skippy the bush kangaroo

...first, allen's campaign manager referred "to the 'macaca' story with a barnyard epithet and insist that the senator had nothing to apologize for." then, as criticism mounted, allen apologized.

but yesterday on fox, allen said that virginians don't "actually care" that he made the remark and it's "only the media" who thinks it's an issue.

...

actually, according to a poll taken after allen finally apologized, 67% of virginians found allen's remarks "inappropriate" and a majority believe "he needs to say more about the incident. {think progress}

Labels: freeway blogger, protest

...mr. bush had at least one exchange with a local resident that made reference to the flawed responses last year, and his role in it.

as mr. bush squeezed through tables at a pancake house where he ate breakfast, a waitress asked, "mr. president, are you going to turn your back on me?"

"no, ma'am," he replied, with a laugh and a pause. "not again."

a man and his wife were working in their garden one day, and the man looks over at his wife and says, "your butt is getting really big, I mean really big. I bet your butt is bigger than the barbecue."

with that, he proceeded to get a measuring tape and measured the grill, and then went over to where his wife was working and measured his wife's bottom.

"yes, i was right, your butt is two inches wider than the barbecue!"

the woman chose to ignore her husband.

later than night in bed, the husband is feeling a little frisky. he makes some advances toward his wife, who completely brushes him off.

"what's wrong?" he asks.

she answers, "do you really think i'm going to fire up this big-ass grill for one little weenie?"

bushtemberfest, or the festival of fatal fuckups, will give gop-weary americans a chance to celebrate the non-accomplishments of george w. bush, the first president to let one major american city be devastated by terrorists and allow another one to drown, all within the space of a few years. the observance will start with the anniversary of the flooding of new orleans and climax with the anniversary of the destruction of the world trade center, during which time we will pray — loudly and publicly — that no other disasters befall us while we await the blessed day that king george and his menagerie of religious hucksters, corporate bandits and ideological grifters get their eviction notice.

a pipeline is shut down in alaska.

equipment failures disrupt air travel in los angeles.

electricity runs short at a spy agency in Maryland

in pennsylvania, the condition of roads and bridges reaches a crisis point.

none of these has resulted from a natural disaster or terrorist attack, but they might as well have, some homeland security experts say.

they worry that too little attention is being paid to how fast the country's basic operating systems are deteriorating. - pennlive.com

what do these....events have in common? they all involve outcomes that a terrorist group would aspire to achieve. if a terrorist group were able to knock the nsa off-line, or disrupt one of the nation’s busiest airports, or shut down the most important oil pipeline in the nation, the impact would be perceived as devastating. and yet, we’ve essentially let these things happen (or almost happen) to ourselves. the same thing could be said of the destruction of the city of new orleans from hurricane katrina. the damage from the hurricane could have been mitigated if the city’s levees had been managed effectively over the last several decades. - hlswatch.com

it's no secret that new orleanians live to eat, or that their distinctive creole cooking is an international symbol of the city's gumbo-pot history and tradition. but in practical terms, the restaurant scene is a life force for the community, pumping about $2 billion into the local economy and employing one in 10 new orleanians before the storm.

the industry took a major hit, according to the Louisiana Restaurant Association, with 54 percent of the metro area's 3,414 restaurants still closed. among those still missing in action are neighborhood favorites such as mandina's, mandich, gabrielle, and gautreau's, some of which are being rebuilt.

most famous restaurants in the french quarter and uptown, however, were spared serious damage from the hurricane. the toll of weeks without electricity in the summer swelter, though, proved to be costly enough. emeril lagasse's three restaurants lost $1.4 million worth of wine alone. and then there was the pervasive reek of spoiled walk-in refrigerators.

"who knew that steak would turn to liquid and seep through the floors and walls?" said ti martin, whose family owns the 126-year-old commander's palace, which was stripped down to the studs for a $6 million-plus renovation. "we saved the molding, and that's about it." - philly.com

John sat down in the cockpit and spoke for a minute with the aircraft commander. He didn't say anything to the rest of the crew. Nothing to the flight engineer. Or the navigator. Or the copilot. He didn't ask any of them where they were from. Or what it's like in Iraq. Or what he and the rest of Congress could do to help.

snip

The copilot was my son, Jeff Brown, Air Force Captain.

John Doolittle sat next to my son for over an hour and didn't ask him his name. He didn't ask him where he was from. (Jeff, of course, is from John's District here in California.) He didn't ask how long Jeff had been in Iraq. (It was Jeff's third tour, and he's now scheduled for his fourth.) And he didn't ask what Congress could do to help him and the rest of the troops there in Iraq.

But I've asked. And Jeff told me, that if John had asked what he needed, he would have asked to make sure Congress fixes the cracks in the C-130 wings, because many of the aircraft are grounded, and many more are restricted on how much weight they can carry, and they're flying the heck out of those planes. Jeff would have asked to make sure Congress gives good medical care to the wounded, because he flies them out of Iraq. And Jeff said he would have asked to make sure Congress gives the best care to the families of the remains of fallen soldiers, because he flies them out of Iraq too.

But John Doolittle didn't ask. He didn't talk to the airmen. They were just his drivers that day. John Doolittle sat next to my son for over an hour and didn't have the courtesy to even ask his name.

From Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show": "There comes a point in every president's career when he has to reassure the people that he isn't the thing that everybody thinks that they are. Richard Nixon famously said 'I am not a crook.' Bill Clinton assured us 'I did not have sex with that woman.'

"What point does this president have to clear up?"

Stewart then played a clip of Bush saying: "Nobody likes to see innocent people die."

One of the grooviest aspects of the time-bending detective show Life On Mars is the music. Here's David Bowie's Jean Genie, a song which plays during an important scene during a recent episode. The main character of the series, Sam, like many 30-something year olds, loves the music of the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Here's Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins with David Bowie doing Jean Genie.)

Sam was listening to Bowie's Life On Mars on his iPod when he was struck by the car that either a) caused him to travel back in time or b) put him in a coma and his unconscious mind created this world where he's in 1973. The third alternative is he went insane after his girlfriend, a fellow detective, disappeared while investigating a serial killer in the first episode. Sam doesn't know which is the truth, but he's trying to make the best of it. And when he and his boss, the deputy chief inspector, walk into a rocking night club, The Warren, Sam's face lights up as he hears the song and sees the groovy dancing. The scene carried a genuineness about it. Despite the mind-bending idea of the serie's premise, the show has a terrific authenticity, widely praised on the message board of the official site by people who lived in Manchester and even worked for the police department in the early 1970s.

A great soundtrack cannot be overrated for a show like this. And when some of the songs come on I feel like Sam did walking into the club, filled with the happiness that comes when a song captures the moment perfectly.

Via Exclamation Mark's Vintage Sci-Fi/Horror Reviews, comes this excellent post about The Thing (from Another World)!, one of my all-time favorite movies in any genre, over at Greenbriar Picture Shows, which also has fantastic photos of how the movie exhibitors promoted the fillm.

Also, don't miss the information about Hawks in the comments either.

"You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists."

Barbara Bush on "Good Morning America" March 18, 2003:

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

bush: the terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the middle east.

question: what did iraq have to do with it?

bush: what did iraq have to do with what?

question: the attack on the world trade center.

bush: nothing. except it's part of -- and nobody has suggested in this administration that saddam hussein ordered the attack...

...(1) reliance by the united states on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (a) adequately protect the national security of the united states against the continuing threat posed by iraq nor (b) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant united nations security council resolutions regarding iraq; and

(2) acting pursuant to the constitution and public law 107-243 is consistent with the united states and other countries to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on september 11, 2001...