How has Bo Obama Failed You Today?
I have to say, I’m really quite upset with the first dog. I mean, dad is out trying to fix the economy, manage two wars, and horse whip 100 egos in the Senate, and ALL Bo has to do is play with the kids and make sure the rodents are under control.
Pretty clearly, we need a first cat.
May 21, 2010 12:00 pm
Posted in: General Stupidity
91 Comments
91 Responses
The Grand Panjandrum - May 21, 2010 | 12:02 pm · Link
Dick Cheney’s back in town?
Cat Lady - May 21, 2010 | 12:03 pm · Link
At least it wasn’t a turd.
cervantes - May 21, 2010 | 12:03 pm · Link
Come on, that’s not the dog’s job. Well, scotties are supposed to kill rats but Bo’s supposed to go swimming after ducks or something. Give the pooch a break.
MikeJ - May 21, 2010 | 12:04 pm · Link
I remember one night I parked my car in the alley behind the old 9:30 club on F street. The storm sewer in the alley was boiling with rats, huge cat sized things, hundreds of them scurrying in every direction.
In other words, if you’re in DC, you’re going to see rats.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people) - May 21, 2010 | 12:05 pm · Link
It was a Wall Street CEO fleeing financial reform. Bo would get poisoned and die if he bit one of those. Duh.
GregB - May 21, 2010 | 12:05 pm · Link
This is indeed important news. As was the reportedly large swarm of bees near the White House last week.
I can only imagine these incidents are going to lead to the inevitable swarm of locusts that will usher in the Obamageddon.
me - May 21, 2010 | 12:05 pm · Link
What the fuck is that? They need a larger picture, it looks like a huge fucking cockroach.
Edit: Oh, I see now it’s heading right.
BR - May 21, 2010 | 12:06 pm · Link
This was thought to be worthy of an AP story?
Sigh.
demo woman - May 21, 2010 | 12:06 pm · Link
@MikeJ: The tail isn’t long enough to be a rat. More likely it’s a mole sent from Russia.
fucen tarmal - May 21, 2010 | 12:08 pm · Link
harriet miers would have caught the thing by the tail, lowered it into her mouth, and picked the bones clean before pulling it out of her mouth by the tail, leaving just a skeleton. true story.
Sue - May 21, 2010 | 12:09 pm · Link
Bo is a Portuguese WATER dog. That is clearly not a water rat or mouse or whatever, since it is not in water.
And I really, really liked this line in the article:
‘Just last week, as camera crews set up for an Obama statement on the Gulf oil spill, what’s believed to have been the same rodent made a dash across the famous garden.’
Really? The same rodent? Are they asking for ID now?
Rey - May 21, 2010 | 12:10 pm · Link
C’mon leave Bo alone. He’s probably somewhere taking a poop in the Lincoln bedroom.
Napoleon - May 21, 2010 | 12:10 pm · Link
@BR:
Sure, who would have thought that a huge city with millions of people would have a few mice or rats. I am totally surprised by the developement.
Mary - May 21, 2010 | 12:14 pm · Link
I can already hear the right-wing racists screeching about how the Obamas are turning the White House into a ghetto.
Lisa K. - May 21, 2010 | 12:14 pm · Link
My terrier would NEVER have let that happen
!
gwangung - May 21, 2010 | 12:18 pm · Link
Funny. I thought it was just a member of the White House Press Corps angling for a better seat.
The Dangerman - May 21, 2010 | 12:19 pm · Link
An opportunity missed; if Obama had whipped out a 12 gauge from behind the podium, pumped, and blew the fucker to Rodent Heaven, his polling would have increased in the Red States markedly.
Loneoak - May 21, 2010 | 12:20 pm · Link
I hereby nominate Tunch to the esteemed position of First Cat.
The position pays in tuna, so he should be pleased.
Comrade Dread - May 21, 2010 | 12:23 pm · Link
I’d recommend a dachshund.
My yard has been suspiciously free of crickets, mice, and birds since I got one.
I probably wouldn’t have noticed it, until I found feathers hanging out of her mouth.
JBerardi - May 21, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link
@Mary:
This story is an absolute lock to produce various racist comments. What I’d really like to see, though, is someone try to use this as an indictment of Obama’s ability to defend us from The Terrorists. That would be an instant classic.
