Open Thread–8/18/2012

 Posted by at 9:29 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Aug 182012
 

I woke up this morning feeling cold.  The temperature in my apartment had dropped all the way down to 84°.  Today should be moderately hot and then the heat wave is over for now.  I have three articles today, counting this one.  My plan for today is to rest up as much, as I can to recover from a severe sleep deficit.  If I feel up to it, I’ll catch up on comments later today.  If not, I should be back to speed tomorrow.  Next week my blogging will be intermittent, because I’ll be at the hospital for two days as an outpatient for coronary testing.  I also have a volunteer day , but may have to cancel it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:03 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: HILARIOUS! ‘Curiosity’ Rover Sends First Images From Mars

18mars

I wonder if he has an offshore bank account there too.

From NY Times: Shady money, voter suppression, shifting positions, murky details and widespread apathy.If there is a road map for a Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan win in November, that’s it. Distasteful all.

I recommend clicking through for the rest of this excellent editorial.

From MSNBC: Romney/Ryan Lies of the Week

 

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

Perhaps it would make it easier if I listed the Romney/Ryan claims that were truthful.

 

[end of list]

Cartoon:

18Cartoon

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  9 Responses to “Open Thread–8/18/2012”

  1. Lynn Squance says:
    August 18, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    Puzzle — 4:44  I like pussy cats but this one drove me crazy!
     
    MoveOn — Quick, someone write a programme so that Curiosity can dig up those returns and return them to earth!
     
    NY Times — "…As USA Today reported, the 90 million people who are unlikely to vote in November prefer Obama over Romney by 2 to 1, and “they could turn a too-close-to-call race into a landslide for President Obama — but by definition they probably won’t.”
     
    If this underhanded dirty dealing by the Republican ticket doesn’t jolt some of these unlikely voters into likely ones, I don’t know what will."
     
    This is a sad commentary.  With all the lying, deceit and backroom shenanigans, you'd think that people would turn out!  Do people not think that their own well being is worth casting a vote? 
     
    Get out the vote!      GET OUT THE VOTE!!!!!     GET OUT THE VOTE!!!!!

    The Ed Show — Excellent piece!  1 lies and counting.  What I find so egregious is that all these Rmoney/Ryan claims can easily be shown as lies.  And yet they stand there with their bare faces hanging out spewing forth more lies!  I have to admit that I kept watching other Ed segments and noted that the Minnesota darling, Guano Girl, is slipping badly.  Apparently she won her primary which must mean her Republican/Teabagger opponent was a real dolt.  When her own party is calling her on the carpet for some of her comments, you just have to wonder.
     
    Cartoon — Because I had never heard of Meredith, I looked him up in Wikipedia.  Here is part of that article.  I particularly like his words in the first paragraph.
     

    Meredith wrote that he wanted admission for his country, race, family, and himself. Meredith said, "Nobody handpicked me…I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility… I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi." He was denied twice.  During this time, he was advised by Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader.
     
    On May 31, 1961, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed suit in the U.S. District Court, alleging that the university had rejected Meredith only because of the color of his skin, as he had a highly successful record. The case went through many hearings and finally to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school.  Though Meredith was legally entitled to register, the Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, tried to block him by having the Legislature pass a law that “prohibited any person who was convicted of a state crime from admission to a state school.”   The law was directed at Meredith, who had been convicted of “false voter registration.” Since passage of its 1890 constitution, the state had voter registration rules that effectively disfranchised black voters.
     
    The US Attorney General Robert F Kennedy consulted with Governor Barnett, who agreed to have Meredith enroll in the university. After being barred from entering on September 20, on October 1, 1962, he became the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi.  White students and anti-desegregation supporters protested his enrollment by rioting on the Oxford campus.
     
    Robert Kennedy called in 500 US Marshals to take control, who were supported by the 70th Army Engineer Combat Battalion from Ft Campbell, Kentucky. They created a tent camp and kitchen for the US Marshals. To bolster law enforcement, President John F Kennedy sent in U.S. Army military police from the 503rd Military Police Battalion, and called in troops from the Mississippi Army National Guard and the US Border Patrol as well.  In the violent clash, two people died, including the French journalist Paul Guihard,  on assignment for the London Daily Sketch. He was found dead behind the Lyceum building with a gunshot wound to the back. One hundred-sixty US Marshals, one-third of the group, were injured in the melee, and 40 soldiers and National Guardsmen were wounded.  The US government fined Barnett $10,000 and sentenced him to jail for contempt, but the charges were later dismissed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Meredith's entry is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States. He graduated on August 18, 1963 with a degree in political science.
     
    Many students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus but others accepted him. According to first-person accounts chronicled in Nadine Cohodas's book The Band Played Dixie (1997), students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table.

     
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Meredith

    • Jerry Critter says:
      August 18, 2012 at 3:31 pm

      3:44  I like fast cats…but is mine faster than Patty's?  At least I will be no worse than second today…unless there is a dark  horse out there somewhere.

      • Patty says:
        August 18, 2012 at 4:50 pm

        3:33 It's probably only because I'm so used to this hood ornament. I see it every time I ride the elevator up to the Jag floor in my garage so I can take one of them for a spin.

    • TomCat says:
      August 19, 2012 at 8:51 am

      I was 3rd. 🙁

      For sure.

      I know!  Isn't that revolting?!!?

      Batshit is batshit!

      Thanks. I knew all this, as all Americans should, but too few do.

  2. Patty says:
    August 18, 2012 at 4:58 pm

    The first photo from Mars is "priceless"!
     
     We don't want them to cloud the issues with the truth do we?

  3. Lynn Squance says:
    August 19, 2012 at 1:32 am

    I forgot to mention something in the Ed Shultz list of lies that I thought was particularly humourous.  When Rmoney was introducing Ryan, he said "… the next President of the USA."  There was no attempt to change it and there didn't appear to be any 'oops' factor.  I wonder if the Republican/Teabaggers are going to replace Rmoney with Ryan for president at the convention?  Just thinking and having a little snicker at their expense.

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