Friday Plush

"There's some pate on my chin? I don't know what you're talking about."

The mighty plushy hunter

What beastie lurks in the vegetation?

A day in a plushy life

What he does while I'm at work...



What he does when I get home....



Me: "Maxx... come back here. Maxx, do NOT go out into the parking lot.

MAAAAAXXXXXXXXX!!!!!"

He does not respect mah authoritah.

Silly cat

Lion kitty Maxx found some unused terracotta pots under the stairwell that were the perfect size for a kitty nap.

About torture

Bush put on quite the performance today in the rose garden. He's gonna SAVE US FROM THE BAD guys!! If only the democrats and appeasers will just get out of the way and let him do his job.

Feh.

Let's be clear about what we're talking about here. Bush wants to rewrite Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. He wants retroactive cover from the nefarious activities the CIA and others have been engaged in over in their little chain of black prisons.

He wants to eliminate habeas corpus and judicial review in the cases of enemy combatants. He wants tribunals that can convict people on secret evidence that the will not have the right to see. He wants the ability to detain people indefinitely without charging them at all. And he wants the ability to use "harsh methods" against those detainees in interrogations.

And while I'm happy some republicans are challenging him, their bill isn't much better.

I'm sorry, but that is not the America I love.

Conceivably, you could be tried, convicted and executed on secret evidence that was obtained from another detainee under torture without you ever knowing what that evidence is. And before anyone says, "but these are bad guys, they're terra-ists!!" let me remind you that this president has asserted the right to declare anyone, including American citizens, to be enemy combatants.

It used to be that when American troops came in, people cheered. "The good guys are here!! Huzzah!!"

Now they grab their women and children and run for the hills in horror. Take a good look at the photograph. That is what we look like to a good bit of the world. We are something to be feared and hated.

It breaks my heart.

Billmon has a thoughtful post us on the subject: A Tortured Definition

lion kitty porn!

AP/Frank Perry

These are barbary lion cubs, rather rare.

Progress, bush style

Baghdad is about to become a prison city. Via the NYTimes, Iraq to Seal Off Baghdad Next Month

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 15 — The Iraqi government plans to seal off Baghdad next month by ringing it with a series of trenches and setting up dozens of traffic checkpoints to control movement in and out of the city of seven million people, an Interior Ministry spokesman said today.

The effort is one of the most ambitious security projects in recent memory, with cars expected to be funneled through 28 checkpoints along the main arteries snaking out from the capital. Smaller roads would be closed off. The trenches would run across farmland or other open areas to prevent cars from evading the checkpoints, said the ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf.

“We’re going to build a trench around Baghdad so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly,” he said in a telephone interview. “The idea is to get the cars to go through the 28 checkpoints that we set up.”

Ah yes, spreading democracy, one prison city at a time.

When ya coming home???

Come home and FEED me!!

Mr. Plushy Britches

His fluffy tail and butt crack me up.

Late night sleepy Maxx

Well, he's not actually sleeping right now. He's mad because he wants to go outside and frolic in the cool evening air.

But this centaur needs some sleep.

WTF?

I'm sorry, but this is just wrong. Darth Vader cannot be made of lego.

Do children have to ruin everything?

RIP Governor Richards

Damn. Ann RIchards died this evening from cancer. Former Texas Governor Ann Richard Dies.

Our condolences to her family and friends. She will be missed.

They was blind

From today's Froomkin, details from the gaggle:

SNOW: . . . [W]hat the President was making reference to after September 11th -- the war on terror didn't end on September 11th, it began. It lifted the veil to us on a world that we didn't know existed, that we have to respond to. And it is also a real fact that the war in Iraq is clearly part of that war on terror, and where we proceed with it.

A world you didn't know existed, eh? Are you fucking kidding me? I seem to recall that there was a PDB entitled "Osama Bin Ladin Determined to Strike Inside the US."

These people are such asshats.

Extra Plush

Just because Jon Stewart was so freaking funny tonight.

Plush for Plum

Okay, we got plush, everybody simma down now.

Obvious forgery, blog ethics panel needed!!

photo from White Planet

I don't see a coke bottle in this photograph. This is an obvious leftist attempt to attack corporate america.

Even more a hero

Keith Olbermann gave a blistering editorial blasting Bush for his incompetence, mendacity and shamelessness tonight. The entire special comment is up on his Web blog on MSNBC, This hole in the ground:

...
When those who dissent are told time and time again -- as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus -- that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American...When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"... look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:

Who has left this hole in the ground?

We have not forgotten, Mr. President.

You have.

May this country forgive you.

Let me just say that I never will. I will not forgive him or his administration for their incompetence nor will I forgive him for the terrible damage he has done to this country since 9/11.

There is no hell hot enough for him.

Question

When is will the media stop being snookered into giving Bush free network time for his campaign speeches?

When?

A hero of the day

Salon has a nice interview with Keith Olberman up (ladies, no swooning!). The Olbermann Factor. Please, just sit through the ad and read it.

My favorite quote:

The country belongs to the people, not to the government that happens to be in charge at the moment. We should remind ourselves of that fact periodically.

Amen.

Monday Plush

A not so great photo of Mr. Plushy, who was annoyed because I was following him around with the camera.

Fuck ABC

Maxx and I would like to suggest that you watch The Wire on HBO tonight.

Boycott Disney.

Friday Afternoon kitty blogging

Happy weekend.

Appalling

In tomorrow's NY Times:

Interrogation Methods Rejected by Military Win Bush’s Support

Many of the harsh interrogation techniques repudiated by the Pentagon on Wednesday would be made lawful by legislation put forward the same day by the Bush administration. And the courts would be forbidden from intervening.

snip

In June, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that a provision of the Geneva Conventions concerning the humane treatment of prisoners applied to all aspects of the conflict with Al Qaeda. The new bill would keep the courts from that kind of meddling, Professor Yoo said.

“There is a rejection of what the court did in Hamdan,” he said, “which is to try to judicially enforce the Geneva Conventions, which no court had ever tried to do before.”

Gee, I dunno, maybe that's because no american administration has ever tried to establish the practice of torturing prisoners as official state policy. The Geneva Conventions aren't just some quaint, archaic ideal to strive for, american law prohibits torture.

These are terrible, evil people.

Three plushy posts in one day, oh my!!

Well, it's probably midnight somewhere.

Mr. Plushy hates ABC

Boycott the bastards.

Mysterious kitty

To keep you company.

Double Plushy Shot

Mr. Plushy had a check up at the vet this morning. The good news is that he's gained a pound. The bad news is that his mouth is still infected. He'll be on drugs for the next month at least.

Return of the Plush!!

Sorry, but I've been tied up the past day or two.

But Mr. Plushy is still, well, plushy.

Afternoon plush

"My aunt Flory is very, very silly."

Bite Me

I'd like to invite the secretary of defense to jump up and bite my ass.

Rumsfeld: War critics suffer ‘moral confusion’

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday accused critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq and counterterrorism policies of trying to appease “a new type of fascism.”

In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration’s critics as suffering from “moral or intellectual confusion” about what threatens the nation’s security and accused them of lacking the courage to fight back.

Ummm, no. We're not the least bit confused. As for morals, I believe it's the republican party and the Bush administration who has the morality problem.

We understand perfectly that there are muslim extremists who would like to blow us up. Where we differ is on the best method of combating those terrorists.

Rummy and chimpy think that invading a secular country that was not a threat to us and blowing the shit out of it was a reasonable plan to combat al queda. Rummy and chimpy think that making everyone in the muslim world hate us is a good PR strategy. Rummy and chimpy think that breaking our army and bogging them down in an endless clusterfuck is good strategic planning. Chimpy and Rummy think that a show of force brings "clarity" to a situation, never mind if it also kills or mains a couple of hundred thousand civilians in the process.

I think their policies are failures and their ideas on foreign policy are absurd. And I think killing civilians in the name of "spreading democracy" is murder.

But we agree on one thing. America is under assault from a new type of facism.

It's called conservative republicanism. I say we fail to confront it to our peril.

As for my courage, hey Rummy! why don't you come over here and fucking jump on my goddamned razor sharp pitchfork? Last time I checked, it was your party that is overrun by a bunch of whiny-assed chickenhawks.

I think we've all had just about enough of your nonsense, you insane, pathetic, delusional, war-mongering old man.

PS. Any democrat in public office who falls for Rummy's bullshit will be summarily shot into the sun.

Frisky!

Even big lion kittys like to play pouncy-pouncy with their toys.

Photo: David Gray, Reuters

Lions

"Ma pipples!!" exclaimed lion kitty Maxx.

African lions in their new enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.

Photo: Mark Baker, Associated Press

Lizards are delicious

Who knew?

Plushypalooza

One more for the road. Lion kitty Maxx playing wih his particle accelerator. (If only I could get him to do his homework.)

Bonus Plushy!!

Being teh cute is hard work.

Friday Frisky Kitty Blogging

Someone was feeling all frisky last night.

Calling all sharks

Fuck. Where's a shark when you need one? Via Wolcott: The Sorrow and the Titties, we bring you:

Atlas Juggs Beach Blogging

And this is the idiot that John Bolton thinks is worth an interview? I guess even the sharks have better taste.

I'm still hungry

Could you resist that face? I was terrified he would gnaw off my arm while I slept.

Time to kill the minion

Mr. Plushy pauses before disembowling his minion.

Let the plushypalooza commence!!

"I am finally feeling better and four legs thinks it's okay to put stuff on my head. Hrrrmmfffppphhh."

Plushy health update

So far, the body count today is: 2 cans of Fancy Feast, 2 pouches of Iams Kitten food (one tuna, one salmon), 1/2 a pouch of Whiskas chicken tender bites, and one bowl of Fancy Feast dry food moistened with free-range chicken broth.

