skippy the bush kangaroo

great game, eh?!

Labels: canada, hockey, olympics

back to the farm edition.

tracking a rising tide of waste. wisconsin is churning out permits for industrial-scale farms to spread millions of gallons of manure on state fields but provides little oversight after that, inspecting them only once or twice every five years, a wisconsin state journal investigation has found. - madison wisconsin state journal

melamine: the toxic legacy. - dairy giant fonterra is not providing any direct compensation to chinese victims of the contaminated milk scandal despite a new study which shows many of the affected children have ongoing health problems. - auckland sunday star times

warm winters distress reindeer herders. warm winters in recent years have forced herders here in the far northern kola peninsula to delay for months the rounding up of their reindeer from the vast tundra -- at great economic cost. - afp

unpredictable weather patterns hurting farming. a study indicates that on-going extreme changes and variability in zambia’s climate could bring losses of more than us$4 billion in agricultural income in the next 10 years, driving hundreds of thousands into poverty and food insecurity. - ndola times of zambia

animal tagging dropped. facing opposition, the federal government has dropped a six-year effort to get farmers nationwide to tag and trace the movements of livestock. the system was launched by the usda in 2004 after a mad cow disease scare in canada. - lancaster intelligencer

oregon oyster farms recalls oysters, 8 sickened as newport wine & seafood festival starts. the beds have been closed by the department of agriculture as food safety specialists investigate the source of the outbreak. water samples will be taken this weekend to test for norovirus contamination. - portland oregonian

california farms to get more water from u.s., state. drought-stricken farmers in california were granted a measure of relief on friday when federal and state officials said they expected to supply them with significantly more water this year than last. - reuters

monterey county awash in pesticides. pesticides are not sustainable. pesticides and fumigants are made to kill. they're also made of petroleum. corporations and corporate farming companies are using scare tactics to resist any change that affects profits. - salinas californian

savor taste of locally grown food. the benefits of supporting a local food system are enormous. economically, it would create living wage jobs revitalizing poor communities. societal benefits would include improved health and access to healthier food as well as increased food safety - fresno bee

italian oil slick reaches key farm center of parma. sludge from an oil spill snaked down the po river on thursday to reach the province of parma, raising fears that the home of italy's famed prosciutto, parmesan cheese and other agricultural staples might be at risk of water contamination. - ap

greenpeace denounces un support for gm crops in mexico. the united nations’ food and agriculture organization is supporting the introduction of transgenic, or genetically modified, crops in Mexico and other developing nations, the greenpeace chapter in that country denounced - efe

pesticide regs clean valley's air. pesticide emissions that contribute to smog in california dropped significantly in 2008, the first year restrictions on agricultural fumigant applications specifically targeting air quality were in effect. - modesto bee

the future of fish farming? recirculating aquaculture systems, or ras, are closed-loop production systems that continuously filter and recycle water, enabling large-scale fish farming that requires a small amount of water and releases little or no pollution. - christian science monitor

republicans bash usda's climate research. research on the effects of global warming on farmers seen as a waste. - greenwire

heritage hogs. variety isn't just the spice of life. you could say it is life. and you can't have variety without lots and lots of genes. farmers have spent thousands of years developing livestock that do well in different conditions. - environment report

plow shares. the crop mob, a monthly word-of-mouth (and -web) event in which landless farmers and the agricurious descend on a farm for an afternoon, has taken its traveling work party to 15 small, sustainable farms. together, volunteers have contributed more than 2,000 person-hours, doing tasks like mulching, building greenhouses and pulling rocks out of fields. - nytimes

Labels: california, drought, environment, farmers, farms, fish, food safety, italy, mexico, milk, pesticide, republicans, toxins, united nations, water

mad kane, that is!

Labels: music

Labels: music

but one that isn't on anyone's talking points list - workers compensation insurance and health insurance for the hundreds of thousands of contractors sent to the war zones. their healthcare is ultimately being paid for by taxpayers, too. and, like other americans, they battle their insurance companies for coverage and reimbursements. and, like soldiers, contractors too are suffering from medical issues when they return from the battlefields. medical issues like depression. and, many cases of severe depression, gone untreated, can end in untimely death.

....some families of civilian contractors who have committed suicide have tried to battle for help through an outdated government system designed to provide health insurance and death benefits to civilian contractors injured or killed on the job.

under the system, required by a law known as the defense base act , defense firms must purchase workers’ compensation insurance for their employees in war zones. it is highly specialized and expensive insurance, dominated by the troubled giant aig and a handful of other companies. the cost of it is paid by taxpayers as part of the contract price.

but the law, which is designed to provide coverage for accidental death and injury, blocks payment of death benefits in the case of almost all suicides. cases linked to mental incapacity are the lone exception, judges have ruled.

a joint investigation last year by propublica, abc news and the los angeles times revealed that contract workers must frequently battle carriers for basic medical coverage. while congress has promised reforms, there has been no discussion of changing the law when it comes to suicides involving civilian defense workers.

the military, by contrast, allows survivors to receive benefits in cases in which a soldier's suicide can be linked to depression caused by battlefield stress.- propublica and the daily beast

barb dill, a widow battling the system regarding her husband's suicide due to ptsd induced depression asks the question that we should all ask ourselves and our elected officials.

