Open Thread–5/13/2011

Yesterday I tried to watch the Senate hearings on big oil, but could not find them, and did lots of chores around the house.  I am tired, because my pharmacy called in the middle of my sleep time to tell me they can’t reach my doctor’s office to renew a prescription.  I love my doctor, but her back office stinks.  I’m current on replies.  One story just hearing now is that John McCain went to Leon Panetta and asked him, point blank, if the torture practiced by GW Bush had anything to do with locating bin Laden.  It did not.  He publically debunked the Republican lies claiming it did.  It has been years since McCain stopped goose-stepping long enough to visit the world of honesty.  I thank him for so doing.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 3:36 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Oregonian: Oregon’s economy has hit full recovery mode, state economists reported Thursday, not only boosting worker payrolls but also giving a welcome lift to the recession-battered state budget.

For the first time in two years, lawmakers learned they will have more money than expected to spend on state programs, not less. And though the news of an estimated $129 million extra for the 2011-13 budget didn’t cause dancing on the House floor, it came as a clear relief.

What’s Oregon’s secret?  We had the good sense to raise taxes on millionaires and big corporations!  Come on America!  Follow our lead!

From Alternet: Were you absent the day your history teacher informed the class that the Reagan Revolution was powered by a divine intervention from God? Did you fall asleep during the lesson on black, unemployed people who, at one time, completely lacked ethics? Don’t worry — Mike Huckabee has made a tool to school your entire family on these subjects.

Click through for video.  For just $9.95 per month, Upchuckabee will fill your head with Republican Supply-side Theocon BS too!

From Ars Technica: Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, plans to step down—and right into a top lobbying job at Comcast-NBC.

The news, reported this afternoon by the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, and Politico, comes after the hugely controversial merger of Comcast and NBC earlier this year. At the time, Baker objected to FCC attempts to impose conditions on the deal and argued [PDF] that the "complex and significant transaction" could "bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms."

Yet another Republican is laughing all the way to the bank for screwing the consumers of the industry we paid them to regulate.

Cartoon:

TGIF!! (That was intended to be a factual statement.)