Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Come on, man.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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74Comments

  1. 1.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    It has been so hot and ultra dry here, I just got tired of standing over my plants with a water hose to keep them alive. Radishes and cucumber plants. But will still nurture the mators, they are sacred.

  2. 2.

    Comrade Mary

    Sorry, Rosie, but the alt text doesn’t lie. But you’re still damn cute, though.

    And thanks for the reminder about watering, John. A lot of stuff is dropping out back. (Not talking about my girlish figure, either.)

  4. 4.

    beltane

    I think Rosie was Tunch in a past life. We had a black bear sighting this morning; my dog, as usual, slept through the whole thing. Any ideas on breeds of dog that are good with kids and cats yet somewhat interested in protecting their families?

  7. 7.

    licensed to kill time

    I see what you mean about her haunches! What an incredibly sweet face, and those soft floppy ears….I like her little white ‘widow’s peak’.

    O Rosie you’re so fine
    you’re so fine you blow my mind
    Hey Rosie! {{clap clap}} Hey Rosie!

    P.S. Nice garden too. Soon you’ll be able to say you picked a peppa!

  8. 8.

    eemom

    except for the brown head, she could be Tunch’s long lost dog-sister.

    also, imho, a dog that fat is unlikely to be aggressive. jussayinzall.

  9. 9.

    QuaintIrene

    Hmmm. in a previous doggy thread someone mentioned the possibility of her being dumped from a puppy mill after she was past whelping age. Maybe she’s saggy from multiple litters.

  10. 10.

    Comrade Darkness

    Nice garden.

    I take it you don’t have deer. Mine more closely resembles an electrified prison camp. Loses some of the romance that way, but at least I get some of it.

  13. 13.

    Johnny's mom

    General Egali Tarian Stuck: I tried a soaker hose, and love it. It seems like it uses less water (just observation, not a scientific study) and does a better job, and uses less of my time.

    John: There’s more to Rosie…
    :)

  15. 15.

    EFroh

    So has JC determined that she’s actually got buns in the oven? Or is she just a little zaftig?

  16. 16.

    slag

    This is irrelevant, but I have to say that I’m not a huge Rosie fan. I just don’t like the thought of Tunch being outnumbered. Time for a second cat!

  17. 17.

    eemom

    if I may, since it’s an open thread, just briefly observe that Jane Hamsher is rattling the tip jar tank over at Lake Batshit in a manner that is truly disgusting to behold.

    You’re right, stuckinred. Shorter Jane: I’m SO pretty and I’m the ONLY one who tells the truth!

  18. 18.

    bemused

    We do know one thing about Rosie’s mysterious previous life. Someone did not neglect to feed her, and feed her and feed her some more.

  20. 20.

    elmo

    Since it’s an open thread, and there are pets involved, I wanted to let everybody know about the premiere of “Last Chance Highway” on Animal Planet. Tomorrow, check your local listings. It’s about a rescuer and a pet transport company, that does pet transport for rescues in conjunction with volunteers. They’re based about an hour from me, and I’ve worked with them quite a bit. One of the episodes, I am told, is going to include a group of nine Great Pyr pups that my partner and I fostered, so I’m looking forward to that.

  22. 22.

    Betsy

    @elmo:

    Neat!! I don’t have cable, so alas I cannot watch. But that’s a better reason to end up on TV than most!

  23. 23.

    Punchy

    Being that it’s West Virginia, can I be the first one in with Guns ‘N’ Rosie?

  24. 24.

    Josie

    Your garden is coming along nicely. I’m still getting tomatoes, peppers, okra and eggplant, but they are all looking wilted and tired. I’m watering every day, and the brutal South Texas sun is still doing its evil work. I’m thinking I should have put everything in about a month earlier than I did. Oh, well, live and learn. This is only my second year for vegie gardening, so there is still a steep learning curve. It seems like many of you are more experienced. True?

  25. 25.

