Renewal

By Sniffles

The New Year will find us cats on the road and in the air, so we'll be offline for a few days. Here's to a happy and prosperous 2010. See you then!

Tidbits and Cat Treats — (Almost) Year-End Edition

By Baxter

We cats despise New Year's Eve. It's the most artificial, unpleasant, sorry excuse for a holiday that humans ever invented, and whenever it rolls around we're routinely in our beds well before midnight. But on the eve of the dreaded Eve, we have a few thoughts that we'd like to share.

All those stories in the media about "the end of the decade" are not only boring, they're wrong. The "decade" isn't over until December 31, 2010. And why should we care about these 10-year increments anyway? Please, spare us.

How have the Republicans gone from "United We Stand" and "Support the Troops" to the bile Dick Cheney is spewing today? We don't know the answer, but it's more proof that The Worst Person Who Ever Lived (If Indeed He Were a Person) has a most apt first name.

While we are pleased with the poll that has Secretary of State Clinton topping the famous quitter from Alaska as America's most admired woman, we wonder how Secretary Clinton could not win this contest.

As if we needed any reminding that Chip "Chipmunk Cheeks" Saltsman is an idiot, try this on for size: Mike Huckabee, Saltsman says, is "the most successful failed Presidential candidate in the history of our country." Gee — when did Mike Huckabee win the Nobel Peace Prize? Guess we missed that.

We can't believe that anyone would have been fooled by that ridiculous JFK "photo" that TMZ posted. Get a grip, people.

Finally, although we dislike New Year's, we're very happy to be bidding farewell to 2009. Even if the decade's not over yet.

Instant Gratification

By Zamboni

We cats have always quibbled with the idea that the Baby Boomer generation — of which President Obama is a member — fancied itself special.

It wasn't just that, as cats, we have shorter life spans than most humans, whenever born. It's just that the Boomers weren't experiencing anything unique — but rather, that they had the time, and the ability, to reflect on what they were experiencing. Perhaps more than any other generation before them.

So as our parents and others before us pass on, at this turning of the calendar year we cats are in a reflective mood.

We think that perhaps our current world is too hurried. In the ability to connect with one another almost instantaneously — a rare privilege indeed — we might be losing the gift of perspective, of being able to view experiences in a certain context. Or at least to pause and privately sum things up before we react.

How ironic, therefore, that the singular talent we perceive in the current occupant of the White House is the ability to stop for a moment, and consider. It's not just that he thinks — a welcome change from the previous Administration — but that he thinks at a measured pace.

We know, folks. It'll take some getting used to. But in the end, we'll all PURR. We cats promise.

Silly Monday

By Sniffles

Hoo, boy. We cats can just imagine how the Republicans would have excoriated — in fact, did excoriate — any Democrats who dared question the Bush Administration's handling of national security.

But as you might imagine, they're not allowing that to keep them from jumping all over the Obama team in the wake of the foiled Christmas Day airplane bombing — even though the TSA has no administrator because GOP nutbag Jim DeMint has held up Erroll Southers' nomination over a labor union issue. Shameless.

We cats will agree, though, that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was too quick to proclaim that "the system worked." Now, she's backtracking. Embarrassing, for sure — but at least she didn't try to say she'd only been using a metaphor.

Merry Crist Mess

By Baxter

South Florida Republican Congressmen Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart have given their Governor, Charlie Crist, a strange Christmas present.

They've taken back their endorsement of him in the 2010 Republican Senate primary. Goodness gracious. We cats have heard of re-gifting, but never de-gifting.

The brothers also declined to endorse another candidate, i.e., right-wing darling Marco Rubio. And they allowed The Miami Herald to float the wacky idea that they reneged on the endorsement because Lincoln Diaz-Balart, especially, was miffed over an unmade judicial appointment.

Hm. Seems pretty fishy to us cats (and we're good at smelling out fish). But we have a possible explanation that we'd like to propose.

What if the Rubio campaign has been doing serious opposition research and now is making the rounds to prominent Crist endorsers, warning them that the Governor will be outed, with proof, by thus-and-such a date? If so, supporters like the Diaz-Balarts (who, as former Democrats, are not exactly known for their bedrock principles) could jump ship now — on a phony pretext — and avoid having to defend a gay candidate later.

Knowing how comfortable (NOT!) today's Republican Party is with homosexuality, we find this theory not only compelling but quite plausible. Are we onto something? We cats PURR at the thought.

"Welcome, Christmas / While we stand / Heart to heart / And hand in hand"

Ann Usher McKay, 1920-2009

Eyeball to Eyeball, Senate Republicans Blink

By Zamboni

Despite the travails of their long-suffering aides, not to mention the "little people" — security officers, cafeteria workers and gift shop cashiers — who keep Capitol Hill functioning, obstreperous Senate Republicans seemed hell-bent on delaying the healthcare reform vote until Christmas Eve.

No more. Not only did right-wing nutbag James Inhofe miss today's procedural vote, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell caved to Harry Reid and, with the Majority Leader, announced a Thursday vote of 8 a.m. instead of 7 p.m.

Now, we cats are mindful that it ain't over till it's over. But we find it amusing in the meantime that, Sarah Palin-like, the GOP can't seem to follow through on their threats and finish what they start.

P.S. We're a little mystified about Inhofe's reason for missing the second cloture vote today. His wife isn't capable of flying home alone?

Cat Fight! Jim Greer vs. Florida Republicans

By Sniffles

So, embattled Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer has injected some startling venom into the holiday season, in the form of a 19-paragraph screed to his state committee members. Goodness gracious. We know that the pro-Marco-Rubio forces have been giving Greer a hard time lately, but as Scarlett O'Hara would say, Oh, Jim, how you do run on.

But it's not just the length of the tome that has our suspicions heightened instead of assuaged. His angry ramblings evoke the best of Richard Nixon and Captain Queeg combined. He even uses the word "treason"! (We cats thought that term was reserved for Presidential candidates who pick completely unqualified running mates.)

Despite that, though, Greer makes some interesting points — all of which will get lost in his party's ongoing vitriol. He's right when he cites the fratricidal infighting among Florida Democrats in the 1990s and blames it for the party's decline into near-total irrelevance. He's right to warn that that could also happen to the Florida GOP. He's right to defend his privilege as party chair to endorse a candidate, even in a primary. And he may deserve points for identifying his critics by name — although the wave rising up against him is so high, so long and so strong that he might as well call it what it is.

Finally, Greer makes some unforced grammatical errors: using inconsistent capitalization and "Democrat" as an adjective (although we're certain that's intentional), typing "precept" instead of "percent," saying "my support with" Charlie Crist instead of "of." These mistakes — which were, of course, "made," in classic-Reagan passive tense — may just be the latest proof of the Sunshine State's inferior schools. Or they may reveal a writer under a certain amount of duress.

Those Rubio folks sure seem to have him unhinged. We cats PURR.

The Elephant in the Room

By Baxter

Well, it's about time. We cats PURR in the direction of Michael Tomasky over at The Guardian, for explaining why healthcare reform has been so ugly. Yes, folks, the culprit is the GOP — the party that has been purged of all reason.

"Lyndon Johnson got 83 Republican congressional votes for Medicare [in 1965]," Mr. Tomasky writes. "And he didn't have to lift a finger for most of them. They were moderates... But in 2009? Believe me, I'd be a happy camper if this bill had had the support of even five moderate GOP senators and 12 moderate GOP House members. But they no longer exist."

Forty Republicans marching in lockstep against giving Americans what other Western democracies can take for granted — healthcare as a right, not a privilege — is a problem. It gives the Democratic majority absolutely no wiggle room: They must get 60 votes, and do to so they have to make deals, including some pretty unattractive ones. Why the cable-news talking heads in the U.S. haven't been all over this point, we cats have no idea. But it's one of the main reasons we've been reluctant to jump on the isn't-this-bill-awful bandwagon.

Note to all you alleged journalists out there: The next time you find yourself blathering about the minefield Harry Reid has had to negotiate, try asking yourselves why.