Read #1......chilling......
1/ Wow - interesting speculation of how the GOP might win in November, going after the white vote, and what will happen if Romney and the Republicans win all three branches of government, Presidency, Senate and House......if they do they will enact the Ryan budget, huge tax cuts for the rich, and dismantle all welfare programs....
Fascinating and scary.....and the question you have to ask yourself is "are Republicans ruthless enough to do this?" The answer is maybe not, but their owners the Koch Brothers are.....
A Republican strategist said something interesting and revealing on Friday, though it largely escaped attention in the howling gusts of punditry over Mitt Romney’s birth certificate crack and a potential convention-altering hurricane. The subject was a Ron Brownstein story outlining the demographic hit rates each party requires to win in November. To squeak out a majority, Mitt Romney probably needs to win at least 61 percent of the white vote — a figure exceeding what George H.W. Bush commanded over Michael Dukakis in 1988. The Republican strategist told Brownstein, “This is the last time anyone will try to do this” — “this” being a near total reliance on white votes to win a presidential election.
I wrote a long story last February arguing that the Republican Party had grown intensely conscious of both the inescapable gravity of the long-term relative decline of the white population, and the short-term window of opportunity opened for the party by the economic crisis. I think we’re continuing to see the GOP operate under an integrated political and policy strategy constructed on this premise. This is their last, best chance to win an election in the party’s current demographic and ideological form. Future generations of GOP politicians will have to appeal to nonwhite voters who hold far more liberal views about the role of government than does the party’s current base.
The “2012 or never” hypothesis helps explain why a series of Republican candidates, first in the House and most recently at the presidential candidate level, have taken the politically risky step of openly declaring themselves for Paul Ryan’s radical blueprint. Romney’s campaign has been floating word of late that it sees a potential presidency as following the mold of James K. Polk — fulfilling dramatic policy change, and leaving after a single term. “Multiple senior Romney advisers assured me that they had had conversations with the candidate in which he conveyed a depth of conviction about the need to try to enact something like Ryan’s controversial budget and entitlement reforms,” reports the Huffington Post’s Jonathan Ward. “Romney, they said, was willing to count the cost politically in order to achieve it.” David Leonhardtfloats a similar sketch, plausibly outlining how Romney could transform the shape of American government by using a Senate procedure that circumvents the filibuster to quickly lock in large regressive tax cuts and repeal of health insurance subsidies to tens of millions of Americans.
Blowing up the welfare state and affecting the largest upward redistribution of wealth in American history is a politically tricky project (hence Romney's belief that he may need to forego a second term). Hence the Romney campaign's clear plan to suture off its slowly declining but still potent base. Romney’s political-policy theme is an unmistakable appeal to identity politics.
2/ Fridays "New Rules" from Bill Maher........and in the wake of Todd Akin he has some choice words for the Republican Party and the extreme right.....Maher back on form......a great 4 minutes...........
3/ A wonderful piece, where the author Alex Pareene in Salon has a "think out of the box" suggestion for Mitt Romney for VP - Hilary Clinton. I hear you scoff, but read this article and let me know where his logic is wrong.....she would be a huge asset to Mitt Romney to capture the middle.......which is of course why it's a fantasy......
For you political junkies.....
I’m hearing a lot of speculation in politics circles these days that there’s a running mate switch in the works. It’s unusual but not unprecedented, and while it seems like a wild idea at first, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Just based on the many very substantial things I’ve heard from really connected people, I think there’s a very good chance that Mitt Romney will dump Paul Ryan from the Republican ticket and replace him with Hillary Clinton.
I’m obviously not the first one to suggest it. In fact, these days, it seems like everyone — Republicans and Democrats — thinks it’d be a good idea. It’s something people have been saying to me everywhere from cocktail parties to airports ever since Romney chose Ryan.