"shouldn't our government be responsible for the companies they hire?" dill said. "shouldn't our government take care of its own people, who are doing jobs our government, ultimately, wanted them to do?"

Labels: contractors, government, healthcare, insurance, soldiers, war

and still going on...holy mole. when you get "aftershocks" of 6.9....yikes.

Labels: chile, earthquake, youtube

i love it.

rep. tom perriello tells ‘spineless’ senate to get ‘its head out of its rear end’ and confront climate crisis - think progress

Labels: climate change, congress, democrats, environment, spinal fortitude

we are all chileans today.

a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck chile early saturday, shaking the capital of santiago for 90 seconds and sending tsunami warnings and advisories along much of the pacific basin. - nytimes

president michelle bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" in affected areas and appealed for calm.

tsunami warnings have been issued for hawaii, australia, new zealand, central america and pacific island nations. - bbc

california warned its coastal cities to prepare for possible tsunami waves following a deadly magnitude-8.8 earthquake off the coast of chile. - latimes

a devastating earthquake struck chile early saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. a tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the pacific ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe. - sfgate

one surprising reporter on the huge chilean earthquake this morning: former “american idol” contestant elliott yamin.

cnn noted this morning that yamin has “been tweeting like crazy.”

yamin, who had been performing in chile, was to do interviews with abc and nbc this morning. he wrote: “scariest nite/morn of my life!!…” - orlando sentinel

livestream (in spanish)

here's hoping that our hawaiian bloggy buddy linkmeister will be ok and stays "HI" and dry.

civil defense sirens were sounded at 6 a.m. to alert residents about the tsunami generated by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off chile. the first waves are expected to reach hawaii at about 11 a.m. - honolulu star-bulletin

hawaii woke residents with sirens, alerting them to the waves. a tsunami warning — the highest alert level — was issued earlier for the island chain. boats and people near the coast were being evacuated. hilo international airport, located along the coast, was closed. - sfgate

it's a good time to ask yourself, do you have your earthquake preparedness kit at the ready?

Labels: chile, earthquake, hawaii, south america, tsunami, twitter

more @ penrose on politics!

they really do want americans to just die. quickly.

emergency rooms should be able to turn patients away to cut costs, minnesota gov. tim pawlenty (r-minn.) said last night - crooks and liars

Labels: healthcare, hospitals, minnesota, republicans

Labels: finnish, hockey, olympics

we seem to be in the minority. mrs. skippy tells us that she loves curling!

we decided not to click the link on this one:
we liked the band, but not the concept of phish.

MNBC.com is making a bid to report the world's stupidest stories with this one on "7 cities with the worst B.O. in America". Seriously, why do they do this? No wonder a comedy show is more trusted as a source of news than a news site.

thirty five people died needlessly during the 7 hours of the "health care summit".

35 people died while obama debated the do-nothing republicans about health care in his fool's errand quest for bipartisanship.

35 counts of murder should be lodged against the president, the senate and the house for their lame approach to health care that makes insurance company profits first and foremost the concern of "health care reform".

our elected representatives are all murderers.  they are scum.  they should be spat upon for killing innocent americans whose only crime is they couldn't afford to pay wellpoint, aetna and blue cross.

(45,000 / 365 / 24) * 7 = 35

math is hard. death is harder.

Labels: bipartisanship, healthcare

Labels: finnish, hockey, olympics, teevee

you think there might be a few more, well, "important" things to be working on. like, hum....job creation perhaps?

the state assembly passed a resolution thursday that would establish the first week of march as "cuss free week" throughout the state. if approved by the senate next week, the measure would take effect immediately.

the resolution includes no enforcement mechanism and is simply meant to promote greater harmony and connectedness, said assemblyman anthony portantino,
a democrat from la canada flintridge and co-author of the measure.- sfgate

i suggest calling your "favorite" california politico (say, like, the governator?) and "voice" your objection over this waste of time and our ever evaporating moolah.

Labels: california, government, politicians, sacramento

Labels: blogtopia, books, internets

i gotta see:

newt gingrich, who toyed with running for the wh in '96 and seriously engaged the idea of running in '08, but ultimately did not, said today, "'12 is different."

in an interview with national journal reporters and editors this morning, gingrich said he and his wife callista were "trying to organize our activities to be in a position to make a decision [about running for president] in february or march [of '11]...

if this mother of all hypocrites does decide to run for the white house, i might have to resurrect mockingbird's medley. there's just too much blog-fodder to pass up here -- that, and newt gingrich is a total f&%k.

Labels: politics

and now it's time to play, hitler or coulter?

i hope she doesn't eat shrimp or wear clothes made of two different materials...the bible is pretty black and white on those actions.

the officials from "miss california pageant" should just say "no" to promoting this hatemongerer in stilletos.

now, miss beverly hills 2010 lauren ashley, who will compete in the miss california pageant in november, has gone further. ashley told fox news that not only is she against same-sex marriage, but that she thinks it is divine law that gays should be put to death because “the bible is pretty black and white“ - think progress

the guilded city has "disowned" this homophobic bimbo (from pasadena).

