Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Known Salute The Unknown

Here's just a quickie on Will and Kate's tour of Canada. (You didn't think we'd ignore it, did you?)

Unlike the Duchess of Cambridge, who's on her first trip to North America, we cats have had the pleasure of visiting Ottawa many times. And we've always admired the Canadian War Memorial there. Why? Because with its Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (above), it's right smack in the middle of the capital's picturesque downtown, a stone's throw from Parliament Hill (and, perhaps more important, D'Arcy McGee's).

Sacred ground accessible to all. Now, that's democracy.

See you in Montreal on Saturday, kids!

The Only Grownup In The Room

By Zamboni

We cats are getting mixed signals. On the home page of POLITICO, we see teabagger nutcase Herman Cain claiming that President Obama is "not a strong black man." Just above it is Mark Halperin falling all over himself to apologize for calling the President, um, the name of a famous sporting goods store. Why? Because the President was assertive in his recent press conference.

We will treat Cain with the disdain he deserves by ignoring him. (Although it's hilarious that, post-bin Laden, he'd dare criticize the President for being too "timid" to "make the right decisions.") But Halperin's another story. And no, that lame excuse about the seven-second delay doesn't fly.

You know, after two years of Republicans and right-wing maniacs working hard every day to de-legitimize a decisively elected Democratic President, we don't need journalists' disrespect feeding into that. In fact, the teabaggers' constant assaults on Obama could very well have helped enable Halperin's lowered discourse. Either way, everybody needs to cut it out.

Halperin is so remorseful we half expect him to see him crawling up to the North Portico over broken glass, begging for forgiveness. But since we're certain it's only because he's worried about losing money on a second Obama book, we cats HISS.

(PHOTO: AP / Charles Dharapak)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

We'd Rather Be Card Carrying

By Miss Kubelik

We cats had a minor but urgent medical problem yesterday, so we visited a Montreal veterinarian. It was our first vet experience in Canada, and it was both instructive and deflating.

The first thing the woman at the front desk said to us was, "Your card, please." She meant, of course, our national healthcare ID card. We sighed and explained that we were U.S. citizens.

"Okay, then you must pay and be reimbursed by your insurance," she said. So for the privilege of seeing the doctor, we forked over $125 — in cash. (No credit cards were accepted, you see, because there was no need for them. The Canadian patients in the waiting room that morning would receive all their treatments for free.)

Before long, we were diagnosed and discharged, clutching a precious prescription order in our paws. Off we went to the Jean Coutu drugstore, which filled our medications in 15 short minutes and for a relative pittance. (That's because in Canada, the federal government has the power to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical companies on behalf of all 33 million of its citizens. What a concept!)

This small experience with the Canadian healthcare system made us realize anew some depressing facts: how little President Obama had to settle for when it came to passing healthcare reform in the U.S., yet how welcome it will be when its main provisions finally kick in in 2014. Oh, and how very much the Republican Party hates the idea of affordable healthcare for all.

We cats HISS.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

V-E Day

By Sniffles

That's "E" for "equality," that is.

There are so many wonderful aspects to last night's vote in Albany, New York. (Including the fact that we get to post this picture again!) But because we cats are on the road and well behind on our reading, we suspect that a lot of them already have been said.

But we have to just pause a moment and savor the delicious fact that marriage equality in the Empire State was achieved by an initially reluctant Republican-controlled upper chamber and signed into law by a determined Governor who happens to be Catholic.

And yes, we've read a bit of the speculation that this sets Andrew Cuomo up as the Democratic Presidential front-runner in 2016. But what we're most gleeful about is that in the meantime, the New York law surely will roil the 2012 race — on the Republican side. Since it was a GOP-led state senate that pushed the marriage bill to Cuomo's desk, now everybody in their Presidential field will have to respond — not just pro-civil-union candidate Jon Huntsman or that other LDS guy, Mitt Romney. And with early caucus and primary states like Iowa and South Carolina looming, the 2012ers could easily descend into a slugfest over social instead of economic issues.

