Tuesday, July 31, 2007
skippy's tuesday nite music club
this one's for our buddy nicole belle at c&l:
duke ellington & his orchestra - take the a train
duke ellington & his orchestra - take the a train
Labels: skippy's music club
we hates meeses to pieces
but the freeway blogger explains how ed meese changed his life.
Labels: freeway blogger
earth to nancy
the nation reports:
if you aren't part of the solution then you are part of the problem. contact speaker pelosi and let her know she needs to listen to the people. and give up her fantasy of rational problem solving with cheney in charge.
"the question of impeachment is something that would divide the country," pelosi said this morning during a wide-ranging discussion in the ornate Speaker's office. her top priorities are ending the war in iraq, expanding health care, creating jobs and preserving the environment. "i know what our success can be on those issues."right, nancy, you did so well at imposing a time table on awol. dear nancy, you will never get anything meaningful passed while that monkey is in office ready to veto bills that would help america. stop sniffing the patchouli and come down on the side of law and justice and impeach the bush junta.
if you aren't part of the solution then you are part of the problem. contact speaker pelosi and let her know she needs to listen to the people. and give up her fantasy of rational problem solving with cheney in charge.
Labels: action alert, bipartisanship, impeach, lawlessness, pelosi
happy blogiversary...to all of blogtopia!
mediachannel sez that the 'blogosphere' (dont' they know it's 'blogtopia,' and don't they know who coined that phrase?) is 10 years old this month!
and, they say, it benefits, rather than annoys or substitutes for, mainstream journalism:
(thanks and a tip of the kangaroo tail to caro of makethemaccountable.com for the link!)
and, they say, it benefits, rather than annoys or substitutes for, mainstream journalism:
blogging is not a substitute for journalism. if anything, this past decade shows that blogging and journalism are symbiotic – to the benefit of everyone.
to its many ardent advocates, blogging is displacing traditional journalism. but journalism – unlike blogging – is a practice with a particular set of norms and structures that guide the creation of content. blogging, despite its unique properties (virtually anyone can reach a potentially enormous audience at little cost), has few, if any norms.
consider another, more established medium. books enable various practices, such as fiction, poetry, science and sometimes journalism, to be disseminated. do books pose a threat to journalism? of course not. they do the opposite. journalistic books, like blogs, increase interest in the subjects they tackle and so promote further media consumption.
the same market forces that apply to books and newspapers apply to blogs.
readers will judge and elect to read based on the same standard: does it inform, is it well researched and does it add value?
blogging is not a substitute for journalism. if anything, this past decade shows that blogging and journalism are symbiotic – to the benefit of everyone.
to its many ardent advocates, blogging is displacing traditional journalism. but journalism – unlike blogging – is a practice with a particular set of norms and structures that guide the creation of content. blogging, despite its unique properties (virtually anyone can reach a potentially enormous audience at little cost), has few, if any norms.
consider another, more established medium. books enable various practices, such as fiction, poetry, science and sometimes journalism, to be disseminated. do books pose a threat to journalism? of course not. they do the opposite. journalistic books, like blogs, increase interest in the subjects they tackle and so promote further media consumption.
the same market forces that apply to books and newspapers apply to blogs.
readers will judge and elect to read based on the same standard: does it inform, is it well researched and does it add value?
and who coined the phrase, 'blogtopia'?to its many ardent advocates, blogging is displacing traditional journalism. but journalism – unlike blogging – is a practice with a particular set of norms and structures that guide the creation of content. blogging, despite its unique properties (virtually anyone can reach a potentially enormous audience at little cost), has few, if any norms.
consider another, more established medium. books enable various practices, such as fiction, poetry, science and sometimes journalism, to be disseminated. do books pose a threat to journalism? of course not. they do the opposite. journalistic books, like blogs, increase interest in the subjects they tackle and so promote further media consumption.
the same market forces that apply to books and newspapers apply to blogs.
readers will judge and elect to read based on the same standard: does it inform, is it well researched and does it add value?
blogging is not a substitute for journalism. if anything, this past decade shows that blogging and journalism are symbiotic – to the benefit of everyone.
to its many ardent advocates, blogging is displacing traditional journalism. but journalism – unlike blogging – is a practice with a particular set of norms and structures that guide the creation of content. blogging, despite its unique properties (virtually anyone can reach a potentially enormous audience at little cost), has few, if any norms.
consider another, more established medium. books enable various practices, such as fiction, poetry, science and sometimes journalism, to be disseminated. do books pose a threat to journalism? of course not. they do the opposite. journalistic books, like blogs, increase interest in the subjects they tackle and so promote further media consumption.
the same market forces that apply to books and newspapers apply to blogs.
readers will judge and elect to read based on the same standard: does it inform, is it well researched and does it add value?
(thanks and a tip of the kangaroo tail to caro of makethemaccountable.com for the link!)
Labels: blogtopia, multi-millionaire media
patterico's sense of humor suffers benign seizure
patterico's sense of humor (along with his sense of political agenda) suffered a benign seizure yesterday when wonkette wrote a joke about chief justice john roberts.
patterico, in his dazed state, insisted not only that wonkette's piece was an example of hate speech, but also that wonkette herself was a lefty.
hopefully he will have a full recovery.
patterico, in his dazed state, insisted not only that wonkette's piece was an example of hate speech, but also that wonkette herself was a lefty.
hopefully he will have a full recovery.
Monday, July 30, 2007
moving day
nico pitney, one of the originators of think progress, is leaving that blog and moving to huffington post. the think progress gang is understandably upset. because, after all, it's such a drastic change.
that means that now people will have to type in "huffingtonpost.com" instead of "thinkprogress.org" to read nico's stuff.
oh, the ignominity of change! the unfairity of it all!
all snarkiness aside, we wish nico good luck in his new...uh, different set of key strokes that he'll have to type in the address bar.
that means that now people will have to type in "huffingtonpost.com" instead of "thinkprogress.org" to read nico's stuff.
oh, the ignominity of change! the unfairity of it all!
all snarkiness aside, we wish nico good luck in his new...uh, different set of key strokes that he'll have to type in the address bar.
Labels: blogtopia
down the penrose lane
happy 30th anniversary
john and elizabeth!
Labels: anniversary, edwards, elizabeth edwards
say hello
to green left infoasis.
Labels: say hello
these kids today with their rock and their roll...
james, over at the left end of the dial v2.0, reports that in today's workplace, strangely enough, the older generation thinks the younger generation are slackers:
but i digress. the perception of one's own generation as innately superior has always struck me as funny.but it is, of course, only natural. if the younger generation is wrong, then there's an outside chance that we ourselves won't die. right? because if youth is wrong, then our age (whatever age that is) must be the god-send.
all we know is that in our day, we had to take lsd to find god, none of this cutting business:
gen y in the workplace: braless, belly rings, looking for fun and to make an impact
it’s a culture clash all right, the expectations of the elderly are often fiercely add odds with the expectations of the younger: the gen y-types “… have an attitude toward work that looks like laziness and looks like impatience,” … “but they don’t understand that’s how it looks.”
i remember the good old days when it was us gen-x-ers in the hot seat. we were "lazy", "slackers", too "self absorbed" ad nauseum. i did some secretarial work in an office filled with boomers at my university back in the late 1980s, and i'm sure that there were a number of them that saw me showing up to work in all-black (and during the "winter" in socal adding on that leather jacket) questioned my supervisor's choice to hire me. i did what i was asked of me, was pleasant when anyone dared to speak to me, and overall it ended up being a good experience. i once asked my supervisor why she hired me, and she said that i was as competent as any of the other students she considered, but more importantly to her i was sufficiently different to add variety to the place.managers tell stories of summer associates who come to meetings with midriffs exposed, baring a belly ring; of interns who walk through the halls engaged with ipods; of new hires who explain they need fridays off because their boyfriends get fridays off and they have a share in a beach house. then there is the tale of the summer hire who sent a text message to a senior partner asking “are bras required as part of the dress code?”
ah yes, the clash of generations, and there are more of them in the workplace than every before. as this new york times article when whippersnappers and geezers collide points out “his is the first time in history that four generations — those who lived through world war ii, baby boomers, generation x and generation y — are together in the workplace.”it’s a culture clash all right, the expectations of the elderly are often fiercely add odds with the expectations of the younger: the gen y-types “… have an attitude toward work that looks like laziness and looks like impatience,” … “but they don’t understand that’s how it looks.”
surveys over the last few years have found that this group is looking for work that includes a “flexible work schedule” (92 percent, according to a harris interactive poll), “requires creativity” (96 percent) and “allows me to have an impact on the world” (97 percent). and when the polling firm roper starch worldwide did a survey comparing workplace attitudes among generations, 90 percent of gen yers said they wanted co-workers “who make work fun.” no other generation polled put that requirement in their top five.
but i digress. the perception of one's own generation as innately superior has always struck me as funny.
all we know is that in our day, we had to take lsd to find god, none of this cutting business:
Labels: corporations, generations
60 candles on the streudel
for the governator
Arnold Schwartzenegger in LegoLand
Originally uploaded by Jim Moore
austrians threw a party for one of their most famous sons, arnold schwarzenegger, celebrating his 60th birthday monday with strudels, schnitzels and a gift — the original street number from the house where he was born. - sfgate
Originally uploaded by Jim Moore
Labels: birthday, governator, lego
happy falafel day
or least falafel "flavored"
"if you cross fox news (sic) channel, it's not just me, it's [fox president] roger ailes who will go after you. i'm the street guy out front making loud noises about the issues, but ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day bam! the person gets what's coming to them but never sees it coming. look at al franken, one day he's going to get a knock on his door and life as he's known it will change forever. that day will happen, trust me." - bill-o
seizure self
in gop seizure news, chief justice roberts was taken to the hospital after a "benign seizure" today. cnn:
in other repubblican seizure news, we are waiting to see what the irs takes from sen. ted stevens' house in alaska. anchorage daily news:
and finally, the hardly-ever-right wing blogs just might have a seizure when they find out that their golden candidate to save the party, fred "fire the lesbians" thompson, raised squat in campaign funds last quarter. politico:
chief justice john roberts suffered a seizure monday, causing him to fall while at his summer home off the coast of maine, the supreme court said.
roberts has "fully recovered from the incident," and a neurological evaluation "revealed no cause for concern," the supreme court said in a statement.
doctors called the incident a "benign idiopathic seizure," similar to one suffered by the chief justice in 1993, the court statement said. an idiopathic seizure is one with no identifiable physiological cause.
at least his seizure was benign, which is more than we can say for his rulings.roberts has "fully recovered from the incident," and a neurological evaluation "revealed no cause for concern," the supreme court said in a statement.
doctors called the incident a "benign idiopathic seizure," similar to one suffered by the chief justice in 1993, the court statement said. an idiopathic seizure is one with no identifiable physiological cause.
in other repubblican seizure news, we are waiting to see what the irs takes from sen. ted stevens' house in alaska. anchorage daily news:
federal law enforcement agents are currently searching the girdwood home of alaska u.s. sen. ted stevens.
