Politics – Page 1119 – Politics Plus

Open Thread – 6/26/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jun 262014

Day 66. I’m writing for tomorrow and waiting for Mary from Store to Door to arrive with my groceries. She has an excellent sense of humor, a giving heart, and a genuine dislike of TEAbuggery. The world needs more like her. Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day, a general meeting with around 100 of my guys. I shall return home late, having missed a sleep cycle, so I may have little or nothing for Friday and/or Saturday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:53 (average 7:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the importance of forming a unity government in Iraq but refused to commit to a timetable for creating one in the United States.

The sensitive topic of a unity government for the United States came at the end of a thirty-minute meeting, during which Secretary Kerry lectured the Iraqi Prime Minister about the value of a government “where people of different parties put aside their differences, make meaningful compromises, and work together for the good of the nation.”

Taking this in, al-Maliki agreed that it was an excellent idea and politely asked Secretary Kerry if the United States had ever considered forming such a government.

According to observers, Kerry appeared to be caught off guard by this question and blurted out,”You first.”

Andy outdid himself this time.

From Raw Story: A Republican candidate seeking to represent Georgia’s 10th U.S. House district believes that the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty does not apply to followers of Islam.

“Although Islam has a religious component, it is much more than a simple religious ideology,” Rev. Jody Hice wrote in his 2012 book It’s Now Or Never, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It is a complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.”

The House candidate also believes the Muslim Brotherhood is secretly infiltrating the United States in a plot to impose Sharia law on the entire country, a conspiracy theory he shares with Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX).

Hice tied Mike Collins in the Georgia Republican primary in May, with each candidate getting about 34 percent of the vote. The winner of the July 22 runoff election will face Democrat Ken Dious in November.

The Constitution does guarantee an idiot's right to believe in Republican Supply-side pseud0-Christianity, but it expressly forbids such goose-stepping fools, like Hice, from using government to impose it on others, or prevent anyone else from exercising their own faith.

From Crooks and Liars: As Faux "news" was waiting for the election results in Mississippi to come in, Sean Hannity and his producers decided that there was no one more qualified to weigh in on the recent primary races and the future of the Republican party than the half-term Quitta' from Wasilla, or as Charlie Pierce calls her, Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods, Sarah Palin.

Of course the lesson Palin took from the Cantor loss, before hearing the results of the Cochran race, is the the Republicans aren't quite extreme enough, and they'd better start acting like "real" Republicans or she's going to threaten to leave the party.

Triple Barf Bag Alert!!: 5+ minutes of Bloody Bullseye Barbie!

If Drill Baby Dingbat and the InsaniTEA wing leave the Republican Party and form their own party, that would be wonderful for America, but I’m not betting on it.

Cartoon:

0626Cartoon

And the Baggers are MA-A-A-A-A-AD!! Black Sheep

Mississippi Runoff

Posted by TomCat at 12:03 am Politics

Jun 252014

The Republican primary race in Mississippi hast to be one of the weirdest I can remember. Despite criminal involvement in a scheme to videotape the incumbents wife in a nursing home, and an attempt to steal votes, when his staffers found themselves locked in the courthouse, the Tea Bagger challenger, Chris McDaniel is the favorite. The incumbent is so desperate he wants black Democrats to vote in the Republican runoff election. Now the Tea Bagger is calling in poll watchers to intimidate the black people, but as Rachel Maddow will show, the election could come down to animal passion.

The U.S. Justice Department says it’s keeping a close eye on a plan by conservatives to send poll-watchers to Mississippi for the state’s U.S. Senate race Tuesday—a “voter integrity” project that’s sparking fears of intimidation and racial profiling. And now, Mississippi’s attorney general and secretary of state are chiming in, too.

“The department is aware of concerns about voter intimidation and is monitoring the situation,” a Justice Department spokesperson told msnbc. “Voters that experience problems are encouraged to call 1-800-253-3931.”

An array of conservative groups supporting Chris McDaniel, including the Senate Conservatives Fund, the Tea Party Patriots, and True the Vote have said they’re sending poll-watchers to the state amid reports [Breitfart delinked] that some Mississippi Democratic operatives are working to turn out black Democrats in support of McDaniel’s opponent, Sen. Thad Cochran. The poll-watching effort is being organized in part by Christian Adams, a former Bush Justice Department lawyer who has long sought to publicize claims of voter fraud and illegal voting…

Inserted from <MSNBC>

Mississippi poll watchers have a history of wearing sheets and carrying guns.

