Yesterday, from the perspective of when I will post this, was another hot one, but I’m beating it by doing my research in the morning and writing the articles in the afternoon. The “breezeway” has super-heated to 99° at 3:00 PM, put heat exhaustion is not yet sufficient to keep me from writing. Late tonight, I’ll fill in the puzzle times and post it.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:33 (average 5:33). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: You’ll Never Guess What 30,000 MoveOn Members Did After Hurricane Katrina.
This is what Democrats did, when Republicans were using the disaster to make New Orleans a white city. It shows what matters to whom.
…I know many people often cite BIll’s editing of each segment which would always give him the upper hand, but knowing what your guest is going to say before he or she says it is not playing it fair and balanced, Billy. Your show is rigged, period.
Is it any wonder that I call him Bill O’Lielly?
From Right Wing Watch: WorldNetDaily columnist Erik Rush is reiterating his case for armed resistance against the Obama administration today, calling for a revolution [terrorist delinked]to topple President Obama just as colonists rebelled against King George III.
According to Rush, Obama is creating a government of “absolute despotism” and along with Attorney General Eric Holder is trying to “enslave the people.” Rush asks: “Is this not an identical situation to that in which America’s founders found themselves – and which they became willing to fight to overcome?”
He argues that Obama is trying to “import” Muslims, whom he claim are part of a “retrograde cult of oppression and death,” into the U.S. and turn them into “Obama’s cutthroat foot soldiers” who might be “mobilized to rise up, paralyze America with widespread terror attacks, and incite the chaos that will necessitate martial law and an end to our free society.”
How Republican!! Lies, projection, hate, terrorism, bigotry, pseudo-Christianity, TEAbuggery and sedition, all in one brief statement!!!
It was one degree cooler today than yesterday, but it was hotter inside, because the heat absorbed by the building’s brick work had not yet dissipated when reheated today. It’s still 89° inside, and I’m wilted. Unfortunately tomorrow looks like another hot one. I’ll try to get some sleep and do what I can of tomorrow’s writing, before it heats up tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:21 (average 5:05). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Based on another audio clip from the "Battlefield Dallas" meeting that Battleground Texas just posted, it is evident that the TX GOP is no longer even trying to pretend that they’re not waging a war on black voters:
Question: "What are the Republicans doing to get black people to vote?"
Ken Emanuelson: "Well, I’m going to be real honest with you: The Republican Party doesn’t want black people to vote, if they’re going to vote 9 to 1 for Democrats."
…
That Republicans believe that how black people are likely to vote morally justifies depriving them of that right is the most despicable thing about this statement.
From TPM: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Tuesday that he’s prepared to vote against the very immigration reform bill on which he’s taken a leading role and ostensibly staked much of his political future.
Rubio told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt [Propagandist delinked] that "a sizeable number of Republicans" are prepared to vote in favor of immigration reform, but not until amendments are added to the Gang of 8’s proposal that will strengthen border security and limit the discretion given to the Department of Homeland Security in the bill’s ultimate implementation…
Do you remember how Lindsey "Poo" Graham (R-SC) pretended to support and work on ObamaCare, only to stall and weaken it, but pulled out the rug at the last minute? I think that this is also a bad faith effort to destroy immigration reform, maintaining the charade that he favors reform, while catering to the hatred of the Republican base.
Earlier this week, several civil rights groups filed an official complaint against Judge Edith Jones, a former chief judge of the powerful United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, alleging that she claimed that African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed towards violent crime and that the death penalty is a public service because it allows inmates to “make peace with God.” Though these allegations will need to be proven during the formal ethics process, they are entirely in line with Jones’ past record. Here are some other facts you should know about Judge Edith Jones:
1. Edith Jones Waved Off Horrific Sexual Harassment
A paper mill worker named Susan Waltman’s supervisor told her to have sex with a co-worker, “pinched her buttocks with pliers and tried to put his hands in her back pockets,” and fellow employees hung used tampons from their lockers. When she complained to a manager, she was told she should “expect this type of behavior working with men.” After she complained, an employee of another company that worked in the mill grabbed her arm while she was carrying a vial of hot liquid, and another worker stuck his tongue in her ear. One of her co-workers told her “he would cut off her breast and shove it down her throat.” He later dangled her over a stairwell thirty feet above the floor. Though she met with senior managers about these incidents, the harassment continued. At one point, a co-worker “grabbed Waltman’s breasts and directed a high pressure hose at her crotch.”
