Lion kitty Maxx!!!

Mr. Fluffybritches has had a difficult day. His mouf was bleeding and he had to go to the vet and the doctor was in surgery so he had to stay at the clinic and doggies were barking and even though his favorite tech Felicia scritched his ears, he still wasn't very happy about the whole affair.

And now he has to go see a dentist and they might have to take x-rays and pull his teethies out.

What would make him feel better is if you would go give some money to your favorite democratic candidate, cause lion kitty Maxx doesn't like the mean, spiteful, nasty orcses that inhabit the modern republican party.

Make a poor kitty feel better by making chimpy cry!!

Spiteful, nasty, filthy orcses

I suppose none of us should be surprised at the level the republicans have sunk to during the midterm campaign. Everyone thought they'd become vicious and nasty as they realized that they were cornered and out of options.

This WAPO article gets it fairly right, The Year Of Playing Dirtier, even making the point that the vast majority of the below the belt stuff was coming from the republican side.

I still have to confess that I find the whole sorry spectacle disheartening. And this nonsense, that creep Matt Lauer (via Digby) saying that Michael Fox deserves to be "held to account" because he dares to advocate for a cure to a disease that's killing him, makes me want to hurt someone.

Digby has a followup post this evening, dealing with Fox's interview with Katie Couric on CBS, Melting Snowflakes. Little miss Katie decided that haranguing Fox about the level of his medication would show what a tough journalist she is.

Do these people have any shame? Would they be doing this if Fox were making commercials for republican candidates? Of course they wouldn't.

What a pair of worthless, shameless hacks.

As for the republican candidates, I can understand that they are desperate to hang onto their jobs and to power, though I can't excuse their vile, scorched earth methods.

What I cannot understand if why anyone in their right mind would vote for anyone who was capable of such mean spirited, spiteful nonsense. These are not nice people. Why in the world would you want someone like that representing you?

Perhaps the answer is that the republican voter is just as mean spirited and spiteful as the party they choose to lead them. If so, I'll be happy to make room for them on the rocket.

Code Phrases

Dear Republican Dirtbags running for judicial posts in Texas,

Everytime you tell me in a commercial that judges shouldn't "legislate from the bench" you just reinforce my desire to vote a straight democratic ticket on November 7th. I'm sure that's what you meant to do, right? Right?

Love,

fourlegsgood

Gah

AP/Charlie Neibergall

Yes, he really is as dumb as he looks.

Here's some text from the transcript of Bush's interview with some conservative columnists yesterday (via Froomkin):

On the Palestinians:

"Iran empowered Hezbollah, Hezbollah takes the attack, and -- which creates an interesting dynamic, and it gives us an opportunity to fashion kind of -- an alliance of reasonable people headed toward a clash -- all kinds of different ways, by the way -- with extremists and radicals. I'm not necessarily speaking military. It makes it easier for us to isolate Iran in that the dynamics have changed. Hopefully, it will make it easier for us to be able to convince Syria to change, and/or isolate Syria."

On the upcoming election:

"It's not over. We've got the issues on our side. Protecting this country is the number-one issue. And you talk to -- admittedly, my focus groups are not broad, but people always say to me, thank you for protecting us. I view this as a struggle of good versus evil, by the way. I don't think religious people murder. I think people are misusing religion to justify their murder. And a lot of Americans understand it that way. Maybe it's not nuanced enough for some of the thinkers and all that stuff -- that's fine. But that's exactly what a lot of people like me think. And my job is to make it clear to the American people the stakes, and to spell it out as plainly as I can. And a lot of people understand it."

On al Queda (look out for vacuum cleaners!!):

"Here's the way I view the enemy there: al Qaeda is lethal as hell -- scratch the 'hell' -- it's lethal. The suiciders tend to be al Qaeda. The VBIEDs tend to be al Qaeda. The spectacular killings tend to be al Qaeda. We can't measure -- solely measure how many Shia killings are al Qaeda that then caused the Sunni reprisal. But you've got to know some are. A lot of the bloodshed these days, of course, is the revenge killings -- Sunni on Shia -- it's obvious. There is a criminal element in Iraq, as well, that the government is going to have to deal with. There is a vacuum, and into vacuum moved criminals."

Someone please save us from this crazy person.

2 Weeks to Go

Lion kitty Maxx sez give to your favorite candidate or the peep gets it!!