Rachel Maddow discussed the race, and focused on animal magnetism.

From the laughter Cochran received, it’s clear that those Republicans knew exactly what he was talking about. Given this sexual proclivity of these Republican politicians, sheeple should be getting very nervous long about now. Surprised smile I guess Republican romance is BA-A-A-A-A-AD!!

Late Update: Cochran won. The sheep are thrilled!

Jerry Critter Has a BIG Mouth! ;-)

Posted by TomCat at 12:02 am Blog News, Politics

Jun 252014

54-JerryCritter

Congrats to Jerry Critter for posting the 54,000th comment here at Politics Plus. This is his fourth award. The last was the last of the every 500 awards that he won in June, 2011. He used to visit, because he is addicted to the Jig Zone Puzzles in our Open Thread. He still mutters “My Precious”, while doing them. Now he is fully engaged in all aspects of this site, and is one of the few people who has been here since before we converted to WordPress from Blogger, masking him a friend of many years standing. He remains one of our most prolific commentators, and writes an excellent blog of his own. You can find him at Critter’s Crap. Please join me in thanking him.

Open Thread–6/25/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 252014

Day 85. I’m writing for tomorrow and trying to get some extra rest, because Thursday is a a prison volunteer day, and tomorrow is a grocery delivery day. I’m still sore all over from all the cleaning.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was interviewed by Chris Matthews this past Thursday, and after watching that interview, one must admit this woman has the fire in her belly to really get things done. Her populist message sounds fresh, her delivery indicates persistence and she seems to have the perseverance of President Obama presented in a much less compromising and Ivy League manner.

As Hillary Clinton’s numbers slip off the pedestal, Elizabeth Warren’s numbers are sure to climb, given her obvious passion. Whether she runs for president or not no longer seems important: Her message and delivery will force Hillary Clinton and any potential Democratic primary challengers to stay with a middle-class centric message. The attempt at timid triangulation in the hopes that a perceived Republican lite tilt will bring a sect of the population tolerant of the controlling elite will be mitigated.

Chris Matthews raised many good middle-class points in his interview. He shares the frustration of every liberal: Why isn’t more being done? Why aren’t we building things? Why don’t we have the smell of pouring cement in a nation where the infrastructure is crumbling? Where is the hope for the unemployed and underemployed white guy in Scranton and the prospect of a job for that black kid wanting to work? Where is equal access to health care and education that form the platform from which upward mobility is launched? Where are research programs that ensure there is a pipeline of projects to feed an economy with ideas and prospects for progress and employment?

Elizabeth Warren by ewillies

Warren’s answer to those questions is crystal clear. Most Democrats are trying to do those very things. Republicans have just enough power to prevent it. She should add that frustrated lefties who vote for third party candidates, who cannot win, are blindly and unintentionally helping Republicans keep Democrats from passing such measures.

Also from Daily Kos: Last nigh t[Friday], Bill Maher had a New Rule on how we simply cannot change Iraq.

All I have to add is laughter.

From NY Times: Tom Tancredo, the firebrand former congressman, Harley-Davidson biker and perennial headache for Colorado’s Republican leaders, was taking fire from all sides last week in the final days of his primary campaign for governor. His rivals were slamming him on the airwaves. Moderate Republicans were warning that Mr. Tancredo’s name on the ballot could doom their chances in crucial races across this swing state.

My hopes are not high, but I’d love to see that damn racist win this one and become a turnout machined for Colorado Democrats in November.

Cartoon:

0625Cartoon

You Bust Ag? You Get Gagged!!

Posted by TomCat at 12:52 am Politics

Jun 242014

Since many of our readers are animal rights activists, I trust they will know a lot more about this subject than I do and provide us with additional info. I’ve been a meat lover for too many years to go vegetarian, and attempts to do so in the past have led to wet dreams about hamburger and fried chicken fantasies. However, I do believe that food animals have a right to be treated humanely, and when they are not, the public has a right to know. However Republican legislatures in many states are making it a crime to blow the whistle on the meat industry. They are called ag-gag laws.

In 2008, the Humane Society released a shocking video taken in a Southern California slaughterhouse. The footage depicted workers using chains and forklifts to drag cows that were too sick to stand across the floor. The abuse was appalling; the cows’ condition, which indicated a food safety risk, led the USDA to order a recall of 143 million pounds of beef. It was the largest meat recall in U.S. history — and it was all brought about by the work of an undercover whistleblower.

