"Muncha-licious"

Today while I was busy working, my wife (who is between jobs at the moment), went to hear John Edwards speak here in Tampa. So of course, when I got home this evening I asked how it went, expecting to get details of what he said. Her first words... "He is so cute!" I know somewhere in there she said, "munchalicious" :-) Oh... kay... well, I finally did learn that Mr Edwards apparently spoke about the Kerry/Edwards plan for healthcare. OK, I guess I feel better that she could tell me what was discussed ...of course, she could have just been saying that since she knows that it's one of their big topics and I'd believe it :-)

Jeebus and Quidjibo

We've got 2 cats. One, named Jeebus, may soon have his name changed to Jabba. This bad boy weighs somewhere around 15 pounds:



At a previous apartment complex, someone had been evicted and left the kitten who became Jeebus behind. When the management found him, he was almost dead from dehydration and starvation. So we adopted him. We guess he's afraid of running out of food, 'cause he's pretty much an eating machine. We've put him on a diet, and may need to look into kitty gastric bypass :-)

The other cat, Quidjibo, is quite a bit smaller - although she has absolutely no fear. She was apparently born where there were some dogs around and used to play with the dogs, so Jeebus is just a small dog as far as she's concerned. But she is a lot smaller than Jeebus:

The other day I couldn't find Quidjibo, but I figured it out: Jeebus ate her (just check the sizes):

Republican's distancing themselves from Bush

A Reuters news story today reports that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R – Nebraska), Sen. John McCain (R – Arizona), Sen. Richard Lugar (R - Indiana), and Sen. John Kyl (R – Arizona) appeared today on news talk shows, commenting on mistakes and "incompetence" regarding the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War.

Let's think about this. If you were in an elected position, and the top person in your party was sinking deeper and deeper in approval ratings, making it clear that the public was unhappy with that individual's performance, wouldn't you want to distance yourself from that individual? It's a sorry reality that loyalties can be so fleeting, but these folks want to keep their jobs. When Bush is defeated in Novmeber, they do not want to be associated with the same discontent that leads to that defeat.

OK, that is a rather cynical take on today's comments by the senators. The other possibility is that these gentlemen are simply expressing honest dismay with the bumbling of the current administration. I concur.

Our rights diminish; still better than Saudi Arabia

An Associated Press story today begins with these disturbing words:

A Saudi court sentenced a university professor to five years in prison Sunday on charges of sowing dissent after he compared U.S. killings of Iraqi civilians to Osama bin Laden's terror attacks.

Frankly, I can see the professor's point. Colin Powell had stated before the Iraq War that the US knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, even stating how many pounds of certain materials Iraq had. Rumsfeld (who, granted, is a very confused man) went so far as to state that we knew where the weapons were! George W Bush either deliberately lied to us about the threat of Iraq, or at least was misled by his advisors and then passed that misinformation on to the American public. Regardless, we invaded Iraq, without UN approval, without proof of any threat from Iraq, without a credible reason, and now over 13,000 Iraqi civilians are dead.

Every American remembers where they were on September 11, 2001. Initially, I thought it was a hoax; nothing that terrible could possibly happen here. Then the shock sank in, and the overwhelming sadness thinking of so many families that had lost a wife, husband, child, parent in this horrible act. How is it any less terrible for Iraqi civilians to lose family members, neighbors, friends ...as casualties of a war that Kofi Annan is finally denouncing.

Given the very close ties between the Saudi royal family and the Bush royal family, it is not surprising that Saudi Arabia would not permit someone to speak words that might be disparaging to both.

Well, here in the USA, whether you agree with me or not, I am extremely grateful that I do at least still have the right to post this. In Saudi Arabia, this university professor stated his views, and is now going to be in a Saudi prison for 5 years!

Tampa Bay Blogger Fest

Tonight was the first annual Tampa Bay Blogger Fest. It is fair to say that a good time was had by all, and that there may need to be a few more gatherings before the second annual. We started out at Splitsville for drinks and BS. I'm guessing there were 20 of us or so. Click the Tampa Bay Blogs link on the left (or of course the link just before these words) to link to more of the folks' blogs. After Splitsville, several of us took the trolley to Ybor City (for those outside of Tampa, this is the part of Tampa for clubbing; many years ago it was big in the cigar industry), and hung out at the Blue Shark, listening to the very talented Cocktail Kings play an eclectic mix of blues, rock, and funk. Now it's past my bedtime, and my clothes are drenched in the smell of cigarette smoke -- it's been several years since I was playing music every weekend in the clubs, and I must say I miss some of the party atmosphere, but I definitely don't miss the smoke :-)

Thanks to all who organized this evening. You guys are the best!