Saturday plushy

Sometimes I just walk into a room, and there he is, being ridiculously cute.

Bonus kitties

Here is.... ummm, I don't know his name, but he's the homely kitty that lives upstairs and comes down to hang out with Maxx.
He's taken to coming in the apartment, which Maxx actually tolerates, though he does make sure homely kitty knows exactly whose house it is.



And of course here's lion kitty Maxx, demonstrating why he's the plushiest kitty of them all.

Friday Plush

Maxx spends a lot of time playing with his particle accelerator these days.

Atri-kitty!!!

I'm sorry, but I had to steal this from Atrios. Gizmo looks like he just saw Ann Coulter.

Oh, my. Jack "motherfucking" BURKMAN!!!

Via Atrios who links to Wonkette, we learn that Jack Burkman is a slime sucking pig.

It’s getting so that a couple nice young girls can’t drive up to DC for the Pride parade without getting openly propositioned by Republican Strategists who give them their real names and business cards these days. Take, for example, the MySpace blog of one such lady, whose sordid tale is reprinted (as a warning to the well-endowed) below:
The initial proposition:

afterward, we got a snazzy hotel room at the mayflower downtown. on the way over there, this really hot business man in a pinstriped suit walked past me, said hello, and doubled back. he asked me my name and introduced himself (jack burkman, government relations strategies), asked where i went to school, etc, gave me his card, and asked me to call him. i later texted him and never could get rid of him again. he thought he talked to me on the phone several times, but he never did. i always made kat or kristin be me. he told kristin about how he really enjoyed my outfit (TITS GALORE) and that i was beautiful, etc. by the end of the night (5 am or so), he was offering to pay for our room and give us a thousand dollars if two of us would fuck him. oh, jack burkman. his card is my DC souvenir.

Is this a surprise? why, no!! Jack Burkman is the odious, putrescent, smirking piece of crap who made the charge on Scarborough that the 9/11 widows hired literary agents within 48 hours of their husband's deaths. (see Media Matters story). Not surprisingly, he's a close friend and defender of Ann Coulter. Dead, rotting carrion eating birds of a feather decompose together, I suppose.

The young lady in question got curious and googled Burkman. What. An. Idiot. He gave her his real name and business card. Republican strategists, too stupid to live.

One thing does shock me.... this girl thought Burkman was "hot"??? Quelle horreur!!

Condolences

NTodd's mother passed away this morning after a long illness. Please visit Dohiyir Mir and give him your support.

Lion kitty and I extend our deepest sympathies for his loss.

Sleepy kitten

Sometimes kittens are the only antidote.

Camouflage Kitty

Just because.

2500

AFP/Azher Shallal

The number of american war dead is now 2,500. At the White House, Tony Blow remarked, "It's a number." He added that Bush "feels very deeply the pain that the families feel." Yes, I'm sure. Glad you can count, asswipe.

In the meantime, the Senate has rejected setting any time tables for a pull out of US troops.

In the house, republicans engineered a daylong debate in the House, where Republicans defended the war as key to winning the global struggle against terrorism while Democrats excoriated President Bush and his policies.

Chief republican house asshat Denny Hastert said, "We must stand firm in our commitment to fight terrorism and the evil it inflicts throughout the world. We must renew our resolve that the actions of evildoers will not dictate American policy."

That's funny, since the republican party is in charge, doesn't that mean that the evil doers are already dictating American policy?

It's my guess that the woman in the photograph would disagree with fat Denny. The bloodstained clothing she holds belonged to her late husband. American soldiers killed killed him on June 12th. At least 3,800 iraqi civilians have died so far this year in war-related violence.

Can someone tell me how making everyone on the fucking planet hate our guts is going to make me safer? I thought not.

Police State

A Brookly judge ruled yesterday that the US goverment has broad powers to detain non-citizens indefinitely. Without explanation. The NY TImes has details here: Judge Rules That U.S. Has Broad Powers to Detain Noncitizens Indefinitely

A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that the government has wide latitude under immigration law to detain noncitizens on the basis of religion, race or national origin, and to hold them indefinitely without explanation.

The ruling came in a class-action lawsuit by Muslim immigrants detained after 9/11, and it dismissed several key claims the detainees had made against the government. But the judge, John Gleeson of United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, allowed the lawsuit to continue on other claims, mostly that the conditions of confinement were abusive and unconstitutional. Judge Gleeson's decision requires top federal officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, to answer to those accusations under oath.