He looks like he swallowed a softball.

Oh, and he got all frisky tonight and beat the crap out of minion Peeper. Pics tomorrow.

Stuff on my tigers!!

Reuters/China Daily

Oh, the indignity!

Sad plushy story

The fourlegger household has been in something of a turmoil the past few weeks. I had been thinking of moving, but decided against it for a number of reasons. One, lion kitty Maxx has been ill, and I don't want to stress him with a big upheaval; two, I'm cheap- this place is relatively cheap; and three, I'm lazy. It's August, and I just don't feel like packing and moving in this beastly heat.

If I'm going to stay, I thought to myself, I might as well spruce up the place a bit. So I painted the bathroom and I'm redoing the closets and my desk area. Tonight, while pulling junk out of my walk-in closet, I dragged out a bunch of broken down boxes I'd been hoarding all summer in anticipation of a move. Maxx immediately started acting anxious, and well, depressed.

It dawned on me that his last family moved and left him behind, so the sight of moving boxes is making him sad and nervous.

Poor little bugger. Needless to say, he's been getting lots of hugs and ear scritches tonight, and the offending boxes are out at the dumpster.

I promised him that no matter where I go in the world, he gets to go too.

Nature

This is a photo I took at the Zilker Botanical Gardens a few weeks ago.

Death of an iMac

I would like to post a couple photos tonight, sadly, everytime I try Safari crashes. Most annoying.

I expect the problem lies with this ancient little iMac. Oh well, check back tomorrow.

Monday plush

Here's a little black and white re-run to tide you plushyfanatics over.

How indeed?

My question is, what took the poodle so long?

The alliance between George Bush and Tony Blair is in danger after it was revealed that the Prime Minister believes the President has 'let him down badly' over the Middle East crisis.

A senior Downing Street source said that, privately, Mr Blair broadly agrees with John Prescott, who said Mr Bush's record on the issue was 'crap'.

The source said: "We all feel badly let down by Bush. We thought we had persuaded him to take the Israel-Palestine situation seriously, but we were wrong. How can anyone have faith in a man of such low intellect?"

From the Daily Mail. Blair 'feels betrayed by Bush on Lebanon'

I'm always astounded by these politicians who act astonished to discover the chimperor's true nature. Really, it's been on display since day one. Bush's record on everything is crap. Stop being so willfully blind.

Ummm, no.

Reuters/Joshua Roberts

Bush says that Iraq is straining the nation's psyche.

Actually, it's Bush and his endless incompetence that are driving us mad.

Gee, he never looks stupider than when he's trying to be convincing, eh?

Puma plush

AP/Esteban Felix

Filomena, a two-week old puma. Teh cute.

Some more noire plush

Maybe we'll have plushy palooza later.

Glamour Puss

He enjoys being photographed so much more when I don't flashy-thing him.

Your wednesday afternoon lion kitty fix

"I'm ready for my closeup now...."

some baby plush

AP/Anupam Nath

"A veterinary doctor feeds Bulu, a three-month-old leopard at the state zoological park in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006. Bulu is being raised at the zoo after it was rejected by its mother."

Awwwww. Poor little bugger.

Jungle Plush

AP/Anupam Nath

"Bablu, a one-month-old jungle cat sits on the hands of a veterinary doctor at the state zoological park in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006. Bablu is being raised at the zoo after it was rejected by its mother."

How cute is this little guy?

Plushius Kittyous

My apologies, I have been on deadline the past week... normal blogging shall resume shortly.

In the meantime, scritch lion kitty Maxx under his whiskery little chin.

Something lovely

Reuters/Rdjan Zivulovic

A willow tit feeding from a sunflower. Photographed in Slovenia.

Monday morning kitty blogging

Breakfast was delicious!

Busy day for me, Mr. Plushy will keep you company.

Dear CNN...

Just a hint, but Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is neither a photographer, nor an expert on digital photography. His opinion on the authenticity of any photograph is worthless. In fact, his opinion on any subject at all is suspect. Call me crazy, but I would think that if you wanted to authenticate a photograph, you might actually consult a real expert on the subject, and not a rightwing asshole who makes his living peddling the worst sort of conservative hate speech.

I keep thinking that you guys will get a clue and stop helping rightwing assholes like Johnson in his quest to destroy the public's confidence in actual reporting. Let me spell it out for you, since you don't seem to get it.

Johnson and his ilk are interested in one thing, and one thing only- to discredit any information or reporting that goes against their twisted version of reality.

So stop it. Stop helping him. Stop giving the guy who wants to destroy objective journalism a platform. Everytime you do so, you grant legitimacy to a grade A douchbag. You wouldn't give a nutcase who wanted to slit your throat a knife, now would you?

Love, 4lg

PS. Take that idiot Carol Linn off the air. It would be a service to humanity.