Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 66.  My trip to the podiatrist went well, and although my foot is sore, I’m in far less pain from it than I was yesterday.  However the trip took most of the day and tired me out, so the best I can do is a puzzle and a reposted cartoon from the same date in 2013.  Tomorrow and Sunday are High Holy Days in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, so a lot of my weekend will be spent in religious meditation.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:49 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 64.  I’m also waiting for Store to Door to deliver groceries.  I missed sleep because of street noise, and cannot catch it up until my groceries are here and stashed, so I’m feeling quite tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Reuters: Hooded gunmen stormed the Paris offices of a weekly satirical magazine known for lampooning radical Islam, killing at least 12 people, including two police officers in the worst militant attack on French soil in decades.

One of the men was captured on video outside the building waving his arms and shouting "Allah!". After dozens of shots rang out, two assailants were seen calmly leaving the scene. One police officer was seen being shot as he lay wounded.

What a horrid crime! My heart goes out to the surviving victims and to all the victims’ families and loved ones. Remember that these violent reactionary right-wingers are not authentic representatives of Islam. Also, contrary to the Republican Reich rumors that have already begun, this attack has nothing to do with Barack Obama.

From Upworthy: Honestly, I think what the Waltons do to people who work for them is criminal. But let’s hear more about that from economist Robert Reich.

Than goodness Robert Reich is the Reich on the left. The Walton family supports and is represented by the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich.

From The New Yorker: In a troubling sign for the 114th Congress, a new poll released on Tuesday indicates that the day-old legislative body is the most hated in the nation’s history.

According to the poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, only eight per cent of those surveyed approved of the job Congress is doing, a scathing indictment of the legislators’ first day on the job.

The 114th Congress started the day on a slightly more positive note, garnering a ten-per-cent approval rating, but after the House of Representatives reëlected John Boehner (R.-Ohio) to a new term as Speaker, the number sank to eight.

On the Senate side, Joni Ernst (R.-Iowa), newly elected to the most despised Congress in American history, said that the low approval number was no cause for concern.

LOL Andy!! Give them time. They’ll get it much lower than that.

Cartoon:

Being the Nevada Leg Hound can be dangerous!

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 62.  I’m quite busy year-change record keeping for both myself and my volunteer organization.  The Dulcolax finally worked, so I feel 20 lbs. lighter are far more like a Democrat.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:15 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Sixty-four unskilled workers will report to new jobs in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday as part of a federal jobs program that provides employment for people unable to find productive work elsewhere.

The new hires, who have no talents or abilities that would make them employable in most workplaces, will be earning a first-year salary of $174,000.

For that sum, the new employees will be expected to work a hundred and thirty-seven days a year, leaving them with two hundred and twenty-eight days of vacation.

Some critics have blasted the federal jobs program as too expensive, noting that the workers were chosen last November in a bloated and wasteful selection process that cost the nation nearly four billion dollars.

But Davis Logsdon, a University of Minnesota economics professor who specializes in labor issues, said that the program is necessary to provide work “for people who honestly cannot find employment anywhere else.”

Andy has never been more accurate!!

From Yahoo News: Police officers turned their backs on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday during the funeral for Wenjian Liu, one of two NYPD officers killed in a Dec. 20 ambush, exposing the ongoing rift between the department and City Hall.

The officers were seen turning away from an outdoor screen showing de Blasio’s eulogy at the service in Brooklyn, defying a request by New York Police Commissioner William Bratton not to protest at the funeral.

“A hero’s funeral is about grieving, not grievance,” Bratton wrote in a memo to officers on Friday, less than a week after officers turned their backs on de Blasio at the funeral of Rafael Ramos, the other NYPD slain officer. “I remind you that when you don the uniform of this department, you are bound by the tradition, honor, and decency that go with it.”

The memory of Wenjian Liu is certainly worthy of honor and respect. Officers who dishonor that memory, while in uniform, by mimicking Westboro Baptist Republicans have forgotten their calling to serve and protect. They should be fired.

From Reuters: U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert, a conservative Tea Party Republican from Texas, said on Sunday he would challenge John Boehner for speaker of the House of Representatives.

Gohmert’s announcement came a day after fellow Republican Representative Ted Yoho of Florida said he might be willing to put his name up against Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is widely expected to retain the top job in the chamber when the full House votes on Tuesday.

"Ted is a good man for whom I could vote, but I have heard from many supporters and also friends in Congress who have urged me to put forward my name for Speaker as well to increase our chances of change," Gohmert said in a statement. "That is why I am also offering my name as a candidate for Speaker."

While I doubt that Go Go Goosestep has even the slightest chance to become Speaker, his actions will sow dissention in the ranks of the Republican Reich and embarrass Agent Orange.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 60.  Both today and tomorrow are high holy days in the Chur4ch of the Ellipsoid Orb, but my Broncos have Wildcard Week off, due to their superior play.  I’m running late, because I actually slept seven hours in two installments, between 2 AM and Noon.

Jig Zone Player:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 6:32).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Huffington Post: Federal regulators are expected to vote next month on rules to govern how Internet service providers deal with the flow of content on their high-speed networks.

The five-member Federal Communications Commission will consider then a proposal from Chairman Tom Wheeler on so-called net neutrality rules, agency spokeswoman Kim Hart said Friday. She was confirming reports in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal on the planned timing of the vote. Details of the draft proposal weren’t disclosed.

President Barack Obama has asked the FCC to put Internet service providers under the same rules as those imposed on telephone companies 80 years ago. The aim is to protect net neutrality, the concept that everyone with an Internet connection should have equal access to all legal content online, including video, music, email, photos, social networks and maps.

Obama has this issue exactly right.

From Baltimore Sun: It was a dead rat the detective found on his windshield of his Toyota Corolla on a fall morning, the corpse peeking out from under the windshield wiper — a sign, he thought, that his colleagues in the department saw him as a snitch.

Detective Joseph Crystal had been in contact with prosecutors who eventually filed charges against his sergeant and another officer in connection with the beating of a drug suspect. The rat appeared a few weeks later.

This officer must be praying that he does not need backup in the future. He knows his brother officers will hang him out to die, because he broke the code by failing to help cover up a fellow officer’s crime. This underlines the need for citizen review boards that protect the identity of officers who testify honestly.

From Washington Post: Legislators in the 24 states where Republicans now hold total control plan to push a series of aggressive policy initiatives in the coming year aimed at limiting the power of the federal government and rekindling the culture wars.

The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls 31 governorships and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers — all but guarantees a new tide of conservative laws. Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency.

No doubt I’ll have lots of issues about which to write in the coming year. I wish that were not so. Because of the thousands of victims they will kill and impoverish in the process.

Cartoon: