Slow night for me. 30 Rock Season Two just showed up, so I think I am housebound. Homecoming here in town, so there will be lots of rookies out throwing up on people, so it looks like me and Tina Fey tonight.
So glad the server is stable now and the design works better. It has been fun being able to throw up pet pics. Speaking of, this just hit my email but I loved the eyes, so here it is:

I really don’t think i have ever seen eyes that color on a cat before.
Krista
What a gorgeous kitty! And of course its fur just looks absurdly soft.
/curses allergies.
Comrade Stuck
After tonight’s meeting with Comrade Paulson, the Funhouse Politburo has announced a new and glorious adventure with a Government Run economy. Long live the party Comrades! We have met the enemy and it is us.
Esther
Gorgeous! I love blue-eyed cats.
товарищ Сидериал
You wish.
t jasper parnell
Contact lenses.
Comrade Jake
The McCain campaign is now attempting to tie Michelle Obama to Ayers’ wife, because (no I’m not making this up): they worked in the same law firm. Along with about 500 other lawyers.
Desperation is a tender trap. It gets you every time.
colleeniem
I know, I’m ruining a beautiful thread, that kitty (and the flowers) are just what I need right now.
Please, if you don’t want to be outraged, don’t click here.
But it could inspire more to volunteer, and give!
Comrade Darkness
We had a blue-eyed stray we adopted (as much as it would allow) two winters ago. Before then I had never seen that either. My friend in animal rescue said if its feral, best to give it shelter and leave it alone until it can be trapped and given medical care, so made it a cat house for under the porch and on nights when the snow piled up so high I knew it was stuck there, I gave it food and water. In the end I could not get it to trust me. Beyond its original crying at our door for help with the bitter cold, it didn’t want anything from humans. Didn’t see it again after the spring. It was totally white, with the bluest eyes that when backdropped by the snowy landscape really looked out of the faerie.
Turns out blue eyes are more typical in all white cats than in others and that eye color is linked to deafness, or even more weirdly, when the cats have one blue eye and, say, one orange they end up deaf on the blue eyed side. But there is another unrelated blue-eyed gene (Ojos Azules) that can show up in any cat breed.
Hari
Tina Fey sends little starbursts through the screen ricocheting around the living rooms of America.
Comrade Peter J
McCain now seems to have the same problem as TalkLeft and TaylorMarsh had after they started to support Obama, he seems to want to stop driving the bus in the ditch, but his supporters don’t want to leave the ditch.
The best way to avoid this is to not drive into the ditch…
Edit: this in no way means that I believe that McCain has turned around, he has started attacking Michelle Obama and they did say he wouldn’t use Ayers…
The Grand Panjandrum
@Comrade Jake: Pathetic fucktards. When are they going to link their two little girls to them?
Comrade Stuck
At a recent Mccain Town Hall rage fest, a riled up GOP supporter really nails it,
He nails it alright. That Red Menace GWB and his Soviet lackey Paulson are spreading their Marxist wings and The Peoples Republic of Wingnut is born!
Punchy
No offense, but 4-5 pet blogging posts/day is 3-4 more than necessary.
Or maybe I’m not not a big cat fan.
Comrade Jake
That’s probably coming. I assume the Ayers have children who might have babysat for the Obamas, or they live close enough to a park that they might have seen the Obama girls. That’s damning stuff!
I’m sure Steve "The Asshole" Schmidt is imagining right now that attacking their daughters is just the game-changer they need.
Steve V
John, if you were still a gung ho republican would you hate Tina Fey?
Comrade Nikolita
What a beautiful cat! =)
The Grand Panjandrum
Johnny Drama stood up before his supporters and asked them to be "respectful" of Obama. I am shocked that he actually had the stones to do it in front of them instead of calling a press conference and "take charge" of the situation. Now lets see if Bible Spice gets the memo.
I just wonder if you can put the genie back in the bottle now. But I do look forward to this last debate now more than ever. Lets see if McCain will actually confront Obama or is he really just a little bitch? I don’t think there’s any middle ground with McCain, he’s either playing the folksy grandpa, or gritting his teeth and swearing under his breath; ready to punch someone out.
Comrade Incertus
I got a little ranty about Republicans earlier this evening. Now I’m going to eat some elitist sushi and try to wash away the anger.
Comrade Jake
And was booed for it too. I’m not sure it’s possible to accuse someone of "paling around with terrorists" in a respectful way.
John Cole
I can handle booing.
It is the lynch mob bullshit that sketches me out.
