Politics Plus

Yesterday I kept up.  Today depends.  My COPD had been especially severe the last couple of days.  I may forego co-facilitating the therapy group for that reason, but I have a board meeting tomorrow and have work to do preparing for that.  Tomorrow is also volunteer day in the prison.   I just wish I had some energy.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:36.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:

To join our fantasy football league, click here.  When Lisa resisters, we will need two more players.

Short Takes:

From Alternet: The US Senate voted Tuesday to advance legislation restoring unemployment benefits to help some 2.5 Americans ahead of November mid-term elections shaped by deep voter anger at high joblessness.

Lawmakers voted 60-40 to end debate on the bill, as just two Republicans joined all but one of President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies to back the 34-billion-dollar bill to help the long-term unemployed.

Now Reid can finally schedule a straight up or down vote.  I expect Republicans to vote for it in mass, since passage is assured, just so they can lie that they supported it.

From Common Dreams: A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that with a job growth path comparable to the last recovery, the economy will not recover all of the jobs lost in the recession until March 2014. Assuming the trend rate of growth in the labor force, the unemployment rate will not fall back to the pre-recession level until April 2021.

This demonstrates the desperate need for a massive federal jobs program.

Hat Tip Daily Kos: a new DNC ad.

Just what I’ve been saying all along.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

Happy hump day!

Yesterday I kept up with replying to comments and returning visits.  That should be no problem today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:15.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Common Dreams: The top U.S. oil spill official on Sunday directed BP Plc to submit a plan for reopening its capped Macondo well to flow into the ocean after engineers detected seepage on the ocean floor near the well.

This “seepage” may interfere with plugging the GOP gusher via the relief well.

From Think Progress: The heads of the Republican congressional campaign committees — Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) — appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press today to discuss their party’s strategy for the November elections. Sessions began by saying that everyone knows exactly “what Republicans stand for,” but he quickly proved that even he doesn’t really know. Host David Gregory, visibly frustrated, repeatedly pressed the two campaign chiefs for substance, saying, “these are not specifics, voters get tired of that.” But all he got in return was vapid talking points, like how Republican candidates are “standing with the American people back home.”

We do know what they stand for.  Their only hope is that the general public never learns.

From The Nation: Consider: in 1928 the richest 1 percent of Americans received 23.9 percent of the nation’s total income. After that, the share going to the richest 1 percent steadily declined. New Deal reforms, followed by World War II, the GI Bill and the Great Society expanded the circle of prosperity. By the late 1970s the top 1 percent raked in only 8 to 9 percent of America’s total annual income. But after that, inequality began to widen again, and income reconcentrated at the top. By 2007 the richest 1 percent were back to where they were in 1928—with 23.5 percent of the total.

Republicans have destroyed fifty years of progress in just thirty years.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

OGIM!

Yesterday I caught up on replying to comments and returning visits.  It feels good to be up to date again.  I should have no trouble keeping up today.

Jig-Zone Puzzle:

Today this handsome puzzle took me 3:05.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:

To join our fantasy football league, click here.  We still need 5 more players to keep our league.

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Democratic Governor Joe Manchin named former counsel Carte Goodwin, 36, to fill Byrd’s seat pending a special election in November.

Goodwin will take office Tuesday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement.

Welcome Mr. Goodwin.  Your presence is needed desperately.

From Common Dreams: Last month was the hottest June ever recorded worldwide and the fourth consecutive month that the combined global land and sea temperature records have been broken, according to the US government’s climate data centre.

Even though some places are cooler than normal, tracking global averages shows a clear upward trend.  In spite of that, Republicans oppose energy legislation.  And sadly…

From Politico: Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska said Thursday he would not support a procedural vote later this month to begin debate on a climate bill that includes a cap on electric utility emissions, a declaration that underscores the tough climb that Majority Leader Harry Reid will have in trying to cobble together a 60-vote supermajority on the controversial issue.

We need to rename him Ulysses Nelson, so we can call him Useless for short.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

How’s your weekend?

Yesterday I almost fell asleep during the therapy group I help lead and did fall asleep on thye bust on the way home. I almost missed my stop.  I took a long nap, but fell behind with replying to commens and returning visits.  Today is up in the air, because I have medical appointments.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:54.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:

To join our fantasy football league, click here.

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was reportedly "completely shocked and outraged" when he learned that his nephew, who suffers from epilepsy and was reportedly suicidal, was beaten and tased with a stun gun at a Louisiana hospital—apparently, for nothing more than some unruly behavior.

I agree with Thomas and offer my best wishes to his nephew.  However, I feel outrage that Thomas himself is to blame for consistently rendering totalitarian decisions that are making this nation a police state.

From McClatchy DC: The number of naturally occurring microbes that eat methane grew surprisingly fast inside a plume spreading from BP’s ruptured oil well, an oceanographer who was one of the first to detect the plumes said Tuesday.

This is not completely good news, because these same microbes consume all the oxygen in the water creating dead zones where no other sea life can survive.

From Crooks and Liars: In New Hampshire, voters have an interesting choice. Ryan J. Murdough is campaigning not on change so much as similarity. His message: Keep New Hampshire white.

"I would like to preserve what we have before it gets totally out of control," Murdough, a 30-year-old father of two young boys, said last week. "The more it becomes non-white, the more it’s going to become a much different place to live, for white people especially."

I guess that GOP race hatred is not limited to the south, unless this bigoted bastard is from southern NH.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

Will Batshit Bachman lose her entire staff?