Politics Plus

Yesterday catching up with replying to comments and returning visits took the whole day, but I’m current again.  I should stay that way, but I have some volunteer projects to work on and some paper work to do.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:26.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Lefty Bloggers Plus – Week 1:

Here are our scores:

Week 1	Score
Playin w/out a helm… Recovering Republic…	64.9 122.4	Final
hugos misfits elliot’s Team	116.4 85.6	Final
Greensburg Wombats Seahawks Rock	63.3 91.7	Final
Rob’s Roosters Jay’s Team	92.5 92.3	Final
Teabuggery Trashers Lionel Hutz + The H…	56.1 80.5	Final

Here are our standings:

Team	W-L-T	Pct.	GB
Recovering Republicans	1-0-0	1.000	0.0
hugos misfits	1-0-0	1.000	0.0
Rob’s Roosters	1-0-0	1.000	0.0
Seahawks Rock	1-0-0	1.000	0.0
Lionel Hutz + The Hail Marys	1-0-0	1.000	0.0
Jay’s Team	0-1-0	0.000	1.0
elliot’s Team	0-1-0	0.000	1.0
Playin w/out a helmet	0-1-0	0.000	1.0
Greensburg Wombats	0-1-0	0.000	1.0
Teabuggery Trashers	0-1-0	0.000	1.0

Wouldn’t you know that, despite winning in both of my other leagues, I’m in last place here. 🙁

Short Takes:

From Business Week: President Barack Obama may appoint Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who scolded U.S. banks while overseeing their bailout, as the interim head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as early as this week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

It’s about time!!

From Think Progress: A comprehensive Wonk Room survey of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate finds that nearly all dispute the scientific consensus that the United States must act to fight global warming pollution. Remarkably, of the dozens of Republicans vying for the 37 Senate seats in the 2010 election, only one — Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware — supports strong climate action.

For Republicans, dumbing down starts at the top.

From Jim Hightower: Maybe you’re one of the thousands of young lawyers in America working in some low-skill, part-time job because law firms have cut so many of the starting positions you were educated to take. If so, I have good news: Jobs for young lawyers are now mushrooming in companies that provide legal services to U.S. corporations.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to move to India to get one. And the pay will be – how shall I put this? – "disappointing."

Lawyering has become the latest category of good jobs disappearing from our Land of the Free as corporate chieftains continue to offshore the American workplace.

What will our criminal corporate class outsource next, Congress?

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

Who will win in Delaware?

Yesterday did not go at all as planned.  Normally I wake up at around 7 AM, but I slept in until noon.  Since that CPAP machine screwed up my natural sleeping pattern for two months, I have not gotten the rhythm back.  I looked for feed reader to replace Bloglines, which is going offline.  I expected it to be easy.  No such luck.  Most of the alternatives try to do so much that they do nothing well, and Google Reader remains mud slow.  After eliminating all the web based solutions I could find, I looked at desktop readers and settled on FeedDemon.  So far, I am very impressed with it.  I did squeeze in time to reply to comments.  Today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, so I will be spending most of the day in …um… religious pursuits.  Good luck to you who are playing in Lefty Bloggers Plus.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:17.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Alternet: While the planning wasn’t intentional, tea partiers and Glenn Beck groupies will get a chance to really make good on their protestations that their ranks aren’t polluted by racists. That’s because conservative activists, some affiliated with Beck’s 912 Project, have organized a big march and rally on the Mall on the very same day, and in virtually the same place, as the National Black Family Reunion. Started 25 years ago by civil rights icon Dorothy Height, the reunion was created to showcase the strengths of the black family.

The NBFR usually pulls about 250,000 visitors, so they will have too big a size advantage for the Teabaggers to risk a violent assault.

From Willamette Week: In the wake of questions about Republican gubernatorial nominee [in Oregon] Chris Dudley’s residency during his first stint playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, WW asked Dudley and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber for their tax returns from 1994 through 1998. The issue is whether Dudley lived in Washington, which has no income tax, from 1994 to 1998 as he claims, or whether he lived at least part of the time in Oregon, which has among the nation’s highest income tax rates.

Yesterday, Kitzhaber agreed to turn over his returns.

Dudley’s spokesman, LeRoy Coleman, said the Dudley campaign would consider the request but has not yet responded with a definitive answer.

Gee, I wonder why?  I predict Dudley Do Wrong will not cooperate.

From Think Progress: Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) attended a ribbon-cutting event for the Health West clinic in Aberdeen, Idaho. Crapo praised the clinic, which will specialize in assisting low-income patients in rural areas, saying, “What is happening right here in Aberdeen today is one of the core pieces of the solution that we need in America today.” What Crapo did not mention in his praise for Health West is that most of its funding came from the stimulus package that he opposed.

Where was the media asking him why he opposed it, if it is a core piece of the needed solution?  Frankly I think that when the states Senators and Reps oppose an initiative, their states should get no funding from it.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

Which team do you want to win?

Yesterday I spent the entire morning replying to comments.  Then the phone began to ring, and volunteer work took the rest of the day.  Today’s plan is to catch up on returning visits.  Yesterday was a High Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, the Beginning of Cycles, AKA opening night.  I thoroughly enjoyed the worship between the Saints and the Vikings.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:30.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MSNBC: Sarah Palin has apparently endorsed Delaware conservative Christine O’Donnell in the Delware GOP Senate primary on Tuesday. Rep. Mike Castle has been the establishment choice.

Frankly, I hope the Teabagger beats Castle, but considering what she is most famous for, she might be less uptight, if she let her fingers do the walking. 😉

From Bloomberg: Wealthy Americans have the price of a BMW convertible riding on the outcome of the Congressional battle over tax cuts set to expire this year.

I say that America’s poor and middle classes have contributed far too many BMW convertibles to the Republican rich.

From Wonkette: Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is famous among Teabaggers or something for being a bigot and following Arizona’s bigot law enforcement law to the extreme, for which the feds sued him. So now, naturally, he is running for president, even though he is older than John McCain. Or rather he is HINTING this, in the most explicit way possible, in New Hampshire.

Picture this… Arpaio/Angle 2012.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

TGIF!!

Yesterday I caught up with replies and returning visits.  I thought of making more visits, but used the time to put finish collecting the Constitution series and putting it in downloadable PDF format.  I’ll fall behind today, because I have a routine doctor appointment with three hours travel time. Tomorrow will be just as busy, because of my volunteer work.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:58.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From AFP/Google: The US commander of the Afghan war has warned that troops’ lives will be endangered if a Florida evangelical church goes ahead with a planned burning of the Koran on Saturday’s 9/11 anniversary.

General David Petraeus said the planned torching of Islam’s holy book would be a propaganda coup for the Taliban in Afghanistan and stoke anti-US sentiment across the Muslim world.

I would hope that these Republicans will have the decency to listen to the right’s favorite warrior and refrain from jeopardizing our troops and threatening our nation’s security by this planned demonstration of Republican bigotry.  Sadly, it would surprise me if they did.

From Washington Post: Struggling to contain an escalating crisis at Kabul Bank, Afghan authorities have barred the sale of Kabul properties held by the bank’s principal owners.

But the freeze excludes President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Kabul Bank’s third largest shareholder.

Here is another example of why we can’t win there, because we are tied to the Bush appointed puppet.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

OGIM on Tuesday!