http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/07/10/friday-catblogging-4/

http://www.feministe.us/blog/?p=14413

I took the kitties in for their yearly vaccinations this week. Buddy needs to be vaccinated because his immune system is compromised; Mitsy needs to be vaccinated so that she doesn’t catch the virus from her brother. So I always get nervous around this time of year. (You can read their story from last year.)

The vet had nothing but complements for the two of them. Buddy, in particular, always gets exclamations of surprise for his coat, which is medium-length, thick, and soft like flannel. (Mitsy’s fur is long and soft like silk. I love petting both of them at the same time.) He’s doing beautifully, now three years and three months old and healthy as can be. We hope he will stay with us for many years more.

They screamed the whole way to the vet’s office in the car — but as soon as we entered the door, they shut their traps — because there was another cat there already yelling louder than both of them. They behaved perfectly for the vet, then started screaming at me the minute I took them back to the car. Brats.

Mitsy immediately ran off to clean her leg where she received one of her vaccinations.

I decided this week to dig up an old-school picture of my dog, Rainey. She lives with my mother in California — we could bring the cats over to PA to live in our apartment, but not the Chow-Chow/black Laborador mix. She’s an absolute sweetheart (with a black-spotted tongue!), and a handful of Mom’s friends and acquaintances have threatened to steal her. I miss her a lot. We haven’t been to California since we got married just over two years ago, and probably won’t be able to make it for at least a year more.

(Yes, I blinked.) Helping Mom plant some flowers in front of her house, back in 2004.

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/07/10/quick-hit-extreme-victim-blaming/

http://www.feministe.us/blog/?p=14410

The title of the press release: “Promiscuous men more likely to rape”

The title of the Telegraph article: “Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists. Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped, claim scientists at the University of Leicester.”

The researcher who was interviewed spoke out about the misrepresentations of her work (she is an MSc student and this was her dissertation, which is also apparently unfinished).

According to current.com, the article has been pulled and corrections have been issued. It’s hard to see how they can explain away something like this.

The Bad Science blog offers this update:

Via @jackofkent, here are the articles Richard Alleyne of the Telegraph has written about recently. I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying. Is all.

www.journalisted.com/richard-alleyne

From Pharyngula. H/T hearshot

(Cross-posted at Three Rivers Fog)

http://wonkette.com/409793/409793

http://wonkette.com/?p=409793

• BARACK OBAMA WILL KEEP DICK CHENEY SAFE FOREVER: Government teat-suckler Dick Cheney is such a pussy that he became one of the first — if not the first — vice presidents in history to accept Secret Service protection after his reign of terror in office expired, a move requiring the president’s authorization. Cheney then ran around Washington going on teevee everyday saying that Obama wanted Americans to die, constantly. Now Barack Obama has extended Cheney’s Secret Service protection, so YOU’RE WELCOME, you crazy vampire. [US News]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Feministing/~3/oualEpwdynU/016639.html

The Women's Media Center just released this assemblage of clips showing the ridiculous treatment that Sotomayor has already experienced at the hands of right-wing pundits and the mainstream media.

Take action here so that she can get the most fair nomination hearing possible.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/punditkitchen/~3/vETArSp8bWc/

http://punditkitchen.com/?p=22846

…I wanted this job…I wanted this job…I wanted….

(Barack Obama)

Picture by: dunno source. Caption by: t.dammit via Advanced Lol Builder

» Recaption This

» See All Captions

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/DT-8-fpCBR4/reader_deep_thought_1.php

TPM Reader BD:

Remember how during the 2008 campaign a lot of people suggested that Obama could prove to be an excellent role model for African-American men who have often been deemed less than responsible as husbands and fathers? Wouldn't it be great if white Evangelical Republican men could come up with a role model like that too?