"all i can say is that agents from the fbi and irs are currently conducting a search at that residence," said dave heller, the assistant special agent in charge of the fbi's anchorage office. the search began earlier this afternoon, he said. it's the only such search warrant currently being served, he said.
shortly before 3 p.m., a number of federal agents could be seen outside the house, along with a half-dozen government suvs. others were inside. it couldn't immediately be determined what, if anything, was being taken from the house. agents at the house wouldn't answer questions…
federal investigators and grand juries looking into public corruption in alaska have been asking questions about a 2000 remodeling project that more than doubled the size of the girdwood house -- particularly the involvment of the oil field services firm veco. three contractors who worked on the project told the daily news that their records had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, and others connected with the work and with stevens had been interviewed.
one of the contractors who worked on the job said he was hired by veco ceo bill allen for the job, and while his bills were paid by stevens and his wife, catherine, invoices were reviewed first by veco.
allen and a veco vice president pleaded guilty in may to bribery, extortion and other charges connected with paying off state legislators.
two weeks ago, stevens told reporters that money for the remodeling came out of his own pocket.
"as a practical matter, i will tell you. we paid every bill that was given to us," stevens told reporters. "every bill that was sent to us has been paid, personally, with our own money, and that's all there is to it. it's our own money."
of course he says it's his own money. most gop senators believe the us treasury is their bank account."all i can say is that agents from the fbi and irs are currently conducting a search at that residence," said dave heller, the assistant special agent in charge of the fbi's anchorage office. the search began earlier this afternoon, he said. it's the only such search warrant currently being served, he said.
shortly before 3 p.m., a number of federal agents could be seen outside the house, along with a half-dozen government suvs. others were inside. it couldn't immediately be determined what, if anything, was being taken from the house. agents at the house wouldn't answer questions…
federal investigators and grand juries looking into public corruption in alaska have been asking questions about a 2000 remodeling project that more than doubled the size of the girdwood house -- particularly the involvment of the oil field services firm veco. three contractors who worked on the project told the daily news that their records had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, and others connected with the work and with stevens had been interviewed.
one of the contractors who worked on the job said he was hired by veco ceo bill allen for the job, and while his bills were paid by stevens and his wife, catherine, invoices were reviewed first by veco.
allen and a veco vice president pleaded guilty in may to bribery, extortion and other charges connected with paying off state legislators.
two weeks ago, stevens told reporters that money for the remodeling came out of his own pocket.
"as a practical matter, i will tell you. we paid every bill that was given to us," stevens told reporters. "every bill that was sent to us has been paid, personally, with our own money, and that's all there is to it. it's our own money."
and finally, the hardly-ever-right wing blogs just might have a seizure when they find out that their golden candidate to save the party, fred "fire the lesbians" thompson, raised squat in campaign funds last quarter. politico:
fred thompson plans to announce tuesday that his committee to test the waters for a republican presidential campaign raised slightly more than $3 million in june, substantially less than some backers had hoped, according to republican sources…
many republicans had seen the “law & order” actor and former u.s. senator from tennessee as a potential savior in a tough election cycle…
but many republicans have turned queasy as thompson has ousted part of his original brain trust and repeatedly delayed his official announcement, which is now planned for shortly after labor day, in the first two weeks of september.
some are already saying a prospective thompson run is a flop.
altho it can't possibly be as big a flop as law & order: trial by jury.many republicans had seen the “law & order” actor and former u.s. senator from tennessee as a potential savior in a tough election cycle…
but many republicans have turned queasy as thompson has ousted part of his original brain trust and repeatedly delayed his official announcement, which is now planned for shortly after labor day, in the first two weeks of september.
some are already saying a prospective thompson run is a flop.
Labels: corruption, fred thompson, gop, healthcare, judicial, prez campaign, right hypocrisy
skippy's monday nite music club
birgit nordin - der holle rache (queen of the night aria) from mozart's die zauberflaute
in honor of ingmar bergman's passing, we offer up this clip from his filmatic rendition of the magic flute, or trollflojten, as it's called in swedish. granted, it was a departure for the director, but still an interesting interpretation of mozart's grand opera.
Labels: skippy's music club
high and lohan
our buddy eric schwartz, aka smooth-e the jamba jew, raps about lindsay lohan's recent arrest.
Labels: judicial, music, pop culture
mad about chinese panda-dung souvenirs
the big scoreboard in the sky
and bill walsh will always be winning up there.bill walsh, the imaginative and charismatic coach who took over a downtrodden 49ers team and built one of the greatest franchises in nfl history, died monday morning at the age of 75 after a long struggle with leukemia. - sfgategod speed bill.
Labels: football, passings, san francisco
pravda on the hudson
as greenwald has demonstrated today, on iraq (and most questions of domestic politics), other than klugman, what is left of the nyt opinion page worth reading for purposes other than rolling on the floor, gasping for breath and pouring tears and laughing one’s posterior off at the sheer brilliance of its satirical characterizations of people who actually have a clue? maybe that's why so many in blogtopia cheerfully pay the premium for timeselect. for the reliable opportunity to laugh in a dark and dangerous world.
ingmar bergman loses his existential chess match
the world has lost one of its premier film makers. oscar winner ingmar bergman died today at age 89. newsday:
films (and plays) have since been influenced by bergman, from wes craven's last house on the left thru bill and ted's bogus journey thru paul mazursky's scenes from a mall thru stephen sondheim's a little night music to much of woody allen's works, which not only parodied many of bergman's metaphors and scenes, but also delved into the same ocean of angst about the paradox of human existence as the swede (tho allen did it with laughs, he was just as serious, if not as deep).
what's on stage.com has a good biography of bergman's early years in swedish and european theater. a great summary of his films can be found here at the uk guardian. the guardian also interviewed allen, liv ullman (bergman's onscreen muse and mother of his child linn ullman), and other film makers about the great director for this piece from 2005.
and tonite's music club (tho we hope we aren't setting a precedent with a second installment of music for the dead) will feature a clip from bergman's film rendition of mozart's the magic flute.
addendum: also gone: tom snyder, dan akroyd's best impersonation.
it is one of the most famous images in the history of cinema: a crusader knight plays chess with a hooded figure of death.
the creator of that image, ingmar bergman, took his turn at the chessboard earlier today. the swedish director died at his home on sweden's eastern isle of faaroe, at 89.
the film that made that cloaked figure a world-reknowned icon for film lovers and auteurs alike, "the seventh seal," was emblematic of a director who wrestled with the most fundamental issues of living and dying. in brooding, haunted films such as "wild strawberries," "cries and whispers," and "persona," bergman burrowed deep into the heart of existential darkness, as his characters struggled with their life's choices, crossed swords with marital partners, reckoned with impending death and questioned the existence of god.
if he only created that one image, bergman would go down in film history as a giant. but his entire oeuvre was one of the deepest and most profound examination of the basic themes that haunt human existence.the creator of that image, ingmar bergman, took his turn at the chessboard earlier today. the swedish director died at his home on sweden's eastern isle of faaroe, at 89.
the film that made that cloaked figure a world-reknowned icon for film lovers and auteurs alike, "the seventh seal," was emblematic of a director who wrestled with the most fundamental issues of living and dying. in brooding, haunted films such as "wild strawberries," "cries and whispers," and "persona," bergman burrowed deep into the heart of existential darkness, as his characters struggled with their life's choices, crossed swords with marital partners, reckoned with impending death and questioned the existence of god.
films (and plays) have since been influenced by bergman, from wes craven's last house on the left thru bill and ted's bogus journey thru paul mazursky's scenes from a mall thru stephen sondheim's a little night music to much of woody allen's works, which not only parodied many of bergman's metaphors and scenes, but also delved into the same ocean of angst about the paradox of human existence as the swede (tho allen did it with laughs, he was just as serious, if not as deep).
what's on stage.com has a good biography of bergman's early years in swedish and european theater. a great summary of his films can be found here at the uk guardian. the guardian also interviewed allen, liv ullman (bergman's onscreen muse and mother of his child linn ullman), and other film makers about the great director for this piece from 2005.
and tonite's music club (tho we hope we aren't setting a precedent with a second installment of music for the dead) will feature a clip from bergman's film rendition of mozart's the magic flute.
addendum: also gone: tom snyder, dan akroyd's best impersonation.
most ominous lede ever?
global warming, schmobal warming
do global warming deniers ever consider the possibility that the consequences, if they’re wrong, could be rather unpleasant? of course the question assumes that they're capable of consideration
deadly deluge cuts bangladesh in half
sirajgang, bangladesh — with floodwater pouring in through their windows, thousands of people affected by south asia's deadly deluge are being forced to share the limited high ground with venomous snakes, surrounded by filthy water.
do global warming deniers ever consider the possibility that the consequences, if they’re wrong, could be rather unpleasant? of course the question assumes that they're capable of consideration
so many gay, unionized, asthmatic, existentialist jihadis?
who knew?
what about the hegalian jihadis? and don't get me started on the phenomenologists. or do you think they might want this info for some other reason than the global war on terra?
we can tell our grandchildren that we were there when democracy died in america. the question is, what will we say to them when they ask what we did about it?
travelers face greater use of personal data
the united states and the european union have agreed to expand a security program that shares personal data about millions of u.s.-bound airline passengers a year, potentially including information about a person's race, ethnicity, religion and health. [...]
according to the deal, the information that can be used in such exceptional circumstances includes "racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership" and data about an individual's health, traveling partners and sexual orientation. (emphasis supplied).
what about the hegalian jihadis? and don't get me started on the phenomenologists. or do you think they might want this info for some other reason than the global war on terra?
we can tell our grandchildren that we were there when democracy died in america. the question is, what will we say to them when they ask what we did about it?
a pinch for you, a pound for me –
we all even right?
perhaps mr. edwards should suggest that congress will deserve a pay raise when all americans enjoy the same health care benefits that members of congress do.
congress eyes pay raise for itself
washington — after raising the minimum wage by 70 cents an hour this week, many members of congress are ready to give themselves a pay increase of roughly $4,400 per year.
that would take their annual salaries to nearly $170,000.
perhaps mr. edwards should suggest that congress will deserve a pay raise when all americans enjoy the same health care benefits that members of congress do.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
"pop"
goes the housing bubble in the inland (former) empire.
mortgage default notices in the inland region have almost tripled since last year. home foreclosures have increased almost eightfold. and home sales last month were the worst in a decade.
real-estate experts and economists say today's housing woes might be just the beginning of trouble.
in the past six months, almost 22,000 inland homeowners received notices of default, the first step a lender takes to foreclose on a property. during those same months, 6,367 homes were taken through foreclosure.
christopher l. cagan, director of research and analytics for santa ana-based first american corelogic, said he expects at least another 60,000 foreclosures in the inland region in the next four to six years. - p.e.
