Personal – Page 565 – Politics Plus

Open Thread–8/8/2013

Posted by TomCat at 2:31 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 082013

Writing for tomorrow, day 55, climate change is still kicking my butt.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:19 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: More threats from the continuing criminal enterprise that is the Republican Party. Now Reince Priebus, head of the Party, is demanding that CNN and NBC cancel movies and mini-series about Hillary Clinton OR ….. He’ll hold his breath? No something worse. He’ll pull the ratings juggernauts of the Republican presidential primary debates in 2016.

Isn’t it ironic that the Citizens United decision stemmed from a case demanding the right to air and advertise a negative movie about Hillary. What hypocrites!

From The New Yorker: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, told reporters today that his reported purchase of the Washington Post was a “gigantic mix-up,” explaining that he had clicked on the newspaper by mistake.

“I guess I was just kind of browsing through their website and not paying close attention to what I was doing,” he said. “No way did I intend to buy anything.”

Mr. Bezos said he had been oblivious to his online shopping error until earlier today, when he saw an unusual charge for two hundred and fifty million dollars on his American Express statement.

As much as $250 million sounds, it’s tiny to Bezos. I’m reserving my opinion to see what he does, but thank God it wasn’t Murdoch of the Koch Brothers!

From MSNBC: Bought Bitch Mitch’s hired criminal

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

It comes as no surprise that Jesse Benton is a criminal. How could he not be, since he managed the campaign of that hateful, racist misanthrope, Ron Paul? It also comes as no surprise that he is now working for the candidate named after political corruption, Bought Bitch Mitch.

Cartoon:

8Cartoon

Open Thread–8/7/2013

Posted by TomCat at 1:48 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 072013

Writing for tomorrow, day 54, I’m quite drained. It reached 101° at my desk yesterday. That has dropped to 86°, but the sun just hit the “breezeway” so it will skyrocket.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:01 (average 5:41). To do it, click here. How did you do? (Dang dawg!) 😉

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker:As House Republicans began their five-week summer vacation, their leader, House Speaker John Boehner, urged them to rest up for “the many symbolic and meaningless votes that lie ahead.”

Mr. Boehner, while congratulating his colleagues on having voted to repeal Obamacare forty times, reminded his fellow-Republicans that their work is “far from over.”

This really is humor and satire. REALLY! You don’t believe me? That’s OK. On this, I wouldn’t either!

From NY Times: Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator who captured the national spotlight with an 11-hour filibuster against restricting abortion rights, turned up in Washington on Monday with the news that she was considering a run for governor.

“I can say with absolute certainty that I will run for one of two offices: either my State Senate seat or the governor,” Ms. Davis said after a luncheon and speech at the National Press Club.

This could be Texas’ only opportunity in the near future to put forward a Democrat with a high enough profile to have a good shot at winning. Because the whole state votes for Governor, Republicans can’t Gerrymander the job.

From MSNBC: Debunktion Junction

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

Cantor earned another BS in Billshitology. Elections like Detroit’s are what Republicans plan for us all, one’s that are for show only.

Cartoon:

Open Thread–8/6/2014

Posted by TomCat at 1:54 am Open Thread, Personal, Plus

Aug 062013

As I write at 9:45 AM for day 53, the temperature at my desk is at today’s inside low, 90° UGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: …In other words, Republicans, confronted with the responsibilities of governing, essentially threw a tantrum, then ran off to sulk.

How did the G.O.P. get to this point? On budget issues, the proximate source of the party’s troubles lies in the decision to turn the formulation of fiscal policy over to a con man. Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has always been a magic-asterisk kind of guy — someone who makes big claims about having a plan to slash deficits but refuses to spell out any of the all-important details. Back in 2011 the Congressional Budget Office, in evaluating one of Mr. Ryan’s plans, came close to open sarcasm; it described the extreme spending cuts Mr. Ryan was assuming, then remarked, tersely, “No proposals were specified that would generate that path.”

What’s happening now is that the G.O.P. is trying to convert Mr. Ryan’s big talk into actual legislation — and is finding, unsurprisingly, that it can’t be done. Yet Republicans aren’t willing to face up to that reality. Instead, they’re just running away.

Click through for the rest of this magnificent editorial. Krugman is spot on again!

From MSNBC: What will become of GOP Dysfunction?

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

It surprised me that this subject even came up on Faux Noise! We only got a small part of the exchange, but I’m betting Wallace goose-stepped to whatever Cantor replied. The Bagger demand of McConnell is Loony Toons, telling Bought Bitch Mitch to be a man. that won’t happen in our lifetime. Don’t you love Cantor’s immigration reform. Leave kids here, on their own, when their parents are deported. As bad as it is for the country, during the years this takes, the Republican Party appears to be going the way of the Whigs.

From Think Progress: Unusually hot, dry weather in Alaska is wreaking havoc on fisheries, as thousands of fish perish in overheated waters. Last month, 1,100 king salmon died on their way up to the Crystal Lake hatchery due to water temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and lack of oxygen. That’s the bulk of the 1,800 adult salmon that were expected to return to the hatchery this season.

