Open Thread–5/21/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 212013
 

Yesterday I caught up on sleep.  Thoughts and prayers to all caught up in the Oklahoma maelstrom.  Since the area is solidly red, I trust aid should be forthcoming without objection.  I only hope that Wayne LaPierre does not crawl out of the woodwork, raving that every American has the right to own a tornado.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:02 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Even as Apple became the nation’s most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen, Congressional investigators disclosed on Monday.

The investigation is expected to set up a potentially explosive confrontation between a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, at a public hearing on Tuesday…

This is wha1 I call vulture capitalism. Instead of making THEM pay, Republicans are trying to raise YOUR taxes.

 From Alternet: A woman died on a courthouse floor because Alabama sheriff’s deputies refused to give her her medicine – after arresting her for an old traffic ticket, the woman’s daughter claims in court… [emphasis added]

The cruelty this woman endured is what the Republican Party proscribes for the poor, the RepubliCare death benefit.

From Daily Kos: The media and Republicans may be screeching about President Barack Obama’s scandals, but the American people are seeing through the bullshit.

CNN reported on Sunday that 53% of people questioned in the survey said they approve of the job the president is doing, with 45% saying they disapprove. The president’s approval rating was at 51% in CNN’s previous poll, from early April. The two point rise was well within the survey’s sampling error.

The new numbers indicate that Obama remains popular, with 79% of Americans saying the president is likable.

But it’s not just Obama. The Democratic Party went from a 46-48 favorable-unfavorable rating a month ago, to 52-43 in this latest poll. That’s a net gain of 11 points.

As for impeachment-screeching Republicans? They’re DOWN a net eight points from 38-54 a month ago, to 35-59 this week…

Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me twice? Shame on me. Fool me 500 times? Even some sheeple aren’t THAT stupid!

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Open Thread–4/20/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 202013
 

I wish I had some good personal news, but yesterday my COPD was very severe.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:02 (average 4:50).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NBC: The arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ended the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers, but it set in motion an equally intense phase of the case that will begin with the grilling of the man who – for now at least – is the only surviving suspect.

An indication of the complex investigation ahead came Friday night, when an Obama administration official told NBC News that Tsarnaev would not be given a Miranda warning when he is physically able to be interrogated after receiving medical treatment.

Instead, the official said, the government will invoke a legal rule known as the "public safety exception," which will enable investigators to question Tsarnaev without first advising him of his right to remain silent and to be afforded legal counsel.

 

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

Republicans are screaming to try Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant, stripping him of virtually all rights afforded criminal suspects by the Constitution. Using the Public Safety Exception is also wrong. The worst domestic terrorist in US history, Timothy McVeigh, whom Republicans have celebrated by scheduling Open Carry events on an anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, was read his Miranda Rights, as is the right thing to do. So should Tsarnaev. As for Republican military tribunals, considering their almost universal record of failure, as opposed to civilian courts’ universal record of success, when trying terrorism suspects, I’m glad DOJ is defying the Republican Party and going the civilian court route.

From Think Progress:

Three times in American history, the loser of the national popular vote became President of the United States — most recently when George W. Bush entered the White House with an assist from his fellow conservatives on the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, even in elections where the American people ultimately see their choice become president, candidates focus their efforts on just a handful of key swing states — Ohio, Florida, Colorado, etc. — while largely ignoring most of the country. If a plan passed by the Oregon House yesterday becomes sufficiently widespread, however, these practices will end and future presidents will be determined solely according to the will of the voters:

The legislation would require Oregon to cast its seven Electoral College ballots for the candidate who wins the national vote, rather than the one who gets the most votes in Oregon.

It would take effect only if a compact is enacted in states with a majority in the electoral college.

Nine states with 132 electoral votes have enacted it, about half of the 270 needed to win the presidency.

In addition to preventing incidents like the 2000 election, where the loser of the popular vote becomes the winner of the only vote that matters, this National Popular Vote plan would also prevent Republicans from enacting two plans they’ve proposed to rig the Electoral College.

This is the plan I’ve supported for years, because it makes all states and all voters equal.  For more info visit National Popular Vote.  Kudos to Oregon.

From Bill Moyers Journal: Biologist, mother and activist Sandra Steingraber joins Bill to talk about the need to build awareness about toxins that contaminate our air, water and food — and threaten our children’s health. With government captured by the very industries it’s supposed to regulate, Steingraber says she’s lost patience with politicians and corporations, and the time for direct action is now.

Steingraber also talks to Bill about her arrest for illegally blocking the driveway of a natural gas company as part of a protest against the controversial energy extraction process known as fracking. Steingraber went to jail on April 17, the day after this conversation was taped. She is currently serving a 15-day sentence.

