{"id":10281,"date":"2013-04-17T00:10:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T07:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10281"},"modified":"2013-04-17T00:10:31","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T07:10:31","slug":"open-thread4172013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/17\/open-thread4172013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–4\/17\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still down and feeling like I should be buried in the deepest corner of my kitty box.  Nevertheless, I could not ignore today\u2019s international holiday.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s took me 3:07 (average 4:43).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that \u201cit is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture\u201d and that the nation\u2019s highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it\u2026 <\/p>\n

Click through for much more.  This is what would happen if there were a criminal investigation into the Republican War Crimes committed by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, et al. It is years past due.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>It\u2019s a sign of how well relentless propagandizing works that Joe Stiglitz has to devote a lengthy op-ed in the New York Times<\/a> to debunking the idea that our income tax system, whose salient characteristic is low tax burdens for the rich, is good for anyone other than the rich. Economists have increasingly taken note of the fact that the US experiment in lowering taxes produced the opposite of the outcomes that were claimed for it, namely, spurring growth and increasing incomes in all cohorts (the barmy \u201ctrickle down\u201d theory). Cross-country comparisons show that advanced economies with higher growth rates, like Germany, typically tax their wealthy more, showing that high taxes on the rich are not a negative for growth. Instead, giving tax breaks to the rich has turbo-charged rentier capitalism\u2026<\/p>\n

Click through. The class warfare propaganda, inflicted on America by the Republican Party, needs to be debunked again and again and again.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Right Wing Watch<\/a>: <\/font>On a recent "Faith and Freedom" radio broadcast<\/a>, Matt Barber and Mat Staver were discussing the current Religious Right outrage over an Army Reserve briefing [faux noise dekinled] in which "Evangelical Christianity" was listed among various kinds of "religious extremism."<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said the slide was not produced by the Army and was removed and the person responsible for it has apologized, but Staver and Barber know who is really to blame: the Southern Poverty Law Center.<\/p>\n