Judge Jones wrote a dissenting opinion claiming that this woman’s sexual harassment suit should be thrown out.
2. Edith Jones Thinks Victims Of Employment Discrimination Should ‘”Take A Better Second Job Instead Of Bringing Suit”
In a speech at the University of Texas, Jones claimed that employment discrimination suits “seldom turn on evidence of race- or sex-based discrimination” and generally involve “petty interoffice disputes, recrimination, second-guessing and suspicion.” She advised workers claiming discrimination to “[t]ake a better second job instead of bringing suit,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
3. Edith Jones Thinks A Man Whose Lawyer Slept Through Much Of His Trial Should Be Executed
Click through. There’s much more to come. She should certainly be disbarred. Only one word comes to mind that adequately describes her complete lack of decency. Edith Jones is a Republican!
Yesterday was very difficult. After blogging, I napped until health techs from my O2 company came to give me saturation tests. They confirmed that I still need O2. Shortly after I dozed off again, the delivery guy from my 02 company came to exchange my empty tanks for full ones. By then it was too hot to sleep. Yesterday was our first really hot day. It reached 84° outside, but the sun superheated the enclosed “breezeway” outside my windows to 112°. My apartment reached 98° and at 2:15 AM is still 86°. Needless to say, this Open Thread is all for today.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:57 (average 4:24). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Alternet: The background to the story is that in January, a vote within the new House Republican caucus occurred on whether to keep Boehner on as speaker. Some conservatives were upset that Boehner had allowed a deal to be struck that averted the so-called “fiscal cliff,” and they wanted Boehner out because of it. But in the end, only 12 GOP members voted against Boehner. That was short of the 17 needed to force another vote on the Speaker slot.
Yesterday, the Washington Post revealed new details about why Boehner kept his slot in a story published about the Republican Party’s warring factions. One reason why Boehner wasn’t ousted is because “several Republicans, after a night of prayer, said God told them to spare the speaker,” according to the Post’s Paul Kane.
I’d bet that God, in this case, are the brothers that pay the Tea Party to be Koch suckers, or the guy that inspires turds to blossom.
From Daily Kos: At a press conference this afternoon, Republican Gov. Chris Christie announced that a special election to fill the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s Senate seat would take place on Oct. 16 (a Wednesday), with a primary to be held on Aug. 13. This move will undoubtedly please Democrats, who will have the chance to replace Lautenberg quickly. And Christie, who is up for re-election this November, gets to avoid sharing a ballot with a popular Democrat such as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has long had his eye on the Senate.
Republican partisans will probably be upset, though, since an interim pick (which Christie did not yet announce) could have conceivably served through at least November 2014, giving the GOP one extra vote on the Senate floor for almost 18 months.
I disagree with this author. Chris Hayes explained why well.
By squandering $12 million that belongs to NJ taxpayers Christie has made sure that voters who turn out for Corey Booker will not be there to oppose him and down ballot NJ Republicans, unless they male a separate trip to the polls just three weeks later to do so. This makes it more likely that Republicans will win the state’s seats in the US House, the NJ House, and the NJ Senate, even if Christie would have won either way. His solution was as sleazy as it was brilliant.
From Huffington Post: House Republicans are scheduled to vote on two separate budget bills this week, each of which would reject funding for the poverty activism group ACORN, despite the fact that ACORN disbanded three years ago.
ACORN, also known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, came under heavy fire in the fall of 2009 after conservative videographer James O’Keefe released a set of selectively edited videos that appeared to show its employees offering advice on tax avoidance related to prostitution and child smuggling. Independent investigations by the California attorney general, the Massachusetts attorney general and the Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney would later clear ACORN of criminal wrongdoing, and an investigation by the Government Accountability Office would clear ACORN of charges that it mishandled federal funds.
But in the fall of 2009, Congress banned federal funding for ACORN using broad language that applied to "any organization" that had been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws or campaign finance laws or with filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. The funding ban also extended to any employees, contractors or others affiliated with any group so charged.
Struggling with the bad publicity and loss of federal funds, ACORN dissolved in early 2010. Just to be sure, however, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) included this language in a government funding bill introduced on May 28 of this year: "None of the funds made available in this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries or successors."… [emphasis added]
I have no doubt that Congressional Republicans know that they have already defunded ACORN and that it disbanded over three years ago, so this is just one more example in the long list of non-existent scandals that the Republican Party is using to drum up fear, racism and blood lust in their rabid base. However, given their total ignorance on this document, House Republicans probably do not know that the US Constitution forbids bills of attainder, such as this one.
