{"id":10328,"date":"2013-05-19T10:02:32","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T17:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10328"},"modified":"2013-05-19T10:02:32","modified_gmt":"2013-05-19T17:02:32","slug":"open-thread5192013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/19\/open-thread5192013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–5\/19\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I did more here to organize my recovery, but rested most of the day.  Today I have one more article and will distribute the link on only one of the sites I haunt.  I\u2019ll go day by day from there.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:18 (average 4:32).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>And for one problem in particular: \u201cthe backlog,\u201d the huge and probably still growing inventory of claims for disability compensation filed by wounded or ill veterans. As of Monday, just under 600,000 claims qualified as backlogged, meaning they had been pending for over 125 days. <\/p>\n

Though the numbers have grown, delays in processing disability claims are nothing new, and neither are complaints about the backlog. Just last year, some veterans advocates tried to make the backlog a presidential campaign issue. They failed. But this year, something changed: the criticism grew louder and perhaps more partisan, and began reaching a wider audience. <\/p>\n

This should not be a partisan issue, as Republicans scurry to blame Obama for the backlog. This, as usual, is Republican projection, because they have opposed veterans’ spending. Even worse, Republicans have actually tried to cut benefits for disabled veterans<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Crooks and Liars<\/a>: <\/font>Jim DeMint’s Heritage Foundation is busy at work figuring out how to make sure Republicans are completely marginalized in 2014. As their faux scandals fall apart<\/a> as rapidly as they’re concocted, DeMint’s minions are instructing Eric Cantor and John Boehner<\/a> to please, please just keep attacking the president and forget about governing altogether.<\/p>\n

If I understand this, he is telling them to make this four years like the last four years.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Washington Post<\/a>: <\/font>President Obama will deliver a speech Thursday at the National Defense University in which he will address how he intends to bring his counterterrorism policies, including the drone program and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in line with the legal framework he promised after taking office.<\/p>\n

A White House official, speaking Saturday on the condition of anonymity to describe the speech in advance, said Obama will \u201cdiscuss our broad counterterrorism policy, including our military, diplomatic, intelligence and legal efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as the al-Qaeda core has weakened but new dangers have emerged,\u201d the official said. \u201cHe will discuss the policy and legal framework under which we take action against terrorist threats, including the use of drones. And he will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have been a little less critical of Obama’s performance in these areas. I expect to disagree with much of what he will have to say, but knowing this speech was coming, I thought it better to wait until I hear what he has to say and have something currently concrete with which to disagree. That said, remember this. As much as we would like President Bernie Sanders, we can not have him. On his worst day, Barack Obama is infinitely better than Little Lord Willard would have been on his best day.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"19iCartoon\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I did more here to organize my recovery, but rested most of the day.  Today I have one more article and will distribute the link on only one of the sites I haunt.  I\u2019ll go day by day from there. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:18 (average 4:32).  To do it, click here.  […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}