Politics Plus

Day 62.  I’m writing for tomorrow, and this is the only article, because I’m worn out.  Why?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 3:06 (average 4:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: I've lived over seven decades, through a World War where we were put in camps because of our race to playing the Asian helmsman of the Enterprise, from the blossoming of the Stonewall riots to today, where we help carry the banner for marriage equality. Here is my story. I'm living proof that "It Got Better."

Don't beam him up, Scotty. Her has a lot more living to do!

From The New Yorker: In a development that offers a faint glimmer of hope for Iraq, both Sunnis and Shiites are finding common ground in the view that former Vice-President Dick Cheney seriously needs to shut up.

In the days following the publication, this week, of a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about Iraq that Cheney wrote with his daughter Liz, hatred of the former Vice-President has, to the surprise of many, become the first thing that Sunnis and Shiites have agreed upon in centuries.

Iraqi observers in recent days have reported seeing both Sunnis and Shiites reading the Cheneys’ op-ed then tearing it to shreds in a rage.

How about a Sunni v. Shia shoe-throwing contest with ChickenHawk as the target? It sure beats killing each other!!

From Crooks and Liars: Pennsylvania, land of ethical giants! Nice corrupt little relationship the Corbett administration has with the fracking industry, don't you think?

Two retirees from the Pennsylvania Department of Health say its employees were silenced on the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling.

One veteran employee says she was instructed not to return phone calls from residents who expressed health concerns about natural gas development.

“We were absolutely not allowed to talk to them,” said Tammi Stuck, who worked as a community health nurse in Fayette County for nearly 36 years.

When the facts and Republican propaganda disagree, health officials will lose their jobs unless they shut the frack up!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, the summer solstice, or Litha to our Wiccan friends.  I guess the universe is waiting for me to make the days shorter.  ;-)  Actually, I need a few longer ones, because my helper friend stood me up again, and I have to do all the back housework I was going to pay her to do.  ARGH! :-(  Day 61.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:19 (average 5:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: First impressions are lasting, and that certainly applies to scientific topics. I think if more sciencey things were introduced with this much pizzazz and humor, we would have more kids shooting for the stars — literally.

Ellen got it wrong. A black hole is infinitely dense, because it’s the space between a Republican’s ears. But they wouldn’t listen to her anyway, for another reason.

From The New Yorker: Congressional leaders left the White House on Wednesday “deeply frustrated” that President Obama had not found a swift resolution to the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites that began in the seventh century A.D.

After meeting for more than an hour with the President in the Oval Office, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed disappointment that Mr. Obama “came up empty” when asked for a plan to heal the rift between the two religious groups, which began in the year 632.

“All we ask of this President is that he do one thing: settle a religious conflict that has been going on for a millennium and a half,” McConnell said. “What did he offer today? Nothing.”

LOL, Andy! If Obama actually did it, they’d call it a Muslim, Kenyan conspiracy to take away their rahts and freedumbs.

From NY Times: When he was the leader of Republicans in the California State Assembly — an ideologically diverse group of lawmakers often choleric toward both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrats who controlled the Legislature — Kevin Owen McCarthy [the New House Majority Leader] was known as the guy who could help bring a bill across the finish line. Gently, almost as if no one could see it.

“We negotiated a pretty difficult budget in 2004,” said Fabian Núñez, the California Democrat who was the Assembly speaker at the time. “Kevin said to me, ‘I have six votes for you,’ and then he went back and delivered the six votes. It was not so much that he would step out of the Republican ideological box, in fact he would rarely do that, but he was a man of his word. If he said, ‘I can’t go there,’ he could not go there. He was always trying to negotiate for something better.”

Cantor has been one of House’s chief obstructionists, responsible for torpedoing many deals there. Because he is a Republican, I have my doubts about McCarthy, but I’ll hold my peace, until I see what he does when August comes.

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