Today my Dad would have been 96

A few thoughts on Saturday morning Jan. 17, 2015. My dad would have been 96 today. He grew up in San Francisco. So happy birthday Dad! The blog picture is The Golden Gate Bridge which I walked across last summer. My dad was among those who walked across it on the day it opened in 1937. If you've ever seen those National Geographic photos, he's in there. * * * * * * * Other thoughts on this day: The only Republican idea in the last 30 years that has actually worked is Obamacare. * * * * * * * * Let's see, in power in Congress for about a week, Republicans have voted to: kill Obamacare for the 60th time, overturn Roe v. Wade, deport millions of immigrant children, cut social security disability benefits, mandate construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, threaten funding for the Dept. of Homeland Security, give tax breaks to Wall Street billionaires, and suspended the use of arithmetic in future budget calculations. I saw a poll that said Republicans have dropped 10 % points in their approval rating since the election. I have to wonder what that 10 % thought they were voting for anyway. It's the politics of the absurd. President Obama will likely veto all of it if it ever gets to his desk. * * * * * * By the way, today marks the 2404th consecutive day the Republicans have failed to deliver their long promised alternative to Obamacare .......... maybe tomorrow. * * * * * * And I'm looking forward to Fox News' spirited defense of the next Andres Seranno exhibit of "Piss Christ." While we are all focused on France and the attack on the freedom of speech of Charlie Hebdo, Saudi Arabia is about to flog to death a blogger who was critical of Islam........seems like the only difference between the Saudis and Al Quaeda in this instance is that we need oil from the Saudis..........* * * * * * * * New Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is giving the GOP's response to the President's State of the Union Address. Given that everyone who has ever given the GOP's response to the State of the Union Address has fallen into a gravity well of stupid, I think this is a fine idea. * * * * * * I saw a report that Ted Nugent will be on Sarah Palin's cable tv show in a couple weeks.....I'm feeling queasy now. Their psycho-ammo-sexual masturbatory fetish patriotism is very disturbing. Maybe they'll accidentally shoot each other. * * * * * * I saw where George Zimmerman was arrested again for domestic violence of some kind. He's on my short list of people mostly likely to die a violent death........ * * * * * Mitt Romney now claims that if he had been elected President it wouldn't have rained on weekends..... * * * * * * Still feeling some blowback from selecting Steve Scalise as the new Majority Whip who was a speaker at a Louisiana White Separatist convention, National Republicans expressed their continued shock and outrage today about learning that the Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist organization. Revelations surrounding new Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise's appearance at a white supremacist conference several years ago has linked Scalise with David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Louisiana KKK. "I'm like David Duke without the baggage," Scalise, a Rep. from Louisiana, is quoted as saying. House Speaker John Boehner released a statement today in support of Congressman Scalise: "For decades, we thought KKK stood for Knights of the Kubla Khan and was an organization in support of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poetry. We are shocked and disappointed to find this is not the case and that white supremacists don't read more poetry. Furthermore, we are an inclusive party. We accept white men of all ethnic backgrounds: Italians, Germans, the English, some Jews. In fact, the Irish are the only white people we try to keep out. Heck, we even have some women and one of them is a Negro." He added plaintively, "And besides, with all the racists in our party, how can we not talk to them? Is it our fault we attract racists? We're damned if we do and damned if we don't."