Labels: california, faux news, gay/lesbian, hate mongering

no. not a typo. with the state of california bankrupt and schools slashing teacher positions and firefighter jobs, closing state parks and cutting healthcare to the very citizens who need it most, etc., the owners of the dodgers haven't paid tax on $108m in income. no taxes. neither state nor federal. baseball isn't the mccourt's "game"...it's "gaming the system."

michael hiltzik in the la times today

to everyone who claims that our wealthiest citizens pay more than their fair share of income taxes and we should cut them a break because they're the ones who, you know, create jobs in our economy, i have four words for you:

frank and jamie mccourt.

the mccourts, who own the los angeles dodgers (so she says; he says he's the owner and she's not), jointly pocketed income totaling $108 million from 2004 through 2009, according to documents jamie mccourt recently filed in the couple's divorce case in los angeles county superior court.

on that sum, they paid zero federal and state income tax. jamie suggests that some tax breaks will apply this year too.

(h/t seeing the forest and speak out california)

the teabagger terrorist took action against the tax system being set up against the average little working guy. if we don't want any more teabagger terrorist actions, we really need to take a look at the tax system and stop the raping of the working class before it's too late.

los angeles should rename the team - the "tax dodgers."

Labels: baseball, blogtopia, california, los angeles, taxes, taxpayers, terrorists

sign the petition to demand that ombudsman clark hoyt offer a retraction in the new york times of their factually incorrect story about james o'keefe appearing as a pimp in the acorn offices.

as you may know, our good buddy brad blog has been holding the nytimes' feet to the proverbial fire over their sloppy reporting on this story:
the brad blog also aggregates various articles by blogtopia (y!wctp!) supporting their thesis that there is ample objective observable proof not only that o'keefe never wore the pimp outfit into acorn offices, but that the implication that he did was happily spread thru-out media, thanks in part to the nytimes incorrect reporting. the same brad blog article describes how hoyt now accuses brad blog of a "political agenda" for demanding the nytimes report facts accurately.

clark hoyt may be reached here. be polite but firm.

now, we know that sometimes it's like shooting fish in a barrel when we expect wingnuts to be able to spell, let alone to be able to think critically or know history that happened before they were born. but you would think they would know their bible!

in response to scott brown's bipartisan vote on the jobs bill, a wingnut wrote on on rep. brown's twitter feed:



yeah, and one of you will deny me before the first duck crows.

now if i can just get the sumgun to work the way it's supposed to -- but anyway...

Labels: it is what it is, life, music

mad kane, that is!

to one of the most successful writers in blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase!

steve benen celebrates 7 years of blogging today!

to illiterate electorate --

who participated in blogroll amnesty day a bit late, and so we're a bit late in mentioning it!

also, say hello to she writes like she talks!

starring tony montana as darth vader



it doesn't get any funnier than the concept...but it doesn't need to...it's hilarious

probably reacting (pun intended) to our anti-curling screed, michael j.w. stickings of the reaction tells us he's especially proud of his countryman kevin martin for his standings in the current curling competition @ the olympics.

also of note: canada's cheryl bernard held onto the top seed in women's curling, to face switzerland in the semi-finals on thursday. tho we still don't find curling worth our time, we do fondly remember cheryl's work in wings.

and, credit where credit is due, o canada: moir and virtue's first place performance in ice dancing was a joy to behold. congrats, you canucks!

but, this being an american blog, and our being big fans of andrew lloyd weber's chef d'oeuvre, here's one last look at silver medalists meryl davis & charlie white dancing to phantom of the opera:



note: above is from the nationals held in spokane, wash, in january, not from last nite's award-winning performance (you can see that here, thx for not sharing, nbc!). but it's still a great routine. (note: mrs. skippy astutely pointed out that davis refrained from the hoary chestnut of wearing a phantom mask for the routine, a most wise decision, aesthetically.)

so crazy, that the hardly-ever-right wing purists think glenn beck is too liberal:

man, he's a regular noam chomsky!!

in 1942, the first shelling of the us mainland during world war 2 occurred as a japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery near santa barbara, calif., causing little damage.

Labels: history, santa barbara

if you are sci-fi geeks like we are, you will no doubt probably get lost for hours when you stumble across the wiki-site scp foundation.

on the surface, the web page looks unassuming and unimaginative, w/no graphics or pictures, or even adjectives to let you know what kind of rabbit hole you are about to fall into. but as you read the seemingly innocuous case studies, you are taken into a world somewhere between the x-files and the twilight zone.

we'll let io9, the people responsible for our getting hooked on this weird web site, explain further:
we've just started our descent into madness on the scp site ourselves, and have only learned about scp-001, the angel w/wings of fire which stands guard in front of a multi-dimensional gate while it's monitored by the foundation for signs of the end of times, the young man whose dreams manifest themselves in reality, usually only to kill the poor guy (don't worry, he reassembles completely w/in 6 hours of his death), the beautiful but indestructible android from the future who draws power from any electro-magnetic device nearby (and will use it to kill you), the half-a-cat, and the original cain and the original abel, both immortal and both extremely deadly.

as it is a wiki site, everyone is encouraged to write their own reports about preternatural phenomena, but apparently http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/guide-to-newbies. we assume that if you submit a substandard report, not only will it be edited or completely deleted, so might you be.

and probably by something really creepy.

