Politics Plus

Writing for day 49, it’s cooler, and I should have a few days of comfort, before the heat returns this weekend.  I’m working harder than normal, because I have been collecting the data for our Monthly Report, and I’m also still running on a bad sleep deficit, mostly because of heat and noise.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:28 (average 4:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: If you live in the south, you’re no doubt familiar with Bojangles.  The ubiquitous Charlotte, NC-based chicken and biscuit chain has 500 locations sprinkled across 11 states.

Until today, Bojangles had been a regular advertiser on the Rush Limbaugh Show, sponsoring traffic on WBT-Charlotte nearly every day during the controversial program.  And for months, the company had declined to respond to Flush Rush pressure that they remove the ads.

Kudos to Bojangles, although they should never have supported the philosophical head of the Republican Party at all.

From NY Times: …Nearly 6 in 10 Republicans believe that they need to reconsider some positions, while just over a third believe that the party mainly needs to make a stronger case for its current positions…

…But that’s where things get tricky. Fifty-four percent believe that party leaders need to move in a more conservative direction, while only 40 percent believe that they need to move in a more moderate direction.

MORE conservative?!!? One night as well tell Hitler to be more Nazi!

From SPLC:

James Timothy Turner, the president of the largest antigovernment “sovereign citizen” group in the country, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison on Wednesday for tax crimes. Turner was convicted in March of every count he faced, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; six counts related to fake financial instruments; obstructing the Internal Revenue Service; and failing to file a tax return in 2009.

In delivering the sentence, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said he considered two factors –– the vindictiveness Turner had shown in going after federal employees who had challenged his interpretation of the law and Turner’s age. At 57, Turner will be an elderly man when he is released from prison, even if he is released early for good behavior.

This is a sad day in the annals of TEAbuggery. However, I hope the man gets an opportunity in prison to learn about his dysfunctional thinking and that he takes that opportunity to become an authentic human being.

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Yesterday was cooler, as it only reached 92° at my desk, and as I write for day 45, I actually feel cold, because the temperature inside has dropped to 75°.  Hopefully, I’ll be done here before the fantasy football draft.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 5:20).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Think Progress: A growing number of Republicans are publicly distancing themselves from Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) claim that many undocumented youths are drug mules with cantaloupe-sized calves, but the conservative congressman claims that GOP lawmakers are backing him in private.

During an appearance on Fox News on Saturday, King said that Republicans are in fact standing by him, but are afraid to publicly support him for fear of sparking outrage and losing their legislative leverage.

“My colleagues are standing by me. They come up to me constantly and talk to me and say, you’re right, I know you’re right,” King said. “Is the description such that they have to go out to the press and do a press conference or can they come and tell me, I know you’re right, I support you? They can do that privately,” he said.

I’m surprised to say that Steve King actually told the truth on Faux Noise. I have no doubt that his colleagues, who are distancing themselves publically, are doing so only to hide their own Racism, so of course they support him in private. That is the problem, and that’s what the legislation they propose projects.

From Raw Story: Barack Obama has given the strongest indication to date that he holds reservations about the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, saying the project would not create many jobs and could raise gasoline prices.

In an interview with the New York Times, the president disputed a main justification for the pipeline – its economic benefits – and reaffirmed he would reject the project if it expanded carbon pollution.

How could it not expand carbon pollution when we would be refining that filthy sludge here here?  The only way I can see to make it greenhouse gases neutral would by to export a TEABagger to Canada for every barrel of tar sands oil we import.

From Crooks and Liars:

Do you remember how ape-shit Republicans got after someone leaked the email list of left-leaning, centrist and even conservative journos and wonks called Journolist? Tucker Carlson and many other thumbsuckers cried out in the night like babies in their cribs. Dana Perino said this on FOX News about Journolist.

Perino: I don’t know any conservatives who actually participate in something like that.

Really? I knew many people on the Journolist and believe me it was just a list that was used to chat about politics. I’ve been on a few lists myself over the years and most of the time it’s just a forum for people to discuss breaking news stories and proposed legislation and nothing more. It wasn’t used to start a "30 Front War."

