Open Thread – Duck Shack
A duck shack on the Susitna flats – incredibly beautiful and prolific wetlands near the site of the proposed Chuitna Coal strip mine on the West side of Cook Inlet, about 40 miles from Anchorage.
December 22, 2024
Thursday, August 3, 2023
The Quitter Returns! -Monday, March 21, 2022
Putting the goober in gubernatorial -Friday, January 28, 2022
A duck shack on the Susitna flats – incredibly beautiful and prolific wetlands near the site of the proposed Chuitna Coal strip mine on the West side of Cook Inlet, about 40 miles from Anchorage.
Beautiful picture. I guess people will kill anything anywhere.
The Truth…presented by two funny guys with bullhorns in Central London.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqzcUMrDmjM
You gotta love the expressions on the security guards when the men start hugging them!
I was having a very cranky day but this video, and one of a bullhorn-wielding British man on a NYC subway car, made things a bit brighter.
The CBO comes to the same conclusion as OWS protesters:
“In its (Congressional Budget Office) report, the budget office found that from 1979 to 2007, average inflation-adjusted after-tax income grew by 275 percent for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income. For others in the top 20 percent of the population, average real after-tax household income grew by 65 percent.
“By contrast, the budget office said, for the poorest fifth of the population, average real after-tax household income rose 18 percent. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/top-earners-doubled-share-of-nations-income-cbo-says.html?_r=1
President Obama on Jay Leno last night. GREAT!
Little by little, the public is catching on to the ludicrous spectacle of national politics brought to you by Sarah Palin:
http://thesop.org/story/20111024/herman-cain-and-sarah-palin-making-a-mockery-of-the-democratic-process.html
Thanks Bakers dozen——That music makes me want to get up and dance!!!
A little inspiration to get you started with your nefarious shenanigans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJeWMd87-8U&feature=related
My next hobby is gonna be songwriting,not for the faint of heart. I’ve finally figured out how to get my least favorite rwnj potus of all time into a song. Big D,little u with an mb-ass and that spells dubya. So now I need to work on rhyming and changing my identity so I don’t get sued for copyright infringement. In case anyone asks,I had nothing to do with the stuff I did.
Big D,little u with an mb-ass
He won’t be found at the top of the class
but we think of him when we stop for gas
…and when we see that raggedy “W” on some old car’s glass…
rwnj…I think I’ll pass.
…and that spells dubya.
and also, too, “In case anyone asks,I had nothing to do with the stuff I did” with my friend, my muse, mike from iowa (or was that ike from miowa?)
hahahahacawcawcaw
Many,many,many thanks for bailing out whoever was responsible for the above post. Someone was afraid someone would have to deliver and said someone lost many minutes of sleep worrying about it for an hour. Someone couldn’t remember the tune for Big D little a.
Damn, doncha just love the internet – WHEN IT WORKS!
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/baby-305429-obama-peace.html
And now, A new movie, courtesy of your Republican wannabees: “Future is Back!” Yes, Troy McClure stars as Rick Perry in this new move to progressivize and grow the country by introducing the Flat Tax, as previously introduced in the 1860’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, not really, but they’re trying out the wayback machine again.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/DC-Decoder/2011/1025/Rick-Perry-joins-flat-tax-parade-a-hot-idea-fresh-from-the-1860s
The First Lady’s Book about will be out in April:
“American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities” aims to explore “how increased access to healthy, affordable food can promote better eating habits and improve the health of families and communities across America,” according to a press release issued Monday by the Crown Publishing Group..
“The first lady did not accept an advance for the book and will donate all proceeds to a charity to be revealed later, the statement says. Random House Inc., Crown Publishing Group’s parent, will also make a donation to a charity.”
Along with her husband, Michelle Obama represent the best of what America can be. I wonder how the right will attack her for her good work this time.
We are so lucky to have Michelle Obama as our First Lady. What a terrific example she sets for all of us, particularly for girls and young women who need a public role model.
Both she and her husband live their faith by making charitable works part of their everyday life. They don’t just talk about caring, they actually do. How I wish the GOP and TP understood that it isn’t enough to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk and actually practice what you preach if you wish to make a positive difference and be respected and admired.
Michelle Obama is a First Lady who is admired and respected. Her example has raised the bar for all those who follow her.
Yup…what she said!
