Open Thread–6/18/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
Jun 182013
 

The struggle continues into day four tomorrow.  I’m writing early, I’m here.

jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 5:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From TruthDig: You don’t need me to tell you, but it’s a whole lot tougher leading a garage band than being a superstar. What you might not have known is just how much harder.

If you want an example of growing inequality, try the rock ‘n’ roll industry. Between 1982 and 2003, the share of concert income taken home by the top 1 percent of performers more than doubled, rising from 26 percent to 56 percent. The top 5 percent collected almost 90 percent of all concert revenues…

Dang! I did not realize that I’ve been listening to InsaniTEA. :-(

From Christian Science Monitor: At the adolescent-unfriendly hour of 7:10 on this rainy spring morning in tiny Loachapoka, Ala., classes won’t start for another half hour in the public school. But already the science lab at Loachapoka High School is coming alive with the banter of 13 teens sloughing off backpacks and settling in to learn – not about chemistry or biology, but about faith…

Click through for a comprehensive and interesting article. I have no problem with using school facilities for religious purposes on the students’ own time, if and only if, those facilities are equally available to every religion, including the atheist faith. Otherwise, this practice violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

From Salon.com: Failed Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain warned attendees at the annual Faith and Freedom Conference that America is headed toward communism and socialism, and called for supporters to “take our country back” in 2014.

“This train is running full speed down the tracks towards socialism and towards communism,” Cain said, The Washington Post reports. “Yes, I said it. Before we stop it and reverse it, we got to slow it down. That’s what we do in 2014.”

Like most Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, Mr. 9-9-9 displays complete ignorance. Socialism and Communism are mutually exclusive. Under actual Communism, there is no state. It will have withered away, no longer needed. Under actual Socialism the government owns all the means of production. Neither comes even close to describing the Republican Welfare state handed down by the Bush Regime: Vulture Capitalism.

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Republicans celebrate the day by counting how many they can violate.

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Open Thread–6/17/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 172013
 

I’m writing early, as usual.  Day two is proving more difficult.  In spite of the Chantix and a 21 mg. patch, I’m Jonesing big time.  nevertheless, I remain committed.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:20 (average 4:47).  To do it. click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Virginia, has shot into the news recently over two of its former employees:  Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who has just revealed the extent of  US global spying on electronic data of ordinary citizens around the world, and James Clapper, US director of national intelligence.

Clapper has  come out vocally to condemn Snowden as a traitor to the public interest and the country, yet a review of Booz Allen’s own history suggests that the government should be investigating his former employer, rather than the whistleblower.

Clapper worked as vice-president at Booz Allen from 1997 to 1998, while Snowden  did a three-month stint at their offices in Hawaii in spring 2013 as a low-level contract employee. Both worked on intelligence contracts, which are estimated to make up almost a quarter of the company’s $5.86bn in annual income. This past weekend, Clapper condemned Snowden’s leak…

I’m going to disagree with this author, in part. Because Snowden, by his own admission has leaked US sources and methods to China regarding electronic surveillance of that nation, he should certainly be investigated, and in all probability prosecuted. However, I agree with the author that Booze Allen Hamilton should be investigated for criminal negligence, and Clapper should be fired and criminally investigated for corruption.

From Common Dreams: An interactive database allowing users to search more than 100,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore tax havens including the British Virgin Islands has gone online.

The data, part of a cache of 2.5m leaked files that has already led to a series of exposes of the offshore financial sector by the Guardian and other global media organisations, has been launched by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The ICIJ, a non-profit organisation that has analysed the files with more than 100 journalists in dozens of countries and is continuing to do so, hopes the Offshore Leaks web app will trigger further investigations and revelations by making the information more widely available.

 

This resource may be difficult to use, but I consider it an extremely valuable tool to ferret out the 1% vulture capitalists that the Republican Party represent exclusively.  Major kudos to the ICIJ!!

From Huffington Post: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) criticized President Barack Obama while speaking at the annual meeting of the Faith and Freedom Coalition Saturday, saying the United States should not intervene in Syria while he’s in office.

