skippy the bush kangaroo

@ darthvader

been playing too much starcraft. just sent a squad of floor polishing droids off to collect minerals.

Labels: science fiction, tweet of the day, twitter

prop 8 struck down in fed court!
we don't know why katy perry sued arnold schwarzenegger; we suppose it's because she kissed a girl, and she liked it.

the moderate voice has some reactions from around blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase.

newt gingrich is displeased. his commentors point out that a man with multiple failed marriages (including divorcing a woman undergoing chemotherapy and screwing his assistant while he was impeaching a president for getting a blowjob) has very little authority when it comes to valuing other folks' weddings.

happy birthday (and we know that you were born in hawai'i and don't need to see your birth certificate) to you!

Labels: birthday, obama, youtube

have made some folks (i.e., republicans) absolutely lose their mind. bike riding apparently is a really, pinko commie sort of activity. lessening the air pollution is evil. losing weight is subversive. slowing down and enjoying life is un-american.

republican gubernatorial candidate dan maes is warning voters that denver mayor john hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are "converting denver into a united nations community."

"this is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in centennial.

maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have."

"this is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," maes said. - denver post

could someone actually ask this whackadoodle "goobernatorial" candidate exactly which personal freedoms we would be losing?

Labels: colorado, environment, government, republicans, united nations

Paul Krugman sends readers to Peter Beinart being sensible.

It is such a rare and wondrous thing, that one can almost forgive

[The ADL] opposed Joe McCarthy, lobbied for civil rights, and denounced the anti-Catholic bigots who insinuated that John F. Kennedy would take orders from Rome. Then came the creation of the state of Israel.[emphasis mine]

I stopped reading at that point. Even Billy Joel did a better job with history, and he was trying to be entertaining as well.

Labels: history, hysteria, pop culture, religion

mad kane, that is!

i ain't gonna torture myself anymore between now and election day. this post was written by david michael green three years ago. i submit it here in its entirety. to the self-described progressives in my midst, all i have to say is go out and vote democratic. whether you like it or not.

becuase where we stand now, voting democratic is the best chance we have at our disposal of fending of this shit:

