Name That Kitten!!

Okay, please leave your suggestions for kitten names in comments. I won't actually name her until I get her home and see what she's like and see what fits, but I'm sure you guys can come up with some great ideas.

New Kitty?

Could this be my new kitten? She lives in Ft. Worth and will be ready to come live with me the second week in January.

Update: Oy, February.

Second update: I've pretty much made up my mind. I'm in love with her. I'm calling the breeder back and telling her I want her.

third update, 11:31 am: Just spoke to the breeder and said that I want her. I hope Maxx approves, and I think he will.

kitten palooza

Oh dear. I insist that you click on the photo in order to get the full effect. Note especially the expression of the little guy on the right.

Oh. My.

Kitten blogging

Since I don't have a kitty of my own, I am reduced to trolling the intertubes for random kitties. I guess that makes me a kittenzophile.

This little guy was found on a german web site.

Comet Maxx over South Australia

Steve Gordon

The Comet Maxx over Wallagoot Lake, NSW Far South Coast, Australia. He sure is putting on a show, no?

Many thanks to Barry in Alaska for pointing out the congruence of Maxx's passing and the comet's arrival. It's been a great comfort to me.

I have to admit that I'm having a lot of trouble adjusting to Maxx's loss. I thank all of you for your kind wishes and messages. You've made a very painful time for me a little more bearable.

The Deciderer Strikes Back

AP/Charles Dharapak

Chimpy says he's still the "decider" on troop levels and all things clusterfucked:

President Bush today rebuffed congressional opponents who want to stop his plan to increase U.S. troop strength in Iraq, declaring that "I'm the decision-maker" on the war effort and challenging skeptics to produce their own plan for success.

Well, fuck-a-doodle-doo. Fine Mr. Bush, go ahead and remind the world that you own this war.

I'm all for letting him hang the stinking carcass around his party's neck, though I have to say that the arrogance still astonishes me. He's been wrong about everything. Everything. And yet he still thinks he knows better than the rest of us. Unbelievable.

Bush: 'I'm the Decision-Maker' on Iraq

Done, Wrecked, Burnt

Dana Milbank isn't sure whether Scooter Libby has been hurt of helped by this testimony at his trial this week, but I have no doubt that he's toast.

Cathie Martin, the former Cheney communications officer, has been on the stand, and what she's had to say has pretty much buried both Scooter and his master Cheney (link: Ex-Aide Says Cheney Led Rebuttal Effort):

Vice President Cheney personally orchestrated his office's 2003 efforts to rebut allegations that the administration used flawed intelligence to justify the war in Iraq and discredit a critic who Cheney believed was making him look foolish, according to testimony and evidence yesterday in the criminal trial of his former chief of staff.

Cheney dictated talking points for a White House briefing in the midst of the controversy that summer, his former press aide, Cathie Martin, testified, stressing that the CIA never told Cheney that a CIA-sponsored mission had found no real evidence that Iraq was trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa.

Aboard Air Force Two, on a trip back from the launch of a warship in Norfolk, Cheney instructed his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, about responding to a Time magazine reporter who questioned how the faulty intelligence on Iraq had become one of the Bush administration's central arguments for going to war.

In the dramatic replay of events that summer that unfolded yesterday in Libby's federal court trial, Cheney was portrayed as a general on a political battlefield -- enmeshed in tactics, but also deputizing his chief of staff to handle the dirty job of persuading journalists that the war critic was all wrong.

This is completely at odds with the defense theory that Libby was just too busy to remember all the nasty little details. They'll try to get out of it by trying to discredit the prosecution's witnesses, but it's not going to work.

Any attempt to smear the witnesses will just reinforce the jurors' impression that smearing a critic is SOP for Cheney and Libby. So they're damned if they do, and damned if they don't.

Milbanks column has lots of juicy details on the inner workings of the Cheney spinning machine, including the juicy morsel that Cheney saw Timmeh "Punkinhaid" Russert as a safe stooge.

Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.

This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

snip

Option 1: "MTP-VP," she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday show. Under "pro," she wrote: "control message."

Ouch. Punkinhaid has been pwned.

For blow by blow liveblogging of the trial, visit Firedoglake, which has been the go-to site for all things Plamegate since dust.

Comet Maxx over the Rockie Mountains

Via our friends at Space.com.

Robin Loznak, snapped this amazing view of the comet Maxx over the Rocky Mountain Front near Great Falls on January 9th. Photo details: Nikon D2Hs, 300 mm lens, 320 ASA, f/4.

18th Annual Photo Contest

Every year, National Geographic Traveler hosts a photo contest for both amateurs and professionals. The a photo gallery of winning photos can be seen here: 2006 World in Focus Contest. A couple of my favorites are below:

Kenny Chu, Los Angeles, California

Ralph Thompson, Westmount, Quebec

I meant to enter last year, but my schedule kept me from travelling. Maybe this year.

