Yesterday I slept the clock around and still feel too poorly to up and about for any length of time, due to COPD flaring. I’m quite certain this is the aftereffects of last week’s ordeal, so don’t worry. I’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings.
I wish I had good news, but I never got to actually have the colonoscopy. On Monday I fasted and repeatedly took three different laxatives and over two quarts of fluid. I did not sleep at all Monday night. All that prep was supposed to leave me empty and clean for the test. I did not work. Instead, it left me full and foul. At the doctor’s office, they told me they could not perform the procedure, because the prep had not worked. They said I can try again with a prep of two days of fasting and purging, but that because of the effect it had on my blood sugar, perhaps it was not that important to have the test done. It did play havoc with my blood sugar, giving me, in one twelve hour period, both the highest (352) and lowest (55) blood sugar readings I have ever had. To make matters worse, lack of sleep sets off my COPD. I spent all day yesterday and most of last night with a combination of severe runs and a violent cough. The combination was a disaster. In any case, I am not yet able to research and write as normal. I need another day of recovery time, so my articles should be back early Friday morning. Right now I’m completely disgusted with my doctors. Here’s the best way I can describe it.
Yesterday I rested as much as I could. I’m current with replies. I’m scheduled for a colonoscopy on Tuesday morning. No worries. It’s routine, because of my age. Because of it, I’m likely to be gone for two days, so expect no more articles, until early Thursday morning. This morning and early afternoon, I’ll sleep all I can. This afternoon and tonight I’ll be taking the medications to purge me for the test. I will not be able to sit on one place long enough to concentrate on anything, except for the place made of porcelain. I’ll be up all night taking medicine. During the test I’ll be under a twilight anesthetic, so I’m likely to he groggy afterwards, in addition to sleepy from being up all night. By Wednesday I should be able to research again. I am not looking forward to this at all.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:39 (average 4:23). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From CBS: Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum stood by comments he made Saturday opposing prenatal testing, saying it leads to selective abortions, and he said the president is "continuing" policies that encourage such abortions.
How much more invasive into privacy can these Republicans get?
From Minnesota Public Radio News: Mitt Romney returned to Salt Lake City on Saturday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Winter Games he helped lead, but the GOP presidential candidate has come under attack for urging the federal government to provide big bucks for Olympic expenses.
Republicans believe in limited government spending, but not on anything they want.
From Think Progress: During an appearance on Fox News Sunday this morning, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) couldn’t explain why the public rejects large parts of the Republican legislative agenda and instead blamed Democrats for opposing it.
Cantor is full of Santorum. This is why the public rejects their programs. Republicans govern exclusively for the benefit of millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals. They do NOT represent YOU!
Cartoon:
Here are the results from the ‘Which goose-stepper would be the worst President?’ poll.
And here are your comments, plus an assortment of comments by Republicans that are easy to identify for obvious reasons.
Posted by archiesunpower on February 14, 2012 at 10:28 pm.
Just imagine in China……….they would PURGE the lot of them!
Posted by FriendForLife on February 12, 2012 at 10:16 pm.
I don’t much care for carnage, but this looks like a train wreck happening before our very eyes. We may see the Tbaggers actually disintegrating the Reflubs as they reach their hysterical limits.
Posted by VinceP1974 on February 11, 2012 at 11:33 am.
Why do Republicans keep getting associated to things of the Left? Musillini’s Fascism was a fusion of Marxism and American Progressivism. Leftists in America were drooling over the new economic models of National Socialism’s Germany, Fascist Italy, Communist Soviet Union… all cousins of one another in the rotten family known as Collectivism.
Posted by Infidel753 in reply to VinceP1974 on February 11, 2012 at 7:25 pm.
TomCat, I do believe you’ve got a Kochroach infestation here. Best to stock up on bug spray.
Posted by Bruce Majors on February 11, 2012 at 10:26 am.
Your master Lord Zero would be the worst. He could continue bailing out banks and crony corporations and blowing up Asian children, while your worthless zombie whores continue to eat the dingelberries off his butt hair while you felch him.
Posted by MalikTous on February 3, 2012 at 5:59 pm.
The main thing these idiots have going for them is that a few of them are actually less disgusting than that idiot Kenyan invader currently disgracing the Whitehouse. I think I’ll vote third party again…
Posted by John in reply to MalikTous on February 6, 2012 at 12:11 pm.
@ MalikTous – "…idiot Kenyan invader currently disgracing the Whitehouse [sic]"?
Um, you aren’t very bright, are you? Please do the integrity of the electoral process a favor and don’t vote at all.
As for the worst potential GOP/TP president, my pick is Gingrich. He doesn’t have an ethical or moral bone in his body, and he’ll employ a scorched earth policy to get what he wants. The others would be disastrous too, but they’re buffoons while Gingrich is evil. If he were somehow elected, I’d leave the country.
Posted by Mary Ann C. on February 3, 2012 at 10:10 am.
I pretty much think they all would be a horrible choice!
Posted by Infidel753 on February 2, 2012 at 7:27 am.
While Gingrich is the most disgusting, I’m voting Santorum here. A person who could describe a rape-induced pregnancy as a "gift from God" should never been in a position of any power over anybody.