I love the way she relates so well to ‘regular folk’ instead of being perceived as someone from a privileged class. There was always something unapproachable about many of our First Ladies – Nancy Reagan, Laura Bush, Jackie Kennedy, even Hillary Clinton – but Michelle seems to be a very warm, down to earth person who truly enjoys the contact she has with the public.
I’ve always been impressed with the way both of the Obamas connect with children. Kids will see right through you if you’re not genuine!
Fan and Fave…. where is the like button…?
I remember watching the news recently (which means anytime in the last year or so) and Michelle was holding a fussing baby and the baby wasn’t about to quit fussing – until the President took over. Held the kid, cuddled, cooed and the baby calmed right down. Some people just have the touch with kids. I’ve seen it before where some guys (I happen to have one just like that) just have the knack with kids. I usually don’t have the knack.
what sunflower said. excellent and sincere.
Donating to what charity would have the biggest impact? Planned Parenthood! Hey, I didn’t say what kind of impact. I really should shut up today.
What exactly have republicans in Congress been working on (besides saying ‘no’ to anything President Obama proposes)? Take a look at the statistics compiled by the Congressional Research Service ( CRS a non-partisan arm of Congress that tracks such things) and reported on the Daily Kos:
“They have introduced 44 bills on abortion (one just the other day reaffirming existing legislation on this subject). 99 on religion. 71 on family relationships. 36 on marriage. 67 on firearms and gun control. 552 on taxation—and though most were to reduce taxes, there have been no significant changes on tax law with all time invested and bills introduced. And finally a massive 445 bills on “government investigations”. There is a category labeled “job creation legislation” originated by Congress, and tracked by the CRS. In that category the CRS reported: “No bills at this time. The Congressional Research Service has not tagged any bills in the current session of Congress with this issue area”. If ever the analogy of “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” was apt, this is it!”
More at : http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/20/21/1028712/-Republicans-score-on-job-creation-iszero
IM has a nifty poster up on these facts. Talk about a scary poster!
Stimulus job creation site. Lots more than the GOP would say.
I’d heard there was a website, well, looky here it is. And it lists the how many jobs were created – lots more than the zero the GOP continues to claim. And those paychecks had taxes taken out which went back to the Gov so more stimulus could be given out. Paychecks also paid for groceries, housing, electricity, fuel which stimulated more jobs for more people. Don’t get me started.
http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency/RecipientReportedData/pages/RecipientReportedDataMap.aspx?State=AK&datasource=recipient
$456,345 in my zip code alone.
I believe I fell for the same thing that I rail against other people falling for. I believed this story. Pollitifact rated the article “pants on fire”. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/oct/25/facebook-posts/blog-post-says-gop-has-sponsored-zero-job-creation/ “What about “job creation”? As it turned out, we couldn’t find a topic area by that name at all.”
The House version of President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act The bill — officially H.R. 12, introduced on Sept. 21, 2011, by Rep. John Larson, D-Conn. — is listed under no fewer than 68 separate subject headings, including “aviation and airports,” “Buy American requirements,” “electric power generation and transmission,” “Internet and video services,” “metals,” “solid waste and recycling” and “water use and supply.”
But it doesn’t carry the label “job creation.”
So, the story earned a PantsonFire.
Now I have to eat crow.
This is a must-read from C&L, on the lower Manhattan surveillance system, and cui bono:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/our-tax-money-funds-government-survei
If that doesn’t p*ss you off, nothing will.
i am outraged! fit to be tied! i may have to go out there with my whiffle bat and get arrested.
Wonkette has a picture of sister sarah sitting & sunning by a pool. She will be speaking at a Disney event. The magazine she is reading in the photo looks like Star or one of those rags. Some pretty funny comments. The fact that she has faded is good testimony to the power of sites like this one –just the facts.
Common Cause has posted the results of their poll of the US’s worst businesses. So far, the results are:
#1 – Bank of America, with 40% of the vote
#2 – Halliburton
#3 – ExxonMobil
#4 – United Healthcare
#5 – Comcast
If you haven’t voted, there’s still time. Go to:
http://www.commoncause.org/nobusinessinpolitics
and let your voice be heard.
I voted, but there were almost too many corporations deserving that first place slot so it took a while to weigh and consider all the competing bad actors.
