Politics Plus

Yesterday I kept up with replying to comments and returning visits.  That should be no problem today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:15.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Common Dreams: The top U.S. oil spill official on Sunday directed BP Plc to submit a plan for reopening its capped Macondo well to flow into the ocean after engineers detected seepage on the ocean floor near the well.

This “seepage” may interfere with plugging the GOP gusher via the relief well.

From Think Progress: The heads of the Republican congressional campaign committees — Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) — appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press today to discuss their party’s strategy for the November elections. Sessions began by saying that everyone knows exactly “what Republicans stand for,” but he quickly proved that even he doesn’t really know. Host David Gregory, visibly frustrated, repeatedly pressed the two campaign chiefs for substance, saying, “these are not specifics, voters get tired of that.” But all he got in return was vapid talking points, like how Republican candidates are “standing with the American people back home.”

We do know what they stand for.  Their only hope is that the general public never learns.

From The Nation: Consider: in 1928 the richest 1 percent of Americans received 23.9 percent of the nation’s total income. After that, the share going to the richest 1 percent steadily declined. New Deal reforms, followed by World War II, the GI Bill and the Great Society expanded the circle of prosperity. By the late 1970s the top 1 percent raked in only 8 to 9 percent of America’s total annual income. But after that, inequality began to widen again, and income reconcentrated at the top. By 2007 the richest 1 percent were back to where they were in 1928—with 23.5 percent of the total.

Republicans have destroyed fifty years of progress in just thirty years.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

OGIM!

Yesterday I caught up on replying to comments and returning visits.  It feels good to be up to date again.  I should have no trouble keeping up today.

Jig-Zone Puzzle:

Today this handsome puzzle took me 3:05.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:

To join our fantasy football league, click here.  We still need 5 more players to keep our league.

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Democratic Governor Joe Manchin named former counsel Carte Goodwin, 36, to fill Byrd’s seat pending a special election in November.

Goodwin will take office Tuesday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement.

Welcome Mr. Goodwin.  Your presence is needed desperately.

From Common Dreams: Last month was the hottest June ever recorded worldwide and the fourth consecutive month that the combined global land and sea temperature records have been broken, according to the US government’s climate data centre.

Even though some places are cooler than normal, tracking global averages shows a clear upward trend.  In spite of that, Republicans oppose energy legislation.  And sadly…

From Politico: Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska said Thursday he would not support a procedural vote later this month to begin debate on a climate bill that includes a cap on electric utility emissions, a declaration that underscores the tough climb that Majority Leader Harry Reid will have in trying to cobble together a 60-vote supermajority on the controversial issue.

We need to rename him Ulysses Nelson, so we can call him Useless for short.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

How’s your weekend?

Yesterday I almost fell asleep during the therapy group I help lead and did fall asleep on thye bust on the way home. I almost missed my stop.  I took a long nap, but fell behind with replying to commens and returning visits.  Today is up in the air, because I have medical appointments.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:54.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:

To join our fantasy football league, click here.

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was reportedly "completely shocked and outraged" when he learned that his nephew, who suffers from epilepsy and was reportedly suicidal, was beaten and tased with a stun gun at a Louisiana hospital—apparently, for nothing more than some unruly behavior.

I agree with Thomas and offer my best wishes to his nephew.  However, I feel outrage that Thomas himself is to blame for consistently rendering totalitarian decisions that are making this nation a police state.

From McClatchy DC: The number of naturally occurring microbes that eat methane grew surprisingly fast inside a plume spreading from BP’s ruptured oil well, an oceanographer who was one of the first to detect the plumes said Tuesday.

This is not completely good news, because these same microbes consume all the oxygen in the water creating dead zones where no other sea life can survive.

From Crooks and Liars: In New Hampshire, voters have an interesting choice. Ryan J. Murdough is campaigning not on change so much as similarity. His message: Keep New Hampshire white.

"I would like to preserve what we have before it gets totally out of control," Murdough, a 30-year-old father of two young boys, said last week. "The more it becomes non-white, the more it’s going to become a much different place to live, for white people especially."

I guess that GOP race hatred is not limited to the south, unless this bigoted bastard is from southern NH.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

Will Batshit Bachman lose her entire staff?

Yesterday was cooler, but I still felt exhausted from several days of oppressive heat.  I did keep up with replying to comments and returning visits.  Today, I hope to do at least as well, but have some errands to do.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:52.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football:

To join our fantasy football league, click here.

Short Takes:

From Think Progress: At the organization’s national convention this week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will propose a resolution “condemning racism within the tea party movement.” The resolution calls upon “all people of good will to repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties, and to stand in opposition to its drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era.”

I fully support this resolution.

From Huffington Post: Out of 4 million students who entered high school in 2001, fewer that 200,000 will graduate with a science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) degree… For every new Ph.D. in physical sciences, the US graduates 50 new MBA’s, and 18 lawyers.

The imbalance exists, because government has been subsidizing paper-only profits for the last thirty years rather that enterprises that produce real value.  And wouldn’t we be better off if we had 18 scientists for every lawyer?

From TPM: Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has made his views known on the Birther controversy: He supports lawsuits to force President Obama to produce his birth certificate.

Maybe Obama hid it under Dave’s pampers.

Cartoon: from Cagle.com

What’s up this week?