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DOG WARS
(no, i'm not posting to complain about my FIL. Although I'm happy to share my latest stories if anyone's interested).
No, its the Presidential Dog Wars!
Dog wars heat up presidential race
By Jake Tapper | ABC OTUS News ? Tue, Apr 17, 2012
Much has been made about Mitt Romney, in 1983, putting his family dog Seamus in a kennel on top of his roof and driving from Boston to Canada, with said canine Seamus making his displeasure known in a rather scatological way.
Democrats have signaled they have every intention of making sure the American people - especially dog-lovers - know the tale. In January, senior Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod tweeted a photo of the president and Bo in a car, with the snide observation: "@davidaxelrod: How loving owners transport their dogs."
The Romney campaign tonight signaled tonight that they are not about to cede any ground when it comes to a candidate's odd past with man's best friend.
The Daily Caller noted that in President Obama's best-selling memoir, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," the president recalls being fed dog meat as a young boy in Indonesia with his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.
"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy)," the president wrote. "Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share."
After his mother married Soetoro, Obama lived in Indonesia from 1967 until 1971, from roughly the age of 6 through 10.
The discovery that the president had eaten dog meat prompted wise-cracks on twitter (hashtag - #ObamaDogRecipes) and this tweet from Romney strategist Eric Fehrstrom, who re-tweeted Axelrod's original message with a different take on the picture of the president and Bo.
"@EricFehrn: In hindsight, a chilling photo," he wrote.
The Seamus story was discussed again Monday when Ann Romney told Diane Sawyer that "the dog loved" traveling that way. "He would see that crate and, you know, he would, like, go crazy because he was going with us on vacation. It was to me a kinder thing to bring him along than to leave him in the kennel for two weeks."
Certainly kinder than eating him.
Re: DOG WARS
I refuse to even discuss this dog story business. Mostly because I think it's a distraction from real issues. Maybe if everyone in America had a job and the economy was strong, and life was full of rainbows and unicorns, I would make a decision for president based on things like this (I do agree that something like this speaks to someone's personality and values), but at this point, it's just noise.
Now, the real reason I'm posting, tell me some dog stories. I might have one or two for you, too! We should have a weekly check in...
We've got a news story about presidential candidates and their dogs. Meanwhile, pictures circulate of soldiers holding human body parts.
Yep, our priorities are right on target. Big shock that some people hate us.
Romney's excessive wealth and inability to connect with voters and empathize with the economic duress of the middle class is not a distraction. It is a valid issue.
However, the dog thing totally is, on both sides.
I'm anxious to hear yours. Also tell me about the upcoming wedding where you will be forced to drink in excess to survive your wacky MIL.
My latest and greatest is that FIL and SMIL finally moved out to their $1million + dog palace. They've sent lots of pictures, all of which have the dogs in there somewhere. "Here is black dawg in the kitchen" "This is the girl dawg on the stairs!" "Look! Here's princess dawg on the ridiculously oversized tractor we bought because we think we need it out here in the country!". It would be hilarious if it weren't so darn sad.
Also their house is, IMHO, really ugly. I would love an architect's critique of it though, to see if its just NMS or the ugliness is a universal truth. Where's Emmy?
Dog Story:
Maggie Mae is gross. She does this thing where she will slowly get off of the couch by putting her front paws on the ground, leaving her butt and hind legs on the couch, and stretch. when she stretches she makes a loud and smelly fart. and guess where her butt is positioned? in the face of the person she was sitting next to on the couch. then she hops down and daintily skips away, like she's such a proper lady.
It makes Passy sad. He is very concerned about global warming.
I agree that how humans treat dogs or other animals can be a huge indicator of their overall values, etc. I also think there is a big difference between a boy growing up in Indonesia and eating dog meat and a grown man in America strapping his dog to the roof of his car.
That aside - I agree with eclaires et al that this is just noise and a distraction. If we didnt have bigger fish to fry there, then lets make an issue out of this. But we have so much else going on - let's have the real debates first.
KCB-- Maggie Mae is a Great Dane, right? My best friends' Great Dane used to have this delightful habit of "flying" across the bed and farting while butt scooching across the comforter....which sometimes resulted in nice sharty skid marks. Lovely.
I will say though, that Great Dane is one of the only dogs I've ever loved. Flying sharts notwithstanding, that dog was the best.
yep, great dane. she is hilarious. passy does the "butt scootch" on the carpet about once a year, to my neverending disgust. sometimes he does it outside on the grass, and the sight of a 120 lb ball of black fur sliding himself on his backside with his front legs with a look of glee on his face is enough to make a person piss themselves.
i am currently in a war with my dog. does that count?
if we leave a dirty diaper anywhere for more than 3 mins he is in it and tearing it apart. ugh! i need a super strength cover trash can so i can not deal with the sh!t (literally). sadly, our nursery is too small for a diaper genie and i don't want poo under my kitchen sink on a regular basis. i wish i could connect the trash chute to my apartment rather than it being down the hall.
Missus, your FIL and my MIL would be BFFs. My MIL can basically only talk about her dogs anymore. If it wasn't so irritating, I'd probably feel sad for her. They came to my parents' house on Easter (2 hours from them) because we were in town for the weekend and while my mom is crazy, she is nice about stuff like this. So, seriously, all she does is basically repeat the same f*cking story about how every night after dinner, FIL takes the dogs for a walk and they love it. If it's 6:30 and they haven't gone yet, they are by the door, whining to go! Rinse, repeat. I mean, honestly, lady, TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE. I live 6 hours from you, don't join in on the weekly family skype sessions and I have heard this story 20+ times.
The wedding should be fun. Shockingly, they are not bringing their dogs from Indiana to DC. But they have hired someone to come to their house and let the dogs out like 6x per day. They toured some kennels but she cried after visiting them. Even the ones that are like luxury dog hotels.
oh oh oh! And at my parent's she started talking to my mom about her squirrels. Have I told you the squirrel story? It's epic. My MIL loves squirrels for some completely unknown reason. At Christmas, she told us two awesome squirrel stories. One was about Maggie (dog) killing her favorite squirrel and how sad she was, and how she buried it. The other was about how when leaving their neighborhood, she saw a dead squirrel on the road and was so sad. It was still there when she drove back through so she stopped, picked it up and put it in someone's yard. ETA: she said, "maybe they buried it." NO, no one but you buries f*cking squirrels. WTF WTF WTF. Who does that? Anyway, she was yammering to my mom about her squirrels and my mom is all, "wtf? squirrels??" And I was scared b/c my mom is crazy and likes to be "good at saying things" but really she just sounds like an ass.
Duchess ate my first Diaper Champ. it sucks, i know.
Speaking of dog farts...Eddie likes to check in on me when I'm getting ready for work in the morning. He'll pop his head in the bathroom while I'm putting on makeup, nose the door open (or headbutt it if I closed it all the way) while I'm drying my hair, etc. Lately, he has gotten in the habit of farting the whole way back to the couch after he checks on me and seems to time it for right when I walk out of the bathroom for something so I walk into a clould of yucky dog fart. Damn cropdusting little pit mix...its a good thing he's cute.
That is the sole reason we bought a diaper pail (the Munchkin Arm & Hammer one). My goat-dog eats anything and everything. He is insured, thanks to the razor blade incident, but we would rather not have the e-vet thinking we're horrible pet parents, bringing our dog in for X-rays every two weeks.
My dog absolutely hates old people.
This little old lady goes on a walk down my street like every day, and when she passes he runs to get me and goes bonkers until I take him out. I take him out, the lady is already at the other end clear down the street, and he stands there howling and barking like the insane little poo head he is.
That squirrel story is awesome. No, nobody buries squirrels. As a matter of fact, H is currently waging a war with a red squirrel that has taken up residence in our shed and is eating all the birdseed. H is a cool cat but nobody messes with his little bird friends. When my brother and I were growing up, we used to shoot gray squirrels with a BB gun. Heh.
Interesting about the kennel. Our baby shower is in May and that will be the first test of what the ILs do about their dogs. I know they are planning on coming, so I'm curious to see what they do about the pups. I've always doubted they would kennel, but I don't think they could bring the dogs for the weekend either, so we will see.
OH also I heard from H that they are investing in some fancy GPS collar to put on their terrier. Now that they have moved to the middle of the woods, they are worried that one of these days she is going to get away and not come back.
They've already outfitted the dogs in safety orange vests for every single time they go outside. Its amusing---they are such suburbanites and so out of place in their new county, which is about as hillbilly as it gets.
This seems like the best place for me to drop this off ...
Oh if you dress your doggie up ...
...I have this.
I haven't decided where to put it yet.
Don't feel bad. I was thinking of getting one too and a dog bowl! LOL
I agree that treatment of animals can be a good indication of how you treat other people. Or we could just, you know, look at how they treat other people.
Where does one find such a shirt?
Also, Sen Scott Brown has just started a blog on his campaign website from the perspective of his dog. The pup is named SNUGGLES
http://www.scottbrown.com/koda-snuggles/
Duchess killed a squirrel while I was gone last weekend. This takes her record to 2 murders*, 1 co-murder (with Passy), multiple attempted murders and 1 accessory after the fact (chomping on a possum after Passy had killed it). hopefully Maggie will maintain her innocence though surrounded by hardened criminals.
*if mice counted, this number would be higher. but they don't.
Great, now dogs can vote?! ::cue the Fox story::
I do think it shows his inability to connect emotionally with people and pets. It was against the law there to do that! How many people would strap a dog to the roof for 12 hours, and when he starts oozing brown sludge from stress, hose him down and put him back up there.
What I don't understand is if there wasn't room for him in the car because of the suitcases, etc., why didn't he put the suitcases on the top of the car? Or rent a van big enough?
But then, I will confess to having buried a squirrel that my dogs killed, so I admit to being very sensitive about animals.