{"id":10411,"date":"2013-06-10T00:03:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T07:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10411"},"modified":"2013-06-10T00:03:41","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T07:03:41","slug":"open-thread6102013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/10\/open-thread6102013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–6\/10\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing early again, because it is hotter than expected.  I still feel out of it, so I\u2019m pretty sure it us the Chantix.  That should go away, but tomorrow, I double the dosage.  We\u2019ll see about distributing links after midnight.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 5:19 (average 5:47). To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Reuters<\/a>: <\/font>Jury selection begins on Monday in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 and then famously walked free for 44 days, triggering nationwide protests and calls for his arrest.<\/p>\n

Lawyers estimate the long-awaited trial will last four to eight weeks. Much of that time is expected to be spent picking a six-person jury that can be open-minded despite extensive publicity about some of the explosive issues, including racial profiling and self-defense, surrounding the case.<\/p>\n

"They’re going to have a tough time picking a jury. At this point who doesn’t know who Trayvon Martin is and who George Zimmerman is," said David Weinstein, a former state prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer.<\/p>\n

I plead guilty. Like just about every other political pundit, not to mention the racist hatemongers from the Republican Ministry of Propaganda. Faux Noise<\/em>, I have written extensively about this case. To do otherwise would be to permit Republican lies to go unchallenged. But once again, we face the great flaw in the US justice system, other than judges appointed by Republicans. This jury will consist of people who have already been influenced about the case, even if they believe they have not. Many other nations impose a gag order on all criminal cases, keeping them out of the press until after the trial is complete. Networks would sell much less soap, but trials would be much more fair.  Even Zimmerman deserves a fair trial.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Raw Story<\/a>: <\/font>In a statement [Goose-stepper delinked] released Saturday, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said closing the Guantanamo Bay prison facility would be a victory for terrorists.<\/p>\n

The conservative senator warned that terrorists \u201cwould spread violent extremism from within our borders\u201d if the the current push to close the controversial prison was successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears to me this latest push to close GITMO is because the terrorists have begun a hunger strike,\u201d Inhofe said. \u201cSpecifically, the far left has used this as a rallying cry to revive their continuing obsession with closing the base despite strong support from Congress to keep GITMO open. But this misses the fundamental point. Is this hunger strike not a political act designed to attempt to change American policy? My question to the far left is: if you close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay are you not letting the terrorists win?\u201d<\/p>\n

The reasons that the Guantanamo Bay Prison, aka the GOP Gulag, remains open have nothing to do with Barack Obama. Lets reserve getting pissed off at him for scenarios in which he deserves it, like transparency.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Huffington Post<\/a>: <\/font>Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) had some harsh words for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) while speaking at an event for the Jefferson County Democratic Party in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

"I can be really brief tonight and just say, Mitch McConnell sucks,\u201d Yarmuth said Thursday, according<\/a> to the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

I have to admit it. I could not have described Bought Bitch Mitch better.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"10Cartoon\"<\/p>\n

Republicans want to bring back that textbook, despite this irrevocable proof of the Theory of DEVOLUTION<\/strong>.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing early again, because it is hotter than expected.  I still feel out of it, so I\u2019m pretty sure it us the Chantix.  That should go away, but tomorrow, I double the dosage.  We\u2019ll see about distributing links after midnight. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 5:19 (average 5:47). 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-10411","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\/10411","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=10411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}