May 152014
May 152014
I am pleased to report that a Federal Appeals Court has stopped the state of Texas from killing Robert James Campbell. While the court did duck the issue that using unknown drugs from a secret source runs the rick of depth by slow torture, they did discover that Texas had hidden evidence that he is not mentally competent to face execution.
A little more than two hours before he was scheduled to be put to death here, a convicted murderer was granted a stay of execution by a federal appeals court on Tuesday so the courts could review his claim that he is mentally disabled — a disability, his lawyers argued, that state agencies had long known and concealed.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans granted the request from lawyers for Robert James Campbell, 41, who had been set to be the first inmate put to death in America since a botched execution in Oklahoma last month drew attention to the methods, drugs and secrecy surrounding lethal injections.
The court had refused to intervene in the execution based on Mr. Campbell’s lawyers’ contention that the state was withholding crucial evidence on the drug to be used. But it issued the stay on a second argument made by Mr. Campbell’s lawyers on what the law refers to as mental retardation… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Rachel Maddow covered this Republican blood lust.
Texas already had three other tests that showed the same results, but had denied that they existed. that’s how desperate these so-called Pro-Life Republicans are to kill. The same Republican executioners lied to a pharmaceutical manufacturer, claiming to be a hospital to get drugs fore execution. That’s how desperate these so-called “Pro-Life” Republicans are to kill. They are a moral stain on the face of this nation.
Republicans define life as something that begins at conception and ends at birth.
May 152014
On Thursday, the FCC is scheduled to vote on a proposal that would allow ISPs to charge some corporate providers for a guarantee that their content will be delivered in a so-called fast lane. While I agree fully with the aims of the protestors, I consider it important that we base protest on the facts. Sadly, since this issue has been used for fundraising, disinformation abounds. Let’s begin with what I call above average mainstream coverage.
By 9:30 Tuesday morning, Washington was already well on its way to a hot and sticky afternoon. For the handful of protesters camped out in front of the Federal Communications Commission, the heat was all worth it.
The demonstrators are calling on the FCC’s chairman, Tom Wheeler, to abandon a proposal that allows Internet providers to charge content companies like Dropbox and Google extra for speedy and reliable service. They set up shop on a small strip of concrete and grass outside the FCC building on Maine Avenue in Southwest. When I visited, drivers whizzed past on a highway onramp just a few feet from the curb. While the traffic didn’t feel unsafe, it kept the protesters mostly hemmed in. Orange and white tents from REI dotted the perimeter. It was hard to see whether anyone was inside them taking refuge from the heat.
Drawing inspiration from the Occupy Wall Street protests of a few years ago, the demonstrators are asking the agency to reclassify broadband providers as utility companies, which would allow the government to issue a ban on speeding up or slowing down types of Internet traffic. The FCC is considering rules that would prohibit companies from blocking traffic but could give them the freedom to offer faster service to Internet companies like Netflix and Google that chose to pay a fee.
Wheeler has defended the proposal, saying that he won’t hesitate to regulate broadband companies more strictly if the situation demands and that he is following the roadmap laid out by a federal court that struck down the FCC’s old net neutrality rules in January.
"The FCC must reclassify the Internet as a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act," said Kevin Huang, the campaign manager for the consumer group Fight for the Future. Huang had been camped at the FCC for the past two days. "Anything less is just ‘net neutrality’ in air quotes."… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
In lots of the advertising I’ve seen, blame is being pinned on the Obama administration, The Democratic Party, and the FCC. All three have consistently favored Net Neutrality. We would not have this situation had a Republican dominated appeals court not struck down current FCC rules and ordered the FCC to propose rules that allow for a “fast lane”. The people behind this mess are the Republican Party and the greedy content providers that want to charge extra for preferred treatment, like Comcast.
Some of the advertising I’ve seen makes it appear that, if we don’t donate by Thursday, we’re about to lose Net Neutrality, and our Internet access is about to slow down. That is simply not true. The most that will happen Thursday is that the FCC will vote to PROPOSE the new rule. That does not end Net Neutrality. It is likely what will happen, because immediately reclassifying the Internet as a Title II common carrier will not satisfy the Republican court order. The danger of the win it all NOW tactic is that people will likely think we lost, if the FCC does propose the rule, and the less informed may give up. If the new rule is proposed it will BEGIN a lengthy period of public comment. That is the time when the real fight over reclassification is most likely to take place, and it is a fight we all need to join. This matter is far from being settled.
Finally, I fully support the protestors who are demonstrating for Net Neutrality.
