skippy the bush kangaroo

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

skippy's halloween nite music club

scary, kids!



mike tyson & bobby brown - monster mash

scary addendum, kids!: left i on the news has the original tune, plus some other halloweeny tricks and treats!

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 2 comments

mark fiore reminds us to be afraid

really, really super duper afraid.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 8:52 PM | 0 comments

god hates phelps

or at least a federal jury does. they have awarded several million to a family whose son's funeral was interrupted by the infamous fred "god hates fags" phelps and his gang. cnn:

the family of lance cpl. matthew snyder -- who was killed in a vehicle accident in iraq's anbar province in 2006 -- sued the westboro baptist church in topeka, kansas, and its leaders for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

church members showed up at snyder's funeral chanting derogatory slogans and holding picket signs with messages including "god hates fags."
on an unrelated yet typographically tangential subject, we were rather put off by the obviously theme-pertinent google ads found on the cnn page about the funeral; they include bereavement air fares, infant loss remembrance items, and memorial website creations.

we're glad phelps didn't protest someone's colonscopy.

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posted by skippy at 8:41 PM | 5 comments

quote of the day

while it falls under the category of "damning with faint praise," we still welcome john cole of balloon juice to the left side of blogtopia (y!wctp!), and especially like his reasoning for leaving the gop for the dems:

long story short, i got up there to register as an independent, said “fuck it,” and now i am a democrat. i certainly don’t agree with all their positions, but they are not bat-shit crazy like the gop. that has to count for something.
yeah, for something...

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posted by skippy at 7:29 PM | 2 comments

roo on the loose

mad kane sends us this notice about a runaway 'roo in copenhagen:

danish police on tuesday appealed for public help to track down a kangaroo that escaped from its owner's home in copenhagen.

two of the fleet-footed native australian marsupials escaped from their owner's residence in the copenhagen neighbourhood of amager on monday.

one found its own way home on tuesday, but the second remains on the loose, police said.

"passersby saw it on tuesday afternoon and its owner, jan passer, is on his way to try to persuade it to return home," a police officer told reporters.
but was jan passer a passerby? and did the passersby pass by passer?

"he is very nice, according to his owner, and easy to cajole with just a carrot," he added.
[ed. note: who isn't?]

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posted by skippy at 6:02 PM | 0 comments

the letter writing chuck stops

here

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posted by Cookie Jill at 4:02 PM | 0 comments

the whole country has a short attention span

it's not just me.

democratic rivals target clinton’s vote on iran
while clinton continued to separate herself from opponents who have called for an immediate withdrawal of u.s. troops from iraq — saying, “i stand for ending the war in iraq and bringing our troops home, but i also understand that it’s going to take time” — former sen. john edwards of north carolina zeroed in on clinton’s vote for a congressional resolution that declared iran’s revolutionary guard a terrorist organization.

that vote, he said, cleared the way for (ed) awol
to invade iran.
ok, so here it is, 2 years after many of us crazy lefty bloggers started complaining that our country was gearing up for war with iran, and now it looks like we weren't precisely crazy, so much as early. well here's what i want to know:

anyone remember afghanistan?
posted by The One True Tami at 5:00 AM | 3 comments

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

last week we were baking...

this week....we're s h a k i n g!
an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 and an epicenter in the south bay shook the bay area at 8:04 p.m. tonight, rolling and jolting buildings so powerfully that it prompted some people to duck for shelter. - sfgate
can you say a "frog's jump" to the hayward fault?

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:59 PM | 4 comments

skippy's all hallows' eve eve music club



herman munster - people are strange

(ok, it's actually just a montage of the munsters to the echo and the bunnymen version of the doors' classic hit...but happy halloween!)

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 0 comments

skippy's tuesday nite music club, bonus trax...rip robert goulet



the man could sing. rest in peace, bob.

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posted by skippy at 9:37 PM | 0 comments

broker, brokest

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

the dem daily has an interesting post from a housing industry professional called confessions of a mortgage broker: one perspective on the impending housing meltdown:

at the height of “subprime mania”, then, people with bad credit were given loans without having to prove income (and sometimes employment), without having to pay down payments or closing costs, and, in some cases, without even having a property looked at by an appraiser, and even at astonishingly low credit scores. these, however, were bad loans, meaning higher rates (though still scaled to credit grade), payment increase at two or three years, and substantial penalties for repaying too soon. room was even found within this general framework for people buying “investment” property. and the way that the mortgage industry got to this point was by gradual evolution, one guideline modification at a time.

from the perspective of the loan officer, these deals were really two fers. sure, the rates were going to skyrocket but no one involved believe that anyone would ever have to face making payments at those rates. the borrowers would clean their credit, season their employment, have a track record on that newly opened company, and/or any of a number of other things that would allow them to qualify for the gold standard of mortgages, a conventional loan. or, barring that (because borrowers are human, after all) the folks would come back in in two years and we’d reset them with a new subprime, thereby keeping payments down in the comfort zone, and every one would be happy and prosperous.

as the numbers of unqualified borrowers started to mount, so did the defaults. defaults flow to foreclosures and foreclosures to losses, and losses to a cut off of fresh money to subprime lenders, and the money cutoff to more foreclosures because the lending cycle ends and the piper finally must be paid full due.

and in the end, there’s still the current economy to add into the mix.

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posted by skippy at 9:18 PM | 0 comments

thanks

big thanks to the kenosha kid for his skippy awareness week.

once the move of skippy international headquarters is complete and we get our dsl service back, we will discuss the treatment of skippy in matt bai's book.

also, we are happy that internet ronin has added our humble blog to the high profile section of his roll. before he realizes what mistake he has made, we are pleased as a platypus to add ir to our roll, too.

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posted by skippy at 7:14 PM | 2 comments

down the penrose lane

Example

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posted by skippy at 11:24 AM | 1 comments

mad about rudy's poetry

mad kane, that is!

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posted by skippy at 11:20 AM | 0 comments

live from washington, dc

the brad blog is live-blogging hearings in the u.s. house judiciary's subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights, and civil liberties featuring john "minorities die first" tanner. his recent objectionable comments were originally video-taped and reported by the brad blog several weeks ago.

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posted by skippy at 10:26 AM | 0 comments

san diego freeway blogging

the freeway blogger finds a kindred spirit in san diego.

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posted by skippy at 10:21 AM | 1 comments

dead meat walking

joe gandelman of the moderate voice sends us to his co-blogger, dr. clarissa pinola estes, for an analysis of the death penalty from neither a left nor right agenda.

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posted by skippy at 10:16 AM | 0 comments

Monday, October 29, 2007

skippy's monday nite music club



gilbert and sullivan's baby got back

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posted by Carnacki at 8:47 PM | 3 comments

ahhh....

no.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:23 PM | 1 comments

the fog of work

a heartbreaking article on the h**l a kurdish/iraqi immigrant has been put through at work here in the united states.

from sfgate -

"oh, nummi hires terrorists now?" was the sort of remark he says he heard commonly. his presence among co-workers invariably brought about mention of jihad or terrorism. one day, he was told by a superior that his lunchbox needed to be searched. when he asked why, he said he was led to believe he was considered a possible suicide bomber.

"i just opened the lunch box. i was dumbfounded. i was so shameful. i didn't know what to say."

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:15 PM | 0 comments

blackwater bodyguards given immunity

un-freakin'-believable.
the state department promised blackwater usa bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month’s deadly shooting of 17 iraqi civilians, the associated press has learned. - msnbc/ap
while secretary of state condoleezza rice told congress last week she “regrets” the lack of oversight of blackwater, she neglected to mention that she granted the blackwater guards prosecutorial immunity after the shootings. - think progress
the state department investigators from the agency’s investigative arm, the bureau of diplomatic security, offered the immunity grants even though they did not have the authority to do so, the said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. prosecutors at the justice department, who do have such authority, had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, they added. - nytimes
the state department keeps saying that iraq is a sovereign nation...then, shouldn't iraqis decide when, where or if they try these murderers in court?

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:30 PM | 1 comments

quote we love of the day

"....both mainstream parties are looking likely to nominate deeply flawed candidates. if the race comes down to hillary and giuliani, the green party could nominate big bird and win 28% of the vote. and a third party is definitely needed, since the democrats have become captives of the money wing of their party." - matt taibbi interviewed on scholars and rogues (kangaroo tail tip to c&l)

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:20 PM | 0 comments

apparently $1.1 mill doesn't buy as much as it used to

you'd think that for the amount of money ron paul is spending on his television ad campaign, he could afford better actors:

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posted by skippy at 4:50 PM | 2 comments

let us turn to the book of skippy, chapter 4, verse 3

it looks like barack "to the future" obama is turning out to be barack "to the 1930's" obama after all.

john avarosis at americablog (and believe us, we only link to him to garner more memeorandum traffic, but we really got the quote from shakesville) reports that obama's latest gospel tour has turned into an anti-gay pride parade:

then, just when the concert had seemed to reach its pitch and about to end, [ex-gay cazy gospel singer donnie] mcclurkin returned to it with a full-blown plea: “don’t call me a bigot or anti-gay when i have suffered the same feelings,” he cried.

“god delivered me from homosexuality,” he added. he then told the audience to believe the bible over the blogs: “god is the only way.” the crowd sang and clapped along in full support.
[ed. note: what blatant bigotry! what prejudice! what outlanding intolerance! how dare he endorse the bible over blogs?]

the political implications of his performance are not clear. the concert-goers we talked with afterward were generally more focused on making allowances for mr. mcclurkin’s past homosexuality than on anything about mr. obama.

the obama campaign had appeared to be caught off guard by the reaction to inviting mr. mcclurkin in the first place, and it may have been surprised tonight by the degree to which the singer focused on himself. the other speakers and singers had avoided referencing the controversy. even an openly gay minister whom mr. obama had invited after the fact to try to appease his gay and lesbian critics spoke so early that few people heard him.
this will not endear obama to any progressive, and we would posit that anybody who was waffling or on the fence about obama will not come firmly down on the side of "how's john edwards looking?"

meantime, "ex-"gay donnie mcclurken had better watch out for the wrath of skippy, for skippy is a vengeful 'roo, and ye shall hold no other blogs above him.

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posted by skippy at 4:31 PM | 3 comments

iowa hearts huckabee

the university of iowa hawkeye poll puts radar way ahead of hotlips hoolihan.

ok, sorry, we'll start again.

the university of iowa hawkey poll has sens. clinton and obama fighting it out for number one among dems, while mitt "don't call me baseball glove" romney is tops for repubbbs.

but the big surprise, tho these days it's no surprise, is the surge that former alabama gov. mike huckabee is making in the polls. u of i news:

mitt romney continues to hold a strong lead in iowa among candidates seeking the republican presidential nomination. but mike huckabee's iowa numbers -- buoyed, perhaps, by growing support among evangelical christians -- have jumped significantly since august, putting him in a near-tie with rudy giuliani and fred thompson, according to a new university of iowa hawkeye poll of likely gop caucus-goers released today, monday, oct. 29, 2007.

despite giuliani's lead in most national polls, romney holds a strong lead in iowa at 36.2 percent, with giuliani second at 13.1 percent, huckabee third with 12.8 percent and thompson fourth at 11.4 percent. john mccain has 6.0 percent.

in the race for the democratic presidential nomination, meanwhile, a slip in john edwards' numbers has allowed hillary clinton and barack obama to tighten their grips on the no. 1 and no. 2 spots, respectively. among all likely democratic caucus-goers, clinton leads with 28.9 percent, followed by obama with 26.6 percent, edwards with 20.0 percent, bill richardson with 7.2 percent and joe biden with 5.3 percent.
huckabee's favorite status in the evangelical set may spell trouble for the gop, which is hanging its hat (or diamond tiara, in this case) on guiliani.

huckabee is far too right wingnutcase for mainstream america, and the gop likes the patina of daddy-protecorate that giuliani has cross-dressed himself with.

meanwhile, the la times sez it's really funny how the polls don't reflect the big hoopla that barack "to the future" obama receives at his campaign stops:

democratic pollster mark mellman, who worked on john f. kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, cautioned that it was far too early to predict a winner in iowa. kerry, he is fond of recalling, lagged in third place until a few weeks before the caucuses. that said, mellman is also puzzled by obama's poll numbers.

"there is something missing," mellman said. "he's raised money in unbelievable amounts, generated tremendous enthusiasm . . . and vast amounts of publicity. and those advantages were not given to him on a silver platter. he earned them. there is something unique and special about this guy, and i don't know why that has not translated into more support."

after watching obama speak on his des moines campus recently, drake university political science professor dennis goldford glimpsed one reason obama is not faring as well as many think he should.

"there is a tremendous curiosity factor. he radiated a certain cool that would be very attractive to college students and young people," goldford said. "for older voters, though" -- and half of caucusgoers are 55 or older -- "the music's great, but where are the lyrics? he's been trying to fill that out somewhat, but for people inclined to go to the caucus anyway, the lack of experience is significant."
here's the lyrics:

suicide is painless
and it brings on many changes
and i can take or leave it if i please...

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posted by skippy at 10:15 AM | 1 comments

feeble fema

think progress is reporting that the einstein over at fema who decided to hold a fake press conference has resigned for a new job.

on tuesday, while “wildfires raged” in california, fema staged a live press conference at which agency staffers posed as journalists and asked softball questions. one of those staffers, director of external affairs john “pat” philbin, has now resigned. he has instead landed an “amazing opportunity” to head public affairs at the office of the director of national intelligence.
but the washpost sez that now that new job is in limbo:

john p. "pat" philbin, fema's external affairs director, on monday was supposed to take over the public information shop at the office of national intelligence director headed by mike mcconnell. but that was put on hold so mcconnell could review philbin's record, according to dni spokesman ross feinstein.
whoops! hope mcconnell doesn't look at philbin's resume under "fake press conferences"!

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posted by skippy at 10:01 AM | 2 comments

Sunday, October 28, 2007

skippy's sunday night music club

sunday. the day of the gods. the gods of guitar.



santana and clapton at the crossroads guitar festival.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:59 PM | 1 comments

hey...we're not on fire again!

hawai'i is.

brush fires that appeared to be arson burned out of control sunday along the coast of hawaii's largest island, sending hundreds of people fleeing inland, officials said.

no homes were damaged and no one was injured, but officials on the big island worried the fires could approach residential areas with a slight change in hawaii's temperamental breezes, said duane hosaka, staff officer for hawaii county civil defense.

..nine fires appear to have been set in dry grasses along coastal roads near kamuela early sunday, hosaka said. the evacuation order affected an estimated 500 people. - ap


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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:14 PM | 0 comments

finally, something we can agree w/the fundies about

over at the all spin zone, there is discussion of the david kirkpatrick nytimes article that analyzes the fundamental christian movement's involvement in politics. it seems that the fundies, much like the rest of the universe, aren't too happy w/the repubbbs:

david kirkpatrick of the new york times has been following the influence of the radical christian right on u.s. politics for a long time. this morning, the nyt magazine published an extremely important article from kirkpatrick on the political evolution of the evangelical movement, and how (and why) culturally conservative church leaders are moving away from the gop.

the essence of kirkpatrick’s examination of this evolving phenomena can be summed up in a single sentence:

many evangelicals feel hoodwinked and betrayed by a republican party propaganda machine that foisted george bush on christian conservatives.

a paragraph of statistics give the reader an idea of how far bush, and by default the gop, has fallen in the eyes of the true believers:

today the president’s support among evangelicals, still among his most loyal constituents, has crumbled. once close to 90 percent, the president’s approval rating among white evangelicals has fallen to a recent low below 45 percent, according to polls by the pew research center. white evangelicals under 30 — the future of the church — were once bush’s biggest fans; now they are less supportive than their elders. and the dissatisfaction extends beyond bush. for the first time in many years, white evangelical identification with the republican party has dipped below 50 percent…
submitted for your approval: it’s not just “white evangelical identification” with the gop. the rapid dropoff in bush’s support by the christian conservative right is a reflection of the general mood of the nation. it’s not just a response to bush, but a response to the state of politics in general.
the allspinzone may be right, and, going further, awol may not be the reason people are turned off by sleazy politics; rather, awol himself may be nothing more than the logical result of sleazy politics.

in other words, awol is the inevitable end of what lee atwater begun.

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posted by skippy at 5:18 PM | 1 comments

net neutrality....dead?

a couple of senators are thinking not.
two senators on friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the internet and on cell phones.

sens. byron dorgan, d-nd., and olympia snowe, r-maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including comcast corp., verizon wireless and at&t inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies' "power to discriminate against content."

..comcast -- the nation's no. 2 internet provider -- has acknowledged "delaying" some subscriber internet data, but said the delays are temporary and intended to improve surfing for other users.

verizon wireless in late september denied a request by naral pro-choice america, an abortion rights group, to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.

...at&t reportedly changed a service agreement that previously included language permitting the company to cancel accounts of internet users who disparage the company. - ap

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:37 AM | 0 comments

two pulse polls walk into a bar

via caro at makethemaccountable (who suggests we write in al gore for #1, 2 and 3), here's the democracy for america 2008 pulse poll.

take a moment to participate, please.

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posted by skippy at 9:30 AM | 0 comments

first faux news...now faux sports?

from think progress:
last night, fox aired a montage prior its airing of the red sox/rockies game that celebrated great moments in world series history. “the story of the world series is told in seven chapters,” the narrator said, “each with their old tale, each with their own hero. these stories take us back in time to the place where we witnessed greatness.” ....fox also deemed president bush’s first pitch in game 3 of the 2001 world series worthy of inclusion.

...in the segment, actors playing firemen gather around the television to laud bush for “wearing our uniform” and watch in awe as bush throws “a strike.”
forget the bag of peanuts, i needed a barf bag.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 8:39 AM | 0 comments

skippy's emergency sunday morning music club

since we just found out the big 'roo is from colorado. so, without further adieu, we present john denver.



(but...go sox, still.)

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posted by Cookie Jill at 1:41 AM | 2 comments

Saturday, October 27, 2007

skippy's saturday night music club

sneak this in before the big 'roo sees it!


you can take the girl outta new england, but you can't take the new england outta the girl! and i love that dirty water and...so do the strandells.

go sox!

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:59 PM | 1 comments

doesn't anyone proof read the headlines?

uk telegraph - man who had sex with bike in court

did the jury watch?

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posted by skippy at 10:34 PM | 1 comments

mad about condi

mad kane, that is!

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posted by skippy at 10:29 PM | 0 comments

happy impeachment day

my favorite float from the seattle parade:



get a backbone
"get a backbone"

the police estimated 600 people which seemed awfully low.

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posted by George at 3:33 PM | 2 comments

breeders cup day

outside, it's a foggy, moist day today...
inside it warm, inviting and exciting...
i'm glued to espn to watch the ponies race.

they're racing at monmouth park in jersey today. wonder if our own beloved jerseyite, dbk, is in attendence.

congrats to our blogging buddy, alan (from left at the gate) who is the official blogger of the breeder's cup!

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:14 AM | 2 comments

Friday, October 26, 2007

skippy's friday nite music club

rock out, kids...



the clash - should i stay or should i go?

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 2 comments

so?

fema has apologized for holding a press conference without the press. abc news:

in the statement, johnson said fema is reviewing its procedures to ensure that future communications with the press are "straightforward and transparent."

"we can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment," johnson said.

but he asked the media not to focus on that misjudgment, and instead concentrate on the "real story" of the successes of the efforts in california.

turns out the u.s. government still believes the news media is needed -- at least at press conferences.
but we're a little confused here.

fema held a press conference without any actual journalists attending, to ask any real pertinent questions of the administration.

and this would be different from the last 7 years in exactly what way?

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posted by skippy at 10:58 PM | 4 comments

but how did they know?

from the emails we never finished reading dept:

what's happening skippybkroo
realizing your dick is small is just the beginning
but what's the end?

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posted by skippy at 10:42 PM | 0 comments

march in october

we received the following email reminding us of the "impeach awol" march tomorrow:

tomorrow, saturday, october 27, tens of thousands of people nationwide will take to the streets demanding impeachment and an end to the war. impeachbush members are mobilizing nationwide to take part in these actions. the call for impeachment is being heard coast to coast. congress is unable to hide from this constitutional requirement being demanded by their constituencies.

we are hitting the streets again on october 27 as mass actions sweep this country in mass regional demonstrations in san francisco, los angeles, new york, chicago, seattle, boston, orlando and ft. lauderdale, fl., chattanooga, new orleans, salt lake city, philadelphia, jonesboro, and others. to see the exact locations and times for the various demonstrations, go to the impeachbush homepage.

impeachbush is mobilizing buses, printing posters, placards, banners and leaflets for october 27. please join us on saturday and let the message of impeachment appear in the streets from one end of the country to the other. if you cannot come, but would like to make a donation to help others participate in the demonstrations demanding an end to the war and the impeachment of bush and cheney, you can do so by clicking this link.
if you're nearby any of the following sites, be sure to stop by and lend your support:

san francisco
11am at the civic center

los angeles
12 noon at olympic & broadway

seattle
12 noon at judkins park

chicago
1:30pm at union park

new orleans
2pm at washington square

salt lake city
11am at the utah state capitol

new york
12 noon at union square

ft. lauderdale, fl
meet at 201 se 24th st at 11am / rally at 12:45pm at welcome park

orlando, fl
12:30pm at lake eola park

chatanooga, tn
12 noon at coolidge park

boston
12 noon at boston common

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posted by skippy at 9:48 PM | 3 comments

our state is taking a huge financial hit

with these fires. so....where are you going for your next vacation?

"california...here we come!"

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posted by Cookie Jill at 8:52 PM | 0 comments

john garamendi, our former insurance commissioner

is out and fighting tough for our state.

but....not a peep out of our current insurance commissioner, steve poizner. you think he might be on the "tee vee" warning the insurance companies in california to play by the rules and pay claims to the fire victims. but...no. not a freakin' peep.

you think that it could be because he's *gasp* republican?
you think that it could be because he's *gasp* busy eyeing 2010?
you think it could be because he's *gasp* planning on pulling a "quackenbush?"

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:46 PM | 1 comments

whiskey lovers....stock up

seems the environment might put a new meaning to the word..."dry"
jack daniels water supply is running low and putting the century-plus whiskey business in jeopardy.

jerry hamilton is the distillery plant manager for jack daniels. he checks the progress of the whiskey being made at the lynchburg distillery. while doing so he finds a small problem - wasting water. - wbko

just when you thought you needed a drink watching california go up in flames.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:30 PM | 0 comments

next up on cnn

barbara bush will discuss how wildfires worked out "rather well" for californians.

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posted by George at 12:02 PM | 1 comments

wild about fire

fema chief pleased with wildfire response.
this disproves kanye west's statement how?

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posted by George at 11:32 AM | 0 comments

the leasons fema learned at katrina

was to spin the news...quickly...to not address the reality based situation at hand.
fema has truly learned the lessons of katrina. even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. for example, as the california wildfires raged tuesday, vice adm. harvey e. johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at fema's southwest d.c. offices. they were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a "listen only" line, the notice said -- no questions. parts of the briefing were carried live on fox news, msnbc and other outlets.

johnson stood behind a lectern and began with an overview before saying he would take a few questions. the first questions were about the "commodities" being shipped to southern california and how officials are dealing with people who refuse to evacuate. he responded eloquently.

...very smooth, very professional. but something didn't seem right. the reporters were lobbing too many softballs.

..of course, that could be because the questions were asked by fema staffers playing reporters. we're told the questions were asked by cindy taylor, fema's deputy director of external affairs, and by "mike" widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. director of external affairs john "pat" philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide ali kirin. - wapo

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:45 AM | 2 comments

shrill?

did someone say shrill? my full and uncoerced confession.

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posted by George at 2:13 AM | 0 comments

around blogtopia

blogtopus thinks electoral reform only works if every state is in on it;

jurassicpork doesn't like practical jokes when played by blackwater;

linkmeister discusses the book american theocracy;

and the modulator found a list of the 100 most informative blogs, of which we are not one.

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posted by skippy at 1:00 AM | 0 comments

say hello

to medulla noodle.

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posted by skippy at 12:59 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, October 25, 2007

skippy's thursday nite music club



catherine zeta jones - all that jazz

the impressive thing about the film chicago is that rene zellwigger, catherine zeta jones taye diggs and richard gere all did their own singing and dancing.

catherine zeta jones cut her chops on the english musical stage early in her career, and is quite proficient at hoofing and belting out a tune, and this clip shows as much.

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 3 comments

bad news, skippy

awol visiting your neck of the woods can mean only one thing. the curse of the bush photo op is bound to make things worse.

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posted by George at 11:00 PM | 0 comments

quote of the day

nonynony over at boomantrib:

the only advantage that the democrats have right now with the electorate is that they're not republicans. people aren't voting for them because the democratic name is good - they're voting for them because the republican brand has been dragged through the toilet, carried down the street on the back of a skunk, and thrown off an overpass. all it will take is 4-8 years of republicans screaming their asses off about how "evil" the majority democrats are and how terrible they've made the country and the republicans will be back in full force - like the terminator robot, or jason in his hockey mask.

hell, they recovered from nixon in basically one presidential cycle - that should have kept them in the wilderness for decades but it was just 4 years. w may be worse than nixon, but is he more than twice as worse? three times as worse? 8 years max - and i'm betting on 4 unless the dem president that gets elected next year is really fucking competent and can also walk on water and crap gold bricks on command.

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posted by skippy at 9:39 PM | 2 comments

it's been said before

no more $$ for dems. i even had a $100 burning a hole in my pocket when the dnc called. i love dean's 50 state approach but until he and pelosi put impeachment on the table my wallet is staying in my pocket for the "give money because they're a democrat" pitch.

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posted by George at 9:06 PM | 3 comments

lt. gov. john garamendi

lays it all out for k.o.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:31 PM | 1 comments

down the penrose lane

Example

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posted by skippy at 7:28 PM | 1 comments

not only that, norman lear is a bigot

we usually agree w/jessica and melissa, but this time, we think they're way off.

consider this episode of the comic strip crankshaft:

Example

many of the ladies' readers, as well as the ladies themselves, think this is a joke about rape and violence against women at worst; even at best, it's a joke in which elderly women's attractability is the punchline.

we say that those folks who are up in arms over this comic are obviously people who don't know the character of ed crankshaft.

crankshaft, a 60 something grumpy bus driver, never has a good word for anybody. crankshaft relishes his misery, and especially enjoys foisting his bad mood onto everybody around him.

he's grumpy, he's rude, he's curmudgeony, he's politically incorrect, he's mean, he's nasty, he's a prick, he's an asshole, he's the kind of guy who makes archie bunker look like mahatma ghandi.

and speaking of mr. bunker, it seems to us that holding cartoonist tom batiuk responsible for having the same views as his creation crankshaft would be like assuming norman lear hates black people because his famous queens dock foreman did.

perhaps because skippy is first and foremost a comedian, he is wont to take the comic's side in a fracas. however, a politically insensitive ficitonal character making a deliberately rude (and politically insensitive) remark to another fictional character isn't the same as, say, michael richards joking about lynching.

now, we are not saying violence against women is funny, we are not saying elderly women aren't attacked, we are not saying them gals jes' oughtta shut up and roll with it.

but we are saying there is context in fiction, and especially in comedy. we hate to point this out, but jessica herself says on her post "i don't know much about this comic, crankshaft, in general"...

we would submit that one might want to research something before opining upon it.

are we alone in the wilderness on this one?

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posted by skippy at 6:58 PM | 3 comments

when darth cheney sleeps...

does he dream of sheep being tortured?

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:54 PM | 0 comments

thanks a whole h**l of a lot, awol

you know where you can stuff your freakin' photo op.
rancho bernardo residents began their journey back home with a surprise today.

they were stuck in traffic for two to three hours sitting in their cars at a standstill because of president bush's visit to their community.

police and the chp had blocked off interstate 15 ramps to west bernardo drive, which leads to the recovery center that was opened yesterday. cars lined up for miles on the freeway. - san diego tribune via tbogg
why couldn't you just stay where you are and watch dvd's of the news coverage of this disaster just like you did katrina.

you want to help california? get the h**l out of here.
you want to help americans? resign. resign now.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:12 PM | 1 comments

treasoners

send them to iraq....without bodyarmour.
two former top executives of the leading supplier of body armor to the u.s. military were indicted today on charges of insider trading, fraud and tax evasion in a scheme that netted them nearly $200 million, federal prosecutors said.

...brooks and hatfield also are accused of failing to report more than $10 million in bonus payments to themselves and other dhb employees to the irs. - trentonian

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posted by Cookie Jill at 5:52 PM | 1 comments

top ten signs that dumbledore was gay

anyone who knew him should have realized because dumbledore...

10. was always using the invisible cloak in the locker room after a quiddich match;

9. would rather let severus snape than professor mcgonagall handle his wizard's staff;

8. got all his best capes from liberace;

7. his favorite party game: bobbin' for dobin;

6. the only hooters he ever liked were the actual owls;

5. he who must not be named made him feel the love that dares not speak its name;

4. knew what to look for to tell the weasly twins apart;

3. was once married to liza minelli;

2. had personal knowledge that hagrid was a giant in more ways than one;

and the number one sign that dumbledore was gay:

1. if you were extra nice to him, he'd show you own private "hairy potter."

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posted by skippy at 11:34 AM | 4 comments

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

skippy's wednesday nite music club

a tribute to all the hard working fire-fighters out there, here's a classic rock favorite:



the doors - light my fire

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posted by skippy at 11:49 PM | 6 comments

say hello

to dog fight at bankstown.

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posted by skippy at 11:13 PM | 0 comments

blogtopia blogs the fires

over at calitics is a great run-down round-up of the blogs work on the fires story.

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posted by skippy at 11:07 PM | 0 comments

faux news says california fires

started by al qaeda.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:03 PM | 0 comments

romneybus

media blood hound thinks that mitt made a mistake in the middle of making the mistake of attributing bin laden's sins to barack:

it's also worth examining the precise construction of his alleged blunder on monday: "actually, just look at what osam -- barack obama -- said just yesterday. barack obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in iraq." it's certainly a curious order in which this "confusion" occurs. had romney begun by saying, "just look at what obam -- osama bin laden said just yesterday," it would be somewhat more believable it was said in error. but the order is extremely awkward, demanding a rather difficult verbal contortion: romney utters the first two syllables of osama's first name, then verbally pivots to deliver the illinois senator's full name, which starts not with the similar sounding "obama" but rather with "barack." there's absolutely nothing natural about this transition: "osam -- barack..."

rather, it sounds like romney may have intended to slip obama's name in there, a premeditated talking point, but muffed it. thus, "osam -- barack" instead of, say, "osam -- obama" or "obam -- osama." what's worse, even more of a stretch of imagination, is that romney, ostensibly failing to grasp his first mistake, then repeats "barack obama" instead of osama bin laden in his following sentence.

curious, indeed.

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posted by skippy at 8:58 PM | 1 comments

help! we need somebody!

the very fabulous joe gandelman of the moderate voice has compiled this list of pages you can visit to if you'd like to help the dispossessed of socal fires:

here are some places to visit if you want to help:

–network for good: a blog that gives you links to groups where your donations can be put to immediate use.

–u.s. program of international orthodox christian charities (iocc)

–the los angeles times offers this vital page with lots of info on how to help.

–cbs2 also offers an extensive list.

–this page of fox 6’s website in san diego has info on some local donations offered…and needed including a state number where corporations can call and donate.
–eye out for you

-nourish america

–children’s network international

–animal relief info: kinship circle
addendum: ruth at corrente wire finds the california fire foundation, a fire victims and firefighter assistance website (thanks to mjs).

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posted by skippy at 8:45 PM | 0 comments

schwarzenegger, you're fired

we wish we could say that. miriam rafferty, over at the brad blog, reports from the evacuation mess that is san diego california:

san diego county now has more refugees than new orleans after hurricane katrina. while reported loss of life thus far remains low, hundreds of thousands of acres have been scorched and countless people will soon return home--only to find themselves homeless.

governor arnold schwarzenegger and local officials have made media appearances claiming credit for swiftly responding to the disaster. “there is much more equipment available, more manpower is available, quicker action,” schwarzenegger said, according to the associated press.

what the governor failed to mention is that he vetoed four bills that would have increased staffing and fire resources after the cedar fire, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. a fifth bill, signed by schwarzenegger, requires local governments to first submit safety plans to the california department of forestry and will not take effect until 2010, the los angeles times reported in a may 20, 2007 article titled “fire danger acute as 2003 lessons fade.” that article has since disappeared off the newspaper’s website, but a copy is here.
`
the same story cited dallas jones, former director of the governor’s office of emergency services and current official with california professional firefighters union. jones damned schwarzenegger for failing to provide additional firetrucks. “how many years are we since the ’03 fire siege?” he asked, “and so far, nothing.”

other unfulfilled recommendations made to schwarzenegger by his blue ribbon fire commission include replacement of aging fire helicopters, increasing staffing to assure four person crews on each state fire engine sent to major wildfires, and nighttime air drops.
addendum: politicky bitch took her family down to qualcomm stadium, and got hassled by homeland security.

double addendum: over at the dem daily, stuart o'neill makes a good case that the national multi-millionaire media's story of the good coordination and efforts by federal authorities from the national media is a complete misrepresentation.

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posted by skippy at 8:03 PM | 0 comments

we're always aware

kudos to the kenosha kid, who for reasons unknown to but not unwelcomed by us, has declared this week skippy the bush kangaroo week:

i was leafing through matt bai's new book in borders today, and there was a whole section puffing up the great orange satan. unfortunately, it seemed like there was a cheap shot at the expense of us lesser bloggers, with skippy the bush kangaroo serving as punching bag. in retaliation my organization, the center for sticking up for non-a list bloggers is announcing skippy the bush kangaroo awareness week. i'm hoping all fifteen of my regular readers will head over there and show him some love.
we can't honestly believe that matt bai mentioned skippy by name. but we'll take all the good thoughts from earnest bloggers like the kenosha kid that we can, and we are happy to report that two of the kid's fifteen readers have already stopped by.

we kenosha kid you not!

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posted by skippy at 7:53 PM | 4 comments

firefighters in need of resources and equipment

unbelievable photo by wally skalij from latte times

wouldn't it be nice to have the national guard here, helping the firefighters, and doing something honorable in aiding our country instead of being cannon foder for the emperor's entertainment?

some of these firefighters are working 35 hours straight...in 100+ degree weather..lugging heavy equipment...fighting the flames and the mercurial santa ana winds.

wouldn't it be nice if the spineless democrats would work 35 hours straight fighting back against this imperial president?

wonder if the rethugs wanted to stop these sources of aid at the borders?
tijuana was sending engines and its own bomberos into san diego to join the fight. and canada is sending a huge martin mars seaplane that can dump enough water to cover three acres of ground in a single pass. - san diego tribune
and, guess who's back offering his "expertise" in disaster relief and preparedness, brownie!
omfg.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:09 PM | 1 comments

down the penrose lane

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

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posted by skippy at 11:23 AM | 3 comments

fireline blogging

the freeway blogger thought it was too windy to put up signs in calif today, so he did some first hand front line reporting from the fires:

standing with the crowds of newsmen and onlookers at the frontlines things were a lot more serious. firemen were spooling hoses from the street hydrants through the narrows between the houses to make a stand from the back yards of the homes at the canyon’s edge, moving quickly but not urgently, giving an overall impression that their efforts were either going to work or they weren’t: it was all up to the wind. a helicopter appeared right in front of us, coming out of nowhere from the blackness behind the houses, like something out of a movie. plumes of white smoke began mixing with the black as the hoses started running and there was a collective cheer from the crowd, followed by a gasp as a huge gust of superheated wind blew off the mountain, covering all of us with smoke and ash. it was time to go.

i’m about twenty miles to the west now, writing outside. i’ve tried listening to the news, but with so many fires going on i haven’t heard what happened to santiago canyon. little bits of ash are falling on my keyboard and it’s strange to think they may be pieces of the neighborhood i’ve been writing about.

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posted by skippy at 10:47 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

skippy's tuesday nite music club



kings of leon - california waiting

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 1 comments

awol, take your traveling sideshow

of disaster photo ops somewhere else. california doesn't need a visit from you.

you had photo ops for 9/11 and then we found out that you really didn't worry your little head about osama bin laden. we heard your promises of bringing to justice those who were involved in 9/11. you lied.

you had your photo op in new orleans with the lights shining brightly only for you as the city lay in darkness. we then find out that you gave more federal money to your republican buddies than you did for those really needing aid and comfort. we heard the promises of aid and help you made to new orleans and the gulf states and those affected by katrina. you lied.

we don't need your pathetic posing for disaster photo ops.
we don't need your sniveling false pity promoted by the corporate media.
we don't need your promises made for political marketing purposes.

california doesn't need you nor your swarm of sycophantic political remoras. we need someone in the presidency who gives a damn about the constitution. who gives a damn about non-millionaires. who gives a damn about people who are suffering. who gives a damn about fixing what a disaster has wrought. who gives a damn about the economic health of the state, of the country more than the "political giving rangers."

california needs you to go away. we need you to go away...now. southern california isn't a federal disaster.....you are.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:18 PM | 3 comments

heartbreaking

just heartbreaking.

from christine hanley in the latte times

veterinarian matt matthews examined the horse's broken left leg and solemnly shook his head.

"i can't fix it," he told glenda parcell. "he'll bleed to death."

the horse, tater, had fallen in a trailer in the middle of the night as parcell and her husband fled the la jolla indian reservation just east of fallbrook.

they had to slam on the brakes to avoid colliding with a volkswagon that had stopped without warning on the only road out.

now, standing in the parking lot of the pala casino, matthews filled a syringe with two narcotics, torbugesic and xylazine, and slipped the needle into the horse's jugular vein.

"he's being a gentleman," parcell told the vet.

matthews came out of the trailer and closed the door behind him, muting the dreadful sounds that followed: tater, knocked unconscious, banged into one wall, then another, before collapsing to the floor with a final thud.

then silence, broken only by parcell's sobbing.

as her husband and other relatives consoled parcell, matthews finished the grim task with a needle full of pentobarbital.

in the minutes it took to slow tater's heart to a stop, parcell climbed inside the trailer, kneeled by his side, stroked his mane and whispered a tearful goodbye.

it was matthews' fourth horse euthanasia in 24 hours.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:19 PM | 5 comments

nancy pelosi gets mail

i am nancy pelosi's earful and so can you! my letter:

you are an embarassment to americans, nancy. representative stark spoke the truth. you can't get an impeachment investigation of crimes you helped hide for bush but you will attack a democratic representative who speaks for over 60% of the american people.

when the full history of american politics is known, you will be seen as one sad, easily maniupulated puppet of the bush regime.


update: sinfonian goes into detail as to why nancy has earned the contempt of patriotic americans everywhere

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posted by George at 8:57 AM | 10 comments

oh, great

fires in southern california shut a major power line from arizona and cut power to at least 37,000 customers on monday, but the region's power grid still was able serve more than 99 percent of state utility customers, power company and state officials said. - reuters

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posted by Cookie Jill at 5:42 AM | 1 comments

500,000 evacuees...not including the 4 legged variety

from the san diego tribune.
trailers wrapped around the del mar fairgrounds yesterday morning, some waiting as long as two hours to unload some of the thousands of horses evacuated from ranches and backyard stables threatened by the county wildfires.

but by 9:30 a.m., the fairgrounds' 2,400 stalls were full. horse owners who didn't make it had to look elsewhere: to friends and family with barns or land, to an evacuation site in lakeside or stables in san juan capistrano, thermal and indio.

much of san diego county is horse country, home to thoroughbred breeding ranches and countless backyard stables housing family pets. as many as 300,000 horses live in the county, and when people flee from the fires, so do the horses.

