Another Shame

After Katrina struck, “Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil.”

And
“And while television sets worldwide showed images of New Orleans residents begging to be rescued from rooftops as floodwaters rose, U.S. officials turned down countless offers of allied troops and search-and-rescue teams. The most common responses: "sent letter of thanks" and "will keep offer on hand," the new documents show.”
Washington Post quote

As if we needed more proof that this has to be the most incompetent administration of our life time, maybe ever. All sorts of gifts and offers and yet they still screwed it up and continue to until this day. If you add the lives lost after Katrina to the lives lost in Iraq, both American and Iraqi, that’s a lot of lives. So many lost at the hands of so few.

Can a Cat be in the Doghouse?

Hi, Fred the Cat here. This week I am responsible for a two hundred dollar check Pop had to write.

Here’s what happened. There is a three foot high concrete wall around the pool/patio area. The area is screened from that wall to the top. Lots of times when no one is looking I hop up on the ledge of the wall, stand on my hind legs and stretch against the screen. When I do this I put my front claws into the screen and pull against it. This results in the screen getting torn a little bit at a time. I just keep doing this at different places along the wall and over time I have destroyed six of the screen panels.

The man who replaced the screen panels asked Pop if he could borrow me to teach classes. He wants me to teach other cats my talent for destroying screens. Pop laughed at his joke but she didn’t laugh after she had to write that check. The guy told Pop he was giving her a discount because she was a “repeat customer “ And he knew as long as I’m around he will have future work here.

I think I may be in the doghouse for a while. Then again, she just walked by and scratched my head, which always makes me purr. See ya later. I’m off to test out the new screen panels.

Have a great weekend and keep your paws off the screen.

A Moment Together

This week Mr. Pop was away on business for a couple of days. During his travels he passed through a small Florida town. He was stopped at a light at the main intersection of the town. On one corner a group of people were holding up signs to protest the war. The truck that was stopped in front of Mr. Pop had a “Impeach Bush” sticker on it’s bumper.

The guy driving the “Impeach Bush” truck started blowing his horn and waving to the protesters. Mr. Pop joined in the horn blowing and then everyone who was stopped at the intersection began blowing their horns and waving. Mr. Pop said everyone was smiling and for that moment, having a grand time together. All were of one mind with one goal.

Pat wasn’t the only remarkable Tillman

If you watched the hearings yesterday about Pat Tillman’s death you probably felt the same way I did. You probably wondered what in the hell went on there and why. Thank goodness the Tillman family is tough and dedicated to getting to the bottom of it all.

Here’s one telling quote from CNN
“The military instead released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass, Kevin Tillman told the committee.
Kevin Tillman said the military tried to spin his brother's death to deflect attention from emerging failings in the Afghanistan war.”

Can you imagine a military run by Donald Rumsfeld trying to spin the facts of a death to cover something up? Yeah, I can too.

Why would the military burn Tillman’s uniform and diary right away?

***
Hopefully C-span will play these hearings again. Check the schedule on their home page if you missed it yesterday. Look for “Accuracy of Battlefield Information”.

Bush is given Purple Heart

I have to credit Crooks and Liars for bringing this story to my attention. Seems a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, who live in Texas woke up one morning and decided to give one of the husband’s purple hearts to george bush because in his own words….

“Thomas said he and his wife came up with the unprecedented idea to present the president with the Purple Heart over breakfast one morning a few months ago as they discussed the verbal attacks, both foreign and domestic, the commander in chief has withstood during his time in office.

"We feel like emotional wounds and scars are as hard to carry as physical wounds," Thomas said”

So they presented the purple heart to bush yesterday. And no, this is not a joke. It should be, but it isn’t.

Some do Earth Day and Some do not

Mr. Pop’s Earth Day began early yesterday as he was off to the beach to check for any nesting birds in a construction area. After his task was accomplished we were off to the nursery to buy more tomato plants, herbs, seeds, flowers and fun stuff like that. We came home and Mr. Pop spent the rest of the day planting and mulching our new green things. I was the overseer and patio sunbathing book reader.

Our neighbor spent the greater part of his Earth Day spraying insecticide all around his house and yard. Some people just don’t get it.

***
About the pictures. See the one with the wind toys or as I call them “Spangdanglers”, hanging on the shepherd’s hook? See the hole in the ground with all the sand around it? That’s the home of Sunny, our resident gopher tortoise.