Labels: california, foreclosure, housing bubble
"nobody doesn't like...sara lee"
except of course, when there's metal in their food products.
sara lee corp. is recalling 13 brands of whole wheat bread products because they could contain small metal pieces, the company said friday.no happy happy joy joy in that news.a recent routine inspection of a bakery in meridian, miss., uncovered problems with a flour-sifting screen, said company spokesman mark goldman. - ap
Labels: food, food safety, recalls
you can't spell "giantic techno-phobes" without "g-o-p"
via a comment at swampland concerning the repubbb's fear of cats on pianos and other youtube videos, we took a look at some of the actual questions that have been submitted to youtube for the upcoming postposed repubbblican debate.
granted, we viewed but a handful of the questions submitted. and it's possible that we randomly picked the only logical, thoughtful and adult questions out of a batch of otherwise looney-toon videos.
sure, there was the odd ball that made the dem's snowman look like william f. buckley, jr. (we love this guy).
but the majority of the ones we saw posed many excellent questions that any candidate, dem or repubbb, should not only be able to answer, but also should be ready and willing to answer (even tho most repubbbs would run like a chickenhawk from this one).
thusly the repubbbs' penchant for avoiding the youtube format, in light of the outstanding questions already posted, makes the gop look like the insular ancient technophobe party out of touch with real americans more than ever.
and we thought romney was a mormon, not a amish.
"tie the dog to the top of the buggy, mitt!"
granted, we viewed but a handful of the questions submitted. and it's possible that we randomly picked the only logical, thoughtful and adult questions out of a batch of otherwise looney-toon videos.
sure, there was the odd ball that made the dem's snowman look like william f. buckley, jr. (we love this guy).
but the majority of the ones we saw posed many excellent questions that any candidate, dem or repubbb, should not only be able to answer, but also should be ready and willing to answer (even tho most repubbbs would run like a chickenhawk from this one).
thusly the repubbbs' penchant for avoiding the youtube format, in light of the outstanding questions already posted, makes the gop look like the insular ancient technophobe party out of touch with real americans more than ever.
and we thought romney was a mormon, not a amish.
"tie the dog to the top of the buggy, mitt!"
Labels: debates, gop, prez campaign, technology
and aren't university linguists writing newspaper articles mostly stupid?
via jason steck at the moderate voice, we find that mary bucholtz of the university of california santa barbara posits the premise that nerds are white:
what is a nerd? mary bucholtz, a linguist at the university of california, santa barbara, has been working on the question for the last 12 years. she has gone to high schools and colleges, mainly in california, and asked students from different crowds to think about the idea of nerdiness and who among their peers should be considered a nerd; students have also “reported” themselves. nerdiness, she has concluded, is largely a matter of racially tinged behavior. people who are considered nerds tend to act in ways that are, as she puts it, “hyperwhite.”
…in a 2001 paper, “the whiteness of nerds: superstandard english and racial markedness,” and other works, including a book in progress, bucholtz notes that the “hegemonic” “cool white” kids use a limited amount of african-american vernacular english; they may say “blood” in lieu of “friend,” or drop the “g” in “playing.” but the nerds she has interviewed, mostly white kids, punctiliously adhere to standard english.
while we could point out the logical fallacy that even tho the nerds ms. bucholtz interviewed were "mostly white kids," that doesn't necessarily mean that most nerds are actually mostly white, we instead present, as our rebuttal to her argument, exhibit a:…in a 2001 paper, “the whiteness of nerds: superstandard english and racial markedness,” and other works, including a book in progress, bucholtz notes that the “hegemonic” “cool white” kids use a limited amount of african-american vernacular english; they may say “blood” in lieu of “friend,” or drop the “g” in “playing.” but the nerds she has interviewed, mostly white kids, punctiliously adhere to standard english.
Labels: multi-millionaire media, racism
blog posts we never continued reading
captains quarters:
the only debate it has spawned in blogtopia (and yes, we coined that phrase) is whether the repubbbs, by refusing to take questions from american citizens in a debate, are shooting themselves in just one or both feet.
the republican reluctance to engage in the scheduled september youtube debate has created a fierce debate in the blogosphere...
pardon us while we pick ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard...the only debate it has spawned in blogtopia (and yes, we coined that phrase) is whether the repubbbs, by refusing to take questions from american citizens in a debate, are shooting themselves in just one or both feet.
Labels: blogtopia, debates, gop, prez campaign
quote of the day
howie klein at down with tyranny on the dlc:
harold ford and al from and their media hacks can squawk all they want that the dlc is a "centrist" or "moderate" group, but the facts are the facts. the dlc is the extreme right of the democratic party. they are pro-war, pro-corporation and wrong on every important issue of the last decade.
(thanks and a tip of the kangaroo tail to natasha at pacific views, a great blog that doesn't get the credit it deserves).Labels: democrats
skippy's sunday nite music club
skippy the bush kangaroo here with a personal note...today our little pet cockatiel squiggles died after a sudden illness. we had raised her from an egg and she was part of our flock of (originally 8, now 5) cockatiels that we have had for several years. it gives mrs. skippy and i great sadness to know she will not be around tomorrow with her little smile and her finicky ways.
squiggles, mistress of all she surveys
she was a sweet girl, but very willful. unlike the other birds who happily step up on your finger when asked, if she didn't want to move, she wouldn't budge. and she dearly loved to get petted around her ears and on her neck. she would vie for attention when pets were being doled out at the cockatiel cage.
but the funniest thing about little squiggles was how excited she would get when mrs. skippy would prepare human dinner. if something was cooking in the kitchen, squiggles alone of all our birds would run around on the bottom of the cage excitedly, raising her wings up in the air and generally acting like she had just won the lottery. she'd stare at whatever was being prepared until we would relent and give her a bite of what we were eating.
we have had other of our pet birds pass away, and it doesn't get any easier. and even tho we have several left, there is a void right now in the cockatiel cage. her brother lestat, who had kind of a thing for her, is now screaming and singing mating songs continuously. we never let them become a couple, but they were always together and very close, having come from the same clutch of eggs. he can't understand why i left this morning with his sister in her sick cage (to take her to the veterinarian) only to return without her (she died on the front seat of the car en route).
it's a day of mourning at the skippy household...tho she was just a little bird, squiggles held a big place in our hearts. she was a loving and fun little lady, and we will miss her greatly.
in honor of squiggles, tho she herself was grey and not black, tonite's music club presents
paul mccartney - blackbird
rest in peace squiggles.
squiggles, mistress of all she surveys
she was a sweet girl, but very willful. unlike the other birds who happily step up on your finger when asked, if she didn't want to move, she wouldn't budge. and she dearly loved to get petted around her ears and on her neck. she would vie for attention when pets were being doled out at the cockatiel cage.
but the funniest thing about little squiggles was how excited she would get when mrs. skippy would prepare human dinner. if something was cooking in the kitchen, squiggles alone of all our birds would run around on the bottom of the cage excitedly, raising her wings up in the air and generally acting like she had just won the lottery. she'd stare at whatever was being prepared until we would relent and give her a bite of what we were eating.
we have had other of our pet birds pass away, and it doesn't get any easier. and even tho we have several left, there is a void right now in the cockatiel cage. her brother lestat, who had kind of a thing for her, is now screaming and singing mating songs continuously. we never let them become a couple, but they were always together and very close, having come from the same clutch of eggs. he can't understand why i left this morning with his sister in her sick cage (to take her to the veterinarian) only to return without her (she died on the front seat of the car en route).
it's a day of mourning at the skippy household...tho she was just a little bird, squiggles held a big place in our hearts. she was a loving and fun little lady, and we will miss her greatly.
in honor of squiggles, tho she herself was grey and not black, tonite's music club presents
paul mccartney - blackbird
rest in peace squiggles.
Labels: animals, passings, skippy's music club
aWol gone wild
think progress brings us two - count 'em - two stories about how awol has been acting out of control and ranting in private meetings:
addendum: trex at fdl thinks awol's behavior mirrors that of britney spears. personally, we'd suggest lindsay lohan.
friends of his from texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “i am the president!” he also made it clear he was setting iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.”
and...[s]ome big money players up from texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the white house. the story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of the president in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he’s doing things would be ok…etc., etc. this is called a “bunker mentality” and it’s not attractive when a friend does it. when the friend is the president of the united states, it can be downright dangerous. apparently the texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation.
napolean complex, anyone?addendum: trex at fdl thinks awol's behavior mirrors that of britney spears. personally, we'd suggest lindsay lohan.
Labels: aWol, mental illness
down the penrose lane
Labels: penrose
what is your...
walk score?
