{"id":12126,"date":"2014-02-03T03:18:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T11:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12126"},"modified":"2014-02-03T03:18:11","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T11:18:11","slug":"open-thread232014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/03\/open-thread232014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–2\/3\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and hurrying to have time for a nap before the game.  It will be over by the time this is posted, so you can judge my emotional state by the notice below.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 3:45 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Ultimate Religious Agony<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0202-Broncos8-Seahawks43\"<\/font><\/p>\n

Republicans stole my team.  They did not even show up.  :-(  Meanwhile the Seachickens excelled at all the Republican skills: deception, obstruction, sabotage, and theft. ;-)  Seriously, had they been playing any other team in the AFC, I would have been for them.  They won, because they deserved it.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

From Daily Kos<\/a>: \u2026<\/font>"Regarding U.S. same-store sales for the company\u2019s fourth quarter, ending Friday, Wal*mart said it expects sales, excluding fuel, to be \u201cslightly negative\u201d to its earlier guidance of flat sales at Wal*mart stores "<\/a><\/p>\n

Why are those sales negative?<\/p>\n

Chief financial officer Charles Holley said Wal*mart saw a greater-than-expected negative impact from reductions in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps. The cuts went into effect on Nov.<\/strong> 1. [Faux Noise delinked<\/em>][emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Then it provides some right wing political cover by also blaming storms…<\/p>\n

The Walton Family are pretty good about goose-stepping with their 0.1% cronies and their Republican lackeys, and when it comes to SNAP they are leaving their most important concern unsaid. SNAP subsidizes Wal-Fart payroll for the majority of their employees. Cuts in SNAP increase the pressure to pass realistic minimum wage laws. So I don’t expect them to keep providing political cover on this issue for long.  This also proves that Republican claims that cutting SNAP would not hurt the economy were lies.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>Herbert Smulls was in the middle of a phone call discussing his attorneys\u2019 final efforts to save his life when he was reportedly seized by prison guards, hauled into an execution chamber, and injected with a toxic cocktail of drugs<\/a>. At the time of his death, an appeal was pending before the United States Supreme Court asking the justices to halt his execution. Andrew Cohen lays out the timeline:<\/p>\n

\n

At 10:11, the final lethal injection protocols were initiated. By this time, the 8th Circuit had rejected all of the claims before it\u2014over another pointed dissent from Judge Bye\u2014leaving only an active appeal before the Supreme Court. At 10:20 Smulls was pronounced dead. Ten minutes later, at 10:30, the Supreme Court notified the lawyers that Smulls\u2019 final stay request had been denied at 10:24. This means that Missouri began to execute a man 13 minutes before it was entirely sure it could do so. Smulls was pronounced dead four minutes before the Supreme Court finally authorized Missouri to kill him.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As Cohen notes, \u201c[j]ust imagine what we\u2019d be talking about today if the justices had granted Smulls\u2019 stay request four minutes after he was pronounced dead.\u201d At the very least, Smulls\u2019 appeal held enough merit that a United States Court of Appeals judge would have granted the stay.<\/p>\n

The Republicans running the State of Misery [typo intentional<\/em>] are so pro-death, that they don’t even wait for the Republican Injustices of SCROTUS to reject an appeal. This has nothing to do with Smulls or what he deserved. This is about who WE are. When the state straps down a defenseless person and kills him for revenge, that is murder.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Right Wing Watch<\/a>: <\/font><\/p>\n

Remember two years ago when the Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation abruptly dropped<\/a> its grants to a Planned Parenthood breast-cancer screening program, setting off a national outcry, and prompting the resignation<\/a> of the Komen official reportedly behind the decision?<\/p>\n

The fallout of the debacle is still hurting Komen, which recently reported a 22 percent drop in income<\/a> over the past year. But the decision to cut off grants to Planned Parenthood seems to be paying off for one person: Karen Handel, the former Komen vice president who was widely<\/a> reported<\/a> to have been<\/a> the driving force behind split.<\/p>\n

Now running for Senate in Georgia, Handel has released a campaign video<\/a> touting her role in severing Planned Parenthood from Komen and fighting back against the \u201cleft-wing groups\u201d and \u201cliberal media\u201d that criticized her.<\/p>\n

Back when the news first broke that Komen had dumped Planned Parenthood, Handel denied<\/a> that the decision was motivated at all by her anti-choice politics, despite reports from sources<\/a> in the organization that said she manipulated its rules to cast Planned Parenthood out.<\/p>\n

Barf Bag Alert!<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n