Silly me, thinking US laws and the constitution applied to everyone, not just citizens. And how kind of the judge to let the suit continue, on the grounds that the confinement was "abusive."

I suppose it's okay to deprive people of their freedom as long as we're nice about it.

Disgusting.

Thersites' deepest wish granted

I know that Thersites weeps at night because he does not have a lion kitty of his own. But weep no more my friend, help is at hand. Via National Geographic, Hypoallergenic" Cats For Sale, U.S. Firm Announces.

The world's first hypoallergenic cats may soon be curling up and purring in the laps of allergy sufferers, a U.S. company announced yesterday.

Allerca, Inc., a biotechnology firm in San Diego, California, is now taking orders for its Allerca Gene Divergence (GD) kittens.

Lion kitty Maxx is so happy for you.

Your daily Plush

Lion kitty Maxx has generously offered to donate his image to the Gore 2008 campaign.

Good kitty!

Iraq is still broken...

Reuters/Ceerwan Aziz

AP/Khalid Mohammed

...in spite of chimpy's heroic visit yesterday. Try to imagine living in this chaos. Feh.

Pasty is a Cock Obsessed Nutter

Holy Crap. Sadly, No! takes Pasty, AKA Jeff Goldstein, to task for being, well, pretty much insane. The smackdown is a thing of beauty.

Go read the whole thing here: Wingnut All-Star: Jeff Goldstein (Part I).

I guarantee you'll be fascinated, repulsed and amazed.

Celebrating his neo-birfday

Somebody decided to celebrate his neo-birthday by getting silly with his particle accelerator.

Happy Birthday Flory!!

It's the fabulous Flory's birthday today!!! Maxx sends her many, many purrrrs and offers to share his birthday paté with her. What a nice kitty.

Evil Ratfucker

I'd like to link to the original, but it's slashdotted. So here's a link to Atrios' post on the odious Karl Rove.

Karl Rove Taking Bullets?


Never one to let the facts or delicious irony stand in the way of a vicious political smear, today Karl Rove took a swipe at war heros Sen. John Kerry and Rep. John Murtha, stating, "They may be with you for the first few bullets but they won't be there for the last tough battles." Rove, of course, never served in battle, dodging the draft for nearly three years of the Vietnam War. He's in good company, though-- the Vice President received five deferments from going into battle himself.


"Unfortunately for the American military, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and their merry band of draft-dodgers won't be with you for the first few bullets, the last tough battles, or anywhere along the way," said Christy Setzer, Communications Director, Senate Majority Project.

Perhaps Karl would like to tell america's war veterans what it feels like to actually go to battle? Oh wait, he can't, can he? He is the most despicable man on the face of this earth. Truly.

And I'm with Eli on the "non-indictment" issue. In spite of Jane's postmortem of the day's events, I'm disgusted. Rove helping to get rid of Cheney? Somehow that only seems like it will help the republican establishment.

I know some high level republican operatives here in Austin. They all know Karl Rove really, really well. To a man, they hate him. As one of them told me, "He's brilliant, but he's the most evil, amoral motherfucker I've ever met in my life." The bastard has made a career out of lying, and has been richly rewarded for it.

I will never be satisfied until that evil, fat fuck gets everything that's coming to him.

What all the smart kitties are reading

No comment necessary. Follow Hidey's example and get a copy.

Happy Birthday, Maxx!

Maxx's first birthday card of the day.

This video was made by Jeffraham and Curly- what excellent friends we have!! thanks guys.

Carrots

We prefer carrots to pumpkins anytime.

More plushy noir

For you black and white afficianados. I think Maxx is beautiful in any color palette. (but then I'm prejudiced)

Rules of Engagement

What actually happened at Haditha, and why?

Last night the Washington Post published an account laying out the soldier's side of the story: Marine Says Rules Were Followed. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks, and I went to see what I could find out. What exactly are the "Rules of Engagement" in Iraq? A lengthy Lexis Nexis search turns up next to nothing. In disputed incidents going back to Fallujah, the army and the marines frequently cite ROE and state that they've been followed, without ever disclosing what exactly they are.

The WAPO's account of Haditha gives us a window into what is really going on, and it's not pretty:

A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

-snip-

Wuterich told his attorney in initial interviews over nearly 12 hours last week that the shootings were the unfortunate result of a methodical sweep for enemies in a firefight. Two attorneys for other Marines involved in the incident said Wuterich's account is consistent with those they had heard from their clients.

Kevin B. McDermott, who is representing Capt. Lucas M. McConnell, the Kilo Company commander, said Wuterich and other Marines informed McConnell on the day of the incident that at least 15 civilians were killed by "a mixture of small-arms fire and shrapnel as a result of grenades" after the Marines responded to an attack from a house.

So there it is. The marines felt threatened, and the ROEs, as they understand them, allow them to "clear houses" and with an apparent disregard for any civilians in the way. Another marine agrees:

Gary Myers, a civilian attorney for a Marine who was with Wuterich that day, said the Marines followed standard operating procedures when they "cleared" the houses, using fragmentation grenades and gunshots to respond to an immediate threat.

-snip-

The defense attorneys said the rules of engagement -- which vary depending on the mission, level of danger and other factors -- are likely to become a central element of their cases because those rules guide how troops can use deadly force on the battlefield. One Marine official said such rules usually require positive identification of a target before shooting but noted that the rules are often circumstantial.

"Once you go back over it, you have to determine if they applied the rules," the Marine official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Marine Corps does not discuss rules of engagement. "Did they feel threatened? Did they perceive hostile intent or hostile action?"

The article goes on to describe just what "clearing a house" entails:

A four-man team of Marines, including Wuterich, kicked in the door and found a series of empty rooms, noticing quickly that there was one room with a closed door and people rustling behind it, Puckett said. They then kicked in that door, tossed a fragmentation grenade into the room, and one Marine fired a series of "clearing rounds" through the dust and smoke, killing several people, Puckett said.

Although it was almost immediately apparent to the Marines that the people dead in the room were men, women and children -- most likely civilians -- they also noticed a back door ajar and believed that insurgents had slipped through to a house nearby, Puckett said. The Marines stealthily moved to the second house, kicking in the door, killing one man inside and then using a frag grenade and more gunfire to clear another room full of people, he said.

Iraqi survivors disagree with this account, but isn't this account bad enough? Even if they were following the "rules," this is hideous and barbaric. At least some marines agree.

Marine Reserve Lt. Jonathan Morgenstein, who served in Anbar province from August 2004 to March 2005, said that the account offered by Wuterich's attorney surprised him a bit.

"When I was in Iraq," Morgenstein said, "the Anbar-wide ROEs [rules of engagement] did not say we had the authority to knock down any door, throw in a hand grenade and kill everyone." Still, he said, if someone in a house in Haditha was shooting at them, the Marines' response may have been within procedure. "If they felt they took fire from that house, then that may be authorized."

A Marine who served near Haditha in November said it was not unusual for Marines to respond to attacks "running and gunning" and that it was standard practice to spray rooms with gunfire when threatened. "It may be a bad tactic, but it works," he said. "It keeps you alive."

If the american public is in the dark, you can bet that the iraqis are as well. Imagine, you're an iraqi living in a small village and an IED goes off nearby killing an american soldier. The patrol dismounts and storms into your village. What do you do? The soldiers are coming, do you run? Iraqis who did that died. Do you stay indoors with your family, keeping your head down? People that did this died as well, blown to bits when american frag grenades were tossed into their homes.

As I'm typing this, Wuterich's attorney, Puckett, is on CNN giving this same account. He asserts that Wuterich followed instruction from instructors and higher ups in the chain of command and that these ROEs are no different that what was in effect for Falluja. And that all the civilian deaths can be chalked up to "the fog of war." Really? Listen to what he's saying- the army and the marines have made a clear calculation that civilian casualties, while unfortunate, are part of the price. And that american lives are clearly more precious than iraqi lives.

It would have been nice to ask the iraqi public if they were willing to pay this price before we went in and blew the fuck out of their country.

Spooky House part deux

By request- Eli wanted to see the spooky house photo in black and white. I'll let you all be the judge of which version you prefer. I like them both, though I think the black and white version is more ominous.

Hibiscus

My new hibiscus plant exploded in blooms overnight. It must be a liberal plant- no conservative plant would ever indulge in such a wanton, decadent, riotous display of color!