Open Thread–5/20/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics
May 202013
 

Yesterday, I intended to nap during the day, but I could not.  They were doing maintenance on the building all afternoon and evening, causing the power to go out over and over again.  Each time it does, it sets off an alarm on my O2 system that wakes me up, so I could not sleep until late last night.  I’m feeling fatigued, so I have only this message.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:49 (average 5:20).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The board of Yahoo, the faded Web pioneer, agreed on Sunday to buy the popular blogging service Tumblr for about $1.1 billion in cash, the companies announced Monday, a signal of how the company plans to reposition itself as the technology industry makes a headlong rush into social media.

When StumbleUpon changed format and drove away most of their members, many of them fled to Tumblr. As with other network acquisitions, I trust that this shall be a bad development for Tumblr members.  Thank God for Care2.

From Think Progress and Think Progress: If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year. At least, that’s what would have happened if a bill introduced by Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) had become law.

And yet, the Virginia Republican Party wants to make Obenshain into the state’s top prosecutor. This weekend, Virginia Republicans selected Obenshain as their nominee to replace tea party stalwart Ken Cuccinelli (R) as the state’s attorney general.

But if voters don’t like him, the Republican party offers another choice.

Here are some of the most alarming facts you need to know about E.W. Jackson:

  • He has said gays and lesbians are “very sick people, psychologically and emotionally” whose minds are perverted. He has also said homosexuality “poisons culture, it destroys families, it destroys societies”
  • He led an “Exodus Now!” movement encouraging African Americans to leave the Democratic party because opposition to same-sex marriage and government endorsement of religion means “Democrats are engaged in a concerted effort [bigots delinked] to do away with all symbols of our Judeo-Christian culture.”
  • He rallied against hate crimes legislation as a “virulent strain of Anti-Christian bigotry and hatred.”

Residents of Virginia had better elect Democrats for their own protection.

From Huffington Post: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) confirmed on Sunday that he is proposing an amendment to the upcoming farm bill that would eliminate the "Monsanto Protection Act."

Officially known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, the controversial agricultural provision was surreptitiously tucked into budget legislation — passed by Congress in March and signed into law by President Barack Obama — that was intended to avoid a government shutdown. The provision, which the public at large caught wind of only after the bill’s passage, allows agricultural companies such as Monsanto to ignore court orders against selling genetically-engineered seeds.

As HuffPost’s Ryan Grim explained last week:

Federal courts have recently ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had failed to consider the potential harm some genetically engineered crops may have, and acted too hastily in approving their sale. The industry fought back with the [Monsanto Protection Act], preventing the enforcement of court rulings.

I don’t want to hear Obama blamed for not vetoing the bill. This was, after all, a minor provision in the bill to end the Republicans’ seditious attempt to shut down the entire government. Sign Jeff’s petition, please. Once again, Oregon leads the way!

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Those two images were so boring that I chose a more recent graphic.

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Open Thread–5/18/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 182013
 

Yesterday I took several hours implementing the changes recommended, while I was in the hospital, including establishing a tentative quit date, subject to having the necessary materials, on 6/7.  I am continuing to improve.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:47 (average 4:42).  To do it. click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Congressional Republicans, not resting with the Internal Revenue Service scandal, are moving to broaden the matter to an array of tax malfeasances and “intimidation tactics” they hope will ensnare the White House.

Republican charges range from clearly questionable actions to seemingly specious allegations, and they grow by the day. On Friday, lawmakers sought to tie the I.R.S. matter to the carrying out of President Obama’s health care law, which will rely heavily on the agency.

How completely absurd! This is a Republican product, began and carried out mostly during the Bush regime, by Bush people, and continued under Obama by Bush holdovers. They want us to believe that Obamacare is to blame?!!? You can fertilize your veggies with that InsaniTEA!

From Think Progress: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expects a showdown in July over a potential second round of filibuster reform, and he’s prepared to push for a sweeping change to the minority’s ability to unilaterally obstruct judges and other nominees. According to reporting by the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, Reid “is eyeing a change to the rules that would do away with the 60-vote threshold on all judicial and executive branch nominations.” The test, according to Sargent, of whether Reid will push this reform is whether Senate Republicans lift their blockades on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, Labor Secretary nominee Tom Perez, and Environmental Protection Agency leader-in-waiting Gina McCarthy.

It’s about time that damn Nevada Leg Hound got off his arse, but why wait until July? Even more, why limit it to nominees?

From Right Wing Watch: Pete Santilli is the kind of person we normally wouldn’t cover here – an unhinged Internet ranter who exists somewhere to the crazier side of Alex Jones. Santilli’s broadcast – on which he details conspiracy theories on everything from 9/11 to Sandy Hook –  doesn’t even have Jones’ audience: he describes himself as “a radio talkshow host ready to take my show to national syndication; that is, of course, if the FCC regulated AM/FM radio stations can handle my truth & honesty.”

