Open Thread–6/1/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 012013
 

Yesterday there seemed to be an unwritten law: TC will get no sleep.  My plan was to catch up on sleep, but every time I fell asleep, I was awakened by a UPS delivery, an unexpected visit from a volunteer, a telephone call from my podiatrist to remind me of my appointment Monday, a phone call from my O2 provider to schedule an oxygen saturation test, and the list goes on.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:19).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Republicans are doing their best to persuade Americans that the Affordable Care Act will drive health insurance premiums so high that consumers will experience “rate shock.” That fear-provoking tale seems much less credible now that the rates proposed by health insurers for individual coverage on the new health care exchanges have been made public in several states. For the most part, the premiums will increase only slightly or even decrease for individuals and family coverage on the exchanges, electronic marketplaces in which consumers choose among a variety of plans with differing benefits and costs.

The reported rates are in states that have elected to run their own exchanges, which are set to start enrolling people in October for coverage that begins in January 2014. Many states with Republican governors have refused to set up exchanges and have left that task to the Obama administration. In 19 states where the exchanges will be entirely run by the federal government, more health insurance companies are entering the markets and injecting competition that should help hold down costs, the administration said on Thursday. Premiums are subject to many competing pressures, but, in several states, competition appears to be offsetting factors that might push rates up.

In California, officials announced last week that 13 insurers were awarded contracts to sell policies on the state’s health care exchanges next year. The companies submitted bids, which came in much lower than virtually all experts and actuaries had forecast…

When Republicans first started making this claim, before ObamaCare had even become the law, largely because of two things. First companies have to submit bids and be accepted to even offer their products on an exchange, replacing collusion with competition. And second companies are required to spend 80% of premiums collected on benefits. These pluses for US customers make Republicans all the more frantic to spread lies about ObamaCare.

From The New Yorker: In the latest scandal to rock the Obama Administration, a leading Republican congressman accused the President today of using his position to obtain free government housing for himself and his family.

According to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), Mr. Obama “has arrogantly exploited the office of President to gain access to a fifty-five-thousand-square-foot residence that could double as a museum.”

“While the average American is struggling to pay his bills, President Obama is living in a luxury home, adorned with priceless paintings and antiques as far as the eye can see,” Rep. Ryan alleged.

Additionally, the Wisconsin congressman said, the President has availed himself of “sumptuous free meals—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—all on the taxpayer’s nickel.”…

Dang! I’m sure no white Republican President would even dream of committing such a vile act! ;-)

From YouTube: Bill Maher – New Rules – 5/31/2013

 

Despite the obvious irreverent hilarity, he made an excellent point about the failure of Democrats to embrace a natural issue for us. After over 30 years, I have no desire to start using it again, but I see it as a nonviolent activity that could become a valuable source of tax revenue instead of a harmful distraction to law enforcement and a far too expensive contributor to the shameful condition that the US incarcerates the highest percentage of our citizens in the world.

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A Breath of Fresh Air

 Editorial, Politics
May 242013
 

24OSpeech

Photo credit: Rolling Stone

My expectations for Barack Obama’s speech yesterday were guarded at best, given the deficits in his transparency to date.  I was pleasantly surprised.  To begin, here is the complete video of the speech, or, if you prefer, the complete text of the speech is here.

On the use of drones, I mostly agree with him.  While innocent people have been killed in drone strikes, the odds are very high that more innocent people would be killed in a strike with conventional bombs or a ground attack by infantry.  I support requiring a court to authorize drone strikes.  I also support transferring control of drone operations from the CIA to the military.  Frankly, the CIA spends far too much effort in field operations.  The more of their resources they spend on operations, the less effective they have become at their main purpose, intelligence gathering.  That puts us all at greater risk.

On Guantanamo Bay, I think these steps are all he can do without Congress.  The prison there would have been closed years ago, had Congress not intervened to prevent it.

Chris Hayes discussed the speech with Keith Ellison (D-MN).

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

I particularly liked Obama’s willingness to give back power. I do not remember seeing any other President do so.

I found Medea Benjamin from Code Pink both rude and offensive.  Her tactics were worthy of the Republican Party.  She used a technique called piling on or dump trucking.  It involves evading honest communication with a barrage of so many different complaints and accusations that the other person cab not reasonably answer all at once.  I am very familiar with it, because it is one of the ‘criminal thinking errors’ that I teach prisoners to recognize and avoid using.  I have never seen a President stop to give a protester an opportunity to have an honest dialogue in the middle of a major speech.   She blew it! She was not interested in that, and that is a shame.

All things considered, I thought it was one of Obama’s most effective speeches ever.  How those ideas are transformed to action remains to be seen.  Of one thing we can be sure.  The Republican Party will do everything possible to sabotage his efforts.

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Open Thread–4/18/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 182013
 

I’m still sick in bed, but today’s other article was just too important not to write..

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:07 (average 5:50).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The Supreme Court’s conservatives dealt a major blow Wednesday to the ability of American federal courts to hold violators of international human rights accountable. The court declared that a 1789 law called the Alien Tort Statute does not allow foreigners to sue in American courts to seek redress “for violations of the law of nations occurring outside the United States.”

In the case at issue, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, Nigerian citizens alleged that, from 1992 to 1995, multinational oil companies working in Nigeria aided the military dictatorship that tortured and killed protesters who fought the environmental damage caused by the oil operations. These companies did business in the United States. But Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said that even where claims of atrocities “touch and concern the territory of the United States, they must do so with sufficient force” to overcome a presumption that the statute does not apply to actions outside this country.

That presumption radically revises and undermines the way the statute has been applied for a generation. It has been limited by the types of human rights abuses it covers — but not by where they take place. The effect is to greatly narrow the statute’s reach…

The vote was 5-4 with the activist fascist five, Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy goose-stepping for international criminal corporations against basic human rights.

From Think Progress: The Tucson, Arizona Police Department held a gun buyback on the anniversary of the 2011 Tucson mass shooting, with the intention of melting down the 200-plus firearms they received. But now the National Rifle Association, which vowed to put a stop to it, appears poised to get its wish. The Arizona Senate approved a measure 18-12 that prevents local municipalities from destroying the firearms, following the House’s action earlier this year.

State Sen. Rick Murphy (R) said gun buybacks “accomplish nothing other than make people feel good,” and the measure is about “protecting taxpayers.” [Reich Wingers delinked] NRA board member and lobbyist Todd Rathner made a similar claim in January that local government must sell seized or abandoned property according to state law…

What next? Will Arizona Republicans require that the weapons be sold to people who cannot pass background checks?

From Raw Story: Minnesota radio host Bob Davis last week said last Friday he would like to personally tell the families in Newtown, Connecticut whose children were murdered to “go to hell.”

On his show Davis & Emmer, which is broadcast by Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130, he attacked the families of those killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School for speaking in support of stricter gun laws.

I bet a buck that this asshole champions Batshit Bachmann! There is only one word to describe such vile lack of decency: Republican!

Cartoon:

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Folk history seems to have forgotten the latter two.

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Open Thread–4/9/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 092013
 

I had time to prepare articles today, before I leave for volunteer work in  prison.  I’m current, albeit brief, with replies.  I will get home late, having missed a sleep cycle, shortly before I would normally start researching, so I know I will be too pooped to publish tomorrow, except, maybe, for an Open Thread, and that will probably be late.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:18 (average 4:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From CNN Money: The Senate on Monday confirmed former New York federal prosecutor Mary Jo White as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

White was confirmed without a roll call vote, signaling lawmakers didn’t consider her confirmation particularly controversial…

Since Republicans did not even threaten to filibuster, I have a sneaking feeling that Obama’s choice was a bad one, and that she will be Bankster bought, not the prosecutor she once was.

From Grist: For the price of the Iraq War, the U.S. could have gotten halfway to a renewable power system…

That may sound like a hell of a lot of money, but for spending it, we’d get half our energy needs from green renewable sources. Conversely, all we really got from the Iraq war was death, injury and debt.

