Given that McCain will be the (shell of a) man to beat in ’08 – and given the gratuitous teabagging the msm is treating him to – methinks it’s time for some McCain bashing. So, a new series: Hitching a ride on the Straight Talk Express. John McCain, in his own words (and some lolz, of course). The whole point is to show misguided independents that McCain is not, in point of fact, some kind of maverick. Unless “maverick” is now slang for “panderer”.

I caught a bit of the Senate Armed Services Iraq hearings on CNN this morning. McCain’s “grilling” of Petraeus damn near had me gagging on my raspberry toast. Seriously, McCain was two reacharounds away from asking the man if he could plz plz plz taste his sweet salty balls? Even Shane of “o manz r they gonna politicize this”* fame did a double take. ‘Twas that shameless.

Yeah, like that.

Anyway, here’s the gist of it (transcript via):

MCCAIN: There are numerous threats to security in Iraq and the future of Iraq. Do you still view Al Qaeda in Iraq as a major threat?

PETRAEUS: It is still a major threat, though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was, say, 15 months ago.

MCCAIN: Certainly not an obscure sect of the Shiites overall…

PETRAEUS: No.

MCCAIN: … or Sunnis or anybody else.

Al Qaeda continues to try to assert themselves in Mosul, is that correct?

PETRAEUS: It is, Senator. As you saw on the chart, the area of operation of Al Qaeda has been greatly reduced in terms of controlling areas that it controlled as little as a year and half ago.

But, clearly, Mosul and Nineveh province are areas that Al Qaeda is very much trying to hold onto. All roads lead through the traditional capital of the north.

MCCAIN: They continue to be a significant threat?

PETRAEUS: They do. Yes, sir.

The Raw Story notes:

Last month, the Arizona senator got a whisper in his ear from Sen. Joe Lieberman, after he said that Iran was providing aid to Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group. Iran, however, is actually a Shiite nation. On Fox News Sunday, McCain also got wrong the details of an Iraqi ceasefire.

“His friend, Joe Lieberman, who was also on the trip, had to famously whisper in his ear to correct him,” the LA Times writes today. “This allowed McCain’s two Democratic rivals for the presidency, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to criticize McCain for his mistake, which came in the area that’s supposed to be in his wheelhouse: national security and foreign policy.”

At today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, McCain seems to have gotten it wrong again, when interviewing Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus.

At least Lieberman’s still a contender for the veep seat.

* Said I: “It’s a Fucking! War! How is that not political?”

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Tagged: john mccain straight talk express 2008 elections politics lol lolz General Petraeus Iraq war war on terra

So I’m back, mostly at least. The surgery went well; the laughing gas and sedatives knocked me on my arse more than anything else. The whole first day I couldn’t keep much of anything down, not even liquids and Vicodin, and so I spent all of Thursday alternating between napping and puking. (A stomach empty save for Dr. Pepper makes for surprisingly interesting vomit. No, for reals.) By Friday my back was seized up from laying around, but I was too dazed to do much of anything else. Same for Saturday. Yesterday I was restless enough that I dragged my but into the office and slogged through my email. Not fun, but at least I got to sit upright for a bit. Yoga felt soooo goood this morning, I almost did it twice.

All in all, the whole experience was not as fun as I’d hoped. I’d had grandiose visions of spending a weekend catching up on Netflix movies, reading a book or two, and just generally milking the sympathy. Not so much. And the caffeine withdrawal (there was a 36 hour stretch where I couldn’t eat *at all*) sure didn’t help matters.

Aside from the four gaping holes in my mouth, I’m good. Good enough to make some lolz, anyways. Here’s a Kaylee series, after she had six teeth removed last March. Her old “owners” sucked ass, but the only thing we can do about that now is love on her and laugh about it as best we can. And edumakate others. So, take your animals to the vet, people, otherwise this is what happens.

Such a sweet face, even with those crazy teefs!

