Just a rainbow, courtesy of the afternoon monsoons, which have returned for a while. They sure do cool things down at night.
Meanwhile, in DeeCee, Weepy John Boehner is still leading from the rear, frantically trying to figure out which brand of tinfoil his Tea Bagger buddies want for their beanies. The gang at Talking Points Memo is on top of things as they happen, and for high-quality analysis and snark you can check with Steve Benen at Political Animal and Kevin Drum at Mother Jones.
Suffice it to say that the news is all bad. At least Kevin supplies cat-blogging on Fridays to lighten the mood.
Here in Dog Country we’ll engage in a bit of dog-blogging as a counterpoint. We’ve been crate-training Buddy and so far, so good. He’s (mostly) sleeping through the night and has had no more accidents in the crate since we pulled the bedding out of it. He’s getting at least one longish walk daily and plenty of backyard time. And today he even romped a bit with Herself, gamboling about the DogHaus like a happy pup and even barking a couple of times, just for the hell of it.
The Feline Caucus, of course, finds this incomprehensible. But so far they haven’t tried any nihilistic shenanigans, which goes to show you that pretty much any old four-legged furball is smarter than the average House Repuglicant.
Mad Blog Media 
So, Buddy isn’t in the crate, with one eye open, waiting for the cowbell?
More cowbell!
Actually, Steve, he’s turning into quite the dog about town. Tonight Herself took him for a stroll with a couple neighbors and their pooches and all went well, and he’s definitely showing some personality. I was afraid he had become an Institutional Man after his time in the joint.
I always thought it interesting that Buddy was the least zen of the Glass children. Always wondered if Salinger gave him that name intentionally.
Some times you have to hit the bottom before you see the real picture. The tea-baggers are creating such a mess for the Reps, they will surely be shown the door any day now. What a freak show, and unless their constituents are a batch of like minded idiots, recalls may be in order, as is happening in Wisconsin. Sure, we all wanted a change, but for the better, not this abomination of a congress full of vitriol. What happened to common sense? Or learning from history (flash back to Nazi Germany).
The current stupidity here in the USA has me yearning to get the hell out of here! But sadly, our money is here too so no matter what we do we’re stuck. But if we can get that visa, we’ve got the place reserved in Sicily and can escape the entire mess (at least mentally) by October. Watching the pros at Giro di Lombardia mid-month will easily melt any memories of the political stupidity here..and if there are some white truffles around to be shaved over some pasta or fried eggs, we’ll be in heaven. Then we’ll be in Sicily until May of 2012, nicely skipping the Iowa madness of the Repuglican caucus’ season. Those nutjobs can have the whole damn state for all I care!
Get a nice big place, Larry. You may have lots of company. How does one say, “Screw the Tea Party!” in Italian, anyway?
Was Buddy “lost” and never found by his owners or was he turned in by them? So many pets are left behind or turned in these days. Good to hear he’s settling in.
Libby, we’re not certain. He’s 6 to 8 years old, a stray, and had been in the slammer for three weeks, so it’s anybody’s guess. He’s either brilliant or had some previous training, so I’m guessing he once had someone who cared about him before he wound up in a kennel with a bad name.
Anyway, he’s progressing at high speed. We had to leave him in the crate for a couple of extended periods today while we attended a graveside service and reception for Paulette and he was totally cool with it. A quick walk, a snack, a sip of water, a little lovin’ and he was a happy chappy.
If you didn’t catch Ben Stein’s commentary on CBS Sunday Morning, he quickly spelled our current problem w/ the budget and debt ceiling. For a conservative, he laid the wood to the Reps, especially those in love with tax cuts, supply side economics, and the Tea Party cutting agenda. He actually admitted that Clinton left us in good shape, Bush 43 screwed it up, and Obama carried on with furthering the quagmire. Good stuff, we need more common sense like this displayed!