The Marcels, Blue Moon
I know, I know, it’s not Friday! But it’s New Year’s Eve and there’s a blue moon, so it’s a perfect night for music.
Post your favorite YouTube music in comments, and ENJOY!!
Music night: Blue Moon Edition
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Monthly Archives: December 2009
Drunk with power un-used, Senate Dems will experience regrets
Created for TheZoo by Paul Jamiol
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
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Mutants in Toy Land
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
Kill the TSA nomination — Kill!!
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
Shocking
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
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Fumble…
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
The Back-breaker Waltz
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
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Happy Holidays, from the G(NO)P
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The Watering Hole: December 31st, Funniest videos of 2009?
This could be fun.. Here’s the open thread for Thursday December 31, 2009.
Here are a couple of the funniest videos I saw in 2009. Feel free to share the funniest videos that you came across this year!
This one still cracks me up.. Who could forget Nadia Suleman giving birth to her eight babies..
What made you laugh in 2009?
Resolutions..
US Ponders Full Body Airport Screening After Foiled Airline Bomb Plot
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
Good Riddance to Decade That Began With Theft of the Presidency
I am a big fan of John Nichols. This is an important post. I think it’s important to remember how this nightmare of a decade started..
Good Riddance to Decade That Began With Theft of the Presidency by John Nichols
The British press has taken to referring to the passing decade as “the Noughties” has made quite a big deal of trying to identify the political, economic and cultural trends of period from 2000 to 2009.
It is an amusing pastime that has some value, but only if we’re focused on identifying the root cause of what made the Noughties such a miserable decade.
If we are serious about the task, there is not much mystery.
The original sin of the good-riddance decade came in December of 2000, when the United States Supreme Court intervened to stop a complete recount of the votes in Florida and then declared George Bush to be the president.
This extreme judicial activism was not merely a devastating assault on American democracy. It set in motion the Bush presidency, and with it the pathologies that the Bush-Cheney administration imposed on the country in the form of unnecessary wars, failed economic policies, assaults on civil liberties and crudely divisive and hyper-partisan governance.
Bush, Dick Cheney and aides are surely to blame for much of what ailed America during the 2000s, and for what will ail America for decades to come.
But it was the U.S. Supreme Court’s unprecedented meddling in the presidential election process – an intervention that would have horrified the founders of a republic that was supposed to enjoy a separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers – made the Bush-Cheney interregnum possible.
Rep. Massa: Cheney “has political Tourette’s”
Rep. Eric Massa tells MSNBC’s Ed Schultz that he is tired of the hypocrisy of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Jim DeMint on national security.
Rep. Massa says at one point that Cheney suffers from “diarrhea of the mouth”. Personally, I am embarrassed for Cheney every time he comes out and pretends he has ANY credibility on any subject, yet it doesn’t stop him from trying to hammer away at President Obama, accusing him of things that he and Bush were guilty of. You know.. Incompetence, cowardice, etc.. Schultz and Massa were correct. It’s time for the Dems to start hitting back at these crazy claims and throw the truth right back at them – especially at Dick Cheney. Hitting back hard. This man has done enough damage, and hopefully it won’t be much longer before it comes back to bite him in the butt. Hard.
“I am sick and tired of the former vice president of the United States taking shots not only at this administration, for problems he was largely and personally responsible for, but by an extension at those of us who served in the military and bring that experience,” Massa said on MSNBC’s The Ed Show.
“This man suffers from a horrible case of political Tourette’s [syndrome], and it’s about time that we stand up and kick right back because I’m sick and tired of him kicking us in our shins,” Massa said…
….”We need to grow a spine and stand up and show America exactly who did what,” Massa said, pointing to Cheney’s role in the events leading to the Christmas day attempt and the fact that the Bush administration took several days longer than Obama to address the 2001 shoe-bomber incident.
“It was Dick Cheney personally responsible for the release of the masterminds of the Christmas airline terror plot,” he said, accusing the former vice president of shifting his culpability to Democrats.
“It makes no difference what we do, this man suffers from political diarrhea of the mouth, and unless we stand up and call it as it is he’s going to keep on getting away with it,” Massa said…
…The New York Democrat also lashed out at Sen. Jim DeMint as “personally responsible for placing you, the traveling American public at risk” by “placing a hold on the nominee of the director of the Transportation Security Agency.”
“People like Jim DeMint and people like Dick Cheney need to go away so we can solve the problems they’ve created,” Massa said.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Don’t miss this article by Eugene Robinson in the Washington
post today:
The Watering Hole: December 30, What’s happened to peace?
I followed a link on Pam Spaulding’s facebook page, and found this post by David Mixner at Live From Hell’s Kitchen. He wonders whatever happened to peace, which is something I’ve been wondering myself — and he states his
case with way fewer f-bombs than I would.
Over the last decade, something has happened in America. We are afraid to engage in dialogue about peace. Maybe it was the horrible attacks on 9/11 that made us fearful to advocate peace. Or perhaps we have been intimidated by the constant beat of the right wing drums that somehow proclaim peace as a goal is unpatriotic or unrealistic. What is clear the word “peace” has fallen out of fashion except for the annual holiday cards.
For most of my life, even among the most distinguished diplomats, peace was a desirable goal and there was no fear about embracing it. War was always an unnecessary evil but sadly, today peace is viewed as useless rhetoric from the fringe. Even while accepting the most prestigious award for peace in the world, the Nobel Peace Prize, our president felt compelled to make his acceptance about “just wars.” One would have hoped just for one day the speech could have been about ‘peace’ and the urgency to embrace the concept.
More than ever before, now is the time for the word ‘peace’ to become a serious part of our governmental and personal lives.
Read the rest of the post here.
It seems like peace fell out of favor as the “norm” when we finally weren’t embarrassed or appalled at profiting from war — the free market rules, if you will.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
This is our daily open thread, feel free to comment on whatever is on your mind, and thank the Almighty FSM that I’m sick and tired of goofing on Palin.
The Watering Hole: December 29, A Theory on Brontosauruses
The Watering Hole: December 28, Reviewing Palin
Good morning, all. I found this book review of “Going Rogue” written by Leslie Thatcher at truthout. It’s composed entirely of quotes taken from other articles written about Palin — with the quoted articles listed at the bottom.
It’s sad and creepy that such a review was even possible, but that seems to be our “star struck” culture.
Read and cringe…I’m sorry for adding to the Palin stock quotes.
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares.(1) Few things draw in readers and garner clicks more reliably than articles (or, even better, pictures) of Sarah Palin. We can’t look away.(2) Like everyone else, I can barely take the waves of embarrassment that come from watching someone do something so badly.(3) My cringe reflex is exhausted.(4)
It was not my intention to be writing about Sarah Palin, since everyone with a laptop, a No. 2 pencil, or a red crayon seems to be covering that beat.(5) We can’t stop talking about her even when we desperately want to.(6) Pundits … rushing to place the gleaming crown of populism atop the head of this shameless corporate servant … are the ones who have driven me to write about Palin. Someone has to nail the media establishment for its willing perversion of language, American history, and the substance of today’s genuine populism.(7)
Right-wingers of the Bush/Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies. But it was not hard to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of suburban-American supermom. It’s the perfect cover.(8) Huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates have actual policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic, as they would for reality show contestants or sitcom characters.(9) There is indeed something mesmerizing about Palin, with her manic beaming and fulsome confidence in her own charm.(10)
Read the rest here, if you dare…
This is our daily open thread. Please feel free to share what’s on your mind!
The Making of a “Terrorist”
There’s a lot behind this headline, for those who care to listen and learn:
This is the story of a young man who grew up in a priviliged lifestyle, who somehow opened his eyes to the plight of the less fortunate,
“[the] youngster [chose] to give 50 pounds to an orphanage rather than spend it on souvenirs in London.”
