Okay, so I missed last week’s due to being at the beach.

So here are both of them, in brand-new poses. First, the elusive Gracie, who stuck out her tummy while I was on the phone with Sarah, and who didn’t escape before I shot this picture.

Her lower belly is that pink because the fur hasn’t fully grown back yet. She nearly denuded herself earlier this year, when she was licking compulsively so much that she licked the hair right off her belly. I like it better covered in white fur. You can also see where she’s licked the fur from her tail (it’s growing back, too).

And here’s my goofy guy, in another pose guaranteed to make Snoopy tell me to put Tig on a diet.

Sorry, Snoopy, but I have a motto that’s lasted most of my cat-raising career: A fat cat is a happy cat.

Tig is very happy.

And until the vet tells me to make him diet, he’s staying this way.

I have belonged to the relatively small fraction of Israeli public opinion that believed in an independent commission of inquiry into the Lebanon war. Such a commission would have had a full authority to delve into any and all matters related to the war and to issue conclusions of a personal nature about the people at the helm. Without restrains and almost impossible to muzzle.

Were Olmert feeling secure and clean of any wrongdoings, he would have gone for such a commission - if only to remove the cloud of blames and suspicions. And what does he do? Here:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided Monday to set up two committees of inquiry into the government’s and military’s handling of the Lebanon war, rejecting both the option of a more comprehensive, independent state commission of inquiry and a government commission of inquiry.

Sorry, it does not wash. It is a dirty trick worthy of a small town mayor using a local sheriff to investigate allegations about his thievery, while sharing the spoils of the thievery with the said sheriff. As correctly stated Zeev Segal in Haaretz: The committees of inquiry are a national farce.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pulled out of his hat committees without any real foundation, lacking in public trust, just like hot balloons. Even were these to do their job properly, they would not win the confidence of the public, no matter what their findings might be.

So it is the time for the rope, tar and feathers, ladies and gentlemen. And, as the following ad that is doing its rounds over Internet, says:

Wanted in a country in the Middle East:

• President
• Prime Minister
• Minister of Defense
• Minister of Justice
• Chief of Staff
• Police commissioner.

Experience not required. Good wages.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

The reviews are in: W&M are still spreading vague charges with no evidence to back them up, and accusing Jews of controlling America. Funny, as I recall, it was American controlling Israel during the Hezbullah war (and after, and before), but hey, what do I know? I’m probably part of that nefarious lobby.

And oh yeah–W&M are accusing Israel of having lain in wait for Hezbullah to kill and kidnap her soldiers so she could start a war.

Picking up on the “attachments” lingo, Mearsheimer did mention Bolton but cited two Jews, Elliott Abrams and David Wurmser, as “the two most influential advisers on Middle East affairs in the White House. Both, he said, are ” fervent supporters of Israel.” Never mind that others in the White House, such as national security adviser Stephen Hadley, Vice President Cheney and President Bush, have been just as fervent despite the lack of “attachments.”

This line of argument could be considered a precarious one for two blue-eyed men with Germanic surnames. And, indeed, Walt seemed defensive about the charges of anti-Semitism. He cautioned that the Israel lobby “is not a cabal,” that it is “not synonymous with American Jews,” and that “there is nothing improper or illegitimate about its activities.”

But Mearsheimer made no such distinctions as he used “Jewish activists,” “major Jewish organizations” and the “Israel lobby” interchangeably. Clenching the lectern so tightly his knuckles whitened, Mearsheimer accused Israel of using the kidnapping of its soldiers by Hezbollah as a convenient excuse to attack Lebanon.

“Israel had been planning to strike at Hezbollah for months,” he asserted. “Key Israelis had briefed the administration about their intentions.”

So, where’s your proof, dude?

A questioner asked if he had any “hard evidence” for this accusation. Mearsheimer cited the “public record” and “Israeli civilian strategists,” then repeated the allegation that Israel was seeking “a cover for launching this offensive.”

Uh-huh. Now THAT’s scholarship. Wow, it’s almost like W&M are, well, bloggers. The bad kind, that is. The ones who don’t care about facts. Oh, wait. That can describe a hell of a lot of the media. But wait, it gets worse.

Before leaving for an interview with al-Jazeera, Mearsheimer accepted a button proclaiming “Walt & Mearsheimer Rock. Fight the Israel Lobby.”

“I like it,” he said, beaming.

Al Jazeera today, Stormfront tomorrow. STFU, W&M, because you crossed the line into Jew-hatred a long time ago. And now, it’s time for the Yourish.com mantra: Anti-Semites of the world, just die already.

Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for W., sent a letter to Jimmy Carter expressing his dismay at Carter’s accusations against Israel in the recent Hezbullah war.

Even after the interviewer reminded you that Israel was the first to get attacked, you charged Israel with lacking “any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon.”

As someone who served in the White House as a spokesman for a President, I am reluctant to criticize another President, but in this instance my conscience compels me to do so.

Mr. President, your words are music to Hezbollah’s ears and your message is a blow to long-term peace.

Just as you underestimated the threat of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, you underestimate the threat of radical Islam today. Your condemnation of Israel, the victim, only encourages Hezbollah, the attacker, to bide its time and attack again.

Ahmed Barakat, a member of Hezbollah’s central council, last week told the Qatari newspaper as-Watan that “Today Arab and Muslim society is reasonably certain that the defeat of Israel is possible and that the countdown to the disappearance of the Zionist entity in the region has begun. The triumph of the resistance is the beginning of the death of the Israeli enemy.”

I was raised a Democrat but I changed parties in 1982 because I believed your policies and the nuclear freeze movement invited increased Soviet militarism and adventurism. President Reagan’s military build-up and credible threat of the use of force helped bring about the demise of Communism and brought freedom and a better life to hundreds of millions in Central and Eastern Europe. It also secured a lasting peace.

Ari, you don’t get it. There’s an element you simply do not understand about Jimmy the Jew-hater: He doesn’t like Israel because there are too many Jews in it.

I no longer believe there is any other reason for his vitriol against the Jewish state. His voice fills with anger and hatred when he mentions Israel. It’s quite clear that Mel Gibson isn’t the only celebrity Jew-hater around these days.