Politics Plus

I’m writing for tomorrow and need to catch up some sleep because Stuck on Stupid and Disability Check Queen are fighting, not again, but still.  In addition I made a store run and did laundry.  Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day, so expect me to be hurrying then and possibly lust Open Threads or absent Wednesday and/or Thursday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:25 (average 4:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) raised the ante in the battle over the Affordable Care Act on Sunday, telling CNN’s Candy Crowley that “destroying the entire planet is really the best and only way to stop Obamacare.”

“Look, I’m in favor of shutting down the government and not raising the debt ceiling, but let’s not kid ourselves. Those are only half measures,” he told Crowley. “If we are really serious about stopping Obamacare, we’ll destroy the entire planet.”

Explaining his proposal to a visibly alarmed Crowley, Senator Cruz said, “Obamacare is like a parasite that needs a host to feed on. If you want to kill the parasite you kill the host, and in this case that means killing this planet. As long as there’s a planet Earth, the nightmare of Obamacare could always come screaming back to life.”

While he was not specific about how he would go about destroying the planet, Cruz said, “This is something that my colleagues and I have been working on for some time.”

In the event of a Debt Default, Andy may be prophetic.

From Alternet: Pat Robertson to elderly woman viewer: It’s your fault your husband’s health his suffering.

Always willing to comfort his flock, Pat Robertson used his “700 Club” pulpit recently to set a woman straight about priorities. Retired and living on a small pension and Social Security pension, the woman was faced with the difficult decision of whether to give money to her church or pay her husband’s medical expenses.

This whole situation is all her fault, Robertson told her. Her husband is sick precisely because her contribution to the church has been inadequate, despite a lifetime of tithing.

“Your husband has all these medical problems because the ‘devour’ has not been rebuked,” Robertson explained. “You need to rebuke him. You give your tithes faithfully and God said, ‘I will rebuke the devour,’ the person that is eating up your money and eating up your health. So you want to be healthy? That’s a promise in the word.”

This just one of ten appalling statements from the Republican madhouse in the last week alone. Click through for the other nine. As for Republican Supply-side pseudo Christian, Pat Robertson, someone needs to upset his tables and drive him from the temple with a whip of cords.

From Daily Kos: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the bedrock of traditional Republicanism, now says that it will get involved in Republican primaries by providing financial support to incumbent Republicans who vote to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. In other words, if some Republicans act responsibly and then have to face tea party challengers accusing them of being RINOs, the Chamber will have the back of those reasonable Republicans. It’s a civil war within the GOP, folks.

That’s how far off the deep end the tea party and right-wing House Republicans have gone. They’ve lost the Chamber of Commerce.

This Republican sedition even hurts most of the business community. Whether this will matter, I know not, but for the Republican’s own sake, this is the best that could happen. With promised backing from the chamber, those Republicans, who said they will support a clean CR, will have no excuse for failing to sign the discharge petition.

Cartoon:

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 93.  Just maybe the extreme heat has ended a day early, but my two weather sources are 13° apart.  I’m still over-tired from the week.  Don’t forget to set your fantasy football lineups, and Patty, YOU NEED A TIGHT END!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:57 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MSNBC: Ed Shultz talks about un-brainwashing Faux Noise viewers.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In short, there is more than one kind of viewer of the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. Regular folks, who watch it, because they don’t know any better can be helped. But neither flavor of core viewer can be helped. The core viewers that say "Kill!", are getting exactly what they want, so they will not accept help. The core viewers that say "Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a", are just too stuck on stupid!

From Right Wing Watch: Two weeks ago, the Christian Broadcasting Network tried to cover up remarks made by Pat Robertson, the founder of CBN and host of its flagship show the 700 Club, about how he believes gay men wear special rings that cut the hands of people they meet in order to infect them with HIV/AIDS.

CBN not only had the video we posted of Robertson’s comments removed from YouTube by complaining that it violated copyright laws, but also edited the comments out of its own broadcast of the show.

We reposted our video elsewhere, but CBN also had it removed from websites such as Vimeo and Dailymotion.

We filed a counterclaim with YouTube asserting that our video was protected by Fair Use and yesterday we finally received word that our video had been restored…

Kudos, to RWW! As for Robertson, I trust that, in the end, “Blood Diamond Pat” will hear, "I never knew you!"

From Politico: Senate Democrats have had all they can take from David Vitter and his fixation on Obamacare — and they’re dredging up his past prostitution scandal to hit back.

Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has infuriated Democrats this week by commandeering the Senate floor, demanding a vote on his amendment repealing federal contributions to help pay for lawmakers’ health care coverage.

But Democratic senators are preparing a legislative response targeting a sordid Vitter episode. If Vitter continues to insist on a vote on his proposal, Democrats could counter with one of their own: Lawmakers will be denied those government contributions if there is “probable cause” they solicited prostitutes…

LOL!! I love it!! Vitter has demanded that the Senate Ethics Committee investigate Harry Reid over this. Now, I’m no fan of the Nevada Leg Hound, but the very notion of Diaper Dave demanding an ethics review epitomizes GOP Hypocrisy!

Cartoon:

I’m writing for day 72, and I feel chilly!  Love it!  I also feel tied, because I slept the clock around yesterday.  I got some news on the apartment.  We’re not waiting for an approval of me.  We’re waiting for for the last details to be ironed out, between the head honcho at the company that owns the building and the county, on an agreement covering all that company’s buildings.  Part of the agreement is that units in certain buildings will be “fair market value”.  The bureaucrat is back, but now the honcho is on vacation until mid September.  ARGH!  Tonight in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, my broncos and the St. Lou9s Rams will portend to worship, so I’ll make a place for that in advance, like I do for the puzzles.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 4:35).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

Short Takes:

From Slate (Hat-Tip to Joanne Dixon at Care2): Can You Solve Slate’s Gerrymandering Jigsaw Puzzle?

This is sort of like Jig Zone, but this is REAL!

Here are my scores:

Michigan 2:06

North Carolina 2:09

Pennsylvania 3:56

Maryland 0:59

Ohio 2:10

If you can do it without freaking out (I couldn’t), you’ll probably beat me.

From NY Times: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty to slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians inside their homes, will spend the rest of his life in prison, a military jury decided on Friday.

Murder 16, and you get life without parole. Murder hundreds of thousands, and you get a Presidential Library on the campus Texas A&M.

From MSNBC: The OTHER side of the late Rev. Billy Graham

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I have no desire do drag this man’s corpse through the ashes. I point out how he wanted to cut reporters’ throats in the name of Supply Side Jesus, simply to demonstrate that the hatred being taught within Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity is not the exception, and it never has been. It is the rule.

Cartoon:

I’ll give you a great TomCat scan for $0.50!