Politics Plus

Day 71.  I’m writing for tomorrow and have been working like a , since I woke up, because there is so much going on.  I’ll be posting more articles that normal.  Tomorrow, I have a grocery delivery from Safeway, because Store to Door is closed for the 4th.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:59 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to department reports.

American Embassy officials in Baghdad sided with Blackwater rather than the State Department investigators as a dispute over the probe escalated in August 2007, the previously undisclosed documents show. The officials told the investigators that they had disrupted the embassy’s relationship with the security contractor and ordered them to leave the country, according to the reports.

Now known as Academi (formerly Xe), Blackwater, aka the GOP SS, remain the heavily armed thugs that Republican leaders keep ready to unleash upon the American people, as they did during Katrina, should Republicans ever regain the White House.

From Daily Kos: Last night, Bill Maher had a New Rule about the current conflict in Iraq, boiling it down to revenge.

I planned to show the video, but it has already disappeared, so I removed it before posting this. Click through for the transcript.

From The New Yorker: A ten-year European plan to gradually phase out American football in the United States and replace it with soccer is “very much on track,” a spokesman for the European Union confirmed today.

The E.U. spokesman, Alf-Jergen Holmboe, said the replacement of American football with soccer was the third in a three-step plan to transform the U.S. into a European country.

“The first two steps were electing a socialist President and instituting national health care,” he said. “Once soccer replaces football, our work will be done.”

Dang Andy! This will show up on Breitfart, World Nut Daily, and the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, as real news.

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Day 69, an especially problematic number.  I’m writing for tomorrow and am feeling tired, but well enough to blog.  The Republicosis is under control, and now I need to catch up on sleep missed because of it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 4:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: In their fervor to ensure that the least amongst their citizens keep getting kicked in the teeth, the Republicans of Virginia have stooped to breaking and entering an executive office in order to block Medicaid expansion.

There is a time limit between delivery of documents and the Governor’s need to authorize them. So the Republican House Speaker William J. Howell authorized security to illegally enter the Governor’s office during a holiday break to ensure the clock started ticking before the Governor even knew the bill was delivered.

Is there anything the Republicans won’t do to harm the 47%?

No, there isn’t.

From The New Yorker: After announcing, on Thursday, that it would seek $500 million to help “train and equip appropriately vetted elements of the moderate Syrian armed opposition,” the White House today posted the following Moderate Syrian Rebel Application Form:

Welcome to the United States’ Moderate Syrian Rebel Vetting Process. To see if you qualify for $500 million in American weapons, please choose an answer to the following questions:

As a Syrian rebel, I think the word or phrase that best describes me is:
A) Moderate
B) Very moderate
C) Crazy moderate
D) Other

I became a Syrian rebel because I believe in:
A) Truth
B) Justice
C) The American Way
D) Creating an Islamic caliphate

If I were given a highly lethal automatic weapon by the United States, I would:
A) Only kill exactly the people that the United States wanted me to kill
B) Try to kill the right people, with the caveat that I have never used an automatic weapon before
C) Kill people only after submitting them to a rigorous vetting process
D) Immediately let the weapon fall into the wrong hands

LOL Andy! Click through. There are three more questions. Moderate Syrian rebels are like moderate Republicans in Congress. There’s a rumor that one exists.

From Crooks and Liars: Sources have confirmed that attorney Mark Mayfield has died of an apparent suicide.

Mayfield, vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, and is one of the three men charged with conspiring with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s bedridden wife in her nursing home and create a political video against Cochran.

Mark Mayfield of Ridgeland, an attorney and state and local tea party leader, was arrested last month along with Richard Sager, a Laurel elementary school P.E. teacher and high school soccer coach. Police said they also charged John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg, but he was not taken into custody because of "extensive medical conditions." All face felony conspiracy charges.

It seldom happens but fore once a Republican murdered a guilty person with his gun, instead of an innocent one.

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Day 67.  Sometimes the nest laid plans of mice and men, and even cats, fall by the wayside.  I never made it to prison.  I woke up with a severe case of Republicosis, and discovered that I am out of antidiarrheal meds.  I spent the day tethered to the throne and am imitating  Eveready.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:21 (average 4:44).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Day 85.  I’m writing for tomorrow and trying to get some extra rest, because Thursday is a a prison volunteer day, and tomorrow is a grocery delivery day.  I’m still sore all over from all the cleaning.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was interviewed by Chris Matthews this past Thursday, and after watching that interview, one must admit this woman has the fire in her belly to really get things done. Her populist message sounds fresh, her delivery indicates persistence and she seems to have the perseverance of President Obama presented in a much less compromising and Ivy League manner.

As Hillary Clinton’s numbers slip off the pedestal, Elizabeth Warren’s numbers are sure to climb, given her obvious passion. Whether she runs for president or not no longer seems important: Her message and delivery will force Hillary Clinton and any potential Democratic primary challengers to stay with a middle-class centric message. The attempt at timid triangulation in the hopes that a perceived Republican lite tilt will bring a sect of the population tolerant of the controlling elite will be mitigated.

Chris Matthews raised many good middle-class points in his interview. He shares the frustration of every liberal: Why isn’t more being done? Why aren’t we building things? Why don’t we have the smell of pouring cement in a nation where the infrastructure is crumbling? Where is the hope for the unemployed and underemployed white guy in Scranton and the prospect of a job for that black kid wanting to work? Where is equal access to health care and education that form the platform from which upward mobility is launched? Where are research programs that ensure there is a pipeline of projects to feed an economy with ideas and prospects for progress and employment?

 
Elizabeth Warren by ewillies

Warren’s answer to those questions is crystal clear. Most Democrats are trying to do those very things. Republicans have just enough power to prevent it. She should add that frustrated lefties who vote for third party candidates, who cannot win, are blindly and unintentionally helping Republicans keep Democrats from passing such measures.

Also from Daily Kos: Last nigh t[Friday], Bill Maher had a New Rule on how we simply cannot change Iraq.

All I have to add is laughter.

From NY Times: Tom Tancredo, the firebrand former congressman, Harley-Davidson biker and perennial headache for Colorado’s Republican leaders, was taking fire from all sides last week in the final days of his primary campaign for governor. His rivals were slamming him on the airwaves. Moderate Republicans were warning that Mr. Tancredo’s name on the ballot could doom their chances in crucial races across this swing state.

My hopes are not high, but I’d love to see that damn racist win this one and become a turnout machined for Colorado Democrats in November.

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