Earlier in the summer, another hatchery lost hundreds of grayling and rainbow trout in a Fairbanks lake where water temperatures reached 76 degrees. Alaska’s heat wave broke records last week, with 14 days straight above 70 degrees in Anchorage and 31 days of 80 degrees in Fairbanks.

Soon Mooseolini will claim that she can see Bermuda from her front porch.

Cartoon:

6Cartoon

They provided a wealth of material for Republicans to ignore!

Open Thread–8/5/2012

Posted by TomCat at 2:24 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 052013

Writing for tomorrow, day 51, at 11:00 AM, it’s already 89° at my desk. ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:17 (average 4:31). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos:

Yes, I know that if you’re one of the beltway insiders who spends their evenings thumbing through the index of This Town, it’s probably shocking to see a headline saying that Republicans are consciously pursuing a policy of starvation … but this isn’t a question of opinion. It’s fact:

House Republicans are proposing to double their food stamp savings to nearly $40 billion by rolling back waivers for able-bodied adults and targeting funds to states that are willing to impose greater work requirements on the parents of young children.

I’m surprised Wal-fart isn’t making a huge stink over this. If Republicans roll back waivers for able bodied adults, most of Wal-fart’s work force could starve.

From Alternet: The fact is, America’s suicide rate is on the rise, and Conservative economic policies are to blame.

In a study released in May, Professors David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu of Oxford University in England found that suicide rates in both the U.S. and U.K. increase when working class wages and wealth decline.

The study calculates, for example, that there were 4,750 “excess” suicides during the recession period in the U.S., compared with suicide rates before the recession.

See? RepubliCorp has a free death benefit, just like RepubliCare!

From Robert Reich: Job-growth is sputtering. So why, exactly, do regressive Republicans continue to say “no" to every idea for boosting it — even last week’s almost absurdly modest proposal by President Obama to combine corporate tax cuts with increased spending on roads and other public works?…

…The real answer, I think, is they and their patrons want unemployment to remain high and job-growth to sputter. Why? Three reasons:

First, high unemployment keeps wages down. Workers who are worried about losing their jobs settle for whatever they can get — which is why hourly earnings keep dropping. The median wage is now 4 percent lower than it was at the start of the recovery. Low wages help boost corporate profits, thereby keeping the regressives’ corporate sponsors happy…

Robert Reich has outdone himself again. I gave you just a small taste here. Click through to see how well he has the Republican Party pegged!

Cartoon:

5Cartoon

April Glaspie said, "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait."

Open Thread–8/4/2013

Posted by TomCat at 3:33 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 042013

Writing for tomorrow, day 51, I’m enjoying the last cool morning I’m likely to see for at least ten days. Once they fixed the problems at out HSP, the site has been working as it should.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:29 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: In its last action before a five-week summer recess, the House took another jab at President Obama’s health care law on Friday, voting to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from enforcing or carrying out any provision of the law.

The bill, approved by a vote of 232 to 185, now goes to the Senate, where it has virtually no chance of approval. President Obama said he would veto the measure if it got to him.

That is the 40th vote to repeal ObamaCare, wasting over $1 million in taxpayer money per vote. I predict that the US Congress will pass no more BS measures this month.

From MSNBC: Worst Congress EVER!

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

In inferring that Congress has repealed many laws, Agent Orange did what he always does. He lied. The last Republican President was the worst president in US history. This Republican House makes it the worst congress in US history. This Republican Party is the worst party in US history. When Michael Steele is the brightest bulb in their pack, they are in BIG trouble.

From The Hill: For Dem women, it’s Hillary or bust

Hillary Clinton does not shatter the glass ceiling for women and win the White House in 2016, who will? [WATCH VIDEO]

It is a question that bubbles just under the surface in conversations with many Democratic women.

They are deeply invested in the idea of a Clinton run for the presidency. They are also painfully aware that no other female politician on the horizon is of comparable stature… [emphasis original]

Although I would prefer a more progressive candidate, I would have no problem supporting Hillary, if she wins the nomination, but Hillary or bust? What an awful choice!! If I were a Dem woman, I’d choose to leave Hillary behind and keep my bust. 😉

Cartoon:

4Cartoon

Now that’s my kind of voting booth! 😀

Open Thread–8/3/2013

Posted by TomCat at 1:47 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 032013

I’m writing for Saturday, day 50. Yesterday (Thursday) I got better sleep, but collecting the data for and writing the Monthly Report took most of the day. Today is the last cool day. Tomorrow will be hot, but not unbearably so. Then on Sunday, the heat wave returns full force and is forecast to last until at least a week from Monday. ARGH!!!

Update: Our HSP crashed so the blog was intermittent, mostly offline, most of the day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:29). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From CREW: Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr. for lying to Congress. Contrary to what Director Clapper told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the National Security Agency (NSA) does, in fact, collect data on Americans, as documents disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden demonstrate.

Read the letter to the Department of Justice and supporting exhibits

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan stated, “The Obama administration has been extremely aggressive in prosecuting leaks. It is only reasonable to expect DOJ to be at least as diligent in investigating high government officials who deliberately lie to Congress.”

At a March 12, 2013 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked Director Clapper, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Director Clapper responded, “No, sir … Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps, collect, but not, not wittingly.”

