Thursday Cat Blogging

Hurricane Rita




NOAA Storm Tracker - RITA AND PHILIPPE

British tanks smash Iraqi jail to free UK soldiers

UK tanks breach Iraq jail to free soldiers

Bombs hit pilgrim route in Iraq

Well this is either hysterical or surreal, I thought the Iraqis were their own country now! Seems like a delusion, considering a British tank can just demolish the jail without an explantion.

The Iraqi Government remains a puppet regime protected in the cushy Green Zone while Iraq slips into civil war and falls to pieces.

I am apalled people still delued themesleves in thinking the Iraqi 'war' has solved anything or that it is just and moral.

I can see that when the lustre of the 'war' has gone that the war whores will see what a terrible mistake it was, that their dear leaders won't protect them from storms or another attack on home soil. The worship of Bush and Blair will be gone and they'll go to.

Bush has proven to be a faliure at home and abroad.

I an ashamed that Blair chose to throw his lot in with the criminally incomptent Bush Junta and invovled Britain in this clusterfuck.

Shiver me timbers It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day



Arrrrrgh.

Pirates

Notable pirates

# Black Bart (Bartholomew Roberts)
# Black Bellamy (Samuel Bellamy)
# Edward Teach or Thatch, known as Blackbeard
# Jean Lafitte
# Anne Bonney
# Captain William Kidd
# Henry Morgan
# Khair ad Din
# Sextus Pompeius, a Roman general who became a pirate
# Grace O'Malley, Irish female pirate
# Mary Read

Notable privateers

# Sir Francis Drake, also British admiral; regarded by the Spanish as a pirate
# Sir Walter Ralegh, who spent little time at sea but organised many pirate expeditions. See Derek Parker, 'The Queen's Pirates', a dual biograph of Drake and Ralegh. London, Scholastic, 2004
# Hippolyte de Bouchard

My Niece Seity




You can see my photos from my cousin's wedding here

Friday Cat Blogging

Heidi and George



George





Heidi

My Beautiful Niece Seity

A Wedding

My cousin is getting married this Saturday, so I shall not be posting at all.

She is getting married in the large medieval village of Avening at the Holy Cross Church.

This will be followed by afternoon tea with toasts and wedding cake at the village hall.

The Black Tie Bash is being held at the unfinished Woodchester Mansion. Drinks are from 6pm and dinner from 7pm to be followed by dancing to jazz and Céilidh bands. The Mansion is not really for children, so its an adults only ball.

Dresses and Accessories I Will Be Wearing At The Wedding and Black Tie Bash

The Wedding and Afternoon Tea


Kaleidoscope Reversable Dress with New Look Bolero


Ann Harvey Hat


Ravel Wedges with Matching Hangbag

Black Tie Bash


Monsoon Dress with Wallis Bolero


Clarks Shoes


Accesorize Evening Bag

150 killed in Iraq attacks, Zarqawi declares war on Shiites

Scores killed in Baghdad blasts

More than 150 people have been killed in a wave of attacks targeting Shia Muslims in and around Baghdad today, with around 10 explosions rocking the city.

The deadliest attack killed more than 100 people when a minibus was blown up by a suicide bomber in a crowd of labourers in the mostly Shia-populated district of Kadhimiya.

Dozens of others, including Iraqi soldiers and police, were killed in a series of suicide bombings and shootings across the Iraqi capital. Hundreds of people have been injured.

The Sunni militant group al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the violence on a militant website.

Last throws eh Rumsfeld? Seems like the last throws have lasted a long time!

I can only conclude that the wingnuts live in a bubble world since they deny the reality of the Iraq situation.

Beyond the cushy Green Zone is a nation (and an artifical one at that) in turmoil. The violence is even spreading to the British controlled south.

Stupid people are running this 'war' and are facilitating misery and death for Iraqis and fueling the insurgency by their very presence.

Bush: 'I take responsibility'

Its nice he has accepted faliure for one, shame it won't rub off on his clusterfuck of Iraq. Still it looks like Bush is desperatly trying to cover his and his cronies ass, now if he resigned I would be impressed. As it is he still remains a sociopath.

An explanation for Bush's piss poor response is probaly that his controller Karl Rove was out last week due to suffering from Kidney Stones. Without Rove, Bush is just another trustafarian frat boy.

