I Had No Idea They Still Killed Puppies

I live in New York where, for the most part, we have no-kill shelters for dogs and cats. I have read statistics that New York puts down about 20,000 dogs a year, but many of them are ill or unadoptable due to a bad temperment. Those shelters that have to kill do everything they can to find homes for the dogs and cats, and really try to adopt out the young and healthy dogs. I always heard that we still kill about 5,000,000 animals a year (yes, that’s millions) but I thought of it as an abstraction. Until I got involved in dog rescue.

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I think she should be VP. It would mollify the 32% of Dem voters who say they won't vote for Obama, it would mean that Bill and Hillary, who are brilliant, are helping to make policy, and I would sleep a lot better knowing that Obama had their experience to tap into.

Also, the woman is tough as nails, probably the most relentless politician I have ever seen in my 46 years, and she can duke it out with McCain and his VP, leaving President Obama above the fray. Obama does not like the blood sport of politics and Bill and Hillary love it - can you imagine tougher opponents for the Republicans? I want to win in November, and this ticket, in my view, can pull it off.

And this man is a Democrat!! A disgrace! The letter that I wrote to the newpapers and the television stations is below and I hope that you feel free to write to the local media as well. This is a high kill shelter, his German Shepherd was very pregnant, and he is involved in who will be running this shelter in the future. A rescue group wants to take it over, and the county councilman is in the running also. The County councilman's name is John Rogers, and his son dumped TWO dogs off at the shelter in the past week.

Here is the petfinder page for this shelter -
http://search.petfinder.com/...

Many of these black labs will be put down, even puppies. This senator, who cares not a bit about animals, is trying to get his crony to run the shelter.

I really, really need Keith Olbermann's email for Worst Person in the World.

Contacts below: please consider an email or call if you care about animals.

I have really started to love Ms. Gail Collins, Op-Ed writer for the NY Times, and I must say that she has encapsulated the entire era of George W. Bush and Rampant Republicanism perfectly in this one paragraph from her column today:

The country that elected George Bush — sort of — because he seemed like he’d be more fun to have a beer with than Al Gore or John Kerry is really getting its comeuppance. Our credit markets are foundering, and all we’ve got is a guy who looks like he’s ready to kick back and start the weekend.

I was nodding my head in agreement, although I am sorrowful for the pain of those who didn't vote for George W. Bush. But I cannot dig up too sympathy for those who voted for GWB twice, or didn't bother to vote at all. We got the government we deserve.

Bush Speaks Badly:
http://www.nytimes.com/...

I don't recall the rules, and if I can write an OT diary like this. I just received a list of dogs from Save-A-Pet, an online group that sends available dogs to your email if you are looking for a new dog. Yesterday, I got an email about a Dane mix in a South Carolina shelter who has only days left. The rescue group who posted this dog, and many others is in New Hampshire, and operating on a shoestring. The website page where the dogs are located is:
www.freewebs.com/fortheluvofdawgs
The coordinator's name is Cathy, and she has posted about 7 dogs who will be destroyed at the end of the week. They are all young, and very good dogs. There is just a lot of backyard breeding in South Carolina, and these dogs are the unlucky ones.
This rescue group works with All For The Love of Animals Pet Rescue in pulling the dogs that people want to adopt. They will hold them, and then transport them to the northeast in one trip, this time in April.  I have taken two of the dogs. The adoption fee is $250, which includes spay/neuter, and all shots. If the fee is too steep, I think they will work with you.
Cathy's email is fortheluvofdawgs@aol.com. She gets back to any email requests at night.

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From the NY Times:

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s advisers made it clear that they were prepared to take potentially incendiary steps to build her delegate count.

I hate the phrase, "I told you so," but I have been saying this is all about Hillary, and not about what is best for the country, or the people, as she will destroy the Democrat's chances in November if she does this.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Perhaps for Valentines Day?? We need to help him in the next big states that I am worried about, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. All of the states that he has won recently won't mean squat if he loses these three big states.

He needs TV time, he needs money to set up a ground game, and to get his message out.  I am in for a few more $$, even though I can't afford it right now. I can't afford not to give, because I truly believe that if Hillary is the nominee, McCain will be our next president.

OK, I am living in Never Never Land.  Ann Coulter endorsed HIllary Clinton over John McCain, saying that Hillary is more conservative than John McCain, she thinks Hillary will NOT pull the troops out of Iraq, and that Hillary at least is smart enough to know when she is lying, which McCain isn't. Her biggest issue was that Hillary Clinton will be stronger on the WOT, citing the State of the Union address in which Hillary Clinton stood up and applauded when Bush said the surge was working, while Obama sat and did nothing.

Check it out here, and then put bleach in your eyes and ears.

http://www.breitbart.tv/...

Very interesting Op-Ed by one of my favorite writers, Paul Krugman, of the NY Times. He analyzed all of the candidates on their recession policies, using their - horror of horrors! - own policy statements and plans. As expected, the Republicans are totally useless - none of them will be able to handle this, including new frontrunner McCain, who said recently:

"Take, for example, John McCain’s admission that economics isn’t his thing. "The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should," he says. "I’ve got Greenspan’s book."

But as a recent convert to Obama from Edwards from fear of polls and results in Iowa and NH, I was surprised to see what I have said often here:

On the Democratic side, John Edwards, although never the front-runner, has been driving his party’s policy agenda.

