Open Thread–3/4/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 042012
 

Yesterday I rested, as I’m still well short of full speed.  I’m current with replies.  Today I take on the paperwork I ducked yesterday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 4:22).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Bernie Sanders On The Senate Floor Today [Thursday]: ‘What If There Were 83 Women Senators?’

 

Republicans tried to screw all of us, not just women.

From Bloomberg: President Barack Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board can’t be challenged as part of a lawsuit over requirements for businesses to inform employees of their rights, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington yesterday said the National Federation of Independent Business and other trade groups “attempted to shoehorn a challenge” to the recess appointments into a case over a rule mandating that companies notify workers of their rights to form a union.

“The court declines this invitation to take up a political dispute that is not before it,” Jackson said in her six-page ruling. She didn’t rule on whether the appointments were legal.

While this battle has just begun, at least these corporate criminals did not get away with a challenge on the cheap that was hidden within an unrelated issue.

From TribLIVE: Former [state] House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, will be sentenced on March 21 on felony charges for directing a Republican Caucus effort to use public resources for campaigns.

Perzel pleaded guilty in August to overseeing the theft of $10 million in taxpayers’ money used to buy sophisticated computer equipment and technology to gain an edge in Republican campaigns.

This his how Republicans try to maintain power through crime, at taxpayer expense, wherever fools put them in control.

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Open Thread–3/3/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 032012
 

Yesterday I rested as much as I could, but did my research and cleared a backlog od several hundred email messages.  I’m current with replies.  Today I have paperwork to do.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:29 (average 4:33).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Is The GOP All About Small Government?

3regulate

Not when it comes to your bedroom.

From Baltimore Sun: Amid cheers and camera flashes from a crush of onlookers, Gov. Martin O’Malley signed into law Thursday his bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland — legislation that raises his national profile and, advocates say, gives momentum to those pushing similar measures in three states.

Kudos to Maryland.  This is one more step toward justice.

From TPM: New Romney Plan Lowers Taxes Further On Rich, Raises On Poor

3romneys-tax-plans

Just like the the other Republican candidates, Romney wants to raise YOUR taxes.  Republicans do NOT represent YOU!

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Democrats Win on Women’s Rights

 Politics
Mar 022012
 

The Blunt Amendment was the most extreme attempt yet, at the federal level, by the Republican Party to deprive women of birth control and other health care services.  Republicans are doing their level vest to return women to the status of chattel, just like they held in the 19th century.  Fortunately Senate Democrats defeated the Blunt Amendment yesterday morning, but there were defections.

2RepWarBy a largely party-line vote, the Senate on Thursday blocked a move to exempt virtually any employer with moral objections from the Obama administration’s controversial birth control health coverage rule.

The measure, an amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway funding bill, was tabled—and therefore effectively killed—by a vote of 51 to 48.

Only one Republican Senator, Olympia Snowe of Maine voted against the measure. Three Democratic Senators supported it, Robert Casey (Pa.), Joe Manchin (W.V.), and Ben Nelson (Neb.).

The measure was among the most sweeping of several congressional efforts to broaden the current religious exemption in the birth control rule, which only fully exempts explicitly religious organizations such as churches from its requirement that worker health plans include contraceptive coverage with no out of pocket charges… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

If any of the three Democrats are yours, I hope you’ll give them a call and condemn their votes in the strongest possible terms.  As upset as I am with Casey, had he not won, former Senator Frothmeister would have that Senate seat.  Manchin is a terrible DINO, but from WV, the choices are a DINO or an extreme Koch sucker.  The worst of the three, Benedict Nelson, might as well be a Republican.  Fortunately he is retiring and Bob Kerry is campaigning to take his place.

Ed Schultz covers the story and interviews Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Terry O’Neill and Caroline Heldman.

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

The misogyny here is so extreme that it has to hurt the Republican Regime, long term.

Lawrence O’Donnell discussed the vote and the effects on Republican candidates with Alex Wagner and Chris Hayes.

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

This shows that Rmoney would be the same kind of President that Crawford Caligula was. He would do what his handlers, people like Rove and Cheney, tell him to do.

However, we can be thankful that Limbarf has not reproduced.

Every Republican in office is one Republican too many!

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Open Thread–2/26/2012

 Open Thread, Personal
Feb 262012
 

Yesterday I spent most of the day resting, but I did clean out my email.  My nether regions still have not recovered.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow I shall dress in black, mourning the missing light from the Ellipsoid Orb.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:13 (average 5:38).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Care2: The 99% Declaration and its call for a "national general assembly" in Philadelphia in July is not affiliated with or endorsed by Occupy Wall Street, and the organizers’ plans blatantly contradict OWS’ stated principles.

Kudos to Kit at Care2 for an excellent find.  Although there are parts of the declaration, with which I agree, I feel that the writers’ manner in putting this forward, as part OWS, lacked integrity.  I have said often that the 99% declaration represents only the 25 or so people, who composed it, because it had never received any endorsement from OWS.  This is the first I have learned that OWS has disclaimed and discredited it.

From MoveOn: A Past Vice President Tried To Warn Us About This A Long, Long Time Ago

26HenryWallace

How little have Wallace’s fascists changed in their transformation into today’s Republican Party.

From The Cap Times: House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan is pressuring the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History because it has archived and displayed posters from last winter’s Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on collective bargaining rights.

Ryan wants the posters removed, as do several other prominent Republicans.

The struggle for freedom by the heroic people of Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin, has a rightful place in the history of Americans rising against oppression.  Ryan can put his attempt to rewrite history where the sun never shines.