Here's a handy link to John Kerry's Take Back the Senate contribution page. All funds go to media buys in Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee and Virginia.

Damn

I don't know who told Bobo that he was competent to analyze the political landscape, or to make predictions about American society, but whoever it was, they deserve a big bitch slap.

Bobo's column is behind the paywall. Don't worry though, you're not missing anything, unless you enjoy reading tripe that would embarrass a 9th grade government student.

All I can say is, damn! Someone actually pays him to write that nonsense.

Now Here's a Headline

Via AP:

Republicans Fear Powerful NY Democrats

Bwa HA HA HA HA HA HA!!

The article is about New York State races and the expected coattails from Spitzer and Clinton, but one might hope that republicans everywhere will learn to fear democrats.

Rainy afternoon lion kitty

Maxx is bored with teh stoopid republicans and their flip flopping rhetoric.

Idiot

AP/Ron Edmonds

He sure seems to be pointing that finger a lot these days. And I guess barbaric Barb never told him that he looks like a twit when he makes those faces.

Hard Kwestions

AP/Gerald Herbert

"He's asking hard kwestions. Maybe I can designate him as an enemy combatant."

Death Squads

Reuters/Helmiy al-Azawi

Via CNN and TIME Magazine, a horrific story about organized ethnic cleansing:Ethnic Cleansing in a Baghdad Neighborhood?

U.S. soldiers have uncovered evidence that one Shi'ite militia is engaged in a systematic campaign of violence and intimidation to clear out Sunni residents

Posted Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006
The place was empty when U.S. soldiers burst in, raiding a house in Baghdad's violent Washash neighborhood in the hopes of finding killers involved in sectarian murders. By the look of things, no one had been there for some time, even though neighbors in the area reported seeing people dragged inside in recent weeks. But apparently someone involved in the area's sectarian violence had been there recently: left behind was a leather-bound day planner that gave a disturbing picture of the systematic nature of Baghdad's bloodshed.

Though the book was largely blank, inside were several sheets of loose paper covered in Arabic writing. Back at Camp Taji, a massive U.S. Army base north of Baghdad, translators sifted through the papers and found evidence backing up what some U.S.troops who patrol Washash have come to suspect — that Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army are conducting what amounts to an ethnic cleansing campaign in Washash, a predominantly Shi'ite area with pockets of Sunni residents.

Sadr's militia, the document suggests, are systematically driving Sunni families from their homes around Washash, which some U.S. troops who patrol there have taken to calling Little Sadr City. Among the papers found in the raid is a list of 65 houses around Washash where Shi'ite families have replaced Sunni families. On other pages were drafts of threat letters clearly intended for delivery to Sunni homes. And there was a roster of "virtuous families" in the Washash area with house numbers written next to their names, so the militia relocation agents could keep track of people deemed fit to stay.

"They're very well organized," said Capt. Johnny Sutton, whose troops head up U.S. patrols in Washash.

Yes, I'll bet they are. And yet we had the commander of US troops in Iraq, General Pace, telling us yesterday that Iraq, "was NOT awash in sectarian violence."

Sectarian violence. What a neutered term. Let's call it what it is, ethnic cleansing. And when we've got the terminology right, let's go the rest of the way and admit that we, America, made this possible.

The United States broke a sovereign nation, resulting in the horrific deaths of thousands. I, like Billmon, am willing to accept responsibility for the horrid actions taken in my name.

Too bad the president is unwilling to do the same.

2:13 pm update: Apparently I spoke too soon. The preznit said he takes full responsibility for the war in his presser this morning. Buck stops here on Iraq: Bush. Unfortunately, he then went on to say that americans should return the people who rubberstamped that failure back to congress. Presumably so they could fail miserably some more.

I think we'll pass on that scenario, if it's all right with you, Mr. Preznit.

Maxx

Maxx is looking for a republican who is not crazy, corrupt or stupid.

Antidote

AP/Scott Lieberman

Something pretty to repell some of the ugliness we'll hear from Ken Mehlman and company today.

Tuesday night lion kitty.....

Lion kitty Maxx spent the afternoon hanging out with me, watching teevee.

Wanker of the Day

Joe Klein.

Overheard on Scarborough Country just now:

"Dick Cheney, legitimizing this guy Rush Limbaugh, is just as bad as democratic politicians rushing out to Las Vegas to kiss the ring of Daily Kos and the blogosphere."something of a paraphrase

I invite Joe Klein to come on over here and jump on my razor sharp, nuclear powered pitchfork. Right after you kiss my centaur ass.

