{"id":12090,"date":"2014-01-29T00:15:13","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T08:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12090"},"modified":"2014-01-29T00:15:13","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T08:15:13","slug":"open-thread1292013-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/29\/open-thread1292013-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–1\/29\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and feeling quite disappointed that I did not get to go to the prison for volunteer work.  I had received no word from the prison, but was preparing as though I would get a last minute OK.  I plugged in my last bottle of O2<\/sub>, and it was empty.  That\u2019s the second time my Oxygen provider has given me a dud.  ARGH!  Perhaps it\u2019s for the best, as my COPD is flaring up severely, and I can use the rest.  I\u2019m still in minimal mode, but lets see if I can be a betting man today. (Late update: Tomorrow I shall have an extensive SOTU piece.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:25 (average 4:30).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Rick Scott’s appointed a new finance chairman for his campaign last week: Miguel Fernandez<\/strong>.  Congrats, Mike!  <\/p>\n

And Mike is feeling froggy:  He just wrote a $1 million check to Scott’s re-election committee.   And yes, that’s a preposterous amount from one person<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Before Fernandez, an individual had never given a check of $1 million or more to a candidate-aligned committee.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, who the hell donates that much money and doesn’t expect something in return? <\/p>\n

Well, as it turns out, not Mike.  Mr. Fernandez obviously expected something-and boy did he get a freaking FANTASTIC deal for his "donation". From the same article:<\/p>\n

\n

Two companies partly owned by the finance chairman of Gov. Rick Scott\u2019s re-election campaign [Miguel Fernandez] have won contracts worth potentially billions<\/strong> to serve Medicaid patients in regions across the state.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2026[emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n

I’d bet a dollar against a donut that an investigation into Fernandez’ Medicaid activities would reveal copious fraud? Why? It’s because that’s the Republican thing to do!<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font><\/p>\n

As President Obama prepares to deliver his State of the Union address tonight, congressional Republicans are promising to respond with what they call their grumpiest faces ever.<\/p>\n

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) confirmed that the G.O.P. have been practicing in front of mirrors for weeks in the hopes of creating just the right grouchy-face look for the TV cameras.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, President Obama is going to lay out his vision for this country,\u201d he said. \u201cWe owe it to the American people to look like someone just pissed in our cornflakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some, the task of looking crabby \u201cis just another day at the office,\u201d said Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), widely viewed by his fellow-Republicans as the reigning sourpuss in Congress.<\/p>\n

I’d bet a dollar against a donut that Andy is spot-on!<\/font><\/p>\n

From TPM<\/a>: <\/font>Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Tuesday admitted to reporters that Republicans’ options for winning concessions on the debt ceiling are limited due to President Barack Obama’s insistence on raising it without strings attached.<\/p>\n

"I don’t think Republicans want to default on our debt. Secondly, the president’s made clear he doesn’t want to negotiate," he said, going on to lament that Obama won’t agree to further spending cuts without new taxes in the mix.<\/p>\n

I’d bet a dollar against a donut that Agent Orange will take heat from the Bagger Brigade that want to shut down the government. There is no question that Republicans will cave-in. The question is, how much damage will they do to our economy first?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0129Cartoon\"<\/font><\/p>\n

Which one?  take your pick!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and feeling quite disappointed that I did not get to go to the prison for volunteer work.  I had received no word from the prison, but was preparing as though I would get a last minute OK.  I plugged in my last bottle of O2, and it was empty.  That\u2019s the […]<\/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-12090","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\/12090","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=12090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}