Yep, it's all pretty swell. But the thing that's really cranked up our PURRS are the quotes coming from the Republican state senators who just two years ago voted against marriage equality. "I cannot legally come up with an argument against same-sex marriage," said Mark Grisanti from Buffalo. "I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state...the same rights that I have with my wife."

Well spoken, sir.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Blowing Town Edition

By Baxter

We cats are about to head off to the True North Strong & Free — which did enact an economic stimulus, by the way, no matter what that know-nothing Michele Bachmann says. In the meantime, though, we have a few observations.

Looks like the GOP's newest Presidential candidate, cutie-pie Jon Huntsman, had kind of a rocky rollout yesterday. We cats have enough experience in event planning to know that the campaign's logistical mistakes could easily have been avoided. So, this is the vaunted Huntsman campaign team? Oh — right. What can you expect from the same folks who gave you John McCain in front of this sickly green backdrop?

The teabagger members of Congress are proposing that Congress stay in session with no breaks for the next 18 months. This, of course, is a ploy to keep President Obama from recess-appointing all those fine folks whose nominations the Republicans have blocked for silly reasons. To which we cats say, fine. You stay in Washington, you also pledge to do no fundraising while you're in session. How do you like them apples?

Bill Kristol is peddling the not-new idea of John Thune for President. Gosh! Are Republicans so desperate not to nominate Mitt Romney that they're recycling old candidate buzz?

Finally, we're still waiting on tenterhooks to see what New York State is going to do about marriage equality. Particularly since we're on our way to a country in which same-sex marriage is legal across the land, and everything seems to be going just fine there, thank you very much.

We cats PURR, and we'll post when we can!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

All He Needs Are Some Epaulets

By Zamboni

John Bolton thinks Barack Obama has won George Bush's war on terror.

What other conclusion are we to come to, after seeing what the ex-recess-appointment-ambassador to the U.N. said about Jon Huntsman?

Bolton — who would lose, big time, to Huntsman in a literal beauty contest, by the way — criticized the former Utah governor for serving in the Obama Administration. (Perhaps he's just jealous that Huntsman was able to win Senate confirmation, and he wasn't.)

"There is no patriotic obligation to help advance the career of a politician who is otherwise pursuing interests that are fundamentally antithetical to your values," Bolton griped to the right-wing National Review. "This is not like World War II, when we are facing an existential threat to the country as a whole, and you...put partisanship aside."

You mean, Mr. Fake Ambassador, like after September 11, 2001? When the Republicans expected the entire nation to fall into political lockstep behind the Worst Person Who's Ever Lived?

Hm. Bolton's logic seems a tad off, unless he truly is crediting President Obama with eliminating the existential threat of Al Qaeda. Or unless, like so many Republicans, he thinks the existential threat is Mr. Obama himself. What makes us think it's the latter?

(PHOTO: John Bolton — Captain Kangaroo. Same person? You be the judge! Our phones are open.)

Monday, June 20, 2011

Maybe Keith Olbermann Will Have Something to Say About This Tonight



By Miss Kubelik

Oh, good heavens, here's another reason to hate golf — as if we didn't have enough already.

Golf is a ridiculous, elitist game played by Republicans in bad pants and one which we devoutly wish President Obama would give up. And now, thanks to this silly video promoting this weekend's U.S. Open, right-wing maniacs have their knickers in a twist. NBC edited out "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance! The world is ending!

Actually, we cats find it much more objectionable that NBC also chose to delete the word "indivisible." It's good to remind Rick Perry and other secessionists that that term is an important part of the Pledge. And it was there long before "under God" ever was. ("Under God," as we've explained before, is a sad relic of the Cold War and should be dropped.)

NBC should be ashamed of itself. Not for what they left on the cutting-room floor, but for trying to equate the principles upon which our nation was founded with....golf.

Pardon us. We cats are about to hack up a hairball.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Party of Prejudice, Part II

By Sniffles

We cats hope that nobody was truly shocked that an Obama impersonator hired to "perform" at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans was racially, religiously and personally offensive. What else would anyone expect? That he'd just make a few harmless jokes about healthcare reform, Elizabeth Warren and this weekend's "golf summit"?

Nope. It's pretty tough to be surprised that there's racism at a gathering of lily-white Southern Republicans raised in the traditions, beliefs and tactics of Lee Atwater.

In case you think we're going slightly over the top on this subject ourselves, just remember that this New Orleans story broke the same week as the indictment of two Republican campaign operatives in Maryland — for their attempts last year to suppress the black vote against GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich.

Overt, passionate and uncompromising racism is so rampant in today's Republican Party that we're waiting for the Southern Poverty Law Center to put the GOP on its list of American hate groups. Until then, we cats HISS.

UPDATE: Well! The Republican Leadership Conference says it officially "regrets" the offensive Obama impersonator. We cats are unimpressed. This is just another example of the GOP going over the top to drive home a nudge-nudge, wink-wink message to its rabid base, then following it up with a lame apology well after the fact — and after most of the world has moved on. When will journalists wake up and stop buying the insincerity? We cats still HISS.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Party of Prejudice

By Baxter

Jon Huntsman is too sick to fly to New Orleans for the big Republican "leadership" hootenanny. He has a cold.

Poor Jon. We cats would like to fix him some chicken soup, followed by a hot toddy, and, with much sighing and commiserating, lay cool cloths on his fevered brow. You know, something right out of Jane Austen.

Okay. For the umpteenth time, we admit it, all right? We have a crush on Jon Huntsman. We never thought we'd feel this way about a member of the GOP, and a Mormon to boot. But we can't help it — we dream about him cat-stroking us and whispering sweet Mandarin Chinese nothings in our ears.

The only thing that mildly worries us is the possibility that the Grand Old Party will decide they have a crush on Huntsman, too. Because we think he could be a formidable candidate in the 2012 general election.

But then we remember the nutty Republican base — filled with teabaggers and evangelical Christians and frothing-at-the-mouth, gun-loving bigots — and we relax.

'Cuz, see, the other thing about Jon Huntsman is that those gay Republican log-cabin types have joined us in our lust. Here's the story.

Sooooooo. How many times do you think Mitt Romney's folks and Tim Pawlenty's folks and Michele Bachmann's folks and Herman Cain's folks and all the other haters' folks have e-mailed this link today? We cats are guessing a lot.

By tomorrow, there will be no living South Carolina Republican who has not seen or heard this story. We guarantee it.

So — good. Please, Republican Party, please, please, please dislike Jon Huntsman. We want him all to ourselves!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Still One Republican To Go

By Zamboni

Looks like the New York state senate has delayed a vote on marriage equality until Monday. Which means that somebody's going to have a really interesting weekend.

We don't know if that's going to be a wavering Republican or the one Democratic state senator who is opposed. But we have to confess we're mystified about something.

Why, oh, why is there such a hullabaloo about protections in the bill for religious institutions? Nobody ever has held a gun to the head of a clergy member and forced him or her to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony. We cats find this objection disingenuous in the extreme. Aside from the fact that marriage is a matter for civil law, and only civil law — and always has been.

The foot-dragging and backward thinking over marriage equality just makes our furry little heads explode. But instead of SNARLING and HISSING, we'll try to settle down for a nap — and hope for the best on Monday.

(IMAGE: Goodness gracious. Has anyone noticed that there are two women on the New York state flag?)

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Another Terror Target Named Cole

By Miss Kubelik

So Congressman Weiner has resigned and the stock market has, um, gone up a little. Related?

