Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow and preparing to leave for volunteer work in prison.  It’s our annual victims’ impact meeting in which around 100 of my guys will have an opportunity to talk to crime victims about the effects that being victimized had on their lives.  I overslept today, and that’s a good thing, but as a result, this will be tomorrow’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 4:33).  To do it. click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Ever Hear About The Lady Who Spilled Coffee On Herself At McDonald’s, Then Sued For Millions?

It’s really unbelievable what happened to Stella Liebeck. You just have to watch to see how the media turned on this little old lady who lived in Albuquerque. Obviously a villain, right? And at 5:00, prepare to see what the coffee actually did to her. It’s not pretty. Well … nothing in her situation was.

To corporate criminals like McDonalds, you and I are statistically insignificant. This woman’s award was not to recompense the victim. It was to punishing McDonalds by taking away the revenue from two days sales of their unsafe coffee. I know their coffee is to hot, because I have burned my lips trying to drink it.

From Daily Kos: Amazingly this exchange took place on CNN where Steve Beshear Governor of Kentucky explained that for states who chose to implement their own exchanges – as was intended by the Affordable Care Act – their "Glitches" have been few and far between. 

We’re signing up people at roughly a thousand a day. It’s a great rate and a great success so far,” he told on CNN’s “New Day,” describing the market as “a gold standard because it’s working.”…

[The Federal System] will be working fully in a month or two.  History shows us that [after the implication of Medicare] it took two years to get it all working properly.  This will all work.

Later the CNN Hosts talks to Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) – she of the Run-Away AR-15 – to get their usual "other side" of the obligatory "both sides" view – only to have her attempt to completely contradict and dismiss everything that Gov. Beshear had just said.

Only something interesting happened, the CNN Host wasn’t having it.

See the Republican lie. Lie! Lie!! Lie!!! That’s what Republicans do. Her Republican plan takes away the ban on preexisting conditions, takes away closing the donut hole for seniors, takes away parents ability to keep their kids covered, and limits malpractice awards.  It’s great to see a media host get sick of being fed BS and showing it, for a change!

From NY Times: Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who helped engineer the recent government shutdown, has a new target for his obstructionism: the Federal Communications Commission. Last week, Mr. Cruz blocked the Senate from considering the nomination of Tom Wheeler to lead the commission — a candidate who leaders from both parties had agreed would be put up for a vote without delay. Mr. Cruz has put a hold on the nomination, his spokesman told reporters, to find out if Mr. Wheeler would vote to require greater disclosure about political ads on television and radio bought by independent groups. Such groups can currently keep donors secret even as they spend hundreds of millions of dollars to influence elections. Mr. Cruz says he is trying to get more information and to make sure the F.C.C. does not exceed its authority.

But the F.C.C. clearly has the authority to require disclosure of who pays for commercial and political speech on public airwaves under communications laws dating back to the 1930s.

Cruz, a front for many Republican legislators, is looking for a nominee that will ignore the law and keep the identity of 0.1% donors trying to buy elections a secret.  This is really no different than any other filibuster.  NUKE the Filibastard!!

Cartoon:

Bolshevik means "majority", although they were actually the minority. They called the democratic socialists Mensheviks, which means "minority", although they were actually the majority. While claiming to be the majority when they were not, they took power by force. Who else claims to be the majority when they are not? Beware!

I’m writing for tomorrow quickly and preparing to go to the prison for volunteer work.  I have a CoDA meeting with about twelve guys.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:04 (average 5:23).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

Standings:

Next week I play Judy from Care2.

Short Takes:

From Represent.us: A lobbyist and a Senator walk into a restaurant…

Note how we get stuck with the tab. Click through to connect with these folks campaigning to get the money out of the system.

From The New Yorker: The N.S.A. leaker Edward Snowden today reached out to the United States government, offering to fix its troubled healthcare.gov Web site in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Speaking from an undisclosed location in Russia, Mr. Snowden said he hacked the Web site over the weekend and thinks he is “pretty sure what the problem is.”

“Look, this thing was built terribly,” he said. “It’s a government Web site, O.K.?”

Mr. Snowden said that if an immunity deal can be worked out, “I can get to work on this thing right away—I don’t need a password.”

He couldn’t be much worse than the clowns in charge now. Of course, the down side of having Snowden do it it that in days the Russians would know more about our exchanges than we do.

From Crooks and Liars: A new study released today concludes that Koch Industries and its subsidiaries stand to make as much as $100 billion in profits if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is granted a presidential permit from U.S. President Barack Obama.

The report, titled Billionaires’ Carbon Bomb, produced by the think tank International Forum on Globalization (IFG), finds that David and Charles Koch and their privately owned company, Koch Industries, own more than 2 million acres of land in Northern Alberta, the source of the tar sands bitumen that would be pumped to the United States via the Keystone XL pipeline.

That’s 100 billion more reasons to oppose it.

