Last night my COPD flared up, so I spent most of the night coughing and had almost no sleep. I’m current with replies, albeit brief. Tomorrow appears routine.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: She Is The Reason You Can Even Read This Headline.
Republicans show their gratitude by cutting her pay, laying her off, and taking away her right to bargain collectively.
From TPM: While Colorado burns, conservatives have looked for ways to blame it on President Obama.
Some of the same people who have bashed the president as a big government, big spending liberal now say a wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes in the conservative stronghold of Colorado Springs can be blamed on the president because he has been too slow to spend money to beef up the federal fleet of air tankers.
The meme began more than a week ago when pundit Michelle Malkin, who lives in Colorado Springs, wrote a piece for the National Review Online titled “Obama Bureaucrats Are Fueling Wildfires.” [win-nuts delinked]
I’m writing articles now, and I’m not sure how the day will go down. At some point, I need to go out to run errands, but I’m not sure when yet. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow appears routine.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:50 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: What Would Happen If Male Nurses Were Paid $848 Less Per Week?
A lot more than what's happening now, due to the Republican War on Women!
From ABC: Peter Madoff, the younger brother of Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff, was arrested at his lawyer's Manhattan office today.
Madoff was taken to the FBI's Manhattan offices to have a DNA sample taken, be photographed and fingerprinted.
Madoff, 66, is expected to plead guilty later today to securities fraud for his role in the scheme for which his brother is already serving 150 years in jail.
Another vulture capitalist bites the dust.
From Columbus Dispatch: President Barack Obama was standing outside the Oval Office when he saw the news on television just after 10 a.m. Two networks, CNN and Fox News, were reporting the Supreme Court had struck down the centerpiece of his landmark health-care law.
They assumed that what they wanted to happen had happened.
I’m running a bit behind today, partially because I’m tired and sore after physical therapy yesterday, but mostly because, I was getting the SCOTUS story out and the links distributed. I’m pleased that I beat most of the big boys. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow I may be brief and late, because I have a number of errands to run that I can only do on a weekday in June.
Jig Zone Puzzle: Today’s took me 3:55 (average 5:00). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: What Do Firefighters And Paramedics Make?
Rmoney says we haven’t learned the lesson of Wisconsin and should fire them, because we need less of these. Obama says we need more. Who do you believe?
From NY Times: Justice Ginsburg is the eldest member of a court that includes four justices in their 70s, making it among the oldest courts since the New Deal era. Its decisions during this historic “flood season,” as Justice Ginsburg described the end-of-term rush, are likely to make the panel — and the tenure of some of the justices — a significant issue in the presidential campaign.
Imagine, if you will, replacing Ginsburg with a Scalia clone like Thomas or Scalito.
From ted.com (Hat-Tip Pat Armstrong): Gary Kovacs: Tracking the trackers.
I’m getting ready for my trip to the physical therapist. Getting there involves walking up a steep hill. That usually sets off my COPD, so I am likely to be too pooped to do much when I return. If I cannot catch up on replies today, I shall tomorrow, which appears to be a routine day.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:16 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: If You Don’t Think What This Black Man Went Through Is Bullsh_t, Then You’re Part Of The Problem
Bloomberg’s version of papers please? He’s showing his Republican roots.
From NY Times: The National Rifle Association has joined a Republican push to make Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. the first sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress, turning a once obscure fight over a gun-smuggling investigation into a proxy war over gun control.
Both the N.R.A. and the smaller but more strident Gun Owners of America have made Thursday’s House contempt vote crucial to their ratings of House lawmakers. The N.R.A. is pressing to win Democratic votes, said Wayne LaPierre, the group’s chief executive, and White House officials and House Democratic leaders concede that a handful of Democrats are likely to vote for the contempt resolution.
This issue should have nothing to do with how the NRA rates lawmakers, because it has no bearing on lawmakers’ support for the right to bear arms. But since the NRA pushing the ridiculous Republican "Obama did it to take away your guns" conspiracy theory, they are using definite loss of A rating to blackmail Blue Dogs into voting for contempt or having voters misled regarding their positions on 2nd Amendment rights. Many will cave-in, because Republicans will win anyway, but Republicans will use their votes under duress to claim that the contempt vote is bipartisan.