    R-Jud

    While running in the park I saw an elderly man I’ve seen now and then. He’s the local old-codger-in-tweed-and-wellies (every British park needs one), and he’s always being towed along by a crowd of six identical yapping dogs. I realized this time that they are all JRTs.

    Should I call social services or something? You guys make these dogs sound like cuddly-wuddly imps from hell.

  30. 30.

    beltane

    @elmo: Thanks. I’ve heard good things about them. We got our lab as a companion/therapy dog for our son with Asperger’s syndrome. She’s wonderful in that role, but is also the world’s worst guard dog. Even chipmunks make her cower. Now that we have chickens and ducks, we have nightly visits by coyotes, foxes and now bears.

  36. 36.

    stuckinred

    @Josie: You have a treasure trove of texas troubadours. Nanci Girffith, Lyle, Wille, Kris, Jimmy Dale Gilmour to name a few.

  38. 38.

    Face

    @Dork: Idiot blogger brags about having pics of Cyress’….er…..um…..virginia. Idiot blogger quickly informed that Cyress is a minor. Idiot blogger suddenly claims her virginia is actually underwear, and quickly slides back into his scumball cave.

  39. 39.

    burnspbesq

    @stuckinred:

    Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark, and Tish Hinojosa to name a few more.

    And the ghost of Townes Van Zandt is always hovering nearby.

  41. 41.

    Chat Noir

    Rosie is adorable. I hope all works out for her (whether she stays with the Cole household or goes to an equally nice home with an equally loving and responsible caregiver). With Tunch, Lily, and Rosie, the cuteness factor is up to eleventy billion.

    The garden looks excellent too. We have a sweet basil plant that is very tall though it won’t be for long since pesto pasta is on the menu for Sunday dinner. Yum!

    Edit: can someone give me a quick back-story about Jane Hamsher? I’m not too familiar with her but I sense she likes to be in the spotlight and is sort of the left’s answer to some right wing whackadoodle. Thx.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    @Josie:
    Yes. You should plant way earlier than you think you should if you live in Texas.

    She’s a cutie, John Cole. She looks sort of like a Jack Russell in a bulldog suit. She’s all sorts of beefy.

    The sun on your garden makes me miss West Virginia summers. There’s a certain light there that I recognize….

  43. 43.

    elmo

    @beltane:

    My partner and I are the local rescue coordinators for several Great Pyr rescues, including National, so I’m partial. I used to be all about the German Shepherds, until my partner found a litter of 6-week-old Pyrs in a dumpster a year and a half ago. She brought one home (found homes for the others, don’t worry) and we had her for a little more than two months — then she got suddenly very sick and died on us. Spent two weeks and two thousand dollars trying to save her. Broke my heart into little tiny pieces and took a piece with her, never to be seen again.

    Pyrs are “Livestock Guardian Dogs,” or LGDs. Other LGDs include Maremmas, Anatolians, and Kuvasz. They’re not like other dogs, and I say this as a 20-year rescuer with more than 50 dogs under my belt. Partner is a professional dog trainer (now retired). And neither of us were prepared for what Pyrs are like. They’re special. Really.

    And right now, dozens upon dozens are being dumped into rescue and shelters every week, because people can’t afford their livestock so they also give up their livestock dogs.

  45. 45.

    elmo

    @Violet:

    The sun on your garden makes me miss West Virginia summers. There’s a certain light there that I recognize….

    Yeah, I recognize it too. It’s just like the light here in Tennessee, which is “filtered hazy and humid as hell.” :-) I swear the sky is never actually blue in the South in summer, not the way it is in the West.

  46. 46.

    licensed to kill time

    @Violet:

    She looks sort of like a Jack Russell in a bulldog suit.

    PERFECT description, and made me snortle, thnx!

  47. 47.

