Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 86.  Last night I lay down for what was supposed to be a short catnap,. and I was out for hours.  I’m feeling tired, still, but my groceries are unpacked and stowed, my research is done, and I just have to write tomorrow’s articles.  Cravings are severe, and I think that getting off Chantix may be behind the sleep irregularity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Oklahoma had a very busy weekend, at least according to the richter scale.

GUTHRIE, Okla. (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded seven small earthquakes shaking central Oklahoma in a span of about 14 hours.

The temblors are part of an increase in earthquakes across Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas that some scientists say could be connected to the oil and gas drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, and especially the wells in which the industry disposes of its wastewater.

Sunday’s quakes ranged from magnitude 2.6 to 2.9 and were centered in the Guthrie, Jones and Langston areas, 15 miles to 30 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. The USGS said the quakes were recorded between 7:57 p.m. Saturday and 9:51 a.m. Sunday. No injuries or damage were reported.

Those follow four other quakes, including a 4.3-magnitude temblor near Langston recorded shortly after noon Saturday. The other Saturday morning quakes ranged in magnitude from 2.9 to 3.2.

Prior to fracking, this part of the country used to be geologically stable. While Republicans may call this the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, the many occurrences of temblors in other tectonically stable areas after fracking help form an inductive basis for cause.

From The New Yorker: The Church of England, an institution whose origins date back to the sixth century A.D., has far more modern views about the rights of women than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, experts said today.

“In recognizing that women are the equals of men, the Church of England has embraced a position that is centuries ahead of Scalia’s,” Davis Logsdon, a professor of religion at the University of Minnesota, said. “This is a remarkable achievement, given that Scalia was born in 1936 and the Church began in the late five hundreds.”

But Dr. Carol Foyler, a history professor at the University of Sussex, took issue with that assessment. “I date the beginning of the Church of England to 1534, when it was officially established under Henry VIII,” she said. “But regardless of whether the Church is fourteen centuries old or five centuries old, it’s unquestionably more modern than Scalia.”

Amen Andy! To find view’s on women’s rights worse than Scalia’s, one must eclipse the dawn of recorded history!

From NY Times: Two Texas lawmakers say they plan to introduce a bipartisan bill on Tuesday intended to combat the humanitarian crisis at the nation’s southern border and make it easier to send migrant children from Central America back to their home countries.

The legislation is expected to encounter resistance from some congressional Democrats. It comes as the White House has signaled a willingness to work with Republicans to win passage of President Obama’s request for $3.7 billion in emergency funds to confront the surge of Central American migrants into the United States, with a heavy concentration of them in Texas.

The legislation by the two Texas lawmakers — Senator John Cornyn, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, and Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat — would amend a 2008 law intended to stop sex trafficking that grants migrant children from Central America extra legal protections when they cross the border, protections that Mr. Obama has said make it harder to return the children quickly to their home countries.

Those protections for refugee children need to stay right where they are.  Furthermore, calling the bill bipartisan is a crock. Cuellar is a virtual Republican, a perennial traitor to his both party and his people. He endorsed Bush over Gore in 2000, and he is the reddest Bush Dog DINO in Congress.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 85.  Last night I crashed big time, making me late in getting my articles posted.  I ordered my groceries from Safeway, because Store to Door shops at Fred Meyers, and this week, their specials stink.  So Tuesday is a grocery delivery day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:58 (average 4:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: A recent tour of the United States-Mexico border by Texas Governor Rick Perry has had the unintended consequence of convincing thousands of immigrants that anyone can succeed in America.

After Gov. Perry and the Fox News host Sean Hannity toured the Rio Grande on Thursday, news quickly spread that the two men were actually among the most powerful in America, fueling the immigrants’ impression that the U.S. is a place where anyone can make it.

“When we learned that these two men were the governor of a large state and a top broadcaster from a major news network, it seemed too incredible to be true,” said an immigrant from Honduras, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We all said to ourselves, if those two can succeed in America, imagine the wondrous things we might achieve.”

LOL! Andy needs to tell the poor immigrants that those two make it here only because of their willingness to sell their souls to and betray the America for the 0.1%.

From NY Times: The deal that Secretary of State John Kerry brokered to ease the Afghan election crisis with a sweeping audit of the vote was quietly built on an even more profound reshaping of the entire government system, American and Afghan officials confirmed Sunday: The sides have agreed to gradually create an empowered prime minister post after years of an all-encompassing presidency.

Nearly a decade after American officials pushed a Constitution that enshrined near-dictatorial powers for the president, it is a tacit admission that changing to a more parliamentary system — a fraught undertaking at any time — is now seen as crucial to holding the country together after years of mounting political crises and ethnic and factional hostilities, officials said.

The Bush Reich never intended the original Afghani government to be a real republic. They intended to create a fascist puppet dictatorship under Hamid Karzai, a pipeline expert working for Unocal.

From Think Progress: Last January, the two lawyers behind Speaker John Boehner’s lawsuit claiming that President Obama is not implementing Obamacare fast enough authored an article in Politico Magazine laying out the legal theory behind this litigation. Yet, this article contains a glaring misrepresentation of a recent Supreme Court decision that undermines much of the basis for this lawsuit.

David Rivkin and Elizabeth Price Foley are the lawyers behind Boehner’s lawsuit. In their Politico piece, they correctly acknowledge that the biggest obstacle to suing Obama is something known as the “standing” doctrine. Standing is the requirement that a plaintiff bringing a lawsuit must have actually been injured in some way by the person that they are suing. But neither Speaker Boehner nor any other member of Congress has been injured by President Obama’s decision to delay implementation of a provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring employers with more than 50 employees to pay a fine if they don’t offer a minimal level of health insurance coverage. Boehner has not lost his health insurance because President Obama delayed this provision. Nor has this delay cost Boehner a single cent.

Of course, all Boehner wishes to do here if to get his lawsuit tied up in the courts until after the elections. As I have said before, it is a mere pretense, and it’s only intent is to stop the Baggers from embarrassing the rest of the party by trying to impeach Obama.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 83.  I made it home yesterday feeling quite wilted and very sore, because of all the walking, after the therapist put me through a workout.  It was very hot outside, but I took frequent rests and swallows from my water bottle.  I got very little sleep because of muscle pain, but I felt too tired to do research.  Today will be worse, because I will be walking further in the hotter part of a hotter day.  In fact the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory through the 15th.  I hope I can recover sufficiently to research and write tomorrow for Monday.  On a more positive note, I got some good news.  My ID card that allows me to move within the prison without staff supervision to do my volunteer work is in and I can pick it up on my next volunteer day there.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:34 (average 4:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Thank goodness it’s cool inside!