duck and cover

ah, remember when we feared the russians? haha... how naive we were.


an official civil defense film from 1952, featuring bert the turtle


relevant points made in this video

an atomic blast is worse than a sunburn!

even a thin piece of plastic can protect your face from an atomic bomb.

we must be ready, all the time, every moment.


"c'mon kids, what are you supposed to do when you see the flash?"
"duck and cover!"

when you see the flash?


ah, good old fear-mongering.

celebrating the second anniversary of the day that dick cheney shot a 78 year old man in the face

Cheney's Got a Gun



from crooks and liars

In honor of the day that Dick Cheney shot someone in the face, I pulled this clip from my incredible archives. (original post here,)

Jon Stewart was having a very boring weekend and he was really, really sad. Nothing had been getting his blood boiling lately and he just wasn’t excited to be alive anymore-Until–Dick Cheney shot a man in the face. How quickly life can turn on a dime.

watch the video here.


another little video entitled "duck cheney"

and just when we though guiliani had cleaned up the city

a sign at a lunch counter in penn station



what i enjoy is how they want people to be paranoid if they hear loud noises or arguments or are "jostled" in a crowd... as if these things are unusual in nyc!

the poor tourists reading this and then venturing out into manhattan are going to be terrified. if they weren't already.

yes we can - the speech that started it all

barack obama's speech in new hampshire, january 8, 2008


it's all amazing, but he gets really good around 9:40. oh man.

this, of course, is the speech which inspired will.i.am to get his friends together and make the yes we can video in something like 48 hours.

it is also the speech that is "sampled" in the video.

view will.i.am's yes we can video here.

click here to read the story of how will.i.am was inspired to create this video.

and finally, watch a sad (read: terribly funny) parody of this video that was made for john mccain here.

congratulations, liberal blogosphere! we're stopping torture!

and we don't even to get up off our comfy asses! ;)

White House Claims Congress Is Caving to "Left Wing Bloggers" by Opposing Torture

"The American people will find it baffling that on a day that House leaders are trying to put off passing critical legislation to keep us safer from the threat of foreign terrorists overseas, they are spending scarce time to become the first congress in history to bring contempt charges against a president's chief of staff and lawyer. ... The 'people's House' should reflect the priorities of the American people, not the fantasies of left-wing bloggers."
- White House Press Secretary Dana Perino

um, i hate to tell you this dude, but the left-wing bloggers certainly do seem to know the american peoples' priorities a tad bit better than y'all do... why do you think you and your administration have a 27% approval rating?

muah ha ha ha! watch out for kos and huffington, bushie! run for cover!

via alternet

woman begs obama: "i'm undecided, please help me to vote for you"

"help" (read "convince")

and barack obama gives a damn good answer! (and he's even from hawaii!)

but he still doesn't say how he's going to do it...

but he gives us hope, so does it matter? ...



alexandria, va
2/10/2008

sexy presidential candidates

"In many ways presidential candidates are vying to be America’s next lover. It’s no coincidence that they are often described as “courting” voters. They smile at us, compliment us, wink, smear their rivals for our affection. Their campaigns are filled with the equivalent of high school best friends who sidle up to the American electorate telling us how much their friend likes us and extolling their virtues.

(snip)

"Hillary Clinton is like Stanley Kowalski. She’s kneeling at the bottom of the stairs in the rain, torn shirt, screaming our name in a desperate plea. Hillary doesn’t know what to do without us, the American people. This kind of drive, this kind of passion, is something we like when it is found in a man. It launched Marlon Brando to super stardom, men everywhere seeking to emulate his fire and women going soft at the sound of his cry.

"But we don’t know what to do when a woman is exhibiting this desire, this fire. Stanley Kowalski knew we liked a little throw down, that we liked it when all the colored lights are going. Stella swooned.

"Hillary has turned the tables. Hillary wants to throw America down and ride us hard. There are a lot of people who are uncomfortable with that, just as they’d be uncomfortable with Stella kneeling at the bottom of the stairs in the rain screaming Stanley.

(snip)

"But when your coming out of a bad relationship the way the American people are you just want someone who will make you feel good. You want someone to tell you there is hope. You want someone who will promise away the darkness. And along comes Barack Obama.