That was me commenting on an earlier posting under my nom de plume of The Precious. I'm one of the ones who really likes watching curling. I find it fascinating and would love to learn more about it, but then I used to be an avid pool player and got pretty good at one point (my best was running twenty-eight balls in a row in a match one time, but that's no great shakes in pool). I enjoy seeing them play angles, but I have my issues with the way they determine the weight for a throw. I wonder if they're allowed to consult a page of notes during a match, because if it were me on the Olympic team, I'd have gone up to the U (that's what we folks here in Twin Cities call the University of Minnesota) and had a talented physicist work out the weights for all the various angles and throws I could think of and I would have worked out a way to chart them. There aren't that many, actually, since you're just looking to move just so many stones just so far each time you throw.

Getting back to the current Olympic competition, I was very disappointed by the way the US men's and women's teams performed. They're all from Minnesota, you see, and I was looking forward to cheering the home town folks in the medal matches. John Schuster on the men's side played very poorly, and I turned off the match against China tonight when he stunk up things in the, I think it was, fifth end and allowed a two-point end to get away by failing to make a not particularly difficult shot. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't the hardest shot in the world. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate Schuster's abilities, but he had a very bad Olympics. That can happen to the best athletes at any time, but this was a very bad time for it to happen to John because the curler who throws fourths is more important in curling than the runner who runs the anchor leg of a relay race.

I'll be trying out the game some time in the future, though I can't say exactly when. I have a lot of things going on at work and I need to heal up from a recent surgery (thank goodness I am fortunate enough to have health insurance...and a terrific surgical team...and thank goodness for nurses, who are genuine heroes in my book).

Curling is a great sport and I am looking forward to getting out on the sheets and sliding a few stones around, just to test it out. I hope I can meet some of the US men's or women's team members at the St Paul Curling Center, or one of the other curling centers here in Minnesota, and get some autographs. I'd also like to tell them my idea about working things out with a physicist at the U. They'll tell me that you can't slide rocks based on numbers, but if you can make the problem digital, I think it can help some people (not all) to visualize the shots, and if you can visualize it, you can make it.

since it's a "person" now (according to the supreme court), can we just put their a**es in jail?

california's insurance regulator said monday his office has found more than 700 violations by the state's largest for-profit health insurer, including late payment of claims, giving misleading information to consumers and failing to cooperate with regulators.

anthem blue cross faces a maximum $10,000 penalty for each violation, insurance commissioner steve poizner said. his office said the violations occurred between 2006 and 2009.- sfgate

Labels: california, healthcare, insurance, lawlessness

denouncing folks for hatefilled statements against children with disabilities (and the women who produced them.)

oh, yeah...that's right...it was made by a fellow rethug so it's o.k.

on thursday, virginia state delegate bob marshall (r) spoke at a press conference against state funding for planned parenthood. he blasted the organization for supporting a women’s right to choose, saying that god punishes women who have had abortions by giving them disabled children - think progress

Labels: palin, republicans, womens issues

via balloon juice, from russia24-tv's ethnic salute to the olympics:



we are the champions

corporate entitlements. how corporations think they are entitled to ignore laws...elections..and anything else they so choose, including residents and elected officials.

carpinteria is a lovely little city on the pacific just south of santa barbara, boasting such features as a city-owned coastal preserve and one of the four remaining seal rookeries in southern california.

just about the last place you'd expect to become the target of a hostile corporate takeover.

the corporation is venoco inc., an independent oil company with revenue of more than half a billion dollars a year, which currently owns an oil storage facility in carpinteria. one would get weary painting big oil companies as soulless monsters, if venoco didn't make it so easy.

this denver-based firm is spending lavishly to pass a ballot initiative specifically exempting itself from the city's industrial development and environmental rules. - latimes

Labels: california, corporations, election, election integrity, lawlessness

that fellow republicans want to rip the financial rug from under american children with down's syndrome and other disabilities? republicans want to end social security....well, social security aids in keeping many americans with mental disabilities alive.

where is sarah palin's outrage that there are republicans want to be death panels for those like her son, trig?

Labels: hate mongering, palin, republicans, social security

they are killing our soldiers....slowly...painfully...horrifically.... it's time we start talking about them. it's time we stop them. it's time we start talking about the toxic hell we are leaving behind for the iraqi people to suffer through, too.

sgt. klayton thomas looked every bit the poster boy marine as he strode into a military hospital last september to get his back checked.

he taught karate and earned his abs in the gym. he had survived a 2007 deployment
to iraq, even thrived during his prolonged stay in the middle of the then-treacherous sunni triangle. he rarely drank. he didn't smoke. life seemed perfect on this mid-september thursday, if only his back would stop aching. the 25-year-old columbus, neb., native thought he had wrenched it playing soccer. three months and 10 days later, he died in hospice care.

this much is known: thomas succumbed to an unstoppable lung cancer that crushed his vertebrae, blitzed his bones and invaded his brain, dumbfounding doctors who had spent their entire careers treating the disease.

his death leaves a medical mystery, one similar to those posed by hundreds of other american military personnel battling exotic cancers or struggling with rare respiratory problems.

this mystery begins in the unlikeliest of places: iraqi “burn pits” — large, primitive landfills where contractors set trash aflame, causing ever-present black smoke to drift over dozens of u.s. military bases.

...military contractors burned nearly every bit of waste from military bases — trash that included plastics, batteries, old weapons, ruined machinery and a fuel known to cause cancer, according to government and independent reports.

they burned because military leaders originally saw the pits as temporary, a congressman thinks, the simplest way to dispose of trash before troops quickly exited iraq. but as the war continued, they burned because it saved money, according to subsequent lawsuits, allowing u.s. contractors to avoid having to install costly incinerators. - omaha world herald

"the military needs to step up and address this problem," said john wilson of the advocacy group disabled american veterans, which maintains a registry of more than 500 veterans with disorders they blame on burn pits. the fumes emanating from the pits, he warned, could become the agent orange of the current war zone.

items burned in the pits have included medical waste, plastics, computer parts, oil, lubricants, paint, tires and foam cups, according to soldiers and contractors. some say amputated body parts from iraqi patients were burned in balad, site of a large u.s. military hospital - latimes

time to ask of our congresscrittes the "burning questions" why is this practice being continued and when will it stop?

Labels: contractors, healthcare, iraq, iraq war, soldiers

i'm back from dfa training. my mind is full...of ideas.....of information....of questions....of answers...

but, without further adieu, stories you probably didn't hear from the corporate infotainment industry.

'tiger by the tail?' - wyoming's energy ambitions might force legislators to contemplate something that goes against their current fiscal instincts: increasing regulatory budgets. some question whether the state environmental agency is equipped to handle the growing workload. - casper star tribune

new consumer product safety commission chief charges ahead with ambitious agenda. - the new head of consumer product safety in the united states has quickly put american and foreign toymakers, crib manufacturers and producers of other goods on notice that there's a new sheriff in town - mcclatchy

county farmers digging in. - during the past decade, farmers have been thrown into an international debate. they must decide between genetically modified seeds and traditional seeds- state college centre daily times

authors attempt 'death by rubber duck.' - inspired by morgan spurlock's fast-food gluttony in the movie super size me, two environmental activists from canada devised their own experiment. - all things considered

ex-industry insider goes extra mile to fight vt. yankee. - when paul blanch heard that the vermont legislature would take one more day of testimony before voting on the future of its nuclear power plant, the west hartford, conn., resident jumped into his car and drove to the green mountain state. - barre montpelier times argus

honda makes a big drive into solar power. - for now, soltec remains a small part of the car giant’s business. honda insists, however, that it is an important part of its plan to cut the amount of carbon dioxide that is generated from its cars. - london times

officials wary of agricultural terrorism. - in the past decade, safeguarding food and agriculture from both foreign and domestic terrorism has become a point of emphasis for the u.s. department of agriculture, which has dealt with food safety since its establishment in 1862.- sioux falls argus leader

toxic fume fire to 'burn for months.' - the largest fire in the history of the new providence landfill site is expected to continue burning for months perpetuating fears toxic smoke will choke the island.- nassau tribune

texan warns new york county about gas drilling. - the mayor of a map-speck texas town warned sullivan county that noise, air pollution and heavy traffic will overrun the catskills if smart regulations are not implemented before natural gas drilling starts- middle town times herald record

florida legislators consider lifting ban on offshore drilling. - by now, the arguments are well rehearsed. offshore oil drilling is either a dangerous gamble with florida's beach-driven tourism industry, or a potential job creation and tax windfall.- mcclatchy

Labels: agriculture, canada, cars, ecology, energy, environment, epa, farmers, fire, florida, nuclear power, oil, solar, terrorists, toxins, vermont

we've always enjoyed the winter olympics far more than we have those held in the summer. we find most winter events to be exciting, and most of those in the summer to be pedestrian to the point of mundane.

this is not to take anything away from the summer atheletes, of course; michael phelps deserves his medals (and his bong, ioho), carl lewis is amazing, and we're sorry jackie joyner kersey got busted for drug use.

but watching people run around in a circle is not very exciting to us, compared to watching people slide down a mountain at 65 mph. so we were incredibly happy to see lindsey vonn get her gold in the downhill (but we admit we kind of laughed when she was unable to hide her resentment at getting a bronze in the g-force). we were sorry shani davis only got silver.

we were appalled that the poor georgian luger lost his life in a practice run on the day the olympics opened; even more appalled that the official word was that it was his fault, and not the track design, even tho the olympic staff re-built the offending wall that the poor man flew over.

tho we are americans, we wonder if the russian evengi plushenko wasn't robbed of the gold that evan lysacek won by a hair. but we, along w/the whole world, know there was no doubt that the russian ice dancing pair oksana domina and maxim shabalin simply dominated the rink in the first round.

and what can be said about shaun white, except that he looks and sounds like carrot top in his prime? and we don't know about you, but snowboard cross is our new favorite sport.

so, to sum up: running and jumping in sand on a track? waving a ribbon around on the gym floor? diving? meh.

but anything that gets people going 90 mph in freezing cold weather gets our blood boiling.

however, before you summer afficianados starting writing those nasty snarky emails to us, we will admit: curling neutralizes every single thing we've said.

curling has got to be the stupidest, most pointless, lamest sport ever invented, and we're counting dwarf-tossing and dungeons and dragons, too.

the pace is excruciatingly slow; if it were any slower, the participants would freeze to the ice themselves.

and what's with the two folks running in front of the big rock with little brooms, smoothing the ice? how unfair is that, compared to every other friggin' sport in the games, where the players have to take the ice and snow as it is?

can you imagine how better the ice dancers would be if they had their own personal human zambonis clearing the way?

mad kane, that is!

and he's given some training this weekend.

maybe i'll just run for some sort of office one of these days.

