conceived fox tv program 24. please head on over to blogcritics to check it out.

another reason not to go to war

thanks to body and soul, we found this at negro, please, which pretty much sums up our feelings.

no war? think again, folks

don't get too comfortable just because saddam said yes to the u.n. weapons inspection resolution. or should we say, mr. bush is not getting too comfortable, and we bet saddam isn't either.

just a quick look around the headlines make it pretty apparent that war is inevitable:

usa today - iraq: failure to comply may spark invasion

business week - an iraq attack: the odds now

sydney morning herald - lit emerges over what triggers war

cbs news - u.s. warns iraq: don't 'play games'

toronto star - u.s. has doubts as iraq allows checks

icwales - bush Still looks for showdown

canadian globe and mail - deception won't be tolerated, hussein warned

fox news (there's a surprise!) - rumsfeld: saddam would 'like to see' terrorist attacks if u.s. goes to war

rather than reporting the news, these headlines seem to be preparing the world for an inevitable war (and the consequences of an increase in terrorists attacks during and afterwards).

say your prayers to whatever god you believe in, folks.

(this post can also be found on stand down and american samizdat

now we can get some real work done in congress

spurred on by the republican victories in the election this month, the congress has decided to finally knuckle down and do some important work for the country.

your elected representatives have just approved a bill making it illegal to insert pornographic material into packaged food products.

thank goodness. we were tired of opening our jello pudding pops and finding ron jeremy staring at us. and we were sick of unpeeling a banana only to find an anatomically correct picture of johnny the wad holmes.

now finally mothers can feel safe about that box of mrs. paul's fish sticks for their children's lunch. and no more embarrassment when putting out the clam dip at parties! this problem has been so wide spread over the country, it's about time someone did something about this. who says the republicans are misguided sanctimonious blow hards with no real concern for actual problems of the country?

blogging around


jay zilber has a very personal look at the rising costs of health care.

thanks to susan of easy bake coven for linking to our rant about bloggers' tip jars.

dr. tom of thinking it through muses on arianna huffington's screed against pollsters (also, while you're at the fine thinking it through blog, check out the latest report on how homeland security will make it harder for parents of autistic children to sue vaccine manufacturers...huh? that's right. then go over to pla and see what dwight meredith has to say on the subject. it will probably make you angry, as it did us.

there must be something going around

first ted barlow, now james capozzolla of the rittenhouse review is going on hiatus.

nobody said blogging was easy.

the more things change, the more things stay the same

before you all break out the bubbly to celebrate a new direction of house democratic leadership under nancy pelosi, you might want to read this.

the la weekly article by doug ireland asserts that rather than being a new populist liberal leader, ms. pelosi is just another moneybags politician who got elected the old fashioned way: she bought her way into it.

"unlike paul wellstone, who had an organic connection to the issue-oriented citizen activism whence he came, pelosi's career is a classic example of checkbook politics. she married money — her husband, paul, is a former banker who became a wealthy real estate developer — and the pelosi fortune makes her the richest member of california's house delegation."

ireland goes on to comment that ms. pelosi's most controversial "populist" votes in the house - favoring aids research/gay issues, and opposing president bubba on china as a most-favored-nations-status - were less about taking a stand than about garnering votes back home in asian and gay steeped san francisco, which pelosi represents.

and after the lump that was gephardt, if you were hoping for a media savy speechifier to charm the camera, well, sorry, charlie, nancy ain't the gal for you:

"...says a senior liberal democratic strategist today, 'pelosi is simply not very articulate. she tends to talk too much — like many people who have limited confidence in their intelligence and tend to make up in verbosity what they lack in veracity.' [ed. note: sounds like some bloggers we know] "that's why the san francisco chronicle recently commented tactfully that in her noteless speeches pelosi 'tends to get sidetracked,' that she has a reputation for avoiding the press, and in her infrequent tv appearances she lacks the spontaneous authenticity of, say, barney frank or john mccain."

