The Sound of Music

By Miss Kubelik

"Herb" Cain sang?

Okay, we cats haven't seen the likes of this since Margaret Trudeau burst into embarrassing song at a state dinner in Venezuela. Mind you, when Mrs. Trudeau did that — oh, 40 or so years ago — everyone thought it was terrible. Because it was.

Margaret, you have been redeemed.

Guys running for President of the United States — guys taken undeservedly seriously by the mainstream media — are singing in public! Have we got this right?

GOP, the next move is yours. What's next — your candidates appearing in lederhosen at the November 9 debate?

We cats yawn, stretch and await. The hills are alive!

P.S.: Of course Cain called this a "witch hunt." It's Halloween, after all.

Freepers: GOP Trying to Can Cain

By Sniffles

We cats will have more to say about the sexual harassment allegations that are swirling around "Herb" Cain today. (Such as: Any story that reminds us of Clarence Thomas's ick factor is good for America.)

But for some instantaneous Cain reaction, we figured it would be most efficient to visit our wacky teabagger friends over at Free Republic.

And ooh, are they mad. Guess who they're mad at.

Mitt Romney! Karl Rove! Rick Perry! The whole doggone Republican establishment! Even Concerned Women for America!

We can't wait to see how many teabaggers crowd the convention floor in Tampa next year — and what they say and do. In the meantime, here are some choice Freeper comments on L'affaire "Herb" (that is, until we come up with some deathless remarks of our own).

"RINOs are territorial, Herman. Just keep your eyes sharp and remember that RINOs aren't very bright and you'll be fine."

"I suspect the Rovebot GOP Establishment is behind this. They have been doing everything they can to derail Cain. This sort of sleazy tactics is right up their ally."

"Along with Romney."

"This is exactly how Mitt Romney’s political aides work."

"Looks like Perry camp behind this. Pretty damn dirty, I might add."

"Concerned Women for America, the right-leaning women’s group... This smells like those who are sMITTen."

"I believe that there are mentally ill women who for some reason feel all men have an interest in them, whether real or fancied. They tend to enjoy the drama at the expense of their victims."

"Concerned Women for America: He already answered the 'charges.' Go fix sandwiches."

A Simply Frightful Amendment

By Zamboni

On this Halloween Eve, let us pause and consider the scariest thing on today's political scene.

Nope, it's not the GOP 2012 clown college. They're mostly just good for a laugh (and the one guy who isn't, is roundly hated by the Republican base). It's not even the nervous-making state of the economy. It's the "personhood" amendment.

The state of Mississippi is on the verge of approving a constitutional amendment that would define an embryo as a full person. Its off-the-radar-right-wing creator and the religious nutcases who support it think they're taking a brilliant new tack in the fight against abortion. But what it could actually do is outlaw many forms of birth control and take away the ability of women (and men) to control their own lives.

It's this kind of stuff that makes us cats so, so, SO glad that we no longer can have kittens. Thanks to that long-ago bit of surgical intervention, we know that no matter how hard they try, the personhood-pushing fundamentalist maniacs can't touch us. But women in Mississippi and maybe even in other parts of the country would lose their right to self-determination if this horrific thing passes.

The right wing likes to scream about how important it is to keep government out of our lives. But somehow they manage to make an exception when it comes to the work of scary people like the great American pictured above.

We cats SNARL. Happy Halloween, everyone.

UPDATE, October 31: Ironic, of course, that people are crusading for this amendment as the world's population hits 7 billion — today.

Occupy Eric

By Baxter

Have you been tracking Eric Cantor's comings and goings lately? That's a trick question, because keeping tabs on the little weasel can be pretty tough.

See, Cantor is ducking the "mobs" — which is what he famously called the Occupy Wall Street folks.

First, he canceled a speech at the University of Pennsylvania (at the last minute, we might add). Now, he's scheduled to speak at Northwestern University tomorrow, but unlike most campus addresses given by visiting dignitaries, it's all very hush-hush.

What does Cantor think — that if the Occupy demonstrators get hold of him, they'll Gaddafi him? "Now that we know when and where he'll be, there will be people there," an Occupy organizer said.

