Politics Plus

I’m still pretty well knocked out and sleeping most of the time.  I even missed the inauguration, but I have it all, if you missed it too.  I’m current with replies.  I hope I’ll return soon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

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

Short Takes:

From The White House: The Complete 2013 Inauguration Ceremony

The President’s oath of office takes place at 40 minutes, followed by his inaugural address at 42:30. A wonderful speech, if only the Republican party would cooperate with his request to put America first. This has to be the longest Short Take in Politics Plus history.

From The New Yorker: Congressional Republicans heaped fulsome praise on President Obama’s second Inaugural Address today, saying that it had given them a detailed list of things to thwart over the next four years.

“My big fear was that the speech would be full of vague platitudes that wouldn’t be helpful to us in plotting against him,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Once he started offering details of what he actually hoped to accomplish, though, I realized we had hit the mother lode.”

Speaker Boehner praised the President for citing such specifics as hiring math and science teachers, building roads, and reducing health-care costs: “Now that we know that’s what he’s got in mind for his second term, we can hit the ground running to stop him.”

The sad thing about this is that it’s funny, because it’s effectively true.

From Richmond Times-Dispatch: Senate Republicans this afternoon pushed through a surprise rewrite of the 2011 redistricting plan that erases a Democratic seat in western Virginia and creates a sixth majority black district that would be located between Petersburg and Danville.

Democrats were shocked by the move, vowing to oppose the new plan in court.

The so-called re-redistricting plan was woven into House-passed legislation that makes technical adjustments to delegates’ districts.

The revised plan cleared the Senate on a party-line vote of 20-19. Missing this afternoon was Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, D-Richmond, who was in Washington for President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony.

While Obama and the Democrats worked to meet America’s needs, these Virginia Republicans used the inauguration to take a surprise vote on redistricting that could not have passed otherwise. This is literally election theft.  It doesn’t get any more crooked than this!

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Today is a high holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  May the Almighty Orb bless your team.  Yesterday my antibiotic arrived.  It has me feeling somewhat groggy, so my replies to comments may be excessively brief.  I hope they take effect quickly.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:01 (average 4:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Joe, Mika, And The Entire ‘Morning Joe’ Lineup Finally Agree On Something. This NRA Ad Is Sick.

I very seldom agree with Joe Scarborough about anything, but this time, he is spot on, except for one thing. The term "political pornography" needs to be equally applied to every Republican and DINO remains in thrall to the NRA.

From The New Yorker: Fox News Channel announced today that it would shut down for what it called “routine maintenance” Monday morning at 11:30 E.T.

Fox News president Roger Ailes explained the timing of the shutdown, which will be the first in the history of the network: “We wanted to pick a time when we were positive nothing would be happening that our viewers would want to see.”

I’m sure that the management of Faux Noise, the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, would not want their sheeple to know about Monday’s doings, considering how hard they worked trying to change the honoree.

From NY Times: The combination of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and President Obama creates a version of a physics problem: How can such smooth personalities create so much friction?

That conundrum was on display four years ago, when these two supremely capable men managed to botch the simple task of reciting the presidential oath at Mr. Obama’s first inauguration.

The moment was not an anomaly. It is hard to think of a major public encounter between the two that has not gone badly awry or been tinged with hard feelings.

Having Roberts officiate over a Presidential inauguration is the functional equivalent of having Satan officiate over a Christian (authentic Christian, not Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian) ordination.

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This is another reason to prevent a one-party Republican regime.

Sadly I have no good news, as I still feel horrid.  I’m current with replies.  Soon, I hope.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:59 (average 4:15).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: What Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Warned Us About Decades Ago

He could not have been more correct. The NRA is trying to hijack his day, but they cannot hijack his integrity, because they have none.

From NY Times: It’s hard to turn on your TV or read an editorial page these days without encountering someone declaring, with an air of great seriousness, that excessive spending and the resulting budget deficit is our biggest problem. Such declarations are rarely accompanied by any argument about why we should believe this; it’s supposed to be part of what everyone knows.

This is, however, a case in which what everyone knows just ain’t so. The budget deficit isn’t our biggest problem, by a long shot. Furthermore, it’s a problem that is already, to a large degree, solved. The medium-term budget outlook isn’t great, but it’s not terrible either — and the long-term outlook gets much more attention than it should.

It’s true that right now we have a large federal budget deficit. But that deficit is mainly the result of a depressed economy — and you’re actually supposed to run deficits in a depressed economy to help support overall demand. The deficit will come down as the economy recovers: Revenue will rise while some categories of spending, such as unemployment benefits, will fall. Indeed, that’s already happening. (And similar things are happening at the state and local levels — for example, California appears to be back in budget surplus.)

Click through for the rest of this excellent Paul Krugman editorial. Republican economists also know this is true, but when benefits, for which you have paid your whole life, are given back to you, that conflicts with Republican priorities. They want the benefits, for which you have paid your whole life, to be given to a billionaire.

From MSNBC: Rachel Maddow reported on how Republicans intend to steal the White House.

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

This ‘heads they win, tails we lose’ scam is the latest Republican attempt to create a permanent one-party, totalitarian, Republican regime in which elections no longer matter. For Rachel’s documentation, click here. The best defense against this, in my opinion, is to move to a national popular vote for President.

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Yesterday exhaustion set in, after my trip to the doctor, the day before.  Except for a few short breaks for food and personal functions, I slept around the clock.  My antibiotics will probably come today.  I’m current with replies.  I expect to be down for at least a couple more days.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 5:13).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: The Humanity Of Fox News In 11 Words

I have no doubt that the Republican Ministry of Propaganda was merely sugar coating the Republican Party’s plan for all American workers.

From NY Times: More than 100,000 people who signed an online petition calling on the Obama administration to allow Texas to secede from the United States and create an independent government received an official 476-word response from the White House last week.

The short answer was no.

But the response — in which a White House official said the founding fathers established the United States as a “perpetual union” — hardly discouraged the Texas secession movement, which has been simmering for decades but gained momentum after the re-election of President Obama.

There is clearly an equitable solution to this dilemma. Simply encourage these dissatisfied Republicans to self deport.

From The New Yorker: Responding to reports that President Obama is considering signing as many as nineteen executive orders on gun control, Republicans in Congress unleashed a blistering attack on him today, accusing Mr. Obama of “cynically and systematically using his position as President to lead the country.”

Spearheading the offensive was Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), who charged the President with the “wanton exploitation of powers that are legally granted to him under the U.S. Constitution.”

How dare he?!!? It must be a black thing!!!

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