Evening lion kitty Maxx

I am happy to report that lion kitty Maxx has abandonned the closet for the sofa. Oh, and it is a truism that if you throw towels on the floor, your cat will go nap on them.

Whopper Update

AP/Balce Ceneta**

Billmon has the update on Bartlett's nonsense from this morning. Bernhardt at Moon over Alabama went a googling and found 18 examples of the chimperor squawking, "Stay the Course! stay the course!! polly wants a cracker!!"

Someone with some time should count up how many times everyone on the Titanic has used the phrase. I'll bet there are hundreds. With congress pukes thrown in, the number is probably in the thousands.

Sheesh.

Next they'll be saying that democrats MADE chimpy invade Iraq.

**those are NOT thoughts flying around his empty head, trying desperately to get in.

Space News

Via National Geographic News, Colliding Galaxies Ignite Stellar Nurseries

October 19, 2006—Astronomers, it turns out, like to rubberneck too.

Scientists haven't been able to take their eyes off a nearby stellar collision. This image, snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope and released October 16, is the sharpest yet of the merging Antennae Galaxies.

The spiral galaxies, named for long antenna-like arms that extend far from the galaxies' centers, began colliding only a few hundred million years ago. The pair represents one of the closest galactic collisions to Earth, and one of the youngest known to science.

The reddish-orange blobs to the right and left of the picture's center are the two galactic cores—consisting mostly of old stars crisscrossed by filaments of dust (brown).

What has researchers really excited, though, are the blue star-forming regions, which are surrounded by hot glowing hydrogen gas (pink). Billions of new stars will be formed by the energetic collision, scientists say.

The brightest and most compact star-forming regions are called super star clusters.

By determining the age of clusters in the image, scientists now know that only about 10 percent of super star clusters will last for a substantial amount of time. These collections will most likely go on to form globular clusters—densely packed spheres of stars that orbit a galaxy—similar to globular formations in our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

The rest of the super star clusters will disperse, with the stars born there disappearing into the galaxies' background.

Sometimes my despair at the ugliness of the affairs of man threatens to overwhelm me. (Or at least make me drink heavily.) The beauty of space always restores me. Glorious!!

Turtles, oh my!

Via National Geographic News, which has just posted it's annual "Best Wildlife Photographs of the Year." View the complete photo gallery here.

About the photo above:

Animal Behavior Winner: "Turtle Grooming"
Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, 2006

This green turtle is getting a full-body cleaning and massage courtesy of local fish at Turtle Pinnacle near Kailua Kona, Hawaii.

U.S. marine biologist Andre Seale, who took this photo, says the protected green turtles that come here rarely have to wait long for such a treatment from the fish, though some get more attention than others.

"Not all turtles attract so many fish, perhaps because of the amount of algae that's growing on them," Seale said.

The algae-eaters are colorful yellow tang and goldring surgeonfish, a species found only around the Hawaiian Islands. Also indigenous to the region is the saddleback wrasse, seen underneath, which feeds on dead and damaged skin.

"The turtles go up for a gulp of air, then come back down again," he added. "It's a bit like a car wash for them."

Delightful!

STAY THE COURSE! STAY THE COURSE!! BRRRKKK!!!!

About a year ago, one of the political cartoonists (Oliphant maybe?) had a very funny cartoon of the Bush administration as a sailing ship heading into a storm, with Bush as a parrot on Rummy's shoulder squawking "Stay the Course! Stay the Course!" I wish I'd have kept it.

In the meantime, ThinkProgress has the evidence of just how dumb the entire Bush administration is. Bartlett: ‘It’s Never Been A Stay The Course Strategy'

Would someone please explain to these yahoos the concept of an "archive"? It's not really a hard concept. Of course I realize that they don't want to let all the hard work of their planning for the new meme for the Iraq War to go to waste, but let's face it, ADAPT AND WIN!! is never going to catch on. Not only is it lame, but reality just doesn't support it.

Not only is the Pentagon not adapting or adjusting particularly well, they're not winning. And the whole world knows it.

Monday plush

Fall is a delightful time for little guys in fur suits.

Your Sunday plush

Lion kitty Maxx enjoyed the nice weather today, but not my efforts to take his picture.