Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 77.  Tonight is Obama’s SOTU address.  I’ll write an article on that tomorrow to publish shortly after midnight Thursday.  Tomorrow is also a grocery delivery day, and if I wasn’t already busy enough, Thursday is a Prison volunteer day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 5:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The first thing to know about the lawsuit brought by two dozen states to block President Obama’s executive actions on immigration is that it is a meritless screed wrapped in flimsy legal cloth and deposited on the doorstep of a federal district judge in Brownsville, Tex.

The second thing to know is that the judge, Andrew Hanen, may well look kindly on the suit. He made news in 2013 with a politically charged ruling accusing the Obama administration of criminally conspiring with Mexican drug cartels to smuggle children over the border (he really [propaganda delinked] said that), which is surely why the plaintiffs like their chances.

The judge held the first hearing in the case on Thursday and could rule as early as next month. If he blocks Mr. Obama’s actions — which seek to protect millions of immigrants from deportation and to grant them permission to work — this would complicate things for the administration, which is planning to start signing people up for the programs in February.

ARGH! Scarier still, the Fascist Five may just back Hanen up!

From Daily Kos: In a laughable display of desperation, the American Family Association is demanding that Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg recuse themselves from the four marriage equality cases it recently agreed to hear. Their unhinged press release [pseudo-Christians delinked] titled Kagan and Ginsburg: Recuse Yourselves! is a study in head-up-ones-ass reasoning.

Both of these justices’ personal and private actions that actively endorse gay marriage clearly indicate how they would vote on same-sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court,” said AFA President Tim Wildmon. “Congress has directed that federal judicial officers must disqualify themselves from hearing cases in specified circumstances. Both Kagan and Ginsburg have not only been partial to same-sex marriage but they have also proven themselves to be activists in favor of it. In order to ensure the Court’s integrity and impartiality, both should recuse themselves from same-sex marriage cases. Congress has an obligation to Americans to see that members of the Supreme Court are held to the highest standards of integrity. The law demands it, and the people deserve it.

You can be sure that the hate twins’, Standartenfuhrer Scalia and TEAbag Thomas, personal and private actions even more clearly indicate how they would vote on same sex marriage cases, but you don’t hear these Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians whining about them. Click through to see how the author debunks their lies.

From Think Progress: Nebraska landowners have launched two separate lawsuits that, if successful, could serve to delay or even stop the construction of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

The lawsuits, filed last week, represent Nebraska property owners’ second attempt to challenge the constitutionality of a law that gave the Keystone XL pipeline a legal route through the state and, by extension, their property. The landowners claim that TransCanada — the Canadian company that wants to build Keystone XL — made direct threats to use eminent domain and seize their land if they did not consent to having the pipeline run though it.

“We stand with landowners to protect property rights and a constitutional pipeline routing process,” said Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, a group that has been at the center of the state’s Keystone XL opposition movement. “While we fight to ensure TransCanada and the state of Nebraska do not run roughshod over farmers and ranchers, we also call upon President Obama to reject Keystone XL now.”

I don’t care how Keystone XL is stopped, as long as it is stopped.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 74.  My helper-friend came this morning, and we worked all day.  There was no time for sleep or research.  Hugs to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 5:43).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 72.  I’m getting a late start, because I slept late and I’ve been busy with other things, but I do have articles for you.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:42 (average 5:17).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Mitch McConnell was full of promises last November about how things were going to be different in the Senate when he was in charge. Like how the Senate was going to start working on Fridays. That promise was broken last Thursday, the first week of the session. The other thing the Senate was going to do under his watch—open amendments. Republicans had grumbled incessantly over the last six years about how Harry Reid was a dictator who refused to allow them to offer up their amendments, almost all of which were poison pills that had little or nothing to do with the underlying legislation. Well, the worm has turned with Republicans now in power, and McConnell doesn’t like it one bit. In fact, he’s pretty whiny about it.

"Some of our colleagues on the other side continue to filibuster the motion to proceed to this bill. All senators should know that we will get on this bill today and begin the amendment process—either this afternoon by consent, or shortly after midnight without consent,” he said. […]

McConnell vowed he would not let Democrats use their ability to offer amendments to stretch out floor debates for weeks simply to burn up the calendar.

"We will conduct a fair and open amendment process but not an open-ended one," he said.

And so much for open amendments. That fair and open process apparently won’t include one proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) intended to put Republicans on the record about the connection between humans’ greenhouse gas emissions and global warming in the Keystone XL debate.

Speaking of greenhouse gas emissions, one of the biggest sources of methane in Washington, DC is Bought Bitch Mitch.

From The New Yorker: Citing what he called “security concerns,” House Speaker John Boehner said on Wednesday that he would do all of his drinking at the office for the foreseeable future.

Boehner said that he may have to stay at work later in order to get his drinking done, but added, “I’m doing it for the American people. They need to know that their Speaker is safe.”

I wonder if Andy equates “safe” with preserved by pickling.

From Media Matters: Fox News hosts have repeatedly denied that moderate Muslims denounce violent extremists following terror attacks, ignoring that on their very network, Muslim guests have condemned terrorism and defended their faith. Watch five Muslim guests make their case on Fox:

Barf Bag Alert!!

When a Muslim makes a good point, when Faux is live, we see it once only, and they hate it when anything like that slips through, as their reactions divulge.

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I’m writing for tomorrow, day 70.  This will be a brief article.  I’m about to leave for prison.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:39 (average 5:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: I wonder what would happen if these ads replaced the 500 fake ones that we see every day? Would people still judge women based on their skin tone, size, height, waistline, hair length, shoe size?

These real women are not what we see on the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise.

From The New Yorker: In a possible setback for Mitt Romney’s latest Presidential ambitions, a new poll reveals that a majority of Americans now regard the former Massachusetts governor as a stalker.

The poll results suggest that Romney’s presence in every Presidential campaign in recent memory has taken its toll on the American people, who have expressed disbelief that he would return after being repeatedly told in no uncertain terms that he was not wanted.

Additionally, many of those surveyed said that they previously felt harassed by the Massachusetts governor’s relentless e-mails and phone calls, and favored some form of intervention to keep Romney from contacting them in the future.

In an indication of how much Romney’s serial candidacies have traumatized the American people, more than fifty per cent said that they would support a restraining order to keep the former nominee five hundred feet from the United States until the 2016 election had safely passed.

Does Andy have Little Lord Willard pegged or what?

From Daily Kos: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and would-be president has a new book out, since that’s the thing that presidential candidates do. Politico excerpts 10 key quotes that demonstrate, according to the paper, how Rubio "tries hard to come across as an ‘ideas guy.’" They include his quote on Social Security and Medicare, which demonstrates that he is basing his ideas on total ignorance of actual policy.

"It is hard for me to imagine retiring at 65 and spending the next quarter century not working. I expect to be working, doing something productive and fulfilling."

Rubio supports raising the retirement age for Social Security as a way to ensure the system’s solvency and to reflect longer life expectancies. It’s perhaps the most politically risky territory he treads in the book. He says acting soon will allow people currently over the age of 55 to be spared. Rubio also advocates reducing the growth of benefits to upper-income seniors as well as eliminating the payroll tax on workers who have already reached retirement age.

On Medicare, he supports a voucher-like system in which seniors would get a set amount of money and can choose between traditional fee-for-service Medicare and private providers.

In other words this lying, Latino-hating Latino is a … Republican.

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