He also said the Obama is the least progressive on domestic issues, which I will highlight below.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

In another stunning case of hypocrisy, the freepers have a thread entitled "Freeper Help Needed, Anyone Know Service Background of Brigadier General Kerr?"  They are going to Swift Boat this General, a  man who served for 40 years, because he had the audacity to be gay and ask about it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/...

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Just in from CNN and Barbara Starr - the Pentagon has just asked for 88 million dollars because of an immediate need for the 30,000 lb bomb. She said it is not being said out loud, but it is understood that they want it ASAP for using on Iran.

Here is an earlier diary, with more info: I am not going to cancel this diary in the hopes that someone more prominent than I picks up on this and writes about it, getting the word out:
http://www.dailykos.com/...

Sorry for the lack of links and the brevity of this - I looked on the CNN website, and it is not up yet, but Starr just reported it at around 4:35PM Eastern time and I don't want this to get lost under the radar while we are all worried about our friends in California.

I wonder what Hillary is thinking about her Iran vote now??

We are lamenting the fact that our Dem leaders seem to be listening to their lobbyists, rather than the people who did all of the heavy lifting to get them where they are. We are astounded that there has been very little change, even though the Dems are in charge. We have been gnashing our teeth that it seems that the corporations are running this country, that the individual's rights are lessening, while corporations' rights are expanding.

We can get their attention. We can stop them in their tracks.

Boycott everything nonessential for one week.

Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government's domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted the program, according to congressional sources.

Disclosure of the deal followed a decision by House Democratic leaders to pull a competing version of the measure from the floor because they lacked the votes to prevail over Republican opponents and GOP parliamentary maneuvers.

I just did a quick scan, and no one seems to have diaried this very important issue.

So - what is there to say? Call your Senator - maybe they can filibuster this, as the Republicans are filibustering every thing they don't like.

I wish I could say I was surprised. I wish I could say that I do not think the Dems are helping the Repubs ring the death bell on a representative democracy. But I cannot. And if anyone sees a silver lining in this cloud, please let me know.

Headline of NY Times:

Democratic Concessions Are Expected on Wiretapping

http://www.nytimes.com/...

What are they thinking??? Story below:

Clarence Thomas' new book comes out on October 1st, entitled "I  Hate Myself," (Oops! It is really called: "My Grandfather's Son,") and in it he says this about those who opposed his confirmation to the Supreme Court:

"

As a child in the Deep South, I'd grown up fearing the lynch mobs of the Ku Klux Klan; as an adult, I was starting to wonder if I'd been afraid of the wrong white people all along," he writes. "My worst fears had come to pass not in Georgia, but in Washington, D.C., where I was being pursued not by bigots in white robes but by left-wing zealots draped in flowing sanctimony."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Clarence Thomas, who benefitted from those brave African Americans before him, is a self-congratulatory, mediocre man himself. How dare he compare those who tried to keep his incompetence off the court to those with white robes and nooses!!

I never thought I would type those words. (Disclaimer: I used to be a Republican, but even then I never thought Hannity was right.) And after last night's debate, I think he was only partially right. But let me tell you what he said that I actually agreed with.

Hannity said that the Dem nominee will be Hillary because she is smart and she and Bill Clinton have their "team" together again, which slimes everyone. Part of this I agree with: she has her act together as far as running a campaign. Of course she does: this is her third one. The part I did not agree with was the sliming part. I think the Dem side has been remarkably polite. But then he said, and I do agree and don't hear it here very often, that the others don't want it enough. He said Hillary and Bill are tough, and they want it, and they are running a smart campaign, running towards the center. The others are afraid to take her on. They start to, and then back off, as if they are afraid of getting her angry, or they are too polite. Their wives have done it a few times, but not them. Until last night, with Edwards, I would have totally agreed. Now, I partially agree.

I know this is seriously OT, and if I am breaking site rules, I will take it down, but I didn't hear a thing about this on the MSM. This morning, on their Trust and Safety Board, (ah, the irony!) a hacker starting posting ebay user names and credit card numbers. I can't get a clear idea of whether or not the credit card numbers were real.

Ebay has not made any official announcements about this that I can find. THey did take the thread down about an hour after some users notified them that this was occurring. What some people who called were told was that the credit card numbers were NOT real. (edited to fix this error)
http://forums.ebay.com/...

and here is another one:

http://forums.ebay.com/...
So just to keep your heads up - if you use ebay, keep an eye on your accounts.

Some threads on this:

After yesterday's cowardly vote, in which the above mentioned voted with the Republicans in condemning that very evil, life-changing, liberty-threathening ad by MoveOn.org, you know, the one questioning a General bought and paid for by the White House, I called the above Senators.  Why did I call them, you ask, when I live in NY? Because I donated to every one of them. I gave my hard earned money, money I could have spent on the electric bill, money I could have used for new clothes for my kids, money I could have used to take my family out to dinner. I sent them several hundred dollars, several times. And this is what I get??? A stab in the back, saying that an organization that helped each of them get into office, plus millions of Americans who doubt Petraeus, are traitors?? That is what we get: we were "condemned: for this ad. What - are we a banana republic, where we can't question the generals?? We are getting scarier every day, people. I am really not recognizing my country from 6 years ago.