Politics Plus

Going into day 15, this will be my only article today, unless I get a second wind.  Yesterday was even hotter than forecast.  Today looks to be the same.  I am wrung out.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:05 (average 5:02).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Bill Moyers: Here in the richest country on earth, 50 million of us — one in six Americans — go hungry. More than a third of them are children. And yet Congress can’t pass a Farm Bill because our representatives continue to fight over how many billions to slash from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. The debate is filled with tired clichés about freeloaders undeserving of government help, living large at the expense of honest, hardworking taxpayers. But a new documentary, A Place at the Table, paints a truer picture of America’s poor.

Like most Republican plans that steal from the poor, this one would cost taxpayers more than the dollars Republicans would steal to give to the 1%.

From Crooks and Liars: Saw this from our own Dave Edwards, and this part made me chuckle.

In a Capitol Hill press conference, Gohmert referred to the Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as “the five new holy quintets.”

“For them — I don’t know what kind of cloistered walls this court has been behind,” he opined. “They were not aware that the most wise man in history, Solomon, said there’s nothing new under the sun. And this isn’t new, and it’s been tried over and over. And it’s usually tried at the end of a great civilization.”

…

“Go Go Goose-step” should check his facts.  The man he calls “the most wise man in history” and used to support marriage between one man and one woman just happened to have 300 wives and 700 concubines.  What InsaniTEA!

From Think Progress: President Obama’s speech about climate change at Georgetown University on Tuesday laid out a comprehensive plan to deal with what ClimateProgress editor Joe Romm called “the moral urgency of cutting carbon pollution.” Not surprisingly, the President’s words have fallen on deaf ears on the Republican side of the aisle in the House of Representatives.

Today, less than a month after it was introduced, the House passed H.R. 2231, the Offshore Energy and Jobs Act, by a vote of 235 to 186. The bill reads like Big Oil’s Christmas list. It would open virtually all of the U.S. Atlantic coast, the Pacific coast off Southern California, and much of Alaska’s offshore space to new drilling; require the Obama administration to create a new Five-Year Plan for offshore operations; and generally perpetuate an energy agenda driven by climate deniers.

As much as you may want to bitch about Obama’s environmental policy, and I do it too, this is the alternative. The notion that one is as bad as the other is a total lie.

Cartoon:

This will also be the fate of the Tea Parties, if Republicans successfully establish their desired totalitarian regime of one-party Republican rule, in which elections exist only for show. These storm troopers will be expendable, just as those were.

I’m so irate over the Supreme Court’s murder of voting rights,  that I missed a sleep cycle.  I’m writing early and hope to be awake enough to do more tomorrow (day 12).

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:57 (average 5:04).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Huffington Post: The defense [for Zimmerman] opened with a knock-knock joke about the difficulty of picking a jury for a case that stirred nationwide debate over racial profiling, vigilantism and Florida’s expansive laws on the use of deadly force.

"Knock. Knock," said defense attorney Don West.

"Who is there?"

"George Zimmerman."

"George Zimmerman who?"

"All right, good. You’re on the jury."

Maybe George Zimmerman and his attorney think it appropriate to make jokes about the murder trial, right in front of the teenage victim’s mother. I consider it most vile.

From MSNBC: Theft in the Senate immigration bill

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

If immigration reform makes it out of the House, this stealth benefit theft that Republicans snuck in, knowing most would not have time to read the bill, and the absurd 100 mile vehicle search without a warrant zone, plus whatever other TEAbuggery House Republicans may include, must be stripped away in conference committee.

From USA Today: The most remarkable thing about the Pentagon celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month Tuesday is how unremarkable it is.

How many remember the extreme screaming from Republican bigots that this would destroy the military?

Cartoon:

I’m writing early.  Tomorrow will be day 10.  The battle continues.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:56 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The most shameful achievement of the House Republican majority has been the elimination of $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending through 2022, which has already held back the economy from substantial growth and done real damage to people and communities that depend on government dollars. The widespread pain caused by this year’s sequester is the best-known aspect of these cuts, but caps that will continue to limit virtually every program for nine more years will also be extremely harmful.

Republicans, though, still aren’t satisfied, and are continuing their campaign to radically reshape Washington’s relationship to the country. The 2014 spending bills now emerging from the House Appropriations Committee are worse than in any previous year and would make some programs and departments unrecognizable…

…House Republicans, of course, have decided to exceed the caps for their favorite programs. They want to give the Pentagon a 5.4 percent increase — $26 billion it doesn’t need — along with a 3.3 percent raise to Homeland Security. To pay for that, and still shrink the budget, they are demanding severe cuts from spending bills for which they have little use: nearly 19 percent out of the labor, health and education bill; 15 percent from the financial services oversight bill; 14 percent from the interior and environment bill; and 11 percent from the energy and water bill.

Those percentages, just to be clear, represent cuts below this year’s already ruinous sequester levels… [emphasis added]

That is Republican class warfare: more for greed, NOTHING for need!

From MSNBC: A Biology 101 Lesson for Republicans

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

LOL! This is hilarious! Sadly it will have little effect, because even Republican skientists don’t believe science is real.

From Huffington Post: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said he thought House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) might be at risk of losing his leadership role because of the battle over immigration.

During an appearance on Fox News Thursday [ReichsNoise delinked]with Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), host Sean Hannity asked if either Gohmert or King would consider challenging Boehner’s speakership if he chooses to push a controversial immigration bill through the House…

As much as I hate to side with Agent Orange on anything, with Louie ‘Go-Go Goose-step’ Gohmert as Speaker for a month, we would not have a country to win back.

Cartoon: