I would like you to consider making my Alaskan Malamute, Samantha, the VP candidate. She is blind, so she would be the first blind VP. She will be 12 in 2012. She was rescued and the recipient of free eye surgery from the Alaskan Malamute Assistance League for her cataracts but suffers now from detached retinas.

Seriously though, I have visions of a puppy being housetrained in the White House "NO! Not on the rug in the Lincoln Room!" LOL

Lucky will be 19 in 2012. I'm one optimistic mother today.

ETA: Isn't it sad how many beautiful dogs are maltreated and unwanted? I can't imagine anyone ever having beaten our beautiful Luckers, yet it's true. End hijack. Elections make me ponder many of life's great mysteries.

It was certainly something that we didn't really know how to account for before, but it looks like it either did not exist at all, or that it was offset by other factors. All in all, very interesting.

I went to 7-11 at 6:45 this morning to get my newspaper. I didn't care that I was going to be late for work, I wasn't letting this opportunity pass me by because I KNEW the whole world would be sold out by the time I got off. I'm putting it in a scrapbook so that, when my future children do a report about this (and you know they will!), I'll have the original newspaper clippings for them to see. :D

where's Pelosi????

LOL!

Sad, but true.

The ASPCA has been running an ad recently with Sarah McLachlan. She does a voice-over about the ASPCA and the animals they rescue (she appears briefly on camera, but most of it is a voice-over), and the background music is her song "Angel" ... and there is clip after clip of dogs and cats that have been rescued (some of them are injured). Right at the end, there's a cute kitty cat batting at the camera with one paw. It's a tear-jerker and it makes me wonder how ANYONE could mistreat or abandon a pet that depends on you for everything.

I think it's high time the White House had a First Cat again.

</hijack>

Found these updates about the newpaper sell out on the New York Times web site. Cover all the papers. While I have yet to see what the regular press run is for any of the papers, the number of extras is just about amazing 75-100,000. The NYT printed 35% more on its regular first run!
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...0out%20&st=cse

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=153617

According to the article in the Trib, the Obama family needs a dog with a hypoallergenic coat because Malia has allergies. Malia really wants a Goldendoodle. I propose that if they're interested a purebred and can't find what they're after at a shelter, they could compromise and go through a breed rescue. Rescues often divert dogs from shelters, so they're helping that cause anyway and able to get the kind of breed they want/need.

The only dogs I know that are good for people with allergies are Chihuahuas and Poodles. Are there any other dogs?

I dislike cats, so I think 8 years isn't long enough to keep a cat out of the White House! lol.

ETA: I googled it and found other breeds that are touted as "hypo allergenic"

Getting our dog was the bribery I offered my daughter if she would tolerate the weekly allergy shots that she needed. She is far more allergic to some breeds than others (she can't be around labs/retrievers hardly at all) but is totally fine with the Malamute. It makes no sense to me because Sammigirl sheds horribly and has lots of dander, but my girl is fine with her. Her reaction to dogs wasn't as bad as her reaction to cats, weeds.. or the other 33 things she tested positive for though. She had a 1 for dogs but a 4 or 4+ for everything else. The only thing she wasn't allergic to was cockroaches. We were NOT getting pet cockroaches :)

I was lucky to snag the last copy of USA Today in my town. That copy was the only paper left
I tried to get the SF Chronicle, Modesto Bee, Tri Valley Herald, Stockton Record...no dice

Breeds of Non-Allergenic dogs (I'm allergic to cats now, so I checked out the whole dog list awhile back)

Poodles
Schnauzers
Portugese Water Dogs
Several breeds of Terriers including Kerry Blue, Cairn, Bedlington
also the "little things" Lhasa Apsos, Maltese, Shih Tzu's, Coton de Tulears, Bichon Frises
Like the "Goldendoodle," several hybrid breeds can be, also

But I think that many short-haired breeds are easier to tolerate than the ones that shed. I'd love to have an English Springer Spaniel again but they carrry and blow coat. On the other hand, a Beagle is pretty short-coated (like a Pug or a Boston Terrier). I think that if you get a dog as a puppy and get it used to being bathed, then a dog is easier to deal with for someone with allergies if you give it a bath every week or two.

A concession from The View's Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Good for her! I only wish more people would follow this line of thinking.

"I will jump in that line and support our president because that is what as an American I believe we should do," said Hasselbeck, who received a fist bump from co-host Whoopi Goldberg.

Sorry, I don't believe her.

I was impressed when my hubby watching Barack and Michelle last night, saying that it will be nice to have an intelligent and classy First Lady.

I couldn't take Cindy and Sarah!!! Not to say that they aren't intelligent (okay maybe 1) and classy (hmmm???) but they are too grating. Wonder if anything will come of Cindy's past drug use and Sarah's very bad temper (they were talking about it on the Bill O'Reilly show tonight about how the McCain team was getting very po'd at her diva attitude.)

Sad ad, but the use of that song annoys me because it's about HEROIN ADDICTION!

Anyway, the ads that made me cry every time I saw them were the Pedigree adoption drive ads with the various dogs that had been abandoned.