Politics Plus

I continue to improve, but my back pain is still a bit too severe tor me to sit up for the 8+ hours it normally takes me to research, write, and distribute.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:48 (average 4:29).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: IF President Obama blocks the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all, he’ll do Canada a favor.

Canada’s tar sands formations, landlocked in northern Alberta, are a giant reserve of carbon-saturated energy — a mixture of sand, clay and a viscous low-grade petroleum called bitumen. Pipelines are the best way to get this resource to market, but existing pipelines to the United States are almost full. So tar sands companies, and the Alberta and Canadian governments, are desperately searching for export routes via new pipelines.

Canadians don’t universally support construction of the pipeline. A poll by Nanos Research in February 2012 found that nearly 42 percent of Canadians were opposed. Many of us, in fact, want to see the tar sands industry wound down and eventually stopped, even though it pumps tens of billions of dollars annually into our economy.

The most obvious reason is that tar sands production is one of the world’s most environmentally damaging activities. It wrecks vast areas of boreal forest through surface mining and subsurface production. It sucks up huge quantities of water from local rivers, turns it into toxic waste and dumps the contaminated water into tailing ponds that now cover nearly 70 square miles…

Here in the US, we don’t often get to see Canadian perspectives on this issue, beyond the false claims that Harper’s harlots try to shove down our throats. This editorial is excellent.

From Huffington Post: Every time I write about the GOP’s image problem with Latino voters, some conservative sends me an angry missive insisting that it’s all the liberal media spreading lies. I discover that not only does the Republican Party respect Hispanics, but it has their best interests at heart. The missive usually ends by telling me that Republicans are actually the most open-minded and tolerant of Americans.

And then approximately 14 minutes later, a GOP leader will say something like this:

"My father had a ranch. We used to have 50 to 60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes."

That’s Alaska Representative Don Young, a Republican, who recently said this during a radio interview…

Young certainly personified Republican thinking on the issue.  What’s next?  Will Lindsey Poo be describing who was picking cotton in his antebellum youth?

From Think Progress: A Texas district attorney and his wife were shot to death in their home in Kaufman County last night, the latest instance in a recent spate of suspicious shootings of law enforcement officials. The deaths of Mike and Cynthia McLelland follow the shooting of a Kaufman County assistant district attorney in January, which stoked suspicions of a conspiracy to target law enforcement officials by a white supremacist group.

The assistant district attorney, Mark Hasse, was killed on the same day the Justice Department released a statement noting the Kaufman County district attorney’s involvement in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist group based in Texas. The FBI had also begun investigating links between Hasse’s slaying and last week’s shooting of Colorado prison chief Tom Clemons by a member of another white supremacist group…

There is no definitive proof here, but this is starting to look like what leading Republicans often call a Second Amendment Solution.

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My back still hurts like hell, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was yesterday.  If I keep recovering at the same rate, I’ll be back soon.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Yesterday’s took me 4:32 (average 5:22).  To do it, click here.  Today’s took me 4:11 (average 4:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: How Many Times Did You Need To Hear The Word ‘Yes’ Before You Did This?

That really puts it into perspective, doesn’t it?

From The New Yorker: Justice Antonin Scalia dropped a bombshell on the Supreme Court today, announcing his decision to resign from the Court “effective immediately” and leave the United States forever.

Calling this week “by far the worst week of my life,” Justice Scalia lashed out at his fellow-Justices and the nation, saying, “I don’t want to live in a sick, sick country that thinks the way this country apparently thinks.”

Justice Scalia said that he had considered fleeing to Canada, “but they not only have gay marriage but also national health care, which is almost as evil.”

He said the fact that nations around the world recognizing same-sex marriage are “falling like deviant dominoes” would not deter him from leaving the United States: “There are plenty of other countries that still feel the way I do. I’ll move to Iran if I have to.”

Of course this is satire, but resigning the Court and leaving the US is the greatest gift he could possibly give America.

From Crooks and Liars: Jon Stewart roasts Rupert Murdoch over his bid to buy the LA Times. Murdoch already had a chance at the news publishing business with his News of The World rag, which blew up in his face over criminal activities and now new arrests. So why would he be given a special waiver to buy the storied newspaper?

Murdoch, owner of the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, and the formerly respectable Wall Street Journal, deserves a waiver… to his FCC license!

Cartoon:

Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot is so blatantly ignorant that the highly acclaimed poet he quoted to court Latinos, Pablo Neruda, was an avowed Communist.

I’ve spent so much time in bed, lately, that I could not get comfortable in bed yesterday, so I have not slept at all and feel completely pooped.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:04 (average 4:38).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The effort over many years to forge an international treaty regulating the booming $70 billion annual trade in conventional weapons headed toward fruition on Wednesday with a final draft sent to the governments of all United Nations member states for approval.