Isn’t it funny now that we learn Conservatives have indeed had their own email list all along, but they also took it much farther by holding secret meetings in a DC office to come up with ideas and strategies to shape the political narrative. They even have a Supreme Court Justice’s wife on their team. What interesting pillow talk Ginni and Clarence must have! That’s something that the left has never done. When I heard the news, I immediately wondered how FOX news would report on the story. Well, as of right now I can’t report how they handled it, because they completely buried the story… [emphasis added]

Of course Republicans are projecting, as always, accusing lefties of doing what Republicans are doing themselves. Here’s the projection in progress.  Watch the goose-steppers lie!

There’s one key difference. Liberal journalists discuss news to try to understand it. The Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, and the rest of the Republican fantasy factory discuss news to try to distort it.

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The U.S. government welcomed the action and announced its intention to open serious discussions with Cuba on normalization.  Then Republicans happened.

I’m writing for day 43, and I feel exhausted, but it’s too damn hot to rest.  My volunteer trip to prison pushed the limits of my physical ability, and then some, because the prison was very hot too.  However, I felt joy at seeing my guys.  Critter, who will be released in September, sends greetings to Critter.  The sad news is that the parole board flopped the man I think most deserving of parole of all, and did so in a most Republican fashion.  My discussion last night with the most high was laced with profanity.  Please play for the man’s success in his Administrative Review.  After today’s intense heat, there may be a few cooler days coming.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football News:

I’m pleased to share that our league now has ten players and is full.  Don’t forget our live online draft is Sunday, 7/28, at 11 AM Pacific, 12 Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central, and 2 PM Eastern DST.  See you there.

Short Takes:

From The Nation: Late last night, the North Carolina legislature passed the country’s worst voter suppression law after only three days of debate. Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog called it “the most sweeping anti-voter law in at least decades” The bill mandates strict voter ID to cast a ballot (no student IDs, no public employee IDs, etc.), even though 318,000 registered voters lack the narrow forms of acceptable ID according to the state’s own numbers and there have been no recorded prosecutions of voter impersonation in the past decade. The bill cuts the number of early voting days by a week, even though 56 percent of North Carolinians voted early in 2012. The bill eliminates same-day voter registration during the early voting period, even though 96,000 people used it during the general election in 2012 and states that have adopted the convenient reform have the highest voter turnout in the country. African-Americans are 23 percent of registered voters in the state, but made up 28 percent of early voters in 2012, 33 percent of those who used same-day registration and 34 percent of those without state-issued ID.

And that’s just the start of it. In short, the bill eliminates practically everything that encourages people to vote in North Carolina, replaced by unnecessary and burdensome new restrictions. At the same time, the bill expands the influence of unregulated corporate influence in state elections. Just what our democracy needs—more money and less voting!

The Republican plan for elections is that they are the only ones that get to vote.

From NY Times: Leading Republicans appear to be nerving themselves up for another round of attempted fiscal blackmail. With the end of the fiscal year looming, they aren’t offering the kinds of compromises that might produce a deal and avoid a government shutdown; instead, they’re drafting extremist legislation — bills that would, for example, cut clean-water grants by 83 percent — that has no chance of becoming law. Furthermore, they’re threatening, once again, to block any rise in the debt ceiling, a move that would damage the U.S. economy and possibly provoke a world financial crisis.

Yet even as Republican politicians seem ready to go on the offensive, there’s a palpable sense of anxiety, even despair, among conservative pundits and analysts. Better-informed people on the right seem, finally, to be facing up to a horrible truth: Health care reform, President Obama’s signature policy achievement, is probably going to work.

And the good news about Obamacare is, I’d argue, what’s driving the Republican Party’s intensified extremism. Successful health reform wouldn’t just be a victory for a president conservatives loathe, it would be an object demonstration of the falseness of right-wing ideology. So Republicans are being driven into a last, desperate effort to head this thing off at the pass.

Click through for the rest of this superb analysis from Paul Krugman.

From MSNBC: Juror says Zimmerman got away with murder.

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

At the time, I worried that the judge’s instructions to the jury were so skewed that the jury’s hands would be tied. On the other hand B-37’s identification with Zimmerman was clearly racist.

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