Politics Plus

Yesterday the temperature at my desk reached 102°, and today is forecast several degrees hotter. 🙁

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:59 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Remember the Chambers Brothers? Lead singer Lester Chambers, 73, was attacked by a crazed woman while dedicating "People Get Ready" to Trayvon Martin at The Hayward Russell City Blues Festival in Hayward, California. Chambers was taken to an area hospital.

Republicans predicted there would be violence over the decision. Violence is easier to predict for the violent ones, the Republicans.  The video does not show the attack.  It’s just the song.

From Truthdig: Tell me it’s a sick joke: Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, the guy who tops the list of those responsible for sabotaging the world’s economy, is lobbying to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. But no, it makes perfect sense, since Summers has long succeeded spectacularly by failing. 

Why should his miserable record in the Clinton and Obama administrations hold him back from future disastrous adventures at our expense? With Ben Bernanke set to step down in January, and Obama still in deep denial over the pain and damage his former top economic adviser Summers brought to tens of millions of Americans, this darling of Wall Street has yet another shot to savage the economy.

Summers was one of the key players during the Clinton years in creating the mortgage derivative bubble that ended up costing tens of millions of Americans their homes and life savings. This is the genius who, as Clinton’s Treasury secretary, supported the banking lobby’s successful effort to make the sale of unregulated bundles of mortgage securities and the phony insurance swaps that backed them perfectly legal and totally unmonitored. Those are the toxic bundles that the Federal Reserve is still unloading from the banks at a cost of trillions of dollars.

The three blind mice, Bernanke, Geithner and Summers, were Obama’s three worst appointees. So I can sum up my feelings about putting Summers in charge of the Federal Reserve in a single word:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

From Think Progress: Not often is the general public able to witness the birth of a conspiracy theory in real-time. But deep in the conservative conscience, the immigration-reform-will-lead-to-massive-voter-fraud hypothesis took a big leap forward today, gestating from a peculiar idea espoused by one Tea Party group to a seemingly-credible theory advanced by an influential congresswoman.

The notion was first conceived in May when a Tea Party group organized to advance voter suppression laws, True The Vote, emailed supporters to warn that if immigration reform passes, it could result in “millions of fraudulent voters.” “If this bill passes,” founder Catherine Englebrecht warned, “millions of newly legalized immigrants could overwhelm local and state election offices.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) took the idea one step further on the radio Monday, arguing on Wallbuilders Live that once immigration reform passes, President Obama will simply wave a magic wand and “grant wholesale voting rights way ahead of whatever the bill says.”

What can I say? Batshit crazy to the very end!

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Writing early for day 31, it’s a muggy morning on what promises to be a very hot day.  I’m tired from doing laundry.  I still HATE laundry.  Time to go bury myself in my box.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:03).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Huffington Post: Martin family lawyer Ben Crump told reporters:

"The whole world was looking at this case for a reason, and what people wanted to see, as we all said, was how far we had come in America in matters of equal justice. It would be intellectually dishonest if we didn’t acknowledge the racial undertones of this case. … We have to have very responsible conversations about how we get better as a country and move forward from this tragedy and learn from it."

Benjamin Jealous, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said in a statement:

"We are outraged and heartbroken over today’s verdict. We stand with Trayvon’s family and we are called to act. We will pursue civil rights charges with the Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the removal of Stand Your Ground laws in every state, and we will not rest until racial profiling in all its forms is outlawed."

Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson said in a tweet:

"Find a way for self construction not deconstruction in this time of despair. Avoid violence, it will lead to more tragedies."

Civil rights activist and TV host Al Sharpton said in a statement:

"The acquittal of George Zimmerman is a slap in the face to the American people but it is only the first round in the pursuit of justice."

I agree with these people. Hopefully a federal civil rights trial, if Holder does the right thing, and a civil suit may be just.

From MSNBC: NTSB and TV Station Go Republican

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

KTVU may not be overtly racist, but I label them Republican for parroting the story without thought. I do hope that the Republican intern at NTSB was fired.

From Think Progress: Congressman Steve King (R-IA) suggested Sunday that George Zimmerman should never have even had to stand trial for killing Trayvon Martin, blaming President Obama and his Department of Justice for the case.

Faux Noise and King are, as always, lying. Obama had nothing to do with this.

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And now they want out again!