 

What more can I say? These polluters need to shut the frack up and stop fracking!

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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!

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Folk history seems to have forgotten the latter two.

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Open Thread–4/3/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 032013
 

I seem to be back on the mend and expect to be back to full time by the weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:57 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: With two same-sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court, numerous commentators have latched on to remarks by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg critical of the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. It is not the judgment that was wrong, but “it moved too far, too fast,” she said at Columbia Law School last year, a view she has expressed in various speeches and law review articles. As one of the court’s moderate liberals and a champion of women’s rights, she is now being routinely cited to argue for a timid resolution on the issue of same-sex marriage that would strike down California’s ban on such marriages, but would leave prohibitions standing in about 40 other states.

How Justice Ginsburg will vote on same-sex marriage is unknown. But her comments misread the legal and political landscape at the time of the Roe decision and have been used to bolster the inaccurate notion that the court’s ruling on abortion rights somehow short-circuited a political process that was moving in the states to end criminalization of abortion. Some now argue that a toxic multidecade backlash against abortion rights could have been avoided if the court had given states more time to act — supposedly a cautionary lesson for marriage equality.

The real story, as explained by Linda Greenhouse, a former New York Times reporter who now teaches at Yale Law School, and Reva Siegel, a professor there, is that political conflict over abortion was escalating before the Roe decision, and that state progress on decriminalization had reached a standstill in the face of opposition from the Roman Catholic Church…

I seldom disagree with Justice Ginsburg, but in this case I do. In Roe v Wade, SCOTUS made a correct and timely decision, because church intrusion into state affairs was keeping from women a basic human and Constitutional right. In like manner, the Court should not condone religious intrusion into state affairs that is keeping from LGBT couples a basic human and Constitutional right. Moving "too far, too fast" in the right direction is NEVER the issue.

From Alternet: A Texas sheriff threw two Latino men into jail for 39 days "with no charges, no hearing, and no probable cause" and seized the $14,000 they had saved up to buy a new car, the men claim in Federal Court.

     Roberto Moreno-Gutierrez and Jaime Moreno-Gutierrez sued Hill County, the Hill County Sheriff’s Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, in Federal Court. Hill County, whose seat is Hillsboro, is between Waco and Dallas…

To understand the absurdity and bigotry of this injustice, you’ll need to click through for the rest of the article. Of course, the responsible official, Hill County Sheriff Michael Cox, is a Republican.

From Crooks and Liars: The city of Stockton, California officially went bankrupt yesterday. Instead of concern for what that might mean for its residents in terms of services and their quality of life, Fox predictably focused on one thing: public pensions. And, instead of doing any kind of real analysis of the pension issues, or delving into the pushy behavior of the Wall Street creditors, Stuart Varney suggested the whole problem is due to slacker public employees living high on the hog for decades after just a brief stint of work. He looked forward to pensioners taking the hit and expressed hope that the same would happen in other California cities, too…

…And how many of those pensioners have worked for decades educating and protecting the public based on the promise of a comfortable retirement? While retiring at 50 may seem young to the 60ish Varney, I’d like to see him start hauling firefighter equipment and running into burning buildings before he sneers about retirement ages again…

 

I stopped volunteering as a firefighter by 50, because I was becoming a drag on the youngsters, and unlike the pros, I didn’t even have to do it every day. Like the party that the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda serves, Varny concerns himself only with taking away what working people have earned.

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Open Thread-2/20/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 202013
 

I’m still running on a sleep deficit, because I spent much of yesterday helping my techno-phobic friend with Quicken.  Nevertheless, I have three articles today.  Tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s tool me 3:57 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: This Hidden Camera Footage Of A Gay Couple In Texas Will Shock You

 

Frankly, I am very pleasantly surprised at the reaction in Texas, but not that New Yorkers did not speak up.

From NY Times: In a deeply worrisome move, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a new campaign finance lawsuit that challenges long-established federal caps on the total amount an individual can contribute to federal campaigns in a two-year cycle. In a ruling last year, a special court in Washington correctly upheld those limits, which in some form have been included in federal law since 1974.

If the justices were to overturn that decision, it would be the first time that the court has struck down a contribution limit as unconstitutional. That would eliminate an essential tool in combating the corrupting effects of money in politics.

ARGH! I am troubled that the Fascist Five are about to ignore the Constitution and screw America with Citizens United, Jr. Money is NOT speech!

From CNN: With more than 20 months to go before the midterm congressional elections, incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell's team is already attacking Democrats for not yet fielding a candidate to challenge the Senate minority leader.

Bought Bitch Mitch is scared, because 55% of Kentuckians disapprove of him, making him the most unpopular Senator in his/her own state.