May 152014
I’m writing for tomorrow, waiting for a grocery delivery to arrive from Store to Door (highly recommended), and enjoying the breezes it takes to be a real cool cat. :-) Wooo Hooo! Day 24.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:47). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: What happens when eight million people sign up for private insurance under Obamacare and millions more get coverage under the law’s Medicaid expansion? This:
House Republicans have no scheduled votes or hearings on ObamaCare, signaling a shift in the party’s strategy as the White House rides a wave of good news on the law.
Not a single House committee has announced plans to attack the healthcare law in the coming weeks, and only one panel of jurisdiction commented to The Hill despite repeated inquiries.
GOP campaign committees also declined to say whether they will launch any new efforts on the law.
But according to Senate Republicans, the notion that Republicans are running from their attacks on Obamacare is a load of bunk:
“There is absolutely zero evidence that any Republican is talking about ObamaCare less,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Brook Hougesen in a statement.
Oh yeah? Well, then what do you call this?
Whatever you call it, I call it Republicans using their BS in Bullshitology!
From Dallas Morning News: The Wendy Davis campaign is focusing on opponent Greg Abbott’s role as an overseer of the scandal-marred Texas cancer-research agency in a new, strongly worded line of attack. Millions of dollars earmarked for cancer research went to Abbott’s political donors.
Texas suffers from Republican Reich Rule. Wendy Davis for Governor!
From Think Progress: “[O]ur right to the free exercise of religion is co-equal to our right to life, [pseudo-Christian delinked]” according to the campaign website of Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who won his party’s nomination to the United States Senate on Tuesday. Nebraska is a solid red state that preferred Romney to Obama by a massive 21 point margin in 2012, so Sasse is now all but certain to succeed retiring Sen. Mike Johanns (R) this November. If he does, Sasse promises to promote an almost anarchistic vision of religious liberty as a member of the Senate. According to Sasse’s website, “[g]overnment cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances. [pseudo-Christian delinked]”
This Republican is claiming at any Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian has the right to break any law at any time. He is wrong. The right to freedom of exercise of Religion does NOT extend to the violation of the Constitutional rights of another. If obeying the law runs counter to his beliefs, and he disobeys, that is civil disobedience, a practice I have engaged in myself. However, part of civil disobedience is facing whatever legal consequences that arise from that act. This extremist is not only a wing-nut. He is also, in all probability, the next US Senator from Nebraska.
Cartoon:
May 142014
I’m writing for tomorrow. I had to rearrange furniture to give the maintenance man a clear path to the window. That blocked my access to my computer. I figured I’d be able to get to it by midday. I skipped my morning sleep to let the maintenance man in. Unfortunately, his previous stop took longer than expected, and he did not get here until mid afternoon. He installed the air conditioner. The trim that came with it would not work with the platforms they use to make sure an A/C doesn’t fall on a downtown pedestrian’s head. He had to jury rig the enclosure, so the installation looks tacky, but is very efficient. I rearranged my furniture and went to bed, so there was no time to do research for articles for tomorrow. Day 23. Back to today’s serious activity (see graphic).
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:20 (average 4:33). To do it, click here. How did you do?
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May 132014
Inequality is the stock in trade for the Reich on the right, that is, the Republican Reich. They represent billionaires, high end millionaires, and corporate criminals. They want to create even more inequality. Conversely, fighting inequality is the stock in trade of the Reich on the left, that is, Robert Reich.
…There is no single solution for reversing widening inequality. Thomas Piketty’s monumental book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” paints a troubling picture of societies dominated by a comparative few, whose cumulative wealth and unearned income overshadow the majority who rely on jobs and earned income. But our future is not set in stone, and Piketty’s description of past and current trends need not determine our path in the future. Here are ten initiatives that could reverse the trends described above:
1) Make work pay. The fastest-growing categories of work are retail, restaurant (including fast food), hospital (especially orderlies and staff), hotel, childcare and eldercare. But these jobs tend to pay very little. A first step toward making work pay is to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, pegging it to inflation; abolish the tipped minimum wage; and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. No American who works full time should be in poverty.
2) Unionize low-wage workers. The rise and fall of the American middle class correlates almost exactly with the rise and fall of private-sector unions, because unions gave the middle class the bargaining power it needed to secure a fair share of the gains from economic growth. We need to reinvigorate unions, beginning with low-wage service occupations that are sheltered from global competition and from labor-replacing technologies. Lower-wage Americans deserve more bargaining power.
3) Invest in education. This investment should extend from early childhood through world-class primary and secondary schools, affordable public higher education, good technical education and lifelong learning. Education should not be thought of as a private investment; it is a public good that helps both individuals and the economy. Yet for too many Americans, high-quality education is unaffordable and unattainable. Every American should have an equal opportunity to make the most of herself or himself. High-quality education should be freely available to all, starting at the age of 3 and extending through four years of university or technical education… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Robert Reich>
This is only three of ten steps in how to combat inequality from Republican warfare against 99% of Americans. His ten steps are only a small part of an extensive article on inequality that breaks the problem down so precisely that even Tea Baggers could understand it, if the were willing to think for themselves. Information you can’t afford to miss. Please click through. Once again the Reich on the left is right.
May 132014
I’m writing for tomorrow, and once again, tomorrow is almost here. The heat wave arrived a day early, and although 80° is not suffering weather, it’s just warm enough to interfere with sleep. The rest of the week will be worse with temperatures 90°s, but fortunately, maintenance will be installing my A/C by 11:00 AM. Then I can be one cool cat and catch up on sleep. Day 22.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Everywhere you look these days, you see Marxism on the rise. Well, O.K., maybe you don’t — but conservatives do. If you so much as mention income inequality, you’ll be denounced as the second coming of Joseph Stalin; Rick Santorum has declared that any use of the word “class” is “Marxism talk.” In the right’s eyes, sinister motives lurk everywhere — for example, George Will says the only reason progressives favor trains is their goal of “diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.”
So it goes without saying that Obamacare, based on ideas originally developed at the Heritage Foundation, is a Marxist scheme — why, requiring that people purchase insurance is practically the same as sending them to gulags.
And just wait until the Environmental Protection Agency announces rules intended to slow the pace of climate change.
Until now, the right’s climate craziness has mainly been focused on attacking the science. And it has been quite a spectacle: At this point almost all card-carrying conservatives endorse the view that climate change is a gigantic hoax, that thousands of research papers showing a warming planet — 97 percent of the literature — are the product of a vast international conspiracy. But as the Obama administration moves toward actually doing something based on that science, crazy climate economics will come into its own.
Paul Krugman has nailed InsaniTEA again. Click through for a great editorial.
From Upworthy: Unless You’re Ridiculously Wealthy, I Have A Feeling This Graph Might Make You Pretty Angry
Have your wages gone up in the past few years? Unless you’re really loaded, chances are they have not. So let’s take a look at how exactly they have been changing.
Click through for data and an interactive graph that demonstrates the effects of the Republican War on the Poor and Middle classes.
From The New Yorker: After claiming on Sunday that human activity does not cause climate change, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) suddenly found his ignorance credentials under attack by potential rivals for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination.
“Now that Marco’s thinking of running for President, he doesn’t believe in climate change,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry. “To those of us with long track records of ignorance on this issue, he seems a little late to the rodeo.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) echoed Gov. Perry’s criticism, calling Rubio a “dummy-come-lately” on climate change.
“At the end of the day, I have faith that Republican voters can tell the difference between someone who’s truly uninformed and someone who’s just faking it,” he said.
Republicans always demand more than maximum ignorance.
Cartoon:
Texas was still fighting the Civil War a month after everyone else had stopped.
May 122014
Republicans get very strange, when it comes to witches. They seem to think that devil is hard at work through broomstick riding crones. They are so over the top on the subject that the only thing anyone will ever remember about the candidacy of Christine O’Dingbat was her claim not to be one. Rachel Maddow had some fun with the Great Benghazi Witch Hunt, before getting serious.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) said the following on the House floor yesterday, “[Democrats] would blame our insistence upon getting the truth as a political ‘witch hunt.’ Well, Mr. Speaker, that must mean that there’s a witch somewhere.”
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has a bit of fun with the inanity that is otherwise known as Pete Sessions. Critics have charged the announced Select Committee on Benghazi will amount to nothing more than a partisan ‘ witch hunt’. With some background on the Salem witch hunts from the 17th century, before going back even further with a sketch from Monty Python’s "Holy Grail" where villagers accuse a woman of witchcraft. Sessions isn’t just some rank-and-file knucklehead either, but was once the chairman of the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee)… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>
This video is the same content as the clip embedded in the article, but it’s in a format that can be viewed internationally.
I think Nancy Pelosi was wrong to boycott the Republican Katrina Cover-up Committee in 2005. The problem with that tactic is that the mainstream media tends to parrot Republican lies, without challenge, so the truth is never heard. I think that attending the committee is a better solution, as the media tends to cover the conflict, when Democrats challenge Republican lies, and it gives us access to subpoenaed materials that support the truth, which Republicans would otherwise bury. However appointing just one or two strong progressive Democrats (no DINOs) to that committee gives us the needed "in your face" presence, and document access. It also serves as protest and minimizes time wasted by having five in a powerless role.
Finally, when Rachel said “there is no witch”, I trust that she meant the Satanist broom-riding set and intended no disrespect to people of the Wiccan faith. Nor do I.