skippy the bush kangaroo

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

12,000 +

and climbing.

accepted level of earthquake risk in china 'too high'. the people of sichuan are now paying the price for living in buildings constructed to withstand an earthquake roughly one-fifth as powerful as the one that hit on monday. - new scientist

china crippled by loss of power, water, travel, life. monday's deadly earthquake occurred on a fault where south asia pushes against the eurasian landmass, smashing the sichuan plain into mountains leading to the tibetan highlands. - usa today.

a broad view of quake 'prediction'. uk and chinese geophysicists say they have a new approach to seismic monitoring that should allow forecasting of the time, size and sometimes the location of earthquakes. - nature.

Labels: ,

posted by Cookie Jill at 1:47 PM | 0 comments

Monday, May 12, 2008

skippy's monday nite music club



charley patton - revenue man blues

charlie patton was the man who, if not the inventor of blues, then the guy who perfected thme. wikipedia tells us

patton (may 1, 1891 - april 28, 1934) is best known as an american delta blues musician. he is considered by many to be the "father of delta blues" and therefore one of the oldest known figures of american popular music. he is credited with creating an enduring body of american music and personally inspiring just about every delta blues man (palmer, 1995). robert palmer considers him among the most important musicians that america produced in the twentieth century. many sources, including musical releases, his gravestone,"[1] spell his name “charley” even though the musician himself spelled his name "charlie."

Labels:

posted by skippy at 8:02 PM | 2 comments

easy to solve problem....

let's just not raise the price anymore...
mom-and-pop service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon: thousands of old-fashioned pumps can't register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials.

the pumps, throwbacks to a bygone era on the american road, are difficult and expensive to upgrade, and replacing them is often out of the question for station owners who are still just scraping by. - latte times


Labels: ,

posted by Cookie Jill at 5:03 PM | 2 comments

no perfect 10 olympic score

but 7.8 is too big a score for an earthquake.
the chinese authorities have launched a major rescue operation in sichuan province, after it was struck by the most powerful earthquake to hit the south-west of the country in 30 years. more than 7,600 people are feared dead, while many thousands more may be buried beneath collapsed buildings or injured, state media have reported. - bbc
*update* the temblor has been upgraded to 7.9 the death toll nears 9,000.

Labels: ,

posted by Cookie Jill at 8:21 AM | 1 comments

Sunday, May 11, 2008

unhappy mothers' day

how can we tell that awol loves gold star moms?

because he made so many of them with his brilliant strategery and statements.

Labels: , , , , ,

posted by George at 8:27 PM | 0 comments

skippy's sunday nite music club

happy mothers day!



mothers of invention - dog breath

Labels:

posted by skippy at 8:09 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, May 10, 2008

skippy's saturday nite music club



the raveonettes - candy

new pop/rock from denmark...

Labels:

posted by skippy at 6:05 PM | 1 comments

when bloggers attack!

taylor marsh would like it to be known that, in spite of what sam stein might say, she had nothing to do with the current spate of emails to superdelegates warning of a mass defection to john mccain next novemeber:

dear sam stein and huffington post:

in no way have anything whatsoever to do with the narrative being pushed in sam stein's post over at huffington post. stop.

whatever my readers are doing is their business. i am in no way involved. stop.

ms marsh, i believe i may have been the sd emailer who got your name envolved (sic). i emailed last night using addresses on the blog. i wrote my email myself and receieved many snotty replies that stunned me. i stopped emailing but received a second email from sam stein (huffington). he asked if i was working with the clinton campaign to contact sd's. i was worried that if i did not answer it would reflect bad on hillary so i told him i was among lots of bloggers on taylor marsh and that we were doing the emails out of enthusiasm for hillary. i can send you all this by email if you want it. at any rate i am sorry if this effected your credibility, i didn't mean that, i just didn't want to hurt hillary. i thought i should tell you this so you can decide if you think i was the cause of this mess and so you could handle it as you think best. ... sincerely, shirley luther via email
mr. stein would have found this out if he'd bothered to contact me for comment, which he did not. obviously, his agenda was more important than reporting the full story, the facts and the truth. quite frankly, i had more respect for arianna than this and am saddened the huffington post has stooped to this level of nonsense.

that mr. stein contacted the clinton campaign for comment, but no one bothered to contact me is typical these days. it's further proof that many do not care what happens after the nominee is selected. never mind that sam's narrative and the huffington post blasting it, without the full story, will make everyone's job even harder and the possibility of coming together in any meaningful manner more difficult. it also infers quite a different role for me, which is in no way connected to my readers' goal.

but to be clear, as i've said in my latest posts on the subject, here and here, i'm not involved in any campaign to write or "threaten" superdelegates, or in pushing a vote for john mccain. sam stein seems not to care, which has brought an onslaught of angry emails to my inbox, which i'm used to, and never mind that same stein and huffington post totally misrepresent my part in it all by giving a false impression that i'm involved. again, i am not.
we take taylor at her word. tho we've not agreed w/her support of sen. clinton, we admire her passion and believe her trustworthiness.

we cannot see taylor being of the small-minded approach to email bombs, and knowing her to be a good democrat above all else, we doubt very seriously that she would even consider voting for mccain.

stein does add an update on his post stating that taylor insists she had no part in the mass emails. but he fails to apologize or retract.

