{"id":11585,"date":"2013-11-05T00:05:29","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T08:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=11585"},"modified":"2013-11-05T00:05:29","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T08:05:29","slug":"open-thread1152013-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/05\/open-thread1152013-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–11\/5\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, and trying to get my body clock adjusted.  I hope that you are all having a fantastic week.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:34 (average 4:28).  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>President Obama has imperiled his second term by lying to the American people, one of the nation\u2019s foremost lying experts said Sunday on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d <\/p>\n

The accusation carried weight, observers said, coming as it did from a legendary figure in the high-stakes world of competitive lying. <\/p>\n

He was harshly critical of Mr. Obama\u2019s fibbing, calling it \u201camateurish at best,\u201d contrasting the President\u2019s lack of lying experience with his own half-century of dishonesty. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people deserve a President who is a world-class liar,\u201d he said. \u201cSadly, they do not have that President.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

Little Lord Willard, aka Rmoney, certainly was the world champion at etching his sketch.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Few topics in American society have more myths and stereotypes surrounding them than poverty, misconceptions that distort both our politics and our domestic policy making.<\/p>\n

They include the notion that poverty affects a relatively small number of Americans, that the poor are impoverished for years at a time, that most of those in poverty live in inner cities, that too much welfare assistance is provided and that poverty is ultimately a result of not working hard enough. Although pervasive, each assumption is flat-out wrong.<\/p>\n

Contrary to popular belief, the percentage of the population that directly encounters poverty is exceedingly high. My research indicates that nearly 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 60 will experience at least one year below the official poverty line during that period ($23,492 for a family of four), and 54 percent will spend a year in poverty or near poverty (below 150 percent of the poverty line).<\/p>\n

Most of us fall on hard times, at one time or another, and the Republican recession makes this more true now than at other times . Republicans like to couch the safety net as takers taking from makers, but that is just projection.   They are describing their own welfare for the 0.1%, because we are the makers, and they are the takers. The safety net is us helping us, and we should.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Truthdig<\/a>: <\/font>A new oil reservoir holding as many as 3.5 billion barrels was discovered directly beneath the 1948 armistice line that formally divides Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel has moved the border to get access to the well. Will Palestinians get a cut?<\/p>\n

I think they will\u2026 right under the chin, unfortunately.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"1105Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, and trying to get my body clock adjusted.  I hope that you are all having a fantastic week. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:34 (average 4:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Short Takes: From The New Yorker: President Obama has imperiled his second term by lying […]<\/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-11585","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\/11585","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=11585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}