In case you missed it

Regarding the release of the Baker Hamilton report, back in January of this year

“The Baker-Hamilton report was generally well received by the new Democratic majority as well as by a number of Republicans. Bush, in his official statements, said that it contained interesting elements, but he made it clear that he wanted to hear other viewpoints before he made up his mind. In private, he is said to have called the report “a flaming turd.”
(quote source)

The commander guy seems to like to use the word “turd”. Remember “turd blossom”? What the hell would cause him to call the report, “a flaming turd”? And why is he talking about following parts of the report’s recommendations now? Did the flame burn out? Are there times when a charred “turd” is of some value if desperation sets in?

Why Wait?

I feel frustration with this war and this administration. The frustration is like a big rubber band wrapped around my emotions and it grows tighter every day. With each report of more deaths and destruction in Iraq it squeezes more and more. Now we hear there is a plan to begin withdrawing half the troops next year. Why not do it now? Why wait until next year to begin saving our soldiers’ and Iraqis’ lives? This big rubber band can't hold together forever, the same goes for American’s emotions.

What to Read?

I am a big time book reader. I have read just about every book that has been published about this administration and this war. Lots of heavy reading and lots of concentration required for reading all these books. I’ll be jumping into Al Gore’s book in a couple of days.

See that picture above? See the blue and white umbrella? That is our umbrella and that’s where we will be once again in a about four weeks from now. We will be going on vacation again to that very spot and I do not want to sit under that umbrella on the beach and read about wars and political deception. I want to laugh out loud while I’m reading. I want to read something that’s fun. I have been stuck in war books so long that I am out of touch with fun fiction and non fiction books. Do you have a favorite fun-reading book or books that you could suggest? I really would appreciate all your suggestions. Thank you so much.

Memorial Day 2007

Remembering those who fought and died to give us what now is being taken away.

Fred’s Criteria for Choosing the Next President

How to avoid another fiasco

If you guys were wise when you choose your presidents, you would look to their resumes. That’s what large successful corporations do when they hire their CEOs. You wouldn’t ask who you would like to have a beer with and you wouldn’t look for “rock star” qualities. You wouldn’t worry about their religion, sex, or race.

Instead, you would look for the person who had the most experience and who was the most successful at their previous jobs. You would look to their record and to their abilities. You would look for the person who had the very best qualifications.

Of all the announced candidates at this time, if that were the criteria you guys used, I believe Governor Bill Richardson would be the next president of the United States.

***
Just in case you missed it, one of my fine feathered friends gave your president a small gift yesterday. Check it out here Yeah, I’m laughing like a hyena too.

Have a great weekend!
Fred the Cat

Ms Goodling’s Day

Did you watch any of Monica Goodling’s testimony yesterday? I watched most of it. And other than her confession that she stepped over the line when she broke the law, that was about all there was to come out of it. Of course breaking the law is kind of a biggie, I would think. But, she added that she “didn’t mean to”. Try that one the next time you get pulled over for speeding. Just explain to the officer that yes, you were speeding, but you didn’t mean to. I’m sure the officer will understand.

The people of Utah should be so damned embarrassed. When it was Utah Republican, Chris Cannon’s, turn to question Ms Goodling, he took the opportunity to read from the newspaper about the comments Representative Murtha’s made to a Republican representative regarding earmarks. He used his entire allotted questioning time to read the article aloud. How’s that for using ones time wisely?

The Democrats asked, for the most part, pertinent questions while the Republicans seemed to want to kiss Ms Goodling’s boo boos and make everything all better. Those mean old Democrats asked questions and expected reasonable answers. Shame on them.

One Republican, and I can’t remember which one it was, apologized to her for her being questioned, since she is a Christian. In so many words he said he feared this was the beginning of things to come.

I don’t know if he is fearful that Christians will be required to take responsibility for their acts or if he is fearful Christians will be required to explain their deeds. But apparently questioning a Christian is not good and it leads to something worse, what that is, I am not quite sure. I suppose he believed that Christians should be immune from questioning.

Pining for two pine friends

First you see the yellow sawdust at the bottom of the tree and soon you see a dead tree. The dead tree wasn’t in a fire, it was killed by some sort of wood boring beetles. Due to the stress and strain of the three hurricanes that came through our area over the past few years, our pines are being killed by these insects. Just like humans, stress can cause the trees to become vulnerable. A healthy tree would not fall victim to these beetles, but sadly an overly stressed one will. Many trees that were able to survive the actual storms are now meeting their fate this way.

The trees in the picture were in our yard and very close to our home. The one beside the dead one was showing signs that it too would die. It broke my heart that we were losing both of them. They both were cut down and removed yesterday.

I don’t know where the squirrels will go to live and play, but it won’t be in these trees and we have no other large trees in our yard. Yes, I sure did cry yesterday when the tree company arrived and the chainsaws began to buzz. These trees were a part of my outside family and I miss them.