One day you’re gonna wake up, America. By David Michael Green 05/04/07 "ICH" -- - And, like every other one since last you can remember, it’s gonna be an ugly morning. One day you’re gonna wake up and go to your lousy job with its lousy salary and non-existent benefits. You might even remember the good job you once had. Or that the government you once supported gave tax breaks to companies like the one that exported that good job of yours to the Third World (which is what they’re now starting to call your country). Or that that same government undermined the labor unions which fought to get you your good wages and benefits. One day you’re gonna wake up and be furious at the monstrous tax burden you are carrying, a tab which accounts for fifty of the seventy hours you must work each week just to eke by. You might even figure out why your tax bill is so high. You might remember that the government you once supported shifted the tax burden from the rich onto people like you, and from the taxpayers of the time onto those of today. And that they borrowed money in astonishing quantities to fund their sleight-of-hand, so that you work thirty hours a week just to pay the interest on a mountain of money borrowed decades ago. One day you’re gonna wake up in anger at the absurdly poor education your children are receiving. You’re gonna remember that it wasn’t always that way, that even after the military’s voracious appetite was temporarily sated, your country still managed to find a few bucks to at least educate a workforce. No more. And you’re gonna remember how you applauded when your educational system was twisted in to a test taking industry that is careful, above all, not to teach children how to think. One day you’re gonna wake up literally sick and tired. You’re gonna want treatment for your maladies but you won’t be able to touch the cost. You’re gonna wonder what you were thinking when believed your country had the best healthcare system in the world, even though it was the only advanced democracy in the world that didn’t provide universal care, even though it devoted fifty percent more of its economy than those other countries to pay for a system that left fifty million people uninsured, and even though there were massive layers of unnecessary and harmful private sector bureaucracy skimming hundreds of billions of dollars of profits out of the system in the name of free enterprise. One day you’re gonna wake up too tired to go to work anymore. You’re gonna want to retire in dignity but will be left instead to laugh bitterly at the cruelty of that joke. And you’re gonna wonder what in the world you had been thinking voting for a president who’s primary goal was to allow Wall Street to raid Social Security, destroying what had once been considered the most successful domestic program in human history. One day you’re gonna wake up and wish that it wasn’t so bloody hot, and that there weren’t so many diseases and species eradications and violent storms lashing the planet. And maybe you’ll even remember that you once supported a government that lied about the very existence of global warming – back when it might have been curtailed – a government that scuttled the barest remedy for the problem in order to protect oil company profits. One day you’re gonna wake up and wish you had a government that could simply and competently do the basic things it was designed for. A government that could protect you from foreign attack, that could come to your rescue after a devastating hurricane, that could properly manage a new program or other people’s security. An administration that didn’t pervert the purpose of every agency within the government to its opposite, using civil rights lawyers to fight civil rights, for example, or the EPA to protect polluters. One day you’re gonna wake up and cry out for simple justice, blindly applied without bias. And perhaps you’ll remember when that principle died. When your country stood by and watched the politicization of its judicial system for purposes of partisanship, and said nothing. When it stood by and watched its highest law enforcement officials in the land lie about their failing memory of events and pretended to believe that was acceptable. One day you’re gonna wake up and wish that you weren’t being drafted to go fight wars you don’t believe in. You’ll remember how soldiers were sent to their deaths for lies. You’ll remember how badly they were treated when they came home maimed and twisted. You’ll remember how real, patriotic, former soldiers were mocked and humiliated by dress-up, unpatriotic, former non-soldiers. And suddenly you’ll understand why no one would volunteer for the military anymore, and why people like you had to be drafted. One day you’re gonna wake up and want very badly to run outside and scream in anger about a government that long ago stopped serving your interests in favor of the narrow interests of a tiny oligarchy. But instead you’ll stay inside and keep your scream tucked safely in your belly. Because you’ll know that in your country dissent has long since been outlawed, on pain of torture and death. You’ll remember concepts like due process, limitations on government search, seizure and wiretapping, habeas corpus, trial by peers, legal representation and prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment as historical artifacts no longer even taught in schools. On day you’re gonna wake up and want so badly to change governments. You’re gonna treasure the concept of democracy like no Soviet dissident ever did. You’re gonna crave the opportunity to own your own government, to make your own societal choices, to make a change of direction never before so desperately necessary. And you’re gonna wonder why you didn’t speak up as you watched first-hand the dismantling of the democracy you had been handed by previous generations of patriots. You’re gonna wish you had been patriotic enough yourself to demand, above all else, free and fair elections, and you’re gonna shake your head in puzzlement at how you stood by watching in silence those that patently were not. One day you’re gonna wake up and want to get the hell out of your rotting, repressive country. You’re gonna remember a time when that wasn’t true. But, oddly enough, you’ll find that other countries remember too. They’ll remember your country’s arrogance, its unilateralism, its walls, its racism, and its politicized abuse of immigrants. And they’ll remember how your government undermined and violently replaced theirs whenever corporations from your country had their profits threatened. You’re gonna want to leave, but there will be nowhere you’ll be welcome. You’re gonna find out that walls can face both directions. One day you’re gonna wake up in a hostile world where your country no longer has any friends. There will be governments of other countries – former long-standing allies – that cannot afford to have anything to do with you, lest their publics angrily remove them from office for collaborating with a country as hated as yours. Nor will those governments trust yours anyway. They will perhaps possess intelligence that could save your life, but they will not share it. They will possess forces that could help you survive real security threats, but they will not provide them. Your country will have become an international pariah, the South Africa of the twenty-first century. And because no one will assist you, one day you’re gonna wake up fearing for your life as your country is brutally attacked by angry militants deploying weapons of mass destruction against your cities. Long dormant connections in your brain will resurface, and you will dimly understand why. On this day – perhaps March 20, 2023 – you might be assisted in your comprehension by the message of one of the attackers, someone whose family your country callously destroyed in its mission accomplished in Iraq, and who spent the next twenty years plotting this day’s revenge. And you will wonder again why you stood by as your country attacked Iraq on a completely bogus pretext. You’ll remember applauding when this mailed fist was long ago sent. And, just as it comes hurling back in your direction at a lethal velocity, stamped “Return to Sender”, you’ll wonder what you were thinking. And you’ll realize just how much you weren’t. One day you’re gonna wake up, America, and you’re gonna find out what was happening while you were sprawled on the couch watching endless mind-numbing loops of CSI, Desperate Housewives or Dancing with the Stars. One day you’re gonna wake up and realize that catching all the action during week seven of the 2011 NFL season really wasn’t so critical in the greater scheme of things after all. One day you’re gonna wake up and wished you’d invested a little more energy into monitoring and choosing the people who made monumental decisions on your behalf. One day, with a flash of remorse greater than you thought it possible that one human vessel could contain, you’ll remember the ignored warning shots across your bow. Moments later, you’ll discover the human capacity for searing remorse is actually even greater still, as you contemplate your inattention even to the shots that were fired right through the bow. With a fury you would yesterday have thought yourself incapable of, you’ll hurriedly attempt to affix Band-Aids to the tattered splinters remaining from your country’s once sturdy hull. But you’ll learn quickly the toll of those years spent wasted in a civic coma. You’ll find that no amount of patchwork can any longer save this sinking ship from its appointment with the dustbin of history. In shame, you’ll regret the callous arrogance with which you laughingly dismissed those who sounded the early clarion call. “We are destroying ourselves”, they tried to tell you. But even on the rare occasion when you roused yourself from your stupor long enough to learn the slightest bit about the very threats that jeopardized your life and that of your species, still you found it more reassuring to follow the blustering worst amongst us, with their patently absurd pretended confidence, and their ever constant resort to the cheapest of false solutions, and the rudest of demeanors. One day, you’ll desperately search for hope of any sort, but none will remain. Nothing will be left to save you. One day you’ll realize that once there were solutions, but that that day is now long past. You’ll see that human technological capacity ran its evolutionary race with wisdom, and the latter came in second. You’ll sadly realize that you stood by while your country led the once great tool-making species to its own destruction. One day you’re gonna wake up, America, and realize how far it’s all gone. But if that day isn’t very soon, it won’t matter. Because one day you’re gonna wake up, and it will be far, far too late.