Danack
Blue-eyed cat thread?
Excuse me sir
I’m Smart S – M – R – T, smart
bwaage
Respectful my ass. Getting your supporters riled up and talking about how your opponent is a terrorist who hates America and the troops, and is probably somehow stealing the election with ACORN, and THEN telling them that opponent is "assaulting" and "insulting" them? This is all dangerously irresponsible, to say the least.
Laura W
Hydrangea Kitty!
I love hydrangeas in that very color. Excellent choice. Gorgeous floofy kitty.
I am a blubbering fool tonight, between that "dogs greet soldier" video and the one I just finished. I know y’all get the emails from Obama and friends, and moveon and friends, but if you want a bit of an inspirational jolt tonight, watch the 4 Days in Denver behind the scenes video. Sniff. Sniff.
PS Punchy: FAIL
Martin
Anyone think that the pitbull will back down?
I don’t.
(edit)… unless McCain knows that the Troopergate report will bury Palin and that this really is the end. Maybe he knows something we don’t yet.
John Cole
@Martin: After the general election, I am dedicating all advocacy on this blog to taking out the wingnut farm team, starting with Palin.
AkaDad
I’m concerned that a successful Obama presidency will end up making us white people look bad.
Comrade Stuck
And we shall bring forth the sting of BJ snark and humiliation, along with lots of Garlic and Holy Water siphoned from the Funhouse Cistern.
bwaage
Is there some sort of new delay/approval period with posts I wasn’t aware of? It tells me I already made my comment, yet it isn’t present and certainly didn’t have anything in it that would get filtered out.
edit: I guess not, odd. Original comment:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/10/1529529.aspx
Respectful my ass. Getting your supporters riled up and talking about how your opponent is a terrorist who hates America and the troops, and is probably somehow stealing the election with ACORN, and THEN telling them that opponent is "assaulting" and "insulting" them? This is all dangerously irresponsible, to say the least.
HRA
That’s a gorgeous kitty. My daughter has a cat with violet eyes. We have a new puppy. He’s a Shorkie. I’ll send a picture soon.
gwangung
What do you mean "we", white man?
Zuzu's Petals
Well to be fair, they did applaud him at the end.
Here’s more:
CNN
I don’t expect to see the ads or conference-call surrogates change much, though.
Ella in NM
God, I love cats. This one is breathtaking.
We have a young male, colored much like the kitty above, with eyes a little more icy-blue. When he gazes at you, the whole world just melts, I swear.
His name is Jasper, but we call him "Jazzy Blue". I hope he lives forever.
bwaage
Wow, I completely give up on posting comments. It somehow marked my link to MSNBC’s First Read and few short sentences about it afterwards as spam, and just didn’t show it. Then after making an apparently more acceptable post that did get displayed, I tried to edit it to include the previous one, which promptly got it categorized as spam and removed entirely. Odd.
Colonel Danite
In perhaps the final act of desparation, the crackpots at RedState are now claiming that there is proof that William Ayres was the ghost writer of Obama’s first book, Dreams From My Father. Apparently some nutter has compared the writing styles and concluded that the style is too close to that of Ayres and his writings to not be written by Ayres. They hope to use this to prove that Obama and Ayres have been bussom buddies for a long time.
I don’t know whether to punch my computer screen when I read crap like that or sit back, relax and realize that those people have run out of ammunition and are gasping for their last breaths.
I’m not going to link to the article, since I want folks to think hard before driving up traffic at that ridiculous site. I don’t know why I torture myself by going over there but I can’t help myself sometimes.
Laura W
@HRA: What is a shorkie?
Shepard and Yorkie?
Shitszu and Yorkie?
Shark and Yorkie?
She-Wolf and Yorkie?
Fuck. Schuster on Olbermann. I hate substitutes.
The Grand Panjandrum
@John Cole: Yea. The booing is no big deal. Obama has to tamp down the booing of McCain at his rallies. No big deal you gotta boo the other team sometimes.
Ella in NM
God, I love cats. This one is breathtaking.
We have a young male, colored much like the kitty above, with eyes a little more icy-blue. When he gazes at you, the whole world just melts, I swear.
On of the best parts of my days is when I get up early, before the 4 kids and hubby, and there he is to great me with his little wimpy "mew". After perfunctory leg swirls and neck rubbing, he jumps up on the counter. Then he tries to steal licks of half-n-half from the spout of the carton as I pour it in my coffee. He grabs at it with his paw to keep me from pulling it away. For some reason, I am helpless to his charms.