I’m writing later than usual for day 29, and this morning’s trip went well.  I filled out an application, and if approved, I will move next month into a building with an elevator, and where I can install an air conditioner.  I got out and back in the cool of the day, and although it was my longest walk since being released from the hospital, I weathered it well enough to continue blogging without the break I anticipated.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:38 (average 4:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Republican lawmakers in the Texas State Senate are proposing a precedent-setting new bill that would make it illegal for women to live in the state.

Senator Harland Dorrinson, one of the many pro-life lawmakers backing the woman ban, crafted his bill after witnessing Senator Wendy Davis filibuster an anti-abortion bill last month.

“That was our moment to say, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” he said. “This comes down to a choice between life and women, and we choose life.”

Humor aside, that is the very kindest thing they could do for women living in Texas.

From NY Times: Republicans muscled a pared-back agriculture bill through the House on Thursday, stripping out the food stamp program to satisfy recalcitrant conservatives but losing what little Democratic support the bill had when it failed last month. It was the first time food stamps had not been a part of the farm bill since 1973.

This is 100% political theatre. Nobody in their right mind believes that this could pass the Senate. But it serves as yet another illustration of the Republican war on the poor and middle classes. I’m happy to report that not one single Democrat goose-stepped with the Republicans.

From Bloomberg: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a bill aimed at re-creating the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era measure that separated commercial and investment banking.

“It will take a lot of tools to get rid of too-big-to-fail, but one of them ought to be that if you want to do high-stakes gambling, good on you, but you do not get access to people’s checking accounts and savings accounts,” Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Bloomberg Television’s Peter Cook in an interview today.

The bill sponsored by Warren along with Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, and Angus King, a Maine independent, would separate traditional banks that offer checking and savings accounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from “riskier financial institutions.” The latter category includes companies involved in investment banking, insurance, swaps dealing, hedge funds and private equity, according to the lawmakers’ statement released yesterday.

Bravo!! This has been way to long in coming and is a fitting legacy as Elizabeth Warren’s first Senate Bill. I see little chance of passage, but it will help show voters who represents whom.

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I’m writing early as is becoming my practice.  The temperature at my desk has cooled to a livable 78°, and today is not supposed to be as bad as yesterday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Truthdig: Since 9/11, American law enforcement has taken a disproportionate interest in American Muslims across the country, seeing a whole community as a national security threat, particularly in California and New York City. But here’s the thing: the facts that have been piling up ever since that date don’t support such suspicion. Not at all.

The numbers couldn’t be clearer: right-wing extremists have committed far more acts of political violence since 1990 than American Muslims. That law enforcement across the country hasn’t felt similarly compelled to infiltrate and watch over conservative Christian communities in the hopes of disrupting violent right-wing extremism confirms what American Muslims know in their bones: to be different is to be suspect.

I have said for many years that Al Dubya is a far greater threat to America’s freedom than Al Qaeda ever was.

From Think Progress: Antonio Vanegas may be deported because he filed a complaint against his employer over unpaid hours at a food court restaurant, according to the Huffington Post on Tuesday. The Guatemala native was detained for four days after exposing labor violations at the pita shop where he worked. He now faces a deportation hearing in August.

Vanegas, a federal contract worker at Quick Pita inside DC’s Ronald Reagan Building, said that he worked upwards of sixty hours a week, but did not receive overtime pay. He claimed that he was paid $6.50 an hour under the table even though federal law dictates that contract workers like Vanegas should make the local prevailing wage — $8.25 an hour in DC.

Vanegas’s legal status was never an issue during his three years of working at Quick Pita, even though numerous police officers and immigration agents made up his customer base. Only when he was vocal about being underpaid and overworked did the Federal Protective Service, a security branch of the Department of Homeland Security, show up to take away Vanegas’s work badge. At the same time, he was turned over to immigration officials. He also lost his job.

There could not be a better explanation of why Republicans want to retain a large undocumented work force.

From Crooks and Liars: A Libertarian activist who posted a July Fourth video of himself loading live ammunition into a shotgun in downtown Washington, D.C. was reportedly arrested late Tuesday.

Adam Kokesh’s producer and roommate Darrell Young told WRC that the gun activist’s home was searched by U.S. Park Police in connection with the YouTube video that shows the shotgun being illegally loaded in downtown D.C.

Fairfax County police assisted in the search and said that Kokesh was taken into custody and charged with possession of a Schedule I or II drug and possession of a Schedule I or II drug while in possession of a firearm.

It’s always good news to report such an event in the life of a ‘Republicans on Parade’ honoree. I hope that he receives a long opportunity to change his ways.

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The first Bankster to bite the dust! 😉