and if you stay home on election day, then don't give me any spiel about principles or ideals. ever again. we are a mentally, morally, and spiritually bankrupt nation. when i said this, that's what i had in mind, even though i was too furious in disposition at the time.

please try to understand me, skippy. i'm not taking this anymore. good luck in november.

Labels: america, it is what it is

with so little time...



and so much to do.

time's running out for the family of man...

Labels: music

via a comment @ io9, here's dora the explorer in inception:

greg sargent finds new evidence that nobody except frothing repubbbs hearts sarah:
run, sarah, run!

to left i on the news!

distributorcapny brings us singing sarah and rush

blue girl on media banality and false equivalencies

the agonist wants more socialists in congress

balloon juice finds dueling nyt stories about the economy

echidne muses on who threatens the family



* yes! we coined that phrase!

a little soothing music.....of celtic nature.

Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube

oh, goody. just what this country needs right now.

Labels: it is what it is, snark

rand paul thinks the free market is all the protection miners need

school is good; pre-school is gooder

tom shales vs. christiane amanpour

even fox news can't hide how crazy sharon angle is

iggy pop won't take a dive

tonight...a little linda rondstadt and bobbie darin.

Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube

@thebradblog

amazed at media/pols chiding @andrewbreitbart's #sherrod scam w/out noting acorn victim of same scam! http://j.mp/9iZMVp

Labels: liars, multi-millionaire media, tweet of the day, twitter

more stories that you won't hear about on the talking head shows this morning

oil spill dispersants shifting ecosystem impacts in gulf, scientists warn. - a seemingly feel-good story showed up this week on the nation's front pages and newscasts: the oil that befouled the gulf of mexico for 86 days is vanishing from the surface, leaving workers with little to clean. but scientists warn the oil's ecological impacts are shifting, not ebbing. - greenwire

global warming signs unmistakable, report says. - a new report by 300 scientists has flagged the past decade as the hottest on record and compiled 10 "unmistakable" indicators that the world is getting warmer. - cbc canada

restoring the paradise that saddam destroyed. - saddam hussein drained the unique wetlands of southern iraq as a punishment to the region's marsh arabs who had backed an uprising. two decades later, one courageous us iraqi is leading efforts to restore the marshes. not even exploding bombs can deter him from his dream - der spiegel

this just in: the earth is warming! - the evidence of a warming planet has been around about 20 years now, and despite what you hear from some quarters about global cooling, that evidence has continued to strengthen. - time magazine

making waste pay as methane project close to ok. - thousands of tons of methane billowing out from the county's landfill each year is now burned into oblivion, but could instead generate enough electricity to heat more than 4,700 homes - annapolis capital

