Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, and running way late, because I spent the morning collecting the data for our monthly report.  Pardon me for rushing, please.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:00 (average 5:52).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Republicans and conservative Democrats just voted to sell you out to Wall Street. In other words, it's Tuesday.

Today, the House passed the so-called Retail Investor Protection Act 254 to 166.  30 Democrats voted with 224 Republicans in favor. 165 Democrats–and one Republican–voted against it. Those following H.R. 2374 thought it would pass with wide bipartisan margins, so having 165 Democratic NAY's was better than expected. The 30 Democratic YEA's still need to be named and shamed, however.

 

First, let's begin with the important question: What is the Retail Investor Protection Act? The bill delays a new Department of Labor rule that would prevent financial advisers from stealing from your 401(K) plans or IRAs. Allowing financial advisers to rip you off is a great complement to that other plank in the Republican-Conservadem retirement insecurity platform, cutting Social Security…

 

…And here are the 30 Democratic YEA votes. Most of their names should look familiar if you've seen any of my past roll call diaries.

John Barrow (GA-12)

John Carney (DE-AL)

Gerry Connolly (VA-11)

Jim Costa (CA-16)

Henry Cuellar (TX-28)

John Delaney (MD-06)

Ted Deutch (FL-21)

Bill Foster (IL-11)

Pete Gallego (TX-23)

Joe Garcia (FL-26)

Denny Heck (WA-10)

Jim Himes (CT-04)

Derek Kilmer (WA-06)

Ron Kind (WI-03)

Rick Larsen (WA-02)

Dan Maffei (NY-24)

Jim Matheson (UT-04)

Mike McIntyre (NC-07)

Gwen Moore (WI-04)

Patrick Murphy (FL-18)

Bill Owens (NY-21)

Ed Perlmuter (CO-07)

Scott Peters (CA-52)

Gary Peters (MI-09)

Collin Peterson (MN-07)

Bradley Schneider (IL-10)

Kurt Schrader (OR-05)

Brad Sherman (CA-30)

Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)

Filemon Vela (TX-34)

…

 

 

These are the ones for whom I recently suggested a cactus suppository.  If you own one, you know what to do.

 

 

 

From Upworthy: If You've Heard Someone Say 'Love The Sinner, Hate The Sin,' You Should Share This With Them

 

 

 

I used to be quite hateful in my attitude toward gays, until a fellow named Charlie decided that he was my friend, no matter how badly I treated him. He was such a good friend that he put a face on gay for me. That turned me from a homophobe to a strong supporter of LGBT rights.

From NY Times: Senate Republicans on Thursday thwarted the confirmation of two of President Obama’s nominees, one to a powerful appeals court and another to a home-lending oversight post, setting up a confrontation with Democrats that could escalate into a larger fight over limiting the filibuster and restrict how far the minority party can go to block a president’s agenda.

In a series of swift back-to-back votes, Republicans first blocked the nomination of Representative Melvin Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, to become the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a rare affront to a sitting member of Congress who has an extensive record of public service.

Next Republicans, who have accused the president of trying to tip the court’s ideological balance in Democrats’ favor, quickly dispensed with the nomination of Patricia Ann Millett to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A former government lawyer whose husband serves in the military, she has worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations. The White House chose her as a test of how far Republicans would go to derail a qualified nominee.

NUKE THE FILIBASTARDS!!!!!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, as we come to the end of another month.  Fantasy football players, update your lineups for Thursday night.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:49 (average 4:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube: Oh those money grubbing hypocrites!!

"Do Harm!" is the hypocritical oath of Tom "Dr. No" Coburn (R-OK). Now he, Bought Bitch Mitch (R-KY), and their money grubbing cronies (R-0.1%) want Northeastern money! Tell them to take a long walk off a short pier! As for Leg Hound Harry being an asshole, if an asshole like Coburn says so, Harry must still be wearing his Obamaballs!!

From Upworthy: A Summary Of McMinimum Wages And McWelfare In One Hilarious Clip

 

What can I say? When they do Bill Maher, count me in! LMAO!!

From Daily Kos:

Here we go again. As explained by Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress:

On Friday morning, CNN anchor Carol Costello challenged Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to substantiate her claim that HealthCare.gov will endanger Americans’ medical privacy. The host pushed the Congresswoman to specify which medical details enrollees would have to turn over to the federal government, causing Blackburn to become visibly uncomfortable and unsure as she strung together various buzzwords about privacy.

The exchange originated from a question Blackburn herself leveled at the primary contractors responsible for HealthCare.gov during a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing on Thursday. Blackburn asked the witnesses why some of their employees had access to “the database servers storing the enrolling information” and suggested that they were in violation of The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the law that guarantees “federal protections for individually identifiable health information held by covered entities and their business associates and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information.”

