Dog Walker
...and keep dogging that cross-eyed cunt before he does any more damage. If California can recall a guy like Gray Davis and replace him with a flabby, egotistical, gap-toothed baboon like Arnold Schwarzenegger, then Wisconsin can 86 this clown.
What seems to be elided over by the always reliable mainstream media < /snark > is this little-known provision of the union-busting bill that was rammed through the state assembly with all the industry and gusto of a 12" dildo at a lesbian orgy:
SECTION 2704. 174.13 (2) of the statutes is amended to read:
174.13 (2) Any officer or pound which has custody of an unclaimed dog may release the dog to the University of Wisconsin System, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc., or to any other educational institution of higher learning chartered under the laws of the state and accredited to the University of Wisconsin System or University of Wisconsin–Madison, upon requisition by the institution. The requisition shall be in writing, shall bear the signature of an authorized agent, and shall state that the dog is requisitioned for scientific or educational purposes. If a requisition is made for a greater number of dogs than is available at a given time, the officer or pound may supply those immediately available and may withhold from other disposition all unclaimed dogs coming into the officer’s or pound’s custody until the requisition is fully discharged, excluding impounded dogs as to which ownership is established within a reasonable period. A dog left by its owner for disposition is not considered an unclaimed dog under this section. If operated by a county, city, village or town, the officer or pound is entitled to the payment of $1 for each dog requisitioned. An institution making a requisition shall provide for the transportation of the dog.”
No, this is not from The Onion or Andy Borowitz. This is how evil the Republican Party truly is. They want to use your puppies for scientific experimentation to benefit corporate R&D. The "scientific or educational purposes"? That's vivisection, or performing surgery on a live subject. So if you let little Spot get loose in Appleton or Madison and the Animal Control Officer gets his hands on him, he could easily be sold to scientific research for a $1.
There must be a shitload of stray dogs in Wisconsin if this is seen as a source of much-needed revenue.
So, all the jokes we've been making about Republicans torturing puppies and kittens? They're literally coming true. And I don't know if it's some zombie virus in the air that affects only Republicans but we've seen more screaming assholes from that party coming out of the woodwork in the last year than at any time in human history. This is the Rumsfeldian worst of the worst, the bigots, the homophobes, the Islamophobes, the antiUnionists, the pro-corporate tools. Only they're now calling the shots. These lunatics are in the mainstream. Way to go, poor and middle class Republican voters. Be careful what you wish for because...
And speaking of pro-corporate tools, if you didn't catch Maddow the other night, she mentioned that Republicans, just seconds after their blitzkrieg tactic of dividing the bill and conquering those evil, bloated public unions (without even grazing any of the state budget issues), literally ran to a Republican fundraiser in Washington, DC that was held by a scumbag corporate lobbying firm named BGR that also buys votes for other scumbag consortiums made up of home lenders and companies seeking health care "reform." (Fun factoid: BGR was cofounded exactly 20 years ago by racist shitbag Haley Barbour, another Republican Governor and one who's still to this day drawing a steady income from BGR through a blind trust valued at almost $3.5 million.)
That's not to be confused with the $2500-a-plate fundraiser they had back in January the night before they took the House. God only knows why they're seeking
As Maddow says, this power play that's greased by corporate and lobbyist payola has nothing to do with balancing Wisconsin's or any state's budget. If Walker was really sincere about that, he wouldn't have split the bill in half and passed the half that doesn't even address the budgetary shortfall. The state GOP gave massive amounts of cash to the wealthy in the form of tax rebates and cuts and now they have to put the money back.
It's redistribution of wealth, plain and simple.
Redistribution of wealth?
Remember when Republicans, Libertarians and their indentured online porch monkeys were screaming about redistribution of wealth when the black Socialist was running for president?
Apparently, wealth redistribution is Socialist only when it goes from rich to poor. It's only a good idea that's immune to criticism when it flows from poor to rich, which is what we're seeing in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey and every other state that's being run into the ground by a
Jesus Christ, you have to give the Republican Party credit for one thing: Just when you think these demented, vicious pricks have hit the bottom of the barrel in terms of human moral turpitude, they then grab a pickaxe, bust through the bottom and tunnel all the way to China. With the latter-day, post-Democracy Republican Party, there's always room to sink lower.
They're now literally, literally running away from the people they supposedly represent to GOP campaign fundraisers held by corporate lobbyists just moments after putting the shaft to working class people.
Now they're after our fucking puppies and are selling them to be torn apart alive for a buck.
And they're not even trying to hide it, anymore, because they found a way to shit on the people with impunity. Public opinion, in theory, no longer matters.
They have finally completed the transition from mere scum to actual, living, breathing caricatures.
posted by jurassicpork @ Friday, March 11, 2011
5 comments
5 Comments:
JP,
You usually do a terrific service in your blog. But this commentary falls radically short of your high standard, and only serves to invite justifiable ridicule.
