Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, and it has been a difficult day.  I hate to give you Midwesterners and Easterners bad news, but polar weather is on the way.  I know, because it froze my butt, when I went to the doctors, and it’s gong to be frigid here for the rest of the week.  Temperature extremes set off my COPD.  The doctor had to do extra digging in my foot, but the pain was no worse than walking on it already was, and when it heals, it won’t hurt for a while.  So it was already a bad air day, but right after I returned there was another fire in the building.  Someone must have thrown a lit cigarette down the garbage chute.  I was never in any danger, as firefighters responded in less than five minutes.  They did not even need to evacuate me, but there was just enough smoke in the hallway, where I waited by the stairs, that it set off my COPD even worse.  Therefore, I’m afraid I don’t even have Short Takes for you today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:00 (average 4:03).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow and hurrying to have time for a nap before the game.  It will be over by the time this is posted, so you can judge my emotional state by the notice below.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Ultimate Religious Agony:

Republicans stole my team.  They did not even show up.  :-(  Meanwhile the Seachickens excelled at all the Republican skills: deception, obstruction, sabotage, and theft. ;-)  Seriously, had they been playing any other team in the AFC, I would have been for them.  They won, because they deserved it.

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: …"Regarding U.S. same-store sales for the company’s fourth quarter, ending Friday, Wal*mart said it expects sales, excluding fuel, to be “slightly negative” to its earlier guidance of flat sales at Wal*mart stores "

Why are those sales negative?

Chief financial officer Charles Holley said Wal*mart saw a greater-than-expected negative impact from reductions in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps. The cuts went into effect on Nov. 1. [Faux Noise delinked][emphasis original]

Then it provides some right wing political cover by also blaming storms…

The Walton Family are pretty good about goose-stepping with their 0.1% cronies and their Republican lackeys, and when it comes to SNAP they are leaving their most important concern unsaid. SNAP subsidizes Wal-Fart payroll for the majority of their employees. Cuts in SNAP increase the pressure to pass realistic minimum wage laws. So I don’t expect them to keep providing political cover on this issue for long.  This also proves that Republican claims that cutting SNAP would not hurt the economy were lies.

From Think Progress: Herbert Smulls was in the middle of a phone call discussing his attorneys’ final efforts to save his life when he was reportedly seized by prison guards, hauled into an execution chamber, and injected with a toxic cocktail of drugs. At the time of his death, an appeal was pending before the United States Supreme Court asking the justices to halt his execution. Andrew Cohen lays out the timeline:

At 10:11, the final lethal injection protocols were initiated. By this time, the 8th Circuit had rejected all of the claims before it—over another pointed dissent from Judge Bye—leaving only an active appeal before the Supreme Court. At 10:20 Smulls was pronounced dead. Ten minutes later, at 10:30, the Supreme Court notified the lawyers that Smulls’ final stay request had been denied at 10:24. This means that Missouri began to execute a man 13 minutes before it was entirely sure it could do so. Smulls was pronounced dead four minutes before the Supreme Court finally authorized Missouri to kill him.

As Cohen notes, “[j]ust imagine what we’d be talking about today if the justices had granted Smulls’ stay request four minutes after he was pronounced dead.” At the very least, Smulls’ appeal held enough merit that a United States Court of Appeals judge would have granted the stay.

The Republicans running the State of Misery [typo intentional] are so pro-death, that they don’t even wait for the Republican Injustices of SCROTUS to reject an appeal. This has nothing to do with Smulls or what he deserved. This is about who WE are. When the state straps down a defenseless person and kills him for revenge, that is murder.

From Right Wing Watch:

Remember two years ago when the Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation abruptly dropped its grants to a Planned Parenthood breast-cancer screening program, setting off a national outcry, and prompting the resignation of the Komen official reportedly behind the decision?

The fallout of the debacle is still hurting Komen, which recently reported a 22 percent drop in income over the past year. But the decision to cut off grants to Planned Parenthood seems to be paying off for one person: Karen Handel, the former Komen vice president who was widely reported to have been the driving force behind split.

Now running for Senate in Georgia, Handel has released a campaign video touting her role in severing Planned Parenthood from Komen and fighting back against the “left-wing groups” and “liberal media” that criticized her.

Back when the news first broke that Komen had dumped Planned Parenthood, Handel denied that the decision was motivated at all by her anti-choice politics, despite reports from sources in the organization that said she manipulated its rules to cast Planned Parenthood out.

Barf Bag Alert!

Komen deserves ongoing NO DONATIONS boycotting, and Handel must be kept out of the Senate.

Cartoon:

H/T Carrie at Care2

I’m writing for tomorrow, am still very congested, and am still in minimal participation mode.  Nevertheless, I have two additional articles for you today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:42 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From John Kitzhaber: I received this from “Kitz”, our governor, in email.

Tuesday night, President Obama stood before Congress and made a compelling case that the challenge before us is restoring the American Dream and creating economic security for all families.