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/xkO8aArVXGA/it_wasnt_me.php

A neighbor of the Dem donor whose fundraiser was raided by the San Diego sheriff wants to make sure everyone knows she didn't make the derogatory comments about gays and call police about the event: "We're liberal Democrats -- we have a Buddha on our table."

http://wonkette.com/409791/appeaser-obamas-meet-with-former-nazi

http://wonkette.com/?p=409791

What enemy of America is Nobama meeting now? Oh, just former Nazi Youth and New World Order socialist Joseph Ratzinger, Italy’s latest “bad pope.” How lousy is this pope? He even let Chicago Muslin lady Michelle Obama inside His boys-only clubhouse! [CBC]

http://wonkette.com/409789/okay-you-people-who-keep-asking-us-to-endorse-various-superheroes-for-dc-mayor

http://wonkette.com/?p=409789

Here’s what’s happening: a bunch of hippies inspired by the Nobama campaign are giving up consulting and corporate law to become Progressive Activists and Organizers, at least until the recession passes. They are enrolled in something called “New Organizing Institute Boot Camp” and, for Training, have been holding a mock election for DC mayor — young progressives nationwide care about DC zoning issues more than anything else — all week. It took us several days to understand this, as these e-mails with subject “Endorse the Green Lantern for DC Mayor” and such kept evading our spam filters. So with voting ending at 6, tonight, let’s make an “informed” endorsement!

Your choices are Atom, Batgirl, Batwoman, Cyborg, Green Lantern, Spiderman, Superman, and Wonderwoman, oh boy. Well RIGHT OFF THE BAT, “New Organizing Institute,” you should know that using alphabetical order on ballots can skew results with an apathetic voting bloc (us!) But anyway, this is the sort of stuff getting sent out from each campaign:

Additionally, word is that the Green Lantern has been hanging out with Steel (the African American Superman), a DC native, and who may be facilitating appearances at key churches and meetings with DC institutions like Fauntroy and Barry. It seems the Green Lantern is hip to the voting constituency of DC … word is he has a plan in the works for a whole host of projects east of the river, including the Green Lantern Corps to move its interstellar headquarters to Southeast DC.

As for other parts of the city, Ward 2 residents should rejoice that the Green Lantern is not letting the Marvel-DC comics divide get in the way of his friendship with Northstar, the openly gay member of the X-Men, and to help bring the Justice League to move their headquarters to the Atlas District for a revitalize NE campaign.

Last, we can be sure to one thing … with that mighty ring in hand, the Congressional votes for DC statehood may finally and literally materialize to bring home our dream of being taxed for a reason.

We have no idea what the fuck is going on.

Wonkette endorses… let’s see… Cyborg, because (a) they never sent us a press release with psychotic gibberish and (b) why not. EVERYONE GO VOTE FOR CY-BORG. It is time to WARBLOG.

TRUE NEWS: All of the candidates, except CYBORG, molest children in DC! Tell your neighbor!

Superhero DC Mayoral Election [NOI]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Feministing/~3/cUVcpzlXLw4/016516.html

Every once in awhile, as a writer, you read a book that raises that bar in your own mind about what is possible in your profession. Enrique's Journey is such a book. In it, Pulitzer Prize winner Sonia Nazario, follows the journey of a 17-year-old boy from Honduras as he tries to make his way to America to be reunited with his mother--who left when he was a small boy to pursue the American dream. As he rides on top of trains, tries to avoid gangsters and police, begs for food, sleeps in graveyards and abandon homes, struggles with drug addiction etc., I got the most lucid, gripping portrait into the journey of the child immigrant that I've ever been exposed to.

Nazario's reporting bowled me over. Her story originated as a Los Angeles Times feature, and continued to expand from there. She's spent months retracing Enrique's journey, exhaustively reporting all of those who he met along the way, in addition to the various members of his own family. This dedication allowed her to make the journey really come alive--from the smell of the mangoes thrown onto the train by rare, generous poor folks living along the tracks to the local politics in a tiny church in Nuevo Laredo.

Enrique and his mother, Lourdes', story is not uncommon. From the book:

In Los Angeles, a University of Southern California study showed, 82 percent of live-in nannies and one in four housecleaners are mothers who still have at least one child in their home country. A Harvard University study showed that 85 percent of all immigrant children who eventually end up in the United States spend at least some time separated from a parent in the course of migrating to the United States.

I simply can't recommend this incredible book enough. Especially at this moment, when the news is filled with headlines about both immigration and Honduras, this book sheds light on the real lives being affected. Enrique's Journey not only engages your heart, but fills your mind with ideas about the power of tenacious storytelling.

http://www.alternet.org/world/141239/as_u.s._troops_forcus_on_south%2C_insurgency_gaining_ground_in_afghan_north_/

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/OlYTmXl0q9c/breaking_16.php

Bush Administration domestic surveillance programs much broader than previously known. Spencer Ackerman has more. Here's the joint report from the inspectors general.

We're going through the report now, but for a frame of reference let me refer you back to this TPMmuckraker report by Paul Kiel and Spencer Ackerman from two Julys ago. I dare say we were on to something.

Late Update: Fair question from a reader:

Confused, could you clarify-- I've been seeing headlines at TPM and elsewhere for a couple weeks saying things something like "CIA report delayed, AGAIN". Is the IG report with the revelations of previously unknown Bush lawbreaking that you're currently flashing the "breaking" notice for the same one that people were recently upset about the failure to release? Or is there ANOTHER report of this sort with yet more revelations still pending?

The report released today was compiled at the request (demand, really) of Congress by the IGs of the various entities that make up the intelligence community. This is a different report from the still-classified 2004 CIA report on the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of torture who's release has been delayed several times and is still pending.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/haQvNz_umis/sue_me_twice_shame_on_you.php

Senate Republicans have quite the line up of opposition witnesses set to go next week during the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, including Frank Ricci, the New Haven firefighter who just won his reverse discrimination case after taking it all the way to the Supreme Court.

What I didn't know is that, as Brian Beutler explains at TPMDC, Ricci landed a job with the fire department back in 1997 as part of a settlement of his own regular old discrimination suit (he has dyslexia). Not exactly the guy you would expect the GOP to make a poster boy for all of us "oppressed" white men.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/tmdZvHJ-56M/click.phdo

http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=513f173af96a8213f8dc9e2e52d2a5b5&p=4

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/YyGW3v_cF7s/hot_fun_in_the_summertime.php

Our latest Obama White House slideshow.

http://news.bmezine.com/2009/07/10/sweat-tears-or-the-sea/

http://news.bmezine.com/?p=20566

See more in “Miscellaneous Tattoos“ (Tattoos)

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/019792.html

Employee to little girl with summer book list: Maybe this one? (shows her book)
Little girl: I've already read it in French.
Mother, in heavy French accent: Just pick one or I'm going to make you read The Graveyard Book!

--Barnes & Noble

Overheard by: I like Neil Gaiman...

serenejournal

“You can look down on a pig from the top of the most unnaturally lofty dogcart. You can examine the pig from the top of an omnibus, from the top of the Monument, from a balloon, or an airship, and as long as he is visible, he will be beautiful… In short he has that fuller, subtler and more universal kind of shapeliness which the unthinking… mistake for a mere absence of shape. For fatness itself is a valuable quality.”

"The actual lines of a pig (I mean of a really fat pig) are among the loveliest and most luxuriant in nature; the pig has the same great curves, swift and yet heavy, which we see in rushing water or in rolling cloud ... Now, there is no point of view from which a really corpulent pig is not full of sumptuous and satisfying curves."

Chesterton was a giant in every way ... [who] stood at a towering six foot, four inches, and weighed 300 pounds. His weight was the subject of many jokes, most of which he told himself. For instance, he said he was one of the most polite people in England. After all, he could stand up and offer his seat to *three* ladies on a bus. ...

... Dressed in a huge cape and wide-brimmed hat ... the giant made his way down the street, squinting through tiny glasses pinched on his nose, blowing laughter through his moustache and a cloud of smoke from his cigar.

( Some G.K. Chesterton images, all SFW )

Hat-tip to supergee, too, for added incentive.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Motherjones/mojoblog/~3/zWIP2EX8eXo/obama-gave-italian-womans-family-gifts-after-leering-her

Jake Tapper tweets on what I'm calling Assgate:

heard more outrage from conservative tweeps today re: alleged POTUS once-over than about @johnensign, @davidvitter + mark sanford combined

</p>

And that's outrage over a photo that doesn't show what they say it shows. In other news, John Ensign's parents gave the family of the woman he was having an affair with a $96,000 "gift."

Now if my headline were true, you'd have a real story.