Hawleyblog

Why Are We Giving Obama So Much Credit for So Few Empty Words?

Everyone is falling all over themselves praising President Obama for saying what we can be pretty sure he's believed all along, despite all his bullshit talk about how his views are evolving on the issue: He's got no problem with gay and lesbian couples getting married.

I'm not arguing that it isn't a significant development for a sitting president to endorse gay marriage. But let's not forget the other, all-important thing he said about same-sex marriage: It should be left up to the states to decide. So even though he believes it should be allowed to happen, he's not about to impose it on states that are repulsed by the very thought of it. And he's tacitly making the argument that the U.S. Constitution doesn't grant LGBT citizens the right to marry whomever they want. I'd like to ask him why states should get to decide this matter but not whether citizens of different races should be allowed to marry. And I'm saddened that it's mostly conservative and libertarian voices who are pointing out the ridiculousness of that part of Obama's statement.

And of course, he said this a day too late to have any effect on the opinions of the people of North Carolina, who enshrined discrimination against lesbian and gay couples into their state constitution.

Ultimately, it's just empty talk in an election year. Just like this too-little-too-late election-year spin from Harry Reid on how he was wrong to let the Republicans play him for a fool.

Obama still doesn't plan to sign an executive order banning discrimination against LGBT workers at companies with government contracts. That's something he could do right now that would have a definite, positive impact on people's lives.

And we can't overlook the fact that Joe Biden's response to a question forced Obama to make a statement now. I don't buy the story that the White House was planning to endorse marriage equality sometime before the election.

And we also must not overlook the all-important issue of money. Donations from deep-pocketed LGBTers were down, and he probably thought this action these words would get the checks rolling in again. And he's almost certainly right about that.

We have to demand more from this self-described fierce advocate of our community. Despite his occasional public complaints about Wall Street behavior, the banksters have gotten everything they've wanted from Obama in return for heavily donating to his first campaign. Why do we LGBT citizens happily settle for so little?

Crossposted at Queer New York

A Current Affairs Post With a Hospital-Rezoning Hearing and Some Related Notes

The Hospital-Related Protest

On March 6, I went to a public hearing on the rezoning of the former St. Vincent's Hospital site that would allow developer Rudin Management to build 450 condominiums. I arrived at 9:20 for a meeting that was supposed to start at 9:30. Along with dozens of other people opposed to the rezoning, I waited outside in the cold for a chance to speak. Many people, most of whom were elderly, gave up as the hours passed. About noon, I was let into the building along with almost all of the rest of us who had been waiting; maybe five people were left after me. We had been let in five or so at a time, as if letting a bunch of us into some room, out of the cold, would have been dangerous, because we might have gone wilding or something inside the council building. There was a major police presence outside the building. You'd have thought the (mostly) old people who wanted a goddamn hospital in their neighborhood were a bunch of murderous thugs who wanted to burn down or blow up the building. It was crazy.

I ended up submitting written testimony because it was clear it would be several hours before those of us who were the last to be admitted would have a chance to speak—if we ever got a chance. I wrote something to the effect of, If the City Council based its decision on the needs of its constituents instead of on the desires of a greedy developer, there wouldn't be any question as to the proper decision.

The rezoning was approved by City Council Wednesday. The number of condos has been reduced by 100, but it's still a huge giveaway to a well-connected developer. I figured the fix was in, long before the meeting earlier this month. But I'm glad I went, so I don't feel like I sat on my hands while our hospital site was given away.

We May No Longer Be Allowed to Peacably Protest Outside Political Events if They're Considered by the Secret Service to Be "National Special Security Events"

And if we do, we could be jailed for up to 10 years, once the president signs H.R. 347. And on a related note, the NSA is building a huge telecommuncations spying center in Utah. 

Too Crooked to Fail

Matt Taibbi on Bank of America

The White House Was Very Much Involved in the USDA's Decision to Fire Shirley Sherrod

Bunch of goddamn cowards. Pierce's link to the Washington Post story no longer works. This one does.

Life Is Cheap Over There

So that makes it OK to snuff out a whole lot of it. And on a related note, we've taught our potential future enemies a very important lesson: whatever you do, don't give up on your nuclear program.

