sleepy

Lion kitty Maxx is sleepy and so am I.

Rapture??

AFP/Gali Tibbon

Has the rapture started?? I call dibs on a wingnut's house!


(Jerusalem fireworks : Fireworks light up the sky over the golden Dome of the Rock Mosque at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's old city, a day before the official celebrations to mark 39 years for the unification of Jerusalem since Israel wrested east Jerusalem from Jordanian control during the Arab-Israeli war on June 7, 1967.)

Just for Vicki

Lion kitty Maxx would like to hug you cause he's worried about your high blood pressure.

Memorial Day plush

Maxx thinks we should honor the soldiers by bringing them home. He'd also like me to quit flashy-thinging him.

We own it

AP/Khalid Mohammed

Kevin Drum weighs in on the Haditha massacre.

What an appalling and tragic story. It is, I suppose, only a tiny blot compared to the carnage that Iraqi militants inflict on each other every single day in this endless and brutal war, but this one is our blot.

Dear Kevin, it's nice that you recognize that Haditha is a terrible thing, but it would be nice if you could remember that none of the carnage would be happening if we hadn't embarked on our ill-advised war. We broke the country, and we're responsible for everything that has happened since.

A "tiny blot" you suppose? Don't be such a wanker. The whole endless, bloody mess is our blot.

La Joconde

Behold!! Michelangelo's greatest work!

The things one learns on the internets. Amazing!

Sunday night plushy

This is a picture from a couple of months ago. Lion kitty is out prowling, and I haven't felt like taking pictures today.

More Hidey

Plushy in a box

Your evening dose of plush.

Kittens!!

Plushy, later.

Holy moly

I borrowed this photo from Christy at Firedoglake. She's got the skinny on chimpy's fake "I gots regrets" moment during the presser with Blair the other night.

As Richard Wolffe from Newsweek pointed out (and Christy's got the link to the video), what the cameras didn't show was that Bush, immediately after making his little mea culpa statement, looked down at someone in the front row and smirked. The message is clear... "How'd I do? think the rubes will buy that?"

Sadly, even that knowledge wasn't enough to stop tweety on his hour long orgasm over chimpy's big moment.Such courage, such fortitude, such being-a-guy-I want-to-blow-and-have-a-beer-with!! In fact, he got a little angry about it. How dare you impugn the chimperor's authenticity? I'm surprised he didn't challenge Wolffe to a duel.

Christy is correct. No one likes a smarmy little lying prick.

Except for media whores with big yella haids.

Hidey!!!

Our favorite black and white kitty in the world. And surely the loveliest.

Arabian Nights

Like Billmon, I have always dreamed of going to Egypt and wandering the Valley of the Kings, and seeing the temples of Luxor. Influenced by my childhood readings of Arabian Nights, and (let's be honest) Discovery Channel, Egypt has always meant mystery and adventure to me.

So I'm a tiny bit jealous of his side trip to Luxor this week, but I'm eternally grateful that he's documenting it with some long and colorful blog entries. A couple of posts ago he expressed a secret desire to become a travel writer. Let me just say that I'll read anything he cares to write about anyplace he cares to visit.

Go read his amusing account of his adventures in Cairo while attempting to catch the train to Luxor. It's well worth your time.

And Billmon, just in case you take a look to see who's linking to you.... I'll volunteer to tag along next time to take some bitching photographs.

It's Plushy Time!!

He's just hanging with a friend or two.

Teeny little orchids

I don't know what these are- the photo is an extreme close-up one of my neighbor's hanging baskets. Each bloom is about 1/4 of an inch long. Miniature orchids? Very pretty.

The law of the internets...

...is that you can never have enough plush.

Buh bye, Kenny-boy

Tim Johnson/Reuters

Lay and Skilling Guilty of Fraud and Conspiracy.

For once the bad guys are being held to account. I hope they get long, long, long prison sentences. I was living in Houston when Enron went under, and knew some people who worked for the company. They were given 30 minutes to vacate their offices, and dismissed without any severance. They found out that their 401K accounts had been wiped out overnight. They lost everything in a matter of days.

In subsequent months many of them found out that they were virtually unemployable, due to the stain of Enron. Some were retirees who had worked for 30 years or more for Enron. With their retirement savings wiped out, they found themselves back in the job market just to make ends meet. Many lost their homes.

The human wreckage that Lay and Skilling perpetrated on their employees was staggering. For that alone (never mind the damage they did in California), these asswipes deserve to rot in jail for the rest of their natural lives.

I'm sure the city of Houston is breathing a deep sigh of relief tonight.

Fat Bastard, I mean Denny, busted!!

ABC New's Brian Ross is reporting that Denny Hastert is being investigated by the FBI in the Abramoff corruption probe. Apparently there's a little letter that proves he was bribed.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from high level government sources.

Federal officials say the information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with other tribes.

Bwa HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

No wonder he's so freaked out about the FBI raiding Jefferson's office. As Atrios says, oh my.

More kitty

This blog has been all kitty, all the time. Sorry about that. He is cute though, right?

RIGHT?????

Bonus kitty

This is my neighbor's silly cat Rambles. He has most excellent white whiskers.

Plushy extra

Who is that debonaire kitty?

Watertiger's pipples

AP/Lu Linbo

Lion Kitty Maxx...

...is an excellent antidote to high blood pressure brought on by inside-the-beltway politics.

Spooky House part deux

More film stuff.... at the mortuary..... ooooooOOOOOOoooooo!!

Window kitty

He's always hoping a pretty girl will walk by and coo over him.

Yip Yip!!