Mnemosyne - May 21, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link
@BR:
That’s what I said to G last night. And yet I clicked on it. Clearly I am part of the problem.
Morbo - May 21, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link
The British have a cabinet position for this very problem. Although it is currently vacant.
Citizen_X - May 21, 2010 | 12:26 pm · Link
I have this substitute image in my mind of Furst Kitteh sauntering by w/said offending vole in teeth.
ThatPirateGuy - May 21, 2010 | 12:30 pm · Link
What do people have against the first rat? It looks cute.
MikeJ - May 21, 2010 | 12:30 pm · Link
@Mary: Already there:
http://www.freerepublic.com/fo.....7918/posts
Read the comments there and compare to “The Eternal Jew“.
Michael D. - May 21, 2010 | 12:30 pm · Link
In other news, if you go to Google today, you can click the logo and play Pac-Man
MikeJ - May 21, 2010 | 12:31 pm · Link
@Morbo: You paid for a mouser. Where is it?
You sold it.
Punchy - May 21, 2010 | 12:31 pm · Link
The first catty person to dog on rats gets a bird in the hand, or something.
/proud owner of 2 adorable rats (who dont cook)
ellaesther - May 21, 2010 | 12:31 pm · Link
Can we at least agree, that contrary to heated media speculation, this is not a rat? Rats have much longer tails, and a very different body build.
This looks vole to me, which is the sort of critter you would not be surprised to see living in an enormous garden. You know—like at the White House!
But sure, blame the black dog for not living up to your precious expectations. Racist. /ptooey!/
tripletee - May 21, 2010 | 12:32 pm · Link
Clearly, this is more proof of Obama’s failed policies of appeasement vis a vis the rodent population. You never saw rodents running around in the open during the Bush adminstration. They knew they’d either be eaten by Cheney or collected by Karl Rove and subjected to an even more horrifying fate.
peach flavored shampoo - May 21, 2010 | 12:33 pm · Link
He would soooo sit on that mouse.
bemused - May 21, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link
@Comrade Dread:
That’s a hilarious image.
sukabi - May 21, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link
In his battle with the titans of Wall Street, President Barack Obama almost got upstaged by a rat.
That’s the opening to this story. And this is why no one trusts “journalists”. From the picture, anyone with half a brain can clearly see that the rodent in the pic is NOT a rat, body shape and tail are wrong. A rodent of some kind, probably a vole, but definitely not a rat.
And this was the IMPORTANT thing they took away from the press conference.
Joey Maloney - May 21, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link
Jeezum Crisco, some Teatard thinks it’s a good idea to put a microphone between a crowd and…wait for it…Atlas Juggs!
Tea party organizers will not drop a speaker from a Tennessee convention this weekend despite calls from a national Muslim rights group that considers her anti-Islamic.
Mnemosyne - May 21, 2010 | 12:39 pm · Link
@ellaesther:
I’ve seen some speculation that it’s a mole, but the picture isn’t very good.
America wants answers! Why is the White House covering up the species of rodent living in their gardens? What are they hiding?
Nick - May 21, 2010 | 12:39 pm · Link
Meghan McCain would like you to know Obama is the President of BP too.
Obama, fix the oil spill and then don’t use taxpayer money to do it and for the love of God don’t regulate everyone & step on private business, just clean up the mess they make.
Mustang Bobby - May 21, 2010 | 12:39 pm · Link
I agree with demo woman; it’s not a rat. Its tail is too short and it’s too small.
Somewhere I have a picture of President Bush getting bombed by birdcrap in the Rose Garden. What did the Freepers say about that? And did Dick Cheney try to shoot it?
SIA - May 21, 2010 | 12:39 pm · Link
For God’s sake people. Give Obama-san a chance! He’s got this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....eature=fvw
jeffreyw - May 21, 2010 | 12:40 pm · Link
Mebbe Toby can get the job.
theturtlemoves - May 21, 2010 | 12:42 pm · Link
@Michael D.: As a loyal minion of the Great Redmond Satan, I should only be using Bing, but I have to admit that is really cool.
