Oct 032013
 

I’m writing for tomorrow, and I think I’ll start counting months, instead of days.  It’s over three now.  I really was tired after yesterday, because I overslept this morning, and now it’s almost bedtime.  Now what am I forgetting?  That’s it!  EAT!! ;-)  Fantasy players check your lineups for Thursday night’s game.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:24).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MSNBC: ObamaCare or the ACA?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

America’s big problem is that sheeple like these reproduce… and vote!!

From Raw Story: Fears were mounting Wednesday that a fight over the government’s debt ceiling will overtake the budget battle that has paralyzed Washington, threatening to trigger an unprecedented US default.

Republican lawmakers, frustrated that they have not won any concessions from Democrats over health care reform, have threatened to roll the two issues together.

That signalled [sic] not only that the government shutdown could run for two weeks, but also that there could be a battle to the brink over the borrowing limit that would frighten global markets.

Whatever damage Republicans do, caving-in to their seditious terrorism will only demonstrate to them that they can get away with doing it again. They must be taught, once and for all, that the political price they pay for anti-American behavior outweighs the benefits they hope to gain!

From Salon.com: A nuclear bomb just exploded in the world of Bitcoin libertarianism. The FBI has busted the Silk Road, the online black market emporium in which nearly anything illicit imaginable could be purchased — but only via the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, the FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht, a.k.a “Dread Pirate Roberts,” a man whom they believe to be the founder and chief operator of the site, on charges of narcotics trafficking, computer hacking, and money laundering. The criminal complaint filed by the FBI also alleges that Ulbricht solicited a “murder-for-hire” hit on another Silk Road user who was attempting to extort Ulbricht.

The complaint makes for lurid and fascinating reading, along with providing a decent tutorial on how to use the Tor anonymizing network and Bitcoin currency. If the details reported in the complaint are true, over the past several years, thousands of Silk Road users bought and sold illicit substances worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Ulbricht was reportedly arrested in possession of 26,000 Bitcoins, currently worth around $3 million.

But the most interesting aspect of the complaint has less to do with its voluminous allegations of criminal activity than its implications for cyber-libertarian dogma. Countless articles about Bitcoin, the supposedly untraceable, uncrackable digital currency, have referenced the Silk Road as an example of how the crypto-currency enabled an online marketplace that could scoff at the oppressive totalitarian attention of law enforcement or the tax man.

It was easy to tell that Bitcoin, so loved by TEAbagger extremists,  was a right wing scam. How?  That’s easy!

Cartoon:

3Cartoon

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  21 Responses to “Open Thread–10/3/2013”

  1. Thank goodness that Democrats are speaking out these days – like the Elizabeth Warren clip that I saw recently – I do hope that it is getting airtime there!  

  2. I agree with Lona – but I think it really IS too painful to see people preferring ACA to Obamacare when they are the same thing – it really makes one wonder about people! (Perhaps they would be better off giving their pets power of attorney!). As for Bitcoin – I had never heard of it before – but no surprise to hear Rush Limbaugh supporting it!

  3. That cartoon is perfect for the GOP attitude….good thing we do not negotiate with terrorists!

  4. 3:29  I fell off the bridge.

  5. I try to say ACA instead of Obamacare. In a couple of months, it'll be called RepubliCare by the right-wing when it starts working. Of course it was their idea all along!

     

  6. ~ 5:43

    America’s big problem is that sheeple like these reproduce… and vote!!

    Low information voters… All the more importance for "Birth Control"…. :mrgreen:

  7. 4:12, for me, that's good.

    Strange – I'm signed in to gravatar but it is not showing my gravatar as it usually does.  Disqus also says I am signed in. I wonder whar strangeness is going on now.

    I agree they have to lose more than they gain, but for that to happen, it has to be so.  Even if I saw any evidence that the American public is getting smarter, which I don't, we still are up against a huge get-out-the vote issue.  Progressives do not vote outside of Presidential election years.  We just lost a recall in Colorado mostly on this.  We can't afford to lose any more.  If Republicans act like this when they are losing, what will they do when they are winning?

    • Not bad at all!

      None.  You don't even have to be signed in to Gravatar.  We are.  When you use thw same email address in a comment here that you do for your Gravetar out site looks up your Gravatar.

      Amen to that.

  8. Puzzle — 3:17  I am quietly sitting on the bridge enjoying the view and trying to get my breath.  I have a bad cold that won't let me sleep or breathe!

    MSNBC — Un-freakin-believable!  With a such a lack of knowledge, how has the US managed to stay afloat 237 years?  If this is "American exceptionalism" (yes I know what American exceptionalism is) at its best, no wonder the Republicanus/Teabaggers hold the House!

    Rawstory — To me, it is aparent that the Republicanus/Teabaggers see the budget and the debt ceiling as entwined and they are treating it as a game to be won or lost.

    House Republicans’ insistence on linking the two meant no budget bill could pass the Congress, forcing the White House to shut down large parts of the federal government for lack of funds.

    But their high risk, high profile effort reaped the Republicans nothing but public opprobrium, leaving them to turn to the debt ceiling to leverage some face-saving concessions from the White House.

    Listen to Senators McTurtle and Paul talking supposedly privately in the video at this link http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/03/sen-rand-paul-were-gonna-win-this-government-shutdown/

    Senator Paul: "… we're going to win this…"  

     

    Too bad that the American people that these politicians claim to represent are the ones that will lose if the Republicanus/Teabaggers persist in their seditious actions.  What a bunch of assholes!!!

     

    Salon.com — I had heard the name `bitcoin`but knew next to nothing.  However, hearing that there is criminality behind it, hardly surprises me to hear Limbarf supporting it.

     

    Cartoon — I wonder how long before the Republicanus/Teabaggers say "I didn`t know the gun was loaded."?  I hope the Republicanus/Teabaggers end up `committing suicide`.

    • I hope you feel much better in short order.

      The vidseo there has no sound, but I heard it on MSNBC earlier.

      Amen!

      BThe bitcoin issue demonstrates why it is so impoprtant that "money" be regulated.

      Geez!  You're probably right!!

       

  9. I was proud of  the Prez and Reid today because they stood up to the republicans and called them out.  Never heard of Bitcoin, but never watch Rush, either.

    The cartoon is spot on!  

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