still, we are hopeful that at least the change in leadership will light a fire under the democrats, and we do admit that it's about time (the 21st century...took ya long enough!) that a woman was elected to leadership in the congress. good luck, ms. pelosi and the dems!

look to the skies

one of the greatest spectacles of nature is coming up soon, and apparently it will be the last time for quite awhile that it will appear so spectacular.

we are talking about the leonid meteor shower, a magnificent display of astronomical fireworks that we like to watch every year in november.

for reasons too complicated for this bush kangaroo to interpret, next week's version of this yearly meteor display will be the biggest and brightest for some time to come (at least three decades, perhaps ever for a hundred years). so we heartily recommend your setting the clock for the wee hours of the morning to get up and watch this magnificent show in the sky, as it is predicted to be one of the better meteor shows in a while, in spite of the full moon shining that night.

the leonid meteor shower happens every november when the earth passes through the trail of space rocks left by the comet tempel-tuttle as it swings around our sun on its 33-year voyage. the rocks will enter the earth's atmosphere and burn up in a firey path across the sky sometime between 2:30 and 4:00 am early tuesday morning.

here's a complicated chart for telescope users letting you know when the best time and on what part of the earth the best place to watch will be.

we watched the leonids shower last year, and found it to be a truly beautiful and humbling experience. set your alarms, you will not regret it!

(offer void where prohibited by clouds).

we dare you not to laugh

at scrappleface's entry about sea monkeys.

the market is rallying

as of this writing, the dow is up 136 points. so the economic news is good.

unless you work for advanced micro devices which is going to cut 15% of its labor force by june.

or unless you're in retail sales, which were flat last month (including a steep decline in auto sales)

or unless you listen to alan greenspan, who says the economy hit a soft patch.

otherwise, things are great!

documentarian's mother gets a job

alexandra pelosi's mother nancy was voted in as house minority leader today, 177-29, becoming the first woman to lead any party anywhere in congress. we will see exactly where she will lead the democrats, but wherever it may be, at least it will be somewhere other than up mr. bush's butt, which is where the former leadership had been taking the party.

rep. pelosi will be going head to head with tom delay, who is the house majority whip (and believe us, he likes the term "whip.") it will be interesting to watch.

"pelosi too said democrats will try to find common ground with republicans, but on issues where they differ, 'we must stand our ground'."

what? stand her ground? is she sure she's a democrat?

some housecleaning

bill sherman has some thoughts on our favorite comic strip, zippy the pinhead.

we'd like to announce that we're adding the blogs highwater and thoughts on the eve of the apocolypse and progressive gold to our permanent blogroll.

also added to our roll, the commonweal institute, "the heritage foundation of the left," which is created and maintained, in part, by our good friend issues guy over at seeing the forest.

since the election came and went, and the san fernando valley did not succeed in seceding, we are now taking down the link to secession watch, a fine blog relating to news media stories about the valley's drive to split into a separate city. however, kevin roderick, the man behind the blog, informs everyone that that blog will remain on line for about another year, so bookmark it if you are doing research or something. and, we are happy to add kevin's other fine blog, america's suburb, which is about the history and lore of the valley.

and heads up to everyone: tim dunlop has moved his fine blog the road to surfdom. now it looks quite nice and easy to read, and doesn't look like the cheap-o blogger crap that we're using.

plus, we'd like to give a shout out to sisyphus shrugged for mentioning our silly rant against bloggers with paypal buttons. really, it was late, we were hungry, and we just got ticked off. sorry.

the tip jar - a skippy rant

woah! we were perusing talkleft's fine blog, and came upon this extension of a discussion that's making the rounds in blogtopia (yes! i coined that phrase!)

