image credit AP

We’re still under $4 a gallon here in Arizona. $4.02 elsewhere in the U.S. Cheapest gas - Venezuela.

Venezuela, too, is a gas-guzzler’s wonderland. A gallon costs just 12 cents and consumers are snapping up SUVs even as Americans are shunning them. Thanks to long-held government subsidies and plenty of oil, Venezuelans see cheap fuel as a birthright.

Yeah, but they have to put up with Hugo Chavez. Not worth the tradeoff. I’ll keep my high gas prices and my freedom, thankyouverymuch.

More fun here for Obama, another preacher problem surfaced.

Pfleger told the Trinity congregation, “We must be honest enough to expose white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head.”

He continued: “Reverend Moss, when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don’t believe it was put on. I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine. I’m Bill’s wife. I’m white. And this is mine. I just got to get up and step into the plate.’

“And then out of nowhere came, hey, I’m Barack Obama. And she said, ‘Oh damn, where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. There’s a black man stealing my show.’”

Pfleger then mimicked Clinton crying as the audience erupted into applause and gave Pfleger’s remarks a standing ovation. Clinton has become emotional during several interviews this year, and some media commentators have questioned her sincerity.

In his sermon, Pfleger added, “She wasn’t the only one crying. There was a whole lot of white people cryin’.”

This is a preacher, Catholic priest even, this is a sermon? What in the world does it have to do with Jesus Christ which is what Christian churches should focus on? Faith? Repentence? Baptism? Confirmation? Charity? Golden rule? Service? Tithing, surely he might want to hit on that?

This is pure politics of the most hateful kind.

Oh and not surprisingly, Pfleger had praised Obama.

“Faith is key to his life, no question about it,” Pfleger told the Sun-Times. “It is central to who he is, and not just in his work in the political field, but as a man, as a black man, as a husband, as a father. … I don’t think he could easily divorce his faith from who he is.”

However, the brand of Christianity Obama and family was exposed to is Black Liberation Theology, troubling if that is what he believes. Irregardless of how he distances himself from the soundbites coming out of his preachers, he can’t escape the fact he has been influenced in a radical vein for around twenty years or so. One may indeed wonder what he would do as President.

First denying foreign assistance, now this.

Myanmar’s junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centers on Friday, apparently fearing the ‘tented villages’ might become permanent.

“It is better that they move to their homes where they are more stable,” a government official said at one camp where people had been told to clear out at short notice. “Here, they are relying on donations and it is not stable.”

What homes? Their homes were destroyed.

They had been given 20 bamboo poles and some tarpaulins to help rebuild their lives in the Irrawaddy delta, where 134,000 people were left dead or missing by Cyclone Nargis on May 2.

Oh, those homes. Imagine the fuss Hurricane Katrina victims would make if they were given a bamboo pole and tarpaulin and told, “That’s your home.” There would be outrage beyond belief.

Four weeks after the disaster, the United Nations says fewer than half of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone have received help from the government, or international or local aid groups.

And that half are being evicted. We have it so good. Next time we complain about slow response from the government or being stuck in a cramped Katrina cottage or trailer, we should remember Myanmar. It could be a lot worse.

It should be obvious that this is not the norm. In fact it has sparked some outrage in the international community.

Myanmar must stop forcing cyclone survivors to return to their shattered homes where they face more misery or even death, rights groups said on Saturday, as a U.S. official accused the junta of being “deaf and dumb” to foreign aid pleas.

…”It’s unconscionable for Burma’s generals to force cyclone victims back to their devastated homes,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“Claiming a return to ‘normalcy’ is no basis for returning people to greater misery and possible death,” he added.

I am not alone in this opinion. Equallly dumb and totally unrealistic is this assessment.

Myanmar has said the rescue and relief effort is largely over and it is focused on reconstruction, but the United Nations has said the scale of the devastation means the relief phase after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2 is likely to last six months.

More will die and their government won’t care. Goes to show you totalitarian governments care only about power and total control over the populace. Would be a lesson to us especially come election time.

Yesterday, Cece camped outside my front door, made no move to come in just let me take pics. He likes the shade by the flowers too, saw him there when I went out to get the mail few hours ago but he left shortly thereafter.

