Politics Plus

I’m still down and hoping to be back up soon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:02).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Under the federal Medicaid statute, states must seek reimbursement for medical expenses if the beneficiary also receives money from an insurance company or another third party. This week, the Supreme Court correctly slapped down a North Carolina law that could squeeze far more from beneficiaries than they actually owe.

By a 6-to-3 vote, the court ruled that the Medicaid law pre-empts a North Carolina law that, in effect, puts a lien on a beneficiary’s property by automatically seizing one-third of an insurance settlement even though it includes payment for pain and suffering. Under Medicaid law, the state can only claim reimbursement for actual care.

Isn’t it just like the Republican Party to reach into the pockets of poor people to steal their settlements for pain and suffering? Injustices Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas sided with the Republican crooks.

From Think Progress: The final document isn’t even complete yet, but one Republican Senator is already attempting to slip language into vital legislation denouncing the United States’ accession to a new treaty regulating the sale of arms between countries.

Representatives from around the world are meeting in New York over the next two weeks to hammer out a final agreement on how to best regulate the $70 billion arms trade between countries. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is attempting finalize passage of a budget for Fiscal Year 2014. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a noted skeptic of international organizations and the United Nations in particular, filed an amendment Thursday afternoon that brings the two efforts together:

The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, motions, or conference reports that relate to upholding Second Amendment rights, which shall include preventing the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT),by the amounts provided in such legislation for these purposes, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit or revenues over either the period of the total of fiscal years 2013 through 2018 or the period of the total of fiscal years 2013 through 2023.

…

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a Senator, and I use the term very loosely, has attempted to block a treaty that did not yet exist. Wayne LaPierre and the gun industry must be deathly afraid that their profits from worldwide conflicts will be cut, regardless of the lives that such a treaty might help save.

From Raw Story: On her show Thursday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow lampooned Republicans for having a flip-flopping problem, saying it appeared they did not seem to believe what they were actually supposed to believe.

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Dang! Little Lord Willard’s sketch etching had become so contagious that it is now a party-wide epidemic!

Cartoon:

I imagine Republicans would support its reinstatement, so Bubba the Bagger could own more than one.

Last night I broke a fever for the second time.  I’m still down, but I did add an extra Short Take.  I’m not yet up to catching up on replies, and I hope to be back tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 5:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Bernie.org: Send a Message to President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner: No Budget Deal on the Backs of the Elderly, the Children, the Sick and the Poor.

Click through to sign this petition for Bernie Sanders.

From The New Yorker: In a sombre ceremony attended by former members of the Bush administration, the former Vice-President Dick Cheney marked the tenth anniversary of making up a reason to invade Iraq.

The ceremony, held on the grounds of the Halliburton Company headquarters, brought together the former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and other key members of the lying effort.

Calling the assembled officials “profiles in fabrication,” Mr. Cheney praised them for their decade of dedication to a totally fictitious rationale.

“Making up a reason to invade a country is the easy part,” Mr. Cheney told them. “Sticking to a pretend story for ten years—that is the stuff of valor.”

Mr. Cheney added that their “steadfast charade had raised the bar for all future administrations.”

While this, of course is satire, the underlying truth could be more relevant, nor could there be a more compelling reason to recognize that every Republican in office is one Republican too many.

From NY Times: Senate Democrats plan to introduce after the Easter recess a bill widely supported by both parties that would increase the penalties for people who buy guns for those barred from having them, known as straw purchasing. But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, told Ms. Feinstein on Monday that her assault weapons ban would not be included in the bill.

“I tried my best,” Ms. Feinstein said with obvious disappointment. “My best, I guess, wasn’t good enough.”

This month, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed four pieces of gun legislation: the straw purchasing measure; the assault weapons ban, which included limits on gun magazine sizes; a grant program for school security; and enhanced background checks for gun buyers.

The Nevada Leg Hound, Harry Reid, who MUST be replaced as Senate Majority Leader, really screwed the pooch on this one.  He claims that he had only 40 votes for passage, but I wonder.  It’s much easier to say no to the mothers of murdered children in the secrecy of the Senate cloak room than it is with a public vote.  But even if 40 is all there are, the Republican Party and the Democrats, who lack the spine to take on Wayne LaPierre and the gun industry, should be made to own their votes before the American people.  Instead, Harry Reid humped a few Republican legs, whined, rolled over and played dead.

From MSNBC: Rachel on Republican Revision

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When we failed to charge these war criminals, I cringed, because I knew that Republicans would not be content with an accurate historical retelling. We must not allow these Republicans to rewrite the history of how they lied us into this tragic war. If we fail to remember the lesson of Iraq, as we failed to remember the lesson of Vietnam, the warmongers among us will lie us into another.

Cartoon:

Late last night, my fever broke.  I am still out of it, but should come back quickly now.  I’m still not current with replies, and will catch up when I can.  Tomorrow would be nice.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Saturday’s took me 3:43 (average 4:19.  To do it, click here.  Yesterday’s took me 5:17 (average 7:26).  To do it, click here.  Today’s took me 3:13 (average 5:33).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Every $1 We Invest In This Could Save $6 On Housing, Healthcare, And Public Services

When it comes to foreign aid, Republicans oppose it, except for providing guns to totalitarians that goose-step with Republican conquest objectives and economic imperialism. Domestically, Republicans defund contraception as part of their ongoing War on Women.

From NY Times: What we should have learned from the Iraq debacle was that you should always be skeptical and that you should never rely on supposed authority. If you hear that “everyone” supports a policy, whether it’s a war of choice or fiscal austerity, you should ask whether “everyone” has been defined to exclude anyone expressing a different opinion. And policy arguments should be evaluated on the merits, not by who expresses them; remember when Colin Powell assured us about those Iraqi W.M.D.’s?

Unfortunately, as I said, we don’t seem to have learned those lessons. Will we ever?

This Krugman editorial is too good not to read in it’s entirety. Click through.

From The New Yorker: The decision of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to support same-sex marriage after learning that his son was gay has inspired hundreds of other Republican lawmakers to stop speaking to their children immediately, G.O.P. leaders confirmed today.

“I have gathered my caucus and told them, if your kids are going to tell you something that’s going to cost you the next election, it’s better to nip that situation in the bud,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “Just stop talking to them altogether, for heaven’s sakes.”

Speaker Boehner said he was advising his fellow Republicans who were “hell bent on speaking to their children” to keep things superficial: “You can talk about sports. You can talk about the weather. But anything beyond that, your policy should be, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’”

But even as Mr. Boehner laid down the new guidelines for not speaking to one’s children, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) said that the policy “doesn’t go far enough.”

Of course this is satire, but what a thoroughly Republican response it is.

Cartoon:

St. Patty knew all about snakes!