Saturn’s rings are already changing:

New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn’s trademark shimmering rings, which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo’s time, have dramatically changed over the past 25 years.

Among the most surprising findings is that parts of Saturn’s innermost ring  the D ring  have grown dimmer since the Voyager spacecraft flew by the planet in 1981. A piece of the D ring also has shifted, moving 125 miles inward toward Saturn.

Scientists are blaming the changes on Global Warming.
Several activist groups have already laid the blame on the Bush administration.

In the midst of everything happening these last few years, how do you define yourself?

I look to the floor next to my desk for the answer of what I hope I am. A nice grey sheepdog.

What? A sheepdog? What do you mean by that? One of the finest blog posts I have ever read can give you the answers as to what I’m talking about. Please read the entire thing. It is long, but after reading, please think about what kind of person you are.

Of course, my sheepdog is black and white, but you get the idea…

Because everybody dies. Even liberals. And all I can say is that I believe in my heart that I would rather die for something bigger than myself than lead a life where nothing is more important than me.

This wonderful post is picking up steam, including Michele Malkin, Greyhawk, and Ghost of a Flea!

OK, now it appears that the Mayor of New Orleans is officially a complete and utter dumbass.

New Orleans, Louisiana (AHN) - Apparently suffering from stress and a bit of paranoia, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin tells CNN Saturday night that he believes the CIA will “wipe him out” after his criticism of President Bush and the Federal Government in response to Hurricane Katrina.

Mayor Nagin seemed to have calmed down after meeting with President Bush for two hours on Friday but became stressed again over the current situation still unfolding in his city.

The Mayor has come under serious scrutiny and criticism in the last 72 hours after photos of parking lots filled with school buses that were sitting in a foot of water were released on the Internet. Many critics of the Mayor and Gov. Blanco say the buses could have saved an estimated 20,000 people if they had been used for emergency evacuations which President Bush had declared two days before Katrina hit.

Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, CNN reports Saturday night. Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday, “The gear has not been moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it.”

A federal official says the department’s Office for Domestic Preparedness reminded the Louisiana and Mississippi Governors’ offices about the stockpiles on Wednesday and Thursday, but neither governor had requested it.

The CIA is gonna wipe you out? WTF, are you some idiot rap singer? I’d say you’re in line to ride the short bus, but wait, they’re all sitting in parking lots around town.
OK, it is now official. I won’t give a damn penny to New Orleans.*
There, I’ve said it.
They don’t deserve any of it, because believe it or not all you people begging for the nanny government to wipe your asses, they voted for the people responsible for the mess they are in. The way this country works is that responsibility for the preparation and evacuation is solely on the heads of the local officials up to and including the governor. The federals are only there to assist.
For those who still don’t know, the feds cannot do a damn thing until the local officials request help.
No troops.
No food.
No aid.
They sit there waiting and waiting, until requested. Thats how the system works.
Any normal governor/mayor would quickly ask for the aid, and it would be there. But no. They were playing political games with everyone’s lives down there.

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. “Quite frankly, if they’d been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,” said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

See? The Democratic leadership of Lousiana was already in the blame game. They were too busy grabbing every microphone they could to say that the Feds screwed the pooch, and that they were saints trying to hold back the flood waters like Moses himself!

Arrgggh, thanks to Pirate Cove for getting me all fired up this morning!
Others who essentiall agree include The Queen of All Evil…

* There are many other areas hit that didn’t resort to cannibalizing on eachother, such as Biloxi, where I’m glad to send money and aid to.

Thx to TexasBestGrok

Law's Game Style
created with QuizFarm.comThanks to AnarchAngel…

Thanks to VodkaPundit for this ammunition.

The “it’s all Bush’s fault” meme has obviously taken hold in the land of the moonbats. I can only chuckle wryly in anticipation of the hoops they’ll have to jump through to explain away this:

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
That's an AP story from August 28, the day before Katrina made landfall.

Now, the big question is of course, is who deserves the blame? I’d say a bit of everyone involved. The President should have made sure the beaurocracy was better prepared than it was. Congress for passing pork over and over and over and over again. And over and over and over. The governor of Lousiana because federalism says she is the first to be responsible for everything in the state and for crying on TV. People needed a governor not a mother. The mayor for not being prepared and letting school buses sit in a giant parking lot instead of using them to evacuate the people that needed it the most. The first responders who wouldn’t take charge of the situation.
And most of all, the voters of New Orleans for the last 50 years. That is what voting in corrupt Democratic leadership generation after generation will give you. They voted for government welfare, so no money or time was spent on what has become their Achille’s heel.
I’ve been to New Orleans. I helped set up a free medical clinic just off of Bourbon street. Just a few blocks, and we had to have armed guards to keep people from coming in and stealing stuff. Someone was shooting off of the top of a building just a block farther down. People were animals down there in normal times. I don’t expect much difference.
We were talking earlier about our predictions of the city. Of course, all these are generalizations.
The middle class, with stable families, have evacuated themselves around the country to stay with their relatives. They will stay a few weeks, get jobs, buy a new home, get the kids in school, and stay where they are at.
The lower class, who have been evacuated to football fields, have no where to go. They have no extended family, no outside support structure, and in a few months, will be bussed back into a cleaned up but not rebuilt New Orleans. There will be lots of construction jobs for a few years, but that will dry up, because the people who have any money will not return. Once the federal dollars are gone, so will be everything else. The middle class, which is needed to keep the city running, will never return in many numbers, since now they know exactly what will happen should any emergency arise. The city will fall apart into looting, rape, and murder. Who in their right mind would take that chance with their families?

This is simply sad…SimplyForums: The Simply Hired Message Board - Fired for eating pizza?

I had been working for a mortgage company as a developer for 18 months and things were going well. Then, one day I saw that a different group in my company had just finished up a pot-luck and had some pizza left over. I thought they would probably end up throwing it away and I was kind of hungry so I went for it … I took a slice of pizza.

Uh-oh… you took some whiney bastard’s pizza. So what happens next? Fired.

I needed to go to the DMV this morning to get my driver’s license renewed.  I haven’t set foot in that place in 5 years… and it actually took me back a bit.  You always hear stories about how the people at the DMV are rude and angry.  It wasn’t like that at all.  Everyone was nice!  All the people were doing their jobs happily.  The place was laid out very instinctively and was very well organized.  Plus… all of the customers were content to wait their turns.  Everyone was friendly… it was great!

Except for one guy…

There were 2 camera stations setup for taking your photos.  Station A had a broken signature pad (which is the little LCD display looking thing that you sign to transfer your signature onto your license).  Meanwhile, Station B was apparently suffering from a terminal case of BSOD.

Sitting in front of Station B was a young gentleman (significantly younger than myself) who had a very frazzled look about him.  He looked tense… he was muttering under his breath… the veins in his forehead were throbbing… and he would occasionally utter obscenities at the flat panel in front of him.

I spoke to the clerk behind the counter to get more details.  He told me that they were having trouble with the camera machines and that the "computer guy" was trying to fix it.  My only response was… "Oh, phuck… this could take hours."

He finally calmed down when an idea finally struck him.  He moved the working signature pad from Station B and plugged it into the working computer at Station A.  He was very enthusiastic that "it was working!!!"

Kids today…