Whatever he's afraid of (and we cats think we know what that is), we're willing to bet that he finks out on his Northwestern speech, too. Because that's what finks do.

UPDATE: Okay, we were wrong: The little weasel spoke at Northwestern today after all. Don't "demonize" rich people, he implored. Not very brave of him, considering that his audience was invitation-only.

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Republican Lunacy Edition

By Miss Kubelik

The GOP has gone so nutty these days that we cats could use this headline over and over again. Heck, even Chris Matthews sputtered last night on "Hardball" that the 2012 clown college seems like a bunch of goofballs playacting at running for President. (With the possible exception of Mitt Romney, which, of course, must drive the Freepers crazy.)

But every day, our news clips bring us more head-scratching Republican tidbits. To wit:

Newt Gingrich has risen from the dead, avers the too-young-for-his-job Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. "The recent slew of debates [have worked] in Gingrich's favor," says he. "Gingrich has emerged as a kind of star in these forums... to regularly emerge as a winner in the after-action analyses of the debates." But isn't it worth noting that the next debate isn't until November 9? How will that affect Gingrich's Big Mo? And more important, what's he doing otherwise, organizationally? We cats think he and Callista have been going out for coffee and shopping at Tiffany's. Hm.

Rick Perry says he won't support specialty license plates that feature the Confederate battle flag. "We don't need to be scraping old wounds," Mr. Birther ironically said.

More information has come to light about the terrible suffering Marco Rubio's parents endured to get to America. "On May 18, 1956," POLITICO reports, "Mario and Oriales Rubio walked into the American Consulate in Havana and applied for immigrant visas. The form asked how long they intended to stay in the United States. 'Permanently,' Mr. Rubio answered." Sounds like the typical harrowing, desperate, flee-for-your-life Cuban immigrant experience to us! Is there a bigger fraud in the U.S. Senate today than Marco Rubio?

Speaking of frauds, James Carville is officially "worried" about next year's Presidential election. Ever notice how Carville will freely criticize Democrats, but his wife, Mary Matalin, never deviates from Republican talking points?

Finally, we cats note with satisfaction that the teabagger freshman House members are having trouble raising money. Ha. They blame the system, of course. But we cats say, have we seen a bigger case of buyer's remorse? We PURR.

He Shoulda Stuck to Scrapbooking

By Sniffles

Some unsettling news is coming out of Libya about the last moments of Muammar Gaddafi. It seems that the dictator who always said his people adored him was set upon by a mob — and all the nasty things that you imagine could happen to him.... well, they happened.

We cats can think of few people who would deserve such a horrifying end — Hitler, Pol Pot, Karl Rove, Allen West. But, ugh. Add the fact that Gaddafi's body has, until recently, been on public display in a meat locker, and we're feeling a little numb. We're no experts on Arab culture, but could this guy have suffered any more disrespectful treatment, before and after death?

Let us be clear: We're weeping no tears for Muammar Gaddafi. And we're sure that anyone who lost a loved one on Pan Am 103 would agree. But this rebel rage, unleashed by 42 years of brutal Gaddafi rule, nevertheless is shocking.

We cats agree with Human Rights Watch that a full investigation and accounting must take place. But we also must remember that back in February, Gaddafi was on the brink of massacring the entire city of Benghazi — an atrocity that the NATO action helped prevent.

Gah. We liked it better when he was making photo albums of Condoleezza Rice.

Cat Fight! Rick Perry vs. Common Sense

By Zamboni

Oh, dear. We cats share something with Rick Perry: an admiration for the film "Immortal Beloved." (Yes, we know that its star, Gary Oldman, is a right winger. But the music is good.)

However, the most important tidbit to come from Perry's recent Parade magazine interview is that he's not sure President Obama's long-form birth certificate is real.

It's incredible that this is still a subject for discussion in GOP circles — but fine with us. We don't call the Republican 2012 contenders the clown college for nothing, and it's nice to know that their nuttiness is continuing to marginalize them for next year's general election.

It must be driving Karl Rove crazy to know that at some point in a domestic policy debate, the moderator is going to ask Mitt Romney (or whoever the GOP nominee is), "Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States?"