“Until we have a commander in chief who knows what he is doing… let Allah sort it out!” Palin told the conservative crowd, according to The Hill.

 

God forbid that I I should ever be perceived as agreeing with Blood Libel Barbie, aka Drill Baby Dingbat, aka Mooseolini. I think intervention in Syria is a mistake for different reasons, and it should be noted, the ones who are pushing hardest for it are Republicans, but Obama painted himself into a corner when he threatened increased US involvement if Assad was proven to have used chemical weapons.

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Don’t tell Republicans it’s from France, or they’ll send it back!!

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Open Thread–6/16/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 162013
 

I’m writing early, and it’s day 1.  A forecast heat wave looks like it will be far less severe than anticipated, so today will likely be the only hot day.  I have remained silent on Syria intervention, which I consider a mistake, because I’m wafting for specifics to which to respond.  For now, McConJob is still insane!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:00 (average 4:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Think Progress: One week after conceding that it underestimated the negative impact of austerity measures in Greece, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is condemning American lawmakers’ rapid turn to spending cuts. The fund’s analysts say that “an excessively rapid pace of fiscal deficit reduction” will cost the country between 1.25 and 1.75 percent points of GDP growth this year, and it now projects just 1.9 percent total growth for 2013.

The IMF notes that the wound is self-inflicted and offers three specific suggestions for salving it:

• Repeal the sequester and adopt a more balanced and gradual pace of fiscal consolidation. […]

• Raise the debt ceiling to avoid a severe shock to the United States and the global economy.

• Adopt a comprehensive and back-loaded set of measures to restore long-run fiscal sustainability. […] New revenues could be raised through a reduction in tax exemptions and deductions, as well as though the introduction of a carbon tax and a value added tax. Spending measures would need to curb the growth in public health care and pension outlays.

The report also notes that sequestration’s damage will carry on past the near future and warns that its “arbitrary reductions in education, science, and infrastructure spending could also reduce medium-term potential growth.”

From this one might think that the Republican Party is ignorant with respect to the effects of their austerity programs. Think again. They know exactly what the effects are, and it’s intentional. Sabotaging the American people is sedition.

From Raw Story: Bank of America employees regularly lied to homeowners seeking loan modifications, denied their applications for made-up reasons, and were rewarded for sending homeowners to foreclosure, according to sworn statements by former bank employees.

The employee statements were filed late last week in federal court in Boston as part of a multi-state class action suit brought on behalf of homeowners who sought to avoid foreclosure through the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) but say they had their cases botched by Bank of America.

Since the evidence is apparent, DOJ should be using it in a criminal complaint against the Banksters.

From The Hill: A recent briefing by senior intelligence officials on surveillance programs failed to attract even half of the Senate, showing the lack of enthusiasm in Congress for learning about classified security programs…

…Only 47 of 100 senators attended the 2:30 briefing, leaving dozens of chairs in the secure meeting room empty as Clapper, Alexander and other senior officials told lawmakers about classified programs to monitor millions of telephone calls and broad swaths of Internet activity. The room on the lower level of the Capitol Visitor Center is large enough to fit the entire Senate membership, according to a Senate aide.  [emphasis added]

What can I say? This is a national shame!

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Open Thread–6/14/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 142013
 

This is today’s only article, because I’m going for my quarterly surgery to remove a recurring growth on my foot.  No worries.  It’s routine.  Happy Flag day to all.  The best way to celebrate the day is to unwrap a Republican at every opportunity.  I am, once again, writing early.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MSNBC: How Republicans get war on women legislation passed.

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

Unwilling to cede the status of most fascist Reich in America to Teafuhrer McCrory and McCrorystan, the minions of Fartfuhrer Walker and Fitzwalkerstan are charging hard.

From NY Times: Deaths exceeded births among non-Hispanic white Americans for the first time in at least a century, according to new census data, a benchmark that heralds profound demographic change.

The disparity was tiny — only about 12,000 — and was more than made up by a gain of 188,000 as a result of immigration from abroad. But the decrease for the year ending July 1, 2012, coupled with the fact that a majority of births in the United States are now to Hispanic, black and Asian mothers, is further evidence that white Americans will become a minority nationwide within about three decades.

