Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 103, and I’m tired, because guitar man went on a binge yesterday, making sleep impossible.  I was so pooped that I fell asleep at the keyboard answering comments here, between Yvonne and Edie in the Open Thread for the 23rd.  Nevertheless, I have articles for tomorrow.

Update: Last night I had bad stomach cramps, and still do.  I’ll just post this for now, and catch up on comments tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

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

Fantasy Football Report: Here’s the latest from our fantasy football league. 🙁

Scores:

It wasn’t over ‘till the fat TomCat purrred, but TC choked on a fur ball!!

Standings:

Don’t forget to set your line-ups by Thursday night if you want to start any players fro the 49ers or the Rams.  Also, it’s the bye week for the Packers and the Panthers, so those players can’t be started this week.

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Everyone has to earn a living, but some people do it in sleazier ways than others. That’s the story of American farmers and patent lawyers. Monsanto works so hard at owning the food supply, and these farmers just keep getting in the way. [Upworthy’s video was not working, so I got the original clip.]

They do a great job of illustrating how these corporate criminals are trying to corner the food market so they can stick it to YOU!

From NY Times: The nomination of a gay black Miami judge to the federal bench will not move forward after Senator Marco Rubio announced he was withdrawing his support over concerns about the judge’s actions in two criminal cases.

Judge William Thomas was nominated to the Federal District Court in Miami.

Without Mr. Rubio’s approval, Judge William Thomas’s nomination to the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in Miami, is effectively blocked. Judge Thomas, who serves on the Miami-Dade Circuit, was nominated by President Obama, with Mr. Rubio’s backing, more than 10 months ago.

Rubio is running too scared of his rabid base to keep up his pretense to be inclusive. The crime that matters to Rubin in the first case is that the judge is black, and in the second case, that the judge is gay.

From MSNBC: Inequality for All Targets Income Disparity

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

This conversation is great follow up for my earlier Short Take on Inequality for All. I’m glad Lawrence is bringing us the background.

Cartoon:

And Republicans work overtime contradicting, misinterpreting, and lying about it!!

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 100, and I’m sad to say the cravings have not diminished one iota.  I haven’t been Peter Perfect, but my doctor says that she has no problem with my ultra-low cheating level (< 1/week or two).  On the downside, my sense of smell has returned, and that can be a major inconvenience on public transit.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos will not be worshiping,  They have been blessed with worship on Monday night this week.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: The new NALT Christians Project is currently blowing my mind. It’s a place where Christians can publicly proclaim that they are “not all like that.” And it’s about time.

These are authentic Christians. The haters are Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians. The difference is clear.  (Thanks to Pat, you’ll be seeing more of these, as I’ve put myself on their list.)

From The New Yorker: In a sharply critical op-ed piece for the Russian Web site Pravda, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a brutal, freedom-hating tyrant” and challenged Mr. Putin to tear down the Berlin Wall.

“The Wall stands as a symbol of your failed, repressive system,” Sen. McCain said. “Until you tear it down, the world will see you and your Soviet goons for what you are: relics destined for the dustbin of history.”

“Mr. Putin, tear down that wall,” Sen. McCain’s editorial pointedly concluded.

Dang!! Andy really HAS switched from satirizing to reporting!!  😉

From NY Times: The Obama administration on Friday announced that it was not backing down from a confrontation with the coal industry and that it would press ahead with enacting the first federal carbon limits on the nation’s power companies.
The proposed regulations, announced at the National Press Club by Gina McCarthy, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, are an aggressive move by Mr. Obama to bypass Congress on climate change with executive actions he promised in his inaugural address this year. The regulations are certain to be denounced by House Republicans and the industry as part of what they call the president’s “war on coal.”

In her speech, Ms. McCarthy unveiled the agency’s proposal to limit new gas-fired power plants to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt-hour and new coal plants to 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide. Industry officials say the average advanced coal plant currently emits about 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour.

I hear a lot of whining that it isn’t enough, and I fully agree. It isn’t enough. However, without Congress, it’s what he CAN do.

Cartoon:

Republican Supply-side Jesus talks about SNAP (food stamps).

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 98.  Tonight I’ll be meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb, even though my Broncos are not.  Stuck on stupid neighbor has a new trick.  He sits next door, and his girlfriend (and I use that term loosely) sits in her apartment on the third floor, and the two of them use the breezeway to fight.  It hasn’t cost me any sleep so far, because they do it in the wee hours, and I’m already up replying to comments, uploading articles, and distributing links.  Other neighbors aren’t too happy about it, though.

Jug Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

From Daily Kos: Oh this is delicious. Yes, you read it right. Hate-radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, has been ousted from Fargo’s Talk 101.9 FM, and replaced with Rock 102, after listeners rebelled and ratings tanked (like in septic).

Last March, only weeks after Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke, KFGO in the heart of Red state, North Dakota, joined the Hate Parade and switched from good old Rock & Roll, to angry, hateful, racist, homophobic, misogynist Rush. The listeners were not happy. According to Mike McFeely at KFGO it was a bitter pill for the Rock 102 fans to swallow for a good while.