This must be music Tuesday according to my back pages. Ready to try Iowa’s kayaking. There is a new river course I recently read about that has man made whitewater stuff and everything in it for your convenience. Now if I could only remember what city it was located in.
….and you can go skiing in Paoli, Indiana…..also.
Wow, go Matt!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025
“The point being: we have a massive police force in America that prosecutes crime and imprisons citizens with factory-level efficiency, eclipsing the incarceration rates of most of history’s more notorious police states and communist countries.
But the bankers on Wall Street don’t live in that police state. There are maybe 1000 SEC agents policing that sector of the economy, plus a handful of FBI agents. There are nearly that many police officers stationed around the polite crowd at Zucotti park.
These inequities are what drive the OWS protests. People don’t want handouts. It’s not a class uprising and they don’t want civil war — they want just the opposite. They want everyone to live in the same country, and live by the same rules. It’s amazing that some people think that that’s asking a lot.”
I love those last two sentences: “They want everyone to live in the same country, and live by the same rules. It’s amazing that some people think that that’s asking a lot.”
I agree with Matt and Mo that it is indeed amazing, astonishing, flabbergasting even that there are those who think they are above the law or deserve to be exempt from the same restraints the rest of us live by simply because they have more money. Totally amazing.
Thanks, Mo.
Palin lovers read their heads that you can see from your house also too when you talk about Perry and birthers.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2011/1025/Rick-Perry-doubles-down-on-birtherism.-Can-it-help-him-gain-ground
red their heads!
oh, good heaves! We all know that they are already red and they can’t read! It’s REAR their heads! My Queendom for an edit button!
I am so confused…. 🙂
“Red their heads” has a nice, guillotine-ish ring to it. I like it!
Another reminder about President Obama’s accomplishments:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66744.html
DNR Commish has rejected the petition to allow this area be designated as unsuitable for coal mining.
http://dnr.alaska.gov/shared/mediareleases/dsp_media_release.cfm?id=1618&title=Decision%20issued%20on%20Chuitna%20lands%20unsuitable%20petition
There is a link to his 109 page response in the press release.
I’m at page 15.
The oft-repeated mantra that we have strict permitting standards and that it is technologically feasible to restore salmon habitat is so far the agenda- along with saying petitioners have not said anything new since 2007 court case which was dismissed with prejudice.
It is time for all of us to look very, very carefully at the laws and the actual permitting process. At this point the idea that lands can be deemed unsuitable is paper law only. It has no teeth if only measured aginst what proponents of coal mining assert is possible. Are there/ have there been any successful petitions under this law?
We need to address the underlying frame of reference and mind set in minerals law which does NOT truly balance what is lost in mining against gains over the short term .
Oh- and Gov Torpedo really, really meant it when he said he would never trade one resouce for another, didn’t he? Sure.Right. Yeah.
Pfffftttt!
There are also 2 ongoing Underground Coal Gasification permitting projects going on in the same area- one for Mental Health Trust, one for my Regional Native Corp on it’s own land . Anyone have any idea how all that activity above and below ground in proximity to each other are gonna work…?
Companies have proposed same kind of projects, but they’ve been denied in Colorado- technology is still experimental, and (if I remember correctly) it takes a lot of water– which we, in the High Desert Plains, do not have in copious quantities.
Agree TOTALLY. I am very worried that this, we can restore salmon streams, will be used to help justify that big “P” development out the Bristol Bay way.
Of course that restoration might be a tough thing when there is the possibility of dams with ‘stuff’ behind them that must be monitored FOREVER.
We need to start the hard work of reworking these processes they seem to be greatly flawed.
did anyone else read “duck sack”? *hangs head in shame*
Lovely picture, by the way.
*snicker* good one-
tsk. tsk. for shame!
Duck shacks are where ducks in the know go for coffee and cute little blonde duck waitresses-ala Jimmy Gilmore and the Fireballs Sugar Shack from way back when I was young and dumb. Alas I’m older now. Have never had a migraine and hope to never have one. Rethugs and t-baggers are burden enough to tolerate. Whoever wrote He Ain’t Heavy,He’s My Brother obviously had never been exposed to rwnj polecats. Not only are they a serious burden to bear,they are “UGLY” inside and out. Not that some of the rest of the population are saints by any stretch of the imagination. Looks to be a right lovely day in mikey world as far as weather goes. Need rain and peaceful thoughts of rain for the area. Can’t dispose of trash or brush due to county wide burn ban. Life is so hard in the beautiful South of Minnesota.
