May 182013
 

Yesterday I took several hours implementing the changes recommended, while I was in the hospital, including establishing a tentative quit date, subject to having the necessary materials, on 6/7.  I am continuing to improve.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:47 (average 4:42).  To do it. click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Congressional Republicans, not resting with the Internal Revenue Service scandal, are moving to broaden the matter to an array of tax malfeasances and “intimidation tactics” they hope will ensnare the White House.

Republican charges range from clearly questionable actions to seemingly specious allegations, and they grow by the day. On Friday, lawmakers sought to tie the I.R.S. matter to the carrying out of President Obama’s health care law, which will rely heavily on the agency.

How completely absurd! This is a Republican product, began and carried out mostly during the Bush regime, by Bush people, and continued under Obama by Bush holdovers. They want us to believe that Obamacare is to blame?!!? You can fertilize your veggies with that InsaniTEA!

From Think Progress: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expects a showdown in July over a potential second round of filibuster reform, and he’s prepared to push for a sweeping change to the minority’s ability to unilaterally obstruct judges and other nominees. According to reporting by the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, Reid “is eyeing a change to the rules that would do away with the 60-vote threshold on all judicial and executive branch nominations.” The test, according to Sargent, of whether Reid will push this reform is whether Senate Republicans lift their blockades on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, Labor Secretary nominee Tom Perez, and Environmental Protection Agency leader-in-waiting Gina McCarthy.

It’s about time that damn Nevada Leg Hound got off his arse, but why wait until July? Even more, why limit it to nominees?

From Right Wing Watch: Pete Santilli is the kind of person we normally wouldn’t cover here – an unhinged Internet ranter who exists somewhere to the crazier side of Alex Jones. Santilli’s broadcast – on which he details conspiracy theories on everything from 9/11 to Sandy Hook –  doesn’t even have Jones’ audience: he describes himself as “a radio talkshow host ready to take my show to national syndication; that is, of course, if the FCC regulated AM/FM radio stations can handle my truth & honesty.”

But in the past couple of months, Santilli has attracted two major gun activists to his show: National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent, who used the opportunity to call President Obama a Nazi, and Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt, who worked with Santilli to flesh out his theory that President Obama is raising a private army to overpower the U.S. military. Pratt, in particular, is taken remarkably seriously among the GOP – he has been partially credited with taking down a background checks measure in the Senate last month.

So, we started paying attention to Santilli, and we learned pretty quickly what Nugent and Pratt felt perfectly comfortable associating themselves with. On his show last week, Santilli went on a disgusting, violent rant [hatemonger delinked] in which he called for the entire Bush family and President Obama to be “tried, convicted and shot” for “treason” (and in George H.W. Bush’s case “involvement with his cronies in the John F. Kennedy assassination”) and for Hillary Clinton to be “tried, convicted and shot in the vagina.”

There are few names I did not call GW Bush, aka Crawford Caligula, aka Potomac Pinocchio, aka Neocon Nero, aka Texas Torquemada, etc. They provide truth through humor. I called for his arrest and incarceration, and I still do. But never once did I ever suggest employing violence against him, and I criticized those few who did. This is the level to which the NRA and the Republican Party have descended.

Cartoon:

18Cartoon

I spent many hours sweeping and sending samples to online friends all over the country.

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May 172013
 

I’m in quite a bit of pain from my bad leg, but at least I have an Open Thread today.  I’d like to share a quote from the writing of one of my guys in prison: “We cannot find peace or freedom while sowing the seeds of discord with dishonesty, intolerance, irresponsibility or disrespect.”  If only someone would teach this to the Republican leadership.  My activity here should increase gradually.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:01 (average 4:44).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: With the House set on Friday to convene the first of its hearings into the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service, the lessons learned from the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, which cost Republicans in elections in 1998, have been on display in recent days.

Listening to the hearings, I learned that the abuse, which Republicans are blaming on Obama, occurred during the Bush Regime under his appointees.  Under Obama, the same people continued the same policies.  In any event, this is clearly not a Democratic attack on Teabaggers.  If anything, it’s an attack by the 1% wings of the Republican Party to limit the power of their Tea Party storm troopers, the monster they created, and now, cannot control.

From The New Yorker: Today Speaker of the House John Boehner issued the following letter to the American people:

Dear American People,

Yesterday, your hardworking House Republicans tried, once again, and failed, once again, to repeal Obamacare. And I really thought we had a good chance this time.

That’s because we were all united in our hatred for this infernal and takes-too-long-to-read law. Every last one of us cast his vote to strike it down, from crazy little Paul Ryan to that arrogant bastard Eric Cantor.