Whatever. We cats are occupied with slightly weightier matters today. It appears that while still in office — a dark, awful time whose reverberations still continue — the Bush Administration told the CIA it wanted dirt on one Juan Cole, a university professor and vocal critic of the invasion of Iraq.

We're sorry to say that we're hardly surprised. After all, these Bushies are the same people who considered outing a covert CIA agent "fair game." All because her husband objected to the same illegal, lie-based war, and even though a previous Republican President had called such outings traitorous.

As E.B. White once observed, "We grow tyrannical fighting tyranny. The most alarming spectacle today is...Americans beginning to accept the device of loyalty oaths and witchhunts."

He said that during the rampage of Joseph McCarthy. But alas, it is still true today.

(IMAGE: Our fondest wish.)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho

By Sniffles

There's a growing consensus among the punditocracy regarding last night's Republican non-extravaganza.

It was a big victory for Michele Bachmann. But not so much for Tim Pawlenty. (Both of these developments could provide an opening for the secessionist from Texas to jump in.)

Herman Cain's star seems to have faded a tad, as he failed to build on his good performance in the South Carolina debate that nobody attended. (Which supports the meme that, as he's gotten more coverage, Cain is increasingly viewed by Republicans as attractive but lacking in substance.)

Mitt Romney didn't damage himself, which fits his marathon man strategy. (But he didn't do anything to brush away the yippy dogs that are snapping at his pants legs.)

Santorum, Paul and Gingrich did nothing to change their respective narratives. And — Jon Huntsman who?

All in all, a pretty satisfactory evening for us Democrats. We're wondering what the emergence of Bachmann will do to that other empty-headed brunette — and to the accepted "wisdom" over the last couple of days that the Republicans would embrace a winnable candidate rather than one who would pass a 100 percent purity test.

Hm. Somehow, we cats don't buy that "wisdom." Therefore, we PURR.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Have Mercy On Macy's

By Baxter

We cats really must quibble with one reporter's assertion that this embarrassing "Congratulations, Heat" ad in today's Miami Herald was somehow Macy's fault.

Sorry, Michael Hurley, whoever you are. Yes, Macy's would have bought the ad space well before the end of the NBA playoffs. But since the Heat went into yesterday's game down 3-2, the ad should not have run until Miami had won one more game in addition to last night's. The egg is on the Herald's face. As for Macy's — well, we're sure they're furious.

It's been hard not to notice the serious slippage of editorial standards at the Herald and many other news outlets — both in print and on the web. Now it appears that sloppiness has spread to advertising departments as well. We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: TMZ.com)

Saturday, June 11, 2011

No Favors for Newtie

By Miss Kubelik

The Palin e-mails haven't yet detonated — although there are some amusing morsels coming out. And who knows how long it'll take to plow through all 25,000?

But it's occurred to us that one person who may be sorry about the lack of an explosion so far is Newt Gingrich.

Sure, the infamous quitter from Alaska is sucking up a lot of oxygen in the Republican rubber room. But she hasn't quite managed to bump the "Gingrich self-immolates" analyses out of the headlines.

Not only that, but Gingrich — who called the Obama Administration "weak amateurs" at foreign policy — is heading into Monday night's Republican debate knowing that the third terrorist leader in six weeks has just been knocked off.

Gee whiz. At this rate, Anthony Weiner is having a better week than Newt is. We cats PURR.

Friday, June 10, 2011

A Palin Prediction

By Zamboni

We cats feel for those poor journalists who have trucked up to Juneau. They're stuck reading 25,000 printed e-mails written by the most illiterate Republican perhaps ever. That's because the current Governor of Alaska, responding to a FOIA request from three years ago, decided to release Sarah Palin's e-mails in the most inaccessible and cumbersome format possible.

Nevertheless, while members of the Fourth Estate are killing themselves to review the thousands and thousands of incoherent, syntax-challenged messages from the infamous quitter, we cats have a prediction.