Here are the facts: Paul Ryan is a definite drag on the ticket. Whereas Mitt Romney is running as a Washington outsider, a successful businessman turned successful governor, Ryan is a longtime member of the most hated branch of the government with no private sector experience to speak of. His name recognition is negligible nationally, and those who have heard of him know him as the guy who wants to slash Medicare. Ryan has probably made winning Florida — a must-win Romney state — all the more difficult for Romney.
4/ John Oliver of the Daily Show was on Jimmy Fallon, and gave a suggested "State of the Union" speech for President Obama in the format of a Half Time pep talk......needless to say we won't be hearing this any time soon, but we should....
Very good.....3 minutes.....
When the chips are down, only one speech will do: the speech that every coach in every sports movie gives at half time. And as far as John Oliver is concerned, that is exactly the speech Obama should have given at his last State Of The Union address.
During his interview on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on Wednesday, Oliver stopped everything to give America the talking to and motivation it needs. Are we just going to let China take our number one spot, or are we going to make them come and take it from us?
Watch the full rousing speech above and enjoy Fallon's expressions in the background when Oliver takes a knee. This entire thing is priceless... just like America. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
5/ Why does the Republican party hate single women? Charles Blow with the background to the Todd Akin comments, and he wonders why any woman would ever vote Republican......
The noxious “legitimate rape” comment by Todd Akin, Missouri congressman and Senate candidate, has me once again pondering a simple question: Why do any women vote Republican?
The Republican establishment rushed in to pressure Akin to drop out of the race — something that he refused to do — in part because they want to win the seat, win control of the Senate and win Missouri for Romney. A SurveyUSA poll earlier this month — before “legitimate rape” — found Romney and Obama in a statistical tie in the state.
But as The New York Times pointed out Wednesday:
As a legislator, Mr. Akin has a record on abortion that is largely indistinguishable from those of most of his Republican House colleagues, who have viewed restricting abortion rights as one of their top priorities.
In fact, as this story reverberated through the public discourse, the Republican National Committee’s platform committee passed whatone committee member told the Washington Times “appears to be the most conservative platform in modern history.” Among other things, it calls for a “human life amendment” with no exemption for rape or incest and praises “informed consent” laws.
Republicans are worried about the political fallout from Akin’s comment, though.
6/ The raging grannies have a song for Todd Akin and Paul Ryan.......you have to hear the last line......90 seconds of senior power.....amusing.......
Like a retirement home choir composed entirely of singing Carrie Nations, the Raging Grannies are mad as hell and they're not afraid to channel their anger through song.
According to the official website of Raging Grannies International, "Grannies always check their facts before acting, discarding rumours, conspiracy theories and the agendas of others. They wait patiently till the whole picture is clear before hitting the street with their pointed, original and devastating songs, written by any old gran who feels inspired."
The Raging Grannies may look "like innocent little old ladies," but they only dress that way "so we can get close to our target." Like Todd Akin, whose "Legitimate Rape" remark was ripe for one of the grannies' signature musical satires.
Sung to the tune of "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah," the catchy tongue-in-cheek jingle is a perfect example of the granny collective's superhero-esque motto: "Skewer modern wrongs, satirize evil-doing in public, and get everyone singing about it."
7/ Very good story from Nicolas Kristof about how our bodies and brains are affected by everyday chemicals.....he focuses on BPA, which screws up one's endocrine system. Later in the story he tells us the effects of BPA on peoples behaviour, and when you read it you might make the link to our political system......
Most interesting.....
Yet following the script of Big Tobacco a generation ago, Big Chem has, so far, blocked any serious regulation of these endocrine disruptors, so called because they play havoc with hormones in the body’s endocrine system.
One of the most common and alarming is bisphenol-A, better known as BPA. The failure to regulate it means that it is unavoidable. BPA is found in everything from plastics to canned food to A.T.M. receipts. More than 90 percent of Americans have it in their urine.
