Yesterday my COPD was quite severe, so for the most part, I stayed down. I’m current with replies. Today I have an appointment that I cannot duck, so what I do will depend on how tired I am, when I return.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:48 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Raw Story: Iran’s parliament looks certain to be dominated by MPs critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to preliminary election results that also showed a big turnover in lawmakers.
The partial results, from elections held last Friday, accounted for two-thirds of the 290 seats in parliament.
However the composition, given by Iranian media, remained obscure and sometimes contradictory — reflecting the country’s complex politics based on individual MPs’ alliances rather than formal political parties.
While I claim no expertise on Iranian politics, I don’t see how they could do worse than Ahmadinejad, so this may be a positive sign.
From Reuters: President Barack Obama warned on Sunday against "loose talk" of a war with Iran ahead of a crucial meeting in which he will urge Israel’s prime minister to avoid a premature strike on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.
On the eve of his talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama used a speech to the pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group AIPAC to pledge his staunch support for the Jewish state and to argue that international sanctions on Iran must given more time to work.
Because AIPAC is the US focus for bigotry against Palestinians, Israeli Terrorism and Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity, Obama’s mere presence there troubles me. J-Street is a far better venue through which to express support for a peaceful Israel and a two state solution. That said, for Republicans, if war is the hammer, even a mild headache is a nail.
From Raw Story: There was no sincerity in Rush Limbaugh’s apology to Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, according to the perspective shared by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) Sunday morning.
Appearing on CBS’ Face The Nation, Paul again called Limbaugh’s comments towards Fluke as “crude” and expressed that the controversial radio host became nervous over losing sponsors, with currently six companies pulling their backing from his show.
OMG! :-O I actually agree with rabid Ronnie the racist?!!? Somebody PLEASE shoot me!!!! 🙁
Cartoon:
17 Responses to “Open Thread–3/5/2012”
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Makes little difference how much support the crazy one gets, it is still the Ayotollah that calls the shots in Iran.
Cartoon is way off the mark as Obama has accumulated a horrible environemnetal record and the Reps are thanking him for many actions in the last year. The loser here is our environment which is why I advoicate throwing Obama andall the others out.
And put one of those republicans in his place? Are you crazy, John?
So, “drill, baby, drill!” works better for you?
John G, Obama is so-so on the environment, which seems terrible to a hard core environmentalist like you. You will not get anyone in the White House, who even approaches your standards. So so is better that a candidate who thinks protecting a spotted owl is basting it so it does not overcook.
Equally shocking is I agreed w/ George Will’s comments about Limbaugh during his appearance on ABC’s Sunday talk show [YouTube of it– and the transcript]:
Amen to both, Nameless. But the base does not listen to George Will.
To Democrats, the environment is something to preserve.
To republicans, the environment is something to exploit.
Amen! Jerry. The Republicans will exploit the environment physically (drill baby, drill!) or politically (hang all sorts of signs etc on the Democrats), whatever gets them the most mileage!
Well said, Jerry!
One of the reasons the republicans don’t call Limbaugh to account for the hate speech he has been spewing for years is that he says in public what many of them believe in private.
That’s quite true, John. He says the things they have been afraid to say until recently.
3:51 Not quite fast enough, but not too bad.
I’m closer to a minute on the next one.
That is really scary! Ron Paul said something sensible and that we can actually agree with! This could be a sign that the world is about to end.
I don’t believe that Iran will ever see a rational leadership or anything approaching a democracy. Their “elections” don’t mean anything. I sincerely hope that we will not find ourselves needing to go into another war, but we do have to find some way to keep Iran from starting something even worse–a NUCLEAR war. That really would signal the end of the world.
Amen to that, Kat!
I agree, but I think we have every bit as much to worry about with a nuclear armed Pakistan. They not only have it, but they have spread nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Iran and Israel — The elections in Iran, from what I can see, seem mostly for show since the Ayatollah vets all candidates that run for office. It would appear that those representatives that wanted reform are largely gone. Interesting though that Ahmadinejad’s buddies are also dwindling in numbers and of course he has been running somewhat afoul of the Ayatollah this past year or more. I have no idea what this might do to the nuclear rhetoric, but I think Mr Obama and Netanyahu of Israel need to keep this in mind. I do not believe that the US, or Canada for that matter, should unequivocably throw their support behind Israel. I read within the past few days that each time the US has been the prime beligerent, going in on a pre-emptive strike, it has turned out badly costing billions upon billions of dollars and above all else, human life. There must be a mutually acceptable peaceful solution part of which I believe, starts with Israel acknowledging that they used a similar tactic in acquiring nuclear weapons.
Limbaugh — “OMG! :-O I actually agree with rabid Ronnie the racist?!!? Somebody PLEASE shoot me!!!!
” Keep calling me ‘boss’ and I might just do that! Limbaugh is the most disingenuous talking head! He is an excellent argument for birth control, or in the extreme, for abortion. I hope he is nervous about losing sponsors! But I also hope that they keep running from him like rats from a sinking ship. That will get him off the air faster!
Cartoon — Scorched earth plan! How Republican!
To a large extent, that’s right, but I think someone else would be less inflammatory than Ahmadinejad. Tying oueself to Israel has been the root cause of Muslim terrorism against us!
Right on, Boss! 😉
Bingo!