Since then, Big Ag has been hard at work preventing this sort of thing from happening again, but not by actually working to stop abuse — at least, not completely. Instead, the industry’s been pushing states to implement laws, known collectively as “ag-gag,” aimed at silencing activists.

Nine states currently have ag-gag laws on the books, the most recent of which, in Idaho, takes anti-whistleblower legislation to a worrisome new extreme. Under the law, signed by Gov. C . L. “Butch” Otter, it is illegal for anyone not employed on the farms — and undercover activists don’t count — to make recordings of what goes on there without the owner’s explicit consent. In practice, that means videos taken of factory farms’ illegal practices — like this one, which depicts three workers at an Idaho dairy farm beating cattle with a cane, kicking and stomping on them once they’ve fallen and dragging one cow across the floor via a chain around its neck — can no longer legally be made public.

But that these laws effectively allow animal cruelty to go undetected and unreported only scratches the surface of why critics find them so appalling. In the interest of protecting the agriculture industry, ag-gag laws criminalize whistleblowers and, ultimately, ensure consumers remain in the dark… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

Photo credit: Mother Jones (the graphic there is interactive. Click through.)

In my younger days, I hunted for meat, not sport. I considered it an obligation to have sufficient respect for the animal I hunted to send it to my table without suffering. I passed up shots, because I was not fully confident in a clean kill. I consider torturing food animals criminal.

Open Thread–6/24/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 242014

Day 64. I’m writing for tomorrow. The woman I pay to help mw with housekeeping called yesterday to say she could not come today, but could yesterday. Cool! But a lot of the work she he4lps me with are things that require two people, like cleaning behind the kitchen counter, so it became a work day for me too. I’m more than a little tired, but the major cleaning is all done for another couple of months.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:39 (average 4:40). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Mo Asumang is a German TV host and filmmaker, and what she pulls off in this video is amazing. Not only does Mo speak with groups of people who claim to hate her (which she does with grace and compassion), but she actually gets a few of them to let down their guard and reveal they might just have a heart. It’s fascinating to witness and probably the one and only context in which you can root for a racist — to stop being racist!

Dang! Republicans are exporting TEAbuggery to Europe! She has the heart of a saint to put up with those Republican racists.

From NY Times: Representative Kevin McCarthy, the next House majority leader, said Sunday that he would allow the Export-Import Bank of the United States to expire when its authority was up for reauthorization in the fall.

In his first national television interview since being elected Thursday to be the No. 2 Republican in the House, Mr. McCarthy, of California, said Congress had decided in a previous vote that the bank, responsible for supporting American exports, should be phased out.

“One of the biggest problems of government is they go and take hard-earned money so others do things that the private sector can do,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” [Faux Noise delinked] “That’s what the Ex-Im Bank does.”

He’s starting to show his true colors. Exports create jobs here. He is favoring vulture capitalists, who send our jobs elsewhere.

From Crooks and Liars: A police officer suffered fatal injuries while performing a pre-dawn no-knock raid on a local residence to search for drugs. Several officers were shot by a resident as they tried to enter an apartment through a ground-level window under the cover of darkness.

Detective Charles “Chuck” Dinwiddie, an 18-year veteran of the department — died two days after being shot on Friday morning. Approximately 5:30 a.m. on May 9th, the Killeen Police Department sent its SWAT team to execute a surprise raid on a middle-aged couple because they allegedly possessed substances without government permission.

Dinwiddie and several other SWAT agents snuck up to a window and tried to breach it to gain entry. The commotion caused one of residents to fire on the unidentified intruders, and Dinwiddie was struck in the face. Three others were shot; 2 were shot in the armor and 1 was shot in the thigh…

…Oh, and you guessed it: No drugs were found. Is the shooter a bad guy? I have no idea. But because this is Texas, and the guy who shot the cop is black (unlike this guy), I imagine prosecutors will tie themselves in knots to get him. [emphasis original]

Texas has a "stand your ground” law, but apparently it does not count for a black man with no drugs, who shoots an unidentified cop breaking-in in the middle of the night. The law did work for the white guy in similar circumstances who actually did have drugs.