No doubt the halls of Republican Party HQ are now filled with great wailing and gnashing of teeth.

From Right Wing Watch: TPM’s Perry Stein today reports that the Virginia GOP, fresh after nominating the ultraconservative ticket of Ken Cuccinelli and E.W. Jackson, has now appointed Rev. Joe Ellison as the party’s Director of African-American Engagement.

Republican Party of Virginia chairman Pat Mullins hailed [Republican Party delinked] Ellison for his “knowledge and experience,” and Ellison said that he will help build “the future of our party” by showing black voters that they “share far more values with the Republican Party than they realize.”

As Stein notes, Ellison in 2010 announced that he is “declaring war against Planned Parenthood” and applauded televangelist Pat Robertson’s claim that Haiti was devastated by a deadly earthquake as divine retribution for making a “pact with the Devil” 200 years ago.

 

Voodoo already yet?!!? The Republican Party has goose-stepped into a state of pseudo-Christian InsaniTEA!  He’s supporting the same Pat Robertson who prophesied that God would punish Orlando, Florida with a hurricane to punish them, because Disney World had adopted a policy of non-discrimination against LGBT employees.  The next hurricane to make landfall damaged Robertson’s own Virginia Beach HQ.  God just may have a fantastic sense of humor.

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The Republican claim that this stems from our founding fathers is a lie.

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Open Thread–6/12/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 122013
 

I’m writing early again.  Yesterday my Chantix dose doubled for the first time, and today, instead of sleeping heavily, I find myself unable to sleep at all, so I’m not sure how this is going to play out tonight.

Fortunately I slept a few hours during the evening.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:41 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In the event that the U.S. government is monitoring your conversations, here are some useful phrases to insert into your phone calls, texts, or e-mails:

I think the N.S.A. is awesome.

I just reread “Nineteen Eighty-Four”—it actually has a lot of good ideas in it!

There’s no such thing as a “bad” drone.

Given the people Obama should have never appointed to run the NSA and CIA, how about this one?

I sure miss GW Bush.

From Think Progress: There has been mounting concern over the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s mandatory furloughs of National Weather Service employees amidst increasingly severe weather. As a result, NOAA has reportedly submitted a plan to Congress that would restore the jobs at the expense of its weather satellites.

This ‘pay one debt to incur another’ plan is the result of budget cuts mandated by sequestration, which severely threaten the agency’s ability to carry out its key mission by slashing $271 million from its 2013 budget, including a $50 million cut in its geostationary weather satellite program.

After the devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma and Missouri and in preparation for what’s predicted to be an extremely active hurricane season, NOAA’s acting administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan announced last week that the agency was cancelling its mandatory furloughs, but provided no details on how it would be offset.

The solution, of course, is to cut neither NOAA satellites nor NOAA employees, but to cut Republican mandated welfare for the 1%.

From Washington Post: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wants to strengthen requirements in a sweeping immigration bill that mandate that illegal immigrants learn English before earning permanent U.S. residency.

Under the current bill, immigrants would have to earn English proficiency or show they are enrolled in a language course. Rubio, a member of the bipartisan group that developed the legislation, plans to offer an amendment that would eliminate the second provision and require that undocumented immigrants be able to read, write and speak English before earning a green card.

The Senate bill allows undocumented immigrants to apply for a green card after 10 years and then apply for citizenship three years later.

Rubio is for Latinos what Clarence Thomas is for blacks.

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Open Thread–6/11/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 112013
 

I’m starting to like researching and writing earlier in the day enough that I just may make a habit of it.  I’m a little down today, because tomorrow is a volunteer day in prison, and I’m not quite up to ii yet.  I miss working to help my guys.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:12 (average 5:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: The National Security Agency moved swiftly and forcefully today to remind its employees of its longstanding zero-tolerance policy on conscience, warning that any violation of that policy would result in immediate termination.