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Shhhh!  Don’t tell the Republicans!  They haven’t learned this on only 203 years.

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Open Thread–1/14/2012

 Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics
Jan 142013
 

Today I go to the doctor.  It is a hardship, because I will have to leave before 8:00 AM to make it to a 10:00 AM appointment.  In addition, On the way home I’ll have to stand for up to 40 minutes in 33° weather at a bus stop with no shelter.  I hate going since she moved, but she’s been my doctor for so many years, that I have her trained in how my body works.  Training a new one could take years, so I’ll keep her.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow I’m likely to be tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:57 (average 5:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Public Service:

We can thank Nameless for alerting us yesterday that Java has a serious security flaw, sufficient to warrant disabling it.  Oracle has now released a patched version that fixes the defect.  I used Revo Uninstaller (free) to remove all traces of the old Java from my computer before installing the new Java, and recommend that you do likewise.  You can download the new version of Java here.

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: WELL PLAYED: This Red Lobster Spoof Begs You To Ask Yourself An Important Question

 

That any American workers are forced to endure such conditions is shameful. That this is the Republican goal for the majority of Americans is criminal.

From NY Times: The 14th Amendment states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States… shall not be questioned.’’ If the debt ceiling were to prevent the president from borrowing enough to cover legally required spending, the resulting default might prevent payments on the debt from being made as required, clearly bringing the validity of the debt into question. Even so, the White House has said the president will not override the debt ceiling by relying on that provision…

…Republicans believe, and the President seems to agree, that his only choice would be to cut spending, rather than raising taxes or issuing debt. That is simply wrong. Consider what cutting spending means. Different members of Congress have voted to approve a balance of spending, setting priorities for medical spending, military spending, infrastructure spending, anti-poverty measures, and so on. If the president were to cut spending, he would be doing what the Constitution (and the Supreme Court) says that only Congress can do: decide how much money to spend (no more and no less), and for what.

We know that the president cannot simply enact across-the-board cuts. He will be forced to fully fund “emergency operations” of the federal government. To protect the government’s credit rating from further damage, he would almost certainly pay principal and interest in full on all bonds. The spending cuts, therefore, would have to come elsewhere. Nothing in the law gives the president guidance on how to make those decisions, because Congress expressed its priorities in the spending bills that it passed (but now will not finance).

Issuing more debt, on the other hand, is both modest and easily reversible. The president would not be upsetting Congress’s spending and taxing priorities, but would instruct Treasury to sell securities, as it always does. If, in its next budget, Congress wants to reduce the debt, it can do so. Until then, the president must do the least damage, and that is by issuing enough debt to tax and spend as Congress ordered him to do.

This is the most powerful argument I have seen to date in support of the Constitutional option, which I have favored since before the news was talking about it.

From MSNBC: A Reasonable Republican View

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

I agree with almost everything Colin Powell said. However, I do not share his hope that the Republican Party can recover. In my opinion, they have reached the point of no return, and only a complete reorganization, following virtual elimination can save them in name only.

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Black Friday Protests at Wal-Fart

 Politics
Nov 242012
 

Yesterday, thousands of Wal-mart employees and supporters protested over hours, pay, benefits and working conditions.  Those demonstrators deserved our support.  Sadly, Wal-fart still enjoyed record sales.  The reason for that is even more sad.

24WAL-MART-PROTESTSHundreds of people — including some employees — have taken part in Black Friday demonstrations at Wal-Mart stores nationwide, protesting what they say is the retailer’s retaliation against speaking out for better pay, fair schedules and affordable health care.

According to organizers from the union-backed group OUR Walmart, hundreds of workers and thousands of supporters rallied across 100 cities, including Landover Hills, Md., Miami, Oakland, Calif., Chicago, Danville, Ky., Dallas and Kenosha, Wis.

Wal-Mart pushed back, saying it knew of only a "few dozen" protests, and that most of the protesters were not its employees

In one of the biggest protests, nine people were arrested outside of a Paramount, Calif., Wal-Mart store for failing to disperse, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department statement. An OUR Walmart spokesman said three of those arrested were Wal-Mart workers. Those arrested were to be released without bail, unless they had previous arrest warrants.

The sheriff’s department said about 1,000 people arrived by bus and private vehicles to participate in the Paramount protest, which was characterized as peaceful… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <CNN>

Photo credit: Christian Science Monitor

Here’s video.

This protest should have been an overwhelming success, giving the Walton family a major pain in the wallet.  It was not because every American who passed by demonstrators and shopped there anyway effectively took the side of the greedy corporation against people like them.  Everyone who dis so should be thoroughly ashamed.

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