His name is Jasper, but we call him "Jazzy Blue". I hope he lives forever.
Krista
Sniff, sniff, indeed. I’d heard of that video, but had never watched it.
I loved the bit where he’s talking about the $5 bet he made with Malia about whether she’d be able to keep her cool when meeting one of the Jonas brothers, and he’s laughing about this bet and then mentions that he has no intention of actually collecting it.
They both seem like they are such awesome parents to those girls, and just very genuine, good people.
May the FSM bless them and keep them.
kommrade jakevich
Christ, imagine waking up with those blue lasers an inch from your face.
"Feed me or be incinerated, hairless monkey!"
Comrade Jake
Christ, he only needs to be marginally competent to do that. What are you trying to do? Manage expectations?
JGabriel
Punchy:
Well, I am a cat fan, but I agree. Posts about Cute Fucking Pets once or twice a week is a nice little sweetener.
Once or twice a day, though, and Cute Fucking Pets become sickeningly saccharine, cloying, and vomit-inducing.
Anyway, yes, it’s a beautiful blue-eyed cat.
Can we go back to talking about politics again?
McCain has started asking people to be "respectful" towards Obama. At least, that’s what the Politico is reporting:
Not sure what to make of that. I don’t know if that’s a one time sop to get the media off his back, or if McCain really means it.
If he keeps it up, I might be inclined to cut the guy some grudging respect.
.
Bobzim
Hey John Cole…why aren’t we hearing about John Raese’s racist ads on the Metronews Network? Have you heard them?
Raese himself denouncing "hyphenated Americans" and cautioning voters to "be careful when you go into the voting booth this Nov."
Pretty gnarly shit if you ask me.
Rosali
What’s really scary is that the McPain campaign is trying to turn it around on Obama and saying things like "Obama is dismissing hard-working, middle class Americans and he is the same guy who said that Americans get bitter and cling to their guns". They’re venturing into really dangerous territory here.
SamFromUtah
@Comrade Jake: I’m concerned that a successful Obama presidency will end up making us white people look bad.
Too late – an unsuccessful Bush presidency already did.
Comrade Darkness
Sounds like McCain got the call. The burning question is: who made it?
Comrade Jake
The word on the street is that the Alaskan legislature just voted to release the Troopergate report.
Tom Ames
Troopergate Update!
From here.
"4:11 p.m.The Legislative Council just voted 12-0 to release the report, except for certain parts they consider confidential.
The reporters were to be available immediately, but no one seems to know where to get them here at the Legislative offices."
SamFromUtah
@Comrade Darkness: Sounds like McCain got the call. The burning question is: who made it?
That’s just what I’ve been wondering. I assume it was some group of Republican patriarchs, but who among them is sane enough to tell him to knock that shit off?
t jasper parnell
@AkaDad:
Goodness me but that is funny. White Supremacy’s last throes or throws, depending on how you look at it.
Comrade Darkness
Um, so if he were Arab, he would be untrustworthy? Eh, I guess you have to take what you can get.
I wonder if this woman or even McCain think Iranians are Arabs. I want a poll on how deep the ignorance runs.
Anne Laurie
Krista, one thing your allergist won’t tell you: Most people get ‘desensitized’ to the dander of the particular cats or dogs they share a home with. Depending on how bad your/your spouse’s allergies are, once you’re living in your new house, you might find it possible to bring a kitten — or better, a pair of kittens, to keep each other company — into your life. Keeping the little guy(s) out of your bedroom, and doing all the other allergen-resisting stuff that’s more honored than observed (good air filtration, wood floors, blinds instead of drapes, scrupulous cleaning with a quality vacuum) helps your over-imaginative immune system cope with the kitty-challenge. And, of course, the treatment options for humans have improved enormously over the past 15 years, as immunologists learned how much good companion animals do for people. I’ve also heard good things about the Allerpet wipes & sprays that get used directly on the animal. Of course it’s way easier for a kitten to ‘grow up’ with these odd human practices than for an adult cat to learn new habits, so you have the perfect excuse to go for the adorable fuzzy babies instead of the less-rehomable adults peering sadly through the bars at your local shelter…
I don’t want to encourage anybody to get reckless and hurt themselves (or end up breaking their heart & that of the pet who has to be returned to a shelter). But I’m ‘moderately’ allergic to pet hair and I share a house with both dogs & cats, and the only times those allergies give me trouble is when I take the dogs to training class & forget to take my antihistimines in advance. Especially for Canadians, who have access to proper health care, I would suggest would-be pet owners to try starting a conversation with their doctor along the lines of "IF I really, really wanted to live with a cat… " and see what they tell you about your particular issues.
