Month: November 2012

It’s Jobless Thursday!

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And the number of initial claims hit an 19 month high, up 79K to 439K.

The consensus is that it was an artifact of the devastation of Frankenstorm Sandy.

In other, probably more significant news, the Euro Zone is back in recession, and ECB president  Mario Draghi is busy suggesting that it’s better to cut spending than it is to raise taxes, even though tax cuts have less stimulative effects than does government spending.

I swear, there is not a single economic “authority” in the entire Euro Zone who has any morals at all.

They have all somehow bought into the idea that creating pain for most of the members of a society is somehow an independent good.

Your Republican Profile in Morality of the Day

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US Representative, medial doctor, and tea-baggers Scott DesJarlais, is a Republican who ran on family values.

It’s not been revealed that he encouraged his wife and a lover to have abortions (yes, plural), and slept with his patients:

A decade before calling himself “a consistent supporter of pro-life values,” Tennessee physician and Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais supported his ex-wife’s decision to get two abortions before their marriage, according to the congressman’s sworn testimony during his divorce trial.

 Obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the couple’s 2001 trial transcript also confirms DesJarlais had sexual relationships with at least two patients, three coworkers and a drug representative while he was chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, Tenn. During one affair with a female patient, DesJarlais prescribed her drugs, gave her an $875 watch and bought her a plane ticket to Las Vegas, records show.

 DesJarlais spokesman Robert Jameson did not respond to requests for comment. The attorney for the congressman’s ex-wife said that at this point she does not have any comments to issue on her ex-husband’s testimony.

 The transcript corroborates accounts given to the Times Free Press in October by one of the patients who had a sexual relationship with DesJarlais. The newspaper continues to grant her anonymity, along with all the women due to the nature of the testimony.

 DesJarlais, a family-values conservative who rode 2010’s tea party wave to Washington, testified his ex-wife’s earlier abortion stemmed from medical concerns.

 “… [She] was on an experimental drug called Lupron and was not supposed to have gotten pregnant. There were potential risks. It was a therapeutic,” he said.

 DesJarlais backed a second abortion after she returned from a military stint in Saudi Arabia a few years before they married in 1995.

Except for the whole f%$#ing your patients thing (a violation of medical ethics), as a liberal, I support his right to practice his lifestyle.  He has the right to be a pig felching scumbag.

Interestingly enough, Scott DesJarlais thinks that the government should prevent people from practicing his lifestyle.

As Stephen Colbert notes, “Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais stands adamantly against abortion except when it endangers the political life of the father.”

H/t Andrew Rosenthal for the vid.

I Have an Endorsement for President in 2016

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The Honorable Martin O’Malley, governor of the state of Maryland:

He said President Barack Obama’s re-election was a “pretty strong signal” to Republicans that voters want them to drop what he described as “obstructionist” positions on issues such as immigration.

 On the fiscal cliff, he said, “I am hopeful that [Republicans] see that writing on the wall and will want to do [a deal] sooner rather than later in order to shed their sort of Tea Party obstructionist stench.”

(emphasis mine)

I shook his hand, and exchanged about a dozen words with him at Hanukkah House (It’s a Baltimore thing) in 2003, and I thought that he was going to be President one day.

The fact that he’s bringing it, I can’t imagine another Democrat with national profile using the word, “Stench” to describe his opponents.

We need more of this.

In fact, I want him to choose Alan Grayson as his running mate. (Not gonna happen)

Stewart Misses the Point

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Jon Stewart faults his own journalistic chops on l’affaire Petraeus:

Yes, he interviewed Paula Broadwell, and did not pick up anything untoward, but so did a lot of people.

What he has is enough self-awareness to realize that he missed a big story.

It could be worse. Robert MacNeil, formerly of the MacNeil/Lehrer report, on November 22, 1963, at Dealy Plaza, he ran into a man, and asked where he could find a phone.

The man he ran into was Lee Harvey Oswald.

Journalists don’t have any more senses than the rest of us, and Jon Stewart has an almost unrivaled ability to call out bullsh%$ in a clear and concise matter.

I do think, and Jon Stewart would agree, that it’s f%$#ed up that a comedian is arguably one of the finest journalists on cable today, but we are living in a f%$#ed up world.

Paul Ryan Assumes the Role of a Scooby Doo Villain Bigot

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They tore off the mask, and Paul Ryan’s response was, “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling N*****s:

Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin on Monday blamed Democratic turnout in “urban areas” for the loss by the Republican presidential ticket last week, saying he was surprised that he and Mitt Romney did not do better in the nation’s big cities.

“The surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which gave President Obama the big margin to win this race,” Mr. Ryan said in an interview with WISC-TV. “When we watched Virginia and Ohio coming in, and those ones coming in as tight as they were, and looking like we were going to lose them, that’s when it became clear we weren’t going to win.”