Meowza didn’t come out to play with him. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. Some days he just wants to stay in, today was not one of those days. In. Out. In. Out. Wore me out.

Least Cece stays out. He’s a good kittycat.

“Let me clarify. Out is not a voluntary decision on my part.”

It’s Friday and that means a busy weekend as the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos will be here Sunday. Submit or email your cats to FestivalChaos(at)GMail.Com.

Other weekend cat roundups: Carnival of the Cats at Kashim & Othello, Friday Ark at the Modulator always, and Weekend Cat Blogging at Bad Kitty Cats

Someone’s wanting change in the government… of Israel.

Israel’s powerful defense minister on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down amid a burgeoning corruption scandal and threatened to bring down the government if the Israeli leader does not comply.

The ultimatum was the latest in a string of career-threatening challenges that Olmert has weathered during his two years in office.

If Labor Party leader Ehud Barak carries out his promise to withdraw from Olmert’s fragile coalition, new elections could usher in a government opposed to current peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria.

And that’s a good thing. Olmert would give too much away and get nothing. Can’t have that. Wouldn’t be an Israel left if he did that. He’s given too much away already. Without talks. Without preconditions. Of course, the destruction of Israel is the goal of those Israel is negotiating with.

One of his little faults, taking money from an American. Doesn’t pay to have a foreigner finance one’s lifestyle. Methinks he needs to take lessons from Bill Clinton on how to do that.

More erudite commentary at Meryl’s. She’s better at this stuff than I am.

This is a bit much - kitty porn!

Of course, what do you expect from PETA? It was even banned from MTV, heh.

Not recommended for those under aged as content objectionable although you may see it at home even with neutered pets however without the musical accompaniment. Bazel and Meowza used to do it with Jezi. She wasn’t neutered, they were. Think they all have to be to discourage bad behavior.

Hattip WND.

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I haven’t bought gas lately, good thing too as I’d be very unhappy if I did as it has gone up.

Although prices rebounded Wednesday, investors are still contending with a growing belief that U.S. demand for gas is falling in response to prices that already average more than $4 in 11 states and the District of Columbia. The national average price of a gallon of regular gas rose 0.7 cent overnight to a new record of $3.944, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Gas prices are likely to keep rising as long as crude prices don’t collapse, analysts said. And that means prices will soon breach the psychologically important $4 level on a national basis.

$4 a gallon is significant. Wonder what it is locally. I’ll find out soon enough unfortunately. Doesn’t matter that oil is down to $129.94 a barrel from it’s high of $135.09 a barrel, gasoline prices still keep rising. Sucks.

I’m guessing as demand falls, prices will keep rising so they can keep making record profits unlike other industries that lower prices to encourage buying, pessimist I be.

WordPress is five years old today and I’ve been using it nearly that long, well four and a half years, ever since Jay convinced me to upgrade from b2. Sure has changed. I never would have imagined the plethora of plugins and all the nifty things I can do with it now.

Got over five years of posts to tag too. That might not get done thou any time soon.

They be partying. Have a happy one. I just be relaxing here.

Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos will be here next Sunday and so here’s a bad kitty cat in motion.

and nice and still.

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Making waves, opening his mouth yet again is one Jimmy Carter. Who else would push the envelope for treasonous remarks? And he said it overseas, must be the fashionable thing to do.

One month after his visit to the region spurred criticism from Israeli officials for his meeting with Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, former US president Jimmy Carter is again making waves, this time saying that Israel possesses 150 nuclear weapons.

Spurred criticism from the Bush administration too. Whether or how many nukes Israel has now is something Carter wouldn’t know but the fact he would leak another country’s classified info, it’s military secrets is unconscionable.

Providing he has actual knowledge of the existence of nukes in Israel. He could be just trying to stir up anti-Israel sentiment but as an ex-president, his comments on the subject will carry more weight than the average person.

Or not, after all it is Jimmy Carter we are talking about.

Put it this way, he comes across as a security risk not just to Israel but to the U.S.. Or a doddering old fool.

Save the Children UK conducted a most interesting study concerning U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers.

The study found a huge range of exploitation and abuse: children trading sex for food, forced sex, verbal sexual abuse, child prostitution, child pornography, sexual slavery, sexual assault and child trafficking.