"Despite the adamant protests of Rock 102’s passionate fans, including the creation of a "Bring Back Rock 102" Facebook page," Rock 102 entered a year and a half period of conservative talk programming which will be forever referred to as ‘in Limbaugh’"…

The people ultimately won and got their station back.

When presented with Rock or Rush, the policy chief of the Republican Party, the choice is self-evident!

From MSNBC: Republicans are now owning the term RepubliCare

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

RepubliCare’s new features are more welfare for the rich, and more and welfare for Big Insurance, but it retains the RepubliCare Death Benefit for YOU! If you can’t pay, you get to die!!

From Think Progress: After historic floods ravaged Colorado late last week, the state is now facing serious long-term consequences. The Denver Post reported on Wednesday evening that at least 5,250 gallons of crude oil spilled from two tank batteries into the South Platte River. Anadarko Petroleum, the second-largest operator in the region, is working with local officials to contain the spill, but authorities are unsure when the spill occurred or exactly how much crude leached into the river.

The incident is the first to confirm the fears of many Coloradans that the state’s flooded oil and gas infrastructure is a major environmental catastrophe waiting to happen. As Think Progress reported on Tuesday, the floods hit one of the most densely drilled areas in the U.S. and residents have expressed serious concern “that unknown amount of chemicals has leaked out and possibly contaminated waters, mixing fracking fluids and oil along with sewage, gasoline, and agriculture pesticides.”

I’m literally afraid to hear what else has happened, but it’s not just a local event.  The South Platt will carry part of that crude all the way to the Mississippi, which will add it to the rest in the Gulf.

Cartoon:

Inspired by Bill Maher

Writing for tomorrow, day 96, I’m still pretty pooped, but hope to get some rest today.

Poll Note:

I realized I made a major wording error on out poll.  To fix it, I had to restart the poll, so if you already voted, please vote again.

Update:

For the first time, Critter sends greetings to Critter from the outside.  He’s a bit overwhelmed, of course, but doing great.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:23 (average 5:06).  To do it, click here!  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest in our fantasy football league, after an exciting, but frustrating week.  Damn Seachickens!!

Scores:

I bet Patty is Monster Mash twerking right now!! 😉

Standings:

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Short Takes:

From Robert Reich: One of the most deceptive ideas continuously sounded by the Right (and its fathomless think tanks and media outlets) is that the “free market” is natural and inevitable, existing outside and beyond government. So whatever inequality or insecurity it generates is beyond our control. And whatever ways we might seek to reduce inequality or insecurity — to make the economy work for us — are unwarranted constraints on the market’s freedom, and will inevitably go wrong.

By this view, if some people aren’t paid enough to live on, the market has determined they aren’t worth enough. If others rake in billions, they must be worth it. If millions of Americans remain unemployed or their paychecks are shrinking or they work two or three part-time jobs with no idea what they’ll earn next month or next week, that’s too bad; it’s just the outcome of the market.

According to this logic, government shouldn’t intrude through minimum wages, high taxes on top earners, public spending to get people back to work, regulations on business, or anything else, because the “free market” knows best.

In reality, the “free market” is a bunch of rules about (1) what can be owned and traded (the genome? slaves? nuclear materials? babies? votes?); (2) on what terms (equal access to the internet? the right to organize unions? corporate monopolies? the length of patent protections? ); (3) under what conditions (poisonous drugs? unsafe foods? deceptive Ponzi schemes? uninsured derivatives? dangerous workplaces?) (4) what’s private and what’s public (police? roads? clean air and clean water? healthcare? good schools? parks and playgrounds?); (5) how to pay for what (taxes, user fees, individual pricing?). And so on.

These rules don’t exist in nature; they are human creations. Governments don’t “intrude” on free markets; governments organize and maintain them. Markets aren’t “free” of rules; the rules define them.

Republican rules cause the 1% to get the benefits, and the 99% to pay the costs.

From Blue Oregon: Straight Talk: Oregon republican party chairman Art Robinson

Art Robinson was on KGW’s Straight Talk over the weekend, and I think Laurel Porter is probably still recovering from the post-interview laughing fit she had when it was over because…wow.\\

BARF BAG ALERT!: 24 minutes (or less) of this insane Teabagger is guaranteed to stimulate a projectile visceral response.

From McClatchy DC: Friends say Aaron Alexis [the Navy Yard Shooter] regularly meditated at a local Buddhist temple, was unfailingly courteous and never showed signs of the violence that is now his legacy.

But police reports paint a darker picture of the Fort Worth man, including an anger-fueled "blackout" and shooting in Seattle in 2004 and, more recently, a firearms incident at a Fort Worth apartment, after which a neighbor told police that she was "terrified" of him.

If this guy were white, he’d have been exactly the sort that the Republican Party wants to be able to buy guns without a background check.

Cartoon: