Open Thread – Kittiwakes
Here are more of the “Birds of Homer.” These are black-legged kittiwakes, beautiful smallish sized members of the gull family. They are ubiquitous in southcentral Alaska. Their cousins, the red-legged kittiwakes live up in the Bering Sea.
All kittiwakes are noisy, raucuous, and prolific. They shared this rookery with murres, and cormorants which will come in future posts. There were thousands of them, swooping overhead, and the fact that I didn’t receive an unwanted “deposit” defied the odds.
Their name comes from someone actually trying to spell what they sound like. Nice try, but no. If that were the case they’d be a black-legged squlaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagckkk! Just my humble opinion.
That outcropping looks like a cliff on “Gull Island.” If so, perhaps it should have been named “Kittywake Island?”
On another note, it was a good week. I noticed the comments on ADN.com were about a 90:1 ratio opposing Sarah in the “call me” story. People are truly tired of her. Only the most died in the wool Palinbots remain.
So that tweeter must be correct, she hasn’t gotten any new boobs.
Just couldn’t help myself on that one.
…she doesn’t need any more boob….she’s already the biggest one…just my humble opinion…..
My worst nightmare: the joy in watching her fall back into obscurity would be hardly noticed as the contents of her Pandora’s Box is spewing everywhere, unchecked.
That posting, if no other has, shows both her emotional immaturity, and her obsession with/against Obama.
He took from her what she claims God promised to her and she will never forget or forgive.
The more Sarah squlaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagckkks the more she comes off looking like a Blue Footed Booby.
Oops wrong bird. What was I thinking?
No way am I goning any further with this snark.
great picture !
TGIF everybody
Last night on the Kieth Olbermann Show; a mayor from a coastal city in Alabama, who is experiencing the damage from BP oil blow out, said Alaska’s Congressman Don Young is the stupidest man in the world for saying the oil was just natural a posed no threat to the environment.
How can Alaskans who have witnessed the damage to Prince WIlliam Sound, elect such an uncaring and uneducated fool?
Senator Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to gut clean air regulation at EPA was defeated. All Republicans voted for the resolution. Just seven votes shy of doing to our air, what Cheney has done to the Gulf.
How do you spell eco-terroristism? “R-E-T-H-U-G-L-I-C-A-N”
Oh————We don’t care if the sea ain’t there
And we don’t care if you can’t get no air
Cuz weeeeeeeeeeee We want liza
We still think it’s 1949 and
Thrashing the land is gonna make the economy just fine
Cuz weeeeeeeeeeee We love liza
Well ifen you can’t drill then you gotta mine
Pebble gonna kill all them fish just fine
Cuz weeeeeeeeeee We want liza
LIZA!
Ahh, Homer! What a beautiful place. We lived on Diamond Ridge, and my husband always said how hard it was facing that scenery (Kachemak Bay and the Mountains) on the way to work. “It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it”, was how he put it. Thanks for the memories, AKM!
Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology has a wonderful web page for all things bird, including sound files.
Go. Explore. Enjoy!
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-legged_Kittiwake/sounds
Happy Friday from the forest.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Crow/id
It’s Friday ! it’s Friday !! …chortle..Scarah should be saying something stupid any second now to give us all something to talk about over the weekend…..
Here ya go, Ben – Saint Sarah piece over at Newsweek:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/11/saint-sarah.html
Oh you’ll be talking alright – but it’ll be to yourself and it won’t sound sane. I’ve been doing it for the past 1/2 hour. My daughter called in from the other room to ask if I was ok.
**** Like many evangelicals, Garza believes a great cosmic battle is underway for the soul of America and that Palin has been singled out by God for leadership: “The anointing on her is so strong,” she says. Assaults on Palin by the press only heighten Garza’s conviction, for as any Christian knows, martyrs most deserve to gain God’s kingdom. “She’s just fearless,” Garza says. “Jesus said, ‘They persecuted me; they’ll persecute you.’ ” ****
I’d like to annoint her good. Whoa. That woman is making me touchy and I am only on my second cup of coffee!