MikeJ - May 21, 2010 | 12:46 pm · Link
@Mnemosyne: Are you suggesting that the White House has been infiltrated? Obama has let moles into the highest levels of power? This is worse than Robert Hanssen!
TuiMel - May 21, 2010 | 12:48 pm · Link
@Loneoak:
Mr. Tunch goes to Washington.
But, so many rats – where to start?
flukebucket - May 21, 2010 | 12:50 pm · Link
@Mary:
Absolutely. First thing I heard this morning in fact.
Ni**er in the White House, rats naturally follow.
But I do live in the south so I expect to hear all kinds of shit like that.
Got this just yesterday.
comrade scott's agenda of rage - May 21, 2010 | 12:51 pm · Link
Rats in/around a federal building in DC? I’m shocked, shocked I say.
When I worked at the Pentagon, one night I was heading in for the overnight shift at the intel center’s alert desk. I’m walking past a trash can probably 30 yards from the building and suddenly it comes alive. Scared me shitless. Upon actual looking at it, the rats were out in force.
Then there was another building in DC proper, can’t remember which one other than one of the nice things built during the Depression. It had been totally shut down for some reason and was slowly being renovated. You could walk by it at night and watch the rats crawl over the grounds.
At the Pentagon, we always thought about turning a couple of dozen snakes loose and see what they could do.
canuckistani - May 21, 2010 | 12:52 pm · Link
Like a First Cat wouldn’t stage a coup by the end of the first week on the job.
Glenn - May 21, 2010 | 12:56 pm · Link
Don’t worry, Biden stepped on it and it let out a Big Fucking Squeal.
TenguPhule - May 21, 2010 | 1:01 pm · Link
So what happened after Rumsfield went in there?
Alex S. - May 21, 2010 | 1:02 pm · Link
The rats are leaving the sinking ship! /wingnut
Linda Featheringill - May 21, 2010 | 1:09 pm · Link
The white house needs a couple of adult cats from the local shelter. Kitties that live on the street and survive to adulthood can REALLY hunt!
John - May 21, 2010 | 1:15 pm · Link
I was in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building a few months ago for a meeting (it was a state government conference type of thing), and we were let out by the West Wing gate.
Anyway, we were told by the 20-something staffer as the group was heading out that they actually DO keep at least one feral cat on the grounds to control the rat population. Don’t know if they got the cat at a local shelter, but I bet if someone emailed the White House they could find out.
themann1086 - May 21, 2010 | 1:16 pm · Link
The comments at Yahoo make me a sad panda.
taterstick - May 21, 2010 | 1:18 pm · Link
“From time to time, city officials issue alarms about surges in the rat population when
residents put out extra-big summer piles of garbage.Congress is in session.”Fixed.
Joshua Norton - May 21, 2010 | 1:19 pm · Link
“this wasn’t the first time a rodent’s been spied in the White House, or even the Rose Garden.”
I could say something Bush & Cheney related about that, but it’s pretty low hanging fruit.
eemom - May 21, 2010 | 1:20 pm · Link
Chelsea Clinton had a kitty. Its name was Socks.
comrade scott's agenda of rage - May 21, 2010 | 1:26 pm · Link
@TenguPhule:
The irony is that during part of my tenure there, Cheney was SecDef.
Rumsfeld, etc al weren’t snakes, they were a nasty venereal disease.
@Linda Featheringill:
A feral colony that’s fixed and given supplemental food can do a job on rodent control. Biggest problem in a place like the WH? Too many will eventually get squashed by cars. That’s not a photo op the WH wants.
jimbob - May 21, 2010 | 1:31 pm · Link
I thought Barry O was the First Cat, daddy-o.
Beeb - May 21, 2010 | 1:32 pm · Link
They could get a cat. Or they could humanely trap that rodent, check it for rabies, give it a name — “Newt” works for me — buy it a cage with a wheel and a place to hide and some rodent chow, and welcome it to the family.