Bush sees New Orleans devastation

Too little and too late from the Bush Junta. Their callous indifference remains apalling, how wingers can keep making excuses for these sociopaths is beyond me.

The Ashes



A truly wonderful day, England have won the Ashes back! After 18 years we have claimed cricket's most prestigious prize

Triumphant England reclaim Ashes

Fifth Test, The Oval:
England 373 & 221-7 drew with Australia 367
England win the Ashes 2-1

Pietersen hit seven sixes to set a new Ashes record for England

Kevin Pietersen hit his first ever Test century on day five at The Oval to set up the draw England needed to win the Ashes for the first time since 1987.

Pietersen hit 158 and Ashley Giles 59 before England were bowled out for 335, leaving Australia to bat out the day.

But there were just four balls before bad light stopped play, and it took 15 minutes for a draw to be declared.

England were in trouble during the morning, losing four wickets, with two in successive balls to Glenn McGrath.

Unfucking Believable

This made me really angry...

Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina deals

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Just like in Iraq, the plum contracts will go towards the Bush Junta's business buddies, with little or no thought given to the ordinary people.

The Bush Junta is all about cronyism. Bush appoints people who have provided funds for him or who have helped him out in campaigning, these people are often unsuited to the job they are given and totally fuck everyting up like that cretin Michael Brown.

The Bush Junta rewards corruption, lying, cruelty and inffeciency.

Bush was made pRresident to make all his business friends money.

simple as that.

Meanwhile Polls keep plummenting for Bush - Newsweek: Katrina’s “Ultimate Casualty Could Be President George W. Bush”

If I have realised one thing from watching the unfolding crisis in New Orleans is that it is a sign that a country is degenerate when they fail to collect their dead.

Extra Saturday Cat Blogging

George and Heidi

Al Gore



Al Gore airlifts Katrina victims out of New Orleans

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Some information has been made public about an airlift of Katrina evacuees sponsored by former Vice President Al Gore.
Gore, who criticized the Bush administration's slow response to Katrina yesterday, still won't talk about Saturday's mission.

However, Doctor Anderson Spickard, Gore's personal physician who accompanied him on the flights, says Gore told him he wanted to do the flights because -- quote -- "he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do."

Al Gore is a far better human being than Bush can ever hope to be.

More News and Analysis on Hurricane Katrina and the After Effects

From Blame Game to Numbers Game by James Wolcott

New Orleans police hunt for dead

New Orleans continues grim search for the dead as floodwaters recede

Disaster chief loses hurricane relief role after CV allegations

Post-Katrina hand-wringing echoes earlier criticism

Friday Cat Blogging

Heidi and George





George


George is a fellow Eschaton reader



Heidi




Snugglebunny

Hurricane Katrina

Cheney called in as Bush says he will lead his own inquiry into Katrina

This is a case of a fox investigating his own disturbances at a hen house. It will be a complete whitewash.

Katrina and the End of Illusions The storm passes – or has it only just begun? by Justin Raimondo

Katrina has certanily brushed aside many illusions, namely the fact the USA is not superman and that they are unable to deal with two fronts, one in Iraq and the other in New Orleans. How far the mighty have fallen.

The Potemkin President, Part II

If there is no clear example of Bush using Hurricane Katrina for his own PR purposes you only need to read Billmon, it seems Bush asked for a couple of firemen to pose with him, obviously to make him appear 'manly' however it shows him to be a shallow vain creature. The Bush Junta only cares about image, behind the photos there is very little substance and empty rehtoric from the Bush Junta and their wingnut supporters.

Two Quotes

"Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."

--Aaron Broussard
--President, Jefferson Parrish, Louisiana

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, Emergency Management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home, and every day she called him and said, 'Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he said, 'Yeah, Momma, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday' — and she drowned on Friday night. She drowned on Friday night. Nobody's coming to get us, nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised, everybody's promised. They've had press conferences — I'm sick of the press conferences. For God's sake, shut up and send us somebody."

--Aaron Broussard
--President, Jefferson Parrish, Louisiana on NBC Meet The Press

Aaron Broussard speaks the truth. What we saw was the abandonment of a fine old city like New Orleans by a criminally incomptent Misadminstration.

Fake Cowboy Nero



Bush's response, in pictures by Kos

Hurricane fallout hurts Bush, could hurt Republicans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Katrina delivered a heavy political blow to President George W. Bush, potentially crippling his second-term domestic agenda and undermining Republican prospects in next year's congressional elections, political analysts said on Tuesday.