Labels: environment
and crop circles are made by extraterrestrials, too...
from aol news:
good...
yes, but at least brown had the decency to call his book fictional...
and if you take its photo negative, turn it upside-down, drink a quart of whiskey, and take two hits of acid, you can see where in atlantis noah's ark containing jimmy hoffa's remains is buried. oh, where are my manners? allow me to introduce myself. i'm frosty the snowman. and i'm here to tell you that the earth is not really an oblate spheroid. it's shaped like a pretzel...
a new theory that leonardo's "last supper" might hide within it a depiction of christ blessing the bread and wine has triggered so much interest that web sites connected to the picture have crashed.
good...
the famous fresco is already the focus of mythical speculation after author dan brown based his "the da vinci code" book around the painting, arguing in the novel that jesus married his follower, mary magdalene, and fathered a child.
yes, but at least brown had the decency to call his book fictional...
now slavisa pesci, an information technologist and amateur scholar, says superimposing the "last supper" wih its mirror-image throws up another picture containing a figure who looks like a templar knight and another holding a small baby...
and if you take its photo negative, turn it upside-down, drink a quart of whiskey, and take two hits of acid, you can see where in atlantis noah's ark containing jimmy hoffa's remains is buried. oh, where are my manners? allow me to introduce myself. i'm frosty the snowman. and i'm here to tell you that the earth is not really an oblate spheroid. it's shaped like a pretzel...
saturday in santa barbara
sometimes i get away from the computer and actually go do "stuff"
today, i spent a good portion of the day at the peruvian paso horse show, waking up horses during their naps in the stalls at the earl warren showgrounds.
this guy has a serious case of "hay hair"
today, i spent a good portion of the day at the peruvian paso horse show, waking up horses during their naps in the stalls at the earl warren showgrounds.
this guy has a serious case of "hay hair"
Labels: flickr, horses, santa barbara
Saturday, July 28, 2007
but he also thinks skippy's blog is an auction site for kangaroo skin sneakers
now we know why mitt romney doesn't want to commit to a youtube repubbb debate: he apparently thinks it's myspace, and doesn't want child molesters to ask him questions. chitrib:
thanks and tip of the kangaroo tail to nicole belle at c&l for the link!
republican presidential contender mitt romney traveled along the interstate 35 corridor near the site of next month's straw poll thursday, promoting his call to try to keep pornography away from children.
"i want to enforce our obscenity laws," romney told about 70 people at a campaign-sponsored "ice-cream social" at a park clubhouse in story city, not far from ames, the home of the aug. 11 iowa gop straw poll…
but romney showed some unfamiliarity with the internet when he discussed the problem of sexual predators and children.
"youtube is a website that allows kids to network with one another and make friends and contact each other," romney explained. "youtube looked to see if they had any convicted sex offenders on their web site. they had 29,000."
actually, youtube is the popular site that allows internet users to upload and watch a variety of videos. the web site, which is owned by search-engine behemoth google, also was a co-sponsor of the democratic presidential debate held on monday night.
the web site myspace is the one to which romney actually was referring. myspace, owned by rupert murdoch's news corp., said this week it had found 29,000 registered sex offenders who had submitted profiles to its site and removed them.
the scary thing isn't so much that mitt thinks youtube is myspace. the scary thing is that rupert murdoch owns the site which let sex offenders participate, and the gop doesn't say boo about that."i want to enforce our obscenity laws," romney told about 70 people at a campaign-sponsored "ice-cream social" at a park clubhouse in story city, not far from ames, the home of the aug. 11 iowa gop straw poll…
but romney showed some unfamiliarity with the internet when he discussed the problem of sexual predators and children.
"youtube is a website that allows kids to network with one another and make friends and contact each other," romney explained. "youtube looked to see if they had any convicted sex offenders on their web site. they had 29,000."
actually, youtube is the popular site that allows internet users to upload and watch a variety of videos. the web site, which is owned by search-engine behemoth google, also was a co-sponsor of the democratic presidential debate held on monday night.
the web site myspace is the one to which romney actually was referring. myspace, owned by rupert murdoch's news corp., said this week it had found 29,000 registered sex offenders who had submitted profiles to its site and removed them.
thanks and tip of the kangaroo tail to nicole belle at c&l for the link!
Labels: debates, gop, prez campaign, right hypocrisy, romney, technology
skippy's late nite music club
blogging around
the assimilated press has a list of rules for living in post-democratic america;
rez dog over at mockingbird's medley actually saw the tv news chopper collision in phoenix yesterday;
lindsay over at this modern world finds what might be the reason that sen. mitch mcconnell came out against legislation that would expand state-based health insurance for children by taxing tobacco (could it be the tobacco lobby?);
alternate brain brings us the mastermind behind one of the recent airport homeland security scares (she's a 66 year old lady with a bad back and ice packs);
coeruleus has an alternative for the gop if they don't want a youtube debate: conservatube! (yes, it really exists!);
digby finds out the george w. bush mission accoplished flight suit action figure has a lifelike silicon thingy;
and, as always, bob geiger has the saturday toons!
rez dog over at mockingbird's medley actually saw the tv news chopper collision in phoenix yesterday;
lindsay over at this modern world finds what might be the reason that sen. mitch mcconnell came out against legislation that would expand state-based health insurance for children by taxing tobacco (could it be the tobacco lobby?);
alternate brain brings us the mastermind behind one of the recent airport homeland security scares (she's a 66 year old lady with a bad back and ice packs);
coeruleus has an alternative for the gop if they don't want a youtube debate: conservatube! (yes, it really exists!);
digby finds out the george w. bush mission accoplished flight suit action figure has a lifelike silicon thingy;
and, as always, bob geiger has the saturday toons!
Labels: blogtopia
say hello
to rheality check.org, where the "rh" stands for "reproductive health."
and say hello to buddy's books and bait.
here's buddy:
and say hello to buddy's books and bait.
here's buddy:
Labels: say hello
and now, a little saturday afternoon musical youtubery...
senoras and horsemen, "one for the vine" by genesis.
okay, some splainin' is in order...
genesis is my favorite band. has been for many years, probably will be for the rest of my life. "one for the vine" is one of my favorite genesis tunes. whig of cannablog alerted me to this youtube clip over at my own blog. (bad blogwhore -- very bad blogwhore!) whig is rapidly becoming my go-to dude for musical youtube clips. i held the youtube beast at bay for a year as i watched, in creeping apprehension, this thing take a prominent role in other people's blogs (including that of a certain big roo) and changed these blogs' very nature. finally, i couldn't hold out any longer. i surrendered. there were just too many wonderful clips to choose from. screw it, i'm hooked.
and yes, my political blogging has suffered as a result. i knew this would happen. but the alternative is to blog about politicians who suck. forget it, i'll look at youtube clips for a while.
and the reason i link to this clip rather than embed it? i can't figure out how to embed the durned things. i'm legally computer illiterate -- the mouse, the modem, and the keyboard i've always been able to handle, but everything else i've learned has been on a touch-and-go basis.
one last thing: the clip is almost eleven minutes long. that's enough for three britney spears throwaways. you might want to schedule viewing this one...
[ed. note: we'll happily embed genesis for mimus. genesis is a great band, and we are sorry we haven't featured them on the late nite music club here at skippy yet!]
okay, some splainin' is in order...
genesis is my favorite band. has been for many years, probably will be for the rest of my life. "one for the vine" is one of my favorite genesis tunes. whig of cannablog alerted me to this youtube clip over at my own blog. (bad blogwhore -- very bad blogwhore!) whig is rapidly becoming my go-to dude for musical youtube clips. i held the youtube beast at bay for a year as i watched, in creeping apprehension, this thing take a prominent role in other people's blogs (including that of a certain big roo) and changed these blogs' very nature. finally, i couldn't hold out any longer. i surrendered. there were just too many wonderful clips to choose from. screw it, i'm hooked.
and yes, my political blogging has suffered as a result. i knew this would happen. but the alternative is to blog about politicians who suck. forget it, i'll look at youtube clips for a while.
and the reason i link to this clip rather than embed it? i can't figure out how to embed the durned things. i'm legally computer illiterate -- the mouse, the modem, and the keyboard i've always been able to handle, but everything else i've learned has been on a touch-and-go basis.
one last thing: the clip is almost eleven minutes long. that's enough for three britney spears throwaways. you might want to schedule viewing this one...
[ed. note: we'll happily embed genesis for mimus. genesis is a great band, and we are sorry we haven't featured them on the late nite music club here at skippy yet!]
Labels: music
Friday, July 27, 2007
abu gonzales lied under oath...
what a shock that is. heavens to betsy, where's the fainting couch?
when i think of abu's bad memory under oath, i think of susan mcdougal, who refused to lie about the clintons on behalf of kenneth starr and his band of unmerry f&#k$ to keep herself out of prison. the woman whose attorneys told her, "if you lie now to save yourself, you will lie for the rest of your life." susan mcdougal listened to her attorneys. poor little abu lied to save himself.
maybe i ought to care what sort of punishment is meted out to poor little abu for lying under oath. but i don't. he sold his soul long before awol made him attorney general. he'll be lying for the rest of his life. and i don't care what that does to him, either...
when i think of abu's bad memory under oath, i think of susan mcdougal, who refused to lie about the clintons on behalf of kenneth starr and his band of unmerry f&#k$ to keep herself out of prison. the woman whose attorneys told her, "if you lie now to save yourself, you will lie for the rest of your life." susan mcdougal listened to her attorneys. poor little abu lied to save himself.
maybe i ought to care what sort of punishment is meted out to poor little abu for lying under oath. but i don't. he sold his soul long before awol made him attorney general. he'll be lying for the rest of his life. and i don't care what that does to him, either...
Labels: gonzales
skippy's friday nite music club
johann strauss, jr. - the blue danube
herbert von karajan conducts the vienna philharmonic w/ the ballet of the vienna state opera - new year's concert, vienna 1987
Labels: skippy's music club
death cat on gonzo watch
buy another bike
let’s say we import 10.13 billion gallons of oil a day. let’s say that of that 10.13 bgd we import about 14% or 1.46 bgd from mexico. let’s say mexico runs out of oil to sell us in seven years. now why would we say this? well, in part because mexico just told us they will -
what could be the consequences if mexico stops selling us oil in 7 years? will we get the difference (plus the estimated increase in our demand over the next seven years - don't even try to factor in the increase in everyone else's demand) from our current suppliers? our top five suppliers right now are canada, saudi arabia, mexico, venezuala and nigeria. assuming these suppliers can increase production to cover the shortfall mexico warns us about, as well as anticipated increase in u.s. demand, what are the odds that saudi arabia, venezuala and nigeria will want to? and at what price?
it could be like katrina, without the flooding, all the time - a neutron bomb for the consumer economy.
mexican company predicts end of oil
mexico, jul 27 (prensa latina) petroleos mexicanos (pemex) announced that oil reserves may run out in seven years.
"supplies of this economically exploitable resource are running out," informed a report sent by the state owned company to the united states stock market.
what could be the consequences if mexico stops selling us oil in 7 years? will we get the difference (plus the estimated increase in our demand over the next seven years - don't even try to factor in the increase in everyone else's demand) from our current suppliers? our top five suppliers right now are canada, saudi arabia, mexico, venezuala and nigeria. assuming these suppliers can increase production to cover the shortfall mexico warns us about, as well as anticipated increase in u.s. demand, what are the odds that saudi arabia, venezuala and nigeria will want to? and at what price?
it could be like katrina, without the flooding, all the time - a neutron bomb for the consumer economy.
say hello
to brave new films blog, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the folks who are running the fox attackers program.
remember, if you've got a phone, some time and some righteous indignation about o'reilly and fox news, join up with the fox attackers.
remember, if you've got a phone, some time and some righteous indignation about o'reilly and fox news, join up with the fox attackers.
Labels: action alert, say hello
yahoo is going...
green!
Labels: environment, internets
hoppy kangaroo blogging friday
hug someone today version
for more friday furriness...check out the friday ark at the modulator.
for more friday furriness...check out the friday ark at the modulator.
Labels: kangaroo blogging friday, love
o'reilly...propaganda pimp
news corpse has the fair and balanced report.
Labels: o'reilly, propaganda
a slippery slope
you know what happens when you start insisting on due process, fair trials and judicial review don't you?
innocent people will go free. scary.
australian prosecutors drop terror charge against doctor
brisbane, australia — australia's top prosecutor dropped a terror charge friday against an indian doctor accused of supporting last month's failed bomb attacks on london and glasgow.
prosecutors withdrew the charge against mohamed haneef in the brisbane magistrates court after a review of the evidence by the federal director of public prosecutions damian bugg found two major errors in the case.
innocent people will go free. scary.
one of these things is not like the other
alaska senator to sell back riverfront property
washington -- sen. lisa murkowski said thursday that she and her husband intend to sell back their riverfront property to an anchorage businessman.
murkowski, r-alaska, announced the giveback a day after a washington watchdog group filed a 15-page senate ethics complaint against her, alleging that anchorage businessman bob penney sold the property well below market value. the transaction amounted to an illegal gift worth between $70,000 and $170,000, depending on how the property was valued, according to the complaint by the national legal and policy center.
what’s the difference between whitewater and murkowski’s land investment? murkowski would have made money had she not been caught. the clintons lost money. there was nothing illegal about the clintons’ investment while murkowski’s looks sketchy at best. the reds, leveraging a lazy media turned the clintons’ investment into a 5o million dollar investigation and constitutional crisis. murkowski, on the other hand, will simply call a do-over on selling her office and the press will give her a pass. another day in iokiyar-land.
republican health care plan
no one gets health care - it's universal!
actually, it's not quite true that no one will get health care under the gop plan. rich people will still be able to buy health care. republican health care plan - a new term that will rival military intelligence in the annals of oxymorons.
gop senators offer plan for universal health care
the bill encourages families to find their own health coverage and offers refundable tax credits of up to $5,400 per family. but advocates for the uninsured say the proposal could jeopardize low-income families and chronically ill patients, as well as the employment-based health-care system, which now covers 65 percent of americans. […]
advocates for the uninsured fear that employers could drop health benefits altogether. and for many families, $5,400 won't buy a lot of health insurance.
actually, it's not quite true that no one will get health care under the gop plan. rich people will still be able to buy health care. republican health care plan - a new term that will rival military intelligence in the annals of oxymorons.
the tyrant's writ
officer calls guantanamo reviews a shamyou know, it's only when you judge the gitmo trials by western standards of due process and justice that they look like haunting, corrosive tragedies. if you think about the long history of show trials in the west - the star chamber, the generals of the battle of the arginusae, the dreyfus affair, then aWol's show trials seem normal fare. it's just a question of standards and values.
washington — lt. col. stephen abraham, a military intelligence officer, spent six months at the department of defense working in the office that reviews the government's cases against detainees held at guantanamo bay, cuba.
on thursday, he became the first military insider to urge congress to scrap the military-run reviews conducted on the island and give detainees access to u.s. courts. he described the reviews, known as combatant status review tribunals, as "designed not to ascertain the truth, but to legitimize the detentions." […]
abraham described a system of sham trials, "an effort to lend a veneer of legitimacy to the detentions, to launder decisions already made." he said the reviewers were provided with "vague, generalized data" from unknown sources that made it impossible to decide whether a detainee should be classified as an enemy combatant. the reviewers also were constantly prodded to speed up the process, he said.
catholics condemn rendition
military use of airport wrong, says irish cleric
the archbishop of dublin, john neill, has accused the irish government of "moral compromise" in allowing hundreds of thousands of us troops to use shannon airport while on transit flights to iraq. […]
archbishop neill told dublin's hot press magazine: "i feel very strongly that economic links to america have made us very blind to the moral issues ... i think as a nation there has not been sufficient questioning of these [alleged cia] rendition flights and the link of ireland with the war in iraq."
we wonder if the same media who gleefully participated in the wingnut wafer watch on kerry during the 2004 election will start asking brownback and giuliani about how aWol's gwot violates their religious beliefs.
don't go commando, girls
anger at sa woman trouser 'ban'
moves by men to stop women wearing trousers in a south african township have been condemned by politicians and civil rights groups.
earlier this week, a woman in umlazi township, near durban, was stripped naked and her shack burnt down.
men in the township are demanding that all women wear skirts or dresses.
or you'll put their knickers in a twist, those sexist pigs.
as they stand up
us admits delay to iraqi weapons
the us-led coalition in iraq has failed to deliver nearly two-thirds of the equipment it promised to iraq's army, the us defence department has said.
aWol will never leave iraq.
tap water
Thursday, July 26, 2007
that's our boy!
we can only hope that our former co-blogger, holden caufield of first draft, is 1000% right when he says:
alberto gonzales will resign tomorrow (friday july 27) at 5 pm eastern.
but enough about us...what do you think about us?
just when we begin to suspect that we write too much about ourselves, we take a look at what the big boys are doing.
on the right, the blogs are piling onto the new republic for letting somebody's husband who is serving in iraq write a column or two. they are likening it to valerie plame and robert wilson. we kid you not.
and on the left, dkos is encouraging people to engage bill o'reilly's nonsensical rhetoric that markos' site espouses violence.
we agree w/the blogging curmudgeon at mlw about kos/o'reilly:
on the right, the blogs are piling onto the new republic for letting somebody's husband who is serving in iraq write a column or two. they are likening it to valerie plame and robert wilson. we kid you not.
and on the left, dkos is encouraging people to engage bill o'reilly's nonsensical rhetoric that markos' site espouses violence.
we agree w/the blogging curmudgeon at mlw about kos/o'reilly:
tell it to markos.
he’s all wrapped up in his latest faux feud with bill o’reilly. got himself a real shouting match going there.
hm, just in time to boost people’s interest in dailykos before yearlykos.
must be a coincidence, huh. kind of like the rosie o’donnell/donald trump “feud” that got publicized at the time that nielsen was doing ratings for their respective television programs.
a tip of the kangaroo tail to blue gal for the illustration which so correctly illustrates the whole thing:he’s all wrapped up in his latest faux feud with bill o’reilly. got himself a real shouting match going there.
hm, just in time to boost people’s interest in dailykos before yearlykos.
must be a coincidence, huh. kind of like the rosie o’donnell/donald trump “feud” that got publicized at the time that nielsen was doing ratings for their respective television programs.
Labels: blogtopia, multi-millionaire media, snark
repubbblicans afraid of cats on pianos
as loathe as we are to link to hugh hewitt's blog, patrick ruffini is there floating a delicious piece of gossip these days. apparently the gop candidates are beginning to back out of the upcoming repubbb youtube debate in sept:
given the huge earned media hit the democrats got this week, the fact that even the highly partisan questioners acquitted themselves better than chris matthews did in the first debate, and the sponsorship of the powerful republican party of florida, i didn't think the gop candidates would make the political mistake of passing up it up.
i was apparently wrong. rudy giuliani is unlikely to participate, according to an official source.
and mitt romney wouldn't commit, dissing the "snowman question."
and again, as loathe as we are to agree w/anything written on townhall.com, we do:i was apparently wrong. rudy giuliani is unlikely to participate, according to an official source.
and mitt romney wouldn't commit, dissing the "snowman question."
mitt romney didn't like some of the more frivolous trappings and told the new hampshire union leader that "i think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."
this is a big mistake. the democrats are afraid to answer questions from big bad fox news anchors, and the republicans are afraid to answer questions from regular people. which is worse?
point taken, pat. it's one thing to refuse to participate in a debate held by an organization you see as partisan, whether or not your perception is correct.but to back out of a direct interface with the citizens of the united states? we'd call that cowardly. and it bothers patrick:
it's stuff like this that will set the gop back an election cycle or more on the internet. no matter the snazzy web features and youtube videos they may put up, if they're fundamentally uncomfortable with the idea of interacting with real people online, what's the point?
having spent the better part of a decade working at the intersection of politics and the web, i can't help but feel of a deep, deep sense of dismay that we're missing something so basic. this is exactly why i am afraid that we will be outraised by $100 million or more in 2008.
your pixels to god's ears, pat.having spent the better part of a decade working at the intersection of politics and the web, i can't help but feel of a deep, deep sense of dismay that we're missing something so basic. this is exactly why i am afraid that we will be outraised by $100 million or more in 2008.
Labels: debates, gop, technology
inside the beltway blogger
the freeway blogger brings us some of the beltway blogger's sucesses.
Labels: freeway blogger
from the emails we never bothered to finish reading dept.
we swear we got this in our in-box:
hi. my name is molly sebastian and i am a producer working for abc's reality show "wife swap." if you have seen the show, you probably know that we pride ourselves on casting a wide array of families…families from all different walks of life who would like the opportunity to educate the viewing audience about their particular parenting philosophy and their way of life. we are currently casting for our fourth season and i am looking for a charity-minded and charity-driven family…a family who makes a practice of putting others first. i would love to speak to you more about this project to see if you might be interested or if you might have suggestions about possible candidates.