Labels: democrats, howard dean, progressives, santa barbara, ucsb

behind an eminence front, it's a put-on.



come on, join the party. dress to kill.

Labels: music

readers of this space will know that we are fans of the mystery/thriller genre of popular literature (our email correspondence w/sara paretsky, author of the v.i. washawski novels, is one of the high-lites of our blogging career). so it was nothing untoward for us to pick up a book by a previously-unread author, which promised to be "an exciting, believable and well-writtern thriller" (sez ridley pearson, author of killer view).

fault line, by barry eisler, showed good, pulpy spy-vs.-spy promise in the early pages: a lawyer who specialized in computer software patents has a client, who is murdered on the first page (hell, in the first sentence! always a good sign when a book starts out fast and violent). the lawyer is subsequently attacked himself, so he contacts his estranged brother, who is a black ops/military spy, for help.

so far, so good. but why we mention it to you, our dear readers, is that we began to notice some not-so-subtle hints that the author, barry eisler, must be a big fan of blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase. so much so, that he actually used names of bloggers as character names in his tome.

the afore-mentioned first sentence should have been a dead (pun intended) give away:
now, we admit, no alarms went off @ the mention of the name hilzoy. after all, it's not that impossible that someone else besides the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Bok could be called that. and the first name 'richard' also disguised its use. we would have been more on alert had the sentence talked about 'richard fafnir' or 'richard t. bogg,' but no.

however, a bit later in the early chapters, one of the characters muses about blogs:
this statement about the media sounds like it could have come from any number of writers in blogtopia (y!wctp!), so we simply assumed that mr. eisler, the author, was a fan of blogs.

we weren't even totally convinced that these mentions were something more than coincidence when we came across this familiar name on the very next page:
wow! josh marshall? and he's a playah? (that dog!!) who knew??

still, we said, the names "josh" and "marshall" aren't all that uncommon...and mr. eisler didn't call that minor character josh michah marshall, after all.

but then, the girl who lost her virginity to josh, dumped him on the very next page, and you'll never guess the name of her next boyfriend:
john cole??? not the ex-goper, now sane proprietor of balloon juice! couldn't be! hilzoy, josh marshall, john cole, mainstream corporate media rants...this all just has to be coincidence!

or so we told ourselves, until a few pages later, when the mystery led to the death of a manager in the us patent office who was working on paperwork for hilzoy's invention. when the lawyer called the patent office to find out about his friend, his call was re-directed:
jane hamsher??!?! that's it, this guy is stealing bloggers' names for his minor characters!

but, we soon decided that it was a benign reference to all the good which blogtopia (y!wctp!) has done, because yet a few more pages later, the lawyer and the ex-virgin insist on spilling the beans about the whole mystery. and do they want to go to the mainstream press? no, of course not. she lurvs the blogs! and by name, as well:
however, the black ops brother decides almost immediately that the blogs would be ineffectual.

strangely enough, he's probably right.

now, we don't know if every single one of these bloggers have secretly signed away the rights to their names to mr. eisler for his book. we tend to think not, but, as we said above, this is probably more a tip of the hat to the work the bloggers have done, rather than under-handed identity theft.

we haven't finished the book yet. it is a rather good yarn, w/intense emotional rivalry between the two brothers (they lost a sister early in their lives, and all the familial floatsam and jetsam you could imagine appears therewith), and the spy/procedural, set in san francisco, is pretty exciting. we'd recommend mr. eisler's work to any fan of the genre.

however, if we find later in the book a police detective called sgt. skippy the bush kangaroo, eisler will be hearing from our lawyers!

addendum: our good friend batocchio sends us word that mr. eisler is indeed a big fan of blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase:

can you hear me, can you hear me now?



i just figured out an embedding trick. i've long wondered how others could embed two or more yootoob clips in the same post -- i could only do one at a time. for now, one clip is all i want. but... now i know.

heh heh heh...

Labels: music

flying an airplane into a federal building is terrorism -- unless a white american does it.

Labels: it is what it is, terrorists, violence

barack doesn't bow down to the owners of the u.s.. he met with the dalai lama dispite china's objections and threats.

barack obama expressed "strong support" for the tibetan way of life when he saw the dalai lama at the white house today, a meeting that risks further damaging us-china relations. - the guardian

Labels: dalai lama, obama, tibet

they are hell-bent on destroying it.....and it seems that matt taibbi is the only one calling them out.

....the bottom line is that banks like goldman have learned absolutely nothing from the global economic meltdown. in fact, they're back conniving and playing speculative long shots in force — only this time with the full financial support of the u.s. government. in the process, they're rapidly re-creating the conditions for another crash, with the same actors once again playing the same crazy games of financial chicken with the same toxic assets as before. - rollingstone.com

Labels: america, banking, bankruptcy, corruption, goldman sachs, greed

shouldn't be in charge of publishing schoolbooks for our nation and dictating nationwide school programs such as the failed and very much flawed "no child left behind."

nearly a third of texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the university of texas/texas tribune poll. - texastribune.com

Labels: education, science, texas

and keep blood between brothers.

Labels: music

mad kane, that is!

you think that there would be some video articles on canadian healthcare provided.

Labels: canada, olympics

some who give blood.



i give love.