The remarks prompted scorn from some liberals who viewed Mr. Ryan as blaming inner-city minorities for the Republican defeat.

Including this liberal.

What a miserable excuse for a human being.

Who Knew that I Would Be the Proprietor of a Cat House?

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No, I don’t mean a house of prostitution, I mean a house for cats.

You may recall that I have a bit of a cat infestation.

We have still been unable to figure out how the cat is getting in, so I’m attempting to provide an alternative place to escape the weather.

The first floor overhangs the basement by about 2 feet, so I’ve used some plywood to make a shelter, where we can set out food, and the feral cats in the neighborhood can shelter there.

Hopefully RP, the cat that has found a way to break into our house, will find this a suitable alternative, and stay the F%$# out of my house.

(on edit)

I added a picture of the little cat shelter. It’s not painted, but the cats don’t care.

Also, as to the folks that would argue that my making a cat-house would be giving into terrorists, all I can say is, “Welcome to life with cats.” It is what it means to love cats.

OK, This is F%$#ing Nuts………

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The US Army’s next infantry combat vehicle, the successor to the Bradley is set to weigh more than an M-1 tank:

What may weigh more than an M1 Abrams tank and carry 12 soldiers? The Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle. New weight estimates for GCV, released this week by the Congressional Budget Office, will likely go over like a lead ballon with the program’s critics in Congress and in the Army itself.

Depending on the model and add-on armor package, an M1 weighs 60 to 75.5 tons. According to the CBO report, the General Dynamics design for the GCV weighs 64 to 70 tons. BAE s proposal is still heavier, at 70 to 84.

There’s a tactical reason for all this weight: It’s armor. The Ground Combat Vehicle is supposed to replace the Army’s current frontline infantry carrier, the M2 Bradley, carrying more foot troops in back — nine instead of six — and protecting them better against everything from rocket-propelled grenades to roadside bombs. Even the most heavily uparmored models of the M2, at almost 40 tons, proved too vulnerable for the worst streets in Baghdad during the “surge,” so commanders often sent 70-plus-ton M1s to clear the way. Even some of those M1s blew up, in part because the insurgents could build huge improvised explosive devices, in part because the M1’s armor is mostly on the front to protect against enemy tanks, not on the underside.

Let’s start with the first thing: The Bradley could carry 9 troops if they went with an unmanned remotely operated turret, (see also here) which eliminates the gunner, and his station, which rotates along with the turret.

Even the Israeli Namer, the highest weight IFV in the world, does not top 60 tons, and unlike the US army, they do not have to deploy half way around the world.

It should also be noted that the Nammer does not carry an autocannon in the turret, it carries either a .50 cal machine gun or 40mm grenade launcher, because the Israelis realized that they would have to reduce the armor levels to keep the weight to a manageable level.

The US army should separate what it wants from what it needs, as the Israelis did.

If they do that, and avail themselves of new developments in armor that are in the pipeline, they could keep the weight below 60 tons.

I Haz a Sad

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The Big E has finished its last tour, and it will be decommissioned and scrapped:

ABOARD THE USS ENTERPRISE – The world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier ended its remarkable career at sea on Sunday when it pulled into its home port for the final time after participating in every major conflict since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

The USS Enterprise began shutting down its eight nuclear reactors almost as soon as it arrived at its pier at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, where thousands of cheering family members and friends welcomed the ship home from its 25th and final deployment after nearly eight months at sea. The ship will never move on its own power again and will eventually be scrapped in Washington state.

………

The Navy will officially deactivate the Enterprise on Dec. 1, but it will take several more years for it to be decommissioned as its reactors are taken out. About 15,000 people are expected to attend the deactivation ceremony, which will be its last public ceremony after several days of tours for former crew members.

F%$# That

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Yes, I am quoting Repo Men

John Boehner is say that
tax cuts for the rich should be extended for a year as a start of negociations:

Obama’s proposal is at odds with the position of House Speaker John Boehner, who earlier Friday said all the tax cuts — including those for the rich — should be extended until next year to provide more time to work out a bigger deal on taxes and spending cuts.

 “I’m proposing that we avert the fiscal cliff together in a manner that ensures that 2013 is finally the year that our government comes to grips with the major problems that are facing us,’’ Boehner said.

I will make a point here: John Boehner cannot be trusted, so tax increases on the rich pigs™ need to be passed at the start.

I should be clear here:  I do not mean that the Orange Avenger of Congress® is tremendously dishonest by the standards of the Republican party,* but rather that he is incapable of keeping his promises, because is arguably the most incompetent and most ineffectual House Speaker in at least the past 100 years.

If he promises something, get it in your hand before moving on to the next item.

*Which is kind of like saying that he is the world’s tallest midget.