skippy the bush kangaroo

Thursday, July 09, 2009

i pod you pod we all pod for ipod

here's a question we ask to help us load up our new ipod: coldplay or counting crows?
posted by skippy at 5:16 PM | 3 comments

around blogtopia...and yes, we coined that phrase!

firedoglake needs your help w/a twitter bomb for the public health care option

bagnewsnotes brings us a couple of new pictures from iran

the rude pundit easily predicts that no one will apologize to nancy pelosi

the democratic underground reports on a florida tea party where the signs compared obama to hitler

virgo tex has splurged for pay tv over @ first draft
posted by skippy at 4:38 PM | 1 comments

too many goat weddings



faux news channel host brian kilmeade actually bemoans inter-racial marriage, likening it to marrying other "species" on "fox and friends"

video via salon.
posted by skippy at 10:02 AM | 3 comments

mad about demoralized

mad kane, that is!
posted by skippy at 9:50 AM | 0 comments

skippy's music club -- the blogger formerly known as mimus "in the morning" edition...

"runeii" by talk talk.

enjoy...

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posted by Jim Yeager at 7:54 AM | 3 comments

weed whacker goes bad

and causes havoc, fear and loathing on "the pass." oh, yeah....and a fire.
visitors to the getty center and mount st. mary's college are ushered from the facilities. the apparent accidental blaze shuts down part of sepulveda boulevard and two 405 offramps. - latte times

can you say "traffic nightmare"

Los Angeles From Getty
Originally uploaded by santa barbarian

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posted by Cookie Jill at 12:59 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

skippy's wednesday nite music club

the 70's were great for music...not so much fashion...



three dog night - "mama told me not to come"

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:50 PM | 2 comments

remember, you can't spell "science fiction" without "s - y - f - y"...oh, wait...

if we may take a moment away from politics to meander a bit into cultural decomposition, we were quite surprised when we tuned into the sci-fi channel the other night to watch the pilot episode of "warehouse 13," a blatant if light-hearted cross between x-files, the librarian series starring noah wylie, and the last scene of raiders of the lost ark.

we are not here to write a review of that show. suffice it to say that there are worst ways to spend an hour, tho not many of them involve watching original television programming (tho it was better, in our opinion, than the afore-mentioned wylie movies).

no, we must needs take this moment to articulate our confusion over the brand new brand name the sci-fi channel has assumed. for that cable channel is no longer the "sci-fi" channel; now it's (wait for it)... the "syfy" channel.

yes you read that right. they are, obviously, 2 legit 2 quit.

we are saddened by this willful descent into ignorance. we have enjoyed science fiction since we were young, as stories about science, alternatives, puzzles and reality-stretching always engaged our imaginations.

and our friends that we surrounded ourselves with as we grew up and older were also of the same mind; that is to say, they actually had minds, and brains, and loved to use them.

for science fiction was made by and for people of intelligence and imagination; people who looked at the universe and said "what if?" (we enjoyed the old sci fi channel station break logo, where the word "if" morphed into the abbreviation "sci fi."

certainly, we ourselves participate in the evolution of the written word, by refusing capitalization on the innertubes. but we also insist on spell check, for crying in the sink!

it's not bad enough that they show wrestling on this channel. (ratings aside, what the hell does wrestling have to do w/robots, dna gone wild, dr. who, space aliens, and manquitos?)

now the heads of this network have decided that people who watch television obviously can't spell. and they have renamed their channel thusly.

but to make matters worse, it's not even phonetically appropriate. the name now looks like it rhymes "beefy." and when spelled out on the screen, it looks like some sort of 18th century slang for a communicable disease. "cor, guv'ner, you're lookin' a bit syfy today! been traipsin' amongst the wenches again?" (and most of the commentors on the tvguide.com agree!)

at best, it looks like the name of a subversive sock puppet.


there are young children just learning to watch tv that will grow up thinking that "syfy" is a word. but worse, they will not ever connect the content of the "syfy" channel w/either science or fiction.

the new tag line for the channel is "imagine greater."

how about "spell better"?

addendum: we like words, especially when put in new and amazing order. thus we like sci-fi.
posted by skippy at 5:22 PM | 5 comments

don't pressure democrats...pressure republicans

i have not let up on my republican representative on the subject of health care. i've not only written him about 30 emails containing the arguments in favor of either a strong public option or single payer or expressing my support for those options and my disdain for other options. in particular, i have told him what is wrong with the medical rights and reform act that he and a couple of other house republicans put together so that they can pretend that they're trying to help their constituents.