So Damned Typical

President Carter recently said that the bush administration was the worst in our nation’s history when it came to foreign affairs.

The white house responded by saying that President Carter was becoming “increasingly irrelevant”.

So this is how this white house handles criticism, by saying that a former elderly United States president is becoming increasingly irrelevant? How Christian of them!

I happen to agree with what President Carter said. He later apologized for his comment. When will the white house apologize for theirs?

(quote source)

Minus Seven

We have seven fewer soldiers than we did. Yesterday seven more of our soldiers were killed in Iraq in this experiment we call spreading democracy. The newest part of the experiment, the “surge” didn’t work for these seven. How many more must die before reality comes before pride? How many more must we lose before it’s okay to say we lost?

Advice from Fred the Cat

Did you ever have one of those days when you just wanted to throw your paws up into the air and howl at the top of your lungs? Yeah, me too. Someone pointing a camera in my face over and over does it for me.

Seeing what has happened to your country over the past six and a half years, I’m surprised all of you aren’t throwing your own paws up into the air and howling at the top of your lungs every single day. Try it, it feels pretty good to just let it all out.

One last thought. I sneaked in and watched some of the Republican presidential debate this week. I don’t want to be rude or anything, but I swear I have covered up things in my litter box that looked better than most of those guys.

Okay, have a great weekend and don’t forget to raise those paws and howl out loud.

Sincerely,
Fred the Cat

Pathetic Republican Hopefuls

It’s amazing when you look at the present field of Republicans running for president. Is this really the best of their party? If I were a Republican I would be horribly embarrassed to show these men as the best possible leaders.

In the debate Tuesday night one expected they might whip out a ruler, then whip out something else and measure that something else to see who would be the meanest son of a bitch on earth when it comes to wars and security of our country.

Their best of the worst seems now to be McCain and with all the insane flack about his recent trip to Baghdad, he comes off like a crazy man. Visions of god knows what dance in his head.

Bless the Republicans’ hearts, they are reaching down to the bottom of the barrel for candidates and in my opinion they have come up with nothing but hot air and strange thinking people. What they have to choose from is as bad or worse than they’ve had this past six and a half years. How’s that for looking pathetic?

Growing Squirrels

Plant a peanut in a flower pot and grow your very own squirrel.

Some bloggers are posting pictures of their beautiful vegetable gardens. Sure, anyone can grow tomatoes, but can they grow squirrels? I wanted you to see my hanging basket squirrel garden. Seems to be coming along nicely, don’t you think?

Tommy Thompson and his list of excuses for being stupid

Remember during the Republicans debate when Tommy Thompson said he thought it would be okay to fire an employee just because the employee was gay? Even if you weren’t watching the debate you probably heard the rest of us gasping at that remark.

Later when asked about his answer he said he couldn’t hear the question. Then he said his hearing aid battery had died. Then even later he said he wasn’t paying attention because he had to go to the bathroom so bad.

Now here’s his latest list of reasons. “"Nobody knows that," Thompson said. "I've been very sick. I was very sick the day of the debate. I had all of the problems with the flu and bronchitis that you have, including running to the bathroom. I was just hanging on. I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom."
(Quote source)

So of all the questions asked of him that night, this one answer was the only one that was effected by his condition? Gimme a break. Probably time for Tommy to take his hat out of the ring and hang it up.

More on the Sea Turtle Nests

Because the Daytona Beach area is north of where I am, their sea turtle nesting season begins a couple of months later than it does down here. The reason for that is that the ocean water begins to warm down here earlier than it does up to the north of here. Nesting sea turtles prefer warm ocean water. As a result, there were very few nests on the beach up there during the extraordinary high tides last week. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that many of the nests down here where I am were wiped out or made non-viable by the high tides we experienced from the sub-tropical low that later became Andrea. At the time the high tides arrived here, there were approximately 125 leatherback sea turtle nests on our beaches. Forty percent of them are now gone.

The leatherback sea turtles nest here as do the loggerhead and the green sea turtles. The leatherbacks arrive and nest first then along comes the loggerheads, and later the green sea turtles arrive.

The picture you see above is of a female loggerhead sea turtle. I took it last year after she came on the beach, dug her nest, laid her eggs and covered the nest. In the picture she is returning to the ocean after her long “laborious” chore.

Damned Paparazzi

Okay, who told them where we would be?

Just teasing but kinda not. See, Mr. Pop went to north Florida to update the volunteer turtle patrol on any new or different procedures. These are people who go out on the beach very early each morning during the turtle nesting season to keep track of which species of sea turtle nested where.

Also, while we were there tropical storm Andrea did a number on the local beaches with the unusually high tides and giant waves. There may have been a heavy loss of this seasons preexisting sea turtle nests due to these conditions and the overwash of the nests.

The Orlando TV station discovered that Mr. Pop was in a nearby coastal town and called him to talk to about the beach erosion and how it would effect the turtle nests. They asked if he would meet them on the beach for an interview. As you can see by the second picture, he obliged their request. We don’t know if this interview actually aired because while it was being conducted, only a couple of miles up the beach, sadly, a surfer met his death. The waves were just too strong for the surfer to escape their power.

With the heavy smoke from all the forest fires hanging in the air, the winds from the storm ripping up the surf and the sand, and then the tragic death of the surfer, it wasn’t the trip we had envisioned.

***
Oh, the beach picture I posted on Tuesday, was a picture of the beach just a couple of miles from my home and it was taken last Sunday. Maybe what they say is true, there really is no place like home.

I bet you would do it too

If you had a chance to travel a couple of hours, stay two nights in a very old but very sweet hotel and see sights like the one above, plus have no real responsibilities until sometime on Thursday, would you take it?

I sure would and I am. I’m accompanying Mr. Pop on another business trip. Murphy is scheduled for some minor surgery and dental cleaning while he’ll be boarded at the vet’s. Fred the Cat will be there too and he’ll have two days to get the kennel workers in shape. They tell me every time they pass by him, he hisses at them, just to remind them not to mess with him.

While I’m away, think of some odor or fragrance that reminds you of your childhood. When I return I’ll tell you about an experience Mr. Pop and I had this past weekend that took us both back to those times of childhood and fun.

See you back here later this week.

No Mint Juleps this Year

In years past I have always made a big deal over the Kentucky Derby. Even though I detest animals being used for human entertainment, the Derby was given a pass.

In previous years I would fry chicken, we would make creative and fun bets on our favorite horse and of course fresh mint was purchased for the traditional and required mint juleps.

This year none of that happened. I think the primary reason was the injury and death last year of Barbaro. At that point I could no longer give the Derby its pass. Plus this year, with the war going on and the visions in my head of what parts of Iraq look like, well it just seemed wrong somehow to play make-believe on that day. Reality wouldn’t allow it.

Mr. Pop wanted to see the race so we did watch it. Just before it began the cameras were panning the people in attendance. All the lovely hats and a drink of some kind in every hand. Beautiful faces smiling and enjoying life. That’s when for a second the visions flashed in my mind. People in Iraq living and dying in miserable conditions. Soldiers being blown apart. There were also the visions of the pictures I had seen that morning of the devastation in Kansas due to tornadoes.

I don’t know if Derby day will ever be what it used to be to me, but this year, it certainly wasn’t.

Glad he isn’t of my species

Ha-ha-ha! Your president referred to himself as “commander guy” this week. Once before he referred to himself as “the decider”. So which is it? Is he the decider commander guy? Or is he the commander decider guy? This guy just kills me. What a freakin’ joke. From what I heard here at the Pop home this week, he should be called blanking veto man.

Thank the god of cats that I’m not of the species that produces such twits!

Here’s hoping you guys have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Fred the Cat aka Screen Ripper Guy (I slay me)

A Little Reminder

You still have time to shop for your favorite adult beverages and popcorn so you’ll be ready for the Republican presidential candidates debate tonight. I have a full bottle of Sapphire Gin and a brand spanking new bottle of olives. I’m ready!

Just for fun, let’s pick one of the republican candidates and ask them a question.

I might ask Rudy Giuliani, would you swear under oath that the first thought that came to you the day of Sept 11, 2001, after the attacks, was “Thank god george bush is our president”? If so, why?

Quote source here

This is the way it is

Sorry, military people. With his veto, the president says that you can’t get the money he says that you need until he gets what he wants first. So you see, your needs come second to his own selfish and personal demands. I don’t know if he cares much about the lives of you soldiers, but I’m pretty sure he hopes you will fight and die to save his legacy.

***
Oh, and in case anyone missed it, the Iraqi parliament is planning to take a couple of months off this year. Seems they need a break so perhaps July and August might be nice months for a little get away. Then in September we’ll see how that “surge” is working out.
You can read more here

Quick takes

I’ve not been on the computer too much for the last few days. Much of that time Mr. Pop was using it for work. So as not to waste my time, I have been reading Michael Isikoff's and David Corn’s book, “Hubris”. This book is about how the intelligence, along with a heaping pile of BS, were used to take our country into this war in Iraq. Time wise this is a great time for me to read this book because all of this will be fresh in my mind as I read Tenet’s new book. That’s right, I’ll read Tenet’s book so you don’t have to. See what I’ll do for a friend?

One quick thought here. Have you noticed when there is a Republican talking about the war they seem to always mention that the Democrats are just thinking about politics while the Republicans are thinking about how to bring about a victory in Iraq? Does that talking point sound like it came from Karl Rove or what?