Another steamy day here. My study is one big mess. Decided yesterday to take everything off every shelf, out of every drawer, open every storage container and get a grip. So, when I am finished this afternoon, I will be taking several pounds of extra scrapbooking stuff to a local dementia day-care center for my friend who is the activities director there, a huge expandable file folder of duplicate photographs that will be used to prompt memories (doesn’t matter if there are people in the pics, because there is always a story), and so far, six paper grocery bags filled with scrap paper for the recycle dumpster at the High School. I am thinking that is it for the summer. Oh, and I have even alphabetized all the scripts, and there are about five feet of those puppies.
I will be glad when my Serger gets home from the repairman’s house. Then, I can sew and ignore everything else around here that needs to be done.
*sigh* anoint
I got to the last paragraph and my head exploded. It blames (in part) the left for Palin’s ascent. Because, the left are such anti-Christians (un-Americans). How typical of a right winger to blame the left.
I shake my head, wondering how did the US go nuts. Are we like Germany in the 1920s or perhaps like early depression era of the 1930s.
Noam Chomsky said, these are dangerous times. He worries that some dangerous charismatic figure (like Hitler) could unite the loons and those who distrust the establishment (Dems and Repuks) to gain power.
I can’t quite figure out where this writer is coming from. She’s bashing the left but also pointing out some of Palin’s failings. I feel like I need to read it again but I’ll need to take a walk first. That’s a rough read!
Re: Chomsky – Charlie Rose had a good interview with him, discussing our current ” dangerous times”. Great discussion but it left me with the willies. It’s probably over on YouTube. Can’t recall when it aired though. ( I have absolutely no concept of time. )
The Charlie Rose show last night had on as the guest Chris Mathews. They talked about all kinds of politicians. Some of the discussion went back to the Reagan Years with Top O’Neil.
At one point the discussion came around to Palin. He said she is DEFINITELY running in 2012 ( His opinion ) And then laid out a scenario… his opinion of how she will do it and what States are important for this run. At times Mathews seems to make sense but on Palin he is clueless. Does he do ANY research on this woman or does he spend all his time talking to Washington talking pundits.
He says she is doing great. She has been able to attack Obama with her biting ‘ sarcastic ‘ comments and is able to stir up this real ‘ hatred ‘ and anger in the masses. I would agree about stirring up hatred. But Chris is that a platform to run on..? She is good at Hate? At no point did he actually say anything about Her qualifications though and her record of ‘ achievements ‘… of anything.
You mind find the interview in the Charlie Rose archives. It really made me think that Chris needs to tune in to Keith Olbermann a little bit more. After all… he is on the same Network. Chris…. ” That woman is an IDIOT!”
BuffaloGal…and others…. here is the link to the interview with Chris Mathews last night. It is already up. The Palin comments came a little after the half-way point.
http://www.charlierose.com/
RATINGS. They like idiots like her and Blago and Paul, because they create controversy and that drives ratings.
In the “olden” days, news was respected as important to a democracy. So important that the evening news shows were not meant to make money. CBS always considered its news to be a loss leader. THEY DIDN’T MAKE MONEY AND DIDN’T CARE. Shocking to us now.
MONEY RATINGS MONEY RATINGS….and the country is dumbed down and dumber.
I’m not sure which is a sillier name for a man Tip or Top. But is is Tip O’Neil.
I think her hatefulness will detroy the Republican party.
As we’ve said, Sarah Palin represents a dangerous element in American politics. Her demagoguery knows no bounds and her fans lap up every lie she spews as if dying of intellectual thirst. I must disagree with Garze: “She’s just fearless…” because she is also intellectually challenged and a pathological liar. She seems to also suffer from being totally unself aware (see “tundra trash”: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=unself%20aware).