...thoroughbred breeders, some with farms in the eye of the witch creek fire, also evacuated their animals. the golden eagle and ballena vista farms outside ramona, which rank among the most prominent facilities in the state for breeding and raising thoroughbreds, were evacuated but had escaped major damage.

(photo from the san diego tribune)

del mar doubletree was evacuated.

and, is the ap biased against californians? what kind of "commentary" is this?
thousands of people have sought shelter in schools, community centers and at fairgrounds. the largest gathering is at qualcomm stadium in san diego, where evacuees are enjoying gourmet buffets and massages, but still anxiously watching television looking for news about their neighborhoods.
is babs bush writing for the ap now?

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posted by Cookie Jill at 5:04 AM | 3 comments

around blogtopia

and yes, we coined that phrase!

linkmeister thinks we're screwed, after reading takeover;

joe gandelman is not amused by glenn beck;

the brad blog wonders if the gop will steal the 08 election;

blue girl examines the huge problems with building of the new u.s. embassy in baghdad;

and pam's house blend profiles the openly gay man who's running against liz dole in carolina.

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posted by skippy at 12:43 AM | 0 comments

we like what you've don with the place

watching those we chose has a new look! very user friendly...

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posted by skippy at 12:35 AM | 1 comments

Monday, October 22, 2007

city of del mar advising residents

to evacute.
at this time, we are continuing to monitor the fire situation. our understanding at this point is that the fire has hit structures in fairbanks ranch. for your safety, we are strongly advising that all del mar residents evacuate!
del mar racetrack is where animals have been evacuted from other parts of san diego that are ablaze.

holy c**p.

and glenn beck...you know where you can go.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:59 PM | 3 comments

skippy's monday nite music club

there's been some talk of outrage fatigue lately...so if we can try to perk up everyone's spirits with a reminder that anything worth doing is usually not all that easy...



patti smith & eddie vedder - people have the power

plus keith richards, michael stipe, sammy hagar, steven stills, ronnie spector, grandmaster flash, paul schaffer, eddie money, and a host of others.

keep fighting the good fight, people! it's worth it!

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 3 comments

it's horrific


Fire_004.jpg
Originally uploaded by Sundogg
255,000+ californians forced to evacuate.
countless animals.
san diego wild animal park put on alert.

and they expect it to get worse as we are running out of firefighters to fight it.

might have been nice to have our reservists here in california instead of iraq.

i want to commend the folks of knx1070. they do a spectacular job in keeping southern californians informed when disasters come. our local cable station here in santa barbara (cox...sucks) thought it was more important to show paid infocommercials instead of up to date fire coverage.

thank you knx.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:33 PM | 2 comments

right wing said fred

if there's anybody failing to meet expectations more than abc's pushing daisies, it's the fred thomspon campaign. in fact, "pushing daisies" may be an apt metaphor in more ways than one.

fred "lawn order" thompson stunned the forida voters this weekend with a 4 minute 37 second speech at the annual florida repubbblican party convention. orlandosent:

republican presidential candidate fred thompson surprised most everybody saturday by speaking for less than five minutes before he thanked the assembled gop masses and ambled offstage.

thompson's speech was so short -- 4 min. and 37 seconds -- some people in the crowd mistook his conclusion as just an applause line.

he spoke far less than any of the other candidates at the evening rally. former mass. gov. mitt romney was on stage for about 10 minutes, u.s. sen. john mccain spoke for about 16 minutes and former new york mayor rudy giuliani addressed the crowd for almost 22 minutes.
but to us, the biggest joke of the whole procedure is that the candidates had to pay $100,000 each to speak to the florida repubbbs. only the gop would charge their own candidates to speak to their own constituents. now, that's capitalism!

(thanks and a tip of the kangaroo tail to tennessee guerilla women for the link!)

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posted by skippy at 11:25 AM | 1 comments

another reason we won't vote for hillary clinton

she prefers drudge to skippy. booman trib:

i think it is great that the clinton campaign decided to give matt drudge the scoop on her third quarter fundraising numbers. it shows who she is. oh...look at the savvy:

that people in mrs. clinton’s campaign orbit would tip off the drudge report to its fund-raising numbers is in part a reflection of her pragmatic approach to dealing with potential enemies, like newt gingrich or rupert murdoch. but it also speaks to the enduring power of the drudge report, which mixes original reporting with links to newspaper, internet or television reports far and wide.

the site is a potent combination of real scoops, gossip and innuendo aimed at mr. drudge’s targets of choice — some of it delivered with no apparent effort to determine its truth, as politicians of all stripes have discovered at times.

aides in both parties acknowledge working harder than ever to get favorable coverage for their candidates — or unfavorable coverage of competitors — onto the drudge report’s home page, knowing that television producers, radio talk show hosts and newspaper reporters view it as a bulletin board for the latest news and gossip.

i have visited drudge maybe two times since the '04 election. that's maybe one/ten-thousandth the times i have visited eschaton and daily kos. but, for the clinton campaign, drudge is still where it's at. the same drudge that scooped isikoff and posted on the lewinsky scandal. that's the site that get's the big story from the clinton campaign.
we like peter, too, but he never called us.

of course, that could be because we never gave him our phone number.

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posted by skippy at 8:16 AM | 2 comments

Sunday, October 21, 2007

skippy's sunday night music club

one hot singer + one hot song + one burning state = we're on fire!



brrruuuuuuuuuuuuce!
i didn't grow up in a very political household. the only politics i heard was from my mother. i came home from grade school, where someone asked me if i was republican or democrat, and i asked my mom, "well, what are we?" she said, "we're democrats, 'cause democrats are for the working people." - bruce springsteen

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:14 PM | 1 comments

why can't ann althouse be more like judy tenuta?

Example
prof. althouse gets serious

in her latest piece, why can't hillary be more like ellen degeneres? ann althouse follows the hardly-ever-right wing's latest fairy tale meme: hillary clinton got rid of socks the cat, ergo, she's cold.

to be fair, ann is only repeating the made-up suppositions found in an article on the times online, in which the second paragraph uses carefully chosen verbs to indicate cold-bloodedness on sen. clinton's part:

once the presidency was over, there was no room for socks any more. after years of loyal service at the white house, the black and white cat was dumped on betty currie, bill clinton’s personal secretary, who also had an embarrassing clean-up role in the saga of his relationship with the intern monica lewinsky.
notice three things here: first, there's no source or cites to really give a sense of whether or not there was "room for socks any more." secondly, the use of the word "dumped," rather than "given to" or "adopted by." and thirdly, nice use of the lewinsky strawman to remind everyone that the clinton = blow jobs!

(where we come from, there's a name for people who talk about sex and animals in the same sentence, and it ain't animal husbandry.)

luckily for us, internet ronin clears up the issue in a comment on ann's site:

i get a kick out of both of these stories. sox went to live with betty currie because buddy kept trying to turn sox into a chew toy and it was one or the other. ("you wanted the damned dog" was probably something bill heard said more than once in the white house.) besides, sox was chelsea's cat not hillary's cat, and chelsea was a "big girl" when her parents left the white house and could have taken sox to live with her, wherever that was. but she obviously didn't want to, so it was better for sox to go live with betty currie than end up being the reason buddy didn't have an appetite for dinner. as for buddy's subsequent demise, it is a bit hard to pin on either of them because they were both away when an employee accidentally let the dog out. (why does the woman of the house always gets blamed for these things?)
by "both of these stories," internet ronin is also referring to the other wingnut meme that hillary let buddy the dog get run over by a car, which althouse also refers to, by linking to an obviously parody piece in slate comparing the death of buddy to conspiracy theories about the death of vince foster.

then again, perhaps althouse herself is being tongue-in-cheek and satirical, witty and erudite.

yes, just like when she was angry at theat girl for having breasts. it's all a joke, right?

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posted by skippy at 7:54 PM | 5 comments

the straw vote that broke the camel's back

dave johnson of seeing the forest lived blogged the san mateo county presidential straw poll today, along w/mary ratcliff of pacific views (both good friends of this blog). some of what dave writes:

i am at the san mateo county expo center, where they are conducting a presidential straw poll today.

this is a large room and it is packed. it looks lime at least a thousand people have turned out. (later - just heard someone say 1600.)

along one wall are tables set up by the local democratic clubs and the campaigns. there are hillary, obama, edwards and kuchinich tables, and there is a strong kucinich contingent here. i haven't seen a dodd or biden table or sign or supporters, but i have seen people with richardson signs. and, of course draft gore signs.

i am here with mary ratcliff of the left coaster and pacific views. if i am lucky mary will let me use her camera because i loaned mine to someone who has not returned it. (hint)

the first speaker is now talking and the sound system is terrible. i'm way in the back at a press table, and there are a lot of talking people between me and the speakers. "...taking back our country ... san mateo county ... and i thank you for being here... we will have a democratic president in 2009 ..."

now congressman tom lantos is speaking. "we are here to begin the glorious process of electing the next president of the united states of america who will be a democrat. ... let me say a word about each of the candidates because any one of them will be a tremendous improvement..."

now dennis kucinich is speaking. i can't hear well from where i am... "i stand before you with a political record that is a little bit different from the other candidates... non-for-profit, medicare-for-all..." crowd all cheering ... "health care system..." i can't hear anymore... the crowd is chanting "bring them home, bring them home" ... "i'm telling you now it's time for all these candidates to say no to war against iran ...as president of the united states i'll lead america to a new era where we reject war as an instrument of policy... constitution of the united states ... a president who will stand for diplomacy ... central mission of a democratic president is to create jobs ... " ... "we used to make steel ... we used to make cars ... millions of jobs ... "

there's plenty more at seeing the forest (plus pics by mary at the left coaster), but we'll cut to the chase: the undisputed winner of the san mateo straw vote is...wait for it...john edwards!

edwards 221
kucinich 180
obama 171
hillary 128
gore (write in) 23
richardson 21
biden 8
dodd 4
gravel 4
apparently mitt romney couldn't persuade his fans to register online and vote for him in this straw vote.

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posted by skippy at 7:26 PM | 2 comments

gonzo on the other end of prosecution

well..how-de-do. this is going to make a new interesting entry in gonzopedia
the u.s. inspector general may recommend criminal prosecution of departed attorney general alberto gonzales at the conclusion of an investigation, possibly as early as next month, the fired former u.s. attorney for western washington told a spokane audience friday.

...“the chief law enforcement officer for the united states should not lie under oath,’’ mckay told the bar association.

it was reported last week that gonzales has now retained a high-profile defense lawyer, and apparently is refusing to answer questions from the inspector general, which could signify the investigation is nearly complete, mckay said.

“when it lands … it is going to be an extremely negative report on president bush’s justice department,’’ mckay told the packed conference room, which included federal prosecutors and judges. - spokesman review

tip o' the kangaroo tail to crooks and liars

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:13 AM | 1 comments

we're on fire....again


water drop
Originally uploaded by hereinmalibu

firefighters were battling a 400-acre brush fire that started near pepperdine university in malibu early today, prompting the evacuation of homes as well as the campus. - latimes

a wildfire whipped up by 50-mph winds consumed about 500 acres early sunday amid dry conditions in northeast los angeles county, authorities said.

..wildfires were widely expected in southern california over the weekend as hot weather and heavy santa ana winds marked the height of fire season after one of the driest years on record.- latimes
dust, ash and smoke are hanging out in the air in santa barbara. the devil winds have brought up the smoke from the other fires and the charred stuff left behind from the zaca fire. not a good breathing day.

notes from a fellow blogger who was visiting my fair city:
when i arrived in santa barbara, looming above the foothills was what appeared to be smog but was really dust being blown over the hills from the zaca fire burn area. later in the afternoon, that dust covered almost the entire city, making it difficult to breathe and dropping dark brown dirt on top of everything! to make matters worse, the winds severely kicked up, gusting to well above 60mph turning santa barbara into a huge sandblaster. - arealityofmyown
time to turn into our favorite firefighter blog - lafd news and information

laist has more on the malibu fire.
according to various news venues, it looks like the "malibu castle" is gone. the castle apparently was home to a large collection of elvis memorabilia.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 10:10 AM | 1 comments

when the finnish mp speaks

people should listen.
the united states is planning to stay in iraq by building as many as 14 “permanent” bases, regardless of whether orders come from current or future us administrations to bring us troops back home. “as far i am informed, they are planning to set up permanent bases. not only one, two, three, four, but maybe 14,” finnish mp jaakko laakso told a group of saudi journalists, which included arab news, who visited the finnish parliament recently in helsinki. “it means there will be no withdrawal on a permanent basis.”

the mp, who is a member of the left alliance, pointed out that the bases were not the bases the us government plans to build between the iraq and syria borders, but were permanent bases located in the heartland of the country. “there is no difference between republicans and democrats regarding these permanent bases,” laakso added. - arab news


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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:40 AM | 1 comments

i ain't followin' the 2008 campaign trail...

politics has a way of staining every sphere of your life the way one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel. how many times have we said "finally, a spine" when one dem or another gets up on its hind legs and speaks the truth, only to be disappointed later on because speaking the truth only goes so far? are you sick of that yet? because i am...

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posted by Jim Yeager at 9:11 AM | 1 comments

Saturday, October 20, 2007

skippy's saturday night music club

what to do when the lights go out this evening? well...the incomperable mr. otis redding suggests you "try a little tenderness"

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:59 PM | 1 comments

fundies heart huckabee

the family repubbblican council held a "values voter straw poll" in washington today, and tho mitt "don't call me baseball glove" romney narrowly won overall (including the online vote for a dollar poll), mike huckabee was the run-away favorite of the 952 people who actually heard the candidates speak at the event and then voted, according to politico (and we only link to them to garner the memeorandum traffic):

here are the total results:

mitt romney – 1,595 votes -- 27.62%
mike huckabee – 1,565 votes -- 27.15%
ron paul -- 865 votes -- 14.98%
fred thompson -- 564 votes -- 9.77%
undecided -- 329 votes -- 5.70%
sam brownback – 297 votes -- 5.14%
duncan hunter -- 140 votes -- 2.42%
tom tancredo -- 133 votes -- 2.30%
rudy giuliani -- 107 votes 1.85%
john mccain -- 81 votes -- 1.40%

and here are the on-site results:

mike huckabee -- 488 votes -- 51.26%
mitt romney -- 99 votes -- 10.40%
fred thompson -- 77 votes -- 8.09%
tom tancredo -- 65 votes -- 6.83%%
rudy giuliani -- 60 votes -- 6.30%
duncan hunter -- 54 votes -- 5.67%
john mccain -- 30 votes -- 3.15%
sam brownback -- 26 votes -- 2.73%
ron paul -- 25 votes -- 2.63%
undecided -- 11 votes -- 1.16%
there's a lot of talk about romney organizing his fans to pay a dollar to join today's poll versus the actual grassroots heat that huckabee hound generated. balsun:

while 1,537 people inside the ballroom of the washington hilton cast ballots, so did many more people who were able to join the family research council online and then cast their own votes. the romney campaign had waged a concerted effort to enlist online votes from supporters of the former massachusetts governor, who was not entirely warmly received in the hall here – indeed the announcement of the results in the hall today were received with silence, another clear sign that huckabee was the winner of the hall.
but we think the big story here is that rudy giuliani not only did poorly in the poll, but also came in second (to hillary) as the "fantasy value" voters choice for least fav candidate.

(interesting side note: the 952 voters on-site thought barack "to the future" obama was the least acceptable candidate. racism, anyone?)

and, finally, if this doesn't put the final nail in the coffin that is fred thompson's campaign, we don't know what will.

except maybe reality.

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posted by skippy at 9:11 PM | 1 comments

boom boom boom

....out go the lights. tonight.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:29 AM | 0 comments

battered spouses

digby, again, raises some hullabaloo -
...everyone knows exactly why the republicans sent out "statement after statement" about this obscure congressman's words yesterday --- distraction. does anyone point that out? no. in fact, the damned democrats go right along with this nonsense and "hold meetings" and leak to the press about how they agree with the republicans agreeing that stark caused the distraction, and basically showing themselves to be a bunch of pathetic fumblers falling for this nonsense over and over again.

surely, they don't think they will ever be able to stop the republicans from finding some silly comment somewhere that they can get the vapors over do they? are they really battered spouses trying desperately not to say or do anything that will make their vicious, bullying batterer angry? - hullabaloo
the honorable pete stark just spoke the words that many in the country, let alone the world are thinking. he had the temerity to voice them where others could hear. oh, the shock! the horror!

would you spineless wussicrats grow a freakin' backbone and concentrate on the real points; the real isses and not this distraction. take your wussy eyeballs off the shiny objects and deal with the real issues. this administration is hellbent on destroying this country and they don't freakin' care as long as their buddies are profiteering.

the man installed as monarch...ugh, president, has no clothes; has no plan for iraq; has no plan for healthcare; has no plan for disasters hitting the country; has no plan for aiding the poor; has no plan for alternative energy; has no plan for the homeless; has no plan for transporation; has no plan for the credit disaster; has no plan to invest in the future of this country by investing in the human capital of the country's citizens (schip, etc.).

pete stark's been paying attention, he's mad as hell about the real things, and so am i. mad about the things that really matter to human lives and not some "falsified" outrage.

so, ms. pelosi...mr. reid...mr. hoyer.... you want to distance yourself from congressman stark and his words? why don't you try distancing yourselves from the sick "battered wife" relationship you've developed with awol and the rethuglicans bullying tactics?

the voters should be working to distance y'all from your next terms.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 8:12 AM | 5 comments

she's got a boatload of money in the campaign kitty

but can't do a single "free public" event in seattle.

the presidential hopeful who leads in every national democratic poll as well as in fundraising is the only top-tier contender who has yet to visit washington state as a candidate.

sen. hillary clinton is finally stopping in seattle on monday, though, for an overnight visit and is appearing at no free public events. she will address the state democratic party's annual magnuson awards ceremony at benaroya hall and then raise campaign money at two private, $2,300-a-head events. - seattle pi

two $2,300 a pop rubber chicken events? and the dlc democrats are different from the republicans...how?

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posted by Cookie Jill at 3:21 AM | 2 comments

good news/bad news

two weeks ago our good buddy the brad blog broke this story about john tanner, the doj voting rights chief:

unbelievably, the chief of the voting section of the civil rights division, u.s. department of justice, john tanner, contends that while it's "a shame" that elderly voters may be disenfranchised by new photo id restrictions at the polls because many don't have driver's licenses, minorities don't have to worry quite as much. why? because "minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. they die first."

yes, that's what tanner said last friday at the national latino congreso in los angeles and the brad blog was in tow with video camera to prove it...
go over to the brad blog to see/hear tanner's own words.

the good news is, now the asspress has picked up the story.

the bad news is, the asspress (aptly named) incorrectly attributed the source as a generic "youtube video" and didn't credit the brad blog.

we assured the brad blog we would not make such an error.

go, brad blog!

