Politics Plus

Yesterday I got up for a couple hours, and I’m clearly not ready yet.  I’m current with replies.  Maybe tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Yesterday’s took me 4:07 (average 4:35). To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Has Your Family Been Affected By This One Little Word?

To understand the full destructive impact of VS, just consider the Republican War on ______________.

From NY Times: One only has to read the Pentagon’s progress report on the Afghanistan war effort released last Monday to understand how pointless it is to keep 68,000 American troops there any longer. The mounting evidence makes it clear that they should be pulled out as soon as it can be done safely, instead of waiting until the end of 2014, the date set by the United States and NATO.

AMEN!

From Huffington Post: In the wake of the mass killing that claimed 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary school Friday, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) made the case Sunday that the answer to preventing massacres in the U.S. is for more Americans to carry guns.

In effect he is saying that the way to keep children safe from motor vehicles is to send them to play on the Interstate.

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I’m afraid I’m still down, but I took a leap of faith and planned a menu to feed folks on Christmas, so I better be better in time.  I’m current with replies.  Maybe tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:45 (average 5:50).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Young Boy Has A Big, Big Problem With Fish DNA Inside Of A Tomato, And He’s Doing Something About It

What children can understand, criminal corporate farmers can too. They just care more about profit, and they know the Republican Party has their back.

From NY Times: The subject of deceptive restaurant menus took on new life last week when Oceana, an international organization dedicated to ocean conservation, released a report with the headline “Widespread Seafood Fraud Found in New York City.”

Using genetic testing, the group found tilapia and tilefish posing as red snapper. Farmed salmon was sold as wild. Escolar, which can also legally be called oil fish, was disguised as white tuna, which is an unofficial nickname for albacore tuna.

Every one of 16 sushi bars investigated sold the researchers mislabeled fish. In all, 39 percent of the seafood from 81 grocery stores and restaurants was not what the establishment claimed it was.

This is yet more proof of the importance of knowing what we eat, but Republicans want to cut and slash funding for the enforcement of even the inadequate safeguards we have.

From Think Progress: Rock Hill Herald, a newspaper in South Carolina, printed a large ad for a big gun sale in Rock Hill on the same page as its coverage of Friday’s massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. The ad, which touted Christmas discounts on Smith & Wesson assault rifles, ran in Saturday’s edition on pages A4-A5:

The paper has to be Republican owned and operated. They alone could be this insensitive.

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Once again, the US needs to follow Canada’s example.

I’m getting so sick of sick.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow, I hope.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:03 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: We’d Just Like To Say ‘Ditto’ To Everything Jennifer Granholm Says In This Clip

Mathematically, Herr Snyder:Governors::Herr Scalia:Injustices. Republicans are trying to convert the 98% into just another third world country they can exploit with ease.

From NY Times: It’s important to make this point, because I keep seeing articles about the “fiscal cliff” that do, in fact, describe it — often in the headline — as a debt crisis. But it isn’t. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows. And even the confrontation over the debt ceiling that looms a few months from now if we do somehow manage to avoid going over the fiscal cliff isn’t really about debt.

No, what we’re having is a political crisis, born of the fact that one of our two great political parties has reached the end of a 30-year road. The modern Republican Party’s grand, radical agenda lies in ruins — but the party doesn’t know how to deal with that failure, and it retains enough power to do immense damage as it strikes out in frustration.

Before I talk about that reality, a word about the current state of budget “negotiations.”

Here is another can’t miss editorial by Paul Krugman. Click through. See also Bernie Sanders take on the negotiations.

From MSNBC: Pope Grover’s Demonstrates Republican Love

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

If anyone needs a short leash, it’s Norquist, with a spiked choke collar. Like the Republican party, he is flailing desperately to stay relevant and failing miserably. But his grotesque characterizations exemplify what Republicans love.

Cartoon:

Republican Theocons attribute this discovery, without which modern electronics would not be possible, to the devil.

I’m afraid I’m still down.  I’m current with replies.  Maybe tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 4:31).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

TomCat Teabag Trashers	MittsMagicJock
123.50	107.34
Texans Will Rise Again	hugos renegades
116.84	77.76
Progressive Underdogs	Playing without a helmet
142.54	101.22

Standings:

						Points
Rank	Team Name	W-L-T	Pct	Streak	Waiver	For	Against
1 (1)	TomCat Teabag Trashers	12-2-0	.857	W3	6	1673.94	1400.92
2 (2)	hugos renegades	8-6-0	.571	L3	5	1513.64	1430.08
3 (3)	Progressive Underdogs	7-7-0	.500	W4	4	1492.64	1413.38
4 (4)	MittsMagicJock	5-9-0	.357	L2	3	1387.98	1455.92
5 (5)	Playing without a helmet	5-9-0	.357	L1	2	1331.28	1524.48
6 (6)	Texans Will Rise Again	5-9-0	.357	W1	1	1357.62	1532.32

This concludes the regular season, and now it’s time for the playoffs.  The 3rd through 6th place teams will now play to take on the Teabag Trashers and the Renegades, who have a first round bye, in the semifinals.

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: This Lawmaker In Michigan Really Cuts Through The B.S. With Her GOP Coworkers

Whitmer is spot-on, but The Michigan Right to Screw Workers Law isn’t about what’s good for people, what’s good for Michigan, or what’s good for America. It’s about establishing a permanent, totalitarian Republican regime in which elections and the will of the people no longer matter.

From NY Times: It is a dark day for the rule of law. Federal and state authorities have chosen not to indict HSBC, the London-based bank, on charges of vast and prolonged money laundering, for fear that criminal prosecution would topple the bank and, in the process, endanger the financial system. They also have not charged any top HSBC banker in the case, though it boggles the mind that a bank could launder money as HSBC did without anyone in a position of authority making culpable decisions.

Clearly, the government has bought into the notion that too big to fail is too big to jail. When prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the law itself is diminished. The deterrence that comes from the threat of criminal prosecution is weakened, if not lost.

If refusing to prosecute a criminal corporation due to fear of the damage it will do to the financial system, then the financial system is already far too damaged to permit its continuation unchanged. Especially if too big to fail is too big to jail, then too big to fail is too big to exist. Reinstate Glass-Steagall and break up the TBTF Banksters.

From MSNBC: The Injustice vs the Student

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

We can be sure that Herr Scalia has decided the LGBT cases without having heard them, and with no consideration or respect for the Constitution of the United States, given that he is doubling down on hate speech. Kudos to Duncan Hosie.

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