Labels: pop culture, television
skippy's thursday nite music club
who ya gonna call?
ray parker jr. - ghostbusters
late nite music club trivia time! how many celebs who make cameos in this video can you name? (not actors from the original flick...bill murray doesn't count, neither does slimer!)
ray parker jr. - ghostbusters
late nite music club trivia time! how many celebs who make cameos in this video can you name? (not actors from the original flick...bill murray doesn't count, neither does slimer!)
Labels: skippy's music club
sloshed in space
and, no...not lindsay lohan...(that's sloshed and spacey)
at least twice, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk, an aviation weekly reported thursday, citing a special panel studying astronaut health. - sfgate
Labels: drunk driving, nasa
the best defense is a good attack
join the fox attackers:
fox is not a legitimate news channel. they consistently misrepresent facts, manufacture terror, and slander progressives.
we're fighting back by identifying and calling all of fox's advertisers. all of them. particularly local advertisers who probably have no idea the kind of hatred their money is supporting.
already a fox attacker? sign in here
this is not a boycott. we are simply calling advertisers and informing them about fox. and making bill o'reilly's life a living hell.
sign up, and get started now
we're fighting back by identifying and calling all of fox's advertisers. all of them. particularly local advertisers who probably have no idea the kind of hatred their money is supporting.
already a fox attacker? sign in here
this is not a boycott. we are simply calling advertisers and informing them about fox. and making bill o'reilly's life a living hell.
sign up, and get started now
Labels: action alert, fox news
perhaps they read skippy
democrats request perjury probe of gonzales
"we ask that you immediately appoint an independent special counsel from outside the department of justice to determine whether attorney general gonzales may have misled congress or perjured himself in testimony before congress," they wrote.personally, i'm at a point where i'm actually more outraged by the half-truths than i am by the idea that the firings were unjustified. if you lie under oath, you're supposed to be punished. it's the law. i applaud senators schumer, feinstein & feingold for authoring this letter.
winning hearts and minds in iraq
by using "slave labor" to build the u.s. embassy in iraq.
it's not our freedom they hate...they hate what we do people.
it's not our freedom they hate...they hate what we do people.
sound and fury
gop senator threatens legal action against white house
washington — a powerful republican senator said tuesday that if the bush administration wouldn't appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the firings of nine u.s. attorneys, congress should consider starting contempt proceedings on its own against the white house.
the proposal from sen. arlen specter of pennsylvania, the senior republican on the senate judiciary committee, ratchets up a seven-month standoff between the white house and congress over whether former and current white house officials should be compelled to testify or provide documents related to the firings.
it's specter, therefore, it's
signifying nothing
if you can't do the time
we know what perjury means, and what the consequences are supposed to be, right?
memo refutes gonzales' surveillance testimony
documents obtained by ap contradict attorney general's sworn statement
memo refutes gonzales' surveillance testimony
documents obtained by ap contradict attorney general's sworn statement
the documents underscore questions about gonzales' credibility as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic march 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.there are conflicting accounts in sworn testimonies. what is there to consider? someone is being untruthful, and an investigation is the way to find out who is telling the truth. why do we not take action?
buy a bike
if this is true:
and this is true:
we might be in for a chilly, ambulatory winter.
the top five exporting countries accounted for 68 percent of united states crude oil imports in may while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 87 percent of all u.s. crude oil imports. the top sources of us crude oil imports for may were canada (1.774 million barrels per day), saudi arabia (1.574 million barrels per day), mexico (1.461 million barrels per day), venezuela (1.232 million barrels per day), nigeria (0.882 million barrels per day).
and this is true:
mexican pipeline attacks could jeopardize exports
washington — saboteurs who blew up natural gas pipelines that shut down one of mexico's main industrial regions earlier this month also crippled an important crude oil pipeline in an operation that indicated extensive knowledge of mexico's energy infrastructure, u.s. officials said tuesday.
we might be in for a chilly, ambulatory winter.
hard time?
prisoner found guilty of masturbating in his cellpretty stiff sentence too.
it is a verdict likely to cause great consternation to lonely prisoners throughout the us penal system. a prisoner in florida has been found guilty of indecent exposure for masturbating alone in his cell.
dear nancy
ntodd has nancygrams. likewise we note that awol and harriet miers have challenged your ability to ask them questions about illegal activities. is impeachment on the table yet?
Labels: aWol, congress, constitution, impeach, lawlessness, pelosi
headlines you won't see
awol's supreme court nominee is charged with contempt of congress
Labels: attorneygate, aWol, congressional testimony, judicial, supreme court
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
to the vitter end
via agitprop, separated at birth?
on the left, wendy cortez. on the right, wendy vitter.
also, blue gal made the graphic!
on the left, wendy cortez. on the right, wendy vitter.
also, blue gal made the graphic!
Labels: gop, right hypocrisy, senate
ward off evil
sadly, no! recounts the success of the war on terror in terms of professor churchill's firing.
Labels: education, war on terror
skippy's wednesday nite music club
say hello
to fausti's book quest.
Labels: say hello
fred thompson is already gearing up to be president
by ejecting protesters from his campaign events. cnn:
a woman screaming “you’re not a real conservative, sir” was removed by police from a welcoming reception for likely gop presidential candidate fred thompson wednesday morning. a second protester was also taken from the room.
houston police officers escorted the woman — as well as a man — from the hangar at hobby airport, where thompson was shaking hands with a crowd of supporters. they were not arrested.
of course, fred will never get to be president until he actually has protesters arrested.houston police officers escorted the woman — as well as a man — from the hangar at hobby airport, where thompson was shaking hands with a crowd of supporters. they were not arrested.
Labels: fred thompson, prez campaign, protest
after a procedure paid for by the government
awol complains about government-run health care
**update** "bush stunned as 4 out of 5 polyps question war"
..bush told an audience in nashville last week that the senate bill is "the beginning salvo of the encroachment of the federal government on the health care system." he said he'd veto any such legislation making its way to his desk.
that's a fine how-do-you-do for a guy who had five growths removed from his colon on saturday largely at the government's expense and had them promptly examined by government experts at the government-run national naval medical center.
"happily", the tests showed no sign of cancer. so bush can rest easy for another few years, thanks to all that government health care. - david lazarus @ sfgate
**update** "bush stunned as 4 out of 5 polyps question war"
Labels: aWol, healthcare, public health
we may be the blogging kangaroo
but there is a death predicting cat.
oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. his accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. it usually means they have less than four hours to live. - sfgateshoo, kitty....shooo.
Labels: animals
repubbblican family values at work
especially the young repubbblicans...michigan young republican pleads guilty in sex case:
the former head of the michigan federation of young republicans admitted today that he sexually abused a colleague during a national convention here last summer.
michael flory, a 32-year-old attorney from jackson, mich., pleaded guilty to sexual battery on the day he was to stand trial for rape.
the teary-eyed college student he overpowered in a downtown hotel room gasped and dabbed her eyes as flory replied to cuyahoga county common pleas judge peter corrigan's question, "are you indeed guilty?"
“sure - yeah," flory said.
and when this first came to light, how did the repubbblican react? why, by using the party machine to destroy the victim's good name, of course:michael flory, a 32-year-old attorney from jackson, mich., pleaded guilty to sexual battery on the day he was to stand trial for rape.
the teary-eyed college student he overpowered in a downtown hotel room gasped and dabbed her eyes as flory replied to cuyahoga county common pleas judge peter corrigan's question, "are you indeed guilty?"
“sure - yeah," flory said.
the victim, who is 22, declined to speak after flory's guilty plea.
she and some supporters lamented when the incident became public last winter that flory and his followers within the republican organization had been smearing her reputation in retaliation for accusing flory of rape. skutnik said she found that to be true.
"people were using every opportunity to try to trash her, on web sites or whatever," the prosecutor said. "he's been running around telling everybody what a piece of trash she is, so she was very happy to see him plead guilty."
maybe he can get awol to pardon him.she and some supporters lamented when the incident became public last winter that flory and his followers within the republican organization had been smearing her reputation in retaliation for accusing flory of rape. skutnik said she found that to be true.
"people were using every opportunity to try to trash her, on web sites or whatever," the prosecutor said. "he's been running around telling everybody what a piece of trash she is, so she was very happy to see him plead guilty."
Labels: feminism, gop, judicial, right hypocrisy, womens issues
wherein we will randomly apologize for what we've said about kos
due to the wonderful nature of randomocity in the universe, the daily kos random blog roll of 10 user blogroll links (changed daily) has listed this humble site for four days in a row.
since a lot of our disagreement with markos is based on being unceremoniously dumped from his blogroll, we feel that we must now make some amends.
ergo, we will randomly apologize for 4 random things we said about kos.
we have counted approximately 30 posts about kos which we have written since being dumped off his roll (the number of which brings to mind the shakespearean quote about some lady protesting too much somewhere).
we then generated 4 random numbers with this random number generator. those numbers are:
so we will apologize for those posts. specifically
#28: it takes a big booman to do a big job
booman graciously took it upon himself to add all the blogs to booman's roll which markos and duncan dumped from their rolls. but we must apologize. we said it took a big booman to do a big job. if any of you have met booman in person, you know that he's not particularly big (not that he's short, he's just right). we regret having said he was big. he is not. he's medium. our apologies.
#4: killing two bugaboos w/one blog
we are sorry we agreed with steven d at booman who said he was often at cross purposes with markos. but we we sincerely apologize. we don't agree with steven d. he is never at cross purposes with markos, and if he says he is, he is a damnable liar.
#26: three questions of the day
man, this one is way beyond us. mimus pauly, our co-blogger, wrote on this post, en toto:
finally, #13: dear markos: it gives us no pleasure to say "we told you so"
this one is almost a no-brainer. we got 7 kinds of sh*t from most people about this post wherein we chastized markos for dismissing cyber-stalking against kathy sierra, when not 3 days later, the virginia tech massacre took place. at the time, we seemed to think there was a cautionary moral lesson involved, something along the lines of "don't dismiss stalking as violence against women, because it could snowball into real violence."
upon reflection, we realize that it was an argument so weak that liberace could kick sand in its face. we truly regret having made such a facetious connection, tho we stand behind the primary premise that cyber-violence against women should not be dismissed.
we hope this sets a random amount of the record straight. we randomly want markos to not feel bad for a random amount of things that may or may not have randomly occurred.
we randomly regret a random amount of those errors.
