That looks like screen caps from a nature show I saw the other day, but I forget what it was.

what about this pissing all over the place? I think that is the crucial element of the armadillo strategy; leprosy also works.

Given Rove’s speech yesterday, your proposed strategy for the Dems seems reasonable.

Rove: “It’s the (eternal) war, stupid!”

In his first speech in two months, “Bush’s brain” laid out his plan for GOP victory: War, war and more war.

Rove: GOP to use terror as campaign issue

RON FOURNIER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Embattled White House adviser Karl Rove vowed Friday to make the war on terrorism a central campaign issue in November.  He also said Democratic senators looked “mean-spirited and small-minded” in questioning Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.  “Republicans have a post-9/11 view of the world. And Democrats have a pre-9/11 view of the world,” Rove told Republican activists. “That doesn’t make them unpatriotic, not at all. But it does make them wrong — deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong.”

But isn’t that 4 step strategy a tad too bold? Dems should first burrow underground and only then roll into a ball.

Close Chris but in reality -they will just roll over, underbelly exposed.

I have to agree with cj on this one.  But that is the first time I’ve seen a rolled up armidillo so thanks for that.  Pretty amazing!  That is one intelligent design!

I agreed with Mr. Durata; I thought it was the two-part strategy formulated by Arthur, the Tick’s moth-man sidekick:

(1) Throw arms up in front of own face

(2) Scream “NOT IN THE FACE! NOT IN THE FACE!”

I didn’t realize their strategy was that well planned already. I’m glad they’re getting it together early in the season so they can perfect it by November.

But isn’t that 4 step strategy a tad too bold? Dems should first burrow underground and only then roll into a ball.

This post and that comment are the funniest thing I’ve read all day.

Chris: You keep posting stuff like that and I’m going to start believing in Intelligent Design Creationism.  Those photos are amazing.

cool photos.  and thanks for the guffaw!

this strategy works ok [for this species] with temporary threats short of being run over by a truck — in fact, that is the whole basis for the design, isn’t it?  i’ll just curl up for a while, got my armour, it will go away.

unfortunately, we are beyond the random truck disaster and well into train-wreck territory.

and dang, it isn’t going away.  not at all.

But that is the first time I’ve seen a rolled up armidillo so thanks for that. Pretty amazing! That is one intelligent design!

Feh, that’s not so intelligent. A REALLY intelligent designer would have skipped the rolling up bit and just given them LASERS!

Kathy:  That’s where Dick Durata’s suggestion to burrow underground comes in handy!  Burrow first, DC Dems!

Funny, the fundies consider the armadillo one of their best cases.

I find this part funny:

The remarkable talent of sucking in air [to survive and float during flash floods] has never been explained, so say the nature books. What they mean is that evolution theory cannot explain how such a unique talent could have developed, especially in an animal that lives on land. No other land animal can do this, a fact which makes it even harder to find an evolutionary explanation. The obvious answer is that the armadillo was designed with this capacity. It is a unique animal, filling a special ecological role, and it was designed for that purpose.

I’m no expert on evolution, but isn’t the part in bold kind of the evolutionary explanation to begin with?

ok, i’m not burrowing.  yet. 

what the hell are they thinking, bringing rove out in public again?

and his big doo-dah is that the democratic senators [people who were elected, unlike him] “look” small and mean?

i’m confused about the message, because of the stress on looks.  but duh, i guess that is the message — “the looks i see count, ladies and gents!”

as for the small and mean part, i need to go lay down now.  having a bad case of cogntive dissonance.  couple advils, i’ll be good.  holy shit.

i think craig’s onto something with the lasers.

Good heavens!  I didn’t even know armadillos could roll up like that!  And it’s so cool how everything clicks together into a little ball…

Very cool pictures!

However, unlike the armadillo, the Democrats are highly unlikely to have a unified strategy.  Some will roll into balls, some will pee themselves, some will run into traffic, and several of them will scold those who roll themselves into balls for not unrolling in support of the president.

Oh shit, Rana’s right.

3 things come from Texas!

1. Armadillos which carry Leprosy.

2. the Plague.  yes, its still there in texas.

3.  George Bush!

Don’t forget mad cows!

(I still haven’t abandoned my theory that mad cow disease in Texas, where eating lots of manly beef is an essential part of the culture, explains a heck of a lot about Texan Republicans.)

I notice that the fully-protected armadillo retains the option to kiss his ass goodbye.

Rana, I like your theory. It explains so much-not just about current politics but also many things about the years I spent there.