previously, in reference to that awful medical rights and reform act, i called his office to try and find out who had input into this bill. the only answer i received was that they consulted "stakeholders". i wrote back and asked who these "stakeholders" were, but never received an answer. today i called again and made my question clear. in fact, i was very informative, but always polite. i told the staffer who answered (i got the name of the staffer who handles health care for my rep, but forgot to get the name of the young woman with whom i spoke) that i could never support the congressman if he did not support either a strong public option or single payer. i told her that i had sent something like 30 emails to his office that clearly demonstrated the superiority of these options and that i had not received any response on any of these emails. i told her that i had never received an answer to my question as to who the "stakeholders" involved in drafting medical rights and reform act were (and i told her the fatal flaws in that legislation). i did find out that the bill was drafted by house lawyers who took the "ideas" (her words) that the congressman and his fellow congressmembers had and drafted the bill, and they then "bounced it back and forth" (her words) until they had something to introduce.

i let her know in no uncertain terms that i wanted to know who those stakeholders were, that i regarded myself as a very interested stakeholder in health care reform legislation, that the congressman's constituents were the only stakeholders he should ever be concerned about, and that, having read what he introduced, the congressman seemed to have no interest at all in what was best for his constituents.

please call your congressmembers (phone numbers at the link) and tell them you support either a strong public option or single payer, and call them more than once. the insurance industry lobbyists talk to your congressmembers every single day and they regard themselves as the most important stakeholders. let your rep know who the real stakeholders are in no uncertain terms and keep letting them know. if you don't, we'll lose this battle pretty quickly.

i think it is more important to call republican representatives on this than democrats, because the democrats seem to have made up their minds on it, but the republicans are the ones who are struggling to regain power. if they think hey can make a comeback by supporting real health care reform, they might just abandon their corporate insurance masters for a change.

ps: in an earlier posting i was highly critical of cnn's coverage of the health care issue. i should give credit where it is due. they are doing a great job of showing every possible aspect of michael jackson's funeral.
posted by DBK at 9:34 AM | 4 comments

pentagon's war on america...

the pentagon’s war on america: the office of the secretary of defense part II.

perhaps because of his near-unconditional job security, ray dubois, the bush era’s first deputy under secretary of defense for installations and environment, felt free to question the good faith of epa scientists when he disagreed with their work.- washington bureau

and part one...

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:43 AM | 1 comments

question of the day...

what am i doing? i'm sitting here wondering why i even created this account. your turn...

i'm on twitter now, too. hell if i know why, tho...

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posted by Jim Yeager at 6:13 AM | 4 comments

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

skippy's tuesday nite music club

you don't need big splashy productions, electronic this and that, dancing, lights and bizarre costumes and a sequined glove to make great music.



joe cocker - "you are so beautiful"

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:39 PM | 1 comments

isn't it a bit ironic

the u.s. is looking like the cyber keystone cops.
a widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began july 4 knocked out the web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cyber crime, the associated press has learned. - ap via yahoo news

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posted by Cookie Jill at 10:32 PM | 1 comments

we hate the search engine, but we love the singer; or, the road to blogtopia!

why we don't like bing the search engine...

how the hell did skippy's late nite music club featuring arcade fire wind up on results for a bing search (in spanish, no less) for "irena avellas"??
posted by skippy at 12:02 PM | 4 comments

iquitarod - the embed

blogger shannyn moore discussing bailin' palin on the olbermann show:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

and, while several hardly-ever-right wing pundits insist this won't hurt bailin' palin's chances for a presidential run in 2012 (and, presumably if she wins, a presidential resignation in 2014), rassmussen's latest poll begs to differ:

forty percent (40%) of republican voters nationwide say sarah palin’s decision to resign as governor of alaska hurts her chances of winning the party’s presidential nomination in 2012.

a new rasmussen reports national telephone survey of gop voters finds that (24%) believe palin’s resignation helps her chances of winning the republican nomination, while 28% say it will have no impact on the race.
and that's 40% of repubbblicans (and in a rassmussen poll!), so you know palin may have miscalculated her strategy.

