UP-FRONT STUFFED TOY NUGGET!!
This Travel Agency Will Take Your Stuffed Animals on a Vacation Across Japan from the Atlantic
This is like one of those fake news stories from The Onion or from NPR's Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me.
"Traveling around Japan requires money, energy, and days off work. If you can't afford to spare those things, maybe sending a beloved stuffed bear in your stead is the next best thing? That's the theory behind Unagi Travel, a tour agency for stuffed animals. For $35 to $55 a pop, your plush toy can visit Japanese hot springs, temples, and beaches. You'll have to fund their trip to Japan, but Unaqi takes care of the return voyage. Your buddy will also receive a commemorative DVD filled with travel photos."
OMG!! I guess it is now too much to ask that a person should expect his or her life to be about anything else but work and sleep. Vacations are now being reserved solely for inanimate objects -- I guess they are the only ones have the time!
HHS Sets November Timetable for Healthcare.Gov (Jonathan Cohn) from the New Republic
"The Obama Administration has spent a lot of time downplaying the problems with healthcare.gov. It hasn’t spent a lot of time talking about the real problems, how extensive they are, or by when it plans to fix them. That changed on Friday, when the Administration made three key announcements during its now-daily conference call on the status of repairs: ..."
Two Huge Questions About Obamacare Just Got Answered (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"Zients is a serious guy with a reputation to protect. He's unlikely to sign onto that kind of strategy. So let's assume it's #1. If the White House is right and Obamacare's digital infrastructure is working come the end of November the damage to the law will likely be minimal."
Sanity on Obamacare (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine
"the importance of this program should not be lost in the Administration’s failure to implement it. This is not health care for deadbeats, as many Republicans assume. It is a highly moral piece of legislation: the people most affected will be the working poor and lower-middle class, people who have jobs, often at small businesses, but don’t have health care. (The unemployed and unemployable poor already have health care via Medicaid.) It is a matter of simple fairness that if we, as a society, provide health insurance to those who don’t work, we also provide it to those who do."
Americans Think Everyone's Doing A Terrible Job Handling Health Care from the Huffington Post
"While Americans largely disapprove of how President Barack Obama is handling health care, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, they have even more negative opinions of how Republicans in Congress are handling the issue."
Bipartisan Budget Love Suddenly in the Air (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"Okay, don’t laugh, but with the two parties finally sitting down to negotiate, a bipartisan budget deal in Washington suddenly looks kind of plausible. The long deficit scold dream of a huge Grand Bargain with trillions of dollars in savings is off the table. Instead, both parties are negotiating a smaller deal to replace sequestration, which neither side likes, with some mix of longer term cuts that take the fiscal shackles off the recovery. Today has brought a sudden burst of momentum."
The Grim Math of the Working-Class Housing Crisis (Sarah Goodyear) from the Atlantic
"The deeper and more systematic erosion of urban life is happening among a less glamorous set of people – the ones who fill the tens of thousands of jobs that undergird every single U.S. city. These are the home health aides, the fast-food workers, the janitors, the teachers’ aides, the delivery people, the manicurists, and countless others who are making more than minimum wage but less than enough to meet the soaring cost of living – not just in New York, but in cities around the country. These people, increasingly, are falling off the shaky ladder of economic viability, and many are being pushed into homelessness."
Immigration Poses Threat of Another Republican Rift from the New York Times
"A push to bring immigration legislation to the House floor, led by an unusual coalition of business executives, prominent conservatives and evangelical leaders, threatens to create another schism in the Republican Party and could have a noticeable effect on campaign contributions before the midterm elections."
House Leaders Plot New Fall GOP Strategy from Politico
"For the first time in months, House Republicans are facing no immediate cataclysmic deadlines, and GOP leaders are struggling to come up with an agenda to fill the 19 legislative days that are left in 2013."
Misconceptions, Miscues and Missteps (Jennifer Rubin) from the Washington Post
"Not every error can be averted by more precise information, but clarity about one’s own obligations and others’ motives do help keep down the error rate. So here’s a guide to some of the most damaging misconceptions that have bedeviled Republicans of all stripes: ... ”Government stinks.” Well, it can stink, particularly if elected officials don’t take governance seriously. However, if you want to run on the premise that virtually all of the federal government could go away, that government is incapable of doing much of anything and people want government “off their backs,” get ready to lose a lot of elections."