Cartoon:

0624TCVOTE

Last Week’s Despicable Republican Outrages

Posted by TomCat at 12:04 am Politics

Jun 232014

Every week, Republicans join a competition to see who can say the most outlandish things, and in the process, every week they push the the envelope on just how despicable InsaniTEA can become. I trust that you will believe it when I tell you that last week was no exception.

…Erick Erickson defends anti-gay remark even Rick Perry knows to distance himself from.

Last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry acknowledged he “stepped right in it” when he compared homosexuality to alcoholism. Unlike the aforementioned Cheney Monster, Perry seems to have thought better of something he said and realized on some tiny little pea-brained level the error of his ways.

The problem is that once these idiotic thoughts hit the cold airwaves of reality they take on a life of their own among the other nutcases, and so on Friday, RedState.com founder and Fox News contributor Erick Erickson wrote a column agreeing that homosexuality is a disorder like addiction or alcoholism that sufferers must “struggle” to “overcome,” Media Matters reported.

“I largely agree with Governor Rick Perry and appreciate him speaking up,” Erickson said, perhaps unaware that Perry had retracted his statement.

“Whether one is born gay or not does not mean God made a person gay,” Erickson said. “And whether it is the unrepentant alcoholic, homosexual, adulterer, liar, or any of the others the Duck Commander listed, none are going to be saved on the last day without repenting.”

So repent, yee sinners repent. Be holy and homophobic like your brothers on ‘Duck Dynasty.’ The kingdom of heaven will open its pearly gates to those who hate the ones who love differently…

Inserted from <Alternet>

This is just one of six despicable Republican Outrages from last week. Click through for the other five.

Open Thread–6/23/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jun 232014

I’m writing for tomorrow and trying to finish early, so I can rest. I still have not recovered from laundry. Day 63.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:50 (average 5:23). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos:

America’s gun death rates — both nationwide and in the states — dwarf those of most other Western industrialized nations. The gun death rate in the United Kingdom in 2011 was 0.23 per 100,000 while in Australia it was 0.86 per 100,000.

States with the Five Highest Gun Death Rates

(Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate Per 100,000)

1 Louisiana 45.6 percent 18.91

2 Mississippi 54.3 percent 17.80

3 Alaska 60.6 percent 17.41

4 Wyoming 62.8 percent 16.92

5 Montana 61.4 percent 16.74

States with the Five Lowest Gun Death Rates

(Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate Per 100,000)

50 Rhode Island 13.3 percent 3.14

49 Hawaii 9.7 percent 3.56

48 Massachusetts 12.8 percent 3.84

47 New York 18.1 percent 5.11

46 New Jersey 11.3 percent 5.46

For a list of gun death rates in all 50 states, Visit Here.

Lower gun ownership translates to fewer gun deaths. Also note the Red/Blue divide.

From Think Progress: The founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition — whose annual conference has become a rite of passage for likely Republican presidential contenders — compared the conservative opposition to same-sex marriage to slavery on Friday. The comments were first reported by Yahoo News’ Chris Moody.

In a speech during a breakout session at the group’s “Road to Majority” conference in Washington, D.C., Ralph Reed explained that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott, which resolved that slaves were the property of their owners even if they traveled to free states, was instructive for advocates fighting against marriage equality. Following the ruling, Reed argued, many believed the cause of abolition was doomed, but the decision actually energized anti-slavery advocates and they eventually triumphed.

Isn’t it just like a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian to cite the worst Supreme Court decision in history, prior to the crop of abominations from the Fascist Five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD)?

From Huffington Post: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday night accused President Barack Obama and other Democrats of waging wars against religious liberty and education and said that a rebellion is brewing in the U.S. with people ready for "a hostile takeover" of the nation’s capital.

Jindal spoke at the annual conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by longtime Christian activist Ralph Reed. Organizers said more than 1,000 evangelical leaders attended the three-day gathering. Republican officials across the political spectrum concede that evangelical voters continue to play a critical role in GOP politics.

"I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these United States," Jindal said, "where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., to preserve the American Dream for our children and grandchildren."

Many times I have put Republicans, who promote the hostile takeover of the US, on Parade for their criminal sedition. A common Republican complaint has been that these Republicans are isolated wing-nuts, not true representatives of the Republican Party. They have a point, this time. Jindal comes from the least insane fringe of the party.

Cartoon:

0623Cartoon

Hat-Tip to Carrie at Care2 for sending the picture I used to make this.

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