Politics Plus

The day off yesterday did me a lot of good, as I slept most of the day.  That has left me a bit groggy, but groggy from too much sleep is better than bleary-eyed from too little.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow looks good.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:49 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Misery:

This is the first Sunday since the Ellipsoid Orb has gone dark, shedding no light to the world, and depriving the faithful of meditation.  May we survive this horrid time.

Short Takes:

From Chicago Tribune: Action film star Steven Seagal, who racks up big body counts in his on-screen battles with bad guys, took on a new role on Saturday, training posse volunteers for controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio in how to use guns to protect schools in shooting incidents.

Great! The Arizona Death Angel, Jan Brewer, and her Republican Cronies have an actor, on behalf of an idiot, teaching gung-ho militia types to use guns around kids.  InsaniTEA!

From NY Magazine: In a move that’s baffled and enraged his staunchly libertarian fans, three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul has asked the World Intellectual Property Organization to confiscate two domain names currently held by his supporters: RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org. In a Friday blog post [wing-nuts delinked], the sites’ proprietors fired back at their hero by claiming that they’d already offered to let Paul buy RonPaul.com (and its 170,000-follower mailing list) for a measly $250,000. (RonPaul.org was apparently thrown in as "a free gift.") After all, that’s the proper market economy way to handle this situation … right? Instead, their beloved leader has chosen to expropriate private property with the help of a major bastion of liberal tyranny: the United Nations, which controls the WIPA.

Ron Paul is as big a hypocrite as he is a corporatist, a misogynist, and a racist.  I just wish he had not littered the Senate before he left.

From Think Progress: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), like Republican governors all across the country, aims to implement a regressive tax plan that involves cutting income taxes for the rich while, in his case, maintaining a sales tax hike that primarily hurts the poor. The sales tax increase was supposed to be temporary when it was adopted in 2010, but Brownback now wants to make permanent.

Sales taxes disproportionately impact the poor, who are more likely to spend all or most of their income. According to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Brownback’s plan will raise taxes on the poorest Kansans, but still lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue due to huge tax cuts for the rich.

As I have often said before, Republicans oppose raising taxes only for millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. They want to raise YOUR taxes whenever they can.

Cartoon:

Something must have been going on downtown yesterday, because there were helicopters low over my building for the early part of my sleep time, so I’m pretty pooped.  I’m current with replies and should be OK tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:45 (average 5:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: BREAKING: MoveOn Makes A Bet That A Million Progressive Leaders Are Yet To Be Sparked

Kudos to MoveOn. They have done a spectacular job in the past and their future appears most promising.

From Think Progress: Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID), a key player in the ongoing House negotiations to advance comprehensive immigration reform, has come out against providing a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, echoing a growing consensus among conservative members. The position is in stark contrast to the framework put forward by a bipartisan group of Senators and President Obama — which would allow the unauthorized to earn citizenship.

“The people that came here illegally knowingly – I don’t think they should have a path to citizenship,” Labrador said during an interview with NPR on Thursday morning. “If you knowingly violated our law, you violated our sovereignty, I think we should normalize your status but we should not give you a pathway to citizenship.”

The Republican intent here is crystal clear. They are willing to let undocumented workers stay, but only as long as they can be used as serf labor.

From Media Matters: On Fox News, Republican strategist Brad Blakeman denied the scientific consensus on manmade climate change, saying "For every one scientist that says there is, I’ll give you 10 scientists that said it’s not manmade":

But in fact, credible surveys have repeatedly found that the vast majority of climate scientists agree humans are changing the climate. For instance, a 2009 survey published by the American Geophysical Union found that 97 percent of those who specialize in climate science said human activity is contributing to rising global temperatures:

The Republican Reichsministry of propaganda, Faux Noise, deals with facts in a thoroughly Republican way. They make them up.

Cartoon:

And Republicans want it back!