"there's been a lot of discussion this week about financial contributions to bloggers, starting with small-l libertarian william quick of daily pundit threatening to quit if he doesn't get donations, and instapundit's agreement with arthur silber's article encouraging readers to contribute to bloggers they read regularly."

ok, i'm going to piss off a lot of my blogger friends here and say, hey, you! if you can't afford a computer and an on line browser to accesss one of the many free bloggging software programs available, maybe you should get a pen and piece of paper.

sorry (and my apologies especially talkleft, for she is a fine blogger and one of my first supporters) but i strongly suspect that everyone who blogs, with the exception of that homeless guy, has a day job which pays for every other d*mn hobby they participate in (and we wonder about the homeless guy, 'cause when we take a look at his blog, there's a picture of him in front of a computer sitting in what looks suspiciously like...a home!)

so to us, it's a bit like asking people to pay to watch our pick-up game of basket ball so we can buy better sneakers to play in.

if you want to write for a living, then do it the hard way...write and submit and get rejected and write some more and get rejected some more and keep writing because you have a burning desire to share your point of view until finally some schmuck with a checkbook likes what you do and then pays you for it. (ps, then you can write off your computer and monthly on-line browser fee on your taxes!)

but don't expect the world to support your own diary (which is, after all, what a blog is), no matter how pithy your prose. and if do wind up writing for a living, don't ask people to donate money to you so you can keep on blogging, norah!

and espcially in light of the level of sophistication that is apparent from the vocabulary, not to mention the arguments that we read on the blogs every day (as well as all the about the author links which reveal bloggers' mostly high-paying day jobs), we find it particularly galling to be asked to support them all. blogging folks are obviously well-educated, and probably middle-or-above class, so we doubt strongly that they are worrying about rent or dinner or clothing their babies. until they actually are about to get evicted and live in their cars, they shouldn't be asking people for money. seriously, it's a bit beneath us all.

can't afford the free blogging software out there? fine. stop blogging. go volunteer at the homeless shelter or become a big sister or big brother, or do something worthwhile that won't cost you a cent.

william quick stopped blogging because he couldn't afford it? great. that's the free market system at work, kids. and besides, nobody asked him to start blogging in the first freakin' place. nobody asked any of us.

jesus h. christ on a rubber pogo stick, there are about a billion more things far more deserving of charity than bloggers who don't want to shell out the extra bucks for more band width. children are dying out there, and these folks want us to click on pay pal? puh-lease!! pardon us if we send the extra money we make to the la mission instead.

we love john lescroart's books, but we ain't buying him anything on his amazon wish list. the bottom line is, one must use the money from whatever one does make a living at to support one's activities that keeps one sane, including exercises in blogging. excuse us if we're a bit miffed when we hear about lawyers and professors and professional journalists and such asking for money to support their hobby.

we say, if you like skippy's work, then please donate some money to a charity of your choice in skippy's name. send us an email telling us which charity, and we will proudly list and link it on this page.

sorry. we are done now. we know we have probably insulted most of our supporters. if so, that's the risk we take for speaking our mind. just leave us alone. we're grumpy and tired. we're going to bed now.

blogging around

the hamster reports on jesse ventura's talks with msnbc, plugs an upcoming tap v. tnr debate, quotes rage against the machine (good one, hamster!), reflects on the menningitis death of the usc student, and then runs around the net (and giving us a link, thanks!)

media whores on line, which seems to be on vacation again (!!!) has a great idea: why don't all the people on the left buy eric alterman's new book "what liberal media? the truth about bias and the news" ? here's what the horse has to say about it:

"until now, not a single journalist has undertaken an investigation, let alone a refutation, of the myth that the mainstream media slants the news to the left, thereby duping the american public and keeping it ignorant of the truth about the world in which we live. in what liberal media? eric alterman takes these accusations seriously and in brisk, light-hearted prose exposes the fallacy of the vast left-wing conspiracy that never was."

we haven't read it ourselves, but we are a big fan of eric's msnbc column, and are sure his book will be as entertaining and enlightening as his pull-no-punches blogging.

never let it be said we are not open to all views

we are quite unsure why we received the following email, but we share it with you:

