Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 98.  Tonight I’ll be meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb, even though my Broncos are not.  Stuck on stupid neighbor has a new trick.  He sits next door, and his girlfriend (and I use that term loosely) sits in her apartment on the third floor, and the two of them use the breezeway to fight.  It hasn’t cost me any sleep so far, because they do it in the wee hours, and I’m already up replying to comments, uploading articles, and distributing links.  Other neighbors aren’t too happy about it, though.

Jug Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

From Daily Kos: Oh this is delicious. Yes, you read it right. Hate-radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, has been ousted from Fargo’s Talk 101.9 FM, and replaced with Rock 102, after listeners rebelled and ratings tanked (like in septic).

Last March, only weeks after Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke, KFGO in the heart of Red state, North Dakota, joined the Hate Parade and switched from good old Rock & Roll, to angry, hateful, racist, homophobic, misogynist Rush. The listeners were not happy. According to Mike McFeely at KFGO it was a bitter pill for the Rock 102 fans to swallow for a good while.

"Despite the adamant protests of Rock 102’s passionate fans, including the creation of a "Bring Back Rock 102" Facebook page," Rock 102 entered a year and a half period of conservative talk programming which will be forever referred to as ‘in Limbaugh’"…

The people ultimately won and got their station back.

When presented with Rock or Rush, the policy chief of the Republican Party, the choice is self-evident!

From MSNBC: Republicans are now owning the term RepubliCare

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

RepubliCare’s new features are more welfare for the rich, and more and welfare for Big Insurance, but it retains the RepubliCare Death Benefit for YOU! If you can’t pay, you get to die!!

From Think Progress: After historic floods ravaged Colorado late last week, the state is now facing serious long-term consequences. The Denver Post reported on Wednesday evening that at least 5,250 gallons of crude oil spilled from two tank batteries into the South Platte River. Anadarko Petroleum, the second-largest operator in the region, is working with local officials to contain the spill, but authorities are unsure when the spill occurred or exactly how much crude leached into the river.

The incident is the first to confirm the fears of many Coloradans that the state’s flooded oil and gas infrastructure is a major environmental catastrophe waiting to happen. As Think Progress reported on Tuesday, the floods hit one of the most densely drilled areas in the U.S. and residents have expressed serious concern “that unknown amount of chemicals has leaked out and possibly contaminated waters, mixing fracking fluids and oil along with sewage, gasoline, and agriculture pesticides.”

I’m literally afraid to hear what else has happened, but it’s not just a local event.  The South Platt will carry part of that crude all the way to the Mississippi, which will add it to the rest in the Gulf.

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Inspired by Bill Maher

Writing for tomorrow, day 96, I’m still pretty pooped, but hope to get some rest today.

Poll Note:

I realized I made a major wording error on out poll.  To fix it, I had to restart the poll, so if you already voted, please vote again.

Update:

For the first time, Critter sends greetings to Critter from the outside.  He’s a bit overwhelmed, of course, but doing great.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:23 (average 5:06).  To do it, click here!  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest in our fantasy football league, after an exciting, but frustrating week.  Damn Seachickens!!

Scores:

I bet Patty is Monster Mash twerking right now!! 😉

Standings:

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Short Takes:

From Robert Reich: One of the most deceptive ideas continuously sounded by the Right (and its fathomless think tanks and media outlets) is that the “free market” is natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government. So whatever inequality or insecurity it generates is beyond our control. And whatever ways we might seek to reduce inequality or insecurity — to make the economy work for us — are unwarranted constraints on the market’s freedom, and will inevitably go wrong.

By this view, if some people aren’t paid enough to live on, the market has determined they aren’t worth enough. If others rake in billions, they must be worth it. If millions of Americans remain unemployed or their paychecks are shrinking or they work two or three part-time jobs with no idea what they’ll earn next month or next week, that’s too bad; it’s just the outcome of the market.

According to this logic, government shouldn’t intrude through minimum wages, high taxes on top earners, public spending to get people back to work, regulations on business, or anything else, because the “free market” knows best.

In reality, the “free market” is a bunch of rules about (1) what can be owned and traded (the genome? slaves? nuclear materials? babies? votes?); (2) on what terms (equal access to the internet? the right to organize unions? corporate monopolies? the length of patent protections? ); (3) under what conditions (poisonous drugs? unsafe foods? deceptive Ponzi schemes? uninsured derivatives? dangerous workplaces?) (4) what’s private and what’s public (police? roads? clean air and clean water? healthcare? good schools? parks and playgrounds?); (5) how to pay for what (taxes, user fees, individual pricing?). And so on.

These rules don’t exist in nature; they are human creations. Governments don’t “intrude” on free markets; governments organize and maintain them. Markets aren’t “free” of rules; the rules define them.

Republican rules cause the 1% to get the benefits, and the 99% to pay the costs.

From Blue Oregon: Straight Talk: Oregon republican party chairman Art Robinson

Art Robinson was on KGW’s Straight Talk over the weekend, and I think Laurel Porter is probably still recovering from the post-interview laughing fit she had when it was over because…wow.\\

BARF BAG ALERT!: 24 minutes (or less) of this insane Teabagger is guaranteed to stimulate a projectile visceral response.

From McClatchy DC: Friends say Aaron Alexis [the Navy Yard Shooter] regularly meditated at a local Buddhist temple, was unfailingly courteous and never showed signs of the violence that is now his legacy.