"He is the lover who has found us weeping in the corner. He puts his arm around us and asks us to tell him all about it. His hand caresses our shoulder. He places delicate kisses along our neck. He tells us he understands.

"We’re vulnerable. We don’t know anything about him. But we don’t really want to. We want to fill in all those empty spaces with what we hope he might be, with what we need him to be right now. And he’s happy to let us.

"He lets his lips linger upon our cheek until we actually turn to kiss him. He takes us home and he gives some long, slow loving.

"That’s nice. We can get our heads around that. It’s especially nice after being tied up and ball-gagged for the past eight years."


read the full article by judah pollack here.

ok, so where's the "no mcdonalds" zone?

Obesity To Pass Smoking As Leading Cause Of Cancer Deaths

Obesity is on its way to being deadlier than smoking as a cause of cancer, a leading researcher said Friday. Being obese is currently associated with about 14 percent of cancer deaths in men and 20 percent in women, compared with about 30 percent each for smoking,
Dr. Walter C. Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"As smoking goes down and obesity goes up it won't be long before obesity is the No. 1 cancer killer," Willett said at a symposium on cancer prevention.

perhaps all those folks who yell at smokers while wolfing down big macs will soon find themselves on the other side of that type of harassment...

john mccain - against waterboarding before he was for it

Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has consistently voiced opposition to waterboarding and other methods that critics say are forms of torture. But the Republicans, confident of a White House veto, did not mount the challenge. Mr. McCain voted “no” on Wednesday afternoon.

link

via light que 23

test your 2008 election knowlege

Take the New Yorker's 2008 Campaign Quiz

here's an excerpt:

Which Presidential candidate made which statement in 2008?
a. “Americans are looking for change.”
b. “Our time for change has come.”
c. “I believe deeply in change.”
d. “Look, what we need is change, there’s no question.”
e. “I know that I have been an agent of change.”
f. “I want to make change but I’ve already made change. I will continue to make change….I embody change.”
g. “Not only can I talk change with you, I’ve lived it.”
h. “We don’t mention September 11th nearly as much as people think.”

ok, so h is obvious.


take the quiz here

keith olbermann calls bush a fascist and a liar

happy valentine's day!

i've always loved olbermann, but this is breathtaking even for him.

link


Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on today’s (2/14/08) Countdown was a scathing rebuke of President Bush for continuing to play the fear card, trying to scare the hell out of the American people and vowing to veto any FISA legislation that does not contain telecom amnesty.


this video is one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen




some quotes from olbermann's special comment:

You are a liar, Mr. Bush, and after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar.

And your minions like John Boehner — your Republican congressional crash dummies who just happen to decide to walk out of Congress when a podium-full of microphones await them — they should just keep walking, out of Congress and if possible, out of the country.

For they — and you, sir — have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

The lot of you, are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle managers of some banana republic, to whom “Freedom” is an ironic brand name, a word you reach for, when you want to get away with its opposite.

Thus, Mr. Bush, your panoramic invasion of privacy is dressed up as “protecting America.

(snip)

If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business — come out and say it!

There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.

You’re a fascist — get them to print you a t-shirt with “fascist” on it!

What else is this but fascism?

read the full transcript here

via crooks and liars

femoral head ostectomy

so my 1 year old cat broke his leg and had to have a Femoral Head Ostectomy, or FHO.

here's some info on FHO, which is the surgery that trotsky has to have because my other cat, tribble, broke trotsky's leg. i have had words with tribble. i don't know if he understood them. but he seems pretty sad.

tribble (11 months old) ambushed trotsky (1.5 years old) from a behind a chair with coats hanging on it... a perfect cover. this is a game they often play but for some reason this time it went afoul.

when tribble landed on his head, trotsky understandably freaked out and kind of jumped sideways in a startled way, landed badly, and in so doing, broke his hip. it seems amazing, but it's true. he started yowling really loudly and i knew it had to be bad, so i called a car service (i live in nyc and have no car) and had the car take us to the emergency vet... at 3:30 am.

apparently young cats can have growth plates in the tops of their femurs (and presumably other places) which are not completely formed yet, and perhaps never will be, making them very fragile and easy to break. most cats who get this type of injury are 1-2 years old. and this is what trotsky had.

his leg was broken just below the head of the femur, where the femur (top leg bone) articulates into that groove in the pelvic bone. the surgery basically involves surgically removing the head of the femur and then sewing the muscles back into place over the joint; the cat is then said to have such a strong muscular structure that they heal and make a false joint in that hip. so, trotsky is now one hip cat.

that was my boyfriend's joke, not mine.

i came home from the vet scared and not knowing what to do. i've had cats my whole life and i've never heard of this! but i googled femoral head ostectomy and found this blog post, where a wonderful person named jason posted a story about his cat having to have FHO. it was very comforting, as were the numerous comments people had posted, telling their stories of the exact same thing that had happened to their cats.

hopefully one day someone will come across this post, and be helped like i did! don't worry, it's a pretty common thing and cats have an excellent recovery rate from this surgery. feel comforted. it will be ok.

and what post about cats would be complete without pictures? and so...

here's trotsky after tribble has taken his food.
what a wuss.


and here's tribble (such an innocent kitten)


trotsky is now home and recovering nicely despite his baldness


i have asked bastet for quick and painless healing for her fellow sacred feline.

trotsky is actually doing pretty well. 3 days post-op and he is hobbling around the house, jumping up on low sofas and chairs; he has 3 other legs after all, as the vet pointed out to me.

the first day or so he was pretty fatigued with pain, and didn't move very much from the little blanket-nest i made for him, but he seems a lot better now and closer to his normal self. they didn't even send him home with any pain medication, because they said he would not need it; cats apparently tolerate pain very well and pain meds make them not want to eat, which is obviously a bad thing right after surgery. so, he seems a little uncomfortable, but he's getting better quickly. thank the goddess!

update (august 2008): 2 weeks later and trotsky was walking around fine without hardly any pain, within a month he was completely pain free. he is still a little bit nervous around tribble (which i think is understandable) but he is back to his normal, sweet, running-around cat-ness.

here's a picture of him now. seems like he's really suffering, doesn't it? ;)

like hope, but different

you know, i have to admit i feel a bit sorry for mcain, given the severe beating he's about to receive for the next 10 months... from liberals/democrats and from his own party (as coulter and limbaugh have already demonstrated). after all, the man was a war hero and a pow and suffered tremendously for this country.

but this is just too good not to post...



(bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb iran)

breaking news - a republican asks for every vote to be counted!

"We know the GOP as a rule doesn’t like to count every vote—Florida 2000, Washington state 2004—but the GOP usually seeks to shut down vote counting in general elections, not primaries. But with nearly 13% of the vote left to count, Luke Esser and the rest of the gang at Washington state’s GOP stopped counting the votes from yesterday’s GOP caucus. And Mike “Miracles” Huckabee ain’t havin’ it.

"Oh, that’s so cute. A Republican presidential candidate demanding that every vote be counted—live long enough, I guess, and you’ll see everything."

via dan savage

some great poetry

richard krech, poet

click here to go to the hosting youtube page

poll shows americans more likely to vote for a black presidential candidate than a female one

and they don't care much for mormons, gays or old people either.

i find it interesting that an atheist ranks lower than a homosexual. separation of church and state...? i guess not.

link

A Feb. 9-11, 2007, poll asked Americans whether they would vote for "a generally well-qualified" presidential candidate nominated by their party with each of the following characteristics: Jewish, Catholic, Mormon, an atheist, a woman, black, Hispanic, homosexual, 72 years of age, and someone married for the third time.

the results were as follows:




(click on the poll results for a bigger, more readable image)

obama wins maine too!

"With 99 percent of the participating precincts reporting, Obama led in
state delegates elected over Clinton, 2,079 to 1,396, with 18 uncommitted."

link

and thus concludes his weekend sweep!

with this much momentum going into the "potomac primary" on tuesday, things look very good for barack obama.

obama's super saturday speech

jefferson-jackson dinner in richmond, virginia
february 9, 2008

democratic primary/caucus results map

results as of february 10, 2008 @ 3:07 am



states won so far
clinton ~ 12
obama ~ 18

current delegate totals
clinton ~ 1095
obama ~ 1070



won by obama on "super saturday"
louisiana
nebraska
washington
virgin islands

won by clinton on "super saturday"
none



map and delegate count courtesy of npr