[ed. note: and to a lesser extent, duncan.]
since a lot of our disagreement with markos is based on being unceremoniously dumped from his blogroll, we feel that we must now make some amends.
ergo, we will randomly apologize for 4 random things we said about kos.
we have counted approximately 30 posts about kos which we have written since being dumped off his roll (the number of which brings to mind the shakespearean quote about some lady protesting too much somewhere).
we then generated 4 random numbers with this random number generator. those numbers are:
28 4 26 13
#28: it takes a big booman to do a big job
booman graciously took it upon himself to add all the blogs to booman's roll which markos and duncan dumped from their rolls. but we must apologize. we said it took a big booman to do a big job. if any of you have met booman in person, you know that he's not particularly big (not that he's short, he's just right). we regret having said he was big. he is not. he's medium. our apologies.
#4: killing two bugaboos w/one blog
we are sorry we agreed with steven d at booman who said he was often at cross purposes with markos. but we we sincerely apologize. we don't agree with steven d. he is never at cross purposes with markos, and if he says he is, he is a damnable liar.
#26: three questions of the day
man, this one is way beyond us. mimus pauly, our co-blogger, wrote on this post, en toto:
duncan who? markos who? jesus what?
we don't even know what the hell mimus was talking about. and you can bet, ladies and gentlemen, for that, we apologize.finally, #13: dear markos: it gives us no pleasure to say "we told you so"
this one is almost a no-brainer. we got 7 kinds of sh*t from most people about this post wherein we chastized markos for dismissing cyber-stalking against kathy sierra, when not 3 days later, the virginia tech massacre took place. at the time, we seemed to think there was a cautionary moral lesson involved, something along the lines of "don't dismiss stalking as violence against women, because it could snowball into real violence."
upon reflection, we realize that it was an argument so weak that liberace could kick sand in its face. we truly regret having made such a facetious connection, tho we stand behind the primary premise that cyber-violence against women should not be dismissed.
we hope this sets a random amount of the record straight. we randomly want markos to not feel bad for a random amount of things that may or may not have randomly occurred.
we randomly regret a random amount of those errors.
[ed. note: and to a lesser extent, duncan.]
Labels: amnesty day, blogtopia, snark, technology
not so fun with google
from the google searches we never wanted to be included in department.
Labels: blogtopia, technology
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
so ironically self-referencial that any deconstruction in this headline would lead to a logically internal breakdown of ...uh, where were we?
the screeching head media slash inside the beltway pundits slash politicos are scrambling to stay relevant in the wake of last night's populist youtube debate.
first of all this morning cnn had a segment on the important fact that, while youtube may have made debates relevant, it was television that invented presidential debates. they included a brief history of televised presidential debates.
wow. stop the presses.
"sure, the automobile can get you anywhere real fast, but remember it was the village smithy who first stood beneath chestnut tree..."
but even more irrelevant is the supposed "controversy" between hillary "it takes a spillage" clinton and barack "to the future" obama over this seemingly innocuous exchange:
seriously, tho, it seems like a pretty small molehill to be breaking out the mountain-climbing gear for. tho we ourselves are no fans of obama, one would assume that (a) obama would probably put context into any future considerations of meetings with any nation, and (b) clinton's latching onto this as a major concern is itself propaganda.
and further, it seems to us that clinton's qualifying and parsing of words about the subject of meeting with heads of state from rogue nations, whatever the hell that means, only shows again how sen. clinton refuses to actually take a stand and commit. how about a yes or no, sen. clinton? instead of a waffly "i'd have to make sure it wasn't a bad thing first." like, duh!
we agree w/steven d over at booman, who found sen. clinton's answer to another youtube also lacking in substance:
and that step is: eliminate the middle man. who needs pundits to interpret what candidates say and what people are thinking? let the actual people talk to the actual candidates their own damn selves.
sorry, nedra. your services are no longer required.
first of all this morning cnn had a segment on the important fact that, while youtube may have made debates relevant, it was television that invented presidential debates. they included a brief history of televised presidential debates.
wow. stop the presses.
"sure, the automobile can get you anywhere real fast, but remember it was the village smithy who first stood beneath chestnut tree..."
but even more irrelevant is the supposed "controversy" between hillary "it takes a spillage" clinton and barack "to the future" obama over this seemingly innocuous exchange:
a moment from last night’s debate has burst into a full-blown dispute today between senator hillary clinton and senator barack obama, the two leading democratic presidential candidates. it is their first public wrangling.
senator obama said in the debate that he would meet with the leaders of rogue nations; senator clinton said she would first make sure that such meetings were not intended as propaganda.
pundits generally saw hers as the better answer, underscoring her experience on the world stage and at the same time casting senator obama as inexperienced.
today, senator clinton drove home the point by directly criticizing senator obama’s statement.
“i thought that was irresponsible and frankly naïve,” mrs. clinton told the quad-city times in iowa.
and, as we all know, as goes the quad-city times, so goes america.senator obama said in the debate that he would meet with the leaders of rogue nations; senator clinton said she would first make sure that such meetings were not intended as propaganda.
pundits generally saw hers as the better answer, underscoring her experience on the world stage and at the same time casting senator obama as inexperienced.
today, senator clinton drove home the point by directly criticizing senator obama’s statement.
“i thought that was irresponsible and frankly naïve,” mrs. clinton told the quad-city times in iowa.
seriously, tho, it seems like a pretty small molehill to be breaking out the mountain-climbing gear for. tho we ourselves are no fans of obama, one would assume that (a) obama would probably put context into any future considerations of meetings with any nation, and (b) clinton's latching onto this as a major concern is itself propaganda.
and further, it seems to us that clinton's qualifying and parsing of words about the subject of meeting with heads of state from rogue nations, whatever the hell that means, only shows again how sen. clinton refuses to actually take a stand and commit. how about a yes or no, sen. clinton? instead of a waffly "i'd have to make sure it wasn't a bad thing first." like, duh!
we agree w/steven d over at booman, who found sen. clinton's answer to another youtube also lacking in substance:
which is why we had this exchange last night, perhaps the most significant question that was asked and answered all evening. here's the question:
senator clinton went first:
then clinton turns the question on its head, making it all about her. "look what i've done," she says, i asked a question of the defense department and they were mean to me!" frankly, i don't care that she was attacked by some neoconservative second banana with an office at the pentagon. was she wrongly attacked? sure. was it politically motivated? no doubt. but it had no bearing on what this mother wanted to know.
it was simply shameless self-promotion by senator clinton to respond in this fashion. she turned a mother's honest request for an explanation as to why nothing has been accomplished by a democratic congress to end the war since january, into a blatant attempt to garner sympathy, while also portraying herself as someone working hard to end the war, when nothing could be further from the truth. being attacked by the bush administration is not evidence of anything clinton has done. its simply standard operating procedure by the republicans. a day doesn't go by when one of them is attacking senator clinton or her husband for one thing or another. to imply, as clinton did, that such attacks establish her anti-war bona fides is beyond ludicrous, and actually more than a little bit insulting to our collective intelligence.
but we digress, which is what we do here. back on point, it seems to us that to make this tempest the big attraction in last night's teapot is to denigrate the major step that was taken with the youtube debates.question: …as the mother of an american soldier deploying to iraq for a second time, i would like to know if the perception is true that the democrats are putting politics before conscience.
how many more soldiers must die while these political games continue in our government? …
and here's how various candidates answered this very serious question from a soldier's mother:how many more soldiers must die while these political games continue in our government? …
senator clinton went first:
clinton: well, i want to thank her and her son for their service and their sacrifice. when we send a soldier or marine to combat in iraq, we really are sending a family...
i happen to agree that there is no military solution, and the iraqis refuse to pursue the political solutions. in fact, i asked the pentagon a simple question: have you prepared for withdrawing our troops? in response, i got a letter accusing me of being unpatriotic; that i shouldn't be asking questions.
well, one of the problems is that there are a lot of questions that we're asking but we're not getting answers from the bush administration.
senator clinton gave a classic non-answer. first, she thanks the mother and her son for their service. let me be the first to say that i've had it with politicians uttering these self-serving statements of praise for our troops' sacrifices. nothing could be more meaningless than to praise someone for risking their lives for a lie while you, a powerful senator, with the ability to take the lead on getting those troops home, does nothing of substance to achieve that goal.i happen to agree that there is no military solution, and the iraqis refuse to pursue the political solutions. in fact, i asked the pentagon a simple question: have you prepared for withdrawing our troops? in response, i got a letter accusing me of being unpatriotic; that i shouldn't be asking questions.
well, one of the problems is that there are a lot of questions that we're asking but we're not getting answers from the bush administration.
then clinton turns the question on its head, making it all about her. "look what i've done," she says, i asked a question of the defense department and they were mean to me!" frankly, i don't care that she was attacked by some neoconservative second banana with an office at the pentagon. was she wrongly attacked? sure. was it politically motivated? no doubt. but it had no bearing on what this mother wanted to know.
it was simply shameless self-promotion by senator clinton to respond in this fashion. she turned a mother's honest request for an explanation as to why nothing has been accomplished by a democratic congress to end the war since january, into a blatant attempt to garner sympathy, while also portraying herself as someone working hard to end the war, when nothing could be further from the truth. being attacked by the bush administration is not evidence of anything clinton has done. its simply standard operating procedure by the republicans. a day doesn't go by when one of them is attacking senator clinton or her husband for one thing or another. to imply, as clinton did, that such attacks establish her anti-war bona fides is beyond ludicrous, and actually more than a little bit insulting to our collective intelligence.
and that step is: eliminate the middle man. who needs pundits to interpret what candidates say and what people are thinking? let the actual people talk to the actual candidates their own damn selves.
sorry, nedra. your services are no longer required.