The focus groups identified children as young as 6 as having been abused, although most were aged 14 to 15.

U.N. peacekeepers were identified as the most likely perpetrators by 20 of the 38 groups, although a total of 23 humanitarian, peacekeeping and security organizations were associated with sexual abuse in the three countries.

I would love to know what humanitarian groups were involved in the abuse, know who not to donate to. It’s appalling to think about, moreso if my money is involved. Don’t want to encourage criminal behavior.

As to the U.N., it’s less than useless.

Iran’s got it in spades and not in a good way either.

Using far stronger language than the past, the IAEA expressed “serious concern” that Iran is still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads and defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

The agency said it was “of the view that Iran may have additional information, in particular on high explosives testing and missile-related activities, which could shed more light on the nature of these alleged studies and which Iran should share with agency.”

Gee, who would have guessed that they might be hiding something? Nice of the IAEA to finally figure out after all this time what we already knew. I’m willing to bet Israel’s intelligence services knew way before the IAEA.

And Obama thinks he’ll get somewhere by talking to Iran, not a chance. Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the U.S. have gotten nowhere negotiating with Iran. Sanctions haven’t dissuaded Iran. What can Obama do?

Short of threatening military action, nothing will stop Iran. And maybe not even that. Now bombing Iran just might slow down their nuclear weapons program, set it back a few years. They need to think about that option. Hey, whatever works. The Israelis know bombing reactors is effective.

Well, except for the little annoyance of TinyMCE Advanced not working right (got all the buttons right but wouldn’t display til I uninstalled and reinstalled it) and Simple Tags not working despite it working on one of my sites (2.5.1 widgets worked, 2.6 bleeding froze, here froze), upgrading was flawless. I bit finally cause I wanted to use Simple Tags but it’s a no go. Darn.

I’m running 2.5.1 now.

Hmm. *thinking* So what’s the difference? I was using Fluency Admin theme on sites it didn’t work on, deactivated plugin and Simple Tags works. Plugin incompatibility. Sucks cause I like the look of Fluency Admin better than the default.

Update: Further testing on Simple Tags, on Izzy and Cece’s site, it tagged categories and there were huge number of posts tagged Kittycats which made the tag cloud look weird so I deactivated it there. It also had a feature to display tags in tag area on post.php so I can click on them and they get added. It contained numerous errors, merging some tags, adding some categories and even a web address. Deactivated it here too. Live and learn.

To all the kitties and their humans this weekend, tis the weekend of hugs at the Cat Blogosphere in memory of Bonnie Underfoot. And my kitties wanted to add theirs, well purrs and headbutts. They don’t hug so well. And here’s another pic of the elusive Bazel, this time with Meowza. More on weekend of hugs at The Meezers and Derby.

Weekend catting: Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos at Kashim & Othello ~ Carnival of the Cats at M-cats Club ~ Friday Ark at the Modulator always ~ Weekend Cat Blogging at A Byootaful Life

Me. My blog. Updated Meowza’s blog today. And the test blog again, wasn’t entirely a smooth move but the latest bleeding edge builds are enticing. I like the back end a lot especially since I use Fluency for styling the admin area.

Noticed most of the comments I’ve been getting have been moderated, fixed that little detail. I had had it set to moderate comments if one had not commented before. Me bad.

Anyway, since Akismet doesn’t let me know if I have spam, I have to keep checking to see if anything important ended up there. Easier in the upgraded version. Still, missing some crucial little details, admin stuff, the post.php page could be a bit more functional, too much scrolling down for stuff.

It just cries out for a plugin to fix it .

So, there I remain, this blog the last holdout. 2.3.3

The elusive Mr Bazel actually came outside when it wasn’t pitch dark out. Well, still dark enough I used the flashy which makes it look even darker out than it was.

Both the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos at The Catboys Realm and The Carnival of the Cats at M-cats Club will be dedicated to Bonnie Underfoot, attack tabby supreme.