One of the productive lines of investigations will not be former Governor Palin's travel expenses. Instead, it will be all the time she spent at home in Wasilla, or out of state, running for Vice President.

Before she resigned, Sarah Palin served as Governor of Alaska for 18 months. If you add up the days that she actually worked — and didn't stay at home watching wedding shows, or wasn't traveling the campaign trail, accusing Barack Obama of being a terrorist — she probably spent all of about three months running the least populous state in the country.

This makes her, unquestionably, the most qualified GOP nominee for the most powerful elected position in the world.

You betcha.

Temperature's Rising, It Isn't Surprising

By Sniffles

Goodness gracious, it's hot. We cats are all lolling about, napping, thankful that our owners can afford air conditioning. And we're flashing back to those dark days after Hurricane Katrina hit South Florida, when we had no power for days. We're hoping that now that we live in Northern Virginia, we'll get no Katrinas here.

But although physically we're in a torpor, our brains are active. And we're wondering something.

Why, when Washington gets hit with two feet of snow in February, climate-change deniers can build an igloo on the Capitol grounds, stick an "Al Gore Lives Here" sign on it and declare that the blizzard is proof that global warming is a hoax? But when we have a mid-August-ish, sustained heat blast in early June, no one on the left is screaming about climate change?

We cats think that the five people who have died in this unforgiving weather might have a thing or two to say about that.

President Gore, we await your statement. Or perhaps Anthony Weiner could say something — since he's one Democrat who's been proven to have, um, balls.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Message to Mitt, Part Two

By Baxter

Here we go again — another boomlet for a Republican who keeps swearing he's not going to run for President next year. A bunch of GOP state representatives in South Carolina are trying to urge corpulent New Jersey Governor Chris Christie into the race.

We cats are just wondering: How many times, and in how many ways, does the off-the-charts nutbag Republican base have to tell Mitt Romney to strap his Irish setter on the roof of his car and drive back to Massachusetts before he gets the message? They don't want him. No matter how many fake $10 million phone-a-thons he stages for the credulous press.

Ah, well. We cats have no control over this messy Republican nominating process, so we might as well be amused at it. But it makes no sense. Mitt Romney, at least, is not repulsive to look at. But this photo of Chris Christie (above) is far more obscene than anything Anthony Weiner's tweeted out.

Is The Gingrich Ship Sinking?

By Miss Kubelik

Here's a nifty plan. Declare you're running for President, embroil yourself in some rough news cycles, get glitter thrown all over you and your bubbleheaded wife at a book signing, and then take off on a two-week Mediterranean yachting vacation — near the end of a fundraising quarter, no less.

Sound stupid? It is. Which maybe is why the whole Gingrich campaign team has just resigned.

There are several excellent aspects to this story. One is that it gives journalists the opportunity to use the elegant French phrase en masse. (Best use of "en masse" in rhyme has to be Alan Jay Lerner's, who paired it with: "A large Wagnerian mother, with a voice that shatters glass." Newt is kinda Wagnerian, himself.)

Another is that it sets off renewed feverish speculation about the crazy right-wing secessionist from Texas. Dave Carney, one of the Gingrich resignees, is a Rick Perry guy. But — oh, no, he protests. The Gingrich "en masse mess" has nothing to do with Perry's Presidential ambitions.

We cats are still wondering how a guy who threatened his state's secession after 600,000 Americans died 150 years ago to keep Texas in the union thinks that he deserves to live in the White House. But never mind. For now, we'll just say this: If you believe Dave Carney, then you believe John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate because she was, indeed, the second-most-qualified person in the nation to be President.

(PHOTO: Seabourn Cruises. Newt is somewhere on deck, sunbathing — instead of dialing for dollars so he can pay his campaign staff.)

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Cat Fight! Sarah Palin vs. Michele Bachmann

By Zamboni

Well! The two darlings of the extreme far-right wing of the extreme, far-right organization that is today's Republican Party are sniping at each other through their spokespeople. We cats can only imagine that the infamous quitter from Alaska and her Doppelganger, Michele Bachmann, have never heard of Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment.