I know the UW system, particularly its School of Veterinary Medicine. Research involving dogs is remarkably humane. Clinicians take great care to find ways of treating animals that are diseased or injured. They do not deliberately induce disease and injury for purposes of scientific research, and then cavalierly euthanize the research subject. I know of researchers at the UW who, in fact, refuse to use any mammals in their research (including even mice and rats) that will be killed.
Moreover, pounds and other such facilities simply do not have the funding, physical plant and manpower to accommodate the number of strays that are taken in. Invariably, unclaimed animals at the facilities are, in time, required to be euthanized -- there is simply no other choice, since there are simply more animals coming in than going out. Believe me; no one enjoys dealing with that problem, least of all the committed and underpaid people who work at such facilities.
Implementing a mechanism whereby the university can acquire an unclaimed animal is not the depraved objective of some craven, animal-hating bureaucrat. It likely reflects the realization of rules that were implemented with the specific design of making a bad situation somewhat better, while holding open the possibility of making life better for some animals and perhaps many future animals.
In closing, by seizing on this section of the Walker Bill, you make opponents of Walker look desperate, unreasonable, hysterical and ridiculous. There are plenty of problems in the world, and in Walker's budget without having to grasp around for some phony pretext in order to paint Walker as a sadistic animal torturer.
A few fundamental problems with your argument, Arn:
A persuasive argument could be posited that many strays do wind up in research labs where they're then vivisectioned. Animal research, cruel animal research, happens all the time. To assume this would never happen in Wisconsin, is, frankly, ignorant.
Secondly, on those few occasions when I decided to cut Republicans a break and give them the benefit of the doubt, they've not only proved themselves to be just as bad as I'd originally suspected but even worse.
Thirdly, it's fallacious to assume that all states have kill shelters. Many states do not. I live in one of them (Massachusetts). Any dogs that go unclaimed go to Buddy Dog or some other place that can accommodate them. I used to work at a puppy kennel in Hopkinton, MA that used to rescue pound puppies from down south, where they do have kill shelters (strange contradiction of terms).
As far as Walker and his Koch blockers goes, there's no evil that I wouldn't suspect them of. Today it's busting public unions. Tomorrow it'll be private unions. Is it really a stretch to conclude that they'd gleefully sell your pet to a research lab to make a quick buck.
Hell, Bill Frist confessed he experimented on cats. James Dobson freely admitted he beat his dog Dobby. There's no evil of which these Republican lunatics are incapable.
JP,
I thought I posted a reply, but it does not appear here. My response:
1. Nothing in my comment suggested animal research, or even cruel animal research “never” happens in Wisconsin. Therefore, your “persuasive argument” is irrelevant and non-responsive. What I suggested is that on the whole, researchers at the UW Vet. school are remarkably humane. That does not mean there are not exceptions (as would almost invariably appear, people being what they are and what they are capable of doing). Reasonable people may very well disagree as to whether a given procedure qualifies as “cruel”. That said, I no of not instance at the vet school where canine was subject to any surgical procedure without qualified pain management. (The school has one of the most qualified and experienced anesthesia sections in the country, with an inchoate pain management clinic, three board-certified anesthesiologists, and a team of boarded anesthesia vet techs.)
2. This is not about “cutting a Republican a break”. It is about making fact-based arguments about a state legislative initiative. The fact that the initiative flows from the pen of a Republican does not, without more, invariably mean something sinister is afoot.
3. Nothing in my comment suggested that all states have “kill shelters”. I was addressing Wisconsin, specifically, as that is the state at issue.
4. Your opinion of Walker may well have merit. But it is simply not credible to opine that Walker derives any pleasure or pecuniary benefit from implementing a procedure that would make unclaimed canines available for purposes of research (whatever one’s opinion of animal-based research may be). Furthermore, assuming Walker is not simply a socio-path and sadist (and even then), it is (frankly) ludicrous to hold that Walker would “gleefully” sell some citizen’s pet to a research facility to make a “quick buck”.
5. You stated that there were a “few fundamental problems” with my argument. That may well be. However, you have not identified any. problems at all, much less a “fundamental” one.
6. There are certainly reasonable arguments that could be leveled against Section 2704 of the bill. For example, one could argue that the legislation encourages research on canines without acceptable health histories, thus compromising the reliability of research data. Or one could argue that the bill lacks a mechanism that would properly screen for canine traffickers. Or one could argue that the bill does not properly define “unclaimed dog”, and thus improperly delegates a legislative function to an executive office. Or one could argue that the bill does not sufficiently define “scientific or educational purposes”. Other arguments readily come to mind, both political, legal, ethical and scientific in nature.
I stand by my initial comment, and welcome responses.
Bestially BGRed, indeed!
I vote with JP on this one. Nothing in Walker's history would indicate that he has animal welfare at heart here. I'm betting this is Walker's easiest way to lower the dog and cat population in Wisconsin's animal shelters in the cheapest way possible. Hell, if he could justify selling them by the pound, he probably would.
Gotta get them cost saving measures going. If Chris Christie thought he could get away with making snacks out of them, he probably would. Save a bundle on his statehouse snack time bill.
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