"There's going to be significant and long-term damage to Bush, especially because this disaster comes on the heels of a slow bleeding of his approval ratings over the past year that accelerated over the summer," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Before the hurricane struck, Bush's approval ratings had fallen to some of the lowest of his presidency -- 45 percent in Fox News and Gallup polls taken at the end of last month and 41 percent in a CBS poll. Voters were expressing growing disenchantment with the war in Iraq and high gasoline prices.

I cannot imagine the fury of Rove at the moment as he sees his pet project Bush trash his carefully created image over Hurricane Katrina.

I mean Rove can hardly smear a Hurricane.

We are seeing a total meltdown from the Bush Junta and their slavish followers.

History Lesson Part 3

The Romans would elect or name a dictator during times of Crisis.

Fabius Maximus was named dictator during the Second Punic War.

Descended from a very ancient patrician family, he probably participated in the First Punic War, although no details of his role are known. After the end of the war he rapidly advanced his political career. He served twice as consul and censor and in 218 BC he took part in the embassy to Carthage. It was Fabius who formally declared war on the city after the capture of Sagonte by Hannibal. The Senate named him dictator in 217 BC after the disaster at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in June of that year; this was unusual, as dictators were usually elected by the consuls.

The general competitiveness between Roman senators had by the 1st century BC erupted into violence and a series of military dictatorships and the repeated outbreak of civil wars helped destroy the Republic.

Another of Rome's Generals Pompey the Great was given total command in the war against the Mediterranean pirates which gave him extensive powers and control over the sea and the coasts for 50 miles inland, setting him above every military leader in the east.

As we all know Ceasar made himself dictator for life.

His assassination did little to restore the Republic and plunged it into civil war again, which ended with Octavian becoming Augutus and creating an Empire.

There is also the example of the Roman General Gaius Marius being given unprecedented power to deal with the northen threat from the Gauls.

Gaius Marius (Latin: C·MARIVS·C·F·C·N)¹ (157 BC - January 13, 86 BC) was a Roman general and politician elected to Consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of unlanded citizens and reorganizing the structure of the legions into separate cohorts.

By the time Augustus died in AD 14 many of its citizens could not recall a time before his reign. Many Romans were grateful for the peace he created and so failed to notice the graual conslidation of power under the Emperors.

They were kept entertained by bread and circuses.

While the Senate had its power curtailed.

Iraq Is Not Improving

Two British soldiers killed in Basra blast

Armed assault on Baghdad ministry

At least two Iraqi police officers have been killed and several wounded in a surprise attack by insurgents on the interior ministry building in Baghdad.

About 30 gunmen in 10 cars carried out the dawn raid using automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades.

Although Baghdad is a frequent scene of violence, attacks on heavily-guarded government buildings are very rare.

Hurricane Katrina - An American Disaster

Empty, ruined and desperate

Workers begin to retrieve bodies

Killed by Contempt by Paul Krugman

Receding floodwaters expose the dark side of America - but will anything change? Jonathan Freedland sees a country waking up to injustice and high-level incompetence

I am shocked at how a hyperpower like the USA can fail its citizens so miserably. The Bush Junta has shown it does not care for ordinary people, they have proven to be a deeply backward-looking, dishonest and cruel right-wing administration doing its best to shore up American capitalism while fulfilling some of its ideological mandate from the puritanical Right. New Orleans is suffering because of Bush's incomptence and general laziness.

Meanwhile the Bush Junta passes the blame onto the mayor Ray Nagin and the Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco despite both of them begging for help and asking for assisstance with the evactuation. Somehow the Bush Junta ignores this and starts attacking the local government.

Bush meanwhile prances around the hurricane deverstated areas looking for a bloody photo opportunity.

FEMA has proven unhelpful and in some cases obstructionist as they turn away groups like the Red Cross and prevent supplies like water and gasoline getting through.