"fear, false accusations, and slanted polling data have always seemed to work for minnesota's left - but not this november. institute chairman bruce sanborn writes on the local victory. we invite you to link to the piece at: http://www.claremont.org/writings/021112sanborn.html. please let us know if you do. --kevin"

well, we took a look at mr. sanborn's piece. we were in the middle of writing a query letter to kevin - wondering if kevin has even bothered to ever read our blog. we then decided to go ahead and post the link, and share our thoughts about mr. sanborn's writing with everyone.

in the beginning of his essay, mr. sanborn writes,

"woebegone in minnesota? in their one and only debate, on the day before tuesday's election, walter mondale addressed norm coleman as 'norman.' that didn't work. on the next day the voters made norm senator-elect coleman."

we wonder exactly how calling mr. coleman "norman" was supposed to "work." mr. sanborn implies that it was some sort of dirty democratic trick to fool the minnesotan voters, but we can't think how. either it was supposed to make people hate mr. coleman for having a name resembling that of the serial-killer proprietor of the bates motel, or just confuse everyone at the polls ("hey, i can't vote for this guy 'norm coleman!' i want to vote for norman coleman! damn! i guess i'll have to vote for mondale!")

mr. sanborn implies that mr. mondale's incorrect salutation "didn't work," as if it was a "lie, false accusation, and false polling data" that was mentioned in the subheading of the link. yet he failed to address the myriad of conservative pundits on television in the days before the election implying that walter mondale was too old to do the job. we'd call it a wash, ourselves.

if you would like to read the rest of our deconstruction of mr. sanborn's essay, please go to our sister blog, skippy junior.

willing to relocate?

how sure is the bush administration of a successful invasion of iraq? check out this letter to the editor of the raleigh, n.c. news & observer, directing our attention to a classified for a halliburton subsidiary looking to hire for various positions soon to opening in...central asia. (do we get travel expenses?)

thanks to dr. menlo's for providing the link!

more on veterans

we posted our veterans day piece on the wonderful co-op blog stand down ("where the left and right come together to make the exact center!") and we were pleased to find in the comments section, a link to this great page veterans for peace. their mission statement:

"veterans for peace, inc. (vfp) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational and humanitarian organization dedicated to the abolishment of war. vfp was founded in 1985 by ex-service members committed to sharing the horrors they experienced."

it's a fine page, please check it out. and we want to say thanks and a big tip of the bush kangaroo hat to natasha of the watch, which itself is a good blog.

no war this week

in a move devastating to mr. bush's chance to get some crude oil for his friends in the petroleum industry, saddam hussein said yes to the u.n. resolution demanding unconditional weapons inspections in iraq.

"we hereby inform you that we will deal with resolution 1441, despite its bad contents," said a letter from foreign minister naji sabri to u.n. secretary-general kofi annan.

we have had lunches with bad contents and know how difficult it is to digest. however, this pretty much puts any invasion plans on hold, at least for a week. iraq's compliance, combined with the recent tape indicating osama bin laden is still alive, would create active debate as to the advisability of focusing military might on an iraq invasion, if the media were actually objective, and we weren't living in bizarro world ("bin laden am still alive! then we am going after hussein!").

here's a nifty little piece of interactive cool stuff from cbsnews, showing things like the dates of inspections, world opinions, layout of our troops in the gulf, a who's who of hawks in dc, and an advertisement for the cbs early show.

however, as this little article from cnn shows, it's only a matter of waiting till saddam does something bush doesn't like:

white house spokesman scott mcclellan said that the bush administration had not seen the letter -- but warned that if it contained "any false information or omissions, that would be considered a violation," of the resolution.

does that include spelling errors? saddam, there's no i-t after b-u-s-h!

carnival!

as usual, this week we are proud to be a part of silflay hraka's fine compendium of links to fine blogging, the carnival of the vanities! you can find it on silflay's blog, or also on the excellent blogcritics, on which we are overdue with an essay, we promise to write soon, eric, no really, we do!