From Alternet: …Monsanto knows that if food producers are forced to label the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their food products, they’ll reformulate those products to meet consumer demand for GMO-free alternatives. That’s why companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Dow, along with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, last year spent more than $46 million to defeat Proposition 37, California’s GMO labeling initiative…

Whether or not GMO’s are hazardous is not the issue here. It’s much more basic than that. Consumers have a right to know what is in the food we buy, period!

Cartoon:

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Shhhhhh!  Today’s Republicans don’t want to remember this!

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An Oregonian Killed the Intelligence Authorization Act

 Politics
Nov 152012
 

I have watched the development of the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2013 with growing concern.  I recognize the need to maintain the security of properly classified information.  At the same time, I recognize the need to protect whistle blowers and those who report their discoveries of information that is improperly classified to cover up embarrassing and/or criminal acts.  The provisions in this act were so one sided as to effectively muzzle the 4th estate.  Sadly, too many Democrats, especially Diane Feinstein (D-CA), supported this measure, without considering the ramifications of putting such capacity to abuse power into the hands of future Republicans.  I am proud to report that my Senator has killed the bill.

15WydenOnce again, Senator Ron Wyden seems like one of a very small number of people in Congress actually willing to stand up against bad bills that are pushed forward with fear mongering. Earlier this year, we noted just how absolutely ridiculous it was that Senator Dianne Feinstein seemed a hell of a lot more concerned about punishing whoever blew the whistle on questionable US activities like Stuxnet, then about the questionable activities themselves. In response, she put forth some legislation that was designed to punish government whistleblowers, rather than understand why they were blowing the whistle. This bill got dumped into a key appropriations bill, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. In other words, Feinstein basically said that if we are to fund intelligence activities we have to crack down on whistleblowers. Shameful stuff.

 

Thankfully, Senator Wyden has now put a hold on the bill, noting his concern about how it would impact free speech issues, especially as it pertained to the media reporting on national security:

"I think Congress should be extremely skeptical of any anti-leaks bills that threaten to encroach upon the freedom of the press, or that would reduce access to information that the public has a right to know," Wyden said in a floor statement publicly announcing his hold. "Without transparent and informed public debate on foreign policy and national security topics, American voters would be ill-equipped to elect the policymakers who make important decisions in these areas."

… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Tech Dirt>

Photo credit: Firedog Lake

I could not be more pleased to see Oregon leading the way once again.

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Open Thread–9/6/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Sep 062012
 

I had a rough day yesterday.  The bus to my Urologist appointment was 15 minutes late, and then the driver missed my stop and dropped me 6 blocks beyond it.  While hurrying to the appointment, I stepped on the edge of the sidewalk and fell twisting my bad leg.  In addition, I severely bruised the other knee and skinned a 24in2 patch on the calf.  ARGH!  I learned that the kidney stone was an 8mm stone of the most common type.  The heat continues and is getting longer and hotter than originally forecast.  ARGH!  Nevertheless, I have one more article and it’s a big one.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:40 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: The Best Graphic You Can Share About Todd Akin And Paul Ryan Right NOW

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Do you have to ask what my choice will be?

From The Globe and Mail: Thieves say the have stolen many years of Mitt Romney’s tax records and are threatening to make them public unless the rich Republican presidential candidate – or someone else – pays $1-million in ransom.

Whether the heist is a diabolical blackmail scheme, a whole new dimension of political dirty tricks in the digital era or just a wacky bluff isn’t clear, but the stakes are very high and the Secret Service is investigating.

Do you think Willard will pay?  If the story disappears, he did.

From The Nation: Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is barnstorming the country, promising to repeal every provision of the Affordable Care Act if the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected. But a letter he wrote to the Obama administration may undermine this message.

On December 10, 2010, Ryan penned a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend a grant application for the Kenosha Community Health Center, Inc to develop a new facility in Racine, Wisconsin, an area within Ryan’s district. "The proposed new facility, the Belle City Neighborhood Health Center, will serve both the preventative and comprehensive primary health care needs of thousands of new patients of all ages who are currently without health care," Ryan wrote.

If the grant was approved, you can be sure that lying SOB told his constituents that it came from him, not Obamacare!

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