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posted by skippy at 12:27 AM | 2 comments

and we don't mean "nebraska"

greg sargent, the hardest working man in blogtopia (y!wctp!), tells us that rudy "the red-faced reign, dear" giuliani has hired a man who previously lost his government job for repeatedly using the "n" word:

sheriff richard stanek was appointed to the post of chair of minnesota law enforcement for rudy. the campaign's press release promised that stanek "will work with law enforcement personnel throughout the state to communicate mayor giuliani’s record of fighting crime and his commitment to first responders."

but as a rival campaign has pointed out to us, it turns out stanek has admitted to having a history of racially charged remarks. he was forced to resign his post as minnesota's public safety commissioner in 2004 after it came to light that he'd admitted in a deposition that he'd used racist slurs in the past, including repeated use of the word "nigger." …

gov. tim pawlenty's public safety commissioner, rich stanek, resigned friday amid a renewed furor over stanek's sworn admission 12 years ago that he had used a racial epithet and told racist jokes...

stanek's admissions in a sworn deposition as part of a police brutality suit against him in 1992 were reported by the star tribune in 1995, as he was making his first of five successful runs for the state house as a republican from maple grove…

asked under oath in 1992 if he had ever used the word "nigger," he said he had "several times."..

in the deposition, he also admitted telling a racist joke and making negative comments about people because of their race.

the star-trib also published some lively excerpts from the deposition, in which he admitted to using the word "nigger" repeatedly and said it was okay in certain contexts.
really? certain contexts?

the only context we can think of is, what do racist public officials usually say that invariably comes back to bite them on the ass? (we'll take macaca moments for $500, alex.)

addendum: in other repubbb news, brownback mountain is no longer sleeping in the tent of prez candidates.

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posted by skippy at 12:26 AM | 0 comments

Friday, October 19, 2007

skippy's friday nite music club



schoolyard heroes - they live

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 0 comments

happy birthday

christy of fdl!

you don't look a day over 19!

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posted by skippy at 7:46 PM | 0 comments

been working on a fictional story...

if only to take a break from watching america go down the tubes while people slobber all over the tragic mess known as britney spears for a while.

its working title is "ward of the earth, prisoner of the sun." i've been playing around with it for several years. this is the year i've finally begun nailing the thing down in earnest. i'm not sure what kind of story it is -- a sci-fi mystery, a psycho-thriller, a social critique, some combination of the three, or more, or what. but i do know i've got the framework for its first chapter finalized. here it is.

one hundred percent of the credit for this goes to, of all people, hollywood director david lynch, who i blogged about a short while back*. after writing that post, i saw his most recent film, inland empire. that there is one royally fried film -- and i loved it. i had to watch it twice just to start to figure out what was going on, but i loved it. later, i read that lynch directed the film as he was writing it -- which struck me as a mighty odd way to shoot a movie. but then i thought, why not try that for "ward of the earth" in blogging format? nothing else seems to be getting this story off the ground.

i do think it's working.

so let others cover the two-year root canal known as election 2008. i have a story to write.

til further on...

(*: as david lynch films go, skippy, i thought "dune" was a bit on the lame side. sorry, but i must be honest. furthermore, i'm certain that if you didn't like "mulholland drive," you'd hate "inland empire"...)
posted by Jim Yeager at 7:17 PM | 2 comments

rip joey bishop and deborah kerr

joey bishop, the last surviving member of the infamous "rat pack," died wednesday at the age of 89. latimes:

an adept ad-libber with a dry, underplayed sense of humor, bishop achieved his greatest fame in the '60s. he was master of ceremonies for president kennedy's inaugural gala and joined sinatra, dean martin, sammy davis jr. and peter lawford for the rat pack's historic "summit" meetings on stage at the sands hotel in las vegas…

jack benny called him "one of the funniest men i've ever seen."

and danny thomas was so impressed with bishop that he had a weekly situation comedy built around him, which thomas' production company sold to nbc…

bishop frequently filled in as host for [jack] paar and later for [johnny] carson. in 1967, abc signed him to host his own 90-minute late-night talk-fest.

"the joey bishop show," with regis philbin as bishop's announcer-sidekick, ran for 2 1/2 years.

"it was the thrill of my life to be chosen by joey as the announcer for his talk show," philbin said thursday in a statement to the times.

"i learned a lot about the business of making people laugh. he was a master comedian and a great teacher, and i will never forget those days or him."
we always enjoyed bishop's movie appearances, usually along with his buds frank and dino, such as in sergeants three and the original ocean's eleven.

with his death, a chapter of show biz history has closed.

also closing, a chapter of broadway and film history with the death of deborah kerr at age 86 earlier this week. the sfchron described her talent perfectly:

like greer garson, who preceded her in stardom, kerr embodied an essence on screen that's not only difficult to find today but one that's barely even understood. she had refinement and delicacy of manner without seeming prissy. she was vulnerable without being weak, sensual without being lewd and beautiful without being anyone's toy.
broadway.com reminds us that ms. kerr originated the role of the wordly woman who initiates a young man into the ways of love in tea and sympathy, both on broadway and on film. she also is known as anna to yul brenner's king of siam in the king and i, plus burt lancaster's love (with the famous surf-and-making-out scene) in from here to eternity (also starring frank sinatra). fans also remember ms. kerr's affair to remember, opposite cary grant.

show business is a little less bright this week. god rest their souls, joey bishop and deborah kerr.

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posted by skippy at 6:35 PM | 0 comments

as long as it's not naked coulter twister, we're in!

mediabloodhound has a new party game! it's like mad libs, only with anntrax coulter! it's annlibs!

[ed. note: the irony of it is, coulter does make libs mad!]

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posted by skippy at 6:22 PM | 0 comments

slaughter house eight

congresswoman louise slaughter joined with with other reps. taking umbrage over awol's appointment of an anti-contraception advocate to the head of family planning for america:

rep. louise m. slaughter (ny-28) and rep. diana degette (co-1) were today joined by reps. nita lowey (ny-18), rosa delauro (ct-3), lois capps (ca-23), henry waxman (ca-30), jerrold nadler (ny-8), and michael michaud (me-2) in sending a letter to the secretary of health and human services secretary michael leavitt urging reconsideration of the appointment of dr. susan orr as the new acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs.

"we are deeply disappointed that the bush administration, for the second time, has chosen a politically polarizing and unqualified candidate for this appointment. much like dr. eric keroack, dr. orr's professional background demonstrates an intention by this administration to undercut the value and importance of family planning services to low-income and uninsured men and women," read the letter. "in order to ensure that the mission of title x remains intact, we strongly urge you to reconsider the appointment of dr. orr as the acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs. americans deserve better...

dr. susan orr was appointed to her post on monday, october 15th and will oversee the $283 million in annual grants to provide low-income families and others with contraceptive services, preventive screenings and counseling. the position does not require senate confirmation, and hhs still has the ability to choose another individual to hold the office permanently, as dr. orr's position is in an acting capacity.

many believe that dr. orr's positions are out of sync with the american public. while at the family research council, dr. orr publicly opposed the inclusion of contraceptive coverage in private health insurance plans while supporting the president bush's attempt to exclude such coverage from the federal employees health benefit program. however, according to the guttmacher institute, in 2004, 98% of sexually active women have used some method of contraception at one point in their life.
according to chicago life, orr was stated in 2001 when awol proposed the cancellation of contraception from federal employees' insurance:

“we’re quite pleased because fertility is not a disease. it’s not a medical necessity that you have it.”

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posted by skippy at 6:07 PM | 1 comments

i'm stark raving mad

and the honorable pete stark is too, and telling the truth....

bush does like to blow things up and he gets entirely too much pleasure out of death and the destruction of other peoples lives.

i don't want the honorable mr. stark to apologize. he has no need to. he's mad as h**l and not going to take it anymore...he's giving voice to the american people who can't take the bush crime family another day.

i want pelosi to apologize. she has rebuked congressman stark...well, nancy...i'm rebuking you.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 5:54 PM | 0 comments

why does this image come to mind?

senator dodd's stand against evil

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posted by George at 5:37 PM | 0 comments

and now, a helpful suggestion for the republican party...

yes, the republican party. i don't know why i feel like showing you people a little light, i just do. but first...

there have been times when i've voted for one of your candidates. those election days are long gone. i will never vote for any single one of you ever again. there. i've said it. moving on...

even though i have given up on your party, i realize that some of you people have brains, exercise decency and common sense, and generally behave like adults, even if you do vote like idiots most of the time. it is to you that i am speaking.

here's what you folks need to do if you want a fair shot at reclaiming your party: dump the movement conservatives and the christian supremacists. disenfranchise all of them. i'd recommend dropping the racists, too, but then there wouldn't be much of a republican party left. not that i'd mind, but if you were to disenfranchise too many people, they'd be a group large enough to form another political party even nastier and crazier than the one you're in. so keep the peckerwoods -- you can marginalize them within your own party by choosing republican candidates who are intelligent and mature. but lose the other two groups.

and don't worry about the dems picking up any of these cast-offs. they don't need their votes to win elections -- they proved that last year. together, you and the democrats can relocate all of them to the margins of society where they belong, everybody else wins, and we can return to the days of disputing the issues in a spirited but reasonable and amiable manner. i think that sounds like a good plan.

of course, we won't know unless you actually give it a whirl. what do you say?

(cross-posted at mockingbird's medley...)

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posted by Jim Yeager at 12:45 PM | 0 comments

kangaroo blogging friday


kangaroo
Originally uploaded by iamdudu
is he "roflol?"
posted by Cookie Jill at 6:54 AM | 2 comments

great lakes becoming, well....

the "lesser" lakes.
group investigating water loss in great lakes. in response to worries that the great lakes have sprung a giant leak, the canada-u.s. organization that oversees the world's largest storehouse of fresh water says it is speeding up its investigation into claims the lakes are losing unusually large amounts of their water. - toronto globe and mail
and today's "stupid ideas from presidential candidates" may we present gov. richardson's idea of having "wet" states "share" water with the "dry" states.
...a recent comment by new mexico gov. bill richardson, a democratic candidate for president. in an interview with the las vegas sun last week, the governor suggested that the united states needs a "national water policy" adding that "states like wisconsin are awash in water."

sounds like the governor from a dust-dry region has a bad case of aqua-lust, doesn't it? - mlive.com

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:43 AM | 5 comments

hey, obey...abstain from funding this c**p

things that make you go.....wtf?
in the 1990s, amid a growing culture war over the role of religion and morality in public policy, republicans used their congressional majorities to crank up funding for programs that encouraged teens to abstain from sex until marriage.

but now, though democrats have taken control of congress, abstinence-only programs are surviving attempts to shut them down. and they could even get an increase with the aid of an unlikely ally: house appropriations committee chairman david r. obey (d-wis.), one of the old liberal lions. - latte times and kaisernetwork.org

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:24 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, October 18, 2007

skippy's thursday nite music club



radiohead - paranoid android

radiohead at their best, and a hilarious video

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 0 comments

i want my barack tv!

flektor did so well w/their first myspace/mtv townhall meeting w/john edwards, they're trying it again for barack "to the future" obama:

the second of the presidential dialogues is coming up. it's going to be barack obama in cedar rapids, iowa, on october 29th. the information is here at the flektor blog: http://www.flektor-blog.com/2007/10/18/barack-obama-participating-in-second-presidential-dialogue-october-29th/
the press release is out, and barack obama is going to be starring participating in the second presidential dialogue series put on jointly by myspace and mtv.

monday, october 29th, at 12:30 p.m cst (local time), barack obama will be taking the state at coe college in cedar rapids, iowa. the event will stream live on myspace.com and will be rebroadcast on television that night at 7 p.m. est/4 p.m. pst. this is the second of the events, the first being john edwards back on september 27th, and the flektor polling widget will again be used to generate instant reponse from the viewing audience.

if you didn’t get a chance to see the first event, definitely tune in for this one. unlike the debates, these forums allow the candidate to give answers in an uninterrupted format, and the questions, moderated by mtv news correspondents gideon yago and sway calloway and washingtonpost.com political reporter chris cillizza, cover all the topics you want to hear.

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posted by skippy at 9:46 PM | 0 comments

tastes like australian chicken

our good buddy gmoke of solarray alerts us to the terrible blogging of warren ellis who writes this piece, death to skippy:

greenpeace campaigner encourages australia to slaughter and eat more kangaroos to help save the world from global warming, environmental activists say.

i am all for this. i believe roo is still on my list of animals i have not yet eaten.
that's one thing warren doesn't have in common with mrs. skippy.

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posted by skippy at 8:34 PM | 2 comments

corporate trade secrets

matter more than american's health.

pesticide spurs free speech flap. if the state and federal governments get their way, night-flying planes will soon resume dousing the monterey peninsula with a moth-targeting pesticide. officials say trade rules prevent disclosure of what's in the spray

...the monterey fight centers on whether the government, at the behest of a corporation, should refuse to identify the chemicals that it sprays over homes, businesses and schools, as well as orchards and vegetable fields.

"it's outrageous," said david dilworth, executive director of helping our peninsula's environment in carmel. "democracies don't do that."

but state officials say that, under trade secrets laws, they have no choice. only the active ingredients in pesticides are routinely disclosed. other components that make up the formula -- so-called inert ingredients -- are not.. - los angeles times

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:34 PM | 1 comments

mad about being relevant

mad kane, that is!

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posted by skippy at 5:44 PM | 0 comments

gored no more

readers of this space will remember our report on the money behind the law suit in britain which resulted in a judge proclaiming there were "9 errors" in al gore's an inconvenient truth."

al gore's office has printed a response, at least to the washpost reportage of the incident, in the washpost.

gore points out that it was the claimant, not the judge, who used the word "errors," and he also mentions where all the money came from for the lawsuit (as we have said):

the judge himself never used the term "errors." that was an allegation made by the plaintiff--whose motives are quite suspect. stewart dimmock, who brought this case, appears to have been funded by the very same fossil fuel interests who have sought to undermine the scientific consensus behind global warming in the past. the observer has reported that he was funded by mining interests as well as the scientific alliance, an industry-backed non-profit with links to other groups in the u.s. like the u.s. based george c. marshall institute which has received funding from exxon. this was also reported in the u.s. our experience is that when the vested interests do not like the message, they tend to use diversionary tactics to create uncertainty or to fund individuals and groups to shoot the messenger. in this instance, it appears they are trying to do both. according to these reports, mr. dimmock will still not fully reveal who funded the case.
gore goes on to rebut each of the 9 "errors" in the washpost piece.

it's an inconvenient news story.

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posted by skippy at 1:30 PM | 1 comments

fee fisa fo fum

here's sen. russ feingold's statement on the fisa legislation:

“as a member of the ssci [ed. note: senate select committee on intelligence], i will strongly oppose any fisa legislation that fails to protect the rights of law-abiding americans, overseas and here at home. when the committee considers this legislation today, i will also fight to reject immunity for anyone alleged to have cooperated with the administration’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program. the documents made available by the white house for the first time this week only further demonstrate that the program was illegal and that there is no basis for granting retroactive immunity to those who allegedly cooperated. the one silver lining of the flawed fisa bill passed in august was that it had a 6-month expiration date. it would be shameful to miss this opportunity to fix the law. it is time for congress to stand up for the rights of americans and to defend the constitution and the rule of law.”
that makes one.

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posted by skippy at 9:42 AM | 3 comments

when jon stewart wants hard hitting news...

he turns to "skippy the bush kangaroo"....and when skippy the bush kangaroo wants some hard hitting laughs, we turn to the daily show with jon stewart...now in more online goodiness!
in the ongoing quest to make internet popularity pay, viacom's comedy central channel today will unveil a website for "the daily show with jon stewart" that's designed to satisfy the most avid fans of the mock-news show with oceans of free video clips.

rather than providing just a sampling of the program's fare, as viacom and other tv networks have done for years, comedy central is offering the works: about 13,000 video clips representing every minute of the show since its 1999 inception.

...going forward, however, comedy central plans to tap into the collective intelligence of its fans by allowing them to contribute to the process, a la wikipedia, the user-created Internet encyclopedia- latte times

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:43 AM | 0 comments

why even have laws...

why even vote for democrats?
leaders of the senate intelligence committee reached a tentative agreement on wednesday with the bush administration that would give telephone carriers legal immunity for any role they played in the national security agency’s domestic eavesdropping program approved by president bush after the sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a congressional official said wednesday. - wapo

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:29 AM | 1 comments

techtonic time bomb

is this going to be california's "katrina"?
"the hayward fault is a tectonic time bomb," said u.s. geological survey senior seismologist tom brocher. "(it's) the single most dangerous fault in the entire bay area, because it is ready to pop and because nearly 2 million people live directly on top of it." - sfgate

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:27 AM | 2 comments

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

skippy's wednesday nite music club



k t tunstall - suddenly i see

tho she's primarily known for black horse and the cherry tree (or is that black cherry and the horse tree?), this song is a great tune and an interesting video as well.

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posted by skippy at 11:54 PM | 4 comments

so we suppose "5 cock rings" would be totally out of the question?

lindsay of majikthise submits her own version of the 12 days of estrus, in response to zuzu's challenge to rewrite the famous christmas carol in an anti-feminist style (which seems to mean, written as if someone who doesn't like lesbians thinks how a lesbian would write it. or something).

lindsay sings:

on the 12th day of estrus, my true love gave to me:
twelve rabbits humming,
eleven gripers griping,
ten keepers keeping,
nine judges judging,
eight cocks a-wilting,
seven fundies praying,
six lawyers winning,
five mras
four fightin’ words,
three mad men,
two lady loves,
and stooge for the patriarchy!
we prefer "two birkenstocks" for the second day.

and tho we are proud members of cap'n dyke's crew, we aren't lesbians ourselves, so we'd ask if our readers could write any sort of progressive carol. it can be feminist, but it certainly doesn't have to be restricted to such.

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posted by skippy at 11:35 PM | 0 comments

pat paulsen announced presidential candidacy

no, wait, sorry, we mean stephen colbert. asspress:

"i shall seek the office of the president of the united states," colbert said tuesday on his comedy central show as red, white and blue balloons fell around him.

colbert, 43, had recently satirized the coyness of would-be presidential candidates by refusing to disclose whether he would seek the country's highest office -- a refusal that often came without any prompting.
a presidential campaign will probably give colbert plenty to do, which is good, because with the looming writers' strike in hollywood, the colbert report will most likely go dark, as will the daily show and most night talk shows. nypost:

the strike would also hit the people who write leno and letterman's late-night talk show monologues and the daytime soap operas.

by new year's day, primetime tv could be dominated by game shows, news magazines, sports and reality - which do not require scripts.

"we could be in serious trouble if this strike happens," admits a studio executive who spoke on background because the situation is so delicate.
tho the producers have just recently pulled the demand to re-tool the ancient (yet highly effective, from an artist's point of view) system of residuals from the bargaining table, the two sides are still miles apart. wsj:

in what could be a step toward hammering out a new contract between the hollywood studios and the writers guild of america, the association representing the studios withdrew a contentious proposal to restructure the so-called residual payment system that many writers depend on to supplement their income.

the move by the alliance of motion picture & television producers marks the first concession from either side in contract talks that have become increasingly hostile in recent weeks, increasing the possibility of a walkout by the 12,000 voting members of the wga on nov. 1. the amptp withdrew a controversial proposal to withhold the payment of residuals until after a specific television show or film had recouped its cost. currently, writers are paid residuals on their work -- continuing payments that are issued when movies or television shows are sold in ancillary markets like dvd -- without any restrictions on the profitability of the product.
take it from us, the little guy in hollywood lives on residuals. and if the producers were able to force the writers to give them up, the actors and directors would soon have to follow.

in other comedians running for presidential news, fremont sez his campaign is "jes' fine."