Iraq has reached a turning point!! and the poodle is coming for a visit. Oh, joy. White House spokeslut Tony Snow said the two leaders will be "talking about Iraq and the next steps forward."

I have an idea, let's bitch slap the next WH flunkey who intones the phrase, "moving forward" or "the next steps forward."

Digby has more on the poodle's trip to the groomers.

sunflower

Taken at the film set.

sunday plush

Mr. Plushy is out prowling, so here's a photo from a few weeks ago. I love his whiskery little chinny-chin-chin.

New York is doomed

Let's see, the experts are warning that a hurricane could devastate NYC and seriously damage the american economy.

Forecasters are warning that a hurricane making landfall at or near New York City could cause catastrophic damage in the U.S.'s largest urban center.

While a storm is unlikely to make direct landfall on Manhattan, a nearby storm would cause extensive flooding and heavy storm surges, experts say.

Even a minimal hurricane could put the runways at John F. Kennedy Airport underwater, and the battering action of wind-driven waves could cause significant damage to buildings, says Stephen Baig, a storm surge specialist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It's May, and that's plenty of time for a heads-up to the chimpy assministration. Which means a hurricane probably will hit Manhattan this summer, and the federal government will be taken completely off guard.

New Yorkers, run for your lives!!

Reality Check

The headlines are all about Iraq's new unity government and we'll hear lots of pronouncements from chimpy this week on "progress" and "staying the course," but let's not forget what daily life looks like for the Iraqi people.

AP Karim Kadim, Saturday, May 20th

AP/Kalid Mohammed, Sunday, May 21st

Just a side note- most of the photos you see coming off the wire services in Iraq these days are taken by Iraqi photojournalists who work, at considerable personal risk, for the Associated Press. American journalists simply cannot travel outside the green zone without a military escort.

GOP Vulnerable

While I'm not about to count my chickens before they're hatched, this article in the NYTimes makes me hopeful. In House Races, More GOP Seats Look Vulnerable:

WASHINGTON, May 19 — For months, even in the face of an avalanche of bad news for Republicans, Democratic ambitions for capturing Congress have collided with an electoral map created to protect Republicans from ouster. Despite polls showing rising support for Democrats and scorn for Republicans, analysts have said Democratic hopes for big gains remain remote, because so few seats are in contention.

That appears to be changing.

Over the past week, a handful of once-safe Republican Congressional seats have come into play, and other Republican incumbents are facing increasingly stiff re-election battles, according to analysts, pollsters and officials in both parties. The change amounts to a slight but significant shift in the playing field, and a potentially pivotal change in the dynamics of this midterm election.

I pray that this is a sign that the american public is finally coming to their senses.

Plushypalooza!!

To celebrate Sallyh's new grandchild, we shall have a plushypalooza party!!

I need a bigger cube

"And please stop flashy-thinging me!!"

Hollywood

Eli asked to see some of my movie photos. So here's a movie photo.

The Big Dog speaks!! woof!!

Wingnuts tremble.

For those of you interested, Clinton is giving the commencement address at the LBJ School of Public Affairs tomorrow. I'm not certain if c-span will carry it, but the LBJ school is webcasting it live, here:

Watch it live , at 11:00 am CST, Saturday, May 20th

Sadly, I was unable to obtain a ticket.

friday plushy blogging

Lion kitty Maxx finally decides to try out his new kitty-cube. I think that expression means, "ummm, thanks... I don't really fit in here, but the thought was nice."

The missing link

Okay, just go check out the link.

The Wonders of Science


I PROMISE it will be worth your while.

Oh, and Billmon? if you do decide to become a travel writer, I volunteer to take some neato pictures for ya!!

Fuck you Senator

Senator Pat Roberts (R- Douchebag) said today, again, "you have no civil liberties if you're dead."

Hey Senator! In my opinion, if you have no civil liberties, you have no freedom. And you'd might as well be dead.

So come kiss my centaur ass. Then go fuck yourself sideways with a rusty chainsaw, you constitution hating asswipe.

Go Russ Go!!

From the WAPO, Feingold, Specter Clash Over Gay Marriage, with Specter and Feingold getting into a shouting match.

I say, hit'em with the chair, Russ. Specter claims he's a defender of the constitution, but he's never hesitated to cave when chimpy and his minions came calling.

He's a defender of the constitution like I'm a monarch butterfly. Asshole.

Still on baby watch

It appears to be tiring.

Spooky house

A spooky picture of the spooky set I took while on set last week. I don't know what caused the light anomalies- UFO's maybe???? ghostices?

ooo-OOOOO-ooooo!!

lion kitty is on baby watch!!

Okay, so this is a re-run. I'm sure Maxx will be willing to share his peep with Sallyh's new grandbaby when she arrives.

Late night Maxx

Another outdoor shot.

More spring

Taken a couple of weeks ago at the Zilker Botanical Garden.

Monday afternoon lion kitty

It's a beautiful, unseasonable cool day here in Austin, and Maxx is enjoying some daylight hours outside.

More spring

Because I never get tired of looking at cannas.

Saturday jungle kitty

Here's lion kitty relaxing on the front porch.

Sally got tenure plushy!!

Lion kitty Maxx sends many, many purrrrrrs in his Aunt Sally's direction. He loves him some girls who understand higher math.

The general names his deputy

He sure didn't waste any time.

Sunday night relaxing lion kitty Maxx

We should all have his life.

Texas at sunset

I snapped this shot while on location on Friday evening. The Texas hillcountry is beautiful in the late spring.

Near Pflugerville, Texas, May 5th, 2006.

Mr. Plushy returns!!

Maxx caught sticking his tongue out at his aunt Flory.