From Washington Post: Republicans are in a trap of our own making. We can’t acknowledge the obvious, that we will not deport 12 million people, lest we aggravate a vocal part of the GOP base eager to call anything less amnesty. Romney can’t suddenly appear to be measured or in an Obama-like state of evolution, or he would enhance his negative, pandering stereotype. We can’t outrun the growing Hispanic American voting bloc by running up the score with white voters. We would reach a point of diminishing return because of all the bad press. So the Republican campaign doesn’t start from an honest place.
This is by Ed Rogers, a conservative Republican commentator. It’s rare to see such honest evaluation from the right. Kudos!
Cartoon:
How different he was from the monster who replaced him.
Today the news is dominated by Supreme Court decisions, so I have only one article other than this Open Thread. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow I have another appointment for physical therapy, so what I post, if anything, will depend on how soon I return home and how I feel.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:14 (average 5:04). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: Elizabeth Warren Takes Romney To School On What Makes People People.
Corporations are NOT people. Money is NOT speech!
From TPM: Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R) said that the voter ID law passed by the legislature would help deliver the state for Mitt Romney in November.
OOPS! Of course we already knew that was why.
From USA Today: President Obama ripped Mitt Romney today over a report that the Republican’s private equity firm invested in companies that moved jobs out of the United States to low-wage countries.
And that’s WHERE Rmoney will create jobs to maximize profit for the 1%.
I slept quite a bit yesterday and feel more refreshed today. It’s hectic. because I overslept and because of the doings at SCOTUS. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow I have errands to run.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Todays took me 3:35 (average 4:22). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: Hillary Clinton On What Gay People Are
Republicans would rather pander to haters than admit that.
From NY Times: For members of Congress, health care lobbyists, campaign officials and thousands of lawyers (and the thousands more who have just taken the LSATs) who populate the squat office buildings across the district, the wait for the fate of the health care law has become all consuming.
Yesterday I must have been even more tired than I thought, because, after getting the blog up and eating, I slept from 3 PM until 5 AM, with just a few short breaks. As a result, I’m somewhat groggy, but that’s OK. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow appears routine.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:11 (average 4:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: If Your House Is On Fire, Which Of These Guys Is More Likely To Send In The Trucks?
But Rmoney would be happy to support your homeowners insurance company, if they tried to get out of paying you for the damage.
From NY Times: No American is dedicating as much of his money to defeat President Obama as Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who also happens to have made more money in the last three years than any other American. He is the perfect illustration of the squalid state of political money, spending sums greater than any political donation in history to advance his personal, ideological and financial agenda, which is wildly at odds with the nation’s needs.
Adelson’s twin goals are a one state outcome for Israel and to make trickle down gush up faster.
From 89WLS: A newly sworn-in congressman who was injured in a mass shooting last year along with then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords held his first "Congress on Your Corner" event with southern Arizona constituents on Saturday.
Giffords conducted 21 of the informal meet-and-greet events during her more than four years in office, including one on the day of the shooting – Jan. 8, 2011.
What a fitting tribute. I wonder is Sarah Palin will put a bullseye on him too.
It’s a lazy Saturday. Rmoney is too busy grubbing $millions and making corrupt deals to provide us with Willardisms. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow appears routine.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:00 (average 4:50). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: This Is The Effect Obama REALLY Had On The Private Sector
Just before the effect Obama had, you can see the effect Bush had and Rmoney would have, since their policies are so similar.
From NY Times: The Supreme Court’s ruling this week in Knox v. Service Employees International Union is one of the most brazen of the Roberts court. It shows how defiantly the five justices act in advancing the aggressive conservatism of their majority on the court.
The court’s moderate liberals were rightly dismayed by the majority’s willingness to breach court rules in pursuit of its agenda. In this labor union case, there is no getting around that the legal approach is indistinguishable from politics. The court’s five conservatives ruled that in 2005, Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union should have sent a notice to all nonmembers it represented when it imposed a temporary 25 percent increase in union dues for public-sector employees in California to fight two anti-union ballot measures.
As long as Republicans are able to appoint Injustices like the fascist five, SCOTUS will be a place, where the Constitution takes a back seat to plutocratic dogma.
From USA Today: If there was any doubt that Mitt Romney’s business record would be an election issue, President Obama’s team is erasing it this weekend.
Rmoney certainly is an outsourcing pioneer!
Cartoon:
If you see any Republicans, let them know it’s over. They won the war, but lately, they have switched to the loosing side.
