The AP wins the ridiculous political story of the year award.

[trumad]

Yeah I know it's only July----

<snip>
From George Washington's foxhounds Drunkard and Tipsy to George W. Bush's terriers Barney and Miss Beazley, pets are a longtime presidential tradition for which the presumed Republican nominee seems well prepared, with more than a dozen.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama, on the other hand, doesn't have a pet, though he has promised his daughters a dog after the election, win or lose.

"From an image standpoint, nothing humanizes a candidate more than seeing him lovingly dote on his pet or toss a ball around on the White House lawn," says American Kennel Club spokeswoman Lisa Peterson.

An AP-Yahoo News poll found that pet owners favor McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners particularly in McCain's corner.

"I think a person who owns a pet is a more compassionate person -- caring, giving, trustworthy. I like pet owners," said Janet Taylor of Plymouth, Mass.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/associated_press_pet_owners_pr.php

[JuniperLea]

1. Then there are people like George, and Paris...

Who only use them as an accessory.

[SpiralHawk]

2. BREAKING: AP too damn busy to do a survey on White House Torture and Sex Abuse

So some independent reporter has to go out on her own and put 2 and 2 together to tell the American people of the brutal, immoral, and illegal acts being committed in their name by the Bush republicons.


Sex Crimes in the White House

By Naomi Wolf, Huffington Post
Posted on July 7, 2008

Sex crime has a telltale signature, even when those directing the outrages are some of the most powerful men and women in the United States. How extraordinary, then, to learn that one of the perpetrators of these crimes, Condoleezza Rice, has just led the debate in a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

I had a sense of deja vu when I saw the photos that emerged in 2004 from Abu Ghraib prison. Even as the Bush administration was spinning the notion that the torture of prisoners was the work of "a few bad apples" low in the military hierarchy, I knew that we were seeing evidence of a systemic policy set at the top. It's not that I am a genius. It's simply that, having worked at a rape crisis center and been trained in the basics of sex crime, I have learned that all sex predators go about things in certain recognizable ways.

(snip)
Link to DU discussion thread and original article:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3576697

[dbonds]

3. They keep looking for the one angle where McCain is leading

[CatWoman]

4. look at the horror on the faces of those kids

I hope Barney bit him when Chimpy picked him back up.

[tularetom]

5. Nobody loves animals more than me but thats fuckin stoopid

Hell, I have like a hundred animals around here.

Course, 90 of 'em are chickens.

[canis_lupus]

6. The AP story is a bit misleading

Actually, McCain is only leading among dog owners whose pets are so ashamed of their owners that they have attempted canine suicide by jumping out of their owners' arms in an attempt to dash themselves against solid concrete.

Also, McCain has a very slim lead among cat owners who dress their cats up as Civil War re-enactors for re-enactments of "the Battle of Kittysburg."

[cags]

7. I'm willing to bet that McCain doesn't even know the names of all his pets

[CatWoman]

12. God, that's funny!!!

:rofl:

[rox63]

8. They forgot to mention that Barney and Mrs. Beasley are Democratic moles in the White House

Barney is always trying to jump out of *'s arms and escape.

[jpcrecom]

9. True story

A fried of my brothers works at the white house (not part of the administration) and my brother was visiting him. He got one of those private tours of the west wing (I got one too once, even saw where the white house was burned during the war of 1812 - pretty cool. Got pictures at the podium in the press room. Also saw a lot of the underground evacuation tunnels - couldn't go in them - but I could see them. But I digress....). He was out on the grounds and one of the guys walks outside with Barney. My brother says, "Is that Barney?"
"yes."
"Can I hold him?"
"Sure."

So my brother could have dogknapped Barney and been world famous.

[NV Whino]

10. I bet your brother didn't drop him either.

[AndyTiedye]

11. Come on, Pee on Him Again!

[mvd]

13. Yes, it's very rare they have decent stories like the one below

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_re_us/cheney_climate