Skyline

AP/Dusan Vranic

How would you like to see this scene out your window everyday? This morning, more car bombs went off in Baghdad, killing at least 24 people. WAPO: Car Bombs Kill at Least 24 in Baghdad:

BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 -- Two car bombs exploded on a busy street in central Baghdad today, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 60, Iraqi officials said. The bombings came shortly after at least two mortars crashed into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, home of the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi parliament, a U.S. military spokesman said.

And yet, Dead Eye Dick tells us that things are just peachy there, if only we, and the press, would pay proper attention.

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the administration has achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" that they are undermining U.S. troops in a war zone...

Let me invite our radioactive Veep to blow me. Again. And then to go fuck himself.

They've Invaded Europe

Believe it or not, maine coon kitties are hugely popular all over the world.

I found this little guy on the website of a German breeder.

Lion kitty Maxx

Very sad day today. I picked up Maxx's ashes at the vet.

He seems very far away, up there on his comet.

Kittenz

Shamelessly stolen from CuteOverload.com.

Pretty Photo of the Day

AP/Dr. Scott Lieberman

The sun setting over the Pacific Ocean, near San Diego.

We'll Show You the Way

AFP/Paul J. Richards

From Jonathan Alter on Hardblogger:

Something unprecedented happened tonight, beyond the doorkeeper announcing, “Madame Speaker.” For the first time ever, the response to the State of the Union overshadowed the president’s big speech. Virginia Sen. James Webb, in office only three weeks, managed to convey a muscular liberalism-with personal touches-that left President Bush’s ordinary address in the dust. In the past, the Democratic response has been anemic—remember Washington State Governor Gary Locke? This time it pointed the way to a revival for national Democrats.

snip

Webb was given a speech to read by the Democratic leadership. He threw it out and wrote his own.(my emphasis added)

I think Alter gets it exactly right. Not only was Webb's response substantive and clear, his tone was perfect. It was nice to hear a democrat sound confident, smart, and unapologetic.

I shudder to think what the speech he was given looked like. Maybe, just maybe, the leadership will learn something from this.

Comet Maxx over Australia

Photo: Nicole Emanuel

The Comet Maxx over the Brisbane Ranges in Victoria, Australia.

Republic Party

Until they learn some manners, I hereby decree that the 'republican' party, shall henceforth be known as the "republic" party.

Update: if you wonder why I'm decreeing things, it's because I am king of the forest. (If you've seen Harry Potter, you would know that.)

Democratic

If chimpy would like some cooperation, maybe he could learn to say "democratic."

Fucker.

Birdie

Reuters/Aly Song

Just because I can't stand to look at that photo of chimpy kissing droopy any longer.

Dear Droopy Joe

Dear Senator Droopy, we understand that you really enjoy sucking Bush cock, but do you have to do it in public? On C-span, no less?

Sheesh, won't you think of the children?

Even more Maxx's Comet

AFP/David Lillo

Maxx's comet is seen early morning from Pucon, Calafquen Lake sector, Chile. Look at that plushy tail!! I'll bet the angels are jealous.

Sigh. Still cloudy here.. I'm beginning to think I'm never going to see it.

New York

Eli's been photoblogging from his last New York trip so I will too.

This is a not so great shot of the Empire State Building. Photographed in late September, 2006.

Update: I'm reminded that that is actually the Chrystler Building. Yep, I didn't live in NYC for 15 years or anything. Oy.

Eli

Go vist Eli at his new digs at: MultiMedium.net. He has a bright, shiny new site with lots of cool pictures and everything.

And update your blogrolls!!

Eli's groovy new site was designed by ::matthew at ThacherMathias.com

(Photo shameless stolen from Eli's photo gallery, but all in the interests of promoting his site, so I'm sure he won't mind.)

Cat update

I went to look at some rescue kitties today. Honestly, I'm just not ready for another cat.

When I am, I'll probably get a couple of little guys, like the ones in the photo.

Space, bitch!!

From our friends at Space.com, a spectacular image of Saturn.

Saturn gets a new look in this new image taken by the Cassini spacecraft studying the ringed planet.

The vivid orange and yellow hues of Saturn’s atmosphere, and the blue tinge of its rings at far right, highlight this composite of several images taken by Cassini’s wide-angle camera. To build this view, researchers used special camera filters that are sensitive only to certain types of infrared light.

Although NASA released this image today, Cassini’s camera actually recorded it on Dec. 13, 2006 from a distance of about 511,000 miles (822,000 kilometers) from Saturn.

I never get tired of the marvels of our solar system.