Eric U.
They better not go after Michelle Obama or I will be forced to reveal that Cindy McCain stole drugs from her charity. Try to weasel out of that for the next 5 1/2 years, Senator McCain.
Comrade Darkness
Well, someone who learned the hard way, perhaps, about what it happens when you lose control of the blood lust you whipped into the partisans. Ah, so, Musharraf maybe.
Laura W
Yes. Breaking news on MSNBC…report in…says Palin abused powers of her office.
I’m shocked.
Shocked, I tell you.
Obama can haz presidenzy now?
DonnaInMichigan
ok…so the report released from Alaska that Sarah Palin did indeed abuse her powers ……
What happens now?
She get a slap on the wrist? Isn’t that what usually happens to a republican?
Comrade Jake
So what does an "abuse of power" finding mean? What does it mean to have violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act? Any legal scholars in the house?
My guess is that this is subject to a slap on the wrist, and that’s about it.
JGabriel
DonnaInMichigan:
Nah, Palin gets a Medal of Honor from Bush.
That’s what usually happens to a power-abusing Republican that gets caught.
.
Laura W
@JGabriel:
I guess I can understand that, even though my cats have their own blog. That’s exactly how I feel when this blog turns into a tech support forum. Yawn. But then, it ain’t my blog.
Me Likey
No Penalty. She get’s pardoned by Bush and has to have child with Scooter.
Zuzu's Petals
Someone sorta did that:
Sidewalk to Nowhere
Ecccchhhhh.
JGabriel
Comrade Jake:
I don’t know either, but it sounds like the type of thing that would be subject to censure or impeachment proceedings once the Alaska legislature meets again in January.
My guess is a censure vote sometime early next year; i.e., yes, a slap on the wrist. I mean, to be fair, this is probably pretty small potatoes compared to some of the shit Murkowski got away with – unless, of course, you’re Wooten or Monaghan.
.
Comrade Darkness
Anne Laurie, you can also just buy an allergy free cat, if you are well-heeled enough. There is a company that breeds cats lacking the gene that causes most human immune response. allerca.com (btw, I know nothing about this company. some similar research was done at Cornell, which is why I heard of it.)
[dang, annoying thing about the edit, is I feel I HAVE to edit, even for a stupid typo. What is the internet coming to?!]
Or you can go with the hairless, like John posted earlier. I hear they are the most affectionate, due to be cold all the time and in dire need of a lap.
John D
Troopergate report is online.
Zuzu's Petals
Of course Alaska does allow recall by the voters. I’d guess the petition will get started soon.
Anne Laurie
Perhaps his Secret Service agents sat him down, showed him some of the scary, semi-literate filth that Obama’s campaign has no doubt been receiving, and explained that ‘McCain Supporter Attacks at Obama Rally — X Killed, XX Injured’ is NOT a headline that will turn the current trends in Old John’s favor.
The agents working Obama’s campaign have the worst jobs right now, but those working Bible Spice’s fReichtard rallies definitely have the nastiest. Imagine scanning those rabid mobs and trying to imagine which of them are liable to ‘go rogue’ over the next month…
Punchy
She didnt abuse her power, you libtards. The report released last nite said as much. And which one is more believable? The independent McCain-Palin report, or the one written by a bunch of partisan Dumbocrats in the frozen tundra?
Besides, she’s a hockey pit bull with lipstick, so STFU.
Krista
Only problem is that if I were not allergic, we’d still have to deal with my husband’s "allergy to" (i.e. intense dislike of) cats.
Ah well. I like dogs better anyway.
WRT Palin, ’twill be very, very interesting to see how this plays out, no?
Rosali
It’s not cat-blogging. It’s an open thread with an extra, added-bonus pet pic. If you don’t care for pets, feel free to ignore them.
Laura W
@Rosali: What she said!
For cripe’s sake…I recall a few weeks ago an entire thread about freakin’ eagles. I don’t own eagles. I don’t have eagles in my back yard. I don’t even much LIKE eagles (except they are Stephen Colbert’s national symbol and all).
Did I whine (much?) in that thread? NO.
I made a snarky comment in another thread and only briefly mentioned the "Bird Chat" thread.
Goshdarnit y’all. How can we mock McFailin for being nasty when there is so much nasty within our own eyes?
Amen. Also.
Comrade Darkness
Well, drat. I guess I’ll go watch more Twin Peaks and pour another vodka martini.
If I can find the link again.
To the Twin Peaks, not the, not the martini.
gbear
She gets assigned to write a research project as to whether or not bears really do shit in the woods.
It bears noting that the committee, which I believe is 2/3 republicans, voted 12-0 to release this report. Sarah is now Governor Toast.
What a day. I bet those folks in the crap suburb of Lakeville MN were PISSED that Johnny wouldn’t let them wave their pitchforks and torches today. That wasn’t change they could believe in. I bet they all went home and threw their jello against the wall.
gbear
@Laura W:
Hey, I had a Cooper’s Hawk sitting right outside my window for almost an hour yesterday. Isn’t that cool? ;)
gbear
If a bear posts a comment on a blog and there’s nobody there to read it, did he really say anything?
Laura W
@gbear: Did the bear shit on the blog? Because I’d need to analyze the DNA to determine if it was a paternity issue or a….a…..Jesus Christ….what’s the end of that line, my friends?
Criminal! Criminal issue.
Also.
gbear
Might be hard to determine. So many have shit on the blog before the bear arrived. And also too.
raff
Well, I’d say kudos to McCain for calling for some decorum, but I don’t believe for a second that he did so out of a sense of decency. If the polls showed that McCain’s attacks had a net postive effect, I’m sure McCain would double down on some even nastier attacks in future.
Unfortunately, McCain has painted himself into a corner. He has nothing to run on except the language of fear & division. Alas, most of the nation doesn’t speak this language, & the 28% that do are already voting for McCain anyway.
Thus McCain is faced with an impossible choice: deny your ‘base’ or lose the majority of swing voters. Either way, McCain loses. You can’t incite a crowd to frenzied levels of hatred for your opponent & not expect things to go awry. And when they do go awry, whose side do you come down on? Your hate-filled ‘base’, or the majority of the voting public? Tough choice.
To appeal to your supporters’ basest instincts & then tell them to back off will only confuse them. It’s kinda like throwing a ball for a dog & saying "fetch!" & then immediately afterwards saying "sit!". Confusion & frustration will follow.
Conservatively Liberal
One of the regular asshats at RedState has a post up titled: "Is the market crash manufactured?" and the wingnuts are blaming Obama and the Democrats for creating the financial disaster to ruin the Republican chances for a win this fall.
These idiots aren’t smart enough to assemble a log cabin with Lincoln Logs and instructions. They like to boil everything complex down to a single point of hate that they can focus on with their limited intelligence and short attention span. In doing so, they are not only misleading themselves but they are misleading others by convincing them that ‘our guys’ are saying it so it must be true. Stupid does not cut it, this is being willfully ignorant while trying to convince others that they know what they are talking about.
The willfully ignorant leading the terminally stupid, what a parade. These nuts aren’t intellectually dishonest, they are intellectually bankrupt.
HRA
Laura W.
My Shorkie is a Shih Tzu and Yorkshire mix.
Tattoosydney
I sat down this morning and watched Michelle Obama on Larry King.
Compare and contrast the manic anger of the Republican campaign, with this… a gentle, assured, calm, friendly woman who loves her husband and her children and her work, and who has only good things to say about her husband’s opponents.
IMO the Obama campaign has known all along that (if or when McCain worked out he was losing) his campaign would go negative to try to hold onto the 25%ers. I think they were also pretty sure that the taunting would go too far for almost the entire 75% to forgive.
All through this campaign, Obama has been cool and calm and collected, as has his entire team. I think that’s the way he is naturally, but it’s also part of the grand plan – to shake off the insults, to talk about policy, to hit back only on issues and fitness for the job, to never look rattled.
Ultimately, to make American choose between that calm steady one and Angry McPenguin.
The Magic Folders knew all from the start.
(Quickly touches wood)
Anne Laurie
I had the opposite problem: convincing my canine-aversive husband that we could find dogs who would be "honorary cats" (small, clean, non-drooling). There are plenty of toy dogs who can fulfill most of the cat duties, such as keeping your lap warm while you’re typing, providing good soft strokability, & being a warm comforting lump at the foot of the bed, while also being good running buddies & darned enthusiastic greeters. We now share the house with our fourth, fifth, & sixth papillons (as well as three cats) and the Spousal Unit spoils them worse than I do.
Phoebe
hm. I’ll try this again because it didn’t seem to go through:
"kittens and yarns"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWUV5vECeMI
Randy H
Blue eyes are very common in Himalayans and Siamese-this cat looks like a Ragdoll.