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Archives for 2009
Cat Meets FURminator: A Story of Love, Loss, Hair, and Static Cling
So I picked up a FURminator deShedding Tool
At any rate, I simply can not believe how much hair that thing pulled out of him. It. Was. Everywhere. And mind you, I brush Tunch every morning because I want to keep the hair down and want him to have a healthy coat, but this furminator just kept getting more and more hair out. When I finished, I had to take the blanket outside and shake it out and then throw it in the wash, as well as vacuum the room twice. It took quite the clean-up. On the other hand, Tunch’s coat looks and feels amazing now, so I highly recommend this thing.
BTW- I “introduced” him to the furminator before using it. I let him mess with the package for a bit, then took it out of the package and let him ignore it for a bit, then and only then did I use it. That seemed to keep my bleeding to a minimum.
In other news, my HEPA
*** Update ***
An action shot of Tunch re-furring the freshly laundered blanket that covers the futon in the study. MmmmMmm. Warm blankets.
I think his coat is visibly better looking after furminating.
Cat Meets FURminator: A Story of Love, Loss, Hair, and Static ClingPost + Comments (131)
Cool Like That
In regards to DougJ’s post about Michael Steele, the thing that cracks me up about the entire thing is this bizarre belief that the real problem with the current GOP is marketing failure. They simply don’t seem to understand that the public did not reject their packaging and messaging, they rejected their product. Not the other way around. George Bush was nothing if not a marketing success.
In fact, an argument could be made that they have managed to sell a deeply, deeply flawed product for years, and that only their successful marketing kept them in the game. See “death tax,” and “patriot act,” and “sanctity of marriage” and the whole host of clever terms and names that they have used to get their way. Did any of you notice anything either “compassionate” or “conservative” about the previous eight years? Now granted, smarter conservatives have figured all of this out, but being smarter conservatives, they are completely shut out of the debate.
To further illustrate my point at how successful they have been at marketing and branding, look at the number of issues in which the American people repeatedly have what would be considered left to hard left opinions, yet time and time again the right wing side of that opinion is presented as “centrist.” (* Update: How timely. Steve Benen has a post up about this just today). Ask the same people who provided the “liberal” response if they are “liberal,” and they shriek in horror and run. The Democratic party in the United States would most likely be a center-right party in virtually every country in Europe. Mr. Overton, your window is open again. At any rate, entire movies have been dedicated to this sort of thing at the Media Education Foundation, and Marc Crispin Miller and George Lakoff and the staff at Media Matters and other folks who follow this could talk for days about it, so there is no point for me to go on and on about this.
To reiterate, this notion that the real problem with the GOP is just a packaging problem is delusional. It is akin to the CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America deciding that their current fail should be blamed on a shitty looking wrapper. “Don’t worry shareholders- we have a brand new logo coming out.”
I have no idea why they think this, although perhaps they bought into the Clinton spin of “just words” from the primary, and honestly think they were just beaten by better marketing. To them, everything is “just words,” then you DWTFYW once you are elected. That certainly would explain their idiotic campaign in the fall, to include desire to win every news cycle at the expense of anything resembling a coherent message.
At any rate, far be it from me to tell my former party how to run itself, but let me suggest that if the GOP thinks that all they need to do is just re-brand themselves, they are crazier than even I thought they were. Considering they spent the last couple of weeks voting no against the stimulus bill before racing home to promote it in their states and districts, they might just be that dumb. “Look-see! We are the party of fiscal conservatism, and we voted against all this pork and wasteful spending. Which, by the way, will create 7500 jobs right here!”
But then again, you know what they say about going broke and estimates about the intelligence of the American people.
And there are all sorts of typos, errors in grammar, and other mistakes in this, and I am too lazy to fix any of them. Deal with it.
*** Update ***
And via the comments section at Eunomia, I see that as always, the Onion or the Daily Show was there first:
The wages of unity
No one could have predicted that opposition to the stimulus bill would be a political liability for Republicans in some competitive districts, but here’s the Albany Times Union calling out Republican candidate James Tedisco in the special election in NY-20 (being vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand):
Sometime between now and an election tentatively set for March 31, James Tedisco has to take a stand on the $787 billion economic stimulus that Congress passed last week and President Obama just signed into law.
How else can the voters of the 20th Congressional District begin to judge whether he’s the best candidate to fill what had been Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat in the House?
That Mr. Tedisco would suggest that his position on what just might be the most contentious issue in Washington is a “hypothetical question” raises serious questions about his qualifications to serve in Congress. Economic policy couldn’t be more critical in a congressional race.
[….]
Even Mr. Tedisco himself acknowledges what it can do. Just listen.
“Love the unemployment help that we need to bridge that gap. Love the infrastructure. They’ve got some nice tax cuts in there.”
So, what’s his problem? Why’s he on the fence? Why can’t he level with the voters?
It’s not because the stimulus was the Democrats’ bill, is it?
A guy named Cantor seems to have constructed a strategy that’s locally perfect inside the Beltway and everywhere dense outside it.
(via)
Update: This may be on Shuster tonight.
Update #2. More stimulus trouble for Republicans:
Congressman Joseph “Anh” Cao, a Republican, who defeated William “Bill” Jefferson is facing a recall petition because of his vote on the Barack Obama stimulus package. The recall has been initiated by a group of ministers.
Time to cut another “Back In the Saddle” video.
Smell the glove
It seems that everyone wants to talk about the Sean Delonas monkey cartoon and the Michael Steele “off the hook” comments. Neither topic really interests me that much.
The thing with the Delonas monkey cartoon is that all the focus on how offensive the cartoon supposedly is simply is a distraction from how stupid this and other Delonas cartoons are. Going on about the racial connotations makes it sound like it’s “edgy stuff” that people are too uptight to laugh at. It’s not, it’s just dumb. That’s the real problem with it. Remember, wingnuts judge attempts at humor largely on the basis of whether or not they succeed in pissing off liberals.
As for Michael Steele, sure this is amusing:
Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party’s principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”
[…]“It will be avant garde, technically,” he said. “It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone – off the hook.”
Does that mean cutting-edge?
“I don’t do ‘cutting-edge,’ “ he said. “That’s what Democrats are doing. We’re going beyond cutting-edge.”
But as funny as this is, my amusement is tempered by the thought of how much funnier it would be if Katon Dawson or Ken Blackwell had won and were now saying these things. And if Steele was really serious about this, he’d have Reverend Run and Rick Rubn working on a rap remix of “Back In the Saddle.”
Random moment of internet scariness
I typed “Sulzberger” into google because I couldn’t remember how to spell it and look what came in at number three on the search, just after the two wiki entries.
It’s probably not my place to tell anti-Semites how to run their sites, but “Jew Watch”? Couldn’t they come up with a catchier name than that?
I wonder if J.D. Hayworth is involved with the site at all.
For The Love of Everything Holy
Please tell me she has paid her damned taxes.