Labels: music

is that it took him so long to do this -- a whole twenty days since his inauguration:

virginia gov. robert f. mcdonnell has signed an executive order barring discrimination in the state workforce on grounds that include race, sex, religion and age, but not sexual orientation.

the order, which mcdonnell (r) signed feb. 5, cements federal law, which prohibits discrimination on those grounds.

it also follows mcdonnell's long-standing position on the issue of legal protections based on sexual orientation. mcdonnell had criticized his two democratic predecessors for including language about it in their similar executive orders, arguing they overstepped their executive authority by extending protections to gay employees not envisioned by the general assembly...

of course mcdonnell would make that argument. he's been a diehard right-wing theocrat for decades. discriminating against gays is pretty much all the religious right still has to hold onto from a political standpoint -- the rest of their stone-headed agenda flew away into the sky with george w. bush a little over a year ago.

but am i mad at bob mcdonnell? not quite. you can't reach people like him. the best you can do is avoid them whenever possible. i'm more ticked off at the dem candidate creigh deeds for running a lousy campaign, and at the virginian democratic "base" that stayed home on the day mcdonnell was elected. deeds wasn't exactly a friend of the lgbt community. but the alternative was mcdonnell -- and there was a small chance that the alternative could have been avoided, had the voter turnout been higher.

so thanks a million, "base." you too, mr. deeds. if you dem jackasses are prone to wondering why you hardly seem to get anywhere with your stated goals, well, there's just one example...

Labels: democrats, gay/lesbian, it is what it is, republicans

is the next thing in the rethuglicans' political targets to send to the supreme court for overturning says thom hartmann. i think it is looking like he is right.

a lobby group that includes bp and shell in its membership has launched a legal challenge against low-carbon legislation in california that in effect rules out the use of oil from canadian tar sands. the action by the national petrochemical & refiners association (npra) comes amid growing political, investor and consumer pressure on US oil companies not to participate in the carbon-intensive tar sands of alberta.

a npra statement said the legislation was unlawful for a number of reasons, including the imposition of "undue and unconstitutional burdens on interstate commerce". - the guardian

Labels: california, constitution, republicans, supreme court

laissez les bon temps roulez!

Labels: holiday, mardi gras, new orleans, youtube

should never have a 'buy it now' button.

level the playing field.

you can help level the playing field in 2010 against billionaire meg whitman’s cash campaign. california shouldn’t be for sale to the highest bidder on ebay. so join us and help stop big business billionaire meg whitman before the clock runs out. - leveltheplayingfield2010.com

Labels: california, ebay, election, fundraiser, governor

since evan went buh-buyh, a cafe owner could be the dem nominee. time we get some real workin' folks to go to the disfunctional d.c.

tamyra d'ippolito, a cafe owner who has been seeking the democratic nomination for the senate seat currently held by evan bayh, just told tpmdc that she does have the minimum number of ballot-petition signatures need to get on the ballot for the democratic primary.- talkingpointsmemo

d’ippolito told me she is the first woman to ever run for the us senate in indiana. her impression from working on prior campaigns and from this one is that indiana political culture is a “tight old boys school, it borders on sexism.” in a state where the population is 52% women, d’ippolito says “in the future, we women of indiana are not going to tolerate” the chummy, insider culture. - fdl

tamyra...you go, girl!

Labels: ballots, democrats, food, politics, senate

to mirandize him...then haul him off for prosecution. what are we waiting for?

“i was a big supporter of waterboarding,” cheney said in an appearance on abc’s this week on sunday. he went on to explain that justice department lawyers had been instructed to write legal opinions to cover the use of this and other torture techniques after the white house had settled on them.

section 2340A of the federal criminal code makes it an offense to torture or to conspire to torture. violators are subject to jail terms or to death in appropriate cases, as where death results from the application of torture techniques. prosecutors have argued that a criminal investigation into torture undertaken with the direction of the bush white house would raise complex legal issues, and proof would be difficult. but what about cases in which an instigator openly and notoriously brags about his role in torture? - harpers

Labels: cheney, criminal, lawlessness, liars, sunday teevee bobble heads, teevee, torture

Labels: music

we're not as foggy as we used to be and the ancient, towering trees are losing out on the moisture need to survive.

Labels: california, climate change, environment, science, trees, weather

needs to be audited. there might be some serious financial trouble a-bubbling....maybe paris could bail them out.

the us federal reserve is sitting on significant paper losses on the real estate assets it acquired in the bear stearns rescue, with much of the red ink coming from debt used to back some of the most high-profile buy-out deals of the bubble years.

among the debts weighing on the central bank’s portfolio are those used in financing the acquisitions of hilton hotels, which is being restructured, and hotel operator extended stay, which is in bankruptcy, people familiar with the matter say- financial times.

