{"id":12497,"date":"2014-04-06T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-04-06T07:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12497"},"modified":"2014-04-06T00:00:41","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T07:00:41","slug":"open-thread462014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/06\/open-thread462014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open thread–4\/6\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow, and feeling the need to confirm that I still exist.  The training went well.  I didn\u2019t learn much, but more than anything, I\u2019m making what I do official, although I\u2019ve been doing it as a \u201cguest\u201d for years.  The next step is an institution-specific orientation, that will be sometime in the next two months.  A couple weeks after that, I get my access card.  The trip to and fro went much quicker.  I listened to an audio book (Shogun) on my Kindle.  I stayed at a Super 8, which was far better than the horrid experience I had at Motel 6 that last time down.  The only problem was a runaway alarm clock that woke me at 5:30 AM and told me it was 7:00 AM.  Even the continental breakfast was quite good.  However, on a scale of 1 to ten, I\u2019m still quite pooped.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:53 (average 4:26).  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>Tuesday\u2019s announcement by President Obama that 7.1 million people have signed up for Obamacare set off a firestorm of controversy among opponents of math in the U.S. Congress. <\/p>\n

Representative Michele Bachmann, a leading member of the anti-math caucus, told reporters, \u201cThroughout the debate on Obamacare, there has been a tacit agreement to leave math out of it. Today, President Obama broke that agreement.\u201d <\/p>\n

Senator John Barrasso, an anti-math Republican from Wyoming, agreed. \u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing to see the President use arithmetic for political purposes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I have a few of Andy\u2019s pieces in reserve now.  Andy’s humor aside, we know Republicans are anti-math, because of their policy of minority-rule, while they are in the minority.<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>A push to give legal status to young undocumented immigrants who serve in the military is roiling the immigration debate in the House, dividing Republicans and reviving some movement toward substantive immigration legislation this year.<\/p>\n

Republican advocates of loosening immigration laws are moving to attach the measure to the annual defense policy bill. It would offer a path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants who came to the country before the age of 15 and enlist in the military. But they are running into vociferous opposition from anti-immigration hard-liners.<\/p>\n

This may result in more conflict between Republicans trying to hide their racism and Republicans bragging about theirs.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Crooks and Liars<\/a>: <\/font>Confession: If I could have reached through the monitor and slapped Rand Paul, I would have. Since I couldn’t do it in real life, I’m going to do it virtually.<\/p>\n

All day long, Fox News has been slamming the enrollment numbers announced by the Obama administration. Rand Paul’s appearance was just icing on the ignorance cake. [Idiot size BARF BAG ALERT!!<\/font><\/strong>]<\/p>\n