Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow while preparing to leave for my prison volunteer day, so I shall be brief.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:25 (average 5:02).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Rejecting calls to boycott Arizona, a newly formed gay organization is mobilizing its members to move to the state by the millions in the hopes of transforming it into the nation’s first majority gay state.

The group, called Americans for a Gay Arizona, has already received commitments from a million gay Americans to move to the state within the next two months, with a target of enlisting over six million gays to move there by the end of the year.

Harland Dorrinson, the executive director of the group, said that the influx of six million gays would be “more than enough” to insure that Arizona would be majority gay, but he acknowledged that he did not have an exact figure of how many gays currently reside there.

“We think it could be as many as a million,” he said. “But if you add in conservative politicians, that number could go much higher.”

OMG, Andy!! FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO!!

From Upworthy: One congressman did manage to say that he thought this international trade deal was "a punch in the face to the middle class of America

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

From Crooks and Liars: After first letting Arizona lawmakers and their defenders in the media have it for the "morally repugnant" anti-gay bill that manged to pass through their legislature and then had many of them backtracking after voting for it, the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart wondered where in the world the Christians in Arizona could have gotten the idea their religion was under attack.

Of course the answer has to be the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. Jan Brewer saved Republicans from what they clearly knew they were doing when they passed the bill. Had it not generated the public outcry that it did, it would be law.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow.  The board meeting went quite well, and my dinner was a hit.  I made a casserole with five kinds of rice, shrimp, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peas, mushrooms and green onions.  We had black cherry pie (store-bought) for dessert.  I did the research before the meeting, met, took a cat nap, and just finished cleaning up the mess.  I’m ready for another cat-nap, and this is tomorrow’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:40 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Remember the “death tax”? The estate tax is quite literally a millionaire’s tax — a tax that affects only a tiny minority of the population, and is mostly paid by a handful of very wealthy heirs. Nonetheless, right-wingers have successfully convinced many voters that the tax is a cruel burden on ordinary Americans — that all across the nation small businesses and family farms are being broken up to pay crushing estate tax liabilities.

You might think that such heart-wrenching cases are actually quite rare, but you’d be wrong: they aren’t rare; they’re nonexistent. In particular, nobody has ever come up with a real modern example of a family farm sold to meet estate taxes. The whole “death tax” campaign has rested on eliciting human sympathy for purely imaginary victims.

And now they’re trying a similar campaign against health reform.

Paul Krugman goes on to explain the many ways in which Republicans are lying to create imaginary victims. Click through, please.

From TPM: The 2014 handicapping is underway, and the consensus is clear: Democrats face a tough battle to maintain control of the Senate. They’re defending too many seats in red states where President Obama and his signature health care reform law are unpopular.

They’re also at a structural disadvantage. Turning out the base, conventional wisdom and historical precedents say, is the key element for midterm elections, and Republicans have done it better.

But Democrats might have a secret weapon in a couple of those key Senate races. Activist groups and state lawmakers are working to get Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion on the ballot in Louisiana and Montana, where they have vulnerable candidates and GOP officials have refused to adopt the provision.

I consider this an excellent strategy. Any ballot measures that motivate apathetic lefties off their lazy butts is a plus in my book. That’s far better than listening to them whine about the results, after not voting.  Progressive ballot measures should be pursued in all 50 states.

From Crooks and Liars: Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine and to further her bona fides as a member of the Tea Party brain trust.

Asked by Wallace what happens now that the nation’s Parliament has voted President  Yanukovych out of office and he has refused to step down calling the vote a coup, Ayotte said that it was time for President Obama to act.

“I would say, Chris that they need to focus on forming a unity government,” she said.  “Yanukovych needs to step aside, and I will say this, now that the Olympics are over, we need to watch the behavior of the Russians, and I believe the President needs to up his game and send a clear unequivocal public message to Putin not to interfere in what is happening in Ukraine.  To let the Ukrainian people determine their future, to insure that there is no interference in their sovereignty and I think this is an important time for him to do that.”

Of course the Olympics are not over, today is the final day, but that is a minor issue, the President already has done what she wants already, he has been calling for a unity government in Ukraine all along.  He and Putin discussed the issue in a phone conversation on Friday which a senior White House official described as very “constructive.”

The poor Bagger! Now that Ayotte has learned that Obama had done it, she’ll have to condemn him for having done what she asked.

Cartoon:

The Republican Party displayed the most recent.

I’m working for tomorrow and rushing because I have so much work to do preparing for tomorrow’s board meeting in my apartment.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:55 (average 5:19).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said today that she was reluctant to sign an anti-gay “religious freedom” bill passed by the Arizona state legislature this week, telling reporters, “I believe that bigotry and hatred should be free of government regulation.”

She said that while many Arizona business owners currently enjoy employing hateful practices, “I worry that if big government gets involved, that’ll ruin everything.”

“Don’t get me wrong—I think the anti-gay bill that the legislature passed was well-meaning,” she said. “All I’m saying is, let’s leave it to the private sector.”

I think Andy’s satire missed the boat on this one. Brewerstan’s Death Angel, Jan Brewer, infamous for killing her own citizens by refusing them life saving transplants for which they were already scheduled, is a strong supporter of government-based hatred. Consider her support for racial profiling in "papers please".

From Alternet: Ted Cruz: Pray for discrimination.

What is Texas’s Tea Party senator seeking now? This week Cruz called on supporters to “simply pray” that LGBT Americans did not get equal legal rights because same-sex marriage was “heartbreaking.” Yes, pray for a new Jim Crow.

In an interview with conservative radio host Janet Mefferd, Cruz started by saying that he introduced the “State Marriage Defense Act” to undo the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down parts of the federal government’s ban on marriage equality. He accused liberal groups of using “brute power” to wage an assault and “subvert our democratic system.” Then the Harvard Law School graduate, who forgets that an elite Republican lawyer argued for expanding gay rights before the court, issued his hateful hope.

Cruz said that gay marriage threatened liberty and he urged people to pray to God that gays and lesbians don’t get equal marriage rights. “I think the most important thing your listeners can do is simply pray, because we need a great deal of prayer,” he said. “Because marriage is really, really being undermined by a concerted effort. And it’s causing significant harm.”

When right-wingers like Cruz pray for discrimination, a curious thing happens. God doesn’t RSVP ASAP. But other right-wingers do.

Cruz’ Republican hate mongering is just on of six examples of Republican psychosis from the last week alone. Click through for the other five.

From Crooks and Liars: Homeland Security warned us in 2009 that right wing extremism is on the rise–something we are seeing in recent conservative pushes to overthrow the government. The report stated, among other things, that  “Heightened interest in legislation for tighter firearms…may be invigorating rightwing extremist activity, specifically the white supremacist and militia movements,” as we have seen exemplified in a Tea Party attempt to construct an anti-Muslim death ray.

Now, Three Georgia “Patriots” tried to buy pipe bombs and other explosives to aid in their effort to attack power grids, water treatment facilities, and other infrastructure. Brian Edward Cannon and Cory Robert Williamson appeared in court on Friday, and Terry Eugene Peace is due for his first appearance on Monday.

The three are charged with conspiring to acquire firearms, pipe bombs, and thermite grenades. Between Jan 23 and Feb 15, the three militia members chatted on Facebook about plans to launch guerrilla-style attacks on government facilities, according to the FBI…… [emphasis original]

Once again, we see Republicans too stupid to realize that plotting a Republican terrorist conspiracy on Facebook just might have legal ramifications. Once again, we see that the party that embraces them is not competent to run a lemonade stand, let again a government.

Cartoon:

Was this decision Constitutional?