I’m off to two medical appointments today, so this is today’s only article. I’m current with replies. Tomorrow should be normal. but on Wednesday I have an early appointment than may last several hours, so that will also be an abbreviated day.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:38 (average 5:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: The spending cuts mandated by the sequester may hamper the United States’s [sic] ability to invade countries for absolutely no reason, a Pentagon spokesman warned today.
The Pentagon made this gloomy assessment amid widespread fears that the nation’s ability to wage totally optional wars based on bogus pretexts may be in peril.
That’s why the sequester would have never happened if we had a Republican ChickenHawk-in-Chief!
From NY Times: Conservatives like to say that their position is all about economic freedom, and hence making government’s role in general, and government spending in particular, as small as possible. And no doubt there are individual conservatives who really have such idealistic motives.
When it comes to conservatives with actual power, however, there’s an alternative, more cynical view of their motivations — namely, that it’s all about comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted, about giving more to those who already have a lot. And if you want a strong piece of evidence in favor of that cynical view, look at the current state of play over Medicaid.
Click through for the rest of this fine Krugman editorial that explains how Republican governors are converting Medicaid into welfare for the 1%.
From Think Progress: Meet The Press Host Challenges Boehner On GOP Tax Myths
Agent Orange earned his BS in Bullshitology. The data is unequivocally clear that the economy has been healthier when top marginal tax rates have been higher.
Cartoon:
20 Responses to “Open Thread–3/4/2013”
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5:17 I was blown away!
4:26 I felt like I was flying off into the wild blue yonder!
3:56 Of we go into the wild blue yonder…
OMG! It's a fly by Critter Crunching!
PS Hey Critter, saw your brother on TV down in New Zealand! He was having a damn fine time with a bunch of little people!
Sure that wasn't me doing a little moonlighting between puzzles?
Don't think so — he wasn't very nice. You're very nice!
Was he muttering "My precious"?
Didn't have the sound turned up so I couldn't hear, but he had a nasty sneer on his face!
LOL!
You're the only one I beat today.
I was left blowin' in the wind.
I guess! Some days are like that.
New Yorker ~ As usual, his column has a lot of truth in it.
Too bad it didn't happen when the Chicken Hawk and Old Dead-Eye were in charge. And, the Rummy would have been blind-sided.
NY Times ~ Like everything else, it matters where the money goes. It just better not EVER end up in the pockets of people like you and me.
Think Progress ~ I was actually dumbfounded when I saw this yesterday. I didn't think David Gregory would ever call a RepublicanT on his or her lies.
Cartoon ~ Now we have Washington, D.C. to fear.
Always!
…and think of the effects on VP ChickenHawk!
Too true. 🙁
Just the Rewpublicans.
If a David “Raps-with-Rove” Gregory statement ever happens to bump into something truthful against a Repubican, it’s only by accident – because that is NEVER his purpose.
He’s GOP sycophant always MORE than happy to shill Repubican Talking Points.
Nameless, perhaps even GOP sycophants are lost and confused, because what Republicans are doing is so blatently crazy.
Puzzle — 4:26 I felt like I was flying off into the wild blue yonder!
The New Yorker — If the US had a Republican/Teabagger Chickenhawk-in-Chief, you're right, there would be no sequester — the military budget would be as big as ever and social programmes and other programmes like SS, Medicare, and Medicaid would be slashed into vouchers or nothingness. Then we would hear heavily booted feet marching to the strains of "Onward Christian Soldiers" as they entered any country the Chickenhawk-in-chief decided. Good thing that didn't happen otherwise the CiC might have attacked Canada and then I would be on the barricades and you'd hear "She shoots! She scores! A frozen hockey puck to the middle of the forhead of an attacking Teabagger!"
NY Times — Krugman is always so spot on! You know, it always amazes me how people like Rick Scott, with his history of defrauding Medicare, can manage to get himself elected to a position of power, where he can do even greater harm. Scott's caveat to join the Medicaid programme is nothing but pure bunkum that should not be tolerated.
Think Progress — David Gregory might have appeared to challenge Boehner, but in that short clip, as far as I am concerned, it was plain the 2 were dancing amicably in a pre-scripted way. Gregory should have done a lot more to challenge Boehner. How I would have liked to see Boehner go up against the likes of Walter Cronkite.
Cartoon — Too bad the US does not have another Franklin D. Roosevelt. I wonder how today's Republican/Teabaggers would stack up to him. That was when, things started turning around economically. The following from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-inaugurated
Beat me!
They would definately try to conquee the tar sands.
His bona-fides as a corporate criminal makes Scott a perfext choice for the Republican Party.
See my reply to Nameless. After Cronkite, he'd never leave his barstool again.
The Republicans in his day were horrid, but not seditionists.
After Cronkite, I date say he'd never make it onto his bar stool. He'd be flat out on the floor at best!
Cool! I've never seen a whiskey IV before.