I’m writing for tomorrow, preparing for my two day trip for prison volunteer work this week, and getting ready to meditate upon the Ellipsoid Orb. By this time this is posted I will be either a Fantabulous Feline or a Pissed Pussycat.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:14 (average 4:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Religious High Ecstasy:
Short Takes:
From CREW: Campaign contributions follow power, and special interests aren’t subtle about currying favor with the powerful.
New research by CREW shows after control of the House flipped in 2010 Democratic committee chairmen demoted to ranking members saw campaign contributions plummet from industries their committees oversee. Conversely, Republican ranking members who assumed House committee chairmanships in the wake of the shift saw a corresponding increase in contributions.
CREW’s analysis also found 80% of the chairs and ranking members included in our study reported receiving a growing share of their campaign contributions from industries overseen by their committees. This trend raises questions about whether committee leaders are overly dependent on the campaign contributions of those over which they have regulatory authority.
In 2011, CREW released its first Funds for Favors report, which analyzed campaign contributions to the chairmen and ranking members of ten House committees. Our analysis, which included data from the 1998 through the 2010 election cycles, revealed that as members’ power and seniority increased, the industries they were responsible for regulating steered more and more money into their campaign coffers. This new edition of the report compares campaign finance data from the 2010 election cycle to the 2012 election cycle, and shows industries are continuing to shower campaign cash on lawmakers who oversee them. Both editions of the report rely on federal campaign contribution data provided by MapLight.
Under no circumstances should members of committees, let alone the Chairmen and Ranking Members, be permitted to receive campaign contributions from the companies they oversee and/or lobbyists for those companies. This must be true for both parties despite the fact that Republicans are more inclined to offer quid pro quo.
From Daily Kos: On Wednesday this week, Robert Reich — labor secretary under President Clinton — was a guest on CNN’s "Crossfire" for a segment that asked the question "who’s blocking good-paying jobs?"
Again, S.E. Cupp was nothing but a huge example of why we can’t have nice things.
Once again, Robert Reich owned the Republican Reich.
From Alternet: Nancy Grace: People on pot shoot, stab and strangle each other.
Nancy Grace made it extremely clear, in case anyone did not know, that she has never smoked, or known anyone who smoked marijuana this week. How did she do this? By hysterically claiming without a scintilla of evidence that marijuana is highly addictive, and that it causes people to go on bloody killing sprees.
Her guest, Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), tried to inject some reason into the conversation, by pointing out that “marijuana’s addictive properties have been found to be actually pretty mild compared to alcohol and tobacco, and even caffeine.”
Grace interrupted him to say: “So you — you are admitting it is addictive.”
Oohhhhh, madame prosecutor! Gotcha!
When Tvert again tried to reason with her by saying that potsmokers are not so unlike people who might have a cocktail at the end of the day to unwind, she could not resist interrupting again. (Where are your manners, Nancy Grace? Honestly.)
“The reason I’m against legalization is that I’ve seen too many felonies — felonies,” she said. “I mean people on pot that shoot each other, that stab each other, that strangle each other, that kill whole families — wipe out a whole family.”
So, we’ve established that Nancy Grace views "Reefer Madness" as a Ken Burns documentary.
Never has there been a greater gulf between the character of a person and the meaning of their last name. She should change her name to Nancy Mercylessness. This is just one of ten nutty, nasty Republican statements from last week alone. Click through for the other nine.
Cartoon:
13 Responses to “Open Thread–1/20/2014”
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3:08 I spy a pretty kitty.
2:42 I spy a quick kitty.
Football ~ You are definitely on a fantastical high after the games yesterday. It should be a great super bowl.
CREW ~ I wonder how much exactly it costs to buy a vote. Is there a sliding scale depending upon rank in a committee?
Daily Kos ~ I found this to be a perfect example of S.E. Cupp's total disassociation from reality. Robert Reich danced circles around her and she didn't even know it. She and Elizabeth Hasselbeck should do a show together on FAUX NOISE titled "Pretty Faces Hiding Empty Spaces".
Alternet ~ Another group of real winners. I bet they are proud of the distinction to be be nuttiest and nastiest of the week. Nancy Grace was my favorite this week.
Cartoon ~ Very apropos.
3:54 Worth more than two in the bush.
Ecstasy: I saw the final score in passing and thought of you. 😀
CREW: Questions hell, I would say this report provides answers, not questions.
Kos: I guess we have to keep trying, but sometimes I wonder why we bother, when sheep on the screen who are too dumb to know they have been pwned only convince sheep off screen more fully that they are in the right.
I doubt whether Nancy Graceless knows who Ken Burns is, or would respect his work if she did. She probably thinks higher of the guys who made that fake lemming documentary in the fifties. The truth is that ANYTHING – literally ANYTHING – can be addictive, because addition is best described as like a lock and a key. All of us have locks which if the right key is applied will lead to addiction. Tobacco, for instance, is considered highly adddictive because so many people have that lock. But if you don't have it, you won't be addicted. Spinach, on the other hand, is not considered addictive, because almost no one has that lock. But, if you do, you will become addicted if you are exposed. I personally am so addicted to wheat that if I walk into a bakery I go into withdrawal. But then, no one on the right has any use for science, do they?
Cartoon: Spot on.
Businesses and corporations should not be allowed to contribute to politicians, period! Politicians work for us. Their money should only come from us.
Crew: They absolutely should not be allowed to take contributions from the corporations they are supposed to over see, but how else would they all become millionaires while in office?
Daily Kos: CNN is becoming a training ground for Fox.
Alternet: Nancy Grace treats all her guests this way. Shew, I clicked through the rest of the crazies. How do these people still get elected? Boggles my mind.
Probably should change "is becoming" to "has become" a training ground for Faux News.
You are probably right.
Reps taking money from corporations. I,m SHOCKED SHOCKED!!
( seriously they are a bunch pf whores,who would sell their mothers if the price was right!/
Re Fox et al. No sign of intelligent life there!.
Thanks everyone!
6:12 – Robert Reich and "Inequality for All". I watched the movie and it was outstanding and Economics 101 is a common truth… 🙄
Thanks TC – I was absent due to extreme joint pain, hope you are fullly better by now!