I believe that Palin and her ilk have fans beyond their evangelical base. After 9/11, rabid evangelicals increased in number in the US. Bin Laden could write a book: how to destroy America by bringing the Christian right to power.
check out the word “tweelete” on UD.
note the author!
Excellent!
Whether or not she is feerless is ify. Her apparent panic in the face of tough questioning like what news papers do you read, and who is your favorite founding father, and her nervous twitching and blinking even for Fox interviews makes her seem particularly uneasy.
It is possible to be both ambitious and fearful, especially if you jump into a tough game and find out the other guys are a lot meaner and tougher and better than you are.
Whether she is keyed, fearful, or insane she is definately wired on something and that something renders her a blathering nit wit.
I believe you are right as I read and listen to the far right religious people i seems like they are another branch of the Taliban.They act the same way ,you believe and act as we do or else.
She CAN’T BE PERSECUTED LIKE JESUS because she does not act like Jesus or even like a Christian.
When she begins to spread the Gospel of Love and Forgiveness and THEN gets SLAMMED for it, I will be first in line to defend her. And that will be when pigs fly.
Yup. All you say.
If Sarah’s into oiliness as a sign of being God’s choses there’s some of that Drill Baby Body Oil down in Louisiana she could try.
Cover your skin with that stuff and you’ll think martyr.
I couldn’t finish it. Made me sick.
ok, I went back and read it all. I’ve heard Newsweek is for sale. Are they looking to Murdoch to buy? If so, that would explain this.
Jezebel has a good counter to that article: http://jezebel.com/5560911/queen-sarah
thanks for posting this, pc. terrific.
A friend just shared this with me. Look at the beauty, and the words are just the right touch!
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/breathtaking-beauty-of-lexiaguo-china
Thanks for that – truly gorgeous ! A dear friend of mine is a geologist and soil researcher – She’ll love this.
We now know what Sarah Palin will be doing this weekend, with mouth opened of course! I guess this is one Republican Demographic that doesn’t appreciate the sister girl.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/gay-republicans-la-fundraiser-the-tea-bag-toss.php?ref=fpi
“noisy, raucuous, and prolific.” Hmmm, that reminds me of somebody . . .
Hahahaha!
What a gift–first a lovely photograph and now a terrific caption!
Just a reminder that many of the Palin / radical right wing links that are posted on Mudflats are collected over at http://www.twitter.com/PalinTruthWatch
It also includes a lot of links that I find elsewhere that don’t make it over to Mudflats. You don’t need a twitter acct. to access. Just pop on over !
No time to read or reply to posts today, but here’s a great interview with Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a Nobel Laureate about sailing on the Rachel Corrie.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0611/Nobel-laureate-aboard-Rachel-Corrie-We-were-kidnapped-by-Israeli-navy
That was a great interview. Thanks for posting it.
http://palinquotes.sillycloud.com/
Not sure if that’s been posted before, but it’s funny like the Palin baby name generator (I was Comando Coalfire Palin during the election period, based on the name generator.)
Still want to see the lying fraud in an orange prison jumpsuit.
Oh yes – that’s a fun one! The quotes sound just like her. I bet if you clicked ” new quote” enough times you’d find some that make much more sense than she does.
I just generated this one :
*** He’s also known as the maverick, being the beacon of light proving that he can work both sides of the aisle.***
Now c’mon – tell me that couldn’t be an actual Palin quote. ha!
You know there’s a roomful of monkeys typing Palinisms on a million typewriters. I doubt Borel could ever have visualized Palin.
Or maybe, in today’s world, it’s a million keyboards.
Ya gotta be kiddin’ me! http://spectator.org/blog/2010/06/10/senate-defeat-of-murkowski-res
This says that the defeat of Murkowski’s bill is tantamount to negating all our troops are working for overseas!
OMG… teh stoopit, it burns!!
Well recently in a warped sense of thinking, it is true because our troops are overseas for controlling resources and empire building. The last war, in which they actually fought for US citizen freedom and safety was WWII.
A not to be missed article on Alternet – How the Tea Party movement evolved out of the pro-offshore drilling astroturf movement in 2008, and the Koch billionaires’ role in backing it.
http://bit.ly/cFGOcx
I don’t know if I can hear one more thing about the right wing without having a meltdown.
******** But there’s another, more concrete reason why the Tea Party revolutionaries melted back into their suburbs as soon as the enormity of the Gulf spill disaster hit: The Tea Party evolved out of the pro-offshore drilling astroturf movement in 2008. They even share some of the same organizers and front groups, from PR operative like Eric Odom, to advocacy groups like FreedomWorks, whose combined efforts on the “Drill Here! Drill now!” astroturf campaign succeeded in opening up all of America’s coastlines and waters to offshore drilling, overturning a 27-year ban thanks to threats of “a Boston-style Tea Party,” as one Republican put it in the summer of 2008.
We have been following this movement from the beginning. Back in February 2009, on the eve of the first Tea Party protest, we published the first investigative article exposing the hidden relationship between the fake-”spontaneous” Tea Party protests that month, and the Republican machine that backed and promoted the campaign. Our research led again and again to the right-wing Koch brothers, who are worth a combined $32 billion as owners of the largest private oil company in America, Koch Industries. Koch-linked front groups like FreedomWorks and the Sam Adams Alliance (named after the leader of the original Boston Tea Party) played key roles in both the 2008 campaign to deregulate offshore drilling, and in the Tea Party movement. *****
They have a lot of products in the grocery stores. I had to stop buying Northern Toliet paper because of them! I forgot where I read it but there is a list of products out there that they distribute.
It may not be much but at least I know my money is not going to finance their activities.
While Palin bashes the MSM, the MSM seems to be jumping through hoops to make her more powerful and much richer. As Newsweek christens her “Saint Sarah” and Politico heaps praise on her golden blessing of endorsements, at least a couple of news organizations report the real news about her influence on the recent elections:
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/06/breaking-down-palins-endorsements.html
And it’s about time!
For all of the CA Mudflatters and others who have been following the the CSU controversy with Palin making an appearance in about 2 weeks the Carly Fiorina connection is part of that as well. She had her Campaign Spokesperson ( Julie Soderlund ) working on the matter with some of the other Staff to help smooth things over to make this happen.
Just a ‘ coincidence ‘ that Palin later endorses Fiorina… Right..? Couldn’t be any hanky-panky… not when Sarah is around. The Fiorina connection was all spelled out with those emails that were disclosed. Not sure WHY the Media has not put this connection together as the story unfolds but I took it upon myself to sign up to volunteer and give my name to the Boxer Campaign yesterday.
While on the phone with them I asked about Fiorina’s Julie Soderlund in those emails. Asking them… was this a Favor.. etc..? They didn’t seem to be aware of Fiorina’s Role with the ‘ inside help’ she provided to make this speech happen for Sarah.
I would encourage you to call the Boxer Campaign Office like I did to ask them to check into it. This CSU hanky-panky needs an investigation. What did Carly do…?
Boxer Election Campaign Office ( 323 ) 254 – 1001.
BTW : I called the Fiorina Campaign yesterday as well after that. The man from the Fiorina Office first said Julie had no role in helping Sarah come to CSU to collect her 93K… “with bendy straws”
I told him it was in black and white in the emails… I read them.( he said he hadn’t read them )
His explanation was THEN that Julie Soderlund was not working in a capacity as a Fiorina employee when she did THAT. This must be like when Sarah took off her Governors hat… put on her ‘ private citizen hat ‘ to speak out to defeat that Legislation up there in Alaska… and once the Bill was defeated she put her Governors hat back on. These GOP Women sure do love to put different Hats on depending upon the occasion.. or the EXCUSE.
Sarah’s Hat at Belmont… a little inappropriate that day.