Even before the latest research showing multigeneration effects, studies had linked BPA to breast cancer and diabetes, as well as to hyperactivity, aggression and depression in children.
Maybe it seems surprising to read a newspaper column about chemical safety because this isn’t an issue in the presidential campaign or even firmly on the national agenda. It’s not the kind of thing that we in the news media cover much.
Yet the evidence is growing that these are significant threats of a kind that Washington continually fails to protect Americans from. The challenge is that they involve complex science and considerable uncertainty, and the chemical companies — like the tobacco companies before them — create financial incentives to encourage politicians to sit on the fence. So nothing happens.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/
8/ A completely honest political debate would sound something like this.......2 minutes......funny.....
9/ A new book "Why Wall Street Always Wins", by Jeff Connaughton sounds amazing. Written by an insider who has retired and doesn't want a job in the financial industry, it gives the unvarnished truth about how Washington really works.....
You suspect the financial world's game is completely rigged.....it is - read this book and find out how......
After a long summer of high-profile scandals – JPMorgan Chase trading,Barclays rate-
Why has it has become so excessively dominated by relatively few very large companies? What damage can it do to the rest of us? What reasonable policy changes could bring global megabanks more nearly under control? And why is this unlikely to happen?
If any of these questions interest you – or keep you awake at night – you should take another look at the last time we had this debate at the national level, and reflect on the work of Ted Kaufman, the former Democratic senator from Delaware, who was far ahead of almost everyone in recognizing the problem and thinking about what to do.
Senator Kaufman represented Delaware in 2009 and 2010, and Jeff Connaughton – his chief of staff – has a new book that puts you in the room. In “The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins,” we see Senator Kaufman as chairman of oversight hearings on the Justice Department and the F.B.I.’s pursuit of financial fraud, pushing the Securities and Exchange Commission on the dangerous rise of computerized trading and working with Senator Sherrod Brown, Democratic of Ohio, on the legislative fight to impose a hard cap on the size and debts of our largest banks. (I wrote many pieces supporting the work of Senator Kaufman at the time, including in this space, but I never worked for him.)
10/ A roundup of the best political jokes of the week.......pretty good, Leno, Letterman, Kimmel and especially Maher at the end......3 minutes.....
11/ Remember the Keystone pipeline? You know, the pipeline from Alberta down to Texas that was stopped by President Obama......
You think it would be carrying oil, but it's not - it would be sending diluted bitumen over a major aquifer if it is ever built.......and "dilbit" is evil stuff.....
EVERY day more than one million barrels of oil flow to refineries in the United States from western Canada’s oil sands region. Producers hope to quadruple that amount in the next decade, arguing that oil from a friendly neighbor will deliver an extra degree of national security.
But this oil is no ordinary crude oil, and it carries with it risks that we’re only beginning to understand. Its core ingredient — bitumen — is not pumped from wells but is strip-mined or boiled loose underground.
Industry insiders long considered bitumen to be a “garbage” crude. But now that the light, sweet oil we covet has become more scarce and its price has skyrocketed, bitumen has become worth the trouble to recover. At room temperature, bitumen has the consistency of peanut butter, thick enough to hold in your hands. To get it through pipelines, liquid chemicals must be added to thin it into what’s known as dilbit, short for diluted bitumen.
Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a report that was harshly critical of the federal government’s regulation and oversight of pipeline safety following a spill of more than one million gallons of dilbit into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010. The accident underscored not only how different dilbit is from conventional oil, but how unprepared we are for the impending flood of imports.
After the dilbit gushed into the river, it began separating into its constituent parts. The heavy bitumen sank to the river bottom, leaving a mess that is still being cleaned up. Meanwhile, the chemical additives evaporated, creating a foul smell that lingered for days. People reported headaches, dizziness and nausea. No one could say with certainty what they should do. Federal officials at the scene didn’t know until weeks later that the pipeline was carrying dilbit, because federal law doesn’t require pipeline operators to reveal that information.
