Open Thread–5/25/2011

Yesterday I did not improve.  I need to contact my dentist, because I think one site is not healing properly.  I’m current on replies.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today it took me 4:40 (average 5:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Washington Post: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that he opposes the idea of a planned House vote next week to raise the debt ceiling without any conditions, noting that House Republican leaders have said they expect that the measure will not pass and suggesting that international financial markets may respond negatively to the vote.

Republicans scheduled this meaningless vote only to get on record for opposing it.  It won’t hurt their Bankster buddies, because they will know when to go short.  It will hurt retirees.  Now, if only Reid would oppose Republicans in the Senate,

From Huffington Post: A House GOP proposal is seeking $285 million in cuts to the Food and Drug Administration, an 11 percent reduction from FY 2011, just as the agency moves to implement an ambitious new food safety law, reports Food Safety News. The proposal would also reduce the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service budget by $35 million.

Banksters get $billions.  Children get tainted food.  That’s RepubliCare.

From Seattle PI: A group of Oregon legislators told federal officials Tuesday that the Hanford nuclear reservation should not be considered for permanent storage of radioactive waste.

The 17 lawmakers said in a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy that Hanford is already highly contaminated with radioactive waste.

"The existing situation is perilous enough without adding further waste," wrote the lawmakers, all of them Democrats representing the Portland area.

I’m right to call NIMBY on this one!  Hanford is already leaking upstream of my back yard.

Cartoon:

Republicans don’t want to destroy Medicare.  (That was not intended to be a factual statement.)