But in the past couple of months, Santilli has attracted two major gun activists to his show: National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent, who used the opportunity to call President Obama a Nazi, and Gun Owners of America director Larry Pratt, who worked with Santilli to flesh out his theory that President Obama is raising a private army to overpower the U.S. military. Pratt, in particular, is taken remarkably seriously among the GOP – he has been partially credited with taking down a background checks measure in the Senate last month.

So, we started paying attention to Santilli, and we learned pretty quickly what Nugent and Pratt felt perfectly comfortable associating themselves with. On his show last week, Santilli went on a disgusting, violent rant [hatemonger delinked] in which he called for the entire Bush family and President Obama to be “tried, convicted and shot” for “treason” (and in George H.W. Bush’s case “involvement with his cronies in the John F. Kennedy assassination”) and for Hillary Clinton to be “tried, convicted and shot in the vagina.”

There are few names I did not call GW Bush, aka Crawford Caligula, aka Potomac Pinocchio, aka Neocon Nero, aka Texas Torquemada, etc. They provide truth through humor. I called for his arrest and incarceration, and I still do. But never once did I ever suggest employing violence against him, and I criticized those few who did. This is the level to which the NRA and the Republican Party have descended.

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I spent many hours sweeping and sending samples to online friends all over the country.

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Open Thread–5/17/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 172013
 

I’m in quite a bit of pain from my bad leg, but at least I have an Open Thread today.  I’d like to share a quote from the writing of one of my guys in prison: “We cannot find peace or freedom while sowing the seeds of discord with dishonesty, intolerance, irresponsibility or disrespect.”  If only someone would teach this to the Republican leadership.  My activity here should increase gradually.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:01 (average 4:44).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: With the House set on Friday to convene the first of its hearings into the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service, the lessons learned from the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, which cost Republicans in elections in 1998, have been on display in recent days.

Listening to the hearings, I learned that the abuse, which Republicans are blaming on Obama, occurred during the Bush Regime under his appointees.  Under Obama, the same people continued the same policies.  In any event, this is clearly not a Democratic attack on Teabaggers.  If anything, it’s an attack by the 1% wings of the Republican Party to limit the power of their Tea Party storm troopers, the monster they created, and now, cannot control.

From The New Yorker: Today Speaker of the House John Boehner issued the following letter to the American people:

Dear American People,

Yesterday, your hardworking House Republicans tried, once again, and failed, once again, to repeal Obamacare. And I really thought we had a good chance this time.

That’s because we were all united in our hatred for this infernal and takes-too-long-to-read law. Every last one of us cast his vote to strike it down, from crazy little Paul Ryan to that arrogant bastard Eric Cantor.

And I wish you could have seen the faces of those freshman Republicans as they voted to repeal Obamacare—so innocent, so full of hope and wonder. As I told them yesterday, “You’ll never forget your first time.” …

Since retaking the House in 2010, Republicans have averaged 5.4 minutes out of every hour to repealing Obamacare.

From MSNBC: Deficits are shrinking at a historic pace.

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

In spite of everything Republicans have done to sabotage our economy for political gain, the policies taken by Obama and the Democrats are working. The reason Republicans don’t cake is this. Everything their party does is a smokescreen for one of two Republican goals: either transfer of worth from the 99% to the 1%, or establishing a permanent regime of totalitarian Republican rule.

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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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GOP Claims Poverty

 Politics
Apr 082013
 

As absurd as this may sound, an anchor from the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, had the audacity to claim that the reason Republicans are intransigent about their economic stance is that America does not have the money to do otherwise.  Horse feathers!

FoxSheepOn "This Week," Greta Van Susteren failed miserably in her attempt to explain Republicans’ ideological refusal to raise taxes…

…Let’s start with her claim that "people" don’t want to "take the safety net away" with the fact that Republicans have signed on to a budget which slashes the safety net to give tax cuts to rich people, authored by an Ayn Rand disciple who once complained that the nation’s "takers" outnumbered our "makers" and famously derided Social Security as a "hammock."

Oh, and by the way, the new chairman of the Heritage Foundation just went on Van Susteren’s network and basically called 70 million Americans welfare queens.

So to argue Republicans don’t want to get rid of the safety net is to literally argue that up is down…

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the video:

Of course, it’s standard for Republicans to say that they are not doing what they are doing, while projecting what they are doing onto Democrats.

As far as their poverty is concerned, I can not only say that Americans do have the money, but also, tell you where it is.  Vulture capitalists have rat-holed enough money in offshore tax havens to pay off the entire national debt several times over.

