Friday Cat Blogging

Dick Cheney Eats Kittens (Hi, Gretel!);
American Soldiers in Afghanistan Rescue Them

I don't know about you, but I've had a tough day at Fortress Corporatatus, and I need a good healthy dose of "Awwwww.....":

Three US marine soldiers, Brian Chambers, Chris Berry and Aaron Shaw, started a mission to help bring home the kittens they have befriended while serving in Afghanistan . With generous donations from cat lovers and help from Noward Dogs animal rescue, Kiki and Keykey, two lovely ginger kitties, have successfully made it home in the US. Unfortunately 2 other cats, Simba and Ra-Ko, lost the battle against their illnesses a few weeks ago.

[snip]

Both Keykey and Kiki have arrived in the US. Kiki is currently living with Brian’s parents in Houston, Texas until he leaves the Marines and moves home. Keykey is living with Chris’ parents in Detroit, Michigan and enjoying his new family.

For soldiers who are on duty overseas, often time the only chance they get to cuddle is when they meet these stray animals. These soldiers are lonely and longing for love from their family and friends. The kitties are abandoned, lost and have nowhere to call home. When they find each other, they become best friends.

More, and photos so adorable they'll make your head explode, here.

Yes, Veterans Day....

I don't know about you, but I need this today:

More dogs welcoming their soldiers home here.

(h/t)

Dude!

Another "phony soldier" lets Rush Limbaugh have it with both barrels.

I was never much of one for military-type toughness, but after seeing Paul Hackett smeared by Rush Limbaugh as "a staff puke...padding his resume", John Murtha smeared by Rush Limbaugh as "the useful idiot of the moment", and guys like Alex of "Army of Dude", I could easily change my mind.

Send Rush Limbaugh a message

No, don't go to his web site and post a nasty comment. Show him that he can stick his "phony soldier" comment up his ass, and donate to a worthy cause at the same time.

Comments from Left Field has set up a fund drive in memory of Sgt. Yance T. Gray and Sgt. Omar Mora, two of the authors of the op-ed "As We Saw It" in the New York Times who were killed in Iraq last week. The proceeds of the fund are to be donated to Fisher House, whose mission is to build houses near military medical facilities, so the families of injured soldiers can be near them.

Sayeth Kyle Moore:

I had done a small write up of their passing, not really expecting anyone to read. I definitely didn’t expect the father in law of Yance Gray to leave a comment. As of the time of this writing, approximately 3700 men and women have died in Iraq, and while I honor all of their sacrifices deeply, none of them were personal.

None had a face, and while it’s easy to speak with indignation about not letting these fallen soldiers become a statistic, such a thing is a little more complicated in actual practice. I have never known personally a soldier who had fallen on the field of battle. I’ve not lost any family members or close friends. As much as I hate to say it, to a degree, 3700 has become just a number, a statistic.

Mr. Kenn Duncan changed that.

You say it over and over again, that these numbers have meaning, that they are fathers and sons and brothers and sisters and mothers and members of their community with best friends and people praying for their safe return, but it took the father in law of a fallen soldier to bring it home to me.

Since, I’ve read the mournful remembrances of his closest friends, and have anguished over the photograph of him standing with his lovely wife and beautiful daughter. I have spent much time over the past week or so trying to piece together the lives of Tell and Omar, and while I can never say that I was their friend, I can not feel the grief their families must still burn with, I can say that I have somehow come closer to understanding, and knowing that the world lost two great Americans, soldiers, and men that day.

Further, their conviction and courage has impressed upon me most profoundly. While still serving in the military I grew politically active and started blogging, but fearing some sort of backlash or reprimand, did so anonymously, not revealing my true name until after leaving the US Navy.

These men stood proudly by what they had to say about how they felt and what they had seen. Without reservation they attached their names to their sentiments, and sent it to THE paper of record. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.

**

You don’t have to agree with the Iraq War to support the brave men and women in our armed forces. You don’t have to agree with the politics. The way I see it, it all comes down to that oath, and what it stands for.

These soldiers took a simple oath, they stood up and said that the ideals of America were bigger than they were, and that for those ideals, they would without question sacrifice their lives.

That’s what this is all about. From one day to the next we can bicker and argue over whether a certain war is right or wrong, but at the end of it all, there must be an understanding that men and women like Sgt. Gray and Sgt. Mora, despite the partisan battles that go on back home, continue to day in and day out perform their duties as soldiers.

Remember the closing words of their OpEd, “As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.”

We as Americans have much we can stand to learn from soldiers such as Yance and Omar. Least of which is that this very same spirit of fidelity fuels not only the flame from which this country was born, but exists to this day.

More information about the fund here. Please consider donating to this fund. When Moveon.org questioned General David Petraeus' misrepresentations of the situation in Iraq, it was attacked for impugning a military official. Yet Rush Limbaugh has branded every soldier on the ground who knows what's going on as a "phony soldier." By donating to this fund, you have an opportunity to show the military what supporting America's soldiers means, and who really has their backs -- and it's not the gasbags of the right who want to keep them there until they are all dead.

It's astounding to me, baby boomer that I am, that donating to a fund in memory of fallen soldiers to help the families of the wounded could ever be a profoundly subversive act. But given how loathsome the right has become in its endless effort to try to salvage the presidency of the Sociopath-in-Chief, it has become just that.

Buh...buh....but wouldn't that be kinda, well, GAY?*

Here's the answer Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, the cemetery of which is full, to overcrowding at the post's burial ground:

Fort Riley can bury bodies on top of other bodies if family members want to share a plot, said Kohler.

That's supporting the troops, Republican-style. Bury 'em in stacks. I never thought I'd ever agree with Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback on anything, but on this one I do: fund a new cemetery. Hell, I'll hold a bake sale to fund it. If this Administration won't respect these guys while they're alive, at least let's give them their own fucking gravesite.

Sheesh.

*Yes, this is sarcasm.

(via Cookie Jill at Skippy's place.)

Military meltdown

I don't ever want to hear that blowmonkey in the White House talk about supporting the troops ever again. Because while he's living in his little fantasy world, surrounded by people under strict orders to only tell him what he wants to hear, real people are dying in Iraq for no fucking good reason:

Facts matter. They especially matter to those with some sense of responsibility at the Pentagon and in the military. That became abundantly clear when McClatchy News reported that the military won't make a single recommendation to the president on what course to pursue in Iraq. The story, detailed by my friend and VoteVets.org Vice Chairman Brandon Friedman here, has two very key quotes:

Military analysts called the move unusual for an institution that ordinarily does not air its differences in public, especially while its troops are deployed in combat.

Jeffrey White, a military analyst for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy...said it suggests that the military commanders want to be able to distance themselves from Iraq strategy by making it clear that whatever course is followed is the president's decision, not what commanders agreed on.

In short, those on the ground aren't seeing progress, and don't want to suggest a policy that would be based on the premise that progress is being made. They're not seeing progress with their eyes, and they don't see it in the statistics or facts.

The result is a Department of Defense and military that is going to speak with multiple voices. If you're a soldier on the ground, that's not what you want to hear.

And finally, yesterday the Washington Post reported that the president was going to request another $50 billion for efforts in Iraq. Today, his own Defense Secretary Robert Gates said to FOX News, via his spokesman, "That's news to me."

The president, in losing control of the war in Iraq and clinging to what he wants to see, and not the reality, now has nearly a full-scale revolt in his own military that just isn't willing to go along for the ride anymore. The GAO surely interviewed a number of people on the ground for their report and got messages that didn't support the administration. The military can't come to an agreement on what to tell the president other than that this is his problem now. And the Secretary of Defense, who has strayed from the White House message a number of times, learns of administration war funding proposals from the Washington Post.



I take no joy in seeing this happen. Our troops are the best in the world. As they are fighting and dying in 130 degree heat, they've had to look to the East to see an Iraqi government that didn't care and went on vacation. Now, they look back to the West and see their department falling apart like a neglected Pinto, because this president is stubborn.

Maybe this president doesn't care because his administration is over. But I care. And I'm going to continue to care long after this president rides off into the sunset to clear brush for the rest of his life.

The weaselly Democrats are too fucking frightened to take on this lunatic, even if it means that thousands more American families receive the knock on the door that no one wants to hear. No price in American lives is too much to pay for them to keep their jobs and not have to expend the effort to explain to the Fox Noisebots in their districts what's really going on. God knows the Republicans won't do it; they're too busy getting off -- and making money -- off of the war effort.

That leaves the military. We know that Congress won't live up to its Constitutional duty to remove this guy from office before he can do any more harm to the Constitution and to our country. We are now left with only the hope that the military will rise up and say "Enough."

A military coup -- that's what it's come to, folks. Because that's the only thing that will rescue us form the clutches of this monster.