{"id":11496,"date":"2013-10-26T01:04:50","date_gmt":"2013-10-26T08:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=11496"},"modified":"2013-10-28T00:06:03","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T07:06:03","slug":"open-thread10252013-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/26\/open-thread10252013-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–10\/26\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m writing for tomorrow.  Yesterday’s victim meeting at the prison was excellent.  It featured mothers of crime victims and mothers of criminals discussing how crime impacted their lives,  They and my guys made a strong positive impression on each other.  As always I was proud of them, and I learned that another has a release date in February.  Let the short-timer abuse begin!  After two prison meetings, I’m worn out, and this is tomorrow’s only article.  I have another meeting tomorrow morning, so my partial absence may continue another day, depending on how long that takes.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 4:38).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>In an impressive white-knuckle performance on live television today, members of Congress spent several hours in a hearing room pretending to understand the Internet.<\/p>\n

Beginning this morning, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee devoted four hours to grilling Web-site contractors about site architecture, Web traffic, software, and other I.T. concepts about which their ignorance is nearly complete.<\/p>\n

“As members of this committee, we are supposed to have a deep understanding of the technology involved in the health-care Web site,” said Chairman Fred Upton (R-Michigan). “So it was absolutely imperative for us to fake that we do.”<\/p>\n

For the duration of the hearings, the Web contractors offered detailed testimony about “end-to-end testing,” “enterprise identity management,” and other technical concepts to a group of elected officials who can barely use e-mail…<\/p>\n

Those twits even pay Aides to tweet for them!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Upworthy: <\/font>CNBC invited AFL-CIO Policy Director Damon Silvers to talk about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid cuts. Then the hosts decided to defend the idea of hacking away at those programs…<\/p>\n