Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 169.  I took the regular bus to my Cat Scan.  Since I was actually there less than half an hour, the upside is that it took me 3 – 4 hours less than the Lift Bus would have.  The downside is that I had to walk about 1.75 miles in places where there was no shade.  I took water, but I’m quite worn out.  Fortunately I did research before I left, so you get a full Open Thread.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:59),  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: In its campaign across northern Syria and Iraq, the jihadist group Islamic State has been using ammunition from the United States and other countries that have been supporting the regional security forces fighting the group, according to new field data gathered by a private arms-tracking organization.

The data, part of a larger sample of captured arms and cartridges in Syria and Iraq, carries an implicit warning for policy makers and advocates of intervention.

It suggests that ammunition transferred into Syria and Iraq to help stabilize governments has instead passed from the governments to the jihadists, helping to fuel the Islamic State’s rise and persistent combat power. Rifle cartridges from the United States, the sample shows, have played a significant role.

I’ve heard many ask, of late, why we don’t just give weapons to the people fighting ISIL and let them deal with it. This is the reason.

From Think Progress: New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) argued on Sunday that President Obama has declared war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in order to help Democrats win the midterm elections in November and expressed concern that he would abandon the fight in the new year.

Is that a load of RS (fouler than BS) or what? Throughout his presidency, Obama has been more willing to use military force than most anticipated.

From Right Wing Watch:

Last month, a number of Americans joined anti-gay and anti-abortion-rights activists from around the world at a Kremlin-backed conference on “Large Families and the Future of Humanity” in Moscow. The conference was originally organized under the name of the Illinois-based World Congress of Families, but WCF “suspended” its planning of the event after Russia seized part of Ukraine…then the event went ahead as planned with only nominal changes. Two WCF officials, Don Feder and Larry Jacobs, attended the conference officially in their personal capacities, and Feder gave a speech on how the sexual revolution will make the human race extinct.

Despite doing it on the sneak, Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians are still offering fool support for Vladimir "GOP Pootie" Putin (R-RU) in his Republican campaign of hatred against gay people.  This is also sedition.

Cartoon:

For a mere four bits…
I’ll sniff your nose and your toes…
I’ll sniff your eye and your thigh…
I’ll sniff your lip and your hip…

Where else can you get such a thorough Cat Scan for fifty cents?

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 167.  I must have been pretty tired, because I slept a couple hours later than normal.  Then, after doing my research, I basked in the sun for a half hour again.  Tomorrow is a Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos will be worshiping with the Brewer Birds, and the service will be televised locally, so you know I’ll be meditating tomorrow afternoon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:03 (average 5:13).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Demos.org (Hat-Tip: JL A from Care2): On Tuesday, Montgomery County [MD] Council unanimously enacted a public financing bill that will both encourage participation from small donors in the county and allow civic-minded individuals to run for county office without needing big contributions. Starting in 2015, the county will match small donations from in-county donors for candidates who opt in to the program, demonstrate local public support, and agree to accept only individual donations between $5 and $150.

The matching funds are stepped to encourage contributions from the greatest number of donors. For example, as the County explains:

Matching public dollars for County Executive candidates would be $6 for each dollar of the first $50 of a qualifying contribution received from a County resident, $4 for each dollar for the second $50 and $2 for each remaining dollar received up to the maximum contribution.

So, if an in-county donor contributed $150 to a participating candidate for the county executive office, the candidate would receive $600 in matching funds. But, if four donors each gave only $25, the candidate would still receive an additional $600.

I support 100% public financing for all elections. Money is NOT Speech!!

From Daily Kos: …I guess the thing that the family of the confirmed Ebola patient can be grateful about is that our modern health "experts" didn’t nail their door shut and position a wagon outside for body removal.

Please read then discuss:

Move Family From Ebola Patient’s Apartment, Says Judge

Okay, a quick summary – the domestic partner of the Dallas Ebola patient has been confined to her apartment, where the patient took ill, with one child and 2 nephews in their twenties. All right, seems reasonable, right?

Until you read the entire article and discover that health officials shut them all inside with contaminated linens and no provisions for them to have sustenance – like FOOD!…

Click through for more. The federal response to the Ebola virus is thoroughly efficient, because it is being managed by Democrats. On the other hand, Texas’ response exemplifies Republicans’ fitness to govern.

From Upworthy: We need to get big money out of politics. If you don’t know about the Citizens United case and why it should be overturned through a constitutional amendment, it’s time to become educated. The danger of giving so few people so much power can no longer be ignored. How few, you may ask? Hear the shocking figure in this speech by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Our system is teetering, poisoned by corporate lobbyists armed with checkbooks from multimillionaires. We can either let it topple, or we can save it by acting.

While I concur with Elizabeth in supporting this Amendment, I say so with the caveat that that the chances of obtaining the required 67% supermajorities in the Senate and the House, and subsequent ratification by 3/4 of the state legislatures asymptotically approach zero. The only viable solution is to replace the fascist five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD).

Cartoon:

"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are – perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."  – History Place  An American Tragedy

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 165.  I’m about to leave for my physical, and will finish filling out this section after I return, so you can have more than just a Personal Update.

All things considered, except for Lady Vampira’s drilling, the trip was pretty painless.  Nevertheless, I’m feeling quite tired and am ready for some extra sleep.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:49 (average 4:24).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: This clip of Rep. Cory Gardner from from Denver’s KDVR TV is nothing short of amazing because he spends nearly two minutes trying to claim that legislation that he co-sponsored—the federal personhood bill—does not exist:

In the video, Gardner repeatedly claims that "there is no such thing as a federal personhood bill" when KDVR’s Eli Stokols asks him to explain why he was willing to flip-flop on his support for Colorado’s personhood measure but not the federal bill.

It’s a convenient answer for Gardner because by denying the existence of federal personhood legislation, he doesn’t have to explain why he supports it while claiming to oppose a state-level measure that does the same thing. The only problem is that it’s a transparently and utterly ridiculous claim.

Barf Bag Alert!

I’m amazes this was aired at a local Fox station. No way would it have ever been shown on the Republican Reichsministry of propaganda, Faux Noise. This Republican is doing what Republicans virtually always do when called to account for his verifiable behavior. He is lying.

From The New Yorker: Iraq’s new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, has cancelled a scheduled visit to the White House, citing “concerns about the security situation there.”

Speaking to reporters in Baghdad on Wednesday, Abadi said that he had been looking forward to visiting the White House but that recent reports had “given me the willies.”

“They really need to get on top of things there,” he said. “Until they do, I’m better off staying in Iraq.”…

Can you blame him, Andy? The White House just isn’t a safe place to visit, let alone live there.

From TPM: Nate Silver acknowledged that he was doing something a little unusual in a Sept. 17 blog post when he called out fellow forecaster Sam Wang of Princeton University. But it also appears to have been the culmination of a long-simmering — if largely under-the-radar — feud.

"I don’t like to call out other forecasters by name unless I have something positive to say about them — and we think most of the other models out there are pretty great," Silver wrote. But he then labeled Wang’s model "wrong" and provided a detailed argument (with footnotes) to explain why he thought so.

And it didn’t stop there. Periodically over the last week or so, Silver has continued to take shots on Twitter at Wang’s forecasting model, which has consistently been more optimistic about Democratic odds of keeping the Senate than Silver’s (or any other forecaster).

I doubt that Silver would be taking such umbrage, if Wang’s model had not outperformed his own in the last three national elections.

Cartoon: