{"id":10770,"date":"2013-08-03T01:47:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T08:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10770"},"modified":"2013-08-03T01:47:40","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T08:47:40","slug":"open-thread832013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/03\/open-thread832013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–8\/3\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for Saturday, day 50.  Yesterday (Thursday) I got better sleep, but collecting the data for and writing the Monthly Report took most of the day.  Today is the last cool day.  Tomorrow will be hot, but not unbearably so.  Then on Sunday, the heat wave returns full force and is forecast to last until at least a week from Monday.  ARGH!!!<\/font><\/p>\n

Update:  Our HSP crashed so the blog was intermittent, mostly offline, most of the day.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:09 (average 5:29).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From CREW<\/a>: <\/font>Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr. for lying to Congress.  Contrary to what Director Clapper told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the National Security Agency (NSA) does, in fact, collect data on Americans, as documents disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden demonstrate.<\/p>\n

Read the letter to the Department of Justice<\/a> and supporting exhibits<\/a><\/p>\n

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan stated, \u201cThe Obama administration has been extremely aggressive in prosecuting leaks.  It is only reasonable to expect DOJ to be at least as diligent in investigating high government officials who deliberately lie to Congress.\u201d <\/p>\n

At a March 12, 2013 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked Director Clapper, \u201cDoes the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?\u201d  Director Clapper responded, \u201cNo, sir \u2026 Not wittingly.  There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps, collect, but not, not wittingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

I fully agree and support CREW’s efforts.<\/font><\/p>\n

From MSNBC<\/a>: Bought Bitch Mitch in trouble!<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

Nothing would please me more to see Lundergan Grimes beat either the Bagger that beat Bought Bitch Mitch, or Bought Bitch Mitch himself. He’s the nation’s most unpopular senator, because America is beginning to see him as the lying seditionist traitor he is.<\/font><\/p>\n

From TPM<\/a>: <\/font>Senate Republicans are standing firm by their threat to block every one of President Obama\u2019s nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, insisting on eliminating all three vacant seats on the country\u2019s second most powerful court.<\/p>\n

If they follow through, it could spark yet another nuclear showdown over filibuster rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first of Obama\u2019s three picks, Patricia Millett, was narrowly approved Thursday by the Judiciary Committee on a party line vote of 10-8. Every Republican voted against her, although they didn\u2019t criticize her or take issue with her qualifications. They merely argued that the court is under-worked and that nobody ought to fill those seats.<\/p>\n

The DC Circuit is the Court of Appeals that has the most responsibility of them all, because they have jurisdiction over all federal regulations. They also have a temporary Republican majority, because of the three vacancies.  NUKE the FILIBASTARDS!!!!!<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"3Cartoon\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for Saturday, day 50.  Yesterday (Thursday) I got better sleep, but collecting the data for and writing the Monthly Report took most of the day.  Today is the last cool day.  Tomorrow will be hot, but not unbearably so.  Then on Sunday, the heat wave returns full force and is forecast to last […]<\/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-10770","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\/10770","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=10770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}