You were so much older then;
You’re younger than that now.
I misplaced my reply to you at #9. Computer has acted funny since I tried to read commish report listed in #5 from Alaska Pi.
🙂 Axtuously, we have some very nice kayaking out here. I get to go out with dolphins, sea lions, seals, and once even got “blow holed” by a whale.
That said, I prefer the high Sierra lakes (ponds to you) as, when I’m out alone, I prefer to be able to see all shore lines and be close enough to actually have people notice if I capsize. That, I think, will be an event that will help me define who my friends are.
no offense,but I can’t swim enough to save you from drowning. If you need your life saved have the prescence of mind to do it close by where I can hobble to with my walker. And don’t be in a big rush to expire cuz I’m pretty slow.
Who knew ducks had shacks?
check at the 55 second mark:
Love Shack! (the 80s just keep on keepin’ on)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leohcvmf8kM
Monday was a teacher planning day, and the Interstate Fair is in town, bringing cooler weather with it. No luck shaking this monster migraine, but I have managed to smooth the edges enough to set my cruise control:
Twisted Tuesday in the Forest.
High Schoolers discover/celebrate homecoming.
You should all be so lucky today. 🙂
L’Shalom,
thatcrowwoman
Have you considered finding a good naturopathic doctor and having an IgG and an IgA tests done? They will show what foods you are sensitive to. The IgG sensitivity can show up 72 hours after you eat a particular food. How would you ever make the connection without the test? Good luck to you. It helped me tremendously, and I was totally skeptical of NDs.
was just thinking about you last night. hope you feel better soon. those migraines are no joke.
Ooohhh, so sorry about the migraine. I used to have them about once a week and they are absolutely incapacitating. Ice packs always helped me and I only get them a couple of times a year now that I’m on beta blockers.
Have you tried chiropractic or massage?
Sending soothing and comforting virtual hugs your way…
(as a p.s. to what WakeUpAmerica said – Never been to a ND but I did eventually figure out that I have a sensitivity to garlic. Foods made with lots of garlic used to send me under the covers in a dark room until I finally figured it out.)
thanks, all.
Fortunately for me, my triggers only gang up on me about once a season anymore. Mama doesn’t get teh migraines, but her mother did. My Norwegian grandmother, of blessed memory, had no more migraines after she went through menopause, so it should be my turn about now. Just sayin. I had my first migraine at 41, so I probably shouldn’t complain.
I have a bunch of different weapons in my anti-migraine arsenal. I made it through the day with my sunglasses, many large glasses of water and a ginger ale. (Buffalo Rock Southern Spice Ginger Ale is good for what ails you, since the late 1800s.)
Massage is lovely, also, too, and acupressure, and even acupuncture helped me some. I take aspirin (old school!) or ibuprofen + caffeine, and I have a prescription when I need it, but I don’t like the side effects. My doctor’s “next step” is an anti-seizure medication. I’m not convinced. I don’t have bad enough headaches often enough to want a maintenance medication if I can avoid it. And I’d want a second opinion from a pain management specialist first. Meanwhile, I have an herbal remedy from a Lakota medicine man if all else fails (Really Old School!). If it doesn’t cure the headache, I’ll at least get a great night’s sleep with some memorable dreams. 🙂
Wednesday is my Friday this week, since I’m heading north later this week for my Daddy’s 80th birthday party. 🙂 What a blessing.
tcw
I’m with you… are ducks the only ones who get free housing?
I’ll bet 47% of the free-loaders don’t pay any taxes at all and want the Scrooge McDucks to pay for everything. The damnnable freeloaders.
Not only do ducks have shacks, but they have a season. In duck season, all the ducks fly out to the shacks, put on little orange vests, and stay up until the small hours of the night playing poker and eating pizza. That’s the reason those shacks are considerately built so far from town — those late night pizza, root beer, and poker parties get REALLY noisy. You would not want to live next door.
Then they fly to Jamaica for the winter.
And all the local pizza joints run out of anchovies.
It’s kind of ironic that a few years ago, there was a threat that all the “duck shacks” would be burned down as trespass cabins. Now the state is fighting to allow a huge development and displacement of a river on the west side of Cook Inlet.
My how times have changed.