And I wish you could have seen the faces of those freshman Republicans as they voted to repeal Obamacare—so innocent, so full of hope and wonder. As I told them yesterday, “You’ll never forget your first time.” …

Since retaking the House in 2010, Republicans have averaged 5.4 minutes out of every hour to repealing Obamacare.

From MSNBC: Deficits are shrinking at a historic pace.

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In spite of everything Republicans have done to sabotage our economy for political gain, the policies taken by Obama and the Democrats are working. The reason Republicans don’t cake is this. Everything their party does is a smokescreen for one of two Republican goals: either transfer of worth from the 99% to the 1%, or establishing a permanent regime of totalitarian Republican rule.

Cartoon:

17Cartoon

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May 152013
 

Barring completely unforeseen circumstance, I’ll be going home tomorrow afternoon.  Friday will be a sleep day, as nobody will be prodding, poking, measuring, questioning and/or sticking every 90 minutes.

On the political front,we have a couple important stories.  One is the great TEAbuggery targeting scandal.  I still can’t figure whether anyone did so with malicious intent.  Technically, a 501(c)(4) must operate exclusively to promote social welfare.  The IRS when under Bush  redefined the regulation to be primarily to promote social welfare.  The simple thing to do would be to enforce the law as written, but Republicans set it up this way so billionaires can cheat.  Chris Hayes has more.

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Finally, consider this: You have an application from a group of self-avowed activists, who have tried hard and been fairly successful at getting their candidates elected, and they call themselves a “party”.  Just maybe it could be that their primary purpose is political… ya think?

The other story is how the US Attorney, DC, under the supervision of the Asst. AG, seized AP telephone records. Let me start with what Rachel Maddow had to say.

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There are some major differences, between the Bradley Manning case and this one.  Manning’s leaks involved no ongoing operations and did not reveal sources and methods.  They certainly damaged our national hubris, but not our national security.  These  leaks,on the other hand, outed an intelligence operation in the field and exposed a double agent, who is no longer employable in that role.  Going after the leaker is justified, but they went to far.  We need a journalist shield  law, and were it not for the Republican Party, we would have it.

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May 132013
 

Yesterday was a rough day.  I had little sleep, because of wrenched leg, and severe coughing, because I’m on no water.  Doing physical therapy with a bum leg zero fun.  I want a cup of coffee!

To make matters worse, the Republicans actually have something valid, about which to bitch.

The Internal Revenue Service’s special scrutiny of small-government groups applying for tax-exempt status went beyond keyword hunts for organizations with “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names, to a more overtly ideological search for applicants seeking to “make America a better place to live” or “criticize how the country is being run,” according to part of a draft audit by the inspector general that has been given to Capitol Hill.

The head of the division on tax-exempt organizations, Lois Lerner, was briefed on the effort in June 2011, seemingly contradicting her assertion on Friday that she learned of the effort from news reports. But the audit shows that she seemed to work hard to rein in the focus on conservatives and change it to a look at any political advocacy group of any stripe…

Inserted from <NY Times>

The Republicans are being complete hypocrites.  What Democrats have does does not begin to hold a candle to Republican crimes,such as politicizing the entire federal government with campaign training, or firing seven US Attorneys, because they refused to file bogus charges against Democratic candidates, right before the election.

Nevertheless, we can’t ignore it the way Republicans would.  We are better than that, so the people responsible must be severely disciplined.

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May 122013
 

It’s a lazy day, and I’m waiting for a friend to bring a few things from home.  When released, I will be going back to the old place and will continue the hunt for a new one from there.  For now,we’re looking at a target of Thursday.

Here’s a vid from Ed Schultz’ new show:

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Ryan is practicing projection, of course: accusing us of his own shortcomings. But, if Lyin’ Ryan wants to insult us, that’s OK He insults himself more.

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May 112013
 

Yesterday I had a bit of a setback.  While doing physical therapy I reinjured my right leg, which I manage to sprain every few months.  As a result I’ve be4en in quite a bit of pain.  I worked through to do my PT today, however.  Otherwise, the relocate mele project is on hold for the weekend.

When I say the InsaniTEA in the following clip, I knew I had to pass it on.  Bear in mind tge long list of actual impeachable  crimes perpetrated by Crawford Caligula, Dead-eye ChickenHawk, and the rest of the Fourth Reich.

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This makes it crystal clear that they are deathly afraid of running against Hillary in 2016.

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May 092013
 

I’m still in a holding pattern here.  Plans may not gel as I hope, because of difficulties from my background, although a group of people here are trying to resolve it.  I’ll keep you posted.

Pack on the political front, some things just never change…

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…, such as InsaniTEA!!!

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