Latest update from commentor & cat-mensch Marc:
Got the kittens into a cat bed, and while they looked over the sides, they did not seem inclined to go beyond. Not until they realized Mom’s Diner was near and ready to serve brunch.
Of course, once they had their fill, it was siesta time.
***********
Apart from fuzzy feline wonderfulness, what’s on the agenda for the official start of Serious September Season?
WereBear
I WANT THE MARMALADE KITTEN.
You can tell that one is going to be a handful. I like that.
But we have no slots open at present.
MomSense
Cutest kittens ever.
raven
Mornin Jihad!
Baud
Lessig’s entry into the race has me rethinking whether Baud! 2016 should remain a parody.
Aleta
Thanks Marc. You’re the best.
Elizabelle
Voting for a weekly fix of Miri and her kits. How can you not smile to see those little mugs?
First day of school in Northern Virginia.
And Colbert! debut tonight. He’s been missed.
ixnay
Are those little whitish kids pointing up like they have Siamese in their background? It’s all over in the gene pool, and they start off white, then acquire “points” on the cooler areas.
BillinGlendaleCA
Even though it was 93 degrees outside the cave this afternoon, I decided to head out and climb our local hills. I took the same root up as I did last Friday, but went back to the highest point in the Verdugos(Verdugo Peak, el 3180). It was a really clear day and I got some great pics. I didn’t see any deer this time around, but did see a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.
BillinGlendaleCA
@BillinGlendaleCA: When I say clear: I could see Catalina Island which is about 50 miles away, the water off Ventura which is about 60 miles away and Mt. San Jacinto which is about 100 miles away.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’m fully behind your candidacy.
Morning Joe started off with Hillary doing a doc dump the Friday before Labor Day. Isn’t the timing of the document productions controlled by State and the Court overseeing the FOIA request?
ETA: Morning Joe scored a record today for the quickest CLICK!
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
To my knowledge. But Joe’s account was close enough for Village work.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh, and I need an official campaign photographer and tech expert. You in?
Tinare
Too much cuteness! I’m glad I’m on the other side of the country because if I lived nearby, one those babies might end up with me. And I have too many already.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA:
What kind of root was it? Sassafrass? Wouldn’t it just be easier to just carry a can of root beer rather than chewing on the root? ;-)
Another Holocene Human
How is that carpet kept free of cat hair?! I have one cat, short hair, and I am finding floof everywhere. Behind the toilet, even.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: So, in other words, it was completely and totally wrong.
@Baud: Sure, here’s a pic of Downtown LA that I took yesterday.
I’m learning Lightroom.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: The root is much lighter, haven’t you EVER been hiking? Route, damn it.
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: Must be autocorrect. I thought only New Englanders said “route” the French way. I got puzzled looks and/or corrected as soon as I left there. “But rout has a totally different meaning, says I.”
ETA: note that the disambiguation goes further, as many people in Eastern Mass pronounce “root” to rhyme with “foot”
Schlemazel
It’s tough maintaining the first day back to work attitude when confronted with pictures like this. Knock that off! :)
bystander
@Baud: I suggest you get to Marc’s pronto and have as many pics as possible taken with kittens. Kittens in your lap, kittens on your head, kittens climbing your arms. You’ll need something to distinguish yourself from the pack.
WereBear
@bystander: I would vote for the Kitten Candidate.
JPL
How cute! I can’t wait until next weeks picture.
Baud
@bystander:
I CAN HAZ PREZIDENCY
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: You might want to get some photos with puppies as well, maybe Thurston and Lovey could help out.
NorthLeft12
Just returned from the cottage up on Georgian Bay having only relied on the radio and newspapers for my information fix. Up here in Canada, the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East and our country’s shameful response is dominating the news. When I scanned my favourite US blogs I see bupkis on this issue.
Really? Is the US [media and general public] that self absorbed that this does not even register on what one might think are “progressive” blogs like this one?
Also, a government friendly media outlet did highlight the fact that there is a country that is accepting even less refugees than Canada………the US. They threw in a bonus quote from the Repub House chair for Homeland Security who warned that there is no possible way to vet any incoming Syrian/Middle East refugees for security risks, therefore none should be accepted.
Another Holocene Human
@Schlemazel: I know, right?
I have way too much to do today, and not enough mind to do it. I did nothing yesterday, basically in bed all day like an invalid with a nasty migraine. It’s not even totally gone this morning. It’s lurking.
satby
@Baud: so are we deputized to start gathering signatures on the filing petitions? Looks like you’re up to 4-5 declared supporters. That’s probably the same as Lessig’s.
Another Holocene Human
@NorthLeft12:
NPR has been hammering this story daily. Everybody else, apparently not. So our “betters” know what’s going on. They don’t seem particularly moved to action, however. (They never are, unless it involves bombing someone.)
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Yes. Need to cover all relevant pet demographics. You’re now also my outreach coordinator, Bill.
Another Holocene Human
@satby: How many grad students does Lessig have? ;)
satby
@NorthLeft12: it is appalling, but so much of what happens in this country is now.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Couldn’t resist. 30+ years ago I did a 100 miler with some friends and on the 2nd night at about 9,500′, Ken walks away from the fire. It’s nice and quiet, just the soft gurgling of the creek, and then”SQUIIISH!!!” went the beer can.
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!!” I yelled. He gave me one too.
Ken’s been dead 8 or 9 years now. One of the ones who should have lived to a hundred.
Baud
@satby:
Make it so. I think my campaign slogan will be “BJ for Everybody.” Sufficiently populist for the current mood of the country?
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human: I actually started out saying rout but ended up saying root. Have no idea why. Don’t even know when the change happened.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I was thankful that Roger Moore brought green balloons to the Balloon Juice meetup that we had here. I really, really didn’t want to ask one of the waitresses where the BJ party was.
Mustang Bobby
“Kitten Caboodle” is a great name for either a stripper or a drag queen. Or both at the same time.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I don’t know. You might have liked the response.
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: Dialects taking a long march over the mountains? (That’s a very long march to the Ozarks.)
My mother and her people are from the heart of the Midwest and they all say rout. She was pretty annoyed when I came home saying root. She tried to correct me but then all the other adults in my life corrected me back. And after a time I ceased to think about it. Imagine Rte 9 as “Rout Nine”. You can’t.
OzarkHillbilly
@NorthLeft12:
Speaking only for myself it is not so much self-absorbed as despairing over the US ever getting over 9/11. It’s OK if we have the equivalent of a 9/11 every 3 months as long as nobody with brown skin and a funny sounding name is involved.
Iowa Old Lady
Those kittens are seriously cute.
Lessig is preposterous. I read that he said he’d score enough on a poll to be in the Democratic debate because so many people had heard his Ted talks.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
It would be one thing if his issue were one that the other candidates were ignoring. But his issue is one that the other candidates have all taken a strong stand on. It is ridiculous.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human:
You’re right. I usually say “Highway 9”. ;-)
satby
@Baud: For the demo that seems to get all the media oxygen, yes.
Gimlet
Reminds me of a series of the same dour picture but each labeled with a different emotion. No outward expression of genuine feeling.
The NYTs
There will be no more flip jokes about her private email server. There will be no rope lines to wall off crowds, which added to an impression of aloofness. And there will be new efforts to bring spontaneity to a candidacy that sometimes seems wooden and overly cautious.
Betty Cracker
@NorthLeft12: The migrant issue in Europe has received MAJOR coverage in US media outlets, even shitty ones like CNN.
JPL
@NorthLeft12: Unless Hillary is to blame, it won’t be mentioned. Seriously, I do wish the media would cover what is happening in Hungary and even Denmark.
satby
@ up top: Marc, kittens and beige carpets that look immaculate. What other superpowers do you have?
Day 4 of house rework and bedroom shuffling. The high today is only going to be 83 with what feels like 100% humidity (the heat index is predicted to hit 90). The upstairs bedroom for the girls will be ready tonight, depending on my stamina I should have the carpet pulled out of the downstairs room tonight or tomorrow. It’s taking longer than I wanted because it’s been so hot, but it’ll all be ready by the time they get here. Having 1 closet in an entire house that will be theirs makes it more challenging. It’s not that I’m that much of a slob, but that I will have no closet or dresser (temporarily) to move my clothes to.
First world problems.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Some of the migrant issues have been covered, especially the bits that make Europe look bad (Brits refusing, Hungary’s trains, etc.), but there hasn’t been a peep about Israel’s building a wall to keep the Syrian refugees out.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/09/07/heart-humanitarian-crisis-israel-building-wall-keep-syrian-refugees-out
gogol's wife
In b4 Redshirt: Squeeeee!
Betty Cracker
@debbie: I read about that in both the New York and LA Times over the weekend, so it’s getting some coverage, but it’s true that US media outlets aren’t emphasizing the Israel angle. Mostly they seem keen to showcase Europe’s failures, as you noted. WaPo’s blood-gargling psycho editorial page editor Fred Hiatt published a piece over the weekend trying to hang the refugee crisis on PBO.
PurpleGirl
Those kittens are adorable. Marc needs to take some video of them as they learn to walk.
Baud
@satby:
Oh no. I hate that demo. I’ll need to reinvent myself. Etch-a-sketch engaged.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
What a dickhead editorial.
Baud
@Gimlet:
I can’t help but wonder (and hope) that the Clinton folks are trolling the NYT at this point.
Baud
@debbie:
Betty said Fred Hiatt.
Peale
@Baud: also, it weren’t Friday that Hillary dumped the documents. So his complaint is wrong on both counts.
Why is it that Hillary and Bill are the most power hungry people on the planet and they haven’t figured out how to disappear the village press? If Lessing were to run on executing pundits and the resigning, I might consider throwing him a vote.
debbie
@debbie:
I knew that — I certainly wasn’t referring to Betty. Sorry it wasn’t clearer.
ETA: Jeez, this heat’s killing me. I can’t even hit the right reply button!
Baud
@debbie:
If that’s responding to my comment, my point was that a Fred Hiatt editorial is inherently a dickhead editorial. Your comment was perfectly clear and spot on.
debbie
@Baud:
Got it. If nothing else, you’re a very effective communicator for a presidential candidate. I say run with it!
kc
Omg that’s cute!
debbie
@Baud:
Got it, thanks. I think that’s the first Hiatt editorial I’ve actually read (I usually stick to comments or Tweets reacting to them), He makes Douthat look reasonable by comparison.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
rikyrah
the kitties are so cute. can’t believe he’s taking care of all of them. good man.
SuperHrefna
Marc thank you so much for this glorious dose of cute! They are adorable and look so very well cared for. You and mama are doing a great job.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: I was at a tech conference years back, when the humorous keynote was provided by John Cleese, who was funny and on point, until he pronounced “router” Britishly, as “rooter.” Embarrassed silence and some head-shaking followed.
ThresherK (GPad)
To Anne Laurie and others: Thanx for details on Clamato laaaaate last night after I turned in. I knew it existed, but didn’t know people mixed beer in it. So Budweiser really makes a version with Clamato in it. I guess I owe the “Lime a Rita” Bud Light an apology.
Bloody Mary? Yes, please, but not the Clamato version. And my clam chowder is New England style. Wonder if that’s a predictor of who drinks Clamato.
rikyrah
the stupid burns bright and hard with this woman.
………………………..
Energy Secretary Sarah Palin?
09/08/15 08:40 AM—UPDATED 09/08/15 08:50 AM
By Steve Benen
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has quite a bit of work to do before he has to worry about cabinet secretaries, but he already has some people in mind for his executive-branch team. In July, for example, Trump was asked whether he’d consider former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) for his cabinet.
“I’d love that,” he replied. “Because she really is somebody who knows what’s happening and she’s a special person.”
Evidently, the Alaska Republican already has a specific job in mind.
In a freewheeling and strangely self-defeating interview on Sunday, Sarah Palin rallied behind Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, promoting herself as Trump’s potential secretary of energy even as she pledged to abolish the department.
“I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because energy is my baby: oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind’s use instead of us relying on unfriendly foreign nations,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on “State of the Union.”
Palin added, in the same interview, “I think a lot about Department of Energy. And if I were head of that, I would get rid of it.”
In other words, Palin wants to be the Energy Secretary, so that she could play a direct role in eliminating the Department of Energy. She wants to get the job, in order to walk away from the job – which, if nothing else, would fit nicely into Palin’s career pattern. (The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza joked over the weekend, “Palin is the only politician who takes jobs strictly so she can resign from them.”)
But that’s not the funny part, at least not all of it, anyway. The broader problem is that Palin says she “thinks a lot about the Department of Energy,” but not quite enough to know what the Department of Energy actually does.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/energy-secretary-sarah-palin
debit
Marc, thanks so much for the update. My god, they are adorable. And such a good mom!
danielx
Now that’s the way to put a smile on one’s face to start the day.
NEED MOAR KITTENS!
Gin & Tonic
@ThresherK (GPad): I don’t think it’s a predictor. The only people I’ve known who drank beer mixed with tomato juice or Clamato were dyed-in-the-wool New Englanders, who’d sooner spit in a bowl of “Manhattan clam chowder” than eat it.
NorthLeft12
@satby: I primarily posted this comment regarding the refugees to find out if I was mistaken and that the story was actually getting some play in the US.
This story has struck a nerve with me as my father and his family were WW2 refugees from Poland, and I was raised about how compassionate, caring, and peace loving Canada is, only to see how hypocritical that is with our current response to the Middle East. The Cons have set loose a squad or two of fighter bombers and military trainers, a smidgen of humanitarian aid and a ridiculously low refugee allowance [10,000 over three years]. The refugee quota has so many restrictions and requirements to meet that it is doubtful it will ever be reached.
This has been a profound embarrassment to a large number of Canadians, though not to the Conservative Party and their bigoted, tight fisted, and cowardly base.
Canada’s previous response to Hungarian, Vietnamese, and to the refugees of the Balkans was slow to start, but in the end generous and mutually beneficial. Not sure if we will repeat that formula here.
NorthLeft12
@Betty Cracker: Thanks Betty, I don’t watch any US media outlets directly, I rely on blogs like this one to provide a progressive view of these issues/events with attached video from the MSM.
When I did not see any stories about the refugees here and in other progressive blogs, I assumed that it was not something that was being covered.
NOTE: I still won’t watch CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.
ThresherK
@Gin & Tonic: Well, I’m a lifelong Nutmegger. And I had a gastric situation as a child involving a fish chowder with tomatos, which is the kind of thing that made me swear off fish or seafood and heavy tomatoness.
So it’s a bit amazing that I spent my whole life in “New England Border Country” (not real New England–look at any map of the Red Sox / Yankees dividing line) and am just hearing about Clamato and beer now.
Diana
OMG kittens for monday! Yes please! And that marmalade one is going to be a badass. A very, very cute badass. I couldn’t agree more with the videos of them learning to walk. I vote for kitten pics every monday until they’ve all found good homes.
Diana
@NorthLeft12: The refugee crisis is getting covered by the NYTimes, I admit. I’m guessing that the collapse in value of oil might be playing a part in the conservative’s tight-fisted response, though.
WaterGirl
@Baud: This is how it started for Trump. These clowns are so bad, even I would be better than they are. Hey, I have enough money, maybe I should run, or at least play at running for awhile. Ha! Look at all these rubes who think I am actually running. Hey, I’m coming up in the polls. Maybe I should run for reals. I am in this to win it!
Joy in FL
I cannot express how much good seeing these kittens and their mom does for me.
Thank you!
Please keep posting : )
WaterGirl
@Diana: I hate to break it to you, but it just feels like Monday. You are on the Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Kitten Caboodle thread. :-)
WaterGirl
Many thanks to Marc for taking such good care of everyone AND for sending photos and updates. So lovely, and so good for the spirit.
If these guys were lined up in a certain order, they could be paint chips on a color chart. You get Miri’s color when you use a sponge to add the marmalade kitty color to one of the lighter colored ones to create a textured look.
J.
Can I haz kitten?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Adorable baby kittehs and their mom.
scuffletuffle
Gah…so much adorableness and me so far away!
J R in WV
I’m on board with Squeeeee on these kitteh pix!
Lessig is actually pretty well known in the IT world, fights for open source software, which many bizznessmen tried to make illegal when it first hit the market. Now of course, it runs the internet… server farms run some variety of Linux, mostly.
But I won’t be wasting a vote on him. I’m a Clintonista from way back. If I could re-elect Bill I would, even with all those drug smugglers he strangled by hand back in Arkansas. Or was that Hillary? Or did she just to the hit on Vince Foster? No, that was probably Bill just being jealous of their emotional connection. /snark
I hate the disdain the pundits seem to have for the Clinton family. They’re lawyers and politicians from Arkansas, they must be white trash, right? Right!!!
Well, actually, not so much. They like their spot in the lights, power, etc, but they use it to help people who need a hand. Health care, would have had it, what, 20 years ago? How many people would have lived a longer and more full life if the Democratic legislators had worked with their own president?
So I’ll help Hillary when the time comes. Or Sanders, if necessary. I think even the socialist could beat most of the R clowns.
karen marie
Marc, that was so nice of you to decorate your house to match mama and the kittens! The pictures are wonderful. Please send more.