Politics Plus

Unfortunately, I’m still down.  I’m current with replies.  Maybe tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:35 (average 4:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: REMINDER: This Is Why We Voted For Obama

Switching to chained CPI will not reduce the deficit or the debt by a single penny.  Therefore it should not even be on the table, so I made the call. How about you?

From NY Times: An independent inquiry into the attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Libya that killed four Americans on Sept. 11 sharply criticized the State Department for a lack of seasoned security personnel and for relying on untested local militias to safeguard the compound, according to a report by the panel made public on Tuesday night.

The investigation into the attack on the diplomatic mission and the C.I.A. annex in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans also faulted State Department officials in Washington for ignoring requests from the American Embassy in Tripoli for more guards for the mission and for failing to make sufficient safety upgrades.

The panel also said American intelligence officials had relied too much on specific warnings of imminent attacks, which they did not have in the case of Benghazi, rather than basing assessments more broadly on a deteriorating security environment. By this spring, Benghazi, a hotbed of militant activity in eastern Libya, had experienced a string of assassinations, an attack on a British envoy’s motorcade and the explosion of a bomb outside the American Mission.

Finally, the report blamed two major State Department bureaus — Diplomatic Security and Near Eastern Affairs — for failing to coordinate and plan adequate security. The panel also determined that a number of officials had shown poor leadership, but they were not identified in the unclassified version of the report that was released.

Sadly, this report could not be better ammunition for Republicans to use against Hillary Clinton in the event of a 2016 run for the Presidency.  Nevertheless, Hillary has not even approached Republican levels of incompetence in national security matters.

From MSNBC: Rewriting the NRA’s stance on gun violence

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I could not have said it better. There are no words that can wash the blood from the NRA’s hands.  However, I would add the Republican politicians that continue to place a higher value on gun industry profit than on the lives of American citizens.

Cartoon:

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.

Cartoon:

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.

Cartoon:

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

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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.