Aside for the fact that we're enjoying this very much, it's apparent that the GOP's politics of destruction has begun to consume their own. The clown college that forms the putative 2012 Republican field is so incredibly off the wall that it probably was only a matter of time before they started turning on one another. They've been slow to start, but now they seem to be in full swing.

This (and any other) nasty spats create two openings: First, a Republican "grownup" — if there are any left — could step in and try to separate the children fighting in the day-care sandbox. We don't know who that person could be, but it's probably an establishment figure who has secret Presidential aspirations of his own and is just waiting for the right moment. Second, the media should ask every leading Republican how he or she feels about this lemmings-to-the-sea intraparty squabbling and the candidates who engage in it.

Meanwhile, we cats will sit back and enjoy the show. After all, it's a logical extension of the politics of victimhood, self-pity and paranoia — which were fashionable in far-right circles long before Sarah Palin ever came along.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

All We Can Say Is... Go, Canucks

By Sniffles

Obviously, Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper thinks he's going to worm his way into our good graces by getting a cat. And by naming it Stanley.

He would be wrong. However, we give him points for adopting the cat from the Ottawa Humane Society. Also, Stanley is kind of cute.

We encourage Stanley to buck his adoptive family's tradition and become a member of the New Democratic Party.

(PHOTO: The Montreal Gazette. What is Stanley doing in this picture? Ringing bells to warn the Loyalists that Paul Revere is coming?)

Ich Bin Ayn Rander



The American Values Network has called out the GOP on its infatuation with Ayn Rand. We cats PURR.

Lest We Furr-get: When Republicans Twist History

By Baxter

We cats are fascinated that although Congressman Anthony Weiner's Twitter pictures completely wiped out Rick Santorum's Presidential declaration yesterday, they failed to push the infamous quitter from Alaska's Paul Revere embarrassment out of the headlines. Perhaps that's the flip side of being Sarah Palin: Yes, you get Diana-like media coverage every time you hop on a bus. You also get Diana-like media coverage every time you crash in a verbal Mercedes.

But the let's-change-Wikipedia-to-help-Palin story is alarming. Not only because we cats fear that many students get their information from that untrustworthy site, but because the pro-Palin Wiki antics so neatly fall into the Republicans' pattern of rewriting history to suit their whitewashed vision of America.

In the GOP's bizarre world, thousands of African Americans fought for the Confederacy. Evolution and climate change are fables, and creationism is solid, scientific fact. Life in Jim Crow Mississippi was "not that bad." The Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War and never raised taxes. George Washington worked the fields of Mount Vernon all by himself. Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. And, of course, Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen.

Sarah Palin's latest idiocy — on which she has, true to character, doubled down — is of a piece not just with the teabaggers' promotion of home schooling and the Republican attack on public education, but also with the comically inaccurate schoolbooks authorized by the highly politicized textbook boards in Virginia and Texas. As well as the right-wing ostriches who serve on boards of education in states like Pennsylvania and Kansas.

"Is our children learning?" Unfortunately, we cats think not.

(IMAGE: That is Paul Revere.... isn't it?)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Rick Santorum Running for President

By Miss Kubelik

We cats feel so bad for Rick Santorum.

How unlucky can he get? He officially declared that he was a candidate for President on the same day that a contrite Anthony Weiner came clean on his racy Twitter habit. You will see no Santorum coverage today — it'll be all Weiner, all the time. So we decided give Santorum the headline on this post. There you go, Rick! Feel better!

Meanwhile, in no particular order of importance, we have these Weiner-related observations.

We agree with the Congressman that what he did was "dumb," and we wish that men we admire (and yes, it's always men) would cut it out. But at least, unlike Republicans who have been caught visiting prostitutes, cheating on their wives, or soliciting sex in public bathrooms, he doesn't lecture other people on how they should live their lives.