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posted by skippy at 9:07 PM | 0 comments

why support a company

that doesn't support the people who work to bring in money?
the predicament of fort worth, texas-based pier 1, which reported losses that widened to $56.4 million in the first quarter from $23.2 million a year earlier, reflects the quandary of employer-sponsored health care for service businesses whose low-wage employees are the face of the company to customers.

....part of what pier 1 ceo alex smith is calling a “cost-efficiency mission” is to cut employees’ hours in some stores to disqualify them from health benefits.

in may, hourly employees were told the number of work hours needed to receive health care benefits would increase. the next month, pier 1 executives raised the number of stores it would close from 60 to 100. then employees in ohio, colorado and texas were told they would not be allowed to work enough hours to receive health care.

“they are slashing the throats of the people who have been there the longest,” says the assistant manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because talking to the press could mean termination. that employee’s hours were cut to 22 hours a week on average from 32 hours a week. meanwhile, the company has hired part-time employees at $7 an hour who are working 31 hours a week—one hour shy of the 32 needed for health care benefits. - workforce management

they don't have enough money to give their employees healthcare, but they apparently have enough money to bid for the bankrupt retailer, bombay company.

pier one. you're sinking yourself.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:10 PM | 3 comments

chris dodd...skating on thin ethical ice?

dodd, running for president, currently sits on the banking committe. he tried to set up a "bundling" luncheon for those with a vested interest in legislation he aims to introduce.
senate banking committee chairman chris dodd (d-conn.) invited top executives in the equity and fixed-income trading divisions of the nation’s largest banks to have lunch with him in manhattan on tuesday in the hope of recruiting bundlers for his presidential campaign.

...although the lunch was canceled at the last minute — campaign spokeswoman colleen flanagan said there was a scheduling conflict — officials at government watchdog groups said the invitation was an unusually systematic way of recruiting fundraisers from a narrow industry sector over which dodd has power as banking chairman.

...dodd has raised nearly $14 million for his presidential campaign. many top donors have been banks with an interest in the sub-prime mortgage market, which has emerged as a hot political issue.

..“usually bundlers are pulled together through personal connections and phone calls,” said holman. “i’ve never heard of a campaign setting up a pre-bundling luncheon, which is what this is.

“dodd has a policy he has to offer this narrow business segment and he hopes they will bring in dollars for him.”- the hill

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:55 PM | 1 comments

early man was metrosexual

early man used makeup and ate seafood, researchers say

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:22 PM | 0 comments

rudy the red-faced reign, dear

the real rudy wants you all to know about the failure of mayor giuliani to provide the nyc firefighters with adequate radio equipment, which lead to tragedy on 9/11:



go sign the petition calling for an investigation.

addendum: that really should make you mad. mad kane, that it!

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posted by skippy at 5:32 PM | 0 comments

say hello

to right wing sparkle and outside the beltway, both of whom used our pic of obama and cheney at the family reunion.

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posted by skippy at 5:16 PM | 0 comments

bad, badly, worse, iraq

cbs correspondent lara logan told jay leno (and the millions watching his show) that we are doing incredibly badly in iraq. think progess has the scoop:

...logan responded, “it’s much worse than the picture, the image we even have of iraq”:

we’re doing extremely badly, from my point of view. i was asked if i felt any guilt for the fact that the world has an impression of the war in iraq as being very bad and going very wrong. and i said i really don’t because i can’t imagine the last time anyone saw a dead american soldier. we’ve hidden that from view. nobody knows what that looks like, and i’ve seen plenty of it. it’s much worse than the picture, the image we even have of iraq.
thinkprogress has a video of the segment, go watch it.

(thanks and a tip of the kangaroo tail to caro at makethemaccountable for the tip!

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posted by skippy at 10:30 AM | 0 comments

it's official - no president gore

al gore has officially ruled out running. msnbc:

"i don't have plans to be a candidate again so i don't really see it in that context at all," gore said when asked in an interview with norway's nrk public television aired on wednesday about how the award would affect his political future.
that's ok, because apparently hardly anybody wants him to. ed&pub:

gallup reveals: "just 41% of americans say they would like to see gore run for president, with the majority, 54%, opposed to a gore candidacy. that is essentially the same result that gallup found in march, when 38% expressed a desire for a gore presidential bid. even democrats seem tepid to the idea of gore running for president -- just 48% favor such a move while 43% are opposed...

"in the new update of national democrats' and democratic-leaning independents' preferences for the democratic presidential nomination, 14% select gore as their first choice when he is included in a list along with the eight announced democratic candidates. clinton leads with 44%, while obama is next at 19%. gore finishes slightly ahead of edwards, who is supported by 10% of rank-and-file democrats."
let's all start saying it now...president hillary, president hillary, president hillary...you! guiliani! start chanting! president hillary, president hillary, president hillary...

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posted by skippy at 9:20 AM | 7 comments

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

skippy's tuesday nite music club



wynton marsalis - harmonique

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posted by skippy at 11:58 PM | 3 comments

romneybus

larry craig doesn't like mitt "out sound" romney, but bob jones iii sure does.

idaho senator larry e. craig is lashing out at mitt romney, who unceremoniously dumped craig from his campaign after craig's arrest in a minneapolis airport bathroom sex sting and called the conduct "disgraceful."

"i'd worked hard for him here in the state," craig told nbc's matt lauer in an interview to be aired tuesday, according to the associated press. "i was a co-chair of his campaign on capitol hill. and he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

the romney campaign responded to craig's remarks by issuing a statement that the senator resigned from his campaign positions "because he did not want to be a distraction." bosglobe
apparently the romney campaign doesn't have a stance wide enough to accomodate the senator. but that only makes bob jones the third (yes, there were two other bob joneses before him) of bob jones university happy:

bob jones iii, chancellor of the christian fundamentalist school named for his family, is endorsing republican mitt romney for president...

jones didn't immediately respond to a message left tuesday evening by the associated press. but he told a greenville newspaper that supporting romney is critical to make sure former new york mayor rudy giuliani doesn't win the gop nomination and that democratic presidential candidate hillary rodham clinton doesn't win the election.

"if it turns out to be giuliani and hillary we've got two pro-choice candidates, and that would be a disaster," jones told the greenville news for a story on its web site tuesday. - asspress
the interesting thing about this is that bob jones admits out loud that religion and conservative thought are two different things:

"as a christian i am completely opposed to the doctrines of mormonism," jones told the newspaper. "but i'm not voting for a preacher. i'm voting for a president. it boils down to who can best represent conservative american beliefs, not religious beliefs."
yes, we all know how unchristian the people are who attend the church of jesus christ of latter day saints.

nothing more anti-christian than jesus.

mitt better hope that the bob jones endorsement will give his campaign a boost, as he's still polling a weak 4th, even behind fred "what i don't have in factual knowledge i make up with my boring presentation" thompson:

for romney, the poll numbers aren't as encouraging. while he is leading narrowly in new hampshire and by a wider margin in iowa polls, he remains stuck in fourth nationally with 10 percent, trailing rudy giuliani with 32 percent, fred thompson with 18 percent, and john mccain with 14 percent.

romney is also in fourth in terms of voter enthusiasm. only one-fourth of republicans and republican-leaning independents said they would enthusiastically for romney if he were the nominee, while 38 percent said they would support him mostly to oppose the democratic nominee, and 22 percent said they would either vote for the democrat or stay home. - bosglobe
that's got to be disappointing, considering mitt has spent more money than any other presidential candidate, repubbb or democrat.

good luck, mitt! sounds like you're going to need it!

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posted by skippy at 10:13 PM | 6 comments

caucus? you don't even know us!

we received an email from the national presidential caucus:

the idea is this: before the primaries take place, npc is organizing a national straw poll on nov. 9th and a national caucus day on dec 7th in an attempt to realign our primary system to better reflect the issues and opinions of all americans, not just early voters!

http://www.nationalcaucus.com/

with november around the corner, we hope that you could help spread the word out about npc. is this something you or someone you know would be interested? we really need your help to get npc off the ground!

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posted by skippy at 9:51 PM | 0 comments

service with a smile

john edwards, while not obtaining the endorsement of the service employees internationl union at a national level, nonetheless gained the support of 10 of the local state chapters, including iowa, michigan, ohio and california. asspress:

"john edwards earned our support by taking a strong stand on health care and because he offers our members the greatest hope for restoring the american dream," said cathy glasson, head of the union's iowa affiliate.

seiu decided last week not to make a national endorsement in the democratic presidential primaries, a blow to edwards who had vigorously sought the support. the union freed its state chapters to make their own endorsements, and on monday iowa and nine other states representing 930,000 workers — half the union's membership — went with the 2004 vice presidential nominee.
edwards is running a distant third in the dem. race, and hopefully these endorsements will give his campaign a boost, the coveted illinois chapter (including chicago) is backing barack "to the future" obama.

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posted by skippy at 8:21 PM | 2 comments

sometimes you wonder if they actually read our site

from the emails we never finished reading dept:

my name is dave and i work for egroup limited. i've just taken a look at your website and i think your customers would find our car insurance product really interesting. by joining our affiliate program, you could start earning extra revenue from your site and enhance your customer experience.
gee, you're right, dave. that is really interesting!

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posted by skippy at 8:18 PM | 3 comments

annthrax really hacked off

annthrax coulter's website has been hacked, and as of this writing, is still vandalized, if by "vandalized," you mean the truth has been substituted for her bigoted screeds. blorgable:

radar magazine's site spotted the fake column monday, marveling at its announcement that the controversial columnist "has just been playing a character for a decade." and tuesday night a copy of the hacker's column remained hidden in coulter's archive.

"you have all been a part of a sick joke…" coulter's web site declared. it announced an eleven-year prank involving "twisted logic and poorly masked bigotry" to gauge the popular reaction, then added that "even someone as fake as i tires out eventually."

[ed. note: we know what she means. we tires out eventually, too]

here's a screenshot of the hacked page.

(thanks and a tip of the kangaroo tail to reader el destino for the tip!)

addendum: this blog is the very sort of thing we are against. there's just no call for that kind of language, even if we disagree w/ms. coulter.

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posted by skippy at 7:59 PM | 4 comments

commander cookoo bananas' excuse

for ticking off the country that holds our debt, makes our clothes and keeps wal-mart afloat? he thought he was going to see the broadway show, "hello dolly"

officials also noted that beijing had been informed in september that mr bush would attend the medal ceremony - as he has every other year. the dalai lama is being honoured for his advocacy of peace and non-violence.

but the significance of today's ceremony was not lost on the chinese, or the tibetans. chinese officials have been working behind the scenes since the congressional award was announced last year to try to persuade mr bush to skip the ceremony.

"we are furious," the communist party secretary for tibet, zhang qingli, told reporters. "if the dalai lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world." - the guardian

i just hope that some of his highness' wisdom and compassion rubs off on awol.
i believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. people inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. yet true happiness comes from a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion and elimination of ignorance, selfishness and greed. - 1989 nobel peace prize acceptance speech
wonder if they talked about the newest nobel peace laureate?

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:18 PM | 1 comments

a few inconvenient truths tuesday

some environmental news...to use...

a nationwide toxic toy ban likely to follow state lead. one day after california became the first state to ban toys containing phthalates, supporters of the measure announced plans monday to help at least nine other states - and perhaps even congress - enact similar laws. - san francisco chronicle.

tobacco industry deceit claimed. cigarette makers tried to undermine evidence that secondhand smoke causes cardiovascular disease, according to a review by a uc davis physician of scores of once-secret tobacco industry documents. - sacramento bee

state might ration water. if georgia orders watering restrictions in metro atlanta beyond the current outdoor ban, it will be taking drought-fighting steps that not even arid southern california or las vegas has had to make. - atlanta journal-constitution

suspect meat is recalled from 4 state restaurants. a forest park meat company is recalling 1,900 pounds of ground beef sent to restaurants in georgia and three other states, saying the meat may be contaminated with e. coli. - atlanta journal-constitution

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:01 PM | 0 comments

before he vetoed the schip program



Originally uploaded by picture_bunny
he strongly supported the schip program.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:30 PM | 0 comments

cousin, cousine

it turns out that dick and barak are related!

Example
obama and cheney at a
family reunion

cnn:

but could it be possible that democratic presidential candidate barack obama and vice president dick cheney share a common ancestor?
cheney's wife lynne says yes.

in an interview on msnbc tuesday afternoon, mrs. cheney said that in the course of researching her husband's genealogy for her new book, "blue skies, no fences," she discovered that the two public figures share an ancestor eight generations ago.

"think about this," mrs. cheney said. "this is such an amazing american story that one ancestor, a man that came to maryland, could be responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied paths as dick's and barack obama's."
[ed. note: apparently that man was walking on the less-sunny side of the maryland streets.]

but is blood thicker than the partisan waters of washington? apparently not.

even though obama is related to her husband, mrs. cheney said she is not supporting the illinois democrat's white house bid.
no, she'll be voting for hillary, like everyone else.

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posted by skippy at 6:10 PM | 1 comments

randi rhodes' mugging...never mind

kevin hayden is reporting that nydailynews is reporting that randi rhodes wasn't a victim of a hate crime, was not mugged, and didn't even file a police report:

a police source said rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging. cops from manhattan's 17th precinct called her attorney, who told them rhodes was not a victim of a crime, the source said.

rhodes' lawyer told the daily news she was injured in a fall while walking her dog. he said she's not sure what happened, and only knows that she fell down and is in a lot of pain. the lawyer said rhodes expects to be back on the air thursday. he stressed there is no indication she was targeted or that she was the victim of a "hate crime."
thank goodness it wasn't more serious.

but this brings us to the question of why jon elliot went off on an anti-right wing rant on air, labeling this incident a "hate crime" when not all the facts are in.

such screeding without knowledge of the entire picture makes our side look no better (or worse, no smarter) than the limbaughs and coulters and malkins of the world.

tho our blog incorrectly repeated the "mugged" meme, at least we didn't attribute it to a hate crime, saying instead that we hoped it was just a regular new york-style mugging. however even that was untoward in light of recent revelations. for this we apologize.

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posted by skippy at 12:02 PM | 7 comments

take a sauce for the gander at this

remember last week when all the repubbbs were throwing their hands up in righteous indignation over how the dems "used" a sick child as their poster boy to make a point?

let's read david brooks' opening paragraph today:

a few weeks ago, i interviewed deborah pryce, the republican congresswoman, in her washington office. there was a doll propped up against a windowsill, and i wanted to ask her if it had belonged to her daughter, who died of cancer at age 9 in 1999. but that question seemed to trespass on something out of bounds, so i asked about her re-election campaign in 2006.
granted, it wasn't a repubbb representative of government that opened the conversation w/a call back to a cancer-ridden child. it was david brooks.

(a conversation, it turns out, about how rep. pryce was so ashamed of her own campaign ads and literature she was "forced" to use in order to win her election, she decided to retire after this term (the term she won with the nasty campaign materials)...awwww, how cute! a repubbb with a conscience!)

but still, where was brooks when the hardly-ever right wing attacked graeme frost for having granite counter tops and going to a private school? let's see...here's brooks' oct. 12 column on health care and the s-chip debate. and how many times does he mention the frost family and their plights, not only with affordable health care but with the rabid right wing?

the answer would be: zero.

but don't worry. brooks mentions alexander hamilton 4 times in the column, so you know he's a patriot.

god save ye, david brooks. using sick repubbb children to make a point, yes. scolding those who attack sick dem children who made a point, not so much.

but 4 times for hamilton! let's go shoot aaron burr!

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posted by skippy at 9:21 AM | 0 comments

get well randi!

randi rhodes was mugged on sunday night on 39th street and park ave, nearby her manhattan apartment, while she was walking her dog simon.

according to air america radio late night host jon elliott, rhodes was beaten up pretty badly, losing several teeth and will probably be off the air for at least the rest of the week.- talking radio

i'm hoping, not to be crass, that this is just an average nyc mugging and not a targeted attack from someone who disagrees with her "lefty" opinions.

get well soon, randi. we need your voice now more than ever.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:30 AM | 2 comments

2 2 1

if bucks were votes, the dems would rule. nytimes:

the leading democratic presidential candidates raised twice as much money as their republican counterparts this summer, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday, and several major candidates spent more money than they raised.
blah blah hillary clinton blah blah blah $23.7 million blah blah barack obama blah $20 mill blah blah blah. then the story goes on:

the leading republican candidates, by comparison, raised much less and were left with much less for their primaries.

mitt romney, the former massachusetts governor, raised $9.5 million over the summer but spent more than twice that much, $21.3 million. mr. romney lent his campaign $8.5 million, but even with the loan, his expenses outpaced his receipts. his campaign reported that it had $9.2 million left for the primaries.

rudolph w. giuliani, the former new york city mayor, raised more than any other republican candidate this summer, $11.6 million, but he also spent more than he raised, burning through $13.3 million without running a single television commercial. his campaign reported having $11.6 million on hand for the primaries.
edwards and richardson also spent more than they raised. but it looks like the repubbbs are not as popular with the folks who have the wallets as they used to be.

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posted by skippy at 12:22 AM | 2 comments

Monday, October 15, 2007

skippy's monday nite music club

we recently featured the byrds at skippy's music club, and got a lot of great response.

ergo, tonite we bring you...



the byrds w/earl scruggs - you ain't going nowhere

there has long been a connection between rock and folk/country in the roots of popular music, and this is a good example of such.

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 9 comments

at least these infantile sexist pigs have a sense of humor about it

the boys (and we chose that word carefully) at maxim made rocket dog of meerkat manor one of their "today's girl" features.

Example

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posted by skippy at 11:03 PM | 1 comments

save the earth, win valuable prizes!

Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day

our esteemed environmental editor, cookie jill, reminds us that today is blog action day, a day set aside for blogs to get their readers involved in actions to help the environment.

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posted by skippy at 10:59 PM | 4 comments

moby digital

old school meets new technology: zep will being selling their songs on the innertubes next month. asspress:

led zeppelin, one of the last major acts to resist digital distribution, are releasing their back catalog online. led zeppelin said their songs, including "communication breakdown," "whole lotta love" and "stairway to heaven," will be available from online music stores nov. 13. the band is due to release a two-cd retrospective, "mothership," the same day.

"we are pleased that the complete led zeppelin catalog will now be available digitally," guitarist jimmy page said in a statement monday. "the addition of the digital option will better enable fans to obtain our music in whichever manner that they prefer."

the band has signed a separate deal with verizon wireless to offer their songs as ringtones and downloads to mobile phones, verizon said in a statement.
[ed. note: ring tones? two words -- immigrant song]

the beatles are the highest-profile holdouts for digital distribution.
well, at least half of the beatles are.

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posted by skippy at 10:45 PM | 0 comments

winning back america, one blue dog at a time

the kids at firedoglake have been asking their readers to put the pressure on the blue dogs who are voting against the s-chip...and it's working!

on the heels of our recorded calls to the districts of five reactionary democrats who refused to support the override of george bush’s veto of schip, two of them have now flipped their votes — last week baron hill, and today mike mcintyre of north carolina.

this is going to put incredible pressure on bobby ethridge, his fellow north carolinian, to flip as well…

that’s exactly what we’re trying to do — motivate people in these districts to be aware of what’s going on, get involved and take action. (when we were talking about doing this in the first place, matt stoller said “these guys don’t care about people in their districts, all they care about their buddies they go hunting with. we might as well be robocalling washington, d.c.”)
let's!

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posted by skippy at 6:54 PM | 0 comments

daisy mae update

daisy underwent surgery today to rebuild her jaw. she is under anesthesia now.

...pasado's safe haven is covering all costs involved in the shooting of daisy mae and was allowed to take the latest photos of this sweet victim of animal cruelty.

daisy mae's condition is guarded as the .22 caliber bullet that shattered her jaw is moving in her thorax.

photos courtesy of pasado's safe haven
copyright pasado's safe haven

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posted by Cookie Jill at 5:13 PM | 0 comments

gored

remember that court case in england where the judge ruled that al gore's movie had "9 factual errors"? turns out that the suit was brought by someone who was backed by a very rich owner of mines in britain. ukobserver:

the school governor who challenged the screening of al gore's climate change documentary in secondary schools was funded by a scottish quarrying magnate who established a controversial lobbying group to attack environmentalists' claims about global warming...

the observer has established that dimmock's case was supported by a powerful network of business interests with close links to the fuel and mining lobbies...

dimmock credited the little-known new party [ed. note: the name of the party is the "new party"] with supporting him in the test case but did not elaborate on its involvement. the obscure scotland-based party calls itself 'centre right' and campaigns for lower taxes and expanding nuclear power.

records filed at the electoral commission show the new party has received nearly all of its money - almost £1m between 2004 and 2006 - from cloburn quarry limited, based in lanarkshire.

the company's owner and chairman of the new party, robert durward, is a long-time critic of environmentalists. with mark adams, a former private secretary to tony blair, he set up the scientific alliance, a not-for-profit body comprising scientists and non-scientists, which aims to challenge many of the claims about global warming.
not for profit? well, that can't be bad, then, can it? think again...

in 2004 the alliance co-authored a report with the george c marshall institute, a us body funded by exxon mobil, that attacked climate change claims. 'climate change science has fallen victim to heated political and media rhetoric ... the result is extensive misunderstanding,' the report's authors said.

martin livermore, director of the alliance, confirmed durward continued to support its work. 'he provides funds with other members,' livermore said.
say, are there some coal and oil stains on your grassroots there?

the scotsman had a 2003 profile of mr. durward, in which he doesn't come off as somebody whose opinions you'd trust enough to discuss science with him:

outspoken on europe, an avowed enemy of environmentalists, an opponent of "witchhunts" against drink-drivers and an advocate of letting the army sort out schools, hospitals, and roads, robert wilson menzies durward, 51, has a track record of putting his money where his mouth is when he wants to get his political point across.

and yet the lanark businessman is proving uncharacteristically reluctant to emerge from the shadows to take credit for his role in the creation of a party so right-wing that the scottish tory leader, david mcletchie, has been moved to dismiss it as "fascist and undemocratic".
sure, he's the kind of guy we want to control the debate over global warming.

addendum: al gore responds to the 9 supposed "errors."

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posted by skippy at 4:40 PM | 0 comments

skippy...stringer for reuters

we kid you not!

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posted by skippy at 4:01 PM | 5 comments

malkin after midnight

john at c&l thinks there's some skull-duggery behind the scenes at faux news network vis-a-vis michelle malkin and bill o'reilly and geraldo rivera:

then rivera bashed michelle in an interview:

“michelle malkin is the most vile, hateful commentator i’ve ever met in my life,” he says. “she actually believes that neighbors should start snitching out neighbors, and we should be deporting people.

“it’s good she’s in d.c. and i’m in new york,” rivera sneers. “i’d spit on her if i saw her.”
then malkin tried to run hate ads against geraldo and they were rejected…..now it looks like she bailed out of the factor.

from: “michelle malkin”
to: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
date: fri, 12 oct 2007 23:04:58 -0400
subject: re: michelle no longer on the factor?
i made the decision to quit appearing on the o’reilly show in response to the poor handling of the geraldo rivera matter (the staged “apology” on the factor was a complete farce). i won’t go into details, but please know that your support means a lot to me. you can catch me on other fox news shows and read my daily blog posts and weekly columns at michellemalkin.com.

best,
michelle
fox has been grooming her for a long time and something more had to happen for o’reilly’s team to let her go or for her to quit. a network doesn’t develop what they think is an asset and then suddenly drop it. she was subbing on fridays and bill loves his girl team segments during the week. the most extreme right wing blogger out there just doesn’t give up that spot over geraldo in my opinion….i’m trying to get more information on this, but nobody–and i mean nobody–plays the victim better than malkin…
we never thought we'd say it, but good for geraldo. now he'd better hope michelle doesn't grab any nearby chairs...

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posted by skippy at 3:52 PM | 0 comments

d'oh!

the repubbbs have illegally used mr. burns, the evil boss from the simpsons to promote their own greed. techblorge:

simpsons characters appeared on the web site for a republican house committee — where the villainous mr. burns rubs his hands in glee over a children's health insurance bill…

republican committee spokesperson confirmed this morning that their site was not hacked to include cartoon characters, as some bloggers had argued. the press release from the republicans on the house commerce committee included the cartoon characters to parody the bill's perceived flaws.

but what does fox broadcasting have to say about the use of their cartoon characters? it's illegal, says licensing spokesman andy bandit.

"twentieth century fox was unaware of the illegal use of characters from the simpsons in this press release. let me assure you, fox did not authorize this use. characters from the simpsons may not be used in this manner…"
repubbbs doing something illegal? who woulda thunk?

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posted by skippy at 1:39 PM | 0 comments

don't you hate when reality disagrees with a well-planned meme?

greg sargent points out that even the ultra-conservative wallstreetjournal thinks the recent attack by the hardly-ever-right wing on the frost family is bogus:

now their campaign has sunk to such a comically low level that even the conservative wall street journal editorial page, which opposes the schip expansion, has come out with a new opinion piece denouncing the wingers as an "internet mob" that is hopelessly wrong on the facts...

despite their howls about "the children," democrats and their media partners are happy to milk them for political gain.

unfortunately, that narrative was bolstered this week by some conservative bloggers. after the schip veto, democrats chose a 12-year-old boy named graeme frost to deliver a two-minute rebuttal. while that was a political stunt, the washington habit of employing "poster children" is hardly new. but the internet mob leapt to some dubious conclusions and claimed the frost kids shouldn't have been on schip in the first place.

as it turns out, they belonged to just the sort of family that a modest schip is supposed to help.
yep. when even the chronically dishonest wsj editorial page denounces you for dishonesty on an issue it more or less agrees with you about, you're pretty far around the bend. the wingnuts, needless to say, remain unrepentant, howling away as always at illusions and mirages of their own making.
(tip of the kangaroo tail to caro at makthemaccountable for the link!)

and, on the subject of s-chip, the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america sez the veto of same hurts military families:

iraq and afghanistan veterans of america (iava), the nation's first and largest nonpartisan organization for veterans of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, today urged congress to override the president’s veto of the state children’s health insurance program (schip) reauthorization. schip includes two little-known provisions which help the families of critically wounded troops. the provisions provide one year of employment discrimination protection to family members caring for severely injured troops, and extends permitted work leave for those family members from three months to six months. congress passed schip earlier this month, but president bush vetoed the legislation for reasons unrelated to these military families’ amendments. this thursday, the house will vote on whether to override the president’s veto.

“any member of congress who supports the troops should vote to override the president’s veto. if schip fails, so does this protection for families of our most grievously wounded troops...” said paul rieckhoff, iava executive director.

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posted by skippy at 11:53 AM | 0 comments

"you can do it. we can condescend."

via feministing via shakespeare's sister, home depot apparently thinks tools are too big for women to understand, and so has started a new chain of home improvement stores specifically for the little ladies. contracostatimes:

the newest home depot store opening thursday in concord represents the retailer's attempt to get in touch with its feminine side.

the store takes a different approach to home improvement: more "trading spaces" and less "this old house."

you won't find any lumber yards, contractor-grade tools or commercial building supplies. what you will find are flower bouquets, well-lit bathroom and kitchen displays, stylish home furnishings and stacks of floral-print storage bins.

the home depot design center is the first of its kind in the country and will serve as a test site. a second design center will open next week in charlotte, n.c.
no lumber yards? that begs the joke about gals being afraid of wood, but we won't go there.

jessica wants to know if they'll trade their traditional orange aprons for pink, and melissa comes right out and says

see, being one of the "hers" in question, i know that i can't put up my pretty pink curtains without scary man-tools, so home depot is still my fucking depot, too.

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posted by skippy at 11:39 AM | 6 comments

on the radio

our good blog buddy maryscott o'connor (msoc to you) has announced she's taking my left wing to internet radio!

next monday, october 22, at 1pm pacific, 4pm eastern, maryscott o'connor / msoc (emsock to friends and enemies alike) intends to make her maiden foray into that area between "alternative media" and "traditional media" -- that being the internet-based "blog talk radio."

the designated sobriquet for said radio talk show is, of course, the only possible identification one could choose: my left wing talk radio.
msoc asks her readers permission to use the third person when talking about herself in this announcement.

it's ok with us.

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posted by skippy at 11:29 AM | 0 comments

how many repubbblicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

according to cookie jill, the answer is:

1. one to deny that the light bulb needs to be changed

2. one to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed.

3. one to blame clinton for burning out the light bulb.

4. one to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb or for darkness.

5. one to give a billion dollar no-bid/cost-plus contract to halliburton for the new light bulb.

6. one to arrange a photograph of bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a stepladder under the banner: "light bulb change accomplished."

7. one administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how bush was literally in the dark.

8. one to viciously smear #7.

9. one surrogate to campaign on tv and at rallies on how george bush has had a strong light bulb changing policy all along.

10. finally, joe lieberman to confuse americans about the difference between screwing the light bulb and screwing the country.
of course, the real question is, how many repubbblicans does it take to screw up a country?

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posted by skippy at 10:45 AM | 4 comments

trash a company

leave thousands of employees without a job. get sued by numerous state attorney generals for predatory lending and false advertising. facilitate thousands to lose their homes due to criminal actions.

get an ambassadorship.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 10:13 AM | 1 comments

a dry georgia

and i'm not talking about "moonshine"
atlanta is expected to tighten its grip on municipal water, enacting restrictions on businesses that some say will be more severe than at anytime in any u.s. city in 30 years, according to the atlanta journal-constitution.

already, georgia has been battling neighboring states and the federal government over the flow of water from lake lanier, atlanta’s main water source. georgia gov. sonny perdue has threatened to sue the army corps of engineers if it doesn’t hold back more water in the reservoir, as an historic drought tightens its grip across the region. - the daily green

u.s. drought moniter

Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day

happy blog action day!

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:33 AM | 1 comments

Sunday, October 14, 2007

skippy's sunday nite music club



carlos santana & mana - corazon espinado

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 0 comments

i'm a nytimes oped reader

and so can you!

colbert isn't on the ert....he's in print, today.

...i'd like to thank maureen dowd for permitting/begging me to write her column today. as i type this, she’s watching from an overstuffed divan, petting her prize abyssinian and sipping a dirty cosmotinijito. which reminds me: before i get started, i have to take care of one other bit of business:

bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. it’s all george bush’s fault, the vice president is satan, and god is gay.

there. now i’ve written frank rich’s column too. - nytimes

ah...refreshing "truthiness."

(photo from the weekly donut)

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:21 AM | 0 comments

don't go to "b"-school

go to "bee" school.

agriculture schools in california and throughout the nation are hoping fresh slogans will cultivate interest among high school graduates who don’t know wheat from wheaties.

the same universities that a generation ago churned out legions of agriculture professionals today largely struggle to woo students. many students who are studying agriculture are clamoring for cheese class and wine-making seminars and shunning fields such as soil science and crop production.

many schools are wrestling with declining enrollment, as a large portion of the agricultural work force is nearing retirement.

in california, one-third of the public and private plant doctors who monitor the health of the state’s $32- billion agriculture industry will retire in 10 years or less. one-third of the state’s county agricultural commissioners, whose inspections help keep out voracious foreign pests such as the mediterranean fruit fly, will retire in the next five years. yet enrollment in horticulture programs at the state’s top agriculture schools has dropped as much as 40 percent in the last five years.

“behind every farmer in the field, there’s a whole line of merchants and scientists that support that farmer,” said fred roth, a professor of plant pathology at cal poly pomona. “but we’re aging out, and there isn’t a group of people coming up to take our places.” - slo tribune (slo - home of "cow" poly)

you can't stock the grocery stores or farmer's markets unless you have the land and the people who know how to work it. but, we've become so distanced from the land, many have no idea where milk even comes from anymore.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:44 AM | 2 comments

no, we aren't playing that game anymore...

that would be the game called "bash al gore for cheap amusement and petty political points while our sick society collapses all around us, ha ha ha ha ha":

...the washington insider community also shows no serious readiness to reexamine its failures in the wake of george w. bush's disastrous presidency and the devastating war in iraq, which now even retired lt. general ricardo sanchez, the former top commander of coalition forces, calls a "nightmare with no end in sight."

it's all so much easier to continue making fun of al gore.


i keep seeing the phrase "draft gore" popping up on various sites -- including this one. frankly, i'm getting tired of it. listen up, people, al gore is not jesus christ, nor is he trying to pass himself off as christ. he's just one man who happens to be in a very good position to show us all that global warming is a real and major problem -- so real and major that for homo sapiens, it is a potentially fatal one, too. okay? if al gore decides to run for the presidency, fine with me. if he chooses to keep on giving presentations about global warming instead, that's also fine with me. i don't care one way or the other. it's his life.

don't get me wrong. my respect for gore has skyrocketed in recent years because no matter what the republican noise machinists or their willing accessories in the "media" do to make him look like a buffoon, he keeps on truckin'. unlike these bloodless wingnuts and their beltway cocktail wiener addict enablers, al gore gives a damn. i love that. he's going to keep on doing what he does so well, no matter what these people say. he doesn't need them.

and neither do i. i'm through with them. this world's going to hell in an easter basket, and they still prefer making fun of al gore to doing anything to reverse our current course. i can't be bothered with these small, dim creatures anymore. they are leeches, they are petty, they are irritating, and they are trash. i don't need them.

you hear me? i don't need them.

and neither do you. tear 'em off and let 'em starve if they can't find another body to suck blood out of. my blood belongs to me, yours belongs to you.

enough already...

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posted by Jim Yeager at 8:17 AM | 5 comments

Saturday, October 13, 2007

skippy's saturday nite music club



curve - clipped

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 0 comments

happy blogiversary!

to roger ailes!

roger is old school blogging, and he's been around since all the ancient ones, including skippy.

he's quite funny and right to the point, and doesn't get as many readers as he deserves.

happy fifth blogiversary to roger!

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posted by skippy at 8:33 PM | 0 comments

from the manufacturers of the dean scream

we have the media amplifying the talking point that hillary cackles. cackle? we've got your cackle right here, america:

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posted by George at 8:05 PM | 0 comments

monsters in our midst

acts of cruelty on fellow, fuzzy sentient beings just brings me heartache.

daisy mae, an outside cat, had a routine. when she wanted to come back in the house, she'd mew outside bryan booker's bedroom window, the teen would open the window, and she'd jump in.

but late thursday night, the 3-year-old white longhair cat meowed weakly, then limped to the front door, dripping blood from her mouth, where someone apparently had shot her.

..x-rays showed a .22-caliber bullet lodged in her abdomen after puncturing her shoulder and lung. veterinarians at the emerald city emergency veterinary hospital are trying to stabilize daisy mae so they can perform surgery monday. they must first mend her damaged jaw and broken teeth so she can eat.

"it looks like she was shot while she was curled up sleeping," said melinda booker.... - seattle pi

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posted by Cookie Jill at 12:38 PM | 9 comments

what's peace got to do with it?

quite a bit, actually.
"climate change is and will be a significant threat to our national security and in a larger sense to life on earth as we know it to be," retired gen. gordon sullivan, former u.s. army chief of staff, told a congressional panel last month. - seattle p.i.
oh, yeah. they'll brand him a "phony" general.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:04 AM | 2 comments

general dissatisfaction about iraq, or, tricky ricardo

much of the hardly-ever-right wing is trying to eviscerate gen. sanchez's recent remarks about iraq being such a disaster. capt. ed sez half of the general's message was left on the cutting room floor of newsrooms and bloggers. powerline bravely attacks the strawman concerning press conveniently leaving out the part of the general's remarks which disparaged the press.

points taken. but it's hard to argue w/stars and stripes magazine:

“there is no question that america is living a nightmare with no end in sight,” retired lt. gen. ricardo sanchez told a convention of military journalists on friday.

sanchez commanded u.s. troops in iraq from june 2003 to july 2004. his controversial tenure saw the capture of saddam hussein and the handover of sovereignty to the iraqi government, but also the rise of the insurgency and the abu ghraib prison scandal.

while cleared of any wrongdoing, one report found that sanchez and his deputy, "failed to ensure proper staff oversight of detention and interrogation operations." …

but sanchez reserved most of his venom friday for u.s. officials, saying the u.s. government still has not brought all the resources needed to win in iraq.

“from a catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan, to the administration’s latest surge strategy, this administration has failed to employ and synchronize the political, economic and military power,” sanchez said.

continuing changes to military strategy alone will not achieve victory, rather it will only “stave off defeat,” he said.

“the administration, congress and the entire inter-agency, especially the state department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure and the american people must hold them accountable.”
we wonder if the hardly-ever-right wing thinks stars and stripes is part of the msm that has "decided to emphasize only one aspect of the general’s speech…his harsh critique of the administration’s planning and execution of the war in iraq. i know, it’s shocking that that’s what they have chosen to emphasize."

we're shocked!

addendum: the sailor, over at steveaudio, doesn't think it's the media's job to fluff the military.

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posted by skippy at 10:56 AM | 5 comments

cackle?

did someone say cackle? we got your cackle right here:

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posted by George at 10:28 AM | 0 comments

things that make you go "hmmmmm"

can you guess who was taking about whom?

"in any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development," ______ told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.

...."i think there is too much concentration of power in the _____. i have told the _____ that. everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. there are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, i think, questions about the strength of the _____," said ______.....

the answer....here.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 10:12 AM | 2 comments

Friday, October 12, 2007

skippy's friday nite music club

here's a request from the gentle jim yeager of mockingbird's medley...



gentle giant - on reflection

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 3 comments

macho man

via down w/tyranny...



larry craig: i am not gay

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posted by skippy at 9:28 PM | 0 comments

"perfected"

that's what coulter thinks jews should be by converting to the "proper" religion.
...coulter went on "the big idea," a talk show aired on cnbc, the cable channel devoted to business news. its host, donny deutsch, is a preternaturally affable businessman who invites successful people on to talk about how they turn their ideas into money. coulter was there to describe how she had -- in our vulgar commercial argot --"branded" herself. at one point, deutsch asked her what an ideal country would be like, and she replied that it would be one in which everyone was "a christian." deutsch, who happens to be jewish, protested that coulter was advocating his people's elimination. she responded that she simply hoped to see jews "perfected" through conversion to christianity.

...it is fair to say that the rails leading to auschwitz were greased by precisely the opinion coulter expressed on american television this week. - latte times
in my vision of what an ideal country would be like, would be one in which we didn't glorify and celebrate hate mongers; one in which the media wouldn't parade them around for ratings; one in which we had democrats with spines to impeach these war criminals squatting in the white house and on our air waves.

**update** if you are a jew and are angered by coulter's comment, debbie schlussel thinks you're a "phony" jew.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:58 PM | 4 comments

no noose is good noose

we're old school, but there are some things from the past that we wish would just as well stay there.

msnbc says that since the jena 6 incident, that old standby symbol of racial hatred, the noose, is making a comeback:

in july, a noose was left in the bag of a black coast guard cadet aboard a cutter. a noose was found in august on the office floor of a white officer who had been conducting race-relations training in response to the incident.

in early september, a noose was discovered at the university of maryland in a tree near a building that houses several black campus groups.

on sept. 29, a noose appeared in the locker room of the hempstead, n.y., police department, which recently touted its efforts to recruit minorities.

on oct. 2, a noose was seen hanging on a utility pole at the anniston army depot in alabama.

last week, the president of historically black grambling state university in louisiana announced he would seek sanctions against five teachers who participated in a lesson on race relations that included placing a noose around the neck of a child at a mostly black on-campus elementary school.

the columbia incident involved a black professor of psychology and education, madonna constantine, who teaches a class on racial justice.

the columbia investigation also follows the arrest on sunday of a white woman on hate-crime charges alleging she hung a noose over a tree limb and threatened a black family living next door in new york city. the two incidents were “the first noose cases in recent memory” in the city, said deputy inspector michael osgood, commander of the police hate crime task force.
even worse, newsday tells us that a third noose appeared in nyc near ground zero:

a noose was found dangling outside a ground zero post office that was damaged in the sept. 11 terrorist attacks, police and a postal official said.

they said it wasn't clear, however, whether the hated symbol of lynchings in the old south was directed at the postal service or any other tenants in the lower manhattan building…

dangling from a lammpost near the building, the noose was visible from the street, [u.s. postal inspection service spokesman al] weissman said. but postal workers were the first to notice it thursday afternoon, he and police said.

the building facade is undergoing work and laced with scaffolding that leads to the light pole, but the scaffolding is covered with barbed wire, weissman said.

building managers removed the noose, which was later turned over to the nypd's hate crimes unit for investigation, police said.
wpxi in pittsburg reports an outbreak of noose-sigthings in that city:

a north side deli owner faces customer criticism after an employee wore a racially offensive t-shirt.

an african-american woman was shocked to see a clerk at the north shore deli on east ohio street wearing a shirt that depicted blacks hanging from nooses.

community activist, paradise gray, said the clerk, a 20-year-old white male, refused to answer questions about the shirt…

the deli owner told gray the shirt had been confiscated.

there have been multiple racially offensive incidents in the pittsburgh region this month.

a worker at a construction site in o'hara township found a noose in his work area. a verizon worker from butler county said someone left a noose around a doll's neck with a note saying she didn't deserve a promotion. a doll bearing a racial slur was found hanging in the hallway of the port authority's east liberty garage.
of course, these noose hangers, like the men who hid behind kkk hoods, are cowards, and don't have the balls to make confront the objects of their wrath face-to-face. we have to give annthrax coulter credit, at least she's got the cahones to take responsibility for her bigotry.

but perhaps most amazing of all, a man in florida has hung a noose in his front yard, just for fun.

a man in punta gorda hung a noose in his front yard.

when told that many people could be offended by this gesture, mike whiteker did not seem at all fazed.

"well, those people are not from the south," whiteker said…

whiteker, who proudly hangs the noose in the front yard of his home, said it's all for fun.
we can only imagine the kind of parties he has.

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posted by skippy at 7:28 PM | 2 comments

yes nola

scout prime sends us an update to her recent blog drive:

hi skippy

an update here. the tulane medical students at hope in grace website inform me that $3,070 in donations have been raised since yesterday. it is wonderful and the joseph family is extremely grateful for the donations.

i want to thank you for posting and helping to spread the word. i thought you might want to update your readers as well. as you can see we are under way but more is needed to reach the goal of rebuilding the joseph's home. if we reach enough people we may just be able to help bring miracle and her family home to their beloved new orleans lower 9th ward.

again thank you so much skippy

scout

information links:


please blog...fund raising drive to bring miracle and her family home to the lower 9th ward

*hope in grace*
it's the least we could do, scout!

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posted by skippy at 7:14 PM | 0 comments

george bush sues al gore for nobel prize

why are we not surprised?

george w. bush filed suit in the supreme court today, alleging that he, and not al gore, jr., is in fact the rightful recipient of the nobel peace prize.

in an erie echo of the original bush v. gore suit of 2000, lawyer jim baker is demanding a recount of the votes tallied by the prize committee.

a contingent of pasty republican congressional staffers have driven winnebagos to oslo, where they are parked outside of the nobel headquarters, demanding to see the swedes' "chads."

george w. bush defended his actions the only way he knew how: by invoking 9/11.

"they attacked us, and so we went to war. and, without war, there's no way to measure peace. so any prize for peace really ought to go to the guy who started the whole she-bang, and that would be 'moe.' "

it was pointed out to mr. bush that the french pronunciation of the word for "me" was "moi," but he was, as usual, oblivious.

"i thought i was talking about the three stooges," he joked, and then he took a sick child's health insurance away.

al gore could not be reached for comment. - asspress

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posted by skippy at 12:56 PM | 1 comments

mad about the anti-semitism of ann coulter

mad kane, that is!

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posted by skippy at 12:54 PM | 1 comments

congrats, mr. president!


Al Gore 1
Originally uploaded by codyraymulcahy
albert arnold gore, jr. shares the nobel peace prize.
...sørensen said the prize stresses that climate isn't only an environmental issue, but a security and peace issue as well.

environmental groups from greenpeace to bellona and friends of the earth were celebrating. "this is wonderful," said lars haltbrekken of norway’s chapter of friends of the earth (naturvernforbund). "the nobel committee has focused on the biggest security threat to our civilization." - aftenpoften, norway

...gore called the award meaningful because of his co-winner, noting that he considered the un's intergovernmental panel on climate change the "world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis."

"we face a true planetary emergency... it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," he said. "it is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

gore, who had been heavily favoured to win the peace prize, said he planned to donate his share of the prize money (sek 10 million, or about usd 1.8 million) to the alliance for climate protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the us and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis. - aftenpoften, norway

draft gore

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:00 AM | 3 comments

Thursday, October 11, 2007

skippy's thursday nite music club

they're lesbians...and they play zeppelin...they're



lez zeppelin - that's the way

this is the best sound/pic quality on youtube we could find for lez zeppelin. but if you go to their web site they have some rockin' sound bytes and songs to download, too!

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 0 comments

jew hear what she said?

yes, annthrax said jews need to be perfected. all of blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase, is in an uproar, but lean left points out the coulter is only saying what most evangelicals have been saying for years:

in fact, in this case coulter’s just stating a position that is perfectly mainstream on the religious right. seeing jesus as the jewish messiah, evangelical christians often claim that christianity is the follow-on to judaism that jews have in fact been waiting for for over 6,000 years, and the jews just don’t realize it. (this is the rationale behind both “jews for jesus” - jewish converts to christianity, one of whose ad slogans is “be more jewish - believe in jesus”, and the “messianic jew” movement, made up of right-wing christians who expropriate jewish dress and symbolism, including the use of torah scrolls and other sacred objects, for use in christian rituals.) jews who realize the truth about jesus as the messiah will become “perfected” by becoming christians. during the apocalypse of the armageddon of the final days of the last judgment™, those jews who haven’t “perfected” themselves will, depending on which evangelical peyote-trip you’re on, either be killed violently and condemned to eternal torment, or just converted to christianity against their will.

this is all standard stuff - and, as has been widely remarked, the source of evangelical support for israel, which they defend partly because they believe god commands it, but also because doing so, in their minds, fulfills some sort of prophecy that will hasten the apocalypse and the final destruction of judaism and all other non-christian religions. again, this is standard among “millenialist” (apocalyptic) evangelicals, who - contrary to popular belief - are only a minority of christians, but a large one.

critics also seemed to believe that coulter’s claim about “perfected jews” was some sort of implication that real jews were imperfect. it is, of course, but it’s not a claim she invented. “perfected judaism” is a term of art among evangelicals; coulter was saying nothing new in using it.

the bottom line is that coulter’s condescending and offensive remarks about judaism - which she blandly states are “not offensive”, as if the fact that she is comfortable with her own anti-semitism means it’s ok - are in this case not a product of her own diseased and vicious mind, but are merely ordinary mainstream right-wing christian theology. the real story is not that ann coulter is nasty and crazy - that’s old news. the story is that the religion practiced by george w. bush and his entire right-wing “base” is just as nasty and crazy as ann coulter - which in turn is the reason the right wing is not trying to distance itself from coulter this time. they can’t. they are her.
thx to the moderate voice, here's the video of annthrax insulting the chosen people, so you can judge for yourself:

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posted by skippy at 11:03 PM | 4 comments

we get letters

rep. pete stark wrote skippy a letter thanking him for contributing to his campaign. you may remember skippy donated to stark after the representative stood up in defense of the moveon "betray us" ad.

rep. stark wrote back:

thank you for your contribution to my re-election campaign.

moveon has done so much to elevate discussion abut key issues facing american policy. their recent advertisement in the new york times about petraeus and the iraq war was excellent. i can raise these issue on the house floor until i am blue in the face and some avid c-span listeners might catch on. but when moveon responds with their magnificent electronic communication, millions hear the message that all must know.

i appreciate your support,

peace,

pete stark
thank you, rep. stark.

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posted by skippy at 10:40 PM | 0 comments

senator "wide stance" craig's recipe

"super tuber"
ingredients
1 hot dog, cook's choice
1 idaho baking potato, 7 to 10 ounces
mustard for dipping, any style
other condiments as desired such as cheese sauce, sour cream, chili, chives, bacon pieces or black olives.

wash and dry potato. rub with shortening or butter. with an apple corer or small knife, core out the potato center (end to end). push hot dog through the center. bake until potato is cooked through.

think i just lost my appetite.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:44 PM | 2 comments

if they're the law and order party

maybe they should try throwing the book at michele maglalang.

from the carpetbagger report: michelle malkin claims she went to the frost’s home and workplace yesterday.

md. criminal law code ann. § 3-803. harassment. amended 2002.

(a) prohibited. -- a person may not follow another in or about a public place or maliciously engage in a course of conduct that alarms or seriously annoys the other :

(1) with the intent to harass, alarm, or annoy the other ;

(2) after receiving a reasonable warning or request to stop by or on behalf of the other; and

(3) without a legal purpose .

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:08 PM | 1 comments

no child left alive

asspress is reporting that a us raid in iraq has killed 9 children:

baghdad - a u.s. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital thursday — one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an american operation in recent months. the military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-qaida in iraq…

the american account said u.s. surveillance confirmed "activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target." the first air attack killed "four terrorists," said the statement…

"after securing the area, the ground force assessed 15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed," the statement said. two suspected al-qaida members, a woman and three children were wounded, according to the military account.

the military said its troopers "were reviewing information from the scene (of thursday's attack) as well as assessing the level of damage involved."

the statement also issued regret "that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces search to rid iraq of terrorism."
but not as much as the dead children regret it.

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posted by skippy at 7:03 PM | 4 comments

faux news does it again

identifies a rethug as a democrat.
today on fox and friends they had a couple of segments on a nyc councilman , james oddo, who was punked by a fake foreign correspondant. fox and friends compared it to an interview on the daily show where they play tricks on politicians. in the first segment, judge andrew napolitano called the councilman a conservative democrat when in reality he is a republican. - newshounds

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:55 PM | 0 comments

katrina stories continued

we got this email from scout prime over at first draft:

Example

hey skippy

i'm writing to ask a favor for a lower 9th ward family who have now lost their home twice. i know there are so many stories needing your attention and i hate to add to that but here is something that i think we progressive bloggers could make happen for a family that is losing hope. and so i am asking.

kellie joseph and her 6 children lost their home to katrina. they had nearly completed rebuilding when someone abandoned a stolen car in their backyard and lit it aflame to destroy evidence. the flames engulfed the home.a group of tulane university medical students who heard of this devastating news decided to help the family rebuild again and started a website named hope in grace for what is called *project: bring miracle*.

recently the students contacted me. the online donation effort has reached a standstill after some initial local media attention. it is their hope to reach a wider audience through the internet. they are asking for online donations to a rebuilding fund specifically restricted for use only in reconstruction.

this is where we as bloggers can help. we can't rebuild new orleans but perhaps we can help one family that has now fallen through the cracks. we have the ability to reach a wide audience and even small donations could help bring this family home if enough people donate. they used their road home grant for the first rebuild so that is now lost. unfortunately they can only receive $12,000 from insurance and so $132,000 is needed to rebuild.

[here's the link to] the story of the joseph family from the hope in grace website as well as links to donate and leave a message of hope. skippy i hope you'll consider posting something.

thanks for reading

scout prime at first-draft.com

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posted by skippy at 6:55 PM | 0 comments

what i learned about america -- or vice versa... (in ten parts)

last month, i spent a four-day vacation in washington, d.c. and alexandria, virginia. part of that involved participating in the pro-impeachment march, my third d.c. march of the year. but what i really wanted to do was visit some of the monuments, arlington cemetery, and certain smithsonian museums. overall, it was probably the best-spent vacation i've ever had. it was definitely the most illuminating -- i'm looking at things now in ways i never dreamed possible before. it used to be i had to make connections bewteen events and/or people through my own efforts. that's begun happening automatically, with no warning, on a basis becoming regular -- all of a sudden, *bang* there's another one.

i haven't written much about the experience here, but i did write such a series of posts over at my own little mockingbird's medley over the course of a month. if it can be called a series, that is. there's not much continuity involved, much of their contents were written in a spur-of-the-moment manner, and some of them were influenced by events happening at the time they were being written. wrapping it up proved difficult -- some of the complete blanks i drew in between posts lasted for days. that's why i've been scarce around skippy's place lately.

but it's done now. so, for anyone interested in what i learned about america -- and vice versa -- here they are:

part one
part two
part three
part four
part five
part six
part seven
part eight
part nine (you may have already read this one)
and the last part -- which, in my not-at-all humble opinion, is the best of the ten.

yes, senoras and horsemen*, this is the most blogwhorish post i have ever written here. but hey, rj eskow hasn't had much to say around here for the longest time, and someone's gotta do this.

enjoy, if you're interested.

(*: explanation for this weird phrase i keep using provided on request...)

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posted by Jim Yeager at 11:23 AM | 6 comments

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

skippy's wednesday nite music club



dana edelman - grand central station

dana is an up and coming singer/songwriter in the ny scene. this is one of his most beautiful songs.

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 1 comments

say hello

to kick! making politics fun.

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posted by skippy at 8:35 PM | 1 comments

addicted to stats?

check this out.
watch the world’s population and environmental stats in real time.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:54 PM | 0 comments

the rope-a-dope-ya in blogtopia

via c&l, ezra throws down to michelle:

"it’s militant leftist bloggers," writes malkin, "who wouldn’t know a good-faith argument if it bit them in the lip." let's have a good faith argument. i will debate michelle malkin anytime, anywhere, in any forum (save hotair tv, which she controls), on the particulars of s-chip. we can set the debate at a think tank, on bloggingheads, over im. hell, we can set up the podiums in the shrubbery outside my house, since that seems to be the sort of venue she naturally seeks out. and then if malkin wants an argument, she can have one. we'll talk s-chip and nothing but -- nothing of the frosts, or congress, or her blog...

so c'mon michelle: let's debate health care. prove to the world that you really want "a good-faith argument." we can talk crowd-out, and cross-subsidization, and whether lower-middle class entrepreneurs are able to procure health care on the individual market. if this is a policy argument you care so deeply about as to travel to the frost family's house to see if they really deserved s-chip benefits, surely you'll want to set up a web cam and talk through the issue.
we've written michelle asking for her response. we'll see if we get one.

meanwhile, the baltimore sun is one multi-millionaire media organ that doesn't take too kindly to the hardly-ever-right wing tactics to intimidate the frosts:

but while the frosts were helping a bipartisan majority in congress sell a plan to expand the program, they were not prepared for comments such as this one, posted over the weekend on the conservative web site redstate:

"if federal funds were required [they] could die for all i care. let the parents get second jobs, let their state foot the bill or let them seek help from private charities. ... i would hire a team of pis and find out exactly how much their parents made and where they spent every nickel. then i'd do everything possible to destroy their lives with that info."

the onslaught began over the weekend, a week after 12-year-old graeme frost delivered the democrats' weekly radio address with a plea to bush to sign the bill. a contributor to the conservative web site free republic noted graeme's enrollment in the private park school and the sale of a smaller rowhouse on the frosts' block for $485,000 this year and questioned whether the family should be taking advantage of the state program.

that post was picked up by the national review online and other web sites. by monday, rush limbaugh was discussing the family's earnings and assets on the air, and the blogger michelle malkin was writing about her visit to halsey frost's east baltimore warehouse and her drive past the family's butchers hill rowhouse. liberal bloggers, meanwhile, were complaining that the frosts were being "swift-boated."
the hardly-ever-right wing sites have mentioned that at first glance, the frosts look well-off. the problem is, the right doesn't go beyond glancing:

[deputy secretary for health care financing john g.] folkemer said a family's assets are not considered in determining eligibility. halsey frost purchased the family home for $55,000 in 1990, according to city records, and refinanced in 2005, he says, to make improvements to accommodate the return of Graeme and gemma from the hospital. the 1936 brick rowhouse, on a side street near Patterson Park, has an assessed value of $263,140.

halsey frost purchased a 1920 warehouse in east baltimore for $160,000 in 1999, according to city records. it is assessed at $160,500. frost says he is still paying off the mortgages on both properties.

the four frost children depend on financial aid to attend private school, the frosts say. in addition, they say, gemma receives money from the city for special education made necessary by her injuries.

halsey and bonnie frost say they still have no health insurance. bonnie frost said she priced coverage recently at $1,200 a month.
we'd love to see ezra and michelle debate. it would be more interesting than any other recent debates, that's for sure.

addendum: we like colin mcenroe's phrase:

no child left unsmeared.

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posted by skippy at 6:44 PM | 4 comments

nascar skippy

watch out!

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:22 PM | 0 comments

we've got a little list

via makethemaccountable.com, we find hugh's list of bush scandals.

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posted by skippy at 9:24 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

$1,250 for gourmet cookies?

dang. maybe i should market cookies to fabian nunez. if i could catch him.


the los angeles times first reported last week that nunez spent $8,745 in campaign funds at the hotel arts in barcelona, spain; $5,149 for a “meeting” at aave l'avant garde, a wine seller in france's bordeaux region, and $2,562 for “office expenses” at louis vuitton, a parisian store that specializes in leather goods, clothing, fashion accessories and jewelry. - sandy eggo tribune.
"there's not too big a difference," nuñez told vogel, "between how i live and how most middle-class people live."

...i checked one five-week stretch of nuñez's expenses in 2006 and found that he'd dined at the likes of the water grill ($602.29), pacific dining car ($1,003.37), and asia de cuba ($538.10), and, in sacramento, biba restaurant ($1,026.58).

along with several other meal/meetings in that five-week stretch, his dining tab came to $7,764.94.

can someone please give him directions to a pizza hut? - steve lopez in the latte times


fabian. there's a big difference. hey. hey. ho. ho. this dirty dem has got to go.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:59 PM | 2 comments

skippy's tuesday nite music club



david bowie - fame

our fav early bowie...and we mean early! here we see him guesting on the cher variety hour!