Jailed Climate Activist Was Thrown in Solitary Confinement on One Congressman's Say-So

If you're an enemy of Big Oil, you're an enemy of the government, and you will be punished—even if all you're doing is taking a principled stand on who's contributing to your defense fund. Tim DeChristopher was put back in his regular cell the next day after lots of people complained. And that's the only way abuse of power is stopped. And on a related note (because those stories came from Rolling Stone), here's a must-read article about how a school system in Michele Bachmann's congressional district has made the lives of LGBT teens nightmarish.

Obama Says "Drill, Baby, Drill"

He crows about all of the new drilling and pipeline construction that's taken place on his watch as he announces that he's fast-tracking the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline. Everything has gotten so much better now that two oilmen are no longer running the executive branch.

The NYPD Is Making Like the FBI

As you probably heard, it's spying on Muslims. With money from the feds. And also on liberal groups. On a related note, the homeland security state is targeting college kids.

The Obama Administration Is All About Helping Monsanto

The USDA is doing everything it can to speed up approvals of new biotech crops, including allowing companies to do their own environmental reviews. On a related note, the State Department sees the biotech industry's business as its business.

And, Finally, Two More Reasons Why America Has Lost Its Way

Senators continue to warn that the Obama administration is interpreting the Patriot Act in a way that citizens wouldn't be happy about—and that it's being used to justify a worthless operation. On a related note, in a story from back in December, Ralph Lopez of War Is a Crime calls bullshit on the media's whitewashing of the National Defense Authorization Act. It really is the beginning of martial law.

Happy Times, Part II

Man, it felt great to be on the winning side of a progressive issue for once. "Chalk one up for love and equality," I wrote on my Facebook wall Friday night, with a link to the New York Times story on the victory for gay marriage. I followed that up with "And Ruben Diaz Sr. and our cowardly president can eat my shorts!"

I'd gone off about Obama in a comment on Homer's blog earlier that day:

Obama held a fundraiser here in the city last night to rake in money from well-heeled LGBTers. He said he believes in equal rights for gay and lesbian couples, but he wouldn't dare say he was in favor of marriage. Just more bullshit about leaving it up to the states. "Under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, with the support of Democrats and Republicans, New York is doing exactly what a democracy is supposed to do," he said, according to a Daily Intel post on nymag.com. WTF? This is the best a "fierce advocate" of ours can do in front of a pack of queer bigwigs who are shelling out a lot of cash to get him re-elected? And the Republican leadership is not in fact doing what should happen in a democracy. They're delaying movement on the gay-marriage bill and may not allow it to come to a vote at all, while making noise about increasing protections for those who oppose marriage equality on religious grounds. Which brings me back to your point about religion being the root of the problem, Homer. "I believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. For me as a Christian, it is a sacred union. You know, God is in the mix." Presidential candidate Obama said that while speaking at asshat Rick Warren's church to curry favor with the mouth breathers WHO WOULD NEVER VOTE FOR HIM IN A MILLION YEARS. When our supposed heroes give ammo to the wingnuts, we have no choice but to tell them to fuck themselves. Republican politicians rush to endorse (or fail to repudiate) whatever crazy-ass nonsense their core voters believe (Obama was born outside the U.S., global warming is a myth, keep the government out of my Social Security), but our former-Consitutional-law-professor president had no problem endorsing the clearly un-Constitutional notion that religious beliefs trump civil rights in this country. And he still won't say what he ought to have the courage to say today, even with most polls showing a majority of Americans are now in favor of marriage equality. We have no real leaders in this country who stand up for basic American principles and values. Only cowards who yield to the haters at every turn.

Ruben Diaz is a bigoted, twice-married asshole who is worthy of all of the scorn heaped upon him. But how many of the LGBTers who rightfully denounce Diaz act like they have no choice but to vote to re-elect a man who, like Diaz, says that civil unions are sufficient for the queers (even though back in the mid-1990s, he said he was all for gay marriage)? And the White House's statement after Governor Cuomo signed marriage equality into law was just as tepid as the bullshit he served up at the fundraiser. And let's not forget where Mr. Hopey Changey went after he'd gotten what he wanted from teh gayz.

