Sep 182010
 

Yesterday I kept up with replying to comments, but not with returning visits.  I slept late, and a project I was working on took longer than planned.  I blame Lisa for that. :P  Hopefully I can make it up today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 5:49.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Lefty Bloggers Plus:

Players, don’t forget to set your starters for tomorrows games.

Short Takes:

From CNN: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who lost in the Republican primary last month, says she will launch a write-in campaign to retain her senate seat.

With two righties in the race, the lefty may actually have a slim chance.

From Think Progress: ThinkProgress has put together a document compiling what we know about Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell in her own words.

How anyone could fit so much garbage between two ears is a wonder.

From Right Wing Watch: In one of the most demeaning parts of a rather outlandish speech, former Pennsylvania Senator and possible presidential candidate Rick Santorum asserted at the Values Voter Summit that families do not exist in poor neighborhoods. [emphasis added]

Shame!

Jig Zone Puzzle: from Cagle.com

18englehart

What’s up this weekend?

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Sep 172010
 

Yesterday was a busy day.  I had a lot of paperwork to do, a dozen phone calls to make, three fantasy lineups to set and about fifty unanswered pieces in my email inbox.  I had some bad news as well.  I am now in the Donut Hole. :-(  Fortunately, I saw it coming and have been salting away part of my disability all rear to fill the void.  I nevertheless managed to catch up on replying to comments.  Catching up on returning visits is today’s goal, after I get home from running errands.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:56.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes: (all good news today)

From Washington Post: The Senate on Thursday passed a long-stalled bill aimed at providing the nation’s small businesses easier access to credit, the latest effort to create jobs and boost the struggling economy.

The House is expected to accept the Senate version and send it to the President next week.

From LA Times: An emergency relief well has successfully intersected BP’s damaged Gulf of Mexico oil well, federal officials announced Thursday night.

It took long enough!

From The Hill: A top Republican on financial issues said Thursday he was concerned that Elizabeth Warren would use a position in a new consumer protection agency to promote "social justice."

Gregg, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and a senior member of the Banking Committee, expressed dismay at President Obama’s decision to tap Warren as a key "adviser" to help set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency established in the Wall Street reform bill.

It’s always a good thing when a Republican leader inadvertently admits that his party opposes social justice.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

17bagley

TGIF!!

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Sep 162010
 

Yesterday I co-facilitated a therapy group for former prisoners and ran errands afterwards, so I was not here to reply to comments or return visits.  Today looks pretty busy, but I hope to start catching up.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:21  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Bloomberg: More than $21 million into her campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut, Republican Linda McMahon outspent Democrat Richard Blumenthal 16-to-1 through the year’s first half and narrowed his lead to 6 percentage points in a new poll.

This is why we need publicly financed elections.

From LA Times: Smashing the record for the most money ever donated by a candidate in a political election, Republican Meg Whitman has written her gubernatorial campaign a $15-million check that brings her personal stake in the race to $119 million.

This is why we need publicly financed elections.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

16beeler

Dy out have an interesting local race?

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Sep 152010
 

Yesterday I overslept and had a lot to do, but I still kept up with comments and returned visits.  I won’t be back to the blog until tomorrow, because today is my volunteer day with the therapy group, and I have errands afterwards.  Primaries dominated the news.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:23.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Take:

From Alternet: The US government has said in a Louisiana court it is considering filing a civil complaint against BP under the Clean Water Act to claim 1,100 dollars for each barrel of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico.

If the US administration can prove BP engaged in gross negligence or willful misconduct leading up to the spill, the cost of each barrel spilled is tripled to 4,300 dollars.

The math seems a bit off here, because $1,100 X 3 = $3,300, not $4,300.  Nevertheless, it will be a pants-load of money.  For what are they waiting?

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

15beeler

Happy hump day!!

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Sep 142010
 

Yesterday catching up with replying to comments and returning visits took the whole day, but I’m current again.  I should stay that way, but I have some volunteer projects to work on and some paper work to do.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:26.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Lefty Bloggers Plus – Week 1:

Here are our scores:

Week 1

Score

 

Playin w/out a helm…

Recovering Republic…

64.9

122.4

Final

hugos misfits

elliot’s Team

116.4

85.6

Final

Greensburg Wombats

Seahawks Rock

63.3

91.7

Final

Rob’s Roosters

Jay’s Team

92.5

92.3

Final

Teabuggery Trashers

Lionel Hutz + The H…

56.1

80.5

Final

Here are our standings:

Team

W-L-T

Pct.

GB

Recovering Republicans

1-0-0

1.000

0.0

hugos misfits

1-0-0

1.000

0.0

Rob’s Roosters

1-0-0

1.000

0.0

Seahawks Rock

1-0-0

1.000

0.0

Lionel Hutz + The Hail Marys

1-0-0

1.000

0.0

Jay’s Team

0-1-0

0.000

1.0

elliot’s Team

0-1-0

0.000

1.0

Playin w/out a helmet

0-1-0

0.000

1.0

Greensburg Wombats

0-1-0

0.000

1.0

Teabuggery Trashers

0-1-0

0.000

1.0

Wouldn’t you know that, despite winning in both of my other leagues, I’m in last place here. 🙁

Short Takes:

From Business Week: President Barack Obama may appoint Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who scolded U.S. banks while overseeing their bailout, as the interim head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as early as this week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

It’s about time!!

From Think Progress: A comprehensive Wonk Room survey of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate finds that nearly all dispute the scientific consensus that the United States must act to fight global warming pollution. Remarkably, of the dozens of Republicans vying for the 37 Senate seats in the 2010 election, only one — Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware — supports strong climate action.

For Republicans, dumbing down starts at the top.

From Jim Hightower: Maybe you’re one of the thousands of young lawyers in America working in some low-skill, part-time job because law firms have cut so many of the starting positions you were educated to take. If so, I have good news: Jobs for young lawyers are now mushrooming in companies that provide legal services to U.S. corporations.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to move to India to get one. And the pay will be – how shall I put this? – "disappointing."

Lawyering has become the latest category of good jobs disappearing from our Land of the Free as corporate chieftains continue to offshore the American workplace.

What will our criminal corporate class outsource next, Congress?

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

14bagley

Who will win in Delaware?

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Sep 132010
 

Yesterday was a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, and I enjoyed the …umm… services, but not before catching up on comments.  I hope to catch up on returning visits today.

Religious Agony:

DenWeek1

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:58.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Boston Globe: The House Republican leader said yesterday that he was prepared to vote in favor of legislation that would let the Bush-era tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans if Democrats insisted on continuing the cuts only for families earning less than $250,000 a year.

It looks like Agent Orange blinked.  But really, this is just a ploy tp appear reasonable, because he does not like the accurate perception that he is holding a tax cut for 98% of Americans hostage to get more for the rich.  He knows that, Republicans in the Senate will sabotage the tax cut, unless the rich get most of it.

From Crooks and Liars: I’ve always agreed with Howard Dean’s fifty state strategy where as head of the DNC he felt we should try to get Democrats elected in every district in every part of the country and not to let any races go unchallenged. I never agreed with Rahmbo’s strategy that the way to win in conservative districts is to run Democrats who should have an R behind their name instead of trying to get good progressive candidates elected to those seats. And here’s one reason why. All they do is undermine the party and give the talking heads over at ClusterFox a reason to mock progressives.

I agree with this author, and don’t even mind electing true moderates in conservative areas, but we have too many Bush Dog DINOs.

From Blue Oregon: Dudley kept his car registered in Oregon a full 18 months after moving to Washington. This wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Washington’s car registration fees were much higher than Oregon’s?

So not only was Dudley gaming the system by claiming to live in Camas to bail on Oregon taxes, he was ducking out on Washington’s system as well.

Here’s more proof that Dudley Do Wrong is wrong for Oregon.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

13darkow

OGIM!!