As we've said before, we can't wait.

Wanted: Boatlift Veterans for Truth

By Baxter

It's happened again. A new member of the GOP clown college shows up, gets inundated with all the hopes and dreams and longings of a frantic and desperate party, and ends up being an idiot.

Latest case in point: Marco Rubio, the little brat from Florida who's been touted as a possible Republican Vice Presidential nominee next year. Want to make the famous quitter from Alaska look like a sage, mature choice? Marco's your boy.

Rubio's right-wing politics make him repulsive enough, but on top of all that he's just been outed as a liar.

His parents, he's said, fled Castro's Cuba and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps as exiles in the United States. Um, no. Rubio's parents came to America in 1956. Last we checked, Fidel Castro took over in '59.

We cats think that folks who truly suffered to get from beleaguered Caribbean islands to the U.S. should form a new political action committee: Boatlift Veterans for Truth. They should run commercials calling Rubio the fake and the fraud he is, and they should show up at every Rubio event and hound him without mercy. Yep, Marco Rubio should be "boatlifted."

Who would bankroll such a worthy effort? We cats are wondering if John Kerry has any loose change lying around.

No More Muammar

By Miss Kubelik

Add another notch to Barack Obama's "bag the bad guys" belt: Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi was killed today in Sirte.

We cats caught the first airing of a gruesome cellphone video of Gaddafi's bloodied corpse on Al Jazeera English this morning. We could post the screen grab from that video, but we think we'll refrain. We're not squeamish — we just were sick of looking at the guy long before he was dead.

So, a big conversation is going on over at POLITICO about whether President Obama should "get credit" for Gaddafi's toppling. Well, duh. Of course, many commenters are saying, "Sure, this is an accomplishment. But the economy is the issue!"

Um, yes. The state of the economy will be huge in 2012. But like it or not, whichever member of the Republican clown college gets nominated next year, he or she will have to engage in a debate with the President on foreign policy.

And not only has Obama made George W. Bush and Dick Cheney look like tough-talking pantywaists who couldn't get the war on terrorism done — the Republican nominee will be representing a party that's weak and rudderless on engaging with the world. Heck, one of the GOP's "bright lights" didn't even know that Libya is in Africa.

We can't wait.

Tidbits and Cat Treats — Various & Sundry Edition

By Sniffles

With so many different news stories competing for our attention, we cats have decided to post a grab-bag of topics before we take our fourth afternoon nap of the day. Here goes.

We must take a moment to salute our chief diplomat, Hillary Rodham Clinton— not just for her surprise visit to Kabul but her entire State Department tenure thus far.

We think that Ms. Clinton will be viewed by historians as one of the most effective Secretaries of State, ever. President Obama may have received the Nobel Peace Prize for restoring America's standing with the world, but Hillary has worked tirelessly behind the scenes for the last three years to make stuff happen. Kudos to her — and kudos to the President, for one of his wisest hires.

We cats are against red ties. When Rick Perry wears one, it makes him look like a hard-nosed bully. (Of course, he probably is a hard-nosed bully.) When President Obama wears one, it just doesn't flatter him as well as an ice-blue or silver tie does. And of course our opinion has nothing to do with that whole political-party, red-blue thing.

We don't understand why anyone should be upset that Susan Sarandon called Pope Benedict a Nazi. Pope Benedict was a Nazi.

We refuse to read this awful story from Ohio, about the jerk who kept exotic animals and then threw their cages open before committing suicide. You know what? People have no business keeping animals. Unless, of course, the animals are us. We're domestic companions — lions and tigers and bears aren't. We cats HISS.

Finally, we just had to beam in, at least for a couple of minutes, to see what the right-wing nutjobs at Free Republic were saying about last night's GOP debate. This is not a scientific survey. But we noted a sudden absence of enthusiasm for "Herb" Cain, a total abandoning of Rick Perry, a sustained hatred for Mitt Romney, and an abruptly renewed appreciation for Newt Gingrich.

But overall? One commenter posted the following: "I worry for the nation if these are the best candidates the GOP can offer."

We agree, dear Freeper, we agree.