It's also sad and discouraging that the successful vote depended partly on well-timed bribes of Republican lawmakers from "libertarian" billionaires. As Max Read writes for Gawker at that second linked article, it's great that some of the billionaires had relatives or friends who are gay and so felt inclined to join this fight. But what about the poor people on Medicaid? Which billionaires are going to feel bad for them and come to their rescue?

And hello, NYT!? Carl Kruger is a closet case who changed his position only after he was outed as a result of his indictment on bribery charges. Why would you try to stuff him back in the closet in this article? "Some gay activists, assuming he was a lost cause, had taken to picketing outside his house and screaming that he was gay—an approach that seemed only to harden his opposition to their agenda." Right. How dare "some gay activists" treat a seated state senator like that? And at great peril to their cause, because all they've done is succeeded in HARDENING his ... opposition. To their AGENDA! The paper of record's selection of the word "agenda" seems designed to make homophobes happy, and that bullshit article has only helped to harden my continued opposition to paying for a NYT digital subscription.

***

On Sunday, I marched in the Pride Parade with a group of gay bloggers, like I did two years ago. LIke the last time, the difficult part was waiting around for our group to start moving. But it was fun to see some of my blogger friends who I don't see in person all that often. And all of the positive energy from the crowd lining the streets felt wonderful.

Tony stayed with the dogs while I was away. Poor Rudy got separation anxiety and seemed genuinely afraid that Tony was going to take him away from me for good when he walked him, first before I left to join up with the bloggers and then again later in the afternoon. Rudy didn't want to go very far from the apartment, and when he came back inside the second time, he looked around for me. My special basset guy still feels the pain of when he was abandoned by his previous human(s), and it breaks my heart.

Stacy and Hal came into the city for the parade. They had made plans to visit Bob and Jen in Brooklyn at around 4 or 4:30. Our group was scheduled to be at the very end because Tony A., the head of Queer New York and the guy who has signed us up to march the past two years, forgot to do it this year until after the official deadline, and the groups line up in the order in which they had registered. (A week ago Sunday, I sent him an e-mail asking whether we were going to be in the parade.) H&S wanted to hang out with me after the parade and before they left for Brooklyn, and I told them I didn't think we'd be at the end of the parade route by 4. And we weren't. We were supposed to step off at 1, but it was after 3:30. I did get to say hi to S&H on the street. Stacy took this photo of me that's now my profile pic on Facebook:

And I took this pic of S&H before giving them hugs and running off to catch up to my group:

Hal texted me a whole slew of pictures of the parade that he took with his iPhone, so I felt like I got to see a good deal of it. Thanks, Hal! :-)

Here's a pic of fellow QNY blogger Patrick (in the sleeveless shirt with the cool pattern) and his squeeze boy Bill G., whom I knew from the Sunday game group before they started going out. Sometimes it's a small gay world, even in the big city:

To the right of Patrick, in the fetching new blue hat and with his back to the camera, is Tony A.

Here are Stash and QNY blogger Jim, aka Mondschein, who told me I need to see this play:

And here's Jeff Kagan, whom I think half of the gay men in New York know. We went to college together (when, unfortunately, neither of us was out), and we need to get together in person again soon. He came around to confirm that all of the groups that were supposed to line up for the parade on 37th Street between 5th and Madison were present and in the correct order:

There was a group of Bradley Manning supporters a few spots in front of us bloggers in the parade. And I totally agree that he's a gay hero:

My favorite sticker of the day—and quite similar to my "Make (Illustration of Cupcakes) Not War" T-shirt—said "Make Out Not War." And my favorite T-shirt of the day said "Save a lollipop. Suck a dick." And on that classy note ...

A Flower-Filled Current Affairs Post

Here are some current affairs items with photos of purty flowers—mostly cut ones I bought at the Greenmarket—in between to make the crazy shit that's going on easier to handle.

