{"id":11397,"date":"2013-10-16T00:55:03","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T07:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=11397"},"modified":"2013-10-16T00:55:03","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T07:55:03","slug":"open-thread10162013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/16\/open-thread10162013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;10\/16\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 16 of the Republican Shutdown, with an ears on the news as House Republicans try yet again to snatch confrontation from the jaws of compromise.&#160; Agent Orange can\u2019t even move his own legislation.&#160; Normally I would swap in a new poll, but as this one remains so relevant,&#160; I\u2019ll let it ride for now.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 5:41 (average 5:30).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2013-10-16-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?&#160; ARGH!!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Fantasy Football Update<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Here\u2019s the latest on our fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Scores:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"6Scores\" style=\"float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto\" alt=\"6Scores\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/6Scores.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Patty Monster Mashed my butt! <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-freezing\" style=\"border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none\" alt=\"Freezing\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/wlEmoticon-freezing.png\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Standings:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"6Standings\" style=\"float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto\" alt=\"6Standings\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/6Standings.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Note that Lynn now has one in the plus column.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/story\/2013\/10\/12\/1246598\/-Bill-Maher-Beware-Michele-Bachmann-Antonin-Scalia\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Bill Maher showed how Michele Bachmann and Antonin Scalia have the same deluded mindset about how the world works, and yet Scalia seems to have more credibility in his role as a Supreme Court justice\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"480\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0PEA5QXbfX0?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The devil is alive and well in the 21st century. He&#8217;s wearing an elephant suit. \ud83d\udc7f<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/id\/49263362#53279952\" target=\"_blank\">MSNBC<\/a>: <\/font><font color=\"#0000ff\">Go Go Goose-step is STILL crazy!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><object width=\"592\" height=\"346\" id=\"msnbc6ea3f7\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0\"><param name=\"movie\" target=\"_blank\" value=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" \/><param name=\"FlashVars\" value=\"launch=53279952^0^80380&amp;width=592&amp;height=346\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><embed name=\"msnbc6ea3f7\" src=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" width=\"592\" height=\"346\" FlashVars=\"launch=53279952^0^80380&amp;width=592&amp;height=346\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" wmode=\"transparent\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/shockwave\/download\/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\"><\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 11px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: #999; text-align: center; margin-top: 5px; width: 592px\">Visit NBCNews.com for <a style=\"height: 13px; border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; font-weight: normal !important; color: #5799db !important; text-decoration: none !important\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\" target=\"_blank\">breaking news<\/a>, <a style=\"height: 13px; border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; font-weight: normal !important; color: #5799db !important; text-decoration: none !important\" href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/3032507\" target=\"_blank\">world news<\/a>, and <a style=\"height: 13px; border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; font-weight: normal !important; color: #5799db !important; text-decoration: none !important\" href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/3032072\" target=\"_blank\">news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">That&#8217;s what a call a Republican Solution. Impeach Obama for the House Republicans&#8217; crime.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/headline\/2013\/10\/14-2\" target=\"_blank\">Common Dreams<\/a>: <\/font>Next year&#8217;s benefit increase for Social Security recipients is projected to be one of the smallest increases ever, according to a new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesdaily.com\/news\/nation\/article_a337d4c1-3c20-542c-8dca-4ac7ddc8a178.html\" target=\"_blank\">analysis by the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find it incomprehensible that any serious person would believe that a 1.5 percent COLA is too generous and would want to enact a chained CPI which would make these COLAs even lower,\u201d said Sen. Sanders. (Photo: Dawn V Storm\/cc\/flickr) The AP projects that the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the 58 million Americans who rely on Social Security will raise just 1.5 percent, meaning a $17-monthly increase. That would mark the second year in a row of &quot;one of the lowest raises since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis [COLA] is not enough to keep up with inflation, as it affects seniors,\u201d the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/social-security-recipients-others-wait-for-benefit-adjustment-shutdown-delays-news\/2013\/10\/13\/499c74f6-343b-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post quotes<\/a> Max Richtman, who heads the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncpssm.org\" target=\"_blank\">National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare<\/a>, as saying. \u201cThere are some things that become cheaper but they are not things that seniors buy.<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Speaking as just one Senior, rent, food and health care make up more than 3\/4 of my budget. My rent is up 4.95%, my groceries are up 11%, and my Medicare Advantage premium is up 4.5%. The paltry 1.5% increase won\u2019t begin to cover that.&#160; Now Republicans claim that my COLA is too beg and demand chained CPI to reduce it more.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"16Cartoon\" style=\"display: inline\" alt=\"16Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/16Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, day 16 of the Republican Shutdown, with an ears on the news as House Republicans try yet again to snatch confrontation from the jaws of compromise.&#160; Agent Orange can\u2019t even move his own legislation.&#160; Normally I would swap in a new poll, but as this one remains so relevant,&#160; I\u2019ll let <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/16\/open-thread10162013\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/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-11397","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\/11397","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=11397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}