(thx & a tip o'the kangaroo tail to memeorandum for the links, you betcha!)

addendum: we just wanted you to know that the headline writer, when he found that we linked to stanley fish's defense of palin and sanford, wanted to call this post "goodbye, and thanks for stanley fish."
posted by skippy at 11:21 AM | 3 comments

dana bash and lesa jansen at cnn carry water for the insurance lobby

so i take my rare look at cnn.com today (i don't go there often because it is really an untrustworthy news organization) and i find this article on health care reform and canada's health care system, which is merely right out of the insurance lobby primer on health care reform.

hey dana and lesa, why are you buying into the insurance industry's framing? why don't you mention that the world health organization rates canada's health care system 30th in the world...and the u.s. system is rated 37th? why don't you look at the countries that have a better health care system than the u.s. or canada, like norway, france, germany, great britain, etc., and see how they fund health care (here's a hint: they generally have a single payer system).

dana and lesa, do you have internet access? can you get to wikipedia? if you just looked up a comparison of u.s. and canadian health care systems on wikipedia you'd find that canada has a much lower health care cost than the u.s., both per capita and as a percentage of gross national product. is it too much trouble to actually do some research rather than retype a lobbyist pamphlet? is it too "thinky" for you?

from that same wikipedia article (which references its sources, by the way, unlike the cnn.com piece):
in 2006, per-capita spending for health care in the u.s. was $6,714; in canada, $3,678.
that's $3,000 per person. if i were writing an article comparing health care in the u.s. and canada, with cost being such a huge part of the debate on health care reform, i would probably include the comparative cost of health care in those two countries, but then i'm not a reporter for cnn.com, so i don't have to answer to anybody's interests.

while discussing wait times for medical services in canada, why didn't dana and lesa look at wait times in the u.s.? the same wikipedia article i cited above compares wait times in some detail and...surprise! the u.s. doesn't do that much better than canada in a bunch of circumstances and does worse in others. but then a fair treatment of the story isn't so interesting to dana and lesa, is it?

why is cnn.com publishing articles that pretend to compare health care in the u.s. and canada, but ignore significant facts? and why are dana bash and lesa jansen still working as reporters?
posted by DBK at 9:40 AM | 1 comments

palin's proud to be trash

california's not so giddy about being junk.
citing the golden state's ongoing budget upheaval, fitch ratings on monday downgraded california's long-term debt to bbb, one category above junk bond status. the next step is bbb- before the state's bonds would be considered speculative debt. - cnn

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

$4 million dollars


Staples Center 4
Originally uploaded by santa barbarian
being sucked away from the cash strapped los angeles coffers for one man. glad los angeles is being fleeced for this circus instead of santa barbara...although people are hanging out at neverland anyway.

i'm sure there will be only one news story on the teevee today.
posted by Cookie Jill at 6:18 AM | 0 comments

what did i just miss?

all right, i'm in my living room, trying to put together some new music before i have to go to bed. and it's going rather well. so well, in fact, that i don't notice what's going on right outside my window until i finish what i'm doing: a fire engine and an ambulance are sitting in front of my apartment building. i'm like, "what in the..."

so i start going downstairs to check it out. two or three steps down, i remember something crucial: i'm wearing socks, and that's all i'm wearing. hey, virginia is too toasty for my tastes this time of year, and i really don't care what anyone knows about me anymore, okay? i pay my bills, i pay my taxes, and i pay the rent for this m&%#$@f*^k%@, too -- i'll walk around here bare-assed whenever i damn well please.

but i know my place. i ain't goin' outside like this.

so i go and don shorts, a t-shirt, and shoes, and go downstairs and outside -- just in time to see the ambulance and fire engine roll away. well, i guess that's a good sign -- obviously my building isn't burning down. but i can't help wondering what just happened.

that torques me off. i hate it when i have to put clothes on for no reason...

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posted by Jim Yeager at 6:07 AM | 3 comments

Monday, July 06, 2009

skippy's monday nite music club

i think elvis sings so well my response to those rethuglicans who never practice what they preach.



elvis - "clean up your own backyard" (written by mac davis) from the movie "the trouble with girls (and how to get into it.)

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:27 PM | 1 comments

get her the h*** out of the california senate

or get her to completely reimburse the taxpayers. we know that the state's politicians have been reckless with our state, but this one's reckless behind the wheel. they could care less about lives outside their little connected circle in tomato town. and it shows.
the state will pay $335,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman former state den. carole migden rear-ended after a wild 30-mile drive in dolano county, attorneys in the case said monday.

several motorists called 911 after seeing the san francisco democrat weaving in and out of traffic on interstate 80 and highway 12 on may 18, 2007, in her state-issued toyota highlander hybrid sport utility vehicle. at one point, migden sideswiped a guardrail on I-80 near american canyon Road.