what have we been saying...

mike finley has an interesting suggestion on is blog...impeach bush! and, he actually makes a case, point by point, about the reasons behind his call.

like the west nile virus, it's catching on...

props to madeleine kane for being the first to coin the phrase progblogtopia (which promises to spread across america like wildfire, if we're any judge of idioms, and since the root word of idiom is idiot, we're right at home here)! and also thanks to her for kindly and rightfully giving us credit for "blogtopia!" madeleine uses the phrase to talk about martin wisse's new blog progressive gold. plus, she is up to her usual high standards of hilarity combined with political estuteness.

read this stuff

radley balko on the disengenuous right not addressing the real chickenhawk argument.

william wilkinson on lack of freedom of expression under bin laden and his ilk.

toby sackton on the future of civil disobedience as effected by the war on iraq.

jeanne d'arc on the minor complications (kurds v. assyrians) that occupying iraq could entail.

nathan newman on the media's spin on the watered-down u.n. resolution.

oh wait! all these fine essays are available on max and julian's great co-op blog, stand down! 20 original hits! 20 original artists! order today!

saddam is public enemy #1...wait, what'd you say? osama who?

experts in tabloid journalism agree that the voice on a new tape aired tuesday on al-jazeera tv sounds like osama bin laden, giving credence to the idea that he's either still alive or one hell of a paranormal ventroliquist.

"to authenticate the tape, u.s. intelligence officials are comparing it to known recordings of bin laden to determine if the voiceprints match. the u.s. official did not know when the technical analysis on the tape would be finished." maybe they should give it to the csi team.

if he's still alive, it puts a bit of a crimp in the idea that saddam hussein is the most dangerous madman loose in the world today. but we suppose that going to war over the second most dangerous madman in the world is still on the table.

indications that the voice on the tape really is osama bin laden are references to several recent events including the bali attack, the chechen hostage drama in moscow, the bombing of a french oil tanker off yemen and extreme regret that justin guarini didn't win american idol.

ok, we're kidding about that last part (nobody wanted justin to win) but there are enough recent events mentioned on the tape, plus the voice itself which sounds suspiciously like bin laden, to make several people conclude that he's still alive.

abcnews.com says, "confirmation that bin laden is alive could pose problems for bush, underscoring to an anxious public that the war on terrorism is far from over. as the president tries to rally the country against iraq, americans would be reminded that the public enemy no. 1 slipped from america's grasp during the afghanistan war."

come on, didn't bin laden hear about the election? the world loves mr. bush!

congratulations!

you are the 30,000th visitor to skippy!

is that what the kids are calling it these days?

from the washpost: bush salutes veterans and rattles his sabre.

somebody's got to, we hear laura hasn't touched it since the twins were born. goodnight everyone, try the veal!

a moment for those fallen in battle

today is armistice day, better known as veterans' day, originally designed to honor those brave soldiers fallen on the battlefields of world war one, now expanded to include honoring all american soldiers from all times.

readers of this space know skippy comes from a military family; his father, his aunt and uncle, his sister, and the men who married both his sisters have served in the armed forces. his father, a pharmacists' mate on the sub in the pacific throughout the war, was on one the subs in tokyo bay when the surrender was signed on the uss missouri. we at skippy honor him, and miss him greatly.

we have often maintained that the military is not the problem; it's the politicians who make the wars. the military are the ones that clean up the mess the politicians make.

please take a moment to think of those who had died fighting for this country. take a moment to think of those who, unless a miracle of miracle happens, will die on the sands of iraq at politician's behest.

now, in honor of armistice day, we bring you some views on invading iraq by the men and women who have actually servced in our armed forces:


at navy school in monterey, voices of skepticism about iraq war

when former secretary of the navy james webb gave a speech last thursday at the naval postgraduate school in monterey slamming the bush administration's threatened war with iraq, an outsider might have expected the officers assembled there to give him a frosty reception. in fact, the opposite occurred. the respectful, admiring welcome he received gave an unusual, somewhat counterintuitive glimpse into the often- closed world of the u.s. military. among the vaval postgraduate school's students and faculty, at least, it seems that independent, critical thinking is alive and well.