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Open Thread–2/24/2012

 Open Thread, Personal
Feb 242012
 

Yesterday I spent most of the day trying to catch up.  Although I still have the runs, they are not as severe.  I am current with replies, although I answered most collectively, rather than individually.  Tomorrow I have errands to run.

Jig Zone Puzzles (4):

Tuesday’s took me 4:06 (average 4:27).  To do it, click here.  Wednesday’s took me 3:33 (average 4:25).  To do it, click here.  Yesterday’s took me 3:57 (average 5:29).  To do it, click here.  Today it took me 3:46 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: How You Know The Republicans Are In Trouble, By Bill Maher

24maher

They must be in HUGE trouble!

From Information Week: The Obama administration Thursday announced its proposal for a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, and called on Congress to pass legislation that will allow the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to enforce the framework.

The Internet-focused bill of rights would provide consumers with a say in how their personal information gets collected and used online, require businesses to be transparent about their related data usage practices, and also compel businesses to appropriately secure people’s personal data.

I would like more, but this is both good and needed.  Count on Republican obstruction.

From Raw Story: A Wisconsin state representative who supported the state’s voter ID law is now be accused of voter fraud himself.

A YouTube video titled “Proof Of Voter Fraud In The Wisconsin State Assembly” shows Republican state Rep. Joel Kleefisch getting out of his chair to electronically cast a vote for a member who was away from the Assembly floor.

Wisconsin state Assembly rule 76 clearly says that “[o]nly the members present in the assembly chamber may vote.”

The Republican lie about dead voters in SC is now thoroughly debunked.

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

It’s all about setting up a GOP regime, where only the “right people” get to vote.

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Open Thread–2/20/2011

 Blog News, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 202012
 

Yesterday I rested as much as I could.  I’m current with replies.  I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy on Tuesday morning.  No worries.  It’s routine, because of my age.  Because of it, I’m likely to be gone for two days, so expect no more articles, until early Thursday morning.  This morning and early afternoon, I’ll sleep all I can.  This afternoon and tonight I’ll be taking the medications to purge me for the test.  I will not be able to sit on one place long enough to concentrate on anything, except for the place made of porcelain.  I’ll be up all night taking medicine.  During the test I’ll be under a twilight anesthetic, so I’m likely to he groggy afterwards, in addition to sleepy from being up all night.  By Wednesday I should be able to research again.  I am not looking forward to this at all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:39 (average 4:23).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From CBS: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum stood by comments he made Saturday opposing prenatal testing, saying it leads to selective abortions, and he said the president is "continuing" policies that encourage such abortions.

How much more invasive into privacy can these Republicans get?

From Minnesota Public Radio News: Mitt Romney returned to Salt Lake City on Saturday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Winter Games he helped lead, but the GOP presidential candidate has come under attack for urging the federal government to provide big bucks for Olympic expenses.

Republicans believe in limited government spending, but not on anything they want.

From Think Progress: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday this morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) couldn’t explain why the public rejects large parts of the Republican legislative agenda and instead blamed Democrats for opposing it.

 

Cantor is full of Santorum. This is why the public rejects their programs.  Republicans govern exclusively for the benefit of millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals. They do NOT represent YOU!

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Welcome to Brewerstan

 Politics
Feb 042012
 

It pains me to announce the demise of the state of Arizona and its replacement by the Totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Brewerstan.  It is modeled after the Totalitarian Corporate Plutocracy of Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin.  There are minor differences.  While the chief executive of Fitzwalkerstan is a Fartfuhrer, Scott Walker, Brewerstan is headed by a Death Angel, Jan Brewer, infamous for killing her subjects by defunding their scheduled transplant operations.  Here’s the Brewerstan flag and news from Brewerstan from John Nichols.

4Brewerstan

Two days after Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected Governor John Kasich’s anti-labor agenda by a sixty-one to thirty-nine margin in a statewide referendum, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker jetted to Arizona to launch the next front in the national campaign to attack union rights.

After meeting with former Vice President Dan Quayle, Walker was whisked over to the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, where he briefed a thousand Arizona conservatives on how they could attack “the big-government union bosses.”

“We need to make big, fundamental, permanent structural changes. It’s why we did what we did in Wisconsin,” declared Walker [Koch/ALEC Group delinked], who at the annual dinner of the right-wing Goldwater Institute [Koch/ALEC Group delinked] said that compromising with unions was “bogus.”

Comparing governors who have been attacking the collective-bargaining rights of public employees with the founders of the American experiment—“just like that group that gathered in Philadelphia”—Walker told his listeners: “We need to have leaders not just in Wisconsin but here in Arizona…”

If anyone missed the point, Walker said [Koch/ALEC Group delinked]: “Tonight, you might say I’m preaching to the choir with a bunch of fellow conservatives.… I preach to the choir because I want the choir to sing. So tonight I’m asking you to sing. Tell the message in Arizona and all across America that we can do things better.”

The crowd was listening.

This week, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer—fresh from pointing her finger in the face of President Obama—and her allies in the Republican-controlled state legislature announced that they would try to outdo the anti-labor initiatives of Walker and Wisconsin’s Republican legislators.

And they did so in conjunction with the very people Walker has consulted with, spoken to and urged on in November: The Goldwater Institute [Koch/ALEC Group delinked]… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Nation>

Ed Schultz provided more detail and interviewed John Nichols.

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

John Nichols has the answer. To restore Arizona, recall the Brewerstan Death Angel, Jan Brewer!

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