Viguerie Predicts 'Absolute' Bloodbath in 2014 GOP Primaries (David A. Patten) from Newsmax
"Viguerie and other grass-roots conservative leaders are warning that Republicans who voted to end the shutdown on terms favorable to President Barack Obama and the Democrats will face major primary opposition in 2014. “It’s a civil war in the GOP,” Viguerie declared Saturday in The New York Times."
GOP Civil War (Rod Dreher) from the American Conservative
"This is astonishing, and can only be driven by an ideological mindset so impervious to reality that it would rather destroy political conservatism’s chances of actually running the country than succumb to the least impurity in the ranks. The movement types really do believe that the GOP lost because it was stabbed in the back by its own people on Capitol Hill."
The Science of Tea Party Wrath (Chris Mooney) from Mother Jones Magazine
"Jonathan Haidt on the psychology of politics, the emotions behind the Tea Party—and why as a self-described centrist, he thinks a Republican crackup may be coming."
The GOP’s Racial Handicap (Lloyd Green) from the Daily Beast
"A party precinct chair derailed new Republican efforts to attract more black support when he called black people ‘lazy’ on ‘The Daily Show.’ Lloyd Green on why the GOP brand is so toxic right now."
Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander Takes Shots at Tea Party in Tennessee Primary Race from the Washington Post
"As he seeks a third term in the U.S. Senate, Lamar Alexander is doing something few other incumbent Republicans have tried recently: Instead of running scared of the tea party, he’s running hard against it."
Cruz Lashes Out at Senate GOP Over Shutdown Failure (David Ferguson) from Raw Story
"“We didn’t accomplish our ultimate policy goal in this battle, and we didn’t because unfortunately a significant number of Senate Republicans chose not to unite and stand side by side with House Republicans,” Cruz insisted. “Had we stood together I’m convinced the outcome of this fight would be very, very different.”"
Six Presidential-Campaign Themes Hillary Clinton Is Test-Driving (Zeke J Miller) from Time Magazine
"Clinton, who claims not to have decided about another presidential run in 2016, has been traveling the country delivering speeches on her own record and current events that sound a lot like precursors to campaign rhetoric. The fact that she is not officially running has not stopped her from testing out themes on the stump, while positioning herself against her likely Republican opponents. The examples show up on both sides of the Atlantic, in paid speeches, at awards dinners, rallies and fundraisers."
How to Win in Virginia as a Liberal Democrat from the National Journal
"Unlike Mark Warner and Tim Kaine before him, Terry McAuliffe is touting a distinctly left-leaning social agenda."
California Republicans in Trouble, Former California Republican Says (Cathleen Decker) from the Los Angeles Times
"“Over the last two decades, California’s working class has slowly migrated out of the state and Latino and women voters are completely disenfranchised with the Republican Party. There are only a few pockets of conservative voters left in the state and they are only able to help carry the day for Republicans in ultra-low turnout elections on issues where campaign spending is at parity or to the Republican advantage, and where the Democratic and union grass-roots apparatus is not activated,” Miller’s memo said. “There is no good way to sugarcoat this. ... The Republican label is anathema to younger voters, women and Latinos -- growing voter blocs with real significance to future elections.”"
This is like saying that a last place ball team just got a lot worse in the off-season! The CA GOP has been tanking for years. The one difference I see here is that California is in some ways acting as a harbinger of things to come (as California has in the past) for the national GOP and other state party organizations.
JFK BOOK REVIEW NUGGET!!
Book review: ‘Camelot’s Court: Inside the Kennedy White House’ by Robert Dallek (Evan Thomas) from the Washington Post
"The story of how a glamorous but green young president struggled with conflicting and often bad advice while trying to avoid nuclear Armageddon remains a gripping and cautionary tale of the loneliness of command. ... Kennedy surrounded himself with what he called a “ministry of talent,” personified by McGeorge Bundy, the brainy but chilly Harvard dean who became national security adviser. These men — and they were all men back then — were well-intentioned, but, as Dallek shows, they often served Kennedy badly."
HOPE-FOR-PAWS CELEBRATION VIDEO NUGET!!
Hope For Paws & Bill Foundation celebrating a year of successful from Hope for Paws
No comments:
Post a Comment