Politics Plus

I have only this and one other article today.  I want to wait and let Romney’s choice of Michele Bachman Paul Ryan to sink in for a couple of days, and that has dominated political news.  This heat wave promises to be even worse than the last.  I’m current with replies.  Tomorrow, it is likely I will post only an Open Thread as I have a doctor appointment.  My GP is the one that moved, and it takes forever to get there.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 4:44).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

From MoveOn: The Scariest Gay Marriage Chart Ever

Dang!! Would Republican Supply-side Jesus cry, or what?

From CBS: In his debut as Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan promised "America’s comeback team" won’t duck tough budget issues, although the man standing next to him has kept his head low so far. Romney vowed the duo would "preserve" Medicare, an eye-popping claim considering Ryan wants to transform the program from the ground up.

More accurate, he wants to replace Medicare with a coupon, the value of which decreases annually.

From Barack Obama: Romney and Ryan want to take us back to the failed, top-down economic ideas of the past.

America cannot afford Willard’s choice. America cannot afford Willard.

Cartoon: good bumper sticker too

Yesterday the cardiologist told me she thinks I may have had a ‘silent’ heart attack, so I’ll need to go back twice later this month, once for a stress test and once for an echocardiogram.  My COPD flared badly, and I’m worn out.  I’ll be intermittent for the next month, because I’ll have a lot of medical appointments to deal with.  My plan for today is to post just this Open Thread, catch up on a huge backlog of comments here, and make the rounds of sites where I post links to clean up my message backlogs there.  Then tomorrow, I hope to blog normally.

Tomorrow I will be the featured guest in the Lies My Country Told Me Blogtalk Radio show.  If you’d like to listen in, it will be at 2 PM EDT (11 AM PDT).  Just click the link.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:27 (average 5:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Whoa: Did FDR Call It Or What?

FDR was psychic. He predicted Willard.

From NY Times: Forty years after the United States stopped spraying herbicides in the jungles of Southeast Asia in the hopes of denying cover to Vietcong fighters and North Vietnamese troops, an air base here is one of about two dozen former American sites that remain polluted with an especially toxic strain of dioxin, the chemical contaminant in Agent Orange that has been linked to cancers, birth defects and other diseases.

On Thursday, after years of rebuffing Vietnamese requests for assistance in a cleanup, the United States inaugurated its first major effort to address the environmental effects of the long war.

Mitigating that injustice has been far too long in coming. Lets not forget, we also need to clean up and remove the Agent Orange in the House of Representatives.

From CNN: Donald Trump is set to get a ‘unique’ gig at the Republican National Convention in late August, an aide to the real estate titan confirmed on Friday.

"Mr. Trump’s role will occur at the Tampa Bay Times Forum (site of the convention), though the specifics of the role are not being released at this time. The role, like Mr. Trump, is unique and will be memorable for all those in attendance at the convention and those watching around country. Stay tuned," Executive Vice President and Special Counsel Michael Cohen told CNN.

LOL!  Shaving his head, perhaps?

Cartoon:

This is the last cooler day, before the heat returns.  I’m still very tired.  This will be today’s only article, because I have to take the stone to the urologist.  I’m not current with replies, but will catch up when I can.  Tomorrow my blogging will be limited, because I have a Cardiologist appointment.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Sunday’s took me 3:59 (average 4:31).  To do it, click here.  Monday’s took me 3:50 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  Yesterday’s took me 3:49 (average 5:06).  To do it, click here.  Today’s took me 4:54 (average 5:43).  To do it click here.  How did you do? (Thanks Jerry)

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Bernie Sanders On How The Supreme Court Sold American Democracy To The Highest Bidder

Can we survive more Republican appointees to the Supreme Court?

From NY Times: Mitt Romney accused President Obama on Tuesday of gutting one of the signature bipartisan accomplishments of the recent political era: the overhaul of welfare policy.

Mr. Romney, taking up criticism that has gripped conservatives for the last few weeks, attacked a directive by the Obama administration that Republicans say does an end run around the welfare law, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, that is widely credited with reducing government dependency.

This is the latest in a long string of Republican lies. Obama's directive does not take out the work requirement at all. It allows governors to request waivers to provide flexibility to streamline their welfare systems to put more people to work. 29 Republican governors have requested these waivers over the last few years. One of them was Willard "Etch Everyone's Sketch" Rmoney, who never met a lie he wouldn't tell.

From Chicago Tribune: Wheaton College has joined more than 50 mostly Roman Catholic religious institutions suing the Obama administration for requiring religious employers to offer health insurance that covers the cost of contraception, including the morning-after pill, for employees and students.

On Wednesday, the west suburban college joined a lawsuit filed by Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., making it one of a handful of evangelical Protestant institutions opposed to the requirement that employers provide insurance plans that include contraception for women at no cost.

In order to join the lawsuit, Wheaton had to cancel their heath insurance first. Why? The coverage they have offered their employees for years included the cost of contraception, including the morning after pill. If they could not offer such coverage without it infringing on their religious liberty, how had they managed to do do for the years before it became a goose-stepping meme for Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians?  Hypocrites!

Cartoon:

Except for Ford, Nixon had more integrity than any other Republican president since.