I fully agree and support CREW’s efforts.

From MSNBC: Bought Bitch Mitch in trouble!

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

Nothing would please me more to see Lundergan Grimes beat either the Bagger that beat Bought Bitch Mitch, or Bought Bitch Mitch himself. He’s the nation’s most unpopular senator, because America is beginning to see him as the lying seditionist traitor he is.

From TPM: Senate Republicans are standing firm by their threat to block every one of President Obama’s nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, insisting on eliminating all three vacant seats on the country’s second most powerful court.

If they follow through, it could spark yet another nuclear showdown over filibuster rules.

The first of Obama’s three picks, Patricia Millett, was narrowly approved Thursday by the Judiciary Committee on a party line vote of 10-8. Every Republican voted against her, although they didn’t criticize her or take issue with her qualifications. They merely argued that the court is under-worked and that nobody ought to fill those seats.

The DC Circuit is the Court of Appeals that has the most responsibility of them all, because they have jurisdiction over all federal regulations. They also have a temporary Republican majority, because of the three vacancies. NUKE the FILIBASTARDS!!!!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread–8/2/2013

Posted by TomCat at 2:24 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 022013

Writing for day 49, it’s cooler, and I should have a few days of comfort, before the heat returns this weekend. I’m working harder than normal, because I have been collecting the data for our Monthly Report, and I’m also still running on a bad sleep deficit, mostly because of heat and noise.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:28 (average 4:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: If you live in the south, you’re no doubt familiar with Bojangles. The ubiquitous Charlotte, NC-based chicken and biscuit chain has 500 locations sprinkled across 11 states.

Until today, Bojangles had been a regular advertiser on the Rush Limbaugh Show, sponsoring traffic on WBT-Charlotte nearly every day during the controversial program. And for months, the company had declined to respond to Flush Rush pressure that they remove the ads.

Kudos to Bojangles, although they should never have supported the philosophical head of the Republican Party at all.

From NY Times: …Nearly 6 in 10 Republicans believe that they need to reconsider some positions, while just over a third believe that the party mainly needs to make a stronger case for its current positions…

…But that’s where things get tricky. Fifty-four percent believe that party leaders need to move in a more conservative direction, while only 40 percent believe that they need to move in a more moderate direction.

MORE conservative?!!? One night as well tell Hitler to be more Nazi!

From SPLC:

James Timothy Turner, the president of the largest antigovernment “sovereign citizen” group in the country, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison on Wednesday for tax crimes. Turner was convicted in March of every count he faced, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; six counts related to fake financial instruments; obstructing the Internal Revenue Service; and failing to file a tax return in 2009.

In delivering the sentence, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said he considered two factors –– the vindictiveness Turner had shown in going after federal employees who had challenged his interpretation of the law and Turner’s age. At 57, Turner will be an elderly man when he is released from prison, even if he is released early for good behavior.

This is a sad day in the annals of TEAbuggery. However, I hope the man gets an opportunity in prison to learn about his dysfunctional thinking and that he takes that opportunity to become an authentic human being.

Cartoon:

2Cartoon

Open Thread–8/1/2013

Posted by TomCat at 12:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 012013

As I write for day 49, It’s only 79° at my desk, but that will change, because the forecast is 85° (add 15° in my ‘breezeway’), and the humidity is 77%. This the first time I have ever seen a forecast for “dry thunderstorms”. I received what appears to be good news on my apartment. I’m approved and first on the list on the 17th, when the woman from county, supposedly with the rubber stamp, returns. I’ll believe it completely when I have a rent receipt in hand, but it looks good.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:14 (average 4:32). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Responding to Pope Francis’s suggestion that the Pope is not capable of judging gays, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia contacted the Vatican today to say that he would be “more than happy” to help the Pontiff do so.

“If he’s having trouble judging homosexuals, well, then I’m his man,” Scalia told reporters after making his offer. “I have over a quarter century of professional experience.”

I’m sure he would get lots of help from Teabag Thomas.

From Me (data from Wikipedia): Where does our money go. This is the longest Short Take (vertically) to date.

1RedStatesTake

Most donor states are blue. Most moocher states are red.

From NY Times: A military judge on Tuesday found Pfc. Bradley Manning not guilty of “aiding the enemy” for his release of hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks for publication on the Internet, rejecting the government’s unprecedented effort to bring such a charge in a leak case.

But the judge in the court-martial, Col. Denise R. Lind, convicted Private Manning of six counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and most of the other crimes he was charged with. He faces a theoretical maximum sentence of 136 years in prison, although legal experts said the actual term was likely to be much shorter.

It has always been my position, along with that of Henry David Thoreau, author of Civil Disobedience, that when one breaks the law in an act of civil disobedience, willingness to accept the punishment for so doing is what underlines the integrity of the act. That and more separates Manning’s heroism from Snowden’s behavior. I’m pleased that Bradley Manning was acquitted of the most serious charges against him, which were not justified in my opinion. I salute Bradley Manning and hope that the actual term of his sentence is short, the shorter the better, with full credit for time served.

Cartoon:

1Cartoon

Older Entries Newer Entries