Hurricane Katrina has laid bare the darker side of American life and the emptyness of the American dream in Bush's America. The fact inequality has never gone away, bigotry is still about and race remains a contentious question. America may well be a mighty powerful nation but it has much poverty and inequality, which has been exposed with the after effects of Hurricane Katrina

I had read certain comments on the BBC Have Your Say Section from Americans complaing the world isn't helping them, well thats a load of bollocks many nations have offered help including:

· The Ministry of Defence in London said yesterday a consignment of 500,000 military ration packs will be flown to the devastated region today. The armed forces meal boxes contain a 24-hour supply of high energy food

· Kuwait announced it was donating $500m (£270m) worth of oil products and other humanitarian aid

· President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has offered $100,000 in aid

· In Rome, a plane packed with aid was scheduled to take off last night. The military transport plane was carrying enough blankets, cots, bed supplies, inflatable dinghies, water purifiers and first aid kits to benefit about 15,000 people, said Luca Spoletini, spokesman for the Civil Protection Agency

· Australia has promised A$10m (£4m), with the bulk going to the American Red Cross

· $5m in aid has been offered by the Chinese, as well as rescue workers, including medical experts

· The Cuban president, Fidel Castro, offered to fly 1,100 doctors to Houston with 26 tonnes of medicine to treat victims

· Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers

· A German army Airbus landed in Florida on Saturday with 10 tonnes of food rations to be transported to the disaster area; a second plane loaded with emergency food rations took off yesterday and was expected to land in Pensacola, Florida, late last night with 15 tonnes of rations on board

· Japan will provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross and will provide up to $300,000 in emergency supplies if it receives requests for such assistance

· Singapore's armed forces, responding to requests by the Texas army national guard, has sent three Chinook helicopters to Fort Polk, Louisiana

· South Korea has pledged aid and is waiting for a response

· Sri Lanka will donate $25,000 to the American Red Cross

· Canada offered to help in any way it could and its navy is preparing a ship full of emergency relief supplies to be sent when a request comes

· Mexico is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas, and the Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles

· France's prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, said France was ready to offer help. "We have rescue teams based in the Caribbean and we are naturally ready to provide aid to the Americans, and that is what we have told them," he said

· The Netherlands will provide teams for inspecting dykes and for identifying victims if there is a formal request from the United States. It will also send a frigate from Curacao to New Orleans to provide emergency assistance, the government said

· Russia has offered to help with rescue efforts, but is still awaiting a reply from Washington

· Spain expects to receive a formal request to release gasoline stocks to the US and is prepared to grant it, an industry ministry spokesman said.

· In Sweden the Rescue Authority said it was on standby to supply water-purifying equipment, healthcare supplies and emergency shelters if needed

· Iran has offered to send humanitarian aid to the US even though President Bush has labelled the country part of the "axis of evil". "The victims have complained about the lack of timely assistance and we are prepared to send our contributions to the people through the Red Crescent," said Hamid Reza Asefi, a foreign ministry spokesman

· Saudi Refining, a Houston-based subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's state oil firm, Saudi Aramco, will donate $5m to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts.

Devizes Carnival

Every year my town of Devizes has a carnival, a great time for all involved. As you can see from the photos the weather was nice and dry which made for a lovely parade.

Death in Iraq

Iraqi opinion divided over constitution

Sectarian tension rises as Iraqi Shiites bury stampede dead

BAGHDAD (AFP) - One man was killed and four wounded in a drive-by shooting on two Sunni mosques as tension escalated between Iraqi Sunni and Shiite communities in the aftermath of a deadly stampede that killed nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims.

The drive-by shooting occurred early Friday in Zubair, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the mainly Shiite southern city of Basra, according to a spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, the main Sunni group.

The attack fueled fears of a new round of tit-for-tat sectarian killings between majority Shiites, who control the government, and Sunni Arabs, dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and who provide the backbone to the current insurgency.

Another day, more deaths in the clusterfuck that is Iraq, unity is breaking down bit by bit. PNAC have proven to of handled the post war Iraq in a corrupt and incomptent manner. There heads should be on a platter for their uselessness and sheer stupidity.

Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans

Explosions in New Orleans ahead of Bush visit

Amid stench of death, poor bear the brunt

Storm disaster fuels doubts over US terror plans

Bush has shown a distinct lack of leadership skills throughout the New Orleans/Hurrican Katrina disaster. He strums fucking guitars and plays golf while New Orleans suffers.

On top of that he has shown a lack of empathy and an absence of sympathy for all invovled. He is a poor excuse for a human being and has to be one of the worse American Presidents in history.

For more perspectives on the unfolding disaster check out these blogs.

Billmon has provided excellent links on where you can donate.

The politics of weather 3: the shyness of experts

New Orleans and "the politics of weather"

Friday Cat Blogging

George







Heidi