“When you sign on to work at the N.S.A. you swear to uphold the standards of amorality and soullessness that this agency was founded upon,” said N.S.A. director General Keith B. Alexander. “Any evidence of ethics, decency, or a sense of right and wrong will not be tolerated. These things have no place in the intelligence community.”

To enforce the policy, General Alexander said that once a month all N.S.A. employees will be wired to a computer to take full inventory of what is going on in their minds: “We want to be sure they are spending their free time playing Call of Duty, not reading the Federalist Papers.”

This may be satire, but the thinking behind it is far too accurate for my comfort.

From Crooks and Liars: Mary Matalin, a Republican strategist and former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, on Sunday dismissed newly-appointed National Security Advisor Susan Rice as President Barack Obama’s "presidential pet."

 

Leave it to a mouthpiece for ChickenHawk Cheney to dehumanize a distinguished civil servant. Matalin would not have referred to Rice as a "pet" had she been white. Only on Faux Noise.

From Mother Jones: Less than half of Americans living with mental illness receive the treatment they need—a failure that lands large numbers of mentally ill people in jails, emergency rooms, and on the streets. One provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a.k.a Obamacare, would help fix the problem. Under the law, states will get hundreds of billions in federal money over the next ten years to provide health care to 2.7 million poor mentally ill people who are currently uninsured. But 17 states—including some states with among the worst mental-health programs in the country—are rejecting these funds.

Click through to see the map. I don’t have to tell you which political party controls the states that are refusing federally funded help for their mentally ill citizens, putting both them and others at risk.

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Open Thread–6/10/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 102013
 

I’m writing early again, because it is hotter than expected.  I still feel out of it, so I’m pretty sure it us the Chantix.  That should go away, but tomorrow, I double the dosage.  We’ll see about distributing links after midnight.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:19 (average 5:47). To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Reuters: Jury selection begins on Monday in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 and then famously walked free for 44 days, triggering nationwide protests and calls for his arrest.

Lawyers estimate the long-awaited trial will last four to eight weeks. Much of that time is expected to be spent picking a six-person jury that can be open-minded despite extensive publicity about some of the explosive issues, including racial profiling and self-defense, surrounding the case.

"They’re going to have a tough time picking a jury. At this point who doesn’t know who Trayvon Martin is and who George Zimmerman is," said David Weinstein, a former state prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer.

I plead guilty. Like just about every other political pundit, not to mention the racist hatemongers from the Republican Ministry of Propaganda. Faux Noise, I have written extensively about this case. To do otherwise would be to permit Republican lies to go unchallenged. But once again, we face the great flaw in the US justice system, other than judges appointed by Republicans. This jury will consist of people who have already been influenced about the case, even if they believe they have not. Many other nations impose a gag order on all criminal cases, keeping them out of the press until after the trial is complete. Networks would sell much less soap, but trials would be much more fair.  Even Zimmerman deserves a fair trial.

From Raw Story: In a statement [Goose-stepper delinked] released Saturday, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said closing the Guantanamo Bay prison facility would be a victory for terrorists.

The conservative senator warned that terrorists “would spread violent extremism from within our borders” if the the current push to close the controversial prison was successful.

“It appears to me this latest push to close GITMO is because the terrorists have begun a hunger strike,” Inhofe said. “Specifically, the far left has used this as a rallying cry to revive their continuing obsession with closing the base despite strong support from Congress to keep GITMO open. But this misses the fundamental point. Is this hunger strike not a political act designed to attempt to change American policy? My question to the far left is: if you close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay are you not letting the terrorists win?”

The reasons that the Guantanamo Bay Prison, aka the GOP Gulag, remains open have nothing to do with Barack Obama. Lets reserve getting pissed off at him for scenarios in which he deserves it, like transparency.

From Huffington Post: Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) had some harsh words for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) while speaking at an event for the Jefferson County Democratic Party in Kentucky.

"I can be really brief tonight and just say, Mitch McConnell sucks,” Yarmuth said Thursday, according to the Washington Post.

I have to admit it. I could not have described Bought Bitch Mitch better.

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Republicans want to bring back that textbook, despite this irrevocable proof of the Theory of DEVOLUTION.

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