marine general speaks out against bush's war plans

i'm not convinced we need to do this now. i am convinced that we need to deal with saddam down the road, but i think that the time is difficult because of the conditions in the region and all the other events that are going on. i believe that he can be deterred and is containable at this moment. as a matter of fact, i think the containment can be ratcheted up in a way that is acceptable to everybody.


veterans comment on actions against iraq

you have to avoid war as much as possible because war is hell no matter how you look at it. there's no winner...i hate to see young people go to war...their lives get ruined, the lives of their families get ruined.


vets differ on war against iraqveterans comment on action against iraq

we either get him disarmed or we get rid of him, one of the two...i know what it can do to mankind, and it isn't a pretty sight...i'm not for war, but if that's what it takes...a lot of families will be broken up. a lot of children will be left fatherless and motherless. i hope it doesn't come to war...


and now go over to max sawicky's group blog stand down and read a post by lisa english (she of ruminate this!) which takes you to this article in intervention magazine: veterans gather to stop a foreign war by veteran stewart nusbaumer.

while you're at stand down, check out this post and this post and this post, too.

we salute the brave men and women of our country’s armed forces. god speed to you all in any and endeavors you undertake in our name.

who'd a thunk?

wow, here's a surprise...

iraqi oil, american bonanza?:

but iraq’s vast oil reserves remain a powerful prize for global oil companies. iraq is sitting on an estimated 112 billion barrels of crude, a pool of oil second in size only to saudi arabia’s 264 billion barrels. (by way of comparison, proven u.s. reserves total about 22 billion barrels; the u.s. strategic petroleum reserve holds about 600 million barrels.)

...“if you turn up and it’s your tanks that dislodged the regime and you have 50,000 troops in the country and they’re in your tanks, then you’re going to get the best deals,” said credit suisse first boston oil analyst mark flannery. “that’s the way it works. the french will have three men and a 1950s tank. [ed. note: wasn't that a great movie? we especially liked the remake with tom selleck, where they changed the tank to a baby] that's just not going to work.”

... american oil companies are also hoping to benefit from the industry’s unusually strong ties to the white house. president bush, himself the former head of a texas oil company, has pursued an national energy policy that relies on aggressively expanding new sources of oil. vice president dick cheney is the former ceo of oil services giant halliburton. national security adviser condoleezza rice is a former director of chevron.

wait a minute...you don't think that's the real reason the current administration is so hot to invade iraq? naaahhhh, couldn't be...

say hello

to highwater (found through ruminate this! comment section, who, by the way, will be celebrating a birthday later this week [lisa english, not the comment section]).

evil twins abound!

man, look at all the skippy's out there!

here's skippy and dave, a ventroliquist act!

here's skippy's koi pond page!

and gee, i don't even know what language this skippy is speaking!

more from senator boxer

the senator from california just keeps sending those emails. here's her latest (and very aprorpos for today)

"as we pause to celebrate veterans day, we remember the tremendous sacrifices america's veterans made to defend the freedom and democracy of our nation. and we reflect on their exceptional courage. the turbulent events over the past year give us more reason than ever to appreciate the everyday heroism of our nation's veterans."

if you'd like to read all of senator boxer's tribute to our nation's veterans, please go to our sister blog, skippy junior.

my wife says i need more electrolites anyway

we at skippy are quite humbled and pleased to be added to electrolite's blogroll. electrolite, as penned by patrick nielsen hayden, is one of the grandaddies of blog-lore, and we hope we can maintain the high standards patrick seems to have mistakenly assumed we possess (we also are happy to add that fine blog to our blogroll).

that being said, electrolite takes on the lovely jeanne d'arc of body and soul over some commentary by the latter about the joint chiefs' perceptions of the war in afghanistan. we think the whole misconception was due to the fact that irony does not travel well in cyberspace. we like both jeanne and patrick's work.