New Stuff

Hey, Fred the Cat here and look what Murphy and I got this week. A brand new bed for each of us.

As you can see mine is leopard print for the wild cat in me. Pop wasn’t crazy about the print but since this was all that was available, she bought it. Man you should see how plush it is inside. My old bed was a hand me down from a previous family cat. Ha! No more second hand stuff for this cat.

You’ll notice Murphy’s new bed is sort of girly looking but look how comfy he looks. I think it fits him just fine, don’t you? His old bed had lost it’s spunk and wasn’t soft enough for the old guy.

So you’ll pardon me now if I go back and curl up in my new bed with my new Cosmic catnip. Ah, for Murphy and me, life is good.

Here’s another reason life is good for The Murph Man and me. When we get old and sick and can’t get well, we are allowed to relieved of our pain and our painful life. Why do you humans not allow the same for yourselves? Just askin’.

Have a great weekend and rest assured Murphy and I sure will.

It’s a good day for a Gonzo Grilling!

The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary, Senator Patrick Leahy, feels it’s that time of year when everyone enjoys grilling. Today on his grill will be Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

I don’t know how much of this will be on cable news channels today, but I do know that you can watch it live on C-span 3 at 9:30am this morning. If you don’t get C-span 3 on your TV you can watch it live on C-span’s website.

All the cable news channels had oodles of time to devote to all things Anna Nicole, but I doubt they will have as much time for this.

One Thing I do Know for Sure

When I was a little girl my dad hunted for food. We ate squirrel and rabbit. I even picked up my toy rifle and started to follow him into the woods when I was two. He took me back to the house.

When I was five or six my dad no longer needed to hunt for food, but he did go on deer hunts. I remember one day he drove up with a dead bloody deer tied to the hood of his car. I looked out the window and saw this sight and began to cry uncontrollably. I hated what I saw, and I cannot explain to you why. It was just such an awful sight and I’ll never ever forget it.

I used to pretend that I was the cowgirl shooting the pretend Indians and sometimes I was the Indian shooting the pretend cowboys. I had a pair of toy six-shooters that I strapped on my waist and then the pretending would commence.

Today I am deeply anti-gun. I detest hunting. And, I cannot imagine myself pointing a gun at someone or another living thing and pulling the trigger.

I am telling you this because I can’t make myself believe that video games and movies cause children to grow up and become heartless killers. Sure, there were no video games when I was little, but there were movies and in those movies people shot other people.

I don’t know what has changed in our world that would cause children to shoot other children but I know it couldn’t happen without guns. My dad always had guns in the house and it never crossed my mind to “touch” them. I never thought about it because I had been told not to go anywhere near them. Maybe seeing that bloody dead deer strapped on my dad’s car that day showed me what real guns could do to real living things. One thing I do know for sure is that it was ugly then, and it’s still ugly and frightening to me now.

Tragedy? Incident? Massacre?

The death toll at Virginia Tech is over thirty. Is that a tragedy or is it a shooting incident? Is it a massacre? How many were killed in Iraq yesterday? Was that a tragedy or a shooting incident or “collateral damage”?

One thing all of these deaths have in common is that lives were lost. Innocent people died through no fault of their own. It sounds like murder in all cases as far as I’m concerned. And it's so wrong.

Republicans Seem to Like Pretenders

What is it with some Republicans supporting actors as candidates for the office of President of the United States? Actors are professionals who are successful at pretending they are someone they aren’t. Jeezz, do you really want a president who can convince you of something that isn’t? Haven’t we had enough of that?

First it was Reagan and now the hot word from many Republicans is that Fred Thompson is the next big thing. Some are already referring to him as a Southern Fried Ronald Reagan. Yeah boy, just what we need right now for this country, another pretend presidential “decider”.

Funny, they talk about Democrats being the darling of the Hollywood crowd yet the Republicans elected Reagan as president and Schwarzenegger as governor of California. Now one of their so called favs is actor Fred Thompson.

Why do Republicans have such an affinity for pretenders and such distaste for reality?

***
One Republican who is not a pretender is Tucker Carlson. On his never ending, sincere quest to prove that he can be unsuccessful at every occupation he pursues, he will now host a TV game show. How about a TV game show called “Do You Trust Me?”
How long do you figure that will last?

Source: Variety

Freday without Fred the Cat

Since Fred the Cat spent the last few days in the vets office being boarded, he’s not in the mood to write. He’s more in the mood to be miffed. So I have to do the weekend post.

Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes. Your wishes must have been magic because I had a wonderful birthday and trip. Ah, just lazing around with no responsibilities except to decide where to go for meals. A couple of days like that are good for the soul.

I came home to find that Imus was determined to have verbally jumped his last shark. The Duke team was found innocent of all charges. Anna Nicole’s baby now has a legal father. And oh yeah, the troops will be doing longer tours and have less time at home between tours. That was the order of the news as I heard it. Some things just never change.

When did the military get permission to keep changing the rules right in the middle of the game/war?

***
Have a great weekend and Fred the Cat and I will see you next week at our regular scheduled times.

Birthday Time Again

Today is my Happy Birthday! As soon as I post this Mr. Pop will be sweeping me off to the Daytona area for a couple of days. He has a meeting there and then the rest is fun time. I’ll save each of you a martini (non-alcoholic if you prefer) and a piece of birthday cake and a party hat.

So while I’m away celebrating another year of living, tell me about the best birthday you ever had.

See you back here sometime Thursday or perhaps Friday morning.
Be sweet to one another.

Let’s Name Another Book

A couple of weeks ago I asked you to name george bush’s autobiography. I had such a good time reading your comments. You guys are creative and funny too.

In fact it was such fun reading your creative titles that I want to do it again. This time please give a name to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi’s autobiography.

Good Freday with Fred the Cat

Being that I’m a cat you can imagine my nervousness over this poison pet food recall. Pop checked my food and treats and none of the bad stuff was in any of it. Same goes for Murphy’s food and ND-Anna’s too. Whew! We were lucky. Now I hear that there is a possibility that some of the bad stuff might be in human food as well. None of this surprised me when I saw the following information.

“The FDA currently only examines 1.3% of all food imported into the United States, according to the Associated Press.”
Quote source

So while you guys are removing your shoes and tossing out your shampoo before you board a plane, over 90% of the food coming into our country from other countries is not being inspected. Think about it.

Have a beautiful Easter weekend! Go easy on the chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies.

Sincerely,
Fred the Cat

Now Spring is Officially Here

This is the very first bloom from my Gardenia bush this year. It signifies to me that Spring has officially arrived. In my opinion, walking into the kitchen in the morning and smelling the fragrance of this flower is one of the most perfect ways to begin a day.

Soon my house will have lots of these blossoms nested in little bowls of water but this first one is something so special to me. The purity and beauty of another growing season is upon us and I welcome it wholeheartedly. Thank you Mother Nature, your work is beautiful.

Is This a Hostage Situation?

I forced myself to listen to bush yesterday morning as he repeated the same things he has been saying for the last four plus years about terror and war and all the rest. He got real pissy about Congress not providing him with a shiny clean war funding bill. He told how bad it will be for the troops if his demands to Congress are not met.

In a sense he is holding the soldiers hostage. He is saying if I don't get the bill I want from Congress, I will send these soldiers back into battle when I know they aren't ready and without what they need. He so much as said it yesterday. Either he gets the bill he wants or the soldiers have to suffer. That's the bottom line.

He refuses to end the war and he'll keep right on going with it no matter what congress does and no matter the harm it does to the troops.

Why shouldn’t Speaker Pelosi visit?

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is visiting Israel and Syria. The white house is all pissy about her trip. Not so long ago Senator Nelson of Florida made a trip to Syria and I believe Senator Dodd did as well. Seems to me there have been others. So why is Pelosi’s trip so bothersome to the administration? Why did they ask her not to go? Are they afraid she might be able to make some positive accomplishments?

When Even a Pork Chop Won’t Work

What do you do when your own dogs will no longer play with you even though you have a pork chop hanging around your neck?

''A 'military victory' in the sense of total control over the whole territory, imposed on the entire population is not possible,'' Kissinger told The Associated Press in Tokyo, where he received an honorary degree from Waseda University.”
Quote source

So while a stubborn brat stomps his foot and demands unconditional money for his war, Kissinger and many others says it can’t be won militarily. If we can’t win with the military, why are they there? Even with the temptation of a pork chop, the dogs of war seem to have lost their taste for this particular conflict that bush so ineptly created. No one seems to want to play anymore.