 

He also made it clear that when Congress fails to act, he will take executive action.   And while that’s the right approach, he’s forced to it because politics in Washington DC are fundamentally broken.

 

But here in Oregon, things look a little different.

 

We have disagreements and debates, but in the end, we get things done.  Oregonians of both parties have come together in the Legislature to take critical steps forward for economic security, health security, and for our childrens’ futures.

 

Even as an election year gets underway, my focus remains on getting things done for Oregonians.  And it’s paying off:

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oregon added 39,000 jobs last year, ranking third in the nation in job growth in 2013, behind only Florida and North Dakota.
• Oregon’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in over five years, falling last month to 7.0%.

• Despite the well-reported challenges we’ve faced, over 200,000 Oregonians have now enrolled for health care. Our health care reforms will provide better care, save Oregonians hundreds of millions of dollars, and protect them from financial stresses if they becoming ill or injured.

• We’ve started to reinvest in our schools and our children’s education, with over $6 billion in school funding – and critical reforms that integrate early childhood, K-12, and post-secondary education.

We have a long way to go.  And in this election season, you can bet that there will be some who will distort and distract from our accomplishments.

 

Your support in 2010 – and in the months and years since – has made all of this possible.  Thank you.

 

John

Oregon leads the way!  This is what happens when progressives are actively involved at all levels of government.

From Upworthy: This Guy Needs A Clue: A Member Of The 1% Declares It ‘Great’ That 3.5 Billion Are In Poverty.

It’s like he’s a living example of rich white male privilege: "Anybody can be me!"

Just to be clear, I’m not jealous of his wealth. Or what he had to do to get it. But many of those 3.5 billion in poverty never even get a chance to try to "be somebody." Once we level that playing field, we can start talking about "looking up to the 1%."

I loved her "Wait I don’t have socks!" comment. It looks like there’s no difference between Canadian and US vulture capitalists.

From NY Times: Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, a diminutive Democratic giant whose 40 years in the House produced some of the most important legislation of the era, announced Thursday that he would retire at the end of the year.

I understand that Sandra Fluke may run for his seat. Would that be fantastic, or what?

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, and I’m feeling pretty tired from staying up late to watch the SOTU speech and the assorted responses for tomorrow’s piece on that sublet.  Unfortunately I have to stay up now for my first Store to Door delivery.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 5:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

My oxygen:

About my Oxygen, I have two different rigs. The first is my concentrator, which I use at home, primarily when I’m sleeping. I don’t need oxygen when at rest, except for sleeping. It concentrates Oxygen already in the room. The other is a portable, which I use when away from home. It feeds my oxygen from a small tank in metered puffs. I turn it on when walking, climbing stairs and catching my breath. My provider, which I have to use because of my Medicare plan, delivers six full tanks at a time and picks up the empties. If I get a dud, they do not charge for it, but the two times it has happened, it was the last tank, and it was a prison volunteer day. If I had plugged it in last Thursday, when I returned from prison, I could have gotten a replacement on Monday. I did not, because I was tired. So I really have nobody to blame but myself.

Short Takes:

From Common Dreams: Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) is making national headlines on Wednesday after he physically threatened a television reporter from NY1 News, telling journalist Michael Scotto that he would "break him in half" and "throw [him] of this fucking balcony" after getting angry when asked a question he said was not up for discussion.

To threaten violence, when called to account for criminal behavior, is a thoroughly Republican reaction!

From Daily Kos: Rebranding be damned. Nothing is going to stop the Republicans from continuing their War on Women and their obsession with abortion. Add their obsession with Obamacare, and you have today’s massive waste of time and taxpayer dollars: the "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act." It passed today, 227-188…

…And no, there is no taxpayer funding for abortion coverage in Obamacare. House Blue Dogs and Senate ConservaDems made sure of that back in 2010.

The bill, just like 99 percent of the bills the House passes—mostly focused on Obamacare repeal or abortion—won’t even make it to the Senate floor.

It’s just a big lie to pass a bill to solve a problem that does not exist.  When Republicans say government is the problem, sometimes they are right, but only because of the way they govern.

From The New Yorker: President Obama’s call during his State of the Union address to “stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans” received a frosty response from the pro-tragedy wing in Congress last night.

After Mr. Obama made his controversial stopping-tragedies remark, prominent pro-tragedy members of Congress looked on in stony silence, refusing to applaud.

“I thought it was offensive and inappropriate,” said Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana). “If the President wants coöperation from Congress, he should refrain from his divisive and inflammatory anti-tragedy rhetoric.”

The pro-tragedy lobby is among the most powerful in Washington, spending millions annually to defeat politicians who oppose tragedies.

LOL Andy! Republicans love tragedies. First they deny aid to all but the favored few, and then, after they cave-in, they get to steal the relief funds.

Cartoon:

Could the culprits have been Republican Supply-side pseudo-Hindus?  Seriously, there are parallels here.