November 2011 – Page 3 – Politics Plus

Open Thread–11/26/2011

Posted by TomCat at 12:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 262011

Yesterday I rested for most of the day, attempting to heal up. I celebrated Black Friday in the proper way and spent nothing. I’m current on replies. Today is another much needed rest day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:40 (average 4:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn.org: Zero-Zero-Zero

The ultimate Republican tax plan.

From LA Times: Los Angeles police detectives hope to retrieve video surveillance evidence from a Porter Ranch Wal-Mart store by early Friday afternoon to begin trying to identify a woman who shot pepper spray at other shoppers to get a Black Friday competitive edge.

“We’re going to check the video surveillance and hope the cameras were pointed in the right direction,” said LAPD Sgt. R.J. Valle of the Devonshire station.

The woman apparently sought to purchase an Xbox video game console and used the spray to clear out other shoppers. About 20 customers, including children, were hurt in the Thursday night incident, which police officials called “shopping rage.” Shoppers complained of minor skin and eye irritation and sore throats.

This women must have been a Republican, given the level of her greed and given that only viewers of the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, think pepper spray is harmless. In addition, most Democrats boycott Wal-Fart for their causing the outsourcing of US jobs, anti-labor tactics, and employee abuse.

From Raw Story: Denmark aims to have wind power supply half of the country’s electricity needs in 2020, under a new programme presented by Climate and Energy Minister Martin Lidegaard on Friday.

That’s an example we should follow.

Cartoon:

26Cartoon

Was Your Turkey Wearing a Hijab?

Posted by TomCat at 12:03 am Politics, Religion

Nov 252011

It’s hard to get past a holiday without the pseudo-Christian followers of Republican Supply-side Jesus (not the real one) finding an excuse to display their gospel of bigotry, hate and intolerance. For Thanksgiving they reached a level of stupidity in their fear mongering seldom seen before. Cower under your beds! Your Thanksgiving turkey, they say, is a secret agent of Islam.

Red-blooded Christian Americans, consider yourselves warned. The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer has discovered a plot to secretly infiltrate America’s ovens with Muslim turkeys:

I want to talk a little bit about Butterball turkeys. And I want to let you know [that] every single Butterball turkey sold in the United States of America has been sacrificed to Allah.

Every single turkey that Butterball sells has been ritually slaughtered according to Islamic practice and has had an Islamic prayer prayed over that bird while it is being slaughtered.

If your Thanksgiving turkey starts speaking Arabic or insists on wearing a hijab, now you know the reason. But this is no joking matter to Fischer, who raises the possibility of a pressure campaign against Butterball this Christmas…

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

Here’s the video:

The problem, of course, is that Geller and Fischer, are practicing a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian holiday ritual. They are lying.

Mellissa Harris Perry debunks this Republican lie.

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

I am thankful that, as a Christian, I can also honor the faith of those who are not, and I am thankful that authentic Muslims are far more Christian than Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians.

Open Thread–11/25/2011

Posted by TomCat at 12:03 am Open Thread, Personal

Nov 252011

Yesterday I enjoyed two big plates of food and fed a couple of the people in my building who have nothing. Thanksgiving dinner always puts me to sleep, so I was sacrilegious to the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, missing most of two games. Thanksgiving is a slow day for political news, but I did find material for one other article to accompany this one. I’m current with replies. Today will be a much needed lazy day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:58 (average 4:39). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Time: U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords helped serve a Thanksgiving meal to service members and retirees at a military base in her hometown of Tucson, Ariz.

I’m happy to see her getting up and around.

From News Hounds: Even on Thanksgiving, Fox’s thoughts are not on solving our country’s problems and bringing us together as Americans but promoting its ideological agenda with divisiveness. Let’s be real. There’s no reason for blaring a headline saying, Let’s Give Thanks For The One Percent [Faux delinked], other than as an FU to the 99 Percent/Occupy movements.

I guess these Republicans are thankful for their greed and hate.

From Think Progress: I am thankful for climate scientists, who toil away for long hours away from their family, sometimes in the most inhospitable parts of the world, for not much money (sorry disinformers) — and do so thanklessly, indeed they do so in the face of anti-science cyber-bullying and hostility from sorry-ass disinformers — all in a desperate attempt to avert the gravest of human tragedies. They are like the hero of Henrik Ibsen’s classic An Enemy of the People — which someone should definitely modernize into a climate science parable.

They certainly deserve our thanks.

Cartoon:

25Cartoon

Thanksgiving: A Time to be Humble

Posted by TomCat at 12:23 am Holiday, Personal, Plus

Nov 242011

Thanksgiving2

Thanksgiving may be a uniquely American holiday, but it is not without controversy, because the mythology I learned as a child has little to do with the real history of the day and the genocide of Native American people that followed. I have several Native American friends and respect both those who celebrate the day and those who do not. I think at least we should explore the true history with humility and recognition of the contributions of Native American people and the terrible price they paid for their generosity, without which the US may have never existed.

…The decision to celebrate Thanksgiving divides even Native Americans. Nearly 10 years ago, Jacqueline Keeler wrote a widely circulated editorial about why she, a member of the Dineh Nation and Yankton Dakota Sioux, celebrates the holiday. For one, Keeler views herself as “a very select group of survivors.” The fact that Natives managed to survive mass murder, forced relocation, theft of land and other injustices “with our ability to share and to give intact” gives Keeler hope that healing is possible.

In her essay, Keeler makes it clear that she takes issue with how one-dimensionally Natives are portrayed in commercialized Thanksgiving celebrations. The Thanksgiving she recognizes is a revisionist one. She explains:

“These were not merely ‘friendly Indians.’ They had already experienced European slave traders raiding their villages for a hundred years or so, and they were wary—but it was their way to give freely to those who had nothing. Among many of our peoples, showing that you can give without holding back is the way to earn respect.”

Award-winning author Sherman Alexie, who is Spokane and Coeur d’alene, also celebrates Thanksgiving by recognizing the contributions the Wampanoag people made to the Pilgrims. Asked in a Sadie Magazine interview if he celebrates the holiday, Alexie humorously answered:

“We live up to the spirit of Thanksgiving cuz we invite all of our most desperately lonely white [friends] to come eat with us. We always end up with the recently broken up, the recently divorced, the brokenhearted. From the very beginning, Indians have been taking care of brokenhearted white people. …We just extend that tradition.”

If we’re to follow Keeler and Alexie’s lead, Thanksgiving should be celebrated by highlighting the contributions and sacrifices made by the Wampanoag. All too often Thanksgiving is celebrated from a Eurocentric point of view… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <About.com>

In addition, I think it important that treat Thanksgiving as a day to be humble and to recognize our duty to care for those who cannot care for themselves, as the Wampanoag people did.

My friends, I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and give thanks for each of you.

Open Thread–11/24/2011

Posted by TomCat at 12:22 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 242011

Yesterday I pushed myself a little too hard, so I’m only putting up one other article today. I did get out to run my errands, and I did prepare tomorrow’s cheese mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli/cauliflower hollandaise, leaving only the turkey, dressing and gravy to make today. I’m current with replies. Today is not only Thanksgiving, but also a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, so while stuffing the bird and I, I shall be …umm… meditating.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:43 (average 4:34). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn.org: We are the 99%.

Isn’t it sad that we must often go to foreign media for honest coverage?

From Washington Post: The point man for carrying out President Barack Obama’s health care law will be stepping down after Republicans succeeded in blocking his confirmation by the Senate, the White House announced Wednesday.

Medicare chief Don Berwick, a Harvard professor widely respected for his ideas on how to improve the health care system, became the most prominent casualty of the political wars over a health care overhaul whose constitutionality will be now decided by the Supreme Court.

Praising Berwick for “outstanding work,” White House deputy press secretary Jamie Smith criticized Republicans for “putting political interests above the best interests of the American people.”

This is mire mindless obstruction. Berwick is not a controversial ideologue. Once, even Newt endorsed him.

From The Examiner: Nicholas E. Purpura and Donald R. Laster Jr, both of Monmouth County [NJ], yesterday filed a motion for recusal in their case, Purpura et al. v. Sebelius et al. (Docket No. 11-7275). They contend that Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor should not take part in any deliberation, either on whether to grant certiorari in their case, or in hearing oral argument, or in deciding their case or any motion thereon. The reason: both these Justices owe their jobs to Barack H. Obama, and both would lose their jobs should the Court uphold one of their fifteen counts against the massive health care reform bill.

Extending the logic (?) of these idiots, every Justice who was appointed by either a Republican or a Democrat should be forced to recuse. Note that they have no problem about Teabag Thomas pocketing $thousands from his wife’s lobbying against the ACA.

Cartoon:

24Cartoon

Where Are the Calls for Personhood?