But police reports paint a darker picture of the Fort Worth man, including an anger-fueled "blackout" and shooting in Seattle in 2004 and, more recently, a firearms incident at a Fort Worth apartment, after which a neighbor told police that she was "terrified" of him.

If this guy were white, he’d have been exactly the sort that the Republican Party wants to be able to buy guns without a background check.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 94.  Yesterday I got a treat in the mail from the UK.  American back scratchers are not sufficiently vicious to meet my needs, so I imported one.  I considered importing Pat instead, but she’d be expensive to feed, and I bet she isn’t mean enough to inflict the necessary level of pain.  So I got this one instead.  Purrr!!!  Today is a Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are meditating with the Giants, so I shall be too.  Tomorrow I have a medical appointment.  It’s time to cut the growth from my foot again.  Therefore it’s likely that I will have only an Open Thread on Tuesday, if that.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:48 average 6:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

Short Takes:

From National Memo (Hat-Tip to Carrie at Care2): “Who doesn’t have voter ID?” is a popular question asked by Republicans who argue that the ID requirement for voting is just a simple way to ensure the “integrity” of our elections.

There are many problems with that assertion — foremost: the integrity of our elections isn’t in doubt. The George W. Bush administration investigated the issue for years and found no evidence that voter fraud was being used to swing elections.

So why is the party that hates regulations in favor of a new, necessary government regulation on voting? Because of the answer to the question, “Who doesn’t have voter ID?”

These Republican Voter ID scams are nothing more than an attempt to deprive people who are more likely to vote Democratic of their right to vote, because Republicans cannot win honestly.

From Crooks and Liars: This would be funnier if it weren’t so much truth to it. On Real Time this Friday, Bill Maher coined a new term for those Republicans who were in support of attacking Syria, but have flip-flopped on the issue due to their hatred of President Obama — blacktracking.

What can I say? LMAO!!

From Alternet: …Stuart Varney and Monica Crowley: EPA is trying to suffocate children.

Fox News’ Monica Crowley and Stuart Varney were appalled, appalled I tell you, when they revealed the shocking news this week that the EPA, the evil government’s evil Environmental Protection Agency, is providing free lesson plans for “teachers looking to educate their students on climate change.”

“The EPA — the EPA,” said Varney. And they’re aiming this “propaganda” directly at innocent middle-school children. Of course, these plans have been openly available online for months, but Crowley suspects there is a hidden agenda to this oh-so-sneaky plan. “Are they going to tell these kids to not exhale? Because every time you exhale, that’s carbon dioxide.”

And, carbon dioxide causes global warming, right? So learn to hold your breath, kids.

Well, no, not exactly. The good news is that very soon, kids will know a good deal more than Fox News does about climate change, although that is not saying much. The EPA materials do explain what carbon is and how it plays an important role in sustaining life on the planet. And how the burning of fossil fuels has led to a surplus of life-supporting gases like carbon dioxide, which has made the planet hotter. And other science-type things that no one at Fox News will ever be caught dead, reading or learning, in their indefatigable drive toward making America, hands-down, the dumbest hot country on the planet…

This statement by propagandists for the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, is just one ov seven crazy Republican statements in just the last week. Click through for the other six.

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OOPS!  Missed that deadline!

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 92, and the semi-day off helped.  Yesterday was not quite as hot.  Today will be, because the sun just hit the breezeway.  Sunday can’t come soon enough!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:10 (average 5:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: A group of thousands of "patriots" was planning on taking over Washington, DC yesterday, by force if necessary. According to their Facebook page [Seditionists delinked],

We are NOT going to ask congress to Impeach Obama And HIS Administration,

We ARE going to DEMAND it!

They were planning on using tractor-trailers to block the roads into and out of the city. The trailers would also serve as temporary jail facilities in which to hold members of Congress and other officials who didn’t comply with their demands. They were not going to be armed themselves, but planned to have an armed citizen’s militia waiting in the wings in Virginia to come and save them if authorities in DC became violent. Some of the planners envisioned this as a multi-day event.

This was the gathering that was so nuts that even angry wingnut lunatic Police Chief Mark Kessler of Gilberton, PA distanced himself from it.

They had it all planned out. They were pissed and they weren’t going to take it anymore…

Nobody showed up! 😀

From NY Times: A few days ago, The Times published a report on a society that is being undermined by extreme inequality. This society claims to reward the best and brightest regardless of family background. In practice, however, the children of the wealthy benefit from opportunities and connections unavailable to children of the middle and working classes. And it was clear from the article that the gap between the society’s meritocratic ideology and its increasingly oligarchic reality is having a deeply demoralizing effect.

The report illustrated in a nutshell why extreme inequality is destructive, why claims ring hollow that inequality of outcomes doesn’t matter as long as there is equality of opportunity. If the rich are so much richer than the rest that they live in a different social and material universe, that fact in itself makes nonsense of any notion of equal opportunity…

Click through for an excellent editorial by Paul Krugman. Republicans are working hard to replace the class system with a caste system.

From MSNBC: Rachel Maddow examines the racist Republican "white vote" strategy.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ted Cruz is different from many other Republicans. He does not hide his racism in what he says or does. Most Republican politicians speak of equality, but act as racists. Once even the Republican Party would have condemned Ted Cruz. Now they may nominate him for President.

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