The DHS Has Stopped Investigating Domestic Terrorist Threats Because the Wingers Lost Their Shit Over that Report that the Bushies Had Started, but the Obama Administration Still Has the Resources to Go After the Socialist Hippies

I sent the following e-mail to Bob a couple of weeks ago ...

Obama's DHS stopped investigating domestic terrorist groups because of the big ruckus the right-wing noise machine made over the totally innocuous report the department had inherited from the previous administration. Something tells me it hasn't stopped infiltrating antiwar groups (Evil Quakers!) and checking on people who still believe in the rule of law, though. Biggest bunch of cowards ever. One term!

... with the following link: 

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-urges-dhs-to-reassess-resources-after-key-analyst-reveals-unit-on-domestic-terror-was-scaled-back?ondntsrc=MBC110670DJE&newsletter=newsgen-20110608

Sure enough, a week later, he sent me this story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/activists-cry-foul-over-fbi-probe/2011/06/09/AGPRskTH_story.html

Peonies and Alstroemeria, May 24

An Anti-Terrorist Group Within the Pentagon That Was Tracking Bin Laden Before 9/11 Was Told to Stop It

That inconvenient fact was left out of the 9/11 Report.

Sweet Williams, May 28

A CIA Officer Says the Bushies Wanted Him to Go After Anti-Iraq-War Blogger Juan Cole

Cole understands Arabic, so he was able to call bullshit on the warmongers' false claims, which most of the media couldn't have cared less about because they were too busy shouting "America! Fuck yeah!"

Sweet Peas, May 14

Ed Koch Is Shilling for the Developer That Wants to Give the West Village a Shitty Health Care Facility

He's "chairman" of an astroturf group that's a front for Rudin Management Co.

The Sheridan Square Viewing Garden, With a Magnolia in the Center, April 19

Tritium Has Leaked From Most U.S. Nuclear Plants, Usually Via Corroded Pipes

Some of those pipes are supposed to carry cooling water to the reactor in the event of an emergency. Last year, PSEG Nuclear, the operator of the nuclear plant in Lower Alloways Creek, in Salem County, New Jersey, not very far from where I grew up, discovered 680 feet of corroded underground pipe (though no leaked tritium-contaminated water in this instance). PSEG Nuclear hadn't visually inspected that critical section of pipe, which was supposed to have cooled unit 1 of the reactor, since it started up—in 1977.

A Japanese Maple on the Way to Union Square, April 30

Obama's Touted Withdrawal of Troops From Afghanistan Doesn't Even Get Us Back to Bush-Era Levels

It would take place over more than the course of a year and would still leave 65,000 of our men and women over there as of December 2012. Even though Osama bin Laden is dead. And was found in Pakistan, our very important ally in the War on Terror.

A Vase of Tulips in Front of a Vase of Dogwood, With a Lot of Clutter, April 30

Japan, Germany, South Africa, and France All Reverse Decisions or Slow Down on Nuclear Power and Fracking in LIght of Evidence of Their Harm

Not the U.S. The Obama administration is still "routinely waiving fire rule violations at nearly half the nation's 104 commercial reactors." EPA head Lisa Jackson has her head in the sand when it comes to fracking-contaminated water supplies, and six of the seven Obama appointees to a commission that investigated the safety of fracking had industry ties. 

A Flower Bed on 12th St., May 6

The Judicial Insider Trading of Clarence and Ginni Thomas

The silent Supreme Court justice must resign.

An Unusual Shrub on the High Line, Near Gansevoort Street, May 15

There's a Secret Interpretation of the Patriot Act That's Being Used to Do Secret Things Against Americans

So says Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. The ACLU is trying to get to the truth.

Another Photo From the High Line, May 15

How to Defeat the Corporate Elite

Bruce Levine at truthout offers a 10-step plan.

And Another

A "Family Values" Group That's Usually All About Getting Gays to Become Ex-Gays Is Arguing for Whore Frequenter David Vitter's Hypocritical (and Possibly Diapered) Ass to Step Down From the Senate in Light of the Fury Over Anthony Weiner's Sexting "Scandal"

If only the Dems cared enough to ... Ha! No point in even finishing that sentence.

Anemones, May 9

The Hancock 37. vs the Drones

These brave souls got arrested while protesting the MQ-9 killer drone operations run out of Hancock Field in Syracuse, New York.

Citrus-Scented Lilies, June 4

Obama's War on Whistle-Blowers Intensifies

From my man, must-read Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald

Calibrachoas, on the Gerbers' deck, June 19

Obama's War on Investigative Journalist Jim Risen

Also from Glenn Greenwald

Vanilla-Scented Lilies, at Tony's Apartment, June 18

And Finally, Obama's War on Environmental Activist Tim DeChristopher

The administration admits that the public land auction DeChristopher disrupted with fake bids during the Bush regime was illegal, but it still prosecuted him. And he now faces years in prison.

And Finally, Incredibly Circular, Peach-Colored Roses; Window of VSF (Very Special Flowers); June 22

Memorial Day Weekend 2011, Part II

On Saturday, I'd gotten some Kentucky Colonel Spearmint from Keith's Farm to make Spearmint Stracciatella Ice Cream. Because I was eager to see how my spearmint-flavored ice cream tasted with the tiny chocolate bits in it. I'd been getting worried that Keith had abandoned the Union Square Greenmarket or, worse, had stopped farming altogether, because it seemed like every other farmstand had started coming to the USG after the winter lull except for him. So I was thrilled on that Friday when I saw on Lucy's Greenmarket Report that "KEITH WILL BE HERE TOMORROW!!" Lucy is apparently as big of a fan of Keith's produce as I am.

On Sunday morning, I got up before 7—like 6:45!—to start making the ice cream. I wanted it to be frozen enough so my friends Desirée and Bob and the guys at the Game Party could try it later that day. D&B were coming into the city from Jersey to have lunch with Tony and me—and to try my latest flavors of ice cream.

We ate at Gobo, a vegan restaurant that's Tony's go-to place for takeout and the location for delicious in-house meals with Lou and with Stacy and Hal. Gobo never disappoints. The food is always well-prepared and fresh tasting as can be, and we've never gotten bad service. Bob and Desirée are always game to try something new. Along with their main entrees, they shared some of the Beijing-style smoked seitan, which is "meat" made of wheat. AKA poison for Mr. Tony. :-) It looked like a grilled sausage. I wasn't in the mood for trying something new, so I didn't have a bite. B&D liked it.

Tony went to the office, and the rest of us headed back to my place. Because Bob is very allergic to dogs, Desirée and I carried the ice cream outside to eat, like we did last summer. I had them try the Peppermint Stracciatella first and then the Spearmint Stracciatella. I never thought I'd like any mint flavor better than the black peppermint but the Kentucky Colonel spearmint is mindblowingly delicious. Desirée liked the spearmint better than the peppermint too. Bob raved about them both. They were both going to stop there, but I insisted D at least try a spoonful of the coffee. She enjoyed that too.

I made a double batch of the spearmint, and I took a container of it to the Game Party. It was a big hit. *takes a small bow*

***

That morning, I had taken Emme to a groomer to get her hair cut really short for the summer. Things didn't start out well. This groomer works out of a petshop a few blocks up Hudson from Charles. The store doesn't open until 11 on Sundays, so the groomer said she would look for me outside the door at the appointed time of 9:30.

She or her assistant did see us, and they let us in right away. But she said she thought I was coming in at 11. And she was expecting a different kind of dog. I told her we'd agreed on 9:30 and I reminded her that she'd given me the instructions to wait at the door because my appointment was for a time before the store opened. We went into the grooming area at the back of the store, and she told me my vet's office had faxed over the rabies certificate, which was strange because I hadn't asked them to. There's a new law in the city that groomers have to see proof of rabies vaccination before they can begin working on a dog. I actually found the certificate given to me by my old vets in Park Slope so I didn't need them to fax it. At this point, the groomer finally realized she was confusing me with someone else who was indeed coming in at 11. She told me to come back in about an hour and a half to pick up the girl.

When we'd talked on the phone, the groomer had asked me how Emme feels about getting her hair cut, something like that. I was being dippy and interpreted that to mean, Did Emme like having short hair? I said she seemed much more comfortable last summer after she got her hair cut short at the insistence of my vet. The groomer then said she meant, Does she mind the process of getting her hair cut? And I assured her Emme wouldn't be any problem.

And Emme wasn't. She was an angel, and the groomer told me as much when I went to claim her. I paid at the register and included a tip before I saw what Emme looked like. The hair on her body was as short as I wanted it, but there was an abrupt transition to the longer hair on her head and there were some longer strands here and there that I was going to have to trim.

The woman who groomed Emme last year worked out of a froufrou dog clothing and accessories store on Hudson, a short distance south of Charles. When I saw that the store was going out of business a while ago, I should have gone in to see whether the groomer would be working out of a new place or her home or whatever. But I didn't. And I couldn't find her online.

I put this picture of Emme on Facebook with the caption "Emme got groomed today, and she's cuter than a box full of kittens":

***

On Monday, I took it pretty easy.

***

On Tuesday evening, Tony and I caught The Normal Heart with Lou and Eugene after a fine dinner at gluten-free-friendly Nizza, a place Tony picked out and where, coincidentally, Eugene and I had eaten after going to a play last year. I can't recall for sure, but I think it was after In the Next Room.

We all found TNH to be incredibly powerful. Outside the theater, two guys were handing out a letter from Larry Kramer, the firebrand author of the play and the co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis (as depicted in the play) and ACT UP. Lou knows/knew some of the people depicted in TNH, including Kramer and Paul Popham, and he told us some harrowing stories from that time. Tony said he was happy to see a broad range of people in the audience: younger as well as older gay men and people who looked like straight tourists from the Midwest. Here's a photo of the letter. Click on it to enlarge it.

A Dog Post in Which I Once Again Think Emme May Be a Goner

Emme had diarrhea on Saturday morning and twice yesterday morning. I took her to the vet early yesterday afternoon, and Dr. Sane said it was most likely caused by an infection and wasn't a sign that her body was shutting down from age, which is what I had feared. He gave her a couple of injections, including penicillin, and I got some medicine to administer to her at home. She was fine all day yesterday, and her poo was normal when I walked her first thing today. Let me tell you, I have never been so happy to see regular turdlets drop out of her butt as I was this morning.

Saturday morning was a train wreck. Emme let loose on my rug not long after I set her down from the bed, and I tracked poop back toward my bathroom before I realized what had happened. (I don't understand why I didn't smell the nastiness right away. Maybe because my nostrils hadn't been opened by coffee yet.) Her first accident Sunday morning was easier to deal with because she was in her crate and she'd somehow managed to mostly shit out the side of it and onto the tile floor. And just before I took her to the vet, she leaked into the towel in her crate. That turned out to be a good thing because it gave us a sample for labwork.

Here's a photo I took earlier of Emme looking much more healthy and blending in with the floor:

My vet called a while ago to confirm that there was no evidence of parasites in Emme's stool. And my dog walker told me he had to take one of his other clients' dogs to the vet today because it had bad diarrhea too. There's a bug going around.

***

Splashes the Professor is a three-time basset hound Best in Breed winner at Westminster, including this year. I love his special talent. (It may take a moment for the correct photo in the slide show to pop into place.)

***

I captured Emme in a classic pose the other night. Her head is actually on top of a not-very-comfy bone, and she seems to be hugging her food bowl to her. Or she would be if she had limbs long enough to hug it.

***

A while ago, I encountered a woman on Hudson Street who was quite taken with Rudy. She asked whether he was a French basset. I said I didn't know what that meant. She said bassets that come from a French breeding line have a more slender face and smaller ears. It's possible; he does have a narrow face, I said. I could have asked her to give him a kiss, and when he lapped at her face, I'd have said, "He IS French!"

***

When Emme sees me cleaning Rudy's ears, she starts licking her chops. That's because at the end of what I call their "dog maintenance"—which generally starts with cleaning the inside of Rudy's ears and also consists of cleaning outside parts of Rudy and sometimes Emme with a washcloth and soap and water (he gets dirtier much quicker than she does), brushing their teeth, and combing their fur—I give the woofers a snack.

***

I met a woman at the dog run by the river who said some friends of hers had a basset who learned to open the refridgerator door, so they had to put some sort of lock on it. They would come home to find food missing, like leftover pizza. That story sounds kinda screwy to me, but I'd like to believe it.

***

A dog that quite possibly may be the oldest in the U.S. lives in the West Village. He's 23 or 24 and named Uncle Chi Chi. The Colbert Report had a fun segment the other day that involves Uncle Chi Chi, the richest dog in South Dakota, Rupert Murdoch, and ThinkProgress.

***

Tony and I visited the Schultieses in Park Slope a couple of Saturdays ago. Simon had had surgery to remove his right front leg three days earlier. He'd been diagnosed with a tumor that thankfully wasn't the kind that spreads; the vet said that if Simon were to ever get cancer again, it would be unrelated to this one. The vet had recommended amputating Simon's leg because his muscles would have been badly damaged during the process of removing the cancer.

Jen had expected a long recovery period because the vet said no one had seen Simon even try to stand up. Once he was home, he fell while trying to put weight on his phantom limb, but he quickly got the hang of the situation. And by the time we saw him, he was jumping up on the radiator like it weren't nothin'.

***

Since I'm always hearing how big Rudy is, I had planned to take key measurements of Rudy to see whether he falls within the guidelines for the breed standard. It turns out, there's only one quantifiable standard that must be met: The height at the shoulder blade must not be more than 15 inches. That point on Rudy is about 13 inches off the ground, so he's good there. I thought the standard might insist that, say, the body length, from the base of the neck to the origin of the tail, be no more than 28 inches. If that had been so, he'd be out of luck.

*** 

My latest nicknames for the kids:

Emme: Kitten Bomb and Vixen

Rudy: Hamburglar, Hambone, Ding Dong (when he's being silly)

***

Finally, here are three cute photos from the Daily Puppy iPhone app:

The Shootings in Tucson, Part II

I sent this rant to my friend Bob today:

I want to vomit on the hand-wringing lefties, including some at Salon.com (not my boy Glenn Greenwald), who want to make sure we don't unfairly blame the right-wing nutters for the act of this lone person. The wingnuts created a political climate where it's OK to speak of killing your opponents, whom they've demonized with lies that have them creating death panels and coming to seize your arms, things they know would provoke the constituents of the Dems they targeted with gun sights. Loughner may not have been a fan of Palin or Beck (or King or Boehner, because those "mainstream" politicians have used very violent rhetoric too), but now is the time to bring the reign of those hate-stirring, lie-spouting a-holes to a halt. For chrissakes, can we stop worrying for a second about whether we're being 100% fair to those yahoos and just (metaphorically) take them down already like they ginned to have us (literally) taken down. Enough already! Fight back like you mean it, stupid liberals! Do we need to wait for another killing before we're allowed to connect the dots? There have already been several killings (I linked to a list in my latest Hawleyblog post) that would have made Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and some of these other sociopaths question their way of doing business (and spouting crazy, hate-filled nonsense is a very lucrative business for them) if they were capable of remorse or self-reflection. If the Left doesn't damn these craven lunatics now and demand Fox stop paying them blood money, then we'll never be anything but doormats.

PZ Meyers at Pharyngula has also had it with the liberal submissiveness.

Digby gives us another much-needed roundup of recent right-wing violence, culled from posts by Crooks and Liars' David Neiwert. (Though I don't understand why she'd suggest the carnage goes back only two years.)

Truthout republishes a November article from Fair & Accuracy in Reporting's Steve Rendall headlined Fox News: The No. 1 Name in Murder Fantasies. And to's William Rivers Pitt unleashes a rant and a half on the lying hatemongers of the right and the fools who bought into their every word.

Over at Firedoglake, David Dayen writes about the Tea Partiers' pissy defensiveness and Blue Texan writes about Glenn Reynolds's pathetic efforts to once again shift the blame away from people like him. And leave it to Jane Hamsher to write the definitive takedown of Sarah Palin.