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Tagged: my furbabies lol lolz loldog kaylee rat terrier jack russell terrier teeth dental dental surgery your featherhead dental extractions dentist neglect flickr photos

After 15 years (15 years! that’s, like, half my life!) of pissing and moaning, I’m finally getting my wisdom teeth yanked out tomorrow. I have no idea how long I’ll be out of commission, but Monday sounds about right. Of course, I’m probably just being a big whiny tittybaby.

Either way, I’ll see ya when I see ya.

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Tagged: your featherhead dentists lol lolz lolcat site admin

Any parent will tell you that children are big time disease vectors. They get other people sick.

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Tagged: lol lolz chicken meat human vegan vegetarian

I wonder whether Lou Dobbs cracks a smile when he sees cute kitty pictures?

LOL Kitty says, “Status: doubtful. It’s the feline agenda, stoopid!”

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Tagged: lou dobbs msm the media xenophobia lol lolz lol cat mlk i have a dream

moar cute puppy pictures

Old news, I know: Matt Blunt, one-term, lame-duck governor of MO has decided not to run for re-election. And I was soooo looking forward to voting against him next November. Sigh. It’s just as well, I ‘spose; he might very well have won, especially considering the scarily large godbag vote in the Show Me (Jesus?) state. (185,627 misogynists voted for Huckabee – that’s 32 to McCain’s 33% of the vote.)

Either way, I find this particular quote quite amusing:

Gov. Matt Blunt, facing a tough re-election fight and a slowing economy, bowed out of the race Tuesday, declaring that he had accomplished all he set out to do.

In a video posted on the YouTube Internet site, Blunt said he decided not to seek re-election because he had little left to achieve.

“The desire to prove oneself in the next election is strong,” Blunt said. “But after a great deal of thought and prayer, and with the knowledge that we have achieved virtually everything that I set out to accomplish and more, I will not seek a second term in the upcoming election. Because I feel we have changed what I wanted to change in the first term, there is not the same sense of mission for a second.”

Like, erm, banning abortion in Missouri? Try again, douchebag.

Luckily, Matt Blunt did not accomplish all he set out to do.

If you can stand to sift through the bullshit, here’s the You Tube vid. (ZOMG! Matt Blunt has his own You Tube page!!!1!)

Don’t you just want to kick him in his oversized Neanderthal jaw?

Ok, make that two regrets. Like I said, a few.

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Tagged: matt blunt mo missouri governor blunt re-election 2008 elections feminism feminist misogyny misogynist abortion birth control repro rights reproductive right s bullshit lolz lol cat video youtube kansas city star kansas city kcmo

moar cute puppy pictures

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Tagged: lol lolz lol dog 2008 elections hot dog wiener dog dachshund

BLITZER: Let’s talk a little bit about John Kerry’s endorsement of Barack Obama. What do you think about that?

REID: Well, over the last several months we have had a number of my 51 Democratic senators endorse either Clinton or Obama. And, I guess they’re keeping track of who is doing which, but they both have some endorsements. And it indicates to me how fortunate we are to have this caucus in Nevada. This is a close election, as indicated by those two great senators vying for attention as to endorsements.

So I talked to John Kerry several times during the break. And I know that Senator Kerry, this is not easy for him. Any time you work with somebody as we do so closely, it’s very difficult. But they’ve both had a lot of endorsements from individual senators.

BLITZER: You haven’t endorsed anybody. And you’re not planning on endorsing anyone, right?

REID: This has been really a trying time for me in the sense that I had four Democratic senators running for president. Now of course it’s down to two but of course I served in the Senate with John Edwards. I haven’t heard yet from Bill Richardson but I understand he is dropping out of the race. He and I came to Washington together.

So this has been all very, very interesting to me, but I’ve stayed out of it. I’m doing everything I can to be neutral.

BLITZER: And don’t forget, John Edwards, a former U.S. senator, he is going to be in Nevada as well.

REID: Indicated I served with him. I said that.

BLITZER: Yeah, and Governor Richardson has dropped out.

What’s there to say, really?

(More below the fold…)

Inspired by this ep of LOLTRek.

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Tagged: dog canine rat terrier Jack Russell terrier Kaylee my furbabies dogs in clothes Star Trek Trekkies lol lolz loltrek tribbles loldog lolkaylee