Posted by Lynn Squance on February 1, 2012 at 2:51 pm.
I’m with you Fred! ‘All of the above"
Gingrich — he’s hot tempered; a dictator; vengeful; deceitful; and a liar.
Rmoney — he’s a ‘chopshopist’ and will treat the country the same way as any company; he’s a liar; he blows with the wind every which way including silly.
Santorum — Sanctomonious Santorum is just another maggot that will dictate everything including morals and releigion; has a pinched nose, probably from holding it to protect himself from his own stench.
Paul — He is your basic wack job who would let the population die.
Posted by Patty on February 1, 2012 at 11:27 am.
I cast my vote for the worst for Sanctimonious Santorum.
Posted by Cellophane on February 1, 2012 at 10:52 am.
Santorum since he’s the most sincere about forcing women to be barefoot and pregnant and without a vote. I’ll again recommend "The Handmaid’s Tale" by Margaret Atwood to see the future through Santorum’s eyes. Disgusting.
Posted by Fred Lemon on February 1, 2012 at 8:21 am.
You needed to include an "All of th Above" option. Or perhaps a ranking system of worst to just a little worse, etc.
Posted by Dave C on February 1, 2012 at 4:46 am.
all horrible….
The winners were Newter and the Frothmeister in a dead heat. I voted for the third place choice. I just fail to see how anyone could be a worse President than malignant, racist Ron Paul with his desire to abolish voting rights and return to the Jim Crow era, his return to the gold standard (that almost bankrupted the country in the early 1800s, his desire to completely dismantle the safety net, and his support for completely unrestrained vulture capitalism.
The new poll is up.
I’m not all surprised that Lynn has won her second Big Mouth Award. For several months she has been our top commentator, and is also one of only two people, other than myself, that I have authorized to post articles here, although we are still waiting for her first. Lynn is a denizen of Care2, and is still a Canadian. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. If 10% of US citizens had half the knowledge of and insight into US politics that this Canadian gal regularly displays, our country would be far better off. Congrats Lynn! She deserves a few kudos here.
In January, Politics Plus enjoyed significant improvements in all categories, except bandwidth.
Unique visitors
Number of visits
Pages
Hits
Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *
22,778
48,126
(2.11 visits/visitor)
415,132
(8.62 Pages/Visit)
1,578,154
(32.79 Hits/Visit)
23.33 GB
(508.28 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *
285,394
371,464
6.81 GB
Not viewed traffic is people who read our blog without coming here, using RSS Readers, such as Feed Demon, and Aggregation sites, such as Google Reader and MyWeb.
Here are our 2011 stats.
And here are our 2012 stats so you can compare them.
Here is our most recent ClustrMap, last updated on February 1.
Our ClustrMap reset the morning of 2/28/2011, starting over from scratch. This map counts only visits since then. The largest circles represent over 1,000 visits. The tiniest represent one to ten.
Our average durations were up from 299 seconds last month.
Number of visits: 48,126 – Average: 335 s
Number of visits
Percent
0s-30s
37,936
78.8 %
30s-2mn
2,173
4.5 %
2mn-5mn
1,180
2.4 %
5mn-15mn
1,594
3.3 %
15mn-30mn
1,285
2.6 %
30mn-1h
1,968
4 %
1h+
1,990
4.1 %
More visitors spending more time each is excellent!
Here are our top five articles for January.
E.P.A. Moves to Curtail Greenhouse Gas Emissions 10/1/2009 – 6,112 views
Walker Aides Busted! 1/7/2012 – 4,940 views
The Need for Glass-Steagall 1/30/2012 – 3,601 views
Racist Ron Paul Undone 12/24/2011 – 2,606 views
Impeach Obama? 1/30/2012 – 2532 views
Search engine referrals were up.
23 different referring search engines
Pages
Percent
Hits
Percent
7992
69.3 %
12,351
49.6 %
Stumbleupon (Social Bookmark)
2923
25.3 %
11,615
46.7 %
132
1.1 %
195
0.7 %
119
1 %
195
0.7 %
86
0.7 %
147
0.5 %
84
0.7 %
99
0.3 %
45
0.3 %
47
0.1 %
Digg (Social Bookmark)
44
0.3 %
44
0.1 %
Unknown search engines
31
0.2 %
42
0.1 %
20
0.1 %
20
0 %
Yandex
17
0.1 %
22
0 %
15
0.1 %
62
0.2 %
4
0 %
4
0 %
Earth Link
3
0 %
3
0 %
2
0 %
2
0 %
2
0 %
2
0 %
1
0 %
1
0 %
1
0 %
1
0 %
1
0 %
1
0 %
Mamma
12
0 %
1
0 %
Go.com
4
0 %
1
0 %
Stumbleupon continues to disappoint, since they change their format.