The 2010 spill could have been worse if it had reached Lake Michigan, as authorities originally feared it might. Lake Michigan supplies drinking water to more than 12 million people. Fortunately, the damage was restricted to a tributary creek and about 36 miles of the Kalamazoo, used primarily for recreation, not drinking water.
This close call hasn’t deterred the energy industry from announcing plans to build or repurpose more than 10,000 miles of pipelines to carry dilbit to the United States and global markets.
12/ A compilation, in 93 seconds, of how Fox News lies and misleads.....just one of their techniques......
If you ever want to use an argument that has no basis in reality and is horribly short-sighted, simply follow the example set by Fox News. They make "reporting" on the "news" look "worthwhile." At least, that's what some people say.
13/ One of the biggest rivers in the world, the Mississippi, is so low they are restricting traffic along an 11 mile stretch......this drought is serious......just wait for food prices to go up......
Some good news perhaps.....Hurricane Isaac may give them some much needed rain......
Low water levels caused the Coast Guard to periodically close an 11-mile section of the Mississippi River to ships this month.
The river, shrunk by the summer’s drought, has fallen to levels near the records set in 1988, putting a squeeze on river navigation that has required barge operators to run fewer barges at a time and to load them more lightly.
The stretch of the river, near Greenville, Miss., has been closed off and on since Aug. 12, said Petty Officer Third Class Ryan Tippets, a spokesman for the Coast Guard based in New Orleans. “We’ve been intermittently allowing vessels to go through,” he said, but a grounding on Friday caused river traffic to back up, and now 40 northbound and 57 southbound vessels are stalled there, he said.
The stretch was reopened on Monday, and the Coast Guard is still letting some downstream-bound vessels through, Petty Officer Tippets said. “They’re trying to get the queue cleared up as quickly as possible,” he said.
Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Mississippi River Commission, said that the section is “a very tricky portion of the river,” and that there have been several groundings over the course of the summer that have stopped river traffic.
14/ More on the drought - water is drying up for people who rely on wells in the Midwest - serious stuff, and it continues.......
But I must confess I'm conflicted here.....a substantial proportion of the people affected in the central states are crazy right wing abortion loonies who don't believe in climate change, so I read this stuff and think this is what it is going to take to get through the right wing bubble......
Mo. — The wells supplying people’s homes are running dry here at the heart of the nation’s drought, which the government announced on Thursday has spread to 63.2 percent of the country, centered in the parched earth of the southern Midwest.
For some residents outside municipal water districts, it has become a struggle to wash dishes, or fill a coffee urn, even to flush the toilet. Mike Kraus, a cattle farmer in Garden City, Kan., twisted the tap on the shower the other day after work and heard nothing but hissing.
“And that was it,” he said.
While there are no national statistics on the rate at which residential wells are drying, drilling companies and officials in states across the Midwest have said that hundreds of people who rely on wells have complained of their pipes emitting water that goes from milky to spotty to nothing. An estimated 13.2 million households nationwide use private wells.
From the middle of June through the end of July, 100 to 150 people have contacted Indiana state officials complaining that their wells had either failed or were running dangerously low, said Mark Basch, head of water rights and use section of the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Danny Flynn, the owner of the Flynn Drilling Company in Troy, Mo., said he had received hundreds of calls from people with well problems. Bruce Moss, a co-owner of Moss Well Drilling in central Indiana, said business has spiked 25 percent this summer. In the past two weeks, CLT Well Service in southwest Kansas has gotten four calls for residential wells that had gone completely dry, said Clint Tyler, the owner. Usually, they get about one such call a year, he said.
“It’s just crazy right now,” Mr. Tyler said. “We’ve never been this far behind.”
Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri has moved aggressively to provide relief to farmers whose wells have run dry, allocating more than $25 million in state aid to either improve the wells or help farmers get water by other means. Mr. Nixon said the state was considering ways it could help homeowners who have lost water, too.
15/ A bikini fail compilation........girls in bikinis doing dumb stuff.......have to say the accidents they have are a lot less damaging than the ones the lads get up to......4 minutes.......
16/ The excellent Carl Hiaasen, telling the Republican delegates in Tampa not to go near the strippers.......but there is also his take on the dilemma the party is in......good political commentary from one of our best authors......
GOP delegates: Don’t go near the strippers
BY CARL HIAASEN
CHIAASEN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
It’s been widely noted that Tampa is the strip-club capital of America, and this week vigilant media will be scrutinizing arrest reports in search of Republicans who strayed too far from the convention center (not to mention the party’s puritanical agenda).
Hillsborough County actually has a law that strippers must keep a six-foot distance from patrons, but wanton groping is bound to occur as delegates celebrate the wild and crazy nomination of Mitt Romney.
Hopes that Missouri Congressman Todd Akin would be caught with a naked dancer writhing on his lap have been put on hold. As of this writing, Akin says he won’t come to the convention, a monumental relief to Romney but a disappointment to those who are curious to hear Akin clarify his odd theories of female biology.
Party leaders would rather deal with a Hurricane Isaac than a loose cannon who, with one ill-timed monologue, illuminated the chilling gap between the Republicans’ radical social agenda and mainstream voters.
Akin is one of those self-righteous meddlers who oppose abortion even in cases of rape and incest, a view supported by only 17 percent of Americans (according the latest Washington Post poll) but championed by right-wing Christians.
In fact, it’s part of the GOP platform that will be presented to delegates.
What got Akin in trouble with his own party wasn’t his punitive stance against rape victims; it was saying on TV that women’s bodies have a natural way of “shutting down” to prevent pregnancy after a “legitimate rape.”
Issue number one is Akin’s boggling stupidity, which Republican leaders never worried about until he opened his mouth and embarrassed them. Issue number two is his destructive insensitivity.
Driving away female voters is the last thing the GOP needs before a tight election, and even the bad hairpieces on Fox News are twitching in dismay.
Todays video - Monthly Man, a wonderful new product from Merck.....one for the ladies......Mary thought this was very funny...
Todays natural laws jokes
- 1. Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.
- 2. Law of the Round Object - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
- 3. Law of Embarassment - The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
- 4. Law of Phone Dialing - If you dial a wrong number, you will never get a busy signal and someone will always answer.
- 6. Law of the Cash Register - As soon as you get in the smallest line, the cashier will have to call for help.
- 6. Law of Lines & Lanes - If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.
- 7. Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.
- 8. Law of Social Encounters - The probability of meeting someone you know will increase dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
- 9. Law of Magical Mechanics - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
- 10. Law of Biomechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
- 11. Law of the Aisle -The people in the aisle seats will arrive early, never move once, and stay to the bitter end. The people whose seats are furthest from the aisle will always arrive last. They will leave their seats several times during the event and will also leave early.
- 12. Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
- 13. Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.
- 14. Law of Marketing Strategy - As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
Todays religious joke
The pastor of a Baptist church had called all of the little children
to the front of the church, dressed in their cute Easter outfits and had
them sit around him.
He said "Today is Easter and you all look so handsome and beautiful.
Today we're going to talk about the resurrection. Does anyone know what
the resurrection is?"
One little boy raised his hand, and the pastor said "Please tell us what the resurrection is".
The boy, proud that he knew the answer, said in a clear loud voice "When you get one lasting
more than four hours, you gotta call a doctor!"
Todays elder joke
Bernie was invited to his friend's home for dinner.
Morris, the host, preceded every request to his wife by endearing terms, calling her Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart, Pumpkin, etc.Bernie looked at Morris and remarked, "That is really nice, that after all these years that you have been married, you keep calling your wife those pet names."
Morris hung his head and whispered," To tell the truth, I forgot her name three years ago."
he fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."