Cartoon:
The kite flew after Ben followed his wife’s advice that he needed more tail, even though she had told him to go fly a kite the night before.
Yesterday threw me off my schedule. After I posted the Open Thread, I went to sleep, but was quickly awakened by a call from a social worker who may have a lead on a new place for me. She referred me to another social worker, whom she said knew I would call. I had to leave voice mail. I waited for him to call, and felt too excited to sleep. I finally went back to sleep yesterday evening, but the telephone woke me up. Half-asleep, I thought it might be the social worker, but it was a wrong number from a collection agency who did not want to believe that I have had my number for over ten years, and I am not the guy whose pound of flesh he wanted. Grrr! I went ahead and started my research early, because it’s too hot and I’m too irritated to sleep. I even have an extra article, but this Open Thread is the major post today.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:33 (average 5:14). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Think Progress: The College Republican National Committee released a report on Monday outlining the major challenges facing the GOP as it seeks to rebrand and redefine itself in the aftermath of the 2012 election. The survey criticizes the party’s singular focus on “big government” and “tax cuts” and calls on Republicans to become more tolerant and open on issues like same-sex marriage and women’s reproductive health.
But a close reading of the 90-page report finds that young people have strong disagreements with Republican policies — including large parts of former candidate’s Mitt Romney’s platform — and are far more likely to support progressive positions. Here are 11 examples:…
Click through for the 11 examples. This Republican survey describes a complete antithesis of everything the Republican party represents.
Note how the Republican ducked Chris’ questions attempting to spin (spell that l-i-e) their own poll results to fit InsaniTEA.
From Me: When the IRS scandal broke, the first thing I did was to read the statute. I was most surprised to discover that the regulation people at the IRS violated and the language of the statute itself are completely unrelated.
When I’m wrong, I say so. Therefore I suppose I should also pat myself on the back, when I’m especially right, because I did what all the major TV journalists, save one, have still failed to do. I analyzed the scandal accurately, because I read the law.
From MSNBC: Rachel Maddow reflected on the career of Frank Lautenberg.
RIP Frank, and thank you for a job well done. I’d hate to be in Christie’s shoes right now. If he does the right thing, he will lose the rabid Republican base, and all chance at the 2016 Republican nomination. If he doesn’t, he will lose the support of NJ Democrats in 2014, possibly costing him the governorship.
ARGH! The best laid plans of mice and men. Before leaving to my doctor’s appointment, I swapped in my last unused O2 bottle to meet my needs during the trip. It was empty, and with no oxygen I cannot go. I called and left a message. I just hope I don’t have to pay for a missed appointment. ARGH! That is why I have this for you today, albeit late.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:33 (average 4:33). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Since the American-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one of the world’s top oil producers, and China is now its biggest customer.
China already buys nearly half the oil that Iraq produces, nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, and is angling for an even bigger share, bidding for a stake now owned by Exxon Mobil in one of Iraq’s largest oil fields.
“The Chinese are the biggest beneficiary of this post-Saddam oil boom in Iraq,” said Denise Natali, a Middle East expert at the National Defense University in Washington. “They need energy, and they want to get into the market.”
Instead of the issue of 4 US deaths in Benghazi, shouldn’t we be still be asking about 4,000+ US deaths in Iraq. It is ultimate failure that $1 Trillion+ and all those irreplaceable lives spent on Bush’s Republican War for Oil and Conquest has brought Oil for China and a new client state for Iraq.
In football terms, "piling on" means jumping on a player when he’s down. In the economic new normal described by Bernie Sanders, it means taking most of the wealth and all of the income, moving profits and jobs overseas, and making impoverished people pay the bills.
1. Taking ALL the Income
Charles Koch said, "I want my fair share — and that’s all of it." He’s been getting his wish lately. In the first two years of the recovery, the richest 1% seemingly impossibly captured 121% of the income gains, while incomes for 99% of Americans declined, with the median household income dropping by 7.3 percent.
More and more people are working in respectable but low-wage positions in food service and retail. Low-income jobs ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour) made up one-fifth of the jobs lost to the recession, but accounted for three-fifths of the jobs regained during the recovery.
I urge you to click through to see three more ways in which the 1%, aided by their Republican lackeys, are screwing the rest of us.
From Crooks & Liars: Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Sunday said that Washington should stay out of the business of ensuring equal pay because "what women want" is just to be "recognized."