Our top five non-blog referrers are:
http://www.reddit.com/ 7,940
http://www.care2.com/ 5,887
Our top 15 blog/news referrers are:
http://jackjodell53.wordpress.com/
http://synapticstew.com/
http://america-weeps.blogspot.com/http://themanwhowalksalonewalksfaster.blogspot.com/
http://reconstitution.us/rcnew/
http://infidel753.blogspot.com/
http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/
http://republic-of-gilead.blogspot.com/
http://parsleyspics.blogspot.com/
http://www.treesandthings.com/
Here’s some linkey-love in return The best ways you can spread the message to others is to use the share button at the bottom of each article to list our articles on the the networking sites where you belong. Quote PP articles on your own blogs also helps. The operative commandment here is “thou shalt steal.” We’re on the same side here, and I encourage it. Even if you want to repost a whole article, that’s OK. Just link back, please. Also, feel free to swipe my graphics in the articles. If they are labeled with our Politics Plus URL, they are my work.
Here are the top fifteen commenters for January are. I actually copied them off in time. The widget is in the right column. I don’t count, as I’m the resident big mouth, and I try to reply to every comment, except replies directed at someone else. Those who leave their URLs in their comments, get linkey-love here.
We have 623,138 links on other websites, down from 604,268 last month.
Technorati recognizes we exist again, but not as a political blog. Our authority rating is 468 and our rank is the 3,708th most influential blog of all types in the world.
We have 3,146 articles and 28,590 comments, as of midnight 2/1.
I recommend using your own avatar. Go to Gravatar. Sign up using the email address you use to post comments here and upload the image you want to use. Whenever you comment under that email address here or on any WordPress blog (several others too), that image will be your avatar.
Your participation remains a major part of what makes this blog worth reading, not to mention worth writing. I’m pleased to see things picking up after a couple slow months. Many people who visit here have told me that they come here to read your comments in addition to my articles, and people continue to write comments about your comments on other sites. Politics Plus exists to help end right-wing insanity and send the Republican Party the way of the Whigs. Thank you all for all you do, here and elsewhere, to help make that happen. Together we will make a difference.
Here are the results of the “Primaries over in January?” poll.
And here are your comments.
From Alan Becker on January 30, 2012 at 3:22 pm.
Obviously the choice is a difficult one since each of these men represent stupidity, greed, hatred, and vapidity. If any of them does get in we can say goodbye to the United States and prepare for an era of dictatorship.
From Ellen McCabe on January 22, 2012 at 4:22 am.
Who cares..Put bags on their heads and you wouldnt know the difference as they are all the same..losers.
From Rixar13 in reply to Ellen McCabe on January 28, 2012 at 10:21 am.
"Who cares.."
My first thoughts…
From steve in reply to Ellen McCabe on January 23, 2012 at 12:13 pm.
you obviously have no idea who is running or you wouldnt have said that. Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich are all the same, but to say Ron Paul is even slightly the same as those 3 (and Obama) simply proves you have little-to-no knowledge on politics. please do some research and vote Ron Paul in 2012.
From Yvonne White in reply to steve on January 23, 2012 at 8:07 pm.
You’re right – Ron Paul is Worse because he pretends to be anti-war pro-pot legalization. But he named his son after "greed is good" Ayn Rand, hates Social Security, won’t accept Medicare refuses Medicaid..so he IS another Bu$h Leaguer in sheep’s clothing..
From John Dasef on January 18, 2012 at 10:47 am.
I hope it stays undecided so they will continue to expend resources attacking each other right up to their convention. The more they spend now, the more will have to be replaced for the general election. A pox on all their houses.
From Patty on January 16, 2012 at 9:42 am.
Romney will be the nominee and someone else will run on the Independent ticket.
From Lynn Squance on January 16, 2012 at 3:51 am.
I really don’t know, but I somehow doubt it. I heard that Newty and Perry both missed the deadline to get on the SC ballot. If that’s the case, I think Perry’s gone on the 21st which is no loss —good riddance. That leaves Romney, Santorum, Paul and Newty. I think Newty could be gone after SC assuming he didn’t get on the ballot but he is just arrogant enough to keep going. He’ll probably screw up again with paper work again and be gone. That leaves Romney, Santorum and Paul. Can Romney get enough delegates between SC and Florida to make the rest of the primaries moot? The Republican/Teabaggers organisation certainly don’t seem enamoured with him but the votes say the rank and file see it differently. Santorum and Paul are so extreme, but they might be able to hold on longer.
From Rob in reply to Lynn Squance on January 18, 2012 at 9:46 am.
They’re all on the ballots in SC; I think it was Virginia that they missed (only Romney and Paul on that one). Of course, a legal battle will come out to change that VA situation, I’m sure.
From Rixar13 on January 15, 2012 at 4:59 pm. IP Logged, 71.180.149.x Report Abuse
Don’t give a Rat’s oops…
The majority had the correct, but in fairness, many voted after that was a done deal. I voted No on the second day.
January is over, and there are two running, one also ran, and one who never mattered and never will.
A new poll has been posted for you.
Patty is one of our new regulars, and you’ll find excellent comments from her on almost every article, almost every day. She comes to us from Care2. One of Patty’s claims to fame is that she is a Jig Zone predator. Once upon a time, she used to complain that she would never be good enough to beat the average. Now she beats my tail with exasperating regularity! 🙁 😉
Congrats Patty! We’re glad you’re here.
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