November 29, 2012

K&R if you think we need HEALING now, not HATE

Now's not the time to take advantage of our electoral success; rather it's time to reach out to Republicans and meet them at least half way. They've been through a lot, they need reassurance that we can be trusted partners.

Who's with me!?

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

November 29, 2012

Grover Norquist to replace Timmy Geithner?

I suppose that would be OK.

November 28, 2012

Please... Help Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, and others to turn this mess around

From an email I received this morning:

"But here's the honest truth: it will be incredibly difficult to do any of that if we can't get up-or-down votes in the Senate.

On the first day of the new session in January, the Senate will have a unique opportunity to change the filibuster rule with a simple majority vote, rather than the normal two-thirds vote. The change can be modest: If someone objects to a bill or a nomination in the United States Senate, they should have to stand on the floor of the chamber and defend their opposition. No more ducking responsibility for bringing the work of this country to a dead stop.

I've joined Senator Jeff Merkley and four other senators to fight for this reform on Day One. Will you join us? Sign Senator Merkley's petition now.

Senate Republicans have used the filibuster 380 times since the Democrats took over the majority in 2006. We've seen filibusters to block judicial nominations, jobs bills, campaign finance transparency, ending Big Oil subsidies -- you name it, there's been a filibuster."

Please sign the petition, thanks! If we don't do this, we have little chance of reforming our country.

November 28, 2012

I get the feeling that things may be starting to turn around (after 32 years!)

We have a long, long way to go before we're back to having a modern, functional country; we're currently up to our necks in manure much shoveling is needed. And there are certainly folks who'll be shoveling it back at us, and some who'll be swinging at our heads with their shovels.

But for the first time in a long time, Democrats are actually making noises after an election about doing the right thing. Sure it's pathetic that Social Security (which is in superb fiscal health, fake projections aside) is "off the table" only for now. And sad that our opening offer to the Republicans is $2.50 in spending cuts for $1.00 in new revenue (spending cuts in a depression have always been very damaging). And sick that we're hearing talk again of raising the eligibility age for Medicare to 67.

But at least our Democrats finally seem to be holding the line on something!

And Grover Norquist is spinning through the air in flames, trailing smoke as he plummets groundward.

And there's also significant discussion on reforming the filibuster,

I'm still skeptical, but I finally sense a little blue sky. At least the conversation is turning. And for this, I thank the good folks in Wisconsin, and Occupy, and the Chicago teachers, and all of the others who finally screamed BULLSHIT at the tops of their lungs and woke a bunch of Americans up to the war we've been losing for all this time.

Sorry for the rambling rant. Please return to your regular programming.

November 23, 2012

Please DON'T feed this troll:

November 28th: call-in day to defend Social Security and Medicare

Agitators and riff-raff. Everyone knows that Social Security and Medicare are already safe, because if it wasn't then it would have been cut already. Am I right? And anyway, if they are tweaked a tiny bit, they need it. Am I right?

Anyone else smell the fingerprints of that difficult woman, Elizabeth Warren, on this crass effort?

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

November 22, 2012

What can we do - right now - to help Walmart protesters?

I already don't shop at the place. Perhaps donating to the United Food and Commercial Workers union that's organizing the protests? Go to a Walmart tomorrow or Friday to help the good guys somehow?

This is a big deal. If we can take a chunk out of Walmart, we'll have made progress towards winning back our country.

Please consider keeping this kicked so that people see it, in case anyone has an idea.

November 20, 2012

Weird! Anonymous is *horrible*, but harming the 99% is nothing to worry our little minds about?

It's interesting how some posters are making a concerted effort to wipe out any notion that Anonymous stopped Rove and Company from flipping votes.

(Although, as Thom Hartmann has pointed out, there are some very interesting things that happened...)

Anyway, these folks who are super-strident against Anonymous possibly being helpful seem to be the same people who totally deny awful, awful bipartisan efforts such as attempts to slash Social Security and Medicare, laws that get rid of the pesky judiciary with no recourse, job-obliterating free trade agreements, and other horrific stuff that we can actually do something about.

Human nature is interesting, no?

To be clear, it's very reasonable to ask for evidence before believing this - or anything. My point is that it's fascinating that this is such a HUGE DEAL for some people, while really important stuff for which there's tons of evidence is denied. Evidence is important some times, not others, I guess.

November 18, 2012

Why? Why would Anonymous release evidence against Rove?

I have no idea as to whether Rove was up to vote-rigging tricks this year (although I'm totally convinced that the Republicans pulled something off in Ohio in 2004).

Seems to me that if it's true, and Anonymous *is* holding evidence, there's little upside to Anonymous releasing it:

1. Does anyone actually think Rove would be prosecuted for anything? He's in the Untouchable Class.
2. Revealing the evidence could also reveal evidence about how Anonymous works. Anonymous is distinctly *not* in the untouchable class. They're in the NDAA "we can put your ass in jail forever with zero interference from pesky 'laws' and 'judges' class".

November 16, 2012

FUCK YEAH! Elizabeth Warren is my fucking new Senator!

Wow! I can't believe our good luck!

Just struck me between the eyes again tonight when I read that she's already pledging to piss off the Powers That Be as soon as she gets to Washington.

Warren pledges to lead filibuster reform

A difficult woman: just what we need! Let's get 99 more of 'em!

November 15, 2012

Malwarebytes Beats Norton 360

We installed Norton 360 2012 in three home computers. I had to uninstall from one because it kept crashing and requiring a reboot for protection.

The really interesting thing is that my son's laptop, with Norton 360, has been running very slowly lately. I was about to buy a new hard drive and re-install Windows 7, but as a last-ditch effort I ran Malwarebytes just in case it caught malware that Norton missed. Malwarebytes found and removed a bunch of stuff, including several Trojans. I'm really surprised that Norton 360 had not gotten these.

The computer's running like a champ now.