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Sep 122010
 

Yesterday did not go at all as planned.  Normally I wake up at around 7 AM, but I slept in until noon.  Since that CPAP machine screwed up my natural sleeping pattern for two months, I have not gotten the rhythm back.  I looked for feed reader to replace Bloglines, which is going offline.  I expected it to be easy.  No such luck.  Most of the alternatives try to do so much that they do nothing well, and Google Reader remains mud slow.  After eliminating all the web based solutions I could find, I looked at desktop readers and settled on FeedDemon.  So far, I am very impressed with it.  I did squeeze in time to reply to comments.  Today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, so I will be spending most of the day in …um… religious pursuits.  Good luck to you who are playing in Lefty Bloggers Plus.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:17.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Alternet: While the planning wasn’t intentional, tea partiers and Glenn Beck groupies will get a chance to really make good on their protestations that their ranks aren’t polluted by racists. That’s because conservative activists, some affiliated with Beck’s 912 Project, have organized a big march and rally on the Mall on the very same day, and in virtually the same place, as the National Black Family Reunion. Started 25 years ago by civil rights icon Dorothy Height, the reunion was created to showcase the strengths of the black family.

The NBFR usually pulls about 250,000 visitors, so they will have too big a size advantage for the Teabaggers to risk a violent assault.

From Willamette Week: In the wake of questions about Republican gubernatorial nominee [in Oregon] Chris Dudley’s residency during his first stint playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, WW asked Dudley and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber for their tax returns from 1994 through 1998. The issue is whether Dudley lived in Washington, which has no income tax, from 1994 to 1998 as he claims, or whether he lived at least part of the time in Oregon, which has among the nation’s highest income tax rates.

Yesterday, Kitzhaber agreed to turn over his returns.

Dudley’s spokesman, LeRoy Coleman, said the Dudley campaign would consider the request but has not yet responded with a definitive answer.

Gee, I wonder why?  I predict Dudley Do Wrong will not cooperate.

From Think Progress: Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) attended a ribbon-cutting event for the Health West clinic in Aberdeen, Idaho. Crapo praised the clinic, which will specialize in assisting low-income patients in rural areas, saying, “What is happening right here in Aberdeen today is one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today.” What Crapo did not mention in his praise for Health West is that most of its funding came from the stimulus package that he opposed.

Where was the media asking him why he opposed it, if it is a core piece of the needed solution?  Frankly I think that when the states Senators and Reps oppose an initiative, their states should get no funding from it.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

12bagley

Which team do you want to win?

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Sep 112010
 

Yesterday, I finally caught back up with returning visits.  It took most of the day.  I don’t anticipate any difficulty in staying up to date today.  I have a couple outside errands to run, a volunteer article to write, and I have to find a new feed aggregator to keep track of the 500-1000 articles I skim daily, as my old one is going out of business.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:37.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Minnesota Star Tribune: A prominent gay rights organization is sending a chunk of money to liberal groups in Minnesota to offset Target’s controversial donation to a pro-Tom Emmer political action committee.

The Human Rights Campaign, based in Washington, D.C., will donate $100,000 to Win Minnesota, a PAC that helps fund anti-Emmer TV advertisements.

Good.  This will help overcome Target’s shameful bigotry.

From CNN: The Rev. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who has garnered worldwide attention for his plan earlier this week to burn Qurans on September 11, arrived in New York late Friday night, according to footage provided by CNN affiliate WABC.

"I don’t have anything to say right now," he told a group of reporters who followed him out of LaGuardia Airport and to a taxi cab.

K.A. Paul, an evangelist in contact with the Rev. Terry Jones, said Friday there will be no burning of the book Saturday evening, as had been originally planned.

Sadly, a couple other Republican churches are taking his place.  Now that this hypochristian knows the limelight, I hate to think of what he will do next.

From Huffington Post: With Delaware’s Republican Senate primary just days away, Tea Party-backed contender Christine O’Donnell is impugning the masculinity of GOP rival U.S. Rep. Mike Castle.

In an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, O’Donnell called on her opponent "get your man-pants on" in the contentious election fight.

The comment came in response to news that the state Republican party of Delaware — a firm supporter of Castle’s campaign — filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing O’Donnell of breaking the law in coordinating her political operation with the Tea Party Express.

Christine “forbidden fingers” O’Donnell has previously implies that Castle is gay on several occasions.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

11keefe

What’s on tap today?

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