Supporters, including a majority of member states, hope that the Arms Trade Treaty will be approved by consensus at a final negotiation session here on Thursday. The treaty would for the first time set international standards for conventional weapons sales, tying them to respect for human rights, the prevention of war crimes and the protection of civilians. Rights advocates have called the treaty the most ambitious attempt to stop the illicit spread of weapons that fuel deadly conflicts around the world.

I fully support international oversight of conventional weapons sales, but see little chance of ratification here, because ratifying treaties requires 2/3 of the Senate. With Republicans goose-stepping behind Wayne LaPierre and the gun industry, that isn’t happening anytime soon.

From The New Yorker: In an outburst that shocked many onlookers at the Supreme Court today, Justice Antonin Scalia said that it made him “angry beyond belief” that he had to listen to people talking about gay couples all week…

…“O.K., could we just stop talking about this stuff right now?” Justice Scalia snapped at Justice Kennedy. “I’ve told you all how I feel about this topic, and I don’t understand why we’re going on and on about it unless you all hate me.”

As the courtroom froze in dead silence, Justice Scalia seemed to gather steam, shouting, “For two days, it’s been gay this, gay that. You’re all just talking about this stuff as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. Well, it’s not, O.K.? It’s weird and it’s wrong. And just talking about it like it’s O.K. and whatnot is making me angry beyond belief.”

Although this is satire, Scalia is a walking hate crime.  I wonder if he escaped from Nuremberg.

From Think Progress: During oral arguments this morning, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to at least entertain the argument by House Republicans that gays and lesbians are too politically powerful for constitutional protection.

Roberts suggested that gays and lesbians must be “politically powerful” because politicians are “falling all over themselves” to endorse gay marriage, according to a tweet by Mother Jones’ Adam Serwer. The brief by Paul Clement, who represented the House of Representatives in defending DOMA, had reasoned that gays and lesbians are winning political battles and “have the attention of lawmakers.”

You can fertilize your veggies with that lie. The LGBT community is so powerful that states have passed amendments to deny them equal rights. Just ten years ago their sexual relations were a crime in many states. If they seem to enjoy popular support now, it is only because of a public reaction to the extremity of the discrimination leveled against them.

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I’m feeling very frustrated, because today is a prison volunteer day, and even though I’m improving, I can’t go.  The wrist is improving too.  I hurt it improperly lifting a big pressure cooker pot full of beans for a several day load of Pork Chili Verde.  In the plus side, it’s delicious.  After a couple days savoring it my apartment is smelling quite Republican.  I can type, but VERY slowly.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Yesterday’s took me 4:58 (average 5:06).  To do it, click here.  Today’s took me 4:45 (average 7:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: As the Supreme Court prepared to hear two cases involving same-sex marriage this week, Justice Antonin Scalia said that he would not allow his votes to be influenced “in any way” by his lifelong fear of gays.

“As Justices of the Supreme Court, we have a sacred duty to check our personal feelings at the door,” he told the Fox News Channel. “In my case, that means putting aside my longstanding and profound fear of homosexuals.”

Justice Scalia added that he was committed “to safeguarding the rights of all Americans—even those I personally find terrifying.”

“I take my role as an impartial arbiter very seriously,” he said. “So when I hear a case, I put all feelings of abhorrence, disgust, and revulsion completely out of my mind.”

This has to be satire, because, even though it’s the lie he would tell, Herr Scalia would NEVER admit the true extent his homophobia.

From Alternet: In 1983 the poorest  47% of America had $15,000 per family,  2.5 percent of the nation’s wealth.

In 2009 the poorest  47% of America owned  ZERO PERCENT of the nation’s wealth (their debt exceeded their assets).

At the other extreme, the  400 wealthiest Americans own as much wealth as 80 million families –  62% of America. The reason, once again, is the stock market. Since 1980 the American GDP has approximately doubled. Inflation-adjusted wages  have gone down. But the stock market has increased by  over ten times, and the richest quintile of Americans  owns 93% of it.

Click through for four more examples of the extreme inequality in our nation. The Republican party has a solution. Drastically cut taxes and increase welfare for the 1%. Drastically cut earned benefits and raise taxes for the rest of us.

From Think Progress: A racist hate group at Towson University has announced plans to conduct its own nighttime police patrols on campus.

Founded last year, the White Student Union has stirred significant controversy already. The organization has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In addition, its founder, Matthew Heimbach (who goes by the title “Commander Heimbach”), and fellow organizer Scott Terry interrupted a minority outreach panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference this month in order to defend slavery, noting that slaveholders provided blacks with food and shelter. Terry later told ThinkProgress that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa” and he’d be “fine” living in a society where blacks are permanently subservient to whites.

I see that Republican politics are alive and well at Towson University!

From MSNBC: Lawrence O’Donnell and Chris Murphy (R-CT) discuss something even more vile than the previous Short Take.

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

Words fail me, leaving me unable to express the disgust and contempt I’m feeling.

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