    Josie

    @elmo: I have an akbash (another lgd) that I stole from my son, who was raising boer goats at one time. She is nine years old and we have matching bad hips, but she is the sweetest, smartest dog I have ever known. She is 140 pounds of gentle giant. She guards me, the other dog, the birds, the two cats and knows the difference between her family and any interlopers. She seems lazy, gentle and sweet until she senses danger, and then it’s a Jekyll and Hyde situation. She was stubborn and difficult to train at first, but the effort was so worth it. I’ve never had a dog like this before, and I would not ever want any other.

  48. 48.

    bemused

    I’m about half way through reading Jonathan Chait’s “The Big Con, Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America”. Chait describes the transformation of the Republican party to the no rational people need apply club, the role of media and conservatives’ cherished tax cuts are the answer to everything ideology. It’s not as if I didn’t already know most of this but Chait pulls it all together clearly in a tidy package with notes galore. I have been reading articles I missed the first time around and refreshing my memory on others. Andrew Sullivan’s “Downsize” piece was interesting. He said liberals were right that the tax cuts would have the effect hurting Medicare & “welfare state” but that Bush had to obfuscate his real goals with the smoke screen of “compassionate conservatism”. Another interesting read is an article that Wm Niskanen, Chairman of the Cato Institute wrote in 2006 after crunching numbers and concluded that tax cuts are associated with increases in government spending and the best strategy for forcing cuts in government is actually to raise taxes . Conservatives & media pretty much ignored that inconvenient conclusion even though it was from a conservative.
    Today on his blog, Chait quotes from Peggy Noonan’s column ethereal rambling) & then links to SNL video where Steve Martin is Theodoric of York, a medieval barber who keeps killing patients with blood letting. Theodoric says, “Perhaps I’ve been wrong to blindly follow the medical traditions and superstitions of the past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a “scientific method”. Maybe this scientific method could then be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation. Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age, an age of rebirth, a Renaissance!” (thinks for a moment) Naaah.
    I’m still laughing but that’s a perfect description of today’s conservative thinking.

  49. 49.

    Jebediah

    @beltane:
    You should consider American Staffordshires. Gentle and loving with people, especially kids, and no problem with cats, but still protective. Our Otto loves to meet new people and get his belly rubbed. He is protective of my wife and of the castle, but not in a “lawsuit-waiting-to-happen” way. Their size and appearance alone will keep most miscreants away, anyway. They are loving, affectionate, playful, but they do need exercise and proper training, so if you can’t do daily walkies, they may not be for you.

  50. 50.

    elmo

    @Josie:

    Oh, excellent! I forgot about the Akbash — those are pretty rare, I think? And yeah, aren’t they amazing? German Shepherds are pretty damn smart, and I had an Aussie/JRT mix that trained herself, but I’ve never run into anything like the LGDs. Since Naga (the Pyr pup) died, we’ve fostered I think 15 or so, and it’s one amazing dog after another.

  51. 51.

    Josie

    @elmo: Yes, they are quite rare – at least here in Texas. We got Teddi and her brothers from a lady in Oklahoma. They look similar to the Great Pyranees, but are maybe a little taller and thinner. I’m not positive, since I’ve never seen a Pyr in real life.

  56. 56.

    CynDee

    @ John Cole: Maybe your own vet is the one to consult about the safety of keeping Rosie with Tunch. (Tell him or her that we all said Hey.)

  58. 58.

    Jules

    She looks so obviously well loved that somewhere there has got to be a family desperate to find her.

  59. 59.

    CynDee

    Maybe Rosie is a bit heavy because she was confined and could not run around.

    In this picture she might be described as “sturdy.” She certainly seems alert and engaged.

  61. 61.

    licensed to kill time

    Nooners is up to her butt in snakes:

    The president is starting to look snakebit… Mr. Obama is starting to look unlucky, and — file this under Mysteries of Leadership — that is dangerous for him because Americans get nervous when they have a snakebit president. They want presidents on whom the sun shines.

    …and when it’s Morning in America(tm), right Pegs?

  63. 63.

    cathaireverywhere

    Purebreds are not always necessary….. My little mutts are very sweet and let the kiddo lie all over them and dress them up in hats and scarves, but will bark their heads off if someone comes to the door. They are both from our local SPCA, and we couldn’t ask for better dogs.

  64. 64.

    Liz

    @elmo:

    our latest rescue was transported from Ark to New Hampshire by a transport co. Bless them and all they do.

    Also, I may have missed it, but is JC keeping Rosie, and is she pregnant?

  65. 65.

    Liz

    eh nevermind, went back and found the answer. I guess I should mention that I have what I think is a half cardi/half JRT. He’s jumpy and pushy but very obedient and good to my older corgi.

    I still don’t think Rosie looks purebred, but I guess sometimes even half JRT can be a lot.

  66. 66.

    zippity

    @John Cole: I came home Sunday evening to a hole in my whiskey barrel planter where my rosemary plant had been. Found it a couple of feet away, just missing a little bit of the tip. I didn’t think that my dogs would have done that, then I almost stepped on a pile of goat poop in front of my porch. We have about 30 goats next door, and they get out all the time. First time they’d been in the front yard with our 2 big dogs there, though.

  67. 67.

    The Dangerman

    @stuckinred:

    I’m a bigtime Nanci Griffith fan; an unmistakeable voice and music that isn’t afraid to be leftwing. One of her most political songs is called “Time of Inconvenience” (Note: That is a cover; I didn’t find one with Nanci singing). A decent cover of fine little angry song…

    …though perhaps her MOST political song got her in a little hot water from the other side of the political spectrum; this is from her most recent album and is clearly written after the 2008 election (lyrics from “Across America”):

    I spoke to folks in New Orleans with hammers in their hands
    There’s a waitress in Missouri that wants her own health plan
    And to the workers up in Michigan in all the auto plants
    There are working men and women saying yes, we can
    Your checks and stocks and banks can’t take our hope away

    A fine artist who can be magical live…

  68. 68.

    Anne Laurie

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    I just got tired of standing over my plants with a water hose to keep them alive. Radishes and cucumber plants. But will still nurture the mators, they are sacred.

    Johnny’s Mom is right — you can get a length of soaker hose around here for as little as $10, loop it around on the ground next to your tomatoes, and leave the hose on ‘drip’ overnight / all day. The plants will still appreciate a top-down shower on the sunniest days (probably all the days in your country) but the soakers will prevent the boom-and-bust syndrome that leads to your tomatoes ‘cracking’ (splitting open) before they ripen. Of course sitting in the sun like that, the hose will start ‘breaking down’ by the end of the season and you’ll have to replace it next year, but not before you’ve successfully nutured this year’s crop!

    There’s also the Aqua Cone theory — if your soil is not heavy clay, I’m told you don’t even need the patent gadget, just cut the bottom off a plastic bottle and bury the neck next to the tomato roots. My poor tomatoes get crowded into planters so I’ve never had the room to try this method myself, but obviously enough gardners were using this shortcut to make it profitable…

  69. 69.

    down yonder

    One of my Rat Terriers is starting to resemble an overstuffed sausage, but I can forgive her because of her excellent sense of humor. She is a senior citizen who spends most of her time making out with the cat on the couch.

  70. 70.

    Anne Laurie

    @QuaintIrene:

    in a previous doggy thread someone mentioned the possibility of her being dumped from a puppy mill after she was past whelping age. Maybe she’s saggy from multiple litters.

    Mill dogs, especially the poor overworked mammas, never get fed well enough to pack on weight like that. More significantly, a dog that lives in a rabbit hutch for years on end doesn’t have that kind of muscle tone — Rosie’s obviously spent her life jumping on & off furniture even if she’s never seen stairs. She was somebody’s pet, and shame on them if they dumped her, or shame on her if she ran off and has broken some poor sucker’s heart!

  72. 72.

    cathaireverywhere

    It is very hot and dry here, and a few years ago, one of the growers at the Farmer’s Market told me to run a soaker hose around my tomatoes when it gets over 100. I turn it on very low midmorning and let it go all day. Works great!

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