"she's been on the phone and reading a book, doing about 80 miles per hour," one driver said in his 911 call. "she's really scary." - sfgate

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:50 PM | 0 comments

the fog has dissipated..for a moment

robert strange mcnamara has passed.



he had spent decades thinking through the lessons of the war. the greatest of these was to know one’s enemy — and to “empathize with him,” as mr. mcnamara explained in errol morris’s 2003 documentary, “the fog of war: eleven lessons from the life of robert s. mcnamara.”

“we must try to put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes,” he said. the american failure in vietnam, he said, was seeing the enemy through the prism of the cold war, as a domino that would topple the nations of asia if it fell. - nytimes
we still have yet to learn mcnamara's lessons of vietnam.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:28 PM | 3 comments

did their health insurance cover rehab?

just curious.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 6:21 PM | 0 comments

a double luntz back @ the iquitarod!

kudos to shannyn moore for her appearance on the olbermann show, but mainly for repeating her excellent word-game back onto sarah "iquitarod" palin:

she aborted her term.
we couldn't have said it better ourselves.
posted by skippy at 5:23 PM | 2 comments

iquitarod

alaskan blogger shannyn moore has no problem standing up to sarah palin. brad blog:

alaska blogger and radio host shannyn moore isn't taking the attempted strong-arming by soon-to-be-former governor sarah palin lightly. moore shot back quickly on her radio show and in the mainstream media on saturday, in response to palin's fourth of july declaration of litigation…

"there is a scandal rumor here that there is a criminal investigation into some activities and that's been rumored for about, i don't know, probably six weeks or two months," moore explained to the anchorage daily news prior to the sunday presser, in response to being named, along with a number of mainstream media outlets, by palin's private attorney, thomas van flein, in a remarkable statement on behalf of the governor.

"to the extent several websites," van flein wrote, "most notably liberal alaska blogger shannyn moore, are now claiming as 'fact' that governor palin resigned because she is 'under federal investigation' for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation."

van flein failed to cite where moore, or any of the other sites referenced, had reported the wide-spread rumors as "fact," even though he put it in quotation marks, along with other allegations, similarly quoted but notably unattributed. palin spokesperson meghan stapleton has not yet replied to an email query from the brad blog seeking the sources of the unattributed direct quotations in the van flein/palin statement. we'll update this article, of course, when/if we do.
as the mudflats points out, the only thing that palin's threats accomplished was to make bloggers dig in even more, and to make shannyn even more famous.

but even as the hardly-ever-right wing trips over itself trying to spin palin into an amazingly brilliant tactician, it becomes obvious to the reality-based americans all over that this woman is, at best, the worst strategist ever, or, at worst, the best crazy person to occupy centerstage since michael jackson died.
posted by skippy at 10:00 AM | 3 comments

down the penrose lane

Photobucket
posted by skippy at 9:54 AM | 3 comments

mad about sarah palin

mad kane, that is!
posted by skippy at 9:52 AM | 0 comments

and now, some music in the morning...

"water of love" by dire straits.

enjoy...

posted by Jim Yeager at 7:52 AM | 2 comments

Sunday, July 05, 2009

skippy's sunday night music club

tonights selection goes out to those pink moosehide mukluks a-gone a-walkin' away from that "hard work" job of governor of alaska.



lebraghe corte - "these boots were made for walkin'"

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

california infrastructrure crumbling

if southern california were to go without water, i think it could cause some regular folks to protest...loudly...to those morons in sacramento.
fearing the main canal carrying drinking water to millions of southern californians is sinking again, water officials are monitoring the effects of incessant agricultural pumping from the aquifer that runs under the aqueduct.

their concern is that the canal, which has sunk six feet in places during california dry spells, will buckle enough to slow delivery of water to parched points south and force costly repairs. ap via mercury news

more expenses the uber wealthy republicans refuse to pay their fair share for. i'm sure those macmansions with the 8 bathrooms and massive landscaping use up far more water than the rest of us working slobs' huts.

