I’m writing for tomorrow, and this is tomorrow’s only article. I was busy with cleaning, preparation for my prison volunteer day tomorrow, and putting away my grocery delivery. I want to rest as much as I can before my volunteer day. Because I will be getting home very late tomorrow night, there may be nothing at all for Friday.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:24 (average 4:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Now here’s a sentence a candidate and/or current governor and/or conspicuously creepy mechanical lizard puppet never wants to hear.
On late Thursday, billionaire Mike Fernandez abruptly resigned his post as the finance co-chair of Governor Rick Scott’s (R-FL) reelection campaign.
Do you know how hard a campaign has to work these days to court billionaires? And now you’ve lost him, Scott. Hope it was worth it.
Tensions between Scott’s campaign staff and Fernandez had been building for weeks. And the last straw, according to people within the campaign who spoke with the Miami Herald this weekend, was an incident in which several of Scott’s campaign staffers allegedly began joking around in a cartoonish, over-the-top Mexican accent while on the way to a Mexican restaurant.
Fernandez, who is Cuban, reportedly shot off an angry email to campaign leadership after word of the incident leaked out.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
I always love to see it when a Plutocon Vulture Capitalists and racist Republican hatemongers have a falling out. Click through for more.
From NY Times: With less than a week left for people to sign up for health insurance, the Obama administration said Tuesday that it would allow more time for those who had tried to apply but were blocked by technical problems with the federal exchange.
Several states running their own exchanges, including Maryland, Minnesota and Nevada, have taken similar steps in the last two weeks.
Open enrollment was scheduled to end on Monday for all Americans. The White House had previously insisted that the deadline was firm and would not be extended.
Under the move planned by the administration, some people will be given a special enrollment period, beyond the deadline, if they can show they were not able to enroll because of an error by the federal exchange or by the Department of Health and Human Services. Federal officials allowed a special enrollment period, on a case-by-case basis, for some people who were unable to meet the Dec. 24, 2013, enrollment deadline for coverage starting Jan. 1 of this year.
This move by Obama is perfectly legal and good for the country, but I’ll bet the howls from Republicans will be long and loud. Such howls are music to my ears. (Late Update: Boehner is positively limp with apoplexy!!)
From TPM: Fox News host Bill O’Reilly backed Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) disputed comments on a culture of "inner city" men not working on Tuesday night, arguing "race hustlers" would have branded the congressman a racist no matter what he said about poverty.
O’Reilly pressed Ryan on a conversation he had with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who labelled his remarks a "thinly veiled racial attack," and asked if Lee apologized after Ryan clarified that the comments were inarticulate. [DOUBLE BARF BAG ALERT!!]
It’s hard to tell which Republican racist is more disingenuous here: Lyin’ Ryan or O’Lielly.
Cartoon:
13 Responses to “Open Thread–3/27/2014”
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2:58 I didn't flutter fast enough.
3:16 Having solved this puzzle several times earlier did not help me.
3:25 Not my finest hour.
Daily Kos ~ Too bad he can't take back the $1 million plus he donated himself and through his "corporation" and the money he raised from others. Then it might mean something.
NY Times ~ I actually subjected myself to FAX NOISE yesterday to see their reaction to this development. Cavuto and his talking head guests wete all beside themselves that Pres. Obama would bypass Congress to help people. Oh well. What else is new?
TPM ~ Paul Ryan: "We have allowed our society to isolate or quarantine the poor rather than integrate people into our communities." Whose fault is that, Mr. Lyin' Ryan? I wonder how many poor people he has helped with all of his proposed legislation. How about none???
Cartoon ~ But, they fight against paying for birth control! Maddening!
5:12 How appropriate a metaphor for today's column. The oficial butterfly of Florida eats pollen as well as sipping nectar – in other words, they consume more than other butterflies. Rick Scott consumes everything he can get his hands on. The butterfly is better looking though. I read the Kos article and many comments, and the consensus seemed to be Rick Scott most resembles Lord Voldemort. (The funniest was "Didn't I see him once growing out of the back of somebody's head?"
Daily Kos – There may be more to this even than we know. Certainly he must have been around a lot of racism up to this point directed against Mexicans. But he is Cuban. He may even have his own racist issues agains Mexicans. Did he cross the line of realizing that the scum neither know nor care there is a difference? Or did the scum cross a line in their conversation that made it explicit? Well, I wasn't there, and glad I wasn't, I would have been barfing.
NY Times – Since I have Medicare supplemented by retiree insurance from a former employer, I wasn't in line for Obamacare, but correct me if I'm wrong – this deadline is to get coverage starting the first of May, and that is good enough to prevent a tax penalty for the full year 2014? (Not that the penalty can't be waived.)
TPM – I'm sure those two believe their own BS. But a dog whistle is still a dogwhistle even if you claim it isn't. What was it Neil deGrasse Tyson said about science? It's true whether you believe it or not?
Cartoon (warning: some snark may be present) – Has no one any empathy for those poor old white Republicans who desperately need it to keep from falling out of bed in the middle of the night?
Boehner et al had NO PROBLEM at all when Bush extended the enrollment period for Medicare Part D from May 15, 2006 to December 31st.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03/26/3419068/flashback-the-bush-administration-extended-the-enrollment-period-for-medicare-part-d/
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/03/26/fox-news-aca-delay-freakout-ignores-history/198627
OOOPS … Silly me! I forgot about the IOKIYAR Rule.
Brilliant comments that I agree with and couldn't better if I tried (I've been trying and failing!). Joanne that comparison of RS and Lord Voldemort was glorious – I missed that!
Sorry TC – my health has been too wobbly lately to risk a relapse by watching the two horrors on the tape – thanks for the alert! Hope you day doing your prison visiting goes well, and I'm sure it will
Let me be the first to congratulate Pres. Obama on his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AKA, ObamaCare) having now signed up OVER SIX MILLION AMERICANS!
Not only is that an impressive accomplishment (and it'll grow), and not only is its popularity improving in all polls, BUT according to the Kaiser Family Foundation Poll, a majority of Americans are sick and tired of Repubicans bad mouthing it.
http://kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-march-2014/?wpisrc=nl_wonk
Like I said earlier – if Repubicans think they can rely on ObamaCare being a winning issue this November, they got another think coming.
Daily Kos: So it took a while for the Cuban American to realize he was not considered equal to Scott and his minions. Well, money really can't buy everything. I wonder how much of his cash he uses to help those Cuban Americans who work in the fields in Florida for slave wages.
NY Times: An extension is the right thing to do for those who couldn't file due to errors at the web site, but that won't keep the Repubs from screaming. While I was at the dentist's office yesterday a young man came in and informed the receptionist that he had dental insurance now, due to the ACA. He is also saving about $300 a month on his insurance premiums. His family has always been Republican, but he is changing his mind now. Yay.
TPM" It boggles my mind that Ryan can say "let'snot throw stones at people for saying what they think is right" That is all he and his ilk have done during the entire time Pres. Obama has been in office. He is a racist. an elitist and is bought almost as much as Mitch. OReilly makes big bucks to say these outrageous things to appeal to the racists and ignoramuses who listen to him. Barf bag alert was right.
Cartoon: Yes, they can approve viagra and the Repubs think that is good, but birth control for women is frivolous.
"Boehner is positively limp with apoplexy!"
I'd much prefer to see him in rigor.
Thanks everyone. Great meeting. Pooped.
African-American Congresswoman Slams Paul Ryan For Racially Charged Comments
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, fired back at House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) for claiming that poverty is caused by men in “our inner cities” who are “not even thinking about working.” His comments “are a thinly veiled racial attack and cannot be tolerated,” Lee said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “Let’s be clear, when Mr. Ryan says ‘inner city,’ when he says, ‘culture,’ these are simply code words for what he really means: ‘black.’”
“As someone who sits on the Budget Committee with Mr. Ryan, I know that his assertions about the racial dynamics of poverty are not only statistically inaccurate, but deeply offensive,” she said. “Instead of demonizing “culture,” and blaming black men for their poverty, Mr. Ryan should step up and produce some legitimate proposals on how to tackle poverty and racial discrimination in America. His uninformed policy proposals continue to increase poverty, not solve it. My colleague is demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues in urban and black communities.”
In a radio interview on Wednesday, Ryan hinted at wanting work requirements for men in inner cities in upcoming House legislation, citing the work of Charles Murray — a conservative who argues blacks are genetically less intelligent than whites — to prove his point. “We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of work, so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with,” Ryan said.
A spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told ThinkProgress that Ryan’s comments are “shameful and wrong.” “And this is coming from a House Republican leader,” spokesman Drew Hammill said. “There are few words that can describe such a deeply ignorant comment, but shameful, disturbing, and wrong offer a good start.”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/03/12/3398771/african-american-representative-slams-paul-ryan-for-racially-charged-comments/
Tell Bill O’Reilly: Apologize to Barbara Lee
On March 24, 2014, Bill O’Reilly called Congresswoman Barbara Lee, an intelligent, accomplished and respected African-American woman, a “notorious race hustler.” Bill O’Reilly and Barbara Lee may disagree on policy, but, to call the Congresswoman a “notorious race hustler” is beyond the pale.
We, the undersigned, call on Bill O’Reilly to apologize to Congresswoman Lee for this inappropriate language.
https://act.myngp.com/Forms/-7656400841506553856