howdy and a tip of the bush kangaroo tail

hi everyone, we are the editors of the blog skippy the bush kangaroo, and are pleased as a platypus to be a part of the independent bloggers' alliance. if this were a perfect world, and it's not, the iba would be a force as influencial and as recognizable as the other big box blogs, who shall remain markos and duncan nameless. but with some luck and work and due diligence (oh, wait, that's another blog) it is our hope that the iba will become a compendium of the better writers, more diverse thinkers, and more interesting pundits of the left side of blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase! we hope that it's obvious from the get-go that the independent bloggers' alliance will not merely be a copy of the big box blogs, in that differing opinions are not only welcome, but an actual requirement to join the club. the last thing we want here is a cult of personality. because as one of skippy's interns recently remarked, markos moulitsas is a brilliant blogger in the same way that tom sawyer was a brilliant fence painter. it is our fevered opinion that difference is the oil that greases democracy's gears, and conformity is the fuel that feeds fascism's fiat. we don't know what lubricates the libertarians' landrover, and we don't care.