…

 

Blackburn was busted, as she was clearly caught in a lie. But she continued to parrot the talking points she had been taught, despite having no idea what she was talking about. The medical records that involve HIPPA come into play only after a consumer purchases a plan, and they never even pass through healthcare.gov.

Cartoon:

Beware adult trick-or-treaters with a tri-corner hat and a tea bag.  They’ll take your candy and trash the house anyway!

I’m writing for tomorrow.  I have a grocery delivery then, so I’ll be tired from unpacking and putting them away.  I doubt, however, that it will interfere with blogging.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:02 (average 4:39).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From TPM: Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), slammed the senator for his role in the government shutdown in a new web ad released Monday.

 

Go Alison Grimes!!! That’s the way to nail Bought Bitch Mitch!

From Think Progress: Last July, Senate Democrats backed off their plan to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” and abolish the filibuster on executive branch nominees — but only after their Republican counterparts caved and agreed to fill seven key government jobs they previously held open with filibusters. Since then, the two parties have maintained an uneasy détente in the confirmation wars. A small group of Republicans supplied the exact minimum number of votes required to break a filibuster on Secretary of Labor Tom Perez’s nomination, for example, even though many Republicans bitterly object to the steps Perez took to fight housing discrimination and to protect the right to vote.

That détente is likely to break down as soon as this week, however. A Senate Democratic leadership source confirms to ThinkProgress that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to call for a vote on three nominees to the second most powerful court in the country, with the first vote likely to come this week. This court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is currently a bastion of conservatism. Its conservative judges struck down crucial environmental regulations that would prevent literally tens of thousands of deaths. They issued an opinion that at one point threatened to shut down all of American labor law. And two of its judges even joined an opinion claiming that all business, workplace or Wall Street regulation is constitutionally suspect. For most of the Obama presidency, the D.C. Circuit’s been a place where progressive regulation goes to die — and Senate Republicans want to keep it that way.

The solution is simple: NUKE THE FILIBASTARDS!!

From Raw Story: Transatlantic tensions reached boiling point Monday as Washington sharply denied reports President Barack Obama knew US spies were tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but fresh allegations emerged of mass snooping in Spain.

As outrage over secret US surveillance of leaders and average citizens mounted with a tide of new reports, a delegation from the European Parliament was due in Washington to demand answers on the extent of the operations.

Given the rate at which Republican political appointees burrowed-in to permanent “nonpartisan” positions at the NSA, and given the fact that spying on world leaders to that extent was a Bush program, it’s easy for me to believe that such details “escaped” inclusion in the summaries passed up to Obama. The French Ambassador summed it up best that we all do it, but he is jealous and angry that America does it better than everyone else. I have a solution. Make the NSA and Healthcare.gov swap IT Departments.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, having just returned from a local meeting.  After Thursday’s meeting I was so wiped out that I went to bed and stayed there, taking a few short breaks, until this morning.  Sorry I’ve been so scarce, but I needed to recharge. Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are worshiping with the misnamed Redskins.  It’s the same as calling a team the Texas Wetbacks or the Jerusalem Foreskins.  It will be televised here.  Wooo Hooo!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:04 (average 5:36).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Don’t Worry, This Is Only A Movie! Except It’s Not And We’re All Going To Die.

 

What do we do now? We remove every Republican from office and support Democrats who are environmentally friendly over DINOs in primaries.

From Daily Kos: It’s been a long time coming, but Tea Baggin’ Conferderates Secessionist Slavery Deniers are coming openly out of the closet more and more as time goes on.

There have been numerous examples from South Carolina’s (Now) Lt. Governor Glenn McConnell posing with mock-slaves in a Civil War Uniform during the "Southern Experience" event for the National Federation of Republican Women. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s Celebration of "Confederate Day", Texas Governor Rick Perry’s not-so-veiled threats of secession to the Rand Paul Staffer who called himself the "Confederate Avenger"…

…And yet, there’s more.

Click through for a fascinating article about seditious Republican secessionists.

From Think Progress: On Friday, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) announced that a record number of students applied to American medical schools in 2013 and that a record number of first-year students has enrolled in medical schools this year. Experts say that’s an encouraging sign in the face of a primary care doctor shortage that will likely be exacerbated by an influx of newly insured Americans seeking medical treatment as the Affordable Care Act goes into effect.

“At a time when the nation faces a shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by the end of the decade and millions are gaining access to health insurance, we are very glad that more students than ever want to become physicians,” said AAMC president Dr. Darrell G. Kirch in a press release.

This is certainly good news for Obamacare, and it debunks the Republican lie that there will not be enough doctors to meet the need.   I looked for similar support for RepubliCare, but could find no corresponding jump in enrollment for mortuary students.

Cartoon:

For the American exceptionalism set, at last you get a #1.  America is #1 at locking up our citizens.