Max Is Sick

He ate some yarn last night. I was at the park with the kids and Lauren called to say he’d projectile vomited a hunk of yarn and didn’t seem at all well. He didn’t eat last night or this morning and was very lethargic. We googled and - a cat swallowing yarn is a very bad thing.

So I left work and Lauren and I took Max to the vet. The vet charged us $55 to say that eating yarn is a very bad thing. A nurse poked Max in the ass and said his temp was 104 degrees. Not good either. Then he wanted to charge us $350 for X Rays. The X Rays would supposedly tell us if he had yarn in him. Then the yarn would either get pooped out or he’d need surgery, which would be a lot more I’m guessing. So - we left. Max was seeming a little more alert.

Since then, he’s eaten some dry food and taken very long naps. I hope he’ll be okay. We also found out we can get cat X Rays for a lot less money. Fucking vet business, I swear…

Burbank Brush Fire

Sure, you probably heard about it as the Hollywood Brush Fire but it started in Burbank and we have civic pride. It started about a half mile from my apartment. We saw it on CNN first, then the kids came running upstairs and told us to come look…

Yowza. The smoke was heading away from us but it was pretty spectacularly huge.

Hey! I’m TPM Reader LS!

Josh Marshall’s blog Talking Points Memo has been all over the Attorney firing scandal and all of the related background material for months. As George Stephanopolis mentioned a couple of weeks ago on This Week, Josh and his team have been way ahead of the mainsteam media on this. If you’re interested in the subject, TPM is the place to go.

So - I was pretty thrilled when a short question I sent Josh was quoted on Talking Points Memo today. Read more on his site.

On the New Mexico indictment noted below, TPM Reader LS writes in …

Did I miss the ‘voter fraud’ part?

That’s the issue Domenici was floating, I thought. This seems like a kickback case…I didn’t see the voter fraud part.

Here’s the answer I sent LS …

To the best of my knowledge, two separate issues. The history of complaints re: Iglesias from Domenici and Republicans in the state was about his failure to pursue vote fraud allegations stemming from the 2004 election. The particular issue with those two calls was about this case — political corruption, but not vote fraud. Sampson’s argument yesterday was that it was that general complaint about lax vote fraud enforcement that got him canned.

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall

McCain Digs In Deeper

I really don’t take any pleasure in McCain’s fall. I liked him. HIs ambition for the Presidency make him make some bad choices and his support for this horrible war flies in the face of reality.

ROBERTS: Senator, did you mean to say that, that General Petraeus goes out every day in an unarmed humvee?

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ): I mean that there are neighborhoods safe in Iraq and he does go out into Baghdad and the fact is there has been significant progress and people are stuck in a time warp of three months ago. Of course, it’s still dangerous. Of course it’s still very dangerous. We only have two of the five brigades there and we are already seeing significant progress.

ROBERTS: Because I checked with General Petraeus’s people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee. You also told Bill Bennett on his radio program on Monday. You said there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhood today yet retired General Barry McCaffrey said no Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat reporter could walk the streets of Baghdad without heavily armed protection. We’ve got two different stories here. Who’s right?

McCAIN: Well, I’m not saying they could go without protection. The President goes around America with protection. So, certainly I didn’t say that.

Think Progress » Faced With Facts, McCain Denies His Own Straight Talk

(photo by Hot Rod )

Meebo

I’ve been using Meebo for a few weeks now. It’s a chat client that puts all your chats - Yahoo, AIM / AOL, MSN, Jabber and so on - in one browser window. Keeps things neater for me and because it’s web based, I can sign into all my chat services from anywhere without installing software. It even works under Linux.

Just yesterday, though, I actually installed their ‘widget’ - and it’s really cool. I put it in the left hand column of this blog; it lets anyone chat to me instantly by just starting a conversation. Seems like a great tool for customer service, too. Very easy. So - say hi if you want to.