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posted by Cookie Jill at 1:24 PM | 0 comments

i, bot

we heart memeorandum. it's one place to get a quick view of both left and right realtime blog headlines @ the moment. and, when the memeorandum bots include skippy in their link analyses, you can't beat the traffic that comes to our humble space here.

but those bots are a bit undiscerning, ie, stupid. for example, we are amused that the memeorandum bots included the yellow pages logo on the alaskan daily news headline about palin.

the yellow pages logo was simply an ad on the page. we appreciate that the bots are following the three asimov rules of robotics, and haven't actually harmed a human. but shouldn't "annoying the hell out of people" also be considered?
posted by skippy at 1:22 PM | 0 comments

as(s)cap wants royalties on cellphone rings

boy...these folks are just making friends all over the place...not...
when a music ring tone goes off in a restaurant or during a company meeting, it's often heard by more than just the intended recipient.

but can that seconds-long clip of a song be considered a public performance of a musical work?

that's the question raised by the american society of composers, authors and publishers, a music industry licensing group that is asking a federal judge in new york to require the two largest u.s. wireless carriers, att and verizon, to pay for public performance licenses for cell phone ring tones. sfgate

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posted by Cookie Jill at 1:05 PM | 3 comments

and now, some morning-after independence day music...

i know for certain some people are going through this right now. i'm not one of them -- this year, anyway.

enjoy...

posted by Jim Yeager at 12:57 PM | 2 comments

palin 2012...somebody else 2014!

apparently there are no pending indictments, if you can believe the fbi...latimes:

despite rumors of a looming controversy after the republican governor's surprise announcement friday that she would leave office this month, some of them published in the blogosphere, the fbi's alaska spokesman said the bureau had no investigation into palin for her activities as governor, as mayor or in any other capacity.

“there is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," special agent eric gonzalez said in a phone interview saturday. "it's just not true." he added that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry.
and, just to prove how much out of the spotlight palin wants to get, she's threatening lawsuits. that'll keep her out of the public eye! alaska daily news:

gov. sarah palin's personal attorney issued a statement saturday denouncing rumors that palin resigned because she is under criminal investigation and threatening legal action for publishing "defamatory" material about the governor…

van flein's letter threatening legal action specifically pointed the finger at alaska blogger shannyn moore as "most notably" claiming as "fact" that palin resigned under federal investigation.

van flein, asked why he singled out moore, said it's because she went on national television and talked about it. moore was on with msnbc's david shuster on friday, the day palin said she will resign.

"there is a scandal rumor here that there is a criminal investigation into some activities and that's been rumored for about, i don't know, probably six weeks or two months," moore told him.
so maybe, just maybe, we have to take palin @ her word when she says she just wants to...uh, whatever she said yesterday. play basketball, we think. she has no ulterior motive for being a quitter, she's just naturally a quitter. makes sense to us.

so perhaps she actually is eyeing a run on the white house (like a run on a bank?) in 2012.

looks like we still have sarah palin to kick around anymore.

meanwhile, we agree w/akmuckraker @ the huffpo, who sez palin's legal parry could ultimately backfire, if we may mix weaponry metaphors:

using the substantial might of the executive branch of government to bring down unenforceable legal threats on a private citizen in alaska, and attempting to curtail free speech through intimidation on the fourth of july? not a particularly brilliant pr move. by specifically singling out and naming moore, palin has done two things; she has shown herself to be a reactionary immature politician, and she has made shannyn moore a lot better known. and she is not the only one in sarah palin's crosshairs, mind you. you stand warned huffington post, new york times, msnbc and the washington post! you just better knock it off!

the new york times and washington post haven't written anything about this, but van flein said he believed they were asking questions. "what i've been informed is that they've been interviewing people in wasilla about this, and have tried to interview the governor's parents about it," van flein said.
ok, in the case of the new york times and the washington post, you'd better stop even thinking about asking questions about it.

in solidarity with my friend and fellow alaskan blogger, may i be the next to report to the team of palin-van flein, and to the entire blogosphere at large:

there are rumors.

there. i said it.

sue me.
(thx & a tip o' the kangaroo tail to memeorandum for the links!)
posted by skippy at 9:52 AM | 8 comments

"determination"

in case you didn't know... sarahpac.com is the official sarah palin pac site. accept no substitutes! they might quit on you unexpectedly.

her official site intones:
our country...must confront the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination.
determination: i don't think that word means what she think it means.

what's this? sarah also has an official legal defense fund site. a sitting governor with a legal defense fund. this innovation is most certainly a mark of integrity if there ever was one.

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posted by George at 1:21 AM | 3 comments