Yesterday I caught up on comments after catching up on sleep. I also followed the doings of HCR closely. Today is going to be extraordinarily busy after a slow start. I might not be able to post articles tomorrow or they may be much later than usual. Please don’t worry. I’m fine, and I’ll fill you in ASAP.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s handsome puzzle took me 3:28. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Take:
From Raw Story: President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party took a severe drubbing from French voters Sunday in nationwide regional elections that were his last big national test before he seeks re-election in 2012.
As polling stations closed, initial estimates gave Socialist-led opposition electoral alliances some 54 percent of the vote, Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP 36 percent and the far-right National Front just under nine percent.
To the uninformed, which I readily admit I am, this looks good. But in France, the right does not personify evil the way our GOP does.
Yesterday I caught up on comments and visited the entire blogroll. Last night, two neighbors got into a four hour screaming contest outside my window, leaving me with virtually no sleep, so please forgive me that my own commentary on today’s articles will be greatly abbreviated and that there are no Short Takes today.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:03. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Yesterday I played catch-up. I replied to all the outstanding comments and returned visits to those who had posted them. I also visited the first half of our blogroll. I expect to stay up to date through Monday, but next week, you may see very little of me.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:54. I was at a disadvantage. It’s a dawg. :-( To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From LA Times: The nation’s largest association of doctors [AMA] and the AARP senior citizens’ lobby are endorsing President Barack Obama’s revised health overhaul legislation.
I think this may be a done deal it the House, but frar the Senate process.
From Huffington Post: Hoping to assuage progressive Democrats who remain disappointed with the content of the health care reform bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) committed on Friday to holding a separate vote on a public option in the coming months.
In a letter to two of his more progressive colleagues in the Senate — Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Bernie Sanders of Vermont — the Nevada Democrat implicitly apologized for his inability to get a government-run insurance plan into the final piece of health care legislation and promised to keep working to get the policy into law.
That’s great if it’s a reconciliation vote. But if it’s the standard 60 votes to pass, it would be better to change the filibuster on the first day of the session next January and then vote on it.
From Think Progress: Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), a far right lawmaker who has led much of the opposition to health reform, took to the floor of the House of Representatives last night to deliver a diatribe against health reform. Previously, Broun had compared President Obama to a dictator who would impose martial law. But last night, Broun out-performed his reactionary colleagues and even his own track record of absurdity. Bellowing into the microphone, Broun said that “if ObamaCare passes,” a “free insurance card” (which is not in the bill) will be “as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the “Great War of Yankee Aggression“.
No wonder the GOP can’t fathom that elections have consequences. These fools haven’t even come to terms with the consequences of the Civil War! Not only that, but wasn’t that ‘Yankee Aggression’ the GOP policy at the time?
Yesterday I pulled a dumb move. I forgot to check my Oxygen before I left for pulmonary boot camp. It ran out right after Lady Torquemada (She’s really a sweetheart, and I tease her without mercy.) put me through my paces. In completing my errands, I walked over a mile without oxygen and by the time I returned home, I was fried. So my backlog of comments is still waiting and will be answered today. I hope to put a dent in visiting as well, because I have a hellacious week coming up next week. I had something special planned for today’s lead article, but it’s not available yet. If it becomes so, I shall add a third post.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:28. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The Washington Independent: CBO estimates that enacting both the Senate-passed health reform bill and the reconciliation bill (which contains the fixes to the Senate proposal) would cut the federal deficit by $138 billion over the next decade.
Needless to say, Republicans continue to parrot the lie that the bill costs too much. Michael Steele, referring to the CBO report, said, “It’s a lie.”
From TPM: A few hours after Rep. Dennis Kucinich switched his support to become a critical vote for the health care bill, he took to the House floor to ask wavering colleagues to join him. Astonished colleagues pointed to Kucinich (D-OH) darting from member to member on the House floor yesterday, saying privately they’d never seen him get so involved in whipping a vote.
Go, Dennis, Go!!
From Think Progress: Fox News host Glenn Beck on his radio show this morning — said the timing of the vote is unholy. He warned that Democrats intend to “take away the liberty that we have right from God” on “the Sabbath, during Lent.” Beck agreed, calling the Sunday vote an “affront to God,” and something “our founders would have never” done “[o]ut of respect for God”.
If the Faux Noise goose steppers in the House object so much, they should honor their convictions and not attend. 😀
Yesterday I caught up and returned visits on early comments before going to the therapy group where I help. The therapist with whom I work announced that she will retire next month, but her replacement wants me to co facilitate with her. Today I have pulmonary boot camp and shopping to do afterward, so I’ll fall further behind today. I should be able to catch up tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:41. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Think Progress: Boehner then added that the bankers should be standing up for themselves against “those little punk staffers” trying to write new regulations.
Gee! Do you think those criminal banksters couldn’t figure that out without being told by Limpy?
From TPM: The House Judiciary Committee of Hawaii is considering a measure that would allow government officials to ignore information requests from people who don’t believe President Obama was born in the United States.
I think they should pass it, as there are no indications that teabuggery is moving toward sanity.
Yesterday was one of those days. I got tied up in chores and did not even get the new OS installed on the cell phone. But I did catch up on comments and get a little visiting in. Today I volunteer helping in a therapy group for former prisoners, so I may not even catch up on comments.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:53. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Crooks and Liars: It’s a disquieting thing, when one sees four-star general officers thinking that they need to be more proactive and outgoing about their advice on foreign policy and national security issues. It’s not that they aren’t smart people and don’t have good ideas – far from it. They can be very clear thinkers, if not a little impatient with the pace of Beltway politics. For instance, we discover that General David Petraeus is suggesting to the White House that Israel’s politics are endangering US military personnel and the chances of their success in stabilizing the region.
Dropping military aid to Israel would save American lives.
From TPM: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected Orly Taitz’s appeal of the $20,000 fine imposed on her for making frivolous filings in a long-running Birther case.
$20,000 is clearly not enough!
From Daily Kos: Republicans are threatening to make life difficult for Democrats if they try to push health care reform through the Senate using the budget reconciliation process.
Gee! Do you really think they might try to obstruct the Senate? 😯
Yesterday I managed to catch up on comments and return visits, but rather than initiate visits, I got bogged down in record keeping chores. Today I have errands to run and have to install a new OS in my smart-phone. That looks like a two hour process all by itself.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:29. To do it, click here. How did you do?
From the Minnesota Independent:Tim Pawlenty has diverted funds from the “Support Our Troops” license plate program to his Governor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, an office that works to connect religious organizations with state funds.
Betzold says that $30,000 from the license plate program was supposed to go to the Department of Military Affairs and the Department of Veterans Affairs, but instead paid for a position at the faith-based office which is part of the Pawlenty’s office. The funds, writes Snyders, “by law, were supposed to go to the Department of Military Affairs and the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
Just like a Republican to take money from our vets to proselytize for Supply-side Jesus.
Republicans are making a big deal of using a self-executing rule to deem the Senate Bill passed in the reconciliation bill. From the Daily Kos: When Republicans took power in 1995, they soon lost their aversion to self-executing rules and proceeded to set new records under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent and 35 percent of all rules, respectively. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) there were 40, 42 and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively). Thus far in the 109th Congress, self-executing rules make up about 16 percent of all rules. What hypocrites!
Yesterday I caught up on replying to comments and returning visits. I also visited several other blogs. I hope to do the same today.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:55. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Take:
Karl ‘Turdblossom’ Rove continued to rewrite history with the lie that Bush administration officials never claimed that Iraqi oil revenues would help pay for Iraq’s reconstruction. I remember that claim repeated frequently.
