Politics Plus

Yesterday remained hot, but my little AC kept it bearable, and it looks like there will be one more day, before I am comfortably cool on Tuesday.  I did a few chores including a bunch of overdue paperwork.  I am current with replies.  Tomorrow, I will be out with errands to run.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:10 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Huffington Post: Governors of both parties are praising the federal response to Hurricane Irene, giving a much-needed vote of confidence to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has been struggling to regain its good name after its response to Hurricane Katrina.

This sounds a lot better than “heck of a job” Brownie.  The original wearer of the tin foil, Ron Paul, took this occasion top propose doing away with FEMA.

From Think Progress: The “real” (i.e., inflation adjusted) yields on 5 and 7 year Treasury bonds continue to be in negative territory.

This is an extraordinary situation that ought to be dominating the public debate. What does it mean? Well it means that right now it’s much cheaper for the government to finance some undertaking by borrowing the money and paying for it out of taxes five or seven years from now than to pay for it with taxes. [emphasis added]

To put this in even clearer terms, because paying down the debt will be more costly in real terms than continuing to finance it, stimulating the economy with infrastructure spending makes more sense than ever before, and imposing draconian Republican cuts makes less.

From Common Dreams: Disney’s best-selling Cars toys are being made in a factory in China that uses child labor and forces staff to do three times the amount of overtime allowed by law, according to an investigation.

One worker reportedly killed herself after being repeatedly shouted at by bosses. Others cited worries over poisonous chemicals.

I urge a boycott of all Disney products until they place humanity over profit.

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Yesterday I slept for 14 hours, leaving me in a groggy state.  My little AC can’t beat the heat, but it can hold it off a bit.  Even though the temperature in the breezeway outside my windows reached 130°, it only reached 85° at my desk.  I am current with replies.  Tomorrow I have chores and errands.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:12 (average 4:17).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Irene Update:

Stay safe, please.

Lefty Blog Friends Update:

In our fantasy football league, I have reduced the size to eight players, and we now have five.  Tomorrow, I’ll be opening up the league to the general public, so if you want to play, this is your last chance.  Go to nfl.com and sign up for an ID, if you don’t already have one.  Then go to fantasy football.  Our league ID is 324380, and the password is endthegop.

Short Takes:

From Countdown: Keith interviews Bernie Sanders.

As I have said for years, this is the plan that makes sense.

From Daily Kos: Since the beginning of July, the extremely grassroots campaign to recall Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, FireRickSnyder.org, has gathered more than half of the 806,522 signatures required to trigger a recall election in February 2012.

Every single signature has been gathered by a volunteer. All 83 county captains are volunteers. Their website is built and maintained by volunteers. The founders of the organization, who are also volunteers, have no political experience and simply met each other online in March. Almost all of them have jobs and are doing this in their spare time.

But they are pushing through anyway, and the recall election might actually happen.

I fully support these courageous Michiganders.  Obama, watch and learn!

From Common Dreams: Arizona is suing the U.S. government, questioning the constitutionality of a portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

In Arizona, Republicans want to make voting while Latino a crime.

From Huffington Post: Christine O’Donnell Book Signing Draws Just Five People.

I suppose five was all she could …umm… conjure up. 🙄

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Yesterday was very hot.  The temperature at my desk reached the 90s by 10:00 AM and remains there.  I’m beat.  I am current on replies.  Today I’m posting an abbreviated lineup.  I need to get some sleep, because tomorrow I’ll be spending the day at Oregon State Penitentiary doing volunteer work.  Since I won’t get home until it’s my normal time to wake up for research, and since the prison has no AC, I expect to be quite wiped out. I may need to take tomorrow off, and if not whatever I put up may be late.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:25 (5:14 average).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From CBS: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor assured his constituents on Wednesday that Congress "will find the monies" to assist earthquake victims in Mineral, Virginia – but the Republican lawmaker noted that "those monies will be offset with appropriate savings or cost-cutting elsewhere."

Translated, this means that Cantor wants to further exploit the poor and middle classes to provide relief to the rich in his own district at taxpayer expense.

From Think Progress: Inhofe Endorses Rick Perry Over ‘Mushy’ Mitt Romney.

Even though he opposes doing anything about it, Romney admits human involvement in global climate change.

From Washington Independent: A coalition of groups, including Demos, Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), and the NAACP, sent a letter to Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson last week alleging that the state is in violation of federal law requiring voter registration at public assistance offices.

Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) requires the states to provide voter registration services in the offices of all agencies that provide public assistance. The NVRA requires more than merely making voter registration available to those who apply for public assistance, it requires several affirmative steps be taken to encourage applicants to register to vote.

Way to go!

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Yesterday was not as hot, but still too hot to get much sleep.  The temperature at my desk cooled off to 86° early in the morning, and rose from there, only reaching 98°.  It is currently 93°.  My AC is in Illinois.  I had to go out to run errands.  I’m current with replies.  Today the quest for sleep continues.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 5:40 (average 6:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From ABC: New York prosecutors today filed a motion to dismiss sexual assault charges against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Now I’m not saying he did or didn’t get away with something here, but the rush to convict him in the press and the blogosphere, before even an evidentiary hearing had taken place, was sickening.

From Reuters: Republican Paul Ryan firmly ruled out a 2012 U.S. presidential bid on Monday, ending another round of speculation the congressman would make a late leap into the race.

Even without him, his plan is running for President.

From Common Dreams: The leader of Canada’s socialist New Democratic Party, Jack Layton, died Monday of cancer at his Toronto home, his family said. He was 61.

"We deeply regret to inform you that the Honorable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 a.m. today," a statement from his wife, Olivia Chow, and his children, Sarah and Michael said.

He was a truly great man.  I offer my condolences to his wife, his family, and the people of Canada.

From Think Progress: Shery Lanford Smith, the chairwoman of Sumter Tea Party in South Carolina is under fire after posting a joke about killing President and First Lady Obama on her Facebook profile last Thursday. In the joke, the Obamas’ helicopter pilot says to his co-pilot, “I could throw both of them out of the window and make 256 million people very happy!” Smith continued, “If you’re one of [the] 256 million, pass it on,” which implies “she herself would be happy to see the Obamas killed.”

There were a few people on the left doing this when Bush was President, and I condemned it then.  With Republicans, it has become the norm, and I condemn it now.

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