A Freckles close-up.

Eden resting under the coffee table. Note chew marks on furniture.

Freckles, master of her domain.

A rare moment of cease-fire.

Eden sulking with a “gentle leader” harness on (not a Hannibal Lecter mask — this one stops them from pulling on the leash). She won’t move with that thing on, she’ll just roll over and let you drag her through the yard.

Freckles tells Eden it’s going to be ok. Freckles does great when she has it on, btw.

The puppies tackle me.

I mentioned earlier that Eden and Freckles were graduating from puppy school. Here is Eden wearing her mortarboard.

Here’s Freckles with our excellent instructor, Nick. He taught them to “roll over” on their last day.

See also: “Burning down the house,” and NY TIMES Flashback

There have been rumors that gaffe machine Joe Biden would be dropped as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, and we can now confirm that these rumors are TRUE. The only surprise is that Biden is not being replaced by Hillary Clinton; instead, BRCK BM has chosen his faithful apostle, Rep. Steve Cohen:

Rep. Cohen, as you’ll recall, recently compared BRCK BM to Jesus Christ, and the Republican VP candidate to Pontius Pilate.

Rep. Cohen has apparently been rewarded with a slot on the presidential ticket. That is, unless this is just a silly sign produced by Cohen, who faces no Republican challenger, and who recently said “it’s just me and Obama,” when asked which other candidates he would be helping this election season.

Also: this sign was spotted well inside the 7th District; Cohen represents the 9th District.

The Memphis Liar sent an e-mail this morning promoting its “first ever green issue,” exactly two years after this post. So are they being printed on recycled tapioca pudding wrappers, mesh aborted fetuses, or what? Or perhaps this issue is being off-set with carbon credits to Al Gore’s bank account? Surely it’s not just a regular issue with a heavier dose of global warming alarmism…

UPDATE: It’s the latter, because printing on recycled materials “isn’t financially feasible.” It leads one to question two things: 1. The Flyer’s true commitment to its environmentalist creed, and 2. The Flyer’s credibility in advocating policies that force everyone else to make similarly unreasonable changes.

In an editorial billed as “The Cold Hard Truth about Sarah Palin,” Memphis Liar circus barker Marty Aussenberg assails what he considers protective, fawning treatment of John McCain’s “mean” running mate by Republicans, and tepid criticism or indulgence from Democrats and the media. What he fails to offer, however, is even one “cold hard truth” about the Alaskan Governor. Once again, the “Gadfly” offers little more than innuendo, supposition, personal insults and conjecture.

Aussenberg preemptively attacks what he assumes will be a “kid gloves” conversation with “journalist” Charlie Gibson (scare quotes included in the original), followed only by other sycophantic interviews and superficial investigations:

If the press and the public (and especially the Democrats) don’t do the job of seriously examining who this flash in the pan the Republicans are trying to foist over on us really is, then we’ll deserve having her be a “heartbeat from the presidency.”

Of course, we should note that such an examination of the “cold hard truth” appears to be above Aussenberg’s pay grade, not to mention his apparent lack of interest in the “flash in the pan” the Democrats “are trying to foist over on us” as President.

Aussenberg also submits the size of Palin’s family as evidence of her lack of judgment:

[W]hy it isn’t fair game to ask Palin herself why, in a world of diminishing resources, four children weren’t enough, and why, at the age of 44, she subjected her child to the known risks of a pregnancy with a substantially increased incidence of genetic defects? Isn’t judgment always an issue for a candidate?

Finally (and, yes, that’s basically all the editorial says), Aussenberg predicts that Palin will be dropped from the Republican ticket and mocks religious prayer:

While I don’t think “Flailin’ Palin” will even survive on the ticket to election day, I am implementing a contingency plan of praying (something I am really not used to doing). I do earnestly entreat any and all deities that, should the GOP succeed in fooling the American public (or worse, stealing this election), like it has so many times before, her sponsor should turn out to be neither as senile nor as sickly as he… seems… right… now.

Failing to include any “cold hard truths” in the editorial, Aussenberg makes a follow-up attempt in the comments:

Now that they’ve removed the muzzle from the pit bull (i.e., the first part of the Charlie Gibson interview) what did she do? Bite herself on the butt, of course. She lied about Alaska being responsible for 20% of the country’s energy production, she didn’t have a clue about the policy that her mentors (Bush and McCain) have implemented (the “Bush doctrine”), she actually repeated the pathetic rationale for her foreign policy experience (i.e., she lives next to Russia—I was fully expecting her to say next that she stayed at a Holiday Inn Express one night), and, worst of all, she’s apparently ready and willing to start a war with Russia. Can you imagine this woman with her finger on the nuclear button? It’s a scene straight out of “Dr. Strangelove.” Someone, please save us from being “imPalined.”

Taking this “cold hard truth” line by line:

1. “She lied about Alaska being responsible for 20% of the country’s energy production…”

To be exact, Gov. Palin said her state, “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy…”

The Huffington Post, in criticizing John McCain for flubbing the same line, supports the truth of Palin’s statement, which means Marty Aussenberg is the liar.

2. “She didn’t have a clue about the policy that her mentors (Bush and McCain) have implemented (the “Bush doctrine”)”

Actually, what Palin did was attempt to clarify the question, saying “In what respect, Charlie?” This clarification was necessary because the “Bush doctrine” can and does refer to multiple concepts: the policy of pre-emption, the policy of treating harboring states as enemies, the policy of spreading freedom in the Middle East as a means to defeat terrorism, the policy of facing terrorism on the battlefield rather than the courtroom, and the policy of staying on offense against Islamic terrorism until it is defeated.

Once again, the person who doesn’t “have a clue” is Marty Aussenberg.

3. “She actually repeated the pathetic rationale for her foreign policy experience (i.e., she lives next to Russia—I was fully expecting her to say next that she stayed at a Holiday Inn Express one night)”

I’m confident Sarah Palin wasn’t selected for her foreign policy experience, as was the rationale for picking Joe Biden, given the vast disparity of foreign policy experience between the two respective Presidential candidates. But there’s no reason to deny her what little experience she does have. One would expect Alaskan leaders to be far more attuned to Russian activities than politicians from Illinois.

4. “She’s apparently ready and willing to start a war with Russia. Can you imagine this woman with her finger on the nuclear button? It’s a scene straight out of ‘Dr. Strangelove.’”

All Palin did was answer a hypothetical question about an attack on a NATO ally. In response, she simply referenced Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

5. “Someone, please save us from being “imPalined.”

That’s the radical Left for you, still treating BRCK BM as a savior.

SEE ALSO: Fore Left!, Tennesseefree, Bill Hobbs, Byron York, Glenn Reynolds

UPDATE: Chris Davis takes issue with this photograph, saying I “toss[ed] the star spangled banner to [my] hound.” It’s actually a little decorative flag that was planted by the sidewalk, cut down the landscaping service hired by our apartment complex, and picked up yesterday morning by one of my Cocker Spaniel puppies. I thought it was endearing that she rescued the little flag on the anniversary of 9/11, so I took a photo. That aside, I welcome Davis’ newfound respect for Old Glory, particularly given the way he commemorated the anniversary of 9/11 with a sick photo that mocks the WTC victims. I think I need to start referring to his blog as Mos Eisley; it’s easily the most wretched hive of scum and villainy I’ve ever encountered.

I can’t imagine how BRCK BM can be telling the truth that he wasn’t intentionally alluding to Gov. Palin with his “lipstick on a pig” comment, especially given his audience’s amused reaction. I thought it was a clever jab, but if BRCK BM maintains that he simply stumbled upon an untimely cliche, that’s his loss. We certainly can’t prove otherwise without further information only BRCK BM and his handlers would know.

I also laughed when I heard part of BRCK BM’s defense: “What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that makes people sick and tired about politics in this country.”

I laughed because I first thought that I’m certainly not sick and tired of politics, then I remembered this line from Monty Python:

I think that all good, right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am.

We’re sick and tired of being told that we’re sick and tired of politics, and that somehow right thinking people in this country should be adopt the new politics of Obama, which is actually the old politics of the Chicago machine, writ large.

Is Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) comparing BRCK BM to our Lord and Savior?

There’s an interesting comment over at the Commercial Appeal article on Cohen’s ridiculous statement:

Wow, quickest headline change I’ve seen here. “Cohen compares Obama to Jesus” almost immediately disappeared and became “Cohen: Jesus was a Community Organizer.” Guess Otis must’ve figured the headline would hurt his boy.

There’s no Google cache of the old headline, but the url still reads:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/sep/10/cohen-compares-obama-jesus/

UPDATE: I understood the last line of the comment excerpted above as a benign, colloquial reference to the CA’s endorsement of Steve Cohen, who the editorial staff would not want to “hurt.” Others apparently interpret it as an unambiguous, racially-charged reference to BRCK BM. I had briefly considered leaving that line out simply because it’s speculative and unnecessary to the issue I wanted to call out — the CA’s revisionist headline. But now I’m sorry that I didn’t, because the peanut gallery will claim it as evidence of veiled racism on my part. That’s sad and pathetic, but true. But I won’t remove it now, because I don’t subscribe to revisionism myself. I will only point out that the peanut gallery apparently ignored Steve Cohen’s comparison of BRCK BM to Christ, his comparison of Gov Palin to Pontius Pilate (the man who condemned Christ to death on a cross), and the CA’s revisionism, in order to focus on an ambiguous comment somebody else made, in order to smear me. Such is the current state of the radical Left.

According to the Memphis Liar, our fair city is about to host a convention of “Racist A–Holes.” I’m confident our visitors will feel comfortable here among the James Edwardses, James Harts, Jake Fords, NiKKi TinKers and all the other race-baiters who call this city home. But I’m especially interested in this part:

There’s more, but it’s too depressing to share. Except for this: “It will be held in a first-class, premier hotel in a beautiful and secure country setting that is still just a short ride from the Memphis region airport. This fine hotel has agreed to a reduction of almost 40 percent off their normal rates.”

Gee, wonder what fine establishment agreed to give these upstanding folks 40 percent off? (We’re looking into it.)

Wasn’t it just a few days ago when some gent totally unaffiliated with (but bearing a strong resemblance to a senior editor at) the Memphis Liar was working himself into a lather about the precedent of newsmen sniffing out hotel accommodations?

What the hell is the National Enquirer doing, snooping around a hotel room where two consenting adults are doing whatever they’re doing? What business is it of anybody else’s? Why is the MSM admiringly preparing to creep into the same set of nocturnal shadows? This ain’t good, people.

I guess it became good to admiringly prepare to snoop around the nocturnal shadows where consenting creeps are doing whatever they’re doing at some point in the last four weeks. That’s change you can believe in.