radioactive boars on the rise. - as germany's wild boar population has skyrocketed in recent years, so too has the number of animals contaminated by radioactivity left over from the chernobyl nuclear meltdown. - der spiegel

three decades later, effects of ibm spill linger in endicott.- the chemical spill first discovered at the ibm facility more than 30 years ago continues to have a massive effect on the community the computer giant once helped build. there is no end in sight. the lawsuits, cleanup and occupational study are all years away from any kind of closure. - gannett news service

herbicide-tainted manure wilts organic crops across whatcom county.- whatcom county organic farmers and gardeners are reporting severe crop damage that appears to be linked to herbicide contamination in the manure and compost they obtain from non-organic farms and dairies for use as natural fertilizer. - bellingham herald

oil spill victims file class-action lawsuit.- gloria volstromer went to a hospital emergency room saturday afternoon with a rash, a headache and an upset stomach -- all symptoms of overexposure to benzene. now, gloria and her husband eugene are suing enbridge inc., the company responsible for last week's oil spill. - battle creek inquirer

oysters a sign of trouble from puget sound acidity.- pacific oysters in the wild on washington's coast haven't reproduced in six seasons. scientists suspect ocean-chemistry changes linked to the fossil-fuel emissions that cause global warming are helping kill these juvenile shellfish - seattle times

slime to sublime. - "green energy" is a buzz phrase heard a lot these days, but if one state legislator has his way, pennsylvania may soon become the capital of energy that is really green — as in algae. - pottstown mercury

what's happening to bird species? - a new study has provided new evidence that global warming is having a serious effect on natural systems, including the northward and inland movements of north american birds. - fond du lac reporter

farmers in denmark adjust to livestock antibiotic ban. - denmark is to hogs in europe what iowa is in the united states. so the danes can provide lessons for u.s. farmers and the obama administration when it comes to restricting the use of antibiotics on hog farms. - de moines register

floods in china: gushing. - many parts of china have been enduring the worst floods in years, but it is the flood-prone yangzi river that is causing most concern. with the downpours has come an unusual sprinkling of doubts about the ability of the colossal three gorges dam to keep the river in check - economist

u.s. house approves oil spill reform bill. - the us house of representatives on friday approved the toughest reforms ever to offshore energy drilling practices, as democrats narrowly pushed through an election-year response to bp's massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico. - reuters

uranium, not kryptonite, worries superman's hometown. - uranium, not kryptonite, has residents of superman's hometown on edge these days. the uranium can be found at the Honeywell plant, located just west of town and, as is frequently pointed out these days, just upwind. - st. louis post dispatch

gulf of mexico oil spill is just the latest blow for delacroix. - just outside the city, within earshot of the vocal crusade to save new orleans' culture after hurricane katrina, communities that were the hub of a unique wetlands culture for 200 years have quietly been slipping into history. - new orleans times picayune

alaskan fishery collapse holds important message for gulf. - the sudden and complete crash of the herring population in the wake of the exxon valdez spill holds a powerful lesson for the scientists and regulators charged with reopening the gulf of mexico's fisheries, according to two scientists who have studied the phenomenon. - mobile press register

big oil's pr machine takes a hit over celeb-backed greenwash.- the organisation behind the "be the one" video was not some cuddly-sounding environmental group, it was one that was funded by major oil companies. - london independent

leaking wellhead in bayou st. denis could be closed sunday. -officials on saturday began moving equipment into place to close a leaking oil wellhead in bayou st. denis in lower jefferson parish as soon as today. - new orleans times picayune

Labels: birds, bp, china, climate change, energy, fish, global warming, gulf coast, iraq, lawsuits, louisiana, new orleans, ocean, oil, washington

saturday night with the divine sassy one...the indefatigable sarah vaughan.

Labels: jazz, music, skippy's music club, youtube

seriously, don't lefty blogs have anything better to do than fight amongst themselves?

and they pay her the big bucks.

african-american lawmakers are irate that the 0bama administration has promised sen. blanche lincoln (d-ark.) $1.5 billion in farm aid while claiming it can’t pay a landmark legal settlement with black farmers. - the hill

if they can that blue b**** (female version of blue dog), they can pay back farmers that were found to have been pooched for generations.

Labels: blues, farmers, obama

you are not the victim in your little slimefest. stop playing the victim role to try to wriggle your way out of a lawsuit.

conservative blogger says episode was 'difficult for me as well.' - newsweek

Labels: bloggers, conservatives, liars