Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 152.  With four hours sleep in the last two days, when I returned from physical therapy, I was good for one thing only.  I slept for four hours.  Time for more.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:23 (average 4:40).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

I’m writing for tomorrow day 150.  I’m waiting for my groceries to arrive.  I plugged in my notebook, which I have not used since the last time I overnighted in Salem.  Fortunately I timed a Windows Update, so that’s done.  It took over two hours just to download the updates.  Then I updated my AV software, my security software, my password manager three browsers and several other utilities.  Fortunately I was able to do research while a lot of that was going on.  Tomorrow’s main chore is reconfiguring the email client to the new HSP settings.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:24 (average 6:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In what Secretary of State John Kerry described as a significant foreign-policy coup, the U.S. claimed, on Tuesday, that it had successfully located a moderate Syrian rebel.

Though Kerry did not elaborate on how the U.S. did so, he said that locating the rebel was “the culmination of a months-long effort.”

The Secretary of State said that the Syrian had been appropriately vetted and was deemed “moderately rebellious.”

“He definitely seems to be the sort of gentleman we can work with,” Kerry said, adding that several millions of dollars would be spent arming and training the rebel in the days and weeks ahead.

Kerry said that the government’s successful identification of a moderate Syrian rebel was a major victory that should silence critics of the U.S.’s strategy in Iraq and Syria.

Hmmmmm, Andy… I don’t see it working, unless he has a friend.

From NY Times: President Obama’s top military adviser said Tuesday that he would recommend deploying United States forces in ground operations against Islamic extremists in Iraq if airstrikes proved insufficient, opening the door to a riskier, more expansive American combat role than the president has publicly outlined.

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that while he was confident that an American-led coalition would defeat the Islamic State, he would not foreclose the possibility of asking Mr. Obama to send American troops to fight the militants on the ground — something Mr. Obama has ruled out.

This is not the scandal Republicans claim it is, nor does it indicate what Obama actually would decide. Asking a general about the use of troops is like asking a carpenter about the use of a hammer.

From Upworthy: Vicky Beeching is an artist, broadcaster, and theologian. And this, on Channel 4 news, was her first TV interview after coming out. She’s now speaking at the Gay Christian Network and continuing to share her beliefs about being Christian and gay.

Semi-Barf Bag Alert!

Scott Lively is a leader of The Family and C Street. He is lying about Uganda. He organized C Street Republican Senators and Representatives to help draft legislation to execute gay people there, apparently intending it as a test for future implementation here, when they have dominion.  Lively is putting on a far less rabid public face than his actual practices indicate.  There was only one Christian in that discussion, Vicky.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow day 149.  I need to get busy to prepare my notebook for next week’s Salem trip, and I have a grocery delivery coming tomorrow, so I remain quite busy.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:38).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends:

Scores:

Standings:

If you wish to follow our league, you may do so here.

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The Neo-Confederate movement has been trying to jump start itself of late.  It has been an especially heady few months for the League of the South, a theocratic, White nationalist group based in Killen, Alabama

Some of its leading members have been running for office in Maryland.  And League president Michael Hill has gone so far as to call for the formation of paramilitary death squads. He now claims that he wasn’t doing any such thing, but that if he were, we would just have to find out for ourselves. (We, being liberal "bedwetters.")

Anyway, as it turned out, just around the time Hill was protesting too much, the Southern Poverty Law Center learned that the League was indeed organizing a secret paramilitary unit which calls itself "The Indomitables." 

ISIL… Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian version!

From Crooks and Liars: Once again, the ladies and gentlemen of our Corporate Media show how very out of touch they are with those who don’t travel in the same rarefied circles.

In keeping with their self-appointed roles as political gatekeepers, Mrs. Greenspan and Chris Cillizza quickly discount the report from reporter Perry Bacon Jr., in which he says Democrats are expressing doubts that Hillary Clinton is liberal enough for them.

The marquee stars quickly discount that. Mrs. Greenspan notes that while getting 350 people to come out to an Iowa church basement, as Bernie Sanders did, is "a lot," she and Cillizza quickly discount him because blah blah blah, he can’t raise the big money that an Elizabeth Warren can.

And this is the network Republicans claim is all librul.

From TPM: Liberal comedian Bill Maher confessed that he’s not actually an atheist in a Monday Funny Or Die video.

He said that he just plays an atheist and is actually quite religious.

Do you think we should believe him?

Cartoon:

Originally posted 9/17/2011.