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 2 comments

pot pie plant problems

and, no, not the "smokeable" type of "pot"
conagra foods inc. voluntarily stopped production tuesday at the missouri plant that makes its banquet pot pies after health officials said the pies may be linked to 139 cases of salmonella in 30 states.

...he u.s. department of agriculture also issued a health alert tuesday afternoon to warn consumers about the link between the company's product and the salmonella cases.

...conagra is offering consumers refunds, but no recall of pot pies was being planned tuesday- ap
no recalls? ah...shouldn't the company err on the side of safety?

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:58 PM | 5 comments

the immoderate voice

we agree w/john cole at balloon juice...when the freepers piss off joe gandelman of the moderate voice, you know they've crossed a line:

you have people setting aside seconds of their finite lives to trying to discredit this kid [ed. note: graeme frost, who rebutted awol's veto of the s-chip insurance bill]. they deny that’s what it’s going on — but that is what it is and everyone knows full well that’s what it is.

why? because he made some points about policy. and rather than talk about the points, they are trying to discredit him and his family because that would (they feel) erase the points he made. it’s easier doing that then finding someone who can give counter arguments with facts and figures to negate frost’s points.

one conservative writer now says it’s ok to go after kids — if his kid did something wrong he’d be slapped down.

rather than link to that on this site, we’ll give you this link which also has a quote at the end that is quite fitting to the “level” of what now passes for political debate.

i would have included that quote here, but then i would have thought it was too snarky — but perhaps this time i would not have deleted it.
joe has been a good friend to this blog since the jurassic period, so we are happy to see him come down firmly on the side of decency in this matter.

as the ancient greeks used to say, moderation in all things, including moderation.

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posted by skippy at 4:36 PM | 2 comments

well, that would take care of most of them, at least

we heart huckabee, if only for his rapier wit, and the picture of 7 dead repubbblicans that he put in our heads. asspress:

the former arkansas governor, exaggerating, said other gop presidential hopefuls were raising $100 for every nickel he had raised. "if i were some of these guys, i'd have to be sitting in a warm tub of water with razor blades," huckabee said on msnbc-tv.
bloody, but effective. since the gop has become the party of the south, and huckabee himself was the governor of arkansas, we're surprised he didn't suggest hanging, but we'll take what we can get.

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posted by skippy at 4:18 PM | 0 comments

author's note...

I HAVE F&#K*$G HAD IT.


grab a sandwich and a drink, because you'll be here a while...

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posted by Jim Yeager at 10:55 AM | 2 comments

Monday, October 08, 2007

skippy's monday nite music club



johnny cash - hurt

brilliant rendition of the nin song. also, we believe, the man in black's last music video.

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 2 comments

say hello

to horses ass.

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posted by skippy at 11:20 PM | 0 comments

Market crashes on huge sell off

No link yet. Will update as soon as one is available.


The Times


NEW YORK -- Wall Street investors were reeling after the Devil, the largest procurer of souls for sale, sold off many of the largest names in his portfolio.

Among those souls now back on the market were those once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani, and television commentator Ann Coulter.

"I bought these souls as an investment years ago, but now they're nearly worthless," said the Devil in a press conference in Hell. "Really, what's the point of me holding on to these investments when I'll get them in the end for free?"

Wall Street was shaken by the big sell off, believed to be Satan's largest.

"Battle scarred investors are going to avoid investing in people eager to sell their souls after this sell off," said market analyst Stephen Vincent Benet of investment company Ferris Baker Watts in Washington, D.C.

The Devil's decision to unload the majority of souls he acquired could send ripples throughout Wall Street, Benet said.

"If you look close at the details, you'll see this hurting the share prices of stocks in the defense industry and big Oil," Benet said.

The Devil said his sell off was sparked by Limbaugh calling soldiers opposed to the Iraq war as "phony soldiers."

"That was the straw that broke the camel's back," the Devil said. "I mean that literally. I had camels carrying all of Limbaugh's sins around."

The Devil said his move should not have surprised investors.

"They should have realized a sell-off was coming when John McCain tried to sell his soul for the Republican presidential nomination and I wouldn't buy," the Devil said.

"I'd realized for some time the souls of many rightwingers were damaged goods," the Devil said. "I realized I'd been holding on to them for sentimental reasons. Afterall, they'd done so much for me over the years to promote greed and war. They've worked hard to keep people downtrodden and in misery. I felt I owed them, especially Limbaugh. But I've got to look out for myself or I wouldn't be me, you know?"

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posted by Carnacki at 8:25 PM | 2 comments

you can't make this sh*t up

from the dept. of irony so rich it could be a vitamin supplement:

the weekly standard asks, presumably with a straight face, has moveon jumped the shark?

hello, pot? this is kettle...

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posted by skippy at 7:28 PM | 0 comments

mad about karl rove

mad kane, that is!

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posted by skippy at 7:16 PM | 0 comments

god speed, john

you were the greatest horse i ever saw step onto a track. you had the personality, the talent, the determination, the guts and a sense of humour. no really...i remember him going 'round the walking paddock and "spotting" a camera aimed at him. he would stop and "pose" for a photo...refusing to move until he heard the shutter click!
thoroughbred great john henry, two-time horse of the year who earned more than $6.5 million before retiring to the kentucky horse park, was euthanized monday. he was 32. - ap

"the mighty heart of the great john henry has, at long last, yielded to time," expressed john nicholson, executive director of the horse park. "the racing industry has lost a legend, but more significantly, many people have lost a personal hero. john henry’s true legacy was written in people’s hearts far more indelibly than his superlative racing career could ever reflect. - the bloodhorse
john, true to the legendary name he was given, truly was a steel driving horse. a cantankerous little guy with an amazingly big heart.

i am heartbroken this evening.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:46 PM | 1 comments

rethuglicans slime a 12 year old

can they go any lower than this?
two weeks ago, the democratic radio address was delivered by a 12-year old maryland boy ...graeme told his story of being involved in a severe car accident three years ago, and having received access to medical care because of the children’s health insurance program.

...conservatives have more recently turned their targets on young graeme frost himself.

...the smear attack against graeme has taken firm hold in the right-wing blogosphere. the national review, michelle malkin, wizbang, powerline, and the weekly standard blog have all launched assaults on the frost family. the story is slowly working its way into traditional media outlets - think progress
yeah...attacking a 12 year old and harassing his family. that's family values, rethuglican style

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:21 PM | 1 comments

a hillary of beans

speaking of sen. clinton, the moderate voice sez she is proving to be a useful bogeywoman for the gop, and michael j. stickings, over at the reaction, reacts (pun intended) to the washpost's hit piece yesterday.

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posted by skippy at 11:01 AM | 0 comments

testy, one, two, three, testy...

hillary clinton got a little defensive in iowa this weekend, when a voter asked her a legitimate question. nypost:

in a rare departure from her tightly scripted remarks, the former first lady lashed out at an audience member steamed at her senate vote to declare iran's revolutionary guard a terrorist organization.

randall rolph, of nashua, iowa, compared the vote to the one clinton cast for the iraq war resolution, asking, "why should i support your candidacy . . . if it appears you haven't learned from your past mistakes?"

clinton hit back hard, saying, "the premise of the question is wrong, and i'll be happy to explain that to you."

then she suggested rolph was a plant, saying his question was based on something "somebody obviously sent you."

she soon backed down, telling him, "i apologize. it's just that i've been asked the very same question in three other places."

still, rolph, who says he is an undecided democratic voter, was annoyed. "it really offended me with her response that those words are not my own," he said.
we would humbly suggest that if the same question is being asked of sen. clinton, it would seem to indicate that she hasn't actually provided an answer, ergo, the question needs to be asked again and again.

so, mrs. clinton, why not just address the issue, instead of dressing down the questioner?

that being said, we'd take issue with the nypost's sexist headline, it girl to snit girl. first of all, tho we're big fans of clara bow and get the reference, mrs. clinton is a long ways away from being a "girl." and, we'd like to know when the nypost portrayed any male candidates who disagreed with voters as throwing a 'snit.'

addendum: no more mister nice blog has our answer, and the answer is 'no, the nypost has not portrayed male candidates that way, at least not in the case of rudy giuliani':

back in july, a man at a campaign event in new hampshire asked rudy giuliani why he had made "new york city a sanctuary for illegal aliens."

giuliani went ballistic:

"you must be talking about another candidate," said giuliani, who went on to argue that his administration urged the federal government to deport as many illegal immigrants as possible."here are the three areas that you have distorted into this view that i gave sanctuary to illegal immigrants," said giuliani, turning his back on the voter and addressing the other voters, seated on couches and loveseats around him...

"that's why you are wrong," said giuliani.

"as mayor of new york city," he said. "if i was nothing else, i was rational and sensible."

this was covered, as far as i can determine, by one (1) news organization -- the new york observer -- which pointed out, by the way, that giuliani was whitewashing his record as mayor.

yesterday, by contrast, hillary clinton was asked a sharp question about her iran stance at a campaign event in iowa. she had words the questioner, accusing him of being a plant from a rival campaign ... and then (unlike giuliani in july) she apologized.
nmmnb then lists the six, count 'em, six media organs (including the asspress, which syndicates its stories all over the world) that covered sen. clinton's "snit."

oh, no, no sexism there.

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posted by skippy at 10:14 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, October 07, 2007

skippy's sunday nite music club



dinosaur jr. - just like heaven

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posted by skippy at 6:38 PM | 0 comments

deadly mystery disease follows troops home

from the latte times via sfgate:

...the three cases aboard the comfort were the first of a stubborn outbreak that has spread to at least five other american military hospitals, including walter reed army medical center in washington and the army's landstuhl regional medical center in germany.

hundreds of patients - the military says it has not tabulated how many - have been infected with the bacterium in their bloodstream, cerebrospinal fluid, bones or lungs.

now...imagine the consequences to our society if people get sick but choose not to go see a doctor because they don't have insurance nor the money to pay for the visit or even have to wait for months and months to get into even see a doctor.

what about those reservists who come back ill and are not able to go back to their jobs, thus losing their health insurance and livelyhood?

we should start putting the "profit" of our society above the profit of the mega-corporations. the health of a democracy depends upon the health of it's people. and, our country's is future is quite ill.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:32 AM | 1 comments

for the first time?

you mean they thought that drinking jet fuel was o.k. to begin with?
perchlorate enforcement: state to begin to regulate toxin levels in drinking water. this month, for the first time, the state will begin regulating the amount of the toxin perchlorate in drinking water. - san bernardino county sun

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:00 AM | 2 comments

avocado festival weekend....


First find the Heart, then eat!!!
Originally uploaded by JIGGS. that really means....guacamole central.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 8:56 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, October 06, 2007

calling on fellow californians

take action now before blackwater sets up camp here in the state.

blackwater usa, the private right-wing mercenary army that has spiraled out of control in iraq, is trying to set up a para-military base right here in california, populated by 360 staff and "students." they want to acquire 824 acres of land in a sleepy rural corner of san diego county to build a mercenary training facility, consisting of 15 firing ranges, a helipad, and a heavy vehicle operator's course covering the equivalent of 10 football fields.

no way. no blackwater. not in california. not in america.

that's the message that senator dianne feinstein and senator barbara boxer need to hear, loud and clear.

go to the courage campaign and let "babo" and "difei" know that mercinaries shouldn't be part of our state's landscape. click here.

from democracy now!

...the project will ultimately need the approval of the county planning commission and the board of supervisors, a process that could take up to two years. earlier this month, a normally routine county planning meeting on the project drew over 100 protesters. they were met by three dozen police and sheriff's deputies and people entering the meeting were required to walk through a metal detector.

blackwater west is also running into opposition from a local democratic congressmember who represents the area. representative bob filner said he is exploring legislation to block the project.

send some notes of thanks to congressman filner. here.

speaking of blackwater...

the blackwater guard who drunkenly shot a bodyguard for iraqi vice president adel abdul mehdi in december 2006 was back working for a department of defense contractor by february, cnn reported this morning. - tpmmuckraker

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:59 PM | 0 comments

skippy's saturday nite music club



sleater-kinney - entertain

it took us months to find a sleater-kinney video on youtube, only because we were spelling it like mario lopez's character on saved by the bell: slater-kinney.

our bad. but these ladies rock.

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 2 comments

baldwin faced lie



alec baldwin phones his toddler.

addendum: totally off topic and off the wall:



boogie nights - star wars edition

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posted by skippy at 4:56 PM | 0 comments

jesus christ, the nostradamus of his generation

don't ask how we got there, but we stumbled upon the web page for this book: the usa in bible prophecy. sounds like a page turner:

did christ know of this north american continent? ... sure he did. did he know this great nation would be christian from its beginning? ... of course he did. is it possible that this nation, the greatest christian super power of all time, known to jesus christ, was never mentioned, indicated, or foretold in the bible? …

this book clearly shows that america (zion) is the land set aside by god almighty to be the place of regathered israel. sermons and documents by the founding fathers testify to their belief that they were the israel people of the latter days, and that the old testament prophecies were being fulfilled in their undertakings. it would be wise for us who are living in these last days to take a closer look at the past generations of our great nation to relearn what they knew about america's critical role in bible prophecy.

this book presents an amazing sermon by rev. f. e. pitts of nashville, tennessee to a joint session of congress in 1857 (four years before the civil war) in which he named the united states as the last great power (stone kingdom of daniel 2). he offers scripture after scripture proving that america is the new jerusaleum (zion) spoken of by the prophets to be established before the return of christ. furthermore, he educates us on our responsibilities during this wondrous time in history.
but did christ foretell britney's custodial battles?

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posted by skippy at 3:45 PM | 1 comments

that sahl folks

we like the opinion mill, not only for doing a bang-up job as guest host for the blog round up at c&l this week, but for quoting the god father of political comedians, mort sahl.

addendum: steve has added this humble site to the opinion mill's blogroll, so we are happy to return the favor! and we suggest a visit to the opinion mill on a regular basis!

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posted by skippy at 3:32 PM | 0 comments

housekeeping

we're pleased as a platypus to add terryfaceplace to our blogroll (at the request of the politicky bitch).

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posted by skippy at 3:29 PM | 2 comments

boy scouts aren't prepared

to return their badges.
when robert baden-powell, founder of the boy scout movement, adopted the motto “be prepared”, it is unlikely he had in mind the threat posed to the outward bound movement by lax chinese manufacturing standards.

but scouts in the us were on friday asked to make ready to send back as many as 1.5m chinese-made badges tainted with potentially dangerous levels of lead paint. - financial times and latte times.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 10:48 AM | 2 comments

berry, berry bad

especially for the illegal immigrants used in harvesting.
epa approves new pesticide despite scientists' concerns. despite the protests of more than 50 scientists, including five nobel laureates in chemistry, the u.s. fda on friday approved use of a new, highly toxic fumigant, mainly for strawberry fields. - los angeles times
this administration hates science. hates people.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 9:42 AM | 3 comments

don't you haiti when that happens?

not since papa doc and baby doc have a group of armed guards been able to murder with such impunity as the u.s. state department's blackwater guards. what measures has mama doc rice put in place to address her lawless employees? more eavesdropping. i guess awol has discovered a new source of snuff videos for his pleasure.

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posted by George at 7:48 AM | 2 comments

Friday, October 05, 2007

skippy's friday nite music club



kate bush - wuthering heights

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posted by skippy at 11:59 PM | 6 comments

...

rez dog:

...at the personal level, americans in iraq can see firsthand the strength and endurance of the iraqi people who live every day with fear and uncertainty, who somehow manage to create some "normality" in the midst of chaos. (americans also see venality, corruption and hatred but that's another story.) i think that assisting these brave iraqis is one of "the good" things that a soldier finds to balance the violence of war.after all, war is simply legalized brutality and lethal force and our soldiers are the instruments of that brutality and force. some justification is necessary to justify those actions. otherwise, it's just murder and mayhem. heping iraqis build a democratic nation is one justification. defending america from attack is another.

that neither goal is realy the aim of american policy in iraq (can you say "oil"?) is not the concern of these soldiers. they are doing what they are told, using the skills and expertise they have developed, as directed by their commanders. whether the soldiers believe cheneybush's ever-changing rationales for the war or not, they can see results with their own eyes when they help individuals. they make a personal connection that transcends violence and brutality. maybe i'm projecting here but when i hear american soldiers (i'm talking about junior enlisted and officers) speak of accomplishment, i think most of that comes from their personal satisfaction working with individual iraqis and communities. knowing you saved a life or helped a family can go a long way to counterbalance war's horror.


...

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posted by Jim Yeager at 9:58 PM | 0 comments

and then we did a four way with jeff gannon and mark foley

no one is happier than we are to see gop hypocrites hoisted on their own penistard, but even we smell a spotlight hog on this one...

gay escort mike jones, who implicated rev. ted haggard in a gay sex scandal earlier this year, has made the allegation that larry craig visited jones for sexual favors as well.

while promoting his new book during a radio interview with knwq-am in palm springs wednesday night, mike jones hesitated from making the allegation on the air.

management for the radio station says jones told them he would reveal something about idaho senator larry craig on the "bulldog bill feingold show."

while he hesitated doing so on the air, a newschannel 3 camera was rolling when he made the accusation during a commercial break...

jones then added, "his travel records to denver have been documented. that's what i wanted to say."...

craig's office said in response, "mike jones' allegations are completely false."
and his stance is too narrow, too.

addendum: mike rogers, of blogactive, who specializes in outing gay repubbblican hypocrites, has his doubts about jones' veracity, as well...

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posted by skippy at 5:10 PM | 2 comments

ward casscells for president!

bradblog tells us that in a blind zogby bio poll, ward casscells, assistant sec. of defense for health affairs (oh, that ward casscells!) gets as much support as fred thompson or rudy giuliani:

a zogby international “blind bio” poll shows that renowned cardiologist ward casscells, a longtime conservative now serving as the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, is preferred by about as many republican voters nationwide as republican frontrunners rudy giuliani and fred thompson.

when likely voting respondents were given brief biographical descriptions of the top gop candidates, along with the biography of casscells, giulani and thompson each won 19% support, while casscells won 18%. mike huckabee, former governor of arkansas, won 13% support, while arizona sen. john mccain won 11% and former massachusetts gov. mitt romney won 10%...

in a blind bio poll, the names of the candidates are not used, but are replaced with brief descriptions of each candidate’s biographies.

the bios offered on each candidate, and more details on the poll are here.
john zogby posits that the reason for the great success of casscells, who has no intention of running for president, but has a well-described medical background in his bio, may reflect "a developing trend in recent months...[as] health care is becoming a major issue in the race for president."
and, stupid candidates that don't know anything is also a major issue...

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posted by skippy at 4:41 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, October 04, 2007

kiwi kunundrum

air new zealand is 78% owned by the kiwi government. air new zealand is shuttling u.s. and australian troops to and fro iraq. the kiwi government says it's "shocked. shocked" to hear that they are supporting commander cookoo bananas on the sly in the sky.
...air new zealand ferried 600 australian combat troops to the iraq border in kuwait and united arab emirates last may, with us fighter-jet escort, openly using ordinary passenger aircraft bearing the distinctive blue and white air new zealand koru livery. these 600 australian troops were then deployed to military duty in iraq. on the 29th and 30th of july, air new zealand flight anz1921 transported us troops deploying for missions in iraq on a secret flight between darwin to hiroshima. hiroshima is not on air new zealand’s regular flight schedules, but it is rather conveniently next to the us marine base in iwakuni.

...the australian government expressed its ‘extreme displeasure’ with the clark government