And found direction through religion:
“Abdulmutallab was a “very religious” and a “very obedient” as a boy in the well-to-do banking family.”
When the ruling class lives beyond the reach of the rule of law, balance will be achieved from beyond the rule of law.
The United States has committed international war crimes, and refuses to prosecute those responsible. They are, by virtue of their station, beyond the reach of the rule of law. But we live in a representative democracy, and are thus collectively accountable. We, the people, are paying, and will continue to pay, for allowing a ruling elite to exist beyond the reach of justice.
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Sunday Roast: Catherine Tate & David Tennant
Catherine Tate is the chav schoolgirl, and David Tennant is the new Scottish English teacher. But, she ain’t bovver-ed, right?
Enjoy!
Holiday music night
Nat King Cole sings The Christmas Song — one of my Mom’s favorites.
One Small Step for Congress, One Giant Leap Towards Universal Healthcare
At least since the days of the first progressive president, Teddy Roosevelt (a Republican, no less) Universal Healthcare has been debated in our nation’s capital. Debated, but not passed. The health care industry has successfully blocked measure after measure aimed at reform, with the last notable attempt in the early 1990s. Until today. Today, Christmas Eve, 2009, the Senate voted 60-39 in favor of some reforms to the health care system. Is there universal health care in the bill? No. Not yet. A public option? No. Not that, either, although it is included in the House version. But the bill does prevent the health insurance industry from denying benefits or charging higher premiums because of preexisting conditions. And it contains complex provisions which are designed to allow some 30 million working poor the ability to have health insurance.
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It’s Christmas over here!
To all the folks who visit here, I wish a very happy Christmas. The Zoo is still almost the only place I still go on the internet, because definitely there are the nicest people here. I have come to cherish your company and your thoughts, even if I can’t manage more than lurking in the shadows most of the time. Suffice it to say I am deeply fond of you all!
Happy Holidays!
The Watering Hole: December 24
I know what I want for Christmas. What do you want!?
I hope you get it!
This is our daily open thread — go on, tell us what you want Santa to bring you, even if it’s hokey.
Fall on the Palouse
Photo by Zooey
Harvest time just outside Moscow, Idaho
Who are the Good Guys?
In this world today, this isn’t a rhetorical question. When I was a little kid I learned that America was the good guys. As I got a little older and started having to think about what I wanted to do with my life I did so in the opening act of Viet Nam. Saving the world from evil Communism, Domino Theory, helping the poor fledgling democratic government who asked for our aid. That all sounded pretty good to a twelve year old kid. Of course I was also faced with the images on the nightly news about what was going on with the civil rights movement and listening to the rhetoric from both sides of that issue. I think that is where I began to wonder. MLK made a lot more sense than George Wallace.
Then along comes Tet and the burgeoning anti war protests. More information on the news about carpet bombing and napalm. Older brothers and cousins of friends and family returning from Uncle Ho’s Happy Playground with tales that made HP Lovecraft look like Dr. Seuss. As my high school years dwindled down and the draft loomed ever closer, I got to thinking real hard. And studying so I could figure out just how true it was that America was the good guy and that we really did believe in Truth, Justice and the American Way. The more I looked, the more I learned. Even then I was more of a cynical realist but I also had a romantic optimist’s heart.
I figured out that America was really two countries. The one we played on TV was kind, generous, altruistic and that was the one that believed in Superman and Santa. The greater majority of the population held this in their hearts to be true. This is still true today. With the exception of Hurricane Katrina, the American people reflexively respond with support and effort in the face of crisis and calamity. There is still a strong outflow of support for charities today in spite of the dire straits we all find ourselves in. The heart of America, the belief in our TV image is still strong on Main St.
The Watering Hole: December 23, Palouse skies
Photo by Zooey
This is your daily open thread. What’s on your mind?
We’ll pick their bones clean!
Created for TheZoo by Paul Jamiol
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
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TheZoo 