Proper Gander - May 21, 2010 | 1:33 pm · Link
Only slightly apropos- when I was living in Cedar Rapids Iowa a few years ago, I was walking downtown one night, slightly drunk, and spied some enormous cockroaches, on the order of three inches long and two across, crawling out of a grille and down into an alley. Being slightly drunk, I thought it would be great to start jumping on them. So I jumped, and missed, and jumped again, and squashed one of the little buggers. Just then a police car pulled into the alley right in front of me and I thought, “Oh damn, I’m going to get a public intox.” The window rolled down and the officer called out to me, “Did you get that mouse?”
phoebes-in-santa fe - May 21, 2010 | 1:34 pm · Link
@eemom: The Bush’s also had a cat – a gorgeous black cat that went by the name “Kitty”. I think it died right around when the left the WH.
Only thing I ever liked about the Bush family was that cat. Info on cat, also called “India”...
Go to Wiki and look up “India”. She/he was indeed a beauty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_%28cat%29
She was also called “Willie”.
protected static - May 21, 2010 | 1:37 pm · Link
@MikeJ: ...or the school playground across from the Safeway on the outskirts of Georgetown… brrr… Monster rats, I tell you.
[old 9:30 club RIP]
licensed to kill time - May 21, 2010 | 1:39 pm · Link
Naked vole streaking may become a new fad once the other voles see how much attention it gets.
Josie - May 21, 2010 | 1:40 pm · Link
@Comrade Dread: I agree. I have a rescue that is part long haired dachshund, and she has an overwhelming urge to chase down everything that moves, even cats who are bigger than she is. She has been bopped several times but just cannot help herself.
horatius - May 21, 2010 | 1:43 pm · Link
Pretty clearly, we need a first cat.
Pretty clearly Tunch has taken control of the blog.
BombIranForChrist - May 21, 2010 | 1:45 pm · Link
I predict that about 75% of editorial cartoons in the next week will use this image for its main idea.
It literally draws itself. Draw the rat, and then write something clever on it, like The Banking Industry! or Deficits! or Afghanistan! What point is it making? Who cares!
Comrade Dread - May 21, 2010 | 1:46 pm · Link
@canuckistani:
He would try, but then he’d get distracted by a string or a laser pointer and the free world would be saved.
@Josie:
My first week with them (also rescue dachshunds), I heard a terrible racket from the back yard. At first, I was worried they were just barkers, so I went outside to see what was up, and I found my big cat, fluffed out to twice his normal size, stuck on a patio table in the middle of the porch hissing at two happy little wienerdogs dancing, leaping, and barking around the table at him.
The cat has avoided the back yard ever since.
Sheila - May 21, 2010 | 1:51 pm · Link
That is NOT a rat. My daughter has had rats for pets (they are very intelligent and affectionate and clean, by the way), and they look nothing like that. Nor is it likely that a rat would be so confused as to wonder out in the open like that. I read that it was most likely a vole, which is said to resemble a rat but with a shorter tail and a stockier body, which this creature definitely has. And, after all, it is doing absolutely nothing wrong, so what’s the fuss?
debit - May 21, 2010 | 1:53 pm · Link
@Josie: When I was a kid, we had a collie who chased squirrels and we always laughed “What would she do if she caught one?” I now have a mostly JRT, Chloe, and it is no laughing matter as squirrels are Serious Business. She doesn’t bark, just launches herself toward them in silent, murderous intent.
She’s totally fine with the cats (is actually super submissive) but I’d hate to see what would happen should she ever catch a rodent.
Josie - May 21, 2010 | 1:56 pm · Link
@Comrade Dread: I can picture it so well. My male cat Wiley enjoys strolling in front of the dog to get her started, then leaping into a handy tree and onto the roof to stare down at the screaming dog. I have to go bring her in because she would go on all day, or at least until the cat tires of the sport.
Cain - May 21, 2010 | 1:58 pm · Link
@The Dangerman:
They’d all have wanked to the video and have a huge smile on their face.
I might have joined them, as that would be all kinds of cool.. when armegeddon.. he’s going to be our madmax.
cain
Daize - May 21, 2010 | 1:58 pm · Link
@demo woman:
They make sauce out of those…
Josie - May 21, 2010 | 1:59 pm · Link
@debit: That is the same attitude Mitzi has. We don’t have squirrels in South Texas, but I have seen her with a mouse, and it wasn’t a pretty picture.
fucen tarmal - May 21, 2010 | 1:59 pm · Link
the rats abandoned the deadeye dick and the turd blossom posse white house in 2005, something about a sinking ship, maybe this is an omen?
