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Aug. 15th, 2011 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* A man named Kevin Schatz was sentenced today for spending seven hours beating one of his daughters to death because God told him to. He severely wounded another little girl and all ate survivors were horribly abused. Of course they couldn't find a single placement, so the kids are scattered into multiple foster homes, yet another trauma.
* Pawlenty's out of the Republican race.
* Warren Buffet calls for more taxes on the rich, points out he pays a lower rate than anyone in his office including his secretary: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?scp=1&sq=buffett%20and%20taxes&st=cse
* Secessionist Republican presidential candidate has come out against direct election of senators, and wants the nation to go back to appointing them.
* 22% of children in Texas have no health insurance. A third of the new jobs created in Perry's Texas are at or below minimum wage. Perry has long been in favour of abolishing social security and Medicare, though is waffling on that now. There air pollution is some of the worst in the country, they are laying off teachers in droves, and cutting funding to community colleges and Universities. He is of course, wildly popular with republicans. Rick Perry keeps saying, "I want to do for you, what I did for Texas." *shudder* Sounds more like a threat than a promise to me.
* Texas' new voter suppression law is allowing people to use a concealed carry gun permit, but not Veterans ID cards. Presumably this is because veterans are often poor and/or disabled, so are not rich enough to be considered valuable voters. Too bad if they literally risked life and limb in service to their country. Republicans want to prevent them from voting, so they have been disenfranchised in Texas. Supporting the troops my hairy ass.
* Governor Chris Christie has still not signed a bill to prevent anyone billing sexual assault survivors for forensics and treatment relating to the rape. It's been on his desk for ten weeks. He had time to sign a bill cutting legal aid for the poor, but no time to sign a bipartisan bill helping rape survivors.
* Every time I see Ed Rendel on TV, I am startled that he's sensible and articulate. This is because I grew up in Pennsylvania, where our politicians were notable for being embarrassing often on a national level. My father had a whole collection of stories about incredibly embarrassing things Pennsylvania politicians did or said on TV. The one about why they only had one national broadcast of my beloved mummers parade makes be cringe to this day. I am conditioned to wince every time I see a Pennsylvania politician on TV, lest something racist or sexist or plain ignorant dribbles out. I've spent my adult life out west, but that conditioning holds. So Ed Rendel comes on and talks sense about practical economics, and every time, I hold myself taught and when he yet again escapes with his sane and practical image intact, I am tempted to my mother up and let her know her ex-governor yet again failed to disgrace himself on national TV. So far, I've managed to resist.
* I succeeded at all of today's errands except the most important one. *facepalm* On friday, social security closed at 4PM. starting today, it closes at 3:30. I ,missed them by five minutes. I have two more days to get the key paper from them, so it should be alright. By the time I got home, calmed the cats, and put away groceries, I would have had ten minutes to work through my phone call list, for the same bit of bureaucracy. I'll hit SSI tomorrow, then try to catch the others. I've got most of the paperwork filled out, but need data from SSI and the phone calls to finish, so I'll make a second pass at it tomorrow also.
I did find the other huckleberry tea packet, and will use it next time the pitcher is empty.
* Pawlenty's out of the Republican race.
* Warren Buffet calls for more taxes on the rich, points out he pays a lower rate than anyone in his office including his secretary: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?scp=1&sq=buffett%20and%20taxes&st=cse
* Secessionist Republican presidential candidate has come out against direct election of senators, and wants the nation to go back to appointing them.
* 22% of children in Texas have no health insurance. A third of the new jobs created in Perry's Texas are at or below minimum wage. Perry has long been in favour of abolishing social security and Medicare, though is waffling on that now. There air pollution is some of the worst in the country, they are laying off teachers in droves, and cutting funding to community colleges and Universities. He is of course, wildly popular with republicans. Rick Perry keeps saying, "I want to do for you, what I did for Texas." *shudder* Sounds more like a threat than a promise to me.
* Texas' new voter suppression law is allowing people to use a concealed carry gun permit, but not Veterans ID cards. Presumably this is because veterans are often poor and/or disabled, so are not rich enough to be considered valuable voters. Too bad if they literally risked life and limb in service to their country. Republicans want to prevent them from voting, so they have been disenfranchised in Texas. Supporting the troops my hairy ass.
* Governor Chris Christie has still not signed a bill to prevent anyone billing sexual assault survivors for forensics and treatment relating to the rape. It's been on his desk for ten weeks. He had time to sign a bill cutting legal aid for the poor, but no time to sign a bipartisan bill helping rape survivors.
* Every time I see Ed Rendel on TV, I am startled that he's sensible and articulate. This is because I grew up in Pennsylvania, where our politicians were notable for being embarrassing often on a national level. My father had a whole collection of stories about incredibly embarrassing things Pennsylvania politicians did or said on TV. The one about why they only had one national broadcast of my beloved mummers parade makes be cringe to this day. I am conditioned to wince every time I see a Pennsylvania politician on TV, lest something racist or sexist or plain ignorant dribbles out. I've spent my adult life out west, but that conditioning holds. So Ed Rendel comes on and talks sense about practical economics, and every time, I hold myself taught and when he yet again escapes with his sane and practical image intact, I am tempted to my mother up and let her know her ex-governor yet again failed to disgrace himself on national TV. So far, I've managed to resist.
* I succeeded at all of today's errands except the most important one. *facepalm* On friday, social security closed at 4PM. starting today, it closes at 3:30. I ,missed them by five minutes. I have two more days to get the key paper from them, so it should be alright. By the time I got home, calmed the cats, and put away groceries, I would have had ten minutes to work through my phone call list, for the same bit of bureaucracy. I'll hit SSI tomorrow, then try to catch the others. I've got most of the paperwork filled out, but need data from SSI and the phone calls to finish, so I'll make a second pass at it tomorrow also.
I did find the other huckleberry tea packet, and will use it next time the pitcher is empty.