Labels: , ,

posted by skippy at 5:56 PM | 0 comments

happy blogiversary

to rook's rant, for 5 great years!

Labels:

posted by skippy at 5:55 PM | 0 comments

down the penrose lane

Photobucket

Labels: , , , , ,

posted by skippy at 5:54 PM | 0 comments

Friday, May 09, 2008

skippy's friday nite music club

cookie jill sez, since reverends are in the news these days...



the reverend al green - raining in my heart

Labels:

posted by skippy at 9:01 PM | 1 comments

just think....

the population of the earth is expected to pass 6,666,666,666 today.

Labels:

posted by Cookie Jill at 2:23 PM | 4 comments

come to bermuda, avoid paying taxes!

cookie jill sends us this thinkprogress report that explains how pentagon contractors have avoided paying millions in taxes thru shell companies in the carribean islands:

the boston globe recently revealed that two defense department contractors operating in iraq — kbr and mpri — have avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal social security and medicare taxes by hiring its employees through “shell companies” based in bermuda and the cayman islands.

today, the ap reveals a third contractor assisting the u.s. military’s mission in iraq that is also dodging social security and medicare taxes. immediately after winning a dod contract worth more than $2 billion nearly ten years ago, combat support associates established csa ltd. in the cayman islands allowing it to avoid paying the taxes and evade scrutiny from the u.s. government:

the subsidiary, csa ltd., now employs about 2,000 american citizens in kuwait, where they support u.s. forces moving in and out of iraq. yet as a foreign corporation doing work outside the united states, csa ltd. does not pay social security and medicare taxes for these workers.
in fact, according to the ap, “company officials” have acknowledged their immunity from u.s. law, noting that csa ltd. “is outside the jurisdiction of u.s. courts, so federal labor rules and anti-discrimination laws don’t apply either.” indeed, the globe noted that because of such practices, “workers cannot receive unemployment compensation when their jobs end and may be deprived of other protections under us law.”

Labels: , , , ,

posted by skippy at 12:22 PM | 0 comments

we thought he liked touching it a bit too much

mediabloodhound reports that cnn's john king has moved in with his interactive election map:

john king, chief national correspondent for cnn, broke off his engagement to colleague dana bash thursday after revealing a months-long affair with his interactive election map.

wolf blitzer, lead anchor for the network's 2008 election coverage, said he'd grown increasingly uncomfortable with king's infatuation over his touchscreen sidekick. but blitzer claimed he didn't know until the pennsylvania primary that king and his "magic map" were counting more than votes.

"we were all very excited about pennsylvania. another big night for the best political team on television. but the truth is," explained blitzer, "viewers only saw john with his map on-camera. off-camera, he didn't leave her side. john didn't step away for refreshments the entire evening. not even for a skittle." blitzer, suddenly visibly upset, composed himself before adding, "later that night, long after pennsylvania had been called for clinton and most of us had already gone home, one of our producers brought a krispy kreme over to john. she found him with his pants around his ankles and his hand on florida. i won't get into what was resting on new jersey."
we thought the obvious state was ohio.

Labels: , , ,

posted by skippy at 12:17 PM | 4 comments

lt. governator garamendi is singing

the delta blues.
if left unchecked, the rising sea levels caused by global climate change could leave stockton under water, california's lt. gov. john garamendi warned thursday in a talk to members of san joaquin county's legal community.

...in addition to capricious flooding and spells of drought driven by climate change, he said california laws have to account for things such as levees and how water is stored in natural aquifers that supply drinking water.

attorneys have a say in how the law is shaped when they take related cases, he said. he recommended a mind-set, drawing upon his experiences in the late 1960s with the u.s. peace corps in ethiopia. he recalled that tribes greeted each other asking, "how are the children?" - stocktonrecord.net

Labels: , , ,

posted by Cookie Jill at 10:09 AM | 1 comments

howly australian shephard


Heart and Soul
Originally uploaded by Zenotri
blogging friday

Labels: ,

posted by Cookie Jill at 8:54 AM | 0 comments

we get mail

steve benen of the carpetbagger report writes us in response to our question, how do you get half a superdelegate?

you were probably kidding, but just to clarify, half-delegates come from u.s. territories -- guam, u.s. virgin islands, etc. -- where delegates are given half-votes.

just thought i should follow-up. hope all is well.

-steve
thanks, steve, and yes, we were kidding.

Labels: , ,

posted by skippy at 8:51 AM | 1 comments