Labels: debates, democrats, internets, multi-millionaire media, prez campaign, technology
mad about congressional testimony by gop liars
hey, paula! or, zahn with the wind
via talkleft, we learn that paula zahn will no longer be at cnn:
we had high hopes for paula, having watched her cut her teeth here in the los angeles market, then later at cbs. but she seemed particularly non-descript in her slot at cnn. we wish you the best, paula. but don't let the cable doorknob hit you on your cable ass on your way out the cable door.
a day after cnn announced that it was hiring campbell brown to replace one of its prime-time hosts, presumably paula zahn, ms. zahn confirmed today that she was leaving the cable channel, effective aug. 2...
the estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each weeknight this year, according to nielsen media research, represents less than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch “the o’reilly factor” with bill o’reilly on fox news. ms. zahn’s program also draws about 100,000 fewer viewers a night than “countdown with keith olbermann” on msnbc.
o'reilly has been losing viewership, particularly in the key 25-54 demographic so it was not o'reilly that did zahn in. it was olbermann, whose countdown program is now the msnbc flagship and ratings driver. i do wonder what cnn thinks campbell brown can do for them in the time slot. mrs. dan senor (of iraqi cpa fame) will, one assumes, attempt to do better in the 25-54 demo. but how she steals from olbermann is hard to see. i guess she will be going after o'reilly to get younger conservative viewers. we'll see.the estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each weeknight this year, according to nielsen media research, represents less than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch “the o’reilly factor” with bill o’reilly on fox news. ms. zahn’s program also draws about 100,000 fewer viewers a night than “countdown with keith olbermann” on msnbc.
Labels: multi-millionaire media
skippy's tuesday nite music club
best educational song of all, no if's, and's or but's...
schoolhouse rock - conjunction junction
schoolhouse rock - conjunction junction
Labels: skippy's music club
penrose makes the dead trees media!!
brett penrose, the cartoonist whose work is blog-featured on this humble site, had the great honor of one of his toons being used in the kansas city star.
unfortunately it's not available on the star's website, but brett sent it to us:
brett tells us:
unfortunately it's not available on the star's website, but brett sent it to us:
brett tells us:
a little background on the 'toon: the star published this cartoon fresh off their story last friday about our governor's use of the highway patrol for his own political purposes (blunt pressured the highway patrol to make negative remarks about nixon, our attorney general, for not bringing charges against ameren ue (elec. co.) for the taum sauk reservoir (south missouri) collapse last year.
blunt is ahead of nixon in fundraising, but all his dollars are coming from big out-of-state donors, nixon's are coming from missourians. blunt's poll numbers have been in the crapper pretty much from the day he took over and he's very worried about nixon, who's numbers are high. the highway patrol stunt is a desperate way to play catch-up.
good on ya, brett! congrats!blunt is ahead of nixon in fundraising, but all his dollars are coming from big out-of-state donors, nixon's are coming from missourians. blunt's poll numbers have been in the crapper pretty much from the day he took over and he's very worried about nixon, who's numbers are high. the highway patrol stunt is a desperate way to play catch-up.
Labels: death penalty, toons
why do you think they call it "d'oh!"??
10 zen monkeys lists the top 10 drug references in the simpsons over the years.
but while we're on the subject of anti-drug campaigns, does anyone besides us get incredibly confused by the new anti-pot spots on tv these days?
one is a cartoon that has a dog telling a guy (yes, a dog talks!) that he won't join the guy in smoking a doobie. then the dog goes outside and raises a flag with the dog's picture on it to half-mast. huh?? wha??
another (not a cartoon) has a dog telling his mistress (again with the talking dogs) that he misses her as a friend when she smokes dope (because she's all dopey, we suppose). a talking dog??
who wrote these things? were they on dope??
the commercials only make sense if you are smoking weed!!
not that we mind. but the spots do seem to be encouraging the very activity they are trying to dissuade.
it's rather like hiring foster brooks for mothers against drunk drivers.
but while we're on the subject of anti-drug campaigns, does anyone besides us get incredibly confused by the new anti-pot spots on tv these days?
one is a cartoon that has a dog telling a guy (yes, a dog talks!) that he won't join the guy in smoking a doobie. then the dog goes outside and raises a flag with the dog's picture on it to half-mast. huh?? wha??
another (not a cartoon) has a dog telling his mistress (again with the talking dogs) that he misses her as a friend when she smokes dope (because she's all dopey, we suppose). a talking dog??
who wrote these things? were they on dope??
the commercials only make sense if you are smoking weed!!
not that we mind. but the spots do seem to be encouraging the very activity they are trying to dissuade.
it's rather like hiring foster brooks for mothers against drunk drivers.
Labels: drug war, snark, television, toons
impeachment first, trial after
impeachment isn't throwing awol out of office it's the senate trial that will throw him out. impeachment is more like an indictment and nancy pelosi had better stop hiding awol behind her skirts. speaker pelosi should think of her place in history. will history judge the first woman speaker as lacking the ovaries to take on this criminal administration?
impeachment will be our only hope to get a straight answer out of this lying, thieving administration. if bush wants to finish out gore's second term then he will need to answer for his actions rather than hide behind "executive privilege" like the no-good coward that he is.
i found this good editorial via buzzflash: the case for not waiting out this presidency
impeachment will be our only hope to get a straight answer out of this lying, thieving administration. if bush wants to finish out gore's second term then he will need to answer for his actions rather than hide behind "executive privilege" like the no-good coward that he is.
i found this good editorial via buzzflash: the case for not waiting out this presidency
Labels: aWol, bipartisanship, impeach, pelosi
Monday, July 23, 2007
dear dems
no 18 point platforms, please. i have constructed your 2008 message for you, free of charge. i doubt if any of you will have the good sense to use it.
bring our troops home to a nation of high paying jobs and free healthcare.
update: dennis kucinich has this platform but he used a lot more than 14 words.
bring our troops home to a nation of high paying jobs and free healthcare.
update: dennis kucinich has this platform but he used a lot more than 14 words.
Labels: class warfare, democrats, economy, healthcare, iraq war, prez campaign
how to destroy tourism to america
in one easy step. start demanding tourists tell details of their personal lives in order for them to travel to the u.s....and keep that information on hand for 15 years and share that information with a multitude of governmental agencies.
highly sensitive information about the religious beliefs, political opinions and even the sex life of britons travelling to the united states is to be made available to us authorities when the european commission agrees to a new system of checking passengers.
..in a strongly worded document drawn up in response to the plan that will affect the 4 million-plus britons who travel to the us every year, the eu parliament said it 'notes with concern that sensitive data (ie personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and data concerning the health or sex life of individuals) will be made available to the dhs and that these data may be used by the dhs in exceptional cases'.- guardian unlimited
Labels: big brother, travel
down the penrose lane
two polls walk into a bar
much hoopla was made by the hardly-ever-right blogs recently that congress had a lower approval rating than awol.
of course, the obvious answer to that conundrum is that congress has repeatedly failed to do what they were elected last november to do: stand up to awol and end the endless slaughter of americans on iraqi soil.
but the rightists cheered the apparent lower opinion of the democratic congress that the polls seemed to indicate.
except...for now.
reuters points out that twice as many people trust congress on the iraq question than awol.
of course, the obvious answer to that conundrum is that congress has repeatedly failed to do what they were elected last november to do: stand up to awol and end the endless slaughter of americans on iraqi soil.
but the rightists cheered the apparent lower opinion of the democratic congress that the polls seemed to indicate.
except...for now.
reuters points out that twice as many people trust congress on the iraq question than awol.
most americans see president george w. bush as too inflexible on the war in iraq and prefer that the democratic-run congress have the final word on when to withdraw u.s. forces, a washington post/abc news poll showed on monday.
nearly 80 percent of those polled said bush is not willing enough to change policies over the unpopular war that has taken a huge toll on his approval ratings, the post reported.
the poll was conducted last week, after senate democrats failed to advance a plan that would force bush to withdraw u.s. combat troops from iraq by april 2008.
more than six in 10 americans -- 62 percent -- said congress should have the final say on when to pull out u.s. forces, compared with 31 percent who said the decision should rest with bush, the poll showed.
a narrow majority, 55 percent, said they supported the proposed pullout plan, which the senate may not consider again until after its august recess.
55 percent is a narrow majority? why, when awol had that much approval, it used to be a solid majority.
nearly 80 percent of those polled said bush is not willing enough to change policies over the unpopular war that has taken a huge toll on his approval ratings, the post reported.
the poll was conducted last week, after senate democrats failed to advance a plan that would force bush to withdraw u.s. combat troops from iraq by april 2008.
more than six in 10 americans -- 62 percent -- said congress should have the final say on when to pull out u.s. forces, compared with 31 percent who said the decision should rest with bush, the poll showed.
a narrow majority, 55 percent, said they supported the proposed pullout plan, which the senate may not consider again until after its august recess.
this "ain't" a kangaroo court
but a kangaroo loving one.
the case is viva international vs. adidas, s140064. the opinion is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions.
we agree...... "no shoes of roos!"
soccer cleats and other athletic footwear made with prized kangaroo skin is illegal to sell in california under a decision today by the california supreme court.
the state high court ruled unanimously that shoe and apparel-maker adidas was violating a state ban on imports of certain wildlife by selling soccer cleats and other sports shoes made with kangaroo hide. - latte times
the case is viva international vs. adidas, s140064. the opinion is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions.
we agree...... "no shoes of roos!"
Labels: kangaroo, supreme court
skippy's monday nite music club
bloomberg boom bid for dem, sez polls
quinnipac universtiy finds that if bloomberg enters the race as an independent, it will only help the dems.
if new york city mayor michael bloomberg runs for president as an independent candidate, it helps democrats in florida, according to a quinnipiac university poll released today. in a two- way race, former new york city mayor rudolph giuliani edges new york sen. hillary clinton 46 - 44 percent. with bloomberg in the mix, taking 9 percent, clinton inches past giuliani 41 - 39 percent, giving the democrat her best shot so far at florida's crucial 27 electoral votes.
in a matchup of second place contenders, illinois sen. barack obama tops former tennessee sen. fred thompson 42 - 39 percent, the independent quinnipiac (kwin-uh-pe-ack) university poll finds. in a three-way race, obama doubles his lead over thompson to 38 - 32 percent, with 14 percent for bloomberg.
"the conventional wisdom may be that mayor bloomberg's generally liberal approach to many issues would mean he would take more votes from democrats and help the republicans in a three-way race. at this point, that just isn't so," said peter brown, assistant director of the quinnipiac university polling institute.
in a matchup of second place contenders, illinois sen. barack obama tops former tennessee sen. fred thompson 42 - 39 percent, the independent quinnipiac (kwin-uh-pe-ack) university poll finds. in a three-way race, obama doubles his lead over thompson to 38 - 32 percent, with 14 percent for bloomberg.
"the conventional wisdom may be that mayor bloomberg's generally liberal approach to many issues would mean he would take more votes from democrats and help the republicans in a three-way race. at this point, that just isn't so," said peter brown, assistant director of the quinnipiac university polling institute.
Labels: democrats, polls, prez campaign
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