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Open Thread–4/8/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 082013
 

I was able to find a couple interesting items today.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow I have a prison volunteer day.  I hope to get something up before I leave, if I can.  At worst, I’ll have Open Threads tomorrow and Wednesday, and be full speed Thursday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:42 (average 4:40).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Steven Goodman, a dean and professor of medicine at Stanford and the editor of the journal Clinical Trials, which has its own imitators, called this phenomenon “the dark side of open access,” the movement to make scholarly publications freely available.

The number of these journals and conferences has exploded in recent years as scientific publishing has shifted from a traditional business model for professional societies and organizations built almost entirely on subscription revenues to open access, which relies on authors or their backers to pay for the publication of papers online, where anyone can read them…

While this article focuses on the academic effects of this problem, there is also a political side, where the Koch Brother and their ilk are funding pseudo-journals and pseudo-conferences to provide authentic sounding citations to "prove" Republican pseudo-science touted by ideologues, as if it were factual.

From The New Yorker: Before a rapt audience at Facebook headquarters Thursday, Facebook C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg unveiled new software that he promised “will totally change the way you are wasting your life.”

Explaining the development of Facebook’s new phone software, Home, Mr. Zuckerberg said, “Our research showed that Facebook users still had a few hours a day when they were leading somewhat healthy and productive lives. Our new software will change all of that.”

Borowitz has captured the essence of Facebook with this satire.

From NBC: A man accidentally shot himself outside a mall in El Cajon late Saturday night, police confirmed.

I would not be at all surprised to see the Republican Party try to recruit this fellow as a school guard.

Cartoon:

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Congress was MUCH smarter then!

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Open Thread–4/5/2013

 Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 052013
 

This will sound stupid, but I’ll admit it anyway.  Yesterday I was so excited about the prospect of returning to blogging, that my mind kept racing, as I thought about things I want to say.  I was so hyped over the prospect, that I could not sleep at all, so I need to delay my return for one more day.  Embarrassed smile   I’ll stay current with recent comments.  Keep keeping your fingers crossed please.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:47 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn’t Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody

 

I agree, but with the caveat that I believe Obama and most Democrats are setting the price for chained CPI higher than what Republicans will accept (revenue increase from the 1%) to demonstrate that Republicans consider bipartisanship as all for them and none for us. Nevertheless, please keep making that call, and sign this petition.

From NPR: Oregon state lawmakers have scheduled a marathon public hearing Friday on four gun control bills. The proposals include a ban on guns in schools and criminal background checks for private gun sales.

5GunsOpponents are lining up against the measures, but some gun control advocates say the proposals don’t go far enough…

…One February rally drew more than a thousand people — . Afterward, Negru toured the Capitol building with a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder and a handgun at his side…

…It’s perfectly legal to openly carry a gun in the state Capitol in Oregon if you have a concealed handgun license. But while no incidents were reported, the sight of people walking the marble hallways with semi-automatic weapons rattled some lawmakers.

That led to a proposed ban on openly carrying weapons in the state Capitol. The other measures would ban guns from school grounds; require more training for people who want a concealed carry permit; and require criminal background checks for private gun sales…

Even here in Oregon, we have TEAbuggery and InsaniTEA. Ginny Burdick, my state Senator, also wants a ban on assault weapons and high capacity clips.

From NY Times: When the Great Depression struck, many influential people argued that the government shouldn’t even try to limit the damage. According to Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon, his Treasury secretary, urged him to “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers. … It will purge the rottenness out of the system.” Don’t try to hasten recovery, warned the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter, because “artificial stimulus leaves part of the work of depressions undone.”

Like many economists, I used to quote these past luminaries with a certain smugness. After all, modern macroeconomics had shown how wrong they were, and we wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the 1930s, would we?

How naïve we were. It turns out that the urge to purge — the urge to see depression as a necessary and somehow even desirable punishment for past sins, while inveighing against any attempt to mitigate suffering — is as strong as ever. Indeed, Mellonism is everywhere these days. Turn on CNBC or read an op-ed page, and the odds are that you won’t see someone arguing that the federal government and the Federal Reserve are doing too little to fight mass unemployment. Instead, you’re much more likely to encounter an alleged expert ranting about the evils of budget deficits and money creation, and denouncing Keynesian economics as the root of all evil…

Click through for another fine Krugman editorial. Just like a Republican waging class warfare (Hoover) got us into the Great Depression, a Republican waging class warfare (Bush) got us into the Republican Recession. Getting us out of the Great Depression required a Democrat with a stimulus plan (FDR). To get out of the Republican Recession, we need a Democrat with a stimulus plan.

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