During a panel discussion on NBC about a recent Pew report that found women had become primary source of income in 40 percent of U.S. households, Blackburn said that it was "up to companies to make sure there is a level playing field and that women are not shortchanged as they try to get on that latter to success."
It’s up to companies to ensure equal pay for equal work, just like it’s up to foxes to ensure safety for the residents of hen houses. She says that recognition is more important for women that equal pay. TEAbuggery!! Companies recognize the value of workers through pay and benefits, because the only language spoken in corporate America is $$$.
Cartoon:
Republicans are already trying to ban what they consider degenerate art. Notice any similarities with how Republicans portray Obama?
Yesterday I got some sleep, so I have another article for you today. I had to set back my quit date to the 14th, because the plan has me taking Chantix for a full week before quitting, and I still have not received my prescription. Tomorrow will definitely be a short writing day, if any at all, because I will be making my first major excursion, since leaving the hospital: my quarterly foot surgery at my podiatrist’s office to remove the recurrent growth. For the next day, we’ll have to wait and see how well I handle this trip. I plan no Monthly Report for May, but our top commentators were:
Today’s took me 4:29 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Politicus USA: During the George W. Bush presidency, there was a lot of talk about patriotism any time a question arose about the legitimacy of the Iraq war, and the implication was that questioning the Bush administration was unpatriotic because a real patriot is someone who feels strong support for his or her country regardless the leader’s deceit in taking a nation to war based on lies. Early in President Obama’s first term, the Koch brothers, neo-conservatives, and Republican Party took advantage of racial animus for the African American President and funded a so-called “grassroots” movement of alleged patriots who, within months of the President’s swearing in, complained they were overtaxed and suffering tyranny. The teabaggers, as they called themselves, immediately claimed they were patriots and any opposition to their agenda was tantamount to Marxism or Nazism and they demanded to take “their country” back to when a white man inhabited the Oval Office. However, there is nothing remotely resembling patriotism in teabagger ranks, and as time went on a pattern developed that linked teabaggers to the Taliban and it did not take long for them to threaten violence to impose their will.
The concept of threatening, calling for, and inciting violence against the government has never been part of being a patriotic American, but there has been no dearth of violent threats from conservative malcontents that make up the majority of teabaggers. Recently, another instance of a teabagger calling for gun violence was reported over a Republican senator’s vote for immigration reform, and it is becoming an all too common occurrence unique to the so-called patriot group that throughout its existence threatened violence and armed insurrection to control the direction of the government. Threatening to use force to impose their will is not limited to disaffected racists, and has been embraced by teabag leaders since the anti-American group came into existence…
How many times do I have to say it? Thou shalt not commit TEAbuggery!!!
From NY Times: …Whether directly from their wallets or through insurance policies, Americans pay more for almost every interaction with the medical system. They are typically prescribed more expensive procedures and tests than people in other countries, no matter if those nations operate a private or national health system. A list of drug, scan and procedure prices compiled by the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurers, found that the United States came out the most costly in all 21 categories — and often by a huge margin.
Americans pay, on average, about four times as much for a hip replacement as patients in Switzerland or France and more than three times as much for a Caesarean section as those in New Zealand or Britain. The average price for Nasonex, a common nasal spray for allergies, is $108 in the United States compared with $21 in Spain. The costs of hospital stays here are about triple those in other developed countries, even though they last no longer, according to a recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that studies health policy.
While the United States medical system is famous for drugs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and heroic care at the end of life, it turns out that a more significant factor in the nation’s $2.7 trillion annual health care bill may not be the use of extraordinary services, but the high price tag of ordinary ones. “The U.S. just pays providers of health care much more for everything,” said Tom Sackville, chief executive of the health plans federation and a former British health minister…
As always, the problem rests not, as Republicans deceitfully claim, with the need of those whom they call "takers", but with the greed of the 1%.
From Salon.com: When Anthony Weiner resigned from his post as congressman due to an embarrassing Twitpic scandal in 2011, the media expected that any serious political career was over. But Weiner has recently returned to politics, entering the Democratic primary as a mayoral candidate; not only is the media taking his bid seriously — but it’s possible that thanks to deep pockets and a vibrant persona he could win it.
The only difference between Weiner and Republicans, who still live after scandal, such as ‘Trailwalker’ Sanford (R-NC) and "Diaper Dave" Vitter (R-LA) is that Weiner never claimed to be a paragon of "family values" virtue, ordained by Supply-side Jesus (not the real one) to practice pseudo-Christian judgment and condemnation of others. In any case, with Batshit Bachmann leaving, a Weiner in the mayor’s office would give the comedy profession a much needed boost.
Yesterday there seemed to be an unwritten law: TC will get no sleep. My plan was to catch up on sleep, but every time I fell asleep, I was awakened by a UPS delivery, an unexpected visit from a volunteer, a telephone call from my podiatrist to remind me of my appointment Monday, a phone call from my O2 provider to schedule an oxygen saturation test, and the list goes on.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:19). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Republicans are doing their best to persuade Americans that the Affordable Care Act will drive health insurance premiums so high that consumers will experience “rate shock.” That fear-provoking tale seems much less credible now that the rates proposed by health insurers for individual coverage on the new health care exchanges have been made public in several states. For the most part, the premiums will increase only slightly or even decrease for individuals and family coverage on the exchanges, electronic marketplaces in which consumers choose among a variety of plans with differing benefits and costs.
The reported rates are in states that have elected to run their own exchanges, which are set to start enrolling people in October for coverage that begins in January 2014. Many states with Republican governors have refused to set up exchanges and have left that task to the Obama administration. In 19 states where the exchanges will be entirely run by the federal government, more health insurance companies are entering the markets and injecting competition that should help hold down costs, the administration said on Thursday. Premiums are subject to many competing pressures, but, in several states, competition appears to be offsetting factors that might push rates up.
In California, officials announced last week that 13 insurers were awarded contracts to sell policies on the state’s health care exchanges next year. The companies submitted bids, which came in much lower than virtually all experts and actuaries had forecast…
When Republicans first started making this claim, before ObamaCare had even become the law, largely because of two things. First companies have to submit bids and be accepted to even offer their products on an exchange, replacing collusion with competition. And second companies are required to spend 80% of premiums collected on benefits. These pluses for US customers make Republicans all the more frantic to spread lies about ObamaCare.
From The New Yorker: In the latest scandal to rock the Obama Administration, a leading Republican congressman accused the President today of using his position to obtain free government housing for himself and his family.
According to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), Mr. Obama “has arrogantly exploited the office of President to gain access to a fifty-five-thousand-square-foot residence that could double as a museum.”
“While the average American is struggling to pay his bills, President Obama is living in a luxury home, adorned with priceless paintings and antiques as far as the eye can see,” Rep. Ryan alleged.
Additionally, the Wisconsin congressman said, the President has availed himself of “sumptuous free meals—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—all on the taxpayer’s nickel.”…
Dang! I’m sure no white Republican President would even dream of committing such a vile act! 😉
Despite the obvious irreverent hilarity, he made an excellent point about the failure of Democrats to embrace a natural issue for us. After over 30 years, I have no desire to start using it again, but I see it as a nonviolent activity that could become a valuable source of tax revenue instead of a harmful distraction to law enforcement and a far too expensive contributor to the shameful condition that the US incarcerates the highest percentage of our citizens in the world.
Although I am pretty tired, I have two more for you today. I plan to catch up on sleep later.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:00 (average 5:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Like many observers, I usually read reports about political goings-on with a sort of weary cynicism. Every once in a while, however, politicians do something so wrong, substantively and morally, that cynicism just won’t cut it; it’s time to get really angry instead. So it is with the ugly, destructive war against food stamps.
The food stamp program — which these days actually uses debit cards, and is officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — tries to provide modest but crucial aid to families in need. And the evidence is crystal clear both that the overwhelming majority of food stamp recipients really need the help, and that the program is highly successful at reducing “food insecurity,” in which families go hungry at least some of the time.
Food stamps have played an especially useful — indeed, almost heroic — role in recent years. In fact, they have done triple duty…
This Krugman editorial is a must read to understand the positive effects food stamps have, both for the families who receive them, and for the economy as a whole. He also covers Republican class warfare and their intent to eventually eliminate the program altogether. I encourage you to click through to read the entire article.
From MSNBC: Rachel Maddow discusses the use of political threats.
Considering the targets, the violence, and the ignorance, this can be nothing other than InsaniTEA, although I would think that making seditious threats against the President should be sentenced to only six months, when the penalty for Sedition is up to ten years.
From Daily Kos: Surprise! CBO report shows 50% of government tax expenditures go to top 20% of earners
Welfare for the top 1% is more than double that for the bottom 20%. Isn’t that bass ackwards? Of course the Republican solution is to cut taxes for the 1%, but to raise YOUR taxes.
Cartoon:
Republicans want to give us the freedom to lose the right to elect our Senators by repealing the 17th Amendment, because they cannot gerrymander Senate seats.