Ask Boxer to look into it.
Very interesting.
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2010/03/state_of_the_birds.html
International Bird Lives’ “State of the Birds 2010.” For bird lovers.
I think it was Andrew Sullivan that had the link.
How about this one—–John Boehner think US taxpayers should be hit with the bill to help clean up BP”s spill?
I just signed the petition @ http://www.BoehnerBPBailout.com
I left a comment —–WHAT are you thinking???????
hey mudpeeps…RennieP has a link on the forum to his blog. if you are not familiar with Rennie’s writings you will be delighted. i am telling you will love it.
http://www.themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,7598.msg113194/topicseen.html#new
Patrick Leahy of VT sent me an email I’d like to share:
It’s time to treat disasters like the BP oil spill as serious crimes against our communities, our economy, and our environment.
Support the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act (ECEA) to increase criminal sentences and make restitution mandatory.
Figuratively speaking, what BP has done to the communities and ecology of the Gulf Coast is downright criminal.
Eleven workers lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. Countless more have lost their livelihoods. The environmental devastation to marine life and coastal wetlands is unfathomable.
Yet under current law, if a jury finds BP criminally negligent, the company would not necessarily have to pay any restitution to the victims of the spill — not even to the families of rig-workers who perished or to the fishermen put out of work. Furthermore, criminal penalties are currently too lenient to adequately deter corporate wrongdoers from authorizing risky schemes that damage the environment.
That’s why this week I introduced the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act (ECEA) to make restitution for violations of the Clean Water Act mandatory and increase criminal sentences for violators.
Urge your members of Congress to support the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act (ECEA) to start treating preventable environmental catastrophes as serious criminal acts.
This legislation takes important steps towards deterring criminal conduct that leads to environmental and economic catastrophe.
Too often, big oil companies treat criminal fines and penalties as a mere cost of doing business. But passing ECEA would change all that, sentencing corporate wrongdoers to serious prison time and mandating restitution payments be made to the victims of corporate malfeasance.
So please, take a moment to support this important legislation by clicking here.
I fully support lifting the miniscule $75 million liability cap on corporations responsible for environmental disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill, but I believe we must also go further to treat such acts as serious crimes against our communities, our economy, and our environment.
If you agree, please support the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Act (ECEA) today.
health and peace.
Ack! Didn’t post the link:
Thank you for taking action to treat acts like BP’s catastrophic
spill as serious crimes against our communities, our economy,
and our environment.
Now, please urge your friends and family to sign on as well:
http://ga3.org/campaign/ecea/forward
I got that email, too, and signed it.
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/06/rep-michele-bachmann-tied-to-christian.html
If any of you are in MN, please please please make sure this gets out.
I sent off an email to the Chris Matthews show today after watching him, for just ‘a tad’, state she will be a candidate for President of the United States. I’m from Alaska – retired – a senior – been here since 1950 – didn’t vote for Palin (she was horrid in the debates) and watch w/horror that Chris Matthews promotes her w/no vetting, fact, etc. as a possible candidate for the national office of President! She is on the extreme right guys…lies….is unethical (per the Alaska Legislature) and is no more a Christian than I. Plus, she is in not knowledgeable, is no more an oil expert than I, left Wasilla in huge debt and the State of Alaska is still cleaning up her mess as a half-term govenor. The pipeline she indicated was ‘under construction’ which she continually stated while campaigning nationally w/McCain – is in no way visible to any of us in Alaska and very likely will not be! People have to stop taking what she says on Facebook as ‘fact’. She needs to be interviewed (somewhere other than Fox) and questioned where we all can see her fall flat on her face. You have to know that she stopped doing media press conferences in Alaska (as part time governor) because she could not answer the questions. She is not what she appears. Those south of us in Alaska do need to vet her….ask questions….where she is in front of all of us. Alaskans are getting real sick of her and she is an embarrassment to all of us!