Why does Andrew Breitbart feel the need to say that he's "seen a lot of Congressman Weiner's body" and that "he's in very good shape"? Hmmmm!

The Congressman submitted to 40 minutes of questions this afternoon from an unruly crowd of journalists. More than the infamous quitter from Alaska has done in her entire life, we suspect.

We also believe that Congressman Weiner, for all his faults, at least knows the actual facts behind Paul Revere's ride.

Finally, we respectfully suggest to Congressman Weiner that he spend the next few weeks walking the streets of his district, talking face-to-face wtih his constituents. If they don't have a problem with him, perhaps the rest of us shouldn't, either. Kind of like the voters of Louisiana, wouldn't you say?

(IMAGE: Congressman Weiner's shocking photo, "Me and The Pussies." Seems to us that he has his priorities straight. We cats approve.)

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Sh*t Heard 'Round the World

By Zamboni

We cats don't understand. If the right wingers are so fanatic about what they call our "foundational freedoms," why don't they know them better?

Michelle Bachmann said that the battle of Lexington and Concord, in which the first shots were fired in the American Revolution, took place in New Hampshire.

The infamous quitter from Alaska screwed up the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and then claimed that she didn't. All righty, then.

Herman Cain thinks that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is in the Constitution.

As Mrs. Malaprop would say, if the Founders were alive today, they'd be spinning in their graves. We're just wondering how conservative Republican public-school teachers feel when they read this crap. (If, of course, there are any left.)

(IMAGE: The Telegraph, where writers must be laughing uproariously at Republicans' ignorance of the basic facts of American history.)

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Elizabeth Warren Got Off Easy



By Sniffles

Humph. We thought it was bad enough when a Republican Congressman accused consumer protection watchdog Elizabeth Warren of lying at a House oversight subcommittee hearing last month. But then, Republicans — being famous for not giving a darn about ordinary Americans — aren't favorably disposed toward Ms. Warren, are they?

Still, it was a breach of Congressional decorum, and that guy from North Carolina should be ashamed of himself.

But now it appears the Australian Senate has proved itself even worse. Watch what one Liberal Senator does to Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water, who doesn't cotton to being interrupted while she's testifying.

Guys, we're going to have to put our paws down on this one: We cats are the only ones who get to "meow." You were way out of line, and you owe Ms. Wong an apology. In the meantime, we HISS at you!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Another Small Step for Gay Men (and Women)

By Baxter

Okay, it's not as good as actual marriage, but it's a step in the right direction. Civil unions now are legal in Illinois.

We cats are particularly pleased about this since we hail from that part of the country. But our feelings are tempered by the knowledge that the U.S. still has a long, long way to go on marriage equality. We sadly remember how shocked a Canadian friend was to discover that gay marriage is not allowed in every American state. She had assumed that the land of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness would be... well, more favorably inclined toward life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Silly her!

But — hey. Let's pop a cork and celebrate anyway. The state whose slogan honors a President with a decidedly dismal traditional marriage has made a lot of gay couples happy this week. Mazel tov, ya'll.

(PHOTO: The Chicago Tribune. By the way, Colonel McCormick must be spinning in his grave. Which makes us cats PURR.)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Queen of the Clown College

By Miss Kubelik

A new Washington Post/Pew Research poll reveals that more than a third of Republicans dislike the clown college that passes for their crop of 2012 Presidential candidates.

We can't tell from Chris Silly-izza's blog post whether Republicans were giving a thumb's down just to announced candidates, or to the whole sorry 2012 lot, including the famous quitter from Alaska. He provided no link to the actual poll results. But if frustrated GOP voters are not including Sarah Palin in their raspberries, we cats might know why. Really! Here are just a few reasons that Republicans might find the famous quitter superior to her fellow GOP harlequins.
We cats cite these Palin attributes not because we like her, but because we feel like making mischief today. Enjoy, GOP!