Politics Plus

I’m still running on a sleep deficit, because I spent much of yesterday helping my techno-phobic friend with Quicken.  Nevertheless, I have three articles today.  Tomorrow appears routine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s tool me 3:57 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: This Hidden Camera Footage Of A Gay Couple In Texas Will Shock You

Frankly, I am very pleasantly surprised at the reaction in Texas, but not that New Yorkers did not speak up.

From NY Times: In a deeply worrisome move, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a new campaign finance lawsuit that challenges long-established federal caps on the total amount an individual can contribute to federal campaigns in a two-year cycle. In a ruling last year, a special court in Washington correctly upheld those limits, which in some form have been included in federal law since 1974.

If the justices were to overturn that decision, it would be the first time that the court has struck down a contribution limit as unconstitutional. That would eliminate an essential tool in combating the corrupting effects of money in politics.

ARGH! I am troubled that the Fascist Five are about to ignore the Constitution and screw America with Citizens United, Jr. Money is NOT speech!

From CNN: With more than 20 months to go before the midterm congressional elections, incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell's team is already attacking Democrats for not yet fielding a candidate to challenge the Senate minority leader.

Bought Bitch Mitch is scared, because 55% of Kentuckians disapprove of him, making him the most unpopular Senator in his/her own state.

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Shhhh!  Don’t tell the Republicans!  They haven’t learned this on only 203 years.

Yesterday my COPD was much better, but I still could not get the sleep I needed.  I missed most of my daytime sleep listening to issues for a former prisoner, and watching the special and two wrong numbers messed up my evening sleep.  I still have this and one other article for you.  I’m current with replies.  I should be back to normal tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 4:32).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Jon Stewart Paraphrases Marco Rubio: ‘Medicare Helps MY Mom, But F _ _ k You’

Where was the cheese when he turned water into whine? It’s also interesting to note that he is one of the people he describes as "takers".

From CNN: The shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School may have been motivated by a desire by Adam Lanza to outdo Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who killed 77 people in July 2011, law enforcement sources told CBS Evening News.

And if you remember, Breivik had Koch Brothers financing and support to establish Tea Party in Norway, so Lanza was copying a Teabagger.

From Raw Story: ABC News host Jonathan Karl on Sunday suggested that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) was guilty of hypocrisy because he slammed President Barack Obama for the automatic spending cuts in the so-called sequester — even though congressman had personally praised it in the past.

“Don’t forget it was the president who proposed the sequester, it’s the president who designed the sequester,” Ryan told Karl, adding that he had concluded that Congress was not going to be able to avoid the automatic cuts because Democrats refused to accept Republicans’ proposal for “smarter cuts in other area of government.”

“Congressman, I’ve heard you say this, and this has been a talking point for Republicans for a long time,” Karl interrupted. “But let’s look at your own words, what you said right after the law putting this in place was passed in August of 2011. These are your words. You said, ‘What conservatives like me have been fighting for for years are statutory caps on spending, literally legal caps in law that says government agencies cannot spend over a set amount of money and if they breach that amount across the board sequester comes in to cut that spending. You can’t turn it out without a supermajority. We got that into law.’”

As much as Lyin’ Ryan and the Republican Party try to blame the sequester on Obama, the truth is that Republicans insisted on it as a guarantee of spending cuts, before they would stop their terrorist blackmail of America’s good faith and credit that had already caused the devaluation of the US credit rating.

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He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to over 24 years in prison.

Yesterday my COPD remained very severe, so today, I’m limiting myself to this and the Presidents Day greeting.  I’m current with replies and hope to be back tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s 100k me 3:14 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MoveOn: Surely, ‘Rambo’ Is All For Assault Rifles, Right?

The problem here is that Republicans, especially those in the InsaniTEA wing of the intended regime, think THEY are Rambo!

From The New Yorker: The chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology said today that the committee would hold hearings next week “to settle the question, once and for all, of whether meteors exist.”

“The media has been in something of a frenzy recently on this whole topic of meteors,” said chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). “I think it’s irresponsible of them to frighten the public about something that, at the end of the day, may be about as real as unicorns.”

Of course, this is satire, but were Republicans to actually do this, it would have to compete for space with several of their equally absurd positions.

From NY Times: President Obama’s second Inaugural Address used soaring language to reaffirm America’s commitment to the dream of equality of opportunity: “We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

The gap between aspiration and reality could hardly be wider. Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country. Study after study has exposed the myth that America is a land of opportunity. This is especially tragic: While Americans may differ on the desirability of equality of outcomes, there is near-universal consensus that inequality of opportunity is indefensible. The Pew Research Center has found that some 90 percent of Americans believe that the government should do everything it can to ensure equality of opportunity.

That also proves that Republicans oppose equal opportunity, simply for the reason that Republicans oppose EVERYTHING that 90% of Americans support.

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