and while we're at it, we're adding teresa nielsen hayden's blog, making light, to our roll, too!

nice trees you got here

the great blog seeing the forest has a couple of good posts to look into today. firstly issue guy sends us to counterspin central's thought that the dem's first order of the day should be a call for an independent investigation into 9/11 (are you listening, ms. pelosi?).

then issue guy has some extensive musings on the left and how it needs to communicate with america, likening the situation to the repubs in the early 90's. issue guy does not think the dems need to move to the right, but rather focus on getting their message out. we'd agree with him: it's always better to communicate your convictions and see if anyone responds before you abandon them.

don't be makin' any plans, 'lessen they include war

according to both the new york times and the washington post, the pentagon has readied plans for a quick and massive strike on iraq just in case the weapons inspections don't work out, wink wink nudge nudge know what i mean?

the plans call for use of both air strikes and ground troops (and also by sea, because of all those ocean ports that iraq has), and are estimating an action shorter than the original gulf war in the 90's.

washpost:

the dual nature of the u.s. war plan is designed to encourage iraqis to revolt against hussein. as an administration official put it in a recent interview, the plan aims to "create the conditions" under which iraqis can do that. "i think ultimately this is more of a revolution that's going to happen, rather than something brought about by u.s. military power," he said.

nytimes:

the military plan calls for the quick capture of land within iraq, which would be used as bases to funnel american forces deeper into the country. that approach is intended to relieve some of the diplomatic pressure created by massing troops and initiating attacks from neighboring nations, including saudi arabia.

the plan calls for the use of between 200,000 and 250,000 american serivce personnel. we hope that at least that many come back after it's over.

this post can also be found on stand down.

sorry boys and girls

two more hot celebs are now 100% out of your reach, as jennifer lopez announces her engagement to ben affleck. this will take them out of circulation for at least 3 months, or the usual time-span of a hollywood marriage.

according to sources, j-lo was inconsolable when she realized the one she got engaged to wasn't matt damon, but the other, goofier guy.

ben affleck, who has starred in such hollywood blockbusters as daddy and them and mallrats, was estactic. when reached for comment, a spokesman for the actor flapped his wings and quacked "aflac!"

call him the cujo of economists

in economic news, stephen king calls for the european central bank to cut rates, following the u.s.'s lead.

in related news, clive barker warns of growing deficits and dean koontz claims inflation was hedged thanks to productivity growth.

howard appealing

we'd just like to give a plug to attorney howard bashman's fine law blog how appealing which specializes in matters of the appellate courts. one of the great things about this country that still remain, although we can't vouchesafe for how long, is that the justice system has a series of appeals available. and one of the great things about howard's blog is that he links to our baby site, skippy junior, as well as this one! score one for howard!

game, set, match

here is pandagon's response to instapundits accusations of racism/homophobia/antisemitism on the part of the left: "all three of these accusations can be quickly dismissed with the barest minimum of logic and observance, such as that you would think a person straddling the divide between left and right would engage in."

we do wonder about glenn's statement "but the evidence just keeps piling up" in light of his not providing any (evidence, not piles). is this another example of "take our word for it, we don't need to show you proof" that the current administration is so fond of?

we didn't know women were a minority

california representative nancy pelosi has all but locked up the job of house minority leader.

her main competition to the job, martin frost, dropped out of the running and endorsed ms. pelosi on friday. this leaves only harold ford as her only challenger, but most feel that pelosi has secured enough votes for victory.

ms. pelosi will replace dick gephardt, who, since our mother told us if we can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, we will say nothing about.

asked for a comment, the republicans said, "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. losers."

apparently there are no republicans in italy

over 450,000 people marched in florence italy this weekend as a protest of impending war in iraq and globalization in general.

the protests were peaceful, unlike those against the g8 last year.

"police in florence said about 450,000 peop