Posted by TomCat at 12:19 am Politics

Nov 232011

To clarify from the start, I am not an advocate of personhood, the notion that a fertilized egg has all the rights as a citizen after birth. I have opposed the failed Republican attempts to amend the constitutions of Colorado and Mississippi. This article is a demonstration of Republican hypocrisy, not a call for personhood. Republicans have been fast to accuse abortionists and pregnant women whose drug abuse caused miscarriages of murder and call for their prosecution. But I have yet to hear the first call for personhood over the miscarriage of Jennifer Fox.

A woman who was pepper sprayed during during a raid on Occupy Seattle last week is blaming police after she miscarried Sunday.

Jennifer Fox, 19, told The Stranger that she had been with the Occupy protests since they started in Westlake Park. She said she was homeless and three months pregnant, but felt the need to join activists during their march last Tuesday.

“I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,” Fox recalled. “I was screaming, ‘I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.'”

She claimed that police hit her in the stomach twice before pepper spraying her. One officer struck her with his foot and another pushed his bicycle into her. It wasn’t clear if either of those incidents were intentional.

“Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut,” Fox said.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer Joshua Trujillo snapped a picture of Fox in apparent agony as another activist carried her to an ambulance.

Seattle fire department spokesman Kyle Moore told The Washington Post that a 19-year-old pregnant woman was among those that were examined by paramedics.

While doctors at Harborview Medical Center didn’t see any problems at the time, things took a turn for the worst Sunday.

“Everything was going okay until yesterday, when I started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out,” she explained.

When Fox arrived at the hospital, doctors told her that the baby had no heartbeat.

“They diagnosed that I was having a miscarriage. They said the damage was from the kick and that the pepper spray got to it [the fetus], too,” she said… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here is video of her suffering after being beaten and sprayed.

If a Republican woman were beaten and sprayed, causing her to miscarry, while blocking access to an abortion clinic, you can bet Republicans would be screaming bloody murder. If a Republican woman were beaten and sprayed, causing her to miscarry, while at a Koran burning, you can bet Republicans would be screaming bloody murder. If a Republican woman were beaten and sprayed, causing her to miscarry, while at a “God Hates Fags” funeral protest, you can bet Republicans would be screaming bloody murder. But police are not beating and spraying people at right wing demonstrations. Where are the Republican calls for personhood now? What shameful hypocrites they are!

Kitzhaber Says No to Death

Posted by TomCat at 12:18 am Politics

Nov 232011

I will not be going to do volunteer work in the prison this month. Not only am I not well enough yet, but also, our meeting was cancelled so that staff could practice for an execution scheduled early next month. I had planned, and partially written an article for that occasion, stating that was one of the few times I was not proud to be an Oregonian. Thanks to John Kitzhaber, Oregon’s Democratic Governor, that article will not see the light of day.

Gov. John Kitzhaber announced today that he is halting the scheduled Dec. 6 execution of Gary Haugen and won’t allow any executions to occur while he is governor.

Kitzhaber’s bombshell came the day after the Oregon Supreme Court said that it would allow the lethal injection execution of the twice-convicted murderer to go forward.

In slamming the brakes on Oregon’s first execution in 14 years, the Democrat governor said the state’s death penalty system is “broken” and he vowed to push for reforms in the 2013 legislative session.

“It is time for this state to consider a different approach,” Kitzhaber said. “I refuse to be a part of a compromised and inequitable system any longer; and I will not allow further executions to take place while I am governor.”

Under Oregon’s constitution, governors have sweeping power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons for those convicted of crimes.

Kitzhaber said he was exercising his authority to issue a temporary reprieve for Haugen, lasting “for the duration of my term in office.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Statesman Journal>

Here’s the video of Kitz’s statement.

Thank you Governor. I remain proud to be an Oregonian. It’s time for the US to join the civilized nations of the world by outlawing capital punishment once and for all.

Poll Results–11/23/2011

Posted by TomCat at 12:17 am Blog News, Politics

Nov 232011

Here are the results of the “Who do Republicans represent?” poll.

Poll1123

And here are your comments.

From Lisa G. on November 19, 2011 at 9:20 pm.

You almost got me to say main street too, sneaky. I was going to say on this one we need an "all" category, but you put that main street in there, thinking we’d goof up and say all. Sneaky, very sneaky. We got your number, TC.

From Memphis Johnny on November 1, 2011 at 7:21 pm.

Who let the 1%er in here? I saw one ‘you’ vote.

From Joan Adams on November 1, 2011 at 5:20 pm.

We all seem to agree, yet the media insists Obama is in the fight of his life next election. What’s up with that?

I voted for all but the last three. I think a few people started checking boxes and couldn’t find the breaks.

There’s a new one up. Enjoy!

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