{"id":12640,"date":"2014-04-28T00:18:46","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T07:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=12640"},"modified":"2014-04-28T00:18:46","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T07:18:46","slug":"open-thread4282014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/28\/open-thread4282014\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–4\/28\/2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and am getting some housework done.  Tomorrow I have a medical appointment for X-Rays to determine whether or not I need an MRI for my bad back in addition to physical therapy.  I will be gone several hours, so I may have little or nothing to post on Tuesday.  Day 7.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

Today\u2019s took me 2:46 (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>Jeb was the one responsible for Stand Your Ground<\/strong>. Compared to the incompetent, tone-deaf, and outright corrupt Rick Scott, Jeb looks good in comparison.  But Rick isn’t responsible for the most violent mistake in our state history (just for expanding it and now hiding it from public records).  Bush turned Florida into an NRA meth lab, allowing them to draft awful bills like SYG and then celebrate passage with them<\/a>.  ALEC would then bring it to the rest of the nation.  No one here asked for SYG; in fact, most of us fought against it–including law enforcement.  There was not one instance in our entire state history that Jeb could point to where someone who shot in self-defense was prosecuted.  But we did warn of the consequences.  The media ran several stories saying it was a license to hunt and kill.  Democrats in the FL House and Senate correctly predicted catastrophe if the bill passed<\/a>.  The blood of its many victimes [sic<\/em>], including 26 children<\/a>, are on Jeb’s hands.<\/p>\n

This is just one of five things we didn’t know about Jeb Bush. Click through for the other four. Personally, I need to know only one thing: Bush!<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>Cliven Bundy: If I\u2019m racist, it’s MLK’s fault.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Further demonstrating his tenuous grasp on both logic and reality, Bundy elaborated on his deep thoughts on race on CNN later in the week. He was very taken aback that people found his musings on whether black people might be better off as slaves offensive, and so he sought to clarify them, or find someone else to blame. Oddly, he figured it was Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s fault, for not finishing \u201chis job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps someone should break it to Bundy that MLK was assassinated.<\/p>\n

Just as oddly, Bundy thought that the thing that people found most offensive about what he said was that he used words like \u201cblack boys\u201d and \u201cNegroes,\u201d as opposed to the whole \u201cbetter off as slaves\u201d bit.<\/p>\n

Finally, he concluded, "We need to get over this prejudice stuff." This puts him in fine conservative company. Conservatives are very upset that people keep calling them racist for doing things like siding with Cliven Bundy, or blaming blacks for their own problems, or in the case of the Roberts Court, for saying that we live in a post-racial society where we no longer need affirmative action to make sure colleges are diverse and educational opportunities are afforded to all.<\/p>\n

In other words, the conservative argument is this: Let\u2019s not do the hard work it takes to make things truly equal between races. Let\u2019s just "get over" the racism stuff. Say it\u2019s over, and be done with it. If we just stop calling racists "racist," we’re good.<\/p>\n

This is just one of seven absurd Republican follies from last week alone. Click through for the other six.  Republicans had already proved their racist intent when the only famous Bundy was Al.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Huffington Post<\/a>: <\/font><\/p>\n

As he battles through a tight 2014 reelection campaign<\/a>, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) believes himself to be a popular target.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times reported<\/a> Friday that McConnell had some of his most pointed comments yet against Kentucky Secretary of State and Democratic rival Alison Lundergan Grimes, while setting himself apart from the rest of the 2014 GOP field. <\/p>\n

From the LA Times report:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019m the only Republican running this year that every crazy liberal in the country\u2019s heard of,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ll be sending their money — they already are — to my opponent. She\u2019ll be arguing to all of you that she\u2019d be a new face. And I agree, she would be a new face. But think about it this way: a new face for what? A new face for no change. A new face for the same majority, the same Senate, the same support for Barack Obama. A new face for the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dang!! I actually have to agree with Bought Bitch Mitch, up to a point. Alison Grimes would certainly be a new face. But considering how sick I am of Mitch’s smug leer, a new face would be great news! And while he enjoys some cheese with his whine, let’s replace every Republican face.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\"0428Cartoon\"<\/p>\n

At last!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing for tomorrow and am getting some housework done.  Tomorrow I have a medical appointment for X-Rays to determine whether or not I need an MRI for my bad back in addition to physical therapy.  I will be gone several hours, so I may have little or nothing to post on Tuesday.  Day 7. […]<\/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-12640","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\/12640","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=12640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}