{"id":12180,"date":"2014-02-13T00:02:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T08:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12180"},"modified":"2014-02-13T00:02:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T08:02:18","slug":"open-thread2132013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/13\/open-thread2132013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–2\/13\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and feeling quite tired, because congestion from COPD has been interfering with my sleep, and because, now that the ice is gone, street noise is high from picking up days of built up garbage.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 4:36 (average 7:07).  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>Potential Republican Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said today that he believes he has a \u201csecret weapon\u201d that will derail Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 White House bid: \u201cA little-known affair between her husband and a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.\u201d <\/p>\n

Appearing on the Fox News Channel, Paul told the host Sean Hannity, \u201cSean, when the American people find out about this scandal, they are going to be shocked, truly shocked. It didn\u2019t get a lot of coverage at the time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked by Hannity how the scandal could have remained under wraps for so long, Paul replied, \u201cYou\u2019ll have to ask Bill and Hillary that. Let\u2019s just say they\u2019ve pulled a lot of strings to keep this story out of the mainstream media.\u201d <\/p>\n

LOL Andy! That does seem to be what Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot thinks.  I guess 24\/7 wasn\u2019t enough for him.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>The Newark Star Ledger reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The New Jersey legislative committee investigating the Bridgegate scandal will probe records of helicopter rides Gov. Chris Christie took to see if he flew near Fort Lee while lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge were closed, sources told The Post … Sources in the governor\u2019s office said that Christie took a ferry to Ground Zero from Jersey City on the 9\/11 anniversary and then flew back to Trenton, but that Wildstein was not on board.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I was particularly struck by the reference to the helicopter ride on 9\/11, because I was recently told by an informed source that "if the records are subpoenaed for the governor’s trip back from the 9\/11 Memorial event, they will demonstrate that the governor flew over the George Washington Bridge" on that day. It appears that those records have been subpoenaed and the governor’s office has not issued a denial that the flyover occurred. <\/p>\n

I bet PIGnocchio\u2019s pilot betrayed him by flying over the crime scene without his knowledge, and that PIGnicchio was asleep at the time. NOT!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>The right to vote is the foundation of any democracy, yet nearly six million Americans are denied that right, in many cases for life, because they have been convicted of a crime. Some states disenfranchise more than 7 percent<\/a> of their adult citizens. <\/p>\n

In an unflinching speech<\/a> before a civil rights conference Tuesday morning, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. described this shameful aspect of our justice system for what it is: a \u201cprofoundly outdated\u201d practice that is unjust and counterproductive.<\/p>\n

State laws that disenfranchise people who have served their time \u201cdefy the principles \u2014 of accountability and rehabilitation \u2014 that guide our criminal justice policies,\u201d Mr. Holder said in urging state lawmakers to repeal them<\/a>. \u201cBy perpetuating the stigma and isolation imposed on formerly incarcerated individuals, these laws increase the likelihood they will commit future crimes.\u201d <\/p>\n

I fully agree with Holder. In my volunteer experience, I have seen that the more of a stake former prisoners have in their communities, the more likely they are to invest themselves in staying crime free.  Restoration reduces recidivism.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0213Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and feeling quite tired, because congestion from COPD has been interfering with my sleep, and because, now that the ice is gone, street noise is high from picking up days of built up garbage. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 4:36 (average 7:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you […]<\/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-12180","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\/12180","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=12180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}