Other weekend cat sightings: Friday Ark at the Modulator always Weekend Cat Blogging at A Byootaful Life

Another star of the Cat Blogosphere has gone out. Bonnie Underfoot has crossed over the rainbow bridge leaving behind many sad kitties and humans. Our hearts and hugs go out to Victor and family for their loss. This tummy pose is one of my fave pics of her. More pics here. I’m a sucker for tummy shots of the “crabby tabby.”

Both the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos at The Catboys Realm and The Carnival of the Cats at M-cats Club will be dedicated to Bonnie Underfoot, attack tabby supreme.

Other weekend cat sightings: Friday Ark at the Modulator always Weekend Cat Blogging at A Byootaful Life

Gratuitous cat pic here, gotta have one of those. Still gloomy out, no rain thou. Cats are still in.

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Nother thing about earthquakes, they are hazardous to your health especially when certain industries are located in the quake zone.

The disaster area is home to China’s chief nuclear weapons research lab in Mianyang, as well as several secretive atomic sites, but no nuclear power stations.

And you know what that means.

China has found what it termed 50 “hazardous sources of radiation” due to last week’s earthquake, a senior official said on Friday, though he insisted the situation was under control.

…”Thirty-five of the radiation sources have been recovered, and the location of another 15 has been confirmed, but they have not yet been recovered,” Wu told a news conference in Beijing.

“Three are buried in rubble and another 12 are in dangerous buildings, which staff cannot go into,” he added. “At present, tests from the scene show that there has yet to be an accidental release of radiation.”

Comforting that no accidental releases of radiation have been found, not so comforting that China has those secretive atomic sites. Who knows what weaponry they are creating.

Been a bad week for stocks and oil. I hadn’t paid it much attention earlier in the week, did notice stocks were down from it’s high last week. Just flirts with 13,000 then drops again. Depressing.

Stocks resumed their steep slide Friday as investors digested a better-than-expected home sales report that still showed continued weakness, and as traders squared their portfolios ahead of the three-day holiday weekend. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 100 points.

The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales fell 1 percent last month. That’s better than analysts’ forecast of a 1.6 percent decline, but the news was still unwelcome to a market nervous about the continuing housing slump and the impact of the rising price of oil on consumers.

Meanwhile, rising oil prices also weighed on stocks. A barrel of oil is up $1.74 at $132.55 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices are set for a third weekly gain after surging to a record $135.09 a barrel on Thursday. Investors are buying on the belief that supply can’t keep up with growing global demand from countries like China and India.

…In late morning trading, the Dow fell 142.08, or 1.13 percent, to 12,483.54.

It’s not all bad news, some companies are doing rather well despite the downturn.

Update: At the end of the day/week, things looked a bit down overall.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week down 507.17, or 3.91 percent, at 12,479.63. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished down 49.42, or 3.47 percent, at 1,375.93. The Nasdaq composite index ended the week down 84.18, or 3.33 percent, at 2,444.67.

And the day before that and probably tomorrow too cause I wasn’t, am not and won’t be feeling well, med doc prescribed has an unpleasant side effect which I had the good fortune to get and have spent the last couple days suffering appropriately. Now I know what peeps on chemotherapy must feel like. Barf.

Looking at alternative medicine now. Maybe there is something that will help that has less side effects. Less costly too.

Gotta think outside the box sometimes.

From a high of 110° Monday, it’s down to 59° today and rainy or has been for the last four hours or so. Won’t have to water. Kitties are in. Meowza went out briefly but came in when he discovered the wet.

Here’s the boys when it was dry outside, well Cece and Meowza. Bazel still won’t go out when there’s enough light to take good pics. Keefe and Klarissa don’t go out unless I’m out there and, as they don’t venture further than outside the front door, not as much fun to take pics of.

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This is bad news indeed.

Lebanon’s feuding factions reached a breakthrough deal Wednesday that ends the country’s 18-month political stalemate, but also gives the militant Hezbollah group and its allies veto over any government decision.

The deal, reached with the help of Arab mediators, was immediately praised by Iran and Syria, which back Hezbollah. But it appears certain to accelerate fears in the West over Hezbollah’s new power.

That is brain dead, giving a terrorist organization veto power over their government. Note it gives Iran and Syria power to control Lebanon via it’s puppet. And look who endorsed the deal.

In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the Lebanese deal was an “example of regional integration for achieving stability and tranquility.”

Syria also promptly endorsed the deal, with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem saying “Lebanon’s security and stability are important and vital to Syria’s security and stability.”

Well what do you know, Iran and Syria natch.

The agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, states that the factions “pledged to refrain” from taking up weapons to resolve disputes and that the “use of arms or violence is forbidden to settle political differences under any circumstances.”

How to prevent all out war, give in to the terrorists. Hmm, is that anything like appeasement? Why, yes it is. Exactly. Appeasement.

Guessing from news clips this will be Obama’s tactic for dealing with our enemies. Hey, as President, he’d meet with them, no preconditions, giving them legitimacy a la Jimmy Carter who we know is a huge embarassment to the U.S.. That’s the nicest thing I could say about Jimmy Carter.

So, now that Hezbollah won’t be using their arms against their fellow Lebanese, wonder what they will do with them. Considering what countries border Lebanon, shouldn’t be much of a stretch to figure that out.

I hadn’t been keeping track. Oil just keeps going up and up.

Crude oil shot past $132 a barrel for the first time Wednesday after the Energy Department reported a surprising decline in crude inventories last week following four straight weeks of gains. Crude rose as high as $132.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Wondered why stocks were down. That explains it. Never expected to see oil that high. Expect gasoline prices to be high for the Memorial Day holiday weekend too. Sucks.

It’s Tuesday and that means tummies. Lisa Violet has two tummies to show off. Meowza has only one.

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I knew it. When they said he had a seizure, one of the possibilities was a brain tumor. It is.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor.

Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma, they said.

Good location for a seizure too. Wonder what stage it is. Stage 4 is the worst. Peeps tend to not live long with those.

Guessing he won’t be teaming up with McCain for more disastrous legislation any time soon.

It’s 108° out, was expected to get to 110°, still too hot. We’re under a heat advisory, that means hot. Staying in or trying to.

Had to go to the doc’s. Supposed to get cognitive eval, instead he just prescribed a different medication. Saw him for all of 10 minutes, averages out slightly above $50 a minute. Pricey doc, waste of good money. Wonder how much insurance will pay. Luckily, I only got stuck for the copay but once I lose the insurance, I won’t be able to afford him. Or the med. Medicare blows.

Kitties are in. They can go out after dark when it’s cooler.

Couple bad things about earthquakes, 1. they are unpredictable and 2. they have aftershocks and a sizable one recently hit China.

The tremor, the strongest aftershock since the May 12 earthquake, hit Jiangyou city in Sichuan, Xinhua state news agency said, on the eve of three days of national mourning for the dead that now stands officially at 32,500.

The fresh tremor, which measured 5.7 in magnitude, brought down a large number of houses, damaged 235 miles of roads and six bridges, rescue authorities said late on Sunday.

They’re not done with the damage from the first quake. Stuff like this is the hardest.

Dozens of schools collapsed in the area, crushing to death thousands of children taking classes at the time. Officials pulled out more bodies from the wreckage of the local primary school in Beichuan on Sunday. Forty-one corpses were laid out in front of the school.

Just tragic and it keeps getting worse, will anyway. Not as bad as Burma thou.

Little aid has gotten through to the victims of that cyclone in Burma and just maybe Burma’s junta will allow some aid to actually reach them finally. What is it now, couple weeks.

Britain’s Asia minister said a turning point could be near on a framework to accelerate international aid to the millions needing help after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta early this month.

Than Shwe, the reclusive leader of Myanmar’s military junta, made a public appearance on Sunday for the first time in relation to the cyclone aid effort.

Aid has been trickling in for the up to 2.5 million people affected by the cyclone. Myanmar’s military rulers, suspicious of the outside world, have been reluctant to admit major foreign operations and the workers to run them.

At least our leaders don’t waste time making appearances and touring disaster areas. Even China did a better job in that respect. Why does it matter?

If the reclusive military government does not open its doors to a large-scale tsunami-style aid operation, disaster experts say Nargis’s body count could still climb dramatically.

Unacceptable in a world where aid is offered so readily by governments of other nations, NGOs and even the U.N.. I’ve already gotten hit up for aid. The NGOs don’t waste time there even thou it is unlikely it will ever reach those that need it.