The Shootings in Tucson

The campaign of Jesse Kelly, Gabrielle Giffords's opponent when she was last up for election, spoke of removing her from office while inviting voters to shoot an automatic weapon with him.

Up until the shootings, Sarah Palin had a graphic on her Facebook page with rifle targets on the 20 Democratic U.S. representatives who, like Gifford, had voted for Obama's health care plan and who had won election in a district McCain/Palin had won in 2008; Rebecca Mansour, an aide to Palin—who famously created and constantly repeated lies about government "death panels" who wanted to kill off her mentally retarded baby and everyone's grandmother—wants us to believe the crosshairs in the graphic were never ever intended to be interpreted as gun sights. And Tammy Bruce,* the wingnut radio host Mansour was spinning to, suggested they could have been seen as "surveyor's symbols." Ha!

Sharron Angle spoke of "Second Amendment remedies" and taking out Harry Reid while she was campaigning for his U.S. Senate seat.

In September 2009, when Nancy Pelosi teared up while speaking out against the kind of violent rhetoric that had led to the assassination of Harvey Milk in 1978 and that she was seeing again, Glenn Beck mocked her.

And do you remember these violent actions and calls for armed violence? And the threatening signs and openly displayed hardware of the Tea Partiers, whom so many in the MSM insisted were interested only in angrily but completely peacefully calling for smaller government despite the evidence right in front of their fucking faces?

If the wingnuts aren't pilloried and shunned for being the violence-promoting sociopaths they truly are, we're doomed as a country.

*I fixed this part to show it was Bruce and not Mansour who brought up the "surveyor's symbols."

A Quick Addendum to the Mid-December Current-Affairs Post

Jon Stewart Shows the Republicans' 9/11 Bullshit for What It Is: Bullshit

Here's an awsome Daily Show clip about the Rethugs' unwillingness to allow health-care funding for first responders to come to a vote. If the Democrats could muster the same outrage he does, we would have a real opposition party. But we don't because they can't.

Obama Admits Tax Cut for the Megarich Won't Create Jobs

Which is why he's STILL opposed to the tax cut, he says. But he's going to give it to them for the good of the common people and the economic recovery. *rolls eyes*

Like Obama, the Smithsonian Quickly Caved to Right-Wing Bullies

Frank Rich has a terrific column about how wingnuts got the museum to pull a video clip that no one had complained about from a gay-themed exhibit.

Chris Hedges Is Hard to Read

Because he speaks the hard truths.

A Mid-December Current-Affairs Post

Glenn Greenwald Tells You Everything You Need to Know About WikiLeaks

He tells the truth like no one else.

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Obama's Tax Bargain With John Boehner Is Fantastic

Blanche Lincoln helped shape the deal too. If you still support Obama because you think he's on your side, you're delusional.

Holder's Department of "Justice" Makes It Clear It Will Never Go After the Banksters

Its hyped financial fraud crackdown was a farce.

On a Related Note

Peter Orszag, Obama's former head of the Office of Management and Budget, just got a cushy job at Citigroup.

Andrew Cuomo Taps Giuliani as a Co-Head of His Transition Committee on Public Safety

The Democrats love to endorse the idea that Republicans are the big daddies keeping us from harm, and our governor-elect is no exception. Even though it should be abundantly clear that Giuliani is an expert at self-promotion, not at security.

Some Real Heroes of 9/11, Those Who Helped Clean Up the Mess at Great Expense to Their Health, Are Screwed by the Republicans Again

"Moderate" Olympia Snowe refused to allow the Senate to consider the 9/11 health care bill until it's clear the wealthy will be able to keep their huge tax break.

I Was Hoping to Be Able to Post Some Good News Here About a Hydrofracking Ban in New York State

But Governor Paterson vetoed the bill. He issued an executive order instead because, he said, he was concerned that vertical hydrofracking would also be banned under the legislation the senate and assembly approved. I think he's a fool and a tool who wouldn't allow the people to have a single victory over the powerful forces that would do us harm.

California Will Allow Farmers to Use a Horrific Pesticide on Their Strawberry Fields

Because Big Agriculture always wins out over the public's health.