Yesterday I was pleased that I could return to full time blogging.  I’m current with replies.  It looks like I’ll be OK to keep going.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:19 (average 6:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: When’s The Last Time You Saw A Super Bowl Commercial About Something This Controversial?

I wonder how many Republicans turned off the game after seeing this.

From Reuters: Owners and makers of assault-style weapons would face civil liability under a package of measures unveiled on Tuesday by top lawmakers in Colorado, a state shaken by some of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history.

The bills, introduced by Democrats who control the state legislature, could push Colorado to the forefront of a national gun control debate reignited by several mass shootings last year, including massacres of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, and moviegoers in suburban Denver.

I think that, depending on the specifics, this could be an excellent idea. Concurrent with the right to own a gun, there is a responsibility to care for it in a manner that prevents irresponsible use.

From Gallup: At least two-thirds of Americans favor each of five specific measures designed to address immigration issues — ranging from 68% who would vote for increased government spending on security measures and enforcement at U.S. borders, to 85% who would vote for a requirement that employers verify the immigration status of all new hires. More than seven in 10 would vote for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants now living in this country.

Click through. Note that the least popular of the five is the only one that Republicans support.

Cartoon:

Yesterday I had a bad air day, with severe coughing and bronchial congestion.  The Super Bowl cut into my sleep time. so I overslept.  I don’t want to push myself too hard, although I do have an extra article for you.  I’m current with replies.  I plan to go back to posting our articles on other sites tomorrow instead of today.

Church of the Ellipsoid Orb:

Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens for out-meditating the San Francisco 49ers 34-31.  Their achievement is particularly noteworthy, because they were considered the weakest team to make the playoffs, and were the underdogs in every game they played.  To get to the AFC championship, they had to defeat the best team in football.  Then to get to the Super Bowl, they had to defeat the second best team in football.  By consistently playing above the capabilities their record reflects, they have earned high praise.

Now the great mourning has begun, because the mighty orb has gone dark.  Except for a brief glimmer in April for the Selection of Future Acolytes, we will have none of it’s divine light until late Summer, if we are indeed blessed with it’s return.  Now is the time for wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 4:31).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: FLASHBACK: What The NRA Sounded Like Back When It Was Sane

Back then, the NRA represented gun owners, and their intent was to promote the best interests of responsible shooters. Today the NRA represents corporate criminals, and their intent is to represent the most profit for irresponsible manufacturers, regardless of how many innocents die to sate their greed. By their strong NRA support, Republicans demonstrate, once again, that they certainly are the pro-death party.

From NY Times: President Obama said in a televised interview on Sunday that he could foresee a budget deal in Congress that did not include further increases in tax rates but instead focused on eliminating loopholes and deductions.

Although I think that rates are still too low on those making over $1 million per year, I can support reform limited to eliminating loopholes, such as allowing Vulture Capitalists to have their income taxed at the lower capital gains rate and the many tax credits lavished on Big Oil.

From Crooks and Liars: Millionaire Pundit Laura Ingraham Doesn’t Like Paying Americans a Living Wage

Callahan is spot on. We have a demand problem. Producers have no incentive to hire, as long as consumers don’t have the money to pay for those products. Smith’s statement that union membership is low, because unions don’t work, is pure propaganda. Union membership is low, because Republicans have outsourced so many union jobs, and because Republicans have legislated away union rights.  Note that. at the end of the segment, Ingraham thanked the goose-stepper, but not the Democrat.  After all, this is the Republican Ministry of Propaganda.

Cartoon:  We’re trying something a little different today to demonstrate how ethnic bias can literally distort our world view.  The first image is a Mercator Projection of the world map, the map with which we are all most familiar.

Note how the area north of the equator takes up 2/3 of the map, making nations in the northern hemisphere appear larger, and therefore, more important.

The second image is a Peters Projection of the world map.

It divides the area equally between the northern and southern hemisphere, thus showing the sizes of different features more accurately with respect to each other.  It changes your perspective, doesn’t it?