WereBear - May 21, 2010 | 2:02 pm · Link
@John: Nothing, nothing, beats a cat at rat hunting.
Not that terriers don’t do a good job. But sometimes you just don’t want a ton of holes dug, too.
QuaintIrene - May 21, 2010 | 2:08 pm · Link
Ah, badger hounds! They were bred that weiner shape so they could go down the actual badger dens.
suzanne - May 21, 2010 | 2:52 pm · Link
Whatever the fuck it is, I’m sure Sarah Palin would be thrilled to shoot it from a plane.
goatchowder - May 21, 2010 | 2:53 pm · Link
Socks wouldn’t have stood for this shit.
LD50 - May 21, 2010 | 3:08 pm · Link
@phoebes-in-santa fe: Good lord, Socks and India both make it to 19. Something about being the president’s cat seems to guarantee longevity.
Bad Horse's Filly - May 21, 2010 | 3:35 pm · Link
@Michael D.: Wow, didn’t know I was that good at pacman. What was I doing in the 80’s. Oh, wait, I remember. Never mind.
Linkmeister - May 21, 2010 | 3:40 pm · Link
@phoebes-in-santa fe: The disclaimer at the top of that Wiki page is priceless:
Mnemosyne - May 21, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
@eemom:
If you really want to see some right-wing stupid, Google for Socks and Hillary Clinton and you can see the sad, sad story of how the Clintons abandoned the cat when Chelsea went to college.
Because, you know, there’s nothing more horrible than letting your long-time secretary take the cat with her when she retires because she’s come to love it over the past 8 years. Monsters, I tell you.
giantslor - May 21, 2010 | 3:50 pm · Link
Not much reaction from the Right about financial reform passing. Plenty of reaction to this, though. A rat appears so it means Obama’s a rat. Or something. O-kay. That’s what you call grasping at straws.
skippy - May 21, 2010 | 3:54 pm · Link
bring back socks! (except he’s dead…)
Maxwel - May 21, 2010 | 4:05 pm · Link
Looks like a shrew.
Mary - May 21, 2010 | 4:07 pm · Link
@debit: My border collie/pit bull mix has proven to be frighteningly adept at catching squirrels and mice. The only thing that has really stumped her so far has been birds, but I can tell she is determined to figure out how to fly. In fact, just last week she broken the screen on a second story window in attempt to try it out. I looked up and saw her butt sticking out the window and had to jump up and grab her tail just before she took off. (I really wish I wasn’t making this up, but she seriously did try to jump out a second story window. Stupid, fearless, lack-of-any-sense-of-self-preservation terrier brain.)
Nikolita - May 21, 2010 | 4:34 pm · Link
@Loneoak:
Aww crud, I came here to say this, but you beat me to it already. ;)
ruemara - May 21, 2010 | 5:02 pm · Link
@flukebucket:
Speechless. and the idiot woman performing in these videos should be ashamed.
soonergrunt - May 21, 2010 | 5:52 pm · Link
Well, clearly that rodent is a gate crasher and the social secretary needs to be strung up forthwith. We know it’s a gate crasher because we already know who the First Rat is. That would Joe Lieberman.
soonergrunt - May 21, 2010 | 5:55 pm · Link
@The Dangerman: Are you kidding? The sight of a black man with a gun? They’d have freaked the fuck out.
Joe Lisboa - May 21, 2010 | 6:12 pm · Link
I made the mistake of wading into the muck that MikeJ linked to, above, and one of the very first comments (below a picture of the POTUS) was this garbage:
Now tell me with a straight face this opposition to the Pres from the right is not driven – if only in part – by racial animus? There are no words.
Yutsano - May 21, 2010 | 6:28 pm · Link
@Bad Horse’s Filly: I’m a touched miffed though. The Google version is teh awesome compared to the version I have on my phone. Then again I just have a primitive lil Pantech model, so that might almost be enough to get me to get an iPhone. Almost.
MAJ Mike - May 26, 2010 | 9:25 am · Link
The rats are deserting the ship already?