...u.s. officials are looking to foreign government funds again. the federal reserve is scheduled at the end of march to halt its purchases of mortgage-backed securities, a move that could drive up the low interest rates that have helped the housing market show new signs of life. the fed is gambling that private investors will step in to buy the securities, helping to keep rates from spiking. senior officials in the obama administration and at the fed say they are counting in part on foreigners to keep the housing market funded - wapo

Labels: federal reserve, financial markets, wall street

doug fieger, the lead singer of the knack, died of lung cancer last weekend. asspress:

john amato, of c&l, happened to have worked w/doug for a bit. he tells us:
tho many regard the knack as a one-hit wonder (mainly, because their other hit, "baby talks dirty," was pretty much just "my sharona" w/an inverted bass line), we believe the band deserves a place in rock and roll history, and we defy anybody to not want to dance to this:



rest in peace, doug fieger.

a truly talented man both on the back of a horse and writing about the horse racing world has reached the final finish line.

dick francis, the prolific bestselling author and former professional jockey, has died aged 89, his family announced today.

best known for his thrillers set in the racing world – he was the author of 42 novels – francis was also one of the most successful postwar national hunt jockeys.

the winner of more than 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/54 and rode for the queen and the queen mother.

on the racetrack francis was best known for riding the queen mother's horse, devon loch when it fell just short of the winning line in the 1956 grand national. to "do a devon loch" is still synonymous with losing a race from an unassailable position. - the times

god speed, richard. thanks for the spills and chills of your life and livelihood. there will not be another quite like you, of that i am "dead cert."

Labels: england, horses, passings, writing

for the news that won't be seen on today's infotainment talking head shows...but news that we need to know...and discuss. to quote a canadian comedian (funny how many canadian comics are out there...) " i'm getting verklempt. talk amongst yourselves."

weed killer in the crosshairs. - in recent years, questions have surfaced about atrazine’s safety, especially after monitoring programs picked up the chemical in drinking water and lab studies demonstrated the pollutant’s ability to emasculate - if not deform - amphibians and fish. - science news

bernalillo’s water treatment system dumps sludge into drinking water. - a year after the town of bernalillo spent at least $4.9 million to equip its two active wells with new arsenic filtration systems designed by bernalillo-based ars-usa, residents started complaining about a white residue in their tap water. - new mexico independent

manchin to epa: leave our coal ash alone. - gov. joe manchin has thrown in with the coal operators and power companies who oppose any move by the u.s. environmental protection agency to declare toxic ash from coal-fired power plants to be a hazardous waste - charleston gazette

keep food and farms safe: ban use of sludge. - sludge stinks. it's been one of my soapbox issues since 1994, when i wrote about a greenwich township farmer who was forced to give up his plan to apply sewage sludge to two fields. Scary words appeared in my research. pathogens. carcinogens. heavy metals. - reading eagle

do what it takes to get arsenic out of the water. - here we are, a decade after epa's new arsenic standard was set and four years after the deadline to take action, and we still have thousands of east valley residents at risk. - palm springs desert sun

tritium: vermont's nuclear nightmare. - what happens next will be defined by fierce grassroots activism crashing into a flood of corporate money in support of a rickety old reactor being operated with increasing recklessness. - pacific free press

spent ammo's harm to environment is debated. - lead in paint, gasoline and drinking water is prohibited as dangerous for health and the environment. but tons of lead from ammunition can accumulate on the ground over years. no federal law addresses lead containment at outdoor shooting ranges - nashville tennessean

feinstein water plan puts boxer in a bind in central valley. - sen. dianne feinstein has just complicated sen. barbara boxer's search for san joaquin valley voters. by announcing plans to override scientists and boost irrigation deliveries, feinstein gratified valley farmers and the region's farm-friendly lawmakers - fresno bee

water-gulping companies' risk disclosures run dry: report. - most publicly traded companies that depend on water do not adequately disclose their financial risks to droughts and future regulations, even as water scarcity problems mount, according to a report released on thursday. - reuters

report: 38 per cent of land faces desertification. - over a third of the world's land could be turned into desert, according to a new report published in the international journal of life cycle assessment that warns increased rates of desertification could have a huge impact on global food and water supplies - london business green

bark beetles' song could save forests. - researchers at northern arizona university think they may have found an environmentally safe and readily available weapon against the tree-eating armies of bark beetles. - phoenix arizona republic

n.j. environmental groups accuse gov. christie of 'raiding' funds for clean air, water. - state environmental groups today accused gov. chris christie of attacking the environment by "raiding" the state’s clean energy fund, the highlands council budget and other coffers dedicated to clean air and water protections. - newark star ledger

marine base's ex-residents – many ill – only now learning of toxic water. - some estimates are that over a 30-year period, as many as 1 million people were exposed to well water that contained trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, benzene and vinyl chloride. - mcclatchy

washington's snowstorms, brought to you by global warming. - can you sit in a snowstorm and imagine a warming world? if you're a senator, can you come back to work and pass a bill that blunts the pace of climate change? if the answer is no, then we're really in a world of trouble. - wapo

microsoft co-founder gates tackling climate change. - microsoft co-founder bill gates has broken from philanthropic work fighting poverty and disease to take on another threat to the world's poor -- climate change. - afp

pollution creating acid oceans. - the world's oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 65 million years, threatening marine life and food supplies across the globe, according to a new study - london daily telegraph

algae to solve the pentagon's jet fuel problem. - a cheap, low-carbon fuel would not only help the us military, the nation's single largest consumer of energy, to wean itself off its oil addiction, but would also hold the promise of low-carbon driving and flying for all - london guardian

olympics 2012 site may be built on top of radioactive waste. - the entire 2012 olympics site has been built on top of a thin plastic sheet less than 3 feet ­beneath the surface to separate the soil from the ground below that could be heavily ­contaminated with asbestos and radioactive materials - london daily express

Labels: army, coal, ecology, energy, environment, epa, farms, food, food safety, lead, nuclear power, olympics, snow, toxins, vermont, water