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I’m writing for tomorrow and hurrying to meditate upon the Ellipsoid Orb, although the Broncos’ worship is not until tonight.  This week I have volunteer days in prison on both Tuesday or Thursday, so I may be MIA here any day this week.  If I don’t show up, don’t worry.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:56 (average 4:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Agony:

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Detroit found out the Kocks dirty secret first. Now south Chicago knows. What happens in Alberta doesn’t stay in Alberta. Petcoke, the dirty high carbon residue of Canadian tar sands refining, fouled Detroit. Detroit ordered the petcoke piles out. Now petcoke piles are covering south Chicago with black dust laced with toxic vanadium.  Petcoke, the tar sands residue that is worse for the climate than burning coal, has been piled up near midwest refineries awaiting export to countries that allow it to be burned. Because it’s a waste product of oil refining the Kochs sell it for prices cheaper than coal to poor nations willing the accept pollution as a trade off for cheap energy. Petcoke is the carbon cost ignored in the State department analysis that falsely claimed that Keystone XL tar sands oil will not significantly increase greenhouse gas pollution compared with conventional oil. The dirty carbon secret that the Kochs don’t want you to know about is literally blowing in the wind. Working class and lower middle class communities were, as usual, the first to learn the Koch’s dirty secret. … [emphasis added]

Having petcoke is almost as foul as having a pet Koch!

From NY Times: …The budget fight that led to the first government shutdown in 17 years did not just set off a round of recriminations among Republicans over who was to blame for the politically disastrous standoff. It also heralded a very public escalation of a far more consequential battle for control of the Republican Party, a confrontation between Tea Party conservatives and establishment Republicans that will play out in the coming Congressional and presidential primaries in 2014 and 2016 but has been simmering since President George W. Bush’s administration, if not before.

In dozens of interviews, elected officials, strategists and donors from both wings of the party were unusually blunt in drawing the intraparty battle lines, suggesting that the time for an open feud over the Republican future had arrived.

“It’s civil war in the G.O.P.,” said Richard Viguerie, a veteran conservative warrior who helped invent the political direct mail business…

That’s my kind of civil war. May both sides lose BIG TIME!!

From Truthdig: It’s no secret voter ID laws were drafted with minorities in mind, but they’re not the only ones who could have their voice suppressed by such legislation. This fall in Texas, many women may also face difficulties exercising their right to vote.

The discriminatory legislation, made possible in the wake of the Supreme Court’s infamous gutting of the Voting Rights Act, demands that citizens provide photo identification that displays their current name. PolicyMic points out why this will present a problem to many women in the Lone Star State:

Supporters of these new laws insist that requiring voters to have an ID that matches their birth certificate is a reasonable requirement. As Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has repeatedly said, “Almost every single person either has a valid photo ID … or it is very easy to get one.” What they don’t say, however, is that the people who don’t are largely married women who have taken their husband’s name.

In fact, only 66% of women have an ID that reflects their current name.

…

If allowed to get away with it in Texas, they will be doing it everywhere.

Cartoon:

I was on the left a bit over half way to the far end of the reflecting pool.

I’m writing for tomorrow and am quite worn out.  I was so bleary eyed in the wee hours this morning that I fell asleep on my keyboard.  I have a new neighbor to help Stuck on Stupid and Guitar man.  He’s directly above me and has hardwood floors.  I call him Tap Dancer.  ARGH!!!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:22 (average 4:19).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: And here I thought it was Reid he was telling Obama to hold firm:

White House officials rushed Friday to squash an emerging bipartisan deal crafted by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) because they viewed it as a worse than proposals from Boehner.

It would have locked in next year’s even-deeper government spending levels and suspended the medical device tax, a key funding stream for Obamacare that’s unpopular with both parties.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors called Reid, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The president didn’t want Democrats anywhere near that deal, and the Senate leaders, in turn, warned the rank and file to hold back and avoid committing to the deal. The president reiterated his concerns in a Saturday meeting with Democratic leaders, and they made clear that they couldn’t accept the proposal.

… [emphasis original]

Kudos to Barack Obama for attaching Leg Hound Harry’s Obamaballs! No wonder they stayed on so long!!

From The New Yorker: Residents of the District of Columbia were roused from their sleep by a massive fireworks display over the White House just after midnight, as President Obama declared what he called “a national day of gloating.”

“It would not be productive for this nation, going forward, to crow about our victory over political adversaries,” he said in a nationally televised address. “So let’s get it all out of our systems today.”

Immediately after the President’s speech, loudspeakers outside the White House blasted “We Are the Champions,” and the national day of gloating began.

Ironically, it has surprised me how little gloating Obama has done, despite being forthright about Republican culpability.

From MSNBC: Cuccinelli’s attempt at election theft.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Republicans have a valid reason for stealing elections. Otherwise, they lose. America needs a different purge: a giant flush that sweeps all Republicans from office.

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